Has our freshly Chicagoized L.A. Times really forgotten which new century we‘re in? In June and July, columnists James Ricci and Steve Lopez cascaded blame for all California’s problems upon the immigrant population. Suddenly, we found ourselves back in the foreigner-bashing, night-riding days of the early 1900s.Then last Thursday, our Times sought to raise the ghost of William Mulholland in the grand old cause of Southland Water Imperialism. His circa-1900 dogma held that, to slake Los Angeles‘ limitless thirst, no environmental disaster is too great to inflict somewhere else.This was the rationale under which Los Angeles turned the bountiful Owens Valley into a high-desert dust bowl nearly a century ago. Now you can argue (as I myself have) that what’s done is done and can‘t be undone: Abundant water for 3 million people, plus a great movie like Chinatown, were nearly worth the trade-off.
Source: Imperial Times | L.A. Weekly