If you were mayor or cali governor how would you fix LA (Los Angeles: sales, rent)

[casharistocrat]

If i could be mayor (with alot more power than most mayors) I would work to fix LA by
making firearms legal for citizens to carry with a permit (which in california is almos impossible to get) that way citizens could shoot hoodlums if the police are not around to do it for them.A robber might think twice if he knows he may get killed committing a crime.

Tear down dumpy areas let developers build mixed housing

increase LA police force to New York levels and put them in neighborhood stations so they never leave 24 hours a day.

Let more charter schools open to break the corruption of the teachers unions in our schools.They are failing our kids.

what would you do if you were the mayor and had the power to fix what is wrong with LA

[ConsideringLA]

Break out the San Fernando Valley into its own city. That would hurt tax revenues for LA but fix much of the Valley, benefiting the 2M people there. I would also roll back Special Order 40 and give the police the power to do their jobs.

[streetscenes]

Originally Posted by casharistocrat

If i could be mayor (with alot more power than most mayors) I would work to fix LA by
making firearms legal for citizens to carry with a permit (which in california is almos impossible to get) that way citizens could shoot hoodlums if the police are not around to do it for them.A robber might think twice if he knows he may get killed committing a crime.

Guns, guns, guns. That will solve it. Only that will do is put my innocent bystander a$$ in harms way. Honestly, how many times have you see an actual "hoodlum" commiting a crime and said to yourself "If only I had my gun and could shoot that person"?

Originally Posted by casharistocrat

Tear down dumpy areas let developers build mixed housing

Already happening. Biggest problem is where do the people already living in these "dumpy areas" go (and don't say back to Mexico, way to easy).

Originally Posted by casharistocrat

increase LA police force to New York levels and put them in neighborhood stations so they never leave 24 hours a day.

Who's going to pay for this. They have been trying to increase police force numbers for years, with some success.

So what would I do. Increase funding and accelerate the construction of subway and light rail lines throughout the city and region. Use my clout to ensure that this mass transit extends into the neighboring regions. Encourage development of higher density, mixed use properties along transit corridors. That's a start...

[LaoTzuMindFu]

LA Doesnt need "fixing" because it isnt broken. If you want some actual REAL ideas that could help then read on. But if you want to hear some outlandish unrealistic crap to deal with problems that obviously bother YOU (that seems to revolve around Mexicans/Immigrants) then stop here. But there are some things that could be done to further improve LA and I do have some ideas. For any of you who have actually had to work with budget, you know that it means sacrificing in some areas, to make improvements in others.

Here are my ideas:

1. Increase sales tax from 8.25% to 8.5% - This will increase revenue that could be used elsewhere.
2. Require undocumented immigrants to pay upfront for any emergency medical services rendered. The burden of caring for undocumented immigrants medical care has resulted in the closure of several of LAs emergency rooms.
3. Offer tax breaks and other financial incentives to developers to build mixed use joint residential and retail developments in economically challenged areas. But require them to guarantee space for those displaced when construction begins by offering low rent units in addition to higher rent and condo spaces.
4. Offer businesses (Starbucks, Sport Chalet, Target, Best Buy, etc.) similar incentives as well to move into these developed projects.
5. Require that all students who are not LA residents to pay a city fee to attend any any LA county, UC or private university. This fee will be payable to the school who will in turn pay to city of LA.
6. Offer a "lottery" system where students who live outside of the zone for certain "better performing" LAUSD schools would have a chance to attend those schools. Require parents to pay a fee (TBD $200 $500?) directly to LAUSD if student is randomly picked in lottery system to be able to attend that school.
7. Increase the fee for driving while using hand held cell phone to $250.

These are just a few ideas off the top of my head that could help improve our great city. There are other ideas as well to help lure additional businesses but those require State resources and not city resources.

[LaoTzuMindFu]

Originally Posted by casharistocrat

If i could be mayor (with alot more power than most mayors) I would work to fix LA by
making firearms legal for citizens to carry with a permit (which in california is almos impossible to get) that way citizens could shoot hoodlums if the police are not around to do it for them.A robber might think twice if he knows he may get killed committing a crime.

I have long been a supporter of concealed carry permits in Los Angeles. I like this idea but here is how it could work:

1. For those wishing to apply for CCP, have fee of $200 (or more) for initial application processing.
2. Processing will include background check (credit, criminal, education, employment). We dont want high school drop outs walking around with guns do we? Will also ensure that there is no history of gang/criminal/terrorist affilitions as well and will also make sure that no one with this background resides in the same home as applicant. Terrorist affilitions would be neo nazi/skinhead/white supremist type org.
3. If application process is complete/approved. Applicant must complete thorough handgun training that consists of classroom and range curriculum. Allow local federally licensed gun stores and shooting ranges to teach classes and require applicants to pay $500 fee to enroll in class. Training facilities (gun range, gun store) gets portion of this fee. Other goes to the city.
4. Once training is complete, applicant must pay to receive their license. Fee for actual license would be $1500 - $2000 with annual renewal fees of $250.

