“Unsustainable welfare state”: Lausanne public works project. Posted by Hello



Failed liberalism: Geneva, Switzerland Posted by Hello

Europe and Van Nuys.


NY Times columnist David Brooks, comparing liberal Europe to conservative thinking America, says: “Most of the policy ideas advocated by American liberals have already been enacted in Europe: generous welfare measures, ample labor protections, highly progressive tax rates, single-payer health care systems, zoning restrictions to limit big retailers, and cradle-to-grave middle-class subsidies supporting everything from child care to pension security. And yet far from thriving, continental Europe has endured a lost decade of relative decline.”

Europeans are suffering a crisis of confidence and the Western European “standard of living is a third lower” than that in America. The plain truth: “The core fact is that the European model is foundering under the fact that billions of people are willing to work harder than the Europeans are. Europeans clearly love their way of life, but don’t know how to sustain it.”

Mr. Brooks clearly should bring European leaders to Van Nuys to see how much better off we are here. Clearly, our low taxes, cheap gasoline, affordable housing, fine schools, excellent health care system, low crime rates and intelligent immigration policies are working well. To breathe the clean air, stroll along the pristine and lovely Sepulveda and Van Nuys Boulevards, is a bracing and delightful experience–and one that the mayors of Lausanne, Paris, Zurich and Amsterdam should see first hand.

Conservative ideas–more prisons and guns, less abortion and higher defense spending…. that’s the way to go!



photo of “Valley Market, Van Nuys”San Fernando Valley History Digital Library. Posted by Hello

Valley Market Town in the 1950’s


This is a photo of Valley Market Town courtesy of the San Fernando Valley History Digital Library.

Writer Kevin Roderick has the following description on his website:

“Valley Market Town

Shopping center at 6127 Sepulveda Blvd. near Oxnard Street was a popular spot for postwar families after it opened in 1947. The center offered free baby sitting and dog kennels and featured the Sepulveda Drive-in Theater. By 1954 the complex had been renamed Mr. Carter’s Market Place, after businessman Victor M. Carter.”

The complex is occupied these days by Wickes Furniture.



Brosmith house by SPF:a architects. Posted by Hello