From: harelb@MATH.CORNELL.EDU (Harel Barzilai)
Newsgroups: alt.news-media
Subject: About LARRY AGRAN -- "Track Record"
Date: 11 Apr 92 07:37:53 GMT
Organization: misc.activism.progressive on UseNet ; ACTIV-L@UMCVMB


    "The United Nations recognized this ordinance by giving Irvine its 
    1990 Environmental Achievement Award, one of only eight cities 
    worldwide -- and the only U.S. city -- to receive that award." 

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              A g r a n ' s   T r a c k   R e c o r d :  
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The following excerpts were forwarded to me about Agran's "Track  
Record" by Steve Smith, who had prepared some background (on Agran's  
"Track Record") for SANE/Freeze.  
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From: Stephen Smith <75300.3112@CompuServe.COM> 
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(1) After research determined that Irvine's high-tech industries  
released ozone-damaging chemicals far more disproportionately to a  
typical city, Mr.  Agran personally authored what's commonly known as  
"the CFC ordinance."  It was at the time the strongest  
ozone-protection ordinance by any city in the world.  The United  
Nations recognized this ordinance by giving Irvine its 1990  
Environmental Achievement Award, one of only eight cities worldwide --  
and the only U.S. city -- to receive that award.  

(2) Mr. Agran implemented a citywide recycling program, the first in  
Orange County and one of the earliest programs in the State of  
California.  "Irvine Recycles" became the model for many other similar  
programs nationwide.  The last I heard, about 80% of Irvine residents  
were participating.  

(3) Mr. Agran has long been a leader to bring mass transit to Orange  
County.  He arranged for Irvine to receive $250 million from the  
statewide rail bond passed a couple years ago.  Matched 50/50 by the  
City of Irvine, it would fund a demonstration monorail project within  
Irvine which would be the initial link in a regional system.  

(4) This was prior to my time (you can double-check with  
agran92@igc.org) but a few years back he successfully negotiated a  
deal that significantly downsized the proposed San Joaquin Corridor  
Freeway.  This was originally intended to be a 12-lane freeway slicing  
through the only undeveloped coastal hills left in Orange County, and  
would have not only opened the area to development but also posed a  
significant danger to the fragile ecology.  The negotiated compromise  
downscaled the project to a six-lane divided highway (so the center  
median could be used in the future for mass transit), with no  
off-ramps in the hills (to prevent development), and underground  
tunnels for the wildlife to pass safely.  

(5) Mr. Agran negotiated with The Irvine Company (the monopoly  
landowner/developer) an "open space agreement."  This pact preserved  
16,000 acres of open space, including environmentally fragile  
wilderness, wetlands and hillsides, in exchange for higher density  
levels in already developed areas.  To our knowledge, this is the  
largest amount of open space set aside by any city in the country.  

(6) SANE/Freeze has long opposed nuclear proliferation.  Mr. Agran has  
been a national leader in this area.  

In 1982, Mr. Agran authored an initiative on the CA ballot.  It  
required the Governor of CA to write a letter to the President  
demanding that he negotiate a bilateral nuclear freeze with the  
General Secretary of the USSR.  The initiative passed.  (And who was  
that Governor who had to be mandated by the people to write that  
letter?  Jerry Brown.)  

In the mid-1980s, while executive director of the Center for  
Innovative Diplomacy (a foreign-policy think-tank), Mr. Agran  
organized dozens of cities across the nation into adopting resolutions  
as "nuclear-free zones."  He was also active in protests out in the  
Nevada desert against nuclear testing.  

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Agran has been on the front line for the last decade, fighting the  
same causes as SANE/Freeze does.  Unlike the other candidates, Larry  
Agran is in this race all the way, through the CA primary.  He's  
staying in because he believes that it's critical someone deliver  
these important messages.  

Please feel free to contact me or Agran '92 if we can be of any further  
assistance.  


Steve Smith  
Issues Director, Agran '92  

Newsgroups: alt.news-media