Thank you for writing.
It’s time to bring the straight spouse and innocent children of gay
people out in the open. I am a straight
spouse and there are many many like me, some now know because the spouse has
come out, some still living in the dark, not knowing, not quite understanding
issues in the marriage or in the parent/child relationship. People who keep secrets hurt themselves and
in turn hurt everyone around them. But that
is not what you wrote about, but how your own father affected you and your
growing up year. That is unfair, my
daughters, at the time, were 13 and 16, at the cusps of sexual awareness and
proud of an intact family from which were a part of. Lots of unknown and uncertainty that
concerned them as well. None of us saw
it coming, no signs, no hints, my x was also a Home Depot guy, loved making
things/fixing things around the home.
Our world felt apart, and their father also wanted to have them accept the ‘new’ him and all of it. It’s not homosexuality that is the issue, the issue is learning about the deceit, lies, and the hurtful way my x conducted the breakup of the marriage, was hard on my kids. Who is this person? And why does he think that we should accept his behavior?
My x wanted to push his new life on them, as if that
was a way to gain acceptance and to say ‘see, it wasn’t so bad…’ My children met the other man soon enough and they never talked to me about how this, any of it. made them feel. Luckily for us, it was not front and center as it was for you.
You didn’t deal with it badly, your father dealt with it
badly. Often, it seemed to me the need
of the gay spouse overshadowed those who they affect and that they
didn’t understand why it was taking us so long to process. They have had years
envisioning the day of reckoning, none of us have that luxury. They wanted us
to act like everything is normal, in fact, none of it is. I did not sign up to be a gay man’s wife when
I married him. My children did not sign up to be children of a mixed
orientation household. None of it is
fair.
For me, I lost 20 plus years of my life, to a man who could
not love a woman, the way that a spouse should, for him, it was a great
marriage, and that he thought we could just wrap things up and move on. I have lost a lot, my children lost a lot,
but we all go on the best way we can. My
children are fine now, after 4 1/2 years. They are both in college, they have a good
relationship with both of us, and their extended families. They don’t discriminate against gays or
anyone else. They truly are gifts. I know you are and your sister are a gift to
your parents. You are a whole life ahead of you and you get to choose how you conduct your life. I always told my kids, you can have
any kind of relationship you want with anyone you want or not have a
relationship. No one should say ‘I love you’ then hurt you like you are nothing but a doormat. Good
luck to you and your sister.
My dad came out when I was 13. He and my mom married when she was 18 and they were married 22 years and had 3 children. In my dad’s case in hind site I would say all of the tell tale signs were there. He was a beautician by trade. He and my mom owned a salon and he worked there six days a week He was off on Sundays. On Sundays we went to the mall and shopped that was our “family time” shopping…
My dad worked really hard to provide well for us. We lived what most would call a great life in material terms. My mom didn’t have to work. She was very religious and we went to church 3 days a week, without my dad. He was not religious. In his rare spare time he would make beautiful stained glass windows and ornate victorian lamp shades. Looking back, I say how could she NOT have known? Or did she and it was just easier to ignore it than ask??
There was never any discussion. One day my mom said Dad is going to be moving out and he showed up with his truck and took only his clothes.
That is such a surreal memory for me. I feel like at that moment,I numbed myself to any feelings associated with him leaving. I knew he was out of the house but I never grieved his leaving, it was easier to just not process it.
I then went into protector mode because I wanted my mom to be okay. I would see her crying and would want to make everything okay for her. I think what hurt me more than his leaving was seeing all of the emotional pain and turmoil she was going through.
So all in all I went through the rest of my life smiling saying I was FINE and its now in my mid thirties that my heart and spirit are saying NO I’m not!
This has really affected me on many levels.
When my dad moved in with his partner, he invited us over for weekend visits, however he didnt tell us a- that he was gay, b that he was living with his partner. So here i was this 13 year old girl in this house that he was clearly sharing with someone, I just didnt know who…
Once we were introduced to his partner, I think i was more concerned with being polite and not making anyone feel uncomfortable, so I just tried to make nice and go along with it all, because after all he was the only dad that I had gay or not and I wanted to love him and NEEDED him to love me too.
I dont have a problem with my dad being gay. I think that everyone needs to be who they are , but trying to live a life as something that you are not and involving your spouse and children is just a very painful thing for everyone involved. If I had to give any advice to my parents I would say that I just wish that there had been discussions to process all of this, and I wish there had been therapy at the very least, because these feelings that are stuffed down for so long are going to surface at some point and the sooner they are dealt with openly and honestly the sooner everyone can get down to the very important business of healing and continuing to grow as a family and as healthy individuals.
I can’t believe it’s been almost ten years since your first event, Gregory. Congratulations on your past contributions and I am looking forward to ZOCALO 3.0.
Why is this open only to public school students? What about home-schooled kids, kids in Catholic schools, etc.? I think it should be open to anyone under 19, including drop-outs, kids who got a GED or passed the California Equivalency exam.
Congratulations to the Zocalo’s Organization and fabulous staff for having the imagination, creative talent and management to be able to offer the LA Community a most stimulating mix of entertaining and intellectual discourse, food for both the heart and mind.
Gregory and Zócalo Staff past and present,
CONGRATS! You’ve rocked our world! Thanks for making L.A. the center of your universe and continuing to reveal it’s intriguing and amazing life.
Gregory, Dulce, and Co.: You guys really are doing amazing work. I’m so grateful that Zócalo continues to help connect Angelenos and to further thoughtful discourse. I look forward to more discussion and the continued sharing of ideas.
Warmest congratulations, Gregory! Without question, Zócalo produces the most fascinating public programs in town with the most interesting guests. More than one event has brought me into contact with people I’m grateful to have met. Thank you for everything you do, and all the best to Zócalo going forward!
I’m a big fan of Patrick Soon-Shiong. I’ve been in healthcare for 15+ years and have read about the great technology-based projects PSS is spearheading. I’m also an L.A. native, so anyone who truly appreciates the greatness and uniqueness of Los Angeles always wins points with me.
PSS is doing amazing things in the healthcare technology space. Keep it up!! LA can be the healthcare technology model for all to follow, especially as it relates to patient care and home/remote monitoring to keep people healthy! We certainly have a great sandbox to play in with our diversity of people, research facilities such as the UCLA wireless health institute, numerous healthcare organizations all based right here and large and complex payer systems.
Today’s New York Times commented that many of Romney’s statements in the final presidential debate sounded something like responses to questions given the finalists in beauty pageants. Ann Romney– whatever the motivation– to me comes across much the same way. She won’t comment much on issues past the stand by your man kind of platitudes. But I’m kind of stuck back there where her own parents weren’t allowed to come to her nuptials. I don’t like secret societies– not in religion, not in government.
It’s inspiring to hear such an uplifting voice from a young man who’s resolved to also inspire others to do their best against the odds. Your essay reminds me why my work is important. Please know that you have good company in your good intentions for your community. Thank you, Rodney!
Thank you for this excellent article highlighting the need for our cultural institutions to step down from their pedestals and find ways to engage the public once they step through the doors of a museum. All cultural marketing has been focused on getting the public to the cultural space but little has been dedicated to creating “the experience” once the individual enters. You don’t need to “talk down” to the public to get them to engage but find and use the vernacular to highlight why what they are viewing is relevant to their lives and why the work is important.
Museums, being a relatively modern institution in the
history of art (well, in the history of history really), are subject to the
pangs of growth and development; they, like all things, must adapt or perish.
At the inception of museums they were self-indulgent collections, privately
held aggregations of personally curated pieces for the display of wealth and
personal prestige; they were exclusive, access granted only to the elite or
otherwise worthy. Between the 14th and 17th centuries more and more collections
became “public” in that they were donated or opened to the general
populace, however, like so many other cultural institutions (including
literature) of the time, access was still structurally limited to those who had
either means or opportunity to partake of them.
Fast-forwarding through the timeline we see the expansion of
the role of the museum as the curator of major, minor and independent art in
every viable location. Museums are now found in metropolitan areas as well as
tiny hamlets in the tucked away corners of the country; further, the
collections themselves experience an extraordinary variety of expression from
specifically defined periods of High Art to the broad collections containing a
comprehensive selection of Art through the ages to the micro-galleries of the
local, avant-garde, and para-/neo-famous.
In spite of all of this, the egalitarian nature of
selections does not result in museums experiencing a similarly inclusive
demographic of attendees. Somewhere, in the transition of the museum from the
stubborn vault of High Art to the new expression embracing “Art” in
its many definitions and states of vagary, what was lost was the attention of
the patrons. We cannot hold strictly to the forms which served us in the past
and expect the public to follow along; each era, each period, sees new
innovation on a broad scale and while museums have adapted to some degree they
have become simultaneously mired in the rigid formality of the past and
forgotten by sociocultural architects as footnotes or archives.
Instead of this stagnation, museums should be vibrant
institutions, distilling at once the admiration of our past mastery of
expression and celebrating the continuation, abandonment or destruction of
these traditions as our cultural identities develop throughout the modern era.
In this regard, Mr. Reiter expresses the desire to envision a new direction for
the concept of the museum. Implied in his article, or rather following from his
article and in concert with other similar calls to action by other writers, I
see several important ways by which the museum as a cultural institution may be
recast (these are offered without particularly extensive research).
The most important, and most generically addressed, would be
to consider, at every level, the role and emphasis of Art within the
educational and cultural spheres. Were we able to comprehensively renew our
approach to teaching about art and the experience of it, then even without any
alterations to the museum model we would see an increase in attendance and
likely an accompanied increase in engagement. This would include: increased
funding and emphasis on art at early levels of education, art programs as
enrichment throughout the primary and secondary education systems, attention to
the interdisciplinary aspects of art as it pertains to and reinforces the other
primary subject areas, and the promotion of art experiences relying primarily
on local galleries/museums as resources. The “radical de-centering” entertained
by Cuno is a relatively uncommon occurrence as most museum patrons are unsure
how to even begin engaging a work, much less how to seek the profound and
transcendental truths in the works around them, but this can be changed. As
more and more individuals find themselves equipped to think in the language of
art, they will begin to understand its role and expression, and ultimately they
will come to appreciate the experience of it.
To reinforce this societal reframing of the importance of
the arts, we must similarly adapt our appreciation for the museum-space and its
role in the public square. Similar to the interdisciplinary refocusing that
must occur on the educational level, a more active integration of museums (and
the museum-esque usage of public spaces) into the cityscape or psychic landscape
must simultaneously occur. New museums must be planned in such a way as to
reinforce or accentuate existing cultural corridors, their architecture should
strike boldly with momentum toward the future, but their “storefront,”
entrances, and street level spaces should exude familiarity of purpose. The
incorporation of elements of the Krens formula as well as other components such
as conference and lecture space, public book collections (related or generic),
and mixed studio space should create an attitude that these museums are a
logical destination for a variety of common and possibly everyday purposes.
Existing museums should aggressively reach out to form coalitions and
partnerships to increase cross-utilization of their existing space for a broad
variety of programming, they should immediately reevaluate their existing
architecture and address whether or not it is conducive to a broader view of
the art experience as multi-modal and interdisciplinary, and, short of exterior
and structural renovation, they should strongly consider reorganizing their
existing space to accommodate visitors with coherent and intuitive viewing
experiences.
Finally the gallery and curation of art itself must be
addressed, while some of the gap may be closed given a campaign for renewed
passion for the fine arts, patrons are often left feeling the intimidation of
the uninitiated to which Mr. Reiter refers. To combat this disconnect, the
museum, or any cultural institution seeking to remain simultaneously relevant
and enriching, should seek to provide additional layers of information and
interactivity. We are now talking of virtual docents, augmented reality
applications (with links to additional art, journals, research, videos and live
chats with experts or other viewers), geotag/location-based activation of
enrichment/informational materials, and digital take-homes, for example, the
ability to “bookmark” your favorite pieces (prompting additional information
such as in-gallery locations of other similar pieces or pieces by the same
artist, highlighting relevant shop inventory, and connecting your viewing
experience to other social media).
As museums have opened their doors to all art, so too must
museums open their doors to all patrons, however, this has less to do with being
open and more to do with being approachable. The transition from exclusive to
inclusive museums (referring to art AND patrons) is completing its final stage;
and as we concede that “Art” takes many forms and styles, so too must we
concede that the experience of Art is concomitantly multi-modal. I agree with
Mr. Reiter’s article, however, I would posit that, in addition to his
conclusion that the city and museum need to see themselves as interdependent,
society and the individual, while receiving the effect of this interdependency,
should also see it as their responsibility to participate fully in the
discussion of the concept of the museum in contemporary society and the
approach to Art in education and the public sphere.
It all makes me wonder if using a lightweight titanium bicycle instead of a heavier one is cheating. I’m not excusing the spiral into a massive on-going cover up. Yet, part of me says “Look what the guy has done! And look at what he did for cancer! Who CARES if he did something to up the oxygen level in his blood.” Maybe one day people will look back and think it was crazy to penalize him. Who knows? The real “doping” that I think is problematic is branding. We are addicted to branding– so much so that we “brand” sneakers with some star athlete’s name and have people kill each other to get a pair. Maybe it’s time we “get a pair” and learn the difference between branding and integrity. Because all too often, we are being “doped”– or are the dopes for falling for it all. In the case of Lance Armstrong it really is sad, because he was and is an incredible athlete and generous human being who translated his fame into helping countless people through raising money for medical research by using his name to be a spokesman (no pun intended) for cancer awareness and research. And now we are supposed to make him a scape-goat for all our fantasies about bigger, better, stronger, longer. Madison Avenue has doped– or is that duped– us all. We turn our heads over to branding and sound bites and even in political campaigns seem to not care if something is a blatant lie, as long as it’s a good add. I hope Lance Armstrong finds his way out of mess and into a happy and productive future. Athletes and those who “handle” them are continuously looking at supplements and techniques to eek another hundredth of a second off someone’s time. Yes, Armstrong is responsible in the end. But his level of athleticism is still artistry. And his generosity and work for cancer has done a lot of good. He’s still more pro than perp. We constantly recycle celebrities who go straight from re-hab to talk shows despite tawdry and criminal behaviors from shoplifting to shooting up. I think we could cut Lance Armstrong a little slack.
James Koenig, your comment makes you out to be just another in a line (luckily a short line) of
“excusers” who don’t have the fortitude or the perception to comprehend
the damage that he did to not only the sport of cycling but also to the
minds and spirits of thousands of young aspiring cyclists. You are
classic: because everyone is doing it and because the advertising
industry is (and BTW always has been –“hellooooo”) the lowest common
denominator in the history of this country (yes, a bit lower than
politicians), you want us to give Arm-Strong (Ethically-Weak) a
MacDonalds “break” today. Given the level of deceit, intimidation,
extortion, lying and actual cheating that he engaged in repeatedly and
constantly, Lance needed to shore up his own sense of morality and
self-worth; and lo and behold he found something that had afflicted him
(cancer) that he could get behind to help him absolve himself of his
guilt for his treatment of fellow cyclists and numerous others (how
about that young masseuse whose life he ruined, just to mention one). What a sham! But of course I recognize the good that his cancer fighting leadership did.
Why can’t you “excusers” just be happy that such a poor example of
sportsman and humanity in one aspect of life can also find a way to do
some good in another aspect of life — and leave it at that?
“…Generous human being” my butt! He was a “generous” self-redeemer
(little did we know) who was a fabulous Pied Piper for a wonderful cause
that, yes, needs all the help it can get. Speaking of that, there is no
reason why another sports or other celebrity cannot step up and begin
another anti-cancer crusade — except that they may want to wait because
in the short run they may fear that their goodwill is being perceived
as covering up something else — a la Lance Armstrong.
I’m not saying that the cover up of whatever the “performance enhancing substance” was was a good thing. It was a slippery slope for him. But aren’t you being just a wee bit harsh? And what’s wrong with a bit of self-redemption. People who survive a disease, a disaster, a crash, or whatever while others don’t survive often work for relief, or for a cure because they feel “guilt” for surviving when others haven’t been as fortunate. Hard to say why Lance Armstrong started to work for cancer– was it because he survived, or because he felt guilty about surviving, or about using performance enhancing substances for cycling? I don’t think you or I can answer that question. Only he can do that–
And the whole issue of performance enhancing substances is a pretty mixed bag. Across the board athletes are looking for a boost. Most want it to be a “legal” boost. Amateurs, pros, college athletes– the standard should be the same. But I wonder who we’d have left on the field. I’m not “excusing” Lance Armstrong– I’m “accusing” the whole glorification of athletes in the first place. And “branding” helps our society build these people up into super-heroes, demi-gods. And then when they fall– we indulge in a very disproportionate “Shadensfruede.” And cutting someone a little slack does not mean making an excuse for what they did wrong. It’s putting it in perspective. I’m not against “redemption” and I’m not against absolution. I’d hate to think of a world where neither was possible.
No! No slack. This tragic fiasco is not the fault of Madison Avenue. Lance Armstrong may be a great athlete but that does not make him a great sportsman. If we ignore his bad behavior, we are just continuing to lower the bar for heroism. I feel tremendously sorry for Mr. Armstrong, like I did for my beloved Bill Clinton. But they both got what they deserve.
Hurricane Sandy is a catastrophe of epic proportions. Many people, including this writer, would find it in poor taste to analogize the loss of human life and property to the unthinkable and meteoric fall from grace of Lance Armstrong. I can not, however, ignore the obvious metaphor that Sandy creates in the Lance Armstrong situation and all of the cliche’s apply. “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger,” “This too shall pass,” “Some good comes from all things in life,” “Tragedy also brings a gift to those who are willing to see that gift,” etc.
Lance, events like Hurricane Sandy teach and remind us that despite steel ripping turbulent winds, and earth churning 35 foot waves and water surges, the storm ultimately will pass. And while there is devastating destruction left in the path of storm, the human spirit is larger than anything on earth and we, as an advanced society, rise to the occasion, brush off the dust and debris and turn to the light of the sunrise. The sun peering above the horizon and the dawn of a new day serves as our hope that we can, and will, endure whatever challenges are put in front of us.
Lance, you’ve encountered the wrath of a brutal storm who’s wind has torn the steel off of your shoulders and who’s water surge has washed away the path that you’ve forged for warriors and survivors. The devastation is unimaginable and surreal. I am here today to extend and offer my hand as a symbol and on behalf of the millions of people who’s life you’ve touched as a man, as a father, as a son and as a fighter and survivor. Being diagnosed with cancer is a life changing event. I don’t know of any one person who has dealt with the disease that did not walk away a better and stronger person. Walking through the portals of cancer and cancer treatment teaches us that outside of human compassion and care, little else matters.
Pardon me for being blunt here, but I’m pleading to you to step up to admit, confess and apologize for your actions in the sport of cycling. We are a forgiving and loving society and we operate from the heart when we extend our sympathy and understanding. There are more of us that want to see you succeed and to continue in the legacy of LIVESTRONG than there are who want to see the storm continue to batter the shores of your life. There is so much more at stake here than money and pride. The lives of people like you, me, our children, our families and friends who may hear today that they or their loved ones have cancer are at stake. They need us, we need you, we all need each other.
There is no other way through this storm than to take ownership of your actions. In doing so, you will once again regain your position as a leader who can point us towards the sun rising on a new day and to give us the hope that we can endure whatever may come our way.
“When the doping investigation was pending, Armstrong’s sponsors seemed
to be sticking with him. But after the evidence was made public, nearly
all of them, including Nike, Trek, and Oakley sunglasses, dropped
Armstrong as a client within days of one another. Multi-million dollar
companies cannot afford for their products to be connected with doping.”
I live in a country that marks you innocent till proven guilty. Maybe you’ve have heard of this country? It’s called United States of America. Now me personally I don’t brand someone guilty on accusations, but that’s just me. I’m open to reading up on the “evidence” if there is something out there. I’m really not a livestrong supporter, I never bought a bracelet or donated, but I do support someone that has nothing but accusations against them.
I like the convenience of voting by mail when I’m busy but not so busy that I’m unable to research everything ahead of time, but I also love going to the polling place in person, seeing my neighbors vote, getting the little sticker to show that I’m an active part of our democracy.I just voted in community elections where I live and I also felt that even about in-person neighborhood democracy.
I share your reverence for the ritual of voting and the sense of community that I get from dropping my absentee ballot in the box on election day, seeing my neighbors and getting the “I Voted” sticker. I usually wait until the night before election day to complete the ballot. I’ve been voting permanent absentee for years now, and would miss the ritual greatly. Additionally, this way I’m *sure* that my ballot is received and could not possibly have been lost in the mail! The important thing is voting, in whatever way. I’m very disheartened by the “why bother” attitude of many young people, who have no idea that people died for the right to vote, or why,
We definitely need more civic rituals but voting in person, despite its charms, is destined to wither. Turnout (and, I think, thoughtfulness) are superior in mail-in systems and the ability to vote on one’s own time frame widens the franchise, especially for members of working families.
Your article is very interesting with well-written comments of public/private ritual. Or should we say corporate/community instead of public. I do think that theologically you might be slightly askew with the church. My comment is that much like the ballot box that I hope everyone will utilize this week–with your faith and those rituals you do have choices as well. If you are going to be a Roman Catholic, I hope it’s for reasons of faith and not for ritual for the sake of ritual while accepting the “church of Dante” and patriarchy and conservative social agenda. A lot of those saints remembered on All Saints Day gave their lives for service and even reform. And there are liberal Catholics who uphold the struggle– living saints like Hans Kung, and ones past, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The idea of a “vote” might seem sorely lacking in the structures of the church– but there are choices. There are progressive Christians and people of varied faiths that really work hard for growth, and inclusion, gender equality, reproductive rights. And they do it because of their faith not in spite of their religion. I don’t mean to sound too harsh. I too love ritual and communal gatherings and expression– and, of course, the eucharist– or as it is called “the great thanksgiving” where ALL are invited to the table (and also to serve AT the table. Ritual is certainly expression– sometimes even rote to remember when we’re not particularly “mindful.” But the end of ritual is the admonition to “Go and serve….”
“If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed.” – M. Twain
To imply that undecideds are uninformed in such a polarized, rancorous and mendacious campaign as this both on the part of the MSM & the partisans is laughable. They are perhaps the wisest of the bunch of us.
My thinking also Martin. It was the GOP’s for the taking. With Huntsman as their candidate we democrats would be the one’s scratching our heads today. Of course there is not enough left of a moderate GOP today that would hand over control to someone like Jon Huntsman.
Institutional racism, posthumous conversion, and a history of polygamy are not “peculiarities.” And given that Willard declared his religion (as well as his tax returns) off -limits, and never himself made any attempt to address his belief, which he obliquely mentioned at every opportunity, this passive/aggressive persecution complex is quite pathetic.
And for the record, when any church “weighs in” on an issue, especially by funneling millions into elections, it ought to lose its federal tax exemption, I don’t care which religion it is.
Oh Andy. I’m not a Mormon, but I wouldn’t need golden plates to recognize your comments as complete bull. This is a misunderstood religion with a complicated history. Calling Mormons pathetic only holds a mirror up to your own shortcomings.
the essence of this article can be found in an analogy: raw milk vs. the pasteurized, homogenized stuff, and the latter runs rampant from the schoolroom to healthcare to agriculture and onward in so any spheres. the solution: look for raw milk, seek it, find it, share it, and above all enjoy every sip of it, then see if the paradigm shifts or not . . . .
I grew up in Belmont, MA and although we went to the Unitarian Universalist church, I went to local public schools with many, many Mormons. My experience of these kids and their parents was that they were kind, thoughtful, generous, caring, smart, hard-working, and community-oriented. They volunteered. They baked for bake sales. They played sports and joined the theater club and so on. Their parents donated to the band and orchestra and chaperoned field trips and served on Town Meeting and were very integrated into the community. This being the Boston area, many of them were even Democrats. (And it was well known there in the 80s and 90s that the Utah Mormons disliked Romney because they saw him as too liberal).
For me, that’s why the church’s aggressive stand and millions in donations to the Prop 8 campaign a few years ago was so shocking. That kind of hate (or the willful denial of their position of “loving” gays and lesbians but not wanting them to have the same rights as heterosexuals) seemed so different from the people I knew.
I have to disagree with some of the author’s points. I am a middle school history teacher in Los Angeles and although my students can’t vote, they were completely engaged in the political process. We had school wide discussions in history classes, blogs where students could post opinions and issue related comments, interactive bulletin boards for posting comments and even an interactive election related hop-scotch on our hallway floor. The election provided an opportunity for massive community involvement, dialogue and participation. Students went home passionate about issues and eager to engage with family members in provocative discussion. I don’t think all segments of our citizenry felt isolated by this election.
beth~~
your closing statement says so much. i shortened it to read: all segments of our citizenry do not feel isolated, period. whether it’s by elections, or by whatever you fill the blank in with. it takes the perspective of feeling connected, instead of isolated, to initiate interaction and engagement that then spirals out when it’s taken home, so to speak.
i wonder . . . if when feeling connected, one might go to what could otherwise be a depressing election (or other) scenario and turn it around for the people there by virtue of mixing oneself . . . .in a vital, microbial, alive state . . . .into the setting, thereby enlivening it too?
Several members of the Congress are Mormons and no one cares. There are few Mormons who could name them all. But unlike the President, they don’t get to set the national agenda on social (“moral”) issues like abortion, gay rights, etc., so of course their affiliation goes unreported.
Romney is a Mormon? The guy who laughs at the poor, balks at the prospect of relieving the disadvantaged, and wants to persecute illegal immigrants into deporting themselves (and calling that compassionate)? I dunno about you guys, but I’ve never met a Mormon like that in my life (and I grew up literally 3 miles away from the temple in Mesa, AZ). Aside from the fact that he doesn’t drink coffee and alcohol, he’s about as much a Mormon as he is a Buddhist.
Political correctness aside, Mormons are gullible. If you don’t believe me, just open the Book of Mormon and ask yourself if you would ever believe such stuff.
Thank you, again, for your continued contributions to society. This is another gem. We are all in awe of your knowledgeable opinions. And I cannot speak for them personally, but I would imagine that millions of Mormons are now questioning their faith based on your comments. Thank you for this public service.
Keen insight from the heartland of a crucial state but Joe maybe you should have been in Hilton Head. Down South where I live we sometimes feel that no one lives in Ohio because it seems most Buckeyes have moved into South Carolina. We joke that the real capital of Ohio is Hilton Head. Good piece! Thanks.
Could not agree more Gregory. Thank you for the thoughtful write-up.
Many Republicans are acknowledging that they need to do a better job at engaging and connecting with the Latino electorate in their post-mortem analyses. However, this is an example of how many a Republican still doesn’t get it. A congressman was interviewed this AM on NPR (can’t recall who); asked if election results meant Republicans needed to show some flexibility on immigration reform. The interviewee said, and I’m paraphrasing, “No, we are not going to move away from our values and the “rule of law.” We just need to appeal to them on shared Republican and Latino values such as family, religion and entrepreneurism.”
Really? They just don’t get it. Absolutely, jobs are #1, but there’s a study out that notes that something like 53% of Latinos know someone who is undocumented. Whether through family, friends, social connections, whatever, it is an issue that is very important because we know our people heavily contribute to the U.S. economy; many pay taxes without getting anything in return; and many, especially the undocumented, get very little for their contribution–in fact, the Republican party paints them as dependent moochers that must be “sent away.”
If the GOP thinks that by giving us lip service, eating a tamale (terrible) and speaking a few Spanish words, they’re going to gain our trust and support while continuing to push policies like “self-deportation” or the terrible god-awful Arizona SB 1070…well, my dear, then good luck! Because that will only mobilize us further in the opposite direction and best of luck getting into office EVER. The trend is not and will not shift in the opposite direction. Each month, 50,000 U.S. Latino youth turn 18 and close to 90% of them are eligible to vote.
These are serious numbers and facts the GOP must ponder. It’s time to go off and do some soul-searching and have a heartfelt re-think on the policies and the platform they will choose to represent the future of the GOP.
For Jon Husted to say “winning has become more important than our country” is the height of irony and hypocrisy. There is perhaps no other electoral administrator in this country who was more willing to use every tool (including illegal tools) at his disposal in attempts to disenfranchise voters of the other party.
I must say that this is very clear contextual placement of what appears to be a mystery to the Republican movement.
“whites are more bootstrapping and self-sufficient than moocher minorities.”
That describes so well, in clear language, what is more nuanced but obvious in commentary all over the dial.
You get the sense that they are retreating into their religious phrase about REALLY needing to be their brown “brother’s keeper”—-instead of seriously being their brother’s brother. You get no sense of kinship, but rather of the neccessary handling of “the others.” Bush, personally, had that kinship, and felt it. It is the very rare Repub that has that association.
It feels like they have a relationship not unlike the jewish Israelis to Palistinian Israeli citizens……an inconvenient truth to be “managed.”
Thanks Gregory for this important perspective. While I am no fan of George Bush, his ability to get past Latinos as “other” and see common values is an essential distinction from the current GOP assumption that minority voters are transactional. “…hard work, pride, and the strong family values of Mexican-Americans are quintessentially Texan, too.” And American too. How do we get to a different kind of politics that lets us recognize both real differences (e.g. re income, education, access to opportunity) as well as our similarities. More of the latter would help begin to erode these toxic walls we keep seeing reinforced…
“But then the conversation took an unexpected turn. The fact is, various commentators noted, the American system works. For all its antiquated absurdity (like that strangeelectoral college and those partisan electoral authorities), the thing works. The Americans put on this bizarre contest with its odd rules, and by the end of the day, without any official referee proclaiming any official results, one side gracefully concedes after the long bitter battle”…….I guess you guys totally missed the 2000 election debacle and the illegal refereeing of the SCOTUS.
This is a really boring cliche. The author doesn’t say anything that hasn’t been said before. Chie Nakane made many of the same points forty years ago. The author attempts to adopt a critical viewpoint yet falls victim to the pessimism that Japanese social commentators have shown since the economy slowed down in the mid-1990s. But I don’t want to stereotype the author in the same way he stereotypes Japan. There is no such thing as “the Japanese.” And Japan, despite its geographic isolation, is still capable of economic and social influence stretching from Eastern China to Western India. Japan remains more interesting and vibrant than the island where the author apparently lives, Great Britain. Did anyone else yawn like I did?
I’m a casual observer and deep admirer of Japan after having visited the country in 2000. I stayed several weeks with a family friend who gave me an insight tour of Japan. I came back to the US struck by the complexity and beauty of the culture, but I did get a sense of a disjointed people. Many spoke in negative terms of their superior technological achievements. They could not see the point, for example, in a country so small, why do you need fast speed rail? Or, why is so much capital spent on making the shinkansen even faster? It was as if they could not consolidate their ‘village’ views with a fast changing world.
Of course there is no such thing as “the Japanese,” nor is there such thing as “the French” or “the American.” However, I believe the author is using this term for identification purposes. If you re-read the last paragraph, it reads “we Japanese,” which leads me to believe the author identifies as such. I think there is credibility in the fact that this article is self-reflective and self-critical, not merely critical and not merely pessimistic. The struggle is clear and important. I did not yawn like you did. I think this article sparked an important conversation, or should I say re-sparked one that has been covered in dust over the years (though I highly doubt originality was the author’s primary focus)?
With that said, I agree with you completely in Japan’s vibrancy as well as capacity for influence. And yet, whether or not this capacity will be drawn from for actual change and what those changes would look like is another story.
Really Ryan? You had me until this statement, “the real error here was ultimately made by Petraeus. If he had stayed faithful to his wife of 38 years in the first place, he’d still be in charge at the CIA”. After Bill Clinton, Kobe Bryant, Tiger woods and how ever many other philandering public figures have been exposed, chastised, painted as demons and ultimately reinstated into public glory, haven’t we shown as a society that we really dont care about these personal indiscretions as long as it professional performance remains as expected?
What a marvelous article, I regret that I’m coming to it so late. Imagine if the message of this article, that death is not always the worst case scenario, were to permeiate all the stratas of our society. What if we were honest with one another about
death being a
universal biological fact of life, part of the round of nature. What if we talked about the end of life as we do its beginning — a
necessary part of what it means to be human.
Everything that we value about life and living — its novelties,
challenges, opportunities for development — would be impossible without death
as the defining boundary of our lives.
Living a good death
begins the moment we accept our mortality as part of who we are. The end of life can be a time
of extraordinary alertness, concentration, and emotional intensity. It’s possible to use the natural intensity
and emotion of this final season of life to make it the culminating stage of
our personal growth.
If we were able to pass this message on to our patients and clients, we would all become pioneers of a new
standard of a good death that others could emulate. Healing and helping professionals are in a unique position to help the rest
of society desensitize death and dying.
Thank you, Dr Murray, for helping break open this conversation.
Great piece Sarah! My grandmother also read Everyman in her late 80s and loved it as well. Of course, the geographer in me must note: By description, the Old Rimrock of American Pastoral seems to describe Mendham more than Morristown…
Excellent article. I’ve heard some people say that pickup basketball is on the decline in America (replaced by organized leagues and basketball camps) but this article shows there’s still pickup basketball out there. I’m reminded of a recent article about pickup basketball in New York City which took almost the opposite tack: instead of feeling at home thanks to playground basketball, the author, a newcomer to NYC, used pickup basketball games as a way of encountering new parts of the city. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/12/sports/basketball/a-new-arrival-explores-new-york-through-pickup-basketball.html?pagewanted=all
Most people that demand “everything” for a 90 plus year old have guilt about how they treated that person or live their own lives. It’s torment for the elderly patient and massively costly for the rest of society to pay millions for their guilt.
I enjoyed reading your story very much as well. The only other thought I had was that the unresolved murders of the women of Juarez would have been worth mentioning to further contextualize the heavy violence the city has suffered.
Thank you for telling your story. I’m an Air Force brat. Dad spent time TDY in Alaska in the early 1960s, so I wound up spending nearly thirty year in that state, the first third working out of Sitka, the latter portion at Cordova, the more maritime clime in Prince William Sound. Before departing, I had to travel to Anchorage for monthly eye checks, and nothing’s colder than waiting for the city bus in single digit temps near the Int’l Airport, walking downtown over the edge the hill to meet the cold wind blowing along Ship Creek, much colder. The weather hasn’t changed, and it’s still the same where John Ford’s “Report From the Aleutians” was filmed, too.
What a wonderful and compelling story! It opens a window into a world that is both entirely authentic and believable, yet strangely exotic at the same time. Thank you!
Delicious Tale, Joseph!. So, you read the Alexandria Quartet at the Onix Sequel? … (Nice group of ideas/words).
Yes, we definitely need Mistery in our lifes , in order to live intensely, properly.
This brought back many memories of my own youth. I grew up near 103rd and Compton Ave, a few blocks away from the PE station in Watts. My parents came from China and the restrictive covenants in place at the time didn’t give a lot of Watts residents choices on where to live in this city. My father had his MS in Biology from the University of Washington but career choices for Asians were limited so he ran a small grocery store.
In my late pre-teen/early teen years, the pastor at St. Lawrence Church would give me street car tokens that parishioners would put in the collection basket and I would ride a PE train and explore the city. From Watts I could grab a Big Red Car and go to Long Beach, San Pedro and Bellflower or I could go to the main PE station at 6th and Main. I could catch the Watts Local there too. From there, I could see the rest of the city because I could walk up to the subway terminal on Hill and catch the PE trains there and I had that huge network of those Yellow Cars, the LATL or LA Transit Line. I explored a lot of downtown Los Angeles on foot and like the author, I remember those nice days at Clifton’s. For someone my age, it made me feel like a grownup to be able to go there by myself.
From my many rides, I befriended a conductor who would let me hop on
board his train and ride to the end and back. It was a long time ago so I
guess I can ‘fess up now about those free rides because I’m pretty certain
“Sarge” won’t be getting in trouble for letting this little kid ride for
free. I still remember him in his uniform and he always had a smile on his face.
It got me out of my small world that I knew as Watts and I had a huge chance to explore this city and it’s many suburbs. Emboldened with some familiarity of the geography outside of our neighborhood, my childhood friends and I would ride our bikes and explore. As bicyclists, our rite of passage was to be able to ride to Long Beach and back!
Like the author, at one point I got my first car, mine was a ’49 Chevy. I was able to scrape up a few dollars with jobs. In my case, I worked at a cafe on 5th near San Pedro, in the heart of Skid Row so I got to see another segment of Los Angeles but it gave me enough money to buy that Chevy and my streetcar days were over too and I became part of that migration from urban rail to an individual car.
Thanks Manuel for reviving some of my fond memories.
“I don’t know if the joy was a pose, too, like the piety of the minister who continues to preach after his faith is dead. But it’s hard for me not to see the subversion ever present in Howser’s joyous demeanor.”
The above line appears to be a revelation of the author’s diabolical cynicism.
Horrible injection indeed.
It is not some evil greed that drives Huell; he is genuine.
On his shows, he deliberately speaks slowly so no viewer misses his information.
In a room full of intelectuals; he can more than hold his own in both speed and brilliance of speech.
Four HUGE items the author left out:
When Huell slaps you on the back, you must take two steps forward to regain your balance.
Huell LOVES people (and NOT as sources of profit)!
Huell LOVES history. It is his source of inspiration and his academic background.
People LOVE Huell. They shower him with affection in person and he stops what he is doing to give them his time and his complete attention. Not just old “folks” love Huell.
I’ve seen a handfull of cool 20 something kids wearing T shirts with his picture on it.
He’s got devoted fansf all ages.
I haven’t seen the Huell Howser t-shirts but what a great idea. Especially for people who lived in the LA area from the late 1980s through now — the sight of a Huell t-shirt instantly tells us that the wearer is from southern California (or is faking it). Whereas people not from So Cal can only wonder who is this Huell guy? Unless one has lived or spent significant time there, one can’t fully understand.
Seattle erected a bronze statue of J.P. Patches — a completely different type of TV personality but he had a similar hold on the cultural imagination.
One big difference though, and I wonder if this weakens D.J. Waldie’s thesis: one pretty much has to have been a regular viewer of PBS to have seen Huell Howser. Did the “folks” that Waldie describes even watch PBS?
The sad news of Huell Howser’s passing now makes his sudden retirement make more sense; declining health may have been the cause of both.
When I moved to Boston in 1979, so did Larry Bird so I always count my history in Boston as starting with the Bird Era. Similarly I moved to Los Angeles in 1987, which was when Huell Howser started producing those Videolog shorts, so I will always count my history in LA as starting with the Howser Era (even though it took me a couple of years to stumble across Videolog).
What Huell Howser did was such a simple yet great idea that I’ve long wondered why other PBS stations don’t do the same thing. I guess the answer is that there was only one Huell Howser.
Our family bonded around Huell Howser’s show California’s Gold and sang the name of it together in Huell’s drawl and enthusiasm. We knew we were in for a treat. I agree w/Taylor 12 string (comment below) that the guy is intelligent. He has brilliant ability to make his subject matter accessible to everyone while never being condescending. Although he has a bigger-than-life personality it never made him too-cool. We respect the guy a lot.
I have been watching Huell for years, always enjoying his genuine enthusiasm for California and its citizens whether they be human or animal. I for one always believed his heart was operating from an authentically good spot, his ‘folky’ presentation is a refreshment from the hyper coolness of L A Westside. I’m laughing at that coolness residing all the way to rustic Malibu!
Huell has done more for the Golden State’s image than any celebrity or politician. PBS has consistently squeezed modest donations from me every year thanks in large part to Huell. Now, I may have to divert some of that money to support Chapman’s efforts to archive his work.
Huell, I’ll see you at the Farmer’s Market one of these days…
During my army service in the late 1950’s I became a student of regional dialects. What struck me was that many Californians, particularly from SoCal had regional, usually Southern or Southwestern accents. I had earlier decided that Oregonians and Washingtonians spoke the purest, non-inflected American English.
When I moved to Los Angeles in 1962, I came face to face with many of these transplants and understood better their habits and accents.
Their prototype was Cal Worthington, who invited to come to his lot, “Where your friends are.”
i too came to Burbank in 1961 and met southernors who came for the plentiful jobs. I was a preteen and hated Xmas with no snow..but being a former inland bound country person loved the Ocean !
Wonderful piece on a wonderfully complex man. Howser wasn’t just showing “the folks” a state full of people and places different and perhaps off-putting to them. He also, by playing one of the “folks” on television, made that group less frightening to some of the many “others” who likely outnumbered “folks” among the PBS audience. Stereotypes and prejudices go both ways, and Howser’s intelligence and curiosity displayed on television may have helped broaden the views of those who might not in real life have looked beyond their reflexive prejudices towards hulking white guys with Tennessee accents.
In 1957, at age nine, my sister and I were moved by my mother to California from Illinois. I often wonder what shape my life would have taken had I not come here. But it matters not because, over time, California seeped into my every pore and I am inextricably bound by its spell. In spite of all the fears of being shoved off a fiscal cliff, and all the other real and unreal terrors of life, last evening, as my beloved and I floated in the dark over the twists and turns of PCH from Santa Monica to Ventura, I thought and said aloud to my groom, “Could it get any better than this?” I was, just for a hour or so, and against all reason, in awe of the privilege of being a Californian.
In the 16th C. The Adventures of Esplandián, “there is an island called California, very close to . . . the Terrestrial Paradise,” inhabited by Amazons; Mr. Mailander has captured this mythology!
Yet, many of us have first hand knowledge of friends and family with troubled children who early on show signs of psychosis and bi polar disorder. In my experience, there seems to be a connection between possible genetic component and lack of affection from the mother. Just because we don’t fully understand all the factors that go into creating these type of personality disorders, doesn’t mean that there is not something very real going on.
Thank you for addressing this case. I remember the Cleveland Elementary School tragedy very well because I was 10 years old living in Stockton. With all the gun-related tragedies that have happened since then, I also continue to wonder if the culture of violence in America will ever change. I hope that our nation’s pursuit to prevent such tragedies will include greater knowledge of mental illness brought on by various environmental or genetic causes, in addition to gun control. Gun control will never be enough to prevent these types of tragedies.
I feel like I’ve gotten away from my little cubby hole here and on a road trip. Thanks for the arm chair adventure. Reminds me of my many trips up and down I-5 and the little adventures that make a dull drive so memorable. Drive on!
This article is a good look at the hypocrisy of the medical establishment. Due to space and time constraints, it barely scratches the surface of government-protected medical cartel’s destructive hypocrisy and murderous tyranny. Where do I start? Propranalol? Stevia? Banning and regulating out of practice Stephen Badylak’s regenerative medicine techniques? Etc…
Here’s a doctor dying with Parkinson’s Disease, and all he can focus on is helping others while he still can. (Google this title)
“Hope for the Violently Aggressive Child”
i always find it strange when people discuss another’s health and how they choose to treat it. Certainly the above article has some interesting facts in it, but each person should be unjudged for how they treat or do not treat potential end of life threatening illness. To me this is the same thing as a woman’s right to choose. There is more to each person’s life than what we see from the outside.
Dr. Goodman leaves out the most important factor: machismo. Like most NBA players, Howard could sharply increase his free-throw percentage by shooting underhand. See http://sabermetricresearch.blogspot.com/2006/12/underhanded-free-throws.html . But he’d rather look hip and manly than be a good foul shooter. He doesn’t have stage fright, he’s just too proud.
Prostate cx is the 2nd largest killer of men who die of cancer. All the men on both sides of my family died of prostate cx. I chose to have proton therapy 13 years ago. I am fine now – in my late 80’s.
Jerry’s mode of treatment, conformal x-rays – is an obsolete
modality that tends to injure the patient as much as cure the cx. There are several more modern treatment modalities now available and more yet on the horizon. The two worst are surgery and x-rays. But cryo-surgery, thermo-surgery, radio-active needles (“seeds”), and the gold-standard, proton treatment, all have been yielding excellent results.
It’s a shame he received such poor medical advice.
Prostate cx is a killer! Watchful waiting is for those who intend to die young.
Thank you for this wonderful history lesson! My grandfather served on Nixon’s Committee of 100 and it is so fascinating to look behind the scenes and learn how Nixon’s campaign was successfully orchestrated.
It’s interesting to hear the finer strengths of a culture blamed for the recent violence. Isn’t this again a form of blaming the victem? Shouldn’t a recent increase in violence be blamed on more recent cultural developments, such as increased prosperity, Bollywood, internet porn, gaming video violence? Would a propensity to protect women be one of the reasons for the tremendous support and popularity of women’s rallies in recent weeks. Dare we say, that liberal oikophobia may be in play here? Chastise the common sense to create the allusion of profound contradiction. Chivalry will be the source of strength that will solve India’s current crisis, in a very quick manner.
Agree with most of it.But there are certain aspects which leads to men going to the other side of the city to drop you. You mix with many people from your own sex, and tend to know what they say, so as an Indian man you naturally end up being protective. Its the society which makes us this way. The horrific incident in Delhi actually could’ve happened anywhere in the world. That’s horrible but not shocking. I feel India has a bigger problem in dealing with women on a day to day basis. Most men have that odd sense that women dressing scantily are easy, and if that does not work out try and force it. This sense in men has to go away in our country, else we’ll surely go to the docks.
Great article, Joe. Each May I take about 250 Poly students to a Dodger game on the Metro with the free shuttle to the Stadium from Union Station. Many have never ridden public transportation of any kind. Some have never been to a baseball game. Their eyes open wide as they come up the stairs in the right field bleachers and see the field for the first time. It’s a great L.A. experience.
Really great article. Huell was a national (Republic of California) treasure. There will never be another like him. Gone too soon, but not to be forgotten.
Wonderful piece about a fairly new L.A. experience that more and more are having. All Angelenos should read this. And for those of you outside of Los Angeles, read this and you’ll learn something about L.A. I’ll bet you didn’t know
Lovely article. If there’s one thing we all should learn from Huell, it’s to look at LA as if we were a tourist. Not the one with the Hawaiian shirt, loud mouth, and big camera slung around his neck, but the tourist of life who finds something interesting around every corner. It’s a great thing to pass on to one’s kids, too.
“Most of us have a doctor or lawyer in the family”??? Yes, compared to spies they’re common. But suggesting that “most of us” have close relatives in these professions says something about the narrowness of the populations from which D.C. think tanks draw their fellows.
Thank you for such a sweet article about spending quality Dad time with your boys in our great city. It reminded me of my father, who after working 8 to 10 hour days would come home exhausted but still find the time to take me and my two siblings to get a treat.
Chinatown was a weekend venture for us back in the 80s, before there was a Goldline. I will never forget as a child the great time we had visiting all the interesting shops, eating at all the restaurants, and meeting new people. I appreciate now all of the effort my dad put into raising us and I’m sure your boys will too someday.
Mostly wonderful thoughts on a Really good film, but didn’t you realize that the point of Candie talking about Blacks was how wrong he was? Django kills all the bad guys at the end. Django was in no way submissive.
@google-18bdb4716ce3da838f069080c6d0d613:disqus, I’ve read this criticism from a few other Django reviews as well and I think the point here is that Candie is proven wrong but there is a bigger message here, made by Tarantino, that’s problematic. It’s the notion that Django is the 1 in 10,000 slave that ISN’T submissive. As in, slaves were enslaved because they were submissive and these infrequent revolts were only the result of the few (1 in 10,000) slaves who wasn’t.
Thank you for your story! My wife and I just returned from seeing the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Memorial site in Atlanta. Thank you for your contributions to justice!
No one should chant the Pledge of Allegiance because it was the origin of the Nazi salute and Nazi behavior (see the book “Pledge of Allegiance and Swastika Secrets” by Ian Tinny and Dr. Rex Curry). The robotic daily brainwashing in government schools (socialist schools) continues to inspire that type of behavior, only the gesture has changed. Remove the pledge from the flag; remove the flag from schools; remove schools from government.
I’d follow up on the incompetent nurse who reported you. But much agreed, as a medic who does a lot of “life saving” procedure while ruining you kitchen, people need a plan for their end of life and wishes expressed. the system also needs to change a bit as well.
The whole point of this article is not about choice but is written to make you feel guilty for choosing to try to beat a terminal illness. It is part of preparing the battleground for limiting your freedom to choose the type of care you want. Dr. Murray first appeals the authority of doctors and then calls out as role models those who choose not to fight and incur medical costs. Doctors know better than you and this article’s agenda just happens to line up with the goals of Obamacare – limiting your choices to reduce the cost of medical care. “You must be stupid, selfish, and evil to fight for your life” is the message. Thank you, Dr. Murray. Without your guidance my aunt would not have seen her grandkids be born let alone seem them turn 8 and 6 and she is still doing fine.
Wow – I *never* knew that, Mickey! Life is terminal too, do you know that?. See the example I gave of my aunt, just one example. She was diagnosed with a terminal illness, given less than a year, and is still with us 9 years later.
You have to have a trusting relationship ( which takes time and periodic patient-doctor interaction) with a doctor with good judgement so he can advise you and separate the grain from the chaff. That is the only way to figuring out if you have a “treatable” late stage disease or not.
This is an excellent article and one which I think points out some interesting topics. It would be great if more people could read this and gain “understanding” of the process of death. The worst things I see in my job as a hospitalist are almost never illnesses or injury. It’s the way families treat each other in that time period around death.
And it goes both ways. Families put their beloved patient through a ton of suffering by prolonging things. Often it is the result of guilt-directed thinking. But patients do it to their families by not discussing the issue consistently, thus forcing the family to make that decision which isn’t informed by the patient’s actual wishes. Physicians are aware of this and prepare themselves and their families so there is none of that in that time they have left. If only more patients and families had that wisdom.
The value of a human life seems to be clearly underestimated in this article, i will live every minute and a second of a smiling family near your bed is so precious that it’s worth every heartbeat.
The attempt to bring brutal life ending care is so bold that i had to publicly disagree!
Except, apparently you believe the human involved should not be entitled to an opinion. I applaud the doctor for controlling his own care and encourage others to do likewise in similar situations.
‘This is Liberal Bluff”.
What sort of human being are you? Do you really feel that you have the right to dictate when others die even though that patient him or herself wants to leave this world?
If you believe life is so precious, by all means stay in the game. But, there are others out there who really mean it when they say “Do not resuscitate!” You clearly have not seen many people die in terrible pain. Or sometimes it is not really TERRIBLE pain but a complete lack of quality of life, and dignity with no hope of ever becoming whole again.
As so many people say, we do not allow our pets to suffer so, why force our loved ones to suffer or to watch US suffer?
Personally, I do not fear death and do not understand the tenacious grip some people have on life. Death is the next great adventure. Welcome it when it is time and stop doing “heroic” but gruesome, things to put off dying.
About bloody time too! When I was in the Army (1977-1986) women in the UK were not allowed even on manoevres because of “lack of toilet facilities in the field”! Official Line Response! But of course we were in support roles, and when you live in a combat area what are you supposed to do? So yes well done for the recognition of an already established fact.
I have saved my mother with CPR who was terminally ill because of terminal economic crunch.A gangrene toe with hyperglycemic emergency and sepsis.This may not be the cases that u are discussing,but I just thought I would join in.On two occassions, due to fragile DM,She would suddenly slip into hypoglycemia and coma.
I am a feminist and believe that women should be given equal opportunity and remuneration for work. But recognizing this at this time is odd. Because the majority of wars are being fought against and with males of the Islamic faith, who categorically do not respect (much less talk to, shake hands with, etc.) women, what is the practical opportunities for women to rise in the ranks of the combat troops of US military on the ground? Is this just to enrage the “enemy” further? How will a woman be able to garner respect of the native forces if she is put in a superior training role? Why don’t we just stop this military business altogether? Have the generals run out of men willing to run into the line of fire?
A related question: Do people who sit in remote bunkers driving drones into “enemy” territory get “combat” pay like the soldier about to bite a bullet?
quick comment: I mean, women actually give birth after carrying a human around for months…soooo, I believe that carrying combat gear around can be done just as well.
It is with the universal understanding that we here in Los Angeles have come to the surface of bittersweet defined equality for the Cycling Community.
Mr. Paley your precision in thoughts have made me completely committed to my agenda — as I will measure to include you in my aftermath of concentrations, if I become the newly elected official for Council District No. 15 of Los Angeles.
The lifting of restrictions to the Cycling Community will end on my watch. The population as you have effectively stated above, is and care to enhance there way of life here in L.A. more so than you can hardly depict in words.
Riders beware — here I come, as a hurricane hitting the Gulf coast –and I respectfully write those words above. – David Manuel Gonzalez
My son suffered a serious head in jury in a bicycle accident several years ago. And yes, he was wearing a helmet. Until one lives through the terrifying experience of the coma and the hospitalization, and then the agonizing rehabilitation, one cannot have any idea how traumatic the experience is.
So I have lost all interest in football. No thanks.
I’m totally baffled that you are able to so clearly state the risks and even cite examples of some players’ personal experiences and then end the article in the way you did. The potential for an injury causing life-altering effects or even death is very real. It is a known fact that the risk for further damage is higher with each subsequent blow. The cost both personally and financially are huge. All for a stupid game. To blow off even your own research and use humor (or attempt to) in the end is unfathomable. “Our true national pastime”……pathetic.
Thank you for being willing to serve! I discovered Highland Park right after college about 10 years and although I live across the country on the other coast now, I remember the neighborhood fondly. Best of luck!
Awesome story and insight into local politics. Best of luck to you and the denizens of Highland Park into making it the best community possible for everyone who lives there.
Go Aaron! I applaud your leadership and efforts to make and keep Highland Park friendly and welcoming to all! As a Silver Lake native, it saddens me to witness the “hipsterization”
and nouveau-Bohemian upselling of my once solidly-middle class and
diverse neighborhood. Well done!
Thanks for what you’re doing for your Highland Park community! In the early 80’s we went looking for what was affordable and interesting and diverse (maybe I should say “safe for us.” It was– Silver Lake! It’s funny now, to “suddenly” be in a “hip” neighborhood. We met the elderly children of the people who built our 1914 house. They came to the door on a nostalgia trip to their old neighborhood shortly after we moved in. It was sweet. When we moved here to Silver Lake it was referred to as “the Swish Alps.” This was pre-rainbow flags! The LAPD at this time was still occasionally just stopping in at gay bars (the entrances were all from the alley or back parking lot) and arresting people just for the hell of it. There was no welcome wagon– The area was always a creative area– writers, artists, actors, film makers, musicians were Silver Lake residents since the early decades of the 20th Century. Diversity has a track record here–and probably a few scars. It’s been quite interesting to chronicle the story of the neighborhood through the Halloween trick or treaters on our street. At first it was one or two neighborhood kids. On our first Halloween we saw a cute little girl (who for a while was the only kid on the block) dressed as a pirate with a striped shirt, eye-patch, and drawn on mustache! She is now a sophomore at Princeton. The number of kids gradually increased. Then we’d see the “older” kids– the junior high or high school big brothers and sisters– move to the back with the little kids out front. This year it was amazing– we suddenly had a totally different “mix”! Latinos, caucasians, African Americans– and Asians! This is a relatively new phenomenon. And on our street we even see baby carriages! ( * I wonder if they know that a pre-Modern Family/New Normal family paved the way and helped with the pretty-fication and desirability of the place?) The dog walkers are also a good ad hoc “census.” So– if Silver Lake is desirable, it’s good to recognize “why!” History– there was enough here that hadn’t been destroyed to make it interesting. There is a certain degree of local political activism. Important! And there is diversity. We are a neighborhood– not a ghetto. We are not parceled off by age, race, or sexual orientation. We are America! (It might not be the America some would prefer. But that’s their problem.) Sunset is teaming with new small businesses, cafe’s, galleries, retail. Is it perfect? Far from it– But it is a real community. We have houses (and apartment houses) instead of “housing.” It’s rewarding to see what’s happened here. And then there’s Echo Park– (An Episcopal priest in Echo Park spoke of the difficulty of working in their tough ghetto. We laughed! Have you walked down the street or looked at the price of houses and rent? We don’t need photo-op activists to make us “worthy.” We have each other– It’s good to know that Highland Park is also in good hands!
Great piece! I don’t like Highland Park OR Silver Lake, but this is a very well-written piece. I am a devotee of Pico/Crenshaw, and our Victoria Park neighborhood association is Crazytown! I have not had the guts to explore our Neighborhood Council yet, but this makes me think I might. Good work!
As a long time wanna-be Highland Parker, I found this article charming. What a great way to show that community-minded areas still exist, even in LA! I hope to be a resident of Highland Park in time to vote for you for mayor!
This article has some points but I think unfortunately its grasping a bit too far. Yes the system is not always perfect and it at times leaves us doctors with a bitter taste in our mouths when returning home from a buisy on call or operating days, despite having done everything as it “should be done”. You should not forget however, how we make progress in modern medicine…it can be a sad result for some but a lifesaver for many others later on. I realize this is not a politically correct point if view but maybe closest to the truth…we should not accept “collateral damage” in our practice but thats how it is. Very little is made in theory…the bulk is trial and error almost so to speak…as bizarre it might seem.
In the interested of National security, a large percentage of the population, including many of my close friends and relatives, are comfortable with their government proving deeper into the private lives of its citizens. Their argument is simple (as the author indicated), “They have nothing to hide.”
Our digital footprint is a lot more revealing than we imagine. I’m not sure any of us would like aspects of our lives proved, mined, dissected, and revealed to members in our public and private circles.
Every Chinese New Year my wife spends the night at her parents. She’s done that every year since we tied the knot. I’m not clear what rituals are practiced that evening, but I know that the next day they rise early to hit the temples (that’s right, templesss). It’s a marathon of prayer, incense, and tribute – among other things. I was taken along once. It was a new experience that I’d like to relive again, but I lack the stamina; plus, I was clearly out of my league. They moved exquisitely, like a well oiled machine. The crowds are massive and its clear they all share the same objective. It was amazing…
She is better with the posadas than I am with the CNY. She’s learned to make superb tamales and champurrado, and hasn’t shied away from attending midnight mass every Christmas. Lucky me!!!
I’m happy to hear that Javier was not more seriously injured — and happy also that he was able to get the care he needed without spending tens of thousands of dollars.
It sounds like he might have gotten just-as-good (if not better) care at the Urgent Care clinic than he would have gotten at the ER, for a tiny fraction of the cost. That’s worth pondering as we collectively think of ways for our nation to reduce our healthcare costs.
Of course, the really scary thing (financially) would have been if Javier had been knocked unconscious or otherwise forced to be admitted to the hospital. That would have been truly devastating to his savings – and the savings of almost any uninsured person in America.
One other thing for Javier to consider — even under many insurance plans, I would guess that deductibles mean that he might have owed thousands of dollars if he had accepted the ambulance, ER care, etc. For many people, thousands of dollars is manageable (if painful) whereas tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of uninsured care is not. But for a young freelancer (been there, done that) even a couple thousand dollar bill can be catastrophic.
So glad Zocalo exists so that writers with tales of woe and/or stupidity can warn others. At his age, Javier can afford a cheap plan with Kaiser, which should be a priority. Obamacare made rates go up, but Kaiser’s still a good deal.
I find it appalling that you could read the account above and still say something disparaging about Obamacare — the first tiny baby steps we have taken towards humanity in the provision of health services in this country.
Do you know who should get nothing out of my healthcare choices? Shareholders! Remove the profit from the system and doctors make more money, patients pay less, we all get better care, and no one has an incentive to jack up prices while reducing services.
The belief that healthcare is not a right in this county baffles me. We have public education, libraries, firehouses, roads, etc., but the idea that a publicly funded healthcare system should be in effect is dismissed by half of our population. The powers that be, which I will refer to as the great trifecta of health
insurance companies, pharmaceutical corporations, and for-profit hospitals,
have managed an enormous feat in that they have instilled in the minds of
millions of Americans ( and most politicians) that healthcare, and access to it, is a commodity available for purchase by those who are responsible enough to buy it, and for those who “choose” the types of work where health insurance is traditionally offered by the employer.
There seems to be a disconnect amongst our population that the reason health care costs in this county are rising four times faster than wages is because we have a for-profit model, which significantly drives up the cost and lowers quality. The high cost is not the fault of the uninsured, undocumented or other non-white,
non-homogenous, or “un-deserving” populations who are usually the scapegoats.
It is because there are hundreds of billions of dollars in profits for the taking, and the status quo is making a lot of very wealthy individuals even wealthier regardless that the lives and livelihoods of human beings are on the line. Follow the money.
A publicly funded healthcare system is the only way to reduce costs and save lives. It just makes sense. We need to dispel the myth where for-profit equals better healthcare, and publicly funded healthcare equals a communist plot to take over America, because that is just not the case. Go ask someone over 65 on Medicare.
Congrats–there are many women who are former girl scouts: Robin Cook, Katie Courie and Maya Angelou. Good luck with cookie sales–it is more than selling cookies.
which will give you info on the LA County residents’ access to inexpensive health insurance. If Javier had gone to a County facility he could have got first class health care and applied for ORSA following treatment which would have covered his treatment costs. There is also a ATP (Ability To Pay) plan.
Given Javier’s stated financial status, I am guessing he would probably have qualified.
Waiting time at any County facility can be many hours for non-emergency cases, but he would probably have been seen very quickly, because of the seriousness of the injury.
I don’t want to sound callous, but it’s the only way to control medical costs. You are the only one with the motive and all the information. Everyone else would buy too little or too much care for you.
You don’t want to be in the position that your pet is in when you take him to the vet.
When I was a child, we would choose our “Valentines” and not give each and every student in our class a card. We gave cards to those we liked, to those individuals who were our friends. The feel good attitude that too many school leaders took on made it a mandatory action, to give all students cards. Love was forced. Either one loved everyone and one didn’t love at all. That was, of course, a big lie. Brava to you, Judy Callahan, for your good sense. Indeed, the children under your care are way too young for the holiday anyway, as it is a romantic day of love (Eros) not a humanity day of love (Agape.) Valentine’s Day is for adults.
Our school also bans Valentine’s in the classroom–and in fact, all holidays. For Valentine’s, they substitute a “friendship day” a week later than Valentine’s day, and it’s actually done out of love and concern for all. Some people do have religious objections to Valentine’s day, and others simply don’t have it as part of their culture. Overall, there are so many different cultures within our school that it works better for us to have a blanket policy not to favor one culture by making its holidays the “official” school celebration. These are each family’s prerogative to teach–and the school’s responsibility to teach each culture to tolerate the cultures of others. Difficult to do when you’re showing favoritism to one.
I went to a Jewish day school where Valentine’s Day wasn’t even mentioned
because it’s Saint Valentine’s Day and saints’ days were understood to
be Christian observances, not Jewish observances.
I feel sad to think about the effect this school is having on its little ones. There are lots of different kind of love, and ultimately kindness towards others is about empathy and affection and looking for the best in all persons, even those that might look or seem different from us. I think this is intuitive for most toddlers and it is sad to imagine a school bent on teaching kids “us” versus “them” instead of universal love.
Happy Valentines Emma! This is a wonderful article. By the way, I see nothing has changed. My friends and I would send “secret admirer” grams to each other too. 🙂
A huge opportunity is being missed in the classroom to use Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to teach about greater love and compassion for all people. It also misses the opportunity to celebrate self-love. Love exists in all forms. Throwing the baby out with the bathwater misses the point. The younger these kids are exposed to the concepts of compassion, empathy and developing a greater love for oneself and humanity the better. Valentine’s Day is a teachable moment. You just taught them that it is better to banish something rather than to explore it. Love needs to be explored and understood, not banished.
Not observing Valentine’s Day (and most calendar holidays) is a perfect opportunity to teach kids (of all ages) about mindless consumerism and the gimmicky commodification of “love.”
This explains why when I walked into preschool this morning to say Happy Valentineʻs Day, the care-giver said, “Happy Friendship Day.” I knew there was some kind of policy behind her response, so was pleased to have seen this posting in my inbox. I may not jump on board the No Valentine policy, but I certainly respect those whoʻve challenged its imposition and politicized the cultural assumptions that are embedded in it. I think itʻs a healthy way to participate in society and we should not feel sad about challenging these assumptions.
Additionally, we should not feel sad about re-identifying ourselves as settler-colonialists or consumer-fascists. There are a myriad of ways for us to observe our beliefs, and the critical self-examination of events like Valentineʻs Day should remind us that many of the national celebrations and holidays we impose, are exactly that– impositions.
Emma, you sound like a wonderful seventh grader with a wonderful family! It seems like you are leaving a part of your childhood behind, at least outwardly, but I know that in your heart you will always carry the generous and loving Emma, that had wonderful experiences in elementary school. You are learning how to “put up the shell to protect yourself” – it is part of growing up. In time, I know you will find special people to create special cards for, make wonderful holiday meals with and create special memories that your parents have done for you.
In the meantime, do something special for yourself – you can always be your own special Valentine! I know many of us, especially girls and women, have never been taught to treat ourselves – I hope you can start earlier than I did, to learn this skill!
Happy Valentine’s Day Emma!
Laura
I feel sorry for the children in this school and children around the country who are missing out on celebrations and traditions that we have all cherished. We have celebrated them year after year and come to take them so much for granted that we figure that today’s kids don’t even need them. While they may mean less to us now, we forget the wonder and enthusiasm that we had for them as children. The author’s view of love is extremely limited and her spirit of celebration and inclusion is shockingly lacking given her position as a school director. She sells kids short when she assumes a lack of capacity to love and to understand friendship and traditions. Selling kids short is not what I would expect from the director of my children’s preschool. “Yes, I banned the hearts. But it was for love.” For love of what?
My older son’s Jewish Day School and my younger son’s Jewish preschool make no mention of Valentine’s Day and ban all related cards, cookies etc. As a Jewish parent, I would expect that a Catholic holiday would not be observed in their classrooms. They are very busy preparing mishloah manot baskets to give to those they love for Purim. They aren’t ignoring the concept of loving others, they are practicing it within the context of their own culture and religious observance. I don’t have anything against Valentine’s Day — it’s a lovely holiday and I certainly like chocolates — but I equally think Christmas is lovely, celebrated by my dear Christian friends in their homes and schools, where I enjoy being welcomed as a guest (as I enjoy welcoming them as guests at my Chanukah party or Passover table). Mutual respect and admiration does not need to equal all of us doing the same thing, just because store advertisements tell us so.
Think your reasoning is sort of a willful misinterpretation of what the day traditionally means. Valentine’s Day is not about the necessity of loving everyone. It’s about paying attention to the people you do love. The custom is to CHOOSE who your valentines are. I’m sure all-inclusiveness has become a part of the celebration in a lot of classrooms, but I don’t see the harm in just baking some heart cookies and telling kids the importance of showing their close friends and families that they care.
There’s nothing wrong with choosing not to celebrate Valentine’s Day, of course — it’s a fake holiday and the romantic connotations can be weird for kids that age. But it doesn’t make sense to ban it for its message of “love everyone,” because that’s not the message at all.
Oy vey! Valentine’s Day is a harmless day when kids can have a little bit of fun. It’s a celebration of love, whatever form love may take, or “like” as in “I like to have fun with my friends.” Love is universal and not the province of any one religion. Let the children have a little bit of fun with their friends at school.
Your story reminds me of one of the reasons my favorite teacher in Jr. High was my favorite teacher; she pointed out to our class that the school should not let the student council sell flowers for Valentine’s Day. She said that most kids end up feeling crummy when the popular kids from the student council come into the classroom and announce by name the kids who get flowers from an admirer. She said that it’s all about being popular and not about the entire student body. The thing that made me feel so OK about Valentine’s Day was what she said…in front of my peers…that it was OK not to get a Valentine’s Day flower and that it didn’t mean that you weren’t likeable. It was a MAJOR relief when she said this out loud. I didn’t get a flower and I didn’t feel bad and I still had See’s Candy at home from my mom.
I don’t understand how buying a whole bunch of crappy paper and candy and indiscriminately distributing it to a room full of people has anything to do with love. This preschool gives me hope that when my son starts preschool next year we will be able to avoid that kind of ridiculousness.
Because it is a gesture of kindness!!! Except for the most jaded of preschoolers, it feels good to give something to someone else (even if it is just a crayon drawing or paper heart), and it feels good to receive even the smallest of gifts from another classmate. Perhaps to a jaded adult only a diamond ring will do, but these are preschoolers and they are leaning about giving and receiving.
I appreciate the time and consideration you put into your reasoning. As a parent of 2 young girls I we have received hundreds of valentines over the years. Now that they are in grade school they are happy to be sending Valentines to their classmates. This however was not the case in preschool, they just didn’t understand and it wasn’t something they looked forward to. I find as a parent its just another time consuming thing that takes away from us really spending quality time with our children. It can take hours for a 2-4 year old to put together 20+ valentines. How many better ways can we spend those hours or even minutes with our own children showing them we love them? Tonight my girls and I had a good round of balloon volleyball to share some giggles and dives. Far more memorable that the stack of Valentines and confectionaries headed for the trash.
I feel that adults tend to over-think things and often take the fun out of childhood and community celebrations and rituals. Her boycott of V-Day in the classroom is of course her prerogative as that private school administrator, but I’d point out that she could just as easily have used the occasion to provide a lesson or exercise in community tolerance and respect — using the very words and concepts being used to justify her boycott. I don’t recall as a child feeling pressured that I had to ‘love” everyone, but I was expected to acknowledge and respect them as individuals within our collective community. And if teachers and parents went a step further to help us create a craft project out of the ritual, there was even more opportunity for enrichment in the arts and crafts. I hope she can see the wisdom in this opportunity and change her methodology in the future. <3
Hearts to you Emma! And keep up that writing — you do it so beautifully and eloquently for a young woman of any age. But at the age of just 13 or so, you are a very impressive writer indeed!
That is great. I am vague about Bruin bear but i assume it relates to some sports. And listening to music; that is good. It is what I do. My tastes are rather archeological in so far as music is concerned but I am never left alone long enough to listen to my favourite music.And take some advice from someone who is older and has trained a lot of people. If those students are ambitious, curious and always in search of answers, you have nothing to worry about. Just do your job and rest will happen as it is meant to. Also tell Arron Salcido that he has done a brilliant job. You always looked like a million dollars but he has brought some extra out of you plus another million for the smile. Manohar in Lucknow Keep up the good work. This is one great admirer.
One of the things that always amazed me about my grandfather was that whenever I visited his house, he always had cards, gifts and candy sitting on his coffee table that had be sent to him by old friends…very often people he hasn’t seen in over twenty years because they had moved away.
I used to wonder why people remembered my grandpa and went out of their way send him thoughtful gifts and cards.
Now, I understand. People remembered my grandpa, because he always remembered them. If you where his friend, he’d always send you candy or a book or magazine subscription even when it wasn’t your birthday. The magazines in his house where not the magazines he liked to read. They were the magazines his friends liked to read. I you were his friend, you could be sure he would always stock his bar with the liquor you liked to drink. (Don’t ever drink Emma. You don’t need it.)
People remembered my grandpa because he remembered them.
If you want more valentines next year. Send a bunch to the people you really appreciate…the people who have been there to support you and be your friend. Two things will happen: 1) your get more Valentines the following year, and 2) you will get so much pleasure from the Valentines you send that you’ll stop worrying about how many you receive.
Life is mysterious.
Wow, it seems like a lot of people are over thinking this! First, if a child refuses to send a simple valentine to a classmate who is not in their ” group”, this might be an opportunity to talk about empathy and showing kindness even to strangers, and perhaps this would also help to help prevent isolating behaviors and even bullying which from some of the posts here starts as early as preschool for some children (if in fact some children cannot see any reason for showing compassion and kindness to certain classmates). Second, This does not need to be a commercial endeavor. Handmade cards or home baked cookies would suffice just as well, unless of course this preschool bans cookies and art projects also. Finally, in contemporary society valentines day is secular and has nothing to do with religion, but even if there were a historical connection is that a reason to boycot and become hostile? Cannot we teach children acceptance and tolerance towards other religions, rather than preaching an allergic reaction and angry rejection?
In a world where there is so much that is divisive I have to agree with Oneworld and Gretchen – why such a narrow definition of love? Respect and kindness ARE forms of love. I think preschools should not only celebrate Valentine’s Day but also Diwali, Sizdah Bedar, and many others, because learning fosters understanding. How narrow-minded to exclude – an act of fear and distrust – rather than include – and act of courage and respect.
Chicken Soba Noodle Soup from Maya Japanese restaurant at Yale and Santa Monica is our family elixir whenever anyone is ill. Buckwheat noodles, big chunks of chicken, spring onions and beansprouts, in a delicious broth… yum! Now that some of us live 80 miles away it is a long trek to retrieve but worth it.
Lemon-Grass Soup from Emerald Thai on Venice. Lemon-grass is loaded with Vitamin C. Chicken contributes the Jewish grandmother curative aspect. And the capsaicin from the hot chilis clears the head and chest. Try it!
Every director has the choice of what holidays to observe at her respective school. But I disagree with the rational. To say that Valentine’s Day propagates the idea that a child must love everyone seems like an intentionally simplistic interpretation. As with other holidays, it’s up to parents and teachers to relay the nuances that are appropriate for their age and community.
Ignoring a widely celebrated holiday versus developing an appropriate way to acknowledge it or celebrate it with your school invites confusion and criticism. It’s the director’s job to lead the school community, so I would expect her to have thought through and explained the rationale before banning the Valentine’s.
Yeah, Mark. Just ask those suckers in Seattle. They’re the ones that are luring the Kings to their city. Why? Because a public venue creates jobs (4,000+), much-needed revenue to city offers, and bolsters businesses. It also provides millions in untold benefits by providing a community with national allure for other businesses who want to be in a city that has a place for concerts and other events aside from sports. In a day and age when governments are providing tax breaks and all kinds of goodies for just about any business, this effort to keep jobs in our city makes perfect sense, even if it requires a small contribution of public dollars.
I recently saw and heard the inspirational story of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Your story is just as inspirational. Keep up your great work!
Linda Griego provided important leadership in “Rebuild LA” after the 1992 civil unrest. Fires Station 28 represented similar leadership about investment in Downtown Los Angeles and about adaptive re-use of historic places. And the list goes on and on. If only she were in the mayoral race this year!
Sugary colas should not be sold in County work facilities like the Kenn Hahn Hall of Administration cafeteria. Obesity is rampant in that facility and there is no legal issue — it’s a purchasing choice. The refrigerators at checkout can be filled with other beverages that aren’t so costly!!! It is painful to see the giant cups of sugary cola that correspond directly to health costs. The fact that we permit vending machines on county beaches…also, a choice… a bad choice!!!
My husband and I live in Marina del Rey, and received voting ballots that allowed us to vote for LA mayor, as well. First time in the 9+ years we’ve lived here. So we did. Strange, but empowering.
I find ‘In Pursuit of Giants’ on my bookshelf, too . . . and not because I’m into fishing. It’s a solid adventure story, written so well I enjoyed the writing too, and it reminds me to pay attention to the Beauty and Wildness “out there,” out beyond what I can see or already know.
Linda, you are an inspiration, a trail blazer, and a great leader. You make Los Angeles, and the country, proud. I am so proud to know you and call you a friend!
I do think we would be well served to create regional governments that could deal with planning, transportation and some other issues that don’t respect geopolitical boundaries as well as you do.
As a Los Angeles native, born in South Central and raised in Boyle Heights, I look up to women like you that have blazed the trail that I hope to some day push forward. Currently, I am an MPA candidate at USC and I only hope that this will help propel me to my ultimate goal of becoming the Mayor of L.A. some day. Any advice for a tough, goal driven, first generation college going Latina?
Thanks for saying what most of us in healthcare already know. Now if only we could get the conversation onto a national level. I helped my friend’s husband with at home hospice (inop lung ca stage iv) & there were issues on all sides–his oncologist was miffed & hospice md we never met but the patient felt abandoned after all the chemo, radiation and draining of fluid from his lungs his oncologist just disappeared, even no reply when Tom emailed him. Very disappointing. Then I was shocked that hospice provided sublingual oral pain meds–by the gallon, delivered to doorstep–+ duragesic patches, but I’d been prepared to manage his IV and a morphine drip; we met the hospice RN once then it was nursing assistants who were mainly good but his pain was difficult to manage with the liquid so I was trying to get better pain mgmt daily, w/o success. This is supposed to be a big part of hospice! They told me to give him more more but he could only swallow so much, then couldn’t swallow at all. I hoped the morphine and ativan that pooled in his cheek would somehow absorb. It was very traumatic for his wife, also a nurse, and me to know he was in such pain. They repeatedly said “oh you’re a hospital nurse, you guys always want IV’s”— well Yes we do! For adequate pain mgmt! we weren’t giving him food or fluids but he really needed pain relief, I didn’t sleep the last 2 days, trying to reposition him (he was 6’4, 60yrs old very athletic, non-smoker) and suspect he died earlier because one night he got in an odd position trying to avoid the tumor and his airway looked cramped—, o2 sat 55. it was 6 hrs later he died. Then his wife, my friend, fell apart & hospice decamped, asked her “do you want to see/ talk to someone?” and took her stunned “no” for a final answer. I had to phone the Onc Services at UCLA and call in favors to get them to call her, get her in & help her out. She really hadn’t been able to believe he would die, she later said. I’m relaying this (as I did to my PCP) to say that all Hospices are not equal, and you, the patient are the consumer–ask questions, esp about pain relief. We had mountains of meds left over that were useless for Tom, expensive meds. So there’s yet another component to add to the AD. I want an IV, not for fluids but for pain control and agitation mgmt. I was astonished that in L.A. a hospice service could be so bad. Tom died in a lot of pain, his biggest fear –& I talked him out of suicide, saying how effective hospice and morphine/ativan are, it still upsets me 3yrs later. These things need to be discussed and stop the hysterics as if a young healthy person will be denied care (though that already happens by insurance companies.) and realize we’re talking about very ill people with serious disease and poor prognoses. What do we want to put them through? We in health care know what aggressive care can entail in a fragile or compromised patient and don’t want it for ourselves or family. That is the Truth. Republicans can be glad that my boomer generation is more for quality of life over quantity and is not going to cost Medicare much. We also don’t believe doctors know everything like our parents did so don’t blindly follow….
Thanks for excellent post! Please write more, including in NYTimes.
Americans move back and forth across time zones all the time when they travel across the country. Is changing the clock one hour ahead (on a Sunday no less) really all that disastrous? On the plus side, families get an extra hour in the evening to enjoy the daylight. So just deal with it.
Good article. During WWII, the US converted to perpetual daylight savings time and called it “war time.” The country also switched over during the 1973 oil shock.
DST serves absolutely no purpose any longer. I say keep the DST clock permanent and save the country from the administrative hassle of changing schedules, clocks, and all things time oriented. And save an already sleep-deprived nation the brutality of stealing a precious hour sleep.
I whole-heartedly agree with you. The farmers argument is ridiculous in this day and age. The school argument is equally as weak. Many kids stay later at school these days, and it’s more dangerous for them to go home at night as it is getting dark or already pitch black, than it is going in the morning while the sun is coming up. There really are not many crimes that happen between 5 and 8 in the morning compared to crimes that happen in the evenings. And please, give us just a little more time to go out and do something when we get home at night before the sun goes down!
“Arizona still doesn’t change its clocks at all—the only remaining state in the union (apart from Hawaii) to defy DST”
What an odd sentence structure – is Hawaii, somehow less of a state than Arizona? How can Arizona be the only remaining state if there is another one?
What a great story of success by a dedicated teacher. Such people are the backbone of educational achievement in the US. You have to cry for all the students that went through before, that got left behind.
We live in a technological society now. We need to have a technical vocabulary and grammar, and that consists of math, to be able to understand the science.
The author writes, “Chronobiologists… know that for several days after the spring-forward clock resetting—and especially that first
Monday—traffic accidents increase, workplace injuries go up, and, perhaps most telling, incidences of heart attacks rise sharply” but neglects to mention that some of those same studies have observed that traffic accidents, workplace injuries, and health issues associated with stress go DOWN when the clocks are set back in the fall, leading to no significant change in any of these things over the course of an entire year.
Algebra helps students learn balance (solving equations) and teaches them how to make wise choices so they are able to arrive at solutions. Computers are not necessary to learn Algebra. In fact, Algebra-I should not involve computer calculations because the challenge, self-awareness and interaction developed during the initial steps in learning to solve algebraic problems is essential to further growth.
Barcelona and Bratislava are only about 1 hour apart in their perception of sun time. But they both start with B so I guess it sounds better. Madrid and Warsaw, however, are about two hours apart and in the same time zone.
Then pay for your own childcare (why is it always the DMV and not the U.S. Navy or the interstate highway system?). Not to mention, what do you think happens from Kindergarten through 12th grade? But do let those of us who see childcare as necessary for women (and men) to have balanced lives have government-mandated childcare as an option.
I do want to make my own choices about child care–I can pay someone, I can stay home or I can have a family member do so. I don’t need the Federal government to make this choice for me. And there’s a big difference between childcare and education–unless you think teachers are babysitters. Whenever the government gets involved, money and time are wasted. Families are better served by making their own arrangements without having the state involved.
There’s an obvious difference between having a state-funded option available and having a coerced, state-mandated monopoly. Just like education: if you want to send your kids to private school, you can. Having a public child care option wouldn’t take away any of your current child care choices. And while teachers aren’t babysitters, what they do is even more complex, which argues against your point that the state can’t do complicated things competently (e.g., your reference to the DMV). The right consistently (and perhaps intentionally) misunderstands state-provided options as state mandated monopolies.
Saying feminism needs to “be less hairy” is the same internalized misogyny quietly keeping women from being whatever they want to be and policing their choices. Many people definitely don’t realize feminism is still an issue, so let’s be loud and confident in taking down old structures and “making them anew,” rather than worrying about pleasing a mainstream that has already done us wrong.
I think perhaps what the author is getting at is that there is more than one way of “doing” feminism. The whole “the personal is political,” 100% commitment to sisterhood vibe of 70s/80s feminism pushed some women away from seeing the structural inequalities between the sexes. There’s a difference (I think) between the analysis of power differentials between men and women and the thinking about ways to overcome it, and what we might call “lifestyle feminism”. *All* ideologies, essentially good or essentially bad (and everywhere in between) have their radical elements, those who take the philosophy to an extreme. The “less hairy” remark is just a reminder that you don’t have to be a lifestyle feminist to be a real, ardent, and committed feminist.
I find your distinctions between a “lifestyle feminist” and a “real, ardent and committed feminist” to be a false dichotomy. As a woman whose feminist awakening began when I was in high school in the 90s (but really began when I became aware of the struggles my single mother faced on multiple fronts because of her race, gender, and marital status), I never believed that feminism wasn’t for me or was “over.” I also honestly don’t understand how any woman could disagree with the idea that “the personal is political” or how a commitment to sisterhood would “push some women away.”
Yes I think you put it quite well when you say we only rise together. All the choices a woman decides to make with her body, hairy or not, are of course legitimate, and if that turns someone away from the movement they need to confront why they think that, and it is a mistake to try and throw the radical out in an effort to be more appealing. (even in “casual” remarks, it is still a put-down, which is how the power differentials are created and insidiously perpetuated.)
I found the “less hairy” admonition in the title (and its continued refrain throughout) to be INCREDIBLY offensive. I agree entirely with syd low’s comment; it is incredibly insulting and divisive to insinuate that feminism needs to removed from its “hairy baggage,” especially given Ms. Schulte’s hypocritical praise for the “hairy-legged feminists” she otherwise derides for their promotion of the ERA in the 70s. By policing women’s bodies and beauty choices (or their rejection of the beauty myth), the author uses the same sexist assumptions and belittling of women that we ascribe to anti-feminists. Women are often complicit in their own oppression – that’s the diabolical genius of the patriarchal (racist, etc.) system. It would be nice if Ms. Schulte, in her rallying cry for feminism, remembered that we only rise together, not when we rip each other apart.
It was bad enough when it was from Oct. to April, now it’s March to Sept. You don’t fall back in fall, you fall back in summer. You don’t spring forward in spring, you spring forward in winter. I’ve always said the time change messes with our body clocks. Let’s leave the time alone!! My pets are confused by the change in time, they only have internal clocks.
I think the idea of being a Feminist lost a lot of appeal when we lost on the ERA. People try to distance themselves from losing causes. I give a talk at film schools and universities around the country called, “How to Survive in Hollywood (Despite Having a Female Brain)” that shows the 100,000-year old root of the problem. It’s not just that we’re not getting equal pay for equal work, it’s that the metrics of success in the system have been created (by men) to favor men. Since the dawn of communal living and specialization by gender, our brains and bodies developed so that the most successful men were the ones who could put out fires and the most successful women were the ones who could prevent fires from starting.
So when men went off and built a corporate world, they placed the highest value on those who could put out fires. We see this on every level in every industry. Whether it’s what’s best for the enterprise at all, that is the trait that is rewarded, so women have to trip all over themselves to prove that we can put out fires, too, and we have to beg to get paid equally for doing that, again whether it is what’s best for the company or not. We need something other than Feminism demanding equal pay for the same work measured by the same standards, because this is not a fight we can win or should even be fighting. We need to work together, and with men, to realign the values. To show that both fire-stoppers and fire-preventers have equal value and should be paid the same, despite making different contributions.
My homeland is Saskatchewan in the country of Canada. It is a realm directly north of the eastern part of Montana state, USA. Some of you may have heard of this exotic land. We have no daylight savings time. The time does not change seasonally. I wonder if anyone has conducted scientific comparative studies on my people in relation to this issue?
Quite a liberal rant. The policies of the church promote the unique special relationship of a husband and wife. These relationships which have been defined as marriages are excellent structures of procreation and rearing of children. Flaws exist in this sinful world, but relationships based on unusual sexual attractions are not healthy parental structures, in a majority of the cases. Each case is different and some gay, lesbian, transvestite or polygamous (gltp) families may turn out to be excellent adoptive parental substitutes, but should any child endure this increased risk if there are enough parents who have the ideal masculine/feminine balance. That’s a reasonable position for anyone to take, even whole states to stand upon. Now, the label of marriage is treasured by many and used in traditional literature in a very specific manner, so redefining such an important term is Orwellian social engineering that isn’t a healthy public exercise. If the term spousal union doesn’t mean as much, live your life in a manner that creates a special definition for the term that engenders respect. Once the respect is earned maybe the culture will see the terms as interchangeable, and the gltp community will not see a need to demand redefinition of ancient dialogues. Did anyone really believe the next pope was going to be liberal? When the Pope asks for silence, his is listening for the Lord, creator to guide our steps in a manner that honors us as a dim reflection of His image. To ask the Lord to bless our aberrations from His ideals is arrogant and egotistical. It’s not about us. Humility does not demand acceptance and honor. Christ to help us endure this life with the leadership of the Holy Spirit, and to help us shed this sinful life as we passed into the next life. A life without aberration, sorrow, pain, or strife. Please leave the church and it’s marriage structures alone to continue our efforts to bless the nations and serve the poor. Create your own spousal unions and Orwellian ideals in ways that don’t abuse or euthanize embryos, women in wombs, young children and elders who have lost their usefulness to you. That is where our strife is unavoidable. We do not seek to traumatize your psychological dream state, just leave the children and elders alone.
My comments were an honest response to the event of a new pope. They were the comments of an orthodox Christian who has a deep love and respect for the church– the church, theologically speaking, being the body of Christ on the earth. The Roman church as an ecclesiastical structure is an important segment of Christianity. The “family” that it represents includes a wide range of thought and a broad spectrum of human experience. You exceedingly judgmental come-back to my comments, dare I say, isn’t very Christian. You define marriages as a unique special relationship of a husband and wife…and a structure of procreation and rearing of children. (Of course, you do not mention what to do with those children if they happen to be gay or lesbian sons and daughters of the family.) You at least imply that you would simply label them as an “aberration.” There are many within the church who are led by the Holy Spirit to new understandings of the gift of love and relationships in human experience. Would you imply that childless couples are an aberration of your purpose for marriage? Or couples who marry after child bearing years? You say that “marriage is treasured by many and used in traditional literature in a very specific manner…(therefore) redefining it is Orwellian social engineering that isn’t a healthy public exercise.” If “traditional” marriage is such a treasure why do over half of all such marriages end in divorce? (And just what is traditional marriage? Which traditional marriage is the result of your ‘ancient dialogues’ that should remain sacrosanct.? To which example of Biblical marriage are you referring? Women were virtually property in Biblical times. And in the Old Testament you see many patriarchs with more than one wife.) Do you prefer traditional marriage like in Downton Abbey? You also see same sex partners who shared deep love– The early church even has icons of same sex partners in religious lives. Denying people their rights within the church or in society in general is the thing that is not “a healthy public exercise.”
And, you are right. Nobody believed the next pope was going to be a liberal! However the term “liberal” is probably more in line with the Gospel than “conservative.” Scripture is full of one example after another of “conservative” religious authorities. And it’s usually in the context of a “liberal rant” about Jesus healing someone on the wrong day, eating with the wrong people, passing by the one in need, (read the story of the Good Samaritan.) You know– menstruating women used to be kept outside of the church during their time of being “unclean.” Should that stricture be reinstated? Your prejudices don’t seem so well informed. In Acts 10, Peter (you know– upon whom the church is built) Peter is told “What God has cleansed, that cannot be called unclean.”Francis of Assisi said “he considered himself no friend of Christ if he did not cherish those for whom Christ died.” I believe Christ lived, died, and rose again for all. If that’s a liberal rant– it’s the liberal rant of the Gospel. (Which way predates Orwell.) One of the greatest theologians of our time, Hans Kung, said “Faith is not submission to a human authority, but unconditional trust in God.” Authority should always be questioned– from within and from without. We certainly limit God if we don’t believe that the Spirit of God can lead to new understandings. The church used to use scripture to justify slavery–
My comments were an honest response to the event of a new pope. They were the comments of an orthodox Christian who has a deep love and respect for the church– the church, theologically speaking, being the body of Christ on the earth. The Roman church as an ecclesiastical structure is an important segment of Christianity. The “family” that it represents includes a wide range of thought and a broad spectrum of human experience. Your exceedingly judgmental come-back to my comments, dare I say, isn’t very Christian. You define marriages as” a unique special relationship of a husband and wife…and a structure of procreation and rearing of children.” (Of course, you do not mention what to do with those children if they happen to be gay or lesbian sons and daughters of the family.) You at least imply that you would simply label them as an “aberration.” There are many within the church who are led by the Holy Spirit to new understandings of the gift of love and relationships in human experience. Would you imply that childless couples are an aberration of your purpose for marriage? Or couples who marry after child bearing years? You say that “marriage is treasured by many and used in traditional literature in a very specific manner…(therefore) redefining it is Orwellian social engineering that isn’t a healthy public exercise.” If “traditional” marriage is such an inviolable treasure, why do over half of all such marriages end in divorce? (And just what is traditional marriage? Which traditional marriage is the result of your ‘ancient dialogues’ that should remain sacrosanct.? To which example of Biblical marriage are you referring? Women were virtually property in Biblical times. And in the Old Testament you see many patriarchs with more than one wife.) Do you prefer traditional marriage like in Downton Abbey? You also see in Scripture same sex partners who shared deep love. The early church even has icons of same sex partners in religious callings. Denying people their rights within the church or in society in general is the thing that is not (as you put it) “a healthy public exercise.”
And, you are right. Nobody believed the next pope was going to be a liberal! However the term “liberal” is probably more in line with the Gospel than “conservative.” Scripture is full of one example after another of “conservative” religious authorities. And it’s usually in the context of a “liberal rant” about Jesus healing someone on the wrong day, eating with the wrong people, or about the cleric passing by the one in need, while the dreaded “Samaritan” (read the story of the Good Samaritan) stopped and helped. Religious authorities are to be the chief among servants. The object is serving Christ in the needs of others and in the pursuit of justice. The emphasis isn’t so much on who’s “in” and who’s “out” — who’s “clean” or who’s traif. Did you know that menstruating women used to be kept outside of the church during their time of being “unclean.” Should that stricture be reinstated? Your prejudices don’t seem so well informed. In Acts 10, Peter (you know– upon whom the church is built) Peter is told “What God has cleansed, that cannot be called unclean.”Francis of Assisi said “he considered himself no friend of Christ if he did not cherish those for whom Christ died.” I believe Christ lived, died, and rose again for all. If that’s a liberal rant– it’s the liberal rant of the Gospel. (Which way predates Orwell.) One of the greatest theologians of our time, Hans Kung, said “Faith is not submission to a human authority, but unconditional trust in God.” Authority should always be questioned — from within and from without. We certainly limit God if we don’t believe that the Spirit of God can lead to new understandings. BTW, the church used to use scripture to justify slavery– And, by the way, it’s the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Transgendered) not as you said GLTP — meaning gay, lesbian, transvestites, and polygamists.
I don’t understand your comparison of costs of barrels of oil vs barrels of gasoline since it takes two barrels of oil to make one barrel of gasoline? Of course the other half of each barrel is also sold as other products, so the comparison must include the prices of those products as well.
I really like this. The county is the one level of government that really ought to be bigger and more democratic. And they are usually large and diverse enough to be able to make decisions that benefit the whole community and not only NIMBY “property values” interests.
But that means that the Feds will make those decisions. And if you’re so short of options that only the taxpayer can save you, maybe you should rethink having kids.
No one is talking about how various Senators and Representatives voted, taking into account their personal stock holdings. Someone should do a retrospective study to look at this. Our federal legislators are NOT held to the same standard as other politicians, let alone the private sector. What passes for “ethical” in both chambers amounts to little more than an absolute license to profiteer at the expense of taxpayers. If our news media had an ounce of gumption they would be asking Dodd, Frank, and all the rest to disclose their stock holdings before and after the passage of Dodd-Frank. And they would continue to ask until we got some answers.
The solution to the “too big to fail problem” is simple. First, decide what total profit amount would make a bank “too big to fail”. Then tax profits over that amount at 100%. Problem solved.
If you’re interested in contributing to a project that would help update our public participation laws, see the Knight News Challenge proposal at http://kng.ht/WUT86m
I love it! Very creative Zocalo team! I personally think the mayor should spend six months living in each of the 90 or so neighborhood councils as a reminder of just how big this city is…
I hadn’t realized that Jay Matthews lives in So Calif; East Pasadena evidently. I knew about his Oxy connection but I’d always assumed he was in DC due his WA Post column.
Why did the author choose to write this sentence: “It may be tempting to imagine that poor choices or lack of a work ethic can explain the disparity, but the study found that for the most part, the wealth gap is not the result of differences in education, diligence, or lifestyle.”
Because many people wrongly believe and assert that the only reason black people are poor is they are lazy moochers who refuse to try to work. Remember Mitt Romney’s comments about “entitlement?” And he was born rich!!”
None of this works when you have corrupt officials at any level who are infused in the process. We see it with our neighborhood councils in Los Angeles where a lot of well-meaning people fighting the good fights or fighting their own particular, narrowly-focused issues, are dismissed, quashed, marginalized, attacked, disregarded or “buried” by interests who are amassing money and/or power and thereby totally invalidate what was supposed to be a democratic process. Every decent and dedicated neighborhood activist in Los Angeles knows that the only way to get quality-of-life issues taken seriously is to sue the bastards. It’s a broken system, just like the one at the top in this country and at every other level. We have no representational government. There is oligarchy. That stuff you’re watching that masquerades as democracy is a glorified dog and pony show!
Seems to me that Ronald Reagan was the one who really propelled that kind of vicious, prejudicial thinking with his constant, smarmy references to “welfare queens” and the ghettoizing of inner city neighborhoods with his so-called war on drugs… This piece brilliantly depicts how the fix is in and how the land of opportunity is no such thing.
Do we all want the riches of this world? Internal joys in life are experienced by some through a work ethic and by others through relationships and performance entertainment? There is no starvation in the US, so we are all talking about relative materialistic measures of success. We’ve all got healthcare. We’ve all got our safety net of charities and welfare. We’ve all got access to city colleges. This article admits that there are poor in every race. Some get their joys by serving the poor, while others get joys from inciting the vulnerable with materialistic jealousy.
He lays out a nuanced case for reparations and then dismisses reparations by painting it as righting the wrongs done to individuals. The point is that the black community has faced SYSTEMIC racism and therefore the response must be SYSTEMTIC: viable schools, mental health resources, higher education stipends and yes, money to buy homes. There are ways to do it where you are not just shelling out cash directly to individuals which doesn’t wrong the impact of centuries long oppression.
Just go. Head to Cancun. Hop on Aero Cubano. When you arrive in Cuba they put a big post-it in your passport, and remove it when you leave. Take your bicycle. Bike through the countryside. You will meet the most amazing people. And be so happy you did it.
Our company loves California; our main office has been here since 1972. That said, all of our expansions, including manufacturing facilities, subsidiaries and holding company — have occurred in other states. Now we are moving 50 corporate jobs to Ohio. A harbinger of things to come?
So long as California voters cling to the idea of “Santa Claus” government – the idea that you can have the state provide an endless amount of services, approve every bond on the ballot (aka borrowing money) and keep taxes “low” (or at least ensure that local government is dependent on the state for funding), things will always be difficult. People need to make a decision – do I want a state government that has lots of services, and thus requries LOTS of taxes? Or do I want something else? Either way people need to wake up. California is still one of the greatest places to live, and I would rather stay and fix it than be a chicken and move to some crummy state that may have lower taxes, but is also a dump.
Just happened across these pics: absolutely brilliant. Thought you might appreciate a couple of other nostalgia-shots, on the subject of Colorado Boulevard’s once-mighty arcade culture…
Gregory I really enjoy Zocalo’s events! Thanks for your passion to engage the entire community of Angelenos! Your neighbor who misses having the old Zocalo office location nearby. ~ Grace Yoo of the Korean American Coalition
¡Congrats, Gregory, and to all at Zócalo! You have taught us how to be community and given us real and virtual spaces to connect and thrive. With infinite gratitude,
Proud-to-be LA
as someone who watched the growth of Zocalo from the upstairs office (or is downstairs, I get confused) and attended those early events, major major congratulations… and thanks for making LA even more interesting
The architecture of Los Angeles reflects the reality of the best climate in the world. Because is it usually 76 degrees and sunny, and we don’t have the humidity of other mild climate cities, we live outside as much as possible, we are typically in good humor, and we enjoy interacting with each other. Our homes reflect this orientation to our neighbors and to the streets. They also reflect our individuality–homes in Los Angeles have charming fences and most neighborhoods have at least one house with a mural, a mosaic, or other example of an artist using his or her home as a canvas. These days I am seeing more vegetables in the front yard, too, as available land is used for more environmentally sustainable landscaping.
The architecture also must acknowledge the earthquakes and fires that are our bane. Just as cities with rivers have houses with high front staircases and ground floor “basements”, our roofs must be fireproof, and glass must be used with caution, though we don’t need to worry about losing heat or cold through glass walls as they do in, say, Wisconsin. In many parts of Los Angeles, air conditioning is optional if you have good cross-ventilation.
I believe that architecture is an important way of paying respect to the natural environment in which we live. I don’t think any building should be considered outside of its context in its neighborhood, its geology, and its micro-climate. Los Angeles is full of public, commercial, and residential buildings that acknowledge the joy and privilege of living in this place.
After all, there is a reason that cities like Pittsburgh and Cleveland are shrinking, and we complain about density and traffic here, where on a day in February you can walk to the beach in your flip-flops.
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
The child of passion is only ten years old but already has given much to the human community. (A prodigy?) Here, wishing many more years of enlightening, challenging, entertaining and hope-giving discourse!
While I agree with the general idea that LA’s civic/urbanculture is more shaped by its infrastructure than by its buildings, and that the influence and quality of its private residential architecture far outshines its public buildings, I disagree with the oft-repeated trope that Los Angeles lacks great public architecture. For an American city that did not come of age in the beaux arts era of architectural triumphalism, we still have an impressive collection of iconic public buildings and venues. Our parks and true public spaces are lacking, but I disagree that “Once you’ve named the Bradbury Building, City Hall, Bullock’s Wilshire, the Department of Water and Power headquarters, the American Cement Building, Disney Hall, and the occasional gem like the Coca-Cola bottling plant on South Central Avenue, the roster quickly turns kitsch or plebeian.” Here are some more for the roster that aren’t kitsch or plebian; and many of them are essential to the LA experience:
Union Station
Griffith Observatory
Central Library
LAX Theme Building
Eastern Columbia
Memorial Coliseum
Dodger Stadium
Getty Center
Capitol Records
Hollywood Bowl
Library Tower
USC/UCLA campuses
Pasadena City Hall
LA Times Building
CalTrans District 7 Headquarters
Cathedral of our Lady of the Angels
Wilshire Boulevard Temple
Angelus Temple
Oviatt Building
Fine Arts Building
Pelissier Building
Southwest Museum
Federal Courthouse and Post Office
Pan Pacific Auditorium
Also, it’s unfair to dismiss kitsch in this city… some of
our greatest public buildings are our theaters, many of which are
simultaneously kitschy and awe-inspiring at the same time:
Pantages
Wiltern
Million Dollar
United Artists
Shrine Auditorium
Los Angeles
And then you have a few places like these that walk the line
between kitsch and true innovation, and in my opinion represent the LA spirit
better than any other public structures:
Crossroads of the World
Granada Shoppes and Studios
Watts Towers
This is not “cheating” because the students are working within the set rules of the game. The professor set the rules that any lawful act is open for use on this exam and the students abide by them. While this is an interesting read on group dynamics and cooperation, it is a poor choice to label this a study of “cheating.”
A week before the test, I told my class that the Game Theory exam would be insanely hard—far harder than any that had established my rep as a hard prof. But as recompense, for this one time only, students could cheat. They could bring and use anything or anyone they liked, including animal behavior experts. (Richard Dawkins in town? Bring him!) They could surf the Web. They could talk to each other or call friends who’d taken the course before. They could offer me bribes. (I wouldn’t take them, but neither would I report it to the dean.) Only violations of state or federal criminal law such as kidnapping my dog, blackmail, or threats of violence were out of bounds.
As an Orange County resident, being used to ‘perfect’ neighborhoods packed with neo-Spanish villas, I must say I have a lot of fun going through many of L.A.’s old neighborhoods and delighting in the beauty and diversity of it all. (Though we have some nice older exceptions in OC: Tustin, Orange, Santa Ana – the last of which has many beautiful homes that unfortunately have become decrepit since they can now be found in mostly poor immigrant neighborhoods, where funds for renovation don’t come easily.)
Anyway, years ago, Craig and Muir did a study of chicken productivity. Instead of breeding chickens for individual productivity and then shoving them in crates of 9 for commercial production, which produces savagely aggressive chickens that have to be debeaked, they “breed” them in crates of 9. Peak individual productivity was reduced but productivity of the crates — which is, after all, what matters to the production poultryman — was increased and aggression was reduced to the point where debeaking was unnecessary. (This is all laid out in Sober and Wilson’s excellent book, Unto Others.)
What the professor was doing here was performing the chicken experiment on students.: i.e., shifting the level of selection in the class room to the class level from the individual level. Human beings are remarkable for the ease with which they respond to changes in selection from one level to another because of a long evolutionary history which included bottlenecks in which properties of group structure must have been extremely important to individual survival.
The big educational question is, of course, which sort of selection regimen best prepares students for the world they are actually entering? In the regimen of academic Reaganism under which we are living, we are producing students that will need to be debeaked if their workplaces are going to be productive.
I don’t really get this “L.A. is ugly” trope. L.A. has more beautiful residential neighborhoods than any other city I’ve ever been in. It’s ringed by majestic mountains and beautiful beaches. There are hundreds of individually beautiful buildings from every era of the last century or so. I think the issue is that there is no architectural uniformity or theme that unites the city, and that our commercial corridors are, with a couple of exceptions, pretty ugly. But that’s a small part of the totality of the city.
I will likely do this again, but I’m next slated to teach a much larger class (200+). I’m afraid that in large classes there is just too much opportunity for chaos, and some nasty confrontations across students. So I don’t think my method here will easily scale up.
Nicely said and pretty accurate. Obama’s colossal debate whiff last fall revealed that even though he’s the messiah, he’s still not Superman. Which is sort of the same thing you’re pointing out here — actually your title pretty much says that exactly — you could have written the same title last fall, “While he’s been wonderful in campaign events past …” He probably wouldn’t even be annoyed with this essay — he’d just say, “Yep, sorry, I’m just trying my best. I’ll try harder.” He’s done an amazing job.
This is how I felt after listening to the speech. It left me wanting, esp. after hearing the governor’s speech that was very moving. Later on after seeing Obama’s face on TV I felt that he was flat because he was fighting back emotion.
Author cites Reagan a man that read off cue cards, the ultimate actor as the one to emulate to either feign or make one seem more authentic. The concept of authenticity of compassion is weird. If what you are trying to say is that he didn’t have a great speech… well then… ok. I would think this article after his 1st Presidential debate of the 2012 campaign would be a better example.
It seems the writer is projecting his own feelings, rather than what Pres. Obama really said or did. It is unfortunately his recall of Pres. Reagan, using that as a frame of reference, using it as a comparison, and then, projecting that on what Pres. Obama did. Quite unpersuasive.
Given all the events of the past two weeks I think you could have picked a better topic then picking on the President. Im not even a HUGE Obama fan and I think this article is way off.
Where is the rest of the essay? It gets going and quits. Did Strasberg stick around for the end of the speech? Obama brought the crowd to its feet with rousing phrases. I will give you that it should have ended there, but he tagged on the quiet closing, repeating his themes, and then retreated. But if he had left to the applause, it would have crowned the moment.
First, we’re too enamored with acting to expect Presidents to emote, If they are great emoters, they’ll be in Hollywood not in the White House. Reagan grabbed both worlds, a trained actor who became President.
Second, THIS President IS NOT an emoter — he disguises his feelings, reins in his anger, and live too much in his head to FEEL for others but possible those whom he really cares for. McLuhan mentioned TV as a cool medium — we have a President who’s a cool medium.
Words apart, oratorical skills apart, THIS President is remote, distant. His life story lends to having to keep his emotions in check — and brought up possibly NOT to reveal. Wonder if he’s a good poker player?
Anne
Excellent commentary. For those of us who live and work on the border, our bonds are stronger than ever. We just need officials in Washington and Mexico City to catch up with the citizens, NGOs and private sector leaders (as well as local officials) who are forging strong ties and partnerships across the border.
Serge Dedina, Ph.D.
Executive Director
WiLDCOAST/COSTASALVAJE
Imperial Beach/Ensenada
David is right on. As I help my 5th grader study American history I am amazed by the snapshot impressions I have of recent presidents. Is Obama’s most memorable line “You didn’t build that?” Is Clinton’s “I did not have sex with that woman” or “It depends on what your definition of is is?” Was Bush’s finest moment the bullhorn speech at Ground Zero while his dad was known for reading his stage directions: “Message: I care.” Even though Carter never said the word, he is remembered as the “malaise” superintendent. I’ll never forget the quotable Reagan: “Mommy, I forgot to duck,” “I hope we’re all Republicans here,” “Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” and even, though quoting another, “Slip the surly bonds of earth and touch the face of God.” Was Nixon a sweaty pasty “I am not a crook.” You can’t have Checkers. “You don’t have Nixon to kick around anymore.” Kennedy, like Reagan, was The President. “We go to moon not because it is easy, but because it is hard.” And in one speech he inspired us with “we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship…” “that those who sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside…” and of course “Ask not…” Is it a case of men not matched to the role or a media intent on reducing all heroes to mortals? Unfortunately except for Reagan and Kennedy I can’t remember a presidential quote from most oval office occupants in the last 50 years.
I went to the talk last night, and stayed for most of the Q&A. Quite disappointed about the omission of any discussion about what I regard as the elephant in the room: US war on drug policies, which are doing more to destroy Mexico than any other single factor. Non-criminalization of drugs here would weaken the violent drug cartels in Mexico.
Professor O’Neil made an explicit connection to how the US was able to quash the criminal enterprises of the mob during Prohibition, and how Mexico needs to make a similar push against its gangs– it’s a problematic analogy, though: here the American gangsters were profiting off behavior of Americans and their desire to get intoxicated. In Mexico today, the gangsters are profiting off the behavior of foreigners (who are still, ironically, Americans).
Americans have a long history of getting high, from the earliest days of the republic, as Michael Pollan has written. We need to come up with ways to accommodate that inclination– to deal with it in some way– without contributing to the destruction of another country.
The method instituted for the test is certainly laudable and a brilliant way of inculcating the game theory instincts in students. But I would like to know if the results would be same if the stakes were higher and more real life. Like a promotion is at stake in job or you are competing for the same resource etc. It would be a more interesting and successful study if it works.
One way to do that would be to create a cap on the total points awarded to all participants. (Assume 10 students, take a semi-average score of let’s say 80) State that there are only 800 points to go around. And you will likely see some above average competition.
Thank you for sharing this. I went to Catholic school myself in 80s and am immeasurably grateful for it. I firmly believe that I owe much of my success in academics and life to the 9 years I attended Santa Clara Elementary School. I have now taught in a Catholic high school for 11 years and know that, although there are many fine schools in Los Angeles, a Catholic school is something different. It is not just a “private” school, as many believe. The Catholic schools offer amazing diversity and a true commitment to educating their students’ in mind, body and soul. We in the Los Angeles region are lucky to have so many Catholic schools and hopefully are communities can come together to keep as many of them open as possible in to the future.
Is this really teaching what humans are good at, or just good within the parameters you set? In nature, being better than the competitor is better, because you get something and s/he does not. If all animals mated, then there is less food, and some die out due to starvation / lack of energy (to get more food). This definitely shows that groups of people do better than single people in most cases (it sounds like the lone wolves still benefited from the discussions). Perhaps a more real-life scenario would be to assign points based on the size of the group (bigger group = smaller average points), and the group got to share the points equally. Then, aligning yourself with a few “brains” would get your group a much higher grade (or sharing the “brains” among all the groups?).
Anyway, excellent idea on getting the students to think outside their normal comfort zone!
I know that at my Law School the professors were required to turn in grades that resembled a Bell Curve distribution. If Berkeley requires similar, then I wouldn’t be terribly shocked by the additional competitiveness. This is of course just a single hypothesis.
There are definitely some additional competitive pressures to consider in the Law School environment.
I had an interesting experience with a position we were trying to fill at a company. Instead of the usual interview system (45 minutes each, some practical, some design, etc) we decided to give each interviewee the real world example of a day at the company. We gave them a programming task that could be described simply and completed in half a day, and asked before hand what kind of laptop and tools they wanted preloaded.
We then left them in a room and told them to complete the task any way they wanted. They could buy the answer on the internet, they could ask friends, they could use the internet. Shockingly, most candidates literally refused to put pen to paper – we got programs with literally just a few lines.
To make it fair, the group hiring did the same question together, and compared all of our approaches – but all of us were able to get the program done, although some people took longer and did more complete work, some did quicker, shoddier work.
My one big quibble here is that Prof. Nonacs seems to not understand the meaning of the word “cheating,” over and over again. No cheating occurred here. No reason for the word to be in this article, nor in its title.
“Although by conventional test-taking rules, the students were cheating, they actually weren’t in this case. Instead, they were changing their goal in the Education Game from “Get a higher grade than my classmates” to “Get to the best answer.””
The ideal of letting students cooperate and take tests in groups really resonates with my idea of learning.
They should do more tests like this and in different fields of study. I would actually recommend 50% of all tests be taken like this it encourages students to hunt for the right answer not compete against each other which seems to be a better goal and it also encourages cooperation.
Let’s face it we’re a social species we work better in social environments.
The other 50% should give the teachers a good idea who is doing good and who is doing worse in the class.
A collaborative assignment is a really solid education tool. That’s really all this is.
What’s missing is an explanation of why the author thinks this led to an
objective evaluation of what individual students learned *before* test day (if he does indeed think that). That is the point of an exam. Imagine if med students could collaborate on their boards. It would pretty well invalidate the purpose.
All in all, it worked out much better than I expected because the
students really got into it. They spent a week communicating amongst
themselves, planning strategy, spinning what if scenarios. Total game
theory to the max! And game theory was what I was trying to get them to understand. So, one could say that the test was really not about the
‘answer’, but instead all about the thinking and planning on how to get
to the answer before the test and then as the test unfolded. They passed that with flying colors.
I’ve embraced take-home “open resource” exams over the past few years on the basis that they are better learning exercises than in-class exams that mostly just evaluate. The students report that they learn more in the class than had been reported in previous years.
After reading this I’m going to experiment with an exam that allows cooperation.
You’re exactly right, Brian. It’s too bad that TV6/FOX UP won’t hire good reporters who have chosen to remain local, like Pete Mackin, who would have no problem exposing corruption, etc. Oh well. I’ve become accustomed to the pathetic fluff and verbatim reading of press releases that TV6 has been feeding us our whole lives.
What if the test wasn’t impossibly difficult?
What if Prof Nonacs had set a mildly difficult test that the brightest ones knew they could do better on than most of the others?
Since everyone was shunted far onto one side of the possibility of cracking that test, they naturally turned to each other for help. But what what if it was within reach for say 30-40 percent of the class?
One of the unexpected pleasures of my comfortable retirement involves assembling a yearbook for my high school class’ 50th reunion, which will occur next fall. In recent weeks, I have been receiving biographical summaries from fellow members of the class of 1963. In the first batch of 15 statements from men, I learned that 12 had served in the military. I know that’s not an adequate sampling, but the final number, I believe, will confirm that about two-thirds of the men were in the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines. Of course, we were the generation whose fathers and uncles took up arms in World War II; we came of age as the Vietnam War was escalating; and we faced the draft. And if individuals did not serve, they had friends, classmates, family members who did; so they have an understanding of what that experience involves.
We have in recent decades, however, created two populations in this country–one, very small, that goes to war, and another, about 99% of the total, that wishes them well but tends to take for granted what they do. The high incidence of trauma in today’s military leads me to a recent statement by the American Psychological Association: “Prolonged separation from family and friends can . . . cause problems.” From my own experience as a Vietnam veteran, I believe that the repeated and extended overseas tours–compounded by a sense of alienation from the rest of societ–is contributing to depression and worse among today’s veterans.
I am convinced that the line of separation between civilian and military is more a matter of choice than of necessity. I don’t mean we have to reinstitute the draft to make this apparent division disappear; but civilian and military do, after all, exist in a single social structure. Both populations are intricately interconnected and mutually dependent. We are in this, as many have said, together. The challenge is to find ways to encourage understanding of the different but vital roles of these two groups. Perhaps we older veterans can do more to lead the way, as we do have much in common with our younger comrades and most of us now have a place in civilian society.
Thanks for the story. This is a very interesting application of cooperative game theory. There is an inherent assumption in several of the comments that the “real world” is only a competitive place, and that cooperative behavior is just a classroom result.
Specialization and cooperation are different. Specialization requires each party to recognize the gains from trade. We can trade with those we do not trust by taking every advantage available. Cooperation requires each party to recognize the value of contributing and trusting without a guarantee to receive a greater return.
Non-cooperative game theory is pretty easy to grasp. Cooperative game theory is more subtle. Biology and economics (my area) both show that cooperative behavior can solve certain types of problems where competitive game theory fails. Sometimes a smaller creature is more valuable as a teeth-cleaner than as a meal. Public goods create great value, but do not arise from competitive behavior.
Almost everyone knows how to compete, so people place an exaggerated emphasis on competition. Learning when and how to cooperate is undervalued. You’ve taught them something truly important.
Using this exam structure to teach student how to evaluate a choice between cooperative behavior and competitive behavior is brillliant.
This experiment compares the mob median to randomly sampled individual observations, and the individual observations show variance around the center. Statistics still work, even in biology classrooms.
From the standpoint of educating kids and for future employers to know they’re hiring someone who knows what they’re up to, it’s not obvious that the general application of this testing strategy is desirable. Someone not present at this test would be incapable of discriminating between a mob member who contributed the most to the conversation, and someone who contributed not at all. Certainly they would be able to discriminate between the lone wolf who did the best, and the karmicly challenged lone wolf who tried to organize a “smart kid” cartel, with the cartel organizer not getting hired. Win!
Considering that higher degrees have the purpose of distinguishing the student from others, isn’t it counterproductive to organize examinations which prohibit individuals from distinguishing themselves?
[I understand this is not a claim made by the author, but is certainly a conclusion that could be drawn, and might be what the guy talking about de-beacking chickens means to say.]
As an experiment in the coordination of knowledge, however, it looks like a good one, and the kids sound like they had fun. Which is what college is all about, eh?
Thought problem. You have a weird undiagnosed medical condition. You walk into a room of doctors. Who do you want as a physician? The smartest guy in the room? Or maybe the average guy, who is still smart enough to know he needs to ‘cheat’ and ask the smartest guy for his opinion. And maybe also ask the smartest guys in the next 5 rooms, too. What is the “goal” of education? To sift through everyone and rank the smartest? Or teach everyone as best you can to reach their innate capabilities as innovators and problem solvers?
As one of the students in this class I can say it was most certainly a different experience than any other that I’ve had. I was also the “lone wolf” who ended up doing better than the group and did so because I did not feel that the way the group was writing their answer was a sufficient response to the question although all the correct answers were on the board, and I used some of their arguments with some of my own. It was a very fun way to learn about Game Theory and I would highly recommend the class to anyone at UCLA. Thanks Dr. Nonacs!
What are the correct answers to the test? I would say, Dawkins in my mind: players: genes; team: organisms; rules: none; objectives: reproduce!; outcome: life on earth as we know it.
Since people are asking, here is the entire question and my answer key. Besides being based on several weeks of lectures that have ‘framed’ the question, here are a couple things to note..
1. The question is actually longer than its summary in the published piece: Article words limits and I wanted the question to be as explicit as possible for the test.
2. The answer key is my expanded answer. The students nailed large portions of this, but I wanted them to see what else they could have put in. The question is also very open-ended and there are alternative ways to argue the proposition. Therefore, I would not claim that this is THE answer – it is the classes’ and MY best attempt at an answer.
QUESTION
Write a short but incisive essay applying game theory to the general theory of Natural Selection. Be sure to clearly explain:
What is (are) the objective(s) of the Natural Selection “game”.
· What the rules are of this game.
· Does it matter that some rules arise from behavioral ecology while others are defined by physics or chemistry? If so, why?
· Who are the players and/or teams?
· Can there be an optimal or unbeatable strategy that will always win. And if not, why not?
· Can you ever win at the game of Natural Selection without explicitly
‘knowing’ the rules?
Humans are in the process of identifying, or maybe already have identified all the rules, objectives and what determines winning in Natural Selection. How does knowing all this change the potential future outcomes? Or does it have no effect at all?
ANSWER:
The objective of a Natural Selection game is to survive. Over the history of life on earth, therefore, probably 99.9% of species have lost this game (although some may have been winners for a very long time). Survival, or winning, can take several forms. It can be an immortal individual that never dies. Although such individuals may exist somewhere, they are highly unlikely (i.e., accidents happen!). Alternatively, a species can be successful in its ecological niche to the extent that it excludes all others for extensive periods of time. For example, cockroaches have occupied their niche and excluded all wanna-be cockroach species for 100’s of millions of years. Finally, ancestral species can evolve into new ones, or exhibit an evolutionary radiation into several or many new species. So for example, Homo erectus is not a loser in this game even though there are no more H. erectus alive today. However, one of its descendant species, H. sapiens, is probably the ‘winningest’ primate ever. H. erectus descendant genes happily continue to play the NS game. In
contrast, Neanderthals have lost – they have left no descendants. (Note – some may disagree here and argue that the 4% of Neanderthal genes found in some human populations means that at least a small part of the Neanderthal genome is a winner and continues in the game.)
The players in this game can be defined as whatever can successfully reproduce. Most often we think of this as being a gene, or at least a strip of DNA such as a transposable element that can make copies of itself. But the player need not be a gene. It can be a cultural norm, an idea, a belief system, a computer virus, etc… Anything that has the potential to replicate and is governed by the rules of Natural Selection. Players can be organized into ever-ascending levels of teams. Genes
into chromosomes; chromosomes into genomes and individuals; individuals into groups; groups into societies; societies into multi-species communities, ideas into religions or political parties.
Each of these team levels may help or hinder overall survival by Natural
Selection. “Teammates” at all levels may help each other to the benefit of all. Or they may increase their own success by sabotaging or exploiting their teammates. Survival, or winning, is however agnostic over how this is accomplished. The ultimate rule is: whatever works – works! Hence the world is full of a wide variety of cooperative, exploitative, nice and nasty winners.
The rules of Natural Selection are often set by chemistry and physics. DNA, RNA, ATP, proteins, carbs, etc… all have their unique chemical properties and limitations. Whatever evolves must happen within these limitations. Physics limits size, movement rate, body shape, etc… Again, Natural Selection must operate within these hard limitations.
Thus, fundamental processes of Natural Selection such as what materials you can use to best store information and pass across individuals (i.e., DNA) are set by chemical rules. Behavioral
ecology rules such as “cooperate if…”, “do X if Y happens…” etc… may be very effective, but they are also completely changeable. They are an evolved consequence, not an evolutionary constraint. Hence, a simple objective such as “maximize inclusive fitness” can and is achieved in millions of different ways by millions of different species. And importantly, behavioral rules can be cheated upon, or changed to your advantage. You really can’t suspend the rules of chemistry or physics!
Obviously if one can cheat or change the rules, then there is no unbeatable strategy – only what may work the best under the current set of conditions. Again, remember most who have played this game have lost and are extinct. Change an environment’s chemistry and physics and something else is likely to win. Change the behavioral rules, such as alter a Prisoner’s dilemma matrix to a Mutualism matrix, and you get new winning strategies for the Natural Selection Game.
Equally obviously, success is not dependent on explicitly knowing the
rules. Whatever works – works. No one needs to understand how it works. It is simply what the winners did.
Yet if you do know the rules, like humans do (or at least think we do), it can strongly affect behavior and outcomes. To some degree, knowing the constraints established by physics and chemistry allows them to be ameliorated in some novel way. (Wear a coat when it’s cold outside!) Perhaps more importantly, humans understand the pitfalls of behavioral ecology rules. If you know it’s a Prisoner’s Dilemma, you know that you ought to play Tit-for-Tat. If you know that ocean fisheries are a Tragedy of the Commons, you can hopefully behave in ways that prevent that outcome. If you know that too much scrounging is bad for the group, you can enforce punishments to maintain group functioning and
cohesion. In this test, you knew what the game was and what your objectives were, and you were allowed to write your own rules as to how you answered these questions. Given that your objective was to get a high score, do you think that you achieved this through your manipulation of the game? Or would you have done better if
you had to play by UCLA’s ‘normal’ set of test-taking game rules that you are not allowed to alter?
My mother “Coded” after receiving a dose of Epinephrine for a severe allergic reaction. She was down for 57 minutes, was defibrillated 10 times and the CPR never stopped, until she had a pulse.
She was talking to me less than 13 hours later. Her throat was sore from the intubation, her chest was sore and bruised but she suffered no broken ribs. CPR when done properly does NOT guarantee broken ribs.
A local cit firefighter coded on the scene of a fire. His crew worked him right there on the fire scene. Poor bastard didn’t have NO CODE stamped on him anywhere and now he’s back on the job fighting fires.
As a first responder who has arrived on scene to a family performing CPR on their father in the front yard and then worked that man until he got a pulse back I know that the system can and does work.
CPR and ACLS has a low survival rate, this is true.
But doing nothing has a 100% fatality rate.
I have met the cancer survivors who endured weeks of chemo and a miserable existence only to die a short time later. I also volunteer Thursday nights at a rural rescue squad with a cancer survivor. She endured weeks of chemo and led a miserable existence just so she could survive. What a silly woman for being willing to suffer to survive.
It’s a good thing none of these people read this article before they got sick or they wouldn’t of known how horrible it is to endure treatment just to survive.
This article is nothing short of irresponsible in it’s representation of modern medicine. The author, and other burnt out providers who agree with him, should consider other lines of work.
Life also has “a 100% fatality rate.” And for every “success story” of a survivor, a story of needless pain and suffering can be cited to call it into question. Dr. Murray’s point is that the questions of end-of-life care need to be considered and answered by each person before the answers are needed, not when the person has collapsed on the front lawn or is being intubated in the ambulance or rushed into surgery at the hospital.
I had a similar experience the day of the Sandy Hook massacre in that I was glued to TV and computer, drowning in deep waves of grief. With Boston it was car radio and occasional snatches of online news. It was a blessing that I couldn’t use Twitter that day or I too would have been hungover on Saturday.
“Message force multipliers” – that is interesting!
I think humans have always communicated as much with flesh as with brain. In person a raised eyebrow, a puffed-out chest, an abrupt movement, a sharp intake of breath sends hormones through our bodies. Adrenaline, pheromones, oxytocin.
The new twist is that our hyper-modern electronic artificial telepathy lets us send and receive with an immediacy that makes it visceral. But across great distances. Like a distributed global herd.
I’m not sure that this is a bad thing. I suppose time will tell.
You were lucky to have only started the binge on Friday morning. For those of us that stayed up until the wee hours the night before, digesting miles of twitter feed, we had the mortifying experience of identifying the wrong guys. When I went to sleep, at circa 2 am, the perpetrators were two totally different people, an identification fueled entirely by the twitter/reddit cloud. I did just enough retweeting & posting on facebook in my late-night binge to be absolutely mortified when I woke up late the next morning. As my husband and I drove off to the eastern Sierras for a much needed break from civilization Friday morning, he observed that he’d rather read a super-detailed long article three weeks later that explains the whole ordeal, than try and piece it together from twitter in the moment. I had to agree. I feel so sullied from that night that I have sworn off twitter completely & it’s amazing what a difference it has made in one week’s time. I feel like a drunk who has gone sober & realizes that he can become a productive member of society again.
Hi Mara S. I really appreciate your time in stopping by and reading my story. There’s more to come! Hope you can stop by to read the next upcoming pieces.Thank you so much for your compliment–need it, love it. Come on by and check out the whole story.
Good choice. Made me recall my bed darting across the bedroom floor on a street above Mulholland Drive over looking the rumbling San Fernando Valley early one morning of 1971. A small boys real life special effects ride. All schools closed. It was exhilarating and yet vulnerable throughout the day as tremblers rose the L.A. natural floors.. PGK
Very interesting indeed. I wonder what would happen if the exam had a curve. Would the students cooperate the same way? Might be an interesting experiment!
Very interesting debate. Olney was excellent, he should do a Presidential debate!
It appears that the change in the primary system, which has the top 2 vote getters move on to the general election, has worked. Both seemed to be moderates and balanced. Both appear to be people that would be good mayors. Much better then having two extremists to choose from!
I attended low-quality city public schools in Saint Louis in the 1970s. I aced everything, including algebra. But the level of instruction was poor at some of the schools, and so were my standardized math test results. In those days, this was not a deal-breaker. Now, presumably, it is. This particular standard will impact people without access to high quality public and private schools. Unlike writing, or reading or language, math skills are not something you can just pick up on your own. If they are setting this standard they ought to make public math labs, or urban math camps, available to students, whose schools can’t or won’t compensate for the shortcomings of their curriculum. It should begin at elementary ages, where it can have long-term impact. By the time they’re in high school, it’s already a frustrating deficit.
I finally did finally learn algebra, through the stock market.
Nice, although everyone I know still calls it Burbank Airport. It has the very real charms that you describe. But also two disadvantages: the worst food offerings of any airport that I’ve been to in decades. And unless one is flying to the Bay Area or Denver or Seattle, it’s very hard to find a non-stop flight from Burbank. With layovers becoming an increasing nightmare (due to late flights causing missed connections), flying nonstop became very important to me and I eventually ended up using LAX more often than I did Burbank. Airfares using LAX are usually at least $20 cheaper too.
Thank you for your brave and honest essay.This is a very familiar concept to me, I can relate to the math frustrations to some extent. As a high achieving student math class brought me to tears in high school. I’ve had plenty of nervous breakdown moments, but I was able to get through enough courses with tutoring, blood, sweat and tears, miraculously up to pre-calculus. I had ambitions of being an environmental science major until I realized the calculus hurdle existed. I become a Spanish Literature and Art History minor and consequentIy avoided any math classes in my undergrad even though they offered Math for Liberal Arts students. I am letters person. Numbers are a foreign language and I reverse numbers all the time. Nevertheless, I’m still a functional, successfully employed adult. I hope requirements change and that you will be able to take courses and purse your humanities interests. And do not give up on your dreams and aspirations.
Crazy…though I’ve certainly thought of this subject before, I’d not thought about it 7 algebra classes out! It does seem unimportant, extreme and certainly an unnecessary expense to make “maths” (in this instance) required for one wanting a degree in something totally unrelated. As a nurse, I always lamented that rather than take more medically-oriented courses I’d be required to take, say, literature. Don’t get me wrong, I love literature….but my choice of coursework would be increasing my professional knowledge. It will be generations before higher education institutions examine this fully and honestly and consider change. Very sad. In the meantime, don’t give up… You should get a masters just for your perseverance! BTW…..you’re a great writer.
I get the benefits of a balancing perspective the Kochs might offer, but wouldn’t it be better for someone who is rooted in and loves Southern California to buy the Times. If Eli Broad can give millions to LA schools, art museums, Caltech, et al., couldn’t he or someone of his ilk spring for the Times payroll?
Thanks for your insightful article. As a life long Angeleno I’ve always been a supporter of the LA Times, though less so lately. The idea of having the Koch brothers has owners of our only daily paper seemed to me a bad idea, but you’ve made me think a little outside the box, possibly you may be onto something. Hiram Johnsons evaluation of Harrison Gray Otis is priceless!!
I think the algebra requirement is just about the only thing that California has done correctly. “Coasting through middle school math” is what got this writer in trouble. Plenty of Vietnamese kids, who don’t have access to private education, have managed to pass algebra, as have Korean, Chinese, Indian, and other immigrant groups. There’s no point in having standards, if they can be waived for people who claim to have special circumstances. Suck it up, hire a tutor, and pass the course. You don’t need an A, you just need to pass.
“Suck it up, hire a tutor?” Have YOU hired a tutor lately? Both my sons needed tutors to pass Algebra I and II at their (good) public high schools. Almost half the parents I know needed to hire tutors to help their kids get through Algebra. This is the ugly secret behind the “success” of schools in affluent neighborhoods: Most parents are paying for one-on-one teaching so their children can get into colleges where they will never use algebra ever again.
This if great if you can afford it. Three years ago, tutoring at a drop-in center like Mathnasium cost me about $250 PER MONTH. Last year, I opted for the “cheaper” alternative of hiring a private tutor once a week at $50 per hour.
Clearly, this is NOT an option for students like Cabral who don’t come from affluent families. What we’ve created is a segregated society (not unlike the literacy “requirements” that were used to keep African Americans from registering to vote) that favors the educated and well-employed.
I have long bemoaned our current pre-college curriculum as being both elitist (using math as a weed-out subject) and useless. Why demand so many years of math when so FEW will ever use it in college?
And how can we condone turning out an embarrassingly ignorant class of young adults every year because California’s curriculum requires three years of math, but does NOT require geography, economics, state/local government or political science?
I can’t believe we squander our state’s precious education resources by paying teachers to endlessly teach algebra, when students need some REAL knowledge to succeed: Can you read and understand an issue of the Economist? Identify Afghanistan on a map? Explain what state taxes pay for as opposed to federal taxes? Identify which city departments control your streets? Your property? Your workplace health and safety? No?
Thank you for sharing about your frustrating and gruelling experience with Algebra. As i read your your segment, i was able to relate to every single word you wrote! I was blown away because i felt that someone else had experienced the same exact experience i had. I too failed mathematics through grade school and through High School. I was allowed to graduate by passing general math w a B. I also went through the experience of getting tested, and feeling flawed at finding out that i had a learning disability in mathematics. I now understand why i suffered horribly in grade school when teachers sat and drilled me for hours on their off time… and i was often reduced to tears of the frustration of nit being able to produce. I also went to PCC and suffered the same experience of dealing with their rigid math courses. I went to Trade Tech and eventually to LACC where i was referred to the Learning Disability Center. It was a very humbling experience learning about my disability. I got the help i needed through intense tutoring and test taking at my pace. I found out that i was able to learn algebraic concepts and start getting A’s and B’s on tests. However, i was not able to retain the information, because after exams, it was as if my memory disk was wiped out. I transferred to Cal State LA but never graduated from my program. At 40 years old I decided that i was going to make one last attempt to complete my education. I was accepted at a private college in Pasadena called Pacific Oaks that was not requiring this math completion. I am currently about to finish my first year of graduate studies in Marriage and Family Therapy…. it is a tough program, but an amazing feeling of accomplishment ! It was only through my resilience of overcoming several traumas in my life and through the tenacity to achieve the goals that i set for myself, that i have been able to reach this pinnacle i currently am riding !
I think algebra is actually pretty important and can come in handy in a lot of different careers or even in just life. Example — the commenter who had to learn it because she invested in the stock market. I can understand the Algebra requirement. I’m not sure what Statistics 50 is, but the author mentions Algebra II when he describes it. My memory of Algebra II was that it was pretty difficult and esoteric and I don’t think I ever have used it again in my life. And this is from someone who took (and loved) Calculus. I think for someone who is studying literature, requiring them to pass a statistics or Algebra II class seems kind of silly. But, I have to say, Algebra I can certainly understand.
Thank you for this interesting and helpful essay. I found myself drawn to hearing about a teacher able to connect to a unique group of students and also to your own story as my son is just like you. he tests incredibly high in language arts nationally and incredibly low in math. he’s about to enter a coveted private high school but has to pass summer school algebra in order to be admitted. he’s terrified. he has been diagnosed with Non-Verbal Learning Disorder, also known as the math and handwriting disability. Those students are gifted in language arts and challenged in math. Success will be theirs eventually but you described so well the challenge of getting through a traditional school experience. I hope to find teachers who better understand this learning challenge who can help my son and others like him. in the meantime, though, thank you for opening a discussion about this.
While I see the merits of the writer’s argument, I have to say that when students approach math, they sometimes miss the point. It’s not just ‘math’. It’s looking at things and identifying order, relationships between things and sequence, all while applying logic and critical thinking. If viewed from the thinking skills enhanced by math, students might have a different appreciation. I considered being an engineer until I feel in love with literature, but in my literature classes, I STILL write sentences as equations and stories as graphs. It’s an unconventional approach, but it’s all about getting a broader view on thinking about the way things are connected.
Having said all of that, keeping kids out of college because of an ineptitude in math (no matter why it exists) is not good for society overall. This writer, thankfully, hasn’t been discouraged to the point of crime as the option instead of college, but many people don’t have his fortitude. And, given that there are fewer and fewer vocational programs in high school as an option, I can’t imagine what the state of California is thinking by barring so many folks.
Algebra, though, is invaluable in most professions and even day-to-day tasks. I can’t even imagine obtaining a degree in Art/Art History without being able to calculate perspective via basic algebraic concepts.
However, I agree with you that there should be exceptions to current Math requirements. You’re clearly able to reason and communicate effectively, and I can’t understand why you wouldn’t be considered for college admissions on the recommendation of a well-respected professor. Have you explored this possibility? There are also established private universities with less stringent pre-requisites, although these might not be financially viable for everyone.
I can empathize with you Javier, I failed Algebra 2 each year at Garfield 10th-12th. Even playing in a band with my Algebra 2 teacher didn’t help my cause. After High School, I got this TA gig at a Middle School and the teacher I worked for forced me to teach his 7th and 8th grade Algebra classes twice a week. It was rough but, teaching it helped me nail the fundamentals. I actually became quite the Algebra expert as a result. I excelled at teaching the subject because, I felt the students struggle. Most teachers and tutors have a tendency to make folks feel bad or dumb for not understanding concepts so, my teaching approach was much different because I was far from being a math wiz. I eventually came to love math and tried minoring in math so I could teach the subject. Unfortunately, Calculus kicked my ass. So, hit me up if you ever decide to take another stab at Algebra!
Damn fine piece, Joe. Provocative, well-written and researched. I am 95 percent convinced you are right, given the state of affairs at the Times now and the newspaper business in general. That said, there is still some very good stuff going on at the Times right now that might disappear if a Koch purchase goes through.
The 3rd option is that they run the paper very left, to support the readership and to improve profits, and it’s fantastically disingenuous compared to their personal beliefs and the paper does astoundingly well because of their ability to give people what they want.
So in that, as well as the previous two possibilities mentioned, the paper would thrive. All in all, I think it will anyway. It’s a big paper, being bought by rich people who are good at making money. How could it not?
The trouble with this is that “natural selection” is not entirely natural. And the newest frontiers of science and information theory are shedding a lot of doubt as to whether “natural selection” by itself could produce what we are and have.
this stuff is real interesting. sorry i wasn’t there. but i wish prof blyth had a bit lighter accent. the stuff got a little complicated and it didn’t help having the barrier of his thick scottish (?) accent between my ear and some of the words. is there a pdf transcript anywhere?
Doesn’t this reflect a certain un-culture in our culture, the fact that we are so over fed with information that most of us don’t respond to actual news anymore, only react to shock treatment. We as marketing people face the same dilemma. People can’t digest a message anymore unless it’s served with a burning limo, and then eventually it “goes viral’. Very sad, but hope is not lost. We still have NPR, PBS, NY Times and Zocalo. Just hang out more with that crowd.
Upon reading Mr. Frank’s article on the glut of depressing and pointless news we’re being fed, I come to his conclusion ( wrap-up) that “…newsrooms aren’t going to change. Neither is the world.” So what’s Mr. Frank’s point? Oh yes, he also left me a little more dispirited.
Beautiful post. Reminds me of the beginning of Didion’s ‘The White Album’:
“We tell ourselves stories in order to live. The princess is caged in the consulate. The man with the candy will lead the children into the sea. The naked woman on the ledge outside the window on the sixteenth floor is a victim of accidie, or the naked woman is an exhibitionist, and it would be ‘interesting’ to know which . . . We look for the sermon in the suicide, for the social or moral lesson in the murder of five.”
A few pages later, she describes her nervous breakdown. She wrote this 35 years ago. Today we live with frightening news all the time in real time. This must be working us over in strange ways.
Hoping the day is coming when you can return back home to Beit Daras .
We should start calling for one state rather than two states solution, keeping the right of all the refugees to return to their homeland as two state solution will not guarantee the return of Palestinians to their homeland .
Well done
I loved your essay I am in the business of medicine formerly pharma medica equipment and I went thru an awful experience when my dad faced mortality primary biliary cirrhosis and stage 4 salivary cancer gave him radiation no surgery and he really suffered the last month because I kept trying interventions based on some doctors recommendations and my own he caught mrsa couldn’t eat I have had a really hard time accepting this but what amazed me if how physicians wouldn’t level with me….one did and I ignored his advice hoping the other doctors offering radiation could give him another year….big mistake and I am a social worker also we really as a society need to come to terms with this….many doctors I knew from my job told me exactly what you have said that they wouldn’t put themselves thru some of the treatments they offer their patients thanks for writing is made me feel so much better
There will be further issues of confidence and insecurities in your life as you trek through a career serving those in need. Emergency and Trauma medicine are areas where patients will not have an identity to you, and will test your learned skills engrained through continual, repetitive learning so you will not freeze under pressure.
Most of your care though will be with patients you have gotten to know as human beings where you will have an emotional interest in their survival and quality of life. This is where your compassion and empathy will merge with your knowledge.
As a physician practicing 32 years now caring for our elder seniors, providing this care will bring words of thank you seen everyday in the eyes of those you serve. Learning from the building blocks of your medical experience, as it has in your personal building blocks of life, will not only make you a valued doctor, but also a valued human being.
There are many faults that people find with our medical system, but when it comes to physicians, it always comes down to one thing: communication.
There are only three things impart to patients in medicine, we prescribe drugs, we do procedures, and we talk to them. There is nothing else.
You will have drugs hammered into you, and you will practice the procedures that you do until you are expert. But em pathetically talking to people?
I was Medical Director of a 100,000 patient medical group, and had to field all the complaints. They were never about drugs or procedures, but about communication, for example “my doctor doesn’t listen to me” “He spent 10 minutes explaining what was wrong, and I didn’t understand a word of it”
Your life experiences, and your ability to communicate well as evidenced by this essay, are the most important things that will serve you as a physician.
You will find, just as you did with your two described experiences with CPR, to be profoundly satisfying, and profoundly depressing. But you’ll also learn the pride of doing things well, and as you expressed so well, the satisfaction of doing things in that manner is very centering.
As a doc of 40+ years of service with most of that time spent in teaching medical students and residents I can assure you that the question is not “Am I smart enough?”. Rather the question is “Am I dumb enough to want it bad enough” to pay the price on my life (and pocketbook) that it will take to reach the goal.
The role of any of the classic professions is to serve others. Service means sacrifice. So if you are willing to do so in ways you cannot begin to imagine, then I wish you the very best in you studies and your career. From your essay, I suspect that you are “dumb enough”. Have a wonderful life, personal and professional.
Unfortunately, Proposition 30 is bad public policy and horrible tax policy. Ultimately, it may actually end up hurting California’s economic development as businesses and workers flee our dysfunctional state government and its high taxes and high debt loads.
In order to have well-funded public schools, we need an effective and responsible state government that can prioritize spending and help keep California competitive. Instead, our state is run by well-funded special interests. As a consequence, our state government is ranked the nation’s worst-run (and we have some tough competition from Illinois!).
I am also from Oklahoma but I would never call myself an Okie–I was always taught/told that Okie was a derogatory term for the poor Oklahomans who moved to California in the aftermath of the dustbowl. Thank you for your story.
Right on. I’m sick of conservatives and Texas making labored attempts to undermine California’s success. Home prices is one of their biggest bugbears, despite the irony that high home prices equates with economic prosperity. I think you’re right: we need to ignore everyone else and keep doing what we’re doing.
Just an absolutely great story. I think you should make your game bigger and work to get 100 schools set up with this program. If they invest the same kind of energy you got your school to do, that would be $155,000 into school coffers. You might also want to get your school involved in collecting Box Tops as well http://www.boxtops4education.com/ and Target’s Take Charge of Educaiton https://www-secure.target.com/redcard/tcoe/home as other sources of funding.
Oh well. I just now read about this in the LA Daily News. After reading that the Mayor is basically broke and is looking for employment maybe he can qualify for a single at the San Fernando Gardens Housing in Pacoima operated by LA Autoridad de Vivienda de la Ciudad de Los Angeles. He can start back at the people level and work his way back up to the elites.
Absolutely! I’m a native Californian and couldn’t agree more with your findings. Love the bit about paying more taxes, getting less for them and subsidizing other states’ laziness…and we really don’t complain about it comparatively speaking, right?
We do need to focus more on our communities and participate in making our cities the absolute best they can be for all Californians.
Funny story…speaking of Texas. I sat next to a Texan woman on a flight to SF from LA once…she had the nerve to tell me this joke: Why is California a cereal state? I said, what? Why? “Cuz it’s full of flakes, nuts and fruits.” She starts lol. I was appalled and perplexed by her complete ignorance. I’d just told her I was a native. I proceeded to say, “Ha…I suppose I can see how some of that’s true,” I went on, “But those nuts are some of the most innovative people on the planet! That iPhone in your hand…a product of California.” She shut up.
Very well said, Le. I, too, am a lifelong Okie and don’t see that changing. I am proud the state I live in and would never consider leaving it because “the wind blows” at times.
This is an outstanding series of articles about suggestions where Mr. Soon-to-be-ex-Mayor might find a suitable next residence! And, congratulations to the judges on their decisions.
My neighbor here in the ‘burbs has been taking up a collection to help with expenses. So far, the collection cup contains three glass aquarium beads and a penny! ;~)
Good feedback! I’d like to see you also reach out to California music, art, and drama teachers to get their responses. Those people who work day in and day out at the schools, and deserve to be heard. Thank you!
This article made me think of when I was a young college graduate working in London and had gone to the dentist there for a routine teeth cleaning. The dentist was so stunned by the exceptionally good condition of my teeth (nary a cavity) that she invited the whole staff in to have a look inside my mouth! I’m not by any means obsessed with my teeth, but I’ll never forget being the envy of that dental office.
Curves.
Many college level courses are graded on curves, so you are graded in comparison to your classmates.
It was originally intended to account for varying difficulty in tests, but has mostly just given rise to a lot of competition between students.
I found this article rather boring. Like most articles written about the Catholic church it is based on some conception – usually what is presented by media, while throwing in facts here and there. Congratulations. You have confirmation bias.
To start, you are stuck more in the past then in the present (ironic eh?). What does the Catholic Church (CC) teach currently about the body, sex and celibacy? You should consider reading “Theology of the Body” by Blessed Pope John Paul II. It presents something very different than what you do. Just a note – if that Catholic church teaches that marriage is only for procreation, then why are infertile people allowed to marry? There is more to it. This is an inaccurate representation. Do not take teachings of the church at face value. There are reasons for the teachings that you should consider, because you can easily see are not readily accepted – even by many “Catholics” (which I may add, by the definition of the word are not Catholic – to follow/believe all the teachings of the Church. Receiving that sacraments doesn’t make you Catholic. This is really not a big deal. If people don’t believe it then leave.)
There are approximately 20 rites within the Catholic Church. Only one – the Roman rite – has priestly celibacy.
St. Ignatius of Loyola, a doctor of the church, taught that all desires are from God, and are therefore good. For example. A wife is angry with her husband. She wants to lash out at him. Not good. But the desire behind that desire, the base desire, is good. Which could be desire for reconciliation, or for justice, etc. This was revolutionary in spirituality, where it was widely believed that desires were thought as bad and to be rejected. Complete self-denial. You present only one spirituality.
Last, when you read Vatican news, sex (and all things related) almost never makes the top 20 things. It is the media that puts it at the forefront, not the church. They are more concerned with matters of faith, hope and charity, especially to the poor (which I am sure you are aware that they give more to the poor than any other organization in the world – yes in monetary value, but also in manpower).
I wont spend my time picking apart your article because I am not interested in what you wrote, but why you wrote it. I am addressing the underlying problem – a lack of information. Learn what the church really teaches. Be, as our generation is so obsessed with being, a little open minded, consider carefully and then make an opinion.
As a newly minted homeowner, I can say that Howard Jarvis’ legacy of lowering taxes applies much more to people who were already property owners, seeing as my current property tax bill for my modest home in Downey is the same amount as the Beverly Hills multi-millionaire who bought his mansion 30 years ago.
I know Prop 13 will save me money going forward as home prices rise, and my effective tax rate becomes lower and lower, but I’m not so sure that extra $1000 in my pocket 10 years from now is worth it. I would also dispute Economist Laffers research as its premise is flawed. Prop 13 may have lowered effective tax rates by 60%, but not for the AVERAGE Californian, who is not a propertyowner.
As a California public school teacher, Howard Jarvis’ legacy affects me immensely. Those capped property taxes also capped the school disticts budgets too. The “largest tax cut in state history” is also the largest cut to public funding for public schools.
Furthermore, the clause in Prop 13 that requires. 2/3 super majority to pass any tax increase, or effectively any state budget has left our state government in complete dysfunction.
Despite the author’s sympathetic portrayal of Jarvis, he was not an “ordinary man.” He was a opportunistic political entrepreneur with the massive backing of real estate interests who linked an elite/commercial property agenda with the legitimate grievances of homeowners, redistributed wealth upwards to the rich, and forged a new common-sense around the supremacy of private gain at the expense of a culture of social responsibility and the public good. From where I stand, he didn’t spit his tabacco juice in a waste can beneath his desk, but in the eye of ordinary working class people who now bear the brunt of our state’s fiscal crisis.
Love this article, thanks for a little balance. Clearly anyone buying a home can take comfort in the limits of taxation over the next 20 to 30 years as inflation is getting ready to resume. Inflation is our destiny because the dollar sinks in value when we over-heat our Federal printing press. All budgets are tight because Federal waste and excess are crunching dollar values. Right now payrolls are squeezed to cover new abortion mandates and sex change operations, while schools won’t be able to tap into a state budget that is years over-spent. Hope is only reasonable because there are still some conservative hard nose choices being exercised. Right now we have a seasoned Democrat managing the California budget with a firm veto. He’s only doing that because of prop 13 and tea party hard heads or we’d be in full collapse economically. Jarvis is the salt of the earth, especially California earth.
Thank you! I work in a hospital and cancer center and this issue has been tugging at my heart for quite some time. It is very difficult to see what people are going thru during the last 6 months of their life. I
I want to be able to follow the broken news after it broke. The Week, The Economist, and World do this, and they have print editions. time, Newsweek, and USNWR don’t do news any more at all.
Very few people watch breaking news on their big-screen TV while sitting on the couch. 60 Minutes audience is old and getting older, which isn’t a demographic that is as desirable as it once was.
Excellent clincher. It very much summarizes the identity crisis and resolution that most, if not all, Mexican Americans of all generations feel at one point in their life.
Those of you criticizing Prop 13 either forget or simply don’t know that many property taxpayers are people who have paid off their homes after 30 years and are retired and living on largely fixed incomes. They accrue no benefit of the increased property values because they are not borrowing against their equity and they are not selling the properties (they need to live SOMEWHERE). For these folks especially, the cruel increases in property taxes year after year threatened their homeownership. Prop 13 was in part a reaction to the kind of government grabbiness that merely sees home values as piggy banks to be raided.
Maybe 13 was a too-harsh response to the acceleration of taxes taking place at the time. But the politicians in Sacramento, including Gov Ronald Reagan, were unable to fashion reasonable property relief. Jarvis came along and offered the voters something substantial they could vote for. One should note that 13 certainly received support from non-homeowners as well.
I happen to think there are better ways to finance public education than to rely on property taxes.
I have a dear friend who passed before 50, diagnosed with a virulent cancer that took her within four months of diagnosis. She had seen her mother fight cancer four times (four different things!) and finally decide the last time was enough of being made sick, and etc. So that is what my friend did.
Her and her husband had time to do a couple of trips and family visits, then she just kind of drowsed her way out. They had offered chemo, but as she put it, ‘it might buy me a couple of months but who wants to live bald and puking? Especially if it will only buy a couple of months?”
She was a sweet, kind, gentle person. I will miss her forever.
Interesting. The Iraq War and the Central Valley Bullet Train to Nowhere are more recent examples of sons trying to get back at and/or one up their dads (at the public’s expense–in the case of the former–an extremely heavy and tragic expense).
The crusty old yolks don’t yet realize that the new gen does not share their vapid shallow outlook on life, nor do we want to.
This whole thing will just backfire in their faces, and I’m gonna LOL all the way to our new democracy.
That’s about the size of it. It’s the flipside of the globalisation coin, old world ideas of sacrosanct nation states are falling by the wayside as each generation comes of age. Our youth are a truly global, interconnected culture for whom data is like oxygen and exposing secrets is fair game.
The animé series Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex touched on this, calling it “Cyberbrain Closed Shell Syndrome”, i.e. a state of mind which exists in the youth whereby data is there to be accessed and shared, no matter the means of access.
I’m sorry that’s also pretty ridiculous. It should read ‘our youth are like mindless consumers, ear-buds constantly inserted, playing Angry Birds or checking their facebook pages on their high-end phones’. I don’t believe that BTW, but there’s an element of truth in it. What’s being shared, LOL cats?
For every 10 kids mindlessly consuming content there’ll be one installing custom operating systems on his phone, traversing the restricted areas of the school network, overriding the blocks his parents’ have put on the internet, finding security flaws in public websites, bluesnarfing his mates phones etc etc.
The hackers of tomorrow will be leagues ahead of the guys employed by the security services in cyber warfare, kids are growing up in an era of (near)ubiquitous computing. Programming languages will be learnt early and will be like their mother tongue.
Until we start to identify these kids early and guide them towards a white hat path, we’ll be left behind by the likes of China in the cyber security stakes.
I’d bet that the first major infrastructure hack will be carried out by some teen seeing how far he can go down the rabbit hole rather than a genuine cyber terrorist looking to cause intentional damage to our infrastructure.
That’s a useless stereotype. I’m 62 and have been involved with computing since about 1966 still am. To me, many [but not all] of the so-called millenials with their iPads, iPhones and iPods are merely iDiots who are consumers who know a little bit about code and [above all] and too much about hipness
No disrespect, consider my crusty comment as a narrative for their understanding of how tech works, not the age bracket in general, just these individuals stamping our rights.
Great article! There was a law prof who passed away just before I got to law school, Julian Eule, who wrote about “intertemporal binding” of (future) legislatures. Ours in Sacramento is pretty well bound, and the voters are tied up by things like the cost of signature-gathering and the single-subject rule.
Right there with you, Keith. I lived on West Adams for two years in the early 80s, just as the university was just starting to make those big investments in the University Park neighborhood. We lived on the line between a barrio and a ghetto. Most of the shops in the neighborhood were abandoned, and gunfire was heard almost every night. The administration did what it could to protect us after dark — busses, escorts — and I mastered the art of concealed firearms carry (which was legally far easier to do back then). The campus was a genuinely scary place, and there were good reasons to be afraid. But nobody ever discussed closing it, not even then.
Which is why it’s so daunting to hear that they’re talking about closing it up now. Generations of Trojans braved much so much worse, and not only survived; we actually made things better by our presence and perseverance. Every time I visit these days, I’m hugely impressed at how far it’s all come. Turning the campus into a walled fort at this late date feel a lot like giving up the fight, in spite of the fact that we’ve fought so long and hard to such marvelous effect, and are so clearly winning the war.
“Here come the morning that I say goodbye to ya
Here come the morning that’ll say goodbye
but I dont turn around cause the reason is treason….” (Kasabian)
For millenial hackers, however, treason simply carries no weight; it has no reason.
So… if “hackers” truly believe information is free, why are they in an uproar if the NSA is simply taking everybody’s information? It’s “free” after all, right? Maybe you meant, “I’ll take the information *I* find useful because it should be free, but you cannot take *my* information because then you’re just invading my privacy.”
The 4th amendment protects our privacy,and was enacted to prevent the Government from violating our privacy…the Constitution does not protect the privacy of our Government..The 4th amendment supersedes any Government program,it supersedes the lives that are put in danger by the hackers exposure of this Unconstitutional program..Generations of people have already given their lives to protect our privacy…furthermore,Hackers do not point guns and arrest people based on “perceived” threats.
Thank you for the wonderful story. Though I’m careful not to hoard, I’m also careful not to waste things. When my car was broken into last week, I discovered that I could replace several items straight from my closet. I could have bought everything new, but I didn’t have to.
I’ve thought of that and how I was afraid to let my children go anywhere on their own and be able to explore the neighborhood like I did as a child. It’s my opinion that after the flood of missing children that appeared on milk cartons and newspapers, I was afraid this could happen to my children. One day I thought about it and the statistics really ran against anything happening to my children. I think the author is correct, the chances of my children being abducted were almost the same as my chances of winning the lottery. In time, I noticed a lot of the milk carton children had been missing for a long time and then I began to hear that some of them were abducted by non-custodial parents. But I think it did sell newspapers and it sure glued me to the 6pm news.
I felt I cheated my children by being what I felt was manipulated by the press. What sold newspapers and made the local news wasn’t something that was good for my children. As the author stated, movies make a lot of money by leaving us with the impression the nearest serial killer is that person who lives around the corner.
Myself, I had grown up in South Central Los Angeles. More specifically, I grew up in Watts (within those limited boundaries of the actual Watts). I explored the neighborhood, the local parish pastor used to give me Pacific Electric tokens that showed up in the collection box and I used those tokens to take the Pacific Electric to all those exotic destinations like San Pedro, Long Beach, Bell Flower, Pasadena, Hollywood, Santa Monica, etc. I had no cell phone and my parents sometimes worried when I was gone a long time but it gave me a chance to learn that there was indeed a life outside the so-called ghetto.
I was born before World War II but after the war, we had neighborhoods filled with children so it was easy to go out in the street and find friends and it was easy to find friends at school. At that time, parents didn’t drive us to school so we could follow our friends to their house.
We moved out of Los Angeles when my children were really young and into a neighborhood that had very few children. My particular problem was that because of distance, play dates had to be arranged. Now that my children are grown, they’ve lost that experience of meeting other children who were neighbors. I can’t redo the past but I’ve given it a bit of thought.
Very interesting. I’ve often thought about this change. I used to bike to school from about 4th grade through high school, several miles each way, daily. Neither I nor my folks thought anything of it. Hey, and I got exercise, too. I can’t believe that placing children in tight packaging makes their lives better.
Definitely the author’s theories resonate with the “stay in the armored SUV” method of transportation. Somehow parents try to keep their kids completely separate from the culture outside. Clearly not a way to allow them to grow up, deal with life, and have the occasional educational adventure. My solution: bike to school – see the world between TV at home and programmed activity at school. Worried about what’s out there? Bike with them.
I remember those days with you in that stats class. We did have fun and I’m thankful for the opportunity to have another chance at math, and to spend countless hours with you and the other friend we made. Thank you for passing on what your counselor told you that day. It made a world of difference. I am sorry to hear that you ended up dropping out, but happy to hear that you are pursuing what you love, and are so gifted at. All the best! -Lindsey
Lovely, haunting, and perfect. I’m so lucky to know you and so excited Zocalo was able to share your story in a bigger way than I could. Thank you, Ernie.
Doesn’t sound like Ernie likes what SM has become. Neither do I. I blame the likes of Ernie, an outside, who came into many of our California cities to “make it better.” Now it’s an elitist paradise. Go figure, that the guy who comes in for “the little people” ends up making a city that only the rich can afford. Nice work, Ernie. Maybe you’ll come into Trenton and make this city a city for the rich.
It’s not Ernie’s fault that the state legislature undid all his work. People like RO and Ian Lundy are the “free market” apologists who claim the “vibrant, alive” elitists’ paradise we see now is what we all wanted–or should have wanted, if only we knew what was good for us. Strict rent control did not work the same way welfare did not work and the war on poverty did not work. Other things undid probably wrongheaded in the long run but heading in the right direction attempts to ameliorate the effects of a system rigged against apartment dwellers. That was the point Ernie was making. 60% of the City was apt dwellers, but one of seven at most on the City Council lived in an apt. Usually it was none. Now SMRR and the Council and the Rent Control Board and 2500 City employees include very few apt dwellers. None who have to rely on living in a rent-controlled apt they grabbed in the 70s and have held onto for dear life since.
Lovely article. As a relative newbie to CA (I’m an East Coast transplant who moved here for school 12 years ago), I love learning about the history of the area.
RE your first sentence…Barenaked Ladies have a great song called “The Old Apartment.”
Yes, Santa Monica was once a really great place to live and a hot bed of great activists that made changes for the better and Ernie was instrumental in making many of the good changes happen. Sadly, it has become Beverly Hills By The Sea and the City Council is once again primarily influenced by the Chamber of Commerce and the mega developers that have swooped into the city to build massive developments.
Kelly Olsen
55 year resident and former Santa Monica City Councilman
Santa Monica is incredible today, I’m sorry that you are so blinded by your nostalgia to appreciate one of the most vibrant, active beachside communities in the world. Your nostalgia for the olden days is nice, but it’s tired. The LA basin is one of the most dense area in the world, we have lots of nice small beach towns that anyone wanting that can find, Santa Monica is not the place. It is a city, with enormous amounts of tourism, culture, a growing tech industry, and a beautiful location. Stop restricting development that will benefit my generation to fight for the past. Embrace the future. I love Santa Monica, I am sorry it is no longer a quiet beach town, if only Hermosa, Manhattan Beach, redondo beach, Malibu, Palos Verdes, existed so that you can enjoy a peaceful existence by the ocean.
Sorry, Ernie, your fight against density (which is counter to sustainable urban planning) simply reduced the supply of available places to live in Santa Monica and drove up rent, ensuring no one but the wealthy and the people who bought in decades ago can live there. Gen X & Y, outside the 1 percent, don’t get the opportunity to move in like you did, and you only helped to reinforce that. Congratz.
I was there–within spitting distance of those ocean-front high-rises and Ernie, your reminiscence is right-on. We are now the age of those intrepid senior renters who inspired Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights. As the Rev. Conn would say: “Carry On!”
That question will of course have multiple answers, but there is one where the when is easy to look up and the why is partially known: when trick-or-treating at Halloween transformed from an activity where “the most candy wins” and kids travelled as far as they could, to one where the news headlines warned parents about apples with razor blades in them and LSD-laced candy bars. IIRC this was round the early 1970s. Nowadays there are neighborhoods which actively discourage neighborhood trick-or-treating and instead have the children go to a community center or school for candy hand-outs.
Snopes.com notes that there have been relatively few cases of razor-bladed apples and most of them appear to have been hoaxes; in only about 10 cases has actual injury been discovered. Snopes however dates the phenomenon earlier than my memory does, to the 1960s and says that in 1968 New Jersey was so worried that the legislature passed a law specifically addressing booby-trapped apples. Maybe it was an east coast phenomenon before hitting the west coast. http://www.snopes.com/horrors/mayhem/needles.asp
I’M gonna mis the Mayor as well. Though I live in Pasadena I consider him my mayor as well. He has spirit and spunk. If he wants to live near my home I would love it. I’ll start looking tomorrow because he does not have to live in Los Angeles to make an impact on that community. I hope to meet him and learn more about is goals for LAUSD. I have a grand daughter in private school going to the 8th grade her parents can’t even consider the Local High Schools for 9th grade Crenshaw/Dorsey district. The cost of private school is ridiculous. The miles i have to drive remind me of the distance one drove during the segragated schools area. Or the Big Busing era in Los Angeles South Los Angeles
Help us all if he even gets close to an elevated political position in CA! Where do I sign up to NOT support this flim flam man? By the way, I’m Hispanic, means nothing, right?
In my lifetime, the world has steadily declined in morality. The affect has been increase in unwanted children, parents on drugs, grandparents raising children, drug use at epidemic rate, sexually transmitted disease increase, violence so common it is not considered news anymore. In my lifetime, technology is unbelievable, people are able to do things I would have considered impossible 30 years ago. Technology has not done a single thing to solve the root of the problem, man’s greed and the immorality of people. I don’t know what world you live in.
Yeah, telling people they seem white because of what they are wearing or how they talk and act is not going to get a good reaction. Boating shoes are associated with more wealthy people because they go boating. You’re basically saying, “I associate wealth with white people, not black people.” It’s not fair to have people tell you aren’t really black because you aren’t what you’ve described in this article – a sneaker head speaking african american vernacular. Associating every person of color with the environment that you so fondly remember is very limiting, to yourself and to people of color.
You’re right, it is a joke. But not a very good one and offensive to boot. Even if it doesn’t seem like it, there are many challenges for underrepresented students at primarily white institutions of higher education. Coming across comments like that become a part of life, and can feel very isolating. Just a thought.
That’s such an intelligent point! I hadn’t thought about people saying “you’re more (insert race) than me” as a type of insult, subconscious or not. However, I think the bigger issue is that colleges teach about “multiculturalism” and “race” but not about American culture. So anytime that someone wears/does something that a majority white people do, instead of the action being identified as “American” it’s identified as “white.” I once told my white friend (a Liberal, non-racist, out-of-state friend) that I LOVE hot dogs from Los Angeles street vendors to which he replied “That’s so Mexican.” Huh! I didn’t understand his reaction. I always saw myself just as a true native Angeleno enjoying the delicious bacon wrapped hot dogs. It was a regional thing and nothing to do with my ethnic background.
You have a good point. But I don’t think you can discount the idea that maybe that’s what a White stereotype has come to mean to the author. These jokes might be offensive, but if they hold truth for even one person, then we have to look at that.
When I lived in Hollywood,I took my children to the opening day celebrations of the red line, green line, and blue line. I was excited, and wanted them to be that way as well. Alas, Joe, your article is exactly on the mark. I now live in Ventura County, and have managed to get from LAX to Ventura on the train/subway combo, but it took an advanced logistics degree, to work out the timing, Worst of all is if you go to the MTA website, you are instructed to catch a bus, not a subway. I wish your article was less accurate, but alas, I believe we are doomed to stagnate eternally in car culture. If only they had listened to Walt Disney in 1955, who built his monorail to show them what to do. Tomorrowland has unfortunately become Fantasyland.
Before you mentioned your college, I was thinking “Did the writer go to Oxy?!” Sure enough, you’re a student there! I grew up in the San Fernando Valley where we didn’t care for race. Sure, it was there and we made stereotypical jokes but we never thought our race had to be discussed in an academic setting. At Oxy, we’re taught race is tied to our potential and may even need special help–if you’re Hispanic, you’re underprivileged, etc etc. My friends and I joke that Oxy made us “racists” in the sense that all we see is race now. How can we not after 4 years of discussing race, whiteness, and privilege at Oxy?
You get the sense from some of the comments, that they simply don’t understand the issue with difficulty learning. It is like telling someone who is color-blind that when they don’t see the color, they just aren’t trying hard enough!
I love your story about Cho. Innovators are what will ultimately save our society, in so many ways. Teachers like that are a treasure, and far, far too rare.
Physical connections are only part of the issue. Trains have to run when people need them, so a trip doesn’t take a ridiculously long time. This is especially important when a trip requires changing trains; unless a train is waiting on the other line when you get off, the system becomes impractical for commuters.
Great piece. BTW, as a native southerner, I can tell you that “finna” comes from “fixing to” (pronounced “fixin’ ta”), which means exactly what you say: about to, preparing to. Fix also means prepare as in a meal; you fix supper (the night meal) or fix dinner (the biggest meal, regardless of time of day).
Awesome text! I’ve had a very compatible experience. My dad left when I was very young, and by middle school, the family my mother ingratiated us into was a Black family. My father’s new family is Mexican. I grew up with intimate familiarity of two non-White cultures, and no one cared. I was often the token White person, and like you, it was a source of good ribbing (playing the dozens), though *never* an “issue.” This was all in the Midwest and Texas.
Moving to California nearly 20 years ago, what is on the surface a culturally diverse mecca, it became a “thing.” I’ve had friends tease me for “talking Black,” when I get on the phone with friends and family. And, like you, I’ve had light-hearted and comfortable humor taken in a exactly the wrong way. I often liken myself to a sheep in wolf’s clothing.
I still can’t (or maybe won’t) cater to the PC-MO. And, the friends I have made here, get that.
Terrific post. Excellent insights, very well expressed. Hope you write again in a year or two or three, updating your evolving experiences and viewpoints.
Great piece. You shouldn’t be afraid. You should take on PC Totalitarianism that forces people to self-censor by conforming to a rigid and narrow code of conduct and a sterile use of language. You are comfortable with a truly diverse set of people and that is why you didn’t operate in fear… until you went to college.
There are those in academia and politics (and “advocacy”) who have a strong vested interest in highlighting negative divisions and sustaining grievances. They do not want a “post-racial” environment and will actively teach against it. This is often in the guise of attacking things as “white” and encouraging “non-white” people to actively reject these things. You are bigger than these people and you can help show the way forward.
Hate to be the downer here but honey you need to get out of your dorm room more. Walk over to Franklin High just across York Blvd. and you’ll see more Latino kids and Asian kids than you’ve ever seen in your life. Or head over to the flats near Fig and spend an afternoon at Ghetto Grounds next to the art park.
Explore your own neighborhood. Get a bike. Learn about LA!!!!
I don’t think that is the point of this article. As a friend of Josephine, I know that she does bike around LA, she is involved in the neighborhood and she is certainly not restricted to Occidental’s campus. With all due respect, I think you are making some dangerous assumptions. This article is about joining a new community (in this case – Occidental) and reexamining your identity. Not to speak for Josephine, but I don’t think she has these same feelings when she crosses York Blvd…
Well, then she should have said that. I guess I’m just tired of parts of LA being labeled some sort of weird white upscale hipster enclave when in fact the city is one of the most vibrant and diverse places in the country and 65% Latino. Highland Park where I live and where Oxy is located is still heavily Latino despite the sudden gentrification that has happened the last 5-6 years.
And yeah. I doesn’t help my perception of Oxy students that they seem to only like to go to Cafe De Leche on York and 50th and no farther. I just found the article a little odd in terms of what it was trying to say and probably should have titled “I miss hanging with my lower class friends from Vegas” because I think this has little to do with race and everything to do with class.
Oxy students also frequent el super, huarache azteca, taco trucks, Super A, Galco’s, Pat & Lorraines, The York, Hermosillo, Target, Thai Eagle Rock, In-n-out, Mia Sushi, Jack in the Box, Cafe de Leche, Swork, Dave’s Chillin, Four Cafe, Taco (Place? Time? I can’t really remember), The Oinkster, Random shops up and down colorado, York, and eagle rock.
Also What do you think Oxy students look like? how do you know they are oxy students? just by looking? How would you know if oxy students visit Cafe de Leche unless you yourself also frequent Cafe de Leche?
Oxy students work via NPP in area schools. We tutor area children at the community literacy center, we take buses with the best of them and while some aren’t involved many of us do our best to be respectful and aware given our place as a part of the local community.
I am so impressed with this article. Josephine, you are an incredible writer and able to present what can be a touchy subject in a way that creates thought provoking discussion (just look at the comments section!). Excellent insights, looking forward to reading more from you.
So very funny…I am THE most Oreo girl I know…and I’m 52 – I recently worked with a very old pal I had not seen in like 30 years..we worked at Ucla together, and she introduced me to her next door colleague as this most Oreo Black girl I’ve ever met…we laughed incessantly – but yes it is a trip to not be type-cast..I am STILL usually the only Black girl at arts and cultural events I attend…it just IS what it IS…
My biggest problem with LAX is the exclusion of Metro Bus service. They have all these large and wonderful (and often empty) buses for Enterprise rent-a-car and hertz, but no MTA service. Thank god for FlyAway busses.
The Green Line shuttle connection is no worse than the bus from the MBTA Blue Line into Boston or the shuttle from the BWI Amtrak Station. It needs to run more reliably and more frequently – I once missed a shuttle and had to wait for over 20 minutes in the exhaust-choked loop – but most cities don’t have rail directly into terminals. Even SFO requires a transfer to AirTrain from BART for most flights.
Philadelphia has train service to all airport terminals. Heathrow has the wonderful Heathrow express to get you to Paddington station in 30 minutes (or you can take the regular tube in about an hour). Even Boston isn’t that bad, considering you CAN figure out transit options from the airport (I’ve done it before). In LA, you have to rely on the FlyAway bus if you don’t want to spend money on a cab or a rental car or have a friend pick you up – which is a budget-conscious option, but no thanks to Metro.
Ivy-tower studies have described this dynamic between airports & public transportation for 50 years.
Boston tore out it’s airport connectors decades ago. SF waited a generation, than built a class-filter (trolly) after thirty years.
Race and class; the elephant in the room. I HAVE NEVER READ MARX.
I rode to LA on a Greyhound bus from the Bay last night.
Of the five ‘new’ Greyhound bus i have traveled on this month, four had hard, twin steel rings in the seat fold and a single ring at the footrest on ALL window seats; obviously for shackled passengers.
At MTA ‘RedLineExtention’ (now ExPo Line ) meetings in the late 1990’s, i
listened to Sierra Club experts try to limit stops in South Central to
keep locals from stealing their TV’s from Dacha’s at the beach and
bringing them back on light rail. AND, without ‘grade separation’, light rail is a negitive, waiting cars in poor neighborhoods wipe out any gains against ‘global warming’.
The only way to use MetroLink south past Santa Ana is to buy a monthly pass.
Try driving into Culver city from the East.
Born and raised in all-white High Schools in the Valley, this pure cracker
has lived at 41st and Normandie for 25 years and refuses to drive after
being locked in a patrol car 4-5 times a year for decades.
And, ‘Ralphs’ closed our last two supermarkets this month:(
Josephine, what a well written and funny article. It sounds like you had a healthy dose of self esteem going through middle school and high school as well as good friends. Thanks for sharing your experience. I literally had tears in my eyes score different shoes and matching with shirts.
Good job Joe! I didn’t even know you were white! (Also kidding) It’s a hard thing sometimes to know what’s ok and what’s not ok to say. I grew up on the Mexican border and was almost always the only white girl in class. I loved my Mexican friends and I was always treated so kindly and like family. Sadly my parents were very racist and I never or EVER will understand that. I’m so thankful my Mexican friends taught me not so much about race but about their culture and unconditional love just for being human. Wouldn’t that be amazing to just love each other and learn about our differences instead of using anger and hate for being ignorant? Keep speaking up Miz Joe!!
An excellent article for California and Californians. The last paragraph is great advice, but maybe lacking in urgency. What advice is there for local communities that fail to act — for which careful and sober assessments of sea level havoc simply aren’t being done, much less being acted upon? Or, perhaps more importantly, what advice for lawmakers who control purse strings?
All credit to Mayor Bloomberg who is doing what needs to be done with a pressing importance not found elsewhere. California, with a lot of bright people and a robust government infrastructure, seems to be moving a lot slower than it should.
I am so proud of this young woman, so alive and so aware of life. Now mind you she is my daughter, but that wouldn’t matter because the world better watch out Jo is on the move!
Terrific article! Beautifully written and so well observed. My throat welled up envyng your experience. Though I must say, that your sense of loss and longing for your time as “the White girl” is very specific to that experience, but also shared with all of us with regard to many of the things we love and “grow” away from. The trick is to cherish and keep alive close friendships of many kinds, and not to lose touch with that sense of vivid connection to so many aspects of your young life . . as you get older, and life gets so crowded and pressured that even the present isn’t fully experienced and appreciated.
I don’t understand your reference re. travel between SFO and San Mateo taking an hour; although you cannot take a train directly between SFO and San Mateo, bus or train+bus trips typically only take 20-30 minutes. I agree, though, there is room for improvement.
Thanks Josephine for this great piece. I strongly identify with your story, as one of the “white girls” from a great mixed school in south San Diego who then went on to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Love this article!
Thanks for the post, Rolf. I was in Suzano last week and participated in one of the marches along with a Brazilian friend. The amount of support demonstrated by observers was pretty inspiring (commuter trains would stop on the tracks, the conductors blowing their horns, riders hanging out of the windows cheering). Law enforcement was certainly keeping a low profile, although clearly present on the perimeter.
I come from Brazil, a very racially mixed country. When I first got here I was always very confused when people asked what I am… I am Brazilian, but do you really want to go onto my racial background? I am a mutt, that’s what I am, and? Anyway, back home nobody ever asked what you were. If you spoke Portuguese fluently you are Brazilian and that’s it. I lived there for the first 19 years of my life and I never asked someone’s ethnic background and vice versa. I really wish that was the same here, meaning: we can communicate, we can hang out, no ethnicity questions asked. My friends here are from everywhere in the world, we are a mini UN as we say, and we do joke around about stereotypes too, with no hard feelings. I think people in this country are so race-conscious sometimes that it bothers me. I would love to meet you and have a “race-unscary” conversation. And, by the way, I think your high-school and my group of friends and maybe a few other groups are a few exceptions of the rule… I don’t think Occidental is the exception, I think, and maybe it’s a stretch that, all of LA, and maybe even this state or country, is very “race-conscious”.
I don’t know how you can claim we live in a post-ethnic age when you wrote an entire article on Garcetti’s ethnic & religious heritage. It would also be interesting to know the factual source of your statement “The Jewish vote tends to go to the candidate who best articulates and can best deliver on a socially progressive, fiscally prudent, pro- (or at least not anti-) Israel agenda.”
I don’t claim to know all Jews in the city, but those I know aren’t a monolithic bloc. They certainly don’t all adhere to the descriptions you gave. I think the only thing you can say about the Jewish vote is that it tends to show up more often than other religious / ethnic groups. From AIPAC to Jewish Voice for Peace, the tribe has at least as many political identities as it does members.
—just another Jew, starting a Chinese Jewish family without adoption (seriously, with the ethnic mixture of LA, you even through in the stereotype that all of our Asian members are adopted?)
When I came to L.A. to work in the Jewish community, I was blown away by the fact that there were seriously powerful politically conservative (i.e. Republican) Jews. Then I met the newly arrived Persian /Iranians and the Russian immigrants, and a few Ethiopians … all Jewish. The diversity is more obvious than ever. Woe to the organization or candidate seeking support who does not respect this!
the headline should have been structured as “Turn” … what does that mean? A good turn, like a mitzvah? Facing east while praying? Jews in the “west” share this traditional behavior with Moslems, both directing prayers to their respective geographic centers of faiths, Jerusalem and Mecca, respectively.
The article says that 6% of the population of LA is Jewish. With a little under 4 million people, that means that there are just under 240,000 Jews in LA. The article also says that at one time, the Jewish population of LA swelled to 600,000. So, either the Jewish population of LA has gone down sharply in recent decades (I doubt it), or one of these statistics in the article is incorrect. Perhaps 600,000 is the population of Jews in the entire southern California region?
Many Jewish people in L.A. County live outside the actual city of Los Angeles, and therefore cannot vote in city elections. For example, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and Manhattan Beach are separate cities.
I think that although it sounds good in theory, in fact if you spend that billion dollars to extend a rail line that last mile into the airport, the increase in ridership that you get from that ends up being negligible. People don’t relish dragging their luggage from from the curb to the ticket counter; dragging it onto a subway platform, onto a train, and then whatever distance remains between the end of the subway line and their final destination is far less appealing then that. I’d take a billion dollars worth of complete street improvements spread throughout the city over a direct connection to the airport any day of the week.
Excellent article. As a resident of Florida since 1969, many of the same situations have occurred both locally and statewide. Rapid growth with out the foresight of consequences. In essences, there was no Ernie. Winning a small fight for the here and now in that moment of time is a legacy for others to follow, a road map if you will for those brave enough to do so. This country needs more “brave enough’s) and our young people are the grass roots needed to preserve this cherished life style called freedom. So, Santa Monica young people, step up! follow that path, its your right to help make a change.
Perhaps for you they are, but when I was a newly-divorced single mom making $30K, a nanny was out of the question. I considered myself beyond lucky to have found an in-home daycare within minutes of my home that I could afford and which my daughter enjoyed attending. I agree that large-group daycare sucks, but saying that private nannies are the only way to go ignores reality. In-home daycare is a great middle option for a lot of parents who can’t go completely private, but who want to minimize some of the issues that come with large-group daycare.
If you read the Cohn article (the “Hell of American Day Care” in the article above), licensed centers are the safest option and have the fewest problems. Safer than nannies or in-home daycares.
I appreciate you adding your experiences to the discussion.
However, I am left still scratching my head over the supply/demand problem you mention. For those who are fortunate to access the existing supply, you may certainly be right that regulation would be more of a burden than a blessing. Federal pre-K education programs may not have proven effective over the long term. Expanding them may well drive private options out of the business.
But what about all those who don’t have access to the limited supply due to low income, location, etc.? If the issue is day care (as opposed to education), it seems to me that some kind of government program is still the least-worse option. Otherwise, in the name of keeping a few in-home day care centers in business, we seem to be sacrificing an opportunity to drastically increase the employment opportunities for working single parents, low income families, etc. I would be happy to consider those private businesses in the balance. But without an alternative solution, I don’t see how that concern can trump the continuing struggles of the families whose demand is being unmet by the market.
Any suggestions on alternate approaches to the supply/demand problem?
“The patient will get cut open, perforated with tubes, hooked up to machines, and assaulted with drugs… What it buys is misery we would not inflict
on a terrorist. ”
Dear Dr. Murray,
The above statements illustrate case and point why family physicians are precluded from practicing or participating in the medical decision process in most modern day ICU’s in the United States.You have professionally maligned and insulted the field of critical care medicine and misinformed your audience. You misrepresent and confuse our excellent ICU care with the ethical questions of informed medical decision making, advance directives, patient autonomy, and rationing of health care resources. We as INTENSIVE CARE PHYSICIANS assault NO ONE. We manage pain, anxiety, and “misery” and ameliorate it with the best medicines 2013 care can provide. Intensivist directed ICU care is very expensive but very powerful. WE can and frequently do recover patients from the brink of death to full recovery. We do not discriminate between children, mothers, fathers, and grandparents. If there is an advanced directive in place, we limit our interventions. If care is futile, we rally the family and discuss the reality openly without reservation. The human body is a wonderfully complex, adaptive and restorative system. Our goal is to give human life every chance possible but at the same time we allow natural death to occur. To state our goal is financial is asinine and shameful. Your conception of ICU care is generation old out of sync with current reality.
Dear dr. Omron, as a colleague in Intensive Care Medicine I feel that you completely miss the gist of the massage Ken Murray wants to get across. You cannot state that we never miss an opportunity to not act while we could in a hopeless case. I have been a consultant doctor in IC Medicine for 25 years so I feel qualified to have an opinion in this matter and I am very much aware of circumstances in which I failed the patient in favor of pressure from family and other relatives. We can do a lot, but the real art of medicine is when to apply to right care for the right patient.
Kind regards,
Ben van der Hoven
Dear Dr Hoven,
I appreciate your commentary but mass media medical misinformation needs to be thoroughly and unambiguously challenged whenever encountered. Dr Murray’s commentary, I am sure came, from good intentions but he crossed the line when he used words to cut deeper than a scalpel. His commentary was inflammatory and meant to illicit some kind of emotional disgust at current day critical care medicine. He used and abused my specialty to advance his own ethical and political agenda. I reject that commentary for that sake alone.
Dear Dr. Omron,
As a layperson who knows people whose specialty is critical care, I did not read any of Dr. Murray’s article as maligning those in your practice. He was referring from the outset of his article to persons whose deaths were imminent and who chose not to employ the skills of those of you who work in critical care to keep them from dying, not those who were in generally good health who had experienced a medical emergency, the recovery from which would restore them to an otherwise healthy and fruitful life. You do important and necessary work in your field, and yet there is a time when the type of services you provide are simply not in the best interests of the patient. Dr. Murray does not seem to me to be saying that no one should ever be treated in ICU, but that the focus of care should be the definition of a meaningful life that the patient him- or herself has defined and made clear to her or his loved ones and physician prior to the point in life at which such information might be needed. That, and not “what is possible medically,” should be the final measure of “good treatment” for everyone.
Best regards,
Douglas Asbury
Whoa, relax fella. ER doc here. I think you completely missed the point of the article. Turn your ego and defenses down and read it again with a more open mind.
Excellent article. Much needs to be done to prevent such tragedies. As we mourn the tragic loss of life of 19 wild land fire fighters in Arizona, it was incumbent on me, as a human factors scientist, to explore solutions and develop research questions to prevent such tragedies from occurring in the future. To this end, I have written a short article that should be of interest to technologists, telecommunication companies, wildland firefighters: http://hvhfsciences.blogspot.com/2013/07/preventing-tragedies-in-wild-land-fire.html
Okay, but did Millie or Newbie have a criminal record? Can we at least refuse to license daycare providers who have criminal records, or blow off the training course?
This reminds me of the song “Cold Missouri Waters” by James Keelaghan about the Mann Gulch fire that killed 13 smokejumpers. It gives me chills just remembering listening to it…
I paid my way through college as a Hot Shot wild land firefighter. I drilled repeatedly on how to deploy the older version “turkey tents” but despite some close calls, never had to use one. Your vision of how such a deployment might unfold matches mine. Thanks for an extraordinary piece of writing. I hope it spurs the additional research you call for.
My only quibble is that I doubt most firefighters have time to reflect even to the extent that you postulate. At the temperatures that fire no doubt generated, I suspect — and I hope the families of the 19 young men who died in Arizona take some tiny measure of comfort in believing — that they were almost certainly gone in a whoosh of heat and light, while doing something they loved and doing it as well as the chaotic circumstances allowed.
I totally felt the same way about being the lone white girl in every class at my university. And I had the same culture shock in my CSU undergraduate to UC-Disproportionalty Blonde transfer experience. But I don’t think comfortable race-based teasing is what most people mean by post-racial. Don’t get me wrong; I take the main point away. But I only *wish* that people defined post-racial as: not freaked out by a discussion on someone’s tangible, not theoretical, “race”. Instead, to most it means, Not Said.
If I haven’t said, I really enjoyed this article. Good job.
I think LA in particular (outside of decidedly diverse pedigreed colleges), and places like it, have a heightened sense of ethnic/racial awareness — and that’s okay — because we do not live in a post-racial society. People are aware of demographic imbalances in communities (location quotients to geographers). Or they are aware of an individual’s combo of traits from all over the world, like a special recipe for people (sup., swirlbaby). That awareness is a form of progress. We can toot the post-racial horn when we’ve ironed the problems out, but for now, I’m keen on a kind of nonchalant awareness.
That said, I do get freaked out that only White people ask me what I am — and boy do they. And always right when we first meet, like they can’t think straight until it’s sorted. My reply is usually that I am just a brown-skinned White girl (which makes people really really uncomfortable). But this is a fact, most non-Whites seem to know without being told, or care little enough to question when we first meet. Either way, it’s never weird.
Thank you for the courage it took to write this, honoring those who were lost. This is a dangerous endeavor, and it always will be. May God walk with all firefighters.
Thank you for the posting. I read it in the Sacramento Bee. Perhaps this is a starting point.
France and Spain, both economies smaller than that of
California, already have media privacy legislation.
The California Constitution, Section 1 says:
SECTION 1.
All people are by nature free and independent and have inalienable
rights. Among these are enjoying
and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing, and protecting
property, and pursuing and obtaining safety, happiness, and privacy.
Your Statement “It’s not a frequent topic of discussion, but doctors die, too. And they don’t die like the rest of us. What’s unusual about them is not how much treatment they get compared to most Americans, but how little. For all the time they spend fending off the deaths of others, they tend to be fairly serene when faced with death themselves. They know exactly what is going to happen, they know the choices, and they generally have access to any sort of medical care they could want. But they go gently.” should have been supported with data that backs up the assertion. As it is, I can only take this as your opinion.
I worked for 7 years as an inpatient hospice nurse and there were very few among my co-workers and other colleagues (I actually can’t think of one) who would not agree with Dr. Murray, myself included. I know nurses with DNR tattooed on their chests. We aren’t kidding when we say that we don’t want to SUFFER with unnecessary, futile treatments at the end of our days.
You are correct that bicycles are not the end-all, be-all of commuting and transportation — not everyone is physically capable of riding, some loads are too large, and extreme weather conflicts with business attire. However, I must disagree with a few of your assumptions:
Most bikes on the market are designed for commuting or pleasure-riding, not transport. You can, however, easily purchase after-market accessories (racks, bags, trailers) or entire bikes designed expressly for transport. These range in price from cheap to expensive and can carry anything from watermelons to refrigerators. In Montreal, there are professional movers who use bicycles.
Bicycling is not as dangerous as it looks or feels — and is less dangerous as more bicycles are on the roads. Danger stems from two factors: Driver inattentiveness and cyclist carelessness. Driver inattentiveness is ameliorated by cyclist density (I certainly feel safer riding in a place where drivers expect cyclists) and cyclist carelessness…
…well, speaking as a bicycle commuter, I feel strongly about cyclists who violate road laws. I’m working on a letter to the mayor of Boston (whoever that is after the election) asking for enforcement of road laws for cyclists. Law-breaking cyclists endanger not just themselves, but *all* road users — including other cyclists. I feel it’s only the problem it is because people know they can get away with it. I doubt eco-elitism has much to do with it, although I would be interested in the results of a study on that!
Bike lanes are a scam. I totally agree there. A number of European cities do just fine with mixed traffic, and bike lanes don’t address the very real problem of intersections. Besides, many of these lanes are in the most dangerous part of the road: The “Door Zone”, where a suddenly-opened door can cause serious injury or death. No, sharrows make far more sense.
So I agree with the general principle that roads should not be narrowed to accomodate dubiously useful bike lanes, but I feel that there is a path forward for fewer cars and more bicycles. The keys are enforcement, education, and mixed-use design.
• Calling the most popular and thus most democratic commute mode in the world “elitism” (with or without a silly prefix in front of it) betrays a mighty skewed perspective.
Oh, my. Bikes aren’t transportation? Then I guess I can get from home to work five miles away without transportation. And from work to lunch 3/4 mile away without transportation. And two miles from the grocery store to home without transportation. And I wandered 10 miles all over Paris without transportation, cause you know, bike share bikes aren’t transportation.
It’s true that most people won’t want to ride a bike for 10+ mile trips. But about half the trips people make every day are under two miles. For two mile trips, bikes are only slightly slower than cars and when a bike is properly equipped with baskets, racks and lights, you can easily carry 2-3 bags of groceries, even after dark. The people in the express checkout at the grocery really don’t need an SUV to carry 15 items of less.
Syd Mead will be celebrating his 80th birthday next week. Maybe it’s time to retire? Sorry Syd the future didn’t turn out the way you expected it and kids prefer $200 bicycles from $2,000,000 flying cars.
Oh, I don’t know about that… My San Francisco experience is that I have raised three kids and a dog and worked in a different city using bikes and transit. I have been liberated from my car for about twenty five years now.
Maybe Syd hasn’t been downtown since they shot Blade Runner when it was a ghost town of empty grand old buildings. A place you commuted to from the suburbs. Maybe he has no idea that these buildings are full of people now, people who live, work and play in a 5 mile radius and have no use for cars. And that the same thing is happening in multiple hubs all over SoCal.
Mr Mead states that a bicycle, “therefore operates under rigid limitations: the physical condition (and therefore age) of the rider.” Here’s an important point: unless you’re in training, in a race, or trying to keep up with fast-moving auto traffic, biking is easier than walking. For the same amount of energy it takes to walk somewhere, you can get at least three times as far, three times as fast on a bike. If you can walk, you can bike. Certainly in either case, age or infirmity will slow you down a bit, but it’ll still be easier to bike. I experienced this myself once when, due to a knee injury, I could put barely any weight on one leg. But I could still get around twice as fast on my bike as I could normally walk in an uninjured state. Once, when visiting Germany, I marveled at the sight of a lady, obviously pushing (or past) 70, zipping along a cycletrack, in a floral print dress. It’s just a matter of a certain kind of infrastructure: they have it, and we don’t.
(For the rest of this I’ll just copy/paste my comment I posted at the sgvtribune.com, where I originally saw this piece by Mr. Mead.)
“Ever try to carry a watermelon on a bicycle? (Yes, it can be done, but how much else could you carry?)”
“A bike lane is lucky to be used by dozens of bicyclists in an hour.”
Safe to say it depends on the bike lane. Here’s a story that mentions how the bike trips over Portland’s Hawthorne Bridge broke 6200 one day in April: http://bikeportland.org/tag/hawthorne-bridge
That’s April in Portland… The weather still sucks that time of year. It probably breaks 10k riders a day in the summer weather. Either way, you’re looking at some substantial ridership, certainly more than dozens an hour. That helps congestion immensely; if all those riders were in cars, they’d probably clog the bridge.
“Imposing bicycle accommodations onto an existing vehicular culture and street alignment is prohibitively complex and preposterously expensive on a per-mile basis.”
And I don’t know about LA, but in Portland if you’re talking about the existing street alignments, for much of the city you’re talking about a grid that was laid out over a hundred years ago, and designed with streetcars down the middle of the main commercial strips. People would walk to the streetcars, right out in the middle of the street, with no fear of being run down. By design. And around that time there was the first bicycle craze, pre-automobile. So who’s really been doing the imposing here?
“But there’s a save-the-earth mentality in bicycle culture that seems to make riders feel entitled to ignore traffic management signs.”
How exactly you come upon this knowledge of the inner workings of the minds of these people you see zipping around you in traffic I don’t know. And while I can’t claim any special knowledge either, my best guess would be that — while environmental concerns might lead to cycling — it’s more the awareness that when on a bike you’re so much less of a threat to fellow road users, so much more aware of your surroundings, and so dependent upon your burning legs and wheezing lungs to keep moving that you feel more inclined to bend rules that were designed for big, powerful machines that stop and start with the tiniest physical efforts of their users.
And then of course some people on bikes are just clueless, preoccupied, or apparently suicidal. As are some people in cars, as are some people on foot, as are some people in, I don’t know, hot air balloons. Really, it makes no sense to categorize and judge people by their chosen mode of transport.
H.G. Wells, who is someone who deserves the title, “futurist,” once said: “Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.”
Bicycles are an integral part of any multimodal transportation system that can include everything from high-speed rail and airplanes to jitneys and car sharing.
Bicycles and Neighborhood Electric Vehicles are equivalent to each other, and, in the case of e. bikes, they are, in fact, the same mode. Power is available for those users that need or want it, and all of these vehicles can use the same infrastructure as SCAG and the WRCOG have recently found.
Bicycles also come in several forms. Some are hand-cycles that appeal to users with mobility impairments. Others are designed for transporting children or cargo. And, tricycles are even popular in many retirement communities. So, the number of different civilizations in the past and around the world in the present day that use bicycles as transportation makes this gentleman’s opinion seem terribly uninformed.
Sad, Pathetic. Trite. Filled with specious arguments. The only part of the argument he didn’t make was the threat to kill a cyclist the next time he gets mad at one. I love the rage against bike lanes–as if the whole road system isn’t gamed 100% for automobiles. Putting in a bike lane and dropping that number down to 98% just burns him up. Syd, my man, let me argue like you: You are a resentful and selfish person. The only reason why there are fewer bikers than there could be is because of the way you drive your BMW filled with watermelons. If you’re truly concerned with my well-being, please stop making right-hand turns.
The best way to advocate for cycling infrastructure among 80-year-olds is to present bicycles and Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (N.E.V.’s) together so that seniors do not feel alienated.
When the aged potentially lose their eyesight and their ability to drive cars that weigh several tons and that travel 65 m.p.h., alternatives like bicycles and N.E.V.’s will look much more interesting.
This guy’s an idiot. Not all of us have the luxury of driving a BMW. Maybe “liberation” from the car means liberation from crushingly high fuel and maintenance costs. It seems any elitism is on his part
Nice article, although we don’t yet know if it was failures of the fire shelters that caused the deaths. E.g. they may have not had time to deploy their shelters.
Also, these lines “You can feel the fire now, its heat behind you. You hear it crackle and hiss” don’t seem right. In _Young Men and Fire_, the firefighters repeatedly described the fire as sounding like a “roaring” or a “freight train”. That was one of the things that most struck me from the book; when asked to describe what it was like to be close to a forest fire, the first thing they mentioned was not flames, heat, nor smoke. Instead it was the noise. Granted there are different types of fires, which could sound different.
Here’s a guy who can’t imagine using a bike for transportation and obviously hasn’t spoken to anyone who does mansplaining to us about what can and can’t be done on bike, complete with the patronizing fake-positive intro. I’ve enjoyed Mead’s work in film but I suggest he stick to his day job or do a little more research first.
My bicycle has made a huge difference in how I view my city and how I get around it. And, yes, my bike IS a form of transportation. The three mile trip downtown on a bike lane is something I look forward to. When I get there, I’ve had some exercise, I don’t have to pay for parking or try to find a spot. And I can easily hop on it to quickly get from one place to the next. My bike can easily carry two bags of groceries. And, yes, it can handle a watermelon – and then some.
The future of transportation, at least the best case scenario (as opposed to the dystopian scenarios envisioned in much of Mead’s work), is one of mixed modes. Some will drive cars, some will ride buses and trains, some will walk, and some will ride bicycles. Many people may even mix modes by taking bicycles on buses or trains or by using a car (either a family car or one rented occasionally) for trips involving long distances or large loads.
Ideally, all those modes will coexist in cities and on streets designed to allow them to mix in a way that is more complementary than competitive. Yes, that involves having more cyclists obey traffic laws, but it also involves bike lanes, road diets, lower speed limits, and other measures that restore the balance that was lost in the 20th Century rush to build places around the car to the detriment of all other modes.
It is shameful that Zocalo chose to publish this unfortunate diatribe. The worthwhile pursuit of balance and a variety of points of view can be taken too far when it results in false equivalence between well-reasoned essays and angry rants.
I’m sure that car manufacturers and oil companies thank you, Syd. I do understand your point that it’s difficult to get around in a city like Los Angeles. I live in central Phoenix, which isn’t much different. Everything I need is here. I got rid of my car over 10 years ago, so it can be done. And you can get large items delivered to you: for a fee, which is less than owning a car. LA and Phoenix are not Amsterdam or Portland, but it is possible. It simply takes effort.
This is curiously ignorant. It is so easy to refute one wonders if it isn’t just bait to get web traffic.
If this indeed a genuine opinion, please research, travel, and ride before publishing anything else on this topic. Doing so will reveal an embarrassment of counter-examples to your conjectures.
As a wilderness ranger, I cannot help but think we still approach fire wrong.
The concept of putting firefighters in close proximity is based upon “the need to contain”, when nothing is being burned but the same vegetation that has burned thousands of times. And those decisions are based upon “best guesses”. It is inevitable that sooner or later, the guess will be wrong. The wind shifts, the fire gathers power, etc…..and there is NO WAY to pull the firefighters out.
The risk is “managed”, due to the drive to extinguish, but that need is not a NEED, it is a DESIRE. Putting lives at risk to save lives is one thing, but to save forest fuel is reprehensible, and to save “things”–homes, cars, ranchland—is poor thinking. It exists because there is a culture involving wildland fire—-the need to Conquer Nature in the form of nature’s fire. It is an illusion, as is illustrated by this tragedy.
I hiked the Pulaski trail and read the history of the Great Fire of 1910 just 2 years ago. My thoughts then were that with present technology, we should never have such destruction and loss of life again. But mother nature demonstrated her unpredictable and uncontrollable being once again. Your article was very good in painting a mental picture of what it may have been like for those men. A very sad loss, and I have such respect for firefighters and other emergency response workers.
Honor to address a creator of the iconic Bladerunner and SIGGRAPH speaker. I’m 59 and have never gotten a driver’s lic. Californian since 1980. You are talking me into that Nissan Leaf or other EV! I agree the average person likely won’t carry anything beyond a melon. For years I’ve stubbornly refused bags for nice, closed-bottom, drawer-sized spare boxes at the store, bungy-corded to, usually, a mountain bike. Rate me four melons.
Many in Portland, OR employ large bike trailers for transportation. Think rickshaw. I doubt angelinos will buy this right now, but there’s the longevity industry, too. We’re literate enough to worry about CV disease and gym dues. It’s an inconvenient truth….I’ve got amigos doing triathlons, marathons, the Death Valley Marathon, coast-to-coast trips.
I know I’d love the breezy freeway mode. Runners are about speed–but also pace.
The reference to bike marathons is probably to the Critical Mass movement. Any civil demonstration has its rank&file vs. anarchists.
The transportation revolution won’t happen top-down. Inside every car is a cyclist.
I say convert the carpool lanes to bicycle lanes and that would extend my radius of bicycle travel from 15 miles each way to 30 miles each way. That would cover most of Los Angeles, Westside, South Bay and the Valley. Carpool lanes are a joke as they are only needed about 4 hours a day and if converted to bicycle lanes they would be used by more people, more often…
To me the popularity of the automobile is much like the horse was 100+ years ago. Lifestyles are changing and soon people will adapt to other methods of mobility. Syd, as a fellow ACCD alumni, I trust you will adapt too.
syd should visit amsterdam. i used to live there. i enjoyed buying small amounts of groceries from local spots every day on my bike. i’ve lived in los angeles car free since may 2007.
Specious folly would be the idea that a bicycle is a vehicle, it’s not. It is a device that leverages human effort for mobility. Me and my bike weigh about 250 pounds, Sid and his Hummer way about 5,000 pounds. Considering these two very different examples as the same is a special kind of folly that should be placed alongside climate change deniers and 9-11 conspiracy theorists. It’s simple physics, futurist, you and your car are far more of a danger on the road and a detriment to our natural environment than me and my bike. I can stop my bike within a few feet, your car can take hundreds of feet at high speeds. Physics man, physics.
A bicycle is a vehicle according to the dictionary definition of vehicle. It is also a vehicle according to the laws of most states. California is unusual in defining it as not a vehicle but that has more to do with California’s laws involving vehicle identification numbers, registration etc.
The law also gives bicyclists the same rights and responsibilities in the road as the drivers of vehicles so it’s effectively the same as a vehicle with respect to the of rules of the road.
Dear Bill, Thank you for validating my point that a bicycle is not considered a vehicle in the state of California. As to my rights and responsibilities on the road I do not believe that following the same rules as motorized vehicles will accomplish anything except endangering my life. If you ride a bicycle look around at what vehicle drivers are doing, half of them are texting or on the phone. If drivers are not following the laws for safe vehicle operation why on earth would I?
Because it’s safer. Just because you think that it isn’t,
that doesn’t mean that you know what you are talking about.
You’re safest when you make sure that other road users can see you and know what you are about to do. Visibility plus predictability leads to safe riding.
I have studied bicycle safety from the League of American Bicyclists, Cycling Savvy, Effective Cycling, Cyclecraft, Bicycling Street Smarts and others.
I have been riding the roads of southern California since 1971. My lifetime mileage is well into 6 figures. I typically ride 6000-7000 miles per year in recent years.
I have education plus experience which is why I know that what I am saying is true. Too many people think that their vague uneducated ideas are obviously correct. Far too often, they are missing facts or not considering all of the important variables.
The two pieces of media called out on this guy’s futurist resume are Blade Runner and Aliens. I would argue that both are examples of a bike-free future. Syd, prepare for a bicycle-powered rotten watermelon delivery to your driveway.
This article is so misguided its disapointing. Ever been to Amsterdam Syd? Maybe you should just travel more, and get in touch with cultures that are still connected to humanity, not divorced from it as Los Angeles, and particularly the world of vfx post is. The support of metro systems and bicycle-friendly culture and infrastructure is a sign of civilized progress. I have been a classic car enthusiast, race-car driving trainee, I love cars and speed and convenience, but all one has to do is visit a metropolis with an average IQ 60 points above the median LA IQ (Tokyo, Sydney, New York, SF, even freezing London) to realize there is benefit and good sense in riding bicycles. The flaunting of traffic laws happens without bicycle riders, and a good percentage of drivers are uninsured, intoxicated on pharmaceutical marijuana and owe more than $500 in parking tickets, let alone unhealthy and unfit. Call that Utopian? It’s a constant set of stress on many levels, and any support to alleviate stress in a city is INTELLIGENT. I don’t even ride my bike as often as I should, and rather than resenting those who do, I feel a pang of lazy guilt everytime I see a disciplined person making the effort. Maybe you should, too.
Dr. Murray
I am stage 4, metastasized, palliative care prostate cancer. I dc’d chemo 6 mo ago, and prognosis is 18 mo /c further treatment. I know whereof you speak; it has been a very good life, and I will not end it whimpering semiconsciously in a hospital room if I can prevent it. There are those that prize length of life over the quality of that life. I am not in that crowd.
Staring the Reaper in the face, and not speaking hypothetically, I will live as well as possible for as long as possible. When the bad days substantially outnumber the good days, I’ll initiate plan B and leave with as little fanfare as possible.
Jack London perhaps said it best; ” I will live the time I have. I will not spend my days prolonging my years.”
Heh. Amusing. I’ve carried 6 kids, 3 watermelons, 7 bags of potato chips, 9 bottles of wine, 2 valiums in a ziplock bag, 25 lbs of potatoes, and a box of condoms on my bike without breaking a sweat. I have enough pleasant forms of recreation in my life without needing another dedicated path along the river.
Catherine, Best of luck to you. We need doctors who are caring enough and somehow also passionate enough to recognize that the systems we work in can oppress our best natures. The health care system that you are entering, and that I just quit, is profoundly oppressive: it knocks individualization of care aside in place of collectivized “best practices” and does so thinking that it is correct in so doing. It marginalizes love and empathy and responsibility, and replaces it with rigid guidelines that shockingly often do NOT apply to the individual patient you are seeing, and yet the physician is punished for not abiding, or the insurance company won’t pay for the intervention. The system invokes quality measures that are farcical and often outright counterproductive. I could go on for hours about the Asthma quality measures which are entirely foolhardy. Beware of evidence-based medicine– It is a euphemism for a collective mentality. It is pure groupthink. There is a place for Evidence Based Medicine, but it has no role in funding or politics. Finally, being a doctor I believe is the most noble profession. But serving a fascist master is the most ignoble. The health care system in the US is now the leading edge of the fascist state, and it is not just the stupidity and narcissism of the foisters of Obamacare, for the problems lay 70 years further in the past.
Best of all possible luck,
John Hunt, MD—Author of “ASSUME THE PHYSICIAN”
It seems though that when a lot of people move inland nowadays, they go so far inland that they end up in Dallas or Houston or Las Vegas rather than Riverside or Visalia. And Dallas and Houston are a lot steamier in the
Summer than Visalia.
Your general point is correct, but I lived in Dallas from 2000 to 2007, and it is NOT steamy in the summer. It is hot and dry.
One reason people move to Dallas, Houston, or Las Vegas is they want the advantages of being in large cities without the horrific costs of the ones in California.
One of the reason that health care is booming in the Central Valley is that cancer rates are high, not to mention diabetes and allergies. The Central Valley is the most concentrated area of conventional agribusiness in the country, utilizing the full array of pesticides, herbicides, hormones, and antibiotics. Cattle, produce, and cash crops require massive quantities of these toxins to maintain vast monoculture farms and ranches. I grew up in Bakersfield and we always knew when they were de-foliating the cotton fields because everyone’s eyes start itching, allergies act up, people get sick. In addition to agribusiness, oil production and refineries further choke the air with pollutants. Cancer is a culture in the Central Valley; there are more cancer treatment centers per capita than anywhere coastal. And with a majority politically conservative population who see any attempt to curb pollution or promote sustainability as an attack on their morals and worldview, the sorry state of the environment in the Central Valley isn’t going to change any time soon. The reason why people who have ambition and are interested in making a difference in the world leave the Central Valley, is because true opportunities to participate in the modern world of culture, science, and politics do not exist there. There is a culture of intolerance, reactive and regressive thinking on all manner of progressive issues, and severe inequality.
Simply owning a house isn’t enough reason for most ambitious, intelligent young people to risk their health, mind, and spirit.
To the author: I DARE you to take your own “advice.” If you think its so great, YOU move to Visalia.
I’m an LA transplant, living in Fresno now for about 6 years and you really hit the nail on the head. I moved here for love (and was lucky enough not to have the pressure to find a job right away), but quickly found out that living here is California’s best-kept secret — and many of the Fresno folks would like to keep it that way. In LA, I struggled with the idea that I’d never earn enough money on my own to buy a decent place to live amidst the growing housing bubble. Here, like you mentioned, housing is still very affordable and many families are able to live a high quality of life on one income, so there are still a lot of stay-at-home moms (or dads) raising families.
LA or SF folks drive by here all the time, never bothering to stop and see what they’re missing (I was one of them, too). Of course Fresno doesn’t have a big arts & culture scene like LA or SF, but if you look hard enough, there’s something for everyone. The ease of getting involved and ready access to higher-ups makes this a place where, as you noted, one can really get in on the ground floor and make things happen fairly quickly. And that is really where I think the opportunity is for LA folks, if only they could recognize the opportunities that lay just beyond the Grapevine.
Looking at these guys, the break seems not only less sharp but pretty much non-existent. Just check out those casques! And:
“A cassowary’s three-toed feet have sharp claws. The second toe, the inner one in the medial position, sports a dagger-like claw that is 125 millimetres (5 in) long.”
Thank you, Eugene. You say it beautifully and with the courage of real affection, love and friendship. I am struck again by the kindness and clarity of his friends.
1. You won’t give a damn how long the commute takes. (In fact, you may even sit in your parked car, just to finish a chapter.)
2. You will read books that you will enjoy, but which you never would have the time or patience to read with your eyes. (I’m currently reading Anna Karenina, a book to heavy for me to even lift with my hands, much less read with my eyes, and I’m loving it.)
3. You will convert dead time into fulfilling, productive time.
4.You will arrive at work and at home at peace. (Declaring war simply makes you a victim, forced to play the game by CalTrans’ rules)
5. You won’t have to read in bed late at night, when after reading the same paragraph three times, you end up with a book on your nose.
Rules for reading with your ears.
1. Make sure you have the temperament and reflexes to switch instantly from listening, to dealing with the unpredictable demands of LA traffic. (Backspacing is easy to pick up what you missed) Most LA drivers do this instinctively.
2. Don’t make early appointments at work (if you have that luxury).
3. Keep your significant other posted on your drive home.
4. Make sure you enjoy the reader, as this can make or spoil a good book.
5. You can now download e-books from many local libraries, if you are too cheap to buy them online or at a bookstore.
Everyone knows how much Americans are dissatisfied
with Congress. Politicians only listen to their campaign donors and
special interests while the people’s voices are drowned out in the
process.
My wife and I are traveling the country to collect people’s stories about how the dysfunction in Congress affects their lives.
Under the previous law, when your wife’s COBRA insurance ran out she could purchase a HIPAA policy. (Google it.) That’s what I did. It’s disturbing that no one knows about them, even health-policy consultants.
This is completely correct about HIPAA. Also you have a max out of pocket with your current policy with a lot more doctors to see and hospitals to go to. You will be limited in a tremendous way and do not forget this is what “THEY” want you to be, dependent on them.
It’s tough to go into the appropriate level of detail even in a longer piece like this. I do know that HIPAA/GI plans exist and we have used them before. They are even more expensive and have even higher levels of cost sharing. I am not personally limited in terms of my ability to buy a product on the open market, the Exchange is just going to be a better deal for me. As for “dependent on them,” well, you’re always going to be dependent on someone. I cultivate a healthy skepticism of all institutions, private and public.
>>> In July 2012, I made a presentation to the State Board of Education and
was told that the board does not have the authority to enforce the
Education Code. Last December, at a meeting with members of the
California Department of Education, I was told that neither the State
Superintendent of Instruction nor the department has the authority to
enforce the Education Code.
Everything you need to know about California Education!
It is also why we have the worst school libraries in the nation.
I have been cycling all over So. Cal. for over 40 years. Respect for bicycles and pedestrians alike has been slowly coming at the cost of many injuries and death. Still there`s little respect on the streets. I am glad that there are out there people whom are trying to bring about changes. These days I do most of my riding along the rivers paths, a little shy of streets, too many close calls. Thank you for your work.
Educators know the arts are vital for a well-rounded education. Teach what you can if there are no specialists available. Our students deserve more of the arts.
Reagan and O’Neill were a model. However, in 1968 the polarization was worse and more vicious than now. If you don’t remember those days, read Nixonland by Rick Perlstein.
If you get into serious giving, you’ll find that there are a lot of people who would be glad to receive! No matter how much you have, you’ll be turning down 99% of what is asked of you in order to give to the 1% that you believe yourself called to give to.
Nuclear power is dead, dead, dead.
In addition to the 2 San Onofre reactors shutting down forever, and the Wisconsin reactor shutting down mentioned by the author, Florida’s Crystal River reactor is also dead and gone.
Also….
Today, EDF, the French company which is the largest nuclear company in the world which was partnered as “Constellation Energy” with Exelon, the largest US nuclear operator, is bailing out: “EDF finance chief Thomas Piquemal said the U.S. nuclear adventure had led to 2 billion euros in writedowns in 2009-2012. EDF’s U.S. investment totalled 6.4 billion euros, but was partly recouped by selling Exelon shares, he said.”This was the last and final chapter of our U.S. nuclear investment,” Piquemal said.”
And Entergy Corp is mulling doing the same:
“Power company Entergy Corp (ETR.N) is mulling the future of its wholesale nuclear operation and plans to cut 800 jobs to save up to $250 million by 2016, Chief Executive Officer Leo Denault told investors on Tuesday.”
others:
“Duke announced in May that it would suspend its plans to add two units to the Shearon Harris nuclear plant in North Carolina, saying the additional capacity was no longer needed under current forecasts.
“Exelon cancelled what had been an already deferred 335 MW worth of uprates for four of its reactors, the two-unit Limerick plant in Pennsylvania and two units at LaSalle in Illinois. The reason? “Market conditions,” said the release”
And “Tennessee Valley Authority announced that it was once again mothballing its on-again-off-again Bellefonte project in Alabama, saying it needed to focus on getting the also long-delayed Watts Bar Unit 2 completed.”
The product of ”Nuklar power” is weapons-grade plutonium and similar transuranium elements, unavailable in nature.
Boiling water is the booby-prize.
2% of the entire Federal taxes received in 1943 & 1944 were spent on the first bombs, 25,000,000,000 in 2013 dollars.
Average cost, WWII atomic ‘bomb’; 5,000,000,000 EACH in 1996 dollars!
Almost ALL went to reducing and generating the ‘fuel’. My Uncle & father in-law were there (two different people).
How else would we have built 70,000 ‘bombs’ in the past 60 years, other than lying about it?
AND, the 1990’s electric ‘de-regulation’ was firstly about paying back ‘profits’ to replace the nuke ‘investor’ losses out of ratepayers pockets, a trick no judge had allowed until Gov. Wilson sighed (SIC) off on the deregulation ‘blue-book’.
AND, when GE builds a Nuke in Japan, the U.S.A. owns the “waste’ product. A win-win!
Love it! Have you seen much of the U.S. outside of D.C.? I ask, because as a native New Mexican, I experienced a bit of culture shock when I moved to the East Coast, and D.C. in particular, as an adult.
I remember one incident from my childhood when my family was crossing the US-Canadian border by car. The border guard saw our New Mexico license plate, and asked to see our passports because he thought we were Mexican. Dad had to pull out a road atlas and show him that NM was in the United States. (US citizens didn’t need passports for Canada back then.) Don’t remember which side of the border the guard was from.
Hi Nancy,
Thanks for your comments. That is an unfortunate border incident. Oh, to be a fly on the wall while your father set that border guard straight with a road atlas! I do think that there are regional differences across the United States in terms of attitudes and awareness of the neighbors up north (and vice versa for Canadians). For example, folks in Washington state, Oregon, and California share an outdoors/culture with places like British Columbia, the Yukon, and Alberta so they tend to be pretty aware and knowledgeable of their respective neighbors. I am definitely generalizing there but, in my experience, I have seen there are differences. Hopefully, Canadian border crossing guards today know all of American state names!
Awesome piece. I never understood these cleanse maniacs. And juice – that pure, good stuff Californians try to push into my hand – does something rather unmentionable to me. Viva solids.
When I rented a car and drove to Toronto, aside from the signs showing speed limits in km/hour, the other subtle reminder that I was not in the US was the names on the street signs. From a distance, I could see a street that had a long name starting with “W”; at first I thought it would turn out to be Washington Street, but nope it was Wellington Street. And one of the main streets in downtown Toronto is King Street. Practically every major city in the US also has a King Street or King Boulevard — but they’re Martin Luther King Boulevard. There aren’t many US cities that have streets named King in the sense of his royal highness, nor Wellington. But most have a Washington Street.
An inspiring story, bravo! And bravo to Pt. Loma Nazarene College for nurturing your musical passion and introducing you to new and different art forms.
Per Gary Taubes’ “Good Calories, Bad Calories,” which is a giant vetting of actual dietary science, it is carbohydrates — sugar, flour, starchy vegetables like potatoes, apple juice — that cause the insulin secretion that puts on fat. Steak is quite healthy for you — per the science, not per what whackjobs going by the “wisdom” of the gray-skinned girl in the health food store tells you. Also, as dietary researchers like Dr. Jeff Volek note, you should eat plenty of fat to balance out the protein in your diet (which you should also eat).
As for the people who insist they’re “cleansing,” your body isn’t dirty and not eating sugar, starch, etc., will eliminate many of your problems and cause you to be worlds thinner without exercise. For actual science on diet, look to Gary Taubes, Dr. Michael Eades, Dr. Peter Attia, Tom D. Naughton, Chris Kresser, Dr. Jeff Volek (see his book with Dr. Steven Phinney) and follow them on Twitter (and follow those they follow). Look up their websites as well. Dr. Michael Eades has two particularly good posts, Starting & Restarting A Low-Carb Diet, that explain a lot of the issues surrounding what to eat, and also tell you important things like how essential it is to take magnesium.
And thank you for the thanks and such a civil and polite reply!
And reading what you wrote above, I just spend four months barely getting out of my chair, as I was completing my next book (to be published by St. Martin’s in the Spring) and working sometimes 19-hour days. It is because I don’t eat sugar or fruit or starchy carbs that I don’t — and didn’t — gain weight. I eat tons of fat, greasy bacon, kale in bacon grease, green beans drowning in butter, fatty steak and lamb, dry Italian salami, and drink dry white wine. This is a science-based diet. A book that is a very accessible read that explains why is Taubes’ “Why We Get Fat.” I don’t diet or weigh myself but when I have, I’ve seen that I weigh close to what I did in high school. Again, carbs cause the insulin secretion that puts on fat. With a ketogenic (low-carb) diet like I eat, you don’t get hungry all the time, and you are nourished. But per Eades and others, essential to take magnesium (malate or ending in “ate,” not oxide, not as well-absorbed) and to get your D levels tested. Many Americans are in starvation-substrate, as it’s called, in D, and are short on magnesium.
Many good points in this essay, but I wonder about this one: “One reason our prisons are so overcrowded and cost so much is that prisoners are kept inside until they are old and require extensive medical care.”.
If old felons are released to the community they will exhibit just as many health problems, possibly more, and will still have approximately zero ability to pay for their own health care. So I wouldn’t expect medical costs paid by the government to go down much in that circumstance. And some of these old felons would certainly commit new crimes, causing problems and financial losses for the community. If their term is up, that’s one thing – they deserve to be released. But releasing them early to save money is not as sound a notion as it might appear.
Sooo funny…I am attempting to improve the quality of what I eat, and yet I hear of all kinds of ‘hokus pokus’ that certain foods, times of the day, combinations of foods, only free range something…First off, this all is TOO much preoccupation and I wonder if ANYONE at a reasonable dress size even allows or lets themselves enjoy ‘real’ food…I am on that quest..removing as much processed and adding in as much ‘real,’ and as a focused by-product reduce my girth and improve my health… But I will not allow salespeople and rumors to tell me to only drink orange juice out of an organic orange cup or eat 1 carb the size of an earring a day..I am trying to learn to eat joyfully and live the same way..Hope I get it right..
The author, as expected by the title of her piece, doesn’t seem to have any political/race/class analysis around food. ‘Juice’ does not equal ‘cleanse’ (lemonade, cayenne and maple syrup is not a juice…). You might want to check out Sirena Pellarolo, who shares juicing with low-income communities of color in Los Angeles as a form of radical liberation and healing from the toxic industrial food system that has colonized our bodies, but primarily the bodies of people of color and low-income people. Healthy food should not be only for the latest fads of the Beverly Glen mommies, and when we see taking care of ourselves as a form of social justice, we can start to include food justice with other liberation movements. Juicing, when connected to food JUSTICE movements and not to dieting fads, is just one of many ways for us to heal from this industrial food system. http://livefoods4life.com/about
Firstly, “Besides, isn’t getting rid of toxins in our bodies kind of what our kidneys and liver are supposed to be doing?”…problem is there are SO many chemicals that our kidneys and liver can’t possibly keep up. We’ve introduced almost 100,000 chemicals to the U.S. in the past 200 years (now with 2,000 new ones every year). Evolution just doesn’t work fast enough for our bodies to adjust. And also, toxins build up over time. After a cleanse you don’t gain back all the toxins the day after your cleanse is over even if you live in the most polluted city. Secondly, to address the “eating disorder”, IMO a juice should not be a meal replacement but a meal supplement (or an in-between meal “snack”) unless you are trying to lose a significant amount of weight for health reasons. Most people don’t need to cut anything out, just add in (lots) more veggies. And as others pointed out, juicing and cleansing are not the same thing. However, cleanses once in a while can be very beneficial and usually if you feel shitty during one it’s because you have a lot of toxins being purged. This author just seems totally uninformed and uninterested. If she really cared, there are several very easy changes she could make to reduce the amount of household toxins. But instead she just seems to like to complain about it and fool herself into thinking there’s nothing she can do.
Wonderful article about our City of Angels. Thank you. As someone who has moved to LA about 10 years ago, our city still keeps surprising me every day: its cultural offerings, all the wonderful and diverse restaurants, parks, sports events.. I love entertaining visitors with gems they would never expect from a city that is typically only perceived as a place consisting of a Venice boardwalk, a Hollywood Walk of Fame and Universal Studios, and endless freeways otherwise. Once you take them to Disney Concert Hall, the Neutra house in Silverlake or Barnsdale park with its majestic Frank Lloyd Wright Villa, or on a hike from Fern Dell to the Observatory… (I could add many more) they are stunned. I must say, I love living in LA. Every day.
And yet L A doesn’t play according to its size nowadays. The Bay Area treats it as a colony. It has hardly any corporate headquarters except for the entertainment industry. It’s politics are more NorCal than SoCal. The reasons San Diego didn’t become the big city are that it is crowded by mountains and lacks space – and mountains render railroad access from the east difficult, whereas the gaps in the mountains point straight to L A.
The title of your article should be: When you lose in Los Angeles, the sun will still be shining. Another Angelino niche to celebrate is our academic/intellectual world of universities, colleges and research centers.
If you want to understand someone you should take the time to consider their family. Who is Los Angeles’s older brother? How has Los Angeles tried to emulate its older sibling and how has that older sibling in turn given guidance and support to the younger? LA has been shaped by this relationship from the beginning and without aknowledging and analyzing the connection a complete understanding of the city and its people is in my opinion, impossible.
I saw the exhibit last week and actually thought it did a good job of explaining the human story of LA and the promise of its diversity. It was fascinating to me to learn that out of the original 11 families that came to found the pueblo in 1781, eight were what we would now call “multi-racial”. Each room had photos and stories on the walls about a sampling of different people who lived in the city in the different eras, including former Mexican landowners who remained rich and powerful in the early American period, labor and immigrant rights leaders from several periods, and innovators that founded some of the important institutions that still define the city. It also emphasized the ways that the climate and geography (which you emphasize as well: “When you lose in Los Angeles, the sun will still be shining”) laid the groundwork for various booms – the ranching boom in the 1850’s, the tourism and agriculture boom of the 1880’s, and the aviation industry in the 1920’s. I agree that it left out important parts of the story in explaining why LA became the capital of the film industry (intellectual property lawyers working for Edison drove all the filmmakers to work as far from New York as they could) and how Los Angeles became a destination for Korean, Thai, Armenian, and Iranian immigrants. But I think it didn’t miss quite as much as you suggest.
How KEWL is this essay! I lived about 1/2 a mile east on the southern side of the Pass for ten years, so drove over it a dozen or more times a week. When I moved there, I talked to some old-timers about the history of the area. They knew about the BelAir fire, but nobody knew anything about the geology. The onlyt thing they knew was that, when they were very young, they were told stories about houses sliding off the side of the mountains on the north (Valley) side.
Now, I know (and I’ve sent emails to my former neighbors).
Thank you Professor Sylvester, for writing the essay and to Zocalo for choosing to put it in this week’s issue.
Love it! Thank you for sharing your knowledge -it’s the kind of information i knew was known (by someone!) but didn’t know how to access.
Now, how about the anatomy of the mountains/hillsides along PCH between Topanga and Camarillo? Hehe…
Thanks again.
I enjoyed reading this article as well and would like to add that the Beverly Hills and Van Nuys geologic map has a good cross section for your viewing pleasure.
In researching local Summit County, Ohio history, I (or, should I say, google) found Buss had referenced a particular passage referring to an “Indian hunter” from a history of Summit County. I was surprised by the callousness of the terminology used in this history book. I just checked out Winning The West With Words, and am looking forward to reading this perspective on the importance of language in conquest, which is an aspect I hadn’t considered before.
Yoga is by definition a religious practice. The definition that matters is not the author’s naive definition as expressed in this rather uninformed article, but the generally accepted definition with a lot of weight put on the most authoritative sources, which would be the leaders of the most widely practiced schools of yoga. And that leads squarely to Indian Hindus and the Wikipedia definition of Yoga as “… yoga is one of the six āstika (“orthodox”) schools of Hindu philosophy.” changing the traditional Sanskrit religious terminology into English does not remove the religious ideology behind the practices anymore than Changing from Latin to English removed the religion from Catholicism in the US. All of the physiological benefits of yoga can achieved by engaging in non-religious stretching. Stretching can include all of the postures used in Yoga but without the religious – calling it “spiritual” is just an attempt to deny its religious nature by euphemism – component.
You’re nuts. What definition? There are maybe around 6,000 versions of “Yoga”. Many here in the US are just about the focus, exercise and streching. It’s a popular replacement for the arobics class of the 80’s. It’s exercise! Yeah, sometime it takes a word in another language to express the concept. So what? It’s not indoctriating chirldren into anything but better exercise, where the budget won’t support it.
I’m thinking that some religious Christians can ferment a discussion of how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, and make anything into a religious crime. I’m no Christian and this all encompassing philosophy has no place in a cosmotitan society.
I could care less about the origins of Yoga. It’s a streaching exercise for me. Your milage may vary – I’m sure you can find an old Guru in India who makes a case for Hinduism as part of your practise. I’m sure you can find a new-ager here to talk about the color tones in your practose, too. It’s a time tested method of exercise. Peroid.
Jessica,
Congratulation !
I think what you did is fantastic and it’s unfortunate that some parents did not see the benefits of what you were doing. A lot of parent are detached, focused on their career and money, and when they see their kids getting too attached to someone else than them, they are scared, jealousy kicks in then irrational behaviors.
Many thinks Yoga is a sort of religion because one people try it, they feel happy, connected, and swear by it, it becomes part of their life. Is sport a religion?
There is no god to pray to. It is just a way of life.
I discovered Yoga about 18 months ago. Sadly i have not been able to continue for a while but I intend to do it again. I miss it, my body and my mind miss it. I remember coming out of the class with a smile on my face.
And like you, I thought that Yoga & Meditation should be taught at school.
But imagine kids coming back home, relaxed, happy, their mind sharp, sharper than their parents. Some mom and dad would embrace that but many would be jealous ; what are you turning my kid into?
I’m glad the judge ruled right.
The saddest part of our western culture is we’re monetizing Yoga where I believe it should be free, like healthcare.
The idea that parental jealousy is a factor ignores the obvious truth known to anyone who has raised kids or observed education – that parents usually love popular teachers and encourage teachers who are seen to be positive role models. There may be parents who react negatively when kids come home from school feeling good, emotionally stable, and intellectually sharp, just as there may sasquatches. They’re just not too common
People think that Yoga is a religion because it has been considered a religious practice since its beginning – and it still is except for those who fail to learn the facts and apply rational thought to the question. Anyone who looks into yoga knows that it involves the Hindu pantheon of gods. Traditional yoga always includes invocations to the sun and/or other deities.
Whether doing yoga makes anyone feel good is irrelevant. Religious advocates love to rave about the joy and other benefits they get from their faith.
In the big world outside of this article, a lot of work has been done in the field of physical education regarding stretching and research into yoga postures. Modern non-religious stretching and positional exercise systems have emerged using scientific methods rather than ancient dogmas to learn what works beat and what doesn’t as well as what may be harmful.
Everyone wants kids to develop to their full intellectual potential and to have the best physical and emotional health. The modern incarnation of traditional yogic physical practices and non religious meditation techniques are just as effective, if not more, than those tied to primitive belief systems and can be practiced in public education without turning the wall of separation between church and state into a ruin caused by misguided good intentions.
“We gave them handouts once a week to complete with their families.” If the teacher did not have such a tin ear and had diverse enough social experience, she would realize that this smacks of proselytizing. If my child brought something like this home, I would be every bit as annoyed as if they had brought home Bible tracts, the Book of Mormon, or a Buddhist prayer wheel.
Thanks for this. Very cool piece of Los Angeles history that I did not know about. I hope to run into Mr. Frisbee the next time I’m in Pasadena–or Bakersfield.
Great article!! I drive on this damn pass every single weekday and have CURSED the pointless construction project many times. It is a source of dark hatred for me. (How about a bus-only lane you fools!)
But, at least now I’ll be able to think of some other, more timeless, aspects of it during my commute.
This is a great article! I visited this exhibit early one morning this summer and it was empty. I felt that the exhibit was lacking a human element. It didn’t feel much different than strolling through the mammal hall. It felt more like a voiceless archeological exhibit of some faraway land from a long, long time ago … It did look nice though.
Victor Frisbee didn’t die back there in the early 60s. He just retired, as some Angelenos do, to the lakes and peaks of the eastern Sierra.
I first encountered him when I was editor of the Bishop High School paper back in the mid-70s. He’d occasionally pen pieces for my pages. I never met the man in person; his copy was always turned in by our faculty advisor, Mrs. Martinson (who had once worked for the LA Examiner), who then passed them on to me.
I seem to recall his name popping up later on, now and again, when I was writing for the UCLA Daily Bruin as well.
He was an old phart then, so I’m surprised he’s still around to be interviewed. Glad Zocalo could catch up with him.
I retired twice: once when I hated my job, could collect a partial pension (yes, I had an honest-to-god defined benefits plan), and was offered a job at a much lower salary by another employer; the second retirement occurred nearly eight years later when I awoke one morning and knew I was DONE with work. I informed my supervisor, tied up loose ends for a couple of months, and then happily walked away. That was four months ago. So far, so good. The extra years of work allowed me to create and plump up additional cushions of retirement income.
Dear Dr. Murray,
I am an ICU nurse and can honestly say that I have never responded to information post such as this. However I must commend you for writing this as you have “hit the nail on the head”. I get so frustrated with providing futile care that is being dictated by an uninformed family. I feel as though I am aiding in a form of cruel torture at times. I am very honest about death and dying with patients and families and this gives me the strength to speak with family members about the limitations of medicine. I frequently say to families “ask any medical personnel where they intend to die and almost everyone will say in the peace of my own home”. I think it is a sad society that we live in that allows such treatment of people to occur largely out of a failure of communication about the true limitation of medicine. I believe in a perfect world, every healthcare provider would treat every patient the same as they would want to be treated if the roles were reversed. I am sadly aware that we are a long way away from being a perfect world.
Amen to that! I’m also an RN and can’t count the number of times that I’ve watched patients receive profoundly costly and futile treatments, only to be sent over to hospice when there was nothing more that could be done to keep the heart beating. It’s appalling.
We have this problem in Tustin Unified School District. K-5 music education was cut, and told it will not be coming back anytime soon. They offer after school paid music weekly. We see the shrinkage in our once large music programs in middle school and high school. Tenured middle school teachers are having to travel to several school sites because of cuts. I think the biggest problem is lack of term limits with school boards and therefore complacency. One of our school board members does not live in the district and is in fact breaking that law. But the board sanctions it, and the public kept in the dark. So to break ed code and law comes as no surprise. Basic absolute power corrupting our children. Serving 20 years on a school board is just plain ineffective. I agree that we should teach our children that the arts matter, as does the law.
Seems like There are always two sides and two victims to every story. I hope you have successfully moved on from JDS and those dark days. Best of luck.
Saw that you included Vector Marketing in your list of MLM companies… I’m not sure that is correct, unless things have changed since I worked with them 13 years ago or so… My understanding is that they market Cutco knives, which are made in the USA. Some of their approach is similar, in that you start out marketing their product to your friends and family, but at least when I was with them they paid you for each appointment you made whether you made a sale or not, and they were pretty focused on selling the product. Also, there were no opportunities, at least not for the brief time I was involved in the company, for you to recruit others and to profit from sales that they made. You had to buy your demo knife set up front, but I still have my set and use them every day, and recently sent them in to be resharpened for free, and they replaced a few worn out items that I sent in, for free as well (small stuff- scissors, vegetable peeler, etc). Anyhow, like I said, my experience working with them was a while back, but I would hesitate to throw them in with companies that, as you put it, focus more on recruitment than on whatever product or service they purportedly offer.
I’m glad to hear you figured things out before losing your money, further time, and your dignity. I do wonder, however, why you mention the “pretty girl” four times in your piece. If this was a college student, then it was a woman who recruited you. The fact that you mention how she looked feels as though we are meant to believe that this helped in her ability to recruit you. Is that the case?
Haven’t seen the film yet, but this review is interesting. One sentence, however, is a bit disturbing: “he speaks aloud the deepest dream of virtually every 21st-century
California parent: He wants a topnotch *private* school education for his
daughter.” Many of us wish instead for a topnotch *public* school education for all of our children. This is essential if we want avoid completely extinguishing the California dream as well as our democratic way of life.
Doesn’t anyone recognize that the Syrian conflict has roots in the Sunni/Shia conflict that’s been going on since the 800’s?
And we think we can straighten them out?
The fact that there is NO shuttle service between the Rancho Cucamonga Metrolink station (or the East Ontario Metrolink station) and ONT STILL boggles my mind.
It’s a 5 mile distance from Rancho Metrolink to ONT. Guess how long it takes on public transportation (bus)? 36 minutes if you’re lucky enough to be flying at the exact right time, up to 1:28 if you’re travelling at an off-peak time. That’s just ridiculous.
