Other People's Money Is So Easy To Piss Away
I drive a tiny car (a 2004 Honda Insight hybrid) tiny distances, and take care on the road, but sometimes I can't help but drive through some moon crater-sized pothole. Apparently, I've driven through enough of them to mess up my car's suspension and cost me a pretty penny to fix.

Instead of putting our tax dollars toward our crumbling infrastructure, they've gone to opening a Mexican cultural center in LA. How many of our tax dollars? Oh, more than $36 million.

Mike Boehm writes in the LA Times:

An ambitious downtown center created to celebrate the role of Mexican Americans in Los Angeles culture and history opened with great fanfare six months ago, fueled by more than $36 million in public funds and boasting a prominent board of directors.

Today the center, La Plaza de Cultura y Artes, is staggering. Its chief executive was let go in August, and he's accused of mismanagement. Attendance has been sparse. The private foundation set up to run it hasn't raised much money. Contractors complain they haven't been paid. And the staff has been slashed from 28 to 12.

The concerts, lectures and other special programs once envisioned were rare, until two events last weekend.

"La Plaza has gone through an unbelievably painful birth," said L.A. County Supervisor Gloria Molina, the center's primary backer. She remains optimistic but added: "It's not going to be easy."

What's "not easy" is understanding why Gloria Molina thinks she gets to take our tax dollars and open this center. I'm not opposed to such a center being opened; in fact, I think it might be an interesting place to visit -- I'm just opposed to it being paid for with taxpayer dollars.