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MY POV - This document-"DEIR" which stands for "Dishonestly Enumerated Idiotic Report" is truly remarkable. In the private sector, if a company published this 20,000+ pages of inane drivel their senior executives would face lawsuits for deceit, misrepresentation and potentially fraud for misleading the public--not to mention probably being fired by their Board of Directors. The entire report is entirely bloviated, irrelevant and misleading---and this is the absolute irrefutable reason--after spending more than 4 years on this report and squandering more than $150M to produce it---wait for it--the numbers of the cost they publish--are for THE YEAR 2023--Really!!---so the practical effect is that they are completely meaningless.---For years , I've been writing that the leadership of this agency is made up of executive inept sloths--it’s too bad the Olympics do not have a category for incompetence. Metro's leadership would be the favorites for the Tin Medal--Stephanie--Sharon--Nicole----if they were a singing group they would be known as the Three Stoogettes. The leadership of this agency is a miserable joke on the city's residents. Can anyone imagine walking into a car dealership who advertised 2023 prices for new cars--and then explained to them that those prices were 2 or 3 years old---and it will cost more---misleading? deceptive? you bet--and the states AG's office would have them in court asap --as would the city attorney. The same applies for every category--from restaurants to hotels to all consumer products--it’s all bait and switch and candidly, in my opinion, could be considered fraudulent behavior. This happens because Metro's Board has been asleep for years --and not held the executives of this agency to any sort of accountability. They all need to be REPLACED! ---but that takes will---and the current Metro Board is spineless.
To continue the absolute stupidity of this report---there is nothing in it to let the public know how long it will take to build any of these options--another reason this report is absolutely useless. Furthermore, in light of the fact Metro hasn't been right about time to build major projects in the last 25 years, any statement set forth would be meaningless. Even better is how stupid the organizations advocating for any of these options are. Let’s take STD's for all (that's STC's for all----no real difference) ---how can you advocate for any solution if you don't know cost and time to build. If this group had cosmetic surgery, they would all get brain tucks----it’s another example of how screwed up our City and County are. From Mayor Karen Smiley-Clueless (women like hyphenated names)- -who believes she can smile her way into being a leader-when it’s clear she has no executive ability and surrounds herself with people who have no idea what they are doing--to our City Council--where the loudest voices belong to the socialists--people who have never signed a check---are barnacles on our city and have no clue how to bring business back to our city. For those of you who doubt what I write--look at downtown and the exodus of businesses and building projects over the last 10 years--anyone for a tent concession??
I have decided to create a new award for our city--after all we have the Oscars, Emmy's, Golden Globe, SAG Awards, etc.--- the Award Category will be called the Dummies and Metro has captured all the winners in this year's categories--
Dummy Leadership Award---for pretending to be a CEO when you have absolutely no idea what you are doing---have trouble spelling CEO and understanding what it means but hiring a Trust Coach (laughable)---but keeping your personal photographer which is more important than improving the public's safety---but you can ask for a picture with her----the winner--Stephanie " Stonewall" Wiggins.
Dummy Project Manager Award--Ray Sosa--this fool ran away with this category--a unanimous pick---a man who has little to no knowledge of what his job entails. While legal documents and Metro's publications reference Bel Air as a major stakeholder, the first time we saw this useless mediocrity was at his deposition. He admitted that he did meet with UCLA and their lobbyist a number of times as well as City Council members whose interests are adverse to ours--although he wasn't sure if it was UCLA's lobbyist--interesting in that all lobbyists are required to register with Metro--clearly a bridge or tunnel too far for him--so he met with adversaries of our community and never met with ours---after all we were only homeowners (his words)--fixing the deck---the personification and living embodiment of a Dummy. In Metro's DEIR, they acknowledge that under separate alternatives they will need to displace some multi-family and single-family residences--using eminent domain or easements or both--and this pathetic excuse of an executive decided we weren't worth meeting with. If they remake the movie Flatliners, he could play a role--- it would clearly be typecasting
Dummy Senior Management Award---Peter Carter----a total buffoon who stated on a zoom public call a few years [ago] that Metro never looked at prices in evaluating projects because it could impact their judgment---wow--he would not even answer a question from the public 4 years before the Olympics that it would be impossible to complete any of the alternatives- -said it was complicated--no--it wasn't--he just would not be candid and clearly personified Metro's furtive behavior. One can only assume in his mind that Budget was a rental car service--and clearly not applicable to Metro. To paraphrase Will Rogers, he never met a budget he could not ignore nor clearly state its meaning. Four years ago, with about 4 hours of research, I learned that any tunnel built after 2024 could not cost less than $2B a mile or more (this year, the cost of the last 2 miles of the second avenue subway in NYC will exceed $8B). If he did not know that, then he is a bigger buffoon that even I thought. I dubbed him the Alfred E. Neuman of Metro--"What me worry?'' Maybe I got that wrong---he could also be Howdy Doody--because someone must be pulling his strings----but I'm not sure where Buffalo Bob is (for those of you too young to know that reference, you can find it on google---not gargle---google). Last but not least, he would not answer the question why the proposed tunnel could not go under the 405---a public thoroughfare --considering its 90 feet below the ground--and then under Sunset to UCLA----there is no valid reason for any route to be under a residential community--other than malevolence.
Dummy Community Failure to Outreach Award----Karen "Clearly Not and Lying" Swift-----here's a woman who exemplifies the meaning "without a clue". Her version of the public getting accurate information is limited to "what Metro tells you"--not to mention she has difficulty in remembering both facts and truth. She has difficulty remembering she lives in LA--not Moscow.
Let me clear--while some of you may smile at some of my comments--none of this is meant to be funny--but it’s a sad reflection of what's going on in our city. This is Los Angeles--not some bum....town. State has a deficit, city is broke and Metro is asking Feds for $3B for security for the Olympics and the State for money for other projects--as to more money from the feds for this project--there was an Aerosmith song "Dream On". Any tunnel option is $25-$30B short and will take at least 20 years to complete--and by then will be obsolete-assuming it’s even finished--another idiotic boondoggle. One might think (assuming they were not using their head as a neck ornament) that this project as constituted is DOA---for those confused by those initials---Dead On Arrival.
This is a good time for a wakeup call---and while we are it--we are discussing with our attorneys the prospect of enjoining the whole project--that's a real possibility.
For those of you who doubted our resolve, let this serve as a wakeup call----we are disgusted by the ineptness and lack of will of our political leaders. I've said it before--I'll say it again--the people in this city are great--the problem is our politicians all suck (maybe a few are ok--but most are more interested in being reelected than doing what's right). City needs a disrupter to fix it--like NYC had in its fiscal crisis in 1974.
These people know who they are--they and Metro's so-called leadership should find a Metro train (assuming its running) and buy a one-way ticket to somewhere else. The City's future depends on it.
One last point--Mayoral election next year---whoever runs against KS-C (and it won't be me--I'm too old and do not want to sleep in the garage)--make her the Official Greeter of Los Angeles--welcome all nations--she can do that--but another 4 years of her will make the Titanic look like a pleasure cruise.
(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. Fred is a featured writer for CityWatchLA.)
