A guy in LA

Hello guys and dolls. I've been meaning to tell you a few things, but the painters have been here.

I went to the Anderson Forecast on Monday, the one the Mayor gave the keynote to. You probably already read the news---real estate drags down the region a bit, but not enough to cause a recession, yadda yadda, but there was something of much interest that went unreported. At least I thought it was interesting.

William Ouchi, of Theory Z fame, and a Richard Riordan crony, was on a panel, hammering the LAUSD. He laid out several telling stats: one of which was that the District had over 30,000 employees who don't work at schools.

After Ouchi's panel was over, Wendy Greuel commenced a (uniquely dull) panel on traffic. But first, they gave time to a spokesperson from the District to respond. He basically called Ouchi a liar, saying that there are only 8,000 people at LAUSD who don't work at schools. He also contradicted Ouchi's Total Student Load figures for the District.

Notable was Ouchi's quote calling the decision not to fund Green Dots around Locke High "the worst kind of blatant kowtowing" to the UTLA.

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That was enough fun, but Wendy's panel, ostensibly about traffic, was also fun in a different way---almost nothing was learned from it. It was like watching bad television. The Port of LA got a chance to tell us how wonderful they are, and the LAUSD, which has almost nothing to do with traffic, except to the degree to which they are building schools within walking distance of just about every block of Los Angeles, had not much to say either. A transportation specialist, just arrived from the east coast (Wendy was awestruck by his c.v.) had absolutely nothing to say about LA except that it's tough to find a house here. How could he---he's only been here three months.

When the Mayor walked in, he didn't get his usual standing ovation. (Acting Chancellor Norman Abrams at UCLA, a horrible speaker, introduced the conference's sponsor who introduced Hizzoner. Antonio gave his usual impassioned stump speech. He noted that his son had just been accepted to Princeton. He promised to bring back the Affordable Housing Bond. When he left, he didn't get a standing O either.

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Here's some other stuff. I attended the benefit for the Trader Joe's employee who was hit by a car on Hyperion, who has endured a significant hospital stay. We in the neighborhood know the story well: Another pedestrian was hit and killed by a car on the same strip, other side of the street.

At the benefit, there was a City memo posted to the wall, and I read it. Ironically, in early January, just ten days before the first accident, the DOT sent out a four page memo to Tom LaBonge noting the hazards of the strip of Hyperion, and slating improvements for July 2007. We in the neighborhood have known the strip to be very dangerous since about 1990.

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So Monday I was at UCLA, and today I was at the Cathedral, Central Library, and the Yorkshire Grill today. I usually take the Metro downtown and the 302 to UCLA. Both the Mayor and Wendy presumed much about our public transit habits---when they see Anglos, they presume that none take public transit. I think that's an arrogant presumption. And I'll tell you what: if they were really concerned about how many of us are taking public trans, they might actually try to do something about the coming rate hikes. Which are preposterously high.

I'd love to write more here at MayorSam---it's hard sometimes to make the time, but it's always worthwhile. The photo's included this time for a reason. If you spot me, feel free to introduce yourself. I'll be downtown a lot these next few weeks.