My case for David Geffen

I see it. Perhaps by making the LA Times more local than it already is, people will be ignorant about the rest of the world? No, I wouldn't agree so. I mean, local first. National and international should come after that. As a common thread in the hodgepodge quilt of Los Angeles, the Times has the opportunity to be the source of a deeper connection and sense of identity amongst Angelenos. As dwellers of the city, they should know their city well beyond its facade as entertainment capital, vacation paradise of the world. Making the Times a local paper (Stress LOCAL--not loco) will help unite the community. People in LA don't know each other. They're stuck in their cars or at work, and that tears at the sense community. If you unite the community, then you can start getting dialogue, and then more community action. It's just a win-win situation. Then people will talk not only about the local stuff, but they have a forum for larger issues.

And I also have a theory, that when a community is closer together, there is a slighter tendency for crime. When you know somebody, it is often that you do not want to hurt them. And when you know everybody and the city is like a great big family, then I would want to say that the same theory holds and applies. Then the world would be a happier place...if David Geffen owned the Times--and hired me as a layout designer; in my dreams.

For now, my role model is David Geffen

David Geffen--part of Dreamworks, which does so much for AIDS Walk; donated a buttload of money to the UCLA School of Medicine; and most admirably, wants to buy the LA Times and make it a more local paper.

This guy really loves LA, and he's really got good heart and intentions. From the LA Weekly:

"David Geffen wants to own the Los Angeles Times and put it back under local control, as well as make it a real must-read."

Everybody knows how seriously and unfortunately disconnected Angelenos are with their city. They are either

1. Too into the rest of the world, and therefore overlook the local, or
2. Too disinterested in the world altogether.

If indeed the LA Times becomes a real newspaper, with real staff writers, rather than mostly newswire stories, I would die for the opportunity to work there!

GE Cluster & Social Science

I love my LA class very much! So today, Professor Gary Blasi (or however you spell his name) came and talked about homelessness. Very good lecture. I loved the subject. He was brilliant. I want to be like him one day; and also Steve Lopez from the LA Times. Be one of those guys who talk to the Mayor and know what's happening at City Hall--and then go out into the public and criticize them when they're doing stupid. I want to be somebody to make them accountable and wake up the punch-drunk (drunk on ignorance) public. Be all sardonic. Sardine-ic. Heehee.

Oh, that's nice.


From the LA Times:
"State law bars more than six registered sex offenders on parole from living together in a residential care facility, unless they are legally related by blood, marriage or adoption. Only one sex offender is allowed to live in a single-family dwelling. The law, however, does not address the number of sex offenders allowed to live in an apartment building, authorities said."
------NIMBY NIMBY NIMBY NIMBY NIMBY!
Why are we all such NIMBYs. No one wants a sex offender to live anywhere near them! So why is it single-family dwellings that get the special protection! Lower-income people seemingly don't deserve the protection? Is that it?
And then they admit to containment of homeless people. "Is it really safer to have these homeless guys spread out one or two to a block, or have 10 or 12 in one place where we can keep an eye on them?" Switching topics, Gary Blasi blasted the Safer City Initiative. "Cleaning up" Skid Row by throwing people heavy policing and throwing people into jail. Citing people who can't pay. Citing people for littering when their cigarette ash falls to the floor. Not even attempting to target "so-called-crime" rates, since there are no trash receptacles in Skid Row. And its been shown the a night in jail costs much more than a night in a shelter, costs much more than permanent housing... But in the end, indigents come back out, back to--you guessed it, Skid Row. Worst thing is, they come back quick because jails are overcrowded. And also, since they've now been prosecuted, they will no longer be eligible for services in the future. And more offenses, they get thrown into the prison. The prison that is currently under federal watch, because of the budget crisis that turned the state prison system into "Cruel and unusual punishment," with its lack of health care, blah blah blah.

In short, Los Angeles, you suck. How much money are you spending on this homeless problem? Well, $12 million goes to hiring inefficient cops specifically for the .85 square mile Skid Row and only $5.6 million goes to homeless services throughout the city. The city that includes the Port of LA, San Fernando Valley, East LA, Central City, South LA...that MEGAMAN of a city and you only spend half of what you spend on cops for .85 square miles of the city.

Los Angeles, although I love you dearly, your inefficiency drives me crazy.

Good thing Blasi said that the problems are finally being recognized and assessed. They're trying out the "Housing First" thing that has worked for the country's other big cities. It's called Project 50. Look it up!

Fuming!!!

