Third in a series
Re “Two Vastly Different Sides of Ubersensitive Ridley-Thomas”
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Mr. Goodmon
Other young community leaders in Damien Goodmon’s circumstances might be intimidated about publicly excoriating the single well-positioned politician who portrayed himself as the key to unlocking the door to the transportation treasures Mr. Goodmon is seeking.
Undaunted, the executive director of Crenshaw Subway Coalition known for his three-piece personality – candor, clarity, sensitivity – is using his repeated disappointments with County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas as a springboard, an irresistible motivator to gain his main objective of the moment:
Convincing the Metro Board of Directors that, based on expert advice they have been handed but not acknowledged, building the final mile of the Crenshaw-LAX light rail line underground not only is eminently sensible but affordable.
At issue, says Mr. Goodmon, is Supervisor Ridley-Thomas’s character, which he freely criticizes for its perceived short supply of courage.
We are not talking about the kind of courage a soldier requires to dash headlong into a blizzard of gunfire, says Mr. Goodmon, but the moral fibre to seize the initiative for a winnable transportation issue for his community.
His weakness as a leader who is not leading, says Mr. Goodmon, is that whatever courage he possesses shrivels up unless Mr. Ridley-Thomas is virtually guaranteed his side will sail to victory.
Switching topics, allegedly problematic drilling in the Inglewood Oil Field was a signature pre- and post-campaign issue when Mr. Ridley-Thomas was voted onto the Board of Supervisors five years ago.
“Before the present national conversation about fracking began, he could have been a leader,” Mr. Goodmon said. “He is very smart. He could have set a standard that would have increased his national profile.
“But he doesn’t apply (his wisdom/insight), and I have not figured out why.”
The bottom line is totally perplexing to young Mr. Goodmon.
“The public perception,” he says, “is that the County Supervisor is doing just fine.”
[img]1979|right|Mark Ridley-Thomas||no_popup[/img]In Mr. Goodmon’s view, Mr. Ridley-Thomas, dressed in his familiar wry expression, leans back in his tall, comfortable chair and watches the world of political Los Angeles float by as if it were a silent film from a hundred years ago.
“His public reputation – that is what he is concerned about.
“Dare he ask a question on fracking?
“Dare he ask a question on the tunnel?
“Dare he ask the question of whether the number of beds at King Hospital (another of his neon issues) is sufficient for a venture that is not going to have any public assistance? It’s not a county hospital anymore.
“Then hard conversations…real skin has to be put in the game to deliver for what the community expects.
“The community expects a fully functioning King Hospital, a fully functioning Drew University.
“The community expects an end to the expansion of oil wells and an end to anything that is not environmentally sound in the oil field.
“The community expects him to enhance and preserve its future.”
Mr. Ridley-Thomas’s impressive three-decade resumé, says his critic, is weighted down with unfulfilled pledges.
(To be continued)
