The Councilwoman should do some serious soul searching before continuing down her current path

Meanwhile, all Angelenos should pay attention to her proposed “tiny homes” homeless housing in Rancho Park

A bad dream all over again: Above, angry neighbors confront an L.A. Councilmember and Mayor over a deceitful homeless housing proposal in Venice, October 2018; Below, angry neighbors confront an L.A. Councilmember and Mayor over a deceitful homeless housing proposal in Rancho Park, August 2023. Top pictures by Christopher LeGras, bottom pictures by Susan Collins.

This morning the Westside Current published an op-ed by two mothers in Rancho Park decrying their councilwoman’s efforts to install a “tiny homes” homeless project in the middle of a residential and small business district (disclosure: I am a Westside Current contributor). The women, along with many other residents, claim the councilwoman has lied and deceived her own constituents in an effort to place the project in an area they consider inappropriate, and even dangerous.

The women did not mince words: “Over the last seven weeks, [Councilwoman] Katy Yaroslavsky has shamelessly lied to her constituents, has refused to meet with her constituents or respond to their calls, excluded them from and silenced them in public meetings, and bullied and belittled any constituents who disagree with her.”

Residents of other council districts must be feeling deja vu – or maybe PTSD. Over the last seven or eight years too many current and former members of the city council have played this deceitful game. In March Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez faced his own angry constituents over his plan to remove a fence that has prevented homeless campers from returning to Echo Park Lake (unlike Ms. Yarovslavsky, who is proving to be a maestro of the political bait-and-switch, at least Mr. Soto-Martinez told voters he would take the action during his campaign). In CD 4, Councilwoman Nithya Raman initially took a similar “shelters everywhere even where they’re completely inappropriate for the location” approach to the homeless crisis. More recently facing a formidable challenge in Ethan Weaver, she has notably softened her pro-encampment and anti-law enforcement rhetoric that dominated her first campaign. At least for now — expect her to return to form should she win reelection next year.

The most notable example is disgraced former CD 11 Councilman Mike Bonin, who positively traumatized his own constituents and pulled every dirty political trick imaginable to force “Bridge housing” into Venice, even as he allowed homeless encampments to take over swathes of the west side. The tragically predictable results were not “compassionate services,” much less “permanent supportive housing.” As a direct result of Bonin’s dereliction of duty residents were subjected to violent crime, intimidation, harassment that often qualified as terror, and the degradation of beloved public and open spaces to Third World conditions. When a homeless person started a fire that destroyed part of a young doctor’s home and killed her beloved dog, Bonin didn’t so much as tweet his condolences. Instead, he scolded his constituents not to assume a homeless person was responsible, which was akin to tweeting that they should not assume that water is wet.

It appears that Ms. Yarovslavsky is quite the student of Mr. Bonin’s ways. During her campaign she promised public safety and personal accountability. Now that she’s securely in office she routinely lies to her own constituents and neighbors while using underhanded political dirty tricks to impose her will on her district. Westside residents dubbed the failed councilman “Bad Idea Bonin.” Residents in CD 5 have taken to calling Ms. Yarovslavsky “Shady Katy.” She even changed her own name. Before she entered politics she used her maiden name like a good feminist; once she declared her candidacy she suddenly transformed from “Katy Young” to “Katy Young-Yarovslavsky,” and finally just “Katy Yarovslavsky.” It takes a lot of chutzpah, not to mention a heaping dose of cynicism, to change one’s own identity on the basis of political expedience.

Councilwoman Yarovslavsky should do some soul-searching

She should do some serious soul-searching before continuing down the same path that led the former Councilman to political ruin and personal disgrace. Does she really want to go to war with her own voters as he did? Has she only studied his shameful ways, not the inevitable results for his career?

Apparently the answer to these questions is “yes.” In the Current op-ed the women described how an August 23 “information session” the councilwoman held along with Mayor Karen Bass “devolved into ‘chaos’“ after Yaroslavsky refused to take any questions from hundreds of residents who attended to share their ‘community input.’ Instead, faced with ‘boos and hisses’ and shouts of ‘disgraceful’ and ‘recall,’ Yaroslavsky quickly left the meeting, giving the cold shoulder to her constituents who gave up their evenings to ask questions and express their concerns about a project adjacent to their homes.” Like Bonin, transparency and accountability appear to be her kryptonite.

Again, CD 11 residents reading this must feel like their old nightmare is playing out next door. Five years ago, in October 2018 Bonin and former Mayor Eric Garcetti, held their own “information session” regarding the proposed Rose Avenue Bridge shelter. It too devolved into hisses and boos, chaos, and shouts of “disgraceful” and “recall.” Like Shady Katy, Bad Idea Bonin skulked out of the room. He soon began ignoring his constituents altogether. That is, when he wasn’t accusing them of planting a bomb at his beloved shelter.

The parallels continue. The proposed Rancho Park shelter would be managed by a nonprofit with a decidedly checkered past. “According to the Fox11 News report entitled ‘North Hollywood families say arrival of LA Family Housing brought violence, crime,’ several people have been stabbed and shot near the LAFH homeless facility in North Hollywood, where drug paraphernalia is widely present and ‘there’s always someone fighting, screaming, and yelling.’”

Likewise, the nonprofits who took over the Venice Bridge shelter, the deceptively named People Assisting the Homeless and Safe Place for Youth, allowed rampant violence, shootings, sexual assaults, stabbings, fights, screaming at all hours, drug dealing, vandalism, trespassing, and breaking and entering to terrorize the surrounding neighborhoods. They neither assisted the homeless nor provided safe places for anyone. Also like the proposed LAFH contract in Rancho Park, even as they’ve unleashed chaos PATH and SPY receive multi-year, multi-million dollar, multiyear contracts without any competitive bids.

Other parallels include Ms. Yarovslavsky dismissing neighbors’ legitimate concerns as “a few angry voices,” disingenuous artist renderings of the proposed projects, and outright gaslighting. The Councilwoman also is being accused of conflicts of interest, as LAFH previously employed her chief of staff.

For what it’s worth, our limited interaction with Ms. Yarovslavsky was positive. For example, in July vandals covered the historic Stone Canyon Overlook on Mulholland Drive with graffiti. We reached out to the councilwoman’s office, and the graffiti was gone within 48 hours. Hopefully such public spiritedness will overcome her seemingly Bonin-like tendencies. Hopefully.

In short, the people of Los Angeles have been down this road before, many times. And people know exactly where it leads. While some members of the new generation of L.A. leadership, like CD 11 Councilwoman Traci Park are fighting to restore their constituents’ faith in their council offices, others are repeating familiar sins (full disclosure: I worked on Park’s campaign).

Failures like Mr. Bonin were able to gobsmack trusting residents. Times have changed. More and more Angelenos are waking up. With apologies to The Who, Rancho Park residents may well prove to Ms. Yarovslavsky that they won’t be fooled again.