The SoCal Spin 10/16

It only took one hot air balloon and a couple minutes for Falcon Henne to launch into internet infamy this Thursday, as reports stated that the six year-old from Colorado took to the sky by means of his father's hot air balloon. As we all now know, the reports were off base--the child was instead in the attic--but, as KCET's Ophelia Chong notes, the most remarkable aspect of "Balloon Boy" might just be the speed with which that news spread.

Back in the Golden State, disillusion with our government is running rampant, although you already knew that, didn't you? A Field Poll this week reported that approval of the state legislature is now set at an utterly abysmal 13%, with the Governor's 27% not doing that much better. Yep, things are reaching a crisis point. So should we expect some bi-partisan ventures in the near future? Don't get ahead of yourself.

Maybe you're of the disposition that the government remains fundamentally sound and that it's Californians themselves that are politically incompetent. Well, you would then be in disagreement with the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court. Yes, Ronald M. George went on record this week officially assailing our "dysfunctional" government up in Sacramento, stating that anything short of fundamental reform would render the state ungovernable in the future. Could this be a strike against complacency?

Schwarzenegger, to be fair, did indeed buckle down at his desk this week, as the Governor sifted through hundreds of bills and vetoed a good number of them in the process. A bill honoring gay-rights activist Harvey Milk and the first piece of explicit anti-paparazzi legislation are among the notables that made it through, although the latter does seem to hint at Arnold's implicit Hollywood bias.

We know this is getting repetitive, but with the financial belt of the entire city tightening more every week, various officials and experts are considering increasingly, err, creative means to place a couple extra bucks in the city's pocket. One study has surprisingly indicated that leaving homeless persons out on the streets--as is our tendency in Los Angeles--costs the city more than putting them up in a housing shelter. If that's the truth, then it's definitely time to provide the struggling with some long overdue public service.

Additionally, KCET's Brian Doherty reports that some relief is on the way to Los Angeles schools in the form of federal subsidies. Unfortunately, the city's Chief Financial Officer believes that "this is a crisis averted but [only] delayed," a sentiment seemingly in agreement with a new UCLA proposal to increase tuition for some of the school's more lucrative majors. Desperate times do seem to call for innovative measures.

And, shock and awe, even Hollywood is suffering in this economic climate, with the number of production days down 14.3% this year. All those fears of Hollywood bolting out of Los Angeles do sadly seem to have some bite to them. City Council, however, has instead turned its attention away from Hollywood and towards a newly proposed idea to ban convenience stores in South Los Angeles, a suggestion that has quickly drawn criticism as unnecessarily paternal and maybe just a little racist?

Finally, if you like your overviews in the form of policy memorandums, then check out this annual report just issued by the Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs. Topics include Economic Development, Housing, Health Insurance, and the DREAM Act. In just thirty pages, you'll be transformed from laymen to Los Angeles expert. Or, at least, you'll feel like you have been, and isn't that good enough?

This image was taken by flickr user erjkprunczyk. It was used under the Creative Commons license.