The one ace President Obama had in his pocket walking into yesterday’s meeting with BP executives was that BP could not afford more horrible publicity. It wasn’t the law; it wasn’t regulatory power. It was the people.
With the announcement of the $20 billion dollar escrow account, with no anticipation that $20 billion is the limit to pay for claims from the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the US and BP have come to initial terms on damages for the destruction caused by the Deepwater Horizon explosion in April. Furthermore, BP’s shareholders are to forego dividends that were to be paid out this year in order to help pay into this escrow account for the costs of the disaster, and a separate fund of $100 million dollars has been set aside to benefit unemployed oil workers laid off due to the government-imposed six month moratorium on drilling in the Gulf.
Given the devastation and the loss of life in the Gulf of Mexico, this sounds like ruthlessly cold comfort. But the captains of industry in the board rooms of BP and in multinational corporations everywhere are not sympathetic to dolphins, fish and working class people who live near or rely on the shore for their livelihoods. True to form, corporations, their shareholders and executives stay wedded to the bottom line, regardless of which country’s resources they’ve fucked up, whose lives are lost, and how much damage control they have to pay for. For what its worth, to them $2.1 billion is not too big a price if they can just make the problem go away, as long as there’s money to pay it.
For those unfamiliar, an escrow account holds funds in retention and accrues interest for future payout to a contractor at the end of the project by mutual agreement of the parties. Money is released when certain external conditions are met, like a well is drilled and flowing safely, or a rig is erected according to specifications. In the instance of this escrow account, the parties involved in the disaster are not directing how the money is to be paid out. The escrow account will be independently overseen by a mediator who oversaw the 9/11 victims compensation fund, Kenneth Feinberg, with a panel of judges to mediate on behalf of the victims in the event there is refusal to pay for claims.
As much as we’d like to see BP’s corporate heads on pikes, its actually not in the public interest for BP to dissolve or go bankrupt. BP needs to remain alive in financial hell to make money to keep itself out of jail and cover the costs of clean up for as long as the liability lasts. The $20 billion committed isn’t hush-up money given its public announcement, and its not going to be enough, because the true cost of this damage needs to be measured in decades, not months, and in trillions, not in billions. But for now, its a Band Aid. A start. Eleven people are dead. The cost of the clean up is unknown. Nothing has stopped the oil from gushing yet. There is no relief until the coast is literally cleared. But this kind of pay-in-advance move is unprecedented; those familiar with the dismal state of environmental law know this is a breakthrough.
To litigate this successfully, if and when the spill is stopped, the courts will have to pinpoint the extent of negligence on the part of BP, Transocean, Anadarko, and the MMS, and that blame will be apportioned out based on their contracts with each other, and their responsibility for the incident. We also need to watch what BP says today as BP’s CEO Tony Hayward testifies before Congress, particularly in response to questions about how much oil is getting released by the current leak. There are fines established by the EPA which can exceed upward of $4,300 per barrel of oil spilled. This is why there were conflicting reports about the barrels spilled per day since the event. That decreases their bottom line and their liability to pay out.
With his Oval Office speech of June 15, a very measured Pres. Obama, his lawyer hat on, was managing our expectations for justice while re-assuring the people in the Gulf — who still need the oil industry to survive — that they would be made whole. He was measured for a reason. The next day the president was to walk into the lion’s den to negotiate for and receive the down payment, the first of many installments from the very devil himself — on our new partnership, bound together by liabilities, lawyers and courts. With this deal, government is now in an odd new relationship with one of the more grievous offenders of environmental and safety laws set by the government.
Its a forced marriage of accountability, instead of a free-for-all at the government trough. And there’s a lesson for both. Government has been too cozy and familiar with big business, so much so that the dividing lines between each have blurred, laws were ignored, and corporations let off the hook to run amok with little political tempering since the Reagan Administration. But in the aftermath of Deepwater, this is what government and the corporations are in for: the once conflicted relationship between both is now watched over, in the public’s interest, by lawyers and courts. I guess when Pluto is in Capricorn, lessons about corporate and government accountability are par for the course.
