Re “Yaroslavsky Stays Focused on Homeless, Housing,” Aug. 17 issue

Councilwoman Yaroslavsky’s Midvale homeless shelter is “controversial” not only, as the article states, because Katy blind-sided the Rancho Park community with this shelter, without any opportunity for meaningful engagement, input or collaboration (and indeed, she STILL hasn’t engaged with the community, HOAs, neighborhood associations, etc., or responded to emails raising concerns about this project) the Midvale project is also “controversial” because it is BAD for the neighboring businesses and BAD for the neighboring residents.

This article doesn’t mention that the West Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce has issued a statement AGAINST this project since it will decimate the neighboring small businesses on Pico that are only just recovering after Covid.

Why isn’t Yaroslavsky taking steps to support and revitalize this once-thriving business corridor instead of taking away their parking and adding more chaos? Nor does the article mention that the same organization that will run the Midvale shelter is currently so poorly mismanaging a shelter in North Hollywood that, according to a recent news article, the surrounding streets are now plagued by encampments, open drug use, violence and lawlessness. This article also doesn’t mention that this shelter will be immediately next door to family homes.

Perhaps Yaroslavsky’s constituents who don’t live in Rancho Park and aren’t familiar with Midvale might want to know that Yaroslavsky thinks it would be a good idea to open a homeless shelter immediately next to their homes too?

Katy wants Rancho Park residents and businesses to blindly trust her empty promise that her project will not wreak havoc on our community, despite the fact that the NoHo shelter, the Venice Bridge Housing, the Mayfair Hotel and several other similar shelters around the city show otherwise. She wants us to trust her that she will designate this a 41.18 zone, and actually enforce that ordinance, despite the fact that her past actions show otherwise. What Councilwoman Yaroslavsky fails to understand is that trust is earned, not given. Katy’s clandestine planning and implementation of this project only undermines our trust that she can carry out all the false promises she has made about the impact of this experiment on our community.

The residents and businesses of Rancho Park would like to work WITH Yaroslavsky to find an appropriate location for this project that will better serve the diverse needs of our community, i.e., providing much needed housing for the homeless while supporting our local businesses and making our neighborhood cleaner and safer. The question is: will Katy work with her constituents or against us?

Lizzy Chapman

Rancho Park

This article tries to capture [Los Angeles City Councilwoman Katy] Yaroslavsky in quite a bright light but the reality is dim. The proposed Midvale-Pico project would effectively decimate any remaining small businesses on Pico Boulevard by stripping them of the only parking lot in the area and by placing a homeless facility adjacent to these mom-and-pop businesses.

Patrons are no longer going to dine and frequent these establishments which will sadly force many of them to close shop. It is disheartening that Yaroslavsky is putting headlines over the safety of the community and the vivacity of the small businesses in her district. It’s no wonder that this project is deeply unpopular, not just by those that live in the surrounding areas, but also in many other parts of her district.

Yaroslavsky claims that the parking lot is underutilized, which is an abject and outright lie. The parking lot is full every single night.

Moreover, Yaroslavsky informed the community during a Zoom meeting (comments were disabled and the meeting was in webinar mode as a way to discourage participation) that the only type or criminal background check they will conduct on a prospective occupant will be a Megan’s law background check. What about battery, criminal assault, felony? This is another reason the community is deeply concerned about safety.

And in just a short amount of time, she has been a very brave disappointment flip-flopping when it suits her (opposing no new encampment zones in other council districts but supporting it in hers). She isn’t trustworthy. So many in our community voted for her, and they are working very hard to ensure that she doesn’t get voted in again a second time.

Kristina Boyaci

Westwood

Homeless people are not photo ops for your article. Her standing there with a Starbucks cup like she is some tourist in the land of the homeless is really offensive.

Also, that picture of the politicians acting like they are there to do real work is just so staged, it’s really laughable. That guy is wearing dress shoes to real cleanup? Also, Katy [Yaroslavsky] is wearing the same outfit. She just took her jacket off.

Instead of quick fixes that don’t work, why don’t they open up more drug addiction clinics and mental illness hospitals to really help the homeless. They are instead deciding to warehouse them again so then can kill themselves with drugs. We all learned from Covid housing first does not work. Get them real help please. They don’t deserve being treated like accessories for a photo op to further one’s political ambitions.

Kathy Lee

West Los Angeles

Editor’s note: The photograph of Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky at the homeless encampment was taken on Feb. 16 during an Inside Safe operation on Sixth Street near Fairfax Avenue that resulted in 43 people being moved into housing.

The photograph of Yaroslavsky at the tree planting was taken on May 25 during a street improvement project on Melrose Avenue.