Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Thursday
If you want some really funny reading, check out the latest edition of Hispanic Business Magazine which paints a very dishonest picture of an LA whose economy is "blooming like a desert rose" all thanks to our Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The most delicious tidbit is Villaraigosa offering this sage advice to young Latinos who want to be successful "People ask me how I broke through the barriers to become mayor, and I tell them it happened because I can read and write." That doesn't help you pass the bar exam though does it Tony?
It's not just ratepayers that will pay more to the DWP - now Los Angeles Unified Schools will face a 5% rate electric rate increase amounting to as much as $3 million per school. That's money that could for teachers or books but GM H. David Nahai, also known as E. WASTEWATER PLURIBUS wants that money to do with whatever the hell it the DWP does with the money it wastes.
On Monday when the Dow dropped nearly 10% in value, Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee Joe Biden was asked his opinion on the bail-out efforts, which then was not getting full support in the Congress. Biden interrupted the question with a "Hey folks," to reporters and then said "Oh, things are going well." Great job, Joe!
Ron Kaye's Saving LA Project takes the next step and becomes a California corporation. The group will have it's next strategy (no not tactics) session this Saturday, October 4 in El Sereno. Among the topics to be discussed are DWP rates, bicyclists' rights and banning billboards.
It's not just ratepayers that will pay more to the DWP - now Los Angeles Unified Schools will face a 5% rate electric rate increase amounting to as much as $3 million per school. That's money that could for teachers or books but GM H. David Nahai, also known as E. WASTEWATER PLURIBUS wants that money to do with whatever the hell it the DWP does with the money it wastes.
On Monday when the Dow dropped nearly 10% in value, Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee Joe Biden was asked his opinion on the bail-out efforts, which then was not getting full support in the Congress. Biden interrupted the question with a "Hey folks," to reporters and then said "Oh, things are going well." Great job, Joe!
Ron Kaye's Saving LA Project takes the next step and becomes a California corporation. The group will have it's next strategy (no not tactics) session this Saturday, October 4 in El Sereno. Among the topics to be discussed are DWP rates, bicyclists' rights and banning billboards.
Labels: H. David Nahai, joe biden, lausd, mayor antonio villaraigosa, Ron Kaye, SLAP
Posted by Michael Higby @ 10/02/2008 04:00:00 AM
11 Comments:
Everyone knows Antonio is the LA City Clown. Let's see if gangs act up now there's not going to be enough employees at parks. what an idiot!!! Of all places to cut where kids can go and play.
L.A. parks department to lay off nearly 140 workers
Hours will be reduced for hundreds of other temporary and part-time employees because of city budget cuts.
SLAP needs to focus on one or two big problems. Until they do, not much will be accomplished.
SLAP and Ron Kaye just throw mud at everyone at City Hall in every direction, and often without logic or rhyme or reason. They're just a gathering and focal point for people angry at various issues all over the city from one extreme to the other, so no way can they get the sympathy of anyone in power, and they don't even make coherent sense.
Only thing they all have in common, and with the right wing talk shows who give Kaye's gripes air time, are that they hate urban LA and everyone who runs it. The old Secessionist spirit alive and well, but this time fragmented between the West Valley and East L A. Just like it's these two areas who gripe the most about "the westside subway" making odd bedfellows of old, white Vals from San Fern and San Gabriel, and East L A Latinos, the Antonovichs and the Molinas unite against the center. Great public policy in the making from this group.
I agree. And I think it should be the local economy and bringing jobs here. If MTA is going to build a ton of condos and apartments on top of every train station it makes no sense if there are no jobs brought to those sites - and office jobs not Panera Bread.
If we could bring more high paying jobs to where people live in LA, you could eliminate a lot of the commute, traffic, etc. that really is at the heart of the issue.
SLAP should forget about the bicycles, billboards, Home Depots (sorry Joe), Wal-Marts, etc. and focus on reforming the city to bring more jobs and economic opportunity here. Why couldn't someone like Google be headquartered in Downtown LA or North Hollywood for example? I think improving the economy could be one thing that lots of people could get behind.
As part of that, SLAP could definitely go after all the tax increases, rate increases and related reforms.
Mayor Tony says that the reason for his success as a Latino is that he can read and write. That's true irony. I may be going out on a limb on this, but I assume he means he can read and write "English."
