Life is beautiful — novelists, filmmakers, liars, cheats and scoundrels can try all they want to make up story lines all they want but they are still just imitations of life.
Real life wins every time.
On the very day, the mayor announces another city budget that juggles the books, mortgaging the city’s future and solves nothing, the city — or at least Frank McCourt — loses control of our beloved Dodgers because he can’t pay his bills, can’t even protect fans from being beaten to near death by hoodlums.
At the very time that the mayor plans to refinance the massive debt on the Convention Center to meet payroll next year, city officials are rushing head-long into a deal tear down a big chunk of that white elephant and borrow even more to rebuild it so it can turn it over to AEG and along with most of the tax dollars that would be generated by bring the NFL back to LA.
Walter O’Malley is not resting in peace today. Frankly, you shouldn’t either.
Your city officials are just as irresponsible as McCourt, just as given to selling fairy tales, just as given to spending money they don’t have while living like kings themselves.
Bills may never come due in fantasies but they do in real life, sooner or later.
The city cannot go on promising no furloughs, no layoffs, no cuts in benefits or salaries while hoping for an economic miracle that isn’t going to happen.
City officials are lying to the workers and they are lying to you.
You can’t give away the farm for Farmers Field and luxury hotels and billionaire’s art museums.
This is a town where dreams can come true but there’s a lot of people who crashed and burned chasing their fantasies.
Didn’t they want to run the Dodgers out of town so they can replace the stadium with luxury condos?…”Chavez Ravine Condos”…I guess the so called planned stadium near the Convention Center will be used to host both baseball and football games….How Dreamy…
What about my free Club House seats? Do I still get my 6 free seats each game? And if MLB takes over Staples Center, does that mean I have to refund my 300 free courtside seats too? Should I take another free trip to D.C. while this gets more bigger by the day?
I balanced the budget yesterday, so where’s the rewards here?
THere should be an investigation into every politician especially the Mayor and City Council members to find out how many Dodger tickets they’ve been given. I heard its in the 1,000′s. When the media report the story on AEG and the Stadium why don’t they include the fact that AEG has donated to at least 9 of the city council members especially Jan Perry campaigns? This is a huge conflict of interest. The Nation is laughing at Los Angeles. The nat’l web sites have all our dirt posted and no one with a brain in charge. Its a sad state of Affairs in LA when we have corrupt politicians lying, stealing, who are unethical, crooks and our once Great City has fallen apart. The once great Dodger Franchise has lost its reputation all because of another crook. I hope the Feds go after him.
Ban it (the sale of alcohol) and they will come.
Ron, the City’s Pension funds should jointly purchase the Dodgers and sell stock to the public like the Green Bay Packers. Get the acturial rate of return and excess revenue can be used for parking improvements, shuttles and renovations.
Ron,
I hate to tell you, but some one else is masquerading as you on your own blog. That’s the only way to explain saying:
The city cannot go on promising no furloughs, no layoffs, no cuts in benefits or salaries
at 3:07 p.m. when not 8 hours earlier, someone purported to be you said:
… exception of civilian workers being asked to pay a portion of their health care costs for the first time…Here’s what the Coalition of City Unions put out to members today to get them to ratify the proposal or face loss of pay through furloughs.
Mayor’s Budget Released; $400+ Million Budget Gap to be Balanced with 36 Furlough Days For Workers in Units That Don’t Agree to Contract Amendment
Both statements cannot be true.
Will the real Ron Kaye please stand up?
Ron:
This is beyond fabulous. . . . We now have a multi-generational opportunity. . . . The ‘people’ (not the City, the people) can own the Dodgers. . . To get to $1 Billion, all that is needed is 100,000 people at $10,000 per person.
There is no better way to unite the City. . . . We’re talking ‘equity’, no debt. . . which is the way to go these days. . . . That means the middle class and the poorer parts of town can go to games because seats can be reserved at lower prices for such families. . . Like with the ’84 Olympics, some of the profits can be set aside for LA Youth Athletic programs. . . . .
A complete ‘win’ for the people of Los Angeles. . . . Economic empowerment of the people. . . capitalism in its truest form. . . and with economic empowerment will come political empowerment. . . precisely the themes for which you advocate on this blog. . . . .
There are many minor league baseball teams owned by the people. . . . It’s time for some real ‘people power’ to take hold with our national institutions, like baseball.
For those who feel this is ‘socialist’, I have three words for you. . . ‘Sarah Palin’s Alaska’. . . . You won’t hear or see this story on Fox News. . . But part of Sarah Palin’s popularity in Alaska was the result of her promising (and delivering) during her campaign for Governor that she will raise the gross royalty every citizen of Alaska gets off of the top from every barrel of oil taken out from beneath the soil of Alaska. . . . Sarah delivered. That’s why when she was picked by John McCain for VP, she had around a 60% approval rating (actually, it could have been higher).
With some real political and civic leadership, the people of Los Angeles can absolutely pull this off. . . Conceive, Believe, and Achieve. . . . The politicians don’t think bold enough (comes with the territory. . . It takes a lot of skill to really ‘lead’ in the absence of a crisis. . . and, as we are finding out, even in a crisis, where true leaders are ‘made’, the leadership and managerial skills we need don’t seem to be manifesting themselves. There are times when it’s ok to ‘coast’; and there are times when we need to ‘soar’. . . . The motto for now, going forward, should be: ‘No coasting allowed’.
