Residocrazy
Editor:
As a long-time activist in our School District, I was rather shocked to learn about Residocracy's endorsement in the School Board race for the first time in your article, having heard nothing about it until then. Since there was literally no process whatsoever for evaluating School Board members, no candidate (with the exception perhaps of the one Residocracy apparently has endorsed) was even informed that Residocracy would be making endorsements in the School Board race.
There was no questionnaire, no interview, no forum, no nothing. I became aware of this only after the announcement in your newspaper. Seriously? I would venture to say that many members of Residocracy's so-called "advisory board" know nothing about most of the candidates for School Board, nor for that matter, about the School District itself.
Can you really expect our community to take an organization seriously when it has no process whatsoever, and its endorsement represents, quite literally, a vote by some self-appointed board members (who are not identified on the Residocracy website) with no apparent interest in school issues or in candidates, as the complete lack of process clearly demonstrates?
Your article quotes Armen Melkonians about wanting to take the money out of politics. What Residocracy has actually accomplished is a most hypocritical feat — taking any semblance of democracy out of politics.
Given the farce of Residocracy's endorsement process, I firmly believe that any candidate endorsed by Residocracy ought to question the validity of that endorsement.
They truly are Residocrazy.
Michael Dubin
Santa Monica
Monorail
Editor:
Here's a really radical suggestion. I like to call it thinking outside the bus.
Imagine a monorail stretching from Lincoln and Wilshire all the way to LAX. No more buses trapped in the Lincoln "parking lot," no more traffic calming.
There would be an express and a local and unlike buses, which sit in the same traffic as everyone else, a monorail could speed people along.
All those commuters in cars would see it traveling back and forth overhead and maybe, just maybe, start to think 'hey, now that's a good idea. I'll give it a try.'
It's less expensive than any subway or light rail and far more efficient.
And then, once you've imagined that route, imagine a monorail traveling along Wilshire from Santa Monica to either downtown L.A. or the western terminus of the subway.
Gary Gurner
Santa Monica
