‘Two Sides of Yaroslavsky’
As the Southern California regional director of the Sierra Club, I am deeply disturbed by Boyarsky’s analysis of Yaroslavsky’s record on slow growth. It’s perfectly clear, upon reading the article, that the evidence gathered by Boyarsky in support of his thesis does not in fact support it, and that Boyarsky was fishing for some sort of political angle that the facts simply do not bear out.
The Sierra Club believes that Yaroslavsky, together with council members Marvin Braude and Ruth Gallanter, has the best environmental record on the City Council. Over the years, his leadership on behalf of both the natural and the urban environment, ranging from Santa Monica Mountains preservation, to the prevention of oil drilling in or adjacent to Santa Monica Bay, to the protection of California’s desert areas--to say nothing of his co-authorship of Proposition U, the slow-growth initiative--has been outstanding. If there is any history of the slow-growth movement in Los Angeles, that history began when Yaroslavsky assumed the chairmanship of the City Council’s Planning Committee in 1979. All of the progress we have made in recent years on slow-growth and quality of life issues can be attributed directly or indirectly to Yaroslavsky’s leadership.
BOB HATTOY
Sierra Club
Los Angeles
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