Next to a Seat of Power, There’s No Place to Sit

Everyone wants a park.

Take, for example, the new residents of downtown Los Angeles, who for the last few years have clamored for a leafy oasis to be constructed on the site of the now-demolished old Caltrans building.

What they’ll get instead: the new police headquarters, courtesy of the City Council.

The funny thing about the park-versus-cop-shop debate is that there is already a park in the vicinity. In fact, it’s right outside City Hall, across 1st Street from the site of the proposed park.

Not too many folks visit the park, and that raises a question ...

Q: Why not?

A: Perhaps it is because the park doesn’t have a single bench.

Put another way: In a city often scorned as being park-poor, a park that is 100 paces from the council chamber and the mayor’s office provides no place to sit.

*

Q: So where did the benches go?

A: Many long-timers at City Hall vaguely remembered the park having benches, but no one seems to know where they went.

Officer Michael Robertson, who is part of the mayor’s security detail and a 20-year veteran of City Hall, said he couldn’t remember benches ever being in the park. He offered a clue: The park, he recalled, once was very popular with the homeless.

Not surprisingly, it was the council’s resident Man of Answers (aka Tom LaBonge) who offered an explanation.

“Let’s just say some guy who didn’t have a job with the city or the Los Angeles Times” -- the newspaper is across the street -- “used one of the benches as a privy,” LaBonge said.

Ah.

*

Q: So that’s the end of the story?

A: Pretty much. There is no movement underway to put park benches in the park.

There are faint signs of hope: Benches remain around the corner in the concrete-covered park that is Fletcher Bowron Square. In an interview, Councilwoman Jan Perry said she would make inquiries.

And one council member -- Jose Huizar -- showed an affinity for park benches recently when he helped dedicate one on a formerly trash-strewn hill in Boyle Heights.

*

Q: And how much would it cost to buy a bench?

A: “For the kind of use and abuse that they would get, I could pick out a couple of steel benches for $600 to $1,000” each, said Kathy Dalton, a co-owner of Recreation Resources, a Salem, Ore., firm that sells park equipment.

The benches, she said, have a 20-year warranty.

*

Q: In other tree-hugger news, if the deputy mayor for mass transit, Jaime de la Vega, decided to sell his Hummer and buy a hybrid SUV, would he get free parking at city meters?

A: Nope.

Since the autumn of 2004, the city has allowed hybrids to enjoy free parking as part of a collection of local, state and federal incentives to encourage people to buy more Earth-friendly cars.

The council unanimously renewed the program last week but with a caveat: the only hybrids that qualify are the Toyota Prius, Honda Civic and older versions of the Honda Insight. Several other hybrids, including sport utility vehicles, are excluded because they either don’t get at least 45 miles per gallon or they don’t meet certain emission standards.

The reason for all this is that the city decided to link its free parking deal to the state’s program to allow only high-performing hybrids into carpool lanes.

But is that good policy?

Let’s say, for example, that De la Vega sells his Hummer and buys a Toyota Highlander SUV hybrid. He’d improve his fuel efficiency from an average of 17 miles per gallon to 30 and his new ride would burp 4.6 fewer tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each year.

“As you get more and more hybrids in the city, the incentive needs to go to those who provide the great amount of reduced gas emissions,” council transportation committee Chairwoman Wendy Greuel said.

And that’s the conundrum: should the city reward people who are doing the right thing -- or only the people who go above and beyond the call of duty?

*

Q: Is City Hall still a “boys club”?

A: No. There are plenty of girls -- working for the men!

Only four elected officials in Los Angeles are women, including Controller Laura Chick and three of 15 members of the City Council. That number is slightly higher if you count Dennis Zine, who recently dressed as flight attendant “Denise Zine” for charity functions (see photo for makeup tips).

Though women hold just 20% of Los Angeles’ council seats, they make up 37% of the city councils in the West’s 10 most populated cities (see the chart).

At the same time, women comprise 46% of the nation’s total workforce, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The three ladies on the council each had a theory about why women don’t get elected as often as men.

Jan Perry believes there is a lack of mentoring for ambitious young women. Greuel and Janice Hahn both said it is because women tend to have children first and then run for office when they’re older, giving men a head start. (Greuel took a different tack and didn’t get pregnant until after taking office.)

Hahn also couldn’t resist this jab: “At the end of the day, one woman is probably worth five men because we can multitask.”

*

Q: Any chance the number of women on the council will soon increase?

A: At the earliest, it probably will be 2009 when term limits may flush seven council members from office.

In the meantime, Assemblywoman Cindy Montanez is running to replace Alex Padilla next year, because he probably will win election to the state Senate in November after beating Montanez for the Democratic nomination in the 20th District.

*

Q: And what are Montanez’s chances?

A: She has name recognition and got Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s endorsement. Still, Padilla beat her by 11 percentage points across the 20th state Senate District in the San Fernando Valley.

The difference was much more pronounced in the 7th Council District, where Padilla won by a 29% margin. That represents hope for Felipe Fuentes, who is Padilla’s chief of staff and who has all but announced a run against Montanez.

*

Q: Back to those benches ... can’t the city find enough money in its $6.7-billion budget for 12 benches?

A: As one can see, virtually every penny in City Hall is dedicated to something important.

For example, the city budget for the coming fiscal year shows the Bureau of Street Services spending $85,509 renting toilets for street workers, the city’s personnel department getting $250,000 to prevent workplace violence, and the libraries receiving $80,000 for librarian recruitment.

*

Q: How can the city raise some money?

A: Open a gift shop in the City Hall lobby to sell reprints of the terrific collection of historical photos that are kept on the fourth floor of City Hall, where few tourists go.

Another idea: Take the empty patio that runs the length of City Hall and faces the benchless park and turn it into an outdoor coffee shop that the public may actually use.

Its name: Grounds for Complaint.

Steve Hymon can be reached at steve.hymon@latimes.com.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Boy’s club

Women on city councils in the 10 largest Western cities:

*--* Total Cities Women Men seats Denver 9 4 13 Tucson 4 2 6 San Jose 6 4 10 Seattle 3 6 9 San Francisco 3 8 11 San Diego 2 6 8 Phoenix 2 6 8 Los Angeles 3 12 15 Las Vegas 1 5 6 Portland, Ore. 0 3 3

*--*

Source: Times research