Is the Mayor a NoCal?

JM, Manhole in Chinatown, Cesar Chavez and Alameda, 11.08.07


COMES NOW EL ALCALDE Villaraigosa, re-instituting those old Bradley-era "water cops." In an item from the useful LA CityWatch (which a wag once told me watches the City so that voters don't have to), the Mayor wants to spend valuable public awareness time hectoring those of us who like to let the water run while shaving and who find occasion to rinse off our sidewalks about how much water we're wasting.

I like to rinse our sidewalk on occasion because six months a year our neighbor's gigantic eucalyptus tree sheds those sticky menthol goo leaves onto our sidewalk and City strip, and the City won't do anything about the mess or codify vegetation that's a foot on the wrong side of the sidewalk. But that's my own battle, and besides, I generally like my neighbor and don't want to go there with him, and not only because I don't know how to pronounce "유칼리나무" in his language.

But really---if this Mayor were truly to get into the business of becoming a State water nannypoo, he'd take a Southwest flight to Sacto and, while approaching the capitol over those rice paddies up there, remind our State legislators that 80% of all of California's water goes to agriculture anyway, so whatever we do here in the City accomplishes very little other than pose.

I don't recall learning much in grade school, but one thing I think I learned was that rice, which we grow here in California to such an extent that the crop has its own State commission, was the most water-intensive crop of all. And I don't know that it's exactly native to California either, or that we can feel very much pride growing it. If we're going to make cuts in water consumption, so should the State's farmers, the people who actually use the stuff in meaningful quantities.

Of course, there is a time-honored way to assure that this City won't use more water in the future: STOP PERMITTING FORTY-UNIT CONDOS on every streetcorner. Not would it make for less water consumers, but you should see the amount of water that goes into constructing a three-storey stucco dingbat.

But it would take actual leadership to do that; an ersatz public-awareness program is easier to implement.