Word: civics
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...explosive questions -- Why are taxes so high? Why doesn't government work? How did things get so bad? -- that tap into the deep vein of discontent running through America today. Parliament of Whores may not spark a revolution, but it is one of the few books on civic affairs worth reading from cover to cover...
...there was the Workingmen's Movement, pitted against the evils of "kingcraft, priestcraft and lawyercraft." That fed into the abolition movement, which in turn helped launch the women's suffrage movement in 1848. Near the turn of the century, there was the middle-class Progressive Movement for civic reform and a near insurrection by the new industrial working class. In our own time we've seen fresh rebellions on behalf of minority rights, women's rights, peace and disarmament, and gay rights...
...that the Mob remains very efficient at ironing out labor disputes. In 1986, for example, local Teamster officials brought a beef to former Philadelphia mobster Nicholas ("the Crow") Caramandi. The officials, Caramandi recalls today, were upset because a Laborers Union local was monopolizing certain work at Philadelphia's Civic Center. The Mob warned the Laborers to back off, and they did. "If they don't listen, you might have to whack ((execute)) them, maybe throw someone out a window," explains Caramandi, who has since entered the Federal Witness Protection Program...
...police responded whenever an alarm shrieked wolf, they would waste time and taxpayers' money, and dull their own crime-fighting reflexes. The endless ululations of alarms in big cities fray people's nerves, inure them to noise and, on a deeper level, undermine their civic morale, their subliminal expectations. Crime, no crime -- the distinction vanishes in undifferentiated wailing and rage. The machine screams. The quality of life within earshot dies a little more...
...what is Los Angeles doing to counter the antagonism? For one thing, a recently reorganized convention and visitors bureau will soon start an aggressive $10 million-a-year campaign to "market" the city. Civic leaders led by Mayor Tom Bradley have stepped up their travel abroad to promote the Los Angeles area's position as the country's busiest port, second largest financial center (after New York City) and gateway to the Pacific Rim. Mainly, though, L.A.'s boosters are counting on the very factor that makes the city an object of scorn: the expansive growth that makes it possible...