My family lived in Quebec when my baby sister and I were little — so our parents availed themselves of the awesome (all staff must hold a 4-year degree + teaching certificate) provincially-subsidized day care that was located in the building our mom worked in… which charged the princely sum of C$5 per day.
My best friend still lives in montreal and his son (my godson) attends the very same crèche… which now charges all of C$7 per day.
Actually the situation is very similar, the USA and Saudi Arabia have employed the same strategy. It is repeated because the USA and allies got away with it. More than a decade of sanctions to fuel sectarian violence. (Cut the birdseed in half and the birds in the birdcage fight and kill each other.) Then the Saudis send in foreign extremist sectarian fighters, send weapons. The Presidents announce a red line trigger event. The motivation for massacre is to get the USA to make a military strike. A massacre is broadcast in the media. The Presidents then say they will bomb for humanitarian reasons before the massacre is investigated.
History is being repeated because allies got away with it before.
Thanks for citing my short blurb at the New York Times.
I think you misunderstand my argument, and so your objection to it is off the mark. I agree with you that compulsory voting is unlikely to change the outcome of US elections, in the sense that it does not inherently favor either Republicans or Democrats. (I have a book on this coming out with Cambridge University Press in which, among other things, I review empirical literature indicating as such.)
However, the argument I’m making is not that it will change whether Republicans or Democrats win, but rather change the quality of the Republicans and Democrats who get elected. In order to make it on the ballot, politicians need to appeal to voters, especially the median voter. If the median voter becomes more ignorant, biased, irrational, misinformed, and so on, we will probably get lower quality politicians who support worse policies on the ballot from both parties.
So, for instance, Martin Gilens, in his book Affluence and Influence, notes that Democratic voters in the US are not a united front. Low-information Democrats are bigots, homophobes, out to lunch on economics, and bellicose about foreign policy. High information democrats are the opposite on each of these measures. I don’t want the low-information Democrats to beat out the high-information Democrats. And I’d say the same for Republicans.
“but rather change the quality of the Republicans and Democrats who get elected.”
What is a “quality” or higher “quality” republican or democrat? If you can give me a succinct, coherent definition, I”d be interested. [please do not use terms such as “leftist” “extreme” “centrist” – these are ever-changing subjective labels]
“In order to make it on the ballot, politicians need to appeal
to voters, especially the median voter.”
And if we expand the pool of voters from 1/3 to 90% – elections would become prohibitively expensive…. OR, money could be less of a factor. It would be difficult to target a small group with a high turn out rate, if the population as a whole had the same turn out rate. Certain “issues,” like gun control would be mute because the larger consensus would not be dominated by a higher concentration of voters… there might even be genuine distinctions between candidates(!).
“If the median voter becomes more ignorant, biased, irrational, misinformed, and so on, we will probably get lower quality politicians who support worse policies on the ballot from both parties.”
The operative word is “more,” but I digress. Suffice it to say that a “more ignorant, biased, irrational, misinformed” voters (your words) might force us to spend more, and do more, for education, economic justice, equality – all the things that create a more egalitarian society.
Fear not the voter for “I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.”
Congradulations on your new son. I have two children of whom I am proud and love as well. I would also love to have several more children, however I believe passionately that it would be socially irresponsible and selfish. Your suggestion that we focus as a populace, on creating children at a faster rate is insane in my opinion. In my opinion, the single largest issue that we have as a species is far too many people. We would be better served by having four billion less people on the planet. Until we can learn, if we ever will, to give more and take less, the last thing that we want to do is to increase the population.
Instead of more people, let us come out of our homes and cars, put down our cell phones and tablets to ask our current neighbors and fellow citizens to share life with us. Play games, share meals, have conversations and take action that makes sense to the majority of the members of your community. When I speak of our community, I include both the neighbor next door and the countries at war in lands far away. These actions will help us to survive and improve the quality of our lives. Attempting to solve economic and social concerns by creating a larger population is once again, insane.
I think the lure of the center exists because there was a time, only a few decades ago, when it existed and was robust enough to create the social programs of the ’60s and the environmental laws of the early ’70s, which are still favored by the majority of Americans though disfavored by the right, which Mr. Lind tells us has moved to the right since that time.
That “middle American radicals” have clout in California was proved by Proposition 8; what is different about California is that our “middle American radicals” are not Anglo but black and Latino, and when issues are partisan they never vote Republican. Very few “white” Californians hold to the “middle Anerican radical” platform.
Having moved here from Texas 6 months ago (everyone both here and in TX has essentially said, “you’re going the wrong way”), it’s clear to me that state government is a disaster. In TX there is no state income tax, schools are largely locally funded, roads are great, and services are adequate. With four children in the public school system in a “good area,” my kids class sizes have almost doubled, there is no art, and the physical plant of the schools are falling apart. TX requires that pre-high school class size can never be more than 21 students and leaves the funds in the hands of locals to figure it out. My kids received a much higher quality education for a lower price in gleaming public schools. Local control in big state can work! The one area where CA is way ahead of TX is the environment–there TX has a lot to be ashamed of comparatively.
it’s a good feeling when you know you’re going to jump in your car or the plane and get out of dodge in a couple hours. I wonder if you’d still have that good feeling if you knew you were going to stay awhile – as in become part of the landscape yourself.
How about the Hawthorne Mall here? Closed for many years and nobody can figure out what to do with it. Or the Old Town Mall in Torrance? It may not be dead, dead, but it sure has had one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel for a long time. And the mall in Palos Verdes has struggled for years as well.
Hi Noel Park… I don’t know who you are, but I have been laughing my head off for the past 3 hours about your ref to “…one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel…” Brilliant! Thanks!
Thanks for you kind words. Full disclosure – it’s a pretty old saying. I think I stole it from may father or some such place. As with so many old sayings, it still works pretty well today, LOL.
My dad used to say that inflation was inevitable in a democracy. He wasn’t just talking about local government, but our views of local government and its authority are, in the end, our views of government, regardless of what we think of DC.
Many fiscal issues are too complex for sound bites. On the other hand, the political class has its particular biases and interests. Why not a requirement of 2/3 for ballot box budgeting and a simple majority for moral issues?
There is a allure to the poignant stagnation of a dying mall, and your article has captured it nicely. It’s sort-of Edward Hopper meets Ed Kienholz meets Michael C. McMillen . . .
Joe: Great story…I’ll need to reference it in my Smarter Local Government and Cognitive Digital Democracy concepts…more to come soon as my work schedule abates a bit…
Um, I wouldn’t get too excited about Texas, DG92. It may do a decent job of taking care of the upper middle class and up but it has hideous and pervasive poverty, the 5th highest rate in the nation. It also benefits from its natural resources as well as the substantial taxes on their extraction.
But Texas is Texas, California is California. They both have their advantages and disadvantages. I choose to live here many years ago and love it. If you don’t, feel free to leave. (BTW, I have been lucky enough do decently well financially so I am paying for the higher level of public services in our state.)
I also would also not get that excited about locally rather than state-controlled public institutions across the board, Joe, though I am not expert enough to comment on prisons. The county-based healthcare system in California is an inefficient bureaucratic mess. States that have centralized healthcare enrollment and financing have dramatically better outcomes and California healthcare programs that are centralized (e.g., the late, lamented Healthy Families programs) are better as well.
I get this feeling, being comforted by sadness of missing a bygone era. For those of us growing up in small towns, malls were the hub of our activity. Before that, all there was to do was hang out in the parking lot of the 7-11. The world has moved on.
The inside-the-Beltway hunt for “centrism” and its terrible twin, “bipartisanship.” is a parlor game at best. However, out in the provinces there is a tendency to associate “centrism” with cooperation or consensus, two traits that are worth seeking, not retiring. After WW II, a liberal consensus on the role of government held enough sway so that members of both parties could collaborate on key issues, such as economic and environmental reform. The rise of the corporate/ reactionary right and the enforcement of party orthodoxy, combined with the suspicion of rationality and the erosion of elites, has made consensus on vital issues such as health reform and immigration reform near impossible, even when these policies command strong majority support from Americans and reflect recent policy positions held by members of both parties. This kind of “centrism”…the coalition-building version, is currently dormant because of the structure of US politics, but it shouldn’t be.
Evangelicals, who regard Mormons as heretics but are politically similar, are often softer on immigration than on other social issues for this reason. Remember what ethnic groups supported Prop 8!
Thanks for a great, but sad, article, Mr Leonard. It struck a chord in me right away. I grew up in MD and was a kid when White Flint Mall was the Disneyland of malls. My job allows me travel all over America from the big cities to the smallest backwood towns and I’ve gotten into the practice of photographing these malls and other ghostly places whenever I can. I too feel strangely at home, somehow. Although being a ‘road warrior,’ I certainly enjoy today’s hi-tech toys; which are in part, a result of those long-gone days of our unlimited childhood imaginations.
My childhood best friend and I grew up a few blocks away from White Flint Mall, and we were very much the eager kids you describe in your article, running towards its welcoming glass doors after school. I have so many memories wrapped up in that place–buying a model car at the Sharper Image store after a good 6th grade report card, browsing history books on summer afternoons at the Borders, coming for lunch to the food court on snow days off, Homecoming dinners at the Cheesecake Factory… I live in LA now, but I felt an acute heartache when I heard it was being torn down, and saw its ruined exterior on a recent visit home. Silly and even embarrassing as it feels to say about a shopping mall, that place occupied a very important space in my young adulthood, and I suppose a part of me expected it would always be there, brightly lit, full of delicious smells, wholly predictable yet reassuring in its familiarity. Your article really echoed my feelings. Glad our mall made the list.
I completely agree and I would like to add a fifth down…… OK, how about a field goal? That watching mass spectator sports is contributing, in a personal way, to obesity and poor health. Want football? Go out and play some!
Or, in my case, go ride the bike somewhere for a coffee.
So where is the curfew for helicopters. No one should have to put up with them after dark. No night law enforcement helicopter patrols except for emergency
responses. It is a near no brainer. Seems to me there are over 20 million people in the LA basin and no one has thought to put a curfew on night time helicopter use?
Who will light the figurative fuse to put a curfew on night helicopter flights?
No one should have their sleep interrupted for helicopter sight see-ers or any
law enforcement on unlawful night patrol.
Everyone I know including me likes helicopters; just never at night.
Or helicopters are probably the most situational contraption in existence;
and have not been restricted for the night nuisance unlawful operations.
Or way over due to stop night time helicopter harassment of the over
whelming majority of the population.
Congrats on your admission to ASU. You are lucky and blessed b/c your parents were great advocates for you and your education. I only wish comprehensive testing were more affordable and widely available b/c many kids whose parents cannot afford testing will continue to struggle undiagnosed.
Great post Kelsey! Unfortunately, we live in a world where if your strengths were reversed (with math and science scores in the 99th percentile and writing and narrative memory low) you’d be praised as a great student with a bright engineering or programming future. But with the strengths you’ve been given you’re much more likely to hear wretched comments like DorothyP’s. Keep doing what you’re doing and know that the world needs people with your strengths just as much as it needs the STEM crowd.
This is such an excellent article, written with grace and honesty. Kelsey is a rare gem, unafraid to look at evaluations with a clear eye and the very grown-up outlook of figuring out how to move on with what you’ve got. I am honored to know her, and I think she is a terrific writer.
Sorry, but I have to respectfully disagree with you. I am a casual NFL fan, but as entertainment, it is top-notch. It is of course dangerous to its participants, which is why every single one of them is extremely well-compensated for making the conscious choice to engage in a risky career.
I am stunned that this was written by someone in her twenties. The phrasing and wordplay is exceptional. Great to see such talented people go into journalism, as honest, clear writing is needed now more than ever.
Thanks Kelsey for sharing your story. It is truly inspiring. Especially your resolve of what you decided to do with ‘what you had’, instead of worrying what you did not.
I’m not sure you understand the whole culture of the State of Jefferson, and undercurrent of disgust of Sacramento and Salem in far Northern Cal and Southern Oregon respectively. Those of us who yearn for a State of Jefferson are not the welfare recipients you mention. In fact, the number of welfare recipients would be much less had not the state and federal gov’t’s ruined our economy over the past few decades. The region south of Eugene to north of Redding doesn’t fit into Oregon or California both geographically and politically.
Am I reading this right? Is Kurtz-Phelan saying that Brazil and India should trust the US and get cozy, despite the NSA, despite the support for tyrannies that imprisoned oppositions, despite treating non-aligned status as a virtual declaration of Cold War, despite support for Pakistan in aid of an unstable balance of power, despite the ongoing imperial project, because at some unknown day, the invasions might stop and the US government and the corporations that own it will decide to live on the earth instead of trying to churn it into share value, bonuses and a wasteland? Am I misreading or is this a child’s dream?
The author is deluded if he thinks this strong feeling against US spying on Brazilian companies, private citizens and govt officials is something confined only to “leftwing” politicians. The suspicion and resentment about US arrogance runs across party lines and Dilma’s position is well supported by conservative politicians in Brazil.
Thanks for a well-written acknowledgement of Albuquerque’s reality. You are making a difference simply by not just staying put and doing what others expected of you. Best of luck, Madeleine!
Thanks for this article. As another ABQ native living abroad (Chicago) I think you get a number of things right on. I have been wanting to write about the city for a long time. I’m curious, how did you get this gig?
I think this is a gross oversimplification of Albuquerque. There is definitely no heroin or meth in chicago or boston right? There is no gun violence anywhere else in the US either, right? OMG teenagers getting drunk! New Mexico has its problems, but it also has its differences which is what makes it appealing to some people. Why should every city strive to be the same. I love the lack of traffic in ABQ, the laid back attitude and the focus on something other than making as much money as humanly possible. There are things that really suck about Albuquerque, no argument here, but your holier than now attitude doesn’t do anything to help it. I’m glad people like you move away
The author doesn’t claim those problems don’t exist everywhere. I don’t see the author hating Albuquerque at all. In fact, they seem to really love and cherish Albuquerque for what it is, despite the kinds of things outsiders might frown upon. At least, that’s how it came across to me.
People like you make people want to move away. I’ve lived here my whole life, and I agree with the author. Good or bad, we here in New Mexico are loyal to our family above all else. If you took the time to read the article, you would see it was written by someone that loves ABQ
The South Valley is only one small part of the Albuquerque metro, and its not even in the city limits. Technically, its not included in limited and misleading population number the author cited. It seems to me the author described her very narrow area of the metropolitan area and does a rather poor job describing most other parts of the city.
I grew up in Albuquerque. We moved to the far NE heights when I was 12, from the rez. I went to UNM for my bachelors degree. I live and work in Albuquerque. I don’t think Breaking Bad depicts a real place. It is a fictive Albuquerque on teevee, for crissakes. Your inability to distinguish between reality and an orientalist, colonialist, depiction of a place that only exists in the mind of advertisers and is designed for mass consumption is naive and unreasonable.
Yes Albuquerque’s beauty is raw, wild, deep, often shrill and at times menacing. Like the rugged mountain that towers over the city. It is not the place for those who equal beauty with perfection. The museum 60 miles up I-25 offers this kind of comfort.
From the dirt poor to the filthy rich… we all bonded together somehow. Be it work or partying hard or a family get together. All walks of life come together in ABQ. It’s crazy yet comforting. It can be intimidating…just watch your step. I love ABQ. Both my kids were born there. But it got a little too intense. I still have family n friends for life there and I hella miss the food!! I do believe the author has made an appropriate depiction of the Duke City.
I don’t know what kind of high school parties you went to. I never experienced a party where cocaine was being used. Marijuana is a different story. But I see that just as much at college parties anywhere.
Aspiration without adopting arrogance was the message Ms Carey…. Not an aspiration to mediocracy by la familia. I strongly disagree with your touting “yeah man, don’t aspire dis-encouragement ” for youth or anyone. That was never what makes NM the treasure it is. Saying all have equal potential to work to their personal best and thereby contribute to community is the traditional message of NM familias.
I say it again, “have aspiration without adopting arrogance” –was the message.
Unfortunately the drug lazy minds of so many today (not just youth) somehow continue to chug the elite poisoned koolaid and transform “be your best, be the most contributive member of community and serve in your own unique way” into the very contorted message this author suggests. Rise again NM. DIGNIDAD – Dignity is the message.
“That’s how hungry we are for acknowledgement.” You seem to think that
Albuquerque craves approval of other cities. Albuquerque celebrated it’s
tricentennial 7 years ago, I don’t think it needs a “redeemer”.
As a fan of the show, Breaking Bad and a proud New Mexico native born, I found this article interesting. I think it is misleading and illogical, to say, “Breaking Bad is what Albuquerque is really like”. It just sounds like a false comparison and/or generalization to me. It’s like saying “Scarface is what Miami is really like”. Albuquerque is a good backdrop for this tv series, no-doubt, as was Miami for ‘Scarface’, but come on….there is way more to Albuquerque than the crime and drug trade. Let’s not forget that it is a city situated in a beautiful state, with much undeveloped areas, public forests and parks, incredible sunsets, amazing seasonal transformations, hidden hot springs and historic landmarks, culture, and yes, family. Breaking Bad, for good reason, chose not to include some of our most beautiful areas for filming. I’m guessing the author of this article did not explore outside of the city much, but a lot of the people who live in Albuquerque are able to think outside of the box because of the fact that it is small in comparison to larger cities and they have respect for the State they live in knowing that in just about every direction there is a vast undeveloped frontier filled with natural wonder outside of the city. I think the Sandia mountains are amazing, peaceful and comforting to have around, not to mention a good hike, They are not ‘ominous’ as the author suggests.
If you hate your city so much, the easiest thing you can do is run away, right? Your sour taste of Albuquerque is yours to claim, but don’t act like your reality of the “upper echelons” of other cities is reason to hate on the only experience you seen to had growing up in. I’m a native to Chicago (the city, not the suburbs) and in a long term relationship with someone who is originally from Albuquerque; to put it politely, he has a much different interpretation than you. My impression of the town was to look at the beauty it has to offer, rather than looking at its issues that it has to deal with, the only lens you seem to have from this article. When I think of Chicago, I think of my hometown’s issues too. We are one of the most segregated cities in the United States. We have a high rate of violence, most of which has been sociologically linked to the wide gap of poverty. We have been historically linked as one of the biggest government policy enactors of gentrification. There are a variety of problems in every city. The question I always ask in my position in working with students is; to simplify it: “what are you going to do about it”? I wish I knew your answer to this question, because you don’t seem to answer it, and from what it sounds like, you’ve run away from your problems. A variety of community organizations exist to solve some of our problems in Chicago, and I’m sure many exist as well in Albuquerque. If you were looking for an audience to promote your poor taste in your former city, congratulations. If you were looking for a way to highlight the city’s problems in order to enact change to better the environment you no longer live, you failed.
“The iPhone, when it first came out, was perceived as a toy, the handheld equivalent of a Mac trying to take on the handheld equivalent of a real work PC.”
This quote is revealing. One thing, it was only the tech pundits that were calling the iPhone a toy. The general public (i.e., the consumers) thought otherwise, to the point where Apple had trouble making enough iPhones to meet demand. The second thing is the implication that the Mac was a toy. Already by the time the author got his first BB, Mac PowerBooks were the laptop of choice among developers (who were able to load whatever OS they required, run either natively or virtually).
The next mistake the author makes is not understanding RIM’s mistakes and missteps, ascribing them to bad luck or “the innovator’s dilemma”. RIM was a poorly run company, with co-CEOs who reacted slowly and indecisively. This didn’t matter so long as BB was leading edge, but it caught up to them when challenges emerged. They were late in buying and developing their own OS, their tablet was rushed to market without an understanding of that market; there was no sense of urgency until it was too late: then, panic.
Really, really terrific essay, Wendy. It mirrors the conversation I had with a friend shortly after he moved from Vancouver BC (think HUGE soccer fan) to accept a position at UCLA (neither a huge football fan nor a huge baseball fan). I invited him to go along to watch the Dodgers. When I explained that the very top offensive players were only able to hit at a clip in the 30% range, he was stunned. I can’t say I persuaded him to be a serious baseball fan, but he did develop an appreciation of the game that night.
I should explain. I am my father’s daughter! I first learned to throw a softball the night of my last day of kindergarten. Then, for years, I’d go back to work with him after dinner during baseball season so I could listen while the Seattle Rainiers, managed by Fred Hutchinson (yup, the very same one as the big cancer center in Seattle), faced their battle with the Hollywood Stars, the San Francisco Seals (the AAA home of Joe DiMaggio) and other denizens of the Pacific Coast League, a AAA league that was huge through the immediate post-WWII era.
Just about all my childhood sports memories are tied to baseball. And, when I left to go to college, I stopped in Chicago to visit an aunt and uncle where they took me to an actual Sox baseball game and in Pittsburgh where another aunt and uncle took me to watch the 1960 Pirates (and see Roberto Clemente play) in the year they won the World Series. When I finally got to Washington DC, I had a hometown team, the Senators (also called the Nats) and an admittedly really goshawful and NOTHING like the current Nats, to watch for nine years, including the All-Star game in 1969).
So, thank you for dredging up these memories for me. ;~)
There has been a lot written in the tech & biz press about the demise of Blackberry, but I loved this article the most because it accurately captured a time when those devices were a prestige perk, and when holding email in your hand felt like magic. Quaint and long ago. Thanks for bringing this angle!
MLM definitely contains a lot of cultish behaviors, which they called “leadership” or “inspiration”, and it’s a huge gray area. However, what’s undeniable is you are distanced from your normal social groups (you tried to market to them, which is a social no-no) then you’re taught that anybody who’s not in the MLM are losers, further alienating you. Soon you have no friends left except in your MLM peer group, and you’re just repeating everything your “leader” do. That’s a cult.
Cult expert Steven Hassan have called MLMs “commercial cults”. And many MLMs are destructive to some of their lower members.
Such an uplifting story of the way it was. We need to rediscover and reinvent ways to make higher education more accessible again–without the life burden of student loan debt. (And I have heard BTW that your son turned out very nicely as well.)
This is a magnificent story, told in such a modest and understated way. Thank you for this deeply inspiring essay and congratulations on a life well-lived.
My granddaughter is a freshman in HS. This story has in it every lesson I’d like to convey to her: well written, moving, smart, funny, and instructive. Thank you for giving me a perfect story to send her today as she thinks about her future as a 14-year-old living in San Diego.
If the patient wants the treatment, she should have it. But it sounds like the family pushed it. If that is the case, end of life wishes should be established in writing and those should be respected.
Having graduated from UCLA in 1957 this was a joy to read. I have been teaching for 56 years and currently teach English 28 at West Los Angeles College. This beautiful memory reflect all the values and dedication I hope to instill in my current class. I am going to copy it and share with my students. They will do a Reading Response Journal. Thank you so much! Ann Alexander
Great article Maria. I am sure that a lot of people felt the same you did. Growing up as an immigrant myself, I often found myself protecting Lebanon yet being extremely grateful for the opportunities that Canada gave me.
Good for you, Madeleine, for dealing with what Albuquerque threw at you, and for still recognizing what’s great about the place. I grew up in the East Mountains, and graduated high school in 1990. I wasn’t exposed to much in the way of drugs, but by the time my brother, seven years younger, was in school, weed and meth were pretty much the norm. So many of his friends burned out really early. The house across the street from my mom’s house was a meth lab, and burned down. There was a triple homicide down the road.
When I watched the first episode of Breaking Bad, I almost couldn’t finish it–it was too Hollywood-wacky, madcap. Meth is *serious*–I couldn’t believe they were treating it like a new version of Weeds or some crap. I was relieved when it took a more serious turn, and that it treated Albuquerque as a real place.
I worry about all the negative comments on here. Really, people can’t handle a little truth-telling about Albuquerque? Or see that maybe their experience in, say, the Northeast Heights might not be the same as someone’s in the South Valley? Ms. Carey is only telling what happened to her–not saying that’s the way it should be. That “You think you’re so special?” attitude is pretty typical–and not unique to Albuquerque.
I left for college also, and I live in New York now. I go back there for work a lot (I’m a guidebook author–this gave me an excuse to explore a lot more of the city than I knew growing up). I feel so lucky to have Albuquerque to go home to. It’s not till I left that I realized what a distinct place and culture it is. I suspect Ms. Carey is in the same frame of mind I was in college–happy to be seeing more of the world, but also missing what’s special about New Mexico.
For me, watching Breaking Bad actually makes me nostalgic for Albuquerque, and proud of the place. (Yay, the Dog House! Yay, Octopus Car Wash!)
FWIW, my husband is from Chicago (Evanston, really), and he is a little baffled by Albuquerque. His definition of “city” is entirely different. When we watched Breaking Bad together, and I’d say, “I know that place!”, he’d say, “Let me guess–is it on Central?”
And his experience with race is completely different. I don’t think he knew any cholos growing up (or any hippies). I also don’t think he saw much poverty up close as a kid. A bigger city like Chicago *has* all the problems of Albuquerque, but it’s also big enough to avoid them all too. The prosperity that has come to Albuquerque in the last couple decades has allowed more people there to insulate themselves a bit, I suspect. When I was a kid, the whole city was pretty broke, and in it together.
So let’s get rid of the insurance companies! 311 worked pretty great for LA. If we dump the insurance companies, and have single-payor health insurance instead, a 711 line can be set up for all our health needs! What a revolutionary/socialist idea. Like in Canada, Australia, Italy, France, England, Israel, Germany. You know, socialist countries. And why are we paying the insurance companies since they provide no health care as far as I know? Can you please remind me?
This is so smart! And I don’t believe I’ve seen a discussion comparing the start of the Affordable Care Act with the woes of traditional health insurance. If one is alive and one has health insurance, then one surely has has had similar experiences to that of this author. I would only aggravate myself–again– if I were to detail any of my past inexplicable and exhausting dealings with health insurance companies. And i have my company’s “state-of-the-art” plan.
I really enjoyed the story, but more importantly, I am so happy that you were able to take something positive from that hellish job and make it count in your life. Great Job, Lisa!
Powerful. What a thoughtful, thinking and intelligent person. Wish I had known someone like this back when. My strong liberal leanings have tempered with age. Thank you for the probing insights and I agree with almost everything you have offered.
Great essay. I was raised by moderate (politically) liberal parents who valued critical thinking and examining all sides of an issue. I was sort of shocked when not all liberal/progressives I met shared this trait! Age and experience can temper extremism, if one is open to it. And it is possible to carve a path through social justice movements that remains true to your core values but doesn’t provide a leftist replay of the fundamentalism you have tried to leave behind.
Less likely, not more likely. Ms Coontz said it herself. A woman who lives with a man should not be called a slut. She should be called a sucker, because what incentive does a man have to “commit” if he’s already got it all without “committing”?
go on the WRD.org website to see a plan for water independence that is already in the works for the central basin. It’s call WIN, Water Independence Now.
According to a recent story on NPR, it wouldn’t matter if the Affordable Care Act was created as Obamacare or Bushcare. You have to be a lobbyist or some giant stakeholder invested in government bureaucracy just to want to apply for a contract with the federal government, because it is extremely hard to do, especially for, I don’t know, let’s say some small start-up company of young computer geniuses for whom the bureaucracy just isn’t worth it – financially or otherwise, the very kind who would have known how to create an online system of this magnitude that would have been more successful. Even a large company with the skills to build a national health insurance exchange online, like Google, wasn’t interested, because the federal bureaucracy is just too laborious.
So what we ended up with, was a program with some glitches, built by some lobbyist’s inadequate company, whose computer program couldn’t handle the start- up in some places because there were so many people who were interested in the Affordable Care Act – six times the expected number of people – and that lobbyist’s company, just wasn’t up to the job.
Orange County’s current production of ultra-pure water from wastewater is 70 million gallons per day, not 10 million. And the system is being expanded to 100 mgd.
California farmers grow more than 400 different crops and contrary to the information presented at the conference, most of the crops are not subsidized. These farmers provide a healthy and affordable supply of food items that stock local grocery store shelves and feeds people around the world.
People need to understand that the only subsidy applied to California’s water supply is the interest fees on the construction of the federal Central Valley Project (CVP) over 60 years ago. When Congress authorized the construction costs for Shasta Dam and the other reservoirs and miles of canals to deliver water to where it could be used beneficially, the decision was made that the water users would repay all the costs except the interest charges. This has proven to be a wise decision with billions of dollars in crops produced from the lands that receive CVP water.
The California State Water Project (SWP) was built later and state officials decided to include the interest costs. The decision was also made to require those receiving water to pay the full contract costs each year regardless of how much water is delivered. In 1990, farmers received zero percent of their SWP water supply. That means they paid 100 percent of their contract costs but received no water.
California farmers are striving to provide a food supply that stretches around the world. Increasing their costs could jeopardize that supply.
You have been treated to the wisdom of BigAgriculture’s favorite water lobbyist Mike Wade. Cal Ag made $43 billion last year alone, personally I think that the $130,000.00 that they pay Mike Wade per year to sow disinformation and spin isn’t enough.
Please to have Mike explain how “providing a healthy and affordable supply of food items” applies to http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/statistics/pdfs/2013/AgStatsOverview.pdf this, where the top 4 earners were Almonds, Grapes, Nursery,,,, gee I must have missed the corn and wheat Mike?
California farmers grow millions and millions of dollars of expensive luxury crops, while residential clients are badgered into low-flow showerheads, and the whole time Mike Wade does a “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!!” act….
You do realize he signed it Mike Wade, the person you are chirping, and his job is to come here, type that whole thing, and leave, it’s not like he is going to respond. Also, you are a bit too extreme, people won’t take you seriously if you are going around sounding all panicky about it.
oops…forgot to mention that once the device is hacked, it can no longer be tracked and will easily be sold to the highest bidder. iPads were not developed to be educational enterprise devices. They were meant to be individualized, privately owned devices. Apple has done little to alleviate that problem.
How about a park? Kiss Related goodbye and create some REAL public open/green space in downtown L.A.
I have seen the so-called “Grand Park” between the Music Center and City hall referred to as “L.A.’s Central Park”. That’s poppycock of course. It’s something like 16 acres and the real Central Park is well over 400. It’s not for nothing that the most expensive real estate on the planet fronts on NEW YORK’S Central Park. And the crowds taking advantage of it are legendary.
Come on L.A., let’s step up and create a real PUBLIC asset out of this land, and thereby try to somewhat atone for the “redevelopment” atrocity of which Mr. Rojas so correctly reminds us. And maybe offset what Supervisor Molina so correctly describes as “the fort-like conditions down Grand Avenue.”
Interesting story, Joe. Someone (you?) should look into the other side of hospitality in LA. By that, I mean, there is a huge network of people and companies renting out their second homes, extra room, even campers, to the new online community. Whether it is Airbnb or couchsurfing.com, I have become a true devotee to this trend.
The problem is the developers and City officials sick vision of the future. They are obsessed with jamming and cramming people into sardine cans separated by ant trails. When you challenge them they knee-jerk that you must be be for dirty filthy decrepit run-down squalor. There is an alternative future with modern beautiful development that is at a reasonable density — a kind of city that people want to live in with wide open streets without traffic jams.
Fred Kent is right on, as far as that block is concerned. A traditional square flanked by two buildings would be a great fit. No, it’s not “iconic” in the sense of being daring, but it’s effective. This is what Downtown LA needs more of: normal people-centric development based on tried-and-true urban design principles.
I might actually prefer to see a diagonal path through that block, from 1st/Olive to 2nd/Grand. The towers would then be located at First/Grand and 2nd/Olive. This would provide both a visual link and a walking path between Civic Center/Little Tokyo (First Street) and Bunker Hill (Grand Avenue).
Beautiful piece, Wendy! So glad you came to share Yom Kippor with the OHT community. See you in shul sometime soon, I hope! Always, denise K (next row from Nita and her friends!)
Thanks for the insightful column. Let’s add to the list of what can be done for visitors (and natives): make freeway, highway, and street signage coherent, consistent, and comprehensible.
Nothing will change under this current dictatorship. It’s a theocratic tyranny with the Ayatollahs in charge. Elections are cynically staged for propaganda purposes. The office of “president” is merely ceremonial. The Mullahs and the hardliners are still the “deciders” in Iran. Rouhani, who is a radical Islamist and not a moderate, is no more than a spokesman for the Ayatollahs. But no matter who was installed as “president,” the regime will continue to violently oppress the Iranian people. The Iranian regime is the major sponsor of terrorism around the Middle East and other parts of the world, and will race to acquire nuclear weapons in order to intimidate and destabilize the Middle East. So whether you have Ahmadinejad pounding his fists or Rouhani romancing the press, nothing has changed except the window dressing. The only hope for Iran is a regime change.
Every time I read this article which quotes Garcetti saying my “Weekends were both filled with bowls of menudo and lots of bagels.” There is something really weird reading that a Jew eats pork with bagels. It just does not sound genuine.
I love the police quote in the center of the article about a “runaway train” scenario of kids sharing information with one another. Isn’t that precisely what we want?
I agree with Paul. I think they were in love with the hardware and didn’t start with what they were trying to do and then evaluate hardware and software that might accomplish their goals.
My first reaction though was to think the school district should feign shock and keep encouraging kids to hack: http://bit.ly/LAipad
thanks for the interesting piece, it so well illustrates the
consequences of the loss of local coverage that facilitates local corrections,
that allow for the least expensive most effective actions. Funny, as I write this
I realize it address the current software development fiascoes we are surrounded
by too.
Thank you so very, very much for writing about this. I don’t live in the SGV, so I have not witnessed the frustrations you experienced firsthand. But I’m the daughter of a long-time gambling addict. I’m also an urban planner. The passage of regulations to govern when/where/whether private buses to transport people to casinos helps, but, as you acknowledge, simply chips away at a deeply complex issue. I look forward to observing how this unfolds in your city.
“if you want to go from anywhere in Southern California to the Central Valley by train, you have to take a bus to Bakersfield first.”
This statement is in error. One may take the Coast Starlight from Union Station directly to Sacramento. The trip is entirely by train without transfer. Union Station is in downtown LA and Sacramento is decidedly in the Central Valley. One can also start a trip on the Pacific Surfliner and not have to transfer to a bus until one reached Santa Barbara.
I agree, the Starlight only departs once per day, but once per day is absolutely different from not departing at all. Matthew’s claim is the bus trip is a total requirement, impossible to avoid. That is simply not the case.
Moreover, based one why the pair were traveling, so Ben could enjoy a train, I don’t think time was of the essence. Additionally, the Starlight has sleepers and cabins, both of which I think Ben would have enjoyed seeing. Neither the Capitol Corridor or San Joaquiner have them. Given the trip was a pleasure one, perhaps the scenic route would have been a better choice anyway. The views from the Starlight along the coast are really spectacular. I’ve taken it from here in Sacramento to Seattle, which is mostly a night trip, but the dawn over the mountains is a fantastic sight.
In any case, I think arguments are most effective with accurate facts. I believe Matthew’s case would have been just as strong to say, “of the 26 passenger trains that leave the leave the LA basin, only two don’t require starting out by bus, and one only goes further than Santa Barbara.”
Nice piece, Peter. A great weaving together of a local problem with larger civic issues of an informed and engaged public.
There is a market for local news, and that market is being filled in by local bloggers (to varying degrees of success). Although I’ve moved to a Mexican town (I’m one if the many expats living in San Miguel de Allende), I keep tabs on my old stomping grounds by reading eastsiderla.com and patch.com.
Lastly, are you the same Peter Hong that went to Oxy in the 80s?
Peter, I congratulate you on your efforts in San Gabriel. Unfortunately, the San Gabriel gambling bus traffic and parking congestion will just spill over into neighboring cities, including my city of Rosemead. I have seen the quality of casino buses also starting to look like they have been recycled from Mexican bus systems. So different from the earlier days of gleaming, white, noisy mammoths.
While I completely agree with your assesment that California needs more rail infrastructure, I have to disagree with a point you make in dumping on high speed rail.
You make a claim that it is not starting between Los Angeles and San Diego, I can assure you that it most certainly is. It’s also starting in San Francsico. The new track in the Central Valley is a third starting point.
Rail construction between Los Angeles and San Diego has been on going and currently efforts to build new mainlines to double and triple track the rail are on going. There is currently an 800 million dollar plan that will separate grade crossings, improve station capacity, create run through tracks at Union Station in Los Angeles, modernize track signals, replace older tracks, repair and replace bridges and as stated, increase rail capacity with double and triple tracking. Some of these projects are ongoing and some have already been completed.
In San Francisco they are beginning the upgrades and electrification of the rail line down to San Jose.
Work will also begin in the Tehachapi mountains while initial construction of the rail line is underway. So while the initial segment of dedicated high speed rail line while be built in the Valley, the tracks for the sections from LA to San Diego and from San Fran to San Jose are already in place and are currently under going the improvements necessary for them to be used.
This suggests that SoCal has no future as NorCal is much better organized, tourist-friendly, and attractive to tourists (despite the presence of major tourist attractions in SoCal). SoCal also seems to have more of the state’s xenophobes
California needs to get rid of its nanny state attitudes to be sustainable. And also needs to dump Prop 13 in favor of a high property tax/low income and sales tax fiscal model a la Texas
I love this article ! Michael Walker is a great artist with a unique differential point of view of our societies, on my personal opinion. I live on San Pedro St at the border of Skid Row.
Such a beautiful way to regard this street and its denizens. I used to go to Gorky’s all the time in the 80s. Working at the Woman’s Building, downtown was my ‘hood. Such a different downtown it is now. Some parts I scarcely recognize. Thank you, Michael.
Kudos to you Mr. Mahabir! I’m a theater “junkie” who lives further
south in the Central Valley. There is definitely a theater scene outside SF & LA.
Your next to last paragraph about why people come to live theater says it all. While I enjoy a good movie, or the occasional tv program, live performance is ALWAYS better. I have enjoyed performances by non-professional actors that are equal to, or superior to Equity pros. The public should never under estimate the quality they might see by community, regional, or other small theater groups. My advice is “just go.”
Fascinating article. San Julian Street is ground zero for the residents of Skid Row, both homeless and housed. We filmed for 5 years around San Julian and profiled several remarkably talented artists, fine arts painters, whose art — and the process of making art — transformed & saved their lives. HUMBLE BEAUTY: Skid Row Artists has several scenes shot right in San Julian Park and just across the street where the Skid Row Art Workshop met. Thanks for your article and the sobering memory of that over-crowded park full of homeless outsiders of every description– appropriately named for the saint.
There has always been a lot of talk in Los Angeles by politicians and others about solutions for the large homeless population, but very little ever gets done. The Housing First idea does seem like the way to go, given the success in other cities. Our documentary, now on public TV, HUMBLE BEAUTY: Skid Row Artists, profiles talented fine arts painters, both homeless and housed, whose art transformed and saved their lives through free art programs available on Skid Row. Sounds like the Zocalo program was a thoughtful, productive one. Hope it results in action.
Regarding Mr. Winkler – his entire premise seems to be that the NRA has swung right and is warping the politics of gun control. Well, I don’t know the history of NRA leadership changes, so I won’t respond to that. Regardless, the NRA is a grass roots organization that gets its money from members: Millions of ordinary Americans who pay dues and appreciate the NRA lobbying on their behalf. I know it’s easy to find someone monolithic to demonize, but I don’t see people demonizing the AARP for lobbying on behalf of senior citizens or ACLU defending someone’s 4th amendment rights…so why is the NRA “evil”? Well, if it’s just that you don’t like what their members like, welcome to Democracy, get over yourself, and argue your case on it’s merits, not by scapegoating the messenger for the other side. We all know our government is for sale to corporations and lobbyists. Anyone who thinks that our “representatives” generally work for “the highest good of all” is naive. Politicians respond to those that contribute to their campaigns. I, for one, am all for citizens organizing and lobbying for their rights…even those that may not be “PC” or “popular”.
He is right about the leadership shift in the 1970’s. And thank god for it, or else we might be looking down the barrel of the gun bans and resultant violence they have so much of in the UK.
As far as the NRA goes, yes they have 5 million members, yes millions more ‘identify’ as members or with members even if they wont cough up the measly 25 bucks for a membership. What I surprised to learn was that more people in the US consider the NRA ‘mainstream’ and ‘trustworthy’ over the media, congress and even Obama.
Yes, the NRA has a higher trust and approval rating than the President. That’s a number you can check.
I’ve read his comment twice. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, and presents opinion as fact without any evidence. In fact, the evidence is the opposite of what he claims. California has some of the strictest gun control laws in the country and some of the highest rates of violence. Likewise for Chicago and D.C. I’m not sure where he gets the claim that lax laws lead to more violence, but I’ve studied the issue extensively and I find exactly the opposite. The whole argument that guns=crime is spurious. Crime is a complex social issue and has much more to do with poverty, drugs, mental illness, and education than guns. Here are the facts: Most crime happens in a handful of zip-codes in cities over 250 thousand people. Most murders are black and Latinos killing other blacks and Latinos. That is not to say violence is race related, but that the well understood issues of poverty, etc. in communities of color IS the cause of crime. The guns are incidental. The average violent killer has been arrested 9 times. Think about that. All the gun control in the world will ONLY affect the millions of people that are NOT the problem. Gun control advocates forget that gun control creates criminal offenses. That means that millions of ordinary people that have never been the problem (and never will) are suddenly at risk of being felons for something they bought years ago that was legal. Meanwhile, NOTHING has been done about the actual causes of violence. Violence rates CANNOT be linked to any single causal factor. Guns can neither be shown to cause, nor to prevent crime.
As for Mr. Squire’s other point – yes, I do care about my fundamental rights. That’s not “ideology”, unless you think everyone’s constitutional rights are just political “noise” to be overcome whenever circumstances dictate.
Let’s say I have this cake. It is a very nice cake, with “GUN RIGHTS” written across the top in lovely floral icing. I received it from the 2nd amendment and the Dick act of 1902.
Along you come and say, “Give me that cake.” I say,
“No, it’s my cake.” You say, “Let’s compromise. Give me half.” I respond by
asking what I get out of this compromise, and you reply that I get to keep half
of my cake.
Okay, we compromise. Let us call this compromise The National
Firearms Act of 1934.
There I am with my half of the cake, and you walk
back up and say, “Give me that cake.”
I say, “No, it’s my cake.”
You say, “Let’s compromise.” What do I get out of this compromise?
Why, I get to keep half of what’s left of the cake I already own.
So, we have your compromise — let us call this one the Gun Control Act of 1968 — and I’m left holding what is now just a quarter of my cake.
And I’m sitting in the corner with my quarter piece of cake, and here you come again. You want my cake. Again.
You say, “Let’s compromise once more.” What do I get out
of this compromise? I get to keep one eighth of what’s left of the cake I
already own?
So, we have your compromise — let us call this one the
Machine gun ban of 1986 — and I’m left holding what is now just an eighth of my cake.
I sit back in the corner with just my eighth of cake that I once
owned outright and completely, I glance up and here you come once
more.
You say nothing and just grab my cake; This time you take several
bites — we’ll call this compromise the Clinton Executive Orders — and I’m left
with about a tenth of what has always been MY DAMN CAKE and you’ve got
nine-tenths of it.
Then we compromised with the Lautenberg Act (nibble,
nibble), the HUD/Smith and Wesson agreement (nibble, nibble), the Brady Law (NOM
NOM NOM), the School Safety and Law Enforcement Improvement Act (sweet
tap-dancing Freyja, my finger!)
I’m left holding crumbs of what was once
a large and satisfying cake, and you’re standing there with most of MY CAKE,
making anime eyes and whining about being “reasonable”, and wondering “why we won’t compromise”.
“The evidence no longer matters”
I find that a shocking statement from an ideology that has NEVER been based on evidence. ‘Gun control’ has never worked. It has never worked.
And that is backed up by the FBI, CDC, NIJ even Obamas own requested reports on the matter. Considering that the English have a violent crime rate that far exceeds our own, pretty sure they are the most violent country in Europe, perhaps they should ponder what it used to be like to be free men in their own country.
They cant even remember their own history.
No more. If gun grabbers want one more crumb, they are going to have to fight like hell for it.
And I don’t think they have the guts, the brains, the money, or the support.
Aris Janigian’s two novels, Bloodvine and Riverbig are literary masterpieces. His gorgeous prose of exploring the Central Valley is on a league of its own. Hands down my two favorite books, completely touched a chord with me, especially that I grew up the heart of the SJV.
I still maintain that gun control could optimally be accomplished by using the same registry and framework as for obtaining drivers’ licenses. Gun owners would have to demonstrate minimum competency for safety, use and control, and infractions would limit and ultimately disqualify one from ownership.
People who do not have the capacity to make essential life decisions (such as having dementia or command hallucinations, as well as upper limb paralysis and loss of hand motor control needed to fire accurately), would be disqualified for gun use for a pre-defined period of time, after which they could reapply and demonstrate restoration of capacity and competency.
Consider yourself lucky. The last three years, I gave out full-sized candy bars hoping to coax some youngsters to my door. I bought only two packages of six last year and didn’t even finish one. This year, I have a carton of the large candy bars, the full one pounders, to pass out and I bet I don’t use three.
I long for the days of my youth when hundreds came to our house. Once one is too old to go out trick or treating, but too young yet to go to costume parties, one can make wonderful haunted houses to scare the trick or treaters. I did that well into college. When I finally bought my own home, I went all out: fog machine, movie ghosts, cackling witches, creepy sounds, and ABSOLUTELY NO ONE came. I have managed to attract the few youngsters on my block before they are driven off to the “better” neighborhoods. I think their parents feel sorry for me and the door knock is a pity trick or treat.
Joe, park in the Target parking lot, southwest corner, and walk down the staircase to the Costco parking lot. It’s still no picnic, but it’s a lot better than the Costco vortex.
Tonight I’ll be in South Pas, at literally the last house before the Alhambra city limit. The tide of humanity doesn’t even need to drive here; they’re within shambling distance.
The evolution of the Saints continues to grow in modernization. Bold colors, subject looks liven, and familiar. The artist continues to express the emoting of thus subject with spiritual definition. The fashionlng of this saint is very relatable, thru each .stroke and color.
#ArtistCaroleJMcCoy @cjthefineartist, @ArTallks, http://www.nohoartsdistrict
I am lucky to live on what annually becomes “Halloween Lane” in a small rural village in the Monterey Bay Area of California. As many as 700 trick or treaters come by on Halloween.
Each year I give a Halloween party, giving my friends who live in the hills a chance to savor the rainbow of kids coming by. Here’s the deal: I provide a sumptuous spread of food for the guests and the guests each bring a bag of candy.
We all benefit…the trick or treaters have more adults to ooh and ah over them, the guests enjoy taking turns distributing treats, and we have a nice evening to reconnect and build community. Win…win from my perspective.
Amen. I see this disconnect with reading happening to today’s kids, including my grandson. Standardized testing rips reading out of its natural context and is pretty much the WORST way to find out if someone can actually absorb and apply the information they take in. As an editor, I’m concerned that this will lead to generations of adults taught this way who are unable to actually understand what they read, or to communicate in writing successfully. I’m thankful I learned to read in an era when it was still immediately obvious how useful and fun it was to read stories, both made-up ones (fiction) and “real” ones (nonfiction).
Thanks for covering this story. We’re excited to evaluate the impact of a comprehensive, home-based approach in reducing childhood asthma emergencies, while also measuring the financial impact and ROI of the program. We think this is an important step in engaging potential investors in this particular program, and, over time, building an impact-investment market for evidence-based health initiatives.
I’d rename the portion of Jefferson that runs west from Sepulveda. This portion is not contiguous with the part east of Sepulveda, and there’s really no logic today to giving it the same name. Two possible names– first, since it’s the obvious continuation of Playa St, and runs past Playa Vista towards Playa del Rey, then simply Playa St. Second, since it ends in the unique Ballona Wetlands, and travels parallel to the Ballona Creek, I would call it Ballona Street. (pron. bye-YONE-a, for those not familliar.) Note– not blvd, since this portion doesn’t really live up to LA’s defnition of a blvd., and not ave because the City prefers ave’s to run N-S.
I was very happy when the Dept of PW and the City Council re-named ‘Brooklyn Avenue’ to ‘Cesar Chavez Blvd.’ – anything that rids anything from ‘naw yawk’ gets my vote.
Absolutely on target, Mike. For those who don’t know, Project Rubicon, which was put together by a group of Marines, has sent its first group of volunteers to the Philippines for the purpose of helping out following the recent typhoon. And, the point of Rubicon is that they serve much in the way they did in Iraq and Afghanistan. They know how to evaluate complex situations and how to deliver what’s needed to support both each other on the problem-solving team and the people they’re intending to help.
Thank you so much for sharing this, Mike. A very thoughtful article and an important perspective that many of us don’t consider. The best part is that this is something we ALL can help fix.
Great work! Now, can you take a position on Federal Court Judge Otero’s recent decision that there are “Illegal” leases, including UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium, on the gift land for Veteran patients at the “HOME” at VA, WLA?
Caroline, your story gave me goose bumps. I too had the same experience after returning to my great-grandparents’ home town of Wallertheim. This past October I also went to the Jewish Cemetery but it was locked up. I was able to take a few pictures. I am now complete as I realize that we are European before we are anything else.
Deborah, I am Caroline’s father. I am working with a German researcher on the Jews of Wallertheim. Would you share with me the names of your Great Grandparents? Many thanks, Jeff Esser jeff.esser1@gmail.com
Excellent discussion. Having served with Stand Down to help provide free health care with a USC professional school, I saw the most difficult Veterans. They are proud but not connected. Many went to the service because they longed for the connection, but many also left from complications with their connections. No easy answers or pat solutions. I’m grateful to every one of them and am proud to be a part of their safety net in Stand Down. Great organization getting to the least of those who have offered everything to us.
Any time I have ever asked questions the docs fire back with “How dare you question me!” I have not seen a physician since the last one fired me as a patient almost two years ago. I signed up with a new one earlier this year under a new HMO. Finally his office called me to schedule a check up. Evey thing seemed to go smoothly with the clerks. They even had an opening today. Imagine that, a one day wait! But, when we got to the part about insurance, I told the clerk that I was still under their HMO Advantage plan with Heath Net. She literally dropped the phone with a loud “KLUNK!” and put me on an interminable hold. When she came back on the line she said “We are sorry, the doctor’s Medicare panel is full and he can’t accept you.” This is a doctor that claims to be a “Holistic” physician. I am outraged about docs who seem to only be out for financial gain. Remember, his office initiated the request for an appointment and then once I responded favorably he reneged on his agreement to accept Health Net HMO. I suppose it was all about him making more $. Another “Holistic” doctor demands a $200 cash prepayment for an office visit and refuses to accept any kind of Medicare Advantage Insurance. It is time for socialized medicine.
I elected to have my tonsils removed as an adult and it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I suffered from chronic tonsillitis (and I am VERY anti-medicine, so it wasn’t an issue with the thpe of med I was taking) as well as chronic tonsil stones, which was probably a result of the tonsillitis. I haven’t had ONE sore throat since having them removed and I no longer worry about my breath stinking from tonsil stones. My boyfriend has a bad case of tonsil stones and I wish he would consider getting his tonsils out to rid himself of this chronic and otherwise unsolvable condition. My kids will be getting tonsillectomys in the future if they too wind up with chronic tonsillitis.
I learned the hard way that those tv shows weren’t accurate. Ice cream and a fresh tonsillectomy do NOT mesh well together. Especially for hose of us who like mint ice cream. It burns. It burns A LOT. And the dairy doesn’t exactly soothe the raw throat. It causes mucus buildup which requires the consumer to swallow more. Which is the opposite if what you want to do when your throat was just operated on. And then the extra sugar from the dairy contributes to infection in the surgery site which causes even MORE pain. Stick with ice, water, and sherbet and stay away from extra sugar and dairy after a tonsillectomy. Or you will be sorry!
And despite the recovery being the most painful and most inconvenient experience of my life, I would do it again if I had to because being tonsil free has been absolutely worth it for me!
Indeed the North State is uniquely connected to our waterways. They are critical to our water supplies, our economy and our quality of life. Northern California water agencies willing embrace the responsibility of stewardship of the rivers and streams that meet the water needs of the entire state. This commentary ignores, however, the progress the North State–and the Sacramento region in particular–has made over the past two decades toward sustainable water use.
The Sacramento region has significantly reduced its per capita water use over the past decade and is one of the few regions of the state that has committed to meeting the 20 percent reduction by 2020 that is the goal of state law. This
progress came without the same incentive of looming water scarcity faced by
other parts of the state. Active regional and local water conservation
programs that feature both indoor fixture and outdoor landscape measures have added to this progress. For example, water providers in the Sacramento region were among the leaders in California in lawn replacement rebates and using recycled water for residential landscape irrigation. The Sacramento region’s water use compares favorably with inland parts of Southern California, such as the Inland Empire, which is a more accurate and fair comparison given similar climate and housing density.
Especially troubling is the suggestion that all of Southern California has accommodated decades of growth without additional water use. While this may be true within the Los Angeles city limits, in response to reductions in Owens Valley, Colorado River and Delta supplies, the numbers don’t support this claim for the entire southland.
Californians from the north and the south certainly need to come together to make necessary decisions about water, as the author states. But such progress is made more difficult with trusted thought leaders perpetuate negative stereotypes about the North State’s commitment to water efficiency and sustainable water use, and neglect to acknowledge our history of reliance solely on our local water supplies.
Indeed the North State is uniquely connected to our waterways. They are critical to our water supplies, our economy and our quality of life. Northern California water agencies willing embrace the responsibility of stewardship of the rivers and streams that meet the water needs of the entire state. This commentary ignores, however, the progress the North State–and the Sacramento region in particular–has made over the past two decades toward sustainable water use.
The Sacramento region has significantly reduced its per capita water use over the past decade and is one of the few regions of the state that has committed to meeting the 20 percent reduction by 2020 that is the goal of state law. This
progress came without the same incentive of looming water scarcity faced by
other parts of the state. Active regional and local water conservation
programs that feature both indoor fixture and outdoor landscape measures have added to this progress. For example, water providers in the Sacramento region were among the leaders in California in lawn replacement rebates and using recycled water for residential landscape irrigation. The Sacramento region’s water use compares favorably with inland parts of Southern California, such as the Inland Empire, which is a more accurate and fair comparison given similar climate and housing density.
Especially troubling is the suggestion that all of Southern California has accommodated decades of growth without additional water use. While this may be true within the Los Angeles city limits, in response to reductions in Owens Valley, Colorado River and Delta supplies, the numbers don’t support this claim for the entire southland.
Californians from the north and the south certainly need to come together to make necessary decisions about water, as the author states. But such progress is made more difficult with trusted thought leaders perpetuate negative stereotypes about the North State’s commitment to water efficiency and sustainable water use, and neglect to acknowledge our history of reliance solely on our local water supplies.
–John Woodling, Executive Director, Regional Water Authority (www.rwah2o.org)
This situation could be a lot like the situation in Alice in Wonderland – the sentence first, the trial next, and the crime comes last of all. “But suppose he never commits the crime?” Asked Alice. “That would be much better, wouldn’t it?” Declared the White Queen.
“The Indians prospered here before the missionaries, the real original sinners, showed up.” Why is it that politically correct members of the white old left can’t resist criticizing California’s Hispanic pioneers?
That sentence irked me a bit as well. I’d have to say, though, that the missionaries weren’t the “original sinners”, whatever that means. Spanish missionaries, and later Americans moving west, are just the latest in a long string of civilizations who have warred on this continent for millennia. To think that pre-Columbian inhabitants were all peaceful innocent souls is naive at best and, more accurately, ignorant.
Whether L.A. is exceptional, corrupt, or anything else is, in my mind, somewhat irrelevant next to the question of water use. Water is a limited resource and that’s not a condition that’s easily changed.
There’s a nice anecdote in Abraham Hoffman’s book “Vision or Villainy” about a DWP official’s response to Chinatown when the movie was first released. Defending LA’s water department, he said, “There was never any incest.”
In the course of many years in Los Angeles, I’ve seen lots of celebrities here and there “around town!” But the one that really excited me was seeing Julia Child and her husband at the old Michel Richard patisserie/cafe on Robertson. If she came back, we’d have her to dinner! But the place I’d take her would be “Antonio’s Tamales” on Temple just west of Glendale Blvd. The elder statesman of the place has been making tamales for nearly 50 years. Perfectly prepared cheese with green chili, chicken mole, pork, or cheese– light masa. Or for variation, banana leaf tamales, or the dessert tamales. They make other foods as well– especially on the weekends– like possole, menudo, chillaquilles. Quality ingredients and artisanal preparation. The owners are friendly, proud, hard working, unselfconscious. This is food without a publicist. A “hole in the wall”–of “real” and delicious. Julia would be fascinated and analyze their methods. And I think Julia would say “I don’t understand Top Chef! I’ve never done anything in 15 minutes in my life– or afterlife. Good food takes time.”
Interesting article. You might want to look at Phoenix, Arizona–which is the largest state capital by population–for some interesting trends. Sadly, in my observation, most of the proceedings of our state government go unobserved by the citizenry of Arizona except for a few wedge/controversial issues.
In response to: Ortega has found that it’s hard to get kids to eat healthy food
anywhere, but in the neighborhoods where he works—East L.A., Boyle
Heights, South L.A., and parts of Long Beach—framing the issue as one of
food justice and inequality is highly effective. The kids know what
foods are healthy, so “it’s more about reframing the issue to get kids
motivated” rather than simply telling them to eat their fruits and
vegetables, he said.
RootDown LA – You’re Gonna Wanna Eat Your Veggies!
As with most things in the modern world, geographic location has become less of a hindrance thanks to technology. In short, I would say no, we don’t need to “move the capital”. Any attempt to do so would be seen as a power play by SoCal.
Corruption we will always have with us. Vigilance is required. This is really an argument for better media coverage and in-depth reporting of state political affairs by the big-media markets. Location is less important these days with electronic hookups. Governors of California operate from offices up and down the state these days.
The whole premise of this article — that “progressives are in despair” and “liberals are out of ideas” is flawed. To say that “conservatives have a broad vision of minimalist government” is laughable. There’s nothing minimalist about the kind of control conservatives would have over people’s lives if allowed to continue their obstructionist stand-off. And to say that “Progressives don’t have a coherent, competing vision, much less ideas befitting the magnitude of the economic and social challenges of the moment.” sounds like the typical attack on progressive policies and grappling with issues. I’m astounded! Broad vision? Conservatives are bouncing off walls, and kicking and screaming so as not to “have to” change. And it’s making the strangest of bed-fellows. It’s sort of like being “liquored up” on words and going to bed with Lady Liberty, but waking up with Michele Bachman. It sounds like somebody wants a tea party only with silver service and good china. I guess with whom you are in bed doesn’t matter– you can shower in the morning and you found somebody to agree with you last night. If progressives are optimistic fools in their desire for embracing the questions, grappling with the issues and answers, and persevering, then what are conservatives other than greedy, inflexible,belligerent, and entitled. Only now, more and more conservatives seem to be raging ( and embarrassing) wind bags leading a pack of villagers with torches set out to “kill the monster.” (That monster usually means Obama.) Their rhetoric is hateful, unabashedly racist, socially retarded, and, frankly, un-American. The only time the word civil can be applied to them is when it refers to the civil war– or new civil war. The fire they’re playing with is the kind where eventually everybody gets burned.
I think Schmitt’s premise is exactly right. Progressive’s inability to take a look in the mirror has caused them to squander opportunity after opportunity. Their inability to coherently counter the right’s assertion that the progressive agenda is to take away from those who work…no matter what percentage stratum….and give to those who don’t, has been found very attractive to working poor and middle class. It doesn’t matter if it is true, it is an unopposed narrative that offends many working people. And it is persuasive, as a majority of state houses and governors, and the House, are in solid Republican hands. Most amazing is the Repub claim of small government, when the facts are the opposite. But Dems have no answer to that, and continue to offend voters with claims of “social justice”, which appears to many working middle class as a scheme to take what that have. Liberal dependence upon demographics is poisonous, because the “deciders” among voters will continue to be the moderates, for a long, long time.
Sitting back and waiting for the votes to pour in, instead of finding a coherent vision that can be explained to moderate voters, won’t get the job done.
From the first barn-raising in Colonial America, working together and providing help for those who need help is a fundamental American value. The pilgrims took welfare from the Native Americans. Our thanks was attempted genocide. The idea that people who receive benefits or help in some way don’t contribute to society and just “take” is also offensive. We’re all in this together– that’s the American way.
Great idea, as a parent of a Cal Poly student I have to say I am glad he turned down Regent’s Scholar offers from the UCs and is attending a university that will require about 3 times the number of major requirements as the semester UC campuses, as well as allowing him the opportunity to do research as an undergraduate. He has the advantage of small class sizes, I don’t believe he has had a class larger than 35 in his major and maybe 1 or 2 GE classes of around 100. He knows all his professors and they know him by name.
The Polytechnic Universities are a model for the CSU system and I believe should be separated from the CSU system so they aren’t held back. Graduates find employment, and are appreciated by employers as they can handle their jobs from day 1, and are well prepared to become productive members of our society. Many Cal Poly graduates even start their own companies while still students with the support of the University and the community.
Do we more fancy sports stadiums or do we need more Math, Science and Engineering graduates to keep our economy growing?
This article was published in the Fresno Bee this morning. How refreshing to read a well-written SENSIBLE editorial! Sports facilities are nice, but should not be built with taxpayer $. Let the owners/investors fund them.
“Minimal government” is just smokescreen. The so-called conservatives do not want minimum government. except in “business,” where they want the writ of the resource extractors and finance industries to rule people’s lives and minds. They fight for intrusive control of private and personal life, except for those of the economic ruling class. They support imperial control and military violence. For how that works without big government and regulation, take a look at Egypt.
They want business laissez-faire, Friedmanesque monetarism – and if ever there was a busted flush, hanging on like a hollowed out religion calling for faith instead of reason or evidence, it is that. They would empower the current crop of shallow CEOs and resource thieves, such people as Lloyd Blankfein and the Koch gang, as if these predatory accumulators were modern day Medicis. They are not; they are just depressing.
And back to the topic: Progressives are not out of ideas. Mainstream Democrats are just not progressives any more. Their agenda is played out. They are trying to play a hand that is somewhere to the right of Nixon’s domestic agenda – played out because it doesn’t go anywhere. Step outside the Republicrats to real areas of progressive thought, and there are plenty of ideas – ideas that Washington Dems are complicit in blocking from wide public debate.
Progressives may have ideas, but if they cannot package those messages in a way that is attractive to anyone but themselves….and that is a real danger, as so many people of both sides read/watch media that only shows their own side….that they will be sitting there scratching their heads, and wondering what happened. Like occurred after the re-election of GW Bush, which was incomprehensible to progressives, but REALLY DID HAPPEN. It has to be messages and ideas that are attractive to the working middle class, the deciders. If progressives wait for the demographics to win for them, they will lose, and lose, and lose.
I couldn’t agree more! (and of all great schools to pick: Cal Poly!!!) Too bad our Sacramento mayor is so myopic–sports teams are not the only answer for Sacramento!
I do t believe in the devil and in addition I don’t believe Scalia should Be talking about his Catholic beliefs. This is NOT a Catholic country but a cou try with a constitution to follow, which specifically does not single out any one religion. It has no place in the public forum, in the courts or Congress! People need to practice their religion as they see fit and not impose their beliefs on anyone else. This is precisely the conversation that was held when Jack Kennedy ran for POTUS. The public was afraid that we would end up being governed by the Pope. He should keep his big mouth shut or resign from the courts and any public office.
Progressives have plenty of ideas, including a Guaranteed Basic Income to replace the minimum wage, Social Security, EITC, TANF, SNAP, and the rest of our kludgeocracy-driven safety net. But not even the ‘progressive’ media have time to cover progressive ideas, because they spend their time repeating whatever Sen. Ted Cruz or some other crackpot conservative said yesterday.
Conservatives simply do not believe that all problems can or should be tackled through government – particularly the federal government. That we won’t fall in line with progressives and other former hall monitors who believe their self-declared (although never actually demonstrated) intellectual prowess is reason enough that they should be put in charge (and, therefore, be given their $cut) is what provokes the frustrated hate form them that you can read on these boards daily.
What an inspiring story. You and Kevin are doing unmeasurable goodness to not only downtown Merced but to the lives of so many individuals. I wish you both the best in the world and please do not allow any negativity to deter you. If your effort makes a difference in only one individual, then it was certainly worth it!
What a great article – a vantage at a time of year into what we really should be thankful for. Hope you continue to share your voice with us – the world needs to hear it. Happy Thanksgiving, and I hope you all manage to have a peaceful and fulfilling meal.
thank you soooo much for reading and liking my article. I love to write and your kind words and support means a lot to me so yes I will continue, please stay tuned. Have a happy holiday
If only all of the gov’t could read your article and try to understand problems that too many people have. Like Shanese said, the candidness of your writing is great. Hope you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Pumpkin gets all the press coverage, but for me nothing says Thanksgiving feast like the heavy chocolate pie!! I will think of you when I have mine tomorrow.
In all my life I’ve read nothing more touching you are truly a great writer you were born for this. This article is an eye opener, many people forget what Thanksgiving is for to begin with. This article just reminds me that though we may have little, we still have something, Thanks sis :*
“But belief in the Devil can be—and usually is—part of a longstanding, consistent, and coherent worldview.””Almost all of us can agree that the KKK or the Nazis were wrong.” – I’m amazed these 2 statements can appear in the same essay. Many would argue that the KKK and Nazis also have a “longstanding, consistent, and coherent worldview” – “christianity” is adept at re-creating itself for survival.
The concept of “the devil” has as much place in public policy discourse as the concept that the earth is flat, or the idea that “creationism” is as valid as evolutionary theory, or “religious freedom” trumps Human Rights – however “longstanding, consistent, and coherent worldview” those ideas might hold. (Myths should only live in the past.)
The idea of “evil” is a convenient way to assign blame without having to be critical of oneself. It is convenient because you do not (nor can) define the terms which make someone or something, “evil.” To define “evil” with specific parameters is to have the ability to apply the term equally to different parties/acts – precisely what one seeks to avoid by using such an ambiguous term. It is an OPINION, NOT A FACT.
“Evil” should be relegated to creative writing and myth-telling (GWB was adept at this, remember “axis of evil?”), but let us not ignore murder, mass murder, and other human rights violations.
There is no “evil,” only acts; there is no “devil,” only people.
Social engineering never solved anything. Limiting the birth rate is a Catch 22. Nature has its own way of allocating resources and, unfortunately it comes down to survival of the fittest.
I completely agree. I am thankful everyday I found The Mission Continues, it changed my life. It as well as Team Rubcion, Team Red, White and Blue, Got Your 6 and IAVA are this generations version of the VFWs and American legions. They bring us back together as a team; secure, safe and with purpose.
I would agree with this article to some degree. As someone who spent just over 20 years in the USAF, I’ve now been out for about 3 years. I’m an aircraft mechanic finishing a two-year degree that has dragged out a bit, and I still find that the only people I really “connect with” are other vets. Thankfully, due to my chosen field, I’m around other vets on a regular basis. There are things that folks who aren’t veterans just don’t get.
Cons are good for programmers too, because ‘cons’ is a language primitive in the famous LISP programming language. And for the other reasons expressed as well.
In support of your semiotics: The first guy I saw wearing those sneakers was a well established poet in NYC who also had a rare gift for monetization. The last time I saw him, he topped them with a tweed jacket — rushing off to teach a seminar at the New School.
Great as a historical document, but a lot has happened socially and economically between March 2001 and today that makes Bobos out of date. And agreed – fascinating!
I’m a big fan of the Pocho Hour of Power. One of the funniest things on radio IMHO, coupled with very on point social commentary done with a delightful sense of humor and irony.
Marie, reading this makes me very happy that you will be one of the participants in Religion, Ethics, and Social Practice next semester. Carving out a world view that supports listening to one another and acting compassionately across the boundaries of class, gender, and ideology is one of the primary tasks each of us must take up in the course. You are obviously ready to do that and to do it in concert with others.
Very good article. It should be considered however, that the age of those entering the service is changing. Another factor we need to keep in mind, is that the structure of the service is conducive to a demographic still in search of social structure which can be built upon. The military is an outstanding place to develop from, especially if you are young. There’s nothing overtly positive or negative about that, just that when someone enters as well as exits the service at a relatively young age, it does have an effect on how one perceives society relative to what they’ve been instructed or can distinguish.
Recently NPR ran a story saying that November in-store holiday shopping was down 4%, online shopping up 21%. What if LA had online voting?
Earlier this year, Assemblyman Phil Ting introduced AB 19, a bill to allow CA counties to try online voting. Mike Gatto let it die in the Appropriations Committee. Angelenos should call for re-introduction of AB 19, and support its passage. (Search Kelleher Internet voting for complete coverage of the issue)
Interesting, Chavez was against Illegal Aliens because it hurt his cause to promote hiring LEGAL guest workers and to fight for fair wages and better working conditions.
The judge did not order the plant to cease operations at all. Look at the ruling. Basically he ordered it to stop stinking. The stink season is over, therefore it’s a not issue until next fall.
Joe’s off-season walk-around sniff-test notwithstanding, I think it is possible to agree that there are too many (lousy) local governments in California while still recognizing the need for SOME governmental entity to act when a neighborhood facility becomes a smelly nuisance.
I guess both of these people were somewhat controversial and had plenty of critics, but you could’ve also mentioned the Gov and the Coach: Deukmejian and Tarkanian.
Living next to Glendale, one couldn’t help but be aware that there are Armenian gangs, but I never saw an in-depth description of them. I assumed they were immigrant youths or the children of immigrant parents, possibly from Russia rather than from Armenia (because one reads about Russian gangs) but I have no real knowledge.
My 43 year old son is receiving palliative chemotherapy for terminal bowel cancer. Seeing him slowly deteriorate is really horrible.I hate seeing him feeling so sick and fatigued. I know that if it were me, I would NOT have any medical intervention to extend my life. But my son’s circumstances are different. He just doesn’t want to leave his lovely wife and young children. Every day he has with them is precious. It was my son’s choice to do everything possible to extend his life for as long as possible but I’m sure that if he was my age with his children all grown up, things would be different.
Sorry to read about your son. It must be very difficult for both you and his family.
Very unstandable that at 43 your son “wants to do everything possible to extend his life for as long as possible.” However, I think that is true for most everyone as the self-preservation instinct is usually pretty strong. Hopefully, your son has made a good informed choice. I am confused with the concept that he is receiving palliative care and “It was my son’s choice to do everything possible to extend his life for as long as possible.” The goal of palliative care is to provide patients with relief from symptoms, pain and stress of a serious illness and not to do anything that will provide life prolonging care.
I quote from the article above “Hospice care, which focuses on providing terminally ill patients with comfort and dignity rather than on futile cures, provides most people with much better final days. Amazingly, studies have found that people placed in hospice care often live longer than people with the same disease who are seeking active cures.”
I wish you and you family strength during this most difficult of times.
Sorry, maybe “palliative chemotherapy” wasn’t the right term.
I thought that’s what my son called it. I’m just a mother. I thought that palliative chemotherapy meant that although there is no cure, it is intended to prolong his life and keep his cancer under control as long as possible. His cancer is widespread but the wonderful news is that he’s now 44 and healthier than he was when I first wrote 7 months ago thanks to the wonderful care of the staff at Cancer Care centre at Concord Hospital NSW. When he was first diagnosed with stage 4 terminal bowel cancer 16 months ago, before any treatment, he was very, very ill and we didn’t expect him to last very long. No one expected him to make his 44th birthday but we’re “over the moon” that he has. In the beginning, I couldn’t understand why he chose chemotherapy to extend his life. I was under the
impression that with chemo, although he’d live a little longer, he’d be very sick and have no quality of life until he finally died. But that’s not really the case. Although chemotherapy isn’t
fun, he DOES have quality of life particularly on his “off chemo weeks” and it’s given him more time.
My son passed away on 8th January 2015. He was told right from the beginning that his cancer was incurable because he had tumours all throughout his liver as well as his bowel and lungs. He just didn’t want to leave his wife and children so he fought with all his might. After watching my son suffer so much, I know that if I was told I had an incurable illness I would NOT fight like he did. But it’s harder to accept death when you are 44 and have young children.
Thank you for sharing this. It illustrates perfectly what this sort of journey looks like. In the end people should get to choose.
Just an update on my son: He has been receiving fortnightly chemotherapy without at break since he was first diagnosed with terminal stage 4 Bowel Cancer in March last year. (you call it Colon Cancer in the US.)The latest two rounds of his chemo have not been working and his tumours have grown so now he’s very weak and can hardly stand. He looks like a walking skeleton and he just wants to sleep. So now his Oncologist has just put him back on Folfox which is making him very ill with lots of terrible side effects. Folfox picked him up when he was first diagnosed but we don’t know yet is it’s working this time. It is just agonising watching my son deteriorate. I feel that giving my son Folfox on his very frail, very sick, very weak body when his doctors have made it very clear that he is close to the end just doesn’t make sense to me, but my son and his wife are determined to fight to the end. I personally would prefer to see him get off the chemotherapy which seems to me to be futile over-treatment and instead just concentrate on making him as comfortable as possible. I can well understand why doctors die differently.
To qualify for hospice care, one must have a terminal diagnosis with a prognosis of 6 months or less. Treatments like chemo, radiation, and dialysis are generally only approved if they contribute toward the patient’s comfort level or quality of life. For instance, radiation may shrink malignant brain or spinal tumors, thereby lessening headaches and nerve pain, even when it can’t stop the cancer.
Palliative (comfort) care provides symptom relief for people with serious/chronic illnesses, no matter where they are in the disease process. They can receive curative treatments and also qualify for palliative care to help with side effects of treatments (ex: chemo) or just to improve quality of life for a chronically ill person with a greater than 6 month prognosis.
So hospice and palliative care are similar, but still different. It’s also not uncommon for a person to eventually stop treatment and transition to hospice care only.
Very interesting article. Makes sense to me – people today need nutrition education, and need physical exercise! Otherwise you can offer the healthy food but people won’t take it.
What an excellent article, Dr Murray, thank you for putting into perfect prose, thoughts that must exist in the minds of almost every doctor in the world today.
I guess that’s where the difference between mundane knowledge and wisdom lies. Knowledge, where one knows everything about the text-book treatment of a patient, and Wisdom, where the physician knows exactly where to use that knowledge. Or better still, where NOT to use that knowledge at all.
I am an ophthalmologist, not a critical care physician, but in my field too, there are a number of conditions where treatments are offered or pushed down the throat by the ‘system’ to preserve or increase the vision of these patients. And most of us know that these treatment modalities are either cosmetic, temporary, downright ineffective, or not required at all, while increaing the suffering of the patient. And with the common denominator, frightfully expensive…
In these circumstances, there will always be the voices of those who will argue about such thoughts throttling scientific progress, medical advancement etc. But they fail to realize that a balance is never achieved. The cost to the patient in terms of money and suffering is always sacrificed at the alter of scientific progress in the field of medicine.
Your article also importantly suggests the possibility of a holistic ‘treatment’ of these patients, who can live the remaining days of their lives doing the things they always wanted enjoyed, but never had the time or favourable circumstances to. Like the characters played by Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson in the bucket list.
Thank you again for this eye-opener article. It made my day…
While maybe not quite as confusing as LA, Fresno also has multiple, confusing regulations posted on downtown parking meters in tiny print. The most confusing part being hours of enforcement are extended when there are certain events going on in the area, and there is no reliable way to determine when that happens. The city wants to get folks downtown for events, but then zaps them with parking tickets, which just pisses them off, reducing repeat downtown visits. Well, duh!
Yeah, that sounds incredibly frustrating. I’m not sure how something like that could be incorporated into an app since it’s always changing with events, but if someone has a suggestion I’d love to incorporate it. Less tickets for us is a good thing.
Thank you for this tantalizing story, Michael. I once parked next to a grey painted curb, not too far from a church. I received a ticket for parking in a “Passenger Loading Zone.” I fought it though and with my photographs, the ticket was dismissed. There was no signage painted on the curb (which they really meant to paint white) and no vertical signage either. There have been other curbs, though, that are questionable to me. I would love to see the information you have compiled. Will share it with people that don’t have a smart phone?
Lisa,
I’m glad you had success fighting your ticket. That’s a great point about sharing this info with people without smart phones. Please contact me. I’d love to discuss.
I wish my doctor would read articles like this one. I can’t even stand going to her if I have a sinus infection because I know I’ll get a lecture for 30 minutes about my weight. Her answer is bariatric surgery…for everything. (I know, I know, I need to get another doctor… but I have little hope of finding one who is sympathetic–or at least, a non-judgmental.)
You are the only one who will have to pass judgment. And if you’re okay with the drugs, and the discomfort and watching life from the eventual electric wheelchair, then we’re all okay.
But there are no “takebacks” when it comes to being fit. It’s your call. Why not “Make Health A Game”?
I’m sorry, I don’t know what you mean, “watching life from the eventual electric wheelchair”? That sounds to me like you assume I am sitting on my ass with my face in a gallon of Haagen-Dasz. I play tennis in 3 leagues, have a personal trainer, and do water aerobics or walk 2 or 3 times a week for at least an hour. I’m still fat, and I still get shit from my doctor. It doesn’t matter to her that I have a relatively active lifestyle. What matters to her, only, is the number on the scale. Please check your fatphobic comments at the door, and STFU if you don’t have anything helpful to contribute.
keep trying to find a doctor. They are not all like that. Even some of the ones who subscribe to the party line on weight can still be convinced to treat you as a person and not just your weight. I managed to find a service in which the doctors may not be happy with my weight, but they are still willing to actually treat my symptoms and refrain from lecturing me about it. (I made a point of telling them I eat healthy, giving a description of my habits and they still recommended a diet – I went to the nurse-supervisor and complained about it. Dunno if that helped, but at least it was an option.)
I believe Germans would like to handle this moral challenge “with grace.” It is awfully hard to define what that grace would look like, though, and still satisfy all parties involved. There is a lot of money at stake, and that has the unfortunate effect of draining “grace” from the process. So that “teachable moment” is going to be a lot harder to do than to say!
They’re one of my favourite native plants to look at – spring and winter.
I’d heard that they were edible, and tried to cook and eat them one time. Edible, apparently, does not equal palatable (unless you’re a cedar waxwing). We stewed them, and basically ended up with a mush of astringent sawdust. When we tried to strain them, the juice was not disgusting, but not in any way delicious.
This is one plant I’m happy to leave to the birds.
For a proper role model and attitude on body image, look no further than Jennifer Lawrence’s outspoken views. Just Google her and you see hundred of articles bashing Photoshopped magazine covers, her refusal to succumb to Hollywood ideals and slamming Joan Rivers’ Fashion Police.
Her insistance on her character, Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games (a role model for young girls and women worldwide) be fit and strong rather than thin and underfed is wonderful.
A person doesn’t get to 500 lbs because of “genetic inheritance” alone. Something else is going on there. Obviously no one chooses to be obese, but a combination of a poor diet, no work out regimen and genetic ingeritance is to blame. This show teaches discipline, good working out habits, and a healthy diet. There is nothing wrong with that.
Please keep writing these articles. Not only do I love reading them, I bring them to work (public health dept), and they have raised eyebrows, and resulted in opening minds, and thoughtful commentary. This side of the issue cannot be heard enough.
Good article, but very limited in its scope. Medical doctors do not die only of diseases that take months or years to take their lives. Medical doctors also die of the effects of road traffic and other accidents, acute illnesses that kill them in a matter of hours or days, manslaughter, murder, accidental self-poisoning with alcohol or illicit drugs, single-person suicide or suicide pacts.
California was The Great Exception because it was growing so fast. First domestic immigration stopped back in the 70s, now even foreign immigration has greatly slowed and our population is almost stable. So the Great Exception we are no more.
I wish you would visit Mount Sutro Forest yourself. You would find a cloud forest that captures the water of the fog, keeping the ground moist year round. Thinning the forest will make it dry out, making it a fire risk. It is currently one place in SF that has a fire rating of absolutely no fire danger. There are maps, let me know if you would like access to one.
The blue gum has a natural maximum age of 400-500 years old, so they are not currently aging out.
In the easy bay fires, the last thing to burn was the eucalyptus forest. First were the native grasses, then bushes, then houses – then finally the trees. There are those who lost their homes in that fire who are fighting to save their eucalypts.
I think it’s time to make the blue gum eucalyptus the official tree of SF. It is a beautiful historic tree for this beautiful city, planted by the people who built the neighborhoods, churchs, significant buildings and museums. We are a city of non-natives, what tree could be more appropriate?
Thank you for your very thoughtful article, I learned things I had not known before, and the graphics are found treasure!
What happened? How did eucalyptus become flora non grata in California? The story is a spectacular rise, and equally spectacular fall, in three phases: introduction, naturalization, and deterioration.
I help manage some acreage along Oakland’s Grizzly Peak Blvd. We’re trying to shrink our Eucalyptus forest gradually with a view towards eradicating it. The hot, arid easterly winds in the Fall blow down through us towards the rebuilt housing from the 1991 firestorm. Burning Eucalyptus embers have reportedly been carried miles by the east winds… Due to our unique location, we think it’s in everyone’s best interest to remove our Eucalyptus. Meanwhile we work hard keeping grass and shrubs trimmed and under control…
Sarah, this is a beautiful tribute to an obviously beautiful soul. Clarita’s gifts to the world expressed through your eloquence has gifted me with a little deeper meaning to my life today. Thank you.
I cannot imagine losing our Blue Gum Eucalyptus in California. As much as I love the Valley Oak and the Ponderosa Pine, the immigrant eucalyptus is most wonderful. I still remember the beautiful and the aroma of the eucalyptus of Occidental College. I love the sound of the wind through its leaves. You can no more blame the eucalyptus for spreading fire than you can blame the Oak or the Sugar Pine. Poor maintenance of our urban open space is what spreads fire.
We are so deeply sorry for Charita’s passing. She will be so missed. She has given the world so many beautiful sparkles and so much warmth during her young and much too short a life. She is a wonderful role model for all of us.
Thank you for painting such a wonderful picture of Charita. From what I can see in her bright smile and even brighter eyes, her nickname (Chispa) was spot on! Please accept my condolences.
Sarah, thank you for sharing your thoughts. I too, worked with Charita for a much shorter time than I would have liked (at Carnegie). That someone who can make us love and connect so deeply, so quickly, has passed on is devastating. I have thought about her every day since I first read her cover letter as well, and will think of her (and smile) every day forward!!!
Thank you, Sarah, for a sensitive tribute to a woman that sounds like someone everyone would love to meet. I’m sorry for your and Zocalo’s loss of a friend and colleague.
hi, I just emailed my comment to the main office. I love your column! How best to influence public policy about stadium development? In San Francisco there is a current conversation about height betterment at the waterfront. It could be a good moment to influence public sentiment about height concerns, global warming and using public funds for the greater good. Is there anyone out there who thinks there could be a message that resonates for California? I think there is an opportunity…..
Interesting eye opener. Reinforces my thinking about the knowledge and experience of medical doctors versus everyone else that has their own medical opinions on what we should eat, drink, and pill pop.
I have a small claims case in this very courthouse to be heard on the 31st (LAM 13M07542) in Dept. 090 against my landlord and today I am going there taking a subpoena Form (SC-107) in triplicate to be stamped by the court clerk and then arrange for a Sheriff to serve the regional manager who oversees the Southern California properties of the landlord (Montgomery Partners — http://www.montgomerypartners.com/) to provide testimony about procedures, etc. My case was countinued from Oct. 26th when time during the morning session ran out and it had to rescheduled. Looking over their evidence I was handed compared to information I obtained via a public records request to the Health Dept. confirms they are trying to mislead the court. I have already subpoenaed the building manager demanding documents (it appears they cherry picked their records or created out of whole cloth much of what was in the evidence packet handed to me in service of their false narrative). As you can imagine I have become very familiar with Stanley Mosk building and yes, the cafe is very nice.
I did jury duty at Stanley Mosk too, 7 or 8 years ago, and did NOT know about Panorama Cafe. I will have to check that out! I also had fun doing jury duty. Sitting through court testimony was no biggie for me (a couple years prior, I’d been a reporter, so I’d sat through a few cases already), but the 90-minute recesses gave me a chance to explore downtown, which was so awesome.
Being brand new to Zocalo, I wondered whether you were progressive (you know, CA’n’all). But what you said was reasonable. I am so tired of discussions of wage inequality that ignore life style. Dropping out of high school, having children at 17 without marriage nearly guarantees being at the bottom of the economic scale. And, this environment hurts those reared in such ‘families.’
The reported results are consistent with the theoretical large impact of decreased infant and young child death rates on the average life expectancy of human populations. If decreased infant mortality is a major factor in increased average life expectancy, this is a good thing morally; but suggests that higher average lifespans may not always primarily reflect increases in the lifespan of senior citizens.
In my opinion, unless there is a financial motivation for public employers, there are no amount of “wage equality” programs that will ever get support. Someone has to prove to corporate boards and mangement teams why closing the income gap is good for business. Once that becomes “truth”, then you’ll have widespread buy-in. Otherwise, encouraging employers to pay people more and create programs to help pay people more will likely be just a lot of useless noise.
I grew up with the LA – San Francisco rivalry being a big deal, but LA seems to have faded in its coherence. Now the Bay Area is kicking So Cal’s ass regularly (San Diego a possible exception) and he big rivalry is coast – inland.
Thanks for this note. You would appreciate Alberto Fuguet’s novel, “The Movies of my Life” (Las peliculas de mi vida). It grapples with some of the same issues.
This great to think about but it totally misses the point.
The real work of the public does not actually happen at council meetings (sorry to disappoint).
Actual problem solving, creative thinking and solution making happens in committees, at town halls, at public events, in libraries, parent groups, public hearings, community discussions and…coffee shops. They may or may not include actual elected officials, but the city council meeting are really just to make the decisions “final”. They are the last public hoorah for gadflies and angry citizens to speak out or complain, for not being a part of the behind the scenes activism, or back-door-deals (both take place outside of council chambers).
Council meetings are the public events where decisions become “official action”; they’re not the place to actually work out the messy details of governance and problem solving.
Unpaid council members often have never seen the issues they are to discuss until the day of the meeting. And yet, they will take official action. Starbucks, under any circumstances, is not the answer, but the power abused by the fact of sitting on a raised dais needs to see an end. Residents do not go to meetings because they must stand alone behind a podium, looking up at the councilors, and, with not only the eyes of the people in the room on them, but television cameras.
It is a setting I now compare to the Star Trek episode, ‘Plato’s Stepchildren’. The council sits there, quietly amused or otherwise, watching residents squirm at the podium. It is humiliating. The people on the dais very much forget that they are not ‘gods and goddesses’. Residents are forced to stand and beg, and hope they don’t get tripped up on their own words as the tension of being in that position, and broadcast, is extreme. It is a tradition designed to elevate the unworthy to a status they do not deserve.
Dear Clare,
I hear your spirited voice in this excellent piece. INSIDE THE STORY took me to San Francisco to hear your informed presentation about Hockney in November 2013. In January, our group traveled to Palm Springs for your insights and articulate observations on Richard Diebenkorn. Thank you!~Alice
I hear your spirited voice in this excellent piece!
INSIDE THE STORY made it possible for me to visit San Francisco and hear your informed presentation about Hockney in November (2013). Our group traveled to Palm Springs in January (2014) for your articulate insights and observations on
Richard Diebenkorn at the Palm Springs Art Museum. Thank you! ~ Alice
The true test of any marriage is how the parties handle a crisis. It’s impossible for any single person or couple to go through life without facing some trauma, whether it be expected (e.g. the deaths of our parents) or unexpected (e.g. earthquakes, hurricanes, etc.)
If the Northridge quake had never happened, something else would’ve split you apart further down the road. Marriage is not a relationship of unconditional love. On the contrary, it is highly conditional. When faced with a crisis, both parties must strive to respond in the highest, most selfless manner possible. If you don’t, the party who did will forever look at the party who didn’t with disappointment (at best) or disgust (at worst). A crisis is an opportunity to show your heroism… or the opposite.
Some marriages face crises early, others not for 20 years. Personally, I favor seeing the crisis early. It could save you from a long, miserable marriage.
Hi,
We get nervous in Golden Gate Park when the wind is blowing and big Euc branches are creaking…
I find it generous of you to find space for eucs and to appease all interests. (i.e. I have fond memories of the lemon scented Eucs in isla vista/Santa Barbara.)
The “Preserve trees/Eucs at all cost” is arrogant and rude. Ignores facts in California. Doesn’t know how to share!
This argument is so similar to the SF dog owners who are angry at the natural areas program and proposed (including currently on the books but mostly ignored) leash laws on GGNRA land.
Regardless of humans emotional and colonial attachments, dogs are predators and historically raised to hunt and guard. They were used to attack civil rights workers and other movements (and still used to “police” and criminalize impoverished communities!)
Daily in SF I observe many poorly trained and aggressive dogs, and lazy owners who leave poo behind (I’m not kidding – several poo piles in a day.)
I don’t get why people are so defensive about dog free zones. Why is it a problem when I wish to be on Ocean Beach in SF observing birds and wildlife in “leash required” areas yet it’s seriously nothing less than a dog park including dogs running up to me and smelling my butt?
And then take the council or board members off the dais and put them in a
corner of the chambers—the way you might position a piano player in a
hotel lobby. They’d be miked just loud enough that anyone in the room
could hear them, but not so loud as to overwhelm any conversations.
Seriously, you’re proposing that ad hoc, out-of-order conversation in the room should take precedence over conducting business and allowing the public to hear and understand what’s taking place?
Council meetings aren’t supposed to be gab-fests, they’re supposed to be conducted by a procedure that allows for public comment, debate, and conclusion.regarding the issue at hand. What you’re proposing may be comfortable and neighborly, but it would seriously hamper citizens’ rights to hear, follow and comprehend the actions their elected officials are taking.
I appreciate Mr. Kimbrough’s comment, as it shows a clear understanding of how a council meeting should be conducted.
Frankly, the author’s suggestion makes me doubt whether he has grasped the concept of how the process works at all.
What happened to my comments that were posted on Friday night? The next day, on Saturday, I tried to edit the posting (shorten and correct grammar mistakes) and then it just disappeared…?
I thought it important to offer some some diversity, outside of the white men who are quoted in the article, and also the author and all the commenters. I have a particular peeve with your monopoly of the humanities and arts. Well, the sciences too – all of it.
Here’s that old blue gum poem again:
-d. http://www.poems4nature.blogspot.com/2013/12/landscape-study-1.html
The old boundaries may be erased, but we have a new-found ability to manipulate technology, thus setting our own boundaries. When the phone rang in the 1950’s, people answered it! We can, or we can silence the ringer and let it go to voicemail. Trending away from instant gratification, the rewards of a disciplined delay strengthens our ability to stay focused on the present, to sit still in the room. There is power in choice.
Exactly. Mencken and other Americans of the era were probably used to thinking in terms of welcoming visitors to the door: if somebody knocks, you go and answer the door because that’s how people visited with each other. And I conjecture that they thus felt compelled to answer the phone.
With the invention of the answering machine, people gradually realized that, no, they do not have to answer the phone whenever it rings. Just let the darned thing ring and if it’s important they’ll call back. If it’s not important well they haven’t missed anything.
My husband and I decided early on to homeschool our sons. My oldest, now 15 has with the exception of 5 days Kindergarten never been to school. Our 12 year old decided last year to go to our local middle school in Glendale because most of his friends are there. With this decision not only his world changed but mine as well.
One very crucial point was missing tonight in the discussion and that is the input and opinion of the children.
From an early age on kids have to follow a schedule that was not their choice.
They have to learn subjects in a schedule that was not their choice.
School is an invention for the market, so parents can work, it is not the choice of the kids.
If you as an adult had to follow such strict rules as applied in a school, where you could be denied going to the bathroom because the teacher suspects you just wanting to get a break, I wonder how you would cope with it, where you were told for 8 hours a day exactly what to do and when. I can’t even imagine this scenario without getting claustrophobic or depressed or angry.
And now add puberty into this situation…
I am not a laissez-faire advocate but I believe with the aim of raising happy and full-filled children that it is crucial taking them serious from the beginning on and respecting their opinion and interests. In other words if kids are consulted and integrated in the process of learning, dealing with behavioral problems, bullying, it empowers them and gives them dignity. There is less need to rebel against something you created yourself.
I know it is very idealistic, but our kids grow up, no matter what, they are the leaders of tomorrow, so we better take them seriously.
How quaint that you thing state open meeting laws are “stuffy Yankee mores.” Might I suggest that city council meetings and the such are “meetings in public” and not “meetings of the public.”
Good reply. You have it right. I’d add that council meetings are not for the entertainment of the public. Think of it as watching your friend at his desk at his work for three or four hours. Not real exciting.
“the drum major instinct takes over”…”the wish to avoid knowing ourselves”, gee, Ghaemi, kinda glad you’re not MY psychiatrist, this is rather an apathetic outlook! Psychiatry without spirituality doesn’t work. Acknowledging the whole that is greater than oneself, realizing all the connectedness, this is the means to engage in reality rather than fleeing reality and “losing ourselves in a virtual reality”.
Emerson’s observation of human traits 200 years ago and his comment of people in a private unhappiness, because they “paid no attention to their own souls” is very pertinent today.
In our city – Desert Hot Springs, California – the city council closed session can only discuss issues of litigation and personnel. The big decisions are made in open session. Citizen turnout has been high at the beginnings of council meetings but tapering off to sometimes one or two at the end. However this is changing thanks to the November election. Meetings that were once 5 hours long are now less than 2 hours. This means that now more than a dozen people remain in attendance at the very end. This proves it is the personalities of the elected officials, not the process. The former 3 person council majority shifted in the last election with a different majority now in charge. Although some sniping and personal rivalries still exist, it is only two people that are disruptive and without the power they previously enjoyed the process and the performance is greatly improved plus less time is wasted.
This is so sad. To have stayed away from the Church that had given you such comfort. I am catholic. Went to twelve years of Catholic Schools. We have raised our child Catholic, now in her 20’s, she still comes to Church with us many sundays. She was an altar server until she went to college. I feel perhaps the stereotypes got the better of you. It is also sad about you and friends making fun of or putting down the Church. I have also experienced that attitude from others, the anti religion, anti catholic thing. I only know it is right for me and it is a great comfort for me. You either believe, have faith, or you don’t. I am not a preacher … to each his own. If others don’t get it I can’t make them. Perhaps you should have explored a bit until you found a Church you felt you could connect with. Our daughter was baptized in one Church, we attended mass at that and one other Church, and when it was time for her to have religious training we wound up at another church where we felt we liked the teachers and the congregation was friendly and many knew each other for years…and that Church became our home. Since we are from NYC it took a bit of searching to find our church. We have attended this church for about 17 years and have served there for many years, I serve mass alongside many
gay brothers and sisters.
One actually had a calling for the Priesthood and we prayed for and with him, and traveled along with him on his journey, and his being accepted, and we all celebrated together. One became a deacon. I have taken Theology and Bible workshops at LMU, usually workshops offered on weekends and have attended many of those classes with gays who are very active in their Catholic Churches. We have never ever felt our Gay Brothers and Sisters are not welcome at our Church. Jesus taught us that He is there for whomever wants Him in their life. I feel blessed to be Catholic where I have seen and felt His teachings in action many times over. And even before our new Pope expressed his feelings about this. But so glad he has…
I hope you pursue and act on your feelings of being drawn back to the Church. From my experience you will be welcomed and embraced with open arms. If not, keep searching until you find your place and pray for anyone who may not be so welcoming. But I do believe there are few and far between Catholic Churches where you would not be welcome if you are in L.A.
God Bless, and I pray you find comfort again and find your way back home where you belong..
It sounds like you had a lovely experience through the passing of your friend’s mother. Truly in connecting with our own weakness in the face of mortality, we also connect with a strength and “source” that is beyond our understanding. The church (not just the Roman church) has really done a disservice to the message of Christianity– a profound message of being loved, accepted, forgiven for failings, and not abandoned in good times, in adversity, in life, in death. Instead the church has all too often gotten mired in rule book religion, judgement, and exclusion. That is most definitely NOT the “good news” of the gospel, the first proclamation of which began with the words “Fear not!” and concluded with “Peace on earth, goodwill to all.” The Apostle Paul said “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who honors God and does what is right is acceptable to him (God).” (gender neutral) How we went from that to a patriarchal authoritarian dogmatic judgmental tap-dance all around the real Christian message is mind-boggling and can only be written off to “human-nature” — the good, the bad, and the ugly of it. The marginalization, and abuse of gay and lesbian people by and in the church has been shameful, and, I’m sure, grieves the heart of God. But it is important to note incremental baby steps by even the present Pope Francis– to affirming the diversity of the human family even to the point of him saying “Who am I to judge?” But non-churched (understandably so) people should take a look at the real message and also the record of progressive churches. Progressive christianity was at the forefront of the civil rights movement, and welcomes and champions the acceptance of all people as they are. Through all the smoke and candles and cardinals it’s good to remember that the mystical embraces us and we are all made “worthy” and welcome through divine love, that casts out fear, and welcomes all into “sanctuary”– a “God-place,” a safe place. We need that reminder because so many people have been treated so badly in the name of God– which makes such actions all the more egregious. And whether it’s “hip” or not– it is profound to feel the presence of God in our relationships with other human beings–whether it’s in a church, a hospital, a bar, or in bed with someone you love (whatever their gender) which is also a gift. And for those who misrepresent through lovelessness and judgement in the name of God or religion– they should be told to “cut the crap.” *The media should be called to task as well when issues come up and exclude progressive christians (muslims, jews, others) from the discussion in favor of Fallwells, and Westboro cretans, and such.
Hey Joe,
Thanks for your comments. However, about having fewer interruptions, tell that to the fuel injection pump on our auxiliary engine, the outboard motor and our freshwater pump, along with a number of other items that become jealous and demand attention when they feel ignored. Sailing is all about working on your boat in strange locations. Cheers. David Jensen
Welcome Home! We were away 16 years but circumstances (God?) caused us to return 30 years ago & we are blessed profoundly with a caring shepherd as a pastor. Didn’t have to wait for Pope Francis, but so glad he is our Holy Father …the Holy Spirit’s work.
First we are talking tightly regulated wilderness area’s only when saying that no motorized equipment can be used. That is a fault of the management policy and they would get more help if they made exceptions for work groups. No one wants to spend all day on one log when the job could be done in 15 minutes. Secondly even in wilderness area’s visitors want some improvements. The present hands off policy means exactly as you mention everything is going back to nature and any “improvement” requires environmental impact reports, public comment, and judicial review because nobody is happy with the plan and quite frankly “we the people” are sick and tired of all the red tape.
Agreeably funding is the primary issue forest managers face and with federal cut backs in spending you can thank the social politicians for choosing to keep their pet projects that get votes rather than preserve forests. Environmentalism is no longer a pet political issue as it was in the 1960’s instead the global warmists and their goal of setting up an economy of carbon credits is. This however could eventually direct funding back into our beloved wild lands but that is still decades out from political haggling.
So we seek the volunteer in the mean while and Sir we greatly thank you for your contribution!
No one I know has ever spent an entire day removing a tree with traditional tools.
The argument for special consideration to use motorized tools in Wilderness is a red herring. The issue is not getting more trees cut in less time it is getting more volunteers out there to begin with. The amount of time a Volunteer organization spends recruiting, training and traveling to the trail obstruction far outweighs the difference in work time between using a crosscut saw vs a chainsaw.
The trail crew I work on takes it as a point of pride that we remove hundreds of trees from the trail system each season without shattering the calm of the Wilderness. Many of the trees are 4′ or larger in diameter.
What’s missing is a commitment to giving back by everyone that benefits from the existence of the trails. If every hiker put in a few hours each year the maintenance backlog would be greatly reduced without ever having to disturb the peace and tranquility with a motor.
The use of power tools is divided by an arbitrary border one
side being wilderness and no power allowed, go 2 ft over and power is allowed
yet the same noise is heard as much as 20 miles away so the idea that noise in
the wilderness is an issue just doesn’t pass water here. Additionally aircraft
and highways echoing, hunters gun fire, dogs and wildlife etc. noise levels
vary with each day. Yes the goal is to provide the optimum experience for the
users of the land with peace and solitude so talked about in so many tales. But
when time constraints, budget cuts and the lack of staff and volunteers effects
use than it is time to choose to be flexible and get er done. There are
sections of the Angeles National forest burned in a fire 15-20 years ago that
have yet seen even a volunteer group go in and repair access to it and it is
not even in a wilderness area. Present policy is to keep the area closed until
that day comes. I was told that the popularity of a trail or recreation area is
what gets priority and again this is an arbitrary decision. The squeaky wheel
gets the grease. I was raised with this philosophy, “Blessed are those who
are flexible in spirit” If you cannot be a solution to the problem you are
the problem and you need to step out of the way so that those who can will get
er done.
There _is_ flexibility written into the Wilderness Act of 1964 but only when alternatives have been considered and there is no other means to achieve the desired result.
I think the 700 hours I spent volunteering in Wilderness in the past year put me pretty near the head of the pack of those people who are getting it done so that everyone can have access.
And barring unusual events (like Arborgeddon), the number of trees down is well within the time and abilities of volunteers…because “logging” is the easiest and most rewarding wilderness trailwork. The really hard work is building and rebuilding washed out/damaged/poorly built trails…and rock work and treadwork is mostly handwork. In wetter and more hospitable climes, brushing is the prevalent work…and while you can clear brush with a chainsaw (and then redo it every year as it sprouts back), unless you want to use herbicide on the entire trail corridor, doing it right requires the skills, techniques, and back breaking labor of rooting out the brush-root and stem.
Personally, I don’t have any interest in doing trailwork using and surrounded by earsplitting mechanisms and motors. Separating myself from Nature rather than working with to achieve lasting results.
ps: The Minimum Tool permitted chainsaw work for Arborgeddon was mostly sloppy and poorly executed, while the (greater amount of work) crosscut work was carefully and thoughtfully done (Do It Right Once!). Indeed, in several areas crosscut crews cleaned up the work that chainsaw crews failed to do to a reasonable standard.
“No motorized equipment” is not the whim of the local managers of Federally Designated Wilderness; it’s the historical interpretation of the 1964 Wilderness Act and has always been applied to FDW. And there has never been any such thing as ‘design improvements’ to FDW, the act’s intent is to allow land to remain without inclusion of facilities, developed trail camps or new structures.
On occasion, such as when crews cleared the historically unprecedented 2011 blowdown of thousands of big trees in Red’s Meadow Valley, the feds will grant special permits to operate power equipment to clear trails in a timely manner.
As a volunteer leader of PCT trail projects in non-wilderness, our crews use power equipment to cut blowdowns and brush. In FDW, traditional tools are slower but still do the job well. Enormous trees can be cut effectively using crosscut hand saws.
The loss of historical trails is lamentable. Given the shrinking budgets for federal land managers and that most wilderness trail work is now performed by volunteers, what safe maintained trails really can use is better volunteer support from trail users.
I joined the HSVTC in the early 2000’s, became a crew leader and served as a general use worker for several years. I am/was a certified chain saw and crosscut saw sawyer. Ken and I got our certifications together.
The rules about the wilderness (originally called primitive) areas specify that no powered items be allowed in them. The result is that the Forest areas that are covered by these rules are, almost always, quiet.
I first ran into these rules in 1958, when I was hiking the old “Oregon Crest Skyline Trail” and we were following a motorcycle that had chains on its tires. It really messed up the trail.
When we have sharp tools, it takes a surprisingly short tie to remove a tree from across a trail. With a crew size of 6 or more, only 2 may use a crosscut saw at the same time, which means that the others get to listen to the “wild”, take a break, etc.
Being certified with both types of saw, I always prefer the crosscut saw. When we get the rarely given special permission to use chain saws, it always involves hauling a bunch of gas and oil that is heavy and always causes problems. When we are allowed to use chain saws, it is because the trail probably not been maintained for many years.
On one trip one of our volunteers had an accident and badly broke her elbow. At that time it was a “no fly day” and she had to walk out several miles. There is nothing unusual about no fly days, the Forest Service is very consistent about keeping no mechanical equipment out of the wilderness areas.
In general if you can hear “civilization”, then you are not very deep in a wilderness area.
The trails need a lot of continuous work. I am now over 70, and primarily maintain tools for the HSVTC.
I would disagree that trails are being degraded through no fault of anyone in the valley. I grew up in the Central Valley and watched it get steadily more conservative in the 1980s and ’90s. Plenty of people in the Valley are voting for reduced government funding of wilderness area and against environmental protections. This is the result.
Thank you for the article. I do wish it would have provided a direct link to relevant volunteer organizations as hopefully many people will be motivated, as I was, to get involved. (Though based in Los Angeles, I can’t imagine the situation is much different in the National Forests and Parks closer to me.) A link to the High
Sierra Volunteer Trail Crew is available here: http://www.trailcrew.org/index.php/volunteer/create
In this day and age when we’re often being asked to give funds, it’s actually great to have a call to action that one can respond to “locally”, as well. And if it gets us out into our National parks, well, then, even better.
Stagflation is evidence that Iran’s leadership is hurting the
people and needs to be reformed. It also shows that pressure from sanctions
have an effect and shouldn’t be lifted until Iran makes changes in its human
rights record.
Forty years of limiting access to trails via tiny trail quotas has not
helped keep wilderness areas in the minds of the people. If people
cannot use the trails that are there, they turn to other modes of
recreation. After a generation, few are left who even care about seeing
the deep reaches our national forests and parks. It is no wonder funding is continually reduced.
It is always a delicate balancing act of encouraging people to get out and enjoy the wilderness while limiting the impact those visitors will have. Something to note is that the vast majority of the 757 designated wilderness areas do not have a permit or visitor limiting system in place.
Go out and enjoy the peace and solitude.
So glad to have read this article! Since the sculptures were first installed, I’ve been wanting to know more about them. Their shapes and positioning are so beautiful. I’ve really enjoyed driving past, day and night, all seasons. Whenever my grandchildren visit, as often as possible we always drive the length beginning at Santa Monica Blvd. and delight in looking and discussing. They’ll be missed!
The people who want to get rid of the carriage horses do no love animals. They love the money they would make from developing the real estate currently occupied by the horses. Real animal rights activists support working horses and encourage the bond between humans and animal.
All of the arguments in favor of banning horses fall flat. Dangerous? Cars and bicycles are far more dangerous. Hard on the horses? Being forced out of a job into a “waiting adoptive home”, thus taking the spot of a horse who really DOES need to be adopted, causing the suffering of yet another abandoned horse, is much harder. Anachronism and unnecessary? The skating rink reference is very apropos (oh, how many have sprained their ankles while skating, should we ban that too?)
It is so hopeful and inspiring to hear how you moved beyond the cancer and ran a marathon ! I’m almost 6 years from my diagnosis with breast cancer and still can’t seem to get myself to even take regular walks. maybe this will help move me toward that goal. My doctor said that I could take all the supplements and do all the alternative therapies I want to, but that exercising to sweat every day was the best thing. Thank you for taking the time to share your story.
Hi Debra! Six years –fantastic! Congratulations. Running’s not for everyone, but if you’re inclined to try it, I highly recommend joining a group. I’m a member of the LA Leggers in Santa Monica, which I love. There are runners and walkers, all pace groups.
There are lots of other groups, too — Roadrunners, East Side Slugs — lots. For me, being part of a group has been key. It’s the motivating factor to get me out there — I feel accountable to the group. Once there, I am somehow propelled along by the motion of others…and feel like a million bucks when I’m done. Most of the groups start slow and work up incrementally, which makes it very doable. So maybe give it a try! Take care —
Oh, T.A.! What a loss for Zocalo. What a beautiful body of work you leave behind. You are a masterful editor. I can’t wait to read your own work! Best wishes for your new endeavors!
I took your course! I loved the family recipe project, the farmers’ market visit, etc. You were asking these questions in the late-90s long before I heard them asked elsewhere. Loved this piece.
TA, I do not exaggerate, when I say that you, personally, are responsible for a big change in trajectory of my life. It was a direction that I wanted to move, and you stepped in at exactly the right moment, with the right suggestion. Some may call it luck, I call it talent. You have touched a lot of lives at Zocalo, and all are better for it. I can only wish you and your lovely family the best in the new direction taken, and happiness for you all.
Thanks for the opportunity to get the word out on the Museum of Donuts.
We have no plans on a traveling show yet, but maybe if we ran across an old police car, we could pull something together. In the mean time, you could enjoy some ‘art’ with no restrictions on eating at your favorite donut establishment.
My dad sent me a clipping of this article from a local newspaper. I can vouch for the truth of the trail conditions, having spent the last two summers in 10 day 100 mile loops in the Southern Sequoia National Park region. South of Sequoia National Park.
Trails that appeared on my (Tom Harrison) maps were not maintained, and were very difficult to find at times. I recall one particular stretch that was about 4 miles of constant dead fall and overgrown brush, downhill which took 8 hours to traverse. It was brutal and excruciatingly difficult. It was not only challenging, but also dangerous.
That said, there is also great solitude to be found. In 10 days I saw 3 souls, and none until day 5 or 6. And the fishing is AMAZING.
Meanwhile, in the few miles that I crossed the Pacific Crest Trail, I saw scores of people.
It seems to me that 99% of the people venturing out into the wilderness are looking to check a box off on their bucket list (like the JMT or PCT) leaving the vast wilderness untouched. I’m kind of mixed. Although the miles with poor trails are much more difficult, there is much more solitude, but it comes with increased risk and chance of injury or worse.
From the tone of the conversation, it sounds like peace and quiet can be preserved with cross cut saws and trained crew members with hand tools and we just need a few more of you. I say “you” and not “us” as up to now, I have not volunteered time and talent to the cause. If I had more time, I would definitely volunteer.
I hope the volunteer groups you work with keep in touch with prospect as well as true volunteers, as some of us can help financially if not with time, and might be able to contribute time some years in the future if we feel valued and appreciated.
I do however make it a point to pick up any random piece of trash, wrapper, etc. that I see along the trail. It kinda raises my hackles to see trash way out in the wild, and I can lower my hackles by taking out the trash for the next explorer.
As a similar English/American hybrid, I always envied my friends in both countries that had such a powerful sense of home. Split between the two, I often felt disingenuous saying that I belonged in either. I inevitably seemed to miss the place that I was away from. When in London (where I am now), I longed to be back in Los Angeles. When in America, I started to miss England again after a while (a year usually). But I think I like your conclusion in the last line better – that we’re lucky, that they are both home. I’m grateful that I can experience that kind of constant change and revolution. Loved the piece. Hope to read more from you soon.
The author seems to forget/dismiss the fact that the San Joaquin Valley is a bowl with some already bad air. Did you forget the weeks of bad air quality in January? Then consider the increased air pollution put out by oil refineries.
I’d suggest Mr. Nickelsburg also take a look at the oil, gas, and chemical corridor in Louisiana and examine the air quality there, and that region is not even in the air basin bowl that we are.
With regard to the Monterey Shale and its oil potential, the author likely knows nothing about the chemicals including hydrofluoric acid that would be needed to treat it during the tracking process. I’d suggest he try living next to one of these sites or the refinery before making his proposed solutions, then too he probably lacks the chemical knowledge to consider the implication of his proposals, as well as the air basin info. Business school types often fail to consider the scientific knowledge to comprehend the impact of their solutions, just like far too many members of Congress.
Why is diversity only measured in ethnicity? Do not diversity of thought, background, political persuasion, etc. count as diversity? I venture to say that some of the new “immigrants” may actually be illegal aliens. Are not LA & other parts of California sanctuary cities? This influx of new “immigrants” as you refer to them are straining the economic (e.g., welfare & medical costs), social (e.g., schools) and ecological (e.g., drought) resources of the state.
Seriously? You’re paying $1,000 a MONTH for THREE PEOPLE (one of whom is a child!), and you think this is great?? Come back when you’re paying $300 a month. And how much of this $1000 a month is your company paying for? How much of this $1000 a month are you writing off? How much of it comes out before taxes, 35%?
I think “art form” is way too much. It’s a craft, a skill, a technique, but it’s not great art. Is the writer this enraptured of the swirls made by baristas?
Am saving money this month by giving up on manicures and it’s a mistake. Is it art to make a home one’s own? Nail colors are art punctuations on the body, just as huge bold collections of flowers can be in the kitchen window. Punctuating life with choices that shout? Definitely art.
California has a lot of talent and content under the radar of the media’s Iron Curtain Of Mostly Glitz. If Joe is correct (and I believe he is) in calling for a show FOR Californians, then producers have to go further than their usual gestalt of celebrities and smiling, snappy hosts with oodles of writers to give them the lines they need. You need a show with some humor and a few movie star guests (of course). But more than that, you need someone with empathy and compassion for the people of this amazing state in all their myriad varieties. Also a little sense of wonder a la Huell Howser wouldn’t hurt. Someone who has feet on the ground, rather than the self-absorbed, mostly trivial and slightly insincere bonhomie and froth we’ve been used to.
Did Leno have empathy? Was he too much the promoter/entertainer and not enough listener? I give you one of his brutal sins of censorship: A few years ago, he interviewed a young actress on the Tonight Show. The usual bits of chatty crosstalk took place. But in a moment of candor and edification for the audience, she started to talk about her background in classical ballet. Obviously she valued it. When she brought up the name of George Balanchine, with some reverence, he interrupted her before she could finish pronouncing his name, asking her if she had run into members of Dinasaur Jr. Aside from the beyond-irony of bringing up a pop music group that was more about marketing than music to overshadow one of the great artists of the 20th century, the interruption was also disconcerting to the actress, who, appearing distressed for a split second, responded with some appropriate banter gamely. On the surface, this kind of dynamic had far more serious consequences in his promotion of Arnold. Some serious questions and listening time might have shown us that for all his good intentions, the governor-in-waiting might have an image people invested in much bigger than his potential ability to change Sacramento.
The more logical target of Mathews’ war declaration is Lorne Michaels. It is this Canadian’s desire to keep the additional commutes as short as possible that drove the relocation of THE TONIGHT SHOW to NYC and the continuation of LATE NIGHT in the same building. Ergo, “Blame Canada!”
Yeah I see both sides and kinda lean towards the Euro’s system of dealing with the animals. But that’s not where I stand. I’m from the third camp stated above. I don’t thing animals should be jailed and left for people’s amusement. Granted there maybe a case if the animal is facing extinction.
eresting article discussing the differences in zoo philosophies. It is a valid point that predators in the wild do not have the choice or get fed food that is prepared. They have to hunt for it, and sometimes might go days without eating. Predators choose the young, the sick and the old for their food. I, too, raised my voice against the zoo’s director for his choice, forgetting that there is always another side to the picture. Maybe it would have been easier for people to understand if Marius had not been given a name that made him more lovable and personalized to people. Maybe, too, American zoos might take some wisdom from the way Danish and other European zoos feed their animals. Do those of us who are carnivorous cry every time we buy a package of sanitized meat at the grocery store? Probably not, since many forget there was a living, breathing creature who gave its life to put dinner on the table for them.
American Colleges and Universities have a two-fold problem. A Recruiting Problem and a Bottleneck. I graduated from UCLA in 2003 in four years, I had to go to summer school to make up the units and keep my GPA above the 3.6 hard deck to keep my scholarships. It takes too long to graduate, even now “Super Seniors,” are the norm taking 5.5 years to exit the UC system. Electives and pre-requisites take up too much time and they are expensive, smarter students become risk averse and decide on a faster less expensive major and forgo Honors and a minor in favor of exiting sooner and keeping costs low. How many STEM students become business majors in the UC system is astounding.
Furthermore the UC has a Recruiting problem. I did not come from a wealthy family so USC was out of the question, yet USC actively tried to recruit me with loans, grants and incentives. I was shocked that UCLA did not have a similar set of features to sway me, but taking on $100,000 in debt in 2002 was enough for me to chose UCLA. Most minority applicants forgo the UCs for this reason and apply to the Cal States or out of state because UC is in their minds unattainable. So even before a dialogue on campus diversity can take place the very community to benefit from it is self selecting out of the debate.
UC should actively recruit the students they want early.
All of these answers, so far, are complete bs! Instructors shouldn’t seek to fail too many freshmen? Just make Black men feel more welcome by not asking them what they’re doing there all the time? Help people not get their hopes up about getting into a top school, and instead help them apply to a school they can actually get into? I clicked this because I thought it would be a real discussion about the true nature of the inequity (NOT “unequality”) inherent in high school treatment and preparation of Black and Brown students, boys in particular, the segregationist recruitment tactics employed by colleges in their recruitment efforts (fully aided and abetted by our nation’s high schools), and the almost outright exclusion of culturally influenced support systems on college campuses, that extend far beyond simply making sure there is access to tutoring and a BSU or Hispanic Leaders club on campus. Judging by the answers these “experts” have given, I suggest you table this discussion until you consulted with a more diverse, problem entrenched, and vocal set of real experts, lest your talk end up doing nothing more than adding another line to your panelists’ CVs, and making a room full of really clueless people feel like they can more fully empathize with the plight of the poor minority student a little better, while never even breaching the walls of the real problem.
I have known Mr. Powell for many years now, and I have never once heard this story. He is full of authentic baubles and paragon scoops, and I’m so thrilled we have this forum for him to share something so marvelous. Thank you, Ernie.
I have known Ernie Powell for years and have heard this story before. But his writing has made it more real, more moving for me than ever before. Excellent piece of work, Ernie. I love this story and am actually printing it out to save.
I’m a former constituent of Congressman Flood’s and native of the coal country of Pennsylvania, who said good-bye to all that and am now a southern Californian. I had no idea Cesar Chavez made it there. Fantastic story of an unlikely duo who undoubtedly put on a helluva show.
Ernie, My daughter graduated from high school in Rialto where we lived when I returned from Viet Nam. Great story and one I had not heard before. Cesar had that kind of effect on a lot of us. Carlos continues to spread the word thru the Cesar Chavez Service Club where I am a proud board member.
Funny how adversity makes us better, stronger, and more connected. Like you, I felt the fear, uncertainty, and anguish of fighting cancer only I experienced it as a mom. Our 4 year old was diagnosed a rare form of cancer and he fought (and won) after 3 recurrences. Keep running and most of all, keeping smiling. Survivorship is a war scar worn proudly– http://www.medicalmmies.com
I totally missed seeing this when you posted it. I’m sorry! I can only imagine how difficult it must have been to parent a young child through cancer treatment. How sweet, the victory! And how precious, your comments here. Yes, war scars. Thank you!
They’re massive timewasters and click bait. Self-knowledge? They’re based on superficial, arbitrary criteria. BuzzFeed will be the downfall of society!
+1 & -1 on your timing. Giving the readers the heads up on this festival 4 weeks into it is not really that beneficial, now is it? Granted there’s a little over 2 weeks left, but is it really the best way to introduce people to the festival?
Yeah I guessed wrong on that. If you look at their home page, it shows with my browser, “UARY 27 ROGUE MARCH 8”. The link next to UARY is messed up and covers the “FEBR”. My bad on jumping to that conclusion stated above.
In FAQ section it states, “Rogue is the first 2 weekends of March. The 2014 Festival will take place from Thursday, February 28 to Saturday, March 8”.
What I find fascinating is the information people are willing to openly share to participate in these “quizzes.” I remember one that created your Downton Abbey name by using Lady or Sir in front of your mother’s maiden name, your first pet’s name and your father’s mother’s maiden name (for results like Lady Hoffman Scruffles Fallbrook). It was all so funny, and my friends posted them on Facebook, until I pointed out that those are the exact security questions banks ask these days to verify your online account. It’s insane that nobody is thinking about what they are telling hundreds of random companies, many getting the information through hidden bots that you don’t even know are on the page. Not sure why anyone would do that.
Well, it seems like the 60s 70s and 80s in America, from the Watts Riots to Giuliani and Broken Windows, was a time of similar fear in America. It gave us gated communities and contributed to NIMBYism. It got a bit better. Should we send Giuliani to Argentina? Is there a racial subtext to the Great Fear in Argentina, as there was with ours?
on an individual level, you feel way more likely to be robbed when you have more sh*t than those around you. when your pockets are empty, you’d be surprised at how this perception of imminent danger vanishes almost completely. (on a related side note: if you’ve ever ventured out to rob someone yourself, you feel absolutely impervious to crime (whereas you feel imminent danger from the police)). Basically, the perception of imminent danger from street crime, for the individual, is quite subjective to one’s own circumstances and how those circumstance relate to the greater environment. so perhaps this rampant paranoia among the argentine middle class more an awareness that they’ve got more than their share of sh*t, and that others might naturally want to take away said sh*t.
Bears out in my Mexican-American family. My parents immigrated to U.S. from Jalisco when they married. My dad’s first job was working the fish canneries in LA’s Harbor Area. He jumped to oil refinery work, furniture salesman, American Cancer Society outreach than retired as director of a social service agency. My mom stayed home for a while, then worked housekeeping, assembly and finally retired as an assistant director at a teen center. My siblings: a policeman, an MFA, a teacher, a telecom exec and me, a gadabout and raconteur. (Can’t win them all).
I rode the bus from Palms to Venice for years when I worked there. I read 17 books on the bus in one summer. The writer here reminds us of the way riding on public transportation puts us in touch with the city in a way driving cannot. I have ridden the train from Culver City to downtown many times since it opened and prefer it much more than driving. If you are with friends you can talk with them without dividing your attention as driving does. I still love a good road trip, but within the city public transit is far superior- they just need to keep adding pieces to the lines.
Nicolei–thanks for sharing your experience! I loved reading about how you go to school as a kid, and how you make your way to the office today as an adult. The data does bear out that there is more congestion in the road, particularly where you are traveling (within the city, to Santa Monica, which is a major job hub). I grew up not far from you, near the Beverly/Western subway station. The places you mention are so familiar to me. I am not Filipino, but my Thai parents would take me to Betsy’s (and then Goldilocks) to buy sweet taro flavored Filipino cakes and we would sometimes go to Seafood Market for seafood.
An accurate piece written by someone who actually grew up here instead of some ignorant transplant who would just compare everything to NYC/Boston/DC/SF or wherever ! 🙂
Well writen and very thought provoking. I was there a little bit during the 80’s and your article brings back a memory of mine. Being in a gay bar in Provincetown dancing my heart out, I was struck hard by the sight of a man also dancing his heart out. We never spoke but I remember how beautiful he was, how very alone he was in his expression (but powerful) and there. He was clearly in the grips of the disease. I will never forget him. I never knew his story but he impacted me just seeing him dance!
Awesome piece. I get the sense that if a lot of the people in the generation of young adults coming up now have the author’s expansive life experience and comfort with people from all walks of life, and lack of fear about “the other,” we’ll be alright as a society. I’m looking forward to when she and other like-minded people of her generational cohort are running this country. It’ll be such a breath of fresh air in comparison to the torrent of fear and judgment latent in so much of what passes for political discourse right now.
Having the experience of riding the bus as a child strikes me as good a way as any to instill these values.
The problem is systemic. Lawa, which runs lax, has been systemically gamed. Lawa is dependent on parking revenue along w rental car, cab and limo revenue. This gaming is systemic and planned. Lawa has opposed any direct mass transit into lax. Our beloved GM and ExxonMobil lobbyists were involved in the setting up of lawa and its financing.
The city needs to take over lawa, restructure its finances and make it work for the public.
Very well said. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Of course, if you feel the film treats your experience as a plot twist, its technical and artistic quality hardly matter. I can’t say, personally, that I think the films disavows the culture of AIDS, because that culture was very much conditioned by geography; activism in North Carolina (where I was raised) for example, didn’t look the same as activism in New York City, and I believe both experiences–in part *because* they are so different–deserve to be remembered. However, your point is well taken. Differences of opinion like these are very generative, and tremendously helpful to historians. Vito Russo (surprisingly enough, given it’s conservative message), was a passionate defender of “Longtime Companion,” and that’s fascinating to me, because it tells me a lot about how he understood the political and cultural moment in which he was fighting. That is to say, just by commenting on this article, you are adding to the archive people like me draw from. Thank you for that. I hope you will continue letting your thoughts–and maybe, one day, your story–be heard.
Truly a refreshing piece. My parents both entered the US 25 years ago. My Father works in manual labor and Mother doing various jobs throughout the years. Both high school dropouts in Mexico with little to no prospects of upward mobility in their native homeland, much less here in many ways. 25 years later they own a home in a predominantly 2nd/third generation Latino & 1st/2nd generation Asian upper middle class neighborhood. Unfortunately the glass ceiling is well at work, impeding them from truly capturing the final piece of the American dream.
Thanks for the opinion Professor. Many of us lived the Cold War and are not surprised by today’s events. It’s also very easy to tell which side of the Iron Curtain held your affection. I’ll assume since you’ve written a book you know the history there and so you know why western Ukraine despises Russia. To many Ukrainians, their country was already being handed over to Mr. Putin by one more in a long line of rather corrupt leaders. The British colonies here had far less reason to form a “rump” government in 1776. No matter, at this point Ukraine is already partitioned. No one believes the US/NATO has the will to do anything except bloviate about Crimea. The real question now is how far west does Putin think his empire extends. So far he does’t seem to be impressed when others show restraint except when it means he gets what he wants. A war would be a terrible thing but if NATO doesn’t get it’s act together and show more determination, Russian will become a mandatory class in a lot more schools next year. The more things change I guess. At least under the Soviet Union, they never felt the need to wear ski masks when they invaded. Maybe they were just left over from the winter Olympics.
Speaking of bloviation, Terry, the only reason any of us are here to argue the point is because during the Cold War our leaders and theirs didn’t follow the advice of people like you when it really mattered.
It’s a strange mix of news this morning– who won Oscar Gold, a “snow day” in Washington, and, Putin’s attempted (or is it already done) annexation of the Crimea. If one reads the history of the Crimea from the “Crimean War” days on it’s chilling to see how a place that has been so “under the radar” for most of Western Europe and certainly America, has been and continues to be a possible pivot point on world history. The Ukraine is calling up reserves. John Kerry is on his way to Kiev. It almost feels like the responding “bomb squad” going in to defuse the thing– with the minor detail that the timer is set and ticking.
Does anyone really think that Vladimir Putin just “saw an opportunity” this week and took it? Last week he was saying “We’re just doing normal military exercises in the region.” This week it’s “Surrender your military bases by tomorrow or we’ll take them by force. By tomorrow morning the news may go from Oscar gold to blood red. If it were a weather prediction, the report would be blood red skies on the horizon.
Are our eyes so easily diverted by spectacle? Rewind a few weeks– both the opening and closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics didn’t have more than a few perfunctory statements about “peace and world unity” through athletic competition. Instead we had dazzling spectacles that were nothing short of a glorification– and rewriting– of Russian history. Putin and his team actually managed to leave out Joseph Stalin and, his namesake, Vladimir Lenin– along with pogroms, and Jews, and homosexuals. Of course there was Tchaikovsky and mention of Diagalev and the Rite of Spring (made famous “in the day” by Ninjinsky). But denials of the composer of the 1812 Overture’s relations with men had already been “deleted” from history when Putin defended his anti-gay Nazi-esque tactics earlier this year. Even protests at the Metropolitan Opera in New York against those Russian anti-gay policies were dismissed here by the head of the Met with “Of course we don’t discriminate, but we try to stay out of politics.” Diva Anna Netrebko and Conductor Valery Giergev are know to be darlings of Putin. Giergev was the capable podium maestro for musical elements of the greatest propaganda extravaganza ever. In the meanwhile, struggles in Kiev escalated—
I am involved in the arts in many ways, including founding the 15 year old Scandinavian Film Festival L.A. Two years ago we screened a film by Finnish Director Reny Harlin called “Eight Days of War” about Russia’s (i.e. Putin’s) activities in Georgia. This year we included a “Baltic film expo” at the festival with films from Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. You can bet the Balts are watching Putin. The result of many “relocations” during Soviet times have resulted in large Russian ethnic and linguistic minority populations in each of those countries. (During Soviet times all civil service and licensing exams were given ONLY in Russian.) Does the presence of a Russian speaking population give license to invade?
The Russian people have a great history and the world is blessed with the gifts of Russian culture. We know many many talented Russians who live in the west– in the arts, and in the sciences, and more than a few figure-skaters! But Putin is skating on thin ice. The Russian people can celebrate their culture. But no one can re-write it’s history to exclude pogroms, anti-semitism, labor camps, gulags, and violations of human rights.
The morning news had emotional interviews from the large Ukrainian community in Chicago. They remember the history left out of Putin’s Sochi spectacles in olympic proportions. Here in Los Angeles we have large Russian and Ukrainian communities. These communities are comprised of people that left oppression. Some of that oppression was during Soviet times. Some of it was the “same old, same old” that continued after Soviet times. To NOT take this all very seriously is like pre-WW II days when people didn’t think Hitler and National Socialism was a threat. Yes, restraint is prudent, but inaction is not. This is a time for careful handling of a situation that threatens world peace– a time for working together with our allies and through structures like the United Nations. This is not a time for reckless and nearly treasonous politics as we are seeing from Lindsey Graham and John McCain’s Obama bashing. Enough of their political sour grapes. This is the time to stand together as a united nation and let our leaders do their job.
Brilliant piece that allows those of us who are interested, but are not in-depth followers of the history of the region, to have some perspective of what is actually happening. Thanks!
Suggestions about the ultra nationalist are probably correct; They seem to exist in all societies. I have read most recently that a number of the ultra-nationalist proclamations have been rescinded (official Lithuanian language usage, etc). But what about reports of the the existence of Russian provocateurs (http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/3a8833b6-a230-11e3-87f6-00144feab7de.html#axzz2uvoqKzez)? They too seem credible. And how can Crimea be of any use to the Russians without the Ukraine? I doesn’t seem logical to take the Peninsula without extracting additional concessions from the Ukraine concerning access, water, etc?
Agreed; the West doesn’t need to provoke Russian nationalist, but shouldn’t there be limits on Mr. Putin? He has, after all, turned into a tyrant of sorts. The legitimacy of the Ukrainian Parliament may be questioned;elections need to be held. However, elections shouldn’t be treated as a winner-take-all affair. Rights and institutions need to be respected by all parties; if the winner put the loser on trial, then surely bad blood will result. If corruptions make the common Lithuanian feel deprived, then a sense of righteousness in protest will result, even if it is misguided. Both the EU and Russia need to quite using the Ukraine as a pawn in global politics; they have sufficient problems of their own.
Our primary objective should be a reasonable containment of Russia, allowing its sphere of influence to include eastern Ukraine.
We should be deploying troops to Poland and the Baltics now. On a permanent basis. This will demonstrate in language Russia will understand, “hey, our bad on Ukraine we didn’t realize it was so important to you, but this far and no further.” We should be making back channel deals with Kiev to deploy our forces straight to Kiev if Russia threatens the capital. We should leak these deals to the Russians, and also leak that we have no intent of defending southern and eastern Ukraine.
Though I don’t know if the author understands it, what he advocates necessarily means the breaking off of southern and eastern Ukraine. Which, in the long run, is a good thing for both Ukraine and the West. The police and officials there are powerless. Russian and pro-Russian Ukrainian protesters are seizing buildings all over the place. If the central government does not crack down, make arrests etc. the riots and attacks on government facilities and politicians and their families will just continue until each region votes the government in Kiev illegitimate and votes to join Crimea’s status (whatever that turns out to be). But if Kiev does crack down, Russia will invade.
So Kiev can’t win here. But, if it keeps up a strategy of doing nothing, it will only lose the south and east. That’s 50% of the economy and 45% of the people but what will be left is a state with a truly united culture and opinion on foreign policy. Carrying out back breaking reforms and joining Europe would then be feasible in a few years.
What Europe and America must NOT do, is allow Russia to play its leverage in negotiations for an adjustment of the situation in Kiev and Ukraine as a whole. That will only mean this will happen again, it will demoralize western Ukraine, alienate them from the West, and probably lead to a violent struggle in Western Ukraine between the nationalists and the mainstream politicians. That will in turn divide Western Ukraine and allow another Russian backed candidate to triumph in the next elections. After that, Ukraine will lose all its freedoms as authoritarian methods are imposed.
Your essay left me in tears. For days I have been trying to convey to my American friends and family members what my news feed looks like with my Venezuelan friends breaking my heart and my American ones going about life. You put in words what I have been trying to share in dribbles. THANK YOU.
I grew up in Colinas de Bello Monte and spent a lot of time in Altamira, where my grandparents lived. I am sorry such a beautiful area has been reduced to a war zone. Keep telling the truth of what you are experiencing–in English.
How are things today? I keep checking–the media is woefully behind in English. Is there a reliable source in English that you would recommend for updated news from Venezuela besides Twitter?
Things today are no good. In this precise moment we’re in the panic room again and the GNB is shooting a lot in the surroundings. It went ugly in Carrizar, Margarita, Táchira, etc.
I recommend the blog Caracas Chronicles, if you don’t know it already. But its approach is analytical, not informative.
Well, it’s complicated. Let’s wait and see. I’m sure Venezuela will spark their preoccupations if end up like a South American Somalia: a harbor for drug dealers and new pirates of the Caribbean. I dont’ want that to happen, of course, but I’m afraid is a possible scenario, given the corruption of its armed forces and the opportunities that offer the chavista state and the +2,000 km long Caribbean and Atlantic shores.
Excellently written!!! My parents in Venezuela also live half a block from the plaza Altamira, and somehow could relate throughout their own experiences. It is a shame that you and your family are seriously considering leaving, but hey, no brainer right!!!….I would pass this article to my American friends…better information here than any CNN has produced in English….Thanks a million!!!
Very well written indeed, your work is remarkable here and we need pieces like this now more than ever, but I cannot help to feel also a little bit desperate for your little girl. I am originally from Valencia and now I live in Northern California, my thoughts and prayers are precisely with the youngest members of my family who live there. Is this going to end? Are we going to be able to recover whatever is left of the country and bring it back to our children? Mis respetos.
Erm… Chechnya? The public persecution of many minorities especially in Moscow? Internet is full of gruesome videos of Russian neo-nazis beating up people from Caucasus or Central Asia. Work ads recruit often only “European-looking” employees. Russian society is currently the most xenophobic in Europe. And if Russia annexes Crimea, the indigenous Crimean Tartars will have to face it once again…
The US has utterly incompetent leadership. We can do 2 things. One is sanctions on anyone who knows Putin, with 100% asset seizures and travel bans. This is mostly Russian oligarchs who stole their money so why not?
The other is simple. Offer Ukraine better economic integration with the west but DO NOT force them to choose between the West and Russia. Let them have better integration with Russia too if they want. This is very much in Russia’s best interests economically, which may be adequate to distract them from how corrosive it would be of their totalitarian government to let their people travel freely in Ukraine and see things working well there under a more open system.
This is a penetrating analysis, but I think it overstates the case for ethnic division in Ukraine.
I am not convinced that large numbers of East Europeans want to leave Ukraine. An estimate is that 17% of Ukrainians are ethnic Russians. The rest are not (including large numbers of Easterners). “Russified” Ukrainians (in language, culture) are not necessarily or even probably Russian nationalists; the idea that linguistic borders match national sentiments in Ukraine, in my view, is a myth propagated by nationalists on both sides. After all, Soviet internal passports designated nationality as an official category, and Ukrainians were distinguished from Russians independent of language use.
My suspicion is that bused-in Russians from the East make up a significant part of the angry crowds in Kharkiv, Donetsk etc.
The articles uses an old “West- East” conspiracy theory without giving the Ukrainian people a right of self-determination. The revolution in Ukraine was an attempt to break with the post -Soviet past (the concentraion of power in the hands of one person, corruption, absence of rule of law ). The new government recieved a broad support by all parties, including the Party of regions of the former president Yanukovich. No one “chased away the large part of the parliament” and the language law was subsequently repealed. The deep divide between the West and East of Ukraine is largely overplayed.
I think the first premise, that the West “overplayed its hand” is completely wrong… which badly affects the subsequent arguments presented here, unfortunately. The West was not interfering on the ground and stirring up trouble in Ukraine through a corrupt administration and shipped in rioters. The west was mostly too busy with its own problems to really even think much about the Maidan until a few people got killed.
I am spending a year in Boston with my girls, and I really thank God for the opportunity. Without any idea this would happen, and against all odds, I decided to come … But I can not imagine living anywhere else in the world but in my home, in Los Palos Grandes. I am very scared to take my children to a war zone though… I go to bed, and wake up every day, praying to God and hoping he will take care of our country soon. Things can look very different from one day to the other… We, venezuelans are usually blamed for not having a political memory. It is in these particular tough times when I believe that this lack of memory can be our biggest blessing. I am sure that if Capriles had been given the office as he deserved in October´s elections, the next day we would have had very few “declared” chavistas left. “Ooooh me?, NEVER! My wife used to be chavista, not anymore man! or Yeah few of my friends were, sometimes I faked it you know, just in case because of those colectivos, ZAPE! I never believed in their Socialismo del s XXI!!!
So, if for some reason we ever get the chance for a transition government to take Venezuela back to where it belongs, I trust the people of venezuela enough to know that ALL that hate government has tried to convey for years would remain just a bad memory. We will never be what we used to be, but we can be a better and more inclusive society one day. We need to believe it, we need to work for it, we need to show it in our everyday interactions, even now! Venezuela is in my heart and I really wish this to be over asap. Take care of yourselves, we are praying for you all everyday!!! My nephew is spending the night in prison to fight for Democracy, I am not there, but I am suffering for my people … God bless us all always.
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So. Let’s talk reapolitik here, not ideals. The issues with the IIPB that led to the War of Dagestan and the Moscow Apartment Bombings are very unlikely in Ukraine. I’m not saying life in Russia is charming or progressive. However, it is likely preferential to a pointless civil war which would not be supported by the majority of the population of Crimea and other parts of Eastern Ukraine which is Russian. That’s simply the case. Life in a somewhat repressive state is usually preferably to calamitous Civil War, and those areas lean toward Russia.
Exactly what the corporate controlled mass media want; To keep us distracted from what they are really doing in the world, and manipulated through the likes of feeding us news of some punk kid from Canada (JB) that is just looking for a free ride. Absolutely goddamn right.
I’m with Shelly and Manuel on this one. I think the same thing happened
in a lot of places. I was born shortly after WWII began in a small
town in Washington State where our daily newspaper showed up from
Seattle just as we were getting out of school at 3:16. The boys who
delivered the newspapers couldn’t be on sports teams because teams
practiced right after school. One of the most startling events of my
young life was when our paperboy (one of six in town) gave up his paper
route so he could play football and basketball.
A thoughtful and thought-provoking piece that first of all doesn’t buy into the typical antagonist “frame” for China reportage, and secondly does what fine essays were originally intended to do: explore and illuminate a subject while writing about it. The vulnerability of Jim Spear is very moving as he talks about his own responses to his difficult and demanding father, whose life choices nonetheless gave Spear both the impetus and the opportunity for a better life. Set against the backdrop of fading opportunities for so many Americans, rural Aussies and Chinese, the ironic note that closes the essay is poignant and insightful. Spear sees how he has gotten to where he is, a place of prosperity and integrity, of meaning, but genuinely worries that all of this achievement may be just a blip on the screen of global decline rooted in exploitative employment practices. And he is right to be concerned.
“in the longer run, the only way to keep Ukraine together may be the
introduction of a new federal constitution with much greater powers for
the different regions.”I
am given to understand that this is exactly the suggestion given by Putin and Lavrov and was rejected by the EU and US. Or is my understanding incorrect?
Adding to the mystery, researchers also don’t know why fat is so harmful. When I was researching a piece on the physical states of neighborhoods and their effects on health, I spoke with one of the nation’s top obesity researchers, at USC. He said that the scientists don’t fully understand the problem of fat: we must have it to survive, for one thing, so why would an evolutionary necessity become so harmful? When I suggested that the excess weight on organs and joints was to blame, he said that was only a minor part of the problem, and only came into play for the massively obese. The problem seemed to be with the inflammatory aspects of fat, but that was what they really didn’t understand. Fat on some organs was more inflammatory than others, and inflammatory response was different among races, e.g., a person with predominantly African ancestry tended to have a worse reaction to organ fat than one with predominantly European ancestry, such that the same eight ounces of fat on, say, the liver, would cause a much higher inflammatory reaction in the person of African ancestry than in the Euro-dominant person. They didn’t have a clear picture of what was at work there beyond general genetics, & they didn’t understand the mechanisms of the fat-inflammatory response.
That interview took place two years ago, & I don’t know how the science has advanced since then.
One issue too has always been the encroachment of light pollution, dimming out the screen.
I hope someone is writing a How To book on reviving these beauties!
There is a permanent solution to California’s periodic water crises that is more environmental friendly and less costly then desalination plants which create offshore plumes of salt. Also it will create at least 7,000 new temporary jobs and 125 permanent jobs while improving the water quality throughout the west. This solution has been proposed several times in the past as described in the following links.
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1218263105159940.xml&thispage=1
The overflow from Bonneville dam, the lowest dam on the Columbia, is tens of thousands of acre feet per day. Ocean salt water flows inland to the base of this dam. The overflow water should be piped down the east side of the Oregon Cascades where there are less geographical challenges. The line could follow
Highway 197 or 97 or the power line that goes to California from The Dalles. In
northern California the pipeline can be split to feed Lake Shasta and Owens
Valley. Power to feed the pumps can be produced by solar or wind farms in
central Oregon.
The distance to Shasta Lake is only two thirds of the distance from the Delta to LA and the elevation gain is only two thirds of that over the Tehachapies.
Benefits will accrue to Central Oregon, Northwestern Nevada, Northeastern and all of California. Water Levels can be maintained in several large Oregon lakes, Goose Lake, Pyramid Lake, Mono Lake and Owens Lake.
In the past only Washington State objected. But we could promise to not take any water from their side of the river.
La Mesa
@jordanbrianl noted that neither Beverly Hills not Compton are in LA. They get water service from other companies. That’s correct. I used those cities because they are iconic (and they are in 90210 and 90220 ZIP codes, respectively). My poetic license may bother some people, so I looked up areas within LADWP’s service area and found these: East LA (ZIP 90063) has an average household size of 4 people earning a median income of $38.8k. They get 28ccf at a low price if they live on a small lot. In Bel Air (ZIP 90077), the average household of 2 earns a median income of $182k. That couple will get 56 cheap ccf if they live on a large lot. These numbers are bigger in summer, when LADWP encourages you to water the lawn…
Liz, I found this interesting, upsetting, disturbing, and brought me back to my own days on sets as a writer/observer, thrilled to be hearing actors spouting my words. I loved the crew, and joking around with them. That this young woman died this way is deeply disturbing. I certainly hope, as you do, that her death will lead to mandatory safety requirements to protect everyone in that line of work.
Well done, Liz ! Well written, and obviously from the heart, and from personal experience. Sarah Jones’ horrible and inexcusable death has been a rallying cry for more Safety on Film Sets and Locations. My career as a First Camera Assistant was a bit longer than yours (46 years), but I have similar stories.
Yes, Liz, there is still a small bump in pay PLUS a substantial insurance policy which kicks in when you shoot in a hazardous situation, if you point out that it is hazardous. And the pay bump happens each time you have to do it (as in each time the helicopter takes off and lands) and should always be brought up in the hopes it discourages producers from doing hazardous shots over and over. And every member has the right to say no if they feel their life could be in danger. One of our camera people refused to fly with a 90 year old helicopter pilot…the foolish person who accepted the situation crashed with the pilot. NO ENTERTAINMENT IS WORTH DYING FOR!
You are dead on, my friend. LA hockey fans are as loyal as any in sports, in part because many of them spent decades watching the team when they were, frankly, terrible. No team’s fans deserved to finally win a Cup more than Kings fans. It’s nice to see a new generation of So Cal hockey players coming around. Good luck and keep your stick on the ice.
Thank you Moira and Brenda. I strongly agree that legislators in Watts should hear of this issue, but it is also disturbing if they can genuinely say they were unaware of such an issue.
It’s sad and surprising that there don’t seem to be any other educational institutions, churches, or non-profits that can help with your various needs as a college student. Maybe others can chime in who might know of more resources for students in your situation.
The saddest part of this sad story is that USC and Cal State-Dominguez Hills are only helping students who’ve wound up in a school for teenage moms rather than rewarding kids who’ve made better choices.
You make a good point that there should be assistance to help those making good choices as well. However, I’m noticing a “privilege” problem. You don’t need assistance for an apartment: you just need a room in a group house. There aren’t ads for housing near campus? And why isn’t there anyone in the Financial Aid office at your college to help you find assistance? Based on your income you should be eligible for plenty of financial assistance for college. And exactly what are the job prospects for a sociology/journalism major? Do you want to be a barista? I’m impressed with your striving to overcome your disadvantages, but not impressed that you propose government aid. There should be charities to assist you.
‘…Riverside, San Bernardino, and El Centro have all been spring training homes for Major League teams at different times. A Japanese pro team once held spring workouts in Salinas.’
Perris Park was spring training venue, my older friend, dated ballplayer.
Cities give big subsidies to Anaheim Angels and want more.
Where is the equity? Bring teams back to Inland Empire, we have a stadium for sale.
Great piece Liz! I too was almost seriously hurt and “missed the plane that crashed” when the dolly grip on Mighty Joe Young asked me not to go up on crane with Don Peterman because we were not going to roll, we were only setting up the shot and marking the postion, Ray Delamotte the operator took my seat and they went up and the crane broke at 20′ , Ray who took my seat broke his back and Don almost died
A single line connects Los angeles and San diego. when I say single line I mean one train one way. Connecting a 2 million region with a 10 million region. A donkey trail connecting two huge adjacent metro areas. Incredible.
Then there is the question of friegt having priority over people. What is more important? Why does property have priority over people? People have priority over property all over the world.
A great reflection, and nice remembrance for me, of my time on the Mississippi. I lived in Dubuque IA “66-69” my Father was at Wartburg Seminary. We lived at the edge of a forest just south of Catfish Creek, which was my link to the Big Muddy. Mnny hours spent fishing and watching the river roll by… thanks for the reminder!
I loved reading Claire’s vivid story on Ansel Adams this fresh spring morning before the sun-rose. I wonder if Ansel captured a sun-rose in full bloom?
Players used illegal drugs before the 90s – Willie Mays and his “red juice”, and some are still using them today – Colome for the Rays. It is incredibly naive to think that the 90s were the “steroids era”.
“Axelrod added that he makes a distinction between former Yankee pitchers Andy Pettitte, who took drugs to try to recover from injury, and Roger Clemens, who took drugs to enhance and extend his career.”
And no one bothered to question him on how much Pettitte was enhancing and extending his career by recovering from injury? Talk about amateur hour.
Nice article. You forgot to give DC credit for exporting its model of deficit spending and deferred financing to all our states, cities and counties. Only problem, as we are seeing, is the states’ and locals’ inability to print money and issue more treasury bonds. Other than that, everything’s swell.
DC likes to copy CA. You wrote it what exactly what it is….they are running CA. comes election they troop down here for campaign money…dictates CA what
Programs be pursued .
I hope it helps her, I have a daughter with similar challenges and it is criminal that people are suffering because of archaic laws. Actually, I just read an article that Jesus used cannabis oil as part of his healings. If it’s good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me!
Ruben,
I like and admire your art and your positive, constructive attitude. Good fortune to you!
One request, though, for both you and the editor of your article: In articles with images, please include captions that tell us the artwork’s title, medium, and dimensions.
–Norman
Thanks for the post. Yeah I kinda feel the same way. Even if they would have gotten a ping today. You have any idea what it would take to get ships there and doing some kind of “recovery”? I guess you do! The ping would be long lost by the time they would have a good idea where the wreckage is. So they would be there for a long time trying their best on getting a hold of things.
For the movie to have covered Cesar and the farmworker struggle satisfactorily, it would have needed to be at least twice as long! True, the film left many things out or didn’t cover others more thoroughly. But considering that Hollywood is such an elitist, high-powered, and cut-throat domain, we were fortunate to have this moderate movie produced. But now that we have been recognized as a force to be reckoned with, we should demand and expect more of our stories to be told.
The team behind El Verde, Anthony Aguilar (playwright) and Alejandra Cisneros (director) are fantastic. Thank you both for being part of the East LA Rep familia and sharing your play with the people of Boyle Heights at the four libraries. Your comedy and stories are so good and I can’t wait for people to see a full production of the latest draft of El Verde.
Amy.. a lovely, vivid story of this wonderful support group you and Dennis have brought to our kids. Thank you. By this story and the POPS member’s stories being seen and heard, POPS will surely be adopted across the land. Post.. share.
I have been thinking about stopping at this rink by myself to go skating every time I pass it at night. The neon lights catch my attention and I Iove to roller skate. I used to go to rinks all the time when I was younger. When I went for my nieces birthday about ten years ago, I found I could still skate pretty well – nothing fancy – and it was a blast and great exercise. Thank you for the article!
Why would you want to dump a child’s exposure to the wonderful Spanish, Indian and Mestizo cultures of early California in favor of the political agenda found in today’s university system?
I was delighted to read the published version of your article in SF Chronicle’s Insight.
You are exactly right about the role of the California Mission reports in the 4th grade among native Californians. Not only do I have my own memories (Solano Mission, the last and northernmost of the missions), but my mother taught 4th grade in San Francisco and loved California history. As we traveled to various parts of the state, she shared many stories about the missions.
I hope your idea of having students do a report on a UC campus gains some traction. Given the role of land-grant schools and agricultural development, I think it could be a useful project for a variety of reasons.
As you may know, 50 years ago one out of 5 California families were involved with farming. Today, I understand that it is less than one out of 25. Most young people living in California don’t realize how important agriculture is to the state.
I traveled Europe for almost a year and what made each town cohesive was a center of town. Made things like a newcomer into town much welcomed! The center was just about always a town square. Great way to get a feel of the place! So sad that just about all US cities have scrapped this idea.
BTW, I had these two German tourists stop me one time in the downtown area awhile ago. They were trying to find the center of town! I had to try and explain that there is no “center.” Really it was a sad moment!
Ruben, your art is visually gripping and is complemented by your writing skills. You are a millennial and you art speaks for your generation yet it echoes other generations as well; my generation. Incredibly modern and poised for discovery I hope to see your art very soon. I will look for you on Facebook. Sincerely, Vincent A. Estrada
You are spot on, Gregory. I’ve been struck by this very same thing here. When I returned to DC and had to run an errand to the Hill, I was struck by the fact that all the new “security measures” effectively cleared out the public spaces. As a government of, for, and by the people, it struck me as funny that there were no people out and about the government buildings — especially when I have memories of coming to the city as a kid and walking right up the steps to the Capitol and the White House. We’ve chosen fear over freedom, isolation in the name of security over democratic connection that might make us vulnerable.
Great idea Joe… Would also demonstrate that Delta concerns about flood protection and compatibility of habitat restoration would be consistent with long-term viability of the Delta! We can get there, but it’s going to be a journey…
Beautiful piece Marjorie, and a real tragedy. In my interactions with the man (at UCLA’s Jazz Reggae festival a few years in a row, and a couple other times at other venues around the city), he really did radiate such a strong positive energy, and the feeling was extremely infectious. And as your piece makes clear, he was also someone who helped make L.A. feel much smaller to those of us who saw him around town and knew who he was. That’s always a great feeling, and people who help make us all feel a little more connected like that really contribute something important to a big city.
The South Pasadena Arts Council (SPARC) in partnership with LA Freewaves is presenting a free screening of the Out-the-Window artists’ videos, Live Long LA, and a panel discussion about art and health/care issues, Wednesday, April 30th, 7:30 – 9:30 pm, at the new Laurie Hendricks Gallery, 1504 Mission Street,
South Pasadena. Ann Kaneko and Freewaves Executive Director Anne Bray will be on the panel along with Cissy Brady-Rogers, Dr. Marina Khubesrian and Mark Dreskin. Please join us!
I agree with your reasoning, but take issue with the solution. Everything you propose teaching in grades K-8 is already part of the state content standards for education. I personally have taught ALL the concepts you mention to 5th grade in the life science unit on water. Water cycle is taught in at least 3 different grade levels, probably more. Many elementary teachers, however, are too overwhelmed by the latest testing expectations of any give year or cycle of “newness” to properly (or at all) teach all of these science standards. Therefore, the solution is for administrators and education “leaders” to have the expectation that these important standards regarding water be taught, and taught well, at the grade levels where they are supposed to be. And then these idea must be modeled and continually reinforced. As for a “Water Day”, it would be better to have people come out to schools to conduct hands-on activities with students to show them the importance of water conservation, then to have another “Day” on the calendar to be observed in a superficial way or not at all in the middle of other unrelated content.
It’s different at Landmark Cinemas at the Westside Pavilion. We go to see foreign films there. You can make reservations for a seat and you sit on black leather couches. It’s really nice. Otherwise, we watch TV series like “The Wire,” Elmore Leonard’s “Justified,” “Homeland,” “True Detective,” and “Breaking Bad” at home.
You are simply wrong about this. It’s probably true that tonsillectomy was overused in the Baby Boomers but during the 1980’s it was WAY underutilized. That’s one reason why adult tonsillectomies are on the rise even more than those for kids. The 80s babies grew up, and found they were STILL having problems with their tonsils.
To compare a tonsillectomy to a radical prostate operation is absurd. And most of those who died with a tonsillectomy were high risk (therefore had the more serious problems where it wasn’t so “optional) to begin with.
I actually also got my tonsils out in the fall of 2009 as a grown up child of the 80’s. And to this day I feel that was a great decision. Not only did the sore throats and tonsils stones go away, but my face changed in shape (more than it did from losing 65lbs a few years later) because of the swollen lymph glands that calmed down.
No ice cream wasn’t part of the deal. I never cared much for it to begin with (it often gives me headaches and I find most kinds too rich), and was advised to avoid dairy products after the surgery. Not sure why the notion of getting ice cream with that operation is such an Idea fixee with so many people. Besides I felt like I was getting more than enough sugar from the medicine syrups, and was more interesting in top ramen or Vietnamese noodle soup than anything with more freaking sugar.
All true, but research has also shown that when African Americans do visit health care professionals, they are given fewer options and treated more poorly. Tuskegee is at the far end of a spectrum of micro and not-so-micro aggressions. That is why it still resonates. So there needs to be some real soul searching on the part of the medical profession as well.
Purely anecdotal, of course, but I have had to end many mediocre, patronizing, uninformative discussions with health care providers by outlining the Joint Commission complaint procedure or asking for ombudsman/patient advocate information.
I also think many of the behaviors cited are as related to class as to race.
Forget 3-D, premium leather seats, surround sound, etc… at the end of the day, the greatest innovation I’d like to see is a way to prevent people from checking their phones and lighting up their entire row.
While these higher-end Mexican theaters seem to offer more creature comforts, many American households already have those comforts at home, or at a friend’s home. Why pay a premium ticket price for that? Secondly, what is the HDTV ownership rates in Mexico & India? Considering that home picture quality now equals cinema quality, why should US moviegoers pay a premium?
As noted by others, why pay over $40 for a family of four for one night at the movies, with the hassles of lines & parking, plus not being able to sit where you want?
Your argument is very valid, but I can assure you that going to the movies here in Mexico is very, very common. I think it’s cultural. It’s not a matter of price, I think.
PS: Currently, most seats in the cinema here are assigned if you pay online or by phone.
Curious to know if you think that creating an organization like ELACC is possible for smaller communities in Los Angeles like West Adams or Pico Union, as examples. I’m interested in building such an organization for smaller communities and learning about initial startup and development process for ELACC. Any thoughts? And maybe there are organizations that already exist that I’m not aware of.
Yes. One of the best articles I’ve read here. Agreed. Our leadership in this city is too “politically correct” in a backwards sense. No censure or consequences for the most aggregious acts and too much lip service to “understanding” which is really turning a blind eye. But hope this strong position can apply to all Zocalo pieces, not just this Sterling story. In the past some Zocalo articles seemed to display the same sort of “understanding” when eyeing broken L.A. forces.
“It didn’t hurt Sterling that he advertised his charitable exploits in the L.A. Times, a paper that has portrayed him more as creepy uncle than as unrepentant racist.”
I love/hate every word of this article because it’s a credible interpretation of Sterling World.
I used to write Teleprompter presentation/award acceptance remarks for Sterling and other luminaries, at several of their joint charitable dinner events. These were $25,000 per-table Beverly Hilton events. During one, I was crossing the dinner floor on my way backstage when I encountered Sterling throwing an ‘ol rich guy’s temper-tantrum. He was yelling at one of the shows producers, demanding that he be presented his award before a certain aging philanthropic C-lister. He’d paid for the evenings invitations –no small sum, I’m sure– but his check would be canceled if the switch wasn’t made. The awards themselves were manufactured hoo-ha given to a list of individuals who would eventually indicted, jailed, or shamed from their positions of business and power (from Mike Corona to Bernard Kerik), so, of course, Sterling got his way.
While this example has nothing to do with our city’s leadership, during the calendar days filled with meetings related to writing three Sterling events, I witnessed enough of this man’s bottomless and formidable exceptionalism to fully agree with Mr. Matthew’s thinking here. Nice work. I ask only that you not forget how overjoyed we are –those of us on the lower rungs of L.A.’s golden letter– this week.
The Central Valley of CA is the heart of Republicans who have never had any interest in serving the poor. Medi-Cal attaches liens to any asset owned by those who use it for the cost of their health care. While people may be poor, they sometimes own a home with equity. They avoid the use of Medi-Cal or medicaid. In the Northern Valley of Sacramento where I live, Kaiser dominates. Kaiser raised premiums double digits for years to build hospitals and services that cover the area. Fee-for-service Doctors have a difficult time in this environment. The ACA is a first step toward reform of the vulture capitalistic health care system. Next step will be medicare-for-all that would have bankrupted the current health care system with its cost controls. Or Republicans will win and run the largest “first world” country with conditions of “3rd world” countries for most of its occupants. Can’t call them citizens without democracy.
An adopted son of Los Angeles, Raymond Chandler, once noted “it is not a fragrant world, but it is the world you live in.” My departure from your point, however, is that Los Angeles serves as both maker and mirror of impunity for our culture at large.
When I used to see those “look at me ain’t I swell” ads that Sterling placed in the LA Times I knew all I needed to know about the swell-headed man. Thank you, Mr. Mathews for this hard-hitting piece.
Thank you Mr. Mathews, that is about the only thing about Sterling in the past few days that makes any sense! Now lets all put our head back in the sand….
This reminds me of the concept that the benefit of a strong plan is that it gives you flexibility; you need to know where you are going so that you have the courage and security to deviate. The connectedness with a place may be somewhat transient yet that level of connectedness enables us to explore many a new place.
Sterling’s “charitable” profile has always been pure puffery. To be featured in his weekly ads, most charities received $100,000 over 10 years, or $10,000 per year. No one would turn down a donation of that size, but the fawning required is not at all commensurate with the amount of the donation. It reminds me of the old Q & A—“Would you have sex with this old geezer for a million dollars?” answer: “Yes! I’d do almost anything for a million dollars!” “Would you have sex with him for 25 cents?” “No way!” Response: “Well you’re no better than a two-bit whore; we’re just negotiating the price.”
The “philanthropy” game is one of the more disgusting institutions of capitalism. Instead of paying taxes to the government, where our elected representatives direct funds to democratically-determined priorities established through law-making, rich people get to direct their tax dollars to their own priorities. In the culture of the charity world, these fund-giving foundations demand a level of obsequiousness that is not at all deserved. Because of his giant weekly ads (which, if he paid for them, would cost more than the funds he donated to the charities) Sterling is only one of the most visible.
If the point of the author is to exposed the current (“flawed”) medical system, and to admonish the ACA for buying in, instead of reforming, the system (“It’s a killer combination: hospitals delaying and denying care to
patients as the ACA enables more Americans to buy into this deeply
flawed system.”) – then I agree completely. But please, make it clear – we want universal healthcare, not “health insurance.”
The phrases “universal healthcare,” or “single-payer” are not mentioned. Complaints without suggestions do not further discussion. And unless we become comfortable speaking about “socialistic” ideas such as “everyone deserves healthcare” or “healthcare should not be driven by profit,” we will be trapped in this private insurance scam.
Ralph – you make a great point. I don’t think the ACA is reforming the system. I think it’s just making it available to more people. I completely agree with you and am disappointed our country didn’t go farther to ensure universal healthcare.
I’m a little less charitable than Charitie on this. I grew up watching the Dodgers on KTLA – now that the team has retreated behind the pay cable curtain, I feel that we have been betrayed. Oh, I’ll probably take my kids to a game or two over the next 5 years just to give them an idea of what a game is like – but I’ll never let them bond with the team. They’ve betrayed us.
truer words were never spoken and will never be more widely ignored – who knows what budget matters the voters will approve again, and again, and again…..as they compensate and over compensate for their own errors?
While I too enjoy the NFLs revenue sharing and draft, you are forgetting one thing: the free “farm system” that the NFL enjoys. The NCAA or “college football” allows the NFL to avoid paying for a “minor league” system to develop talent. The “talent” is gift-wrapped and delivered in a 3-day, reality TV-show (coincidentally, happening now). The system is so unfair to the athletes, that college “student”-athletes are seeking collective-bargaining status!
BTW, if you’d like to compare “past times,” it’s not for coincidence that the new york yankees have won almost 25% of the “world” series championships played.
Great piece, Joe.
I guess it was after you wrote it that, from *inside* LA, UCLA gave something like four hundred thousand dollars back to Sterling, and released him from his promise to give millions more. Serious pushback but expensive symbolism too. As an alum (of the law school there), I kinda wish UCLA had kept the down payment.
It’s an interesting argument to tie our lack of
attachment to the 18th century’s Land Ordinance and Northwest Ordinance.
The “gridding” of the western states certainly helps explain
placelessness west of the 100th meridian. But it’s complicated by the fact that our lack of willingness to protect historical architecture is as much a
problem in New England as in California. In the 1960s, Charles Olson
published a series of “screams” to the editor (his term) complaining
about his town’s willingness to tear down historical houses to make room
for a YMCA to expand and other new projects. This was in Gloucester,
MA, one of the oldest cities in US.
Forget a mani-pedi, Tuesday is my “spa” day spent playing golf with incredible women. I always laugh when people complain that women play slowly…. There isn’t a single woman golfer I know who does not have somewhere to be… Picking up kids or taking a conference call or rushing back to work.
Thanks
for this well reasoned piece. When I have run office in the past,
I’ve posted my answers to these kinds of questionnaires on my campaign
web site. I feel its helpful to give voters this information, that often
goes beyond what can be communicated in a direct mail postcard or one
minute debate answer.
Great article. I live in San Pedro and commute to City Hall East every day by driving to the Harbor Gateway Transit Center ( which used to be known as the Artesia Transit Center) and catch a Sliverline into downtown. I use the Dash to get around Downtown during the day and then reverse the process at night.
Great piece Joe, but I have bad news for you – I have the commute you dream of and It is still brutal and soul-sucking. I get on a highly-efficient mass transit system a few blocks from my house in Brooklyn, stay on one train for an hour and get off at my office building in Manhattan. Especially bad when I get to my office and the school nurse calls, and I have to turn around and go back immediately!
A portion of my commute is similar to yours. I live in Arcadia and work in DTLA, so I can either drive the ExpressLanes or take the Silver Line. In 2016, consider driving to El Monte Station and taking the Silver Line directly to 7th/Metro and transferring to the Expo Line to Santa Monica. That will save you one extra transfer on the Red Line while we wait… and wait… for the Regional Connector. Your trip should be around 75 minutes.
Or, hopefully your kids will be out of preschool by then and you will no longer need to drive to Arcadia 😉
Wow, that’s tough. Hate to gloat, but I have the same sort of “drop the kid(s) off then go to work” commute, except I get to take a 10 minute bike ride with my son in a bike seat to his preschool, then a five minute ride from there to the door of my office! Then, reverse in the evening, at home in time to take him out to a park or playground with the couple of hours of sunlight still left.
Delighted to hear Mr. Woo’s thoughts! I give Michael Woo credit for engaging me with ClimatePlan’s strategic action and inviting me to become more involved in helping to implement SB 375, which connects land-use and greenhouse gas emissions!
The floods were cataclysmic mostly b/c the water had no where to go. There were not the flood channels and street drains of today. And the entire area and surrounding hills that use to be heavily forested had been chopped to the ground to build and for cattle grazing grounds, from San Diego to SF. The damage that happened around SF was caused by leveling hundreds of miles of oaks and redwoods. Nothing to absorb it, no place for the water to go. Human caused.
Heavy rain cycles have happened like that for thousands of years, and it never ruined the land. But when humans hacked the crap out of the landscape, they were stupidly surprised by the inability of the earth to absorb all that water. Bare land kinda does that.
When we do get the rains again, it will cause some minor slides and flooding, but never to the degree of damage of that time, as we’ve coated our cities with drains and concrete. With nothing on the hills to nourish, all the water will drain away, mostly into the ocean instead of into the land. And in a couple years we’ll wonder yet again why our reservoirs still aren’t full.
We fight fires all year and still never replant the hills of SF or the canyons of LA. Why do we destroy what the land gave us, but rarely replant?
The immigrant situation is a bit more nuanced. Immigrants are the
sought-after highly skilled foreign nationals, many from the global
North. Immigrants are also guest workers in the construction industry,
physically and socially isolated from the rest of the population, their
movements biometrically tracked, laboring long hours in exploitative
conditions with no route to citizenship.
Amen. I’m originally a New Yorker, lived in San Antonio for 5 years, then moved to the Conejo Valley a year ago. Texas is a far easier place to live than California, with a superior public education system. Sorry California, our once great education system is now inferior to that of Texas. Did you know that by law you may not have more than 21 kids in a classroom in Texas? My kids never had more than 19 in their classrooms. Here in California, my oldest son has 45 students in is freshman biology class–and we live in what is supposedly one of the finest school districts in SOCAL (Las Virgenes). We also pay higher school taxes here and get far less for the dollar. Each family donates hundreds of dollars to the PTA here to pay for a school librarian, counselor and musical education. That was all included in Texas. Also, our school infrastructure is falling apart here. We had pristine facilities in Texas.
There are two huge mistakes California has made in Education that Texas has not:
1. In Texas, almost all school taxes are controlled by the local school board. If education is a priority in your district, you get great teachers and facilities. If football is a priority, you get great teams. Either way–you choose where you live, knowing that if you lived in a like minded community, your children would have an experience consistent with your values. We chose to live in a community that valued education and were never disappointed. It’s appalling to me that school funding decisions are almost exclusively taken in Sacramento–in such a huge state, what could remote officials possible know about local needs? This is just dumb.
2. Texas believes in large school districts that spread overhead over many schools. If you only have to pay for one superintendent and his/her staff across 100 schools, the administrative “tax” is lower and more money flows to individual schools, classrooms, teachers and students. Our current school district and those surrounding us have 12 or less schools, each with their own expensive staff and overhead–less money to the schools.
Californians–your education system is nothing to be proud of–Texas has a far more progressive educational system that gets results and delivers value for tax payers. You need to demand more for your money (and your children).
Interesting points from someone who has seen the advantages/disadvantages of both.
A couple of comments. (1) Prior to the adoption of Prop. 13 in 1978, local districts did have more autonomy. Increased state funding, as a result, changed that dramatically. Property taxes for long time homeowners are kept relatively low (mine is $1300/yr for a 3/2 on 3 acres in a Sierra foothills community with good schools) or even current buyers whose property tax will be 1% of the purchase price. Thus, much more top-down control has become the norm.
(2) Californians, for whatever reason, have always held on to a mantra of l”local control” even though, as you point out, that tends to mean much more administrative overlap and duplication. And, since 1978, not much control at the local level at all. Not unusual to encounter separate elementary and high school districts and a still surprising number of one school districts as well.
This is an excellent column. As a site selection consultant, I dig deeper into community characteristics than just about anyone else. Hence, I can clarify that data-driven comparisons support the positive impressions conveyed by Joe Mathews.
I try to avoid touting one community over another, and my reports to clients are objective and based on facts. However, I think it’s important to reiterate this writer’s positive sense about Frisco and Plano. I’ve visited those communities and my eyes opened wide when I saw their attributes.
Irvine, Calif., an upscale place, is my home town. When visiting those Texas locations I found myself looking at scores of gleaming new facilities, super-clean streets and great schools. I thought, “This resembles Irvine.”
Also, I’ve met economic development representatives from those Dallas-area communities as well as from Richardson, Allen, Irving and McKinney. They, too, were highly professional and refrained from pointing out California’s business negatives. They stayed focused on their educational, transportation and community cohesiveness. And their business-friendly policies results in commercial growth and job creation in virtually every industry.
My point here is that some Californians who should know better ridicule communities in Texas and other states. The Dallas area is a case study in how many areas around the United States offer a lifestyle that’s superior to the very places the California critics live.
Very interesting but perhaps somewhat misleading re: the California-Texas debate, especially where taxes are concerned.
Recently in the Sacramento Bee, where I read this article today, Christopher Thornberg of Beacon Economics, wrote:” The vast bulk of residents who have moved out of state (California) earn less than $50,000 per year..” Their leaving, Thornberg says, according to available literature, is “due to quality of life and housing costs, not taxes.”
Quite unlikely then, that an individual with an income of less than $50,000 will be relocating in the areas mentioned here. (Keep in mind that both average California personal income and median family incomes are significantly higher than in Texas)
Texas does not, of course, tax incomes. But since city, county, and school districts services rely on property taxes, it appears those taxes are higher– much higher– depending on location.
In a Trulia post on Texas property taxes, one respondent noted that property taxes in the Bryan/College Station area (home of Texas A&M) are 2.73 per hundred dollars of value. If my math is correct, that would more than $8,000 on a $300,000 home. That compares to $3,000 for a similarly priced home here (I know. A similar California home might cost $500,000, but that’s still a $3,000 difference,)
Certainly, while the grass may be greener in places like Frisco and Plano, it may not be elsewhere. West Texas–a large expanse–has always struck me as the San Joaquin Valley without irrigation water and the green created by it.
Interesting too that, as Mr. Matthews has noted, the cost of subsidizing relocations is not cheap. That usually means those incentives (subsidies) must be borne by taxpayers, mainly in higher property taxes.
I really enjoyed your entry this morning. Your story was very good and reminded me of a feel good movie in which the girl leaves the small town to find success in the big city only to find she already had it. Just in reverse! Happy for you and your hubby. I’m sure Sara has told you that she was born in Orange county. There are certain things I miss from that place and time and some I don’t. The beach, the ocean, and countless things to do all the time are things I miss. Youth. The rush and the freeway are things no one ever misses.
Pardon my rudeness, I’m Sara’s dad. I’m sure you figured that out by now. Again, I really enjoyed your writing and I look forward to reading more. Have a great day
Thank you, Mike Stajura, for writing the most sensitively insightful reflection on Memorial Day and ‘heroism’. My brother was a helicopter pilot in Vietnam when his helicopter was shot down; he and his crew were all killed.
He had already been awarded the Silver Star, which upset my father, an Army Captain in World War II: “He’s going to be killed if he’s taking chances.”
Buck himself wrote to tell us not to be impressed: “I’m just doing my job; the government needs the PR.”
Your timely reminder that Memorial Day is to honor those who have fallen, not embarrass our living veterans–whom, by the way, our government treats in a shameful manner.
So thank you again, Mike Stajura, for sharing your thoughts. Best wishes for your doctoral program. We need many more like you.
Great column! I’m a Realtor in the north Dallas area and I’ve seen a lot of people moved here from other parts of the country for our great schools. When talking to the Superintendents of Plano, Frisco, or Prosper etc., you’ll see their genuine concern for our kids. I live in the town of Prosper, which is north of Frisco… my kids go to Prosper schools where you’ll find the Superintendent opening car doors for the kids & greeting them in the morning. On their birthdays, he sends them birthday cards… It’s the small gestures that make a big difference. I’m proud Texan. 🙂
Good article, but very limited in its scope. Medical doctors do not die only of diseases that take months or years to take their lives. Medical doctors also die of the effects of road traffic and other accidents, acute illnesses that kill them in a matter of hours or days, manslaughter, murder, accidental self-poisoning with alcohol or illicit drugs, single-person suicide or suicide pacts
I think you missed the point of the article. When doctors are faced with chronic terminal illnesses most of them choose to forgo full resuscitative measures which would prolong their suffering. The fact that other causes of death affect doctors too is obvious and goes without saying,
Must remember the three women, the mothers of the SMMNRA, Sue Nelson, Jill Swift and Margo Feuer … and our Congressman Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) for the legislation forming the SMMNRA.
perhaps rural poverty backgrounds with only undesired futures … maybe feeling like vanquishing guardians of success global and immortality fashioned on an ubermensch faculty [maybe trying to quell/hide from the horrors of war ever screaming in their heads … and maybe the unwanted familiar presence of the just post-depression mindsets of their elders … maybe just wanting to start out all over again – all brand new … maybe one or some of these things made LA so jawdroppingly breathtaking. it was all of every of their dreams …
This is an important article with serious and hard-to-refute findings: I hope it is widely circulated and its key message (“the person most likely to kill you with a gun is yourself”) begins to sink in. It should be the basis for a MADD-type effort to reduce the massive US pool of guns, which are used far more often in suicides and in domestic violence incidents than for home self-defense
Quibble: whether “Americans have any greater tendency toward violence than Australians” would be better addressed by data than your anecdotal experience.
I applaud your mission to uncover this aspect of our history
that’s been trivialized–when not systematically swept under the
rug–but I’m curious: are women of color featured or mentioned in
this?
“It’s important to note that the feminists made up the women’s liberation movement as they went along—there was no guidebook. No one had protested these ideas before—including the fact that a recorded history that focuses on men alone helps to maintain an unequal society.”
——-
I think this sounds to me like a history of feminism which erases and makes invisible all accomplishments and activities women ever may have engaged in that occurred outside the rubric of “feminism.”
Which was a term first coined by a French Philosopher in the early 19th century on the eve of the Industrial Revolution, and the rise of the feminist “movement” and feminism in its current form coincided and went hand in hand with the industrial revolution. And, modern feminism was a force that desired to discuss what “the place” of women was ONLY under the rubric or framework or limitations of how “it has to be an industrialized society.”
Women didn’t just hide under rocks prior to industrialism. However, many of them worked in the trades, but under one specific condition, namely they were far less likely to work in factories and far more likely to work on a contract basis for merchants who came into their homes to pick things up. Though, doubtless, there were plenty of local marketplaces where women would go to sell things they had designed. And plenty of small scale businesses run by women.
All that tended to be wiped out under industrialism, and industry of course wanted women to work in factories, and the tendency to argue that “work” was only “for men” arose from issues revolving around horrid conditions in factories, which women were much more likely to successfully protest than men. At least this is my understanding.
I kind of think feminist organizations always were funded by rich industrialists and rich businessmen. And, as such, they had a bias where it was like they ostensibly wanted to advance women — but only in this new system they were creating, not outside the system. It’s more like controlling and channeling of women and female labor into very particular directions, even while undermining and limiting women’s ability to economically produce things in the ways in which they USED to before the advent of industrialism.
So, with that in mind, feminism is not really a women’s movement — and women were involved in plenty of stuff BEFORE feminism, and feminism has tended to erase that history because it’s not convenient to the modern business world. They want women to think they did NOTHING worthwhile before they stepped in and started controlling things. Think of issues regarding workplace inflexibility? Where corporations don’t want to make concessions? Any discussion of the history of women’s involvement in the ECONOMY — notice I don’t say “workforce” I say “economy” — would show, in past history far more flexibility for both women AND men was allowed. Too much emphasis on that part of history could potentially create impetus for changing laws in ways that certain businesses funding the mouthpieces of modern feminism today don’t want to do.
In which case feminism rings hollow as a women’s movement and should be seen as a business lobby masquerading as a social issues front. The growth of the modern economy and economic changes has altered the way in which women do business in society, but to argue that what modern capitalism has done is an “improvement” for women over past conditions is, in my mind, an assertion that feminists make on behalf of modern business, yet badmouthing the past seems to me a good way to say to women: “as regards your plight in the modern workforce, with its disaffected workers and huge interferences with family life: you need to just grin and bear it, because you were nothing before we (the modern business world) liberated you, we are responsible for all the good things you have now, you never had it better, you owe us everything, especially not complaining about all the rotten things we do to you today.”
Feminists create this straw man by manufacturing an exaggerated barbaric sexist misogynist past where women were horribly subjugated and given no freedom — and it’s a bunch of fake stereotypes designed to make modern society and all its evil look good in comparison. It encourages complacency and passivity in the face of some really egregious stuff modern society does to both sexes today.
Thanks for your comments, Damian. I would like to point out though that protest and activism had an honorable history long before women got involved on women’s behalf. A sense of justice and desire for a more just and honorable society tends to point the way, in my view. Not that mistakes aren’t made…
I figured out in the 1960s that women had an uphill battle with regard to equal work for not-so-equal pay, and gaining equal opportunities. Sexism has been a kind of ghostly shadow in my working life, starting with the school superintendent in Illinois in the late 1950s who hired me as a teacher because I was married–“I don’t want any old maid hangups in my classrooms.” It took me a while to make myself actually feel the insult to women in that–yet insults to women were constant.
My sense is that younger women tend to take our struggle for granted. On the one hand that’s good–I’m pretty sure hyper-vigilance is bad for the health. On the other, constantly letting the creepiness pass isn’t good or right either.
I’ve reached an age and state of health where I try to avoid stress, so I’m not much of a fighter anymore–but in my faulty heart I love those who fight on. Go to it, sisters and brothers. And thanks. For my grandsons and granddaughters.
Agenda has never been the problem. Not even in the glory days of newspaper. Unless you are talking “who, what, where, when, how?” all journalists have a point of view. What you do is try to be fair. Show the other side, as many sides as possible actually. But never confuse opinion with fact.
You can actually read a paper, and i do, that is diametrically opposed to your views and still get the news – if they do their job right. One might not agree with the analysis and what comes afterward but the news is the news.
The USian obsession with this mythical impartiality is what makes the current journalism horrible for the most part and why under the guise of “opinion” people spout ignorance and intellectual dishonesty.
The Washington Post, NY Times, London Times, Guardian, Wall Street Journal, FInancial Times, Le Monde, Corriere De La Sera – have at their best done amazing work while maintaining a clear point fo view. So much so, that you picked up those papers knowing if they leaned left or right, for example.
-G.
Mr. Rodriguez presents an impressive set of reflections, accompanied by what can be described as well reasoned exhortations re: modes of approach to writing which can move journalism forward &, perhaps, establish anew its connections & contributions to the public good.
Good points. There is some good investigative reporting out there, but the concentration on corruption in high places, unethical behavior in business, negative glitz such as the Sterling fiascos all seem to reinforce cynicism. We are missing a sense of place too often, a sense of ourselves
. One of the things that can be done is to report more on local culture, local events, and the positive efforts of those who try to create community, local jobs, local improvements.
Americans do have a low opinion of the news media but that has nothing to do with anyone’s perception of journalists as being cynical. It’s because 72% of us see the obvious Leftist bias in most news reports and are weary of the narrative that they keep trying to ram down our collective throat. News sites like Fox, The Drudge Report and Breitbart are increasingly popular because they actually do present both sides of an issue, no matter what their detractors claim.
Mr. Rodriguez intones that journalists should “reflect the nation” and “be part of the social fabric” and “embrace a more affirmative role as the very connector of the social fabric” and “be more reflective of the public it strives to reach.” The real issue is that the public no longer trusts the mainstream press. Journalists won’t regain that trust until they stop trying to shape public opinion and return to reporting what’s happening and asking the tough questions, even if doing so works against their own political and social views.
Fox News is the most duplicitous news agency in the world, with the possible of exception of Russian state media, and I large reason why people don’t trust the media. Don’t believe me? Here’s a study on Fox’s coverage of climate change. http://www.newshounds.us/fox_news_most_inaccurate_cable_news_network_on_climate_change_04072014
There are literally hundreds of other examples. Unfortunately, many people think that the truth is whatever supports their prejudices.
Thanks to MiledAnimal for actually demonstrating the problem here, which is people who think that Fox, Drudge, Breitbart etc. are some kind of news organizations.
They aren’t. They’re pure advocacy groups cloaked in just enough news veneer to fool the really, really gullible.
Oh well, my grandma used to call the National Enquirer “the newspaper.”
Actually the feminist and gay movements, the most successful of the 60s and 70s, emerged a little bit later than the others. There was a period about 1968 when the others had emerged and they had not.
Concise and well-done! BTW, in 1972, addition to closing the Airport, students halted traffic on US 101 and the Southern Pacific Railroad. The LA County Sheriff’s Department also played an important role during that period.
This article has stirred so many memories. I lived through the times as they were a-changing! And I changed. I graduated from high school in 1955–got married on the day of my college graduation to emphasize how unimportant I thought it was for me to have an education–and my husband and I just this week marked our 55th wedding anniversary. I went on to get an advanced degree and have a career–something I couldn’t begin to imagine or didn’t at all desire when I was a teen. And without a guidebook, but inspired by my mother who is now almost 102 and by women born a decade or so after me who took up the feminist cause. I want to mention that they may have been more able to do this in the 1960s and 70s because of a single important development: the birth control pill! It’s impossible to exaggerate the impact of the pill on our culture and society.
Seeing that Mr. Rodriguez took the trouble to write this article, I read it twice before deciding to criticize it. Sadly, a second reading only sustained the sense of empty platitudes and faulty reasoning. Mr. Rodriguez engages in classic ‘blame the messenger’ thinking. Apparently, he has a problem with newspapers focusing on corruption in public life. Should journalists not then have reported on say, Governor Christie’s ‘Bridgegate’ or that bully’s most recent scandal of having the Port Authority overpay by tens of millions for some abandoned industrial property? Americans distrust journalists? Sadly, this is in part due to a politicians who slander the ‘liberal’ media when their hands are caught in the cookie jar and to the onslaught of celebrity coverage that has only one purpose: to sell papers. As to what journalists should do, Mr. Rodriguez only offers vague panaceas like giving ‘a sense of community and nationhood.’ I have no idea what this means, but it seems a short step away from blind flag waving. Increasingly America is becoming a country run by oligarchs and the money they spray over elections. We are not united; we are dominated by rich folks who keep getting richer. The average man doesn’t have much of a chance – his vote really means almost nothing when the Koch brothers can buy a hundred thousand over a weekend. Being an ‘adult’ journalist doesn’t mean putting your hands over your eyes: it means speaking truth to power. If what Mr. Rodriguez wants to say is that journalists should do more to report on the lives of working people in this country, well, I certainly can agree with him there. Perhaps Zocalo can help to effect this change by printing more of those stories. Journalism, like the porn industry, is in trouble for one reason: the internet. People won’t pay for what they can get for free.
CF: It is my understanding that gun deaths did decline in Brazil in the wake of the passage of the Disarmament act of 2003 (roughly), by over one thousand deaths per year. Because Brazil’s “saturation” rate of guns is much greater than Australia’s, the buyback relatively speaking was much smaller, and because Brazil has a much more robust and NRA-supported gun industry (which exports heavily to the US and may even constitute the largest share of the US gun market) plus a far greater smuggling problem, one wouldn’t expect comparable results. It isn’t logical to blame the laws and the buyback (“as a result”) for the tragic mass shooting. As you can guess I don’t think the mass arming of individuals to combat crime is a long-run solution to gun violence: as in the US it will require sensible regulations (which differ for each country), a cultural shift, and a respected and professionalized police force. I sympathize greatly with your having been a victim of crime: I have been mugged three times in the US and while I felt angry and powerless and frustrated a gun wouldn’t have helped me in any of the cases…far more likely either I or the assailant or both would have been killed.
Isaac: At what level do you believe this? Are you opposed for instance to seat belt laws, calorie labeling? The almost infinite number of ways in which the government acts as a manager of social risk as a backstop for financial risk, flood insurance, etc.? The beauty of this Australian solution is that it was a voluntary rather than a mandatory buyback that relied on government putting up the money and campaigning for an outcome rather than mandating a result…the reason it appears to have worked to some extent is that the culture was ready for it. In such a case a judicious but substantial government can pay social dividends without infringing unduly on personal liberty.
I believe the conclusions you draw from the data are wrong… People do not plan and execute a mass killing spree based on “easy” availability of firearms. As proven by massacres in Norway, the UK, Germany and Scotland even restrictive gun laws do not prevent determined individuals from carrying out those mass killings. I believe Australia is just experiencing a low period as far as gun violence and it is not specifically related to the buy-back.
Cultural/social differences are more indicative of the rate of gun violence. For example countries like Switzerland and Israel with a high rate of gun ownership have very few mass shootings.
I will agree that there is a certain point where unavailability of firearms becomes an effective means of reducing mass shootings but it is at a level where guns are almost impossible to find and private gun ownership is at near zero level.
The high level of gun violence in the US is due to many other factors than the mere number of guns in circulation:
The inner cities which are virtual gang/drug war zones.
The worship of violence (Movies & video games)
The breakdown of the mental health care system
The increasingly antagonistic/hate-based society and culture
To me part of the problem stems from how broad “asian” is – since the continent goes from the Urals to Japan and from Mongolia to India. For USians, asian seems to mean “yellow” to put it bluntly.
It goes hand in hand with the problem with “latino” (and i am one of them). These labels are useful shorthand at a very primitive level but afterward they become cumbersome, and frankly disrespectful, eventually.
Not bad as an Asian American. The guy is Taiwanese/Chinese and my relatives are from Japan, but the naivete of the U.S. culture seems very familiar. I’m going to watch this and I hope I laugh
Most reporters leave out that Singapore, like other Asian Tigers, could keep taxes low by keeping public recovery of socially-generated land rent high. Citizens paid a good portion of the rental value of their land into the public treasury (usually as a tax but as a lease premium in Hong Kong) but the taxes they paid on their buildings, purchases, and earnings was low. This formula worked so well in Singapore that they not only could afford classy public housing but also pay their citizens a dividend from surplus public revenue. Nowhere else can make such a claim. But the business press overlooks geonomics, unfortunately. More at Progress.org.
Goethe recognized that our perception of color was greatly
influenced by subjective experience. The naming of colors certainly reflects
this as Dr. Lewis points out in this fascinating essay. Take for example the color Light Paris Green, I recognize that color as perhaps relating to the green pigment on the classic nineteenth century Parisian Metropolitain signs or possibly a reference to the infamous drink Absinthe as seen and painted by Edgar Degas (L’absinthe). For Dr. Lewis the name of that color “seems like a holiday.”
“Dragons-blood red” is named after a kind of tree resin, but the romance of the name still fits, I suppose. “Light Paris Green,” however, will not make anybody with knowledge of the history of artist’s pigments think of a holiday, since Paris green contained arsenic and was a notorious poison, used as an insecticide and rat poison as well as a colorant. There are even stories about people in the 19th century being poisoned by their green wallpaper.
The Clips might get more from the new NBA TV deal but there’s no way their local deal will come close to the Lakers one. No one watches the Clippers now. Their ratings are terrible. And who is going to give them a deal? Time Warner? No. And while they may be viewed as the best team in LA nationally, they are still second class citizens here. It says something when your best player, Chris Paul, is booed when shown on the Jumbotron at Dodger Stadium. Ballmer overpaid by at least a billion.
In my graduate research on Caribbean slavery I came across a nineteenth-century book with hand-painted “chits” in flesh tones from alabaster to pitch. The colors were set in such a way as to show the impact of racial interbreeding (miscegenation), so that a chit marked mulatto (supposedly) displayed the resulting color of ‘white’ and ‘negro’ parents; quadroon was (again supposedly) the color of the grandchild of ‘white, white, white, negro’ parents; octoroon one-eigth; etc. It was a striking–and chilling–example of an attempt to use standardized color for categorization.
There are excellent observations in this article and one flaw. Humans really have to do something to prevent damaging out life support system (i.e., the earth’s biosphere) but I suggest that the solution isn’t to cut down on the amount of fuel we use, but to greatly increase it, to levels well beyond what can be supplied by oil wells and coal mines.
How, I rather imagine you are asking, can we do that?
It’s not difficult nor even particularly expensive. Pull CO2 out of the air and combine it with hydrogen in the Fisher/Torpsch reaction. Billion dollar plants for the F/T reaction exist. They are fed partially oxidized nature gas, but they would work just fine on CO2 and electrolytic hydrogen.The only problem is the cost of electric power to make the hydrogen. To make reasonable cost fuel, the cost of power needs to be around 2 cents per kWh, and we would need a few times the installed base of electrical plants in the US to supply synthetic hydrocarbons to replace the oil the US uses.
Cheap fusion, possibly cheap fission or some other source might do it. My personal favorite is solar energy from space. The Japanese have been thinking about this.
And there is a more recent variation that looks like it could get the start up cost down to $30 B. The economic model indicates that fossil fuel could be entirely replaced with less expensive solar energy from space by 2035, based on Reaction Engines’ Skylon coming off the production line starting in 2021.
Anyone for dollar a gallon, carbon neutral, synthetic gasoline?
Pantone is for the most part an organized catalog of ink/dye colors for production. There are better color systems than Pantone when it comes to creating, comparing and communicating color. Munsell is a good example. It’s used by many American paint manufacturers. NCS (Natural Color System) is yet another. ACC and RAL. The International Standards Organization
recognizes four order systems: Munsell, NCS (Natural Color System), DIN
6164-2, and OSA-UCS. Interesting that Pantone is not one of the recognized systems.
Alyssa – I lived in Merced from 1974 – 1994. Even back then nobody would accuse city leadership of being particularly bright nor forward thinking. For me, leaving Merced was always the plan – I knew there wasn’t much for me there. But Merced is evolving with the new UC – and I understand wanting to stay when family is there, and Merced has a lot of infrastructure things (e.g., nice downtown, lake, Mall, zoo) – that not even every Bay Area town is going to have. I think you should run for city council. You’ve already proven an understanding of the citiy’s budgetary process and defining a real problem and coming up with solutions for how to fix it. That’s more than most folks who get on just because they’re a known business owner or take money from developers and public employee unions. Good luck to you – and thanks for fighting to make Merced better.
I used to live in Merced and there were more than two swiming pools. What about the Lake? Me and my friends spent a lot of time at the lake during the summer and we didn’t have much money. Good luck to you and all that you are doing for the Youth of Merced.
I went to the UC here and graduated back in 2010. Even though I don’t live here anymore, I still want what’s best for the place I called home for almost five years.
Is there anything a former resident, like myself, can do to help in this campaign?
What kind of comparison is bottled water use to desal? Of course bottled water uses more energy. How about comparing the cost to the water we get from the tap (which is perfectly fine by the way). My guess is that the cost per glass is pennies on the dollar compared to desal.
Where is conservation in this conversation? We currently use 70% of our water on outdoor uses, mostly for thirsty lawns. That adds up to about 55 gallons a day, well above most other countries. We can do much, much better.
Sure, we could build desalination plants all up and down the coast with large energy plants to support them. We could do a great job destroying our beach-loving tourist industry at the same time…
Or, we can make simple changes to our landscape and cut our water use to reflect the dry climate we live in.
Critics contend that reverse osmosis desalination requires large amounts of energy. But so do our home refrigerators, air conditioners, and washing machines. The real issue is the cost of water desalination relative to other available sources. For example, bottled water costs range from $1 to $3 per liter in the U.S., depending on the brand and location of purchase. In comparison, seawater desalination costs can be as high as about $0.45 per 100 liters and about $1.50-$2.00 per 1,000 liters for large-scale production. Of course, the above cost does not include conveyance of the water to the customer.
Over the years, intensive research and development efforts have been devoted to lowering the energy cost of reverse osmosis seawater desalination with tremendous success.
What exactly are we looking for? Acute alcohol intoxication? Any doctor who shows up drunk for a drug test deserves to fail it. Benzos? What if the doctor takes an occasional Temazepam for sleep? THC? Pity the doc who takes a few tokes at Coachella and still has THC in the blood a month later. Every hospital has compliance policies that encourage anonymous reporting of suspected physician impairment. Anyone can make a report from the EVS guy to the CEO. Let’s keep “Big Brother” out of our business.
“(P)opulation growth is going to outstrip our ability to conserve water.”
So we should be looking at ways to limit population growth in California, yes? Why isn’t that more obvious to more people in this state?
Delivering clean water to 38 million Californians is costly and energy intensive. Add to that drought and limited water supply (desalination is not an answer). Then, look at the population projections. By 2060, California’s population is expected to reach 52.7 million, according to the state’s Finance Department.
This addition of 15.4 million water consumers (from 2010 to 2060) is
more than the current populations of either Illinois or Pennsylvania. That’s about 40 percent larger than our current population in California.
Look at the problems we’re having now. Farmers having to fallow land
because they’ve no water. Farmland being lost due to massive population growth.
We need to start understanding that there are limits to growth.
I certainly agree with you that the world’s population growth will lead to the ruin of all of us. But, controlling population growth is not that easy. Communities can limit development through local planning ordinances. This can cause property values in those communities to rise and create their own sets of problems (i.e. high property tax rates and lack of affordable housing).
As for the agriculture/water link you mentioned, that lack of water is caused primarily by over-allocation of our water resources to ag itself, exacerbated by our current drought. So if you want to link world population growth to the need for more ag, at least there is a relationship. But, I don’t see how growing high profit luxury crops like, berries and nuts qualifies as feeding the masses. Urban population growth is not the main factor in ag’s water shorfall. Too much water intensive ag, especially in semi-arid regions, is the main cause of ag’s water shortfall.
I’m all for finding ways to limit population growth in CA and the rest of the worid. I still waiting for someone to come up with a reasonable and viable solution on how to do that.
Combining desal with solar and/or wind energy makes a lot of sense. Create clean water when the sun shines or the wind blows. The intermittent nature of wind and solar, which requires some kind of storage or backup to meet electricity demand, becomes a non-issue, since water storage is typically part of existing water delivery systems.
Ultimately, for large-scale desal, 4th gen nuclear, with its very high temperature operation, becomes a perfect match for flash distillation desal, using the power plant’s waste heat to good purpose.
How fascinating. Not only the discoveries of so many new facts about Saturn but also the career path of the author.
But the photo of the “rose” haunts me. What phenomena is it? What accounts for such a florid display? Are the colors as a human would see or are they enhanced?
Well done, Michael. We enjoyed participating with you. Your knowledge of the law, and your passion for getting the word out did have good results, and we hope to see even more enrollees this year and beyond.
“the sharing economy threatens to turn virtually every aspect of living into contested ground … that is no way to live.”
What do you propose? Banning sharing-based businesses? I doubt that will happen. Not using sharing applications? Perhaps you’ll win a few converts, but it won’t slow the tide. This article comes across as a “sky is falling” prophesy of doom, but … I really don’t see the point of this article. People will use the services. In some cases, problems will arise, and then people as whole and perhaps laws will adjust.
Perhaps the purpose of this article is to “open a dialogue”. There are three types of possible dialogues. Horror stories, which we can learn from. Fear of change, which will lead to commiseration and nothing else. New ideas of sharing businesses, which could be interesting.
All the concerns you bring up are actually totalitarian in nature “Who’s responsible if your dog bites my kid while in my care? What kind of car insurance, training, and licensing do you need to shuttle me safely? What, if anything, do we owe to the kennel workers and cabbies whose work is displaced by our sharing? And who gets to decide how we govern all of this?”
How about NO ONE gets to decide how it’s governed, it’s all voluntary exchanges between free people. We don’t need your rulers-required attitude to run a successful world of sharing. Totalitarian is thinking one needs the government to approve of every little tiny human interaction, even down to walking a dog.
These services, and their success, are going to show you just how obsolete your concept of fair governance and totalitarian state-dependent mindset already are. But Statists gonna State. Good luck living in the past.
Interesting premise, but potential conflict is not enough of a reason to stop progress and change. Additionally as this sharing economy is created, new platforms to resolve issues are created, such as companies like Modria, that are revolutionizing the way we deal with conflict online. Necessity is the mother of invention, and the system appears to be adapting.
Hey, Joe. I enjoyed the article, and would say that Airbnb has totally changed my life. There are myriad factors to consider in this assessment, and I’d love to tell you about them in detail, but I hope this service – and others like it – continue to thrive. MY fear is that government regulation, be it local or federal, will undermine the huge potential that exploits the ubiquity and accessibility of the internet to the benefit of the little guy. It’s the monied interests that seem to be making the most noise, whether it’s cab companies, hotel chains, or cable companies (witness the Aereo decision).
We are just now scratching the surface, and most of the entrepreneurs in this blossoming field are trying to avoid the missteps of the bubble and bust of the early 2000s. My fear is that the Supreme Court, or the money-hungry reps in Congress, will usurp the progress that is emerging online.
in order for the sharing economy to be successful in its goals of grandeur, we must first address the litigious nature of today’s U.S. society. only then will we be able to bathe our capitalism in the warm waters of socialism
Thoroughly enjoyed reading this superbly written piece, Melissa! As one of the parents who brought my young children to see your productions when you were still at Barnsdall (who are now rising seniors in high school and college), it gives me great joy to see ISC’s continuing success. We all still love to come to watch the plays, albeit with a larger crowd! It’s just not summer without ISC!!
If you get a chance, see at least one World Cup game live, in the stadium. The atmosphere is almost indescribable, the Olympics and Super Bowl combined into a gigantic international celebration. The most fun is not the game itself, but seeing the fans from different countries celebrating their way to the stadium.
Angelenos were lucky enough to experience this in 1994, and some of it with the Women’s World Cup in 1999 (the intensity and passion among the fans is not as high in women’s soccer, but nonetheless 100,000 screaming fans in the Rose Bowl is not bad; 2003 was much less exciting because of the last-minute relocation of the games from China to the US, most of the games that I saw in the soccer stadium in Carson weren’t even sold out in 2003).
It would have been far more
useful if Mr. Cohen had calculated the cost of seawater desalination in the
unit of acre feet instead of liters.
Such plants are measured in acre feet, and so should cost calculations
be. We had to build a spreadsheet to
determine that his “$2 per liter” means approximately $2,500 per acre
foot. We knew that but were checking whether
he did. Current costs of using well
water are in the range of $200 per acre foot, and residential users typically pay
$1,200 per acre foot. Metropolitan Water
costs about $1,200 per acre foot to wholesalers.
Finally, we conclude that the
cost to desalinate seawater is far more than the more obvious choice of
recycling treated sewage discharge water.
It is easy to see why: Seawater is some 35,000 total dissolved solids
per million (TDS/M) and treated sewage plant discharge is about 400 TDS/M. The present level of discharge treatment is
sufficient for irrigation of most crops; it is already cleaner than most well
water. Yet it cannot legally be pumped
back into the water table unless the TDS/M are reduced further. The cost to use reverse osmosis is much
smaller for the 400 TDS water than for seawater. Mr. Cohen should focus on recycling treated
sewage water. It is far more easily
achieved.
Fine. No children harmed you claim. But what about their imaginations? Given the marvelous tool that is the English language, the endless repetition of the same old curse words by persons of prominence and Hollywood script writers is simply shoddy, shabby and sadly lazy
I too am a civil engineer and I have increasingly come to share your concerns over the course of my life. And I totally agree that late stage “environmental review” produces “ornamental” changes, if any. And meanwhile politicians , including our esteemed Governor, maneuver to further weaken an already weak CEQA.
I devoutly hope that your suggestions will come to pass, but I find it hard to be optimistic. As usual, I fear that nothing will change until the disasters become so intense that they can no longer be ignored. Alas, I truly fear for the future of my beloved state.
Truthiness is very appealing and likely “used” far more than most of us realize. But when we’re involved in business decisions, the danger can be significant.
Far too many business decisions are based on gut, which is nothing more than an aggregation of experience, facts, and beliefs – ALL of which represent the past, which may no longer be true. Business decisions are most likely to deliver expected results when based on objective, current, accurate evidence.
So the challenge for many of us is to think about the basis for decisions – is it based on truthiness or reality?
Gut is preferable for decisions re people – whether hiring or dating – as our extensive experience with people situations informs us that something isn’t right or there’s more to the story.
Ummm Noel, you are an engineer completely detached from political reality if you think CEQA is weak and in need of strengthening. CEQA is the tool of choice for NIMBYs seeking to stop the sort of urban infill and TOD envisaged by SB 375. Anyone can sue to stop or delay a project under CEQA for almost any reason; the law is vague and pervasive. Development follows the path of least resistance, and almond orchards rarely file CEQA challenges. Developers can build much faster and much cheaper in the exurbs and on ag land and they have to build auto dependent sprawl. Why are CEQA standards exactly the same for downtown San Francisco as they are for the high Sierra? shouldn’t our principal planning law be able to tell the difference?
All good points. Why we need regional, predictive, multi-faceted system dynamics models (front-end by a gaming interface and back-ended by analytics) to identify unintended consequences of any given policy or implementation thereof. Also helps to hold our elected/appointed officials to task…
FWIW, we are already seeing a water disaster take shape in CA and the American Southwest. Some refuse to believe it or cannot project what it means and where its headed. And water is life…it will lead to some food disasters as well…
Rafael… me gusto mucho tu escrito que refleja lo que tantos Venezolanos sentimos cuando nos fuimos de Venezuela… Incluso en mi caso 12 anos atras… (obviamente para ese entonces no en tan critica situacion como la que tu acabas de dejar)… pero el sentimiento fue el mismo… Un vuelo de American, Una Maleta y 3 cosas… miedo, incertidumbre y esperanza…
12 anos despues y ahora Ciudadano de este hermoso pais que me recibio con los brazos abiertos y de esa Hermosa ciudad “Montreal” en la que aprendi otro estilo de vida y comenze mi familia… (ahora vivo en Toronto pero le agradezco mucho a Montreal!) no tego mas nada sino agradecimiento a Dios por ayudarme a abrir otro camino para mi familia y esperanza de que el ayudara a nuestra Querida Venezuela.
Bueno suerte en este hermoso pais! y estamos a la orden en Toronto si necesitan alguna ayuda… Javier
Nice, although how can one describe the Central Library without mentioning the stunning atrium? I’ve never seen a library with anything that matches it.
Bueno Rafael, y le digo asi sin conocerlo, si bienes cierto que Ud no emigró con mucho dinero, llevó con Ud algo mejor: el idioma y el coraje.
Es mucha la gente que hasalido del pais, y mucho mas la que se prepara a dejarlo.
Lamento esto por loscque son pobres y nunca podran sali. Me da dolor cuando en la calle veo niñitos del pueblo, de la mano decsu mamá,. Esa es toda su protección, pero que triste el futuro que les espera precisamente a ellos, los pobres, los que confiaron en Chavez , pirque ellos seran los que reciban mas daño.
Ya casi toda nuestra familia emigró, se fue. Hace años salieronbtodos nuestros hijos, alla estudiaron y allá estan trabajando, allá tienen su vida, su casa, amigos , su casa e intereses.
. Ahora nos preparamos mi espisa y yo. Para salir. No queremos pasar solos, aqii, la vejez. Ya tenemos vendido casi todo vendido y Gracias a Dios fuimos ahorrativos y tenemos con que vivir, mas modestamente que aquí, pero muy decentemente . Nos vamos triste y amargados: esto dejó de ser nuestra patria, aquinsomos ciudadanoscde 2da, sobramos, no se nos quiere. Le dejamos nuestro lugar a ellos, y de todo corazon lesdeseamos suerte acquienes secquedan.
Gran relato, excelente narrativa. Con todo el talento que demostraste acá, ese que llevaron en sus cuatro maletas, estoy seguro triunfarás en cualquier lugar del mundo.
Thank you Gregory, this is very well said. In my experience, when a communication problem is encountered (be it language or otherwise), people don’t give up, they’ll hash it out until someones lightbulb of understand turns on, which is usually followed by laughter and relief. I think it is these moments of “shared frustration” that become a bonding experience and assist in developing relationships and easing barriers in diverse communities.
Missing piece here: How will the total amount of money available to the writer’s family change at $15 per hour? We’ve created enormously high effectively marginal tax rates at this income level with the EITC, ACA subsidies and other progressive policies (which I support). But because of this $15/hour is not $6 more at the end of the day than $9/hour. How much more is it really? And how many fewer janitors marketwide will there be by virtue of these higher wages? There is disagreement on this point (the CBO suggests that even a modest increase in the minimum wage reduces the labor force, a massive one like this certainly will have some constraining impact on employment). So there’s much more to the story than “a higher minimum wage is good.” It’s not the job of an editorial writer to do the math but someone needs to be doing it!
I grew up in a small town in Indiana, but I’ve lived in LA for the last 25 years. Like many people in LA, I work in a professional office where many people speak English as a second language rather than as the mother tongue. By comparison, one reason I’ve enjoyed visiting my childhood hometown over the years is because it seems to require less effort to communicate with the locals. Your article validates my experience. I agree with your conclusion – it’s better to be challenged by a range of ideas than not. It makes us all more aware.
My sister died last month after suffering a massive heart attack that left her clinically “dead” for 15 minutes before doctors could revive her. She was brain dead, and we all knew it. But it’s so hard to let go when you don’t have definitive information. We waited 36 hours for a brain scan to tell us she was brain dead before we pulled her off life support. I know now she died during those 15 minutes and wish we could have accepted it then.
Thank you for your article. I plan to try to have the courage to face my death with dignity and seek out quality rather than quantity of life.
Gene Silvers: That doesn’t make any sense. The debate is over whether the minimum wage decreases the labor force (the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says even a modest increase in the minimum wage decreases the labor force by 1/2 million) or doesn’t have a negative impact on overall employment. But if people start their own business, they are not subject to the minimum wage and it makes it harder for them to hire help because labor costs more. ?? Furthermore everyone seems to agree that it will increase prices, which means that the goods that low-income folks and entrepreneurs will buy will be more expensive. Here’s a good non-biased write-up of the research findings: http://journalistsresource.org/studies/economics/inequality/the-effects-of-raising-the-minimum-wage# I support a modest increase in the minimum wage indexed to inflation in some way but we need to be realistic about the effects and trade-offs.
I am a nurse who works at a local VA center and I am assigned to the “locked” dementia unit. It saddens me on a daily basis to see these Veterans suffer with procedures that “prolong” their lives. Men who fought for our freedom and are sent out to the ER over and over at the ages of 75,80,90 + years because their families refuse to sign a DNR and they are “Full Codes”. Saddest is when they can no longer swallow and usually aspirate and we have to send them out. 100% return with feeding tubes because their families are not ready to let go. We continue to do our jobs and care for them as if they are our own parents. When their death does come, our staff is quietly rejoicing for them because we know that they’ll be free of the suffering.
This why people need to make their own plans. A good family will love a person too much to be able to think reasonably about such things and they shouldn’t be put in the position of feeling like they have killed their loved one.
My uncle is a noted physician in his late 80’s in pretty good health, but he keeps a regular prescription of some medication that he could easily take by himself if he felt the time had come. I think it says a great deal when a doctor can choose to end his life fairly comfortably but others cannot.
I contrast that with my cousin who had advanced Alzheimer’s. She was delusional and barely responsive, and the head nurse at the Memory Care Unit fought me because I wanted to discontinue my aunt’s high blood pressure and clot-prevention medication. She was terminal, and 89 years old. I wanted her to continue on all comfort-inducing meds, including Lasix (fluid in your lungs is very uncomfortable) and Ativan (anxiety/agitation). She was dying, she could barely remember her own name, she wouldn’t eat, she stood in her room and would open and close a dresser drawer over and over again because she was so lost, and they are fighting me over letting her go – which was in her living will.
Ultimately, they kicked her out of the MCU because she was non-compliant (of course she was, she had advanced Alzheimers!). I moved her into a full-care nursing facility. They respected the choices I made on her behalf. They pretended that she was helping them plan events and so they would ask for her help with “tasting menus” and “decorating advice” – all to get her out of her room and eating. She was happy and “busy” with her work and thought she was living there to help them out. One night I got a call that she had a fever and they wanted to take her to the ER to be checked out. I said ok, and headed to the hospital. 15 minutes later, the nurse called, crying. My cousin had gone into cardiac arrest and pursuant to her wishes, they held her hand and let her go.
I’m now the primary caretaker for my father, who has vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s. My grandmother was essentially in limited consciousness the last six months of her life because of Alzheimer’s. There’s a high likelihood I will follow in their footsteps.
Respecting life also means respecting death and the choices our families make when we cannot make them. I hope that if I follow my family path into Alzheimer’s, my husband or kids will have the strength to let me go, and if I linger as my grandmother did, that they will have the ability to make me a delightful gin martini with a little extra on the side, so that I can die with dignity instead of live like the undead.
El Salvador had barely had a chance to celebrate the 1992 peace accords after more than a decade of civil war, when it had to face a new beast: gangs imported from the US. Failed policies in the country -such as allowing prisons to become gang strongholds and essentially turning into gang member training grounds- enabled this cancer to metastasize into an international crisis. Hopefully, all governments involved will realize that political band-aids are not the cure. And hopefully, citizens will be able to look at the human aspect of this tragedy. Imagine if sending your children alone to risk their lives through jungle and desert were a better option than keeping them at home…
I remember the bookstores in Arizona being bigger and better stocked than the ones in California. Perhaps it’s because they have a “reading season,” it’s just a different one than in Minnesota!
Thank you for an excellent article focusing on something that should touch the heart of all Americans – your excellent writing helps bring this closer home to us all, and compel us to not only think and act, but to care, as well.
Ever since Adam blamed Eve for his taking a bite of the apple, people suffering from moral cowardice have looked for somebody other than themselves to blame. This essay does an excellent job of pointing out how our own – USA – policies have been a major cause of the misery and danger that makes those kids leave their homeland. Send this to the New York Times so it’ll get the exposure it deserves!
“But the whole point of introducing current technology into the classroom
is to help education catch up with the rest of the world, which has
been utterly transformed by fast computers with fast Internet access.”
That’s the fallacy, anyway. The “rest of the world” (read: Western countries) supports their teachers, puts adequate resources into classrooms and has all sorts of social safety nets for it’s children, so they don’t have to go to school hungry after dodging bullets. iPads are the latest trendy toy. Too bad they’re so expensive. Those funds really should be used in a more effective and appropriate way.
Yes, that patient would qualify for palliative care, and then for hospice care when the doctors certified that he/she was not expected to live more than 6 months. This is not an uncommon scenario.
I am a graduate of the UCLA Chemical Engineering Department where I earned a doctoral degree. I have met Dr. Cohen then. I am disappointed that Dr. Cohen does not compare the cost of desalination with the cost of potable water today. My recollection is that desalination water is about 15-20 times more expensive or so. To mention bottle water is even a worst idea , studies by the Environmental Working Group ( or http://www.ewg.org/research/ewg-bottled-water-scorecard-2011) show that the quality of bottled water is not monitored and most are not any cleaner than water form your kitchen sink…My understanding also is that desalination can only achieve a 50% recovery, so what to do with the brine? In this respect, although more energy intensive, evaporation would achieve much greater water recovery form sea water, would this be in the long run a better alternative although costly (energy) ? He also does not mention what it would take (in terms of time) to build enough desalination plants in California to make some significant impact, my guess is that the time would be considerable. If the drought in California is a long term cycle, unless more feasible alternatives are found we are in for a true disaster. The economic fate of California may be truly jeopardize….My understanding is that archaeologists think that the end of Mayan civilization in the Americas was due to a prolonged drought in that part of the World, are we going to meet the same fate in California ?
This is a very late reply. I have not monitored this site for some time, but perhaps a few quick responses may be useful. First, the concentrate from seawater desalination is discharged back to the sea. The cost of seawater desalination is not 15-20 times the cost of other water sources as is stated in error in the above comment. The cost of water desalination is in the range of about $0.54 – $2 per 100 liters depending on plant size and design, discharge and intake design and more. In fact, the cost of seawater desalination is approaching the cost of traditional water sources. However, there are water sources that are significantly cheaper than seawater desalination, especially in regions where individuals (or companies, farms, etc.) have certain water rights and pay little or none for their water. Brackish water desalination is of significantly lower cost relative to seawater desalination. However, it is improtant to recognize that desalination is critical in water reuse applications. Below is an image that shows the cost of water desalination relative to other water sources (source: https://www.climate-policy-watcher.org/reverse-osmosis/global-desalination-situation.html). https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a4171fb5a3970d6f318d9a69722dbd40da7401e6a2aa72e18d69e4d8cadea230.jpg
Honestly, i am just so thankful for Asian-Americans to even be represented on TV! Huge step for us (besides Margaret Cho’s show 20 yrs ago). Thank you thank you THANK YOU a million times to ABC and everyone for making this finally happen.
I could not agree more. I have lived in L.A. for most of my 70 years, and one theme which has never changed is that L.A. has no sense of its heritage and constantly destroys historic buildings to replace them with the latest and the greatest gee-whiz thing.
This is just another classic example of same. As my woman friend said, “People are living in cardboard boxes on Skid Row and we are going to spend $100s of millions on THIS?”
Amen Mr. Rybczynski. Please, oh please, LACMA, rethink this wrongheaded plan.
I agree with Rybczynski. The Pereira pavilions were graceful and elegant without being intimidating. They provided openness and light after the charming jumble of a collection jammed into the old museum in Exposition Park. The Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer building is a disaster–an ugly wall on Wilshire, a depressing tunnel leading to the plaza, and a repellently overscale building. But the plaza area itself is still very pleasant, once you get to it (or approach it more enjoyably from the park behind the museum). Piano’s new pavilions are really feeble, and the proposed building for the film museum is appalling–it looks like the Goodyear dirigible crashed on Wilshire. Zumthor’s proposal is just bizarre. It’s featureless, depressing, and surprisingly heavy for a low structure–like something was smashed onto the site and splashed across the boulevard. Probably the campus is irredeemable, and I understand the argument that renovation would be unproductively expensive. But having spent many years in Chicago before returning to LA, I can’t understand why we permit even eminent architects to unload these ill-conceived buildings on my battered city.
The proposed new building is a disaster. A black, spreading amoeba-like blog raised on stilts (repeating the Getty’s elitist message that art is something “above” the people) and obliterating much of the open space that makes LACMA so great. In a city of wonderful light, why not something that allows light in? In a city of great weather, why not something that respects, references and allows access to the outdoors? Museums think “statement architecture” gives credibility even if it alienates. But a true “statement” is making great architecture AND something that people actually want to use.
I would like to see the buildings from the 1960s preserved; I actually find them understated and elegant. But the “Hollywood Egyptian” thing should go, and maybe that’s where a smaller blob by Zumthor can rise (as it were). Mr. Rybczinski is a smart writer, but his little remark about trophy wives at the end is kind of… dare I say vulgar?
As a gay evangelical Christian who believes in the traditional teachings regarding sexuality and as a physician, I recognize that reparative therapy has significant risk of harm with uncertain benefits. I’m glad to hear that you and your dad reconciled before it was too late. Thanks for sharing your story. I am sharing my own story in a new WordPress blog called Confessions of a Gay Evangelical Christian.
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are all routinely stripped from people ensnared in the mental illness “system” racket. Our country is despicable in its treatment of vulnerable people. Despicable.
Nice essay, but let me put in a good word for leaving home to find your real people and your authentic self. There’s more to aspiration than “opportunity” defined, as it usually is by the homebodies, in a purely economic sense.
This is a great piece and I can relate to the struggle of opportunity versus home. As a native Clevelander living in LA, I have to say that my hometown wasn’t upset with WHY LBJ left. Ohioans want to see their own succeed. What upset us was HOW he chose to depart. There was no grace, integrity or loyalty to the people who had been loyal to him since his 9th grade year of high school. There is a way to say goodbye to people who held you as the hometown hero and he did not honor that code. So it’s not that I won’t wear my “FOR6IVEN” t-shirt from Fresh Brewed Tees, but true forgiveness must be earned over time, not just through a letter in Sports Illustrated.
The original Pereira buildings were designs of their time and place, and even with the ostentatious ego-laden clumps thrown up on and around it, they retain the simple grace that well-designed civic architecture of the day aimed for.
I have heard critics of the original campus since it opened. I’ve never quite understood why they hated the design; while the comparison to his literal shopping mall designs are apt, so was the application of the shopping mall concept to the enjoyment of and access to art. Remember what this museum replaced: the building that now houses the Natural History Museum ALSO used to be the County Art Museum. The new campus thus became our first “real” art museum, and the public experience of art in LA was suddenly new and different. LACMA, particularly under its curator Maurice Tuchman, made the appreciation of art more a part of the life of Los Angeles – a life that in the 60s was lived in the sunshine, on the beaches – and in shopping malls.
Thanks for the great essay on how real ridesharing works, unlike the seedy corporate psuedo-taxis like Uber that market themselves as “ridesharing” without the substance.
Excellent, excellent article. You captured the humanity, more than occasional inhumanity, uncertainty, and various pressures around end of life care perfectly. I have read this frequently and pass it on to others who also practice acute/critical care medicine. Well done, thank you for writing it.
It’s always quite endearing to read how “Dutch society grew not out of war against a human foe but out of the struggle against nature”. Though there is some truth in it, the 17th century Golden Age was brought largely because the Dutch relentlessly waged war on anyone who would challenge their position as the world’s leading naval power. Only when taking on the French, Germans, British and Swedes simultaneously in 1672 proved to be a bit too much, international cooperation came on the agenda.
9/11 was indeed a targeted attack on American freedom. It’s not clear what the motive behind the shooting down of Malaysian Flight 17 was. I think it’s safe to say that it wasn’t an attack on Dutch tolerance–or Dutch anything for that matter. Nevertheless, it is a national tragedy for Holland and one can’t help but be moved by the poignancy of yesterday’s observances.
9/11 was Al-Qaeda’s move to bait the U.S. into giving it the “Clash of Civilizations” it had been pining for, and, unfortunately, the Bush Administration took that bait and went wide with broad attacks in the Muslim world rather than just hunting down Al Qaeda itself and bringing its leaders to justice (or terminating them). We might have been better served as a nation by a reaction that was, well, a little more Dutch. Could have saved us a ton of blood and treasure in Iraq, as opposed to the neoconservative folly that we can control all things because of our special, unique American Exceptionalism,
9/11 was a targeted attack on our freedom to establish military bases in Saudi Arabia, the center of Islam for (Arab) Muslims, not on the freedom on individuals living in the US. There’s a big difference that, of course, our leaders never mention. I agree though that there is a difference between a targeted attack and what appears to be an unintentional downing of this particular civilian plane.
Thanks for your response. It led me to research the topic and I found this 2002 letter from Osama citing reasons for the 9/11 attacks: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/nov/24/theobserver. It appears that both of us are correct: the motives were a combination of revenge against perceived American atrocities in the Middle East as well as a call on the US to turn to Islamic Sharia and away from our “debauchery”: “rather than ruling by the Shariah of Allah in its Constitution and Laws, [you] choose to invent your own laws as you will and desire”, he charges. I’ll be sure to mention both motives from here on. My original point is that there is a limit to how much you can compare what happened to the Dutch with MA Flight 17 and what happened to the US on 9/11. I think we agree on that.
There is a great book by Victoria Sutton called The Things That Keep Us Up At Night. She talks about these movies and why they are made the way they are and how accurate they might very well be. She lists post apocalyptic movies and tells why they may portray what the end could look like. Her site is reelbiohorror.com, it’s great too. This post is great, I am from Cali, I got a chuckle out of it! But after reading her book I can see what these movies are trying to do, but sometimes they are too silly for me!
Thanks Russell, a thoughtful article. The most interesting part is the contrast between the American and Dutch way of grieving. You only missed the “Condolence Book”, ubiquitous in Dutch society after any tragedy or death. Flags flew at half-mast everywhere yesterday, not just on public buildings but on many businesses and private homes.
Interesting piece..although it somewhat romanticizes Dutch history, overlooking, for instance, the utterly brutal history of Dutch colonialism, especially in Indonesia. As for 9/11, I know this may not sit well with many, but I lived in Ithaca, NY at the time. I was astonished at how quickly a certain orthodox narrative about what it “was” formed–the idea that it was an attack on “American values”, “freedom”, etc. It seemed rather apparent to me then–and still does now–that it was an attack on SYMBOLS of economic (World Trade Centre as stand-in for US economic might) and military (Pentagon–pretty obvious) “imperialism”, or at least “global influence”. Had it been intended as an attack on values/freedom/etc, one might have targeted, say, the Statue of Liberty and the Lincoln Memorial instead.
I’m Dutch, although I’ve lived in Calif for about 3 years as a kid (I’m now 65). Good piece! Good observations too, and well based.
A few short remarks, if you’ll allow me.
– I live near Hilversum, where 13 people have died, and know no-one who etc.
– The Dutch were the most powerful maritime nation in the 1600’s, posessing a fleet larger then those of England and France combined.
– The Dutch were the fourth (4th) oil producing country in ther world until 1941.
– The Dutch have been constantly attacked and/or invaded by a.o. the Spanish during the 1550s-1580s; the Brits in 1672, together with the Germans then; the French a year later (with one Charles de Batz de Castelmore dying here in the effort, a.k.a. d’Artagnan); then the Brits again; the French occupying from 1795 till about 1812 (Napoleon’s brother was king for a while), and finally the nazi’s from 1940 till 1945; they did that with a brutality and ferociousness that still hurts today, even; 250.000 Dutch died on a population of 9 million; 500.000 men were taken as slaves to Germany (50.000 of them died); 6.000 war planes crashed here in 5 years; two major battles were fought and both lost: the Battle for The Hageu in May 1940, and Operation Market Garden, 17-22 Sept 1944. There is no country therefor that has so many WWII graves per square km as Holland; here lie some 20.000 allied dead and 32,000 nazi’s. So we have our national day of mourning on May 4th every year.
– The recent day of mourning for the crash victims did not touch me, and I know of a good many people that feel likewise – we didn’t even have such a day after the February disaster in 1953, when 2,000 people died.
– Multiethnic is right – many of Rembrandt’s in-laws were Poles – as are mine. But it is not tolerance what you see there: it is the distant ‘have it your way, if you must’ of the tradesman, who doesn’t care deeply what others do as long as he’s left in peace and in profit, and will return the favour. But the best argument for intolerance – and at the same time tolerance – in Holand is, I believe very strongly, the way the Dutch acted under the nazi occupation. It is no other country that saved as many Jews as the Dutch did – by Yad Vashem’s figures. Dutch people have received almost 5,300 official, well researched recognitions – that is one in every 1,700 Dutch was an official saver of Jews. Poles come first in absolute figures, with 6,200 Yad Vashem awards – of course, a much lower average of 1 in every 4,000 Poles. There are three Dutch groups that received collective Yad V-awards for their efforts: the February-strikers of 1941 (striking under nazi occupation against persecution of Jews), a clandestine group of savers of Jewish children, known as the NV (‘limited company’) and the village of Nieulande, where a collective quota system of hiding Jews was set up. No other country in the world has three groups that were awarded. Only the Danes and the French have one group each. Also, one in four of every Dutch adult took part in some form of resistance work, acording to well-researched data. That was the response to the national call to arms, then mostly voiced by Queen Wilhemina, who, as Chrichill said, ‘was the only man in the Dutch cabinet’.
All this is a little known, but in my view crucial part of Dutch history. Are we in effect the real Hobbits? We come pretty close, I guess.
Thanks for your article.
Best
Arthur Graaff, editor of WWII-website Nieuws-wo2.tk, Bussum, NL
fpamsterdam@yahoo,com
Oh I dunno, it didn’t look like much of a bite to me. Didn’t even break the skin, LOL. I was really disappointed when I saw the replay after the big drama started. I got to where I sort of bought his story that he just accidentally grazed the guy with his teeth as he was flopping. And the display of tooth pain he put on was high drama for sure. Not to mention the bite “victim” writhing in agony from the little red dots on his shoulder
If “The Cannibal”, aka “The Vampire” puts the fear of God into Barcelona’s competition, maybe they will be proven to have made a smart move. And if you believe that “any ink is good ink”, they are sure reaping plenty of that.
Did anyone see the Chinese beer bottle opener with the image of Saurez and the great big teeth to pop the cap? Priceless. I wonder where one could find one of those? Off to EBay I guess.
Your analysis is fundamentally flawed. You purposely label illegal immigrants as immigrants. There is a difference. We have the right to regulate our borders and accept only those who will benefit our country/communities. The federal government has purposefully failed in an attempt to secure and maintain political power for generations. Yes, Joe, immigrants are welcome. And No, those that circumvent and violate our laws are not.
Update: I did look on EBay and it looks like there are actually 3 different Saurez bottle openers on offer, LOL. I’m not enough of a soccer fan to buy one, but it might make a cool souvenir for someone who is.
Change had better be afoot for Barça. European clubs have figured out how to effectively counter their “tiki taka” style of play. Despite Barça’s star-studded lineup, their less-than-stellar club season indicates a need for change. Reliance on tiki taka, emphasis on midfield play, and “false 9” tactics (which have been taught in their youth development system) are being effectively challenged. They (and the Spanish National Team, which has reflected Barça’s style of play) had a great run using this system. But “futbolísticamente,” they need to evolve or they will become irrelevant.
At the end of the day, Barça is “mes que un club” (more than a club) – it’s also a business. And one glaring element it has lacked is a true number 9 (striker). Enter Suarez. (Whether or not he’s the right fit for Barça is another question, so my apologies for not directly addressing your interesting piece.)
Whether or not Suarez and Barça are the right fit is an important question. Notwithstanding, change had better be afoot for Barça. Despite their star-studded lineup, they had a less-than-stellar club season. European clubs have figured out how to effectively counter Barça’s “tiki taka” style of play, midfield possession, and “false 9” tactics, which have also been taught in their youth development system. Barça (and the Spanish National Team, which has reflected Barça’s style and tactics) had a great run using this system. But they’ve been exposed and need to evolve.
At the end of the day, Barça is “mes que un club” (more than a club) – it’s a business that can’t afford to lose regularly. And one tactical element that Barça’s system has de-emphasized to its detriment is a true number 9 (striker), which new boss Luís Enrique understands. Enter Suarez.
I had to reread this because I was almost certain this had to be satire, but sadly, it’s not.
To be “hopeful” and cheer on “prosperity” at the expense of others suffering and misery is quite disgusting- and prefacing such egregious behavior with the basic caveat “War is bad!” in no way comes close to justifying it.
Yes, this is perfect! It’s the ‘global warming’ for the defense industry! Open you wallets upright citizens, we need to arm up and we’ll even be green about it – we’ll recycle the nukes into smart bombs and drone missiles (just in case)
Kiddo, you’re lucky to be alive. You should have gone with the paramedics to the hospital for a full workup. Your regular doctor will want to see you anyway. Lightning strikes should be taken seriously. Hope you’re ok.
.I agree. The point of the ad is clearly to disturb, to disrupt the
feeling of bodily safety, of health. Ever since Un Chien Andalou, art
has known that an attack on the human eye, the “window to the soul” is a
particularly disturbing action. This is not Animal Planet showing a
centipede. We aren’t talking about health campaigns. This is a show in
the overlap of Sci-Fi and horror, and none of it is suitable for
children. So keep it to the screen where parents can at least try to
save what is left of their children’s sanity
I’m so glad this was written! Those ads made me furious and really upset my kids. It’s not the first time that there have been gross billboards around L.A., but I think this one was the worst.
Great article Anoosh. As someone who works in media and advertising (often with network clients like FX) I will tell you that even among my colleagues this ad is viewed as repulsive. Clearly a line has been drawn for the public, and I hope this becomes a turning point and not a new precedent. As a parent, I hate the billboards. As an ad man, I just think it’s bad marketing.
I’m a tough science-y type who actually enjoys reading about eye parasites and other things that people normally think of as disgusting. Even I found the billboards offensive. It’s one thing to view such images when one is seeking them out and in context, it’s another to be assaulted with them on the side of the road when going to and from. As an adult, I found myself adverting my eyes. I can only imagine how a child would respond to such imagery.
It isn’t fair that our kids’ happiness has been reduced to a necessary casualty for media marketing. Moreover, I resent that it is OK for companies to put up inappropriate billboards that effectively take away my power to make important parenting decisions for my kids. “The Strain” billboard totally crossed the line, and something needs to be done so this situation doesn’t happen again.
i think there are enough unbalanced adults to worry about seeing this ad, in addition to the children. i think it’s wrong on all levels to impose this imagery on everyone. images have a huge impact on the psyche of the individual and collective society – do we really need more fear and violence?
Josh, you bring up an interesting point. If media professionals are divided on the ad (and I’ve noticed comments on other articles that said the same thing), then why does it tip towards permitting the ad — particularly in public places where everyone can see it — rather than killing it or, at the very least, running it only where the viewer has control over whether to look or not, like newspapers and magazines? I understand the desire to push the edge in order to gain attention, but it seems like FX was really courting the backlash here. Additionally, we are all familiar with the marketing concept that bad press is still good press, yet you consider this bad marketing. I’d be curious to hear more of your thoughts on that.
Re other writings here: I would NOT say it was “Perfect”… and also, I wouldn’t say there was a total absence of “Satire”. It was thought-provokingly written. As they said in the Scouts, “Be prepared” (and nowadays things change quicker than EVER!!)
Ben Hecht must be referring to an American City called “London” As I can assure him that we aren’t converting shipping containers in the UK as an “answer” to the affordable housing issue. All the writers above highlight problems caused by policy about development, and more policy ideas to counteract the impact of the first policy ideas. Hmmm, how about getting rid of the damaging policy first? The main US problem is you don’t and never have, build with sufficient density. US development seems to me to be too car dominated.
The real answer to housing affordability problems is BUILD MORE HOMES, just keep building until the market clears at a price people can pay.
Simple
I’m surprised there is no mentioning of the incident in Westwood about the same time that this killing that some of us thought was key to the downfall of what used to be our “IN” area! It was the vehicle that ramped into the sidewalk of Westwood Blvd. 2 or 3 blocks adjacent to UCLA Campus entrance and killed or injured some pedestrians on a weekend evening. This scared many of us neighbors to the area together with the gangs’ presence, as article states. After the sidewalk rampage incident, for some of us UCLA Westwood streets changed completely from attractive to forgotten!
I completely agree – safe driver should be allowed to drive safely. However, laws are enacted not for the safe driver, but for the unsafe driver (as the example provided)… as usual, the “few bad apples ruin it for the rest.” If lane-splitting is discouraged, it is probably because it’s unsafe – whether because of motorcyclist or motorist. (Like helmet laws.)
I don’t mind lane splitting (as a car driver), and I do make room when I see motorcycles approaching, but I do not appreciate it when motorcyclists feel entitled to the the space between lanes. If it is safe, do it, but if not, wait until it is. Don’t rev up your motorcycle or “mad dog,” or even slow down to lecture (I thought you wanted to get somewhere?) – leave that for law enforcement. And I do wish law enforcement would do more lane-splitting and ticketing of inattentive motorist.
I’m an unlikely Lane splitter, with my fleet of Vespa/ Piaggio scooters. I’m actually
constantly aware of all the cars around me, checking my mirrors, making eye
contact with left Turner’s. It takes a lot of skill, and an awareness of your
surroundings to ride a motorcycle or even a mere Vespa/ Piaggio to maneuver streets and
freeways. I have to be at my best, I exercise a lot to stay in good enough
shape to ride. I need to actually be awake, drug-free, not texting, not drunk on
top of my game. I ride on the freeway. Usually with one of the bikes with a
larger motor. And it’s amazing to watch drivers beat themselves around me,
practically forced me off the road, to get around me. It’s not quite as bad as
riding a bicycle in surface streets. We take up a lot less space, from a
traffic mitigation standpoint, parking stand point, we just are better for the
environment. By Lane splitting I am able to take myself out of the cramped stopped
traffic. I no longer have to worry about traffic I just ride around it. I have
to be somewhat aggressive, not as bad as the guys going 80+ on their rice
burners. Oh, and I’m probably kind of an unlikely rider. Middle-aged above 50, white,
female.
As a former motorcyclist I’m not buying that it’s that hot on the bike as you described above. Is it more uncomfortable (hot) when stopped as opposed to rolling? Yes, but not that uncomfortable! And this is from someone that was living upstate, (read: 100 degree summers).
Your argument for I guess getting everyone’s approval on lane-splitting is a bit weak too. Yes the drivers will experience a faster arrival time if the motorcycles split lanes as opposed to using the lanes provided, but is saving 0.00003 seconds in one’s journey from point A to point B really going to be that big of a deal? Now if you were referring to the motorcyclist time in getting from point A to point B, then yes, the cyclist will be arriving far faster!
I’m a bicycle rider nowadays and have not driven for over 8 years. I contend that being a bicycle rider has a FAR greater impact on reducing the driver’s arrival time than the splitting of lanes on the freeway!
