Hey Buddy, you got a permit for that work of art? The City of LA puts the smack down on street murals.
October 2005 | Whole Life News
No Pseudo-Hybrids In the Cool Kids’ Lane
Buying an inflatable doll isn’t the only way to drive solo in the HOV lane these days. A new state law welcomes hybrid vehicles into the coveted fast lane—that is, unless they’re pseudo-hybrids.
Unlike true hybrids, pseudo-hybrids only use their electric motors for better acceleration and one or two other power-enhancing functions, rather than the host of gasoline-curbing functions for which they’re intended—such as providing power assistance to the engine and running the car at idle.
The new national law regarding hybrids in the carpool lane makes no distinction between hybrid vehicles, but as usual, California was feeling ambitious. The state upped the federal standards, permitting only hybrids that get over 45 miles to the gallon. That’s great news for the Toyota Prius, Honda Civic and Honda Insight. In fact, it has allowed California car dealers to increase their prices for the three models. But a few other hybrids are conspicuously absent from the guest list: Ford Escape, Toyota Highlander, Honda Accord and Lexus RX 400h.
But the pseudo-hybrids might not be pouting for too long—critics have suggested that the new rules will just clog up the carpool lane, rendering the special carpool-lane stickers useless. Either way, as you whiz by traffic in your new Prius, you might want to keep an eye out for brake lights. —Andi McDaniel
Santa Monica Sues Bush Boys
Why doesn’t someone sue the Bush administration for exacerbating global warming? As implausible as that premise sounds, a determined group of someones have actually done just that. Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth (FOE) and San Francisco’s Bluewater Network (newly merged with FOE) have linked legal arms with the cities of Santa Monica, Oakland, Arcata and Boulder, Colorado, in an attempt to hold the Good Oil Boys accountable for pumping the atmosphere full of global warming pollution.
The co-plaintiffs in this historic challenge include a coral reef biologist, a retired couple whose coastal home is threatened by rising seas and a Vermont sugar maple producer who’s seen his syrup supplies sapped by climate change. The lawsuit (three years in the making) was filed on April 29 and specifically targets the Export-Import Bank and OPIC, two government programs that give billions of tax-dollars to help oil companies build pipelines overseas. These projects are estimated to be responsible for producing 8 percent of the pollution driving the Greenhouse Effect.
“Climate change is messing with the entire planet,” says Randy Hayes, Oakland’s Director of Sustainability. Hayes hopes that the lawsuit will “force the government to start taking responsibility for funding dirty energy projects that cause global warming. The US has to be not the leader, but an equal partner on this planet.” Whether or not the suit succeeds, the emergence of this unprecedented eco-municipal coalition clearly foreshadows the emergence of a new political power bloc. For more info, see climatelawsuit.org. —Gar Smith
Bombs Away LA
Here’s one for the ACLU : as reported recently in the Los Angeles Times, the city of LA has started cracking down on property owners who let graffiti artists put up murals without government permits.
City inspectors ordered a Boyle Heights radiator shop owner to whitewash the mural of Cantinflas and other Latino characters that he’d paid a tagger $300 to throw up as a barrier to uglier, brain-dead, artless scrawls that tagging crews were leaving on his building.
The goal of the enforcement program—apparently set up by Mayor Villaraigosa during his 15 minutes as a councilman—is to keep graffiti in check by ensuring that murals are done only by city-approved artists.
The effect is—of course—doubly troublesome. For one thing, it’s constitutionally indefensible—it amounts to the enforcement of state-sponsored art on private property. The fact that the city can’t let property owners separate vandalism from art on their own—and act accordingly—is going to land them in court over this before long.
For another, once word hits the neighborhood, it’s likely the tagging crews will give a rousing “f@ck dat” to the code of the streets that says murals are untouchable—and happily start defacing all murals, whether they’re publicly sanctioned or not.
In a city with an estimated 2,500 spraybomb and paintbrush murals ranging from R. Cronk’s trompe l’oeil fantasies (at westland.net/venice/art/cronk/index) to the epic Great Wall of Los Angeles (at sparcmurals.org), this is pretty much asking for a wall-to-wall redecorating project carried out on an open-air art gallery by toddlers with crayons. The murals are the only thing keeping the city from drowning in kiddie tags as it is.
But in a city with a vibrant freestyle graffiti culture that runs more like a brawling Marrakesh soukh than the obedient Singapore business district that Villaraigosa’s program assumes, the LA city government is likely to find itself bludgeoned smartly in 90 seconds flat with its own blunt instrument. —Mark Reed, LAVoice.org
A Dark Day For California
By now you may have heard of the grim fate of the Million Solar Roofs bill, the enlightened legislation, championed by leaders on both sides of the political spectrum, that would have made California the world’s number one solar energy market. Back in August, WLT exuberantly reported that the bill had become “a shining example of bipartisan compromise,” breezing through the Senate with a 30 to 5 June vote. But disappointingly, after a particularly nasty bout of partisan politicking in the California Assembly, Million Solar Roofs fizzled in the final hour. The derailing contention was the list of Democrat-sponsored provisions that would have required workers on large commercial solar installations to be paid union-level prevailing wages. Many Republicans said the provisions would be too costly, and Gov. Schwarzenegger vowed to veto the bill unless they were changed.
