Councilmember Bob Blumenfield

It is a very sad day when one feels compelled to write a Unilocal review about a city official they voted for… and especially when it is not a favorable review.
After years of Dennis Zine and his self-​promoting ways I felt good to have an experience politician taking the reins of Council District 3. We may have gained experience but what we lost seems much more important. We lost Zine’s passion for actively addressing issues that make our community less than ideal. Community spirit is one thing — Councilmember Blumenfield has plenty of that and supports many good community activities.
But when it comes to problems that degrade the comfort of living in CD3 my experience is consistently that the councilmember’s staff does nothing more than deflect issues by declaring them «not in our jurisdiction» and providing referrals that aren’t even correct.
Case 1 — early morning overflights by commercial airliners landing at Hollywood Burbank airport. Two to three times between 4:15 and 5:30. After several email exchanges to get past the «its not in our jurisdiction» a referral was given to a web site for a state-​sponsored noise abatement program. Only problem is that the program ended years before, and only applied to those within several streets of the airport. But what about the rest of us who get awoken every morning? No help. I eventually found the right guy at the airport who is responsible and he properly addressed the issue… but can’t do much about it since FedEx and UPS choose not to abide by the nighttime flight moratorium that all of the passenger airlines voluntarily comply with.
Case 2 — homeless encampments at the freeway off-​ramps. «Not in our jurisdiction» but forwarded the message to the state assemblyman’s office. He too says «not in my jurisdiction but the CHP is very good at dealing with these homeless issues. OK, I get it. Freeway — CHP… but why didn’t Blumenfield’s staff know that.
Back in the good-​old days of Zine there was a bit of this that went on but more often his folks would be much more proactive in working the issues. I’m missing Zine now.
We need someone who is really interested in the well-​being of the community; and it doesn’t seem like a professional politician is the right kind of person.
For speed of response: 5-​stars.
For doing anything useful to address constituent concerns: 1-​star
AVERAGE = 2-​stars (this is the new-​new math)