Commenters on the Times' blog decried, among other things, the city's perceived "kissing up to the rich and famous." But Villaraigosa's basic message seemed, to me, to be more about pride: It's Los Angeles' job to handle major events just like any other big city, and L.A. doesn't need your charity, thank you very much. He's right; that is what municipalities are for. That said, it doesn't seem like it'd hurt to take donations — or for AEG or a well-heeled Jackson friend or two to go ahead and help the public cover that considerable tab. Many think of Hollywood when they think of Los Angeles, but there are also some pretty seriously downtrodden neighborhoods that will only deteriorate further in light of the city's — and the state's, incidentally — cash flow problems. Desperate times, people.
What do you think, PopWatchers? Should L.A. just suck it up and foot the bill? Should it take donations?
More Michael Jackson memorial service:
Michael Jackson memorial cost L.A. $1.4 million
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Michael Jackson memorial: Ken Tucker's review
Michael Jackson memorial: Who was that singing "Heal the World"?
Michael Jackson memorial: Which performance moved you most?
Comments (1-30) of 52 Add your comment
The city should NOT be paying the bill for the memorial service–just another reason why the state is broke!
MJ was not a public servant and contrary to some rabid opinions out there, is not idolized by everyone. The present economy notwithstanding, LA should not foot the bill.
I agree with the mayor only because do you know how much money MJ’s funeral bought in to the city. I don’t think the mayor wants to talk about that but I read that since his death, the city has gotten like 14 million from people visting the city. So imo, it evens out. MJ wasn’t a public servant but his death did bring money into cash-strapped LA.
I’d hate to spend other people’s money, but are you really telling me, Mariah Carey, John Mayer (or some of Jackson’s famous friends who apparently idolized him who didn’t necessarily perform at or attend the memorial service) can’t pitch in to pay for this?
It seems the problem here is that LA has the same disorder that much of America is suffering from: Celebmania. Its one thing to have the media addicted to celebrities but when governments are addicts, we have a problem. Recent examples are Paris’ jail sentence fiasco and the inability to convict any celebrities of any crimes. When they say Hollyweird they aren’t kidding! And like this post and other news media have stated, LA and the St of Cali are broke. CA laid off 25,000 TEACHERS! Let all work together in getting off of our addiction to all things pretty as well as freakin celebrities!
Ceballos, I agree with you (it seems like we’re usually on the same page). The onus shouldn’t be placed on celebrities just because they have the money. But you’d think several of Jackson’s closest celebrity friends would divvy it up and be done with it. You’d think there’d be at least one who would be proud to take on this responsibility. I wouldn’t even be shocked if some celebrity, who didn’t even know MJ personally, eventually stepped forward to foot the bill just out of respect and appreciation. I find it extremely surprising that nobody has volunteered as of yet.
I live in LA and I don’t want to pay for this circus. I didn’t watch the memorial service and I shouldn’t have ot pay for it. His family should pay for it – it was their call to have the service to begin with. And you know AEG is going to make a TON of money from the DVD sales. Antonio Villaraigosa is a tard.
This is ridiculous. Memorial services are paid for by friends and relatives. I find it very strange, and offensive, that this is being done for a has-been of questionable ethics that no one seemed to remember or care about until his death. The “concern” among the public did not exist until days after the public had been pounded with publicity about the death – apparently driven by monetary desires of the family and the media who were otherwise having a slow period and needed something to up sales. Sadly, people let themselves be sucked into a drama about a guy they hadn’t thought about in 20 or 30 years. If the City feels responsible for this sort of thing, why hasn’t it ever been done for the death of any legitimately important celebrity? Did they even do this when Bob Hope died? How about Johnny Carson? Those are people who really did things for our city. What did Michael Jackson do for Los Angeles?
The Mayor has class unlike Congressman Peter King. Sir I applaud you and thank you. Lets give the family the respect in their time of grief. The police dept should do their job regardless of the event.
