You got to hand it to Antonio, he’s got a great sense or humor, irony at least, to agree to participate in the Daily News’ Town Hall meeting Monday May 23 with the topic “Fixing a Broken City.”
Who better to was poetic on that subject than the man most responsible for breaking the city?
It’s a rare opportunity for the public to actually engage the mayor and ask him a few questions that might be on their minds.
The Town Hall is part of the Daily News celebrating its 100th anniversary as “The Voice of the Valley.” It is being held at Reseda High School at 6:30 p.m. May 23 but you have to reserve a seat by clicking here and filling out a short form.
Last summer, Editorial Page Editor Mariel Garza, who will moderate the Town Hall, launched a series of articles”calling the mayor out for his long, second-term nap at a time when Angelenos needed him the most” and suggesting what needs to be done.
More than 4,000 readers participated in an online poll about the mayor’s overall performance in office with these results:
Super Good Fair Poor Dismal
1.8% 3.9% 7.5% 22.8% 64%
Tough crowd, those Valleyites.
His resigning would be a good start.
Ron, I read on the City Watch blog that the parking garages are once again in play. Why sell our public assets to the private sector when we can keep the assets under public control, ease the city budget, and make a solid investment by the pension systems. The City’s pension systems can own assets. Create an Infrastructure Authority either by ordiance or by a vote of the pension funds. Police and Fire, LACERS and DWP could jointly control the authority. Or any one of the pension systems can go it alone. You could also transfer parking management and operational staff to the IA. Virtually no down time and you would have a solid investment bringing the acturial rate of return sorely needed in these difficult times. Also, why send public funds overseas or put money into murky private equity schemes where risk is greater and not manageable.
We don’t want Antonio touching our pension funds. He’ll loot them too.
The Mayor has the majority appointments on Police and Fire and LACERS already. If the pension funds were to purchase the parking garages the investment would have to withstand a thorough review of risks, legal obstacles, and returns. Once again, if the private sector is interested you have a strong indication it would be a worthwhile investment. Selling public assets is a Reagan Republican idea. Its this notion that the private sector can be more efficient when we know this is an absolute fallacy. Some things should remain in the public sphere. Public schools, highways and roads, water and power, public safety, Medicare, and Social Security just to name a few services. Remove the greed option and keep our public assets under public ownership. In fact, the public should be able to buy the L.A. Dodgers from the private sector. You have seen what happened with our beloved dodgers by an owner who made his millions with parking garages.
Sure, we “Valleyiets” are a tough crowd. We’ve been shortchanged by Los Angeles for years. Antonio has made things worse, but so has the City Council. And, even the “voters” – after all, how do you expect city government to treat all of us when barely than 12% voted in the last city election?
Divide and Conquer! They’ve done both.
Sure, we Valleyites are a tough audience, but it’s damn hard to win when the deck is stacked against us.
We have two “divides” against us which helps them win. The hardest divide to cross is we are the Valley.
We tried to break away from the city, which we support with our mighty tax dollars and the State said we couldn’t. When that changed we tried again and failed; the parasite City and its union employees won.
Secondly, we’re divided into council districts, some of which spill over into the City. If the entire Valley could have voted as a block, the outcome of the last council election might have had a totally different outcome and Greig Smith’s heir apparent might be looking for honest work instead of continuing to feed out of the public trough.
Ron – surely you jest – you and I both know that Senor Sleaze will be a no-show for that affair. He can’t stand the heat of direct one-on-one question and answer sessions. We the public would not just hand him the softball questions that the media throw out and there is no way he would allow himself to be embarrased by a demand of accountability – it’s always somebody else’s fault.
The Mayor Who Broke LA has turned LA into a third world city: lunar cratered streets that give potholes a good name, crumbling sidewalks, street lights in need of $1 billion in repairs. Our parks and buildings are not maintained. Things have gotten so bad that he is erecting a wall around the Getty House now known as Fort Villaraigosa.
Touche Jack. Drive around LA and you would think in some areas like downtown, Echo Park, Eastside, MacArthur Park you were in Bangladesh. Its filthy and getting worse. Drive around the outer cities of Glendale, Burbank, Pasadena and clean and nice. LA has become a dump since the gangster Mayor took over. He’s an incompetent idiot. I’ve been to meeting in the Valley and you guys say one thing but then turn into a bunch of kiss asses when the Mayor shows up. You are tooo politically correct. You behave then turn your back and scream. I’m going to attend and I hope I see the same outrage as I do at the LANCC meetings slamming the politicians. You need to RSVP to go. Since when is a town hall meeting mandatory to sign in. Let it be OPEN To whoever shows up.
http://www.dailynews.com/mayor