We were a little unsure about what to think about the State budget crisis, what with talk of take-aways and all, so we went back to the League of Cities' website, http://www.saveyourcity.net
to try to buck up our resolve.
At first it was comforting to hear Mayor Corey Calaycay, Mayor Pro Tem Linda Elderkin, Councilmember Peter Yao, and even Councilmember Sam Pedroza plead the case of a small San Gabriel Valley municipality to the giants who stand astride Sacramento.
However, the more we watched these pieces, the more wrong notes jarred our comfort. Being confirmed "McLuhanites" we know that the medium is the message, and so we examined the medium a bit more.
One trivial point jumps out right away. Those experts at the League of Cities don't even know Claremont's Assembly and Senatorial District. They show our Assemblymember as Norma Torres (it's Anthony Adams) and our State Senator as Gloria Negrete McLeod (it's Bob Huff). We've already pointed out that Linda Elderkin's bio makes her "Mayor" and not "Mayor pro tem".
Here are screen-grabs of our council making its case:
Peter says, "You and I both know it takes money to provide these services".
But who is this "Fifth Councilman"?--Eric Everhart, Vice President for Development for the Olson Company. The Olson Company are developers that do business in many cities. Several years ago they had an option on the "Courier" property just south of the tracks on College, and were going to build a mixed use development, but then lost heart when the economy went south. The City is now entering into a DDA with Jamboree Housing for a housing project on that site.
So, Save Your City is not much more than a media promotion to help those slopping at the public trough to keep what they have, and to get more if possible. Why else would the site include a developer pleading to Sacramento?
By the way, we were curious as to why each screen-grab above shows 530 videos showing. We would think that from time to time it might be 500 videos, or 489 videos or 541 videos. Turns out, that number is hard-wired into the page code and is really just there for aesthetic (or subliminal message) effect: "We've got lots of worthies telling Sacramento to take care of its own house..."
For the propeller heads out there, here is the page code for the Save Your City website that shows where the 530 number comes from:
If you can't believe the identification of Linda Elderkin, if you can't believe the assembly and senate district identification, if you believe that the VP for Development of the Olson Company is any kind of elected official or "community leader" and if you can't believe the more or less gratuitous tout of videos showing, why believe the substance of the message?
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