Lomita residents are taking on Big Government in their own backyard. Focusing on the eminent domain/zoning fight of the Lomita Islamic Center of the South Bay, residents, both local city leaders and activists, have called out the federal government's interloping into a local matter, not just because of the encroachment on federalism, but the brazen use of the race card to diminish any opposition to the planned expansion of the center
The Lomita Islamic Center wanted to expand its parking lot, yet residents feared that more traffic would create problems for the city.
The Los Angeles Times
Lomita City Atty. Christi Hogin said federal investigators interviewed 13 people this week involved with the city’s decision after launching an initial inquiry in June. She said there is not "any evidence at all" of anti-Muslim sentiments in Lomita.
The piece paid more attention to the complaints of the Islamic Center:
"Iraj Ershaghi, a founding member of the Islamic Center and manager of the redesign project, said council members faced "a lot of pressure" from residents to reject the proposal.
"There was a feeling that they just don’t want us there," Ershaghi said of the March meeting.
Where's the evidence for racism? One person shared his thoughts about why the city rejected the Islamic Center's expansion. While the city attorney spoke for the city, LA Times reported Matt Stevens did not speak to other residents.
A feeling is not proof, nor an argument, and certainly not justification for a probe from the United States Department of Justice.
One resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, shared that the Islamic Center attendees were parking in front of other people's homes. Even when the Center hired body guards to ensure that congregants were not blocking anyone, traffic was still high, and people were still parking where they were not supposed to.
"Members of the Islamic Center sent around letters to neighbors in the area which portrayed one of the city council members as racist", the resident shared. "That's messed up!"
The conflict was more than met the eye of the LA Times, apparently.
LA Times Ruben Vives then reported on the lawsuit filed by the Center and the civil rights firm Hadsell Stormer Kenny Richardson & Renick. Situated off the corned of Walnut and Pacific Coast Highway, the Islamic Center currently holds space for thirty cars. Seeking to expand their numbers to sixty spots, advocates for expansion petitioned the Lomita City Council for permission.
The City Council denied their request. Then the United States Department of Justice got involved, investigating whether racial bias motivated the city council's decision to block the expansion of the Islamic Center.
Earlier this year, the lawsuit was settled,
The new agreement allows the Islamic Center of South Bay to reapply to complete the expansion. It also calls for the city to process the new application promptly and to waive application fees, with a caveat that if the new application is denied again, the lawsuit may resume.
In other words, "You will build it, or the lawsuits will come." One has to wonder if the city council will vote against the expansion, for fear of ongoing legal wranglings which most cities cannot sustain for a lengthy period of time.
One resident shared how he got involved in the matter later this year:
"I found out about it in early August. I don't like big government telling small government what to do."
The lawsuit originated with the civil rights law firm and the Islamic Center filing their concerns in the Los Angeles federal court. Still, the lawsuit would have had no merit whatsoever if not for the intervention of the Department of Justice earlier this year.
The Daily Breeze published a more balanced report on the conflict, interviewing local residents and different members of the City Council, including one member who first voted against the expansion in the city's planning commission.
Resident Deborah Orr offered the following:
[T]he city rejected a preschool at the Islamic Center in 2001 precisely because of traffic congestion.
"And that's just a preschool," she said. "Preschools don't generate as much traffic as a church does. If you put St. Margaret Mary (Catholic Church) in that spot, we would have the same objection. This is not a (Islamic) religion thing."
Strangely enough, the same gentleman who had indicted racism as a cause for resisting expansion related a different story to the Breeze:
Iraj Ershaghi, a founding member of the Islamic Center, a professor of petroleum engineering at USC and the project manager for the redevelopment, said he understands the neighbors' fears.
The evidence from different sources in the press, plus the personal recollections of residents suggest that media bias has played the greater part in stirring up racial animus as a cause rather than any such sentiments from the city council or residents in the first place.
Notwithstanding, residents in Lomita are stepping up and resisting the arbitrary encroachment of the federal government into their city, and they should be recognized, not ridiculed, for their opposition to Big Government in Lomita.