Marcos Breton’s column in yesterday’s Bee was a rather amazing piece of journalism. In it he decried the arrogance of Sheriff Scott Jones - on full display at the Board of Supervisors’ meeting last week - while pointing out that the Sheriff had done some good deeds by inspiring the community to activism. Now, it’s pretty clear to a lot of folks that Scott Jones has demonstrated insensitivity to many segments of the community, even though he is obligated to serve the entire community as fervently as he does the privileged neighborhoods. But how does that distinguish him from the Board of Supervisors? When you look at the Board’s track record concerning the UnCity and its invisible communities like ours, there really isn’t much difference. Is Arden Arcade blessed with top-notch law enforcement? As we have mentioned, no, we don’t exactly Feel the Love. But, then, we don’t Feel the Love from the Supervisors either, do we? Lacking vision, they let developers run roughshod over us. Where we used to have banks we have usury loan stores, our department stores have been backfilled with 99-cent stores, we have far more liquor stores than we need, instead of a variety of decent restaurants we have an overabundance of burger joints and pizza-by-the-slice places. Spotty code-enforcement, potholes, neglected properties, and low-end this and that are all over the place, which doesn’t bode well for our property values. Our major thoroughfares lack sidewalks; we have fake transit. And don’t get us started on the X-rated massage parlors and homeless encampments, right? That’s how our municipal life is under the thumb of the County and our admittedly unethical Supervisor. Given all that, is Scott Jones really a bad guy, or is he just being consistent with the rest of the show?

If you are OK with how the County rolls, or if you think our Sheriff is really gung-ho for each and every one of his constituents, then you probably don’t think much of Mr. Breton’s column. On the other hand, if you think Arden Arcade deserves better than we get from 0ur Board of Supervisors and our Sheriff, then perhaps Mr. Breton is right — Scott Jones has given us precious gifts. And we should not waste our chance to go through the doors he has opened.