Today’s Headlines

Can somebody take a posterboard of the MyFigueroa project down to USC’s main campus and ask pedestrians and cyclists, “Do you like the looks of this project for Figueroa?”

Video the whole thing and send it on blast to USC’s public affairs team.

We are saddled now with the bizarre legacy of Willie Brown’s dominance in state politics. Willie Brown so dominated Sacramento politics that the Republicans got term limits passed for members of the legislature. Since then, a cascade of termed out state office holders have tumbled back down into the “lower ranks” of local political office.

In Los Angeles, we are saddled with competent electioneers like Gil Cedillo, Paul Koretz, Herb Wesson, and Curren Price who HAVE NO FUCKING CLUE ABOUT LIVABLE STREETS. These “left wing” politicians have been soaking up the high stress, big issue, big donor, life in Sacramento for the last 20 years. Now they’ve been kicked out of office for, really, no good reason at the age of 60+. They should take the hint and retire on their generous pension packages, or go work in the morally corrupt private sector (as have earlier versions of themselves from previous term-outs) lobbying out of their Sacramento condos.

Instead, they see local congressional seats as jobs for life and LA City Council seats as 12 years of heaven – where they can cram the cash and bennies into their nests, waltz around with “staff”, and never lose the sheen of being a VIP. The problem is that they are in nitty gritty city governance land – where their stupidity and personal weaknesses, their philosphical quirks, have immediate and real effects on the lives of hundreds of thousands of people on a daily basis. They can really do a lot of good, a lot of bad, or a lot of nothing about a lot of very important things in Angelenos day-to-day lives.

None of these aforementioned baby-boomer, 60+ year old, “leftists” thinks that biking and walking is mainstream politics in L.A. Their kids are not riding their bikes to college, their grandkids are enwombed in SUV’s being shuttled to soccer practice. These guys came of age when peak oil was at its nadir in the cultural discourse. They simply do not care about real quality of life. They want to get paid, get re-elected, and get left alone.

That is why the man on the street needs to attack. Ask the people riding and walking on Figueroa what they think.

The same people who help elect these Democratic machine candidates are running the USC public affairs dept. The USC public affairs crew doesn’t walk, doesn’t ride buses, doesn’t take the train, and sure as shit doesn’t ride bikes. They are taking money from people who will spend 4 to 8 years of their lives riding and walking on and around campus – yet the USC public affairs staff consider the interests of their customers as the blatherings of some contemptible underlings to a feudal lord.

Do not kiss any rings, go directly to the street corner with a camera and do man on the street coverage of MyFigueroa – ask the people waiting sadly at the bus stop.

Next up: do a Jaime-de-la-Vega style xpose of how many of the staff of these councilmen walk or ride bikes or transit to work. Do the same for the USC executive/P.R. people – get the zip codes they are driving in from. That is a great political football.

Next, challenge them to ride with you to work some day.

Finally, bring Critical Mass to their doorstep(s) at work and at their homes and host die-ins; let that mass ride do some good once again instead of wasting LAPD’s valuable time and resources.

If you really want to freak them out, interview their grandkids about what they like to do outside of their exurban castles. “Oh little Jimmy/Tina do you really like to play with your friends on bikes? How interesting.”