Damn out of towners

JM, No space problems here, Playa del Rey shoal, 2.05.08

Joseph Mailander a guy in la • elsewhere • email

I'll admit it, sometimes folks get on me about Zuma---even as they get on MayorSam about me. But I can't imagine Zuma (or me, for that matter) writing what Patt Morrison came up with this morning at the former fishwrap of record.

Space is purportedly tight on the Times op-ed page--too tight to cover local news adequately, they say---but the paper this morning had adequate space to lend to Patt Morrison pitching the "fun" of Rudy Giuliani as prospective Mayor---of LA.

I won't speak for myself, but I do know that Zuma shows way more restraint and sound editorial judgment than that.

Whatever her column meant to accomplish is unclear, but whatever it is, it looks like a big waste of space. Patt, in fact, is going way off in the wrong direction, if recent City history serves to inform.

So forget Rudy, Patt. I'll give you three out-of-towners, already here with the Mayor's blessing, who you should be writing about:

Ed Boks. Enough said. The guy recently took down a poll from his personal blog that wasn't going his way. He has pissed off nearly every corner of the City's various animal rights communities.

Gail "GPS" Goldberg. "Growth is inevitable" by Goldberg's book, even though both New York City and her hometown of San Diego have been managing its population with considerable stability and healthy economies for over a decade. She pleads "My hands are tied" when any issue gets tough; she caves to every re-zoning request. Literally thousands of million-dollar condos have been built under her watch, and not one of them for anyone who actually lives here (it's simple math, Gail: if you live here, you can't buy a million-plus condo without already owning something, and who would trade a million-plus property they already own here in LA for a million-plus condo?). And certainly: anyone who needs a map to get from Downtown to Los Feliz should not be the City's top planner. D'Oh!

Gloria Jeff. She's come and gone, mercifully, but---why on earth would you bring in a traffic czar from outside of the city? The majority of residents, who have lived here five years or more, all ramble around LA with long-ago established knowledges of how the City is supposed to flow; we project our expectations onto our commutes, our meet-ups, our late-night boogie routes. The idea that an out-of-towner could tap into this collective traffic consciousness and start solving things was completely preposterous.

Here's a worthwhile op-ed, Nick: when a Mayor brings someone in from out of town, they're easier to lead around by the nose, and that's what the Mayor's people knew in 2005 when they brought in these people. But our City has too much legacy for an out-of-towner to penetrate in a short time; these out-of-towner internships are typically are busts that don't work in the City's interests, only in the Mayor's.

Nobody talks much about these people,who are failing LA's citizens daily, and nobody assigns their failures to the Mayor. But Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa appointed them all, and the Mayor should answer for them all.