Zev Yaroslavsky (born December 21, 1948) is a politician from Los Angeles County, California. He was a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors from District 3, an affluent district which includes the San Fernando Valley, the Westside of Los Angeles and coastal areas between Venice and the Ventura County line.Official website of Zev Yaroslavsky He was first elected to the board in 1994. Yaroslavsky served on the Los Angeles City Council from 1975 to 1994.
During his tenure in Los Angeles politics, Yaroslavsky played an influential role in limiting housing construction and development in the city, leading a "slow-growth movement." Yaroslavsky argued in 1987 that Los Angeles had "filled up." He authored Proposition U, a successful 1986 ballot initiative, that the Los Angeles Times called "the largest one-shot effort to limit development in the city's history."
In the 1990s, he blocked expansion of light rail into Santa Monica and authored Proposition A, a successful 1998 ballot initiative which prevented new expansions of the Los Angeles Metro Rail.
Early life and education
Zev Yaroslavsky, the son of David and Minna Yaroslavsky, was born on December 21, 1948, in Los Angeles. He and his older sister, Shimona (married name: Kushner), were the children of Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire and grew up in a Zionist household in Boyle Heights.Amy Klein, "Aliyah Perspectives," Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, May 9, 2003 His father was a founder of the Hebrew Teachers Union in Los Angeles,Marc Ballon, "Jewish Support for Strikers Mixed," Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, October 31, 2003 and both parents, who were born in Ukraine, were founders of North American Habonim, a Labor Zionist youth movement. Yaroslavsky recalled that his parents spoke to their children only in Hebrew to prepare them for emigrating to Israel. Yaroslavsky's visited Israel when Shimona was thirteen and Zev was five. Shimona later emigrated permanently.Los Angeles Public Library reference fileSusan King, "Zev Yaroslavsky and the Documentary 'Refusenik,' " Los Angeles Times, May 26, 2008
Yaroslavsky attended Melrose Avenue Elementary School, Bancroft Junior High School and Fairfax High School. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in history and economics from UCLA in 1971 and a Master of Arts in history, specializing in the British Empire, from the same school in 1972.Zev Yaroslavsky official county website Holding a photo of himself as a UCLA student. Afterward, he taught Hebrew at temples in Pasadena and Bel Air.
Political activism Yaroslavsky first gained public notice as a UCLA student who had begun orchestrating high-profile protests in Los Angeles against oppressive treatment of Jews in the Soviet Union. After a revelatory trip to visit relatives in Russia, he formed the California Students for Soviet Jews, which, as its first major action, picketed Soviet athletes in town for a track and field event at the Coliseum. Although a self-described "flaming liberal" at the time, Yaroslavsky recruited conservative TV newsman and commentator George Putnam, who, Yaroslavsky said, "was anti-Soviet and very favorable to Soviet Jews." In December, 1969, they organized a candlelight protest march that would attract more than 5,000 people, including then-Mayor Sam Yorty and television performer Steve Allen.
In 1971, as executive director of the Southern California Council on Soviet Jewry, Yaroslavsky made news again when he led protests against the Bolshoi Ballet and boated into Los Angeles Harbor to paint "Let My People Go" on the side of a Soviet freighter. He was arrested during one Bolshoi protest but no charges were filed.David Ferrell, "Zev Yaroslavsky: He's Spruced Up and Slimmed Down—but Retains Old Intensity and Driving Ambition," Los Angeles Times, August 18, 1985Rex Weiner, "Zev Yaroslavsky: From Soviet Jewry Activist to L.A. Mayor?" The Jewish Daily Forward, February 25, 2011 With photo."Former Boy Wonder on City Council Now Warns of Impending Fiscal Doom in County," CivicCenterNewSource, June 12, 1995, pages 1 and 4 He also was "deeply involved" in a campaign to burn Standard Oil credit cards after the company sent a letter to 300,000 stockholders that appeared to support a pro-Arab Middle East policy. He resigned from that $150-a-week job to campaign for the City Council.
City Council
Elections
Yaroslavsky's 1975 election to the City Council's 5th District on Los Angeles' Westside stunned the city's political establishment, which had supported his opponent, Frances M. Savitch, a former aide to then-Mayor Tom Bradley. Savitch had secured endorsements from, among others, California's two U.S. senators, members of Congress and an assortment of state office holders—"some of the strongest political muscle ever assembled in a City Council race," as the Los Angeles Times put it in a post-election analysis.Doug Shuit, “How New City Councilman Won,” Los Angeles Times, May 29, 1975 In the primary, Yaroslavsky ran second to Savitch, eliminating from the race Rosalind Wiener Wyman, who was seeking to retake the seat she held from 1953 to 1965. Wyman endorsed Yaroslavsky in his grass-roots general election campaign. When Yaroslavsky was sworn in as the council's then-youngest member at age 26, Mayor Bradley quipped: "Congratulations. Now you're part of the establishment." "Yes," Yaroslavsky recalled retorting, "but the establishment is not part of me."Erwin Baker, "Yaroslavsky, 26, Sworn In; Council at Full Strength," Los Angeles Times, June 11, 1975, page C-1The Times story of the swearing-in did not mention Yaroslavsky's supposed rejoinder to Bradley's quip.
