MAILANDER’S LA - The problem with Wendy Greuel is that someone named Wendy Greuel is trapped inside her, trying hard to come out, but Wendy Greuel won't quite let her.
Wendy Greuel wants to fix potholes--inside her, Wendy Greuel is recalling that she used to call herself "the Pothole Queen" until potholes took over her District and other Districts too and someone informed her that that was no longer a winning ticket.
Wendy Greuel says she is fighting for all the people, but the Wendy Greuel inside knows she really wants to drop the name of every power broker she's ever shaken the hand of.
Wendy Greuel says she can identify waste in the city and fix the budget, but Wendy Greuel inside knows that she ditched the people in her district, where she had real power to help people, in favor of a meaningless job that pays $196,000 a year.
You can almost see these mental checks and checkoffs like nervous tics emerging--Wendy Greuel has no center, every time she tries to answer a question, she has to filter it through something else, namely the broader question, "What will voters think of me if I say this, this that's coming into my mind right now?"
It's sad to watch--this ceaseless reminding of the self to try to appear to have convictions--I don't think I can watch from here on out.
(Joseph Mailander is a writer, an LA observer and a contributor to CityWatch. He is also the author of Days Change at Night: LA's Decade of Decline, 2003-2013. Mailander blogs at www.josephmailander.com.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 11 Issue 31
Pub: Apr 16, 2013