Dear Editor – Fisch, Puza Don’t Take Developer Money

Dear Editor,

A developer in Santa Monica is pushing through 4500 units of housing, and in Redondo Beach over 2300 units are proposed to replace the beachfront AES power plant, and for that reason (among many others) I will be voting for Alex Fisch and Freddy Puza for City Council.

What happened in those towns? They failed to do what Culver City did under Alex Fisch and his colleagues Daniel Lee and Yasmine McMorrin. Thanks to those three Culver City passed a legitimate Housing Element and avoided the “builders remedy” which allows developers to bulldoze Santa Monica and Redondo and build, build, build as long as they meet some minimums for affordable housing. Now those may be great projects and I love hearing about affordable housing, but the locals sure aren’t happy. Their city councils blew it because they were naive or in the pockets of real estate interests or both.

This is the problem I have seen repeatedly in my 30+ years as a Culver City voter: “nice guy, get along” candidates simply don’t have command of the issues and they get rolled by monied interests. This year is so much worse: over $300,000 has been spent by developers and real estate PACs to keep Alex and Freddy out of City Hall. Why? Because they’re smart enough to see when the fix is in and smart enough to give Culver City a chance to both build the housing we desperately need and keep the monster developers at bay.

Fisch and Puza don’t take developer money and both have clearly stated positions about supporting renters (to say nothing of their enlightened policies regarding transit and the environment). With all of the new business and new money washing in to Culver City it has never been more critical to have smart, principled representation in City Hall. We need Freddy Puza and Alex Fisch to keep Culver City alive and thriving. Without them we’ll all be just tiny pieces on a billionaire’s Monopoly board.

Regards,

John J. Flynn
Culver City, CA