Westside Mayors to California: Leave Redevelopment Alone!

The Mayors of West Hollywood, Santa Monica, Culver City, and the Vice Mayor of Beverly Hills discuss local redevelopment and planning in the face of state intervention. The conversation centers on politics, projects, transportation, and parking.

1 minute read

September 23, 2011, 10:00 AM PDT

By Kevin Madden


While some cities deal with stalled projects due to a listless economy, the Westside cities of Los Angeles County are knee-deep in public and private developments. Mayors John Duran of West Hollywood, Richard Bloom of Santa Monica, Mayor Micheál O'Leary of Culver City and Vice Mayor William Warren Brien of Beverly Hills participated at a panel recently to talk about the possibility of redevelopment going by the wayside.

The Planning Report provides some excerpts from the conversation:

MAYOR BLOOM: "To take money away from these poor cities in order to make the state work is simply an unsustainable and unworkable solution..."

MAYOR DURAN: "I think what they fail to realize is that redevelopment is a tool. Of course there's some calculated risk: financial risk and political risk. You're never popular... There is political risk that we take to do redevelopment."

Thursday, September 22, 2011 in The Planning Report

Young Professional

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban and Environmental Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban and Environmental Planner

Get top-rated, practical training for planners

"Planetizen federal action tracker" logo superimposed over black and white image of US Capitol dome.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

October 14, 2026 - Zachary Whalen

Cars driving under automatic congestion pricing toll machines on Broadway next to the Trump International Hotel in Manhattan, New York City.

Data reveals that NYC’s bet on congestion pricing has paid off

After almost two years of the program, reports show positive impacts on traffic and air quality and no disruptions to parking.

October 13, 2026 - Marcelo Remond

A crane lifts a manufactured house, with is rectangular and does not yet have a roof.

HUD modernizes 50-year-old manufactured housing framework

The Next Generation Manufactured Housing Action Plan establishes new energy-efficiency standards for manufactured homes, and new guidelines for anchoring them.

October 8, 2026 - Boston Real Estate Times

construction workers on the roof of a house.

California voters weigh $11.25 billion housing bond

Prop. 1, combined with other funding, would support over 40,000 new rental units in California.

October 18 - Cal Matters

MIRA President Tom Kirk gestures at the opening ceremony of the solar array at the Hartford Landfill. There are rows of solar panels behind him.

Connecticut is turning landfills into green infrastructure

Twenty-nine solar arrays have been built, or approved to be built, on top of Connecticut landfills.

October 18 - The CT Mirror

Sheep in a field stand next to solar panels.

Trump guts ‘win-win’ solar energy program for rural farmers

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s changes have made virtually all solar power ineligible for funding through the Rural Energy for America Program.

October 18 - Grist