Hd– The Arena Has a Pulse!
After being near death for much of last week, the proposed sports arena shows signs of life once again thanks to several concessions by the developers as well as City Councilman Joel Wachs’ apparent willingness to exempt the arena from a ballot initiative that would require voter approval of the project.
Whatever the resolution, the fact that such an important component of the effort to revitalize downtown rested with a single councilman and his plan to take the arena plan to the voters and the threat of a ballot initiative speaks volumes about how hard it is to do business with the City of Los Angeles. It’s also an example of how the state’s initiative process can effectively paralyze the everyday business of government.
Last week, even after arena developers forked over boxes of documents detailing the financial terms with their chief tenants the Lakers and Kings and even after they offered up guarantees that the city’s financial obligation on the deal was virtually zero, Wachs steadfastly refused to back away from his plan to place an initiative on the ballot. It was only a day or two later that Wachs appeared to be softening, based on his newfound assurances that the money was as good as gold.
Clearly, developers Ed Roski Jr. and Philip Anschutz were getting frustrated, not only about last week’s developments, but the months-long wrestling match with city officials. Tim Leiweke, president of the Kings (which Roski and Anschutz own) indicated that if the arena project were forced on the ballot, the deal would be all but dead.
Wachs, of course, has maintained that the developers were bluffing all along, and that, only because of his persistence, the city has managed to strike a better deal than originally proposed. In a sense, this is correct, but it misses the overall point: This has always been a good deal for the city even in its earlier versions and in no way is comparable to the giveaways by St. Louis, Baltimore and the state of Tennessee.
The reason is obvious: Roski and Anschutz recognized early on that L.A. would not go to the mat for a new sports venue.
Wachs believes a new arena will do little, if anything, to spruce up downtown that folks going to Lakers and Kings games are not about to spend their dollars at nearby restaurants or shops that presumably would be part of an overall development scheme.
We won’t pretend to predict the success of any adjacent development efforts (nor should Councilman Wachs), but again, that’s not the point. The arena deal is not tied to whether a hotel or shopping mall springs up. It holds up pretty well on its own: a world-class venue housing the Lakers and Kings, plus assorted concerts, conventions and special events and, not incidentally, a place that will bring significant tax revenues to the city.
Putting all that to the voters is not only costly, time-consuming and pointless (given the lack of taxpayer liability) but would be another example of the initiative process usurping the role of elected officials. If every contentious public policy matter is subject to such votes, government is stymied and developers who might have been interested in public/private partnerships are certain to steer clear.
And lots of luck getting an NFL franchise back to Los Angeles.