If you look at what he's done in the big picture, it all demonstrates resistance to most elements of assimilation for immigrants who don’t speak English as their first language. A major part of this is learning to read, write and speak English. So that little tip doesn’t get the follow through boost by his actions, which might help others “break through barriers” to advancement.
And the other suggestion here is that other Latinos “don’t” know how to read and write and thus become educated to move ahead as he did. A lot of what he’s accomplished is simply by being part of a political machine. Without that, he’d still be Antonio Villar.
The article referenced sure looks like Mayor Tony is the genius behind the changes and examines nothing of the behind the scenes chicanery employed and the consideration of costs and risks to the taxpayers and the city treasury in terms of commitment to the debts and the giveaways they commonly have used that cost us in fair market value. Look back to the Convention Center signage rights for a past example of being locked into bad money-wasting deals for the glory of the moment.
Last item, David Nahai- selected by Tony. Pulls in so much money aside from DWP salary that he’s out of touch with everyman in the city having to handle the added financial burdens DWP has created and CONTINUES to create because THEY CAN.
Thank, Tony and David. Add THAT to the magazine article.
In CD-14
I agree SLAP organization should do something more focused
SLAP FatBoy Highy should SLAP for being a moron with a big mouth.
Ron got really nailed today for his twisting a RAND study into "proving" that Prop R for mass transit was the wrong way to go.
Paul Sorenson from RAND wrote and told him so, that as common sense and empirical observation around the world shows, successful solutions to congestion require both shorter term solutions like congestion pricing, one-ways and banning curbside parking at rush hour or altogether on continually congested roads, WITH mass transit to move those people once higher prices and environmental and social awareness get them out of their cars.
Steve Hymon in his Times review of the study specifically notes that the Mayor's Pico-Olympic Plan is exactly what the doctor ordered, but locals are forcing an expensive and lengthy EIR on the city to fight it.
Ron and his groupies couldn't be more wrong on all fronts. Sorenson sounds peeved that Kaye twisted their study to "prove" a totally contrary conclusion.
Higby:
One way to figure out why businesses like Google don't move to L.A. is to give them a call and ask.
Or you can call the Greater Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and ask.
Or call the business department at UCLA or USC and ask.
Or call the L.A. Business Journal and ask.
Or call the business development people in the Mayor's office.
The answer that you will get from all is that the cost of living is too high in L.A. The cost of housing is out of sight, traffic is horrible, business taxes are high (but that isn't a huge expense), and if L.A. were to compete with other cities they would have to provide incentives and tax breaks and you would scream bloody murder.
If passing the bar exam means one is smart, what went wrong with Walter Moore?
6:35: Why should L A house all the workers and poor Mexicans who work in OTHER cities like Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Pasadena, West Hollywood, South Bay etc. with high costs of living -- just as high or higher -- but who have NOT made it a priority to turn L A into TJ north, and hence have GOOD SCHOOLS?
L A pays the social burdens to educate and care for the kids of the maids and gardeners who work in other affluent cities. They drive their old, uninsured cars without licenses to clog our streets, getting to work in other towns that don't want "their kind."
You can provide cheap housing all you want but no one in their right minds will move a middle class family from Thousand Oaks or Covina or Glendora to some apt. without a yard to put them in the shit schools where 3/4 LAUSD are the kids of Mexican/Guatemalan peasants -- who don't speak or want to speak "anglo" and don't have a culture of education? Half of whom drop out, join gangs and start producing babies, collecting welfare and repeating the cycle? Even if they're "hard workers," a poor family with 6 kids is a huge net burden on our society, taking out far more than they put in.
THESE are what Tony V wants to ruin remaining nice neighborhoods to build cheap housing for, to pull them "up out of poverty" to be "middle class," while driving AWAY and OUT OF TOWN the real middle class. These are who Tony is pushing billions more in bonds to build more schools for. His compadres from the only country he and the Mexicans on Council and State Assembly care about -- Mexico. To them, California is just "Mexico Norte," the "rich tio" to go to for handouts.
Companies don't want to relocate to a place with these shit schools that employees won't pay high prices to live in apts. to go to.
Are you sure the mayor said, "...break through the barriers...", and not "...break through the barrios..."? Just asking.
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