Leaving Los Angeles

In the Wall Street Journal, Rick Newcombe, president of Creators Syndicate, which distributes numerous columnists (including Austin Bay, whom I interviewed last week here),  explains why his firm is leaving L.A.; not surprisingly, as his essay’s subhead notes, “The business climate is worse than the air quality”:

If New Yorkers fantasize that doing business here in Los Angeles would be less of a headache, forget about it. This city is fast becoming a job-killing machine. It’s no accident the unemployment rate is a frightening 11.4% and climbing.

I never could have imagined that, after living here for more than three decades, I would be filing a lawsuit against my beloved Los Angeles and making plans for my company, Creators Syndicate, to move elsewhere.

But we have no choice. The city’s bureaucrats rival Stalin’s apparatchiks in issuing decrees, rescinding them, and then punishing citizens for having followed them in the first place.

Socialism: if you build it, they will leave.

Found via Kathy Shaidle; related thoughts from Michelle Malkin (whose syndicated columns are also distributed by Creators) and Ed Morrissey. And Glenn Reynolds’ newest InstaVision interview with Joel Kotkin on “Who Killed California’s Economy?” and for sharp contrast, his interview with Gov. Rick Perry of Texas are also very much well worth watching.