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THAT'S ALL FOLKS - Today is Labor DAY---a public holiday or day of festivities held in honor of working people---an annual celebration of the social and economic achievements of American workers---the operative words here being social and economic achievements of American workers---look at our country---we are still the envy of the world---why do you think there are so many people at our border? But at the moment, we are continually being let down and failed by elected politicians---some of whom belong in the movie "Clueless “or even worse--Without a Clue. Before I get to Nithya and Lindsey, let me deal with the cancer (there is no other word) of our city--Metro.
In keeping with Metro's philosophy of "an incident a day keeps the public away"--on August 30 a person was stabbed and another injured in an altercation on a Metro Bus in South LA. How much longer can we keep Stephanie and her minions (cute in a movie--but hopeless for executive ability) in place? I noticed another headline before the holiday "Hollywood Blvd National Registered Historic District At Risk due to Proposed Metro K Line Extension". Who exactly are these people accountable to? --and in a message to the Board---if you are not willing to provide effective oversight then appoint an independent board of businesspeople who will--and then you would see how long these so-called executives would last. 25 years of startling incompetence---wrong about cost, ridership, and time to build--this trifecta is the measurement of any company or public agency's ability--and Metro is continually wrong on all---which is why it astounds me that anyone there now has any credibility at all. Gideon J. Tucker--a lawyer, politician and newspaper in the late 19th century--made this very famous quote "No man's life liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session". It’s totally appropriate comment for Metro as its currently constituted----one can only wonder if any of these people could get a job in private industry where people are actually held accountable? Everyone needs a wake-up call--especially with the Olympics are coming.
What I'm about to write now some of you will think is unfair-- to be clear I don't--- but someone needs to hold our elected officials accountable--especially when they are not representing the constituency who elected them--which brings me to Lindsey Horvath---who I have dubbed Queen of the Homeless----there's no joy in that--it’s not funny--but it is true. To prove my point, I donated $1,500 to her in June after she called and asked me to make a donation--but because I have given her the nickname, much to my surprise she refunded the money to me--which is hysterical. I never realized she was such a snowflake---maybe next time I should send her pom-poms-----politics is a full contact sport--and if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. Queen of the Homeless and a snowflake--that's a helluva quinella--and we will all remember that at the next election. After spending billions of dollars on the homeless which has had little effect, she has the unmitigated gaul to ask the public to provide effectively another 1/4 cent raise on the sales tax for the homeless--which is on the ballot in November. Let me put this simply--so even she can understand it---its monumentally stupid and that referendum needs to be defeated. She is head of the LA Homeless Services Authority that has more than 22 people in executive positions--that's probably more people in those positions than business jobs that have been created in the last year--an unmitigated drain on city and county resources. Not a word out of her mouth or Nithya's --who I will get to in the next paragraph--about bringing new jobs or new businesses to our city--barnacles to our future---anchors dragging all of us down--whatever happened to aspiration and initiative. This isn't political----its straightforward common sense. Let see who wants people off our streets--let me think---the Governor, a significant majority of the public---the exhausted majority who have all had enough of the compassionate fools--no more excuses--and just to make things worse---when other jurisdictions and other states start ending their homeless here--what's the plan? Silence and inaction will not work---but it should start with a bus ticket back to wherever they come from. Enough is enough--does anyone in our city have the chops to say that?? I wonder...actually I doubt it--but more than happy to be proven wrong.
Now let’s get to my least favorite person on the City Council---Nithya Raman--someone who has a Harvard education and proven that higher education is not all that it’s cracked up to be. The only economic course she must have taken there must have been home economics--because she doesn't have an inkling of the how the economy really works---she lives in a cocoon that is an anathema to the majority of the residents of our city. You may remember she blamed the auto makers for making catalytic converters too easy to steal--as opposed to the people who were actually stealing them. If that doesn't make you gag, keep reading. Let's talk about ULA.
There are words I'm going to use--make your own opinion. Fraud is deceit or trickery---acting dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage. She told her constituency that the ULA was a mansionization tax, when she knew full well this tax would apply to all residential and commercial real estate projects in the city. She admitted that all she had to say to her constituency was that this was a mansionization tax and they would vote for it---knowing full well that this wasn't true. I'll tell you where its led--new construction projects in the city have been reduced to a trickle--and that means jobs--and loss of tax revenue for the city. She sent out a communication to her constituency last week that--notwithstanding the revenue generated from ULA is less than 20% of what was anticipated--that Measure ULA voters overwhelming passed in 2022. You have to have a sense of humor when facts do not interfere with reality. Here are the real numbers--there are about 2.2 million registered voters in Los Angeles-- a total of 990,000 votes were cast of which ULA received 57% of the vote--hardly overwhelming and about 25% of the the total of actual voters---clearly the real estate industry was asleep---but you know who is really paying for this?--our city in loss of projects, jobs and revenue ---and Nithya is actually proud of this. This thinking belongs in in socialist countries--not here----and to add insult to injury, Katy Yaroslavsky (our council person)--who I like and works hard--was out campaigning to help her friend Nithya in her election--notwithstanding Nithya is an enemy of our community. Politics makes strange bedfellows--but sometimes it stretches the imagination. Anytime Nithya wants to be interviewed or debated, I would be happy to do that---I would even create a podcast for that.
If our city keeps moving in this direction, we are going to become the laughingstock of America--time to wake up and for the exhausted majority to get in the ears of our elected politicians. Now would be good---the clock is ticking!!
(Fredric D. Rosen is a retired Businessman who has served on multiple corporate (both public and private) and charitable boards. He was Ticketmaster's CEO for 16 years and was responsible for making it the leading ticket company in the world.)
