(Editor’s Note: This article was submitted to the LA Times Opinion Page Editor a week ago but still has not gotten a response rejecting or accepting it, so it’s yours for free)
To paraphrase President Obama in his State of the
Union
speech, democracy in a city of four million people can be noisy and
messy and
complicated.
That was evident this (last) week in Los
Angeles in a way that we have rarely seen as people
from all over the city, from all walks of life, paraded before the City
Council
to plead their case for their jobs, for funding for their causes, for
understanding of their needs.
It was noisy and messy and surely the financial and
spiritual crisis facing the city is complicated.
But the earnestness and passion of the disabled, of
neighborhood
activists, of environmentalists, of city workers, of lovers of art and
culture,
of youth, of the LGBT community and so many others was a demonstration
of the
underlying vitality of the people and their yearning for a city that
works for
them.
Their energy is the fertile ground on which great cities
grow. It is the
grassroots of democracy, a complex web of often competing needs, values
and
interests that, if nurtured, can bloom into a community enriched by
their
diversity.
It’s the nurturing that’s the problem in Los
Angeles and always has been.
This is a city that throughout its history has been run from
the top
down by elites that have looked down at those below and patronizingly
decided
what was best for them and, of course, for themselves.
The Times in its editorial on the outcry of so many people
before the
Council expressed this noblesse oblige attitude
by chiding them for thinking only of themselves when the city is in dire
straits,
having started the “new fiscal year — irresponsibly and, more to
the
point, illegally — in debt and insolvent.”
The editorial suggests that a “successful” Los
Angeles rely on private fund-raising and volunteerism
as a “model for providing quality-of-life programs instead of support
from the
city.
With that, the Times gives a blanket endorsement to
the
proposal to restructure city government, eliminate thousands of city
workers
who provide services to the public and drastically reduce funding for
programs
like Neighborhood Councils, human services and arts and culture.
The irony is that most of the money for these
efforts does
come from donations and most of the work is done by thousands or
ordinary
people volunteering endless hours in the service of others and their
communities.
City government should be in a support role for
these
efforts but more often than not, it is the obstacle in their way.
Instead of bringing this vast army of volunteers to
the
table of power and working with them to integrate their efforts with
available
resources, the city has brushed them off with little more than lip
service.
City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana in his
meticulously detailed reports to the Council and mayor demonstrated that
overspending and poor management over many years has brought the city to
the
brink of bankruptcy.
In his public comments to the Council, he warned
that his
three-year plan to slash spending, reorganize the bureaucracy and sell
valuable city assets is just the beginning.
The impact of the recession and the city’s
financial crisis
is likely to last seven to 10 years, he said, and more cuts in funding
and more
job eliminations are inevitable.
There is no way out of this crisis without the good
will of
the people and that is what is missing.
The people have lost confidence in City Hall. The
hundreds
of people who have gone to City Hall to beg for mercy for their causes
are fed
up with begging for crumbs. They are demanding a full role in developing
the
policies and implementing the programs they care so passionately about.
It’s a noisy, messy and complicated way to do
business. It’s
called democracy, an idea that is alien to the civic and political
culture of Los
Angeles. But it’s an idea whose time has come.
And it’s the only way out of this crisis, the only
way the
city can pull together and flourish for years to come.