If you live south of Alameda, you're in ward 3, where incumbent Pete Roybal faces a welcome challenge this year from Gary Harty. In office, Roybal has proven himself to be unreliable as an advocate for urban redevelopment and has allied himself with the head-in-the-sand policies of Ramey Johnson. Like Johnson, Roybal seems to think that by nixing high quality, carefully planned developments like Belmar, growth in Lakewood can somehow be stopped.
The reality is that growth is going to happen, and that the city of Lakewood should be working to manage this growth in ways that add to urbanized areas like downtown Lakewood and keep it out of suburban areas where it would be inappropriate.
Gary Harty understands the importance of promoting smart growth. He favors the city's sustainability plan and has been a long time advocate of alternate transportation and cycling. All this makes Harty the clear choice for anyone who loves la vida Belmar.
Any thoughts on how the new city council stacks up, in terms of view on urban redevelopment, e.g. Federal Center neighborhood?
ReplyDeleteGreat question... I'm doing research for an upcoming post.
ReplyDelete