While solar energy-advocates are expectedly bummed, all is not doom and gloom. Writes David Hochschild, Director of Policy for the Vote Solar Initiative. “Despite this legislative failure, the Million Solar Roofs program is nevertheless poised to become a policy success.” Hochschild is referring to the state’s Public Utilities Commission, which is expected to implement aspects of the Million Solar Roofs plan.
And in a quieter victory for solar advocates, lawmakers did manage to pass the landmark Solar Low Income Housing Development bill, to establish a loan fund to help offset the cost of solar energy systems on affordable housing developments. Pending Ah-nold’s signah-ture, this bill will take effect in 2006. —Eliza Thomas
Thirsty For Environmental Justice
While most of us think of clean drinking water as a basic human right, a recent report issued by the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water claims that low-income communities and people of color in California often live in the pathway of polluted waterways.
The 134-page report, titled “Thirsty for Justice", cited numerous case studies of low-income communities, especially in the San Joaquin Valley, that are at the mercy of “politically motivated mismanagement of resources.” Wells tested in 2001 in Raisin City, a rural town of 165 residents southwest of Fresno, revealed unsafe levels of carcinogens including the pesticide dibromochloropropane (DBCP) and uranium, the report said.
The coalition is a network of more than 50 grassroots organizations whose members seek greater impact in their community’s water policy decision making. To download the coalition’s report, visit ejcw.org/our_work/blueprint.html. —Judy Seckler
Animals Gone Rewild
Tired of getting your wildlife fix from the Discovery Channel? Despair no longer—you could soon be a mere road trip away from what some are calling “Pleistocene Park”—your very own North American safari, complete with cheetas, elephants and camels. A recent proposal in Nature journal by conservation scientists calls for a “rewilding” of the Great Plains, arguing that with the increased exodus of people from the region, it’s time we repopulate the plains with modern relatives of the beasts that roamed there 13,000 years ago. This could help restore the grasslands and save large animals in crowded overseas reserves from extinction, the ecologists insist. But dubious critics cite the possibility of invasive species and disease, and aren’t real keen on welcoming people-unfriendly predators, such as lions, to the neighborhood. —Lavinia Spalding
Toxic Chemicals: It’s What’s Inside You that Counts
What do humans and three-eyed frogs have in common? You guessed it—toxic chemical exposure. According to “Taking It All In,” a study released recently by the health and environmental research organization Commonweal, the average Californian may harbor an alarming number of chemical contaminants. The study, produced with the Breast Cancer Fund, used sophisticated new biomonitoring technology to examine hair, urine and blood samples from 11 Californians from diverse backgrounds.
They found more than a few unfriendly substances—including toxins associated with non-stick cookware, plastic water bottles, body care products and stain-resisters. It’s not the first time scientists have gone looking for contaminants in the human body—but only recently have they been able to detect the chemicals at such low levels. The full report is available at commonweal.org/programs/brc/index.html
Critics of the study point out that there is not yet evidence that chemicals at such low levels are a legitimate health concern. Then again, less than 10 percent of chemicals used in the US have been tested for their effects on human health.
If you’re looking for an opportunity to test your own toxicity—now may be your chance. Senate Bill 600, currently awaiting the Gov’s approval, introduces statewide, voluntary testing of chemical contaminants. But sorry, frogs—it’s for humans only. —AM
You People Are Animals!
What do you get when you put eight near-naked humans in the London Zoo for three days? Exposure. Which was precisely the zoos’ intention—to convey the message that people are primates, too. Wearing fake fig leaves, the volunteers—five men and three women—were treated just like the other animals, albeit kept entertained with hula hoops, paints, games and music. Oh yeah, and, unlike the rest of their caged counterparts, they were also allowed to go home at the end of each day. —LS
It’s Bush’s Second Term: Do You Know Where Your National Parks Are?
For most people, national parks are a welcome refuge from that nagging modern question: Can you hear me now? But that may be about to change. A proposal by Bush-appointed deputy assistant interior secretary Paul Hoffman would revise National Park Service (NPS) policy to allow cell phone towers, reduce air quality standards, permit more mining and grazing and allow more snowmobiling and off-roading. The Department of the Interior is calling it an effort at dialogue—NPS employees are calling it an outrage. A campaign to block the changes is being led by The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees; find out more at npsretirees.org. —AM
Fluoride Lays an Egg
Fluoride in drinking water, long touted as a panacea for tooth decay, has now been linked to greater cancer risk. The new findings have motivated about 7,000 workers at the US Environmental Protection Agency, representing 11 unions, to push the EPA to halt drinking water fluoridation programs nationwide.
At the heart of the controversy is an alleged cover up by Chester Douglass, a Harvard professor of Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology, whose seven-year study found no significant difference in fluoridated water drinking patients and non-fluoridated water drinking patients in increasing the risk of having osteosarcoma or bone cancer.
Yet, Elise Basin, one of Douglass’ doctoral students, used some of the same subjects from his study in her thesis and reported the opposite: Boys who drank fluoridated water were found to be at increased risk of fatal bone cancer.
Douglass has drawn criticism from the Environmental Working Group for serving as editor-in-chief of a quarterly newsletter produced by the Colgate-Palmolive Co., manufacturers of fluoridated toothpaste. The EWG filed an ethics complaint against him.
In WLT’s April issue, “The Fluoride Factor” cited additional symptoms linked to fluoride toxicity such as hyperactivity in children, dental fluorosis or mottled teeth and a role in thyroid dysfunction. Find more info or contact a congress member at fluo ridealert.org. —JS
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