23. THAT'S MISLEADING ADVERTISING

The Inglewood area of Greater Los Angeles had a lot going for it when I was there as its City Manager in the late 60's and much of the 1970's. Especially important to the local economy was The Forum, the world renowned sports and music venue; Hollywood Park Race Track, where thoroughbreds and harness horses ran virtually year around; and LAX, Los Angeles International Airport.

Staggering Amounts of Activity. The businesses in the Inglewood area generated a staggering amount of economic activity. Major volumes of surface street traffic and a huge amount of people traversed the City from all over the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area. In the late 1960's nearly 10 million people lived within 60 miles of Inglewood.

Any time there are that many people and that much money generated by and circulating in a relatively small geographical area, there will be all sorts of ways devised to meet real and perceived human needs and thereby relieve people of their money; and to accommodate human wants and desires in any way necessary -- by any and all definitions of the words "accommodate", "wants", "desires", and "necessary".

Motel Conversions. One of the major offshoots of this amazing amount of people and monetary traffic was the gradual conversion of a number of previous multi-family buildings into "motels" on an arterial street several blocks to the East of Hollywood Park and The Forum. These became mainly what were referred to as "hot bed hotels". The amount of traffic had simply become unbearable for some previously satisfied residents, who sought commercial re-zoning, then sold and moved. The "motels" resulted, thereby meeting a perceived "need".

The Inglewood City Council was organized into four districts, each encompassing exactly one quarter of the nearly square city. The north- eastern quadrant had been represented by Councilman Fred Jones since 1946. He had first been elected as a liberal, had not changed philosophy, but now was considered to be a far right wing reactionary.

Councilman Fred Jones. Fred lived in a nice older, large, not-too-well-maintained home alone with his wife, a very pleasant and unassuming quiet lady of German extraction. He had met her during his late World War II Army occupation duty in Germany. They were childless and somewhat reclusive, Fred's political stock-in-trade being absolutely, completely and devotedly attuned to and responsive to meeting his constituents tiniest expressed needs. And even fulfilling some desires which weren't expressed, only extrapolated from Fred's active and honorable mind.

Fred's devotion to his Council district went so far as to advocate mid-block stop signs, thereby curbing speeders. There even were a few of these illegal signs installed when I arrived in Inglewood. It took me some time to convince Fred that Don Olson, the new City Attorney, really meant it when he ruled that such mid-block signs were illegal and that their existence made the City liable for any accident or happenstance caused by such a stop; that stop signs were not a legally acceptable substitute for speed law enforcement. The long-time City Traffic Engineer had given up long ago, now satisfying himself by counting the days until retirement rather than fighting off Fred and his demands for dangerous, unneeded and illegal signs.

Constituent Concern and Being Obtuse. Undoubtedly due to Fred's somewhat reclusive and thereby non-worldly personal life, and his devoted concentration to the tiniest matters of constituent concern, he could become remarkably obtuse.

While an intelligent and well read person, in literary classics only, Fred's social learning curve had apparently ceased rising in about 1950, especially when it came to matters of cultural change. He knew absolutely nothing about hippies, the drug culture, rock music, professional sports, burgeoning air transportation and other things which -- in his term -- had "assaulted society" since he had first taken office in 1946.

It was now 1969 and things and times were a-changin'. But Fred wasn't. And wasn't about to change, either.

Council Initiatives. At each City Council meeting there was an agenda item entitled "Council Initiatives", at which point in the meeting each Councilmember could ask any questions, make "reports", file requests for information from or request work to be done by the City staff, or make any sort of motion to have the rest of the City Council agree to something. At a Council meeting one Tuesday afternoon, out of the blue, Fred brought up a subject which turned out to be pivotal in the Councilman's political career. It showed the depth of his loss of touch with society.

Councilman Fred Jones demanded that the City Attorney draft and, as soon as possible the City Council adopt an ordinance prohibiting "the misleading advertising" taking place in his District, near Hollywood Park and The Forum. Motels in this area were posting large signs mis-stating their rates (at least in Fred's mind) as "$6". It seems that one of his constituents had rented a room for some visiting relatives and found out that the rate was not the "advertised" $6 but, rather, was $20 per night, plus the City's 10% transient occupancy tax. He, and his constituent either didn't see, didn't believe, or chose to ignore the very small print on all the signs which clearly stated "per hour". He felt this to be misleading advertising.

Barring Misleading Advertising. He wanted to be responsive to his constituent's complaint and bar "this misleading advertising".

Upon hearing this request it was all each of the Mayor, the three other City Councilmembers and staff present at the meeting could do to keep from choking to suppress our laughter. All knew that the rate posted meant $6 per hour, and why. We all knew that traffic in this "hot bed" motel area was very heavy during lunch time, right after shift changes or the end of the normal work day, in the early evenings, during Forum events and some big Hollywood Park stakes races, and especially just prior to the night harness races.

Motel room turnover was extremely heavy in this area. Everyone knew that Fred simply didn't know that this three block area of his district had become one of the major assignation areas in Southern California. Proximity to The Forum, Hollywood Park Race Track, and LAX of this three block stretch of now-converted apartments was a natural for the use to which it was now being put.

The City Profited. And the City profited mightily from the traffic and occupancy, for the City 10% transient occupancy tax at $6 per hour was producing far more than the simple $25 per year apartment rental business license tax had produced under the prior zoning and occupancy. The rooms were used often, turnover was high, revenues were significant for each of the owners and the City, and police service requests were negligible. Besides, better here than somewhere in L.A., farther away from the economic activity that was stimulating the Inglewood economy.

This was the age of permissiveness, and Inglewood was profiting from it. We weren't about to try to police or even to change societal mores and morality. Besides, as the City Attorney so astutely put it: "How do we know people being tired from a trip from or to someplace don't want just an hour or a few hours of sleep, not being willing or able to pay for a full nights lodging?"

Calling a Recess. Immediately after Fred made his ardently felt request, followed by choked and suppressed laughter, the Mayor quickly called a recess in the meeting. He took Fred to his adjacent office, explained what had happened and why all were choking back laughter. He tried to turn Fred's regulatory ardor in another direction.

From that day on Fred never was the same. He railed against the current evils of society, but never could find a rationale for having the City interfere in the societal trends of the 1960's.

At the next Council election, long-time and senior Councilmember Fred Jones decided not to run for re-election. He finally realized that society had passed him by and that it was time to fade away.

And he did, graciously, muttering about misleading advertising, mores and morality and society; and speeding in neighborhood residential streets.

The End of an Era. Unfortunately, Fred's departure marked the end of an era. He was the last "grass roots" neighborhood politician I saw during my career in local government. He campaigned without money, personal or contributed. He was pure and literally "in no one's pocket". His election and re-election campaigns were based on absolute service to his constituents, and good old "shoe leather" door-to- door campaigning. Fred simply put in enough time, effort and devotion to his constituency to continue to get re-elected.

But he had become an anachronism.

Replaced by Special Interest Money. Today, the professional politicians, special interest monies, and professional campaign workers and fund raisers have taken over the selection of government policy making officials, not only at the national political level but at the State and local levels as well. We should mourn the passing of the era of the citizen-politician as so ably represented by Inglewood's Fred Jones. A Puritan -- and pure -- to the end.

© copyright by Douglas W. Ayres 1999

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