LATimes: Apartheid Vernon

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-cole-vernon-20101227,0,7243573.story

You should go read the entire article at the URL offered howeveer here's an extract:

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The tiny family fiefdom is essentially a criminal enterprise posing as a city government. It should be officially unincorporated as soon as possible.

What's really protected Vernon all these decades is the disregard for the thousands who work in the city's factories each day but live outside Vernon's tightly controlled borders. The city has an assessed property tax base of $4.1 billion to support a population of 96. Next-door Bell has a tax base of $1.1 billion to support a population of 40,000, many of whom are employed in Vernon. The world was outraged when the South African apartheid regime segregated the urban black population into impoverished "Bantustans," cut off from the white-controlled commercial wealth. Why should we permit similar disparities in the heart of our region?

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This is what happens when Republicanism is allowed to fester.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-cole-vernon-20101227,0,7243573.story