CityWatchLA - Paging City Hall: Curtain is Up at Theater of the Absurd

CityWatch, May 27, 2011
Vol 9 Issue 42

BOX SOAP - As the City of LA’s $6.9 billion budget drama played out in City Hall, it was the robust discussion of the current city staff reliance on pagers that demonstrated City Hall’s commitment to the status quo and its complete inability to move forward.

Pagers are a thing of the past, unless you arrive at TGI Friday’s during rush hour when there’s a long wait for tables. Then, and only then, is the little blinky pager/coaster an appropriate tool for communication.

The City of LA is the largest city in the most populated state in the most powerful nation in the world and yet...during the third year of a budget meltdown that continues to memorialize the evisceration of LA’s future, the City Council is somehow able to find time to discuss the merits of a paging system for city staff.

I expect better. But, more and more, the people of LA expect less and less, and that allows City Hall to lower the standard even more.

Faced with a budget crisis, embracing technology as a tool for increasing efficiencies would be a wise commitment, one that would result in a commitment to delivering city services while cutting costs.

But, a discussion of pagers by city staff during the line-by-line charade was by no stretch of the imagination an exploration of technology. It was Theatre of the Absurd!

The alphanumeric pager enjoyed a long stretch of popularity but in recent years, it was used primarily by drug dealers and doctors, then just by doctors. Even the medical profession is rebelling against the use of pagers, dispelling the mythology of electronic interference while statistically demonstrating the fallibility of the antiquated paging technology.

It’s been ten years since Forbes pronounced the pager dead, suggesting then that there might be better uses for the radio networks such as for tracking packages and vehicles by both customers and supervisors.

Imagine that! While LA department heads are fighting for the continued use of an obsolete tool, they could be tracking the city-owned vehicles that end up parked outside strip clubs or in neighboring cities filled with city staff on culinary road trips.

LA’s communications disconnect is readily apparent when there is a major crime and the number given out goes to a desktop phone that accepts messages. At a time when encouraging witnesses to come forward is most important, nothing is more discouraging than an answering machine.

LA’s inability to grab a hold of Internet Technology is demonstrated by the proliferation of city staff generated blogs and websites that are project or topic specific, an admirable workaround that demonstrates the larger failure of City Hall to develop a systemic protocol for websites, web addresses, staff training, connectivity, and interface.

While it’s admirable that the Mayor has released some YouTube videos, grabbing some street cred along the way, the LAPD can’t access YouTube which makes it hard to encourage them to take a look at the videos that may have information they need.

This fear of social media demonstrates the huge disconnect between City Hall and the real world.

During the Station Fire, the public relied on the grass roots communications network for information, learning quickly that the authorities were ill-equipped for handling information as the Brown Act hit the fan.

LA’s Emergency Management Department released pdf documents on their website with emergency bulletins containing information for the public on a regular basis, Monday through Friday, as if emergencies adhere to the traditional workweek and then take weekends off.

There are some bright shining lights in the midst of LA’s bleak communication landscape. The LA Fire Department’s Brian Humphrey was a pioneer in bringing his role as Public Information Officer to life by connecting with the public using the tools that were popular. The @LAFDtalk twitter handle is complemented by a blog, all of which give Brian, and his partners Matt Spence and Erik Scott, an audience that can connect with the Fire Department without having to look for a fax machine.

Ultimately, in the midst of a $6.9 billion dollar budget meltdown, I don’t care if city staff are using tin cans and rope, there are bigger topics to debate during the budget hearings and I fully expect those in charge to put down the sandwich and address the major budget issues.

That didn’t happen.

Instead, they discussed Yogi the Bear but failed to resolve the issue, they discussed Crossing Guard bonuses of $2 million but failed to resolve the issue, they discussed the inappropriate use of Measure R funds for staff instead of infrastructure but failed to resolve the issue, and they discussed the definition of neighborhood council stakeholders, again while failing to resolve the issue.

In magic, it’s called misdirection, diverting the audience’s attention from the sleight of hand. In politics, it’s called a lack of leadership, keeping the public debate away from the tough topics that require decisive action and also come with a cost to political capital.

As the City of LA’s 2011-2012 Budget sits on the Mayor’s desk, awaiting his final approval, one can only imagine the hard work of the budget scribes in the City Hall towers, working late into the night with candles burned to the nub, quill pens in hand, ink-stained blotters at the ready, heating wax for that moment when Sir Anthony applies his mayoral ring to the seal.

Let this be the last year that we wallow in the comfort of old tired technologies. Let this be the last year that we do things simply because that’s the way we’ve always done them.

Let this be the last year that we allow the City Council and the Mayor to distract the people of Los Angeles from the potential of the future.