Your experience as a former motorcyclist does not invalidate the author’s experience. Different motorcycles radiate heat differently and I have had a couple bikes that were almost intolerably hot in traffic during the summer.
True, mine was an older BMW. I’m thinking newer bikes are more efficient, no? I guess it could be argued that efficiency = more heat. Also, just maybe the designers of BMW worked at getting more of the heat dissipated towards the rider since it was designed and built in a Germany, yes?
And true if you comeback and say “well riders experience heat differently.”
Hard to bicycle from South Bay to Irvine. Granted if every single motorcycle on the road turned into cars and you multiplied by 0,00003 (very scientific number btw), it would still be a small number, but my point is keeping motorcycles in the lanes with the cars, doesn’t improve traffic congestion. And perhaps you have thicker thighs than I do, but trust me, it is that hot in dry Southern California freeways when the road has been cooking in 90 degree weather for hours.
The best view of Downtown Los Angeles is at night while leaving Dodger Stadium, walking to your car in one of the upper levels of the parking lot – especially if L.A. won the game.
Heinlein answered this one: Every hospital room should have a
Big Red Button on the wall; When the patient had had enough
she pushed the button; Nobody else’s decision.
My senior year in high school, ’73-74, we girls finally wore down resistance at our Catholic high school and got permission to form soccer and softball teams. The only other options for girls at the time were cheerleading, basketball, and swimming. We got started late so missed the official soccer league and only got three non-league games that season. Our record was 1-1-1. We had even more disastrous results in softball, as we’d never played fast pitch before. But it was an incredible year that I’ll never forget. My mom had died a few months before that school year started. I know she would have been one of our most vocal supporters and a great soccer mom. My first niece, out of the now six I have, was born shortly before my first softball season started. How I envied her and her two sisters years later as they boisterously played soccer and softball without a thought about what transpired to make that possible. They went to the public high school, which had added soccer and softball years before our school had. But by then the Catholic school’s girls teams had developed into formidable opponents. I had three more nieces, athletes all. A couple even played hockey, which was my dream. Soccer and swimming are still recurring themes. For the boys, football, basketball, baseball, track and field, soccer and hockey. And now the third generation in my family of female athletes, the only girl in her generation, so far, with three brothers and two boy cousins, has.grown into a firecracker of an athlete. She’s played hockey but now skates for fun. She’s only in middle school but soon she’ll be tearing it up on the high school fields. Or not. Some kids find other interests as they get older. But isn’t it great that they have the choice?
If districts shouldn’t matter, then perhaps we shouldn’t have districts! How about enabling proportional representation of voting blocs without boundaries, by having Single Transferable Vote elections? (These use Ranked-Choice Voting.)
You’re right about how confusing L.A. can be, even for the media. (The City of L.A. is a gerrymander within the County of L.A.)
An example:
The NYTimes Magazine article on the contest for Rep. Waxman’s seat was called “The Real House Candidates of Beverly Hills.” (Beverly Hills is a but a small part of the district.) It began: “Brent Roske lives on a 45-foot yacht off the coast of Marina del Rey, which is technically on the Pacific Ocean, but for jurisdictional purposes is considered part of the city of Los Angeles and, more to the point, the 33rd Congressional District of California.” Marina del Rey is *not* part of the City of Los Angeles. I asked the NYTimes to correct the error, but the NYTimes refused, because the sentence was “tongue-in-cheek.”
Now school districts have to remain. The cost, climate and traffic impacts of transporting kids from home to better schools would only add to the substantial climate and traffic impacts of people driving from poor areas to better jobs, right? And without school district boundaries, good schools wouldn’t boost property values
anymore, so there wouldn’t be any more support for good schools, right?
I love this! As a soccer mom who dragged my son around to his older sister’s soccer games, and inadvertently screamed in his year while he sat in my lap, I totally relate to your funny essay. I have a picture of my son sitting in a folding chair, with a brown paper bag as a sun shield on head, sticking his tongue out at me.
Most of those who call themselves Californian are from somewhere else originally. That’s certainly true in San Francisco and LA. Ask anyone who lives here where their parents or grandparents are from, and 4 out of 5 times they’re probably from out of state.
If you do some research on Eddie’s parents, you’ll see that Randall Park
and Constance Wu do pretty good impressions of their accents. Not all
Asian parents in America had heavy accents!
My husband Mike passed away this past March of 2014 from pancreatic cancer. Towards the end of his life he saved this article and asked me to read it when I am able to. I finally got the will to read it and well, 5 months after his passingI realized he did it exactly on his terms. He was at home the the entire time, many of his friends and family had visited him many time from CA, NY & PA. With his hospital bed next to my bed we were able to hold hands and even cuddle at times. Then finally at 1:30 am I suddenly woke up and felt him, his hand was still warm but I could not hear him breathing anymore. I had a friend who had been staying with me for the past two days (who happens to be a RN) and she told me that he did pass. It was very surreal, but I feel like he passed in his sleep so that people were not hanging over him and he gently kissed me good bye (at 1:30am) which is what woke me up. To me it was the most beautiful passing for this ugly cancer. Thank you for letting me vent and continue on this healing journey.
I find this article both informative and motivating…so much so, I will earnestly investigate launching an engineering career myself… Thank You, Christine !
Nicely written. I’m sorry you didn’t get that last heart-to heart talk… most of us never get those talks with loved ones. I’m sure Armando knows, though.
Beautiful letter.. may he rest in peace.. I meet him back in the 90’s I was dating one of his friends. . & yes he was a very happy outgoing person.. my condolences to your family.
Having lived in Argentina as an expat, you paint a much rosier picture than exists in real life. I love the people there, but that’s it. The government is corrupt, and if you disagree with the elected government, then somehow you are automatically on the side of the military junta of the 70s, never understood that one… The simplest things take hours to do and require so much paperwork it blows your mind. E.g. at McDonalds I have to wait 15 minutes to get a coffee! every day! Good luck as an expat buying a car easily or renting an apartment. I had my corporation behind me and it still took months of legalities. The flaw I see is the locals far too many times take comfort in “we’re use to this and this always happens” but the reality is it’s just getting worse. Sadly, I don’t see a better government in the future based on all the existing characters in play. I do love Argentina in the end, but feel sorry for the population that truly wants something better, they are in the minority.
Similar story – Stage 4 colon cancer, metastasized in the liver, in my wife. Treated it aggressively to start but got the fateful I’m sorry nothing else we think will work. Our oncologist was up front about additional therapies we could try, referrals that he would be willing to make, but that in his opinion that would mean hospitalization, tubes and procedures and dying in the hospital. He recommended hospice, thought we should really strongly consider quality of life for what was remaining. We went that route. It ended a little more quickly than even the doctors predicted, but she was home, among family and friends. She died peacefully at home – no tubes, minor pain killers, able to eat. I was able to hold her as she passed.
I highly recommend you listen to what this author has to say.
Thanks for writing this, and offering this analysis. I didn’t have this historical context with which to consider the downturn in Westwood’s fortunes. I really couldn’t have, I was six when the shooting occurred, and I’d only gone to Westwood once during the day, to watch a cinematic double-feature. I grew up 10 miles to the east, not in South Central but close enough, and gang activity, drug dealing, and gun shots were part of daily life. The deal I had with my parents was that I was allowed to ride my bike around provided I came in before dark, when Bad Things Happened. I couldn’t have imagined that the shooting of one single person would be viewed as groundshaking as Ms. Toshima’s murder was in Westwood, where I later lived for two years as a graduate student. So I thank you for bringing up this perspective.
While a student in urban planning at UCLA, I read up as much I can on the history of Westwood, including academic papers/studies archived on the UCLA campus disseminating concepts for creating a pedestrian arcade down Broxton Ave from the 1970s. It said that people were coming to Westwood to recreate at night, and that Hollywood was seen as dangerous…not surprising to me, given that my dad and other Thai people lived there as recent immigrants from Bangkok because it was cheap. I did “LOL” though when I read that because by then I knew Westwood had been a Footloose type place for quite some time. In essence, basically, people have been worrying about Westwood’s economic health for quite some time before Ms. Toshima’s death. But Ms. Toshima’s death afforded neighborhood groups and some activist business owners the political will to draft and get approval for a very aggressive specific plan that, among many things, required businesses to get police permits for dance floors and other components of night life. To get those permits requires the blessing, more or less, of the local councilmember. And good luck with that.
I can relate. I have a distant father. Our relationship was tentative for the past 30 years, ever since he and my mother divorced. We had several good years together in there, but always on his terms. He finally split from me eight years ago, threatening a restraining order if I didn’t stop sending him the occasional card or letter.
It’s heartbreaking to have a parent that is at once present but absent. I wish I still had my dad in my life, but I also know that it’s really his loss.
Thank you, Mr. Al-Azzawi, for this lucid, heartbreaking account. I happen to live in an area of Michigan that has absorbed a lot of Iraqi refugees, mainly Chaldeans. Many of them have started thriving businesses. Others are professionals staffing the local hospitals and institutions. Some are artists, writers, filmmakers. The sad thing is that their American neighbors do not understand who these people are, where they are coming from. If they get close enough to learn how ambivalent their feelings are about the US intervention(s) in Iraq, Americans rarely “get it.” They are certainly not going to get the missing information from the mainstream media. We need more people like you to educate us with first-person narratives.
I too was born in Iraq, and came to the United States when I was ten years old. I visited Iraq in 2000, when it was in a much much better state. I wrote and lectured about the very same things you write about today, and recently I finished a memoir about this experience.
Here’s what I have learned. America does not really want to understand Iraq and its people, and how Iraq affects their lives. It is this lack of political and historical interest that allowed for the existence of ISIS.
Thank you sir. I’m a librarian, about to teach research methods to a university history class. I will assign your story as an example of the importance of primary and secondary sources.
In the MICU of the world renowned cancer hospital where I worked for many years I saw many examples of futile care but one is branded into my memory.
The patient had end stage multiple myeloma and I don’t remember the complication that landed her in intensive care. Given her advanced disease it made little sense but policy had deemed anyone on a ventilator went to ICU.
She was a slight woman to begin with and was now painfully wasted. She had not had an appetite for some time and what nutrition she did take in seemed to feed only the widespread malignancy.
One day she coded and her family despite her prognosis had refused no code status and she had gone along with them. My hands and my ears still recall the feel and sound of her ribs and sternum fracturing with compressions. We “saved her with this horrifying CPR.
A couple of days later I happened to be in the unit and her the crack when her humerus snapped from the simple act of her nurse bathing her. Putting a tourniquet on to start an IV was hard, I just prayed I wouldn’t break her other arm with it. She was still aware at this point.
Soon, another crash and another successful resuscitation. The only good part was that she was comatose from then on and didn’t seem to suffer from her fractures and bone pain. The family continued to insist that we “do everything possible.” The problem was that we already had and it failed, all we had was prolonging her dying.
She was on high doses of pressors and her extremities began to show tissue death from the miserable circulation. The family never seemed to grasp that watching her fingers and toes die was actually part of doing everything.
There were a couple of additional codes. Her primary nurse, a woman with years of experience, almost quit nursing the day a large part of the woman’s gangrenous tongue simply fell off during oral care.
The family never budged and at that time there was no futile care policy in the medical center. I was not present for the final code when our patient finally managed to escaped her ravaged body. It was understood that the last code was a “slow ten count code.” For those who don’t know, this was basically a deliberately slow response basically to let a patient die naturally before a pointless resuscitation attempt. Never official, these codes did sometimes happen.
Not long after this, a futility of care policy was implemented by mutual agreement of the med center institutions. In most cases, it prevented the horror show of cruelty by codes. I think evey single one of us who had any part in this uncaring care had advance directives after that and made wishes clear to our next of kin.
And yet we still see the occasional case where a family demands futile care, even if a legally dead corpse on life support. Or rather death support, to my mind. I think we still have a great need for ways to educate patients and families about realities no one wants to face but should if only in the name of mercy and justice.
That patient had excellent insurance, by the way, and those horrifying weeks generated a stupefyingly high bill.
Wonderful to read this personal story. I thought I knew about your life–but didn’t know so many things you shared in this story. And most important, appreciated the love you felt for your folks and your hometown. Thanks for sharing that.
Saif, that was a moving piece. I was born in Iraq just like you, and I left Iraq in 1990 (I was 12 as well at the time). Your words ring very true to me, I don’t recognize Iraq anymore, it is a strange feeling to witness the death of a country, this is a rare occurrence in the modern world. I recently published a book called “The Bull of Heaven” in it I remember Iraq exactly as you did prior to 1990, and for many years I wished to see that Iraq come back, but alas now I view this period as it really was, a beautiful ice sculpture that melted away a long time ago.
The point of the subsidy is to put electric cars on the road – which is happening. It’s unfortunate that the price point is high, but that’s inevitable for a new technology that is evolving and not widely adopted. The incentive will make such vehicles more commonplace, which (1) enhances air quality for all (2) encourages more innovation which may ultimately (3) lower the price and put these vehicles within reach of a larger segment of the population. And yes, CA should keep the subsidies in place for a long time to come!
Years ago I read an article – I think it was in Car and Driver – in which the author asserted that the amount of money California would be spending on EVs would be better spent on just buying everyone in the entire state (who couldn’t otherwise afford it) a new car, that California would reap greater emissions benefits. I support forcing clean car technology – it’s the only way we have ever gotten auto makers to improve their cars. But your analysis reinforces the earlier assertion and should cause California to rethink its clean air plan.
The problem is poor folk aren’t buying new cars. It doesn’t matter if they run on electrons, gas, or cold fusion. Luckily with all the LEAF lease returns hitting the market at around $14K there is now a used EV market developing. Poor people do buy used cars. And when your fuel cost is 2.1- 3 cents/mile, it becomes even more affordable.
PlugInAmerica.org
Oh silly me! I thought this was a hiking story and not a driving to the top story. Where’s the satisfaction in driving to the top? Hiking to the top of Mt. Wilson is a far more relaxing and fulfilling option.
Full disclosure: I fall into the affluent group, and would buy a full electric without benefit of rebates. But we all have our own motivations.
Re: your article, however, I suspect that a very large percentage of electrics are purchase by those in the middle of your income spectrum.
Respectfully, I think you have missed a few of points.
– First, the Purpose of the rebate is to encourage electric car purchases. Every purchase benefits air quality. And some of that benefit accrues to people who live in more urban areas with higher air pollution, or rural areas like the Central Valley with horrific air quality based on geography, dominant industries, and transportation. The air pollution of the attorney living in Santa Monica, and driving to Bunker Hill every day does impact the overall air quality of the LA Basin.
– Second, encouraging electric car purchases in California (along with mandates to) has, without question, stimulated more innovation and interest by car companies. This will have an impact, longer-term of bringing down prices based on competition and economy-of-scale.
– Third, for some, the rebate is needed to bring the price point for an electric down toward the price point for a similar gasoline powered car. But it does not actually make up the difference. This difference is a much, much greater hurdle for those lower on the income spectrum, so its effectiveness is likely much reduced.
So, if we keep in mind the primary purpose of the rebate, some pertinent questions to address in Zócalo Public Square might be:
Simplest direct form –
Given a specified total amount of tax dollars with which to use for rebates, how can we achieve the maximum number of electric vehicle purchases? (What is the individual rebate that gets the maximum number of electrics purchase?.)
Much more complicated direct form –
Given a specified total amount of tax dollars with which to use for rebates, how can we achieve the greatest total amount of estimated pollution reduction? Would have to base on effective MPG differential between new electric vehicle removed (but does that vehicle really get removed?), and the routine mileage driven.
Alternative ideas, contrasting with other pollution reduction strategies –
Given the pollution reduction achieved with the electrics purchased to date, what increase in gasoline prices would achieve the same overall result? Elevated gas prices would be felt to a much greater extent by people in the lower income levels. How would their tax contributions to rebates look against costs of increased fuel prices?
Public transit is great, as are fuel efficient cars, electric cars, better roads, signals, accident alerts and all the rest of the things which, while desirable in themselves, only nibble at the edges of the problem. The desire for mobility is infinite. If we doubled the number of freeway lanes in Los Angeles, in five or six years they would be filled to capacity again and we’d be back to where we started (though perhaps a trillion dollars poorer).
People won’t driver fewer miles unless they have to pay by the mile. Someone in a BMW would be happy to pay $10 to drive 10 miles at 80 mph. If wealthy people want to pay big bucks to drive congestion free (and so that they don’t have to sit next to poor people, the great unwashed or people who talk too loud and travel in packs), who are we to stand in the way?
We need to introduce congestion pricing to give them that opportunity. And if a dollar a mile doesn’t reduce congestion, we can keep raising the price to $5/mile or $10/mile and keep on raising it until finally it finally dawns on people that cars are not the solution to getting around in big cities anymore.
There are all sorts of ways to handle congestion pricing. We can make the first 10 miles per day completely free (this would accommodate poor people or trips to the doctor grocery store). But after that the cost of driving would rapidly accelerate.
People who oppose congestion pricing always say that it would hurt the poor more, but everything hurts the poor more, from a flat tire to a spoiled can of tuna fish. That’s no reason not to do something. It’s just a reason to use a little more ingenuity, such as taking all the money from congestion pricing and pouring it into public transit, close-in housing, adding many more bike lines (America is the only major country in the world with virtually no electric bikes) and changing the zoning laws so businesses, doctors and other services (cafes!) can coexist with existing housing, instead of being forced to relocate many blocks or miles away.
The one thing we don’t want to do is make it easier for people to travel more. The desire for mobility is infinite. We will never satisfy it. To make cities livable again we have to make needless mobility both harder and more expensive.
Something else to keep in mind that I didn’t see mentioned is about the citizenship status of the residents of these communities. People who can’t get state issued identification because they aren’t citizens are generally not able to open bank accounts which in turn reduces the likeliness of ever applying for credit for fear of being caught. Citizenship status also limits the type of jobs these residents can obtain, which are generally low wages paid under the table. So perhaps the more salient discussion should be focused more on how to improve economic opportunities for undocumented people and improving public transit do these residents don’t have to rely on old cars. The subsidies are serving their purpose in putting more zero emissions cars on the road.
I live about 30 miles east of Mr. Hernandez (literally on the edge of the Fresno city limits — Fresno population ~500,000). While my income is higher than Mr. Hernandez’, it is less than 1/2 of that found in San Ramon. So I believe that my situation is somewhat comparable to his. A few simple facts —
1. Along with the Federal tax credit and state rebate, the San Joaquin Valley Air District gives additional rebates to EV buyers. I received a $3,000 check from them when I bought my Mitsubishi i-MiEV. Program information is available at http://valleyair.org/grants/driveclean.htm
2. Mendota is 30+ miles to Fresno, the nearest large city. Most Mendota residents I’ve met will travel to Fresno regularly. Fresno has practically no EV infrastructure (a few places to plug in, but those are mostly limited to car dealerships). So limited range EV’s in Mendota could not make that common trip to Fresno. More places to charge the EV’s will help (why didn’t Target install EV chargers at their new superstore next to Highway 99? — Target puts them in new stores in the Bay Area.)
3. Your article’s title must not be addressed to me. I live in the Central Valley. I have a 5.2kw solar PV system installed that generates most of the electricity used by my EV.I believe that my EV is helping. I think the title of your article should be addressed to the San Ramon EV owner. Even then, it may help because Bay Area’s air pollution gets blown into the Central Valley. Generating less pollution in the Bay Area may mean less bad air being moved to my neighborhood.
4. If Mr. Hernandez can’t afford even the cheapest new car, than an EV is likely out of the question. But consider the deal I received on my Mitsubishi. List price was about $22k. I then received a $7,500 federal tax credit, a $2k state rebate and the $3k Valley Air rebate. So the new EV’s net price was about $10k. It would be better if the Federal tax credit was a rebate, but the car was affordable.
The article should be titled “EVs are not the most cost effective way to clean the air”, not “Your Electric Car Isn’t Making California’s Air Any Cleaner”. The actual headline is demonstrably false; people do not hold on to their clunkers longer just because someone else bought an EV. But someone could establish that the EV subsidy is less effective that using other means at the current price point, that a well-designed “cash for clunkers” would do better. However, the whole point is to create a market, where the price of EVs come down, and are cost effective without subsidy.
Your title does a giant disservice to the community. On the face of it, the quality of our future depends on how quickly we convert to no-fossil-fuel electricity and an all-electric, light-vehicle fleet (LVF). (Together they account for about 2/3rds of anthropogenic CO2.) Nothing else will have such a large effect.
The point of the Tesla is not that it will single-handedly take over the LVF. It is that it spear-heads the development of technology and provides proof of concept. It captures our imagination and gives us motivation and energy to make the necessary changes. Why would you possibly want to negate these effects?
The most dramatically different skyline is one taken on a clear day in winter — snowcapped mountains appear in the image. Shown in Summer, many Angelenos don’t even recognize that it is their city!
One point that this article misses is a distinction between criteria pollutants and GHG emissions. Older cars do have much higher criteria emissions; they do not necessarily have much higher GHG emissions, since these are basically a function of MPG, which was essentially flat for two decades.
I rarely see hybrids, and never see EV’s, in my middle income North Orange zip code. The coastal cities are another matter. The subsidies are robbing the working class to buy new cars for the rich.
Nice analysis. This correlation between previous streetcar location and development density in LA has been known generally, but it’s good to have it systematically analyzed.
The old streetcar corridors have generally become today’s bus corridors, a few are today’s rail corridors. The persistence of density and commercial activity along these corridors is the framework upon which Los Angeles can again build itself as a transit-oriented city.
“The very last streetcar tracks were pulled out of the ground in 1963.” Streetcar service may have ended in 1963, but it is not at all credible to imagine that tracks, too, disappeared that year.
During our country’s golden era (post WWII- early ’60s) corporations assumed 35% of the tax load of this country. The U.S. was the envy of the world. Today, those corporations have whittled their share down to 17%. Guess who takes up the slack? We do. To a point. After that point, our schools begin to suck, our bridges begin to fall down, and the college education that someone making minimum wage in 1977 could afford, now costs $200K a year. I’m for any plan where the corporations begin to pay their fair share (again).
What an unbelievable amount of arrogance on the part of the writers.
“And suggesting that it’s time for boomers to shuffle off the stage might seem selfish or cold-hearted …” Yes, it might seem that way, because it is. The writers might as well have said, “Hey, why don’t you go crawl in a corner and die.”
Unbelievable!
The writers seem to have missed that the “older generation” is already being systematically taken out of the workforce. If you’re not in a corporate gig still in your early 40s, the likelihood of you getting back in is limited. 50s? Fogettaboutit! 60s? High near impossible.
To blame the job situation on boomers not retiring is certainly ill-placed “blame.”
How about looking at a marketplace flooded with cheap illegal labor, as a starting point? A few decades of jobs shipped overseas.
As someone who is almost 55, I second the substance, if not the tone, of Laura’s comment. This article is bizarre. The one thing it demonstrates is that you can make a living these days blathering about millennials.
Retire? Are you serious? What am I supposed to live on–Social Security? Snort. Sorry folks but it looks like I’ll be working until the day they shovel my cold, hard carcass into the ground.
So the biggest corporations in the world, which happen to have became that big because they are in the U.S. to begin with, now want to pay even less taxes? Is that patriotism or convenience and roberry? Do they still want to keep their corporate welfare? They still have enough money to have their lobbyists buying politicians to keep the minimum wage at poverty levels and buy government contracts so it can’t possibly be so bad for them!
I wish I could afford to retire. I love the work I do and I hope to be able to continue as long as I can. It would be nice to do something more “giving”/less lucrative, but I don’t see that happening for me in reality. I 100% agree with previous poster Laura.
The traffic lights in L.A. may be synchronized, but they aren’t “smart”. If sensors could detect the absence of vehicles at the “green light” axis of an intersection, while simultaneously detecting the presence of vehicles sitting idly at the “red light” axis, the traffic light system could react to this wasteful situation by changing the red light to green, thus letting the frustrated, resource- and time-wasting, air polluting vehicles continue on their way, unimpeded by a pointless stop. That would be a substantial improvement to our current system.
We all know that if Los Angenes were a “smart” city, we’d still have our red and yellow railcars with us today. There’d still be plenty of automotive traffic, but the rail system would offer a way around that mess.
At the bottom of the 6th paragraph is the gist of this article, without the sugar-coating. “…asking them (the baby boomers) to die…’
Looking at their photograph at MikeandMorely dot com, I deduce that both of these guys are Baby Boomers, likely born before 1964. Confirmatory information is supplied by the two author’s backgrounds: we learn that Morely Winograd “…served as the Executive Director of the Institute for Communication Technology Management (CTM) at USC’s Marshall School of Business from 2001 until his *retirement* in June of 2009….” Regarding Michael D. Hais, Ph.D., “Prior to joining Magid in 1983, he was a political pollster for Democrats in Michigan and an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Detroit.” In summary, these two Baby Boomers are first-class hypocrites.
Actually we are too old to be Boomers. We are members of the Silent Generation, the one nobody knows about that came before Boomers. And we are both retired.
As a Boomer, I appreciate your candor – but your definition of “retired” is a curious one, given that I would anticipate that the consulting fees mentioned on your website are substantial. It still seems to be “do as I say, not as I do.”
Interesting when I was teaching law at the undergraduate level at a private college and also at a large public university, I noticed a divide among the students. The Immigrants had the values of the Boomer generation — love of Liberty which they showed by making the most of everything. They worked extremely hard, were respectful and inquisitive. In the category of Immigrants I include students directly from other countries, mostly Asian and Mexico, and those who parents grew up overseas, especially India and southeast Asia.
Laura aptly describes the “typical” American Millennial. While each person needs to be judged on his/her own individual merit, certain groups do tend to have similar values. Some of the American Millennials were stupendously wonderful.
This “discussion” shouldn’t even be happening. No generation is entitled to work or not work and nobody should be obligated to step aside for someone else just because they’re there. This should simply be a matter of who’s most capable and best suited to do the work. And that has everything to do with skill, not age or generational entitlement. If millennials want to move up they need to acquire the experience and expertise to do that, not plot the best way to ask others to step down. It’s about earning the right to move into those jobs, not some sense of generational entitlement that means that others who can do the work and want to do it must step aside.
I’m on the cusp having been born in 1965 but am essentially the youngest of “boomers” with a grungy hip-hop flavor. That being said, I second “Laura’s” challenge to “millenials” and the authors who didn’t even address the economic reality of boomer-retirement: finance the retirement and our jobs are theirs! I’ll continue to troubleshoot and engage society with positive contributions and even more efficacy. after all, I’ve consistently done my best work when pay (or supervisors) aren’t involved. Is that a “boomer” characteristic? . . . Peace.
Oh come now. Most Boomers are way better off than their younger generational counterparts–both Xers and Milennials. I take it you live in CA and never bothered to buy a house? Because if you did you should be sitting pretty and ready to ride off into the retirement sunset.
“I take it you live in CA and never bothered to buy a house? Because if you did you should be sitting pretty and ready to ride off into the retirement sunset”. Unless one plans to relocate to an isolated desert community or transplant to AZ or NV, selling your Cali home to purchase another Cali home essentially results in an even swap that wouldn’t necessarily include the benefit of an upgrade or much if any profit. I also don’t know how much “better off” I was looking for a job out of high school in the 80s as my millennial counterparts. I do know that we were underemployed until our mid-20s before we were finally able to proceed beyond the threshold of gainful and stable employment.
Maybe. Anyhow, the Founding Fathers would be shocked by a society that didn’t know who it’s city council people were, and who dismissed any election where POTUS wasn’t on the ballot as an “off year election”. So much for “the more local, the closer to the people” in our media society, I do fear, it’s just the opposite.
When I’m alone, and can’t use the carpool lanes on the 110, I often use the 710, because it runs between two other freeways and doesn’t have the same pressure on it. As for all the trucks, there are two lanes that are free of trucks.
I don’t which point you get on or get off the 710 in lieu of the 110, but it might not be all that practical a plan for someone who intends on going to downtown LA as an example.
As for the trucks, they are permitted in the furthest 2 lanes to the right, but keep in mind that any vehicle that is towing a trailer is by law, restricted to a maximum speed of 55 mph (pretty much ALL trucks you might come across on the 710) whereas a passenger vehicle can go as fast as 65 mph, that alone can reduce the number of drivers who would be OK with using those two lanes where trucks are allowed. This may end up pushing all passenger vehicular traffic to either the 1 additonal lane (in areas where the freeway is 3 lanes) or to the left 2 lanes (in areas where its a 4 lanes). And lastly, all this means is that the more tractor trailers that we have on out freeways, the more restricted traffic flow is going to be.
Trucks on the 710 is an unavoidable matter simply because the 710 happens to be the one main outlet out if the port at Long Beach. Now, if the expansion does happen, it is likely that a lot if truck traffic will still transfer to the westbound/eastbound 10 Fwy, on their way to points north via the 10 to the 5 or the 10 to the 605 to the 210 to the 15 (respectively) and yet if the expansion is ever built, they would have an option to stay on the 710 which would not only relieve some congestion (in the least) on the 10 fwy but on associated fwy interchanges in the area as well. It isn’t that dufficult to envision that those who are forced to exit the 710 where it ends now, are forced into having a long detour as they traverse through an already congested freeway system and one which promuses to only get worse as time passes.
The way I see it, and while there are -as listed in the piece above- 5 options, there really is only but a single viable choice. For one, we are discussing users who are (by definition) “driving” in their own vehicles. So unless you are planning on having (something similar to a ferry service -except this is on land/not on water) flat train carts, or long flat tractor trailers where vehicles may hop on at one point and get off at another point only to then continue driving (sounds silly, doesn’t it), then the option gwnerally described as “public transportation” aren’t really that viable. Furthermore, even if that idea wasn’t that silly, you’d have to build a roadway for those carriers to travel on (otherwise it isn’t much different than what we have now) otherwise the congestion on existing freeway and local roadways is still a problem. And if you are going to build something, build the danged expansion and get it over with. So again, “public transportation” is a silly (for lack of a better word) non-viable option only intended to cloud the issue, and dilute public opinion away from the realistic choices we have.
A tunnel, is yet another “pipe dream” (pun intended) that isn’t any more realistic than a ferry-on-land service. Not in Southern California and not until AFTER we have our anticipated “BIG ONE”. Then again, it worked for several miles of light rail so why not for a 3.5 mile stretch of freeway! In this case, and if this is to be considered as a realistic option, then any mention of “cost” is yet again, a mere distraction and a lousy excuse to continue to delay the inevitable; that being the one and only sensible choice…. BUILD THE DAMNED FREEWAY AND BE DONE WITH IT!
I should also point out that if cost was such a huge obstacle to a real solution, then whose decision has it been to continue to pour hundreds of thousands of dollars in payroll hours as we conduct study after study and public hearing after public hearing?
Lastly, this is one project that is the poster child for red tape and bureaucratic redundancy. And if anyone is really serious about resolving this issue, then he/she needs to look back on the history of this dilemma, and examine a list of individuals who have participated in this process. My guess is you will find one who is not only influentual enough to continue to derail any possible solution, but one whose pocketbook might be somehow negatively impacted if this project were to ever see the light of day. Get that individual out of there and get this show on the road… (No pun intended)!
Excellent post: thank you! I still think that the sharing economy makes cities more cooperative, but maybe it’s time to show off the true poster children. Have you looked at the impact of http://www.meetup.com on cities yet?
Thanks Odile. We haven’t studied meetup in detail, but its the sort of platform that can facilitate cooperation in many dimensions. In the book we look in more detail at how such cyberspace infrastructure can complement urban public space and help build sharing cities.
One major factor in conjestion is the slow driver in the faster lane, one who has continuous cars passing on their right side. These drives create long distance between them and the car in front of them. These drivers can safely move to their right oine lane and sometimes two lanes. In my observations that I have observed, the cars behind them that can not pass varies from 10 to 15 cars. The speed varies but averages in the mid sixties. Thes drivers are unaware of the conjestion that they are creating. It is responsible for more cars on the freeways. Their keeping over 1 or 2 lanes traffice can more safely a little faster. This will account for min of 10 % less cars on the freeways, creating a safer condition. This does require teaching people to become aware and respectful of their roads and highways..
Hear hear Robert. Just yesterday I got stuck behind a charter bus in the HOV lane. He was going 55mph and there wasn’t a car in front of him for miles! Arrrgg!
Wonderful article. My Dad, Robert Slee, worked with Howard Ahmanson, Sr, Maurizio Bufalini and Millard Sheets on many projects in the 1960s. I’m planning a trip to Italy this month and have the Carrara Marble quarries on my itinerary as a must see. My Dad travelled to Carrara over the years and became good friends with Maurizio. Going to Los Angeles in December, will be visiting Ahmanson Center to see the travertine block. Brings back great memories of the 1960s.
Surprised no one mentioned smart freeways. We have 1400 metering lights installed across LA County’s entire network of freeways, 900 can be controlled in real-time. If the average person can obtain and respond to real-time traffic congestion data on their cell phone, certainly CalTrans should be able to obtain extremely fine-grained real-time data and respond appropriately by adjusting the metering lights in order to eliminate freeway congestion. LA DOT does this all day every day on surface streets with ATSAC and it works very well, so there’s no logical reason that CalTrans shouldn’t be able to do the same thing.
Mr. Mathews, speak for yourself. We are LUCKY to have him come to California so often. Also, did you write this same article for Bush #1, #2 when they visited and caused traffic jams?
Quit your whining. He is the President of the United States! Not some 2-bit politician or entertainer. You make accommodations for THE President.
If he never came, I’d be reading an article about how he’s neglecting California.
This is a great piece. In a personal and eloquent manner it really says a lot about life (in micro and macro terms) today – particularly in California. Well done.
Nice story about issues that affect so many of us positioned in the leading edge of Gen X, and the extreme social stratifications (socioeconomic, personal, professional, etc) that have transformed the California I grew up in and have lived in for the great majority of my life into something I barely recognize. I feel as much a disconnected stranger, and on rapidly shrinking ground in the financial scheme of things (although lucky enough to have a longtime job as an educator), in my home state.
President Obama has been a multi-time visitor to my part of the state, Rancho Mirage, in the last few years – to Sunnylands, the Annenberg Estate beloved by Presidents, to have summits with international leaders and play golf. To Ralph Ellison’s Porcupine Ranch, to fundraise and play golf. And so forth. In fact, in his visit here last February, to play golf at one of these mega-grass, water-sucking resorts, he’d just come from speaking in the San Joaquin Valley about the need for water conservation measures in our statewide time of extreme drought, never mind the extreme environmental impact that the desert’s 150+ golf courses and lavishly landscaped private resorts – such as Sunnylands and Porcupine Ranch – create on our shrinking water resources. Note to Obama: we need serious help on this one, not just talk and vacation/fundraising exploitation.
Great work and creative vision with your Union Station readings these past few months, Chiwan Choi, and a moving article! I was honored to be part of one of these readings, the tribute to Hunter S. Thompson’s birthday, in July. Thank you for your dedication to connecting people from all over L.A. and beyond with the literary arts, L.A.’s rich heritage, and a cultural icon such as Union Station.
My initial reaction to this beautifully-written piece was: how can we help? Admittedly, all the details of the situation aren’t included here, and this is not a plea for charity. Yet how can I, a writer and editor who also sometimes struggles financially, stand by and watch another hardworking writer clearly struggle? I recently saw a family open an account online to accept donations toward some bills left behind when their daughter passed away. Perhaps this writer can consider a similar account, if the government is unable to provide the help she needs to survive.
A profound reflection. I was born in Iraq in 1987 as well and left in 2004. I would argue though that while you’ve painted a nearly realistic picture of the Iraqi scene after 1990, your piece remains subjective to your own experience. Here is my 2 -cents:
The Iraqi political as well as the socio-economic climate started deteriorating long before 1990. Speaking from a position of non privilege, no ties with Saddam’s government what so ever , how could we -who had lived in Iraq during the 80’s- forget the line ups to get our basic food and cloth needs, how could we forget that the socio-economic hierarchy in the 80’s was determined by whether you are a Baathist or belong to a family that was “politically aligned” with Saddam’s regime. Also, the sectarian division in Iraq started long before 1990. To be precise, it was sparked by the beginning of the Iraqi – Iranian war, when all of the Shiite in Iraq became suspects to having ties with Iran.
My memories of the 80’s is quite different than yours Saif. Mines are neither prestigious schools nor fancy pools and clubs, despite being a daughter of two highly educated individuals. mine are loaded with scenes of dead Iraqi soldiers who didn’t make back from the war frontier, My memories are saturated with fear and repression.
I also disagree with your statement : “Even if Saddam had gone crazy and killed a bunch of people, it wouldn’t be anywhere near the number who have died since he was overthrown”
Saddam killed way more that just a bunch of people. Actually, Saddam is not completely guiltless of the blood of those who were killed after he was overthrown. In addition to a considerable number of loyal guards that had gone out of control after his fall, the remaining Baathists continue to actively provoke political and sectarian conflict in Iraq today.
I’ve always marveled at the Latino fascination my peers (Gen X) and the millenials have had with Morrisey, partly because like the writer, I was never big on his music. This kind of answers the not fully formed question I had as to why it was so prevalent. Excellent story.
“I’m the son and the heir of nothing in particular” perfectly described all of us alienated Mexican-American youth growing up as children of immigrant parents. We were stuck in-between our very distinct new American and old Mexican cultures and this prevented us from formalizing an identity between the two, so thanks to Morrissey, we become British!
Some of us were forced to carry a “shyness that is criminally vulgar” in hopes of not sticking out in a crowd and revealing that we had neither mastered what it meant to be an American or a Mexican: the acceptance of one meant the denial of the other.
For a much longer and way more depressing explanation, read “The Labyrinth of Solitude” by Octavio Paz.
I was a HUGE Morrissey fan as a teenager. Very economical to subscribe to his fashion sense. reflecting on the Mexican love affair with Moz as an adult i found him to be the British musical and cultural hybrid of the Mexican “Chente” and “JuanGa.”
Although i appreciate the immigrant and border crossing reading of Moz’s “Suede Head” lyrics, you need to brush up on your English to Spanish translation skills. “pasas” not “pasar.”
“They can offer the stability that other institutions can’t. Privately funded they can avoid the short falls of bureaucracy; properly funded they can set their sights on long term horizons and attempt to shift our national short-sightedness.”
Thank you so much for this article. I feel like the people who most need to hear it are not going to be receptive to the message, but even if so, it’s a vital thing that needs to be said.
“Nor is anyone is going to walk from Brentwood Gardens to the Brentwood
Country Mart down San Vicente Boulevard, past a country club and
residential areas.”
Sorry but I’m not the hippest cat on the block! It seems when I google these two points, they’re .1 miles apart! Are you saying people can’t walk that far? Are they suppose to drive their cars or are you saying we shouldn’t build like structures that far apart?
As far as becoming the West Coast’s culinary epicenter: boy, would I like to see that. We will have San Francisco – pound-for-pound, our nation’s greatest culinary city – to overcome.
SF is what it is partly because diners there are so knowledgeable, and (consequently) because the competition is so fierce. (I’ve even found that home cooks in SF are just a smidge better than in most other towns.) I do see the beginnings of this in LA, and hope the momentum continues.
Well, LA (the city) has 3 times the population of SF, and LA County has more people than the bay area. As usual, LA’s problem is that it is dispersed; there are of course many great restaurants in LA, but many of them are on the Westside, or in Beverly Hills, or K-town, etc. There are a lot of amazing places that have opened up in DTLA in the last few years – but it will take some time to truly be the epicenter of the area. Of course, if you count Langers as part of downtown (it’s just one red line stop away), that helps.
Our dt is only getting better with each day. I can not wait for the Broad to open. It’s really starting to take shape. What dt really and truly needs is a shopping area with some heavy hitting chains like Chicago’s Magnificent Mile or San Francisco’s Union Square. Keep up the great work.
Two points of inaccuracy. Singapore does not “call itself the Lion City”. “Singapore” is a Sanskrit name that when translated into English is “Lion City”. It literally is the Lion City.
It’s not that we only have one founding father. It is plural. LKY gets more than his fair share of the credit because of our (and most probably everybody else as well) share of giving too much credit to the most famous figure. But there was also Goh Keng Swee, S Rajaretnam, Toh Chin Chye, Edward Barker, Lim Kin San, off the top of my head. Generally in Singapore, at any given time, all members of the cabinet are pretty prominent figures.
Thanks for sharing this, I’m a fellow SGV native with similar high desert dreams and having this in common with your wise Uncle makes me feel a little less crazy
I walk to abbot Kinney from Downtown Santa Monica all the time. Perhaps you should get out of your car and get to know the city a little better. 20 percent of all trips in LA County are by walking. The future is already here.
First, this doesn’t address the most important issue, which is that workers who show up and do their jobs should be paid decent wages. Second, far more direct than increasing social service expenditures would be a refundable tax credit for tenants of the sum above a sliding scale percentage of their rent payments. Taxes on the rich would have to be increased a lot for this, but it would recognize the fundamental failure of our housing market.
Interesting to note that Prof. Chavez was also a sponsor of the ELA College chicano organization “La Vida Nueva” in 1968-69. This was a time when it was not popular for chicano professors to step out and support/ sponsor an organization on college campuses. Prof. Chavez was not only an artist, but an activist as well.
I think it would be fantastic if L.A. tried to attract branch campuses of Mexican universities, or a joint program with local universities. Projects like Yale-NUS could be a model – think UCLA-UNAM. These sorts of things could also be a way to bring investment to struggling neighborhoods.
Okay, my humble opinion is regardless of intention that professor was an arrogant a**. Secondly, while the ability to respond wittily to an insult is a wonderful skill, I have learned over many years that life is NOT a Neil Simon play. Eloquent, insightful and mean-spirited remarks work better on the stage (or in an essay) than in real life. And of course the most important idea to remember is that the least glamorous person should be able to hold your interest better than the most “fascinating” disability. Anything less reflects far more on one’s lack of ability as an observer than object of that attention. Having been a Marine and now a teacher, I understand that you don’t need a drill instructor mocking your perceived weaknesses for you to become something more, if that is even your goal.
Carly, thank you for your great piece. I am glad that you are a paid writer – you deserve it! I don’t think your CP is the most interesting thing about you. I am glad that you are incorporating your experiences into your work. You are an inspiration to aspiring journalists.
I have the singular advantage of growing up with CP in my family, when I was a toddler, my big sis was an Easter Seal child. She put herself through college, with multiple majors, worked a long career and is retired now on a pension. I never thought of my dear sister as either handicapped or disadvantaged, she is my dear sister, and that’s all. I absolutely respect her intellect, her sense of humor, her wisdom. I have had several more so-called “handicapped” friends in my life, and I don’t just overlook their differences, I don’t even see them. ‘Sall about respect, people. Every single human being on the planet has a right to be here, and a right to be respected. Lots of folks go through life with blinders on, I wear mine quite proudly.
I grew up near Downtown, Lincoln Heights…actual tumbleweeds rolling past Temple St and Al’s Bar the only thing happening in the Artist District…great to witness firsthand this paradigm shift in culture and growth. Viva Los Angeles!!!
Well that is one persons “opinion”- statistics and studies tell us CAR Culture is decreasing (even in LA), there will of course still be cars – however the Car Dominant culture we have been suffering is its way out of favor but the community and municipalities!
Fruit and street vendors of LA are part of the true history and fabric of their communities.
This is a nice summary of the importance of the Upper Midwest in both fueling and fighting the Civil War on the Union side. It marked the confluence of the northern and western regions, both bent on defeating the Confederacy and promoting their interests in the piece.
In my book _The Great Heart of the Republic: St. Louis and the Cultural Civil War_ (Harvard, 2011), I considered how St. Louis was a place where all three national regions–North, South, and West–were represented, and how advocates first tried to prevent war, and then tried to shape Reconstruction to their interests. The advocates of true racial equality failed, but those local leaders who saw a new path through Liberal Republicanism ultimately shaped the retreat from Reconstruction nationally. (They did fail at their local goal of bringing the national capital to St. Louis.)
My interest in the Lower Midwest and the confluence of southern and western in the Southwest as well is an important part of a museum exhibition and edited volume coming out in April 2015: _Civil War Wests: Testing the Limits of the United States_ (UC Press, 2015). The exhibition will be at the Autry National Center in Los Angeles, April to December, similarly pursuing what visions for the nation and what answers about territorial expansion and slavery would mean for freedom and citizenship.
These are all important questions–and, as this article suggests, sometimes the answers seem clearer farther from the eastern battlefields.
Umm…. the street life on Claiborne? Claiborne today is a freeway. A local black street culture was damaged when the freeway was built. How can maintaining an expensive, noisy wall between two communities help anybody? African American communities have been the biggest victims of highway building with highways either cutting through their neighborhoods or creating a physical moat between black and white neighborhoods. http://www.cnu.org/restoringclaiborne
Truly the best is looking SW from Montecito Heights just NE of the Arroyo Seco down towards Lincoln Heights and Chinatown – the skyline looks like you can touch it – only other view that matches it is from the top of Colima above Whittier.
I’ve been here 18 years. I’ll be here until I end. I love Downtown Los Angeles. I pray I stay alive for years and years…I have big dreams for DTLA. I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
Fully agree with you. We already do pay them to stay away, by relying on the city mayor’s office to entice them. There are probably 15 city staffers who haven’t a clue what they are doing, who travel to every major NFL event in the country in a vain attempt to negotiate some pie in the sky dream. Let’s face it we have USC, and once we get our full slate of scholarships going, we’re going to be great!
We have the Rose Bowl every single year. We have USC coming on strong, now that the scholarships are returning. We even have UCLA for some cross town rivalry games. Keep them out!!! Why not take a short drive to SD or a quick flight to SF for a pro game. The flight is a drop in the bucket compared to the NFL ticket costs and they play once a week. We drive and fly that far for a good ski weekend. Just don’t try to use this as an excuse for the bullet train. Maybe the NFL would want to pay for that sink hole.
I believe the reason why there’s so much panic is that no one – absolutely no one – trusts the guy from the CDC or NIH or the White House or anyone because they do not know! People keep saying “it’s hard to contract” but we had two nurses who contracted it in Texas. We have one physician now in New York and then the original US patients from Liberia. It IS contagious – and professional health care providers are getting it. But our representatives won’t say “we aren’t sure.” They more or less lie and keep saying everything is fine. It’s not!
Joe, couldn’t agree more. We would do far better to spend a little money on scholarships for the two Universities, to make them even more robust. Just because other cities follow policies that suck them dry, we don’t need to do the same!
Great to point out what you can do. My wife just did something similar with Caltrans and lane markings that didn’t line up with the new construction at Santa Monica Blvd. and the 405. She contacted the Caltrans outreach officer for that segment of the 405 project … problem fixed!
Beautiful description of truly breathtaking art – shame about the smashed objects of veneration done by minions ordered by Henry VIII – regretably that has been the overwhelming byproduct of Protestant houses of worship – their inherent sterility lest they be deemed ‘idol worshipers’
Great points everyone! I have been waiting for the Expo line extension for two plus years now. I’m excited,that it will allow me to walk 10 min and take me straight to 7th/Metro where I work. Currently, I’ll drive to Culver City and take it into Dwntwn two times a week. I pay $3.50 round trip vs. the cheapest parking I can find which is $7, and I can catch up on email, reading or surf the net on my way in. It’s great!!! I’m confident if we build it, they will come!
Angelenos can already take the train to the beach. The Metro Blue Line goes to Long Beach and Amtrak/Metrolink stop at San Clemente (in Orange County).
Bev has done more to train local citizens on what to look for in monitoring elections than anyone in the country. Through many personal trials and tribulations, she has persisted for well over a decade. She is my personal election integrity hero!
The Phantom visits the State Capitol often and has never needed to fly. Door-to-door takes about 4 hours by air (The Phantom lives about 30 miles from LAX or BUR), or 8 hrs. by Amtrak San Joaquin Bus/Rail service (The Phantom lives about 5 miles from a station). The trains costs about 1/2 as much as the air, evel less for last minute trips. Driving takes about as long as the train and costs about the same.
I’ll be 70 next month, have chronic AF, don’t know how much longer I’ll be above ground, not too long I hope. Cannot express how hugely relieved and grateful I am to have come across your article. My wife and GP will both receive clear directions about my desire to just go as peacefully as possible when the time comes, I owe the earth my quota of fertiliser 😉
Thanks for your honest and truthful concern writing this article… It’s very educational and heartfelt. I just wish we were more responsible in the U.S. in this radiation regard. I imagine how many irresponsible people or those that don’t understand it, are left on their own with little guidance and support. It is worrisome!
I was checking back on this great article today, and I was glad to see the continued discussion. This year (2014-5) I am finishing a book about the art, architecture, and urban context of the Home Savings-Millard Sheets Studio collaborations, and I would love to hear from more former Home Savings employees, or any memories of these wonderful buildings.
Thank you for depicting the real picture. When a man or woman is sure to die in a few months, it is better that they are allowed to have a peaceful death at home with their loved ones rather than be in horrible hospital environment with hose pipes in the nose and mouth perpetually being fed through a nozzle from a drip bottle. I am 69 and wish that I will be forced into such a situation, but my children (one is a Doctor, Radiologist) and wife may think otherwise and try to prolong my life on ‘life supporting’ devices. Probably if an young man or woman in her prime caught in an accident can be kept in an I c U with the hope that by some miracle( yes, miracle do happen, Doctors also will agree) he or she may come back to life. But even there, case of terminal diseases particularly among senior citizens like me who are beyond their prime, peaceful death is a better option than a miserable last few days in an ICU.
I remember the beautiful movie ” Bucket List” in which a millionaire and a poor African American porter, both suffering from ailments that will end their life in a few months meet in a hospital owned by the rich man become good friends. They together go on an overseas trip to complete the ‘bucket list’ originally prepared by the porter and added to by the millionaire. “Enjoy life, if you are going to die in a few months, you have done your bit.Let others do the rest” That should be the spirit.
The triumph of gay marriage was not brought about by reason, but by people finding out they knew or were friends with gay people and sympathizing with them emotionally.
Thank you for this report. I had read about this atrocity not too long ago in the LA Times and wondered why there was not a world wide outcry about this tragic incident. I am now heartened to learn that the Mexican people have been mobilized and will not stand for such crimes at the hands of criminals both in and out of the government. We can only hope that the people’s voices reach far into the halls of justice (if they still exist) and create a sweeping confrontation (and accountability) to end these kinds of heinous crimes. My sadness remains with the victims and their heart broken families.
My condolences. The topic is difficult to address with such emotional memories and convictions. I am grateful that the article presented hospice care and found the presentation of the hospice nurses to be kind. Your criticism of hospice care included the omission of standard informed consent statements. Morphine does eventually stop the breathing, and standard medicines provided can also stop the vomiting. Morphine has given hospice care the capability to allow dying without the trauma or terror that assisted suicide proponents tout. Eventually, it is the poisons given by the assisted suicide that are more traumatic and haunting. If you experienced terrible trauma upon dealing with the pain and complications of end stage cancer, it is likely because you do not agree to the full extent of the care that hospice care provides. Instead, it is often the terminal dosages of assisted suicide that are provided without supervision that end up with trauma and vomiting and sometimes failure of termination of life, only to harm and terrorize the families involved. There is no follow up on the consequences of providing terminal dosages to patients in Oregon. No one is following the disposal or improper use or possible devious use of the poison. If informed consent was improperly omitted then Mr. La Grange should complain about the improper procedures, but Mr. La Grange your experience should not be used to criticize and advise against proper hospice care. Your concerns about improper hospice care are valid. Proper hospice care embodies the compassion of professionals who provide their services day in and day out. These workers help you and your families through the difficulties by addressing the problems and minimizing the complications. Expediency of assisted suicide is the opposite and provided by those with opposite intentions.
John’s article is so true. My sister Phyllis was the one person in my life that made living a joy. She came through 2 brain tumor operations alive, but depleted. She was still able to function until 2007 when she started to go downhill rather quickly. I moved to Oregon to help with her care in 2008. She passed away February 1, 2009.
To this day I am tortured by the memories of her last few months. From her losing control of her body, to not being able to eat, swallow, move. Myself and her husband made sure to shift her every 2 hours to avoid bed sores. We gave her meds (not orally). I constantly was online looking for anything that would help her. She was in and out of the hospital during a terrible winter storm. She was only conscience maybe 15 minutes every 48 hours. Her breathing (sounds of a fish out of water) was horrific to listen to. Yet I remained and took care of her the best I could with foot massages and playing her favorite music.
But when she passed away, the process was horrific. I will not go into further detail, but after 5 years, I am still in shock and scarred from the experience.
Although she was in a state that allowed assisted suicide, she did not want to die. She wanted to live to the last possible moment. So the daily arguments with doctors, nurses, other staff to keep her alive became emotionally draining.
I respect Brittany’s decision as she saved herself a lot of pain, agony and heartship.
But unlike John, if I had a choice, I would still go through every bit of it because I wanted my sister alive, no matter the cost. This was selfish, but true.
I think the point of John’s article is that Brittany Maynard was willing to choose the last day of her too-short life, so she and her loved ones could celebrate their time together up until the last minute.
I would like to thank you for this article. I am a geriatric psychologist and have gone through several experiences of the same thing that you did, but as a professional and not a family member. I agree with everything that you wrote! Most hospice nurses and administrators are really nice, professional and accommodating. I have yet met a family with a bad hospice experience! On the other hand, they are regulated and need to follow their laws and rules. Hospice is utterly different than a physician’s assistance suicide and the “making the patient comfortable” does go so far. I have seen people suffer and they shouldn’t have and I have seen families suffer for no reason. I am going to save this article and give it to patients as I go along, it will help others!
This is a beautiful and heartbreaking piece, completely consistent with everything I have learned about dying both personally and through my professional work in health care. It is a complement to Atul Gawande’s brilliant new book Being Mortal which shows how our current medical system makes end of life decisions so needlessly expensive and brutal for families.
I would like to add that the 2/3 figure comes from the White House, but they took this from the extremely flawed report on U.S. teacher education produced by Arthur Levine. There are serious technical issues with the sample that responded to the survey that it is based on.
These kinds of clubs flourished during the 59’s and 60’s, as well! A group of us formed the Imperials while attending Manual Ars High School, 1956-58, and have remained friends since then! We hosted dances as well as attended dances and other events sponsored by other SoCal Asian-American clubs
A very interesting discussion last evening. I would be greatly interested to hear from a panel of current and retired teachers on the same topic … you were all theory and mostly “pie in the sky” … now let us get down to reality of “where the rubber hits the road”.
We really need to have incentives for our best teachers to stay in the classroom and mentor the ‘young folks’, not move out and up as the only way to increase their salary.
Not once did class size come up … ! How effective is lecture hall education?
These types of Asian massage parlors offer a very different type of massage than most licensed massage therapists working on their own would perform. I hope this article does not scare off readers, or the author, from trying it again, with an actual therapeutic massage professional, in a different setting. The best way to find a quality massage therapist, is to look for National licensing at NCBTMB.org. Massage Therapy is extremely beneficial to one’s health, but the treatment in these massage parlors are not. Also, it’s good to keep in mind that the type of place the author went to can be very different from the Massage Place or Massage Envy. Keep exploring, and you may find that a proper massage by a trained professional will improve your life.
Lydia,
As a Marine vet–and former teacher–whose hearing became impaired half a century ago, thank you for “hearing”/sharing what many would-be/wannabe(?) communicators never ever tune into.
I doubt that we have the capacity to stop global warming, even if we caused it; but we do have to adapt to it. And truly we are a Privileged Planet, as the video of that name calls it.
What a wonderful essay! I grew up in Los Angeles, and although I do not have a drop of Mexican blood, I have a bit of Mexican in my corazon. The nickname given to me by my 8th grade Spanish teacher stuck and I have been living in Mexico for the past four years.
When my grandmother came from Japan in 1902, she was befriended by a Mennonite couple who became known as Grandpa and Grandma Jansen. There were no other Mennonites in the area (South Pasadena and Garvanza), so the Jansens worshipped with a Quaker congregation. As a result, some of my cousins are Quakers.
A beautiful and thoughtful essay (based on a wonderful book). My eight-year-old daughter has been making regular visits, through her school, to a school for deaf children and has been noticeably more attentive both to others and to ambient noise ever since.
Beautiful, if an article about death can be beautiful…when I die I want to die like a doctor would …:) A great way to approach this subject with your families as well. Superbly written, reason resounds, so also does sensitivity. Thank You.
You got it. The high speed rail thing was never, for me, about being anti automobile; it was about being anti the airlines. And that is why I voted for it.
Thank you. I haven’t dealt with this issue myself, but as an Oregonian and a journalist near in age to Ms. Maynard, her bravery and decisiveness was…inspiring and harrowing.
I love this piece for its simplicity, which is not to say simple-ness: You address the issue with such an astute, bare wisdom that I find myself tearing up, laughing and nodding simultaneously.
Thank you for sharing your story, John. I agree with you whole-heartedly. I was holding my grandfather as he died a very painful and graphic death from cancer. It was the worst thing I’ve ever witnessed and the image haunts me every day. We put animals to sleep when they are sick and dying so they won’t suffer. I don’t know why we can’t extend the same right to humans.
It’s not universally true that “the surge of massage parlors came after 2008.” There are municipalities where the surge occurred earlier in the decade, partially due to lax enforcement of existing ordinances, but it’s politically convenient for city councils to blame Sacramento for the increase.
Glad to see you are coming around, Joe. Yes, the price tag of $68B seems high. Those of us that have traveled through Japan, Spain, and the other parts of Europe with high speed rail know how great it is, especially for reliably getting you there and dropping you off in the middle of the city. In addition, how much are we going to spend on airport expansion, freeways, etc, over the next 45-50 years? Likely a lot.
Glad you had a personal epiphany. I just drove the 5 this week and a few weeks before that. its currently incapable of handling he amount of traffic that uses it on a regular basis, even less capable of handling any event or holiday travel week. We need HSR, or we need four more additional lanes connecting the great metropolitan regions of our state.
Welcome aboard. I fell in love with HSR when I could go from London to Paris in less time on the train than on a plane. Also, it took you this long to figure out that Southwest is the equivalent of a Grayhound bus? Rickety planes that still have ashtrays and a surly staff. I gave up on Southwest years ago.
Just wait until you sit back, with leg room, a paper and a chardonnay and get to watch the scenery fly by. Arriving relaxed and ready to do what you need to do. Opposed to arriving harassed, sore, achy and needing a long nap. You’ll feel spoiled with HSR.
I flew Southwest last June between Burbank and Sacramento, advance purchase at $264 round-trip. Both flights were on time. I can’t complain about the service, but that said, most major California airports are running at or near capacity. Runways, not the number of gates, are the primary determinant of airport capacity, and there is little if any room to expand the number of runways at these airports. High speed rail was never meant to supplant alternatives means of intrastate transportation, but rather as a supplement to existing systems. It will work, given the opportunity. CA residents need to give it a chance.
Thank you for bringing attention to the US’s inattention to the CRC. The International Play Association (http://www.ipaworld.org) worked with the Ctte on the Rights of the Child on the General Comment passed on article 31 last year. It is an amazing document. But there is not expected to be any movement on ratification of the entire CRC in the US for years to come. (If the next President is Republican it will be even longer, I’m afraid.)
Play Atlanta (http://www.PlayAtlanta.org) is just this month starting a campaign to make Atlanta a “Child-Friendly City”, which is one that lives by the articles of the CRC…starting with article 31, the child’s right to play, engage and arts and culture, leisure (really subversive stuff). It is our thinking that if cities start living by these tenets that ratification will become a no-brainer. It’s like Larry Rosenstock of High Tech High said, “The margins move the center getter than the center moves the margins.” Read margins as grassroots, parents….
Thank you for your article. I will share this widely.
I love your storytelling and how you interplay the importance of us knowing and being rooted in our own stories and traditions, so that we might be, “better positioned to cross the economic, racial, religious, and gendered borders of our own lives.” Thank you.
I read your article a few days ago, and thought you must have just had an isolated bad experience. I spend at least 50% of my time on the road, and primarily use American. I supplement with Southwest for some of the western US trips from Burbank, so I have quite a bit of experience with them as well.
Fast forward to this week, where I used Southwest for a quick over-nighter to Boise for a meeting. I have to say that these past few days were the single worst flying experience I’ve had in years. Not a single leg of the 4-leg trip went as planned. In fact, multiple flights and subsequent reschedules were canceled. I’ve never had a harder time getting home and almost resorted to renting a car and making the drive. At least, in this case, I’d be “in the driver’s seat”, so to speak. It was a comedy of errors, the likes of which I never imagined from Southwest Airlines….
While not into vampire movies (or anything else vampire), Mr. Mathews make this one sound interesting. Will be looking for it at a theater near me soon!
I hate to disagree, but runway capacity is the least of my concerns with LAX. From a non-pilot perspective, here is exactly what I see wrong (note that this has been a pet peeve of mine for years, so I have a pretty well defined and lengthy list):
– traffic on the “car” roads leading into the airport is a mess.There have been times I’ve battled traffic through the Sepulveda pass on the 405, only to be stymied in much worse traffic getting from the Century Blvd. entrance to Terminal 2. I once spent 45 min going through that stretch.
– part of this is related to the absurd design on the terminal structure – the fact that ALL terminal traffic for ALL terminals has to pass through the same loop is ridiculous.
– the shuttle situation is just plain dumb – I haven’t done a traffic count, but I’m tempted to park a lawn chair next to the airport entrance and catalog what percentage of traffic is shuttles (hotel, rental car, parking, etc). ALL of these should be offloaded to a secondary site, with a high-efficiency link between ALL the terminals and that location. Many other high-traffic airports have built great examples of this model – while some of them have their own criticisms, at least they’ve all been successful in reducing the direct airport traffic from a gazillion different “commercial” users.
-parking at the airport is also atrocious. Some lots (with lots of capacity) have been closed, either permanently, or “temporarily” (but for years). I’ll reference LAX parking lot B, and the parking structure (P2-B) which has been gated off for years. WTF?
-parking lot B itself – this was closed several years ago, permanently. It now seems to be used for RV storage and as a staging area for rental cars. See here: https://goo.gl/maps/iAt7m. Again, wtf? Is LAWA is cahoots with the ever-growing commercial parking operations around the airport? One idea – use this HUGE area to build the common shuttle/rental car center I mentioned above.
– the LAX terminals are crappy, for both arrivals and departures. Departures suffer from way too small a space to accommodate modern security and passenger loads. I’ve seen lines in terminal one extend out the door and almost all the way to terminal 2. From a passenger perspective, terminal facilities pre-security are non-existent (outside of the international terminal) and post-security are pretty crummy in comparison to other major airports. Arriving passengers face small and confusing baggage claim areas – I’ll reference here Terminal 2, where there are 2 escalators leading down – but only one goes to the baggage claim area (the other goes back to departures?). Its always funny to see the expressions on the faces of those who get on the wrong one… although the fact that there is even confusion there is just plain wrong.
-the terminals themselves are in a poor state of repair. Check out the men’s restroom in Terminal 3, where a water leak in the ceiling above the stalls has created a pool of rusted metal and discolored ceiling tiles. This is easy to fix, and its embarrassing to me that it was like that for at least a year (its been a while since I flew out of that terminal, so I don’t know if it’s been addressed yet). Terminal 6 mens restrooms were dirty, with gross floors and missing tiles when I arrived there two weeks ago – I hate to say it, but the facilities in the 2 mexican airports I had flown through on my way home (Ixtapa and Mexico City) both had much cleaner bathrooms than what I used when I got off the plane at LAX.
-there are some crazy long walks that seem to be commonplace around LAX. For instance, on the Mexico flight I mentioned above, to get to customs, we had to walk through an incredibly long, incredibly drab tunnel. Any other airport would have a moving sidewalk option, but apparently not here. Once, when flying United, I landed at Terminal 7, but had to pick up my luggage at Terminal 8. I had injured my knee on the trip, and by the time I reached the luggage claim, was pretty fuming mad with pain-driven rage… again, WTF?
Anyway, I could go on, but that pretty much covers the main problems I can see. The good thing is that there are some projects underway to address these issues – see http://www.lawa.org/ourLAX for details. However, these are all long-term plans – I think LAWA should also focus on some more short-term, pragmatic fixes to improve the passenger experience – i.e. address deferred maintenance, and recognize that for many visitors (especially domestic ones) – the LAX arrival experience is pretty lousy.
Also, I don’t think the right solution is “more airports”- while that might help runway congestion, if you look at what the major carriers have been doing re: Burbank, etc, most are reducing flights into existing peripheral airports for revenue reasons. Opening up even more airports (when existing ones like Burbank and Orange County) are running under capacity seems like a bad idea.
I thought the reason they closed Parking Lot B was to reserve it for airport (and perhaps airline) employees, at least that’s what I recall the public explanation being.
Lot B had been the best parking lot to use; after it closed I had to switch to Parking Lot C which is slower and more confusing to use, but still a pretty good option. It was usually preferable to any of the alternatives (FlyAway bus, shuttle van, light rail, etc.).
Orange County runs “under capacity” because of an agreement between the county and Newport Beach to limit SNA’s usage in order to mitigate noise concerns. See: http://www.ocair.com/communityrelations/settlementagreement/ Burbank has considered some of the same restrictions, including a curfew that would shut down the airport for nine hours each day.
LAX’s layout is not optimal, to be sure. But it was built that way because no one at the time could conceive of 68 million passengers and 800,000 takeoffs and landings there annually. It doesn’t matter how much you tidy up the terminals or improve the roadways, those numbers are going to grow dramatically in the future, and there’s no capacity for keeping up with the growth. The only reason LAX works as well as it does is because the weather is perfect 99% of the time.
Dave B covers the many issues well. It is embarrasing and depressing to arrive home to LAX after flying from equally busy airports – O’Hare, JFK and others – and tramp through the thickets of a mid-last century airport. The fact that we have no cell phone lot to wait for arriving flights is a simple indicator of how behind we are.
This is the last letter read at the end of the Death With Dignity show. If you like the letter please click above and leave a comment. Also check out the full video here.
Godless Offerings are condensed clips from shows done on the Atheist Analysis network meant to bring a shortened version of our shows or to highlight important points made during the show.
Palmdale? Isn’t that a bit excessive? At some point you might as well say take the train to Vegas and use their airport. 🙂 I do agree with you that the infrastructure systems affect one another greatly. For example, if the roads weren’t so overburdened, airports further away would be more viable. Sadly, it can take 6 hours to drive round trip from OC to Van Nuys. At least, that’s what it took today when I drove it.
Good lord Ron. That’s more time than it takes me to go from Montreal, QC, Can. to NYC, via I-87, down the eastern side of New York State. (Normally about a six hour trip, 350 miles.) I’d say their biggest problem is lack of planning ahead, and poor infrastructure design.
ONT is underutilized because it’s cheaper for the airlines to consolidate their ops at LAX. The answer is not reliever airports unless it becomes economically advantageous for the cost cutting airlines.
LAX has plenty of runway space available. Shortly before the oil/fuel shortages, they spent millions on the Ontario Annex, and then virtually abandoned it. The Ontario facility services a population nearly as large as LAX, but a very limited number of flights is available. Bring back Ontario. Then LAX will be in a good position. Also, don’t forget the Palmdale airport they spent so much money on, and then left it.
What has been the outcome of the protests? Any new laws? Any new ballot measures? Any more awareness? It’s not like the average voter had not heard about Ferguson yet.
Also the majority of residents in larger, more diverse cities like Los Angeles likely do not agree with the jury’s decision. From what I can gather, these protests ruined a bunch of people’s day, people that likely already agree with them before, without producing any measurable action. What was accomplished other than pissing innocent people off?
Thank you for this take. When I first started reading about the freeway closures I was reminded of REM’s Everybody Hurts…. the image of people who had nothing in common at first…but chose to act…perhaps REM would allow that music to be used for coverage of the closings….
Also, notice where trees tend to be planted near public transit hubs. The poverty stricken ares have little shelter while upscale areas have canopies at bus stops even though ridership is low.
Thinking in inches and converting to Metric is indeed difficult. But that will pass with time… There is simply no denying that base 10 makes more sense, is vastly easier to lean and use than base 12…same for pounds and kilos etc. etc…imagine if our money were base twelve or base 16? This point is the only one with which I have ever made any headway in pitching the virtues and logic of the Metric system….Base 10..get it?
The difficulty comes from the units not having a conversion factor between them that is sensible. If both ounces was changed to 30 mL or 30 g, then each ounce would also be a rounded millilitre or gram value.
Duodecimal (base 12) makes the most sense. It is easier to use because it is divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6. It is convenient to be able to divide into thirds and quarters easily. Base 10 is only divisible by 2 and 5, which is next to useless. Base 16 is divisible by 2, 4, and 8, so at least it has quarters. The Sumerians had it right by using base 12 and we agree with them whenever we check the time. Having our clocks in base 12 makes it easier to divide time.
It seems obvious base 10 derived from our fingers, but you can also count in base 12 on one hand by using the segments of your fingers. Four fingers with three segments each makes counting to 12 easy, and you can use your thumb to remember where you are by touching the segment you’ve counted to.
We should have listened to the Sumerians and adopted their base 12 numbering system. They also used base 60 which is seen in the number of minutes in an hour. 60 seconds in a minute was derived later.
Finding thirds and quarters in base10 is not that difficult, it just doesn’t result in a whole number. That issue exists in base12 as well (what is a quarter of 9?)
Using base10 for ALL measurements (length, weight, temperature) makes everything easier. 1cm cubed of water equals 1 liter equals 1 kilogram. Or a Celsius rhyme perhaps? 30 is hot, 20 is nice, 10 is cool, zero is ice. Much nicer than using 86/68/50/32.
I disagree. Finding thirds and quarters in in base 10 does result in whole numbers. It just depends on what number you start with. Metric haters who are angry at the world for rejecting USC & Imperial spend oodles of time coming up with nonsensical reasons why metric is bad, one is the ever stupid “can’t divide by three” claim.
The metric system does not force anyone to use any particular group or series of numbers, that is the choice of the user. The construction industry world-wide uses the 100 mm module, with common sizes of 600 mm, 1200 mm, 2400 mm, 4800 mm, etc, all of which can be divided into thirds of whole numbers.
Ounce, fluid or dry can’t easily be divided in to thirds without decimal dust, but define both ounces as 30 mL and 30 g, and each increment is divisible by thirds into round numbers.
The metric system is more versatile with numbers, where as USC and imperial are imprisoned with a limited amount of usable numbers. Fractional divisions are always powers of two, which don’t divide by three. If divide by three is important, they why not use fractions that are powers of three?
I think the US in due to its exceptional nature should go it alone and adopt dozenal numbers. This way after 10 years and still struggling to count, the rest of the world, still clinging to base 10 and metric can move forward technically while the US sinks back into the stone age.
Gavilán, above San Juan Bautista, is the fourth drive up mountain on this list. It’S where Fremont raised an American flag in 1846 before he headed north to Oregon and turned around and came back. From it you see Monterey Bay and the south Santa Clara Valley and the Salinas.
A very informative article. I really like the historical perspective of the facility at Mt. Wilson, and the landmark science that occurred there, leading to the most recent special observation of Nova science with the Chara interferometry array.
Thank you for releasing this into the world. What would our world look like without the rich and colorful tapestry of people whose belief systems, experiences, foods, languages, and blended cultures have either been passed down from one generation to the next, or adopted from others we meet along the way? Life would be quite dull without diversity; wouldn’t it? You have opened up another facet of the beautiful landscape and people from the Rio Grande Valley where I too was born and raised. This prompted me to revisit Linda Christensen’s “Where I’m From” I love reading pieces that serve as windows into the lives of others, as well as a mirror into my own experiences growing up here en el Valle. Mil gracias.
What a great list–not a single book here I’d think to choose on my own, but each one looks like something I’d fall into and forget to come up for air. Housing first, then I know what I want for my housewarming. Well, after the toaster oven.
Thank you Mr. Bradshaw for providing deeper insights into the nature of Putin’s perfect storm. I knew that today Russia’s energy exports accounted for something like 50% of his budget but I wasn’t aware that in 2000 energy exports made up a mere 9.3% of the budget. That’s a key insight. Likewise I was not aware that Soviet legacy fields were past prime and that the required $55 billion of fresh investment for the Arctic regions has been kyboshed by sanctions. I have not seen these subtle but key distinctions in other publications.
Yes, it sounds like the problem is not ACA at all, as hard as the author tries to twist it to sound like making insurance available to people who haven’t had it is a terrible thing. Are we supposed to believe somehow that the diabetic woman would have been better off if she hadn’t gotten insurance and access to healthcare? That that demanding diabetic woman was a problem because she distracted from heart-to-heart talks with less seriously ill patients?
The problem is that the hospital admins have tried to cut corners. Even in patients aren’t staying in the hospital as long, hospitals are still getting money from having additional patients. If they don’t use the money to staff the ER and outpatient facilities, that is indeed shortsighted and greedy of them.
Would definitely rather have had universal care, but that doesn’t seem to be the argument this author is trying to make.
What if modern economic theory is flawed? Then this will be the final wrecking ball for the industrial base. Google Van Geldstone’s essays “The Unraveling of Economics”, and “Adam Smith’s Elephants” and pause to think.
so where is al cowlings today? is he married or what? guess I wont find out til he’s dead…but then i’ll die before him , so guess I wont find out at all
Ms Martinez, I thought this was a very informative article. It also affects me, personally. Although I am a medical doctor in Los Angeles, I was born at O’Connor Hospital. We were a poor family, but the hospital took care of us, and I appreciate it.
Even if you fly Southwest, you still have to check in for your flight early enough to go through TSA. If you have to check a bag, add time for that, too. So at 2.5 to 3 hours for the train, the time benefit of flying isn’t that great. And that’s when the flight goes as scheduled.
I’ve really enjoyed riding the train in Italy when we vacation. I was amazed that even the local train service ran at 90mph! Two years previous, we’d ridden the mid-highspeed train (125mph, I think) and it was very smooth and comfortable.
If we had real rail options here, I think folks would embrace the option.
This is a nice compilation, but I’m so disappointed that none of the narratives touched on the African-American experience. What about women who left the South and fought for their freedom out West? Surely, the life of Biddy Mason deserves mention!
Interesting article. Thanks for sharing. However, the Nike missile program never included nuclear warheads. The missiles were strictly defensive anti-aircraft missiles, so there is no chance that they would have caused a war or destroyed much of California.
Thank you Ms. El Barr Collin for your thoughtful, well written essay. The intolerance and violence practiced by a few fanatics wreaking havoc on free society is heartbreaking. Altho WWII was before my time, I can’t help but be concerned that if things continue to escalate (likely, sad to say), another group will be scape-goated and persecuted simply for being ‘different.’ Simple respect for, and by everyone, would go a long way making our world a better, safer place for all.
That your father wanted to live like the French when living in France seems to have served the family well. I don’t understand when those who relocate to other countries expect to have the “new” country & culture be the same as where they left. If one doesn’t appreciate/is offended by the freedoms of secular societies, why move there?
Nice piece, I grew up just south. Not to quibble, but its hard to call the Westside ‘flat’ (at the end of the piece) when the magnificent Santa Monica mountains could swallow up Griffith Park in a heartbeat.
This article really made me realize how much grocery stores have meant to me in all the different states I have lived in. Growing up in West Virginia, my mother would take me and my siblings to the closest Kroger store and in turn, when I started having children, would shop there with my children. When my husband decided to take a job in the booming city of Houston, Texas in the 80s I was relieved to find the neighborhood Krogers grocery store. Fast forward to 2013, when I decided to move to Los Angeles to babysit my grandson, when I discovered the closest “Ralphs” was surprisingly familiar as I walked down the aisles. As I bought several items I noticed the Krogers labels on some of the items and realized that Ralphs was owned by Krogers. It made me feel at home immediately, at a time when I was learning so many different things in my new surroundings. I couldn’t wait to tell my daughter how happy this made me – so I do relate to Carol’s sentiments and am glad that there is no room for expansion at my Ralphs at Wilshire and Hauser.
“They didn’t even bother to ask my opinion in 2012 when they said they wanted community input about the idea of building a new, expanded Ralphs on the same site to meet the needs of the neighborhood.”
Huh? So you wanted them to ask for permission before they asked for community input? Did you even offer any opinions during the input period?
I hate all the obstacles in the aisles trying to catch impulse buyers. I have 5 grocery stores within a few miles of my house, and only one has regular Total, Total raisin bran, and Product 19, which all have 100% of needed vitamins. The opposite of love is indifference, and they show indifference to the shopper’s health!
Joe, I could not agree more. Housing, streets and the shaping of our cities and towns: California led the nation post-war and could do so again. I would start with a serious reformatting of local government’s boundaries, authorities, financing, purpose and aspirations. And I would give that job mostly to people under 30, with guidance from wise, still-optimistic Boomers.
Our dear leaders in Sacramento have thought big for the past 30 years. Big government, big debt, big pointless train projects.
How about getting away from this “big idea” notion and letting everyday folks alone to come up with a million small ideas instead? Must we plan everything from the top down?
Love this article. I lived in Inglewood from 1997-2013 when I moved out of the State. My parents still own their home in Inglewood and we would never sell it! LOVE the wood! the diversity and how stereotypical people can be for the best city in LA.
Love Zocalo, Plenty of meaty discussions. About this quote: “That is a fine sentiment, but it’s easier to uphold as an abstract principle than in a context where lives are at stake.” I would suggest that the lives have already been lost. We have fought numerous wars and lost thousands of soldiers to fight the tyrannies that oppress freedoms including freedom of speech. A commercial entity is free to control their speech and the public arena needs some controls on the distribution of offensive speech, but the ultimate freedom to speak, especially in a voluntary print format, where the audience is willing to submit to the author, needs full protections. You may notice, my hesitation to say that oral freedoms are not absolute in a public arena. I don’t necessarily want to be subjected to listen to offensive, seductive or dangerous verbosity. But the written word, voluntarily reviewed, should have a public forum for adults who are duly warned of the content. Especially for the decision makers who vote based on their understanding of issues. In a democracy, we need that freedom to discuss. As I’m writing here, I initially, was going to refute the “Fire” prohibition as a bygone danger of poor construction engineering. Today, only fools would be driven wild by the dangers of a fire in our new theaters. But as I was writing, I did want to protect children from the cursing offenses and horrific sex abuse that is so common in our entertainment. So, I’ll finish with the first and most important comment, that our soldiers have already died for our freedoms. If we abandon our freedoms now, then more lives will be lost to the next battle. Those lives are not lost in vain, but are lost for principles, and the freedom that comes from standing for those principles. We have enjoyed the freedoms, but we are cowering from those that seek our oppression. Isn’t that the goal of terrorists?
I’m a Dodger fan and would obviously love to see Spring Training in Southern California. I’m also a realist, and I know that this will never happen.
There’s only one reason why any of the 15 MLB teams in Arizona would ever relocate to California for Spring Training: IF EVERY TEAM RELOCATED THEIR SPRING TRAINING TO CALIFORNIA.
The entire reason why the Phoenix area has been able to get so many teams to relocate there is because travel times are short for games. It’s the same reason why Tucson lost their teams. It makes sense to have a bunch of teams within close proximity. It doesn’t make financial sense to have a handful of teams spread out across California and the remainder in Arizona.
Michael, insightful piece — thanks. Curious to learn more about if/how the remedial needs levels correlate with graduation rates — are the students who drop out statistically more likely to have needed or enrolled in remedial classes? Or to look at it the other way, do students who did not take remedial classes make up a disproportionately high share of the 30 percent who do graduate in CA? Appreciate hearing about GrowthSector; sounds like a very smart approach.
The area that would be affected by new drilling represents such a tiny piece of the Refuge that not to allow drilling is like the Dog In the Manger: “I can’t eat the hay but it’s mine and you can’t have any.” Too bad that the bullet you shoot through your foot ricochets into a crowd of your fellow citizens.
I would think even those tilting at windmills for Mother Earth would be at least a little put-off by the idea of an Imperialist president telling you what you can and can’t do with your land, but what do I know? I’m just another taxpaying sucker living in the Land of the Fee and the Home of the Slave in California.
Your story made me think of Stuart Brand’s book, How Buildings Learn. And the photos and essay squeezed my heart. As a native Angeleno, born in the Madison Hospital (now gone), I look for traces of my childhood memories from the 1950’s – Currie’s Mile High Ice Cream with a 20′ tall ice cream cone next to a small plot of land with a tiny rotating carousel not of horses but cars…on Riverside Drive! You captured that sense of the personal that still lives here. A book, Thunder at Twilight, about Vienna 1913-1914 noted that all great places have two things in them: one foot in memory and one foot in prophecy. That’s truly what makes Los Angeles a great city. Great essay. Thank you.
I’ve lived in Echo Park in Los Angeles since 1980. Sometimes I too feel as if I’m inhabiting a palimpsest, where traces of the past are just discernible.
I would have to chime in to say that 3 out of 95 is a much better ratio than the author makes it out to be. Now mind you, I’m no chemist or health professional, but I’d say the herd immunity in that kindergarten will protect them from an outbreak.
George, I was the producer at the local station you refer to when you were at GMA so I know exactly who you are talking about. He was a decent reporter in his early days, before he struck it rich with a big, important, Peabody-winning story, and then everything changed. Every story he did had to be bigger than the last, and none of them were. And nothing he did was worth less than 5 minutes of air time, and nothing was. The Israel combat incident you mentioned was widely discussed in the newsroom, but nothing was done. I was constantly battling him, but management saw him as a gold mine. I won a few battles, but lost the war.
Why is it that a lot of South American culture includes close families, yet there is a very machismo mind set that often prevents or makes it harder for one to express themselves? I live in a very family oriented Latino home and also find myself with the same problems, even without OCD. I think it’s the fear of disappointing our family, because by admitting that you need help or have an issue it automatically makes the family feel that it’s partly their fault. For example, a common misconception I see in my family is when a person misbehaves, it is in us to blame the way their mom raised them. And same with this situation, I felt that because I was unhappy I would be reflecting how I was treated at home. I very much enjoyed this article, it is super relatable and akin to many problems happening today. Thank you for such a wonderful piece, and I sincerely hope you overcome this disorder! (:
Havasu is a water resource for all things “dry” pertaining to the bigger cities in the Southwest. Anyone thinking that this resource is going to be around for an extended time into the future, has rocks in their head.
Going with the theory that the cast and crew were stoned while making this. That has to be the only way to enjoy this film. Had to leave the theater before Inherent Vice could finish, just to preserve my esteemed opinion of P.T. Anderson.
This is film is a good reminder why the other Anderson, Wes deserves an Oscar for remaining dedicated to great storytelling with The Grand Budapest Hotel. A film that is as much about place as it is people.
I lived in Yemen for two years back in the late 1980s and share many of your feelings about the place and its people. I loved my time there and felt welcomed and safe. Yemen changed me. A lot. It took a kid from safe suburban middle-class America and blew my mind wide open to the world.
I place my coming of age as an adult to a specific moment on the beach during a backpacking trip with two friends. Twenty-two years old, eight thousand miles from home, on a beach in Yemen at three in the morning with some fresh ant bites in my mouth.
I miss Yemen, too Laura! I was also there for three years, just before you. Your experience is not uncommon for Americans in Yemen I think. Let’s hope we can visit again and have the same positive experiences.
I grew up in Coronado during the 1950s, and remember assuming everybody’s father was a Naval Officer, just like mine (aside from being white and Episcopalian).
In 1966 I dropped out of college, joined the War on Poverty, and marched against the Vietnam War in San Francisco and Boston. I was angry my parents never prepared me for life beyond the cocoon of their beliefs and expectations.
Yet, on occasional visits home, I would hear the golf course sprinklers turn on in the evening; that soothing sound helped me understand why my parents believed all was still right in the world.
The mayor said,”…I’ll never look at Jell-O the same way again”.
(I met his Dad,Gill, a couple of times, and thought he did a good job), but doubt if I’ll look at the mayor the same way again. He connects with an audience REAL well! (and he’s on the way to doing a REAL good mayoral job!!)
Great post here. I found Cesar Chavez’s notes for the speech he gave at this event. Pretty amazing stuff. Posted it here at the site I operate about the Lattimer Massacre. Enjoy!:
I’ve been down there. Nice restaurants in an area I would never have expected. But the usual curse: Once an area has been declared an Arts District, real artists can no longer afford to be there, and move on.
Journalists, like entertainers on tv, enjoying patting themselves on the back is an ego issue that is hard on one’s stomach. Their typical response to the death of newspapers is that citizen journalism is fraught with unprofessionalism is laughable. I raise my glass in a toast to the death of “professional” journalis.
Awesome piece–I’m a New Orleans native raised in LA and those are my sentiments exactly. Introduced Art Laboe to my chinese wife and she fell in love too, but now it’s online only! Such tragedy
I wish that the historical norm of “here WAS something great, and now it is gone” would be changed to “here is something NOW that it interesting, let me share it.”
I’ve know of Art Laboe for decades. I bought his albums as a teen. I had no idea he had a show.
There IS an oldies/do wop show on KCSN 88.5 FM on Friday nights–into Saturday morning at midnight. There’s also a great blues show on 88.5 hosted by Ann the Raven (a rich heritage in her own right) Sundays from 7 to 9 PM.
Listen to these while you can. Before you are told that these treasures are gone–and you didn’t even know they existed until it was too late.
Thanks for this beautiful personal account. Hits close to home. I was born in Los Angeles during that time and knew a couple of children around my age who were afflicted with polio.
A blast from my past. For now, try 88.3 KUCR-FM late night Fridays and Saturdays for classic lowrider jams and old-school R&B. Online listening is also an option.
This entire country, not just California, has thought small since Reagan and his political progeny convinced us that *any* government is wrong and doomed to failure. Concerted collective action, as channeled through government, is the only way to solve these massive problems. Most Baby Boomers drove on new roads, attended new schools and colleges, and benefitted from dozens of other services that would be unthinkable today. But when the time came to pay it forward to future generations, Reagan told us the bill was too high and, besides, government could never achieve anything of value anyway.
Reagan taught us that personal selfishness was virtue and in 20 years we went from “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,” to “are you better off than you were four years ago?” Kennedy’s vision describes a united people, with a shared history and a shared destiny. Reagan’s vision describes 300 million strangers who happen to be squatting on the same piece of land.
The “government” is not some abstract institution, somewhere “out there.” This is America. *We* are the government. Reagan’s persistent campaign to confuse us about this is his most damning legacy.
I think you are right, Mr. Sabatini. Maybe we can examine the apparent stagnation of the transition to democracy in Latin America not only through the light of threats like drug cartels and Maras represent to the stability and security in Nicaragua, Honduras or El Salvador, but also in the context of Chávez presidency’s ability to support, financially and politically, some clearly autocratic parties and leaders. Maybe we can assume as well that the chavista sponsorship of the Cuban regime was key to help it endure the years between the Periodo Especial and the ongoing rebuilding of relations with the US.
I think this region has yet a lot to learn about the impact that chavismo has left on this continent. It won’t be a nice story to tell about us the Venezuelans but neither about Latin America. And I’m afraid that this ugly story isn’t about to end.
What is missing from this article is that some of these autocractic countries are using the United States as a strawman in order to distract their people from domestic problems. To be clear, there is no evidence that the Bush administration (or Obama) has interfered in any democratic process in Latin America. So to suggest that it is the US’ fault that these regimes want to be autocratic is wrong. The leaders in these countries are exploiting a false narrative to consolidate improper power in their hands.
Great article. It seems a lot of people are doggedly aware of the diversity issue. Everyone’s just waiting on big money to come in and invest in diverse entertainment from production to marketing. It seems like a lot of foreign investment in American films tend to cover the least diverse of topics. Even the foreign investors are brainwashed and enamored by the tired old approach of Hollywood being about attractive Caucasian men.
Thank you so much John! We are a team of L.A. early history enthusiasts. Eureka! Voilà ! The Zanja Madre came after the Zanja in Arch-Angel Gabriel Mission! Duh! We felt Gaspar Portola made executive decisions for the 44 Pobladores that shaped our present water regime. The Mission of course was the think tank, Mulholland the clever student! Saludos Y Salud!
I too love Griffith Park! Now what can we do to get people to stop trashing the place and the park superintendent to stop putting cones and yellow tape everywhere. Just fix the damage.
Want fewer cars? Make it more expensive to drive them. We recently had a dip in gas prices, which was a perfect opportunity to raise the tax on gasoline (and invest that money on public transportation and safer sidewalks/roads).
James E. Moore 2 seems to forget the role of government – urban sprawl can be controlled (sorry developers), lower oil prices do NOT have to mean $3/gallon price at the pump, and whether or not people like “bigger houses with bigger lots,” it is not something that needs to be supported (with more investments to widen highways in futile attempts to keep rush hour traffic on the 405 above 15mph).
We [humans] are a creative bunch… take away every car, and we will find a way to live and enjoy life (maybe even more so than we think we are now). Adjusting to change is best when it’s gradual rather than abrupt.
“Crazy idea that would work for a LA” – take the fast/car pool lanes of each freeway and run light rail. Will create more traffic (disincentive to drive) but provides a reliable, convenient, practice alternative.
If we give Hugo Chavez the benefit of the doubt and assume he wasn’t a corrupt thug from the start, it’s hard for me to picture what a successful intervention by the OAS would have looked like. What could have been done to put Venezuela back onto the democratic path?
It’s pretty clear to me that once autonomous cars are perfected, we’ll see giant fleets of them operated by the liked of Uber and Lyft. The cost of door-to-door service will be much less than the cost of owning a private car. When we reach parity, and the cost of autonomous cars begins to drop below that of owning a car, the migration away from car ownership will accelerate.
There will still be people who want to own and operate their own car, and that’s fine. What we need, however, is for the majority of people to use the service instead of owning a car. The economics of this service will ensure most people will do just that.
The Freedom Riders were among the bravest civil rights workers, traveling right into the heart of racist America. Proud to have attended Steve Sanfield’s memorial service near Nevada City with Ellen and Bob.
NYC has city income tax, but when I bring it up here, people wince.
Letting cities piggy-back on the state tax return makes sense, tho.
At the same time, maybe we need a state constitutional amendment to rein in cities’ charter authority to deviate from state law.
The City of Trenton has a local property tax. All municipalities in NJ do. It does not keep taxes down, nor corruption at bay. The ONLY thing that will make government honest is honest people running for office, plus term limits. Real term limits that address individual politicians just moving around in their offices. It is the professional political class that is the biggest player in our nation’s problems.
88 incorporated cities in Los Angeles County means that, unless you live in the city of Los Angeles, the major newspaper gives your city little or no coverage. Meanwhile, the regional newspaper chain (Daily News, Star-News, Tribune, etc) doesn’t do investigative journalism–they’re more interested in promoting their own agenda and cheerleading for “their” side and against the other side. Term limits would be a minor help, only because local elected officials can otherwise hold office for life because there’s almost no coverage of what they do. Otherwise, this whole idea of local control really means no control over local elected officials.
Steve Lyer is right: without a local newspaper politicians run wild. Buildings are going up so fast in Redwood City that citizens know nothing about them until the structures are near opening their doors. Did Bell corruption start around the time the LA Times pulled its beat reporter? Mathews has a long paper he did for Chapman University in which he seems to blame fallout from Prop. 13 for a lot of our problems. All this very informative work proved to me was that people can be bought.
Kevin, thanks for sharing! These churches have always caught my attention. Along Sunset Blvd. in trendy Silver Lake, a few of them are still up and running. It’s always a draw when driving by and you hear the tambourines and singing, and when I’ve attended, hearing what appears to be speaking in tongues. Hipsterville gentrification hasn’t driven them all out yet, but probably will eventually. These are sanctuaries for immigrants to find solace and a more immediate connection to a spiritual world, and to their own, as they navigate and acculturate. Interesting how the Evangelical churches have become a more accessible option over the Catholic church in which most Latinos were raised.
Thanks–loads. That is the best, most succinctly stated overview of attempted school reform(s) I have seen. Personally, I have likened the mania for school reform to Sherlock Holmes’s seven-per-cent cocaine solution–always going back for more; never fully free from its downside effects.
I totally respect your argument for not writing about these vendors. And I think you are probably right to not do it if you truly care about the vendors. But as much as it pains me to say it, street food will never be truly legal in L.A. And in a lot of ways you shouldn’t want it to be. I’m sure you’d agree that making *all* street vending legal would be too chaotic, right? So the alternative is to regulate it, with a limited number of licenses. Or specific spots in the city where it would be allowed? The problem with that is it will turn the licenses into valuable commodities, almost like real estate, which then can lead to other issues (like you see with the street vendors in New York City.) I wrote about this a few years back:
Street vending everywhere has historically been a low paying, semi-legal enterprise, usually used as an economic stepping stone for recently arrived immigrants in the underserved neighborhoods where they live. And there’s a really good reason for that. That’s why it works. If you could make a legal living from street vending than everybody would do it. And it wouldn’t be long before that delicious birria would be pushed out by the same economic forces that make it hard for them to open a legitimate food truck or restaurant in L.A.
That vendor is far better off serving their food illegally to a neighborhood that wants and needs it, quietly working until they have enough money to open a legal business. Of course then we won’t like it as much. Because for all the lamenting we do about street vendors who are hassled, we don’t talk nearly as much about the vendors who were able to ended up work the current system long enough to open a legal business. It’s in those stories where you realize that the status quo might not be as bad as you think.
Good points. Like the opportunistic food trucks you mentioned in your article, a legal system, opening this up to everyone, could end up excluding the very people it was intended to help. As a child refugee of parents who worked in the gray economy to provide for my brothers and I, I’m hopeful a good solution comes out of this so people who depend on street vending for their livelihoods aren’t getting arrested.
Thanks keep supporting all the street vendors …
We don’t hurt anyone .
we provide healthy foods and from that we take care of our families .
Is a battle of every day knowing if today they might come and give us a ticket or take our stuff…
But we take that chance and set up only to feed our families .
Thanks for taking your time and looking out for us and speaking for us.
Thanks Janet for all your help you awesome
I had a similar epiphany in the spring of 2004 when, for a diversion from personal issues, I also cashed in a travel credit on Delta Airlines, traveled to Spain while reading The Girl with the Pearl Earing, to see The Girl with the Pearl Earing at the Prado, at a Vermeer exhibit which was advertised as one of the large collections of Vermeer on exhibit ever. And of course the movie came out about then. Thanks for sharing!
“Moreover, the Social Security fund will be exhausted within decades.” – statements like this sadden me… seems like people are resigned to let social security die. Retirement advice that i’ve read focuses on “investments” and “contributions” – neither of which people have control over (you can lose your job and retirement savings at the same time). Let’s not give up on Social Security. Let’s put pressure on elected officials for proper funding; they seem to know how to fund war, why not life with dignity?
Very heart touching and engaging article. Impressive account of charitable spirit that depicts a perfect example of philanthropy- caring for anyone in need and reaching out to help. Loved the originality. Thanks for sharing.
I really like that succinct comment… ESPECIALLY as he had a REAL dig at “sports”.
His most impressive opening sentence almost took my breath away… because I thought I was Mr. Clever, when I did the same thing…. BUT at twice his age!
Very well done. It’s important to know enough about the candidates to make an informed voting decision, but as he says, the rest is pretty much useless.
There’s something called, “…diminishing returns”.
And a (or even “THE”) comparison is this:
U.S.A. — 18 months of… “informed voter decision time”
U.K. — About 4 weeks of… as above.
…And STILL you let “a Nixon” through… not that he didn’t do one or two (very) good things.
Heard you on Kpcc and you didn’t give your opinion enough justice. Now that I’ve read it I get it! I’ll settle for being a clandestino amigo in delicious crime!
“I’m quitting my daily observation of the struggle for American power
and the many ways in which it conceals itself behind displays of false
sympathy or outrage.” Excellent article, Tom, that I’m sure will resonate widely.
Although I will also continue to vote, I’ve given up on national politics for the time being. There are just too many things. The gridlock. The gerrymandering that ensures continuing gridlock. The contempt shown for Pres. Obama and the office – most recently Sen. McConnell urging governors to ignore federal law and the invitation of Prime Minister Netanyahu to speak before Congress during a particularly sensitive time.
However, I will continue to monitor the news. But I’m much more focused on community (WAVE, Compton Herald) and alternative news sources (BBC, Pacifica) than I have been in the past. As American mainstream newspapers and broadcasting continue their profit driven drift to infotainment, it’s harder than ever to take their coverage seriously.
Gotcha might work well for TMZ, but it’s a piss poor way to run the Fourth Estate on issues that matter.
Thanks for the inspiration to resist clicking on the never-ending parade of outrage-inducing commentary and analysis. Much of it is valid, but in the end, it doesn’t help me do anything useful.
Oh, and if you do make it to the Fullerton course, let me know, and I’ll point you in the direction of some good after-golf food and conversation.
Sue Mitchell has inspired me and so many others to explore our creativity. Best of all she has reminded me that 60 is not “old” and that it is never too late to start something new. And boy did she start something wonderful!
Other than the fact that college tuition has increased faster than just about everything else, my main criticism is that I don’t feel that few 4 year degrees provide an adequate return on investment. Additionally, while there are many great professors, far too many are not great educators and are complacent due to their tenure status.
All the best on finding that sponsor for six months.
Given the fact that you hit “many nails on their heads” there, that shouldn’t be too difficult. It’s necessary!… in moi humble opinion, given “the 99%” and all that!
Excelent points. When our 7-year-old daughter asked me about GOD
instead of telling her our ancestral concept of god we took her and her
younger sister to various religious institutions and let the
parishioners explain their versions of god. We made a documentary about
this enlightening experience, which you can view at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ztp0yn2gRd8
Lisa, I would love to meet
with you, take you on a tour of our ministries of the Fresno Rescue Mission,
and share with you a whole host of community organizations that exist, in
addition to ours, to address many of the struggles you mention in this article.
You have relationships established with many people caught in this cycle
of homelessness already, making you the perfect person with whom they might
connect as a first step into receiving the help they need. Every agency
working to meet the needs of people in our community will tell you that HELP
begins with the relationship. It’s why we do what we do and how we go
about it. Contact me. There are options and opportunities
available. They are not always easy, but they do offer hope – something many
people lack when they cannot see beyond their current circumstance. dscully@fresnorm.org
Beautifully written with respect to the homeless population in Fresno. I sincerely hope that more support and housing for the city’s homeless population will be provided sooner than later as a result of this film.
Cheaper options, that are not hard surfaces, include covering grass with cardboard and mulch and planting California natives. The cardboard blocks the sunlight long enough to kill the grass. The mulch saves water and provides a home for beneficial microorganisms that sequester carbon. And the California natives provide nectar for bees and other pollinators. Help us get more free mulch to the people. https://www.facebook.com/MulchForThePeople
To say that the reimbursement for turf replacement only covers a fraction of the cost is incorrect and very damaging to efforts to make this happen. I recently had my back yard professionally done and the reimbursement at $3.00/square foot paid almost all of the cost. My brother did his yard himself and the reimbursement more than paid for it. The city of Los Angeles is now paying $3.75/square foot which would have more than paid for my yard.
There are now landscaping businesses who will do your whole yard for the amount of the reimbursement. Someone needs to do another article here, and in the newspapers which carried this as an op-ed, to correct this mistaken idea.
My grandmother made it to her early nineties, and when she died recently, after a fall in the nursing home, I’m very happy that my whole family was unanimous; no invasive attempts to keep her alive. She had a long life and died with her children and their children around her, and that’s more than most can say.
Wonderful article, Gina. Your comment that the list of dishes indigenous to America is especially true. I often hear southern/country cooks talk about their down-home all-American” cooking. They should consider the layers of influence you mentioned.
I was surprised by this: “whites have made up a minority of our state’s population since 1999” and tried to verify it. Neither the census website nor the wiki page for California’s demographics agree with this. Any idea what I am missing?
I really enjoyed this story, it is very special to hear the experiences of immigrants in America, especially those who came from Italy (I actually did it the other way around and emigrated to Italy) :). Beautifully written….
It’s true, there are many families in your situation and yet each time I meet, hear, or read about someone directly violated this way I feel the same outrage and heartache as if for the first time. I hope you are all reunited before too long. I hope the politicians and policymakers and administrators read your piece and I hope they also consider that someday our history books will name their names and their legacy will be one of shame, and never being forgiven for what they did, ever.
Your story is my story. My father was from Calabria and I always feel related to all Calabresi. Best of wishes to you. Congratulations on your award. Looking forward to your future blogs.
I don’t understand why your husband would get a lifetime bar. I’m familiar with the 3 and the 10 year bars for illegal residency, but not a lifetime bar. What section of law did they cite? I also don’t understand why you saw a clerk instead of an American vice-consul.
Re-entry bar is a 10 year bar that can’t be waived for 10 years. After 10 years you can try to waive. If you fail in waiving, it is a lifetime bar.
Also, the false claim bar is a lifetime bar. Often at times, this bar is thrown at all applicants because CBP will say the immigrant falsely claimed to be a US Citizen to gain entry.
They are extremely harsh and unjust bars, with no due process or judicial review.
Certainly don’t want to minimize the pain of this writer’s personal experience. That said, if one is on the wrong side of the law, one has to be prepared for the potential negative (and potentially arbitrary) consequences.
I realize many readers will find this particularly harsh, but before choosing to become pregnant, perhaps this couple should have better weighed their personal situation, both legally and economically. I don’t see that child welfare came first.
The flip side of this story and the others of those coming illegally “just for a better life” is the thousands of cases of people in the country illegally who have committed other crimes, including human trafficking, drug running, hit and runs that have resulted in death, and other brutal crimes. Bottom line, we have to have an immigration system with integrity. You can’t just have millions of people coming into the country to live — who we don’t know who they are — ignoring our laws, as it undermines our entire legal system.
And all that said, given the current state of lawlessness on immigration, in that basically anyone who is able to get here can stay here, I find the outcome of this particular case very surprising.
Well spoken. Death is the exit door through which we all must pass. Needless, costly, and undignified suffering via interventionist medicine does not change that, but the diminishment of the person through the process is painful. Observed 1st hand on my father’s passing, no quality, just lots of suffering & $$.
More than that: it’s based on the total, uncontested absence of the contrary, which couldn’t be proven otherwise despite so much effort and wishful thinking. In other words: the proof of the presence of something has to be provided by the asserting party, the absence is itself the proof that favors the Null hypothesis.
At most we can say we fail to reject the null hypothesis because the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence (proving the null). In the article entitled “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence,” Altman and Bland (1995) gave this warning to medical
researchers: “Randomized controlled clinical trials that do not show a significant difference between the treatments being compared are often called “negative.” This term wrongly implies that the study has shown that there is no difference” (p.485).
Sorry, you can’t say “it ain’t so” just because you can’t find any proof.
You cannot render that just out of the context of its specific applicable example, what are you analyzing and how close are you controlling all the intervening variables depends on the specific nature and circumstances of the case. If you extrapolate this same assumption for all the other possible applicable cases you may say as well that Scientific Method would be a complete and useless failure. What makes the difference betwenn real Scientific logic and empty Rhetoric are precisely the verifiable dependence to empirical facts, accessible nature of variables and repeatable, testable results on the reality. Of course it is fallible but predictable and perfectible. The fallacy of this predicament was already adressed by Bertrand Russel’s parable about the flying Teapot orbiting the Earth space.
“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” Psalm 14:1 KJV
The Null hypothesis is just that, not to diminish its value, but it is certainly a presumption. You really don’t see that the rules you choose to assert are conveniently those that confirm your assumption? I could do the same, but what point would that make? There are two sides to life – the concrete and the abstract; many things that are not amenable to proof. I loved my late husband, but I cannot prove it. I’m not arguing that I know what comes after death; I don’t. Neither do you. It’s a delicious mystery.
Nice article. I love the IE and wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. It is a beautiful region with a host of natural beauty and available activities. I can get to restaurants and the grocery store in 60 seconds. I live in a community that would rival any Orange County development. Some think that people only live here because they have to; this is the furthest thing from the truth.
I want nothing that the physician wouldn’t want for themself, or for someone they loved enough to allow to go.
I watched my mother die in an intensive care unit, and my father grieve watching her. I don’t want officious care, nor will I demand it for my husband …
the point is not to keep alive someone whose quality of life is fading. What would you want to happen to someone you loved enough to let go – drugged, tubed and lingering, or to slip away? It depends on circumstances, and a trust in those treating us that they will choose the best option not the safest. That is part of your duty as a carer, to be able to make those decisions in a way you feel content with.
Last Thursday, California State University-Fresno unveiled the Armenian Genocide Memorial monument, the first on any college campus in the country. The area is home to a large Armenian population, and the University has an Armenian Studies program. An estimated 4,000 people attended the the event. I attended with friends whose Armenian grandparents escaped the genocide and settled in Lebanon. Like your family, my friends left Lebanon as young adults due to ongoing unrest/violence.
Be assured, despite the avoidance of the word genocide by the US and Turkish governments, people from all heritages know what happened and support efforts make sure history is not forgotten.
I hope the attorney that the author consulted advised her that while there was nothing to be done back in 2004, in general, a noncitizen who faces the permanent bar to admissibility that the author refers to (it is found at INA 212(a)(9)(C)(i)) can seek a waiver of that bar once he or she has been outside the US for 10 years. See INA 212(a)(9)(C)(ii).
If the couple is still married, and her husband is still in Mexico, I hope they have an experienced attorney helping them to apply for such a waiver, and wish them the best of luck.
With all due respect, playing a Hispanic in Argo, when hispanics hardly work in entertainment (fewer than 2%) and not hiring minorities would make guilt disingenuous. Employment for minorities is at an all time low. It’s daunting to try to pursue a career in entertainment and demonstrates how the establishment wants all of us to stay away.
Beautifully put, Thomas, with such an important message. I hope Ben actually gets the letter, but even if he doesn’t, the meaning to ALL Americans is clear. Thank you for articulately it so thoughtfully.
Beautifully written, and expresses sentiments many Armenians born in the US share also. So sad also for those “exiled from their exile”– in Lebanon then, in Syria now.
I agree with the statements: “Expressing regret is one step, but regret doesn’t amount to much without a commitment to repair the damage.” and “The legacy of slavery continues to benefit people who look like you and me, Ben—and they harm people of color.” And am hopeful that more people come to terms with the past, and benefits gained (and continue to gain).
I would like to suggest, however, that we not forget economic and political policies that would go far in addressing the gaps between groups we see today. Three progressive policies that are needed: 1) universal, single payer healthcare for all, 2) well funded education system, and financial assistance for college, and 3) living-wage employment.
And let’s roll back regressive policies which exacerbate inequalities, including: The death penalty, draconian drug laws, and military build-up (which robs moneys from people, and creates a hostile power structure that reaches to local levels).
“Guilt” is something that comes from within and every individual must deal with his/her issues on their own and in their own way. But when ready to take real steps in making this country more equitable, the above policy changes would be a good start. As Bryan Stevenson has said: “The opposite of poverty is not wealth. The opposite of poverty is justice.”
The tone of Mr. DeWolf’s article appears to be so narrow that it tends to claim all the miseries of the TransAtlantic Slave Trade for the Europeans. Not so. There is nothing exceptional about his forbears actions. Without the cooperation and complicity of others there would never have been a trans-atlantic human trafficking business. The untold never-to-be generations of native americans and africans whose histories are erased with every moment by those who made their wealth on disenfranchisement, virtual extermination and obliteration of the indigenous languages, cultures, usurpation of their mental and physical uniqueness, are things the perpetrators and their ensuing posterity will never get over. It is part of their histories. Why not thank their ancestors for the memories and benefits that accrue to them because of the avaricious manner they went about to gain materially. No one person, ethnic, linguistic, religion, or culture can claim total responsibility for the deaths, diseases and abuses visited upon humanity by other humans whose ancestry had suffered similar tragedies.
There is an important small book titled “Sometimes the Diaspora Begins at Home” gives vital information concerning the involvement of Africans and others in the capturing and selling of those whom they deemed worth the time and effort. No one has clean hands
Thank you. The old adage of accepting what can’t be changed, (the past) changing those things we can (the present) we are our ancestors, in a way, we carry their baggage, and we are here to rectify their wrongs, just by the simple admission that it was wrong, and although we can’t change the wrong committed, we can provide a light to the present darkness just by taking the lid off the past, and revealing its ugly truth, to a generation in search of a pedigree, in need of their roots, and thirsting for water. Supply the drink!
This thoughtful and forward-minded message ought to be widely read. Its meaning, its content and intent are pertinent for every American. Thank you for this.
As a trained professional in historic preservation I relate especially to your comments about preserving those parts of the built environment that can help tell the true stories of our past in a proper, complete way. It remains an unfortunate fact that mainline historic preservation, as practiced widely in the U.S., continues to focus mostly on ‘high-style’ architecture, at the expense of many sites, structures and objects of huge significance. I recall visiting one North Carolina site, an antebellum plantation which was undergoing renovations and rehabilitation for planned use as a museum. Unfortunately all attention was focused on rehabbing the ‘big house’ because it could be used as a site for fancy gatherings; there were plans in place to destroy most of the remaining structures that would have afforded an immediate and direct opportunity to tell the stories of the lives of the people without whom the plantation could not have existed – the slaves. A better informed or motivated program would have ensured that the slave quarters were the primary focus of preservation rehab efforts. The honest truth is, at least in preservation terms ‘big houses’ are a dime a dozen, with plenty available to depict the lives of the slaveowning classes in thorough detail. The less graceful, less physically durable slave quarters are more critically needed to tell an honest, balanced historical story. Given the reasonably well informed presence of preservation practitioners in some of the efforts the above story represents, one is left to question intentions in such efforts.
We cannot escape our history; it is pointless to try. Personal culpability for ownership of other human beings in the United States is past. Personal responsibility for truth, for much needed healing, remains.
Great article Patrick! I love hearing shared stories and discoveries of other collectors. Paper and photo collecting is a passion for some and obsession for others. Being able to appreciate the image or connection in this world of fast paced computers and technology brings us back to a home we all share~ the human spirit and how we randomly and artistically express it through words and imagery. For me as a seller and collector of snapshots and home printed early photographs I tend to fall in love with the details. The shadows and light, the composition and most of all the feelings of the photographer who has taken that particular image and what he saw and thought while doing so. Happy hunting!
Beautifully written. Despite the current state of things in my home town of Baltimore, this article makes me yearn to return to a place of such resilience and hope.
One can use gray water to water plants. Look into your city’s rules on gray water, but collecting water when it’s warming for a shower and rinse water from the wash and dish washing–you have to use the right detergents–provide a lot of water.
Long Beach’s Lawn to Garden program covered most of the cost of replacing our front lawn, and we continue to get many compliments on it. When water-wising your yard, keep in mind that most longstanding non-water-wise plants have adapted, so there’s no need to remove them. In addition, it’s best not to use products that kill bees to kill the grass.
Magnificent weaving of a wonderful life with an important and current concern. Thanks for introducing us to your swell Grandma Opps, and a useful way of looking at how we approach end of life possibilities. Great writing.
Great article. Life long resident as well and I cannot imagine what our city will look like in 5-10 years. We all have been waiting for a major revitalization of our town, and it looks like it is finally happening 🙂 So many different things going on at once. Hollywood Park, Metro coming to town, Market St getting spruced up, artist continuing to move in, micro breweries etc. Stay tuned!
Why aren’t people getting the big picture? “Free trade” is the reason we have lost almost all American manufacturing jobs. This will increase the hundreds of billions of dollars in trade debt. We sell theirs but they don’t sell ours because most US companies shipped their corporations to countries that pay workers .30-.50¢/hour- AND GOT TAX BREAKS FOR DOING THIS!! I voted twice for Obama & am SICKENED by this fast track, doesn’t even allow Congress people to talk about the details, if it is so beneficial to our country, why so secretive??. The TPP will do away with our defending our land to other countries, if it hurts their profits, they can tie up small towns and rural areas in court, bankrupting our country. The TPP is crazy. Free trade has hurt American workers severely.
“Webster occasionally pushed usages and spellings that most people thought were eccentric.”
I think it would be more accurate to say that Webster rejected spellings that were both unsupported by etymology or by high frequency spelling patterns. The o for /I/ in *women is not even a spelling pattern in English since no other word uses it. This makes the spelling *women much more eccentric and obscure than Webster’s .
for *acre is another suggested respelling based on the principle that should be spelled as in center for centre.
for
longe and lounge are ME variant spellings for the word long. so similar spellings could be associated with the Dutch . *tonge would have some etymological justification if the word were still pronounced as in 1400. The present day pronunciation of the word is /tʌŋ/ which would normally be spelled ..
Testing modality isn’t changing because computers are hip or ubiquitous or because 12 year olds are assembling them. Testing is moving online because it’s the only format that will support adaptive testing with dynamic forms–this allows test designers to achieve far more precise and valid measurements of student ability. It’s also the only reasonable format in which we can begin to measure the depth of knowledge and types of ability that require constructed responses–through the development and refinement of AI scoring. While SBAC assessments haven’t yet settled in as the touchstone of perfection, they are a vast improvement over the past and in general computer adaptive testing is the only way forward.
The TPP and other trade deals have lead to the wholesale destruction of the environment and have not helped the average person. The supposed benefits such as mexico now being net importer of cars from the US hasn’t helped stagnant wages. Those cars that are being imported are made in mexico in terrible factories by mexico’s poorest who were forced of their land due drug war and agribusiness. A sustainable future will not be created by forcing cities to set low environmental and health standards set by the TPP. If a city wants to prevent water contamination and ban fracking locally it will be impossible with these rules. All laws will be set via the trade agreement and whoever violates it will have to pay hefty fines per day set in private arbitration till they allow those companies in who would destroy their land, water and air. I challenge the writer of this piece to re-look at the results of these trade agreements are on the environment and real wages of average people. Taking someones rural sustainable life away and putting them in a factory is not an improvident. Globalization could be good if we were at the negotiating table not big agribusiness, pharma, military manufacturers oil companies and the bankers. Take them out of the equation and we might have a chance. Until then our environment burns at the hands of these so called free traders. Bill Clinton, George Bush, Obama, and ever president before that is complicit, Greed belongs to no party.
This report is very interesting and should be the start for a powerful conversation. My concern is in the rush to increase officer numbers, we ignore an important factor – to what extent does having any number of officers relate to the amount of crime in any community?
When former LA chief Bratton came before the League of Cities’ City Manager Department, he argued that he needed more officers in LA on a per capita basis because the numbers of officers was “too low” compared to what he had in New York. When challenged, however, he did not have a solid response to answer the question I am raising. I do not believe we are using analytics to demonstrate how adding even one officer ultimately results in XX% decrease in crime. And yet we want to use metrics like this as a rationale for providing money for various other social programs.
The issues raised in the article about the way officers are trained to work within various communities; the elimination of residency requirements, where officers once were asked to live within the geographic boundaries where they were employed (which presumably meant they are more familiar to and with those they are policing); and the unintended consequences associated with disincentives to return to work post-injury are important questions for communities to explore if we want to change some of the dynamics associated with policing today.
Last evening (May 13th) the California Coalition for Public Higher Education met in Beverly Hills to hear the heads of the three higher education segments discuss the essence of Daniel Mitchell’s article. It is/should be apparent that the Master Plan, itself revised/updated (supposedly) a score of years-plus ago, needs to revisited. The real question, ultimately, I think, is: Can the state keep its commitment to qualified high school graduates to pursue higher education at one of the three segments? Ultimately, equal opportunity access should be key, above all else.
I like these thoughts about music festivals. Going backmore than a few years I was a follower and a free-lance, self appointed critic of the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Festival…at which time, the 70’s 80’s and 90’s played Dixieland, and brought in world wide artictic talent from oversears. Tastes have changed, audiences have gotten older. Dixieland has joined forces with other styles, and while audiences have shruk a bit, they are still holding in there, and there is a place for a wide variety of poplar music venues. What we need, in this forum is a way of getting accurate idea of what these bands do, and what kind of venues they play at during the non festival part of the year. I go to the Monterrey Jazz festivals, and try to capture videos from side stage and share them with aspiring student musicians. I do this as a volunteer.
I will be going to Newfoundland this year to attend their folk festival which is mostly Irish and Scottish dance music. They will also have a camp where they keep the arts like fiddle and button accordionplaying alive. Memorial Universityof Newfoundland has a wonderful video archive of many years of folk performances, with a very good way of screening ahead of time what you might want to watch and hear.
I wish California could do this. Make artful performances wasier to look at, and make intelligent choices of what to see and hear at festivals.
The more we know, the more we get motivated to go.
Robin Aurelius
Friend of folk and Popular Music in Sacramento raureli@yahoo.com
The comment from Veril. may have (some) validity, but from my layman’s perspective… I certainly learnt something from Rebecca! (60 yr old average computer user)
Generally speaking, the more cops there are (and especially the more militarized they have become), the more brutality and abuse they unleash. The recent experience with a “blue flu” in NY, when the cops had a hissy fit and refused to do their aggressive enforcement to punish the mayor by reducing city revenues from tickets, clearly and embarrassingly resulted in greater social peace and a drop in crime. The lack of effective policing and investigation of homicides in Black communities is not a function of not enough police, it is a function of racist and colonial missions and strategies and belief systems; the LAPD became notorious for their designation of “NHI” – “no humans involved” for such crimes. The money that would be spent on more police and more weapons (including the body cams from TASER that are now part of the LAPD armory) would be far better spent on community services, education, grassroots community peacekeepers, jobs, parks, libraries, housing and better public transportation.
I refuse to support the funding for more state violence. I believe in world that has community accountability. A world where we know our neighbors, where we cab trust our community. It is not impossible just a world less know because currently we fund police more than education… Food for thought.
It can be quite a dilemma. I am an older student, whose career is at a standstill. I hope that getting some “paper” will improve my prospects, either for advancement with my present employer, or for getting a better job elsewhere. Yet at my age and in my situation, time and money for school are not easy to procure. On-line, cheap or free, and accelerated all work for me, and much of what I need to get a degree, I likely already know. I am in the midst of the admission process for University of the People right now, and am also enrolling in an accelerated program at my local community college. It is a difficult decision to make right now. The difference in cost if probably about 2K for the on-line, vs 5K for the local community college version (associate degree – to start). Money aside, both approaches have their advantages. I like the idea of being at my desk at home, taking classes at my convenience, and working somewhat at my one pace. On the other hand, I like the idea of a hands on approach in computer labs, and working with a class full of other learners. It is a hard decision – which is great. Years ago, for a man in my situation, their would have been no difficult decisions to make. It would have been simple – you can’t do it. I prefer difficult choices to no choice at all.
This situation in Detroit is sad and every City Municipal Water system faces similar situations. The water system must operate like a sound business, at least in California it does, which means it must cover it’s operating and capital replacement costs. I hurt for both the residents and the City Staff. So many of these people are the working poor. I believe the time has come to put the CDBG Federal money to better use by re-establishing a work program like the 1930’s CCC and the 1970’s CETA Programs. The problem for a city is that it can not afford to put people to work without having a funding source for Workers’ Compensation Insurance. Those residents who are not the working poor are the people used to living off the system and are a huge workers’ comp. liability. I was disappointed with our Federal Government when it extended unemployment benefits instead of putting people to work. Some how we must re-establish the “work ethic” in people in order to let them save themselves. Imagine a “mob” of unemployed workers moving down a dirty littered street picking up trash and abandoned autos.
Real Women Have Curves is also an example of a film about Mexican Americans that “tell[s] us something about the experience of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in the U.S.,” including the different experiences of generations of women.
thanks for your article. I anticipate that water will become the issue around which many crises arise in the near future that will be then be manipulated by neo-liberals with the practice of “disaster capitalism” described by Naomi Klein.
I think the most dangerous thing we can do as Americans is “forget” about slavery. It is this mentality that enforces the thinking that racism is a thing of the past, and this mentality is what leads to little civil rights progress, the lack of
sympathy for victims of racism, and other things. If people don’t think that it
is real or relevant, the subject moves into the background. DeWolf mentions
that any person living in the United States benefits from slavery, because it
was the basis of our economy that led to the growth and success of this
country. With information like this, slavery suddenly seems more relevant and immediate instead of something of the past. While the act of enslavement may be gone, the slavery mentality has not yet dissipated, as evidenced by the numerous deaths of black people by police, and their ability to get charged dismissed despite the fact that a life was lost. So yes, slavery is a shameful and horrible thing of the past, but forgetting about it is worse than having to face it. If we push it to the back burner and delete it from our ancestry, suddenly it feels
very distanced from us and nothing will be done to remedy the issues that are occurring in this country. A man who has such a platform trying to expunge this history from his name is setting a dangerous precedent for us all.
No, I don’t think this race comes down to North vs. South. That implies that Southern Californians feel connected to Rep. Sanchez, and as a democrat & Angeleno, I for one do not. It’s not about economic class or socioeconomic upbringing. That implies that people from Lynwood can’t grow up to be like Kamala Harris, which is untrue. Since their stances on issues are very similar, it comes down to personality, composure, grace, intelligence. I’d rather vote for someone smart and sophisticated over someone who is an embarrassing dingbat. Had a different Southern California elected official been running, I may have more SoCal pride, but not in this case.
And maybe, just maybe, we might become a bit more purple so we will no longer walk in lockstep but actually debate issues that have been silenced by Democrats.
I love this effort in utilizing the arts for broader discussions on society and the environment. As you know, there are many different facets to the arts, modalities, and the many ways they serve society. One such initiative is what I’ve put together to help the drought in California, in Drumming for Rain. I’ve been involved in hand drumming and drum circles for over 10 years, and have organized over 100 events. My specialty is drumming for the brain and wellness. But I also have “intuitive” skills I utilize in drumming. So in drumming for rain, I look to have drummers play all over the state at the same time, in groups, to help make it rain. At the very least, it will help with dialogue for conservation and awareness. Here’s the link on my blog: http://wp.me/poW1N-6P
People did NOT value water, the took it for granted, and did not pay the water bill first and foremost. They “forgot”, made it a secondary priority, whatever. The fault, blame, shame lie directly with those that did not pay for a service, delivered to their home. Civic Responsibility in a community means people pay their debts. Taking advantage of neighbors, other communities, etc and holding them gullible is downright nasty. Expecting “others” to pick up the slack, for conscious lack of personal responsibility, has consequences. Get a rainbarrel, pay down the debt owed. Another option is to garner welfare checks right off the top, insuring the debt gets paid back to the city.
“”A city surrounded by the largest source of fresh water on earth”” — What bogus statement when that water needs to be PUMPED, then SANITIZED, then PRESURRIZED, and then DELIVERED to the homes of Detroit residents – aka its a damn service like pizza delivery. People pay for it. Free clean water can be captured via rainbarrels to do laundry, wash dishes, flush toilets, and can even be distilled into drinking water.
Stop right there: there is something wrong with those high prices, right off the bat. I lived in Novi, at the end of the Detroit water line, for 27 years, and my bills were always the smallest of my utility bills and no greater than $60, tops, and that was quarterly!! So there is something terribly terribly wrong with the entire system that overcharges Detroit residents to begin with.
All the above! What a great balance of positions on what makes Los Angeles great in its dynamic, consistent chameleon ways necessary to be in its role in the moment of the world’s script in the cosmos’ evolutionary improv, while centered in self.
The Dichotomy of the Duke: He was the best of actors and the worst of actors. On the screen he stood for what was right in simpler times. In political life, his moves and statements were a staggering series of stumbles. Trying to be righteous both on and offscreen, didn’t work out that well for him. There was something else. In Liberty Valance (1962) he called Jimmy Stewart’s character Rance Howard, ‘Pilgrim’ way too many times. The Duke was a colostomy bag of serious blunders. Even the hard core fans winced at Big Jim McClain (1952). When he took Maureen O’Hara over his knee in McLintock! (1963), we knew he was politically incorrect, just as we’d known in something was awry as early as the Quiet Man (1952). As legends go, he takes the cake.
Oh my, from back in the day when “free range” kids were the norm. Now children are suffocated with over protection from not only their helicopter parents but from social services and schools. Kids are not allowed to learn to handle themselves, to grow competent in life. Now why do you think that is?
Thank you for your thoughtful reminiscing about your boyhood. I share your observations about the encroachment of “screen time’ into childhood and have made a point not to give my son any kind of screen, except for video watching time on the computer that he earns with good behavior / completed homework / doing chores / etc. He is six years old and never have I handed him a phone to pacify or occupy him, nor is he allowed to touch my phone without asking permission, which is never granted for purposes of screen time, but just to answer the phone for me if I can’t get to it in time. I think besides the points you make, another benefit of not succumbing to the screen time as pacifier parenting model is that my son is a super observant, plugged in human being. He has spent thousands of hours sitting in the back seat of the car either talking with me, reading a book, or simply observing the world around him. He is engaged in the world and easily connects with people of all ages, because he is not living an insular screen-focused life. He looks outward for stimulation and that usually means, to engage other people in conversation or play. Kids who are constantly handed screens since babyhood are focused on the screen, on looking down, not out at the world, and they don’t know how to talk to grownups other than they parents, because they never have.
I loved her holiday cards. I don’t even know why I was getting them since I never lived anywhere where I could vote for her. The first time I got one it seemed so inappropriate, but over time I looked forward to them.
Loretta Sanchez made me smile at least once a year for a long time. Kamala Harris is a suit.
Every time I finish reading one of Manuel Rodriguez’s pieces (not often enough) I have the same thought…”And then what happened?” You write like music, and it settles in the soul of the listener in just the same way.
These changes will be supplemented and strengthened by the availability of multimedia data. Electronic clinical information will be more freely available than today for both patients and doctors to review, comment on thiết kế nội thất chung cư đẹp
There also needs to be acknowledgement
of investment into Mexico and the export of Mexico goods here. The stories published seem slanted. except for Ambassador Rodriguez’s story
In some countries stopping genocide is associated with humanity and with others it is associated with interests. Willingness to stop killing fellow human beings is amount to humanity. A killer in a position of political power may be witnessed by some countries to kill with no intervention as they may loose the interests they get from him/her.( the killer )
The simple fact is that those who even bother to vote (who aren’t many) have neither the time nor the inclination to read enough beyond a party label for any candidates below the level of president, governor or senator. So, the party affiliation serves as shorthand for decision-making, and the Republican brand is one that is toxic in California. Perhaps Mr. Peterson should consider buying the San Diego CityBeat and increasing its circulation.
You are correct about three of LA’s major problems – but missed directly addressing the fourth. California alreadyt has the highest incomes taxes in the country – while states such as Texas have no state income tax and yet Texas will soon have better schools than California. And LA is approaching having the highest sales tax in the country at the same time multiple local taxing authorities are already pushing for multiple increases in our already too high sales tax.
So where is all the money going to come from for all the new spending you are proposing? What taxes do you propose to raise? And where is the money going to come from for all the new water lines, new power lines, new streets, the new green power and all the other parts of our failing infrastructure? And where is the money going to come from for all the unfunded public employee pension and health care plans?
If LA is not going to become Detroit, it is going to take not a few changes – but thousands of changes in every way every single level of government performs.
It is also going to take an entirely new civic leadership to try and find new private solutions to many of our problems since from now on – each and every year – a higher and higher percentage of tax revenues will be needed to pay the pensions and health care for retired ex-government employees and to pay to replace already existing infrastructure. And less and less money every year will be left over for new employees, new infrastructure and new programs.
And I don’t see anybody doing the numbers on what all these existing programs are going to cost – much less then also figuring out and adding onto that figure all the unfunded liuabilities of the states and the federal government to see what each of us already collectively owes.
And there are too many special interests who do not want the public to know those natonal figures for any public agency to ever do run those numbers for the country as a whole.
But unless we can discover where Los Angeles and all the taxing authorities in the area stand financially both today and over the next 10, 20 and 50 years – we will not be able to accurately access what we need to start doing today.
This was a very interesting first-person story of the experience. Thanks.
I am taken, however, by an unspoken truth: the reluctance of voters to vote for someone for statewide office, with tremendous power— and in this case power over elections—who has no previous elective office from which to judge. One cannot help but feel that one is taking a “roll of the dice”. Is that a chance one wants to take?
Even then, you don’t really know what is going to happen. The most obvious recent example is Geo W Bush, who was a real bipartisan Texas Gov, who many democrats supported…..and turned into one of the most polarizing Presidents of all time.
Somehow, it makes it hard to have faith in the Republican brand.
Karen Bass, Holly Mitchell, Mark Ridley-Thomas, Sebastian Ridley Thomas ……. blah blah blah. Politics in L.A. illustrate exactly what Peterson is saying. We have no choice really if and when we cast our votes – public engagement is non existent.
Last November my 20 year old son fell from 12′ on to his head. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and never regained consciousness. When he entered the hospital he was given a Glasgow Coma Scale rating of 3. That is on a scale of 3-15. Shortly after hearing the news I was speaking to a neurosurgeon who was asking for permission to do a decompressive craniectomy. He explained that there was a 30% chance that my son, who had elected to be an organ donor as noted on his driver’s license, would die in the operating room and if he survived he would likely never walk again, he would probably not be able to feed himself and he would have poor cognitive function. Then he asked again, “We need to do the surgery right now. Pressure is building in his brain. Do we have your permission?” “Wait, can you tell me again . . .is there something I am not understanding?” I knew a little bit about TBI, I was helping a friend with an event for Craig Hospital, one of the premiere rehabilitation hospitals for TBI in the country. Even for patients with good outcomes a traumatic brain injury can rob the person of their personality. That on top of virtually no motor function I didn’t understand why they would saw into my sons head and violate his body. I asked the doctor what he would do it it was his son, he said he would do the surgery. I said no.
My son was in another state and with my sister and brother-in-law holding me up and guiding me through the airport and to the hospital I made the 8 hr trip in time to see my son alive. I was so worried about what i would see when I entered the ICU, a head injury sounds like a violent injury, but when I entered his room I was struck by how beautiful he looked. He wasn’t bruised, his body wasn’t violated, his color was good. He didn’t look scary, he looked peaceful. He looked as though he was sleeping. In that room I was able to hold his hand, it was warm, and run my hands through his hair. His hair hadn’t been shaved.I was able to bond with my son in much the same way as I had in a hospital room 20 years before when he was born. When I said goodbye to him I knew that he was at the top of his game, successful in school with a close group of friends. I knew that the last thing he knew was sitting on banister, talking to a high school friend about how far they had come when he lost his balance fell back and that was all. That night I was able and unafraid to leaning over his beautiful strong body to kiss his cheek and say goodnight.
That I was able to see my son looking the way that he did in the ICU has been a critical part of my ability to cope in the wake of his death. Things would have been much different if they had done the surgery, I have been on the internet and seen the pictures of what a decompressive craniectomy looks like. On the night of my son’s accident when I refused to allow the hospital to take a section of his scull off the doctor followed with another request, could they but a “bolt” into his scull to monitor the pressure. Why would I want to shave his hair and drill a “small” hole in his scull to monitor pressure when we have already decided not to do the surgery to relieve pressure. All I cared about was wether my son was in pain and I was assured he had felt no pain. Another thing that I have thought about was the fact that there was a 30% chance my son would have died in surgery. I can’t imagine what it would have felt like to arrive after he had died to see his scull removed and his body all cut up for the organ donations.
In the months since his death I have been struggling with why the neurosurgeon would have done the surgery on his son. I have been on the internet everyday searching for something that might have changed my mind. I have consulted with a friend who was deputy chief of surgery and a major emergency room and everything I learned has only served to reinforce my decision but still I am having a hard time letting go of the idea that when asked the doctor said he would do the surgery on his own son.
Really? As an ICU RN, I saw more than a few physicians doing everything they could to stay alive, against all odds. I would say this is an individuals choice and all doctors do not think a like.
What is the opposite of the often used (overused?) word ‘gentrification’? Who lived in let’s say Echo Park before it became mostly hispanic and how did that change happen? Little Tokyo – this neighborhood was successful in getting rid of ‘the homeless’ – essentially pushing them down a few blocks, just outside of Little Tokyo. I do love Little Tokyo dearly but let’s not forget that before it was Little Tokyo it was something else! It’s about time to stop using the word ‘gentrification’ as it means nothing and is used only to further ‘agendas’.
Based on what you wrote here, it seems that you fail to understand how gentrification is indeed a very accurate word to use (it holds even if your example regarding Little Tokyo is true, which I’m not too sure of). There is a big difference when you are talking about neighborhoods like, say, Boyle Heights where Jews and some other groups had the means to move out to the suburbs for better services and better opportunities, leaving the poorer (non-gentry) to stay in that neighborhood. The point is that people with capital and income have choices and options to move from one neighborhood to another, whereas the poor and the working-class simply do not. I won’t even get into racial covenants, except to mention that historically they only allowed people of color, including people of Japanese heritage, to live in certain, limited areas.
Considering what I just wrote, whether people with means move out of the inner city (White Flight) or into the inner city, it’s really the same result: they get to choose where they ultimately want to live, whereas poorer people (usually directly linked to people of color) have no choice and they are almost always displaced — often leading them to move outside of the county or out of the state, even when they’ve been in these neighborhoods longer than anyone else.
Ahhh, that theory of course only works if one believes in ‘classes’. This one’s ‘working-class (and poor!)’, that one’s have ‘capital and means’. But that’s quite a simplified world view, isn’t it.
my house was built 1927 I have lived here since 1984, this area is a little bit of heaven, the trees and not much traffic and close to good shopping stores here in Eagle Rock and Highland Park, this is a great place to live and work and play. To bad I had a life size mountain lion statue stolen from alongside my mail box last week, it was only there for 20 years, but this is a wonderful place, Eagle Rock…
Objective? Hardly from someone who seems to be offended by the change she’s seeing that mirrors the change heralded by her family’s arrival decades earlier. Imagine the horror if someone had penned a piece like this when her family moved in to the neighbourhood decrying the changing landscape.
Seems like a pretty balanced piece. If anything, she is cautiously siding in favor of change. It’s a solid argument, that neighborhoods like Eagle Rock have always been (and are at their most vibrant when) in flux.
” The new bars and galleries that have opened on Colorado and Eagle Rock
Boulevards make walking home alone from a bus stop at night a more
comfortable experience.”
The new bars and galleries also provide jobs and tax dollars. Both of those are important to the continued growth of the community.
Before everyone sings Kumbaya about how great gentrification is for their commu nity….
Admittedly I am not very familiar with your neighborhood, but it sounds like
you are describing an early to mid stage of the gentrification
process. That can be a sweet spot…it’s a shame we can’t arrest it
there. But what you might experience, as the property values escalate
along with rents, “the used bookstores and vintage shops” will give way
to chain stores, you’ll see more demolitions of older homes replaced by
massive big box mansions, and a noticeable decrease in economic and
racial diversity. There will be evictions of long term renters…”for
property upgrades”. This is the endgame of the process…the artists
and independent shop owners are pawns in the real estate game…leading
to an ultimate bland elitist whiteout of what was once a diverse,
culturally rich neighborhood, affordable to a range of incomes.
Great article. I was also bummed when they tore down the market on Avoca, forever turning that corner into a residential space. Almost every rental on our street has been flipped and sold and that’s going to make Eagle Rock gallery owner affordable and not janitor affordable. It’s sad because a mix of people seems healthier.
Los Angeles’s housing shortage and lack of a functional affordable housing policies make gentrification inevitable.
I’ve lived in Eagle Rock since the turn of the century, just around the block from the corner of Avoca and Yosemite. I’m glad Eagle Rock has avoided the type of runaway gentrification that is affecting our neighbor over the hill, Highland Park (the rampant house flipping and residential and commercial evictions in that neighborhood have been the subject of protests, graffiti, LA Times articles, and even a week-long Marketplace series) but Eagle Rock’s progress from middle class to upscale _is_ happening.
I know because my household is a part of it. My husband and I would not be able to afford our house here if we had to buy today. We love Eagle Rock, but the market right now is just too lucrative not to sell. We can use our profits to buy a smaller house in a less expensive neighborhood, thus perpetuating the cycle of gentrification in some other part of Los Angeles. It stinks, but until our municipal government institutes better policies to develop affordable housing options throughout the city, this sort of thing will happen everywhere.
“the market right now is just too lucrative not to sell. We can use our profits to buy a smaller house in a less expensive neighborhood, thus perpetuating the cycle of gentrification in some other part of Los Angeles. It stinks…” OR just stay put.
Everyone does what’s right for them. I’ve got a house that’s too big to maintain and a mortgage that eats half my take-home every month. If you had a chance to reduce or eliminate your debts, and simplify your living arrangements, wouldn’t you take it?
This is probably the most honest and fair assessment of “gentrification” that I have read so far. Without bashing or blaming anyone, Ms. Gonzalez gives us a nice nostalgic stroll down memory lane, showing how the neighborhood has evolved through the years, mostly for the better. Ever since I can remember, Eagle Rock was considered “upscale” though and not touched as much by crime as HP was then. If you lived in Eagle Rock, people thought you were rich. At least I did because that’s where our family doctor and landlord lived. Also, ER real estate has ALWAYS been expensive, even in the housing downturn. Unless you are pulling in an executive salary, or work for the DWP, I don’t see how you can afford anything half decent there, even if you are a much maligned hipsters.
EAgle Rock was not always expensive; we bought our first home, on Avoca Street, at nearly the top of the hill, in 1973 for $21,000. It was middle-class!! There was a really, really, beautiful house at the top of the hill…with a pool…that we were shocked to see on the market for…$85,000!! This was the beginning of the housing price increase…
Gilda Haas got it right by focusing on involuntary displacement and to slow that the City of LA should do a much better job of enforcing the local rent control law. My elderly neighbor who has lived in Highland Park for over 25 years is worried sick about what will happen when her building is sold at the end of the year. It was news to her that she’s probably covered by LA’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance and cannot be evicted or have her rent increased just because the building is sold. If they do want to evict her to move into her unit, then, as a low-income senior, she’s entitled to between $15,000 and $19,000 in relocation to be paid by her landlord. Too many renters don’t know their rights and either move when offered $1,000 or pay illegal rent increases. CES runs a free tenants rights clinic on Saturday mornings and Wednesday evenings at Plummer Park (http://bit.ly/1IleM7n). Help renters help themselves by spreading the word.
There is a direct correlation between gentrification and efforts to limit the size and density of projects in order to protect the character of existing neighborhoods.
Barney Frank, speaking to a crowd at City Arts and Lectures in San Francisco, recently said that “in a city like San Francisco, there cannot be affordable housing without density.” A March 17, 2015 report by the State of California Legislative Analyst’s Office, “The High Cost of Housing: Causes and Consequences,” observes that one cause of high housing costs is community resistance to density. “Because of the importance of cities and counties in determining development patterns, how local residents feel about new housing is important. When residents are concerned about new housing, they can use the community’s land use authority to slow or stop housing from being built.”
Venice is a good example of how well intentioned community activism contributes to gentrification. When I arrived in Venice 30 years ago, it was a haven for artists and creatives because it was affordable, in spite of being run down and dangerous. There has been a long and successful campaign on the part of activists in Venice to limit the density and height of housing projects, in a well intentioned but misguided attempt to preserve the character of the community. Today, the median price of a home is $1,390,300, and the median rent is $4,200 per month. The calculus is simple: in a supply and demand economy, limiting supply in a high demand environment drives prices up. Limiting density contributes to increasing property values and diminished diversity.
The character of Venice is caused by its diversity and accessibility. Affordability fosters diversity, far more profoundly than the style and size of buildings. What Venice, and other parts of the City, needs is to encourage diversity by providing more affordable housing. Increased affordability can only be achieved by encouraging significantly increased density for more affordable housing projects.
Progressive action by the City of Santa Monica is leading the way to increased affordability and accessibility, via the adoption of a new zoning code that provides these kinds of incentives. Los Angeles might take a cue and follow suit. It is far better to envision and work toward the city we want, rather than settle for the city we have.
I have to disagree somewhat. While I don’t have exact stats and am relying on what I’ve read in the past, the WNBA and other women’s sports have the same issues: that the women’s game is not good enough for sports fans them to watch. For example in the WNBA, teams average nearly as many turnovers as they do assists. The pace of women’s sports are slower and mostly less physical (excluding USA-CAN hockey). Some sports less than others but none the less they are. With the WNBA, average PPG is 70s in part because on average FG% is lower than in the men’s game. In the eyes of fans, that’s not pro quality.
Back to soccer though, the women’s game is a bit different. For starters our women’s team has stars (on our jerseys and the players). Also the gap between the women and men is not that wide and it doesn’t affect the game really (albeit a bit slower). The technical skills and consistency with those skills is higher in soccer than other sports. Its also more common to see more goals in the women’s game.
Wonderful artist!! I’m amazed at how hispanics in LA pursue their art without any encouragement or financial support. I’m Cuban-American filmmaker and I know how tough it is to work on a Zero Film Budget.
They can, they just don’t know how or lack the ability to redeem themselves if they did. That’s reality. Hide it until you know how you want to face it. #weakhumannature
It seems that you (Bhagwan) assert that checking a reputation score is cheaper than verifying a transaction. Did I interpret your paragraph correctly? I don’t follow how using a person’s reputation capital can be a cheaper alternative to transaction verification. I expect both methods would require a local device to transmit an inquiry to a remote data-processing facility, and the reputation check would have to cover the cost to manage the reputation scores of millions of people. Am I misunderstanding something?
Mark, My point is that once I have a reputation, it will be sticky for a while so that you don’t need to check for every transaction whether I will make good on my promises or not. This means that the frequency with which you need to authenticate and verify can be reduced drastically. This is similar to the Global Entry Card that I now use when I re-enter the country. I had to go through some serious verification and interviews but now immigration is a breeze.
Erin, your work is meaningful and allows people into the world of Art and Nature… It is great to see the LA river being appreciated for what it was and what it can be.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article. I have been teaching newcomer students for 12 years and cannot imagine doing anything else. I could have written this article myself yet in no way as eloquent and brilliant as this :). Thank you for taking my thoughts and all the wonderful things I always say about my amazing students and putting them down in writing for others to read. Resilience, yes that describes them to perfection.
You go Lalo! I’m a big fan of The Hour Of Power. If memory serves, it’s on at 4:30 on Friday afternoons. Check it out, you won’t be disappointed.
He is also a fun commentator on local NPR stations. His comments on the OC Sherriff’s Department this week were typically both funny and informative. AND the author of “Ask a Mexican”, AND a great columnist for the OC Weekly.
Thanks for this Zocalo. Laol is a SoCal treasure.
This takes me back to Steve Earle’s great song “Dixie”, based on the character Buster Kilrain from Jeff Schaara’s famous novel “The Killer Angels” about the civil War. Kilrain was an Irish immigrant who fought in Joshua Chamberlain’s 20th maine at the pivotal battle of Little Roundtop.
“My name’s Kilrain of the 29th Maine and I come from County Clare”
“But the Brits would hang me for a Fenian so I took my leave of there”
Interesting article, but I do think Scalia’s premise is wrong, along with just about everything else he said. California not only counts as West, it is a microcosm of the West. Just about any quality that can be said to define the West–geographically, politically, and socially–is found here and fully expressed in some region of the state.
In short, want to know what West is? You can find any of the possible answers in California.,
Hey Mr. Hoy,
Thank you for this post, it reminds me that I did a good thing in creating the freshmen awareness committee. This being my second week at UC Berkeley, I feel like I have already learned so much and of course I want to share a lot of advice with my Arabs. I will be writing a post soon.
No, the purpose of hospice is to ONLY provide care for comfort and forgo all other care (including an enema). And if pain meds make you too tired, the dose can be backed down and /or meds changed.
People working in ICUs (I’m a pediatric ICU nurse) do NOT want to put you through hell. We want to go home feeling like we saved someone or at least did all we could and went down swinging. You are joking yourself if you don’t think we all go home and don’t scrutinize every detail and have nightmares about you. I sometimes can vividly remember the howling cries of families who are going through the worst days of there lives. But this article touches on the very little consideration and conversation people have regarding end of life care. Eberyone is scared because choices have to be made NOW, because things get bad, very fast. My mother and her 5 siblings did not discuss end of life with my grandmother, even though she had late stage cancer. So, when she coded from fulfillment sepsis, the oldest couldn’t make the choice and it fell on her shoulders. Now the youngest is bitter because he disagreed with the call but didn’t speak up and said the family gave up on her. Everyone prays for the miracle, but not everyone gets it. . .
And of course you would have a special shrine to Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and Maxine Waters who said everything was okay and there was no need to look Fannie or Freddie or mortgage lending practices, wouldn’t you?
Fascinating article. I’m curious, though: you say that these popular books “minister to readers; they offer practical engagement with readers’ daily lives that both more ‘literary’ books and theology seldom do.” But what about other aspects of organized religion, like clergy, or sacred writings? Don’t they “offer[] advice for living less anxiously, and point[] out how faith could guide them through uncertain terrain”? For example, through prayer, or dedicating themselves to helping others; or (the tough one) giving away everything they own?
Another point: the mystery novelist Judith Rock has a series featuring a 17th-century Jesuit in Paris. Just tonight I was reading this line of dialogue from one of her novels: “Jesuits are supposed to find God in all things, even in theology, I suppose.”
No question, California has a lot going for it. But its “culture” can be explained in one word…. Narcissism (aka, “it’s all about ME!”). Which also explains all the ‘excuses’.
Love it! I would love to visit these music making sites someday and jam out with a few fellow music lovers. Big woo hoo to Music Changing Lives. Let the songs fill the air! Love and peace.
My other was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer. Before I could talk to my step dad about treatment options, she had started chemo. Her quality of life was beneath the toilet. Then at a check up they found more tumors that were operable. We said no…no more….she was incurable .I have always felt
t it was a money thing…
Thank you so much for writing this article Christopher. This article speaks so true to my own heart as well. I grew up here in the Chicago suburbs, and whenever I come home, I feel the need to go back to the malls that I used to frequent .. a form of nostalgia so to speak .. I’m close to my mid 30’s now, but it sure makes me feel like I’m 17 again ..
The nostalgia has begun to worn off a bit, since I have noticed the trend of even the most popular malls to lose it’s traffic .. but there is something a bit grandiose about it all .. a sort of suburbanite wonder .. perhaps one day these malls will be considered one of the wonders of the world ( I highly doubt it )
There is a sense of great journalism here, and I find it missing in other more popular sites I’ve frequented .. perhaps with age, comes experience and taste, and the ability to write a wonderful article on something that might seem so mundane to the masses .. please keep up with what it is that you do .. the world needs it.
In 2012, Hollywoodians Encouraging Logical Planning did the analysis of the census data which showed that not only had Hollywood lost considerable population between 2000 and 2010, but that there was no rationale basis to believe that the population would be increasing.
The impact of the falsification of population data is far worse than Mr. Mathews realizes. The false data is used to justify the Manhattanization of Hollywood and justified the diversion of $ 2 BILLLION in incremental property taxes away from infrastructure. If you want to know why Hollywood is having water mains constantly rupture, you find your answer in the people who have run Hollywood since 2000. They are the ones who made certain that the aging pipes were not replaced. They are the ones who have driven business away from Los Angeles.
The only favorable thing one can say about our political leaders is that Angelenos got what they deserved. The corruption continues and it is not going to stop and the decay will also continue.
http://bit.ly/1cPdZCR March 25, 2015, Zwartz Talk, Power Corrupts; Corruption Destroys – Power and Corruption at Los Angeles City Hall
The news recently reported I am now in the minority, by passed by Latino population. Maybe that’s just in Los Angeles? The Mayor of L. A.’s illegal, higher density Hollywood Community Plan was thrown out by a Judge based on many problems, including it was ‘growth encouraging’ not ‘growth accommodating’ and the population data was ‘fatally flawed’ and ‘wishful thinking’ another example of overblown population predictions to justify a community plan all to accommodate developers he sold Hollywood to, who help get him elected… The Judge also said the infrastructure could not withstand the density he wants.
No new plan has materialized so it’s a free for all for developers, dense overscale housing going up everywhere that sit empty, store fronts in new buildings on every street also sit empty, while water main breaks occur every other week, we are in a drought crisis, and traffic has paralyzed the whole area, crime is up, shootings are a regular occurrence, and LAPD is understaffed. None of these problems are being dealt with as massive buildings go up everywhere.His bicycle transit ‘solution’ Mobility2035Plan, closing traffic lanes for bikes will paralyze the city even more.
People are fleeing Hollywood, no one can afford all the new housing, but many still have to travel through, but now, it is nearly impossible. NYC has about fourteen subway lines . L. A. Is not even close to a public transit system that will get everyone out of cars, yet intrusive to neighborhoods, massive overscale TOD developments are going up everywhere, that public transit takers can’t afford to live in, and those that can still use cars, so they don’t work.
We are living in a mess whether population is growing or dwindling, Garcetti’s ‘plan’ is killing us.
What honor given to Mr Esteban a legacy he has left for many. Thank you for sharing. I did not get the honor of knowing him. But can see by your writing what a great Man mr. Nuño, He leaves a great example of a Godly man. My deepest condolences to the family.
Heartbreaking and necessary work. Painfully relevant to the national conversation on race and the related topics of incarceration and foster care . Thank you.
Interesting article, but doesn’t really get to any definitive answers, or you might say even to the key questions. Who influences policies there? The heirs of the UFW? Who runs city government? Is there a poor investment climate? Are there state water/environmental/building policies that discourage economic growth? What percentage of the population consists of undocumented aliens? Does the undocumented population depress wages? What policies might change these conditions?
I’m don’t have answers for these, but I think they might shed some more light on the matter.
Salinas is where workers are housed and business elite come to work or gather the workforce. Not just agriculture, banking, legal profession, accounting businesses are largely owned and operated by people who prefer to live elsewhere.They talk the talk, lesson taken from politicians, but don’t have what it takes to walk the walk.
An award here….a donation there and Salinas is all well and good. A good night’s sleep is had and the good people can sleep well. However noble the intent it does not preclude elitism and conceit.
Perhaps it is a generational issue, but I do not need tattoos to prove that I exist. I think that tattoos could be misconstrued (as gangster identification) and as they fade and the skin becomes wrinkled, they simply look bad. But this is my own decision, and I do not judge others on the basis of their skin: natural or not.
Having a hard time reconciling “Jobs… are so
plentiful that employers have been complaining of labor shortages” with “Salinas also has persistently higher unemployment than the state” Which is it? Are employers complaining because no one wants to work for sub minimum wages?
I’m a math teacher (in Salinas) but I don’t teach math. I teach children. You have to believe in yourself and we teachers need to believe in our students. Attitude is everything (both the student’s attitude and the teacher’s). Bravo Ms.Tena.
The low average age is cited, but this significant fact is not used to put the crime rate into perspective. The strongest predictor of a population’s crime rate is the number of males between the ages of 16 and 35. If that variable is controlled for, it’s not unreasonable to predict that Salinas actually has a lower crime rate than the rest of the country.
The north, south, east and west parts of Salinas do indeed have very clear dividing lines. However, your Steinbeck quote seems a little wishy washy for that paragraph. Good luck in all of future endeavors!
Agree Germany is not the villain but they and several other Eurozone nations need to take a more realistic (i.e., stimulus-based) approach. Keynes has been proven right time and again: Easier to grow than cut one’s way out of debt.
Where does the Southern strategy fit into this analysis?
And the Kennedys can be justifiably critiqued, but I’m unclear why being “glamorous, spoiled, and underhanded” suggests that the Kennedys also didn’t work hard or reinvent themselves.
If you want to have fun, ask someone, “What President of the United States had the most liberal and progressive social and economic legislation passed during his term?” You will be surprised how few will guess Nixon. Remember he had to work with Daniel Moynehan and a liberal Democrat majority in Congress. . . . eg. EPA creation, Clean Water Act, major extension of Civil Rights Laws and the desegregation of Southern Schools by the creation of local Citizen Councils, Title IX and other gender equality laws, major extensions of the Food Stamp (Nixon was very proud of almost eliminating hunger in America), Medicare, and Welfare programs. , , , Opening up China to world trade is a mega-event in the 21st century.
On the darker side, he killed millions Vietnamese and Cambodians through bombing campaigns and aftermath. Also, taking out Allende in Chile for the “fascist-like Pinochet” was not exactly America’s finest hour.
Funny, although he did a cover-up on the Watergate scandal, at the end of the day, he honored the court orders and surrendered the White House tapes, which caused his down fall. That’s pretty honorable.
I recently saw the film on the Richard Nixon interviews by David Frost on Netflix and it is an impressive film. I was particularly taken by the private conversations between these two men and what it revealed about Nixon’s sense of gloom, being reviled and need to fight the ‘sons of whores’. Bitter to the end.
Richard Nixon was, no doubt, patriotic in his way, but, if you read the Watergate hearings, the tapes, the memoirs of his chief of staff and other leaders, etc., he was vicious, had paranoid tendencies, was a clear racist, deeply cynical, and willing to violate the law and the Constitution in many ways to protect himself and gain political power. His Southern strategy made the GOP the party of white men and resulted in the leadership of Lincoln’s party going to the segregationist wing of what had been the southern Democratic party. Some of his national and international strategies worked but he needlessly and wrecklessly expanded the Vietnam War to other countries and he left faith in the American political system
shattered in ways that we’re still living with.
My mother was in the hospital dying of colon cancer, she was in bad shape. The doctors suspected a blockage and wanted to do that test where you drink all of that barium…really a rather horrible test and you feel bloated and awful. I asked the doctors if it came back positive, what the next step was. They told me they wouldn’t be able to do anything because she was in such bad shape. I was like why do the horrible test if you can’t do anything with the results? This seemed like such common sense to me.
My aunt, whom I and Hospice cared for during her final year left this world with a smile on her face in her own bedroom. She even hung in there until I got off of work to pass..with a smile on her face. She knew she was leavin and told me, she was ready. 86 yrs young. I pray I can go..the same way!!
I am 71 years old. A little surprised to be alive at this age
because my father, who was rather abusive, died of his second heart
attack at age 43. I have been fairly healthy and kept myself in
pretty good shape. I am now in a lot of pain with a hamstring, and
not dealing with it well.
I am a complete atheist. I have no
doubt that when I die, it will be as if I had never been. Total black
hole darkness. I don’t want to die. We are animals. Evolution tells
us: 1. Stay alive. 2. Pass on genes. We are different than other
animals because we are self aware of our own mortality; knowledge
that half drives us crazy as a species.
I live in a right to die state,
Washington, label is “Death with Dignity.” My doctor is
comfortable with it and has helped people die. He said to me, “Better
when doctors do it properly than if people bungle their efforts at
suicide and turn themselves into vegetables.” I’ve talked this over
with my wife and a close friend/neighbor, and informed my only child.
Everyone is different, and as much as practical, people should be
allowed to make choices. I have another neighbor (older than I am)
who had kidne failure, extensive dialysis, and eventually a
successful kidney transplant. I have no criticism of him. I will not
go through that.
Hospice is the best choice – for now. But anyone who has watched a cancer death, death that comes by inches, knows that even hospice is not enough. When it is my time, I have a right to die before I am lost to that no-mans-land where pain and air hunger and anxiety cannot be touched by medicine. Hospice advocates, well intentioned as they are, still leave too many to die terrible deaths.
My mother passed away a year ago last April after having complications during a carotid artery surgery. She threw a couple of blood clots either during or right after the procedure. I will never know if she really came out of the anesthetic enough to know what was going on. I try to keep telling myself she didn’t. I hope she didn’t. We had discussed her end of life wishes extensively. We had the paperwork signed and filed. We had more than 3 doctors saying this was a catastrophic injury to the brain. She would never walk, talk or even maybe feed herself. I was faced with the worst decision to make regarding a feeding tube and/or a ventilator. I would have to choose wither my mother lived or died. Then one of the RN’s in the ICU told me this. “You are not making this choice, your mother already did. All you are doing is making sure her wishes are fulfilled.” I know some may see this as a way of ‘getting out” of the guilt but that RN was right. My mother made these decisions a long time ago so I wouldn’t have to.
I would have one more piece of advise for everyone. If you or your loved one has a pacemaker, implanted defibrillator or anything like that. Make SURE to specify your wishes in regards to it being left on or turned off. My mother would have passed on Monday morning had her pacemaker not kept her heart pace up. It wasn’t until Tuesday night that a military RN who usually works with the VA told us, “yes, it can be turned off if we have 2 doctors who agree it is the only thing keeping her alive.” All along I had been asking the nurses, can’t we turn it off? and they would say no, we can’t. That nurse did what no one else was able to do. She got the doctors okay and the company’s rep to come and deactivate the pacemaker, my mother died within moments after. Our family had sat from 5 am Monday morning waiting because we knew it was the inevitable. My mother finally passed at 11 pm Tuesday night.
End of life conversations are not fun to have and no one really wants to think about the end of our lives but we all have to face the inevitable. My family has always done it with a bit of humor and one of my favorite quotes is “no one get’s out alive.” Have these conversations, they are hard but they also help you gain an appreciation for the people you have in your life.
Brilliant! Why not do it? Either before Iowa, or between it and New Hampshire. Big money for both parties and plenty of volunteers here. Have a nonpartisan sponsor vs. the state. Nothing to stop the June primary.
You only have to go back a few years, and these were FULL. Now they are way less than half capacity. Should we have another three years of the same, we will be talking about EMPTY. WHEN should we start doing something, when there is no more water left to save??? Maybe it will rain like the dickens this winter. Maybe. However, all experts agree that will not fix our problem, which is a deficit of many TRILLION gallons. The worst possible is a wet winter, followed by complacency as the drought continues.
We need to permanently fix this problem through conservation, water recycling, and stormwater capture—which if done well, can essentially supply most of our regions needs without the imports.
I think there is promise in reclamation of gray water and storm capture system. Your’re right though. We have a tendency to leave things to the last minute which sometimes ends up costing us more than if we would have prepared over time.
Agree completely. Read Atul Gawande, Being Mortal. I have willed – no CPR, no heroic treatments, no ICU, no life support, nothing. When my time comes, I want nothing more than to meet my Maker.
Nothing wrong with the contrarian or skeptical impulse, and the article is amusing, but this attitude multiplied by millions is precisely what impedes a coordinated response to a real problem. As it stands the observations are no more useful than those of the 19th century traveler who saw clouds of passenger pigeons darkening the sky and bison herds covering the plains and assumed that the “resource” would last forever.
Empty-nester Boomers could trade houses with urban Millennials who will need more space once they enter their peak child bearing years. Problem solved.
“it will have to become easier for cyclists and pedestrians to get to stops and stations.” Drivers, too. And SCAG should rachet down its population growth “estimates” as they are a regulatory underpinning of (over)development.
I recently experienced San Antonio on a quick trip. I didn’t even have time to see downtown. I had a very pleasant experience. My general impression is that SA is like a smaller L.A. but friendlier. Everything was spread out (I spent most of my trip in South Park, near Military and the 35 with my main business being at La Cantera), but the public transportation got me exactly where I needed to go. I really wish I had more time to explore the city.
I want to return to SA for a vacation. I would also consider relocating there. It seems like a very livable city. I’d like to know if there is much of a punk rock scene or if one has to go elsewhere.
My only negative was that I had to do a bit of walking in 100+° temperature. That was not fun.
The biggest positive was the people. En serio, my experience of the people of West Texas is that they are gracious, helpful, and friendly to strangers, and just plain good folks. I have yet to really visit DFW or anything East of the SA/Laredo corridor, not even Austin.
Hi marcoselmalo-I’m so glad you liked my hometown. Although I live in NYC now for many years, I hope one day to return to SA, my heart is hungry for it. You’re totally right that Texans are friendly and good-hearted, casual and approachable. Please do return and try to get downtown to the River Walk, which is so lovely it draws many residents and not just visitors, and the King William Historic District. If you can, rent a car and drive all over to get a bigger picture, and chat with everyone you meet. Austin is great, too, with a totally different character, and the Hill Country northwest of both cities is stunningly rugged and beautiful. So happy you visited, come again!
nice work Arismel! I am so happy to see your progress. “The gold always shines, no matter how deep it’s buried. ” That’s what I believed all the time along.
I applaud Dr Rich for recognizing that urban trauma exists then taking steps to address this issue as it relates to young African American Males. If I was an instructor of Social Work it would be required reading. This is an excellent book and sheds light on a topic that is hardly ever addressed the impact of violence on our young Black males.
Great history lesson! Thanks so much for enlightening and inspiring us. Now, can you get Congress to accept the reality of SS’s solvency, and to stop threatening an unnecessary re-structuring?
I don’t know if this message will ever get to Mr Rodriquez,but I attended a Spanish class taught by him back in the early ’60s at HP High school ..I didn’t appreciate him at the time,but he had a quality of professionalism that impressed me…He expected more from the Mexican kids than all the other students who attended his classes. He put the pressure on us to excel,and to see that there was more to our lives than just the “BLOCK’ that we lived on….THANK YOU very much sir and GOD BLESS YOU.
Great article. I have a BA in history and have been devouring history books for 50 years and I didn’t have a clue about the Townsend Clubs! Again, a great and illuminating article. Thanks.
Luis: Don’t forget the “Bethlehem 93905” you wrote way back when also. It’s all great community oriented theater which has done so much for Salinas and the Alisal. And thanks for this splendid article about you, art and the East side. Just a part of what makes Salinas a great city. I’m hoping Zocalo will publish all the articles together in a book. Keep up your great work and call me if I can help. George Niesen
I, too, miss Larsen. And, I believe his literary offspring Lisbeth, was finding her way to trusting others…just finding trustworthy others can be difficult even without such a past. I so miss that voice that vision that brilliance of character that inseminated his books with beauty, pathos, integrity, courage, and both moderate indulgence and sublimation’s authentic joys.
I have thought about this question, “what binds us?” so many times. Particularly as I would commute home from my job in DC, knowing that I was about to move away back to the “other, better, Washington.” Our country is indeed a contradiction and this is the key to our understanding so many answers to our pressing needs globally. I’ve spent four years now north of Seattle trying to answer a similar question “What does it mean to be Chinese?” I’ve found the process of discovery is more helpful than any actual answer might be.
quinn, i am very moved by your story. I would like to help you achieve your goals in some way. I too was homeless, but it took me many years to get on the path you found on your own. Im logging in on Facebook so you can message me. FIGHT ON future Trojan! contact me at: info@portraitsofthefallenmemorial.org
Quinn, I admire your tenacity and your openness. Thank you for sharing your story so more of us can see homeless people on the street as individuals with both histories and dreams.
Here’s what I remember about Rampart in the 80s. Cruising the side streets around Pico/Hoover for Mexican Commerical (‘mersh), bargaining with the Guatemalan vendors for an extra bud it two, and Powertools, the in club back in the day. Anyone remember Powertools?
The 90s is when it got too sketchy for me. Marijuana business morphed into the crack business and the streets got a lot rougher. After a near robbery by a crackhead (he accepted a $10 donation instead if taking all our cash, godbless his poor tortured soul), we stopped trying to buy pot and only went down for Tommy’s.
Please note that the Library closing mentioned by Ms. Freeman was apparently temporary. The following is taken from the LAPL’s current list of locations of library branches:
Felipe de Neve Branch Library
2820 W. 6th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90057
(213) 384-7676
Mon: 10-8, Tue: 12-8, Wed: 10-8, Thu: 12-8, Fri: 9:30-5:30
Sat: 9:30-5:30, Sun: Closed
FYI – The LAPL is apparently renovating branches on a consistent basis. Several branches I regularly use are the equivalent of the best technologically supported libraries I use at universities in the LA area.
“Recent research suggests that methane leakage from shale gas fracking sites obliterates any climate advantage from the use of fracked natural gas in favor of coal.”
This statement is flat out false, and Mr. Heinberg should be ashamed to continue such lies. Literally every single study save one found that methane emissions were well below the threshold needed to be a net benefit to the environment. The only study to state otherwise, I might add, tested absolutely zero wells and relied on only their worst case estimates.
This is 100% a product of Mexican telecom deregulation. The headline is highly deceptive in that it implies costs were high because the US telecoms wanted it that way. The high costs of calling Mexico from the US enriched Carlos Slim, NOT the US carriers. Pena Nieto has decided to go after Carlos Slim and has relaxed Slim’s telecom monopoly (for now). Prices are coming down on all telecom services in Mexico, not just calls to/from the US.
What a lovely dose of living by your own standards. I recently read Scott Timberg’s whiny article on how he can’t make it anymore as a writer in Lis Angeles; as it’s too expensive. Yet he and his wife wanted the upper-middle class life so he blamed the economic cost of LA.
Dr. Jane Long’s response to Aimee Curtright’s assertion that a large amount of water is used during fracking is notable, and unfortunately, it is not included in this article. Dr. Long’s comments begin at minute 14:33 in the video. She states that water used in California is a very, very small amount compared to what is used at the Marcellus Shale. The amount of water used in California equates to 100 families worth of water in the state every year, according to Dr. Long.
this is my father Manuel Cruz.i am his..daughter Ruby Cruz…I have been trying to get someone to help me many of his historical murals…back UP….please message me on Facebook I go by RUBY BLUE….thank you so much for this article on my father…83 years old he still alive….I know he really appreciate what you’ve done thank you again
It would make more sense to sell the land for a large housing development, to improve the jobs-housing balance in Santa Monica and cut down on the traffic from people commuting into the area. But, of course, that will never happen because existing Santa Monica residents have strong economic incentives to keep housing in short supply and as expensive as possible.
Construction jobs are temporary. Then you’re left with increased traffic, pollution. We should learn from the mistakes made at Ballona Wetlands. Open space opportunities don’t come often, while increased building densities are already happening along Expo corridor.
Airports everywhere are surrounded by land occupied by residential and commercial interests. Only in Santa Monica are the “squeaky gates” loud enough to generate a proposal to eliminate the source of their ire.
I used to admire Michael Feinstein, when he was on the City Council. His ideas then were rational and practical, but lately he has gone over to the dark side. (He also wants to build parks on new real estate created above all of the freeways.)
First of all, the FAA is not likely to allow SM airport to close. Secondly, this whole park notion is not something the City ultimately will support – because it will NOT increase the local tax base, generating future civic income. You watch: there will be an “affordable housing” component in any plan the city puts forward. Ever-growing local government is like a shark: it must constantly move forward, adding new development tax $ – or die.
The airport should continue to provide local access to the sky and be improved to fulfill its destiny as an “air park” – with limited jet traffic. Why not make aeronautical/aerospace engineering, learning to fly and airplane mechanics a program at SMC? This useful improvement would honor the airport’s history, among other virtues.
In addition to the other park uses, a 9 hole par three course could be included to serve our youth and older people that need exercise. The Rancho par three course is an ideal example.
Green fees generated will overcome operating expenses to help fund other spaces that might not cover the costs of operations.
Recently, while exploring one of those new fangled music subscription services, I listened to Cheap Trick for a couple of days, focusing on the earlier material (Heaven Tonight, In Color, Live at Budokan). And I had that realization I’ve had in previous re-encounters. Cheap Trick is TERRIBLE — TERRIBLY AWESOME! Aptly (and apparently self-consciously) named, they used every hook in the book and mined depleted veins of formulaic rock to find nuggets of pure, poppy, gum snapping gold.
Listening again, there’s nothing there, the dewy substance of a deeply felt 8th grade inner life has evaporated in the late afternoon of middle age. But it’s all there: the superficiality is the substance. Plus, they fucking rock. 🙂
This article should be standard reading for all Americans. We, unfortunately, have another longstanding American tradition that goes with accepting immigrants: xenophobia, the fear of immigrants: of their customs, languages, and dress different than ours. That is played up in the mainstream press, among many members of Congress, and affects any meaningful and truly effective immigration policy. That’s why the 1965 Immigration Act was so exemplary and forward-looking!
How about the rest of us who aren’t 1.5 – 3 million dollar home owners in Sunset Park under the flight path, each of whose real estate value will increase by probably $1 million if they convince the rest of us to close our airport?
The increase in traffic on Walgrove, Centinella, Rose, and all of our streets is what the rest of us will get from any development in the airport!
Does anyone know if Mayor Feinstein lives in Sunset Park?
Please be fair and give the rest of us a link to protect our airport!
Umm. Guys it’s a regional airport, with part of it in Los Angeles. Just becase it’s called “Santa Monica Airport” doesn’t mean it “belongs” to Santa Monica. Bradley fielld (LAX) doesn’t belong to Tom Bradley’s heirs. Santa Monica is way overeaching it’s boundries here. There are only a few small airports for the entire metro area. Lets see – how many people does that airport serve as the nearest? Everyone from Malibu to Downtown. How many million is that?
Don’t ya think that expensive Santa Monica can live with the small amount of noise? Yeah I know – it’s a small rich community by the quiet sea. They should do what they wanna do. Like, make another park in a park rich city. But it is part of a much larger place, which kinda needs the occasional airport, for those emergancies an’ stuff.
Congratulations. I graduated 40 years earlier with only $4000 debt and paid it off in ten years. Would have paid it off sooner but the interest was only 4%, very low at the time. I was lucky to have only minimal fees at UCLA. Students get into debt now because of excessive cost and they don’t really understand what they are doing.
I don’t get it. How are you teaching multiplication without some drilling? Please provide an example. I am open minded . I just don’t get what you are saying which makes math different than when I learned 60 years ago. Thanks
Jim, some of the research I find most compelling is about addition, not multiplication, but see the summary of the1994 Gray & Tall study described here: http://www.youcubed.org/fluency-without-fear/
I advocated teachers use “math talks” instead of drilling. So students would discuss the methods they arrived at, rather than just try to memorize the answers. There is *some* drilling; in particular, when I tutored 2nd graders, I did have them use flash cards to work on some simple facts, like doubles (2+2=4, 3+3=6, and so on) and the +2 sequence (3+2=5; 4+2=6; etc.), but then I wanted them to apply a smaller set of memorized facts to derive further answers. Hope that helps!
Wow!!! No words to describe the beauty in the photo or in the words written! Love you both! So awesome that you are doing this! There is and always will be a special place in my heart for all service members and their families! May God bless them and keep them all!
Gregory, I love this piece. So poignant. Thank you for reminding us to appreciate and to be a part of life’s little, daily miracles. They are indeed what keep us going in this busy, not always kind, world.
Los Angeles universities graduate more engineers than anywhere in the world. The start up scene is the third biggest after Silicon Valley and New York, and is the fastest growing. And despite what I consider insane rents and home prices compared to Silicon Valley and San Francisco, housing costs are reasonable.
L.A. is still the place to be for those with outsized dreams.
The earlier growth ambition always included a massive green connectivity component that lobbyists managed to kill even back in the 30’s. Thank you Chamber of Commerce. The desire for renovation comes out of the quality of design and construction of the older buildings. To return to the original concept of connected neighborhoods is not only incredibly inspiring it is absolutely brilliant. To reconnect on any level to one of the most thoughtful master plans this city has ever envisioned is beyond exciting and I’m a little baffled at this strangely negative commentary.
The goal is not to make a “smaller” LA, but to make it a connected LA; an LA that also embraces history in its vision of the future as well as its technological advances.
Pockets of small neighborhoods have not worked and neither has exploding growth. There is no balance in either of these 2 approaches. Communities are embracing the smaller “neighborhoods” BUT with the connectivity; something that does not exist except in a few areas of the city.
There is too much money in the politics surrounding LA’s planning future. When Developers “fund” and drive land use policies, there is no hope for intelligent land use. The spot zoning and poor planning allowed by the City as a result of this lobbying has created the giant mess that exists today.
It is the perseverance and drive of hundreds of land use activists that started this revolution to create a cohesive and connected City. Small sustainable communities ARE the future. Your missing component is the connectivity.
This article’s idiosyncratic interpretation of Los Angeles’s future is flawed. The author claims that officials “have no plans to let these communities govern themselves” and then complains that we have too many city governments within L.A. County. Which is it? Too much democracy or too little?
Similarly, the article conflates pragmatism with downsizing. Maybe the previous generation dreamed too big. Ecological overshoot is a problem on global and local scales with huge implications for the economy. Beyond Growth by Herman E. Daly describes how an economy can become more productive through diversification and development, rather than through break-neck growth that destroys the productive capacities that underpin it. A sustainable economy would not be “downsized.” It would be a monumental challenge that requires innovation, grand vision and attention to detail.
The other topics mentioned (transit, education, health) are all complex and distinct issues and to lump them together and claim that the leadership vision in each of these areas is in the direction of downsizing–I don’t agree with that premise.
The Bay Area is not so different from Southern California. Segregation, income inequality, NIMBYism, traffic congestion, housing affordability, transit system fragmentation, land use planning failures on a regional scale…the list of challenges that both regions share goes on and on. These are challenges that result from a failure of leadership at a state level.
What’s remarkable is how L.A. has been able to adapt and move forward in the face of these challenges. The innovation, diversity, and optimism here are helping LA build a better future already.
Where has L.A. “[narrowed] big roads … to fit in new rail lines”? This hasn’t happened yet in my knowledge. Most L.A. rail projects have included widening big roads.
An important part of this story which is seldom discussed is the effect of consolidation on the industry. Every buyout means fresh debt, which the acquired newspaper is obligated to pay for. Staff, pages, benefits and more are sacrificed to pay for mergers and acquisitions which did nothing to improve the paper. Sure, changing times and technology have played a part, but we should not ignore the role of vulture capitalism in the demise of many great papers.
Small colonies of empires develop everywhere: urban cities, suburbs, villages, etc..this article contradictied itself, i.e., by calling the mayor nerdy-it created its own division in an article! There is no doubt in my mind in Silicon Valley there is those and those who are not part of the elite network-be real here.
I am utterly exhausted of these dated cynical minimizations of Los Angeles. This city is experiencing a meteoric rise in world status. I have lived in New York, London, and Los Angeles. LA is by far the most livable, the most accessible, and the most affordable of the three. This city is not without problems, the most pressing of which are affordable housing and homelessness but these are surmountable if control of new housing starts can be wrested from big developers and draconian building approval conventions.
Thanks for writing this. I played a tiny part in that massive 1990 undertaking. It’s nice to hear a summary of things then and now, what’s changed and what’s the same, and most of all to hear the festival remembered!
This article attempts to sell a facile thesis. If we say democracy can not be global, are we not saying all global institutions are necessarily anti-democratic. I’m not down with that!
Excellent overview. There is a new German citizen that has learned and opened up. It shows itself in so many ways, But it starts with people living together, working together and being schooled together, and knowing that strangers are needed to fuel the economy and take care of the elderly.
There is real politik in this change.
America can use some real politik as one looks at the America that has been left to rot as children leave towns and even pieces of cities. We need immigrants to populate these areas and to make their new lives with hope, hardwork…and safety.
how about U.N. stops the gun trade between the gun companies from the ” civilised ” countries and the various ” customers ” on the other side ;goverments,guerillas,rebels ..you name it..If the “enemies” stop having guns and ammunition then they will stop fighting,in a short period of time.. Consequently ,refugee problem will collapse in a jiffy since no one would like to leave his country if peace prevails..Are you still looking for the real guilty ones that are responsible for the refugee problem ?? PLEASE READ ABOVE and stop creating commitees,panels,relief programms..giving money away ,food e.t.c. STOP THE GUN TRADE COMPLETELY ,that is the solution
There is an unknown woman who ran a now closed cafe in Palo Alto whose few words to me once meant so much that when others ask for my help, and I am tired, not interested, or worn out, I think of her and the magic of her few words. When I remember the light she brought to a very dark time it shines again and I take the time and energy to give a response. Her light shines on like ripples in a pond. What a powerful woman she was and so many others like her never write self help books or become gurus to CEOs but change the world, one caring moment at a time.
I moved to San Diego in November, 2014 from Knoxville, TN. It’s really a culture shock and a significant sticker shock everywhere I turn. The property taxes are assessed only on sale? So if a person purchases a home and lives in it many, many years, he isn’t really paying his fair share of taxes…properties are taxes according to sales prices, so new owners are paying their share plus that of long term residents. That doesn’t seem fair to me.
I am amazed at the grocery stores: small ones on every other corner, but no big major stores, like Kroger or Ingles superstores. Consequently, I visit 4 different stores a week to collect all the things I want (and ORDER the rest).
When I first moved here I was given a ticket for parking at Walmart in a handicap spot, with my handicap “swinger” clearly visible on the rear view mirror. I went immediately to the office in charge and complained. It took over 2 months, but the ticket was dismissed. It was for $397!
And the gas prices? I understand that CA has to reduce pollution…the traffic is daunting here, but I also understand that CA gas additives include a water infusion? So I’m paying more for gas that gets less MPG because it’s partially water…is that possibly true?
I agree with your article, Mr. Mathews. I think the citizens of this state are being badly treated by a lot of different entities.
Finally, a heartwarming story from Hungary! These days listening to the news here in the US, being from Hungary feels like an embarrassment. It’s wonderful to know that ordinary Hungarians rise above what is aptly described as “state-sponsored inhumanity.” Thank you so much for being a force for positive change in the world – and for sharing your experience!
Wow! I read this whole article and didn’t realize I knew who the badass teacher was?! KUDOS to exemplary, culturally-competent teacher extraordinaire, Kỳ-Phong Paul Trần! KUDOS and standing O to you, sư-phụ! Keep up the great, important work. And when and if Yamilex is serious about medical school, send her my way… 🙂 I will pick up your baton and introduce her to some other badass ethnic physician leader-mentors at the Network of Ethnic Physician Organization (NEPO) and NCAPIP (National Council of Asian Pacific Islander Physicians)!
To our (future generations of ethnic communities’) Health, friend!
I apologize for offending you. If in the future you decide you are interested in clarifying and discussing the point about why teachers who look like (in addition to having similar experiences to) their students are especially effective or engaging, I still would welcome a discussion in any venue you feel is appropriate, online or offline. The question of how best to engage minority and low-SES students is incredibly important and alive in our field, and I appreciate your contributions to the scholarly debate.
Wow. This morning’s column that found in the Sacramento Bee (the real paper version) got me up from the breakfast table and to the glow of my brightly lit computer desk. You knocked this one out of the park, Mr. Mathews. Thank you.
Hi Oscar,
Thank you for sharing your story.
Never dismiss, that “something” was seen at the house in La Puente. “Ethnic” American families experience much of our connected folklore; unlike our traditional American families who dismiss it.
Lisa
Oscar,
Apparently, your mother is not alive to ask her questions regarding her experience. My bet is there is a rational explanation for her story, and could be fleshed out if the facts were closely reviewed. My sister and I saw a ghost when we were very young( I was under 5 yrs old) and held our story as true for many years. I was convinced we were visited by La Llorona, as our experience matches that tale . I will tell you the story one day. What year do you estimate this event happened? Boo! Jim
Hi Oscar,
These types of stories are common with my family too. Was your mom and her aunt close? Do you think your mom may have been a bit sad that they sent her aunt away? It’s probably a strange feeling to want and not want someone you love to go away when they’re a spirit.
Just a thought.
I’m just not sure how you get “he hates me” from “Thank you for the invitation to catch up, however I must very respectfully decline.” You want to see him; he doesn’t want to see you – that’s about all we can get from this exchange. I don’t hate any of my ex-boyfriends; I also have no desire to see them, even in passing, much less across a dining table. I, respectfully, suggest to you: indifference isn’t hate.
Marjorie Podraza Stiegler, thank you for this article. The “second victim” syndrome is, of course, in line with other post traumatic responses and I think that in addition to providing support after the trauma, we need to take a proactive approach. As a trainer and executive coach, I have worked with over 500 physicians. It is my perspective that many physicians and other healthcare providers could be even better supported with emotional intelligence (EQ) training in order to identify their ability to be empathetic in the interpersonal realm and learn how to improve in that realm.
Having or developing a high score on the empathy scale of the EQ-i 2.0 assessment has been shown to be a key factor in determining success on the job. Many think that empathy is a “soft skill” that just means, being polite, having sympathy or agreeing with another person. And those misconceptions distort the importance that emotions play in our everyday lives. Empathy means having the ability to identify, understand, appreciate and respond to the emotions of others.
In a study focused on post- traumatic growth after 9/11, a correlation was found between EQ-i interpersonal (including empathy) and intrapersonal realms and an individual’s ability be resilient. One can only speculate how EQ testing and coaching could support doctors and other healthcare professions that have to cope with crisis, death, and trauma on a regular basis. And let’s not forget another “second victim,” law enforcement professionals but that’s another monumental “soldier on” mentality.
Oscar, you know what it means. Science has nothing to say on this subject, but scientism–its ideological deformation–has cowed you. Go with your instincts, my friend. Many have had this or similar experiences dismissed as “anecdotal” and therefore unworthy of consideration.
Only partially agree with Edward Soja. Although Los Angeles didn’t experience the traditional growth of its eastern counterparts, the laws of urban economics are still at play. Agglomeration economies in Southern California are in continuous tug-of-war and just because we are polycentric doesn’t mean that the vey idea of centrality has been reduced to the lowest common denominator. Rising density, worsening traffic, shifting demographics, NIMBYs, and foreign capital are changing the landscape where the non-traditional rules of growth for Los Angeles are being challenged. In Los Angeles efficiencies of scale, maximum utilization of transit nodes, and the economic benefits of high aggregate densities continue to pull in the traditional urban frameworks seen in many older eastern city infrastructures.
Excelent analysis of two countries I have studied/ taught about like Mexico, where I was born, or that I studied, visited decades ago and recently, China! Thanks Mr. Guajardo for your unique analysis and foresight!
The risk as outlined in the article indeed exists, viewing from the similarities in of Mexico and that of China
But one should also put forward the differences of the two countries – from cultural to historical to the very structure of the respective societies
Before the emergence of the CCP, China had had many many episodes of governance rot and the ensuing revolution / war / mayhem, which sometimes even resulted in the overthrowing of a dynasty to be replaced by another
In other words, the Chinese people are experienced in such events – not saying that they can successfully handle the situation (else there wouldn’t be so many changes in dynasty in the past), but their experiences do count!
Very interesting comparison indeed, I feel like something as big as China has been overlooked though. Mexico never achieved to be a technological or industrial superpower, China also started with maquiladoras but went on to having its own big factories and well-respected brands.
Mexico grew in disenchatment after the people found out PRI was just a power-retaining structure supported by oil profits. People in China have a lot more good reasons to hesitate when it comes to toppling the Communist Party.
John, thank you for your well-written explanation of a topic I essentially knew nothing about. The interplay between science, art, and economics is fascinating. In addition to the influence of chemistry and optics on artwork, the article piqued my curiosity on how wealth affects perceptions of what is considered fine art.
The Expo Line will be arriving soon enough. Subway construction isn’t cheap. And the NIMBYs of Beverly Hills and West LA are just as bad as the NIMBYs of Palo Alto and the Central Valley who are slowing down (but not stopping) HSR. So why focus solely on the subway?
We have built our state around the automobile. Trains can work much better than what we have now, but they alone are not enough. The car based cities and trains are square pegs and round holes. If we want our state to work better, not only do we need high speed trains, but we need transit nets around every station to distribute people out into the communities – AND we need to stop limping along with the cities we have, and start building the cities we need.
Loved your story Billie! More and more mature folks seem to be following their passions – however “crazy” others might deem it. May you and your friends keep living your version of the good life!
California’s high speed train will, likely, never be completed. It is the wrong solution at the wrong time and in the wrong place.
California families want convenience and trains are the anti-thesis of that. Instead public investments should be focused on making individually owned, much-lower-polluting passenger vehicles affordable and popular. Small plug in hybrids can achieve well over 100 miles per gallon. They offer the flexibility of long range and the clean energy of running primarily on electric power. By installing solar powered charging stations throughout the state, tax benefits and lower vehicle registration fees, Californians could be saving on fuel costs, and breathing cleaner air. Such programs could be rampted up to benefit citizens in just a year or two.
Unfortunately, the California Legislature is corrupt and big unions, contractors, and investors can make MUCH more money on large transit projects so we’re likely to be flushing money down special interest wallets for quite awhile to come rather than finding easy solutions.
That was roughly the area I grew up in – but living at 3rd & Westmoreland, I felt I was part of the Wilshire District in the 1960’s. I did, though, learn to swim in the pool at the Townhouse in the 1950’s when I was barely able to walk and when I was in the 4th grade my parents were able to sign me up for an adult library card at the Felipe de Nueve Library back when the park had a pond behind the library with dragon flies and water striders and Lafayette Park Place and Shatto Park Place were still lined with mansions
And when we moved in 1966 (due to schools), there was still no place between there and Downtown where I felt the slightest bit unsafe. And I think our front door was still always unlocked during the day as was typical of much of LA
That was not many years before your husband moved there. Two of the reasons I felt the area declined so fast was the loss of the single family home neighborhoods which provided a community with a long term commitment to the area (my father was honorary of Westlake and coached local basketball teams and my mother was very involved with the local public schools and local charities) and the collapse of the schools in the area once the middle class was forced out.
But I think the area will gradually come back and I now have several friends in the arts who have recently have moved into that area.
Hi Hannah!
We are cousins! My Great Grandfather was Benjamin Schuster, son of Phillip of Lüdge. And from your story I now know how my GG Grandfather passed. Please contact me.
Metropolitan area light rail can be considered ‘anti-commute’ systems. Bay Area BART can be considered light rail and its status as a ‘commute’ system reconsidered. Commute systems create more demand for commuting than they can handle overwhelmed during rush hours and underutilized in the reverse-commute direction and off-rush hours. Commute systems meant to reduce rush hour traffic typically increase traffic at all hours and in all directions. In order to fill seats at all times, mixed-use transit-oriented development of light rail stations attracts regional riders and reduces the need for station area residents to commute cross-county and give them more time to ride off-rush hours to more destinations nearer their communities. Regional development seen according to this perspective is way way way way waaaay off the charts.
This article makes a lot of great points. If this thing ends up costing more or takes more time its because people keep throwing a wrench in the gears. We need to stop seeing each form of transportation as competing and create a seamless system whose goal is to move people and goods as quickly, safely and efficiently as possible taking into consideration the environment.
Hey, Joe (and many others),
That was/is just the tip of a VERY BIG iceberg. The new ELA/ELD Framework for English teachers (and others?) is 1073 pages in length, some 3 and 1/4 inches high and weighing some 5 lbs in hard copy (which the DOE will not be producing).
Very interesting! I’ve been within a few miles many times, but did not know it was even there. I’ll make a point of stopping, the next time I’m in the area. It must be a struggle, trying to find solutions with few resources. Thanks for writing this, and the best of luck to you and your residents!
This is all very interesting and we need to spread that message to as many as possible. I have an article about a energy safe building that was built about 9 or 10 years ago at UC Santa Barbara. Its defined by its impact on the environment which might be close to zero – nada. Even the toilets are environmentally correct. Anything is possible and it takes each of us to step up and do the job, in our neighborhoods, our communities and also let our friends know that getting out of your car can make a huge difference. I have a monthly pass and take Metrolink. the rails, the bus and/or my bike and I am old. No excuses.
Lisa Margonelli is absolutely correct when she says: Californians just aren’t that into oil.
So true! Most of the millennials I know want to live sans automobile.
Lisa is slightly off-base, however, when she asserts that moderate Democrats “must depend heavily on corporations for campaign contributions.” More precisely, the facts reveal that big oil and big pharma FIND and FUND these so-called moderate Democrats.
Our state’s recent experiment in having “nonpartisan blanket primaries” usually results in Democrat running against Democrat. Into this breach comes pharmaceutical and oil companies — they toss money at the more conservative of the two Democrats. When these guys get elected, often in tight races, they then align with their corporate benefactors.
When California returns to a true party system, these moderate Democrats will vanish like morning dew on summer’s day.
Consider the front page news in the Chronicle today – Gov. Jerry Brown, who has lead the fight to reduce oil consumption 50 percent in 15 years, appears to have received special consideration by the Conservation Dept. in his request to have his Colusa County property evaluated for oil resources. http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Want-oil-field-data-from-the-state-It-helps-to-6626075.php
Lisa omitted that gas consumption has been on the rise for a year now – no doubt in part due to low gas prices causing people to drive more and buy more SUVs and pickups. http://www.planetizen.com/node/72634
I think Californians want the oil without the oil spills. We want low oil prices, like other states, so much so that the legislature is even unable to increase gas taxes – once the highest in the country – now 4 other states, two of which have recently increased taxes, are higher. http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_29098548/nov-11-readers-letters
This article calling for taxpayer export subsidies to replace the Ex-Im Bank asserts that “more than 75,000 California companies export.” Okay, so how many of those companies used the Ex-Im Bank subsidy in the last fiscal year — while it was still in operation?
Moreover, how did the companies that did NOT use the Ex-Im Bank services export their products without that subsidy?
From the Ex-Im Bank propaganda website, I find this claim: “In FY 2014, nearly 90 percent of EXIM Bank’s transactions—more than 3,340—directly supported American small businesses.” http://www.exim.gov/about/facts-about-ex-im-bank
Note that this is the NATIONAL figure. California constitutes about 12% of the nation’s GDP (rough figure), so logically about 400 CA small businesses used the Ex-Im bank last year — maybe 440 total businesses. That’s 440 businesses out of the SEVENTY-FIVE THOUSAND CALIFORNIA exporters. That comes to 0.59% — significanlty less than ONE PERCENT.
The other 99.4% of the companies exported without an Ex-Im Bank subsidy. The other 0.6% can figure out how to do likewise.
Amazing write up. Most people would just send their photos to buzzed for a “13 photos of” Slam dunk. I can’t decide which are more beautiful. The photos or the words.
(I just posted the following over at CityWatchLA:)
Lisa, good article. Thanks for the history of the movement, and the
summary of the “state of the State” on on the issue. Here’s a related
topic I’d like to see an article on: I have the impression that among
the generation just entering adulthood, and the one behind it, many are
abandoning consumerism. If that’s true, it will have a considerable
impact on the economy and society.
Great piece. I moved away before the new span opened, and you really captured the sense of loss I feel about this change to the skyline. In a lot of ways, the Eastern Span represents the blue collar, working class Oakland that I fell in love with. It’s sad to see it go.
Great writing, but I think it’s worth pointing out that publicizing your adventures and posting photos online is counterproductive. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to explore something interesting, only to find that in the wake of urban explorer bloggers getting caught there or splashing photos all over social media, the security is tighter, doors have been welded shut or razor wire has been put up. In your zeal to share “the shot”, you contribute to making the world less explorable, less interesting and less fun, for yourself and others.
Great piece. I know before 7/7 in the UK, no one thought terrorists would attack a professional sports stadium. And yet two of the 7/7 bombers Shehzad Tanweer and Hasib Hussain were weekend cricketers/athletes. The attempt in Paris is another example of the weakness and desperation of ISIS to draw the West onto the battlefield.
Beautiful essay Sara! Life without special meals with friends & family wouldn’t be worth much. Enjoyment of such simple pleasures nourishes us in many ways.
“Predictably that debate quickly evolved into one over race and ethnicity.”
“It wasn’t until I learned that Nohemi Gonzalez, a 23-year-old Mexican-American from Southern California, had been killed in the attack that news of the massacre struck me on a more personal level.”
I agree with just about everything you mentioned (including the “sloppy debate”) but I would add one aspect not mentioned – media coverage. We tend to over-emphasize what we see more, or more often, and what happens to us. This is an emotional response – as are all other reactions you describe – and we fail to analyze/view the situation from a rational perspective. While the news of a Mexican-American student from LA area “brings the news home,” it shouldn’t distort our empathy (or fear, as you describe it), nor should we feel we were “closer” to the event or death itself. I’ve heard people view such events and say “it could have happened to anyone” (particularly when people look the same), but I have to remind them that we are more likely to die from more mundane things like transporation accident or a heart attack than a “terrorist” attack. [The fact that something is a possibility says nothing about the probability. If you buy a lotto ticket, there is a possibility that you might win, but you shouldn’t re-arrange your life because that possibility is so small.]
The “sloppy” debate has some validaty, however, and it’s real because we don’t pay attention to other people. If we don’t know about other people we can’t have sympathy, and if we see other people as “other,” then we don’t empathize either. Recall the gang shootings in South Central that no one cared about until someone was killed in Westwood?
I would encourage everyone to get to know “the other” – The Syrian, the Palestinian, the Salvadorean, the Haitian, not just just the person that looks like us, and definitely not just the person that we see on network news. People should also think rationally about such events, and _NOT_ act out of fear. Fear makes people succeptible to manipulation and decisions that are self-destructive… how many wars are we fighting?
Being an alum I appreciate your article. For years I thought the fortunes of the business community rose and fell weekly with the success or failure of the football team. Now I
enjoy relating to USC in participating in various events and helping when I can. I have met and work with some Professors as they interact with the Community. A few years ago a JPL scientist and myself offered up an opportunity for USC to take over the operation of the WISE
space telescope! It didn’t happen but at least it was considered. The LUSK real estate institute is also a real asset and is a great disseminator of experience and leadership. Fight On!
Thank you for this fascinating piece! It called to mind the popularity and impact of images like Korda’s iconic Che Guevara pic. The point about the pro-slavery forces’ fear of the impact of images is really revealing today in the case of police brutality or in previous atrocities such as the US torture at Abu Ghraib, and the accompanying efforts by powers that be to keep such images from the public gaze.
Thank you–I rarely send Christmas cards because most are trite and those few that come closer to promise of Christmas might not be well received—thank you for expressing the richness of Christmas.
Meanwhile, the Democrats in our Congress are encouraging the NOAA Director to hold firm and continue to withhold NOAA scientists’ data from our Congress. Congress needs to counter NOAA’s very unscientific method reaction to its request by withholding funding from NOAA until NOAA provides the reuested funding.
Alex – I have a slightly different perspective to offer. I happen to agree with Gore’s dictum. We do have all of the basic technology that we need. It’s a good thing that’s true because we are unlikely to discover any previously undiscovered chemical combination that will make fundamentally better batteries or a way to make the sun shine more than 12 hours per day, or a way to overcome the effects of widespread high pressure areas on wind generation.
Even thought he didn’t talk much about it, Gore always knew that nuclear energy worked and was one of the available options. He’s known that since he was a young child; his father once proposed legislation that would have had the federal government build and operate 8 large nuclear plants because the private sector was moving too slowly – in his opinion – in efforts to take advantage of the peaceful applications of nuclear energy.
In January of 1990, I started taking courses in alternative energy from one of the world’s leading experts – Dr. Chih Wu who was a co-author on the book about ocean thermal energy conversion. Just before starting those courses, I had completed a 40 month assignment as the engineer officer on a nuclear submarine.
After three semesters of study, homework, and project development, I had learned enough about the limitations of all available fossil fuel alternatives to recognize they were incapable of replacing more than a small portion of those vital energy sources.
However, with the help of Dr. Wu, Dr. Mark Harper, and a few Navy friends, I had developed a concept that would combine the low fuel cost and emission free nature of nuclear energy with the low cost machinery of combustion gas turbines. Dr. Wu and I published a paper on nuclear gas turbines and I published an article in the Naval Institute Press Proceedings.
There are plenty of other conceptual ways to use atomic fission. The primary ingredient in enabling rapid innovation in the field is to slightly alter the way that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission sees its mission.
If it was tasked with enabling safe nuclear concepts to be built and deployed, I am sure that it could devise a far more cost and schedule effective way to review and license designs.
As it stands today, the NRC is official agnostic about nuclear energy. Its commissioners are politically appointed, often have little technical expertise, and sometimes have a mandate from their patrons to slow or halt nuclear energy development.
If that changes, nuclear fission energy could quickly capture a growing share of the world’s energy markets from fossil fuels. The rising energy supply will drive fossil fuel prices even lower than they are today and will discourage new source development, especially in remote and environmentally sensitive areas.
Low prices will convince fossil fuel suppliers to leave their fuel in the ground.
You are very well written. Thanks for sharing! As a lover of Redlands, my question is (no sarcasm) what vision do you see possible for the region of SB? It sounds like you believe that if we stood together in prayer and petition, something would change. What is your vision and your highest hope for SB? Again, I’m not being snarky, I am honestly interested in hearing more.
I think Olmsted’s values are alive and well-transposed at a hyper-urban
scale. On a recent trip to Manhattan, I walked the High Line, a 1.2 mile
elevated urban park that winds through the lower West side, threading
the area’s fascinating, gritty past with the sophisticated, precious
fabric of contemporary New York City, a blend of treasured old and bold
new design. The park is a highly focused jewel of contemporary urban
landscape values, meticulously detailed, planted and furnished for a
delightful walk and surprising ‘theatrical’ moments. The High Line’s
existence is due to successive coalitions of powerful, wealthy
civic-minded New Yorkers (notably not Rudy Giuliani) who, with the
Landscape Architect James Corner, designed and developed the unique
space over years and immense financial and legislative hurdles. The High
Line is a distinctive asset not only to the city but to over four
million visitors a year who find pleasure in experiencing the
diversity and possibility of a park in a new model for the ‘greening’ of
an urban environment re-imagined from an industrial relic.
I had imagined that Houston didn’t become a destination for New Orleansians until after Katrina. I assume that this was more generalized than the makeup of the earlier migrations.
Houston was a home for many Sw Louisiana people. Alexandria, Opelousas, Lake Charles, Eunice etc. The average Black from Texas has a Louisiana background or Mississippi.
The core of the problem is not the failure to update community plans, but the City’s refusal to follow the law. Judge Goodman rejected the Hollywood Community Plan Update in 2014 because it was based in fatally flawed data and wishful thinking. This is basically what the City Attorney had told Garcetti in early 2012 and that the Hywd Com Plan Update could not survive a legal challenge.
The only way to justify the developers’ demands is to use fatally flawed data and wishful thinking, which is why there has been no new Hywd Com Plan Update in two years.
The City habitually ignores the law. It’s Mobility Plan 2035 I had to be rescinded because the city refused to follow the law for adopting amendments to the General Plan. In rescinding MP 2035 I and in adopting MP 2035 II, the City violated the law on how to amend the General Plan and the City was again sued. The City now preparing to create a huge legal nightmare by adding more amendments to MP 2035 II, but that Plan is not legal and the courts will have to reject it and then the amendments to it will likewise fail.
The basic problem is lack of honest and a void of integrity. The major and the city council want what the developers tell them they want and then they believe that ancient pharaoh, they believe “so let it be written, so let it be done.” Ramses found out the hard way that his word and reality did not coincide. The mayor and the LA city council, however, are slow learners.
Yes, the submissions can be simultaneous, but if you win the prize (or if we’d like to publish it later), you will have to withdraw your submission elsewhere.
What an incredible story. You write with so much emotion. I could never ever see, feel or smell what you have sensed, but I can certainly picture it with your words. It brings tears to my eyes reading what you’ve gone through.
It breaks my heart that you have lived such anguish, and that this nightmare is being relived over and over again by millions all over the world. Proud of you for pushing past the pain and exposing the raw truth of being a refugee: being uprooted and needing to fling yourself at world, with the desperate hope that someone, some place out there will catch you.
My heart goes out to you and all my Bosnian friends. What you guys went through is beyond horrific. I am happy to have you guys in the US, but am at the same time saddened about how you came here.
Okay, so if I enter, you can still publish and distribute my poem for media and publicity purposes? Or is that just for the winner? Not clear and I don’t like giving away rights if I lose. Thanks.
If you win, we publish your poem on Zocalo and publicize it. If you are not the winner, but we like the poem, our poetry editor may contact you about publishing it on Zocalo at another time. We publish new poems on Fridays.
True, just so true. And my story is like yours – to the letter! Except that I am in the UK. What I learnt most of all is to remember those who helped me and also to not be bitter because if you remain bitter you lose not only your past but also your future. Watching Syrians now and what they are going through…honestly, it’s so personal and painful. I wish you all the best in your UN and other missions. Be proud.
I appreciate this forum… I emailed one poem yesterday. I came across another one that I had written with this theme in mind some time ago. May I send another email with this one poem attached, or do I need to withdraw the poem I entered, and re-enter this contest now with both poems attached to one email…? Thank you for your time….
Thank you, Kathy, for taking me down ‘Memory Lane’! I remember in the 50’s and 60’s, (I was a child then) riding down Baseline Road…which then was a way to by-pass the city of Phoenix. We lived in Tucson then. In the 90’s, my husband and I moved to Chandler and then to Surprise. I always found a peaceful feeling those times when the fields were in bloom. Then in the early 2000’s we’d see the fields of flowers between Surprise and the I-10 on our way to work. Everything now is housing and shopping. I guess that’s why we live in Kansas now. Our little 5 acres in the middle of nowhere gives me those same feelings that I so loved in the good ol’ days! Blessings!
One reason for a lack of enthusiasm for a local who is second in command at LAUSD may be that the administration there is broken and she was among those who presided over it. She bears responsibility for tolerating the teacher sex scandals, the cost overruns in school construction, the terrible conditions in inner city schools, the poor performance and doctoring of graduation statistics, etc. It is not surprising that outsiders want a fresh face at the helm. But an insider has the advantage of being able to work with and beholden to the unions.
I, for one, am looking forward to having an educator in charge rather than political animals.
Sounds like Michelle King may be the person who can lead the LAUSD to make concrete steps on improving public education starting by getting the for-profit charters OUT and changing the curricula to emphasize how to learn and the enjoyment of learning instead of regurgitating facts.
We are no longer an assembly-line economy and we are losing companies and jobs because our students and our schools are failing the City’s needs.
And its children. With more than a quarter of our kids living in poverty where caregivers have to work too many jobs to provide the home support needed for students to excel, with too many of them without a stable living space, without two parents and without the additional support needed to succeed, the LAUSD’s mandate needs to be one of caring, not partisan politics.
There is a housing shortage in California or rather a shortage of affordable housing. It is about supply and demand. Builders only build if they can net a profit. California has taken some excellent actions such as statewide uniform building codes. Subsidizing the cost of building is not a good practice. I have observed both local non-profits and the USDA and their housing projects are wasteful. Your observation on CEQA is on-point, but we need the Act. We just need CEQA to recognize the realities of home building where time is money CEQA is time consuming, it creates a ready market for attorneys to make some big bucks, and it allows NIMBYs to oppose anything. Just witness the time it takes to get a new big box build. Add to that the declaration from the U.S. Corp of Engineers that anything with water and green plants is a regulated water. Months are wasted by developers and Cities waiting for an answer from the Corp. Add to that the State Fish and Wildlife which charges large fees for looking at projects. Then the regional historical preservation office at the University reviews projects for protection of historical sites. One project was delayed because open land that had been dry farmed for generations might contain some historical ruins from early non-native settlers. An entire downtown streetscape project was forced to stay 6 inches away from the old twentieth century downtown buildings by leaving the first 6 inches of abutting old sidewalk in place.
Proposition 13 is not the problem I recall a serious economic study done at least 10 years prior to the passage of Prop. 13 that showed the residential development did not pay for itself. The funds need to pay for the services delivery of local services cane from sales tax. That along with new retail jobs has always been the reason for favoring retail In the 1950’s and 60’s cities competed for new retail businesses. In the case of Montclair and Pomona, they fought over a share of sales tax when it was found that the city and county line went though the major tenant of shopping center. The settlement provided that all cash registers on the Montclair side of the building would be credited to Montclair. In the 1960’s Covina and West Covina battled for new commercial as did La Habra, Fullerton and La Mirada. I have more examples. Prop. 13 made it possible for older moderate income residents to keep their homes. I have one friend here who bought their present home in the 1950’s. They pay less than $200 per year in property taxes. The awful alternative can be learned from real estate professionals who lived through the inflationary time of the 60’s and 70’s. I doubt that moderate income seniors in Orange County could even afford to keep their homes. Caution, the real campaign against Prop 13 comes from the public employee unions
Agree. Also, local governments can’t just ignore residential developments because of lower tax revenues. Cities are also mandated by the State to provide the zoning capacity to accommodate future housing needs through their Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) compliance. It’s a part of every city’s Housing Element within the General Plan (with the exception of the unincorporated cities).
Depressing to read that “With the gridlock of the Sao Paulo region—which makes L.A.’s freeways at rush hour look like a carousel ride—a simple 10-mile ride takes an hour and a half, each way.”
That travel time is substantially slower than bicycle speed. I realize that cycling in Sao Paulo is dangerous and sweaty, but tens of thousands of cars idling along barely above walking speed cries out for a better solution, both in the suburbs and in the city core. Hopefully Sao Paulo and the suburbs can find better transportation solutions than the gridlock that is the inevitable result of space-inefficient car-based transportation.
I think this is the first radio piece I’ve heard that actually gets at the root of the housing crisis. Affordability, and how we work our way out of it. Unfortunately subsidies and low income housing are band aids to the real problem, which requires us to look into ourselves for answers and accept communal change. This is a simple supply demand problem. We have chosen as a society to limit supply of housing because we like our mandated free parking allotments, minimum lot size, residential setback requirements and dysfunctional housing code.
If you have ever tried to pass something through Building Safety and Planning, you quickly realize all answers lead to NO usually because of conflicting requirements between departments that do not talk to each other and offer no reconciliation process between their conflicting requirements. There is also no push back from Civic leaders for the department to give a NO…unless you are a big developer, which is why we hate developers, because only big money can circumvent the bureaucracy by appealing to politicians directly. This also propogates exclusionary and sometime racial or at least class warefare zoning policies.
As long we require civic leader involvement to make all decisions regarding housing we will be in a housing crisis. It will also spur the eastward expansion of sprawl into the inland empire and create more traffic and environmental degradation . Instead we need to democratize the zoning code to allow mom and pops i.e. (you and me) to be the masters of our own land and not the planning departments static archaic zoning. We will also continue to have big developers monopolize development projects and define our city as exclusionary shopping areas and unaffordable housing. Much has been academically written on how we could incentivize politicians such as the policy papers of David Schleicher at GMU along with the rest of the GMU economics department. Even LADBS has had a dozen streamlining studies written on how they could do such a thing. Answers are available it requires politicians to be held accountable for high housing prices and not left off the hook for without demanding zoning restructuring.
Foxes aren’t that hard to lock out of chicken runs…neither are cats, dogs, or even weasels…but if you have raccoons, which can climb up walls and manipulate latches with their little hands, you’ll have to build a solid, permanent-type structure that will be hard to move around the yard for grazing, and someone will have to be out with the birds whenever they’re allowed out of it, until you’ve trapped all the raccoons.
As a teenager who cruised Westwood in 1981-3, when it took literally an hour or more to go around the loop one time in bumper-to-bumper traffic (kind’ve a slow-motion American Graffiti), I can tell you that in my mind (both then and now) the thing that REALLY killed Westwood as a Friday/Saturday night destination happened on July 27, 1984, during the Summer Olympics. It was the night an angry, mentally disturbed man named Daniel Lee Young drove up onto the sidewalk (along Westood Boulevard) and mowed down 49 people. While most of them survived, many were left with severe, debilitating, lifelong injuries (I even know one of them). In the wake of that incident, LAPD brought officers in on horseback to patrol and barricaded most of the streets to automobile traffic on Friday/Saturday nights. That changed the character of the area overnight, and it was never the same after that, instantly killing the cruising culture that had thrived there for years.
It was a series of incidents…and that was definitely one of the big ones. I was a kid in West LA and remember how my parents worried that my older brothers were in the Village. The other big incident was Mardi Gras and the gang stuff that finally got that institution ended.
I totally remember that. I was a student at UCLA and a waiter at Yesterday’s when that guy did that. You are right… Westwood’s innocence was lost that day. Going to Westwood now is like walking through a backlot full of ghosts. Very sad.
The Sonora Desert is a wonderful place to witness the design of nature. Good to see the author of nature was consistent allowing the ability to accurately predict forces a billion miles away.
I lost my son to a heroin overdose right down the street from your soup kitchen. I was told they don’t investigate overdoses. Why not? We investigate car breakins and such. Isn’t murder more important? We are losing too many and not enough is being done. Drug deals are happening right in front of our noses, but oh well it’s just another junkie. Well you know what, I gave birth to one of those so called junkies. How about getting these drugs off the street and providing help for the addicts. We need real long term rehabs, not the ones you can walk in one day and leave the next!!!
I did too. My oldest son, Jason, died of an overdose (it was fentanyl but we believe he didn’t know because the amount of drug in his sytem was “consistent with heroin) in May 2013 in Vermont. He was on waiting list after waiting list for inhouse treatment, then when his date finally arrived and he showed up they said a “conflict of interest” had just become apparent and he was turned away. There was no other option offered to him and he was dead in 2 months. I’m sure you can imagine how angry I was and I did everything I could think of to get them to explain to me what that conflict was and to find another option for him. But it didn’t exist. When he died I called them and told them. I think they are too hardened to really care much. If Jason had been a woman or a teen there would have been more concern. But he was a 34 year old man who had fallen on hard luck due to the economy and he was just trying to deal with the pain he was in. He left two young sons and his two younger brothers. He was an amazing, loving, compassionate, smart and hard working man with a heart too soft for this world. And they have not found the person who sold him the drug – killed him in fact. Whoever it was is a murderer and probably a serial killer if the truth were known. Long term rehab is the only answer. And it can and does work. I’m so very sorry for both our losses. My life hasn’t been the same and it never will be. Only someone who has lost a child would understand.
Thank you Bill! This is Michael Anthony, one of your old clients.
I’m now working on starting a new group, Homeless Solidarity Project, something more formal then what we were doing with RTW but with the same peer-run methodology. I look forward to sharing what we are working on, and collaborating on these issues in the near future.
As a sole proprietor, my experience has been that the city makes it very difficult to sustain a business…from permits to sales taxes to police patrolling. So much money is collected from businesses, yet there s so much lack. The administration of this city really needs to improve, city leaders! Then with the legalizing mariguana because it would generate more tax dollars has really done it this time. As if it weren’t enough that we have a lot of druggies on the street and now this.
As well, the Tehachapis integrate with the Transverse range of mountains (San Gabriel & San Bernardino) – the continent’s youngest and most shattered strata.
“But ask people in Salinas why the city ranks so miserably low in so many measures—crime, schools, public health—and you’ll likely get puzzled looks.” As someone who has lived in Salinas all my life I can guarantee you, when asked this question, no one will give you puzzled looks!
These are his views and memories of Tracy. I was born (1953)and raised in Tracy, left during the Bay Area invasion and returned in the late 90’s. I have fond memories of my early childhood in the small town that was Tracy where you knew almost everyone. Where there was very little crime to speak of, I always knew I would come back to my hometown, I am one of the ones that don’t feel the need to apologize for Tracy. I wish Mr Sexton much luck in his career and the sale of his book.
With the death of Justice Scalia, this election has become a do or die election for Second Amendment supporters. Voters whom Professor Winkler says are far more likely to be single issue voters than Democrats who support gun-control but for whom gun-control is not their overriding issue.
I studied this lady in the 1990’s in J school. It was funny my professor was discussing the consolidation of media ownership at the time and how persons like this would be pushed to the web. Seems he was correct, since mukracking like this is mostly on youtube and vice.
What is amazing to me today is that people are more apt to punish the journalist than the business man when things are exposed. I find the laws that some legislatures have made about making it illegal to film inside businesses secretly to expose problems a crime a bit strange. How would you expose the problem without evidence? People are notoriously unreliable, but email, documents, film and photos can tell the story.
This is an interesting mea culpa.
One many of us share.
I am skeptical, however, about the potential for radical changes in social structure in the United States. Or even what the form such radical change could take..
When she says other family, I was thinking of “Relatives.” As an immigrant, I have a close knit with my parents. We talk almost everything out in the open under the privacy of our own roof. If you can’t vent within your own immigrant family, where else can you vent to? The whole big world is cruel and heartless especially when language barrier can be used against you every step of the way. Thus, it is especially disappointing, when there is no open discussions about this within her nuclear immigrant family.
Not sure if this skeptical, it is more cynical. Is it not possible to walk and chew gum at the same time? The author reminds me of the case manager in a training that dominates the room by recounting a story of the one person they worked with that miserably bombed out of housing. Yes, homelessness is poverty in its most extreme form and is the result of political economy more so than personal failings. Does not every single solitary person in homeless services not know that? The author is the commender of the obvious, everyone working in the field knows this reality. It is hardly and “industry” either as salaries are well below median for most everyone working in the field, many of which have other employment options but choose to work in the field. The admin % of most contracts let alone the service $$$ do not cover full costs and most non-profits have to raise funds to stay afloat. A good chunk of the Housing Choice vouchers set aside for homeless folks include 0 service dollars!!! It is ridiculous to refer to homeless services as an “industry” and to discount the benefit of being inside, even if those folks inside still live in poverty and still have struggles. Data shows that yes, some high acuity folks do not stay in housing. But upwards of 80% of high acuity folks in Permanent Supportive Housing DO stay in housing. The cost reduction argument is utilized because the moral argument has failed to sway policy makers or the public. Yeah, we should not have to speak about those living in extreme poverty in an economic discourse, but that is the epoch in which we are confined. Willse’s argument utilized abstruse social theory to deconstruct discourses on homelessness. While clever and publishable in the academic world, it has no useful application. We have to make the most of an imperfect system with an indifferent public.
It’s easy to look at macroeconomic numbers like GDP and claim the US is still #1 — but, when you look at how many Americans are enjoying the fruits of that economy, it’s easy to see why so many more Americans agree with the candidates than agree with Martinez. We’ve got income inequality at levels not seen since 1929 (nothing bad happened then, right?), real wages have been stagnant since the 1960s, and the cost of a college education is at record highs (while more necessary than ever, since well-paying blue collar jobs have nearly all gone overseas).
On the military side, it’s the same story: the macro view is misleading. Yes, we outspend everyone by a lot. But zoom in, and you see very low participation in the military as a percentage of population, and widespread suffering on the part of veterans of long deployments. The days of America fighting a nation-state that can surrender and offer a “clean win” are over. For the foreseeable future, it’s messy, asymmetric warfare against shadowy enemies. Fighting people without uniforms, with no nation, who blend into the civilian population, make a lot of the US’ macro superiority immaterial to the outcome.
The candidates aren’t creating the feeling that America’s best days are behind us, they’re responding to it. It’s possible that millions of Americans are wrong in this belief — or, it’s possible that they experience struggles not shared by those who are telling them how good they have it.
Awesome. They should make something similar today … not being funny. I mean portable writing surfaces made of wood that fold up, can carry paper and pens, etc. Not a bag — it wouldn’t be useful as the actual writing surface.
Harry, was wrong, of course. The Swiss did not invent the cuckoo clock. They started in Germany, in the Black Forest.
“It is not clear who built the first cuckoo clocks in the Black Forest[7] but there is unanimity that the unusual clock with the bird call very quickly conquered the region.” – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuckoo_clock#First_cuckoo_clocks_made_in_the_Black_Forest
Like everybody else, however, I’ve repeated this line often and watch The Third Man whenever it’s on. I even learned to play the theme on an old guitar in my teens.
Very interesting perspective on the issue of homelessness. I have heard the “Housing first” option seems to be providing positive results in Salt Lake City. Good luck, try not to burn out as you see the same problems, people, and issues year after year.
The comparison of Bakersfield to these other industries falls flat due for two reasons. 1. Scale 2. Natural attributes of location.
1. Scale: Country music in Bakersfield as an industry, was maybe um, 1/1000th, 1/10,000th? the size of the Silicon Valley tech industry. Similar disproportion for LA film industry. Small industries can go away or be relocated more quickly and easily than large industries with tentacles that run deep.
2. Location: Ultimately people locate and value an area based on natural attributes. Bakersfield vs. Bay Area. Bakersfield vs. Los Angeles. I don’t need to elucidate the quality differences. People want to live in some places, regardless of what they do.
Wishful thinking Dan. I understand, considering your position in the journalistic academia world, you have this hope. I too have the same hope. But that doesn’t justify ignoring reality. The journalists you hope for, the ones of “Spotlight” fame, have moved out to pasture. The ones who have taken their place more resemble Peter Jennings or William Hurt in the 1987 movie “Broadcast News.” The new crop of journalists arriving from college look to the latter as roles models – not the former. Or is they naively believe they can break the next Pulitzer, the reality of corporate owned media becomes all too clear all too soon. The virtue is speed … not substance. I’m guessing this misguided sense of priority is instilled in them the first day of their first job.
Unfortunately I think we are seeing a societal trend where journalism is becoming really nothing more a form of reality entertainment – with Trump being emblematic. As with most societal evolutions (for better or worse), they’ll run their course regardless of efforts to “bring them back to the good old days.” Al Jazeera America made this gallant effort … only to to give up the fight as they prepare to shut down this month. The media and their employees, the journalists, will go where the market is. And the market doesn’t seem to be in the “deep dive” of intellectual discourse, but rather in sucking up to the next survivor of the next political version of “Survivor.”
Maybe what we should hope for is not a return to the good old days, but rather that something takes its place to satisfies the need of the few who still yearn for the cerebral stimulation. But I’m afraid to say, those of us that do will be relegated to little more than a niche residing “off Broadway.” But then again, even some of those productions get recognized and hit it big … so who knows.
I recently went back to MOCA Los Angeles and revisited some paintings that had once been exhibited at the Pasadena Museum, previously housed in what is now the USC Pacific Asia Museum. At various openings my mother attended in the 60’s and 70’s, I was introduced to the attending artists Richard Diebenkorn, Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg, and their work, among others. Now I regarded their work — along with so many works of the era, and earlier — and found myself bursting into tears. The objects were as near and dear as my mother, who had given me the gift of an appreciation for an entire 20th century of modern art, and passed away last year.
Good to be learning centuries later from BOTH sides of our still “cousins”, especially in these tumultuous political times… What with Europe, or no Europe, and with Trump, or no Trump!
I hope the Gold Line exceeds your expectations, Joe. As a resident of Highland Park who rides the Gold Line daily, my mental map of how to get to many places is a transit map. My acupuncturist is within walking distance of the Allen Station, my dentist is halfway between Lake & Memorial Park, etc. And it is liberating to be able to go to Old Town Pasadena, Chinatown, Hollywood & Downtown LA without worrying about parking. Just think, a new generation that will go to the beach on a rail car…back to the future!
Thank you for your leadership and this wonderful piece. We are glad to be in touch with Latino Outdoors and would love to partner more to create meaningful experiences in God’s creation for Latinos of Christian faith.
I’m really looking forward to this because, when I moved from the west side, it was no longer 10 minutes to my doctors and the library and …. I expect it’s going to be around 90 minutes to get there via the gold and Santa Monica lines, but if I go during the daytime, that’s how long it takes to drive. So, it’s a wash. Plus, I can put my earphones on and have much higher quality music than the radio. So, Joe, I’m really looking forward to using these new miles. If nothing else, my blood pressure is due to be MUCH lower when the nurses check it!
Interesting article, Joe. I ride Metro to many Zocalo events, and the short walks involved have enabled me to learn something about those neighborhoods. I always bring a paperback, and the time goes fast. I don’t experience the “waste” of time that I do while driving, and I now factor that into my decisions about movement choices.
I must also say that I’ve noticed a real difference since Phil Washington assumed the head of Metro……MUCH less panhandling, cleaner trains and stations, better communication about the trains and system. It’s as though there is now a realization that Metro is not just IN a community, but PART of that community. Thanks for the event with him.
I am sure that some of the things you anticipate will not work out. However, I’m also sure that things that you can’t yet visualize will emerge.
When I was young, my parents moved around every few years. This forced me to deal with new people. The biggest challenge, though, was when we moved from a moderately diverse Midwestern college town to major city in the Deep South.
I knew kids of other races and ethnicities living in the Midwest. But there was still more of a sense of a common culture. Going to the Deep South, even other white kids were different. It was culture shock.
I moved some more after that and met people of other cultures. It forced me to be more thoughtful and respectful, and I might add more socially liberal.
Wisconsin says that “reconstructing and interpreting historical events provides a needed perspective in addressing the past, the present, and the future.” Popular histories certainly make this point. But professional historians sometimes run away from the idea that history can repeat. Could that be the reason that the Wisconsin statement is not given as a rationale for the California approach?
Maybe because “history” is used by some teachers as a way to introduce their own politics and partisanship into the class. That would be acceptable if the teacher offered the students both sides of the issue discussed, each side with its most compelling arguments explored by the best known public personalities. Are the students ready for the debates that this practice could ensue or are they likely to mature into readiness by the continuous application of the practice?
An alternative practice which also works, is the one used by my HS teacher. She did mention, i.e., that some cultures disappeared in Spain after the arrival of the Roman conquerors; she mentioned battles, empty towns, deserted areas, local heroes and martyrs that were either enslaved or crucified by the Imperial troops. She then had us work on our maps; read outloud some words in the (now extinct) Iberian language, of which all we have left are a handful of terms: perro, barro, páramo, manteca, íbero. Finally, she read a short Roman version of the conquest of the Iberian “savages”, by a great Roman senator. THEN, as a class-group led by the teacher, we started a brief analysis of the situation, “The Roman Conquest of Iberia”; then we broke into groups so as to discuss more freely without the teacher. Finally, she told us to write a brief (5-10 lines) account of the Conquest, as if we were Iberians, defending their point of view. Some 4 volunteers read theirs outloud. Then we had to do the opposite: write an account of the Conquest as if we were Romans; teacher then asked 4 students to read theirs outloud. This way we avoided the “good vs. evil/black or white” approach so prevalent today.
Teacher made a point, as conclusion, that: it’s not that evil or good don’t exist, but that our perception of good/evil depends on: 1. who writes the account, when, where, for whom, under which circumstances; 2. whether some living witnesses of the event are left alive to write it, are able to write it, are not punished by writing it; 3. the SOURCES we manage to get and the ability we develop to question them.
Sounds good. But you had 40 homicides in Salinas last year 2015 and 6 homicides this year already and we aint even of March. As for the 40 homicides last year, thats one killing every week and a half. 3 to 4 homicides a month. Thats a lot of killing going on. In fact, the violence is going way up. And over a span of a decade, Salinas has a lot of killing going on. Hundreds of people have been murdered over the last decade in Salinas and surrrounding areas in Northern California and the central coast. Its good you give them all these nice little services: mental health, better housing, and some food, thats cute. But it means nothing without a job, without an income stream. Give em jobs, some financing to become a homeowner and start some businesses and create employment for the youth. Also too, families and communities have to come together to stop this tide of violence. Parents must become parents again. Community must be community again. Also get some group economics going. Cause nothing positive or productive will ever in a community thats doesn’t circulate its dollar. Control your own economics or someone else will control it for you and not to your benefit either.
To see Burr in “Hamilton” as a mere prop or villainous foil reveals more about the viewer than the production, and to state that the musical “claims” anything about a historical event makes the mistake of conflating drama with an academic journal.
Perhaps the multiethnic cast should have been the first clue, but “Hamilton” isn’t simply about history, it’s about hip hop and immigration and aspiration. Like the very best of dramatic literature, and in the tradition of Shakespeare’s history plays, Hamilton is allegorical, not biographical.
When I sat in the theater and watched the show, not once did I think I was seeing claims about what happened several hundred years ago. When Hamilton and Lafayette lean together for the mic drop line about immigrants getting the job done, only the most determinedly rigid viewer would think this play was about the past.
Again, the author isn’t stating the play itself purports to be historically accurate, it’s the people who claim it is historically accurate that are the problem. Much like the people who use the film “JFK” as their sole source for their beliefs.
She only has a snippet of one quote about hisotocial accuracy by a theater critic, so I’d say her criticism is squarely aimed at the play and not audiences. If she wanted to take to task people who are making this claim, surely she could come up with more than one example.
And not to pile it on, but consider this bit about the play’s origins, excerpted here from the New Yorker:
“It does not seem accidental that “Hamilton” was created during the tenure of the first African-American President. The musical presents the birth of the nation in an unfamiliar but necessary light: not solely as the work of élite white men but as the foundational story of all Americans. Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington are all played by African-Americans. Miranda also gives prominent roles to women, including Hamilton’s wife, Eliza Schuyler (Phillipa Soo), and sister-in-law, Angelica Schuyler (Renée Elise Goldsberry). When they are joined by a third sister, their zigzagging harmonies sound rather like those of Destiny’s Child. Miranda portrays the Founding Fathers not as exalted statesmen but as orphaned sons, reckless revolutionaries, and sometimes petty rivals, living at a moment of extreme volatility, opportunity, and risk. The achievements and the dangers of America’s current moment—under the Presidency of a fatherless son of an immigrant, born in the country’s island margins—are never far from view.”
And looking at you last line we see a small problem with your critique “he joked”, which you suggest is anything but a joke. It’s a Broadway musical, unless you want to sit through 40 or 50 hours of what could possible be the worst songs and most boring dialogue ever, how could it possible convoy the complexity of this story well? And at the end of the day it would still be trashed by historians who disagreed with its accuracy, for reasons to be seen in your own well researched story. So you have two relatively simple choices, write a huge book trying to be honest and still get hammered by a few historians regardless or secondly, be imaginative, entertaining and compelling enough so that people will want to watch your musical and then also maybe read through historians who wish to correct the mistakes, at least the ones they see as mistakes. PS. Yes, Hamilton was an elitist (considering the education level back then you blame him?) but he drove for a the federal system with a passion rarely matched, and Burr regardless of his good deeds seem to be ambitious enough to sell out every last principle at the end of the day…. and we wont even talk about the duel.
Did the author actually see Hamilton?? I did. Here are three fundamental truths:
– Burr is anything but the villain in Hamilton. He is the narrator and the heart of the piece. He is played by Leslie Odom Jr., who is not only dashing, has arguably the best voice and the showstopping number, but he encourages compassion and empathy for someone who history has vilified. And, it’s quite clear in the show that years of animosity are responsible for that fateful duel.
-It is no secret that *Angelica* Schuyler (the one who sings about Thomas Jefferson including “women in the sequel”) was fictionalized for the show. She sings that her father “has no sons so she has to social-climb for one” — when she actually has brothers; her marriage timeline is also skewed.
– Christopher Jackson’s George Washington says/sings/raps on more than one occasion about how hard governing is in their brand-new democracy. Give another listen to Cabinet Battles 1&2 in the original cast album and rethink your subhead.
The great thing that Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton has done is to get people outside of academia to actually care about forgotten founding fathers. And it doesn’t operate in a vacuum — students who see the show (and no doubt those who will perform the show when it makes its way to community theatre) are treated to a complementary curriculum where they can learn those facts you lament are lost. Ron Chernow’s 11-year old 800+-page book is back on top of best-sellers lists, so rest assured a good many Americans are also getting the full story.
Brilliant! A tour through resilience, fragility, yearning and your brain on music through observation of thawed out frogs. Cross your flashlight beams! Thank you Lisa. I’m tweeting it now.
Okay….no clue if the author of this article actually read Ron Chernow’s book on which the musical is based. If so, she would see that LMM hews closely to Chernow’s characterizations of Burr, Hamilton and Jefferson. LMM does not claim that this is all historical accuracy, and his show is likely to show some of the same biases that Chernow’s book does. Chernow was not always kind to Burr, but he was not always unfair, either. Sometimes I did feel that Chernow was overly forgiving of Hamilton.
It is important to remember that biographers are as subject to bias as anyone. Isenberg, who wrote the above article, comes at history from a perspective different than Chernow’s, as she wrote biographies of Burr, Jefferson and Madison (the latter two together). In the end, neither biographer was there; all either can do is interpret primary and secondary materials from the day….and, as I said above, biographers, as much as anyone else, and their intepretation of history, are subject to bias….hence Isenberg and Chernow/Miranda’s differing views. All viewers and readers need to come to biographies with a critical eye. Chernow, for example, couldn’t stand Jefferson, because Chernow came at his story, in part, from a Hamiltonian persepctive…and when I finished reading the bio, I realized that I would have to try to find a good (not simply fawning) biography of Jefferson in order to weigh more of the evidence myself.
I will say that Chernow’s biography and the broadway show bring to vivid life (in a way we never learned in school) an era of politics at a level of detail that is fascinating and very much reminds me of continuing debates about the role of government and many other issues still facing us. And Chernow and Miranda show that the politicians at the time were just as fallible and human as those today. Finally….there is no way LMM could fit every detail in the biography into his show. Simply not doable. Anyone who is seeing a historical musical (1776, for instance, for all those musical afficiandos out there) or play should know that details will be left out and license taken to fit the narrative needs of the show. LMM has been very clear that this is the case with Hamilton. What Hamilton should be applauded for is not necessarily its complete historical accuracy, but for encouraging anew people’s interest in U.S. history. Especially important is creating a way into viewing history for young people…a way that is not simply dry dates, names and places….but that brings alive the fact that these were real people, doing real things in an extraordinary time, and that what was happening then has relevance today.
Finally, nothing about the show or the biography makes democracy look easy. Quite the opposite.
Oh, and I have to wonder if Isenberg has even seen Hamilton, because it was Angelica, not Eliza, who in the show says she’s going to tell Jefferson to include women in the sequel to the Declaration of Independence. Work!
Has the author heard of Roman Catholic Women Priests or The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, because they are ordained in apolostic succession, since Bishop Antonio Romulan ordained 7 women on the Danube in 2002?
A priest is one who offers a sacrifice. It’s unfortunate that the men in charge of the Roman Catholic Church are not actually witnessing the Sacrifice made by the women God has called and chosen.
Question??…..when I reflect on my yrs of Theology study, working in parishes, spending
two and half yrs studying in Jerusalem…. these thoughts came to me…..where would
Jesus be if it wasn’t for his mother Mary?….was she a priest?….this is my body and
blood, she could say???…..any way, I guess men took over, they were the power in those
yrs…..,dncrowley
Well put! Instead of go teach all nations,we get retrenchment everywhere. Retreat may have worked for George Washington,in the war for independence ,but normally doesn’t work. If we don’t get new leaders,which we call priests, then fold up the tent. It really looks like the bishops have given up ,and are living a comfortable on what little remains,drip,drip,drip. Every once in awhile they fire off a blast against women’s ordination,contraception,abortion and LBGT people of which they know very little. They claim to broke-life,but they are just pro-birth, since they no longer want to educate children in schools,or feed children unless the Feds give them the money. The funds they do collect gets sent to buy favor in Rome.Francis is wading against the tide trying to reverse the current. I still hope women’s ordination is on his back burner,to provide the leadership,once the course is realigned and set
I share the call, too, but when I imagine the reality of the Church with women priests, I think “no” I wouldn’t be a priest as priests are now. I can’t imagine being a priest enclosed in a rectory with as much distance as possible between *him* and the congregation/people. Aside from meetings and a recessional-reception line, there is little contact or interest.
Ms. Manson, if you happen to read this, can you tell me if you or others have ever talked or imagined, aside from administration of sacraments, what the future would be like for the Church with women priests? Would it be the same old-same old Church or something different?
No. No to what is in fact, Regional government. Every effort so far with Joint Powers Authorities and multi-county agencies regulating water, air and or transportation has been an expensive failure. The Bay Area, for example, exhibits a diversity in a positive manner with different choices available. A homogenized, top-down structure is guaranteed to please no one and answer to no one.
I don’t think you and I are experiencing the same show.
No one would want to be Hamilton either. Sure, he left his legacy and did some incredible things. But he was also callous, hurtful, and self centered.
Burr and Hamilton are meant to be two sides of the same coin. The point of the musical isn’t to provide an accurate School House Rock Historical Showdown. The show is a discussion of how people change, how they obtain their goals, the things that hold them back, the marks they leave behind for those of us who need to tell their story. (In fact, I’d argue that one of the points of the repetitive and recurring refrain “Who lives? Who dies? Who tells your story?” is to point out that this is only one half of the story, and that everything is relative, and we ultimately have no control over how history views us, that things cannot and should not be reduced to “good guys” and “bad guys”.)
And then, there’s Burr’s sweeping soliloquy “Wait For It” that explores and explains and humanizes his opportunism. That song says to the audience, “You probably aren’t Hamilton. You’re probably a Burr. And that is okay. That is still a good, noble thing to be. You have things to protect. This is a good thing.”
Hamilton even refers to Burr as his first friend, just as Burr shoots him. Even after everything, in his final moments, Hamilton didn’t consider Burr to be an evil person (at least from the perspective of this show).
Not to mention, (if you’re going to actually assign villany/heroics to any character), the only character that IS actually a blameless beautiful hallmark of justice is Eliza Hamilton, who put up with her husband’s garbage self centered ways AND THEN was enough of a grownup to recognize the complexity of the situation and to ensure that his ridiculous legacy lived on. (#ElizaDeservedBetter)
While I applaud you wanting to stick up for your boy, Aaron Burr (ya, I caught that note at the end where you wrote a whole dang book about him), if all you took away from Hamilton was the fact that it was (obviously) historically inaccurate, and that you wanted it to be some kind of Burr Smear Campaign, then you totally missed the point.
