Exactly one year ago Saturday I was fired as Editor of the Daily News, the newspaper I devoted 23 years of my life to. and like everybody else who worked there during that time, endured just about everything imaginable to be able to keep my job and put out the best newspaper I could for myself, the organization and the San Fernando Valley.
I got no regrets.
The Daily News was the best thing that ever happened to me. I found success, and met my wife there. Together, we found true happiness and saw our son grow up strong and smart.
Without a doubt, this was the best year of my life. I found my voice as a writer, for better and worse, blogging whatever I wanted after
a career of struggling to express myself under the constraints of corporate journalism.
And best of all, I got to connect to thousands of people all across the city who just like me were frustrated that the LA of their dreams was in reality a city going to hell.
While I'd been closeted in a newsroom taking pride in being part of a newspaper that stood up for the community and exposed wrongdoing in high places, these community activists were doing the hard work by joining Neighborhood Councils and neighborhood associations, business and political groups and service clubs.
They did good works for their communities and went to City Hall to plead their cases in the minute or two allotted to them. They studied the records and sat through endless hours of public meetings.
As a newsman, I found they knew more about what was going in our city than the entire news media. I came to realize that we in the news media spent nearly all our time covering government and government officials when the real stories of this city were out in the neighborhoods among the people where the decisions of government touched the lives of the people.
Often, I've said that if I had a staff or four or five good reporters today I could tell better stories, more important stories, more human stories, than I could with a newsroom of journalists.
The newsroom I left behind is now barely half the size it was when I was fired. I don't see how it can survive and that breaks my heart because of the pain it causes my colleagues and for the loss it means to the community.
Ever since I arrived in LA in 1980 as part of the traveling road show of an Indian guru, I've grappled with the tantalizing mystery of this place. If Chicago is the city of big shoulders, LA is the city of lovely shoulders, beautful but dangerous.
I've grappled over and over with the anything goes, anything is possible nature of LA, with its myths of stardom and freedom without bounds.
Only now, after a year without the armor of a job, a year as just another ordinary citizen fighting City Hall, am I getting a glimmer of what LA is really about.
It's as simple as happiness.
All the struggles and handwringing, all the lawsuits and protests, are about the failure of our city leaders to provide the environment we need to find our own happiness.
That, of course, means different things to different people, different things in different neighborhoods.
In a city of extreme diversity, a city of extremes, we have a government that panders to the poor without actually helping them, that enriches the rich without making the city better, that gives sweetheart deals to the special interests without serving the general interest.
We are segmented instead of unified. We are played against each other instead of being brought together. We are at war with a city that destroys a community farm in South LA, green-lights digital billboards all over West LA, gives lip service to the Valley and ignores East LA.
It isn't good enough anymore. We must do better before it's too late.
We are being gouged for our money every time we turn around from trash fees to parking meters. We get too little in return. We are about to get even less as the mayor proposes slashing our services and raising our fees to paper over his $1 billion budget deficit without solving any problems. In fact, he will make them worse.
I don't think he'll get away with it. The financial hole is too deep and certain to get worse. The global economic crisis insures that.
People are waking up. We saw that in the recent election. We'll see it again in the May 19 election when voters examine a series of state tax and spending measure that don't address what's broken and as they consider local runoff election candidates like Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich in the City Attorney race and David "Ty" Vahedi in Council District 5 and Tina Park in the Community College Board contest -- people who can make a positive difference.
Something big is going on and we need something big to change the course of history for our city.
This is our LA and we are going to take it back. My year as an ordinary citizen has convinced me it can happen. I have no illusions that it will happen overnight or be easy. But change is coming.
That's what I believe anyway as I start my second year as a blogger and ordinary citizen.
I got no regrets.
The Daily News was the best thing that ever happened to me. I found success, and met my wife there. Together, we found true happiness and saw our son grow up strong and smart.
Without a doubt, this was the best year of my life. I found my voice as a writer, for better and worse, blogging whatever I wanted after
a career of struggling to express myself under the constraints of corporate journalism.And best of all, I got to connect to thousands of people all across the city who just like me were frustrated that the LA of their dreams was in reality a city going to hell.
While I'd been closeted in a newsroom taking pride in being part of a newspaper that stood up for the community and exposed wrongdoing in high places, these community activists were doing the hard work by joining Neighborhood Councils and neighborhood associations, business and political groups and service clubs.
They did good works for their communities and went to City Hall to plead their cases in the minute or two allotted to them. They studied the records and sat through endless hours of public meetings.
As a newsman, I found they knew more about what was going in our city than the entire news media. I came to realize that we in the news media spent nearly all our time covering government and government officials when the real stories of this city were out in the neighborhoods among the people where the decisions of government touched the lives of the people.
Often, I've said that if I had a staff or four or five good reporters today I could tell better stories, more important stories, more human stories, than I could with a newsroom of journalists.
The newsroom I left behind is now barely half the size it was when I was fired. I don't see how it can survive and that breaks my heart because of the pain it causes my colleagues and for the loss it means to the community.
Ever since I arrived in LA in 1980 as part of the traveling road show of an Indian guru, I've grappled with the tantalizing mystery of this place. If Chicago is the city of big shoulders, LA is the city of lovely shoulders, beautful but dangerous.
I've grappled over and over with the anything goes, anything is possible nature of LA, with its myths of stardom and freedom without bounds.
Only now, after a year without the armor of a job, a year as just another ordinary citizen fighting City Hall, am I getting a glimmer of what LA is really about.
It's as simple as happiness.
All the struggles and handwringing, all the lawsuits and protests, are about the failure of our city leaders to provide the environment we need to find our own happiness.
That, of course, means different things to different people, different things in different neighborhoods.
