EDITORIAL SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE HOTEL-CONDO DEAL SUGGESTS MAYOR IS COMFORTABLE WITH BUSINESS AS USUAL.MAYOR Antonio Villaraigosa Antonio Ramon Villaraigosa (born Antonio (Tony) Ramon Villar, Jr. on January 23, 1953) is the mayor of Los Angeles, California. He is the first Latino mayor of Los Angeles since Cristobal Aguilar in 1872. , using his powers as a top-notch peacemaker, scored another successful dispute resolution over the weekend, avoiding a serious threat to plans for a downtown Convention Center hotel and entertainment complex. Peter Zen, the owner of of the Westin Bonaventure Hotel The Westin Bonaventure Hotel is the largest hotel in Los Angeles, California, USA. It is 367 feet (112 meters) tall and has 35 floors. It was completed in 1977. The top floor has a revolving restaurant and observation level. , was threatening to sue to stop the city from giving a $270 million subsidy to a private developer to build a hotel that might drain away "Drain Away" is a single released by Dir en grey on January 22, 2003. Track listing # Title Length Music * 1 "Drain Away" 4:05 Die 2 "Drain Away -Neo Tokyo Trans-" 6:37 Die (remixed by Kaoru) 3 "Gyakujoutannou Keloidmilk (Plucking: Mr. his business. Or, rather than sue, he said he might launch a ballot initiative to ask the voters to decide. Enter Villaraigosa, whose reputation as a negotiator grew after he headed up the group of elected officials who ended the Metropolitan Transportation Authority strike two years ago. Soon a deal was in the works. In exchange for dropping his challenge to the Convention Center deal, Zen was given approval to turn one-third of the Bonaventure's 1,200 rooms into condominiums. Villaraigosa's impressive deal-making skills aside, there's something troubling about the ease with which the mayor was willing to barter city regulatory power - approval for a massive condo conversion Generally stated, a condo conversion is a process of entitling an income property or other lands currently held under one title to convert from sole ownership of the entire property (which often already is a multi unit property) into individual for sale units. - to settle a dispute between two private parties. Now, the city of Los Angeles
Building and land-use policy should be based on what's good for a particular area and for the city, not on what helps mitigate a fight between power brokers. There was no public input, no going through the required channels to get approval for this condo plan, no thoughtful consideration of the impact on the city at large. Now, it's possible that condos will benefit Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. , which always needs more residential development to accommodate its expanding population. But it's certain that this deal greatly benefits the usual players in the city - the developers and political insiders and the mighty unions. Zen gets 400 condos; developers of a downtown complex, l.a. live This article or section contains information about expected future buildings or structures. Some or all of this information may be speculative, and the content may change as building construction begins. L.A. , get a publicly subsidized, massive hotel to funnel guests to their new businesses; and the hotel workers union gets job protection for three years. What do the other 4 million Angelenos get? More investment of their taxes in the downtown money pit. New mayor, but same old L.A. business as usual. |
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