New crime tracker hits the spot

Check out SpotCrime - a kewl email utility that will send you crime updates near any neighborhood you want to keep an eye on. Right now this thing is totally filling up our Twitter account on a regular basis with LA area crime info.

Seems like an awful lot of "crime" is happening in town, all the time in fact.





Wondering:

1. Can it be possible that LA really has the lowest crime numbers since Wally and the Beaver?

2. It's time for a daily digest via email version!

A technically adept individual can probably use SpotCrime to compare the LAPD's advertised crime rates to the hard numbers from SpotCrime and see just how much data massaging is actually taking place.

When you figure it out,. e-us with your results.

Conan to People of Earth:

People of Earth:

In the last few days, I’ve been getting a lot of sympathy calls, and I want to start by making it clear that no one should waste a second feeling sorry for me. For 17 years, I’ve been getting paid to do what I love most and, in a world with real problems, I’ve been absurdly lucky. That said, I’ve been suddenly put in a very public predicament and my bosses are demanding an immediate decision.

Six years ago, I signed a contract with NBC to take over The Tonight Show in June of 2009. Like a lot of us, I grew up watching Johnny Carson every night and the chance to one day sit in that chair has meant everything to me. I worked long and hard to get that opportunity, passed up far more lucrative offers, and since 2004 I have spent literally hundreds of hours thinking of ways to extend the franchise long into the future. It was my mistaken belief that, like my predecessor, I would have the benefit of some time and, just as important, some degree of ratings support from the prime-time schedule. Building a lasting audience at 11:30 is impossible without both.

But sadly, we were never given that chance. After only seven months, with my Tonight Show in its infancy, NBC has decided to react to their terrible difficulties in prime-time by making a change in their long-established late night schedule.

Last Thursday, NBC executives told me they intended to move the Tonight Show to 12:05 to accommodate the Jay Leno Show at 11:35. For 60 years the Tonight Show has aired immediately following the late local news. I sincerely believe that delaying the Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn’t the Tonight Show. Also, if I accept this move I will be knocking the Late Night show, which I inherited from David Letterman and passed on to Jimmy Fallon, out of its long-held time slot. That would hurt the other NBC franchise that I love, and it would be unfair to Jimmy.

So it has come to this: I cannot express in words how much I enjoy hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is for me to consider losing it. My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of The Tonight Show. But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction. Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the Internet a time slot doesn’t matter. But with the Tonight Show, I believe nothing could matter more.
There has been speculation about my going to another network but, to set the record straight, I currently have no other offer and honestly have no idea what happens next. My hope is that NBC and I can resolve this quickly so that my staff, crew, and I can do a show we can be proud of, for a company that values our work.

Have a great day and, for the record, I am truly sorry about my hair; it’s always been that way.

Yours,
Conan

Genetically altered corn linked to organ failure

HuffPo is reporting a scary one - genetically modified corn with FDA approval is linked to major organ failure. Yikes!
----

Monsanto's GMO Corn Linked to Organ Failure, Study Reveals

Huffington Post   |  Katherine Goldstein/Gazelle Emami
Posted: 01-12-10 05:30 PM 

In a study released by the International Journal of Biological Sciences, analyzing the effects of genetically modified foods on mammalian health, researchers found that agricultural giant Monsanto's GM corn is linked to organ damage in rats.

According to the study, which was summarized by Adam Shake at Twilight Earth, "Three varieties of Monsanto's GM corn - Mon 863, insecticide-producing Mon 810, and Roundup® herbicide-absorbing NK 603 - were approved for consumption by US, European and several other national food safety authorities." Monsanto gathered its own crude statistical data after conducting a 90-day study, even though chronic problems can rarely be found after 90 days, and concluded that the corn was safe for consumption. The stamp of approval may have been premature, however.

In the conclusion of the IJBS study, researchers wrote:

"Effects were mostly concentrated in kidney and liver function, the two major diet detoxification organs, but in detail differed with each GM type. In addition, some effects on heart, adrenal, spleen and blood cells were also frequently noted. As there normally exists sex differences in liver and kidney metabolism, the highly statistically significant disturbances in the function of these organs, seen between male and female rats, cannot be dismissed as biologically insignificant as has been proposed by others. We therefore conclude that our data strongly suggests that these GM maize varieties induce a state of hepatorenal toxicity....These substances have never before been an integral part of the human or animal diet and therefore their health consequences for those who consume them, especially over long time periods are currently unknown."

Monsanto has immediately responded to the study, stating that the research is "based on faulty analytical methods and reasoning and do not call into question the safety findings for these products."