(Also – You switch the sisters in your discussion of them. In the show, Angelica asserts she helped Jefferson realize women should be afforded the same rights and freedoms, which is a fact that is 100% backed up by her letters. But hey! With all this discussion of the importance of historical accuracy in the ways we analyze history, who cares about accurately citing the artistic source material in question? Amiright???)
I think this was written because so many people WERE/ARE using this as an historical absolute. She isn’t saying this is a Burr smear campaign, but just that it aligns with the way historians have decided to characterize the man. Maybe you should actually read her book, then you might have a clue.
My poiny though is that this show ISNT a Burr smear campaign. This show doesn’t set Burr up as a villain. It gives the audience room to empathize with him, to view him as something more than the “bad guy,” which YOU would know if you’d bothered to analyze the text of the show.
Did you actually read what I said? I said she ISN’T saying it’s a Burr smear campaign! How much clearer can that be? The show does fall in line with much of what popular historians like to espouse, which is the greatness of Hamilton and the minimization of Burr. Burr shouldn’t just be “more than the “bad guy,”” he should be recognized for the trailblazer he was.
Agreed that it’s not an historical absolute (what is?), but I would argue that it IS history. As a teacher (admittedly, English, not history), I recognize Hamilton as providing a sort of scaffolding that provides a way of contextualizing historical information. Yes, it’s important to read those sources that will point out the inaccuracies and lack of nuance inherent in the musical. But students will understand all of that material better because they are so familiar with the key historical references in this play.
From my point of view, this show is some kind of pedagogical miracle. My kids know how many troops were in New York Harbor in the battle of Long Island. They know about the dispute over financing state debts (a battle we still have, in a fashion, today). They know about the debt we owe to France and the basic disagreement between King George and the former colonies. No, they don’t know much about these things, but they can place them in time and space, which is a prerequisite to learning all of the in-between detail. This is real history. It’s just not, as you say, absolute. It’s an entry point. But it’s an excellent one.
Please don’t compare this travesty to School House Rock. After watching Schoolhouse Rock one’s IQ was most likely higher than when you started. Hamilton had the opposite effect.
When was America “great” in the first place? And from whom do you want to take America back?
When Republicans insist on Making America Great Again or Taking It Back, they are probably talking about returning America to the 1950 time frame. It could not have been before 1952, because before that, there were World Wars and Great Depressions and America was in bad shape.
The America they want to return to never really existed.
It was a hoax, a great lie by politicians such as Reagan and Trump lately.
By the way, in 1980, Reagan-Bush team TV ad was: “Let’s make America Great Again,” and Trump, the con man, stole it for his campaign.
All politicians are crooks and liars, during campaigning period, they promise and talk to the people what they wanted to hear; once in the office, that promise is going down the drain.
When Trump promises to “Make America Great Again,” we should ask: Great for whom?
So, men die because they are illegally entering a conservation area, and the conservation effort is the cause of their deaths? This is ludicrous. It’s not the conservation effort that causes these deaths, it’s the men not obeying the law. Let’s try to expect some level of personal responsibility — if you choose to go into an area you know is full of tigers, illegally, at night, and you get killed, it’s your fault. This whole culture of victimhood means no one is ever to blame for the consequences of their own actions.
This is a rather doctrinaire response that comes from a position, I am guessing, of some (western) comfort. In the context of the poor, rural Indian villages, is your argument even fair?
Ultimately, I would agree with the policy, but this article focuses on the need to incorporate the HUMAN inhabitants of the area into any conservation programs. Not a bad suggestion.
Yes, and the doctrine is “If you put yourself in mortal danger, through actions you take in violation of the law, you have to take responsibility.”
In those poor, rural villages, presumably these adult men know that tigers are dangerous, and that there are a lot of them in the tiger preserve. So, if they go in there, at night, it is their own fault, and no one else’s, if the tigers attack them. Or are the poor, rural villages too stupid to know that they are deliberately putting themselves in danger? That seems to be the crux of your argument — it is too much and unfair to expect these people to be responsible for their own actions.
Well…the counter-argument could be “the law” was imposed from above.
Again, I think involving local villagers in policing the conservation area makes sense.
In some respects, I understand your hard core position. There are eight billion of us (almost) and we are literally crowding out every other species.
I think that “the law” is often not accepted by the local population willingly, sometimes for good reason and sometimes for no reason. But, in a civil society, we all have to accept laws as they are made, except in the most extreme situations. I am not here advocating for good little Nazis, but for an acceptance of laws we don’t like, with the understanding that others will accepts laws they don’t like but we do. It’s not a perfect system, and often results in one group coming up on the short end, but it is the best we have.
I think involving local people in policing and operating conservation areas is the ideal. They are most immediately familiar with the conditions on the ground; they have the most to gain — or lose — by bad policies; and it helps local people to buy in if they see concrete results beneficial to them. This works as well with wealthy condo owners as it does with poor villagers.
This article is based on a false premise: that the “avowed purpose” of rent control is “to make more affordable housing available.” The actual purpose of rent control is to prevent renters from being driven out of their own homes by unaffordable rent increases. Nobody pretends that this solves the entirety of California’s housing crisis. In particular, nobody claims rent control can create new housing. (That’s why housing advocates who support rent control usually also support measures to increase funding for the development of affordable housing.) But rent control is in fact a straightforward and effective way of keeping existing residents’ current homes affordable to them. This is a solution to a very real and very big problem.
I’m glad this article notes how ridiculous it is for rent control opponents to claim that rent control will discourage the creation of new housing. Unfortunately, though, the article glibly repeats another common anti-rent-control red herring: that the high rents in cities like San Francisco, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, etc., are proof that rent control doesn’t work. Surely Matthews knows that the same state law that forbids the application of rent control to newly built apartments also forbids rent control laws that would restrict the new rent for a unit when a tenant has moved out. That’s why rent control has absolutely no effect on the rents of apartments currently on the market.
I’m glad Matthews is concerned about protecting “poor people who cycle through housing.” Of course, rent control (combined with just cause eviction ordinances) is one way of preventing people from having to cycle through housing. Given the many and complex obstacles to creating new housing, there is no way we can build enough housing fast enough to keep fast-rising rents from driving people out of their homes. We should support rent control as a straightforward and quick-to-enact solution to one of the worst symptoms of our difficult-to-solve housing crisis.
The high cost of living in California is directly related to the economic and social policies of the State of California both by legislative initiative or by resident referendum. This is not a “pay as you go ” state .This is a finance it now and don’t worry about the consequences state. This is a state with large tax loopholes for LLC’s that let them get away with paying little property tax. This is a state beholding to Unions that continually passes legislation that makes it ever more expensive to fund construction. This is a state that passes overly strict construction codes built on social /environmental policy that just add to the high cost of housing. Yes we lead the nation both in social conscience and the cost of everything. If you don’t believe it a home of comparable sq feet costs 4x more here then in most other states. Additionally we have monumental problems that need to be financed. We need a dependable statewide water system to deal with the continuing drought. We need to get the out of control state pension system (CALPERS) under control. The ever growing pension fund deficit alone can bankrupt California. So far no political will from those elected or residents of the State. Nothing of substance will be done about housing costs. It can’t get done because so many ideologies compete for control. We are not dealing with pragmatism here. We are dealing with ideological constituencies that don’t give a damn about reaching a workable solution.
Jamie, I petitioned St. Veronica, who was present at the Crucifixion and wiped Christ with her veil, to pray for you that you might finding meaning and joy despite how the church’s misogyny stops you from fully unwrapping the gift god gave you, and sharing it more widely and openly with the world.
You know well that Jesus spoke to the woman at the well, defended the female prostitute, and after the resurrection first appeared to St. Mary of Magdala. I, like Christ, don’t believe women are inferior.
Nor did St. Patrick. As you know, when he heard St. Brigid’s final vows, he accidentally used the form for ordaining priests. When told of the supposed error, St. Patrick replied, “So be it…she is destined for great things.”
And in the spirit of St. Patrick and St. Brigid, who I have also petitioned to pray for you, I raise my voice to say, “YOU ARE DESTINED FOR GREAT THINGS JAMIE MANSON”
It is sometimes said that rent control should be extended to new housing, vacant housing, or all housing to “make it affordable”.
Sweden and the Netherlands have actually tried these “Rent Control + Build Affordable” policies. The result is that in Amsterdam you can wait 12 years for a rent controlled apartment, and in Sweden up to 30 years. You might be up against hundreds of other would-be renter people as well!
“Half a million people are in the City of Stockholm’s official queue for both public and private rent-controlled accommodation.
The average wait for a property is more than **eight years**, rising to **two decades** in some of the most sought-after areas.”
Rent control is perhaps the worlds oldest failed policy!
Supply and demand has always been manipulated in real estate (and in any “free” market, it is fair game.) The largest property owner in Los Angeles is a National REIT. You don’t think they spread the local risk geographically through their national investments? Come on, educate me if I am wrong. I am just starting the conversation.
Property owners, who are a business, can only profit by scarcity. Who supports UCLA in its studies (i.e. who gives the University money for the chairs, etc.), and UCLA projects the highest population growth of any agency, including the Census Bureau. If the conversation of affordable housing is focused on the ‘lack’, it will benefit land ownership. So, all these reports pump up the market, whether factual or not, creating a bubble.
In all of these articles, I don’t see a correlation to population projections by the California Department of Finance (CDOF), which has an interest in attracting businesses to the State, to show there is a growing, vibrant economy from the demand of a growing populace, and to the actual Census numbers. http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/other/calcounts1.html. The CDOF has been wrong before, and whips people into a frenzy on unverifiable projections, causing SCAG to over estimate population, Garcetti betting on the Hollywood Plan passing with SCAG numbers, and NIMBY’s winning because Hollywood numbers decreased, rather than increase as verified by the 2010 Census. If Garcetti had waited a few months while he was council member, he would have got what he wanted, but his developer friends couldn’t risk waiting to find out if he would be the Mayor or who the new 13th district Council member would be. They gambled and lost to accurate population numbers. Actual population numbers are always going to be a hindsight, aren’t they. But we never learn. We are primed to listen to fear.
Who is winning in this conversation of housing scarcity are the controllers of the market. Yes, some micro geographies have a problem with housing shortage, but in other areas it is blown out of proportion to the benefit of landlords and home sellers.
This might be worth trying on a small scale in a geographically concise area of non-union LAUSD schools. Anything would have to be better than the current LAUSD,
Indeed, trying Clovis’ model can be a slippery slope. As Joe Mathews said, Clovis’ faculty-superintendent relations are exceptional, not the norm. Collective bargaining was hard fought and is still necessary to protect faculty from the whims of school district administrators. There are serious abuses in public education that are committed by both groups but the administrators have the power over how their districts are governed so they bear the lion’s share of responsibility for dysfunction within their districts.
There has been a systematic campaign to discredit and eliminate teacher unions, as if they are evil and corruption incarnate. Most teacher unions are weak already, often mere rubber stamps to administrators. This has to do much with the union rank and file allowing districts to cow them or face job termination, not to mention a strong co-dependent trait among teachers that makes many of them retreat or detach from taking active stands for their profession. It is only the major city unions that continue to wield any power on behalf of educators, to stem the perversion of the charter school from overturning public education and creating a state-sponsored private education system that is not only discriminatory and archaic, it is incompatible with a pluralistic democratic society that tells it’s citizens that they all have an equal opportunity to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, not if the educational system that most can afford offers a tiered, hierarchical system that can’t help to advantage some and disadvantage many. I was both a student and an educator within the Los Angeles Unified School District from 1964-2011, during what now seems, from the attacks upon it, like the Golden Age of American Education. Pity I, if I were a child today, with no other resources than to attend a public school, with ever-decreasing enrollments fleeing to charter schools and less expenditures for public schools than ever.
Yes, the current dynamic between educators and administrators can be improved across the United States. Maybe many districts can adopt Clovis’ model and succeed however 4 major factors need to be brought into the open, discussed, and accepted before educator-administrator (of course, I mean school district superintendents, too) relationships can meaningfully translate into environments where academic achievement is routine for the majority of its students. These four factors are, in equal importance to the issue:
1. Privatization of education and dismantling of teacher unions owes more to American political and economic elites shaping American society to fit their views of how that society should be than major dysfunction in public education. As long as this is denied and/or sugarcoated, nothing will change;
2. Systemic institutional racism in American education has to, likewise, be addressed, discussed, and resolvable at macro and micro levels of society, especially in public education. Funding education, the charter school movement, and changing public education carry with them a fearful, racist component that is terrified that the changing racial demographics of the United States will alter race relations in the U. S. and change the power structures in the U. S. as they have been until now. This is another issue that is “the elephant in the living room that everyone sees but doesn’t acknowledge is there”. This also has a palpable, measurable effect on the high non-white student dropout rates. Is it only the fault of students and their families, as many would like to believe, or are there behaviors at all levels in the educational system that get those students to drop out, although they might hear a great deal about the need for higher education?;
3. Educators have to really become more consistently active partners in their relations with administrators. This is where teacher unions play a significant role. In districts where there is a history of dysfunctional educator-administrator relationships, teacher unions can play a mediating, inclusionary factor, not a corrupting divisive factor in such relationships, provided that the rank and file take far more active roles in how their unions operate than they currently do. The codependent nature of many teachers precludes that, unfortunately but the spark can be lit to have more of them see that their optimal effectiveness as educators includes being active and powerful in the way they and their school districts relate to each other;
4. None of these changes in educator-administrator relationships can meaningfully change unless the professionalization of educators and the way money is allocated to schools changes. Educators are always at the mercy of how federal and state budget allocations. This gives most educators and many district personnel a sense of powerlessness over their profession, accelerating educator feelings of powerlessness, apathy, acquiescence, and teacher incompetence. Money-power so a more equitable way of funding schools has to appear before the dynamic between educators and the public educational system can change.
All heady stuff that takes years and requires incredible self-examination and self-honesty. We, Americans, are a “quick fix” society that refuses to look at issues systemically. Therein lies our answer to major social and institutional problems. I hope we change, for our children, educators, administrators, and American society.
The author’s friend is quite correct- the finest art museums allow the visitor to become ‘lost’ and in the process find meaning, pleasure and joy. In fact the V&A is the perfect example of such a thing, and a wonderful place. It wasn’t always so, but over the last decade they have made a strong effort to mix bits and pieces of contemporary work with their vast trove of (mostly ‘taken’ it should be admitted) pieces of far away times and cultures. The idea is brilliant- the path is not linear, nor is it talking down to the viewer- but rather it allows discovery of beauty, grace and history by people of vastly different educations, languages, points of view.
I was for twenty years a trustee of a contemporary art museum, and I agree completely with the author. It seems, consciously or not, that the idea operating in most contemporary museums most of the time, is to befuddle. As a contemporary artist, that attitude in turn befuddles me, I don’t understand why curators and/or artists have to pretend to be above their audience to be considered authentic. The making of and looking at art have been human activities forever- the artist is a human being, and it seems to me ought to be able to communicate with other persons. That would seem the goal of art, and therefore the author is correct, museums would do well to function as communicators, not confusers.
Wonderfully written commentary on art and museums. I first “met” Van Gough at the Chicago Art Institute– same with Picasso– and love to visit certain museums “to be in the presence of old friends” — that is, the works themselves. But I am at the same time frustrated with museums and often in travel, postpone going to museums because there is something about the experience that is akin to seeing a sad tiger in a cage, or “remains” in a mausoleum. Or worse yet, taking it all to the realm of an intellectual exercise rather than an art experience– and being, as stated, a pretentious endeavor. I’ve often commented that museums are something of a necessary evil. The art of curating a collection or structuring an exhibition— an experience– is truly an art in itself.
I am a musician, and the comments about Van Gough and Gaugin remind me of Verlaine and Rimbaud and Faure’s wonderful setting of “Prison.”
Even the structural placement of museums comes to mind reading this piece. The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena is a wonderful (and manageable) sized collection– and gives that feeling of access to someone’s collection as opposed to entrance to an institution. Yet a formidable institution like the Metropolitan Museum in New York is right there on 5th Avenue and more or less offers access to the wide diversity of the city. A seventh grader from Harlem may wonder into the many worlds of the museum and may one day be the artist whose work is in the museum. That’s my modest outrage at The Getty in Los Angeles. As wonderful as it is– it is still an art fortress on a hill in an affluent neighborhood. That may not in itself be pretentious. But it does limit access. No seventh grader from from South Central or East L.A. is not going to wander in and be transported. LACMA, growing wildly in every direction, may not be architecturally congruent but at least its Wilshire Boulevard location is on a major artery (and bus line) of the city.
A great museum setting that comes to mind (in a totally different genre) is the archeological museum in Chapultepec Park in Mexico City. It’s one of the world’s great museum settings.
We tend to do the same thing to music as we do art– that is, relegate to the realm of the pretentious. The answer isn’t to dumb down or get cutesy with ad-on light shows and hokey staging of concert works. That creates obstacle rather than access. I read an essay in college days at Northwestern about Van Gough’s sun flowers. It was actually an essay on art. The premise was that the “art” was what took place at some crucial meeting point between the painting and the one observing the painting. If curators and museums keep that in mind we’ll be spared a mausoleum experience and be accommodated for an art experience.
Still, I would advise that when visiting some great city with a great art museum for the first time, like Paris, for instance– wander around the city first, and absorb, get lost and discover something. Then, if there’s time– duck into the Louvre and make eyes at the Mona Lisa.
Philosopher and mathematician Alfre North Whitehead “The second-handedness of the learned world is the secret of its mediocrity.” We must strive to not turn our experience of art– visual or musical– into either a second-handed or pretentious experience.
Thank you Gregory for bringing us back to what happens behind the scenes in museums, for them to produce truly accessible and relevant exhibitions that become memorable experiences that teach as well as inspire. As a museum professional and scholar for many years, I have seen the field change so that museums are now trying very hard to be more socially relevant and to reach a variety of audiences. But more importantly, there is also change happening internally. Successful and courageous museums have learned to create cross-departmental exhibition teams, where education, marketing, visitor services, development, and curatorial staff meet early on to decide on everything from the very exhibition topics to pursue, audiences to target, community partners, programming and interpretive materials. Some museums even crowdsource some of these factors, inviting the public to co-create either exhibitions or the knowledge surrounding them. I completely agree with you that the framing and contextualization of knowledge is paramount to today’s museum audience, and that this requires a holistic perspective of the object from all the expertise held by museums.
RE: “scrambling to keep their institutions relevant in the face of rapidly changing demographics.”
The Natural History Museum in Chicago used to have several life size dioramas depicting cave dwellers from 20,000 to 30,000 years ago. When I was a teen, I was so impressed, I used to take the suburban train downtown frequently to view them. I ditched school so I could learn something meaningful to me at the time. Then under new Modern Minded Management, they took out the dioramas and let McDonald’s install a restaurant in their place. Some official told me the dioramas were not aesthetically appropriate (bare breasts?) The Museum became “relevant” by removing nudity, and installing McDonald’s.
Museums ought to be reserved for people, of all ages, who want to learn and who appreciate the objects on display. Let the pretenders parade about The Broad!
Anyway, I had become so interested that decades later I wrote a book about the period (The Human Birth Defect).
Spot-on, but it’s already being done in many museums. As someone who worked in museums for 20 years across the U.S. on the marketing side of things, I completely agree with your take. However, you mention, “And yet for all the concern about the future viability of museums, few people are talking about the need for museum curators to change the way they frame and present exhibitions, to move beyond the insider art history mumbo jumbo curators use to narrate exhibitions.” But take a look around, and you’ll see that many museums are already moving (or have moved) in this direction of relating to their audience. It’s been a constant discussion since I started in the field in the late 90s, so the idea is nothing new. Museums are more prone now to create cross-departmental teams, so the curators are also listening to and working with the folks who are actually on the front lines with guests (visitor services, marketing), as well as the educators who work with school children (from ESL students to recent refugees who absolutely won’t want to see curatorial mumbo jumbo). Trust me, I’ve had my fair share of discussions with curators who wanted to write some pretentious drivel on the wall to explain a painting. And I’m sure many museums still stick to the old model. But rest assured, many museums are working towards doing exactly what you are talking about, and it’s definitely the “movement of the moment” in art museum circles to connect visitors more closely with the artworks, the artists and the surroundings. P.S. I’m a master’s student in Andres’ class at ASU. 😉 Keep up the interesting work!
There is an intermediate solution that I’ve thought of. Many (most?) people would not want to have their complex lives disrupted by having to travel to Sacramento for some extended period of time. They may simply not be able to afford it. So what we really want is a preselection process to winnow down who might be selected by lottery. There’s no reason why we can’t do that through elections.
I suggest that we elect 1,200 people statewide (probably by district) and then randomly select the 120 state representatives from that pool. Individuals could campaign on the basis of their political party so that we have an insight to their political disposition.
This still has the advantage of both getting money out of politics and bringing in more non-career politicians. Who would bother spending a lot of campaign money to have a 1 in 10 chance of being selected after the election? And who could plan a career on such low probabilities?
I’m wondering: Just what exactly is the musical’s “new interpretation of history?” It’s that kind of overblown rhetoric in the reaction to the musical that Eisenberg seems to be challenging.
By interpretation, I mean the way in which historical facts are presented, the communication process used (a la Freeman Tilden). Hamilton forges both emotional and intellectual connections between the things that interest the audience and the history. It may not be a new technique, but it is at least very unique to have a historical story presented like this become a hugely popular phenomenon while still heightening people’s awareness and understanding of the past.
Good idea, bad example. We do NOT randomly select juries. The jury pool may be random, but by the time they are in the courtroom the weeding out starts. Anyone who has spent any time in a courtroom with their eyes open knows that the outcome is decided by jury selection.
True. That’s one of the problems with using the jury analogy. Maybe we should have made it clear that what we’re proposing would not have this kind of “weeding out” process.
Even if a lady is equipped with HPV and a long acting contraceptive, there are still plenty of arguments for premarital abstinence – emotional for the most part, and also the fact that only condoms – and they not perfectly – protect against most STDs. So I have nothing against HPV vaccine and LARCS.
What you stated in your article could not be better said. The danger that has always plagued societies throughout history has been the psychological and emotional manipulation of large portions of a society by its government to believe that their hardships are the result of newer ethnic/linguistic groups threatening the existing economic and social order. Because these portions of a society tend to be undereducated, fairly parochial in their views of the world, and benefitted economically and socially from the society as it was organized, these members of a society are “easy targets” to manipulate so governments can execute it’s social and economic policies with a high degree of consent. Those manipulated don’t realize they are manipulated because the “carrot” for a better economic future is “dangled” in front of them by their government so that those manipulated comply with the government. This is the strategy of “divide and conquer” that the British Crown effectively used in building it’s empire. As Mr. Rodriguez points out, divide and conquer saw it’s greatest and most horrifying example with Nazi Germany. If ever there was a need for an educated population that was encouraged to think and act politically for their own benefit, that need is now.
Sanders is tapping into similar elements from a left populist position, seeking to restore a New Deal that was stolen from us by the neoliberals. Like Sanders, Trump is also blaming neoliberals for having stolen our democracy and economy, but he is doing so from a right populist position that includes nativism that is appalling to many.
There is a difference between nostalgia for that which was and outrage at the calculated theft of our democracy and economy by neoliberals. We can only look forward but we have to take stock of the past in order to learn lessons that inform our future practice to avoid making the same mistakes. That is not nostalgia, it is intelligence.
This triumphalism that There Is No Alternative, that the neoliberal thefts amount to checks long since cashed, is a attempt at framing populist outrage into irrelevance. Perhaps populist sentiment can be contained during this electoral cycle. But so long as the conditions that led to these grievances against parties and consensus government are maintained, stabilized and strengthened under a Clinton presidency, the punctuation of equilibrium will happen eventually.
As an old guy I sometimes long for the days of 57 Chevies, poodle skirts, & oldies music, but this article so aptly points to the dangers of restorative nostalgia in politics. I really like the idea of sending a letter without the need of an envelope or stamp. America continues to be great despite some politicians attempting to take us back to places & things we’re really better off without. This is coming from a life long Republican.
I knew an old man in my town who did the same reinvention to avoid racism. He owned a small business called India motorcycle sales and i always knew him as a Muslim Indian man. At his death, twenty years ago or so, it was revealed that he was an African American man from the south who had reinvented himself in the 30s as Ali Mohammed or A.J. (I never asked why the two variations, i always assumed a middle name or other third name). I felt sad that he had to become a different person and hide his true self. He seemed so much to be who he had decided to become so many years ago, that i never had any doubts about his identity at all prior to his death.
Good article and about darn time. I am an adopter of black dogs and have many friends who do not see the colour of the dog when adopting but see the personality first, need second and colour a late third fourth or even fifth. I despise the perpetuation of myth and this is one one of those mythes which has needed breaking, Thank you!.
Who knows what wonderful planets may exist, hidden in the darkness of the blackest space. Thank goodness for the persistent vision of astronomers like Farisa … they will someday reveal the homes of our space-brethren out there somewhere!
I don’t think people realize what a loss it will be to an ethnic community to be without a public voice like this. But the Rafu also needs to change, too, to ensure a longer and more vibrant future. Great essay, Gwen.
Creating biochar seems like a fascinating and obvious answer to many of the problems caused by this invasive weed, but I’m wondering what are the implications for air quality and related carbon footprint to produce it?
Romans 13:
For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law..
Thank you so much for this. It’s a fantastic piece about something that’s been circling in my mind but I couldn’t find the voice for. Whether they use guns or economics, a government beginning to suppress or denigrate the humanities tends to be a bad sign for the people, because those are the subjects which teach us who we are and how to live, about where we came from and how to build a better world. Those are the subjects of revolution and resistance.
The UK is making a move towards ‘corporate schools’ – schools and colleges run by companies to teach the things that company needs, and once we stop pretending to do anything other than just training children to be mindless workers, we’ve taken a step towards darkness. Of course, for a government which is killing its disabled people and abandoning children to dire poverty, removing the tools for people to figure out what is wrong and how to fix it is the obvious next step.
I completely agree with the conclusion that the attack on the humanities is really an attack on the ability to think, criticize, and endure. It seems to me that what politicians, pundits, and (lord help us) “educators” have been persuaded to value is not the “practicality” of the STEM subjects, but the fact that people trained in them will not have rich inner resources and will therefore make excellent drones to fill the ranks of corporations, government, and the military. Thank you for writing so clearly and movingly about such an important subject.
I agree with almost everything you say with one exception. To say that Chicago in any way happened slowly is dead wrong. It sprang into the world far more quickly and -initially – with far more impact than LA did.
Add real satirists the list above. Americans have little idea of satire and its subversive potential.
Instead of satirists, we have late-night comedians who earn more than bankers and their lawyer bodyguards.
People allow these entertainers to dilute their anger and feelings of impotence; after which they go to bed feeling politically engaged simply by watching TV and other media snares.
You can’t help but wonder if this phenomenon might be responsible for some of the upsurge of Bernie and Donald, and their attractiveness to the masses.
Yes I think so, particularly in the Trump obsession.its been 24/7 for months now. In Bernie’s case it’s been Bernie drawing huge crowds and in Clinton’s case it’s been negative press about everything. These are their narratives.
Hi, Joe. Heard you talk about this on KCRW and it all sounded so familiar. I should be able to take the train from Redondo Beach to downtown without too much angst, but no such luck. The challenges are many:
1) Waiting too long for a train at the end of the line (Marine Ave. station).
2) Changing trains from Green to Blue, where the trains are regularly jammed and unpleasant.
3) Stopping for traffic while in a train – what?! That’s insane.
4) Having to switch to the Red Line to get to the Metro Center.
5) On the return, it is agony waiting for the Green Line on an open platform between two directions of highway traffic, with all the requisite noise and grime.
All in all, as a commuter, I evaluate the proposition and taking the train just doesn’t make sense. I can get to my destination much quicker driving, and the frustration of navigating the Metro make it an exercise in futility.
Thanks, but no thanks. Metro is only useful for very specific commutes and after much consideration of the expense and bother.
My cousin has lived in Manhattan Beach since 1972. Her husband tells the story of buying a lot there shortly before the 405 opened. Prior to that opening, MB was deemed too far a drive for daily commutes to DTLA where most white collar jobs were still located. Maybe, as other comments here have suggested, your premise of an easy commute at 25 or more miles distance is unrealistic and unsustainable, like it once was, not too long ago.
I’m glad you view in the present now represents the reality of rail commuting vs. the nostalgia that has been guiding our visions and politics of local transit and I hope your disappointments are sublimated into a better public understanding of what rail does and does not do for Los Angeles in the future.
Your editorial does not identify another perspective, and that is one of the current transit rider, who would have to take several buses from your home in Pasadena to that in Santa Monica. If you glance over Metro’s website you can see that a transit bus would take upwards of 3 hours in each direction or 6 hours of their day. To these people the saving of 2 hours means many good things for them and their families. These people are the primary riders and they benefit far more than transit riders that have other options, such as yourself. You do benefit in other indirect ways that aren’t as tangible, transit will take a number of cars off the roads, and I’m sure Metro will have a study soon showing this. Unfortunately until we congestion price traffic, these cars taken off the road will rebound and the roads will be full again in a year or two.
A second point that should be noted is these systems are incredibly expensive to build and politically not supported in comparison to road building. Because federal transit grants (which Metro relies on from 30%-50% of their funding) are competitive, it is much more expensive to build a lightrail in an urban environment such as Los Angeles instead of a rural or suburban area, such as Salt Lake City or Portland. Los Angeles can never compete on the cost alone. Because of that FTA looks at the cost per rider and that does help level the playing field a little bit. So to keep cost level Metro cuts has to cut corners from wants to needs. No bridge, no tunnels unless absolutely necessary, they are 8 to 20 times as expensive to build as an at grade system and the public hates concrete monolithic bridges on their streets as much as they hate losing their left hand turn lanes. What’s a transit planner to do? Add stations, they add riders and lower the cost per rider making the system cost competitive with other grants applicants and avoid bridges. To your point adding bridges does lower travel times and brings on a couple non transit dependent riders, but compared to the cost of the bridge the math doesn’t add up. The public is going to be upset no matter what, better to keep the cost down. Unfortunately both decisions increase travel times for all riders. To get these systems built in the first place is a monumental achievements considering that it took 30 years of politicking to get it built at all, imagine how long it would have taken if you wanted to get it done right!
The best public transit solution for Los Angeles could have been completely in place in the eighties: make the right lane on freeways and major through streets in the city exclusively for buses and exiting vehicles. Simple, and hundreds of billions of dollars cheaper.
Well, I suppose that’s something that’s still physically possible, though I suspect car drivers would riot (just like they would have back in the ’80s) if they were told a lane was being “taken away” from car use.
That said, perhaps these days certain freeway shoulders could be repainted so they can be used for breakdowns and buses only. I believe such a project has had some success Up North (not sure if it’s the Bay Area or Seattle area). I’d recommend starting with the 101 Freeway as it still has a few unused busway-style stations in place that could be renovated and brought back into use.
The entire rail transit network to date and all the money currently committed to rail transit in Los Angeles in the future 30 years does not yet equal 100 billion dollars. So it would be impossible to be ‘hundreds of billions of dollars cheaper” The expo line cost $2.5 billion. Measure R only provides $15 billion for rail(and the orange line bus route).
Buses are expensive. $8 billion from Measure R goes to keeping the buses moving. Painting the right lanes of freeways and through streets wouldn’t do much if there are no buses to run in the lanes.
Still not a bad idea, Metro already has it’s Red Rapid service all over the county. It would be nice if the Rapid service was actually Rapid. Put a bus lane on every one of those routes and see how well it improves things. That can be done in addition to rail, because in some places you want higher capacity than buses can provide, lower maintenance costs, more accessible stations. Transportation in LA sucks, just about every mode in all parts of the county. EVERYTHING needs to improve.
Your points are well taken. METRO, and its predecessor agency, LACTC, have been long dominated by a perverse “small is beautiful” ideology of urban development, largely synonymous with a no/slow growth cabal posing as progressive environmentalists. Notwithstanding my gratitude for any progress, opting for EXPO as the “westside” system was both cheap and foolhardy but popular among this cohort as a sop to modernity while keeping the investment small and a commitment to progress modest.
In the late 80s, Congressman Waxman blocked the extension of the “Red Line” (now Purple Line) heavy rail subway directly down Wilshire and the powers that were (Yaroslavsky & Bradley mainly but also the entire leadership of Westside municipalities and most of the environmental leadership) acquiesced in a misguided loyalty to the idea that Congressman Dixon’s more racially diverse neighborhood would benefit notwithstanding that the “detour” proposed would add lots of time and cost to the run from DTLA to west LA. That route was finally and properly found to be unfeasible, wasting years and many millions of dollars both in costs and in lost Federal subsidies. Waxman finally removed his barrier but without apology for the tremendous environmental cost of delaying implementation of the most cost and transportation efficient system possible in the entire greater Los Angeles Region.
Fundamentally, Los Angeles’ transit politics is classical “log rolling” and requires compromise and distributed benefits, as it should. Sadly, in the past, it has lacked the kind of leadership that would have committed to a system that would do the greatest environmental good quickest for everyone’s benefit. The current $120Bn METRO plan is the first truly progressive proposal to come out of METRO and should be supported by everyone with a mind to bringing our region into the 20th!! century. The plan, hopefully in conjunction with a national commitment to infrastructure development, might mean you will be able to ride the rapid rails and get around LA expeditiously in your lifetime. As a 68 year old I hope to too but I have come to be skeptical of our ability as a region to act coherently for our collective good. I hope to be proved wrong in my skepticism.
I have so long struggled with convincing the skeptics of the value of creativity and the humanities. Thank you for your articulating the importance of the human condition and for showing how narrow a view of learning is without arts. It’s so encouraging to be in touch with someone who recognizes the importance of the subject beyond practical utilitarian purposes.
Let’s get this straight, this entire editorial is based on a sample size of ONE ROUND TRIP. (One round trip during the first week of service no-less.) An alternative title may as well be: “Man Checks Privilege, Gets Back Into Car.”
For us long-time public transit riders the new Expo Line between Santa Monica and downtown is the bee’s knees, the icing on the cake, and the cinnamon on our abuelita’s hot chocolate. In an ever-growing and connected Los Angeles public transit network there is nothing better than being able to go car-free on a regular basis. Today I kicked-off my summer vacation by dropping my daughter off at school in Highland Park, then boarding the Gold Line with my bike and transported myself via rail and two wheels to the cool sands outside the Annenberg Beach House where I read a Jane Jacobs book I borrowed from the Expo Line adjacent Palms public library a week before. This trip took me NINETY MINUTES.
We do what makes sense to us. Does it make sense for me to drive my daughter a mile to school, haul my bike in my car, fight traffic to the Westside, and find parking just to relax and read a book? No, today it didn’t. But taking the train to the beach using my monthly pass did. Just as for Matthews, living in the San Gabriel Valley and driving day-in, day-out to a job in Santa Monica for years has made sense to him. The thing is, now we have more choices in how we transport ourselves, we are making our region richer with choices for those who can master them.
What Matthews’ article is really about is culture shock. The culture shock of multi-modalism and what that means to Los Angeles. We are leaving behind the failed car-centric culture experiment, and getting back to a people-centric culture that has dominated cities for millennia. Change is hard, but with enough practice, even suburbanites can figure out to transport themselves in our urban landscape.
I have been involved in the arts all my life since both my parent were artists. A rather long life has taught me that making money is very useful and a minimum of the stuff is basically necessary but to devote one’s life to it is a waste of the opportunity to be alive which offers much more and is a rare privilege. Each lifetime is an adventure unique to each living creature and we differ enough to make it important to understand that values differ greatly.
There is a wonderful book, “the Inextinguishable Symphony” that tells a remarkable and moving story of Martin Goldsmith’s parents during the terror of Nazi Germany and how music got them through. The book culminates in the telling of the Kulturbund orchestra performing Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony, with the powerful words:
Believe, my heart, you have lost nothing.
Everything you longed for is yours; yes, yours!
Everything you loved and struggled for is yours.
Believe, you were not born in vain.
You have not lived and suffered in vain.
What has been must go and
What has gone will come again.
Stop trembling.
Prepare to live.
O Pain, all penetrating one, I have escaped you.
O Death, all conquering one, now you are conquered.
With wings I have won for myself I shall soar in fervent love
to the Light unseen.
I shall die to live.
You will rise again, my heart, in a moment,
And be borne up. through struggle, to God!
I am sorry but this article wreaks of car-centric privilege that has been the leitmotif in Southern California for far too long! The automobile may have deceived the author into believing it is fiscally and environmentally responsible to live in the San Gabriel Valley and commute 40 miles each way to his job in Santa Monica. But the truth is that neither the car nor public transit can sustain this “lifestyle choice” any longer. We all need to make compromises in the second densest city in the US and that involves everything from moving closer to your job and/or listening to public radio on your two hour commute home.
Given the price of housing in Santa Monica? It isn’t “fiscally responsible” for him to live in Santa Monica and commute to his job on Santa Monica. The big issue is, why are so many jobs in Santa Monica?
Thank you for the article! This reminds me of the late Saint Pope John Paul the Great. During the Nazi Occupation of Poland, he strove to keep the Polish culture going through the underground “Rhapsodic Theater”. He and the other actors risked death in order to keep their culture alive through beautiful words and stirring Polish drama. He almost became an actor!
There is a little more info here: http://danielmcinerny.blogspot.com/2011/04/pope-john-paul-ii-actor.html
Even if the 25-30 mile commute were entirely grade separated and via heavy rail like the El in Chicago, you would still expect an hour and a half travel time. Plus heavy rail rides rougher so the aches the author complains of would be much worse.
Commutes of that distance are better accomplished by commuter rail or express bus, but they certainly wouldn’t be $1.75 and I’d still expect an hour plus on those modes.
The idea that the author tried to conduct a phone interview on a train is pretty disrespectful and thoughtless. Its public transit and phone calls should be limited and generally discouraged out of courtesy.
I think it’s really important for people in LA to stop making ridiculous comparisons to NYC transit as reasons for our “transit failures”. Many communities in the NYC metro area that are 25+ miles away from the Financial District (as Pasadena Sierra Madre station is from Santa Monica) have a similar 2-hour transit commute compared to a one-hour-or-less car trip. There are few places in the world where one can choose any community in a 25-mile straight line from their job and have a faster-than-driving commute by transit. The Expo Line shouldn’t be expected to fix every LA commute. It works best for those whose origins and destinations are both on the same line, just like every NYC subway line. Ask a New Yorker whose commute requires three trains if they’re happy about that. I imagine they are not.
The commuter rail and bus system is not designed to be able to connect 3 different lines in the way this author assumed. Gold Line day commuters were always anticipated to have a destination either in Pasadena or downtown LA. Expo line commuters similarly have been projected to live in the vicinity of that route and that probably they would head into downtown, not outbound into Santa Monica. This is pretty standard stuff for metropolitan transit planning. Perhaps the completion of the regional connector will reduce the commute delay he describes by minutes, but it’s not ever going to be a ‘bullet train’ from Pomona to the beach. Those expecting otherwise should either rethink their accommodation or their employment. There’s a lot of townhomes and condos going up in the area, but the tradeoff may be giving up one or two cars in order to afford those in-town rents. Each household needs to make their own call. There’s no “one-size-fits-all” in transportation planning.
Mr. Matthews article makes it sound that, short of helicoptering from Pasadena to Santa Monica and back during rush hours, he has significantly faster alternatives to Metro. He also fails to mention that when Metro’s Interconnector project is completed in several years, he will be able to make the same trip on one train thereby shaving some 30 minutes off his one way travel time. It took half a century to build all of LA’s freeways; the first Metro rail line opened 25 years ago. Maybe Mr. Matthews should cease using his column for self-centered whining and instead use his journalistic capabilities to report on the bigger picture: LA’s car-centric culture is unsustainable and its days are numbered. Oh, and for the record, my trip this morning on the Expo line from DTLA to SM for a 9:00AM doctor appointment took 45 minutes from door to door. I defy anyone to beat that in a car.
Great article, I majored in the Humanities or Liberal Arts. History and English are my majors. In America and across the world I can see how the pursuit of Liberal Arts can be seen as a luxury. We are told to go to school and earn a degree you can make a living at. History or English majors are laughed at. I remember when I told a fellow student, whom was going to school to be doctor, that I was studying education along with History and English he literally laughed at me. These majors do teach one to think outside the box and challenge unjust ideas. I can see how the pursuit of Liberal Arts saved people’s minds and souls while being tortured by monsters. Thanks again for sharing. http://www.estaciousw.com
Try some public transit alternates. You took ONE ride and expected it to work perfectly. Nothing works on the first try.
I used to bicycle to The Huntington Gardens & Library from downtown Santa Monica. That’s 24 miles and takes almost two hours – a bit less downhill on the way back. Sometimes I got tired and I tried some alternatives mid-route.
The Gold line segment is a fast route (though I could beat it via Huntington Drive on a bike.) Once you’re at Union Station (the only Metro handy public restroom) there are several choices, The Big Blue R10 is way fast in non-peak times (about 45 minutes) slower in traffic. Metro’s 733 on Venice (under an hour) is quite a bit quicker than the 720 on Wilshire, due to less lights & stops I’d guess. And the 704 is much, much slower – even if you took it to the Hollywood Bvld station and changed to the Red line. You might wait as much as 15 minutes for a bus on any of them – try the Transit app. I can ride faster than any of the Metro bus routes by bicycle, and there are plenty of interesting places on the way.
You can beat any of these routes with a car. But you can do something while you’re using the alternate – read, work or exercise. That’s worth quite a bit more to me than a small amount of time.
There are three solvable issues slowing your trip here:
1. Temporary lack of capacity (waiting for more Kinkisharyo cars to be delivered and approved, due to Metro’s delay in ordering them) and initial operations rough edges;
2. Two transfers including a long walk in Union Station until the Regional Connector is completed c. 2020;
3. Resistance by L.A. Department of Transportation to improving trains’ priority at signalized intersections.
It is not that light rail was done on the cheap compared to a subway. Light rail with gated crossings has the same 30 mph average speed as subways with stations one mile apart.
I disagree.
Now that the expo line has been running for a few months.
studies would show that the most number of passengers get on at 7th and get off at santa monica. they are forced to stop a full train at every stop to pick up one or two passengers.
Fixing the express/local issue, and train red light synchronization would reduce the time from 55 minutes to 40 minutes. 30 minutes could be achievable.
America is now behind developing countries in infrastructure. And we will not catch up.
My wife is from Taiwan. From her parents house in the suburbs of Taipei I can now walk to highspeed rail and travel to the south of Taiwan (equivalent to going to San Francisco) in 2 hours. I walk in, buy a ticket from a machine, and step on to one of the trains that come every 20-30 minutes. Once there, I can go door to door on a metro that is all underground and fast to just about anywhere.
America peaked in the 1990s…. it’s all downhill from here.
You are right in terms of transportation. I’ve taken metros in Singapore, Bangkok, Tokyo and Hong Kong is all better than Americas. It’s better than LA because LA metro sucks. But it’s better than Manhattan because their’s are old and it actually works fine, even better than LA’s. So it would cost to much to change them. The Asian country’s systems are just newer.
I remember that time. I was teaching a drawing and painting. As I recall, when the spotlight was put on the head of the Corcoran then ( what’s her name ?) anyway she acted like an over protected rich girl with a huge job title, but she could not even make a statement without a lawyer to the left and right of her. And her eyes had been shielded from seeing some of the images when she viewed the work. So the uproar became more about the lame leadership of the Corcoran than the actual photes. She was shockingly clueless and also spoke down to highly respected, mature local artists as if they were nothing. Again revealing her classist world view and lack of knowedge. She also put a gag order for months that no one working there could speak about the Maplethorp issue. This gag order lasted until, as I recall, artist Lou Stoval returned from vacation and heard about it. Lou, a highly ethical man , put a stop to that fast. But the damage that woman did to the school , because she had no backbone and no fair leadership qualities at all were huge. Enrollment dropped. It was a ghost school that next semester. Heartbreaking for all who loved the Corcoran and consider it the heartof D.C.’s art world. It is very important to have brilliant minds running these institutions. And not these ” daddy’s little darlings” who feel entitled to an ” important sounding position ” simply because their parents are important so they should be to. Her lack of respect, her repulsion of real artists and their opinions was the exact opposite of what the head of the Corcoran should be. Which is someone interested and open to artist’s opinions, familiarity with the work, and an ability to form an opinion and make a statement without ” help and protection “.
I recall the French documentary “Zidane” which was simply a bunch of cameras trained on the most graceful soccer player in the world from the late ’90’s, through he early ’00’s for an entire match. I saw it in the theater, but I think it’s available now on You Tube. When I watch GSW, I get the same thrill.
Comparing GSW’s unique abilities at collective intuitive improvisation to a bop-era jazz band is inspired. I’ve often said the same thing while watching them play, often to blank stares, lol.
More coverage of the aesthetic properties of sports, please.
Steve: Wells Fargo launched a $75 million Diverse Community Capital Program that has been oversubscribed indicating a tremendous need in the marketplace by community based lenders that serve small businesses. I hope you are intending to roll out your HALO Fund to the local community. To date, unless I missed something, I don’t see the outreach into the black and brown communities served by the Los Angeles LDC.
These sort of ethical trolley-problems are good to think about, so long as they don’t eclipse the most important and most relevant ethical feature of self-driving vehicles: they are far, far less likely to be getting into accidents in the first place than what we already have, which are flawed human drivers getting into collisions at a massively higher rate.
Even if you programmed a self-driving car with the ethically worst choice in every collision scenario, if that car gets into 1/100th as many collisions as a human-driven car, you’re still making the ethically correct choice to use the self-driven car unless that one collision hurts 100x as many people as a human-directed collision.
This is fascinating story.
There are many facts in Venezuelan history about mosquito-linked diseases. For instance, British mercenaries, hired by the patriot army to help it fight against Spaniards, were also ravaged by fevers, between 1815 and 1825. And the prevalence of yellow fever kept stalled the Venezuelan countryside for several decades, making it more susceptible for famines and civil wars. Malaria was stopped in the 1940s and 1950s… and now is back.
Sad day when we – particularly in a school – have to take cues from police departments that resemble military operations. The pseudo experts, are part of an ever-increasing industry that preys on fear. And you are correct in that response is not a science – some of police actions/responses can are devoid of logic and very high on bravado. I still have not heard anyone from any agency (especially those conducting – and getting paid for – active shooter) advocate for stricter gun laws or more spending for mental heath.
Shouldn’t we be preparing for an earthquake in CA?
I suspect a little decadence. When my dad graduated from Omaha Central High School in 1923 he had the equivalent of today’s bachelors degree; and when he graduated from USC in 1927 with a BS Econ, he had the equivalent of an MBA today. And he was short of his 21st birthday, I suspect that the qualification for a lot of jobs is whatever 2/3 of the population has not attained. If 2/3 of the population did not graduate from 6th grade, a 6th grade education would be accepted for these jobs.
What is behind California’s sudden urge to help the homeless? Here. Simple.
1.) It’s more in our face now.
2.) Human suffering is a hard thing to ignore. We are, after all, very social beings.
3.) The 2008 crash gave us a sense of “there but for Fortune go I.” Everyone but the 1% were devastated. Some never recovered.
I forever curse the memory of Ronald Reagan, who dismantled California’s State Hospital system while Governor, and mental health care nationwide when President. The originally good-intentioned move to de-institutionalize those experiencing mental health issues became a mean-spirited crusade during the Reagan/Bush1 era. This is where the Medieval “open air asylum” reconstituted itself on the streets of the cities of the US. It’s been with us since.
4.) Many of these people had homes and have families and were previously employed and financially healthy. They are our friends. Many of us could be next.
One of the things you highlighted, which seems to me to be a fundamental that will vex the system until fixed, is the availability of housing in the LA area. One can have all the vouchers in the world, if there is no space available, you cannot house people. After the billions have been spent on rent, there will be no new housing available, and that is a shame.
I notice the experiment that some cities have done with “tiny houses”, which are very small houses. In Seattle, they put 14 on a lot that would have held a single family home. In LA, they towed a bunch of them away. It seems like innovative approaches that are affordable, give people basic shelter and safety, but are not nice enough to encourage long-terrm residency, as opposed to moving up when possible….should be encouraged.
Or, to put it another way, our neighborhoods are becoming more diverse, both in income and ethnic/racial terms. Unlike in past years, when the suburban ideal of “out of sight, out of mind” was the only option, nobody in a position of power was even really aware of the depths of the problem. Now, they are our neighbors, and we want to help. Sounds like a win win to me.
It’s no mystery. There is a glut of housing for wealthy and the poor cannot pay high enough rents to create the revenues streams that Wall Street demands to loan money for new projects. Thus, Los Angeles is moving from Spot Zoning to Spot Deficit Financing.
As someone who has used public transportation in LA since the early 80’s (back when it was RTD) I can tell you that it has become terrible now. It started to go downhill once MTA took over. Around 2003 is when you could really start seeing how badly managed the bus system was. Now they have cancelled bus lines in order to push people onto the trains. The Gold Line lost a lot of money, they started cancelling lines in order to push people onto the Gold Line. Basically fluff their numbers. The turnstiles cost $46 million and they do not work, and the Tap Card is garbage. There was never any “real” problem with the old paper passes. There used to be over ten MTA buses that used the busway to El Monte, now they only have three. The subway is a joke, it is more of a tourist attraction. Just go to the Hollywood and Vine station and see all the money they wasted on the so called “art” they installed on the terminal walls. No one in their right mind would used the LA subway as a means to commute, it just doesn’t move fast enough. The Expo line to santa monica is a big joke. There is no reason why that train should take 50 minutes. No reason at all
Straight question; Why is TAP card “garbage”? I never had any trouble w/mine, so really want to understand your comment.
As to the Expo line to Santa Monica, which does NOT take 50 minutes, BTW, we are very happy to have it. But SM has reconfigured Big Blue Bus lines (I think; not well informed) to coordinate with Expo stops, thus doing away with some buses I very occasionally took.
A lot of readjustment is needed in the heads of long-time drivers, including me, to the trains. Some comments I have seen assume there will be a train stop practically in front of their door to get from A to B. Not realistic. Let’s hope we all get with it. Make suggestions to the right authorities instead of just venting.
From Downtown LA to Santa Monica via the Expo Line is a 50 min ride. I have taken it four times since my last post and I have never arrived in Santa Monica less than 50 min. The expo line is garbage. Not a commuter train
Many, if not most of the morally superior “progressives” who are continually grandstanding about homelessness in SF have been the most vociferous opponents of ANY new residential construction in the city. And the parasitic and smug and very well paid gatekeepers in the city bureaucracy in “planning and permission” exacerbate the problem.
If I had my wish, there’s one thing I would pick.
Not flying, or racing, or curing those sick.
Not making the rounds of a summer with ice cream.
Not spraying ’round poison until all the mice scream.
If they let me be what I wanted to be,
I know what I’d choose. How fast? Wait and see.
Of all of the things I could possibly do,
I’d say: be the driver of route 22.
My mother was hospitalized repeatedly from around 1951 up until 1968. She spent time at Camarillo, Patton, Braywood-on-the-hill, and several others. Her first episode was probably post-partum depression, but they called it “schizophrenia”. I do not know how she managed to NOT be a victim of sterilization, but somehow she was left alone – to have my older brother and myself, by two different fathers. I was born in 1960. My father was also a resident of Patton, he apparently avoided getting “cut” as well. I believe, because of dates on the marriage license and my birth certificate, that I was probably a “bump” at their wedding – either that, or I was 4 months premature. I think they were both released and “allowed” to marry so “the child would have a name” as it was phrased back then….
Great stuff Shanice. Its a great thing to love where your home is and be proud of it. Outsiders will never know someplace unless they spend time there. I have never been to Watts but ive always viewed it as a vibrant happening place. Everywhere has things that need fixing but home is the heart.
Great article Shanise. As a long time resident of South LA, reading about ppl like me who work & live in this community is a breath of fresh air. I graduated from Jordan HS…in fact from Simon Rodia the continuation school in Jordan HS. I went on to CSULA and most recently received a Master’s degree in social work from CSULB …and guess what? I work as a social worker in a senior center down the street from Jordan HS and volunteer at a non-profit animal rescue called Watts Project Street Rescue… talk about coming full circle! There are good changes happening in this community. Thank you for ur writings.
Have the people defending the expo line actually used it?
As the author wrote there is a stretch by usc where stops are seemingly blocks apart and it is also stopping at street lights where you have to wonder what they were thinking.
If they would have spent a little more and built a third track to allow express trains this would have been a game changer. That didn’t happen so they must fix the stopping at lights issue and develop some kind of express system where it doesn’t stop at every station.
Mass transit is great but doing it on the cheap and stupid isn’t. Don’t hate this guy for telling the truth. We need a system that works not some liberal checklist that most people avoid because it’s so inconvenient. If we are going to do it, let’s do it right.
Yes. repeatedly. I started using it when you had to drive to Robertson and park.
Now it’s out to Santa Monica, yay! Sheer heaven to get off right in FRONT of Exposition Park museums, SC, downtown, and with quick change to Music Center.
Point is, public trans serves not only work commuters but people with all kinds of needs who don’t drive, don’t want to drive & fight traffic, can’t afford parking, etc.
Big deal, jargon can be learned. It’s not much of an obstacle and one can always find a translator. What I find far worse is when big internet companies ignore users and refuse to communicate or engage with customers/users. It’s especially egregious when the company is depending on users to generate content. We saw this happen with Reddit not long ago, and it’s currently happening on Quora, which has become a toxic environment for many users.
There’s a story there, if any journalists wish to pursue it.
Salinas mothers and fathers needs to get together with parents in Chicago, Detroit,
Los Angeles, New York City, Newark-NJ, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and all over the country with mothers and fathers who have lost children to violence, gun violence in particular. Get together, start support groups, and build coalitions to stop this rising tide of street violence in this country. Plan marches through the streets of pur cities in their most violence plagued areas of town say “No More”. If these knuckleheads see a united community that is good cooperation with law enforcement and see that the community, a strong and united community across all racial, social, and economic lines saying them and the world “No More”, they will put those guns down. But for that to be effective, you ahve to have an economic base to provide jobs, education, vocational skills, and life skills to ask risk youth before they go bad. An ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure everyday of the week.
Growing up in the Southern California desert area one would think we’d have no swimming holes. But I’d argue that we had one of the best! It took a hike into the Santa Rosa mountains to find the gem call Taquitz Falls and
our Edenesque swimming hole. In the 60’s it was a hippies hang out to beat the heat. In the 70’s we were the teenagers who needed some relief from the heat and our parents and we escaped to this waterfall swimming hole as often as we could. Heaven on earth.
While many of the points raised here make sense, to even imagine that there will be a national mandatory standard for police forces, sad to say, is pie in the sky dreaming. Heck, to many local elites, the way things are run right now are perfectly fine. Why should they change?
Interesting article, though.
Archie: I hope you’ll get into mail orders!! Great stuff you make, we have nothing like it here in San Antonio, TX. It’s things like that that make me appreciate growing up in Cleveland during the era when there was a Hough Bakery during my childhood. Keep up the good work and I’ll see you the next time I take a trip back to Cleveland!! 🙂
would love to have some of Hough Bakery sent by mail, here in Chicago ave not found anything that comes close. Hough Bakery baked my wedding cake and I was able to have the white cake with buttercream frosting (odd request) but my guests loved the cake because contrary to most wedding cake recipes it really tasted good.
Hey Archie: Why don’t you contact Steve Harvey and/or the TV show producers of Shark Tank to help you get some additional financial support? You should be able to expand and get your hands on all of the bakery recipes. I’m waiting on you guys to roll out some of those pecan rolls!!
Actually, he needs to get in touch with Evergreen Cooperatives in Cleveland and see if they can help him develop the bakery into an employee-owned cooperative, which is along the lines of what he tried to do when Hough Bakery went bankrupt. It would be much more difficult for another corporate acquisition/shutdown to occur that way.
I worked at Hough in Brooklyn as an after school and summer job as my sis 10 years before me. I learned a lot there! Thank goodness I had to walk to and from work to quell extra pounds! Could they please open a branch here in Savannah, Ga?!
Many, many, many thanks to the University of Southern Maine and to the staff of the Smith Center for Cartographic Education for undertaking the heroic task of digitizing the Osher Map Library, and to Mrs. Smith, Dr Osher and his wife Peggy for donating the maps in the first place.
It’s impossible to estimate the value of digitizing the Osher Map Library and making those maps available now and in the future, but surely it vastly outweighs any loss of context generated by the digitiation process. I can’t imagine that the ratio is less than ten’s (hundred’s?) of orders of magnitude greater.
I wish that the article’s focus had been on the positive rather than on the negative. At least the title of the Slate.com version was neutral, although its subtitle reverted to a negative slant.
Great article! So few of the things people react to these days as “unprecedented” (one of the media’s favorite words) actually are — if they read a little history, they’d realize it’s all happened before.
I think the key descriptor here is “core identity”. After start pages and portals stopped being a thing, Yahoo lacked any core identity, couldn’t or wouldn’t commit. Yahoo never did figure out what it wanted to be when it grew up. Everyone knew Yahoo, but no one (least of all those who worked at Yahoo) knew what Yahoo did. There was no prime directive.
I’d argue that even after the purchase of broadcast.com, Yahoo still didn’t have a clue. The author, George Geis, suggest that Yahoo was “too early”. Maybe he is correct, but one could argue that Amazon was too early or Google was too early in commerce and search. Somehow they succeeded–probably because management in each of those companies had a vision that they could articulate and pursue, even if that meant blazing a trail. When Yahoo became a digital media company, its management couldn’t articulate what that meant. They threw around a lot of buzzwords and high concepts but there was no vision. It was as if they were still trying to be a portal. Going backwards, in other words, by appending digital media to portal.
I think Marissa Mayer failed because she was never able to nail down the core identity and core mission. Google could acquire diverse companies because they could somehow tie it back to Adwords and advertising. They could incorporate things into the advertising platform; not everything proved to be a fit, but enough things (gmail, YouTube) fit really well. Yahoo, not having a core identity, couldn’t identify what acquisitions fit, because there was nothing in Yahoo to fit with. There were no hooks.
This article is spot-on. My wife, Liz, developed TTP (an extremely rare blood disease) and died within a week. Her useless nurse practitioner never knew what had happened, and wasted time that could have saved her on useless tests. We finally were sent to an ER on the day before she died, too late to save her. Nobody in the hospital was ever honest with me. They did not hustle to save her, I now believe, because they knew they probably could not do so. I realized later, after seeing the autopsy results, that she never stood any chance from any ER or any treatment, because the TTP had caused irreparable and massive damage throughout every part of her body. She would never have had any quality of life, even to do the simplest things such as watch a TV show, enjoy a sunset, or eat a meal, and at best I think they might have given her only a few extra hours. Pain medication knocked her out, taking her away from me even before the end, without anyone telling me what was going to happen. Her final doctor asked me if I wanted him to do everything; this resulted in a $23,000 helicopter ride that she did not survive, followed by hopeless intensive care attempts to resuscitate her. The flight crew apparently knew that it was too late, and the hospital could have just been honest with me that her situation was hopeless and left us to be together, perhaps even say good bye, and just let her go gently. Instead, they took her away and she died all alone. They could have spared her the violence of becoming a science experiment in a hopeless, useless attempt to resuscitate her.
The old say ‘if you don’t know history, you are bound to relive it’, we need to keep in mind our past as we live in the present and hope for a positive future.
“…an inevitable bifurcation generally occurs across all terrorist movements whereby the top leadership and mid-level command strata are populated by the educated (or relatively well-educated) and financially well off, while the majority of foot soldiers are less educated and often from far more modest socioeconomic backgrounds.”
This is the rich taking advantage of the poor once again. Here, the elite (well educated) convince the poor and uneducated that picking up a gun and killing the enemy, whoever that is, will solve their problems.
Gary, I enjoyed your article. I’m going to try to make the time to read your book. It appears to me, not having read it, that your perspective, or area of expertise, is primarily based on racial interactions.
In the following observation, I’d like to share the notion that a few factors coincide with the natural biases toward “the others” that most have. I feel the combined socio-economic and ideological environment most often allies with racial fears. Thus, a holistic analysis may be a good idea. In saying that please don’t see it as a critique of your work, as I haven’t read your book, nor have I made rigorous studies (I’d say semi-rigorous, amateur ones).
Like you, I find interesting the factors that concerned the American public during the early 20th century, particularly the rise of violent or aggressive anarchists (Sacco/Vanzetti, etc.), communists, and unionists. And in the mid-1900s I saw first hand, as a young man, the influence of Maoism, black power, etc.
My main point: I also witnessed Iran’s revolution of 1979 and have since been fixated on the differences between socio-economic ideologies, like communism, and religious ones. I’m convinced that the world faces a different, more serious challenge from groups like Salafi jihadists (Islamic radicals) and other Islamic fundamentalist movements. Making a generalism here, I see both the rise of communism and Islamic fundamentalism in many parts of the world to be a legacy of colonialism. So, I believe the socio-economic environments are similar, but I think the strength of the ideologies are very different.
That aside, to agree with you, I think it’s a ridiculously ignorant approach to paint the “terrorist” problem broadly in terms of race or religion (as opposed to violent, destructive religious ideology). If 20th century fascists failed with a small (15-20 million?) population of Jews, what can anyone do with one billion Muslims? The stupidity of a person, a leader or intellectual, who wants to isolate such a large group is far beyond stupid, IMHO. Now. If you really read all this, thank you so much!
And the leaders of the American revolution(Terrorists-per Ben Franklin”We must all hang together or surely we will all hang separately) and the southern leaders of American Civil War, also fit into the category. One might add Mao, Lenin, and Ho Chi Minh of the 20th century as terrorists as well as ML King Jr, Gandhi and Malcolm X who sought the dismemberment of state apparatus. It would seem higher education and economic status gives wings to a greater vision than more working for just today,but to seeking a just today and tomorrow.
Two key differences. 1) The Great Depression was a major, major factor in FDR’s victory and the tilt toward the Democrats. We have economic issues today, but nothing on the scale of the Great Depression. 2) FDR patched together an alliance that included the “solid South” of segregationist Democrats with northern states with more liberal ideas. The solid South is now largely GOP territory.
Finally, note that immigration laws were not significantly liberalized under FDR or thereafter until the 1960s.
Adams zone system was just the most eye pleasing way to deal with the tonal limitations of silver based printing paper. By over exposing the photograph and under developing the film in exactly the right amount he was able to get predictable or at least mostly predictable levels of increased contrast in the original negative making it much easier to print in the end. He would also conversely under expose and over develop to limit contrast. Digital photographers do a similar thing today by exposing for the highlights and later bringing up the shadows in photoshop. Always looking for technical innovations Adams would have been absolutely over the moon rise with digital photography.
Mr Mathews’ attack on SOAR is both unfair and misguided. Urban growth boundaries in Ventura, as in Oregon, provide room to accommodate growth. And locations where sprawl is unabated do not have affordable housing, witness Orange County, which is much more expensive than Ventura. And Ventura County is doing something right vis-a-vis upward mobility (). The need to turn “paper” units into real units at higher densities is a challenge across Southern California. SOAR should be congratulated for putting into place a fundamental part of the solution – growth boundaries – that provide a framework and incentive to reinvest in already urbanized areas instead of investing in remote, automobile-dependent locations. Is there more to do? Of course.
So for anyone reading this outside of our Kingdom, know this:
Why is it a challenge to turn paper units into real units? It is because the same people who champion SOAR in Ventura County SHOW UP TO ALSO OPPOSE every decent housing project at various City Councils WITHIN the infill urban boundaries for one reason or another.
Gets NO CREDIT? I think the phrase is “DESERVES THE BLAME” Poverty spreading rampantly….Rioting almost constant….Weakest recovery ever…. International politics in Chaos, Oh sorry that’s for his choice for successor…
Emma, what a wonderful piece! I met you when you were 3 (Club Med Mexico)… and I remember once when I was visiting (you were about 4) your Grandma was ready an English story book to you and she was speaking German (auto-translating in her head) and you told her the book was in English not German!
Best of luck to you, you are a wonderful writer.
– Teri (Roni’s sister)
Very powerful. Thank you for not letting this be buried as is what Texas is trying to do by removing the word “slave” from all school textbooks and instead using the word, “workers.”
Unfortunately, not every State’s election administration functions in the same nonpartisan manner as California’s does. In many States election personnel are not civill service employees or nonpartisan volunteers. There, the election administrators are chosen by the 2 political parties receiving the highest votes in the last election and the poll workers are staffed or recommended by local political party leaders. The theory was that two Republican poll workers would.watch the other two Drmocratic Party workers to prevent cheating. In practice, however, all of them work together in support of the political establishment’s candidates or endorsees in the Primary elections and against outsiders or insurgents’ candidates. This does not minimize the importance of obtaining sufficient volunteers to staff the polling places nor the long hours they work. However, in one jurisdiction, I witnessed exam answers being fed by a test administrator to poll worker candidates who would otherwise fail the test because of a shortage of volunteers. There, nobody fails the test. When candidates for President talk about a “rigged” system, I think they have in mind partisan election administrators and poll workers in States other than California.
This has been waiting in my inbox for me to read. Just from the title, I knew it would be important and emotionally difficult work for me to read about. The fact that this great American experiment in “Freedom” rested upon the totally inexcusable enslavement of hundreds of thousands of people, is something we have never grappled with as a society.
Where are all of the memorials to those robbed of their freedom? The South should be filled with them as we collectively need to mourn our misplaced humanity in the service of our greed. Germany has done a much better job of publicly admitting its moral failings and honoring the victims of the Holocaust. There are memorials all over the place. We need to do the same thing. For if we forget, we are doomed to repeat these mistakes. There are many wonderful things in our American character but one that is not so admirable is our Greed. It continues to shape us, as we saw in 2008, and the rich get richer on the backs of the poor once again.
America should be doubly ashamed that we have never truly admitted our horrific past that enabled the colonies to flourish economically. It is time, long past time, to honor those whose lives and histories were stolen from them. Thank you so much for your work, Sean Kelly.
Moira,
You just gave a fitting tribute to a visionary who was extremely disciplined and principled. I remember him well from 87 batch and do remember only Carol Meyer. He was impartial and would encourage boys and gals with an infectious voice that would push them to perform. I would wonder why my dad had a similar mindset and now i get it. They both adopted the traditional American way of a result/goal oriented structure. My dad is also the same blueprint except that he worked at Planning Commission and taught rarely.
God bless GWM and his family.
Srikant 87 Batch
The further one reaches back in World history apocrypha increases in both number and Degree. Lying of events, present and past, is virtually taken-for-granted. Human ethics is in a chaotic, pathetic state that provokes more war and public upset. While physical technology- bad and good increases, mental attenuation is also increasing. The increase of both simultaneously, unless something near miraculous intervenes, spells out one outcome: doom for Mankind.
No. We need to forget. If we assume the burdens of the rush to civilized behavior( Millions can die in a flash, we let people stave because we can) we could not face the truth.
I would like to thank you too. My aunt and uncle moved to Phoenix in the early 60’s and I have vivid memories of riding with my uncle past what seemed to a 10 year old endless fields of color. They have all passed and so did my father recently, so I googled my memories. You were number one
I grew up on Hough’s cakes and bread. I had a Hough birthday cake every birthday of my life until it closed. So sad. I’m going to have to check out the Lakeshore Bakery.
Hiya David Guston. ” though it can appear as if technology is causing something to happen in society, people actually make the decisions in the conception, design, manufacture, and deployment of technology. The sense of this phenomenon can be inferred from Winston Churchill’s aphorism about architecture: “We shape our buildings; thereafter, they shape us.” ”
In a book Winston S. Churchill wrote called “Amid These Storms”, in a chapter entitled “shall we commit suicide?” He writes “The liberties of men are no longer to be guarded by their natural qualities, but by their dodges” ….. “Such, then, is the peril with which mankind menaces itself. Means of destruction incalculable in their effects, wholesale and frightful in their character, and unrelated to any form of human spirit: the march of Science unfolding ever more possibilities: and the fires of hatred burning deep in the hearts of some of the peoples of the world, (and this next part is the most important- Martin) fanned by continual provocation and unceasing fear, and fed by the deepest sense of national wrong or national danger!”
In His next chapter entitled “mass effects in modern life”, “They no longer rely upon the Hero, the Commander, or the Teacher as they did in bygone rugged ages, or as the less advanced peoples do to-day. They wend their way ponderously, unthinkingly, blindly, but nevertheless surely and irresistibly towards goals which are ill-defined and yet magnetic”.
And in His next chapter called “fifty years hence”, “We have the spectacle of the powers and weapons of man far outstripping the march of his intelligence; we have the march of his intelligence proceeding far more rapidly than the development of his nobility. We may well find ourselves in the presence of ‘the strength of civilization without its mercy'”.
“It is therefore above all things important that the moral philosophy and spiritual conceptions of men and nations should hold their own amid these formidable scientific evolutions. It would be much better to call a halt in material progress and discovery rather than to be mastered by our own apparatus and the forces which it directs”. ….. “Without an equal growth of Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love, Science herself may destroy all that makes human life majestic and tolerable.”
–Martin Serna
My wife is a blood decendant of Daniel Boone, proven by DNA testing. Indeed her mother’s maiden name is Boone. And if memory serves me, there is also a connection between Lincoln and Boone, as there is between Lincoln and my wife.
Well said. As architecture critic for the San Jose Mercury News, I never bought that Casper the Ghost theory of architecture. Winchester was a talented amateur architect (she had subscriptions to the current architecture journals) who was lucky enough to have the means to be her own client. The use of new technology, the quality of light brought into rooms, the use of materials — these all show her fascination with design.
As one of the signatories to the proposal to retire Diablo Canyon, I too thought of David Brower. He knew how to negotiate and on occasion compromise, but his determination to phase out nuclear power never waned. He’s truly one of my heroes. http://www.a4nr.org
Thanks, Joe, for a rational, personal discussion. “Equal access” is certainly at the heart of all the educational issues that follow, whether they be student safety, teachers with substantial
educational experience, or student achievement leading to career(s) and personal success.
That “small amount” — One Billion Dollars — would provide enough each year to hire a school librarian for every K-12 school in the state, buy a book per child every year to re-stock the libraries, and set up the training programs at the state universities to train a new generation of librarians. Currently there are only 800 certificated school librarians in our 10 Thousand schools. It is HOW you spend the money that counts. Every child deserves a quality school library.
Jim, you moved my soul and my memories… my parents as you know scaped from Austria and Czechoslovakia as young teenagers back on 1938. Stories like yours must be remembered, I thank you for your friendship and for sharing your story. Keep well!
The author provides a rose-tinted perspective on TPP and suggest this is all about choosing between ‘protectionism’ and ‘free trade’. It’s not. What we do know of the details of TPP (it was negotiated in secret mostly by corporate and Wall Street lobbyists) that contains protectionist provisions, e.g. the pharmaceutical industry gets stronger patent protections, delaying cheaper generic versions of drugs. Great for big Pharma, not so great for ordinary people. And how about this: TPP sets up a international tribunal system international tribunal outside any nation’s legal system corporations can use to obtain compensation for any “lost profits” found to result from a nation’s regulations. So, if a country bans offshore oil drilling in its territorial waters, petroleum companies can use the tribunal system to obtain compensation for loss of theoretical profits; the same goes for, say, nations that pass anti-smoking legislation. Philip Morris is currently using existing tribunals of this type against Uruguay claiming Uruguay’s strong anti-smoking regulations unfairly diminish the company’s profits.
The fact that important but bad trade deals like TPP have bipartisan support and are passed with little press coverage should tell you something about the rotten state of politics and the press.
There are different types of “funny” for different people and for different reasons. Some people want to feel better by laughing at other people. Some people are entertained when they share an experience. Others are entertained when through smart wordplay or obscure references. And other simply “don’t want to think about stuff.” [and lets not get into formats!]
The key question is: “Is it funny?” The secondary question (if you want to analyze the person laughing): “Why is it funny?”
Andrew Dice Clay is a good example of a comedian which time left behind. Dice Clay was “funny” in the early 80’s, to jr. high school kids. I laughed because I thought it was funny… or maybe I just liked “shock.” But one grows up, learns, discovers, and Dice Clay is just using cheap jokes, that rely on people’s own prejudices and/or the “shock” is no longer “shocking.” I never enjoyed Seinfeld the comedian, but watch “Sienfeld” in reruns just about every day. (the worse part of the show are the snippets from his standup routine.) The show is funny on so many levels: making fun of people (while still allowing for dignity and humanity – Newman:”She wasn’t my type.”); shared experience (how many people approach dating like George?); intelligent jokes (“serenity now!”); and simple slapstick (“giddyup!”) Fast forward 20 year and Seinfeld the comedian is complaining about the audience – that just ain’t funny… not the original jokes, nor the complaining.
So to recap – it’s not the words or the tools that are funny (or not), it’s how we use them. Paul Mooney on Dave Chappelle Show can say things that are hilarious ; but those same words in a different context from a different person sound cheap and lazy. BTW, regarding black face… Jimmy Kimmel – the same one hosted the emmys and ABC’s late night show, was famous – among other things – for his black face impersonation on “The Man Show.” It was funny.
It’s interesting that for all this the Ventura County cast has not become as “posh” as the coasts of Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and Orange Counties. Did they close the door before “posh” could get in?
What you saw first-hand in comedy school, where they teach white students how to get away with racism, was chilling. We all need to make sure comedy stays true to its purpose of freeing up marginalized voices, not oppressing them, and your work is helping.
When I see the Statue of Liberty, I think of all the millions of immigrants who first saw it when they sailed into NY Harbor past Ellis Island, drawn by her promise to the storm-tossed. Did those men, women, and children come looking for walls? No, they came looking for opportunity and a better life. The sooner everyone learns that America belongs to everyone looking for a new land and new opportunity, the sooner we have a chance to make this country truly great again. If Republicans remember that George Washington used the word “nation,” not “deportation,” they can be part of making America great for more than just white people.
Practicable… as in hypersonic-delivered 50-megaton nukes aimed by the world’s first & foremost space-booster-capable nation? I missed something here–is there a conspiracy-theory going about forward-based rocketry in Cuba? ” Practicable” as in an obvious-intent increased armament after WWII? Practicable as in complete (starvation) blockade of West Berlin?
Poor Ukraine. Take a look at history, it was Herbert Hoover’s claim to fame that he helped reduce the intentional starvation of Ukraine. Starved by Stalin, victim of shoddy Nuclear power (Chernobyl) under (Russian-centered) International Socialism, and cowardly-infiltrated by unmarked troops to assimilate Crimea in Anschluss-style. While their treaty-guarantor of sovereignty looked the other way.
So what’s to fear, maybe that they will prop up Totalitarian regimes who outwardly bomb and chem-attack civilians? Hey, it’s plain that Authoritarian repression is assuming commercial dominance a-la-Post-war America, and we don’t see a Newspeak relationship coming?
Seriously, take some World History. We don’t need Neville Chamberlains, we need bull-dog defenders of the same free speech that allows this endorsement of societies built around speech repression.
Commentators afraid of speaking pro-Russia? Have you tried speaking anti-Putin inside *his* borders? And, don’t you just love his horse-mounted (Hitler-esque) propaganda art?
Congratulations Mr. Martinez, this collection of articles is very well done and very welcome at this vital juncture. The “Washington Consensus” on Russia is an echo chamber of Cold War leftovers with new-generation ignorance that is long overdue for critical reappraisal.
Our nightmare scenario in the early 70’s was Russian subs 200 miles off our coast. their R27 SLBM launched against DC & NYC, using a depressed trajectory (sacrificing range for speed) could hit In 6 minutes. Land based ICBM’s which had a better CEP (accuracy) than our minuteman ICBM could hit our command center at Offutt AFB, and our minuteman silo’s in 30 minutes. add another 5 minutes to get at the 16 Titan II’s based near Tucson Arizona.
But the obvious point is that people who take ballot selfies and broadcast them are just plain jerks. While elections are little more than seeing who can attain enough “likes,” for some voters there is more to them than having the opportunity to glorify the “self.” When voting, one should be considering the common good, not how good one looks while doing it.
Better that attention be paid to standardizing voting procedures throughout the United States.
One of the accomplishments of the Clinton administration during the 1990’s was the economic boom fueled by world trade. This was true not only for our traditional trading partners but more notably to third world countries. It proved to be a resounding and quite calming force, against the old world order that defined the cold war. It uplifted and redistributed resources and wealth to countries that were chronically poor and unified middle class societies in other third world countries with the hopes and aspirations of self-sufficient free enterprise as envisioned by the late economist Milton Friedman. The work of Hillary Clinton during her tenure as Secretary of State and particularly her work in Africa is a reflection of the State department work during the Bill Clinton administration. If Hillary gets in and a new boom in trade occurs between the United States and third world countries, old players like the archaic Russians and the disoriented and confused American Republican Party, will either have to join in the advantages of the new economic boom or, just get out of the way.
What a Joke… Mark my word In 20 years all Ventura will be wealthy people and no Middle class whatsoever. The poor people wont be able to live there and they will have to live on the outskirts to work there.. NOT TOO SMART VENTURA… You will regret your no Growth policies for sure..
I think there is one aspect that you didn’t consider.
I would suspect that in most, or perhaps all, of those incidents where you had a gun pulled on you in your private life, they were illegal guns pulled by people who were committing a crime by having them. Tell me if that’s not the case.
In Texas, on the other hand, their law deals with law abiding community members carrying guns lawfully.
So, while guns are common to both situations, you haven’t addressed the fact that the people carrying them will not be similarly situated.
I’m not saying your concerns are baseless, I’m just saying that you have left this out of the discussion.
Going from a system of accountability of schools provided by the State and Federal governments that were both extremely restrictive and unworkable to the current environment can be unnerving to those that require tidiness. The truth of the matter is that the previous system was not exactly tidy nor without waste. And, needed funding for specific demographic zones was difficult. What gets me most is the newest emphasis on the achievement gap between children of low income and children of adequate income or higher. The old arguments have been that education, in general, in k-12 in the U.S. was falling behind the achievement levels of children in other countries. Now, the arguments are about how education in the U.S. is failing our poorest students.
What is really being promoted are privatized schools that promise a panacea for all the ills in public education. and accountability is twisted into making children a commodity. “We’re betting that these children will be valued more ” and so investors invest to get a return on the productivity of a school. That is not how education works. People for hundreds of years have bought into the fallacy that by going to Harvard, for example, guarantees a student prosperity.In the last many decades that concept has trickled down to so called top high schools with those schools providing the best avenue to entrance to a top university.
So, in the last three decades and more the pressure for high achievement at the elementary level has had the “ed” industrial complex busy coming up with cookie cutter answers to extremely complex issues of learning.
Having been the offspring of educators and then becoming a teacher myself, the answers to the concern for “new” achievement gap is poorly placed. All children can learn and achieve. The problem is whether the “ed” bureaucracy can get out of its own way and redirect essential funding toward this gap. Yes, the issue is money, but rather how it is being spent. Probably billions of dollars have been spent training teachers on presentation skills and effective class management. And, for the most part, that money may have been well spent. But, those dollars did not address how to take care of between 20 and 30 percent of any given roster in any classroom in the U.S.
In any given classroom in America today of, say, twenty-five students in any k-6 elementary school there are 3 to 6 students not achieving at all. And, the reasons, not excuses, are plenty. But, the real deal has to do with a system that didn’t mediate those reasons in kindergarten or first grade and certainly didn’t follow through.
In low or very low income neighborhoods in California, for example, upwards of 30 percent of the children in school are “homeless” today. “Homeless” implies that there is extreme stress in those families to adequately provide minimal living standards to their children. And, from just this can be derived a whole host of well-being issues that cannot be adequately addressed by the classroom teacher.
The answer is easy and complex. The family and the teacher are not supported in the current system to provide academic success to the children they care for. What is needed is a triage team comprised of a certified medical practitioner, a psychologist, a social worker, a community “outreach” person, and a qualified/certificated teacher. That team, in conjunction with school personnel and the family works intensively to provide the necessary and immediate mediation to, essentially, “launch” a child and provide a child the path to learn.
The current education system fumbles when it comes to neurological (spectrum) disorders, dyslexia, and general family stress and nutrition. Children who stay in school and are inadequately helped and remain low achievers often end up as unfortunate statistics of our juvenile and, by extension, adult justice system. And, remain a drag on the achievement levels in our public schools.
So, will local funding control help to fund schools to help low income and low achieving students? Perhaps some. But, not to the extent of re-directing those funds to emphasize the necessary focus on children ages 4,5,6,and 7. It is so much more efficient to insure that these children begin to read and write rather than to wait.
The open source technology community has demonstrated replacement systems. The solution to this security crisis has been tendered for years with progress now sighted in San Francisco County , CA (and a couple other counties.)- The real beast in the room is the Microsoft lobby who has pressured the politicians to ignore solution- see http://www.cavo-us.org Outside penetration as well as insider manipulation must be addressed to retain / encourage voter confidence..
Dear Dr. Nagle, I don’t know why you classified West Virginia as a “scattered” state, and apart from the border states. In 1876, according to historian Charles Ambler (History of West Virginia, pg. 376), 7 of the 8 major office holders in the state were Confederate veterans. The state was a “redeemer” state and had just thrown out the Civil War republican constitution of 1863 and written a new constitution with a convention primarily of former Confederate delegates, chaired by Charles James Faulkner, who had been imprisoned by Lincoln for buying arms for the Confederacy while he was the US ambassador to France.
Too harsh, Joe, but, more importantly, too soon. Let’s give the new accountability report card a chance. For far too long we have ignored that school site variable, the culture of the school itself, in evaluating student achievement. The proposed multiple measures approach is certainly a more just one, for all concerned, than the standardized test score growth regimen that has dominated so many judgments about “school success” during the past dozen years.
I cannot help but discern a streak of determinism in the argument, as if the attacks were bound to happen and could not be defused. I wish to nuance this. Any analist of the security and intelligence policies in Belgium (like myself) knows that many terrorist attempts and preparations were defused before the March 22 attacks (e.g. a sleeper cell in Verviers). The context of the police apparatus was that it remained for long over-bureaucratized and working under capacity (both federal and local police), while budget and staff capacity of the State Security Service (VSSE) has for long been absolutely insufficient. Some foreign intelligence chiefs have referred to the sheer ‘luck’ that some pieces of information and clues were flagged and processed ina timely manner, lest more perpetrators would slip through under the radar. There were however critical shortcomings in French-Belgian intelligence exchange (in fact this is also a wider problem in EU intelligence cooperation despite Europol, Eurojust, and the Club of Berne’s efforts) that led to ignoring indications and ‘operational myopia’. The response was obvious to raise visible security measures and have military patrols, though the psychological effects thereof cannot be generalized to a general ‘insecurity feeling’! It may take years to draw a more telling picture of the longer-term effects of having intense patrols, backpack checks, or preemptive arrests in broad daylight of released people with a criminal record. Also, some commentators refer to this change of “laissez-faire” liberal and unchallenged urban life to more vigilant, cautious, perhaps less-trusting tonality in public life ‘the new normal’. Perhaps the Brussels melting pot remained too long too secluded in a bubble of naïve, somewhat utopian low-aggression lifestyle, like a twin to “pacific” Geneva. Multiculturalism or internationalism in cityscapes is not necessarily a buffer against nor incubator of foreign or homegrown violence or terrorism. Think of bustling Tel Aviv, which is also a large city where many cultures, erhnicities, traditions and lifestyles converge. Open-minded, ‘tolerant’ and hospitable as it may be portrayed, it was for long a target site for suicide bombings, car bombings and the sort. People have developped an adaptive ‘modus vivendi’ with that terror threat and learnt not to yield to excessive fearmongering, paranoia, or spontaneous self-victimization. I’d argue that societal resilience in Brussels was either ill-gauged and a hoax (and the attacks functioned as a hard wakeup call), or was poorly practiced or tested in other circumstances (e.g. a fire or massive medical evacuation). Cases show that communities who really train and prepare enough for crisis / disaster scenarios gain in resilience and confidence when getting through an unsettling event and feel less helpless and insecure in the aftermath (response and recovery phases). While the (inter)cultural delights of Brussels may have allowed or emulated a general sense of belonging (as in: new strangers not feeling starkly marginalized), a portion of the people with mixed background was missing a rootedness, and that (family, cultural or strata) identity gap was exploited by ISIS and others. Liberal, “laissez-faire” multiculturalism was unable to sufficiently encourage and crystalize intercommunal solidarity and ‘autonomous (bottom-up) drive’ to continued neighborhood resilience strenghtening. Security is not just an external ‘state’ or ‘service’ provided by the authorities, but a common good that every law-abiding citizen has to look after as well as a ‘security stakeholder’. That is the inclusive, whole-of-society security paradigm. Especially in terms of conflict prevention, people should not fear negative blowback when looking after a civilized solution with a neigbor or neighbors themselves – because then the “fear for the other” effectively makes people less initiative-taking. A liminal but strongly embedded “fear of the other” conditions responses that are more lenient to individualistic self-preserving and not “protecting the collective” instead. Fear of the other can, but doesn’t automatically prompt needed intra-group solidarity. Often the trigger for intra-group solidarity stems from a collectively felt determination to take matters into their own hands, and to protect group interests (material such as group survival or immaterial, like values). The lever to foster more confidence in the collective agency and ability to (re)shape one’s (security) environment stems from a particular type of “uniting” charismatic leadership. While some people will mainly remember stark-looking, emotionless, ‘tight’ faces and gazes from military and police (thus emphasizing the ‘alien’ character of the security forces in the street), others like myself did observe some patrols exhibiting unpretentious confidence and cues of humanity one can attone for and still associate with (sentiments that potentially contribute to a higher psychological proximity, thus making the sight and interaction between civilians and ‘the uniformed’ more informal, less anxiety-laden or awkward ). It’s to be seen how new initiatives to make Brussels attractive and spontaneous again will mitigate the perception of “loss of heimat”. And finally: tanks, excuse me !?! I haven’t seen a tank on halftracks with a reinforced gun barrel anywhere in Brussels! I fear that’s a subcontious form of dramatizing your observations. The vehicles you refer to are in fact mobile Armored Personnel Carrier vehicles – or APCs. They move on tyres, only rarely the track version would be deployed in Brussels. One such APC that I once saw at Grand Place had a small rotating turret machinegun, which is operated by camera. Yet in military parlance, that’s still designated an armoured carrier, not a (battle) tank.
Manipulative dismantling of the “Crown Jewel of Sacred Trust” by special interests (VA, West Los Angeles) contradicts the “life and death decisions” comment made here. When integral principles as deep as “care for those who have borne the battle” are institutionally ignored, grossly violated, and detoured-over by an obvious one-party system, its candidates, law makers and minions, this one-boot-fits-all encouragement is lost.
This is a thought provoking essay by Mr. Martinez. I too am fearful about a rule of an un- restrained majority or minority whether they be populists or progressives. As an example of the progressive movement’s excesses consider the censured speech on university campuses.
Wow great research. Accountability is essential in our communities, especially with people who have sworn in as protectors and peacemakers of our city. Hope the decrease continues and that these methods are practice countywide.
“Celebrating one historical figure does not mean we automatically discredit or undermine the contributions of another.”
I have to disagree. In many cases, such a thing is automatic.
Some viewpoints, including who’s the hero of a specific story, simply can’t co-exist, due to the inability to clarify the nuances and complexities in the time frame required by a show, movie, or even TV series.
People spend years and years of their lives studying this stuff just to understand it. When you condense it down into a couple of hours (or less), things will get lost–that’s just how it is. Shows require a conflict, and, for the audience to feel for that conflict, somebody needs to be the bad guy. Someone needs to be thrown under the bus.
You can make the bad guy sympathetic, but, at the end of the day, he still needs to be the bad guy. There’s no real room for conflicting points of view in this medium, because there’s no time to delve into them.
In fact, people have made a living by going back & taking plays that are in the public domain, like Shakespeare, and rewriting them to show those alternative points of view. That’s really the only way it can be done: as a completely separate piece, roughly as long as the original.
The difference is that people actually come out of this show believing it to be a true story. That’s why this article exists.
With Hollywood portrayals, people don’t think that because people aren’t that stupid.
If American Indians feel as you say, they should read the above sentence over and over until it sinks in that people don’t think Pocahontas is a documentary & they’re getting upset over nothing.
Wow! The level of anti-democratic discourse, unquestioned imperialist privilege and white supremacist stereotyping in this Zocalo exploration of populism is really a new low. The idea of comparing Trump to Chavez is astonishing. Chavez was popularly elected multiple times and carried parliamentary and constitutional revision elections favoring greater democratic participation multiple times and successfully overturned a US-back military/elitist coup. The tide of reactionary restorationist regimes in Latin America that started with the Clinton orchestrated coup in Honduras and that has continued with various other electoral, parliamentary and military regime changes in Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil has nothing to do with democracy and everything to do with reasserted US hegemony in the region and its effective use of aligned elements in local elites that control corporate media. The vast poor majority of the population of Latin America, mainly of indigenous and African descent have gotten a taste of dignity and power and will reassert their capacity to shape the destiny of America. Donald Trump represents the exact opposite — the grievance of privilege and a discontented and decaying Empire.
First, white supremacy? Please educate yourself on what that term means. There’s nothing about that in this article. As for Chavez, he was popularly elected because he was good at creating coalitions (credit where credit is due) but the way in which he did so has cost Venezuela dearly. Even you can’t deny that the country is in shambles.
Re-asserted hegemony, you must be joking! The United States hasn’t engaged Latin America at all in recent years..and instead, average people have decided they want to be rid of populists like Cristina and Maduro. Likely, because they are ineffective at governance and consistently use simplistic and dishonest anti-West, anti-“imperial” rhetoric to persuade voters.
Additionally, you must not be following the political situation in the United States very closely. The white working class voter does not feel that they have any privilege, and thus is angry at being neglected by the elites. It is the exact same reaction to the populists you speak of.
Also, please don’t confuse dignity and power for the “oppressed” with Maduro, Kircheners, and their ilk. That’s an insult to the very same people you claim to be speaking in favor.
I don’t disagree with the entirety of Mr. Brennan’s analysis, but I do find a dangerous sentiment embedded therein.
He writes that “[r]epresentative democracies do not simply impose the will of the people. They over-perform, producing better policies than the people actually want, because elites keep the masses in check (and vice versa).” This assumes that only elites should serve as representatives, which is not necessarily true. Athenian democracy, for example, tended to choose representatives by lot (i.e. sortition), which meant that the representative usually came from the masses that he (and in ancient Greece it was most definitely a he) represented.
Worse than the above, however, is the assumption that elite status is necessarily determined by income, which seems to be the basis for characterizing the fact that “voters at the 90th percentile of income tend to be significantly better informed than voters at the 50th or 10th percentiles” as “a positive twist”. I suppose it’s positive if you accept that political representatives should or even just will inevitably determine policy in response to the desires of the wealthy, but that’s a plutocracy, not a democracy. What Mr. Brennan seems to be doing here, therefore, is saying that the best way to avoid the wrath of ignorant, demagogic populism is to institutionalize plutocracy. I disagree.
Rather than accepting that “voter ignorance and misinformation, populism, [and] rent seeking … are endemic to representative democracy”, we might instead choose to reform representative democracy in ways that minimize these problems.
First, elite status need not be tied to wealth. It might be tied instead to merit, as determined by intelligence, talent, education, etc. This conception of “elite” would suggest that we combat ignorant, demagogic populism not with plutocracy, but with technocracy. Some may argue that these are one and the same in the US, since our supposed meritocracy proportionately rewards intelligence, talent, education, etc. with wealth, but – and I suspect that Mr. Brennan would agree with me – a brief consideration of Donald Trump should dispel this notion. One obvious way to shift power away from the wealthy is via campaign finance reform, which is not only one of the primary proposals coming from that populist Bernie Sanders, but is also one that the populist Donald Trump has leveraged for support.
Second, rather than accept the correlation between wealth and information, we might instead choose to better distribute access to information by increasing and more equitably allocating funding for public education and reforming the hyper-commercialized media system so that journalism (at the very least) is less responsive to considerations of profit.
Third, instead of accepting that voters have no incentive to inform themselves, we might seek to alter our political economic decision-making systems so that citizens are more engaged, especially in relation to outcomes that will most affect them. Mr. Brenner says that “[n]o one has yet come up with a workable solution”, but there is a growing body of literature on participatory democracy and an ever increasing set of initiatives that put it into practice. We can and should build on these.
Mr. Brennan’s analysis is not without value, but his conclusion is ultimately defeatist. Perhaps if our nation’s elite scholars were more optimistic and visionary we would find more political will to enact reforms and continue to hone our democracy. For anyone truly worried about the future, that seems to be the only legitimate course of action.
Like Mr. Novick (previous commenter), I’m disappointed by the opinions expressed in this Zócalo series. While the articles incorporate valid concerns about the difficulty of striking the right democratic balance, the combined effect is a dismissal of the many valid critiques motivating populist movements and an acceptance of the elitist, plutocratic status quo.
In this piece, Ms. Nelson present Michel Temer’s rise to power in Brazil as the unproblematic result of an anticorruption movement. Suffice it to say that many close observers have come up with a much different interpretation, which sees Temer and his cabinet as seeking to shield their own corruption, and that of their allies, from prosecution.
Meanwhile, although Chávez and other leaders of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution are not without fault, Ms. Nelson elides the many flawed but nonetheless democratic initiatives they have put forward, not to mention the deeply undemocratic behavior of the elite opposition.
The picture presented here is detrimentally simplistic.
My mother was sterilized by these laws in California just after I was born. I grew up hearing her talk about it, not truly understanding what a hysterectomy meant, with the family that sanctioned the procedure nodding without acknowledging. Different times.
I think it’s going to have to be done like wine, with appellations controlees. Also, we have to favor less environmentally destructive ways of cultivating it.
Thank you for this thoughtful and informative analysis. As a Californian, I am participating in another option available to voters – to certify a write-in candidate without the candidate having to file paperwork, as stated in the CA Elections Code Sections 8650-8653.
Thank you for all your hard work on behalf of voters and voting equity!
When things were good, Stockton thought they were real good. Long Beach had a inferiority complex about its tiny port, tiny airport, tiny civic center and huge parking structure that never was filled even when Walmart was there. So when things got bad, Long Beach cut back on some fire houses, cops and school teachers, ,,,,,and,,,,,,waited. Robert Garcia grew up thinking that this was just the way it was with Long Beach. And now that things are getting good, most of us are worried about how the good might hurt our community. I know of few debts that might plague us. I’m probably like most of you and worry about how we can be a striking beach community with our lack of housing. Good times in Long Beach scare me. I just don’t know what to do.
She was a fifth grade teacher?! I shudder to wonder what “facts” she shares with impressionable children. I once had to pull rank, so to speak, when one grade school teacher had some of her basic biology wrong. Worked out well though because she invited me to talk to class. I brought in all sorts of bones and whole skeletons and had lots of hands-on material, quizzes, and games. It was so successful she had me come in every year and even parents began showing up for it.
Then she moved, and later I moved, but I keep telling myself I should do it again.
What an unbelievably tone deaf article! You want insight into our election results and how to resolve problems? Start by visiting with the people you omit from your piece here, the ones who turned out in huge numbers voting against expectations because they felt omitted from national discourse already; go to the rust belt. Go visit northern PA or West Virginia. I’m all for international perspective, but lack of it wasn’t what sent this election awry. Unless you’re going to go jet-setting abroad with some unemployed rust betters, I don’t think increasing your degree of disconnect will resolve this country’s internal divide. But, hey, enjoy the vacation you’re so lucky to be able to afford.
@Josh, he is right. The solutions are elsewhere.
Other countries have revived the rust belts, but not the US.
Even the older rust belts of NE have not been revived. Instead America has created this culture of abandonment because municipal bonds has enabled suburban development, which by the way is not financially viable.
thanks for this post…what you say is so important. I hope you’ll consider coming to the Open Government Partnership December 7-9 in Paris…it should be a place where you can bring and share your lessons from Spain and Californian (I am a Californian living in DC working on congressional reform…and plan to be there)
Democrats love to say that “Trump is a populist” and imply that his supposed populism, is bad and dangerous. Now, the real question: Who here actually knows WHAT populism is? And is it bad? Let’s delve into it.
Populism is a political ideology that holds that virtuous citizens are mistreated by a small circle of elites, who can be overthrown if the people recognize the danger and work together. Populism depicts elites as trampling on the rights, values, and voice of the legitimate people.
Populist movements are found in many democratic nations. Cas Mudde says, “Many observers have noted that populism is inherent to representative democracy; after all, do populists not juxtapose ‘the pure people’ against ‘the corrupt elite’?”
In fact, populism is often a necessary part of democratic society, because without the occasional healthy mistrust of the government and without the occasional throwing out of corrupt officials, a government which started out full of liberty and freedom can easily become slowly tyrannical, known as a “soft tyranny”.
The leftist liberal democrats want you to be scared of populism, for the simple reason that they do not WANT to end the corruption. In fact, they do not even want you to think it exists.
Now: Some- mostly, liberal elitists who support big controlling government (coincidence?)- will tell you that populism is bad because, quote, “at populism’s core is a rejection of pluralism. Populists will always claim that they and they alone represent the people and their true interests.”
However, this is a fallacy- first of all, “pluralism”- defined as “the condition or system in which two or more states, groups, principles, sources of authority, etc., coexist”- can and does exist with a populist candidate.
If Donald Trump is trying to fight corruption, that does not mean that he is taking away rights from elected officials- we have the rule of law and our constitution as well as balance of powers, to prevent that. Every single elected official is going to promote their views once elected- that’s kind of the point of why you determine a candidate’s views prior to electing them.
You can’t just loosely imply that because a candidate cares about ending corruption in Washington, for example, that he is going to shut down all opposing debates, need safe spaces from opposing viewpoints, demonize the opposition as horrible people and try to get them ousted against the will of the people- last time I checked, that’s everything the radical left-wing agenda in this country is attempting to do. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/populist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populism
Thank you for posting this. Many of us were taught by our mothers to smile and endure these insults. Our generation, and the generations of our children, need to change our misogynistic culture, starting now.
I am afraid that the ultimate harassing is when government tries to strip a woman’s’ rights. We’ve all endured the harassment’s in the work place, the harassment’s in public. the harassment’s from that dick your husband calls his childhood friend…some of us have stood up in defense, but I am guilty of not being consistent. We also have an obligation as women not to harass other’s. I have caught myself on many occasion. I appreciate your open letter as it is a lesson that we can all take action for ourselves and our young ones, step forward and teach them, defend them, protect them. Good luck with your pledge, I will be joining you…
Thank you for posting this. I am interested in being part of the solution. One of the things that I think would be helpful is more examples of what women have said, or could say, in response like the example you give of “No thanks. You can hear what I have to say better when you’re looking at my face.”
One of the things that I have learned as a gay man is that I am often at a loss for words when faced with a difficult situation. I’m not one of those quick-tongued gay men who has a ready retort. I often think of them later after the verbal attack. So, that said, people please share ideas of what one could say, either as the target of the harassment or as the ally who is looking for just the right thing to say. Let’s be prepared!
Kim, I just found your story because I am looking for survivors who lived on the Tung An. My father was the owner of that ship and I want to tell the stories of the people that were rescued at sea. Your story is emotional and compelling. I was raised in the US and was here when your escape experience occurred. My dad was telling me about it but I never truly grasped the gravity of the situation. Before he passed away in 2010, he gave me his file on this event with his letters to the UN and others in trying to rectify the situation. It wasn’t until now that I started doing the research to write this story. I would be so grateful if you would contact me so we can arrange for me to interview you at some point. This would be a wonderful story to record for your children to have. I hope to hear from you. Misty Ty mistyty@gmail.com
I’ll have to differ with you on that. As literature the plays are regarded as world class literary masterpieces. I doubt many broadway plays will hold a similar status over 400 years from now.
People who do paint by numbers are always convinced that they’re just as talented as Rembrandt and will go to extreme measures to try to convince everyone else of the same thing and violently oppose and denigrate those who disagree.
The authors for some reason, maybe because of the time of writing versus publishing, are ignoring that hacking may very well have taken place in the swing states. Several articles are out there on this very serious concern that the wrong person is president elect of the United States. Also, Jill Stein has raised millions for recounts to be sure that all of our citizens’ votes are counted. Hacking is too serious to fluff off, with an article saying it could easily happen, but we’re so lucky it seems it didn’t. It seems it did.
I am reading this in November, about three weeks post presidential elections. Were you able to secure necessary clearance to visit Obaidullah? What was your first meal together?
Just how hard of a problem is it for an algorithm to determine real news from lies? Not that hard. You just have to have the will, and therein lies the issue, FACEBOOK, I’m looking at you.
From Business Insider:
Four students on a hackathon solved it in 36 hours: Their plug-in classifies every post, be it pictures (Twitter snapshots), adult content pictures, fake links, malware links, fake news links as verified or non-verified using artificial intelligence.
“For links, we take into account the website’s reputation, also query it against malware and phishing websites database and also take the content, search it on Google/Bing, retrieve searches with high confidence and summarize that link and show to the user. For pictures like Twitter snapshots, we convert the image to text, use the usernames mentioned in the tweet, to get all tweets of the user and check if current tweet was ever posted by the user.”
The browser plug-in then adds a little tag in the corner that says whether the story is verified.
For instance, it discovered that this news story promising that pot cures cancer was fake, so it noted that the story was “not verified.”
a very wise column. thank you for saying this.
and on a very practical level, why would Democrats vote to let the state that provides them with 55 electoral votes leave the union? they would be relegating themselves to permanent 2nd place status.
As for the Republicans, why would they let a state go when that state pays in to the federal government far more than it draws out?
The CalExit people are just kidding themselves – a total waste of political energy.
Excellent article, except Spain did not participate in the war out of a sense of benevolent friendship. Once the war ended Spain changed posture. The Mississippi was closed to American commerce, and the western territories were subjected to Spanish intrigue which culminated in the Burr Conspiracy and the defection of the traitor Gen James Wilkinson. Spain wanted to separate everything west of the Alleghenies from the Union, and they came perilously close to doing so.
From a speech from Spanish Governor Miro in New Orleans to council of southern tribes in Pensacola in June ’84. Proof that Spain was conspiring with the hostile tribes as soon as the ink was dry on Treaty of Paris.
“The King of Spain desires the friendship
of all red nations, and looks upon them
as his brothers. No other nation except
Spain can now supply your wants. In a short
time, the Spaniards expect to be at war with
the Virginians (Kentuckians), and we look upon the Indians
as our allies to aid and assist us when called
upon.”
“…Spanish intrigue…Spain was conspiring with the hostile tribes…” Of course, Americans always had, and still have, perfect divine right to all the territories they could ever want, in his benevolence, while Spaniards in the other hand were only a bunch of schemers conspirators and slavers, of course, why not?
I think it’s pretty clear that isn’t what Ernie is saying. He’s merely saying that to the extent that Spain had pro-colonist/anti-British activity, it was pretty limited and uneven and subject to their own interests and that immediately after the war, they became pretty anti-colonist. This is why the history does not record them as being as important allies as were the French (or even really direct allies). Because if history did so, history would be incorrect.
Of course, but he suggests that the Spanish had some evil plan against the US. The Spanish were aware of talk in the US about spreading into the lands to the west, and they only had a tiny population to defend it. Forming alliances with the Indians made sense in case of American expansion. Banning Americans from the Mississippi was probably a wise thing when Spanish settlements were still so small and far apart.
The Spanish supplied enormous amounts of supplies at their expense and their military commitments made them very important to the course of the war. The French navy would have been overwhelmed by the British navy and unable to maintain plentiful supplies from France or help with the land war like they did at Yorktown through the naval battle of Chesapeake. The British would have been able to concentrate far more resources in the American colonies. To try to belittle the Spanish involvement is ridiculous, without it, the US would have lost.
After the British surrender of West Florida in May 1781, Bernardo de Gálvez (Galvestown is named after him) prepared the Spanish troops to go after the British who fled to Jamaica. When he was departing, received the order to stop the attack due to the peace agreement between Spain and England. Jamaica was verty close to become another Spanish colony in the Caribean.
I spent over 30 years of my life in Fresno, believing that a place with so much potential could become one of the coolest cities anywhere. I left (never to return) in 2005 and do not miss the place. Narrow minds, scofflaw strong-man police chief, city council that keeps their collective heads where the sun never shines and a public that is very mean are not likely to change, not now, and in my humble opinion, not ever.
Sorry, but, Singapore already has a quota in the H1B caps. Trump will not only remove that quota but also make it harder for Singaporeans to get H1B visa. Secondly, most of the upstream innovations occurs in America, all the downstream work is taken by foreigners. Trump will go so many sops to the American Tech Industry that they will refuse to outsource work or hire foreigners. I do not see how Singapore can benefit. If you need to understand more about the changes, try and google – Trump Uncertainty Principle H1B- it is a detailed writeup by an Indian Techie on H1B
This is a really interesting piece of history but seem like it stretches things too far for the purpose of a snappy headline and a desire to revise history. It is absolutely the case that the victory of the colonists over Great Britain was a factor of global conflicts among international powers including Spain which had interests in the Western Hemisphere. But the evidence that Spain played a specific and direct role in the Revolutionary War itself on behalf of the colonists is pretty weak.
When I was in high school in the 1960s, George Bernard Shaw was the well known edgy character and Wilde was a minor figure. (The most popular Broadway musical of the 1950s was an adaptation of Shaw’s Pygmalion.) But it was a time when economic socialism was powerful and gay rights did not exist. Since the fall of Communism, Shaw has been eclipsed and Wilde raised to the level of a secular saint.
Beautiful remembrance and pointed commentary about sequestration, a game of chicken whose consequences continue to unfold to the detriment of many families and communities.
I seems that California is too large to govern. Get rid of 23 of the north most counties as they want to leave anyways. This will give the legislators the ability to concentrate on urban issues and leave the ruralites to govern themselves. Everybody wins!
Except New Years Day falling on Jan. 1 is not the least bit secular. It is part of the Gregorian calendar introduced by papal bull (decree) in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII to correct the Julian calendar, which also marks the years counting forward from the birth of Christ. Far from being embraced by everybody, the celebration of New Years Day on January 1st is a Christian measure of time that is used worldwide for convenience when communicating with the West. But much of the world uses their own calendars: Jewish, Islamic, Chinese, Thai lunar etc. Nice article but maybe this new year you could resolve to expand your perspective a little.
Well, much of the ‘heavy industrial” use that the author finds incompatible with mixed-use neighborhoods already exists in mixed-use neighborhoods along the Elysian Valley stretch. True, these neighborhoods are of lower than ideal densities, but they still provide affordable housing and accessible jobs for people from groups that have systematically been denied educational opportunities for generations. Will the current residents all have to move to the back reaches of Maywood now, to make room for wealthier people? Can’t developers working in existing, cohesive neighborhoods such as Elysian Valley be required to accommodate their longstanding residents with permanently-affordable housing stock of at least the quality of the existing single-family homes and older apartments, so as to add to the neighborhood, rather than replace it wholesale?
I’m not asking this as a rhetorical question. I want to know if Los Angeles can consider something other than immediate one-time corporate profitability in its approach to development. Can it? Does anyone care?
Our new President, deal-maker extraordinaire, I assume would heartily endorse your prescription for progress. I did not vote for the man, but I am looking forward to seeing what his approach will bring to governance. Our roads are blasphemous, so please, Governor Brown, shuffle the cards and DEAL!
The problem becomes more severe as state Supreme Courts give Tyler and Odyssey a statewide monopoly by using unfair and unaccountable power, unlimited taxpayer money and political pressure to ensure the monopoly for Tyler. This is Big Biz and Big Gov in an unholy alliance that is out of control.
I’ve been listening to the soundtrack for a few months (can’t get enough of it) and honestly don’t see Burr as just “the villain” in it. It references his trek to Canada and quite a few of his other accomplishments (military and political).
Honestly, the more I listen to it, the more annoying the character of Hamilton becomes. I agree with Burr that Hamilton is an “obnoxious, arrogant, loudmouth bother”.
I have yet to see the show, but I don’t think we’re listening to the musical in the same way.
Why not the U.N.? Personally, I feel rather uncomfortable handing over our entire global narrative — lock, stock, and smoking nuclear plants — about what is “true” and “factual” to an even smaller group than that which already controls it.
In a world where there is clear and growing mistrust over centralized narratives (even those that are “factually true”), a push for further centralization seems like a step in the wrong direction… a step that either provokes a stronger divisive “flux” or is simply ineffectual. IMO.
When Saudis Arabia, is on the UN human rights panel.. we know UN is way beyond ‘truth’ and should just be replaced.. treat a gender as beneath human rights. Sorry you can’t join the UN. And we will just point and laugh. And boycott you
Sir, you should have seen ‘PDQ’,as we called it, in the 1970s. There were no hotels just small family huts or homes that had camping spaces. Tres Maria’s had built the restaraunt a couple years before and had camping spaces with showers. We stayed at the family home next door. The family lived in the back of the house. There was a group of us from Iowa that wintered there for 5 or 6 years straight. One couple went down there 9 straight years. Those were the days, string your hammock for 50 cents a day, food was maybe a few dollars a day!
Right before I arrived the 1st time in ’74 a young gringo from Wisconsin was killed by banditos in front of Tres Maria’s. Another incident the next year had momma from Tres Marias with her .45 back down a couple Federalees that were harassing her customers on the beach! This brings back so many great times we had!
Great comments. The film Absolute Beginners (also a musical) also deals with the act of selling out artistically and the price paid for doing so (although not as fine a film). And then there is Viva Zapata! (by Steinbeck) which gradually shows the reasons for ultimately selling out politically. Selling out (a.k.a. accepting that youthful views may not entirely be realistic and/or economically sound) may just be part of the aging process for most or many of us.
Well, that sure is one way to look at it, whereas another perspective is to realize that accepting the status quo (AKA selling out) has this country in a downward spiral, and into this mess we’re in with a bully, fascist President-elect. I guess I never thought I’d witness the true beginning of the end of the U.S….at least not in such a shameful fashion.
You discuss at length the Disney reflection of America but there is zero evidence presented here about your claim as to the collective memory tourists take away. It certainly doesn’t reflect what people I know took away from it (which was positive but nothing about “America,” rather the fantasy of Disney which they see as purely escapist). But you don’t even present anecdotal information as to the “elevation of everyman” in the headline nor the vague claims as to Disney’s impact on people’s perceptions of America.
Yes, let’s encourage corruption. Corruption of the wealthy, the powerful, the greedy, buying politicians off, holding power and money over communities as they destroy them and the little guys don’t have a chance in hell to save their communities against big money and power. The recent L.A. Times investigative reports, the revelations of developer political corruption, what goes on to get illegal community killing projects done in L.A. (Sea Breeze, Caruso) has brought about further investigations by a State Agency.
Corruption is a cancer festering that hopefully is on it’s way out.
Say YES to Measure S (March 7, 2017) and help usher it out.
The critique is apt not for Los Angeles or California, but for Hollywood specifically. Its something that so many from elsewhere conflate, but they are truly distinct things.
Mr. Mathews seems to ignore the corruption that already exists—-in CALPERS where the Executive Director goes to prison and the major financial ‘advisor’ cheated the fund; in the PUC where insider discussions between the leadership and utilities has been uncovered again and again; in the Coastal Commission, as ably documented by Steve Lopez. Corruption is the ability of the powerful (and that includes not just the wealthy, but the well connected) to make decisions outside of the public scrutiny and the public discussion. There is a reason that countries ranked badly by Transparency International have higher levels of inequality, poorer economic records and less democracy—-corruption does not ‘improve’ politics. His praise of the Mayor Daley’s of the world is close to the ‘trains on time’, and in reading a new essay in the Boston Review, I came across one paragraph from an old organizer for the IAF that paints very clearly what happened with Daley’s ‘machine’ and what happens with corruption. Perhaps Mr. Mathews should attend to improving our governance rather than pretending that we are not already damaged by corruption and its results:
Mr. Mathews, please justify this one, not unique, example of the corruption of Richard Daley’s Chicago as the better path for our state….”When our grade school, Our Lady of the Angels, caught fire on a cold
gray day in December 1958, killing ninety-two students and three nuns,
there was a national outpouring of grief and sympathy. Fire safety laws
and practices, long resisted by those who ran area schools, were finally
upgraded. But the city’s establishment—the Catholic mayor who started
every day with Mass, the largely Catholic fire department that lacked
ladders tall enough to reach the kids killed on the upper floor of the
school, the legal establishment that depended on the Democratic machine
for its living and that did not want to offend the archdiocese—made sure
that even minimal blame would never reach the mayor or the cardinal.”
My dad picked up flowers from a shop down on Baseline on a weekly basis. My Mom almost always had fresh flowers…so beautiful. Great honey down there too.
I had one of my former boss/owner. As the lawsuit ended, we went to a very nice outdoor bar (with fire pits) and I put pins in it, and then burned it. Seemed to work. Might for you too, though your milage depends on alcohol consumption.
Kishiyamas were such great people…always welcoming and friendly. Betty used to make arrangements for people with flowers they picked from the coolers. Some days the arrangements were almost too big to fit in your car!! She would tell stories about flower designing for the movie stars in Hollywood, including Bob Hope’s daughter’s wedding.
It appears that cities and counties need to formulate live-work design/build codes to ameliorate the schism that exists between conventional single family residential/condominium lifestyle and the economic necessity which produced the warehouse fire in Oakland. 501-C-3 organizations would fill that gap with new, quasi-collectivist live-work laboratories. Rehab of historic core buildings has largely run its course; these latter environments only attract professionals chasing hipster illusions. The future expanse of the suburbs southeast and northeast of Sacramento as well as near Davis – Vacaville need not result in homogeneity so typical of Irvine. Enforced homogeneity is a part of the problem of cost of living. Non profit, collectivist, sustainable laboratories can be a productive avenue to boosting innovation. Zoning/planning/design codes ought to help out and lessen the schism. Los Angeles is now hemmed in by geology. The sacramento – Stockton axis adjacent to the Bay Area could hold great promise in fostering such laboratories for innovation.
I was looking forward to reading this article but your mid-life crisis reasoning for driving it is such a bore. I’m 80 years old and drive a Porsche, why because it’s a great car as is the Ferrari, not because of any mid-life concerns! Your last four paragraphs finally hit some reasonable descriptions on what the California Ferrari is all about. P.S. also have a Prius.
As an immigrant to Cali from PA via IL, I didn’t quite know what to make of this TV character the locals admired so. I couldn’t figure out the non-California accent, and his exaggerated excitement kind of put me off even though I was interested in learning about my new home state. This article really helps me understand it all. Thank you for your insightful perspective.
I thought that there would be some data on the way engineers brains tend to think in black and white absolutes. Or a tie in to brain function and thought processes instead the ending was anti climactic to say the least. Frustrating….
So, now, our passport is all about American xenophobia. Never mind that every nation on earth requires one to enter their country…..It’s about American xenophobia….
You might mention that he learned about protest from Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst. He wrote about it in his newsletter. When she began using violence, he and Alice Paul left. Alice started practicing NVDA about 10 years before he did.
Here you only need it at the border, but the Drivers License has taken its place for domestic purposes, so much so that most states now issue non drivers licenses! In Europe you need passports for a lot of things other than crossing borders; cashing travelers checks, and in Italy, staying in any hotel. It takes the place of the drivers license.
Bufalini became a friend of the family, through Millard Sheets, about 1960, eight years before Ahmanson died. There is now a good biography of Howard Ahmanson Sr, entitled Building Home, by Eric John Abrahamson, but I don’t remember if Bufalini gets much space in it.
OK, so two things here: firstly: it’s the Union flag, not the Union Jack. It’s only called the Union Jack when flying from a ship or in a similar situation, that’s a pretty basic mistake. Secondly, you don’t cover the fact that nowhere in Europe do they fly the flag with the obsession that they do in the US. It isn’t hung from houses in general or at least not to the manic level it is in the US, most countries would view that as nationalism rather than patriotism and that leans way too much towards more uncomfortable elements associated with fascism, hence the pledging of allegiance is also associated with fascism rather than a modern democracy. In the UK, if you fly a flag from your home (unless it was during a sporting event), you would immediately be presumed as a nationalist, racist, etc. Hanging the flag from public administrative buildings is common, but homes, schools, churches, etc, that would be a step too far.
I’d be interested to know when it was, exactly, that the US did start hanging flags from their homes. I’d put money on it being a postwar kneejerk patriotism “lest we be labelled commies” rather than a natural, fluid, movement towards a more innocent form of patriotism. I’ve looked online to find more informaiton on this, and it seems that each question asked in this arena gets responses along the lines of “greatest country on Earth” “freedom”, “our fighting forces”, but nobody seems to understand how the situation came about, and when people stop asking questions, that’s when trouble brews.
Well said. As a Pittsburgh native who is dismayed by the fact that PA went to Trump (though Allegheny County stayed blue TYVM), I am glad that my adopted state didn’t put up a wall to keep me away!
Jim thank you for this tragic but important glimpse of our family’s history in such dark times. I found this on Wikipedia about how the Nazis killed all the Jews they found in Pavoloch — including likely many of our Ukrainian Jewish Shultz ancestors — in the “Pavoloch Massacre” that you mention your excellent article:
“After World War II ended, a memorial was erected in the cemetery, commemorating those that were brutally killed by the Nazis. Also, the old synagogue, that survived the short-lived Nazi occupation, is now a museum. It has the records of those that were murdered.”
I plan to visit Ukraine in the not-too-distant future, and when I do, I hope to visit Pavoloch and the synagogue there and see what I can learn from the records there.
Is the key only the collective of up to seven people with three key competitors; or is it also about the ability of the thinkers to get themselves and their ideas a wide audience. What are the key variables that lead to the enlargement and importantance of the audience?
There already is a train that goes from the Bay area all the way to Bakersfield! The farm that Wasco sign is on will be devastated by the speed rail due to lack of farming crossings (against the law to use Hwy 46 so no way to keep farm operations united), infrastructure destruction to the watering system, taking of the land without compensation for losses of functionality (they want to pay “some” but not buy the farm), and devalued land that will never be allowed to farm with high efficiency ever again.
Good idea, but similar to jury selection, the pool of candidates should first be selected by lottery and then the most qualified members of the pool should be selected by election. Though Aristotle said that lotteries are democratic and elections are oligarchic, he also held that both democracy and oligarchy are deviant forms of government. A mixture of democracy and oligarchy, he argued, can correct and balance the deficiencies of each. Beginning with a pool of candidates selected by lottery would pretty much guarantee that the oligarchic element (i.e., the rich and famous) would be virtually eliminated right off the bat. Elections then allow voters to determine who is most fit to serve. All candidates should receive a government stipend during their term of service. This procedure, by the way, would not only save a tremendous amount of money, it would also eliminate the two party system which James Madison (in Federalist 10) called one of the main causes of factional conflict.
The murder, not a duel, of Sec. of the US Treasury Hamilton is often reported in history as an unfortunate incident. Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton and Andrew Jackson killed the US National Bank. The implications of this and the existence of a cabal, (Burr, Van Buren, Jackson and others), that supported this treason is not fully known, appreciated, and examined. President Jefferson knew that Burr was at least a British agent and his plans for wresting a piece of North America for himself in combination with the bidding and service to the British, was treason, and definitely posed a threat to the young nation’s security. President Jefferson could have said more, however I believe he would not risk antagonizing the British, who could threaten war.
I guess it’s similar to ww1 and 2. Globalization got hijacked by abusive economic interests and the nationalists rose up… unfortunately both the nationalist Germans and the Communists were used by these economic powers. Same today, the Trumpite nationalists and the islamic terrorists are being used by the new economic powers of today
Of course there was already a reaction to the enlightenment that was not fundamentalism or nostalgic simplicity. It was Romanticism. It was enthralled with nature but also cosmopolitan life. It was not anti scientific but believed in a more naturalistic view of nature. It saw reason as important but imagination as the pinnacle of reason. It was in the words of the great writer and thinker Isaiah Berlin the basis of forming our diverse multicultural liberal democracies as he stated in “The Roots of Romanticism”.in Ecology we have a naturalistic science that also has a spiritual side it may be hard to free ourselves from religious fundamentalism or a reductionist and positivist science but the roadmap was laid out in the seemingly contradictory but human complexity found in Romanticism. I am not saying it has it all figured out but it should be acknowledged as pertinent to this discussion , we did not just go from the enlightenment to the present moment
Yes, Berlin did note that Romanticism in one aspect can be held partly culpable for fascism in its idea of an exuberance of personality but also in the very nature of Romanticism’s contradictory nature he saw it as the basis for a multicultural western liberal democracy which I feel is very much under threat.Look. others have looked at the enlightenment and perceived it as a cause of totalitarianism so one should give Romanticism credit for , as Blake would call it, the ” single vision: of the science of the enlightenment to make it more naturalistic, ecological and whole. There are no single or simple answers as the words( or ideas) of fascism, romanticism and enlightenment are complex structures with no clear boundaries to give definite answers.
An interesting argument between Voltaire and Casanova 300 years ago sheds more light on this problem, and shows that it’s been one that’s been festering but ignored for centuries-
Nice discussion. While it’s easy to assume our reality can be completely understood through reason alone, that doesn’t make it true. People who search for truth using religion or spirituality don’t necessarily have inferior reasoning ability. But I would agree with the premise that people search for meaning in life and it’s hard to find it using reason alone.
I want the Colorado ones since I know there are some Giant Steps, witches hat, a horse shaped climbing structure, a big square “monkey bars” and I’m sure plenty more because they keep coming up on Google image searches. I suppose I could dig deeper for meta-data but asking an audience might be easier.
The Ethnic Quilt was very useful to me in the early years of hosting “Which Way, LA?”after the riot/public disturbance/uprising of 1992. It’s great to see this update by two scholars who really know the territory. Their accounts of what’s literally happening on the ground help to shape our understanding of the social, economic and cultural changes in America’s most diverse region. Bravo for the new edition! –Warren Olney, KCRW radio
The trust comes from a common core of Christian beliefs in honesty and integrity. Without these core beliefs, if instead Hindu, Capitalist or Muslim beliefs in saying what works, then trust cannot be maintained. The scientific community has a new ethic these last couple of years, since many of them have abandoned their Christian heritage, they say whatever gets published. I agree Trump’s rhetoric is based on “what works”. The Republicans have turned from their Christian leadership to use What Works. We can only hope that the bully will fulfill some of the promises that brought along the Christian base.
“we have finally reached the limits of the Enlightenment’s cult of secular individualism.” is a conclusion that sends me dithering into despair. Though I think the article is good stuff I also think that individualism (and secularism) is more a consequence of globalization, and technology, than an idealism. We can make it an idealism, for or against, but in my research as an artist and poet I’ve pretty much determined that the mechanisms of community, such as craft, and other traditions of communalism, require long term cultural stasis over a period of generations to become “real” and sustainable. In those places, individualism is more the curiosity, where as in this era, the inevitable. We need to learn how to deal with it and make it better, while developing some cultural mechanisms of stasis to bridge our way through constant change, and the enlightenment’s tools of empiricism and law were therefore necessary developments, but so is modern art, civil rights, and many other developments.
You really need to study the Left for your Fascism. 100 percent of the violence we’re seeing now is coming from the Left. There is no call to violence coming from the Right, there are no right wing rioters in the street, and when people protested Obama’s policies they did it peacefully. How can the people who argue for less government, less rule by the elite – both here and in Europe – be called the Fascists? We are living through a strange time when revolutionaries are ‘struggling’ FOR government control rather than against it.
This must be the worst thing I’ve ever read on Brazil. The ’64 coup is grossly misinterpreted and treated as acceptable until its hardening at the end of the 60s. The fact Brazilians can be quiescent sits uncomfortably with the claim that the streets overthrowing governments indicates the weakness of its democracy.
Most egregious is the uncritical eye towards the impeachment of Dilma, as if it were quietly accepted, and not an outrageous attack on Brazilian democracy by the elite, who conspired to get rid of her because (a) she failed to back their neoliberal agenda and (b) she wouldn’t protect many leading politicians from corruption. These same politicians are now conspiring to give themselves amnesty from corruption investigations. And the idea the economy is on the up is fanciful.
🙂 I had noticed in an early version of this that Justus Buchler wasn’t represented at all, so I wrote the wikipedia page for him https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justus_Buchler and there he is! Now it appears I need to work to better establish the chain of influences…
Th middle way does not need to be seen as no conviction. It can be seen as the ownership of complexity and of the inevitable incompleteness of knowledge, the inevitability of everything in process, and the curiosity beyond the current moment about all that may happen next. Within that, it is still possible to take action(s), and love then, now, next.
So you want affordable housing for a servile class. An argument you disguise with rationalisations about ”certain professional, service, and demographic characteristics.”
Here’s the rub: Anything which loosens the restrictions of the Brown Act makes it easier for officials to be corrupt, to steal, to accept bribes. Regardless, I want to know everything that my representative says as a public official. How else am I to know if he or she is acting in my best interests?
Disclosure: I am an elected official (school board) and a board member of CalAware, an open government and transparency advocacy organization.
Discussing the threshold that would warrant a strong (possibly military) response versus something more passive and benign, is an important discussion to have with regard to cyber actions. One thing I believe we should look at closely is the distinction between a cyber action that has a physical effect versus a non-physical effect. An example of the former would be a cyber attack that leads to long term loss of power to a city. The effects would be clear and palpable. A non-physical effect might be the loss of trust and faith in political leaders and institutions. The effects here are much more nebulous; such an effect could have multiple causes as well. But a hostile actor strengthening that mistrust isn’t something we should ignore, especially if the actor can actually have a significant impact.
One last thing to keep in mind. The internet and social media provide a relatively new platform for information, political discourse, and even the perceptions and level of trust people have toward politicians and political institutions. In my view, this new landscape seems really vulnerable to disinformation campaigns and other types of political manipulation. A hostile actor willing to exploit these vulnerabilities, developing a military strategy based on this, and devoting significant resources to execute this strategy, could really wreck havoc in open, democratic society. This is even more true if that society doesn’t realize the way the internet/social media makes the democracy vulnerable.
My sense is that not enough Western leaders realize this.
That desirability of living in a city would raise demand for housing and thus keep housing costs relatively high seems like a reasonable point. But does this mean that reducing “housing supply restrictions” wouldn’t have a positive impact on housing costs? I was hoping the article would shed light on this question, as well as shed light on the impact of desirability of a city and housing supply restrictions affect housing costs.
I agree with the General Officer. Technology cannot replace humanity, or human values.
It is only a tool which we should master without losing our humanity.
Only can across the article now – but found it very informative. I think we may be in a time period of ‘muddled’ understanding in relation to extra terrestrial life. We may have to go through a process of finding primitive life forms on Mars or other planets and eventually some indirect contact with intelligent et’s. That would give time for society to adjust!
Nice article. I’ve seen you a few times in Downtown Disney and love your music. You played “I sang along” for me before a fireworks show and it was a highlight of my evening. Keep up the great work!
If cyberwarfare blurs the line between wartime and peacetime, could it also blur the line between crime and terrorism? And what is the line between crime and terrorism particularly as it applies to political response? The strategy and political ramification of treating an attack as a crime is very different from treating it as an act of war, I would imagine. James Madison is often cited with this warning, “No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare”. Cyber threats interpreted through the lens of warfare as opposed to criminal activity opens doors that we do not yet understand how to secure.
Good to see your revisiting of crossing the Golden Gate Bridge by rail. I’ve long seen mention that the bridge was originally designed to accommodate rail on a lower deck. I think it was with heavy-rail trains in mind, not just light rail. SMART is considered heavy rail.
Marin’s low population makes it difficult to warrant the expense of crossing the bridge by rail. The route from Sausalito to the bridge seems like it would be very expensive, rising from sea level to 200 feet over some serious topography. While better access to the Bay Area will bring more pressure to develop Marin, that will be controlled by laws as desired. I’m not sure which will require more expense.
I’ve lived in Marin all my life and have dreamed of efficient mass transit here that connects to the rest of the Bay Area, for well over two-thirds of my 63 years. In my mind I’ve mapped out the alignment in extensive detail, from Larkspur to Mill Valley to Sausalito to the Golden Gate Bridge–been constructing it for decades. When SMART opens later this year it will be 76 years since Marin’s jewel-box commuter rail system was dismantled.
While Professor Reitzammer excellently highlights certain interesting aspects of the Athenian tension between citizens and resident aliens, she neglects to mention that Athens also harbored a mostly invisible large slave population who performed a wide range of needed civic and household functions. Also, when discussing Athenian metics, it is important to remember that unlike contemporary societies in which immigrants can become naturalized citizens, only rarely were Athenian metics or their descendants permitted to acquire Athenian citizenship.
“The fact that ‘barbarian’ survives intact in modern English suggests that we still tend to see foreigners in a negative light.”
Really? You believe that English speakers of today who use the term “barbarian” are in the main aware of its origins in ancient Greek? And that those who employ it today–say, a parent faulting their child’s table manners (“Don’t eat like a barbarian”)–are consciously relating it to a negative image of foreigners? Take a look at how many words we use every day have origins of which we’re unaware, that have in fact changed meaning entirely over the centuries. To claim that contemporary use of the term “barbarian” suggests even understanding of its origins, much less agreement with those ancient sentiments, is just silly.
Ukrainian, I do believe that when I use the word “barbarian”, I have a mental picture in my head of a gigantic man, clad in animal hides, gnawing on the spit-roasted leg of some now extinct animal. My mother implanted that image there because she wanted me to be proud of how far we had come, of how much we had progressed from that reality. If we don’t believe our culture is superior to the “barbarion’s” then perhaps we should don a goatskin and sit in the dirt. We MUST believe that our way is better, or why even make the effort?
Hey Joe – great, light hearted pitch, wooing the silver state. I was born in Reno (one of those one in four) and now live and work in Los Angeles. I’d LOVE to have California and Nevada ‘hitch up’ but those rural cow and mining towns in Nevada (ever hear of Gabs? Winnemucca? Pioche?) are so afraid of being overwhelmed by Calis they would never agree to a date, let alone nuptials at Emerald Bay in Lake Tahoe. Sigh. Still longing for the Gal Next Door…
I live in Nevada. I grew up here. Myself and many others here in Nevada would definitely Not want to hitch up with California! Lolz! Many of your nutty politicians alone would have us screaming, “No”! 😉
I very much enjoyed this article and learned much about ancient Greek history. Tells me there is a great deal about it I have to learn.
However, I did not like the undertone that America is “xenophobic” or “anti-immigrant”. America is a large, populous nation with a lots of people who have different opinions about things. Many Americans are indeed “anti-immigrant”, but many are not.
Many Americans also make a distinction between immigrants arriving according to the rules and immigrants who do not. They are not “xenophobic” as much as they simply want rules to be followed.
In my experience, the more strident “pro-immigrant” folks care little for the concept of “how many”. A few million folks sidestepping the rules to take up residence here — temporarily or otherwise — may or may not matter much, but a couple hundred million or more might be a different matter.
I totally agree LA Bob. This nation exists and endures because of its adherence to a particular set of rules and culture. If immigrants come here to participate and enjoy what that culture affords them, then that is good. If they come here to enjoy the benefits, without embracing the laws and culture, then the nation loses a little of itself with each of their arrivals.
This idea serves better to the modern family model of working parents: it keeps children on care while parents work, and delivers then tired to tired parents. But does that mean better learning? Does that mean better citizens?
Actually, it means much more tired teachers that are left with even less time to plan lessons, prepare themselves and study or research. Children just happen to watch tired grown ups in school and then tired grown ups in home. What does that teach them?
Joe,
ALL of your points make sense to me. During my 38 year secondary teaching career, I could never figure out those days wherein so many (too many) students ambled out of classes/school as early as 2:00 p.m., for reasons as varied as the imagination will allow you to conceive (“shortened schedule,” student jobs, medical and other appointments, school-held meetings, gang-impending clashes, needed to “babysit,” religious observances, etc., etc., etc.).
❤️I think you are right about many things. But to fully apprehend and analyse the Swedish society you have to include the influence by Palme (who opened up our hearts to immigration long before Reinfeldt, and have made a substantial mark on Swedish policy), the murder of him ( that made our society harder with more surveillance and the satisfaction from the parties at the right now able to get more power) and king Gustaf III (who opened up our hearts to art and science and was one of our leaders that made us innovative) and our imperialistic past building our upper classes fortunes. I have also experienced the Swedish unwillingness to learn by other societies as I moved back from abroad. Supposedly partly as a result of our struggle internationally to push boundaries inside EU and in UN for gender rights, HBTQ rights, social rights and progress in the work for the Environment. But also because of pride and arrogance thinking our society is modern and more developed than others politically. A true democracy must undergo turmoils and shifts in opinions. Making it both vulnerable and strong. The open boarders and immigration was already setting a mark on the Society of Sweden since the early 70thies. And my last point is that the conclusion in the OECD report points out that the social democratic base of Sweden makes it more economically stable than other countries. Liselott
Too sunny, I’m afraid. The problem of poverty, a major cause of the riots, remains unabated. The tax increases that would address housing and such are very recent. Transit development is mainly rail designed to attract motorists, at the expense of bus riders too poor to buy a car. I could go on…
yes you could. And there are still problems. But are you denying the basic premise of the article that LA has taken positive steps forward from the 1992 riots?
Yes, I think it’s an exaggeration to say that. I think a bit of progress has been made to address poverty more recently but, for the most part, we’ve squandered over two decades and things have gotten worse in many respects. Also, the problem was never about people not knowing how to work and live together—-it’s poverty and racist cops. (These are the problems I’m talking about. Too little progress has been made.)
Very nicely written and thoughtful piece; the idea for Haiti is a really clear example of how to optimize existing infrastructure. The one for Ecuador is more complex and requires more legislation (which as this article points out is tricky) but attempts to do the same.
In America, we waste so much in our speculative culture, and our attitude towards building infrastructure is the same. Our type of capitalism is indicative of how we in America operate, we invest in potential because we believe we can outpace inflation; in Europe, it’s the other way around where inflation is the enemy, and advancement is based on what one has achieved, as opposed to what one believes one will achieve, the differing attitudes towards credits and loans reflect this. More in the context of this article: build what you need now vs. build what you think you will need tomorrow. That is not to say one should not plan for the future but being more focussed on solving today intelligently will lead to clearer methods for better addressing the future. In a strange way as I write this, I’m realizing that what is being proffered in this article is productive preservation. Nice!
Adjusting for inflation, the pavillion and top deck is still reasonable, while the all you can eat right field is more than adequate for what you get. The subway to Union Station which brings you to the Dodgers shuttle is an excellent alternative from having to pay for parking. As far as the class and race division at the stadium, I simply don’t see it. The diversity is all around you, no matter the location. My experience does not support this strange take on the current state of an organization clearly dedicated to the fan experience and to building a year in and year out contender.
LA’s rail expansion is heartening but so disappointing when you actually use it. The EXPO line practically crawls on the tracks. On my recent trip, it took an hour from DTLA to SM. Contrast that with BART in SF, where trains beat cars handily. BART trains can run at up to 80 mph. We need high speed transit, not toy trains.
And I hear there is a plan to build a DTLA Streetcar loop that goes at 6 mph!! Seems like an expensive toy to me. A self driving minibus could do the job much cheaper.
What a great article from ZocaloPublicSquare.org !
It covers a lot of territory, though it doesn’t mention that because the Dodger property had been taken forcibly from homeowners and paid for by US federal government funds – that when the federal government signed its portion of ownership rights over to the city of L.A., it was under the condition that all the property be used “for the people” (as the original stated purpose for forcibly taking people’s homes and properties was to provide more and better housing for Angelenos – including all home and property owners in Sulfur & Cemetery Ravines – commonly called Chavez Ravine, though) who were forced out due to their homes and land being seized…. ……
I hadn’t been aware of the detailed cost-of-living economics laid out in this article – which are nicely reported by Zocalo – but even under the O’Malley’s ownership – even then at what seems reasonable pricing looking back – many have to agree, Dodger stadium and baseball wasn’t genuinely a public purpose nor a use that fits the definition “for the people”.
At least, however, there was affordable access to view games at reasonable costs – Dodger games (tickets) were affordable to most Angelenos – though I’m not sure about concerts and other “outside events” held there.
Though many Angelenos didn’t and don’t feel taking people’s homes for a baseball stadium & associated parking is appropriate, at least the end result was sports entertainment accessible to most Angelenos.
Further, the intermingling of attendees who were from more diverse socio-economic backgrounds than currently is the case, was definitely a benefit.
It’s unfortunate that at present, many Angelenos are shutout from access to viewing games live at the stadium and even from watching on the small screen (TV)!
In the Dodgers favor, however, from my point of view, more free tickets have been offered this year to the surrounding community that’s inconvenienced by stadium events – than I can remember in recent past years – so that’s a good indication that the Dodgers don’t take the remaining surrounding neighborhoods for granted.
At least this small gesture of thanks is currently being made to the communities surrounding the stadium property but it doesn’t eliminate the continuing disparity between Dodger attendees and those who aren’t able to attend games due to economic barriers.
Occasionally we read that the Dodgers might move from Dodger Stadium and the underlying concept is that the current Baseball team ownership might be able to sell and profit from the property and it might be repurposed.
This arrogant assumption is inaccurate based on the last hundred years history of the property and I caution the Dodger ownership not to consider vacating their now long-time home – unless they wish to return the property either to the people who owned the property prior to the city and federal property seizures or to return it to the City of Los Angeles and/or the U.S. Government or some mix of these parties and take a tax write-off for the land
return (donation)!
You didn’t discuss the impact of free agency on baseball economics. You can charge less when teams literally own the players and can pay them peanuts. Now that market dynamics affect player salaries, you’re going to see increased costs that get passed on to the consumer. I’m okay with that if it means players are getting paid what they’re worth. You have to admit Koufax, Drysdale, etc were severely underpaid.
The “problem” of higher ticket prices is something that impacts all teams; not just the Dodgers. I don’t think it’s fair to single them out.
“Overbooking is a necessity for airlines to manage their seat capacity. That’s because of a fact of life: Many people fail to show up for flights upon which they’re booked.” In my experience, if you miss a flight you still have to pay for it. Airlines make very clear that, unless you’ve bought cancellation insurance, there are no refunds. Nor do they “hold” seats without payment, like a restaurant. Seems to me that the reason airlines overbook is simple greed: they essentially sell the same seat more than once. Sorry — that’s double dipping and should be illegal. No sympathy here.
Manuel cruz is my uncle my name is Dolores cruz and my uncle just passed away yesterday 5/9/2017 and I’m sitting here sharing his life with my children. I loved my tio so much and have to say am very proud to be his niece. I hope to see more of his work and i hope my people (chicano’s) learn to be proud of their race and share their history with their children as well. May he rest in peace. Forever in my heart.
The really dangerous video game is the one promoted and played by
military policy-makers: drone warfare, and the policies, morality, and
budgets which keep feeding the machine.
Statues without context only benefit or offend those who know the story and each will cling to their own version. In the end, in my opinion, the removal was not for those who are offended but for those who argue in circles for the lost cause, adamantly linking the War of Southern Rebellion to the historic southern economy of genteel hospitality. It was not the war of northern aggression, the historic south’s economy was based upon and inextricably tied to slavery as a benefit and revenue generator for the wealthy and landed gentry, to claim that slaves were treated well doesn’t address the bondage, selling, training, feeding, watering, controlling, abusing, punishing, torturing, slaughtering, raping and obvious white supremacy of slavery.
This removal is essentially a big FU to those people who revered and cherished those statues., who in public deny white supremacy but wrap themselves in that flag. In light of the potential desperate acts to follow this, I suggest that better historical interpretation be considered and maintained at the sites where memorials to lynched slaves and black Americans be erected.
The ONLY justification for not removing the confederate statues is to build a series of monuments around them that utterly recontext-ualize them. To that end we should always know how many slaves they owned, there should always be a statuary memorial to the number of slaves that existed in that area, and the relevant passage from that state’s legislative declaration of the reasons for secession (in defense of the maintenance and the spread of slavery) should be likewise published. If the state or other organization interested in maintaining the confederate statuary is willing to recontextualize to that extent, then I welcome their continuation. Otherwise, I demand their removal branch and root.
Just a tad late to the game don’t you think? Morally criminal, you must be talking about Mr. Putin’s entire administration.
No matter, I don’t think there are any areas of agreement between us on who the good guys and the bad guys are. Прощай
There was no honor in being a traitor against the Republic in the cause of white supremacy. That is what the Confederate-Americans continue to support to this day through the work they do in the Republican party.
So then, should I have another cup of coffee and perhaps muse with others about Michael Angelo and the meaning of existentialism while I wait for global warming and human denial to extinguish my life and the lives of all other humans?
Thanks for the article. AS a long standing Coachella Valley resident i can tell you the following:
Our desert area was always betting on outsiders to survive economically. We had always relied on winter visitors (snowbirds from Canada) to pump money into our economy. But when Goldenvoice ‘coachella’ developed from a one Friday night, into a Friday , sat event; and now into two weekends! our economy hasn’t looked better. I remember how the Polo grounds which is the place where the Coachella Fest takes place was in deep financial trouble in the 90’s -the owner was looking into selling the entire place dirt cheap as a consideration; has now made a 360 turn and is more financially stable than ever.
While this music festival still sells out in minutes every year, I don’t really buy into the hype:
Their prices keep going up and I frankly, cannot keep up anymore. Yes it’s nice to hear plenty of bands at one event, but in all sincerity, how many times do I need to show up at a musical fest where the weather is so unpredictable and dusty? Full of drunk people? and watching your back from thieves stealing your wallet or your phones? (I got mine stolen during Kaskade’s set)
In contrast, I’ve been to the Garlic Festival. That one was very, very family friendly. It’s good to hear they actually provide support and donations toward local nonprofits too.
Will the music festivals bubble burst? Not as long as you have a different mix of bands playing. Those college aged fans will still come – regardless of the uncomforted feeling of the Desert heat, annoying transportation issues and hotel accommodations going up. Why? Because this newer generation is self centered and they truly believe if they don’t show thru their social media feed they made it here? then their social status declines.
Goldenvoice is making money waaaaay before they even book any artists – their passes just went up for sale 3 days ago. Think about it. They already making money as you read this; revolving these monies into interests… crazy eh?
I wish you would open up shop in Davidson. I grew up in Brook Park and ate Hough’s all of my life. I now live in Davidson, NC and there are no really good bakeries down here. It would be a blessing.
Disingenuous in two aspects:
1) Is there any mention in this article of the self contained mechanisms within USA Constitution for amending and outrightly changing it? Why not? If reasons for all discussion are in genuine will to improve on it-why absolutely no focus on existing mechanisms, some of which are via representative Government and some through fundamentally grassroots based direct democracy?
2) Author also fails to understand the very purpose of this document, despite great learned status. Constitution is not there to nitpick issues but to put foundation and frame on which laws addressing all “important issues” (and indeed all issues) for this author are to be done. To protect Citizens by giving them fundamental human rights that do not differ through culture or ages: Life, Liberty, Pursuit of happiness/right to make their own decisions, complete freedom to express themselves, freedom to believe or not, freedom to defend themselves with all available assets. Also to explicitly limit the power of Government with negative rights regarding all those most fundamental human rights. NOTHING FURTHER.
End of story. Immigration, education, healthcare… be it issues that people may see as important are NOT fundamental rights independent of age and culture. Any “solution” that includes those secondary constructs can and inevitably will impede some of real fundamental rights for some. Hence, Government can’t and should never be allowed to mandate to the free people any of those other aspects. Managing them while recognizing this important limit is permitted, that is what our laws are doing.
Teresa Munafo sounds extremely similar to my own grandmother, Rosaria Randazzo Travali, from Montelepre, Sicily. Also, not a particular warm person, her crocheted afghans, table coverings and knitted booties still keep me company.
It’s a story that many seem to relate to. How, in our youth, we can’t seem to appreciate the lives, struggles and gifts of our elders, but as we, too, mature, we see the gems they leave us.
This story is beautiful. I remember the places where she went with her Father. The ‘junkyard’ when I was growing up, was a ‘make out’ spot for teenagers. So long ago. Madeline, you became a beautiful woman with so much talent, Your Father was and is, my friend, he never said an unkind word about me, always smiled at me with those big blue eyes. His kindness showed me he was so different then any other man I knew. He was and always will be my brother in law and my friend. You have a beautiful future ahead of you, take it slow and enjoy every minute of it.——ellen mcsherry
Wow!!? I like it!!? Zocalo has matured into the world of thoughtful reporting. Excellent article. The Pegasus analogy was spectacular. This and your shipping article are two of the best secular article I have read this year. Thank you
The author is either uninformed or willfully blind to some important facts: an independent, scholarly review of the bill has been released, and SB 562 represents a massive savings for individual constituents AND business. Remember when Toyota said they will never build another plant in the US, that they would rather build in Canada? That’s only one example of how Single Payer rids business of the vampire fangs at their neck…the fangs of the “Health Insurance” multi-national corporations. The Insurance industry adds NOTHING to the quality of health care, it is a DRAG on health care outcomes, and it stands between doctor and patient, making decisions that are based on COST, not value.
Read the analysis for yourself. http://healthcareforall.org/economic-analysis-sb-562-5-29-2017
Interesting history. The world still doesn’t recognize the excellent county efforts to provide for the poor. Localized efforts will manage costs and customize care much better than national programs. Yes this is conservative, but try to reconcile why conservative and more healthy Midwest folks, should have to pay for the sex change operations being proposed in the California prison system. Even Californians have trouble with it but at least we see it coming from our own political environment.
Dr. Weinberg, thank you for your thoughtful analysis. I would like to respond to, and/or clarify, a few of your points, as follows:
1) “Illegality” – You state that it’s illegal to fail to provide any of the benefits of Medicare and Medicaid (Medical). My understanding of SB 562 is that it meets that standard, and thus would not be “illegal”.
2) Cost – you quote $400 billion, and compare it to the rest of California’s budget. That is a false equivalency and misleading.
It is a false Equivalency because Healthy California will be an entirely separate program, funded entirely separately. For comparison, CMS’s (Medicare + Medicaid + CHIPS) budget is many times the non-military budget of the US.
It is misleading because you neglect to mention that Californians are now spending $500 billion on their healthcare, some paid as taxes, some paid as insurance premiums, and some paid directly to medical “providers”. Healthy California would immediately save about $100 billion, not cost an additional $400 billion.
3) Lack of cost restraints – You allege that when a patient receives the care prescribed by a physician that medical costs will soar without limit. As patients, we see insurers (who limit our doctors) as greedy bastards practicing medicine without a license. On what planet do you find it appropriate to let someone without any medical knowledge or training, who has never examined you, determine what course of treatment is most appropriate for you?
To put it more politely, Healthy California begins with the fee-for-service Medicare model most beloved by Medicare “beneficiaries”. There are no provisions in the plan that prevent the adoption of any of the cost-control measures you contemplate, including HMOs like the very medically and financially successful Kaiser Permanente system.
4) Flying Horses vs ponies – You pretend a metaphor, but you create a straw man (a false representation easily shown to be flawed). Healthy California will immediately save me $100 billion. How is that a Pegasus? It sounds like a thoroughbred to me. I’ll ride that pony.
Excellent article. I’m as much for universal healthcare as anybody, but when I read there would be no copays and fee for service I was wondering what they were thinking. And at a cost double the size of the entire budget? This is like the variation of the universal basic income idea where there wouldn’t even be a means test.
The recent trend of underwriting the fawning over and lionizing Hamilton is pretty obvious propaganda, and it’s pretty obvious why. He was a loyal servant of the london bank, and privately run central banks in general.
Hi Joe – You are spot on as usual. After years of nonpartisan civic participation programs that put “more public in public policy”, about five years ago Common Knowledge added more creative and human-oriented projects that put “more unity in community.” In addition to formal arts organizations, there are great projects that democratize who and what is an “artist.” Different ways of convening people is an art form in itself. I hope you get a good conversation going!
We’re trying to do our own little bit down here in PG, but sadly it is still a challenge getting support and interest from our own people. In our drumming classes for local children we happily welcome all – girls, boys, and all cultures – but it is telling that not a single Garifuna student is enrolled. Often people only value their culture once they leave it or once it has disappeared.
Yeah that’s so true…. we are doing the same that Warasa is doing but in Belize city. … however we have been lucky to have been able to teach young Garifuna kids how to play the drums with the help of the YCT program and the Police Community of Yabra.
Or: grow your own. It’s called weed because it grows like a weed. Water, sun, a bit of horse manure, and you’re a pot farmer. If you can smoke four small plants’ worth of pot in a year you might consider cutting back. No distributors, no Brinks trucks, no grow lights. And no value. It’s free.
The folks who sponsored the legislation said there were little issues like how to pay for this
most magnanimous program. I can have a lovely life if we don’t ask where the money is coming from. Where do they get these people? Do they come from the Pelosi School of Governance?
For me, the story is about how women’s seemingly ordinary lives and work change the trajectory of people’s lives around them. Men set out to conquer the world; Women conquer the world just by being.
There’s also a Lafayette section in Jersey City and a Lafayette Park on Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles along with a statue of the marquis. Lafayette was made an honorary citizen of the United States and at least some of his descendants have inherited that distinction, e.g. the comte de Chambrun, Pierre Laval’s son in law.
Germany’s great scientist Baron Alexander von Humboldt also has many places in the USA (and elsewhere) named after him. Maybe he’s a runner-up.
I believe the same is true of technology-it is there to serve people and not the other way around! Shouldn’t we be making people smarter, rather than making computers smarter? And what happens when all the world’s devices on the Internet are smarter than us? Will they think they no longer need us, and try to eradicate us? Science Fiction has been addressing these questions since Jules Verne, but these younger generations of techies are ignoring lessons of the past, and lurching us blindly toward a very uncertain and turbulent future, when the opposite should be happening!
One of the negative effects of Hamilton, as Isenberg demonstrates, is that Hamilton will now be used by many on the left as an accurate account of history.
For example, the line from “Yorktown” which emphatically states, “Immigrants, we get the job done,” has been cited by progressives as a proof that Hamilton was pro-immigration. However, when one takes a deeper look at Hamilton’s views of immigration, he was very nationalistic and believed that immigration would only serve as a detriment to the growth of the nascent United States. Yet, progressives continue to uphold Alexander Hamilton as one of their champions.
Truth is often ugly, especially when it conflicts with our dearest, deepest-held beliefs. Progressives would be well-advised to crack open a history book once in a while.
“a place where the people who get the most votes actually win the elections”
LMAO. And when it looks like a representative who’s part of the ruling elite might get recalled because the peons don’t like his votes, the cronies who run the state add legislation to a budget bill that circumvents the people’s right to recall. That’s how progressive California is. Venezuela progressive.
You have a valid point. America is better off without Texas and California. Have them both secede simultaneously and you will be left with a country that is politically moderate and English speaking, and humbled by the consequences of having neglected and even mocked the losers on both the left and right in the congressional gerrymandering game. Those who are fed up with the Federal government need to abandon their Sovereign Citizen fantasies and push for separation of powers or sober amicable secession.
Let’s work on lowering the poverty number by increasing wages for the working poor. We need to see if our economy can survive without cheap labor. Everyone needs to pay their employees more and take less profit. Some of these higher paid employees may break out of the need to work so many hours and use their skills to help grow our economy . I don’t know if this will work as most people are fearful and want to accumulate as many resources they can for themselves and not share unless they are forced to, but I would like to see if it can work. PAY YOUR EMPLOYEES MORE!
Hello Jim have you ever owned a business? Have you ever had to let someone go because business was down?What is the right profit? What is right pay? I have been a small business owner for 16 years and it is not what everyone thinks. With a majority of employers being small businesses your comments are very difficult. Understand what it takes to run a business and then let me know how you would answer these questions. Generalizations are dangerous.
Thanks Matthew for your passionate response. I have owned and run 2 businesses in 33 years. I have seen scores of business over these years.l have Let go about a handful of people over those years.
It’s easy to know how much profit is enough. Spread the wealth and see how strong your company can be. I don’t generalize,l know what I have seen. Most of the successful companies I have seen pay more than the average in their field. Think about it.
A example of someone, in this case a general, whose selfish ambitions were put first. Even before his country and the lives of men, women and children, even men in his own command.
Orders may be what they are, however, they never justify atrocities, for even in war, there still can be murder.
The heat of battle has always brought pain, suffering and death, yet during the chase, such heat can grow cold.
Honor must always be maintained to justify actions in war, for only then can there be no murder.
No matter what the time period, such definitions remain the same, for honor transcends the centuries even into our own time. So does respect for an enemy.
It seems that General Howard used his orders to achieve the fame he wanted and put himself before his county, and even his honor. History regrets his actions, showing increased compassion for Chief Joseph and his people, the Nez Perce.
A 1975 movie “I Will Fight No More Forever” was made about Chief Joseph and General Howard.
Sam Elliott played Capt Wood who was really Second Lieutenant Charles Erskine Scott Wood.
Lt. Wood disliked the way Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce were treated believing the entire campaign was wrong and became a Nez Perce advocate.
General Howard never understood how history would judge him as he put his personal ambitions first by justifying the wrongs he did by calling it “war”
An excellent article, but you fail to point out the hypocrisy of the white Protestant plan to “assimilate” the Native Americans to their culture.
One nation, the Cherokee, Chad tried that path in their ancestral homeland. They translated the Bible to Cherokee; wrote a Constitution based on the US one; build schools, town, and adopted Western dress. They published books and newspapers in their language at a time when many non-English speaking immigrant communities did the same thing.
A successful assimilation – until Andrew Jackson’s backers wanted their land.
And the Trail of Tears was born.
Beautiful history. Thanks. We all have regrets. So many tribes, it is a shame we did recognize and defend the good. But the. None are good, right? Any tribe would have offenders to our high sensibilities. Thankfully we are trying to restore their dignity and sovereignty. Never too late to try. Bless you all….
Fantastic idea to reduce our semitruck traffic in LA. If you have ever traveled the 40 heading west you know all those trucks are pouring down the 15 into LA to get to the 5 North.
I’m crying…..being fifty two raised in Los Angeles but family roots in D.C. I grew up not seeing concrete racism But definitely saw the pain of segregation. Pain from my father’s parents…..from my parents and aunt’s and uncles….the colorizism…..going out one’s way to lighten up children. I look nothing like 1st cousins……very painful stuff
I am a white man raised in Camden Arkansas. I went to segregated schools all my life until college. I was born in Munich Germany, dad a soldier, mom a citizen of Belgium…..guess I inherited 50% of “the curse” When in high school, I would listen to the recorded messages of Dr. King broadcast from the Black owned radio station. I was a ministerial student, he inspired me….I saw the struggle as both moral and political because of his sermons.
In 1966, I went to college in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas…..a small town in East Arkansas in the middle of a cotton field where segregation was a religion. I met my first black person as a fellow student, Evelyn. I smiled at her and always greeted her…I had no idea what she was facing everyday. Her words are written my college year book….1967…..” Jim, you were always nice to me, Evelyn.” Why does that feel like an indictment today? Thank you for sharing your painful journey.
A very useful history of the empathy concept, adding its connection to aesthetics without overly broadening the concept. In fact, my use of the concept (following Titchener’s distinction from sympathy, and using the mirror neuron foundation) is now deepened, not diffused, as I can connect empathy with the “feeling in” of the arching branches of a towering tree. Thank you for connecting my clinical work to my near-pantheist aesthetics!
Next we can connect both of these to the research, done in prisons, cities, and colleges, showing the wellness benefits not only of social connection but also of experiencing the visual complexity of nature.
Hey Sara, this is a fabulous article, of great interest. I’ll make one observation: empathy goes together with cooperation, while it doesn’t go with competition. So maybe that’s why more individualistic societies tend to score lower on empathy.
“Sears tried to undermine organized labor, successfully resisting it even though several other traditional flagship department stores had unionized by the 1940s and 1950s. Company leaders resisted 20th-century progressive social movements that sought economic equality for African Americans and women. Like other department stores, Sears contributed both to structural and daily acts of racism, against customers and workers. African-American boycotts against Sears in the 1930s, for example, exposed racist hiring practices; in the late 1960s, welfare-rights activists revealed the firm’s discriminatory credit policies.”
BMI is actually a useful tool. Probably more useful than many medical tests. But it must be used in context. Like any tool, out of context, it creates nonsensical errors.
How can BMI be used ‘in context’? Currently, when BMI is calculated, it is compared to some national average. That, of course, produces nonsense.
BMI needs to be compared to a personal goal. When it is compared to a personal goal, it produces a useful measure of healthiness. Over our lifetimes, our activities, our goals, our age, changes – and our BMI goal needs to change as well. A BMI personal goal is not determined by ‘average’. Every BMI goal should be individual, at this point in time. But that’s more difficult. It’s more difficult, because it produces more thought, and more useful answers.
to your health, tracy
Great discussion. I agree that social media has its pros and cons. For me it has more cons than pros. I found myself to concerned about what others may think and wondering why people did respond to my posts. Finally, I decided to virtually stop using is all together. I have shut down all accounts accept one and even that one I only use to post on occasion. I now post in an effort to educate and open people’s minds. Does it matter to me whether or not they read my post = no! If I have just one person read an article I posted than that is one person who has grown a little. My job is not to please other people – my job is to please myself. I don’t need the social devices out there to validate who I am or what my feelings are. I am fine just the way I am. Thank you for sharing how important genuine empathy is in this technological age.
Had the pleasure of sitting down and talking with Kevin Starr some three years ago at Loyola High and he was truly a fount of information, a gentleman and a great listener.
Your article is useful but fails when you write: “Sears embodied many of the uglier aspects of American capitalism.” To agree with you is to agree that the United Kingdom is in decline today because it ignored the atrocities of King Leopold in the Congo and its cruel treatment of a national hero – Alan Turing.
Perhaps we’re gradually making our way back to cave drawings as we experience the dissolution of language. We’ve dissolved into 2 minute attention spans and governance by Tweets by a “supreme leader” whose use of language is as gruntingly inarticulate as his ever changing take on the truth. The original intent of emoticons was to show emotions connected to words– a smile as a friendly punctuation, or whatever. They weren’t meant to replace words. I am reminded of the an original picto-language— street lights with walk, wait, don’t walk. When I was a young student I was in Munich and marveled at a drunk walking down the street at 1 o’clock in the morning with no cars in sight. When the “Nicht gehen” don’t walk Red Figure appeared in the light, the seriously inebriated guy halted firmly in his tracks and would NOT proceed until the light changed. He was “controlled” by the message of the little man in the light. I guess my concern would be the inarticulate nature of the images. Will we eventually start wars with something as inarticulately simplistic? Picture this– an emoticon shaking a missile at North America– another shaking one back– one that is a giant explosion. OMG We’re at war!! Emoticon– mushroom cloud. But will it result in a smiley face, or a re-election, or a new emojified way of not negotiating peace. If I had a peace symbol I’d add it now– In the end, some things ARE simple, and others are not at all simple. And the world is much to complicated to replace articulate language with pictographs because we can’t be bothered with language, grammar, vocabulary because we’re intimidated by it. In the meanwhile, chimpanzees are catching up to us.
Gee, no mention that state highway 138 is currently being widened to two lanes in each direction – from state highway 14 all the way east to I-15 in the Cajon Pass.
Brenda, her father and her family are inspirations for myself and so many others. Keep fighting. You all have demonstrated more power than you can imagine.
Enjoyed your “Riding Trains” learning experience. It reminded me of being seated ever night for a week with a couple who lived through holocaust concentration camps. Getting to know this couple over “breaking bread” on our honeymoon 35 years ago was an indelible and inspiring memory for us. I doubt previous generations realize how influential the relatively insignificant one-on-one conversations can be in forming a young person’s worldview.
I love traveling on Amtrak for these and other reasons, including not having to wait in long lines to go through metal detectors! We take the train instead of flying whenever it’s available and we have the extra travel time available. It is just the best, and if you make reservations far enough in advance, usually a better buy for the money, if not cheaper in total.
Nice article. I was an Air Force Dependent and was on the upper deck with my mother and two sisters while you were aboard. Too funny. Dad was already up at Ladd AFB (later years Ft. Wainwright). I have a government post card of the USS Funston and also pictures taken by my mother in 1951.
Great read. The train is so much more humane than air travel, especially these days. And the best part is seeing the natural landscape, not just the gray highway and a bunch of metal cars.
Good piece! I worked in the minor leagues a few years and I’d forgotten many of its charms; thanks for the reminder. If you’ve not been, it’s hard to describe other than to say the experience is fun and quite amusing (the promotions are often a humorous nod and wink to their “minor” status). Every baseball fan should try it out.
Beautiful article, Joe. It beckons great memories that I have taking my son to California League & Pacific Coast League games…..great baseball environment without the cost and arrogance of MLB. Eight years ago, my son talked me into taking him to a California League game to see this hotshot centerfielder that my son claimed was the next coming of Willie Mays (we’ve heard that a few times before, haven’t we?). We not only saw the young man perform on the field, but he posed for a picture with my son after the game and gave him his autograph too. He was such a nice guy……………….Mike Trout.
great read ! Thx for stirring similar memories of trips all over NA. I also used to fly a lot — before bonus miles 250k a year. Today I take a train whenever it is going near where I want to be. Such a pleasure.
My wife and I loved train travel. Often, she was the one to book the trip. We used the gated, guarded train station in Santa Ana, California for all of our travels up and down the state. We always used business class for the comfort–the wide seats with great seat pitch, the free coffee, and the newspapers that would come on when the train made a stop in a big city. Where there was no connection, we used the Amtrak Thruway bus service, a far cry from the cramped Greyhounds of old. Conversations with other travelers and the train crew were plusses. We talked for an hour one day with the road foreman of engines, making his usual tour of the route. Great learning for both of us. Thanks for this article.
I stopped reading at the Lexus Lanes argument (“Adding a toll lane allows rich people to drive fast and reduces the capacity on the freeway for everyone else.”)
That claim has been refuted by more than one study, e.g., in Washington state in 2008. https://www.planetizen.com/node/35745
People use express lanes when they need to. And having the option to use them for a toll is a huge money-saver compared to the risk of a ticket when a solo driver in a rush opts to use a carpool lane, which happens to be the biggest problem with those lanes, according to a Mercury News report in June.
This very interesting and historically enlightening article is seriously flawed by the last paragraph which is absolute nonsense. It is not “self-preservational realism” or any other kind of rational thinking that caused the Nissan workers to vote against their own self-interest. I don’t know why they voted against themselves but i suspect that it is about intellectually unsophisticated workers succumbing to intimidation. I grew up in Detroit where first generation immigrant factory workers with little education like both of my grandfathers had the courage and insight to fight to unionize the auto industry. That gave them entry into a home owning lifestyle with good health care and a comfortable retirement. They may have been aided by a progressive political atmosphere exemplified by the New Deal in America and workers progress in the USSR and other parts of Europe. The failure of Southern workers to accomplish a similar goal may be due to generations of being beaten down in a political environment hostile to justice within the current larger political context of corporate oligarchic ascendancy. It may also have something to do with solidarity. Those Detroit auto workers of diverse backgrounds, with the exception of white nativists and Southern white scabs (surprise, surprise), formed bonds of trust and loyalty that have been proudly passed down to at least the next two generations. It seems the Southern political leadership and global corporate goons have succeeded in dividing workers to prevent that sense of truly realistic self-preservational group loyalty from developing. I don’t know for sure but all that seems a lot more plausible to me than a pat on the back to workers who not only chose their exploiters over themselves and their families but worked on their oppressors behalf against their working class brothers and sisters.
“And Oakland should find that the eventual departure of the Raiders from O.co Coliseum, as well as the exit of basketball’s Golden State Warriors from the arena next door to the Coliseum, opens up all kinds of transformational opportunities for a piece of land that sits next to a transit center and a short distance from the city’s airport.”
Thank you for your article in the Sacramento Bee two weeks ago.
You can’t get there from here. Remember when Cal Trans had started a program to set up transportation hubs, I think it was under Adriana Gianturco? When I served on the Sacramento Regional Transit Board of Directors We started to build the Light Rail system. I could not get a priority list together for system expansion that included the SP Depot or the Metro Airport. I can ride a bus from my daughters home in Woodland on Yolo Bus, but can not get to the Air Port on Regional Transit. The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors control the airport and serve on the Regional Transit Board of directors: the right hand does not know what the left is doing. A private group of people calling themselves “Modern Transit Society”got the light rail system started ( I was an active member with the concept of wheelchair access without mechanical lifts that break down).
Is there a way of getting Cal Trans to make the transportation hubs a priority? Is there a way to get the transit board to work with the airport commission? I am eighty years old and do not feel up to the job I see that our local transportation works as it could.
the crippling and coming back could make a good second and third act, respectively (first one being her intro/establishing) be it as part of the same film or a series of them. having said that, the whole “paralyzed but then got better” thing is kinda cliched and since somebody super close in the bat-fam already did it (in print and screen) it could be seen as lacking creativity.
Maybe the, ahem! “American Dream”, can be centered around “the SECOND home”… given the predilections of the one at the helm presently (he’ll do anything to show he can do it one-handed too!).
I never use my primary hard drive except for applications. Store your data offline. Flash sticks or drives, DVDs, CDs, just so ransomware can go to hell. Oh, get GeekSquad so they can set you back up after an attack.
Although there are many web sources of old radio programs including YouTube, check out archive.org if you are looking for one. Of course, you can also buy many of them in CD collections from various suppliers. Radio had to adjust when TV came along. If you were a kid on the east coast in the 1950s-70s – or an adult – you would know the name of Jean Shepherd. Check him out on archive.org – there are many, many hours available – if you don’t know his work. A documentary (movie) is coming out on Shepherd. His radio stories are the basis of the movie A Christmas Story which has become something of a classic. http://www.flicklives.com/
I guess I don’t understand why the forest didn’t originally repopulate with its native mix of trees when farming was abandoned. Why was it predominantly white pine? And if white pine is so aggressive, after the hurricane, why didn’t it regrow all white pine again?
I had the same thought. It really doesn’t make sense. The same post agricultural regrowth took place in parts of New England and New York not hit by the ’38 storm and those forests are deciduous not pine.
Under the white pine forest was a seed bank and sapling understory that was primed for hardwood regrowth. White pine seedlings are not as tolerant of their own shade as many hardwood species so the hardwoods had the jumpstart. In places not hit by the storm the same thing happened but at a more gradual pace as logging occurred and smaller storms knocked down the big pines. It’s great to see the big solitary pines punching up thru the hardwood canopy nowadays. Once they get thru the canopy they have no competition except from the wind again. If you ever get the chance to visit the Fisher Museum at the Harvard Forest in Petersham MA it has great dioramas explaining the history of the New England forest. http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/fisher-museum
I find the headline a little misleading and confusing. If I’m understanding the article correctly, white pine was prevalent only in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and the hurricane altered the then-typical forest of those states. Vermont had a better mix of deciduous trees than Massachusetts or New Hampshire, and the article mentions nothing about the other three New England States.
The author deserves kudos for pointing out the little-known fact that equal state-by-state representation in the Senate, unlike other constitutional provisions, can’t be altered by constitutional amendment. For those who may not be inclined to accept this on his say-so, that strangely unique prohibition is found in Article 5.
In 1962 Jay Ward, June Foray, and Bill Scott were supposed to have visit President Kennedy to ask that Mooselvania be recognized as a country. But they couldn’t see him. The Cuban Missile Crisis was beginning.
A large landowner in Scotland has discovered, by experimentation, that cattle manure is much better for the sol and the plants than sheep manure. SS is a lot worse than BS, it seems.
Two irrefutable arguments for Single Payer, even though I would refer labeling it, MediCare for All. 1. It will cost less than what is currently spent on the present system of healthcare. 2. Nobody should slip through the huge cracks that exist now. Everybody gets covered. Let’s get over it, in the First World, quality and sufficient healthcare and treatment is a right, not a privilege.
Excellent essay on Gandhi’s non-violent resistance to unjust laws or Rule. Both he and Dr. King held the protestors to a high standard and code of conduct. This also means that the demonstrators must be watchful for those anarchists who want to use violence. At Kent State it was potatoes with imbedded razor blades thrown at the NG Troops. Currently it would be Antifa carrying fire bombs or rocks. The nonviolent protestors themselves must remove them.
A bit of history I was unaware of. Amazing and so interesting. Above all else in my life, I am thankful for ‘reading’ parents, who never said ‘no’ to me wanting a book.
Just some sort of sense. A building that isnt taller than the road is wide should be allowed anywhere because it isn’t tall. At this latitude a building that is not taller than the road is wide wont block out the sun.
Very thoughtful and interesting essay. Prior to the agricultural revolution, our gods were our ancestors. Agriculture lead to a more centralized economy and politics. That increase in central authority lead to our gods being more expansive and outside our own experience. God kings.
Yes, quite a few people have proposed that religion resulted from the human awareness and fear of death. It’s certainly a motivator but doesn’t account for the pervasive variety of ritual practices https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bb7a1c5a786dd220cbd25babcec9d8937892ca76df24993f9a2f0416fd180bb7.jpg such as rites of passage, which don’t necessarily have any direct connection to ancestor/god worship. Falls short of a complete theory of religion. Try http://bit.ly/1RP04Ne for a more in-depth explanation.
“Muslims always start the problems, such as rape and violence.” While this is an article about Buddhists and Burma, you hear the exact same complaints leveled in once-peaceful Sweden, and elsewhere. Is it that everyone is prejudiced against Muslims, or might the problem be associated with that totalitarian, expansionist cult?
“The answer to pollution, as KAB would have it, had nothing to do with power, politics, or production decisions; it was simply a matter of how individuals acted”. This is exactly the same flawed argument as the anti-gun lobby: “Guns kill, not people WITH guns”. People can’t help but generate garbage. Pollution is when garbage ends up in places we don’t want it. The kind of unsightly trash the ad was protesting is caused entirely by people.
Monuments and Memorials to our fallen soldiers should be built by a “Gratefull Nation”. Retired Executive Director, West Virginia Veterans Memorial Inc.
While growth may be uncomfortable, how can we encourage learning how America works *outside* of the classroom? What must be done to make it be interesting enough, fun enough, valuable enough, fast enough, that many more Americans engage in that growth?
Awesome analysis … SO, SO TRUE! I’m a new resident of Silicon Valley and its clear to me that NIMBY homeowners are the chief obstacle to creating the dense, vertical housing needed to keep pace with the growrh of jobs here. Even forward-looking solutions like bus rapid transit and transit-oriented housing are routinely opposed with claims that they will increase traffic congestion. Bizarre!
Thanks to professor DeNicola for describing this dangerous cultural phenomenon that has perniciously withstood centuries of increasing rational thinking. The multitudes of us who despair that the social progress made since the Age of Enlightenment will ever reach the goals we dream of and may flounder on the flaws of our species can only welcome this clear and concise analysis of the problem.
After many years of amateur and professional involvement in politics, I came to the realization that attempting to achieve social progress through the political process was probably less fruitful, and certainly a more temporary solution, than encouraging people to think better. Political manipulation, even guided by the most noble motives, can be countered or undone by attractive opposing manipulation. If a majority of citizens learned to reject nonsense and choose their opinions and votes on evidence based policies consistent with their conscience we would be further ahead because our shared concepts of moral decency probably bind us closer than our political ideologies. I’m not too optimist that that will happen before we humans destroy our planet and ourselves.
Might I recommend a solution that allows easier access in the event of an earthquake or fire, and eases the shortage of multi-story buildings? Put in three stories, one below ground, the other two above ground. No one needs to go more than one story to get out.
The Wilshire Grand is definitely a sub-par building qualitatively, but to say “Reaching the Wilshire Grand on foot isn’t easy, given how it’s cut off by the 110 Freeway on one side, and on two others by the heavy traffic of Wilshire Boulevard and Figueroa Street”
That’s simply bizarre and untrue. There is another building between the Wilshire Grand and the freeway with a small street between them. The busiest subway station in Los Angeles is across Figueroa, and healthy pedestrian traffic on all 4 corners.
You can find a lot of fault with the Wilshire Grand as a building but one thing LA has been getting right recently is corrective urbanism. DTLA is booming and the streets are alive again.
The title of my new poetry collection is Waystations, with original drawings of the many train terminals I’ve experienced in USA, Europe, and Australia. And my new sculpture, repurposed railroad track frogs, is just now installed at our Wilmington Railroad Museum. I fell in love with trains when I was two years old and have been in love with them ever since.
My great uncle was listed as an inmate at Sonoma State in the 1930 census at the age of 10. He died never having children. I recently learned his mother was institutionalized but I don’t know where or why. They were a very poor family and my grandmother lived on her own by the age of 15 with support of the local judge and a type of social worker woman in the area named Frances. I often wonder what happened to my great uncle there.
Wonderful piece of history….enjoyed this very much, thank you!
My own story is a bit the opposite. My English paternal grandfather forbid my French paternal grandmother from speaking her native tongue in the house or to her four sons! And this was in OTTAWA. Decades later, i got revenge by becoming fluent in French lol and have been a Francophile ever since. Vive le Francais! 🙂
Je ne peux comprendre qu’un parent défende à ses enfants d’apprendre une autre langue, la langue des grands-parents de surcroit ! C’est priver ses enfants de toute une culture et d’un enrichissement sans borne….
Bien Sur. Je suis d’accorde avec vous.
In those years, 1920’s, the English considered the French to be lower class citizens, especially the Scottish. My grandfather was not an enlightened individual. Sad but true.
Eric, as a former city planner, investment banker and community developer your idea makes sense to me. However, what I have learned is that any idea that is placed and presented in the context of ‘cartels”, “syndicates”, etc., the ‘powers that be’ immediately have a negative response along with other stakeholders who advocate and support the free market approach to an emerging legal market. Also, the fact that you have first hand experience in supply chain logistics and a business background appears to be a self-serving suggestion of having a state-wide ‘broker’ for cannabis product and services. Additionally, your suggestion is devoid of the social and environmental dimension of a holistic, ecosystem which you alluded to. Bottom line: My sense is that your idea is sound but it is not aligned with the core of the highly successful digital business models such as Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, etc, which have led to disruption in several industries. In other words, these models delete the broker and replace it with another broker ..themselves..using technology to scale and control market share. Advocating for a ‘brick and mortar’ approach to distribution and concentrating power on an individual is not the most democratic nor does it level the playing field for people of color and other stakeholders which consist of at least 90% of the legal and illegal cannabis sector. Perhaps having a formal, state-wide digital cannabis market exchange similar to Cover California in the health-care industry is another model to consider.
When I was a little girl in the late 50’s my grandmother made me a dress from a chicken feed sack. I have a picture of me wearing the dress and some of the leftover fabric, and I recently found more of it from a seller on Etsy! I loved that dress. I was able to still buy bags of flour in printed cotton bags in the mid 80’s in a grocery store in Tehachapi, CA. Wish I could still get flour and sugar in those bags now. That would be a great recycling or “green” move for companies to do.
It’s not the black dog – its the shelter visitors that should be studied for insight into what dogs are chosen. In an era of mixed chihuahuas and mixed pitbulls the notion of black dog syndrome goes out the window. Instead look at how sophisticated the adopter is. A first time prospective dog owner will choose differently than someone who grew up with dogs and understands the importance of personality as well as breed temperament. Needless to say, we have black dogs and those dogs like their people companions are colorblind when it comes to love.
This is also true for the immigration country good Old Germany, dear Saint Nicholas! And help us to make our hearts open, optimistic and trustful again.
We would be better served to make class sizes smaller, instructional techs/aides available in every classroom and fund adequate support for students who are struggling or have special needs. How much of a classroom teacher’s time is taken up with classroom management, behavioral issues and students who are tired, hungry, not understanding the lesson or are well ahead of their peers? Giving students and teachers more support and smaller classrooms would serve our students much better than having them in school more hours.
How soon do we need to identify the modern equivalent of the home? Because in around 10-15 years robots will start building custom homes at increasingly lower cost. Materials precut in robotic Midwestern factories, shipped with robotic trucks, and assembled by robotic crews. It will likely cause a mortgage crisis as mortgage holders realize the replacement cost of their homes will always and ever shrink as the robots improve. At the same time, 5G+ internet speeds and augmented reality will separate work from physical presence which will demolish lot values. Robotic vehicles will make Snowbird-like migration easy for everyone. And robot house servants will clean homes better than the best housekeeping services used by today’s wealthiest families. This will be the American reality no later than 2040. Robot servants will be able to transport all your personal items to a new house while someone else lives in your house, then return all your personal items to your old house exactly as you left them before you return. But, why would you ever return? Your children won’t need to return for school, school will travel with them.
Here comes the twist: your essay concluded in a call for a cultural shift, maybe a national awakening, from Individualism to Collectivism. However, new technologies will inject structural economic changes that force American culture to change, just like the Black Death forced Europe to trade feudalism for the Renaissance. Ecology binds culture, and technology will change our ecology.
Good article… Yet more examples of the outside forces that manipulate the economy are needed. In 2008…it was our politicians and social tinkering that caused the recession. Main stream media covered for rather than condemn… Progressive government. A credit market that dries up almost overnight is Not the fault of the average American household. That… Is game playing at the highest level and treasonous influence.
1-4-2018 Yes gentrification and the dis-balance of Los Angeles county housing assessment is approaching a tipping point. The comic reference on the inheritability of sub-market property tax liabilities is real now. It exists.
Maybe it is (past) time that, similar to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, legislators have full, continuing access to those same gubernatorial agencies/data. Also, the glut of bills seem to overwhelm even the most conscientious public representatives; how can that load be reduced–for the good of all?
That is great and wonderful, but you do not mention who actually wrote the songs, such as Clarence Carter’s “Strokin'” tho he takes credit. The song inspired by me being a Billy Squire fan. I didn’t agree to be a “ghost” songwriter, it was thrust upon me by Chris Blackwell of Island Records who had a long history with Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. Those guys up there knew why, even Rick Hall knew. He was afraid of a situation which was similar to what happened with Jerry Wexler & Aretha Franklin when he lost the Swampers. Your story is “tame” as Rick even wrote about what really happened with Aretha in his book. Let’s talk about how Rick also had a stable of songwriters, but I was not a “signed” songwriter. These guys took advantage of a 15 year old kid. Am I mad…you bet
I have been working on it. Doubt they will ever let it see the light of day. I know too many secrets of Hollyweird that they would like to keep hidden. But, it can also be said for those locally in Alabama who have been involved in the entertainment industry and helped to cover up what happened. God forbid the reputations of such local icons is tarnished which the local news has been building up lately.
Clarence Carter recorded “Strokin” for a small Atlanta-based label called Ichiban Records, which had no affiliation with Island Records or Rick Hall’s Fame. The song was recorded at Muscle Shoals with Carter ad-libbing lyrics to his 1981 song, “Love Building.” The tape was rolling as Carter’s ad libbed lyrics got raunchier and raunchier and the music began to take on a slightly different groove than “Love Building”. Carter’s “Strokin'” was blatantly sexual, whereas Billy Squire’s “The Stroke” was actually a song about shady business people glad-handling a musician while ripping him off behind his back, and had no sexual connotation at all.
“Put your right hand out, give a firm handshake
Talk to me about that one big break
Spread your ear pollution, both far and wide
Keep your contributions by your side”
Great read – many Brits are now suffering a real conflict of identity they never had to address in the past. Interesting how people are dealing with it. I hope things work out for the author in Germany!
Amazing article, my favorite topic and honestly the only thing I show passion for, other than my daughter. The accuracy of the article is amazing. I have witnessed most of the events you wrote about. I’ve been to all of the parks, and most that closed. I have an awesome beer batter story, of all people Arturo Nieto.
BUT If you write an article about the California League and only mention Stockton for devastating municipal bankruptcy, it leaves out a huge amount of California League history. No mention of Banner Island BP, the crown jewel of the California League….other than its the newest of old parks.
So true, Joe. This is where the rubber meets the road, and presidential decrees shrink in comparison to the day-to-day issues of a municipality like Santa Barbara. Nice!
What a great idea. I would love to see Oprah tackle the unique problems of Santa Barbara, especially the water issue. I’d love to return to SB where my sons were born and help with these issues but, alas my little house off Cathedral Oaks is far beyond my budget. I have no idea how those people I see on KEYT with Montecito shops can afford homes or even apartments there. Still, I love the area and think Oprah is the perfect person to tackle county issues. She can run for President after she’s managed to figure out how residents can equitably share the scarce water and how kids born there can live there as adults.
Exactly. We must get the community to to discuss this topic. One problem that I see, is that it appears as though the vast majority of humans are unwilling or unable to educate themselves adequately on technically, or scientifically oriented subjects to do so.
Finally I see my birth city of Woonsocket, R.I. mentioned. As a native New Englander in MI. I have taught college French and other French classes and made certain that my students learned about the French speaking people from my part of the world, especially Woonsocket, RI that is usually forgotten about, even tho downtown has its slogan of Bienvenue………….
Wow. Your observations and the suggestion of having a stronger bond…not linkage since the idea is too mechanical and devoid of feeling human emotion…between LA and Latin America is a narrative that should have been crafted by an academic, diplomat or someone that whose core business or activity is to promote the creation or formation a mega-community leveraging the all the assets for a global vision. Clearly, this is not the case. I know well that insights are not the domain of anyone but that of whoever conceives and communicates the idea. As such, the copy is excellent; it is brief, concise, insightful, thought provoking and suggestive for action. This has prompted me to consider the thought organizing super regional/cross border event …in Latin America the task is referred as “congresos”…to connect people and institutions to design and build an entrepreneurial eco-system driven by selected stakeholders to develop a set of initiatives that will foster and accelerate the bonding for a mutual benefit over the long term. This effort may incentivize the academic, intellectual, business and political communities of Los Angeles/Southern California and Latin American countries to identify and engage in positioning Latinx and their brothers and sisters to be the nexus for this potential ‘fusion of regions.” To me, this new ‘venture’ starts with addressing the WHY, HOW, WHAT and WHEN to formulate a road map by a small number of individuals that get it. We could draw world class talent from the business sector, governmental agencies (including international financial institutions), local chambers of commerce, international trade centers, embassies/consulates, universities/colleges, policy think tanks, etc. The road map would be the agenda for the hyper-gathering in LA similar to the World Economic Forum but with the focus on the Southern Americas.!!! BTW: Canadian would be welcome since there is tri-venture for trade.
Housing prices in California and especially in Los Angeles are VERY high. 500,000 to 550,000 for an average 2 – 3 bedroom home. Very tough for a new buyer in LA. The younger people I know who have been able to purchase homes either same a large down payment or have family help.
Brilliant, makes me reconsider Wittgenstein in an entirely different, humanizing and relevant light. Makes me also more aware of the role and the misuse of the language game today and how we all must pitch in to fix this mess. Would like to see more pieces of this sort.
The purpose of the portability of property tax, which portability is limited to persons over the age of 55, is to enable seniors and retired persons to be able to move from a home in which they have lived for a long time, and purchase something smaller, safer, or closer to their grown children. Since people live a bit longer today than they did when the statutes were first put in place it is not unreasonable to expect a senior to move once when they retire, and perhaps again 10 to 15 years later. Since a replacement home can be purchased for the same or less than the sale price of the long term residence, it is NOT the mortgage which causes the senior to be “locked” into their long term residence. It is the potential new property tax assessment. To spell it out with numbers, for California……….if you purchased a home for 150,000 in 1990 and are now retired your home may be worth 450,000 today. If you sell it for 450,000, and purchase another one for 399,500, you are eligible to port your property tax. Your property tax on the 150,000 home was original assessed at 1% of the value, and increased by 2% of the amount of the tax annually (if can be decreased as well). Therefore the property tax would be 1,500 compounded by 2% annually, or about 2,612, or 217/mo, currently. Now, if the senior must pay a newly calculated property tax at 1% of the 450,000, the new tax would be 4,500 or $375/month. Might not seem like a great deal by for some seniors the additional 158/mo is a LOT of money…….. To add to the overall problem,
here in California, the housing costs are high, and the federal law, going forward, is limiting the deductibility of these taxes. So, the objective, again, is not to allow a discount in perpetuity, but to permit seniors to have some mobility, and to relieve the market by making homes which would otherwise not be available, available to younger buyers seeking these larger homes.
Craft have been seen in the air, for thousands of years. One of our source Historians from antiquity, Plutarch, in “Life of Marius” wrote in the first century: “Many signs also appeared, most of which were of the ordinary kind; but from Ameria and Tuder, cities of Italy, it was reported that at night there had been seen in the heavens flaming spears, and shields which at first moved in different directions, and then clashed together, assuming the formations and movements of men in battle, and finally some of them would give way, while others pressed on in pursuit, and all streamed away to the westward.”
I had a modern warfare class open to advanced ROTC and officers back in the late 60’s. We read one study where a 100 megaton weapon detonated at a little over three miles in altitude and dropped halfway between Chicago and Detroit, in the area of Battle Creek, MI would destroy both Chicago and Detroit and everything else in the blast circle described by those two cities. That would kill probably 20-30 million people by incinerating them. It’s time to think about where this maniac for a president is taking us because he is not looking at the possibility of a nuclear war as a disaster of epic proportions, but as a means of boosting the midterm elections by exercising what he thinks is a quick strike against NK assets. Those things will quickly run out of control in a world where military opportunity may only exist but for a few brief minutes.
I wonder if Julius Rosenwald, a contemporary of Rotary International founder Roy Harris, was a member of Rotary. Mr. Harris founded the first Rotary Club in Chicago. Many times leaders of huge companies do not believe they have the time to belong to service clubs, but I wonder if Rotary shunned Jews in those early days.
I’ve always wondered why NY papers didn’t call him out on his lie–such as he graduated first in his class, the height of his Trump Tower, that Ivana was on the Czech ski team–or dig more into his finances and ties to the mob. This should have been “trumpeted” to the world. You guys knew him best.
Excellent essay and a nice diversonary (of sorts) topicfrom the heavy trumpian themes you have been asked to cover since I was first pointed to your twitter feed this past fall. Cheers
Queens is to Manhattan what Ft. Worth is to Dallas, Oakland to San Francisco and St. Paul to Minneapolis. Only now, as Brooklyn becomes un-affordable, are Whites returning to gentrify parts of Queens, the borough with, I am sure, the largest “White Flight” migration post WWII. I’m a product of P.S. 96; P.S.155, Shimer Jr. High School and John Adams High School, class of 1953!
In fact, New York “got it right”– the rest of the country should have paid more attention to how he was regarded in his own city. Isn’t it one of the Bravo New York Housewives that said/or sang “Money can’t buy you class?” He played to his base– because he knew they would sell out their neighbors, their faith, and the facts– just to go for the shiny object. It’s the crowd that comes up with phrases like “If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich?” And it’s the crowd that under the guise of fiscal policy led simple people to believe that the country would benefit by a political outsider who was a “smart” business man who made all that money. Dirty dealings and family history be damned. Dad after all, made his initial money as a notorious slum land-lord — and wouldn’t rent to African-Americans, and definitely saw Nazi sympathizes as “good people.” But the base said “Don’t bother us with the facts!” and threw out morality, faith, and facts to elect anybody but one of those big, bad, “liberals!” (You know– liberal– as a four letter word.) There is a certain N.Y. love/hate relationship with L.A. Angelinos talk about typical New Yorkers and New Yorkers talk about things being SO California! But the truth of the matter is, the rest of the country would have done well to listen to the bi-coastal bookends– which, after all is said and done– do hold up the books!
P.S. I don’t know about that analogy of Queens/Manhattan, Ft. Worth/Dallas/ Oakland/S.F. and St Paul/Minneapolis. If you drive down Summit Avenue in St Paul you don’t exactly see the “lesser” of the twin cities. You see the surviving F. Scott Fitzgerald America. There is actually somewhat of a religious (Catholic/Protestant) divide on each side of the Mississippi.In the meanwhile, someone really should do an honest article about white flight in Los Angeles– the move of Jewish East L.A. west. The racially motivated move of Angelinos out of the mid-city, and places like Highland Park, to the “new” suburbs of Inglewood, and the West-Side. And then there’s the anti-Semitic Palisades real estate red-lining. As for Trump– God help us all wherever we live.
I did, I tried for over a year on FB. I’ve lived in the NY metro area since 1968. Posted old news stories on the nasty things Trump did. What did I get for it…… “He tells it like it is.” “Hillary is corrupt and lies.” ” I love that he’s not PC.” Six “conservative” HS classmates from 1964 in PA unfriended me. I tried. I tried.
I am not a Trump supporter, but this article unintentionally makes Trump seem sympathetic by describing his rejection by a deeply entrenched New York class system that begins assigning people to the lower class at birth. Global trade, immigration, higher education, and a free press may find a place in New York values, but support for the idea that all men are created equal seems to be decidedly absent.
It’s self evident that modernization consumes history. It’s only by celebrating history that it ever remains. The story lacks proof of a conscious effort to erase the past as the author suggests. The author misses what his story reveals and tries to color it with sensibilities of the present. Otherwise, I enjoyed the article even if we see things differently.
If these hundreds of cities are being pushed all in the same direction (out with the poor! And n with the auto malls! ) you could argue that there is some centralizing force that’s doing that.
This is really interesting but the majority of the genres you listed with the exception of polka are genres that have African roots (mamba, rocknroll, jazz, blues, folk… esp. people like Bob Dylan, funk, calypso, etc). So I guess my contention is with the idea that the Minneapolis sound owes its brilliance to the Black musicians having to learn the Northern European and Central European folk musics rather than drawing from a wide array of African American and Afro Caribbean musical traditions and indigenous influences. Sidenote, check out a contemporary Minnesotan who seems to be continuing this line of genre mixing to produce a new thing, his name is Allen Kingdom!
I always enjoy – and even look forward to – reading your essays on California’s central Valley. Regarding this one, it is no different. And, I could not agree more with your assessment.
I am curious, though, as to what you have in mind when you suggest “a regional transportation network.”
If it is one that incorporates commuter rail or glorified light rail or perhaps even a heavy rail system on the order of the Bay Area’s BART, then it has my vote! (The clues here are corridors along both the 99 and 41 and “better transit”). California high-speed rail, incidentally, has the potential to prompt just this very thing.
Not mentioned in the piece above, what with air quality in the area being what it is – among the worst in America – I just don’t see how adding more roadway space – as is the case with the recent reintroduction of Fulton Street where a pedestrian mall once sat – makes any sense whatsoever.
Meanwhile, productive agricultural land is taken out of, well, production.
I’m interested in the connection that Mormon history has to the explanation for all of pre-Columbian history. As I recall what the Elders tried to explain, our Native Americans were the “bad people” who had conquered the enlightened civilizations of the Western Hemisphere. Of course, they intertwined this with the claim that those early civilizations existed simultaneously with the Greek and Roman ones and that Jesus appeared here at the same time he appeared in the East.
Joe – I could not agree with you more. Along with the “problem” areas you point out, Amtrak is a good start for us Californians to ride instead of drive. I recently rode the Surfliner from Santa Barbara to Burbank Airport – connecting to a flight instead of driving and paying for long term parking (my business trip was over 14 days). Adding the high speed service from So Cal to Nor Cal and the near completed connection to LAX will no doubt help our future congestion woes here in the Golden State.
Using modestly successful short-distance Amtrak California service to claim that “high-speed rail would be popular” is a complete non-sequitur. First, California subsidizes Amtrak California operations to the tune of $110 million per year (and growing) – or about $20 per train trip; without those ticket subsidies (which high-speed rail, by law, cannot have), ridership would be much lower. Second, Amtrak California does not compete with viable airline service in any of its three corridors; on the other hand, high-speed rail will most definitely compete with frequent, cheap, and fast airline service. Third, the Surfliner and Capitol Corridor arguably serve the two best intercity rail corridor candidates in California (LA-SD and Bay Area-Sacto), which high-speed rail will not be serving!
Amtrak California works for me and I ride it whenever I can. However, Matthews is completely off-base extrapolating results from these corridors to defend California’s current high-speed rail system.
Everyone seems to forget about radio preacher Aimee Semple Macpherson, particularly when it is said that Graham got his start in Los Angeles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUZ_-5e6G7Y
Terrific article. So glad you pointed out the reality that Lawrence’s wealth could be traced to the cotton farming conducted by enslaved people. So much of history reveals this reality, the complexity rather than the black and white, villain versus hero perspective. What is also extremely complex in the Lawrence story is that his niece was Jane Means Appleton Pierce, then the First Lady of the United States, wife of President Franklin Pierce who signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Mrs. Pierce is depicted as a wan figure and she did suffer from both chronic mental and physical health problems. But she was an intelligent, principled person and she was an avid abolitionist. She worked to manipulate her husband to free Charles Robinson, a Kansas abolitionist who had been imprisoned in the territory, among other acts that contradict the prevailing perception that she was either apolitical or apathetic, acquiescing to the President on all matters.
In Zocalo’s early days, there was less traffic in Los Angeles. I attended many of the conversations and marveled at the efficient, economic obviously sustainable model for presenting very thoughtful ideas in a forum that allowed us to think and exchange ideas. Ah, democracy!
Now, traffic sucks, especially at rush hour. So, thanks for the podcasts. I just can’t get anywhere easily. The logo is gorgeous, by the way.
we ride amtrack from sacto to reno through the snow and it is magnificent, We also ride through the sierras in summer and enjoy historical commentary as we travel–as we travel we si see conglomeration o f cars on the free way. we amtrack from Ac to Oakland then bus to down town SF
TOP
Congratulations on your anniversary, and more importantly, on the great job you’ve done. You have enriched LA, and me.
Thank you for writing.
It’s time to bring the straight spouse and innocent children of gay
people out in the open. I am a straight
spouse and there are many many like me, some now know because the spouse has
come out, some still living in the dark, not knowing, not quite understanding
issues in the marriage or in the parent/child relationship. People who keep secrets hurt themselves and
in turn hurt everyone around them. But that
is not what you wrote about, but how your own father affected you and your
growing up year. That is unfair, my
daughters, at the time, were 13 and 16, at the cusps of sexual awareness and
proud of an intact family from which were a part of. Lots of unknown and uncertainty that
concerned them as well. None of us saw
it coming, no signs, no hints, my x was also a Home Depot guy, loved making
things/fixing things around the home.
Our world felt apart, and their father also wanted to have them accept the ‘new’ him and all of it. It’s not homosexuality that is the issue, the issue is learning about the deceit, lies, and the hurtful way my x conducted the breakup of the marriage, was hard on my kids. Who is this person? And why does he think that we should accept his behavior?
My x wanted to push his new life on them, as if that
was a way to gain acceptance and to say ‘see, it wasn’t so bad…’ My children met the other man soon enough and they never talked to me about how this, any of it. made them feel. Luckily for us, it was not front and center as it was for you.
You didn’t deal with it badly, your father dealt with it
badly. Often, it seemed to me the need
of the gay spouse overshadowed those who they affect and that they
didn’t understand why it was taking us so long to process. They have had years
envisioning the day of reckoning, none of us have that luxury. They wanted us
to act like everything is normal, in fact, none of it is. I did not sign up to be a gay man’s wife when
I married him. My children did not sign up to be children of a mixed
orientation household. None of it is
fair.
For me, I lost 20 plus years of my life, to a man who could
not love a woman, the way that a spouse should, for him, it was a great
marriage, and that he thought we could just wrap things up and move on. I have lost a lot, my children lost a lot,
but we all go on the best way we can. My
children are fine now, after 4 1/2 years. They are both in college, they have a good
relationship with both of us, and their extended families. They don’t discriminate against gays or
anyone else. They truly are gifts. I know you are and your sister are a gift to
your parents. You are a whole life ahead of you and you get to choose how you conduct your life. I always told my kids, you can have
any kind of relationship you want with anyone you want or not have a
relationship. No one should say ‘I love you’ then hurt you like you are nothing but a doormat. Good
luck to you and your sister.
My dad came out when I was 13. He and my mom married when she was 18 and they were married 22 years and had 3 children. In my dad’s case in hind site I would say all of the tell tale signs were there. He was a beautician by trade. He and my mom owned a salon and he worked there six days a week He was off on Sundays. On Sundays we went to the mall and shopped that was our “family time” shopping…
My dad worked really hard to provide well for us. We lived what most would call a great life in material terms. My mom didn’t have to work. She was very religious and we went to church 3 days a week, without my dad. He was not religious. In his rare spare time he would make beautiful stained glass windows and ornate victorian lamp shades. Looking back, I say how could she NOT have known? Or did she and it was just easier to ignore it than ask??
There was never any discussion. One day my mom said Dad is going to be moving out and he showed up with his truck and took only his clothes.
That is such a surreal memory for me. I feel like at that moment,I numbed myself to any feelings associated with him leaving. I knew he was out of the house but I never grieved his leaving, it was easier to just not process it.
I then went into protector mode because I wanted my mom to be okay. I would see her crying and would want to make everything okay for her. I think what hurt me more than his leaving was seeing all of the emotional pain and turmoil she was going through.
So all in all I went through the rest of my life smiling saying I was FINE and its now in my mid thirties that my heart and spirit are saying NO I’m not!
This has really affected me on many levels.
When my dad moved in with his partner, he invited us over for weekend visits, however he didnt tell us a- that he was gay, b that he was living with his partner. So here i was this 13 year old girl in this house that he was clearly sharing with someone, I just didnt know who…
Once we were introduced to his partner, I think i was more concerned with being polite and not making anyone feel uncomfortable, so I just tried to make nice and go along with it all, because after all he was the only dad that I had gay or not and I wanted to love him and NEEDED him to love me too.
I dont have a problem with my dad being gay. I think that everyone needs to be who they are , but trying to live a life as something that you are not and involving your spouse and children is just a very painful thing for everyone involved. If I had to give any advice to my parents I would say that I just wish that there had been discussions to process all of this, and I wish there had been therapy at the very least, because these feelings that are stuffed down for so long are going to surface at some point and the sooner they are dealt with openly and honestly the sooner everyone can get down to the very important business of healing and continuing to grow as a family and as healthy individuals.
I can’t believe it’s been almost ten years since your first event, Gregory. Congratulations on your past contributions and I am looking forward to ZOCALO 3.0.
I’m very grateful for the existence of Zocalo, and its generous approach to sharing ideas in Los Angeles.
Congratulations, Zocalo! And beautiful photo of the Fowler.
Why is this open only to public school students? What about home-schooled kids, kids in Catholic schools, etc.? I think it should be open to anyone under 19, including drop-outs, kids who got a GED or passed the California Equivalency exam.
Congratulations to the Zocalo’s Organization and fabulous staff for having the imagination, creative talent and management to be able to offer the LA Community a most stimulating mix of entertaining and intellectual discourse, food for both the heart and mind.
Congrats Zocalo, you’re a true LA gem.
Gregory and Zócalo Staff past and present,
CONGRATS! You’ve rocked our world! Thanks for making L.A. the center of your universe and continuing to reveal it’s intriguing and amazing life.
Gregory, Dulce, and Co.: You guys really are doing amazing work. I’m so grateful that Zócalo continues to help connect Angelenos and to further thoughtful discourse. I look forward to more discussion and the continued sharing of ideas.
Warmest congratulations, Gregory! Without question, Zócalo produces the most fascinating public programs in town with the most interesting guests. More than one event has brought me into contact with people I’m grateful to have met. Thank you for everything you do, and all the best to Zócalo going forward!
Congratulations to all Zocalo’s finest people that every day put so much work to share all their wonderful ideas. Specially to my daughter Dulce.
Congratulations to Zocalo finest people that every day work so hard to bring us their excellent ideas. Especially to my daughter Dulce.
I commute into central Phoenix from the east valley in Arizona. And I thought my commute was bad!
I’m a big fan of Patrick Soon-Shiong. I’ve been in healthcare for 15+ years and have read about the great technology-based projects PSS is spearheading. I’m also an L.A. native, so anyone who truly appreciates the greatness and uniqueness of Los Angeles always wins points with me.
PSS is doing amazing things in the healthcare technology space. Keep it up!! LA can be the healthcare technology model for all to follow, especially as it relates to patient care and home/remote monitoring to keep people healthy! We certainly have a great sandbox to play in with our diversity of people, research facilities such as the UCLA wireless health institute, numerous healthcare organizations all based right here and large and complex payer systems.
Congratulations Gregory!!
Today’s New York Times commented that many of Romney’s statements in the final presidential debate sounded something like responses to questions given the finalists in beauty pageants. Ann Romney– whatever the motivation– to me comes across much the same way. She won’t comment much on issues past the stand by your man kind of platitudes. But I’m kind of stuck back there where her own parents weren’t allowed to come to her nuptials. I don’t like secret societies– not in religion, not in government.
Congrats guys. You made me a more informed person and made my years in LA even more enjoyable. May you be around for many more years.
It’s inspiring to hear such an uplifting voice from a young man who’s resolved to also inspire others to do their best against the odds. Your essay reminds me why my work is important. Please know that you have good company in your good intentions for your community. Thank you, Rodney!
Thank you for this excellent article highlighting the need for our cultural institutions to step down from their pedestals and find ways to engage the public once they step through the doors of a museum. All cultural marketing has been focused on getting the public to the cultural space but little has been dedicated to creating “the experience” once the individual enters. You don’t need to “talk down” to the public to get them to engage but find and use the vernacular to highlight why what they are viewing is relevant to their lives and why the work is important.
Museums, being a relatively modern institution in the
history of art (well, in the history of history really), are subject to the
pangs of growth and development; they, like all things, must adapt or perish.
At the inception of museums they were self-indulgent collections, privately
held aggregations of personally curated pieces for the display of wealth and
personal prestige; they were exclusive, access granted only to the elite or
otherwise worthy. Between the 14th and 17th centuries more and more collections
became “public” in that they were donated or opened to the general
populace, however, like so many other cultural institutions (including
literature) of the time, access was still structurally limited to those who had
either means or opportunity to partake of them.
Fast-forwarding through the timeline we see the expansion of
the role of the museum as the curator of major, minor and independent art in
every viable location. Museums are now found in metropolitan areas as well as
tiny hamlets in the tucked away corners of the country; further, the
collections themselves experience an extraordinary variety of expression from
specifically defined periods of High Art to the broad collections containing a
comprehensive selection of Art through the ages to the micro-galleries of the
local, avant-garde, and para-/neo-famous.
In spite of all of this, the egalitarian nature of
selections does not result in museums experiencing a similarly inclusive
demographic of attendees. Somewhere, in the transition of the museum from the
stubborn vault of High Art to the new expression embracing “Art” in
its many definitions and states of vagary, what was lost was the attention of
the patrons. We cannot hold strictly to the forms which served us in the past
and expect the public to follow along; each era, each period, sees new
innovation on a broad scale and while museums have adapted to some degree they
have become simultaneously mired in the rigid formality of the past and
forgotten by sociocultural architects as footnotes or archives.
Instead of this stagnation, museums should be vibrant
institutions, distilling at once the admiration of our past mastery of
expression and celebrating the continuation, abandonment or destruction of
these traditions as our cultural identities develop throughout the modern era.
In this regard, Mr. Reiter expresses the desire to envision a new direction for
the concept of the museum. Implied in his article, or rather following from his
article and in concert with other similar calls to action by other writers, I
see several important ways by which the museum as a cultural institution may be
recast (these are offered without particularly extensive research).
The most important, and most generically addressed, would be
to consider, at every level, the role and emphasis of Art within the
educational and cultural spheres. Were we able to comprehensively renew our
approach to teaching about art and the experience of it, then even without any
alterations to the museum model we would see an increase in attendance and
likely an accompanied increase in engagement. This would include: increased
funding and emphasis on art at early levels of education, art programs as
enrichment throughout the primary and secondary education systems, attention to
the interdisciplinary aspects of art as it pertains to and reinforces the other
primary subject areas, and the promotion of art experiences relying primarily
on local galleries/museums as resources. The “radical de-centering” entertained
by Cuno is a relatively uncommon occurrence as most museum patrons are unsure
how to even begin engaging a work, much less how to seek the profound and
transcendental truths in the works around them, but this can be changed. As
more and more individuals find themselves equipped to think in the language of
art, they will begin to understand its role and expression, and ultimately they
will come to appreciate the experience of it.
To reinforce this societal reframing of the importance of
the arts, we must similarly adapt our appreciation for the museum-space and its
role in the public square. Similar to the interdisciplinary refocusing that
must occur on the educational level, a more active integration of museums (and
the museum-esque usage of public spaces) into the cityscape or psychic landscape
must simultaneously occur. New museums must be planned in such a way as to
reinforce or accentuate existing cultural corridors, their architecture should
strike boldly with momentum toward the future, but their “storefront,”
entrances, and street level spaces should exude familiarity of purpose. The
incorporation of elements of the Krens formula as well as other components such
as conference and lecture space, public book collections (related or generic),
and mixed studio space should create an attitude that these museums are a
logical destination for a variety of common and possibly everyday purposes.
Existing museums should aggressively reach out to form coalitions and
partnerships to increase cross-utilization of their existing space for a broad
variety of programming, they should immediately reevaluate their existing
architecture and address whether or not it is conducive to a broader view of
the art experience as multi-modal and interdisciplinary, and, short of exterior
and structural renovation, they should strongly consider reorganizing their
existing space to accommodate visitors with coherent and intuitive viewing
experiences.
Finally the gallery and curation of art itself must be
addressed, while some of the gap may be closed given a campaign for renewed
passion for the fine arts, patrons are often left feeling the intimidation of
the uninitiated to which Mr. Reiter refers. To combat this disconnect, the
museum, or any cultural institution seeking to remain simultaneously relevant
and enriching, should seek to provide additional layers of information and
interactivity. We are now talking of virtual docents, augmented reality
applications (with links to additional art, journals, research, videos and live
chats with experts or other viewers), geotag/location-based activation of
enrichment/informational materials, and digital take-homes, for example, the
ability to “bookmark” your favorite pieces (prompting additional information
such as in-gallery locations of other similar pieces or pieces by the same
artist, highlighting relevant shop inventory, and connecting your viewing
experience to other social media).
As museums have opened their doors to all art, so too must
museums open their doors to all patrons, however, this has less to do with being
open and more to do with being approachable. The transition from exclusive to
inclusive museums (referring to art AND patrons) is completing its final stage;
and as we concede that “Art” takes many forms and styles, so too must we
concede that the experience of Art is concomitantly multi-modal. I agree with
Mr. Reiter’s article, however, I would posit that, in addition to his
conclusion that the city and museum need to see themselves as interdependent,
society and the individual, while receiving the effect of this interdependency,
should also see it as their responsibility to participate fully in the
discussion of the concept of the museum in contemporary society and the
approach to Art in education and the public sphere.
There’s nothing more conventional than an artist who looks down on the bourgeoisie and commercial culture.
Ron Paul was right.
Armageddon scenarios and replacement theology are driving forces, neocon values gaining momentum since the Reagan years.
The pink chair totally gives away Grand Park!!!
It all makes me wonder if using a lightweight titanium bicycle instead of a heavier one is cheating. I’m not excusing the spiral into a massive on-going cover up. Yet, part of me says “Look what the guy has done! And look at what he did for cancer! Who CARES if he did something to up the oxygen level in his blood.” Maybe one day people will look back and think it was crazy to penalize him. Who knows? The real “doping” that I think is problematic is branding. We are addicted to branding– so much so that we “brand” sneakers with some star athlete’s name and have people kill each other to get a pair. Maybe it’s time we “get a pair” and learn the difference between branding and integrity. Because all too often, we are being “doped”– or are the dopes for falling for it all. In the case of Lance Armstrong it really is sad, because he was and is an incredible athlete and generous human being who translated his fame into helping countless people through raising money for medical research by using his name to be a spokesman (no pun intended) for cancer awareness and research. And now we are supposed to make him a scape-goat for all our fantasies about bigger, better, stronger, longer. Madison Avenue has doped– or is that duped– us all. We turn our heads over to branding and sound bites and even in political campaigns seem to not care if something is a blatant lie, as long as it’s a good add. I hope Lance Armstrong finds his way out of mess and into a happy and productive future. Athletes and those who “handle” them are continuously looking at supplements and techniques to eek another hundredth of a second off someone’s time. Yes, Armstrong is responsible in the end. But his level of athleticism is still artistry. And his generosity and work for cancer has done a lot of good. He’s still more pro than perp. We constantly recycle celebrities who go straight from re-hab to talk shows despite tawdry and criminal behaviors from shoplifting to shooting up. I think we could cut Lance Armstrong a little slack.
James Koenig, your comment makes you out to be just another in a line (luckily a short line) of
“excusers” who don’t have the fortitude or the perception to comprehend
the damage that he did to not only the sport of cycling but also to the
minds and spirits of thousands of young aspiring cyclists. You are
classic: because everyone is doing it and because the advertising
industry is (and BTW always has been –“hellooooo”) the lowest common
denominator in the history of this country (yes, a bit lower than
politicians), you want us to give Arm-Strong (Ethically-Weak) a
MacDonalds “break” today. Given the level of deceit, intimidation,
extortion, lying and actual cheating that he engaged in repeatedly and
constantly, Lance needed to shore up his own sense of morality and
self-worth; and lo and behold he found something that had afflicted him
(cancer) that he could get behind to help him absolve himself of his
guilt for his treatment of fellow cyclists and numerous others (how
about that young masseuse whose life he ruined, just to mention one). What a sham! But of course I recognize the good that his cancer fighting leadership did.
Why can’t you “excusers” just be happy that such a poor example of
sportsman and humanity in one aspect of life can also find a way to do
some good in another aspect of life — and leave it at that?
“…Generous human being” my butt! He was a “generous” self-redeemer
(little did we know) who was a fabulous Pied Piper for a wonderful cause
that, yes, needs all the help it can get. Speaking of that, there is no
reason why another sports or other celebrity cannot step up and begin
another anti-cancer crusade — except that they may want to wait because
in the short run they may fear that their goodwill is being perceived
as covering up something else — a la Lance Armstrong.
…..
I’m not saying that the cover up of whatever the “performance enhancing substance” was was a good thing. It was a slippery slope for him. But aren’t you being just a wee bit harsh? And what’s wrong with a bit of self-redemption. People who survive a disease, a disaster, a crash, or whatever while others don’t survive often work for relief, or for a cure because they feel “guilt” for surviving when others haven’t been as fortunate. Hard to say why Lance Armstrong started to work for cancer– was it because he survived, or because he felt guilty about surviving, or about using performance enhancing substances for cycling? I don’t think you or I can answer that question. Only he can do that–
And the whole issue of performance enhancing substances is a pretty mixed bag. Across the board athletes are looking for a boost. Most want it to be a “legal” boost. Amateurs, pros, college athletes– the standard should be the same. But I wonder who we’d have left on the field. I’m not “excusing” Lance Armstrong– I’m “accusing” the whole glorification of athletes in the first place. And “branding” helps our society build these people up into super-heroes, demi-gods. And then when they fall– we indulge in a very disproportionate “Shadensfruede.” And cutting someone a little slack does not mean making an excuse for what they did wrong. It’s putting it in perspective. I’m not against “redemption” and I’m not against absolution. I’d hate to think of a world where neither was possible.
James, I couldn´t have said it better myself. I completely agree with your comments
No! No slack. This tragic fiasco is not the fault of Madison Avenue. Lance Armstrong may be a great athlete but that does not make him a great sportsman. If we ignore his bad behavior, we are just continuing to lower the bar for heroism. I feel tremendously sorry for Mr. Armstrong, like I did for my beloved Bill Clinton. But they both got what they deserve.
Hurricane Sandy is a catastrophe of epic proportions. Many people, including this writer, would find it in poor taste to analogize the loss of human life and property to the unthinkable and meteoric fall from grace of Lance Armstrong. I can not, however, ignore the obvious metaphor that Sandy creates in the Lance Armstrong situation and all of the cliche’s apply. “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger,” “This too shall pass,” “Some good comes from all things in life,” “Tragedy also brings a gift to those who are willing to see that gift,” etc.
Lance, events like Hurricane Sandy teach and remind us that despite steel ripping turbulent winds, and earth churning 35 foot waves and water surges, the storm ultimately will pass. And while there is devastating destruction left in the path of storm, the human spirit is larger than anything on earth and we, as an advanced society, rise to the occasion, brush off the dust and debris and turn to the light of the sunrise. The sun peering above the horizon and the dawn of a new day serves as our hope that we can, and will, endure whatever challenges are put in front of us.
Lance, you’ve encountered the wrath of a brutal storm who’s wind has torn the steel off of your shoulders and who’s water surge has washed away the path that you’ve forged for warriors and survivors. The devastation is unimaginable and surreal. I am here today to extend and offer my hand as a symbol and on behalf of the millions of people who’s life you’ve touched as a man, as a father, as a son and as a fighter and survivor. Being diagnosed with cancer is a life changing event. I don’t know of any one person who has dealt with the disease that did not walk away a better and stronger person. Walking through the portals of cancer and cancer treatment teaches us that outside of human compassion and care, little else matters.
Pardon me for being blunt here, but I’m pleading to you to step up to admit, confess and apologize for your actions in the sport of cycling. We are a forgiving and loving society and we operate from the heart when we extend our sympathy and understanding. There are more of us that want to see you succeed and to continue in the legacy of LIVESTRONG than there are who want to see the storm continue to batter the shores of your life. There is so much more at stake here than money and pride. The lives of people like you, me, our children, our families and friends who may hear today that they or their loved ones have cancer are at stake. They need us, we need you, we all need each other.
There is no other way through this storm than to take ownership of your actions. In doing so, you will once again regain your position as a leader who can point us towards the sun rising on a new day and to give us the hope that we can endure whatever may come our way.
I don’t care about Lance Armstong. I care about LIVESTRONG! Evolution allows absolution. Unless one of course is above positivity.
“When the doping investigation was pending, Armstrong’s sponsors seemed
to be sticking with him. But after the evidence was made public, nearly
all of them, including Nike, Trek, and Oakley sunglasses, dropped
Armstrong as a client within days of one another. Multi-million dollar
companies cannot afford for their products to be connected with doping.”
I live in a country that marks you innocent till proven guilty. Maybe you’ve have heard of this country? It’s called United States of America. Now me personally I don’t brand someone guilty on accusations, but that’s just me. I’m open to reading up on the “evidence” if there is something out there. I’m really not a livestrong supporter, I never bought a bracelet or donated, but I do support someone that has nothing but accusations against them.
How bout doing a *real* story on this subject?
Nice piece.
I like the convenience of voting by mail when I’m busy but not so busy that I’m unable to research everything ahead of time, but I also love going to the polling place in person, seeing my neighbors vote, getting the little sticker to show that I’m an active part of our democracy.I just voted in community elections where I live and I also felt that even about in-person neighborhood democracy.
I share your reverence for the ritual of voting and the sense of community that I get from dropping my absentee ballot in the box on election day, seeing my neighbors and getting the “I Voted” sticker. I usually wait until the night before election day to complete the ballot. I’ve been voting permanent absentee for years now, and would miss the ritual greatly. Additionally, this way I’m *sure* that my ballot is received and could not possibly have been lost in the mail! The important thing is voting, in whatever way. I’m very disheartened by the “why bother” attitude of many young people, who have no idea that people died for the right to vote, or why,
We definitely need more civic rituals but voting in person, despite its charms, is destined to wither. Turnout (and, I think, thoughtfulness) are superior in mail-in systems and the ability to vote on one’s own time frame widens the franchise, especially for members of working families.
Your article is very interesting with well-written comments of public/private ritual. Or should we say corporate/community instead of public. I do think that theologically you might be slightly askew with the church. My comment is that much like the ballot box that I hope everyone will utilize this week–with your faith and those rituals you do have choices as well. If you are going to be a Roman Catholic, I hope it’s for reasons of faith and not for ritual for the sake of ritual while accepting the “church of Dante” and patriarchy and conservative social agenda. A lot of those saints remembered on All Saints Day gave their lives for service and even reform. And there are liberal Catholics who uphold the struggle– living saints like Hans Kung, and ones past, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The idea of a “vote” might seem sorely lacking in the structures of the church– but there are choices. There are progressive Christians and people of varied faiths that really work hard for growth, and inclusion, gender equality, reproductive rights. And they do it because of their faith not in spite of their religion. I don’t mean to sound too harsh. I too love ritual and communal gatherings and expression– and, of course, the eucharist– or as it is called “the great thanksgiving” where ALL are invited to the table (and also to serve AT the table. Ritual is certainly expression– sometimes even rote to remember when we’re not particularly “mindful.” But the end of ritual is the admonition to “Go and serve….”
To die with dignity is to live with dignity. It’s at the end where I measure what my life is about. If I die in peace, then I have lived in peace.
“If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed.” – M. Twain
To imply that undecideds are uninformed in such a polarized, rancorous and mendacious campaign as this both on the part of the MSM & the partisans is laughable. They are perhaps the wisest of the bunch of us.
Difficult subject matter… more than adequately addressed. Catalyst for our new thoughts.
Not a word of the moderate Republican Jon Huntsman?
Now there’s a Mormon that would’ve won, if only the RNC had given his clear thinking a chance.
My thinking also Martin. It was the GOP’s for the taking. With Huntsman as their candidate we democrats would be the one’s scratching our heads today. Of course there is not enough left of a moderate GOP today that would hand over control to someone like Jon Huntsman.
Institutional racism, posthumous conversion, and a history of polygamy are not “peculiarities.” And given that Willard declared his religion (as well as his tax returns) off -limits, and never himself made any attempt to address his belief, which he obliquely mentioned at every opportunity, this passive/aggressive persecution complex is quite pathetic.
And for the record, when any church “weighs in” on an issue, especially by funneling millions into elections, it ought to lose its federal tax exemption, I don’t care which religion it is.
Oh Andy. I’m not a Mormon, but I wouldn’t need golden plates to recognize your comments as complete bull. This is a misunderstood religion with a complicated history. Calling Mormons pathetic only holds a mirror up to your own shortcomings.
the essence of this article can be found in an analogy: raw milk vs. the pasteurized, homogenized stuff, and the latter runs rampant from the schoolroom to healthcare to agriculture and onward in so any spheres. the solution: look for raw milk, seek it, find it, share it, and above all enjoy every sip of it, then see if the paradigm shifts or not . . . .
I grew up in Belmont, MA and although we went to the Unitarian Universalist church, I went to local public schools with many, many Mormons. My experience of these kids and their parents was that they were kind, thoughtful, generous, caring, smart, hard-working, and community-oriented. They volunteered. They baked for bake sales. They played sports and joined the theater club and so on. Their parents donated to the band and orchestra and chaperoned field trips and served on Town Meeting and were very integrated into the community. This being the Boston area, many of them were even Democrats. (And it was well known there in the 80s and 90s that the Utah Mormons disliked Romney because they saw him as too liberal).
For me, that’s why the church’s aggressive stand and millions in donations to the Prop 8 campaign a few years ago was so shocking. That kind of hate (or the willful denial of their position of “loving” gays and lesbians but not wanting them to have the same rights as heterosexuals) seemed so different from the people I knew.
I have to disagree with some of the author’s points. I am a middle school history teacher in Los Angeles and although my students can’t vote, they were completely engaged in the political process. We had school wide discussions in history classes, blogs where students could post opinions and issue related comments, interactive bulletin boards for posting comments and even an interactive election related hop-scotch on our hallway floor. The election provided an opportunity for massive community involvement, dialogue and participation. Students went home passionate about issues and eager to engage with family members in provocative discussion. I don’t think all segments of our citizenry felt isolated by this election.
beth~~
your closing statement says so much. i shortened it to read: all segments of our citizenry do not feel isolated, period. whether it’s by elections, or by whatever you fill the blank in with. it takes the perspective of feeling connected, instead of isolated, to initiate interaction and engagement that then spirals out when it’s taken home, so to speak.
i wonder . . . if when feeling connected, one might go to what could otherwise be a depressing election (or other) scenario and turn it around for the people there by virtue of mixing oneself . . . .in a vital, microbial, alive state . . . .into the setting, thereby enlivening it too?
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is a Mormon. It generally goes unreported.
Several members of the Congress are Mormons and no one cares. There are few Mormons who could name them all. But unlike the President, they don’t get to set the national agenda on social (“moral”) issues like abortion, gay rights, etc., so of course their affiliation goes unreported.
Romney is a Mormon? The guy who laughs at the poor, balks at the prospect of relieving the disadvantaged, and wants to persecute illegal immigrants into deporting themselves (and calling that compassionate)? I dunno about you guys, but I’ve never met a Mormon like that in my life (and I grew up literally 3 miles away from the temple in Mesa, AZ). Aside from the fact that he doesn’t drink coffee and alcohol, he’s about as much a Mormon as he is a Buddhist.
Romney’s blatant lies and complete clueless disregard for the average American’s problems did the Mormons no favor.
Political correctness aside, Mormons are gullible. If you don’t believe me, just open the Book of Mormon and ask yourself if you would ever believe such stuff.
Thank you, again, for your continued contributions to society. This is another gem. We are all in awe of your knowledgeable opinions. And I cannot speak for them personally, but I would imagine that millions of Mormons are now questioning their faith based on your comments. Thank you for this public service.
No, winstonwolfe73–andy is right. Your inability to see this is your own shortcoming.
And your genius is clearly what will save us all, MCCohen. Thank you for gracing us all with your brilliant opinions. I can now sleep well.
Keen insight from the heartland of a crucial state but Joe maybe you should have been in Hilton Head. Down South where I live we sometimes feel that no one lives in Ohio because it seems most Buckeyes have moved into South Carolina. We joke that the real capital of Ohio is Hilton Head. Good piece! Thanks.
I just can’t reconcile how a man of such supposed great faith could be so lacking in integrity.
Could not agree more Gregory. Thank you for the thoughtful write-up.
Many Republicans are acknowledging that they need to do a better job at engaging and connecting with the Latino electorate in their post-mortem analyses. However, this is an example of how many a Republican still doesn’t get it. A congressman was interviewed this AM on NPR (can’t recall who); asked if election results meant Republicans needed to show some flexibility on immigration reform. The interviewee said, and I’m paraphrasing, “No, we are not going to move away from our values and the “rule of law.” We just need to appeal to them on shared Republican and Latino values such as family, religion and entrepreneurism.”
Really? They just don’t get it. Absolutely, jobs are #1, but there’s a study out that notes that something like 53% of Latinos know someone who is undocumented. Whether through family, friends, social connections, whatever, it is an issue that is very important because we know our people heavily contribute to the U.S. economy; many pay taxes without getting anything in return; and many, especially the undocumented, get very little for their contribution–in fact, the Republican party paints them as dependent moochers that must be “sent away.”
If the GOP thinks that by giving us lip service, eating a tamale (terrible) and speaking a few Spanish words, they’re going to gain our trust and support while continuing to push policies like “self-deportation” or the terrible god-awful Arizona SB 1070…well, my dear, then good luck! Because that will only mobilize us further in the opposite direction and best of luck getting into office EVER. The trend is not and will not shift in the opposite direction. Each month, 50,000 U.S. Latino youth turn 18 and close to 90% of them are eligible to vote.
These are serious numbers and facts the GOP must ponder. It’s time to go off and do some soul-searching and have a heartfelt re-think on the policies and the platform they will choose to represent the future of the GOP.
For Jon Husted to say “winning has become more important than our country” is the height of irony and hypocrisy. There is perhaps no other electoral administrator in this country who was more willing to use every tool (including illegal tools) at his disposal in attempts to disenfranchise voters of the other party.
I must say that this is very clear contextual placement of what appears to be a mystery to the Republican movement.
“whites are more bootstrapping and self-sufficient than moocher minorities.”
That describes so well, in clear language, what is more nuanced but obvious in commentary all over the dial.
You get the sense that they are retreating into their religious phrase about REALLY needing to be their brown “brother’s keeper”—-instead of seriously being their brother’s brother. You get no sense of kinship, but rather of the neccessary handling of “the others.” Bush, personally, had that kinship, and felt it. It is the very rare Repub that has that association.
It feels like they have a relationship not unlike the jewish Israelis to Palistinian Israeli citizens……an inconvenient truth to be “managed.”
Not only is Goodbye Columbus a fantastic read, but it also taught me what a diaphragm is!
When I read Roth and now Rothbard, I wish I would have been born in the Garden State. Bravo to you both.
Thanks Gregory for this important perspective. While I am no fan of George Bush, his ability to get past Latinos as “other” and see common values is an essential distinction from the current GOP assumption that minority voters are transactional. “…hard work, pride, and the strong family values of Mexican-Americans are quintessentially Texan, too.” And American too. How do we get to a different kind of politics that lets us recognize both real differences (e.g. re income, education, access to opportunity) as well as our similarities. More of the latter would help begin to erode these toxic walls we keep seeing reinforced…
“But then the conversation took an unexpected turn. The fact is, various commentators noted, the American system works. For all its antiquated absurdity (like that strangeelectoral college and those partisan electoral authorities), the thing works. The Americans put on this bizarre contest with its odd rules, and by the end of the day, without any official referee proclaiming any official results, one side gracefully concedes after the long bitter battle”…….I guess you guys totally missed the 2000 election debacle and the illegal refereeing of the SCOTUS.
This is a really boring cliche. The author doesn’t say anything that hasn’t been said before. Chie Nakane made many of the same points forty years ago. The author attempts to adopt a critical viewpoint yet falls victim to the pessimism that Japanese social commentators have shown since the economy slowed down in the mid-1990s. But I don’t want to stereotype the author in the same way he stereotypes Japan. There is no such thing as “the Japanese.” And Japan, despite its geographic isolation, is still capable of economic and social influence stretching from Eastern China to Western India. Japan remains more interesting and vibrant than the island where the author apparently lives, Great Britain. Did anyone else yawn like I did?
Thanks for the insight.
I’m a casual observer and deep admirer of Japan after having visited the country in 2000. I stayed several weeks with a family friend who gave me an insight tour of Japan. I came back to the US struck by the complexity and beauty of the culture, but I did get a sense of a disjointed people. Many spoke in negative terms of their superior technological achievements. They could not see the point, for example, in a country so small, why do you need fast speed rail? Or, why is so much capital spent on making the shinkansen even faster? It was as if they could not consolidate their ‘village’ views with a fast changing world.
Of course there is no such thing as “the Japanese,” nor is there such thing as “the French” or “the American.” However, I believe the author is using this term for identification purposes. If you re-read the last paragraph, it reads “we Japanese,” which leads me to believe the author identifies as such. I think there is credibility in the fact that this article is self-reflective and self-critical, not merely critical and not merely pessimistic. The struggle is clear and important. I did not yawn like you did. I think this article sparked an important conversation, or should I say re-sparked one that has been covered in dust over the years (though I highly doubt originality was the author’s primary focus)?
With that said, I agree with you completely in Japan’s vibrancy as well as capacity for influence. And yet, whether or not this capacity will be drawn from for actual change and what those changes would look like is another story.
Really Ryan? You had me until this statement, “the real error here was ultimately made by Petraeus. If he had stayed faithful to his wife of 38 years in the first place, he’d still be in charge at the CIA”. After Bill Clinton, Kobe Bryant, Tiger woods and how ever many other philandering public figures have been exposed, chastised, painted as demons and ultimately reinstated into public glory, haven’t we shown as a society that we really dont care about these personal indiscretions as long as it professional performance remains as expected?
What a marvelous article, I regret that I’m coming to it so late. Imagine if the message of this article, that death is not always the worst case scenario, were to permeiate all the stratas of our society. What if we were honest with one another about
death being a
universal biological fact of life, part of the round of nature. What if we talked about the end of life as we do its beginning — a
necessary part of what it means to be human.
Everything that we value about life and living — its novelties,
challenges, opportunities for development — would be impossible without death
as the defining boundary of our lives.
Living a good death
begins the moment we accept our mortality as part of who we are. The end of life can be a time
of extraordinary alertness, concentration, and emotional intensity. It’s possible to use the natural intensity
and emotion of this final season of life to make it the culminating stage of
our personal growth.
If we were able to pass this message on to our patients and clients, we would all become pioneers of a new
standard of a good death that others could emulate. Healing and helping professionals are in a unique position to help the rest
of society desensitize death and dying.
Thank you, Dr Murray, for helping break open this conversation.
Great piece Sarah! My grandmother also read Everyman in her late 80s and loved it as well. Of course, the geographer in me must note: By description, the Old Rimrock of American Pastoral seems to describe Mendham more than Morristown…
Great article! I loved the insight of the UCLA sociologist added to your own personal experiences.
Excellent piece.
Excellent article. I’ve heard some people say that pickup basketball is on the decline in America (replaced by organized leagues and basketball camps) but this article shows there’s still pickup basketball out there. I’m reminded of a recent article about pickup basketball in New York City which took almost the opposite tack: instead of feeling at home thanks to playground basketball, the author, a newcomer to NYC, used pickup basketball games as a way of encountering new parts of the city.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/12/sports/basketball/a-new-arrival-explores-new-york-through-pickup-basketball.html?pagewanted=all
Great read! Thanks for sharing.
Wow, you are a genius.
Most people that demand “everything” for a 90 plus year old have guilt about how they treated that person or live their own lives. It’s torment for the elderly patient and massively costly for the rest of society to pay millions for their guilt.
You write beautifully. Thanks for sharing this awesome story.
I enjoyed reading your story very much as well. The only other thought I had was that the unresolved murders of the women of Juarez would have been worth mentioning to further contextualize the heavy violence the city has suffered.
Thank-you for this wonderful story. What a memory for detail!
Thank you for telling your story. I’m an Air Force brat. Dad spent time TDY in Alaska in the early 1960s, so I wound up spending nearly thirty year in that state, the first third working out of Sitka, the latter portion at Cordova, the more maritime clime in Prince William Sound. Before departing, I had to travel to Anchorage for monthly eye checks, and nothing’s colder than waiting for the city bus in single digit temps near the Int’l Airport, walking downtown over the edge the hill to meet the cold wind blowing along Ship Creek, much colder. The weather hasn’t changed, and it’s still the same where John Ford’s “Report From the Aleutians” was filmed, too.
What a wonderful and compelling story! It opens a window into a world that is both entirely authentic and believable, yet strangely exotic at the same time. Thank you!
Delicious Tale, Joseph!. So, you read the Alexandria Quartet at the Onix Sequel? … (Nice group of ideas/words).
Yes, we definitely need Mistery in our lifes , in order to live intensely, properly.
This brought back many memories of my own youth. I grew up near 103rd and Compton Ave, a few blocks away from the PE station in Watts. My parents came from China and the restrictive covenants in place at the time didn’t give a lot of Watts residents choices on where to live in this city. My father had his MS in Biology from the University of Washington but career choices for Asians were limited so he ran a small grocery store.
In my late pre-teen/early teen years, the pastor at St. Lawrence Church would give me street car tokens that parishioners would put in the collection basket and I would ride a PE train and explore the city. From Watts I could grab a Big Red Car and go to Long Beach, San Pedro and Bellflower or I could go to the main PE station at 6th and Main. I could catch the Watts Local there too. From there, I could see the rest of the city because I could walk up to the subway terminal on Hill and catch the PE trains there and I had that huge network of those Yellow Cars, the LATL or LA Transit Line. I explored a lot of downtown Los Angeles on foot and like the author, I remember those nice days at Clifton’s. For someone my age, it made me feel like a grownup to be able to go there by myself.
From my many rides, I befriended a conductor who would let me hop on
board his train and ride to the end and back. It was a long time ago so I
guess I can ‘fess up now about those free rides because I’m pretty certain
“Sarge” won’t be getting in trouble for letting this little kid ride for
free. I still remember him in his uniform and he always had a smile on his face.
It got me out of my small world that I knew as Watts and I had a huge chance to explore this city and it’s many suburbs. Emboldened with some familiarity of the geography outside of our neighborhood, my childhood friends and I would ride our bikes and explore. As bicyclists, our rite of passage was to be able to ride to Long Beach and back!
Like the author, at one point I got my first car, mine was a ’49 Chevy. I was able to scrape up a few dollars with jobs. In my case, I worked at a cafe on 5th near San Pedro, in the heart of Skid Row so I got to see another segment of Los Angeles but it gave me enough money to buy that Chevy and my streetcar days were over too and I became part of that migration from urban rail to an individual car.
Thanks Manuel for reviving some of my fond memories.
So, what Waldie is trying to say is that Huell never went Hollywood. He’s home folks.
“I don’t know if the joy was a pose, too, like the piety of the minister who continues to preach after his faith is dead. But it’s hard for me not to see the subversion ever present in Howser’s joyous demeanor.”