For the rest of us, who can’t seem to get past our addiction to oil, in the President’s speech there was a heads up that the clock is ticking on the way we live. We need it.
While down in Los Angeles for my niece’s graduation, I was staying at a Holiday Inn on Olympic Boulevard, where a Ralph’s supermarket was right across the street, within walking distance. I needed to get to the store for some drinks, but traffic was careening past me at roughly 40 MPH, and no crosswalk within a half a mile’s distance. I walked across anyway, taking my life into my hands. Cars were not slowing down. I had to stop on the meridian, looking helpless, begging for these drivers to slow down, and then ended up running for my life to get to the other side. You literally have to drive to get safely to a supermarket across the street.
When I got to the store, I asked the security guard at Ralph’s for where the nearest crosswalk was.
She said, “Crosswalk? What’s that?”
We have a lot of work to do.
Yours and truly,
Fe Bongolan
San Francisco
Mystes and BK – wow! Thank you for the perspective and info about the pelicans! It’s been a very weird time, not such a groovy time.
Paola… Yes.
I realize this doesn’t square with the catastrophic reality of this situation for the biosphere as we know it. Tar, oil, gas, all of it is toxic to be sure. But there’s more to this story than just a few years of subsea poking and prodding, and our (homo sapiens sapiens) welcome in the water-realm was withdrawn a few years ago (I was noting the signs about 2004). Not that the welcome was anything but tenuous after WWI.
Ted Turner wasn’t far off of the mark with his ‘sign from God’ comment, but really, we’re beyond the last call phase. Now its time to tune in to the Signal beyond the noise. And it’s like a Gustav Holst symphony, overwhelming but melodious.
Wow. Thank you from the deep of my turtle heart. This is something that desrves more news, more investigation… what the animals are doing now.
“The sentient being of this event” as compassionate and benevolent, though powerful… is a totally different point of view. Thank you.
(But… what about the balls of oil on the seabed that might go around in all the seas for centuries? What’s her point of view on that?)
Paola reports: “I just read that the State of Louisiana decreed a day of prayer for today, because ‘as human effort didn’t seem to be enough till now, the moment has come to ask for a miracle’.”
The oil geyser *is* the miracle:
{{A woman, risen from the sea}}
The Sentient Being of that event is extremely benevolent – powerful, but compassionate beyond all imagining. So the oil companies think it’s hell? Oh, it will be. The sea-bound businesses that thrive by exploiting *while* polluting? Toast. And those for whom political expediency rather than leadership is the order of the day? On fire *in* the toaster.
Most cetaceans have left the Gulf, the fishies are following as quickly as possible. Birds –being amphibious, so to speak– always have an option. What has not been generally noted was the general reluctance of pelicans to migrate south earlier this year:
Posted: 01/26/2010 05:51:24 PM PST
Updated: 01/26/2010 05:51:25 PM PST
“PORTLAND, Ore.—California brown pelicans are begging for food on the Oregon coast rather than migrating south to breeding grounds.
An estimated 1,000 brown pelicans have remained on the state’s coast, an unheard of number at a time of year when they should be in Mexico or Southern California. About 50 birds have died, but wildlife officials expect the number to escalate, said Dawn Grafe, visitor services manager for the Oregon Coast Wildlife Refuge Complex. ”
The article goes on to say that the Wildlife Refuge didn’t have a clue about what was causing the reluctance, speculating on such paltry incentives as ‘handouts from tourists.’ Right. You fly 3000 miles every year for 150,000 years, but a bit of bread is going to disrupt your migratory instinct. Um. Okay.
Anyway, hearts up. She Is Risen.
awordedgewise – thanks! I feel better knowing that.
Changing subject:
I just read that the State of Louisiana decreed a day of prayer for today, because “as human effort didn’t seem to be enough till now, the moment has come to ask for a miracle”.