I do not see why any city should pay for a celebrity’s funeral or memorial. Since LA is cash strapped and MJ is allegedly worth one half billion dollars, why doesn’t the family pay for it? It sounds like pocket change for them.
If the family wants “respect in their time of grief”, maybe they shouldn’t have staged a media orgy. The citizens of LA shouldn’t have to have their public services cut just so that some people can live out their morbid fascination of having been in the same room as Michael Jackson’s corpse. AEG and the family are getting a lot of money out of this and they can cough some of it up to pay back the city of LA for the outlay the city had to make.
Considering how much revenue the memorial brought into the city (90+ million dollars) the city should foot the bill. Thoughts?
If I lived in Calif., which is broke, btw, I’d storm the City Hall. Outrageous. Barry Gordy should pay it.
Villaraigosa is an idiot. I’m extremely glad I don’t live in L.A., because that is some seriously irresponsible administration right there.
I still say that the family should foot the bill – as any family ordinarily does for a memorial service for one of it’s members. End of story.
Hell no, the public should not pay for this pedophilia festival! This was not a funeral, but a PUBLIC MEMORIAL service that no one asked for. Our imbecile, publicity-whore mayor was running around in South Africa with his slutty mistress when this whole thing went down. Now he thinks he can come back and tell us, the taxpayers, what we should be paying for? EFF YOU! No coincidence that every single AEG executive contributed to the idiot mayor’s campaign, which is why he’s defending them.
The city should be paid back. The sales tax just went up twice in three months. The city needs the money, screw pride. Besides, the whole of Los Angeles spreads out over a huge area. It’s not just downtown who will end up paying for it.
I think that MJ’s family should make a donation as a goodwill gesture, a “thank you” of sorts to the city for all the help that’s been given to them with this funeral.
The city did not pay for any memorial service. that 1.4 mil is the cost of security, which is what the city has to pay for to prevent the public from harm from a large gathering.
Villaraigosa just got re-elected so why should he care about the voters. We should recall him and find another suitable mayor who actually has some ethics.
Should the city pay? i say no. And I don’t even live in Hell-A. What I do know (from friends) is that the city has been laying off city workers left and right because of budgetary shortfalls. I loved Michael too but a broke city like Los Angeles should not have to pay for a memorial!!!
I agree with posters like Snarf. That memorial brought a ton of money into the city that wouldn’t have been there without it, and through that probably a ton of tax money into the city coffers. That money would probably more than make up for what they would have to pay for security for the event.
Plus most of the security I saw was highways being closed for the funeral procession. Wouldn’t that be handled by the state run California Highway Patrol?
I can accept the mayor’s stance if he didn’t have the exact opposite stance on the Lakers parade. I think it would be fair to call him a hypocrite.
Absolutely not!!! Also, why did the police on duty get lunches provided. If they were working their regular duty, would we provide lunch. Nobody bought me lunch when I was working. Nobody pays for funerals in my family but the family. Gee, I wonder why the Country, State, City in such a big hurt!!!!! Stupid!!!
Pedophelia festival? You’re an a**. Goes to show some of the LA mentality.
Absolutely not. The Jacksons should be paying for it. They have millions to blow.
So the state wants to shorten the time animals are held in shelters to save money, resulting in more deaths, but the city thinks it should pay for this? Seriously?
Screw that Mayor! you should pay yourself
the family should totally pay. the 1.4 might have been the police security but if the Jacksons had decided to have a private service, the security would not have been needed. LA has enough financial issues, they do not need to add to it.
Please don’t tar all Los Angelenos with the idiot, philandering, egotistical mayor Tony Villar (his given name) brush. Seriously, he’s a tool. And those lunches were pretty cheap – they worked through and I have no problem with lunches being provided. I do have a problem with LA picking up the security tab for this “show”. Hell the Laker parade was tough on a city deeply in debt. Perhaps LA can get a small percentage of the “This is It” memorabilia being sold off……