Town Meeting III.5

So I committed to doing a quick edit of footage from Tuesday's meeting at the JRC, but my new laptop for editing video (courtesy of my pops, Reuben Ruiz) wasn't entirely tricked out with requisite tools and by 3 a.m. I still hadn't managed to upload the video to our new streaming host. So here's the Tube treatment.

Highlights: Developer Jimmy Morris leads about 10 others in rhetoric-laced chants about injustice in the Northwest, laying the blame for all of the Northwest's ills -- including this past year's violence -- on Mayor Bill Bogaard. What's next? Will the Weekly blame him for the war in Iraq? After bringing the drought, will Bogaard call a plague down upon us? Invite a totalitarian regime into the Rose Parade?

Most of the racially-charged questions-as-accusations had remarkably boring answers:

Q: What happened to Jazz in the Park?
A: It grew too big and people like former DIstrict 1 Councilwoman Joyce Streator didn't want it in Brookside Park.

Q: Why hasn't Robinson Park been improved?
A: The city's $3.3 million needs another $2 million or so for the first phase of about $19 million in planned improvements.

Q: Where's the affordable housing?
A: There are 181 units either built or under construction and the city is looking at four properties it might buy.

Q: How many African Americans have been hired under the city's local hiring program?
A: City is not allowed to track statistics by race.

Despite what drew people to attend, the meeting was about Heritage Square -- and, even more so than the project -- the meeting was about several people's interest in seeing the Bakewell Company get the job.

From the suggestion department: "No justice, no peace" is a classic, but I'd advise steering away from tongue-twisting chants like "The Mayor is Available, Just not for the Black Northwest Pasadena Community."

FYI Didn't give this the pro treatment -- video and editing quality is decidedly 'rough cut'