I read this on an online Italian newspaper. Looking for the original article, I found this:
http://www.spiritvoyage.com/blog/index.php/a-yogic-response-to-the-gulf-oil-spill/
Paola,
Google. “The Impossible project” or just “polaroid” and you’ll discover that another company purchased them.
“Polaroid was bought up in 2009 by The Impossible Project group, which is trying to revive the market for the fabled instant camera and has named eccentric pop-singer Lady Gaga as its artistic director.” 2010 AFP
2009 was the originating companies last bankruptcy. I do not know, but suspect the photos belong to that co and are part of that proceeding.
Never Fear – with Lady Gaga as spokesperson there is a future for Polaroid yet…:D
“More than 1,000 Polaroid photographs are being auctioned at Sotheby’s in New York City as part of Polaroid’s bankruptcy court order. The auction includes legendary photography dating back to the 1940s. Some artists argue that they only lent their work to Polaroid and that the company does not have the right to auction it.”
I didn’t know that Polaroid went into bankruptcy. Not really in the subject of this discussion, but a milestone disappearing. How many of us grew up with Polarid cameras?
Hi Patty,
Think I’m the only one to mention being brought to our collective knees, and that was meant to be a reference to the “perception” of being punished. Chiron will sometimes use that tactic in order to get the attention required to change what needs changing. Being brought to one’s knees is a position of prayer and asking forgiveness. If one perceives being brought to that position as being punished then one is resisting becoming conscious, or as you said “being fully awake”. None of the planets or aspects are in the business of punishing as I understand it. Certainly, not burning anyone at the stake.
However, human as we are, at times that may seem to be the answer to problems, you know, my problem is your fault. A being less than fully awake will not see beyond the obvious, so I’m sorry if my words implied that I thought punishment a necessity. I believe that, in your words, the BP CEO is most surely a part of the wakeup call. Thanks for making me more conscious of how my less-than-thorough explanation of a thought can be confusing.
Another way of being brought to one’s knees, mine in particular, is the relentless heat Mother Nature is providing for many of us. This can be a perception of punishment rather than a need for change or adaptation by many. It appears to be forcing people to slow down, do less and make do. I don’t pretend to understand why, in each case, this is necessary, but believe it is part of the bigger picture of becoming more awake. Perhaps the forced inactivity provides the vacuum (of time) needed to perceive the bigger picture, which won’t be the same for everyone.
Love all of these great ideas about biking everybody. In another semi-related occurence, our condo pool has been shut down indefinitely, due to some (new) regulation. This is furthering my 5 years in-the-planning idea of turning it (pool area) into a garden, some may remember that idea expressed here a couple of years ago. (someone named gardener had some great suggestions) A dozen or more of my neighbors see this (pool closing) as more than just an inconvenience; some see it as a punishment of our association by the government devils. Time will tell.
be
Fe, I was thinking that we are all behaving the same way we did after 911 – too fearful. Me in particular – way too fearful. Have to think forwardly and with hope. I hope for no more disasters, but that isn’t the way the physical world tends to operate. The Cern experiments are cause for great hope though. Great hope.
Patty:
Maybe we have been brought sufficiently down to our knees, its going to be alot, taking the very spine out of our current world economy. It may either be a collapse or a fall of a very tall building in slo-mo. Let’s say, whatever it is, we’re going to be watching the train wreck as it happens.
Hovercraft for transport
also, as to being sufficiently brought to our knees…isn’t inflicting punishment part of the problem of not being fully awake? Beware of reversing roles with the crusaders and burning people at the stake. Lots of ideas suck….the large hadron collider can change the world, but then again it could also blow it up. Our choice. Need to be careful where we throw mental energy around. We are much more powerful than we realize, and the BP CEO may well have been the wake up call we needed….got us past the snooze alarm, so to speak.