The above line appears to be a revelation of the author’s diabolical cynicism.
Horrible injection indeed.
It is not some evil greed that drives Huell; he is genuine.
On his shows, he deliberately speaks slowly so no viewer misses his information.
In a room full of intelectuals; he can more than hold his own in both speed and brilliance of speech.
Four HUGE items the author left out:
When Huell slaps you on the back, you must take two steps forward to regain your balance.
Huell LOVES people (and NOT as sources of profit)!
Huell LOVES history. It is his source of inspiration and his academic background.
People LOVE Huell. They shower him with affection in person and he stops what he is doing to give them his time and his complete attention. Not just old “folks” love Huell.
I’ve seen a handfull of cool 20 something kids wearing T shirts with his picture on it.
He’s got devoted fansf all ages.
I haven’t seen the Huell Howser t-shirts but what a great idea. Especially for people who lived in the LA area from the late 1980s through now — the sight of a Huell t-shirt instantly tells us that the wearer is from southern California (or is faking it). Whereas people not from So Cal can only wonder who is this Huell guy? Unless one has lived or spent significant time there, one can’t fully understand.
Seattle erected a bronze statue of J.P. Patches — a completely different type of TV personality but he had a similar hold on the cultural imagination.
One big difference though, and I wonder if this weakens D.J. Waldie’s thesis: one pretty much has to have been a regular viewer of PBS to have seen Huell Howser. Did the “folks” that Waldie describes even watch PBS?
The sad news of Huell Howser’s passing now makes his sudden retirement make more sense; declining health may have been the cause of both.
When I moved to Boston in 1979, so did Larry Bird so I always count my history in Boston as starting with the Bird Era. Similarly I moved to Los Angeles in 1987, which was when Huell Howser started producing those Videolog shorts, so I will always count my history in LA as starting with the Howser Era (even though it took me a couple of years to stumble across Videolog).
What Huell Howser did was such a simple yet great idea that I’ve long wondered why other PBS stations don’t do the same thing. I guess the answer is that there was only one Huell Howser.
Our family bonded around Huell Howser’s show California’s Gold and sang the name of it together in Huell’s drawl and enthusiasm. We knew we were in for a treat. I agree w/Taylor 12 string (comment below) that the guy is intelligent. He has brilliant ability to make his subject matter accessible to everyone while never being condescending. Although he has a bigger-than-life personality it never made him too-cool. We respect the guy a lot.
I have been watching Huell for years, always enjoying his genuine enthusiasm for California and its citizens whether they be human or animal. I for one always believed his heart was operating from an authentically good spot, his ‘folky’ presentation is a refreshment from the hyper coolness of L A Westside. I’m laughing at that coolness residing all the way to rustic Malibu!
Huell has done more for the Golden State’s image than any celebrity or politician. PBS has consistently squeezed modest donations from me every year thanks in large part to Huell. Now, I may have to divert some of that money to support Chapman’s efforts to archive his work.
Huell, I’ll see you at the Farmer’s Market one of these days…
During my army service in the late 1950’s I became a student of regional dialects. What struck me was that many Californians, particularly from SoCal had regional, usually Southern or Southwestern accents. I had earlier decided that Oregonians and Washingtonians spoke the purest, non-inflected American English.
When I moved to Los Angeles in 1962, I came face to face with many of these transplants and understood better their habits and accents.
Their prototype was Cal Worthington, who invited to come to his lot, “Where your friends are.”
i too came to Burbank in 1961 and met southernors who came for the plentiful jobs. I was a preteen and hated Xmas with no snow..but being a former inland bound country person loved the Ocean !
Wonderful piece on a wonderfully complex man. Howser wasn’t just showing “the folks” a state full of people and places different and perhaps off-putting to them. He also, by playing one of the “folks” on television, made that group less frightening to some of the many “others” who likely outnumbered “folks” among the PBS audience. Stereotypes and prejudices go both ways, and Howser’s intelligence and curiosity displayed on television may have helped broaden the views of those who might not in real life have looked beyond their reflexive prejudices towards hulking white guys with Tennessee accents.
Good use of my pic 🙂
Very important conversation, Zocalo. Thank you for sponsoring it.
In 1957, at age nine, my sister and I were moved by my mother to California from Illinois. I often wonder what shape my life would have taken had I not come here. But it matters not because, over time, California seeped into my every pore and I am inextricably bound by its spell. In spite of all the fears of being shoved off a fiscal cliff, and all the other real and unreal terrors of life, last evening, as my beloved and I floated in the dark over the twists and turns of PCH from Santa Monica to Ventura, I thought and said aloud to my groom, “Could it get any better than this?” I was, just for a hour or so, and against all reason, in awe of the privilege of being a Californian.
In the 16th C. The Adventures of Esplandián, “there is an island called California, very close to . . . the Terrestrial Paradise,” inhabited by Amazons; Mr. Mailander has captured this mythology!
Yet, many of us have first hand knowledge of friends and family with troubled children who early on show signs of psychosis and bi polar disorder. In my experience, there seems to be a connection between possible genetic component and lack of affection from the mother. Just because we don’t fully understand all the factors that go into creating these type of personality disorders, doesn’t mean that there is not something very real going on.
Thank you for addressing this case. I remember the Cleveland Elementary School tragedy very well because I was 10 years old living in Stockton. With all the gun-related tragedies that have happened since then, I also continue to wonder if the culture of violence in America will ever change. I hope that our nation’s pursuit to prevent such tragedies will include greater knowledge of mental illness brought on by various environmental or genetic causes, in addition to gun control. Gun control will never be enough to prevent these types of tragedies.
I feel like I’ve gotten away from my little cubby hole here and on a road trip. Thanks for the arm chair adventure. Reminds me of my many trips up and down I-5 and the little adventures that make a dull drive so memorable. Drive on!
This article is a good look at the hypocrisy of the medical establishment. Due to space and time constraints, it barely scratches the surface of government-protected medical cartel’s destructive hypocrisy and murderous tyranny. Where do I start? Propranalol? Stevia? Banning and regulating out of practice Stephen Badylak’s regenerative medicine techniques? Etc…
Here’s a doctor dying with Parkinson’s Disease, and all he can focus on is helping others while he still can. (Google this title)
“Hope for the Violently Aggressive Child”
Lovely. I’ve only been on the freeways for a few months and it’s nice to find the language for it.
a great article worth circulating
i always find it strange when people discuss another’s health and how they choose to treat it. Certainly the above article has some interesting facts in it, but each person should be unjudged for how they treat or do not treat potential end of life threatening illness. To me this is the same thing as a woman’s right to choose. There is more to each person’s life than what we see from the outside.
Dr. Goodman leaves out the most important factor: machismo. Like most NBA players, Howard could sharply increase his free-throw percentage by shooting underhand. See http://sabermetricresearch.blogspot.com/2006/12/underhanded-free-throws.html . But he’d rather look hip and manly than be a good foul shooter. He doesn’t have stage fright, he’s just too proud.
Prostate cx is the 2nd largest killer of men who die of cancer. All the men on both sides of my family died of prostate cx. I chose to have proton therapy 13 years ago. I am fine now – in my late 80’s.
Jerry’s mode of treatment, conformal x-rays – is an obsolete
modality that tends to injure the patient as much as cure the cx. There are several more modern treatment modalities now available and more yet on the horizon. The two worst are surgery and x-rays. But cryo-surgery, thermo-surgery, radio-active needles (“seeds”), and the gold-standard, proton treatment, all have been yielding excellent results.
It’s a shame he received such poor medical advice.
Prostate cx is a killer! Watchful waiting is for those who intend to die young.
Dr. Goodman offers a viable solution to what is too often overlooked regarding basketball: it’s a team sport, not just a bunch of superstars.
The best solution is a return of the legitimate Monarchy…long live King Mihai!
Thank you for this wonderful history lesson! My grandfather served on Nixon’s Committee of 100 and it is so fascinating to look behind the scenes and learn how Nixon’s campaign was successfully orchestrated.
It’s interesting to hear the finer strengths of a culture blamed for the recent violence. Isn’t this again a form of blaming the victem? Shouldn’t a recent increase in violence be blamed on more recent cultural developments, such as increased prosperity, Bollywood, internet porn, gaming video violence? Would a propensity to protect women be one of the reasons for the tremendous support and popularity of women’s rallies in recent weeks. Dare we say, that liberal oikophobia may be in play here? Chastise the common sense to create the allusion of profound contradiction. Chivalry will be the source of strength that will solve India’s current crisis, in a very quick manner.
Agree with most of it.But there are certain aspects which leads to men going to the other side of the city to drop you. You mix with many people from your own sex, and tend to know what they say, so as an Indian man you naturally end up being protective. Its the society which makes us this way. The horrific incident in Delhi actually could’ve happened anywhere in the world. That’s horrible but not shocking. I feel India has a bigger problem in dealing with women on a day to day basis. Most men have that odd sense that women dressing scantily are easy, and if that does not work out try and force it. This sense in men has to go away in our country, else we’ll surely go to the docks.
Great article, Joe. Each May I take about 250 Poly students to a Dodger game on the Metro with the free shuttle to the Stadium from Union Station. Many have never ridden public transportation of any kind. Some have never been to a baseball game. Their eyes open wide as they come up the stairs in the right field bleachers and see the field for the first time. It’s a great L.A. experience.
As someone who took this specific journey every day, twice a day last summer, I loved this article.
Really great article. Huell was a national (Republic of California) treasure. There will never be another like him. Gone too soon, but not to be forgotten.
Wonderful piece about a fairly new L.A. experience that more and more are having. All Angelenos should read this. And for those of you outside of Los Angeles, read this and you’ll learn something about L.A. I’ll bet you didn’t know
Lovely article. If there’s one thing we all should learn from Huell, it’s to look at LA as if we were a tourist. Not the one with the Hawaiian shirt, loud mouth, and big camera slung around his neck, but the tourist of life who finds something interesting around every corner. It’s a great thing to pass on to one’s kids, too.
“Most of us have a doctor or lawyer in the family”??? Yes, compared to spies they’re common. But suggesting that “most of us” have close relatives in these professions says something about the narrowness of the populations from which D.C. think tanks draw their fellows.
Thank you for such a sweet article about spending quality Dad time with your boys in our great city. It reminded me of my father, who after working 8 to 10 hour days would come home exhausted but still find the time to take me and my two siblings to get a treat.
Chinatown was a weekend venture for us back in the 80s, before there was a Goldline. I will never forget as a child the great time we had visiting all the interesting shops, eating at all the restaurants, and meeting new people. I appreciate now all of the effort my dad put into raising us and I’m sure your boys will too someday.
Mostly wonderful thoughts on a Really good film, but didn’t you realize that the point of Candie talking about Blacks was how wrong he was? Django kills all the bad guys at the end. Django was in no way submissive.
@google-18bdb4716ce3da838f069080c6d0d613:disqus, I’ve read this criticism from a few other Django reviews as well and I think the point here is that Candie is proven wrong but there is a bigger message here, made by Tarantino, that’s problematic. It’s the notion that Django is the 1 in 10,000 slave that ISN’T submissive. As in, slaves were enslaved because they were submissive and these infrequent revolts were only the result of the few (1 in 10,000) slaves who wasn’t.
Thank you for your story! My wife and I just returned from seeing the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Memorial site in Atlanta. Thank you for your contributions to justice!
No one should chant the Pledge of Allegiance because it was the origin of the Nazi salute and Nazi behavior (see the book “Pledge of Allegiance and Swastika Secrets” by Ian Tinny and Dr. Rex Curry). The robotic daily brainwashing in government schools (socialist schools) continues to inspire that type of behavior, only the gesture has changed. Remove the pledge from the flag; remove the flag from schools; remove schools from government.
why are coffin lids nailed down?
So oncologists will stop chemo
fantastic.
I’d follow up on the incompetent nurse who reported you. But much agreed, as a medic who does a lot of “life saving” procedure while ruining you kitchen, people need a plan for their end of life and wishes expressed. the system also needs to change a bit as well.
I love the headline!
Oh, and I love CicLAvia even more….
The whole point of this article is not about choice but is written to make you feel guilty for choosing to try to beat a terminal illness. It is part of preparing the battleground for limiting your freedom to choose the type of care you want. Dr. Murray first appeals the authority of doctors and then calls out as role models those who choose not to fight and incur medical costs. Doctors know better than you and this article’s agenda just happens to line up with the goals of Obamacare – limiting your choices to reduce the cost of medical care. “You must be stupid, selfish, and evil to fight for your life” is the message. Thank you, Dr. Murray. Without your guidance my aunt would not have seen her grandkids be born let alone seem them turn 8 and 6 and she is still doing fine.
” to make you feel guilty for choosing to try to beat a terminal illness”
Clue’s in the name – TERMINAL illness. If it’s terminal, it can’t be beaten.
Wow – I *never* knew that, Mickey! Life is terminal too, do you know that?. See the example I gave of my aunt, just one example. She was diagnosed with a terminal illness, given less than a year, and is still with us 9 years later.
You have to have a trusting relationship ( which takes time and periodic patient-doctor interaction) with a doctor with good judgement so he can advise you and separate the grain from the chaff. That is the only way to figuring out if you have a “treatable” late stage disease or not.
Checkout ezralevant.com if you want the scoop on ‘Idle no more’.
Thank you exblott… for the other side of the story.
And.. people should also read this impartial blog by a Cree in Alberta.
Anthony lays it out in the most clear and honest way.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/anthony-sowan/its-embarrassing-how-idle-no-more-protest-handled_b_2520664.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/anthony-sowan/its-embarrassing-how-idle-no-more-protest-handled_b_2520664.html
Well that was pretty damned sobering. Thanks for writing this.
This is an excellent article and one which I think points out some interesting topics. It would be great if more people could read this and gain “understanding” of the process of death. The worst things I see in my job as a hospitalist are almost never illnesses or injury. It’s the way families treat each other in that time period around death.
And it goes both ways. Families put their beloved patient through a ton of suffering by prolonging things. Often it is the result of guilt-directed thinking. But patients do it to their families by not discussing the issue consistently, thus forcing the family to make that decision which isn’t informed by the patient’s actual wishes. Physicians are aware of this and prepare themselves and their families so there is none of that in that time they have left. If only more patients and families had that wisdom.
this was quite beautiful. thanks for writing this.
I strongly disagree!
The value of a human life seems to be clearly underestimated in this article, i will live every minute and a second of a smiling family near your bed is so precious that it’s worth every heartbeat.
The attempt to bring brutal life ending care is so bold that i had to publicly disagree!
sounds like they are trying to get us ready for Obamacare.
Except, apparently you believe the human involved should not be entitled to an opinion. I applaud the doctor for controlling his own care and encourage others to do likewise in similar situations.
Dear
‘This is Liberal Bluff”.
What sort of human being are you? Do you really feel that you have the right to dictate when others die even though that patient him or herself wants to leave this world?
If you believe life is so precious, by all means stay in the game. But, there are others out there who really mean it when they say “Do not resuscitate!” You clearly have not seen many people die in terrible pain. Or sometimes it is not really TERRIBLE pain but a complete lack of quality of life, and dignity with no hope of ever becoming whole again.
As so many people say, we do not allow our pets to suffer so, why force our loved ones to suffer or to watch US suffer?
Personally, I do not fear death and do not understand the tenacious grip some people have on life. Death is the next great adventure. Welcome it when it is time and stop doing “heroic” but gruesome, things to put off dying.
looking forward to praticipating this year!!
Awesome logo!
I spent many many hours in PAC Man arcade. So cool! These should be shown at LitFest Pasadena this may. I’m the literary director
Hi Jervey, lets connect! gmail: darinbeaman@gmail.com
About bloody time too! When I was in the Army (1977-1986) women in the UK were not allowed even on manoevres because of “lack of toilet facilities in the field”! Official Line Response! But of course we were in support roles, and when you live in a combat area what are you supposed to do? So yes well done for the recognition of an already established fact.
I have saved my mother with CPR who was terminally ill because of terminal economic crunch.A gangrene toe with hyperglycemic emergency and sepsis.This may not be the cases that u are discussing,but I just thought I would join in.On two occassions, due to fragile DM,She would suddenly slip into hypoglycemia and coma.
I am a feminist and believe that women should be given equal opportunity and remuneration for work. But recognizing this at this time is odd. Because the majority of wars are being fought against and with males of the Islamic faith, who categorically do not respect (much less talk to, shake hands with, etc.) women, what is the practical opportunities for women to rise in the ranks of the combat troops of US military on the ground? Is this just to enrage the “enemy” further? How will a woman be able to garner respect of the native forces if she is put in a superior training role? Why don’t we just stop this military business altogether? Have the generals run out of men willing to run into the line of fire?
A related question: Do people who sit in remote bunkers driving drones into “enemy” territory get “combat” pay like the soldier about to bite a bullet?
quick comment: I mean, women actually give birth after carrying a human around for months…soooo, I believe that carrying combat gear around can be done just as well.
It is with the universal understanding that we here in Los Angeles have come to the surface of bittersweet defined equality for the Cycling Community.
Mr. Paley your precision in thoughts have made me completely committed to my agenda — as I will measure to include you in my aftermath of concentrations, if I become the newly elected official for Council District No. 15 of Los Angeles.
The lifting of restrictions to the Cycling Community will end on my watch. The population as you have effectively stated above, is and care to enhance there way of life here in L.A. more so than you can hardly depict in words.
Riders beware — here I come, as a hurricane hitting the Gulf coast –and I respectfully write those words above. – David Manuel Gonzalez
I won’t be watching.
My son suffered a serious head in jury in a bicycle accident several years ago. And yes, he was wearing a helmet. Until one lives through the terrifying experience of the coma and the hospitalization, and then the agonizing rehabilitation, one cannot have any idea how traumatic the experience is.
So I have lost all interest in football. No thanks.
I’m totally baffled that you are able to so clearly state the risks and even cite examples of some players’ personal experiences and then end the article in the way you did. The potential for an injury causing life-altering effects or even death is very real. It is a known fact that the risk for further damage is higher with each subsequent blow. The cost both personally and financially are huge. All for a stupid game. To blow off even your own research and use humor (or attempt to) in the end is unfathomable. “Our true national pastime”……pathetic.
Extraordinary poem. Extraordinary poet. Can’t wait to buy her new book.
Thank you for being willing to serve! I discovered Highland Park right after college about 10 years and although I live across the country on the other coast now, I remember the neighborhood fondly. Best of luck!
Thanks for an honest, first-hand account of involvement in local politics. Good luck to you and your community.
Awesome story and insight into local politics. Best of luck to you and the denizens of Highland Park into making it the best community possible for everyone who lives there.
insightful and humorous. great job Aaron!
Go Aaron! I applaud your leadership and efforts to make and keep Highland Park friendly and welcoming to all! As a Silver Lake native, it saddens me to witness the “hipsterization”
and nouveau-Bohemian upselling of my once solidly-middle class and
diverse neighborhood. Well done!
Thanks for what you’re doing for your Highland Park community! In the early 80’s we went looking for what was affordable and interesting and diverse (maybe I should say “safe for us.” It was– Silver Lake! It’s funny now, to “suddenly” be in a “hip” neighborhood. We met the elderly children of the people who built our 1914 house. They came to the door on a nostalgia trip to their old neighborhood shortly after we moved in. It was sweet. When we moved here to Silver Lake it was referred to as “the Swish Alps.” This was pre-rainbow flags! The LAPD at this time was still occasionally just stopping in at gay bars (the entrances were all from the alley or back parking lot) and arresting people just for the hell of it. There was no welcome wagon– The area was always a creative area– writers, artists, actors, film makers, musicians were Silver Lake residents since the early decades of the 20th Century. Diversity has a track record here–and probably a few scars. It’s been quite interesting to chronicle the story of the neighborhood through the Halloween trick or treaters on our street. At first it was one or two neighborhood kids. On our first Halloween we saw a cute little girl (who for a while was the only kid on the block) dressed as a pirate with a striped shirt, eye-patch, and drawn on mustache! She is now a sophomore at Princeton. The number of kids gradually increased. Then we’d see the “older” kids– the junior high or high school big brothers and sisters– move to the back with the little kids out front. This year it was amazing– we suddenly had a totally different “mix”! Latinos, caucasians, African Americans– and Asians! This is a relatively new phenomenon. And on our street we even see baby carriages! ( * I wonder if they know that a pre-Modern Family/New Normal family paved the way and helped with the pretty-fication and desirability of the place?) The dog walkers are also a good ad hoc “census.” So– if Silver Lake is desirable, it’s good to recognize “why!” History– there was enough here that hadn’t been destroyed to make it interesting. There is a certain degree of local political activism. Important! And there is diversity. We are a neighborhood– not a ghetto. We are not parceled off by age, race, or sexual orientation. We are America! (It might not be the America some would prefer. But that’s their problem.) Sunset is teaming with new small businesses, cafe’s, galleries, retail. Is it perfect? Far from it– But it is a real community. We have houses (and apartment houses) instead of “housing.” It’s rewarding to see what’s happened here. And then there’s Echo Park– (An Episcopal priest in Echo Park spoke of the difficulty of working in their tough ghetto. We laughed! Have you walked down the street or looked at the price of houses and rent? We don’t need photo-op activists to make us “worthy.” We have each other– It’s good to know that Highland Park is also in good hands!
nice write up, keep up the good work on “all this hipster shit”… great job Aaron.
Great piece! I don’t like Highland Park OR Silver Lake, but this is a very well-written piece. I am a devotee of Pico/Crenshaw, and our Victoria Park neighborhood association is Crazytown! I have not had the guts to explore our Neighborhood Council yet, but this makes me think I might. Good work!
Lovin’ that ur lookin’ to see what you can do with local democracy. How are you, Belissa?
This is what community building is all about! Great piece of taking control and creating the change you want.
As a long time wanna-be Highland Parker, I found this article charming. What a great way to show that community-minded areas still exist, even in LA! I hope to be a resident of Highland Park in time to vote for you for mayor!
Tears* keep telling your story girl.. I am proud of you Lakesha!
This article has some points but I think unfortunately its grasping a bit too far. Yes the system is not always perfect and it at times leaves us doctors with a bitter taste in our mouths when returning home from a buisy on call or operating days, despite having done everything as it “should be done”. You should not forget however, how we make progress in modern medicine…it can be a sad result for some but a lifesaver for many others later on. I realize this is not a politically correct point if view but maybe closest to the truth…we should not accept “collateral damage” in our practice but thats how it is. Very little is made in theory…the bulk is trial and error almost so to speak…as bizarre it might seem.
In the interested of National security, a large percentage of the population, including many of my close friends and relatives, are comfortable with their government proving deeper into the private lives of its citizens. Their argument is simple (as the author indicated), “They have nothing to hide.”
Our digital footprint is a lot more revealing than we imagine. I’m not sure any of us would like aspects of our lives proved, mined, dissected, and revealed to members in our public and private circles.
Every Chinese New Year my wife spends the night at her parents. She’s done that every year since we tied the knot. I’m not clear what rituals are practiced that evening, but I know that the next day they rise early to hit the temples (that’s right, templesss). It’s a marathon of prayer, incense, and tribute – among other things. I was taken along once. It was a new experience that I’d like to relive again, but I lack the stamina; plus, I was clearly out of my league. They moved exquisitely, like a well oiled machine. The crowds are massive and its clear they all share the same objective. It was amazing…
She is better with the posadas than I am with the CNY. She’s learned to make superb tamales and champurrado, and hasn’t shied away from attending midnight mass every Christmas. Lucky me!!!
I’m happy to hear that Javier was not more seriously injured — and happy also that he was able to get the care he needed without spending tens of thousands of dollars.
It sounds like he might have gotten just-as-good (if not better) care at the Urgent Care clinic than he would have gotten at the ER, for a tiny fraction of the cost. That’s worth pondering as we collectively think of ways for our nation to reduce our healthcare costs.
Of course, the really scary thing (financially) would have been if Javier had been knocked unconscious or otherwise forced to be admitted to the hospital. That would have been truly devastating to his savings – and the savings of almost any uninsured person in America.
One other thing for Javier to consider — even under many insurance plans, I would guess that deductibles mean that he might have owed thousands of dollars if he had accepted the ambulance, ER care, etc. For many people, thousands of dollars is manageable (if painful) whereas tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of uninsured care is not. But for a young freelancer (been there, done that) even a couple thousand dollar bill can be catastrophic.
So glad Zocalo exists so that writers with tales of woe and/or stupidity can warn others. At his age, Javier can afford a cheap plan with Kaiser, which should be a priority. Obamacare made rates go up, but Kaiser’s still a good deal.
DorothyP – You seem to be overlooking something – Javier made it clear that he has no money whatsoever, so can’t afford Kaiser or any other insurance.
Then maybe he should get a job or take the bus.
I find it appalling that you could read the account above and still say something disparaging about Obamacare — the first tiny baby steps we have taken towards humanity in the provision of health services in this country.
Do you know who should get nothing out of my healthcare choices? Shareholders! Remove the profit from the system and doctors make more money, patients pay less, we all get better care, and no one has an incentive to jack up prices while reducing services.
The belief that healthcare is not a right in this county baffles me. We have public education, libraries, firehouses, roads, etc., but the idea that a publicly funded healthcare system should be in effect is dismissed by half of our population. The powers that be, which I will refer to as the great trifecta of health
insurance companies, pharmaceutical corporations, and for-profit hospitals,
have managed an enormous feat in that they have instilled in the minds of
millions of Americans ( and most politicians) that healthcare, and access to it, is a commodity available for purchase by those who are responsible enough to buy it, and for those who “choose” the types of work where health insurance is traditionally offered by the employer.
There seems to be a disconnect amongst our population that the reason health care costs in this county are rising four times faster than wages is because we have a for-profit model, which significantly drives up the cost and lowers quality. The high cost is not the fault of the uninsured, undocumented or other non-white,
non-homogenous, or “un-deserving” populations who are usually the scapegoats.
It is because there are hundreds of billions of dollars in profits for the taking, and the status quo is making a lot of very wealthy individuals even wealthier regardless that the lives and livelihoods of human beings are on the line. Follow the money.
A publicly funded healthcare system is the only way to reduce costs and save lives. It just makes sense. We need to dispel the myth where for-profit equals better healthcare, and publicly funded healthcare equals a communist plot to take over America, because that is just not the case. Go ask someone over 65 on Medicare.
Congrats–there are many women who are former girl scouts: Robin Cook, Katie Courie and Maya Angelou. Good luck with cookie sales–it is more than selling cookies.
If you Google ‘ORSA’ you will be shown a link
http://dpss.lacounty.gov/dpss/health/orsa/default.cfm?persona=aged
which will give you info on the LA County residents’ access to inexpensive health insurance. If Javier had gone to a County facility he could have got first class health care and applied for ORSA following treatment which would have covered his treatment costs. There is also a ATP (Ability To Pay) plan.
Given Javier’s stated financial status, I am guessing he would probably have qualified.
Waiting time at any County facility can be many hours for non-emergency cases, but he would probably have been seen very quickly, because of the seriousness of the injury.
I don’t want to sound callous, but it’s the only way to control medical costs. You are the only one with the motive and all the information. Everyone else would buy too little or too much care for you.
You don’t want to be in the position that your pet is in when you take him to the vet.
When I was a child, we would choose our “Valentines” and not give each and every student in our class a card. We gave cards to those we liked, to those individuals who were our friends. The feel good attitude that too many school leaders took on made it a mandatory action, to give all students cards. Love was forced. Either one loved everyone and one didn’t love at all. That was, of course, a big lie. Brava to you, Judy Callahan, for your good sense. Indeed, the children under your care are way too young for the holiday anyway, as it is a romantic day of love (Eros) not a humanity day of love (Agape.) Valentine’s Day is for adults.
Our school also bans Valentine’s in the classroom–and in fact, all holidays. For Valentine’s, they substitute a “friendship day” a week later than Valentine’s day, and it’s actually done out of love and concern for all. Some people do have religious objections to Valentine’s day, and others simply don’t have it as part of their culture. Overall, there are so many different cultures within our school that it works better for us to have a blanket policy not to favor one culture by making its holidays the “official” school celebration. These are each family’s prerogative to teach–and the school’s responsibility to teach each culture to tolerate the cultures of others. Difficult to do when you’re showing favoritism to one.
I went to a Jewish day school where Valentine’s Day wasn’t even mentioned
because it’s Saint Valentine’s Day and saints’ days were understood to
be Christian observances, not Jewish observances.
I feel sad to think about the effect this school is having on its little ones. There are lots of different kind of love, and ultimately kindness towards others is about empathy and affection and looking for the best in all persons, even those that might look or seem different from us. I think this is intuitive for most toddlers and it is sad to imagine a school bent on teaching kids “us” versus “them” instead of universal love.
Happy Valentines Emma! This is a wonderful article. By the way, I see nothing has changed. My friends and I would send “secret admirer” grams to each other too. 🙂
A huge opportunity is being missed in the classroom to use Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to teach about greater love and compassion for all people. It also misses the opportunity to celebrate self-love. Love exists in all forms. Throwing the baby out with the bathwater misses the point. The younger these kids are exposed to the concepts of compassion, empathy and developing a greater love for oneself and humanity the better. Valentine’s Day is a teachable moment. You just taught them that it is better to banish something rather than to explore it. Love needs to be explored and understood, not banished.
Happy Valentine’s Day, dear Emma! Thank you for this beautiful piece.
Not observing Valentine’s Day (and most calendar holidays) is a perfect opportunity to teach kids (of all ages) about mindless consumerism and the gimmicky commodification of “love.”
This explains why when I walked into preschool this morning to say Happy Valentineʻs Day, the care-giver said, “Happy Friendship Day.” I knew there was some kind of policy behind her response, so was pleased to have seen this posting in my inbox. I may not jump on board the No Valentine policy, but I certainly respect those whoʻve challenged its imposition and politicized the cultural assumptions that are embedded in it. I think itʻs a healthy way to participate in society and we should not feel sad about challenging these assumptions.
Additionally, we should not feel sad about re-identifying ourselves as settler-colonialists or consumer-fascists. There are a myriad of ways for us to observe our beliefs, and the critical self-examination of events like Valentineʻs Day should remind us that many of the national celebrations and holidays we impose, are exactly that– impositions.
Emma, you sound like a wonderful seventh grader with a wonderful family! It seems like you are leaving a part of your childhood behind, at least outwardly, but I know that in your heart you will always carry the generous and loving Emma, that had wonderful experiences in elementary school. You are learning how to “put up the shell to protect yourself” – it is part of growing up. In time, I know you will find special people to create special cards for, make wonderful holiday meals with and create special memories that your parents have done for you.
In the meantime, do something special for yourself – you can always be your own special Valentine! I know many of us, especially girls and women, have never been taught to treat ourselves – I hope you can start earlier than I did, to learn this skill!
Happy Valentine’s Day Emma!
Laura
I feel sorry for the children in this school and children around the country who are missing out on celebrations and traditions that we have all cherished. We have celebrated them year after year and come to take them so much for granted that we figure that today’s kids don’t even need them. While they may mean less to us now, we forget the wonder and enthusiasm that we had for them as children. The author’s view of love is extremely limited and her spirit of celebration and inclusion is shockingly lacking given her position as a school director. She sells kids short when she assumes a lack of capacity to love and to understand friendship and traditions. Selling kids short is not what I would expect from the director of my children’s preschool. “Yes, I banned the hearts. But it was for love.” For love of what?
My older son’s Jewish Day School and my younger son’s Jewish preschool make no mention of Valentine’s Day and ban all related cards, cookies etc. As a Jewish parent, I would expect that a Catholic holiday would not be observed in their classrooms. They are very busy preparing mishloah manot baskets to give to those they love for Purim. They aren’t ignoring the concept of loving others, they are practicing it within the context of their own culture and religious observance. I don’t have anything against Valentine’s Day — it’s a lovely holiday and I certainly like chocolates — but I equally think Christmas is lovely, celebrated by my dear Christian friends in their homes and schools, where I enjoy being welcomed as a guest (as I enjoy welcoming them as guests at my Chanukah party or Passover table). Mutual respect and admiration does not need to equal all of us doing the same thing, just because store advertisements tell us so.
I loved this piece, Emma! Brought back memories of the Valentine’s Days of my youth.
You have a wonderful and loving parents. Wishing you a Happy one!
Emma, You are my Valentine and I am yours!
Love, Baba
Think your reasoning is sort of a willful misinterpretation of what the day traditionally means. Valentine’s Day is not about the necessity of loving everyone. It’s about paying attention to the people you do love. The custom is to CHOOSE who your valentines are. I’m sure all-inclusiveness has become a part of the celebration in a lot of classrooms, but I don’t see the harm in just baking some heart cookies and telling kids the importance of showing their close friends and families that they care.
There’s nothing wrong with choosing not to celebrate Valentine’s Day, of course — it’s a fake holiday and the romantic connotations can be weird for kids that age. But it doesn’t make sense to ban it for its message of “love everyone,” because that’s not the message at all.
Oy vey! Valentine’s Day is a harmless day when kids can have a little bit of fun. It’s a celebration of love, whatever form love may take, or “like” as in “I like to have fun with my friends.” Love is universal and not the province of any one religion. Let the children have a little bit of fun with their friends at school.
I wonder what the kids think?
Your story reminds me of one of the reasons my favorite teacher in Jr. High was my favorite teacher; she pointed out to our class that the school should not let the student council sell flowers for Valentine’s Day. She said that most kids end up feeling crummy when the popular kids from the student council come into the classroom and announce by name the kids who get flowers from an admirer. She said that it’s all about being popular and not about the entire student body. The thing that made me feel so OK about Valentine’s Day was what she said…in front of my peers…that it was OK not to get a Valentine’s Day flower and that it didn’t mean that you weren’t likeable. It was a MAJOR relief when she said this out loud. I didn’t get a flower and I didn’t feel bad and I still had See’s Candy at home from my mom.
I don’t understand how buying a whole bunch of crappy paper and candy and indiscriminately distributing it to a room full of people has anything to do with love. This preschool gives me hope that when my son starts preschool next year we will be able to avoid that kind of ridiculousness.
Because it is a gesture of kindness!!! Except for the most jaded of preschoolers, it feels good to give something to someone else (even if it is just a crayon drawing or paper heart), and it feels good to receive even the smallest of gifts from another classmate. Perhaps to a jaded adult only a diamond ring will do, but these are preschoolers and they are leaning about giving and receiving.
I appreciate the time and consideration you put into your reasoning. As a parent of 2 young girls I we have received hundreds of valentines over the years. Now that they are in grade school they are happy to be sending Valentines to their classmates. This however was not the case in preschool, they just didn’t understand and it wasn’t something they looked forward to. I find as a parent its just another time consuming thing that takes away from us really spending quality time with our children. It can take hours for a 2-4 year old to put together 20+ valentines. How many better ways can we spend those hours or even minutes with our own children showing them we love them? Tonight my girls and I had a good round of balloon volleyball to share some giggles and dives. Far more memorable that the stack of Valentines and confectionaries headed for the trash.
I feel that adults tend to over-think things and often take the fun out of childhood and community celebrations and rituals. Her boycott of V-Day in the classroom is of course her prerogative as that private school administrator, but I’d point out that she could just as easily have used the occasion to provide a lesson or exercise in community tolerance and respect — using the very words and concepts being used to justify her boycott. I don’t recall as a child feeling pressured that I had to ‘love” everyone, but I was expected to acknowledge and respect them as individuals within our collective community. And if teachers and parents went a step further to help us create a craft project out of the ritual, there was even more opportunity for enrichment in the arts and crafts. I hope she can see the wisdom in this opportunity and change her methodology in the future. <3
Hearts to you Emma! And keep up that writing — you do it so beautifully and eloquently for a young woman of any age. But at the age of just 13 or so, you are a very impressive writer indeed!
That is great. I am vague about Bruin bear but i assume it relates to some sports. And listening to music; that is good. It is what I do. My tastes are rather archeological in so far as music is concerned but I am never left alone long enough to listen to my favourite music.And take some advice from someone who is older and has trained a lot of people. If those students are ambitious, curious and always in search of answers, you have nothing to worry about. Just do your job and rest will happen as it is meant to. Also tell Arron Salcido that he has done a brilliant job. You always looked like a million dollars but he has brought some extra out of you plus another million for the smile. Manohar in Lucknow Keep up the good work. This is one great admirer.
One of the things that always amazed me about my grandfather was that whenever I visited his house, he always had cards, gifts and candy sitting on his coffee table that had be sent to him by old friends…very often people he hasn’t seen in over twenty years because they had moved away.
I used to wonder why people remembered my grandpa and went out of their way send him thoughtful gifts and cards.
Now, I understand. People remembered my grandpa, because he always remembered them. If you where his friend, he’d always send you candy or a book or magazine subscription even when it wasn’t your birthday. The magazines in his house where not the magazines he liked to read. They were the magazines his friends liked to read. I you were his friend, you could be sure he would always stock his bar with the liquor you liked to drink. (Don’t ever drink Emma. You don’t need it.)
People remembered my grandpa because he remembered them.
If you want more valentines next year. Send a bunch to the people you really appreciate…the people who have been there to support you and be your friend. Two things will happen: 1) your get more Valentines the following year, and 2) you will get so much pleasure from the Valentines you send that you’ll stop worrying about how many you receive.
Life is mysterious.
Wow, it seems like a lot of people are over thinking this! First, if a child refuses to send a simple valentine to a classmate who is not in their ” group”, this might be an opportunity to talk about empathy and showing kindness even to strangers, and perhaps this would also help to help prevent isolating behaviors and even bullying which from some of the posts here starts as early as preschool for some children (if in fact some children cannot see any reason for showing compassion and kindness to certain classmates). Second, This does not need to be a commercial endeavor. Handmade cards or home baked cookies would suffice just as well, unless of course this preschool bans cookies and art projects also. Finally, in contemporary society valentines day is secular and has nothing to do with religion, but even if there were a historical connection is that a reason to boycot and become hostile? Cannot we teach children acceptance and tolerance towards other religions, rather than preaching an allergic reaction and angry rejection?
In a world where there is so much that is divisive I have to agree with Oneworld and Gretchen – why such a narrow definition of love? Respect and kindness ARE forms of love. I think preschools should not only celebrate Valentine’s Day but also Diwali, Sizdah Bedar, and many others, because learning fosters understanding. How narrow-minded to exclude – an act of fear and distrust – rather than include – and act of courage and respect.
Chicken Soba Noodle Soup from Maya Japanese restaurant at Yale and Santa Monica is our family elixir whenever anyone is ill. Buckwheat noodles, big chunks of chicken, spring onions and beansprouts, in a delicious broth… yum! Now that some of us live 80 miles away it is a long trek to retrieve but worth it.
Lemon-Grass Soup from Emerald Thai on Venice. Lemon-grass is loaded with Vitamin C. Chicken contributes the Jewish grandmother curative aspect. And the capsaicin from the hot chilis clears the head and chest. Try it!
Every director has the choice of what holidays to observe at her respective school. But I disagree with the rational. To say that Valentine’s Day propagates the idea that a child must love everyone seems like an intentionally simplistic interpretation. As with other holidays, it’s up to parents and teachers to relay the nuances that are appropriate for their age and community.
Ignoring a widely celebrated holiday versus developing an appropriate way to acknowledge it or celebrate it with your school invites confusion and criticism. It’s the director’s job to lead the school community, so I would expect her to have thought through and explained the rationale before banning the Valentine’s.
Yeah, Mark. Just ask those suckers in Seattle. They’re the ones that are luring the Kings to their city. Why? Because a public venue creates jobs (4,000+), much-needed revenue to city offers, and bolsters businesses. It also provides millions in untold benefits by providing a community with national allure for other businesses who want to be in a city that has a place for concerts and other events aside from sports. In a day and age when governments are providing tax breaks and all kinds of goodies for just about any business, this effort to keep jobs in our city makes perfect sense, even if it requires a small contribution of public dollars.
I recently saw and heard the inspirational story of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Your story is just as inspirational. Keep up your great work!
Gene Uzawa Dorio, M.D.
Santa Clarita
Linda Griego provided important leadership in “Rebuild LA” after the 1992 civil unrest. Fires Station 28 represented similar leadership about investment in Downtown Los Angeles and about adaptive re-use of historic places. And the list goes on and on. If only she were in the mayoral race this year!
This was a great article. Thank you for sharing…
Nice collection of campaigns. Thanks!
Philip Kao
Find interesting articles about social marketing, applied psychology and making the world a better place at SGA’s Blog – http://www.sga-inc.net/blog
Sugary colas should not be sold in County work facilities like the Kenn Hahn Hall of Administration cafeteria. Obesity is rampant in that facility and there is no legal issue — it’s a purchasing choice. The refrigerators at checkout can be filled with other beverages that aren’t so costly!!! It is painful to see the giant cups of sugary cola that correspond directly to health costs. The fact that we permit vending machines on county beaches…also, a choice… a bad choice!!!
My husband and I live in Marina del Rey, and received voting ballots that allowed us to vote for LA mayor, as well. First time in the 9+ years we’ve lived here. So we did. Strange, but empowering.
I find ‘In Pursuit of Giants’ on my bookshelf, too . . . and not because I’m into fishing. It’s a solid adventure story, written so well I enjoyed the writing too, and it reminds me to pay attention to the Beauty and Wildness “out there,” out beyond what I can see or already know.
Linda, you are an inspiration, a trail blazer, and a great leader. You make Los Angeles, and the country, proud. I am so proud to know you and call you a friend!
I do think we would be well served to create regional governments that could deal with planning, transportation and some other issues that don’t respect geopolitical boundaries as well as you do.
As a Los Angeles native, born in South Central and raised in Boyle Heights, I look up to women like you that have blazed the trail that I hope to some day push forward. Currently, I am an MPA candidate at USC and I only hope that this will help propel me to my ultimate goal of becoming the Mayor of L.A. some day. Any advice for a tough, goal driven, first generation college going Latina?
what a revealing and important story, thank you.
Thanks for saying what most of us in healthcare already know. Now if only we could get the conversation onto a national level. I helped my friend’s husband with at home hospice (inop lung ca stage iv) & there were issues on all sides–his oncologist was miffed & hospice md we never met but the patient felt abandoned after all the chemo, radiation and draining of fluid from his lungs his oncologist just disappeared, even no reply when Tom emailed him. Very disappointing. Then I was shocked that hospice provided sublingual oral pain meds–by the gallon, delivered to doorstep–+ duragesic patches, but I’d been prepared to manage his IV and a morphine drip; we met the hospice RN once then it was nursing assistants who were mainly good but his pain was difficult to manage with the liquid so I was trying to get better pain mgmt daily, w/o success. This is supposed to be a big part of hospice! They told me to give him more more but he could only swallow so much, then couldn’t swallow at all. I hoped the morphine and ativan that pooled in his cheek would somehow absorb. It was very traumatic for his wife, also a nurse, and me to know he was in such pain. They repeatedly said “oh you’re a hospital nurse, you guys always want IV’s”— well Yes we do! For adequate pain mgmt! we weren’t giving him food or fluids but he really needed pain relief, I didn’t sleep the last 2 days, trying to reposition him (he was 6’4, 60yrs old very athletic, non-smoker) and suspect he died earlier because one night he got in an odd position trying to avoid the tumor and his airway looked cramped—, o2 sat 55. it was 6 hrs later he died. Then his wife, my friend, fell apart & hospice decamped, asked her “do you want to see/ talk to someone?” and took her stunned “no” for a final answer. I had to phone the Onc Services at UCLA and call in favors to get them to call her, get her in & help her out. She really hadn’t been able to believe he would die, she later said. I’m relaying this (as I did to my PCP) to say that all Hospices are not equal, and you, the patient are the consumer–ask questions, esp about pain relief. We had mountains of meds left over that were useless for Tom, expensive meds. So there’s yet another component to add to the AD. I want an IV, not for fluids but for pain control and agitation mgmt. I was astonished that in L.A. a hospice service could be so bad. Tom died in a lot of pain, his biggest fear –& I talked him out of suicide, saying how effective hospice and morphine/ativan are, it still upsets me 3yrs later. These things need to be discussed and stop the hysterics as if a young healthy person will be denied care (though that already happens by insurance companies.) and realize we’re talking about very ill people with serious disease and poor prognoses. What do we want to put them through? We in health care know what aggressive care can entail in a fragile or compromised patient and don’t want it for ourselves or family. That is the Truth. Republicans can be glad that my boomer generation is more for quality of life over quantity and is not going to cost Medicare much. We also don’t believe doctors know everything like our parents did so don’t blindly follow….
Thanks for excellent post! Please write more, including in NYTimes.
Americans move back and forth across time zones all the time when they travel across the country. Is changing the clock one hour ahead (on a Sunday no less) really all that disastrous? On the plus side, families get an extra hour in the evening to enjoy the daylight. So just deal with it.
Good article. During WWII, the US converted to perpetual daylight savings time and called it “war time.” The country also switched over during the 1973 oil shock.
DST serves absolutely no purpose any longer. I say keep the DST clock permanent and save the country from the administrative hassle of changing schedules, clocks, and all things time oriented. And save an already sleep-deprived nation the brutality of stealing a precious hour sleep.
Yesssss!! Could’t agree more.
I whole-heartedly agree with you. The farmers argument is ridiculous in this day and age. The school argument is equally as weak. Many kids stay later at school these days, and it’s more dangerous for them to go home at night as it is getting dark or already pitch black, than it is going in the morning while the sun is coming up. There really are not many crimes that happen between 5 and 8 in the morning compared to crimes that happen in the evenings. And please, give us just a little more time to go out and do something when we get home at night before the sun goes down!
“Arizona still doesn’t change its clocks at all—the only remaining state in the union (apart from Hawaii) to defy DST”
What an odd sentence structure – is Hawaii, somehow less of a state than Arizona? How can Arizona be the only remaining state if there is another one?
What a great story of success by a dedicated teacher. Such people are the backbone of educational achievement in the US. You have to cry for all the students that went through before, that got left behind.
We live in a technological society now. We need to have a technical vocabulary and grammar, and that consists of math, to be able to understand the science.
The author writes, “Chronobiologists… know that for several days after the spring-forward clock resetting—and especially that first
Monday—traffic accidents increase, workplace injuries go up, and, perhaps most telling, incidences of heart attacks rise sharply” but neglects to mention that some of those same studies have observed that traffic accidents, workplace injuries, and health issues associated with stress go DOWN when the clocks are set back in the fall, leading to no significant change in any of these things over the course of an entire year.
Algebra helps students learn balance (solving equations) and teaches them how to make wise choices so they are able to arrive at solutions. Computers are not necessary to learn Algebra. In fact, Algebra-I should not involve computer calculations because the challenge, self-awareness and interaction developed during the initial steps in learning to solve algebraic problems is essential to further growth.
should we go back and abolish the calendar act of 1750? I feel like I’m still missing those 11 days the crown deleted from my history starting in 1752! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_(New_Style)_Act_1750
Very inspirational…keep up the hard work!
I came to these same conclusions years ago. If there is no quality of life, let me go quietly.
end the madness of DST
Barcelona and Bratislava are only about 1 hour apart in their perception of sun time. But they both start with B so I guess it sounds better. Madrid and Warsaw, however, are about two hours apart and in the same time zone.
I don’t want the same people who work for TSA, the IRS or the DMV to watch my kids, thanks.
Then pay for your own childcare (why is it always the DMV and not the U.S. Navy or the interstate highway system?). Not to mention, what do you think happens from Kindergarten through 12th grade? But do let those of us who see childcare as necessary for women (and men) to have balanced lives have government-mandated childcare as an option.
I do want to make my own choices about child care–I can pay someone, I can stay home or I can have a family member do so. I don’t need the Federal government to make this choice for me. And there’s a big difference between childcare and education–unless you think teachers are babysitters. Whenever the government gets involved, money and time are wasted. Families are better served by making their own arrangements without having the state involved.
There’s an obvious difference between having a state-funded option available and having a coerced, state-mandated monopoly. Just like education: if you want to send your kids to private school, you can. Having a public child care option wouldn’t take away any of your current child care choices. And while teachers aren’t babysitters, what they do is even more complex, which argues against your point that the state can’t do complicated things competently (e.g., your reference to the DMV). The right consistently (and perhaps intentionally) misunderstands state-provided options as state mandated monopolies.
Saying feminism needs to “be less hairy” is the same internalized misogyny quietly keeping women from being whatever they want to be and policing their choices. Many people definitely don’t realize feminism is still an issue, so let’s be loud and confident in taking down old structures and “making them anew,” rather than worrying about pleasing a mainstream that has already done us wrong.
I think perhaps what the author is getting at is that there is more than one way of “doing” feminism. The whole “the personal is political,” 100% commitment to sisterhood vibe of 70s/80s feminism pushed some women away from seeing the structural inequalities between the sexes. There’s a difference (I think) between the analysis of power differentials between men and women and the thinking about ways to overcome it, and what we might call “lifestyle feminism”. *All* ideologies, essentially good or essentially bad (and everywhere in between) have their radical elements, those who take the philosophy to an extreme. The “less hairy” remark is just a reminder that you don’t have to be a lifestyle feminist to be a real, ardent, and committed feminist.
I find your distinctions between a “lifestyle feminist” and a “real, ardent and committed feminist” to be a false dichotomy. As a woman whose feminist awakening began when I was in high school in the 90s (but really began when I became aware of the struggles my single mother faced on multiple fronts because of her race, gender, and marital status), I never believed that feminism wasn’t for me or was “over.” I also honestly don’t understand how any woman could disagree with the idea that “the personal is political” or how a commitment to sisterhood would “push some women away.”
Yes I think you put it quite well when you say we only rise together. All the choices a woman decides to make with her body, hairy or not, are of course legitimate, and if that turns someone away from the movement they need to confront why they think that, and it is a mistake to try and throw the radical out in an effort to be more appealing. (even in “casual” remarks, it is still a put-down, which is how the power differentials are created and insidiously perpetuated.)
I found the “less hairy” admonition in the title (and its continued refrain throughout) to be INCREDIBLY offensive. I agree entirely with syd low’s comment; it is incredibly insulting and divisive to insinuate that feminism needs to removed from its “hairy baggage,” especially given Ms. Schulte’s hypocritical praise for the “hairy-legged feminists” she otherwise derides for their promotion of the ERA in the 70s. By policing women’s bodies and beauty choices (or their rejection of the beauty myth), the author uses the same sexist assumptions and belittling of women that we ascribe to anti-feminists. Women are often complicit in their own oppression – that’s the diabolical genius of the patriarchal (racist, etc.) system. It would be nice if Ms. Schulte, in her rallying cry for feminism, remembered that we only rise together, not when we rip each other apart.
It was bad enough when it was from Oct. to April, now it’s March to Sept. You don’t fall back in fall, you fall back in summer. You don’t spring forward in spring, you spring forward in winter. I’ve always said the time change messes with our body clocks. Let’s leave the time alone!! My pets are confused by the change in time, they only have internal clocks.
I think the idea of being a Feminist lost a lot of appeal when we lost on the ERA. People try to distance themselves from losing causes. I give a talk at film schools and universities around the country called, “How to Survive in Hollywood (Despite Having a Female Brain)” that shows the 100,000-year old root of the problem. It’s not just that we’re not getting equal pay for equal work, it’s that the metrics of success in the system have been created (by men) to favor men. Since the dawn of communal living and specialization by gender, our brains and bodies developed so that the most successful men were the ones who could put out fires and the most successful women were the ones who could prevent fires from starting.
So when men went off and built a corporate world, they placed the highest value on those who could put out fires. We see this on every level in every industry. Whether it’s what’s best for the enterprise at all, that is the trait that is rewarded, so women have to trip all over themselves to prove that we can put out fires, too, and we have to beg to get paid equally for doing that, again whether it is what’s best for the company or not. We need something other than Feminism demanding equal pay for the same work measured by the same standards, because this is not a fight we can win or should even be fighting. We need to work together, and with men, to realign the values. To show that both fire-stoppers and fire-preventers have equal value and should be paid the same, despite making different contributions.
My homeland is Saskatchewan in the country of Canada. It is a realm directly north of the eastern part of Montana state, USA. Some of you may have heard of this exotic land. We have no daylight savings time. The time does not change seasonally. I wonder if anyone has conducted scientific comparative studies on my people in relation to this issue?
I can almost smell this place.
Totally fun and goofy experience.
I wish I could understand this story….
Quite a liberal rant. The policies of the church promote the unique special relationship of a husband and wife. These relationships which have been defined as marriages are excellent structures of procreation and rearing of children. Flaws exist in this sinful world, but relationships based on unusual sexual attractions are not healthy parental structures, in a majority of the cases. Each case is different and some gay, lesbian, transvestite or polygamous (gltp) families may turn out to be excellent adoptive parental substitutes, but should any child endure this increased risk if there are enough parents who have the ideal masculine/feminine balance. That’s a reasonable position for anyone to take, even whole states to stand upon. Now, the label of marriage is treasured by many and used in traditional literature in a very specific manner, so redefining such an important term is Orwellian social engineering that isn’t a healthy public exercise. If the term spousal union doesn’t mean as much, live your life in a manner that creates a special definition for the term that engenders respect. Once the respect is earned maybe the culture will see the terms as interchangeable, and the gltp community will not see a need to demand redefinition of ancient dialogues. Did anyone really believe the next pope was going to be liberal? When the Pope asks for silence, his is listening for the Lord, creator to guide our steps in a manner that honors us as a dim reflection of His image. To ask the Lord to bless our aberrations from His ideals is arrogant and egotistical. It’s not about us. Humility does not demand acceptance and honor. Christ to help us endure this life with the leadership of the Holy Spirit, and to help us shed this sinful life as we passed into the next life. A life without aberration, sorrow, pain, or strife. Please leave the church and it’s marriage structures alone to continue our efforts to bless the nations and serve the poor. Create your own spousal unions and Orwellian ideals in ways that don’t abuse or euthanize embryos, women in wombs, young children and elders who have lost their usefulness to you. That is where our strife is unavoidable. We do not seek to traumatize your psychological dream state, just leave the children and elders alone.
My comments were an honest response to the event of a new pope. They were the comments of an orthodox Christian who has a deep love and respect for the church– the church, theologically speaking, being the body of Christ on the earth. The Roman church as an ecclesiastical structure is an important segment of Christianity. The “family” that it represents includes a wide range of thought and a broad spectrum of human experience. You exceedingly judgmental come-back to my comments, dare I say, isn’t very Christian. You define marriages as a unique special relationship of a husband and wife…and a structure of procreation and rearing of children. (Of course, you do not mention what to do with those children if they happen to be gay or lesbian sons and daughters of the family.) You at least imply that you would simply label them as an “aberration.” There are many within the church who are led by the Holy Spirit to new understandings of the gift of love and relationships in human experience. Would you imply that childless couples are an aberration of your purpose for marriage? Or couples who marry after child bearing years? You say that “marriage is treasured by many and used in traditional literature in a very specific manner…(therefore) redefining it is Orwellian social engineering that isn’t a healthy public exercise.” If “traditional” marriage is such a treasure why do over half of all such marriages end in divorce? (And just what is traditional marriage? Which traditional marriage is the result of your ‘ancient dialogues’ that should remain sacrosanct.? To which example of Biblical marriage are you referring? Women were virtually property in Biblical times. And in the Old Testament you see many patriarchs with more than one wife.) Do you prefer traditional marriage like in Downton Abbey? You also see same sex partners who shared deep love– The early church even has icons of same sex partners in religious lives. Denying people their rights within the church or in society in general is the thing that is not “a healthy public exercise.”
And, you are right. Nobody believed the next pope was going to be a liberal! However the term “liberal” is probably more in line with the Gospel than “conservative.” Scripture is full of one example after another of “conservative” religious authorities. And it’s usually in the context of a “liberal rant” about Jesus healing someone on the wrong day, eating with the wrong people, passing by the one in need, (read the story of the Good Samaritan.) You know– menstruating women used to be kept outside of the church during their time of being “unclean.” Should that stricture be reinstated? Your prejudices don’t seem so well informed. In Acts 10, Peter (you know– upon whom the church is built) Peter is told “What God has cleansed, that cannot be called unclean.”Francis of Assisi said “he considered himself no friend of Christ if he did not cherish those for whom Christ died.” I believe Christ lived, died, and rose again for all. If that’s a liberal rant– it’s the liberal rant of the Gospel. (Which way predates Orwell.) One of the greatest theologians of our time, Hans Kung, said “Faith is not submission to a human authority, but unconditional trust in God.” Authority should always be questioned– from within and from without. We certainly limit God if we don’t believe that the Spirit of God can lead to new understandings. The church used to use scripture to justify slavery–
My comments were an honest response to the event of a new pope. They were the comments of an orthodox Christian who has a deep love and respect for the church– the church, theologically speaking, being the body of Christ on the earth. The Roman church as an ecclesiastical structure is an important segment of Christianity. The “family” that it represents includes a wide range of thought and a broad spectrum of human experience. Your exceedingly judgmental come-back to my comments, dare I say, isn’t very Christian. You define marriages as” a unique special relationship of a husband and wife…and a structure of procreation and rearing of children.” (Of course, you do not mention what to do with those children if they happen to be gay or lesbian sons and daughters of the family.) You at least imply that you would simply label them as an “aberration.” There are many within the church who are led by the Holy Spirit to new understandings of the gift of love and relationships in human experience. Would you imply that childless couples are an aberration of your purpose for marriage? Or couples who marry after child bearing years? You say that “marriage is treasured by many and used in traditional literature in a very specific manner…(therefore) redefining it is Orwellian social engineering that isn’t a healthy public exercise.” If “traditional” marriage is such an inviolable treasure, why do over half of all such marriages end in divorce? (And just what is traditional marriage? Which traditional marriage is the result of your ‘ancient dialogues’ that should remain sacrosanct.? To which example of Biblical marriage are you referring? Women were virtually property in Biblical times. And in the Old Testament you see many patriarchs with more than one wife.) Do you prefer traditional marriage like in Downton Abbey? You also see in Scripture same sex partners who shared deep love. The early church even has icons of same sex partners in religious callings. Denying people their rights within the church or in society in general is the thing that is not (as you put it) “a healthy public exercise.”
And, you are right. Nobody believed the next pope was going to be a liberal! However the term “liberal” is probably more in line with the Gospel than “conservative.” Scripture is full of one example after another of “conservative” religious authorities. And it’s usually in the context of a “liberal rant” about Jesus healing someone on the wrong day, eating with the wrong people, or about the cleric passing by the one in need, while the dreaded “Samaritan” (read the story of the Good Samaritan) stopped and helped. Religious authorities are to be the chief among servants. The object is serving Christ in the needs of others and in the pursuit of justice. The emphasis isn’t so much on who’s “in” and who’s “out” — who’s “clean” or who’s traif. Did you know that menstruating women used to be kept outside of the church during their time of being “unclean.” Should that stricture be reinstated? Your prejudices don’t seem so well informed. In Acts 10, Peter (you know– upon whom the church is built) Peter is told “What God has cleansed, that cannot be called unclean.”Francis of Assisi said “he considered himself no friend of Christ if he did not cherish those for whom Christ died.” I believe Christ lived, died, and rose again for all. If that’s a liberal rant– it’s the liberal rant of the Gospel. (Which way predates Orwell.) One of the greatest theologians of our time, Hans Kung, said “Faith is not submission to a human authority, but unconditional trust in God.” Authority should always be questioned — from within and from without. We certainly limit God if we don’t believe that the Spirit of God can lead to new understandings. BTW, the church used to use scripture to justify slavery– And, by the way, it’s the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Transgendered) not as you said GLTP — meaning gay, lesbian, transvestites, and polygamists.
He would still be black, and mixed race!
He is black, and mixed race. He’s come a long way,’ one giant step for mankind’ but we haven’t achieved post race yet!
Excellent!
I don’t understand your comparison of costs of barrels of oil vs barrels of gasoline since it takes two barrels of oil to make one barrel of gasoline? Of course the other half of each barrel is also sold as other products, so the comparison must include the prices of those products as well.
I really like this. The county is the one level of government that really ought to be bigger and more democratic. And they are usually large and diverse enough to be able to make decisions that benefit the whole community and not only NIMBY “property values” interests.
But that means that the Feds will make those decisions. And if you’re so short of options that only the taxpayer can save you, maybe you should rethink having kids.
Excellent article, thank you.
Not shocking that the lawyers are pro-bailout.
No one is talking about how various Senators and Representatives voted, taking into account their personal stock holdings. Someone should do a retrospective study to look at this. Our federal legislators are NOT held to the same standard as other politicians, let alone the private sector. What passes for “ethical” in both chambers amounts to little more than an absolute license to profiteer at the expense of taxpayers. If our news media had an ounce of gumption they would be asking Dodd, Frank, and all the rest to disclose their stock holdings before and after the passage of Dodd-Frank. And they would continue to ask until we got some answers.
The solution to the “too big to fail problem” is simple. First, decide what total profit amount would make a bank “too big to fail”. Then tax profits over that amount at 100%. Problem solved.
gorgeous.
Ah! Stone soup: a flavor outside of the traditional taste types.
If you’re interested in contributing to a project that would help update our public participation laws, see the Knight News Challenge proposal at http://kng.ht/WUT86m
The 9-3 system only works for 180 days a year, or until your child gets sick.
I love it! Very creative Zocalo team! I personally think the mayor should spend six months living in each of the 90 or so neighborhood councils as a reminder of just how big this city is…
I hadn’t realized that Jay Matthews lives in So Calif; East Pasadena evidently. I knew about his Oxy connection but I’d always assumed he was in DC due his WA Post column.
nobody is better. in baltimore journalism circles, we still call him ‘the phenom’ congrats, Joe
Why did the author choose to write this sentence: “It may be tempting to imagine that poor choices or lack of a work ethic can explain the disparity, but the study found that for the most part, the wealth gap is not the result of differences in education, diligence, or lifestyle.”
Inquiring minds want to know.
I had the same question!
Because many people wrongly believe and assert that the only reason black people are poor is they are lazy moochers who refuse to try to work. Remember Mitt Romney’s comments about “entitlement?” And he was born rich!!”
I’ve been reading about 1968 in Perlstein and the like, and polarization was unbelievably worse then – and no one talked about how bad it was.
None of this works when you have corrupt officials at any level who are infused in the process. We see it with our neighborhood councils in Los Angeles where a lot of well-meaning people fighting the good fights or fighting their own particular, narrowly-focused issues, are dismissed, quashed, marginalized, attacked, disregarded or “buried” by interests who are amassing money and/or power and thereby totally invalidate what was supposed to be a democratic process. Every decent and dedicated neighborhood activist in Los Angeles knows that the only way to get quality-of-life issues taken seriously is to sue the bastards. It’s a broken system, just like the one at the top in this country and at every other level. We have no representational government. There is oligarchy. That stuff you’re watching that masquerades as democracy is a glorified dog and pony show!
Seems to me that Ronald Reagan was the one who really propelled that kind of vicious, prejudicial thinking with his constant, smarmy references to “welfare queens” and the ghettoizing of inner city neighborhoods with his so-called war on drugs… This piece brilliantly depicts how the fix is in and how the land of opportunity is no such thing.
Do we all want the riches of this world? Internal joys in life are experienced by some through a work ethic and by others through relationships and performance entertainment? There is no starvation in the US, so we are all talking about relative materialistic measures of success. We’ve all got healthcare. We’ve all got our safety net of charities and welfare. We’ve all got access to city colleges. This article admits that there are poor in every race. Some get their joys by serving the poor, while others get joys from inciting the vulnerable with materialistic jealousy.
He lays out a nuanced case for reparations and then dismisses reparations by painting it as righting the wrongs done to individuals. The point is that the black community has faced SYSTEMIC racism and therefore the response must be SYSTEMTIC: viable schools, mental health resources, higher education stipends and yes, money to buy homes. There are ways to do it where you are not just shelling out cash directly to individuals which doesn’t wrong the impact of centuries long oppression.
Just go. Head to Cancun. Hop on Aero Cubano. When you arrive in Cuba they put a big post-it in your passport, and remove it when you leave. Take your bicycle. Bike through the countryside. You will meet the most amazing people. And be so happy you did it.
You can go easily. And legally. I did…18 years ago, when the restrictions were tighter. Info at cubaupdate.org
Our company loves California; our main office has been here since 1972. That said, all of our expansions, including manufacturing facilities, subsidiaries and holding company — have occurred in other states. Now we are moving 50 corporate jobs to Ohio. A harbinger of things to come?
Thank you for your comments! I’ve been getting quite a few emails about this piece and I appreciate all of them, like very much discussing these issues. Going to Cuba, for me, is harder than logistics — I wrote about it here: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-garcia-cuba-20130203,0,5824725.story
So long as California voters cling to the idea of “Santa Claus” government – the idea that you can have the state provide an endless amount of services, approve every bond on the ballot (aka borrowing money) and keep taxes “low” (or at least ensure that local government is dependent on the state for funding), things will always be difficult. People need to make a decision – do I want a state government that has lots of services, and thus requries LOTS of taxes? Or do I want something else? Either way people need to wake up. California is still one of the greatest places to live, and I would rather stay and fix it than be a chicken and move to some crummy state that may have lower taxes, but is also a dump.
Fabulous piece, Gregory. Happy 10th anniversary to your vision-come-beautiful-reality.
Happy Birthday Zocalo!! Thank you for your accidental activism….for all the reasons above I am so happy to live where Zocalo lives!!!
Zocalo events have opened my mind. Zocalo is one of the most cool things in Los Angeles.
Lots of love to you and Zócalo! — its mere existence is one of my very favorite things about LA.
Zocalo has enriched my life, and those of my family and friends. Thank you, Gregory!
You made it
thanks a lot for this work. even though i’m now outside LA, I almost always read the articles– really awesome job!
Great piece! Now we know how it all got started. Congratulations on 10 years from a grateful Zocalo Square fan in Phoenix!
Makes me wish each week that I lived in los angeles for a day that week
Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication…and helping to bring the beauty of Mexico City north, south, east and west
Congratulations! Always enjoy your events and appreciate the effort of the Zocalo staff.
Darin,
Just happened across these pics: absolutely brilliant. Thought you might appreciate a couple of other nostalgia-shots, on the subject of Colorado Boulevard’s once-mighty arcade culture…
Actual pictures of the Pak-Mann!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/6633n/381546225/in/set-72157594520718324
And my own eulogy on the smanky cesspit, published a while back. Also mentions its other contemporaries, from the same era.
http://melancholick.wordpress.com/2012/02/11/rose-city-retrospectives-the-two-bit-elegy/
Gorgeous work, man. Just gorgeous.
Gregory I really enjoy Zocalo’s events! Thanks for your passion to engage the entire community of Angelenos! Your neighbor who misses having the old Zocalo office location nearby. ~ Grace Yoo of the Korean American Coalition
Happy Birthday to the life-enhancing, brain-expanding Zocalo!
¡Congrats, Gregory, and to all at Zócalo! You have taught us how to be community and given us real and virtual spaces to connect and thrive. With infinite gratitude,
Proud-to-be LA
as someone who watched the growth of Zocalo from the upstairs office (or is downstairs, I get confused) and attended those early events, major major congratulations… and thanks for making LA even more interesting
happy anniversary man! LA is a better place because of Zócalo
Gregory, your contributions to LA through Zocalo are enormous! Gracias!
Say it ain’t so, Joe!
(Good research, sadly predictable findings.)
Politics as entertainment, arrrgh.
Other than saying hula hoops are polynesian, this was a great article.
The architecture of Los Angeles reflects the reality of the best climate in the world. Because is it usually 76 degrees and sunny, and we don’t have the humidity of other mild climate cities, we live outside as much as possible, we are typically in good humor, and we enjoy interacting with each other. Our homes reflect this orientation to our neighbors and to the streets. They also reflect our individuality–homes in Los Angeles have charming fences and most neighborhoods have at least one house with a mural, a mosaic, or other example of an artist using his or her home as a canvas. These days I am seeing more vegetables in the front yard, too, as available land is used for more environmentally sustainable landscaping.
The architecture also must acknowledge the earthquakes and fires that are our bane. Just as cities with rivers have houses with high front staircases and ground floor “basements”, our roofs must be fireproof, and glass must be used with caution, though we don’t need to worry about losing heat or cold through glass walls as they do in, say, Wisconsin. In many parts of Los Angeles, air conditioning is optional if you have good cross-ventilation.
I believe that architecture is an important way of paying respect to the natural environment in which we live. I don’t think any building should be considered outside of its context in its neighborhood, its geology, and its micro-climate. Los Angeles is full of public, commercial, and residential buildings that acknowledge the joy and privilege of living in this place.
After all, there is a reason that cities like Pittsburgh and Cleveland are shrinking, and we complain about density and traffic here, where on a day in February you can walk to the beach in your flip-flops.
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
I am intrigued by your use of the Unitarian-Universalist chalice symbol because I am very active in a local UU church. Would it be rude to ask who you are?
The child of passion is only ten years old but already has given much to the human community. (A prodigy?) Here, wishing many more years of enlightening, challenging, entertaining and hope-giving discourse!
The downtown renaissance crowd will love the new Clifton’s. The San Gabrialites will fear and loathe it.
Seriously? How about some ugly parts of other cities?
New York
http://blog.archpaper.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/ugly_35th_street_011-600×353.jpg
Boston
http://c.o0bg.com/rf/image_r/Boston/2011-2020/2012/05/03/BostonGlobe.com/Metro/Images/06abraham_photo2.r.jpg
Chicago
http://livenlovecestlavie.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/img_0384.jpg
Coming to a city and only seeing the ugly parts of it says a lot more about the author of the article than the city itself.
Why didn’t you bother visiting any of the nice places?
http://hommemaker.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/griffith-observatory-ll.jpg
http://eng.lacity.org/projects/lacityhall/images/ch1690x.JPG
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Wilshire_Boulevard_Temple,_Los_Angeles.JPG
http://studentreader.com/files/los-angeles/bradbury-building-los-angeles-3582-w100p.JPG
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AFmASG-Ynmg/T76gqjuFe_I/AAAAAAAABxs/IioY47JUyBQ/s1600/disneyhall.jpeg
http://www.doaaraku.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Los-Angeles-Graumans-Chinese-Theatre-Most-Beautiful-Building-550×358.jpg
While I agree with the general idea that LA’s civic/urbanculture is more shaped by its infrastructure than by its buildings, and that the influence and quality of its private residential architecture far outshines its public buildings, I disagree with the oft-repeated trope that Los Angeles lacks great public architecture. For an American city that did not come of age in the beaux arts era of architectural triumphalism, we still have an impressive collection of iconic public buildings and venues. Our parks and true public spaces are lacking, but I disagree that “Once you’ve named the Bradbury Building, City Hall, Bullock’s Wilshire, the Department of Water and Power headquarters, the American Cement Building, Disney Hall, and the occasional gem like the Coca-Cola bottling plant on South Central Avenue, the roster quickly turns kitsch or plebeian.” Here are some more for the roster that aren’t kitsch or plebian; and many of them are essential to the LA experience:
Union Station
Griffith Observatory
Central Library
LAX Theme Building
Eastern Columbia
Memorial Coliseum
Dodger Stadium
Getty Center
Capitol Records
Hollywood Bowl
Library Tower
USC/UCLA campuses
Pasadena City Hall
LA Times Building
CalTrans District 7 Headquarters
Cathedral of our Lady of the Angels
Wilshire Boulevard Temple
Angelus Temple
Oviatt Building
Fine Arts Building
Pelissier Building
Southwest Museum
Federal Courthouse and Post Office
Pan Pacific Auditorium
Also, it’s unfair to dismiss kitsch in this city… some of
our greatest public buildings are our theaters, many of which are
simultaneously kitschy and awe-inspiring at the same time:
Pantages
Wiltern
Million Dollar
United Artists
Shrine Auditorium
Los Angeles
And then you have a few places like these that walk the line
between kitsch and true innovation, and in my opinion represent the LA spirit
better than any other public structures:
Crossroads of the World
Granada Shoppes and Studios
Watts Towers
a good range of views! lets hear it for the architects that remember the urban public, and not exclusively sometimes fortress-minded private clients
This is not “cheating” because the students are working within the set rules of the game. The professor set the rules that any lawful act is open for use on this exam and the students abide by them. While this is an interesting read on group dynamics and cooperation, it is a poor choice to label this a study of “cheating.”
No but it makes for a lot of clicks on the article.
A week before the test, I told my class that the Game Theory exam would be insanely hard—far harder than any that had established my rep as a hard prof. But as recompense, for this one time only, students could cheat. They could bring and use anything or anyone they liked, including animal behavior experts. (Richard Dawkins in town? Bring him!) They could surf the Web. They could talk to each other or call friends who’d taken the course before. They could offer me bribes. (I wouldn’t take them, but neither would I report it to the dean.) Only violations of state or federal criminal law such as kidnapping my dog, blackmail, or threats of violence were out of bounds.
As an Orange County resident, being used to ‘perfect’ neighborhoods packed with neo-Spanish villas, I must say I have a lot of fun going through many of L.A.’s old neighborhoods and delighting in the beauty and diversity of it all. (Though we have some nice older exceptions in OC: Tustin, Orange, Santa Ana – the last of which has many beautiful homes that unfortunately have become decrepit since they can now be found in mostly poor immigrant neighborhoods, where funds for renovation don’t come easily.)
Dear Thom Hartmann,
Is this THE Thom Hartmann?
Anyway, years ago, Craig and Muir did a study of chicken productivity. Instead of breeding chickens for individual productivity and then shoving them in crates of 9 for commercial production, which produces savagely aggressive chickens that have to be debeaked, they “breed” them in crates of 9. Peak individual productivity was reduced but productivity of the crates — which is, after all, what matters to the production poultryman — was increased and aggression was reduced to the point where debeaking was unnecessary. (This is all laid out in Sober and Wilson’s excellent book, Unto Others.)
What the professor was doing here was performing the chicken experiment on students.: i.e., shifting the level of selection in the class room to the class level from the individual level. Human beings are remarkable for the ease with which they respond to changes in selection from one level to another because of a long evolutionary history which included bottlenecks in which properties of group structure must have been extremely important to individual survival.
The big educational question is, of course, which sort of selection regimen best prepares students for the world they are actually entering? In the regimen of academic Reaganism under which we are living, we are producing students that will need to be debeaked if their workplaces are going to be productive.
I don’t really get this “L.A. is ugly” trope. L.A. has more beautiful residential neighborhoods than any other city I’ve ever been in. It’s ringed by majestic mountains and beautiful beaches. There are hundreds of individually beautiful buildings from every era of the last century or so. I think the issue is that there is no architectural uniformity or theme that unites the city, and that our commercial corridors are, with a couple of exceptions, pretty ugly. But that’s a small part of the totality of the city.
“Build and they shall come.” Way to go, Mr. Gregory! Was so happy to see this. Zocalocos Por Vida!
So, which type of exam will you give in future offerings of the course? Other courses?
I will likely do this again, but I’m next slated to teach a much larger class (200+). I’m afraid that in large classes there is just too much opportunity for chaos, and some nasty confrontations across students. So I don’t think my method here will easily scale up.
Thank you for sharing, Lakesha
Monica, hello & thx for reading my story. There’s upcoming pieces weekly. Lots more to come–hope you stop by for the whole story. You’ll be touched.
This is a heart wrenching story
Hi Jill,
Hope you can stop by for more pieces to this article. You’ll enjoy the whole story. Thx so much. Need feedback, & encouragement.
Nicely said and pretty accurate. Obama’s colossal debate whiff last fall revealed that even though he’s the messiah, he’s still not Superman. Which is sort of the same thing you’re pointing out here — actually your title pretty much says that exactly — you could have written the same title last fall, “While he’s been wonderful in campaign events past …” He probably wouldn’t even be annoyed with this essay — he’d just say, “Yep, sorry, I’m just trying my best. I’ll try harder.” He’s done an amazing job.
This is how I felt after listening to the speech. It left me wanting, esp. after hearing the governor’s speech that was very moving. Later on after seeing Obama’s face on TV I felt that he was flat because he was fighting back emotion.
Author cites Reagan a man that read off cue cards, the ultimate actor as the one to emulate to either feign or make one seem more authentic. The concept of authenticity of compassion is weird. If what you are trying to say is that he didn’t have a great speech… well then… ok. I would think this article after his 1st Presidential debate of the 2012 campaign would be a better example.
It seems the writer is projecting his own feelings, rather than what Pres. Obama really said or did. It is unfortunately his recall of Pres. Reagan, using that as a frame of reference, using it as a comparison, and then, projecting that on what Pres. Obama did. Quite unpersuasive.
Given all the events of the past two weeks I think you could have picked a better topic then picking on the President. Im not even a HUGE Obama fan and I think this article is way off.
Where is the rest of the essay? It gets going and quits. Did Strasberg stick around for the end of the speech? Obama brought the crowd to its feet with rousing phrases. I will give you that it should have ended there, but he tagged on the quiet closing, repeating his themes, and then retreated. But if he had left to the applause, it would have crowned the moment.
Watch it again:
http://mashable.com/2013/04/18/obama-boston-memorial/
Bet on it!
First, we’re too enamored with acting to expect Presidents to emote, If they are great emoters, they’ll be in Hollywood not in the White House. Reagan grabbed both worlds, a trained actor who became President.
Second, THIS President IS NOT an emoter — he disguises his feelings, reins in his anger, and live too much in his head to FEEL for others but possible those whom he really cares for. McLuhan mentioned TV as a cool medium — we have a President who’s a cool medium.
Words apart, oratorical skills apart, THIS President is remote, distant. His life story lends to having to keep his emotions in check — and brought up possibly NOT to reveal. Wonder if he’s a good poker player?
Anne
Excellent commentary. For those of us who live and work on the border, our bonds are stronger than ever. We just need officials in Washington and Mexico City to catch up with the citizens, NGOs and private sector leaders (as well as local officials) who are forging strong ties and partnerships across the border.
Serge Dedina, Ph.D.
Executive Director
WiLDCOAST/COSTASALVAJE
Imperial Beach/Ensenada
Thx for stopping by. Stay tuned for the upcoming pieces. Or visit Amazon for my book, “Kesha straight no chasers.”
David is right on. As I help my 5th grader study American history I am amazed by the snapshot impressions I have of recent presidents. Is Obama’s most memorable line “You didn’t build that?” Is Clinton’s “I did not have sex with that woman” or “It depends on what your definition of is is?” Was Bush’s finest moment the bullhorn speech at Ground Zero while his dad was known for reading his stage directions: “Message: I care.” Even though Carter never said the word, he is remembered as the “malaise” superintendent. I’ll never forget the quotable Reagan: “Mommy, I forgot to duck,” “I hope we’re all Republicans here,” “Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” and even, though quoting another, “Slip the surly bonds of earth and touch the face of God.” Was Nixon a sweaty pasty “I am not a crook.” You can’t have Checkers. “You don’t have Nixon to kick around anymore.” Kennedy, like Reagan, was The President. “We go to moon not because it is easy, but because it is hard.” And in one speech he inspired us with “we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship…” “that those who sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside…” and of course “Ask not…” Is it a case of men not matched to the role or a media intent on reducing all heroes to mortals? Unfortunately except for Reagan and Kennedy I can’t remember a presidential quote from most oval office occupants in the last 50 years.
I went to the talk last night, and stayed for most of the Q&A. Quite disappointed about the omission of any discussion about what I regard as the elephant in the room: US war on drug policies, which are doing more to destroy Mexico than any other single factor. Non-criminalization of drugs here would weaken the violent drug cartels in Mexico.
Professor O’Neil made an explicit connection to how the US was able to quash the criminal enterprises of the mob during Prohibition, and how Mexico needs to make a similar push against its gangs– it’s a problematic analogy, though: here the American gangsters were profiting off behavior of Americans and their desire to get intoxicated. In Mexico today, the gangsters are profiting off the behavior of foreigners (who are still, ironically, Americans).
Americans have a long history of getting high, from the earliest days of the republic, as Michael Pollan has written. We need to come up with ways to accommodate that inclination– to deal with it in some way– without contributing to the destruction of another country.
Dear Professor,
The method instituted for the test is certainly laudable and a brilliant way of inculcating the game theory instincts in students. But I would like to know if the results would be same if the stakes were higher and more real life. Like a promotion is at stake in job or you are competing for the same resource etc. It would be a more interesting and successful study if it works.
One way to do that would be to create a cap on the total points awarded to all participants. (Assume 10 students, take a semi-average score of let’s say 80) State that there are only 800 points to go around. And you will likely see some above average competition.
Thank You for sharing, C. Brian Bronk
Thank you for sharing this. I went to Catholic school myself in 80s and am immeasurably grateful for it. I firmly believe that I owe much of my success in academics and life to the 9 years I attended Santa Clara Elementary School. I have now taught in a Catholic high school for 11 years and know that, although there are many fine schools in Los Angeles, a Catholic school is something different. It is not just a “private” school, as many believe. The Catholic schools offer amazing diversity and a true commitment to educating their students’ in mind, body and soul. We in the Los Angeles region are lucky to have so many Catholic schools and hopefully are communities can come together to keep as many of them open as possible in to the future.
Thank you for your beautiful story! St. Columbkille will always be a home away from home.
As a proud Bruin my only regret at UCLA is not taking your class.
Is this really teaching what humans are good at, or just good within the parameters you set? In nature, being better than the competitor is better, because you get something and s/he does not. If all animals mated, then there is less food, and some die out due to starvation / lack of energy (to get more food). This definitely shows that groups of people do better than single people in most cases (it sounds like the lone wolves still benefited from the discussions). Perhaps a more real-life scenario would be to assign points based on the size of the group (bigger group = smaller average points), and the group got to share the points equally. Then, aligning yourself with a few “brains” would get your group a much higher grade (or sharing the “brains” among all the groups?).
Anyway, excellent idea on getting the students to think outside their normal comfort zone!
I know that at my Law School the professors were required to turn in grades that resembled a Bell Curve distribution. If Berkeley requires similar, then I wouldn’t be terribly shocked by the additional competitiveness. This is of course just a single hypothesis.
There are definitely some additional competitive pressures to consider in the Law School environment.
I had an interesting experience with a position we were trying to fill at a company. Instead of the usual interview system (45 minutes each, some practical, some design, etc) we decided to give each interviewee the real world example of a day at the company. We gave them a programming task that could be described simply and completed in half a day, and asked before hand what kind of laptop and tools they wanted preloaded.
We then left them in a room and told them to complete the task any way they wanted. They could buy the answer on the internet, they could ask friends, they could use the internet. Shockingly, most candidates literally refused to put pen to paper – we got programs with literally just a few lines.
To make it fair, the group hiring did the same question together, and compared all of our approaches – but all of us were able to get the program done, although some people took longer and did more complete work, some did quicker, shoddier work.
The guywe hired was excellent,.
My one big quibble here is that Prof. Nonacs seems to not understand the meaning of the word “cheating,” over and over again. No cheating occurred here. No reason for the word to be in this article, nor in its title.
He addresses this.
“Although by conventional test-taking rules, the students were cheating, they actually weren’t in this case. Instead, they were changing their goal in the Education Game from “Get a higher grade than my classmates” to “Get to the best answer.””
Didn’t they already try this on an episode of Saved by the Bell: The College Years?
This is brilliant.
The ideal of letting students cooperate and take tests in groups really resonates with my idea of learning.
They should do more tests like this and in different fields of study. I would actually recommend 50% of all tests be taken like this it encourages students to hunt for the right answer not compete against each other which seems to be a better goal and it also encourages cooperation.
Let’s face it we’re a social species we work better in social environments.
The other 50% should give the teachers a good idea who is doing good and who is doing worse in the class.
A collaborative assignment is a really solid education tool. That’s really all this is.
What’s missing is an explanation of why the author thinks this led to an
objective evaluation of what individual students learned *before* test day (if he does indeed think that). That is the point of an exam. Imagine if med students could collaborate on their boards. It would pretty well invalidate the purpose.
All in all, it worked out much better than I expected because the
students really got into it. They spent a week communicating amongst
themselves, planning strategy, spinning what if scenarios. Total game
theory to the max! And game theory was what I was trying to get them to understand. So, one could say that the test was really not about the
‘answer’, but instead all about the thinking and planning on how to get
to the answer before the test and then as the test unfolded. They passed that with flying colors.
I’ve embraced take-home “open resource” exams over the past few years on the basis that they are better learning exercises than in-class exams that mostly just evaluate. The students report that they learn more in the class than had been reported in previous years.
After reading this I’m going to experiment with an exam that allows cooperation.
You’re exactly right, Brian. It’s too bad that TV6/FOX UP won’t hire good reporters who have chosen to remain local, like Pete Mackin, who would have no problem exposing corruption, etc. Oh well. I’ve become accustomed to the pathetic fluff and verbatim reading of press releases that TV6 has been feeding us our whole lives.
What if the test wasn’t impossibly difficult?
What if Prof Nonacs had set a mildly difficult test that the brightest ones knew they could do better on than most of the others?
Since everyone was shunted far onto one side of the possibility of cracking that test, they naturally turned to each other for help. But what what if it was within reach for say 30-40 percent of the class?
This would be way cooler if he had graded the test on a curve.
One of the unexpected pleasures of my comfortable retirement involves assembling a yearbook for my high school class’ 50th reunion, which will occur next fall. In recent weeks, I have been receiving biographical summaries from fellow members of the class of 1963. In the first batch of 15 statements from men, I learned that 12 had served in the military. I know that’s not an adequate sampling, but the final number, I believe, will confirm that about two-thirds of the men were in the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines. Of course, we were the generation whose fathers and uncles took up arms in World War II; we came of age as the Vietnam War was escalating; and we faced the draft. And if individuals did not serve, they had friends, classmates, family members who did; so they have an understanding of what that experience involves.
We have in recent decades, however, created two populations in this country–one, very small, that goes to war, and another, about 99% of the total, that wishes them well but tends to take for granted what they do. The high incidence of trauma in today’s military leads me to a recent statement by the American Psychological Association: “Prolonged separation from family and friends can . . . cause problems.” From my own experience as a Vietnam veteran, I believe that the repeated and extended overseas tours–compounded by a sense of alienation from the rest of societ–is contributing to depression and worse among today’s veterans.
I am convinced that the line of separation between civilian and military is more a matter of choice than of necessity. I don’t mean we have to reinstitute the draft to make this apparent division disappear; but civilian and military do, after all, exist in a single social structure. Both populations are intricately interconnected and mutually dependent. We are in this, as many have said, together. The challenge is to find ways to encourage understanding of the different but vital roles of these two groups. Perhaps we older veterans can do more to lead the way, as we do have much in common with our younger comrades and most of us now have a place in civilian society.
Thanks for the story. This is a very interesting application of cooperative game theory. There is an inherent assumption in several of the comments that the “real world” is only a competitive place, and that cooperative behavior is just a classroom result.
Specialization and cooperation are different. Specialization requires each party to recognize the gains from trade. We can trade with those we do not trust by taking every advantage available. Cooperation requires each party to recognize the value of contributing and trusting without a guarantee to receive a greater return.
Non-cooperative game theory is pretty easy to grasp. Cooperative game theory is more subtle. Biology and economics (my area) both show that cooperative behavior can solve certain types of problems where competitive game theory fails. Sometimes a smaller creature is more valuable as a teeth-cleaner than as a meal. Public goods create great value, but do not arise from competitive behavior.
Almost everyone knows how to compete, so people place an exaggerated emphasis on competition. Learning when and how to cooperate is undervalued. You’ve taught them something truly important.
Using this exam structure to teach student how to evaluate a choice between cooperative behavior and competitive behavior is brillliant.
This experiment compares the mob median to randomly sampled individual observations, and the individual observations show variance around the center. Statistics still work, even in biology classrooms.
From the standpoint of educating kids and for future employers to know they’re hiring someone who knows what they’re up to, it’s not obvious that the general application of this testing strategy is desirable. Someone not present at this test would be incapable of discriminating between a mob member who contributed the most to the conversation, and someone who contributed not at all. Certainly they would be able to discriminate between the lone wolf who did the best, and the karmicly challenged lone wolf who tried to organize a “smart kid” cartel, with the cartel organizer not getting hired. Win!
Considering that higher degrees have the purpose of distinguishing the student from others, isn’t it counterproductive to organize examinations which prohibit individuals from distinguishing themselves?
[I understand this is not a claim made by the author, but is certainly a conclusion that could be drawn, and might be what the guy talking about de-beacking chickens means to say.]
As an experiment in the coordination of knowledge, however, it looks like a good one, and the kids sound like they had fun. Which is what college is all about, eh?
Thought problem. You have a weird undiagnosed medical condition. You walk into a room of doctors. Who do you want as a physician? The smartest guy in the room? Or maybe the average guy, who is still smart enough to know he needs to ‘cheat’ and ask the smartest guy for his opinion. And maybe also ask the smartest guys in the next 5 rooms, too. What is the “goal” of education? To sift through everyone and rank the smartest? Or teach everyone as best you can to reach their innate capabilities as innovators and problem solvers?
Here is my answer to your exam question:
Natural selection can be regarded as a game. However, we are not the players, but merely the pieces on the board.
The game is solitaire, and nature is the only player.
There are no teams, and the only rules are the laws of physics.
The only objective is the continuation of the game, and the outcome on a personal level is that we are all sacrificial pawns.
How did I do?
As one of the students in this class I can say it was most certainly a different experience than any other that I’ve had. I was also the “lone wolf” who ended up doing better than the group and did so because I did not feel that the way the group was writing their answer was a sufficient response to the question although all the correct answers were on the board, and I used some of their arguments with some of my own. It was a very fun way to learn about Game Theory and I would highly recommend the class to anyone at UCLA. Thanks Dr. Nonacs!
What are the correct answers to the test? I would say, Dawkins in my mind: players: genes; team: organisms; rules: none; objectives: reproduce!; outcome: life on earth as we know it.
Opinions? 🙂
Since people are asking, here is the entire question and my answer key. Besides being based on several weeks of lectures that have ‘framed’ the question, here are a couple things to note..
1. The question is actually longer than its summary in the published piece: Article words limits and I wanted the question to be as explicit as possible for the test.
2. The answer key is my expanded answer. The students nailed large portions of this, but I wanted them to see what else they could have put in. The question is also very open-ended and there are alternative ways to argue the proposition. Therefore, I would not claim that this is THE answer – it is the classes’ and MY best attempt at an answer.
QUESTION
Write a short but incisive essay applying game theory to the general theory of Natural Selection. Be sure to clearly explain:
What is (are) the objective(s) of the Natural Selection “game”.
· What the rules are of this game.
· Does it matter that some rules arise from behavioral ecology while others are defined by physics or chemistry? If so, why?
· Who are the players and/or teams?
· Can there be an optimal or unbeatable strategy that will always win. And if not, why not?
· Can you ever win at the game of Natural Selection without explicitly
‘knowing’ the rules?
Humans are in the process of identifying, or maybe already have identified all the rules, objectives and what determines winning in Natural Selection. How does knowing all this change the potential future outcomes? Or does it have no effect at all?
ANSWER:
The objective of a Natural Selection game is to survive. Over the history of life on earth, therefore, probably 99.9% of species have lost this game (although some may have been winners for a very long time). Survival, or winning, can take several forms. It can be an immortal individual that never dies. Although such individuals may exist somewhere, they are highly unlikely (i.e., accidents happen!). Alternatively, a species can be successful in its ecological niche to the extent that it excludes all others for extensive periods of time. For example, cockroaches have occupied their niche and excluded all wanna-be cockroach species for 100’s of millions of years. Finally, ancestral species can evolve into new ones, or exhibit an evolutionary radiation into several or many new species. So for example, Homo erectus is not a loser in this game even though there are no more H. erectus alive today. However, one of its descendant species, H. sapiens, is probably the ‘winningest’ primate ever. H. erectus descendant genes happily continue to play the NS game. In
contrast, Neanderthals have lost – they have left no descendants. (Note – some may disagree here and argue that the 4% of Neanderthal genes found in some human populations means that at least a small part of the Neanderthal genome is a winner and continues in the game.)
The players in this game can be defined as whatever can successfully reproduce. Most often we think of this as being a gene, or at least a strip of DNA such as a transposable element that can make copies of itself. But the player need not be a gene. It can be a cultural norm, an idea, a belief system, a computer virus, etc… Anything that has the potential to replicate and is governed by the rules of Natural Selection. Players can be organized into ever-ascending levels of teams. Genes
into chromosomes; chromosomes into genomes and individuals; individuals into groups; groups into societies; societies into multi-species communities, ideas into religions or political parties.
Each of these team levels may help or hinder overall survival by Natural
Selection. “Teammates” at all levels may help each other to the benefit of all. Or they may increase their own success by sabotaging or exploiting their teammates. Survival, or winning, is however agnostic over how this is accomplished. The ultimate rule is: whatever works – works! Hence the world is full of a wide variety of cooperative, exploitative, nice and nasty winners.
The rules of Natural Selection are often set by chemistry and physics. DNA, RNA, ATP, proteins, carbs, etc… all have their unique chemical properties and limitations. Whatever evolves must happen within these limitations. Physics limits size, movement rate, body shape, etc… Again, Natural Selection must operate within these hard limitations.
Thus, fundamental processes of Natural Selection such as what materials you can use to best store information and pass across individuals (i.e., DNA) are set by chemical rules. Behavioral
ecology rules such as “cooperate if…”, “do X if Y happens…” etc… may be very effective, but they are also completely changeable. They are an evolved consequence, not an evolutionary constraint. Hence, a simple objective such as “maximize inclusive fitness” can and is achieved in millions of different ways by millions of different species. And importantly, behavioral rules can be cheated upon, or changed to your advantage. You really can’t suspend the rules of chemistry or physics!
Obviously if one can cheat or change the rules, then there is no unbeatable strategy – only what may work the best under the current set of conditions. Again, remember most who have played this game have lost and are extinct. Change an environment’s chemistry and physics and something else is likely to win. Change the behavioral rules, such as alter a Prisoner’s dilemma matrix to a Mutualism matrix, and you get new winning strategies for the Natural Selection Game.
Equally obviously, success is not dependent on explicitly knowing the
rules. Whatever works – works. No one needs to understand how it works. It is simply what the winners did.
Yet if you do know the rules, like humans do (or at least think we do), it can strongly affect behavior and outcomes. To some degree, knowing the constraints established by physics and chemistry allows them to be ameliorated in some novel way. (Wear a coat when it’s cold outside!) Perhaps more importantly, humans understand the pitfalls of behavioral ecology rules. If you know it’s a Prisoner’s Dilemma, you know that you ought to play Tit-for-Tat. If you know that ocean fisheries are a Tragedy of the Commons, you can hopefully behave in ways that prevent that outcome. If you know that too much scrounging is bad for the group, you can enforce punishments to maintain group functioning and
cohesion. In this test, you knew what the game was and what your objectives were, and you were allowed to write your own rules as to how you answered these questions. Given that your objective was to get a high score, do you think that you achieved this through your manipulation of the game? Or would you have done better if
you had to play by UCLA’s ‘normal’ set of test-taking game rules that you are not allowed to alter?
My mother “Coded” after receiving a dose of Epinephrine for a severe allergic reaction. She was down for 57 minutes, was defibrillated 10 times and the CPR never stopped, until she had a pulse.
She was talking to me less than 13 hours later. Her throat was sore from the intubation, her chest was sore and bruised but she suffered no broken ribs. CPR when done properly does NOT guarantee broken ribs.
A local cit firefighter coded on the scene of a fire. His crew worked him right there on the fire scene. Poor bastard didn’t have NO CODE stamped on him anywhere and now he’s back on the job fighting fires.
As a first responder who has arrived on scene to a family performing CPR on their father in the front yard and then worked that man until he got a pulse back I know that the system can and does work.
CPR and ACLS has a low survival rate, this is true.
But doing nothing has a 100% fatality rate.
I have met the cancer survivors who endured weeks of chemo and a miserable existence only to die a short time later. I also volunteer Thursday nights at a rural rescue squad with a cancer survivor. She endured weeks of chemo and led a miserable existence just so she could survive. What a silly woman for being willing to suffer to survive.
It’s a good thing none of these people read this article before they got sick or they wouldn’t of known how horrible it is to endure treatment just to survive.
This article is nothing short of irresponsible in it’s representation of modern medicine. The author, and other burnt out providers who agree with him, should consider other lines of work.
Life also has “a 100% fatality rate.” And for every “success story” of a survivor, a story of needless pain and suffering can be cited to call it into question. Dr. Murray’s point is that the questions of end-of-life care need to be considered and answered by each person before the answers are needed, not when the person has collapsed on the front lawn or is being intubated in the ambulance or rushed into surgery at the hospital.
Brian, thank you for sharing. That was beautiful.
I had a similar experience the day of the Sandy Hook massacre in that I was glued to TV and computer, drowning in deep waves of grief. With Boston it was car radio and occasional snatches of online news. It was a blessing that I couldn’t use Twitter that day or I too would have been hungover on Saturday.
“Message force multipliers” – that is interesting!
I think humans have always communicated as much with flesh as with brain. In person a raised eyebrow, a puffed-out chest, an abrupt movement, a sharp intake of breath sends hormones through our bodies. Adrenaline, pheromones, oxytocin.
The new twist is that our hyper-modern electronic artificial telepathy lets us send and receive with an immediacy that makes it visceral. But across great distances. Like a distributed global herd.
I’m not sure that this is a bad thing. I suppose time will tell.
You were lucky to have only started the binge on Friday morning. For those of us that stayed up until the wee hours the night before, digesting miles of twitter feed, we had the mortifying experience of identifying the wrong guys. When I went to sleep, at circa 2 am, the perpetrators were two totally different people, an identification fueled entirely by the twitter/reddit cloud. I did just enough retweeting & posting on facebook in my late-night binge to be absolutely mortified when I woke up late the next morning. As my husband and I drove off to the eastern Sierras for a much needed break from civilization Friday morning, he observed that he’d rather read a super-detailed long article three weeks later that explains the whole ordeal, than try and piece it together from twitter in the moment. I had to agree. I feel so sullied from that night that I have sworn off twitter completely & it’s amazing what a difference it has made in one week’s time. I feel like a drunk who has gone sober & realizes that he can become a productive member of society again.
Keep going Lakesha! You have quite a story to tell and you have a unique and compassionate way of writing about it.
Hi Mara S. I really appreciate your time in stopping by and reading my story. There’s more to come! Hope you can stop by to read the next upcoming pieces.Thank you so much for your compliment–need it, love it. Come on by and check out the whole story.
Good choice. Made me recall my bed darting across the bedroom floor on a street above Mulholland Drive over looking the rumbling San Fernando Valley early one morning of 1971. A small boys real life special effects ride. All schools closed. It was exhilarating and yet vulnerable throughout the day as tremblers rose the L.A. natural floors.. PGK
great piece Joe. Shoudl be mandatory for politicians to visit/educate themselves on the places, people things they create policy for. Well done.
Very interesting indeed. I wonder what would happen if the exam had a curve. Would the students cooperate the same way? Might be an interesting experiment!
Wonderful poem JR, from an LA native who worries a lot about quakes, but never thought of it as poetry
the Dahlgren Affair set an unfortunate precedent.
Very interesting debate. Olney was excellent, he should do a Presidential debate!
It appears that the change in the primary system, which has the top 2 vote getters move on to the general election, has worked. Both seemed to be moderates and balanced. Both appear to be people that would be good mayors. Much better then having two extremists to choose from!
I attended low-quality city public schools in Saint Louis in the 1970s. I aced everything, including algebra. But the level of instruction was poor at some of the schools, and so were my standardized math test results. In those days, this was not a deal-breaker. Now, presumably, it is. This particular standard will impact people without access to high quality public and private schools. Unlike writing, or reading or language, math skills are not something you can just pick up on your own. If they are setting this standard they ought to make public math labs, or urban math camps, available to students, whose schools can’t or won’t compensate for the shortcomings of their curriculum. It should begin at elementary ages, where it can have long-term impact. By the time they’re in high school, it’s already a frustrating deficit.
I finally did finally learn algebra, through the stock market.
Nice, although everyone I know still calls it Burbank Airport. It has the very real charms that you describe. But also two disadvantages: the worst food offerings of any airport that I’ve been to in decades. And unless one is flying to the Bay Area or Denver or Seattle, it’s very hard to find a non-stop flight from Burbank. With layovers becoming an increasing nightmare (due to late flights causing missed connections), flying nonstop became very important to me and I eventually ended up using LAX more often than I did Burbank. Airfares using LAX are usually at least $20 cheaper too.
Thank you for your brave and honest essay.This is a very familiar concept to me, I can relate to the math frustrations to some extent. As a high achieving student math class brought me to tears in high school. I’ve had plenty of nervous breakdown moments, but I was able to get through enough courses with tutoring, blood, sweat and tears, miraculously up to pre-calculus. I had ambitions of being an environmental science major until I realized the calculus hurdle existed. I become a Spanish Literature and Art History minor and consequentIy avoided any math classes in my undergrad even though they offered Math for Liberal Arts students. I am letters person. Numbers are a foreign language and I reverse numbers all the time. Nevertheless, I’m still a functional, successfully employed adult. I hope requirements change and that you will be able to take courses and purse your humanities interests. And do not give up on your dreams and aspirations.
Crazy…though I’ve certainly thought of this subject before, I’d not thought about it 7 algebra classes out! It does seem unimportant, extreme and certainly an unnecessary expense to make “maths” (in this instance) required for one wanting a degree in something totally unrelated. As a nurse, I always lamented that rather than take more medically-oriented courses I’d be required to take, say, literature. Don’t get me wrong, I love literature….but my choice of coursework would be increasing my professional knowledge. It will be generations before higher education institutions examine this fully and honestly and consider change. Very sad. In the meantime, don’t give up… You should get a masters just for your perseverance! BTW…..you’re a great writer.
Joe,
I get the benefits of a balancing perspective the Kochs might offer, but wouldn’t it be better for someone who is rooted in and loves Southern California to buy the Times. If Eli Broad can give millions to LA schools, art museums, Caltech, et al., couldn’t he or someone of his ilk spring for the Times payroll?
Thanks for your insightful article. As a life long Angeleno I’ve always been a supporter of the LA Times, though less so lately. The idea of having the Koch brothers has owners of our only daily paper seemed to me a bad idea, but you’ve made me think a little outside the box, possibly you may be onto something. Hiram Johnsons evaluation of Harrison Gray Otis is priceless!!
I think the algebra requirement is just about the only thing that California has done correctly. “Coasting through middle school math” is what got this writer in trouble. Plenty of Vietnamese kids, who don’t have access to private education, have managed to pass algebra, as have Korean, Chinese, Indian, and other immigrant groups. There’s no point in having standards, if they can be waived for people who claim to have special circumstances. Suck it up, hire a tutor, and pass the course. You don’t need an A, you just need to pass.
“Suck it up, hire a tutor?” Have YOU hired a tutor lately? Both my sons needed tutors to pass Algebra I and II at their (good) public high schools. Almost half the parents I know needed to hire tutors to help their kids get through Algebra. This is the ugly secret behind the “success” of schools in affluent neighborhoods: Most parents are paying for one-on-one teaching so their children can get into colleges where they will never use algebra ever again.
This if great if you can afford it. Three years ago, tutoring at a drop-in center like Mathnasium cost me about $250 PER MONTH. Last year, I opted for the “cheaper” alternative of hiring a private tutor once a week at $50 per hour.
Clearly, this is NOT an option for students like Cabral who don’t come from affluent families. What we’ve created is a segregated society (not unlike the literacy “requirements” that were used to keep African Americans from registering to vote) that favors the educated and well-employed.
I have long bemoaned our current pre-college curriculum as being both elitist (using math as a weed-out subject) and useless. Why demand so many years of math when so FEW will ever use it in college?
And how can we condone turning out an embarrassingly ignorant class of young adults every year because California’s curriculum requires three years of math, but does NOT require geography, economics, state/local government or political science?
I can’t believe we squander our state’s precious education resources by paying teachers to endlessly teach algebra, when students need some REAL knowledge to succeed: Can you read and understand an issue of the Economist? Identify Afghanistan on a map? Explain what state taxes pay for as opposed to federal taxes? Identify which city departments control your streets? Your property? Your workplace health and safety? No?
But you can finally do quadratic equations?
Whoopee.
Thank you for sharing about your frustrating and gruelling experience with Algebra. As i read your your segment, i was able to relate to every single word you wrote! I was blown away because i felt that someone else had experienced the same exact experience i had. I too failed mathematics through grade school and through High School. I was allowed to graduate by passing general math w a B. I also went through the experience of getting tested, and feeling flawed at finding out that i had a learning disability in mathematics. I now understand why i suffered horribly in grade school when teachers sat and drilled me for hours on their off time… and i was often reduced to tears of the frustration of nit being able to produce. I also went to PCC and suffered the same experience of dealing with their rigid math courses. I went to Trade Tech and eventually to LACC where i was referred to the Learning Disability Center. It was a very humbling experience learning about my disability. I got the help i needed through intense tutoring and test taking at my pace. I found out that i was able to learn algebraic concepts and start getting A’s and B’s on tests. However, i was not able to retain the information, because after exams, it was as if my memory disk was wiped out. I transferred to Cal State LA but never graduated from my program. At 40 years old I decided that i was going to make one last attempt to complete my education. I was accepted at a private college in Pasadena called Pacific Oaks that was not requiring this math completion. I am currently about to finish my first year of graduate studies in Marriage and Family Therapy…. it is a tough program, but an amazing feeling of accomplishment ! It was only through my resilience of overcoming several traumas in my life and through the tenacity to achieve the goals that i set for myself, that i have been able to reach this pinnacle i currently am riding !
Humberto Franco
Silver Lake
I think algebra is actually pretty important and can come in handy in a lot of different careers or even in just life. Example — the commenter who had to learn it because she invested in the stock market. I can understand the Algebra requirement. I’m not sure what Statistics 50 is, but the author mentions Algebra II when he describes it. My memory of Algebra II was that it was pretty difficult and esoteric and I don’t think I ever have used it again in my life. And this is from someone who took (and loved) Calculus. I think for someone who is studying literature, requiring them to pass a statistics or Algebra II class seems kind of silly. But, I have to say, Algebra I can certainly understand.
Excelent comments, wonderful memories.
Approved
Thank you for this interesting and helpful essay. I found myself drawn to hearing about a teacher able to connect to a unique group of students and also to your own story as my son is just like you. he tests incredibly high in language arts nationally and incredibly low in math. he’s about to enter a coveted private high school but has to pass summer school algebra in order to be admitted. he’s terrified. he has been diagnosed with Non-Verbal Learning Disorder, also known as the math and handwriting disability. Those students are gifted in language arts and challenged in math. Success will be theirs eventually but you described so well the challenge of getting through a traditional school experience. I hope to find teachers who better understand this learning challenge who can help my son and others like him. in the meantime, though, thank you for opening a discussion about this.
While I see the merits of the writer’s argument, I have to say that when students approach math, they sometimes miss the point. It’s not just ‘math’. It’s looking at things and identifying order, relationships between things and sequence, all while applying logic and critical thinking. If viewed from the thinking skills enhanced by math, students might have a different appreciation. I considered being an engineer until I feel in love with literature, but in my literature classes, I STILL write sentences as equations and stories as graphs. It’s an unconventional approach, but it’s all about getting a broader view on thinking about the way things are connected.
Having said all of that, keeping kids out of college because of an ineptitude in math (no matter why it exists) is not good for society overall. This writer, thankfully, hasn’t been discouraged to the point of crime as the option instead of college, but many people don’t have his fortitude. And, given that there are fewer and fewer vocational programs in high school as an option, I can’t imagine what the state of California is thinking by barring so many folks.
You are a wonderful writer.
Algebra, though, is invaluable in most professions and even day-to-day tasks. I can’t even imagine obtaining a degree in Art/Art History without being able to calculate perspective via basic algebraic concepts.
However, I agree with you that there should be exceptions to current Math requirements. You’re clearly able to reason and communicate effectively, and I can’t understand why you wouldn’t be considered for college admissions on the recommendation of a well-respected professor. Have you explored this possibility? There are also established private universities with less stringent pre-requisites, although these might not be financially viable for everyone.
Best of luck to you!
I can empathize with you Javier, I failed Algebra 2 each year at Garfield 10th-12th. Even playing in a band with my Algebra 2 teacher didn’t help my cause. After High School, I got this TA gig at a Middle School and the teacher I worked for forced me to teach his 7th and 8th grade Algebra classes twice a week. It was rough but, teaching it helped me nail the fundamentals. I actually became quite the Algebra expert as a result. I excelled at teaching the subject because, I felt the students struggle. Most teachers and tutors have a tendency to make folks feel bad or dumb for not understanding concepts so, my teaching approach was much different because I was far from being a math wiz. I eventually came to love math and tried minoring in math so I could teach the subject. Unfortunately, Calculus kicked my ass. So, hit me up if you ever decide to take another stab at Algebra!
Damn fine piece, Joe. Provocative, well-written and researched. I am 95 percent convinced you are right, given the state of affairs at the Times now and the newspaper business in general. That said, there is still some very good stuff going on at the Times right now that might disappear if a Koch purchase goes through.
Who says they would sell to Eli Broad?
The 3rd option is that they run the paper very left, to support the readership and to improve profits, and it’s fantastically disingenuous compared to their personal beliefs and the paper does astoundingly well because of their ability to give people what they want.
So in that, as well as the previous two possibilities mentioned, the paper would thrive. All in all, I think it will anyway. It’s a big paper, being bought by rich people who are good at making money. How could it not?
Just saw the new Gatsby movie. . . Andrew, you really get it. Thanks for this well written and thoughtful piece.
The trouble with this is that “natural selection” is not entirely natural. And the newest frontiers of science and information theory are shedding a lot of doubt as to whether “natural selection” by itself could produce what we are and have.
Hey Jon,
Hope you get a chance to stop by the new pieces in the series……thx so much for reading.
My story in my words from my heart. I hope to touch as many people as far as I can reach. Enjoy……..
this stuff is real interesting. sorry i wasn’t there. but i wish prof blyth had a bit lighter accent. the stuff got a little complicated and it didn’t help having the barrier of his thick scottish (?) accent between my ear and some of the words. is there a pdf transcript anywhere?
Haha! That’s not a ‘thick’ Scottish accent. He’d be as amused as I am that you thought so.
well done. very moving article.
Doesn’t this reflect a certain un-culture in our culture, the fact that we are so over fed with information that most of us don’t respond to actual news anymore, only react to shock treatment. We as marketing people face the same dilemma. People can’t digest a message anymore unless it’s served with a burning limo, and then eventually it “goes viral’. Very sad, but hope is not lost. We still have NPR, PBS, NY Times and Zocalo. Just hang out more with that crowd.
Upon reading Mr. Frank’s article on the glut of depressing and pointless news we’re being fed, I come to his conclusion ( wrap-up) that “…newsrooms aren’t going to change. Neither is the world.” So what’s Mr. Frank’s point? Oh yes, he also left me a little more dispirited.
Beautiful post. Reminds me of the beginning of Didion’s ‘The White Album’:
“We tell ourselves stories in order to live. The princess is caged in the consulate. The man with the candy will lead the children into the sea. The naked woman on the ledge outside the window on the sixteenth floor is a victim of accidie, or the naked woman is an exhibitionist, and it would be ‘interesting’ to know which . . . We look for the sermon in the suicide, for the social or moral lesson in the murder of five.”
A few pages later, she describes her nervous breakdown. She wrote this 35 years ago. Today we live with frightening news all the time in real time. This must be working us over in strange ways.
Love it! Now how do we make this happen??
Hoping the day is coming when you can return back home to Beit Daras .
We should start calling for one state rather than two states solution, keeping the right of all the refugees to return to their homeland as two state solution will not guarantee the return of Palestinians to their homeland .
Well done
I loved your essay I am in the business of medicine formerly pharma medica equipment and I went thru an awful experience when my dad faced mortality primary biliary cirrhosis and stage 4 salivary cancer gave him radiation no surgery and he really suffered the last month because I kept trying interventions based on some doctors recommendations and my own he caught mrsa couldn’t eat I have had a really hard time accepting this but what amazed me if how physicians wouldn’t level with me….one did and I ignored his advice hoping the other doctors offering radiation could give him another year….big mistake and I am a social worker also we really as a society need to come to terms with this….many doctors I knew from my job told me exactly what you have said that they wouldn’t put themselves thru some of the treatments they offer their patients thanks for writing is made me feel so much better
Good luck Catherine on your endeavor.
There will be further issues of confidence and insecurities in your life as you trek through a career serving those in need. Emergency and Trauma medicine are areas where patients will not have an identity to you, and will test your learned skills engrained through continual, repetitive learning so you will not freeze under pressure.
Most of your care though will be with patients you have gotten to know as human beings where you will have an emotional interest in their survival and quality of life. This is where your compassion and empathy will merge with your knowledge.
As a physician practicing 32 years now caring for our elder seniors, providing this care will bring words of thank you seen everyday in the eyes of those you serve. Learning from the building blocks of your medical experience, as it has in your personal building blocks of life, will not only make you a valued doctor, but also a valued human being.
Gene Uzawa Dorio, M.D.
Empowering to any person seeking to find their right place in the world. Beautifully written and deeply felt. Thank you.
There are many faults that people find with our medical system, but when it comes to physicians, it always comes down to one thing: communication.
There are only three things impart to patients in medicine, we prescribe drugs, we do procedures, and we talk to them. There is nothing else.
You will have drugs hammered into you, and you will practice the procedures that you do until you are expert. But em pathetically talking to people?
I was Medical Director of a 100,000 patient medical group, and had to field all the complaints. They were never about drugs or procedures, but about communication, for example “my doctor doesn’t listen to me” “He spent 10 minutes explaining what was wrong, and I didn’t understand a word of it”
Your life experiences, and your ability to communicate well as evidenced by this essay, are the most important things that will serve you as a physician.
You will find, just as you did with your two described experiences with CPR, to be profoundly satisfying, and profoundly depressing. But you’ll also learn the pride of doing things well, and as you expressed so well, the satisfaction of doing things in that manner is very centering.
Best of luck with your exciting career.
Ken Murray, MD
Author, “How Doctors Die”
As a doc of 40+ years of service with most of that time spent in teaching medical students and residents I can assure you that the question is not “Am I smart enough?”. Rather the question is “Am I dumb enough to want it bad enough” to pay the price on my life (and pocketbook) that it will take to reach the goal.
The role of any of the classic professions is to serve others. Service means sacrifice. So if you are willing to do so in ways you cannot begin to imagine, then I wish you the very best in you studies and your career. From your essay, I suspect that you are “dumb enough”. Have a wonderful life, personal and professional.
My thoughts for years. It’s nice to have someone affirm the way I feel about the news coverage and it’s need for eyeballs at any cost.
Unfortunately, Proposition 30 is bad public policy and horrible tax policy. Ultimately, it may actually end up hurting California’s economic development as businesses and workers flee our dysfunctional state government and its high taxes and high debt loads.
In order to have well-funded public schools, we need an effective and responsible state government that can prioritize spending and help keep California competitive. Instead, our state is run by well-funded special interests. As a consequence, our state government is ranked the nation’s worst-run (and we have some tough competition from Illinois!).
Great stuff. Awesome posts. Thanks
I am also from Oklahoma but I would never call myself an Okie–I was always taught/told that Okie was a derogatory term for the poor Oklahomans who moved to California in the aftermath of the dustbowl. Thank you for your story.
Interesting. I have never heard that.
Right on. I’m sick of conservatives and Texas making labored attempts to undermine California’s success. Home prices is one of their biggest bugbears, despite the irony that high home prices equates with economic prosperity. I think you’re right: we need to ignore everyone else and keep doing what we’re doing.
It’s not Texans and conservatives undermining our success; it’s our Gimmedat legislature and the unions of public employees.
Let me offer an alternatve perspective if you don’t plan on building a safe house or storm cellar and sentiment is less important than survival
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-media-zone/201305/stubborn-defiant-attitudes-in-tornado-alley
Just an absolutely great story. I think you should make your game bigger and work to get 100 schools set up with this program. If they invest the same kind of energy you got your school to do, that would be $155,000 into school coffers. You might also want to get your school involved in collecting Box Tops as well http://www.boxtops4education.com/ and Target’s Take Charge of Educaiton https://www-secure.target.com/redcard/tcoe/home as other sources of funding.
Thank you K. Aldrich! That would be my dream job! Please keep all the great ideas coming.
*The Big Book of British SMILES. Thanks
.
Darn I missed the deadline…
Oh well. I just now read about this in the LA Daily News. After reading that the Mayor is basically broke and is looking for employment maybe he can qualify for a single at the San Fernando Gardens Housing in Pacoima operated by LA Autoridad de Vivienda de la Ciudad de Los Angeles. He can start back at the people level and work his way back up to the elites.
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Absolutely! I’m a native Californian and couldn’t agree more with your findings. Love the bit about paying more taxes, getting less for them and subsidizing other states’ laziness…and we really don’t complain about it comparatively speaking, right?
We do need to focus more on our communities and participate in making our cities the absolute best they can be for all Californians.
Funny story…speaking of Texas. I sat next to a Texan woman on a flight to SF from LA once…she had the nerve to tell me this joke: Why is California a cereal state? I said, what? Why? “Cuz it’s full of flakes, nuts and fruits.” She starts lol. I was appalled and perplexed by her complete ignorance. I’d just told her I was a native. I proceeded to say, “Ha…I suppose I can see how some of that’s true,” I went on, “But those nuts are some of the most innovative people on the planet! That iPhone in your hand…a product of California.” She shut up.
Very well said, Le. I, too, am a lifelong Okie and don’t see that changing. I am proud the state I live in and would never consider leaving it because “the wind blows” at times.
Leaving for the month of May is a great idea, your life is more important than things and sentiment.
This is an outstanding series of articles about suggestions where Mr. Soon-to-be-ex-Mayor might find a suitable next residence! And, congratulations to the judges on their decisions.
My neighbor here in the ‘burbs has been taking up a collection to help with expenses. So far, the collection cup contains three glass aquarium beads and a penny! ;~)
Good feedback! I’d like to see you also reach out to California music, art, and drama teachers to get their responses. Those people who work day in and day out at the schools, and deserve to be heard. Thank you!
This article made me think of when I was a young college graduate working in London and had gone to the dentist there for a routine teeth cleaning. The dentist was so stunned by the exceptionally good condition of my teeth (nary a cavity) that she invited the whole staff in to have a look inside my mouth! I’m not by any means obsessed with my teeth, but I’ll never forget being the envy of that dental office.
Hysterical!
I agree, I think Antonio should move to the NoHo – Studio City area.
>Instead, they were changing their goal in the Education Game from “Get a higher grade than my classmates” to “Get to the best answer.”
Huh? Since when is the goal to get a higher grade than your classmates?
Curves.
Many college level courses are graded on curves, so you are graded in comparison to your classmates.
It was originally intended to account for varying difficulty in tests, but has mostly just given rise to a lot of competition between students.
I found this article rather boring. Like most articles written about the Catholic church it is based on some conception – usually what is presented by media, while throwing in facts here and there. Congratulations. You have confirmation bias.
To start, you are stuck more in the past then in the present (ironic eh?). What does the Catholic Church (CC) teach currently about the body, sex and celibacy? You should consider reading “Theology of the Body” by Blessed Pope John Paul II. It presents something very different than what you do. Just a note – if that Catholic church teaches that marriage is only for procreation, then why are infertile people allowed to marry? There is more to it. This is an inaccurate representation. Do not take teachings of the church at face value. There are reasons for the teachings that you should consider, because you can easily see are not readily accepted – even by many “Catholics” (which I may add, by the definition of the word are not Catholic – to follow/believe all the teachings of the Church. Receiving that sacraments doesn’t make you Catholic. This is really not a big deal. If people don’t believe it then leave.)
There are approximately 20 rites within the Catholic Church. Only one – the Roman rite – has priestly celibacy.
St. Ignatius of Loyola, a doctor of the church, taught that all desires are from God, and are therefore good. For example. A wife is angry with her husband. She wants to lash out at him. Not good. But the desire behind that desire, the base desire, is good. Which could be desire for reconciliation, or for justice, etc. This was revolutionary in spirituality, where it was widely believed that desires were thought as bad and to be rejected. Complete self-denial. You present only one spirituality.
Last, when you read Vatican news, sex (and all things related) almost never makes the top 20 things. It is the media that puts it at the forefront, not the church. They are more concerned with matters of faith, hope and charity, especially to the poor (which I am sure you are aware that they give more to the poor than any other organization in the world – yes in monetary value, but also in manpower).
I wont spend my time picking apart your article because I am not interested in what you wrote, but why you wrote it. I am addressing the underlying problem – a lack of information. Learn what the church really teaches. Be, as our generation is so obsessed with being, a little open minded, consider carefully and then make an opinion.
Regards,
Nick
As a newly minted homeowner, I can say that Howard Jarvis’ legacy of lowering taxes applies much more to people who were already property owners, seeing as my current property tax bill for my modest home in Downey is the same amount as the Beverly Hills multi-millionaire who bought his mansion 30 years ago.
I know Prop 13 will save me money going forward as home prices rise, and my effective tax rate becomes lower and lower, but I’m not so sure that extra $1000 in my pocket 10 years from now is worth it. I would also dispute Economist Laffers research as its premise is flawed. Prop 13 may have lowered effective tax rates by 60%, but not for the AVERAGE Californian, who is not a propertyowner.
As a California public school teacher, Howard Jarvis’ legacy affects me immensely. Those capped property taxes also capped the school disticts budgets too. The “largest tax cut in state history” is also the largest cut to public funding for public schools.
Furthermore, the clause in Prop 13 that requires. 2/3 super majority to pass any tax increase, or effectively any state budget has left our state government in complete dysfunction.
Thank you, howard Jarvis.
Despite the author’s sympathetic portrayal of Jarvis, he was not an “ordinary man.” He was a opportunistic political entrepreneur with the massive backing of real estate interests who linked an elite/commercial property agenda with the legitimate grievances of homeowners, redistributed wealth upwards to the rich, and forged a new common-sense around the supremacy of private gain at the expense of a culture of social responsibility and the public good. From where I stand, he didn’t spit his tabacco juice in a waste can beneath his desk, but in the eye of ordinary working class people who now bear the brunt of our state’s fiscal crisis.
This guy rules
Love this article, thanks for a little balance. Clearly anyone buying a home can take comfort in the limits of taxation over the next 20 to 30 years as inflation is getting ready to resume. Inflation is our destiny because the dollar sinks in value when we over-heat our Federal printing press. All budgets are tight because Federal waste and excess are crunching dollar values. Right now payrolls are squeezed to cover new abortion mandates and sex change operations, while schools won’t be able to tap into a state budget that is years over-spent. Hope is only reasonable because there are still some conservative hard nose choices being exercised. Right now we have a seasoned Democrat managing the California budget with a firm veto. He’s only doing that because of prop 13 and tea party hard heads or we’d be in full collapse economically. Jarvis is the salt of the earth, especially California earth.
Thank you! I work in a hospital and cancer center and this issue has been tugging at my heart for quite some time. It is very difficult to see what people are going thru during the last 6 months of their life. I
I want to be able to follow the broken news after it broke. The Week, The Economist, and World do this, and they have print editions. time, Newsweek, and USNWR don’t do news any more at all.
Very few people watch breaking news on their big-screen TV while sitting on the couch. 60 Minutes audience is old and getting older, which isn’t a demographic that is as desirable as it once was.
Excellent clincher. It very much summarizes the identity crisis and resolution that most, if not all, Mexican Americans of all generations feel at one point in their life.
Those of you criticizing Prop 13 either forget or simply don’t know that many property taxpayers are people who have paid off their homes after 30 years and are retired and living on largely fixed incomes. They accrue no benefit of the increased property values because they are not borrowing against their equity and they are not selling the properties (they need to live SOMEWHERE). For these folks especially, the cruel increases in property taxes year after year threatened their homeownership. Prop 13 was in part a reaction to the kind of government grabbiness that merely sees home values as piggy banks to be raided.
Maybe 13 was a too-harsh response to the acceleration of taxes taking place at the time. But the politicians in Sacramento, including Gov Ronald Reagan, were unable to fashion reasonable property relief. Jarvis came along and offered the voters something substantial they could vote for. One should note that 13 certainly received support from non-homeowners as well.
I happen to think there are better ways to finance public education than to rely on property taxes.
I absolutely loved this idea. The article was also very well written.
I have a dear friend who passed before 50, diagnosed with a virulent cancer that took her within four months of diagnosis. She had seen her mother fight cancer four times (four different things!) and finally decide the last time was enough of being made sick, and etc. So that is what my friend did.
Her and her husband had time to do a couple of trips and family visits, then she just kind of drowsed her way out. They had offered chemo, but as she put it, ‘it might buy me a couple of months but who wants to live bald and puking? Especially if it will only buy a couple of months?”
She was a sweet, kind, gentle person. I will miss her forever.
Interesting. The Iraq War and the Central Valley Bullet Train to Nowhere are more recent examples of sons trying to get back at and/or one up their dads (at the public’s expense–in the case of the former–an extremely heavy and tragic expense).
The crusty old yolks don’t yet realize that the new gen does not share their vapid shallow outlook on life, nor do we want to.
This whole thing will just backfire in their faces, and I’m gonna LOL all the way to our new democracy.
That’s about the size of it. It’s the flipside of the globalisation coin, old world ideas of sacrosanct nation states are falling by the wayside as each generation comes of age. Our youth are a truly global, interconnected culture for whom data is like oxygen and exposing secrets is fair game.
The animé series Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex touched on this, calling it “Cyberbrain Closed Shell Syndrome”, i.e. a state of mind which exists in the youth whereby data is there to be accessed and shared, no matter the means of access.
I’m sorry that’s also pretty ridiculous. It should read ‘our youth are like mindless consumers, ear-buds constantly inserted, playing Angry Birds or checking their facebook pages on their high-end phones’. I don’t believe that BTW, but there’s an element of truth in it. What’s being shared, LOL cats?
For every 10 kids mindlessly consuming content there’ll be one installing custom operating systems on his phone, traversing the restricted areas of the school network, overriding the blocks his parents’ have put on the internet, finding security flaws in public websites, bluesnarfing his mates phones etc etc.
The hackers of tomorrow will be leagues ahead of the guys employed by the security services in cyber warfare, kids are growing up in an era of (near)ubiquitous computing. Programming languages will be learnt early and will be like their mother tongue.
Until we start to identify these kids early and guide them towards a white hat path, we’ll be left behind by the likes of China in the cyber security stakes.
I’d bet that the first major infrastructure hack will be carried out by some teen seeing how far he can go down the rabbit hole rather than a genuine cyber terrorist looking to cause intentional damage to our infrastructure.
That’s a useless stereotype. I’m 62 and have been involved with computing since about 1966 still am. To me, many [but not all] of the so-called millenials with their iPads, iPhones and iPods are merely iDiots who are consumers who know a little bit about code and [above all] and too much about hipness
No disrespect, consider my crusty comment as a narrative for their understanding of how tech works, not the age bracket in general, just these individuals stamping our rights.
i-Products aren’t about being hip, they’re MFI computing.
(made for idiots)
Great article! There was a law prof who passed away just before I got to law school, Julian Eule, who wrote about “intertemporal binding” of (future) legislatures. Ours in Sacramento is pretty well bound, and the voters are tied up by things like the cost of signature-gathering and the single-subject rule.
Terrific article. Way to lead by example Derek!
Take away from the article:
Millenials can’t be trusted so don’t hire them.
thanks!
Right there with you, Keith. I lived on West Adams for two years in the early 80s, just as the university was just starting to make those big investments in the University Park neighborhood. We lived on the line between a barrio and a ghetto. Most of the shops in the neighborhood were abandoned, and gunfire was heard almost every night. The administration did what it could to protect us after dark — busses, escorts — and I mastered the art of concealed firearms carry (which was legally far easier to do back then). The campus was a genuinely scary place, and there were good reasons to be afraid. But nobody ever discussed closing it, not even then.
Which is why it’s so daunting to hear that they’re talking about closing it up now. Generations of Trojans braved much so much worse, and not only survived; we actually made things better by our presence and perseverance. Every time I visit these days, I’m hugely impressed at how far it’s all come. Turning the campus into a walled fort at this late date feel a lot like giving up the fight, in spite of the fact that we’ve fought so long and hard to such marvelous effect, and are so clearly winning the war.
Sara Robinson
Annenberg ’82
“Here come the morning that I say goodbye to ya
Here come the morning that’ll say goodbye
but I dont turn around cause the reason is treason….” (Kasabian)
For millenial hackers, however, treason simply carries no weight; it has no reason.
So… if “hackers” truly believe information is free, why are they in an uproar if the NSA is simply taking everybody’s information? It’s “free” after all, right? Maybe you meant, “I’ll take the information *I* find useful because it should be free, but you cannot take *my* information because then you’re just invading my privacy.”
The 4th amendment protects our privacy,and was enacted to prevent the Government from violating our privacy…the Constitution does not protect the privacy of our Government..The 4th amendment supersedes any Government program,it supersedes the lives that are put in danger by the hackers exposure of this Unconstitutional program..Generations of people have already given their lives to protect our privacy…furthermore,Hackers do not point guns and arrest people based on “perceived” threats.
Thank you for the wonderful story. Though I’m careful not to hoard, I’m also careful not to waste things. When my car was broken into last week, I discovered that I could replace several items straight from my closet. I could have bought everything new, but I didn’t have to.
What if your house hadn’t been saved? Would you still have written this piece about the houses that were? Perspective is everything.
My Mom’s standard line to me and my brother: “Go get dirty!”
We did.
I’ve thought of that and how I was afraid to let my children go anywhere on their own and be able to explore the neighborhood like I did as a child. It’s my opinion that after the flood of missing children that appeared on milk cartons and newspapers, I was afraid this could happen to my children. One day I thought about it and the statistics really ran against anything happening to my children. I think the author is correct, the chances of my children being abducted were almost the same as my chances of winning the lottery. In time, I noticed a lot of the milk carton children had been missing for a long time and then I began to hear that some of them were abducted by non-custodial parents. But I think it did sell newspapers and it sure glued me to the 6pm news.
I felt I cheated my children by being what I felt was manipulated by the press. What sold newspapers and made the local news wasn’t something that was good for my children. As the author stated, movies make a lot of money by leaving us with the impression the nearest serial killer is that person who lives around the corner.
Myself, I had grown up in South Central Los Angeles. More specifically, I grew up in Watts (within those limited boundaries of the actual Watts). I explored the neighborhood, the local parish pastor used to give me Pacific Electric tokens that showed up in the collection box and I used those tokens to take the Pacific Electric to all those exotic destinations like San Pedro, Long Beach, Bell Flower, Pasadena, Hollywood, Santa Monica, etc. I had no cell phone and my parents sometimes worried when I was gone a long time but it gave me a chance to learn that there was indeed a life outside the so-called ghetto.
I was born before World War II but after the war, we had neighborhoods filled with children so it was easy to go out in the street and find friends and it was easy to find friends at school. At that time, parents didn’t drive us to school so we could follow our friends to their house.
We moved out of Los Angeles when my children were really young and into a neighborhood that had very few children. My particular problem was that because of distance, play dates had to be arranged. Now that my children are grown, they’ve lost that experience of meeting other children who were neighbors. I can’t redo the past but I’ve given it a bit of thought.
Thank you, Zócalo, for this marvelous, well-chosen poetry corner! It’s just what we need.
Very interesting. I’ve often thought about this change. I used to bike to school from about 4th grade through high school, several miles each way, daily. Neither I nor my folks thought anything of it. Hey, and I got exercise, too. I can’t believe that placing children in tight packaging makes their lives better.
Definitely the author’s theories resonate with the “stay in the armored SUV” method of transportation. Somehow parents try to keep their kids completely separate from the culture outside. Clearly not a way to allow them to grow up, deal with life, and have the occasional educational adventure. My solution: bike to school – see the world between TV at home and programmed activity at school. Worried about what’s out there? Bike with them.
Javier,
I remember those days with you in that stats class. We did have fun and I’m thankful for the opportunity to have another chance at math, and to spend countless hours with you and the other friend we made. Thank you for passing on what your counselor told you that day. It made a world of difference. I am sorry to hear that you ended up dropping out, but happy to hear that you are pursuing what you love, and are so gifted at. All the best! -Lindsey
Lovely, haunting, and perfect. I’m so lucky to know you and so excited Zocalo was able to share your story in a bigger way than I could. Thank you, Ernie.
Doesn’t sound like Ernie likes what SM has become. Neither do I. I blame the likes of Ernie, an outside, who came into many of our California cities to “make it better.” Now it’s an elitist paradise. Go figure, that the guy who comes in for “the little people” ends up making a city that only the rich can afford. Nice work, Ernie. Maybe you’ll come into Trenton and make this city a city for the rich.
It’s not Ernie’s fault that the state legislature undid all his work. People like RO and Ian Lundy are the “free market” apologists who claim the “vibrant, alive” elitists’ paradise we see now is what we all wanted–or should have wanted, if only we knew what was good for us. Strict rent control did not work the same way welfare did not work and the war on poverty did not work. Other things undid probably wrongheaded in the long run but heading in the right direction attempts to ameliorate the effects of a system rigged against apartment dwellers. That was the point Ernie was making. 60% of the City was apt dwellers, but one of seven at most on the City Council lived in an apt. Usually it was none. Now SMRR and the Council and the Rent Control Board and 2500 City employees include very few apt dwellers. None who have to rely on living in a rent-controlled apt they grabbed in the 70s and have held onto for dear life since.
Most of the City employees can’t afford to live in Santa Monica.
Great article Ernie. Really well done.s…
Lovely article. As a relative newbie to CA (I’m an East Coast transplant who moved here for school 12 years ago), I love learning about the history of the area.
RE your first sentence…Barenaked Ladies have a great song called “The Old Apartment.”
Yes, Santa Monica was once a really great place to live and a hot bed of great activists that made changes for the better and Ernie was instrumental in making many of the good changes happen. Sadly, it has become Beverly Hills By The Sea and the City Council is once again primarily influenced by the Chamber of Commerce and the mega developers that have swooped into the city to build massive developments.
Kelly Olsen
55 year resident and former Santa Monica City Councilman
Santa Monica is incredible today, I’m sorry that you are so blinded by your nostalgia to appreciate one of the most vibrant, active beachside communities in the world. Your nostalgia for the olden days is nice, but it’s tired. The LA basin is one of the most dense area in the world, we have lots of nice small beach towns that anyone wanting that can find, Santa Monica is not the place. It is a city, with enormous amounts of tourism, culture, a growing tech industry, and a beautiful location. Stop restricting development that will benefit my generation to fight for the past. Embrace the future. I love Santa Monica, I am sorry it is no longer a quiet beach town, if only Hermosa, Manhattan Beach, redondo beach, Malibu, Palos Verdes, existed so that you can enjoy a peaceful existence by the ocean.
Sorry, Ernie, your fight against density (which is counter to sustainable urban planning) simply reduced the supply of available places to live in Santa Monica and drove up rent, ensuring no one but the wealthy and the people who bought in decades ago can live there. Gen X & Y, outside the 1 percent, don’t get the opportunity to move in like you did, and you only helped to reinforce that. Congratz.
I was there–within spitting distance of those ocean-front high-rises and Ernie, your reminiscence is right-on. We are now the age of those intrepid senior renters who inspired Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights. As the Rev. Conn would say: “Carry On!”
I love riding LA’s metro lines, and it’s a great thing to do with kids.
“So when and why did childhood go into lockdown?”
That question will of course have multiple answers, but there is one where the when is easy to look up and the why is partially known: when trick-or-treating at Halloween transformed from an activity where “the most candy wins” and kids travelled as far as they could, to one where the news headlines warned parents about apples with razor blades in them and LSD-laced candy bars. IIRC this was round the early 1970s. Nowadays there are neighborhoods which actively discourage neighborhood trick-or-treating and instead have the children go to a community center or school for candy hand-outs.
Snopes.com notes that there have been relatively few cases of razor-bladed apples and most of them appear to have been hoaxes; in only about 10 cases has actual injury been discovered. Snopes however dates the phenomenon earlier than my memory does, to the 1960s and says that in 1968 New Jersey was so worried that the legislature passed a law specifically addressing booby-trapped apples. Maybe it was an east coast phenomenon before hitting the west coast.
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/mayhem/needles.asp
apartment number nine,
uptown, in penthouse number 3
I’M gonna mis the Mayor as well. Though I live in Pasadena I consider him my mayor as well. He has spirit and spunk. If he wants to live near my home I would love it. I’ll start looking tomorrow because he does not have to live in Los Angeles to make an impact on that community. I hope to meet him and learn more about is goals for LAUSD. I have a grand daughter in private school going to the 8th grade her parents can’t even consider the Local High Schools for 9th grade Crenshaw/Dorsey district. The cost of private school is ridiculous. The miles i have to drive remind me of the distance one drove during the segragated schools area. Or the Big Busing era in Los Angeles South Los Angeles
Excellent story. Thank you.
Nice to know he would show up for you, I guess considering his travel schedule you were smarter to go with him.
Help us all if he even gets close to an elevated political position in CA! Where do I sign up to NOT support this flim flam man? By the way, I’m Hispanic, means nothing, right?
Going to have to agree with Gregory!
In my lifetime, the world has steadily declined in morality. The affect has been increase in unwanted children, parents on drugs, grandparents raising children, drug use at epidemic rate, sexually transmitted disease increase, violence so common it is not considered news anymore. In my lifetime, technology is unbelievable, people are able to do things I would have considered impossible 30 years ago. Technology has not done a single thing to solve the root of the problem, man’s greed and the immorality of people. I don’t know what world you live in.
Yeah, telling people they seem white because of what they are wearing or how they talk and act is not going to get a good reaction. Boating shoes are associated with more wealthy people because they go boating. You’re basically saying, “I associate wealth with white people, not black people.” It’s not fair to have people tell you aren’t really black because you aren’t what you’ve described in this article – a sneaker head speaking african american vernacular. Associating every person of color with the environment that you so fondly remember is very limiting, to yourself and to people of color.
You’re right, it is a joke. But not a very good one and offensive to boot. Even if it doesn’t seem like it, there are many challenges for underrepresented students at primarily white institutions of higher education. Coming across comments like that become a part of life, and can feel very isolating. Just a thought.
*yawn*
That’s such an intelligent point! I hadn’t thought about people saying “you’re more (insert race) than me” as a type of insult, subconscious or not. However, I think the bigger issue is that colleges teach about “multiculturalism” and “race” but not about American culture. So anytime that someone wears/does something that a majority white people do, instead of the action being identified as “American” it’s identified as “white.” I once told my white friend (a Liberal, non-racist, out-of-state friend) that I LOVE hot dogs from Los Angeles street vendors to which he replied “That’s so Mexican.” Huh! I didn’t understand his reaction. I always saw myself just as a true native Angeleno enjoying the delicious bacon wrapped hot dogs. It was a regional thing and nothing to do with my ethnic background.
You have a good point. But I don’t think you can discount the idea that maybe that’s what a White stereotype has come to mean to the author. These jokes might be offensive, but if they hold truth for even one person, then we have to look at that.
When I lived in Hollywood,I took my children to the opening day celebrations of the red line, green line, and blue line. I was excited, and wanted them to be that way as well. Alas, Joe, your article is exactly on the mark. I now live in Ventura County, and have managed to get from LAX to Ventura on the train/subway combo, but it took an advanced logistics degree, to work out the timing, Worst of all is if you go to the MTA website, you are instructed to catch a bus, not a subway. I wish your article was less accurate, but alas, I believe we are doomed to stagnate eternally in car culture. If only they had listened to Walt Disney in 1955, who built his monorail to show them what to do. Tomorrowland has unfortunately become Fantasyland.
Before you mentioned your college, I was thinking “Did the writer go to Oxy?!” Sure enough, you’re a student there! I grew up in the San Fernando Valley where we didn’t care for race. Sure, it was there and we made stereotypical jokes but we never thought our race had to be discussed in an academic setting. At Oxy, we’re taught race is tied to our potential and may even need special help–if you’re Hispanic, you’re underprivileged, etc etc. My friends and I joke that Oxy made us “racists” in the sense that all we see is race now. How can we not after 4 years of discussing race, whiteness, and privilege at Oxy?
Interesting article, thank you for your perspective, and best of luck at Occidental
Wonderfully written!
You get the sense from some of the comments, that they simply don’t understand the issue with difficulty learning. It is like telling someone who is color-blind that when they don’t see the color, they just aren’t trying hard enough!
I love your story about Cho. Innovators are what will ultimately save our society, in so many ways. Teachers like that are a treasure, and far, far too rare.
Enjoyed Josephine’s Fenster’s writing. I learned a lot. Occidental is lucky to have you. And keep on writing!
I’m going to have my sons read this story when they come home from camp today. Really refreshing perspective
Physical connections are only part of the issue. Trains have to run when people need them, so a trip doesn’t take a ridiculously long time. This is especially important when a trip requires changing trains; unless a train is waiting on the other line when you get off, the system becomes impractical for commuters.
Great piece. BTW, as a native southerner, I can tell you that “finna” comes from “fixing to” (pronounced “fixin’ ta”), which means exactly what you say: about to, preparing to. Fix also means prepare as in a meal; you fix supper (the night meal) or fix dinner (the biggest meal, regardless of time of day).
Awesome text! I’ve had a very compatible experience. My dad left when I was very young, and by middle school, the family my mother ingratiated us into was a Black family. My father’s new family is Mexican. I grew up with intimate familiarity of two non-White cultures, and no one cared. I was often the token White person, and like you, it was a source of good ribbing (playing the dozens), though *never* an “issue.” This was all in the Midwest and Texas.
Moving to California nearly 20 years ago, what is on the surface a culturally diverse mecca, it became a “thing.” I’ve had friends tease me for “talking Black,” when I get on the phone with friends and family. And, like you, I’ve had light-hearted and comfortable humor taken in a exactly the wrong way. I often liken myself to a sheep in wolf’s clothing.
I still can’t (or maybe won’t) cater to the PC-MO. And, the friends I have made here, get that.
Great piece. Very interesting perspective.
Terrific post. Excellent insights, very well expressed. Hope you write again in a year or two or three, updating your evolving experiences and viewpoints.
Nice piece!
Great piece. You shouldn’t be afraid. You should take on PC Totalitarianism that forces people to self-censor by conforming to a rigid and narrow code of conduct and a sterile use of language. You are comfortable with a truly diverse set of people and that is why you didn’t operate in fear… until you went to college.
There are those in academia and politics (and “advocacy”) who have a strong vested interest in highlighting negative divisions and sustaining grievances. They do not want a “post-racial” environment and will actively teach against it. This is often in the guise of attacking things as “white” and encouraging “non-white” people to actively reject these things. You are bigger than these people and you can help show the way forward.
Hate to be the downer here but honey you need to get out of your dorm room more. Walk over to Franklin High just across York Blvd. and you’ll see more Latino kids and Asian kids than you’ve ever seen in your life. Or head over to the flats near Fig and spend an afternoon at Ghetto Grounds next to the art park.
Explore your own neighborhood. Get a bike. Learn about LA!!!!
I don’t think that is the point of this article. As a friend of Josephine, I know that she does bike around LA, she is involved in the neighborhood and she is certainly not restricted to Occidental’s campus. With all due respect, I think you are making some dangerous assumptions. This article is about joining a new community (in this case – Occidental) and reexamining your identity. Not to speak for Josephine, but I don’t think she has these same feelings when she crosses York Blvd…
Well, then she should have said that. I guess I’m just tired of parts of LA being labeled some sort of weird white upscale hipster enclave when in fact the city is one of the most vibrant and diverse places in the country and 65% Latino. Highland Park where I live and where Oxy is located is still heavily Latino despite the sudden gentrification that has happened the last 5-6 years.
And yeah. I doesn’t help my perception of Oxy students that they seem to only like to go to Cafe De Leche on York and 50th and no farther. I just found the article a little odd in terms of what it was trying to say and probably should have titled “I miss hanging with my lower class friends from Vegas” because I think this has little to do with race and everything to do with class.
some people struggle to understand life while others just struggle –
Oxy students also frequent el super, huarache azteca, taco trucks, Super A, Galco’s, Pat & Lorraines, The York, Hermosillo, Target, Thai Eagle Rock, In-n-out, Mia Sushi, Jack in the Box, Cafe de Leche, Swork, Dave’s Chillin, Four Cafe, Taco (Place? Time? I can’t really remember), The Oinkster, Random shops up and down colorado, York, and eagle rock.
Also What do you think Oxy students look like? how do you know they are oxy students? just by looking? How would you know if oxy students visit Cafe de Leche unless you yourself also frequent Cafe de Leche?
Oxy students work via NPP in area schools. We tutor area children at the community literacy center, we take buses with the best of them and while some aren’t involved many of us do our best to be respectful and aware given our place as a part of the local community.
nice article, Josephine. Proud to see you are going to Oxy, my alma mater too.
I am so impressed with this article. Josephine, you are an incredible writer and able to present what can be a touchy subject in a way that creates thought provoking discussion (just look at the comments section!). Excellent insights, looking forward to reading more from you.
So very funny…I am THE most Oreo girl I know…and I’m 52 – I recently worked with a very old pal I had not seen in like 30 years..we worked at Ucla together, and she introduced me to her next door colleague as this most Oreo Black girl I’ve ever met…we laughed incessantly – but yes it is a trip to not be type-cast..I am STILL usually the only Black girl at arts and cultural events I attend…it just IS what it IS…
NYC’s also has no service directly to the airport. They had to add “People Movers” like the JFK or Newark air train.
LaGuardia, JFK, Newark. No, No, and No.
This is not just a California problem.
And at least Burbank has Metrolink service.
My biggest problem with LAX is the exclusion of Metro Bus service. They have all these large and wonderful (and often empty) buses for Enterprise rent-a-car and hertz, but no MTA service. Thank god for FlyAway busses.
The Green Line shuttle connection is no worse than the bus from the MBTA Blue Line into Boston or the shuttle from the BWI Amtrak Station. It needs to run more reliably and more frequently – I once missed a shuttle and had to wait for over 20 minutes in the exhaust-choked loop – but most cities don’t have rail directly into terminals. Even SFO requires a transfer to AirTrain from BART for most flights.
Philadelphia has train service to all airport terminals. Heathrow has the wonderful Heathrow express to get you to Paddington station in 30 minutes (or you can take the regular tube in about an hour). Even Boston isn’t that bad, considering you CAN figure out transit options from the airport (I’ve done it before). In LA, you have to rely on the FlyAway bus if you don’t want to spend money on a cab or a rental car or have a friend pick you up – which is a budget-conscious option, but no thanks to Metro.
Ivy-tower studies have described this dynamic between airports & public transportation for 50 years.
Boston tore out it’s airport connectors decades ago. SF waited a generation, than built a class-filter (trolly) after thirty years.
Race and class; the elephant in the room. I HAVE NEVER READ MARX.
I rode to LA on a Greyhound bus from the Bay last night.
Of the five ‘new’ Greyhound bus i have traveled on this month, four had hard, twin steel rings in the seat fold and a single ring at the footrest on ALL window seats; obviously for shackled passengers.
At MTA ‘RedLineExtention’ (now ExPo Line ) meetings in the late 1990’s, i
listened to Sierra Club experts try to limit stops in South Central to
keep locals from stealing their TV’s from Dacha’s at the beach and
bringing them back on light rail. AND, without ‘grade separation’, light rail is a negitive, waiting cars in poor neighborhoods wipe out any gains against ‘global warming’.
The only way to use MetroLink south past Santa Ana is to buy a monthly pass.
Try driving into Culver city from the East.
Born and raised in all-white High Schools in the Valley, this pure cracker
has lived at 41st and Normandie for 25 years and refuses to drive after
being locked in a patrol car 4-5 times a year for decades.
And, ‘Ralphs’ closed our last two supermarkets this month:(
Josephine, what a well written and funny article. It sounds like you had a healthy dose of self esteem going through middle school and high school as well as good friends. Thanks for sharing your experience. I literally had tears in my eyes score different shoes and matching with shirts.
Good job Joe! I didn’t even know you were white! (Also kidding) It’s a hard thing sometimes to know what’s ok and what’s not ok to say. I grew up on the Mexican border and was almost always the only white girl in class. I loved my Mexican friends and I was always treated so kindly and like family. Sadly my parents were very racist and I never or EVER will understand that. I’m so thankful my Mexican friends taught me not so much about race but about their culture and unconditional love just for being human. Wouldn’t that be amazing to just love each other and learn about our differences instead of using anger and hate for being ignorant? Keep speaking up Miz Joe!!
An excellent article for California and Californians. The last paragraph is great advice, but maybe lacking in urgency. What advice is there for local communities that fail to act — for which careful and sober assessments of sea level havoc simply aren’t being done, much less being acted upon? Or, perhaps more importantly, what advice for lawmakers who control purse strings?
All credit to Mayor Bloomberg who is doing what needs to be done with a pressing importance not found elsewhere. California, with a lot of bright people and a robust government infrastructure, seems to be moving a lot slower than it should.
I am so proud of this young woman, so alive and so aware of life. Now mind you she is my daughter, but that wouldn’t matter because the world better watch out Jo is on the move!
Loved it Jo!!! Pretty darn funny yo ! Don’t 4get to floss! Diana
Terrific article! Beautifully written and so well observed. My throat welled up envyng your experience. Though I must say, that your sense of loss and longing for your time as “the White girl” is very specific to that experience, but also shared with all of us with regard to many of the things we love and “grow” away from. The trick is to cherish and keep alive close friendships of many kinds, and not to lose touch with that sense of vivid connection to so many aspects of your young life . . as you get older, and life gets so crowded and pressured that even the present isn’t fully experienced and appreciated.
I don’t understand your reference re. travel between SFO and San Mateo taking an hour; although you cannot take a train directly between SFO and San Mateo, bus or train+bus trips typically only take 20-30 minutes. I agree, though, there is room for improvement.
Thanks Josephine for this great piece. I strongly identify with your story, as one of the “white girls” from a great mixed school in south San Diego who then went on to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Love this article!
Jan Perry also turned Jewish; it is a condition sine qua non for L.A. power elite.
With all due respect, please. “Turn” anyway you want, living Jewishly requires action, not a membership card.
Thanks for the post, Rolf. I was in Suzano last week and participated in one of the marches along with a Brazilian friend. The amount of support demonstrated by observers was pretty inspiring (commuter trains would stop on the tracks, the conductors blowing their horns, riders hanging out of the windows cheering). Law enforcement was certainly keeping a low profile, although clearly present on the perimeter.
I come from Brazil, a very racially mixed country. When I first got here I was always very confused when people asked what I am… I am Brazilian, but do you really want to go onto my racial background? I am a mutt, that’s what I am, and? Anyway, back home nobody ever asked what you were. If you spoke Portuguese fluently you are Brazilian and that’s it. I lived there for the first 19 years of my life and I never asked someone’s ethnic background and vice versa. I really wish that was the same here, meaning: we can communicate, we can hang out, no ethnicity questions asked. My friends here are from everywhere in the world, we are a mini UN as we say, and we do joke around about stereotypes too, with no hard feelings. I think people in this country are so race-conscious sometimes that it bothers me. I would love to meet you and have a “race-unscary” conversation. And, by the way, I think your high-school and my group of friends and maybe a few other groups are a few exceptions of the rule… I don’t think Occidental is the exception, I think, and maybe it’s a stretch that, all of LA, and maybe even this state or country, is very “race-conscious”.
I don’t know how you can claim we live in a post-ethnic age when you wrote an entire article on Garcetti’s ethnic & religious heritage. It would also be interesting to know the factual source of your statement “The Jewish vote tends to go to the candidate who best articulates and can best deliver on a socially progressive, fiscally prudent, pro- (or at least not anti-) Israel agenda.”
I don’t claim to know all Jews in the city, but those I know aren’t a monolithic bloc. They certainly don’t all adhere to the descriptions you gave. I think the only thing you can say about the Jewish vote is that it tends to show up more often than other religious / ethnic groups. From AIPAC to Jewish Voice for Peace, the tribe has at least as many political identities as it does members.
—just another Jew, starting a Chinese Jewish family without adoption (seriously, with the ethnic mixture of LA, you even through in the stereotype that all of our Asian members are adopted?)
When I came to L.A. to work in the Jewish community, I was blown away by the fact that there were seriously powerful politically conservative (i.e. Republican) Jews. Then I met the newly arrived Persian /Iranians and the Russian immigrants, and a few Ethiopians … all Jewish. The diversity is more obvious than ever. Woe to the organization or candidate seeking support who does not respect this!
the headline should have been structured as “Turn” … what does that mean? A good turn, like a mitzvah? Facing east while praying? Jews in the “west” share this traditional behavior with Moslems, both directing prayers to their respective geographic centers of faiths, Jerusalem and Mecca, respectively.
The word “turn” in the headline was used in the sense of “become”. It had nothing to do with either of the concepts you mentioned.
Great piece, Rob Eshman! Wise and funny and makes you think!
The article says that 6% of the population of LA is Jewish. With a little under 4 million people, that means that there are just under 240,000 Jews in LA. The article also says that at one time, the Jewish population of LA swelled to 600,000. So, either the Jewish population of LA has gone down sharply in recent decades (I doubt it), or one of these statistics in the article is incorrect. Perhaps 600,000 is the population of Jews in the entire southern California region?
Many Jewish people in L.A. County live outside the actual city of Los Angeles, and therefore cannot vote in city elections. For example, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and Manhattan Beach are separate cities.
I think that although it sounds good in theory, in fact if you spend that billion dollars to extend a rail line that last mile into the airport, the increase in ridership that you get from that ends up being negligible. People don’t relish dragging their luggage from from the curb to the ticket counter; dragging it onto a subway platform, onto a train, and then whatever distance remains between the end of the subway line and their final destination is far less appealing then that. I’d take a billion dollars worth of complete street improvements spread throughout the city over a direct connection to the airport any day of the week.
Excellent article. As a resident of Florida since 1969, many of the same situations have occurred both locally and statewide. Rapid growth with out the foresight of consequences. In essences, there was no Ernie. Winning a small fight for the here and now in that moment of time is a legacy for others to follow, a road map if you will for those brave enough to do so. This country needs more “brave enough’s) and our young people are the grass roots needed to preserve this cherished life style called freedom. So, Santa Monica young people, step up! follow that path, its your right to help make a change.
Very smart piece. People who short-sightedly call for the government to intervene tend not to think ahead to how that will play out.
This is why nannies are the answer. Pay a real person a real wage, get a tax break, and forget group day care.
Perhaps for you they are, but when I was a newly-divorced single mom making $30K, a nanny was out of the question. I considered myself beyond lucky to have found an in-home daycare within minutes of my home that I could afford and which my daughter enjoyed attending. I agree that large-group daycare sucks, but saying that private nannies are the only way to go ignores reality. In-home daycare is a great middle option for a lot of parents who can’t go completely private, but who want to minimize some of the issues that come with large-group daycare.
If you read the Cohn article (the “Hell of American Day Care” in the article above), licensed centers are the safest option and have the fewest problems. Safer than nannies or in-home daycares.
Maybe “safer”, but certainly more factory like.
eye-opening. Thanks for an interesting and informative point of view that many of us might not see.
I have had the honor and privilege to have him as a professor this past year. A remarkable man, writer and poet
I appreciate you adding your experiences to the discussion.
However, I am left still scratching my head over the supply/demand problem you mention. For those who are fortunate to access the existing supply, you may certainly be right that regulation would be more of a burden than a blessing. Federal pre-K education programs may not have proven effective over the long term. Expanding them may well drive private options out of the business.
But what about all those who don’t have access to the limited supply due to low income, location, etc.? If the issue is day care (as opposed to education), it seems to me that some kind of government program is still the least-worse option. Otherwise, in the name of keeping a few in-home day care centers in business, we seem to be sacrificing an opportunity to drastically increase the employment opportunities for working single parents, low income families, etc. I would be happy to consider those private businesses in the balance. But without an alternative solution, I don’t see how that concern can trump the continuing struggles of the families whose demand is being unmet by the market.
Any suggestions on alternate approaches to the supply/demand problem?
“The patient will get cut open, perforated with tubes, hooked up to machines, and assaulted with drugs… What it buys is misery we would not inflict
on a terrorist. ”
Dear Dr. Murray,
The above statements illustrate case and point why family physicians are precluded from practicing or participating in the medical decision process in most modern day ICU’s in the United States.You have professionally maligned and insulted the field of critical care medicine and misinformed your audience. You misrepresent and confuse our excellent ICU care with the ethical questions of informed medical decision making, advance directives, patient autonomy, and rationing of health care resources. We as INTENSIVE CARE PHYSICIANS assault NO ONE. We manage pain, anxiety, and “misery” and ameliorate it with the best medicines 2013 care can provide. Intensivist directed ICU care is very expensive but very powerful. WE can and frequently do recover patients from the brink of death to full recovery. We do not discriminate between children, mothers, fathers, and grandparents. If there is an advanced directive in place, we limit our interventions. If care is futile, we rally the family and discuss the reality openly without reservation. The human body is a wonderfully complex, adaptive and restorative system. Our goal is to give human life every chance possible but at the same time we allow natural death to occur. To state our goal is financial is asinine and shameful. Your conception of ICU care is generation old out of sync with current reality.
Dear dr. Omron, as a colleague in Intensive Care Medicine I feel that you completely miss the gist of the massage Ken Murray wants to get across. You cannot state that we never miss an opportunity to not act while we could in a hopeless case. I have been a consultant doctor in IC Medicine for 25 years so I feel qualified to have an opinion in this matter and I am very much aware of circumstances in which I failed the patient in favor of pressure from family and other relatives. We can do a lot, but the real art of medicine is when to apply to right care for the right patient.
Kind regards,
Ben van der Hoven
Dear Dr Hoven,
I appreciate your commentary but mass media medical misinformation needs to be thoroughly and unambiguously challenged whenever encountered. Dr Murray’s commentary, I am sure came, from good intentions but he crossed the line when he used words to cut deeper than a scalpel. His commentary was inflammatory and meant to illicit some kind of emotional disgust at current day critical care medicine. He used and abused my specialty to advance his own ethical and political agenda. I reject that commentary for that sake alone.
Kind Regards
Edward Omron MD, MPH, FCCP
Dear Dr. Omron,
As a layperson who knows people whose specialty is critical care, I did not read any of Dr. Murray’s article as maligning those in your practice. He was referring from the outset of his article to persons whose deaths were imminent and who chose not to employ the skills of those of you who work in critical care to keep them from dying, not those who were in generally good health who had experienced a medical emergency, the recovery from which would restore them to an otherwise healthy and fruitful life. You do important and necessary work in your field, and yet there is a time when the type of services you provide are simply not in the best interests of the patient. Dr. Murray does not seem to me to be saying that no one should ever be treated in ICU, but that the focus of care should be the definition of a meaningful life that the patient him- or herself has defined and made clear to her or his loved ones and physician prior to the point in life at which such information might be needed. That, and not “what is possible medically,” should be the final measure of “good treatment” for everyone.
Best regards,
Douglas Asbury
Whoa, relax fella. ER doc here. I think you completely missed the point of the article. Turn your ego and defenses down and read it again with a more open mind.
Excellent article. Much needs to be done to prevent such tragedies. As we mourn the tragic loss of life of 19 wild land fire fighters in Arizona, it was incumbent on me, as a human factors scientist, to explore solutions and develop research questions to prevent such tragedies from occurring in the future. To this end, I have written a short article that should be of interest to technologists, telecommunication companies, wildland firefighters: http://hvhfsciences.blogspot.com/2013/07/preventing-tragedies-in-wild-land-fire.html
Okay, but did Millie or Newbie have a criminal record? Can we at least refuse to license daycare providers who have criminal records, or blow off the training course?
This reminds me of the song “Cold Missouri Waters” by James Keelaghan about the Mann Gulch fire that killed 13 smokejumpers. It gives me chills just remembering listening to it…
Bill,
I paid my way through college as a Hot Shot wild land firefighter. I drilled repeatedly on how to deploy the older version “turkey tents” but despite some close calls, never had to use one. Your vision of how such a deployment might unfold matches mine. Thanks for an extraordinary piece of writing. I hope it spurs the additional research you call for.
My only quibble is that I doubt most firefighters have time to reflect even to the extent that you postulate. At the temperatures that fire no doubt generated, I suspect — and I hope the families of the 19 young men who died in Arizona take some tiny measure of comfort in believing — that they were almost certainly gone in a whoosh of heat and light, while doing something they loved and doing it as well as the chaotic circumstances allowed.
I created an infographic based on this post, as well as a few others. I think all together it’s a pretty interesting/illuminating look at how americans plan (or fail to plan) for end-of-life stuff. http://aftersteps.com/posts/181-endoflife_care_and_costs_infographic
I totally felt the same way about being the lone white girl in every class at my university. And I had the same culture shock in my CSU undergraduate to UC-Disproportionalty Blonde transfer experience. But I don’t think comfortable race-based teasing is what most people mean by post-racial. Don’t get me wrong; I take the main point away. But I only *wish* that people defined post-racial as: not freaked out by a discussion on someone’s tangible, not theoretical, “race”. Instead, to most it means, Not Said.
If I haven’t said, I really enjoyed this article. Good job.
I think LA in particular (outside of decidedly diverse pedigreed colleges), and places like it, have a heightened sense of ethnic/racial awareness — and that’s okay — because we do not live in a post-racial society. People are aware of demographic imbalances in communities (location quotients to geographers). Or they are aware of an individual’s combo of traits from all over the world, like a special recipe for people (sup., swirlbaby). That awareness is a form of progress. We can toot the post-racial horn when we’ve ironed the problems out, but for now, I’m keen on a kind of nonchalant awareness.
That said, I do get freaked out that only White people ask me what I am — and boy do they. And always right when we first meet, like they can’t think straight until it’s sorted. My reply is usually that I am just a brown-skinned White girl (which makes people really really uncomfortable). But this is a fact, most non-Whites seem to know without being told, or care little enough to question when we first meet. Either way, it’s never weird.
Thank you for the courage it took to write this, honoring those who were lost. This is a dangerous endeavor, and it always will be. May God walk with all firefighters.
Thank you for the posting. I read it in the Sacramento Bee. Perhaps this is a starting point.
France and Spain, both economies smaller than that of
California, already have media privacy legislation.
The California Constitution, Section 1 says:
SECTION 1.
All people are by nature free and independent and have inalienable
rights. Among these are enjoying
and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing, and protecting
property, and pursuing and obtaining safety, happiness, and privacy.
Your Statement “It’s not a frequent topic of discussion, but doctors die, too. And they don’t die like the rest of us. What’s unusual about them is not how much treatment they get compared to most Americans, but how little. For all the time they spend fending off the deaths of others, they tend to be fairly serene when faced with death themselves. They know exactly what is going to happen, they know the choices, and they generally have access to any sort of medical care they could want. But they go gently.” should have been supported with data that backs up the assertion. As it is, I can only take this as your opinion.
I worked for 7 years as an inpatient hospice nurse and there were very few among my co-workers and other colleagues (I actually can’t think of one) who would not agree with Dr. Murray, myself included. I know nurses with DNR tattooed on their chests. We aren’t kidding when we say that we don’t want to SUFFER with unnecessary, futile treatments at the end of our days.
You are correct that bicycles are not the end-all, be-all of commuting and transportation — not everyone is physically capable of riding, some loads are too large, and extreme weather conflicts with business attire. However, I must disagree with a few of your assumptions:
Most bikes on the market are designed for commuting or pleasure-riding, not transport. You can, however, easily purchase after-market accessories (racks, bags, trailers) or entire bikes designed expressly for transport. These range in price from cheap to expensive and can carry anything from watermelons to refrigerators. In Montreal, there are professional movers who use bicycles.
Bicycling is not as dangerous as it looks or feels — and is less dangerous as more bicycles are on the roads. Danger stems from two factors: Driver inattentiveness and cyclist carelessness. Driver inattentiveness is ameliorated by cyclist density (I certainly feel safer riding in a place where drivers expect cyclists) and cyclist carelessness…
…well, speaking as a bicycle commuter, I feel strongly about cyclists who violate road laws. I’m working on a letter to the mayor of Boston (whoever that is after the election) asking for enforcement of road laws for cyclists. Law-breaking cyclists endanger not just themselves, but *all* road users — including other cyclists. I feel it’s only the problem it is because people know they can get away with it. I doubt eco-elitism has much to do with it, although I would be interested in the results of a study on that!
Bike lanes are a scam. I totally agree there. A number of European cities do just fine with mixed traffic, and bike lanes don’t address the very real problem of intersections. Besides, many of these lanes are in the most dangerous part of the road: The “Door Zone”, where a suddenly-opened door can cause serious injury or death. No, sharrows make far more sense.
So I agree with the general principle that roads should not be narrowed to accomodate dubiously useful bike lanes, but I feel that there is a path forward for fewer cars and more bicycles. The keys are enforcement, education, and mixed-use design.
• Calling the most popular and thus most democratic commute mode in the world “elitism” (with or without a silly prefix in front of it) betrays a mighty skewed perspective.
Oh, my. Bikes aren’t transportation? Then I guess I can get from home to work five miles away without transportation. And from work to lunch 3/4 mile away without transportation. And two miles from the grocery store to home without transportation. And I wandered 10 miles all over Paris without transportation, cause you know, bike share bikes aren’t transportation.
It’s true that most people won’t want to ride a bike for 10+ mile trips. But about half the trips people make every day are under two miles. For two mile trips, bikes are only slightly slower than cars and when a bike is properly equipped with baskets, racks and lights, you can easily carry 2-3 bags of groceries, even after dark. The people in the express checkout at the grocery really don’t need an SUV to carry 15 items of less.
Man, disappointing Mr. Mead. Very disappointing.
Syd Mead will be celebrating his 80th birthday next week. Maybe it’s time to retire? Sorry Syd the future didn’t turn out the way you expected it and kids prefer $200 bicycles from $2,000,000 flying cars.
Oh, I don’t know about that… My San Francisco experience is that I have raised three kids and a dog and worked in a different city using bikes and transit. I have been liberated from my car for about twenty five years now.
Maybe Syd hasn’t been downtown since they shot Blade Runner when it was a ghost town of empty grand old buildings. A place you commuted to from the suburbs. Maybe he has no idea that these buildings are full of people now, people who live, work and play in a 5 mile radius and have no use for cars. And that the same thing is happening in multiple hubs all over SoCal.
Mr Mead states that a bicycle, “therefore operates under rigid limitations: the physical condition (and therefore age) of the rider.” Here’s an important point: unless you’re in training, in a race, or trying to keep up with fast-moving auto traffic, biking is easier than walking. For the same amount of energy it takes to walk somewhere, you can get at least three times as far, three times as fast on a bike. If you can walk, you can bike. Certainly in either case, age or infirmity will slow you down a bit, but it’ll still be easier to bike. I experienced this myself once when, due to a knee injury, I could put barely any weight on one leg. But I could still get around twice as fast on my bike as I could normally walk in an uninjured state. Once, when visiting Germany, I marveled at the sight of a lady, obviously pushing (or past) 70, zipping along a cycletrack, in a floral print dress. It’s just a matter of a certain kind of infrastructure: they have it, and we don’t.
(For the rest of this I’ll just copy/paste my comment I posted at the sgvtribune.com, where I originally saw this piece by Mr. Mead.)
“Ever try to carry a watermelon on a bicycle? (Yes, it can be done, but how much else could you carry?)”
Well this lady named Emily Finch gets her six kids around by bike (each child presumably weighing more than a watermelon):
http://bikeportland.org/2012/06/28/with-six-kids-and-no-car-this-mom-does-it-all-by-bike-73731
And Portland’s Disaster Relief Trials are all about showing what can be carried by bike, for the very serious goal of providing transport should a disaster shut down the gasoline-based infrastructure, as happened in NYC during Sandy:
http://bikeportland.org/2012/06/18/cargo-bikes-reach-new-heights-at-disaster-relief-trials-73445
“A bike lane is lucky to be used by dozens of bicyclists in an hour.”
Safe to say it depends on the bike lane. Here’s a story that mentions how the bike trips over Portland’s Hawthorne Bridge broke 6200 one day in April:
http://bikeportland.org/tag/hawthorne-bridge
That’s April in Portland… The weather still sucks that time of year. It probably breaks 10k riders a day in the summer weather. Either way, you’re looking at some substantial ridership, certainly more than dozens an hour. That helps congestion immensely; if all those riders were in cars, they’d probably clog the bridge.
“Imposing bicycle accommodations onto an existing vehicular culture and street alignment is prohibitively complex and preposterously expensive on a per-mile basis.”
Actually, bike infrastructure is famously cheap. Take for instance the factoid that all of Portland’s 300 miles bike network was built for less than it would take to build a mile of urban freeway:
http://la.streetsblog.org/2010/02/16/32991/
http://www.politifact.com/oregon/statements/2011/mar/19/sam-adams/portland-mayor-sam-adams-says-portlands-spent-its-/
And I don’t know about LA, but in Portland if you’re talking about the existing street alignments, for much of the city you’re talking about a grid that was laid out over a hundred years ago, and designed with streetcars down the middle of the main commercial strips. People would walk to the streetcars, right out in the middle of the street, with no fear of being run down. By design. And around that time there was the first bicycle craze, pre-automobile. So who’s really been doing the imposing here?
“But there’s a save-the-earth mentality in bicycle culture that seems to make riders feel entitled to ignore traffic management signs.”
How exactly you come upon this knowledge of the inner workings of the minds of these people you see zipping around you in traffic I don’t know. And while I can’t claim any special knowledge either, my best guess would be that — while environmental concerns might lead to cycling — it’s more the awareness that when on a bike you’re so much less of a threat to fellow road users, so much more aware of your surroundings, and so dependent upon your burning legs and wheezing lungs to keep moving that you feel more inclined to bend rules that were designed for big, powerful machines that stop and start with the tiniest physical efforts of their users.
And then of course some people on bikes are just clueless, preoccupied, or apparently suicidal. As are some people in cars, as are some people on foot, as are some people in, I don’t know, hot air balloons. Really, it makes no sense to categorize and judge people by their chosen mode of transport.
But people keep doing it.
H.G. Wells, who is someone who deserves the title, “futurist,” once said: “Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.”
Bicycles are an integral part of any multimodal transportation system that can include everything from high-speed rail and airplanes to jitneys and car sharing.
Bicycles and Neighborhood Electric Vehicles are equivalent to each other, and, in the case of e. bikes, they are, in fact, the same mode. Power is available for those users that need or want it, and all of these vehicles can use the same infrastructure as SCAG and the WRCOG have recently found.
Bicycles also come in several forms. Some are hand-cycles that appeal to users with mobility impairments. Others are designed for transporting children or cargo. And, tricycles are even popular in many retirement communities. So, the number of different civilizations in the past and around the world in the present day that use bicycles as transportation makes this gentleman’s opinion seem terribly uninformed.
Sad, Pathetic. Trite. Filled with specious arguments. The only part of the argument he didn’t make was the threat to kill a cyclist the next time he gets mad at one. I love the rage against bike lanes–as if the whole road system isn’t gamed 100% for automobiles. Putting in a bike lane and dropping that number down to 98% just burns him up. Syd, my man, let me argue like you: You are a resentful and selfish person. The only reason why there are fewer bikers than there could be is because of the way you drive your BMW filled with watermelons. If you’re truly concerned with my well-being, please stop making right-hand turns.
The best way to advocate for cycling infrastructure among 80-year-olds is to present bicycles and Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (N.E.V.’s) together so that seniors do not feel alienated.
When the aged potentially lose their eyesight and their ability to drive cars that weigh several tons and that travel 65 m.p.h., alternatives like bicycles and N.E.V.’s will look much more interesting.
This guy’s an idiot. Not all of us have the luxury of driving a BMW. Maybe “liberation” from the car means liberation from crushingly high fuel and maintenance costs. It seems any elitism is on his part
Nice article, although we don’t yet know if it was failures of the fire shelters that caused the deaths. E.g. they may have not had time to deploy their shelters.
Also, these lines “You can feel the fire now, its heat behind you. You hear it crackle and hiss” don’t seem right. In _Young Men and Fire_, the firefighters repeatedly described the fire as sounding like a “roaring” or a “freight train”. That was one of the things that most struck me from the book; when asked to describe what it was like to be close to a forest fire, the first thing they mentioned was not flames, heat, nor smoke. Instead it was the noise. Granted there are different types of fires, which could sound different.
it didn’t help me
but good
Here’s a guy who can’t imagine using a bike for transportation and obviously hasn’t spoken to anyone who does mansplaining to us about what can and can’t be done on bike, complete with the patronizing fake-positive intro. I’ve enjoyed Mead’s work in film but I suggest he stick to his day job or do a little more research first.
If the publication of this piece isn’t an argument for relegating “futurists” to the past, I don’t know what is.
My bicycle has made a huge difference in how I view my city and how I get around it. And, yes, my bike IS a form of transportation. The three mile trip downtown on a bike lane is something I look forward to. When I get there, I’ve had some exercise, I don’t have to pay for parking or try to find a spot. And I can easily hop on it to quickly get from one place to the next. My bike can easily carry two bags of groceries. And, yes, it can handle a watermelon – and then some.
Interestingly, Syd Mead envisioned cargo bikes for Blade Runner’s LA.
http://velopaint.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-bicycles-of-blade-runner.html
The future of transportation, at least the best case scenario (as opposed to the dystopian scenarios envisioned in much of Mead’s work), is one of mixed modes. Some will drive cars, some will ride buses and trains, some will walk, and some will ride bicycles. Many people may even mix modes by taking bicycles on buses or trains or by using a car (either a family car or one rented occasionally) for trips involving long distances or large loads.
Ideally, all those modes will coexist in cities and on streets designed to allow them to mix in a way that is more complementary than competitive. Yes, that involves having more cyclists obey traffic laws, but it also involves bike lanes, road diets, lower speed limits, and other measures that restore the balance that was lost in the 20th Century rush to build places around the car to the detriment of all other modes.
It is shameful that Zocalo chose to publish this unfortunate diatribe. The worthwhile pursuit of balance and a variety of points of view can be taken too far when it results in false equivalence between well-reasoned essays and angry rants.
“The city did serve as the capital of United Federation of Planets in the future shown on Star Trek”
Correction “will”
I’m sure that car manufacturers and oil companies thank you, Syd. I do understand your point that it’s difficult to get around in a city like Los Angeles. I live in central Phoenix, which isn’t much different. Everything I need is here. I got rid of my car over 10 years ago, so it can be done. And you can get large items delivered to you: for a fee, which is less than owning a car. LA and Phoenix are not Amsterdam or Portland, but it is possible. It simply takes effort.
This is curiously ignorant. It is so easy to refute one wonders if it isn’t just bait to get web traffic.
If this indeed a genuine opinion, please research, travel, and ride before publishing anything else on this topic. Doing so will reveal an embarrassment of counter-examples to your conjectures.
As a wilderness ranger, I cannot help but think we still approach fire wrong.
The concept of putting firefighters in close proximity is based upon “the need to contain”, when nothing is being burned but the same vegetation that has burned thousands of times. And those decisions are based upon “best guesses”. It is inevitable that sooner or later, the guess will be wrong. The wind shifts, the fire gathers power, etc…..and there is NO WAY to pull the firefighters out.
The risk is “managed”, due to the drive to extinguish, but that need is not a NEED, it is a DESIRE. Putting lives at risk to save lives is one thing, but to save forest fuel is reprehensible, and to save “things”–homes, cars, ranchland—is poor thinking. It exists because there is a culture involving wildland fire—-the need to Conquer Nature in the form of nature’s fire. It is an illusion, as is illustrated by this tragedy.
It will not be the last.
I hiked the Pulaski trail and read the history of the Great Fire of 1910 just 2 years ago. My thoughts then were that with present technology, we should never have such destruction and loss of life again. But mother nature demonstrated her unpredictable and uncontrollable being once again. Your article was very good in painting a mental picture of what it may have been like for those men. A very sad loss, and I have such respect for firefighters and other emergency response workers.
Honor to address a creator of the iconic Bladerunner and SIGGRAPH speaker. I’m 59 and have never gotten a driver’s lic. Californian since 1980. You are talking me into that Nissan Leaf or other EV! I agree the average person likely won’t carry anything beyond a melon. For years I’ve stubbornly refused bags for nice, closed-bottom, drawer-sized spare boxes at the store, bungy-corded to, usually, a mountain bike. Rate me four melons.
Many in Portland, OR employ large bike trailers for transportation. Think rickshaw. I doubt angelinos will buy this right now, but there’s the longevity industry, too. We’re literate enough to worry about CV disease and gym dues. It’s an inconvenient truth….I’ve got amigos doing triathlons, marathons, the Death Valley Marathon, coast-to-coast trips.
I know I’d love the breezy freeway mode. Runners are about speed–but also pace.
The reference to bike marathons is probably to the Critical Mass movement. Any civil demonstration has its rank&file vs. anarchists.
The transportation revolution won’t happen top-down. Inside every car is a cyclist.
Pretty sure Syd and Dorothy Rabinowitz compare notes. Most unfortunate when age does not impart wisdom.
I say convert the carpool lanes to bicycle lanes and that would extend my radius of bicycle travel from 15 miles each way to 30 miles each way. That would cover most of Los Angeles, Westside, South Bay and the Valley. Carpool lanes are a joke as they are only needed about 4 hours a day and if converted to bicycle lanes they would be used by more people, more often…
To me the popularity of the automobile is much like the horse was 100+ years ago. Lifestyles are changing and soon people will adapt to other methods of mobility. Syd, as a fellow ACCD alumni, I trust you will adapt too.
syd should visit amsterdam. i used to live there. i enjoyed buying small amounts of groceries from local spots every day on my bike. i’ve lived in los angeles car free since may 2007.
Specious folly would be the idea that a bicycle is a vehicle, it’s not. It is a device that leverages human effort for mobility. Me and my bike weigh about 250 pounds, Sid and his Hummer way about 5,000 pounds. Considering these two very different examples as the same is a special kind of folly that should be placed alongside climate change deniers and 9-11 conspiracy theorists. It’s simple physics, futurist, you and your car are far more of a danger on the road and a detriment to our natural environment than me and my bike. I can stop my bike within a few feet, your car can take hundreds of feet at high speeds. Physics man, physics.
A bicycle is a vehicle according to the dictionary definition of vehicle. It is also a vehicle according to the laws of most states. California is unusual in defining it as not a vehicle but that has more to do with California’s laws involving vehicle identification numbers, registration etc.
The law also gives bicyclists the same rights and responsibilities in the road as the drivers of vehicles so it’s effectively the same as a vehicle with respect to the of rules of the road.
Dear Bill, Thank you for validating my point that a bicycle is not considered a vehicle in the state of California. As to my rights and responsibilities on the road I do not believe that following the same rules as motorized vehicles will accomplish anything except endangering my life. If you ride a bicycle look around at what vehicle drivers are doing, half of them are texting or on the phone. If drivers are not following the laws for safe vehicle operation why on earth would I?
Because it’s safer. Just because you think that it isn’t,
that doesn’t mean that you know what you are talking about.
You’re safest when you make sure that other road users can see you and know what you are about to do. Visibility plus predictability leads to safe riding.
I have studied bicycle safety from the League of American Bicyclists, Cycling Savvy, Effective Cycling, Cyclecraft, Bicycling Street Smarts and others.
I have been riding the roads of southern California since 1971. My lifetime mileage is well into 6 figures. I typically ride 6000-7000 miles per year in recent years.
I have education plus experience which is why I know that what I am saying is true. Too many people think that their vague uneducated ideas are obviously correct. Far too often, they are missing facts or not considering all of the important variables.
The two pieces of media called out on this guy’s futurist resume are Blade Runner and Aliens. I would argue that both are examples of a bike-free future. Syd, prepare for a bicycle-powered rotten watermelon delivery to your driveway.
This article is so misguided its disapointing. Ever been to Amsterdam Syd? Maybe you should just travel more, and get in touch with cultures that are still connected to humanity, not divorced from it as Los Angeles, and particularly the world of vfx post is. The support of metro systems and bicycle-friendly culture and infrastructure is a sign of civilized progress. I have been a classic car enthusiast, race-car driving trainee, I love cars and speed and convenience, but all one has to do is visit a metropolis with an average IQ 60 points above the median LA IQ (Tokyo, Sydney, New York, SF, even freezing London) to realize there is benefit and good sense in riding bicycles. The flaunting of traffic laws happens without bicycle riders, and a good percentage of drivers are uninsured, intoxicated on pharmaceutical marijuana and owe more than $500 in parking tickets, let alone unhealthy and unfit. Call that Utopian? It’s a constant set of stress on many levels, and any support to alleviate stress in a city is INTELLIGENT. I don’t even ride my bike as often as I should, and rather than resenting those who do, I feel a pang of lazy guilt everytime I see a disciplined person making the effort. Maybe you should, too.
Dr. Murray
I am stage 4, metastasized, palliative care prostate cancer. I dc’d chemo 6 mo ago, and prognosis is 18 mo /c further treatment. I know whereof you speak; it has been a very good life, and I will not end it whimpering semiconsciously in a hospital room if I can prevent it. There are those that prize length of life over the quality of that life. I am not in that crowd.
Staring the Reaper in the face, and not speaking hypothetically, I will live as well as possible for as long as possible. When the bad days substantially outnumber the good days, I’ll initiate plan B and leave with as little fanfare as possible.
Jack London perhaps said it best; ” I will live the time I have. I will not spend my days prolonging my years.”
Heh. Amusing. I’ve carried 6 kids, 3 watermelons, 7 bags of potato chips, 9 bottles of wine, 2 valiums in a ziplock bag, 25 lbs of potatoes, and a box of condoms on my bike without breaking a sweat. I have enough pleasant forms of recreation in my life without needing another dedicated path along the river.
Catherine, Best of luck to you. We need doctors who are caring enough and somehow also passionate enough to recognize that the systems we work in can oppress our best natures. The health care system that you are entering, and that I just quit, is profoundly oppressive: it knocks individualization of care aside in place of collectivized “best practices” and does so thinking that it is correct in so doing. It marginalizes love and empathy and responsibility, and replaces it with rigid guidelines that shockingly often do NOT apply to the individual patient you are seeing, and yet the physician is punished for not abiding, or the insurance company won’t pay for the intervention. The system invokes quality measures that are farcical and often outright counterproductive. I could go on for hours about the Asthma quality measures which are entirely foolhardy. Beware of evidence-based medicine– It is a euphemism for a collective mentality. It is pure groupthink. There is a place for Evidence Based Medicine, but it has no role in funding or politics. Finally, being a doctor I believe is the most noble profession. But serving a fascist master is the most ignoble. The health care system in the US is now the leading edge of the fascist state, and it is not just the stupidity and narcissism of the foisters of Obamacare, for the problems lay 70 years further in the past.
Best of all possible luck,
John Hunt, MD—Author of “ASSUME THE PHYSICIAN”
It seems though that when a lot of people move inland nowadays, they go so far inland that they end up in Dallas or Houston or Las Vegas rather than Riverside or Visalia. And Dallas and Houston are a lot steamier in the
Summer than Visalia.
Your general point is correct, but I lived in Dallas from 2000 to 2007, and it is NOT steamy in the summer. It is hot and dry.
One reason people move to Dallas, Houston, or Las Vegas is they want the advantages of being in large cities without the horrific costs of the ones in California.
Well, Riverside is 4 million, and Sacramento 2 million – hardly intimate spaces!
One of the reason that health care is booming in the Central Valley is that cancer rates are high, not to mention diabetes and allergies. The Central Valley is the most concentrated area of conventional agribusiness in the country, utilizing the full array of pesticides, herbicides, hormones, and antibiotics. Cattle, produce, and cash crops require massive quantities of these toxins to maintain vast monoculture farms and ranches. I grew up in Bakersfield and we always knew when they were de-foliating the cotton fields because everyone’s eyes start itching, allergies act up, people get sick. In addition to agribusiness, oil production and refineries further choke the air with pollutants. Cancer is a culture in the Central Valley; there are more cancer treatment centers per capita than anywhere coastal. And with a majority politically conservative population who see any attempt to curb pollution or promote sustainability as an attack on their morals and worldview, the sorry state of the environment in the Central Valley isn’t going to change any time soon. The reason why people who have ambition and are interested in making a difference in the world leave the Central Valley, is because true opportunities to participate in the modern world of culture, science, and politics do not exist there. There is a culture of intolerance, reactive and regressive thinking on all manner of progressive issues, and severe inequality.
Simply owning a house isn’t enough reason for most ambitious, intelligent young people to risk their health, mind, and spirit.
To the author: I DARE you to take your own “advice.” If you think its so great, YOU move to Visalia.
I’m an LA transplant, living in Fresno now for about 6 years and you really hit the nail on the head. I moved here for love (and was lucky enough not to have the pressure to find a job right away), but quickly found out that living here is California’s best-kept secret — and many of the Fresno folks would like to keep it that way. In LA, I struggled with the idea that I’d never earn enough money on my own to buy a decent place to live amidst the growing housing bubble. Here, like you mentioned, housing is still very affordable and many families are able to live a high quality of life on one income, so there are still a lot of stay-at-home moms (or dads) raising families.
LA or SF folks drive by here all the time, never bothering to stop and see what they’re missing (I was one of them, too). Of course Fresno doesn’t have a big arts & culture scene like LA or SF, but if you look hard enough, there’s something for everyone. The ease of getting involved and ready access to higher-ups makes this a place where, as you noted, one can really get in on the ground floor and make things happen fairly quickly. And that is really where I think the opportunity is for LA folks, if only they could recognize the opportunities that lay just beyond the Grapevine.
Looking at these guys, the break seems not only less sharp but pretty much non-existent. Just check out those casques! And:
“A cassowary’s three-toed feet have sharp claws. The second toe, the inner one in the medial position, sports a dagger-like claw that is 125 millimetres (5 in) long.”
Remind you of anyone? 🙂
Thank you, Eugene. You say it beautifully and with the courage of real affection, love and friendship. I am struck again by the kindness and clarity of his friends.
Eugene – you have said it best! Thank you
Thanks for this.
READ AUDIOBOOKS, so that
1. You won’t give a damn how long the commute takes. (In fact, you may even sit in your parked car, just to finish a chapter.)
2. You will read books that you will enjoy, but which you never would have the time or patience to read with your eyes. (I’m currently reading Anna Karenina, a book to heavy for me to even lift with my hands, much less read with my eyes, and I’m loving it.)
3. You will convert dead time into fulfilling, productive time.
4.You will arrive at work and at home at peace. (Declaring war simply makes you a victim, forced to play the game by CalTrans’ rules)
5. You won’t have to read in bed late at night, when after reading the same paragraph three times, you end up with a book on your nose.
Rules for reading with your ears.
1. Make sure you have the temperament and reflexes to switch instantly from listening, to dealing with the unpredictable demands of LA traffic. (Backspacing is easy to pick up what you missed) Most LA drivers do this instinctively.
2. Don’t make early appointments at work (if you have that luxury).
3. Keep your significant other posted on your drive home.
4. Make sure you enjoy the reader, as this can make or spoil a good book.
5. You can now download e-books from many local libraries, if you are too cheap to buy them online or at a bookstore.
PS If you know Tom Stoever, say hello for me.
This is a wonderful piece, it presents a clear and vivid picture. Thank you for sharing this.
Wrong Capitol building, folks (unless you’re talking about state politics).
Everyone knows how much Americans are dissatisfied
with Congress. Politicians only listen to their campaign donors and
special interests while the people’s voices are drowned out in the
process.
My wife and I are traveling the country to collect people’s stories about how the dysfunction in Congress affects their lives.
Visit http://www.voiceforthepeople.org to add your voice to the conversation!
Under the previous law, when your wife’s COBRA insurance ran out she could purchase a HIPAA policy. (Google it.) That’s what I did. It’s disturbing that no one knows about them, even health-policy consultants.
This is completely correct about HIPAA. Also you have a max out of pocket with your current policy with a lot more doctors to see and hospitals to go to. You will be limited in a tremendous way and do not forget this is what “THEY” want you to be, dependent on them.
It’s tough to go into the appropriate level of detail even in a longer piece like this. I do know that HIPAA/GI plans exist and we have used them before. They are even more expensive and have even higher levels of cost sharing. I am not personally limited in terms of my ability to buy a product on the open market, the Exchange is just going to be a better deal for me. As for “dependent on them,” well, you’re always going to be dependent on someone. I cultivate a healthy skepticism of all institutions, private and public.
>>> In July 2012, I made a presentation to the State Board of Education and
was told that the board does not have the authority to enforce the
Education Code. Last December, at a meeting with members of the
California Department of Education, I was told that neither the State
Superintendent of Instruction nor the department has the authority to
enforce the Education Code.
Everything you need to know about California Education!
It is also why we have the worst school libraries in the nation.
I have been cycling all over So. Cal. for over 40 years. Respect for bicycles and pedestrians alike has been slowly coming at the cost of many injuries and death. Still there`s little respect on the streets. I am glad that there are out there people whom are trying to bring about changes. These days I do most of my riding along the rivers paths, a little shy of streets, too many close calls. Thank you for your work.
Charles’ a cutie!
Educators know the arts are vital for a well-rounded education. Teach what you can if there are no specialists available. Our students deserve more of the arts.
Reagan and O’Neill were a model. However, in 1968 the polarization was worse and more vicious than now. If you don’t remember those days, read Nixonland by Rick Perlstein.
If you get into serious giving, you’ll find that there are a lot of people who would be glad to receive! No matter how much you have, you’ll be turning down 99% of what is asked of you in order to give to the 1% that you believe yourself called to give to.
Nuclear power is dead, dead, dead.
In addition to the 2 San Onofre reactors shutting down forever, and the Wisconsin reactor shutting down mentioned by the author, Florida’s Crystal River reactor is also dead and gone.
Also….
Today, EDF, the French company which is the largest nuclear company in the world which was partnered as “Constellation Energy” with Exelon, the largest US nuclear operator, is bailing out: “EDF finance chief Thomas Piquemal said the U.S. nuclear adventure had led to 2 billion euros in writedowns in 2009-2012. EDF’s U.S. investment totalled 6.4 billion euros, but was partly recouped by selling Exelon shares, he said.”This was the last and final chapter of our U.S. nuclear investment,” Piquemal said.”
And Entergy Corp is mulling doing the same:
“Power company Entergy Corp (ETR.N) is mulling the future of its wholesale nuclear operation and plans to cut 800 jobs to save up to $250 million by 2016, Chief Executive Officer Leo Denault told investors on Tuesday.”
others:
“Duke announced in May that it would suspend its plans to add two units to the Shearon Harris nuclear plant in North Carolina, saying the additional capacity was no longer needed under current forecasts.
“Exelon cancelled what had been an already deferred 335 MW worth of uprates for four of its reactors, the two-unit Limerick plant in Pennsylvania and two units at LaSalle in Illinois. The reason? “Market conditions,” said the release”
And “Tennessee Valley Authority announced that it was once again mothballing its on-again-off-again Bellefonte project in Alabama, saying it needed to focus on getting the also long-delayed Watts Bar Unit 2 completed.”
Dead, dead, dead.
Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/07/29/3413611/peter-dykstra-nuclear-power-dying.html#storylink=cpy
Silly.
The product of ”Nuklar power” is weapons-grade plutonium and similar transuranium elements, unavailable in nature.
Boiling water is the booby-prize.
2% of the entire Federal taxes received in 1943 & 1944 were spent on the first bombs, 25,000,000,000 in 2013 dollars.
Average cost, WWII atomic ‘bomb’; 5,000,000,000 EACH in 1996 dollars!
Almost ALL went to reducing and generating the ‘fuel’. My Uncle & father in-law were there (two different people).
How else would we have built 70,000 ‘bombs’ in the past 60 years, other than lying about it?
Come to think of it, lying about war is what we do. http://www.rsof.org
AND, the 1990’s electric ‘de-regulation’ was firstly about paying back ‘profits’ to replace the nuke ‘investor’ losses out of ratepayers pockets, a trick no judge had allowed until Gov. Wilson sighed (SIC) off on the deregulation ‘blue-book’.
AND, when GE builds a Nuke in Japan, the U.S.A. owns the “waste’ product. A win-win!
The second to last sentence is somewhat infelicitous, given the trouble women in the military have had getting support in fighting sexual assault.
Love it! Have you seen much of the U.S. outside of D.C.? I ask, because as a native New Mexican, I experienced a bit of culture shock when I moved to the East Coast, and D.C. in particular, as an adult.
I remember one incident from my childhood when my family was crossing the US-Canadian border by car. The border guard saw our New Mexico license plate, and asked to see our passports because he thought we were Mexican. Dad had to pull out a road atlas and show him that NM was in the United States. (US citizens didn’t need passports for Canada back then.) Don’t remember which side of the border the guard was from.
Hi Nancy,
Thanks for your comments. That is an unfortunate border incident. Oh, to be a fly on the wall while your father set that border guard straight with a road atlas! I do think that there are regional differences across the United States in terms of attitudes and awareness of the neighbors up north (and vice versa for Canadians). For example, folks in Washington state, Oregon, and California share an outdoors/culture with places like British Columbia, the Yukon, and Alberta so they tend to be pretty aware and knowledgeable of their respective neighbors. I am definitely generalizing there but, in my experience, I have seen there are differences. Hopefully, Canadian border crossing guards today know all of American state names!
Awesome piece. I never understood these cleanse maniacs. And juice – that pure, good stuff Californians try to push into my hand – does something rather unmentionable to me. Viva solids.
When I rented a car and drove to Toronto, aside from the signs showing speed limits in km/hour, the other subtle reminder that I was not in the US was the names on the street signs. From a distance, I could see a street that had a long name starting with “W”; at first I thought it would turn out to be Washington Street, but nope it was Wellington Street. And one of the main streets in downtown Toronto is King Street. Practically every major city in the US also has a King Street or King Boulevard — but they’re Martin Luther King Boulevard. There aren’t many US cities that have streets named King in the sense of his royal highness, nor Wellington. But most have a Washington Street.
An inspiring story, bravo! And bravo to Pt. Loma Nazarene College for nurturing your musical passion and introducing you to new and different art forms.
Per Gary Taubes’ “Good Calories, Bad Calories,” which is a giant vetting of actual dietary science, it is carbohydrates — sugar, flour, starchy vegetables like potatoes, apple juice — that cause the insulin secretion that puts on fat. Steak is quite healthy for you — per the science, not per what whackjobs going by the “wisdom” of the gray-skinned girl in the health food store tells you. Also, as dietary researchers like Dr. Jeff Volek note, you should eat plenty of fat to balance out the protein in your diet (which you should also eat).
As for the people who insist they’re “cleansing,” your body isn’t dirty and not eating sugar, starch, etc., will eliminate many of your problems and cause you to be worlds thinner without exercise. For actual science on diet, look to Gary Taubes, Dr. Michael Eades, Dr. Peter Attia, Tom D. Naughton, Chris Kresser, Dr. Jeff Volek (see his book with Dr. Steven Phinney) and follow them on Twitter (and follow those they follow). Look up their websites as well. Dr. Michael Eades has two particularly good posts, Starting & Restarting A Low-Carb Diet, that explain a lot of the issues surrounding what to eat, and also tell you important things like how essential it is to take magnesium.
Thanks for the thoughtful and ‘sane’ advice and suggested resources..
And thank you for the thanks and such a civil and polite reply!
And reading what you wrote above, I just spend four months barely getting out of my chair, as I was completing my next book (to be published by St. Martin’s in the Spring) and working sometimes 19-hour days. It is because I don’t eat sugar or fruit or starchy carbs that I don’t — and didn’t — gain weight. I eat tons of fat, greasy bacon, kale in bacon grease, green beans drowning in butter, fatty steak and lamb, dry Italian salami, and drink dry white wine. This is a science-based diet. A book that is a very accessible read that explains why is Taubes’ “Why We Get Fat.” I don’t diet or weigh myself but when I have, I’ve seen that I weigh close to what I did in high school. Again, carbs cause the insulin secretion that puts on fat. With a ketogenic (low-carb) diet like I eat, you don’t get hungry all the time, and you are nourished. But per Eades and others, essential to take magnesium (malate or ending in “ate,” not oxide, not as well-absorbed) and to get your D levels tested. Many Americans are in starvation-substrate, as it’s called, in D, and are short on magnesium.
Very good description of us, Californians, trying to do what is best for our health and that of others, just often ending up worst!
Many good points in this essay, but I wonder about this one: “One reason our prisons are so overcrowded and cost so much is that prisoners are kept inside until they are old and require extensive medical care.”.
If old felons are released to the community they will exhibit just as many health problems, possibly more, and will still have approximately zero ability to pay for their own health care. So I wouldn’t expect medical costs paid by the government to go down much in that circumstance. And some of these old felons would certainly commit new crimes, causing problems and financial losses for the community. If their term is up, that’s one thing – they deserve to be released. But releasing them early to save money is not as sound a notion as it might appear.
Great article
Sooo funny…I am attempting to improve the quality of what I eat, and yet I hear of all kinds of ‘hokus pokus’ that certain foods, times of the day, combinations of foods, only free range something…First off, this all is TOO much preoccupation and I wonder if ANYONE at a reasonable dress size even allows or lets themselves enjoy ‘real’ food…I am on that quest..removing as much processed and adding in as much ‘real,’ and as a focused by-product reduce my girth and improve my health… But I will not allow salespeople and rumors to tell me to only drink orange juice out of an organic orange cup or eat 1 carb the size of an earring a day..I am trying to learn to eat joyfully and live the same way..Hope I get it right..
The author, as expected by the title of her piece, doesn’t seem to have any political/race/class analysis around food. ‘Juice’ does not equal ‘cleanse’ (lemonade, cayenne and maple syrup is not a juice…). You might want to check out Sirena Pellarolo, who shares juicing with low-income communities of color in Los Angeles as a form of radical liberation and healing from the toxic industrial food system that has colonized our bodies, but primarily the bodies of people of color and low-income people. Healthy food should not be only for the latest fads of the Beverly Glen mommies, and when we see taking care of ourselves as a form of social justice, we can start to include food justice with other liberation movements. Juicing, when connected to food JUSTICE movements and not to dieting fads, is just one of many ways for us to heal from this industrial food system. http://livefoods4life.com/about
Firstly, “Besides, isn’t getting rid of toxins in our bodies kind of what our kidneys and liver are supposed to be doing?”…problem is there are SO many chemicals that our kidneys and liver can’t possibly keep up. We’ve introduced almost 100,000 chemicals to the U.S. in the past 200 years (now with 2,000 new ones every year). Evolution just doesn’t work fast enough for our bodies to adjust. And also, toxins build up over time. After a cleanse you don’t gain back all the toxins the day after your cleanse is over even if you live in the most polluted city. Secondly, to address the “eating disorder”, IMO a juice should not be a meal replacement but a meal supplement (or an in-between meal “snack”) unless you are trying to lose a significant amount of weight for health reasons. Most people don’t need to cut anything out, just add in (lots) more veggies. And as others pointed out, juicing and cleansing are not the same thing. However, cleanses once in a while can be very beneficial and usually if you feel shitty during one it’s because you have a lot of toxins being purged. This author just seems totally uninformed and uninterested. If she really cared, there are several very easy changes she could make to reduce the amount of household toxins. But instead she just seems to like to complain about it and fool herself into thinking there’s nothing she can do.
Wonderful article about our City of Angels. Thank you. As someone who has moved to LA about 10 years ago, our city still keeps surprising me every day: its cultural offerings, all the wonderful and diverse restaurants, parks, sports events.. I love entertaining visitors with gems they would never expect from a city that is typically only perceived as a place consisting of a Venice boardwalk, a Hollywood Walk of Fame and Universal Studios, and endless freeways otherwise. Once you take them to Disney Concert Hall, the Neutra house in Silverlake or Barnsdale park with its majestic Frank Lloyd Wright Villa, or on a hike from Fern Dell to the Observatory… (I could add many more) they are stunned. I must say, I love living in LA. Every day.
And yet L A doesn’t play according to its size nowadays. The Bay Area treats it as a colony. It has hardly any corporate headquarters except for the entertainment industry. It’s politics are more NorCal than SoCal. The reasons San Diego didn’t become the big city are that it is crowded by mountains and lacks space – and mountains render railroad access from the east difficult, whereas the gaps in the mountains point straight to L A.
The title of your article should be: When you lose in Los Angeles, the sun will still be shining. Another Angelino niche to celebrate is our academic/intellectual world of universities, colleges and research centers.
If you want to understand someone you should take the time to consider their family. Who is Los Angeles’s older brother? How has Los Angeles tried to emulate its older sibling and how has that older sibling in turn given guidance and support to the younger? LA has been shaped by this relationship from the beginning and without aknowledging and analyzing the connection a complete understanding of the city and its people is in my opinion, impossible.
You’re obviously thinking of a specific city. Who do you say is Los Angeles’s “older brother”?
Funny and true. And scary. I’m in my 50s and don’t have even CLOSE to $250,000 in the bank. Gulp.
I saw the exhibit last week and actually thought it did a good job of explaining the human story of LA and the promise of its diversity. It was fascinating to me to learn that out of the original 11 families that came to found the pueblo in 1781, eight were what we would now call “multi-racial”. Each room had photos and stories on the walls about a sampling of different people who lived in the city in the different eras, including former Mexican landowners who remained rich and powerful in the early American period, labor and immigrant rights leaders from several periods, and innovators that founded some of the important institutions that still define the city. It also emphasized the ways that the climate and geography (which you emphasize as well: “When you lose in Los Angeles, the sun will still be shining”) laid the groundwork for various booms – the ranching boom in the 1850’s, the tourism and agriculture boom of the 1880’s, and the aviation industry in the 1920’s. I agree that it left out important parts of the story in explaining why LA became the capital of the film industry (intellectual property lawyers working for Edison drove all the filmmakers to work as far from New York as they could) and how Los Angeles became a destination for Korean, Thai, Armenian, and Iranian immigrants. But I think it didn’t miss quite as much as you suggest.
great article…so inspiring!
Love those Scrub Jays…
To Haggai Ram: Do we have any common denominator, as my surname is also Ram. My late father came from Lithuania in 1920. I live in Toronto Canada.
email address is fsmbmj@yahoo.ca
How KEWL is this essay! I lived about 1/2 a mile east on the southern side of the Pass for ten years, so drove over it a dozen or more times a week. When I moved there, I talked to some old-timers about the history of the area. They knew about the BelAir fire, but nobody knew anything about the geology. The onlyt thing they knew was that, when they were very young, they were told stories about houses sliding off the side of the mountains on the north (Valley) side.
Now, I know (and I’ve sent emails to my former neighbors).
Thank you Professor Sylvester, for writing the essay and to Zocalo for choosing to put it in this week’s issue.
drj
Love it! Thank you for sharing your knowledge -it’s the kind of information i knew was known (by someone!) but didn’t know how to access.
Now, how about the anatomy of the mountains/hillsides along PCH between Topanga and Camarillo? Hehe…
Thanks again.
Thank you for writing this article. I learned a lot.
I enjoyed reading this article as well and would like to add that the Beverly Hills and Van Nuys geologic map has a good cross section for your viewing pleasure.
Available here:
http://ngmdb.usgs.gov/Prodesc/proddesc_214.htm
Really fun artilce, thank you!
In researching local Summit County, Ohio history, I (or, should I say, google) found Buss had referenced a particular passage referring to an “Indian hunter” from a history of Summit County. I was surprised by the callousness of the terminology used in this history book. I just checked out Winning The West With Words, and am looking forward to reading this perspective on the importance of language in conquest, which is an aspect I hadn’t considered before.
I am surprised to read the line that juicing is tied to an emotional state that is essentially mournful. I prefer to disagree.
http://hereishelpforyou.com/juicing
Yoga is by definition a religious practice. The definition that matters is not the author’s naive definition as expressed in this rather uninformed article, but the generally accepted definition with a lot of weight put on the most authoritative sources, which would be the leaders of the most widely practiced schools of yoga. And that leads squarely to Indian Hindus and the Wikipedia definition of Yoga as “… yoga is one of the six āstika (“orthodox”) schools of Hindu philosophy.” changing the traditional Sanskrit religious terminology into English does not remove the religious ideology behind the practices anymore than Changing from Latin to English removed the religion from Catholicism in the US. All of the physiological benefits of yoga can achieved by engaging in non-religious stretching. Stretching can include all of the postures used in Yoga but without the religious – calling it “spiritual” is just an attempt to deny its religious nature by euphemism – component.
You’re nuts. What definition? There are maybe around 6,000 versions of “Yoga”. Many here in the US are just about the focus, exercise and streching. It’s a popular replacement for the arobics class of the 80’s. It’s exercise! Yeah, sometime it takes a word in another language to express the concept. So what? It’s not indoctriating chirldren into anything but better exercise, where the budget won’t support it.
I’m thinking that some religious Christians can ferment a discussion of how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, and make anything into a religious crime. I’m no Christian and this all encompassing philosophy has no place in a cosmotitan society.
I could care less about the origins of Yoga. It’s a streaching exercise for me. Your milage may vary – I’m sure you can find an old Guru in India who makes a case for Hinduism as part of your practise. I’m sure you can find a new-ager here to talk about the color tones in your practose, too. It’s a time tested method of exercise. Peroid.
Jessica,
Congratulation !
I think what you did is fantastic and it’s unfortunate that some parents did not see the benefits of what you were doing. A lot of parent are detached, focused on their career and money, and when they see their kids getting too attached to someone else than them, they are scared, jealousy kicks in then irrational behaviors.
Many thinks Yoga is a sort of religion because one people try it, they feel happy, connected, and swear by it, it becomes part of their life. Is sport a religion?
There is no god to pray to. It is just a way of life.
I discovered Yoga about 18 months ago. Sadly i have not been able to continue for a while but I intend to do it again. I miss it, my body and my mind miss it. I remember coming out of the class with a smile on my face.
And like you, I thought that Yoga & Meditation should be taught at school.
But imagine kids coming back home, relaxed, happy, their mind sharp, sharper than their parents. Some mom and dad would embrace that but many would be jealous ; what are you turning my kid into?
I’m glad the judge ruled right.
The saddest part of our western culture is we’re monetizing Yoga where I believe it should be free, like healthcare.
Franck.
The idea that parental jealousy is a factor ignores the obvious truth known to anyone who has raised kids or observed education – that parents usually love popular teachers and encourage teachers who are seen to be positive role models. There may be parents who react negatively when kids come home from school feeling good, emotionally stable, and intellectually sharp, just as there may sasquatches. They’re just not too common
People think that Yoga is a religion because it has been considered a religious practice since its beginning – and it still is except for those who fail to learn the facts and apply rational thought to the question. Anyone who looks into yoga knows that it involves the Hindu pantheon of gods. Traditional yoga always includes invocations to the sun and/or other deities.
Whether doing yoga makes anyone feel good is irrelevant. Religious advocates love to rave about the joy and other benefits they get from their faith.
In the big world outside of this article, a lot of work has been done in the field of physical education regarding stretching and research into yoga postures. Modern non-religious stretching and positional exercise systems have emerged using scientific methods rather than ancient dogmas to learn what works beat and what doesn’t as well as what may be harmful.
Everyone wants kids to develop to their full intellectual potential and to have the best physical and emotional health. The modern incarnation of traditional yogic physical practices and non religious meditation techniques are just as effective, if not more, than those tied to primitive belief systems and can be practiced in public education without turning the wall of separation between church and state into a ruin caused by misguided good intentions.
“We gave them handouts once a week to complete with their families.” If the teacher did not have such a tin ear and had diverse enough social experience, she would realize that this smacks of proselytizing. If my child brought something like this home, I would be every bit as annoyed as if they had brought home Bible tracts, the Book of Mormon, or a Buddhist prayer wheel.
Thanks for this. Very cool piece of Los Angeles history that I did not know about. I hope to run into Mr. Frisbee the next time I’m in Pasadena–or Bakersfield.
Great article!! I drive on this damn pass every single weekday and have CURSED the pointless construction project many times. It is a source of dark hatred for me. (How about a bus-only lane you fools!)
But, at least now I’ll be able to think of some other, more timeless, aspects of it during my commute.
Thanks!
This is a great article! I visited this exhibit early one morning this summer and it was empty. I felt that the exhibit was lacking a human element. It didn’t feel much different than strolling through the mammal hall. It felt more like a voiceless archeological exhibit of some faraway land from a long, long time ago … It did look nice though.
Victor Frisbee didn’t die back there in the early 60s. He just retired, as some Angelenos do, to the lakes and peaks of the eastern Sierra.
I first encountered him when I was editor of the Bishop High School paper back in the mid-70s. He’d occasionally pen pieces for my pages. I never met the man in person; his copy was always turned in by our faculty advisor, Mrs. Martinson (who had once worked for the LA Examiner), who then passed them on to me.
I seem to recall his name popping up later on, now and again, when I was writing for the UCLA Daily Bruin as well.
He was an old phart then, so I’m surprised he’s still around to be interviewed. Glad Zocalo could catch up with him.
I retired twice: once when I hated my job, could collect a partial pension (yes, I had an honest-to-god defined benefits plan), and was offered a job at a much lower salary by another employer; the second retirement occurred nearly eight years later when I awoke one morning and knew I was DONE with work. I informed my supervisor, tied up loose ends for a couple of months, and then happily walked away. That was four months ago. So far, so good. The extra years of work allowed me to create and plump up additional cushions of retirement income.
thanks for this demystification! although I can’t help but wonder, once again, how bible thumpers react when you start throwing those numbers around!
This was great, loved it! What is the possibility for getting a “commuter crawl” geology tour for all of LA’s freeways? 😉
Considering the evolution of LA demographics since 1937 the official animal of LA has to be the Cuckoo bird.
http://io9.com/5785233/nest-stealing-cuckoo-birds-are-locked-in-evolutionary-war-with-their-would+be-victims
Dear Dr. Murray,
I am an ICU nurse and can honestly say that I have never responded to information post such as this. However I must commend you for writing this as you have “hit the nail on the head”. I get so frustrated with providing futile care that is being dictated by an uninformed family. I feel as though I am aiding in a form of cruel torture at times. I am very honest about death and dying with patients and families and this gives me the strength to speak with family members about the limitations of medicine. I frequently say to families “ask any medical personnel where they intend to die and almost everyone will say in the peace of my own home”. I think it is a sad society that we live in that allows such treatment of people to occur largely out of a failure of communication about the true limitation of medicine. I believe in a perfect world, every healthcare provider would treat every patient the same as they would want to be treated if the roles were reversed. I am sadly aware that we are a long way away from being a perfect world.
Amen to that! I’m also an RN and can’t count the number of times that I’ve watched patients receive profoundly costly and futile treatments, only to be sent over to hospice when there was nothing more that could be done to keep the heart beating. It’s appalling.
We have this problem in Tustin Unified School District. K-5 music education was cut, and told it will not be coming back anytime soon. They offer after school paid music weekly. We see the shrinkage in our once large music programs in middle school and high school. Tenured middle school teachers are having to travel to several school sites because of cuts. I think the biggest problem is lack of term limits with school boards and therefore complacency. One of our school board members does not live in the district and is in fact breaking that law. But the board sanctions it, and the public kept in the dark. So to break ed code and law comes as no surprise. Basic absolute power corrupting our children. Serving 20 years on a school board is just plain ineffective. I agree that we should teach our children that the arts matter, as does the law.
Seems like There are always two sides and two victims to every story. I hope you have successfully moved on from JDS and those dark days. Best of luck.
Well said.
Saw that you included Vector Marketing in your list of MLM companies… I’m not sure that is correct, unless things have changed since I worked with them 13 years ago or so… My understanding is that they market Cutco knives, which are made in the USA. Some of their approach is similar, in that you start out marketing their product to your friends and family, but at least when I was with them they paid you for each appointment you made whether you made a sale or not, and they were pretty focused on selling the product. Also, there were no opportunities, at least not for the brief time I was involved in the company, for you to recruit others and to profit from sales that they made. You had to buy your demo knife set up front, but I still have my set and use them every day, and recently sent them in to be resharpened for free, and they replaced a few worn out items that I sent in, for free as well (small stuff- scissors, vegetable peeler, etc). Anyhow, like I said, my experience working with them was a while back, but I would hesitate to throw them in with companies that, as you put it, focus more on recruitment than on whatever product or service they purportedly offer.
Very well-written piece that provides some food for thought for those looking for an easy way to make money.
I’m glad to hear you figured things out before losing your money, further time, and your dignity. I do wonder, however, why you mention the “pretty girl” four times in your piece. If this was a college student, then it was a woman who recruited you. The fact that you mention how she looked feels as though we are meant to believe that this helped in her ability to recruit you. Is that the case?
Haven’t seen the film yet, but this review is interesting. One sentence, however, is a bit disturbing: “he speaks aloud the deepest dream of virtually every 21st-century
California parent: He wants a topnotch *private* school education for his
daughter.” Many of us wish instead for a topnotch *public* school education for all of our children. This is essential if we want avoid completely extinguishing the California dream as well as our democratic way of life.
Doesn’t anyone recognize that the Syrian conflict has roots in the Sunni/Shia conflict that’s been going on since the 800’s?
And we think we can straighten them out?
The fact that there is NO shuttle service between the Rancho Cucamonga Metrolink station (or the East Ontario Metrolink station) and ONT STILL boggles my mind.
It’s a 5 mile distance from Rancho Metrolink to ONT. Guess how long it takes on public transportation (bus)? 36 minutes if you’re lucky enough to be flying at the exact right time, up to 1:28 if you’re travelling at an off-peak time. That’s just ridiculous.
while the metro link tracks run on airport property, A station at ONT requires laying of no tracks or land purchase,
My family lived in Quebec when my baby sister and I were little — so our parents availed themselves of the awesome (all staff must hold a 4-year degree + teaching certificate) provincially-subsidized day care that was located in the building our mom worked in… which charged the princely sum of C$5 per day.
My best friend still lives in montreal and his son (my godson) attends the very same crèche… which now charges all of C$7 per day.
Actually the situation is very similar, the USA and Saudi Arabia have employed the same strategy. It is repeated because the USA and allies got away with it. More than a decade of sanctions to fuel sectarian violence. (Cut the birdseed in half and the birds in the birdcage fight and kill each other.) Then the Saudis send in foreign extremist sectarian fighters, send weapons. The Presidents announce a red line trigger event. The motivation for massacre is to get the USA to make a military strike. A massacre is broadcast in the media. The Presidents then say they will bomb for humanitarian reasons before the massacre is investigated.
History is being repeated because allies got away with it before.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/09/saudi-arabia-pushes-us-toward-military-strike-in-syria.html
http://www.mintpressnews.com/witnesses-of-gas-attack-say-saudis-supplied-rebels-with-chemical-weapons/168135/
http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/middle-east-scholar-paints-stark-but-realistic-picture-of-the-situations-in
Yugoslavia Implications of an Unjust War: http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA480196
Weight of Chains: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waEYQ46gH08
Yugoslavia the Avoidable War: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u04IL4Od8Qo
good story.. good work being done by Ralph Womack
Which students passed the test?
Ethically very good, though in the government sphere I would hesitate to make “being cared for” a civil right.
Ariel,
Thanks for citing my short blurb at the New York Times.
I think you misunderstand my argument, and so your objection to it is off the mark. I agree with you that compulsory voting is unlikely to change the outcome of US elections, in the sense that it does not inherently favor either Republicans or Democrats. (I have a book on this coming out with Cambridge University Press in which, among other things, I review empirical literature indicating as such.)
However, the argument I’m making is not that it will change whether Republicans or Democrats win, but rather change the quality of the Republicans and Democrats who get elected. In order to make it on the ballot, politicians need to appeal to voters, especially the median voter. If the median voter becomes more ignorant, biased, irrational, misinformed, and so on, we will probably get lower quality politicians who support worse policies on the ballot from both parties.
So, for instance, Martin Gilens, in his book Affluence and Influence, notes that Democratic voters in the US are not a united front. Low-information Democrats are bigots, homophobes, out to lunch on economics, and bellicose about foreign policy. High information democrats are the opposite on each of these measures. I don’t want the low-information Democrats to beat out the high-information Democrats. And I’d say the same for Republicans.
“but rather change the quality of the Republicans and Democrats who get elected.”
What is a “quality” or higher “quality” republican or democrat? If you can give me a succinct, coherent definition, I”d be interested. [please do not use terms such as “leftist” “extreme” “centrist” – these are ever-changing subjective labels]
“In order to make it on the ballot, politicians need to appeal
to voters, especially the median voter.”
And if we expand the pool of voters from 1/3 to 90% – elections would become prohibitively expensive…. OR, money could be less of a factor. It would be difficult to target a small group with a high turn out rate, if the population as a whole had the same turn out rate. Certain “issues,” like gun control would be mute because the larger consensus would not be dominated by a higher concentration of voters… there might even be genuine distinctions between candidates(!).
“If the median voter becomes more ignorant, biased, irrational, misinformed, and so on, we will probably get lower quality politicians who support worse policies on the ballot from both parties.”
The operative word is “more,” but I digress. Suffice it to say that a “more ignorant, biased, irrational, misinformed” voters (your words) might force us to spend more, and do more, for education, economic justice, equality – all the things that create a more egalitarian society.
Fear not the voter for “I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.”
Sign me up… for compulsory voting, and compulsory military/civic service to our country!
( http://billmoyers.com/content/book-excerpt-breach-of-trust/ )
Congradulations on your new son. I have two children of whom I am proud and love as well. I would also love to have several more children, however I believe passionately that it would be socially irresponsible and selfish. Your suggestion that we focus as a populace, on creating children at a faster rate is insane in my opinion. In my opinion, the single largest issue that we have as a species is far too many people. We would be better served by having four billion less people on the planet. Until we can learn, if we ever will, to give more and take less, the last thing that we want to do is to increase the population.
Instead of more people, let us come out of our homes and cars, put down our cell phones and tablets to ask our current neighbors and fellow citizens to share life with us. Play games, share meals, have conversations and take action that makes sense to the majority of the members of your community. When I speak of our community, I include both the neighbor next door and the countries at war in lands far away. These actions will help us to survive and improve the quality of our lives. Attempting to solve economic and social concerns by creating a larger population is once again, insane.
I think the lure of the center exists because there was a time, only a few decades ago, when it existed and was robust enough to create the social programs of the ’60s and the environmental laws of the early ’70s, which are still favored by the majority of Americans though disfavored by the right, which Mr. Lind tells us has moved to the right since that time.
That “middle American radicals” have clout in California was proved by Proposition 8; what is different about California is that our “middle American radicals” are not Anglo but black and Latino, and when issues are partisan they never vote Republican. Very few “white” Californians hold to the “middle Anerican radical” platform.
Having moved here from Texas 6 months ago (everyone both here and in TX has essentially said, “you’re going the wrong way”), it’s clear to me that state government is a disaster. In TX there is no state income tax, schools are largely locally funded, roads are great, and services are adequate. With four children in the public school system in a “good area,” my kids class sizes have almost doubled, there is no art, and the physical plant of the schools are falling apart. TX requires that pre-high school class size can never be more than 21 students and leaves the funds in the hands of locals to figure it out. My kids received a much higher quality education for a lower price in gleaming public schools. Local control in big state can work! The one area where CA is way ahead of TX is the environment–there TX has a lot to be ashamed of comparatively.
it’s a good feeling when you know you’re going to jump in your car or the plane and get out of dodge in a couple hours. I wonder if you’d still have that good feeling if you knew you were going to stay awhile – as in become part of the landscape yourself.
How about the Hawthorne Mall here? Closed for many years and nobody can figure out what to do with it. Or the Old Town Mall in Torrance? It may not be dead, dead, but it sure has had one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel for a long time. And the mall in Palos Verdes has struggled for years as well.
Can anyone remember any others?
Hi Noel Park… I don’t know who you are, but I have been laughing my head off for the past 3 hours about your ref to “…one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel…” Brilliant! Thanks!
Thanks for you kind words. Full disclosure – it’s a pretty old saying. I think I stole it from may father or some such place. As with so many old sayings, it still works pretty well today, LOL.
I’d like to see the public sector unions be a lot weaker, but I wouldn’t mind if those representing low wage workers got a little bit stronger.
My dad used to say that inflation was inevitable in a democracy. He wasn’t just talking about local government, but our views of local government and its authority are, in the end, our views of government, regardless of what we think of DC.
Many fiscal issues are too complex for sound bites. On the other hand, the political class has its particular biases and interests. Why not a requirement of 2/3 for ballot box budgeting and a simple majority for moral issues?
There is a allure to the poignant stagnation of a dying mall, and your article has captured it nicely. It’s sort-of Edward Hopper meets Ed Kienholz meets Michael C. McMillen . . .
Joe: Great story…I’ll need to reference it in my Smarter Local Government and Cognitive Digital Democracy concepts…more to come soon as my work schedule abates a bit…
Um, I wouldn’t get too excited about Texas, DG92. It may do a decent job of taking care of the upper middle class and up but it has hideous and pervasive poverty, the 5th highest rate in the nation. It also benefits from its natural resources as well as the substantial taxes on their extraction.
But Texas is Texas, California is California. They both have their advantages and disadvantages. I choose to live here many years ago and love it. If you don’t, feel free to leave. (BTW, I have been lucky enough do decently well financially so I am paying for the higher level of public services in our state.)
I also would also not get that excited about locally rather than state-controlled public institutions across the board, Joe, though I am not expert enough to comment on prisons. The county-based healthcare system in California is an inefficient bureaucratic mess. States that have centralized healthcare enrollment and financing have dramatically better outcomes and California healthcare programs that are centralized (e.g., the late, lamented Healthy Families programs) are better as well.
I get this feeling, being comforted by sadness of missing a bygone era. For those of us growing up in small towns, malls were the hub of our activity. Before that, all there was to do was hang out in the parking lot of the 7-11. The world has moved on.
Dead malls (and abandoned theme parks) fascinate me, too. There’s at least one website devoted to the topic: http://deadmalls.com
The inside-the-Beltway hunt for “centrism” and its terrible twin, “bipartisanship.” is a parlor game at best. However, out in the provinces there is a tendency to associate “centrism” with cooperation or consensus, two traits that are worth seeking, not retiring. After WW II, a liberal consensus on the role of government held enough sway so that members of both parties could collaborate on key issues, such as economic and environmental reform. The rise of the corporate/ reactionary right and the enforcement of party orthodoxy, combined with the suspicion of rationality and the erosion of elites, has made consensus on vital issues such as health reform and immigration reform near impossible, even when these policies command strong majority support from Americans and reflect recent policy positions held by members of both parties. This kind of “centrism”…the coalition-building version, is currently dormant because of the structure of US politics, but it shouldn’t be.
Evangelicals, who regard Mormons as heretics but are politically similar, are often softer on immigration than on other social issues for this reason. Remember what ethnic groups supported Prop 8!
I remember downtown Burbank with fondness…back in the bleak old days of the 80s it resembled the town in The Last Picture Show.
Thanks for a great, but sad, article, Mr Leonard. It struck a chord in me right away. I grew up in MD and was a kid when White Flint Mall was the Disneyland of malls. My job allows me travel all over America from the big cities to the smallest backwood towns and I’ve gotten into the practice of photographing these malls and other ghostly places whenever I can. I too feel strangely at home, somehow. Although being a ‘road warrior,’ I certainly enjoy today’s hi-tech toys; which are in part, a result of those long-gone days of our unlimited childhood imaginations.
EXCELLENT DISCUSSION – BOTH MODERATOR AND SPEAKER – THANKS TO ZOCALO PUBLIC SQUARE FOR AN OUTSTANDING PROGRAM…
AMERICAN WORKERS DESERVE A VOICE PARTICULARLY AT A TIME OF RECORD INCOME INEQUALITY AND A FAST-DWINDLING MIDDLE CLASS….
CALIFORNIA REPRESENTS A MODEL OF ORGANIZING FOR THE FUTURE. LET’S HOPE THE REST OF THE COUNTRY TAKES OUR CUE.
My childhood best friend and I grew up a few blocks away from White Flint Mall, and we were very much the eager kids you describe in your article, running towards its welcoming glass doors after school. I have so many memories wrapped up in that place–buying a model car at the Sharper Image store after a good 6th grade report card, browsing history books on summer afternoons at the Borders, coming for lunch to the food court on snow days off, Homecoming dinners at the Cheesecake Factory… I live in LA now, but I felt an acute heartache when I heard it was being torn down, and saw its ruined exterior on a recent visit home. Silly and even embarrassing as it feels to say about a shopping mall, that place occupied a very important space in my young adulthood, and I suppose a part of me expected it would always be there, brightly lit, full of delicious smells, wholly predictable yet reassuring in its familiarity. Your article really echoed my feelings. Glad our mall made the list.
I completely agree and I would like to add a fifth down…… OK, how about a field goal? That watching mass spectator sports is contributing, in a personal way, to obesity and poor health. Want football? Go out and play some!
Or, in my case, go ride the bike somewhere for a coffee.
Eric W
Next gen = LA’s own drones
So where is the curfew for helicopters. No one should have to put up with them after dark. No night law enforcement helicopter patrols except for emergency
responses. It is a near no brainer. Seems to me there are over 20 million people in the LA basin and no one has thought to put a curfew on night time helicopter use?
Who will light the figurative fuse to put a curfew on night helicopter flights?
No one should have their sleep interrupted for helicopter sight see-ers or any
law enforcement on unlawful night patrol.
Everyone I know including me likes helicopters; just never at night.
Or helicopters are probably the most situational contraption in existence;
and have not been restricted for the night nuisance unlawful operations.
Or way over due to stop night time helicopter harassment of the over
whelming majority of the population.
Oh, good. Another journalist for whom math and science are mysteries.
Oh, good. Another engineer for whom sympathy and civility are mysteries.
Congrats on your admission to ASU. You are lucky and blessed b/c your parents were great advocates for you and your education. I only wish comprehensive testing were more affordable and widely available b/c many kids whose parents cannot afford testing will continue to struggle undiagnosed.
Great post Kelsey! Unfortunately, we live in a world where if your strengths were reversed (with math and science scores in the 99th percentile and writing and narrative memory low) you’d be praised as a great student with a bright engineering or programming future. But with the strengths you’ve been given you’re much more likely to hear wretched comments like DorothyP’s. Keep doing what you’re doing and know that the world needs people with your strengths just as much as it needs the STEM crowd.
This is such an excellent article, written with grace and honesty. Kelsey is a rare gem, unafraid to look at evaluations with a clear eye and the very grown-up outlook of figuring out how to move on with what you’ve got. I am honored to know her, and I think she is a terrific writer.
great article, modeling so much for others who go through evaluations and may not be sure how to feel about and use the results
Sorry, but I have to respectfully disagree with you. I am a casual NFL fan, but as entertainment, it is top-notch. It is of course dangerous to its participants, which is why every single one of them is extremely well-compensated for making the conscious choice to engage in a risky career.
I honestly thought this was a piece written by a 40-year-old looking back. Very insightful. Curious: Where were you tested or who tested you?
I am stunned that this was written by someone in her twenties. The phrasing and wordplay is exceptional. Great to see such talented people go into journalism, as honest, clear writing is needed now more than ever.
Thanks Kelsey for sharing your story. It is truly inspiring. Especially your resolve of what you decided to do with ‘what you had’, instead of worrying what you did not.
I’m not sure you understand the whole culture of the State of Jefferson, and undercurrent of disgust of Sacramento and Salem in far Northern Cal and Southern Oregon respectively. Those of us who yearn for a State of Jefferson are not the welfare recipients you mention. In fact, the number of welfare recipients would be much less had not the state and federal gov’t’s ruined our economy over the past few decades. The region south of Eugene to north of Redding doesn’t fit into Oregon or California both geographically and politically.
Am I reading this right? Is Kurtz-Phelan saying that Brazil and India should trust the US and get cozy, despite the NSA, despite the support for tyrannies that imprisoned oppositions, despite treating non-aligned status as a virtual declaration of Cold War, despite support for Pakistan in aid of an unstable balance of power, despite the ongoing imperial project, because at some unknown day, the invasions might stop and the US government and the corporations that own it will decide to live on the earth instead of trying to churn it into share value, bonuses and a wasteland? Am I misreading or is this a child’s dream?
The author is deluded if he thinks this strong feeling against US spying on Brazilian companies, private citizens and govt officials is something confined only to “leftwing” politicians. The suspicion and resentment about US arrogance runs across party lines and Dilma’s position is well supported by conservative politicians in Brazil.
Thanks for a well-written acknowledgement of Albuquerque’s reality. You are making a difference simply by not just staying put and doing what others expected of you. Best of luck, Madeleine!
Thanks for this article. As another ABQ native living abroad (Chicago) I think you get a number of things right on. I have been wanting to write about the city for a long time. I’m curious, how did you get this gig?
I think this is a gross oversimplification of Albuquerque. There is definitely no heroin or meth in chicago or boston right? There is no gun violence anywhere else in the US either, right? OMG teenagers getting drunk! New Mexico has its problems, but it also has its differences which is what makes it appealing to some people. Why should every city strive to be the same. I love the lack of traffic in ABQ, the laid back attitude and the focus on something other than making as much money as humanly possible. There are things that really suck about Albuquerque, no argument here, but your holier than now attitude doesn’t do anything to help it. I’m glad people like you move away
The author doesn’t claim those problems don’t exist everywhere. I don’t see the author hating Albuquerque at all. In fact, they seem to really love and cherish Albuquerque for what it is, despite the kinds of things outsiders might frown upon. At least, that’s how it came across to me.
People like you make people want to move away. I’ve lived here my whole life, and I agree with the author. Good or bad, we here in New Mexico are loyal to our family above all else. If you took the time to read the article, you would see it was written by someone that loves ABQ
You obviously didn’t grow up in the South Valley. Author’s depiction is accurate.
The South Valley is only one small part of the Albuquerque metro, and its not even in the city limits. Technically, its not included in limited and misleading population number the author cited. It seems to me the author described her very narrow area of the metropolitan area and does a rather poor job describing most other parts of the city.
Wow, you make Albuquerque sound horrible. You must have really hated living there. I have to completely disagree with your grim view.
DA DUKE CITY is the bomb. best place I ever lived, couldnt pay me to live anywhere else
I grew up in Albuquerque. We moved to the far NE heights when I was 12, from the rez. I went to UNM for my bachelors degree. I live and work in Albuquerque. I don’t think Breaking Bad depicts a real place. It is a fictive Albuquerque on teevee, for crissakes. Your inability to distinguish between reality and an orientalist, colonialist, depiction of a place that only exists in the mind of advertisers and is designed for mass consumption is naive and unreasonable.
Yes Albuquerque’s beauty is raw, wild, deep, often shrill and at times menacing. Like the rugged mountain that towers over the city. It is not the place for those who equal beauty with perfection. The museum 60 miles up I-25 offers this kind of comfort.
From the dirt poor to the filthy rich… we all bonded together somehow. Be it work or partying hard or a family get together. All walks of life come together in ABQ. It’s crazy yet comforting. It can be intimidating…just watch your step. I love ABQ. Both my kids were born there. But it got a little too intense. I still have family n friends for life there and I hella miss the food!! I do believe the author has made an appropriate depiction of the Duke City.
I don’t know what kind of high school parties you went to. I never experienced a party where cocaine was being used. Marijuana is a different story. But I see that just as much at college parties anywhere.
Aspiration without adopting arrogance was the message Ms Carey…. Not an aspiration to mediocracy by la familia. I strongly disagree with your touting “yeah man, don’t aspire dis-encouragement ” for youth or anyone. That was never what makes NM the treasure it is. Saying all have equal potential to work to their personal best and thereby contribute to community is the traditional message of NM familias.
I say it again, “have aspiration without adopting arrogance” –was the message.
Unfortunately the drug lazy minds of so many today (not just youth) somehow continue to chug the elite poisoned koolaid and transform “be your best, be the most contributive member of community and serve in your own unique way” into the very contorted message this author suggests. Rise again NM. DIGNIDAD – Dignity is the message.
“That’s how hungry we are for acknowledgement.” You seem to think that
Albuquerque craves approval of other cities. Albuquerque celebrated it’s
tricentennial 7 years ago, I don’t think it needs a “redeemer”.
