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Saturday, May 26, 2007

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa YouTube PRESS CONFERENCE

I came across an interesting quote from one of those wacky, "extreme" political activists -- who's always trying to divide the City. Pretty funny take. Whoever said it must sure hate L.A.

QUOTE: "First of all, as you know, Los Angeles is the "gridlock" capital of the United States of America. It's also the capital City of dirty air and smog. It's the quinnisential "City of Sprawl" -- which means most of our housing is in the outer-core and the jobs are in the inner-core. A City that has relied...over-relied on the single passenger automobile to the detriment of a built out public transportation system." -Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa

[See clip below for Antonio's brilliant "Business and Tourism" PR quote from above. You're supposed to be PROMOTING the City, not TURNING THE WORLD OFF TO IT!]

AFTER MEETING WITH BILL CLINTON IN NYC, VILLARAIGOSA SLAMS CURRENT WASHINGTON LEADERSHIP (PERHAPS BUSH) -- DURING SPEECH FOR NEW "GREEN UP IT'S ACT" INITIATIVE.


ABOVE CLIP INCLUDES:

* "We have an LA River Master Plan, 52 miles of river creating an "emerald necklace" around that river. We have made a $100 million investment and when we are done and when we're over investing [that's over, investing...not over-investing] in this initiative, we'll have spent some $7 BILLION dollars." - MAV [Ooops, I DO think you meant "over-investing".]

* "Instead of building out, we're gonna build up . Transit villages along transportation corridors to grow ridership for our public transportation." -MAV

[Yeah, then we'll switch to the metric system, everyone will recycle all their beer and soda cans, quit smoking, end poverty, donate 10% of all income to charity, spend time doing more community outreach...HELL NAW...Damn it City of Los Angeles...It's a HUGE mistake to make actual plans when the formula factors having to transform society as a whole. (Get them out of their cars.) IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN. TOO LARGE, GEOGRAPHICALLY. Besides, every home comes with two parking spaces.

* PENSION FUNDS INTO RISKY SPECULATIVE FUTURE TECHNOLOGIES: "We are going to be giving away 50,000 energy efficient refrigerators to low income families. [Who's paying for them?] We even have an initiative, the only one in the world, to transform bio-solids into energy. The need to "green" California, invest in the environment. And to the critics who say, "When you go green, you inherently undermine the economy and lose jobs...There is a whole new industry that comes with going green. The technology we use for alternative fuels; for energy efficient appliances; for all of the very important initiatives that we are doing here in Los Angeles and the State of California...those are the technologies that we can export around the world. Because every City around the world is grappling with the issue of "global climate change"." - MAV

[Oh really...can I see those statistics -- on every City who is "grappling" and the fact that we are, indeed, factually going through "global climate change"? Cause you are talking about investing people's pensions into your speculation.]

* "We are looking at our pension funds and identifying ways to invest our pension funds into green economy; citing green businesses in parts of the City that has been left behind; where manufacturing has left and there's a great opportunity to provide good jobs. Jobs that pay a decent "living wage"; jobs that are part of the green economy." - MAV

[ZD: I'm all for that, EXCEPT the part about taking "our" pension funds and investing them in your speculative, alternative, energy business. Cause from a "marketing strategy" analysis...again, you are not going to get society as a whole to switch to alternative energy sources enough to make a meaningful impact. For example, hybrid cars are gonna stay a novelty for quite some time. Develop these technologies and try to implement them, yes! But do it with someone's private money...but not pension funds...WAAAAAAAAAAAY to speculative and risky. Meanwhile, I think educating the general public to things they can do, personally, everyday (empower them with the knowledge) to do more to "pitch in" everyday on a practical level, cause not everyone is gonna by a hybrid or install solar panels and stop driving.]

9 Comments:

Blogger Walter Moore said:

Villaraigosa and his cronies think that, by calling high-density skyscrapers that block out the sun "villages," we won't notice that they're trying to turn L.A. into another New York, Tokyo or Mumbai.

May 27, 2007 9:00 AM  

Blogger Zuma Dogg said:

Walter, love your description, "by calling high-density skyscrapers that block out the sun "villages".

I can hear myself shouting it to Ed Reyes on Tuesday (WITH REALITY CAMERA IN THE HOUSE, AGAIN):

You call 'em "villages", the Sierra Club calls 'em high-density, infrastructure breaking, sun-blockers, y'all!!!

hoooooody hooooooooooo!

May 27, 2007 12:34 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Zuma, when did you go on the L.A. City payroll? I don't understand why you keep saying "our" pension funds... is MAV going after "your" pension fund from that summer you worked at Hot Dog On A Stick?

May 27, 2007 1:45 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

"You call 'em "villages", the Sierra Club calls 'em high-density, infrastructure breaking, sun-blockers, y'all!!!"

Uh, no, that's not what the Sierra Club calls 'em, ZD. You need to look at the Sierra Club National website for policy and not make it up in order to support your own opinions.

The offset of high density housing/buildings/etc. should be plenty of green, open space with a functional mass transit system. High density building means less sprawl and less pollution. If you can set aside several hundred acres of open space, you don't have to worry about the sun being blocked out. It's easy to find when there is open space not taken up by single dwelling -- and two car garage -- housing.

May 27, 2007 5:10 PM  

Blogger Zuma Dogg said:

1:45pm,

I, ZD did not say, "our" pension fund. Mayor Villaraloser was saying, "our" pension. And again, with both of you two on this comment thread (the person who wants to take my sierra club comment before judge wapner) -- do you, or don't you have a problem with:

a) gambling with people's pension funds in risky, speculative "alternative" technology?

b) Building so much high density housing in this city, and along the condorodo river (la river) that someone needs to come up with a couple hundered thousand George Jetson mobiles to fly around...cause the infrastruture sure can't accomodate, can it?

Oh, I know...the City thinks all this stuff through and doesn't just plan analytically. They see the whole big picture. the city is in GREAT shape. Keep on keeping on...100% ethical perfection, no need for Laura Chick...let antonio do what he will...the City is on the upswing and deep-rooted communism philosophy is no where to be found in City or State leadership.

May 27, 2007 7:56 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

"a) gambling with people's pension funds in risky, speculative "alternative" technology?"

ZD, billions of dollars of "people's pension funds" flow into Wall Street on a weekly basis -- all looking for growth and return on investment.

Energy alternatives to fossil fuel are the future. Solar, wind and hydro are all in various commercial stages with continual development and research.

Geez, where do you think all that investment money should go into, more Starbucks?

As for B), it's hard to tell what you're talking about, so I can't really respond...but if you rephrase, perhaps we can open a dialogue.

May 27, 2007 11:28 PM  

Blogger Zuma Dogg said:

11:28pm,

I have already responded to a). You have a terrible habit of repeating the same exhortations over and over and over -- no matter what my response. Are you a Scientologist? I know they practice that method and are quite active in NC's in Reyes district, so maybe that is you.

b) George Jetson mobiles refers to the fact that the roads will be too crowded to allow the city to operate in an effective manner, so we will need a second class of vehicle operators who fly above it all in jetsonmobiles, hence, reducing the traffic congestion.

kinda like the "charter school" of transportation mediums.

May 28, 2007 12:39 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Kids, this is another reason why you should never drink and blog!

May 28, 2007 11:28 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

I know that both my parents lost their pension...one to the Teamsters and the other to the Bartenders Union.
Which one should I support now?

May 28, 2007 8:06 PM  

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