Paul Krekorian

I’d give Krekorian ZERO stars if I could. He and his planning deputies are completely in the pocket of the big real estate developers, as evidenced by their pro developer, anti-​neighborhood stance on new construction projects in NoHo and Valley Village. Eight 3 story units on one lot next to your single story ranch home? No problem. A four story 45 unit apartment building directly behind your 1940’s bungalow? No problem. These people have never met a big developer they didn’t like. We were redistricted a few years ago and were switched from Tom LaBonge’s District 4 to Krekorian’s District 2. LaBonge has been termed out now but when he was in office you could always get him on the phone once you went through channels. With Krekorian all you’ll get is an automated response and an invitation to receive his newsletter. If you voted for the man then you totally deserve him. The rest of us are just stuck with him.

It’s great to see that more people are getting involved and exposing this office for what it is and sad to see that, so far, my allegations are true: this office is not interested in helping you or listening to the voice of its public constituents. From what I understand — from both my experiences and the information I’ve gathered from those who are active in politics — it seems Paul Krekorian will only help you if one of these two requirements are met:
1. You are an active donor /​campaign contributor.
2. Your suggestion is a way for Paul to increase his public perception to help him secure a future election.
It doesn’t matter what your problem is. If you’re not coming to the table with one of those, this office will only act as if they care or want to help, and hope you eventually lose interest — which in my experience, is something they’re outstanding at. And let’s say you’re not one to lose persistence, they’ll instead try to offer you something that will both not help your problem while trying to increase their own public image. In my case, it was starting a neighborhood watch, which is a completely ludicrous idea given the problems we were facing.
But wait, what if you further object? It appears that they’ll then try attacking you with garbage that makes it look like you’re the cause of the ongoing problems. No joke, and this is straight out of the Damian Carroll playbook, who was previously the head council aide of this office.
But just another note on the topic of acting like they care: their responses are geared towards making it seem like they are completely caring, while completely void of making any promises. We’ll use Jeremy O’s Unilocal reply on 17÷1÷2014: in his words, «we completely agree that there should be more green space, which is why our office continues to advocate for the preservation or creation of more open space» does just that — makes an ambiguous claim with no promise of action or proof that they do in fact «completely agree.»
Paul Krekorian loves to pose for photos showing him supporting the likes of firefighters and LAPD officials. Right — like the LAPD needs his consent to perform their jobs. But it sure makes Paul look great to agree with and be seen standing next to the cops! By the way, in 2014, he was paid a salary of $ 184,610.
This office doesn’t specialize in any kind of service, either, so not sure why anyone would waste their time visiting here in the first place. If you need help with any service, a call to 311 will get you going in the right direction and let you know who to speak with (or you can try 213−473−3231). What’s funny, however, is that Paul Krekorian insists that you contact him if you need a service rendered, and graffiti removal is an example of this. I have directly contacted the City’s graffiti abatement in the past, and it is a great service. But not sure why he would want you to call his people as opposed to directly calling the agency when they do an excellent job to begin with. I’d really like to see how a middle man can help increase utility, considering that all the other 30 or so requests I’ve put in with Team Krekorian have led to nothing being changed.
What’s worse is that in the dozen or so visits with which I’ve wasted my time at the council office, I’ve consistently observed a waiting lounge fully stocked with brochures, pamphlets, and flyers, and not a sound anywhere inside the office. I’ve never seen a single other constituent there, so not sure why all that stationary is available when apparently nobody comes to take it. This in combination with no service specialization makes me wonder why there is a full-​time staff here.
In fact, I can’t imagine why this office is allowed to exist or why Paul Krekorian hasn’t been fired. Is anyone doing an audit of what they accomplish? Does the city controller care to step in and do an investigation?
In the past, I tried getting my neighbors involved in raising our concerns, but what they told me is that it’s a waste of time asking this office for help. And to this day, it’s still the unfortunate truth.

UPDATE JUNE 2014: OK, I resent my e-​mail and I got an automated response. Rather than cut and paste it for you all to read I’ll paraphrase. «We don’t have the time to read and respond to all the emails we get…» So then a couple days later I got a response from member of the local City Council. It acknowledged I sent an e-​mail but was dismissive in terms of the issues I brought up. I wrote back reemphasizing the issues and I have received no response.
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BASED ON THE RESPONSE FROM HIS OFFICE, I have resent my original e-​mail to the office requesting that they send their response again… I looked and I have no response from last November… MAYBE more than one person e-​mailed the office on the same topic. I will be glad to update this again if and when I receive the response!
The web site suggests that you can e-​mail Paul Krekorian’s Office because Council District 2 is interested in your opinion, so it’s been several weeks since I emailed a long letter of an e-​mail about WHITNALL DOG PARK, suggesting the place really needs a human attendant because people are violating every rule posted. I also advocated for the need for MORE DOG PARKS as a way of moving LA towards a NO KILL CITY AND COUNTY. To do this there must be more apartment buildings that allow dogs — because there are lots of people who very much want to adopt and can’t because they live in apartments. Dogs in apartments need to go to dog parks to get the exercise they need.
I HAVE NOT RECIEVED ANY RESPONSE WHAT SO EVER.
Why do so many places have web sites that advise e-​mailing when no one is reading or acknowledging?
Is e-​mail just the next circular file?