Los Angeles is in the middle of a water crisis, and this is very serious business to hear Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa talk about it. Water rationing! Major fines for violations! The drought could last for years! As he intoned in February:
“The level of severity of this drought is something we haven’t seen since the early 1970s. We have to move quickly to address this problem,” Villaraigosa said at a news conference at City Hall.
But apparently it’s not serious enough that he’s willing to risk his lawn:
Although he tells the denizens of Los Angeles to cut down on their water use or face fines and higher bills, Mayor Villaraigosa’s city-owned mansion has had its lawn watered during illegal hours several times, NBC’s Joel Grover found in a month long investigation.
When approached by Grover, Villaraigosa said he would look into it. Sprinkler use is only legal on Mondays and Thursdays before 9 a.m. and after 4 p.m. NBC shows footage of sprinklers in use on days not allowed under the law.
What do you expect? That the mayor of a city he has nearly bankrupted should have dead grass in his front yard? Seriously, Angelenos, where are your priorities?
Related posts:
- Green Water Bottles And Their Chemicals Because everyone needs overpriced heavy-metal water bottles, SIGG prided...
- Frisco Mayor Vows To Reduce Number of Homeless
SheltersAlong with hair gel and gay marriage, if there’s one... - Marion Barry, Moral Politician Par Exemple? Snort. Marion Barry, arguably the most corrupt mayor in municipal political...
- Present Obama Suffers Another Outlandish Attack from Past Obama During the neverending 2008 presidential campaign, Senator Barack Hussein Obama...
Isn’t he a democrat? Free passes for him then
Isn’t he also a member of La Raza? Or at least an advocate for the group. That would give him a double pass.
That guy’s an inch away from gun fingers. He could pull it off.
He really wants you to buy this Pinto.
He just told the teacher’s union to take a hike so the city could allow 250 schools to be managed by the private sector as charter schools.
That’s a BIG THUMBS UP.
Complaining about what the city’s garderner may be doing with the lawn is small fry stuff.
Another Dem who practices the do as I say routine.
Call me a fickle bastard if you must, but if he seriously laid the smackdown on a teacher’s union (in LA no less!) in favor of charter schools… well, the guy can water his lawn in Saudi gasoline for all I care.
Sorry, I have issues with teachers unions. What with destroying our children and all.
hmmm did not know that Hurricane. Props to anyone who stands up to the teachers union and government schools
Same here. A democrat telling a union to leave? But he still looks sleazy.
Hey, this may be the first time a Deceiver started off sucky and ended up a hero. Kudos to you, Senor Popguns.
Hah, his answer sounds like the standard IBM management answer/lie, “I’ll get back to you on that.”
:-p
I agree with you Scott F., if he smacking around the teachers union he can be anointed the next “One”.
In regards to water rationing in LA…seriously folks, it’s a freakin’ desert! I grew up near LAX (lovely area), there has always been a water shortage. Hell, the area has no natural water source (well there is the LA “River”…hahaha). I am not sure about the rest of you but I have never seen a grassy desert. Why the heck do we insist on lawns anyway?
D, you know a persons self worth is measured by a kick-ass lawn!
Say what you want about the guy, he did nail a seriously hot weather chica a few years ago.
Relax folks. He bought some of my water offset credits.
For each credit, I plant a water tree in his name.
Well, if the teachers’ union is like the one in DC, he may have made a good choice. While there are good teachers in public schools, the unions seem determined to keep anyone from weeding out the bad ones. The charter schools seem to be one of the few places kids can learn, which is sad, considering how much is spent per kid in the public schools. Which totally explains why DC is doing away with vouchers. We can’t have kids succeeding!
I was fortunate to mostly have good teachers throughout my years at public school, but I had a few duds. I have seen plenty of duds in those top-rated schools, which to me proves that it is the kids and the parental involvement (though sometimes it IS excessive) that keep the scores up in a lot of cases, rather than the teacher. I would respect the teachers’ unions more if they took on the heavy administrative spending and meddling instead of trying to thwart any attempts to being some standards to the classroom. I am all for creativity, but the kids need to learn too.
Here’s an idea: stop subsidizing water in the Western States, and make them pay the real cost. People will ditch the golf course style lawns in a heartbeat. Clue: if your grass won’t grow naturally, you shouldn’t have grass. Native plants are better for the environment, and don’t require 24/7 life support. I’m not a psycho environmental granola type, but I don’t approve of waste or trying to completely controvert the laws of nature. If people would be smart, and not try to live like they are in the rainforest while living in the desert, we would have a lot less problems.
Can we get jobs as sprinkler enforcers?
