🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4mapoi$ath@betty.bway.net>, amk@bway.net says...
>
>"Charles P. Hobbs" <transit@primenet.com> wrote:
>
>>>
>>>Chas, one reason LA will never be as great a city as New York is that
>>>it is filled with small minded people who choose to look no further
>>>than their own backyards. When chief Parker told Angelinos he could
>>>maintain order, keep the blacks in South-Central and the Mexicans in
>>>East LA, all for the price of policing Mayberry, Angelinos (white
>>>ones, that is) accepted his vision uncritically, permitting the
>>>creation of a tiny, elite appearing police department staffed by
>>>officers who personally despise Los Angeles, wouldn't live in it, and
>>>feel perfectly comfortable threatening not to do their jobs--but will
>>>still accept city paychecks--if they aren't worshipped with sufficient
>>>fervor. 
>>>
>>I don't know if NYC cops are better, from what I hear, some of them are
>>bad in their own way.
>
>True. Economic corruption has, and will probably continue to be, a
>major problem here. But NYPD interacts with people in real situations
>much better than LAPD. A big part of that--not to mention what makes
>NY different from LA in general--is their presence as pedestrians,
>using the same sidewalks, shops, benches, etc., as those who pay their
>salaries. LAPD's biggest problem is size--LA's so large, and the
>department is so small. But so too is the Valley, and given the
>Valley's enthusiastic support of Prop 13 and Pete Wilson, it's
>impossible to believe that Valley residents will be willing to
>adequately fund a department of their own.
> Quixotic place, always will be.
>
>Andy Katz
>

The valley's enthusiastic support of Proposition 13 came from economics.  
Property taxe doubled in three years and was threatening to double again in 
just one year.  Many people, myself included were approaching the threshold of 
not being able to afford the house that you were living in.  My property tax 
was about to equal my federal income tax!  The state politicians would do 
nothing because it just meant gobs of new state revenue that came ther way with 
no political penalty.  Property owners were not being small minded, they were 
evaluating a survival issue, they're own.

-- 
Lee
"You have to move to limit freedom" - Bill Clinton, 1994
"Mit Pulver und Blei, die Gedanken sind frei."
|Lee F. Mellinger                 Caltech/Jet Propulsion Laboratory - NASA
|4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 818/354-1163       
|leem@tsunami.JPL.NASA.GOV 
|Disclaimer:  These comments are the personal opinions of the author, and 
|have not been adopted, authorized, ratified, or approved by JPL.