Read about how the world wide web was invented, and why – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee, to manage the scientific projects and data coming out of Cern. The idea came to Tim Berners=Lee in 1989 and the web was born in 1990, a life-altering event, surely! Now the new experiements coming out of Cern could change the world again, and very soon. Imagining light travel is not very far-fetched, from one galaxy to the next. My brother worked on a perpetual motion idea for years, using magnetics and ideas like that are all over the web. Hovering craft are quite past the experimental stage, and most use magnetics to produce motion in a circular form. Some ideas are likely being protected by DOD for now.
In two years, what will the world look like? When I consider the impact of the www, I can’t begin to imagine.
That’s my vision for 2012, if we can survive the run-up, everything new will be new, not old.
Agreed….in the sense that we need to encourage growth, not punish lack thereof.
Many people depend on gas for cars to support their families – the idea is to provide alternatives and encourage their use.
Again mentioning bike lanes recently painted on street in my town – totally useless except to exacerbate traffic issues.
With the lanes came no provisions (beginning with any reason for them to be on the street they are on) such things as 1) provide bike lanes everywhere next to the electric car lane and put gas powered vehicles on major street – segregation like big trucks used to get 2) provide simple amenities such as bike racks…hard to deal with a bike when you can’t park it anywhere. 3) subsidize local electrically powered delivery business/s so folks can power bike but still purchase. 4) teach bicycle safety to kids in school – and if encouragement is needed to ride bikes then provide safety officers at important points in the road for longer-distance travelers – AND theft-safe parking situations.
Well…my list goes on and on – and all cheaper than less friendly alternatives – but the big wheels are still turning……
Little tiny hurrah is that one of our TINY little parks is FINALLY being replanted with environmentally friendly plants here in our forever water-deprived city.
It’s meant to be a “test”…..sigh. Amazing how near-sighted most people still are.
xo
Hey Fe!
Love the vibe here, always personal but with a nudge to the “other” … in ways that encourage co-operation and evolution. Bravo!
Not sure about imposing taxes on oil, but I’d be all for encouraging biking. Might I suggest a Planet Waves bik-a-pa-looza?? I’ll rally the PA contingent and meet you in the middle!! We’ll go the route of the small farmers, rather than hut-to-hut skiing we’ll do a farm-to-farm biking! I love it.
mm.
yeti:
Damn genius, that.
Built from recycled cars.
Bike bridges are way cheaper than car bridges too. They don’t have to be so damn wide.
yeti:
Hear Here!! (Spelling deliberate)
Joy is an operative word for the Green Revolution. Joy and FREEDOM.
And that is fucking sexy.
Now: How’s about a competition for artist-sculptor-engineer-designer foot/bicycle bridges on Olympic Boulevard in Century City?
Any Angelenos in the house willing to make that thought viral?
Fe said: “Our culture needs a new definition of “sexy” that includes riding a bike instead of a car, grows vegetables instead of ordering them shipped air freight, and walking to the store instead of driving to the mall.
The first turn of the wheel towards transition needs to be cultural–artistic, musical, culinary, visual. Maybe a “Local-mania” festival is in order. Everything homegrown (less than 50 miles away).”
I think this is exactly what my academic art training (esp. the art and social practice portion) has prepared me for. Now that school is complete I can put forth more energy to manifesting various projects I haven’t had time for on account of academic responsibilities.
That being said, Pedalpalooza is kind of a local mania festival. It focuses on bikes, but the kids from LA are learning a whole new way of looking at the world from coming to play in our city where we have a growing network of urban farms that have begun to supply many local restaurants with produce fresher than can be had from any farm outside city limits. Then there’s the Village Building Convergence that happens every year in May where a local organization called the City Repair Project leads projects focused on livability and sustainability within the city. But the mainstream is still cars, trucks and SUV’s even here.
As I saw Jupiter rising over the bike party I ended up in last night, marking the Aries point with a bright orange dot, I couldn’t help but feel that this is part of a growing awareness that’s like a sapling whose roots are finally stable enough to weather the storm, the next growth spurt fueled by the colossal fuck-up in the Gulf of Mexico waking up millions of people who previously had their heads buried in the sand. We were 70-100 cyclists careening through the streets of Portland well past midnight on a weeknight…and the cops just waved us on our merry way. I think if more people in more cities saw that you can change things with good cheer and good manners we’d progress a lot faster than violence could ever manage.
