CommentsALPERN AT LARGE--What IS it with Scott Wiener (and his enabling state senators and assembly members in Sacramento) who, after his latest attempt at making environmental scofflaws enabled to kill our state's health and quality of life, does it yet AGAIN?
Could it be that all those Wieners in Sacramento (and it should be remembered that Scotty-Boy Wiener isn't just a lone wacko, or a lone corrupt politician beholden to unscrupulous over developers) know they're on their way to being voted out by their betrayed voters?
After all, why be so concerned about the Corona Virus when we have our own virus of terrible corruption that has also infected Toni Atkins, the state senate majority leader, and even Governor Newsom and LA Mayor Garcetti?
It's not news that Councilmember Englander, a Republican, is being investigated by the feds for inappropriate pay to play dealings, but it's no secret either that virtually the entire leadership of the Democratic majority on the LA City Council is just as beholden to people who ideally should be in prison.
We talk about the "Manhattanization" of Los Angeles, but isn't a better name for our city/state phenomenon the "Chicago-ization" of the City of the Angels and the Golden State?
Overdensification--that's great for the prevention of viral epidemics, or just the annual flu?
Overdensification--that's great for environmental water/air protections and quality?
Overdensification--our tree canopy is, for those of us in the world of planning and transportation, becoming increasingly scarce...and that's good for air quality, climate change, or just a livable city or state?
Word to the wise to the Sierra Club, Move LA, and all the faux-environmental poseurs that claim to be helping this state while enabling environmental law--and all the biologic, physical, chemical, and related health issues of our state--to be thrown into the collective sewer of the growing urban environmental nightmare of our burgeoning California coast...
...we're onto you?
And while it's a race against time for Wiener and his other Wiener-wannabes to pass legislation to destroy California for their own future political or financial benefit, it's a race against time to block them yet again to protect against the greatest environmental threat California has seen since it took on smog and clean water protections in the 1970's:
And that threat has as the tip of the spear one State Senator Scott Wiener, who should be dismissed as an outlier but is emblematic of the horrible leadership we stupidly voted in two years ago while we were distracted by Washington, D.C. politics.
(CityWatch Columnist, Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D, is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties, and is a proud husband and father to two cherished children and a wonderful wife. He was (termed out) also a Westside Village Zone Director and Board member of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Outreach Committee, and currently is Co-Chair of its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee and Vice-Chair of its Planning Committee. He was co-chair of the CD11 Transportation Advisory Committee and chaired the nonprofit Transit Coalition and can be reached at [email protected]. He also co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at www.fogl.us. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.)
-CW
