Is Los Angeles a dump??? (San Francisco, Oakland: condominiums, how much, house)

[BluSpark]

Originally Posted by nighthouse66

1) gad, no, LA is not a dump. and if you can't live in Brentwood then you better not be a pantywaist. with a tablespoon of courage you will find that some of these "horrible" places that everyone on here is moaning about are actually where alot of LA's vibrancy comes from.

2) ITS THE LOWEST CRIME RATE SINCE THE FIFTIES. don't believe the hype. they use it to sell stuff on tee-vee. television is not reality. you aren't gonna get shot when sunset turns into cesar chavez.

FYI:

1) The poster you were responding to actually lives in Brentwood, CA....a town in No. California about half way between Stockton and the San Francisco Bay. Totally understand how you got the two confused....I did the same at first.

2) Very true and that is something VERY positive to hold on to in the midst of these tough economic times!!

[BluSpark]

Originally Posted by majoun

I don't think either address the size of school districts.

Brown TRIED to take over the Oakland schools when he was mayor and unfortunately was blocked. I'll give him props for that. Unfortunately he couldn't abolish the board of education. Oakland Unified despite being smaller than LAUSD has the same problems. He did encourage more magnets and charters, but his education plan is vague.

Whitman's education plan is also vague, but IMO her ideas on education are better than Brown's (nobody expected me to say that, did they?). No cap on charters, less money for administrative expenses, and grading schools themselves are all good ideas.

However - do I think either one could actually get anything enacted? Due to the initiative process and the dysfunctional Legislature there'd be major hurdles. Brown might have a little more success due to his iconic stature, while I sense Whitman will be constantly at war with the Legislature. Even more than Arnold, more like on a Gray Davis type level. But even in Brown's case I'm skeptical of much being done. Whitman might be SLIGHTLY more likely to take action to do something about dysfunctional school districts, but I doubt she'd actually get it done. I don't think California will have a real recovery in many things until there's a new state constitution, not just economic recovery but meaningful educational reform as well.

So you are telling me there is no hope! LOL....thanks for the response just the same!

[MassVt]

LA...a dump? I've visited Los Angeles twice in the past 2 years,and when compared to various East Coast cities, the answer is an emphatic NO.

Take a trip to North Philly, or much of the city of Baltimore. You will see LA in an entirely different light.

[Lovehound]

IMO the only solution to improving the public education system is to break up large school districts and return control to the public. Unfortunately bigger school districts favor politicians who want to acquire and assert power. The bigger the district the more the power.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by Lovehound

IMO the only solution to improving the public education system is to break up large school districts and return control to the public.

We usually disagree more than agree but I'm completely in agreement with you on this one!

[415_s2k]

Originally Posted by Lovehound

IMO the only solution to improving the public education system is to break up large school districts and return control to the public. Unfortunately bigger school districts favor politicians who want to acquire and assert power. The bigger the district the more the power.

Yep, LA's public schools are a prime example of what happens when public schools take on a corporate power and funding structure. It really is amazing how dismal the state of LA Unified really is...

[mading6]

Originally Posted by sgvkev

Parts of it are a dump, like South Central, Boyle Heights, Van Nuys, North Hollywood, and Pacoima. But the whole city? That would mean Bel Air, Brentwood, Westwood, Palisades, and Hollywood Hills, very upscale areas, are a dump as well, which is ridiculous.

And honestlye what percent of the population of Los Angeles County lives in Bel Air, Brentwood, Westwood, Palisades, and Hollywood Hills???

The population of Beverly Hills in 2009 was 34,318
Population of Los Angeles County 9.8 million (2008)

[Lovehound]

Just noting I'm glad to agree with Majoun and 415_s2k (what kind of proper name is that? I don't even know what to capitalize!).

Our government is out of control, growing like cancer, and the school districts soak up amazing quantities of money and government and taxpayer resources. And what's even worse, here in California doing an exceedingly poor job. So bad that IMO we should fire all the teachers and particularly all the administrators, and start over.

[415_s2k]

Originally Posted by Lovehound

Just noting I'm glad to agree with Majoun and 415_s2k (what kind of proper name is that? I don't even know what to capitalize!).

415 = San Francisco's area code; s2k = S2000, the sort of car I drive

Our government is out of control, growing like cancer, and the school districts soak up amazing quantities of money and government and taxpayer resources.

See, I for one, would be mostly-okay with the schools soaking up taxpayer dollars if the kids got a god-damned education. If they had textbooks that weren't 20 years old and held together with tape; curriculums that made sense; enough teachers so that they could actually put a name to the face of a student whose papers they grade every day.

Do what they did at my school back in Cambridge, MA: appreciate that kids are people, and people are different. By the time you got to high school, it was generally fairly obvious where the kid's strengths and weaknesses were. If a kid was 14 and still couldn't do algebra, stop failing the poor kid because he can't figure trig out and let him focus on topics that he's got an aptitude for - he'll obviously never apply to MIT to study string theory!

Again, it's the cookie-cutter, public-ordinance-run-like-a-private-sector-for-profit-enterprise method of school administration that has turned large swaths of our nation's children - as well as people who are now adults in their twenties and even thirties - into uninquisitive underachievers who don't understand why you're not supposed to use netspeak when typing out a resume (keep in mind when I say this, I'm 26 myself...).

And what's even worse, here in California doing an exceedingly poor job. So bad that IMO we should fire all the teachers and particularly all the administrators, and start over.

At the very least, the administrators and superintendents need to be canned.

[John23]

Originally Posted by 415_s2k

Yep, LA's public schools are a prime example of what happens when public schools take on a corporate power and funding structure. It really is amazing how dismal the state of LA Unified really is...

I honestly can't believe I went to LAUSD. What an embarrassment looking back on it. I read online that jefferson high had a 58% dropout rate! Any school that has more than a 30 or 35% dropout rate should simply be closed.

I don't think a billionaire (whitman) is really interested in school reform. Has a billionaire ever done anything for public schools while in office? Its hard to see them on the side of the average student (esp in california).