Open Thread For Friday
JULY 14, 2006It's Bastille Day. Do you even know what that is? Bleu, blanc et rouge? Liberte, fraternite, egalite? Anyone? Bueller?
Israel is bombing L.A.'s sister city, Beirut. Sorry, sis.
The City Council has approved a billion-dollar bond boondoggle, always, of course, in the name of "affordable housing." It takes a great liar to look you in the eye and tell you he needs to raise your PROPERTY taxes to make housing AFFORDABLE.
Hey, speaking of which, a hypothetical: a low-income couple uses this billion-dollar program to buy a nice new condo.
Heartwarming, no?
But the next year, their income skyrockets, and the year after that, it goes up even more. You see, his income was low because he was a new lawyer clerking for a judge, and she was finishing up med school.
So now the city's poor people are still carrying the tax load for this couple, whose income is higher than the renters who, by paying rent to their landlord, are paying the property tax.
Do the lawyer and doctor have to give up their "affordable housing"? Or do they get to keep the windfall? Can they sell it to anyone, or must it go to another "low-income family?"
This stuff is real, mes amis. "Affordable housing" programs elswewhere have run into real issues when someone goes to sell a unit.
Also, four million people already live here, more or less. Do we really have a public interest in cramming more people in? Do we have a public interest in turning middle-class people into owners rather than renters?
One more for you: the City's revenues are up $700 million this year over last. Why not just keep the budget the same as last year, and take $100 million out of the $700 million for this same ripoff program?
Finally, listen to Doug McIntyre filling in for O'Reilly today. I wish they'd make that substitution permanent!
Posted by Walter Moore @ 7/13/2006 10:38:00 PM
30 Comments:
Bastille Day was awesome in 1998. It was two days after Zinedine Zidane gave the French their very first World Cup.
I can only sigh at what occurred last Sunday, but in any event,
Vive le France, et vive l'Amérique!
The budding, second generation Scientologist
Beck has been reported in various places, by a number of people, to have attended the Apple School of Los Feliz, which was run by Scientologists. Beck's elementary class portrait as "Bek Campbell" appears in an Apple School yearbook. It's not clear what years Beck attended the school, though it ceased operating in 1985. Beck dropped out of school in the ninth grade, after a short time in public school. Many children raised in Scientology, like Juliette Lewis, Leah Remini, and Lisa Marie Presley, drop out of school early. Cult-educated children who are later enrolled in accredited schools often find themselves hopelessly behind their conventionally educated classmates, so dropping out of school is an easy choice. The lack of education among cult-raised children is crucial for future indoctrination and recruitment. A child who has never been introduced to the scientific method or critical thinking techniques is ripe for brainwashing. He will more readily accept stories about being possessed by the spirits of space aliens or about being a descendent of shellfish, or believe that Dianetics can cure illnesses. Children raised in cults are also expected to support themselves at an early age, and Scientology is no exception. As little adults, they are expected to get jobs or work full time for the cult, so a formal education is not considered a necessity.
Where would you be without Wikipedia Walter? You loser.
You folks in the middle of the night are mean!
You cite some other excellent reasons that "affordable housing" programs are suspect, but talk about there being too many people in the city is nonsense. Probably 10-15% of those 4 million are living 12 to a 3-bedroom house in South Central or Pacoima or 10 to a 2-bedroom apartment in Westlake, with one of the rooms subleased to four seasonal laborers from Michoacan in order to make the rent.
The "we're overpopulated" theme has been going on for 150 years. Sorry, Walter, but we're not going back to the days when you could get from Woodland Hills to Pasadena in 15 minutes. If every illegal immigrant in the state magically disappeared tomorrow and never returned, a whole pile of Americans from other states and legal immigrants would rush in to fill up all that newly opened rental housing. The city is both too economically important and just too damn pleasant (you ever spend a winter in Chicago, Mr. Moore?) to keep people from coming, and continued long-term population growth is the region's destiny.
You want to preserve the low-rise city in which you bought a house, but I bet that you could find loads of people in the '40s who tried and failed to preserve the Valley as at least partially agricultural. The regional economy and the working class should not have to suffer for the sake of your suburban idyll. The real estate market has made you a rich man, Mr. Moore; isn't that enough?
HUIZAR PROVES AGAIN THAT HE CAN’T REPRESENT CD 14
The Joint Commission on LAUSD Governance made some surprising recommendations: (1) preserve the seven-member elected school board as the "primary governing body" of the school district; (2) decentralize district; (3) place term limits on school board members; (4) hold school board members to same campaign fundraising rules as council members; and (5) increase board member annual salaries to that of LA city council members.
