Enough With The High-Density Shills Already!
By Walter Moore, Candidate for Mayor of Los Angeles
As regular readers know, I am addicted to KABC 790's "McIntyre in the Morning" show. While listening to that show, I keep hearing these annoying ads "explaining" why, really, the best way to avoid excessive crowding in our city is to build, build, build.
The "announcer" then introduces an unbiased "expert" to "prove" this point, namely, Loyola Marymount University professor Fernando Guerra.
Professor Guerra then "explains" that all those people are going to move to move here anyway, and if we don't build more housing, they're simply going to cram into existing houses, subdividing them into multi-family dwellings.
Therefore, we are supposed to conclude, through this scholarly analysis, L.A. needs to encourage as much residential construction as possible.
Hmmmm.... Thank God for academic analysis, because, without it, schmoes like you and me might think the best way to fight crowding is to stop building giant new apartment complexes, and to start enforcing our building code so people do not cram nine families into a three-bedroom apartment.
There's just two little problems with the good professor's opinion about how to cope with increased population density that I feel compelled to mention:
First of all, Guerra has no expertise whatsoever in urban planning or economics. He got his Ph.D. in politics. His dissertation was entitled, ""Ethnic Politics in Los Angeles: The Emergence of Black, Jewish, Latino and Asian Officeholders, 1960-1989." So his opinion on the best way to avoid crowding are no better than yours or mine.
Second, Guerra is not just a professor of politics at LMU, but is a paid lobbyist. Care to guess who his clients include, and how much money he makes from lobbying? His clients include Home Depot and the infamous Meruelo Group developers! According to the City Ethics Commissions records, moreover, Guerra’s lobbying company has collected $755,000 from these and other clients since 2003.
Do you see, now, how the special interests throw around money to get what they want from City Hall? They don’t just lobby the career politicians, they also try to brainwash you using radio ads. Would anyone listen to the commercial if the announcer said, “Here, to explain why construction is good, is a paid lobbyist who represents Home Depot and developers.” Hay-ell no!
Enough about him. Let’s talk about you.
Don’t just sit there while your city gets stolen from you. It’s time for you to throw some money at your “lobbyist,” the person who will serve as your advocate on the air waves and in City Hall. That would be me, of course. It’s time for you to hit the “contribute” link so we can fight the special interest propaganda machines and save this city.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Walter Moore’s Blog
MooreIsBetter.com
