Our State of the City, Mr. Mayor? It's Fixable, But We Don't Have the Courage to Fix It

ALPERN ON POLITICS-Our past, present and future will not be determined by one man, one mayor, or any one person. We all know this, and so when any critique of the mayor (or any other elected official) goes out, it's just as much a reflection of our own collective idiocy that gets us into or out of this mess as it is to the mayor. 

Mayor Garcetti got into office in large part because he called "shenanigans' on the LADWP and other related silliness of a few inside powers that are destroying the economic future and taxpaying residents and businesses in our City. 

Everyone knows that our City isn't the best business climate in which to operate, and that the LADWP gets paid too darned much, that our infrastructure and traffic is in dire need of repair, and that our pension system isn't too sustainable to the point where we we're virtually paying more for retired employees than for current employees and their services. 

Everyone knows that. 

Everyone also knows that our elected officials don't dare cross the unions and other insider interests playing us all like puppets because...well...they won't be elected or re-elected. 

Everyone appreciates our police, and that crime is going up, and that our fire/police/first-responder services need a 21st-century upgrade with respect to technology. 

Everyone all knows we have to find a way (or ways) to reduce disparity between LADWP workers and other City workers, and that such a salary/benefit fix would go a long way towards paying down our required infrastructure upgrades. 

Everyone all knows that our budgeting process needs more daylight and transparency, and that the taxpayers just don't get represented when it comes to spending their money...and that it's not just the amount of taxes we pay but how they're being spent that gets us all upset. 

Everyone all knows that we don't regularly practice following the rule of law, whether it's adding on to one's house or employing someone illegally, or whether it's a variance or whether it's parking one's RV and living in it illegally for a couple of years at the expense of others who are exhausted and working up to 2-3 jobs to pay for a reasonable quality of life. 

Everyone wants the average citizen to have a decent wage, and that most Americans do work, or at least want to work to get themselves out of poverty...but that there also has to be forces to keep wages up. 

Everyone knows that flooding the region with low-income, low-skilled labor is a first-rate way to drive wages down--of course, the will and courage to fix that just isn't there.  In other words, whether it's pandering to employers or pandering to political forces, we just won't do what's necessary to allow the Law of Supply and Demand to encourage and even force large employers to pay their employees more. 

Everyone knows there's a limit as to what laws can do, especially if they're not being enforced, and everyone (almost everyone, perhaps) knows that small businesses aren't as profitable as large chain stores, and that too much pressure on small employers will force them out of business and help no one whatsoever. 

Everyone knows that when discussions with unions and neighborhood councils occur simultaneously, and when businesses and employee advocacy groups meet simultaneously, and when taxpayer advocacy groups and public sector officials meet simultaneously, tough but necessary measures result in problems being resolved. 

So long as we have a Mayor and City Council who do too much behind closed doors, our problems won't be resolved...ever.  Everyone knows that. 

Political courage isn't just the job of our electeds, but rather it's our own job as well. 

Mayor Garcetti has done quite a bit of outreach to neighborhood councils and community organizers in the City of Los Angeles, but if he wants to achieve the political cover it takes to make sure "the powers that be" are truly limit-set to the benefit of all, then he will have to empower them more by requiring their presence at meetings usually and normally performed behind closed doors. 

And to not just follow the will of the people during re-election season. 

Everybody knows that.  The mayor, along with the rest of us, can fix pretty much all of our problems...but it's unlikely that either the mayor or any of the rest of us will find the courage to do what it takes to fix our problems. 

And everybody knows that. 

And everybody will just keep voting in the same folks, who promote the same system, who fail to fix the obvious problems, and who will give plenty of fodder for Times expose’s or CityWatch articles...but not allow us to resolve these bleeding sores leaching the life out of our otherwise fair City. 

Everybody knows that.  In a word, Mr. Mayor: Courage.  And ditto for the rest of us.

 

(Ken Alpern is a Westside Village Zone Director and Board member of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Planning and Outreach Committees, and currently is Co-Chair of its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11Transportation Advisory Committee and chairs the  nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at [email protected]  He also does regular commentary on the Mark Isler Radio Show on AM 870, and co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at www.fogl.us. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.)

-cw

 

 

CityWatch

Vol 13 Issue 32

Pub: Apr 17, 2015