Posted on 03/27/2014 6:11:43 AM PDT by Kaslin
The Los Angeles City Council asked Mickey Kantor, President Clinton's ex-secretary of commerce, to head a commission to assess the shape of American's second largest city. The report pulled few punches. Los Angeles, said the report, "suffers from a crisis in leadership and direction." L.A., it says, risks becoming "a city in decline."
These problems include: a public school system with a high inner-city drop-out rate, where many of those who do graduate are unable to read, write and compute at grade level; the worst traffic in the nation; nearly $30 billion in unfunded pension liabilities (more than Detroit); last in job creation among big cities since 1992 and the only one of the seven largest cities "where the number jobs has actually declined since 1990"; and according the a recent study by the liberal Brookings Institution, now last in job creation for young people in the 100 largest metropolitan areas.
How has the city council busied itself even as Occidental Petroleum of L.A. became the latest of the top 10 oil companies once headquartered in California to leave? In the last few years, city council has: voted, with one dissenting vote, to require porn actors to wear condoms; voted, 11-1, to become the largest city in America to ban the use of plastic grocery bags; unanimously agreed to treat e-cigarettes like regular ones and restrict their sale and use; and voted unanimously for a resolution supporting a state bill to allow "undocumented immigrants" to get drivers' licenses. Council even passed a resolution, 13-2, condemning "intolerable" speech on talk radio. The resolution, according to one councilman, is not anti-First Amendment. "It's exactly appropriate for this council to speak up," he said, "against the vile things we hear on the airwaves."
The next report will make recommendations. Why wait? The city should immediately hire Peter Ueberroth. This California businessman successfully put on the 1984 L.A. Olympics when experts predicted disaster. Call him consultant. Call him City Czar. He has the stature, experience and the gravitas to implement the following 10 steps:
1) L.A.'s recently elected mayor demanded that the heads of all city departments re-apply for their jobs. Similarly, 14 of the 15 current council members should immediately resign and re-apply for theirs. Ueberroth will ask each, "What would you do to turn the city around?" When he hears the words "spend more" or "invest more," it's over. Ueberroth will choose a replacement from a slate of civic leaders and residents to fill the unexpired term. One, a popular, commonsense ex-police chief who happens to be black, can stay. He provides political cover and street cred to those who will inevitably whine about "hired guns" taking over.
2) Bankruptcy. City workers and retirees will negotiate givebacks or the city will file for bankruptcy.
3) Taxes. Cut local taxes. Urge the state to follow suit. California, at 13.3 percent income tax, has the nation's highest marginal income tax rate. California has the highest state-level sales tax in the country. We have the highest gas taxes in the country -- while having some of the worst roads.
4) Vouchers. Allow the education money to follow the child, rather than the other way around. For people living in the inner city, they will have greater latitude to opt out of a government school.
5) Privatization. Contract out anything found in the Yellow Pages that is also being performed by city workers. Nearly 40 percent of the world's largest 100 airports are either fully or partially owned by investors. Los Angeles' airport, the world's sixth busiest, should be one of them. Because of its inefficiencies and higher-than-the-private-sector payroll, Business Insider ranked L.A.'s Department of Water And Power No. 13 of the "The 19 Most Hated Companies in America." Almost 20 years ago the libertarian L.A.-based Reason Foundation gave then-Mayor Richard Riordan a report on why and how to privatize the Department of Water and Power. Dust it off.
6) Collective bargaining. Just as the governor of Wisconsin did, the city must reduce the scope of collective bargaining to exclude benefits and limit bargaining on wages.
7) Traffic. Establish toll roads for L.A.'s notoriously congested freeways. People would pay based upon density of usage at any given the time of day. End the strangling regulations on taxis that protect established cab companies from competition from lower-cost "gypsy cabs."
8) Adjust lawmaker pay. L.A. City Council is the highest-paid city council in the country -- all while governing over a city in "crisis."
9) Term limits. L.A. has had them for decades. They simply give us more contested races. We end up spending more time and energy getting more people elected -- and defeated -- than before. Meanwhile government continues to grow beyond inflation and population growth.
10) City charter reform. Give the mayor direct responsibility for schools, as in New York and Chicago. It isn't that the schools necessarily are better, but parents at least have a named individual whom they can hold accountable.
Now then, let's get started.
It will take 100 kilotons or the San Andreas fault to fix L.A.
Demographics is destiny.
Given it’s size, I’d say more along the lines of 5 megatons.
Given it’s size, I’d say more along the lines of 5 megatons.
ACK! Sorry ‘bout that.
Has this doofus ever been to LA? There is heavy traffic there at 11:00 PM.
No mega-tonnage needed.
electrical transmission line and main water feeds from Hover Dam on a hot day...
... then let the problem work itself out.
There is no need for name calling. Larry Elder has a right to his opinion
Sue the Democrat Party.
Why don’t they raise taxes ?
He certainly does. He also has the opportunity to be called on it. Toll roads in LA when the State has the highest gas taxes in the nation will only create the mess that is Chicago: another bureaucracy of TSA-like people bogging up traffic collecting outrageous tolls and shorting people for change because they are in a hurry.
There are three real problems with highway spending in this State. One is that there is a huge leech of greenies attached to it who get paid a fortune for "mitigation" or "restoration" projects that usually fail completely. The second is that the contracts are not competitive because of the labor rules for everything from minority set-asides to payments for "comparable worth." The third is that the fuel taxes trucks pay do not cover the cost of the damage they do to the road surfaces. Because of the port, LA has an inordinate load of trucking on those roads so the latter really adds up.
We all know what the big problems are in LA: The rate of immigration has overwhelmed the ability to fund the assimilation of these people into productive middle class society. The Democrats' need for an indentured constituency to keep them in power has induced a critical mass of entitlement demand that cannot be funded.
Diversity is strength. There needs to be more poor illegals. I have heard they are all business owners and would all start multibillion dollar companies if they were only given amnesty. LA also needs more democrat liberalism. Higher taxes has always driven growth. Higher minimum wages always lead to more employment. More regulations grow business. Let’s throw in some high speed rail too.
\liberal hat
Obama has a solution.
Caracas might be easier to fix.
Get out while you still can!
And the minimum wage, too.
“Establish toll roads for L.A.’s notoriously congested freeways. People would pay based upon density of usage at any given the time of day.”
That is insanity. Do you know what that would do to the main streets, and it gives more money to the clown politicians.
Larry sure isn’t kidding about the roads. I drove into a huge hole in the road this morning that I swear wasn’t there yesterday!
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