Last month we celebrated the life of Martin Luther King. As I sat in the front row at Crozier Middle School on Saturday, January 19 at our official Inglewood celebration looking at the many historical photographs of Martin Luther King, Jr., and his quest to achieve equality, I noticed a few glaring facts in the photos.

Maybe it was because the photos were so large. After all, the entire screen itself was over 10 feet tall and 20 feet wide. The most obvious was that everyone in the photographs was good- looking and well-groomed. I guess back then, everyone wore what looked best on them—not what looked best on their favorite celebrity or entertainer as many people do today. In the photos, I did not see anyone with 30 pounds of potatoes squeezed into a 10-pound sack in the photos. Many of the people marching and standing alongside King, Jr. may have been share croppers but they sure maintained their dignity while taking an active role in changing America and making it possible for residents residing in a community such as Inglewood to have the power to change governmental policy simply by participating in their local government. Before this we would have gone to jail—or worse!—attempting to affect change in our local government.

Next, let’s discuss how taking an active role in the governing of this city has benefited you, the residents of the greater Morningside Park area.

One of the most important things you can do to make a difference—besides voting—is to come to council meetings when items of importance to you are brought before the city council. When constituents come to the council and comment on agenda items, we on the city council pay attention.

On that note, I want to thank everyone who came to the council meetings this past month to make their voice heard and speak truth to power! Together we successfully defeated the attempt to place a 728% increase in the Property Transfer Tax on the April ballot.

With respect to Inglewood’s Residential Sound Insulation (RSI) program, it is very possible Inglewood would still be doing land acquisition, clearing the land, and selling the vacant land to developers instead of sound-insulating our homes.

More than a decade ago, the residents went to council meetings with me. We demanded that Mayor Dorn and the council use the noise mitigation funds for a sound insulation program, and we now have more than 4,000 homes sound-insulated.

Unfortunately the Inglewood RSI program has been slow and inefficient since 2003. I’ve pushed, prodded and begged for information, met with many government and sound insulation company officials, and spent countless hours discussing problems in the program with many of you. I’ve found the city has been failing to file required grant reports since 2006, has had exorbitantly high per-home sound insulation costs, and that sound insulation funding to the City of Inglewood has been cut off by Los Angeles and the FAA.

Being docile and thinking if we ask real nice or kiss up to the right government official isn’t going to get most of our homes sound insulated. I need your help now! Many more of us are going to have to make it very well known we are upset about the lack of progress. We as a group are going to have to raise our voices and demand our Mayor James Butts, Los Angeles Mayor
Antonio Villaraigosa, and our ranking member of the House Financial Services committee Congresswoman Maxine Waters get this City of Inglewood Sound Insulation Program and its respective funding back on track. I urge you to support our community’s efforts and write letters to all three aforementioned elected officials.

Here are the addresses of the representatives to which to write:

James T. Butts
. org or call

Antonio Villaraigosa


Congresswoman Maxine Waters
.

If all residents work together—those inside and outside the “noise contour”—we’ll have an even better Morningside Park community!

Wishing all of you the very best!

Sincerely,

Councilman Mike Stevens