Fe,
The Summer Solstice and the Capricorn Lunar Eclipse, both effective for several months, have the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction on or near the Aries Point in common with the chart for the President’s Oval Office speech. In addition, the President’s speech chart had an exact trine between Mars and Pluto, whereas the Solstice chart also has it, but wider. The Eclipse chart has a much wider trine, but the conjunction of Vesta (investments) to Mars is exact adding clout.
That said, we are also under siege from the Cardinal Cross demand in both the Solstice and Eclipse charts to change completely our old paradigms. As a whole, at least in the USA, we haven’t sufficiently been brought to our knees, present company excluded. Perhaps the rest of the world will be less reluctant to accept change.
Therefore, I would say, as to more disasters, yes, probably and probably here. As to the US-BP arrangements as a model for future cooperative agreements for environmental destruction compensation, yes possible, but hold the thought and not your breath.
Still, the Solstice chart (in Washington DC) has Cancer rising and the ruling Moon(Libra) trine Neptune (Aquarius) in the last degrees of their signs, encouraging a belief that lessons have been learned and a positive spirit of growth and cooperation is possible.
In my previous post I see that I dropped a “zero” in my last line and wanted to to say 20+ billion, not a paltry 2+ billion. As if I would know the difference!
be
=====
be: consider it fixed. —PW
😉
Hey marymack:
I love the stories about being the “Outworlder” for taking the bus and a bike in LA. My recent trip down there made me a bit despondent as to how we can possibly make the transition to being car-free.
Oil spills are like nukes. You can somewhat contain but never eradicate the product. Its gets settled into the soil and the water. I was chatting this morning with friends about imposing gasoline tax to begin to address the clean up in the Gulf. Is there political will for a gas tax like there was for a cigarette tax?
Fe,
I am just now getting to your piece and loving it. I have to smile because I lived in LA for a while and know that Ralph’s you write of … at the time I lived in Santa Monica and commuted into town on the 10 … I was introduced often as the girl who takes the bus!! How funny is that?
I grew up and worked in various cities with stellar public transportation … and then moved out here to the country where public trans sucks unless you’re taking the train into town. So I bought a Cannondale bike and now I’m introduced as the girl who rides her bike everywhere! HA! life is such a trip.
I may very well be the only one still schlepping around a measure of rage over the EXXON disaster in Alaska. I know, I should be future oriented but I feel strongly that all offshore drilling must cease forever unless and until everyone is made whole in Alaska, from the destruction of the Valdeez, and the oil companies pay into an enormous escrow account.
I’m sorry, I’m off track. Excellent piece … thank you, Fe!
mm.
fluidity:
I signed up for Seize BP when the spill first happened. So I think I understand where they’re coming from. Thanks for the tip.
My Be:
That chart analysis is stunning. Is it possible that this relationship, if successful for the victims of corporations, can become the model applied world-wide? I ask that because of the times we are in and the possibilities looming before us–are there more ecological disasters waiting for the planet? One would think so.
Fe,
Great piece as always, and so are the comments here. I have nothing to add but thought you might enjoy a little astro trivia. Your title “Arranged Marriage” and the description of the “forced marriage” led me to re-examine the chart for President Obama’s Oval Office speech. On the cusp of the marriage house, the sign is Gemini, double-speak Gemini, and the ruler Mercury is in Gemini too (in the house of service).
