The managing editor of the L.A. Weekly will leave the paper to become campaign director for a ballot initiative targeting “mega developments” in Los Angeles.
Jill Stewart, who has been with the L.A. Weekly for nearly 10 years, was named campaign director of the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative, a proposed November ballot measure that calls for a temporary moratorium on zoning exemptions for developers.
According to the Coalition to Preserve L.A., the initiative’s backers, the city’s “spot-zoning” practices have allowed developers to build denser, taller or bigger projects than are typically allowed in particular areas.
“We are delighted to have a powerhouse like Jill Stewart join the Coalition to Preserve L.A. as campaign director to manage and direct what many supporters genuinely see as a quality-of-life ballot initiative here in the city of Los Angeles,” said Michael Weinstein, a Coalition member and president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
“As a longtime Angeleno and someone who has been covering, reporting on or assigning and editing stories on many of the players and issues involved here for more than a decade, Stewart brings tremendous expertise and institutional knowledge as well as keen political acumen to the table. We could not be happier to welcome Jill to the Coalition to Preserve L.A.,” he said.
Stewart said she is leaving the L.A. Weekly “only after a lot of thought, over several months, about the nature of a meaningful life.”
“I am incredibly proud to be joining a group that is fighting for community and a sense of place, without which this vast and wonderful city would be unlivable,” she said.
Mayor Eric Garcetti criticized the initiative on Tuesday, saying he was concerned it would drive up already lofty rents in the city and slow the pace of housing construction in the midst of a housing crisis in the city.
— Wire reports