handing out Vote For Parks signs as hes running for mayor of LA.
little does the former chief of police know, but wilshire and western, deep in the heart of koreatown, is populated largely with spanish-speaking folk who might not all be, ahem, registered to vote.
and the rest of them are koreans who arent all that in love with african americans, especially african american former police chiefs who werent all that loveable in the first place.
i realize the chief wanted to be surrounded by large groups of prospective voters sympathetic to his cause he should have moseyed down to the miracle mile. his problem is his voter base, fellow african americans, are in the pocket of mayor hahn, whose father gave more to LA african americans than even mayor tom bradley.
but because he chose a metro stop/bus stop filled with minorites that either didnt speak english or could not and/or would not vote, he was stuck in a conversation with me
his worst enemy
who had nothing to do since i had to wait for the bus.
parks: hi, are you planning on voting for mayor next tuesday?
me: what difference will it make who wins, LA is far too big to manage.
parks: cynicism this early in the morning? obviously i disagree with your stance.
me: dude, you people cant even get the busses to run properly, the subway to go places that matter, or even those escalators to work for a full week.
parks: how would you like the metro to improve?
me: lets start at the escalators and elevators. get new ones. i have used this station every day for four years. the money the city pays to mitsubishi to repair these peices alone can probably pay for new escalators and elevators at every station. and when you get new ones, get Otis ones, not mitsubishi.
parks: are you dissatisfied with the metro?
me: yes, look at all these rapids. three at a time. why are they rolling three in clumps? why arent they spread out every 4-5 minutes? you’ll get three in a pack ever 6-7 minutes. that’s not convienent to anyone. stagger them. old people ride these things. do you want old ladies standing out in the “safe” streets of LA waiting for a bus? spread them out and get more local busses. the rapids are fine, but we dont need as many of them, we need far more local busses.
parks: those are all good points.
me: sure they are, which is why nothing will ever happen. no one listens to the poor unless its an election year.
parks: have you considered entering government yourself?
me: of course not. you think i want to be in a shirt and tie taking crap by some cynical busrider on a wednesday morning about dumb crap like metro escalators?
parks: but you would be helping your neighbors and your community.
me: my community are the kids of isla vista. and if i ever get the chance to return there then i will run for mayor of that town and i wont involve myself in dumb programs like DARE or SANE i would actually work on ways to legalize things that should be legal and fix things that shouldnt break twice a week. good luck on your race but mayor hahn hasnt screwed up. you should support him, not try to bash him because you want his job.
and then i got on the bus