That Gemini Mercury is sextile the Moon who rules the 8th house of other people’s money, or shared resources. This chart’s Mercury is conjunct the BP chart’s Jupiter in its 10th house of reputation and trines it’s Neptune (in the house of service). A picture is worth a 1000 words and a birthchart is worth $20+ billion sometimes.
be
i posted the link (and another related youtube one) but my comment is ‘awaiting moderation’
to see the article that analyzes the escrow deal, that I menionted before, do a google search ‘seize bp escrow’ and you’ll find it reposted as the first link (the original post is on pephost dot org) … it’s from the group Seize BP
It’s also great to see something like this:
http://www.silverdiner.com/food-philosophy
A local northeast restaurant chain with a commitment to supporting local growers and producers.
I’m reminded of my grandma’s pat reply when I ask her how things are going, “Slow but sure, mostly slow.”
Slow but sure, Indeed.
Patricia MoonRose
Where I live it is becoming more and more biker friendly; that is, more options for bikers, not necessarily cars liking us and respecting us on the roads! That’s another obstacle altogther. We even have a self-service bike rental program with kiosks at major public rail transportation points (https://www.smartbikedc.com/program_information.asp). Importantly, we have an incredible non-profit WABA.org that advocates and promotes bicycling and has a really healthy relationship with the DC government, so progress has been made and biking’s popularity is increasing. It’s great to see.
Thanks for the post, Fe, and I appreciated all comments as well.
Patricia MoonRose
Thank you Fe for your excellent reporting of this sickening convoluted bureaucratic shit.
On a different but related note, This prayer has been circulating around. I felt the need to share it here on PW for those who may not have experienced it…
Prayer for the Gulf from Emoto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-282Xnd4wYw&feature=player_embedded
blessings
from ‘seize bp’:
http://www.pephost.org/site/News2?news_iv_ctrl=-1&page=NewsArticle&id=9647
good video from the ground in LA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRl6-o8CpXA
As for business analysts being happy that they’ve “capped” BP’s liability, I heard the same reporton the news last night. This is what it really means.
BP’s stocks were going down because BP had no plan to address the liability caused by the spill, which negated the company’s prospects for rebound and recovery so that it COULD pay for the damages now and in the future. By having a plan, to address the damage from the spill, no matter how expensive, it can guarantee its survival for the coming years.
They’re going to have to clean up their act, but there is now less stockholder risk because of this commitment, and that’s where I think there’s confusion. The cap is not on the amount, but on the RISK.
The point of this article was that in order for the country and the people affected to be made whole, the US government has to allow BP to live–live in financial hell but live. So that they CAN pay up.
$3-5B a year out of an anticipated $20B in yearly assets is 25% of their profits for the coming five years. With more coming from separate funds for livelihood and health. The escrow agreement is being run by the same guy who administered recompense of the fund to the survivors of the victims of 9-11, and watchdogging CEO salaries under the TARP program. Here is the bio in wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Feinberg
fluidity:
Here’s your facts.
1) The $20 billion is a down payment. And not the end all, becase the damages are still being assessed. It will be made available as the fund is deposited by BP while it recovers. The money will include this year’s dividend to shareholders, anticipated at $2+ billion.
2) $100 million is already being set aside, outside of the escrow account, to give the oil workers who are now unemployed because of the six-month moratorium on oil drilling financial relief. Payable immediately.
3) $500 million is also being set aside, outside of the escrow account, payable immediately to address health concerns of residents affected by the spill. That too, will also increase as complaints come in, most likely for years to come, whenever and after the clean up.
The funds in question will address the businesses that have been affected by the spill, and even the gulf coast residents said that the President has heard exactly what they needed and got it for them.
And as the President said, this is not the be all and end all. And there is no cap.
Just where did you get your analysis from? Can you provide a link?
i was reading an article that analyzed this ’20 billion escrow account’
turns out BP only puts in $5 billion this year, then works out the rest over the next 3-4 years
ie for everyone who is feeling the economic hardship NOW, b/c their livelihood just got tarballed, most of the money won’t be available for a couple years … and that’s only if you are accepted as ‘legitimate’
funny, is this whole disaster only worth $20 billion dollars? i guess that’s what happens when we let people like Obama and the BP president negotiate what they feel is fair … and when our economic system doesn’t measure ‘externalities’ like the environment
business analysts are happy cause this has ‘capped’ the BP financial liability, they’re ready to reinvest in BP now … sure they (the presidents) say this isn’t a limit, but guess what .. this is all they’re planning for the next four years, and no charges have been laid
sad sad sad
yeti:
Our culture needs a new definition of “sexy” that includes riding a bike instead of a car, grows vegetables instead of ordering them shipped air freight, and walking to the store instead of driving to the mall.
