Thursday, January 21, 2010

Signs of the Times

I just spent the last month down in LA and I noticed a disturbing trend while I was there. It seems that City Council Members have taken to putting their names on every little thing they do.

One morning I went for a run on a small strip of grass between some high rise apartments and Admiralty Way and when I got to the end I almost ran into a huge sign announcing that the aforementioned square of lawn was, in fact, the 'Yvonne Burke Memorial Park'. You've got to be kidding Yvonne. I could mow this thing in five minutes with a push mower.

Than, passing over La Cienega a few days later, I saw the 'Honorable Councilman Kenneth Edelmen III Municipal Greenspace Arboritum.' Or some such nonsense

On the PCH heading south from Topanga I passed a beach. It was still called 'Palisades Beach' or something nice but just under that was Seventh District Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky's name in type maybe one point size smaller. Thanks for your discretion Zev.

Sure, it's nice that these beaches and green spaces are happening but isn't that their job. Who decided they could slap their names all over them. Hell, even Lincoln and Washington only put their last names on their monuments in Washington.

But I don't want to seem ungrateful so I'd like to suggest some middle ground. They can keep their names on all the little things they have done to help Angelinos as long as they also put their names on every pothole I almost disappeared into. Deal?