Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is usually considered (with good reason) to be a rising star in the Democratic Party. But today the Los Angeles Times reports that his solution to the city's chronic water shortages isn't working too well. Villaraigosa's clever scheme was to ask people really nicely to use less water. This doesn't seem to have worked--water use in the city hasn't budged since Villaraigosa issued his plea in June. Fortunately, though, the article tells us that the mayor's now come up with an even more aggressive plan:
Six full-time [Department of Water and Power] employees will drive around the city in hybrid cars and tell people to stop wasting water.
I'm wondering if Villaraigosa's just doing this so that when water rates finally increase next year or in 2009 (God forbid one should use elementary economics to alleviate a shortage!), he can claim he's only doing it after exhausting all other options. ("I even sent people around the city in Priuses to try to fix it!")
--Josh Patashnik