The Neighborhood Council’s Mandate
Written by redqueeninla in COLA, Culver City
Where do plebs find power?
When a corporation moves into town does the community have any recourse? After all, if they own land or a business, what right does the community have to what happens with another’s land, the company’s business prerogative, their right to make money?
We are a Democracy wherein political power is supposed to be in the control of We The People. And yet our economic and political system is Capitalism wherein, according to the New Oxford American Dictionary, “trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state”.
How then can Capitalism and Democracy coexist?
On the westside two recent incidents surrounding iconic community businesses epitomize this competition between public and private interests. While it is true that business is money and capital is apparently the fuel of our social order, why is it that the public’s interest is just ceded when there is competition? Is the interest of capital inherently more worthy than the interest of the people, or is it simply more powerful? Business has the power of its large purse, whichinfluences elected officials unduly; who will represent the interests of the people?
Ans: We have a system setup for representing ourselves. LA’s Neighborhood Councils are perfectly positioned to represent us, the task remains to translate representation into power. But we need to start by seizing the prerogative of our communities. Our Communities are competing with the interests of Capital, and we have a right to a seat at the table discussing our community needs. We the people are avowedly terrible at turning out to vote for our representation, but at least at the grass roots, our electeds should assert as axiomatic, that our community has standing.
By way of precedent, consider that In Culver City a property that housed a local, family-run ice rink for half of a century was purchased by a rock climbing company from San Francisco and forced to vacate. Generations of childrenThe Neighborhood Council’s Mandate – redqueeninla:
Years ago my college roommate embarked on a several-months-long exercise mooning over a guy whom I, her roommate, was treated to endless melting expositions regarding his exquisite qualities. Imagine my own excitement when following the amazing happenstance of their actually meeting and liking one another, I was at last allowed to meet this paragon. And now just try to envision my own existential