Karen Bass stiffs Valleys longest-running July 4 parade why?

A starkly unpatriotic decision by Karen Bass has landed like a dud firework.The mayor has pulled support for the Sunland-Tujunga Fourth of July parade in the San Fernando Valley, prompting its cancellation.Her reason for the snub? Pennies, in effect.Bass apparently found the cost of traffic control and road closures for the parade — about $20,000 — too much to bear.This, she decided in the eleventh hour.On the nation’s 250th birthday.

Leaving organizers with no time to fund-raise or find another sponsor.Not cool.The mayor would do well to reverse course and restore support for the beloved event, which dates back more than 50 years.As it is, her move is puzzling, at best.And it rankles parade organizers, given the millions LA spends mopping up after activism encouraged by city officials.Lydia Grant, president of the Sunland-Tujunga Neighborhood Council, told The California Post: “All the ICE protests that they paid money for, now they don’t have money [for the parade].They’re investing money into protests and activism instead of something that would bring our community together.”She has a point.

While LA does need to cover police overtime for, and repair property damaged by, anti-ICE riots, city officials — including Bass — only encourage such bedlam by demonizing federal immigration enforcement.Is it possible that politics played a role in Bass’ slight of the parade?It almost certainly did in another recent case.As The California Post reported in April, the notoriously left-wing California Coastal Commission blocked a long-running fireworks display in Long Beach — also, as it happens, just in time for the nation’s 250th birthday.The coastal panel said it acted to protect the shoreline from pollution. But that’s a stretch.Does 15 or 20 minutes of pyrotechnics once a year really harm the environment in a port city, where cargo ships daily befoul the air and ocean? California's top news, sports and entertainment delivered to your in...