We are pleased to report that the Los Angeles Times is, after all, not just a cheering squad for the new AEG proposal to build Farmers Field, a new NFL stadium in downtown L.A., and in the process to create a privileged group of developers of large projects that (when approved by the Governor), would be exempt from some of the environmental review burdens that other projects have to endure.
A column in today’s L.A. Times — Michael Hiltzik, California Special Exemption for NFL Stadium Plan Not So Special, L.A. Times, September 14, 2011, is sharply critical of such deals for the privileged folks, and reminds us that when the California legislature created an exemption from full environmental review for another proposed NFL stadium (that one in the City of Commerce) it promised — scout’s honor — that this would be the onliest such exemption. In reality, it only took a little over a year for the legislature to make a similar deal for Farmers Field in downtown Los Angeles, and then immediately before the end of the legislative session, to enact a law that would give the same deal to every large project in California.
For the full text of Hiltzik’s column click here.