It’s that time of the year again when just about every publication punishes its readership with Top 10 lists of every kind imaginable. Fully aware of this fact, I can’t help but join the crowd. After all, it was just too newsy of a year and too juicy an opportunity to resist the temptation. So let’s get right to it and call it my laments and predictions, in no particular order. Prediction: Despite a rising chorus of grumblings, the Los Angeles Unified School District will plow ahead with its misguided, $1 billion plan to outfit every child with an iPad – even when there are far cheaper quality tablets available. After all, who cares if business owners can’t hire literate workers when students can receive a shiny toy they can break or lose within a month or two? Lament: While we are on the topic of government let’s give credit where it’s due. Sure, the city of Los Angeles can’t do much well but its police department is certainly world class in writing $63 overtime parking tickets to fund the bloat at City Hall. After all, who cares that it scares away customers from business districts and, ironically, amounts to all-out war on the working class by an allegedly liberal government. Prediction: Developers will continue to prove once more they never learn when enough is enough. This time in the cycle it’s the absurd number of luxury apartments being constructed in Glendale and elsewhere for mysterious young professionals who apparently earn salaries higher than their bosses. Lament: The Obama Administration will continue to shoot itself in the foot as it sets a record for bungling the rollout of a new federal program. But insurers like Health Net in Woodland Hills won’t care because they will continue to gain membership despite ObamaCare becoming the butt of late night jokes. Prediction: Whole Foods will be successful in finally building a store in Burbank after failing years ago. Now, local residents can finally feel their city is cool. They’ll be able dine on the best organic foods available while simultaneously watching their savings drain with every bite. Scrumptious. Lament: The entire country will eventually lease their homes from American Homes 4 Rent, the Agoura Hills public company that is the nation’s second largest corporate landlord. OK, I should cheer one of the Valley’s newest public companies but the trend sure does me give pause. Prediction: Michael Weinstein of the Aids Healthcare Foundation will not give up his crusade to force adult film performers to wear condoms on the set. After all, X-rated movie making in the Valley is almost certainly the most serious public health problem in all of Los Angeles County. Ahem. Lament: Grow Life Inc. in Woodland Hills, a maker of pot growing equipment, will continue to see its growth bloom as reefer madness takes over the country. OK, so no one is going to lose their mind, but does anyone over 30 really think more pot smoking is going to solve any of this country’s problems? Wow, that was an intense thought! Prediction: Wal-Mart will visit every courtroom it can find to overturn a decision that halted its planned Burbank store unless the city fixes up its dilapidated roads. I mean, really, who doesn’t want to sit in a traffic bottleneck on a Saturday afternoon trying to get the lowest prices on diapers? Lament: MannKind Corp. of Valencia will finally get FDA approval to market is innovative inhalable insulin system, and we no longer will sit around and wonder if founder Al Mann has another $100 million in the bank to continue bankrolling his company. After all, we’ll be too busy trying to figure out just how wealthy he is now. Laurence Darmiento is editor of the Business Journal. He can be reached at [email protected].
Laughing and Crying in the Valley
