The recent one-sided discussions about the City Council and La Cañada Flintridge generally resisting “inclusion” are replete with hyperbole, generalities and platitudes and very short on reasonable analysis.
For example, to suggest that the manner in which the Sheriff’s Department responded to an incident in which “no crime was committed” somehow reflects poorly on LCF is ridiculous. A one-off complaint against the Sheriff’s Department does not demonstrate or establish any sort of policy or practice in LCF itself; the city did not dictate to the sheriff how that particular incident was to be investigated or resolved.
Similar broad-brush attacks against the city for “race-based rejection of new neighbors,” “a history of … racial policies,” and “our … unyielding doctrine of exclusion” are almost laughable, given their lack of real-time specifics. Most of these attacks appear to be based on old, restrictive real estate covenants — that have not been enforced in the U.S. since 1948.
Not a single incident of race-based “exclusion” in a real estate transaction is referred to in this recent barrage of virtue-signaling. Similarly, not a single “racial policy” adopted by the City Council is referred to in any of the recent tirades leveled against the city. What, exactly, is LCF’s “unyielding doctrine of exclusion” and who is being excluded? LCF is hardly a homogenous community of “white folk” these days; judging from the school population, the community becomes more “diverse” every year.
Two final thoughts: (1) I am not “embarrassed” to live in LC rather than in France. France bans students from wearing abayas and hijabs in its schools — how “inclusive” is that? (2) I am not “embarrassed” by the fact that LCF was badmouthed in commentary from The L.A. Times. The L.A. Times itself has become a journalistic embarrassment, so I am not concerned about anything that publication may write about LCF. The City Council certainly should not be making policy decisions with an eye on how the Times might react.
Glen Mertens
La Cañada Flintridge
First published in the September 28 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
