KTLA News: "Mayor Bradley tours the San Fernando Valley" (1979)

[Reporter Mike Botula] The mayor's San Fernando Valley tour called for 10 stops. At one, for example, he examined the way ARCO engineers are finding ways to tap the hot rays of the sun as a new energy source. But it was on his first stop that Bradley came in for some political heat over plans to build facilities for the 1984 Olympic Games in the Sepulveda Basin. At a breakfast meeting with the Coalition to Save the Sepulveda Basin Bradley made his pitch and reaffirmed a pledge that the facilities would go elsewhere if a majority of San Fernando Valley residents insisted on it. Coalition members questioned him closely on the issue. [Mayor Tom Bradley] The Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee is going to be very much involved in this whole process. So... you can be assured that there will be ample opportunity during not just one public hearing before the City Council but in a variety of ways for you to offer your ideas and comments. [Botula] The plans call for an artificial lake to be used for rowing competition and a swim complex with two pools. The warm up pool would be removed after the Games and the permanent one would be enclosed for future use as an indoor pool. There would also be a velodrome and a new 20,000 car parking lot that would see future use as an 18-hole golf course. Bradley said after the breakfast meeting that he felt the Coalition was more receptive to the plans for the Olympics complex than it was for the ill-fated plan to move the Hollywood Park Racetrack into Sepulveda Basin. The mayor was asked about it time and time and time again... and time and time and time again he restated his commitment. But if there is sufficient opposition to the plan he would eventually oppose it. But that decision will ultimately have to be made by the Los Angeles City Council. In Van Nuys, this is Mike Botula reporting for News at 10. [Street noise]. [Bradley] Good to see you. [Unidentified man] Tom, how you doing? [Bradley] Fine, fine. [Unidentified man] Welcome to the world of tomorrow. [Bradley] Thank you. [Laughter] [Unknown man talking] For just a moment or two... [Meeting attendee] ...What's a rowing channel? [Man speaking to crowd] Obviously the biggest. There was some discussion at the beginning. Built the rowing channel the same as they... ...It's just, as I've heard some people refer to, a long ditch. We did see some slides and there was a rowing event held in New Zealand and they held it on a lake. [Reporter] ...the Basin, in the context of this letter that you read to Colonel... [Bradley] I think if you look at the context, the entire context are fit to the I.O.C. The statements that have been made, the requirement for an environmental impact report, the fact that the, the application for federal funding has to go through the City Council hasn't yet gone there, and the fact that the site selection has to, again, go to the City Council for final decision. Obviously no final decision has been made. [Reporter] Have you written a similar (?) letter to any other group, uh, mayor? [Bradley] The letter to the Corps was written really at their request because the Corps, as you well know, operates that facility...owns that facility and we are there on lease. In as much as... if the facilities are to be built there we would look to the Corps for the bulk of the work. That letter was written to expedite their involvement so they could go to their superiors and get approval to, to work with us. [Reporter] One final question? [Woman next to Bradley] We want to give other people a chance? [Reporter] Would, would you be willing to make copies of your legislative proposal that you refer to in this letter that you're going to submit to Congress after the first of the year? Would you be willing to make copies of that legislative proposal available to the Coalition? [Bradley] Yes, it will be a public record. The Council action will be a public document. [Reporter] The legislative proposal will be available to... [Bradley] Yes [Reporter] We can write to you in that regard to get a copy of it? [Bradley] You don't even have to write me. You come down to the City Clerk and and make a copy of it. [Reporter] Thank you. [Woman next to Bradley] Richard Close. [Richard Close] Richard Close, President of Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association, one of the common comments I hear in the Valley is that the fear that what will we put in the Valley, in the Basin, is what is best for the Olympics, rather than what is best for the people in the San Fernando Valley. Your comments touched on that by saying there will be public input. A lot of people were looking towards the Olympic Committee... [Close] ...I think what everyone here is concerned with is input in the decision making capacity. How can this group have input in the decision making capacity? And specifically, how do you intend to allow the people here today to have that input? [Bradley] You will have an opportunity for input to the decision makers. That decision will be made by the City Council. Obviously no member of the public is going to be voting on it. It is a vote by the City Council, but the hearings that they will hold permit you to offer any testimony, any written documentation you would like. We