 Architectural detail from - By Ryan Gierach. |
I can still hear her shrieking in my head. It haunts me, because of its vitriol, rancor, and the tone of genuine cold-hearted malice.
That evening, a couple of years ago, was a more innocent time, when John Duran was a friend who respected and appreciated my opinions, and me or at least I thought so. I took my mother to his installation as mayor at the Pacific Design Center. After all the ceremony, the lovely chorus singing, the Mariachi band, his mother swearing him in, we all went out for the reception. As I recall, there was controversy later on about the very expensive cake from "Sweet Lady Jane", but none of that mattered. My friend, who I had known since our early days in Orange County in the mid 80s, the champion of justice, who had always wanted to be an elected official, that friend had finally fulfilled a personal dream, John Duran was mayor of West Hollywood. I was happy for him because I knew how much it meant to him.
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The issue of the Wiseman estate on Laurel, also known as "Tara", was rearing its controversial head at the event. I barely knew the issues or the circumstances, but something seemed very wrong. The city was going to destroy the last shred of it's early days of as a Rancho, plowing under most of the property, including all the lovely heritage trees, to pour more concrete.
And, in the middle of any discussions, which were generally civil at that time, there was Shirley, with her caustic angry shrill, "How can you compare human beings to a tree?" She all but spat out the words, with all the rancor of the most hardened bigots I've ever encountered. The question of course, was not offered in the context of reasonable discussion. Like the other prejudiced people I've encountered in my past, Shirley, with her steely countenance was not open to any honest discourse, her mind was made up, and she made no bones about it. She might as well have said, those God dammed trees have got to go, they're in the way of progress.
 Trees endangered by housing on Tara’s spacious lot. By Ryan Gierach. |
Little did I know that her rigid opinion was so pervasive amongst those in the room?
Of course, with all the other things that needed to be said in the time that has ensued, and only 2-minute sound bites at City Council to say them, I've never had an appropriate platform to offer Shirley, and her allies an answer. But now that the city has published its plans to cut down virtually all of the trees at "Tara", I think it's time to answer Shirley and her friends.
Shirley, were you asleep or absent that day in biology when they talked about photosynthesis? Was the miracle of how all plants turn carbon dioxide into oxygen lost on you? Have you not noticed all of the press about how the destruction of the rain forest in South America is impacting global warming because the large "factory" of the rain forest, which turns much of our "green house gasses" (mostly carbon dioxide, the same stuff we exhale) back into oxygen so that all animals can exist?
In other words, we animals cannot exist without plants, including trees. That's how I compare human beings to trees, and the comparison is based in hard science, not sentiment.
And if you were absent, either in mind or body, why the anger? The trees aren't out to get you. Are you afraid they will come and get you in the middle of the night?
Has someone in The Empire promised you an apartment in that new monstrosity? Will you magically win some lottery that will give you escape from your current market rate apartment? Are you hoping that if you do the Empire's bidding, you will be rewarded, as others appear to have been?
Why take it out on the trees? Oh, I forgot they are in the way of "progress".
The world is choking on "progress" Shirley. I'm in Chicago, where there has been no winter. It’s so warm in Minnesota; the lakes haven't frozen over enough to walk on them. Have you ever heard of global warming? Do you care?
Do all of you care about anything except your political positioning, the pouring of more concrete over fault lines on an already over extended patch of earth called West Hollywood? It's already the most congested place west of Manhattan. Isn't that enough "progress"? Abbe, have you figured out the reason the traffic is so bad on Santa Monica is directly because of all the overpopulation of our area? Allyne, have you seriously considered that having grid locked intersections and streets that crawl with traffic are not just something that is inevitable? Is that the excuse to just build up 10 floors anyway? What happened to "urban planning"?
 By Ryan Gierach. |
Have any of you ever sat (not walked) under the magic canopy of green that surrounds "Laurel Place"? Have you watched the teaming life that exists under its magnificent branches? Have you listened to the songs of the birds, or watched the playful intricacies of squirrels among its branches? Have you considered the scores of animal families that will be displaced by the destruction of those trees? Or do you not really care about them either?
One of the reasons I am personally fed up with so called "Political Correctness" and those on this council who crank it out like swamp water, is the utter hypocrisy of it. What's I've learned about politics in West Hollywood, indeed much of local Democratic Party leadership in the LA area, is that as long as one talks a good game, one can sell out anything.
So it's okay to talk about Tree Preservation, even form an advisory group to deal with it, just stack it with your friends who are mostly land developers, or their friends. It's good to attempt to pass laws that protect animals from mutilation, and call their owners other names that sound more "correct". But the wholesale destruction of the largest animal habitat in the city goes un-noticed, any opposition voices squelched. It's okay to talk about affordable housing, while actively encouraging the destruction of most of it in the city; after all, the buildings are old (45 years is old?) and have limited amenities. And it goes on and on.
Sometimes, as a mental health professional, I have to ask myself what sort of medications are these people on that they are so blind and unfeeling to the pain and misery that they are causing others?
My non-political friends ask, "What's the difference between Democrats and Republicans?" and from their perspective, if one looks at the hypocrisy index, there isn't much difference.
So in spite of all the rhetoric from my friend John Duran about maintaining "core values", (yes, I still consider him a friend, but he's had a hard time looking me in the eye the last year or so), the appearance of his actions tells a very different story.
During the election another friend of John's, who was also having a hard time getting him to listen to these same issues, had a long conversation with me about what an "insider" John is. The friend gushed on and on about all the "inside" people John knows, all the information he has, his contacts, etc.
My question remains, what's the difference between John's "inside circle" and the "Bush/Halliburton/Carlyle Group” who are currently sucking the country (in not the world) dry? It may be a different set of faces and names, but the process is the same, "We're not listening, we don't care, you're not one of us, we just want you to go away, and we'll shut you out until you do.”
This from a City which was created so that we could ALL be "us". Jesus said it best, "The love of money is the root of all evil". I add that in my travels, the one constant I hear from everyone I meet is the pervasive politics of greed that are destroying this land. The collapse of it is coming, and it will be horrific when it does. Those who come after us, who will pay the price, will not think well of the legacy we have created.
But its "politics as usual" at City Hall, and that feels too much like that plantation that Hillary so accurately described on MLK day.
I'm sure that Fran returns Shirley's calls. She probably returns Ric's too. She hasn't returned any of mine in years. After all, we live in vindictive times.
The Empire grinds on, determined to plow under the city so that their developer friends can "build more housing", even if the people who live in the city now don't want it. One day soon, people on the sidewalks will notice that the emissions from all the vehicles idling while sitting still on the grid locked streets have become a serious detraction from the "al fresco" experience. After the choke and the cough, they may have a clearer understanding of why trees and photosynthesis are so vital to life. But by then it will be too late. And the last patch of heritage green, West Hollywood's own little parcel of rain forest at "Tara" on Laurel avenue, will be cut down to make room for more concrete, just what the city needs.
Even from here in Chicago, the thought of all those displaced animals, and murdered trees, makes me sick.
Enjoy the oxygen Shirley, time is running out.