About Dem Bones: No Comment is a Comment

From the HB Independent:

“Officials said they should have been told as remains were discovered, rather than hearing about 87 only at the end of last year. Efforts to reach developer Hearthside Homes have not been successful.”

What really got my attention was that last line. “Efforts to reach developer Hearthside Homes have not been successful.”

That means they ignored the calls. A Los Angeles Times article included that “Hearthside did not return four calls for comment Wednesday.” And the OC Register said “The developer did not return multiple calls for comment on this story.” KNBC-TV said the same thing in its report.

Did Hearthside learn nothing since the last imbroglio?

I wanted to ask what was going on. Was this just an oversight; an honest misstep? Or perhaps has Hearthside been orchestrating a deliberately evasive process to protect its building project?

While the developer is under no legal pressure to disclose the historic findings, surely they’d respect the common sense, “need-to-know” element of a story like this — that homes may be being built on a massive, significant ancient burial ground.

So I called. And called. And called. Six times. Left messages.

Nothing.

I know they’ve earned the right to build, and that’s fine. But what about the responsibility to the public? Hearthside is profiting from this city. But they’re also bringing in more negative headlines.

Read the rest here.