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Should the City's Top Transit Dude Drive a Hummer?
Office of the Mayor: It's a Private Matter
Los Angeles Times: It's now a public matter
Back in May of last year, LAT's Steve Hymon rounded up who drives Hummers at City Hall and found that the city's Transportation Deputy for the Mayor drives a Hummer H3 (link expired). Now Columnist Steve Lopez is pressing the issue in today's paper.
It's easy to jump on Lopez's bandwagon because Hummer's are, like, evil and stuff, but we must not misconstrue Deputy of Transportation to be Deputy of Public Transportation. He has the right to drive to work, but Lopez is correct that Mr. Transit in a Hummer is like "having a surgeon general who smokes unfiltered Camels while snacking on Cheetos."
The LA Times has made Jaime de la Vega sound like a pretty dumb and brutish guy. We haven't met de la Vega yet, so we'll reserve our opinion until then. In the meantime, the public may have just lost faith in the Mayor's transit man. Not everyone reads LAT, but this will spread across the city. Everyone talks. EVERYONE LIKES TO BITCH ABOUT TRAFFIC.
Now, the ball's in the Mayor's court. What will they do?
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