Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-12-31
The Bewildered and BedeviIed
Taxpayer.

very cogently into the minds of An
gelef1os that they are paying out a great
deal of money in the shape of taxes
They are not only doing it now, but they
have been doing it for years. And yet
there seems to be very little to show for
this great expenditure. What becomes
of the really royal sums raised in the
way of revenue is a mystery which has
not yet been solved. 1t certainly does
not 90 into roads. Go where one will
and the thoroughfares are simply ex'
ecrable. Taking, for example, the old
Mission San Gabriel road, leading past
the County Hospital, and it is an exact
of the great Serbonia' d
bog, betwixt Damietta and Mt. Cass aus
old, where armies whole have sum g." Of
M,lton's verse. Wherever the 'dobie
soil is struck the result q always
the same, 60 where one will.
Where the natural road'~ays are good
that is to say, wherever one strikes a
sandy soil--it is possible to make head
way, and often indeed to lind good road
ways, but the moment the soil ceases to
be porous the difficulties are greater than
they were ten years ago. Road-making
in Los Angeles county seems to have
resolved itself into scraping the dry dust
into beveled heaps in midsummer, to see
it resolved into quagmires during the
winter rains. For years the HERALD has
been clamoring for the creation OF num-
Der of great boulevards, which could be
made at comparatively small expense.
1t is simply marvel that at least two OF
them have not been already created-one
from Los Angeles to the San Gabriel
Valley and another from Los Angeles to
Santa Monica, and yet we seem further
from these great desiderata than ever.
The road to neither is not half as good as
it was ten years ago. The same may be
said, with truth, Of the roads leading to
Downey, to Wilmington, to the
Cahuenga. They are less than nature
made them, because originally there
was hard pan, which, under our pres
ent intelligent % system, has been
ploughed up. Allowing for the large
portion of the county levies which has
been sent to Sacramento as the Los An
geles contribution to the State taxes,
there is something inexplicable in all
this. We have frequently asked for an
explanation of the anomaly and have
failed to receive it. We shall enter into
inquiries on our own account, and shall
pre- sent them to our readers.
The case with the city is quite as bad.
The large taxes of the county are dupli-
Gated in the city, and the results as to
our streets are quite as mex
plicable. Never did municipality show
less for it's liberal returns to the tax
gatherer than this. Outside of few
thoroughfares, the condition Of the streets
is deplorable. Within half block CT
the Plaza it is scarcely possible to make
progress with a vehicle. First street,
Buena Vista street, and a hundred
others, are shameful examples of how
not to do the work of properly providing
for the convenience and comfort of the
citizen and of the stranger within our
gates.
Meanwhile, the fact is notorious that
money without stint has been raised for
the purpose of giving US streets and other
municipal easements. Where has it
gone to in the past? Where does it 60
now?
But in the city and county Of Los Ang-
eles the taxpayers have been trusting to
the happy-go-lucky way of managing
things. They have contented them
selves with paying their taxes,
and taking it for granted that
their money would be rightly expended.
Very few of them ever care to see how
the work which is now being done on our
streets corresponds to the work nomi-
mated in the bonds of the contractors.
As result, even on those thoroughfares
which have been newly paved, signs of
dilapidation are everywhere manifest.
To cap the climax of the absurdities
and Inconvenience of which the tax
payers are the victims, streets are con-
tinually being torn up after having been
paved, to admit of gas and water service,
and this work is often done unsatisfac-
torily and at the caprice Of irresponsible
agents.
TIE taxpayers Of both city and county
would do well to take stock of their
affairs. That they are being trifled with
if not robbed is apparent to the most
casual observer. The more intelligent
of them echo the refrain: "How long,
oh Lord, how lopg?"
The New Years Solar Eclipse.