As a fan of the show, Breaking Bad and a proud New Mexico native born, I found this article interesting. I think it is misleading and illogical, to say, “Breaking Bad is what Albuquerque is really like”. It just sounds like a false comparison and/or generalization to me. It’s like saying “Scarface is what Miami is really like”. Albuquerque is a good backdrop for this tv series, no-doubt, as was Miami for ‘Scarface’, but come on….there is way more to Albuquerque than the crime and drug trade. Let’s not forget that it is a city situated in a beautiful state, with much undeveloped areas, public forests and parks, incredible sunsets, amazing seasonal transformations, hidden hot springs and historic landmarks, culture, and yes, family. Breaking Bad, for good reason, chose not to include some of our most beautiful areas for filming. I’m guessing the author of this article did not explore outside of the city much, but a lot of the people who live in Albuquerque are able to think outside of the box because of the fact that it is small in comparison to larger cities and they have respect for the State they live in knowing that in just about every direction there is a vast undeveloped frontier filled with natural wonder outside of the city. I think the Sandia mountains are amazing, peaceful and comforting to have around, not to mention a good hike, They are not ‘ominous’ as the author suggests.
If you hate your city so much, the easiest thing you can do is run away, right? Your sour taste of Albuquerque is yours to claim, but don’t act like your reality of the “upper echelons” of other cities is reason to hate on the only experience you seen to had growing up in. I’m a native to Chicago (the city, not the suburbs) and in a long term relationship with someone who is originally from Albuquerque; to put it politely, he has a much different interpretation than you. My impression of the town was to look at the beauty it has to offer, rather than looking at its issues that it has to deal with, the only lens you seem to have from this article. When I think of Chicago, I think of my hometown’s issues too. We are one of the most segregated cities in the United States. We have a high rate of violence, most of which has been sociologically linked to the wide gap of poverty. We have been historically linked as one of the biggest government policy enactors of gentrification. There are a variety of problems in every city. The question I always ask in my position in working with students is; to simplify it: “what are you going to do about it”? I wish I knew your answer to this question, because you don’t seem to answer it, and from what it sounds like, you’ve run away from your problems. A variety of community organizations exist to solve some of our problems in Chicago, and I’m sure many exist as well in Albuquerque. If you were looking for an audience to promote your poor taste in your former city, congratulations. If you were looking for a way to highlight the city’s problems in order to enact change to better the environment you no longer live, you failed.
“The iPhone, when it first came out, was perceived as a toy, the handheld equivalent of a Mac trying to take on the handheld equivalent of a real work PC.”
This quote is revealing. One thing, it was only the tech pundits that were calling the iPhone a toy. The general public (i.e., the consumers) thought otherwise, to the point where Apple had trouble making enough iPhones to meet demand. The second thing is the implication that the Mac was a toy. Already by the time the author got his first BB, Mac PowerBooks were the laptop of choice among developers (who were able to load whatever OS they required, run either natively or virtually).
The next mistake the author makes is not understanding RIM’s mistakes and missteps, ascribing them to bad luck or “the innovator’s dilemma”. RIM was a poorly run company, with co-CEOs who reacted slowly and indecisively. This didn’t matter so long as BB was leading edge, but it caught up to them when challenges emerged. They were late in buying and developing their own OS, their tablet was rushed to market without an understanding of that market; there was no sense of urgency until it was too late: then, panic.
Government contracts are not going to save RIM
Really, really terrific essay, Wendy. It mirrors the conversation I had with a friend shortly after he moved from Vancouver BC (think HUGE soccer fan) to accept a position at UCLA (neither a huge football fan nor a huge baseball fan). I invited him to go along to watch the Dodgers. When I explained that the very top offensive players were only able to hit at a clip in the 30% range, he was stunned. I can’t say I persuaded him to be a serious baseball fan, but he did develop an appreciation of the game that night.
I should explain. I am my father’s daughter! I first learned to throw a softball the night of my last day of kindergarten. Then, for years, I’d go back to work with him after dinner during baseball season so I could listen while the Seattle Rainiers, managed by Fred Hutchinson (yup, the very same one as the big cancer center in Seattle), faced their battle with the Hollywood Stars, the San Francisco Seals (the AAA home of Joe DiMaggio) and other denizens of the Pacific Coast League, a AAA league that was huge through the immediate post-WWII era.
Just about all my childhood sports memories are tied to baseball. And, when I left to go to college, I stopped in Chicago to visit an aunt and uncle where they took me to an actual Sox baseball game and in Pittsburgh where another aunt and uncle took me to watch the 1960 Pirates (and see Roberto Clemente play) in the year they won the World Series. When I finally got to Washington DC, I had a hometown team, the Senators (also called the Nats) and an admittedly really goshawful and NOTHING like the current Nats, to watch for nine years, including the All-Star game in 1969).
So, thank you for dredging up these memories for me. ;~)
virginia
Janet Napolitano was never a legislator in Arizona. She was state Attorney General and Governor. Her only experience in academia was as a student.
Thanks for the correction–we’ve fixed!
There has been a lot written in the tech & biz press about the demise of Blackberry, but I loved this article the most because it accurately captured a time when those devices were a prestige perk, and when holding email in your hand felt like magic. Quaint and long ago. Thanks for bringing this angle!
MLM definitely contains a lot of cultish behaviors, which they called “leadership” or “inspiration”, and it’s a huge gray area. However, what’s undeniable is you are distanced from your normal social groups (you tried to market to them, which is a social no-no) then you’re taught that anybody who’s not in the MLM are losers, further alienating you. Soon you have no friends left except in your MLM peer group, and you’re just repeating everything your “leader” do. That’s a cult.
Cult expert Steven Hassan have called MLMs “commercial cults”. And many MLMs are destructive to some of their lower members.
http://amlmskeptic.blogspot.com/2013/10/social-cost-of-mlm-how-it-exploits.html
http://amlmskeptic.blogspot.com/2013/05/is-network-marketing-cult-good-question.html
Such an uplifting story of the way it was. We need to rediscover and reinvent ways to make higher education more accessible again–without the life burden of student loan debt. (And I have heard BTW that your son turned out very nicely as well.)
This is a magnificent story, told in such a modest and understated way. Thank you for this deeply inspiring essay and congratulations on a life well-lived.
My granddaughter is a freshman in HS. This story has in it every lesson I’d like to convey to her: well written, moving, smart, funny, and instructive. Thank you for giving me a perfect story to send her today as she thinks about her future as a 14-year-old living in San Diego.
Wrong article.
If the patient wants the treatment, she should have it. But it sounds like the family pushed it. If that is the case, end of life wishes should be established in writing and those should be respected.
Having graduated from UCLA in 1957 this was a joy to read. I have been teaching for 56 years and currently teach English 28 at West Los Angeles College. This beautiful memory reflect all the values and dedication I hope to instill in my current class. I am going to copy it and share with my students. They will do a Reading Response Journal. Thank you so much! Ann Alexander
Great article Maria. I am sure that a lot of people felt the same you did. Growing up as an immigrant myself, I often found myself protecting Lebanon yet being extremely grateful for the opportunities that Canada gave me.
Good for you, Madeleine, for dealing with what Albuquerque threw at you, and for still recognizing what’s great about the place. I grew up in the East Mountains, and graduated high school in 1990. I wasn’t exposed to much in the way of drugs, but by the time my brother, seven years younger, was in school, weed and meth were pretty much the norm. So many of his friends burned out really early. The house across the street from my mom’s house was a meth lab, and burned down. There was a triple homicide down the road.
When I watched the first episode of Breaking Bad, I almost couldn’t finish it–it was too Hollywood-wacky, madcap. Meth is *serious*–I couldn’t believe they were treating it like a new version of Weeds or some crap. I was relieved when it took a more serious turn, and that it treated Albuquerque as a real place.
I worry about all the negative comments on here. Really, people can’t handle a little truth-telling about Albuquerque? Or see that maybe their experience in, say, the Northeast Heights might not be the same as someone’s in the South Valley? Ms. Carey is only telling what happened to her–not saying that’s the way it should be. That “You think you’re so special?” attitude is pretty typical–and not unique to Albuquerque.
I left for college also, and I live in New York now. I go back there for work a lot (I’m a guidebook author–this gave me an excuse to explore a lot more of the city than I knew growing up). I feel so lucky to have Albuquerque to go home to. It’s not till I left that I realized what a distinct place and culture it is. I suspect Ms. Carey is in the same frame of mind I was in college–happy to be seeing more of the world, but also missing what’s special about New Mexico.
For me, watching Breaking Bad actually makes me nostalgic for Albuquerque, and proud of the place. (Yay, the Dog House! Yay, Octopus Car Wash!)
FWIW, my husband is from Chicago (Evanston, really), and he is a little baffled by Albuquerque. His definition of “city” is entirely different. When we watched Breaking Bad together, and I’d say, “I know that place!”, he’d say, “Let me guess–is it on Central?”
And his experience with race is completely different. I don’t think he knew any cholos growing up (or any hippies). I also don’t think he saw much poverty up close as a kid. A bigger city like Chicago *has* all the problems of Albuquerque, but it’s also big enough to avoid them all too. The prosperity that has come to Albuquerque in the last couple decades has allowed more people there to insulate themselves a bit, I suspect. When I was a kid, the whole city was pretty broke, and in it together.
So true!! Love this!!
So let’s get rid of the insurance companies! 311 worked pretty great for LA. If we dump the insurance companies, and have single-payor health insurance instead, a 711 line can be set up for all our health needs! What a revolutionary/socialist idea. Like in Canada, Australia, Italy, France, England, Israel, Germany. You know, socialist countries. And why are we paying the insurance companies since they provide no health care as far as I know? Can you please remind me?
This is so smart! And I don’t believe I’ve seen a discussion comparing the start of the Affordable Care Act with the woes of traditional health insurance. If one is alive and one has health insurance, then one surely has has had similar experiences to that of this author. I would only aggravate myself–again– if I were to detail any of my past inexplicable and exhausting dealings with health insurance companies. And i have my company’s “state-of-the-art” plan.
Great story from an amazing resilient woman! Anyone would be lucky to work with you.
I really enjoyed the story, but more importantly, I am so happy that you were able to take something positive from that hellish job and make it count in your life. Great Job, Lisa!
Exquisite! Thank you so very much .
Courageous and well-written! More!
Powerful. What a thoughtful, thinking and intelligent person. Wish I had known someone like this back when. My strong liberal leanings have tempered with age. Thank you for the probing insights and I agree with almost everything you have offered.
Love the article. Way to go Lisa!!
Great essay. I was raised by moderate (politically) liberal parents who valued critical thinking and examining all sides of an issue. I was sort of shocked when not all liberal/progressives I met shared this trait! Age and experience can temper extremism, if one is open to it. And it is possible to carve a path through social justice movements that remains true to your core values but doesn’t provide a leftist replay of the fundamentalism you have tried to leave behind.
Less likely, not more likely. Ms Coontz said it herself. A woman who lives with a man should not be called a slut. She should be called a sucker, because what incentive does a man have to “commit” if he’s already got it all without “committing”?
Lisa, great article! I remember you from L.A. I’m a professor now and love the work! Have you ever considered teaching?
Very interesting. Well done… nice visual too!
Marie, you are awesome and you are the future…
go on the WRD.org website to see a plan for water independence that is already in the works for the central basin. It’s call WIN, Water Independence Now.
http://www.wrd.org/news/water-articles.php?url_nws=water-independence-network
According to a recent story on NPR, it wouldn’t matter if the Affordable Care Act was created as Obamacare or Bushcare. You have to be a lobbyist or some giant stakeholder invested in government bureaucracy just to want to apply for a contract with the federal government, because it is extremely hard to do, especially for, I don’t know, let’s say some small start-up company of young computer geniuses for whom the bureaucracy just isn’t worth it – financially or otherwise, the very kind who would have known how to create an online system of this magnitude that would have been more successful. Even a large company with the skills to build a national health insurance exchange online, like Google, wasn’t interested, because the federal bureaucracy is just too laborious.
So what we ended up with, was a program with some glitches, built by some lobbyist’s inadequate company, whose computer program couldn’t handle the start- up in some places because there were so many people who were interested in the Affordable Care Act – six times the expected number of people – and that lobbyist’s company, just wasn’t up to the job.
It must be wonderful to live in a parallel universe.
Orange County’s current production of ultra-pure water from wastewater is 70 million gallons per day, not 10 million. And the system is being expanded to 100 mgd.
Surf, you are absolutely right. I’m not sure how I transposed the 7 and 1, particularly since I’ve toured OC’s very impressive facility
Very refreshing viewpoint and information from a Southern California writer!
This is the kind of forward-thinking that is missing from the current state water plans. Right on!
Amen. I could not agree more. This is one of the best thing I have read on CA water issues.
A lot cheaper and less environmentally damaging than the proposed Delta “conveyance”
It appears as though the creators of this failed push for technology are looking to share the “silver lining” in order to continue to make money.
California farmers grow more than 400 different crops and contrary to the information presented at the conference, most of the crops are not subsidized. These farmers provide a healthy and affordable supply of food items that stock local grocery store shelves and feeds people around the world.
People need to understand that the only subsidy applied to California’s water supply is the interest fees on the construction of the federal Central Valley Project (CVP) over 60 years ago. When Congress authorized the construction costs for Shasta Dam and the other reservoirs and miles of canals to deliver water to where it could be used beneficially, the decision was made that the water users would repay all the costs except the interest charges. This has proven to be a wise decision with billions of dollars in crops produced from the lands that receive CVP water.
The California State Water Project (SWP) was built later and state officials decided to include the interest costs. The decision was also made to require those receiving water to pay the full contract costs each year regardless of how much water is delivered. In 1990, farmers received zero percent of their SWP water supply. That means they paid 100 percent of their contract costs but received no water.
California farmers are striving to provide a food supply that stretches around the world. Increasing their costs could jeopardize that supply.
Mike Wade
California Farm Water Coalition
You have been treated to the wisdom of BigAgriculture’s favorite water lobbyist Mike Wade. Cal Ag made $43 billion last year alone, personally I think that the $130,000.00 that they pay Mike Wade per year to sow disinformation and spin isn’t enough.
Please to have Mike explain how “providing a healthy and affordable supply of food items” applies to http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/statistics/pdfs/2013/AgStatsOverview.pdf this, where the top 4 earners were Almonds, Grapes, Nursery,,,, gee I must have missed the corn and wheat Mike?
California farmers grow millions and millions of dollars of expensive luxury crops, while residential clients are badgered into low-flow showerheads, and the whole time Mike Wade does a “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!!” act….
You do realize he signed it Mike Wade, the person you are chirping, and his job is to come here, type that whole thing, and leave, it’s not like he is going to respond. Also, you are a bit too extreme, people won’t take you seriously if you are going around sounding all panicky about it.
oops…forgot to mention that once the device is hacked, it can no longer be tracked and will easily be sold to the highest bidder. iPads were not developed to be educational enterprise devices. They were meant to be individualized, privately owned devices. Apple has done little to alleviate that problem.
How about a park? Kiss Related goodbye and create some REAL public open/green space in downtown L.A.
I have seen the so-called “Grand Park” between the Music Center and City hall referred to as “L.A.’s Central Park”. That’s poppycock of course. It’s something like 16 acres and the real Central Park is well over 400. It’s not for nothing that the most expensive real estate on the planet fronts on NEW YORK’S Central Park. And the crowds taking advantage of it are legendary.
Come on L.A., let’s step up and create a real PUBLIC asset out of this land, and thereby try to somewhat atone for the “redevelopment” atrocity of which Mr. Rojas so correctly reminds us. And maybe offset what Supervisor Molina so correctly describes as “the fort-like conditions down Grand Avenue.”
Interesting story, Joe. Someone (you?) should look into the other side of hospitality in LA. By that, I mean, there is a huge network of people and companies renting out their second homes, extra room, even campers, to the new online community. Whether it is Airbnb or couchsurfing.com, I have become a true devotee to this trend.
The problem is the developers and City officials sick vision of the future. They are obsessed with jamming and cramming people into sardine cans separated by ant trails. When you challenge them they knee-jerk that you must be be for dirty filthy decrepit run-down squalor. There is an alternative future with modern beautiful development that is at a reasonable density — a kind of city that people want to live in with wide open streets without traffic jams.
Fred Kent is right on, as far as that block is concerned. A traditional square flanked by two buildings would be a great fit. No, it’s not “iconic” in the sense of being daring, but it’s effective. This is what Downtown LA needs more of: normal people-centric development based on tried-and-true urban design principles.
I might actually prefer to see a diagonal path through that block, from 1st/Olive to 2nd/Grand. The towers would then be located at First/Grand and 2nd/Olive. This would provide both a visual link and a walking path between Civic Center/Little Tokyo (First Street) and Bunker Hill (Grand Avenue).
Beautiful piece, Wendy! So glad you came to share Yom Kippor with the OHT community. See you in shul sometime soon, I hope! Always, denise K (next row from Nita and her friends!)
Thanks for the insightful column. Let’s add to the list of what can be done for visitors (and natives): make freeway, highway, and street signage coherent, consistent, and comprehensible.
Nothing will change under this current dictatorship. It’s a theocratic tyranny with the Ayatollahs in charge. Elections are cynically staged for propaganda purposes. The office of “president” is merely ceremonial. The Mullahs and the hardliners are still the “deciders” in Iran. Rouhani, who is a radical Islamist and not a moderate, is no more than a spokesman for the Ayatollahs. But no matter who was installed as “president,” the regime will continue to violently oppress the Iranian people. The Iranian regime is the major sponsor of terrorism around the Middle East and other parts of the world, and will race to acquire nuclear weapons in order to intimidate and destabilize the Middle East. So whether you have Ahmadinejad pounding his fists or Rouhani romancing the press, nothing has changed except the window dressing. The only hope for Iran is a regime change.
Every time I read this article which quotes Garcetti saying my “Weekends were both filled with bowls of menudo and lots of bagels.” There is something really weird reading that a Jew eats pork with bagels. It just does not sound genuine.
Menudo is made with beef stomach not pork stomach, you might be confusing it with Pozole which is a hominy stew with pork meat.
Good article, thanks for sharing this informations
I love the police quote in the center of the article about a “runaway train” scenario of kids sharing information with one another. Isn’t that precisely what we want?
I agree with Paul. I think they were in love with the hardware and didn’t start with what they were trying to do and then evaluate hardware and software that might accomplish their goals.
My first reaction though was to think the school district should feign shock and keep encouraging kids to hack: http://bit.ly/LAipad
I’m without adequate words to convey how wonderful and inspiring your story is to me. Glen Werline LAVC 1995-1997, UCLA Class of 2000.
thanks for the interesting piece, it so well illustrates the
consequences of the loss of local coverage that facilitates local corrections,
that allow for the least expensive most effective actions. Funny, as I write this
I realize it address the current software development fiascoes we are surrounded
by too.
Thank you so very, very much for writing about this. I don’t live in the SGV, so I have not witnessed the frustrations you experienced firsthand. But I’m the daughter of a long-time gambling addict. I’m also an urban planner. The passage of regulations to govern when/where/whether private buses to transport people to casinos helps, but, as you acknowledge, simply chips away at a deeply complex issue. I look forward to observing how this unfolds in your city.
“if you want to go from anywhere in Southern California to the Central Valley by train, you have to take a bus to Bakersfield first.”
This statement is in error. One may take the Coast Starlight from Union Station directly to Sacramento. The trip is entirely by train without transfer. Union Station is in downtown LA and Sacramento is decidedly in the Central Valley. One can also start a trip on the Pacific Surfliner and not have to transfer to a bus until one reached Santa Barbara.
Right, but the Coast Starlight only comes once a day, and takes at least twice as long, because it takes the scenic route.
I agree, the Starlight only departs once per day, but once per day is absolutely different from not departing at all. Matthew’s claim is the bus trip is a total requirement, impossible to avoid. That is simply not the case.
Moreover, based one why the pair were traveling, so Ben could enjoy a train, I don’t think time was of the essence. Additionally, the Starlight has sleepers and cabins, both of which I think Ben would have enjoyed seeing. Neither the Capitol Corridor or San Joaquiner have them. Given the trip was a pleasure one, perhaps the scenic route would have been a better choice anyway. The views from the Starlight along the coast are really spectacular. I’ve taken it from here in Sacramento to Seattle, which is mostly a night trip, but the dawn over the mountains is a fantastic sight.
In any case, I think arguments are most effective with accurate facts. I believe Matthew’s case would have been just as strong to say, “of the 26 passenger trains that leave the leave the LA basin, only two don’t require starting out by bus, and one only goes further than Santa Barbara.”
Nice piece, Peter. A great weaving together of a local problem with larger civic issues of an informed and engaged public.
There is a market for local news, and that market is being filled in by local bloggers (to varying degrees of success). Although I’ve moved to a Mexican town (I’m one if the many expats living in San Miguel de Allende), I keep tabs on my old stomping grounds by reading eastsiderla.com and patch.com.
Lastly, are you the same Peter Hong that went to Oxy in the 80s?
El Malo — Yes,
Great! I was Tom Lee’s roommate at the dome house. Im going to look for you on linked in, unless i should look else were.
Peter, I congratulate you on your efforts in San Gabriel. Unfortunately, the San Gabriel gambling bus traffic and parking congestion will just spill over into neighboring cities, including my city of Rosemead. I have seen the quality of casino buses also starting to look like they have been recycled from Mexican bus systems. So different from the earlier days of gleaming, white, noisy mammoths.
While I completely agree with your assesment that California needs more rail infrastructure, I have to disagree with a point you make in dumping on high speed rail.
You make a claim that it is not starting between Los Angeles and San Diego, I can assure you that it most certainly is. It’s also starting in San Francsico. The new track in the Central Valley is a third starting point.
Rail construction between Los Angeles and San Diego has been on going and currently efforts to build new mainlines to double and triple track the rail are on going. There is currently an 800 million dollar plan that will separate grade crossings, improve station capacity, create run through tracks at Union Station in Los Angeles, modernize track signals, replace older tracks, repair and replace bridges and as stated, increase rail capacity with double and triple tracking. Some of these projects are ongoing and some have already been completed.
In San Francisco they are beginning the upgrades and electrification of the rail line down to San Jose.
Work will also begin in the Tehachapi mountains while initial construction of the rail line is underway. So while the initial segment of dedicated high speed rail line while be built in the Valley, the tracks for the sections from LA to San Diego and from San Fran to San Jose are already in place and are currently under going the improvements necessary for them to be used.
This suggests that SoCal has no future as NorCal is much better organized, tourist-friendly, and attractive to tourists (despite the presence of major tourist attractions in SoCal). SoCal also seems to have more of the state’s xenophobes
California needs to get rid of its nanny state attitudes to be sustainable. And also needs to dump Prop 13 in favor of a high property tax/low income and sales tax fiscal model a la Texas
Orange County has the second largest percentage of Muslims of any county in the US, second only to Wayne County, Michigan.
Thus, the Crystal Cathedral is bound to go from Catholic church to mosque like many European churches. .
I love this article ! Michael Walker is a great artist with a unique differential point of view of our societies, on my personal opinion. I live on San Pedro St at the border of Skid Row.
Such a beautiful way to regard this street and its denizens. I used to go to Gorky’s all the time in the 80s. Working at the Woman’s Building, downtown was my ‘hood. Such a different downtown it is now. Some parts I scarcely recognize. Thank you, Michael.
Kudos to you Mr. Mahabir! I’m a theater “junkie” who lives further
south in the Central Valley. There is definitely a theater scene outside SF & LA.
Your next to last paragraph about why people come to live theater says it all. While I enjoy a good movie, or the occasional tv program, live performance is ALWAYS better. I have enjoyed performances by non-professional actors that are equal to, or superior to Equity pros. The public should never under estimate the quality they might see by community, regional, or other small theater groups. My advice is “just go.”
Best wishes in your quest for Broadway!
Fascinating article. San Julian Street is ground zero for the residents of Skid Row, both homeless and housed. We filmed for 5 years around San Julian and profiled several remarkably talented artists, fine arts painters, whose art — and the process of making art — transformed & saved their lives. HUMBLE BEAUTY: Skid Row Artists has several scenes shot right in San Julian Park and just across the street where the Skid Row Art Workshop met. Thanks for your article and the sobering memory of that over-crowded park full of homeless outsiders of every description– appropriately named for the saint.
There has always been a lot of talk in Los Angeles by politicians and others about solutions for the large homeless population, but very little ever gets done. The Housing First idea does seem like the way to go, given the success in other cities. Our documentary, now on public TV, HUMBLE BEAUTY: Skid Row Artists, profiles talented fine arts painters, both homeless and housed, whose art transformed and saved their lives through free art programs available on Skid Row. Sounds like the Zocalo program was a thoughtful, productive one. Hope it results in action.
Has anyone seen a Hollywood movie lately? Or any kind of a TV cop show? Guns are glamorized there every single day. What do you expect?
An amazing story!
The topic subtitle says “outlier” like it is a bad thing. Groupthink is not a solution.
And don’t forget, the American Revolution was an outlier.
Three anti-gun rights writers, one moderate (who doesn’t even address the issue directly) and one pro-gun rights writer (from Canada!). What balance!
Regarding Mr. Winkler – his entire premise seems to be that the NRA has swung right and is warping the politics of gun control. Well, I don’t know the history of NRA leadership changes, so I won’t respond to that. Regardless, the NRA is a grass roots organization that gets its money from members: Millions of ordinary Americans who pay dues and appreciate the NRA lobbying on their behalf. I know it’s easy to find someone monolithic to demonize, but I don’t see people demonizing the AARP for lobbying on behalf of senior citizens or ACLU defending someone’s 4th amendment rights…so why is the NRA “evil”? Well, if it’s just that you don’t like what their members like, welcome to Democracy, get over yourself, and argue your case on it’s merits, not by scapegoating the messenger for the other side. We all know our government is for sale to corporations and lobbyists. Anyone who thinks that our “representatives” generally work for “the highest good of all” is naive. Politicians respond to those that contribute to their campaigns. I, for one, am all for citizens organizing and lobbying for their rights…even those that may not be “PC” or “popular”.
He is right about the leadership shift in the 1970’s. And thank god for it, or else we might be looking down the barrel of the gun bans and resultant violence they have so much of in the UK.
As far as the NRA goes, yes they have 5 million members, yes millions more ‘identify’ as members or with members even if they wont cough up the measly 25 bucks for a membership. What I surprised to learn was that more people in the US consider the NRA ‘mainstream’ and ‘trustworthy’ over the media, congress and even Obama.
Yes, the NRA has a higher trust and approval rating than the President. That’s a number you can check.
Regarding Mr. Squires,
I’ve read his comment twice. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, and presents opinion as fact without any evidence. In fact, the evidence is the opposite of what he claims. California has some of the strictest gun control laws in the country and some of the highest rates of violence. Likewise for Chicago and D.C. I’m not sure where he gets the claim that lax laws lead to more violence, but I’ve studied the issue extensively and I find exactly the opposite. The whole argument that guns=crime is spurious. Crime is a complex social issue and has much more to do with poverty, drugs, mental illness, and education than guns. Here are the facts: Most crime happens in a handful of zip-codes in cities over 250 thousand people. Most murders are black and Latinos killing other blacks and Latinos. That is not to say violence is race related, but that the well understood issues of poverty, etc. in communities of color IS the cause of crime. The guns are incidental. The average violent killer has been arrested 9 times. Think about that. All the gun control in the world will ONLY affect the millions of people that are NOT the problem. Gun control advocates forget that gun control creates criminal offenses. That means that millions of ordinary people that have never been the problem (and never will) are suddenly at risk of being felons for something they bought years ago that was legal. Meanwhile, NOTHING has been done about the actual causes of violence. Violence rates CANNOT be linked to any single causal factor. Guns can neither be shown to cause, nor to prevent crime.
As for Mr. Squire’s other point – yes, I do care about my fundamental rights. That’s not “ideology”, unless you think everyone’s constitutional rights are just political “noise” to be overcome whenever circumstances dictate.
Let’s say I have this cake. It is a very nice cake, with “GUN RIGHTS” written across the top in lovely floral icing. I received it from the 2nd amendment and the Dick act of 1902.
Along you come and say, “Give me that cake.” I say,
“No, it’s my cake.” You say, “Let’s compromise. Give me half.” I respond by
asking what I get out of this compromise, and you reply that I get to keep half
of my cake.
Okay, we compromise. Let us call this compromise The National
Firearms Act of 1934.
There I am with my half of the cake, and you walk
back up and say, “Give me that cake.”
I say, “No, it’s my cake.”
You say, “Let’s compromise.” What do I get out of this compromise?
Why, I get to keep half of what’s left of the cake I already own.
So, we have your compromise — let us call this one the Gun Control Act of 1968 — and I’m left holding what is now just a quarter of my cake.
And I’m sitting in the corner with my quarter piece of cake, and here you come again. You want my cake. Again.
You say, “Let’s compromise once more.” What do I get out
of this compromise? I get to keep one eighth of what’s left of the cake I
already own?
So, we have your compromise — let us call this one the
Machine gun ban of 1986 — and I’m left holding what is now just an eighth of my cake.
I sit back in the corner with just my eighth of cake that I once
owned outright and completely, I glance up and here you come once
more.
You say nothing and just grab my cake; This time you take several
bites — we’ll call this compromise the Clinton Executive Orders — and I’m left
with about a tenth of what has always been MY DAMN CAKE and you’ve got
nine-tenths of it.
Then we compromised with the Lautenberg Act (nibble,
nibble), the HUD/Smith and Wesson agreement (nibble, nibble), the Brady Law (NOM
NOM NOM), the School Safety and Law Enforcement Improvement Act (sweet
tap-dancing Freyja, my finger!)
I’m left holding crumbs of what was once
a large and satisfying cake, and you’re standing there with most of MY CAKE,
making anime eyes and whining about being “reasonable”, and wondering “why we won’t compromise”.
__________________
May I please steal and use this?
“The evidence no longer matters”
I find that a shocking statement from an ideology that has NEVER been based on evidence. ‘Gun control’ has never worked. It has never worked.
And that is backed up by the FBI, CDC, NIJ even Obamas own requested reports on the matter. Considering that the English have a violent crime rate that far exceeds our own, pretty sure they are the most violent country in Europe, perhaps they should ponder what it used to be like to be free men in their own country.
They cant even remember their own history.
No more. If gun grabbers want one more crumb, they are going to have to fight like hell for it.
And I don’t think they have the guts, the brains, the money, or the support.
Aris Janigian’s two novels, Bloodvine and Riverbig are literary masterpieces. His gorgeous prose of exploring the Central Valley is on a league of its own. Hands down my two favorite books, completely touched a chord with me, especially that I grew up the heart of the SJV.
I still maintain that gun control could optimally be accomplished by using the same registry and framework as for obtaining drivers’ licenses. Gun owners would have to demonstrate minimum competency for safety, use and control, and infractions would limit and ultimately disqualify one from ownership.
People who do not have the capacity to make essential life decisions (such as having dementia or command hallucinations, as well as upper limb paralysis and loss of hand motor control needed to fire accurately), would be disqualified for gun use for a pre-defined period of time, after which they could reapply and demonstrate restoration of capacity and competency.
Consider yourself lucky. The last three years, I gave out full-sized candy bars hoping to coax some youngsters to my door. I bought only two packages of six last year and didn’t even finish one. This year, I have a carton of the large candy bars, the full one pounders, to pass out and I bet I don’t use three.
I long for the days of my youth when hundreds came to our house. Once one is too old to go out trick or treating, but too young yet to go to costume parties, one can make wonderful haunted houses to scare the trick or treaters. I did that well into college. When I finally bought my own home, I went all out: fog machine, movie ghosts, cackling witches, creepy sounds, and ABSOLUTELY NO ONE came. I have managed to attract the few youngsters on my block before they are driven off to the “better” neighborhoods. I think their parents feel sorry for me and the door knock is a pity trick or treat.
Still, nothing beats this place: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUAV_1jBJB4
Joe, park in the Target parking lot, southwest corner, and walk down the staircase to the Costco parking lot. It’s still no picnic, but it’s a lot better than the Costco vortex.
Tonight I’ll be in South Pas, at literally the last house before the Alhambra city limit. The tide of humanity doesn’t even need to drive here; they’re within shambling distance.
The evolution of the Saints continues to grow in modernization. Bold colors, subject looks liven, and familiar. The artist continues to express the emoting of thus subject with spiritual definition. The fashionlng of this saint is very relatable, thru each .stroke and color.
#ArtistCaroleJMcCoy @cjthefineartist, @ArTallks, http://www.nohoartsdistrict
I am lucky to live on what annually becomes “Halloween Lane” in a small rural village in the Monterey Bay Area of California. As many as 700 trick or treaters come by on Halloween.
Each year I give a Halloween party, giving my friends who live in the hills a chance to savor the rainbow of kids coming by. Here’s the deal: I provide a sumptuous spread of food for the guests and the guests each bring a bag of candy.
We all benefit…the trick or treaters have more adults to ooh and ah over them, the guests enjoy taking turns distributing treats, and we have a nice evening to reconnect and build community. Win…win from my perspective.
Amen. I see this disconnect with reading happening to today’s kids, including my grandson. Standardized testing rips reading out of its natural context and is pretty much the WORST way to find out if someone can actually absorb and apply the information they take in. As an editor, I’m concerned that this will lead to generations of adults taught this way who are unable to actually understand what they read, or to communicate in writing successfully. I’m thankful I learned to read in an era when it was still immediately obvious how useful and fun it was to read stories, both made-up ones (fiction) and “real” ones (nonfiction).
I detect a hierarchy reflected in this quote:
No one cares who your parents are here: “If you can put it together for a BMW, you’re in.”
Lisa,
Thanks for covering this story. We’re excited to evaluate the impact of a comprehensive, home-based approach in reducing childhood asthma emergencies, while also measuring the financial impact and ROI of the program. We think this is an important step in engaging potential investors in this particular program, and, over time, building an impact-investment market for evidence-based health initiatives.
We are grateful for The California Endowment’s support of this effort, which includes $660,000 in grant funding to date (please note correction to the $1.1 million figure cited in your article). See press release for more details: http://tcenews.calendow.org/releases/social-finance-the-california-endowment-awards-grant-to-social-finance-and-collective-health.
We look forward to reporting progress as this project continues!
Rick Brush
rick@collectivehealth.net
I’d rename the portion of Jefferson that runs west from Sepulveda. This portion is not contiguous with the part east of Sepulveda, and there’s really no logic today to giving it the same name. Two possible names– first, since it’s the obvious continuation of Playa St, and runs past Playa Vista towards Playa del Rey, then simply Playa St. Second, since it ends in the unique Ballona Wetlands, and travels parallel to the Ballona Creek, I would call it Ballona Street. (pron. bye-YONE-a, for those not familliar.) Note– not blvd, since this portion doesn’t really live up to LA’s defnition of a blvd., and not ave because the City prefers ave’s to run N-S.
I was very happy when the Dept of PW and the City Council re-named ‘Brooklyn Avenue’ to ‘Cesar Chavez Blvd.’ – anything that rids anything from ‘naw yawk’ gets my vote.
“A real civic elite would not allow a Pershing Square.”
I don’t like that place either, but I can’t quite put my finger on why.
Absolutely on target, Mike. For those who don’t know, Project Rubicon, which was put together by a group of Marines, has sent its first group of volunteers to the Philippines for the purpose of helping out following the recent typhoon. And, the point of Rubicon is that they serve much in the way they did in Iraq and Afghanistan. They know how to evaluate complex situations and how to deliver what’s needed to support both each other on the problem-solving team and the people they’re intending to help.
Thank you so much for sharing this, Mike. A very thoughtful article and an important perspective that many of us don’t consider. The best part is that this is something we ALL can help fix.
Great work! Now, can you take a position on Federal Court Judge Otero’s recent decision that there are “Illegal” leases, including UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium, on the gift land for Veteran patients at the “HOME” at VA, WLA?
Caroline, your story gave me goose bumps. I too had the same experience after returning to my great-grandparents’ home town of Wallertheim. This past October I also went to the Jewish Cemetery but it was locked up. I was able to take a few pictures. I am now complete as I realize that we are European before we are anything else.
Deborah, I am Caroline’s father. I am working with a German researcher on the Jews of Wallertheim. Would you share with me the names of your Great Grandparents? Many thanks, Jeff Esser
jeff.esser1@gmail.com
Excellent discussion. Having served with Stand Down to help provide free health care with a USC professional school, I saw the most difficult Veterans. They are proud but not connected. Many went to the service because they longed for the connection, but many also left from complications with their connections. No easy answers or pat solutions. I’m grateful to every one of them and am proud to be a part of their safety net in Stand Down. Great organization getting to the least of those who have offered everything to us.
Any time I have ever asked questions the docs fire back with “How dare you question me!” I have not seen a physician since the last one fired me as a patient almost two years ago. I signed up with a new one earlier this year under a new HMO. Finally his office called me to schedule a check up. Evey thing seemed to go smoothly with the clerks. They even had an opening today. Imagine that, a one day wait! But, when we got to the part about insurance, I told the clerk that I was still under their HMO Advantage plan with Heath Net. She literally dropped the phone with a loud “KLUNK!” and put me on an interminable hold. When she came back on the line she said “We are sorry, the doctor’s Medicare panel is full and he can’t accept you.” This is a doctor that claims to be a “Holistic” physician. I am outraged about docs who seem to only be out for financial gain. Remember, his office initiated the request for an appointment and then once I responded favorably he reneged on his agreement to accept Health Net HMO. I suppose it was all about him making more $. Another “Holistic” doctor demands a $200 cash prepayment for an office visit and refuses to accept any kind of Medicare Advantage Insurance. It is time for socialized medicine.
I elected to have my tonsils removed as an adult and it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I suffered from chronic tonsillitis (and I am VERY anti-medicine, so it wasn’t an issue with the thpe of med I was taking) as well as chronic tonsil stones, which was probably a result of the tonsillitis. I haven’t had ONE sore throat since having them removed and I no longer worry about my breath stinking from tonsil stones. My boyfriend has a bad case of tonsil stones and I wish he would consider getting his tonsils out to rid himself of this chronic and otherwise unsolvable condition. My kids will be getting tonsillectomys in the future if they too wind up with chronic tonsillitis.
I learned the hard way that those tv shows weren’t accurate. Ice cream and a fresh tonsillectomy do NOT mesh well together. Especially for hose of us who like mint ice cream. It burns. It burns A LOT. And the dairy doesn’t exactly soothe the raw throat. It causes mucus buildup which requires the consumer to swallow more. Which is the opposite if what you want to do when your throat was just operated on. And then the extra sugar from the dairy contributes to infection in the surgery site which causes even MORE pain. Stick with ice, water, and sherbet and stay away from extra sugar and dairy after a tonsillectomy. Or you will be sorry!
And despite the recovery being the most painful and most inconvenient experience of my life, I would do it again if I had to because being tonsil free has been absolutely worth it for me!
Indeed the North State is uniquely connected to our waterways. They are critical to our water supplies, our economy and our quality of life. Northern California water agencies willing embrace the responsibility of stewardship of the rivers and streams that meet the water needs of the entire state. This commentary ignores, however, the progress the North State–and the Sacramento region in particular–has made over the past two decades toward sustainable water use.
The Sacramento region has significantly reduced its per capita water use over the past decade and is one of the few regions of the state that has committed to meeting the 20 percent reduction by 2020 that is the goal of state law. This
progress came without the same incentive of looming water scarcity faced by
other parts of the state. Active regional and local water conservation
programs that feature both indoor fixture and outdoor landscape measures have added to this progress. For example, water providers in the Sacramento region were among the leaders in California in lawn replacement rebates and using recycled water for residential landscape irrigation. The Sacramento region’s water use compares favorably with inland parts of Southern California, such as the Inland Empire, which is a more accurate and fair comparison given similar climate and housing density.
Especially troubling is the suggestion that all of Southern California has accommodated decades of growth without additional water use. While this may be true within the Los Angeles city limits, in response to reductions in Owens Valley, Colorado River and Delta supplies, the numbers don’t support this claim for the entire southland.
Californians from the north and the south certainly need to come together to make necessary decisions about water, as the author states. But such progress is made more difficult with trusted thought leaders perpetuate negative stereotypes about the North State’s commitment to water efficiency and sustainable water use, and neglect to acknowledge our history of reliance solely on our local water supplies.
Indeed the North State is uniquely connected to our waterways. They are critical to our water supplies, our economy and our quality of life. Northern California water agencies willing embrace the responsibility of stewardship of the rivers and streams that meet the water needs of the entire state. This commentary ignores, however, the progress the North State–and the Sacramento region in particular–has made over the past two decades toward sustainable water use.
The Sacramento region has significantly reduced its per capita water use over the past decade and is one of the few regions of the state that has committed to meeting the 20 percent reduction by 2020 that is the goal of state law. This
progress came without the same incentive of looming water scarcity faced by
other parts of the state. Active regional and local water conservation
programs that feature both indoor fixture and outdoor landscape measures have added to this progress. For example, water providers in the Sacramento region were among the leaders in California in lawn replacement rebates and using recycled water for residential landscape irrigation. The Sacramento region’s water use compares favorably with inland parts of Southern California, such as the Inland Empire, which is a more accurate and fair comparison given similar climate and housing density.
Especially troubling is the suggestion that all of Southern California has accommodated decades of growth without additional water use. While this may be true within the Los Angeles city limits, in response to reductions in Owens Valley, Colorado River and Delta supplies, the numbers don’t support this claim for the entire southland.
Californians from the north and the south certainly need to come together to make necessary decisions about water, as the author states. But such progress is made more difficult with trusted thought leaders perpetuate negative stereotypes about the North State’s commitment to water efficiency and sustainable water use, and neglect to acknowledge our history of reliance solely on our local water supplies.
–John Woodling, Executive Director, Regional Water Authority (www.rwah2o.org)
This situation could be a lot like the situation in Alice in Wonderland – the sentence first, the trial next, and the crime comes last of all. “But suppose he never commits the crime?” Asked Alice. “That would be much better, wouldn’t it?” Declared the White Queen.
“The Indians prospered here before the missionaries, the real original sinners, showed up.” Why is it that politically correct members of the white old left can’t resist criticizing California’s Hispanic pioneers?
That sentence irked me a bit as well. I’d have to say, though, that the missionaries weren’t the “original sinners”, whatever that means. Spanish missionaries, and later Americans moving west, are just the latest in a long string of civilizations who have warred on this continent for millennia. To think that pre-Columbian inhabitants were all peaceful innocent souls is naive at best and, more accurately, ignorant.
Excellent article.
Whether L.A. is exceptional, corrupt, or anything else is, in my mind, somewhat irrelevant next to the question of water use. Water is a limited resource and that’s not a condition that’s easily changed.
There’s a nice anecdote in Abraham Hoffman’s book “Vision or Villainy” about a DWP official’s response to Chinatown when the movie was first released. Defending LA’s water department, he said, “There was never any incest.”
Tres awesome dude. And pretty dang well written.
In the course of many years in Los Angeles, I’ve seen lots of celebrities here and there “around town!” But the one that really excited me was seeing Julia Child and her husband at the old Michel Richard patisserie/cafe on Robertson. If she came back, we’d have her to dinner! But the place I’d take her would be “Antonio’s Tamales” on Temple just west of Glendale Blvd. The elder statesman of the place has been making tamales for nearly 50 years. Perfectly prepared cheese with green chili, chicken mole, pork, or cheese– light masa. Or for variation, banana leaf tamales, or the dessert tamales. They make other foods as well– especially on the weekends– like possole, menudo, chillaquilles. Quality ingredients and artisanal preparation. The owners are friendly, proud, hard working, unselfconscious. This is food without a publicist. A “hole in the wall”–of “real” and delicious. Julia would be fascinated and analyze their methods. And I think Julia would say “I don’t understand Top Chef! I’ve never done anything in 15 minutes in my life– or afterlife. Good food takes time.”
Interesting article. You might want to look at Phoenix, Arizona–which is the largest state capital by population–for some interesting trends. Sadly, in my observation, most of the proceedings of our state government go unobserved by the citizenry of Arizona except for a few wedge/controversial issues.
If being a Hippie means no more than having consumer alternatives, then its, like, shallow, man
Mr. Ortega – It’s not really such a mystery. RootDown LA already has the answer on how to reframe the issue and get kids to eat their veggies! Check it out:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/RootDown-LA/125870417444952?ref=hl
In response to: Ortega has found that it’s hard to get kids to eat healthy food
anywhere, but in the neighborhoods where he works—East L.A., Boyle
Heights, South L.A., and parts of Long Beach—framing the issue as one of
food justice and inequality is highly effective. The kids know what
foods are healthy, so “it’s more about reframing the issue to get kids
motivated” rather than simply telling them to eat their fruits and
vegetables, he said.
RootDown LA – You’re Gonna Wanna Eat Your Veggies!
As with most things in the modern world, geographic location has become less of a hindrance thanks to technology. In short, I would say no, we don’t need to “move the capital”. Any attempt to do so would be seen as a power play by SoCal.
Corruption we will always have with us. Vigilance is required. This is really an argument for better media coverage and in-depth reporting of state political affairs by the big-media markets. Location is less important these days with electronic hookups. Governors of California operate from offices up and down the state these days.
The whole premise of this article — that “progressives are in despair” and “liberals are out of ideas” is flawed. To say that “conservatives have a broad vision of minimalist government” is laughable. There’s nothing minimalist about the kind of control conservatives would have over people’s lives if allowed to continue their obstructionist stand-off. And to say that “Progressives don’t have a coherent, competing vision, much less ideas befitting the magnitude of the economic and social challenges of the moment.” sounds like the typical attack on progressive policies and grappling with issues. I’m astounded! Broad vision? Conservatives are bouncing off walls, and kicking and screaming so as not to “have to” change. And it’s making the strangest of bed-fellows. It’s sort of like being “liquored up” on words and going to bed with Lady Liberty, but waking up with Michele Bachman. It sounds like somebody wants a tea party only with silver service and good china. I guess with whom you are in bed doesn’t matter– you can shower in the morning and you found somebody to agree with you last night. If progressives are optimistic fools in their desire for embracing the questions, grappling with the issues and answers, and persevering, then what are conservatives other than greedy, inflexible,belligerent, and entitled. Only now, more and more conservatives seem to be raging ( and embarrassing) wind bags leading a pack of villagers with torches set out to “kill the monster.” (That monster usually means Obama.) Their rhetoric is hateful, unabashedly racist, socially retarded, and, frankly, un-American. The only time the word civil can be applied to them is when it refers to the civil war– or new civil war. The fire they’re playing with is the kind where eventually everybody gets burned.
Very cool! Thank you for this great story!
I think Schmitt’s premise is exactly right. Progressive’s inability to take a look in the mirror has caused them to squander opportunity after opportunity. Their inability to coherently counter the right’s assertion that the progressive agenda is to take away from those who work…no matter what percentage stratum….and give to those who don’t, has been found very attractive to working poor and middle class. It doesn’t matter if it is true, it is an unopposed narrative that offends many working people. And it is persuasive, as a majority of state houses and governors, and the House, are in solid Republican hands. Most amazing is the Repub claim of small government, when the facts are the opposite. But Dems have no answer to that, and continue to offend voters with claims of “social justice”, which appears to many working middle class as a scheme to take what that have. Liberal dependence upon demographics is poisonous, because the “deciders” among voters will continue to be the moderates, for a long, long time.
Sitting back and waiting for the votes to pour in, instead of finding a coherent vision that can be explained to moderate voters, won’t get the job done.
From the first barn-raising in Colonial America, working together and providing help for those who need help is a fundamental American value. The pilgrims took welfare from the Native Americans. Our thanks was attempted genocide. The idea that people who receive benefits or help in some way don’t contribute to society and just “take” is also offensive. We’re all in this together– that’s the American way.
Great idea, as a parent of a Cal Poly student I have to say I am glad he turned down Regent’s Scholar offers from the UCs and is attending a university that will require about 3 times the number of major requirements as the semester UC campuses, as well as allowing him the opportunity to do research as an undergraduate. He has the advantage of small class sizes, I don’t believe he has had a class larger than 35 in his major and maybe 1 or 2 GE classes of around 100. He knows all his professors and they know him by name.
The Polytechnic Universities are a model for the CSU system and I believe should be separated from the CSU system so they aren’t held back. Graduates find employment, and are appreciated by employers as they can handle their jobs from day 1, and are well prepared to become productive members of our society. Many Cal Poly graduates even start their own companies while still students with the support of the University and the community.
Do we more fancy sports stadiums or do we need more Math, Science and Engineering graduates to keep our economy growing?
This article was published in the Fresno Bee this morning. How refreshing to read a well-written SENSIBLE editorial! Sports facilities are nice, but should not be built with taxpayer $. Let the owners/investors fund them.
How about locating a campus like this 35 miles south of the Capital city? Perhaps Stockton?!
Cal Poly Oakland or Richmond !
“Minimal government” is just smokescreen. The so-called conservatives do not want minimum government. except in “business,” where they want the writ of the resource extractors and finance industries to rule people’s lives and minds. They fight for intrusive control of private and personal life, except for those of the economic ruling class. They support imperial control and military violence. For how that works without big government and regulation, take a look at Egypt.
They want business laissez-faire, Friedmanesque monetarism – and if ever there was a busted flush, hanging on like a hollowed out religion calling for faith instead of reason or evidence, it is that. They would empower the current crop of shallow CEOs and resource thieves, such people as Lloyd Blankfein and the Koch gang, as if these predatory accumulators were modern day Medicis. They are not; they are just depressing.
And back to the topic: Progressives are not out of ideas. Mainstream Democrats are just not progressives any more. Their agenda is played out. They are trying to play a hand that is somewhere to the right of Nixon’s domestic agenda – played out because it doesn’t go anywhere. Step outside the Republicrats to real areas of progressive thought, and there are plenty of ideas – ideas that Washington Dems are complicit in blocking from wide public debate.
Progressives may have ideas, but if they cannot package those messages in a way that is attractive to anyone but themselves….and that is a real danger, as so many people of both sides read/watch media that only shows their own side….that they will be sitting there scratching their heads, and wondering what happened. Like occurred after the re-election of GW Bush, which was incomprehensible to progressives, but REALLY DID HAPPEN. It has to be messages and ideas that are attractive to the working middle class, the deciders. If progressives wait for the demographics to win for them, they will lose, and lose, and lose.
Excellent piece and a great overview, thanks!
I couldn’t agree more! (and of all great schools to pick: Cal Poly!!!) Too bad our Sacramento mayor is so myopic–sports teams are not the only answer for Sacramento!
I do t believe in the devil and in addition I don’t believe Scalia should Be talking about his Catholic beliefs. This is NOT a Catholic country but a cou try with a constitution to follow, which specifically does not single out any one religion. It has no place in the public forum, in the courts or Congress! People need to practice their religion as they see fit and not impose their beliefs on anyone else. This is precisely the conversation that was held when Jack Kennedy ran for POTUS. The public was afraid that we would end up being governed by the Pope. He should keep his big mouth shut or resign from the courts and any public office.
Now if we could only convince parents to vaccinate their children against measles, pertussis, etc.
Progressives have plenty of ideas, including a Guaranteed Basic Income to replace the minimum wage, Social Security, EITC, TANF, SNAP, and the rest of our kludgeocracy-driven safety net. But not even the ‘progressive’ media have time to cover progressive ideas, because they spend their time repeating whatever Sen. Ted Cruz or some other crackpot conservative said yesterday.
Conservatives simply do not believe that all problems can or should be tackled through government – particularly the federal government. That we won’t fall in line with progressives and other former hall monitors who believe their self-declared (although never actually demonstrated) intellectual prowess is reason enough that they should be put in charge (and, therefore, be given their $cut) is what provokes the frustrated hate form them that you can read on these boards daily.
What an inspiring story. You and Kevin are doing unmeasurable goodness to not only downtown Merced but to the lives of so many individuals. I wish you both the best in the world and please do not allow any negativity to deter you. If your effort makes a difference in only one individual, then it was certainly worth it!
What a great article – a vantage at a time of year into what we really should be thankful for. Hope you continue to share your voice with us – the world needs to hear it. Happy Thanksgiving, and I hope you all manage to have a peaceful and fulfilling meal.
I love the candidness of this article! Definitely a view point that is all too common in many households. Keep the articles coming S. J.
What a beautiful and honest article!
thank you soooo much for reading and liking my article. I love to write and your kind words and support means a lot to me so yes I will continue, please stay tuned. Have a happy holiday
If only all of the gov’t could read your article and try to understand problems that too many people have. Like Shanese said, the candidness of your writing is great. Hope you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Special thanks to “manager” Daniela Gerson and editor Joe Mathews
Pumpkin gets all the press coverage, but for me nothing says Thanksgiving feast like the heavy chocolate pie!! I will think of you when I have mine tomorrow.
In all my life I’ve read nothing more touching you are truly a great writer you were born for this. This article is an eye opener, many people forget what Thanksgiving is for to begin with. This article just reminds me that though we may have little, we still have something, Thanks sis :*
Where does he live? It sounds like he’d like the California coast, especially in June!
“But belief in the Devil can be—and usually is—part of a longstanding, consistent, and coherent worldview.””Almost all of us can agree that the KKK or the Nazis were wrong.” – I’m amazed these 2 statements can appear in the same essay. Many would argue that the KKK and Nazis also have a “longstanding, consistent, and coherent worldview” – “christianity” is adept at re-creating itself for survival.
The concept of “the devil” has as much place in public policy discourse as the concept that the earth is flat, or the idea that “creationism” is as valid as evolutionary theory, or “religious freedom” trumps Human Rights – however “longstanding, consistent, and coherent worldview” those ideas might hold. (Myths should only live in the past.)
The idea of “evil” is a convenient way to assign blame without having to be critical of oneself. It is convenient because you do not (nor can) define the terms which make someone or something, “evil.” To define “evil” with specific parameters is to have the ability to apply the term equally to different parties/acts – precisely what one seeks to avoid by using such an ambiguous term. It is an OPINION, NOT A FACT.
“Evil” should be relegated to creative writing and myth-telling (GWB was adept at this, remember “axis of evil?”), but let us not ignore murder, mass murder, and other human rights violations.
There is no “evil,” only acts; there is no “devil,” only people.
Nice, although I would’ve liked a more complete recipe for that chocolate pie.
Wonderful article. Brings back memories
Social engineering never solved anything. Limiting the birth rate is a Catch 22. Nature has its own way of allocating resources and, unfortunately it comes down to survival of the fittest.
I completely agree. I am thankful everyday I found The Mission Continues, it changed my life. It as well as Team Rubcion, Team Red, White and Blue, Got Your 6 and IAVA are this generations version of the VFWs and American legions. They bring us back together as a team; secure, safe and with purpose.
I would agree with this article to some degree. As someone who spent just over 20 years in the USAF, I’ve now been out for about 3 years. I’m an aircraft mechanic finishing a two-year degree that has dragged out a bit, and I still find that the only people I really “connect with” are other vets. Thankfully, due to my chosen field, I’m around other vets on a regular basis. There are things that folks who aren’t veterans just don’t get.
Cons are good for programmers too, because ‘cons’ is a language primitive in the famous LISP programming language. And for the other reasons expressed as well.
In support of your semiotics: The first guy I saw wearing those sneakers was a well established poet in NYC who also had a rare gift for monetization. The last time I saw him, he topped them with a tweed jacket — rushing off to teach a seminar at the New School.
A restaurant SCOUT for Jonathan Gold? My bubble hath burst.
(or….”ahh, the percs of being a pulitzer-prize winner; no more self-scouting!)
Fascinating! For more discussion on purchasing choices and their class meanings, read David Brooks’s Bobos in Paradise.
Great as a historical document, but a lot has happened socially and economically between March 2001 and today that makes Bobos out of date. And agreed – fascinating!
I’m a big fan of the Pocho Hour of Power. One of the funniest things on radio IMHO, coupled with very on point social commentary done with a delightful sense of humor and irony.
Great work!
Marie, reading this makes me very happy that you will be one of the participants in Religion, Ethics, and Social Practice next semester. Carving out a world view that supports listening to one another and acting compassionately across the boundaries of class, gender, and ideology is one of the primary tasks each of us must take up in the course. You are obviously ready to do that and to do it in concert with others.
Very good article. It should be considered however, that the age of those entering the service is changing. Another factor we need to keep in mind, is that the structure of the service is conducive to a demographic still in search of social structure which can be built upon. The military is an outstanding place to develop from, especially if you are young. There’s nothing overtly positive or negative about that, just that when someone enters as well as exits the service at a relatively young age, it does have an effect on how one perceives society relative to what they’ve been instructed or can distinguish.
Recently NPR ran a story saying that November in-store holiday shopping was down 4%, online shopping up 21%. What if LA had online voting?
Earlier this year, Assemblyman Phil Ting introduced AB 19, a bill to allow CA counties to try online voting. Mike Gatto let it die in the Appropriations Committee. Angelenos should call for re-introduction of AB 19, and support its passage. (Search Kelleher Internet voting for complete coverage of the issue)
Interesting, Chavez was against Illegal Aliens because it hurt his cause to promote hiring LEGAL guest workers and to fight for fair wages and better working conditions.
Thanks Zocalo! Love these lists <3
The judge did not order the plant to cease operations at all. Look at the ruling. Basically he ordered it to stop stinking. The stink season is over, therefore it’s a not issue until next fall.
Joe’s off-season walk-around sniff-test notwithstanding, I think it is possible to agree that there are too many (lousy) local governments in California while still recognizing the need for SOME governmental entity to act when a neighborhood facility becomes a smelly nuisance.
I guess both of these people were somewhat controversial and had plenty of critics, but you could’ve also mentioned the Gov and the Coach: Deukmejian and Tarkanian.
Living next to Glendale, one couldn’t help but be aware that there are Armenian gangs, but I never saw an in-depth description of them. I assumed they were immigrant youths or the children of immigrant parents, possibly from Russia rather than from Armenia (because one reads about Russian gangs) but I have no real knowledge.
My 43 year old son is receiving palliative chemotherapy for terminal bowel cancer. Seeing him slowly deteriorate is really horrible.I hate seeing him feeling so sick and fatigued. I know that if it were me, I would NOT have any medical intervention to extend my life. But my son’s circumstances are different. He just doesn’t want to leave his lovely wife and young children. Every day he has with them is precious. It was my son’s choice to do everything possible to extend his life for as long as possible but I’m sure that if he was my age with his children all grown up, things would be different.
Sorry to read about your son. It must be very difficult for both you and his family.
Very unstandable that at 43 your son “wants to do everything possible to extend his life for as long as possible.” However, I think that is true for most everyone as the self-preservation instinct is usually pretty strong. Hopefully, your son has made a good informed choice. I am confused with the concept that he is receiving palliative care and “It was my son’s choice to do everything possible to extend his life for as long as possible.” The goal of palliative care is to provide patients with relief from symptoms, pain and stress of a serious illness and not to do anything that will provide life prolonging care.
I quote from the article above “Hospice care, which focuses on providing terminally ill patients with comfort and dignity rather than on futile cures, provides most people with much better final days. Amazingly, studies have found that people placed in hospice care often live longer than people with the same disease who are seeking active cures.”
I wish you and you family strength during this most difficult of times.
Sorry, maybe “palliative chemotherapy” wasn’t the right term.
I thought that’s what my son called it. I’m just a mother. I thought that palliative chemotherapy meant that although there is no cure, it is intended to prolong his life and keep his cancer under control as long as possible. His cancer is widespread but the wonderful news is that he’s now 44 and healthier than he was when I first wrote 7 months ago thanks to the wonderful care of the staff at Cancer Care centre at Concord Hospital NSW. When he was first diagnosed with stage 4 terminal bowel cancer 16 months ago, before any treatment, he was very, very ill and we didn’t expect him to last very long. No one expected him to make his 44th birthday but we’re “over the moon” that he has. In the beginning, I couldn’t understand why he chose chemotherapy to extend his life. I was under the
impression that with chemo, although he’d live a little longer, he’d be very sick and have no quality of life until he finally died. But that’s not really the case. Although chemotherapy isn’t
fun, he DOES have quality of life particularly on his “off chemo weeks” and it’s given him more time.
That’s awesome! I have three kids so I understand his decision perfectly. Best of luck to you and your son. – Chris
My son passed away on 8th January 2015. He was told right from the beginning that his cancer was incurable because he had tumours all throughout his liver as well as his bowel and lungs. He just didn’t want to leave his wife and children so he fought with all his might. After watching my son suffer so much, I know that if I was told I had an incurable illness I would NOT fight like he did. But it’s harder to accept death when you are 44 and have young children.
Thank you for sharing this. It illustrates perfectly what this sort of journey looks like. In the end people should get to choose.
Just an update on my son: He has been receiving fortnightly chemotherapy without at break since he was first diagnosed with terminal stage 4 Bowel Cancer in March last year. (you call it Colon Cancer in the US.)The latest two rounds of his chemo have not been working and his tumours have grown so now he’s very weak and can hardly stand. He looks like a walking skeleton and he just wants to sleep. So now his Oncologist has just put him back on Folfox which is making him very ill with lots of terrible side effects. Folfox picked him up when he was first diagnosed but we don’t know yet is it’s working this time. It is just agonising watching my son deteriorate. I feel that giving my son Folfox on his very frail, very sick, very weak body when his doctors have made it very clear that he is close to the end just doesn’t make sense to me, but my son and his wife are determined to fight to the end. I personally would prefer to see him get off the chemotherapy which seems to me to be futile over-treatment and instead just concentrate on making him as comfortable as possible. I can well understand why doctors die differently.
To qualify for hospice care, one must have a terminal diagnosis with a prognosis of 6 months or less. Treatments like chemo, radiation, and dialysis are generally only approved if they contribute toward the patient’s comfort level or quality of life. For instance, radiation may shrink malignant brain or spinal tumors, thereby lessening headaches and nerve pain, even when it can’t stop the cancer.
Palliative (comfort) care provides symptom relief for people with serious/chronic illnesses, no matter where they are in the disease process. They can receive curative treatments and also qualify for palliative care to help with side effects of treatments (ex: chemo) or just to improve quality of life for a chronically ill person with a greater than 6 month prognosis.
So hospice and palliative care are similar, but still different. It’s also not uncommon for a person to eventually stop treatment and transition to hospice care only.
Palliative care is quite different from futile care. You make the point, however, about the need for treatment to be individualized.
Thank you for this.
Very interesting article. Makes sense to me – people today need nutrition education, and need physical exercise! Otherwise you can offer the healthy food but people won’t take it.
What an excellent article, Dr Murray, thank you for putting into perfect prose, thoughts that must exist in the minds of almost every doctor in the world today.
I guess that’s where the difference between mundane knowledge and wisdom lies. Knowledge, where one knows everything about the text-book treatment of a patient, and Wisdom, where the physician knows exactly where to use that knowledge. Or better still, where NOT to use that knowledge at all.
I am an ophthalmologist, not a critical care physician, but in my field too, there are a number of conditions where treatments are offered or pushed down the throat by the ‘system’ to preserve or increase the vision of these patients. And most of us know that these treatment modalities are either cosmetic, temporary, downright ineffective, or not required at all, while increaing the suffering of the patient. And with the common denominator, frightfully expensive…
In these circumstances, there will always be the voices of those who will argue about such thoughts throttling scientific progress, medical advancement etc. But they fail to realize that a balance is never achieved. The cost to the patient in terms of money and suffering is always sacrificed at the alter of scientific progress in the field of medicine.
Your article also importantly suggests the possibility of a holistic ‘treatment’ of these patients, who can live the remaining days of their lives doing the things they always wanted enjoyed, but never had the time or favourable circumstances to. Like the characters played by Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson in the bucket list.
Thank you again for this eye-opener article. It made my day…
While maybe not quite as confusing as LA, Fresno also has multiple, confusing regulations posted on downtown parking meters in tiny print. The most confusing part being hours of enforcement are extended when there are certain events going on in the area, and there is no reliable way to determine when that happens. The city wants to get folks downtown for events, but then zaps them with parking tickets, which just pisses them off, reducing repeat downtown visits. Well, duh!
Yeah, that sounds incredibly frustrating. I’m not sure how something like that could be incorporated into an app since it’s always changing with events, but if someone has a suggestion I’d love to incorporate it. Less tickets for us is a good thing.
This is great! So nice to see the community stand up and implement change our own rather than complain and wait for solutions. Way to go!
Thanks Lula. I appreciate it.
Thank you for this tantalizing story, Michael. I once parked next to a grey painted curb, not too far from a church. I received a ticket for parking in a “Passenger Loading Zone.” I fought it though and with my photographs, the ticket was dismissed. There was no signage painted on the curb (which they really meant to paint white) and no vertical signage either. There have been other curbs, though, that are questionable to me. I would love to see the information you have compiled. Will share it with people that don’t have a smart phone?
Lisa,
I’m glad you had success fighting your ticket. That’s a great point about sharing this info with people without smart phones. Please contact me. I’d love to discuss.
What a wonderful article…like a walk into sanity! Thank you!
Dr. Deah Schwartz
Excellent points! I wish articles like that were more a part of the dominant public dialogue about obesity.
I wish my doctor would read articles like this one. I can’t even stand going to her if I have a sinus infection because I know I’ll get a lecture for 30 minutes about my weight. Her answer is bariatric surgery…for everything. (I know, I know, I need to get another doctor… but I have little hope of finding one who is sympathetic–or at least, a non-judgmental.)
You are the only one who will have to pass judgment. And if you’re okay with the drugs, and the discomfort and watching life from the eventual electric wheelchair, then we’re all okay.
But there are no “takebacks” when it comes to being fit. It’s your call. Why not “Make Health A Game”?
I’m sorry, I don’t know what you mean, “watching life from the eventual electric wheelchair”? That sounds to me like you assume I am sitting on my ass with my face in a gallon of Haagen-Dasz. I play tennis in 3 leagues, have a personal trainer, and do water aerobics or walk 2 or 3 times a week for at least an hour. I’m still fat, and I still get shit from my doctor. It doesn’t matter to her that I have a relatively active lifestyle. What matters to her, only, is the number on the scale. Please check your fatphobic comments at the door, and STFU if you don’t have anything helpful to contribute.
keep trying to find a doctor. They are not all like that. Even some of the ones who subscribe to the party line on weight can still be convinced to treat you as a person and not just your weight. I managed to find a service in which the doctors may not be happy with my weight, but they are still willing to actually treat my symptoms and refrain from lecturing me about it. (I made a point of telling them I eat healthy, giving a description of my habits and they still recommended a diet – I went to the nurse-supervisor and complained about it. Dunno if that helped, but at least it was an option.)
I believe Germans would like to handle this moral challenge “with grace.” It is awfully hard to define what that grace would look like, though, and still satisfy all parties involved. There is a lot of money at stake, and that has the unfortunate effect of draining “grace” from the process. So that “teachable moment” is going to be a lot harder to do than to say!
They’re one of my favourite native plants to look at – spring and winter.
I’d heard that they were edible, and tried to cook and eat them one time. Edible, apparently, does not equal palatable (unless you’re a cedar waxwing). We stewed them, and basically ended up with a mush of astringent sawdust. When we tried to strain them, the juice was not disgusting, but not in any way delicious.
This is one plant I’m happy to leave to the birds.
For a proper role model and attitude on body image, look no further than Jennifer Lawrence’s outspoken views. Just Google her and you see hundred of articles bashing Photoshopped magazine covers, her refusal to succumb to Hollywood ideals and slamming Joan Rivers’ Fashion Police.
Her insistance on her character, Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games (a role model for young girls and women worldwide) be fit and strong rather than thin and underfed is wonderful.
Thank you
A person doesn’t get to 500 lbs because of “genetic inheritance” alone. Something else is going on there. Obviously no one chooses to be obese, but a combination of a poor diet, no work out regimen and genetic ingeritance is to blame. This show teaches discipline, good working out habits, and a healthy diet. There is nothing wrong with that.
working out until one vomits is “good working out habits”?
Informative, Thanks
Please keep writing these articles. Not only do I love reading them, I bring them to work (public health dept), and they have raised eyebrows, and resulted in opening minds, and thoughtful commentary. This side of the issue cannot be heard enough.
Good article, but very limited in its scope. Medical doctors do not die only of diseases that take months or years to take their lives. Medical doctors also die of the effects of road traffic and other accidents, acute illnesses that kill them in a matter of hours or days, manslaughter, murder, accidental self-poisoning with alcohol or illicit drugs, single-person suicide or suicide pacts.
I cannot figure out your point. Try reading it again.
Why does nobody talk about how sedentary jobs also contribute to obesity? I am sitting at my computer right now for my job. It sucks. 🙁
if you work out & eat right…you’ll lose weight & or maintain weight loss…it’s definitely healthier to drink water than soda…it’s not rocket science
More about Whittaker Chambers including his writings at http://www.whittakerchambers.org/
California was The Great Exception because it was growing so fast. First domestic immigration stopped back in the 70s, now even foreign immigration has greatly slowed and our population is almost stable. So the Great Exception we are no more.
I wish you would visit Mount Sutro Forest yourself. You would find a cloud forest that captures the water of the fog, keeping the ground moist year round. Thinning the forest will make it dry out, making it a fire risk. It is currently one place in SF that has a fire rating of absolutely no fire danger. There are maps, let me know if you would like access to one.
The blue gum has a natural maximum age of 400-500 years old, so they are not currently aging out.
In the easy bay fires, the last thing to burn was the eucalyptus forest. First were the native grasses, then bushes, then houses – then finally the trees. There are those who lost their homes in that fire who are fighting to save their eucalypts.
I think it’s time to make the blue gum eucalyptus the official tree of SF. It is a beautiful historic tree for this beautiful city, planted by the people who built the neighborhoods, churchs, significant buildings and museums. We are a city of non-natives, what tree could be more appropriate?
Thank you for your very thoughtful article, I learned things I had not known before, and the graphics are found treasure!
What happened? How did eucalyptus become flora non grata in California? The story is a spectacular rise, and equally spectacular fall, in three phases: introduction, naturalization, and deterioration.
I help manage some acreage along Oakland’s Grizzly Peak Blvd. We’re trying to shrink our Eucalyptus forest gradually with a view towards eradicating it. The hot, arid easterly winds in the Fall blow down through us towards the rebuilt housing from the 1991 firestorm. Burning Eucalyptus embers have reportedly been carried miles by the east winds… Due to our unique location, we think it’s in everyone’s best interest to remove our Eucalyptus. Meanwhile we work hard keeping grass and shrubs trimmed and under control…
I am sorry for your loss.
This is devastating news. Thinking of Charita’s family.
Sarah, this is a beautiful tribute to an obviously beautiful soul. Clarita’s gifts to the world expressed through your eloquence has gifted me with a little deeper meaning to my life today. Thank you.
I cannot imagine losing our Blue Gum Eucalyptus in California. As much as I love the Valley Oak and the Ponderosa Pine, the immigrant eucalyptus is most wonderful. I still remember the beautiful and the aroma of the eucalyptus of Occidental College. I love the sound of the wind through its leaves. You can no more blame the eucalyptus for spreading fire than you can blame the Oak or the Sugar Pine. Poor maintenance of our urban open space is what spreads fire.
We are so deeply sorry for Charita’s passing. She will be so missed. She has given the world so many beautiful sparkles and so much warmth during her young and much too short a life. She is a wonderful role model for all of us.
Thank you for painting such a wonderful picture of Charita. From what I can see in her bright smile and even brighter eyes, her nickname (Chispa) was spot on! Please accept my condolences.
Thank you for writing such a loving post. I send all my love as well to all those who work at Zocalo Public Square.
Sarah, thank you for sharing your thoughts. I too, worked with Charita for a much shorter time than I would have liked (at Carnegie). That someone who can make us love and connect so deeply, so quickly, has passed on is devastating. I have thought about her every day since I first read her cover letter as well, and will think of her (and smile) every day forward!!!
Sorry for your loss. Touching piece; sure she is in a better place.
Thank you, Sarah, for a sensitive tribute to a woman that sounds like someone everyone would love to meet. I’m sorry for your and Zocalo’s loss of a friend and colleague.
my condolences, guys
Thanks for using and attributing my photo.
hi, I just emailed my comment to the main office. I love your column! How best to influence public policy about stadium development? In San Francisco there is a current conversation about height betterment at the waterfront. It could be a good moment to influence public sentiment about height concerns, global warming and using public funds for the greater good. Is there anyone out there who thinks there could be a message that resonates for California? I think there is an opportunity…..
Interesting eye opener. Reinforces my thinking about the knowledge and experience of medical doctors versus everyone else that has their own medical opinions on what we should eat, drink, and pill pop.
I have a small claims case in this very courthouse to be heard on the 31st (LAM 13M07542) in Dept. 090 against my landlord and today I am going there taking a subpoena Form (SC-107) in triplicate to be stamped by the court clerk and then arrange for a Sheriff to serve the regional manager who oversees the Southern California properties of the landlord (Montgomery Partners — http://www.montgomerypartners.com/) to provide testimony about procedures, etc. My case was countinued from Oct. 26th when time during the morning session ran out and it had to rescheduled. Looking over their evidence I was handed compared to information I obtained via a public records request to the Health Dept. confirms they are trying to mislead the court. I have already subpoenaed the building manager demanding documents (it appears they cherry picked their records or created out of whole cloth much of what was in the evidence packet handed to me in service of their false narrative). As you can imagine I have become very familiar with Stanley Mosk building and yes, the cafe is very nice.
I love jury duty—always have.
I did jury duty at Stanley Mosk too, 7 or 8 years ago, and did NOT know about Panorama Cafe. I will have to check that out! I also had fun doing jury duty. Sitting through court testimony was no biggie for me (a couple years prior, I’d been a reporter, so I’d sat through a few cases already), but the 90-minute recesses gave me a chance to explore downtown, which was so awesome.
Being brand new to Zocalo, I wondered whether you were progressive (you know, CA’n’all). But what you said was reasonable. I am so tired of discussions of wage inequality that ignore life style. Dropping out of high school, having children at 17 without marriage nearly guarantees being at the bottom of the economic scale. And, this environment hurts those reared in such ‘families.’
This is a really beautiful article, Sarah.
The reported results are consistent with the theoretical large impact of decreased infant and young child death rates on the average life expectancy of human populations. If decreased infant mortality is a major factor in increased average life expectancy, this is a good thing morally; but suggests that higher average lifespans may not always primarily reflect increases in the lifespan of senior citizens.
In my opinion, unless there is a financial motivation for public employers, there are no amount of “wage equality” programs that will ever get support. Someone has to prove to corporate boards and mangement teams why closing the income gap is good for business. Once that becomes “truth”, then you’ll have widespread buy-in. Otherwise, encouraging employers to pay people more and create programs to help pay people more will likely be just a lot of useless noise.
I grew up with the LA – San Francisco rivalry being a big deal, but LA seems to have faded in its coherence. Now the Bay Area is kicking So Cal’s ass regularly (San Diego a possible exception) and he big rivalry is coast – inland.
Thanks for this note. You would appreciate Alberto Fuguet’s novel, “The Movies of my Life” (Las peliculas de mi vida). It grapples with some of the same issues.
This great to think about but it totally misses the point.
The real work of the public does not actually happen at council meetings (sorry to disappoint).
Actual problem solving, creative thinking and solution making happens in committees, at town halls, at public events, in libraries, parent groups, public hearings, community discussions and…coffee shops. They may or may not include actual elected officials, but the city council meeting are really just to make the decisions “final”. They are the last public hoorah for gadflies and angry citizens to speak out or complain, for not being a part of the behind the scenes activism, or back-door-deals (both take place outside of council chambers).
Council meetings are the public events where decisions become “official action”; they’re not the place to actually work out the messy details of governance and problem solving.
Unpaid council members often have never seen the issues they are to discuss until the day of the meeting. And yet, they will take official action. Starbucks, under any circumstances, is not the answer, but the power abused by the fact of sitting on a raised dais needs to see an end. Residents do not go to meetings because they must stand alone behind a podium, looking up at the councilors, and, with not only the eyes of the people in the room on them, but television cameras.
It is a setting I now compare to the Star Trek episode, ‘Plato’s Stepchildren’. The council sits there, quietly amused or otherwise, watching residents squirm at the podium. It is humiliating. The people on the dais very much forget that they are not ‘gods and goddesses’. Residents are forced to stand and beg, and hope they don’t get tripped up on their own words as the tension of being in that position, and broadcast, is extreme. It is a tradition designed to elevate the unworthy to a status they do not deserve.
Dear Clare,
I hear your spirited voice in this excellent piece. INSIDE THE STORY took me to San Francisco to hear your informed presentation about Hockney in November 2013. In January, our group traveled to Palm Springs for your insights and articulate observations on Richard Diebenkorn. Thank you!~Alice
Dear Clare,
I hear your spirited voice in this excellent piece!
INSIDE THE STORY made it possible for me to visit San Francisco and hear your informed presentation about Hockney in November (2013). Our group traveled to Palm Springs in January (2014) for your articulate insights and observations on
Richard Diebenkorn at the Palm Springs Art Museum. Thank you! ~ Alice
The true test of any marriage is how the parties handle a crisis. It’s impossible for any single person or couple to go through life without facing some trauma, whether it be expected (e.g. the deaths of our parents) or unexpected (e.g. earthquakes, hurricanes, etc.)
If the Northridge quake had never happened, something else would’ve split you apart further down the road. Marriage is not a relationship of unconditional love. On the contrary, it is highly conditional. When faced with a crisis, both parties must strive to respond in the highest, most selfless manner possible. If you don’t, the party who did will forever look at the party who didn’t with disappointment (at best) or disgust (at worst). A crisis is an opportunity to show your heroism… or the opposite.
Some marriages face crises early, others not for 20 years. Personally, I favor seeing the crisis early. It could save you from a long, miserable marriage.
What a lovely, touching remembrance.
This looks super cool!!! I would love to go to this event!
Where I can find info about tickets and times?
Learn more and purchase tickets at http://www.sffla.net.
Hi,
We get nervous in Golden Gate Park when the wind is blowing and big Euc branches are creaking…
I find it generous of you to find space for eucs and to appease all interests. (i.e. I have fond memories of the lemon scented Eucs in isla vista/Santa Barbara.)
The “Preserve trees/Eucs at all cost” is arrogant and rude. Ignores facts in California. Doesn’t know how to share!
This argument is so similar to the SF dog owners who are angry at the natural areas program and proposed (including currently on the books but mostly ignored) leash laws on GGNRA land.
Regardless of humans emotional and colonial attachments, dogs are predators and historically raised to hunt and guard. They were used to attack civil rights workers and other movements (and still used to “police” and criminalize impoverished communities!)
Daily in SF I observe many poorly trained and aggressive dogs, and lazy owners who leave poo behind (I’m not kidding – several poo piles in a day.)
I don’t get why people are so defensive about dog free zones. Why is it a problem when I wish to be on Ocean Beach in SF observing birds and wildlife in “leash required” areas yet it’s seriously nothing less than a dog park including dogs running up to me and smelling my butt?
Anyhow, here’s a poem I wrote about an old blue gum in Oakland:
http://poems4nature.blogspot.com/2013/12/landscape-study-1.html?m=1
There is some good news.
And then take the council or board members off the dais and put them in a
corner of the chambers—the way you might position a piano player in a
hotel lobby. They’d be miked just loud enough that anyone in the room
could hear them, but not so loud as to overwhelm any conversations.
Seriously, you’re proposing that ad hoc, out-of-order conversation in the room should take precedence over conducting business and allowing the public to hear and understand what’s taking place?
Council meetings aren’t supposed to be gab-fests, they’re supposed to be conducted by a procedure that allows for public comment, debate, and conclusion.regarding the issue at hand. What you’re proposing may be comfortable and neighborly, but it would seriously hamper citizens’ rights to hear, follow and comprehend the actions their elected officials are taking.
I appreciate Mr. Kimbrough’s comment, as it shows a clear understanding of how a council meeting should be conducted.
Frankly, the author’s suggestion makes me doubt whether he has grasped the concept of how the process works at all.
What happened to my comments that were posted on Friday night? The next day, on Saturday, I tried to edit the posting (shorten and correct grammar mistakes) and then it just disappeared…?
I thought it important to offer some some diversity, outside of the white men who are quoted in the article, and also the author and all the commenters. I have a particular peeve with your monopoly of the humanities and arts. Well, the sciences too – all of it.
Here’s that old blue gum poem again:
-d.
http://www.poems4nature.blogspot.com/2013/12/landscape-study-1.html
The old boundaries may be erased, but we have a new-found ability to manipulate technology, thus setting our own boundaries. When the phone rang in the 1950’s, people answered it! We can, or we can silence the ringer and let it go to voicemail. Trending away from instant gratification, the rewards of a disciplined delay strengthens our ability to stay focused on the present, to sit still in the room. There is power in choice.
Exactly. Mencken and other Americans of the era were probably used to thinking in terms of welcoming visitors to the door: if somebody knocks, you go and answer the door because that’s how people visited with each other. And I conjecture that they thus felt compelled to answer the phone.
With the invention of the answering machine, people gradually realized that, no, they do not have to answer the phone whenever it rings. Just let the darned thing ring and if it’s important they’ll call back. If it’s not important well they haven’t missed anything.
Thank you for the discussion tonight.
My husband and I decided early on to homeschool our sons. My oldest, now 15 has with the exception of 5 days Kindergarten never been to school. Our 12 year old decided last year to go to our local middle school in Glendale because most of his friends are there. With this decision not only his world changed but mine as well.
One very crucial point was missing tonight in the discussion and that is the input and opinion of the children.
From an early age on kids have to follow a schedule that was not their choice.
They have to learn subjects in a schedule that was not their choice.
School is an invention for the market, so parents can work, it is not the choice of the kids.
If you as an adult had to follow such strict rules as applied in a school, where you could be denied going to the bathroom because the teacher suspects you just wanting to get a break, I wonder how you would cope with it, where you were told for 8 hours a day exactly what to do and when. I can’t even imagine this scenario without getting claustrophobic or depressed or angry.
And now add puberty into this situation…
I am not a laissez-faire advocate but I believe with the aim of raising happy and full-filled children that it is crucial taking them serious from the beginning on and respecting their opinion and interests. In other words if kids are consulted and integrated in the process of learning, dealing with behavioral problems, bullying, it empowers them and gives them dignity. There is less need to rebel against something you created yourself.
I know it is very idealistic, but our kids grow up, no matter what, they are the leaders of tomorrow, so we better take them seriously.
How quaint that you thing state open meeting laws are “stuffy Yankee mores.” Might I suggest that city council meetings and the such are “meetings in public” and not “meetings of the public.”
Good reply. You have it right. I’d add that council meetings are not for the entertainment of the public. Think of it as watching your friend at his desk at his work for three or four hours. Not real exciting.
I think the problem is that these meetings are more about performance than governance.
fantastic conversation. thanks for posting it. I shared on FB.
“the drum major instinct takes over”…”the wish to avoid knowing ourselves”, gee, Ghaemi, kinda glad you’re not MY psychiatrist, this is rather an apathetic outlook! Psychiatry without spirituality doesn’t work. Acknowledging the whole that is greater than oneself, realizing all the connectedness, this is the means to engage in reality rather than fleeing reality and “losing ourselves in a virtual reality”.
Emerson’s observation of human traits 200 years ago and his comment of people in a private unhappiness, because they “paid no attention to their own souls” is very pertinent today.
In our city – Desert Hot Springs, California – the city council closed session can only discuss issues of litigation and personnel. The big decisions are made in open session. Citizen turnout has been high at the beginnings of council meetings but tapering off to sometimes one or two at the end. However this is changing thanks to the November election. Meetings that were once 5 hours long are now less than 2 hours. This means that now more than a dozen people remain in attendance at the very end. This proves it is the personalities of the elected officials, not the process. The former 3 person council majority shifted in the last election with a different majority now in charge. Although some sniping and personal rivalries still exist, it is only two people that are disruptive and without the power they previously enjoyed the process and the performance is greatly improved plus less time is wasted.
This is so sad. To have stayed away from the Church that had given you such comfort. I am catholic. Went to twelve years of Catholic Schools. We have raised our child Catholic, now in her 20’s, she still comes to Church with us many sundays. She was an altar server until she went to college. I feel perhaps the stereotypes got the better of you. It is also sad about you and friends making fun of or putting down the Church. I have also experienced that attitude from others, the anti religion, anti catholic thing. I only know it is right for me and it is a great comfort for me. You either believe, have faith, or you don’t. I am not a preacher … to each his own. If others don’t get it I can’t make them. Perhaps you should have explored a bit until you found a Church you felt you could connect with. Our daughter was baptized in one Church, we attended mass at that and one other Church, and when it was time for her to have religious training we wound up at another church where we felt we liked the teachers and the congregation was friendly and many knew each other for years…and that Church became our home. Since we are from NYC it took a bit of searching to find our church. We have attended this church for about 17 years and have served there for many years, I serve mass alongside many
gay brothers and sisters.
One actually had a calling for the Priesthood and we prayed for and with him, and traveled along with him on his journey, and his being accepted, and we all celebrated together. One became a deacon. I have taken Theology and Bible workshops at LMU, usually workshops offered on weekends and have attended many of those classes with gays who are very active in their Catholic Churches. We have never ever felt our Gay Brothers and Sisters are not welcome at our Church. Jesus taught us that He is there for whomever wants Him in their life. I feel blessed to be Catholic where I have seen and felt His teachings in action many times over. And even before our new Pope expressed his feelings about this. But so glad he has…
I hope you pursue and act on your feelings of being drawn back to the Church. From my experience you will be welcomed and embraced with open arms. If not, keep searching until you find your place and pray for anyone who may not be so welcoming. But I do believe there are few and far between Catholic Churches where you would not be welcome if you are in L.A.
God Bless, and I pray you find comfort again and find your way back home where you belong..
It sounds like you had a lovely experience through the passing of your friend’s mother. Truly in connecting with our own weakness in the face of mortality, we also connect with a strength and “source” that is beyond our understanding. The church (not just the Roman church) has really done a disservice to the message of Christianity– a profound message of being loved, accepted, forgiven for failings, and not abandoned in good times, in adversity, in life, in death. Instead the church has all too often gotten mired in rule book religion, judgement, and exclusion. That is most definitely NOT the “good news” of the gospel, the first proclamation of which began with the words “Fear not!” and concluded with “Peace on earth, goodwill to all.” The Apostle Paul said “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who honors God and does what is right is acceptable to him (God).” (gender neutral) How we went from that to a patriarchal authoritarian dogmatic judgmental tap-dance all around the real Christian message is mind-boggling and can only be written off to “human-nature” — the good, the bad, and the ugly of it. The marginalization, and abuse of gay and lesbian people by and in the church has been shameful, and, I’m sure, grieves the heart of God. But it is important to note incremental baby steps by even the present Pope Francis– to affirming the diversity of the human family even to the point of him saying “Who am I to judge?” But non-churched (understandably so) people should take a look at the real message and also the record of progressive churches. Progressive christianity was at the forefront of the civil rights movement, and welcomes and champions the acceptance of all people as they are. Through all the smoke and candles and cardinals it’s good to remember that the mystical embraces us and we are all made “worthy” and welcome through divine love, that casts out fear, and welcomes all into “sanctuary”– a “God-place,” a safe place. We need that reminder because so many people have been treated so badly in the name of God– which makes such actions all the more egregious. And whether it’s “hip” or not– it is profound to feel the presence of God in our relationships with other human beings–whether it’s in a church, a hospital, a bar, or in bed with someone you love (whatever their gender) which is also a gift. And for those who misrepresent through lovelessness and judgement in the name of God or religion– they should be told to “cut the crap.” *The media should be called to task as well when issues come up and exclude progressive christians (muslims, jews, others) from the discussion in favor of Fallwells, and Westboro cretans, and such.
Hey Joe,
Thanks for your comments. However, about having fewer interruptions, tell that to the fuel injection pump on our auxiliary engine, the outboard motor and our freshwater pump, along with a number of other items that become jealous and demand attention when they feel ignored. Sailing is all about working on your boat in strange locations. Cheers. David Jensen
Welcome Home! We were away 16 years but circumstances (God?) caused us to return 30 years ago & we are blessed profoundly with a caring shepherd as a pastor. Didn’t have to wait for Pope Francis, but so glad he is our Holy Father …the Holy Spirit’s work.
First we are talking tightly regulated wilderness area’s only when saying that no motorized equipment can be used. That is a fault of the management policy and they would get more help if they made exceptions for work groups. No one wants to spend all day on one log when the job could be done in 15 minutes. Secondly even in wilderness area’s visitors want some improvements. The present hands off policy means exactly as you mention everything is going back to nature and any “improvement” requires environmental impact reports, public comment, and judicial review because nobody is happy with the plan and quite frankly “we the people” are sick and tired of all the red tape.
Agreeably funding is the primary issue forest managers face and with federal cut backs in spending you can thank the social politicians for choosing to keep their pet projects that get votes rather than preserve forests. Environmentalism is no longer a pet political issue as it was in the 1960’s instead the global warmists and their goal of setting up an economy of carbon credits is. This however could eventually direct funding back into our beloved wild lands but that is still decades out from political haggling.
So we seek the volunteer in the mean while and Sir we greatly thank you for your contribution!
No one I know has ever spent an entire day removing a tree with traditional tools.
The argument for special consideration to use motorized tools in Wilderness is a red herring. The issue is not getting more trees cut in less time it is getting more volunteers out there to begin with. The amount of time a Volunteer organization spends recruiting, training and traveling to the trail obstruction far outweighs the difference in work time between using a crosscut saw vs a chainsaw.
The trail crew I work on takes it as a point of pride that we remove hundreds of trees from the trail system each season without shattering the calm of the Wilderness. Many of the trees are 4′ or larger in diameter.
What’s missing is a commitment to giving back by everyone that benefits from the existence of the trails. If every hiker put in a few hours each year the maintenance backlog would be greatly reduced without ever having to disturb the peace and tranquility with a motor.
The use of power tools is divided by an arbitrary border one
side being wilderness and no power allowed, go 2 ft over and power is allowed
yet the same noise is heard as much as 20 miles away so the idea that noise in
the wilderness is an issue just doesn’t pass water here. Additionally aircraft
and highways echoing, hunters gun fire, dogs and wildlife etc. noise levels
vary with each day. Yes the goal is to provide the optimum experience for the
users of the land with peace and solitude so talked about in so many tales. But
when time constraints, budget cuts and the lack of staff and volunteers effects
use than it is time to choose to be flexible and get er done. There are
sections of the Angeles National forest burned in a fire 15-20 years ago that
have yet seen even a volunteer group go in and repair access to it and it is
not even in a wilderness area. Present policy is to keep the area closed until
that day comes. I was told that the popularity of a trail or recreation area is
what gets priority and again this is an arbitrary decision. The squeaky wheel
gets the grease. I was raised with this philosophy, “Blessed are those who
are flexible in spirit” If you cannot be a solution to the problem you are
the problem and you need to step out of the way so that those who can will get
er done.
There _is_ flexibility written into the Wilderness Act of 1964 but only when alternatives have been considered and there is no other means to achieve the desired result.
I think the 700 hours I spent volunteering in Wilderness in the past year put me pretty near the head of the pack of those people who are getting it done so that everyone can have access.
And barring unusual events (like Arborgeddon), the number of trees down is well within the time and abilities of volunteers…because “logging” is the easiest and most rewarding wilderness trailwork. The really hard work is building and rebuilding washed out/damaged/poorly built trails…and rock work and treadwork is mostly handwork. In wetter and more hospitable climes, brushing is the prevalent work…and while you can clear brush with a chainsaw (and then redo it every year as it sprouts back), unless you want to use herbicide on the entire trail corridor, doing it right requires the skills, techniques, and back breaking labor of rooting out the brush-root and stem.
Personally, I don’t have any interest in doing trailwork using and surrounded by earsplitting mechanisms and motors. Separating myself from Nature rather than working with to achieve lasting results.
ps: The Minimum Tool permitted chainsaw work for Arborgeddon was mostly sloppy and poorly executed, while the (greater amount of work) crosscut work was carefully and thoughtfully done (Do It Right Once!). Indeed, in several areas crosscut crews cleaned up the work that chainsaw crews failed to do to a reasonable standard.
“No motorized equipment” is not the whim of the local managers of Federally Designated Wilderness; it’s the historical interpretation of the 1964 Wilderness Act and has always been applied to FDW. And there has never been any such thing as ‘design improvements’ to FDW, the act’s intent is to allow land to remain without inclusion of facilities, developed trail camps or new structures.
On occasion, such as when crews cleared the historically unprecedented 2011 blowdown of thousands of big trees in Red’s Meadow Valley, the feds will grant special permits to operate power equipment to clear trails in a timely manner.
As a volunteer leader of PCT trail projects in non-wilderness, our crews use power equipment to cut blowdowns and brush. In FDW, traditional tools are slower but still do the job well. Enormous trees can be cut effectively using crosscut hand saws.
The loss of historical trails is lamentable. Given the shrinking budgets for federal land managers and that most wilderness trail work is now performed by volunteers, what safe maintained trails really can use is better volunteer support from trail users.
I joined the HSVTC in the early 2000’s, became a crew leader and served as a general use worker for several years. I am/was a certified chain saw and crosscut saw sawyer. Ken and I got our certifications together.
The rules about the wilderness (originally called primitive) areas specify that no powered items be allowed in them. The result is that the Forest areas that are covered by these rules are, almost always, quiet.
I first ran into these rules in 1958, when I was hiking the old “Oregon Crest Skyline Trail” and we were following a motorcycle that had chains on its tires. It really messed up the trail.
When we have sharp tools, it takes a surprisingly short tie to remove a tree from across a trail. With a crew size of 6 or more, only 2 may use a crosscut saw at the same time, which means that the others get to listen to the “wild”, take a break, etc.
Being certified with both types of saw, I always prefer the crosscut saw. When we get the rarely given special permission to use chain saws, it always involves hauling a bunch of gas and oil that is heavy and always causes problems. When we are allowed to use chain saws, it is because the trail probably not been maintained for many years.
On one trip one of our volunteers had an accident and badly broke her elbow. At that time it was a “no fly day” and she had to walk out several miles. There is nothing unusual about no fly days, the Forest Service is very consistent about keeping no mechanical equipment out of the wilderness areas.
In general if you can hear “civilization”, then you are not very deep in a wilderness area.
The trails need a lot of continuous work. I am now over 70, and primarily maintain tools for the HSVTC.
I agree. The Mayor should reconsider.
I would disagree that trails are being degraded through no fault of anyone in the valley. I grew up in the Central Valley and watched it get steadily more conservative in the 1980s and ’90s. Plenty of people in the Valley are voting for reduced government funding of wilderness area and against environmental protections. This is the result.
Thank you for the article. I do wish it would have provided a direct link to relevant volunteer organizations as hopefully many people will be motivated, as I was, to get involved. (Though based in Los Angeles, I can’t imagine the situation is much different in the National Forests and Parks closer to me.) A link to the High
Sierra Volunteer Trail Crew is available here: http://www.trailcrew.org/index.php/volunteer/create
In this day and age when we’re often being asked to give funds, it’s actually great to have a call to action that one can respond to “locally”, as well. And if it gets us out into our National parks, well, then, even better.
Stagflation is evidence that Iran’s leadership is hurting the
people and needs to be reformed. It also shows that pressure from sanctions
have an effect and shouldn’t be lifted until Iran makes changes in its human
rights record.
Forty years of limiting access to trails via tiny trail quotas has not
helped keep wilderness areas in the minds of the people. If people
cannot use the trails that are there, they turn to other modes of
recreation. After a generation, few are left who even care about seeing
the deep reaches our national forests and parks. It is no wonder funding is continually reduced.
It is always a delicate balancing act of encouraging people to get out and enjoy the wilderness while limiting the impact those visitors will have. Something to note is that the vast majority of the 757 designated wilderness areas do not have a permit or visitor limiting system in place.
Go out and enjoy the peace and solitude.
So glad to have read this article! Since the sculptures were first installed, I’ve been wanting to know more about them. Their shapes and positioning are so beautiful. I’ve really enjoyed driving past, day and night, all seasons. Whenever my grandchildren visit, as often as possible we always drive the length beginning at Santa Monica Blvd. and delight in looking and discussing. They’ll be missed!
Thanks. I will think about that.
The people who want to get rid of the carriage horses do no love animals. They love the money they would make from developing the real estate currently occupied by the horses. Real animal rights activists support working horses and encourage the bond between humans and animal.
All of the arguments in favor of banning horses fall flat. Dangerous? Cars and bicycles are far more dangerous. Hard on the horses? Being forced out of a job into a “waiting adoptive home”, thus taking the spot of a horse who really DOES need to be adopted, causing the suffering of yet another abandoned horse, is much harder. Anachronism and unnecessary? The skating rink reference is very apropos (oh, how many have sprained their ankles while skating, should we ban that too?)
It is so hopeful and inspiring to hear how you moved beyond the cancer and ran a marathon ! I’m almost 6 years from my diagnosis with breast cancer and still can’t seem to get myself to even take regular walks. maybe this will help move me toward that goal. My doctor said that I could take all the supplements and do all the alternative therapies I want to, but that exercising to sweat every day was the best thing. Thank you for taking the time to share your story.
Hi Debra! Six years –fantastic! Congratulations. Running’s not for everyone, but if you’re inclined to try it, I highly recommend joining a group. I’m a member of the LA Leggers in Santa Monica, which I love. There are runners and walkers, all pace groups.
There are lots of other groups, too — Roadrunners, East Side Slugs — lots. For me, being part of a group has been key. It’s the motivating factor to get me out there — I feel accountable to the group. Once there, I am somehow propelled along by the motion of others…and feel like a million bucks when I’m done. Most of the groups start slow and work up incrementally, which makes it very doable. So maybe give it a try! Take care —
You guys need some of those glass domes to act as donut display cases. Put a “Don’t eat the Art” sign on the handle.
So when will this travel to Santa Monica? It’s making me hungry!
Oh, T.A.! What a loss for Zocalo. What a beautiful body of work you leave behind. You are a masterful editor. I can’t wait to read your own work! Best wishes for your new endeavors!
I took your course! I loved the family recipe project, the farmers’ market visit, etc. You were asking these questions in the late-90s long before I heard them asked elsewhere. Loved this piece.
TA, I do not exaggerate, when I say that you, personally, are responsible for a big change in trajectory of my life. It was a direction that I wanted to move, and you stepped in at exactly the right moment, with the right suggestion. Some may call it luck, I call it talent. You have touched a lot of lives at Zocalo, and all are better for it. I can only wish you and your lovely family the best in the new direction taken, and happiness for you all.
Thanks for the opportunity to get the word out on the Museum of Donuts.
We have no plans on a traveling show yet, but maybe if we ran across an old police car, we could pull something together. In the mean time, you could enjoy some ‘art’ with no restrictions on eating at your favorite donut establishment.
thanks so much for the info claire. im going to ck it out! you are amazing
My dad sent me a clipping of this article from a local newspaper. I can vouch for the truth of the trail conditions, having spent the last two summers in 10 day 100 mile loops in the Southern Sequoia National Park region. South of Sequoia National Park.
Trails that appeared on my (Tom Harrison) maps were not maintained, and were very difficult to find at times. I recall one particular stretch that was about 4 miles of constant dead fall and overgrown brush, downhill which took 8 hours to traverse. It was brutal and excruciatingly difficult. It was not only challenging, but also dangerous.
That said, there is also great solitude to be found. In 10 days I saw 3 souls, and none until day 5 or 6. And the fishing is AMAZING.
Meanwhile, in the few miles that I crossed the Pacific Crest Trail, I saw scores of people.
It seems to me that 99% of the people venturing out into the wilderness are looking to check a box off on their bucket list (like the JMT or PCT) leaving the vast wilderness untouched. I’m kind of mixed. Although the miles with poor trails are much more difficult, there is much more solitude, but it comes with increased risk and chance of injury or worse.
From the tone of the conversation, it sounds like peace and quiet can be preserved with cross cut saws and trained crew members with hand tools and we just need a few more of you. I say “you” and not “us” as up to now, I have not volunteered time and talent to the cause. If I had more time, I would definitely volunteer.
I hope the volunteer groups you work with keep in touch with prospect as well as true volunteers, as some of us can help financially if not with time, and might be able to contribute time some years in the future if we feel valued and appreciated.
I do however make it a point to pick up any random piece of trash, wrapper, etc. that I see along the trail. It kinda raises my hackles to see trash way out in the wild, and I can lower my hackles by taking out the trash for the next explorer.
This is so sad but also hopeful. May Bruce Vilanch and the ghost of Paul Lynde find space in those talking head-spaces and help shut down the haters.
As a similar English/American hybrid, I always envied my friends in both countries that had such a powerful sense of home. Split between the two, I often felt disingenuous saying that I belonged in either. I inevitably seemed to miss the place that I was away from. When in London (where I am now), I longed to be back in Los Angeles. When in America, I started to miss England again after a while (a year usually). But I think I like your conclusion in the last line better – that we’re lucky, that they are both home. I’m grateful that I can experience that kind of constant change and revolution. Loved the piece. Hope to read more from you soon.
We’re diverse all right ; we ‘re just not growing.
The author seems to forget/dismiss the fact that the San Joaquin Valley is a bowl with some already bad air. Did you forget the weeks of bad air quality in January? Then consider the increased air pollution put out by oil refineries.
I’d suggest Mr. Nickelsburg also take a look at the oil, gas, and chemical corridor in Louisiana and examine the air quality there, and that region is not even in the air basin bowl that we are.
With regard to the Monterey Shale and its oil potential, the author likely knows nothing about the chemicals including hydrofluoric acid that would be needed to treat it during the tracking process. I’d suggest he try living next to one of these sites or the refinery before making his proposed solutions, then too he probably lacks the chemical knowledge to consider the implication of his proposals, as well as the air basin info. Business school types often fail to consider the scientific knowledge to comprehend the impact of their solutions, just like far too many members of Congress.
Why is diversity only measured in ethnicity? Do not diversity of thought, background, political persuasion, etc. count as diversity? I venture to say that some of the new “immigrants” may actually be illegal aliens. Are not LA & other parts of California sanctuary cities? This influx of new “immigrants” as you refer to them are straining the economic (e.g., welfare & medical costs), social (e.g., schools) and ecological (e.g., drought) resources of the state.
Seriously? You’re paying $1,000 a MONTH for THREE PEOPLE (one of whom is a child!), and you think this is great?? Come back when you’re paying $300 a month. And how much of this $1000 a month is your company paying for? How much of this $1000 a month are you writing off? How much of it comes out before taxes, 35%?
I think “art form” is way too much. It’s a craft, a skill, a technique, but it’s not great art. Is the writer this enraptured of the swirls made by baristas?
Sondheim….oh so Sondheim!!!!!
Am saving money this month by giving up on manicures and it’s a mistake. Is it art to make a home one’s own? Nail colors are art punctuations on the body, just as huge bold collections of flowers can be in the kitchen window. Punctuating life with choices that shout? Definitely art.
Ranked-Choice Voting, for instant runoffs, whenever.
California has a lot of talent and content under the radar of the media’s Iron Curtain Of Mostly Glitz. If Joe is correct (and I believe he is) in calling for a show FOR Californians, then producers have to go further than their usual gestalt of celebrities and smiling, snappy hosts with oodles of writers to give them the lines they need. You need a show with some humor and a few movie star guests (of course). But more than that, you need someone with empathy and compassion for the people of this amazing state in all their myriad varieties. Also a little sense of wonder a la Huell Howser wouldn’t hurt. Someone who has feet on the ground, rather than the self-absorbed, mostly trivial and slightly insincere bonhomie and froth we’ve been used to.
Did Leno have empathy? Was he too much the promoter/entertainer and not enough listener? I give you one of his brutal sins of censorship: A few years ago, he interviewed a young actress on the Tonight Show. The usual bits of chatty crosstalk took place. But in a moment of candor and edification for the audience, she started to talk about her background in classical ballet. Obviously she valued it. When she brought up the name of George Balanchine, with some reverence, he interrupted her before she could finish pronouncing his name, asking her if she had run into members of Dinasaur Jr. Aside from the beyond-irony of bringing up a pop music group that was more about marketing than music to overshadow one of the great artists of the 20th century, the interruption was also disconcerting to the actress, who, appearing distressed for a split second, responded with some appropriate banter gamely. On the surface, this kind of dynamic had far more serious consequences in his promotion of Arnold. Some serious questions and listening time might have shown us that for all his good intentions, the governor-in-waiting might have an image people invested in much bigger than his potential ability to change Sacramento.
The more logical target of Mathews’ war declaration is Lorne Michaels. It is this Canadian’s desire to keep the additional commutes as short as possible that drove the relocation of THE TONIGHT SHOW to NYC and the continuation of LATE NIGHT in the same building. Ergo, “Blame Canada!”
Yeah I see both sides and kinda lean towards the Euro’s system of dealing with the animals. But that’s not where I stand. I’m from the third camp stated above. I don’t thing animals should be jailed and left for people’s amusement. Granted there maybe a case if the animal is facing extinction.
The vigilante gray painter struck outside our house on Emmet Terrace last night
eresting article discussing the differences in zoo philosophies. It is a valid point that predators in the wild do not have the choice or get fed food that is prepared. They have to hunt for it, and sometimes might go days without eating. Predators choose the young, the sick and the old for their food. I, too, raised my voice against the zoo’s director for his choice, forgetting that there is always another side to the picture. Maybe it would have been easier for people to understand if Marius had not been given a name that made him more lovable and personalized to people. Maybe, too, American zoos might take some wisdom from the way Danish and other European zoos feed their animals. Do those of us who are carnivorous cry every time we buy a package of sanitized meat at the grocery store? Probably not, since many forget there was a living, breathing creature who gave its life to put dinner on the table for them.
Hey Vigilante painter – head on up to Kirkwood Drive and give us some gray. We have parking wars here too.
American Colleges and Universities have a two-fold problem. A Recruiting Problem and a Bottleneck. I graduated from UCLA in 2003 in four years, I had to go to summer school to make up the units and keep my GPA above the 3.6 hard deck to keep my scholarships. It takes too long to graduate, even now “Super Seniors,” are the norm taking 5.5 years to exit the UC system. Electives and pre-requisites take up too much time and they are expensive, smarter students become risk averse and decide on a faster less expensive major and forgo Honors and a minor in favor of exiting sooner and keeping costs low. How many STEM students become business majors in the UC system is astounding.
Furthermore the UC has a Recruiting problem. I did not come from a wealthy family so USC was out of the question, yet USC actively tried to recruit me with loans, grants and incentives. I was shocked that UCLA did not have a similar set of features to sway me, but taking on $100,000 in debt in 2002 was enough for me to chose UCLA. Most minority applicants forgo the UCs for this reason and apply to the Cal States or out of state because UC is in their minds unattainable. So even before a dialogue on campus diversity can take place the very community to benefit from it is self selecting out of the debate.
UC should actively recruit the students they want early.
This is a visual add to that moving piece.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXMMu87pRjQ
All of these answers, so far, are complete bs! Instructors shouldn’t seek to fail too many freshmen? Just make Black men feel more welcome by not asking them what they’re doing there all the time? Help people not get their hopes up about getting into a top school, and instead help them apply to a school they can actually get into? I clicked this because I thought it would be a real discussion about the true nature of the inequity (NOT “unequality”) inherent in high school treatment and preparation of Black and Brown students, boys in particular, the segregationist recruitment tactics employed by colleges in their recruitment efforts (fully aided and abetted by our nation’s high schools), and the almost outright exclusion of culturally influenced support systems on college campuses, that extend far beyond simply making sure there is access to tutoring and a BSU or Hispanic Leaders club on campus. Judging by the answers these “experts” have given, I suggest you table this discussion until you consulted with a more diverse, problem entrenched, and vocal set of real experts, lest your talk end up doing nothing more than adding another line to your panelists’ CVs, and making a room full of really clueless people feel like they can more fully empathize with the plight of the poor minority student a little better, while never even breaching the walls of the real problem.
I have known Mr. Powell for many years now, and I have never once heard this story. He is full of authentic baubles and paragon scoops, and I’m so thrilled we have this forum for him to share something so marvelous. Thank you, Ernie.
I have known Ernie Powell for years and have heard this story before. But his writing has made it more real, more moving for me than ever before. Excellent piece of work, Ernie. I love this story and am actually printing it out to save.
I’m a former constituent of Congressman Flood’s and native of the coal country of Pennsylvania, who said good-bye to all that and am now a southern Californian. I had no idea Cesar Chavez made it there. Fantastic story of an unlikely duo who undoubtedly put on a helluva show.
Ernie, My daughter graduated from high school in Rialto where we lived when I returned from Viet Nam. Great story and one I had not heard before. Cesar had that kind of effect on a lot of us. Carlos continues to spread the word thru the Cesar Chavez Service Club where I am a proud board member.
Funny how adversity makes us better, stronger, and more connected. Like you, I felt the fear, uncertainty, and anguish of fighting cancer only I experienced it as a mom. Our 4 year old was diagnosed a rare form of cancer and he fought (and won) after 3 recurrences. Keep running and most of all, keeping smiling. Survivorship is a war scar worn proudly– http://www.medicalmmies.com
I totally missed seeing this when you posted it. I’m sorry! I can only imagine how difficult it must have been to parent a young child through cancer treatment. How sweet, the victory! And how precious, your comments here. Yes, war scars. Thank you!
Great story, well told.
They’re massive timewasters and click bait. Self-knowledge? They’re based on superficial, arbitrary criteria. BuzzFeed will be the downfall of society!
+1 & -1 on your timing. Giving the readers the heads up on this festival 4 weeks into it is not really that beneficial, now is it? Granted there’s a little over 2 weeks left, but is it really the best way to introduce people to the festival?
The Festival takes place the first two weekends in March. It has not yet begun.
Yeah I guessed wrong on that. If you look at their home page, it shows with my browser, “UARY 27 ROGUE MARCH 8”. The link next to UARY is messed up and covers the “FEBR”. My bad on jumping to that conclusion stated above.
In FAQ section it states, “Rogue is the first 2 weekends of March. The 2014 Festival will take place from Thursday, February 28 to Saturday, March 8”.
What I find fascinating is the information people are willing to openly share to participate in these “quizzes.” I remember one that created your Downton Abbey name by using Lady or Sir in front of your mother’s maiden name, your first pet’s name and your father’s mother’s maiden name (for results like Lady Hoffman Scruffles Fallbrook). It was all so funny, and my friends posted them on Facebook, until I pointed out that those are the exact security questions banks ask these days to verify your online account. It’s insane that nobody is thinking about what they are telling hundreds of random companies, many getting the information through hidden bots that you don’t even know are on the page. Not sure why anyone would do that.
Well, it seems like the 60s 70s and 80s in America, from the Watts Riots to Giuliani and Broken Windows, was a time of similar fear in America. It gave us gated communities and contributed to NIMBYism. It got a bit better. Should we send Giuliani to Argentina? Is there a racial subtext to the Great Fear in Argentina, as there was with ours?
giuliani already went to argentina, and he’s the mayor of buenos aires
on an individual level, you feel way more likely to be robbed when you have more sh*t than those around you. when your pockets are empty, you’d be surprised at how this perception of imminent danger vanishes almost completely. (on a related side note: if you’ve ever ventured out to rob someone yourself, you feel absolutely impervious to crime (whereas you feel imminent danger from the police)). Basically, the perception of imminent danger from street crime, for the individual, is quite subjective to one’s own circumstances and how those circumstance relate to the greater environment. so perhaps this rampant paranoia among the argentine middle class more an awareness that they’ve got more than their share of sh*t, and that others might naturally want to take away said sh*t.
Bears out in my Mexican-American family. My parents immigrated to U.S. from Jalisco when they married. My dad’s first job was working the fish canneries in LA’s Harbor Area. He jumped to oil refinery work, furniture salesman, American Cancer Society outreach than retired as director of a social service agency. My mom stayed home for a while, then worked housekeeping, assembly and finally retired as an assistant director at a teen center. My siblings: a policeman, an MFA, a teacher, a telecom exec and me, a gadabout and raconteur. (Can’t win them all).
Thoughtful, insightful article.
Great analysis..I’ll think of it as I fly to Shanghai.
This along with their better diet is what I contribute to seeing healthier people in the European countries I’ve visited. Nice story and thanks.
I rode the bus from Palms to Venice for years when I worked there. I read 17 books on the bus in one summer. The writer here reminds us of the way riding on public transportation puts us in touch with the city in a way driving cannot. I have ridden the train from Culver City to downtown many times since it opened and prefer it much more than driving. If you are with friends you can talk with them without dividing your attention as driving does. I still love a good road trip, but within the city public transit is far superior- they just need to keep adding pieces to the lines.
Loved this! You know the city when you bus it/walk it/bike it in a way you never do in a car.
Nicolei–thanks for sharing your experience! I loved reading about how you go to school as a kid, and how you make your way to the office today as an adult. The data does bear out that there is more congestion in the road, particularly where you are traveling (within the city, to Santa Monica, which is a major job hub). I grew up not far from you, near the Beverly/Western subway station. The places you mention are so familiar to me. I am not Filipino, but my Thai parents would take me to Betsy’s (and then Goldilocks) to buy sweet taro flavored Filipino cakes and we would sometimes go to Seafood Market for seafood.
An accurate piece written by someone who actually grew up here instead of some ignorant transplant who would just compare everything to NYC/Boston/DC/SF or wherever ! 🙂
Well writen and very thought provoking. I was there a little bit during the 80’s and your article brings back a memory of mine. Being in a gay bar in Provincetown dancing my heart out, I was struck hard by the sight of a man also dancing his heart out. We never spoke but I remember how beautiful he was, how very alone he was in his expression (but powerful) and there. He was clearly in the grips of the disease. I will never forget him. I never knew his story but he impacted me just seeing him dance!
Awesome piece. I get the sense that if a lot of the people in the generation of young adults coming up now have the author’s expansive life experience and comfort with people from all walks of life, and lack of fear about “the other,” we’ll be alright as a society. I’m looking forward to when she and other like-minded people of her generational cohort are running this country. It’ll be such a breath of fresh air in comparison to the torrent of fear and judgment latent in so much of what passes for political discourse right now.
Having the experience of riding the bus as a child strikes me as good a way as any to instill these values.
Love it. Thank you!
Great piece! I’ve been using Metro for 10 years, and you really tell the story well. Thank you.
The problem is systemic. Lawa, which runs lax, has been systemically gamed. Lawa is dependent on parking revenue along w rental car, cab and limo revenue. This gaming is systemic and planned. Lawa has opposed any direct mass transit into lax. Our beloved GM and ExxonMobil lobbyists were involved in the setting up of lawa and its financing.
The city needs to take over lawa, restructure its finances and make it work for the public.
Sounds like things have not really changed since Roger Rabbit got framed. LAX is the egregious example of this absurdity
Ironically it’s in smaller cities that the transit system seems to be reaching airports: PDX, SLC, OAK (soon), DEN (underway) that I’m aware of.
Very well said. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Of course, if you feel the film treats your experience as a plot twist, its technical and artistic quality hardly matter. I can’t say, personally, that I think the films disavows the culture of AIDS, because that culture was very much conditioned by geography; activism in North Carolina (where I was raised) for example, didn’t look the same as activism in New York City, and I believe both experiences–in part *because* they are so different–deserve to be remembered. However, your point is well taken. Differences of opinion like these are very generative, and tremendously helpful to historians. Vito Russo (surprisingly enough, given it’s conservative message), was a passionate defender of “Longtime Companion,” and that’s fascinating to me, because it tells me a lot about how he understood the political and cultural moment in which he was fighting. That is to say, just by commenting on this article, you are adding to the archive people like me draw from. Thank you for that. I hope you will continue letting your thoughts–and maybe, one day, your story–be heard.
Respectfully,
Andrea Milne
Truly a refreshing piece. My parents both entered the US 25 years ago. My Father works in manual labor and Mother doing various jobs throughout the years. Both high school dropouts in Mexico with little to no prospects of upward mobility in their native homeland, much less here in many ways. 25 years later they own a home in a predominantly 2nd/third generation Latino & 1st/2nd generation Asian upper middle class neighborhood. Unfortunately the glass ceiling is well at work, impeding them from truly capturing the final piece of the American dream.
Thanks for the opinion Professor. Many of us lived the Cold War and are not surprised by today’s events. It’s also very easy to tell which side of the Iron Curtain held your affection. I’ll assume since you’ve written a book you know the history there and so you know why western Ukraine despises Russia. To many Ukrainians, their country was already being handed over to Mr. Putin by one more in a long line of rather corrupt leaders. The British colonies here had far less reason to form a “rump” government in 1776. No matter, at this point Ukraine is already partitioned. No one believes the US/NATO has the will to do anything except bloviate about Crimea. The real question now is how far west does Putin think his empire extends. So far he does’t seem to be impressed when others show restraint except when it means he gets what he wants. A war would be a terrible thing but if NATO doesn’t get it’s act together and show more determination, Russian will become a mandatory class in a lot more schools next year. The more things change I guess. At least under the Soviet Union, they never felt the need to wear ski masks when they invaded. Maybe they were just left over from the winter Olympics.
Speaking of bloviation, Terry, the only reason any of us are here to argue the point is because during the Cold War our leaders and theirs didn’t follow the advice of people like you when it really mattered.
best piece on the current crisis. everyone should get out of the mentality of keeping treating Russia as public enemy #1.
It’s a strange mix of news this morning– who won Oscar Gold, a “snow day” in Washington, and, Putin’s attempted (or is it already done) annexation of the Crimea. If one reads the history of the Crimea from the “Crimean War” days on it’s chilling to see how a place that has been so “under the radar” for most of Western Europe and certainly America, has been and continues to be a possible pivot point on world history. The Ukraine is calling up reserves. John Kerry is on his way to Kiev. It almost feels like the responding “bomb squad” going in to defuse the thing– with the minor detail that the timer is set and ticking.
Does anyone really think that Vladimir Putin just “saw an opportunity” this week and took it? Last week he was saying “We’re just doing normal military exercises in the region.” This week it’s “Surrender your military bases by tomorrow or we’ll take them by force. By tomorrow morning the news may go from Oscar gold to blood red. If it were a weather prediction, the report would be blood red skies on the horizon.
Are our eyes so easily diverted by spectacle? Rewind a few weeks– both the opening and closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics didn’t have more than a few perfunctory statements about “peace and world unity” through athletic competition. Instead we had dazzling spectacles that were nothing short of a glorification– and rewriting– of Russian history. Putin and his team actually managed to leave out Joseph Stalin and, his namesake, Vladimir Lenin– along with pogroms, and Jews, and homosexuals. Of course there was Tchaikovsky and mention of Diagalev and the Rite of Spring (made famous “in the day” by Ninjinsky). But denials of the composer of the 1812 Overture’s relations with men had already been “deleted” from history when Putin defended his anti-gay Nazi-esque tactics earlier this year. Even protests at the Metropolitan Opera in New York against those Russian anti-gay policies were dismissed here by the head of the Met with “Of course we don’t discriminate, but we try to stay out of politics.” Diva Anna Netrebko and Conductor Valery Giergev are know to be darlings of Putin. Giergev was the capable podium maestro for musical elements of the greatest propaganda extravaganza ever. In the meanwhile, struggles in Kiev escalated—
I am involved in the arts in many ways, including founding the 15 year old Scandinavian Film Festival L.A. Two years ago we screened a film by Finnish Director Reny Harlin called “Eight Days of War” about Russia’s (i.e. Putin’s) activities in Georgia. This year we included a “Baltic film expo” at the festival with films from Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. You can bet the Balts are watching Putin. The result of many “relocations” during Soviet times have resulted in large Russian ethnic and linguistic minority populations in each of those countries. (During Soviet times all civil service and licensing exams were given ONLY in Russian.) Does the presence of a Russian speaking population give license to invade?
The Russian people have a great history and the world is blessed with the gifts of Russian culture. We know many many talented Russians who live in the west– in the arts, and in the sciences, and more than a few figure-skaters! But Putin is skating on thin ice. The Russian people can celebrate their culture. But no one can re-write it’s history to exclude pogroms, anti-semitism, labor camps, gulags, and violations of human rights.
The morning news had emotional interviews from the large Ukrainian community in Chicago. They remember the history left out of Putin’s Sochi spectacles in olympic proportions. Here in Los Angeles we have large Russian and Ukrainian communities. These communities are comprised of people that left oppression. Some of that oppression was during Soviet times. Some of it was the “same old, same old” that continued after Soviet times. To NOT take this all very seriously is like pre-WW II days when people didn’t think Hitler and National Socialism was a threat. Yes, restraint is prudent, but inaction is not. This is a time for careful handling of a situation that threatens world peace– a time for working together with our allies and through structures like the United Nations. This is not a time for reckless and nearly treasonous politics as we are seeing from Lindsey Graham and John McCain’s Obama bashing. Enough of their political sour grapes. This is the time to stand together as a united nation and let our leaders do their job.
Brilliant piece that allows those of us who are interested, but are not in-depth followers of the history of the region, to have some perspective of what is actually happening. Thanks!
Suggestions about the ultra nationalist are probably correct; They seem to exist in all societies. I have read most recently that a number of the ultra-nationalist proclamations have been rescinded (official Lithuanian language usage, etc). But what about reports of the the existence of Russian provocateurs (http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/3a8833b6-a230-11e3-87f6-00144feab7de.html#axzz2uvoqKzez)? They too seem credible. And how can Crimea be of any use to the Russians without the Ukraine? I doesn’t seem logical to take the Peninsula without extracting additional concessions from the Ukraine concerning access, water, etc?
Agreed; the West doesn’t need to provoke Russian nationalist, but shouldn’t there be limits on Mr. Putin? He has, after all, turned into a tyrant of sorts. The legitimacy of the Ukrainian Parliament may be questioned;elections need to be held. However, elections shouldn’t be treated as a winner-take-all affair. Rights and institutions need to be respected by all parties; if the winner put the loser on trial, then surely bad blood will result. If corruptions make the common Lithuanian feel deprived, then a sense of righteousness in protest will result, even if it is misguided. Both the EU and Russia need to quite using the Ukraine as a pawn in global politics; they have sufficient problems of their own.
Very good balanced article.
Great article, incomplete policy prescription.
Our primary objective should be a reasonable containment of Russia, allowing its sphere of influence to include eastern Ukraine.
We should be deploying troops to Poland and the Baltics now. On a permanent basis. This will demonstrate in language Russia will understand, “hey, our bad on Ukraine we didn’t realize it was so important to you, but this far and no further.” We should be making back channel deals with Kiev to deploy our forces straight to Kiev if Russia threatens the capital. We should leak these deals to the Russians, and also leak that we have no intent of defending southern and eastern Ukraine.
Though I don’t know if the author understands it, what he advocates necessarily means the breaking off of southern and eastern Ukraine. Which, in the long run, is a good thing for both Ukraine and the West. The police and officials there are powerless. Russian and pro-Russian Ukrainian protesters are seizing buildings all over the place. If the central government does not crack down, make arrests etc. the riots and attacks on government facilities and politicians and their families will just continue until each region votes the government in Kiev illegitimate and votes to join Crimea’s status (whatever that turns out to be). But if Kiev does crack down, Russia will invade.
So Kiev can’t win here. But, if it keeps up a strategy of doing nothing, it will only lose the south and east. That’s 50% of the economy and 45% of the people but what will be left is a state with a truly united culture and opinion on foreign policy. Carrying out back breaking reforms and joining Europe would then be feasible in a few years.
What Europe and America must NOT do, is allow Russia to play its leverage in negotiations for an adjustment of the situation in Kiev and Ukraine as a whole. That will only mean this will happen again, it will demoralize western Ukraine, alienate them from the West, and probably lead to a violent struggle in Western Ukraine between the nationalists and the mainstream politicians. That will in turn divide Western Ukraine and allow another Russian backed candidate to triumph in the next elections. After that, Ukraine will lose all its freedoms as authoritarian methods are imposed.
Venezuela is a panic room.
Your essay left me in tears. For days I have been trying to convey to my American friends and family members what my news feed looks like with my Venezuelan friends breaking my heart and my American ones going about life. You put in words what I have been trying to share in dribbles. THANK YOU.
I grew up in Colinas de Bello Monte and spent a lot of time in Altamira, where my grandparents lived. I am sorry such a beautiful area has been reduced to a war zone. Keep telling the truth of what you are experiencing–in English.
May God Bless you and my beautiful Venezuela.
Thank you very much, Caroline. And amen.
How are things today? I keep checking–the media is woefully behind in English. Is there a reliable source in English that you would recommend for updated news from Venezuela besides Twitter?
Things today are no good. In this precise moment we’re in the panic room again and the GNB is shooting a lot in the surroundings. It went ugly in Carrizar, Margarita, Táchira, etc.
I recommend the blog Caracas Chronicles, if you don’t know it already. But its approach is analytical, not informative.
And save for Panama, all the other Latin American countries are complicit. Shame on Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, Mexico…
Well, it’s complicated. Let’s wait and see. I’m sure Venezuela will spark their preoccupations if end up like a South American Somalia: a harbor for drug dealers and new pirates of the Caribbean. I dont’ want that to happen, of course, but I’m afraid is a possible scenario, given the corruption of its armed forces and the opportunities that offer the chavista state and the +2,000 km long Caribbean and Atlantic shores.
Excellently written!!! My parents in Venezuela also live half a block from the plaza Altamira, and somehow could relate throughout their own experiences. It is a shame that you and your family are seriously considering leaving, but hey, no brainer right!!!….I would pass this article to my American friends…better information here than any CNN has produced in English….Thanks a million!!!
You’re very generous. Thanks a lot.
You’re very generous. Thanks a lot.
Very well written indeed, your work is remarkable here and we need pieces like this now more than ever, but I cannot help to feel also a little bit desperate for your little girl. I am originally from Valencia and now I live in Northern California, my thoughts and prayers are precisely with the youngest members of my family who live there. Is this going to end? Are we going to be able to recover whatever is left of the country and bring it back to our children? Mis respetos.
Erm… Chechnya? The public persecution of many minorities especially in Moscow? Internet is full of gruesome videos of Russian neo-nazis beating up people from Caucasus or Central Asia. Work ads recruit often only “European-looking” employees. Russian society is currently the most xenophobic in Europe. And if Russia annexes Crimea, the indigenous Crimean Tartars will have to face it once again…
You should ask some Chechens what kind of place modern Russia is.
You should ask some Iraqis or Afghanis what kind of place the US is.
The US has utterly incompetent leadership. We can do 2 things. One is sanctions on anyone who knows Putin, with 100% asset seizures and travel bans. This is mostly Russian oligarchs who stole their money so why not?
The other is simple. Offer Ukraine better economic integration with the west but DO NOT force them to choose between the West and Russia. Let them have better integration with Russia too if they want. This is very much in Russia’s best interests economically, which may be adequate to distract them from how corrosive it would be of their totalitarian government to let their people travel freely in Ukraine and see things working well there under a more open system.
This is a penetrating analysis, but I think it overstates the case for ethnic division in Ukraine.
I am not convinced that large numbers of East Europeans want to leave Ukraine. An estimate is that 17% of Ukrainians are ethnic Russians. The rest are not (including large numbers of Easterners). “Russified” Ukrainians (in language, culture) are not necessarily or even probably Russian nationalists; the idea that linguistic borders match national sentiments in Ukraine, in my view, is a myth propagated by nationalists on both sides. After all, Soviet internal passports designated nationality as an official category, and Ukrainians were distinguished from Russians independent of language use.
My suspicion is that bused-in Russians from the East make up a significant part of the angry crowds in Kharkiv, Donetsk etc.
The articles uses an old “West- East” conspiracy theory without giving the Ukrainian people a right of self-determination. The revolution in Ukraine was an attempt to break with the post -Soviet past (the concentraion of power in the hands of one person, corruption, absence of rule of law ). The new government recieved a broad support by all parties, including the Party of regions of the former president Yanukovich. No one “chased away the large part of the parliament” and the language law was subsequently repealed. The deep divide between the West and East of Ukraine is largely overplayed.
I think the first premise, that the West “overplayed its hand” is completely wrong… which badly affects the subsequent arguments presented here, unfortunately. The West was not interfering on the ground and stirring up trouble in Ukraine through a corrupt administration and shipped in rioters. The west was mostly too busy with its own problems to really even think much about the Maidan until a few people got killed.
I am spending a year in Boston with my girls, and I really thank God for the opportunity. Without any idea this would happen, and against all odds, I decided to come … But I can not imagine living anywhere else in the world but in my home, in Los Palos Grandes. I am very scared to take my children to a war zone though… I go to bed, and wake up every day, praying to God and hoping he will take care of our country soon. Things can look very different from one day to the other… We, venezuelans are usually blamed for not having a political memory. It is in these particular tough times when I believe that this lack of memory can be our biggest blessing. I am sure that if Capriles had been given the office as he deserved in October´s elections, the next day we would have had very few “declared” chavistas left. “Ooooh me?, NEVER! My wife used to be chavista, not anymore man! or Yeah few of my friends were, sometimes I faked it you know, just in case because of those colectivos, ZAPE! I never believed in their Socialismo del s XXI!!!
So, if for some reason we ever get the chance for a transition government to take Venezuela back to where it belongs, I trust the people of venezuela enough to know that ALL that hate government has tried to convey for years would remain just a bad memory. We will never be what we used to be, but we can be a better and more inclusive society one day. We need to believe it, we need to work for it, we need to show it in our everyday interactions, even now! Venezuela is in my heart and I really wish this to be over asap. Take care of yourselves, we are praying for you all everyday!!! My nephew is spending the night in prison to fight for Democracy, I am not there, but I am suffering for my people … God bless us all always.
…
So. Let’s talk reapolitik here, not ideals. The issues with the IIPB that led to the War of Dagestan and the Moscow Apartment Bombings are very unlikely in Ukraine. I’m not saying life in Russia is charming or progressive. However, it is likely preferential to a pointless civil war which would not be supported by the majority of the population of Crimea and other parts of Eastern Ukraine which is Russian. That’s simply the case. Life in a somewhat repressive state is usually preferably to calamitous Civil War, and those areas lean toward Russia.
Awesome.
What about his brother, Steve Baldwin?
Once again the Bay Area kicks our butt?
Alec Baldwin lived in LA for a number of years, in Woodland Hills. Get your facts straight.
Exactly what the corporate controlled mass media want; To keep us distracted from what they are really doing in the world, and manipulated through the likes of feeding us news of some punk kid from Canada (JB) that is just looking for a free ride. Absolutely goddamn right.
cool nice story
I enjoyed reading this story. I related to it even having been born in the late 60s here in Los Angeles County.
I’m with Shelly and Manuel on this one. I think the same thing happened
in a lot of places. I was born shortly after WWII began in a small
town in Washington State where our daily newspaper showed up from
Seattle just as we were getting out of school at 3:16. The boys who
delivered the newspapers couldn’t be on sports teams because teams
practiced right after school. One of the most startling events of my
young life was when our paperboy (one of six in town) gave up his paper
route so he could play football and basketball.
Thanks, Manuel, for bringing back the memories.
v
A thoughtful and thought-provoking piece that first of all doesn’t buy into the typical antagonist “frame” for China reportage, and secondly does what fine essays were originally intended to do: explore and illuminate a subject while writing about it. The vulnerability of Jim Spear is very moving as he talks about his own responses to his difficult and demanding father, whose life choices nonetheless gave Spear both the impetus and the opportunity for a better life. Set against the backdrop of fading opportunities for so many Americans, rural Aussies and Chinese, the ironic note that closes the essay is poignant and insightful. Spear sees how he has gotten to where he is, a place of prosperity and integrity, of meaning, but genuinely worries that all of this achievement may be just a blip on the screen of global decline rooted in exploitative employment practices. And he is right to be concerned.
I like the point about checking our own “headlines” – starting the day with some “self-news.”
“in the longer run, the only way to keep Ukraine together may be the
introduction of a new federal constitution with much greater powers for
the different regions.”I
am given to understand that this is exactly the suggestion given by Putin and Lavrov and was rejected by the EU and US. Or is my understanding incorrect?
Fewer people smoke.
Adding to the mystery, researchers also don’t know why fat is so harmful. When I was researching a piece on the physical states of neighborhoods and their effects on health, I spoke with one of the nation’s top obesity researchers, at USC. He said that the scientists don’t fully understand the problem of fat: we must have it to survive, for one thing, so why would an evolutionary necessity become so harmful? When I suggested that the excess weight on organs and joints was to blame, he said that was only a minor part of the problem, and only came into play for the massively obese. The problem seemed to be with the inflammatory aspects of fat, but that was what they really didn’t understand. Fat on some organs was more inflammatory than others, and inflammatory response was different among races, e.g., a person with predominantly African ancestry tended to have a worse reaction to organ fat than one with predominantly European ancestry, such that the same eight ounces of fat on, say, the liver, would cause a much higher inflammatory reaction in the person of African ancestry than in the Euro-dominant person. They didn’t have a clear picture of what was at work there beyond general genetics, & they didn’t understand the mechanisms of the fat-inflammatory response.
That interview took place two years ago, & I don’t know how the science has advanced since then.
One issue too has always been the encroachment of light pollution, dimming out the screen.
I hope someone is writing a How To book on reviving these beauties!
There is a permanent solution to California’s periodic water crises that is more environmental friendly and less costly then desalination plants which create offshore plumes of salt. Also it will create at least 7,000 new temporary jobs and 125 permanent jobs while improving the water quality throughout the west. This solution has been proposed several times in the past as described in the following links.
http://oregoncatalyst.com/2885-Columbia-River-Water-Next-Export-to-California.html
http://www.capitalpress.com/article/20140306/ARTICLE/140309927/1009
http://articles.latimes.com/1990-05-04/local/me-181_1_columbia-river-water
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1218263105159940.xml&thispage=1
The overflow from Bonneville dam, the lowest dam on the Columbia, is tens of thousands of acre feet per day. Ocean salt water flows inland to the base of this dam. The overflow water should be piped down the east side of the Oregon Cascades where there are less geographical challenges. The line could follow
Highway 197 or 97 or the power line that goes to California from The Dalles. In
northern California the pipeline can be split to feed Lake Shasta and Owens
Valley. Power to feed the pumps can be produced by solar or wind farms in
central Oregon.
The distance to Shasta Lake is only two thirds of the distance from the Delta to LA and the elevation gain is only two thirds of that over the Tehachapies.
Benefits will accrue to Central Oregon, Northwestern Nevada, Northeastern and all of California. Water Levels can be maintained in several large Oregon lakes, Goose Lake, Pyramid Lake, Mono Lake and Owens Lake.
In the past only Washington State objected. But we could promise to not take any water from their side of the river.
La Mesa
@jordanbrianl noted that neither Beverly Hills not Compton are in LA. They get water service from other companies. That’s correct. I used those cities because they are iconic (and they are in 90210 and 90220 ZIP codes, respectively). My poetic license may bother some people, so I looked up areas within LADWP’s service area and found these: East LA (ZIP 90063) has an average household size of 4 people earning a median income of $38.8k. They get 28ccf at a low price if they live on a small lot. In Bel Air (ZIP 90077), the average household of 2 earns a median income of $182k. That couple will get 56 cheap ccf if they live on a large lot. These numbers are bigger in summer, when LADWP encourages you to water the lawn…
Liz, I found this interesting, upsetting, disturbing, and brought me back to my own days on sets as a writer/observer, thrilled to be hearing actors spouting my words. I loved the crew, and joking around with them. That this young woman died this way is deeply disturbing. I certainly hope, as you do, that her death will lead to mandatory safety requirements to protect everyone in that line of work.
Well done, Liz ! Well written, and obviously from the heart, and from personal experience. Sarah Jones’ horrible and inexcusable death has been a rallying cry for more Safety on Film Sets and Locations. My career as a First Camera Assistant was a bit longer than yours (46 years), but I have similar stories.
Yes, Liz, there is still a small bump in pay PLUS a substantial insurance policy which kicks in when you shoot in a hazardous situation, if you point out that it is hazardous. And the pay bump happens each time you have to do it (as in each time the helicopter takes off and lands) and should always be brought up in the hopes it discourages producers from doing hazardous shots over and over. And every member has the right to say no if they feel their life could be in danger. One of our camera people refused to fly with a 90 year old helicopter pilot…the foolish person who accepted the situation crashed with the pilot. NO ENTERTAINMENT IS WORTH DYING FOR!
You are dead on, my friend. LA hockey fans are as loyal as any in sports, in part because many of them spent decades watching the team when they were, frankly, terrible. No team’s fans deserved to finally win a Cup more than Kings fans. It’s nice to see a new generation of So Cal hockey players coming around. Good luck and keep your stick on the ice.
Wow, what a compelling perspective.
You present an excellent case — I think legislators in Watts and other low-income communities need to hear this.
Thank you Moira and Brenda. I strongly agree that legislators in Watts should hear of this issue, but it is also disturbing if they can genuinely say they were unaware of such an issue.
Thank you for an insightful essay.
It’s sad and surprising that there don’t seem to be any other educational institutions, churches, or non-profits that can help with your various needs as a college student. Maybe others can chime in who might know of more resources for students in your situation.
Great panel and great discussion!
The saddest part of this sad story is that USC and Cal State-Dominguez Hills are only helping students who’ve wound up in a school for teenage moms rather than rewarding kids who’ve made better choices.
You are beginning to realize an uncomfortable truth: that government is not the answer to lift yourself out of poverty.
Shall you choose to go down this rabbit hole, I give you this: Milton Friedman videos on YouTube
Thank you, Ernie! You always have a way of touching people’s hearts.
You make a good point that there should be assistance to help those making good choices as well. However, I’m noticing a “privilege” problem. You don’t need assistance for an apartment: you just need a room in a group house. There aren’t ads for housing near campus? And why isn’t there anyone in the Financial Aid office at your college to help you find assistance? Based on your income you should be eligible for plenty of financial assistance for college. And exactly what are the job prospects for a sociology/journalism major? Do you want to be a barista? I’m impressed with your striving to overcome your disadvantages, but not impressed that you propose government aid. There should be charities to assist you.
Wow. I used to grab the El Arco Iris soft tacos and Pepsi when I was at Oxy in the early 70s.
‘…Riverside, San Bernardino, and El Centro have all been spring training homes for Major League teams at different times. A Japanese pro team once held spring workouts in Salinas.’
Perris Park was spring training venue, my older friend, dated ballplayer.
Cities give big subsidies to Anaheim Angels and want more.
Where is the equity? Bring teams back to Inland Empire, we have a stadium for sale.
Great piece Liz! I too was almost seriously hurt and “missed the plane that crashed” when the dolly grip on Mighty Joe Young asked me not to go up on crane with Don Peterman because we were not going to roll, we were only setting up the shot and marking the postion, Ray Delamotte the operator took my seat and they went up and the crane broke at 20′ , Ray who took my seat broke his back and Don almost died
A single line connects Los angeles and San diego. when I say single line I mean one train one way. Connecting a 2 million region with a 10 million region. A donkey trail connecting two huge adjacent metro areas. Incredible.
Then there is the question of friegt having priority over people. What is more important? Why does property have priority over people? People have priority over property all over the world.
A great reflection, and nice remembrance for me, of my time on the Mississippi. I lived in Dubuque IA “66-69” my Father was at Wartburg Seminary. We lived at the edge of a forest just south of Catfish Creek, which was my link to the Big Muddy. Mnny hours spent fishing and watching the river roll by… thanks for the reminder!
Kurt is a gentleman and scholar.
I loved reading Claire’s vivid story on Ansel Adams this fresh spring morning before the sun-rose. I wonder if Ansel captured a sun-rose in full bloom?
Players used illegal drugs before the 90s – Willie Mays and his “red juice”, and some are still using them today – Colome for the Rays. It is incredibly naive to think that the 90s were the “steroids era”.
“Axelrod added that he makes a distinction between former Yankee pitchers Andy Pettitte, who took drugs to try to recover from injury, and Roger Clemens, who took drugs to enhance and extend his career.”
And no one bothered to question him on how much Pettitte was enhancing and extending his career by recovering from injury? Talk about amateur hour.
Thank you Zocalo for this post! Please drop by my current exhibit at Homegirl Cafe. The reception is this Friday 3/28. 6-9pm 🙂
You can always find me at http://rafa.LA
Thanks!
~rafa
Well said, Jacob. You are an inspiration.
FYI, that photo is a crane fly, not a mosquito. Crane flies don’t bite. Some species actually eat mosquito larvae.
Thanks for the heads up–we’ve replaced the photo.
Nice article. You forgot to give DC credit for exporting its model of deficit spending and deferred financing to all our states, cities and counties. Only problem, as we are seeing, is the states’ and locals’ inability to print money and issue more treasury bonds. Other than that, everything’s swell.
This is an excellent prompt how to prepare for this looming fact. Thanks you!
DC likes to copy CA. You wrote it what exactly what it is….they are running CA. comes election they troop down here for campaign money…dictates CA what
Programs be pursued .
Awesome educator who is a great role model for all of us. There are not too many people like Walt. Inspiration to all of us.
I hope it helps her, I have a daughter with similar challenges and it is criminal that people are suffering because of archaic laws. Actually, I just read an article that Jesus used cannabis oil as part of his healings. If it’s good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me!
Ruben,
I like and admire your art and your positive, constructive attitude. Good fortune to you!
One request, though, for both you and the editor of your article: In articles with images, please include captions that tell us the artwork’s title, medium, and dimensions.
–Norman
Posted a link to your article here on http://streetiam1.com Let us know about your music and some video or music links for possible feature on http://streetiam.com
Thanks for the post. Yeah I kinda feel the same way. Even if they would have gotten a ping today. You have any idea what it would take to get ships there and doing some kind of “recovery”? I guess you do! The ping would be long lost by the time they would have a good idea where the wreckage is. So they would be there for a long time trying their best on getting a hold of things.
Moderation s the key to all things . Juicing or any food exclusively or in extreme is not good. Juicing can give you a good nutrient boost.
“To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us be men!”
– Cesar Chavez, on breaking his fast.
For the movie to have covered Cesar and the farmworker struggle satisfactorily, it would have needed to be at least twice as long! True, the film left many things out or didn’t cover others more thoroughly. But considering that Hollywood is such an elitist, high-powered, and cut-throat domain, we were fortunate to have this moderate movie produced. But now that we have been recognized as a force to be reckoned with, we should demand and expect more of our stories to be told.
The team behind El Verde, Anthony Aguilar (playwright) and Alejandra Cisneros (director) are fantastic. Thank you both for being part of the East LA Rep familia and sharing your play with the people of Boyle Heights at the four libraries. Your comedy and stories are so good and I can’t wait for people to see a full production of the latest draft of El Verde.
It’s a gamepad, not a joystick 🙂
Interesting post on CBD/Hemp/Marijuana. There is now actually a CBD hemp oil opportunity matter of fact… What’s your opinion on this??
http://cbdhempoilopportunity.com
Nice, Amy.
Amy.. a lovely, vivid story of this wonderful support group you and Dennis have brought to our kids. Thank you. By this story and the POPS member’s stories being seen and heard, POPS will surely be adopted across the land. Post.. share.
Thanks, Nina. That’s my dream… Amy
I have been thinking about stopping at this rink by myself to go skating every time I pass it at night. The neon lights catch my attention and I Iove to roller skate. I used to go to rinks all the time when I was younger. When I went for my nieces birthday about ten years ago, I found I could still skate pretty well – nothing fancy – and it was a blast and great exercise. Thank you for the article!
This is a really great opinion piece, Joe!
Why would you want to dump a child’s exposure to the wonderful Spanish, Indian and Mestizo cultures of early California in favor of the political agenda found in today’s university system?
Joe –
I was delighted to read the published version of your article in SF Chronicle’s Insight.
You are exactly right about the role of the California Mission reports in the 4th grade among native Californians. Not only do I have my own memories (Solano Mission, the last and northernmost of the missions), but my mother taught 4th grade in San Francisco and loved California history. As we traveled to various parts of the state, she shared many stories about the missions.
I hope your idea of having students do a report on a UC campus gains some traction. Given the role of land-grant schools and agricultural development, I think it could be a useful project for a variety of reasons.
As you may know, 50 years ago one out of 5 California families were involved with farming. Today, I understand that it is less than one out of 25. Most young people living in California don’t realize how important agriculture is to the state.
Good Luck with promoting the idea.
Elizabeth Pearce
Great article. I’ve used check-in’s for years and completely agree to their value. Thanks for the clear articulation of the process and value.
It’s just one more reason why a “center” is a good idea. It builds a sense of community.
I traveled Europe for almost a year and what made each town cohesive was a center of town. Made things like a newcomer into town much welcomed! The center was just about always a town square. Great way to get a feel of the place! So sad that just about all US cities have scrapped this idea.
BTW, I had these two German tourists stop me one time in the downtown area awhile ago. They were trying to find the center of town! I had to try and explain that there is no “center.” Really it was a sad moment!
Ruben, your art is visually gripping and is complemented by your writing skills. You are a millennial and you art speaks for your generation yet it echoes other generations as well; my generation. Incredibly modern and poised for discovery I hope to see your art very soon. I will look for you on Facebook. Sincerely, Vincent A. Estrada
You are spot on, Gregory. I’ve been struck by this very same thing here. When I returned to DC and had to run an errand to the Hill, I was struck by the fact that all the new “security measures” effectively cleared out the public spaces. As a government of, for, and by the people, it struck me as funny that there were no people out and about the government buildings — especially when I have memories of coming to the city as a kid and walking right up the steps to the Capitol and the White House. We’ve chosen fear over freedom, isolation in the name of security over democratic connection that might make us vulnerable.
Great idea Joe… Would also demonstrate that Delta concerns about flood protection and compatibility of habitat restoration would be consistent with long-term viability of the Delta! We can get there, but it’s going to be a journey…
Beautiful piece Marjorie, and a real tragedy. In my interactions with the man (at UCLA’s Jazz Reggae festival a few years in a row, and a couple other times at other venues around the city), he really did radiate such a strong positive energy, and the feeling was extremely infectious. And as your piece makes clear, he was also someone who helped make L.A. feel much smaller to those of us who saw him around town and knew who he was. That’s always a great feeling, and people who help make us all feel a little more connected like that really contribute something important to a big city.
The South Pasadena Arts Council (SPARC) in partnership with LA Freewaves is presenting a free screening of the Out-the-Window artists’ videos, Live Long LA, and a panel discussion about art and health/care issues, Wednesday, April 30th, 7:30 – 9:30 pm, at the new Laurie Hendricks Gallery, 1504 Mission Street,
South Pasadena. Ann Kaneko and Freewaves Executive Director Anne Bray will be on the panel along with Cissy Brady-Rogers, Dr. Marina Khubesrian and Mark Dreskin. Please join us!
Great article, Maria! So glad you didn’t turn your back on your community but instead became its champion. Love the work that you and ELACC do.
I agree with your reasoning, but take issue with the solution. Everything you propose teaching in grades K-8 is already part of the state content standards for education. I personally have taught ALL the concepts you mention to 5th grade in the life science unit on water. Water cycle is taught in at least 3 different grade levels, probably more. Many elementary teachers, however, are too overwhelmed by the latest testing expectations of any give year or cycle of “newness” to properly (or at all) teach all of these science standards. Therefore, the solution is for administrators and education “leaders” to have the expectation that these important standards regarding water be taught, and taught well, at the grade levels where they are supposed to be. And then these idea must be modeled and continually reinforced. As for a “Water Day”, it would be better to have people come out to schools to conduct hands-on activities with students to show them the importance of water conservation, then to have another “Day” on the calendar to be observed in a superficial way or not at all in the middle of other unrelated content.
It’s different at Landmark Cinemas at the Westside Pavilion. We go to see foreign films there. You can make reservations for a seat and you sit on black leather couches. It’s really nice. Otherwise, we watch TV series like “The Wire,” Elmore Leonard’s “Justified,” “Homeland,” “True Detective,” and “Breaking Bad” at home.
Well the UK is also in Europe, and has many zoos that are part of the EAZA who lets their animals breed and euthanizes the surplus
Frankly Heather Boerner,
You are simply wrong about this. It’s probably true that tonsillectomy was overused in the Baby Boomers but during the 1980’s it was WAY underutilized. That’s one reason why adult tonsillectomies are on the rise even more than those for kids. The 80s babies grew up, and found they were STILL having problems with their tonsils.
To compare a tonsillectomy to a radical prostate operation is absurd. And most of those who died with a tonsillectomy were high risk (therefore had the more serious problems where it wasn’t so “optional) to begin with.
I actually also got my tonsils out in the fall of 2009 as a grown up child of the 80’s. And to this day I feel that was a great decision. Not only did the sore throats and tonsils stones go away, but my face changed in shape (more than it did from losing 65lbs a few years later) because of the swollen lymph glands that calmed down.
No ice cream wasn’t part of the deal. I never cared much for it to begin with (it often gives me headaches and I find most kinds too rich), and was advised to avoid dairy products after the surgery. Not sure why the notion of getting ice cream with that operation is such an Idea fixee with so many people. Besides I felt like I was getting more than enough sugar from the medicine syrups, and was more interesting in top ramen or Vietnamese noodle soup than anything with more freaking sugar.
All true, but research has also shown that when African Americans do visit health care professionals, they are given fewer options and treated more poorly. Tuskegee is at the far end of a spectrum of micro and not-so-micro aggressions. That is why it still resonates. So there needs to be some real soul searching on the part of the medical profession as well.
Purely anecdotal, of course, but I have had to end many mediocre, patronizing, uninformative discussions with health care providers by outlining the Joint Commission complaint procedure or asking for ombudsman/patient advocate information.
I also think many of the behaviors cited are as related to class as to race.
Thanks for all you do to end the disparities.
Forget 3-D, premium leather seats, surround sound, etc… at the end of the day, the greatest innovation I’d like to see is a way to prevent people from checking their phones and lighting up their entire row.
While these higher-end Mexican theaters seem to offer more creature comforts, many American households already have those comforts at home, or at a friend’s home. Why pay a premium ticket price for that? Secondly, what is the HDTV ownership rates in Mexico & India? Considering that home picture quality now equals cinema quality, why should US moviegoers pay a premium?
As noted by others, why pay over $40 for a family of four for one night at the movies, with the hassles of lines & parking, plus not being able to sit where you want?
Your argument is very valid, but I can assure you that going to the movies here in Mexico is very, very common. I think it’s cultural. It’s not a matter of price, I think.
PS: Currently, most seats in the cinema here are assigned if you pay online or by phone.
I’m so proud of you, way to go Janelly!
such a touching tribute from daughter to mother….
Thank you for sharing
Interesting, but note that Americans are actually moving less and less often than they used to: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/housing/2013/09/americans-are-moving-way-less-they-used/7046.
Curious to know if you think that creating an organization like ELACC is possible for smaller communities in Los Angeles like West Adams or Pico Union, as examples. I’m interested in building such an organization for smaller communities and learning about initial startup and development process for ELACC. Any thoughts? And maybe there are organizations that already exist that I’m not aware of.
Well done.
Yes. One of the best articles I’ve read here. Agreed. Our leadership in this city is too “politically correct” in a backwards sense. No censure or consequences for the most aggregious acts and too much lip service to “understanding” which is really turning a blind eye. But hope this strong position can apply to all Zocalo pieces, not just this Sterling story. In the past some Zocalo articles seemed to display the same sort of “understanding” when eyeing broken L.A. forces.
“It didn’t hurt Sterling that he advertised his charitable exploits in the L.A. Times, a paper that has portrayed him more as creepy uncle than as unrepentant racist.”
I love/hate every word of this article because it’s a credible interpretation of Sterling World.
I used to write Teleprompter presentation/award acceptance remarks for Sterling and other luminaries, at several of their joint charitable dinner events. These were $25,000 per-table Beverly Hilton events. During one, I was crossing the dinner floor on my way backstage when I encountered Sterling throwing an ‘ol rich guy’s temper-tantrum. He was yelling at one of the shows producers, demanding that he be presented his award before a certain aging philanthropic C-lister. He’d paid for the evenings invitations –no small sum, I’m sure– but his check would be canceled if the switch wasn’t made. The awards themselves were manufactured hoo-ha given to a list of individuals who would eventually indicted, jailed, or shamed from their positions of business and power (from Mike Corona to Bernard Kerik), so, of course, Sterling got his way.
While this example has nothing to do with our city’s leadership, during the calendar days filled with meetings related to writing three Sterling events, I witnessed enough of this man’s bottomless and formidable exceptionalism to fully agree with Mr. Matthew’s thinking here. Nice work. I ask only that you not forget how overjoyed we are –those of us on the lower rungs of L.A.’s golden letter– this week.
The Central Valley of CA is the heart of Republicans who have never had any interest in serving the poor. Medi-Cal attaches liens to any asset owned by those who use it for the cost of their health care. While people may be poor, they sometimes own a home with equity. They avoid the use of Medi-Cal or medicaid. In the Northern Valley of Sacramento where I live, Kaiser dominates. Kaiser raised premiums double digits for years to build hospitals and services that cover the area. Fee-for-service Doctors have a difficult time in this environment. The ACA is a first step toward reform of the vulture capitalistic health care system. Next step will be medicare-for-all that would have bankrupted the current health care system with its cost controls. Or Republicans will win and run the largest “first world” country with conditions of “3rd world” countries for most of its occupants. Can’t call them citizens without democracy.
An adopted son of Los Angeles, Raymond Chandler, once noted “it is not a fragrant world, but it is the world you live in.” My departure from your point, however, is that Los Angeles serves as both maker and mirror of impunity for our culture at large.
Hate the headline, admire the well-thought out writing.
When I used to see those “look at me ain’t I swell” ads that Sterling placed in the LA Times I knew all I needed to know about the swell-headed man. Thank you, Mr. Mathews for this hard-hitting piece.
I picture Mr. Mathews finishing this piece, standing from his desk, holding out his hand, and dropping the mic. Boom. Well done sir.
Thank you Mr. Mathews, that is about the only thing about Sterling in the past few days that makes any sense! Now lets all put our head back in the sand….
Slam! But at least LA isn’t the deep South. (It has more infrastructure!)
Wow. These are great! I want one in my living room.
This reminds me of the concept that the benefit of a strong plan is that it gives you flexibility; you need to know where you are going so that you have the courage and security to deviate. The connectedness with a place may be somewhat transient yet that level of connectedness enables us to explore many a new place.
Sterling’s “charitable” profile has always been pure puffery. To be featured in his weekly ads, most charities received $100,000 over 10 years, or $10,000 per year. No one would turn down a donation of that size, but the fawning required is not at all commensurate with the amount of the donation. It reminds me of the old Q & A—“Would you have sex with this old geezer for a million dollars?” answer: “Yes! I’d do almost anything for a million dollars!” “Would you have sex with him for 25 cents?” “No way!” Response: “Well you’re no better than a two-bit whore; we’re just negotiating the price.”
The “philanthropy” game is one of the more disgusting institutions of capitalism. Instead of paying taxes to the government, where our elected representatives direct funds to democratically-determined priorities established through law-making, rich people get to direct their tax dollars to their own priorities. In the culture of the charity world, these fund-giving foundations demand a level of obsequiousness that is not at all deserved. Because of his giant weekly ads (which, if he paid for them, would cost more than the funds he donated to the charities) Sterling is only one of the most visible.
If the point of the author is to exposed the current (“flawed”) medical system, and to admonish the ACA for buying in, instead of reforming, the system (“It’s a killer combination: hospitals delaying and denying care to
patients as the ACA enables more Americans to buy into this deeply
flawed system.”) – then I agree completely. But please, make it clear – we want universal healthcare, not “health insurance.”
The phrases “universal healthcare,” or “single-payer” are not mentioned. Complaints without suggestions do not further discussion. And unless we become comfortable speaking about “socialistic” ideas such as “everyone deserves healthcare” or “healthcare should not be driven by profit,” we will be trapped in this private insurance scam.
http://www.singlepayeraction.org/
Ralph – you make a great point. I don’t think the ACA is reforming the system. I think it’s just making it available to more people. I completely agree with you and am disappointed our country didn’t go farther to ensure universal healthcare.
I’m a little less charitable than Charitie on this. I grew up watching the Dodgers on KTLA – now that the team has retreated behind the pay cable curtain, I feel that we have been betrayed. Oh, I’ll probably take my kids to a game or two over the next 5 years just to give them an idea of what a game is like – but I’ll never let them bond with the team. They’ve betrayed us.
Has to say it felt really good as if you were talking about my daughter itself. It was really a great article!
truer words were never spoken and will never be more widely ignored – who knows what budget matters the voters will approve again, and again, and again…..as they compensate and over compensate for their own errors?
While I too enjoy the NFLs revenue sharing and draft, you are forgetting one thing: the free “farm system” that the NFL enjoys. The NCAA or “college football” allows the NFL to avoid paying for a “minor league” system to develop talent. The “talent” is gift-wrapped and delivered in a 3-day, reality TV-show (coincidentally, happening now). The system is so unfair to the athletes, that college “student”-athletes are seeking collective-bargaining status!
BTW, if you’d like to compare “past times,” it’s not for coincidence that the new york yankees have won almost 25% of the “world” series championships played.
Great piece, Joe.
I guess it was after you wrote it that, from *inside* LA, UCLA gave something like four hundred thousand dollars back to Sterling, and released him from his promise to give millions more. Serious pushback but expensive symbolism too. As an alum (of the law school there), I kinda wish UCLA had kept the down payment.
It’s an interesting argument to tie our lack of
attachment to the 18th century’s Land Ordinance and Northwest Ordinance.
The “gridding” of the western states certainly helps explain
placelessness west of the 100th meridian. But it’s complicated by the fact that our lack of willingness to protect historical architecture is as much a
problem in New England as in California. In the 1960s, Charles Olson
published a series of “screams” to the editor (his term) complaining
about his town’s willingness to tear down historical houses to make room
for a YMCA to expand and other new projects. This was in Gloucester,
MA, one of the oldest cities in US.
Where politicians get their money yields more information than anything they might say either on or off the record.
Forget a mani-pedi, Tuesday is my “spa” day spent playing golf with incredible women. I always laugh when people complain that women play slowly…. There isn’t a single woman golfer I know who does not have somewhere to be… Picking up kids or taking a conference call or rushing back to work.
Thanks
for this well reasoned piece. When I have run office in the past,
I’ve posted my answers to these kinds of questionnaires on my campaign
web site. I feel its helpful to give voters this information, that often
goes beyond what can be communicated in a direct mail postcard or one
minute debate answer.
is this article still relevant? If so, fan participation in ownership seems quite progressive… might keep US professional teams from moving or pitting one city against another –
http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_/id/5673975/success-germany-bundesliga
Great article. I live in San Pedro and commute to City Hall East every day by driving to the Harbor Gateway Transit Center ( which used to be known as the Artesia Transit Center) and catch a Sliverline into downtown. I use the Dash to get around Downtown during the day and then reverse the process at night.
Talk to Zocalo about telecommuting.
Great piece Joe, but I have bad news for you – I have the commute you dream of and It is still brutal and soul-sucking. I get on a highly-efficient mass transit system a few blocks from my house in Brooklyn, stay on one train for an hour and get off at my office building in Manhattan. Especially bad when I get to my office and the school nurse calls, and I have to turn around and go back immediately!
A portion of my commute is similar to yours. I live in Arcadia and work in DTLA, so I can either drive the ExpressLanes or take the Silver Line. In 2016, consider driving to El Monte Station and taking the Silver Line directly to 7th/Metro and transferring to the Expo Line to Santa Monica. That will save you one extra transfer on the Red Line while we wait… and wait… for the Regional Connector. Your trip should be around 75 minutes.
Or, hopefully your kids will be out of preschool by then and you will no longer need to drive to Arcadia 😉
Wow, that’s tough. Hate to gloat, but I have the same sort of “drop the kid(s) off then go to work” commute, except I get to take a 10 minute bike ride with my son in a bike seat to his preschool, then a five minute ride from there to the door of my office! Then, reverse in the evening, at home in time to take him out to a park or playground with the couple of hours of sunlight still left.
Delighted to hear Mr. Woo’s thoughts! I give Michael Woo credit for engaging me with ClimatePlan’s strategic action and inviting me to become more involved in helping to implement SB 375, which connects land-use and greenhouse gas emissions!
The floods were cataclysmic mostly b/c the water had no where to go. There were not the flood channels and street drains of today. And the entire area and surrounding hills that use to be heavily forested had been chopped to the ground to build and for cattle grazing grounds, from San Diego to SF. The damage that happened around SF was caused by leveling hundreds of miles of oaks and redwoods. Nothing to absorb it, no place for the water to go. Human caused.
Heavy rain cycles have happened like that for thousands of years, and it never ruined the land. But when humans hacked the crap out of the landscape, they were stupidly surprised by the inability of the earth to absorb all that water. Bare land kinda does that.
When we do get the rains again, it will cause some minor slides and flooding, but never to the degree of damage of that time, as we’ve coated our cities with drains and concrete. With nothing on the hills to nourish, all the water will drain away, mostly into the ocean instead of into the land. And in a couple years we’ll wonder yet again why our reservoirs still aren’t full.
We fight fires all year and still never replant the hills of SF or the canyons of LA. Why do we destroy what the land gave us, but rarely replant?
The immigrant situation is a bit more nuanced. Immigrants are the
sought-after highly skilled foreign nationals, many from the global
North. Immigrants are also guest workers in the construction industry,
physically and socially isolated from the rest of the population, their
movements biometrically tracked, laboring long hours in exploitative
conditions with no route to citizenship.
This is such an important time. I’m going to share this with all my friends.
Amen. I’m originally a New Yorker, lived in San Antonio for 5 years, then moved to the Conejo Valley a year ago. Texas is a far easier place to live than California, with a superior public education system. Sorry California, our once great education system is now inferior to that of Texas. Did you know that by law you may not have more than 21 kids in a classroom in Texas? My kids never had more than 19 in their classrooms. Here in California, my oldest son has 45 students in is freshman biology class–and we live in what is supposedly one of the finest school districts in SOCAL (Las Virgenes). We also pay higher school taxes here and get far less for the dollar. Each family donates hundreds of dollars to the PTA here to pay for a school librarian, counselor and musical education. That was all included in Texas. Also, our school infrastructure is falling apart here. We had pristine facilities in Texas.
There are two huge mistakes California has made in Education that Texas has not:
1. In Texas, almost all school taxes are controlled by the local school board. If education is a priority in your district, you get great teachers and facilities. If football is a priority, you get great teams. Either way–you choose where you live, knowing that if you lived in a like minded community, your children would have an experience consistent with your values. We chose to live in a community that valued education and were never disappointed. It’s appalling to me that school funding decisions are almost exclusively taken in Sacramento–in such a huge state, what could remote officials possible know about local needs? This is just dumb.
2. Texas believes in large school districts that spread overhead over many schools. If you only have to pay for one superintendent and his/her staff across 100 schools, the administrative “tax” is lower and more money flows to individual schools, classrooms, teachers and students. Our current school district and those surrounding us have 12 or less schools, each with their own expensive staff and overhead–less money to the schools.
Californians–your education system is nothing to be proud of–Texas has a far more progressive educational system that gets results and delivers value for tax payers. You need to demand more for your money (and your children).
Interesting points from someone who has seen the advantages/disadvantages of both.
A couple of comments. (1) Prior to the adoption of Prop. 13 in 1978, local districts did have more autonomy. Increased state funding, as a result, changed that dramatically. Property taxes for long time homeowners are kept relatively low (mine is $1300/yr for a 3/2 on 3 acres in a Sierra foothills community with good schools) or even current buyers whose property tax will be 1% of the purchase price. Thus, much more top-down control has become the norm.
(2) Californians, for whatever reason, have always held on to a mantra of l”local control” even though, as you point out, that tends to mean much more administrative overlap and duplication. And, since 1978, not much control at the local level at all. Not unusual to encounter separate elementary and high school districts and a still surprising number of one school districts as well.
This is an excellent column. As a site selection consultant, I dig deeper into community characteristics than just about anyone else. Hence, I can clarify that data-driven comparisons support the positive impressions conveyed by Joe Mathews.
I try to avoid touting one community over another, and my reports to clients are objective and based on facts. However, I think it’s important to reiterate this writer’s positive sense about Frisco and Plano. I’ve visited those communities and my eyes opened wide when I saw their attributes.
Irvine, Calif., an upscale place, is my home town. When visiting those Texas locations I found myself looking at scores of gleaming new facilities, super-clean streets and great schools. I thought, “This resembles Irvine.”
Also, I’ve met economic development representatives from those Dallas-area communities as well as from Richardson, Allen, Irving and McKinney. They, too, were highly professional and refrained from pointing out California’s business negatives. They stayed focused on their educational, transportation and community cohesiveness. And their business-friendly policies results in commercial growth and job creation in virtually every industry.
My point here is that some Californians who should know better ridicule communities in Texas and other states. The Dallas area is a case study in how many areas around the United States offer a lifestyle that’s superior to the very places the California critics live.
Very interesting but perhaps somewhat misleading re: the California-Texas debate, especially where taxes are concerned.
Recently in the Sacramento Bee, where I read this article today, Christopher Thornberg of Beacon Economics, wrote:” The vast bulk of residents who have moved out of state (California) earn less than $50,000 per year..” Their leaving, Thornberg says, according to available literature, is “due to quality of life and housing costs, not taxes.”
Quite unlikely then, that an individual with an income of less than $50,000 will be relocating in the areas mentioned here. (Keep in mind that both average California personal income and median family incomes are significantly higher than in Texas)
Texas does not, of course, tax incomes. But since city, county, and school districts services rely on property taxes, it appears those taxes are higher– much higher– depending on location.
In a Trulia post on Texas property taxes, one respondent noted that property taxes in the Bryan/College Station area (home of Texas A&M) are 2.73 per hundred dollars of value. If my math is correct, that would more than $8,000 on a $300,000 home. That compares to $3,000 for a similarly priced home here (I know. A similar California home might cost $500,000, but that’s still a $3,000 difference,)
Certainly, while the grass may be greener in places like Frisco and Plano, it may not be elsewhere. West Texas–a large expanse–has always struck me as the San Joaquin Valley without irrigation water and the green created by it.
Interesting too that, as Mr. Matthews has noted, the cost of subsidizing relocations is not cheap. That usually means those incentives (subsidies) must be borne by taxpayers, mainly in higher property taxes.
Andrés,
Thank you for sharing this beautiful story. May your journey in life continue to be inspired by the remarkable woman you had the honor of calling Mom.
Respectfully Yours in Safety and Service,
Brian Humphrey
Firefighter/Specialist
Public Service Officer
Los Angeles Fire Department
I really enjoyed your entry this morning. Your story was very good and reminded me of a feel good movie in which the girl leaves the small town to find success in the big city only to find she already had it. Just in reverse! Happy for you and your hubby. I’m sure Sara has told you that she was born in Orange county. There are certain things I miss from that place and time and some I don’t. The beach, the ocean, and countless things to do all the time are things I miss. Youth. The rush and the freeway are things no one ever misses.
Pardon my rudeness, I’m Sara’s dad. I’m sure you figured that out by now. Again, I really enjoyed your writing and I look forward to reading more. Have a great day
Thank you, Mike Stajura, for writing the most sensitively insightful reflection on Memorial Day and ‘heroism’. My brother was a helicopter pilot in Vietnam when his helicopter was shot down; he and his crew were all killed.
He had already been awarded the Silver Star, which upset my father, an Army Captain in World War II: “He’s going to be killed if he’s taking chances.”
Buck himself wrote to tell us not to be impressed: “I’m just doing my job; the government needs the PR.”
Your timely reminder that Memorial Day is to honor those who have fallen, not embarrass our living veterans–whom, by the way, our government treats in a shameful manner.
So thank you again, Mike Stajura, for sharing your thoughts. Best wishes for your doctoral program. We need many more like you.
Great column! I’m a Realtor in the north Dallas area and I’ve seen a lot of people moved here from other parts of the country for our great schools. When talking to the Superintendents of Plano, Frisco, or Prosper etc., you’ll see their genuine concern for our kids. I live in the town of Prosper, which is north of Frisco… my kids go to Prosper schools where you’ll find the Superintendent opening car doors for the kids & greeting them in the morning. On their birthdays, he sends them birthday cards… It’s the small gestures that make a big difference. I’m proud Texan. 🙂
Good article, but very limited in its scope. Medical doctors do not die only of diseases that take months or years to take their lives. Medical doctors also die of the effects of road traffic and other accidents, acute illnesses that kill them in a matter of hours or days, manslaughter, murder, accidental self-poisoning with alcohol or illicit drugs, single-person suicide or suicide pacts
cara terbaru, kunci jawaban tebak gambar, cara terindah
I think you missed the point of the article. When doctors are faced with chronic terminal illnesses most of them choose to forgo full resuscitative measures which would prolong their suffering. The fact that other causes of death affect doctors too is obvious and goes without saying,
Don’t you worry your pretty little head about folks in the Lone Star State….there’s plenty of room for any Cali ex-pats.
Must remember the three women, the mothers of the SMMNRA, Sue Nelson, Jill Swift and Margo Feuer … and our Congressman Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) for the legislation forming the SMMNRA.
Austin doesn’t need In and Out burger… we have P. Terry’s, and they sell BACON.
perhaps rural poverty backgrounds with only undesired futures … maybe feeling like vanquishing guardians of success global and immortality fashioned on an ubermensch faculty [maybe trying to quell/hide from the horrors of war ever screaming in their heads … and maybe the unwanted familiar presence of the just post-depression mindsets of their elders … maybe just wanting to start out all over again – all brand new … maybe one or some of these things made LA so jawdroppingly breathtaking. it was all of every of their dreams …
This is an important article with serious and hard-to-refute findings: I hope it is widely circulated and its key message (“the person most likely to kill you with a gun is yourself”) begins to sink in. It should be the basis for a MADD-type effort to reduce the massive US pool of guns, which are used far more often in suicides and in domestic violence incidents than for home self-defense
The UCSB murders do not qualify as a “mass shooting.” Three of the six were killed by stabbing. Furthermore, a Centers for Disease Control Study published last year determined that there are as many as 3 million defensive gun uses by victims each year. http://www.ijreview.com/2013/08/73619-obama-ordered-cdc-study-contradicts-white-house-anti-gun-narrative/
Quibble: whether “Americans have any greater tendency toward violence than Australians” would be better addressed by data than your anecdotal experience.
I applaud your mission to uncover this aspect of our history
that’s been trivialized–when not systematically swept under the
rug–but I’m curious: are women of color featured or mentioned in
this?
This and you are inspiring, Ms. Lee. Thank you.
“It’s important to note that the feminists made up the women’s liberation movement as they went along—there was no guidebook. No one had protested these ideas before—including the fact that a recorded history that focuses on men alone helps to maintain an unequal society.”
——-
I think this sounds to me like a history of feminism which erases and makes invisible all accomplishments and activities women ever may have engaged in that occurred outside the rubric of “feminism.”
Which was a term first coined by a French Philosopher in the early 19th century on the eve of the Industrial Revolution, and the rise of the feminist “movement” and feminism in its current form coincided and went hand in hand with the industrial revolution. And, modern feminism was a force that desired to discuss what “the place” of women was ONLY under the rubric or framework or limitations of how “it has to be an industrialized society.”
Women didn’t just hide under rocks prior to industrialism. However, many of them worked in the trades, but under one specific condition, namely they were far less likely to work in factories and far more likely to work on a contract basis for merchants who came into their homes to pick things up. Though, doubtless, there were plenty of local marketplaces where women would go to sell things they had designed. And plenty of small scale businesses run by women.
All that tended to be wiped out under industrialism, and industry of course wanted women to work in factories, and the tendency to argue that “work” was only “for men” arose from issues revolving around horrid conditions in factories, which women were much more likely to successfully protest than men. At least this is my understanding.
I kind of think feminist organizations always were funded by rich industrialists and rich businessmen. And, as such, they had a bias where it was like they ostensibly wanted to advance women — but only in this new system they were creating, not outside the system. It’s more like controlling and channeling of women and female labor into very particular directions, even while undermining and limiting women’s ability to economically produce things in the ways in which they USED to before the advent of industrialism.
So, with that in mind, feminism is not really a women’s movement — and women were involved in plenty of stuff BEFORE feminism, and feminism has tended to erase that history because it’s not convenient to the modern business world. They want women to think they did NOTHING worthwhile before they stepped in and started controlling things. Think of issues regarding workplace inflexibility? Where corporations don’t want to make concessions? Any discussion of the history of women’s involvement in the ECONOMY — notice I don’t say “workforce” I say “economy” — would show, in past history far more flexibility for both women AND men was allowed. Too much emphasis on that part of history could potentially create impetus for changing laws in ways that certain businesses funding the mouthpieces of modern feminism today don’t want to do.
In which case feminism rings hollow as a women’s movement and should be seen as a business lobby masquerading as a social issues front. The growth of the modern economy and economic changes has altered the way in which women do business in society, but to argue that what modern capitalism has done is an “improvement” for women over past conditions is, in my mind, an assertion that feminists make on behalf of modern business, yet badmouthing the past seems to me a good way to say to women: “as regards your plight in the modern workforce, with its disaffected workers and huge interferences with family life: you need to just grin and bear it, because you were nothing before we (the modern business world) liberated you, we are responsible for all the good things you have now, you never had it better, you owe us everything, especially not complaining about all the rotten things we do to you today.”
Feminists create this straw man by manufacturing an exaggerated barbaric sexist misogynist past where women were horribly subjugated and given no freedom — and it’s a bunch of fake stereotypes designed to make modern society and all its evil look good in comparison. It encourages complacency and passivity in the face of some really egregious stuff modern society does to both sexes today.
Thanks for your comments, Damian. I would like to point out though that protest and activism had an honorable history long before women got involved on women’s behalf. A sense of justice and desire for a more just and honorable society tends to point the way, in my view. Not that mistakes aren’t made…
I figured out in the 1960s that women had an uphill battle with regard to equal work for not-so-equal pay, and gaining equal opportunities. Sexism has been a kind of ghostly shadow in my working life, starting with the school superintendent in Illinois in the late 1950s who hired me as a teacher because I was married–“I don’t want any old maid hangups in my classrooms.” It took me a while to make myself actually feel the insult to women in that–yet insults to women were constant.
My sense is that younger women tend to take our struggle for granted. On the one hand that’s good–I’m pretty sure hyper-vigilance is bad for the health. On the other, constantly letting the creepiness pass isn’t good or right either.
I’ve reached an age and state of health where I try to avoid stress, so I’m not much of a fighter anymore–but in my faulty heart I love those who fight on. Go to it, sisters and brothers. And thanks. For my grandsons and granddaughters.
Fanf*ingtastic!
Hard to find a “journalist” today without an agenda. What happened to old-fashioned, hard-nosed, impartial reporters?
Agenda has never been the problem. Not even in the glory days of newspaper. Unless you are talking “who, what, where, when, how?” all journalists have a point of view. What you do is try to be fair. Show the other side, as many sides as possible actually. But never confuse opinion with fact.
You can actually read a paper, and i do, that is diametrically opposed to your views and still get the news – if they do their job right. One might not agree with the analysis and what comes afterward but the news is the news.
The USian obsession with this mythical impartiality is what makes the current journalism horrible for the most part and why under the guise of “opinion” people spout ignorance and intellectual dishonesty.
The Washington Post, NY Times, London Times, Guardian, Wall Street Journal, FInancial Times, Le Monde, Corriere De La Sera – have at their best done amazing work while maintaining a clear point fo view. So much so, that you picked up those papers knowing if they leaned left or right, for example.
-G.
Mr. Rodriguez presents an impressive set of reflections, accompanied by what can be described as well reasoned exhortations re: modes of approach to writing which can move journalism forward &, perhaps, establish anew its connections & contributions to the public good.
Good points. There is some good investigative reporting out there, but the concentration on corruption in high places, unethical behavior in business, negative glitz such as the Sterling fiascos all seem to reinforce cynicism. We are missing a sense of place too often, a sense of ourselves
. One of the things that can be done is to report more on local culture, local events, and the positive efforts of those who try to create community, local jobs, local improvements.
Well said, very well said.
Americans do have a low opinion of the news media but that has nothing to do with anyone’s perception of journalists as being cynical. It’s because 72% of us see the obvious Leftist bias in most news reports and are weary of the narrative that they keep trying to ram down our collective throat. News sites like Fox, The Drudge Report and Breitbart are increasingly popular because they actually do present both sides of an issue, no matter what their detractors claim.
Mr. Rodriguez intones that journalists should “reflect the nation” and “be part of the social fabric” and “embrace a more affirmative role as the very connector of the social fabric” and “be more reflective of the public it strives to reach.” The real issue is that the public no longer trusts the mainstream press. Journalists won’t regain that trust until they stop trying to shape public opinion and return to reporting what’s happening and asking the tough questions, even if doing so works against their own political and social views.
Fox News is the most duplicitous news agency in the world, with the possible of exception of Russian state media, and I large reason why people don’t trust the media. Don’t believe me? Here’s a study on Fox’s coverage of climate change. http://www.newshounds.us/fox_news_most_inaccurate_cable_news_network_on_climate_change_04072014
There are literally hundreds of other examples. Unfortunately, many people think that the truth is whatever supports their prejudices.
Thanks to MiledAnimal for actually demonstrating the problem here, which is people who think that Fox, Drudge, Breitbart etc. are some kind of news organizations.
They aren’t. They’re pure advocacy groups cloaked in just enough news veneer to fool the really, really gullible.
Oh well, my grandma used to call the National Enquirer “the newspaper.”
Actually the feminist and gay movements, the most successful of the 60s and 70s, emerged a little bit later than the others. There was a period about 1968 when the others had emerged and they had not.
Concise and well-done! BTW, in 1972, addition to closing the Airport, students halted traffic on US 101 and the Southern Pacific Railroad. The LA County Sheriff’s Department also played an important role during that period.
This article has stirred so many memories. I lived through the times as they were a-changing! And I changed. I graduated from high school in 1955–got married on the day of my college graduation to emphasize how unimportant I thought it was for me to have an education–and my husband and I just this week marked our 55th wedding anniversary. I went on to get an advanced degree and have a career–something I couldn’t begin to imagine or didn’t at all desire when I was a teen. And without a guidebook, but inspired by my mother who is now almost 102 and by women born a decade or so after me who took up the feminist cause. I want to mention that they may have been more able to do this in the 1960s and 70s because of a single important development: the birth control pill! It’s impossible to exaggerate the impact of the pill on our culture and society.
Seeing that Mr. Rodriguez took the trouble to write this article, I read it twice before deciding to criticize it. Sadly, a second reading only sustained the sense of empty platitudes and faulty reasoning. Mr. Rodriguez engages in classic ‘blame the messenger’ thinking. Apparently, he has a problem with newspapers focusing on corruption in public life. Should journalists not then have reported on say, Governor Christie’s ‘Bridgegate’ or that bully’s most recent scandal of having the Port Authority overpay by tens of millions for some abandoned industrial property? Americans distrust journalists? Sadly, this is in part due to a politicians who slander the ‘liberal’ media when their hands are caught in the cookie jar and to the onslaught of celebrity coverage that has only one purpose: to sell papers. As to what journalists should do, Mr. Rodriguez only offers vague panaceas like giving ‘a sense of community and nationhood.’ I have no idea what this means, but it seems a short step away from blind flag waving. Increasingly America is becoming a country run by oligarchs and the money they spray over elections. We are not united; we are dominated by rich folks who keep getting richer. The average man doesn’t have much of a chance – his vote really means almost nothing when the Koch brothers can buy a hundred thousand over a weekend. Being an ‘adult’ journalist doesn’t mean putting your hands over your eyes: it means speaking truth to power. If what Mr. Rodriguez wants to say is that journalists should do more to report on the lives of working people in this country, well, I certainly can agree with him there. Perhaps Zocalo can help to effect this change by printing more of those stories. Journalism, like the porn industry, is in trouble for one reason: the internet. People won’t pay for what they can get for free.
CF: It is my understanding that gun deaths did decline in Brazil in the wake of the passage of the Disarmament act of 2003 (roughly), by over one thousand deaths per year. Because Brazil’s “saturation” rate of guns is much greater than Australia’s, the buyback relatively speaking was much smaller, and because Brazil has a much more robust and NRA-supported gun industry (which exports heavily to the US and may even constitute the largest share of the US gun market) plus a far greater smuggling problem, one wouldn’t expect comparable results. It isn’t logical to blame the laws and the buyback (“as a result”) for the tragic mass shooting. As you can guess I don’t think the mass arming of individuals to combat crime is a long-run solution to gun violence: as in the US it will require sensible regulations (which differ for each country), a cultural shift, and a respected and professionalized police force. I sympathize greatly with your having been a victim of crime: I have been mugged three times in the US and while I felt angry and powerless and frustrated a gun wouldn’t have helped me in any of the cases…far more likely either I or the assailant or both would have been killed.
Isaac: At what level do you believe this? Are you opposed for instance to seat belt laws, calorie labeling? The almost infinite number of ways in which the government acts as a manager of social risk as a backstop for financial risk, flood insurance, etc.? The beauty of this Australian solution is that it was a voluntary rather than a mandatory buyback that relied on government putting up the money and campaigning for an outcome rather than mandating a result…the reason it appears to have worked to some extent is that the culture was ready for it. In such a case a judicious but substantial government can pay social dividends without infringing unduly on personal liberty.
I believe the conclusions you draw from the data are wrong… People do not plan and execute a mass killing spree based on “easy” availability of firearms. As proven by massacres in Norway, the UK, Germany and Scotland even restrictive gun laws do not prevent determined individuals from carrying out those mass killings. I believe Australia is just experiencing a low period as far as gun violence and it is not specifically related to the buy-back.
Cultural/social differences are more indicative of the rate of gun violence. For example countries like Switzerland and Israel with a high rate of gun ownership have very few mass shootings.
I will agree that there is a certain point where unavailability of firearms becomes an effective means of reducing mass shootings but it is at a level where guns are almost impossible to find and private gun ownership is at near zero level.
The high level of gun violence in the US is due to many other factors than the mere number of guns in circulation:
The inner cities which are virtual gang/drug war zones.
The worship of violence (Movies & video games)
The breakdown of the mental health care system
The increasingly antagonistic/hate-based society and culture
To me part of the problem stems from how broad “asian” is – since the continent goes from the Urals to Japan and from Mongolia to India. For USians, asian seems to mean “yellow” to put it bluntly.
It goes hand in hand with the problem with “latino” (and i am one of them). These labels are useful shorthand at a very primitive level but afterward they become cumbersome, and frankly disrespectful, eventually.
Dateline said last night that some businessman owns the Bronco and rents it out for parties – Cowlings’ Bronco, not OJ’s – really?? SMH
Not bad as an Asian American. The guy is Taiwanese/Chinese and my relatives are from Japan, but the naivete of the U.S. culture seems very familiar. I’m going to watch this and I hope I laugh
Most reporters leave out that Singapore, like other Asian Tigers, could keep taxes low by keeping public recovery of socially-generated land rent high. Citizens paid a good portion of the rental value of their land into the public treasury (usually as a tax but as a lease premium in Hong Kong) but the taxes they paid on their buildings, purchases, and earnings was low. This formula worked so well in Singapore that they not only could afford classy public housing but also pay their citizens a dividend from surplus public revenue. Nowhere else can make such a claim. But the business press overlooks geonomics, unfortunately. More at Progress.org.
Goethe recognized that our perception of color was greatly
influenced by subjective experience. The naming of colors certainly reflects
this as Dr. Lewis points out in this fascinating essay. Take for example the color Light Paris Green, I recognize that color as perhaps relating to the green pigment on the classic nineteenth century Parisian Metropolitain signs or possibly a reference to the infamous drink Absinthe as seen and painted by Edgar Degas (L’absinthe). For Dr. Lewis the name of that color “seems like a holiday.”
Nice article about something I didn’t know much about. Interesting link to the debate about carbon offsets.
“Dragons-blood red” is named after a kind of tree resin, but the romance of the name still fits, I suppose. “Light Paris Green,” however, will not make anybody with knowledge of the history of artist’s pigments think of a holiday, since Paris green contained arsenic and was a notorious poison, used as an insecticide and rat poison as well as a colorant. There are even stories about people in the 19th century being poisoned by their green wallpaper.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragons_blood
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Green
The Clips might get more from the new NBA TV deal but there’s no way their local deal will come close to the Lakers one. No one watches the Clippers now. Their ratings are terrible. And who is going to give them a deal? Time Warner? No. And while they may be viewed as the best team in LA nationally, they are still second class citizens here. It says something when your best player, Chris Paul, is booed when shown on the Jumbotron at Dodger Stadium. Ballmer overpaid by at least a billion.
In my graduate research on Caribbean slavery I came across a nineteenth-century book with hand-painted “chits” in flesh tones from alabaster to pitch. The colors were set in such a way as to show the impact of racial interbreeding (miscegenation), so that a chit marked mulatto (supposedly) displayed the resulting color of ‘white’ and ‘negro’ parents; quadroon was (again supposedly) the color of the grandchild of ‘white, white, white, negro’ parents; octoroon one-eigth; etc. It was a striking–and chilling–example of an attempt to use standardized color for categorization.
There are excellent observations in this article and one flaw. Humans really have to do something to prevent damaging out life support system (i.e., the earth’s biosphere) but I suggest that the solution isn’t to cut down on the amount of fuel we use, but to greatly increase it, to levels well beyond what can be supplied by oil wells and coal mines.
How, I rather imagine you are asking, can we do that?
It’s not difficult nor even particularly expensive. Pull CO2 out of the air and combine it with hydrogen in the Fisher/Torpsch reaction. Billion dollar plants for the F/T reaction exist. They are fed partially oxidized nature gas, but they would work just fine on CO2 and electrolytic hydrogen.The only problem is the cost of electric power to make the hydrogen. To make reasonable cost fuel, the cost of power needs to be around 2 cents per kWh, and we would need a few times the installed base of electrical plants in the US to supply synthetic hydrocarbons to replace the oil the US uses.
Cheap fusion, possibly cheap fission or some other source might do it. My personal favorite is solar energy from space. The Japanese have been thinking about this.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/green-tech/solar/how-japan-plans-to-build-an-orbital-solar-farm
The hard part is getting the cost of lifting power satellite parts to GEO down to where the power can be sold for 2 cents per kWh..
http://theenergycollective.com/keith-henson/362181/dollar-gallon-gasoline
And there is a more recent variation that looks like it could get the start up cost down to $30 B. The economic model indicates that fossil fuel could be entirely replaced with less expensive solar energy from space by 2035, based on Reaction Engines’ Skylon coming off the production line starting in 2021.
Anyone for dollar a gallon, carbon neutral, synthetic gasoline?
Pantone is for the most part an organized catalog of ink/dye colors for production. There are better color systems than Pantone when it comes to creating, comparing and communicating color. Munsell is a good example. It’s used by many American paint manufacturers. NCS (Natural Color System) is yet another. ACC and RAL. The International Standards Organization
recognizes four order systems: Munsell, NCS (Natural Color System), DIN
6164-2, and OSA-UCS. Interesting that Pantone is not one of the recognized systems.
Alyssa – I lived in Merced from 1974 – 1994. Even back then nobody would accuse city leadership of being particularly bright nor forward thinking. For me, leaving Merced was always the plan – I knew there wasn’t much for me there. But Merced is evolving with the new UC – and I understand wanting to stay when family is there, and Merced has a lot of infrastructure things (e.g., nice downtown, lake, Mall, zoo) – that not even every Bay Area town is going to have. I think you should run for city council. You’ve already proven an understanding of the citiy’s budgetary process and defining a real problem and coming up with solutions for how to fix it. That’s more than most folks who get on just because they’re a known business owner or take money from developers and public employee unions. Good luck to you – and thanks for fighting to make Merced better.
I used to live in Merced and there were more than two swiming pools. What about the Lake? Me and my friends spent a lot of time at the lake during the summer and we didn’t have much money. Good luck to you and all that you are doing for the Youth of Merced.
I went to the UC here and graduated back in 2010. Even though I don’t live here anymore, I still want what’s best for the place I called home for almost five years.
Is there anything a former resident, like myself, can do to help in this campaign?
Are you kidding me?
What kind of comparison is bottled water use to desal? Of course bottled water uses more energy. How about comparing the cost to the water we get from the tap (which is perfectly fine by the way). My guess is that the cost per glass is pennies on the dollar compared to desal.
Where is conservation in this conversation? We currently use 70% of our water on outdoor uses, mostly for thirsty lawns. That adds up to about 55 gallons a day, well above most other countries. We can do much, much better.
Sure, we could build desalination plants all up and down the coast with large energy plants to support them. We could do a great job destroying our beach-loving tourist industry at the same time…
Or, we can make simple changes to our landscape and cut our water use to reflect the dry climate we live in.
Critics contend that reverse osmosis desalination requires large amounts of energy. But so do our home refrigerators, air conditioners, and washing machines. The real issue is the cost of water desalination relative to other available sources. For example, bottled water costs range from $1 to $3 per liter in the U.S., depending on the brand and location of purchase. In comparison, seawater desalination costs can be as high as about $0.45 per 100 liters and about $1.50-$2.00 per 1,000 liters for large-scale production. Of course, the above cost does not include conveyance of the water to the customer.
Over the years, intensive research and development efforts have been devoted to lowering the energy cost of reverse osmosis seawater desalination with tremendous success.
What exactly are we looking for? Acute alcohol intoxication? Any doctor who shows up drunk for a drug test deserves to fail it. Benzos? What if the doctor takes an occasional Temazepam for sleep? THC? Pity the doc who takes a few tokes at Coachella and still has THC in the blood a month later. Every hospital has compliance policies that encourage anonymous reporting of suspected physician impairment. Anyone can make a report from the EVS guy to the CEO. Let’s keep “Big Brother” out of our business.
Approhe
“(P)opulation growth is going to outstrip our ability to conserve water.”
So we should be looking at ways to limit population growth in California, yes? Why isn’t that more obvious to more people in this state?
Delivering clean water to 38 million Californians is costly and energy intensive. Add to that drought and limited water supply (desalination is not an answer). Then, look at the population projections. By 2060, California’s population is expected to reach 52.7 million, according to the state’s Finance Department.
This addition of 15.4 million water consumers (from 2010 to 2060) is
more than the current populations of either Illinois or Pennsylvania. That’s about 40 percent larger than our current population in California.
Look at the problems we’re having now. Farmers having to fallow land
because they’ve no water. Farmland being lost due to massive population growth.
We need to start understanding that there are limits to growth.
http://www.capsweb.org/blog/less-water-shortage-people-%E2%80%98longage%E2%80%99
I certainly agree with you that the world’s population growth will lead to the ruin of all of us. But, controlling population growth is not that easy. Communities can limit development through local planning ordinances. This can cause property values in those communities to rise and create their own sets of problems (i.e. high property tax rates and lack of affordable housing).
As for the agriculture/water link you mentioned, that lack of water is caused primarily by over-allocation of our water resources to ag itself, exacerbated by our current drought. So if you want to link world population growth to the need for more ag, at least there is a relationship. But, I don’t see how growing high profit luxury crops like, berries and nuts qualifies as feeding the masses. Urban population growth is not the main factor in ag’s water shorfall. Too much water intensive ag, especially in semi-arid regions, is the main cause of ag’s water shortfall.
I’m all for finding ways to limit population growth in CA and the rest of the worid. I still waiting for someone to come up with a reasonable and viable solution on how to do that.
Combining desal with solar and/or wind energy makes a lot of sense. Create clean water when the sun shines or the wind blows. The intermittent nature of wind and solar, which requires some kind of storage or backup to meet electricity demand, becomes a non-issue, since water storage is typically part of existing water delivery systems.
Ultimately, for large-scale desal, 4th gen nuclear, with its very high temperature operation, becomes a perfect match for flash distillation desal, using the power plant’s waste heat to good purpose.
“The spirit of liberty is that which is not quite sure it is right.” – Learned Hand
“When I’m wrong, I change my mind. What do you do?” – John Maynard Keynes, in reply to a dimmer intellect who thought to challenge him
“No commander ever managed his men into battle.” – Anon.
How fascinating. Not only the discoveries of so many new facts about Saturn but also the career path of the author.
But the photo of the “rose” haunts me. What phenomena is it? What accounts for such a florid display? Are the colors as a human would see or are they enhanced?
Loved the movie and a great night all around. Thank you to the organizers and Roy and Jon!
Well done, Michael. We enjoyed participating with you. Your knowledge of the law, and your passion for getting the word out did have good results, and we hope to see even more enrollees this year and beyond.
“the sharing economy threatens to turn virtually every aspect of living into contested ground … that is no way to live.”
What do you propose? Banning sharing-based businesses? I doubt that will happen. Not using sharing applications? Perhaps you’ll win a few converts, but it won’t slow the tide. This article comes across as a “sky is falling” prophesy of doom, but … I really don’t see the point of this article. People will use the services. In some cases, problems will arise, and then people as whole and perhaps laws will adjust.
Perhaps the purpose of this article is to “open a dialogue”. There are three types of possible dialogues. Horror stories, which we can learn from. Fear of change, which will lead to commiseration and nothing else. New ideas of sharing businesses, which could be interesting.
All the concerns you bring up are actually totalitarian in nature “Who’s responsible if your dog bites my kid while in my care? What kind of car insurance, training, and licensing do you need to shuttle me safely? What, if anything, do we owe to the kennel workers and cabbies whose work is displaced by our sharing? And who gets to decide how we govern all of this?”
How about NO ONE gets to decide how it’s governed, it’s all voluntary exchanges between free people. We don’t need your rulers-required attitude to run a successful world of sharing. Totalitarian is thinking one needs the government to approve of every little tiny human interaction, even down to walking a dog.
These services, and their success, are going to show you just how obsolete your concept of fair governance and totalitarian state-dependent mindset already are. But Statists gonna State. Good luck living in the past.
Interesting premise, but potential conflict is not enough of a reason to stop progress and change. Additionally as this sharing economy is created, new platforms to resolve issues are created, such as companies like Modria, that are revolutionizing the way we deal with conflict online. Necessity is the mother of invention, and the system appears to be adapting.
Hey, Joe. I enjoyed the article, and would say that Airbnb has totally changed my life. There are myriad factors to consider in this assessment, and I’d love to tell you about them in detail, but I hope this service – and others like it – continue to thrive. MY fear is that government regulation, be it local or federal, will undermine the huge potential that exploits the ubiquity and accessibility of the internet to the benefit of the little guy. It’s the monied interests that seem to be making the most noise, whether it’s cab companies, hotel chains, or cable companies (witness the Aereo decision).
We are just now scratching the surface, and most of the entrepreneurs in this blossoming field are trying to avoid the missteps of the bubble and bust of the early 2000s. My fear is that the Supreme Court, or the money-hungry reps in Congress, will usurp the progress that is emerging online.
in order for the sharing economy to be successful in its goals of grandeur, we must first address the litigious nature of today’s U.S. society. only then will we be able to bathe our capitalism in the warm waters of socialism
Thoroughly enjoyed reading this superbly written piece, Melissa! As one of the parents who brought my young children to see your productions when you were still at Barnsdall (who are now rising seniors in high school and college), it gives me great joy to see ISC’s continuing success. We all still love to come to watch the plays, albeit with a larger crowd! It’s just not summer without ISC!!
If you get a chance, see at least one World Cup game live, in the stadium. The atmosphere is almost indescribable, the Olympics and Super Bowl combined into a gigantic international celebration. The most fun is not the game itself, but seeing the fans from different countries celebrating their way to the stadium.
Angelenos were lucky enough to experience this in 1994, and some of it with the Women’s World Cup in 1999 (the intensity and passion among the fans is not as high in women’s soccer, but nonetheless 100,000 screaming fans in the Rose Bowl is not bad; 2003 was much less exciting because of the last-minute relocation of the games from China to the US, most of the games that I saw in the soccer stadium in Carson weren’t even sold out in 2003).
It would have been far more
useful if Mr. Cohen had calculated the cost of seawater desalination in the
unit of acre feet instead of liters.
Such plants are measured in acre feet, and so should cost calculations
be. We had to build a spreadsheet to
determine that his “$2 per liter” means approximately $2,500 per acre
foot. We knew that but were checking whether
he did. Current costs of using well
water are in the range of $200 per acre foot, and residential users typically pay
$1,200 per acre foot. Metropolitan Water
costs about $1,200 per acre foot to wholesalers.
Finally, we conclude that the
cost to desalinate seawater is far more than the more obvious choice of
recycling treated sewage discharge water.
It is easy to see why: Seawater is some 35,000 total dissolved solids
per million (TDS/M) and treated sewage plant discharge is about 400 TDS/M. The present level of discharge treatment is
sufficient for irrigation of most crops; it is already cleaner than most well
water. Yet it cannot legally be pumped
back into the water table unless the TDS/M are reduced further. The cost to use reverse osmosis is much
smaller for the 400 TDS water than for seawater. Mr. Cohen should focus on recycling treated
sewage water. It is far more easily
achieved.
Fine. No children harmed you claim. But what about their imaginations? Given the marvelous tool that is the English language, the endless repetition of the same old curse words by persons of prominence and Hollywood script writers is simply shoddy, shabby and sadly lazy
I too am a civil engineer and I have increasingly come to share your concerns over the course of my life. And I totally agree that late stage “environmental review” produces “ornamental” changes, if any. And meanwhile politicians , including our esteemed Governor, maneuver to further weaken an already weak CEQA.
I devoutly hope that your suggestions will come to pass, but I find it hard to be optimistic. As usual, I fear that nothing will change until the disasters become so intense that they can no longer be ignored. Alas, I truly fear for the future of my beloved state.
Truthiness is very appealing and likely “used” far more than most of us realize. But when we’re involved in business decisions, the danger can be significant.
Far too many business decisions are based on gut, which is nothing more than an aggregation of experience, facts, and beliefs – ALL of which represent the past, which may no longer be true. Business decisions are most likely to deliver expected results when based on objective, current, accurate evidence.
So the challenge for many of us is to think about the basis for decisions – is it based on truthiness or reality?
Gut is preferable for decisions re people – whether hiring or dating – as our extensive experience with people situations informs us that something isn’t right or there’s more to the story.
Ummm Noel, you are an engineer completely detached from political reality if you think CEQA is weak and in need of strengthening. CEQA is the tool of choice for NIMBYs seeking to stop the sort of urban infill and TOD envisaged by SB 375. Anyone can sue to stop or delay a project under CEQA for almost any reason; the law is vague and pervasive. Development follows the path of least resistance, and almond orchards rarely file CEQA challenges. Developers can build much faster and much cheaper in the exurbs and on ag land and they have to build auto dependent sprawl. Why are CEQA standards exactly the same for downtown San Francisco as they are for the high Sierra? shouldn’t our principal planning law be able to tell the difference?
All good points. Why we need regional, predictive, multi-faceted system dynamics models (front-end by a gaming interface and back-ended by analytics) to identify unintended consequences of any given policy or implementation thereof. Also helps to hold our elected/appointed officials to task…
FWIW, we are already seeing a water disaster take shape in CA and the American Southwest. Some refuse to believe it or cannot project what it means and where its headed. And water is life…it will lead to some food disasters as well…
=( Wow. I wish the best for you and your family. That has to be so scary!
Rafael… me gusto mucho tu escrito que refleja lo que tantos Venezolanos sentimos cuando nos fuimos de Venezuela… Incluso en mi caso 12 anos atras… (obviamente para ese entonces no en tan critica situacion como la que tu acabas de dejar)… pero el sentimiento fue el mismo… Un vuelo de American, Una Maleta y 3 cosas… miedo, incertidumbre y esperanza…
12 anos despues y ahora Ciudadano de este hermoso pais que me recibio con los brazos abiertos y de esa Hermosa ciudad “Montreal” en la que aprendi otro estilo de vida y comenze mi familia… (ahora vivo en Toronto pero le agradezco mucho a Montreal!) no tego mas nada sino agradecimiento a Dios por ayudarme a abrir otro camino para mi familia y esperanza de que el ayudara a nuestra Querida Venezuela.
Bueno suerte en este hermoso pais! y estamos a la orden en Toronto si necesitan alguna ayuda… Javier
Nice, although how can one describe the Central Library without mentioning the stunning atrium? I’ve never seen a library with anything that matches it.
Bueno Rafael, y le digo asi sin conocerlo, si bienes cierto que Ud no emigró con mucho dinero, llevó con Ud algo mejor: el idioma y el coraje.
Es mucha la gente que hasalido del pais, y mucho mas la que se prepara a dejarlo.
Lamento esto por loscque son pobres y nunca podran sali. Me da dolor cuando en la calle veo niñitos del pueblo, de la mano decsu mamá,. Esa es toda su protección, pero que triste el futuro que les espera precisamente a ellos, los pobres, los que confiaron en Chavez , pirque ellos seran los que reciban mas daño.
Ya casi toda nuestra familia emigró, se fue. Hace años salieronbtodos nuestros hijos, alla estudiaron y allá estan trabajando, allá tienen su vida, su casa, amigos , su casa e intereses.
. Ahora nos preparamos mi espisa y yo. Para salir. No queremos pasar solos, aqii, la vejez. Ya tenemos vendido casi todo vendido y Gracias a Dios fuimos ahorrativos y tenemos con que vivir, mas modestamente que aquí, pero muy decentemente . Nos vamos triste y amargados: esto dejó de ser nuestra patria, aquinsomos ciudadanoscde 2da, sobramos, no se nos quiere. Le dejamos nuestro lugar a ellos, y de todo corazon lesdeseamos suerte acquienes secquedan.
Gran relato, excelente narrativa. Con todo el talento que demostraste acá, ese que llevaron en sus cuatro maletas, estoy seguro triunfarás en cualquier lugar del mundo.
Thank you Gregory, this is very well said. In my experience, when a communication problem is encountered (be it language or otherwise), people don’t give up, they’ll hash it out until someones lightbulb of understand turns on, which is usually followed by laughter and relief. I think it is these moments of “shared frustration” that become a bonding experience and assist in developing relationships and easing barriers in diverse communities.
Missing piece here: How will the total amount of money available to the writer’s family change at $15 per hour? We’ve created enormously high effectively marginal tax rates at this income level with the EITC, ACA subsidies and other progressive policies (which I support). But because of this $15/hour is not $6 more at the end of the day than $9/hour. How much more is it really? And how many fewer janitors marketwide will there be by virtue of these higher wages? There is disagreement on this point (the CBO suggests that even a modest increase in the minimum wage reduces the labor force, a massive one like this certainly will have some constraining impact on employment). So there’s much more to the story than “a higher minimum wage is good.” It’s not the job of an editorial writer to do the math but someone needs to be doing it!
Higher minimum wage increases the labor force. It gives more low-income workers the opportunity to start their own little businesses and hire help.
This is an excellent response to the Putnam research. Yes, in my experience too, it’s the inclusion of many voices that leads to innovation.
I grew up in a small town in Indiana, but I’ve lived in LA for the last 25 years. Like many people in LA, I work in a professional office where many people speak English as a second language rather than as the mother tongue. By comparison, one reason I’ve enjoyed visiting my childhood hometown over the years is because it seems to require less effort to communicate with the locals. Your article validates my experience. I agree with your conclusion – it’s better to be challenged by a range of ideas than not. It makes us all more aware.
Even traditional marriage is a “diversity” – a close encounter with the Other, and it’s made both my wife and me smarter!
My sister died last month after suffering a massive heart attack that left her clinically “dead” for 15 minutes before doctors could revive her. She was brain dead, and we all knew it. But it’s so hard to let go when you don’t have definitive information. We waited 36 hours for a brain scan to tell us she was brain dead before we pulled her off life support. I know now she died during those 15 minutes and wish we could have accepted it then.
Thank you for your article. I plan to try to have the courage to face my death with dignity and seek out quality rather than quantity of life.
Gene Silvers: That doesn’t make any sense. The debate is over whether the minimum wage decreases the labor force (the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says even a modest increase in the minimum wage decreases the labor force by 1/2 million) or doesn’t have a negative impact on overall employment. But if people start their own business, they are not subject to the minimum wage and it makes it harder for them to hire help because labor costs more. ?? Furthermore everyone seems to agree that it will increase prices, which means that the goods that low-income folks and entrepreneurs will buy will be more expensive. Here’s a good non-biased write-up of the research findings: http://journalistsresource.org/studies/economics/inequality/the-effects-of-raising-the-minimum-wage# I support a modest increase in the minimum wage indexed to inflation in some way but we need to be realistic about the effects and trade-offs.
I am a nurse who works at a local VA center and I am assigned to the “locked” dementia unit. It saddens me on a daily basis to see these Veterans suffer with procedures that “prolong” their lives. Men who fought for our freedom and are sent out to the ER over and over at the ages of 75,80,90 + years because their families refuse to sign a DNR and they are “Full Codes”. Saddest is when they can no longer swallow and usually aspirate and we have to send them out. 100% return with feeding tubes because their families are not ready to let go. We continue to do our jobs and care for them as if they are our own parents. When their death does come, our staff is quietly rejoicing for them because we know that they’ll be free of the suffering.
This why people need to make their own plans. A good family will love a person too much to be able to think reasonably about such things and they shouldn’t be put in the position of feeling like they have killed their loved one.
My uncle is a noted physician in his late 80’s in pretty good health, but he keeps a regular prescription of some medication that he could easily take by himself if he felt the time had come. I think it says a great deal when a doctor can choose to end his life fairly comfortably but others cannot.
I contrast that with my cousin who had advanced Alzheimer’s. She was delusional and barely responsive, and the head nurse at the Memory Care Unit fought me because I wanted to discontinue my aunt’s high blood pressure and clot-prevention medication. She was terminal, and 89 years old. I wanted her to continue on all comfort-inducing meds, including Lasix (fluid in your lungs is very uncomfortable) and Ativan (anxiety/agitation). She was dying, she could barely remember her own name, she wouldn’t eat, she stood in her room and would open and close a dresser drawer over and over again because she was so lost, and they are fighting me over letting her go – which was in her living will.
Ultimately, they kicked her out of the MCU because she was non-compliant (of course she was, she had advanced Alzheimers!). I moved her into a full-care nursing facility. They respected the choices I made on her behalf. They pretended that she was helping them plan events and so they would ask for her help with “tasting menus” and “decorating advice” – all to get her out of her room and eating. She was happy and “busy” with her work and thought she was living there to help them out. One night I got a call that she had a fever and they wanted to take her to the ER to be checked out. I said ok, and headed to the hospital. 15 minutes later, the nurse called, crying. My cousin had gone into cardiac arrest and pursuant to her wishes, they held her hand and let her go.
I’m now the primary caretaker for my father, who has vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s. My grandmother was essentially in limited consciousness the last six months of her life because of Alzheimer’s. There’s a high likelihood I will follow in their footsteps.
Respecting life also means respecting death and the choices our families make when we cannot make them. I hope that if I follow my family path into Alzheimer’s, my husband or kids will have the strength to let me go, and if I linger as my grandmother did, that they will have the ability to make me a delightful gin martini with a little extra on the side, so that I can die with dignity instead of live like the undead.
What you’ve written here is both sad and beautiful. Thank you for your courage. I wish you all the best.
El Salvador had barely had a chance to celebrate the 1992 peace accords after more than a decade of civil war, when it had to face a new beast: gangs imported from the US. Failed policies in the country -such as allowing prisons to become gang strongholds and essentially turning into gang member training grounds- enabled this cancer to metastasize into an international crisis. Hopefully, all governments involved will realize that political band-aids are not the cure. And hopefully, citizens will be able to look at the human aspect of this tragedy. Imagine if sending your children alone to risk their lives through jungle and desert were a better option than keeping them at home…
I remember the bookstores in Arizona being bigger and better stocked than the ones in California. Perhaps it’s because they have a “reading season,” it’s just a different one than in Minnesota!
Wonderful article about what is really going on with this situation.
Thank you for an excellent article focusing on something that should touch the heart of all Americans – your excellent writing helps bring this closer home to us all, and compel us to not only think and act, but to care, as well.
Ever since Adam blamed Eve for his taking a bite of the apple, people suffering from moral cowardice have looked for somebody other than themselves to blame. This essay does an excellent job of pointing out how our own – USA – policies have been a major cause of the misery and danger that makes those kids leave their homeland. Send this to the New York Times so it’ll get the exposure it deserves!
“But the whole point of introducing current technology into the classroom
is to help education catch up with the rest of the world, which has
been utterly transformed by fast computers with fast Internet access.”
That’s the fallacy, anyway. The “rest of the world” (read: Western countries) supports their teachers, puts adequate resources into classrooms and has all sorts of social safety nets for it’s children, so they don’t have to go to school hungry after dodging bullets. iPads are the latest trendy toy. Too bad they’re so expensive. Those funds really should be used in a more effective and appropriate way.
Yes, that patient would qualify for palliative care, and then for hospice care when the doctors certified that he/she was not expected to live more than 6 months. This is not an uncommon scenario.
I am a graduate of the UCLA Chemical Engineering Department where I earned a doctoral degree. I have met Dr. Cohen then. I am disappointed that Dr. Cohen does not compare the cost of desalination with the cost of potable water today. My recollection is that desalination water is about 15-20 times more expensive or so. To mention bottle water is even a worst idea , studies by the Environmental Working Group ( or http://www.ewg.org/research/ewg-bottled-water-scorecard-2011) show that the quality of bottled water is not monitored and most are not any cleaner than water form your kitchen sink…My understanding also is that desalination can only achieve a 50% recovery, so what to do with the brine? In this respect, although more energy intensive, evaporation would achieve much greater water recovery form sea water, would this be in the long run a better alternative although costly (energy) ? He also does not mention what it would take (in terms of time) to build enough desalination plants in California to make some significant impact, my guess is that the time would be considerable. If the drought in California is a long term cycle, unless more feasible alternatives are found we are in for a true disaster. The economic fate of California may be truly jeopardize….My understanding is that archaeologists think that the end of Mayan civilization in the Americas was due to a prolonged drought in that part of the World, are we going to meet the same fate in California ?
This is a very late reply. I have not monitored this site for some time, but perhaps a few quick responses may be useful. First, the concentrate from seawater desalination is discharged back to the sea. The cost of seawater desalination is not 15-20 times the cost of other water sources as is stated in error in the above comment. The cost of water desalination is in the range of about $0.54 – $2 per 100 liters depending on plant size and design, discharge and intake design and more. In fact, the cost of seawater desalination is approaching the cost of traditional water sources. However, there are water sources that are significantly cheaper than seawater desalination, especially in regions where individuals (or companies, farms, etc.) have certain water rights and pay little or none for their water. Brackish water desalination is of significantly lower cost relative to seawater desalination. However, it is improtant to recognize that desalination is critical in water reuse applications. Below is an image that shows the cost of water desalination relative to other water sources (source: https://www.climate-policy-watcher.org/reverse-osmosis/global-desalination-situation.html).
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a4171fb5a3970d6f318d9a69722dbd40da7401e6a2aa72e18d69e4d8cadea230.jpg
Honestly, i am just so thankful for Asian-Americans to even be represented on TV! Huge step for us (besides Margaret Cho’s show 20 yrs ago). Thank you thank you THANK YOU a million times to ABC and everyone for making this finally happen.
I could not agree more. I have lived in L.A. for most of my 70 years, and one theme which has never changed is that L.A. has no sense of its heritage and constantly destroys historic buildings to replace them with the latest and the greatest gee-whiz thing.
This is just another classic example of same. As my woman friend said, “People are living in cardboard boxes on Skid Row and we are going to spend $100s of millions on THIS?”
Amen Mr. Rybczynski. Please, oh please, LACMA, rethink this wrongheaded plan.
I agree with Rybczynski. The Pereira pavilions were graceful and elegant without being intimidating. They provided openness and light after the charming jumble of a collection jammed into the old museum in Exposition Park. The Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer building is a disaster–an ugly wall on Wilshire, a depressing tunnel leading to the plaza, and a repellently overscale building. But the plaza area itself is still very pleasant, once you get to it (or approach it more enjoyably from the park behind the museum). Piano’s new pavilions are really feeble, and the proposed building for the film museum is appalling–it looks like the Goodyear dirigible crashed on Wilshire. Zumthor’s proposal is just bizarre. It’s featureless, depressing, and surprisingly heavy for a low structure–like something was smashed onto the site and splashed across the boulevard. Probably the campus is irredeemable, and I understand the argument that renovation would be unproductively expensive. But having spent many years in Chicago before returning to LA, I can’t understand why we permit even eminent architects to unload these ill-conceived buildings on my battered city.
The proposed new building is a disaster. A black, spreading amoeba-like blog raised on stilts (repeating the Getty’s elitist message that art is something “above” the people) and obliterating much of the open space that makes LACMA so great. In a city of wonderful light, why not something that allows light in? In a city of great weather, why not something that respects, references and allows access to the outdoors? Museums think “statement architecture” gives credibility even if it alienates. But a true “statement” is making great architecture AND something that people actually want to use.
I would like to see the buildings from the 1960s preserved; I actually find them understated and elegant. But the “Hollywood Egyptian” thing should go, and maybe that’s where a smaller blob by Zumthor can rise (as it were). Mr. Rybczinski is a smart writer, but his little remark about trophy wives at the end is kind of… dare I say vulgar?
It’s great you have published your story. Talking about your struggle will help others understand.
Proud of you, James. This is a wonderful piece. Thanks for sharing your story with the world and making a difference in the lives of others!
Thanks Chris and “writerJerome”! I appreciate how you both have expressed your truth and your stories along the way too.
As a gay evangelical Christian who believes in the traditional teachings regarding sexuality and as a physician, I recognize that reparative therapy has significant risk of harm with uncertain benefits. I’m glad to hear that you and your dad reconciled before it was too late. Thanks for sharing your story. I am sharing my own story in a new WordPress blog called Confessions of a Gay Evangelical Christian.
You’re very welcome and thanks for your support! I’d love to hear your story too. My email is james@livingmorefully.com
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are all routinely stripped from people ensnared in the mental illness “system” racket. Our country is despicable in its treatment of vulnerable people. Despicable.
Nice essay, but let me put in a good word for leaving home to find your real people and your authentic self. There’s more to aspiration than “opportunity” defined, as it usually is by the homebodies, in a purely economic sense.
This is a great piece and I can relate to the struggle of opportunity versus home. As a native Clevelander living in LA, I have to say that my hometown wasn’t upset with WHY LBJ left. Ohioans want to see their own succeed. What upset us was HOW he chose to depart. There was no grace, integrity or loyalty to the people who had been loyal to him since his 9th grade year of high school. There is a way to say goodbye to people who held you as the hometown hero and he did not honor that code. So it’s not that I won’t wear my “FOR6IVEN” t-shirt from Fresh Brewed Tees, but true forgiveness must be earned over time, not just through a letter in Sports Illustrated.
i think i killed my lawn but what next? this isa great story. bravo! if only they had this program in palos verdes
The original Pereira buildings were designs of their time and place, and even with the ostentatious ego-laden clumps thrown up on and around it, they retain the simple grace that well-designed civic architecture of the day aimed for.
I have heard critics of the original campus since it opened. I’ve never quite understood why they hated the design; while the comparison to his literal shopping mall designs are apt, so was the application of the shopping mall concept to the enjoyment of and access to art. Remember what this museum replaced: the building that now houses the Natural History Museum ALSO used to be the County Art Museum. The new campus thus became our first “real” art museum, and the public experience of art in LA was suddenly new and different. LACMA, particularly under its curator Maurice Tuchman, made the appreciation of art more a part of the life of Los Angeles – a life that in the 60s was lived in the sunshine, on the beaches – and in shopping malls.
Thanks for the great essay on how real ridesharing works, unlike the seedy corporate psuedo-taxis like Uber that market themselves as “ridesharing” without the substance.
Excellent, excellent article. You captured the humanity, more than occasional inhumanity, uncertainty, and various pressures around end of life care perfectly. I have read this frequently and pass it on to others who also practice acute/critical care medicine. Well done, thank you for writing it.
Beautifully said. Insightful, thoughtful and intriguing.
The time honored thesis that since cyclists roll stop signs they should have no dedicated road space: love it. Deep logic!
It’s always quite endearing to read how “Dutch society grew not out of war against a human foe but out of the struggle against nature”. Though there is some truth in it, the 17th century Golden Age was brought largely because the Dutch relentlessly waged war on anyone who would challenge their position as the world’s leading naval power. Only when taking on the French, Germans, British and Swedes simultaneously in 1672 proved to be a bit too much, international cooperation came on the agenda.
9/11 was indeed a targeted attack on American freedom. It’s not clear what the motive behind the shooting down of Malaysian Flight 17 was. I think it’s safe to say that it wasn’t an attack on Dutch tolerance–or Dutch anything for that matter. Nevertheless, it is a national tragedy for Holland and one can’t help but be moved by the poignancy of yesterday’s observances.
9/11 was Al-Qaeda’s move to bait the U.S. into giving it the “Clash of Civilizations” it had been pining for, and, unfortunately, the Bush Administration took that bait and went wide with broad attacks in the Muslim world rather than just hunting down Al Qaeda itself and bringing its leaders to justice (or terminating them). We might have been better served as a nation by a reaction that was, well, a little more Dutch. Could have saved us a ton of blood and treasure in Iraq, as opposed to the neoconservative folly that we can control all things because of our special, unique American Exceptionalism,
9/11 was a targeted attack on our freedom to establish military bases in Saudi Arabia, the center of Islam for (Arab) Muslims, not on the freedom on individuals living in the US. There’s a big difference that, of course, our leaders never mention. I agree though that there is a difference between a targeted attack and what appears to be an unintentional downing of this particular civilian plane.
Thanks for your response. It led me to research the topic and I found this 2002 letter from Osama citing reasons for the 9/11 attacks: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/nov/24/theobserver. It appears that both of us are correct: the motives were a combination of revenge against perceived American atrocities in the Middle East as well as a call on the US to turn to Islamic Sharia and away from our “debauchery”: “rather than ruling by the Shariah of Allah in its Constitution and Laws, [you] choose to invent your own laws as you will and desire”, he charges. I’ll be sure to mention both motives from here on. My original point is that there is a limit to how much you can compare what happened to the Dutch with MA Flight 17 and what happened to the US on 9/11. I think we agree on that.
There is a great book by Victoria Sutton called The Things That Keep Us Up At Night. She talks about these movies and why they are made the way they are and how accurate they might very well be. She lists post apocalyptic movies and tells why they may portray what the end could look like. Her site is reelbiohorror.com, it’s great too. This post is great, I am from Cali, I got a chuckle out of it! But after reading her book I can see what these movies are trying to do, but sometimes they are too silly for me!
Thanks Russell, a thoughtful article. The most interesting part is the contrast between the American and Dutch way of grieving. You only missed the “Condolence Book”, ubiquitous in Dutch society after any tragedy or death. Flags flew at half-mast everywhere yesterday, not just on public buildings but on many businesses and private homes.
Interesting piece..although it somewhat romanticizes Dutch history, overlooking, for instance, the utterly brutal history of Dutch colonialism, especially in Indonesia. As for 9/11, I know this may not sit well with many, but I lived in Ithaca, NY at the time. I was astonished at how quickly a certain orthodox narrative about what it “was” formed–the idea that it was an attack on “American values”, “freedom”, etc. It seemed rather apparent to me then–and still does now–that it was an attack on SYMBOLS of economic (World Trade Centre as stand-in for US economic might) and military (Pentagon–pretty obvious) “imperialism”, or at least “global influence”. Had it been intended as an attack on values/freedom/etc, one might have targeted, say, the Statue of Liberty and the Lincoln Memorial instead.
Hi Russell,
I’m Dutch, although I’ve lived in Calif for about 3 years as a kid (I’m now 65). Good piece! Good observations too, and well based.
A few short remarks, if you’ll allow me.
– I live near Hilversum, where 13 people have died, and know no-one who etc.
– The Dutch were the most powerful maritime nation in the 1600’s, posessing a fleet larger then those of England and France combined.
– The Dutch were the fourth (4th) oil producing country in ther world until 1941.
– The Dutch have been constantly attacked and/or invaded by a.o. the Spanish during the 1550s-1580s; the Brits in 1672, together with the Germans then; the French a year later (with one Charles de Batz de Castelmore dying here in the effort, a.k.a. d’Artagnan); then the Brits again; the French occupying from 1795 till about 1812 (Napoleon’s brother was king for a while), and finally the nazi’s from 1940 till 1945; they did that with a brutality and ferociousness that still hurts today, even; 250.000 Dutch died on a population of 9 million; 500.000 men were taken as slaves to Germany (50.000 of them died); 6.000 war planes crashed here in 5 years; two major battles were fought and both lost: the Battle for The Hageu in May 1940, and Operation Market Garden, 17-22 Sept 1944. There is no country therefor that has so many WWII graves per square km as Holland; here lie some 20.000 allied dead and 32,000 nazi’s. So we have our national day of mourning on May 4th every year.
– The recent day of mourning for the crash victims did not touch me, and I know of a good many people that feel likewise – we didn’t even have such a day after the February disaster in 1953, when 2,000 people died.
– Multiethnic is right – many of Rembrandt’s in-laws were Poles – as are mine. But it is not tolerance what you see there: it is the distant ‘have it your way, if you must’ of the tradesman, who doesn’t care deeply what others do as long as he’s left in peace and in profit, and will return the favour. But the best argument for intolerance – and at the same time tolerance – in Holand is, I believe very strongly, the way the Dutch acted under the nazi occupation. It is no other country that saved as many Jews as the Dutch did – by Yad Vashem’s figures. Dutch people have received almost 5,300 official, well researched recognitions – that is one in every 1,700 Dutch was an official saver of Jews. Poles come first in absolute figures, with 6,200 Yad Vashem awards – of course, a much lower average of 1 in every 4,000 Poles. There are three Dutch groups that received collective Yad V-awards for their efforts: the February-strikers of 1941 (striking under nazi occupation against persecution of Jews), a clandestine group of savers of Jewish children, known as the NV (‘limited company’) and the village of Nieulande, where a collective quota system of hiding Jews was set up. No other country in the world has three groups that were awarded. Only the Danes and the French have one group each. Also, one in four of every Dutch adult took part in some form of resistance work, acording to well-researched data. That was the response to the national call to arms, then mostly voiced by Queen Wilhemina, who, as Chrichill said, ‘was the only man in the Dutch cabinet’.
All this is a little known, but in my view crucial part of Dutch history. Are we in effect the real Hobbits? We come pretty close, I guess.
Thanks for your article.
Best
Arthur Graaff, editor of WWII-website Nieuws-wo2.tk, Bussum, NL
fpamsterdam@yahoo,com
Brian Wilson and Ry Cooder. They offered us radically contrasting but complementary versions of this city.
Oh I dunno, it didn’t look like much of a bite to me. Didn’t even break the skin, LOL. I was really disappointed when I saw the replay after the big drama started. I got to where I sort of bought his story that he just accidentally grazed the guy with his teeth as he was flopping. And the display of tooth pain he put on was high drama for sure. Not to mention the bite “victim” writhing in agony from the little red dots on his shoulder
If “The Cannibal”, aka “The Vampire” puts the fear of God into Barcelona’s competition, maybe they will be proven to have made a smart move. And if you believe that “any ink is good ink”, they are sure reaping plenty of that.
Did anyone see the Chinese beer bottle opener with the image of Saurez and the great big teeth to pop the cap? Priceless. I wonder where one could find one of those? Off to EBay I guess.
Your analysis is fundamentally flawed. You purposely label illegal immigrants as immigrants. There is a difference. We have the right to regulate our borders and accept only those who will benefit our country/communities. The federal government has purposefully failed in an attempt to secure and maintain political power for generations. Yes, Joe, immigrants are welcome. And No, those that circumvent and violate our laws are not.
Thank you, Tim for making this clarification of facts vs fiction.
Moremisleading propaganda from biased media delivered to public who do not live in this city.
Media bias creates divisiveness and spins the truth. Facts are purposefully not told or delivered in this article.
Update: I did look on EBay and it looks like there are actually 3 different Saurez bottle openers on offer, LOL. I’m not enough of a soccer fan to buy one, but it might make a cool souvenir for someone who is.
Change had better be afoot for Barça. European clubs have figured out how to effectively counter their “tiki taka” style of play. Despite Barça’s star-studded lineup, their less-than-stellar club season indicates a need for change. Reliance on tiki taka, emphasis on midfield play, and “false 9” tactics (which have been taught in their youth development system) are being effectively challenged. They (and the Spanish National Team, which has reflected Barça’s style of play) had a great run using this system. But “futbolísticamente,” they need to evolve or they will become irrelevant.
At the end of the day, Barça is “mes que un club” (more than a club) – it’s also a business. And one glaring element it has lacked is a true number 9 (striker). Enter Suarez. (Whether or not he’s the right fit for Barça is another question, so my apologies for not directly addressing your interesting piece.)
Whether or not Suarez and Barça are the right fit is an important question. Notwithstanding, change had better be afoot for Barça. Despite their star-studded lineup, they had a less-than-stellar club season. European clubs have figured out how to effectively counter Barça’s “tiki taka” style of play, midfield possession, and “false 9” tactics, which have also been taught in their youth development system. Barça (and the Spanish National Team, which has reflected Barça’s style and tactics) had a great run using this system. But they’ve been exposed and need to evolve.
At the end of the day, Barça is “mes que un club” (more than a club) – it’s a business that can’t afford to lose regularly. And one tactical element that Barça’s system has de-emphasized to its detriment is a true number 9 (striker), which new boss Luís Enrique understands. Enter Suarez.
I had to reread this because I was almost certain this had to be satire, but sadly, it’s not.
To be “hopeful” and cheer on “prosperity” at the expense of others suffering and misery is quite disgusting- and prefacing such egregious behavior with the basic caveat “War is bad!” in no way comes close to justifying it.
Thanks for finding the silver lining in the Ukrainian standoff. Time to pump up aerospace again.
What a good compact example of dialectics in action. As usual from the thoughtful Beinart.
Yes, this is perfect! It’s the ‘global warming’ for the defense industry! Open you wallets upright citizens, we need to arm up and we’ll even be green about it – we’ll recycle the nukes into smart bombs and drone missiles (just in case)
Kiddo, you’re lucky to be alive. You should have gone with the paramedics to the hospital for a full workup. Your regular doctor will want to see you anyway. Lightning strikes should be taken seriously. Hope you’re ok.
.I agree. The point of the ad is clearly to disturb, to disrupt the
feeling of bodily safety, of health. Ever since Un Chien Andalou, art
has known that an attack on the human eye, the “window to the soul” is a
particularly disturbing action. This is not Animal Planet showing a
centipede. We aren’t talking about health campaigns. This is a show in
the overlap of Sci-Fi and horror, and none of it is suitable for
children. So keep it to the screen where parents can at least try to
save what is left of their children’s sanity
I’m so glad this was written! Those ads made me furious and really upset my kids. It’s not the first time that there have been gross billboards around L.A., but I think this one was the worst.
Great article Anoosh. As someone who works in media and advertising (often with network clients like FX) I will tell you that even among my colleagues this ad is viewed as repulsive. Clearly a line has been drawn for the public, and I hope this becomes a turning point and not a new precedent. As a parent, I hate the billboards. As an ad man, I just think it’s bad marketing.
That sounds absolutely lovely. Thank you.
I’m a tough science-y type who actually enjoys reading about eye parasites and other things that people normally think of as disgusting. Even I found the billboards offensive. It’s one thing to view such images when one is seeking them out and in context, it’s another to be assaulted with them on the side of the road when going to and from. As an adult, I found myself adverting my eyes. I can only imagine how a child would respond to such imagery.
It isn’t fair that our kids’ happiness has been reduced to a necessary casualty for media marketing. Moreover, I resent that it is OK for companies to put up inappropriate billboards that effectively take away my power to make important parenting decisions for my kids. “The Strain” billboard totally crossed the line, and something needs to be done so this situation doesn’t happen again.
i think there are enough unbalanced adults to worry about seeing this ad, in addition to the children. i think it’s wrong on all levels to impose this imagery on everyone. images have a huge impact on the psyche of the individual and collective society – do we really need more fear and violence?
Josh, you bring up an interesting point. If media professionals are divided on the ad (and I’ve noticed comments on other articles that said the same thing), then why does it tip towards permitting the ad — particularly in public places where everyone can see it — rather than killing it or, at the very least, running it only where the viewer has control over whether to look or not, like newspapers and magazines? I understand the desire to push the edge in order to gain attention, but it seems like FX was really courting the backlash here. Additionally, we are all familiar with the marketing concept that bad press is still good press, yet you consider this bad marketing. I’d be curious to hear more of your thoughts on that.
Re other writings here: I would NOT say it was “Perfect”… and also, I wouldn’t say there was a total absence of “Satire”. It was thought-provokingly written. As they said in the Scouts, “Be prepared” (and nowadays things change quicker than EVER!!)
Ben Hecht must be referring to an American City called “London” As I can assure him that we aren’t converting shipping containers in the UK as an “answer” to the affordable housing issue. All the writers above highlight problems caused by policy about development, and more policy ideas to counteract the impact of the first policy ideas. Hmmm, how about getting rid of the damaging policy first? The main US problem is you don’t and never have, build with sufficient density. US development seems to me to be too car dominated.
The real answer to housing affordability problems is BUILD MORE HOMES, just keep building until the market clears at a price people can pay.
Simple
And yet Houston, TX is about 3 to 1 — but it doesn’t have one of the key drivers of expense LA has: ZONING.
I’m surprised there is no mentioning of the incident in Westwood about the same time that this killing that some of us thought was key to the downfall of what used to be our “IN” area! It was the vehicle that ramped into the sidewalk of Westwood Blvd. 2 or 3 blocks adjacent to UCLA Campus entrance and killed or injured some pedestrians on a weekend evening. This scared many of us neighbors to the area together with the gangs’ presence, as article states. After the sidewalk rampage incident, for some of us UCLA Westwood streets changed completely from attractive to forgotten!
The best view of the Downtown Los Angeles skyline is from the 4th Street Bridge heading west over the Los Angeles River.
I completely agree – safe driver should be allowed to drive safely. However, laws are enacted not for the safe driver, but for the unsafe driver (as the example provided)… as usual, the “few bad apples ruin it for the rest.” If lane-splitting is discouraged, it is probably because it’s unsafe – whether because of motorcyclist or motorist. (Like helmet laws.)
I don’t mind lane splitting (as a car driver), and I do make room when I see motorcycles approaching, but I do not appreciate it when motorcyclists feel entitled to the the space between lanes. If it is safe, do it, but if not, wait until it is. Don’t rev up your motorcycle or “mad dog,” or even slow down to lecture (I thought you wanted to get somewhere?) – leave that for law enforcement. And I do wish law enforcement would do more lane-splitting and ticketing of inattentive motorist.
I’m an unlikely Lane splitter, with my fleet of Vespa/ Piaggio scooters. I’m actually
constantly aware of all the cars around me, checking my mirrors, making eye
contact with left Turner’s. It takes a lot of skill, and an awareness of your
surroundings to ride a motorcycle or even a mere Vespa/ Piaggio to maneuver streets and
freeways. I have to be at my best, I exercise a lot to stay in good enough
shape to ride. I need to actually be awake, drug-free, not texting, not drunk on
top of my game. I ride on the freeway. Usually with one of the bikes with a
larger motor. And it’s amazing to watch drivers beat themselves around me,
practically forced me off the road, to get around me. It’s not quite as bad as
riding a bicycle in surface streets. We take up a lot less space, from a
traffic mitigation standpoint, parking stand point, we just are better for the
environment. By Lane splitting I am able to take myself out of the cramped stopped
traffic. I no longer have to worry about traffic I just ride around it. I have
to be somewhat aggressive, not as bad as the guys going 80+ on their rice
burners. Oh, and I’m probably kind of an unlikely rider. Middle-aged above 50, white,
female.
As a former motorcyclist I’m not buying that it’s that hot on the bike as you described above. Is it more uncomfortable (hot) when stopped as opposed to rolling? Yes, but not that uncomfortable! And this is from someone that was living upstate, (read: 100 degree summers).
Your argument for I guess getting everyone’s approval on lane-splitting is a bit weak too. Yes the drivers will experience a faster arrival time if the motorcycles split lanes as opposed to using the lanes provided, but is saving 0.00003 seconds in one’s journey from point A to point B really going to be that big of a deal? Now if you were referring to the motorcyclist time in getting from point A to point B, then yes, the cyclist will be arriving far faster!
