Antonio, won't you please come home?
I don't begrudge you enjoying the perks of office like a totally unnecessary $250,000 junket to Israel paid for with huge rate and fee hikes you imposed on me and my neighbors.
Some of us like myself have lost our jobs; others live in dread of losing theirs. We're all paying nearly $5 for gas and higher prices to put food on the table, to get our garbage picked up, for water and power for our houses, which are worth two-thirds what they were just a short while ago.
But I got to question why you ran around the country supporting a candidate for president you didn't even like that much and it pisses me off seeing you jet-setting around to raise millions of dollars from people who want a piece of the action in L.A. -- money intended to make next year's mayoral election meaningless because you chased away the strongest challengers.
Do you really think your job is to be the King of L.A. and our ambassador to the world?
You somehow created a $500 million deficit while the city treasury swelled from one of the biggest housing and economic booms in history.
You promised to take over the failing public school system and turn it around and when your plan fizzled you turned to a backdoor takeover on the back of a previously failed LAUSD superintendent just to save face.
You boast of how violent crime has fallen but the credit goes to the police chief appointed by the previous mayor and to the people of this city who demanded massive reform of a militaristic police force and spent hundreds of millions of dollars to bring it about.
And now you have the nerve to tell us not to wonder why you're everywhere but here because you're a big shot mayor of a big time city, not the mayor of "some small town in desert somewhere."
Actually, a lot of people in L.A. do feel like they live in a small town somewhere in the desert, a neighborhood with a look and feel they like, an identity and sense of place that they're fighting to preserve against the onslaught of overdevelopment and unplanned urbanization that you and your colleagues are backing.
Don't get me wrong, I love you, man. I admire your charm and personality, and how you treat everybody like they're a friend you care about. I know you know what's the right thing to do.
But we didn't hire you just so you can party with the cool people and wear expensive suits and drink fine wines. We elected you mayor to do the job for us, to stand up to those who seek only their own advantage.
It's not enough to run around town sweet-talking us and spinning the truth about what's happening to the city.
We want leadership to fix our schools, to get traffic moving, to attract good jobs, to make our neighborhoods more livable and more environmentally sensitive. We want the heavy hand of the law to come down hard on the gangsters who rule over so many neighborhoods and we want programs that keep out kids from becoming hoodlums.
We're fed up with the arrogance of power and the smug pretentions of elites that don't give a damn about the struggles of the middle class or the people struggling to get to the middle class.
We want a government that treats us with respect and respects our values, not a government that wastes our money manipulating us for the benefit of narrow interests.
We want a seat at the table of power so that our voices are heard and responded to.
Antonio, won't you please come home and get to work at the job of being mayor and starting fixing what's broken. Stand up for the people and the people will go to work with you to begin to make L.A. the great city it could become.
I don't begrudge you enjoying the perks of office like a totally unnecessary $250,000 junket to Israel paid for with huge rate and fee hikes you imposed on me and my neighbors.
Some of us like myself have lost our jobs; others live in dread of losing theirs. We're all paying nearly $5 for gas and higher prices to put food on the table, to get our garbage picked up, for water and power for our houses, which are worth two-thirds what they were just a short while ago.
But I got to question why you ran around the country supporting a candidate for president you didn't even like that much and it pisses me off seeing you jet-setting around to raise millions of dollars from people who want a piece of the action in L.A. -- money intended to make next year's mayoral election meaningless because you chased away the strongest challengers.
Do you really think your job is to be the King of L.A. and our ambassador to the world?
You somehow created a $500 million deficit while the city treasury swelled from one of the biggest housing and economic booms in history.
You promised to take over the failing public school system and turn it around and when your plan fizzled you turned to a backdoor takeover on the back of a previously failed LAUSD superintendent just to save face.
You boast of how violent crime has fallen but the credit goes to the police chief appointed by the previous mayor and to the people of this city who demanded massive reform of a militaristic police force and spent hundreds of millions of dollars to bring it about.
And now you have the nerve to tell us not to wonder why you're everywhere but here because you're a big shot mayor of a big time city, not the mayor of "some small town in desert somewhere."
