Department of Neighborhood Empowerment
Newsletter

November 24, 2004

Re: Thanksgiving Thanks

I wanted to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving, and share with you some of things for which I am most thankful.

I am thankful that Mayor Hahn and the City Council appointed me to this job, and that all of you have allowed me to continue. Without either your support or tolerance, I wouldn’t be able to function.

I am thankful that I have the greatest staff that any general manager could hope for. I know that all general managers say the same thing, but they’re wrong on this one. No one has ever tried to do what they have been doing, and the landscape is littered with those who insisted that it couldn’t be done.

I am thankful to the skeptics who only made us work with more determination.

I’m thankful that nobody noticed that I ended one of these sentences in a preposition.

I am very thankful for the vast majority of Neighborhood Council board members who are conducting themselves and running their Neighborhood Councils in an exemplary manner, helping to prove that it is possible to bring together people of various beliefs, ethnicities, religious and political beliefs, and social values, in a public place where they can work together for the benefit of their community.

I’m impressed by the Neighborhood Council leaders, elected officials, and members of the media who have been able to deal with the handful of bullies who make all the noise and expend most of their time and energy trying to tear down that which they cannot control.

I’m thankful that so many of you have volunteered your precious time to join us in efforts to refine the programs, procedures, and policies upon which the Neighborhood Council system is being built. It is, without exaggeration, the beginning of a fundamental change in the way City Hall does business. No longer will everything will pushed from the top down.

I am thankful for those Neighborhood Council leaders who have led and participated in efforts to get Neighborhood Councils to flex their collective muscles taking positions on citywide issues, and following that with action.

And I am thankful that Mayor Hahn has allowed me to do this job without asking me to do anything that would have made me uncomfortable. As I said at a recent meeting of City commissioners, this is a position that could have been politicized by any mayor, but the reason I’m still here is that it never happened. The Neighborhood Council system has been able to evolve to this point free of political pressure.

Happy Thanksgiving.

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Greg Nelson
gnelson@mailbox.lacity.org

866 / LA HELPS
213 / 485-1360
213 / 485-4608 fax
done@mailbox.lacity.org email
www.lacityneighborhoods.com website