I’m a bicycle rider nowadays and have not driven for over 8 years. I contend that being a bicycle rider has a FAR greater impact on reducing the driver’s arrival time than the splitting of lanes on the freeway!
Your experience as a former motorcyclist does not invalidate the author’s experience. Different motorcycles radiate heat differently and I have had a couple bikes that were almost intolerably hot in traffic during the summer.
True, mine was an older BMW. I’m thinking newer bikes are more efficient, no? I guess it could be argued that efficiency = more heat. Also, just maybe the designers of BMW worked at getting more of the heat dissipated towards the rider since it was designed and built in a Germany, yes?
And true if you comeback and say “well riders experience heat differently.”
Hard to bicycle from South Bay to Irvine. Granted if every single motorcycle on the road turned into cars and you multiplied by 0,00003 (very scientific number btw), it would still be a small number, but my point is keeping motorcycles in the lanes with the cars, doesn’t improve traffic congestion. And perhaps you have thicker thighs than I do, but trust me, it is that hot in dry Southern California freeways when the road has been cooking in 90 degree weather for hours.
The best view of Downtown Los Angeles is at night while leaving Dodger Stadium, walking to your car in one of the upper levels of the parking lot – especially if L.A. won the game.
Nice article on Drive Ins, now you need to do the book… Saw it in the Akron Beacon Journal. I’m an author with a penchant for humor. Wade Meyer.
Heinlein answered this one: Every hospital room should have a
Big Red Button on the wall; When the patient had had enough
she pushed the button; Nobody else’s decision.
What a wonderful, tender memoir. Thanks from a soccer dad who once got red-carded at an AYSO soccer game, even though I wasn’t even coaching.
Oh, Jack! Expelled! Ha! Hope you got to watch the end of the game from the parking lot.
My senior year in high school, ’73-74, we girls finally wore down resistance at our Catholic high school and got permission to form soccer and softball teams. The only other options for girls at the time were cheerleading, basketball, and swimming. We got started late so missed the official soccer league and only got three non-league games that season. Our record was 1-1-1. We had even more disastrous results in softball, as we’d never played fast pitch before. But it was an incredible year that I’ll never forget. My mom had died a few months before that school year started. I know she would have been one of our most vocal supporters and a great soccer mom. My first niece, out of the now six I have, was born shortly before my first softball season started. How I envied her and her two sisters years later as they boisterously played soccer and softball without a thought about what transpired to make that possible. They went to the public high school, which had added soccer and softball years before our school had. But by then the Catholic school’s girls teams had developed into formidable opponents. I had three more nieces, athletes all. A couple even played hockey, which was my dream. Soccer and swimming are still recurring themes. For the boys, football, basketball, baseball, track and field, soccer and hockey. And now the third generation in my family of female athletes, the only girl in her generation, so far, with three brothers and two boy cousins, has.grown into a firecracker of an athlete. She’s played hockey but now skates for fun. She’s only in middle school but soon she’ll be tearing it up on the high school fields. Or not. Some kids find other interests as they get older. But isn’t it great that they have the choice?
Yes, so great! And great for them, too, to have such a supporting aunt!
If districts shouldn’t matter, then perhaps we shouldn’t have districts! How about enabling proportional representation of voting blocs without boundaries, by having Single Transferable Vote elections? (These use Ranked-Choice Voting.)
You’re right about how confusing L.A. can be, even for the media. (The City of L.A. is a gerrymander within the County of L.A.)
An example:
The NYTimes Magazine article on the contest for Rep. Waxman’s seat was called “The Real House Candidates of Beverly Hills.” (Beverly Hills is a but a small part of the district.) It began: “Brent Roske lives on a 45-foot yacht off the coast of Marina del Rey, which is technically on the Pacific Ocean, but for jurisdictional purposes is considered part of the city of Los Angeles and, more to the point, the 33rd Congressional District of California.” Marina del Rey is *not* part of the City of Los Angeles. I asked the NYTimes to correct the error, but the NYTimes refused, because the sentence was “tongue-in-cheek.”
Now school districts have to remain. The cost, climate and traffic impacts of transporting kids from home to better schools would only add to the substantial climate and traffic impacts of people driving from poor areas to better jobs, right? And without school district boundaries, good schools wouldn’t boost property values
anymore, so there wouldn’t be any more support for good schools, right?
Oh, for the curious in L.A. County: http://www.lavote.net/OnlineDistrictmapApp/
Thank you for writing this amazing article. Dignified and filled with humanity–the way the healthcare profession should be but all too often isn’t.
I love this! As a soccer mom who dragged my son around to his older sister’s soccer games, and inadvertently screamed in his year while he sat in my lap, I totally relate to your funny essay. I have a picture of my son sitting in a folding chair, with a brown paper bag as a sun shield on head, sticking his tongue out at me.
Most of those who call themselves Californian are from somewhere else originally. That’s certainly true in San Francisco and LA. Ask anyone who lives here where their parents or grandparents are from, and 4 out of 5 times they’re probably from out of state.
If you do some research on Eddie’s parents, you’ll see that Randall Park
and Constance Wu do pretty good impressions of their accents. Not all
Asian parents in America had heavy accents!
My husband Mike passed away this past March of 2014 from pancreatic cancer. Towards the end of his life he saved this article and asked me to read it when I am able to. I finally got the will to read it and well, 5 months after his passingI realized he did it exactly on his terms. He was at home the the entire time, many of his friends and family had visited him many time from CA, NY & PA. With his hospital bed next to my bed we were able to hold hands and even cuddle at times. Then finally at 1:30 am I suddenly woke up and felt him, his hand was still warm but I could not hear him breathing anymore. I had a friend who had been staying with me for the past two days (who happens to be a RN) and she told me that he did pass. It was very surreal, but I feel like he passed in his sleep so that people were not hanging over him and he gently kissed me good bye (at 1:30am) which is what woke me up. To me it was the most beautiful passing for this ugly cancer. Thank you for letting me vent and continue on this healing journey.
Is it worth starting a Foundation to collect shoes? What is it like to ship things in containers to the areas where the Kissi people are?
I find this article both informative and motivating…so much so, I will earnestly investigate launching an engineering career myself… Thank You, Christine !
The Opportunity Cost of Futile Treatment in the ICU
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24810527
Nicely written. I’m sorry you didn’t get that last heart-to heart talk… most of us never get those talks with loved ones. I’m sure Armando knows, though.
Beautiful letter.. may he rest in peace.. I meet him back in the 90’s I was dating one of his friends. . & yes he was a very happy outgoing person.. my condolences to your family.
Having lived in Argentina as an expat, you paint a much rosier picture than exists in real life. I love the people there, but that’s it. The government is corrupt, and if you disagree with the elected government, then somehow you are automatically on the side of the military junta of the 70s, never understood that one… The simplest things take hours to do and require so much paperwork it blows your mind. E.g. at McDonalds I have to wait 15 minutes to get a coffee! every day! Good luck as an expat buying a car easily or renting an apartment. I had my corporation behind me and it still took months of legalities. The flaw I see is the locals far too many times take comfort in “we’re use to this and this always happens” but the reality is it’s just getting worse. Sadly, I don’t see a better government in the future based on all the existing characters in play. I do love Argentina in the end, but feel sorry for the population that truly wants something better, they are in the minority.
Beautiful… LOVE!
Saw this reprint in Time Magazine.
Similar story – Stage 4 colon cancer, metastasized in the liver, in my wife. Treated it aggressively to start but got the fateful I’m sorry nothing else we think will work. Our oncologist was up front about additional therapies we could try, referrals that he would be willing to make, but that in his opinion that would mean hospitalization, tubes and procedures and dying in the hospital. He recommended hospice, thought we should really strongly consider quality of life for what was remaining. We went that route. It ended a little more quickly than even the doctors predicted, but she was home, among family and friends. She died peacefully at home – no tubes, minor pain killers, able to eat. I was able to hold her as she passed.
I highly recommend you listen to what this author has to say.
Thanks for writing this, and offering this analysis. I didn’t have this historical context with which to consider the downturn in Westwood’s fortunes. I really couldn’t have, I was six when the shooting occurred, and I’d only gone to Westwood once during the day, to watch a cinematic double-feature. I grew up 10 miles to the east, not in South Central but close enough, and gang activity, drug dealing, and gun shots were part of daily life. The deal I had with my parents was that I was allowed to ride my bike around provided I came in before dark, when Bad Things Happened. I couldn’t have imagined that the shooting of one single person would be viewed as groundshaking as Ms. Toshima’s murder was in Westwood, where I later lived for two years as a graduate student. So I thank you for bringing up this perspective.
While a student in urban planning at UCLA, I read up as much I can on the history of Westwood, including academic papers/studies archived on the UCLA campus disseminating concepts for creating a pedestrian arcade down Broxton Ave from the 1970s. It said that people were coming to Westwood to recreate at night, and that Hollywood was seen as dangerous…not surprising to me, given that my dad and other Thai people lived there as recent immigrants from Bangkok because it was cheap. I did “LOL” though when I read that because by then I knew Westwood had been a Footloose type place for quite some time. In essence, basically, people have been worrying about Westwood’s economic health for quite some time before Ms. Toshima’s death. But Ms. Toshima’s death afforded neighborhood groups and some activist business owners the political will to draft and get approval for a very aggressive specific plan that, among many things, required businesses to get police permits for dance floors and other components of night life. To get those permits requires the blessing, more or less, of the local councilmember. And good luck with that.
I can relate. I have a distant father. Our relationship was tentative for the past 30 years, ever since he and my mother divorced. We had several good years together in there, but always on his terms. He finally split from me eight years ago, threatening a restraining order if I didn’t stop sending him the occasional card or letter.
It’s heartbreaking to have a parent that is at once present but absent. I wish I still had my dad in my life, but I also know that it’s really his loss.
I wish you peace.
Thank you, Mr. Al-Azzawi, for this lucid, heartbreaking account. I happen to live in an area of Michigan that has absorbed a lot of Iraqi refugees, mainly Chaldeans. Many of them have started thriving businesses. Others are professionals staffing the local hospitals and institutions. Some are artists, writers, filmmakers. The sad thing is that their American neighbors do not understand who these people are, where they are coming from. If they get close enough to learn how ambivalent their feelings are about the US intervention(s) in Iraq, Americans rarely “get it.” They are certainly not going to get the missing information from the mainstream media. We need more people like you to educate us with first-person narratives.
I too was born in Iraq, and came to the United States when I was ten years old. I visited Iraq in 2000, when it was in a much much better state. I wrote and lectured about the very same things you write about today, and recently I finished a memoir about this experience.
Here’s what I have learned. America does not really want to understand Iraq and its people, and how Iraq affects their lives. It is this lack of political and historical interest that allowed for the existence of ISIS.
How right you are. Chandler missed a lot of the nuances and only wrote of the perceived obvious.
Thank you sir. I’m a librarian, about to teach research methods to a university history class. I will assign your story as an example of the importance of primary and secondary sources.
well done
In the MICU of the world renowned cancer hospital where I worked for many years I saw many examples of futile care but one is branded into my memory.
The patient had end stage multiple myeloma and I don’t remember the complication that landed her in intensive care. Given her advanced disease it made little sense but policy had deemed anyone on a ventilator went to ICU.
She was a slight woman to begin with and was now painfully wasted. She had not had an appetite for some time and what nutrition she did take in seemed to feed only the widespread malignancy.
One day she coded and her family despite her prognosis had refused no code status and she had gone along with them. My hands and my ears still recall the feel and sound of her ribs and sternum fracturing with compressions. We “saved her with this horrifying CPR.
A couple of days later I happened to be in the unit and her the crack when her humerus snapped from the simple act of her nurse bathing her. Putting a tourniquet on to start an IV was hard, I just prayed I wouldn’t break her other arm with it. She was still aware at this point.
Soon, another crash and another successful resuscitation. The only good part was that she was comatose from then on and didn’t seem to suffer from her fractures and bone pain. The family continued to insist that we “do everything possible.” The problem was that we already had and it failed, all we had was prolonging her dying.
She was on high doses of pressors and her extremities began to show tissue death from the miserable circulation. The family never seemed to grasp that watching her fingers and toes die was actually part of doing everything.
There were a couple of additional codes. Her primary nurse, a woman with years of experience, almost quit nursing the day a large part of the woman’s gangrenous tongue simply fell off during oral care.
The family never budged and at that time there was no futile care policy in the medical center. I was not present for the final code when our patient finally managed to escaped her ravaged body. It was understood that the last code was a “slow ten count code.” For those who don’t know, this was basically a deliberately slow response basically to let a patient die naturally before a pointless resuscitation attempt. Never official, these codes did sometimes happen.
Not long after this, a futility of care policy was implemented by mutual agreement of the med center institutions. In most cases, it prevented the horror show of cruelty by codes. I think evey single one of us who had any part in this uncaring care had advance directives after that and made wishes clear to our next of kin.
And yet we still see the occasional case where a family demands futile care, even if a legally dead corpse on life support. Or rather death support, to my mind. I think we still have a great need for ways to educate patients and families about realities no one wants to face but should if only in the name of mercy and justice.
That patient had excellent insurance, by the way, and those horrifying weeks generated a stupefyingly high bill.
Enjoyed this piece. Universal themes. The deaths of our parents, and the role of community, memory and friendships.
Wonderful to read this personal story. I thought I knew about your life–but didn’t know so many things you shared in this story. And most important, appreciated the love you felt for your folks and your hometown. Thanks for sharing that.
Terrific story. Terrific history. I come here to praise Ernie!
It was quite a history as the organizing in Santa Monica set a path for the rest of the country. Glad you remind us of those days.
A beautiful piece! I’m incredibly hard to write about a parent. But this essay does it very well!
Saif, that was a moving piece. I was born in Iraq just like you, and I left Iraq in 1990 (I was 12 as well at the time). Your words ring very true to me, I don’t recognize Iraq anymore, it is a strange feeling to witness the death of a country, this is a rare occurrence in the modern world. I recently published a book called “The Bull of Heaven” in it I remember Iraq exactly as you did prior to 1990, and for many years I wished to see that Iraq come back, but alas now I view this period as it really was, a beautiful ice sculpture that melted away a long time ago.
Nawar Alsaadi
Vancouver, Canada
Great panel and fantastic discussion!
The point of the subsidy is to put electric cars on the road – which is happening. It’s unfortunate that the price point is high, but that’s inevitable for a new technology that is evolving and not widely adopted. The incentive will make such vehicles more commonplace, which (1) enhances air quality for all (2) encourages more innovation which may ultimately (3) lower the price and put these vehicles within reach of a larger segment of the population. And yes, CA should keep the subsidies in place for a long time to come!
Years ago I read an article – I think it was in Car and Driver – in which the author asserted that the amount of money California would be spending on EVs would be better spent on just buying everyone in the entire state (who couldn’t otherwise afford it) a new car, that California would reap greater emissions benefits. I support forcing clean car technology – it’s the only way we have ever gotten auto makers to improve their cars. But your analysis reinforces the earlier assertion and should cause California to rethink its clean air plan.
The problem is poor folk aren’t buying new cars. It doesn’t matter if they run on electrons, gas, or cold fusion. Luckily with all the LEAF lease returns hitting the market at around $14K there is now a used EV market developing. Poor people do buy used cars. And when your fuel cost is 2.1- 3 cents/mile, it becomes even more affordable.
PlugInAmerica.org
Oh silly me! I thought this was a hiking story and not a driving to the top story. Where’s the satisfaction in driving to the top? Hiking to the top of Mt. Wilson is a far more relaxing and fulfilling option.
Full disclosure: I fall into the affluent group, and would buy a full electric without benefit of rebates. But we all have our own motivations.
Re: your article, however, I suspect that a very large percentage of electrics are purchase by those in the middle of your income spectrum.
Respectfully, I think you have missed a few of points.
– First, the Purpose of the rebate is to encourage electric car purchases. Every purchase benefits air quality. And some of that benefit accrues to people who live in more urban areas with higher air pollution, or rural areas like the Central Valley with horrific air quality based on geography, dominant industries, and transportation. The air pollution of the attorney living in Santa Monica, and driving to Bunker Hill every day does impact the overall air quality of the LA Basin.
– Second, encouraging electric car purchases in California (along with mandates to) has, without question, stimulated more innovation and interest by car companies. This will have an impact, longer-term of bringing down prices based on competition and economy-of-scale.
– Third, for some, the rebate is needed to bring the price point for an electric down toward the price point for a similar gasoline powered car. But it does not actually make up the difference. This difference is a much, much greater hurdle for those lower on the income spectrum, so its effectiveness is likely much reduced.
So, if we keep in mind the primary purpose of the rebate, some pertinent questions to address in Zócalo Public Square might be:
Simplest direct form –
Given a specified total amount of tax dollars with which to use for rebates, how can we achieve the maximum number of electric vehicle purchases? (What is the individual rebate that gets the maximum number of electrics purchase?.)
Much more complicated direct form –
Given a specified total amount of tax dollars with which to use for rebates, how can we achieve the greatest total amount of estimated pollution reduction? Would have to base on effective MPG differential between new electric vehicle removed (but does that vehicle really get removed?), and the routine mileage driven.
Alternative ideas, contrasting with other pollution reduction strategies –
Given the pollution reduction achieved with the electrics purchased to date, what increase in gasoline prices would achieve the same overall result? Elevated gas prices would be felt to a much greater extent by people in the lower income levels. How would their tax contributions to rebates look against costs of increased fuel prices?
I look forward to more on this topic.
Public transit is great, as are fuel efficient cars, electric cars, better roads, signals, accident alerts and all the rest of the things which, while desirable in themselves, only nibble at the edges of the problem. The desire for mobility is infinite. If we doubled the number of freeway lanes in Los Angeles, in five or six years they would be filled to capacity again and we’d be back to where we started (though perhaps a trillion dollars poorer).
People won’t driver fewer miles unless they have to pay by the mile. Someone in a BMW would be happy to pay $10 to drive 10 miles at 80 mph. If wealthy people want to pay big bucks to drive congestion free (and so that they don’t have to sit next to poor people, the great unwashed or people who talk too loud and travel in packs), who are we to stand in the way?
We need to introduce congestion pricing to give them that opportunity. And if a dollar a mile doesn’t reduce congestion, we can keep raising the price to $5/mile or $10/mile and keep on raising it until finally it finally dawns on people that cars are not the solution to getting around in big cities anymore.
There are all sorts of ways to handle congestion pricing. We can make the first 10 miles per day completely free (this would accommodate poor people or trips to the doctor grocery store). But after that the cost of driving would rapidly accelerate.
People who oppose congestion pricing always say that it would hurt the poor more, but everything hurts the poor more, from a flat tire to a spoiled can of tuna fish. That’s no reason not to do something. It’s just a reason to use a little more ingenuity, such as taking all the money from congestion pricing and pouring it into public transit, close-in housing, adding many more bike lines (America is the only major country in the world with virtually no electric bikes) and changing the zoning laws so businesses, doctors and other services (cafes!) can coexist with existing housing, instead of being forced to relocate many blocks or miles away.
The one thing we don’t want to do is make it easier for people to travel more. The desire for mobility is infinite. We will never satisfy it. To make cities livable again we have to make needless mobility both harder and more expensive.
Something else to keep in mind that I didn’t see mentioned is about the citizenship status of the residents of these communities. People who can’t get state issued identification because they aren’t citizens are generally not able to open bank accounts which in turn reduces the likeliness of ever applying for credit for fear of being caught. Citizenship status also limits the type of jobs these residents can obtain, which are generally low wages paid under the table. So perhaps the more salient discussion should be focused more on how to improve economic opportunities for undocumented people and improving public transit do these residents don’t have to rely on old cars. The subsidies are serving their purpose in putting more zero emissions cars on the road.
I live about 30 miles east of Mr. Hernandez (literally on the edge of the Fresno city limits — Fresno population ~500,000). While my income is higher than Mr. Hernandez’, it is less than 1/2 of that found in San Ramon. So I believe that my situation is somewhat comparable to his. A few simple facts —
1. Along with the Federal tax credit and state rebate, the San Joaquin Valley Air District gives additional rebates to EV buyers. I received a $3,000 check from them when I bought my Mitsubishi i-MiEV. Program information is available at http://valleyair.org/grants/driveclean.htm
2. Mendota is 30+ miles to Fresno, the nearest large city. Most Mendota residents I’ve met will travel to Fresno regularly. Fresno has practically no EV infrastructure (a few places to plug in, but those are mostly limited to car dealerships). So limited range EV’s in Mendota could not make that common trip to Fresno. More places to charge the EV’s will help (why didn’t Target install EV chargers at their new superstore next to Highway 99? — Target puts them in new stores in the Bay Area.)
3. Your article’s title must not be addressed to me. I live in the Central Valley. I have a 5.2kw solar PV system installed that generates most of the electricity used by my EV.I believe that my EV is helping. I think the title of your article should be addressed to the San Ramon EV owner. Even then, it may help because Bay Area’s air pollution gets blown into the Central Valley. Generating less pollution in the Bay Area may mean less bad air being moved to my neighborhood.
4. If Mr. Hernandez can’t afford even the cheapest new car, than an EV is likely out of the question. But consider the deal I received on my Mitsubishi. List price was about $22k. I then received a $7,500 federal tax credit, a $2k state rebate and the $3k Valley Air rebate. So the new EV’s net price was about $10k. It would be better if the Federal tax credit was a rebate, but the car was affordable.
5. The Central Valley has many EV’s. The local Fiat dealer is doing especially well. I invite you to visit the Facebook page for the Central Valley EV owners — https://www.facebook.com/groups/centralvalleyelectricvehicles/
The article should be titled “EVs are not the most cost effective way to clean the air”, not “Your Electric Car Isn’t Making California’s Air Any Cleaner”. The actual headline is demonstrably false; people do not hold on to their clunkers longer just because someone else bought an EV. But someone could establish that the EV subsidy is less effective that using other means at the current price point, that a well-designed “cash for clunkers” would do better. However, the whole point is to create a market, where the price of EVs come down, and are cost effective without subsidy.
Pretty much all of the Green Bay Packers….especially Aaron Rodgers.
Your title does a giant disservice to the community. On the face of it, the quality of our future depends on how quickly we convert to no-fossil-fuel electricity and an all-electric, light-vehicle fleet (LVF). (Together they account for about 2/3rds of anthropogenic CO2.) Nothing else will have such a large effect.
The point of the Tesla is not that it will single-handedly take over the LVF. It is that it spear-heads the development of technology and provides proof of concept. It captures our imagination and gives us motivation and energy to make the necessary changes. Why would you possibly want to negate these effects?
The most dramatically different skyline is one taken on a clear day in winter — snowcapped mountains appear in the image. Shown in Summer, many Angelenos don’t even recognize that it is their city!
I will be glad to start. Do we even need to discuss this? We need the clinic 24/7. Who else can we talk with? Who else can we get funding from?
One point that this article misses is a distinction between criteria pollutants and GHG emissions. Older cars do have much higher criteria emissions; they do not necessarily have much higher GHG emissions, since these are basically a function of MPG, which was essentially flat for two decades.
I rarely see hybrids, and never see EV’s, in my middle income North Orange zip code. The coastal cities are another matter. The subsidies are robbing the working class to buy new cars for the rich.
Nice analysis. This correlation between previous streetcar location and development density in LA has been known generally, but it’s good to have it systematically analyzed.
The old streetcar corridors have generally become today’s bus corridors, a few are today’s rail corridors. The persistence of density and commercial activity along these corridors is the framework upon which Los Angeles can again build itself as a transit-oriented city.
“The very last streetcar tracks were pulled out of the ground in 1963.” Streetcar service may have ended in 1963, but it is not at all credible to imagine that tracks, too, disappeared that year.
During our country’s golden era (post WWII- early ’60s) corporations assumed 35% of the tax load of this country. The U.S. was the envy of the world. Today, those corporations have whittled their share down to 17%. Guess who takes up the slack? We do. To a point. After that point, our schools begin to suck, our bridges begin to fall down, and the college education that someone making minimum wage in 1977 could afford, now costs $200K a year. I’m for any plan where the corporations begin to pay their fair share (again).
What an unbelievable amount of arrogance on the part of the writers.
“And suggesting that it’s time for boomers to shuffle off the stage might seem selfish or cold-hearted …” Yes, it might seem that way, because it is. The writers might as well have said, “Hey, why don’t you go crawl in a corner and die.”
Unbelievable!
The writers seem to have missed that the “older generation” is already being systematically taken out of the workforce. If you’re not in a corporate gig still in your early 40s, the likelihood of you getting back in is limited. 50s? Fogettaboutit! 60s? High near impossible.
To blame the job situation on boomers not retiring is certainly ill-placed “blame.”
How about looking at a marketplace flooded with cheap illegal labor, as a starting point? A few decades of jobs shipped overseas.
Really, folks, get a clue!
As someone who is almost 55, I second the substance, if not the tone, of Laura’s comment. This article is bizarre. The one thing it demonstrates is that you can make a living these days blathering about millennials.
Retire? Are you serious? What am I supposed to live on–Social Security? Snort. Sorry folks but it looks like I’ll be working until the day they shovel my cold, hard carcass into the ground.
So the biggest corporations in the world, which happen to have became that big because they are in the U.S. to begin with, now want to pay even less taxes? Is that patriotism or convenience and roberry? Do they still want to keep their corporate welfare? They still have enough money to have their lobbyists buying politicians to keep the minimum wage at poverty levels and buy government contracts so it can’t possibly be so bad for them!
I wish I could afford to retire. I love the work I do and I hope to be able to continue as long as I can. It would be nice to do something more “giving”/less lucrative, but I don’t see that happening for me in reality. I 100% agree with previous poster Laura.
The traffic lights in L.A. may be synchronized, but they aren’t “smart”. If sensors could detect the absence of vehicles at the “green light” axis of an intersection, while simultaneously detecting the presence of vehicles sitting idly at the “red light” axis, the traffic light system could react to this wasteful situation by changing the red light to green, thus letting the frustrated, resource- and time-wasting, air polluting vehicles continue on their way, unimpeded by a pointless stop. That would be a substantial improvement to our current system.
We all know that if Los Angenes were a “smart” city, we’d still have our red and yellow railcars with us today. There’d still be plenty of automotive traffic, but the rail system would offer a way around that mess.
At the bottom of the 6th paragraph is the gist of this article, without the sugar-coating. “…asking them (the baby boomers) to die…’
Looking at their photograph at MikeandMorely dot com, I deduce that both of these guys are Baby Boomers, likely born before 1964. Confirmatory information is supplied by the two author’s backgrounds: we learn that Morely Winograd “…served as the Executive Director of the Institute for Communication Technology Management (CTM) at USC’s Marshall School of Business from 2001 until his *retirement* in June of 2009….” Regarding Michael D. Hais, Ph.D., “Prior to joining Magid in 1983, he was a political pollster for Democrats in Michigan and an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Detroit.” In summary, these two Baby Boomers are first-class hypocrites.
Actually we are too old to be Boomers. We are members of the Silent Generation, the one nobody knows about that came before Boomers. And we are both retired.
As a Boomer, I appreciate your candor – but your definition of “retired” is a curious one, given that I would anticipate that the consulting fees mentioned on your website are substantial. It still seems to be “do as I say, not as I do.”
Well said!!!
Interesting when I was teaching law at the undergraduate level at a private college and also at a large public university, I noticed a divide among the students. The Immigrants had the values of the Boomer generation — love of Liberty which they showed by making the most of everything. They worked extremely hard, were respectful and inquisitive. In the category of Immigrants I include students directly from other countries, mostly Asian and Mexico, and those who parents grew up overseas, especially India and southeast Asia.
Laura aptly describes the “typical” American Millennial. While each person needs to be judged on his/her own individual merit, certain groups do tend to have similar values. Some of the American Millennials were stupendously wonderful.
This “discussion” shouldn’t even be happening. No generation is entitled to work or not work and nobody should be obligated to step aside for someone else just because they’re there. This should simply be a matter of who’s most capable and best suited to do the work. And that has everything to do with skill, not age or generational entitlement. If millennials want to move up they need to acquire the experience and expertise to do that, not plot the best way to ask others to step down. It’s about earning the right to move into those jobs, not some sense of generational entitlement that means that others who can do the work and want to do it must step aside.
I’m on the cusp having been born in 1965 but am essentially the youngest of “boomers” with a grungy hip-hop flavor. That being said, I second “Laura’s” challenge to “millenials” and the authors who didn’t even address the economic reality of boomer-retirement: finance the retirement and our jobs are theirs! I’ll continue to troubleshoot and engage society with positive contributions and even more efficacy. after all, I’ve consistently done my best work when pay (or supervisors) aren’t involved. Is that a “boomer” characteristic? . . . Peace.
Oh come now. Most Boomers are way better off than their younger generational counterparts–both Xers and Milennials. I take it you live in CA and never bothered to buy a house? Because if you did you should be sitting pretty and ready to ride off into the retirement sunset.
“I take it you live in CA and never bothered to buy a house? Because if you did you should be sitting pretty and ready to ride off into the retirement sunset”. Unless one plans to relocate to an isolated desert community or transplant to AZ or NV, selling your Cali home to purchase another Cali home essentially results in an even swap that wouldn’t necessarily include the benefit of an upgrade or much if any profit. I also don’t know how much “better off” I was looking for a job out of high school in the 80s as my millennial counterparts. I do know that we were underemployed until our mid-20s before we were finally able to proceed beyond the threshold of gainful and stable employment.
Maybe. Anyhow, the Founding Fathers would be shocked by a society that didn’t know who it’s city council people were, and who dismissed any election where POTUS wasn’t on the ballot as an “off year election”. So much for “the more local, the closer to the people” in our media society, I do fear, it’s just the opposite.
When I’m alone, and can’t use the carpool lanes on the 110, I often use the 710, because it runs between two other freeways and doesn’t have the same pressure on it. As for all the trucks, there are two lanes that are free of trucks.
I don’t which point you get on or get off the 710 in lieu of the 110, but it might not be all that practical a plan for someone who intends on going to downtown LA as an example.
As for the trucks, they are permitted in the furthest 2 lanes to the right, but keep in mind that any vehicle that is towing a trailer is by law, restricted to a maximum speed of 55 mph (pretty much ALL trucks you might come across on the 710) whereas a passenger vehicle can go as fast as 65 mph, that alone can reduce the number of drivers who would be OK with using those two lanes where trucks are allowed. This may end up pushing all passenger vehicular traffic to either the 1 additonal lane (in areas where the freeway is 3 lanes) or to the left 2 lanes (in areas where its a 4 lanes). And lastly, all this means is that the more tractor trailers that we have on out freeways, the more restricted traffic flow is going to be.
Trucks on the 710 is an unavoidable matter simply because the 710 happens to be the one main outlet out if the port at Long Beach. Now, if the expansion does happen, it is likely that a lot if truck traffic will still transfer to the westbound/eastbound 10 Fwy, on their way to points north via the 10 to the 5 or the 10 to the 605 to the 210 to the 15 (respectively) and yet if the expansion is ever built, they would have an option to stay on the 710 which would not only relieve some congestion (in the least) on the 10 fwy but on associated fwy interchanges in the area as well. It isn’t that dufficult to envision that those who are forced to exit the 710 where it ends now, are forced into having a long detour as they traverse through an already congested freeway system and one which promuses to only get worse as time passes.
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The way I see it, and while there are -as listed in the piece above- 5 options, there really is only but a single viable choice. For one, we are discussing users who are (by definition) “driving” in their own vehicles. So unless you are planning on having (something similar to a ferry service -except this is on land/not on water) flat train carts, or long flat tractor trailers where vehicles may hop on at one point and get off at another point only to then continue driving (sounds silly, doesn’t it), then the option gwnerally described as “public transportation” aren’t really that viable. Furthermore, even if that idea wasn’t that silly, you’d have to build a roadway for those carriers to travel on (otherwise it isn’t much different than what we have now) otherwise the congestion on existing freeway and local roadways is still a problem. And if you are going to build something, build the danged expansion and get it over with. So again, “public transportation” is a silly (for lack of a better word) non-viable option only intended to cloud the issue, and dilute public opinion away from the realistic choices we have.
A tunnel, is yet another “pipe dream” (pun intended) that isn’t any more realistic than a ferry-on-land service. Not in Southern California and not until AFTER we have our anticipated “BIG ONE”. Then again, it worked for several miles of light rail so why not for a 3.5 mile stretch of freeway! In this case, and if this is to be considered as a realistic option, then any mention of “cost” is yet again, a mere distraction and a lousy excuse to continue to delay the inevitable; that being the one and only sensible choice…. BUILD THE DAMNED FREEWAY AND BE DONE WITH IT!
I should also point out that if cost was such a huge obstacle to a real solution, then whose decision has it been to continue to pour hundreds of thousands of dollars in payroll hours as we conduct study after study and public hearing after public hearing?
Lastly, this is one project that is the poster child for red tape and bureaucratic redundancy. And if anyone is really serious about resolving this issue, then he/she needs to look back on the history of this dilemma, and examine a list of individuals who have participated in this process. My guess is you will find one who is not only influentual enough to continue to derail any possible solution, but one whose pocketbook might be somehow negatively impacted if this project were to ever see the light of day. Get that individual out of there and get this show on the road… (No pun intended)!
Excellent post: thank you! I still think that the sharing economy makes cities more cooperative, but maybe it’s time to show off the true poster children. Have you looked at the impact of http://www.meetup.com on cities yet?
Thanks Odile. We haven’t studied meetup in detail, but its the sort of platform that can facilitate cooperation in many dimensions. In the book we look in more detail at how such cyberspace infrastructure can complement urban public space and help build sharing cities.
One major factor in conjestion is the slow driver in the faster lane, one who has continuous cars passing on their right side. These drives create long distance between them and the car in front of them. These drivers can safely move to their right oine lane and sometimes two lanes. In my observations that I have observed, the cars behind them that can not pass varies from 10 to 15 cars. The speed varies but averages in the mid sixties. Thes drivers are unaware of the conjestion that they are creating. It is responsible for more cars on the freeways. Their keeping over 1 or 2 lanes traffice can more safely a little faster. This will account for min of 10 % less cars on the freeways, creating a safer condition. This does require teaching people to become aware and respectful of their roads and highways..
Hear hear Robert. Just yesterday I got stuck behind a charter bus in the HOV lane. He was going 55mph and there wasn’t a car in front of him for miles! Arrrgg!
Wonderful article. My Dad, Robert Slee, worked with Howard Ahmanson, Sr, Maurizio Bufalini and Millard Sheets on many projects in the 1960s. I’m planning a trip to Italy this month and have the Carrara Marble quarries on my itinerary as a must see. My Dad travelled to Carrara over the years and became good friends with Maurizio. Going to Los Angeles in December, will be visiting Ahmanson Center to see the travertine block. Brings back great memories of the 1960s.
Surprised no one mentioned smart freeways. We have 1400 metering lights installed across LA County’s entire network of freeways, 900 can be controlled in real-time. If the average person can obtain and respond to real-time traffic congestion data on their cell phone, certainly CalTrans should be able to obtain extremely fine-grained real-time data and respond appropriately by adjusting the metering lights in order to eliminate freeway congestion. LA DOT does this all day every day on surface streets with ATSAC and it works very well, so there’s no logical reason that CalTrans shouldn’t be able to do the same thing.
Mr. Mathews, speak for yourself. We are LUCKY to have him come to California so often. Also, did you write this same article for Bush #1, #2 when they visited and caused traffic jams?
Quit your whining. He is the President of the United States! Not some 2-bit politician or entertainer. You make accommodations for THE President.
If he never came, I’d be reading an article about how he’s neglecting California.
This is a great piece. In a personal and eloquent manner it really says a lot about life (in micro and macro terms) today – particularly in California. Well done.
So true, have thought the same for years
Nice story about issues that affect so many of us positioned in the leading edge of Gen X, and the extreme social stratifications (socioeconomic, personal, professional, etc) that have transformed the California I grew up in and have lived in for the great majority of my life into something I barely recognize. I feel as much a disconnected stranger, and on rapidly shrinking ground in the financial scheme of things (although lucky enough to have a longtime job as an educator), in my home state.
President Obama has been a multi-time visitor to my part of the state, Rancho Mirage, in the last few years – to Sunnylands, the Annenberg Estate beloved by Presidents, to have summits with international leaders and play golf. To Ralph Ellison’s Porcupine Ranch, to fundraise and play golf. And so forth. In fact, in his visit here last February, to play golf at one of these mega-grass, water-sucking resorts, he’d just come from speaking in the San Joaquin Valley about the need for water conservation measures in our statewide time of extreme drought, never mind the extreme environmental impact that the desert’s 150+ golf courses and lavishly landscaped private resorts – such as Sunnylands and Porcupine Ranch – create on our shrinking water resources. Note to Obama: we need serious help on this one, not just talk and vacation/fundraising exploitation.
Great work and creative vision with your Union Station readings these past few months, Chiwan Choi, and a moving article! I was honored to be part of one of these readings, the tribute to Hunter S. Thompson’s birthday, in July. Thank you for your dedication to connecting people from all over L.A. and beyond with the literary arts, L.A.’s rich heritage, and a cultural icon such as Union Station.
My initial reaction to this beautifully-written piece was: how can we help? Admittedly, all the details of the situation aren’t included here, and this is not a plea for charity. Yet how can I, a writer and editor who also sometimes struggles financially, stand by and watch another hardworking writer clearly struggle? I recently saw a family open an account online to accept donations toward some bills left behind when their daughter passed away. Perhaps this writer can consider a similar account, if the government is unable to provide the help she needs to survive.
Thanks for such a thoughtful essay on a part of our lives we often take for granted and paintings which help us “see”.
Yes, I am glad you enjoyed the essay and paintings. The barber is that invisible but important presence.
Good performances from Eric Liu, congratulations and greetings from Mexico City.
A profound reflection. I was born in Iraq in 1987 as well and left in 2004. I would argue though that while you’ve painted a nearly realistic picture of the Iraqi scene after 1990, your piece remains subjective to your own experience. Here is my 2 -cents:
The Iraqi political as well as the socio-economic climate started deteriorating long before 1990. Speaking from a position of non privilege, no ties with Saddam’s government what so ever , how could we -who had lived in Iraq during the 80’s- forget the line ups to get our basic food and cloth needs, how could we forget that the socio-economic hierarchy in the 80’s was determined by whether you are a Baathist or belong to a family that was “politically aligned” with Saddam’s regime. Also, the sectarian division in Iraq started long before 1990. To be precise, it was sparked by the beginning of the Iraqi – Iranian war, when all of the Shiite in Iraq became suspects to having ties with Iran.
My memories of the 80’s is quite different than yours Saif. Mines are neither prestigious schools nor fancy pools and clubs, despite being a daughter of two highly educated individuals. mine are loaded with scenes of dead Iraqi soldiers who didn’t make back from the war frontier, My memories are saturated with fear and repression.
I also disagree with your statement : “Even if Saddam had gone crazy and killed a bunch of people, it wouldn’t be anywhere near the number who have died since he was overthrown”
Saddam killed way more that just a bunch of people. Actually, Saddam is not completely guiltless of the blood of those who were killed after he was overthrown. In addition to a considerable number of loyal guards that had gone out of control after his fall, the remaining Baathists continue to actively provoke political and sectarian conflict in Iraq today.
I’ve always marveled at the Latino fascination my peers (Gen X) and the millenials have had with Morrisey, partly because like the writer, I was never big on his music. This kind of answers the not fully formed question I had as to why it was so prevalent. Excellent story.
It’s all about “How Soon Is Now?”
“I’m the son and the heir of nothing in particular” perfectly described all of us alienated Mexican-American youth growing up as children of immigrant parents. We were stuck in-between our very distinct new American and old Mexican cultures and this prevented us from formalizing an identity between the two, so thanks to Morrissey, we become British!
Some of us were forced to carry a “shyness that is criminally vulgar” in hopes of not sticking out in a crowd and revealing that we had neither mastered what it meant to be an American or a Mexican: the acceptance of one meant the denial of the other.
For a much longer and way more depressing explanation, read “The Labyrinth of Solitude” by Octavio Paz.
Good Story.
I was a HUGE Morrissey fan as a teenager. Very economical to subscribe to his fashion sense. reflecting on the Mexican love affair with Moz as an adult i found him to be the British musical and cultural hybrid of the Mexican “Chente” and “JuanGa.”
Although i appreciate the immigrant and border crossing reading of Moz’s “Suede Head” lyrics, you need to brush up on your English to Spanish translation skills. “pasas” not “pasar.”
What a great way to honor your great uncle. He must be blushing with modesty and pride.
Beautifully written and heartfelt. You should do more story telling Joe.
Ah, more writing please.
http://www.ovguide.com/is-it-really-so-strange-9202a8c04000641f80000000177cc3b1
Thanks Andrew. I have a similar opinion. I wrote this article thinking of the role of think tanks in Peru: http://onthinktanks.org/2012/01/30/think-tanks-and-political-economic-and-social-stability/
“They can offer the stability that other institutions can’t. Privately funded they can avoid the short falls of bureaucracy; properly funded they can set their sights on long term horizons and attempt to shift our national short-sightedness.”
Thank you so much for this article. I feel like the people who most need to hear it are not going to be receptive to the message, but even if so, it’s a vital thing that needs to be said.
“Nor is anyone is going to walk from Brentwood Gardens to the Brentwood
Country Mart down San Vicente Boulevard, past a country club and
residential areas.”
Sorry but I’m not the hippest cat on the block! It seems when I google these two points, they’re .1 miles apart! Are you saying people can’t walk that far? Are they suppose to drive their cars or are you saying we shouldn’t build like structures that far apart?
“Epicenter” – great metaphor, given the environs.
As far as becoming the West Coast’s culinary epicenter: boy, would I like to see that. We will have San Francisco – pound-for-pound, our nation’s greatest culinary city – to overcome.
SF is what it is partly because diners there are so knowledgeable, and (consequently) because the competition is so fierce. (I’ve even found that home cooks in SF are just a smidge better than in most other towns.) I do see the beginnings of this in LA, and hope the momentum continues.
Well, LA (the city) has 3 times the population of SF, and LA County has more people than the bay area. As usual, LA’s problem is that it is dispersed; there are of course many great restaurants in LA, but many of them are on the Westside, or in Beverly Hills, or K-town, etc. There are a lot of amazing places that have opened up in DTLA in the last few years – but it will take some time to truly be the epicenter of the area. Of course, if you count Langers as part of downtown (it’s just one red line stop away), that helps.
Our dt is only getting better with each day. I can not wait for the Broad to open. It’s really starting to take shape. What dt really and truly needs is a shopping area with some heavy hitting chains like Chicago’s Magnificent Mile or San Francisco’s Union Square. Keep up the great work.
Two points of inaccuracy. Singapore does not “call itself the Lion City”. “Singapore” is a Sanskrit name that when translated into English is “Lion City”. It literally is the Lion City.
It’s not that we only have one founding father. It is plural. LKY gets more than his fair share of the credit because of our (and most probably everybody else as well) share of giving too much credit to the most famous figure. But there was also Goh Keng Swee, S Rajaretnam, Toh Chin Chye, Edward Barker, Lim Kin San, off the top of my head. Generally in Singapore, at any given time, all members of the cabinet are pretty prominent figures.
Other than that great article.
Thanks for sharing this, I’m a fellow SGV native with similar high desert dreams and having this in common with your wise Uncle makes me feel a little less crazy
I walk to abbot Kinney from Downtown Santa Monica all the time. Perhaps you should get out of your car and get to know the city a little better. 20 percent of all trips in LA County are by walking. The future is already here.
First, this doesn’t address the most important issue, which is that workers who show up and do their jobs should be paid decent wages. Second, far more direct than increasing social service expenditures would be a refundable tax credit for tenants of the sum above a sliding scale percentage of their rent payments. Taxes on the rich would have to be increased a lot for this, but it would recognize the fundamental failure of our housing market.
Interesting to note that Prof. Chavez was also a sponsor of the ELA College chicano organization “La Vida Nueva” in 1968-69. This was a time when it was not popular for chicano professors to step out and support/ sponsor an organization on college campuses. Prof. Chavez was not only an artist, but an activist as well.
I think it would be fantastic if L.A. tried to attract branch campuses of Mexican universities, or a joint program with local universities. Projects like Yale-NUS could be a model – think UCLA-UNAM. These sorts of things could also be a way to bring investment to struggling neighborhoods.
That seems like my dream job lol. I walk around stores RE-naming things that I think were poorly named. 🙂
Okay, my humble opinion is regardless of intention that professor was an arrogant a**. Secondly, while the ability to respond wittily to an insult is a wonderful skill, I have learned over many years that life is NOT a Neil Simon play. Eloquent, insightful and mean-spirited remarks work better on the stage (or in an essay) than in real life. And of course the most important idea to remember is that the least glamorous person should be able to hold your interest better than the most “fascinating” disability. Anything less reflects far more on one’s lack of ability as an observer than object of that attention. Having been a Marine and now a teacher, I understand that you don’t need a drill instructor mocking your perceived weaknesses for you to become something more, if that is even your goal.
Carly, thank you for your great piece. I am glad that you are a paid writer – you deserve it! I don’t think your CP is the most interesting thing about you. I am glad that you are incorporating your experiences into your work. You are an inspiration to aspiring journalists.
I have the singular advantage of growing up with CP in my family, when I was a toddler, my big sis was an Easter Seal child. She put herself through college, with multiple majors, worked a long career and is retired now on a pension. I never thought of my dear sister as either handicapped or disadvantaged, she is my dear sister, and that’s all. I absolutely respect her intellect, her sense of humor, her wisdom. I have had several more so-called “handicapped” friends in my life, and I don’t just overlook their differences, I don’t even see them. ‘Sall about respect, people. Every single human being on the planet has a right to be here, and a right to be respected. Lots of folks go through life with blinders on, I wear mine quite proudly.
I grew up near Downtown, Lincoln Heights…actual tumbleweeds rolling past Temple St and Al’s Bar the only thing happening in the Artist District…great to witness firsthand this paradigm shift in culture and growth. Viva Los Angeles!!!
LA ‘s car culture is more important to the city than fruit vendors, yet the author never mentions this.
Well that is one persons “opinion”- statistics and studies tell us CAR Culture is decreasing (even in LA), there will of course still be cars – however the Car Dominant culture we have been suffering is its way out of favor but the community and municipalities!
Fruit and street vendors of LA are part of the true history and fabric of their communities.
Great. Downtown will turn into the Westside. Another place Eastside natives will never go.
This is a nice summary of the importance of the Upper Midwest in both fueling and fighting the Civil War on the Union side. It marked the confluence of the northern and western regions, both bent on defeating the Confederacy and promoting their interests in the piece.
In my book _The Great Heart of the Republic: St. Louis and the Cultural Civil War_ (Harvard, 2011), I considered how St. Louis was a place where all three national regions–North, South, and West–were represented, and how advocates first tried to prevent war, and then tried to shape Reconstruction to their interests. The advocates of true racial equality failed, but those local leaders who saw a new path through Liberal Republicanism ultimately shaped the retreat from Reconstruction nationally. (They did fail at their local goal of bringing the national capital to St. Louis.)
My interest in the Lower Midwest and the confluence of southern and western in the Southwest as well is an important part of a museum exhibition and edited volume coming out in April 2015: _Civil War Wests: Testing the Limits of the United States_ (UC Press, 2015). The exhibition will be at the Autry National Center in Los Angeles, April to December, similarly pursuing what visions for the nation and what answers about territorial expansion and slavery would mean for freedom and citizenship.
These are all important questions–and, as this article suggests, sometimes the answers seem clearer farther from the eastern battlefields.
Umm…. the street life on Claiborne? Claiborne today is a freeway. A local black street culture was damaged when the freeway was built. How can maintaining an expensive, noisy wall between two communities help anybody? African American communities have been the biggest victims of highway building with highways either cutting through their neighborhoods or creating a physical moat between black and white neighborhoods. http://www.cnu.org/restoringclaiborne
Wonderful article, Pam! So grateful for your good work.
Truly the best is looking SW from Montecito Heights just NE of the Arroyo Seco down towards Lincoln Heights and Chinatown – the skyline looks like you can touch it – only other view that matches it is from the top of Colima above Whittier.
I’ve been here 18 years. I’ll be here until I end. I love Downtown Los Angeles. I pray I stay alive for years and years…I have big dreams for DTLA. I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
Fully agree with you. We already do pay them to stay away, by relying on the city mayor’s office to entice them. There are probably 15 city staffers who haven’t a clue what they are doing, who travel to every major NFL event in the country in a vain attempt to negotiate some pie in the sky dream. Let’s face it we have USC, and once we get our full slate of scholarships going, we’re going to be great!
We have the Rose Bowl every single year. We have USC coming on strong, now that the scholarships are returning. We even have UCLA for some cross town rivalry games. Keep them out!!! Why not take a short drive to SD or a quick flight to SF for a pro game. The flight is a drop in the bucket compared to the NFL ticket costs and they play once a week. We drive and fly that far for a good ski weekend. Just don’t try to use this as an excuse for the bullet train. Maybe the NFL would want to pay for that sink hole.
I believe the reason why there’s so much panic is that no one – absolutely no one – trusts the guy from the CDC or NIH or the White House or anyone because they do not know! People keep saying “it’s hard to contract” but we had two nurses who contracted it in Texas. We have one physician now in New York and then the original US patients from Liberia. It IS contagious – and professional health care providers are getting it. But our representatives won’t say “we aren’t sure.” They more or less lie and keep saying everything is fine. It’s not!
Joe, couldn’t agree more. We would do far better to spend a little money on scholarships for the two Universities, to make them even more robust. Just because other cities follow policies that suck them dry, we don’t need to do the same!
beyond inspiring!
Wow, how interesting! You make it clear why you have a fascination with color!
Great to point out what you can do. My wife just did something similar with Caltrans and lane markings that didn’t line up with the new construction at Santa Monica Blvd. and the 405. She contacted the Caltrans outreach officer for that segment of the 405 project … problem fixed!
Beautiful description of truly breathtaking art – shame about the smashed objects of veneration done by minions ordered by Henry VIII – regretably that has been the overwhelming byproduct of Protestant houses of worship – their inherent sterility lest they be deemed ‘idol worshipers’
Great points everyone! I have been waiting for the Expo line extension for two plus years now. I’m excited,that it will allow me to walk 10 min and take me straight to 7th/Metro where I work. Currently, I’ll drive to Culver City and take it into Dwntwn two times a week. I pay $3.50 round trip vs. the cheapest parking I can find which is $7, and I can catch up on email, reading or surf the net on my way in. It’s great!!! I’m confident if we build it, they will come!
Angelenos can already take the train to the beach. The Metro Blue Line goes to Long Beach and Amtrak/Metrolink stop at San Clemente (in Orange County).
Bev has done more to train local citizens on what to look for in monitoring elections than anyone in the country. Through many personal trials and tribulations, she has persisted for well over a decade. She is my personal election integrity hero!
The Phantom visits the State Capitol often and has never needed to fly. Door-to-door takes about 4 hours by air (The Phantom lives about 30 miles from LAX or BUR), or 8 hrs. by Amtrak San Joaquin Bus/Rail service (The Phantom lives about 5 miles from a station). The trains costs about 1/2 as much as the air, evel less for last minute trips. Driving takes about as long as the train and costs about the same.
I’ll be 70 next month, have chronic AF, don’t know how much longer I’ll be above ground, not too long I hope. Cannot express how hugely relieved and grateful I am to have come across your article. My wife and GP will both receive clear directions about my desire to just go as peacefully as possible when the time comes, I owe the earth my quota of fertiliser 😉
Thanks for your honest and truthful concern writing this article… It’s very educational and heartfelt. I just wish we were more responsible in the U.S. in this radiation regard. I imagine how many irresponsible people or those that don’t understand it, are left on their own with little guidance and support. It is worrisome!
I totally agree with leftisbest! Bev Harris is one of my heros too. We should all contribute so she can continue the work of BlackBoxVoting.
Soooo, assuming there is no quarantine in the US because insurance companies refuse to cover?
I was checking back on this great article today, and I was glad to see the continued discussion. This year (2014-5) I am finishing a book about the art, architecture, and urban context of the Home Savings-Millard Sheets Studio collaborations, and I would love to hear from more former Home Savings employees, or any memories of these wonderful buildings.
ALSO the EXPO Line ” Subway to the sea” Opens in 2016!!! Not in 20 years DUH
The expo line is not the “Subway to the Sea.” That’s the purple line extension. The expo line will be mostly above ground, hence not a subway.
Unfortunately I’ll have to move out of downtown. Can no longer afford to live here
Thank you for depicting the real picture. When a man or woman is sure to die in a few months, it is better that they are allowed to have a peaceful death at home with their loved ones rather than be in horrible hospital environment with hose pipes in the nose and mouth perpetually being fed through a nozzle from a drip bottle. I am 69 and wish that I will be forced into such a situation, but my children (one is a Doctor, Radiologist) and wife may think otherwise and try to prolong my life on ‘life supporting’ devices. Probably if an young man or woman in her prime caught in an accident can be kept in an I c U with the hope that by some miracle( yes, miracle do happen, Doctors also will agree) he or she may come back to life. But even there, case of terminal diseases particularly among senior citizens like me who are beyond their prime, peaceful death is a better option than a miserable last few days in an ICU.
I remember the beautiful movie ” Bucket List” in which a millionaire and a poor African American porter, both suffering from ailments that will end their life in a few months meet in a hospital owned by the rich man become good friends. They together go on an overseas trip to complete the ‘bucket list’ originally prepared by the porter and added to by the millionaire. “Enjoy life, if you are going to die in a few months, you have done your bit.Let others do the rest” That should be the spirit.
The triumph of gay marriage was not brought about by reason, but by people finding out they knew or were friends with gay people and sympathizing with them emotionally.
What a nice essay. It creates such a nice image in one’s mind. What a nice way to remember Dominic.
Thank you for this report. I had read about this atrocity not too long ago in the LA Times and wondered why there was not a world wide outcry about this tragic incident. I am now heartened to learn that the Mexican people have been mobilized and will not stand for such crimes at the hands of criminals both in and out of the government. We can only hope that the people’s voices reach far into the halls of justice (if they still exist) and create a sweeping confrontation (and accountability) to end these kinds of heinous crimes. My sadness remains with the victims and their heart broken families.
This is a stunning poem of intelligence and heart- a rare perfected combination on the line
Great article Mike–well done and on point!
Dan Goldenberg
Call of Duty Endowment
dan.goldenberg@activision.com
Fascinating story – thank you!
My condolences. The topic is difficult to address with such emotional memories and convictions. I am grateful that the article presented hospice care and found the presentation of the hospice nurses to be kind. Your criticism of hospice care included the omission of standard informed consent statements. Morphine does eventually stop the breathing, and standard medicines provided can also stop the vomiting. Morphine has given hospice care the capability to allow dying without the trauma or terror that assisted suicide proponents tout. Eventually, it is the poisons given by the assisted suicide that are more traumatic and haunting. If you experienced terrible trauma upon dealing with the pain and complications of end stage cancer, it is likely because you do not agree to the full extent of the care that hospice care provides. Instead, it is often the terminal dosages of assisted suicide that are provided without supervision that end up with trauma and vomiting and sometimes failure of termination of life, only to harm and terrorize the families involved. There is no follow up on the consequences of providing terminal dosages to patients in Oregon. No one is following the disposal or improper use or possible devious use of the poison. If informed consent was improperly omitted then Mr. La Grange should complain about the improper procedures, but Mr. La Grange your experience should not be used to criticize and advise against proper hospice care. Your concerns about improper hospice care are valid. Proper hospice care embodies the compassion of professionals who provide their services day in and day out. These workers help you and your families through the difficulties by addressing the problems and minimizing the complications. Expediency of assisted suicide is the opposite and provided by those with opposite intentions.
John’s article is so true. My sister Phyllis was the one person in my life that made living a joy. She came through 2 brain tumor operations alive, but depleted. She was still able to function until 2007 when she started to go downhill rather quickly. I moved to Oregon to help with her care in 2008. She passed away February 1, 2009.
To this day I am tortured by the memories of her last few months. From her losing control of her body, to not being able to eat, swallow, move. Myself and her husband made sure to shift her every 2 hours to avoid bed sores. We gave her meds (not orally). I constantly was online looking for anything that would help her. She was in and out of the hospital during a terrible winter storm. She was only conscience maybe 15 minutes every 48 hours. Her breathing (sounds of a fish out of water) was horrific to listen to. Yet I remained and took care of her the best I could with foot massages and playing her favorite music.
But when she passed away, the process was horrific. I will not go into further detail, but after 5 years, I am still in shock and scarred from the experience.
Although she was in a state that allowed assisted suicide, she did not want to die. She wanted to live to the last possible moment. So the daily arguments with doctors, nurses, other staff to keep her alive became emotionally draining.
I respect Brittany’s decision as she saved herself a lot of pain, agony and heartship.
But unlike John, if I had a choice, I would still go through every bit of it because I wanted my sister alive, no matter the cost. This was selfish, but true.
I think the point of John’s article is that Brittany Maynard was willing to choose the last day of her too-short life, so she and her loved ones could celebrate their time together up until the last minute.
I would like to thank you for this article. I am a geriatric psychologist and have gone through several experiences of the same thing that you did, but as a professional and not a family member. I agree with everything that you wrote! Most hospice nurses and administrators are really nice, professional and accommodating. I have yet met a family with a bad hospice experience! On the other hand, they are regulated and need to follow their laws and rules. Hospice is utterly different than a physician’s assistance suicide and the “making the patient comfortable” does go so far. I have seen people suffer and they shouldn’t have and I have seen families suffer for no reason. I am going to save this article and give it to patients as I go along, it will help others!
This is a beautiful and heartbreaking piece, completely consistent with everything I have learned about dying both personally and through my professional work in health care. It is a complement to Atul Gawande’s brilliant new book Being Mortal which shows how our current medical system makes end of life decisions so needlessly expensive and brutal for families.
I would like to add that the 2/3 figure comes from the White House, but they took this from the extremely flawed report on U.S. teacher education produced by Arthur Levine. There are serious technical issues with the sample that responded to the survey that it is based on.
Thank you so much for this vulnerable, honest and wonderfully written article. I found it at exactly the right time.
These kinds of clubs flourished during the 59’s and 60’s, as well! A group of us formed the Imperials while attending Manual Ars High School, 1956-58, and have remained friends since then! We hosted dances as well as attended dances and other events sponsored by other SoCal Asian-American clubs
A very interesting discussion last evening. I would be greatly interested to hear from a panel of current and retired teachers on the same topic … you were all theory and mostly “pie in the sky” … now let us get down to reality of “where the rubber hits the road”.
We really need to have incentives for our best teachers to stay in the classroom and mentor the ‘young folks’, not move out and up as the only way to increase their salary.
Not once did class size come up … ! How effective is lecture hall education?
These types of Asian massage parlors offer a very different type of massage than most licensed massage therapists working on their own would perform. I hope this article does not scare off readers, or the author, from trying it again, with an actual therapeutic massage professional, in a different setting. The best way to find a quality massage therapist, is to look for National licensing at NCBTMB.org. Massage Therapy is extremely beneficial to one’s health, but the treatment in these massage parlors are not. Also, it’s good to keep in mind that the type of place the author went to can be very different from the Massage Place or Massage Envy. Keep exploring, and you may find that a proper massage by a trained professional will improve your life.
Lydia,
As a Marine vet–and former teacher–whose hearing became impaired half a century ago, thank you for “hearing”/sharing what many would-be/wannabe(?) communicators never ever tune into.
I doubt that we have the capacity to stop global warming, even if we caused it; but we do have to adapt to it. And truly we are a Privileged Planet, as the video of that name calls it.
What a wonderful essay! I grew up in Los Angeles, and although I do not have a drop of Mexican blood, I have a bit of Mexican in my corazon. The nickname given to me by my 8th grade Spanish teacher stuck and I have been living in Mexico for the past four years.
When my grandmother came from Japan in 1902, she was befriended by a Mennonite couple who became known as Grandpa and Grandma Jansen. There were no other Mennonites in the area (South Pasadena and Garvanza), so the Jansens worshipped with a Quaker congregation. As a result, some of my cousins are Quakers.
A beautiful and thoughtful essay (based on a wonderful book). My eight-year-old daughter has been making regular visits, through her school, to a school for deaf children and has been noticeably more attentive both to others and to ambient noise ever since.
Beautiful, if an article about death can be beautiful…when I die I want to die like a doctor would …:) A great way to approach this subject with your families as well. Superbly written, reason resounds, so also does sensitivity. Thank You.
You got it. The high speed rail thing was never, for me, about being anti automobile; it was about being anti the airlines. And that is why I voted for it.
Thank you. I haven’t dealt with this issue myself, but as an Oregonian and a journalist near in age to Ms. Maynard, her bravery and decisiveness was…inspiring and harrowing.
I love this piece for its simplicity, which is not to say simple-ness: You address the issue with such an astute, bare wisdom that I find myself tearing up, laughing and nodding simultaneously.
Thank you for sharing your story, John. I agree with you whole-heartedly. I was holding my grandfather as he died a very painful and graphic death from cancer. It was the worst thing I’ve ever witnessed and the image haunts me every day. We put animals to sleep when they are sick and dying so they won’t suffer. I don’t know why we can’t extend the same right to humans.
Loved this, Joe. Great storytelling.
It’s not universally true that “the surge of massage parlors came after 2008.” There are municipalities where the surge occurred earlier in the decade, partially due to lax enforcement of existing ordinances, but it’s politically convenient for city councils to blame Sacramento for the increase.
Glad to see you are coming around, Joe. Yes, the price tag of $68B seems high. Those of us that have traveled through Japan, Spain, and the other parts of Europe with high speed rail know how great it is, especially for reliably getting you there and dropping you off in the middle of the city. In addition, how much are we going to spend on airport expansion, freeways, etc, over the next 45-50 years? Likely a lot.
A no-brainer. Air travel will always be highly limited and will never carry the traffic that rail can. And, it is a hell of a lot more comfortable.
Glad you had a personal epiphany. I just drove the 5 this week and a few weeks before that. its currently incapable of handling he amount of traffic that uses it on a regular basis, even less capable of handling any event or holiday travel week. We need HSR, or we need four more additional lanes connecting the great metropolitan regions of our state.
Welcome aboard. I fell in love with HSR when I could go from London to Paris in less time on the train than on a plane. Also, it took you this long to figure out that Southwest is the equivalent of a Grayhound bus? Rickety planes that still have ashtrays and a surly staff. I gave up on Southwest years ago.
Just wait until you sit back, with leg room, a paper and a chardonnay and get to watch the scenery fly by. Arriving relaxed and ready to do what you need to do. Opposed to arriving harassed, sore, achy and needing a long nap. You’ll feel spoiled with HSR.
I flew Southwest last June between Burbank and Sacramento, advance purchase at $264 round-trip. Both flights were on time. I can’t complain about the service, but that said, most major California airports are running at or near capacity. Runways, not the number of gates, are the primary determinant of airport capacity, and there is little if any room to expand the number of runways at these airports. High speed rail was never meant to supplant alternatives means of intrastate transportation, but rather as a supplement to existing systems. It will work, given the opportunity. CA residents need to give it a chance.
Actually most schools and colleges start before the end of August now.
Thank you for bringing attention to the US’s inattention to the CRC. The International Play Association (http://www.ipaworld.org) worked with the Ctte on the Rights of the Child on the General Comment passed on article 31 last year. It is an amazing document. But there is not expected to be any movement on ratification of the entire CRC in the US for years to come. (If the next President is Republican it will be even longer, I’m afraid.)
Here is an article from IPA’s magazine PlayRights about this very subject that you may find interesting. http://ipaworld.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/USChildrensRightsTodres.pdf
Play Atlanta (http://www.PlayAtlanta.org) is just this month starting a campaign to make Atlanta a “Child-Friendly City”, which is one that lives by the articles of the CRC…starting with article 31, the child’s right to play, engage and arts and culture, leisure (really subversive stuff). It is our thinking that if cities start living by these tenets that ratification will become a no-brainer. It’s like Larry Rosenstock of High Tech High said, “The margins move the center getter than the center moves the margins.” Read margins as grassroots, parents….
Thank you for your article. I will share this widely.
Perspective is put forth in this article. Good read.
Very utopian
I love your storytelling and how you interplay the importance of us knowing and being rooted in our own stories and traditions, so that we might be, “better positioned to cross the economic, racial, religious, and gendered borders of our own lives.” Thank you.
I read your article a few days ago, and thought you must have just had an isolated bad experience. I spend at least 50% of my time on the road, and primarily use American. I supplement with Southwest for some of the western US trips from Burbank, so I have quite a bit of experience with them as well.
Fast forward to this week, where I used Southwest for a quick over-nighter to Boise for a meeting. I have to say that these past few days were the single worst flying experience I’ve had in years. Not a single leg of the 4-leg trip went as planned. In fact, multiple flights and subsequent reschedules were canceled. I’ve never had a harder time getting home and almost resorted to renting a car and making the drive. At least, in this case, I’d be “in the driver’s seat”, so to speak. It was a comedy of errors, the likes of which I never imagined from Southwest Airlines….
Wonderful piece but this story cries out for a video of Ms. Gonzalez performing!
While not into vampire movies (or anything else vampire), Mr. Mathews make this one sound interesting. Will be looking for it at a theater near me soon!
Well, the Roman Republic had two consuls – and it was replaced by an Empire.
I hate to disagree, but runway capacity is the least of my concerns with LAX. From a non-pilot perspective, here is exactly what I see wrong (note that this has been a pet peeve of mine for years, so I have a pretty well defined and lengthy list):
– traffic on the “car” roads leading into the airport is a mess.There have been times I’ve battled traffic through the Sepulveda pass on the 405, only to be stymied in much worse traffic getting from the Century Blvd. entrance to Terminal 2. I once spent 45 min going through that stretch.
– part of this is related to the absurd design on the terminal structure – the fact that ALL terminal traffic for ALL terminals has to pass through the same loop is ridiculous.
– the shuttle situation is just plain dumb – I haven’t done a traffic count, but I’m tempted to park a lawn chair next to the airport entrance and catalog what percentage of traffic is shuttles (hotel, rental car, parking, etc). ALL of these should be offloaded to a secondary site, with a high-efficiency link between ALL the terminals and that location. Many other high-traffic airports have built great examples of this model – while some of them have their own criticisms, at least they’ve all been successful in reducing the direct airport traffic from a gazillion different “commercial” users.
-parking at the airport is also atrocious. Some lots (with lots of capacity) have been closed, either permanently, or “temporarily” (but for years). I’ll reference LAX parking lot B, and the parking structure (P2-B) which has been gated off for years. WTF?
-parking lot B itself – this was closed several years ago, permanently. It now seems to be used for RV storage and as a staging area for rental cars. See here: https://goo.gl/maps/iAt7m. Again, wtf? Is LAWA is cahoots with the ever-growing commercial parking operations around the airport? One idea – use this HUGE area to build the common shuttle/rental car center I mentioned above.
– the LAX terminals are crappy, for both arrivals and departures. Departures suffer from way too small a space to accommodate modern security and passenger loads. I’ve seen lines in terminal one extend out the door and almost all the way to terminal 2. From a passenger perspective, terminal facilities pre-security are non-existent (outside of the international terminal) and post-security are pretty crummy in comparison to other major airports. Arriving passengers face small and confusing baggage claim areas – I’ll reference here Terminal 2, where there are 2 escalators leading down – but only one goes to the baggage claim area (the other goes back to departures?). Its always funny to see the expressions on the faces of those who get on the wrong one… although the fact that there is even confusion there is just plain wrong.
-the terminals themselves are in a poor state of repair. Check out the men’s restroom in Terminal 3, where a water leak in the ceiling above the stalls has created a pool of rusted metal and discolored ceiling tiles. This is easy to fix, and its embarrassing to me that it was like that for at least a year (its been a while since I flew out of that terminal, so I don’t know if it’s been addressed yet). Terminal 6 mens restrooms were dirty, with gross floors and missing tiles when I arrived there two weeks ago – I hate to say it, but the facilities in the 2 mexican airports I had flown through on my way home (Ixtapa and Mexico City) both had much cleaner bathrooms than what I used when I got off the plane at LAX.
-there are some crazy long walks that seem to be commonplace around LAX. For instance, on the Mexico flight I mentioned above, to get to customs, we had to walk through an incredibly long, incredibly drab tunnel. Any other airport would have a moving sidewalk option, but apparently not here. Once, when flying United, I landed at Terminal 7, but had to pick up my luggage at Terminal 8. I had injured my knee on the trip, and by the time I reached the luggage claim, was pretty fuming mad with pain-driven rage… again, WTF?
Anyway, I could go on, but that pretty much covers the main problems I can see. The good thing is that there are some projects underway to address these issues – see http://www.lawa.org/ourLAX for details. However, these are all long-term plans – I think LAWA should also focus on some more short-term, pragmatic fixes to improve the passenger experience – i.e. address deferred maintenance, and recognize that for many visitors (especially domestic ones) – the LAX arrival experience is pretty lousy.
Also, I don’t think the right solution is “more airports”- while that might help runway congestion, if you look at what the major carriers have been doing re: Burbank, etc, most are reducing flights into existing peripheral airports for revenue reasons. Opening up even more airports (when existing ones like Burbank and Orange County) are running under capacity seems like a bad idea.
I thought the reason they closed Parking Lot B was to reserve it for airport (and perhaps airline) employees, at least that’s what I recall the public explanation being.
Lot B had been the best parking lot to use; after it closed I had to switch to Parking Lot C which is slower and more confusing to use, but still a pretty good option. It was usually preferable to any of the alternatives (FlyAway bus, shuttle van, light rail, etc.).
Orange County runs “under capacity” because of an agreement between the county and Newport Beach to limit SNA’s usage in order to mitigate noise concerns. See: http://www.ocair.com/communityrelations/settlementagreement/ Burbank has considered some of the same restrictions, including a curfew that would shut down the airport for nine hours each day.
LAX’s layout is not optimal, to be sure. But it was built that way because no one at the time could conceive of 68 million passengers and 800,000 takeoffs and landings there annually. It doesn’t matter how much you tidy up the terminals or improve the roadways, those numbers are going to grow dramatically in the future, and there’s no capacity for keeping up with the growth. The only reason LAX works as well as it does is because the weather is perfect 99% of the time.
Nice try Ron. We’re still closing the Santa Monica Airport.
Dave B covers the many issues well. It is embarrasing and depressing to arrive home to LAX after flying from equally busy airports – O’Hare, JFK and others – and tramp through the thickets of a mid-last century airport. The fact that we have no cell phone lot to wait for arriving flights is a simple indicator of how behind we are.
There has been a cell phone waiting lot at LAX for years.
“I Loved My Wife But I Wished She Would Die”
Originally Written By: John La Grange
Read By: Christopher Tanner
Find It: https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2014/11/17/i-loved-my-wife-but-i-wished-she-would-die/ideas/nexus/
This is the last letter read at the end of the Death With Dignity show. If you like the letter please click above and leave a comment. Also check out the full video here.
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Palmdale? Isn’t that a bit excessive? At some point you might as well say take the train to Vegas and use their airport. 🙂 I do agree with you that the infrastructure systems affect one another greatly. For example, if the roads weren’t so overburdened, airports further away would be more viable. Sadly, it can take 6 hours to drive round trip from OC to Van Nuys. At least, that’s what it took today when I drove it.
Good lord Ron. That’s more time than it takes me to go from Montreal, QC, Can. to NYC, via I-87, down the eastern side of New York State. (Normally about a six hour trip, 350 miles.) I’d say their biggest problem is lack of planning ahead, and poor infrastructure design.
ONT is underutilized because it’s cheaper for the airlines to consolidate their ops at LAX. The answer is not reliever airports unless it becomes economically advantageous for the cost cutting airlines.
LAX has plenty of runway space available. Shortly before the oil/fuel shortages, they spent millions on the Ontario Annex, and then virtually abandoned it. The Ontario facility services a population nearly as large as LAX, but a very limited number of flights is available. Bring back Ontario. Then LAX will be in a good position. Also, don’t forget the Palmdale airport they spent so much money on, and then left it.
Fantastic. Thanks so much for writing this.
What has been the outcome of the protests? Any new laws? Any new ballot measures? Any more awareness? It’s not like the average voter had not heard about Ferguson yet.
Also the majority of residents in larger, more diverse cities like Los Angeles likely do not agree with the jury’s decision. From what I can gather, these protests ruined a bunch of people’s day, people that likely already agree with them before, without producing any measurable action. What was accomplished other than pissing innocent people off?
Thank you for this take. When I first started reading about the freeway closures I was reminded of REM’s Everybody Hurts…. the image of people who had nothing in common at first…but chose to act…perhaps REM would allow that music to be used for coverage of the closings….
Also, notice where trees tend to be planted near public transit hubs. The poverty stricken ares have little shelter while upscale areas have canopies at bus stops even though ridership is low.
Thinking in inches and converting to Metric is indeed difficult. But that will pass with time… There is simply no denying that base 10 makes more sense, is vastly easier to lean and use than base 12…same for pounds and kilos etc. etc…imagine if our money were base twelve or base 16? This point is the only one with which I have ever made any headway in pitching the virtues and logic of the Metric system….Base 10..get it?
The difficulty comes from the units not having a conversion factor between them that is sensible. If both ounces was changed to 30 mL or 30 g, then each ounce would also be a rounded millilitre or gram value.
Duodecimal (base 12) makes the most sense. It is easier to use because it is divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6. It is convenient to be able to divide into thirds and quarters easily. Base 10 is only divisible by 2 and 5, which is next to useless. Base 16 is divisible by 2, 4, and 8, so at least it has quarters. The Sumerians had it right by using base 12 and we agree with them whenever we check the time. Having our clocks in base 12 makes it easier to divide time.
It seems obvious base 10 derived from our fingers, but you can also count in base 12 on one hand by using the segments of your fingers. Four fingers with three segments each makes counting to 12 easy, and you can use your thumb to remember where you are by touching the segment you’ve counted to.
We should have listened to the Sumerians and adopted their base 12 numbering system. They also used base 60 which is seen in the number of minutes in an hour. 60 seconds in a minute was derived later.
Finding thirds and quarters in base10 is not that difficult, it just doesn’t result in a whole number. That issue exists in base12 as well (what is a quarter of 9?)
Using base10 for ALL measurements (length, weight, temperature) makes everything easier. 1cm cubed of water equals 1 liter equals 1 kilogram. Or a Celsius rhyme perhaps? 30 is hot, 20 is nice, 10 is cool, zero is ice. Much nicer than using 86/68/50/32.
I disagree. Finding thirds and quarters in in base 10 does result in whole numbers. It just depends on what number you start with. Metric haters who are angry at the world for rejecting USC & Imperial spend oodles of time coming up with nonsensical reasons why metric is bad, one is the ever stupid “can’t divide by three” claim.
The metric system does not force anyone to use any particular group or series of numbers, that is the choice of the user. The construction industry world-wide uses the 100 mm module, with common sizes of 600 mm, 1200 mm, 2400 mm, 4800 mm, etc, all of which can be divided into thirds of whole numbers.
Ounce, fluid or dry can’t easily be divided in to thirds without decimal dust, but define both ounces as 30 mL and 30 g, and each increment is divisible by thirds into round numbers.
The metric system is more versatile with numbers, where as USC and imperial are imprisoned with a limited amount of usable numbers. Fractional divisions are always powers of two, which don’t divide by three. If divide by three is important, they why not use fractions that are powers of three?
I think the US in due to its exceptional nature should go it alone and adopt dozenal numbers. This way after 10 years and still struggling to count, the rest of the world, still clinging to base 10 and metric can move forward technically while the US sinks back into the stone age.
Gavilán, above San Juan Bautista, is the fourth drive up mountain on this list. It’S where Fremont raised an American flag in 1846 before he headed north to Oregon and turned around and came back. From it you see Monterey Bay and the south Santa Clara Valley and the Salinas.
It’s not just the Democrats that treat California as a resource colony nowadays.
A very informative article. I really like the historical perspective of the facility at Mt. Wilson, and the landmark science that occurred there, leading to the most recent special observation of Nova science with the Chara interferometry array.
Thank you for releasing this into the world. What would our world look like without the rich and colorful tapestry of people whose belief systems, experiences, foods, languages, and blended cultures have either been passed down from one generation to the next, or adopted from others we meet along the way? Life would be quite dull without diversity; wouldn’t it? You have opened up another facet of the beautiful landscape and people from the Rio Grande Valley where I too was born and raised. This prompted me to revisit Linda Christensen’s “Where I’m From” I love reading pieces that serve as windows into the lives of others, as well as a mirror into my own experiences growing up here en el Valle. Mil gracias.
What a great list–not a single book here I’d think to choose on my own, but each one looks like something I’d fall into and forget to come up for air. Housing first, then I know what I want for my housewarming. Well, after the toaster oven.
Thank you Mr. Bradshaw for providing deeper insights into the nature of Putin’s perfect storm. I knew that today Russia’s energy exports accounted for something like 50% of his budget but I wasn’t aware that in 2000 energy exports made up a mere 9.3% of the budget. That’s a key insight. Likewise I was not aware that Soviet legacy fields were past prime and that the required $55 billion of fresh investment for the Arctic regions has been kyboshed by sanctions. I have not seen these subtle but key distinctions in other publications.
Yes, it sounds like the problem is not ACA at all, as hard as the author tries to twist it to sound like making insurance available to people who haven’t had it is a terrible thing. Are we supposed to believe somehow that the diabetic woman would have been better off if she hadn’t gotten insurance and access to healthcare? That that demanding diabetic woman was a problem because she distracted from heart-to-heart talks with less seriously ill patients?
The problem is that the hospital admins have tried to cut corners. Even in patients aren’t staying in the hospital as long, hospitals are still getting money from having additional patients. If they don’t use the money to staff the ER and outpatient facilities, that is indeed shortsighted and greedy of them.
Would definitely rather have had universal care, but that doesn’t seem to be the argument this author is trying to make.
What if modern economic theory is flawed? Then this will be the final wrecking ball for the industrial base. Google Van Geldstone’s essays “The Unraveling of Economics”, and “Adam Smith’s Elephants” and pause to think.
so where is al cowlings today? is he married or what? guess I wont find out til he’s dead…but then i’ll die before him , so guess I wont find out at all
Ms Martinez, I thought this was a very informative article. It also affects me, personally. Although I am a medical doctor in Los Angeles, I was born at O’Connor Hospital. We were a poor family, but the hospital took care of us, and I appreciate it.
Ken Murray MD
POST IT:
Zocalo Public Square will continue to grow in influence and importance!
Even if you fly Southwest, you still have to check in for your flight early enough to go through TSA. If you have to check a bag, add time for that, too. So at 2.5 to 3 hours for the train, the time benefit of flying isn’t that great. And that’s when the flight goes as scheduled.
I’ve really enjoyed riding the train in Italy when we vacation. I was amazed that even the local train service ran at 90mph! Two years previous, we’d ridden the mid-highspeed train (125mph, I think) and it was very smooth and comfortable.
If we had real rail options here, I think folks would embrace the option.
This is a nice compilation, but I’m so disappointed that none of the narratives touched on the African-American experience. What about women who left the South and fought for their freedom out West? Surely, the life of Biddy Mason deserves mention!
Excellent article. Would love to read more about forgotten places in the LA region.
Interesting article. Thanks for sharing. However, the Nike missile program never included nuclear warheads. The missiles were strictly defensive anti-aircraft missiles, so there is no chance that they would have caused a war or destroyed much of California.
Thank you Ms. El Barr Collin for your thoughtful, well written essay. The intolerance and violence practiced by a few fanatics wreaking havoc on free society is heartbreaking. Altho WWII was before my time, I can’t help but be concerned that if things continue to escalate (likely, sad to say), another group will be scape-goated and persecuted simply for being ‘different.’ Simple respect for, and by everyone, would go a long way making our world a better, safer place for all.
That your father wanted to live like the French when living in France seems to have served the family well. I don’t understand when those who relocate to other countries expect to have the “new” country & culture be the same as where they left. If one doesn’t appreciate/is offended by the freedoms of secular societies, why move there?
And thank you ZS for sharing this essay!
PEACE to all.
Nice piece, I grew up just south. Not to quibble, but its hard to call the Westside ‘flat’ (at the end of the piece) when the magnificent Santa Monica mountains could swallow up Griffith Park in a heartbeat.
That said, lovely piece about the Park…
This article really made me realize how much grocery stores have meant to me in all the different states I have lived in. Growing up in West Virginia, my mother would take me and my siblings to the closest Kroger store and in turn, when I started having children, would shop there with my children. When my husband decided to take a job in the booming city of Houston, Texas in the 80s I was relieved to find the neighborhood Krogers grocery store. Fast forward to 2013, when I decided to move to Los Angeles to babysit my grandson, when I discovered the closest “Ralphs” was surprisingly familiar as I walked down the aisles. As I bought several items I noticed the Krogers labels on some of the items and realized that Ralphs was owned by Krogers. It made me feel at home immediately, at a time when I was learning so many different things in my new surroundings. I couldn’t wait to tell my daughter how happy this made me – so I do relate to Carol’s sentiments and am glad that there is no room for expansion at my Ralphs at Wilshire and Hauser.
I love the new Ralphs! Carol you just need a map, a gps and an electric cart and you’ll learn to love it.
“They didn’t even bother to ask my opinion in 2012 when they said they wanted community input about the idea of building a new, expanded Ralphs on the same site to meet the needs of the neighborhood.”
Huh? So you wanted them to ask for permission before they asked for community input? Did you even offer any opinions during the input period?
I hate all the obstacles in the aisles trying to catch impulse buyers. I have 5 grocery stores within a few miles of my house, and only one has regular Total, Total raisin bran, and Product 19, which all have 100% of needed vitamins. The opposite of love is indifference, and they show indifference to the shopper’s health!
Joe, I could not agree more. Housing, streets and the shaping of our cities and towns: California led the nation post-war and could do so again. I would start with a serious reformatting of local government’s boundaries, authorities, financing, purpose and aspirations. And I would give that job mostly to people under 30, with guidance from wise, still-optimistic Boomers.
Our dear leaders in Sacramento have thought big for the past 30 years. Big government, big debt, big pointless train projects.
How about getting away from this “big idea” notion and letting everyday folks alone to come up with a million small ideas instead? Must we plan everything from the top down?
Love this article. I lived in Inglewood from 1997-2013 when I moved out of the State. My parents still own their home in Inglewood and we would never sell it! LOVE the wood! the diversity and how stereotypical people can be for the best city in LA.
A delicious piece about a hideous food.
I want more (maybe this time about that NYC steakhouse where the poker money goes).
I will say Havasu City has relatively few lawns compared to the Coachella or Phoenix.
Love Zocalo, Plenty of meaty discussions. About this quote: “That is a fine sentiment, but it’s easier to uphold as an abstract principle than in a context where lives are at stake.” I would suggest that the lives have already been lost. We have fought numerous wars and lost thousands of soldiers to fight the tyrannies that oppress freedoms including freedom of speech. A commercial entity is free to control their speech and the public arena needs some controls on the distribution of offensive speech, but the ultimate freedom to speak, especially in a voluntary print format, where the audience is willing to submit to the author, needs full protections. You may notice, my hesitation to say that oral freedoms are not absolute in a public arena. I don’t necessarily want to be subjected to listen to offensive, seductive or dangerous verbosity. But the written word, voluntarily reviewed, should have a public forum for adults who are duly warned of the content. Especially for the decision makers who vote based on their understanding of issues. In a democracy, we need that freedom to discuss. As I’m writing here, I initially, was going to refute the “Fire” prohibition as a bygone danger of poor construction engineering. Today, only fools would be driven wild by the dangers of a fire in our new theaters. But as I was writing, I did want to protect children from the cursing offenses and horrific sex abuse that is so common in our entertainment. So, I’ll finish with the first and most important comment, that our soldiers have already died for our freedoms. If we abandon our freedoms now, then more lives will be lost to the next battle. Those lives are not lost in vain, but are lost for principles, and the freedom that comes from standing for those principles. We have enjoyed the freedoms, but we are cowering from those that seek our oppression. Isn’t that the goal of terrorists?
I’m a Dodger fan and would obviously love to see Spring Training in Southern California. I’m also a realist, and I know that this will never happen.
There’s only one reason why any of the 15 MLB teams in Arizona would ever relocate to California for Spring Training: IF EVERY TEAM RELOCATED THEIR SPRING TRAINING TO CALIFORNIA.
The entire reason why the Phoenix area has been able to get so many teams to relocate there is because travel times are short for games. It’s the same reason why Tucson lost their teams. It makes sense to have a bunch of teams within close proximity. It doesn’t make financial sense to have a handful of teams spread out across California and the remainder in Arizona.
Nowadays a lot of people value a “safe environment ” more than they value freedom of speech, or a lot of other freedoms for that matter.
Michael, insightful piece — thanks. Curious to learn more about if/how the remedial needs levels correlate with graduation rates — are the students who drop out statistically more likely to have needed or enrolled in remedial classes? Or to look at it the other way, do students who did not take remedial classes make up a disproportionately high share of the 30 percent who do graduate in CA? Appreciate hearing about GrowthSector; sounds like a very smart approach.
The area that would be affected by new drilling represents such a tiny piece of the Refuge that not to allow drilling is like the Dog In the Manger: “I can’t eat the hay but it’s mine and you can’t have any.” Too bad that the bullet you shoot through your foot ricochets into a crowd of your fellow citizens.
I would think even those tilting at windmills for Mother Earth would be at least a little put-off by the idea of an Imperialist president telling you what you can and can’t do with your land, but what do I know? I’m just another taxpaying sucker living in the Land of the Fee and the Home of the Slave in California.
Beautiful. Thank you.
I miss Aaron Brown so much. He is everything right about broadcasting, and the best example of what the industry should offer the general public.
The vast majority of people take no photos of their daily lives regularly. Such grand generalizations. Please try to relax and enjoy your grapefruit.
Your story made me think of Stuart Brand’s book, How Buildings Learn. And the photos and essay squeezed my heart. As a native Angeleno, born in the Madison Hospital (now gone), I look for traces of my childhood memories from the 1950’s – Currie’s Mile High Ice Cream with a 20′ tall ice cream cone next to a small plot of land with a tiny rotating carousel not of horses but cars…on Riverside Drive! You captured that sense of the personal that still lives here. A book, Thunder at Twilight, about Vienna 1913-1914 noted that all great places have two things in them: one foot in memory and one foot in prophecy. That’s truly what makes Los Angeles a great city. Great essay. Thank you.
I’ve lived in Echo Park in Los Angeles since 1980. Sometimes I too feel as if I’m inhabiting a palimpsest, where traces of the past are just discernible.
What!?!?!? You mean Bill wasn’t the pilot?!?!? That’s not what he told us on our camping trip!!!
I would have to chime in to say that 3 out of 95 is a much better ratio than the author makes it out to be. Now mind you, I’m no chemist or health professional, but I’d say the herd immunity in that kindergarten will protect them from an outbreak.
George, I was the producer at the local station you refer to when you were at GMA so I know exactly who you are talking about. He was a decent reporter in his early days, before he struck it rich with a big, important, Peabody-winning story, and then everything changed. Every story he did had to be bigger than the last, and none of them were. And nothing he did was worth less than 5 minutes of air time, and nothing was. The Israel combat incident you mentioned was widely discussed in the newsroom, but nothing was done. I was constantly battling him, but management saw him as a gold mine. I won a few battles, but lost the war.
Why is it that a lot of South American culture includes close families, yet there is a very machismo mind set that often prevents or makes it harder for one to express themselves? I live in a very family oriented Latino home and also find myself with the same problems, even without OCD. I think it’s the fear of disappointing our family, because by admitting that you need help or have an issue it automatically makes the family feel that it’s partly their fault. For example, a common misconception I see in my family is when a person misbehaves, it is in us to blame the way their mom raised them. And same with this situation, I felt that because I was unhappy I would be reflecting how I was treated at home. I very much enjoyed this article, it is super relatable and akin to many problems happening today. Thank you for such a wonderful piece, and I sincerely hope you overcome this disorder! (:
Havasu is a water resource for all things “dry” pertaining to the bigger cities in the Southwest. Anyone thinking that this resource is going to be around for an extended time into the future, has rocks in their head.
Going with the theory that the cast and crew were stoned while making this. That has to be the only way to enjoy this film. Had to leave the theater before Inherent Vice could finish, just to preserve my esteemed opinion of P.T. Anderson.
This is film is a good reminder why the other Anderson, Wes deserves an Oscar for remaining dedicated to great storytelling with The Grand Budapest Hotel. A film that is as much about place as it is people.
I miss Yemen, too. I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Ba’adan from 1988-90. Remarkable place and welcoming people!
I lived in Yemen for two years back in the late 1980s and share many of your feelings about the place and its people. I loved my time there and felt welcomed and safe. Yemen changed me. A lot. It took a kid from safe suburban middle-class America and blew my mind wide open to the world.
I place my coming of age as an adult to a specific moment on the beach during a backpacking trip with two friends. Twenty-two years old, eight thousand miles from home, on a beach in Yemen at three in the morning with some fresh ant bites in my mouth.
Yemenis will make it through.
http://c-dawson.blogspot.com/2009/01/southern-cross.html
I miss Yemen, too Laura! I was also there for three years, just before you. Your experience is not uncommon for Americans in Yemen I think. Let’s hope we can visit again and have the same positive experiences.
Thank you, Yoani Sánchez, for the insight that we as Americans seem to lack most times.
I grew up in Coronado during the 1950s, and remember assuming everybody’s father was a Naval Officer, just like mine (aside from being white and Episcopalian).
In 1966 I dropped out of college, joined the War on Poverty, and marched against the Vietnam War in San Francisco and Boston. I was angry my parents never prepared me for life beyond the cocoon of their beliefs and expectations.
Yet, on occasional visits home, I would hear the golf course sprinklers turn on in the evening; that soothing sound helped me understand why my parents believed all was still right in the world.
How beautifully written! Thank you.
This was wonderful to read! So descriptive and full of love!
What a well-written piece by Marc Littman! I loved reading this.
Thanks for the chuckles. I enjoyed that.
The mayor said,”…I’ll never look at Jell-O the same way again”.
(I met his Dad,Gill, a couple of times, and thought he did a good job), but doubt if I’ll look at the mayor the same way again. He connects with an audience REAL well! (and he’s on the way to doing a REAL good mayoral job!!)
Great post here. I found Cesar Chavez’s notes for the speech he gave at this event. Pretty amazing stuff. Posted it here at the site I operate about the Lattimer Massacre. Enjoy!:
https://lattimermassacre.wordpress.com/2014/10/22/cesar-chavez-at-lattimer-1972/
I’ve been down there. Nice restaurants in an area I would never have expected. But the usual curse: Once an area has been declared an Arts District, real artists can no longer afford to be there, and move on.
Journalists, like entertainers on tv, enjoying patting themselves on the back is an ego issue that is hard on one’s stomach. Their typical response to the death of newspapers is that citizen journalism is fraught with unprofessionalism is laughable. I raise my glass in a toast to the death of “professional” journalis.
Awesome piece–I’m a New Orleans native raised in LA and those are my sentiments exactly. Introduced Art Laboe to my chinese wife and she fell in love too, but now it’s online only! Such tragedy
I wish that the historical norm of “here WAS something great, and now it is gone” would be changed to “here is something NOW that it interesting, let me share it.”
I’ve know of Art Laboe for decades. I bought his albums as a teen. I had no idea he had a show.
There IS an oldies/do wop show on KCSN 88.5 FM on Friday nights–into Saturday morning at midnight. There’s also a great blues show on 88.5 hosted by Ann the Raven (a rich heritage in her own right) Sundays from 7 to 9 PM.
Listen to these while you can. Before you are told that these treasures are gone–and you didn’t even know they existed until it was too late.
Thank you for this. His dj work makes life rich.
Excellent article… from more than one standpoint !!
Thanks for this beautiful personal account. Hits close to home. I was born in Los Angeles during that time and knew a couple of children around my age who were afflicted with polio.
A blast from my past. For now, try 88.3 KUCR-FM late night Fridays and Saturdays for classic lowrider jams and old-school R&B. Online listening is also an option.
This entire country, not just California, has thought small since Reagan and his political progeny convinced us that *any* government is wrong and doomed to failure. Concerted collective action, as channeled through government, is the only way to solve these massive problems. Most Baby Boomers drove on new roads, attended new schools and colleges, and benefitted from dozens of other services that would be unthinkable today. But when the time came to pay it forward to future generations, Reagan told us the bill was too high and, besides, government could never achieve anything of value anyway.
Reagan taught us that personal selfishness was virtue and in 20 years we went from “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,” to “are you better off than you were four years ago?” Kennedy’s vision describes a united people, with a shared history and a shared destiny. Reagan’s vision describes 300 million strangers who happen to be squatting on the same piece of land.
The “government” is not some abstract institution, somewhere “out there.” This is America. *We* are the government. Reagan’s persistent campaign to confuse us about this is his most damning legacy.
I think you are right, Mr. Sabatini. Maybe we can examine the apparent stagnation of the transition to democracy in Latin America not only through the light of threats like drug cartels and Maras represent to the stability and security in Nicaragua, Honduras or El Salvador, but also in the context of Chávez presidency’s ability to support, financially and politically, some clearly autocratic parties and leaders. Maybe we can assume as well that the chavista sponsorship of the Cuban regime was key to help it endure the years between the Periodo Especial and the ongoing rebuilding of relations with the US.
I think this region has yet a lot to learn about the impact that chavismo has left on this continent. It won’t be a nice story to tell about us the Venezuelans but neither about Latin America. And I’m afraid that this ugly story isn’t about to end.
What is missing from this article is that some of these autocractic countries are using the United States as a strawman in order to distract their people from domestic problems. To be clear, there is no evidence that the Bush administration (or Obama) has interfered in any democratic process in Latin America. So to suggest that it is the US’ fault that these regimes want to be autocratic is wrong. The leaders in these countries are exploiting a false narrative to consolidate improper power in their hands.
Art Laboe was the only person to get myself feeling at ease. He is the best. I love him. Now he’s gone off the radio and it’s left me crazy.
Great article. It seems a lot of people are doggedly aware of the diversity issue. Everyone’s just waiting on big money to come in and invest in diverse entertainment from production to marketing. It seems like a lot of foreign investment in American films tend to cover the least diverse of topics. Even the foreign investors are brainwashed and enamored by the tired old approach of Hollywood being about attractive Caucasian men.
Thank you so much John! We are a team of L.A. early history enthusiasts. Eureka! Voilà ! The Zanja Madre came after the Zanja in Arch-Angel Gabriel Mission! Duh! We felt Gaspar Portola made executive decisions for the 44 Pobladores that shaped our present water regime. The Mission of course was the think tank, Mulholland the clever student! Saludos Y Salud!
Great article…
I too love Griffith Park! Now what can we do to get people to stop trashing the place and the park superintendent to stop putting cones and yellow tape everywhere. Just fix the damage.
Want fewer cars? Make it more expensive to drive them. We recently had a dip in gas prices, which was a perfect opportunity to raise the tax on gasoline (and invest that money on public transportation and safer sidewalks/roads).
James E. Moore 2 seems to forget the role of government – urban sprawl can be controlled (sorry developers), lower oil prices do NOT have to mean $3/gallon price at the pump, and whether or not people like “bigger houses with bigger lots,” it is not something that needs to be supported (with more investments to widen highways in futile attempts to keep rush hour traffic on the 405 above 15mph).
We [humans] are a creative bunch… take away every car, and we will find a way to live and enjoy life (maybe even more so than we think we are now). Adjusting to change is best when it’s gradual rather than abrupt.
“Crazy idea that would work for a LA” – take the fast/car pool lanes of each freeway and run light rail. Will create more traffic (disincentive to drive) but provides a reliable, convenient, practice alternative.
If we give Hugo Chavez the benefit of the doubt and assume he wasn’t a corrupt thug from the start, it’s hard for me to picture what a successful intervention by the OAS would have looked like. What could have been done to put Venezuela back onto the democratic path?
It’s pretty clear to me that once autonomous cars are perfected, we’ll see giant fleets of them operated by the liked of Uber and Lyft. The cost of door-to-door service will be much less than the cost of owning a private car. When we reach parity, and the cost of autonomous cars begins to drop below that of owning a car, the migration away from car ownership will accelerate.
There will still be people who want to own and operate their own car, and that’s fine. What we need, however, is for the majority of people to use the service instead of owning a car. The economics of this service will ensure most people will do just that.
And soon this will be set to music by a dynamic new composer!
The Freedom Riders were among the bravest civil rights workers, traveling right into the heart of racist America. Proud to have attended Steve Sanfield’s memorial service near Nevada City with Ellen and Bob.
Nice, Laura. You make me want to sniff out the spring. Hope you’re going to AWP? Maybe see you there? Really like this poem.
NYC has city income tax, but when I bring it up here, people wince.
Letting cities piggy-back on the state tax return makes sense, tho.
At the same time, maybe we need a state constitutional amendment to rein in cities’ charter authority to deviate from state law.
The City of Trenton has a local property tax. All municipalities in NJ do. It does not keep taxes down, nor corruption at bay. The ONLY thing that will make government honest is honest people running for office, plus term limits. Real term limits that address individual politicians just moving around in their offices. It is the professional political class that is the biggest player in our nation’s problems.
88 incorporated cities in Los Angeles County means that, unless you live in the city of Los Angeles, the major newspaper gives your city little or no coverage. Meanwhile, the regional newspaper chain (Daily News, Star-News, Tribune, etc) doesn’t do investigative journalism–they’re more interested in promoting their own agenda and cheerleading for “their” side and against the other side. Term limits would be a minor help, only because local elected officials can otherwise hold office for life because there’s almost no coverage of what they do. Otherwise, this whole idea of local control really means no control over local elected officials.
Appreciated the piece. Thanks.
Steve Lyer is right: without a local newspaper politicians run wild. Buildings are going up so fast in Redwood City that citizens know nothing about them until the structures are near opening their doors. Did Bell corruption start around the time the LA Times pulled its beat reporter? Mathews has a long paper he did for Chapman University in which he seems to blame fallout from Prop. 13 for a lot of our problems. All this very informative work proved to me was that people can be bought.
Kevin, thanks for sharing! These churches have always caught my attention. Along Sunset Blvd. in trendy Silver Lake, a few of them are still up and running. It’s always a draw when driving by and you hear the tambourines and singing, and when I’ve attended, hearing what appears to be speaking in tongues. Hipsterville gentrification hasn’t driven them all out yet, but probably will eventually. These are sanctuaries for immigrants to find solace and a more immediate connection to a spiritual world, and to their own, as they navigate and acculturate. Interesting how the Evangelical churches have become a more accessible option over the Catholic church in which most Latinos were raised.
Wanted to be there but life stepped in. Sorry I missed such an interesting panel. I enjoyed the article.
Ok, my mouth is literally watering right now…
I kinda almost wish you didn’t entice us with this story. No fair 🙁
I will be having birria de rez on Easter Sunday, so there! Won’t be as yummy as your 007 spot, pero por lo menos mi pansita me dara las gracias!
Greg,
Thanks–loads. That is the best, most succinctly stated overview of attempted school reform(s) I have seen. Personally, I have likened the mania for school reform to Sherlock Holmes’s seven-per-cent cocaine solution–always going back for more; never fully free from its downside effects.
I totally respect your argument for not writing about these vendors. And I think you are probably right to not do it if you truly care about the vendors. But as much as it pains me to say it, street food will never be truly legal in L.A. And in a lot of ways you shouldn’t want it to be. I’m sure you’d agree that making *all* street vending legal would be too chaotic, right? So the alternative is to regulate it, with a limited number of licenses. Or specific spots in the city where it would be allowed? The problem with that is it will turn the licenses into valuable commodities, almost like real estate, which then can lead to other issues (like you see with the street vendors in New York City.) I wrote about this a few years back:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/15/opinion/15zachbrooks.html?_r=0
Street vending everywhere has historically been a low paying, semi-legal enterprise, usually used as an economic stepping stone for recently arrived immigrants in the underserved neighborhoods where they live. And there’s a really good reason for that. That’s why it works. If you could make a legal living from street vending than everybody would do it. And it wouldn’t be long before that delicious birria would be pushed out by the same economic forces that make it hard for them to open a legitimate food truck or restaurant in L.A.
That vendor is far better off serving their food illegally to a neighborhood that wants and needs it, quietly working until they have enough money to open a legal business. Of course then we won’t like it as much. Because for all the lamenting we do about street vendors who are hassled, we don’t talk nearly as much about the vendors who were able to ended up work the current system long enough to open a legal business. It’s in those stories where you realize that the status quo might not be as bad as you think.
Good points. Like the opportunistic food trucks you mentioned in your article, a legal system, opening this up to everyone, could end up excluding the very people it was intended to help. As a child refugee of parents who worked in the gray economy to provide for my brothers and I, I’m hopeful a good solution comes out of this so people who depend on street vending for their livelihoods aren’t getting arrested.
Thanks keep supporting all the street vendors …
We don’t hurt anyone .
we provide healthy foods and from that we take care of our families .
Is a battle of every day knowing if today they might come and give us a ticket or take our stuff…
But we take that chance and set up only to feed our families .
Thanks for taking your time and looking out for us and speaking for us.
Thanks Janet for all your help you awesome
I had a similar epiphany in the spring of 2004 when, for a diversion from personal issues, I also cashed in a travel credit on Delta Airlines, traveled to Spain while reading The Girl with the Pearl Earing, to see The Girl with the Pearl Earing at the Prado, at a Vermeer exhibit which was advertised as one of the large collections of Vermeer on exhibit ever. And of course the movie came out about then. Thanks for sharing!
“Moreover, the Social Security fund will be exhausted within decades.” – statements like this sadden me… seems like people are resigned to let social security die. Retirement advice that i’ve read focuses on “investments” and “contributions” – neither of which people have control over (you can lose your job and retirement savings at the same time). Let’s not give up on Social Security. Let’s put pressure on elected officials for proper funding; they seem to know how to fund war, why not life with dignity?
Very heart touching and engaging article. Impressive account of charitable spirit that depicts a perfect example of philanthropy- caring for anyone in need and reaching out to help. Loved the originality. Thanks for sharing.
Following politics as it is today (phoney) is a huge waste of time.
I really like that succinct comment… ESPECIALLY as he had a REAL dig at “sports”.
His most impressive opening sentence almost took my breath away… because I thought I was Mr. Clever, when I did the same thing…. BUT at twice his age!
Very well done. It’s important to know enough about the candidates to make an informed voting decision, but as he says, the rest is pretty much useless.
There’s something called, “…diminishing returns”.
And a (or even “THE”) comparison is this:
U.S.A. — 18 months of… “informed voter decision time”
U.K. — About 4 weeks of… as above.
…And STILL you let “a Nixon” through… not that he didn’t do one or two (very) good things.
Heard you on Kpcc and you didn’t give your opinion enough justice. Now that I’ve read it I get it! I’ll settle for being a clandestino amigo in delicious crime!
“I’m quitting my daily observation of the struggle for American power
and the many ways in which it conceals itself behind displays of false
sympathy or outrage.” Excellent article, Tom, that I’m sure will resonate widely.
It WAS excellent, on many fronts!
Well said.
Although I will also continue to vote, I’ve given up on national politics for the time being. There are just too many things. The gridlock. The gerrymandering that ensures continuing gridlock. The contempt shown for Pres. Obama and the office – most recently Sen. McConnell urging governors to ignore federal law and the invitation of Prime Minister Netanyahu to speak before Congress during a particularly sensitive time.
However, I will continue to monitor the news. But I’m much more focused on community (WAVE, Compton Herald) and alternative news sources (BBC, Pacifica) than I have been in the past. As American mainstream newspapers and broadcasting continue their profit driven drift to infotainment, it’s harder than ever to take their coverage seriously.
Gotcha might work well for TMZ, but it’s a piss poor way to run the Fourth Estate on issues that matter.
Well reasoned…congrats.
Thanks for the inspiration to resist clicking on the never-ending parade of outrage-inducing commentary and analysis. Much of it is valid, but in the end, it doesn’t help me do anything useful.
Oh, and if you do make it to the Fullerton course, let me know, and I’ll point you in the direction of some good after-golf food and conversation.
Quarter of a century ago I played that course. Danielle… you tempt me!
Sue Mitchell has inspired me and so many others to explore our creativity. Best of all she has reminded me that 60 is not “old” and that it is never too late to start something new. And boy did she start something wonderful!
Other than the fact that college tuition has increased faster than just about everything else, my main criticism is that I don’t feel that few 4 year degrees provide an adequate return on investment. Additionally, while there are many great professors, far too many are not great educators and are complacent due to their tenure status.
True!
Practical, incisive and funny comments.
All the best on finding that sponsor for six months.
Given the fact that you hit “many nails on their heads” there, that shouldn’t be too difficult. It’s necessary!… in moi humble opinion, given “the 99%” and all that!
Excelent points. When our 7-year-old daughter asked me about GOD
instead of telling her our ancestral concept of god we took her and her
younger sister to various religious institutions and let the
parishioners explain their versions of god. We made a documentary about
this enlightening experience, which you can view at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ztp0yn2gRd8
Thank you for helping to show the people hidden behind the label.
Lisa, I would love to meet
with you, take you on a tour of our ministries of the Fresno Rescue Mission,
and share with you a whole host of community organizations that exist, in
addition to ours, to address many of the struggles you mention in this article.
You have relationships established with many people caught in this cycle
of homelessness already, making you the perfect person with whom they might
connect as a first step into receiving the help they need. Every agency
working to meet the needs of people in our community will tell you that HELP
begins with the relationship. It’s why we do what we do and how we go
about it. Contact me. There are options and opportunities
available. They are not always easy, but they do offer hope – something many
people lack when they cannot see beyond their current circumstance. dscully@fresnorm.org
COLORADO Steps Up to the Plate …
http://www.coloradoan.com/story/opinion/2015/04/14/death-dignity-bill/25789993/
Beautifully written with respect to the homeless population in Fresno. I sincerely hope that more support and housing for the city’s homeless population will be provided sooner than later as a result of this film.
Cheaper options, that are not hard surfaces, include covering grass with cardboard and mulch and planting California natives. The cardboard blocks the sunlight long enough to kill the grass. The mulch saves water and provides a home for beneficial microorganisms that sequester carbon. And the California natives provide nectar for bees and other pollinators. Help us get more free mulch to the people. https://www.facebook.com/MulchForThePeople
Very thought provoking! These women outlined some answers to questions I didn’t even know I had. Thanks for sharing!
Great article and pictures. I had no idea there was bass fishing. Thanks!
To say that the reimbursement for turf replacement only covers a fraction of the cost is incorrect and very damaging to efforts to make this happen. I recently had my back yard professionally done and the reimbursement at $3.00/square foot paid almost all of the cost. My brother did his yard himself and the reimbursement more than paid for it. The city of Los Angeles is now paying $3.75/square foot which would have more than paid for my yard.
There are now landscaping businesses who will do your whole yard for the amount of the reimbursement. Someone needs to do another article here, and in the newspapers which carried this as an op-ed, to correct this mistaken idea.
My grandmother made it to her early nineties, and when she died recently, after a fall in the nursing home, I’m very happy that my whole family was unanimous; no invasive attempts to keep her alive. She had a long life and died with her children and their children around her, and that’s more than most can say.
http://artlaboe.com/Radio.html just listen to him on serius radio or internet http://artlaboe.com/Radio.html
Wonderful article, Gina. Your comment that the list of dishes indigenous to America is especially true. I often hear southern/country cooks talk about their down-home all-American” cooking. They should consider the layers of influence you mentioned.
I was surprised by this: “whites have made up a minority of our state’s population since 1999” and tried to verify it. Neither the census website nor the wiki page for California’s demographics agree with this. Any idea what I am missing?
I really enjoyed this story, it is very special to hear the experiences of immigrants in America, especially those who came from Italy (I actually did it the other way around and emigrated to Italy) :). Beautifully written….
It’s true, there are many families in your situation and yet each time I meet, hear, or read about someone directly violated this way I feel the same outrage and heartache as if for the first time. I hope you are all reunited before too long. I hope the politicians and policymakers and administrators read your piece and I hope they also consider that someday our history books will name their names and their legacy will be one of shame, and never being forgiven for what they did, ever.
Your story is my story. My father was from Calabria and I always feel related to all Calabresi. Best of wishes to you. Congratulations on your award. Looking forward to your future blogs.
I don’t understand why your husband would get a lifetime bar. I’m familiar with the 3 and the 10 year bars for illegal residency, but not a lifetime bar. What section of law did they cite? I also don’t understand why you saw a clerk instead of an American vice-consul.
Re-entry bar is a 10 year bar that can’t be waived for 10 years. After 10 years you can try to waive. If you fail in waiving, it is a lifetime bar.
Also, the false claim bar is a lifetime bar. Often at times, this bar is thrown at all applicants because CBP will say the immigrant falsely claimed to be a US Citizen to gain entry.
They are extremely harsh and unjust bars, with no due process or judicial review.
Certainly don’t want to minimize the pain of this writer’s personal experience. That said, if one is on the wrong side of the law, one has to be prepared for the potential negative (and potentially arbitrary) consequences.
I realize many readers will find this particularly harsh, but before choosing to become pregnant, perhaps this couple should have better weighed their personal situation, both legally and economically. I don’t see that child welfare came first.
The flip side of this story and the others of those coming illegally “just for a better life” is the thousands of cases of people in the country illegally who have committed other crimes, including human trafficking, drug running, hit and runs that have resulted in death, and other brutal crimes. Bottom line, we have to have an immigration system with integrity. You can’t just have millions of people coming into the country to live — who we don’t know who they are — ignoring our laws, as it undermines our entire legal system.
And all that said, given the current state of lawlessness on immigration, in that basically anyone who is able to get here can stay here, I find the outcome of this particular case very surprising.
Nice satire piece, nice spin of positive BS and anyone who lives in the IE know it.
Well spoken. Death is the exit door through which we all must pass. Needless, costly, and undignified suffering via interventionist medicine does not change that, but the diminishment of the person through the process is painful. Observed 1st hand on my father’s passing, no quality, just lots of suffering & $$.
Exit to nothingness, exactly as we were before being born but we have to assume the Reality…
Your assumption, of course. Just as anyone’s idea of after death is.
More than that: it’s based on the total, uncontested absence of the contrary, which couldn’t be proven otherwise despite so much effort and wishful thinking. In other words: the proof of the presence of something has to be provided by the asserting party, the absence is itself the proof that favors the Null hypothesis.
At most we can say we fail to reject the null hypothesis because the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence (proving the null). In the article entitled “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence,” Altman and Bland (1995) gave this warning to medical
researchers: “Randomized controlled clinical trials that do not show a significant difference between the treatments being compared are often called “negative.” This term wrongly implies that the study has shown that there is no difference” (p.485).
Sorry, you can’t say “it ain’t so” just because you can’t find any proof.
You cannot render that just out of the context of its specific applicable example, what are you analyzing and how close are you controlling all the intervening variables depends on the specific nature and circumstances of the case. If you extrapolate this same assumption for all the other possible applicable cases you may say as well that Scientific Method would be a complete and useless failure. What makes the difference betwenn real Scientific logic and empty Rhetoric are precisely the verifiable dependence to empirical facts, accessible nature of variables and repeatable, testable results on the reality. Of course it is fallible but predictable and perfectible. The fallacy of this predicament was already adressed by Bertrand Russel’s parable about the flying Teapot orbiting the Earth space.
“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” Psalm 14:1 KJV
The Null hypothesis is just that, not to diminish its value, but it is certainly a presumption. You really don’t see that the rules you choose to assert are conveniently those that confirm your assumption? I could do the same, but what point would that make? There are two sides to life – the concrete and the abstract; many things that are not amenable to proof. I loved my late husband, but I cannot prove it. I’m not arguing that I know what comes after death; I don’t. Neither do you. It’s a delicious mystery.
Nice article. I love the IE and wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. It is a beautiful region with a host of natural beauty and available activities. I can get to restaurants and the grocery store in 60 seconds. I live in a community that would rival any Orange County development. Some think that people only live here because they have to; this is the furthest thing from the truth.
The short documentary Our Lives: Surviving the Streets of Fresno can now be viewed on YouTube. https://youtu.be/fHddimK2npo
This describes exactly how I feel.
I want nothing that the physician wouldn’t want for themself, or for someone they loved enough to allow to go.
I watched my mother die in an intensive care unit, and my father grieve watching her. I don’t want officious care, nor will I demand it for my husband …
the point is not to keep alive someone whose quality of life is fading. What would you want to happen to someone you loved enough to let go – drugged, tubed and lingering, or to slip away? It depends on circumstances, and a trust in those treating us that they will choose the best option not the safest. That is part of your duty as a carer, to be able to make those decisions in a way you feel content with.
Good luck
In reality, there is no such thing as “Persian” food. It should correctly be called “Iranian” instead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL7xyQIkIGI&feature=youtu.be
Last Thursday, California State University-Fresno unveiled the Armenian Genocide Memorial monument, the first on any college campus in the country. The area is home to a large Armenian population, and the University has an Armenian Studies program. An estimated 4,000 people attended the the event. I attended with friends whose Armenian grandparents escaped the genocide and settled in Lebanon. Like your family, my friends left Lebanon as young adults due to ongoing unrest/violence.
Be assured, despite the avoidance of the word genocide by the US and Turkish governments, people from all heritages know what happened and support efforts make sure history is not forgotten.
I hope the attorney that the author consulted advised her that while there was nothing to be done back in 2004, in general, a noncitizen who faces the permanent bar to admissibility that the author refers to (it is found at INA 212(a)(9)(C)(i)) can seek a waiver of that bar once he or she has been outside the US for 10 years. See INA 212(a)(9)(C)(ii).
If the couple is still married, and her husband is still in Mexico, I hope they have an experienced attorney helping them to apply for such a waiver, and wish them the best of luck.
It is also likely they threw a false claim bar at the family…. which is a lifetime bar.
Thank you Tom. Such an important message.
With all due respect, playing a Hispanic in Argo, when hispanics hardly work in entertainment (fewer than 2%) and not hiring minorities would make guilt disingenuous. Employment for minorities is at an all time low. It’s daunting to try to pursue a career in entertainment and demonstrates how the establishment wants all of us to stay away.
No doubt much has yet to be done to make the industry more equitable for talent of color.
Beautifully put, Thomas, with such an important message. I hope Ben actually gets the letter, but even if he doesn’t, the meaning to ALL Americans is clear. Thank you for articulately it so thoughtfully.
Thank you Thomas – this is great advice – and excellent guidance.
Beautifully written, and expresses sentiments many Armenians born in the US share also. So sad also for those “exiled from their exile”– in Lebanon then, in Syria now.
I agree with the statements: “Expressing regret is one step, but regret doesn’t amount to much without a commitment to repair the damage.” and “The legacy of slavery continues to benefit people who look like you and me, Ben—and they harm people of color.” And am hopeful that more people come to terms with the past, and benefits gained (and continue to gain).
I would like to suggest, however, that we not forget economic and political policies that would go far in addressing the gaps between groups we see today. Three progressive policies that are needed: 1) universal, single payer healthcare for all, 2) well funded education system, and financial assistance for college, and 3) living-wage employment.
And let’s roll back regressive policies which exacerbate inequalities, including: The death penalty, draconian drug laws, and military build-up (which robs moneys from people, and creates a hostile power structure that reaches to local levels).
“Guilt” is something that comes from within and every individual must deal with his/her issues on their own and in their own way. But when ready to take real steps in making this country more equitable, the above policy changes would be a good start. As Bryan Stevenson has said: “The opposite of poverty is not wealth. The opposite of poverty is justice.”
And for those who might need a primer in damage from racists policies that continues impact people today, I would recommend highly Ta-Nehisi Coates’ article “The Case for Reparations”
http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/05/the-case-for-reparations/361631/
The tone of Mr. DeWolf’s article appears to be so narrow that it tends to claim all the miseries of the TransAtlantic Slave Trade for the Europeans. Not so. There is nothing exceptional about his forbears actions. Without the cooperation and complicity of others there would never have been a trans-atlantic human trafficking business. The untold never-to-be generations of native americans and africans whose histories are erased with every moment by those who made their wealth on disenfranchisement, virtual extermination and obliteration of the indigenous languages, cultures, usurpation of their mental and physical uniqueness, are things the perpetrators and their ensuing posterity will never get over. It is part of their histories. Why not thank their ancestors for the memories and benefits that accrue to them because of the avaricious manner they went about to gain materially. No one person, ethnic, linguistic, religion, or culture can claim total responsibility for the deaths, diseases and abuses visited upon humanity by other humans whose ancestry had suffered similar tragedies.
There is an important small book titled “Sometimes the Diaspora Begins at Home” gives vital information concerning the involvement of Africans and others in the capturing and selling of those whom they deemed worth the time and effort. No one has clean hands
Thank you. The old adage of accepting what can’t be changed, (the past) changing those things we can (the present) we are our ancestors, in a way, we carry their baggage, and we are here to rectify their wrongs, just by the simple admission that it was wrong, and although we can’t change the wrong committed, we can provide a light to the present darkness just by taking the lid off the past, and revealing its ugly truth, to a generation in search of a pedigree, in need of their roots, and thirsting for water. Supply the drink!
This thoughtful and forward-minded message ought to be widely read. Its meaning, its content and intent are pertinent for every American. Thank you for this.
As a trained professional in historic preservation I relate especially to your comments about preserving those parts of the built environment that can help tell the true stories of our past in a proper, complete way. It remains an unfortunate fact that mainline historic preservation, as practiced widely in the U.S., continues to focus mostly on ‘high-style’ architecture, at the expense of many sites, structures and objects of huge significance. I recall visiting one North Carolina site, an antebellum plantation which was undergoing renovations and rehabilitation for planned use as a museum. Unfortunately all attention was focused on rehabbing the ‘big house’ because it could be used as a site for fancy gatherings; there were plans in place to destroy most of the remaining structures that would have afforded an immediate and direct opportunity to tell the stories of the lives of the people without whom the plantation could not have existed – the slaves. A better informed or motivated program would have ensured that the slave quarters were the primary focus of preservation rehab efforts. The honest truth is, at least in preservation terms ‘big houses’ are a dime a dozen, with plenty available to depict the lives of the slaveowning classes in thorough detail. The less graceful, less physically durable slave quarters are more critically needed to tell an honest, balanced historical story. Given the reasonably well informed presence of preservation practitioners in some of the efforts the above story represents, one is left to question intentions in such efforts.
We cannot escape our history; it is pointless to try. Personal culpability for ownership of other human beings in the United States is past. Personal responsibility for truth, for much needed healing, remains.
A very profound article! I wish everyone could read this…
Bravo!
Thank you, Rafael… a brilliant piece on a complex, despairing city with such hope simultaneously. Blessings, friend…
Great article Patrick! I love hearing shared stories and discoveries of other collectors. Paper and photo collecting is a passion for some and obsession for others. Being able to appreciate the image or connection in this world of fast paced computers and technology brings us back to a home we all share~ the human spirit and how we randomly and artistically express it through words and imagery. For me as a seller and collector of snapshots and home printed early photographs I tend to fall in love with the details. The shadows and light, the composition and most of all the feelings of the photographer who has taken that particular image and what he saw and thought while doing so. Happy hunting!
Beautifully written. Despite the current state of things in my home town of Baltimore, this article makes me yearn to return to a place of such resilience and hope.
One can use gray water to water plants. Look into your city’s rules on gray water, but collecting water when it’s warming for a shower and rinse water from the wash and dish washing–you have to use the right detergents–provide a lot of water.
Long Beach’s Lawn to Garden program covered most of the cost of replacing our front lawn, and we continue to get many compliments on it. When water-wising your yard, keep in mind that most longstanding non-water-wise plants have adapted, so there’s no need to remove them. In addition, it’s best not to use products that kill bees to kill the grass.
Love it! Or okay, not what it says, but its “wager” I find myself ready to take.
Magnificent weaving of a wonderful life with an important and current concern. Thanks for introducing us to your swell Grandma Opps, and a useful way of looking at how we approach end of life possibilities. Great writing.
Great article. Life long resident as well and I cannot imagine what our city will look like in 5-10 years. We all have been waiting for a major revitalization of our town, and it looks like it is finally happening 🙂 So many different things going on at once. Hollywood Park, Metro coming to town, Market St getting spruced up, artist continuing to move in, micro breweries etc. Stay tuned!
Where is the photo that’s referenced in paragraph 4?
Good. Less toxic diesel exhaust, traffic and industrial sprawl for us. What’s not to like?
Why aren’t people getting the big picture? “Free trade” is the reason we have lost almost all American manufacturing jobs. This will increase the hundreds of billions of dollars in trade debt. We sell theirs but they don’t sell ours because most US companies shipped their corporations to countries that pay workers .30-.50¢/hour- AND GOT TAX BREAKS FOR DOING THIS!! I voted twice for Obama & am SICKENED by this fast track, doesn’t even allow Congress people to talk about the details, if it is so beneficial to our country, why so secretive??. The TPP will do away with our defending our land to other countries, if it hurts their profits, they can tie up small towns and rural areas in court, bankrupting our country. The TPP is crazy. Free trade has hurt American workers severely.
Thanks for pointing that out, Brian. We’ve added the picture!
“Webster occasionally pushed usages and spellings that most people thought were eccentric.”
I think it would be more accurate to say that Webster rejected spellings that were both unsupported by etymology or by high frequency spelling patterns. The o for /I/ in *women is not even a spelling pattern in English since no other word uses it. This makes the spelling *women much more eccentric and obscure than Webster’s .
for *acre is another suggested respelling based on the principle that should be spelled as in center for centre.
for
longe and lounge are ME variant spellings for the word long. so similar spellings could be associated with the Dutch . *tonge would have some etymological justification if the word were still pronounced as in 1400. The present day pronunciation of the word is /tʌŋ/ which would normally be spelled ..
Testing modality isn’t changing because computers are hip or ubiquitous or because 12 year olds are assembling them. Testing is moving online because it’s the only format that will support adaptive testing with dynamic forms–this allows test designers to achieve far more precise and valid measurements of student ability. It’s also the only reasonable format in which we can begin to measure the depth of knowledge and types of ability that require constructed responses–through the development and refinement of AI scoring. While SBAC assessments haven’t yet settled in as the touchstone of perfection, they are a vast improvement over the past and in general computer adaptive testing is the only way forward.
The TPP and other trade deals have lead to the wholesale destruction of the environment and have not helped the average person. The supposed benefits such as mexico now being net importer of cars from the US hasn’t helped stagnant wages. Those cars that are being imported are made in mexico in terrible factories by mexico’s poorest who were forced of their land due drug war and agribusiness. A sustainable future will not be created by forcing cities to set low environmental and health standards set by the TPP. If a city wants to prevent water contamination and ban fracking locally it will be impossible with these rules. All laws will be set via the trade agreement and whoever violates it will have to pay hefty fines per day set in private arbitration till they allow those companies in who would destroy their land, water and air. I challenge the writer of this piece to re-look at the results of these trade agreements are on the environment and real wages of average people. Taking someones rural sustainable life away and putting them in a factory is not an improvident. Globalization could be good if we were at the negotiating table not big agribusiness, pharma, military manufacturers oil companies and the bankers. Take them out of the equation and we might have a chance. Until then our environment burns at the hands of these so called free traders. Bill Clinton, George Bush, Obama, and ever president before that is complicit, Greed belongs to no party.
This report is very interesting and should be the start for a powerful conversation. My concern is in the rush to increase officer numbers, we ignore an important factor – to what extent does having any number of officers relate to the amount of crime in any community?
When former LA chief Bratton came before the League of Cities’ City Manager Department, he argued that he needed more officers in LA on a per capita basis because the numbers of officers was “too low” compared to what he had in New York. When challenged, however, he did not have a solid response to answer the question I am raising. I do not believe we are using analytics to demonstrate how adding even one officer ultimately results in XX% decrease in crime. And yet we want to use metrics like this as a rationale for providing money for various other social programs.
The issues raised in the article about the way officers are trained to work within various communities; the elimination of residency requirements, where officers once were asked to live within the geographic boundaries where they were employed (which presumably meant they are more familiar to and with those they are policing); and the unintended consequences associated with disincentives to return to work post-injury are important questions for communities to explore if we want to change some of the dynamics associated with policing today.
Last evening (May 13th) the California Coalition for Public Higher Education met in Beverly Hills to hear the heads of the three higher education segments discuss the essence of Daniel Mitchell’s article. It is/should be apparent that the Master Plan, itself revised/updated (supposedly) a score of years-plus ago, needs to revisited. The real question, ultimately, I think, is: Can the state keep its commitment to qualified high school graduates to pursue higher education at one of the three segments? Ultimately, equal opportunity access should be key, above all else.
I like these thoughts about music festivals. Going backmore than a few years I was a follower and a free-lance, self appointed critic of the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Festival…at which time, the 70’s 80’s and 90’s played Dixieland, and brought in world wide artictic talent from oversears. Tastes have changed, audiences have gotten older. Dixieland has joined forces with other styles, and while audiences have shruk a bit, they are still holding in there, and there is a place for a wide variety of poplar music venues. What we need, in this forum is a way of getting accurate idea of what these bands do, and what kind of venues they play at during the non festival part of the year. I go to the Monterrey Jazz festivals, and try to capture videos from side stage and share them with aspiring student musicians. I do this as a volunteer.
I will be going to Newfoundland this year to attend their folk festival which is mostly Irish and Scottish dance music. They will also have a camp where they keep the arts like fiddle and button accordionplaying alive. Memorial Universityof Newfoundland has a wonderful video archive of many years of folk performances, with a very good way of screening ahead of time what you might want to watch and hear.
I wish California could do this. Make artful performances wasier to look at, and make intelligent choices of what to see and hear at festivals.
The more we know, the more we get motivated to go.
Robin Aurelius
Friend of folk and Popular Music in Sacramento
raureli@yahoo.com
The comment from Veril. may have (some) validity, but from my layman’s perspective… I certainly learnt something from Rebecca! (60 yr old average computer user)
Generally speaking, the more cops there are (and especially the more militarized they have become), the more brutality and abuse they unleash. The recent experience with a “blue flu” in NY, when the cops had a hissy fit and refused to do their aggressive enforcement to punish the mayor by reducing city revenues from tickets, clearly and embarrassingly resulted in greater social peace and a drop in crime. The lack of effective policing and investigation of homicides in Black communities is not a function of not enough police, it is a function of racist and colonial missions and strategies and belief systems; the LAPD became notorious for their designation of “NHI” – “no humans involved” for such crimes. The money that would be spent on more police and more weapons (including the body cams from TASER that are now part of the LAPD armory) would be far better spent on community services, education, grassroots community peacekeepers, jobs, parks, libraries, housing and better public transportation.
I refuse to support the funding for more state violence. I believe in world that has community accountability. A world where we know our neighbors, where we cab trust our community. It is not impossible just a world less know because currently we fund police more than education… Food for thought.
I would like to know on what planet does someone get 8 months worth of anti-brain swelling drugs for “about $20.” Must have had great insurance.
no, the medicine is incredibly cheap. Dexamethasone 4 mg. $23 for 100 tabs at Costco
Dexamethasone is a steroid that reduces inflammation.
It can be quite a dilemma. I am an older student, whose career is at a standstill. I hope that getting some “paper” will improve my prospects, either for advancement with my present employer, or for getting a better job elsewhere. Yet at my age and in my situation, time and money for school are not easy to procure. On-line, cheap or free, and accelerated all work for me, and much of what I need to get a degree, I likely already know. I am in the midst of the admission process for University of the People right now, and am also enrolling in an accelerated program at my local community college. It is a difficult decision to make right now. The difference in cost if probably about 2K for the on-line, vs 5K for the local community college version (associate degree – to start). Money aside, both approaches have their advantages. I like the idea of being at my desk at home, taking classes at my convenience, and working somewhat at my one pace. On the other hand, I like the idea of a hands on approach in computer labs, and working with a class full of other learners. It is a hard decision – which is great. Years ago, for a man in my situation, their would have been no difficult decisions to make. It would have been simple – you can’t do it. I prefer difficult choices to no choice at all.
This situation in Detroit is sad and every City Municipal Water system faces similar situations. The water system must operate like a sound business, at least in California it does, which means it must cover it’s operating and capital replacement costs. I hurt for both the residents and the City Staff. So many of these people are the working poor. I believe the time has come to put the CDBG Federal money to better use by re-establishing a work program like the 1930’s CCC and the 1970’s CETA Programs. The problem for a city is that it can not afford to put people to work without having a funding source for Workers’ Compensation Insurance. Those residents who are not the working poor are the people used to living off the system and are a huge workers’ comp. liability. I was disappointed with our Federal Government when it extended unemployment benefits instead of putting people to work. Some how we must re-establish the “work ethic” in people in order to let them save themselves. Imagine a “mob” of unemployed workers moving down a dirty littered street picking up trash and abandoned autos.
Hollywood can no longer afford to ignore the next global culture. This is great discussion.
Real Women Have Curves is also an example of a film about Mexican Americans that “tell[s] us something about the experience of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in the U.S.,” including the different experiences of generations of women.
thanks for your article. I anticipate that water will become the issue around which many crises arise in the near future that will be then be manipulated by neo-liberals with the practice of “disaster capitalism” described by Naomi Klein.
I think the most dangerous thing we can do as Americans is “forget” about slavery. It is this mentality that enforces the thinking that racism is a thing of the past, and this mentality is what leads to little civil rights progress, the lack of
sympathy for victims of racism, and other things. If people don’t think that it
is real or relevant, the subject moves into the background. DeWolf mentions
that any person living in the United States benefits from slavery, because it
was the basis of our economy that led to the growth and success of this
country. With information like this, slavery suddenly seems more relevant and immediate instead of something of the past. While the act of enslavement may be gone, the slavery mentality has not yet dissipated, as evidenced by the numerous deaths of black people by police, and their ability to get charged dismissed despite the fact that a life was lost. So yes, slavery is a shameful and horrible thing of the past, but forgetting about it is worse than having to face it. If we push it to the back burner and delete it from our ancestry, suddenly it feels
very distanced from us and nothing will be done to remedy the issues that are occurring in this country. A man who has such a platform trying to expunge this history from his name is setting a dangerous precedent for us all.
No, I don’t think this race comes down to North vs. South. That implies that Southern Californians feel connected to Rep. Sanchez, and as a democrat & Angeleno, I for one do not. It’s not about economic class or socioeconomic upbringing. That implies that people from Lynwood can’t grow up to be like Kamala Harris, which is untrue. Since their stances on issues are very similar, it comes down to personality, composure, grace, intelligence. I’d rather vote for someone smart and sophisticated over someone who is an embarrassing dingbat. Had a different Southern California elected official been running, I may have more SoCal pride, but not in this case.
And maybe, just maybe, we might become a bit more purple so we will no longer walk in lockstep but actually debate issues that have been silenced by Democrats.
Congratulations to the Democratic Party which has now given us their very own Sarah Palin. Let’s see if the media will make as much fun of Loretta.
I love this effort in utilizing the arts for broader discussions on society and the environment. As you know, there are many different facets to the arts, modalities, and the many ways they serve society. One such initiative is what I’ve put together to help the drought in California, in Drumming for Rain. I’ve been involved in hand drumming and drum circles for over 10 years, and have organized over 100 events. My specialty is drumming for the brain and wellness. But I also have “intuitive” skills I utilize in drumming. So in drumming for rain, I look to have drummers play all over the state at the same time, in groups, to help make it rain. At the very least, it will help with dialogue for conservation and awareness. Here’s the link on my blog: http://wp.me/poW1N-6P
People did NOT value water, the took it for granted, and did not pay the water bill first and foremost. They “forgot”, made it a secondary priority, whatever. The fault, blame, shame lie directly with those that did not pay for a service, delivered to their home. Civic Responsibility in a community means people pay their debts. Taking advantage of neighbors, other communities, etc and holding them gullible is downright nasty. Expecting “others” to pick up the slack, for conscious lack of personal responsibility, has consequences. Get a rainbarrel, pay down the debt owed. Another option is to garner welfare checks right off the top, insuring the debt gets paid back to the city.
“”A city surrounded by the largest source of fresh water on earth”” — What bogus statement when that water needs to be PUMPED, then SANITIZED, then PRESURRIZED, and then DELIVERED to the homes of Detroit residents – aka its a damn service like pizza delivery. People pay for it. Free clean water can be captured via rainbarrels to do laundry, wash dishes, flush toilets, and can even be distilled into drinking water.
Stop right there: there is something wrong with those high prices, right off the bat. I lived in Novi, at the end of the Detroit water line, for 27 years, and my bills were always the smallest of my utility bills and no greater than $60, tops, and that was quarterly!! So there is something terribly terribly wrong with the entire system that overcharges Detroit residents to begin with.
All the above! What a great balance of positions on what makes Los Angeles great in its dynamic, consistent chameleon ways necessary to be in its role in the moment of the world’s script in the cosmos’ evolutionary improv, while centered in self.
The Dichotomy of the Duke: He was the best of actors and the worst of actors. On the screen he stood for what was right in simpler times. In political life, his moves and statements were a staggering series of stumbles. Trying to be righteous both on and offscreen, didn’t work out that well for him. There was something else. In Liberty Valance (1962) he called Jimmy Stewart’s character Rance Howard, ‘Pilgrim’ way too many times. The Duke was a colostomy bag of serious blunders. Even the hard core fans winced at Big Jim McClain (1952). When he took Maureen O’Hara over his knee in McLintock! (1963), we knew he was politically incorrect, just as we’d known in something was awry as early as the Quiet Man (1952). As legends go, he takes the cake.
Oh my, from back in the day when “free range” kids were the norm. Now children are suffocated with over protection from not only their helicopter parents but from social services and schools. Kids are not allowed to learn to handle themselves, to grow competent in life. Now why do you think that is?
Thank you for your thoughtful reminiscing about your boyhood. I share your observations about the encroachment of “screen time’ into childhood and have made a point not to give my son any kind of screen, except for video watching time on the computer that he earns with good behavior / completed homework / doing chores / etc. He is six years old and never have I handed him a phone to pacify or occupy him, nor is he allowed to touch my phone without asking permission, which is never granted for purposes of screen time, but just to answer the phone for me if I can’t get to it in time. I think besides the points you make, another benefit of not succumbing to the screen time as pacifier parenting model is that my son is a super observant, plugged in human being. He has spent thousands of hours sitting in the back seat of the car either talking with me, reading a book, or simply observing the world around him. He is engaged in the world and easily connects with people of all ages, because he is not living an insular screen-focused life. He looks outward for stimulation and that usually means, to engage other people in conversation or play. Kids who are constantly handed screens since babyhood are focused on the screen, on looking down, not out at the world, and they don’t know how to talk to grownups other than they parents, because they never have.
I loved her holiday cards. I don’t even know why I was getting them since I never lived anywhere where I could vote for her. The first time I got one it seemed so inappropriate, but over time I looked forward to them.
Loretta Sanchez made me smile at least once a year for a long time. Kamala Harris is a suit.
Little Joe’s!!!!
Every time I finish reading one of Manuel Rodriguez’s pieces (not often enough) I have the same thought…”And then what happened?” You write like music, and it settles in the soul of the listener in just the same way.
why are her water bills so high….$150 a month is not right…something is not right in the article..my three month water bill was $45…
These changes will be supplemented and strengthened by the availability of multimedia data. Electronic clinical information will be more freely available than today for both patients and doctors to review, comment on thiết kế nội thất chung cư đẹp
There also needs to be acknowledgement
of investment into Mexico and the export of Mexico goods here. The stories published seem slanted. except for Ambassador Rodriguez’s story
In some countries stopping genocide is associated with humanity and with others it is associated with interests. Willingness to stop killing fellow human beings is amount to humanity. A killer in a position of political power may be witnessed by some countries to kill with no intervention as they may loose the interests they get from him/her.( the killer )
Southern California will come out by the droves trust that to vote for Loretta Sanchez.
No mention of Pickleball?
This is the first I’ve heard of pickleball! I would have shot it if I had known it existed 🙂
The simple fact is that those who even bother to vote (who aren’t many) have neither the time nor the inclination to read enough beyond a party label for any candidates below the level of president, governor or senator. So, the party affiliation serves as shorthand for decision-making, and the Republican brand is one that is toxic in California. Perhaps Mr. Peterson should consider buying the San Diego CityBeat and increasing its circulation.
You are correct about three of LA’s major problems – but missed directly addressing the fourth. California alreadyt has the highest incomes taxes in the country – while states such as Texas have no state income tax and yet Texas will soon have better schools than California. And LA is approaching having the highest sales tax in the country at the same time multiple local taxing authorities are already pushing for multiple increases in our already too high sales tax.
So where is all the money going to come from for all the new spending you are proposing? What taxes do you propose to raise? And where is the money going to come from for all the new water lines, new power lines, new streets, the new green power and all the other parts of our failing infrastructure? And where is the money going to come from for all the unfunded public employee pension and health care plans?
If LA is not going to become Detroit, it is going to take not a few changes – but thousands of changes in every way every single level of government performs.
It is also going to take an entirely new civic leadership to try and find new private solutions to many of our problems since from now on – each and every year – a higher and higher percentage of tax revenues will be needed to pay the pensions and health care for retired ex-government employees and to pay to replace already existing infrastructure. And less and less money every year will be left over for new employees, new infrastructure and new programs.
And I don’t see anybody doing the numbers on what all these existing programs are going to cost – much less then also figuring out and adding onto that figure all the unfunded liuabilities of the states and the federal government to see what each of us already collectively owes.
And there are too many special interests who do not want the public to know those natonal figures for any public agency to ever do run those numbers for the country as a whole.
But unless we can discover where Los Angeles and all the taxing authorities in the area stand financially both today and over the next 10, 20 and 50 years – we will not be able to accurately access what we need to start doing today.
This was a very interesting first-person story of the experience. Thanks.
I am taken, however, by an unspoken truth: the reluctance of voters to vote for someone for statewide office, with tremendous power— and in this case power over elections—who has no previous elective office from which to judge. One cannot help but feel that one is taking a “roll of the dice”. Is that a chance one wants to take?
Even then, you don’t really know what is going to happen. The most obvious recent example is Geo W Bush, who was a real bipartisan Texas Gov, who many democrats supported…..and turned into one of the most polarizing Presidents of all time.
Somehow, it makes it hard to have faith in the Republican brand.
I feel better already…….
Karen Bass, Holly Mitchell, Mark Ridley-Thomas, Sebastian Ridley Thomas ……. blah blah blah. Politics in L.A. illustrate exactly what Peterson is saying. We have no choice really if and when we cast our votes – public engagement is non existent.
Last November my 20 year old son fell from 12′ on to his head. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and never regained consciousness. When he entered the hospital he was given a Glasgow Coma Scale rating of 3. That is on a scale of 3-15. Shortly after hearing the news I was speaking to a neurosurgeon who was asking for permission to do a decompressive craniectomy. He explained that there was a 30% chance that my son, who had elected to be an organ donor as noted on his driver’s license, would die in the operating room and if he survived he would likely never walk again, he would probably not be able to feed himself and he would have poor cognitive function. Then he asked again, “We need to do the surgery right now. Pressure is building in his brain. Do we have your permission?” “Wait, can you tell me again . . .is there something I am not understanding?” I knew a little bit about TBI, I was helping a friend with an event for Craig Hospital, one of the premiere rehabilitation hospitals for TBI in the country. Even for patients with good outcomes a traumatic brain injury can rob the person of their personality. That on top of virtually no motor function I didn’t understand why they would saw into my sons head and violate his body. I asked the doctor what he would do it it was his son, he said he would do the surgery. I said no.
My son was in another state and with my sister and brother-in-law holding me up and guiding me through the airport and to the hospital I made the 8 hr trip in time to see my son alive. I was so worried about what i would see when I entered the ICU, a head injury sounds like a violent injury, but when I entered his room I was struck by how beautiful he looked. He wasn’t bruised, his body wasn’t violated, his color was good. He didn’t look scary, he looked peaceful. He looked as though he was sleeping. In that room I was able to hold his hand, it was warm, and run my hands through his hair. His hair hadn’t been shaved.I was able to bond with my son in much the same way as I had in a hospital room 20 years before when he was born. When I said goodbye to him I knew that he was at the top of his game, successful in school with a close group of friends. I knew that the last thing he knew was sitting on banister, talking to a high school friend about how far they had come when he lost his balance fell back and that was all. That night I was able and unafraid to leaning over his beautiful strong body to kiss his cheek and say goodnight.
That I was able to see my son looking the way that he did in the ICU has been a critical part of my ability to cope in the wake of his death. Things would have been much different if they had done the surgery, I have been on the internet and seen the pictures of what a decompressive craniectomy looks like. On the night of my son’s accident when I refused to allow the hospital to take a section of his scull off the doctor followed with another request, could they but a “bolt” into his scull to monitor the pressure. Why would I want to shave his hair and drill a “small” hole in his scull to monitor pressure when we have already decided not to do the surgery to relieve pressure. All I cared about was wether my son was in pain and I was assured he had felt no pain. Another thing that I have thought about was the fact that there was a 30% chance my son would have died in surgery. I can’t imagine what it would have felt like to arrive after he had died to see his scull removed and his body all cut up for the organ donations.
In the months since his death I have been struggling with why the neurosurgeon would have done the surgery on his son. I have been on the internet everyday searching for something that might have changed my mind. I have consulted with a friend who was deputy chief of surgery and a major emergency room and everything I learned has only served to reinforce my decision but still I am having a hard time letting go of the idea that when asked the doctor said he would do the surgery on his own son.
I totally agree with you on this piece. A great work!!!
Really? As an ICU RN, I saw more than a few physicians doing everything they could to stay alive, against all odds. I would say this is an individuals choice and all doctors do not think a like.
Thank you, thank you Karen. What Torch got is exactly what I want, when the time comes. Dad.
What is the opposite of the often used (overused?) word ‘gentrification’? Who lived in let’s say Echo Park before it became mostly hispanic and how did that change happen? Little Tokyo – this neighborhood was successful in getting rid of ‘the homeless’ – essentially pushing them down a few blocks, just outside of Little Tokyo. I do love Little Tokyo dearly but let’s not forget that before it was Little Tokyo it was something else! It’s about time to stop using the word ‘gentrification’ as it means nothing and is used only to further ‘agendas’.
Based on what you wrote here, it seems that you fail to understand how gentrification is indeed a very accurate word to use (it holds even if your example regarding Little Tokyo is true, which I’m not too sure of). There is a big difference when you are talking about neighborhoods like, say, Boyle Heights where Jews and some other groups had the means to move out to the suburbs for better services and better opportunities, leaving the poorer (non-gentry) to stay in that neighborhood. The point is that people with capital and income have choices and options to move from one neighborhood to another, whereas the poor and the working-class simply do not. I won’t even get into racial covenants, except to mention that historically they only allowed people of color, including people of Japanese heritage, to live in certain, limited areas.
Considering what I just wrote, whether people with means move out of the inner city (White Flight) or into the inner city, it’s really the same result: they get to choose where they ultimately want to live, whereas poorer people (usually directly linked to people of color) have no choice and they are almost always displaced — often leading them to move outside of the county or out of the state, even when they’ve been in these neighborhoods longer than anyone else.
Ahhh, that theory of course only works if one believes in ‘classes’. This one’s ‘working-class (and poor!)’, that one’s have ‘capital and means’. But that’s quite a simplified world view, isn’t it.
Very well written, objective piece. Thanks for sharing your perspective, Melanie.
my house was built 1927 I have lived here since 1984, this area is a little bit of heaven, the trees and not much traffic and close to good shopping stores here in Eagle Rock and Highland Park, this is a great place to live and work and play. To bad I had a life size mountain lion statue stolen from alongside my mail box last week, it was only there for 20 years, but this is a wonderful place, Eagle Rock…
Well written and informative. Thanks.
Objective? Hardly from someone who seems to be offended by the change she’s seeing that mirrors the change heralded by her family’s arrival decades earlier. Imagine the horror if someone had penned a piece like this when her family moved in to the neighbourhood decrying the changing landscape.
She doesn’t seem all that offended. You probably need to re-read the piece.
Seems like a pretty balanced piece. If anything, she is cautiously siding in favor of change. It’s a solid argument, that neighborhoods like Eagle Rock have always been (and are at their most vibrant when) in flux.
” The new bars and galleries that have opened on Colorado and Eagle Rock
Boulevards make walking home alone from a bus stop at night a more
comfortable experience.”
The new bars and galleries also provide jobs and tax dollars. Both of those are important to the continued growth of the community.
Great read.
Before everyone sings Kumbaya about how great gentrification is for their commu nity….
Admittedly I am not very familiar with your neighborhood, but it sounds like
you are describing an early to mid stage of the gentrification
process. That can be a sweet spot…it’s a shame we can’t arrest it
there. But what you might experience, as the property values escalate
along with rents, “the used bookstores and vintage shops” will give way
to chain stores, you’ll see more demolitions of older homes replaced by
massive big box mansions, and a noticeable decrease in economic and
racial diversity. There will be evictions of long term renters…”for
property upgrades”. This is the endgame of the process…the artists
and independent shop owners are pawns in the real estate game…leading
to an ultimate bland elitist whiteout of what was once a diverse,
culturally rich neighborhood, affordable to a range of incomes.
Great article. I was also bummed when they tore down the market on Avoca, forever turning that corner into a residential space. Almost every rental on our street has been flipped and sold and that’s going to make Eagle Rock gallery owner affordable and not janitor affordable. It’s sad because a mix of people seems healthier.
Nice article.
Los Angeles’s housing shortage and lack of a functional affordable housing policies make gentrification inevitable.
I’ve lived in Eagle Rock since the turn of the century, just around the block from the corner of Avoca and Yosemite. I’m glad Eagle Rock has avoided the type of runaway gentrification that is affecting our neighbor over the hill, Highland Park (the rampant house flipping and residential and commercial evictions in that neighborhood have been the subject of protests, graffiti, LA Times articles, and even a week-long Marketplace series) but Eagle Rock’s progress from middle class to upscale _is_ happening.
I know because my household is a part of it. My husband and I would not be able to afford our house here if we had to buy today. We love Eagle Rock, but the market right now is just too lucrative not to sell. We can use our profits to buy a smaller house in a less expensive neighborhood, thus perpetuating the cycle of gentrification in some other part of Los Angeles. It stinks, but until our municipal government institutes better policies to develop affordable housing options throughout the city, this sort of thing will happen everywhere.
“the market right now is just too lucrative not to sell. We can use our profits to buy a smaller house in a less expensive neighborhood, thus perpetuating the cycle of gentrification in some other part of Los Angeles. It stinks…” OR just stay put.
Everyone does what’s right for them. I’ve got a house that’s too big to maintain and a mortgage that eats half my take-home every month. If you had a chance to reduce or eliminate your debts, and simplify your living arrangements, wouldn’t you take it?
This is probably the most honest and fair assessment of “gentrification” that I have read so far. Without bashing or blaming anyone, Ms. Gonzalez gives us a nice nostalgic stroll down memory lane, showing how the neighborhood has evolved through the years, mostly for the better. Ever since I can remember, Eagle Rock was considered “upscale” though and not touched as much by crime as HP was then. If you lived in Eagle Rock, people thought you were rich. At least I did because that’s where our family doctor and landlord lived. Also, ER real estate has ALWAYS been expensive, even in the housing downturn. Unless you are pulling in an executive salary, or work for the DWP, I don’t see how you can afford anything half decent there, even if you are a much maligned hipsters.
EAgle Rock was not always expensive; we bought our first home, on Avoca Street, at nearly the top of the hill, in 1973 for $21,000. It was middle-class!! There was a really, really, beautiful house at the top of the hill…with a pool…that we were shocked to see on the market for…$85,000!! This was the beginning of the housing price increase…
Gilda Haas got it right by focusing on involuntary displacement and to slow that the City of LA should do a much better job of enforcing the local rent control law. My elderly neighbor who has lived in Highland Park for over 25 years is worried sick about what will happen when her building is sold at the end of the year. It was news to her that she’s probably covered by LA’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance and cannot be evicted or have her rent increased just because the building is sold. If they do want to evict her to move into her unit, then, as a low-income senior, she’s entitled to between $15,000 and $19,000 in relocation to be paid by her landlord. Too many renters don’t know their rights and either move when offered $1,000 or pay illegal rent increases. CES runs a free tenants rights clinic on Saturday mornings and Wednesday evenings at Plummer Park (http://bit.ly/1IleM7n). Help renters help themselves by spreading the word.
There is a direct correlation between gentrification and efforts to limit the size and density of projects in order to protect the character of existing neighborhoods.
Barney Frank, speaking to a crowd at City Arts and Lectures in San Francisco, recently said that “in a city like San Francisco, there cannot be affordable housing without density.” A March 17, 2015 report by the State of California Legislative Analyst’s Office, “The High Cost of Housing: Causes and Consequences,” observes that one cause of high housing costs is community resistance to density. “Because of the importance of cities and counties in determining development patterns, how local residents feel about new housing is important. When residents are concerned about new housing, they can use the community’s land use authority to slow or stop housing from being built.”
Venice is a good example of how well intentioned community activism contributes to gentrification. When I arrived in Venice 30 years ago, it was a haven for artists and creatives because it was affordable, in spite of being run down and dangerous. There has been a long and successful campaign on the part of activists in Venice to limit the density and height of housing projects, in a well intentioned but misguided attempt to preserve the character of the community. Today, the median price of a home is $1,390,300, and the median rent is $4,200 per month. The calculus is simple: in a supply and demand economy, limiting supply in a high demand environment drives prices up. Limiting density contributes to increasing property values and diminished diversity.
The character of Venice is caused by its diversity and accessibility. Affordability fosters diversity, far more profoundly than the style and size of buildings. What Venice, and other parts of the City, needs is to encourage diversity by providing more affordable housing. Increased affordability can only be achieved by encouraging significantly increased density for more affordable housing projects.
Progressive action by the City of Santa Monica is leading the way to increased affordability and accessibility, via the adoption of a new zoning code that provides these kinds of incentives. Los Angeles might take a cue and follow suit. It is far better to envision and work toward the city we want, rather than settle for the city we have.
“I went onto Amazon to see if I could buy Jake a Marta jersey, but no dice, unless of course he wants to wear a women’s fitted t-shirt.”
I think Nike should therefore be commended for making (and selling) USWNT jerseys in men’s and boy’s sizes, including the two stars above the crest.
No doubt Colin, very cool of Nike. Thanks for making that point.
Very cool.
I have to disagree somewhat. While I don’t have exact stats and am relying on what I’ve read in the past, the WNBA and other women’s sports have the same issues: that the women’s game is not good enough for sports fans them to watch. For example in the WNBA, teams average nearly as many turnovers as they do assists. The pace of women’s sports are slower and mostly less physical (excluding USA-CAN hockey). Some sports less than others but none the less they are. With the WNBA, average PPG is 70s in part because on average FG% is lower than in the men’s game. In the eyes of fans, that’s not pro quality.
Back to soccer though, the women’s game is a bit different. For starters our women’s team has stars (on our jerseys and the players). Also the gap between the women and men is not that wide and it doesn’t affect the game really (albeit a bit slower). The technical skills and consistency with those skills is higher in soccer than other sports. Its also more common to see more goals in the women’s game.
Wonderful artist!! I’m amazed at how hispanics in LA pursue their art without any encouragement or financial support. I’m Cuban-American filmmaker and I know how tough it is to work on a Zero Film Budget.
They can, they just don’t know how or lack the ability to redeem themselves if they did. That’s reality. Hide it until you know how you want to face it. #weakhumannature
I can sense that same disconnection everywhere.
It seems that you (Bhagwan) assert that checking a reputation score is cheaper than verifying a transaction. Did I interpret your paragraph correctly? I don’t follow how using a person’s reputation capital can be a cheaper alternative to transaction verification. I expect both methods would require a local device to transmit an inquiry to a remote data-processing facility, and the reputation check would have to cover the cost to manage the reputation scores of millions of people. Am I misunderstanding something?
Mark, My point is that once I have a reputation, it will be sticky for a while so that you don’t need to check for every transaction whether I will make good on my promises or not. This means that the frequency with which you need to authenticate and verify can be reduced drastically. This is similar to the Global Entry Card that I now use when I re-enter the country. I had to go through some serious verification and interviews but now immigration is a breeze.
Erin, your work is meaningful and allows people into the world of Art and Nature… It is great to see the LA river being appreciated for what it was and what it can be.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article. I have been teaching newcomer students for 12 years and cannot imagine doing anything else. I could have written this article myself yet in no way as eloquent and brilliant as this :). Thank you for taking my thoughts and all the wonderful things I always say about my amazing students and putting them down in writing for others to read. Resilience, yes that describes them to perfection.
You go Lalo! I’m a big fan of The Hour Of Power. If memory serves, it’s on at 4:30 on Friday afternoons. Check it out, you won’t be disappointed.
He is also a fun commentator on local NPR stations. His comments on the OC Sherriff’s Department this week were typically both funny and informative. AND the author of “Ask a Mexican”, AND a great columnist for the OC Weekly.
Thanks for this Zocalo. Laol is a SoCal treasure.
This takes me back to Steve Earle’s great song “Dixie”, based on the character Buster Kilrain from Jeff Schaara’s famous novel “The Killer Angels” about the civil War. Kilrain was an Irish immigrant who fought in Joshua Chamberlain’s 20th maine at the pivotal battle of Little Roundtop.
“My name’s Kilrain of the 29th Maine and I come from County Clare”
“But the Brits would hang me for a Fenian so I took my leave of there”
Interesting article, but I do think Scalia’s premise is wrong, along with just about everything else he said. California not only counts as West, it is a microcosm of the West. Just about any quality that can be said to define the West–geographically, politically, and socially–is found here and fully expressed in some region of the state.
In short, want to know what West is? You can find any of the possible answers in California.,
Oregon and Washington, west of the Cascades, aren’t the West either. But the inland parts of California, I think, are the West.
Hey Mr. Hoy,
Thank you for this post, it reminds me that I did a good thing in creating the freshmen awareness committee. This being my second week at UC Berkeley, I feel like I have already learned so much and of course I want to share a lot of advice with my Arabs. I will be writing a post soon.
Excellent concise analysis with a needed word of caution about the future status of Chinese in America
No, the purpose of hospice is to ONLY provide care for comfort and forgo all other care (including an enema). And if pain meds make you too tired, the dose can be backed down and /or meds changed.
People working in ICUs (I’m a pediatric ICU nurse) do NOT want to put you through hell. We want to go home feeling like we saved someone or at least did all we could and went down swinging. You are joking yourself if you don’t think we all go home and don’t scrutinize every detail and have nightmares about you. I sometimes can vividly remember the howling cries of families who are going through the worst days of there lives. But this article touches on the very little consideration and conversation people have regarding end of life care. Eberyone is scared because choices have to be made NOW, because things get bad, very fast. My mother and her 5 siblings did not discuss end of life with my grandmother, even though she had late stage cancer. So, when she coded from fulfillment sepsis, the oldest couldn’t make the choice and it fell on her shoulders. Now the youngest is bitter because he disagreed with the call but didn’t speak up and said the family gave up on her. Everyone prays for the miracle, but not everyone gets it. . .
Wonderful personal perspective on the role of Chinese restaurants on the history of Chinese in America
And of course you would have a special shrine to Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and Maxine Waters who said everything was okay and there was no need to look Fannie or Freddie or mortgage lending practices, wouldn’t you?
Make sure this museum includes a shrine to the wrongful foreclosures on the military members and I’m in!
Fascinating article. I’m curious, though: you say that these popular books “minister to readers; they offer practical engagement with readers’ daily lives that both more ‘literary’ books and theology seldom do.” But what about other aspects of organized religion, like clergy, or sacred writings? Don’t they “offer[] advice for living less anxiously, and point[] out how faith could guide them through uncertain terrain”? For example, through prayer, or dedicating themselves to helping others; or (the tough one) giving away everything they own?
Another point: the mystery novelist Judith Rock has a series featuring a 17th-century Jesuit in Paris. Just tonight I was reading this line of dialogue from one of her novels: “Jesuits are supposed to find God in all things, even in theology, I suppose.”
I look forward to reading your book.
No question, California has a lot going for it. But its “culture” can be explained in one word…. Narcissism (aka, “it’s all about ME!”). Which also explains all the ‘excuses’.
Love it! I would love to visit these music making sites someday and jam out with a few fellow music lovers. Big woo hoo to Music Changing Lives. Let the songs fill the air! Love and peace.
My other was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer. Before I could talk to my step dad about treatment options, she had started chemo. Her quality of life was beneath the toilet. Then at a check up they found more tumors that were operable. We said no…no more….she was incurable .I have always felt
t it was a money thing…
Thank you so much for writing this article Christopher. This article speaks so true to my own heart as well. I grew up here in the Chicago suburbs, and whenever I come home, I feel the need to go back to the malls that I used to frequent .. a form of nostalgia so to speak .. I’m close to my mid 30’s now, but it sure makes me feel like I’m 17 again ..
The nostalgia has begun to worn off a bit, since I have noticed the trend of even the most popular malls to lose it’s traffic .. but there is something a bit grandiose about it all .. a sort of suburbanite wonder .. perhaps one day these malls will be considered one of the wonders of the world ( I highly doubt it )
There is a sense of great journalism here, and I find it missing in other more popular sites I’ve frequented .. perhaps with age, comes experience and taste, and the ability to write a wonderful article on something that might seem so mundane to the masses .. please keep up with what it is that you do .. the world needs it.
What an enlightening and thoughtful piece.
In 2012, Hollywoodians Encouraging Logical Planning did the analysis of the census data which showed that not only had Hollywood lost considerable population between 2000 and 2010, but that there was no rationale basis to believe that the population would be increasing.
The impact of the falsification of population data is far worse than Mr. Mathews realizes. The false data is used to justify the Manhattanization of Hollywood and justified the diversion of $ 2 BILLLION in incremental property taxes away from infrastructure. If you want to know why Hollywood is having water mains constantly rupture, you find your answer in the people who have run Hollywood since 2000. They are the ones who made certain that the aging pipes were not replaced. They are the ones who have driven business away from Los Angeles.
The only favorable thing one can say about our political leaders is that Angelenos got what they deserved. The corruption continues and it is not going to stop and the decay will also continue.
http://bit.ly/1cPdZCR March 25, 2015, Zwartz Talk, Power Corrupts; Corruption Destroys – Power and Corruption at Los Angeles City Hall
The news recently reported I am now in the minority, by passed by Latino population. Maybe that’s just in Los Angeles? The Mayor of L. A.’s illegal, higher density Hollywood Community Plan was thrown out by a Judge based on many problems, including it was ‘growth encouraging’ not ‘growth accommodating’ and the population data was ‘fatally flawed’ and ‘wishful thinking’ another example of overblown population predictions to justify a community plan all to accommodate developers he sold Hollywood to, who help get him elected… The Judge also said the infrastructure could not withstand the density he wants.
No new plan has materialized so it’s a free for all for developers, dense overscale housing going up everywhere that sit empty, store fronts in new buildings on every street also sit empty, while water main breaks occur every other week, we are in a drought crisis, and traffic has paralyzed the whole area, crime is up, shootings are a regular occurrence, and LAPD is understaffed. None of these problems are being dealt with as massive buildings go up everywhere.His bicycle transit ‘solution’ Mobility2035Plan, closing traffic lanes for bikes will paralyze the city even more.
People are fleeing Hollywood, no one can afford all the new housing, but many still have to travel through, but now, it is nearly impossible. NYC has about fourteen subway lines . L. A. Is not even close to a public transit system that will get everyone out of cars, yet intrusive to neighborhoods, massive overscale TOD developments are going up everywhere, that public transit takers can’t afford to live in, and those that can still use cars, so they don’t work.
We are living in a mess whether population is growing or dwindling, Garcetti’s ‘plan’ is killing us.
What honor given to Mr Esteban a legacy he has left for many. Thank you for sharing. I did not get the honor of knowing him. But can see by your writing what a great Man mr. Nuño, He leaves a great example of a Godly man. My deepest condolences to the family.
Heartbreaking and necessary work. Painfully relevant to the national conversation on race and the related topics of incarceration and foster care . Thank you.
Interesting article, but doesn’t really get to any definitive answers, or you might say even to the key questions. Who influences policies there? The heirs of the UFW? Who runs city government? Is there a poor investment climate? Are there state water/environmental/building policies that discourage economic growth? What percentage of the population consists of undocumented aliens? Does the undocumented population depress wages? What policies might change these conditions?
I’m don’t have answers for these, but I think they might shed some more light on the matter.
Yea….so what?
Salinas is where workers are housed and business elite come to work or gather the workforce. Not just agriculture, banking, legal profession, accounting businesses are largely owned and operated by people who prefer to live elsewhere.They talk the talk, lesson taken from politicians, but don’t have what it takes to walk the walk.
An award here….a donation there and Salinas is all well and good. A good night’s sleep is had and the good people can sleep well. However noble the intent it does not preclude elitism and conceit.
Perhaps it is a generational issue, but I do not need tattoos to prove that I exist. I think that tattoos could be misconstrued (as gangster identification) and as they fade and the skin becomes wrinkled, they simply look bad. But this is my own decision, and I do not judge others on the basis of their skin: natural or not.
!Que bueno. Esta muy importante! I believe in you and the importance of your work. My nutritionist cousin teaches classes in Carmel. Don’t stop!
Having a hard time reconciling “Jobs… are so
plentiful that employers have been complaining of labor shortages” with “Salinas also has persistently higher unemployment than the state” Which is it? Are employers complaining because no one wants to work for sub minimum wages?
The answer to your paradox is the existence of a higher labor force participation rate.
Wonderful, Juan.
I’m a math teacher (in Salinas) but I don’t teach math. I teach children. You have to believe in yourself and we teachers need to believe in our students. Attitude is everything (both the student’s attitude and the teacher’s). Bravo Ms.Tena.
The low average age is cited, but this significant fact is not used to put the crime rate into perspective. The strongest predictor of a population’s crime rate is the number of males between the ages of 16 and 35. If that variable is controlled for, it’s not unreasonable to predict that Salinas actually has a lower crime rate than the rest of the country.
I hope toilets flourish like flowers in India.
Great story! Work hard, be successful!
The north, south, east and west parts of Salinas do indeed have very clear dividing lines. However, your Steinbeck quote seems a little wishy washy for that paragraph. Good luck in all of future endeavors!
“an auto racing track” The internationally famous motor racing course
Laguna Seca.
Agree Germany is not the villain but they and several other Eurozone nations need to take a more realistic (i.e., stimulus-based) approach. Keynes has been proven right time and again: Easier to grow than cut one’s way out of debt.
What a moving story. I’m glad you are proud of your city and your heritage, and I’m sure your parents would be too.
Where does the Southern strategy fit into this analysis?
And the Kennedys can be justifiably critiqued, but I’m unclear why being “glamorous, spoiled, and underhanded” suggests that the Kennedys also didn’t work hard or reinvent themselves.
If you want to have fun, ask someone, “What President of the United States had the most liberal and progressive social and economic legislation passed during his term?” You will be surprised how few will guess Nixon. Remember he had to work with Daniel Moynehan and a liberal Democrat majority in Congress. . . . eg. EPA creation, Clean Water Act, major extension of Civil Rights Laws and the desegregation of Southern Schools by the creation of local Citizen Councils, Title IX and other gender equality laws, major extensions of the Food Stamp (Nixon was very proud of almost eliminating hunger in America), Medicare, and Welfare programs. , , , Opening up China to world trade is a mega-event in the 21st century.
On the darker side, he killed millions Vietnamese and Cambodians through bombing campaigns and aftermath. Also, taking out Allende in Chile for the “fascist-like Pinochet” was not exactly America’s finest hour.
Funny, although he did a cover-up on the Watergate scandal, at the end of the day, he honored the court orders and surrendered the White House tapes, which caused his down fall. That’s pretty honorable.
Freedom’s all well and good, but American casual fashion has devolved into a national eyesore. Look around any airport or shopping mall.
Casual done right can look great. Instead, we tolerate adults looking like not-overly-well-mannered children.
I know — it’s been going to the dogs since the time of Homer. It’s just so … ubiquitous these days ….
Exactly. Everyone in these pictures looks “dressed up” by today’s standard.
I recently saw the film on the Richard Nixon interviews by David Frost on Netflix and it is an impressive film. I was particularly taken by the private conversations between these two men and what it revealed about Nixon’s sense of gloom, being reviled and need to fight the ‘sons of whores’. Bitter to the end.
Richard Nixon was, no doubt, patriotic in his way, but, if you read the Watergate hearings, the tapes, the memoirs of his chief of staff and other leaders, etc., he was vicious, had paranoid tendencies, was a clear racist, deeply cynical, and willing to violate the law and the Constitution in many ways to protect himself and gain political power. His Southern strategy made the GOP the party of white men and resulted in the leadership of Lincoln’s party going to the segregationist wing of what had been the southern Democratic party. Some of his national and international strategies worked but he needlessly and wrecklessly expanded the Vietnam War to other countries and he left faith in the American political system
shattered in ways that we’re still living with.
My mother was in the hospital dying of colon cancer, she was in bad shape. The doctors suspected a blockage and wanted to do that test where you drink all of that barium…really a rather horrible test and you feel bloated and awful. I asked the doctors if it came back positive, what the next step was. They told me they wouldn’t be able to do anything because she was in such bad shape. I was like why do the horrible test if you can’t do anything with the results? This seemed like such common sense to me.
I needed to read this today. Thank you.
My aunt, whom I and Hospice cared for during her final year left this world with a smile on her face in her own bedroom. She even hung in there until I got off of work to pass..with a smile on her face. She knew she was leavin and told me, she was ready. 86 yrs young. I pray I can go..the same way!!
I am 71 years old. A little surprised to be alive at this age
because my father, who was rather abusive, died of his second heart
attack at age 43. I have been fairly healthy and kept myself in
pretty good shape. I am now in a lot of pain with a hamstring, and
not dealing with it well.
I am a complete atheist. I have no
doubt that when I die, it will be as if I had never been. Total black
hole darkness. I don’t want to die. We are animals. Evolution tells
us: 1. Stay alive. 2. Pass on genes. We are different than other
animals because we are self aware of our own mortality; knowledge
that half drives us crazy as a species.
I live in a right to die state,
Washington, label is “Death with Dignity.” My doctor is
comfortable with it and has helped people die. He said to me, “Better
when doctors do it properly than if people bungle their efforts at
suicide and turn themselves into vegetables.” I’ve talked this over
with my wife and a close friend/neighbor, and informed my only child.
Everyone is different, and as much as practical, people should be
allowed to make choices. I have another neighbor (older than I am)
who had kidne failure, extensive dialysis, and eventually a
successful kidney transplant. I have no criticism of him. I will not
go through that.
Hospice is the best choice – for now. But anyone who has watched a cancer death, death that comes by inches, knows that even hospice is not enough. When it is my time, I have a right to die before I am lost to that no-mans-land where pain and air hunger and anxiety cannot be touched by medicine. Hospice advocates, well intentioned as they are, still leave too many to die terrible deaths.
My mother passed away a year ago last April after having complications during a carotid artery surgery. She threw a couple of blood clots either during or right after the procedure. I will never know if she really came out of the anesthetic enough to know what was going on. I try to keep telling myself she didn’t. I hope she didn’t. We had discussed her end of life wishes extensively. We had the paperwork signed and filed. We had more than 3 doctors saying this was a catastrophic injury to the brain. She would never walk, talk or even maybe feed herself. I was faced with the worst decision to make regarding a feeding tube and/or a ventilator. I would have to choose wither my mother lived or died. Then one of the RN’s in the ICU told me this. “You are not making this choice, your mother already did. All you are doing is making sure her wishes are fulfilled.” I know some may see this as a way of ‘getting out” of the guilt but that RN was right. My mother made these decisions a long time ago so I wouldn’t have to.
I would have one more piece of advise for everyone. If you or your loved one has a pacemaker, implanted defibrillator or anything like that. Make SURE to specify your wishes in regards to it being left on or turned off. My mother would have passed on Monday morning had her pacemaker not kept her heart pace up. It wasn’t until Tuesday night that a military RN who usually works with the VA told us, “yes, it can be turned off if we have 2 doctors who agree it is the only thing keeping her alive.” All along I had been asking the nurses, can’t we turn it off? and they would say no, we can’t. That nurse did what no one else was able to do. She got the doctors okay and the company’s rep to come and deactivate the pacemaker, my mother died within moments after. Our family had sat from 5 am Monday morning waiting because we knew it was the inevitable. My mother finally passed at 11 pm Tuesday night.
End of life conversations are not fun to have and no one really wants to think about the end of our lives but we all have to face the inevitable. My family has always done it with a bit of humor and one of my favorite quotes is “no one get’s out alive.” Have these conversations, they are hard but they also help you gain an appreciation for the people you have in your life.
The largest city in the central coast is Oxnard at 203,000 people not Salinas. Love this idea though.
Too bad Modern Gypsies isn’t available on Google Books–one year too late for the public domain, thanks to copyright extensions.
Excellent collection here. Thank you.
Build the train first.
Brilliant! Why not do it? Either before Iowa, or between it and New Hampshire. Big money for both parties and plenty of volunteers here. Have a nonpartisan sponsor vs. the state. Nothing to stop the June primary.
Still can’t help but fear of the what if’s …
You only have to go back a few years, and these were FULL. Now they are way less than half capacity. Should we have another three years of the same, we will be talking about EMPTY. WHEN should we start doing something, when there is no more water left to save??? Maybe it will rain like the dickens this winter. Maybe. However, all experts agree that will not fix our problem, which is a deficit of many TRILLION gallons. The worst possible is a wet winter, followed by complacency as the drought continues.
We need to permanently fix this problem through conservation, water recycling, and stormwater capture—which if done well, can essentially supply most of our regions needs without the imports.
I think there is promise in reclamation of gray water and storm capture system. Your’re right though. We have a tendency to leave things to the last minute which sometimes ends up costing us more than if we would have prepared over time.
Agree completely. Read Atul Gawande, Being Mortal. I have willed – no CPR, no heroic treatments, no ICU, no life support, nothing. When my time comes, I want nothing more than to meet my Maker.
lol, “communal showers”… Cute.
Nothing wrong with the contrarian or skeptical impulse, and the article is amusing, but this attitude multiplied by millions is precisely what impedes a coordinated response to a real problem. As it stands the observations are no more useful than those of the 19th century traveler who saw clouds of passenger pigeons darkening the sky and bison herds covering the plains and assumed that the “resource” would last forever.
Maybe all those single driver cars should buy a Vespa or motorcycle. Save gas cheaper insurance rates and calm traffic having less cars on the road.
Empty-nester Boomers could trade houses with urban Millennials who will need more space once they enter their peak child bearing years. Problem solved.
If Millennials had the salaries to do so and the desire to live so far from work, they would.
“it will have to become easier for cyclists and pedestrians to get to stops and stations.” Drivers, too. And SCAG should rachet down its population growth “estimates” as they are a regulatory underpinning of (over)development.
I recently experienced San Antonio on a quick trip. I didn’t even have time to see downtown. I had a very pleasant experience. My general impression is that SA is like a smaller L.A. but friendlier. Everything was spread out (I spent most of my trip in South Park, near Military and the 35 with my main business being at La Cantera), but the public transportation got me exactly where I needed to go. I really wish I had more time to explore the city.
I want to return to SA for a vacation. I would also consider relocating there. It seems like a very livable city. I’d like to know if there is much of a punk rock scene or if one has to go elsewhere.
My only negative was that I had to do a bit of walking in 100+° temperature. That was not fun.
The biggest positive was the people. En serio, my experience of the people of West Texas is that they are gracious, helpful, and friendly to strangers, and just plain good folks. I have yet to really visit DFW or anything East of the SA/Laredo corridor, not even Austin.
Hi marcoselmalo-I’m so glad you liked my hometown. Although I live in NYC now for many years, I hope one day to return to SA, my heart is hungry for it. You’re totally right that Texans are friendly and good-hearted, casual and approachable. Please do return and try to get downtown to the River Walk, which is so lovely it draws many residents and not just visitors, and the King William Historic District. If you can, rent a car and drive all over to get a bigger picture, and chat with everyone you meet. Austin is great, too, with a totally different character, and the Hill Country northwest of both cities is stunningly rugged and beautiful. So happy you visited, come again!
I really enjoyed this discussion. Great!
nice work Arismel! I am so happy to see your progress. “The gold always shines, no matter how deep it’s buried. ” That’s what I believed all the time along.
I applaud Dr Rich for recognizing that urban trauma exists then taking steps to address this issue as it relates to young African American Males. If I was an instructor of Social Work it would be required reading. This is an excellent book and sheds light on a topic that is hardly ever addressed the impact of violence on our young Black males.
Great history lesson! Thanks so much for enlightening and inspiring us. Now, can you get Congress to accept the reality of SS’s solvency, and to stop threatening an unnecessary re-structuring?
I don’t know if this message will ever get to Mr Rodriquez,but I attended a Spanish class taught by him back in the early ’60s at HP High school ..I didn’t appreciate him at the time,but he had a quality of professionalism that impressed me…He expected more from the Mexican kids than all the other students who attended his classes. He put the pressure on us to excel,and to see that there was more to our lives than just the “BLOCK’ that we lived on….THANK YOU very much sir and GOD BLESS YOU.
Great article. I have a BA in history and have been devouring history books for 50 years and I didn’t have a clue about the Townsend Clubs! Again, a great and illuminating article. Thanks.
Luis: Don’t forget the “Bethlehem 93905” you wrote way back when also. It’s all great community oriented theater which has done so much for Salinas and the Alisal. And thanks for this splendid article about you, art and the East side. Just a part of what makes Salinas a great city. I’m hoping Zocalo will publish all the articles together in a book. Keep up your great work and call me if I can help. George Niesen
I, too, miss Larsen. And, I believe his literary offspring Lisbeth, was finding her way to trusting others…just finding trustworthy others can be difficult even without such a past. I so miss that voice that vision that brilliance of character that inseminated his books with beauty, pathos, integrity, courage, and both moderate indulgence and sublimation’s authentic joys.
I have thought about this question, “what binds us?” so many times. Particularly as I would commute home from my job in DC, knowing that I was about to move away back to the “other, better, Washington.” Our country is indeed a contradiction and this is the key to our understanding so many answers to our pressing needs globally. I’ve spent four years now north of Seattle trying to answer a similar question “What does it mean to be Chinese?” I’ve found the process of discovery is more helpful than any actual answer might be.
Thanks for the rare article on an important topic.
quinn, i am very moved by your story. I would like to help you achieve your goals in some way. I too was homeless, but it took me many years to get on the path you found on your own. Im logging in on Facebook so you can message me. FIGHT ON future Trojan! contact me at: info@portraitsofthefallenmemorial.org
Thank you for taking the time to pass your story along. You are brave and Im so happy to hear that you are back in school now!
Quinn, I admire your tenacity and your openness. Thank you for sharing your story so more of us can see homeless people on the street as individuals with both histories and dreams.
Congrats, Gregory!
Well written Joe. Thank you and your wife for doing your part by having three children!
A wonderful article and a wonderful neighborhood.
Thank you. This was great!
Something I’m not clear on: will people with Mexican numbers (using TelCel for example) also be able to make domestic calls to U.S. numbers?
Here’s what I remember about Rampart in the 80s. Cruising the side streets around Pico/Hoover for Mexican Commerical (‘mersh), bargaining with the Guatemalan vendors for an extra bud it two, and Powertools, the in club back in the day. Anyone remember Powertools?
The 90s is when it got too sketchy for me. Marijuana business morphed into the crack business and the streets got a lot rougher. After a near robbery by a crackhead (he accepted a $10 donation instead if taking all our cash, godbless his poor tortured soul), we stopped trying to buy pot and only went down for Tommy’s.
Please note that the Library closing mentioned by Ms. Freeman was apparently temporary. The following is taken from the LAPL’s current list of locations of library branches:
Felipe de Neve Branch Library
2820 W. 6th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90057
(213) 384-7676
Mon: 10-8, Tue: 12-8, Wed: 10-8, Thu: 12-8, Fri: 9:30-5:30
Sat: 9:30-5:30, Sun: Closed
FYI – The LAPL is apparently renovating branches on a consistent basis. Several branches I regularly use are the equivalent of the best technologically supported libraries I use at universities in the LA area.
v
Nice piece…so great to see recollections of LA in all its complexity.
“Recent research suggests that methane leakage from shale gas fracking sites obliterates any climate advantage from the use of fracked natural gas in favor of coal.”
This statement is flat out false, and Mr. Heinberg should be ashamed to continue such lies. Literally every single study save one found that methane emissions were well below the threshold needed to be a net benefit to the environment. The only study to state otherwise, I might add, tested absolutely zero wells and relied on only their worst case estimates.
Why is this not called out?
This is 100% a product of Mexican telecom deregulation. The headline is highly deceptive in that it implies costs were high because the US telecoms wanted it that way. The high costs of calling Mexico from the US enriched Carlos Slim, NOT the US carriers. Pena Nieto has decided to go after Carlos Slim and has relaxed Slim’s telecom monopoly (for now). Prices are coming down on all telecom services in Mexico, not just calls to/from the US.
What a lovely dose of living by your own standards. I recently read Scott Timberg’s whiny article on how he can’t make it anymore as a writer in Lis Angeles; as it’s too expensive. Yet he and his wife wanted the upper-middle class life so he blamed the economic cost of LA.
Dr. Jane Long’s response to Aimee Curtright’s assertion that a large amount of water is used during fracking is notable, and unfortunately, it is not included in this article. Dr. Long’s comments begin at minute 14:33 in the video. She states that water used in California is a very, very small amount compared to what is used at the Marcellus Shale. The amount of water used in California equates to 100 families worth of water in the state every year, according to Dr. Long.
Fantastic article and very interesting. I am going to discuss with some Indian expatriates with whom I am acquainted here in Silicon Valley.
Manuel Cruz is my grandfather. Thank you for writing this piece.
I totally agree. There is no downside to this. The jetsetters can use Burbank airport.
this is my father Manuel Cruz.i am his..daughter Ruby Cruz…I have been trying to get someone to help me many of his historical murals…back UP….please message me on Facebook I go by RUBY BLUE….thank you so much for this article on my father…83 years old he still alive….I know he really appreciate what you’ve done thank you again
It would make more sense to sell the land for a large housing development, to improve the jobs-housing balance in Santa Monica and cut down on the traffic from people commuting into the area. But, of course, that will never happen because existing Santa Monica residents have strong economic incentives to keep housing in short supply and as expensive as possible.
Construction jobs are temporary. Then you’re left with increased traffic, pollution. We should learn from the mistakes made at Ballona Wetlands. Open space opportunities don’t come often, while increased building densities are already happening along Expo corridor.
Airports everywhere are surrounded by land occupied by residential and commercial interests. Only in Santa Monica are the “squeaky gates” loud enough to generate a proposal to eliminate the source of their ire.
I used to admire Michael Feinstein, when he was on the City Council. His ideas then were rational and practical, but lately he has gone over to the dark side. (He also wants to build parks on new real estate created above all of the freeways.)
First of all, the FAA is not likely to allow SM airport to close. Secondly, this whole park notion is not something the City ultimately will support – because it will NOT increase the local tax base, generating future civic income. You watch: there will be an “affordable housing” component in any plan the city puts forward. Ever-growing local government is like a shark: it must constantly move forward, adding new development tax $ – or die.
The airport should continue to provide local access to the sky and be improved to fulfill its destiny as an “air park” – with limited jet traffic. Why not make aeronautical/aerospace engineering, learning to fly and airplane mechanics a program at SMC? This useful improvement would honor the airport’s history, among other virtues.
Get rid of the AIRPORT!
In addition to the other park uses, a 9 hole par three course could be included to serve our youth and older people that need exercise. The Rancho par three course is an ideal example.
Green fees generated will overcome operating expenses to help fund other spaces that might not cover the costs of operations.
What would be the reaction if the FAA proposed turning NYC Central Park into an airport?
That’s what Santa Monica has in reverse. Once gone the airport will NEVER be missed. People will wonder what took so long?
Recently, while exploring one of those new fangled music subscription services, I listened to Cheap Trick for a couple of days, focusing on the earlier material (Heaven Tonight, In Color, Live at Budokan). And I had that realization I’ve had in previous re-encounters. Cheap Trick is TERRIBLE — TERRIBLY AWESOME! Aptly (and apparently self-consciously) named, they used every hook in the book and mined depleted veins of formulaic rock to find nuggets of pure, poppy, gum snapping gold.
Listening again, there’s nothing there, the dewy substance of a deeply felt 8th grade inner life has evaporated in the late afternoon of middle age. But it’s all there: the superficiality is the substance. Plus, they fucking rock. 🙂
This article should be standard reading for all Americans. We, unfortunately, have another longstanding American tradition that goes with accepting immigrants: xenophobia, the fear of immigrants: of their customs, languages, and dress different than ours. That is played up in the mainstream press, among many members of Congress, and affects any meaningful and truly effective immigration policy. That’s why the 1965 Immigration Act was so exemplary and forward-looking!
How about the rest of us who aren’t 1.5 – 3 million dollar home owners in Sunset Park under the flight path, each of whose real estate value will increase by probably $1 million if they convince the rest of us to close our airport?
The increase in traffic on Walgrove, Centinella, Rose, and all of our streets is what the rest of us will get from any development in the airport!
Does anyone know if Mayor Feinstein lives in Sunset Park?
Please be fair and give the rest of us a link to protect our airport!
Umm. Guys it’s a regional airport, with part of it in Los Angeles. Just becase it’s called “Santa Monica Airport” doesn’t mean it “belongs” to Santa Monica. Bradley fielld (LAX) doesn’t belong to Tom Bradley’s heirs. Santa Monica is way overeaching it’s boundries here. There are only a few small airports for the entire metro area. Lets see – how many people does that airport serve as the nearest? Everyone from Malibu to Downtown. How many million is that?
Don’t ya think that expensive Santa Monica can live with the small amount of noise? Yeah I know – it’s a small rich community by the quiet sea. They should do what they wanna do. Like, make another park in a park rich city. But it is part of a much larger place, which kinda needs the occasional airport, for those emergancies an’ stuff.
Yah, the Fourth Estate better hurry up, before the Fifth Estate (Technophiles who bury their faces in their I-Whatevers, daily, takes over…)
Congratulations. I graduated 40 years earlier with only $4000 debt and paid it off in ten years. Would have paid it off sooner but the interest was only 4%, very low at the time. I was lucky to have only minimal fees at UCLA. Students get into debt now because of excessive cost and they don’t really understand what they are doing.
You go girl!
I don’t get it. How are you teaching multiplication without some drilling? Please provide an example. I am open minded . I just don’t get what you are saying which makes math different than when I learned 60 years ago. Thanks
Jim, some of the research I find most compelling is about addition, not multiplication, but see the summary of the1994 Gray & Tall study described here: http://www.youcubed.org/fluency-without-fear/
I advocated teachers use “math talks” instead of drilling. So students would discuss the methods they arrived at, rather than just try to memorize the answers. There is *some* drilling; in particular, when I tutored 2nd graders, I did have them use flash cards to work on some simple facts, like doubles (2+2=4, 3+3=6, and so on) and the +2 sequence (3+2=5; 4+2=6; etc.), but then I wanted them to apply a smaller set of memorized facts to derive further answers. Hope that helps!
Ren!! Your passion for music inspires me. Thanks for sharing your story.
YOU are the best!
This, Gregory Rodriguez, is gorgeous!
I love this because it is so true – so important and reassuring to see in our lives.
Wow!!! No words to describe the beauty in the photo or in the words written! Love you both! So awesome that you are doing this! There is and always will be a special place in my heart for all service members and their families! May God bless them and keep them all!
Gregory, I love this piece. So poignant. Thank you for reminding us to appreciate and to be a part of life’s little, daily miracles. They are indeed what keep us going in this busy, not always kind, world.
Los Angeles universities graduate more engineers than anywhere in the world. The start up scene is the third biggest after Silicon Valley and New York, and is the fastest growing. And despite what I consider insane rents and home prices compared to Silicon Valley and San Francisco, housing costs are reasonable.
L.A. is still the place to be for those with outsized dreams.
L.A. still boasts more children living in the city than San Francisco and New York as those cities are losing its children.
Millikan’s aspirations may still define our region, but there is no one left to accomplish them on the scale he and his generation did.
http://www.laobserved.com/intell/2015/09/why_la_missed_the_new_economy.php
The earlier growth ambition always included a massive green connectivity component that lobbyists managed to kill even back in the 30’s. Thank you Chamber of Commerce. The desire for renovation comes out of the quality of design and construction of the older buildings. To return to the original concept of connected neighborhoods is not only incredibly inspiring it is absolutely brilliant. To reconnect on any level to one of the most thoughtful master plans this city has ever envisioned is beyond exciting and I’m a little baffled at this strangely negative commentary.
The goal is not to make a “smaller” LA, but to make it a connected LA; an LA that also embraces history in its vision of the future as well as its technological advances.
Pockets of small neighborhoods have not worked and neither has exploding growth. There is no balance in either of these 2 approaches. Communities are embracing the smaller “neighborhoods” BUT with the connectivity; something that does not exist except in a few areas of the city.
There is too much money in the politics surrounding LA’s planning future. When Developers “fund” and drive land use policies, there is no hope for intelligent land use. The spot zoning and poor planning allowed by the City as a result of this lobbying has created the giant mess that exists today.
It is the perseverance and drive of hundreds of land use activists that started this revolution to create a cohesive and connected City. Small sustainable communities ARE the future. Your missing component is the connectivity.
Well put.
Not downsizing, deepening.
This article’s idiosyncratic interpretation of Los Angeles’s future is flawed. The author claims that officials “have no plans to let these communities govern themselves” and then complains that we have too many city governments within L.A. County. Which is it? Too much democracy or too little?
Similarly, the article conflates pragmatism with downsizing. Maybe the previous generation dreamed too big. Ecological overshoot is a problem on global and local scales with huge implications for the economy. Beyond Growth by Herman E. Daly describes how an economy can become more productive through diversification and development, rather than through break-neck growth that destroys the productive capacities that underpin it. A sustainable economy would not be “downsized.” It would be a monumental challenge that requires innovation, grand vision and attention to detail.
The other topics mentioned (transit, education, health) are all complex and distinct issues and to lump them together and claim that the leadership vision in each of these areas is in the direction of downsizing–I don’t agree with that premise.
The Bay Area is not so different from Southern California. Segregation, income inequality, NIMBYism, traffic congestion, housing affordability, transit system fragmentation, land use planning failures on a regional scale…the list of challenges that both regions share goes on and on. These are challenges that result from a failure of leadership at a state level.
What’s remarkable is how L.A. has been able to adapt and move forward in the face of these challenges. The innovation, diversity, and optimism here are helping LA build a better future already.
Where has L.A. “[narrowed] big roads … to fit in new rail lines”? This hasn’t happened yet in my knowledge. Most L.A. rail projects have included widening big roads.
An important part of this story which is seldom discussed is the effect of consolidation on the industry. Every buyout means fresh debt, which the acquired newspaper is obligated to pay for. Staff, pages, benefits and more are sacrificed to pay for mergers and acquisitions which did nothing to improve the paper. Sure, changing times and technology have played a part, but we should not ignore the role of vulture capitalism in the demise of many great papers.
Small colonies of empires develop everywhere: urban cities, suburbs, villages, etc..this article contradictied itself, i.e., by calling the mayor nerdy-it created its own division in an article! There is no doubt in my mind in Silicon Valley there is those and those who are not part of the elite network-be real here.
I am utterly exhausted of these dated cynical minimizations of Los Angeles. This city is experiencing a meteoric rise in world status. I have lived in New York, London, and Los Angeles. LA is by far the most livable, the most accessible, and the most affordable of the three. This city is not without problems, the most pressing of which are affordable housing and homelessness but these are surmountable if control of new housing starts can be wrested from big developers and draconian building approval conventions.
Thanks for writing this. I played a tiny part in that massive 1990 undertaking. It’s nice to hear a summary of things then and now, what’s changed and what’s the same, and most of all to hear the festival remembered!
This article attempts to sell a facile thesis. If we say democracy can not be global, are we not saying all global institutions are necessarily anti-democratic. I’m not down with that!
Excellent overview. There is a new German citizen that has learned and opened up. It shows itself in so many ways, But it starts with people living together, working together and being schooled together, and knowing that strangers are needed to fuel the economy and take care of the elderly.
There is real politik in this change.
America can use some real politik as one looks at the America that has been left to rot as children leave towns and even pieces of cities. We need immigrants to populate these areas and to make their new lives with hope, hardwork…and safety.
how about U.N. stops the gun trade between the gun companies from the ” civilised ” countries and the various ” customers ” on the other side ;goverments,guerillas,rebels ..you name it..If the “enemies” stop having guns and ammunition then they will stop fighting,in a short period of time.. Consequently ,refugee problem will collapse in a jiffy since no one would like to leave his country if peace prevails..Are you still looking for the real guilty ones that are responsible for the refugee problem ?? PLEASE READ ABOVE and stop creating commitees,panels,relief programms..giving money away ,food e.t.c. STOP THE GUN TRADE COMPLETELY ,that is the solution
There is an unknown woman who ran a now closed cafe in Palo Alto whose few words to me once meant so much that when others ask for my help, and I am tired, not interested, or worn out, I think of her and the magic of her few words. When I remember the light she brought to a very dark time it shines again and I take the time and energy to give a response. Her light shines on like ripples in a pond. What a powerful woman she was and so many others like her never write self help books or become gurus to CEOs but change the world, one caring moment at a time.
I moved to San Diego in November, 2014 from Knoxville, TN. It’s really a culture shock and a significant sticker shock everywhere I turn. The property taxes are assessed only on sale? So if a person purchases a home and lives in it many, many years, he isn’t really paying his fair share of taxes…properties are taxes according to sales prices, so new owners are paying their share plus that of long term residents. That doesn’t seem fair to me.
I am amazed at the grocery stores: small ones on every other corner, but no big major stores, like Kroger or Ingles superstores. Consequently, I visit 4 different stores a week to collect all the things I want (and ORDER the rest).
When I first moved here I was given a ticket for parking at Walmart in a handicap spot, with my handicap “swinger” clearly visible on the rear view mirror. I went immediately to the office in charge and complained. It took over 2 months, but the ticket was dismissed. It was for $397!
And the gas prices? I understand that CA has to reduce pollution…the traffic is daunting here, but I also understand that CA gas additives include a water infusion? So I’m paying more for gas that gets less MPG because it’s partially water…is that possibly true?
I agree with your article, Mr. Mathews. I think the citizens of this state are being badly treated by a lot of different entities.
Finally, a heartwarming story from Hungary! These days listening to the news here in the US, being from Hungary feels like an embarrassment. It’s wonderful to know that ordinary Hungarians rise above what is aptly described as “state-sponsored inhumanity.” Thank you so much for being a force for positive change in the world – and for sharing your experience!
I’m a third grade teacher in Anaheim and we are studying the Tongva. Great article!
Wow! I read this whole article and didn’t realize I knew who the badass teacher was?! KUDOS to exemplary, culturally-competent teacher extraordinaire, Kỳ-Phong Paul Trần! KUDOS and standing O to you, sư-phụ! Keep up the great, important work. And when and if Yamilex is serious about medical school, send her my way… 🙂 I will pick up your baton and introduce her to some other badass ethnic physician leader-mentors at the Network of Ethnic Physician Organization (NEPO) and NCAPIP (National Council of Asian Pacific Islander Physicians)!
To our (future generations of ethnic communities’) Health, friend!
Sincerely,
La http://www.OCVietAmMD.com
I apologize for offending you. If in the future you decide you are interested in clarifying and discussing the point about why teachers who look like (in addition to having similar experiences to) their students are especially effective or engaging, I still would welcome a discussion in any venue you feel is appropriate, online or offline. The question of how best to engage minority and low-SES students is incredibly important and alive in our field, and I appreciate your contributions to the scholarly debate.
Great piece Oscar. Being from New Orleans life is like the haunted mansion, everything haunts us.
Wow. This morning’s column that found in the Sacramento Bee (the real paper version) got me up from the breakfast table and to the glow of my brightly lit computer desk. You knocked this one out of the park, Mr. Mathews. Thank you.
Hi Oscar,
Thank you for sharing your story.
Never dismiss, that “something” was seen at the house in La Puente. “Ethnic” American families experience much of our connected folklore; unlike our traditional American families who dismiss it.
Lisa
Oscar,
Apparently, your mother is not alive to ask her questions regarding her experience. My bet is there is a rational explanation for her story, and could be fleshed out if the facts were closely reviewed. My sister and I saw a ghost when we were very young( I was under 5 yrs old) and held our story as true for many years. I was convinced we were visited by La Llorona, as our experience matches that tale . I will tell you the story one day. What year do you estimate this event happened? Boo! Jim
Hi Oscar,
These types of stories are common with my family too. Was your mom and her aunt close? Do you think your mom may have been a bit sad that they sent her aunt away? It’s probably a strange feeling to want and not want someone you love to go away when they’re a spirit.
Just a thought.
I’m just not sure how you get “he hates me” from “Thank you for the invitation to catch up, however I must very respectfully decline.” You want to see him; he doesn’t want to see you – that’s about all we can get from this exchange. I don’t hate any of my ex-boyfriends; I also have no desire to see them, even in passing, much less across a dining table. I, respectfully, suggest to you: indifference isn’t hate.
Great information and history on the politics of Taiwan. Thank you.
Marjorie Podraza Stiegler, thank you for this article. The “second victim” syndrome is, of course, in line with other post traumatic responses and I think that in addition to providing support after the trauma, we need to take a proactive approach. As a trainer and executive coach, I have worked with over 500 physicians. It is my perspective that many physicians and other healthcare providers could be even better supported with emotional intelligence (EQ) training in order to identify their ability to be empathetic in the interpersonal realm and learn how to improve in that realm.
Having or developing a high score on the empathy scale of the EQ-i 2.0 assessment has been shown to be a key factor in determining success on the job. Many think that empathy is a “soft skill” that just means, being polite, having sympathy or agreeing with another person. And those misconceptions distort the importance that emotions play in our everyday lives. Empathy means having the ability to identify, understand, appreciate and respond to the emotions of others.
In a study focused on post- traumatic growth after 9/11, a correlation was found between EQ-i interpersonal (including empathy) and intrapersonal realms and an individual’s ability be resilient. One can only speculate how EQ testing and coaching could support doctors and other healthcare professions that have to cope with crisis, death, and trauma on a regular basis. And let’s not forget another “second victim,” law enforcement professionals but that’s another monumental “soldier on” mentality.
Oscar, you know what it means. Science has nothing to say on this subject, but scientism–its ideological deformation–has cowed you. Go with your instincts, my friend. Many have had this or similar experiences dismissed as “anecdotal” and therefore unworthy of consideration.
Only partially agree with Edward Soja. Although Los Angeles didn’t experience the traditional growth of its eastern counterparts, the laws of urban economics are still at play. Agglomeration economies in Southern California are in continuous tug-of-war and just because we are polycentric doesn’t mean that the vey idea of centrality has been reduced to the lowest common denominator. Rising density, worsening traffic, shifting demographics, NIMBYs, and foreign capital are changing the landscape where the non-traditional rules of growth for Los Angeles are being challenged. In Los Angeles efficiencies of scale, maximum utilization of transit nodes, and the economic benefits of high aggregate densities continue to pull in the traditional urban frameworks seen in many older eastern city infrastructures.
Excelent analysis of two countries I have studied/ taught about like Mexico, where I was born, or that I studied, visited decades ago and recently, China! Thanks Mr. Guajardo for your unique analysis and foresight!
Interesting observation!
The risk as outlined in the article indeed exists, viewing from the similarities in of Mexico and that of China
But one should also put forward the differences of the two countries – from cultural to historical to the very structure of the respective societies
Before the emergence of the CCP, China had had many many episodes of governance rot and the ensuing revolution / war / mayhem, which sometimes even resulted in the overthrowing of a dynasty to be replaced by another
In other words, the Chinese people are experienced in such events – not saying that they can successfully handle the situation (else there wouldn’t be so many changes in dynasty in the past), but their experiences do count!
Mr. Guajardo, how does Mexico find its way? Does the social or political will exist?
Very interesting comparison indeed, I feel like something as big as China has been overlooked though. Mexico never achieved to be a technological or industrial superpower, China also started with maquiladoras but went on to having its own big factories and well-respected brands.
Mexico grew in disenchatment after the people found out PRI was just a power-retaining structure supported by oil profits. People in China have a lot more good reasons to hesitate when it comes to toppling the Communist Party.
What a great piece. Enjoyed it.
John, thank you for your well-written explanation of a topic I essentially knew nothing about. The interplay between science, art, and economics is fascinating. In addition to the influence of chemistry and optics on artwork, the article piqued my curiosity on how wealth affects perceptions of what is considered fine art.
Agreed. But not a cent more should to be spent on HSR, not until L.A. gets a subway constructed ALL THE WAY TO DOWNTOWN SANTA MONICA.
The Expo Line will be arriving soon enough. Subway construction isn’t cheap. And the NIMBYs of Beverly Hills and West LA are just as bad as the NIMBYs of Palo Alto and the Central Valley who are slowing down (but not stopping) HSR. So why focus solely on the subway?
I still have many of my Golden Books and I am 64
We have built our state around the automobile. Trains can work much better than what we have now, but they alone are not enough. The car based cities and trains are square pegs and round holes. If we want our state to work better, not only do we need high speed trains, but we need transit nets around every station to distribute people out into the communities – AND we need to stop limping along with the cities we have, and start building the cities we need.
This city needs more people like you Gerhard, thankfully, our numbers continue to grow and our city will continue to improve.
I live in Brasil but grew up in the US from 1968 to 1978 and I read alot of these Golden Books. Thank you for bringing back the memories.
Loved your story Billie! More and more mature folks seem to be following their passions – however “crazy” others might deem it. May you and your friends keep living your version of the good life!
California’s high speed train will, likely, never be completed. It is the wrong solution at the wrong time and in the wrong place.
California families want convenience and trains are the anti-thesis of that. Instead public investments should be focused on making individually owned, much-lower-polluting passenger vehicles affordable and popular. Small plug in hybrids can achieve well over 100 miles per gallon. They offer the flexibility of long range and the clean energy of running primarily on electric power. By installing solar powered charging stations throughout the state, tax benefits and lower vehicle registration fees, Californians could be saving on fuel costs, and breathing cleaner air. Such programs could be rampted up to benefit citizens in just a year or two.
Unfortunately, the California Legislature is corrupt and big unions, contractors, and investors can make MUCH more money on large transit projects so we’re likely to be flushing money down special interest wallets for quite awhile to come rather than finding easy solutions.
That was roughly the area I grew up in – but living at 3rd & Westmoreland, I felt I was part of the Wilshire District in the 1960’s. I did, though, learn to swim in the pool at the Townhouse in the 1950’s when I was barely able to walk and when I was in the 4th grade my parents were able to sign me up for an adult library card at the Felipe de Nueve Library back when the park had a pond behind the library with dragon flies and water striders and Lafayette Park Place and Shatto Park Place were still lined with mansions
And when we moved in 1966 (due to schools), there was still no place between there and Downtown where I felt the slightest bit unsafe. And I think our front door was still always unlocked during the day as was typical of much of LA
That was not many years before your husband moved there. Two of the reasons I felt the area declined so fast was the loss of the single family home neighborhoods which provided a community with a long term commitment to the area (my father was honorary of Westlake and coached local basketball teams and my mother was very involved with the local public schools and local charities) and the collapse of the schools in the area once the middle class was forced out.
But I think the area will gradually come back and I now have several friends in the arts who have recently have moved into that area.
Hi Hannah!
We are cousins! My Great Grandfather was Benjamin Schuster, son of Phillip of Lüdge. And from your story I now know how my GG Grandfather passed. Please contact me.
Joni Schuster Trout
Jonitrout@hotmail.com
Mesa, AZ
http://person.ancestry.com/tree/41396322/person/19900705862/facts
I look forward to the next installment in this gripping and powerful story.
Part Two: https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2015/11/09/i-never-dreamed-i-would-end-up-homeless/ideas/nexus/
Part Three: https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2015/11/09/gaining-ground-in-the-battle-with-my-memories-of-vietnam/ideas/nexus/
Metropolitan area light rail can be considered ‘anti-commute’ systems. Bay Area BART can be considered light rail and its status as a ‘commute’ system reconsidered. Commute systems create more demand for commuting than they can handle overwhelmed during rush hours and underutilized in the reverse-commute direction and off-rush hours. Commute systems meant to reduce rush hour traffic typically increase traffic at all hours and in all directions. In order to fill seats at all times, mixed-use transit-oriented development of light rail stations attracts regional riders and reduces the need for station area residents to commute cross-county and give them more time to ride off-rush hours to more destinations nearer their communities. Regional development seen according to this perspective is way way way way waaaay off the charts.
Brought tears to my eyes!!
This article makes a lot of great points. If this thing ends up costing more or takes more time its because people keep throwing a wrench in the gears. We need to stop seeing each form of transportation as competing and create a seamless system whose goal is to move people and goods as quickly, safely and efficiently as possible taking into consideration the environment.
Hey, Joe (and many others),
That was/is just the tip of a VERY BIG iceberg. The new ELA/ELD Framework for English teachers (and others?) is 1073 pages in length, some 3 and 1/4 inches high and weighing some 5 lbs in hard copy (which the DOE will not be producing).
Very interesting! I’ve been within a few miles many times, but did not know it was even there. I’ll make a point of stopping, the next time I’m in the area. It must be a struggle, trying to find solutions with few resources. Thanks for writing this, and the best of luck to you and your residents!
This is all very interesting and we need to spread that message to as many as possible. I have an article about a energy safe building that was built about 9 or 10 years ago at UC Santa Barbara. Its defined by its impact on the environment which might be close to zero – nada. Even the toilets are environmentally correct. Anything is possible and it takes each of us to step up and do the job, in our neighborhoods, our communities and also let our friends know that getting out of your car can make a huge difference. I have a monthly pass and take Metrolink. the rails, the bus and/or my bike and I am old. No excuses.
Lisa Margonelli is absolutely correct when she says: Californians just aren’t that into oil.
So true! Most of the millennials I know want to live sans automobile.
Lisa is slightly off-base, however, when she asserts that moderate Democrats “must depend heavily on corporations for campaign contributions.” More precisely, the facts reveal that big oil and big pharma FIND and FUND these so-called moderate Democrats.
Our state’s recent experiment in having “nonpartisan blanket primaries” usually results in Democrat running against Democrat. Into this breach comes pharmaceutical and oil companies — they toss money at the more conservative of the two Democrats. When these guys get elected, often in tight races, they then align with their corporate benefactors.
When California returns to a true party system, these moderate Democrats will vanish like morning dew on summer’s day.
Consider the front page news in the Chronicle today – Gov. Jerry Brown, who has lead the fight to reduce oil consumption 50 percent in 15 years, appears to have received special consideration by the Conservation Dept. in his request to have his Colusa County property evaluated for oil resources.
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Want-oil-field-data-from-the-state-It-helps-to-6626075.php
Lisa omitted that gas consumption has been on the rise for a year now – no doubt in part due to low gas prices causing people to drive more and buy more SUVs and pickups.
http://www.planetizen.com/node/72634
I think Californians want the oil without the oil spills. We want low oil prices, like other states, so much so that the legislature is even unable to increase gas taxes – once the highest in the country – now 4 other states, two of which have recently increased taxes, are higher.
http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_29098548/nov-11-readers-letters
This article calling for taxpayer export subsidies to replace the Ex-Im Bank asserts that “more than 75,000 California companies export.” Okay, so how many of those companies used the Ex-Im Bank subsidy in the last fiscal year — while it was still in operation?
Moreover, how did the companies that did NOT use the Ex-Im Bank services export their products without that subsidy?
From the Ex-Im Bank propaganda website, I find this claim: “In FY 2014, nearly 90 percent of EXIM Bank’s transactions—more than 3,340—directly supported American small businesses.”
http://www.exim.gov/about/facts-about-ex-im-bank
Note that this is the NATIONAL figure. California constitutes about 12% of the nation’s GDP (rough figure), so logically about 400 CA small businesses used the Ex-Im bank last year — maybe 440 total businesses. That’s 440 businesses out of the SEVENTY-FIVE THOUSAND CALIFORNIA exporters. That comes to 0.59% — significanlty less than ONE PERCENT.
The other 99.4% of the companies exported without an Ex-Im Bank subsidy. The other 0.6% can figure out how to do likewise.
Amazing write up. Most people would just send their photos to buzzed for a “13 photos of” Slam dunk. I can’t decide which are more beautiful. The photos or the words.
(I just posted the following over at CityWatchLA:)
Lisa, good article. Thanks for the history of the movement, and the
summary of the “state of the State” on on the issue. Here’s a related
topic I’d like to see an article on: I have the impression that among
the generation just entering adulthood, and the one behind it, many are
abandoning consumerism. If that’s true, it will have a considerable
impact on the economy and society.
Look to Reno, Nevada…..they turned a blighted red light district into an “artzone”….. It has worked and that art district area is thriving….
Great piece. I moved away before the new span opened, and you really captured the sense of loss I feel about this change to the skyline. In a lot of ways, the Eastern Span represents the blue collar, working class Oakland that I fell in love with. It’s sad to see it go.
Great writing, but I think it’s worth pointing out that publicizing your adventures and posting photos online is counterproductive. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to explore something interesting, only to find that in the wake of urban explorer bloggers getting caught there or splashing photos all over social media, the security is tighter, doors have been welded shut or razor wire has been put up. In your zeal to share “the shot”, you contribute to making the world less explorable, less interesting and less fun, for yourself and others.
Great piece. I know before 7/7 in the UK, no one thought terrorists would attack a professional sports stadium. And yet two of the 7/7 bombers Shehzad Tanweer and Hasib Hussain were weekend cricketers/athletes. The attempt in Paris is another example of the weakness and desperation of ISIS to draw the West onto the battlefield.
Interesting article. However, I have an issue about the title. Actually, there is a Chinese word for “gluttony.”
Excellent: a topical and informative essay. Thank you!
Beautiful essay Sara! Life without special meals with friends & family wouldn’t be worth much. Enjoyment of such simple pleasures nourishes us in many ways.
“Predictably that debate quickly evolved into one over race and ethnicity.”
“It wasn’t until I learned that Nohemi Gonzalez, a 23-year-old Mexican-American from Southern California, had been killed in the attack that news of the massacre struck me on a more personal level.”
I agree with just about everything you mentioned (including the “sloppy debate”) but I would add one aspect not mentioned – media coverage. We tend to over-emphasize what we see more, or more often, and what happens to us. This is an emotional response – as are all other reactions you describe – and we fail to analyze/view the situation from a rational perspective. While the news of a Mexican-American student from LA area “brings the news home,” it shouldn’t distort our empathy (or fear, as you describe it), nor should we feel we were “closer” to the event or death itself. I’ve heard people view such events and say “it could have happened to anyone” (particularly when people look the same), but I have to remind them that we are more likely to die from more mundane things like transporation accident or a heart attack than a “terrorist” attack. [The fact that something is a possibility says nothing about the probability. If you buy a lotto ticket, there is a possibility that you might win, but you shouldn’t re-arrange your life because that possibility is so small.]
The “sloppy” debate has some validaty, however, and it’s real because we don’t pay attention to other people. If we don’t know about other people we can’t have sympathy, and if we see other people as “other,” then we don’t empathize either. Recall the gang shootings in South Central that no one cared about until someone was killed in Westwood?
I would encourage everyone to get to know “the other” – The Syrian, the Palestinian, the Salvadorean, the Haitian, not just just the person that looks like us, and definitely not just the person that we see on network news. People should also think rationally about such events, and _NOT_ act out of fear. Fear makes people succeptible to manipulation and decisions that are self-destructive… how many wars are we fighting?
Being an alum I appreciate your article. For years I thought the fortunes of the business community rose and fell weekly with the success or failure of the football team. Now I
enjoy relating to USC in participating in various events and helping when I can. I have met and work with some Professors as they interact with the Community. A few years ago a JPL scientist and myself offered up an opportunity for USC to take over the operation of the WISE
space telescope! It didn’t happen but at least it was considered. The LUSK real estate institute is also a real asset and is a great disseminator of experience and leadership. Fight On!
What about the popular daily radio debates between Pat Buchanan and Tom Braden?
very interesting perspective! I remember watching, but had no idea of the significance.
Joe, I agree. We need to invest in people.
Thank you for this fascinating piece! It called to mind the popularity and impact of images like Korda’s iconic Che Guevara pic. The point about the pro-slavery forces’ fear of the impact of images is really revealing today in the case of police brutality or in previous atrocities such as the US torture at Abu Ghraib, and the accompanying efforts by powers that be to keep such images from the public gaze.
Good point.
The impact of image has changed the words and world. Not necessarily in that order.
Thank you–I rarely send Christmas cards because most are trite and those few that come closer to promise of Christmas might not be well received—thank you for expressing the richness of Christmas.
Meanwhile, the Democrats in our Congress are encouraging the NOAA Director to hold firm and continue to withhold NOAA scientists’ data from our Congress. Congress needs to counter NOAA’s very unscientific method reaction to its request by withholding funding from NOAA until NOAA provides the reuested funding.
Alex – I have a slightly different perspective to offer. I happen to agree with Gore’s dictum. We do have all of the basic technology that we need. It’s a good thing that’s true because we are unlikely to discover any previously undiscovered chemical combination that will make fundamentally better batteries or a way to make the sun shine more than 12 hours per day, or a way to overcome the effects of widespread high pressure areas on wind generation.
Even thought he didn’t talk much about it, Gore always knew that nuclear energy worked and was one of the available options. He’s known that since he was a young child; his father once proposed legislation that would have had the federal government build and operate 8 large nuclear plants because the private sector was moving too slowly – in his opinion – in efforts to take advantage of the peaceful applications of nuclear energy.
In January of 1990, I started taking courses in alternative energy from one of the world’s leading experts – Dr. Chih Wu who was a co-author on the book about ocean thermal energy conversion. Just before starting those courses, I had completed a 40 month assignment as the engineer officer on a nuclear submarine.
After three semesters of study, homework, and project development, I had learned enough about the limitations of all available fossil fuel alternatives to recognize they were incapable of replacing more than a small portion of those vital energy sources.
However, with the help of Dr. Wu, Dr. Mark Harper, and a few Navy friends, I had developed a concept that would combine the low fuel cost and emission free nature of nuclear energy with the low cost machinery of combustion gas turbines. Dr. Wu and I published a paper on nuclear gas turbines and I published an article in the Naval Institute Press Proceedings.
There are plenty of other conceptual ways to use atomic fission. The primary ingredient in enabling rapid innovation in the field is to slightly alter the way that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission sees its mission.
If it was tasked with enabling safe nuclear concepts to be built and deployed, I am sure that it could devise a far more cost and schedule effective way to review and license designs.
As it stands today, the NRC is official agnostic about nuclear energy. Its commissioners are politically appointed, often have little technical expertise, and sometimes have a mandate from their patrons to slow or halt nuclear energy development.
If that changes, nuclear fission energy could quickly capture a growing share of the world’s energy markets from fossil fuels. The rising energy supply will drive fossil fuel prices even lower than they are today and will discourage new source development, especially in remote and environmentally sensitive areas.
Low prices will convince fossil fuel suppliers to leave their fuel in the ground.
You are very well written. Thanks for sharing! As a lover of Redlands, my question is (no sarcasm) what vision do you see possible for the region of SB? It sounds like you believe that if we stood together in prayer and petition, something would change. What is your vision and your highest hope for SB? Again, I’m not being snarky, I am honestly interested in hearing more.
I think Olmsted’s values are alive and well-transposed at a hyper-urban
scale. On a recent trip to Manhattan, I walked the High Line, a 1.2 mile
elevated urban park that winds through the lower West side, threading
the area’s fascinating, gritty past with the sophisticated, precious
fabric of contemporary New York City, a blend of treasured old and bold
new design. The park is a highly focused jewel of contemporary urban
landscape values, meticulously detailed, planted and furnished for a
delightful walk and surprising ‘theatrical’ moments. The High Line’s
existence is due to successive coalitions of powerful, wealthy
civic-minded New Yorkers (notably not Rudy Giuliani) who, with the
Landscape Architect James Corner, designed and developed the unique
space over years and immense financial and legislative hurdles. The High
Line is a distinctive asset not only to the city but to over four
million visitors a year who find pleasure in experiencing the
diversity and possibility of a park in a new model for the ‘greening’ of
an urban environment re-imagined from an industrial relic.
I had imagined that Houston didn’t become a destination for New Orleansians until after Katrina. I assume that this was more generalized than the makeup of the earlier migrations.
Houston was a home for many Sw Louisiana people. Alexandria, Opelousas, Lake Charles, Eunice etc. The average Black from Texas has a Louisiana background or Mississippi.
Fix our infrastructure issues and reform welfare first.
Good list! I think I should read something from it these days.
Thank you for the beautiful articles.
The core of the problem is not the failure to update community plans, but the City’s refusal to follow the law. Judge Goodman rejected the Hollywood Community Plan Update in 2014 because it was based in fatally flawed data and wishful thinking. This is basically what the City Attorney had told Garcetti in early 2012 and that the Hywd Com Plan Update could not survive a legal challenge.
The only way to justify the developers’ demands is to use fatally flawed data and wishful thinking, which is why there has been no new Hywd Com Plan Update in two years.
The City habitually ignores the law. It’s Mobility Plan 2035 I had to be rescinded because the city refused to follow the law for adopting amendments to the General Plan. In rescinding MP 2035 I and in adopting MP 2035 II, the City violated the law on how to amend the General Plan and the City was again sued. The City now preparing to create a huge legal nightmare by adding more amendments to MP 2035 II, but that Plan is not legal and the courts will have to reject it and then the amendments to it will likewise fail.
The basic problem is lack of honest and a void of integrity. The major and the city council want what the developers tell them they want and then they believe that ancient pharaoh, they believe “so let it be written, so let it be done.” Ramses found out the hard way that his word and reality did not coincide. The mayor and the LA city council, however, are slow learners.
Can the submission be simultaneous?
Yes, the submissions can be simultaneous, but if you win the prize (or if we’d like to publish it later), you will have to withdraw your submission elsewhere.
What an incredible story. You write with so much emotion. I could never ever see, feel or smell what you have sensed, but I can certainly picture it with your words. It brings tears to my eyes reading what you’ve gone through.
May I send in more than 1 submission of three poems; in other words 2 sets of submissions?
Just one set of 3 poems from each poet, please.
This beautifully written article moved me to tears. Thank you for sharing your story, Dragana.
This is very cool and inspiring too.
It breaks my heart that you have lived such anguish, and that this nightmare is being relived over and over again by millions all over the world. Proud of you for pushing past the pain and exposing the raw truth of being a refugee: being uprooted and needing to fling yourself at world, with the desperate hope that someone, some place out there will catch you.
This is a very moving story: Thank you for sharing it. I posted a link on Twitter @josiegz.
Beautiful story Dragana. You’re right. The war in the Balkans were a precursor to Syria.
Hvala Dragana- dijelimo dosta istog sjecanja. Ako si kada u Chicagu javi se za kafu: sandavujnic@gmail.com
My heart goes out to you and all my Bosnian friends. What you guys went through is beyond horrific. I am happy to have you guys in the US, but am at the same time saddened about how you came here.
Suze mi liju niz lice..ja sam isto bila mala djevojcica za vrijeme rata. Roditelji isto tako iz mijesanog braka. Hvala sto si ovo napisala <3
Twice born movie reflects a part of this beautiful and painful truth which is happening over and over around the world.
Such a sad, yet, beautiful story. Thank you.
Okay, so if I enter, you can still publish and distribute my poem for media and publicity purposes? Or is that just for the winner? Not clear and I don’t like giving away rights if I lose. Thanks.
If you win, we publish your poem on Zocalo and publicize it. If you are not the winner, but we like the poem, our poetry editor may contact you about publishing it on Zocalo at another time. We publish new poems on Fridays.
American citizens and U.S. residents are eligible.
True, just so true. And my story is like yours – to the letter! Except that I am in the UK. What I learnt most of all is to remember those who helped me and also to not be bitter because if you remain bitter you lose not only your past but also your future. Watching Syrians now and what they are going through…honestly, it’s so personal and painful. I wish you all the best in your UN and other missions. Be proud.
I appreciate this forum… I emailed one poem yesterday. I came across another one that I had written with this theme in mind some time ago. May I send another email with this one poem attached, or do I need to withdraw the poem I entered, and re-enter this contest now with both poems attached to one email…? Thank you for your time….
You may enter three poems total. So if you’ve only entered one so far, you can send another email adding your new poem.
You can publish your poem later — just acknowledge that it was first published in Zocalo Public Square.
Thank you Kathy! The experiences and the beauty created then are only relived/revealed through people like yourself, since monuments are rare!
Thank you, Kathy, for taking me down ‘Memory Lane’! I remember in the 50’s and 60’s, (I was a child then) riding down Baseline Road…which then was a way to by-pass the city of Phoenix. We lived in Tucson then. In the 90’s, my husband and I moved to Chandler and then to Surprise. I always found a peaceful feeling those times when the fields were in bloom. Then in the early 2000’s we’d see the fields of flowers between Surprise and the I-10 on our way to work. Everything now is housing and shopping. I guess that’s why we live in Kansas now. Our little 5 acres in the middle of nowhere gives me those same feelings that I so loved in the good ol’ days! Blessings!
One reason for a lack of enthusiasm for a local who is second in command at LAUSD may be that the administration there is broken and she was among those who presided over it. She bears responsibility for tolerating the teacher sex scandals, the cost overruns in school construction, the terrible conditions in inner city schools, the poor performance and doctoring of graduation statistics, etc. It is not surprising that outsiders want a fresh face at the helm. But an insider has the advantage of being able to work with and beholden to the unions.
Vitality lives on the edges, on the fringes, which then become the center 🙂 What a refreshing perspective!
Really enjoyed reading this perceptive and well-written essay based on transnational and cross cultural comparisons.
Good article.
I, for one, am looking forward to having an educator in charge rather than political animals.
Sounds like Michelle King may be the person who can lead the LAUSD to make concrete steps on improving public education starting by getting the for-profit charters OUT and changing the curricula to emphasize how to learn and the enjoyment of learning instead of regurgitating facts.
We are no longer an assembly-line economy and we are losing companies and jobs because our students and our schools are failing the City’s needs.
And its children. With more than a quarter of our kids living in poverty where caregivers have to work too many jobs to provide the home support needed for students to excel, with too many of them without a stable living space, without two parents and without the additional support needed to succeed, the LAUSD’s mandate needs to be one of caring, not partisan politics.
Can Michelle King make that difference?
There is a housing shortage in California or rather a shortage of affordable housing. It is about supply and demand. Builders only build if they can net a profit. California has taken some excellent actions such as statewide uniform building codes. Subsidizing the cost of building is not a good practice. I have observed both local non-profits and the USDA and their housing projects are wasteful. Your observation on CEQA is on-point, but we need the Act. We just need CEQA to recognize the realities of home building where time is money CEQA is time consuming, it creates a ready market for attorneys to make some big bucks, and it allows NIMBYs to oppose anything. Just witness the time it takes to get a new big box build. Add to that the declaration from the U.S. Corp of Engineers that anything with water and green plants is a regulated water. Months are wasted by developers and Cities waiting for an answer from the Corp. Add to that the State Fish and Wildlife which charges large fees for looking at projects. Then the regional historical preservation office at the University reviews projects for protection of historical sites. One project was delayed because open land that had been dry farmed for generations might contain some historical ruins from early non-native settlers. An entire downtown streetscape project was forced to stay 6 inches away from the old twentieth century downtown buildings by leaving the first 6 inches of abutting old sidewalk in place.
Proposition 13 is not the problem I recall a serious economic study done at least 10 years prior to the passage of Prop. 13 that showed the residential development did not pay for itself. The funds need to pay for the services delivery of local services cane from sales tax. That along with new retail jobs has always been the reason for favoring retail In the 1950’s and 60’s cities competed for new retail businesses. In the case of Montclair and Pomona, they fought over a share of sales tax when it was found that the city and county line went though the major tenant of shopping center. The settlement provided that all cash registers on the Montclair side of the building would be credited to Montclair. In the 1960’s Covina and West Covina battled for new commercial as did La Habra, Fullerton and La Mirada. I have more examples. Prop. 13 made it possible for older moderate income residents to keep their homes. I have one friend here who bought their present home in the 1950’s. They pay less than $200 per year in property taxes. The awful alternative can be learned from real estate professionals who lived through the inflationary time of the 60’s and 70’s. I doubt that moderate income seniors in Orange County could even afford to keep their homes. Caution, the real campaign against Prop 13 comes from the public employee unions
Agree. Also, local governments can’t just ignore residential developments because of lower tax revenues. Cities are also mandated by the State to provide the zoning capacity to accommodate future housing needs through their Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) compliance. It’s a part of every city’s Housing Element within the General Plan (with the exception of the unincorporated cities).
Innovation is sometimes hard earned….this architect operating in NOLA is cutting edge with locating buildable lots that don’t fit the cookie cutter mold here in CA…http://www.fastcodesign.com/3055568/a-bold-experiment-in-building-homes-the-middle-class-can-afford?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=codesign-daily&position=4&partner=newsletter&campaign_date=01222016#10
In 1948, the complaint was that he looked like the man on the wedding cake.
Depressing to read that “With the gridlock of the Sao Paulo region—which makes L.A.’s freeways at rush hour look like a carousel ride—a simple 10-mile ride takes an hour and a half, each way.”
That travel time is substantially slower than bicycle speed. I realize that cycling in Sao Paulo is dangerous and sweaty, but tens of thousands of cars idling along barely above walking speed cries out for a better solution, both in the suburbs and in the city core. Hopefully Sao Paulo and the suburbs can find better transportation solutions than the gridlock that is the inevitable result of space-inefficient car-based transportation.
I think this is the first radio piece I’ve heard that actually gets at the root of the housing crisis. Affordability, and how we work our way out of it. Unfortunately subsidies and low income housing are band aids to the real problem, which requires us to look into ourselves for answers and accept communal change. This is a simple supply demand problem. We have chosen as a society to limit supply of housing because we like our mandated free parking allotments, minimum lot size, residential setback requirements and dysfunctional housing code.
If you have ever tried to pass something through Building Safety and Planning, you quickly realize all answers lead to NO usually because of conflicting requirements between departments that do not talk to each other and offer no reconciliation process between their conflicting requirements. There is also no push back from Civic leaders for the department to give a NO…unless you are a big developer, which is why we hate developers, because only big money can circumvent the bureaucracy by appealing to politicians directly. This also propogates exclusionary and sometime racial or at least class warefare zoning policies.
As long we require civic leader involvement to make all decisions regarding housing we will be in a housing crisis. It will also spur the eastward expansion of sprawl into the inland empire and create more traffic and environmental degradation . Instead we need to democratize the zoning code to allow mom and pops i.e. (you and me) to be the masters of our own land and not the planning departments static archaic zoning. We will also continue to have big developers monopolize development projects and define our city as exclusionary shopping areas and unaffordable housing. Much has been academically written on how we could incentivize politicians such as the policy papers of David Schleicher at GMU along with the rest of the GMU economics department. Even LADBS has had a dozen streamlining studies written on how they could do such a thing. Answers are available it requires politicians to be held accountable for high housing prices and not left off the hook for without demanding zoning restructuring.
Foxes aren’t that hard to lock out of chicken runs…neither are cats, dogs, or even weasels…but if you have raccoons, which can climb up walls and manipulate latches with their little hands, you’ll have to build a solid, permanent-type structure that will be hard to move around the yard for grazing, and someone will have to be out with the birds whenever they’re allowed out of it, until you’ve trapped all the raccoons.
As a teenager who cruised Westwood in 1981-3, when it took literally an hour or more to go around the loop one time in bumper-to-bumper traffic (kind’ve a slow-motion American Graffiti), I can tell you that in my mind (both then and now) the thing that REALLY killed Westwood as a Friday/Saturday night destination happened on July 27, 1984, during the Summer Olympics. It was the night an angry, mentally disturbed man named Daniel Lee Young drove up onto the sidewalk (along Westood Boulevard) and mowed down 49 people. While most of them survived, many were left with severe, debilitating, lifelong injuries (I even know one of them). In the wake of that incident, LAPD brought officers in on horseback to patrol and barricaded most of the streets to automobile traffic on Friday/Saturday nights. That changed the character of the area overnight, and it was never the same after that, instantly killing the cruising culture that had thrived there for years.
It was a series of incidents…and that was definitely one of the big ones. I was a kid in West LA and remember how my parents worried that my older brothers were in the Village. The other big incident was Mardi Gras and the gang stuff that finally got that institution ended.
I totally remember that. I was a student at UCLA and a waiter at Yesterday’s when that guy did that. You are right… Westwood’s innocence was lost that day. Going to Westwood now is like walking through a backlot full of ghosts. Very sad.
I saw a doc on this woman and was astonished that I had not heard of her before. What a talent.
Love that petrichor, and your article!
The Sonora Desert is a wonderful place to witness the design of nature. Good to see the author of nature was consistent allowing the ability to accurately predict forces a billion miles away.
Actually, the contemporary American surrogate for Fat Tuesday is Super Bowl Sunday…
I lost my son to a heroin overdose right down the street from your soup kitchen. I was told they don’t investigate overdoses. Why not? We investigate car breakins and such. Isn’t murder more important? We are losing too many and not enough is being done. Drug deals are happening right in front of our noses, but oh well it’s just another junkie. Well you know what, I gave birth to one of those so called junkies. How about getting these drugs off the street and providing help for the addicts. We need real long term rehabs, not the ones you can walk in one day and leave the next!!!
I did too. My oldest son, Jason, died of an overdose (it was fentanyl but we believe he didn’t know because the amount of drug in his sytem was “consistent with heroin) in May 2013 in Vermont. He was on waiting list after waiting list for inhouse treatment, then when his date finally arrived and he showed up they said a “conflict of interest” had just become apparent and he was turned away. There was no other option offered to him and he was dead in 2 months. I’m sure you can imagine how angry I was and I did everything I could think of to get them to explain to me what that conflict was and to find another option for him. But it didn’t exist. When he died I called them and told them. I think they are too hardened to really care much. If Jason had been a woman or a teen there would have been more concern. But he was a 34 year old man who had fallen on hard luck due to the economy and he was just trying to deal with the pain he was in. He left two young sons and his two younger brothers. He was an amazing, loving, compassionate, smart and hard working man with a heart too soft for this world. And they have not found the person who sold him the drug – killed him in fact. Whoever it was is a murderer and probably a serial killer if the truth were known. Long term rehab is the only answer. And it can and does work. I’m so very sorry for both our losses. My life hasn’t been the same and it never will be. Only someone who has lost a child would understand.
It is a pain no parent should ever have to bare. I’m so sorry for your loss
Thank you. I’m sorry about your son too.
You are the Bernie Sanders of Mexican archaeology
!
Thank you Bill! This is Michael Anthony, one of your old clients.
I’m now working on starting a new group, Homeless Solidarity Project, something more formal then what we were doing with RTW but with the same peer-run methodology. I look forward to sharing what we are working on, and collaborating on these issues in the near future.
Much love brother! Keep up the good work!
Good Stuff! May I send you my book PUNAHOU BLUES as a thanks?
Yes, the theme is the same every year. Good luck in next year’s contest.
As a sole proprietor, my experience has been that the city makes it very difficult to sustain a business…from permits to sales taxes to police patrolling. So much money is collected from businesses, yet there s so much lack. The administration of this city really needs to improve, city leaders! Then with the legalizing mariguana because it would generate more tax dollars has really done it this time. As if it weren’t enough that we have a lot of druggies on the street and now this.
As well, the Tehachapis integrate with the Transverse range of mountains (San Gabriel & San Bernardino) – the continent’s youngest and most shattered strata.
“But ask people in Salinas why the city ranks so miserably low in so many measures—crime, schools, public health—and you’ll likely get puzzled looks.” As someone who has lived in Salinas all my life I can guarantee you, when asked this question, no one will give you puzzled looks!
You forgot to mention that he was bi and also seduced and had romantic relationships with other men.
I grew up in Tracy and was glad I did. Nice peaceful town until the bay area people began to overrun it…
These are his views and memories of Tracy. I was born (1953)and raised in Tracy, left during the Bay Area invasion and returned in the late 90’s. I have fond memories of my early childhood in the small town that was Tracy where you knew almost everyone. Where there was very little crime to speak of, I always knew I would come back to my hometown, I am one of the ones that don’t feel the need to apologize for Tracy. I wish Mr Sexton much luck in his career and the sale of his book.
With the death of Justice Scalia, this election has become a do or die election for Second Amendment supporters. Voters whom Professor Winkler says are far more likely to be single issue voters than Democrats who support gun-control but for whom gun-control is not their overriding issue.
So…that’s it? When is the second installment coming?
Stay tuned for tomorrow!
Holy f.. this was intense!
Ahhhh…. The suspense!
(post a reply in this thread when you post the second part so we can find our way back to the rest of the story!)
Hooray for Kathleen and all the Garretts!
I studied this lady in the 1990’s in J school. It was funny my professor was discussing the consolidation of media ownership at the time and how persons like this would be pushed to the web. Seems he was correct, since mukracking like this is mostly on youtube and vice.
What is amazing to me today is that people are more apt to punish the journalist than the business man when things are exposed. I find the laws that some legislatures have made about making it illegal to film inside businesses secretly to expose problems a crime a bit strange. How would you expose the problem without evidence? People are notoriously unreliable, but email, documents, film and photos can tell the story.
This is an interesting mea culpa.
One many of us share.
I am skeptical, however, about the potential for radical changes in social structure in the United States. Or even what the form such radical change could take..
This is a very enjoyable story and the pictures add to the rich history of that decade. Well done!
Amazing. Great story.
Immigrant families kept things close to the chest. She wrote that other family members were angry and ashamed. That’s enough to bury things.
When she says other family, I was thinking of “Relatives.” As an immigrant, I have a close knit with my parents. We talk almost everything out in the open under the privacy of our own roof. If you can’t vent within your own immigrant family, where else can you vent to? The whole big world is cruel and heartless especially when language barrier can be used against you every step of the way. Thus, it is especially disappointing, when there is no open discussions about this within her nuclear immigrant family.
wow. so proud of you getting this published, and a little scared of you for being such a ‘gangsta’!
My mother used to walk past her house on the way to school in Titusville, PA. It’s still there; I visited it in 2004.
If we focus on Los Angeles instead of California, here’s my list of must-sees, some of which you already mentioned:
1. Chinatown
2. Sunset Boulevard
3. Rebel without a Cause
4. Blade Runner
5. Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Not sure if this skeptical, it is more cynical. Is it not possible to walk and chew gum at the same time? The author reminds me of the case manager in a training that dominates the room by recounting a story of the one person they worked with that miserably bombed out of housing. Yes, homelessness is poverty in its most extreme form and is the result of political economy more so than personal failings. Does not every single solitary person in homeless services not know that? The author is the commender of the obvious, everyone working in the field knows this reality. It is hardly and “industry” either as salaries are well below median for most everyone working in the field, many of which have other employment options but choose to work in the field. The admin % of most contracts let alone the service $$$ do not cover full costs and most non-profits have to raise funds to stay afloat. A good chunk of the Housing Choice vouchers set aside for homeless folks include 0 service dollars!!! It is ridiculous to refer to homeless services as an “industry” and to discount the benefit of being inside, even if those folks inside still live in poverty and still have struggles. Data shows that yes, some high acuity folks do not stay in housing. But upwards of 80% of high acuity folks in Permanent Supportive Housing DO stay in housing. The cost reduction argument is utilized because the moral argument has failed to sway policy makers or the public. Yeah, we should not have to speak about those living in extreme poverty in an economic discourse, but that is the epoch in which we are confined. Willse’s argument utilized abstruse social theory to deconstruct discourses on homelessness. While clever and publishable in the academic world, it has no useful application. We have to make the most of an imperfect system with an indifferent public.