Our illustrious council member has decided to champion recommendations nos. 3, 4 and 5. Why? First, and foremost, they don’t run afoul of the Mayor 2. Huizar will never stand up to the Mayor even where doing so is in the best interest of CD 14.
Second, Huizar’s move to increase Board salaries is just plain wrong. This do-nothing Board should not be rewarded with increased salaries. Monica Garcia, a sitting school board member and Jose’s former chief of staff, is introducing a motion at the District to increase her own salary and that of other board members. This is the ultimate back-scratching that many voters detest.
Jose: Why not champion the recommendations that actually have some meat and substance, like nos. 1 and 2? Take your marching orders from the voters, not the Mayor.
Always expect the worst for Huizar. When he started on the school board, he had all the right intentions.
Jose is proof that power (even limited power) corrupts.
Where would I be without Wikipedia? I do love Wikipedia, however, somehow I did manage to learn a thing or two before discovering Wikipedia, and even before there was an internet. Two years of college French, bebe! See, we used to use these old-timey things called "books." They were like laptops, only without a battery.
Uh, Peter? Ever been to: Venice? London? Paris? Washington, D.C.? Savannah, Georgia?
Population density is a choice. It is not an irresistable force. Cities all over the world for centuries have opted out of Tokyo / New York / Mexico City model. We can, too.
Also, what the heck are you doing blogging at 3:00 a.m., young man?! You should be sleeping, studying or working if you plan on owning real estate. That's how it's done in the real world, my friend.
Hey, where are you "affordable housing" advocates on my hypothetical couple? Explain to me how you deal with changes in people's income over time -- a phenomenon which, of course, is as predictable as the sun rising tomorrow.
Walter perhaps they decided to give the hard work and sacrifice road a try. Maybe that will mean I can keep my money to pay for my teenager's college and my retirement.
Or perhaps they took a long look at themselves and realized homeowner envy was unbecoming.
Mr. Moore, no one on this blog has come out in favor of the housing bond proposal, including Peter and I. I think we all agree that it's a dubious scheme.
That being said, your "hypothetical couple" wouldn't be helped by this bond measure if it passed. According to this article in yesterday's Times, "teachers, police officers, nurses, mechanics" are the kind of folks who would qualify for home-buying assistance, not young lawyers and doctors. Common sense dictates that lawyers and doctors will be making a lot more money in 5 years but that teachers and nurses won't. We need to ensure public servants can live in our city, not more lawyers (we have too many of those).
The bond provides for "home buying assistance," not monthly payments. The police officers and mechanics would get a one time "boost" and would be solely responsible for the mortgage. The only people who would recieve direct and ongoing subsidies in this scheme would be the homeless and "low income" people renting apartments. If those people do well and make more money over time, eventually they won't be allowed to live in those apartments anymore. These subsidies will be monitored, and the conditions by which they are granted will be enforced.
LOL. "Kids today." They've got instant everything (e.g., information via the internet). They figure they have a right, upon graduating from high school or college, to own a house.
I started working when I was 13. I had every crappy job there was -- cleaning motel rooms, peeling shrimp, bagginer groceries, you name it. And we lived in rented housing until my mom was in her 50's or so, when we moved to the country (where land was cheap) and lived in a used 40' mobile home.
When I finally graduated from college, and law school, I had a mountain of debt, but I had a job, too. I remember going into a grocery store, stopping and thinking, "Wow! I could buy ANYTHING in here, and I don't even have to look at the price!" That was a huge deal to me, having lived on Minute Rice and hamburger in law school.
Now, however, studying, hard work and saving are passe. Rather, everyone's supposed to get whatever he wants, NOW. Society owes you a house, or a least a new condo, along with a car, or at least a brand-new subway. Plus, anyone who worked to achieve his financial goals is simply "lucky" or "rich."
Has it always been thus?
Correction: "bagging groceries." Also, my comments was directed to 8:42, not Mitch.
Mitch, wake up and smell the ripoff. Schemes like this are always pitched "for the children," "for the teachers," etc. Unless you can point to some language in the bond, don't assume that this money will be devoted only to public employees (like yourself).
Also, what difference does it make if the subsidy for someone buying a property is a lump-sum or made over time? The point is, taxpayer money is going to subsidize people who could easily experience increases in income.
As for rental subsidies, why not just use this year's $700 million increase in revenues to bolster our existing Section 8 Housing program, which is specifically aimed at people with limited income? I'll tell you why: because the purpose of the bond is not to help the poor; it is to "help" developers who contribute to career politicians.
