Gator Watch 2005!

For Angelenos who are accustom to local stories consisting of freeway shootings, papparazzi run-ins and the like, the alligator story is like a breath of fresh air. Of course, since it’s LA, it’s being handled in true LA fashion (meaning it’s the “sizzle” not the “steak” that matters). Sensing its importance, media watcher LA Observed has been cleverly tracking this story from day one, most recently with:

Councilwoman Janet Hahn is getting all territorial about the reclusive reptile that is putting Machado Lake and Harbor City on the pop culture map. A Florida theme park has come to town, promising to catch and take home the alligator that The Guardian dubbed Harbor Park Harry. Hahn, however, says the city might want to intervene and keep the creature here. Uh, how about catching it first? The Breeze reported today, meanwhile, on the growing celebrity status of Jay Young, the yahoo from Colorado who rode into Dodge promising to clean up our town’s gator (or caiman) problem. He left empty handed, but that hasn’t stopped the national media from embracing him.

As you can see, it even has a nickname “Harbor Park Harry.” However, for a town known for creating public images and personas out of nothing, this name falls a little flat to our ears. As Angelenos would say while sipping their soy lattes, “whoever is doing his PR should be fired!” Somewhat surprisingly, the LA Times has kept their anti-gator bias in check. LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa  has also kept strangely silent on the topic probably sensing the issue’s divisiveness. Independent Sources predicts Villaraigosa  will appoint a commission and staff it equally with pro- and anti-gator constituents.

For those of you so sheltered that you do not know the story of Harbor Park Harry, here is a quick recap. Harry is a 7-foot alligator that popped up a few weeks ago in a local park. After a week of unverified rumors and sightings (ala Loch Ness Monster) generating “sure you did” from the park’s rangers, Harry was finally caught on camera (no doubt by the same people who can somehow catch Brad and Angelina  together). It is now hypothesized that Harry was a pet that grew too big for its owner and has been in the lake for the past 2 months or so.

The city then hired a series of “wranglers” to capture him and thus far the only thing they’ve captured is a bit of national fame. The more that Harry eludes capture, the bigger his stature grows. T-shirts with “Harbor City You Will Never Catch Me” are being sold at the park.

So this brings up the question, why not just let him stay in the lake? While people might be worried about him coming out of the lake and eating a child or two, how is this any different than the mountain lions, coyotes, rattle snakes, sharks, etc. that live among us. Even more important, in this post 9/11 world of non-stop negative reminders of our mortality, why not let Harry become a symbol of a dogged determination to survive? As long as Harry is okay, we’re okay!

Okay, that’s a stupid idea, but how about at least leaving him alone for awhile? This is Los Angeles after all, so let’s let Harry enjoy his 15 minutes is fame before he becomes next year’s trivia question.

Update: The LAPD says it has caught the guys who dumped the alligator into Harbor City’s Lake Machado. The LA Times has a small photo gallery of the hubbub surrounding the Southland’s favorite new critter. AOL News offers video. (h/t: Prof Bainbridge)

Technorati: alligator los angeles harbor city

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 24th, 2005 at 2:56 pm by Insider and is filed under California Schemin', Funny ... to us. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.