The IJBS study's author Gilles-Eric Séralini responded to the Monsanto statement on the blog, Food Freedom, "Our study contradicts Monsanto conclusions because Monsanto systematically neglects significant health effects in mammals that are different in males and females eating GMOs, or not proportional to the dose. This is a very serious mistake, dramatic for public health. This is the major conclusion revealed by our work, the only careful reanalysis of Monsanto crude statistical data."

Climate Wizard tracks climate change

Imagine Los Angeles a full 7.5 degrees F hotter on average than it it is today! That's what awaits us in 2080 according to the Climate Wizard. 

This great new wizard from the Nature Conservancy and developed by the University of Washington and Southern Miss gives you the median result of all of the current best science computer models on climate. You can play with the variables and make decisions on where you want to move to in the next sixty years.

We're waiting for the iPod version.

Check out it out here.

Of lunatics and the GGPNC election

Update 2011:

Recently, as Mr. Tomas O'Grady was campaigning for City Council District 4, hits on this particular article went drastically up. While investigating, we find that much of the information hard-linked here in January 2010 today now have 'not found' errors, or - as in the case of Mr. O'Grady's MySpace page - have changed/moved/been altered.) 

With blogs, external links always change over time, and Griffith Park Wayist has no control over external links. That said, the very pointed changes and edits to the external documents which were linked here in January 2010 are terribly interesting given O'Grady's  recent foray into the very public spotlight. 

Terribly. Terribly.  Interesting.
-------------

Applications to run for the Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council board close January 19th, which is also the date of the next GGPNC board meeting. We at GPWayist care about the GGPNC perhaps more than other neighborhood councils because Griffith Park lies in their boundaries. As the impending election stands today, this neighborhood council is in big, big trouble.

There is little doubt crackpots and nutcases aplenty are running for the Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council board this go-round. This is usually true of any local election, so this is hardly an earth shaking observation. In this case, however, the depth of the truth of this statement became crystal blue clear when a bunch of crazies popped up with shockingly paranoid fanaticism over a single 6-line tidbit we posted here on Griffith Park Wayist. Griffith Park Wayist is an evolving body of work with more than 300 articles and observations to its credit, written and gathered by five independent authors since it went live at the end of July 2009.  Yet one-small-item brought 'em screaming out of the psyc ward.

(As an aside, we'd like Unafraid to finally launch their first article, but they've been busy with their work.)

One borderline personality running for re-election is Tomas O'Grady, a Los Feliz local who seems to have some pretty serious personal issues. Griffith Park Wayist highly encourages everyone to vote for anyone but Tomas O'Grady. Why?

Where do we start? How about here: In response to the now infamous GPW tidbit, O'Grady himself  we're told sent us this cheery missive.

Dear “Wayist”:

These citizens you call “the crazies”, do you mean the ones who object to Griffith Park being used as an excuse for bullying? Do you mean the folk who object to the way Griffith Park scare tactics have been used as a fake political issue to hijack the NC? Do you mean those who are fed up with your smear campaigns and your phony emergencies? Do you mean the growing number of people who are tired of the toxic atmosphere created by the very GGPNC board member who is the “Wayist”?

This has never been about “protecting” Griffith Park. It’s always been about protecting the egos and the territory of a few self-aggrandizing Los Feliz elites who, over the years, have twisted the GGPNC into a nasty little playground run by a gang of neighborhood bullies.

Los Feliz is much more than Griffith Park. Both Griffith Park and Los Feliz deserve better than to be turned into a battleground for the sake of a tiny handful of petty Napoleons who imagine that the world will fall apart if they aren’t running things.

Vibrant, healthy democracy depends on free and open debate enriched by many voices and viewpoints. If the “Wayist” defines as a “crazy” anyone who disagrees with her, it says far more about the “Wayist” than it does about the “crazy”.

There’s a term for this mentality: it’s called ideological bigotry.

But, by all means, “Wayist”, keep blogging. I love it. I say, expose what lies beneath that self-righteous façade. Let as many voters as possible see how deeply malicious you really are.

January 7, 2010 7:52 AM

Not only does O'Grady show his deeply rooted paranoia with the claim that GGPNC board members write for Wayist - they don't - but his outright hate for other members of that board and for Griffith Park, of all things, can't help but spew out of the man and onto the paper. The 'bully' claim is interesting only in the fact that others subjected to his wrath state that abuse is actually O'Grady's own relentless tactic.

O'Grady's MySpace page shows him to be a self-proclaimed Dylan-esque musician and 'free spirit', fighting the widespread oppression wielded by The Man. O'Grady doesn't appear to be securely employed, claiming to have made a ton of money in real estate back east (selling for The Man?) One supposes that his lack of current formal employment leaves him more than enough time to prey on fellow local conspiracy theorists - including the local fishwrap in the area whose lack of objectivity has earned it the nickname among locals of the Los Feliz Liar.  O'Grady has founded or attached himself to a number of light-weight philanthropic activities in the area and is one of a small group of community people who generate fake publicity and public perception by creating web sites about causes that either don't exist or are being perverted for a purpose. He freely confuses his association with the GGPNC with his personal causes.