The first turn of the wheel towards transition needs to be cultural–artistic, musical, culinary, visual. Maybe a “Local-mania” festival is in order. Everything homegrown (less than 50 miles away).
wandering,
I have to LOL…..a street near my home was just re-striped to take it down to one lane of traffic, and a bike-lane painted in on the side. Only problem is, no one uses that street for cross-town biking – there is a really amazing cross-town bike path a couple of streets up.
Apparently city-counsel decided that if they painted bike lanes then kids could ride their bikes to school.
Only kids don’t ride their bikes to school – most get dropped by mom or dad on the way to work, then the kids walk home. The kids that ride bikes use residential streets, not a main traffic through-fare.
So now all the traffic is constrantly backed up blocks and blocks leaving more congestion and more fumes in the air becuase everyone’s on the road longer with engines running.
So adding to your comment – a poorly planned idea can contribute more to the problem than a solution. Intellegent planning and TALKING TO PEOPLE IN THE COMMUNITY are imperative to intellegent change/s fer sure.
Fe: I hear ya about LA. There’s a 2+ week bike festival in my hometown PDX called Pedalpalooza going on and there’s a group of people from LA who are part of a collective called the Midnight Ridazz. While on a night time ride with them last night I overheard many of them bedazzled by the courtesy of Portland motorists, saying that in LA you have to ride bold cause if you give an inch the motorists in that city will take a mile and pass you even if it means running you off the road. I guess the only silver lining here is that the more oil people burn, the faster it will run out. I don’t think anything other than oil becoming too expensive for middle class Americans to afford is going to get those kind of motorists to stop driving.
But then so many people are moving here to the Willamette Valley to escape the insanity elsewhere that if it continues (around 40,000 every year) this place will be as crowded as LA. Who knows? Maybe the next eclipses will spark a large enough social revolution to shut down some freeways with a posse of bikes. We need something…if Portland is the only city going out of its way to make room for cyclists in America we’re all fucked. If only the angry motorists would slow down enough to consider how much they have to work and slave to maintain a car habit, to realize that it’s the cars, not the bikes generating so much frustration. Oh well, dream on, eh? Maybe we need a posse of Portland cyclists to go down to LA to swell the ranks of the Midnight Ridazz and take over a couple of lanes of one of their obnoxious freeways…or I guess that might just piss people off. I don’t know…
phall:
Thanks for the link.
America – We Love our Political Theater!!
And, then there was Diane Wilson protesting at the hearings today.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20008030-503544.html
Len:
Wow. Just. Wow.
Fe,
Good question. i believe it is something else. More like a spirit being broken.
Len:
Are you talking “Stockholm Syndrome” or something else?
Rep Barton’s apology is pathetic but not without precedent, please remember:
(1) The CEO of the Mattel Toy Corporation apologized to CHINA because the toys made in China were contiminated with lead and cadmium.
(2) The guy that Dick Cheney shot (and nearly killed) made a public apology for being in the way of Cheney’s shotgun.
This is a power-over thing, folks.
cmassey:
I know what you’re talking about. That this level of ignorance is paraded as policy debate is beyond comprehension.
But maybe that’s because we have people living in bubbles of isolated reality–economically, geographically, and politically–or perhaps political affiliation is defined by the level of isolation.
We’re also losing grip on historical precedence, and let’s face it, people don’t read as well anymore, if at all. And what kids are given to read in school — if parents don’t encourage broader ranges of view– doesn’t provide good facts or facts at all, for that matter. That we are arguing whether or not evolution or global warming exists is appalling.
