At a town hall 16 months ago, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and City Councilman Mike Bonin endured a public flogging from residents who were incensed by a plan to build a homeless shelter across the street from some of the priciest real estate in Venice.
The opposition continued, first with a scathing social media campaign and then with a lawsuit.
But all that was only a bittersweet memory last week, when Garcetti and Bonin stood before an appreciative crowd of homeless advocates and service providers to open Pacific Sunset, a 154-bed bridge home shelter for men, women and young adults. It was built — rapidly — across from that pricey real estate on the site of a vacant Metropolitan Transit Authority storage yard.
“We will never let opposition stop us from the greatest fight of our lives,” Garcetti said Tuesday, recalling the night he described as “the most traumatic public meeting I’ve ever done.”
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