Thin-Skinned And Thick-Headed

While Chinatown was highly fictionalized, there's no doubt that the LA Dept. of Water & Power (DWP) sucked a lot of the life out of the Owens Valley to feed the growing thirst of LA.

Proving once again that in the West, water is what you fight about, a mural in Bishop -- the main town of the Owens Valley -- has brought a return volley from DWP.

According to the NYTimes, the mural by John Pugh, above, depicts:

... an idyllic Owens Valley, with a lush meadow, a surging river and snow-capped mountains.

And then there is the matter of one jarring detail - a big rusty drainpipe etched with the letters LADWP, for Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, sucking the color and, metaphorically, the water out of the vista.

DWP should have just let the mural stand as a pretty darn subtle comment on history, but it's amazing how sensitive an all-powerful bureaucracy can be. According to the NYT,

• DWP "canceled a $500 donation to the Bishop Mural Society, which approved the work, and said threateningly that it would "more closely scrutinize all requests for assistance throughout the Owens Valley." One painting of a rusty pipe puts every charity in the Owens Valley on call.
• Then, they turned on the hyperbole pumps: DWP's colonial general for the Owens Valley said, "It's unfortunate that at a time like this with so much terrorism, violence, hatred and war in the world, such a false and negative depiction of Los Angeles's Owens Valley water-gathering activities would be produced." I'm sure the fine citizens of Bishop loved being compared to Osama.
• DWP employees are informally boycotting the business on whose walls the mural appears.

Call the locals terrorists, take away support from charities that had nothing to do with the controversy, and cause economic hardship to local busienesses. What a fine strategy by DWP!

Photo: New York Times h/t Jim