Robert Scheer - partial column in today's Westside Weekly section of the Los Angeles Times - June 17, 2001

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How come the Belmont school remains closed for fear of the methane under the site, but the L.A. City Council can unanimously approve a city-sponsored study that the environmental questions at the Playa Vista project can be solved, when it is plagued by the same gas? That decision moves them one step closer to underwriting Playa Vista with $135 million in city-backed bonds? Will someone please explain why public funds are needed to sponsor this blight on the wetland environment? As the aforementioned Tim Robbins once said on "Politically Incorrect," the corporations are capitalists in good times and socialists when they are in trouble. It adds insult to injury for the Playa Capital moguls behind this project to claim that they are merely exercising their property rights in destroying the wetlands, but that the public should foot the bill. Do me a favor; just drive down Lincoln and take a look at the monstrosity that they are throwing up, and even if you don't feel for the birdies just think of the traffic gridlock that the City Council is moving closer to underwriting.

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by Robert Scheer with Zuade Kaufman

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