The story of rancid little Bell is just begging for some kind of Twin Peaks meets Winesburg, Ohio artistic treatment, but until then we have the LA Times, which confirms today that former City Manager Robert Rizzo, who has been accused of all kinds of corruption, "had a vision" to combine a bunch of Southeast LA cities into a horrible, boring, corrupt "super city." That confirmation comes from Bell's former police chief, Randy Adams, who's been testifying this week against Rizzo's deputy, Angela Spaccia (yesterday, the prosecution tastefully revealed a photo of Spaccia in her bathrobe smoking a cigar, as if that is evidence of something?). Apparently, it's "long been suspected" that Rizzo had super city designs; the scheme would've given him "a much larger budget to work with" (read "work with" as "steal from," probably). Adams says he told Rizzo that the plan would not work, so Rizzo asked him to at least look into combining police forces--he ended up meeting with reps from Maywood, South Gate, "and maybe Bell Gardens." Maywood and Bell passed resolutions in favor of a new Rancho San Antonio Police Authority, but the dream died there. Planning experts have actually suggested a merger could improve things for many of Southeast LA's little cities, several of which are or have recently been a huge mess.
· Rizzo wanted to turn Southeast L.A. into one super city, ex-chief says [LAT]
· Should Southeast LA's Corrupt Little Cities Be Forced to Merge? [Curbed LA]
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