Actually, a lot of people in L.A. do feel like they live in a small town somewhere in the desert, a neighborhood with a look and feel they like, an identity and sense of place that they're fighting to preserve against the onslaught of overdevelopment and unplanned urbanization that you and your colleagues are backing.
Don't get me wrong, I love you, man. I admire your charm and personality, and how you treat everybody like they're a friend you care about. I know you know what's the right thing to do.
But we didn't hire you just so you can party with the cool people and wear expensive suits and drink fine wines. We elected you mayor to do the job for us, to stand up to those who seek only their own advantage.
It's not enough to run around town sweet-talking us and spinning the truth about what's happening to the city.
We want leadership to fix our schools, to get traffic moving, to attract good jobs, to make our neighborhoods more livable and more environmentally sensitive. We want the heavy hand of the law to come down hard on the gangsters who rule over so many neighborhoods and we want programs that keep out kids from becoming hoodlums.
We're fed up with the arrogance of power and the smug pretentions of elites that don't give a damn about the struggles of the middle class or the people struggling to get to the middle class.
We want a government that treats us with respect and respects our values, not a government that wastes our money manipulating us for the benefit of narrow interests.
We want a seat at the table of power so that our voices are heard and responded to.
Antonio, won't you please come home and get to work at the job of being mayor and starting fixing what's broken. Stand up for the people and the people will go to work with you to begin to make L.A. the great city it could become.
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.
". . . money intended to make next year's mayoral election meaningless because you chased away the strongest challengers."
Ron, my friend, that's the kind of self-defeating, self-fulfilling prophecy talk that brainwashes people into thinking they can't fight City Hall, so why try?
We can defeat this Mayor. We don't have to match him dollar-for-dollar. We just have to get the word out. The majority of people are fed up with him. Even more people would be, if they knew what he was really up to.
People have already contributed over $100,000 to my campaign. If others contribute another $400,000, I'm confident I can beat Villaraigosa, no matter how many millions he raises from his out-of-town special interest contributors.
If you're reading this, please visit my website and come to my Rally in the Valley this coming Saturday, June 28. You don't have to settle for an incompetent, absentee Mayor.
Walter Moore
Candidate for Mayor of L.A.
http://WalterMooreForMayor.com
Just because Walter Moore is now an Independent Voter instead of Republican or Democrat, he gets high marks from me because he has never given up.
He tells it the way he thinks it is, and he never stops, does he?
Is anyone else willing to do this for the rest of us? Get involved. We must bring an end to the machine politics (hire buddies, bloat the payroll, winner take all) we are enduring! If you want to be a public servant, take the plunge and run for office. The worst that can happen is that you fail. So what? You did your best and tried to get rid of what are supposed to be public servants from the way they talk - you know, we raise your taxes for your sake!!!
And do attend Walter's rally. While you are at it, plan on rallying on July 14th at City Hall.
It is about time we got involved in what amounts to an assault on our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. See you there! Who am I? I am totally involved, am not on anyone's payroll and I have become quite passionate and outraged over what is going on here. What can happen to make you stick up for your own personal freedoms?
It will be too late once the pols think you don't care what they do! July 14th is important to all of us, no party, no agenda, just that it is our right to be able to live our lives as free people and not be unfairly taxed so that others can gloat because they make six figures and we do not. This makes them thieves.
Theodora Howell
Sorry, Walter, but the city desperately needs a credible candidate to challenge the mayor. It would be nice if that candidate was well financed and could afford the resources for a real fight: opposition research, fund raising, media relations, mail, television advertising, etc. But even if finding a viable challenger is impossible at this point, a credible candidate, someone with the experience, charisma and articulateness to expose the mayor's vacuousness, would at least change the dynamic. Your grit is admirable, Walter, but that's not you. Maybe Ron could surprise the crowd on July 14 and make an announcement. Even if he had no chance of winning, he would certainly make the debates more interesting -- in the unlikely event that Antonio agreed to participate.
