Good morning. It’s Saturday, Aug. 31. Right here’s what we’ve been doing in Opinion.
Is Los Angeles fairly? As in, are we prepared to indicate off our metropolis in 4 years to the Olympic hordes, who aren’t simply coming to see the seashores and the mountains and Disneyland, however to make use of the identical streets, freeways, buses and trains we do to get to all of the venues sprinkled all through this expansive area? It’s a query that’s come up loads within the L.A. Occasions for the reason that 2024 Olympics within the unquestionably majestic metropolis of Paris closed three weeks in the past. How you can spruce up Los Angeles forward of the 2028 Video games has been the topic of news articles, letters to the editor and newsletters.
I’d argue all this angst over preparing for 2028 form of solutions the query: No, Los Angeles isn’t very fairly.
I expressed as a lot in an introduction I wrote for a package of letters with options on addressing L.A.’s issues earlier than we present ourselves off to the world in 4 years. That touched off a dialogue amongst readers who begged to vary and made the case for this metropolis’s aesthetic qualities in letters, one among which was published this morning. They stated town’s potential to seize the creativeness of holiday makers, its pure magnificence (seashores on one facet, 10,000-foot mountains on the opposite) and the form of variety poignantly highlighted within the Jonathan Gold documentary “Metropolis of Gold” make our humble metropolis the right host for athletes and guests from around the globe.
These are all nice factors, and I don’t essentially disagree with them. However I make my argument primarily based on some fairly strong authority: My work commute, which I make two or 3 times every week, takes me 23 miles every means by way of a few of L.A.’s most historic, established communities. I cowl this distance not behind a windshield in a freeway-bound automobile, however on the streets riding an electric bike. This permits me to expertise the refined variations between neighborhoods — issues like noises, smells and topography.
And I can’t name what I expertise “fairly” or “lovely.” Fascinating, sure — even nice in locations. Probably the most courteous drivers I’ve discovered are sometimes in East L.A., downtown and southwest of USC (issues get loopy near LAX; Beverly Hills and Westwood, neglect about it).
Typically, nonetheless, a lot of L.A. suffers from neglect and, properly, unfairness. Trash is everywhere, the sidewalks are broken, complete neighborhoods are environmental disasters, parkland is scarce and the air in components of town has a metallic style to it (particularly throughout rush hour and the place there’s a number of industrial exercise and truck site visitors). Traditionally Black and Latino communities see the worst of this. With this sort of obvious discrepancy and neglect, I can’t convey myself to name this place lovely.
None of that is to say Los Angeles is unworthy of the Olympics, or that I don’t love the place. On the contrary, I discover every thing about this space — its historical past, folks and especially its geography — fascinating. It’s been my dwelling since I used to be a toddler. Vin Scully’s voice virtually raised me, and now I ship my youngsters to public college right here. I would like town and the area to reach a means that pays dividends for the individuals who use its parks, streets and faculties.
So I say this from a spot of affection: Los Angeles isn’t very fairly. Fascinating, sure; lovely, nope. However magnificence is within the eye of the beholder, and it’s been fascinating to see what readers regard as aesthetically pleasing about our dwelling, and what wants fixing earlier than the 2028 Video games arrive. Ship me your ideas — both to me immediately, or to letters@latimes.com — and let’s maintain the dialog going.
Bringing back the woolly mammoth could save species that still walk the Earth. The form of captive breeding packages that saved the California condor and different species getting ready to extinction had been controversial at first. We now know they’re wildly profitable and helpful, and efforts to convey again extinct animals promise huge leaps within the science and know-how behind efforts to protect dwelling however endangered ones, write Matt James and Barney Lengthy.
LAPD needs a chief who can turn around the department and restore public confidence. Mayor Karen Bass is getting nearer to selecting the following Los Angeles police chief, the Occasions’ editorial board writes. “Los Angeles wants a chief who is ready to overtake division tradition and apply, re-instill a robust sense of organizational id and reorient officers towards dwelling as much as the LAPD’s popularity because the nation’s most revolutionary and responsive division.”
Why are so many California hospitals closing their labor and delivery units? Obstetrics isn’t like different areas of healthcare — infants don’t arrive on a schedule, so items should all the time be staffed to deal with a crush of latest sufferers at any time. That is costly, and our healthcare system’s fee-for-service mannequin turns it right into a money-losing operation for a lot of hospitals. To handle this drawback regionally, USC Keck College of Drugs professor Anna Reinert says Medi-Cal wants to extend the quantity it reimburses hospitals for every delivered affected person.
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Attacks on diversity programs show the need to keep them going, and improve. Firms are rolling again their DEI packages. Critics say that’s as a result of these packages don’t work, however College of South Carolina professor Henry Tran affords a special motive: The standard one-off variety coaching lectures are usually not inclusive sufficient, and so they’re ineffective. He suggests “utilizing a extra inclusive method that emphasizes civility and dialogue — one aimed toward discovering frequent floor.”
What can President Biden can do to free Venezuela of Nicolás Maduro’s illegitimate regime? Researcher Kristina Foltz suggests imposing harsh U.S. sanctions towards Maduro and all state-owned companies (versus non-public firms, which might hurt common Venezuelans). She additionally calls on the U.S. to acknowledge Edmundo González Urrutia because the rightful elected chief of Venezuela, versus merely saying he received the election stolen by Maduro.
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