To the editor: Los Angeles renters are not just losing off-street parking — we are losing basic principles of democracy (“A Koreatown parking protest: Tenants stage sit-in to protest loss of parking to make way for ADUs,” Sept. 9).
Granny flat legislation was built by Angelenos as a way to help families care for aging parents. Now, the city of Los Angeles has twisted accessory dwelling unit permitting into a backroom loophole for profiteering corporate landlords, fast-tracking the transition of off-street parking and patios stolen from renters into overcrowded holding-cell-sized efficiency units with no parking, no outdoor space, no hearings and no public comment.
At my rent-stabilized complex of 25 years, tenants accidentally learned that permits to erase our outdoor space and most off-street parking have already been 85% approved in secret sessions with no public input. The plan doubles the number of units on this small property.
The recent Los Angeles Times story is about one complex in Koreatown, but this isn’t an isolated incident. The city is dumping its mismanagement on working Angelenos throughout Los Angeles. This isn’t housing justice. It’s the city selling out its renters to corporate profiteering, pretending overcrowding and reduction in services is compassion. If Mayor Karen Bass truly believes in this model, perhaps Getty House should give up its driveway for a few efficiency units.
Jeffrey Reeves, Los Angeles