Inside
This Issue
Calendar of Events.............3
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.......................7
Classifieds............................3
Entertainment......................2
Food.......................................5
Hawthorne Happenings....3
Lawndale..............................4
Legals.................................4,6
Pets.....................................7,8
Weekend
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Saturday
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Sunday
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The Weekly Newspaper of Inglewood
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 67, No. 51 - December 20, 2018
Police Stuff the Trailer Toy Drive
The Inglewood Police Department hosted another successful Stuff the Trailer toy drive to help out local families during the holiday season. Photo: City of Inglewood
Mayor Speaks on Future of Inglewood
After His Election to a Third Term
By Haleemon Anderson
James T. Butts was sworn in to a third term
as mayor of the city of Inglewood last month.
He was reelected by a margin of victory not
seen in a previous mayoral contest -- over
63 percent of votes cast went to Butts. The
election saw an overwhelmingly large voter
turnout. At over 32,000 votes cast, it was the
largest turnout in Inglewood history. Despite
these seemingly positive numbers, Butts has
been continually harangued by a small but
persistent group of naysayers who believe
the city’s growth is outpacing its residents.
The Inglewood News met with the mayor to
get his perspective on the future of the city
and the opposition.
IN: What are the major issues you will
deal with in your third term?
Butts: The construction of several developments
is going on at the same time. That’s
a lot to monitor and make sure everything
is going smoothly. The LA Philharmonic
Youth Orchestra building, opening day at the
Los Angeles Rams, Chargers LA Stadium
Entertainment District and completion of the
LA Clippers NBA Arena ENA. And we are
working on plans for Super Bowl 54. Perhaps
the biggest project still in the planning stages
is the proposed transit connector project. The
City has received a grant from the MTA to
explore various ways to get this done. We are
at the environmental impact review stage right
now. In mid-January we will begin holding
special meetings to preview designs to the
public. This has to be done before we can go
out for the RFP process. Then, we will get the
major beneficiaries of the transit involved to
talk about how to raise money. It’s a billiondollar
project. Finally, we will seek out an
investor to actually run the line, who will be
responsible for operations and liabilities. We
haven’t settled on a technology yet, whether
it will be monorail, rubber tire, or mag-lev,
magnetic levitation. But we definitely know
it will need to be elevated.”
IN: The scuttlebutt around town from vocal
opponents of the boom in development is
that residents -- in particular, renters -- will
be priced out of Inglewood. Will it still be
affordable to live here?
Butts: Affordable is a moving target. It seems
to suggest that Inglewood must never increase
ever. It suggests that something is wrong if the
lowest income person here can’t maintain. To
suggest that is to say that if Inglewood doesn’t
stay poor, something’s wrong. That’s extremely
condescending in orientation. The average rental
price in Inglewood is lower than the average
anywhere in the South Bay and anywhere in
the state of California. Inglewood has more
affordable housing in whole numbers and
percentages than anywhere in the South Bay.
IN: Two competing visions of the city. That
term was bandied about during the campaign.
Are there?
Butts: There are no competing visions
of the city. That term was bandied about
by candidates and their supporters that had
no articulable plans for moving the City of
Inglewood forward.
IN: There are multiple litigations swirling
around you and the City. Madison Square
Gardens has sued you, tried to stop development
of the Clippers arena, and funded an
opponent against you in the mayor’s race. How
Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts is sworn in to his third term by City Clerk Yvonne Horton.
See City Council, page 8