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| Government Corruption | ||
| Someone Just Wanted a Weenie Roast | ||
| 2023-11-16 | ||
[PJMedia] Some decisions are so negligent and with consequences so predictably disastrous that only a Big Stupid Government could ever make them. Over the weekend, a massive fire under I-10 at E. 14th Ave. in Los Angeles was severe enough to cause structural damage bad enough to close that section of the freeway "indefinitely."
With more than 300,000 vehicles being rerouted each and every day until further notice, frustrated Los Angelenos demanded answers — and, on Tuesday, they got one. "Bad actors" caused the fire, according to State Fire Marshal Daniel Berlant. Or "Bad Luck". Some unknown arsonist is believed to have started Saturday's blaze, but that's not the "bad actor" to whom Berlant was referring. You see, the city government leases underpass space to people and companies for storage. In this case, "bad actors" filled the underpass with wooden pallets and containers of alcohol-based hand sanitizer. In my report on Monday (and at the top of this story), you can see the pallets stacked so high under the freeway that they're almost touching the underside of the elevated road. The photos were courtesy of Google Street View, so it isn't like the towers of literal kindling were some dark secret. The city is currently in a legal battle with a company called Airspace that leased the underpass storage area.
"Giving money and power to government," P.J. O'Rourke quipped, "is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys." But sometimes the situation is reversed. In this case, government gave dry wood and alcohol to vagrants. Was the I-10 fire started by a malicious arsonist or just a bored fentanyl addict? We may never know with 100% certainty, but we do know these fires are common wherever the homeless are living free range. PJ Media's own Victoria Taft reported back in March, "Fire, fire everywhere" rages all up and down the West Coast, where the homeless are treated like an endangered species. That story was just one entry in Victoria's ongoing "West Coast, Meanwhile — you're going to love this one — KTLA reported Tuesday morning: "Just days after a massive blaze destroyed part of the 10 Freeway in downtown Los Angeles, another fire broke out under a different freeway." This time, the fire appears to have started at an underpass homeless encampment near eastbound 105 and southbound 110 and then spread to nearby vegetation. Fortunately, this fire didn't have nearly as much fuel to burn and only resulted in some traffic slowdowns. But two of these fires in four days are a sure sign that LA's Big Stupid Government doesn't know how to protect the city's critical transportation infrastructure. Or maybe they just don't care. Maybe the neglect is on purpose — a stealthy way to promote the city's "road diet" to force drivers out of their cars and onto public transportation. Whether by accident or design, however, it takes a Big Stupid Government to allow anyone to store kindling and accelerant under freeway overpasses occupied by those who are negligent, drug-addicted, mentally unstable, criminal, or all four. | ||
| Posted by:Deacon Blues |
| #3 Maybe the neglect is on purpose — a stealthy way to promote the city's "road diet" to force drivers out of their cars and onto public transportation. Always a distinct possibility with people like Gov. Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass. We know these people don't like cars...er, they don't like for ordinary people to have cars. Don't expect them to give up their limos. But the public transportation in Los Angeles is totally inadequate and populated with the same kind of people who lived under the I-10 overpass. I've heard the saying "Never attribute to incompetence what could well be malice." Or is it the other way around? Anyway, the saying I like better is "Embrace the power of 'and'"...as in malice and incompetence. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2023-11-16 12:49 |
| #2 Hazmat disposal is tedious and expensive. What a great was to make it go away. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2023-11-16 11:23 |
| #1 Two of the highest priorities of government are security and infrastructure. When it fails on these, it really isn't much different than a normal criminal organization. Democracy in this case is 51% voting themselves the product and property of 49%. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2023-11-16 08:08 |