Talk:Arthur K. Snyder

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WP:BLP[edit]

I'm not sure how Snyder's fine was the largest ever at the time. The list I link to shows several earlier fines that were larger. We should probably find some additional sources on that to get the details correct. It might have been the largest one negotiated by the DA's office.

By the way: Wikipedia articles about living persons should document any negative material very carefully. We should find references for most of the things said here. --Brianyoumans 03:00, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Snyders fine was repeatedly reported by the Los Angeles times and the LaWeekly as the largest ever levied against an individual up to that time.

There are references also in the Los Angeles Times for all of the other various situations and someone has kindly added a few of them. BTW- how exactly does one do that?

  • If you look at the "history" of the article (see the tab at the top of the screen) you can tell who has made what edit. I think you and I have been the only people working on it so far. I added the references by looking through the archive on the LA Times site; they have it available online back to 1985. I haven't bothered to subscribe, so I have been only looking at the summaries. Past 1985, I'm not sure if things are available online; you might need to go to a library that has an archive on paper or microfilm. I don't know what LA Weekly may have available, I haven't looked.
  • I think that anything negative here should ultimately be sourced or taken out; certainly we would be forced to remove unsourced material if anyone complained. --Brianyoumans 02:13, 31 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed. Let's remove the libelous unsourced material per WP:BLP. A more ambitious editor can restore them with appropriate citations.--AndersW (talk) 17:45, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

NPOV[edit]

The article has a pervasively negative tone, as though written by Mr. Snyder's political enemies. -AndersW (talk) 17:45, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Arthur__Snyder Art_Snyder [edit]

Snyder the renters who would not leave in a lawsuit that broke the renters financially. His Real Estate adventures often resulted in Snyder sueing his co-investors and developers.

That needs to be translated from whatever it is.

[[ hopiakuta Please do sign your signature on your message. ~~ Thank You. -]] 11:10, 4 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Another View of Art Snyder[edit]

The following biography was included in the program of a dinner by the Lincoln Heights Chamber of Commerce (Lincoln Heights is part of the 14th District) in 2008:

ARTHUR K. SNYDER

Art Snyder was born on November 10, 1932 in the Los Angeles County General Hospital, the child of emigrants from the Appalachian hills of southern Ohio. He grew up in Lincoln Heights, Atwater, and Pacoima, and finally graduated from San Fernando High School.

He attended Los Angeles City College (A.A.-1950), George Pepperdine College (B.A.-1952), and the Law School of the University of Southern California (J.D.-1958).

He served in the United States Marine Corps during the Korean War, and retired after 10 years on active and reserve duty with the rank of Captain.

While in law school, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the California State Assembly in 1958, against Jesse Unruh, then Speaker of the Assembly and the most powerful Democratic state politician.

He served as Chief Deputy to Los Angeles City Councilman John C. Holland of the 14th District (Northeast Los Angeles, Atwater, Los Feliz, East Hollywood Hills) for eight years, and when Mr. Holland retired, with his blessing, Art ran for City Councilman himself.

He was elected in 1967 for his first term, winning against a non-incumbent in the primary election against 9 opponents (10, if you include the Los Angeles Times), still an all-time City record.

He was re-elected in 1971, 1975, 1979, and 1983, for a total of 5 terms. In 1973 the 14th District was re-districted in an effort to create an “Hispanic District” in Los Angeles. In 1973 and 1984 he overwhelmingly defeated recall elections, based on the continuing racist feeling in some Los Angeles circles that the district that had been created should be represented by an Hispanic. The District disagreed. But Art felt that he had done what he started out to do, serving 26 years in the Council, and did not seek further election.

During his career, he pioneered the City’s initiation of helicopter patrol, paramedic service, the CRASH (anti-gang) Program, the Comprehensive Noise Limitation Ordinance, the Tree Replacement Policy, the Department of Environmental Quality, City limitations on the sale of drug paraphernalia and the location of sex shops and video game shops. A compilation by the City Clerk showed that he had initiated more legislation with a higher level of success than any Member of Council in the recorded history of the City.

He often said that the legislation that he found most satisfying was amending the City Business License Tax to eliminate the Los Angeles Times’ exemption.

