I was thinking about this the other day as I walked down La Brea.... past block after block of shuttered stores and closed businesses. There had been many successful businesses here in the past. Why were they all gone now?
The answer?
People like Antonio Villaraigosa and the pack of incompetent clowns we have on our City Council.
It's like the funny motivational poster below:
Government: If you think the problems we create are bad, just wait until you see our solutions.
Kind of says it all, doesn't it?
Part of the problem in this City is leadership that thinks it is solving problems while actually creating new ones.
Villaraigosa felt that traffic flow was a crucial issue. His solution?
The Tiger Team!!
An aggressive persecution of drivers who make the mistake of being parked on major streets during rush hour.Nope. No $45 parking ticket for these evil people!
It's a tow and an outrageous charge for a minor offense.
The total usually ends up being over $300.
Of course, did this solve the problem of heavy traffic in a populated city?
Of course not. And it never will.
There will always be bad traffic here. It is unavoidable.
Any careless driver on the 405 or 101 can make a bad maneuver in traffic, cause a crash, and make 10,000 people late for work. But of course, in Villaraigosas twisted logic, it's that one parked car that is ruining our way of life here in Los Angeles.
Here are the unintended effects of this idiotic policy.
1. People who get ticketed and towed get really pissed off about it.
2. The bad experience makes them never return to those street-front businesses that don't have a parking lot.
3. Lack of income causes these businesses to fail, in turn reducing the City tax base.
As I walked down the street past all these shuttered business, I thought about all the lost jobs... and I wondered.... which is worse... Villaraigosa -- or Godzilla?
I eventually decided that Godzilla was much less destructive.
Godzilla trashes a City, but the citizens can rebuild it.
The way that Villaraigosa destroys a city.... well... those jobs and businesses aren't coming back. His type of government-based destruction is more permanent.
