Gentle reader,
We spent last Tuesday in City Hall, documenting significant land use and cultural heritage determinations that the government hides from public view.
Oh, they have hearings. Anyone can attend, observe and participate—if they can get to City Hall on a weekday, pass through security and collect a visitor’s pass.
But for a citizen who wants to attend remotely, or watch video of the proceedings when they get home from work, it’s pretty much tough luck.
Despite the City using taxpayer funds to maintain and operate a full-service television production studio and channel that’s presently in a contentious contract review, the decision-making Committee, Commission and Board proceedings are not filmed for broadcast or later viewing.
So when something important is up for a vote, we frequently feel obliged to shoot footage ourselves. We resent it. This is time-consuming, boring work and it’s easy to make mistakes. The City should film its public meetings, full stop.
On the agenda last Tuesday morning before the three-member Arts, Parks, Libraries, and Community Enrichment Committee was a vote to consider renaming Pershing Square to honor Biddy Mason.
A number of people (including us) were there to make public comment, both for and against the proposal.
After public comment, which you can see in full in the video at the top of this newsletter, and in the highlights embedded within, the item’s mover and committee Chair Ysabel Jurado, along with Eunisses Hernandez and Adrin Nazarian did not debate the matter. Nor did they discuss the conflicting opinions expressed by the citizens in the room, or ask our Kim Cooper to tell them more about the idea of honoring Biddy Mason with a culturally and historically appropriate fountain. They merely voted unanimously to advance renaming.
There are two compelling reasons why this vote should be set aside and the matter heard again in City Council committee. We urge concerned citizens to speak up asking that this happen. Read on for how you can do that.
At the raw, procedural level, the Arts, Parks, Libraries, and Community Enrichment Committee that conducted the hearing no longer has authority over the matter, having been supplanted by the new committee structure created by City Council action on 8/12/2026.
Any discussion of Pershing Square renaming now falls under the authority of the Arts, Parks, and City Facilities Committee, which is made up of a different group of councilmembers, Chaired by Monica Rodriguez with Vice Chair Adrin Nazarian and Katy Young Yaroslavsky.
And indeed, the City Clerk referred the matter to this new committee three days after the vote. But instead of holding a new hearing before the responsible committee, the Clerk has also referred it on to full City Council, where a vote is scheduled as Item #5 on Friday, September 4!
Last Tuesday’s vote and the confusing double referral are public record. But had we not gotten up before the cows to trek down to City Hall and film this meeting, we would not have captured the pre-vote exchange between Chair Ysabel Jurado and public commenter Tom Grode that throws the vote’s validity into question.
During his public comment, Skid Row activist and advocate Tom Grode asked the committee not to move forward with the renaming, stating “There are really powerful ways to honor Biddy Mason without doing anything controversial. Renaming Pershing Square is controversial.”
After public comment concluded and the committee began its deliberations, as you can see in the video above, Chair Ysabel Jurado spoke directly to Tom Grode at his seat in the audience. She criticized his protected speech in a patronizing manner, then pivoted directly to asking her colleagues to vote yes to rename Pershing Square, which Grode had asked them not to do.
Ysabel Jurado said: “And, Tom, sometimes controversy is worthwhile. And that’s what you call good trouble. And I know you are no stranger to controversial issues. So I think it’s ironic that you mentioned that, okay, members, if there are no objections or questions, I would like to adopt item five and six and seven.”
In this moment, Chair Jurado violated the decorum of the public process and used her power to undermine a citizen’s participation in government decisions.
The City Attorney present should have stopped the councilmember as soon as she began addressing a member of the public, but did not.
No vote held seconds after such a display can be fully independent of Chair Ysabel Jurado’s expressed contempt for Tom Grode’s opinion, and we believe this vote should be stricken from the public record and a new hearing held before Chair Monica Rodriguez and the newly formed committee.
Please join us in calling for the City of Los Angeles to cure and correct this improper vote and to send the matter back to committee for a proper hearing.
1) Upload a written public comment to the portal by clicking “NEW,” which will add your comments to the public record,
and 2) Send an email directly to Committee Chair Monica Rodriguez at councilmember.rodriguez@lacity.org.
Recommended language for the public comment and email is below, and please feel free to change it to reflect your personal opinion. You can also include a sentence or two supporting or opposing the proposal to rename Pershing Square after Biddy Mason, or asking that the war memorial not be renamed at all, or submit those remarks separately or in spoken public comment.
Dear Chair Rodriguez and Members of the Arts, Parks, and City Facilities Committee:
I am writing with a cure and correct request for a new hearing on Council File No. 24-0751, Biddy Mason Park / Pershing Square Renaming / 532 South Olive Street, before full City Council or the newly constituted Arts, Parks, and City Facilities Committee takes any further action on the matter.
I believe the August 25 hearing should not simply be carried forward. A new hearing is warranted because of the manner in which the presiding Councilmember addressed a member of the public immediately before the committee vote.
Mr. Grode’s public comment
At approximately 19:42 in the August 25 meeting recording, public commenter Tom Grode stated:
“There are really powerful ways to honor Biddy Mason without doing anything controversial. Renaming Pershing Square is controversial.”