Fingerprinting of applicants in registration (including make, type, caliber, serial number, magazine capacity) of specific gun applicant will be carrying will be required.

[Merino1437]

Theres train tracks under many of the current roads. I would uncover them and get trains running all over the city. Nobody likes taking the bus because it takes just as long as driving if not longer.

[streetscenes]

Originally Posted by DaBeez

I have long been a supporter of concealed carry permits in Los Angeles. I like this idea but here is how it could work:

1. For those wishing to apply for CCP, have fee of $200 (or more) for initial application processing.
2. Processing will include background check (credit, criminal, education, employment). We dont want high school drop outs walking around with guns do we? Will also ensure that there is no history of gang/criminal/terrorist affilitions as well and will also make sure that no one with this background resides in the same home as applicant. Terrorist affilitions would be neo nazi/skinhead/white supremist type org.
3. If application process is complete/approved. Applicant must complete thorough handgun training that consists of classroom and range curriculum. Allow local federally licensed gun stores and shooting ranges to teach classes and require applicants to pay $500 fee to enroll in class. Training facilities (gun range, gun store) gets portion of this fee. Other goes to the city.
4. Once training is complete, applicant must pay to receive their license. Fee for actual license would be $1500 - $2000 with annual renewal fees of $250.

Fingerprinting of applicants in registration (including make, type, caliber, serial number, magazine capacity) of specific gun applicant will be carrying will be required.

Anaheim officer mistakenly kills man on his front lawn - Los Angeles Times

A well trained (presumably) police officer in Anaheim kills an innocent man trying to protect their house with a broom stick. How many times would this type of tragedy be multiplied if we let civilians carry concealed handguns? Is this really a solution to anything?

[ebuch]

Originally Posted by streetscenes

Anaheim officer mistakenly kills man on his front lawn - Los Angeles Times

A well trained (presumably) police officer in Anaheim kills an innocent man trying to protect their house with a broom stick. How many times would this type of tragedy be multiplied if we let civilians carry concealed handguns? Is this really a solution to anything?

Mistakes will probably happen, but gangbangers and skells aren't worried about carrying a deadly weapon and have no respect for any gun laws, so I'd take my chances, luckily I won't have to worry about this issue anyway since I will be LE hopefully very soon.

[the one]

one issue or FIX in LA that should be addressed is the traffic problem. its polluting, its time consuming, its a drain. how do we fix that?

better public trans. more rapid buses. less bus stops. i hate certain regular lines that stop every block! people should be able to walk 2 blocks to a stop. its ridiculous how often some buses stop. we also need more rail. city core rail. within a 7 to 10 mile radius of downtown. make loops. then from there work out towards a regional system of bigger loops in the valleys (SFV and SGV).

crime also needs to be addressed. more concealed weapons wont really help. that will just put more guns on the streets. guns that can potentially be sold for profit or stolen. LAPD, LASD, and other jurisdications are tryin to hire as many cops as possible. but the money is still lacking. one way to stem crime is to go after gangs and their affiliates. it is currently being done by injunctions (which some might argue only cause gangs to relocate) and by targetted sweeps (think recent mongol arrests). i really think a lot of people see the job of being a cop in LA as too difficult. this is the place that birthed the "F the police" mentality. cops get very little respect. once we address that issue and the issue of gangs, we might see a greater decrease in crime.

those are just two things.

otherwise i dont think LA needs that much fixing. if i did, I WOULD HAVE MOVED BY NOW!!!

LA IS GREAT!!!

[AlmightyZeus]

L.A. is not a broken city.

With that said, I'd lower business tax to bring business BACK into the city and keep the little business that we do have here.

Install a stock exchange in L.A. We have one of the largest financial sectors in North America (I think we're number 5 or 6, after cities such as NYC, Toronto and Chicago) so being a financial center in the biggest state in the U.S. would make sense for the biggest city in the biggest state.

Place emphasis to become a hub for technology much like Tokyo and the Silicon Valley. (Although that may be a little difficult, especially competing with the S.F. Bay Area/Silicon Valley in that regard)

Clean our shores in some of our dirtier beaches and get rid of the breakwater in Long Beach in order to increase general tourism in L.A. County. Let's bring back the beaches from L.A.'s past, teeming with beach goers that confirm the rich beach culture that L.A. is known for.

And finally, improve public transit by putting an emphasis on nothing less than subway trains, bring 2 football teams back into the city, and somehow be able to host the Olympics again.

Oh yeah, and I'd legalize marijuana. We'd eliminate the national debt in a decade if we can manage to get it legalized due to the profit we'd generate.