Since I’m unemployed and have time on my hands (lots!), I’ve been watching the BP hearings.
The Barton (R-TX) debacle was truly appalling and I genuinely hope the GOP pays the price for it in Nov. (Of course, the GOP can only pay a price for it if the Dems hammer them on it constantly. The powder is dry already!)
I was quite happy that a Republican FL congressperson rightfully slammed Barton. That plus other GOP stupidity makes me wonder if the country is fracturing in different ways than other north v. south, blue v. red, Dem. v. Rep., etc. In today’s hearings it seemed to me that there was a contingency of Deep South reps. that focused on the idea that the gusher was actually the fault of the government. I’m wondering if the pundits are now reconfiguring how many seats the GOP is likely to pick up in Nov….
Fe,
Ya. Even here in “small” Burbank the lack of integrated city planning (and lack of considering what residents actually want or would find useful) is astonishing.
I could go on for page and pages and pages….
This is one of those small urban environments that could so easily serve as an example or master plan of “what a modest middle-class working community urban place” COULD be.
Maybe we will yet rise to the occasion.
Brendan,
There’s the MetroLink (http://www.metro.net/) a combo of “subway” below and above ground transit – co-usage with Amtrack lines to further areas. Still mostly cumbersome, not identifying with most people’s perceived needs – especially becausue walking is not prescribed in LA (Fe’s story!) and distances are so great — small electric shuttles are one form of addition needed for example. ….but the metro is definitely used and big commute difference for many people.
Brendan:
The Brits should know from history what the stockade is about. We brought it with us here in the colonies.
And the stockade, this Congressional one at least, is a ritual in politics. You need to have public flogging to make “the mob” feel they are getting justice, which is why Rep. Barton’s apology to Hayward for the $20 billion dollar “shakedown” was beyond comprehension, and an embarassment to his party–the GOP (of course).
You know, my dream is for SoCal to set up a raised platform — a new meridian along the 405, with footbridges to various exits, for either bicycles or an electrical rail like we have here with BART.
aword– is there light rail happening in Southern California?
Hi Fe! Wonderful article as always.
I say bring back the Pacific Electric red cars! LA once had the most extensive system of streetcars and interurban railways in the country, all powered by electricity. Most of the Pacific Electric system right-of-ways were taken over for the freeways…a bad trade in my opinion.
I’m listening to the BBC as I usually do most mornings when I have the chance. Folks over there are upset that a Congressional hearing is such a “gotcha” event, that Slick Tony is being made out to be such a bad guy. Callers to the talk-in show have been commenting how emotional it all is (the hearing was on BBC TV), where is the balance they want to know?
If it were Chevron despoiling the North Sea coastline to anywhere near the same degree, they’d be screaming too, methinks.
Our paradigm for the planet needs to change for the better.
Len:
The only way these guys who call us “little people” can feel it is in their pocketbooks. So no more luxury vacations in the South of France with the family–at least not this year.
Mr. Hayward was a good sacrificial lamb in the public stockade today in Congress. Now–to make the tethers stay on — that’s the trick.
aword:
L.A. – all we can do is shake our heads. I love it. It is a great city, and can be even greater if there is some “locality” built into the mix. Great produce is within 100 miles, and if and when new developments rise up, perhaps some better planning so that people don’t have to drive over the Grapevine to go grocery shopping?
You can’t turn LA over overnight, but maybe some timed lights on Olympic and some crosswalks would be a nice start? Just sayin’…
Fe,
Really great piece – title and all. Really great.
Your crosswalk story clicks with my being stopped by the police because I was walking. And Burbank HAS crosswalks. Maybe they’re for the birds. Or to keep the petrol flowing.
xo
Fe,
Love it! Thank you for all the work that went into this well-reasoned and well-researched article. Yes, we have some work to do, that’s true. Given the “little people” comment by BP’s CEO yesterday, one is left wondering whether some will continue to to feel exempt from the human race and what can be done about that.