L.A. as foster city run by outsiders

The McCourts' involvement in the Dodgers, and Bud Selig's for that matter — as well as Sam Zell and Tribune's role in the Los Angeles Times — are examples of outsiders with no sense of or loyalty to the sounds and rhythms and cultures of L.A. That's essentially the core of a post by writer D.J. Waldie for Zocalo that calls Los Angeles The Foster City. Sample:

Something narrow and coarse in the imaginations of the McCourts and Zell and Selig and their business partners squeezed out any moral dimension to their deals or any feeling for Los Angeles. But to question how they acquired so much of our place so cheaply is uncomfortable for Angeleños. Better to grumble about indifferent outsiders. Seen from their perspective, Los Angeles has only market value, the sort of value that sold Los Angeles to the world as one of the most successful lifestyle products of the 20th century.

Not any more. Too many deals have soured; too much of the city has been taken into receivership. Even our citizenship – already problematic – has been foreclosed. Deals under duress have taken too many of our civic institutions from local control and put them in the hands of monitors and special masters, raising another question we would prefer to duck: Do we have the capacity to govern ourselves?