It’s time for the City of Los Angeles to take its place as the City that leads the world in culture, in technology, in communications, and in innovation. It’s our destiny.

Now, seriously, please turn off your pagers and join us in moving forward.

(Stephen Box is a grassroots advocate and writes for CityWatch. He can be reached at: Stephen@thirdeyecreative.net .)

CityWatchLA - LA is Suffering from a Severe Case of Disconnect

CityWatch, Oct 27, 2009
Vol 7 Issue 88

The Mayor's proposal to dump the city's current email system in favor of a $7 million Google "cloud computing" platform is about to slide through City Council. It demonstrates a short-sighted willingness to invest in technology as a substitute for a commitment to training city staff in a larger communications strategy based on LA's Connectivity Vision. If you haven't heard of LA's Connectivity Vision, it's because LA doesn't have one.

Typically, a vision would drive goals and strategies and eventually result in the selection of tools, which would then be put to work by well trained people, all embracing specific responsibilities and working toward a common goal. (See video report .)

LA's approach is to embrace new technology in the hopes that old habits and older paradigms will simply fade with the click of a "system upgrade" button. If only it were that simple.

The City of LA has been using Novell's Groupwise email system and software since the early days and is currently in possession of an upgrade that LA has failed to implement. The upgrade, the training and the maintenance that supports the upgrade, and the promise of a 10% reduction in future licensing fees have all been offered by Novell over the last year in an attempt to keep the Los Angeles contract.

Novell is the third largest provider of email systems, after IBM and Microsoft, and relies on servers to support the email system.

The Mayor's proposal would replace Groupwise with Google's Enterprise email system and would also include an array of services that start with Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, Google Docs, Google Sites, Google Video, Google Message Security, and Google Message Discovery.

Google is new to the corporate email support industry and LA represents the "big fish" account in Google's aggressive pursuit of large clients.

Google relies on cloud computing (off-site storage, hosted by Google, accessed by internet) to support the array of services they offer, a small but significant issue that has critics screaming "You're going too fast!"

Personally, I'm a huge fan of Google. I switched to the Gmail this past year and I'm still discovering great features that enhance productivity and efficiency.

I love Google Docs and its ability to allow participants to work on the same doc simultaneously.

Google Calendars are wonderful and I have private calendars, public calendars and multiple user calendars for organizations. The best part is that all of these services are free! Well, they are to the common folks but that's because Google is very good at generating revenue by mining our data and then targeting us with advertising.

I'm sure it's a bit more complicated than that but the robust array of brilliant Google services are free to the public because we are an unwitting audience to the Google family of sponsors.

Herein lies the rub! Critics charge that it is foolhardy to give all of LA's records and data to a company known for its ability to mine data without proven guarantees of security and privacy and without huge financial penalties for service failures or security breaches.

As the City Council grapples with the financial impacts and the security concerns and the operational obstacles of a switch from Novell to Google, there are some advantages to Google that will probably distract the decision-makers at City Hall.

● Gmail offers users the ability to consolidate several email accounts into one. This alone probably justifies the switch. The Mayor can get his Mayor@LACity.org emails along with his SanAntonio@Hotmail.com and his YoTony@yahoo.com emails, all without having to signout and then back in to check each account. This feature is part of the City's $7 million deal and it's also free to the public.

● Gmail filters and labels make it possible for a busy world leader to organize incoming emails, separating requests from constituents, offers from investors, advice from the unions, demands from developers, threats from the City Attorney, lolcats from the City Council and alibis from City Department Managers into their respective folders.

Gmail's system is the best and it provides the pro and the novice alike an unparalled system for workflow management and efficiency in communications.

● Gmail accounts are actually multiple accounts, a feature that allows both city staff and common folk to register once and then to take advantage of multiple (unlimited!) email accounts.

SanAntonio@gmail.com is also SanAntonio@googlemail.com. One Gmail account can now be used to open multiple Twitter accounts and fans can follow @Villaraigosa, @SanAntonio and @YoTony without the interns having to open separate email accounts for each Mayoral Twitter account.

● Google Alerts are a great way to monitor the world without having to actually participate in the conversations that can take up soooo much time.

Simply set up a Google Alert to let you know anytime somebody refers to you or the topic that you're tracking. City leaders and average folks alike will get an email notifying them of conversations that reference them or their issues.

This is a very powerful "hot-line" tool that will get an official's attention in the early hours of the day. Use their name and get on their alert!

● Google Talk allows you to see who's online and to chat with them at all hours.

Imagine how efficient the City of LA will become if the Mayor can see who's working late and who's closing down early!

When LA goes from its ten-to-four operating style to 24-7, the public is going to see accountability like never before. The best part is the fact that the public can participate. Google Talk is for everybody. (If the Mayor lets you in!)

