The Mayor of L.A.- Tony Villaraigosa- announced during the week of heavy rain, that we still did not have enough water and would have to conserve by way of a water ration plan.
Water Ration Plan
MSNBC carried the news item on February 9, 2009, showing that there is a first time for L.A. water rationing plan that he has submitted for approval by the Board of Water and Power and the L.A. City Council. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29106741/ The plan has some drastic controls on usages that are described in the story.
The Real Cause of Infrastructure Strain
The Mayor, of course, does not mention that the high-density construction that his administration has supported might be contributing to the problem in the least. Meanwhile some aggravation of the problem continues, all being a part of the actions of the Mayor and the City Council to create more stress on a system that ALREADY is on the verge of failing. The death from an explosion in an electrical vault last year of a city firefighter Brent Lovrein was blamed on the old infrastructure, "Remembering L.A. Firefighter Brent Lovrien," http://blogs.laweekly.com/ladaily/spot-news/remembering-la-firefighter-bre/
Politicians shamelessly put this tragic death in the spotlight to gain the voter approval for more money that was supposedly to fix things in the infrastructure that need attention urgently. See LAist Blog brief item of April 2, 2008: "Will the Death of a Firefighter Be the Tipping Point of DWP Rate Hikes?" http://laist.com/2008/04/02/will_the_death.php That article also states that the money sought will only partially go to infrastructure improvement - about a third of it, with the rest to other things including DWP higher wages.
But these politicians continue the increasing development projects, just as fast as they can, knowing our stressed conditions are already underequipped to handle PRESENT conditions. In a way, this is their strategy. Create the BIGGER NEED and they can have a BETTER reason for INCREASED FEES and CHARGES as being URGENT. They do this with a lot of things- intensify the problem to a crucial level that needs MORE ATTENTION, and then manipulate things to get money, approval or whatever the highlighted crisis demands to be done, pushed to that condition intentionally or as a result of stupid policies followed intentionally.
When you continue to build, and build with his problem-creating "densification" along "transit routes" (which justifies elimination of normally required parking spaces to be included) you have to expect a strain on EVERYTHING in the city. It is not a hugely challenging concept for you to see but that politicians CONTINUE TO IGNORE- When you jam more housing and businesses in existing space, you strain ALL parts of the infrastructure, especially utilities, police and fire protection, trash collection and disposal- and the most visible problem, the vehicle traffic and parking problems.
There is no rationing of building projects here in L.A. included in Mayor Tony's plans. The only thing that is slowing all this building is the down real estate market that makes even the "Grand Avenue Project" downtown, continue to miss more construction deadlines, and cost more public money for this already-risky venture.
[THAT downturn is shown in another story to check as an example of how local politicians foul up things for residents in costly ways, L.A. Times, 2-10-09, Cara Mia DiMassa, reporting: "Grand Avenue developer seeks revisions to project's schedule; With a Feb. 15 deadline to break ground on the downtown L.A. development, Related Cos. petitions the city and county for changes, which have not been made public." http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-grand11-2009feb11,0,832272.story ]
Maybe some attention to staying safely within present capacities for a while might be a reasonable thought to put in to action instead of creating more strain on an already ill system. If you had tires on your car that showed bald spots, how wise would it be to go on long trips at high speeds?- and I say "long" trips since local traffic is usually jammed at any given time, making "high speeds" only a theoretical possibility. This Council and Mayor are not able to look at things that way; they have been too busy spending your money and doing giveaways for the Grammys (over $100,000.00 in special event waivers- "their expense, we pay the bill", and the Academy Awards that will receive over $400,000.00 as a waivers.
Water Waste?
There's a small problem that has come up this month with a huge waste that DWP has been unable to stop- a broken hydrant, wasting enormous amounts of water for days. The Daily News story, updated 2-11-09, provides details in "DWP hydrant spews water for 10 days,"
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_11684536 You might expect this to be repaired quickly, but DWP says it can't do more than it is doing. But you still wonder how the city can create more burdens on purpose.
So rationing is the answer? When it comes to getting yourself on the news, the Mayor is very effective, the messages are often inappropriate, but he gets his face on T.V. and in the news. But for being economical, handling city money with some eye to frugality and working for the PEOPLE first, not for HIMSELF, he's still only able to talk it up, but not come through with anything good.
Politics the problem?
I can tell you again, as I have seen from DWP's history, when you don't conserve, they have penalties ready to lay on you for being a high user, and they blame you, the consumer for using too much water, as shown now. Before that, it was a problem of using too much electricity. So charges are made up to punish you for more use.
So then people try to conserve and cut back in responding to that condition with less consumption of electricity or water the result. Very good? Maybe not so much, as the DWP sees it, because then the message becomes urgent. The new word is that the DWP is losing money because the people don't use enough of the utility's service, and the bills are coming out too LOW, which means adding in a "surcharge" or "rate increase" for DWP to manage to bring in more money.
In all these conditions, the DWP is not going to be the loser. They say, "It" ("It" is anything they do or plan that might be costing money to do) is not going to cost taxpayers anything since the rate payers will get those charges. Honest, I heard that verbalization of the shell game from them in a past trickster move. There might be some very tiny difference you could come up with but the same people get the bills any way you see it.
You really have to watch these characters constantly due to the skilled way that manipulate proposals and results. And by that criticism, I don't mean to say it's the regular workers- no, they don't set policy and the direction DWP heads to. The regular employees do have benefits from such deals, but the shiftyness is done by management operations.
