Re: Viper Room visuals draw public’s ire, Oct. 17 issue

Note: This letter was adapted from one the author sent Doug Vu, senior planner for the city of West Hollywood, after an Oct. 10 environmental impact report scoping meeting at the West Hollywood Library.

While I found [Doug Vu, senior planner for the city of West Hollywood] and support staff very cordial and polite, and showing a willingness to help, please take my comments as a professional criticism of the structure and planning of [West Hollywood’s] first public scoping meeting. As a retired professor emeritus, I used to tell my sociology students that the worst grade one could get in college is a “D.” Anyone can fail with an “F,” but a “D” looks like you tried. I grade the PSM a “D.”

Public meetings should start on time. [This meeting] started 10 minutes late … I counted 40-45 community residents in the small meeting room; several did not stay long. When the meeting was called to order, it quickly became apparent that the bright lighting in the room made it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to make sense of the PowerPoint presentation … When some of the lights were dimmed or turned off, the problem still remained because of the detail of some of the slides … Heaven forbid we’d waste a little paper with an actual handout.

The structural problem of the meeting became evident to many of us in attendance when instead of asking public questions so the entire audience could hear the answers, the audience was being pushed in the direction of the break-out sessions/stations … one had to make a choice – either speaking to the W.H. city staff about the CEQA process and environmental issues or speaking to the project description folks, the proposed builders. You can’t be in two places at the same time.

The community residents in the room clearly wanted to hear answers from both and enjoy the collective benefit of hearing an answer to an informed resident’s question. The W.H. Planning staff resisted this idea …

As an aside, the meeting was covered by a smart local journalist, Mr. Cameron Kiszla of the Beverly Press, who provided an answer in their Oct. 17, 2019 (Vol. 29, No. 42) edition.

… I would like to have heard my concerns responded to by both the developers and the city – not at stations – but at [a] meeting, as happens when our City Council meets.

This particular PSM should not count in your planning process. It should be conducted in an organized, professional manner. You need to start again and do it right (e.g. learn proper lighting for PowerPoint). I request that you need to re-do the meeting. “Do not pass go; do not collect $200,” as the Monopoly game says. This was an embarrassment to the EIR and not in the spirit of CEQA.

Michael Vivian

West Hollywood