Is a mere eye-roll after an absurd statement by a fellow elected around the Los Angeles City Council chamber horseshoe “performative politics” and therefore an etiquette or even ethical no-no?
Well, it’s certainly politics as usual, and we’re actually all in for eye-rolls if they help quash the urge to otherwise holler at a colleague in public when they make a statement as petty as Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez did last week, causing Councilmember Traci Park to roll her eyes, as Noah Goldberg and David Zahniser of the Los Angeles Times reported last week after reviewing videotape.
Councilmember Monica Rodriguez then had “some sharp words for both of them.”
Not us. The least Park could do in the interest of all Angelenos who are interested in a strong economy that produces jobs that support Los Angeles families is to roll her eyes at statements made by misguided backers of the current plan to create a $30 minimum hourly wage at L.A. hotels and LAX. It’s quite simply an unsustainable number picked out of the blue by union organizers who’ve never run a business or met a payroll. It’s a recipe for economic calamity in the Southland. And Park’s reply to the nonsense is one of the most cogent we’ve seen:
Unite Here union co-President “Kurt Petersen is killing jobs and tanking our local economy. Iconic restaurants are closing, airport workers are being replaced by kiosks, hotels are pulling out and working families are losing, not winning. His divisive and reckless tactics are speeding up automation and driving opportunity out of Los Angeles.”
Cole’s French Dip, the oldest restaurant in Los Angeles — not that the Downtown icon is a hotel, or at LAX, but it’s part of the same hospitality economy — isn’t closing because it’s no good (it’s great) or unpopular (it’s often quite crowded). It’s closing because labor costs — along with other costs — have gone up so much its owners can’t afford to stay in business without raising menu prices so high no one would patronize it.
And what L.A. can’t afford is a City Council dedicated to making it even harder for hospitality businesses to succeed — just in time for the 2028 Olympics. We hope a petition drive aimed at letting voters decide if the $30 wage is sustainable makes it to the ballot and that it prevails.