● Google Docs is a wonderful tool for collaboration. I wrote this document on Google Docs, I invited my wife to read it, she was able to edit from her computer and when we were done, we simply invited CityWatchLA and the document became this article.

Real time collaboration, one master with no derivative copies, multiple contributors, multiple formats, organized filing system, and nothing to get lost on a hard drive. As with all Google Treats, free to the public, not to the City!

● Google Calendars are the best and I have several, all overlayed so that I can identify schedule conflicts, but all unique so that I can keep some private, some shared and some public.

The Mayor could even link his Facebook account to his Google Calendar so that the events automatically sync up. When his friends on Facebook invite him to a neighborhood council meeting or to a soiree at LALive, the event will show up on his Google Calendar. Of course, he'll need to be specify which calendar he wants to use, the official calendar or the "other" calendar.

I could continue with the Google cheerleading but it's important to remember that LA will become Google's biggest Enterprise account. The proposed Google system is experimental and unproven for a city the size of LA.

Other cities use Gmail but only as an email backup system. The City of LA is in no position to spend $7 million on a "cloud computing" experiment that leaves privacy advocates storming the gates of City Hall, not Google.

If Google wants to land the "big fish" account, they should offer up the Enterprise system at no charge to the City and they should take the prestige of servicing the largest city in the most populated state in the most powerful nation in the world as their reward!

Missing from this City Council debate over Novell vs. Google is the simple fact that technology is no substitute for vision and skills. Learning to type fast does not make one a great novelist.

The strategy of "bigger and faster" upgrades coupled with enthusiastic and forceful campaigns, all employing the same habits and skills will only result in "more of the same" but delivered with "bigger and faster" enthusiasm.

Any successful company or organization of any significant size has a leader in charge of communications, not just technology, but of the greater need to connect with the public, the audience, the market, the world, and with itself. We need that leader.

In the land of the well-connected, Los Angeles is suffering from a severe case of disconnect. All the bells, whistles, and new-tech tools will not change that. LA needs a Vision for Connectivity.

CityWatchLA - LA & Sydney: Visions Lost & Found

CityWatch, Sept 1, 2009
Vol 7 Issue 70

It has been many years since my family left Australia aboard the SS Canberra, sailing past the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Opera House on our way to America. That was my last impression of Sydney until my Down Under Walkabout this week took me back and the strong sense of homecoming was intense.

In fact, for a moment I thought I was back in Los Angeles. The similarities between Sydney and Los Angeles are uncanny. It’s as if they have the same DNA.

Both Sydney and Los Angeles were founded by small groups of people whose first task was simply to survive, such were the obstacles that stood before them. The formative years of both cities were spent avoiding death from starvation, the elements, infighting and self-inflicted extinction.

Somewhere along the way, they prevailed and became the new home to settlers from around the world, and in both cases, now boast extremely diverse and robust mixes of cultures and ethnicities, with enough languages spoken to give the UN a run for the money.

Both cities grew rapidly, so fast that for the most part, the development of the municipal authority was spent in a mode of reaction, to public health, to public safety, to transportation, to land use, to the organization and management of assets, in short, to the many issues that arose and demanded the attention of the city’s leaders.

This is where the two cities start to differ. While Los Angeles is still in the crisis management phase of City maturity, Sydney has advanced into the Vision phase, one where the Lord Mayor has established a blueprint for the future and all actions are based on moving the City of Sydney into the future based on an agreed upon game plan and destination.

Of course, to say that Los Angeles has no vision may seem a little harsh because the Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, has actually used the “V” word in campaign speeches, in inaugural speeches, in State of the City speeches and in press conferences. Surely there exists a “Vision for Los Angeles” document somewhere that lays it down for all to see?

As for Sydney, there is no doubt that the Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, is leading the city on an adventure that is driven by the Sustainable Sydney 2030 Vision. The doors to Sydney’s Town Hall open automatically when guests approach, revealing banners that articulate different elements of the Vision.

Town Hall has a room on the same level completely filled with a scale model of Sydney which details the Heritage buildings, proposed development and the master plan. Lest anyone miss the fact that Town Hall is driven by a vision, the outside of the building is wrapped with 8’ high banners detailing elements of the vision.

When it comes to Transportation, the Lord Mayor declares that Sydney is “A City for Pedestrians and Cyclists.”

Moving in a different direction, Villaraigosa Chairs the Board of the Metro, LA County’s Transportation authority, which is in the process of developing a plan to restrict the access of cyclists to Metro’s Rail System.

When it comes to Planning, Sydney’s Mayor commits to “Sustainable Development, Renewal and Design” and supports that commitment with a “One Stop Shop” on the ground floor of Town Hall along with a Town Hall Concierge.