To help the poor, help the poor. Don't give money to millionaires as part of a cockimamy (sp?) scheme that will somehow supposedly "trickle down" to those who need it.
And let's assume, as you do, that the minute someone's income crosses a critical level, they will be evicted from the low-rent housing. How will this be enforced, Mitch? Will they have to file their income tax returns with the landlord each year? If they lie, will they be prosecuted criminally?
Mr. Moore, Los Angeles already has the highest population density of any city in the country. It's pointless to battle against density, because you've already lost.
You can't compare L.A. to Manhattan or Tokyo, nor can you compare it to Venice and Savannah. It's a unique place that deserves a unique vision. We can't make L.A. into some other city we like, we have to make it our own, a place where we want to stay and raise our children.
The dichotomy of "single-family homes" vs. "apartment towers" is a false one. We have many options for accomodating population growth that won't threaten existing neighborhoods or transform L.A. beyond all recognition. The challenge, Mr. Moore, is to get creative, and it's time for you to work on a shared vision for the future rather than cling to a false hope that we can just keep things exactly as they are.
Even if no more people move to L.A. from somewhere else (though we can't stop them from coming here, just as no one was able to stop you or I), our population will still grow due to births by people already here. Most of these children, yet unborn, will want to stay with their families in the city of their youth. Where will these children, live Mr. Moore, if we refuse to build any more housing, as you insist we do?
p.s. Mr. Moore, I said I agree with you that the housing bond stinks!!!
I concur Walter. I could tell a similar sob story of sacrifice. I succeeded and I did not grow up rich and never won the lottery. I did not wait until my ship came in. I swam out and pulled it in.
Most teachers nurses and police, I know own their own homes. I took many years for them to buy a home and it usually required two incomes. That is todays reality.
Interesting tag end the end there about "Borg" McIntyre, back on the air ranting ignorance about L.A. schools again. What a moroon. And in a thread about BASTILLE day (isn't that the EURO-centric equivalent of CINCO DE MAYO and MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE DAY), Ah, but the "frogs" aren't brown-skinned, so that's okay. They just like to head-butt people in sports and call them terrorists, fail to bathe, and insult tourists that keep they miserable socialist economy out of the toilet.
"BORG" is up to his half-truths (make that one-quarter) again on Semillas, of course. We KNOW his people read here, and today he was "defending" himself against criticisms of inaccuracy by saying it was the school's fault, THEY were supposed to come and teach McIntyre how to CORRECTLY interpret API scores.
He also CONVENIENTLY didn't express in any way how people on this blog have SLAUGHTERED his BS about "worst performing schools" and "declining scores" over and over again using fair comparisons against OTHER local schools (NOT charter schools that have operated for years, have stable populations, and less ambitious curriculum). He has to, because he has NO defense against these ignorant errors he continues to make, and has NOW passed on to others.
And here's something you will NEVER hear on Borg-radio... that the LOCAL COMMUNITY overwhelmingly supports Academia, time and time again in public votes and meetings.
Because, how could a conservative who YESTERDAY was screaming for local control of public schools, be ANYTHING but a hyprocite for leading a group of rabid, racist reactionaries from everywhere BUT that local community, AGAINST the school?
SORRY, "Wacko" -- I know you LOVE McBorg because he gave you 10-times the airtime for mayor that you deserved (kept you form coming in DEAD LAST), but this is not a talker worthy of national airwaves. Real experts from just about anywhere else (local are cowering because they don't know WHO will run the schools down the road), would PASTE the Borg-man to the wall, with his own assimilationist glue. REPLACE O'REILLY... Sheeee-it, Borg NEEDS to stay local, chatting up white-flighters from Santa Clarita and Roverside, until he can defend his comments against ALL criticism, not JUST the low-hanging fruit and poor parents that speak English poorly. (What on-air cowards, what demogogue tin-horn tyrants).
Here's one thing we DO
(cont.) ... know. That the ONLY one who has PROFITED from all this KABC ranting on education is. . . KABC!
Follow the "benefits" and MAYBE, just maybe we cann all figure out who MIGHT have "orchestrated" the attack on Sandy Wells - if it ever happened.
If reporters from MAJOR MEDIA like the New York Times and Wash. Post have been caught RED-Handed making up stories to get themselves on the front page, then it it TOO outlandish to think that a near-newsperson from a THIRD-RATED talk station might just "rough" himself up a bit to get more airtime and better positions??
KABC is the ONLY one benefitting from attacking Academia, and they're listernship is rising as a result.
