Random Letters: 12-22-21

A Critical Eye on Feuer

Re: “LA Has Big Problems,” RLN, Nov. 25- Dec 15

I have little faith in the “career politicians” in the crowded field of mayoral candidates like Mel Wilson, Ramit Varma, William R. Morrison, Asher Luzzatto, Evan Jasek, Sean Enright, YJ Draiman, Kevin de Leon, Kevin Dalton, Karen Bass, Joe Buscaino, Jessica Lall, and Alex Gruenenfelder.   (See Wikipedia “2022 Los Angeles mayoral election”).

Candidate Mike Feuer and staff are missing in action when it comes to “governance, homelessness, safety, neighborhood neglect, and inequality.” He calls homelessness “pervasive” but that is hardly true if the homeless are less than 3% of the total population of LA County. 

What is pervasive is the lack of fiscal accountability under the Feuer reign. He has been characteristically silent about discrimination complaints leveled at housing and code enforcement employees. I sought the city attorney office help in 2015-2016 to help eradicate housing discrimination and retaliation by private and public entities. I got no assistance from Feuer’s office of 42 attorneys. I also sought his help recently on enforcing the city tenant anti-harassment ordinance.

Feuer’s proposals have not currently been implemented because Feuer is part of the problem, not part of the solution. There is little sense in creating more confusion by increasing the number of council districts. He has supported corrupt government policies. He lacks experience and honesty.

Juan Johnson, 2022 LA Mayoral Candidate, Los Angeles

Student Letters

Editor’s note: In the past few weeks, Random Lengths News received a group of Letters to the Editor from the students of San Pedro High School English teacher Michael Kurdyla. Students commented on stories from the past few months. Reading through the letters, the students did an admirable job following their teacher’s instruction to read and critique stories that piqued their interest. The end result was more than 10,000 words from high school students engaging the most topical issues being discussed today. In the interest of space, we will select a few of the letters for print, while posting the remainder online.

Re: “LA Has Big Problems,” RLn, Nov. 25- Dec 15

In the article “LA has Big Problems,” the author Mike Feuer suggests strategies to reform the Los Angeles government. I have never been interested in the government or politics, but reading this made me realize how beneficial a reformation could be. The author shows us how the government could change and how that would affect other things. The article tells us that the problems in LA have been increasing because of the unresponsiveness of our government. This is a great topic to talk about because it provides us with many examples of reformation. In this article, Feuer talked about how inequality diminishes us all. I agree with this, and I agree with Feuer when he says that having a small number of people who govern the city isn’t the greatest option. Having enough diversity can help everyone. Including things like school projects. For example, Feuer’s article states, “Too few govern too many, making elected leaders less responsive, less diverse…” (Feuer 2) This statement shows us that not having enough diversity in anything can lead to people not working hard. He also mentions that “Los Angeles’s government was designed nearly a century ago when our city was 25% of its current size.” (Feuer 3) Because of how long ago LA’s government was made, it isn’t viable anymore because of how large the population has gotten. Not having enough diversity leads to not having enough ideas, which leads to unresponsiveness. However, this could change if there was a reformation of our government. Reforming our government could benefit everything in LA and can promote diversity. This is important to our society because if the government can’t respond to our messages our city will fall apart. If we do nothing now, when will we?

Daniel Lopez, San Pedro High School, Carson