Praise for Workers Exposes DWP Infrastructure Needs

You know, it is great when public workers gets an article in the Los Angeles Times about being praised and greeted by smiling members of the public.

On the fourth day of misery, a big, white truck with a cherry picker at long last arrived on Avenue 52 in Highland Park to turn the lights back on. Los Angeles Department of Water and Power workers clambered out and started going through their gear. Neighbors stopped to look. A group of them gathered outside Doug and Teddy McDougall's house.

"Finally," said a smiling Edmond Legaspi, a father of four who has been avoiding the heat primarily by taking his children to the nearby Chuck E. Cheese's. "I've spent way too much money this week."

Too bad this could have been avoided if the DWP had actually invested properly in infrastructure. LA should not be having all of this equipment going offline, even when the system is strained. So, it is great that the workers are being praised and they should be for their enormous efforts to get the whole system back on line. But, this is yet another example of the fragility of the power system in LA.