The LA Times needs to check itself. Is there something wrong with "US is still overwhelmingly Christian, study finds" as opposed to "More Americans changing religious denominations, study finds"
Uhhh. Yah, ma'am. Why does the LA Times find it necessary, that even though religious affiliation is on the decline, which really is the news, they put that Christianity stays on top as its headline. America has always been Christian. It's not surprising that "US is still overwhelmingly Christian." Stupids. I just can't stand that you did that LA Times. You're feeding the zeal of the zealots. Take example from the Boston Globe.

I am thoroughly disappointed. Even though you are not as professionally-respected as is the New York Times, I always read you, because you are the Los Angeles Times. Another false move...

You're out.

Gang violence in a middle school

They're cracking down. One of the things they did was get everyone in the same uniform. According to a guy from NYU who studied urban reform, he said people feel safer in a uniform, orderly environment. For the most part true. Some people might feel insane. But anyway:

"It's cool to have more support in school," he said. "We have more people coming to help."

He was thrilled to try on the new sneakers, distributed last month.

"You have dirty shoes and people will joke on you," Terrell said. "And now they can't joke on your shoes because they're new, and they got them on too."

That was so cute. This is from the LA Times.

Heart Attack Dogs

Yummy. I love LA Weekly. They tell me things I've never known about my favorite city. They broke the news about Skid Row Staph (at least they broke it to me). And today, I read about those yummy yummy downtown dogs. It's illegal to grill hot dogs. Which is a surprise to me, because every time I'm in Downtown, they're still grilling them, and they never fail to tempt me. They're like The Sirens for my olfactory. And there's this conflict- Legal versus Illegal. The Legals are abiding by the regulations set by the County Health Department, and the Illegals are still makin' them. Guess who gets more business? Boring boiled/steamed or juicy/greasy grilled? Yah. That's the dilemma. It's especially a problem for the Legals because they are registered with the Health Department, so when they get cited, they go to jail. The officials are never going to get the Illegals, because they run away quickly. Sucks. So this is what is said about the Illegals:

"I've seen cockroaches just pour out of the bottom," he says. "I've seen meat sitting out in the sun for hours. We've seen hot-dog carts where the owner has a little bottle where he urinates, because he doesn't want to leave his cart. And he stores the bottle alongside his food."

Nasty or what? I would still eat them. But I just hope that I don't eat a cockroach egg. Ughh.

And then the LA Times' Homicide Report online. It was a year-long assignment that tracked all of the County's homicide. There are about a thousand, but only 10% or so get Times coverage. One of the questions the journalist raised, what determines who gets covered? And she said this was only possible because of the unlimited space that the Internet allowed. Most those who were getting killed off lived on the fringe of society, underground--they had multiple aliases, were illegal, or lived a life of crime. That most of these people are so invisible, a reader responded on Homocide Report, something like "It's almost as if they are disposable." Most of them are black or Hispanic, which then brought another reader to complain that it is bolstering the stereotypes against blacks and Hispanics. But it's nice--I guess more bittersweet--that these people get some kind of attention, some kind of an identity, some kind of a story. It definitely doesn't do any justice, but at least the departed are given a life after living in the shadow. It gives these people a history in the land of forgotten and neglected history. But this is a two-edged sword though; most of them, I would say, go unreported because people won't give any sympathy to criminals that died. The public will be more inclined to say, "God willed it," or something to justify it and imply that they deserved it. I said it, but it's not an opinion coming out of my mouth. It's a harsh reality.

But seriously. Legalize those dogs! We have greater problems to worry about than preventing people from making good hot dogs. Right?

This is why I wish I had gay friends

Again these are snippets from the LA Times article. Gibson and Golay are the cutest couple.

By 1996, hope was getting harder to come by. Gibson went blind in one eye from an opportunistic infection. At one point, he had just 16 T cells -- which normally orchestrate the body's immune response -- per cubic millimeter of blood.
Healthy people have from 500 to 1,600.
"We decided that if they got below 10, we would name them," Golay said.

Golay had a heart attack last year at 59, despite a lifetime of healthful eating and regular exercise. He underwent a quintuple bypass. ("He never does anything small," Gibson said.)

HIV/AIDS patients living longer

Is it terminal disease or any disease without a cure that really forces one to breathe new life into their views of life?

"Everybody I knew died in the late '80s or early '90s," said Los Angeles resident and longtime survivor Thomas Woolsey, 59. "It sounds like I'm the lucky one, but I don't really think so. What good is a life without any friends?"

How wise and powerful of a statement is that? Got it from the LA Times.

Cars Cars Cars

From the LA Times
"The mayor and I both believe that in a city where traffic is the No. 1 quality-of-life problem"
-- Beverly Hills Mayor Jimmy Delshad