About a year before you decided to return to city council, I was considering running for council. I mentioned this to a fellow (East Side) PAC member, you know him, a handsome, lean young man, who has great interest in affordable housing. He told me not to bother, that you were already slated to run, that your supporters had been lined up, and that John Heilman was going to run you, to get rid of Steve Martin, who was perceived as an obstacle to his agenda. In addition, I was told that the reason for this was so you could go on to the Assembly when Paul Koretz termed out.
 Ed Garren, wanderer, thinker, writer. By Ryan Gierach. |
About two months later, I ran into you at Jeff Prang's birthday party, down at El Torrito on La Cienega. I asked you if you were going to run and you told me that you had not decided.
You do this thing with your eyes and body when you're hiding your true self, something that a therapist is trained to spot. It's like you freeze frame for a second, then shift to something that looks like empathy, or whatever emotion should be appropriate. I filed that response away, knew you would be running, and of course you did. Teaming up with John Heilman, you were a shoe in.
I didn't really think about it again, until I noticed the development agenda was in overdrive around town. It was a sign to "Save the Ramona", along with "Save Tara" that I noticed.
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I got to know a lot of people involved in the efforts to save these properties. We talked a lot. One friend valiantly and persistently worked to save her building, partly from economic incentive, she is a single mother, the sort of woman that most self-proclaimed feminists such as yourself should be champions of.
When she found out that GTO (the developer) was removing signs for her cause from locations in town, she sent out a letter in which she stated something to the effect that one should expect this from a town where council members get donations from developers. Your deputy called her up, and scheduled a meeting to discuss the issue. My friend expected support, instead I was told that she got slammed, how dare she make untrue accusations about respectable hard working council people. My friend countered that she had a city council meeting on tape in which John Duran admitted taking $500 from the developer. In addition, at the same meeting, you stated that new developers routinely stop by to introduce themselves and make a campaign contribution, implying that it's just business as usual at city hall.
I notice that the developer (GTO) has given you $1,000 for your Assembly campaign.
 Ed Garren, wanderer, thinker, writer. By Ryan Gierach. |
A City Council election was happening. Your colleague John Duran was receiving criticism for taking money from GTO, and my friend had wide spread public support for her cause. Meetings were held, and the building became a candidate for historic designation. You and John Heilman had a meeting with this woman, and shared a plan, to use the historic part of the building as the low income part of the project. According to what I was told, the strong implication was that the existing residents, who met certain guidelines, would be able to purchase their units as low income condos. All would be well. We all breathed a sigh of relief, and I actually thought that you had done something to protect an existing resident, honoring the reason the city was created, the socially progressive, politically correct, help the less fortunate rhetoric that pours from City Hall like molasses in August. It was all so sweet.
Then the election happened, John Duran was re-elected, and very shortly after, my friend called to find out about what she needed to do to prepare herself to purchase her unit. GTO told her that the city had changed it's plan, and the low income units would not be for sale to the residents, that they would all be managed by the West Hollywood Community Housing Corporation as rentals. Calling the city, this was confirmed, with some reference to some law that required this, implying that the city's hands were tied. And she was further told that she was not on the eligibility list for low income (rental) units, and that the list had closed.
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My friend called, county, state, federal, and the various low income housing think tanks to check out the city's plan. They all told her that this was not regular protocol, that usually the existing residents remain and purchase their units. But not in West Hollywood.
I did notice that when Rick Rickles, one of the folks who routinely praises The Empire (John, John and yourself), needed a place without stairs to live in, a miracle occurred. He won the "lottery" for a unit in the old fire house on the west side of town. No one seems to know when the lottery was held, or who witnessed it, but Rick and his friends are happy. Unfortunately, Marie Mangine didn't win a similar lottery, neither did my friend and her young son. Perhaps if Ruth Manning had won such a lottery, she wouldn't have died from a stress related heart attack after her eviction notice at Carlton Manor as well.
When these sorts of issues are discussed, you have that same feigned empathy look on your face, the one you had when you lied to me about your plan to run for council a few years ago.
It's what you do Abbe. In my generous moments, I think you mean well but are clueless. In my other moments, I don't care. The net effect is the same. You are not looking out for the interests of the people, the renters in the city. You, and your friends on the council are looking out for the interests of your developer friends.
