West Coast, Messed Coast™: LA’s Bridge Too Far and ‘Why We Can’t Have Nice Things’ Edition

Hundreds of millions of tax dollars were spent on building a bridge connecting downtown L.A. to East L.A.  This was to be a bridge for cars, bikes and pedestrians.  Instead it has been a bridge for vandals, gangsters and criminals.  Want to see a crime up close and personal—go to this bridge, day or night—if it is open.

The bridge has been closed, totally, several times for a day or two at a time.  It is a beautiful bridge—but not useable by the people of Los Angeles,

“Our first item involves the opening of a more than half-billion-dollar, federally subsidized bridge linking the Boyle Heights neighborhood to downtown Los Angeles. The Sixth Street Bridge, or Sixth Street Viaduct if you prefer, opened July 9 and 10 amid much fanfare. Drivers were thrilled their old path to downtown and work was back! The bridge features pedestrian walkways, but pedestrians were given carte blanche for the first couple of days before cars were allowed to use it. Indeed, they climbed the arches framing the bridge and other antics. See the video below.

And then the pedestrians, risk takers, and lawbreakers didn’t leave.

And Mayor Eric Garcetti, who managed LA into the lockdown hopelessness and is bereft of ideas, did nothing about it except close it over and over. Instead of enforcing the law and clearing the bridge of lawbreakers who kept wading into traffic, Garcetti ordered the bridge closed to everyone. Then, after allowing the take over of the bridge, the city spent $706,000 (not a typo) to clean up graffiti. Then the LA City Council hit upon a “great” idea for a federally subsidized bridge meant to transport people in vehicles quickly from one side of town to the other: install speed bumps. It’s a metaphor.”

This is California in 2022—run by criminals, protected by government.

West Coast, Messed Coast™: LA’s Bridge Too Far and ‘Why We Can’t Have Nice Things’ Edition

BY VICTORIA TAFT, PJ Media,   8/3/22  

Welcome to the West Coast, Messed Coast™ report, your weekly rundown of the news of the most beautiful states in the union …before autocratic Leftists decided to start charging ridiculously high prices for living in their states.

Our first item involves the opening of a more than half-billion-dollar, federally subsidized bridge linking the Boyle Heights neighborhood to downtown Los Angeles. The Sixth Street Bridge, or Sixth Street Viaduct if you prefer, opened July 9 and 10 amid much fanfare. Drivers were thrilled their old path to downtown and work was back! The bridge features pedestrian walkways, but pedestrians were given carte blanche for the first couple of days before cars were allowed to use it. Indeed, they climbed the arches framing the bridge and other antics. See the video below.

And then the pedestrians, risk takers, and lawbreakers didn’t leave.

And Mayor Eric Garcetti, who managed LA into the lockdown hopelessness and is bereft of ideas, did nothing about it except close it over and over. Instead of enforcing the law and clearing the bridge of lawbreakers who kept wading into traffic, Garcetti ordered the bridge closed to everyone. Then, after allowing the take over of the bridge, the city spent $706,000 (not a typo) to clean up graffiti. Then the LA City Council hit upon a “great” idea for a federally subsidized bridge meant to transport people in vehicles quickly from one side of town to the other: install speed bumps. It’s a metaphor.

As California GOP leader, Jessica Milan Patterson wrote, “In @GavinNewsom’s California, taxpayer money is spent on projects that will never see the light of day or will get shut down because Democrat policies enable criminal behavior. @CA_Dem is why we can’t have nice things, literally.”

The half-billion-dollar bridge that replaced the iconic, though seismically unsteady, 1932 version of the bridge. The old bridge was seen routinely in movies and TV shows such as  “Grease” and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” “The Mask,” “Beverly Hills Cop III,” “LA Story,” “Repo Man.” And it was featured in a movie called “Biker Boyz.”

When the bridge was replaced and re-opened a couple of weeks back it seems everyone with an Instagram page needed to produce their moment on the bridge. And all hell broke loose.

It became a stage for DJs, Instagram influencers, and lowriders.

This man thought it would be good business to risk life and limb to give haircuts in the middle of the road.

One reporter said, “we’ve been waiting for six years to use this bridge. We’ve paid $600 million and we can’t use it.”

The yellow jersey mafia can though.

As retired cop Sal LaBarbera wrote: “Hey Los Angeles, your protectors lost the bridge. Feel safe yet?”