I'm just a voice in the crowd. I can't say I never thought I was more than that but then I've never been happier or freer than I am at this moment.
At this point in my life I can do what I want when I want and say what I want the way I want. And if it doesn't work out, I know there's a place somewhere else out there for me and my wife to be perfectly happy.
So this is my last stand, L.A.'s last stand. It's now or never because L.A. is in grave danger of chasing away the last vestiges of its middle class and becoming a city of rich sheltered in privately-guarded enclaves and poor living in squalor.
There are thousands of others out there -- people I've met over the years and especially those that I'm meeting now -- who have taken just about as much as they're going to take from a government that kowtows to the rich and powerful and seduces special classes with money and flattery.
Many more have left over the years. They called it white flight back in the 1980s but it's become a rainbow flight in the last decade. You got to be rich or poor or just plain crazy enough to have stayed and fought for all these years. I know for a fact that there's a lot more crazies like that all across L.A. than the people in power realize.
Imagine what would happen if all those who cared about the dream of a greater L.A. came down and stood in front of City Hall.
Imagine what would happen if every one of them brought a bag of garbage and put it on the steps of that gold-plated palace to a failed government, a City Hall that constantly raises fees and taxes even as it fails to solve the city's problems.
I've only lived here 30 years but I can tell you they haven't done anything to make the schools better or the traffic less congested or the neighborhoods healthy and free of gangs. The only thing that's changed is the Police Department and that only came about because of the massive public outcry and the vigilance of the press.
If L.A. is ever going to change, it's got to be now. That's where I stand whether it matters to anyone else or not. I stood for what I believed at the time as well as I could from the day I came here. My beliefs have changed a lot over the years. But my core belief is the same as it was long ago: I believe L.A. has the chance to become the freest and most democratic city on Earth, the place the whole world talks about as an inspiration, as the realization of mankind's hopes.
It's going to take a revolution, a quiet revolution of the silenced majority, to achieve that.
Power is there for the taking. Even those who have the seats of power know just how powerless they are. They grab what they can and live above the fray of ordinary people when the truth is they are the most defeated of all. If the people rise up as one, they will follow as surely as those who have remained indifferent, pretending nothing was wrong.
To some I'm preaching the gospel. To others it is heresy. I've been free of a job for less than two months but I've been out in the community on both sides of the hill and connected with more people than I have in years.
I'm amazed at the knowledge and sophistication I've seen among hundreds of people who have worked long and hard for decades to make L.A. a better place.
They come from every race and religion, men and women. They're Republicans and Democrats and independents. Rich and poor. They're what L.A. is to me. I put up the song "The House I Live In" when I started this blog because it really is about what America means to me, what L.A. most of all means to me, a place where people are free and equal and because they are free and equal they act like human beings.
Sure bad things will always happen. Death and taxes are the only certainties. But that doesn't mean we all can't get along a lot better than we do right now. People who are free and equal can talk things out and work things out and make sure everybody's a winner enough of the time.
Tomorrow is Memorial Day, the day we as a nation honor the men and women who died in military service of this country. For most of us, it's just the long weekend that welcomes in the summer. Perhaps we should all take a few minutes to think about what it means to actually die for your country. And to contemplate the corollary for a moment, what could be achieved if we actually lived our beliefs and put them into action.
Ron Kaye is the former editor of the Los Angeles Daily News where he spent 23 years helping to make the newspaper the voice of the San Fernando Valley and fighting for a city government that serves the people and not special interests.
Twice in recent years, Los Angeles Magazine listed Kaye among the city’s most influential people, specifically in the area of politics. Kaye has been variously described in the media as the “accidental anarchist,” “the Patrick Henry of the San Fernando Valley” and a “passionate populist.” He is now committed to
carrying on his crusade for a greater Los Angeles as an ordinary citizen. Previously, Ron worked at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner,
Associated Press, Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Australian as well as papers
in Fairbanks, Alaska and Yakima, Wash. He also wrote for Newsweek magazine, The Guardian in London and the Naitonal Enquirer.
Sure, everyone's frustrated, including the rich who are not "rich" by the standards of the truly wealtlhy, so pitting people against each other that way isn't really the solution. WHAT do you want to start to change, specifically?
I for one would want everyone to unite against the AB212, authored by Fuentes who represents parts of the Valley (the Hispanic part) making it impossible for communities to fight the kinds of community- destroying high-density, Section 8 and other similar all-low income projects, with no parking -- the stuff Ed Reyes, with support from Mike Woo, want to see everywhere in the city. AB1818 is bad enough, but this intentionally takes away the Councilmember's ability to stop, alter or in any way influence these monster projects. This bill has been rewritten now to apply ONLY to the City of Los Angeles, because other city and county bodies that heard about it vehemently objected. L A City and County officials alone, somehow, were never told about this, even though its author Fuentes represents the Valley area of Los Angeles! Talk about sneaky.
No one thing will ruin what's left of quality of life than this overnight rush to destroy decades of community-city work on zoning. Zev Y has been talking against the abuses inherent in 1818, but this is just insane, and the Council was unaware of it until this Friday. How does Fuentes get up the nerve to destroy this city, single-handedly? Is he just naive and scarily stupid, or is this as he says in the Daily News, a specific agenda to steamroll over community objections to these community-destroying projects. The fact that Fuentes was supported or at least given the benefit of doubt by Alarcon and Cardenas, while Greuel, Zine, LaBonge and most of the rest, even Herb Wesson, had no doubt it's just "a bad bill," says a lot about which communities it's designed to benefit, and which communities would be outraged. Talk about a dangerous "special interest," and this isn't for the rich and powerful -- it's political pandering. If the rich powers-that-be in L A (like Broad, Riordan) DO know about this, I'd be surprised, but I'd sure like to know who feels how about this.
