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.

You are so ironic, Curbed LA architect

Take a look at this guy:

Ok, I'm an architect and not that my opinion matters more than anyone's else's, but the hotel looks a thousand times better than before. I agree with the LA Times that it won't win any design awards but jeez. What's up with folks in LA always wanting to hold on to blah design and shabbiness? Is it mostly for sentimental reasons?

It is so funny he brought up that LA is "always wanting to hold on to...for sentimental reasons." If it's one thing I learned in my Cluster, it is that Los Angeles is a historyless place. People do want a history I guess, but the history they want is never the history they actually had. So they make it up. Historicism.

Okay, so even though this person's comment was ironic, it holds up true, I guess. Never mind. I was almost going to bash him. He nailed it, actually.

By the way, this was from Curbed LA. They were critiquing David Geffen's renovating some Malibu hotel. David Geffen! My hero! However, some person said something along the lines of "maybe Geffen should burn in the Mailbu fires too." And I'm like, say what? Are you from New York hating on an admirable and rich LA-centrist?

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!