Steve Lopez Gets Lost in the Sierra Madre

We've been pointing to the Sierra Madre mess for a good long while now; none other than Steve Lopez of the LA Times has taken a deep breath and given his best in answer to our call:

Another blogger, known as the Sierra Madre Cumquat, reported — in one of the lamest stabs at satire I've seen in a while — that Councilman Kurt Zimmerman had opened a bathhouse for young men, superimposing his photo over what looked like a gay orgy. The same website made up a story that pornographic images of V supporter Faye Angus had been released on YouTube.

"It's so vile," said Angus, an author who has lived in Sierra Madre for nearly 50 years and speaks with a very proper Aussie accent. "I don't look at [the blogging], but there are people around town who monitor it and let me know."

When I told Angus that DowntownDirt.org didn't appear to be as satirical as other sites and instead seemed devoted to jabbing the Observer, she scoffed. DowntownDirt has a space devoted to "lively, spirited and civilized debate," on which a February entry by "Cumquat" asked "how long it's been" since Angus "had an orgasm."

Makes you wonder if there are any grown-ups left in town.

Okay, so maybe it wasn't in answer to our call, but read the whole thing. Along with the excellent op-ed by Jacqueline Knowles in the Pasadena Star (and despite the lamentable fact that he doesn't mention Foothill Cities) I think Lopez offers the best printed take yet.

Browse through our Sierra Madre section to find out more about the cast of characters and events Lopez describes. Watch Faye Angus on YouTube before the Cumquat got personal; read debates between Mt. Wilson Observer and DowntownDirt.org supporters and see how an argument concerning day laborers entered the arena, et cetera...