While they were all close, gang violence, the Los Angeles Unified School District, and slow 911 response times weren’t chosen by Metblogs readers to be the absolutely worst thing about L.A.

Nope, you decided it Metblogs readers: that honor goes to The High Cost of Owning a Home.

Perhaps the lack of home ownership is the root of many of Los Angeles’ problems. Having a city of renters means a large rotation of citizens, moving in and around the city, and often out, but rarely sticking around in any one place long enough to plant roots and express concern for the long term viability of any one neighborhood. The balance of politician’s attention is spent focusing a minority of home owners as they’re the ones paying property taxes (although the homeowners complain that their tax dollars are being spent on city services for renters that they’ll never use). And the wedge the real estate bubble further into the class divide has made L.A. even more a city of the haves and have nots.

A couple quotes from previous rounds where you can see The High Cost of Owning a Home slugging away for the title:

“When LA County’s median income is half of what is needed to buy a median priced home, there is something terribly, terribly wrong. Thankfully the idiots that ruined the market for the rest of us are getting their comeuppance.” -Kent Nichols

“Is it any wonder that most Angelenos can’t afford to make the American Dream of home ownership a reality? In fact, many of L.A.’s poorest residents end up living with several families all under one roof, packed like sardines in a crushed tin box.” -Mike Winder

So there you have it. Its settled. If you ever hear anyone ever say, “The worst thing about LA is/are ‘fake people,’ ‘the smog,’ ‘fake boobs,’ ‘the traffic,’ ‘the lack of Dunkin’ Donuts,’” or whatever else they bitch them about, tell them, “No. The worst thing about Los Angeles is the high cost of owning a home. I read it on the L.A. Metblogs.”

It’s the big dance, baby! The round that will decide what is the absolute worst thing about Los Angeles.

Is it the high cost of owning a home, which arguably has put the so called “American Dream” out of reach of the vast majority of Los Angeles residents and created an even steeper class divide?

Or the Los Angeles Unified School District, the notorious bureaucracy that has wasted millions on broken payroll systems, unusable schools, irrelevant architecture, and unnecessary internal staffing while classrooms remain overcrowded, unsafe, and plagued with inexcusable dropout rates. (by the way, LAUSD very narrowly beat out Gang Violence in the last round by 2 votes, 51% to 49%.)

So, Los Angeles, what is the absolutely worst thing about this city:

[poll=68]

…poll closes next Tuesday evening…

The “winner” of this brawl will go up against the “winner” of yesterday’s bloodmatch to determine the absolutely worst thing about Los Angeles- still time to vote on both.

There’s nothing worse than calling 911 and being put on hold or disconnected, except, of course, being told help is on the way and then it never showing up. Whether its due to a poorly relayed address, overwhelmed emergency services, or sheer imcompetency, somehow I think we’d be safer if we were told flat out “help won’t be coming for you” so we could spend time handling the emergency ourselves.

I’m surprised the Cost of Owning a Home has come this far in the 64 Worst polling, considering that a) home prices dropped an outstanding 9.6% between February and March of this year, b) home prices dropped a stunning 25.6% between March 2007 and March 2008, and c) the reason the numbers remain so impossibly high is due to the arrogance of the public who kept buying inflated prices based on ill conceived notions that there could possibly be no real estate bubble. Seriously, people, did you learn nothing from the dot com bust? Or are you too busy still buying stake in Google to be paying attention? [data: California Association of Realtors]

 Which is worse about Los Angeles:
[poll=67]
…poll closes Thursday evening…

Today and tomorrow’s “winners” will bring us to the final matchup deciding the absolutely worst thing about L.A., so vote wisely!

Yep. This one is gonna be bloody!

Gang culture is responsible for thousands of deaths and a lower quality of life for countless denizens who live under the fear of violence from thugs who believe that might makes right, and that color and geography determine which side you’re on.

The Los Angeles Unified School District is an institution that for years has forgotten to put students ahead of bureaucracy, effectively making overcrowding classrooms into gangbanger incubators.

Which is worse:

[poll=66]
…poll closes Wednesday night…

Back when times were simpler, Will Rogers recommended, “Buy land. They ain’t making any more of the stuff.”

These days we’re inching closer to making a frickin’ black hole, but we haven’t made a single dent in the creation of more land.

With the median price of a house in Los Angeles County currently at $440,000.00 and the average married couple bringing home $58,000.00 a year, is it any wonder that most Angelenos can’t afford to make the American Dream of home ownership a reality? In fact, many of L.A.’s poorest residents end up living with several families all under one roof, packed like sardines in a crushed tin box.

Yes, you heard it here first. The cost of housing in Los Angeles sucks.

But so do parking tards.

You know parking tards, right? They’re those palookas that for reasons unknown—perhaps a deep-seated anger towards the housing market?—feel it’s their God-given right to plant their vehicle on the street any way they damn well please.

Spotting parking tards is a favorite pastime here at L.A. Metblogs. Eagle-eyed authors have discovered that P-tards sometimes travel in three; sometimes they’re idiot savants; and sometimes their unscrupulous behavior can make even the most refined among us utter the single most offensive word ever devised by man.

Which is worse:

[poll=64]
…poll closes Saturday evening…

Photo of Silver Lake’s Occidental Apartments, courtesy of you-are-here.com.

