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THE VIEW FROM HERE - Eric Garcetti feudalized Los Angeles’ fifteen (15) separate fiefdoms by use of the Vote Trading System where all were beholden to Prince Eric. While the trade trading system where any councilmember could place any horrid project on the city council agenda where it was guaranteed unanimous passage was termed “One and Done,” in reality contributions to the Mayor’s fund by the developers was a virtual requirement. Developer Rick Caruso bragged how he had given Garcetti $150,000. Only in a crimogenic city protected by a crimogenic court system, could one proclaim how much he bribed a public official. Samuel Leon of the Sea Breeze project likewise had to make his “donation” to Garcetti’s Mayor’s Fund. Like Brave New World, “bribes” are “donations.”
In 2022, Prince Garcetti was termed out. As he planned on becoming President, it seems that he was not worried about his reign coming to an end. After announcing in Iowa, however, that he would not run for President, he then joked. “I’m the older, straighter Pete Buttigieg.” Correction. Garcetti is not straighter than anyone. There were other reasons. At a time when people thought that developer Donald Trump’s corruption would be a major campaign issue, Garcetti’s track record with corruption had been subject to over one hundred articles and too many vocal journalists, especially at CityWatch, had too much damning data. (Garcetti’s best buds, CIM Group, were in business with Jared Kushner.) In fact, in June 2013 the LA Civil Grand Jury caught Garcetti using false data to downsize the Los Angeles Fire and Paramedics. Judge Goodman found Garcetti used fatally flawed data for city planning. Garcetti’s biggest problem was that he had too many similarities to Trump.
Another mark against Garcetti – he was not Woke enough. One of Garcetti’s decent traits is his evading Identity Politic and Wokeism. One could not imagine a more diverse city council. LA city council was and is very diverse with Blacks, Gays, Jews, Mexicans, Irish, Korean, and an occasional white male. Blacks were disproportionally represented on the city council with three councilmembers. Under Woker equity, Blacks were entitled to only one (1) seat on the 15-member city council as Blacks were about 8.8% of the city. No one mentioned that and no one cared. (Black) Herb Wesson followed Garcetti as council president, and after Wesson, (Mexican) Nury Martinez became council president.\
Garcetti’s Departure Created a Power Vacuum
Why Garcetti had no successor-in-waiting is presently unknown. Nonetheless, the criminal enterprise which we call the Los Angeles City Hall was up grabs. In LA, however, the council is legally as powerful as the mayor, and if a cadre wants to take over city hall, it has to seize council seats.
Wokers Are Religious Fanatics
We often make the mistake of thinking that to be a religion, something has to worship GOD. In reality, there are secular religions. They often adopt the form of a faith-based religion, where the followers’ duty is to have absolute faith that the world is divided between Good and Evil. Nazism may be the most familiar secular faith, where the State took the place of God, Hitler became the Christ Figure, and The Holy Spirt was replaced by “Blood and Soil.” The Communists behave similarly. Like religious fundamentalists, faith in the secular religion trumps everything else.
Faith Based Religions and Movement Are Authoritarian
When any group is deluded enough to think that its faith in some ferkata myth endows it with supernatural holiness, everyone else is in danger. That is the present threat Wokers pose for Los Angeles. Wokers, like the Church in the 1500's, promise salvation for the poor, while working assiduously to make people poorer and more dependent on Wokers. While they will seize power by any means possible including a Coup d’Etat, they do not have plans which allow the poor to enjoy the American dream. August 8, 2023, Substack, The Unnoticed Woker Coup D'état of Los Angeles
The Woker Serfization of Angelenos
While the wokers like councilmembers Hugo Soto-Martinez, Eunisses Hernandez, Nithya Raman did not invent Serfization, they are its most ardent advocates. It is a simple concept: get rid of homeowners in favor a 100% renter society. Homeowners build financial equity and have a stake in their city along with the economic base to take political action. Renters, however, have no financial security. Wokers convince minorities to trade financial equity in a home for justice equity which is nothing but an illusion. The Wokers, like lauded federal Court Judge David O. Carter, believe that Blacks become homeless due to white racists who live in single-family homes. Thus, the remedy to Black homelessness is to destroy single family areas. In order to believe such utter nonsense, one has to a True Believer, living in a fantasy land beyond the reach of facts and reason.
Similar to how the medieval church aligned itself with the state and supported serfdom, Los Angeles’ Woker proposals never lead to the poor gaining wealth, but rather the poor stay poor and stay dependent. The developers are full participants in turning Los Angeles into a renter only society. It’s simple: An owner accumulates equity in his property, but a renter never does. 100% of what would be his mortgage becomes his rent which is passed up the chain to Wall Street with the landlords taking a minor cut. Wokers and Wall Street have an obvious coincidence of interest in keeping people dependent.
The Woker plan of “keep them poor and dependent” is the same as chauvinistic “keep them barefoot and pregnant.” Wokers will provide Calfresh, help pay health insurance premiums, and issue rent moratoriums, but they won’t provide a way to escape poverty. In the 1960's and 1970's, the term “Poverty Pimps” described this process.
Post Script: A project which merits rethinking – CD 14 Kevin DeLeon’s plan to destroy eleven (11) of the 710 Freeway Homes in order to construct apartments. Kevin said that he is proud of it, but this project is flawed. Single family homes are our most precious resources. The working poor need ownership -- not rentership. The City already has a glut of over 100,000 apartments. Let’s stop destroying single family homes. Devise a plan to reverse serfization in favor of ownership.
(Richard Lee Abrams has been an attorney, a Realtor and community relations consultant as well as a CityWatch contributor. You may email him at [email protected]. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not those of CityWatchLA.com.)