 The “Ramona’s” copse of trees. By Ryan Gierach. |
All your feminist rhetoric doesn't make any difference, you let developers squeeze a single mother, a disabled woman, and a working senior woman out of their homes.
None of them were part of the "yes" team, the "hacks" who come to council meetings like Barbara in the last election who just had to tell John (Duran) that she loved him so much. Perhaps she is hoping to win a lottery when her older building is leveled for a high rise on the east side.
It seems there is a lot of "Deal Making" in the city these days. If you aren't directly involved, it appears that Allyne Winderman or Jeff Skornik are receiving instruction from someone on what to do. I know and like both Allyne and Jeff. Allyne usually gets to play the good person, Jeff gets left with the "dirty work", often very controversial and unpopular stuff. My heart goes out to Jeff, constantly being cast as the heavy can't be good for his health either. But I guess it's less stressful than unemployment.
Stress does awful things to a person's health, you should know, you're a health care advocate, remember?
Here in the "Creative City", supposedly the bastion of progressive politics, city employees occasionally "spill the beans" to me, tell me about the horror stories and double standards that exist for "friends" versus everyone else. The names that pop up are almost always the same, they usually appear on invitations to fundraisers for you and your friends on council.
I have repeatedly told all of my associates in the Democratic Party that the reason we can't win any elections is that we have lost our principles. If a truck driver from Arkansas can tell me, "They are all the same, they sell out to the highest bidder, Democrat, Republican, they are all the same".
Why should he, or anyone with a conscience vote for someone (like you) who sells out principles and people to raise money for a campaign?
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I got your eMail in which you proudly announced your success at fundraising. Ed Buck took the time to check out one week's city council agenda (2-21-06) relative to the contributors to your Assembly campaign. That one meeting netted you almost $40,000. How convenient, you just happened to vote "yes" for their stuff, and they had given you money. Your contributor list is a "Who's Who" of local real estate interests, developers, as well as others. I noticed a lot of people from Cedars gave you money. How will that help the folks in West Hollywood West when Cedars wants to expand into their back yards? Whose interests will you serve?
(Contributors lists and other info. are available at:www.abbeyland.com
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You appear to be completely oblivious, or indifferent to the suffering that your developer supporters are causing the people who live here.
 Part of Cedars-Sinai Hospital rests within West Hollywood’s boundaries. By Ryan Gierach. |
On your watch, "affordable" housing has been demolished at a break neck pace, almost none of it has been replaced.
Until I launched a protest two years ago, and shamed the city over the issue of relocation fees, most people didn't get any compensation for the developers eviction.
Ever since that vote, which took six months to occur, John Heilman won't look me in the eye. So much for the champion of affordable housing.
This city was created to protect the renters who live in it from greed. The three of you, The Empire, have sold out that trust.
I can't wait till you're all gone, but I won't promote you to do it.
City Hall has turned into the Bush White House west. The rhetoric may be different, but the actions are the same, favors to well heeled friends, "stand in line and wait forever while we demolish your home or business" for everyone else.
You and the two Johns are doing the same thing, selling the city to development and developers, even though no one who lives here wants it. Anyone who protests is banished.
You barely got the two Democratic Clubs to endorse you, it was a "squeak".
The Democratic Assembly Committee for the very district you're running for did NOT endorse you. Neither did the incumbent, Paul Koretz. He cited your poor dealings with labor, another indicator of your callous nature behind the feigned smile.
If the only way you can raise money to run is to sell off the city, and the only reason to vote for you is to get rid of you, then it's a sorry state of affairs.
Somehow, I never thought "the Peter Principle" and feminism were synonymous.
No one feels safe in West Hollywood anymore. Greed is running the place, and in your ambition, you have become a part of it. That is not the sort of person I would want representing me in Sacramento.
There are times when regular politics will not do, and this is one of those times. -- Molly Ivins
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Edward "Ed" Garren, MFT, is a Family Therapist, justice activist, former West Hollywood City Council candidate, writer and sojourner. He is originally from the Tampa Bay area of central Florida. Ed has been published in the Los Angeles Times, Frontiers news magazine, and other books, including "Out of My Mind,” a pictorial memoir by Kris Nelson. He is currently working on a book about Addiction in America.
Ed Garren can be reached, even in the Red America’s wilds, at