will also consult with the local organizing committee. [Unidentified man in audience talking] In the Sepulveda Basin, I will dwell on the objective approach not the negatives but the positives. We find that many communities... ...have made proposals so that they can not only build, but develop community support behind a.. subsequent development, maintenance and cost, sharing cost and so on... so that you don't have a problem of continuing support...maintenance support. [Bradley] ...Owned or leased or operated by the City, it belongs to the City and it is paid for when the Olympics are over. So how would you then sell to yourself something which you already own? [Unidentified man in audience talking] I don't recall that in my question? [Bradley] You didn't but somebody else did in an earlier meeting. [Unidentified man in audience talking]...involved and it doesn't have anything do with money. [Room noise; Bradley speaks off camera] Do you want to respond to that? [Man at podium microphone] Just my, my thought is we have thousands of people involved in everything...golf...and we'd have to evolve some type of system where only so many boats, whatever a reasonable and safe number, would be allowed on the boat, I mean, on the lake. If it got to the point where we had to have an advan ced registration the way we do it our tennis courts or golf courses and we could certainly do that. But...but... be sure there is no misunderstanding. We have a couple of lakes where we teach canoeing and sail...sailing and on a much smaller lake than this and that's what I'm talking about. Not, not any water skiing or those types of boats. But we could control the lake, I have no question in my mind about that. [Woman at podium microphone] Cathy... [Cathy Lewis] I'm Cathy Lewis, the Encino Property Owners Association. Since the news broke that we were having this meeting the Valley News on two separate occasions and the Los Angeles Times in the past ten days has said that you have agreed to abandon efforts to construct Olympic facilities in the Sepulveda Basin if there is substantial opposition from Valley residents. However, I have only heard you say that hearings will be held before a final decision is made. But you have not committed yourself to abandoning the idea even if the hearings indicate that there is substantial opposition. My question is... are you... willing to make a public commitment to abandon this effort if the opposition from Valley residents is so great that it would be considered substantial by anyone's definition, even yours. [Bradley] I sat up one Saturday...night, laboriously wrote out every answer that is on that sheet and those answers appeared in the Valley News. I have made that statement on so many occasions that I don't know how at this late date anybody could question it. You should understand that what I was doing was referring to the process and the fact that our Council will make the final decision. I am confident on the basis of statements that they have made that they will be responsive, they will listen to the voice of people here in this community and any other community in Los Angeles. So if there was that kind of opposition, believe me, you're not going to find the City Council approving the siting of any facility. Unidentified man in audience] Can we afford it? [Laughter]. [Unidentified man] The model airplanes, the fields will remain... [Crowd noise]. [Sound of water from solar powered fountain]. [Driver] I got it for you. How you feel? [Unidentified man] Fine, I feel good. [Driver] Good. [Street noise] [Unidentified man] Mayor. [Bradley] I want you to know I've signed my life away. Here you are, I promise not to divulge a single secret... if I understood them. [Laughter]. [Unidentified man] File that in the legal file. [Laughter]. [Crowd noise]. [Unidentified man] Elliott? [Unidentified man] Your honor, this is Elliott Berman [?]. [Elliott Berman (?)] Good to meet you, sir. [Unidentified man] Yeah [Berman (?)]...and we'll make ice and these are designed to be used in village health centers and the unit this size would service about 50,000 people in developing countries. And the people that come into the village... use a vaccine from here but to get to the people that are outside you take those ice packs that you make, you know, they go into a portable... container. The vaccine goes in with the apple juices...orange juices! This from California by the way. [Laughter]. [Berman (?)] We've been working on this program with the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. [Bradley asking question] [Unintelligible]. [Berman (?)] Well, this is the first prototype, actually the second prototype. The first six units- two will go to India... [Unintelligible]. [Crowd noise]. [Unidentified man talking] We're developing this one quite rapid. You see when you step in front of the panel it stops. Which is... one of the factors of solar. You block it you don't get the energy. [Sound of water from solar powered fountain]. [Unidentified man] Over here we have a... TV set, set-up right now from solar. We're finding quite a bit... [Crowd noise]. [Crowd noise]. [Sound of remote controlled airplane]. [Birds chirping and sound of distant cars]. [Wind and tractor noise]. [Birds chirping and sound of distant cars]. [Reporter Botula] Bradley tour.