Ruth Galanter

The slow-growth revolt that erupted in the mid-1980s proved to be a potent force in this week's voting when two Los Angeles City Council members who had been criticized for their development policies were forced into runoffs, officials said Wednesday. "The election results indicate that the concern with the environment and reasonable growth is overwhelming . . .

Moments after the Los Angeles City Council voted earlier this month to kill Mayor James K. Hahn's budget plan, Councilwoman Ruth Galanter popped out of her chair and began passing out a flier from her first council election in 1987 that read: "Ruth Galanter -- She Can't Be Bought ... She Won't Back Down."

As she sat in a crowded City Council chamber being praised last week for her support of one of the largest real estate developments ever contemplated for Los Angeles, Councilwoman Ruth Galanter could be excused for any uneasiness. Her opponents, accusing her of betraying environmental principles, have already begun to ask if there is political life for Galanter after Playa Vista. Propelled into office in 1987 after opposing Summa Corp.'

Outgoing Los Angeles City Council members Hal Bernson and Ruth Galanter unsuccessfully attempted to boost their pensions during a closed-session meeting Friday, arguing that term limits prohibit elected officials from fully vesting in the city's retirement program.

So, Ruth Galanter is bitterly disappointed by her colleagues and thinks "the double-cross is alive and well" ("Alex Padilla, 28, Defeats Galanter to Become President of City Council," July 4). That's nothing compared to how she sold her constituents and neighbors down the river by ramrodding a thumbs-up vote on Playa Vista through the lame-duck City Council last month. Russell Johnson Marina del Rey

City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter on Friday announced plans to open two field offices in the San Fernando Valley in early July to serve residents in her newly redrawn council district. To create another Valley district, the council moved the 6th District, now consisting of parts of West Los Angeles, Venice and Crenshaw, to the East Valley. Galanter, who has represented the Westside for 15 years, will start work in her new district in July.

Ruth Galanter, the Los Angeles City Council candidate who was savagely attacked by a knife-wielding intruder in her Venice home, continues to improve and tests have shown that her vital signs and brain functions are normal, UCLA Medical Center doctors said today. "She is upbeat and in good spirits," said hospital spokeswoman Laura Butler. "This morning she was visited by and conversed with her mother."

After declining to accept an annual raise, which is automatically granted by City Charter, for the past two years, Los Angeles Councilwoman Ruth Galanter recently decided to move higher in the tax bracket department. Last year, Galanter was one of several council members who declined the pay increases, which are tied by city regulations to the compensation of municipal judges.

I am sometimes accused (letter, Feb. 28) of attempting to close Los Angeles International Airport in order to build Palmdale Airport. Nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is that we do need additional airport capacity in Southern California; the question is: Where? I believe that LAX already carries disproportionately far more in traffic than its location within the region justifies. We have a very limited set of options available at LAX, but Palmdale offers the opportunity to develop an additional airport to carry the growth Southern California expects in the coming decades.

The back-room deal revealed in your article (Times, Aug. 30) underscores several serious obstacles for residents who wish to maintain control of the development within their communities. Your article quotes that the developers are determined "to move ahead with their projects before the remaining traffic capacity in the Venice-Marina del Rey area is used up." What you failed to mention is, if indeed Los Angeles has determined that the traffic capacity of Lincoln Boulevard is not saturated, then how can they explain the slow bumper-to-bumper traffic on Lincoln and Washington boulevards that already exists?

Los Angeles Councilwoman Ruth Galanter is tired of being dumped on. Appalled by the amount of illegal trash left in her northeast San Fernando Valley district, Galanter's office has teamed up with the city's Bureau of Sanitation on a crusade to clean up the mess. "Dumping is a citywide problem, but nothing like what happens out here," she said of her district, which includes Panorama City, Arleta and parts of Sun Valley, Pacoima, Van Nuys and North Hollywood.

City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter on Friday announced plans to open two field offices in the San Fernando Valley in early July to serve residents in her newly redrawn council district. To create another Valley district, the council moved the 6th District, now consisting of parts of West Los Angeles, Venice and Crenshaw, to the East Valley. Galanter, who has represented the Westside for 15 years, will start work in her new district in July.

So, Ruth Galanter is bitterly disappointed by her colleagues and thinks "the double-cross is alive and well" ("Alex Padilla, 28, Defeats Galanter to Become President of City Council," July 4). That's nothing compared to how she sold her constituents and neighbors down the river by ramrodding a thumbs-up vote on Playa Vista through the lame-duck City Council last month. Russell Johnson Marina del Rey

Forget Playa Vista, billboard blight and Valley secession. In recent weeks, Los Angeles City Council members have been preoccupied by one thing: Which one of them will be the next council president? Sure, the job is largely a bureaucratic one. The president runs the meetings and makes committee assignments--the sort of thing few people outside City Hall care about. But many of the lawmakers see this as their big chance to gain respect in an age of term limits.

Citing cost and safety concerns, City Council President Ruth Galanter has tied up consideration of a San Fernando Valley site for a new high school that could yield sorely needed classrooms for 900 by next year. Galanter said she will not allow the $50-million sale of the city's Anthony Office Building in Sun Valley to the Los Angeles Unified School District until her questions are answered. The building is currently owned by the Department of Water and Power.

In an effort to position himself as a key player at City Hall, Councilman Alex Padilla said Wednesday that he is taking on veteran Councilwoman Ruth Galanter in the contest for council president. Padilla, who at 28 is the youngest member of the City Council, said he was approached in recent days by supporters who urged him to seek the position held by longtime Councilman John Ferraro until his death April 17. Council members are set to pick the president on Tuesday.

The article on the mayoral race, "Despite Hired Aides, L.B. Mayoral Contest Retains Small-Town Flavor" (Times, Feb. 18), was exceedingly disappointing in that it reflected such bias in favor of Jan Hall and Ernie Kell. Reporter Chris Woodyard spent over an hour in my office interviewing me on strategy, volunteers and my campaign platform. In his article he states, "Pryor . . . is drawing some of her ideas from Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter's uphill battle that unseated longtime incumbent Pat Russell last year."

Mayor Tom Bradley and City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter will lead a Los Angeles delegation to Canada this weekend for an international conference on the environment. More than 100 local government leaders from around the world will meet in Toronto for the "World Cities and Their Environment." Los Angeles hosted a similar meeting last year.

Cuzco, at 11,000 feet, is one of the highest cities in the world. One of our tour guides turned out to be a city councilman in Cuzco. He took me to city hall. It was like a miniature of any other city hall, people carrying blueprints, trying to get permits. I loved it because I'm a city planner by training. From Cuzco we took a train to the base of Machu Picchu, then a bus to the top. It shows a remarkably sophisticated understanding of astronomy.