FOLLOW THE MONEY!
Okay, Mitch. Glad you're on board against the bond. And feel free to call me "Walter."
And 9:17: Amen. Somebody on here made a crack about how real estate made me rich. First of all, rich? I wish! Second, "real estate" didn't make me anything. Real estate doesn't just walk up and jump into your ownership -- unless you made your money the old-fashioned way, i.e., inherited it. Rather, to the extent I have two dimes to rub together at all, it's largely because I worked hard and saved.
As to the guy with the endless rant re Doug McIntyre, I think Doug is a Radio God because: i) he's HILARIOUS; ii) he is disturbingly smart and well-read; and iii) he's not an ideologue, but understands there are two sides to most issues, and that reasonable people can reasonably disagree.
You say he gave me too much air time, well, that's your opinion, But isn't it interesting how now, two years later, illegal immigration is the subject of a national debate and mass protests, and when he put me on the air, it was was supposedly some "fringe" issue?
Academia has low scores because it takes the lowest performing students? Good excuse but a
KABC conspiracy against Academia?!?
When did the Aztecs begin wearing tin foil hats?
Immigration was "fringe" issue with McIntyre then because KABC was still clinging (somewhat) to a more moderate listener base. It was a mainline thrust for their competitors, then however, but after declining year after year, KABC finally gave up on the remaining 60+ aged 'michaeljackson-ites" ever pulling them out of the basement, and then "john-and-ken" cloned themselves to be another rabid right-wing bumper-sticker mantra talk station "my country love it or leave it" - "better red and dead" - and now "better if the red (culture) IS DEAD". . . don't let the "south of the border" rise again.
If "BORG" McIntyre see "TWO SIDES" to issues, then why is he VERY OBVIOUSLY (to anyone reading this BLOG... as his ken-minions do), ignoring PUBLICLY AVAILABLE talking points that prove he is wrong about school performance and racial makeup... that readers here know, LAUSD knows, the El Sereno community and LA32 NC knows, the mayor knows, the last 3 councilmembers know.
Seeing that there are TWO SIDES, means if I KNOW the other side, I PRESENT it, as well... that's some ways towards fairness.
If "Borg" McIntyre knows BOTH sides (he may not, he said once he is a MATH MORON, and his linear interpretation of complex API scores proves it), and yet he ONLY presents HIS SIDE, (plus a few partial talking points from the other side that he can shoot down easily, then is IS a rabid, IDEALOGUE of the FIRST ORDER -- hiding every fact that he can't easily refute on-air for his white-flighter audience. Tell them what they WANT to hear, and they stay tuned in. Ambush someone from the other side, and PRETEND you're trying to show BOTH SIDES.
WHY?
Because, if I even PLAY "devil's advocate" and offer what I know to be the other side, when I CAN'T eaily shoot it down, then I am at HUGE risk of showing that i) I am an alarmist of the worst kind. . . the kind that gets bomb threats called into where CHILDREN are; ii) that I DIDN'T really do my homework, and just picked the most disturbing half-truths to broadcast; iii) that I am really AFRAID to talk to people who know the score.
Maybe I got lost in your race-based comments.
Are you saying he's wrong about the school's test scores?
Did he misquote the principal?
What is it he's supposedly concealing or missing?
Also, for what it's worth, in my opinion, if a school covers the basics properly, then I think poor parents, just like rich ones, should be able to pick a school that emphasizes their values, even if mine are different.
Parents who care about their religion, for example, and can afford to send their children to a religious school, do so. I personally have no problem with charter schools doing the same kind of thing, if, and only if, they demonstrate competence in, say, meeting the state standards.
I know a lot of people object to the use of tax dollars to support positions with which they disagree -- especially when it comes to religious instruction -- but I think that, to the maximum extent possible, parents should have control over their children's education.
So if parents want to send their kids to a school that emphasizes French culture, or Armenian culture, or yes, even ancient Roman or Aztec culture, I think they should be free to do so -- provided the school is hitting the mark on the state standards for English, math, social studies and science. The rich have such a choice. Shouldn't parents whose children attend public schools have the same option?
Now, whether those parents should exercise their choice to have their kids study ancient Hittite, Hun and Inca culture is another matter. But I think it needs to be their choice, not mine.
Also, not that you asked, but I think children -- and adults for that matter -- can get a much better view of what works and doesn't work in our culture by studying what other cultures through history have tried, and what other cultures around the world do today.
I likewise think parents and students need more options than, say, forcing kids to prepare for algebra. I'd like to see some charter schools cover the basics, but also teach kids a trade. If I had a kid, and he asked how I thought he could make money, I'd tell him or her to become a contractor, not a lawyer or doctor.
