CommentsCORRUPTION WATCH-Human beings prefer myths over facts, so why do myths have advantages over facts?
(1) Myths are compatible with myth-makers’ belief system. People invent myths that make them feel comfortable.
(2) They are easy to invent. Myths only require the ability to jabber about stuff without any effort.
(3) Myths cannot be rebutted. Unlike facts, myths cannot be disproved. How would the average man living 3,500 years ago prove that God did not flood the entire world? How does one prove that God is not sitting in the sky watching everyone?
Facts, on the other hand, have disadvantages
(1) They are very hard to gather.
(2) Seldom does one have enough facts to draw firm conclusions about future action. People who rely on facts do not guarantee salvation or to stop all traffic fatalities. Whether it is Rev. Jim Jones or Eric Garcetti, Kool Aide is Kool Aide.
(3) LA City does not care about facts. In January 2014, Judge Allan Goodman found that Garcetti’s Hollywood Community Plan was intentionally based on fatally flawed data and wishful thinking to the extent that it subverted the law (i.e. Lies and Myths). Every plan offered by Garcetti has been based on similar Lies and Myths.
And now, here comes Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos, looking for a place to plop down his second headquarters (HQ2). Los Angeles made the top twenty.
Fact vs. Fiction, Los Angeles Style
For Bezos, separating fact from fiction should be vital. He will invest not only $5 billion but also his company’s future. In a city that has intentionally manufactured horse manure as facts and has been repeatedly caught in developer corruption, one hopes that Bezos is not duped by more LA Lies and Myths. Rather, Bezos should rely on his own research and believe nothing – nothing at all – from LA City Hall.
Two Good Facts to Support Locating in Los Angeles
(1) Weather – LA has the best weather with the premier residential locations on the south slope of the Hills (which we call “mountains”) running from Silver Lake, through Los Feliz and the Hollywood Hills then through the "Platinum Triangle" (Beverly Hills, Bel Air and Holmby Hills) and finally reaching the sea at the Palisades. Along the South Slope, a small bungalow goes for $1.5 million and 4-bedroom home costs $13 million. What is the dollar value of “no cold winter” and “no bugs in the summer?”
(2) Population Jambalaya – Everyone is welcome in Los Angeles (er, except maybe religious nut cases who support the orange buffoon). We don’t care what ethnicity or weird combo one may be. An Italian-Mexican can be President, oops, I mean Mayor, and we had a female Jewish-Black councilmember who was termed out. We have a gay-Irish-Native American councilmember. Los Angeles is even contributing one of its own, Meghan Markle, to the House of Windsor.
What about LA’s Known Negatives?
LA city’s housing costs are exorbitant and Amazon employees will have to give up building equity in a home. Whether they are forced to live in an apartment or perhaps buy a small home in a gentrified neighborhood, a hugely disproportionate share of their rent or mortgage will go to Wall Street.
The continued gentrification of South LA and Boyle Heights to provide decent residential housing within the Basin will bring a nightmare of social condemnation crashing down upon Amazon.
Education Will Also Be Exorbitant
The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is one of the worst public school systems in the industrialized world. It costs between $11,000 and $32,000 per year per student for private school. Immaculate Heart Junior and Senior High School in Hollywood costs $15,600 per year and is all female. The aforementioned-Meghan Markle is its most famous graduate.
The Los Angeles’ HQ2 Proposal was Illegal
The Los Angeles Amazon proposal was concocted in secret and the details are still hidden. Garcetti claims that he would not allow people to see the proposal for competitive reasons, but that motive does not legitimize an unlawful process. When any proposal starts out with a whopping lie, Bezos should be wary. Once the public sees the specifics, LA’s policy mavens will lay bare its labyrinth of lies, half-truths and prevarications with a host of state and federal lawsuits to follow.
Under California Government Code §54050, called The Brown Act, the cities, counties, etc. cannot make these decisions in private. Thus, nothing promised in the proposal is enforceable. Whatever LA submitted to Amazon is worthless – like Judge Goodman said: intentionally fatally flawed data, wishful thinking to the extent it subverted the law.
Are LA’s Problems Insurmountable?
Yes, but the eastern part of the County may be in play.
The vast corruption that ignores the quality of life of Angelenos in order to aggrandize the personal profits of a few real estate developers flows from the City’s unlawful Vote Trading System. Anything LA City Council passes is subject to years of litigation. (Garcetti’s Hollywood Community Plan Update began in 2005 and it is still in litigation and will be for another 5 to 10 years.)
Bezos has One Viable Option in the LA Area
Shun LA City – and look to the Pomona site. In 2017, LA fell to the number 61 slot in Milken’s Best Cities list, but the Riverside-San Bernardino area, which is east of Pomona, improved by 24 cities to #20. Also, LA’s traffic congestion ranks the worst in the world (Inrix’s 2016). By going east of Kellogg Hill, Bezos will find the huge Inland Empire, which is on the up-swing.
While LA city has USC, UCLA and Cal Tech in nearby Pasadena, the Pomona site has Harvey Mudd and the other Claremont Colleges as well as Cal Poly Pomona, University of La Verne and La Verne Law School along with the University of Redlands and UC Riverside and various JCs. The Inland school districts are far better than LAUSD, saving Amazon employees a fortune while providing quality public education for K-12.
While Austin, Texas may be the overall best selection for HQ2, if Bezos is California bound, east of Kellogg Hill would be the best location. By the way, it is only a ½ hour helicopter ride from Beverly Hills.
(Richard Lee Abrams is a Los Angeles attorney and a CityWatch contributor. He can be reached at: [email protected]. Abrams views are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
