By Nick Antonicello
Just when you thought things could get better, two Mike Bonin “clones” in CD-11 council hopefuls Erin Darling and Greg Good pose an even more dangerous path than a third-term of Mike Bonin!
Anointed by the LA Times in a recent and quite delusional endorsement and then enthusiastically accepting the support of the flawed and failed Mike Bonin himself, Erin Darling as well as City Hall Insider Greg Good present to voters in effect a Mike Bonin third-term as both of them are almost identical in the failed and miserable record of the outgoing incumbent.
The LA Times, in their abject disdain and hate of normal working class and middle class homeowners and tenants describes local Venetians as people who live in “multi-million dollar houses have complained bitterly about sprawling encampments.”
Do the “soothsayers” at the LA Times Editorial Board know of any home in Los Angeles that isn’t a million dollars?
Let me know.
That would be news worth sharing!
Maybe the scribes at the LA Times should read their own Saturday Real Estate Guide that for the most part you can’t touch a property in LA for less than two million dollars and this notion that Venice is infested with “angry millionaires” who hate the homeless is more of the “NIMBY narrative” of the outgoing Bonin, who like Greg Good and Erin Darling are millionaires too!
Three millionaires all pushing the wrong political potion of failure.
The LA Times describes the recall of Mike Bonin as infuriating some of his constituents when in reality the truth is the opposite as the condescending Bonin refused to listen or respond to the needs of the district for so long, that some 25,000 CD-11 registered voters, or 95% of the number needed to place the question on the ballot is what forced Bonin into political irrelevance and extinction!
And if the LA Times even bothered to objectively cover the recall in a responsible and unbiased fashion, it wasn’t some phantom mental illness affliction that drove Bonin from the race, but rather miserable polling data that not only said he could not win, but would have been crushed for reelection in a loss so embarrassing he had no choice but to leave the race with his political tail between his legs!
The word was obvious, Bonin was political toast and even Greg Good was shopping his candidacy to the numerous unions for support he was seeking to replace Mike as the official, Bonin 2.0 replacement! Apparently he saw the hand-writing on the wall which apparently even infuriated Bonin before officially retiring from office!
Incredibly so, the LA Times believes both Darling & Good seem “the smartest on homelessness” when in fact they both have “carbon copy” records of this failed incumbent and neither has ever criticized or opposed any of the Bonin agenda over the last decade!
Not once have either Good or Darling been mildly critical or even dared to offer any suggestions on the homeless debacle here in Venice.
Not once.
Not ever.
In fact Darling, who served on the local Venice Neighborhood Council quickly resigned from office under the threat of being booted off the board in 2017, his only meaningful public service to date.
In fact Darling didn’t bother to show-up for his elected responsibilities for five consecutive meetings, a clear violation of the Board’s BY-LAWS and Standing Rules.
How do you pretend to care about Venice when you can’t even make the time to show-up for a position you actively sought?
Instead of owning up to his own chronic absenteeism and non-participation, in “Nixon-like” rhetoric Darling railed on a “disdain for immigrants and Muslims,” and tried to change the narrative from his own inability to serve to some manufactured notion that he was somehow being excluded!
And as if this “rambling rhetoric” from a guy who just wouldn’t attend meetings wasn’t enough, Darling continues this misguided and failed following of the Bonin agenda that is opposed almost universally here in Venice as well as the rest of CD-11 because it does not work!
Like Good, he stays away from the disgrace that is Centennial Park, just like his ally Bonin who believes we should continue to stay the course as it applies to rampant homelessness and rising crime.
Where hundreds roam and dwell in feces and urine, in makeshift structures and tents cluttered by stolen bicycles and now a haven for open drug use on a daily basis, the actual residents along South Venice Boulevard are literally held hostage in their own homes and a stated gang presence is now obvious.
For Greg Good, the former $250,000 a year mayoral aide and board member of the LA Department of Public Works was a 100% Bonin ally when he worked for Eric Garcetti and was seen canvassing door to door for the very policies he now claims to oppose.
I know it because I saw it.
Good was there in Venice touting Bridge Housing with both Garcetti and Bonin backstage at the infamous Venice Town Hall which was nothing more than a rigged game and stacked deck that saw bureaucrats like Good strategize the messaging and outright lies and falsehoods that promised a bridge housing facility that would be secure and safe.
I know this because I was there and saw it with my own eyes.
Good is so bad on homelessness that his campaign is desperately pivoting away from the only issue that matters, especially in Venice where his positions are more of the same, all wrong all of the time!
For like Erin Darling, Greg Good is an ambitious millionaire who will say or do anything to hold elective office no matter how dangerous their collective policies are to longtime Venetians or anyone else who believes that right is still right, and wrong is just wrong!
The narrative is obvious, demonize those of us who actually live here as “segregationists” and alike and totally ignore the impact on the quality-of-life of average people who simply want a safe place to live. A library that can be visited without fear of being accosted or robbed. Residents who want to be able to walk the streets and bring their children to the park or beach without the consequence of being attacked by those who have no business in Venice which is the drug-addicted, raging alcoholic, criminal transient population that has no connection or reason to be in Venice accept for the fact we have local elected leadership that hates those who play by the rules and believes those who are criminally insane should be embraced by the neighborhood no matter how dangerous or destructive!
Greg Good and Erin Darling believe things are just fine with Mike Bonin still pulling the strings where he appears to be out of sight and now out-of-mind.
“Pay no mind to that man behind the curtain.”
For there is nothing powerful about Mike Bonin and his puppets Erin Darling and Greg Good.
Nick Antonicello is a longtime Venetian who serves on the Outreach and Oceanfront Walk Committee’s on the Venice Neighborhood Council and is covering the CD-11 race to succeed Bonin on the LA City Council. He can be reached at nantoni@mindspring.com
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