A party

Last night I went out to the open house of Senator Roderick Wright and Assemblymember Steven Bradford, as a resident and not a reporter. I was so excited. I had some great ideas for complete streets and bike lanes in Inglewood. I told my neighbors about this open house and sent out some emails.

We all had ideas about making Inglewood a more fabulous place.

On the flyer it said:
Learn about the upcoming legislative session and share your ideas on making your community better.

The open house was from 5pm-7pm, so many of us rushed from our jobs for this unique opportunity to bring our concerns to a higher level. We thought what a great chance to have people listen to us. Our City Council often laughs at us when we bring up things, like why Moody's downgraded Inglewood.

Inglewood's mayor looks bored when we're talking. At the party he didn't look that bored, but he left rather quickly.

At 4:30 I dumped all my junk and big plans for Inglewood in my car. I was a little disheveled from my life's work supporting children with special needs. I looked a bit dowdy, but I did take off my scrubs after all I was going to talk to a state senator and an assemblymember.

Imagine my surprise when I walked into— a party. A party with a DJ and people with fancy clothes.

The people with the fancy clothes on all seemed to know each other.

I saw some of my neighbors and they were just as surprised as me. You could tell the uncool people from the cool people. We all had on Christmas sweaters and the cool people looked like extras from the television show Scandal.

"I rushed here from work to come to this meeting. I didn't know it was a party," active community member in District 1 in a smart sweater.

None of knew it was going to be a party. No one who lived in Inglewood and is concerned about what happens in Inglewood knew it was going to be a party. We thought we were going to a meeting. We thought we were going to a meeting to voice our concerns and to throw out ideas.

I got a plate and put it down at a table. A woman put her coat on it. I guess since I was no one (person who lived in Inglewood) she didn't want me wasting valuable networking space by eating there.

I truly felt like the uncool kid with nowhere to sit.

I went by the elevator and tried to strike up a conversation, but I was unsuccessful.

My neighbors who were in attendance said they were leaving.

I left too.

This is the second meeting I've gone to at Inglewood City Hall where the food was great, the decorations were wonderful and a private conversation seemed to be going on between the top players in the game of politics.

For future reference to regular uncool people an open house, information gathering and coalition building session means a place where people are introduced to the people we've elected and then we get to talk to those people about our concerns.

What happened last night would be called a holiday reception or party.

It was nice holiday reception or party, but it was not what any of us with flats were expecting.

I have a bit of hope, Assemblymember Bradford did have on a sweater….