During his tenure, Yaroslavsky served as chairman of two of the council's most powerful committees—one that oversaw the city's budget and finances, the other that oversaw the Los Angeles Police Department. He had a reputation among his colleagues as driven, ambitious and bright, someone who "knows the value of…good box office issues." Yaroslavsky vacated his seat early after his successful election to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. In a 1994 story marking his first day as a supervisor, the Los Angeles Times noted that "Yaroslavsky was more often than not a dominant player in virtually every municipal initiative of note since he joined the City Council in 1975."John Schwada, “Yaroslavsky Turns a New Page,” Los Angeles Times, December 5, 1994
Tenure Yaroslavsky was on the city council from 1975 to 1994. When he opted not to run for re-election in 1994 and instead ran for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Yaroslavsky's wife Barbara unsuccessfully ran to replace him on the city council.
Opposition to housing and development
Yaroslavsky successfully obtained ordinances that reduced neighborhood building heights and imposed severe restrictions on hillside development.Claudia Luther, “Panel OKs Cut in Height Limit,” Los Angeles Times, January 9, 1977Doug Smith, “Preservationists Win Reversal in Battle Against Developers Over Slope Density, Los Angeles Times, January 23, 1977 Yaroslavsky also led an effort to substantially limit the scale of development in Century City. Yaroslavsky was credited with orchestrating the negotiations concerning the use, for the first time, of potential traffic congestion measurements to help determine the scope of a project.Barbara Baird, “Accord Ends 6-year Fight Over Scope of Century City Plans,” Los Angeles Times, October 22, 1981
In 1984, Yaroslavsky suffered a stinging setback when the Los Angeles City Council voted 8–7 to reject his proposed moratorium on high-rises along Wilshire Boulevard, a proposal that had turned the heavily traveled thoroughfare into a "political battleground."David Ferrell, “Proposal Would Cut Growth, Promote UCLA Housing,” Los Angeles Times, March 8, 1987 He said the defeat—which he blamed on council colleagues who reneged on promises to vote for the measure—left him angry and committed to taking his "slow-growth" message to voters. In 1986, Yaroslavsky and Los Angeles City Councilmember Marvin Braude authored a ballot initiative, Proposition U, that the Los Angeles Times called "the largest one-shot effort to limit development in the city's history." The measure proposed to cut in half the size of new buildings allowed on more than 70% of the city's commercial and industrial property. Critics, including labor and business leaders, predicted that Prop. U would discourage investment in L.A. and reduce jobs, particularly in economically depressed minority neighborhoods. But the measure passed by a margin of more than 2-to-1 and was hailed by supporters as representing the "dawn of a new era" in managing Los Angeles' growth.William Trombley, “Yaroslavsky Bets Future on Slow Growth Movement,” Los Angeles Times, July 5, 1987Rich Connell, “Growth-Control Victory Hailed as 'Dawn of New Era,’” Rich Connell, Los Angeles Times, November 6, 1986
Yaroslavsky argued in 1987 that "This city, which for 100 years grew out, has filled up... We always had more room. But now there is no more margin." In defending Proposition U, Yaroslavsky argued that down-zoning Los Angeles had no adverse economic effects, "There is no down-zoning in this city that ever negatively affected the economics of the city. … We cut density by one-third on Melrose Avenue. The only thing that happened is rents continued to skyrocket." Critics say that skyrocketing rents were an adverse effect of Proposition U.
The following year, Yaroslavsky and Braude teamed up again, this time to gather signatures for a ballot initiative that would block Occidental Petroleum Corp.'s decades-long effort to drill for oil in the Pacific Palisades along the city's shoreline. The controversial Proposition O would ban future drilling 1,000 yards inland of the mean high tide line. While environmentalists lined up behind the measure, opponents derided it as "an elitist cause" that would deprive the city of between $100 million and $200 million in taxes, royalties and license fees. Mayor Tom Bradley said the measure was unnecessary given safety precautions Occidental had proposed to prevent an accident. In November 1988, voters narrowly approved Proposition O, bringing to a close what was then the most expensive electoral campaign in the city's history.Scott Harris, “Initiative Drive Aims to Block Coastal Oil Drilling in L.A.,” Los Angeles Times, March 22, 1988Ted Vollmer and Tracy Wood, “Anti-Drilling Prop. O Wins as Prop. P Loses,” Los Angeles Times, November 9, 1988
These back-to-back victories heightened Yaroslavsky's profile and positioned him as the top challenger to Bradley, whose popularity had begun to erode. In early 1988, as the councilmember was preparing a potential mayoral bid, his "slow-growth" credentials came under harsh scrutiny in a lengthy Los Angeles Times story headlined, "The Two Sides of Zev Yaroslavsky." While the piece praised Yaroslavsky's growth-control record in Century City and elsewhere, it accused him of quietly taking actions on behalf of some projects that he had publicly criticized, including the Westside Pavilion mall and two buildings that would have been blocked under his ill-fated Wilshire Boulevard construction moratorium. The story also noted that Yaroslavsky received strong financial support from major developers.Bill Boyarsky, “The Two Sides of Zev Yaroslavsky,” Los Angeles Times, February 21, 1988 In January, 1989, Yaroslavsky announced that he would not challenge Bradley, calling the four-term mayor a "very popular and entrenched incumbent" who would be "virtually impossible" to beat.Kevin Roderick and Ted Vollmer, “Councilman Explains Withdrawal,” Los Angeles Times, January 7, 1988
In 1993, Yaroslavsky sought to block or limit expansion plans for 20th Century Fox in his Westside district. Homeowner groups in his district opposed the expansion.
Role in limiting rail expansion