Help support the Southwest Museum -
• Saturday, July 15. 8:00pm,
10 a.m. — “Funeral ceremonies” for the Southwest Museum with, pallbearers, Aztec dancers, Tongva Native American puppets (created by the Arroyo Arts Collective) and mourners taking part in a procession from the Southwest Museum Gold Line station to the gates of the museum.
The Friends of the Southwest Museum Coalition, supported by the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council and other community groups, will mourn the demise of L.A.’s oldest museum, closed for long-term “repairs” by new owners, the Autry National Center, while its priceless collection is removed for eventual display in a new Griffith Park facility.
Members of the community are urged to participate in this event (and in the Candlelight vigil to be held at 8:00 pm that evening at Sycamore Grove Park). The ceremony will start at MTA’s Southwest Museum Gold Line Station, 4600 Marmion Way and will proceed one block to pedestrian gates of the Southwest Museum, 234 Museum Drive.
Elected officials are also invited to attend.
8pm— VIGIL: candle light vigil from Sycamore Park
up to the Southwest Museum
P.S. Illegal immigration was never really a "fringe" issue. Rather, some of us were ahead of our time, or, in honor of Bastille Day, "avante-garde."
P.P.S. Who says I don't like Cinco de Mayo?! Hey, any holiday that involves a pitcher of Margueritas is a holidy I support -- even if it did involve a military victory over the French. (You knew that's what it was about, right?)
"Holiday." Man, somebody buy me a spell-check!
MY race-based comments??
McIntyre would be doing this to a non-minority school?? (fer-shite he would).
"BORG" is so uninformed to think that a "1" is the grade for the lowest performing schools in the city, he has repeated this IGNORANT assertion repeatedly, and NEVER ONCE bothered to ask anyone if that MIGHT be true. (Tune in the school board meetings on cable sometime, before you go mouthing off to all 50 listeners. Pick up a book, or call LAUSD and ask someone to come and EXPLAIN this API stuff to you dispassionately).
NOT TRUE AT ALL, NOT the lowest performing, by far. ONCE again, the TRUTH does not suit the Borg-queen's assimilation plans.
If LAUSD would give out MINUS numbers, they could go to DOZENS AND DOZENS of schools here that do not rate even a "1" and HAVE NOT rated a "1" for LONGER than Semillas has been around. This includes long-time, long-established, "REGULAR" L.A. schools.
Semillas is NOT in that sub-ONE list, so how can they be among the WORST PERFORMING??
LIES, LIES, LIES!
Don't EVEN get me started again on how again on how the "averaging" of a growing charter school's test scores is a fools performance measure -- especially when they're adding dozens of new non-English speakers (every year at EVERY grade... not just new rows of kindergarten kids, like most schools they might be compared to based on race, socioec, etc.)
Anyone who evaluates schools based on API -- other than "3M" (self-admitted Math Moron McIntyre) -- knows at least the following:
** Don't even TRY to compare year-to-year if the school is new, growing rapidly, and has a consistent influx of kids that would be considered among the poorest achievers (which is EXACTLY who goes to a new, voluntary charter school in a poor community).
The 50 English-learners you started with in year 1 could all be little geniuses by year 3 or 4, but when you add 50-75 NEW immigrant or low-achieving kids from other schools to the mix each year, those genius' averages are LOST amid a wash of lower scores following behind them, due to an API averaging system.
Aguilar says they have STUDENT-BY-STUDENT scores that show the ones that they have been teaching for several years are advancing FASTER than their peers at other nearby schools (but the tyranny of AVERAGING many more year 1 and year 2 newer students weighs heavier than the progress of the longer-term students).
Learning about averages in Math class was probably the week Borg McI stayed home "sick" trying to write quips for the the Playboy Jokes page on the back of the centerfold spread... or he just slept through, or MAYBE just avoids recalling because it would SCREW UP HIS RADIO MANTRAS about "heading in the wrong direction"). Translation: We can NAIL this charter school, because they've been MORE interested in teaching kids that other schools threw over (because they HURT that school's average), than worrying about Semillas' OWN averages. kick Semillas for concentrating on what schools are SUPPOSED to concentrate on -- education, and not goosing the test numbers (By NOT testing the low achievers... a common trick in the "regular" schools)... JUST so the administrator gets a better reputation.
Like I said.... don't get me started on that, there. . .
Why don't you explain API scores to us, calmly? I have no idea what they are. What's the scale? What are they based on?
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home