HomeMy WebLinkAboutNon Agenda ItemDate: December 2, 2022
To: Mayor and the Palm Springs City Council
From: David Christian and Norm King
Subject: Request that the City Council request a retraction and apology from the
LA Times for falsely maligning the reputation of the City of Palm Springs and
misrepresenting the facts surrounding Section 14
Mayor and Members of the Palm Springs City Council:
We believe it is the duty of our elected officials to protect the reputation of the City
of Palm Springs when our city has been falsely maligned. We would hope you
share this expectation and the imperative to accurately characterize the historical
facts.
On November 18, 2022 the LA Times published an editorial board editorial, “Palm
Springs Bulldozed a Black Neighborhood . . ,” which made false statements and
misrepresented the role of the City of Palm Springs in Section 14 in 1965-66.
We therefore request, that as defenders of our city, you request a retraction and
apology from the Times for the incorrect statements and misrepresentations as
follows:
1.The Times stated, “… the city began evicting every resident of the small area
known as Section 14, beginning in 1959 and continuing through 1966.”
The record is very clear – the City did not evict anyone nor did the City have
the authority to evict anyone from Section 14.
As noted in a Desert Sun article from 1968, “Evictions were handled by the Indian
owners or their conservators or guardians who, under the terms of their leases,
gave 30 days’ notice in cases where the residents were not moving out, the owners
or their spokesmen went to court, secured an eviction order which was served by
deputies and eventually the people moved out. There are detailed records of these
actions the city manager maintains.”
The evictions were done with the full support of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and
the Tribal Council who asked the City for assistance in cleaning-up Section 14 in
12/05/2022
Public Comment
Non Agenda
1962. Evictions of residents from Section 14 began in 1951and continued until
1966. None were initiated by the City of Palm Springs.
2. The Times wrote: “The city saw a chance to replace an unpretentious community
of color, who had to renew their leases every few years ...”
An accurate statement would be: “Having finally secured from the federal
government the right to lease their land with long-term leases and thus improve
their financial status, individual Indian land owners, the Tribal Council and the
Bureau of Indian Affairs urged the city to assist in clearing their property after the
Indian owners gave eviction notices.”
In the early 1960s Ray Jackson, acting director of the local Bureau of Indian
Affairs stated: “We don’t want to just move these people out in the street, but if it
comes to a choice, the Indians are just going to have to be cold-hearted and take
their property for better use.”
In 1966 after the cleanup of Section 14 the Tribal Chair Edmund P. Silva wrote the
city a thank you letter expressing appreciation of the city’s assistance in the
cleanup.
In 1952, when the population of Section 14 was around 5000 people, the Tribal
Council (at the urging of the California State Housing Department and the County
Health Department and with the strong support of the Bureau of Indian Affairs)
decreed that no more leases would be renewed on the land in Section 14 which was
occupied by sub-standard structures. As early as 1953 the substandard dwellings –
meaning virtually all existing structures – were ordered demolished unless they
could be brought up to state health and sanitation standards and the deadline was
repeatedly pushed back and standards lowered.
3. The Times editorial quotes Loren Miller’s report in which he stated that the
clearing was “a city-engineered holocaust.” The Times did not note that Mr. Miller
also stated, “There is no evidence that any crimes were committed in the removal
of the residents from Section 14 ….”
Apparently Mr. Miller believed that “a city-engineered holocaust” is a legal action
by the city. In any case, using the “holocaust” statement without also including the
statement that no crimes were committed by the city is biased reporting. We ask
the city council to set the record straight with the Times as request that they clarify
that the Miller report did not find evidence of any crimes by the city.
12/05/2022
Public Comment
Non Agenda
4. The Editorial states that the “the fires … .were set by the Fire Department.”
A factual account would point out that the Bureau of Indian Affairs had contracted
with the City to burn the evacuated structures and that the city was later
reimbursed for the fire department expenses. The buildings were burned only after
fire department was notified that the landowners had issued the legal evictions and
the buildings had been vacated. Further, burning of debris, rather than hauling it to
the dump, was a common practice at that time. No person’s belongings were
burned while they were at work or school as is insinuated in the article. The
abandoned buildings and surrounding garbage were burned in a controlled fashion
by the fire department.
Again, we believe it incumbent on our elected officials to protect the honor of our
city and correct misinformation. Therefore, we request that the city notify the
Times about a need for a retraction and apology for the above false statements and
misrepresentations.
We also believe that our elected officials have a duty not only to protect the city’s
reputation from falsehoods in the media, but to also correct any misinformation
produced by the City, including City committees such as the Human Rights
Commission which produced a report which contains scores false statements and
misrepresentations. As such, the city council has an obligation to protect the city’s
reputation and correct any falsities in the HRC’s report prior to making decisions
related to reparations.
If you believe the information provided above is in error we ask that you so inform
us and provide us with specific facts which support such a position.
Thank you for your consideration.
Norm King
2482 Toledo Ave. Palm Springs
909 520 1083
David Christian
760 285 2220
12/05/2022
Public Comment
Non Agenda
Non-Agenda - Page 1
Non-Agenda - Page 2
Non-Agenda - Page 3
Non-Agenda - Page 4
Non-Agenda - Page 5