I believe the Green Bay Packers have around 112,000 shareholders. . . . In a City (LA) of 4 million people and a County (LA County) of 8 million people (give or take), to find 100,000 people to do this is within the realm of possibility.
The McCourts are completely screwed. . . both of them. The MLB move means that neither Frank nor Jamie can rely on the Dodgers as their little ‘piggy-bank’ to finance the payments to the lawyers. . . It’s fine to be a tough businessman, but now that the gravy-train has reached the station, the lawyers no longer have anything to ‘milk’. . . . So that over the next few months. . . (Frank’s and Jamie’s lawyers have to first go without a payday or two), an effort will be started to figure out a way to get the team sold. . . Egos on both sides will override imagination until MLB will force a sale and Frank and Jamie will have nothing so say about it since both will be out of money.
Each will look for ‘partners’, but no one is going to buy into a ‘mess’. . . and it will be a mess. . . Frank has not paid income taxes for the past few years. . .the IRS will want to know what is going on, and who knows how Jamie is going to pay the mortgage on the multiple homes she owns. . . .
The best chance to pick up the Dodgers will be in bankruptcy court since that’s where things are headed now that the cash resources from the Dodgers will no longer be at Frank’s disposal.
This is precisely why an pure and simple equity cash offer (backed by the people) of $1 Billion (maybe less) will do the trick. . . As with the Packers, professional management to run the club can be retained. Maybe Peter O’Malley will come back. . . .
Major League Baseball will object. . . . but that’s where ‘people power’ comes into play. . . Baseball’s anti-trust exemption was created by judicial fiat back in the 1920′s. . . That anti-trust exemption can be taken away by Congress. . . . So all we need is political leadership combined with civic leadership and this can be the beginning of the true LA Turnaround. . . . .
Time for the people to lead. . . .believe me, start the parade, and the politicians will follow. . . .
I truly hope LA and its people take advantage of this incredible, historic, wonderful opportunity to empower themselves, unite the City, and gain a true sense of economic and political empowerment. . . .
If there was ever a case of ‘use it. . . or lose it’. . . This (opportunity for the people to buy the Dodgers) is ‘it’. . .
We can ‘moan and groan’. . . or we can ‘mobilize and grow’ both individually and as a City. I advocate for the latter.
Noel Weiss
Wow! Good information on the public ownership of the Dodgers. The pension funds are a good place to start because they do have the resources its a matter of reallocation. Reduce itnernational holdings and redirect the private equity holdings. It is complicated but if the Mayor wanted it done it would be done. The neighborhood councils could also weigh in on this issue. At least put it on the agenda.
Anonymous @ 10:20 a.m.
No, the pensions are most certainly NOT a good place to start. It’s doubtful MLB would ever allow public ownership of one of their precious franchises but even if they did, the Mayor (thank God) is not in control of pension funds. As much as people hate public workers, why would you want them to have control over a beloved baseball team? I’m sure if a public offering of “Dodger Stock” were to be made available, you would have people lining up to buy in. There’s no need to risk the future livelihood of retirees on a game.
FIRST, I WOULD LIKE TO SAY: RON KAYE IS A NATIONAL TREASURE,I KNOW THE PEOPLE OF LOS ANGELES APPRECIATE HIS GENIUS.HE IS ONE OF MY MODERN DAY HEROS. RON WILL WIN SOME AWARD SOME NOBEL-LIKE- PRIZE AND HE WILL BE CALLED TO WASH D.C. AND THE PEOPLE OF LOS ANGELES WILL SAY: RON KAYE LIVED AND SLEPT HERE. LONG LIVE RON KAYE’S GENIUS.
HOW TO START A DODGERS CO-OP. I WILL BUY AN EQUAL SHARE. MAYBE SOMEONE LIKE ENTREPRENEUR MATT EPSTEIN OF SOHA
(SHERMAN OAKS HOMEOWNERS ASSOC.)WOULD BE THE POINT MAN TO START SUCH A PROJECT. RUMOR HAS IT HE’S ON THE MLB SHORT LIST OF CANDIDATES TO OVERSEE THE DODGERS.THE FOLLOWING LINK SHOULD BE OF INTEREST TO ALL WHO STILL HAVE AN INTEREST IN OUR COMMUNITY AND HOW IT GROWS.
http://www.pri.org/business/social-entrepreneurs/how-to-start-an-energy-co-op3391.html
There are ways to structure a pension fund ownership of the dodgers but rather than go down that road again, I could definitely buy into the idea that the public purchase the Dodgers through a co-op of some sort. At $10K per share they woould sell like hotcakes and of course the more well heeled would buy multiple shares. The link to the PRI page on community ownership of their power grid is one example of how the public’s power can be harnessed and focused to benefit not only the current residents but generations to come. The Green Bay Packers are doing just fine and it would be interesting to have more information on how the team is strucutured, revenue, management, etc.