On Friday, residents in a Studio City neighborhood let Councilmember Nithya Raman know just how fed up they are about the lack of action taken on a vacant lot that they say has been an issue.
The lot is located on Babcock Ave. KNX News’ Craig Fiegener reports it’s a deep-set property lined by trees with overgrown weeds and an empty swimming pool. A plywood structure that caught fire on Wednesday.
Residents told Fiegener they’ve been complaining about it to city officials for years.
“It's only paper being pushed,” one woman said. “Nobody's making decisions.”
Raman, who represents the district, held a press conference to discuss the lot when one angry resident took the chance to criticize her lack of action.
“You're just taking this opportunity as a campaign. That's all you are,” one man told her. “You are just as incompetent as Mayor Bass. Both of you guys, you're talking about you're going to do something for the city of L.A. if you get elected. You can't even do something for your community here that you're elected to do something for! You have done nothing!”
When Fiegener approached Raman after the press conference, she acknowledged the tension.
“People are mad, and they have every right to be mad,” she said. “I’m mad too! This should not be the way that things operate here in the city of Los Angeles.”
She also said that her office has emails in which Mayor Karen Bass and her office said her team was “addressing nuisance properties.”
“The mayor's office said, ‘Here's our pathway for addressing nuisance issues,’ and we send her this property as one of our top properties to address, and it's still not addressed at that point,” Raman continued. “The process cannot be that you call the mayor to resolve issues like this. “
KTLA reported that Mayor Karen Bass’ office confirmed that Raman’s office did include the Studio City lot in her list of nuisance properties; however, Bass said in a statement that Raman’s team “did not ask our office for assistance or intervention.”
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