The city of Inglewood held a public hearing on April 11 where the city council unanimously approved a draft relocation plan that will displace over three dozen small businesses to make way for the Inglewood Transit Connector.
During the Public Hearing only three people came forward to express their opinons on the project. It was noticeable that Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts Jr. didn’t call for anyone to speak who may have assembled in the overflow room at the Library Lecture Hall at the Inglewood Main Library.
The three who came forward were Steve Cotton, who owns a t-shirt company, Owen Smith who owns the Miracle Theatre and who regularly hosts community meetings on behalf of the transit project. They both spoke in favor of the project although their businesses won’t be affected by the project.
Yolanda Davidson, who unsuccessfully ran for Council District 1, didn’t take a position on the project. Instead, she spoke about the City not having selected a builder of the transit line to know what kind of train would be built and compared the low ridership on the Metro K Line doesn’t indicate that there will be riders eager to ride the 1.6 miles from the Florence/Market Station to the Entertainment and Sports District where the Kia Forum, SoFi Stadium, and Intuit Dome are located.
After they spoke, Mayor Butts didn’t pan to the Library Lecture Hall as it has been customary to do so during every city council meeting. He immediately closed public comment and didn’t allow anyone who may be assembled in the overflow room to speak.
By not allowing anyone to speak from the Library Lecture Hall, one could assume that the 41 businesses on the chopping block were ok with the displacement due to eminent domain where the City is taking an entire city block at Florence/Market and Prairie/Hardy to create parking and pickup/dropoff points for rideshare vehicles.
The public hearing was originally set for March 28 and then moved to April 4. The April 4 public hearing was continued to April 11 with only TWO hours notice to the public. The notification wasn’t published to the City’s website but instead to its social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram. People have been unable to give public comments from the Library Lecture Hall for the last two weeks.
Notably NONE of the business owners speaking out to various media outlets were present for the public hearing which is confusing considering how vocal they are outside of City Hall.
Because the businesses were unable to voice their frustrations in person during the public hearing, they spoke out to Channel 7 News instead.
Emilie St. John is a contributing writer for 2UrbanGirls.com and the Los Angeles Wave newspaper
1 Comment
Yes indeedy the insults to the community by it’s elected just keep on coming! Not only have residents been locked out of the building we pay for, we are treated like criminals having to prove who we are when we make appointments, We have had speaking time all but eliminated, been interrupted when attempting to address the council, then insulted by the council in their remarks,We have our comments not recorded by the clerk now those in the remote area are treated as if they do not exist. Yep and it all started with a false petition to move meeting times to make it difficult for residents to attend.
This administration is the perfect example of disregard for doing right.
So, Ms Gray where is the change ?
What is that saying? same tune different day?.. Or in the case of the women who keeps dating jerks…..same dude different face.?