Ruth Galanter (born ) is an American politician, environmentalist and consultant with a background in urban planning. She served on the Los Angeles City Council from 1987 to 2003.

She is known for supporting "slow growth" policies on the city's Westside and elsewhere. She was the victim of a knife attack in an attempted home robbery that left her severely wounded.

She now has her own consulting business.

Biography

Early life

Galanter was born about 1941 in New York City, the only child of a teacher and an advertising salesman. She grew up in the Bronx, New York, "dreaming of becoming an artist, or maybe an investigative reporter." Ruth's father died when she was age 6. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and her master's degree in planning from Yale. She moved to Los Angeles in 1970.Jessica Garrison, "Galanter's Style on L.A. City Council Was Blunt," Los Angeles Times, June 30, 2003

Stabbing

On May 6, 1987, Galanter was "brutally assaulted" in her Venice home in the 2200 block of Louella Avenue Location of the Galanter home in 1987 by an intruder who left her in critical condition with stab wounds in her neck. The intruder entered through a screen window at the back of the house. Neighbors heard screaming and the sound of a burglar alarmFrank Clifford, "Council Candidate Galanter Stabbed in Her Venice Home," Los Angeles Times, May 6, 1987 that Galanter was able to trigger after the attack. "One wound severed the carotid artery that supplies blood to the left side of the brain, and the other punctured the pharynx, part of the food tube near the esophagus."Cathleen Decker, "Galanter Neighbor Sought Statewide in Knife Attack," Los Angeles Times, May 9, 1987

Police soon tabbed Mark Allen Olds, who lived in a rooming house across the street from Galanter, as a suspect. Police Chief Daryl Gates said Olds was "a former gang member with an extensive record of arrests, including two for a 1979 gang murder and others for drug use." At his trial Galanter testified that she had suffered "permanent damage" to her throat and was "too frightened to sleep through the night."Terry Pristin, "Galanter Tells Jury of Injuries From Knifing," Los Angeles Times, November 6, 1987 A reporter wrote sixteen years later that the attack had left Galanter's "New York-accented voice with a slight croak."

A jury found Olds guilty of first-degree burglary and second-degree attempted murder involving great bodily injury and the use of a knife. It acquitted him of a more serious charge of attempted murder with premeditation, which could have carried a life sentence. Olds was sentenced to the maximum term, 14 years and 4 months, but was expected to serve only about years with time off for good behavior.Tracy Wood, "Galanter Attacker Gets Maximum 14 Years," Los Angeles Times, December 17, 1987

Galanter made a study-trip to Antarctica in January 1989 as an "exotic vacation" she had promised herself as she lay in bed bleeding from the knife attack.Alan Citron, "Fulfilling a Promise Galanter Plans Vacation Exploring Icy Antarctica," Los Angeles Times, January 5, 1989, page 3Richard Simon, "Galanter Backs Lake Over Yaroslavsky," Los Angeles Times, January 26, 1989, page 9

Environment

While a Yale student, Galanter and "scores of others" opposed a New Haven urban renewal program that would have bulldozed buildings and cut streets through poor and working-class neighborhoods. In 1973, she was the first California resident to file an appeal under the state's Coastal Preservation Act against an approved project—a Santa Monica plan "first proposed as 1,480 luxury residential units [that in the end] wound up as 340 condos and 160 units for seniors."

In 1973, working as the newsletter editor with the National Health Law Program, a federally funded legal-services program for the poor, she was part of a group endorsing a statewide campaign for national and state health insurance."Drive Begins for U.S., State Health Insurance," Los Angeles Times, October 9, 1973, page A-22Barry Siegel, "Santa Monica's Classic Land Battle," Los Angeles Times, May 13, 1976, page OC-C-20A

Living in Santa Monica at the time, Galanter was active in opposition to a 1976 plan to move two decrepit frame Carpenter Gothic houses from their Ocean Avenue addresses north of Wilshire Boulevard to a city-owned lot in Ocean Park, turning one into an upscale restaurant and the other into a historic museum. Both were built around the start of the 20th century, one of them by Roy Jones, son of Senator John P. Jones, founder of Santa Monica. The opposition was enough to kill the project, dubbed Heritage Square, which was eventually finished years later under tighter regulations.

In 1979, she became the Southern California director of the California League of Conservation Voters.Leslie Berkman, "Coast Panel Chief Says Shake-up Is No Coup," Los Angeles Times, April 28, 1980, pages OC-A-1 and 5

Public service

Coastal Commission

Galanter was appointed to the South Coast Regional Coastal Commission by Governor Jerry Brown in January 1977."Coast Commission Appointees Named," Los Angeles Times, January 5, 1977, page D-4 She was elected chairman in 1980."The Southland," Los Angeles Times, April 22, 1980, page B-2 Decisions on affordable housing, she said, were "probably the most controversial facing the commission."