Link for the story about the teachers union….
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/08/26/la-unified-school-district-chooses-private-sector-competition/
AllyKat, interesting point about “stop subsidizing water in the Western States, and make them pay the real cost.” One problem with that. The Central Valley of Claifornia produces approximately 1/3 or more of the nations produce. The eco-nazi’s have already shut off the water in the North part of the valley because of some 2″ long fish. If you stop subsidizing the water, food costs will continue to rise due to the inability for the farmers to grow the fresh fruits and veggies that go on you table because they cannot afford to pay for the water to grow the food. Not to mention the loss of farmland, jobs, heavy industry, etc.
If you say that the cost would be passed on to people with homes/lawns, how are you going to tell who’s-who-in-the-zoo to make that happen?
BTW, most golf courses use reclamated water to water the fairways and greens. At least in my area of Cal.
Love the 2″ fish.
This is one of those issues that is harder to control because of all the different needs (farming use, drinking water, bathing water, etc). It isn’t realistic to completely “shut down” the West, but I wish that jurisdictions would try to control water usage better. I went to school in Utah for 2 years, and EVERY house and building had an in-ground sprinkler system, that ran constantly. Grass wouldn’t grow well otherwise. It seems wasteful to try to replicate an environment that isn’t natural to the area if you don’t have a lot of water available to begin with. You see similar things in other areas too. Here in VA, where we have regular rainfall (despite the constant claim that we are having a drought), people still water their lawns regardless of if there has been recent rainfall, and many commercially owned properties run the automatic sprinklers WHILE it is raining. I guess it is the usual problem: people don’t use their common sense!
I know a lot of golf courses around here use reclamated water as well. People who strive for similar lawns generally are not that smart. I have neighbors who are obsessive about their lawn, and despite the fact that we are 6″ above normal rainfall for the year, they still set the sprinkler out. Right over the area that is low ground so all the water flows there anyway.
Tony Villar (he didn’t use Antonio until the 1980’s) has been trying to get control of the LAUSD since he became mayor. This is just another power grab by the mayor. Just like Obama, Tony is just trying to control everything because he knows what is best for Antonio, I mean Angelenos.
Prior to his election as an Assemblyman, Tony was a field representative for United Teacher of Los Angeles (UTLA) And yes he was president of MEChA while he was at UCLA.
He is dating Lu Parker, former Miss USA and local news anchor/weather girl.
Don’t you mean Splinkler Czars, Koka?
My gosh Swede, it’s like a line of dominos!
What do you want to bet that there is money in the stimulus package for sprinkler czars and their minions?
If you mix up the words in his name you can spell, ALSO TAIL VIAGRA ONION
God I gotta get a girlfriend you don’t inflate. Right, as if I could ever afford a Real Doll. Pfft. You got any better ideas?
You got too much time on your hands Pasta.
It stands to reason if there are no new jobs available and BO likes to crown czars here there and everywhere….we should be able to get jobs as sprinkler czars.
Be good little government rats by tattling on our neighbors for their overly greedy use of water…and we’ve created new jobs, to boot! Just be sure and look the other way when an “important person” is using an ungodly amount of water to try and grow new sidewalks or driveways at 2 in the afternoon.
Doncha just feeeeeeeeeeeeeeel that Obamagic flowing??????
“The sprinklers are so loud in your back yard, you can hear them from the street. How could you or your household staff not have heard them?” [NBC4's Joel] Grover said.
“I sleep very heavily and I couldn’t hear it,” said Villaraigosa, who noted that overall water use at his home has decreased.
I take whatever kind words I said about him. He’s a douche.
koka, I can see it now. Instead of flag@whitehouse.gov for you to report suspicious activities at tea parties, you now have an exclusive email to report people watering their lawns. Such a horrible thing to do. Gasp!
Don’t get my husband the public school teacher started on the teachers unions. Many years ago his district had to lay off a member of his department because of budget cuts – union seniority rules dictated that they got rid of a terrific, well-credentialed teacher who’d only been teaching 3 or 4 years, but kept an unpopular douche with tenure.
Senor Douche was fired a few years later for keeping porno on a school computer that students accessed.
MC Mom, I’m astonished that even that got Senor Douche fired. Unions + tenure usually = Golden Ticket.
You know there’s no way a sleaze like him would push around the teacher’s union without ulterior motives that lead to personal gain.
I agree, D—-. Lawns are overrated and expensive, especially in California. My alma mater is going broke with all the cuts in state funding yet they paid to have grass re-rolled in the main lawn because the old stuff died. The new stuff died within two weeks.