In a city of extreme diversity, a city of extremes, we have a government that panders to the poor without actually helping them, that enriches the rich without making the city better, that gives sweetheart deals to the special interests without serving the general interest.
We are segmented instead of unified. We are played against each other instead of being brought together. We are at war with a city that destroys a community farm in South LA, green-lights digital billboards all over West LA, gives lip service to the Valley and ignores East LA.
It isn't good enough anymore. We must do better before it's too late.
We are being gouged for our money every time we turn around from trash fees to parking meters. We get too little in return. We are about to get even less as the mayor proposes slashing our services and raising our fees to paper over his $1 billion budget deficit without solving any problems. In fact, he will make them worse.
I don't think he'll get away with it. The financial hole is too deep and certain to get worse. The global economic crisis insures that.
People are waking up. We saw that in the recent election. We'll see it again in the May 19 election when voters examine a series of state tax and spending measure that don't address what's broken and as they consider local runoff election candidates like Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich in the City Attorney race and David "Ty" Vahedi in Council District 5 and Tina Park in the Community College Board contest -- people who can make a positive difference.
Something big is going on and we need something big to change the course of history for our city.
This is our LA and we are going to take it back. My year as an ordinary citizen has convinced me it can happen. I have no illusions that it will happen overnight or be easy. But change is coming.
That's what I believe anyway as I start my second year as a blogger and ordinary citizen.
Ron, you are an ordinary citizen the way a thousand others are. We have earned the title "Fringe Activist" from D'Arcy & Co. and the political operatives behind the Yes on Measure B campaign. What was meant as a pejorative will be a term disenfranchised citizens are proud to use to describe themselves as they return from the fringe of political life through individual and collective activism, and who make use of the very Neighborhood Council system we voted for when we changed the City Charter. Mr. D'Arcy may view the Neighborhood Councils as "dysfunction-palooza", but Mr. D'Arcy is forgetting it was those very councils who beat his back room deal to create a monopoly for his union. What Brian has yet to learn is that the Neighborhood Councils cannot be bought as he has done with our politicians. And as LADWP found out, they are hard to deal with because they ask lots of questions, and now are demanding real answers, not just the fluff from their Public Affairs spinmeisters.
Congratulations Ron, for allowing this ordinary citizen the opportunity to become a Fringe Activist from Dysfunction-Palooza.
Ron,
I am happy that you can be so positive and upbeat about your firing. It is sad though that the reporting agencies have gotten so stiffled. It is no wonder that they are going broke.
I am thankful that you have found this new unstiffled outlet. Your work, or play, now benefits us all.
Thank you,
AD HOC COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT,
SPECIAL MEETING
TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 2009
JOHN FERRARO COUNCIL CHAMBER, ROOM 340, CITY HALL – 2:00 PM
200 NORTH SPRING STREET, LOS ANGELES, CA 90012
MEMBERS:
COUNCILMEMBER ERIC GARCETTI, CHAIR
COUNCILMEMBER WENDY GREUEL
COUNCILMEMBER JANICE HAHN
COUNCILMEMBER BERNARD C. PARKS
COUNCILMEMBER JAN PERRY
COUNCILMEMBER BILL ROSENDAHL
COUNCILMEMBER HERB WESSON
(John A. White - Legislative Assistant - 213-978-1072; e-mail john.white@lacity.org
Note: For information regarding the Committee and its operations, please contact the Committee Legislative Assistant at the phone number and/or email address listed above. The Legislative Assistant may answer questions, provide materials, and provide notice of matters scheduled before the City Council. Assistive listening devices are available at the meeting; upon 24-hour advance notice, other accommodations, such as sign language interpretation, and translation services will be provided. Contact the Legislative Assistant listed above for the needed services. TDD available at
(213) 978-1055.
FILE NO. SUBJECT
(1)
- - - -
Mayor's Office, Chief Legislative Analyst and various departments to present verbal reports relative to status of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) grant applications, outreach, and related matters.
(2)
- - - -
Community Development Department to present verbal report relative to status of Workforce Investment Board-related ARRA grant applications.
er040709.agd
"United we stand, divided we fall"
I wish there was a way to raise funds to hire the type of investigative staff that you described. The Huffington Post is launching an investigative branch of their blog. Love her or hate her, Arianna understands the loss of the 4th estate provides too much cover for corruption on the local and state level.
Maybe we should hit her up?
Congrats on the 1-year mark. Amazing the speed, eh? You continue to impress, Ron.
Congrats, Ron! You've come a long way, baby.
Ron,
Firing you was the best thing The Daily News ever did for the citizens of Los Angeles. I say a big "thank you" to whoever made that decision.
What an interesting life. Thank you & the Indian guru who brought you to LA. We need you. This is just the start of your new life. The best is yet to come.
“We are played against each other instead of being brought together.”
Amen and amen Ron. You have spoken the truth.
Ron,
Congratulations on a great year. Keep up the good work.
Hi Ron,
You're not only blogging; you're making an impact. Thanks for your work, and for letting me be a small part of the early days of RonKayeLA.com.
Kudos to you. I left the LA area one year ago. Just had to get the hell out of California. And it will take "something big" to get me to ever set foot back in that state. It's such a mess. Good luck to you. Keep up the fight.
Ron, you write about "the failure of our city leaders to provide the environment we need to find our own happiness" -- and yet you also note that this past year was the best of your life. You further observe that, over the years, you and your wife have "found true happiness" here in this dysfunctional city.
Not to quibble -- you're right, obviously, in your diagnosis of City Hall -- but I wonder if you're off in your sense of the source of happiness. It seems to me you that you prove that real joy comes from someplace much deeper, someplace the petty tyrants and fools in City Hall can never reach.
Congrats on a great year!