Not ...some small town in the desert somewhere.."
geez, didn't know AV actually said that...he's said some dumb things but give us a break. Some of those small towns in the desert are probably better well than L.A.
"...but the city desperately needs a credible candidate to challenge the mayor. It would be nice if that candidate was well financed and could afford the resources for a real fight: opposition research, fund raising, media relations, mail, television advertising, etc."
===
Anonymous #2. What's "incredible" about Walter Moore?
To have a candidate with the above mentioned qualifications means more of the same. A well-financed crony, mouth-piece puppet for the developers and all the rest of the money people, who are behind the scenes and pulling the strings.
Would someone like Bob Hertzberg be better? A card-carrying MALDEF/Mecha member?
Thanks, but I'll put my measly little private donations behind Walter Moore any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
BTW, if you want to see how much Walter is an opposition reseacher and fact-finder, sign up at waltermooreformayor.com, and get his almost daily bulletins yourself.
Help the cause; don't hinder it. He's out there doing what we should be doing for ourselves...running for office against every damn one of those corrupt, self-interested politicians.
Ron, lol, he had to go to FL. If he didn't he'd be the only mayor of a big city to "dis" Obama. That would be very bad politics! Plus, perhaps he got the chance to meet Obama and change his mind about Hillary? Hey I love Hillary, I love the Clintons, but he backed the wrong horse in this horse race so now he has to do a little kissing up to the next Pres.
LOL---I wonder if he'll be campaigning for Obama now? Oh politics! This is why we laugh at them.
However, I do wonder if he's spent more days out-of-state than Arnold. ;-)
Be careful for what you wish for! Our mayor may spend too much time in town spending our money.
1AngryValleyGirl --
Don't take Anonymous of 9:43 seriously. The Mayor has a HUGE staff, and you can bet some of them are assigned the task of trying to spin all the local blogs. Their comments are ALWAYS anonymous, and rarely sound like anything you hear actual people saying. Real people don't think it's a good idea to have an absentee Mayor who spends all his time, and our money, trying to promote himself through an endless series of photo-ops.
Walter Moore
Candidate for Mayor
http://WalterMooreForMayor.com
Sorry, Wally, you have no idea how wrong you are about 9:43am. And if an articulate, well-reasoned argument makes you paranoid, well, you're just proving my point.
Another case of a well-intentioned liberal wanting another program for "the very low income poor" at the expense of the struggling middle class homeowner: This past week, Bill Rosendahl wanted the City Attorney to copy an ordinance he heard about in Washington, D.C., called TOPA -- Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act.
This would, Rosendahl admitted, cost our city a lot of money, including: CITY PAID LOANS TO TENANTS TO BUY THEIR UNITS UPON CONVERSION TO CONDOS; City Paid Education on their Rights AND ORGANIZING THE TENANTS INTO ACTIVIST GROUPS AGAINST THE LANDLORDS, to give them the power of numbers, and so on. Bill Rosendahl wanted to ask the City Attorney to do this with NO community discussion of "stakeholders," which even tax-the-homeowners-for-her-gang-tax Hahn said was premature.
Richard Alarcon piped up with another warped reason to support Rosendahl's bill (someone's gotta post this meeting of 6/20/08 on YouTube!): he said that if a homeowner's child or family member needs drug treatment or to be bailed out of jail for dealing drugs, they can borrow against the equity of their home, but a tenant has no such equity. (How many readers of this blog ever thought of home equity as being there for THAT reason?)
And HOW does Alarcon want to increase the rate of home ownership? He's already advocated for doubling the "living wage" in L A to twice the federal min. wage at least, for EVERYONE, legal or not. But like Rosendahl, taxing YOU and ME, the seniors, those out of work, and younger people with little or shrinking equity, in order to create tenant "unions" for the very low income renters to organize against their landlords, and then tens or hundreds of millions in loans to buy these units, is the way to go. What about those struggling to hold onto their homes NOW?
Ron,
If you ever believed Villaraigosa was in this for any reason other than to engage in cronyism, advance his career and take full advantage of the perks, you're crazy.