Our local politicians really gotta learn to walk the talk a bit. If they’re not jumping into a black GMC Yukon SUV after giving a rousing enviro-themed speech (Mayor Villaraigosa), they’re big-upping greener, higher density neighborhoods while clinging to homes in highly-restricted single-family residential neighborhoods themselves (Councilmen Ed Reyes, Tom LaBonge, and Jack Weiss).
And now, after urging angelenos to down their water use by 10%, Villaraigosa’s home’s been outed as a major water guzzler. According to the LA Times, “even if he had made a 10% reduction at the two homes where he has lived since winning election in 2005, he still would have used nearly twice as much water as comparable properties in the vicinity.”
In fact, at least half of LA’s 18 elected leaders’ve used higher than average amounts of water over the last two years. The leaders have a lot of excuses, the funniest being Councilman Tony Cardenas’ “my dog ate my sprinkler heads.”
I hope all this outing of public officials’ practices actually leads to some changes in their lives. Villaraigosa, for his part, has made it a point to take visible public transit rides since people started calling him out on the whole SUV dealio. Maybe next he’ll think ’bout converting to a drought resistant garden, as City Controller Laura Chick has done –
[image by ~Florian]
You know what else bothers me? The fact that Santa Monica prides itself on being “green” but in fact people still water the sidewalks and clean their driveways with hoses. It is supposed to be a ticketable offense, but when I contacted the water “police” about it, they said they only had 2 people working there and could not go around policing it. Then they said they would send me the pamphlets and I could walk around S.M. and ticket people myself…for no pay. Nice.
Comment by David — August 11, 2007 @ 12:11 pm