Publicly Embarrassing The Mayor Doesn’t Do Much…

A few papers picked up the “impromptu” (I put this in parenthesis because I don’t know if it was actually an impromptu response) protest against L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa yesterday. He was in Skid Row to highlight new street lighting in the area.

It’s a good city response to increase lighting in order to make a neighborhood safer. PATH helped our local community do the same thing. Why an advocacy group would protest such a press conference doesn’t clearly make sense.

Although they were seeking to use these new lights as a way to accuse the Mayor for not doing enough to help the homeless. They were also making a statement that the Safer Cities Initiative is criminalizing homelessness.

I do agree that the city needs to do more to provide permanent affordable housing and emergency housing to the city’s 40,000 homeless people. I don’t think it is wrong, however, to want to make streets safer.

Besides, I don’t think embarrassing the Mayor is going to force him to spend more money to help the homeless. Especially when the city's budget is hurting.