This also points out how the city isn't being adequately represented in Sacramento -- Gerry Miller told Council that our city is being represented by 1-2 paid lobbyists, not staff who answers to the people. Besides $2 Billion of our surplus gas taxes being taken by Sacramento last year and this, money we were supposed to get back for local transportation, what else is Sacramento doing to our detriment that we don't know about?
Given people, the NC's and so on, a hook to hang their anger on like this issue, seems a better way to go for me than just showing up at City Hall and saying "we're angry." There are a handful who do that at every Council meeting, but frankly, just come off as time-wasting gadflies. What ONE or TWO issues would you like to get people to focus on?
HOW DARE HE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fuentes is trying to ruin all of Los Angeles, but try and go to his web site and only HIS CONSTITUENTS are allowed to comment. Call his office and let it be known that what he did was underhanded. Dirty politics! I am all for garbage on the steps of City Hall!
I agree with 2:50 that very heavy baby steps are the most effective way to chip away at the overwhelming challenges presented by our dysfunctional City. AB212 is the most immediate and devastating threat before us, and a good test run for any kind of "Big Tent" alliance.
I'm not sure who is spearheading the opposition to
AB212, but our group, The Sunland-Tujunga Alliance,
would gladly join with any other organized effort against this pending disaster.
AB 212 would be exactly like the State Mandated Alcoholic Recovery houses. They are everywhere and you can't do a thing about them. We have five in our neighborhood and they are nothing but trouble. We are now stuck with everyone of these problem makers. Don't let it happen. Can you imagine Section 8 housing taking over Los Angeles?
The Mayor has complete control over the contents of the City's General Plan, via his cronies at the Department of Planning. If AB212 passes then it will provide the Mayor complete, unimpeded, indirect control over all construction activities in the city. This AB212 must be stopped.
Don't the Neighborhood Councils know about this monstrosity? This is very serious. If AB212 passes the State Senate then the only thing left to do is to change the L.A. City Charter. Take back control of city planning from the Mayor and place it back into the hands of the City Council.
Sometimes there's honor in admitting defeat. I've only lived in Los Angeles 20 years. Since I have lived here it has slowly degraded. Day by day. Election by election. Proposition by Proposition. I can now only count the (unfortunately) years not days until I can find someplace else to retire to. Until then I will have to bite the bullet and unwillingly support the corruption of our local and state governments through my taxes and "fees". I admire Ron's passion, but in my opinion there is a community somewhere out there that will appreciate it and benefit from it far more than Los Angeles ever will.
Ron Kaye, you are making a difference. Keep it up. By shining a light on what is going on in our city and SFV, you have become THE ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION SITE IN L.A..
And by giving us a place to report our opinions unedited, you are definitely becoming Town Hall.
What I cannot share by email, I print your information and either hand it out or snail-mail it. So... we are getting organized. Thank you.
Your hopes are high, Ron, but sometimes I think the problems are insurmountable, especially knowing which inmates are running the asylum.
Count me among those who constantly think about moving elsewhere, as so many people I know have done.
So far, I've carried on by writing and commenting wherever and whenever I can, and always voting on what I think is the right side of the issues.
I nearly cried and was depressed for two days after Villaraigosa and Bratton snookered the gullible into buying into the fear tactics of police evaporating from the streets if the phone tax wasn't passed.
I will never forgive Dennis Zine or the other councilman who were the only two holdouts who opposed the phone tax measure. It would have only taken one of them to vote "no" to kill it.
They were going to vote "no" until Villaraigosa had a nice little closed-door tete-a-tete with them, and suddenly both came out swinging with "yes" votes.
Oh, to have a tape of that meeting and know what the mayor threatened them with, blackmailed them with or promised them to get them to vote in the mayor's or their interests and not in the interests of the people they represent.
And we, actually they, were tricked into voting these constituent traitors and extra term in office after we limited them to two four-year terms, which is one too many.
Now Laura Chick wants to super-size L.A. tourism business at a time when we can't handle the guests we have...both invited and otherwise.
And (from today's 5/26 Daily News) the mayor is spending our money to figure out if there's public support for a sales tax to expand MTA lines to include a subway to the sea and the Foothill Gold Line extension.
Sixty percent told a survey "okey dokey" to an additional sales tax, which, thankfully, is still short of a two-thirds majority.
Who are these 60 percent? Don't they know the money will never go for mass transit? It will undoubtedly get siphoned off into the general fund like all the other fees and taxes.
Solve the present-day problems before adding to them with new, grandiose projects; they've been so successful in the past...like 10,000 missing trees.
Let's hope we can hang in there, band together and make some positive changes for a change.
Zev Y has been talking against the abuses inherent in 1818, but this is just insane, and the Council was unaware of it until this Friday. How does Fuentes get up the nerve to destroy this city, single-handedly?...
I really can't believe that AB 212, which actually takes away one rather insignificant control tool from the Mayor and the City Attorney on zoning issues, is going to "destroy the City." But spurious, hyperbolic arguments about land use from the Mayor's office might.
If Council only heard about it on Friday, it's their bad, because the bill has been in committee ever since Fuentes took office. You'd think with him having been so close to Hahn that the Mayor and some Councilpeople would be watching him more closely...and your hysteria indicates to me that they in fact are...
If you have some real info on the inside mechanics and positioning of AB 212, email me: joseph.mailander@gmail.com.