CALIFORNIA WATCH : Bad Shake

Under what circumstances does California lose out to Buffalo--of all places--in the competition for a national earthquake research center? And under what circumstances does the world’s entertainment capital not get to be host to the Grammy Awards?

The answer is: When people fall asleep at the switch.

Last week’s Sierra Madre earthquake reminded us that there is a National Center for Earthquake Engineering Research--not here in quake-prone California but at the State University in Buffalo, N.Y., where we had thought the primary expertise would be in ice.

Since the turn of the century, California has had 4,421 earthquakes measuring at least 4.0 and New York has had 15. New York doesn’t have much experience with earthquakes, but it knows about grants. When the National Science Foundation asked five years ago who wanted $25 million to start an earthquake center, New York hustled and California sort of took it for granted. So guess what? Buffalo has the national earthquake think tank, and California has egg on its face.

The other example is less earthshaking, but the principle is the same. For the second year in a row, New York was chosen over Los Angeles to host the annual Grammy Awards show, the music industry’s equivalent of the Oscars. It never used to be this way: Los Angeles has had the Grammy show 28 of its 33 years.

The message is clear. If California wants to compete, it’s got to remember to hustle. Not the old dance, just the old moves that got this state where it is.