LA - Fausta's Blog

LA unveils $578M school, costliest in the nation

The K-12 complex to house 4,200 students has raised eyebrows across the country as the creme de la creme of “Taj Mahal” schools, $100 million-plus campuses boasting both architectural panache and deluxe amenities.
…
At RFK, the features include fine art murals and a marble memorial depicting the complex’s namesake, a manicured public park, a state-of-the-art swimming pool and preservation of pieces of the original hotel.

And just how is that conducive to students’ learning?

Did anyone bother ask?

Matt Welch: Well, at Least They Destroyed Thousands of Affordable Houses While Building All Those Expensive Schools!

the story here is even worse than the fact that “construction costs at LA Unified are the second-highest in the nation,” even while the system continues to produce craptacular education results. All of these things are terrible, perhaps even criminal, but here’s something as infuriating as it is almost totally undercovered in the media: The LAUSD, during this the biggest public works project west of The Big Dig, has bulldozed literally thousands of homes and businesses that stood in its way. They have been razing entire neighborhoods in order to educate them, even as enrollment numbers in the public school system have been falling through the floor.

For those willing to wade into some dodgy html code, I have written about this extensively in the past.

Forget it, Matt, it’s “for the children.”

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Ah, the irony of pitching green jobs while tying up an entire city into gridlock…

Obama raises a quick $1 million — and some L.A. commuter ire
During his trip west, the president also pitches his efforts to create clean-energy jobs.

Reporting from Los Angeles —
With a quick visit to Los Angeles at rush hour, President Obama raised $1 million Monday for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

He also alienated some Angelenos, at least temporarily, as his motorcade mangled evening traffic en route from the Beverly Hilton to the Hancock Park home of producer John Wells, whose credits include “West Wing,” “ER” and “Southland.”

The glitterati paid through the nose,

The entry fee was $2,500, but co-hosts — including Abrams, Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey and Marilyn Katzenberg, and Barbra Streisand — paid $30,400 a couple. They didn’t all attend, however.

The ones who didn’t attend were probably stuck in traffic, along with the hoi polloi.

It takes little effort to cause a traffic jam at rush hour in LA, but the mark of real talent is causing gridlock for cars while blocking pedestrians:

Although it was a friendly crowd, the street closures snared not just vehicles but pedestrians — if calls, e-mails and posts to The Times’ website were any guide.

Angelenos are mad, and demand an investigation.

Things are getting tough for Obama – tough enough that Critics say Obama’s message is becoming ‘incoherent’. That link doesn’t come from Fox News, the Weekly Standard or National Review. It doesn’t even come from Jennifer Rubin, who like me, believes the line

“This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”

was rhetoric gibberish.

It comes from CNN.

Here’s a flashback to the “rising oceans” moment,

But fret not, Michelle Obama to enter campaign fray.

What could possibly go wrong?

UPDATE
Stacy says the President caused traffic jams in the morning, too.

The Presidents keeps this up, there’ll be millions of Republican votes saved or created.

Oh goody!!
Seattle’s next!

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$600 million for one school?

This moment in Obamaland: See you at rush hour!