{"id":2331,"date":"2011-03-13T13:17:42","date_gmt":"2011-03-13T17:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/03\/vernon-california-they-only-cared-about-jobs.html"},"modified":"2011-03-13T13:17:42","modified_gmt":"2011-03-13T17:17:42","slug":"vernon-california-they-only-cared-about-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/03\/vernon-california-they-only-cared-about-jobs.html","title":{"rendered":"Vernon, California: they only cared about jobs"},"content":{"rendered":"

What can happen to a town that really doesn’t care about anything
\nbut jobs.<\/p>\n

\nAdam Nagourney writes in the NY Times 1 March 2011:
\n
\nPlan Would Erase All-Business Town<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\nVERNON, Calif. \u2014 Vernon is a bleak, 5.2-square-mile sprawl of
\nwarehouses, factories, toxic chemical plants and meat processors that
\nlooks like the backdrop for “Eraserhead,” the David Lynch movie
\nset in an industrial wasteland. It has a population of 95 — and 1,800
\nbusinesses, drawn by low taxes, lax regulations and cheap municipal power.<\/p>\n

\nIt also has a history of corruption and public malfeasance going back
\nnearly 50 years.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The rest of the story is mostly about how it’s gotten so bad<\/p>\n


\nthe state
\nis trying to abolish the city of Vernon and make it part of Los Angeles County.<\/p>\n

\nJohn A. P\u00e9rez,
\nthe Democratic speaker of the State Assembly, is the chief sponsor of
\nlegislation to disincorporate Vernon. He described it as a shell city
\ncreated to enrich municipal officials and businesses at the expense of
\nthe struggling, lower-middle-class communities that surround it.<\/p>\n

\n“I have been frustrated with Vernon for a long time,” Mr. P\u00e9rez said,
\nwhile driving the streets of this city, which is in his district. “How
\nbad a neighbor it’s been. How shady its practices have been. And the
\nmore I looked at it, the more I realized this was really the center of
\ntremendous corruption.”\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Naturally, Vernon boosters fought back, with this, for example:<\/p>\n

\nA slick two-minute advertisement promoting Vernon as a bastion of
\nblue-collar employment will be shown in theaters in working-class
\nneighborhoods with the opening of a new movie, “Battle: Los Angeles.”
\nThe commercial follows a $65,000-a-week television advertising campaign
\nthat began last week.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

More tax money going to benefit corporations at the expense of people.<\/p>\n

\nThe story goes on and on about fraud convictions, lawsuits, advertising
\ncampaigns pro and con, and so forth.
\nObviously it’s not that bad here.
\nBut Vernon might be considered a cautionary tale about
\n
\n“jobs, jobs, jobs”.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n-jsq<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What can happen to a town that really doesn’t care about anything but jobs. Adam Nagourney writes in the NY Times 1 March 2011: Plan Would Erase All-Business Town VERNON, Calif. \u2014 Vernon is a bleak, 5.2-square-mile sprawl of warehouses, factories, toxic chemical plants and meat processors that looks like the backdrop for “Eraserhead,” the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,14,49,2,21,178],"tags":[339,8720,1153,8704,8721,847,4956],"class_list":["post-2331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-code-enforcement","category-economy","category-elections","category-government","category-planning","category-vlcia","tag-california","tag-code-enforcement","tag-corruption","tag-economy","tag-elections","tag-jobs","tag-vernon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}