South Central Farm to Forever 21? »

This is a pretty damn sad story. I’ve followed this story for years now, since the farm was first threatened. It’s a pretty amazing representation of modern urban tragedy…. A greenspace which served the lives and livelihoods of over 300 families destroyed for a warehouse for shitty clothing.

One of the first questions which come to mind is where was the mayor for all this? How could Mayor Villaraigosa not have stopped this tragedy? Some then point out that the way the property battle played out was totally legit (despite the ever suspicious closed door meetings in which it took palce). The argument in Villaraigosa’s favor is that he didn’t have a legal land to stand on… That doesn’t mean he couldn’t have advocated and couldn’t have done something. The law isn’t always right, particularly when it comes to these eminent domain issues and it’s up to our elected leaders to protect their constituencies in cases like this. Legality aside, this was yet another sign of piss-poor leadership (i.e. The complete lack-there-of) on Villaraigosa’s part. But what really reeks of bullshit about Villaraigosa is this:

He has received nearly $1.3 million in contributions and commitments from Forever 21 and its executives over the past two years for initiatives ranging from tree plantings to his own reelection campaign.

But maybe Villaraigosa was powerless. Maybe we’re all powerless in the face of the forces of “the market.” Some will say that the blame should be on the shoulders of the consumers… and as we are all consumers we are all equally culpable and equally free of blame. The Market is necessary, all powerful, and benefits us all overall… but the worst part about saying “It’s the market,” is that it’s a terrible way to excuse the actions of individuals. Somewhere down the line someone(s) had to say “We are taking this land away from people who are using it productively and partly for their own livelihood so that we can build a warehouse which will benefit next to no-one in this community.” Perhaps those persons said to themselves “aw hell, it’s the market!” and figured they were doing some sort of good… But they can’t even make the argument that this is the sort of thing that is going to generate enough jobs for these people. They can’t make the argument that there aren’t plenty of places where this warehouse could have also gone. In the end the market, just like eminent domain, once again fails to serve “the people” as it is alleged to do…

Yes, blame “consumer preferences” but you can’t let the decision makers off the hook. I certainly think those in government are culpable as well for allowing such a ridiculous thing as “consumer preferences” to degrade the standard of living for a group of people. Particularly true when it is a group of people who have little to no say in these “consumer preferences” which allegedly dictate the course of society.

Most tragic of all is that as they build upon this land, put in a foundation, concrete and asphalt, build a huge waste of space and energy…… Nothing will grow on this land again. They are robbing the community now and robbing this community in the future (if and when the warehouse becomes a bombed out and decrepit shell).

Los Angelinos… you’ve gone and failed each other. I hate to single this story out, this sort of thing happens in cities all over this country… This just happens to be one of the more tragic examples.

As for Ralph Horowitz, the “owner” of the land… There are those who will argue the old lines: “He legally re-obtained the land and who are we to tell him what to do with it?” Perfectly legally speaking this is probably true. Perfectly morally speaking, though, you’d be a fucking moron and an asshole for trying to defend that sonofabitch. I’ll probably go into my views of Power/Service to the Dis-empowered as equal to Sin/Redemption some other time…. but for now I’ll say that there’s a special place in some sort of Hell for people like Horowitz and those who will excuse him.