A showdown is brewing…
On one side we have Antonio Villaraigosa, who made a promise last year that he would put 1000 more police officers on the streets of LA, and he would find the money to do so by raising the city’s trash fees. Now that the fee hike is raking in around $150 million in new revenue, AV is ready to make good on his promise, and hire more cops.
On the other side we have former LAPD Chief, Bernard Parks who, during Tuesday’s fit of ABB mania (anything to Bash Bratton) said that the city is badly over budget, and the LAPD is over budget too—ergo sum, nearly all that trash money ought to go into the general fund, not into the hiring of cops. In addition, Parks (whom the Daily News has taken to calling Bitter Bernie) is pushing for a cap to any cop hiring—money or no money—and he’s persuaded half the City Council to side with him.
The mayor’s response Wednesday afternoon was to say in so many words that he was willing to take this one to the wall. “The council is going to cap police hiring over my dead body,” snarled Villaraigosa.
Certainly, Antonio likes the drop in crime that’s occurred on his and Bratton’s watch and has no intention of giving it up. He also wants to keep his popular police chief happy. AND he wants credit for keeping last year’s promise of getting 1000 more cops on the street with the help of the trash fees.
So far the smart money’s on Antonio to win this one. But there are still a lot of balls in the air….so stay tuned.
By the way, the LA Times is so busy covering the WGA strike that it’s failing to report on the fight that’s ratcheting up at city hall. But the Daily News’ Rick Orlov is doing it up right. Check this story and this, and this one, for lots more of the details.
Oh, yeah, and one more thing: On Wednesday, Parks also introduced a non-binding resolution to ban the use of the N-word in Los Angeles.
All you outside agitators who don’t live within the L.A. city limits and don’t pay taxes to L.A. sure seem to stick your noses into their business a lot. Is Bernie telling Topanga how to spend its tax money?
Celeste,
The WGA strike is an important issue, who is going to write all those great lines for all the really important “reality” shows on television. Can you imagine life without the great writers for some of these shows?
1)Flavor of Love
2)Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire
3)Dog the Bounty Hunter
4)The Bachelor
5)Survivor
6)Big Brother
7)Dancing with the Stars
8)American Idol
For the love of God and Hollywood write a story about the WGA, we desperately need their talent.
If you write another post about Bitter Bernie, we might have to pull out the race card.
Thanks, Celeste, for the update. You’re absolutely right that this an important issue being obscured by the more sexy WGA strike. Plus Bernie is counting on the general apathy of the voting public — even if many homeowner groups around the city have been waiting for the cops promised by the trash tax. The extra $20/month per household comes to about $250/yr, which is a lot, some $150 million, you say. There’s also an important principle involved, of bait-and-switch taxation (the Daily News calls Bernie’s actions downright “felonious” in its editorial). In most cities, this would be a huge issue. People should absolutely email their reps in advance of tomorrow’s votel: Councilmember.lastname@lacity.org
I usually like to post comments about the war in Iraq. But a recent set of comments here about corruption, inspired me to post this link. The reader comments on ths L.A. Times are “interesting”.
Reagan library can’t fully account for 80,000 artifacts
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-reagan8nov08,0,973091.story?
Hey, LA Res, my son’s on the verge of a full blown anxiety attack at the thought that the Daily Show and Colbert Report might be in reruns for the foreseeable future.
(My feeling is that, as long as it doesn’t affect the season debut of The Wire, we’re good, although, admittedly I already sorely miss the Daily Show and it’s only been three nights without it. But they were on vacation two weeks ago, you see….)
All kidding aside, obviously the writer’s strike is a very big deal in terms of its potential affect on LA’s economy, if they really do stay out and management won’t settle, which at the moment seems likely. They’re talking about staying out ’till (gulp) 20008, or as long as it takes. And , as you likely know, there’s a strong possibility that SAG and the DGA could follow.
The WGA hasn’t struck, if I’m not mistaken, in 20 years.
I may try to get over to a strike site later today. I’ve been getting info sent to me that’s fairly interesting, but I just haven’t had time to look into it.