*** Bonus: Archival photography of history’s most famous parking tard.

Hey! You there! Get out of my way. Can’t you see I have somewhere to be? No I don’t have a reservation, don’t you know who I am? What do you mean, you were here first? Don’t you know who I am? Oh I know you won’t hit my car, it cost more than your house. I said, DON’T YOU KNOW WHO I AM?

And on the flip side… nothing. Your call is put on hold indefinitely. Officers arrive after the crime has been committed, if they arrive at all. Everyone thinks your problem is someone else’s problem. There is no one to help you.

Which is worse:

[poll=65]
…poll closes Friday evening…

As part of the ongoing effort to find the very worst of our fair city, today we examine two more elements of Los Angeles, gang violence and the lack of respect for local history, to determine which is worse. At first glance this one might seem like a slam dunk for gang violence, at least that is what I thought when I decided to post this but the more I thought it over the less it seemed like a sure thing.

On one hand we have gang violence: According to LAPD figures, during the last five years, there were over 23,000 verified violent gang crimes in the City of Los Angeles. But wait, there’s more; that number includes over 750 homicides and 12,000 felony assaults. That’s a lot of violent crime and violent crime is never a good thing.

On the other hand there is the lack of respect for local history: Many people in Los Angeles don’t know local history and this is in large part due to the huge numbers of transplants here in LA. If you don’t have roots in a city it takes some work to learn what existed before you arrived. Over time I’ve gained a good sense of local history but often times when I bring local history up in conversation it turns into a discussion about what eatery used to be where and how all the good video stores are gone. When many of us talk about local history we often talk about places that personally mean something to us, these are interesting facts but ultimately this history is just trivia.

One of the problem with regards to history is that citizens, politicians and policy makers often don’t respect or don’t pay attention to the real history of the city including the multitudes of real estate deals and developments that built up certain parts of the city and left others to languish. Many also don’t know about the history of official and unofficial segregation of housing in our city or the questionable, borderline criminal policies when it came to policing lower income areas*. The historically unaddressed divide between the haves and the have-nots leads to disenfranchisement, resentment and anger towards the prevailing social and economic power in the city. Now I can’t speak for you but if you told me that the city I lived in would ignore a history that left me feeling alienated, I’d look for a way to build a community that could exert some authority and protect me in a way that the city had historically been unable to do; one way to do this is by joining or forming a gang.

So what’s worse, gang violence or the lack of respect for history which has indirectly led to gang violence? It’s your call, please vote below.

Which is worse:
[poll=63]
…poll closes Thursday evening…

*To be fair steps have been taken in recent years to improve these but the negative effects of past policies remain.

By now, you’ve discovered a little inconsistency in the matchups of our little L.A.’s 64 Worst Things shootout.

We put up some huge contenders against each other in the early rounds (LAPD vs. L.A. Times?) that resulted in great but slightly-lesser evils being eliminated prematurely.

So now we’re left to decide head-scratchers like this: What’s worse – inconsiderate dog owners? Or the entire bloated, lazy, horrible, costly and tragically ineffectual LAUSD bureaucracy?

On the one hand, you have a relatively small number of selfish, short-sighted dolts who are fouling our streets with the products of their indifference, leaving an unsightly, unsafe, unsavory mess and degrading the quality of life for every man, woman and, especially, child in Los Angeles.

On the other hand, you have some dog owners who can’t be bothered to pick up their shit.

[poll=62]

(more…)

I have to admit surrender to challenging left turns, even though I like to tell myself that I’ve outwitted them. Instead of getting in the back of a line preparing to turn left at an intersection that lacks a dedicated left turn signal, I opt for going through the intersection, and making the next three available right turns, so I can head down the road the singular left turn would have allowed me. I haven’t spent the time to find out which saves me the most time, although I’m sure I’m less at risk of being plowed into by oncoming traffic as I make a left.

I don’t know about fellow readers, but if there’s one thing I’d be willing to pay more in taxes or fees for, it would be an overhaul of the 911 system. Stories of callers being put on hold, calls dropped, or emergency resources dispatched to the wrong locations are all too frequent. But don’t blame your local fire fighter or police officer – the problem is an antiquated system:

If you call 911 from a cellular phone in the L.A. area, the call will be routed through the California Highway Patrol. The caller’s location will not be identified automatically. It is extremely important to give clear and accurate instructions to the location of the emergency. Freeway interchanges are especially difficult for emergency responders who haven’t been given accurate locations. A good example is the I-5 and I-14 interchange in North Los Angeles. There are 23 separate routes of travel. If a wrong location is given, 10 – 20 minutes may be required to travel to the next off ramp and respond back to the emergency along the correct route. [LAFD]

Which is worse about LA:

[poll=61]
…poll closes Saturday evening…

Since L.A.’s infamous smog has made it into the sweet 16, I’d like to take the opportunity to let everyone know that National Air Quality Week begins next Monday, April 18th. Keep an eye out for coupons to get your car’s emissions tested, and if needed, consider rigging your car to ensure passing. But take pride in knowing that Los Angeles is ranked #1 as the United States’ Most Polluted City, according to the American Lung Association. Whoo-hoo! (cough, cough.)

I haven’t seen a study, but I’m pretty sure sociologists would also rank L.A. as having the highest density of self important jackholes who think they’re entitled to cutting in line at restaurants and clubs, deserve better customer service, and feel little need to extend common courtesy because of who they think they are or are associated with. Do these people wake up in the morning, and stare into a mirror all Travis Bickle like, rehearsing the line, “Don’t you who I am?”

What is worse about L.A.:

[poll=60]
…poll closes Saturday evening…