I assume the guys will indeed be cutting in due course,
although not yet. Work seems to be
progressing slowly but obviously well enough that mayor of Los Angeles, Eric
Garcetti just held a press conference up at the other end of the street to celebrate the fine work
the lads were doing, here and elsewhere and to announce a new General Manager for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, David
Wright. That’s him on the left, and for
out of towners, that’s Garcetti on the right, looking mayoral.
I walked up there to see what was going on. It wasn’t exactly a media circus but a fair amount of
press was in attendance, as well as some political flunkies and people from the
LADWP, and of course the guys doing the work. I think it was also meant to be a great photo op: a large pipe being lowered into a hole, but in the end I think it
probably wasn’t as visual as they’d hoped.
As far as I could see there were only about three
people there who actually lived in the neighborhood – and being one of them, I found
myself being interviewed by a local TV station, I couldn’t tell you which
one. If I’d known, I’d probably have
washed my hair. Anyway I think I said all
the right things: there had been many leaks, many cracks in the road, the whole
area was subject to subterranean movement, the men doing the work were a great
bunch of guys and so forth.
Final question from the interviewer, “And do you do
any walking in the neighborhood?”
“Honey, I’m the author a book titled The Lost Art of Walking, and I write a blog ...”
I’m not sure she was actually impressed by this, but nevertheless
I was then filmed walking down the road trying to look natural. I kind of hope I never see it.
At one point the mayor held up a map, which is always good:
And for a substantial amount of time, he stood next to
the LADWP mascot – a man in a foam rubber costume shaped like a drop of
water. The magic of Hollywood.