Mr. Grode was expressing an opinion about the proposed renaming. His comments were germane to the item before the Committee.
The response from Chair Ysabel Jurado
Immediately before the vote, at approximately 22:33, Chair Ysabel Jurado addressed Mr. Grode personally from the dais:
“And Tom, sometimes controversy is worthwhile. And that’s what you call good trouble. And I know you are no stranger to controversial issues. So I think it’s ironic that you mentioned that.”
The concern is not simply that Councilmember Jurado used Mr. Grode’s name, but that the presiding councilmember personally characterized a member of the public’s opinions, referring to his supposed history with “controversial issues” and characterizing his public comment as “ironic.”
That response was not necessary to administer the public comment period and did not address the substance of Mr. Grode’s public policy arguments. Instead, it turned the proceeding into a personal exchange between the presiding Councilmember and a citizen who had just criticized her motion.
Council rules and the need for a fresh hearing
Council Rule 7 provides the public with an opportunity to address the Council on an agenda item. Council Rule 12 provides rules of decorum for Council proceedings, including requirements intended to protect the orderly conduct of meetings.
The exchange creates a legitimate concern about whether the August 25 public-comment process was conducted in a manner consistent with the Council’s own rules and its obligation to provide the public a meaningful opportunity to be heard.
This is especially significant because the exchange occurred immediately before the vote.
The committee has now changed
There is an additional reason the August 25 proceeding should not simply be carried forward.
Although the outgoing committee approved the motion on August 25, the Council had already adopted a new committee structure on August 11/12. The matter was subsequently re-referred to the newly constituted Arts, Parks, and City Facilities Committee, while also being scheduled to proceed to the full Council.
The matter is therefore now before a substantially different committee, with a different membership and a new chair. I believe this change in the body responsible for considering the matter provides an additional and independent reason for a new, fully noticed hearing, with a fresh opportunity for public comment and consideration of the issues raised since the August 25 hearing.
I am therefore asking the newly constituted Committee to provide the appropriate procedural remedy: a fresh hearing on Council File 24-0751, with a new opportunity for the public to address the Committee before it takes further action or makes a recommendation to the full Council.
I do not ask the new Committee to ratify or simply carry forward the prior Committee’s proceedings, but to hear the matter itself and allow the public to participate in a fresh proceeding.
Accordingly, I respectfully request that the Arts, Parks, and City Facilities Committee:
Place Council File No. 24-0751 on its agenda for a new hearing;
Rehear the matter before taking further action or making a recommendation to the full City Council;
Provide the public with a full opportunity to comment pursuant to Council Rule 7 and applicable law; and
Place this request and the Committee’s response in Council File No. 24-0751.
Please preserve and associate with the Council File the relevant portion of the August 25 meeting recording, including Mr. Grode’s public comment at approximately 19:42 and Councilmember Jurado’s response at approximately 22:33.
I respectfully request written confirmation that the Committee will schedule a new hearing before taking further action on Council File No. 24-0751.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely, [NAME]
Whew, that was a long one! But Pershing Square’s name (and the City’s failed stewardship of the existing Biddy Mason Park) are such important matters, and they shouldn’t be decided in a poorly-attended, procedurally-flawed meeting before a Committee that is on the verge of being dissolved.
Thanks for taking the time to read, and we hope also sending a message to the City asking that it do right by General Pershing, the millions of World War I service-members honored by the name Pershing Square, by Biddy Mason and by all of us citizens. Please also pass the link around to others who care.
We’ll keep watching the council file and keep you posted on what happens next.
We’ve got no public tours scheduled this week, but will be back on Saturday, September 12 for Franklin Village Old Hollywood, an exploration of the sacred and profane in a fascinating district packed with highly charged landmarks and lost but friendly souls. Join us, do!
Yours for Los Angeles,
Kim & Richard
Esotouric
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Our work—leading tours and historic preservation and cultural landmark advocacy—is about building a bridge between Los Angeles’ past and its future, and not allowing the corrupt, greedy, inept and misguided players who hold present power to destroy the city’s soul and body. If you’d like to support our efforts to be the voice of places worth preserving, we have a tip jar, vintage Los Angeles webinars available to stream, in-person tours and a souvenir shop you can browse in. We’ve also got recommended reading bookshelves on Amazon and the Bookshop indie bookstore site. And did you know we offer private versions of our walking tours for groups big or small? Or just share this link with other people who care.
UPCOMING WALKING TOURS
• Franklin Village Old Hollywood (9/12) • Know Your Downtown Los Angeles (9/19) • Westlake Park Time Travel Trip (9/26) • Bunker Noir! True Crime on Los Angeles’ Bunker Hill with Nathan Marsak (10/3) • Charles Bukowski’s Westlake (10/10) • Highland Park Arroyo Time Travel Trip (10/17) • Film Noir / Real Noir (10/24) • Hallowe’en at Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 (10/31) • The Real Black Dahlia (11/7) • Richard’s Birthday Weird West Adams Tour & Elmer McCurdy Museum Visit (11/14) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue (11/21) • Hollywood Noir (11/28)