It’s easy to look at macroeconomic numbers like GDP and claim the US is still #1 — but, when you look at how many Americans are enjoying the fruits of that economy, it’s easy to see why so many more Americans agree with the candidates than agree with Martinez. We’ve got income inequality at levels not seen since 1929 (nothing bad happened then, right?), real wages have been stagnant since the 1960s, and the cost of a college education is at record highs (while more necessary than ever, since well-paying blue collar jobs have nearly all gone overseas).
On the military side, it’s the same story: the macro view is misleading. Yes, we outspend everyone by a lot. But zoom in, and you see very low participation in the military as a percentage of population, and widespread suffering on the part of veterans of long deployments. The days of America fighting a nation-state that can surrender and offer a “clean win” are over. For the foreseeable future, it’s messy, asymmetric warfare against shadowy enemies. Fighting people without uniforms, with no nation, who blend into the civilian population, make a lot of the US’ macro superiority immaterial to the outcome.
The candidates aren’t creating the feeling that America’s best days are behind us, they’re responding to it. It’s possible that millions of Americans are wrong in this belief — or, it’s possible that they experience struggles not shared by those who are telling them how good they have it.
Awesome. They should make something similar today … not being funny. I mean portable writing surfaces made of wood that fold up, can carry paper and pens, etc. Not a bag — it wouldn’t be useful as the actual writing surface.
Harry, was wrong, of course. The Swiss did not invent the cuckoo clock. They started in Germany, in the Black Forest.
“It is not clear who built the first cuckoo clocks in the Black Forest[7] but there is unanimity that the unusual clock with the bird call very quickly conquered the region.” – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuckoo_clock#First_cuckoo_clocks_made_in_the_Black_Forest
Like everybody else, however, I’ve repeated this line often and watch The Third Man whenever it’s on. I even learned to play the theme on an old guitar in my teens.
Very interesting perspective on the issue of homelessness. I have heard the “Housing first” option seems to be providing positive results in Salt Lake City. Good luck, try not to burn out as you see the same problems, people, and issues year after year.
It will be interesting to see if he explores how more modern attempts like Reston, VA fit into this pursuit of utopia in our genes.
The comparison of Bakersfield to these other industries falls flat due for two reasons. 1. Scale 2. Natural attributes of location.
1. Scale: Country music in Bakersfield as an industry, was maybe um, 1/1000th, 1/10,000th? the size of the Silicon Valley tech industry. Similar disproportion for LA film industry. Small industries can go away or be relocated more quickly and easily than large industries with tentacles that run deep.
2. Location: Ultimately people locate and value an area based on natural attributes. Bakersfield vs. Bay Area. Bakersfield vs. Los Angeles. I don’t need to elucidate the quality differences. People want to live in some places, regardless of what they do.
I would love to volunteer my time at the Wellness Center. If someone can get in touch with me. I will do my best to reach to someone at KGA.
Wishful thinking Dan. I understand, considering your position in the journalistic academia world, you have this hope. I too have the same hope. But that doesn’t justify ignoring reality. The journalists you hope for, the ones of “Spotlight” fame, have moved out to pasture. The ones who have taken their place more resemble Peter Jennings or William Hurt in the 1987 movie “Broadcast News.” The new crop of journalists arriving from college look to the latter as roles models – not the former. Or is they naively believe they can break the next Pulitzer, the reality of corporate owned media becomes all too clear all too soon. The virtue is speed … not substance. I’m guessing this misguided sense of priority is instilled in them the first day of their first job.
Unfortunately I think we are seeing a societal trend where journalism is becoming really nothing more a form of reality entertainment – with Trump being emblematic. As with most societal evolutions (for better or worse), they’ll run their course regardless of efforts to “bring them back to the good old days.” Al Jazeera America made this gallant effort … only to to give up the fight as they prepare to shut down this month. The media and their employees, the journalists, will go where the market is. And the market doesn’t seem to be in the “deep dive” of intellectual discourse, but rather in sucking up to the next survivor of the next political version of “Survivor.”
Maybe what we should hope for is not a return to the good old days, but rather that something takes its place to satisfies the need of the few who still yearn for the cerebral stimulation. But I’m afraid to say, those of us that do will be relegated to little more than a niche residing “off Broadway.” But then again, even some of those productions get recognized and hit it big … so who knows.
I recently went back to MOCA Los Angeles and revisited some paintings that had once been exhibited at the Pasadena Museum, previously housed in what is now the USC Pacific Asia Museum. At various openings my mother attended in the 60’s and 70’s, I was introduced to the attending artists Richard Diebenkorn, Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg, and their work, among others. Now I regarded their work — along with so many works of the era, and earlier — and found myself bursting into tears. The objects were as near and dear as my mother, who had given me the gift of an appreciation for an entire 20th century of modern art, and passed away last year.
Good to be learning centuries later from BOTH sides of our still “cousins”, especially in these tumultuous political times… What with Europe, or no Europe, and with Trump, or no Trump!
I hope the Gold Line exceeds your expectations, Joe. As a resident of Highland Park who rides the Gold Line daily, my mental map of how to get to many places is a transit map. My acupuncturist is within walking distance of the Allen Station, my dentist is halfway between Lake & Memorial Park, etc. And it is liberating to be able to go to Old Town Pasadena, Chinatown, Hollywood & Downtown LA without worrying about parking. Just think, a new generation that will go to the beach on a rail car…back to the future!
100% on point.
Thank you for your leadership and this wonderful piece. We are glad to be in touch with Latino Outdoors and would love to partner more to create meaningful experiences in God’s creation for Latinos of Christian faith.
Ride on!
I’m really looking forward to this because, when I moved from the west side, it was no longer 10 minutes to my doctors and the library and …. I expect it’s going to be around 90 minutes to get there via the gold and Santa Monica lines, but if I go during the daytime, that’s how long it takes to drive. So, it’s a wash. Plus, I can put my earphones on and have much higher quality music than the radio. So, Joe, I’m really looking forward to using these new miles. If nothing else, my blood pressure is due to be MUCH lower when the nurses check it!
v
Interesting article, Joe. I ride Metro to many Zocalo events, and the short walks involved have enabled me to learn something about those neighborhoods. I always bring a paperback, and the time goes fast. I don’t experience the “waste” of time that I do while driving, and I now factor that into my decisions about movement choices.
I must also say that I’ve noticed a real difference since Phil Washington assumed the head of Metro……MUCH less panhandling, cleaner trains and stations, better communication about the trains and system. It’s as though there is now a realization that Metro is not just IN a community, but PART of that community. Thanks for the event with him.
I am sure that some of the things you anticipate will not work out. However, I’m also sure that things that you can’t yet visualize will emerge.
Thanks for providing some historical context. Nice article.
When I was young, my parents moved around every few years. This forced me to deal with new people. The biggest challenge, though, was when we moved from a moderately diverse Midwestern college town to major city in the Deep South.
I knew kids of other races and ethnicities living in the Midwest. But there was still more of a sense of a common culture. Going to the Deep South, even other white kids were different. It was culture shock.
I moved some more after that and met people of other cultures. It forced me to be more thoughtful and respectful, and I might add more socially liberal.
Wisconsin says that “reconstructing and interpreting historical events provides a needed perspective in addressing the past, the present, and the future.” Popular histories certainly make this point. But professional historians sometimes run away from the idea that history can repeat. Could that be the reason that the Wisconsin statement is not given as a rationale for the California approach?
Maybe because “history” is used by some teachers as a way to introduce their own politics and partisanship into the class. That would be acceptable if the teacher offered the students both sides of the issue discussed, each side with its most compelling arguments explored by the best known public personalities. Are the students ready for the debates that this practice could ensue or are they likely to mature into readiness by the continuous application of the practice?
An alternative practice which also works, is the one used by my HS teacher. She did mention, i.e., that some cultures disappeared in Spain after the arrival of the Roman conquerors; she mentioned battles, empty towns, deserted areas, local heroes and martyrs that were either enslaved or crucified by the Imperial troops. She then had us work on our maps; read outloud some words in the (now extinct) Iberian language, of which all we have left are a handful of terms: perro, barro, páramo, manteca, íbero. Finally, she read a short Roman version of the conquest of the Iberian “savages”, by a great Roman senator. THEN, as a class-group led by the teacher, we started a brief analysis of the situation, “The Roman Conquest of Iberia”; then we broke into groups so as to discuss more freely without the teacher. Finally, she told us to write a brief (5-10 lines) account of the Conquest, as if we were Iberians, defending their point of view. Some 4 volunteers read theirs outloud. Then we had to do the opposite: write an account of the Conquest as if we were Romans; teacher then asked 4 students to read theirs outloud. This way we avoided the “good vs. evil/black or white” approach so prevalent today.
Teacher made a point, as conclusion, that: it’s not that evil or good don’t exist, but that our perception of good/evil depends on: 1. who writes the account, when, where, for whom, under which circumstances; 2. whether some living witnesses of the event are left alive to write it, are able to write it, are not punished by writing it; 3. the SOURCES we manage to get and the ability we develop to question them.
Sounds good. But you had 40 homicides in Salinas last year 2015 and 6 homicides this year already and we aint even of March. As for the 40 homicides last year, thats one killing every week and a half. 3 to 4 homicides a month. Thats a lot of killing going on. In fact, the violence is going way up. And over a span of a decade, Salinas has a lot of killing going on. Hundreds of people have been murdered over the last decade in Salinas and surrrounding areas in Northern California and the central coast. Its good you give them all these nice little services: mental health, better housing, and some food, thats cute. But it means nothing without a job, without an income stream. Give em jobs, some financing to become a homeowner and start some businesses and create employment for the youth. Also too, families and communities have to come together to stop this tide of violence. Parents must become parents again. Community must be community again. Also get some group economics going. Cause nothing positive or productive will ever in a community thats doesn’t circulate its dollar. Control your own economics or someone else will control it for you and not to your benefit either.
To see Burr in “Hamilton” as a mere prop or villainous foil reveals more about the viewer than the production, and to state that the musical “claims” anything about a historical event makes the mistake of conflating drama with an academic journal.
Perhaps the multiethnic cast should have been the first clue, but “Hamilton” isn’t simply about history, it’s about hip hop and immigration and aspiration. Like the very best of dramatic literature, and in the tradition of Shakespeare’s history plays, Hamilton is allegorical, not biographical.
When I sat in the theater and watched the show, not once did I think I was seeing claims about what happened several hundred years ago. When Hamilton and Lafayette lean together for the mic drop line about immigrants getting the job done, only the most determinedly rigid viewer would think this play was about the past.
Again, the author isn’t stating the play itself purports to be historically accurate, it’s the people who claim it is historically accurate that are the problem. Much like the people who use the film “JFK” as their sole source for their beliefs.
She only has a snippet of one quote about hisotocial accuracy by a theater critic, so I’d say her criticism is squarely aimed at the play and not audiences. If she wanted to take to task people who are making this claim, surely she could come up with more than one example.
And not to pile it on, but consider this bit about the play’s origins, excerpted here from the New Yorker:
“It does not seem accidental that “Hamilton” was created during the tenure of the first African-American President. The musical presents the birth of the nation in an unfamiliar but necessary light: not solely as the work of élite white men but as the foundational story of all Americans. Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington are all played by African-Americans. Miranda also gives prominent roles to women, including Hamilton’s wife, Eliza Schuyler (Phillipa Soo), and sister-in-law, Angelica Schuyler (Renée Elise Goldsberry). When they are joined by a third sister, their zigzagging harmonies sound rather like those of Destiny’s Child. Miranda portrays the Founding Fathers not as exalted statesmen but as orphaned sons, reckless revolutionaries, and sometimes petty rivals, living at a moment of extreme volatility, opportunity, and risk. The achievements and the dangers of America’s current moment—under the Presidency of a fatherless son of an immigrant, born in the country’s island margins—are never far from view.”
And looking at you last line we see a small problem with your critique “he joked”, which you suggest is anything but a joke. It’s a Broadway musical, unless you want to sit through 40 or 50 hours of what could possible be the worst songs and most boring dialogue ever, how could it possible convoy the complexity of this story well? And at the end of the day it would still be trashed by historians who disagreed with its accuracy, for reasons to be seen in your own well researched story. So you have two relatively simple choices, write a huge book trying to be honest and still get hammered by a few historians regardless or secondly, be imaginative, entertaining and compelling enough so that people will want to watch your musical and then also maybe read through historians who wish to correct the mistakes, at least the ones they see as mistakes. PS. Yes, Hamilton was an elitist (considering the education level back then you blame him?) but he drove for a the federal system with a passion rarely matched, and Burr regardless of his good deeds seem to be ambitious enough to sell out every last principle at the end of the day…. and we wont even talk about the duel.
Re.: (To Marc Andreessen’s credit, he apologized more quickly than the British did.)
EVERYTHING is quicker nowadays, is it not?
Good article. Well done!
Did the author actually see Hamilton?? I did. Here are three fundamental truths:
– Burr is anything but the villain in Hamilton. He is the narrator and the heart of the piece. He is played by Leslie Odom Jr., who is not only dashing, has arguably the best voice and the showstopping number, but he encourages compassion and empathy for someone who history has vilified. And, it’s quite clear in the show that years of animosity are responsible for that fateful duel.
-It is no secret that *Angelica* Schuyler (the one who sings about Thomas Jefferson including “women in the sequel”) was fictionalized for the show. She sings that her father “has no sons so she has to social-climb for one” — when she actually has brothers; her marriage timeline is also skewed.
– Christopher Jackson’s George Washington says/sings/raps on more than one occasion about how hard governing is in their brand-new democracy. Give another listen to Cabinet Battles 1&2 in the original cast album and rethink your subhead.
The great thing that Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton has done is to get people outside of academia to actually care about forgotten founding fathers. And it doesn’t operate in a vacuum — students who see the show (and no doubt those who will perform the show when it makes its way to community theatre) are treated to a complementary curriculum where they can learn those facts you lament are lost. Ron Chernow’s 11-year old 800+-page book is back on top of best-sellers lists, so rest assured a good many Americans are also getting the full story.
Brilliant! A tour through resilience, fragility, yearning and your brain on music through observation of thawed out frogs. Cross your flashlight beams! Thank you Lisa. I’m tweeting it now.
Okay….no clue if the author of this article actually read Ron Chernow’s book on which the musical is based. If so, she would see that LMM hews closely to Chernow’s characterizations of Burr, Hamilton and Jefferson. LMM does not claim that this is all historical accuracy, and his show is likely to show some of the same biases that Chernow’s book does. Chernow was not always kind to Burr, but he was not always unfair, either. Sometimes I did feel that Chernow was overly forgiving of Hamilton.
It is important to remember that biographers are as subject to bias as anyone. Isenberg, who wrote the above article, comes at history from a perspective different than Chernow’s, as she wrote biographies of Burr, Jefferson and Madison (the latter two together). In the end, neither biographer was there; all either can do is interpret primary and secondary materials from the day….and, as I said above, biographers, as much as anyone else, and their intepretation of history, are subject to bias….hence Isenberg and Chernow/Miranda’s differing views. All viewers and readers need to come to biographies with a critical eye. Chernow, for example, couldn’t stand Jefferson, because Chernow came at his story, in part, from a Hamiltonian persepctive…and when I finished reading the bio, I realized that I would have to try to find a good (not simply fawning) biography of Jefferson in order to weigh more of the evidence myself.
I will say that Chernow’s biography and the broadway show bring to vivid life (in a way we never learned in school) an era of politics at a level of detail that is fascinating and very much reminds me of continuing debates about the role of government and many other issues still facing us. And Chernow and Miranda show that the politicians at the time were just as fallible and human as those today. Finally….there is no way LMM could fit every detail in the biography into his show. Simply not doable. Anyone who is seeing a historical musical (1776, for instance, for all those musical afficiandos out there) or play should know that details will be left out and license taken to fit the narrative needs of the show. LMM has been very clear that this is the case with Hamilton. What Hamilton should be applauded for is not necessarily its complete historical accuracy, but for encouraging anew people’s interest in U.S. history. Especially important is creating a way into viewing history for young people…a way that is not simply dry dates, names and places….but that brings alive the fact that these were real people, doing real things in an extraordinary time, and that what was happening then has relevance today.
Finally, nothing about the show or the biography makes democracy look easy. Quite the opposite.
Oh, and I have to wonder if Isenberg has even seen Hamilton, because it was Angelica, not Eliza, who in the show says she’s going to tell Jefferson to include women in the sequel to the Declaration of Independence. Work!
Well stated. Thank you for speaking.
Has the author heard of Roman Catholic Women Priests or The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, because they are ordained in apolostic succession, since Bishop Antonio Romulan ordained 7 women on the Danube in 2002?
A priest is one who offers a sacrifice. It’s unfortunate that the men in charge of the Roman Catholic Church are not actually witnessing the Sacrifice made by the women God has called and chosen.
Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing.
Sexism Not only a key issue for survival of the RC Church, but also for survival of the species.
Question??…..when I reflect on my yrs of Theology study, working in parishes, spending
two and half yrs studying in Jerusalem…. these thoughts came to me…..where would
Jesus be if it wasn’t for his mother Mary?….was she a priest?….this is my body and
blood, she could say???…..any way, I guess men took over, they were the power in those
yrs…..,dncrowley
Well put! Instead of go teach all nations,we get retrenchment everywhere. Retreat may have worked for George Washington,in the war for independence ,but normally doesn’t work. If we don’t get new leaders,which we call priests, then fold up the tent. It really looks like the bishops have given up ,and are living a comfortable on what little remains,drip,drip,drip. Every once in awhile they fire off a blast against women’s ordination,contraception,abortion and LBGT people of which they know very little. They claim to broke-life,but they are just pro-birth, since they no longer want to educate children in schools,or feed children unless the Feds give them the money. The funds they do collect gets sent to buy favor in Rome.Francis is wading against the tide trying to reverse the current. I still hope women’s ordination is on his back burner,to provide the leadership,once the course is realigned and set
I share the call, too, but when I imagine the reality of the Church with women priests, I think “no” I wouldn’t be a priest as priests are now. I can’t imagine being a priest enclosed in a rectory with as much distance as possible between *him* and the congregation/people. Aside from meetings and a recessional-reception line, there is little contact or interest.
Ms. Manson, if you happen to read this, can you tell me if you or others have ever talked or imagined, aside from administration of sacraments, what the future would be like for the Church with women priests? Would it be the same old-same old Church or something different?
We will be announcing the winner in a few weeks. Stay tuned!
Thought-provoking as always, thank you.
Thank you for writing this.
No. No to what is in fact, Regional government. Every effort so far with Joint Powers Authorities and multi-county agencies regulating water, air and or transportation has been an expensive failure. The Bay Area, for example, exhibits a diversity in a positive manner with different choices available. A homogenized, top-down structure is guaranteed to please no one and answer to no one.
“No one watching Hamilton will want to be Burr…”
I don’t think you and I are experiencing the same show.
No one would want to be Hamilton either. Sure, he left his legacy and did some incredible things. But he was also callous, hurtful, and self centered.
Burr and Hamilton are meant to be two sides of the same coin. The point of the musical isn’t to provide an accurate School House Rock Historical Showdown. The show is a discussion of how people change, how they obtain their goals, the things that hold them back, the marks they leave behind for those of us who need to tell their story. (In fact, I’d argue that one of the points of the repetitive and recurring refrain “Who lives? Who dies? Who tells your story?” is to point out that this is only one half of the story, and that everything is relative, and we ultimately have no control over how history views us, that things cannot and should not be reduced to “good guys” and “bad guys”.)
And then, there’s Burr’s sweeping soliloquy “Wait For It” that explores and explains and humanizes his opportunism. That song says to the audience, “You probably aren’t Hamilton. You’re probably a Burr. And that is okay. That is still a good, noble thing to be. You have things to protect. This is a good thing.”
Hamilton even refers to Burr as his first friend, just as Burr shoots him. Even after everything, in his final moments, Hamilton didn’t consider Burr to be an evil person (at least from the perspective of this show).
Not to mention, (if you’re going to actually assign villany/heroics to any character), the only character that IS actually a blameless beautiful hallmark of justice is Eliza Hamilton, who put up with her husband’s garbage self centered ways AND THEN was enough of a grownup to recognize the complexity of the situation and to ensure that his ridiculous legacy lived on. (#ElizaDeservedBetter)
While I applaud you wanting to stick up for your boy, Aaron Burr (ya, I caught that note at the end where you wrote a whole dang book about him), if all you took away from Hamilton was the fact that it was (obviously) historically inaccurate, and that you wanted it to be some kind of Burr Smear Campaign, then you totally missed the point.
(Also – You switch the sisters in your discussion of them. In the show, Angelica asserts she helped Jefferson realize women should be afforded the same rights and freedoms, which is a fact that is 100% backed up by her letters. But hey! With all this discussion of the importance of historical accuracy in the ways we analyze history, who cares about accurately citing the artistic source material in question? Amiright???)
I think this was written because so many people WERE/ARE using this as an historical absolute. She isn’t saying this is a Burr smear campaign, but just that it aligns with the way historians have decided to characterize the man. Maybe you should actually read her book, then you might have a clue.
My poiny though is that this show ISNT a Burr smear campaign. This show doesn’t set Burr up as a villain. It gives the audience room to empathize with him, to view him as something more than the “bad guy,” which YOU would know if you’d bothered to analyze the text of the show.
Did you actually read what I said? I said she ISN’T saying it’s a Burr smear campaign! How much clearer can that be? The show does fall in line with much of what popular historians like to espouse, which is the greatness of Hamilton and the minimization of Burr. Burr shouldn’t just be “more than the “bad guy,”” he should be recognized for the trailblazer he was.
Agreed that it’s not an historical absolute (what is?), but I would argue that it IS history. As a teacher (admittedly, English, not history), I recognize Hamilton as providing a sort of scaffolding that provides a way of contextualizing historical information. Yes, it’s important to read those sources that will point out the inaccuracies and lack of nuance inherent in the musical. But students will understand all of that material better because they are so familiar with the key historical references in this play.
From my point of view, this show is some kind of pedagogical miracle. My kids know how many troops were in New York Harbor in the battle of Long Island. They know about the dispute over financing state debts (a battle we still have, in a fashion, today). They know about the debt we owe to France and the basic disagreement between King George and the former colonies. No, they don’t know much about these things, but they can place them in time and space, which is a prerequisite to learning all of the in-between detail. This is real history. It’s just not, as you say, absolute. It’s an entry point. But it’s an excellent one.
Please don’t compare this travesty to School House Rock. After watching Schoolhouse Rock one’s IQ was most likely higher than when you started. Hamilton had the opposite effect.
When was America “great” in the first place? And from whom do you want to take America back?
When Republicans insist on Making America Great Again or Taking It Back, they are probably talking about returning America to the 1950 time frame. It could not have been before 1952, because before that, there were World Wars and Great Depressions and America was in bad shape.
The America they want to return to never really existed.
It was a hoax, a great lie by politicians such as Reagan and Trump lately.
By the way, in 1980, Reagan-Bush team TV ad was: “Let’s make America Great Again,” and Trump, the con man, stole it for his campaign.
All politicians are crooks and liars, during campaigning period, they promise and talk to the people what they wanted to hear; once in the office, that promise is going down the drain.
When Trump promises to “Make America Great Again,” we should ask: Great for whom?
So, men die because they are illegally entering a conservation area, and the conservation effort is the cause of their deaths? This is ludicrous. It’s not the conservation effort that causes these deaths, it’s the men not obeying the law. Let’s try to expect some level of personal responsibility — if you choose to go into an area you know is full of tigers, illegally, at night, and you get killed, it’s your fault. This whole culture of victimhood means no one is ever to blame for the consequences of their own actions.
This is a rather doctrinaire response that comes from a position, I am guessing, of some (western) comfort. In the context of the poor, rural Indian villages, is your argument even fair?
Ultimately, I would agree with the policy, but this article focuses on the need to incorporate the HUMAN inhabitants of the area into any conservation programs. Not a bad suggestion.
Yes, and the doctrine is “If you put yourself in mortal danger, through actions you take in violation of the law, you have to take responsibility.”
In those poor, rural villages, presumably these adult men know that tigers are dangerous, and that there are a lot of them in the tiger preserve. So, if they go in there, at night, it is their own fault, and no one else’s, if the tigers attack them. Or are the poor, rural villages too stupid to know that they are deliberately putting themselves in danger? That seems to be the crux of your argument — it is too much and unfair to expect these people to be responsible for their own actions.
Well…the counter-argument could be “the law” was imposed from above.
Again, I think involving local villagers in policing the conservation area makes sense.
In some respects, I understand your hard core position. There are eight billion of us (almost) and we are literally crowding out every other species.
I think that “the law” is often not accepted by the local population willingly, sometimes for good reason and sometimes for no reason. But, in a civil society, we all have to accept laws as they are made, except in the most extreme situations. I am not here advocating for good little Nazis, but for an acceptance of laws we don’t like, with the understanding that others will accepts laws they don’t like but we do. It’s not a perfect system, and often results in one group coming up on the short end, but it is the best we have.
I think involving local people in policing and operating conservation areas is the ideal. They are most immediately familiar with the conditions on the ground; they have the most to gain — or lose — by bad policies; and it helps local people to buy in if they see concrete results beneficial to them. This works as well with wealthy condo owners as it does with poor villagers.
This article is based on a false premise: that the “avowed purpose” of rent control is “to make more affordable housing available.” The actual purpose of rent control is to prevent renters from being driven out of their own homes by unaffordable rent increases. Nobody pretends that this solves the entirety of California’s housing crisis. In particular, nobody claims rent control can create new housing. (That’s why housing advocates who support rent control usually also support measures to increase funding for the development of affordable housing.) But rent control is in fact a straightforward and effective way of keeping existing residents’ current homes affordable to them. This is a solution to a very real and very big problem.
I’m glad this article notes how ridiculous it is for rent control opponents to claim that rent control will discourage the creation of new housing. Unfortunately, though, the article glibly repeats another common anti-rent-control red herring: that the high rents in cities like San Francisco, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, etc., are proof that rent control doesn’t work. Surely Matthews knows that the same state law that forbids the application of rent control to newly built apartments also forbids rent control laws that would restrict the new rent for a unit when a tenant has moved out. That’s why rent control has absolutely no effect on the rents of apartments currently on the market.
I’m glad Matthews is concerned about protecting “poor people who cycle through housing.” Of course, rent control (combined with just cause eviction ordinances) is one way of preventing people from having to cycle through housing. Given the many and complex obstacles to creating new housing, there is no way we can build enough housing fast enough to keep fast-rising rents from driving people out of their homes. We should support rent control as a straightforward and quick-to-enact solution to one of the worst symptoms of our difficult-to-solve housing crisis.
The high cost of living in California is directly related to the economic and social policies of the State of California both by legislative initiative or by resident referendum. This is not a “pay as you go ” state .This is a finance it now and don’t worry about the consequences state. This is a state with large tax loopholes for LLC’s that let them get away with paying little property tax. This is a state beholding to Unions that continually passes legislation that makes it ever more expensive to fund construction. This is a state that passes overly strict construction codes built on social /environmental policy that just add to the high cost of housing. Yes we lead the nation both in social conscience and the cost of everything. If you don’t believe it a home of comparable sq feet costs 4x more here then in most other states. Additionally we have monumental problems that need to be financed. We need a dependable statewide water system to deal with the continuing drought. We need to get the out of control state pension system (CALPERS) under control. The ever growing pension fund deficit alone can bankrupt California. So far no political will from those elected or residents of the State. Nothing of substance will be done about housing costs. It can’t get done because so many ideologies compete for control. We are not dealing with pragmatism here. We are dealing with ideological constituencies that don’t give a damn about reaching a workable solution.
Jamie, I petitioned St. Veronica, who was present at the Crucifixion and wiped Christ with her veil, to pray for you that you might finding meaning and joy despite how the church’s misogyny stops you from fully unwrapping the gift god gave you, and sharing it more widely and openly with the world.
You know well that Jesus spoke to the woman at the well, defended the female prostitute, and after the resurrection first appeared to St. Mary of Magdala. I, like Christ, don’t believe women are inferior.
Nor did St. Patrick. As you know, when he heard St. Brigid’s final vows, he accidentally used the form for ordaining priests. When told of the supposed error, St. Patrick replied, “So be it…she is destined for great things.”
And in the spirit of St. Patrick and St. Brigid, who I have also petitioned to pray for you, I raise my voice to say, “YOU ARE DESTINED FOR GREAT THINGS JAMIE MANSON”
Oh in case you forgot… I love you…
It is sometimes said that rent control should be extended to new housing, vacant housing, or all housing to “make it affordable”.
Sweden and the Netherlands have actually tried these “Rent Control + Build Affordable” policies. The result is that in Amsterdam you can wait 12 years for a rent controlled apartment, and in Sweden up to 30 years. You might be up against hundreds of other would-be renter people as well!
“Half a million people are in the City of Stockholm’s official queue for both public and private rent-controlled accommodation.
The average wait for a property is more than **eight years**, rising to **two decades** in some of the most sought-after areas.”
Rent control is perhaps the worlds oldest failed policy!
Source: Stockholm housing list could get world record
http://www.thelocal.se/20151021/stockholm-housing-list-could-get-guinness-world-record
Supply and demand has always been manipulated in real estate (and in any “free” market, it is fair game.) The largest property owner in Los Angeles is a National REIT. You don’t think they spread the local risk geographically through their national investments? Come on, educate me if I am wrong. I am just starting the conversation.
Property owners, who are a business, can only profit by scarcity. Who supports UCLA in its studies (i.e. who gives the University money for the chairs, etc.), and UCLA projects the highest population growth of any agency, including the Census Bureau. If the conversation of affordable housing is focused on the ‘lack’, it will benefit land ownership. So, all these reports pump up the market, whether factual or not, creating a bubble.
In all of these articles, I don’t see a correlation to population projections by the California Department of Finance (CDOF), which has an interest in attracting businesses to the State, to show there is a growing, vibrant economy from the demand of a growing populace, and to the actual Census numbers. http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/other/calcounts1.html. The CDOF has been wrong before, and whips people into a frenzy on unverifiable projections, causing SCAG to over estimate population, Garcetti betting on the Hollywood Plan passing with SCAG numbers, and NIMBY’s winning because Hollywood numbers decreased, rather than increase as verified by the 2010 Census. If Garcetti had waited a few months while he was council member, he would have got what he wanted, but his developer friends couldn’t risk waiting to find out if he would be the Mayor or who the new 13th district Council member would be. They gambled and lost to accurate population numbers. Actual population numbers are always going to be a hindsight, aren’t they. But we never learn. We are primed to listen to fear.
Who is winning in this conversation of housing scarcity are the controllers of the market. Yes, some micro geographies have a problem with housing shortage, but in other areas it is blown out of proportion to the benefit of landlords and home sellers.
There is a tendency on the left in Wisconsin to think back to the days of La Follette and forget the days of Joe McCarthy.
You did say Joe McCarthy ….like those were good days?
Wisconsin specializes in right wing populism, e.g., its current governor (let alone Joe McCarthy.
What’s the next step?
Probably a Constitutional Convention.
Everyone has a right to be excited and engage with history, but not to rewrite it to their satisfaction.
This might be worth trying on a small scale in a geographically concise area of non-union LAUSD schools. Anything would have to be better than the current LAUSD,
Indeed, trying Clovis’ model can be a slippery slope. As Joe Mathews said, Clovis’ faculty-superintendent relations are exceptional, not the norm. Collective bargaining was hard fought and is still necessary to protect faculty from the whims of school district administrators. There are serious abuses in public education that are committed by both groups but the administrators have the power over how their districts are governed so they bear the lion’s share of responsibility for dysfunction within their districts.
There has been a systematic campaign to discredit and eliminate teacher unions, as if they are evil and corruption incarnate. Most teacher unions are weak already, often mere rubber stamps to administrators. This has to do much with the union rank and file allowing districts to cow them or face job termination, not to mention a strong co-dependent trait among teachers that makes many of them retreat or detach from taking active stands for their profession. It is only the major city unions that continue to wield any power on behalf of educators, to stem the perversion of the charter school from overturning public education and creating a state-sponsored private education system that is not only discriminatory and archaic, it is incompatible with a pluralistic democratic society that tells it’s citizens that they all have an equal opportunity to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, not if the educational system that most can afford offers a tiered, hierarchical system that can’t help to advantage some and disadvantage many. I was both a student and an educator within the Los Angeles Unified School District from 1964-2011, during what now seems, from the attacks upon it, like the Golden Age of American Education. Pity I, if I were a child today, with no other resources than to attend a public school, with ever-decreasing enrollments fleeing to charter schools and less expenditures for public schools than ever.
Yes, the current dynamic between educators and administrators can be improved across the United States. Maybe many districts can adopt Clovis’ model and succeed however 4 major factors need to be brought into the open, discussed, and accepted before educator-administrator (of course, I mean school district superintendents, too) relationships can meaningfully translate into environments where academic achievement is routine for the majority of its students. These four factors are, in equal importance to the issue:
1. Privatization of education and dismantling of teacher unions owes more to American political and economic elites shaping American society to fit their views of how that society should be than major dysfunction in public education. As long as this is denied and/or sugarcoated, nothing will change;
2. Systemic institutional racism in American education has to, likewise, be addressed, discussed, and resolvable at macro and micro levels of society, especially in public education. Funding education, the charter school movement, and changing public education carry with them a fearful, racist component that is terrified that the changing racial demographics of the United States will alter race relations in the U. S. and change the power structures in the U. S. as they have been until now. This is another issue that is “the elephant in the living room that everyone sees but doesn’t acknowledge is there”. This also has a palpable, measurable effect on the high non-white student dropout rates. Is it only the fault of students and their families, as many would like to believe, or are there behaviors at all levels in the educational system that get those students to drop out, although they might hear a great deal about the need for higher education?;
3. Educators have to really become more consistently active partners in their relations with administrators. This is where teacher unions play a significant role. In districts where there is a history of dysfunctional educator-administrator relationships, teacher unions can play a mediating, inclusionary factor, not a corrupting divisive factor in such relationships, provided that the rank and file take far more active roles in how their unions operate than they currently do. The codependent nature of many teachers precludes that, unfortunately but the spark can be lit to have more of them see that their optimal effectiveness as educators includes being active and powerful in the way they and their school districts relate to each other;
4. None of these changes in educator-administrator relationships can meaningfully change unless the professionalization of educators and the way money is allocated to schools changes. Educators are always at the mercy of how federal and state budget allocations. This gives most educators and many district personnel a sense of powerlessness over their profession, accelerating educator feelings of powerlessness, apathy, acquiescence, and teacher incompetence. Money-power so a more equitable way of funding schools has to appear before the dynamic between educators and the public educational system can change.
All heady stuff that takes years and requires incredible self-examination and self-honesty. We, Americans, are a “quick fix” society that refuses to look at issues systemically. Therein lies our answer to major social and institutional problems. I hope we change, for our children, educators, administrators, and American society.
The author’s friend is quite correct- the finest art museums allow the visitor to become ‘lost’ and in the process find meaning, pleasure and joy. In fact the V&A is the perfect example of such a thing, and a wonderful place. It wasn’t always so, but over the last decade they have made a strong effort to mix bits and pieces of contemporary work with their vast trove of (mostly ‘taken’ it should be admitted) pieces of far away times and cultures. The idea is brilliant- the path is not linear, nor is it talking down to the viewer- but rather it allows discovery of beauty, grace and history by people of vastly different educations, languages, points of view.
I was for twenty years a trustee of a contemporary art museum, and I agree completely with the author. It seems, consciously or not, that the idea operating in most contemporary museums most of the time, is to befuddle. As a contemporary artist, that attitude in turn befuddles me, I don’t understand why curators and/or artists have to pretend to be above their audience to be considered authentic. The making of and looking at art have been human activities forever- the artist is a human being, and it seems to me ought to be able to communicate with other persons. That would seem the goal of art, and therefore the author is correct, museums would do well to function as communicators, not confusers.
Donald Fels
Seattle
Wonderfully written commentary on art and museums. I first “met” Van Gough at the Chicago Art Institute– same with Picasso– and love to visit certain museums “to be in the presence of old friends” — that is, the works themselves. But I am at the same time frustrated with museums and often in travel, postpone going to museums because there is something about the experience that is akin to seeing a sad tiger in a cage, or “remains” in a mausoleum. Or worse yet, taking it all to the realm of an intellectual exercise rather than an art experience– and being, as stated, a pretentious endeavor. I’ve often commented that museums are something of a necessary evil. The art of curating a collection or structuring an exhibition— an experience– is truly an art in itself.
I am a musician, and the comments about Van Gough and Gaugin remind me of Verlaine and Rimbaud and Faure’s wonderful setting of “Prison.”
Even the structural placement of museums comes to mind reading this piece. The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena is a wonderful (and manageable) sized collection– and gives that feeling of access to someone’s collection as opposed to entrance to an institution. Yet a formidable institution like the Metropolitan Museum in New York is right there on 5th Avenue and more or less offers access to the wide diversity of the city. A seventh grader from Harlem may wonder into the many worlds of the museum and may one day be the artist whose work is in the museum. That’s my modest outrage at The Getty in Los Angeles. As wonderful as it is– it is still an art fortress on a hill in an affluent neighborhood. That may not in itself be pretentious. But it does limit access. No seventh grader from from South Central or East L.A. is not going to wander in and be transported. LACMA, growing wildly in every direction, may not be architecturally congruent but at least its Wilshire Boulevard location is on a major artery (and bus line) of the city.
A great museum setting that comes to mind (in a totally different genre) is the archeological museum in Chapultepec Park in Mexico City. It’s one of the world’s great museum settings.
We tend to do the same thing to music as we do art– that is, relegate to the realm of the pretentious. The answer isn’t to dumb down or get cutesy with ad-on light shows and hokey staging of concert works. That creates obstacle rather than access. I read an essay in college days at Northwestern about Van Gough’s sun flowers. It was actually an essay on art. The premise was that the “art” was what took place at some crucial meeting point between the painting and the one observing the painting. If curators and museums keep that in mind we’ll be spared a mausoleum experience and be accommodated for an art experience.
Still, I would advise that when visiting some great city with a great art museum for the first time, like Paris, for instance– wander around the city first, and absorb, get lost and discover something. Then, if there’s time– duck into the Louvre and make eyes at the Mona Lisa.
Philosopher and mathematician Alfre North Whitehead “The second-handedness of the learned world is the secret of its mediocrity.” We must strive to not turn our experience of art– visual or musical– into either a second-handed or pretentious experience.
Thank you Gregory for bringing us back to what happens behind the scenes in museums, for them to produce truly accessible and relevant exhibitions that become memorable experiences that teach as well as inspire. As a museum professional and scholar for many years, I have seen the field change so that museums are now trying very hard to be more socially relevant and to reach a variety of audiences. But more importantly, there is also change happening internally. Successful and courageous museums have learned to create cross-departmental exhibition teams, where education, marketing, visitor services, development, and curatorial staff meet early on to decide on everything from the very exhibition topics to pursue, audiences to target, community partners, programming and interpretive materials. Some museums even crowdsource some of these factors, inviting the public to co-create either exhibitions or the knowledge surrounding them. I completely agree with you that the framing and contextualization of knowledge is paramount to today’s museum audience, and that this requires a holistic perspective of the object from all the expertise held by museums.
RE: “scrambling to keep their institutions relevant in the face of rapidly changing demographics.”
The Natural History Museum in Chicago used to have several life size dioramas depicting cave dwellers from 20,000 to 30,000 years ago. When I was a teen, I was so impressed, I used to take the suburban train downtown frequently to view them. I ditched school so I could learn something meaningful to me at the time. Then under new Modern Minded Management, they took out the dioramas and let McDonald’s install a restaurant in their place. Some official told me the dioramas were not aesthetically appropriate (bare breasts?) The Museum became “relevant” by removing nudity, and installing McDonald’s.
Museums ought to be reserved for people, of all ages, who want to learn and who appreciate the objects on display. Let the pretenders parade about The Broad!
Anyway, I had become so interested that decades later I wrote a book about the period (The Human Birth Defect).
William J. Kelleher, Ph.D.
Spot-on, but it’s already being done in many museums. As someone who worked in museums for 20 years across the U.S. on the marketing side of things, I completely agree with your take. However, you mention, “And yet for all the concern about the future viability of museums, few people are talking about the need for museum curators to change the way they frame and present exhibitions, to move beyond the insider art history mumbo jumbo curators use to narrate exhibitions.” But take a look around, and you’ll see that many museums are already moving (or have moved) in this direction of relating to their audience. It’s been a constant discussion since I started in the field in the late 90s, so the idea is nothing new. Museums are more prone now to create cross-departmental teams, so the curators are also listening to and working with the folks who are actually on the front lines with guests (visitor services, marketing), as well as the educators who work with school children (from ESL students to recent refugees who absolutely won’t want to see curatorial mumbo jumbo). Trust me, I’ve had my fair share of discussions with curators who wanted to write some pretentious drivel on the wall to explain a painting. And I’m sure many museums still stick to the old model. But rest assured, many museums are working towards doing exactly what you are talking about, and it’s definitely the “movement of the moment” in art museum circles to connect visitors more closely with the artworks, the artists and the surroundings. P.S. I’m a master’s student in Andres’ class at ASU. 😉 Keep up the interesting work!
When is the winner’s announcement?
We made the announcement today. Please check out: https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2016/04/14/announcing-zocalos-fifth-annual-poetry-prize-winner-2/inquiries/prizes/
There is an intermediate solution that I’ve thought of. Many (most?) people would not want to have their complex lives disrupted by having to travel to Sacramento for some extended period of time. They may simply not be able to afford it. So what we really want is a preselection process to winnow down who might be selected by lottery. There’s no reason why we can’t do that through elections.
I suggest that we elect 1,200 people statewide (probably by district) and then randomly select the 120 state representatives from that pool. Individuals could campaign on the basis of their political party so that we have an insight to their political disposition.
This still has the advantage of both getting money out of politics and bringing in more non-career politicians. Who would bother spending a lot of campaign money to have a 1 in 10 chance of being selected after the election? And who could plan a career on such low probabilities?
Congrats. I had a strong feeling someone from California would win.
Magical. Thanks for planning my next vacation!
I’m wondering: Just what exactly is the musical’s “new interpretation of history?” It’s that kind of overblown rhetoric in the reaction to the musical that Eisenberg seems to be challenging.
By interpretation, I mean the way in which historical facts are presented, the communication process used (a la Freeman Tilden). Hamilton forges both emotional and intellectual connections between the things that interest the audience and the history. It may not be a new technique, but it is at least very unique to have a historical story presented like this become a hugely popular phenomenon while still heightening people’s awareness and understanding of the past.
“Wildlife management” without human management is a non-starter.
Good idea, bad example. We do NOT randomly select juries. The jury pool may be random, but by the time they are in the courtroom the weeding out starts. Anyone who has spent any time in a courtroom with their eyes open knows that the outcome is decided by jury selection.
True. That’s one of the problems with using the jury analogy. Maybe we should have made it clear that what we’re proposing would not have this kind of “weeding out” process.
Even if a lady is equipped with HPV and a long acting contraceptive, there are still plenty of arguments for premarital abstinence – emotional for the most part, and also the fact that only condoms – and they not perfectly – protect against most STDs. So I have nothing against HPV vaccine and LARCS.
Haha! It looks like California’s primary will really matter this year!
Given the academic calendar of most schools nowadays, the new year should begin in August!
You mean Texas isn’t the new California? That’s hard to believe.
What you stated in your article could not be better said. The danger that has always plagued societies throughout history has been the psychological and emotional manipulation of large portions of a society by its government to believe that their hardships are the result of newer ethnic/linguistic groups threatening the existing economic and social order. Because these portions of a society tend to be undereducated, fairly parochial in their views of the world, and benefitted economically and socially from the society as it was organized, these members of a society are “easy targets” to manipulate so governments can execute it’s social and economic policies with a high degree of consent. Those manipulated don’t realize they are manipulated because the “carrot” for a better economic future is “dangled” in front of them by their government so that those manipulated comply with the government. This is the strategy of “divide and conquer” that the British Crown effectively used in building it’s empire. As Mr. Rodriguez points out, divide and conquer saw it’s greatest and most horrifying example with Nazi Germany. If ever there was a need for an educated population that was encouraged to think and act politically for their own benefit, that need is now.
Sanders is tapping into similar elements from a left populist position, seeking to restore a New Deal that was stolen from us by the neoliberals. Like Sanders, Trump is also blaming neoliberals for having stolen our democracy and economy, but he is doing so from a right populist position that includes nativism that is appalling to many.
There is a difference between nostalgia for that which was and outrage at the calculated theft of our democracy and economy by neoliberals. We can only look forward but we have to take stock of the past in order to learn lessons that inform our future practice to avoid making the same mistakes. That is not nostalgia, it is intelligence.
This triumphalism that There Is No Alternative, that the neoliberal thefts amount to checks long since cashed, is a attempt at framing populist outrage into irrelevance. Perhaps populist sentiment can be contained during this electoral cycle. But so long as the conditions that led to these grievances against parties and consensus government are maintained, stabilized and strengthened under a Clinton presidency, the punctuation of equilibrium will happen eventually.
Unbelievable. Amazing.
As an old guy I sometimes long for the days of 57 Chevies, poodle skirts, & oldies music, but this article so aptly points to the dangers of restorative nostalgia in politics. I really like the idea of sending a letter without the need of an envelope or stamp. America continues to be great despite some politicians attempting to take us back to places & things we’re really better off without. This is coming from a life long Republican.
Would love to see the movie
Reinvention is what Hollywood – and America – is all about. Always has been. Always will be.
Extraordinary story. Deception to reveal a greater truth.
I knew an old man in my town who did the same reinvention to avoid racism. He owned a small business called India motorcycle sales and i always knew him as a Muslim Indian man. At his death, twenty years ago or so, it was revealed that he was an African American man from the south who had reinvented himself in the 30s as Ali Mohammed or A.J. (I never asked why the two variations, i always assumed a middle name or other third name). I felt sad that he had to become a different person and hide his true self. He seemed so much to be who he had decided to become so many years ago, that i never had any doubts about his identity at all prior to his death.
Good article and about darn time. I am an adopter of black dogs and have many friends who do not see the colour of the dog when adopting but see the personality first, need second and colour a late third fourth or even fifth. I despise the perpetuation of myth and this is one one of those mythes which has needed breaking, Thank you!.
Who knows what wonderful planets may exist, hidden in the darkness of the blackest space. Thank goodness for the persistent vision of astronomers like Farisa … they will someday reveal the homes of our space-brethren out there somewhere!
I don’t think people realize what a loss it will be to an ethnic community to be without a public voice like this. But the Rafu also needs to change, too, to ensure a longer and more vibrant future. Great essay, Gwen.
So where’s the water coming from for all this development?
Not true: OC Weekly and legendary cartoonista Lalo Alcaraz depicted Trump being donkey show’d; for it, we received death threats and a bunch of whiny Trump supporters who definitely weren’t laughing with him http://www.ocweekly.com/news/why-oc-weeklys-cover-this-week-features-a-donkey-drumpf-ing-trump-7166923
Creating biochar seems like a fascinating and obvious answer to many of the problems caused by this invasive weed, but I’m wondering what are the implications for air quality and related carbon footprint to produce it?
Romans 13:
For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law..
Thank you so much for this. It’s a fantastic piece about something that’s been circling in my mind but I couldn’t find the voice for. Whether they use guns or economics, a government beginning to suppress or denigrate the humanities tends to be a bad sign for the people, because those are the subjects which teach us who we are and how to live, about where we came from and how to build a better world. Those are the subjects of revolution and resistance.
The UK is making a move towards ‘corporate schools’ – schools and colleges run by companies to teach the things that company needs, and once we stop pretending to do anything other than just training children to be mindless workers, we’ve taken a step towards darkness. Of course, for a government which is killing its disabled people and abandoning children to dire poverty, removing the tools for people to figure out what is wrong and how to fix it is the obvious next step.
I completely agree with the conclusion that the attack on the humanities is really an attack on the ability to think, criticize, and endure. It seems to me that what politicians, pundits, and (lord help us) “educators” have been persuaded to value is not the “practicality” of the STEM subjects, but the fact that people trained in them will not have rich inner resources and will therefore make excellent drones to fill the ranks of corporations, government, and the military. Thank you for writing so clearly and movingly about such an important subject.
I agree with almost everything you say with one exception. To say that Chicago in any way happened slowly is dead wrong. It sprang into the world far more quickly and -initially – with far more impact than LA did.
Add real satirists the list above. Americans have little idea of satire and its subversive potential.
Instead of satirists, we have late-night comedians who earn more than bankers and their lawyer bodyguards.
People allow these entertainers to dilute their anger and feelings of impotence; after which they go to bed feeling politically engaged simply by watching TV and other media snares.
You can’t help but wonder if this phenomenon might be responsible for some of the upsurge of Bernie and Donald, and their attractiveness to the masses.
Yes I think so, particularly in the Trump obsession.its been 24/7 for months now. In Bernie’s case it’s been Bernie drawing huge crowds and in Clinton’s case it’s been negative press about everything. These are their narratives.
Hi, Joe. Heard you talk about this on KCRW and it all sounded so familiar. I should be able to take the train from Redondo Beach to downtown without too much angst, but no such luck. The challenges are many:
1) Waiting too long for a train at the end of the line (Marine Ave. station).
2) Changing trains from Green to Blue, where the trains are regularly jammed and unpleasant.
3) Stopping for traffic while in a train – what?! That’s insane.
4) Having to switch to the Red Line to get to the Metro Center.
5) On the return, it is agony waiting for the Green Line on an open platform between two directions of highway traffic, with all the requisite noise and grime.
All in all, as a commuter, I evaluate the proposition and taking the train just doesn’t make sense. I can get to my destination much quicker driving, and the frustration of navigating the Metro make it an exercise in futility.
Thanks, but no thanks. Metro is only useful for very specific commutes and after much consideration of the expense and bother.
My cousin has lived in Manhattan Beach since 1972. Her husband tells the story of buying a lot there shortly before the 405 opened. Prior to that opening, MB was deemed too far a drive for daily commutes to DTLA where most white collar jobs were still located. Maybe, as other comments here have suggested, your premise of an easy commute at 25 or more miles distance is unrealistic and unsustainable, like it once was, not too long ago.
Joe,
I’m glad you view in the present now represents the reality of rail commuting vs. the nostalgia that has been guiding our visions and politics of local transit and I hope your disappointments are sublimated into a better public understanding of what rail does and does not do for Los Angeles in the future.
Your editorial does not identify another perspective, and that is one of the current transit rider, who would have to take several buses from your home in Pasadena to that in Santa Monica. If you glance over Metro’s website you can see that a transit bus would take upwards of 3 hours in each direction or 6 hours of their day. To these people the saving of 2 hours means many good things for them and their families. These people are the primary riders and they benefit far more than transit riders that have other options, such as yourself. You do benefit in other indirect ways that aren’t as tangible, transit will take a number of cars off the roads, and I’m sure Metro will have a study soon showing this. Unfortunately until we congestion price traffic, these cars taken off the road will rebound and the roads will be full again in a year or two.
A second point that should be noted is these systems are incredibly expensive to build and politically not supported in comparison to road building. Because federal transit grants (which Metro relies on from 30%-50% of their funding) are competitive, it is much more expensive to build a lightrail in an urban environment such as Los Angeles instead of a rural or suburban area, such as Salt Lake City or Portland. Los Angeles can never compete on the cost alone. Because of that FTA looks at the cost per rider and that does help level the playing field a little bit. So to keep cost level Metro cuts has to cut corners from wants to needs. No bridge, no tunnels unless absolutely necessary, they are 8 to 20 times as expensive to build as an at grade system and the public hates concrete monolithic bridges on their streets as much as they hate losing their left hand turn lanes. What’s a transit planner to do? Add stations, they add riders and lower the cost per rider making the system cost competitive with other grants applicants and avoid bridges. To your point adding bridges does lower travel times and brings on a couple non transit dependent riders, but compared to the cost of the bridge the math doesn’t add up. The public is going to be upset no matter what, better to keep the cost down. Unfortunately both decisions increase travel times for all riders. To get these systems built in the first place is a monumental achievements considering that it took 30 years of politicking to get it built at all, imagine how long it would have taken if you wanted to get it done right!
The best public transit solution for Los Angeles could have been completely in place in the eighties: make the right lane on freeways and major through streets in the city exclusively for buses and exiting vehicles. Simple, and hundreds of billions of dollars cheaper.
Well, I suppose that’s something that’s still physically possible, though I suspect car drivers would riot (just like they would have back in the ’80s) if they were told a lane was being “taken away” from car use.
That said, perhaps these days certain freeway shoulders could be repainted so they can be used for breakdowns and buses only. I believe such a project has had some success Up North (not sure if it’s the Bay Area or Seattle area). I’d recommend starting with the 101 Freeway as it still has a few unused busway-style stations in place that could be renovated and brought back into use.
The entire rail transit network to date and all the money currently committed to rail transit in Los Angeles in the future 30 years does not yet equal 100 billion dollars. So it would be impossible to be ‘hundreds of billions of dollars cheaper” The expo line cost $2.5 billion. Measure R only provides $15 billion for rail(and the orange line bus route).
Buses are expensive. $8 billion from Measure R goes to keeping the buses moving. Painting the right lanes of freeways and through streets wouldn’t do much if there are no buses to run in the lanes.
Still not a bad idea, Metro already has it’s Red Rapid service all over the county. It would be nice if the Rapid service was actually Rapid. Put a bus lane on every one of those routes and see how well it improves things. That can be done in addition to rail, because in some places you want higher capacity than buses can provide, lower maintenance costs, more accessible stations. Transportation in LA sucks, just about every mode in all parts of the county. EVERYTHING needs to improve.
Your points are well taken. METRO, and its predecessor agency, LACTC, have been long dominated by a perverse “small is beautiful” ideology of urban development, largely synonymous with a no/slow growth cabal posing as progressive environmentalists. Notwithstanding my gratitude for any progress, opting for EXPO as the “westside” system was both cheap and foolhardy but popular among this cohort as a sop to modernity while keeping the investment small and a commitment to progress modest.
In the late 80s, Congressman Waxman blocked the extension of the “Red Line” (now Purple Line) heavy rail subway directly down Wilshire and the powers that were (Yaroslavsky & Bradley mainly but also the entire leadership of Westside municipalities and most of the environmental leadership) acquiesced in a misguided loyalty to the idea that Congressman Dixon’s more racially diverse neighborhood would benefit notwithstanding that the “detour” proposed would add lots of time and cost to the run from DTLA to west LA. That route was finally and properly found to be unfeasible, wasting years and many millions of dollars both in costs and in lost Federal subsidies. Waxman finally removed his barrier but without apology for the tremendous environmental cost of delaying implementation of the most cost and transportation efficient system possible in the entire greater Los Angeles Region.
Fundamentally, Los Angeles’ transit politics is classical “log rolling” and requires compromise and distributed benefits, as it should. Sadly, in the past, it has lacked the kind of leadership that would have committed to a system that would do the greatest environmental good quickest for everyone’s benefit. The current $120Bn METRO plan is the first truly progressive proposal to come out of METRO and should be supported by everyone with a mind to bringing our region into the 20th!! century. The plan, hopefully in conjunction with a national commitment to infrastructure development, might mean you will be able to ride the rapid rails and get around LA expeditiously in your lifetime. As a 68 year old I hope to too but I have come to be skeptical of our ability as a region to act coherently for our collective good. I hope to be proved wrong in my skepticism.
I have so long struggled with convincing the skeptics of the value of creativity and the humanities. Thank you for your articulating the importance of the human condition and for showing how narrow a view of learning is without arts. It’s so encouraging to be in touch with someone who recognizes the importance of the subject beyond practical utilitarian purposes.
Let’s get this straight, this entire editorial is based on a sample size of ONE ROUND TRIP. (One round trip during the first week of service no-less.) An alternative title may as well be: “Man Checks Privilege, Gets Back Into Car.”
For us long-time public transit riders the new Expo Line between Santa Monica and downtown is the bee’s knees, the icing on the cake, and the cinnamon on our abuelita’s hot chocolate. In an ever-growing and connected Los Angeles public transit network there is nothing better than being able to go car-free on a regular basis. Today I kicked-off my summer vacation by dropping my daughter off at school in Highland Park, then boarding the Gold Line with my bike and transported myself via rail and two wheels to the cool sands outside the Annenberg Beach House where I read a Jane Jacobs book I borrowed from the Expo Line adjacent Palms public library a week before. This trip took me NINETY MINUTES.
We do what makes sense to us. Does it make sense for me to drive my daughter a mile to school, haul my bike in my car, fight traffic to the Westside, and find parking just to relax and read a book? No, today it didn’t. But taking the train to the beach using my monthly pass did. Just as for Matthews, living in the San Gabriel Valley and driving day-in, day-out to a job in Santa Monica for years has made sense to him. The thing is, now we have more choices in how we transport ourselves, we are making our region richer with choices for those who can master them.
What Matthews’ article is really about is culture shock. The culture shock of multi-modalism and what that means to Los Angeles. We are leaving behind the failed car-centric culture experiment, and getting back to a people-centric culture that has dominated cities for millennia. Change is hard, but with enough practice, even suburbanites can figure out to transport themselves in our urban landscape.
I have been involved in the arts all my life since both my parent were artists. A rather long life has taught me that making money is very useful and a minimum of the stuff is basically necessary but to devote one’s life to it is a waste of the opportunity to be alive which offers much more and is a rare privilege. Each lifetime is an adventure unique to each living creature and we differ enough to make it important to understand that values differ greatly.
There is a wonderful book, “the Inextinguishable Symphony” that tells a remarkable and moving story of Martin Goldsmith’s parents during the terror of Nazi Germany and how music got them through. The book culminates in the telling of the Kulturbund orchestra performing Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony, with the powerful words:
Believe, my heart, you have lost nothing.
Everything you longed for is yours; yes, yours!
Everything you loved and struggled for is yours.
Believe, you were not born in vain.
You have not lived and suffered in vain.
What has been must go and
What has gone will come again.
Stop trembling.
Prepare to live.
O Pain, all penetrating one, I have escaped you.
O Death, all conquering one, now you are conquered.
With wings I have won for myself I shall soar in fervent love
to the Light unseen.
I shall die to live.
You will rise again, my heart, in a moment,
And be borne up. through struggle, to God!
I am sorry but this article wreaks of car-centric privilege that has been the leitmotif in Southern California for far too long! The automobile may have deceived the author into believing it is fiscally and environmentally responsible to live in the San Gabriel Valley and commute 40 miles each way to his job in Santa Monica. But the truth is that neither the car nor public transit can sustain this “lifestyle choice” any longer. We all need to make compromises in the second densest city in the US and that involves everything from moving closer to your job and/or listening to public radio on your two hour commute home.
Given the price of housing in Santa Monica? It isn’t “fiscally responsible” for him to live in Santa Monica and commute to his job on Santa Monica. The big issue is, why are so many jobs in Santa Monica?
Thank you for the article! This reminds me of the late Saint Pope John Paul the Great. During the Nazi Occupation of Poland, he strove to keep the Polish culture going through the underground “Rhapsodic Theater”. He and the other actors risked death in order to keep their culture alive through beautiful words and stirring Polish drama. He almost became an actor!
There is a little more info here:
http://danielmcinerny.blogspot.com/2011/04/pope-john-paul-ii-actor.html
Even if the 25-30 mile commute were entirely grade separated and via heavy rail like the El in Chicago, you would still expect an hour and a half travel time. Plus heavy rail rides rougher so the aches the author complains of would be much worse.
Commutes of that distance are better accomplished by commuter rail or express bus, but they certainly wouldn’t be $1.75 and I’d still expect an hour plus on those modes.
The idea that the author tried to conduct a phone interview on a train is pretty disrespectful and thoughtless. Its public transit and phone calls should be limited and generally discouraged out of courtesy.
I think it’s really important for people in LA to stop making ridiculous comparisons to NYC transit as reasons for our “transit failures”. Many communities in the NYC metro area that are 25+ miles away from the Financial District (as Pasadena Sierra Madre station is from Santa Monica) have a similar 2-hour transit commute compared to a one-hour-or-less car trip. There are few places in the world where one can choose any community in a 25-mile straight line from their job and have a faster-than-driving commute by transit. The Expo Line shouldn’t be expected to fix every LA commute. It works best for those whose origins and destinations are both on the same line, just like every NYC subway line. Ask a New Yorker whose commute requires three trains if they’re happy about that. I imagine they are not.
The commuter rail and bus system is not designed to be able to connect 3 different lines in the way this author assumed. Gold Line day commuters were always anticipated to have a destination either in Pasadena or downtown LA. Expo line commuters similarly have been projected to live in the vicinity of that route and that probably they would head into downtown, not outbound into Santa Monica. This is pretty standard stuff for metropolitan transit planning. Perhaps the completion of the regional connector will reduce the commute delay he describes by minutes, but it’s not ever going to be a ‘bullet train’ from Pomona to the beach. Those expecting otherwise should either rethink their accommodation or their employment. There’s a lot of townhomes and condos going up in the area, but the tradeoff may be giving up one or two cars in order to afford those in-town rents. Each household needs to make their own call. There’s no “one-size-fits-all” in transportation planning.
Mr. Matthews article makes it sound that, short of helicoptering from Pasadena to Santa Monica and back during rush hours, he has significantly faster alternatives to Metro. He also fails to mention that when Metro’s Interconnector project is completed in several years, he will be able to make the same trip on one train thereby shaving some 30 minutes off his one way travel time. It took half a century to build all of LA’s freeways; the first Metro rail line opened 25 years ago. Maybe Mr. Matthews should cease using his column for self-centered whining and instead use his journalistic capabilities to report on the bigger picture: LA’s car-centric culture is unsustainable and its days are numbered. Oh, and for the record, my trip this morning on the Expo line from DTLA to SM for a 9:00AM doctor appointment took 45 minutes from door to door. I defy anyone to beat that in a car.
Great article, I majored in the Humanities or Liberal Arts. History and English are my majors. In America and across the world I can see how the pursuit of Liberal Arts can be seen as a luxury. We are told to go to school and earn a degree you can make a living at. History or English majors are laughed at. I remember when I told a fellow student, whom was going to school to be doctor, that I was studying education along with History and English he literally laughed at me. These majors do teach one to think outside the box and challenge unjust ideas. I can see how the pursuit of Liberal Arts saved people’s minds and souls while being tortured by monsters. Thanks again for sharing.
http://www.estaciousw.com
Joe –
Try some public transit alternates. You took ONE ride and expected it to work perfectly. Nothing works on the first try.
I used to bicycle to The Huntington Gardens & Library from downtown Santa Monica. That’s 24 miles and takes almost two hours – a bit less downhill on the way back. Sometimes I got tired and I tried some alternatives mid-route.
The Gold line segment is a fast route (though I could beat it via Huntington Drive on a bike.) Once you’re at Union Station (the only Metro handy public restroom) there are several choices, The Big Blue R10 is way fast in non-peak times (about 45 minutes) slower in traffic. Metro’s 733 on Venice (under an hour) is quite a bit quicker than the 720 on Wilshire, due to less lights & stops I’d guess. And the 704 is much, much slower – even if you took it to the Hollywood Bvld station and changed to the Red line. You might wait as much as 15 minutes for a bus on any of them – try the Transit app. I can ride faster than any of the Metro bus routes by bicycle, and there are plenty of interesting places on the way.
You can beat any of these routes with a car. But you can do something while you’re using the alternate – read, work or exercise. That’s worth quite a bit more to me than a small amount of time.
Eric
There are three solvable issues slowing your trip here:
1. Temporary lack of capacity (waiting for more Kinkisharyo cars to be delivered and approved, due to Metro’s delay in ordering them) and initial operations rough edges;
2. Two transfers including a long walk in Union Station until the Regional Connector is completed c. 2020;
3. Resistance by L.A. Department of Transportation to improving trains’ priority at signalized intersections.
It is not that light rail was done on the cheap compared to a subway. Light rail with gated crossings has the same 30 mph average speed as subways with stations one mile apart.
I disagree.
Now that the expo line has been running for a few months.
studies would show that the most number of passengers get on at 7th and get off at santa monica. they are forced to stop a full train at every stop to pick up one or two passengers.
Fixing the express/local issue, and train red light synchronization would reduce the time from 55 minutes to 40 minutes. 30 minutes could be achievable.
America is now behind developing countries in infrastructure. And we will not catch up.
My wife is from Taiwan. From her parents house in the suburbs of Taipei I can now walk to highspeed rail and travel to the south of Taiwan (equivalent to going to San Francisco) in 2 hours. I walk in, buy a ticket from a machine, and step on to one of the trains that come every 20-30 minutes. Once there, I can go door to door on a metro that is all underground and fast to just about anywhere.
America peaked in the 1990s…. it’s all downhill from here.
You are right in terms of transportation. I’ve taken metros in Singapore, Bangkok, Tokyo and Hong Kong is all better than Americas. It’s better than LA because LA metro sucks. But it’s better than Manhattan because their’s are old and it actually works fine, even better than LA’s. So it would cost to much to change them. The Asian country’s systems are just newer.
I remember that time. I was teaching a drawing and painting. As I recall, when the spotlight was put on the head of the Corcoran then ( what’s her name ?) anyway she acted like an over protected rich girl with a huge job title, but she could not even make a statement without a lawyer to the left and right of her. And her eyes had been shielded from seeing some of the images when she viewed the work. So the uproar became more about the lame leadership of the Corcoran than the actual photes. She was shockingly clueless and also spoke down to highly respected, mature local artists as if they were nothing. Again revealing her classist world view and lack of knowedge. She also put a gag order for months that no one working there could speak about the Maplethorp issue. This gag order lasted until, as I recall, artist Lou Stoval returned from vacation and heard about it. Lou, a highly ethical man , put a stop to that fast. But the damage that woman did to the school , because she had no backbone and no fair leadership qualities at all were huge. Enrollment dropped. It was a ghost school that next semester. Heartbreaking for all who loved the Corcoran and consider it the heartof D.C.’s art world. It is very important to have brilliant minds running these institutions. And not these ” daddy’s little darlings” who feel entitled to an ” important sounding position ” simply because their parents are important so they should be to. Her lack of respect, her repulsion of real artists and their opinions was the exact opposite of what the head of the Corcoran should be. Which is someone interested and open to artist’s opinions, familiarity with the work, and an ability to form an opinion and make a statement without ” help and protection “.
Marvelous, marvelous piece.
I recall the French documentary “Zidane” which was simply a bunch of cameras trained on the most graceful soccer player in the world from the late ’90’s, through he early ’00’s for an entire match. I saw it in the theater, but I think it’s available now on You Tube. When I watch GSW, I get the same thrill.
Comparing GSW’s unique abilities at collective intuitive improvisation to a bop-era jazz band is inspired. I’ve often said the same thing while watching them play, often to blank stares, lol.
More coverage of the aesthetic properties of sports, please.
Steve: Wells Fargo launched a $75 million Diverse Community Capital Program that has been oversubscribed indicating a tremendous need in the marketplace by community based lenders that serve small businesses. I hope you are intending to roll out your HALO Fund to the local community. To date, unless I missed something, I don’t see the outreach into the black and brown communities served by the Los Angeles LDC.
Awesome article! I enjoyed learning the history of the Hollywood Shorties. It’s also a great primer for tonight’s Hollywood premiere!
These sort of ethical trolley-problems are good to think about, so long as they don’t eclipse the most important and most relevant ethical feature of self-driving vehicles: they are far, far less likely to be getting into accidents in the first place than what we already have, which are flawed human drivers getting into collisions at a massively higher rate.
Even if you programmed a self-driving car with the ethically worst choice in every collision scenario, if that car gets into 1/100th as many collisions as a human-driven car, you’re still making the ethically correct choice to use the self-driven car unless that one collision hurts 100x as many people as a human-directed collision.
This is fascinating story.
There are many facts in Venezuelan history about mosquito-linked diseases. For instance, British mercenaries, hired by the patriot army to help it fight against Spaniards, were also ravaged by fevers, between 1815 and 1825. And the prevalence of yellow fever kept stalled the Venezuelan countryside for several decades, making it more susceptible for famines and civil wars. Malaria was stopped in the 1940s and 1950s… and now is back.
Sad day when we – particularly in a school – have to take cues from police departments that resemble military operations. The pseudo experts, are part of an ever-increasing industry that preys on fear. And you are correct in that response is not a science – some of police actions/responses can are devoid of logic and very high on bravado. I still have not heard anyone from any agency (especially those conducting – and getting paid for – active shooter) advocate for stricter gun laws or more spending for mental heath.
Shouldn’t we be preparing for an earthquake in CA?
I suspect a little decadence. When my dad graduated from Omaha Central High School in 1923 he had the equivalent of today’s bachelors degree; and when he graduated from USC in 1927 with a BS Econ, he had the equivalent of an MBA today. And he was short of his 21st birthday, I suspect that the qualification for a lot of jobs is whatever 2/3 of the population has not attained. If 2/3 of the population did not graduate from 6th grade, a 6th grade education would be accepted for these jobs.
What is behind California’s sudden urge to help the homeless? Here. Simple.
1.) It’s more in our face now.
2.) Human suffering is a hard thing to ignore. We are, after all, very social beings.
3.) The 2008 crash gave us a sense of “there but for Fortune go I.” Everyone but the 1% were devastated. Some never recovered.
I forever curse the memory of Ronald Reagan, who dismantled California’s State Hospital system while Governor, and mental health care nationwide when President. The originally good-intentioned move to de-institutionalize those experiencing mental health issues became a mean-spirited crusade during the Reagan/Bush1 era. This is where the Medieval “open air asylum” reconstituted itself on the streets of the cities of the US. It’s been with us since.
4.) Many of these people had homes and have families and were previously employed and financially healthy. They are our friends. Many of us could be next.
That too for sure.
Very interesting perspective, Joe!
One of the things you highlighted, which seems to me to be a fundamental that will vex the system until fixed, is the availability of housing in the LA area. One can have all the vouchers in the world, if there is no space available, you cannot house people. After the billions have been spent on rent, there will be no new housing available, and that is a shame.
I notice the experiment that some cities have done with “tiny houses”, which are very small houses. In Seattle, they put 14 on a lot that would have held a single family home. In LA, they towed a bunch of them away. It seems like innovative approaches that are affordable, give people basic shelter and safety, but are not nice enough to encourage long-terrm residency, as opposed to moving up when possible….should be encouraged.
Or, to put it another way, our neighborhoods are becoming more diverse, both in income and ethnic/racial terms. Unlike in past years, when the suburban ideal of “out of sight, out of mind” was the only option, nobody in a position of power was even really aware of the depths of the problem. Now, they are our neighbors, and we want to help. Sounds like a win win to me.
It’s no mystery. There is a glut of housing for wealthy and the poor cannot pay high enough rents to create the revenues streams that Wall Street demands to loan money for new projects. Thus, Los Angeles is moving from Spot Zoning to Spot Deficit Financing.
This is an exquisite article. Very unbiased and looks at all sides of the story. Thank you for this piece that explains the crisis very well.
As someone who has used public transportation in LA since the early 80’s (back when it was RTD) I can tell you that it has become terrible now. It started to go downhill once MTA took over. Around 2003 is when you could really start seeing how badly managed the bus system was. Now they have cancelled bus lines in order to push people onto the trains. The Gold Line lost a lot of money, they started cancelling lines in order to push people onto the Gold Line. Basically fluff their numbers. The turnstiles cost $46 million and they do not work, and the Tap Card is garbage. There was never any “real” problem with the old paper passes. There used to be over ten MTA buses that used the busway to El Monte, now they only have three. The subway is a joke, it is more of a tourist attraction. Just go to the Hollywood and Vine station and see all the money they wasted on the so called “art” they installed on the terminal walls. No one in their right mind would used the LA subway as a means to commute, it just doesn’t move fast enough. The Expo line to santa monica is a big joke. There is no reason why that train should take 50 minutes. No reason at all
Straight question; Why is TAP card “garbage”? I never had any trouble w/mine, so really want to understand your comment.
As to the Expo line to Santa Monica, which does NOT take 50 minutes, BTW, we are very happy to have it. But SM has reconfigured Big Blue Bus lines (I think; not well informed) to coordinate with Expo stops, thus doing away with some buses I very occasionally took.
A lot of readjustment is needed in the heads of long-time drivers, including me, to the trains. Some comments I have seen assume there will be a train stop practically in front of their door to get from A to B. Not realistic. Let’s hope we all get with it. Make suggestions to the right authorities instead of just venting.
From Downtown LA to Santa Monica via the Expo Line is a 50 min ride. I have taken it four times since my last post and I have never arrived in Santa Monica less than 50 min. The expo line is garbage. Not a commuter train
Many, if not most of the morally superior “progressives” who are continually grandstanding about homelessness in SF have been the most vociferous opponents of ANY new residential construction in the city. And the parasitic and smug and very well paid gatekeepers in the city bureaucracy in “planning and permission” exacerbate the problem.
The best essay yet on the historiography of film and the Civil War/Reconstruction! Thank you so much.
It will be hard to beat 2012 when all the San Diego fireworks accidentally went off at once https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-ZHaCj0YQY
If I had my wish, there’s one thing I would pick.
Not flying, or racing, or curing those sick.
Not making the rounds of a summer with ice cream.
Not spraying ’round poison until all the mice scream.
If they let me be what I wanted to be,
I know what I’d choose. How fast? Wait and see.
Of all of the things I could possibly do,
I’d say: be the driver of route 22.
(There are 40 more stanzas.)
My mother was hospitalized repeatedly from around 1951 up until 1968. She spent time at Camarillo, Patton, Braywood-on-the-hill, and several others. Her first episode was probably post-partum depression, but they called it “schizophrenia”. I do not know how she managed to NOT be a victim of sterilization, but somehow she was left alone – to have my older brother and myself, by two different fathers. I was born in 1960. My father was also a resident of Patton, he apparently avoided getting “cut” as well. I believe, because of dates on the marriage license and my birth certificate, that I was probably a “bump” at their wedding – either that, or I was 4 months premature. I think they were both released and “allowed” to marry so “the child would have a name” as it was phrased back then….
#goblue.
So Amazing! Thank you <
Great stuff Shanice. Its a great thing to love where your home is and be proud of it. Outsiders will never know someplace unless they spend time there. I have never been to Watts but ive always viewed it as a vibrant happening place. Everywhere has things that need fixing but home is the heart.
Really excellent piece. Thanks for sharing it with us. 🙂
Great article Shanise. As a long time resident of South LA, reading about ppl like me who work & live in this community is a breath of fresh air. I graduated from Jordan HS…in fact from Simon Rodia the continuation school in Jordan HS. I went on to CSULA and most recently received a Master’s degree in social work from CSULB …and guess what? I work as a social worker in a senior center down the street from Jordan HS and volunteer at a non-profit animal rescue called Watts Project Street Rescue… talk about coming full circle! There are good changes happening in this community. Thank you for ur writings.
Have the people defending the expo line actually used it?
As the author wrote there is a stretch by usc where stops are seemingly blocks apart and it is also stopping at street lights where you have to wonder what they were thinking.
If they would have spent a little more and built a third track to allow express trains this would have been a game changer. That didn’t happen so they must fix the stopping at lights issue and develop some kind of express system where it doesn’t stop at every station.
Mass transit is great but doing it on the cheap and stupid isn’t. Don’t hate this guy for telling the truth. We need a system that works not some liberal checklist that most people avoid because it’s so inconvenient. If we are going to do it, let’s do it right.
Yes. repeatedly. I started using it when you had to drive to Robertson and park.
Now it’s out to Santa Monica, yay! Sheer heaven to get off right in FRONT of Exposition Park museums, SC, downtown, and with quick change to Music Center.
Point is, public trans serves not only work commuters but people with all kinds of needs who don’t drive, don’t want to drive & fight traffic, can’t afford parking, etc.
Big deal, jargon can be learned. It’s not much of an obstacle and one can always find a translator. What I find far worse is when big internet companies ignore users and refuse to communicate or engage with customers/users. It’s especially egregious when the company is depending on users to generate content. We saw this happen with Reddit not long ago, and it’s currently happening on Quora, which has become a toxic environment for many users.
There’s a story there, if any journalists wish to pursue it.
Salinas mothers and fathers needs to get together with parents in Chicago, Detroit,
Los Angeles, New York City, Newark-NJ, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and all over the country with mothers and fathers who have lost children to violence, gun violence in particular. Get together, start support groups, and build coalitions to stop this rising tide of street violence in this country. Plan marches through the streets of pur cities in their most violence plagued areas of town say “No More”. If these knuckleheads see a united community that is good cooperation with law enforcement and see that the community, a strong and united community across all racial, social, and economic lines saying them and the world “No More”, they will put those guns down. But for that to be effective, you ahve to have an economic base to provide jobs, education, vocational skills, and life skills to ask risk youth before they go bad. An ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure everyday of the week.
Growing up in the Southern California desert area one would think we’d have no swimming holes. But I’d argue that we had one of the best! It took a hike into the Santa Rosa mountains to find the gem call Taquitz Falls and
our Edenesque swimming hole. In the 60’s it was a hippies hang out to beat the heat. In the 70’s we were the teenagers who needed some relief from the heat and our parents and we escaped to this waterfall swimming hole as often as we could. Heaven on earth.
While many of the points raised here make sense, to even imagine that there will be a national mandatory standard for police forces, sad to say, is pie in the sky dreaming. Heck, to many local elites, the way things are run right now are perfectly fine. Why should they change?
Interesting article, though.
Thanks for this informative article! Sarah W sounded like a force of her time. Im interested to read her book
Woody Guthrie “California is a garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see
But believe it or not, you won’t find it so hot
If you ain’t got the do re mi”
Yes, the Eagles got it right and mostly, I am hopeful. Of course, when a cynical mood strikes, this Kate Wolf tune hits home:
Here in California
The fruit hangs heavy on the vine
There’s no gold, I thought I’d warn ya
And the hills turn brown in the summertime
So happy to have read this story. Will share on Facebook. 🙂
Archie: I hope you’ll get into mail orders!! Great stuff you make, we have nothing like it here in San Antonio, TX. It’s things like that that make me appreciate growing up in Cleveland during the era when there was a Hough Bakery during my childhood. Keep up the good work and I’ll see you the next time I take a trip back to Cleveland!! 🙂
would love to have some of Hough Bakery sent by mail, here in Chicago ave not found anything that comes close. Hough Bakery baked my wedding cake and I was able to have the white cake with buttercream frosting (odd request) but my guests loved the cake because contrary to most wedding cake recipes it really tasted good.
A Positive – Worth A Read…
Hey Archie: Why don’t you contact Steve Harvey and/or the TV show producers of Shark Tank to help you get some additional financial support? You should be able to expand and get your hands on all of the bakery recipes. I’m waiting on you guys to roll out some of those pecan rolls!!
Actually, he needs to get in touch with Evergreen Cooperatives in Cleveland and see if they can help him develop the bakery into an employee-owned cooperative, which is along the lines of what he tried to do when Hough Bakery went bankrupt. It would be much more difficult for another corporate acquisition/shutdown to occur that way.
This is going viral on Facebook. Clevelanders loved Hough Bakery and love Archie for bringing it back! He really deserves a key to the city for this.
Such a great story. I used to frequent Hough Bakery with my Mom when I was a kid. They were the best! ❤
I worked at Hough in Brooklyn as an after school and summer job as my sis 10 years before me. I learned a lot there! Thank goodness I had to walk to and from work to quell extra pounds! Could they please open a branch here in Savannah, Ga?!
Many, many, many thanks to the University of Southern Maine and to the staff of the Smith Center for Cartographic Education for undertaking the heroic task of digitizing the Osher Map Library, and to Mrs. Smith, Dr Osher and his wife Peggy for donating the maps in the first place.
It’s impossible to estimate the value of digitizing the Osher Map Library and making those maps available now and in the future, but surely it vastly outweighs any loss of context generated by the digitiation process. I can’t imagine that the ratio is less than ten’s (hundred’s?) of orders of magnitude greater.
I wish that the article’s focus had been on the positive rather than on the negative. At least the title of the Slate.com version was neutral, although its subtitle reverted to a negative slant.
My mom worked on Lee Rd. She loved her co-workers, but the job was stressful.
Congratulations to you Archie for believing in your dream. I loved Hough bakery and am so glad you continue the tradition
GOD BLESS YOU AND YOURS.
Great article! So few of the things people react to these days as “unprecedented” (one of the media’s favorite words) actually are — if they read a little history, they’d realize it’s all happened before.
I think the key descriptor here is “core identity”. After start pages and portals stopped being a thing, Yahoo lacked any core identity, couldn’t or wouldn’t commit. Yahoo never did figure out what it wanted to be when it grew up. Everyone knew Yahoo, but no one (least of all those who worked at Yahoo) knew what Yahoo did. There was no prime directive.
I’d argue that even after the purchase of broadcast.com, Yahoo still didn’t have a clue. The author, George Geis, suggest that Yahoo was “too early”. Maybe he is correct, but one could argue that Amazon was too early or Google was too early in commerce and search. Somehow they succeeded–probably because management in each of those companies had a vision that they could articulate and pursue, even if that meant blazing a trail. When Yahoo became a digital media company, its management couldn’t articulate what that meant. They threw around a lot of buzzwords and high concepts but there was no vision. It was as if they were still trying to be a portal. Going backwards, in other words, by appending digital media to portal.
I think Marissa Mayer failed because she was never able to nail down the core identity and core mission. Google could acquire diverse companies because they could somehow tie it back to Adwords and advertising. They could incorporate things into the advertising platform; not everything proved to be a fit, but enough things (gmail, YouTube) fit really well. Yahoo, not having a core identity, couldn’t identify what acquisitions fit, because there was nothing in Yahoo to fit with. There were no hooks.
This article is spot-on. My wife, Liz, developed TTP (an extremely rare blood disease) and died within a week. Her useless nurse practitioner never knew what had happened, and wasted time that could have saved her on useless tests. We finally were sent to an ER on the day before she died, too late to save her. Nobody in the hospital was ever honest with me. They did not hustle to save her, I now believe, because they knew they probably could not do so. I realized later, after seeing the autopsy results, that she never stood any chance from any ER or any treatment, because the TTP had caused irreparable and massive damage throughout every part of her body. She would never have had any quality of life, even to do the simplest things such as watch a TV show, enjoy a sunset, or eat a meal, and at best I think they might have given her only a few extra hours. Pain medication knocked her out, taking her away from me even before the end, without anyone telling me what was going to happen. Her final doctor asked me if I wanted him to do everything; this resulted in a $23,000 helicopter ride that she did not survive, followed by hopeless intensive care attempts to resuscitate her. The flight crew apparently knew that it was too late, and the hospital could have just been honest with me that her situation was hopeless and left us to be together, perhaps even say good bye, and just let her go gently. Instead, they took her away and she died all alone. They could have spared her the violence of becoming a science experiment in a hopeless, useless attempt to resuscitate her.
The old say ‘if you don’t know history, you are bound to relive it’, we need to keep in mind our past as we live in the present and hope for a positive future.
Been there many times. Did you go to the actual base or just the radar towers ?
“…an inevitable bifurcation generally occurs across all terrorist movements whereby the top leadership and mid-level command strata are populated by the educated (or relatively well-educated) and financially well off, while the majority of foot soldiers are less educated and often from far more modest socioeconomic backgrounds.”
This is the rich taking advantage of the poor once again. Here, the elite (well educated) convince the poor and uneducated that picking up a gun and killing the enemy, whoever that is, will solve their problems.
Brava!
No fault with this. Thanks.
Gary, I enjoyed your article. I’m going to try to make the time to read your book. It appears to me, not having read it, that your perspective, or area of expertise, is primarily based on racial interactions.
In the following observation, I’d like to share the notion that a few factors coincide with the natural biases toward “the others” that most have. I feel the combined socio-economic and ideological environment most often allies with racial fears. Thus, a holistic analysis may be a good idea. In saying that please don’t see it as a critique of your work, as I haven’t read your book, nor have I made rigorous studies (I’d say semi-rigorous, amateur ones).
Like you, I find interesting the factors that concerned the American public during the early 20th century, particularly the rise of violent or aggressive anarchists (Sacco/Vanzetti, etc.), communists, and unionists. And in the mid-1900s I saw first hand, as a young man, the influence of Maoism, black power, etc.
My main point: I also witnessed Iran’s revolution of 1979 and have since been fixated on the differences between socio-economic ideologies, like communism, and religious ones. I’m convinced that the world faces a different, more serious challenge from groups like Salafi jihadists (Islamic radicals) and other Islamic fundamentalist movements. Making a generalism here, I see both the rise of communism and Islamic fundamentalism in many parts of the world to be a legacy of colonialism. So, I believe the socio-economic environments are similar, but I think the strength of the ideologies are very different.
That aside, to agree with you, I think it’s a ridiculously ignorant approach to paint the “terrorist” problem broadly in terms of race or religion (as opposed to violent, destructive religious ideology). If 20th century fascists failed with a small (15-20 million?) population of Jews, what can anyone do with one billion Muslims? The stupidity of a person, a leader or intellectual, who wants to isolate such a large group is far beyond stupid, IMHO. Now. If you really read all this, thank you so much!
And the leaders of the American revolution(Terrorists-per Ben Franklin”We must all hang together or surely we will all hang separately) and the southern leaders of American Civil War, also fit into the category. One might add Mao, Lenin, and Ho Chi Minh of the 20th century as terrorists as well as ML King Jr, Gandhi and Malcolm X who sought the dismemberment of state apparatus. It would seem higher education and economic status gives wings to a greater vision than more working for just today,but to seeking a just today and tomorrow.
Two key differences. 1) The Great Depression was a major, major factor in FDR’s victory and the tilt toward the Democrats. We have economic issues today, but nothing on the scale of the Great Depression. 2) FDR patched together an alliance that included the “solid South” of segregationist Democrats with northern states with more liberal ideas. The solid South is now largely GOP territory.
Finally, note that immigration laws were not significantly liberalized under FDR or thereafter until the 1960s.
Adams zone system was just the most eye pleasing way to deal with the tonal limitations of silver based printing paper. By over exposing the photograph and under developing the film in exactly the right amount he was able to get predictable or at least mostly predictable levels of increased contrast in the original negative making it much easier to print in the end. He would also conversely under expose and over develop to limit contrast. Digital photographers do a similar thing today by exposing for the highlights and later bringing up the shadows in photoshop. Always looking for technical innovations Adams would have been absolutely over the moon rise with digital photography.
Here in Los Angeles we have Linoleum City which is celebrating 64 years in business.
Mr Mathews’ attack on SOAR is both unfair and misguided. Urban growth boundaries in Ventura, as in Oregon, provide room to accommodate growth. And locations where sprawl is unabated do not have affordable housing, witness Orange County, which is much more expensive than Ventura. And Ventura County is doing something right vis-a-vis upward mobility (). The need to turn “paper” units into real units at higher densities is a challenge across Southern California. SOAR should be congratulated for putting into place a fundamental part of the solution – growth boundaries – that provide a framework and incentive to reinvest in already urbanized areas instead of investing in remote, automobile-dependent locations. Is there more to do? Of course.
So for anyone reading this outside of our Kingdom, know this:
Why is it a challenge to turn paper units into real units? It is because the same people who champion SOAR in Ventura County SHOW UP TO ALSO OPPOSE every decent housing project at various City Councils WITHIN the infill urban boundaries for one reason or another.
FOR EXAMPLE; most recently, a hillside development in the City of Ventura was opposed for ‘engineering’ reasons, although it has come to light that the reason was indeed phony:
‘Board fines Ventura engineer for making faulty claims about hillside project’
(http://www.vcstar.com/news/local/ventura/board-fines-ventura-engineer-for-making-faulty-claims-about-hillside-project-39d5aacc-d5c2-1524-e053-390250361.html).. my favorite part is that the hillside preservation group peddling the opposition mostly lives in existing hillside homes!!
I appreciate the author’s take and agree we can’t have our cake and eat it too.
Gets NO CREDIT? I think the phrase is “DESERVES THE BLAME” Poverty spreading rampantly….Rioting almost constant….Weakest recovery ever…. International politics in Chaos, Oh sorry that’s for his choice for successor…
Thank you for this important work. SlaveVoyages.org is a better link to The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database.
Emma, what a wonderful piece! I met you when you were 3 (Club Med Mexico)… and I remember once when I was visiting (you were about 4) your Grandma was ready an English story book to you and she was speaking German (auto-translating in her head) and you told her the book was in English not German!
Best of luck to you, you are a wonderful writer.
– Teri (Roni’s sister)
Very powerful. Thank you for not letting this be buried as is what Texas is trying to do by removing the word “slave” from all school textbooks and instead using the word, “workers.”
I want to make a comment… But I can’t… Just gets me upset.
You’ve done an amazing job.
Unfortunately, not every State’s election administration functions in the same nonpartisan manner as California’s does. In many States election personnel are not civill service employees or nonpartisan volunteers. There, the election administrators are chosen by the 2 political parties receiving the highest votes in the last election and the poll workers are staffed or recommended by local political party leaders. The theory was that two Republican poll workers would.watch the other two Drmocratic Party workers to prevent cheating. In practice, however, all of them work together in support of the political establishment’s candidates or endorsees in the Primary elections and against outsiders or insurgents’ candidates. This does not minimize the importance of obtaining sufficient volunteers to staff the polling places nor the long hours they work. However, in one jurisdiction, I witnessed exam answers being fed by a test administrator to poll worker candidates who would otherwise fail the test because of a shortage of volunteers. There, nobody fails the test. When candidates for President talk about a “rigged” system, I think they have in mind partisan election administrators and poll workers in States other than California.
This has been waiting in my inbox for me to read. Just from the title, I knew it would be important and emotionally difficult work for me to read about. The fact that this great American experiment in “Freedom” rested upon the totally inexcusable enslavement of hundreds of thousands of people, is something we have never grappled with as a society.
Where are all of the memorials to those robbed of their freedom? The South should be filled with them as we collectively need to mourn our misplaced humanity in the service of our greed. Germany has done a much better job of publicly admitting its moral failings and honoring the victims of the Holocaust. There are memorials all over the place. We need to do the same thing. For if we forget, we are doomed to repeat these mistakes. There are many wonderful things in our American character but one that is not so admirable is our Greed. It continues to shape us, as we saw in 2008, and the rich get richer on the backs of the poor once again.
America should be doubly ashamed that we have never truly admitted our horrific past that enabled the colonies to flourish economically. It is time, long past time, to honor those whose lives and histories were stolen from them. Thank you so much for your work, Sean Kelly.
Great article and thanks for sharing this. I went to FAPS and remember your Dad very well!
Moira,
You just gave a fitting tribute to a visionary who was extremely disciplined and principled. I remember him well from 87 batch and do remember only Carol Meyer. He was impartial and would encourage boys and gals with an infectious voice that would push them to perform. I would wonder why my dad had a similar mindset and now i get it. They both adopted the traditional American way of a result/goal oriented structure. My dad is also the same blueprint except that he worked at Planning Commission and taught rarely.
God bless GWM and his family.
Srikant 87 Batch
The further one reaches back in World history apocrypha increases in both number and Degree. Lying of events, present and past, is virtually taken-for-granted. Human ethics is in a chaotic, pathetic state that provokes more war and public upset. While physical technology- bad and good increases, mental attenuation is also increasing. The increase of both simultaneously, unless something near miraculous intervenes, spells out one outcome: doom for Mankind.
No. We need to forget. If we assume the burdens of the rush to civilized behavior( Millions can die in a flash, we let people stave because we can) we could not face the truth.
Approve.
Sent from my mobile.
I would like to thank you too. My aunt and uncle moved to Phoenix in the early 60’s and I have vivid memories of riding with my uncle past what seemed to a 10 year old endless fields of color. They have all passed and so did my father recently, so I googled my memories. You were number one
Only thing missing the Clock Radio Alarm & the song by Sonny & Cher… :/ :o)
I too grew up on Hough Bakery goods and at 74 and living in Houston, TX, I still remember the great white cakes. And I am a chocolate nut. Good work.
That’s why you call your prisons “penitentiaries” in America.
Are they letting people be on Point Loma at night now? It used to close at 5 p m.
I’ve had some of Archie’s baking, It is Hough’s! What a wonderful story, I had heard pieces of the back story, but not the full entirety.
Wishing Archie’s Lakeshore Bakery many many years of prosperity and success.
I grew up on Hough’s cakes and bread. I had a Hough birthday cake every birthday of my life until it closed. So sad. I’m going to have to check out the Lakeshore Bakery.
Hiya David Guston. ” though it can appear as if technology is causing something to happen in society, people actually make the decisions in the conception, design, manufacture, and deployment of technology. The sense of this phenomenon can be inferred from Winston Churchill’s aphorism about architecture: “We shape our buildings; thereafter, they shape us.” ”
In a book Winston S. Churchill wrote called “Amid These Storms”, in a chapter entitled “shall we commit suicide?” He writes “The liberties of men are no longer to be guarded by their natural qualities, but by their dodges” ….. “Such, then, is the peril with which mankind menaces itself. Means of destruction incalculable in their effects, wholesale and frightful in their character, and unrelated to any form of human spirit: the march of Science unfolding ever more possibilities: and the fires of hatred burning deep in the hearts of some of the peoples of the world, (and this next part is the most important- Martin) fanned by continual provocation and unceasing fear, and fed by the deepest sense of national wrong or national danger!”
In His next chapter entitled “mass effects in modern life”, “They no longer rely upon the Hero, the Commander, or the Teacher as they did in bygone rugged ages, or as the less advanced peoples do to-day. They wend their way ponderously, unthinkingly, blindly, but nevertheless surely and irresistibly towards goals which are ill-defined and yet magnetic”.
And in His next chapter called “fifty years hence”, “We have the spectacle of the powers and weapons of man far outstripping the march of his intelligence; we have the march of his intelligence proceeding far more rapidly than the development of his nobility. We may well find ourselves in the presence of ‘the strength of civilization without its mercy'”.
“It is therefore above all things important that the moral philosophy and spiritual conceptions of men and nations should hold their own amid these formidable scientific evolutions. It would be much better to call a halt in material progress and discovery rather than to be mastered by our own apparatus and the forces which it directs”. ….. “Without an equal growth of Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love, Science herself may destroy all that makes human life majestic and tolerable.”
–Martin Serna
I just watched this video. Sherry Turkle says that in Her new book She writes that technology enables us to forget what we know about life.
https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/category/events/video-archive/?postId=72905
–Martin Serna
Can you point me to a scientifically controlled study that shows
experts and art lovers can actually tell the difference just by looking?
Wow. just wow. Sensory analysis. Absolutely true. War is death. Smells like it to.
My wife is a blood decendant of Daniel Boone, proven by DNA testing. Indeed her mother’s maiden name is Boone. And if memory serves me, there is also a connection between Lincoln and Boone, as there is between Lincoln and my wife.
Well said. As architecture critic for the San Jose Mercury News, I never bought that Casper the Ghost theory of architecture. Winchester was a talented amateur architect (she had subscriptions to the current architecture journals) who was lucky enough to have the means to be her own client. The use of new technology, the quality of light brought into rooms, the use of materials — these all show her fascination with design.
As one of the signatories to the proposal to retire Diablo Canyon, I too thought of David Brower. He knew how to negotiate and on occasion compromise, but his determination to phase out nuclear power never waned. He’s truly one of my heroes. http://www.a4nr.org
What a fine article! This makes me want to find a good biography of Sherman – can you recommend one?
Thanks, Joe, for a rational, personal discussion. “Equal access” is certainly at the heart of all the educational issues that follow, whether they be student safety, teachers with substantial
educational experience, or student achievement leading to career(s) and personal success.
That “small amount” — One Billion Dollars — would provide enough each year to hire a school librarian for every K-12 school in the state, buy a book per child every year to re-stock the libraries, and set up the training programs at the state universities to train a new generation of librarians. Currently there are only 800 certificated school librarians in our 10 Thousand schools. It is HOW you spend the money that counts. Every child deserves a quality school library.
Jim, you moved my soul and my memories… my parents as you know scaped from Austria and Czechoslovakia as young teenagers back on 1938. Stories like yours must be remembered, I thank you for your friendship and for sharing your story. Keep well!
The author provides a rose-tinted perspective on TPP and suggest this is all about choosing between ‘protectionism’ and ‘free trade’. It’s not. What we do know of the details of TPP (it was negotiated in secret mostly by corporate and Wall Street lobbyists) that contains protectionist provisions, e.g. the pharmaceutical industry gets stronger patent protections, delaying cheaper generic versions of drugs. Great for big Pharma, not so great for ordinary people. And how about this: TPP sets up a international tribunal system international tribunal outside any nation’s legal system corporations can use to obtain compensation for any “lost profits” found to result from a nation’s regulations. So, if a country bans offshore oil drilling in its territorial waters, petroleum companies can use the tribunal system to obtain compensation for loss of theoretical profits; the same goes for, say, nations that pass anti-smoking legislation. Philip Morris is currently using existing tribunals of this type against Uruguay claiming Uruguay’s strong anti-smoking regulations unfairly diminish the company’s profits.
The fact that important but bad trade deals like TPP have bipartisan support and are passed with little press coverage should tell you something about the rotten state of politics and the press.
There are different types of “funny” for different people and for different reasons. Some people want to feel better by laughing at other people. Some people are entertained when they share an experience. Others are entertained when through smart wordplay or obscure references. And other simply “don’t want to think about stuff.” [and lets not get into formats!]
The key question is: “Is it funny?” The secondary question (if you want to analyze the person laughing): “Why is it funny?”
Andrew Dice Clay is a good example of a comedian which time left behind. Dice Clay was “funny” in the early 80’s, to jr. high school kids. I laughed because I thought it was funny… or maybe I just liked “shock.” But one grows up, learns, discovers, and Dice Clay is just using cheap jokes, that rely on people’s own prejudices and/or the “shock” is no longer “shocking.” I never enjoyed Seinfeld the comedian, but watch “Sienfeld” in reruns just about every day. (the worse part of the show are the snippets from his standup routine.) The show is funny on so many levels: making fun of people (while still allowing for dignity and humanity – Newman:”She wasn’t my type.”); shared experience (how many people approach dating like George?); intelligent jokes (“serenity now!”); and simple slapstick (“giddyup!”) Fast forward 20 year and Seinfeld the comedian is complaining about the audience – that just ain’t funny… not the original jokes, nor the complaining.
So to recap – it’s not the words or the tools that are funny (or not), it’s how we use them. Paul Mooney on Dave Chappelle Show can say things that are hilarious ; but those same words in a different context from a different person sound cheap and lazy. BTW, regarding black face… Jimmy Kimmel – the same one hosted the emmys and ABC’s late night show, was famous – among other things – for his black face impersonation on “The Man Show.” It was funny.
Is it funny?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYL5r0aN8vw
It’s interesting that for all this the Ventura County cast has not become as “posh” as the coasts of Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and Orange Counties. Did they close the door before “posh” could get in?
Inspiring article!
What you saw first-hand in comedy school, where they teach white students how to get away with racism, was chilling. We all need to make sure comedy stays true to its purpose of freeing up marginalized voices, not oppressing them, and your work is helping.
The assertion that coyotes do not carry rabies is incorrect.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/coyote-caught-biting-new-jersey-man-rabies-cops-article-1.2194665
I find the current fondness for antiheroes and other badly compromised individuals unsettling.
A charming monster is still a monster.
When I see the Statue of Liberty, I think of all the millions of immigrants who first saw it when they sailed into NY Harbor past Ellis Island, drawn by her promise to the storm-tossed. Did those men, women, and children come looking for walls? No, they came looking for opportunity and a better life. The sooner everyone learns that America belongs to everyone looking for a new land and new opportunity, the sooner we have a chance to make this country truly great again. If Republicans remember that George Washington used the word “nation,” not “deportation,” they can be part of making America great for more than just white people.
Practicable… as in hypersonic-delivered 50-megaton nukes aimed by the world’s first & foremost space-booster-capable nation? I missed something here–is there a conspiracy-theory going about forward-based rocketry in Cuba? ” Practicable” as in an obvious-intent increased armament after WWII? Practicable as in complete (starvation) blockade of West Berlin?
Poor Ukraine. Take a look at history, it was Herbert Hoover’s claim to fame that he helped reduce the intentional starvation of Ukraine. Starved by Stalin, victim of shoddy Nuclear power (Chernobyl) under (Russian-centered) International Socialism, and cowardly-infiltrated by unmarked troops to assimilate Crimea in Anschluss-style. While their treaty-guarantor of sovereignty looked the other way.
So what’s to fear, maybe that they will prop up Totalitarian regimes who outwardly bomb and chem-attack civilians? Hey, it’s plain that Authoritarian repression is assuming commercial dominance a-la-Post-war America, and we don’t see a Newspeak relationship coming?
Seriously, take some World History. We don’t need Neville Chamberlains, we need bull-dog defenders of the same free speech that allows this endorsement of societies built around speech repression.
Commentators afraid of speaking pro-Russia? Have you tried speaking anti-Putin inside *his* borders? And, don’t you just love his horse-mounted (Hitler-esque) propaganda art?
Congratulations Mr. Martinez, this collection of articles is very well done and very welcome at this vital juncture. The “Washington Consensus” on Russia is an echo chamber of Cold War leftovers with new-generation ignorance that is long overdue for critical reappraisal.
Our nightmare scenario in the early 70’s was Russian subs 200 miles off our coast. their R27 SLBM launched against DC & NYC, using a depressed trajectory (sacrificing range for speed) could hit In 6 minutes. Land based ICBM’s which had a better CEP (accuracy) than our minuteman ICBM could hit our command center at Offutt AFB, and our minuteman silo’s in 30 minutes. add another 5 minutes to get at the 16 Titan II’s based near Tucson Arizona.
But the raised dais needs to be abolished.
But the obvious point is that people who take ballot selfies and broadcast them are just plain jerks. While elections are little more than seeing who can attain enough “likes,” for some voters there is more to them than having the opportunity to glorify the “self.” When voting, one should be considering the common good, not how good one looks while doing it.
Better that attention be paid to standardizing voting procedures throughout the United States.
One of the accomplishments of the Clinton administration during the 1990’s was the economic boom fueled by world trade. This was true not only for our traditional trading partners but more notably to third world countries. It proved to be a resounding and quite calming force, against the old world order that defined the cold war. It uplifted and redistributed resources and wealth to countries that were chronically poor and unified middle class societies in other third world countries with the hopes and aspirations of self-sufficient free enterprise as envisioned by the late economist Milton Friedman. The work of Hillary Clinton during her tenure as Secretary of State and particularly her work in Africa is a reflection of the State department work during the Bill Clinton administration. If Hillary gets in and a new boom in trade occurs between the United States and third world countries, old players like the archaic Russians and the disoriented and confused American Republican Party, will either have to join in the advantages of the new economic boom or, just get out of the way.
Great article. 🙂
What a Joke… Mark my word In 20 years all Ventura will be wealthy people and no Middle class whatsoever. The poor people wont be able to live there and they will have to live on the outskirts to work there.. NOT TOO SMART VENTURA… You will regret your no Growth policies for sure..
I’m always telling people Texas acts as rogue state. I now present to you exhibit A, from Mr. Tervalon.
Tell you truth, I have absolutely no desire to visit that state!
Thank you for your piece.
I think there is one aspect that you didn’t consider.
I would suspect that in most, or perhaps all, of those incidents where you had a gun pulled on you in your private life, they were illegal guns pulled by people who were committing a crime by having them. Tell me if that’s not the case.
In Texas, on the other hand, their law deals with law abiding community members carrying guns lawfully.
So, while guns are common to both situations, you haven’t addressed the fact that the people carrying them will not be similarly situated.
I’m not saying your concerns are baseless, I’m just saying that you have left this out of the discussion.
Going from a system of accountability of schools provided by the State and Federal governments that were both extremely restrictive and unworkable to the current environment can be unnerving to those that require tidiness. The truth of the matter is that the previous system was not exactly tidy nor without waste. And, needed funding for specific demographic zones was difficult. What gets me most is the newest emphasis on the achievement gap between children of low income and children of adequate income or higher. The old arguments have been that education, in general, in k-12 in the U.S. was falling behind the achievement levels of children in other countries. Now, the arguments are about how education in the U.S. is failing our poorest students.
What is really being promoted are privatized schools that promise a panacea for all the ills in public education. and accountability is twisted into making children a commodity. “We’re betting that these children will be valued more ” and so investors invest to get a return on the productivity of a school. That is not how education works. People for hundreds of years have bought into the fallacy that by going to Harvard, for example, guarantees a student prosperity.In the last many decades that concept has trickled down to so called top high schools with those schools providing the best avenue to entrance to a top university.
So, in the last three decades and more the pressure for high achievement at the elementary level has had the “ed” industrial complex busy coming up with cookie cutter answers to extremely complex issues of learning.
Having been the offspring of educators and then becoming a teacher myself, the answers to the concern for “new” achievement gap is poorly placed. All children can learn and achieve. The problem is whether the “ed” bureaucracy can get out of its own way and redirect essential funding toward this gap. Yes, the issue is money, but rather how it is being spent. Probably billions of dollars have been spent training teachers on presentation skills and effective class management. And, for the most part, that money may have been well spent. But, those dollars did not address how to take care of between 20 and 30 percent of any given roster in any classroom in the U.S.
In any given classroom in America today of, say, twenty-five students in any k-6 elementary school there are 3 to 6 students not achieving at all. And, the reasons, not excuses, are plenty. But, the real deal has to do with a system that didn’t mediate those reasons in kindergarten or first grade and certainly didn’t follow through.
In low or very low income neighborhoods in California, for example, upwards of 30 percent of the children in school are “homeless” today. “Homeless” implies that there is extreme stress in those families to adequately provide minimal living standards to their children. And, from just this can be derived a whole host of well-being issues that cannot be adequately addressed by the classroom teacher.
The answer is easy and complex. The family and the teacher are not supported in the current system to provide academic success to the children they care for. What is needed is a triage team comprised of a certified medical practitioner, a psychologist, a social worker, a community “outreach” person, and a qualified/certificated teacher. That team, in conjunction with school personnel and the family works intensively to provide the necessary and immediate mediation to, essentially, “launch” a child and provide a child the path to learn.
The current education system fumbles when it comes to neurological (spectrum) disorders, dyslexia, and general family stress and nutrition. Children who stay in school and are inadequately helped and remain low achievers often end up as unfortunate statistics of our juvenile and, by extension, adult justice system. And, remain a drag on the achievement levels in our public schools.
So, will local funding control help to fund schools to help low income and low achieving students? Perhaps some. But, not to the extent of re-directing those funds to emphasize the necessary focus on children ages 4,5,6,and 7. It is so much more efficient to insure that these children begin to read and write rather than to wait.
The open source technology community has demonstrated replacement systems. The solution to this security crisis has been tendered for years with progress now sighted in San Francisco County , CA (and a couple other counties.)- The real beast in the room is the Microsoft lobby who has pressured the politicians to ignore solution- see http://www.cavo-us.org Outside penetration as well as insider manipulation must be addressed to retain / encourage voter confidence..
Dear Dr. Nagle, I don’t know why you classified West Virginia as a “scattered” state, and apart from the border states. In 1876, according to historian Charles Ambler (History of West Virginia, pg. 376), 7 of the 8 major office holders in the state were Confederate veterans. The state was a “redeemer” state and had just thrown out the Civil War republican constitution of 1863 and written a new constitution with a convention primarily of former Confederate delegates, chaired by Charles James Faulkner, who had been imprisoned by Lincoln for buying arms for the Confederacy while he was the US ambassador to France.
Too harsh, Joe, but, more importantly, too soon. Let’s give the new accountability report card a chance. For far too long we have ignored that school site variable, the culture of the school itself, in evaluating student achievement. The proposed multiple measures approach is certainly a more just one, for all concerned, than the standardized test score growth regimen that has dominated so many judgments about “school success” during the past dozen years.
What an awesome article. Thanks so much for sharing your experience. Now, I have to look up what “hundo P” means…
I cannot help but discern a streak of determinism in the argument, as if the attacks were bound to happen and could not be defused. I wish to nuance this. Any analist of the security and intelligence policies in Belgium (like myself) knows that many terrorist attempts and preparations were defused before the March 22 attacks (e.g. a sleeper cell in Verviers). The context of the police apparatus was that it remained for long over-bureaucratized and working under capacity (both federal and local police), while budget and staff capacity of the State Security Service (VSSE) has for long been absolutely insufficient. Some foreign intelligence chiefs have referred to the sheer ‘luck’ that some pieces of information and clues were flagged and processed ina timely manner, lest more perpetrators would slip through under the radar. There were however critical shortcomings in French-Belgian intelligence exchange (in fact this is also a wider problem in EU intelligence cooperation despite Europol, Eurojust, and the Club of Berne’s efforts) that led to ignoring indications and ‘operational myopia’. The response was obvious to raise visible security measures and have military patrols, though the psychological effects thereof cannot be generalized to a general ‘insecurity feeling’! It may take years to draw a more telling picture of the longer-term effects of having intense patrols, backpack checks, or preemptive arrests in broad daylight of released people with a criminal record. Also, some commentators refer to this change of “laissez-faire” liberal and unchallenged urban life to more vigilant, cautious, perhaps less-trusting tonality in public life ‘the new normal’. Perhaps the Brussels melting pot remained too long too secluded in a bubble of naïve, somewhat utopian low-aggression lifestyle, like a twin to “pacific” Geneva. Multiculturalism or internationalism in cityscapes is not necessarily a buffer against nor incubator of foreign or homegrown violence or terrorism. Think of bustling Tel Aviv, which is also a large city where many cultures, erhnicities, traditions and lifestyles converge. Open-minded, ‘tolerant’ and hospitable as it may be portrayed, it was for long a target site for suicide bombings, car bombings and the sort. People have developped an adaptive ‘modus vivendi’ with that terror threat and learnt not to yield to excessive fearmongering, paranoia, or spontaneous self-victimization. I’d argue that societal resilience in Brussels was either ill-gauged and a hoax (and the attacks functioned as a hard wakeup call), or was poorly practiced or tested in other circumstances (e.g. a fire or massive medical evacuation). Cases show that communities who really train and prepare enough for crisis / disaster scenarios gain in resilience and confidence when getting through an unsettling event and feel less helpless and insecure in the aftermath (response and recovery phases). While the (inter)cultural delights of Brussels may have allowed or emulated a general sense of belonging (as in: new strangers not feeling starkly marginalized), a portion of the people with mixed background was missing a rootedness, and that (family, cultural or strata) identity gap was exploited by ISIS and others. Liberal, “laissez-faire” multiculturalism was unable to sufficiently encourage and crystalize intercommunal solidarity and ‘autonomous (bottom-up) drive’ to continued neighborhood resilience strenghtening. Security is not just an external ‘state’ or ‘service’ provided by the authorities, but a common good that every law-abiding citizen has to look after as well as a ‘security stakeholder’. That is the inclusive, whole-of-society security paradigm. Especially in terms of conflict prevention, people should not fear negative blowback when looking after a civilized solution with a neigbor or neighbors themselves – because then the “fear for the other” effectively makes people less initiative-taking. A liminal but strongly embedded “fear of the other” conditions responses that are more lenient to individualistic self-preserving and not “protecting the collective” instead. Fear of the other can, but doesn’t automatically prompt needed intra-group solidarity. Often the trigger for intra-group solidarity stems from a collectively felt determination to take matters into their own hands, and to protect group interests (material such as group survival or immaterial, like values). The lever to foster more confidence in the collective agency and ability to (re)shape one’s (security) environment stems from a particular type of “uniting” charismatic leadership. While some people will mainly remember stark-looking, emotionless, ‘tight’ faces and gazes from military and police (thus emphasizing the ‘alien’ character of the security forces in the street), others like myself did observe some patrols exhibiting unpretentious confidence and cues of humanity one can attone for and still associate with (sentiments that potentially contribute to a higher psychological proximity, thus making the sight and interaction between civilians and ‘the uniformed’ more informal, less anxiety-laden or awkward ). It’s to be seen how new initiatives to make Brussels attractive and spontaneous again will mitigate the perception of “loss of heimat”. And finally: tanks, excuse me !?! I haven’t seen a tank on halftracks with a reinforced gun barrel anywhere in Brussels! I fear that’s a subcontious form of dramatizing your observations. The vehicles you refer to are in fact mobile Armored Personnel Carrier vehicles – or APCs. They move on tyres, only rarely the track version would be deployed in Brussels. One such APC that I once saw at Grand Place had a small rotating turret machinegun, which is operated by camera. Yet in military parlance, that’s still designated an armoured carrier, not a (battle) tank.
“Hamilton” did what it was suppose to do. YOU put yourself in the narrative.
Sure, why not. Welcome Tunisia.
Manipulative dismantling of the “Crown Jewel of Sacred Trust” by special interests (VA, West Los Angeles) contradicts the “life and death decisions” comment made here. When integral principles as deep as “care for those who have borne the battle” are institutionally ignored, grossly violated, and detoured-over by an obvious one-party system, its candidates, law makers and minions, this one-boot-fits-all encouragement is lost.
This is a thought provoking essay by Mr. Martinez. I too am fearful about a rule of an un- restrained majority or minority whether they be populists or progressives. As an example of the progressive movement’s excesses consider the censured speech on university campuses.
Wow great research. Accountability is essential in our communities, especially with people who have sworn in as protectors and peacemakers of our city. Hope the decrease continues and that these methods are practice countywide.
“Celebrating one historical figure does not mean we automatically discredit or undermine the contributions of another.”
I have to disagree. In many cases, such a thing is automatic.
Some viewpoints, including who’s the hero of a specific story, simply can’t co-exist, due to the inability to clarify the nuances and complexities in the time frame required by a show, movie, or even TV series.
People spend years and years of their lives studying this stuff just to understand it. When you condense it down into a couple of hours (or less), things will get lost–that’s just how it is. Shows require a conflict, and, for the audience to feel for that conflict, somebody needs to be the bad guy. Someone needs to be thrown under the bus.
You can make the bad guy sympathetic, but, at the end of the day, he still needs to be the bad guy. There’s no real room for conflicting points of view in this medium, because there’s no time to delve into them.
In fact, people have made a living by going back & taking plays that are in the public domain, like Shakespeare, and rewriting them to show those alternative points of view. That’s really the only way it can be done: as a completely separate piece, roughly as long as the original.
The difference is that people actually come out of this show believing it to be a true story. That’s why this article exists.
With Hollywood portrayals, people don’t think that because people aren’t that stupid.
If American Indians feel as you say, they should read the above sentence over and over until it sinks in that people don’t think Pocahontas is a documentary & they’re getting upset over nothing.
Wow! The level of anti-democratic discourse, unquestioned imperialist privilege and white supremacist stereotyping in this Zocalo exploration of populism is really a new low. The idea of comparing Trump to Chavez is astonishing. Chavez was popularly elected multiple times and carried parliamentary and constitutional revision elections favoring greater democratic participation multiple times and successfully overturned a US-back military/elitist coup. The tide of reactionary restorationist regimes in Latin America that started with the Clinton orchestrated coup in Honduras and that has continued with various other electoral, parliamentary and military regime changes in Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil has nothing to do with democracy and everything to do with reasserted US hegemony in the region and its effective use of aligned elements in local elites that control corporate media. The vast poor majority of the population of Latin America, mainly of indigenous and African descent have gotten a taste of dignity and power and will reassert their capacity to shape the destiny of America. Donald Trump represents the exact opposite — the grievance of privilege and a discontented and decaying Empire.
First, white supremacy? Please educate yourself on what that term means. There’s nothing about that in this article. As for Chavez, he was popularly elected because he was good at creating coalitions (credit where credit is due) but the way in which he did so has cost Venezuela dearly. Even you can’t deny that the country is in shambles.
Re-asserted hegemony, you must be joking! The United States hasn’t engaged Latin America at all in recent years..and instead, average people have decided they want to be rid of populists like Cristina and Maduro. Likely, because they are ineffective at governance and consistently use simplistic and dishonest anti-West, anti-“imperial” rhetoric to persuade voters.
Additionally, you must not be following the political situation in the United States very closely. The white working class voter does not feel that they have any privilege, and thus is angry at being neglected by the elites. It is the exact same reaction to the populists you speak of.
Also, please don’t confuse dignity and power for the “oppressed” with Maduro, Kircheners, and their ilk. That’s an insult to the very same people you claim to be speaking in favor.
I don’t disagree with the entirety of Mr. Brennan’s analysis, but I do find a dangerous sentiment embedded therein.
He writes that “[r]epresentative democracies do not simply impose the will of the people. They over-perform, producing better policies than the people actually want, because elites keep the masses in check (and vice versa).” This assumes that only elites should serve as representatives, which is not necessarily true. Athenian democracy, for example, tended to choose representatives by lot (i.e. sortition), which meant that the representative usually came from the masses that he (and in ancient Greece it was most definitely a he) represented.
Worse than the above, however, is the assumption that elite status is necessarily determined by income, which seems to be the basis for characterizing the fact that “voters at the 90th percentile of income tend to be significantly better informed than voters at the 50th or 10th percentiles” as “a positive twist”. I suppose it’s positive if you accept that political representatives should or even just will inevitably determine policy in response to the desires of the wealthy, but that’s a plutocracy, not a democracy. What Mr. Brennan seems to be doing here, therefore, is saying that the best way to avoid the wrath of ignorant, demagogic populism is to institutionalize plutocracy. I disagree.
Rather than accepting that “voter ignorance and misinformation, populism, [and] rent seeking … are endemic to representative democracy”, we might instead choose to reform representative democracy in ways that minimize these problems.
First, elite status need not be tied to wealth. It might be tied instead to merit, as determined by intelligence, talent, education, etc. This conception of “elite” would suggest that we combat ignorant, demagogic populism not with plutocracy, but with technocracy. Some may argue that these are one and the same in the US, since our supposed meritocracy proportionately rewards intelligence, talent, education, etc. with wealth, but – and I suspect that Mr. Brennan would agree with me – a brief consideration of Donald Trump should dispel this notion. One obvious way to shift power away from the wealthy is via campaign finance reform, which is not only one of the primary proposals coming from that populist Bernie Sanders, but is also one that the populist Donald Trump has leveraged for support.
Second, rather than accept the correlation between wealth and information, we might instead choose to better distribute access to information by increasing and more equitably allocating funding for public education and reforming the hyper-commercialized media system so that journalism (at the very least) is less responsive to considerations of profit.
Third, instead of accepting that voters have no incentive to inform themselves, we might seek to alter our political economic decision-making systems so that citizens are more engaged, especially in relation to outcomes that will most affect them. Mr. Brenner says that “[n]o one has yet come up with a workable solution”, but there is a growing body of literature on participatory democracy and an ever increasing set of initiatives that put it into practice. We can and should build on these.
Mr. Brennan’s analysis is not without value, but his conclusion is ultimately defeatist. Perhaps if our nation’s elite scholars were more optimistic and visionary we would find more political will to enact reforms and continue to hone our democracy. For anyone truly worried about the future, that seems to be the only legitimate course of action.
Like Mr. Novick (previous commenter), I’m disappointed by the opinions expressed in this Zócalo series. While the articles incorporate valid concerns about the difficulty of striking the right democratic balance, the combined effect is a dismissal of the many valid critiques motivating populist movements and an acceptance of the elitist, plutocratic status quo.
In this piece, Ms. Nelson present Michel Temer’s rise to power in Brazil as the unproblematic result of an anticorruption movement. Suffice it to say that many close observers have come up with a much different interpretation, which sees Temer and his cabinet as seeking to shield their own corruption, and that of their allies, from prosecution.
Meanwhile, although Chávez and other leaders of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution are not without fault, Ms. Nelson elides the many flawed but nonetheless democratic initiatives they have put forward, not to mention the deeply undemocratic behavior of the elite opposition.
The picture presented here is detrimentally simplistic.
There we go again with this “dependency” narrative. “Democratic initiatives”…get real. Look where Venezuela is today.
My mother was sterilized by these laws in California just after I was born. I grew up hearing her talk about it, not truly understanding what a hysterectomy meant, with the family that sanctioned the procedure nodding without acknowledging. Different times.
I think it’s going to have to be done like wine, with appellations controlees. Also, we have to favor less environmentally destructive ways of cultivating it.
Thank you for this thoughtful and informative analysis. As a Californian, I am participating in another option available to voters – to certify a write-in candidate without the candidate having to file paperwork, as stated in the CA Elections Code Sections 8650-8653.
Thank you for all your hard work on behalf of voters and voting equity!
When things were good, Stockton thought they were real good. Long Beach had a inferiority complex about its tiny port, tiny airport, tiny civic center and huge parking structure that never was filled even when Walmart was there. So when things got bad, Long Beach cut back on some fire houses, cops and school teachers, ,,,,,and,,,,,,waited. Robert Garcia grew up thinking that this was just the way it was with Long Beach. And now that things are getting good, most of us are worried about how the good might hurt our community. I know of few debts that might plague us. I’m probably like most of you and worry about how we can be a striking beach community with our lack of housing. Good times in Long Beach scare me. I just don’t know what to do.
She was a fifth grade teacher?! I shudder to wonder what “facts” she shares with impressionable children. I once had to pull rank, so to speak, when one grade school teacher had some of her basic biology wrong. Worked out well though because she invited me to talk to class. I brought in all sorts of bones and whole skeletons and had lots of hands-on material, quizzes, and games. It was so successful she had me come in every year and even parents began showing up for it.
Then she moved, and later I moved, but I keep telling myself I should do it again.
What an unbelievably tone deaf article! You want insight into our election results and how to resolve problems? Start by visiting with the people you omit from your piece here, the ones who turned out in huge numbers voting against expectations because they felt omitted from national discourse already; go to the rust belt. Go visit northern PA or West Virginia. I’m all for international perspective, but lack of it wasn’t what sent this election awry. Unless you’re going to go jet-setting abroad with some unemployed rust betters, I don’t think increasing your degree of disconnect will resolve this country’s internal divide. But, hey, enjoy the vacation you’re so lucky to be able to afford.
@Josh, he is right. The solutions are elsewhere.
Other countries have revived the rust belts, but not the US.
Even the older rust belts of NE have not been revived. Instead America has created this culture of abandonment because municipal bonds has enabled suburban development, which by the way is not financially viable.
https://www.economy.com/dismal/analysis/datapoints/287669/Helping-Struggling-Places/
Helping Struggling Places
http://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2016/11/7/the-infrastructure-time-bomb
The Infrastructure Time Bomb
The big problem with American democracy is how many eligible voters did not vote at all (almost 47%).
Will Trump fix the tax code?
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy-budget/276424-small-businesses-pay-their-taxes-why-dont-big-corporations
Small businesses pay their taxes: Why don’t big corporations?
Next up, disappointed voters will join those who already do not participate!
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bond-guru-bill-gross-says-trump-voters-will-suffer-most-from-election-result-2016-11-16?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo
Bond guru Bill Gross says Trump voters will suffer most from election result
Joe could you please respond to this comment with references to the local citizen engagement in Vienna and Seoul? Thanks.
People don’t need to travel outside the country as much as they need to travel *inside* the country. A big reason bicoastal elites are so shocked by the Trump vote is that while they pride themselves on knowing about other countries they have only the haziest idea of what’s going on in the rest of America–and it’s not just dying coal towns out there. Trump won because independents broke late for him (https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2016/11/09/voters-want-change-not-ideology/) not because half of America is a bunch of Nazis. James Fallows’s travels to mid-sized cities are a better model for what needs to be done: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/03/how-america-is-putting-itself-back-together/426882/
thanks for this post…what you say is so important. I hope you’ll consider coming to the Open Government Partnership December 7-9 in Paris…it should be a place where you can bring and share your lessons from Spain and Californian (I am a Californian living in DC working on congressional reform…and plan to be there)
Democrats love to say that “Trump is a populist” and imply that his supposed populism, is bad and dangerous. Now, the real question: Who here actually knows WHAT populism is? And is it bad? Let’s delve into it.
Populism is a political ideology that holds that virtuous citizens are mistreated by a small circle of elites, who can be overthrown if the people recognize the danger and work together. Populism depicts elites as trampling on the rights, values, and voice of the legitimate people.
Populist movements are found in many democratic nations. Cas Mudde says, “Many observers have noted that populism is inherent to representative democracy; after all, do populists not juxtapose ‘the pure people’ against ‘the corrupt elite’?”
In fact, populism is often a necessary part of democratic society, because without the occasional healthy mistrust of the government and without the occasional throwing out of corrupt officials, a government which started out full of liberty and freedom can easily become slowly tyrannical, known as a “soft tyranny”.
The leftist liberal democrats want you to be scared of populism, for the simple reason that they do not WANT to end the corruption. In fact, they do not even want you to think it exists.
Now: Some- mostly, liberal elitists who support big controlling government (coincidence?)- will tell you that populism is bad because, quote, “at populism’s core is a rejection of pluralism. Populists will always claim that they and they alone represent the people and their true interests.”
However, this is a fallacy- first of all, “pluralism”- defined as “the condition or system in which two or more states, groups, principles, sources of authority, etc., coexist”- can and does exist with a populist candidate.
If Donald Trump is trying to fight corruption, that does not mean that he is taking away rights from elected officials- we have the rule of law and our constitution as well as balance of powers, to prevent that. Every single elected official is going to promote their views once elected- that’s kind of the point of why you determine a candidate’s views prior to electing them.
You can’t just loosely imply that because a candidate cares about ending corruption in Washington, for example, that he is going to shut down all opposing debates, need safe spaces from opposing viewpoints, demonize the opposition as horrible people and try to get them ousted against the will of the people- last time I checked, that’s everything the radical left-wing agenda in this country is attempting to do.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/populist
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populism
A powerful message I will be sharing with my college-age daughters, as well as my teenage son. Thank you.
Thank you for posting this. Many of us were taught by our mothers to smile and endure these insults. Our generation, and the generations of our children, need to change our misogynistic culture, starting now.
I am afraid that the ultimate harassing is when government tries to strip a woman’s’ rights. We’ve all endured the harassment’s in the work place, the harassment’s in public. the harassment’s from that dick your husband calls his childhood friend…some of us have stood up in defense, but I am guilty of not being consistent. We also have an obligation as women not to harass other’s. I have caught myself on many occasion. I appreciate your open letter as it is a lesson that we can all take action for ourselves and our young ones, step forward and teach them, defend them, protect them. Good luck with your pledge, I will be joining you…
Thank you for posting this. I am interested in being part of the solution. One of the things that I think would be helpful is more examples of what women have said, or could say, in response like the example you give of “No thanks. You can hear what I have to say better when you’re looking at my face.”
One of the things that I have learned as a gay man is that I am often at a loss for words when faced with a difficult situation. I’m not one of those quick-tongued gay men who has a ready retort. I often think of them later after the verbal attack. So, that said, people please share ideas of what one could say, either as the target of the harassment or as the ally who is looking for just the right thing to say. Let’s be prepared!
Kim, I just found your story because I am looking for survivors who lived on the Tung An. My father was the owner of that ship and I want to tell the stories of the people that were rescued at sea. Your story is emotional and compelling. I was raised in the US and was here when your escape experience occurred. My dad was telling me about it but I never truly grasped the gravity of the situation. Before he passed away in 2010, he gave me his file on this event with his letters to the UN and others in trying to rectify the situation. It wasn’t until now that I started doing the research to write this story. I would be so grateful if you would contact me so we can arrange for me to interview you at some point. This would be a wonderful story to record for your children to have. I hope to hear from you. Misty Ty mistyty@gmail.com
Hey..the White Sox are here too.
Can you imagine how popular a play full of “historical rigor” would be? Wouldn’t even find a backer. Facts shmacks. Entertainment is king.
Shakespeare’s plays are very entertaining by they require a far higher IQ to appreciate than the average broadway ticket buyer.
Today yes, because of the arcane language. But in their day they were no different to a broadway show, mere entertainment for the masses.
I’ll have to differ with you on that. As literature the plays are regarded as world class literary masterpieces. I doubt many broadway plays will hold a similar status over 400 years from now.
People who do paint by numbers are always convinced that they’re just as talented as Rembrandt and will go to extreme measures to try to convince everyone else of the same thing and violently oppose and denigrate those who disagree.
The authors for some reason, maybe because of the time of writing versus publishing, are ignoring that hacking may very well have taken place in the swing states. Several articles are out there on this very serious concern that the wrong person is president elect of the United States. Also, Jill Stein has raised millions for recounts to be sure that all of our citizens’ votes are counted. Hacking is too serious to fluff off, with an article saying it could easily happen, but we’re so lucky it seems it didn’t. It seems it did.
I am reading this in November, about three weeks post presidential elections. Were you able to secure necessary clearance to visit Obaidullah? What was your first meal together?
Just how hard of a problem is it for an algorithm to determine real news from lies? Not that hard. You just have to have the will, and therein lies the issue, FACEBOOK, I’m looking at you.
From Business Insider:
Four students on a hackathon solved it in 36 hours: Their plug-in classifies every post, be it pictures (Twitter snapshots), adult content pictures, fake links, malware links, fake news links as verified or non-verified using artificial intelligence.
“For links, we take into account the website’s reputation, also query it against malware and phishing websites database and also take the content, search it on Google/Bing, retrieve searches with high confidence and summarize that link and show to the user. For pictures like Twitter snapshots, we convert the image to text, use the usernames mentioned in the tweet, to get all tweets of the user and check if current tweet was ever posted by the user.”
The browser plug-in then adds a little tag in the corner that says whether the story is verified.
For instance, it discovered that this news story promising that pot cures cancer was fake, so it noted that the story was “not verified.”
a very wise column. thank you for saying this.
and on a very practical level, why would Democrats vote to let the state that provides them with 55 electoral votes leave the union? they would be relegating themselves to permanent 2nd place status.
As for the Republicans, why would they let a state go when that state pays in to the federal government far more than it draws out?
The CalExit people are just kidding themselves – a total waste of political energy.
👍🏼
Excellent article, except Spain did not participate in the war out of a sense of benevolent friendship. Once the war ended Spain changed posture. The Mississippi was closed to American commerce, and the western territories were subjected to Spanish intrigue which culminated in the Burr Conspiracy and the defection of the traitor Gen James Wilkinson. Spain wanted to separate everything west of the Alleghenies from the Union, and they came perilously close to doing so.
From a speech from Spanish Governor Miro in New Orleans to council of southern tribes in Pensacola in June ’84. Proof that Spain was conspiring with the hostile tribes as soon as the ink was dry on Treaty of Paris.
“The King of Spain desires the friendship
of all red nations, and looks upon them
as his brothers. No other nation except
Spain can now supply your wants. In a short
time, the Spaniards expect to be at war with
the Virginians (Kentuckians), and we look upon the Indians
as our allies to aid and assist us when called
upon.”
“…Spanish intrigue…Spain was conspiring with the hostile tribes…” Of course, Americans always had, and still have, perfect divine right to all the territories they could ever want, in his benevolence, while Spaniards in the other hand were only a bunch of schemers conspirators and slavers, of course, why not?
I think it’s pretty clear that isn’t what Ernie is saying. He’s merely saying that to the extent that Spain had pro-colonist/anti-British activity, it was pretty limited and uneven and subject to their own interests and that immediately after the war, they became pretty anti-colonist. This is why the history does not record them as being as important allies as were the French (or even really direct allies). Because if history did so, history would be incorrect.
Of course, but he suggests that the Spanish had some evil plan against the US. The Spanish were aware of talk in the US about spreading into the lands to the west, and they only had a tiny population to defend it. Forming alliances with the Indians made sense in case of American expansion. Banning Americans from the Mississippi was probably a wise thing when Spanish settlements were still so small and far apart.
The Spanish supplied enormous amounts of supplies at their expense and their military commitments made them very important to the course of the war. The French navy would have been overwhelmed by the British navy and unable to maintain plentiful supplies from France or help with the land war like they did at Yorktown through the naval battle of Chesapeake. The British would have been able to concentrate far more resources in the American colonies. To try to belittle the Spanish involvement is ridiculous, without it, the US would have lost.
After the British surrender of West Florida in May 1781, Bernardo de Gálvez (Galvestown is named after him) prepared the Spanish troops to go after the British who fled to Jamaica. When he was departing, received the order to stop the attack due to the peace agreement between Spain and England. Jamaica was verty close to become another Spanish colony in the Caribean.
It is not so easy to democratize this knowledge to patients. Very well written.
I spent over 30 years of my life in Fresno, believing that a place with so much potential could become one of the coolest cities anywhere. I left (never to return) in 2005 and do not miss the place. Narrow minds, scofflaw strong-man police chief, city council that keeps their collective heads where the sun never shines and a public that is very mean are not likely to change, not now, and in my humble opinion, not ever.
90% of California’s land is empty…
Sorry, but, Singapore already has a quota in the H1B caps. Trump will not only remove that quota but also make it harder for Singaporeans to get H1B visa. Secondly, most of the upstream innovations occurs in America, all the downstream work is taken by foreigners. Trump will go so many sops to the American Tech Industry that they will refuse to outsource work or hire foreigners. I do not see how Singapore can benefit. If you need to understand more about the changes, try and google – Trump Uncertainty Principle H1B- it is a detailed writeup by an Indian Techie on H1B
I agree, everyone I encounter should financially support my child. Give me money.
That is a wonderful narrative……..thank you. I hope to achieve something similar soon!
This is a really interesting piece of history but seem like it stretches things too far for the purpose of a snappy headline and a desire to revise history. It is absolutely the case that the victory of the colonists over Great Britain was a factor of global conflicts among international powers including Spain which had interests in the Western Hemisphere. But the evidence that Spain played a specific and direct role in the Revolutionary War itself on behalf of the colonists is pretty weak.
Thank you for identifying the italicization error. We have made the correction.
Identifying information for the lead image has been added to the photo credit.
We are glad you enjoyed the story. Thanks for reading.
When I was in high school in the 1960s, George Bernard Shaw was the well known edgy character and Wilde was a minor figure. (The most popular Broadway musical of the 1950s was an adaptation of Shaw’s Pygmalion.) But it was a time when economic socialism was powerful and gay rights did not exist. Since the fall of Communism, Shaw has been eclipsed and Wilde raised to the level of a secular saint.
LOVE this essay, and the quiet way it illustrates that who we are permeates what we write. Lovely!
Beautiful remembrance and pointed commentary about sequestration, a game of chicken whose consequences continue to unfold to the detriment of many families and communities.
fascinating – the questions as well. Lots to think about.
I seems that California is too large to govern. Get rid of 23 of the north most counties as they want to leave anyways. This will give the legislators the ability to concentrate on urban issues and leave the ruralites to govern themselves. Everybody wins!
Except New Years Day falling on Jan. 1 is not the least bit secular. It is part of the Gregorian calendar introduced by papal bull (decree) in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII to correct the Julian calendar, which also marks the years counting forward from the birth of Christ. Far from being embraced by everybody, the celebration of New Years Day on January 1st is a Christian measure of time that is used worldwide for convenience when communicating with the West. But much of the world uses their own calendars: Jewish, Islamic, Chinese, Thai lunar etc. Nice article but maybe this new year you could resolve to expand your perspective a little.
I now need to read some of his work. “By their fruits you will know them.”
Well, much of the ‘heavy industrial” use that the author finds incompatible with mixed-use neighborhoods already exists in mixed-use neighborhoods along the Elysian Valley stretch. True, these neighborhoods are of lower than ideal densities, but they still provide affordable housing and accessible jobs for people from groups that have systematically been denied educational opportunities for generations. Will the current residents all have to move to the back reaches of Maywood now, to make room for wealthier people? Can’t developers working in existing, cohesive neighborhoods such as Elysian Valley be required to accommodate their longstanding residents with permanently-affordable housing stock of at least the quality of the existing single-family homes and older apartments, so as to add to the neighborhood, rather than replace it wholesale?
I’m not asking this as a rhetorical question. I want to know if Los Angeles can consider something other than immediate one-time corporate profitability in its approach to development. Can it? Does anyone care?
Our new President, deal-maker extraordinaire, I assume would heartily endorse your prescription for progress. I did not vote for the man, but I am looking forward to seeing what his approach will bring to governance. Our roads are blasphemous, so please, Governor Brown, shuffle the cards and DEAL!
The problem becomes more severe as state Supreme Courts give Tyler and Odyssey a statewide monopoly by using unfair and unaccountable power, unlimited taxpayer money and political pressure to ensure the monopoly for Tyler. This is Big Biz and Big Gov in an unholy alliance that is out of control.
I’ve been listening to the soundtrack for a few months (can’t get enough of it) and honestly don’t see Burr as just “the villain” in it. It references his trek to Canada and quite a few of his other accomplishments (military and political).
Honestly, the more I listen to it, the more annoying the character of Hamilton becomes. I agree with Burr that Hamilton is an “obnoxious, arrogant, loudmouth bother”.
I have yet to see the show, but I don’t think we’re listening to the musical in the same way.
I wonder if Rembrandt’s Return of the Prodigal Son in the Hermitage also used cochineal for the father’s cloak?
Why not the U.N.? Personally, I feel rather uncomfortable handing over our entire global narrative — lock, stock, and smoking nuclear plants — about what is “true” and “factual” to an even smaller group than that which already controls it.
In a world where there is clear and growing mistrust over centralized narratives (even those that are “factually true”), a push for further centralization seems like a step in the wrong direction… a step that either provokes a stronger divisive “flux” or is simply ineffectual. IMO.
yyy
America is Great,and it should be.
When Saudis Arabia, is on the UN human rights panel.. we know UN is way beyond ‘truth’ and should just be replaced.. treat a gender as beneath human rights. Sorry you can’t join the UN. And we will just point and laugh. And boycott you
Sir, you should have seen ‘PDQ’,as we called it, in the 1970s. There were no hotels just small family huts or homes that had camping spaces. Tres Maria’s had built the restaraunt a couple years before and had camping spaces with showers. We stayed at the family home next door. The family lived in the back of the house. There was a group of us from Iowa that wintered there for 5 or 6 years straight. One couple went down there 9 straight years. Those were the days, string your hammock for 50 cents a day, food was maybe a few dollars a day!
Right before I arrived the 1st time in ’74 a young gringo from Wisconsin was killed by banditos in front of Tres Maria’s. Another incident the next year had momma from Tres Marias with her .45 back down a couple Federalees that were harassing her customers on the beach! This brings back so many great times we had!
Great comments. The film Absolute Beginners (also a musical) also deals with the act of selling out artistically and the price paid for doing so (although not as fine a film). And then there is Viva Zapata! (by Steinbeck) which gradually shows the reasons for ultimately selling out politically. Selling out (a.k.a. accepting that youthful views may not entirely be realistic and/or economically sound) may just be part of the aging process for most or many of us.
Well, that sure is one way to look at it, whereas another perspective is to realize that accepting the status quo (AKA selling out) has this country in a downward spiral, and into this mess we’re in with a bully, fascist President-elect. I guess I never thought I’d witness the true beginning of the end of the U.S….at least not in such a shameful fashion.
You discuss at length the Disney reflection of America but there is zero evidence presented here about your claim as to the collective memory tourists take away. It certainly doesn’t reflect what people I know took away from it (which was positive but nothing about “America,” rather the fantasy of Disney which they see as purely escapist). But you don’t even present anecdotal information as to the “elevation of everyman” in the headline nor the vague claims as to Disney’s impact on people’s perceptions of America.
This really wastes your readers’ time.
Yes, let’s encourage corruption. Corruption of the wealthy, the powerful, the greedy, buying politicians off, holding power and money over communities as they destroy them and the little guys don’t have a chance in hell to save their communities against big money and power. The recent L.A. Times investigative reports, the revelations of developer political corruption, what goes on to get illegal community killing projects done in L.A. (Sea Breeze, Caruso) has brought about further investigations by a State Agency.
Corruption is a cancer festering that hopefully is on it’s way out.
Say YES to Measure S (March 7, 2017) and help usher it out.
The critique is apt not for Los Angeles or California, but for Hollywood specifically. Its something that so many from elsewhere conflate, but they are truly distinct things.
Mr. Mathews seems to ignore the corruption that already exists—-in CALPERS where the Executive Director goes to prison and the major financial ‘advisor’ cheated the fund; in the PUC where insider discussions between the leadership and utilities has been uncovered again and again; in the Coastal Commission, as ably documented by Steve Lopez. Corruption is the ability of the powerful (and that includes not just the wealthy, but the well connected) to make decisions outside of the public scrutiny and the public discussion. There is a reason that countries ranked badly by Transparency International have higher levels of inequality, poorer economic records and less democracy—-corruption does not ‘improve’ politics. His praise of the Mayor Daley’s of the world is close to the ‘trains on time’, and in reading a new essay in the Boston Review, I came across one paragraph from an old organizer for the IAF that paints very clearly what happened with Daley’s ‘machine’ and what happens with corruption. Perhaps Mr. Mathews should attend to improving our governance rather than pretending that we are not already damaged by corruption and its results:
Mr. Mathews, please justify this one, not unique, example of the corruption of Richard Daley’s Chicago as the better path for our state….”When our grade school, Our Lady of the Angels, caught fire on a cold
gray day in December 1958, killing ninety-two students and three nuns,
there was a national outpouring of grief and sympathy. Fire safety laws
and practices, long resisted by those who ran area schools, were finally
upgraded. But the city’s establishment—the Catholic mayor who started
every day with Mass, the largely Catholic fire department that lacked
ladders tall enough to reach the kids killed on the upper floor of the
school, the legal establishment that depended on the Democratic machine
for its living and that did not want to offend the archdiocese—made sure
that even minimal blame would never reach the mayor or the cardinal.”
I am 51 years old and don’t have time obsess on Trump for, at least, four years. Too much to do. Good idea about the closet to put any obsession away.
This is a really moving and insightful essay. Thank you, Chizu Omori.
I REMEMBER I GOT LOST ONE TIME AND ENDED UP ON BASELINE. I CAN STILL SMELL THE FLOWERS.
My dad picked up flowers from a shop down on Baseline on a weekly basis. My Mom almost always had fresh flowers…so beautiful. Great honey down there too.
Maybe think of it as a biggish VooDoo doll?
I had one of my former boss/owner. As the lawsuit ended, we went to a very nice outdoor bar (with fire pits) and I put pins in it, and then burned it. Seemed to work. Might for you too, though your milage depends on alcohol consumption.
Have fun!
Thanks for this piece. The importance of the Endo case should not be forgotten
Kishiyamas were such great people…always welcoming and friendly. Betty used to make arrangements for people with flowers they picked from the coolers. Some days the arrangements were almost too big to fit in your car!! She would tell stories about flower designing for the movie stars in Hollywood, including Bob Hope’s daughter’s wedding.
Beautiful!
It appears that cities and counties need to formulate live-work design/build codes to ameliorate the schism that exists between conventional single family residential/condominium lifestyle and the economic necessity which produced the warehouse fire in Oakland. 501-C-3 organizations would fill that gap with new, quasi-collectivist live-work laboratories. Rehab of historic core buildings has largely run its course; these latter environments only attract professionals chasing hipster illusions. The future expanse of the suburbs southeast and northeast of Sacramento as well as near Davis – Vacaville need not result in homogeneity so typical of Irvine. Enforced homogeneity is a part of the problem of cost of living. Non profit, collectivist, sustainable laboratories can be a productive avenue to boosting innovation. Zoning/planning/design codes ought to help out and lessen the schism. Los Angeles is now hemmed in by geology. The sacramento – Stockton axis adjacent to the Bay Area could hold great promise in fostering such laboratories for innovation.
Oh, Joe, you lucky fella!
I was looking forward to reading this article but your mid-life crisis reasoning for driving it is such a bore. I’m 80 years old and drive a Porsche, why because it’s a great car as is the Ferrari, not because of any mid-life concerns! Your last four paragraphs finally hit some reasonable descriptions on what the California Ferrari is all about. P.S. also have a Prius.
As an immigrant to Cali from PA via IL, I didn’t quite know what to make of this TV character the locals admired so. I couldn’t figure out the non-California accent, and his exaggerated excitement kind of put me off even though I was interested in learning about my new home state. This article really helps me understand it all. Thank you for your insightful perspective.
I thought that there would be some data on the way engineers brains tend to think in black and white absolutes. Or a tie in to brain function and thought processes instead the ending was anti climactic to say the least. Frustrating….
So, now, our passport is all about American xenophobia. Never mind that every nation on earth requires one to enter their country…..It’s about American xenophobia….
You might mention that he learned about protest from Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst. He wrote about it in his newsletter. When she began using violence, he and Alice Paul left. Alice started practicing NVDA about 10 years before he did.
Here you only need it at the border, but the Drivers License has taken its place for domestic purposes, so much so that most states now issue non drivers licenses! In Europe you need passports for a lot of things other than crossing borders; cashing travelers checks, and in Italy, staying in any hotel. It takes the place of the drivers license.
Better than God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, is Frank Capra’s film Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. Vonnegut basically stole the plot of Rosewater from that film.
Bufalini became a friend of the family, through Millard Sheets, about 1960, eight years before Ahmanson died. There is now a good biography of Howard Ahmanson Sr, entitled Building Home, by Eric John Abrahamson, but I don’t remember if Bufalini gets much space in it.
Ontario Airport?
If these super counties would have a truly republican form of government, instead of unelected bureaucracies like the European Union, it might work.
OK, so two things here: firstly: it’s the Union flag, not the Union Jack. It’s only called the Union Jack when flying from a ship or in a similar situation, that’s a pretty basic mistake. Secondly, you don’t cover the fact that nowhere in Europe do they fly the flag with the obsession that they do in the US. It isn’t hung from houses in general or at least not to the manic level it is in the US, most countries would view that as nationalism rather than patriotism and that leans way too much towards more uncomfortable elements associated with fascism, hence the pledging of allegiance is also associated with fascism rather than a modern democracy. In the UK, if you fly a flag from your home (unless it was during a sporting event), you would immediately be presumed as a nationalist, racist, etc. Hanging the flag from public administrative buildings is common, but homes, schools, churches, etc, that would be a step too far.
I’d be interested to know when it was, exactly, that the US did start hanging flags from their homes. I’d put money on it being a postwar kneejerk patriotism “lest we be labelled commies” rather than a natural, fluid, movement towards a more innocent form of patriotism. I’ve looked online to find more informaiton on this, and it seems that each question asked in this arena gets responses along the lines of “greatest country on Earth” “freedom”, “our fighting forces”, but nobody seems to understand how the situation came about, and when people stop asking questions, that’s when trouble brews.
I suspect the mental illness statistics have been defined by Californians to favor themselves.
Well said. As a Pittsburgh native who is dismayed by the fact that PA went to Trump (though Allegheny County stayed blue TYVM), I am glad that my adopted state didn’t put up a wall to keep me away!
Joe. In case you haven’t noticed. Ca. does not represent America. Ca. voted Hillary. The rest of the nation? Not so much
Jim thank you for this tragic but important glimpse of our family’s history in such dark times. I found this on Wikipedia about how the Nazis killed all the Jews they found in Pavoloch — including likely many of our Ukrainian Jewish Shultz ancestors — in the “Pavoloch Massacre” that you mention your excellent article:
“After World War II ended, a memorial was erected in the cemetery, commemorating those that were brutally killed by the Nazis. Also, the old synagogue, that survived the short-lived Nazi occupation, is now a museum. It has the records of those that were murdered.”
I plan to visit Ukraine in the not-too-distant future, and when I do, I hope to visit Pavoloch and the synagogue there and see what I can learn from the records there.
From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavoloch_massacre
Is the key only the collective of up to seven people with three key competitors; or is it also about the ability of the thinkers to get themselves and their ideas a wide audience. What are the key variables that lead to the enlargement and importantance of the audience?
196 miles per hour? Lots of the time around here you’re lucky if you can go 19.6 miles per hour.
Interesting summary of the Brazilian politics
There already is a train that goes from the Bay area all the way to Bakersfield! The farm that Wasco sign is on will be devastated by the speed rail due to lack of farming crossings (against the law to use Hwy 46 so no way to keep farm operations united), infrastructure destruction to the watering system, taking of the land without compensation for losses of functionality (they want to pay “some” but not buy the farm), and devalued land that will never be allowed to farm with high efficiency ever again.
Amazingly, all these comments are FIVE years old, so naturally do not mention “Hyperloop”!
Time to get “up-to-date”!!
Good idea, but similar to jury selection, the pool of candidates should first be selected by lottery and then the most qualified members of the pool should be selected by election. Though Aristotle said that lotteries are democratic and elections are oligarchic, he also held that both democracy and oligarchy are deviant forms of government. A mixture of democracy and oligarchy, he argued, can correct and balance the deficiencies of each. Beginning with a pool of candidates selected by lottery would pretty much guarantee that the oligarchic element (i.e., the rich and famous) would be virtually eliminated right off the bat. Elections then allow voters to determine who is most fit to serve. All candidates should receive a government stipend during their term of service. This procedure, by the way, would not only save a tremendous amount of money, it would also eliminate the two party system which James Madison (in Federalist 10) called one of the main causes of factional conflict.
The murder, not a duel, of Sec. of the US Treasury Hamilton is often reported in history as an unfortunate incident. Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton and Andrew Jackson killed the US National Bank. The implications of this and the existence of a cabal, (Burr, Van Buren, Jackson and others), that supported this treason is not fully known, appreciated, and examined. President Jefferson knew that Burr was at least a British agent and his plans for wresting a piece of North America for himself in combination with the bidding and service to the British, was treason, and definitely posed a threat to the young nation’s security. President Jefferson could have said more, however I believe he would not risk antagonizing the British, who could threaten war.
I guess it’s similar to ww1 and 2. Globalization got hijacked by abusive economic interests and the nationalists rose up… unfortunately both the nationalist Germans and the Communists were used by these economic powers. Same today, the Trumpite nationalists and the islamic terrorists are being used by the new economic powers of today
Of course there was already a reaction to the enlightenment that was not fundamentalism or nostalgic simplicity. It was Romanticism. It was enthralled with nature but also cosmopolitan life. It was not anti scientific but believed in a more naturalistic view of nature. It saw reason as important but imagination as the pinnacle of reason. It was in the words of the great writer and thinker Isaiah Berlin the basis of forming our diverse multicultural liberal democracies as he stated in “The Roots of Romanticism”.in Ecology we have a naturalistic science that also has a spiritual side it may be hard to free ourselves from religious fundamentalism or a reductionist and positivist science but the roadmap was laid out in the seemingly contradictory but human complexity found in Romanticism. I am not saying it has it all figured out but it should be acknowledged as pertinent to this discussion , we did not just go from the enlightenment to the present moment
Especially relevant since Romanticism gave rise to fascism.
Yes, Berlin did note that Romanticism in one aspect can be held partly culpable for fascism in its idea of an exuberance of personality but also in the very nature of Romanticism’s contradictory nature he saw it as the basis for a multicultural western liberal democracy which I feel is very much under threat.Look. others have looked at the enlightenment and perceived it as a cause of totalitarianism so one should give Romanticism credit for , as Blake would call it, the ” single vision: of the science of the enlightenment to make it more naturalistic, ecological and whole. There are no single or simple answers as the words( or ideas) of fascism, romanticism and enlightenment are complex structures with no clear boundaries to give definite answers.
An interesting argument between Voltaire and Casanova 300 years ago sheds more light on this problem, and shows that it’s been one that’s been festering but ignored for centuries-
http://www.dreadedcandiru.com/2017/01/18/the-limits-of-the-rational-voltaire-vs-casanova/
Nice discussion. While it’s easy to assume our reality can be completely understood through reason alone, that doesn’t make it true. People who search for truth using religion or spirituality don’t necessarily have inferior reasoning ability. But I would agree with the premise that people search for meaning in life and it’s hard to find it using reason alone.
I want the Colorado ones since I know there are some Giant Steps, witches hat, a horse shaped climbing structure, a big square “monkey bars” and I’m sure plenty more because they keep coming up on Google image searches. I suppose I could dig deeper for meta-data but asking an audience might be easier.
The Ethnic Quilt was very useful to me in the early years of hosting “Which Way, LA?”after the riot/public disturbance/uprising of 1992. It’s great to see this update by two scholars who really know the territory. Their accounts of what’s literally happening on the ground help to shape our understanding of the social, economic and cultural changes in America’s most diverse region. Bravo for the new edition! –Warren Olney, KCRW radio
The trust comes from a common core of Christian beliefs in honesty and integrity. Without these core beliefs, if instead Hindu, Capitalist or Muslim beliefs in saying what works, then trust cannot be maintained. The scientific community has a new ethic these last couple of years, since many of them have abandoned their Christian heritage, they say whatever gets published. I agree Trump’s rhetoric is based on “what works”. The Republicans have turned from their Christian leadership to use What Works. We can only hope that the bully will fulfill some of the promises that brought along the Christian base.
“we have finally reached the limits of the Enlightenment’s cult of secular individualism.” is a conclusion that sends me dithering into despair. Though I think the article is good stuff I also think that individualism (and secularism) is more a consequence of globalization, and technology, than an idealism. We can make it an idealism, for or against, but in my research as an artist and poet I’ve pretty much determined that the mechanisms of community, such as craft, and other traditions of communalism, require long term cultural stasis over a period of generations to become “real” and sustainable. In those places, individualism is more the curiosity, where as in this era, the inevitable. We need to learn how to deal with it and make it better, while developing some cultural mechanisms of stasis to bridge our way through constant change, and the enlightenment’s tools of empiricism and law were therefore necessary developments, but so is modern art, civil rights, and many other developments.
http://www.kenboe.com
You really need to study the Left for your Fascism. 100 percent of the violence we’re seeing now is coming from the Left. There is no call to violence coming from the Right, there are no right wing rioters in the street, and when people protested Obama’s policies they did it peacefully. How can the people who argue for less government, less rule by the elite – both here and in Europe – be called the Fascists? We are living through a strange time when revolutionaries are ‘struggling’ FOR government control rather than against it.
This must be the worst thing I’ve ever read on Brazil. The ’64 coup is grossly misinterpreted and treated as acceptable until its hardening at the end of the 60s. The fact Brazilians can be quiescent sits uncomfortably with the claim that the streets overthrowing governments indicates the weakness of its democracy.
Most egregious is the uncritical eye towards the impeachment of Dilma, as if it were quietly accepted, and not an outrageous attack on Brazilian democracy by the elite, who conspired to get rid of her because (a) she failed to back their neoliberal agenda and (b) she wouldn’t protect many leading politicians from corruption. These same politicians are now conspiring to give themselves amnesty from corruption investigations. And the idea the economy is on the up is fanciful.
This is a shameful piece.
🙂 I had noticed in an early version of this that Justus Buchler wasn’t represented at all, so I wrote the wikipedia page for him https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justus_Buchler and there he is! Now it appears I need to work to better establish the chain of influences…
One of my favorite writers and books. Actually I enjoy everything Collins writes. Good paragraphs.
Th middle way does not need to be seen as no conviction. It can be seen as the ownership of complexity and of the inevitable incompleteness of knowledge, the inevitability of everything in process, and the curiosity beyond the current moment about all that may happen next. Within that, it is still possible to take action(s), and love then, now, next.
Thanks for your note, Will. The link has been fixed.
So you want affordable housing for a servile class. An argument you disguise with rationalisations about ”certain professional, service, and demographic characteristics.”
Here’s the rub: Anything which loosens the restrictions of the Brown Act makes it easier for officials to be corrupt, to steal, to accept bribes. Regardless, I want to know everything that my representative says as a public official. How else am I to know if he or she is acting in my best interests?
Disclosure: I am an elected official (school board) and a board member of CalAware, an open government and transparency advocacy organization.
Discussing the threshold that would warrant a strong (possibly military) response versus something more passive and benign, is an important discussion to have with regard to cyber actions. One thing I believe we should look at closely is the distinction between a cyber action that has a physical effect versus a non-physical effect. An example of the former would be a cyber attack that leads to long term loss of power to a city. The effects would be clear and palpable. A non-physical effect might be the loss of trust and faith in political leaders and institutions. The effects here are much more nebulous; such an effect could have multiple causes as well. But a hostile actor strengthening that mistrust isn’t something we should ignore, especially if the actor can actually have a significant impact.
One last thing to keep in mind. The internet and social media provide a relatively new platform for information, political discourse, and even the perceptions and level of trust people have toward politicians and political institutions. In my view, this new landscape seems really vulnerable to disinformation campaigns and other types of political manipulation. A hostile actor willing to exploit these vulnerabilities, developing a military strategy based on this, and devoting significant resources to execute this strategy, could really wreck havoc in open, democratic society. This is even more true if that society doesn’t realize the way the internet/social media makes the democracy vulnerable.
My sense is that not enough Western leaders realize this.
That desirability of living in a city would raise demand for housing and thus keep housing costs relatively high seems like a reasonable point. But does this mean that reducing “housing supply restrictions” wouldn’t have a positive impact on housing costs? I was hoping the article would shed light on this question, as well as shed light on the impact of desirability of a city and housing supply restrictions affect housing costs.
I agree with the General Officer. Technology cannot replace humanity, or human values.
It is only a tool which we should master without losing our humanity.
Only can across the article now – but found it very informative. I think we may be in a time period of ‘muddled’ understanding in relation to extra terrestrial life. We may have to go through a process of finding primitive life forms on Mars or other planets and eventually some indirect contact with intelligent et’s. That would give time for society to adjust!
Nice article. I’ve seen you a few times in Downtown Disney and love your music. You played “I sang along” for me before a fireworks show and it was a highlight of my evening. Keep up the great work!
If cyberwarfare blurs the line between wartime and peacetime, could it also blur the line between crime and terrorism? And what is the line between crime and terrorism particularly as it applies to political response? The strategy and political ramification of treating an attack as a crime is very different from treating it as an act of war, I would imagine. James Madison is often cited with this warning, “No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare”. Cyber threats interpreted through the lens of warfare as opposed to criminal activity opens doors that we do not yet understand how to secure.
Hi Joe,
Good to see your revisiting of crossing the Golden Gate Bridge by rail. I’ve long seen mention that the bridge was originally designed to accommodate rail on a lower deck. I think it was with heavy-rail trains in mind, not just light rail. SMART is considered heavy rail.
Marin’s low population makes it difficult to warrant the expense of crossing the bridge by rail. The route from Sausalito to the bridge seems like it would be very expensive, rising from sea level to 200 feet over some serious topography. While better access to the Bay Area will bring more pressure to develop Marin, that will be controlled by laws as desired. I’m not sure which will require more expense.
I’ve lived in Marin all my life and have dreamed of efficient mass transit here that connects to the rest of the Bay Area, for well over two-thirds of my 63 years. In my mind I’ve mapped out the alignment in extensive detail, from Larkspur to Mill Valley to Sausalito to the Golden Gate Bridge–been constructing it for decades. When SMART opens later this year it will be 76 years since Marin’s jewel-box commuter rail system was dismantled.
Best wishes,
Joe Breeze
Fairfax
While Professor Reitzammer excellently highlights certain interesting aspects of the Athenian tension between citizens and resident aliens, she neglects to mention that Athens also harbored a mostly invisible large slave population who performed a wide range of needed civic and household functions. Also, when discussing Athenian metics, it is important to remember that unlike contemporary societies in which immigrants can become naturalized citizens, only rarely were Athenian metics or their descendants permitted to acquire Athenian citizenship.
“The fact that ‘barbarian’ survives intact in modern English suggests that we still tend to see foreigners in a negative light.”
Really? You believe that English speakers of today who use the term “barbarian” are in the main aware of its origins in ancient Greek? And that those who employ it today–say, a parent faulting their child’s table manners (“Don’t eat like a barbarian”)–are consciously relating it to a negative image of foreigners? Take a look at how many words we use every day have origins of which we’re unaware, that have in fact changed meaning entirely over the centuries. To claim that contemporary use of the term “barbarian” suggests even understanding of its origins, much less agreement with those ancient sentiments, is just silly.
Ukrainian, I do believe that when I use the word “barbarian”, I have a mental picture in my head of a gigantic man, clad in animal hides, gnawing on the spit-roasted leg of some now extinct animal. My mother implanted that image there because she wanted me to be proud of how far we had come, of how much we had progressed from that reality. If we don’t believe our culture is superior to the “barbarion’s” then perhaps we should don a goatskin and sit in the dirt. We MUST believe that our way is better, or why even make the effort?
Hey Joe – great, light hearted pitch, wooing the silver state. I was born in Reno (one of those one in four) and now live and work in Los Angeles. I’d LOVE to have California and Nevada ‘hitch up’ but those rural cow and mining towns in Nevada (ever hear of Gabs? Winnemucca? Pioche?) are so afraid of being overwhelmed by Calis they would never agree to a date, let alone nuptials at Emerald Bay in Lake Tahoe. Sigh. Still longing for the Gal Next Door…
I live in Nevada. I grew up here. Myself and many others here in Nevada would definitely Not want to hitch up with California! Lolz! Many of your nutty politicians alone would have us screaming, “No”! 😉
I very much enjoyed this article and learned much about ancient Greek history. Tells me there is a great deal about it I have to learn.
However, I did not like the undertone that America is “xenophobic” or “anti-immigrant”. America is a large, populous nation with a lots of people who have different opinions about things. Many Americans are indeed “anti-immigrant”, but many are not.
Many Americans also make a distinction between immigrants arriving according to the rules and immigrants who do not. They are not “xenophobic” as much as they simply want rules to be followed.
In my experience, the more strident “pro-immigrant” folks care little for the concept of “how many”. A few million folks sidestepping the rules to take up residence here — temporarily or otherwise — may or may not matter much, but a couple hundred million or more might be a different matter.
I totally agree LA Bob. This nation exists and endures because of its adherence to a particular set of rules and culture. If immigrants come here to participate and enjoy what that culture affords them, then that is good. If they come here to enjoy the benefits, without embracing the laws and culture, then the nation loses a little of itself with each of their arrivals.
Supurb!
great story. more like this please, more native realities. there’s zillions.
This idea serves better to the modern family model of working parents: it keeps children on care while parents work, and delivers then tired to tired parents. But does that mean better learning? Does that mean better citizens?
Actually, it means much more tired teachers that are left with even less time to plan lessons, prepare themselves and study or research. Children just happen to watch tired grown ups in school and then tired grown ups in home. What does that teach them?
Joe,
ALL of your points make sense to me. During my 38 year secondary teaching career, I could never figure out those days wherein so many (too many) students ambled out of classes/school as early as 2:00 p.m., for reasons as varied as the imagination will allow you to conceive (“shortened schedule,” student jobs, medical and other appointments, school-held meetings, gang-impending clashes, needed to “babysit,” religious observances, etc., etc., etc.).
❤️I think you are right about many things. But to fully apprehend and analyse the Swedish society you have to include the influence by Palme (who opened up our hearts to immigration long before Reinfeldt, and have made a substantial mark on Swedish policy), the murder of him ( that made our society harder with more surveillance and the satisfaction from the parties at the right now able to get more power) and king Gustaf III (who opened up our hearts to art and science and was one of our leaders that made us innovative) and our imperialistic past building our upper classes fortunes. I have also experienced the Swedish unwillingness to learn by other societies as I moved back from abroad. Supposedly partly as a result of our struggle internationally to push boundaries inside EU and in UN for gender rights, HBTQ rights, social rights and progress in the work for the Environment. But also because of pride and arrogance thinking our society is modern and more developed than others politically. A true democracy must undergo turmoils and shifts in opinions. Making it both vulnerable and strong. The open boarders and immigration was already setting a mark on the Society of Sweden since the early 70thies. And my last point is that the conclusion in the OECD report points out that the social democratic base of Sweden makes it more economically stable than other countries. Liselott
I think that is wonderful. People actually learn to work and live together. A very hopeful article. Thank you.
Too sunny, I’m afraid. The problem of poverty, a major cause of the riots, remains unabated. The tax increases that would address housing and such are very recent. Transit development is mainly rail designed to attract motorists, at the expense of bus riders too poor to buy a car. I could go on…
yes you could. And there are still problems. But are you denying the basic premise of the article that LA has taken positive steps forward from the 1992 riots?
Yes, I think it’s an exaggeration to say that. I think a bit of progress has been made to address poverty more recently but, for the most part, we’ve squandered over two decades and things have gotten worse in many respects. Also, the problem was never about people not knowing how to work and live together—-it’s poverty and racist cops. (These are the problems I’m talking about. Too little progress has been made.)
If you can’t figure out how to run a public university at which people can speak freely and safely, then you shouldn’t be running a public university.
Very nicely written and thoughtful piece; the idea for Haiti is a really clear example of how to optimize existing infrastructure. The one for Ecuador is more complex and requires more legislation (which as this article points out is tricky) but attempts to do the same.
In America, we waste so much in our speculative culture, and our attitude towards building infrastructure is the same. Our type of capitalism is indicative of how we in America operate, we invest in potential because we believe we can outpace inflation; in Europe, it’s the other way around where inflation is the enemy, and advancement is based on what one has achieved, as opposed to what one believes one will achieve, the differing attitudes towards credits and loans reflect this. More in the context of this article: build what you need now vs. build what you think you will need tomorrow. That is not to say one should not plan for the future but being more focussed on solving today intelligently will lead to clearer methods for better addressing the future. In a strange way as I write this, I’m realizing that what is being proffered in this article is productive preservation. Nice!
Adjusting for inflation, the pavillion and top deck is still reasonable, while the all you can eat right field is more than adequate for what you get. The subway to Union Station which brings you to the Dodgers shuttle is an excellent alternative from having to pay for parking. As far as the class and race division at the stadium, I simply don’t see it. The diversity is all around you, no matter the location. My experience does not support this strange take on the current state of an organization clearly dedicated to the fan experience and to building a year in and year out contender.
I still go 20 plus times a year. It is out of site expensive now. $11.25 for the cheapest beer. $5.50 for a dodger dog. Most can’t do that very often.
LA’s rail expansion is heartening but so disappointing when you actually use it. The EXPO line practically crawls on the tracks. On my recent trip, it took an hour from DTLA to SM. Contrast that with BART in SF, where trains beat cars handily. BART trains can run at up to 80 mph. We need high speed transit, not toy trains.
And I hear there is a plan to build a DTLA Streetcar loop that goes at 6 mph!! Seems like an expensive toy to me. A self driving minibus could do the job much cheaper.
What a great article from ZocaloPublicSquare.org !
It covers a lot of territory, though it doesn’t mention that because the Dodger property had been taken forcibly from homeowners and paid for by US federal government funds – that when the federal government signed its portion of ownership rights over to the city of L.A., it was under the condition that all the property be used “for the people” (as the original stated purpose for forcibly taking people’s homes and properties was to provide more and better housing for Angelenos – including all home and property owners in Sulfur & Cemetery Ravines – commonly called Chavez Ravine, though) who were forced out due to their homes and land being seized…. ……
I hadn’t been aware of the detailed cost-of-living economics laid out in this article – which are nicely reported by Zocalo – but even under the O’Malley’s ownership – even then at what seems reasonable pricing looking back – many have to agree, Dodger stadium and baseball wasn’t genuinely a public purpose nor a use that fits the definition “for the people”.
At least, however, there was affordable access to view games at reasonable costs – Dodger games (tickets) were affordable to most Angelenos – though I’m not sure about concerts and other “outside events” held there.
Though many Angelenos didn’t and don’t feel taking people’s homes for a baseball stadium & associated parking is appropriate, at least the end result was sports entertainment accessible to most Angelenos.
Further, the intermingling of attendees who were from more diverse socio-economic backgrounds than currently is the case, was definitely a benefit.
It’s unfortunate that at present, many Angelenos are shutout from access to viewing games live at the stadium and even from watching on the small screen (TV)!
In the Dodgers favor, however, from my point of view, more free tickets have been offered this year to the surrounding community that’s inconvenienced by stadium events – than I can remember in recent past years – so that’s a good indication that the Dodgers don’t take the remaining surrounding neighborhoods for granted.
At least this small gesture of thanks is currently being made to the communities surrounding the stadium property but it doesn’t eliminate the continuing disparity between Dodger attendees and those who aren’t able to attend games due to economic barriers.
Occasionally we read that the Dodgers might move from Dodger Stadium and the underlying concept is that the current Baseball team ownership might be able to sell and profit from the property and it might be repurposed.
This arrogant assumption is inaccurate based on the last hundred years history of the property and I caution the Dodger ownership not to consider vacating their now long-time home – unless they wish to return the property either to the people who owned the property prior to the city and federal property seizures or to return it to the City of Los Angeles and/or the U.S. Government or some mix of these parties and take a tax write-off for the land
return (donation)!
You didn’t discuss the impact of free agency on baseball economics. You can charge less when teams literally own the players and can pay them peanuts. Now that market dynamics affect player salaries, you’re going to see increased costs that get passed on to the consumer. I’m okay with that if it means players are getting paid what they’re worth. You have to admit Koufax, Drysdale, etc were severely underpaid.
The “problem” of higher ticket prices is something that impacts all teams; not just the Dodgers. I don’t think it’s fair to single them out.
“Overbooking is a necessity for airlines to manage their seat capacity. That’s because of a fact of life: Many people fail to show up for flights upon which they’re booked.” In my experience, if you miss a flight you still have to pay for it. Airlines make very clear that, unless you’ve bought cancellation insurance, there are no refunds. Nor do they “hold” seats without payment, like a restaurant. Seems to me that the reason airlines overbook is simple greed: they essentially sell the same seat more than once. Sorry — that’s double dipping and should be illegal. No sympathy here.
Manuel cruz is my uncle my name is Dolores cruz and my uncle just passed away yesterday 5/9/2017 and I’m sitting here sharing his life with my children. I loved my tio so much and have to say am very proud to be his niece. I hope to see more of his work and i hope my people (chicano’s) learn to be proud of their race and share their history with their children as well. May he rest in peace. Forever in my heart.
You
This link addresses all the BS in this article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/howardcole/2017/05/15/in-defense-of-dodgers-after-authors-hit-piece/2/#644bed6c147d
The really dangerous video game is the one promoted and played by
military policy-makers: drone warfare, and the policies, morality, and
budgets which keep feeding the machine.
Thank you for this important post. I’ve added it to a collection on Educational Psychology & Technology: http://bit.ly/edpsychtech
Statues without context only benefit or offend those who know the story and each will cling to their own version. In the end, in my opinion, the removal was not for those who are offended but for those who argue in circles for the lost cause, adamantly linking the War of Southern Rebellion to the historic southern economy of genteel hospitality. It was not the war of northern aggression, the historic south’s economy was based upon and inextricably tied to slavery as a benefit and revenue generator for the wealthy and landed gentry, to claim that slaves were treated well doesn’t address the bondage, selling, training, feeding, watering, controlling, abusing, punishing, torturing, slaughtering, raping and obvious white supremacy of slavery.
This removal is essentially a big FU to those people who revered and cherished those statues., who in public deny white supremacy but wrap themselves in that flag. In light of the potential desperate acts to follow this, I suggest that better historical interpretation be considered and maintained at the sites where memorials to lynched slaves and black Americans be erected.
No comment
Thank you for a thoughtful article on a controversial matter.
The ONLY justification for not removing the confederate statues is to build a series of monuments around them that utterly recontext-ualize them. To that end we should always know how many slaves they owned, there should always be a statuary memorial to the number of slaves that existed in that area, and the relevant passage from that state’s legislative declaration of the reasons for secession (in defense of the maintenance and the spread of slavery) should be likewise published. If the state or other organization interested in maintaining the confederate statuary is willing to recontextualize to that extent, then I welcome their continuation. Otherwise, I demand their removal branch and root.
Just a tad late to the game don’t you think? Morally criminal, you must be talking about Mr. Putin’s entire administration.
No matter, I don’t think there are any areas of agreement between us on who the good guys and the bad guys are. Прощай
So he learned to slaughter civilians in California? Another awesome contribution to America by the Golden State.
There was no honor in being a traitor against the Republic in the cause of white supremacy. That is what the Confederate-Americans continue to support to this day through the work they do in the Republican party.
So then, should I have another cup of coffee and perhaps muse with others about Michael Angelo and the meaning of existentialism while I wait for global warming and human denial to extinguish my life and the lives of all other humans?
EFE you miss the point; you are free to choose and while your choices have consequences, they are yours alone.
Do read, “The Myth of Syphisis” in Wikapedia. Preferably, I go with “the Warrior”, as put fourth by Camus, what else can one do… “Revolt”!!!
Thanks for the article. AS a long standing Coachella Valley resident i can tell you the following:
Our desert area was always betting on outsiders to survive economically. We had always relied on winter visitors (snowbirds from Canada) to pump money into our economy. But when Goldenvoice ‘coachella’ developed from a one Friday night, into a Friday , sat event; and now into two weekends! our economy hasn’t looked better. I remember how the Polo grounds which is the place where the Coachella Fest takes place was in deep financial trouble in the 90’s -the owner was looking into selling the entire place dirt cheap as a consideration; has now made a 360 turn and is more financially stable than ever.
While this music festival still sells out in minutes every year, I don’t really buy into the hype:
Their prices keep going up and I frankly, cannot keep up anymore. Yes it’s nice to hear plenty of bands at one event, but in all sincerity, how many times do I need to show up at a musical fest where the weather is so unpredictable and dusty? Full of drunk people? and watching your back from thieves stealing your wallet or your phones? (I got mine stolen during Kaskade’s set)
In contrast, I’ve been to the Garlic Festival. That one was very, very family friendly. It’s good to hear they actually provide support and donations toward local nonprofits too.
Will the music festivals bubble burst? Not as long as you have a different mix of bands playing. Those college aged fans will still come – regardless of the uncomforted feeling of the Desert heat, annoying transportation issues and hotel accommodations going up. Why? Because this newer generation is self centered and they truly believe if they don’t show thru their social media feed they made it here? then their social status declines.
Goldenvoice is making money waaaaay before they even book any artists – their passes just went up for sale 3 days ago. Think about it. They already making money as you read this; revolving these monies into interests… crazy eh?
I wish you would open up shop in Davidson. I grew up in Brook Park and ate Hough’s all of my life. I now live in Davidson, NC and there are no really good bakeries down here. It would be a blessing.
Disingenuous in two aspects:
1) Is there any mention in this article of the self contained mechanisms within USA Constitution for amending and outrightly changing it? Why not? If reasons for all discussion are in genuine will to improve on it-why absolutely no focus on existing mechanisms, some of which are via representative Government and some through fundamentally grassroots based direct democracy?
2) Author also fails to understand the very purpose of this document, despite great learned status. Constitution is not there to nitpick issues but to put foundation and frame on which laws addressing all “important issues” (and indeed all issues) for this author are to be done. To protect Citizens by giving them fundamental human rights that do not differ through culture or ages: Life, Liberty, Pursuit of happiness/right to make their own decisions, complete freedom to express themselves, freedom to believe or not, freedom to defend themselves with all available assets. Also to explicitly limit the power of Government with negative rights regarding all those most fundamental human rights. NOTHING FURTHER.
End of story. Immigration, education, healthcare… be it issues that people may see as important are NOT fundamental rights independent of age and culture. Any “solution” that includes those secondary constructs can and inevitably will impede some of real fundamental rights for some. Hence, Government can’t and should never be allowed to mandate to the free people any of those other aspects. Managing them while recognizing this important limit is permitted, that is what our laws are doing.
This is a fascinating professional niche. Thanks for sharing…
Teresa Munafo sounds extremely similar to my own grandmother, Rosaria Randazzo Travali, from Montelepre, Sicily. Also, not a particular warm person, her crocheted afghans, table coverings and knitted booties still keep me company.
She seems like my grandmother, too
This story melts my heart. Yes their sacrifices and courage gave us our liberties we often take for granted. She was so soft but so, so strong!
It’s a story that many seem to relate to. How, in our youth, we can’t seem to appreciate the lives, struggles and gifts of our elders, but as we, too, mature, we see the gems they leave us.
Have you heard of the California Constitutional Convention Initiative or Cal Con Con … they are proposing that CA do what this article suggests – on a large scale.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/california-constitutional-convention-initiative–3#/
This story is beautiful. I remember the places where she went with her Father. The ‘junkyard’ when I was growing up, was a ‘make out’ spot for teenagers. So long ago. Madeline, you became a beautiful woman with so much talent, Your Father was and is, my friend, he never said an unkind word about me, always smiled at me with those big blue eyes. His kindness showed me he was so different then any other man I knew. He was and always will be my brother in law and my friend. You have a beautiful future ahead of you, take it slow and enjoy every minute of it.——ellen mcsherry
Wow!!? I like it!!? Zocalo has matured into the world of thoughtful reporting. Excellent article. The Pegasus analogy was spectacular. This and your shipping article are two of the best secular article I have read this year. Thank you
The author is either uninformed or willfully blind to some important facts: an independent, scholarly review of the bill has been released, and SB 562 represents a massive savings for individual constituents AND business. Remember when Toyota said they will never build another plant in the US, that they would rather build in Canada? That’s only one example of how Single Payer rids business of the vampire fangs at their neck…the fangs of the “Health Insurance” multi-national corporations. The Insurance industry adds NOTHING to the quality of health care, it is a DRAG on health care outcomes, and it stands between doctor and patient, making decisions that are based on COST, not value.
Read the analysis for yourself.
http://healthcareforall.org/economic-analysis-sb-562-5-29-2017
Interesting history. The world still doesn’t recognize the excellent county efforts to provide for the poor. Localized efforts will manage costs and customize care much better than national programs. Yes this is conservative, but try to reconcile why conservative and more healthy Midwest folks, should have to pay for the sex change operations being proposed in the California prison system. Even Californians have trouble with it but at least we see it coming from our own political environment.
Dr. Weinberg, thank you for your thoughtful analysis. I would like to respond to, and/or clarify, a few of your points, as follows:
1) “Illegality” – You state that it’s illegal to fail to provide any of the benefits of Medicare and Medicaid (Medical). My understanding of SB 562 is that it meets that standard, and thus would not be “illegal”.
2) Cost – you quote $400 billion, and compare it to the rest of California’s budget. That is a false equivalency and misleading.
It is a false Equivalency because Healthy California will be an entirely separate program, funded entirely separately. For comparison, CMS’s (Medicare + Medicaid + CHIPS) budget is many times the non-military budget of the US.
It is misleading because you neglect to mention that Californians are now spending $500 billion on their healthcare, some paid as taxes, some paid as insurance premiums, and some paid directly to medical “providers”. Healthy California would immediately save about $100 billion, not cost an additional $400 billion.
3) Lack of cost restraints – You allege that when a patient receives the care prescribed by a physician that medical costs will soar without limit. As patients, we see insurers (who limit our doctors) as greedy bastards practicing medicine without a license. On what planet do you find it appropriate to let someone without any medical knowledge or training, who has never examined you, determine what course of treatment is most appropriate for you?
To put it more politely, Healthy California begins with the fee-for-service Medicare model most beloved by Medicare “beneficiaries”. There are no provisions in the plan that prevent the adoption of any of the cost-control measures you contemplate, including HMOs like the very medically and financially successful Kaiser Permanente system.
4) Flying Horses vs ponies – You pretend a metaphor, but you create a straw man (a false representation easily shown to be flawed). Healthy California will immediately save me $100 billion. How is that a Pegasus? It sounds like a thoroughbred to me. I’ll ride that pony.
Thank you,
David Guth
Excellent article. I’m as much for universal healthcare as anybody, but when I read there would be no copays and fee for service I was wondering what they were thinking. And at a cost double the size of the entire budget? This is like the variation of the universal basic income idea where there wouldn’t even be a means test.
What a complicated and interesting story.
Brings back memories for me too. Thanks to all for this wonderful project and for Karen’s clear and moving account of that era.
love the movie and bonus feature with the historical background!!!!
The recent trend of underwriting the fawning over and lionizing Hamilton is pretty obvious propaganda, and it’s pretty obvious why. He was a loyal servant of the london bank, and privately run central banks in general.
Good job Eric!
Very intelligent and thoughtful view of the situation.
Hi Joe – You are spot on as usual. After years of nonpartisan civic participation programs that put “more public in public policy”, about five years ago Common Knowledge added more creative and human-oriented projects that put “more unity in community.” In addition to formal arts organizations, there are great projects that democratize who and what is an “artist.” Different ways of convening people is an art form in itself. I hope you get a good conversation going!
We’re trying to do our own little bit down here in PG, but sadly it is still a challenge getting support and interest from our own people. In our drumming classes for local children we happily welcome all – girls, boys, and all cultures – but it is telling that not a single Garifuna student is enrolled. Often people only value their culture once they leave it or once it has disappeared.
Yeah that’s so true…. we are doing the same that Warasa is doing but in Belize city. … however we have been lucky to have been able to teach young Garifuna kids how to play the drums with the help of the YCT program and the Police Community of Yabra.
Or: grow your own. It’s called weed because it grows like a weed. Water, sun, a bit of horse manure, and you’re a pot farmer. If you can smoke four small plants’ worth of pot in a year you might consider cutting back. No distributors, no Brinks trucks, no grow lights. And no value. It’s free.
The folks who sponsored the legislation said there were little issues like how to pay for this
most magnanimous program. I can have a lovely life if we don’t ask where the money is coming from. Where do they get these people? Do they come from the Pelosi School of Governance?
For me, the story is about how women’s seemingly ordinary lives and work change the trajectory of people’s lives around them. Men set out to conquer the world; Women conquer the world just by being.
There’s also a Lafayette section in Jersey City and a Lafayette Park on Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles along with a statue of the marquis. Lafayette was made an honorary citizen of the United States and at least some of his descendants have inherited that distinction, e.g. the comte de Chambrun, Pierre Laval’s son in law.
Germany’s great scientist Baron Alexander von Humboldt also has many places in the USA (and elsewhere) named after him. Maybe he’s a runner-up.
I believe the same is true of technology-it is there to serve people and not the other way around! Shouldn’t we be making people smarter, rather than making computers smarter? And what happens when all the world’s devices on the Internet are smarter than us? Will they think they no longer need us, and try to eradicate us? Science Fiction has been addressing these questions since Jules Verne, but these younger generations of techies are ignoring lessons of the past, and lurching us blindly toward a very uncertain and turbulent future, when the opposite should be happening!
The venerable AAA Headquarters building at Adams & Figueroa – exquisite architecture, and that huge tree in the entryway!
It’s always a pleasure to find a well-written essay of Facebook.
One of the negative effects of Hamilton, as Isenberg demonstrates, is that Hamilton will now be used by many on the left as an accurate account of history.
For example, the line from “Yorktown” which emphatically states, “Immigrants, we get the job done,” has been cited by progressives as a proof that Hamilton was pro-immigration. However, when one takes a deeper look at Hamilton’s views of immigration, he was very nationalistic and believed that immigration would only serve as a detriment to the growth of the nascent United States. Yet, progressives continue to uphold Alexander Hamilton as one of their champions.
Truth is often ugly, especially when it conflicts with our dearest, deepest-held beliefs. Progressives would be well-advised to crack open a history book once in a while.
“a place where the people who get the most votes actually win the elections”
LMAO. And when it looks like a representative who’s part of the ruling elite might get recalled because the peons don’t like his votes, the cronies who run the state add legislation to a budget bill that circumvents the people’s right to recall. That’s how progressive California is. Venezuela progressive.
Amen. However, where is our single payer healthcare? Boycott RENDON!
When right-leaning states wanted this it was stoopid. Now they can say to Cali, “Welcome to the party pal!” https://www.amazon.com/Bye-Miss-American-Empire-Neighborhood/dp/1933392800/
You have a valid point. America is better off without Texas and California. Have them both secede simultaneously and you will be left with a country that is politically moderate and English speaking, and humbled by the consequences of having neglected and even mocked the losers on both the left and right in the congressional gerrymandering game. Those who are fed up with the Federal government need to abandon their Sovereign Citizen fantasies and push for separation of powers or sober amicable secession.
Speaking Spanish does not hurt this country it makes it better. All we need is equal rights for everyone under the law. Is that so difficult?
Let’s work on lowering the poverty number by increasing wages for the working poor. We need to see if our economy can survive without cheap labor. Everyone needs to pay their employees more and take less profit. Some of these higher paid employees may break out of the need to work so many hours and use their skills to help grow our economy . I don’t know if this will work as most people are fearful and want to accumulate as many resources they can for themselves and not share unless they are forced to, but I would like to see if it can work. PAY YOUR EMPLOYEES MORE!
Hello Jim have you ever owned a business? Have you ever had to let someone go because business was down?What is the right profit? What is right pay? I have been a small business owner for 16 years and it is not what everyone thinks. With a majority of employers being small businesses your comments are very difficult. Understand what it takes to run a business and then let me know how you would answer these questions. Generalizations are dangerous.
Thanks Matthew for your passionate response. I have owned and run 2 businesses in 33 years. I have seen scores of business over these years.l have Let go about a handful of people over those years.
It’s easy to know how much profit is enough. Spread the wealth and see how strong your company can be. I don’t generalize,l know what I have seen. Most of the successful companies I have seen pay more than the average in their field. Think about it.
A example of someone, in this case a general, whose selfish ambitions were put first. Even before his country and the lives of men, women and children, even men in his own command.
Orders may be what they are, however, they never justify atrocities, for even in war, there still can be murder.
The heat of battle has always brought pain, suffering and death, yet during the chase, such heat can grow cold.
Honor must always be maintained to justify actions in war, for only then can there be no murder.
No matter what the time period, such definitions remain the same, for honor transcends the centuries even into our own time. So does respect for an enemy.
It seems that General Howard used his orders to achieve the fame he wanted and put himself before his county, and even his honor. History regrets his actions, showing increased compassion for Chief Joseph and his people, the Nez Perce.
A 1975 movie “I Will Fight No More Forever” was made about Chief Joseph and General Howard.
Sam Elliott played Capt Wood who was really Second Lieutenant Charles Erskine Scott Wood.
Lt. Wood disliked the way Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce were treated believing the entire campaign was wrong and became a Nez Perce advocate.
General Howard never understood how history would judge him as he put his personal ambitions first by justifying the wrongs he did by calling it “war”
An excellent article, but you fail to point out the hypocrisy of the white Protestant plan to “assimilate” the Native Americans to their culture.
One nation, the Cherokee, Chad tried that path in their ancestral homeland. They translated the Bible to Cherokee; wrote a Constitution based on the US one; build schools, town, and adopted Western dress. They published books and newspapers in their language at a time when many non-English speaking immigrant communities did the same thing.
A successful assimilation – until Andrew Jackson’s backers wanted their land.
And the Trail of Tears was born.
Beautiful history. Thanks. We all have regrets. So many tribes, it is a shame we did recognize and defend the good. But the. None are good, right? Any tribe would have offenders to our high sensibilities. Thankfully we are trying to restore their dignity and sovereignty. Never too late to try. Bless you all….
Fantastic idea to reduce our semitruck traffic in LA. If you have ever traveled the 40 heading west you know all those trucks are pouring down the 15 into LA to get to the 5 North.
No they’re not, if they are heading to the San Joaquin Valley, they are taking the 58 Freeway, which is built to near-Interstate standards.
There are a lot of reasons to make the 138 a freeway. That’s not one of them.
I’m crying…..being fifty two raised in Los Angeles but family roots in D.C. I grew up not seeing concrete racism But definitely saw the pain of segregation. Pain from my father’s parents…..from my parents and aunt’s and uncles….the colorizism…..going out one’s way to lighten up children. I look nothing like 1st cousins……very painful stuff
Honest, frank and a raw-nerve piece.
I am a white man raised in Camden Arkansas. I went to segregated schools all my life until college. I was born in Munich Germany, dad a soldier, mom a citizen of Belgium…..guess I inherited 50% of “the curse” When in high school, I would listen to the recorded messages of Dr. King broadcast from the Black owned radio station. I was a ministerial student, he inspired me….I saw the struggle as both moral and political because of his sermons.
In 1966, I went to college in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas…..a small town in East Arkansas in the middle of a cotton field where segregation was a religion. I met my first black person as a fellow student, Evelyn. I smiled at her and always greeted her…I had no idea what she was facing everyday. Her words are written my college year book….1967…..” Jim, you were always nice to me, Evelyn.” Why does that feel like an indictment today? Thank you for sharing your painful journey.
A very useful history of the empathy concept, adding its connection to aesthetics without overly broadening the concept. In fact, my use of the concept (following Titchener’s distinction from sympathy, and using the mirror neuron foundation) is now deepened, not diffused, as I can connect empathy with the “feeling in” of the arching branches of a towering tree. Thank you for connecting my clinical work to my near-pantheist aesthetics!
Next we can connect both of these to the research, done in prisons, cities, and colleges, showing the wellness benefits not only of social connection but also of experiencing the visual complexity of nature.
Thanks. Innobling.
There’s a lot more about empathy at the
Center for Building a Culture of Empathy
http://cultureofempathy.com/
including a section on definitions
Hey Sara, this is a fabulous article, of great interest. I’ll make one observation: empathy goes together with cooperation, while it doesn’t go with competition. So maybe that’s why more individualistic societies tend to score lower on empathy.
You might be interested in the website I am working on, about morality: for example http://yellowgrain.co.uk/challenging_behaviour.html (working on right now)
“Way to go Archie!” My Brother John and I used to work with you at Hough Bakeries. May God Bless you with continued success.
“Sears tried to undermine organized labor, successfully resisting it even though several other traditional flagship department stores had unionized by the 1940s and 1950s. Company leaders resisted 20th-century progressive social movements that sought economic equality for African Americans and women. Like other department stores, Sears contributed both to structural and daily acts of racism, against customers and workers. African-American boycotts against Sears in the 1930s, for example, exposed racist hiring practices; in the late 1960s, welfare-rights activists revealed the firm’s discriminatory credit policies.”
It’s hard to imagine writing a history of Sears – including the quote above – without a full discussion of:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenwald_School
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2514028/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfxfxSgSlGM
BMI is actually a useful tool. Probably more useful than many medical tests. But it must be used in context. Like any tool, out of context, it creates nonsensical errors.
How can BMI be used ‘in context’? Currently, when BMI is calculated, it is compared to some national average. That, of course, produces nonsense.
BMI needs to be compared to a personal goal. When it is compared to a personal goal, it produces a useful measure of healthiness. Over our lifetimes, our activities, our goals, our age, changes – and our BMI goal needs to change as well. A BMI personal goal is not determined by ‘average’. Every BMI goal should be individual, at this point in time. But that’s more difficult. It’s more difficult, because it produces more thought, and more useful answers.
to your health, tracy
Great discussion. I agree that social media has its pros and cons. For me it has more cons than pros. I found myself to concerned about what others may think and wondering why people did respond to my posts. Finally, I decided to virtually stop using is all together. I have shut down all accounts accept one and even that one I only use to post on occasion. I now post in an effort to educate and open people’s minds. Does it matter to me whether or not they read my post = no! If I have just one person read an article I posted than that is one person who has grown a little. My job is not to please other people – my job is to please myself. I don’t need the social devices out there to validate who I am or what my feelings are. I am fine just the way I am. Thank you for sharing how important genuine empathy is in this technological age.
Fascinating and inspiring column, thank you Diego.
Had the pleasure of sitting down and talking with Kevin Starr some three years ago at Loyola High and he was truly a fount of information, a gentleman and a great listener.
Excellent article!
Just saw this thanks for writing! I’m so glad the wheel brought so many interesting thoughts to you! Ori (wheel co creator).
Love her description of teachers in Salinas.
I would like some very specific examples of NIMBYism. Can you please share some?
So maybe I shouldn’t crusade against “local contro” so much.
So, what was your average salary after maturing in the practices of M Truck and TrukerNation?
Your article is useful but fails when you write: “Sears embodied many of the uglier aspects of American capitalism.” To agree with you is to agree that the United Kingdom is in decline today because it ignored the atrocities of King Leopold in the Congo and its cruel treatment of a national hero – Alan Turing.
Perhaps we’re gradually making our way back to cave drawings as we experience the dissolution of language. We’ve dissolved into 2 minute attention spans and governance by Tweets by a “supreme leader” whose use of language is as gruntingly inarticulate as his ever changing take on the truth. The original intent of emoticons was to show emotions connected to words– a smile as a friendly punctuation, or whatever. They weren’t meant to replace words. I am reminded of the an original picto-language— street lights with walk, wait, don’t walk. When I was a young student I was in Munich and marveled at a drunk walking down the street at 1 o’clock in the morning with no cars in sight. When the “Nicht gehen” don’t walk Red Figure appeared in the light, the seriously inebriated guy halted firmly in his tracks and would NOT proceed until the light changed. He was “controlled” by the message of the little man in the light. I guess my concern would be the inarticulate nature of the images. Will we eventually start wars with something as inarticulately simplistic? Picture this– an emoticon shaking a missile at North America– another shaking one back– one that is a giant explosion. OMG We’re at war!! Emoticon– mushroom cloud. But will it result in a smiley face, or a re-election, or a new emojified way of not negotiating peace. If I had a peace symbol I’d add it now– In the end, some things ARE simple, and others are not at all simple. And the world is much to complicated to replace articulate language with pictographs because we can’t be bothered with language, grammar, vocabulary because we’re intimidated by it. In the meanwhile, chimpanzees are catching up to us.
Gee, no mention that state highway 138 is currently being widened to two lanes in each direction – from state highway 14 all the way east to I-15 in the Cajon Pass.
Brenda, her father and her family are inspirations for myself and so many others. Keep fighting. You all have demonstrated more power than you can imagine.
Google “hover bike”. I have a feeling a UCLA alum will bring it to life one day…and solve traffic
I like the original Apocalypse, the Book of Revelation. It ends well – for some of us.
Enjoyed your “Riding Trains” learning experience. It reminded me of being seated ever night for a week with a couple who lived through holocaust concentration camps. Getting to know this couple over “breaking bread” on our honeymoon 35 years ago was an indelible and inspiring memory for us. I doubt previous generations realize how influential the relatively insignificant one-on-one conversations can be in forming a young person’s worldview.
I love traveling on Amtrak for these and other reasons, including not having to wait in long lines to go through metal detectors! We take the train instead of flying whenever it’s available and we have the extra travel time available. It is just the best, and if you make reservations far enough in advance, usually a better buy for the money, if not cheaper in total.
Great story. It seems there’s a lot of sadness and desperation out there in America.
No more than any where else. The train is cheaper than flying for long distances.
No more or less it’s just life happening to people.
Nice article. I was an Air Force Dependent and was on the upper deck with my mother and two sisters while you were aboard. Too funny. Dad was already up at Ladd AFB (later years Ft. Wainwright). I have a government post card of the USS Funston and also pictures taken by my mother in 1951.
Great read. The train is so much more humane than air travel, especially these days. And the best part is seeing the natural landscape, not just the gray highway and a bunch of metal cars.
Nice! You’ve inspired me to visit 🙂
Good piece! I worked in the minor leagues a few years and I’d forgotten many of its charms; thanks for the reminder. If you’ve not been, it’s hard to describe other than to say the experience is fun and quite amusing (the promotions are often a humorous nod and wink to their “minor” status). Every baseball fan should try it out.
Beautiful article, Joe. It beckons great memories that I have taking my son to California League & Pacific Coast League games…..great baseball environment without the cost and arrogance of MLB. Eight years ago, my son talked me into taking him to a California League game to see this hotshot centerfielder that my son claimed was the next coming of Willie Mays (we’ve heard that a few times before, haven’t we?). We not only saw the young man perform on the field, but he posed for a picture with my son after the game and gave him his autograph too. He was such a nice guy……………….Mike Trout.
great read ! Thx for stirring similar memories of trips all over NA. I also used to fly a lot — before bonus miles 250k a year. Today I take a train whenever it is going near where I want to be. Such a pleasure.
My wife and I loved train travel. Often, she was the one to book the trip. We used the gated, guarded train station in Santa Ana, California for all of our travels up and down the state. We always used business class for the comfort–the wide seats with great seat pitch, the free coffee, and the newspapers that would come on when the train made a stop in a big city. Where there was no connection, we used the Amtrak Thruway bus service, a far cry from the cramped Greyhounds of old. Conversations with other travelers and the train crew were plusses. We talked for an hour one day with the road foreman of engines, making his usual tour of the route. Great learning for both of us. Thanks for this article.
I stopped reading at the Lexus Lanes argument (“Adding a toll lane allows rich people to drive fast and reduces the capacity on the freeway for everyone else.”)
That claim has been refuted by more than one study, e.g., in Washington state in 2008.
https://www.planetizen.com/node/35745
People use express lanes when they need to. And having the option to use them for a toll is a huge money-saver compared to the risk of a ticket when a solo driver in a rush opts to use a carpool lane, which happens to be the biggest problem with those lanes, according to a Mercury News report in June.
“As many as 30 percent of cars in the diamond lanes are driven by solo drivers apparently willing to risk a $491 fine because they don’t fear being caught,” reported Gary Richards.
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/06/26/carpool-lane-cheating-rampant-enforcement-lax-officials-say/
I just logged 2000 miles on the Empire Builder. This article mirrored my experience. I’ll be happy to travel Amtrak long distance any time.
As usual, it’s the fat cat owners who are the big winners. We’re the suckers.
This very interesting and historically enlightening article is seriously flawed by the last paragraph which is absolute nonsense. It is not “self-preservational realism” or any other kind of rational thinking that caused the Nissan workers to vote against their own self-interest. I don’t know why they voted against themselves but i suspect that it is about intellectually unsophisticated workers succumbing to intimidation. I grew up in Detroit where first generation immigrant factory workers with little education like both of my grandfathers had the courage and insight to fight to unionize the auto industry. That gave them entry into a home owning lifestyle with good health care and a comfortable retirement. They may have been aided by a progressive political atmosphere exemplified by the New Deal in America and workers progress in the USSR and other parts of Europe. The failure of Southern workers to accomplish a similar goal may be due to generations of being beaten down in a political environment hostile to justice within the current larger political context of corporate oligarchic ascendancy. It may also have something to do with solidarity. Those Detroit auto workers of diverse backgrounds, with the exception of white nativists and Southern white scabs (surprise, surprise), formed bonds of trust and loyalty that have been proudly passed down to at least the next two generations. It seems the Southern political leadership and global corporate goons have succeeded in dividing workers to prevent that sense of truly realistic self-preservational group loyalty from developing. I don’t know for sure but all that seems a lot more plausible to me than a pat on the back to workers who not only chose their exploiters over themselves and their families but worked on their oppressors behalf against their working class brothers and sisters.
“And Oakland should find that the eventual departure of the Raiders from O.co Coliseum, as well as the exit of basketball’s Golden State Warriors from the arena next door to the Coliseum, opens up all kinds of transformational opportunities for a piece of land that sits next to a transit center and a short distance from the city’s airport.”
So where are the A’s going?
Great article. I too am documenting a disappearing way of life: the neighborhood bodega.
Hdrbodegaphoto.com
Thank you for your article in the Sacramento Bee two weeks ago.
You can’t get there from here. Remember when Cal Trans had started a program to set up transportation hubs, I think it was under Adriana Gianturco? When I served on the Sacramento Regional Transit Board of Directors We started to build the Light Rail system. I could not get a priority list together for system expansion that included the SP Depot or the Metro Airport. I can ride a bus from my daughters home in Woodland on Yolo Bus, but can not get to the Air Port on Regional Transit. The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors control the airport and serve on the Regional Transit Board of directors: the right hand does not know what the left is doing. A private group of people calling themselves “Modern Transit Society”got the light rail system started ( I was an active member with the concept of wheelchair access without mechanical lifts that break down).
Is there a way of getting Cal Trans to make the transportation hubs a priority? Is there a way to get the transit board to work with the airport commission? I am eighty years old and do not feel up to the job I see that our local transportation works as it could.
the crippling and coming back could make a good second and third act, respectively (first one being her intro/establishing) be it as part of the same film or a series of them. having said that, the whole “paralyzed but then got better” thing is kinda cliched and since somebody super close in the bat-fam already did it (in print and screen) it could be seen as lacking creativity.
Maybe the, ahem! “American Dream”, can be centered around “the SECOND home”… given the predilections of the one at the helm presently (he’ll do anything to show he can do it one-handed too!).
So sad – especially because this happens too frequently.
Love it! <3
I never use my primary hard drive except for applications. Store your data offline. Flash sticks or drives, DVDs, CDs, just so ransomware can go to hell. Oh, get GeekSquad so they can set you back up after an attack.
Although there are many web sources of old radio programs including YouTube, check out archive.org if you are looking for one. Of course, you can also buy many of them in CD collections from various suppliers. Radio had to adjust when TV came along. If you were a kid on the east coast in the 1950s-70s – or an adult – you would know the name of Jean Shepherd. Check him out on archive.org – there are many, many hours available – if you don’t know his work. A documentary (movie) is coming out on Shepherd. His radio stories are the basis of the movie A Christmas Story which has become something of a classic. http://www.flicklives.com/
Did you use Clipper? I would’ve thought your transfer would work if you did.
Fascinating Read !
Great article!
I guess I don’t understand why the forest didn’t originally repopulate with its native mix of trees when farming was abandoned. Why was it predominantly white pine? And if white pine is so aggressive, after the hurricane, why didn’t it regrow all white pine again?
I had the same thought. It really doesn’t make sense. The same post agricultural regrowth took place in parts of New England and New York not hit by the ’38 storm and those forests are deciduous not pine.
Under the white pine forest was a seed bank and sapling understory that was primed for hardwood regrowth. White pine seedlings are not as tolerant of their own shade as many hardwood species so the hardwoods had the jumpstart. In places not hit by the storm the same thing happened but at a more gradual pace as logging occurred and smaller storms knocked down the big pines. It’s great to see the big solitary pines punching up thru the hardwood canopy nowadays. Once they get thru the canopy they have no competition except from the wind again. If you ever get the chance to visit the Fisher Museum at the Harvard Forest in Petersham MA it has great dioramas explaining the history of the New England forest. http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/fisher-museum
I find the headline a little misleading and confusing. If I’m understanding the article correctly, white pine was prevalent only in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and the hurricane altered the then-typical forest of those states. Vermont had a better mix of deciduous trees than Massachusetts or New Hampshire, and the article mentions nothing about the other three New England States.
The author deserves kudos for pointing out the little-known fact that equal state-by-state representation in the Senate, unlike other constitutional provisions, can’t be altered by constitutional amendment. For those who may not be inclined to accept this on his say-so, that strangely unique prohibition is found in Article 5.
Great piece on a personal hero of mine and the world that created him.
I related to this one quite nicely, Beth Daniels. Rocky and Bullwinkle were a big part of my childhood. Thank you for this.
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Believe me, “Rocky and His Friends” was even cooler when it was new.
I am 70 years old and DO remember watching those shows. I LOVED Rocky and Bullwinkle. Thank you for posting this, Steven Bell.
Grew up on Mouse & Squirrel as Boris & Natasa put it, the Rocky & Bullwinkle show had a great line up, thanks for the memories.
In 1962 Jay Ward, June Foray, and Bill Scott were supposed to have visit President Kennedy to ask that Mooselvania be recognized as a country. But they couldn’t see him. The Cuban Missile Crisis was beginning.
A large landowner in Scotland has discovered, by experimentation, that cattle manure is much better for the sol and the plants than sheep manure. SS is a lot worse than BS, it seems.
OK- Now to apply this science to guns…..
You need to change the Constitution and there is a process for that.
One of the best and most succinct commentaries on the subject I have seen.
Two irrefutable arguments for Single Payer, even though I would refer labeling it, MediCare for All. 1. It will cost less than what is currently spent on the present system of healthcare. 2. Nobody should slip through the huge cracks that exist now. Everybody gets covered. Let’s get over it, in the First World, quality and sufficient healthcare and treatment is a right, not a privilege.
Three ancestors lost to this fight, and no coincidence that we moved west about this time (1900) to escape this foolishness.
Test
Excellent essay on Gandhi’s non-violent resistance to unjust laws or Rule. Both he and Dr. King held the protestors to a high standard and code of conduct. This also means that the demonstrators must be watchful for those anarchists who want to use violence. At Kent State it was potatoes with imbedded razor blades thrown at the NG Troops. Currently it would be Antifa carrying fire bombs or rocks. The nonviolent protestors themselves must remove them.
Glad you were at Word of South. That was an amazing performance.
Could you bring up information on Brazilian concentration camps? Seems like a much needed story to be told.
You forgot what happened to the Native Americans and the Filipinos at the hands of the US Military…
first camps were made by Yankee war machine at Punchbowl in Natchez Miss for Blacks . and for Navajo by Kit Carson during war of Yannkee Lies.
Yikes. While I knew somewhere there would be a comparison between Trump and Barnum, I hadn’t expected it to come from Trump himself.
A bit of history I was unaware of. Amazing and so interesting. Above all else in my life, I am thankful for ‘reading’ parents, who never said ‘no’ to me wanting a book.
A really young Jerry Mathers tricked or treated at Ozzie & Harriet’s door…
Just some sort of sense. A building that isnt taller than the road is wide should be allowed anywhere because it isn’t tall. At this latitude a building that is not taller than the road is wide wont block out the sun.
Very thoughtful and interesting essay. Prior to the agricultural revolution, our gods were our ancestors. Agriculture lead to a more centralized economy and politics. That increase in central authority lead to our gods being more expansive and outside our own experience. God kings.
Muy interesante.
Yes, quite a few people have proposed that religion resulted from the human awareness and fear of death. It’s certainly a motivator but doesn’t account for the pervasive variety of ritual practices https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bb7a1c5a786dd220cbd25babcec9d8937892ca76df24993f9a2f0416fd180bb7.jpg such as rites of passage, which don’t necessarily have any direct connection to ancestor/god worship. Falls short of a complete theory of religion. Try
http://bit.ly/1RP04Ne for a more in-depth explanation.
This guy had some pretty interesting takes as well…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql2yz7XDs2A
I recall a theory that the voices of gods were actually the still disconnected right and left side of the brain communicating with each other. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicameralism_(psychology)#The_Origin_of_Consciousness
“Muslims always start the problems, such as rape and violence.” While this is an article about Buddhists and Burma, you hear the exact same complaints leveled in once-peaceful Sweden, and elsewhere. Is it that everyone is prejudiced against Muslims, or might the problem be associated with that totalitarian, expansionist cult?
“The answer to pollution, as KAB would have it, had nothing to do with power, politics, or production decisions; it was simply a matter of how individuals acted”. This is exactly the same flawed argument as the anti-gun lobby: “Guns kill, not people WITH guns”. People can’t help but generate garbage. Pollution is when garbage ends up in places we don’t want it. The kind of unsightly trash the ad was protesting is caused entirely by people.
Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock, on North Korea as Seen from Asia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXryB_V80PU
Well done. Your honour and his keeping him alive in memory and in story.We are analogue so is love.Thank you.
Are you calling a spade a spade? Perhaps we need a damn, dirty shovel!
Monuments and Memorials to our fallen soldiers should be built by a “Gratefull Nation”. Retired Executive Director, West Virginia Veterans Memorial Inc.
great perspective.
While growth may be uncomfortable, how can we encourage learning how America works *outside* of the classroom? What must be done to make it be interesting enough, fun enough, valuable enough, fast enough, that many more Americans engage in that growth?
Awesome analysis … SO, SO TRUE! I’m a new resident of Silicon Valley and its clear to me that NIMBY homeowners are the chief obstacle to creating the dense, vertical housing needed to keep pace with the growrh of jobs here. Even forward-looking solutions like bus rapid transit and transit-oriented housing are routinely opposed with claims that they will increase traffic congestion. Bizarre!
Thanks for this reflection on Mr. Marin.
Thanks to professor DeNicola for describing this dangerous cultural phenomenon that has perniciously withstood centuries of increasing rational thinking. The multitudes of us who despair that the social progress made since the Age of Enlightenment will ever reach the goals we dream of and may flounder on the flaws of our species can only welcome this clear and concise analysis of the problem.
After many years of amateur and professional involvement in politics, I came to the realization that attempting to achieve social progress through the political process was probably less fruitful, and certainly a more temporary solution, than encouraging people to think better. Political manipulation, even guided by the most noble motives, can be countered or undone by attractive opposing manipulation. If a majority of citizens learned to reject nonsense and choose their opinions and votes on evidence based policies consistent with their conscience we would be further ahead because our shared concepts of moral decency probably bind us closer than our political ideologies. I’m not too optimist that that will happen before we humans destroy our planet and ourselves.
Might I recommend a solution that allows easier access in the event of an earthquake or fire, and eases the shortage of multi-story buildings? Put in three stories, one below ground, the other two above ground. No one needs to go more than one story to get out.
This is a great article.
The Wilshire Grand is definitely a sub-par building qualitatively, but to say “Reaching the Wilshire Grand on foot isn’t easy, given how it’s cut off by the 110 Freeway on one side, and on two others by the heavy traffic of Wilshire Boulevard and Figueroa Street”
That’s simply bizarre and untrue. There is another building between the Wilshire Grand and the freeway with a small street between them. The busiest subway station in Los Angeles is across Figueroa, and healthy pedestrian traffic on all 4 corners.
You can find a lot of fault with the Wilshire Grand as a building but one thing LA has been getting right recently is corrective urbanism. DTLA is booming and the streets are alive again.
The title of my new poetry collection is Waystations, with original drawings of the many train terminals I’ve experienced in USA, Europe, and Australia. And my new sculpture, repurposed railroad track frogs, is just now installed at our Wilmington Railroad Museum. I fell in love with trains when I was two years old and have been in love with them ever since.
My great uncle was listed as an inmate at Sonoma State in the 1930 census at the age of 10. He died never having children. I recently learned his mother was institutionalized but I don’t know where or why. They were a very poor family and my grandmother lived on her own by the age of 15 with support of the local judge and a type of social worker woman in the area named Frances. I often wonder what happened to my great uncle there.
Good read. In New Mexico however, you were riding the Southwest Chief.
Sunset goes through Lordsburg and Deming.
You are right of course.
Thank you for this lovely article – I was very touched by this bit of Americana and how it truly was a part of the “fabric” of our culture.
Wonderful piece of history….enjoyed this very much, thank you!
My own story is a bit the opposite. My English paternal grandfather forbid my French paternal grandmother from speaking her native tongue in the house or to her four sons! And this was in OTTAWA. Decades later, i got revenge by becoming fluent in French lol and have been a Francophile ever since. Vive le Francais! 🙂
Je ne peux comprendre qu’un parent défende à ses enfants d’apprendre une autre langue, la langue des grands-parents de surcroit ! C’est priver ses enfants de toute une culture et d’un enrichissement sans borne….
Bien Sur. Je suis d’accorde avec vous.
In those years, 1920’s, the English considered the French to be lower class citizens, especially the Scottish. My grandfather was not an enlightened individual. Sad but true.
Great article. Thanks Robert for sharing… Merci Robert pour cet article!
Great piece! Many thanks to Zocalo and Robert Perreault.
Excellent texte, qui résume bien à la fois l’histoire et la situation actuelle des Franco-Américains.
WONDERFUL INTERESTING ARTICLE ABOUT A WONDERFUL INTERESTING MAN
EDUARDO AGURCIA
Eric, as a former city planner, investment banker and community developer your idea makes sense to me. However, what I have learned is that any idea that is placed and presented in the context of ‘cartels”, “syndicates”, etc., the ‘powers that be’ immediately have a negative response along with other stakeholders who advocate and support the free market approach to an emerging legal market. Also, the fact that you have first hand experience in supply chain logistics and a business background appears to be a self-serving suggestion of having a state-wide ‘broker’ for cannabis product and services. Additionally, your suggestion is devoid of the social and environmental dimension of a holistic, ecosystem which you alluded to. Bottom line: My sense is that your idea is sound but it is not aligned with the core of the highly successful digital business models such as Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, etc, which have led to disruption in several industries. In other words, these models delete the broker and replace it with another broker ..themselves..using technology to scale and control market share. Advocating for a ‘brick and mortar’ approach to distribution and concentrating power on an individual is not the most democratic nor does it level the playing field for people of color and other stakeholders which consist of at least 90% of the legal and illegal cannabis sector. Perhaps having a formal, state-wide digital cannabis market exchange similar to Cover California in the health-care industry is another model to consider.
When I was a little girl in the late 50’s my grandmother made me a dress from a chicken feed sack. I have a picture of me wearing the dress and some of the leftover fabric, and I recently found more of it from a seller on Etsy! I loved that dress. I was able to still buy bags of flour in printed cotton bags in the mid 80’s in a grocery store in Tehachapi, CA. Wish I could still get flour and sugar in those bags now. That would be a great recycling or “green” move for companies to do.
It’s not the black dog – its the shelter visitors that should be studied for insight into what dogs are chosen. In an era of mixed chihuahuas and mixed pitbulls the notion of black dog syndrome goes out the window. Instead look at how sophisticated the adopter is. A first time prospective dog owner will choose differently than someone who grew up with dogs and understands the importance of personality as well as breed temperament. Needless to say, we have black dogs and those dogs like their people companions are colorblind when it comes to love.
I cried reading this.
This is also true for the immigration country good Old Germany, dear Saint Nicholas! And help us to make our hearts open, optimistic and trustful again.
We would be better served to make class sizes smaller, instructional techs/aides available in every classroom and fund adequate support for students who are struggling or have special needs. How much of a classroom teacher’s time is taken up with classroom management, behavioral issues and students who are tired, hungry, not understanding the lesson or are well ahead of their peers? Giving students and teachers more support and smaller classrooms would serve our students much better than having them in school more hours.
How soon do we need to identify the modern equivalent of the home? Because in around 10-15 years robots will start building custom homes at increasingly lower cost. Materials precut in robotic Midwestern factories, shipped with robotic trucks, and assembled by robotic crews. It will likely cause a mortgage crisis as mortgage holders realize the replacement cost of their homes will always and ever shrink as the robots improve. At the same time, 5G+ internet speeds and augmented reality will separate work from physical presence which will demolish lot values. Robotic vehicles will make Snowbird-like migration easy for everyone. And robot house servants will clean homes better than the best housekeeping services used by today’s wealthiest families. This will be the American reality no later than 2040. Robot servants will be able to transport all your personal items to a new house while someone else lives in your house, then return all your personal items to your old house exactly as you left them before you return. But, why would you ever return? Your children won’t need to return for school, school will travel with them.
Here comes the twist: your essay concluded in a call for a cultural shift, maybe a national awakening, from Individualism to Collectivism. However, new technologies will inject structural economic changes that force American culture to change, just like the Black Death forced Europe to trade feudalism for the Renaissance. Ecology binds culture, and technology will change our ecology.
..
How many washings did it take to feel comfortable in burlap underwear?
Good article… Yet more examples of the outside forces that manipulate the economy are needed. In 2008…it was our politicians and social tinkering that caused the recession. Main stream media covered for rather than condemn… Progressive government. A credit market that dries up almost overnight is Not the fault of the average American household. That… Is game playing at the highest level and treasonous influence.
1-4-2018 Yes gentrification and the dis-balance of Los Angeles county housing assessment is approaching a tipping point. The comic reference on the inheritability of sub-market property tax liabilities is real now. It exists.
Maybe it is (past) time that, similar to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, legislators have full, continuing access to those same gubernatorial agencies/data. Also, the glut of bills seem to overwhelm even the most conscientious public representatives; how can that load be reduced–for the good of all?
That is great and wonderful, but you do not mention who actually wrote the songs, such as Clarence Carter’s “Strokin'” tho he takes credit. The song inspired by me being a Billy Squire fan. I didn’t agree to be a “ghost” songwriter, it was thrust upon me by Chris Blackwell of Island Records who had a long history with Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. Those guys up there knew why, even Rick Hall knew. He was afraid of a situation which was similar to what happened with Jerry Wexler & Aretha Franklin when he lost the Swampers. Your story is “tame” as Rick even wrote about what really happened with Aretha in his book. Let’s talk about how Rick also had a stable of songwriters, but I was not a “signed” songwriter. These guys took advantage of a 15 year old kid. Am I mad…you bet
May be you should write your story.
I have been working on it. Doubt they will ever let it see the light of day. I know too many secrets of Hollyweird that they would like to keep hidden. But, it can also be said for those locally in Alabama who have been involved in the entertainment industry and helped to cover up what happened. God forbid the reputations of such local icons is tarnished which the local news has been building up lately.
Clarence Carter recorded “Strokin” for a small Atlanta-based label called Ichiban Records, which had no affiliation with Island Records or Rick Hall’s Fame. The song was recorded at Muscle Shoals with Carter ad-libbing lyrics to his 1981 song, “Love Building.” The tape was rolling as Carter’s ad libbed lyrics got raunchier and raunchier and the music began to take on a slightly different groove than “Love Building”. Carter’s “Strokin'” was blatantly sexual, whereas Billy Squire’s “The Stroke” was actually a song about shady business people glad-handling a musician while ripping him off behind his back, and had no sexual connotation at all.
“Put your right hand out, give a firm handshake
Talk to me about that one big break
Spread your ear pollution, both far and wide
Keep your contributions by your side”
What other songs have you written, Amy Lee?
Thank you Mr. Boomhower for an excellent article. I also appreciate Zocalo for its “What it means to be an American” series.
This is a powerful story About the melting pot music in all genre.
Yes war is a cruel necessity .Just watch Requiem for a massacre ( Come and see). Film by ElIem Klimov . It is the best film ever made on war
Great read – many Brits are now suffering a real conflict of identity they never had to address in the past. Interesting how people are dealing with it. I hope things work out for the author in Germany!
Really great article, Thanks Mr. Jones.
No mention where the recipes are available? Library of Congress?
It’s available on Project Gutenberg. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12815
Thank you Lisa, genius.
Amazing article, my favorite topic and honestly the only thing I show passion for, other than my daughter. The accuracy of the article is amazing. I have witnessed most of the events you wrote about. I’ve been to all of the parks, and most that closed. I have an awesome beer batter story, of all people Arturo Nieto.
BUT If you write an article about the California League and only mention Stockton for devastating municipal bankruptcy, it leaves out a huge amount of California League history. No mention of Banner Island BP, the crown jewel of the California League….other than its the newest of old parks.
So fear not. After an economic collapse and a civil war, everything will work out OK.
Hazel Grandchamp was my grandmother. I always admired her business acumen especially as a women working at that level during that time.
So true, Joe. This is where the rubber meets the road, and presidential decrees shrink in comparison to the day-to-day issues of a municipality like Santa Barbara. Nice!
What a great idea. I would love to see Oprah tackle the unique problems of Santa Barbara, especially the water issue. I’d love to return to SB where my sons were born and help with these issues but, alas my little house off Cathedral Oaks is far beyond my budget. I have no idea how those people I see on KEYT with Montecito shops can afford homes or even apartments there. Still, I love the area and think Oprah is the perfect person to tackle county issues. She can run for President after she’s managed to figure out how residents can equitably share the scarce water and how kids born there can live there as adults.
Exactly. We must get the community to to discuss this topic. One problem that I see, is that it appears as though the vast majority of humans are unwilling or unable to educate themselves adequately on technically, or scientifically oriented subjects to do so.
Finally I see my birth city of Woonsocket, R.I. mentioned. As a native New Englander in MI. I have taught college French and other French classes and made certain that my students learned about the French speaking people from my part of the world, especially Woonsocket, RI that is usually forgotten about, even tho downtown has its slogan of Bienvenue………….
Wow. Your observations and the suggestion of having a stronger bond…not linkage since the idea is too mechanical and devoid of feeling human emotion…between LA and Latin America is a narrative that should have been crafted by an academic, diplomat or someone that whose core business or activity is to promote the creation or formation a mega-community leveraging the all the assets for a global vision. Clearly, this is not the case. I know well that insights are not the domain of anyone but that of whoever conceives and communicates the idea. As such, the copy is excellent; it is brief, concise, insightful, thought provoking and suggestive for action. This has prompted me to consider the thought organizing super regional/cross border event …in Latin America the task is referred as “congresos”…to connect people and institutions to design and build an entrepreneurial eco-system driven by selected stakeholders to develop a set of initiatives that will foster and accelerate the bonding for a mutual benefit over the long term. This effort may incentivize the academic, intellectual, business and political communities of Los Angeles/Southern California and Latin American countries to identify and engage in positioning Latinx and their brothers and sisters to be the nexus for this potential ‘fusion of regions.” To me, this new ‘venture’ starts with addressing the WHY, HOW, WHAT and WHEN to formulate a road map by a small number of individuals that get it. We could draw world class talent from the business sector, governmental agencies (including international financial institutions), local chambers of commerce, international trade centers, embassies/consulates, universities/colleges, policy think tanks, etc. The road map would be the agenda for the hyper-gathering in LA similar to the World Economic Forum but with the focus on the Southern Americas.!!! BTW: Canadian would be welcome since there is tri-venture for trade.
good article. I don’t live there. Technically only the misers can afford to live there right?
Housing prices in California and especially in Los Angeles are VERY high. 500,000 to 550,000 for an average 2 – 3 bedroom home. Very tough for a new buyer in LA. The younger people I know who have been able to purchase homes either same a large down payment or have family help.
A good story but: “chewy, bitter-tasting, foul-smelling” No.
Raw collards and collards not prepared in vinegar, and many non commercial varieties, are mild even sweet and smell much like cabbage.
So let’s drop that line?
Wonderful article by a very knowledgable professor. The history of this phenomenon is as interesting as the phenomenon itself!
Brilliant, makes me reconsider Wittgenstein in an entirely different, humanizing and relevant light. Makes me also more aware of the role and the misuse of the language game today and how we all must pitch in to fix this mess. Would like to see more pieces of this sort.
The purpose of the portability of property tax, which portability is limited to persons over the age of 55, is to enable seniors and retired persons to be able to move from a home in which they have lived for a long time, and purchase something smaller, safer, or closer to their grown children. Since people live a bit longer today than they did when the statutes were first put in place it is not unreasonable to expect a senior to move once when they retire, and perhaps again 10 to 15 years later. Since a replacement home can be purchased for the same or less than the sale price of the long term residence, it is NOT the mortgage which causes the senior to be “locked” into their long term residence. It is the potential new property tax assessment. To spell it out with numbers, for California……….if you purchased a home for 150,000 in 1990 and are now retired your home may be worth 450,000 today. If you sell it for 450,000, and purchase another one for 399,500, you are eligible to port your property tax. Your property tax on the 150,000 home was original assessed at 1% of the value, and increased by 2% of the amount of the tax annually (if can be decreased as well). Therefore the property tax would be 1,500 compounded by 2% annually, or about 2,612, or 217/mo, currently. Now, if the senior must pay a newly calculated property tax at 1% of the 450,000, the new tax would be 4,500 or $375/month. Might not seem like a great deal by for some seniors the additional 158/mo is a LOT of money…….. To add to the overall problem,
here in California, the housing costs are high, and the federal law, going forward, is limiting the deductibility of these taxes. So, the objective, again, is not to allow a discount in perpetuity, but to permit seniors to have some mobility, and to relieve the market by making homes which would otherwise not be available, available to younger buyers seeking these larger homes.
Craft have been seen in the air, for thousands of years. One of our source Historians from antiquity, Plutarch, in “Life of Marius” wrote in the first century: “Many signs also appeared, most of which were of the ordinary kind; but from Ameria and Tuder, cities of Italy, it was reported that at night there had been seen in the heavens flaming spears, and shields which at first moved in different directions, and then clashed together, assuming the formations and movements of men in battle, and finally some of them would give way, while others pressed on in pursuit, and all streamed away to the westward.”
@cynthia I agree entirely… we must (nearly) ALL pitch in to fix this mess!
I had a modern warfare class open to advanced ROTC and officers back in the late 60’s. We read one study where a 100 megaton weapon detonated at a little over three miles in altitude and dropped halfway between Chicago and Detroit, in the area of Battle Creek, MI would destroy both Chicago and Detroit and everything else in the blast circle described by those two cities. That would kill probably 20-30 million people by incinerating them. It’s time to think about where this maniac for a president is taking us because he is not looking at the possibility of a nuclear war as a disaster of epic proportions, but as a means of boosting the midterm elections by exercising what he thinks is a quick strike against NK assets. Those things will quickly run out of control in a world where military opportunity may only exist but for a few brief minutes.
Thanks for this article. Wish there were more images.
Thank you for an excellent biography.
I wonder if Julius Rosenwald, a contemporary of Rotary International founder Roy Harris, was a member of Rotary. Mr. Harris founded the first Rotary Club in Chicago. Many times leaders of huge companies do not believe they have the time to belong to service clubs, but I wonder if Rotary shunned Jews in those early days.
I’ve always wondered why NY papers didn’t call him out on his lie–such as he graduated first in his class, the height of his Trump Tower, that Ivana was on the Czech ski team–or dig more into his finances and ties to the mob. This should have been “trumpeted” to the world. You guys knew him best.
Excellent essay and a nice diversonary (of sorts) topicfrom the heavy trumpian themes you have been asked to cover since I was first pointed to your twitter feed this past fall. Cheers
My favorite read to-date, Greg. So glad you decided to go down this path.
Queens is to Manhattan what Ft. Worth is to Dallas, Oakland to San Francisco and St. Paul to Minneapolis. Only now, as Brooklyn becomes un-affordable, are Whites returning to gentrify parts of Queens, the borough with, I am sure, the largest “White Flight” migration post WWII. I’m a product of P.S. 96; P.S.155, Shimer Jr. High School and John Adams High School, class of 1953!
In fact, New York “got it right”– the rest of the country should have paid more attention to how he was regarded in his own city. Isn’t it one of the Bravo New York Housewives that said/or sang “Money can’t buy you class?” He played to his base– because he knew they would sell out their neighbors, their faith, and the facts– just to go for the shiny object. It’s the crowd that comes up with phrases like “If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich?” And it’s the crowd that under the guise of fiscal policy led simple people to believe that the country would benefit by a political outsider who was a “smart” business man who made all that money. Dirty dealings and family history be damned. Dad after all, made his initial money as a notorious slum land-lord — and wouldn’t rent to African-Americans, and definitely saw Nazi sympathizes as “good people.” But the base said “Don’t bother us with the facts!” and threw out morality, faith, and facts to elect anybody but one of those big, bad, “liberals!” (You know– liberal– as a four letter word.) There is a certain N.Y. love/hate relationship with L.A. Angelinos talk about typical New Yorkers and New Yorkers talk about things being SO California! But the truth of the matter is, the rest of the country would have done well to listen to the bi-coastal bookends– which, after all is said and done– do hold up the books!
P.S. I don’t know about that analogy of Queens/Manhattan, Ft. Worth/Dallas/ Oakland/S.F. and St Paul/Minneapolis. If you drive down Summit Avenue in St Paul you don’t exactly see the “lesser” of the twin cities. You see the surviving F. Scott Fitzgerald America. There is actually somewhat of a religious (Catholic/Protestant) divide on each side of the Mississippi.In the meanwhile, someone really should do an honest article about white flight in Los Angeles– the move of Jewish East L.A. west. The racially motivated move of Angelinos out of the mid-city, and places like Highland Park, to the “new” suburbs of Inglewood, and the West-Side. And then there’s the anti-Semitic Palisades real estate red-lining. As for Trump– God help us all wherever we live.
I did, I tried for over a year on FB. I’ve lived in the NY metro area since 1968. Posted old news stories on the nasty things Trump did. What did I get for it…… “He tells it like it is.” “Hillary is corrupt and lies.” ” I love that he’s not PC.” Six “conservative” HS classmates from 1964 in PA unfriended me. I tried. I tried.
I am not a Trump supporter, but this article unintentionally makes Trump seem sympathetic by describing his rejection by a deeply entrenched New York class system that begins assigning people to the lower class at birth. Global trade, immigration, higher education, and a free press may find a place in New York values, but support for the idea that all men are created equal seems to be decidedly absent.
This is, bar none, the best column you have ever written.
It’s self evident that modernization consumes history. It’s only by celebrating history that it ever remains. The story lacks proof of a conscious effort to erase the past as the author suggests. The author misses what his story reveals and tries to color it with sensibilities of the present. Otherwise, I enjoyed the article even if we see things differently.
If these hundreds of cities are being pushed all in the same direction (out with the poor! And n with the auto malls! ) you could argue that there is some centralizing force that’s doing that.
This is really interesting but the majority of the genres you listed with the exception of polka are genres that have African roots (mamba, rocknroll, jazz, blues, folk… esp. people like Bob Dylan, funk, calypso, etc). So I guess my contention is with the idea that the Minneapolis sound owes its brilliance to the Black musicians having to learn the Northern European and Central European folk musics rather than drawing from a wide array of African American and Afro Caribbean musical traditions and indigenous influences. Sidenote, check out a contemporary Minnesotan who seems to be continuing this line of genre mixing to produce a new thing, his name is Allen Kingdom!
I always enjoy – and even look forward to – reading your essays on California’s central Valley. Regarding this one, it is no different. And, I could not agree more with your assessment.
I am curious, though, as to what you have in mind when you suggest “a regional transportation network.”
If it is one that incorporates commuter rail or glorified light rail or perhaps even a heavy rail system on the order of the Bay Area’s BART, then it has my vote! (The clues here are corridors along both the 99 and 41 and “better transit”). California high-speed rail, incidentally, has the potential to prompt just this very thing.
Not mentioned in the piece above, what with air quality in the area being what it is – among the worst in America – I just don’t see how adding more roadway space – as is the case with the recent reintroduction of Fulton Street where a pedestrian mall once sat – makes any sense whatsoever.
Meanwhile, productive agricultural land is taken out of, well, production.
That’s my assessment!
The area where these new developments are is east of the agricultural area, where it begins to become grassland.
I’m interested in the connection that Mormon history has to the explanation for all of pre-Columbian history. As I recall what the Elders tried to explain, our Native Americans were the “bad people” who had conquered the enlightened civilizations of the Western Hemisphere. Of course, they intertwined this with the claim that those early civilizations existed simultaneously with the Greek and Roman ones and that Jesus appeared here at the same time he appeared in the East.
Joe – I could not agree with you more. Along with the “problem” areas you point out, Amtrak is a good start for us Californians to ride instead of drive. I recently rode the Surfliner from Santa Barbara to Burbank Airport – connecting to a flight instead of driving and paying for long term parking (my business trip was over 14 days). Adding the high speed service from So Cal to Nor Cal and the near completed connection to LAX will no doubt help our future congestion woes here in the Golden State.
Using modestly successful short-distance Amtrak California service to claim that “high-speed rail would be popular” is a complete non-sequitur. First, California subsidizes Amtrak California operations to the tune of $110 million per year (and growing) – or about $20 per train trip; without those ticket subsidies (which high-speed rail, by law, cannot have), ridership would be much lower. Second, Amtrak California does not compete with viable airline service in any of its three corridors; on the other hand, high-speed rail will most definitely compete with frequent, cheap, and fast airline service. Third, the Surfliner and Capitol Corridor arguably serve the two best intercity rail corridor candidates in California (LA-SD and Bay Area-Sacto), which high-speed rail will not be serving!
Amtrak California works for me and I ride it whenever I can. However, Matthews is completely off-base extrapolating results from these corridors to defend California’s current high-speed rail system.
Everyone seems to forget about radio preacher Aimee Semple Macpherson, particularly when it is said that Graham got his start in Los Angeles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUZ_-5e6G7Y
Terrific article. So glad you pointed out the reality that Lawrence’s wealth could be traced to the cotton farming conducted by enslaved people. So much of history reveals this reality, the complexity rather than the black and white, villain versus hero perspective. What is also extremely complex in the Lawrence story is that his niece was Jane Means Appleton Pierce, then the First Lady of the United States, wife of President Franklin Pierce who signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Mrs. Pierce is depicted as a wan figure and she did suffer from both chronic mental and physical health problems. But she was an intelligent, principled person and she was an avid abolitionist. She worked to manipulate her husband to free Charles Robinson, a Kansas abolitionist who had been imprisoned in the territory, among other acts that contradict the prevailing perception that she was either apolitical or apathetic, acquiescing to the President on all matters.
In Zocalo’s early days, there was less traffic in Los Angeles. I attended many of the conversations and marveled at the efficient, economic obviously sustainable model for presenting very thoughtful ideas in a forum that allowed us to think and exchange ideas. Ah, democracy!
Now, traffic sucks, especially at rush hour. So, thanks for the podcasts. I just can’t get anywhere easily. The logo is gorgeous, by the way.
Nice piece, George… Billy Graham was a close, and long time friend of my uncle, and former father-in-law back in the days of Graham’s Crusades.
we ride amtrack from sacto to reno through the snow and it is magnificent, We also ride through the sierras in summer and enjoy historical commentary as we travel–as we travel we si see conglomeration o f cars on the free way. we amtrack from Ac to Oakland then bus to down town SF