Welcome to Garcetti’s L.A.: trash heaps, rat hordes, leadership vacuum
By Steve Lopez
Los Angeles, Calif. — Whewww, what a week. I could give you a hundred breakdowns of what happened and what it all means, but it comes down to this:
We’re in troubled waters on a ship without a captain, and though there might be a few pretenders on the bridge, nobody trusts them.
We found out on Tuesday that although the city and county spent $600 million last year to chip away at the number of homeless people, the total increased by 16% to nearly 60,000.
That same day, voters said absolutely, positively no way to a parcel tax that would have raised money for struggling L.A. Unified schools, and the vote reflected a resounding lack of faith in school administrators to spend the money wisely.
A shame, in my opinion. Whatever the sins of the past, shorting 600,000 mostly poor kids at a time when poverty has spilled onto our streets is not the smartest plan.
But this comes back to the leadership problem. Judging by my reader responses, it did not help that one of the parcel tax advocates was L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti.
That would be the guy who has presided over the astounding spread of homeless encampments and trash-strewn streets after persuading voters to reverse the trends by taxing themselves.
Garcetti had a worse week than that heavyweight champ who got clobbered by an unknown contender from Imperial County. And nobody else in the local political class looked much better.
L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas said local leaders were “pretty well stunned by this data” on the increase in homelessness.
I slapped myself and read it again. Yep, he said that.
More in the Los Angeles Times
Losing thousands of neighborhood leaders through out migration has done LA in. New residents no volunteer or have the skills to make neighborhoods run as in past.
“A shame, in my opinion. Whatever the sins of the past, shorting 600,000 mostly poor kids at a time when poverty has spilled onto our streets is not the smartest plan.”
Mr. Lopez, it’s all about trust. It’s not the smartest plan to hand over billions on a failed system and allow a failed lausd administration manage those billions. Not to mention a complete state of incompetence sitting on the Council and their idiot overlord, Garcetti..
“A shame, in my opinion. Whatever the sins of the past, shorting 600,000 mostly poor kids at a time when poverty has spilled onto our streets is not the smartest plan.”
Mr. Lopez, it’s all about trust. It’s not the smartest plan to hand over billions on a failed system and allow a failed lausd administration manage those billions. Not to mention a complete state of incompetence sitting on the Council and their idiot overlord, Garcetti.
The next LA Mayor should be an outright Cartel Boss. At least he’ll get someone’s respect.
It speaks volumes that Steve Lopez at the L.A. Times is beginning to see the light on this issue. Could it mean that there is a bigger public backlash than we even suspected? Steve Lopez is a guy who probably thinks of himself as a maverick, independent, “progressive” journalist, which means he hasn’t thus far been too much interested in the truth. On any issue, not just this one. Seems as though a confluence of recent events — and coverage of those events — has collided with an apparent critical mass of average citizens now seeing with their own eyes… Read more »
AND.. DA Mayor wanted to bring this miracle to the rest of America./. As President.. It’s time for tough love folks. Simply round them up and give them a few choices 1. We’ll cloth you and you get three Hots and Cot and basic medical care. 2.In return, you will clean up your act, and go out in WPA type 1930’s type grps and clean streets, work on county construction projects, parks, and anything that needs to done The mentally Ill ones will get help but must be institutionalized 4. Those that refuse any help or to help themselves.. like… Read more »
Ironically, Garcetti just announced L.A.s Green New Deal which could potentially cost trillions.
This is the utter incompetence I’m talking about. GND indeed.