He initiated a campaign to increase enforcement activity against EME (the “Mexican Mafia”) a prison gang that ran the heroin trade in the Eastside of Los Angeles and had at that time (1976) been identified as the source of more than 20 murders in the community. At that time federal and local funding sources (usually without knowing what they were actually subsidizing) were pouring public tax money, to the tune of $2,000,000 annually, into the front groups for this criminal gang. Soon after, LAPD intelligence discovered EME had put a “contract” out on him, with a $20,000 price on his head. As a further result, a task force was formed, coordinating the efforts of all state and local law enforcement agencies to put an end to the EME domination of the community. 43 members were sent to prison, and their hold on the Eastside was broken for that period, though it meant that Art had to be accompanied by bodyguards around the clock for two years, until the LAPD determined that the threat had subsided.

He decentralized his staff into four field offices for community service, and maintained a continuing program to communicate directly with each neighborhood of the District, to solicit complaints and see to their solutions. He conducted an aggressive campaign to acquaint the people of the community with the services available through City government, and to encourage their participation in their government.

Under his guidance, the crime rate throughout the 14th District dropped, and its police Divisions became among those with the lowest major crime rates in Los Angeles.

He also initiated projects for five branch libraries, the Monterey Hills Housing Project, six Senior Citizen housing projects, six gymnasia, two multipurpose centers, three tennis court projects, six senior citizen centers, two swimming pools, one new park and four pocket parks, a center for retarded children, lighting projects for seven sports fields, street lighting throughout all communities that desired it, water line replacement, power line replacement and underground programs, and concerted programs of street maintenance, removal of abandoned cars, and clearing the streets of packs of feral dogs.

He had intended to retire from the Council on the anniversary of his swearing-in, but that was interrupted by the terrible Mexico City Earthquake of 1985. He observed that while the people of Los Angeles were thunderstruck by the destruction and the loss of life, nobody had taken up the job of organizing the Los Angeles community to assist. He and his staff took on that burden; he flew to Mexico City and was present at the first after-shock. He met with government officials, whom he had known as the representative in Los Angeles government of the largest community of persons of Mexican origin in America.

The telephone lines were down between Mexico City and Los Angeles, so he went on Spanish-language television to tell the people of Los Angeles the needs that were immediate in Mexico City and to ask for their help in meeting them. Medical supplies, concrete saws and small pneumatic tools for lifting concrete from those buried—a long list that he transmitted over the air. Then he returned to Los Angeles to take control of the effort.

As the result of the work of his office staff and a group of volunteers, they were able to commandeer freight aircraft flying out of LAX, to obtain donations of needed goods from throughout the Southland and, later, the nation, and to deliver to the site of the destruction a huge amount of important rescue equipment. Over 200 aircraft loads of materials for aid were sent, and many Los Angeles residents with specific skills (heavy equipment operators, concrete saw operators, etc.) flew down personally. The Mayor of Mexico City said that without the efforts of Art’s Los Angeles operation literally hundreds of trapped victims of collapsed buildings and other wounded in the earthquake would have perished. 160 railroad cars of heavy equipment (bulldozers, skip loaders, heavy trucks, etc.) were gathered from the municipalities of the Southwest United States, and in an historic act, the border with Mexico was opened, and American freight cars and engines were passed through on Mexican rails to Mexico City.

His efforts in assisting with the Mexico City disaster brought him the personal praise of both President de la Madrid in Mexico and President Reagan.

He then completed his retirement from the Council, re-opened his law office, and engaged in the practice of the law full time in Los Angeles, largely in the field of land use law and was spoken of by the Times as “the most effective representative in his field.” In 1999 he reduced his practice and engaged in the development and operation of two restaurants in The Venetian Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. During its very successful life, Royal Star at The Venetian and Noodle Asia received every award available to Las Vegas restaurants, including repeat awards from Las Vegas Life Magazine and the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the city’s top magazine. He was issued the trademark registration of "Don The Beachcomber" for restaurant and bar services in 2005. In 2006 he sold his interests in The Venetian restaurants, and is seeking new opportunities centering on Tiki-style restaurant/bar concepts based on the history of Donn Beach, Don the Beachcomber and his pioneering restaurants. “I can hardly wait to see where my Lord takes me from here,” he says.

Art has been married to his wife, the former Delia Wu, for over 30 years. He has three children and nine grandchildren, and still maintains his very limited law practice in what has been his home in Eagle Rock, where he lived since 1962, though his residence is in Las Vegas. He is a Baptist, a Mason, a life member of the American Legion, a Member of the American, California, and Los Angeles County Bar Associations, and is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States of America.

I trust that when a person posting relies only upon those who have a negative view, a posting drawn from publication by a local organization that has a positive view is acceptable. Best regards, Art Snyder Arthur K. Snyder —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.170.77.152 (talk) 05:20, 19 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

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