After leaving the commission, she started her own planning consulting firm. One of her clients was the State Coastal Conservancy Commission, "Venice," Los Angeles Times, June 13, 1985, page WS-A-2 "an agency charged with restoring damaged coastal lands." As such, she "worked to preserve wetlands threatened by development in Long Beach and Huntington Beach."Jill Stewart, "'Quality-of-Lifers' Fight to Shackle Growth Series," Los Angeles Times, March 29, 1987, page 1

City Council

Elections

In 1987, Los Angeles City Council District 6 was a "diverse area" that included "racially mixed" Venice and Mar Vista, as well as predominantly white Westchester and mostly black Crenshaw.Alan Citron, "Galanter Attempts a Liberal Balancing Act," Los Angeles Times, May 3, 1987, page WS-1 and 8

In the primary election of April 1987 against incumbent Pat Russell, Galanter "stunned Russell by capturing 29% of the primary vote to Russell's 42%." Battling for votes in the final election, the Russell camp made much of the fact that Tom Hayden, "a powerful and controversial 1960s figure" was supporting Galanter and that she also had the support of the Venice Town Council, a civic group "composed mostly of left-wing activists." It was said that Galanter was attempting a "liberal balancing act."

She knew radical and anti-war activist Tom Hayden in college and endorsed him when he ran for the California Assembly in 1982. Some of her opponents suggested she was a pawn of left-wingers, a charge she rejected.Janet Clayton, "'Scrapper Quality' Galanter an Activist Since College Days," May 7, 1987, page 30 Hayden said later he would make no endorsements in her race against Russell,Alan Citron, "Hayden Says He'll Stay Out of Russell-Galanter Council Race," Los Angeles Times, May 17, 1987 but at the last moment did exactly that, impelling the Russell campaign to send out "mail informing voters of Hayden's endorsement."

Galanter won the June 1987 final vote, 21,846 to 15,855Los Angeles Times, June 4, 1987, page 27 Frank Clifford and Victor Merina, "Galanter, Holden Win in City Council Voting," Los Angeles Times, June 3, 1987 in what the Los Angeles Times called "a dramatic election that signals the rise of a new constituency in city politics and sends troubling signals to the mayor's office" (Tom Bradley). The Times added:

Russell brought money, at least $400,000, and establishment backing into the race. They were no match for Galanter's army of neighborhood activists, made up of Democrats, Republicans, suburban homeowners and bohemian renters. . . . The election was also widely regarded as a harbinger of a new brand of politics in the city, with Galanter leading a protest against the effect of development on traffic, air and water pollution and neighborhood tranquility. . . . On the advice of three consulting firms hired after the primary, Russell sought to put Galanter on the defensive with a blizzard of campaign literature picturing her as a Hayden crony whose campaign was being run by Venice radicals.

Four years later, a tough fight against six other candidates—including Tavis Smiley, later known as a radio and television commentator— forced Galanter into a runoff with Republican Mary Lee Gray, who was an aide to County Supervisor Deane Dana and who polled well "in portions of the affluent Venice Peninsula, as well as the Crenshaw District. Galanter had to "fend off charges that she has gotten too close to developers and lobbyists," and she was criticized for "large projects in her district, including the sprawling Playa Vista development near Marina del Rey."Rich Connell and Nancy Hill-Holtzman, "Growth Revolt Is a Factor," Los Angeles Times, April 11, 1991

Galanter, however, won the final, 18,153 votes to 7,998.Louis Sahugan, "Gay Loses to Walters by 76 Votes," Los Angeles Times, June 12, 1991, page 1

Positions

Slow growth One of her passions, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported,

sweeping Southern California with new political vigor, is limiting growth in the vast Los Angeles basin. In the fight against forests of new high-rise office towers, new oil-drilling rigs, new mini-malls, sewage in Santa Monica Bay, more smog over the Hollywood hills and, most of all, more traffic on the freeways, Galanter is a suddenly renowned advocate of what has come to be known as the slow-growth movement.

Galanter "vehemently opposed" major development projects in her district, including the proposed Howard Hughes Center, a 3.1-million-square-foot project. "The Pentagon is 3.7 million square feet," she said. "We're talking about putting the Pentagon on one side of the San Diego Freeway."

Playa Vista

Strongly opposed to the plans of Summa Corporation for a 1,087-acre piece of prime vacant land at the foot of the Westchester Bluffs when she first entered the City Council in 1987—"one of the largest real estate developments ever contemplated for Los Angeles"—Galanter spent much of her time afterward in trying to mitigate the effects of the proposed $7 billion residential, retail and hotel package; she did, in the end, vote in favor of the deal as it was finally put forth by Maguire Thomas Partners in 1993.

That "especially wrenching" vote caused dissension among her backers,Ron Russell, "Playa Vista Vote Casts Shadow Across Councilwoman's Future," Los Angeles Times, September 26, 1993 but it was later noted that the deal "would preserve 270 acres of the Ballona Wetlands, create a riparian corridor, pour millions into easing traffic problems and put recycling facilities in place" and that "She also won commitments for affordable housing units."

Other

Beach sleeping, 1987. She called for tougher laws to ban overnight sleeping on the city's beaches.Scott Harris, "Galanter Urges Tougher Law Banning Beach Sleeping," Los Angeles Times, October 31, 1987

Nuclear reactors, 1988. Calling the Metropolitan Water District's idea of a nuclear plant near the Los Angeles International Airport a "bad April Fools' joke," Galanter called for a citywide ban on construction of that or any other reactor "not used for research." The MWD was making a preliminary study of locations for a nuclear plant to produce electricity and convert seawater to drinking water.James Rainey, "Ban Sought on A-Reactors Not Used in Research," Los Angeles Times, April 2, 1988

Wildlife preserve, 1990. She asked that 200 acres be set aside near Los Angeles International Airport for a wildlife preserve because at least ten endangered species lived there."Galanter Asks to Preserve 200 acres Near Airport," Los Angeles Times, July 14, 1990