Again, it's the Mayor's crew and they work for him and his career, and they don't work for you and trying to keep your bills low. How great that would be. And that's the way is SHOULD be.
Water Ration Plan
MSNBC carried the news item on February 9, 2009, showing that there is a first time for L.A. water rationing plan that he has submitted for approval by the Board of Water and Power and the L.A. City Council. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29106741/ The plan has some drastic controls on usages that are described in the story.
The Real Cause of Infrastructure Strain
The Mayor, of course, does not mention that the high-density construction that his administration has supported might be contributing to the problem in the least. Meanwhile some aggravation of the problem continues, all being a part of the actions of the Mayor and the City Council to create more stress on a system that ALREADY is on the verge of failing. The death from an explosion in an electrical vault last year of a city firefighter Brent Lovrein was blamed on the old infrastructure, "Remembering L.A. Firefighter Brent Lovrien," http://blogs.laweekly.com/ladaily/spot-news/remembering-la-firefighter-bre/
Politicians shamelessly put this tragic death in the spotlight to gain the voter approval for more money that was supposedly to fix things in the infrastructure that need attention urgently. See LAist Blog brief item of April 2, 2008: "Will the Death of a Firefighter Be the Tipping Point of DWP Rate Hikes?" http://laist.com/2008/04/02/will_the_death.php That article also states that the money sought will only partially go to infrastructure improvement - about a third of it, with the rest to other things including DWP higher wages.
But these politicians continue the increasing development projects, just as fast as they can, knowing our stressed conditions are already underequipped to handle PRESENT conditions. In a way, this is their strategy. Create the BIGGER NEED and they can have a BETTER reason for INCREASED FEES and CHARGES as being URGENT. They do this with a lot of things- intensify the problem to a crucial level that needs MORE ATTENTION, and then manipulate things to get money, approval or whatever the highlighted crisis demands to be done, pushed to that condition intentionally or as a result of stupid policies followed intentionally.
When you continue to build, and build with his problem-creating "densification" along "transit routes" (which justifies elimination of normally required parking spaces to be included) you have to expect a strain on EVERYTHING in the city. It is not a hugely challenging concept for you to see but that politicians CONTINUE TO IGNORE- When you jam more housing and businesses in existing space, you strain ALL parts of the infrastructure, especially utilities, police and fire protection, trash collection and disposal- and the most visible problem, the vehicle traffic and parking problems.
There is no rationing of building projects here in L.A. included in Mayor Tony's plans. The only thing that is slowing all this building is the down real estate market that makes even the "Grand Avenue Project" downtown, continue to miss more construction deadlines, and cost more public money for this already-risky venture.
[THAT downturn is shown in another story to check as an example of how local politicians foul up things for residents in costly ways, L.A. Times, 2-10-09, Cara Mia DiMassa, reporting: "Grand Avenue developer seeks revisions to project's schedule; With a Feb. 15 deadline to break ground on the downtown L.A. development, Related Cos. petitions the city and county for changes, which have not been made public." http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-grand11-2009feb11,0,832272.story ]
Maybe some attention to staying safely within present capacities for a while might be a reasonable thought to put in to action instead of creating more strain on an already ill system. If you had tires on your car that showed bald spots, how wise would it be to go on long trips at high speeds?- and I say "long" trips since local traffic is usually jammed at any given time, making "high speeds" only a theoretical possibility. This Council and Mayor are not able to look at things that way; they have been too busy spending your money and doing giveaways for the Grammys (over $100,000.00 in special event waivers- "their expense, we pay the bill", and the Academy Awards that will receive over $400,000.00 as a waivers.
Water Waste?
There's a small problem that has come up this month with a huge waste that DWP has been unable to stop- a broken hydrant, wasting enormous amounts of water for days. The Daily News story, updated 2-11-09, provides details in "DWP hydrant spews water for 10 days,"
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_11684536 You might expect this to be repaired quickly, but DWP says it can't do more than it is doing. But you still wonder how the city can create more burdens on purpose.
So rationing is the answer? When it comes to getting yourself on the news, the Mayor is very effective, the messages are often inappropriate, but he gets his face on T.V. and in the news. But for being economical, handling city money with some eye to frugality and working for the PEOPLE first, not for HIMSELF, he's still only able to talk it up, but not come through with anything good.
Politics the problem?
I can tell you again, as I have seen from DWP's history, when you don't conserve, they have penalties ready to lay on you for being a high user, and they blame you, the consumer for using too much water, as shown now. Before that, it was a problem of using too much electricity. So charges are made up to punish you for more use.
So then people try to conserve and cut back in responding to that condition with less consumption of electricity or water the result. Very good? Maybe not so much, as the DWP sees it, because then the message becomes urgent. The new word is that the DWP is losing money because the people don't use enough of the utility's service, and the bills are coming out too LOW, which means adding in a "surcharge" or "rate increase" for DWP to manage to bring in more money.
In all these conditions, the DWP is not going to be the loser. They say, "It" ("It" is anything they do or plan that might be costing money to do) is not going to cost taxpayers anything since the rate payers will get those charges. Honest, I heard that verbalization of the shell game from them in a past trickster move. There might be some very tiny difference you could come up with but the same people get the bills any way you see it.
You really have to watch these characters constantly due to the skilled way that manipulate proposals and results. And by that criticism, I don't mean to say it's the regular workers- no, they don't set policy and the direction DWP heads to. The regular employees do have benefits from such deals, but the shiftyness is done by management operations.
Again, it's the Mayor's crew and they work for him and his career, and they don't work for you and trying to keep your bills low. How great that would be. And that's the way is SHOULD be.
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