School of Rot

LOS ANGELES – Where else but in La La Land would they transform an aging stinking eyesore into a truck school?

According to a report in the Los Angeles Times community leaders started converting part of the former Lopez Canyon Landfill into a trucker’s academy last week.

“The academy will provide a free, intensive four-week program to teach drivers how to operate big rigs,” Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said.
“It is a collaboration between employers and unions to meet the need for qualified drivers.”

Villaraigosa said the state has estimated it will need 50,000 new truck drivers over the next 10 years to handle transportation of goods.

The academy is funded through grants from the state and under the Community Development Block Grant program, which is providing $640,000.
Alarcón, through the special fund created when the Lopez Canyon Landfill was closed, is providing $100,000 in return for seeing 25 percent of those trained coming from his district.

A five-acre site on the former landfill will be paved and in a program being run in cooperation with the Teamsters, up to 30 people a month will receive training to be able to drive big rigs to meet what officials believe is a gap in the transportation industry.