Why, What’s the Difference

GUEST COMMENTARY--Several months ago as I was driving through the City of San Fernando I noticed that there were no “cars for sale”. As I continue to drive in an attempt to get home to Pacoima it also became obvious to me that there are no parking lots on the lawns of single family residents nor were the streets being used as auto repair shops. 

I decided to ask “why?” I drove to the San Fernando City Hall and inquired. A young woman asked me could she help I replies “Yes.” I asked “Why are there no cars for sale on the streets of San Fernando?” She ask me to wait a minute and made a phone call. A young man entered from the rear and I repeated my question. 

He laughed and asked, where did I live? Once I said Pacoima, he really had a good laugh, and replied: “We enforce the laws in San Fernando, we all live under the same state laws, the difference is the City of Los Angeles don’t enforce the existing laws.” 

I didn’t need any additional explanations, the reason for the steady creeping decadence and crud in the city of Los Angeles is the failure of the city’s code enforcement agencies. It matters not what laws are on the books, if they are not enforced they are worthless. But then, I read almost daily the city council is steady making new laws. For what, they cannot enforce the ones they have now. 

Since that initial drive through San Fernando, I have been there many times. There are no peddlers on the street, I never see individuals cooking and selling food from carts on the streets or in the parks. Nev-er saw an 18 wheel tracker trailer parked on the streets of San Fernando. 

Why, what is the difference, two communities in such close proximity, yet one is clean, the other in a steady decline into “Third World Status”.

(Morris Eichon and Edwin Ramirez are co-publishers of the Pacoima Today Newsletter.)

-cw