Is the Los Angeles City Council the stupidest political body currently active in Southern California? I'd be tempted to say yes after news of an embarrassing, racist, patronizing, and frankly just icky idea to ban convenience stores in South Los Angeles because its residents are too stupid to pass the corner store without putting down $2 for a bag of chips that are bad for them.

The Los Angeles City Council has allowed an 80-year backlog in street repairs, a 100-year buildup in buckled sidewalks, and now, we learn, the city is underlain with ancient, cracking sewer lines. We're the Sinkhole City in more ways than one. These 15 council members each have a personal staff of 15 to 20 (the White House Office staff is 480 roughly, but LA City Council needs an incredible 320 staffers), yet keep proving they are too dumb to do their basic job of overseeing city infrastructure and wisely spending people's money.

They are past their one-hundredth day without a city budget, overspending by a cool $1 million daily. That's your money. The budget spectacle has bloggers, who normally go after news a bit juicier than budget fiascos, practically transfixed. So what do these City Council people spend your time on? 

Telling South LA how to live–again.

I wonder if it ever occurred to the grossly overpaid City Council, the nation's highest paid at $178.789 per year, which is 400% of L.A. median income and TWICE as much as the pay for the New York and Chicago City Councils, that teens and adults who live in gang-ridden, shitty neighborhoods surrounded by urban grime get a lift out of snacks that are bad for them?

Not that it's any of their business. It's not. Let Kaiser figure out how to make people thrive, and FIX THE ROADS.

Maybe the City Council, which has already embarrassed itself by pursuing a ban on fast-food chains in South L.A. — another racist, absurd idea — should go to South L.A. and lecture people about how they shouldn't be driving beat-up cars, and they ought to stop watching so much reality TV, and they need to reduce their freakin' carbon output?

Here's a thought: Do your real jobs, City Council, and stop coming up with nonsensical projects  to avoid the heavy lifting. You electeds make Los Angeles look worse than it is.

Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.