Again, moving in a different direction, LA’s Department of Planning, a Charter Department, enters the current budget crisis with 25% of its authorized positions empty and then gets in line with the rest of the city to take the 10% “share the blame” cut.

One would think that the middle of a significant crisis would be the time to double down on strategic planning for the city, but not Villaraigosa. He’s going to wing it!

As for the Environment, Sydney commits to starting at home, greening the Council Operations first and leading by example.

Team Villaraigosa, on the other hand, commits to starting in your home, charging you more for less and maintaining its cash cow relationship with the Department of Water & Power.

Sydney has embarked on an ambitious plan to create a “Liveable Green Network” of safe and attractive walking and cycling routes across the City’s streets, parks and open spaces.

Los Angeles, by way of contrast, commits to enhancing transit with vehicle parking and connecting the proposed Civic Park with more cement, simply failing to conceive of parks as the City’s lungs, as water reclamation opportunities, and as tools for enhancing public safety.

Sydney offers its local neighborhoods an accounting of its performance and conducts Community Forums where the Mayor, the Councilors, City staff and the local Area Command all travel to local areas to listen and to report on local projects.

Los Angeles also gets talk, loads of it, but nothing in the way of accountability, as Villaraigosa positions Connectivity, Diversity, Sustainability, Density, Technology, Entertainment Industry and Education as the touchstones of excellence that will allow Los Angeles to take its rightful place as the “City-on-the-Hill” but offers no buy-in or game plan for getting there.

Sydney invites the public to the Community Forums and gives specific transportation instructions (Train or Bus) and indicates that there will be bicycle parking.

Villaraigosa rides the train for Press Conferences and then hops back into his Yukon, often flanked by his Hummer driving Deputy Mayor, unable to even give the simple directive that all city functions be held at facilities accessible to pedestrians, cyclists and mass transit passengers.

Sydney demonstrates an ability to integrate the many different departments of the city into one cohesive working group that is focused on one goal, the City's new Corporate Plan.

Villaraigosa convenes regular GM meetings for the heads of the nearly four-dozen departments that all have a piece of LA and is somehow unable to get past the introductions. Add to the mix countless Deputy Mayors and abundant Commissioners, all genuflecting to San Antonio but unable to find their nametags, let alone their marching orders. As a result, Los Angeles is a ship adrift, Captained by the master of unrealized potential himself.

At the end of the day, Sydney and Los Angeles are like siblings who share the same genes, background and opportunity but somewhere along the way, made choices that took them on different journeys. As is often the case, one did all right and the other is still struggling.

Sydney was a city with no plan as recently as the 50’s when the land now occupied by the Opera House served as a maintenance yard.

Somewhere along the way, the folks in Sydney recognized the power to be found in a strong vision. To their credit, it shows.

Los Angeles is also a city that has meandered a bit, losing its City Center and falling victim to sprawl and the notion that “LA is a Battleship, too big to be turned quickly!”

Somewhere along the way the folks in leadership positions discovered the power to be found in fortune cookie philosophy and press conference declarations of progress. To our dismay, it shows.

As Sydney celebrates its past and embarks on its Sustainable Sydney 2030 Vision, it does so as an Alpha City, a title it shares with New York City on the Global Cities Index which rates cities on a number of criteria including economics, transportation, culture, politics and influence.

As Los Angeles ignores its past and struggles with rumors of bankruptcy, it does so as a Beta City, ranking number 43 on the Global Cities Index, in spite of its #3 ranking in Gross Metropolitan Product.

It has been said that the most important skill to be learned on a Walkabout is “Tellum Story” and I believe that to be true.

Sydney has a story, it’s told in the Museum of Sydney, it’s told on the streets, it’s told in the parks, it’s told in the hustle and bustle of a city that is on the move and it’s told in countless homes throughout the city. It’s called a vision.

Los Angeles has a story, but it’s hard to find. If LA is anything, it’s the land of storytellers and yet we’ve lost our connection to our past, to each other, and to our future.

High atop the Hermosa Beach Community Center are carved the words “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

By contrast, the big space over the entry to LA’s City Hall, (Spring Street, the one with the elaborate forecourt and access to the beautiful lobby) is still blank, never finished.

Of course, most people never see this because the public is now shuttled in through the “service entrance” on Main Street while the front doors to City Hall are reserved for City Staff.

Perhaps it’s time for Los Angeles to go on a Walkabout and to come back with LA’s story, a vision for the future of Los Angeles.

(Stephen Box is a transportation advocate and writes for CityWatch. He is currently traveling in Australia. Box can be reached at Stephen@ThirdEyeCreative.net) ◘

(photo by Floyd B. Bariscale)