So, tonight I mourned Coretta's passing and sat through the President’s "State of the Union" address. I had dental work done today, so I was already primed for unpleasant experiences.
The President and his speechwriters are skilled at writing language that sounds good, generous, kind, concerned. To hear G. W. Bush tell it, America is a rosy place, New Orleans is being rebuilt into paradise, school children are getting a better education, health care is available, we're going to create alternative fuel sources, it all sounds so good.
 Ed Garren in WeHo in front of Irv’s Burgers with Mama and Sonia Hong on his arms. By Ryan Gierach. |
None of this is actually happening, which underscores how out of touch the president is with the rest of America. Like too many in leadership these days, he's only listening to a small group of "advisors,” not realizing that they earn their living telling him what he wants to hear. Talk is cheap, and empty from this White House, and from West Hollywood City Hall.
Jane Harmon, talking about "Bi-Partisanship," underscored the need for dialogue, not railroading one agenda and ignoring all others. Yet that's not how government seems to be run these days. Those in power, those who have a majority, seem determined to railroad their own agenda, with little concern for any opinions other than their own.
 ADVERTISEMENT |
In my travels, I hear this all over. I call it "The Politics of Greed.” It pervades much of the country. Our children and grand children will pay the price of our lack of stewardship, both in a despoiled environment and staggering debt, both public and private. Hot Air is very expensive.
The current obsession in most cities seems to be Real Estate. It is a national past time. Television is clogged with advertisements from mortgage companies. One can get zero down mortgages, interest only mortgages, can refinance to pay off one’s debts, and, of course, at the end of one's life, get a reverse mortgage. Certainly a home is no longer just a place to live, it is a magic cash machine. It goes on and on, and whereever there is valuable real estate to be sold, it becomes a feeding frenzy to exploit it to the maximum.
I admit that, after 11 years, I sold my WeHo house and gained noteworthy windfall from the sale. But my reasons for selling were more tied to the loss of quality of life in the area than the financial gain. Faced with the certain expansion of density in an already over crowded space, I sold out because I did not want to live in a sardine can with an up to 45 foot wall being built next to my home, possibly on both sides. In spite of assurances that "it would never happen,” I know better, it's happening all over the city.
 Overdevelopment is fear number one in WeHo. By Ryan Gierach. |
The new paradigm seems to be to get in on the luxury condo market. They have become to housing what SUVs have become to motor vehicles. Here in Asheville, North Carolina, (a mountain resort community) there is a condo development downtown with units that sell for half a million. Most cities have developed a fashionable core, where real estate sells for a lot of money.
But who lives in the condos? A realtor friend from Portland talked about life in the world famous Pearl District. He says that most of the buildings are less than half occupied, the units simply purchased by absentee owners as investments, tax shelters, etc. He said that when he lived in one building, less than 30% of the units actually had people living in them, it was like a ghost town.
I have heard from many reliable sources that one of the main things fueling the current housing boom in West Hollywood is the determination of one council member to leave as his legacy lots of housing built while he was on council. One may argue the pros and cons of increasing population density in West Hollywood, but ultimately, the real issue is the concept of "Due Process.”
In other words, does one man, with the help of two friends who go along with this vision, have the right to run the city at the expense of all other voices? What does the city gain from his Empire banishing all opposition? Is this his version of "Ethnic Cleansing?” Is the message clear that only "people like us" (upscale professionals) are now welcome in West Hollywood?
One of my favorite movies is "Good Fences.” It is a recent film made for Showtime that chronicles the rise of power of a character named Tom Spader. Attorney Spader, played by Danny Glover, is haunted by a past in rural Mississippi, in which he is almost lynched for beating a white boy in the state spelling contest. He barely escapes the lynch mob and flees north where he meets his wife, played by Whoopi Goldberg.
 These people – all one hundred – gathered to hear that their neighborhood shops would be stripped away from them so that apartments and a Walgreens could be built. By Ryan Gierach. |
Attorney Spader decides that the only way to make his mark is to sell his soul and defend a white, arsonist slumlord. This gains him entree' to upper class white society, and soon the family moves to Greenwich, Connecticut. He becomes a judge, all is well until a new neighbor moves next door, Ruth Crisp, a lottery winner, played by Monique.
She is his worst nightmare come true, all that he has spent a lifetime fleeing. She does her own gardening, has a barbecue on Thanksgiving, and is clearly rural and southern. Attorney Spader is determined to get her out of the neighborhood. The rest unfolds in a tragic, comedic play on the socio-politics of class and race, and the importance of making peace with one's past.
I bring this up because I can't help but question the personal agendas of those who run the Empire. I remember, in the early days of the city, the one newly elected council member who aggressively questioned the need for a GLBT rights ordinance for West Hollywood was John Heilman. Was he afraid of upsetting the straight people? Did he fear they would come to lynch him in the night?
I also ask myself whether John Duran can be so haunted by his young adulthood trying to be straight in Orange County that he must lead the charge in West Hollywood to make it his version of "Emerald City?” Why is his other view of West Hollywood "an Adult Disneyland?” Neither of these images allows much room for, nor do they nurture, creativity - or even humanity, for that matter.
I don't know much about Abbe Land's background, but I ask myself why she is willing to sell out the city in order to get to the Assembly? Check out her contributors for her Assembly bid. It's public record on the Attorney General's web site.
It's that bad. If you strip off the labels (Democrat, Republican), the process is the same. The Empire in West Hollywood is very similar to the Bush/Cheney White House, and the Republican "plantation" congress, which will now be rubber-stamped by a Bush Supreme Court.
In West Hollywood, the majority of three on the council get what they want. They have stripped and stacked all of the commissions and advisory boards, which are now reduced to appointed majorities that appear to be little more than echoes of City Hall. Even though Historic Advisory just voted against the proposed Laurel Place project, the Planning will over ride that and City Council will vote for what was clearly a "done deal" from day one, the day they started this project without community input.
Just like that plantation Hillary talked about, those who do "masters" bidding get rewarded, those who don't get lynched, just without rope.
I guess this is the new norm for the Republic, as it appears to be a national epidemic, the product of big money gobbling up everything in its path. Principle seems to count for little at this juncture, just one more obstacle to be bulldozed like a heritage tree.
The "True Believers" of West Hollywood, whose new religion is “more housing at any cost" have declared a holy war on the city and anyone who gets in their way.
Sinclair Lewis wrote that "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
From Asheville North Carolina, Ed Garren
Ed Garren can be reached, even in the wilds of Red America, at