Woody, in answer to your question last thread, in the last two weeks, I’ve been working on a couple of book chapters, a magazine article, a book review (for the LA Times, that is not finished yet), a couple of upcoming news pieces, and there’s the small matter of the fact that I’m getting that %$$#@&^%$!! MFA at Bennington, which means that I turn in a fairly substantial amount of writing and reading analysis, once a month. (They actually expect me to work for the damned degree. What’s that about?!!!)
I’m not complaining about any of it. But the multitasking factor has been particularly intense in the weeks since the fires.
P.S. LA Res…..Yeah, I saw that Reagan Library story last night. (Eighty thousand artifacts missing?????!!!!!) Clearly time for the library folks to start cruising EBay.
Think the Reagan Library is bad…consider that Clinton is blocking the release of millions of documents from his and Hillary’s first two terms, including the documents that they had Sandy Berger steal from the National Archives. Heck, Hillary coudn’t even find the Rose Law Firm billing records sitting right in her kitchen with her fingerprints all over them. “Oh, those records.”
$150,000,000 in revenue to put 1,000 cops on the street? Either those cops are overpaid or the city bureaucracy is very inefficient. That pays even more than being a journalist. Where’s the hiring line start? I’ll volunteer to deal with the L.A. gangs and teach them some respect. I’d close the tattoo parlors and would make gang members go all the way back to Mexico for a tattoo, and then I wouldn’t let them back in.
Celeste, if you’re having trouble finishing that degree, do what I did. Use Cliff’s Notes.
Woody, truth be told, I totally love the Bennington program. But I tend to be a perfectionist on certain kinds of things I’m doing in the course of it, so time management has been….challenging.
Celeste, they don’t print your grades on the diploma, and it won’t make you a better or worse writer if you make an A or a B. Just, “get ‘er done.” In fact, to help you out, I’ll write your thesis for you. There’s no way that they could tell that it wasn’t your work.
As it happens, there are no grades in this thing, unless you ask for them, and I didn’t. The cool thing about going back to school at my age, is that you’re doing the work because you want to. It’s just that I happen to be a LUNATIC.
Woody, with your offer to both become an L A cop and finish Celeste’s MFA for her (do you write fiction, then? Would your point of view pass as hers? Hmmmm….) you’d be awfully busy. Not to mention the commuting problem. Actually, Bratton has an excellent Q & A in today’s L A Times with the editors about how his budget actually works, the constraints of the consent decree on budget, etc. You may have heard of another big city called New York, where he was Chief/Commissioner before this, and how he cleaned up that city and made Rudy G look good. But Rudy, like our former Police Chief Bernie Parks, had to get all egotistical and competitive about it all. Bratton is one of the most highly regarded anti-terror law enforcement officers, too, recognized as such on a national level (e.g., Judith Miller’s xlnt analysis in this summer’s City Journal). So your criticisms of his dept. and practices could qualify you for the Bitter Bernie Sour Berries Award.
But if you still want to be an L A cop and get an MFA, like Celeste, you’ll have to be a very accomplished multi-tasker. We’re still hiring a few good men, though.
Maggie, men are not good multi-taskers. I’ll have to take them one at a time…one this week and the other the next week.
I already have a MA degree. It’s in accounting, so I’ve learned to create fiction out of real numbers and can apply that talent to any other creative writing. The school would be amazed at the logic that Celeste acquired after starting her studies. In turn, Celeste can become an accountant.
Maybe some equally creative person can explain why it takes so much money to hire 1,000 police.
Also, inspired by the non-binding resolution, I did not use the “N-word” in Los Angeles today.
If anyone is disturbed by the writer’s strike, use this opportunity to watch Fox News.
Celeste I hope you had to spend some time in residence at Bennington. As someone who once did time in Northern New England the falls there are not to be missed. Particularly for those of us challenged by growing up in California where there are are only two seasons – wet and dry (or fire).
Besides, observing the typical little town complete with Yankee Parthenons – the Congregational Church on the village green – has to be good for the writer in all of us. Makes one all Thornton Wilderish.
RLC—Yeah, that’s part of the fun of it. We are required to do two residencies a year of about 12-days long—five residencies in all. I was there in June and will go back in January. (It’s a 2 year program.)
Frankly, I just loved it.
“Makes one all Thornton Wilderish.” (laughing) Ex-ACTly!!