photo: jasonawhite/ BY-NC-SA

I’m so tired of all these special events taking place in downtown Los Angeles these days. I mean, don’t get me wrong -- L.A. is a bustling city, and the only way that a bustling city can continue to survive is by having ongoing major events. There’s also an added bonus: if an event is highly newsworthy, travelers from a number of countries will come to town and spend money that is definitely needed during these dreadful state budget shortfalls. At this point in time, we truly need all the financial help we can get. Working towards the ultimate goal of restoring jobs and improving the local economy is just fine by me.

But what I do have an issue with is the City of L.A. being left to pay for these events. It's widely known that Los Angeles is going broke, and that we don’t have any cash left over for wasteful spending. In the last month alone, we have had both the Lakers’ Championship Parade and Michael Jackson’s memorial at the Staples Center. The Lakers’ parade racked up a $2 million tab (to their credit, the team and some donors picked up the largest bulk of the expense), while Michael’s memorial is going to cost L.A. around $1.4 million. And then, of course, adding more horrible hilarity to this issue is the establishment of the donation site to fund Michael's security. Does anyone really mean to tell me that there is absolutely no money that the people responsible for planning the event can throw into the pot? I mean, after all, the cost of this event should have been carefully considered before a final decision was made; right now, it seems like the plan was not as thoroughly thought out as it should have been.

For the record, let me say this: Michael was one of the greatest entertainers that ever lived and I love his music dearly, but with Los Angeles more than 500 million dollars in debt (coincidentally, around the same amount that Michael’s estate owes to its’ debtors), the idea of taxpayers being forced to pay for this is a load of horse feathers. After all, people are losing their jobs or suffering mandatory furloughs, money is being cut from education, taxes are going up, and the unemployment rate is steadily increasing.

It was great that this memorial was shared with fans, but with this additional financial burden, people can go for free to Michael’s star near Graumann’s Chinese Theatre, lay flowers, and pay their respects to him there.