The Wisdom of Neighborhood Councils and the Wealth of L.A.'s Rich

Update: The link below to the CityWatch article, "The Timidity of Neighborhood Council Bureaucracy," is mysteriously malfunctioning, so here is an alternative article on N.C.s that lauds the potential of Neighborhood Council activists in local politics—in this case, school politics: The article, "Neighborhood Councils Score a Milestone," pays a tribute to Bennett Kayser, a Northeast Los Angeles N.C. veteran who recently earned a seat on the LAUSD board.

What purpose do Neighborhood Councils serve? Here is an interesting perspective for readers on both sides of the debate about the Eagle Rock N.C.’s inability at its monthly board meeting last Tuesday to support the City of South Pasadena’s uphill battle to gain the right to oppose the expansion of the 710 freeway on land under its jurisdiction:

From the CityWatch website, titled “The Timidity of Neighborhood Council Bureaucracy,” the article calls on neighborhood councils in Los Angeles to think big and act big, with some inspiration from a leading 20th-century thinker who liked to spend his summers in neighboring Pasadena—Albert Einstein. Imagination, he famously said, is “more important than knowledge.”

The same news website also offers a fascinating overview of L.A.’s rich—the richest Angeleno is worth a staggering $8 billion—by the venerable California historian and author J.D. Waldie. Appropriately titled “Money, Money, Money,” the article notes that to be rich in Los Angeles is to be “very, very rich.”