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And these are farmers who have, in the last few years, sometimes EXPANDED their land holdings 20% when their groundwater was already nearly gone. If you drive north from L.A. into farm country, you see billboard after another posted along the highway bitching about how the water shortage is politicans' fault. L.A. consumers are punished with an offensive rate scam. Water (and electricity) usage are billed for at tiered rates, which isn't surprising. If you use a lot of either one at any given time, you may cross the threshold into a higher tier. Water in higher tiers costs more, which is fine. The BS is that if you have a spike in usage (a leak, even) that puts you in a higher tier on ONE bill, LADWP will wait until the following January and then rip you off with higher rates and "access fees" for a FULL YEAR. You'll still be punished up to two years after a one-time spike in use. Then of course we have corrupt and potentially disastrous legislation like SB 9 & 10, which outlaws single-family zoning and allows the construction of up to 10 units where a single house formerly stood... with no review or approval required. Because it's at the state level, it supersedes any local attempt to stop it (which it specifically outlaws anyway). This giveaway to developers is, of course, done with vague lies about "helping the homeless" or "affordable" housing and how it's our responsibility to make room for new people. WTF! We're in an epic drought with insufficient resources for the people already here, and you want to roll out the welcome mat? And in doing so, these laws encourage more paving-over of ground and the cutting down of what few trees exist in SoCal cities. Meanwhile, in dying malls, huge edifices like Macy's sit boarded up. Politicians and ignorant zealots push "high density," but attack areas that are already residential instead of fostering the conversion of disused COMMERCIAL property into residences... where the environment has already taken the hit for the density. Unreal. |