Dear 2UrbanGirls,
Last Saturday, I was invited to Darby Park for Councilman Dotson’s Day in the Park event for Inglewood, District 1. As a community member, I attended to inform District 1 residents on how to report noise pollution that is caused by LAX air traffic. Our current Residential Sound Insulation program does not benefit all District 1 property owners and my intention is to push LAX Noise to expand RSI benefits to those that have been excluded. In addition, I wanted to inform the community that Inglewood Unified School District Board meetings are now in-person.
It was a shock that while I was informing the community on their rights to report noise pollution to LAX Noise, I was discouraged by doing so by Councilman Dotson and his staff. Mr. Dotson tried to have police officers that were working at his event to ask me to leave the public park in efforts to stop me from giving information to our community. Of course, I did not leave the public park and I certainly did not stop informing our community.
It is clear this event was just a photo opportunity for Mr. Dotson and he had no intention of engaging with the community about the issues we would like addressed. Our absentee Councilman was nowhere to be found when Warren Lane Elementary School was being closed, when we needed him to address the safety at Circle Park, and now this.
I encourage everyone to ask for accountability. What has he done for us lately? Mr. Dotson needs to explain his actions and plans for the future of our community.
Sincerely,
Taj Powell
8 Comments
Can someone tell me what happened to Mike Stevens? Former LAXEN President.
He passed away years ago.
Thank you Taj for informing residents and letting us know of Councilman’s deplorable actions. As citizens we do need to report airplane noise especially now that there are projections that LAWA will see an uptick in airplane flights over the next years. I know there are residents who have just discovered reporting with that agency. Clearly our elected officials have no intention with assistance and an interest in disinformation.
There is absolutely no reason to try to mitigate air traffic noise. You’re in a flight path. Deal with it or move. A better plan would be to work to put in place a schedule which requires all flights to end at maybe 10pm or something like Washington DC’s 9pm curfew on flights.
You mitigate the noise by making the soundproof windows available to more homes in the flight path.
There is a schedule in place (12:30am – 6:30am). Should we just deal with it if flights arrive within the scheduled quiet time? Residents should be informed that they can call to report after-hours arrivals and informed about the RSI program in general. This is something our council representative should do, but I have seen or heard of this (or any other topic) from our District 1 rep over the last few years.
Through the years indeed the complaint line for Noise related to Air traffic from Los Angles World Airports (aka LAX) has changed.
For those who have not updated their “where to call number” it is :
(424) 646-6473 easily remembered as 424-64 NOISE
This number can be used to report those airplanes off the traditional flight path as well as those who appear lower than they should be.
Those wanting to view historic flight information may find the Webtrak site at :
https://webtrak.emsbk.com/lax4
As many know Mike Stevens and LAXEN, a group of many Inglewood (and other airport impacted community) residents For many years have worked long and hard to mitigate the many impacts of Airport Operations on our Communities.
It is The Alliance for a Regional Solution to Airport Congestion ARSAC which continues that work responding to Enviornmental Impact reports for expansion and Improvement plans to bring awareness to those voting members of Los Angeles -the owners of LAX – of the many continued impacts of LAX.
With regard to “Sound insulation” – dollars have been awarded to the “Airport adjacent Areas” including the City of Inglewood which administers that money for homes within the specific NOISE IMPACTED ZONES not all of which are in District 1. Per a combination of Federal Aviation Administration studies and Los Angeles City Council actions millions of dollars have been made to insulate homes and the Inglewood Unified schools with in the impact Zones.
The City of Inglewood was responsible for awarding the contracts for home insulation within the impact areas, while the IUSD board members were responsible for sound attenuation of the schools. As an example consider the new Ballmer Bowl site was “parcel assembled” utilizing sound dollars (combined with redevelopment dollars) not to insulate apartments buildings but instead to eradicate them.
If the City of Inglewood and the Inglewood School District did not choose manage those funds wisely it is “OUR INGLEWOOD ELECTED” we should hold responsible rather than LAWA or the FAA.
I’ve been on 2nd Avenue for 60 years and believe me we have been in the flight path for years. Not to mention the planes dumping their fuel on our community as they prepare to land. I’m in District 1. They may have changed the flight path, but just on the strength of how long I have been here is enough to include any resident as a part of the Residential Sound Insulation Program. Air planes still fly directly over my home, smaller planes fly so low it shakes the house and I fear they are getting ready to crash. Dotson lives around the corner from me & I know he hears the air traffic as well. They interfere with my cell phone calls. I experience dropped calls or not being able to call out at all.
As far as Dotson is concerned, he needs to throw in the towel! For him to ask the police to have Ms. Taj who was simply dropping knowledge about our rights & how to report noise pollution removed from a public/community event is absurd and he needs to be voted out!! You would think he would be in favor of what she was saying. Dotson should have been fighting for District 1 residents that did not receive the benefits from the RSI program. One has to wonder, what’s in it for him or what does he know that he is not sharing or he is just too incompetent to even comprehend what he needs to do? It’s obvious that he is struggling mentally, is unfit and needs to go!! Vote him out! Residents in District 1 deserves a council member who will go down fighting for their constitutes, genuinely cares about the concerns of residents, will not be a “Yes” man/woman and will hold themselves accountable when they fall short!!
The school district is a mess…schools being shut down, Trees need to be manicured right in Dotson’s back door (Arbor Vitae & 7th Avenue), Handicap assessable curbs in need in District 1 on 2nd Avenue and Arbor Vitae, Sofi traffic is out of control, crime is up, there are no strict laws or any at all for the donut dummies taking over our streets and ruining the street pavement throughout our neighborhoods that we pay taxes for, home invasion/burglaries are on the rise, long time business owners given 90 day notices to vacant all for the love of money. We don’t even have any decent restaurants. The best Inglewood can do is approve to have another Popeyes (8th Avenue & Manchester) allowed in our community. Only the owners of the Sofi Stadium, Kia Forum & now the Intuit Dome are making money & getting richer. They don’t care about us or our neighborhood.
Dotson doesn’t have a clue, have plans to address or resolve some of these issues, help save and or defend the Mom and Pop businesses that have been here for years. Does he even know his name??
It’s time for a change! We have to get in some “GOOD TROUBLE” and vote him out of office. Wake up Inglewood!! We deserve better! We pay HIGH TAXES and get nothing for it. Peace and Blessings. May God bless us all! Shalom!!