People report being afraid of O'Grady's hair-trigger temper and his potential for violence. He is reportedly more than disrespectful during neighborhood council board meetings when he doesn't get his way, to the point of becoming abusive. He's obsessed with filming each meeting, possibly fancying himself either Norma Rae or Michael Moore when in truth he's closer to Phil Jennerjahn in his lack of any functional political understanding. He behavior is reportedly that of a spoiled man-child, which is likely what brought the anonymous comparison to another very famous spoiled man-child, one Michael Jackson.

Last month, without board authorization O'Grady went to a Silverlake Neighborhood Council meeting stating he represented the GGPNC.  He then responded to a number of items in this capacity, and to one in particular with a voice described as "screaming" by one board member to that council's board  when they did not approve an expenditure of less than $200 for a clown or party entertainer to perform at a children's event within Silverlake's boundaries. O'Grady later tried to force the Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council to pay for the same services by invoking the 24-hr special meeting and agenda process. When the GGPNC board declined to allocate funds for two reasons (1. you cannot "pay" anyone via the NC process, and 2. this takes place in another neighborhood council's boundaries and within another neighborhood council's purview), O'Grady reportedly threw another of his patented temper tantrums and yelled at the board saying that they hated children or some such blather.

O'Grady is chair of the GGPNC Green committee. Here is a sample of their work from the November 19th GGPNC Board Meeting. Note the nonsense of disallowing all uses of bottled water at GGPNC sponsored events - imagine this ban at popular GGPNC summertime eco events like the LA River cleanup -  and the shameless allocation of funds to a 501(c)3 non-profit that O'Grady himself founded  and another he is associated with.

12. Green Committee

A. Bottled Water/ MOTION # 1: The GGPNC recognizes the environmental problems associated with the use of bottled water. We encourage as an alternative, the use of tap water. We will strictly adhere to the policy of the City of Los Angeles which forbids the use of our public funds to purchase bottled water. The GGPNC calls on all City departments to adhere strictly to this rule. The GGPNC will not fund any community event or program that utilizes bottled water. The green committee is ordered to publish on the green page, practical and easily executable alternatives to the use of bottled water at these programs and events. The GGPNC calls on all City of Los Angeles Neighborhood Councils to adopt a similar resolution.
 
ALTERNATE MOTION # 2: The GGPNC recognizes the environmental problems associated with the use of bottled water. We encourage as an alternative, the use of tap water. We will strictly adhere to the policy of the City of Los Angeles which forbids the use of our public funds to purchase bottled water. The GGPNC strongly encourages the use of alternatives to bottled water and will give preference to funding community events or programs that do not utilize bottled water at these events or programs. This does not prohibit the funding of events that use bottled water. The green committee is ordered to publish on the green page, practical and easily executable alternatives to the use of bottled water at these programs and events. The GGPNC calls on all City of Los Angeles Neighborhood Councils to adopt a similar resolution.
 
B. Trees & Plant watering: MOTION The GGPNC agrees to approve up to $350 to purchase a small 45+ gallon water tank and accessories for watering trees in Los Feliz.
 
C. EASTSIDE ECOTOUR 2009 MOTION: The GGPNC agrees to contribute $300 towards expenses for the EASTSIDE ECOHOME TOUR 2009, organized by Farm Feliz, Eco-Home Network and the Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council Green Committee. The GGPNC further agrees to post promotion material on the front page of its website and to email the GGPNC database so as to encourage participation.

Needless to say, Griffith Park Wayist highly encourages everyone with interest to run for the GGPNC Board, and to vote for anyone but Tomas O'Grady.

Prop 8 trial broadcast cancelled, but live blogging available

The judge may have pulled the plug on the live feed, but bloggers at the trial are doing a lot of live blogging at http://prop8trialtracker.com/

An excerpt from this afternoon:

Live Updates from the Courthouse IV: Afternoon session continues

By Rick Jacobs

 Sandy is now on. She’s also very poised. She learned in her mid-thirties that she is “gay.” She got married to a man before. She had no feeling that she was a lesbian when she was married to a man. I had a difficult relationship for most of our marriage, but I started it out with the best of intentions. She grew up in Iowa in a small town of 1,500. It was a good but sheltered upbringing.

We did not travel or go to places very different from where we grew up. I had no idea of a gay lifestyle or sexuality until I was a late teenager. I moved to CA in 1985 and got married to a man in 1987. We dated for a year before we got married on 14 November 1987. Marriage ended in 1999. (Olson is very interested in drawing out the trajectory of her sexuality, which is fascinating, rarely discussed in public.) She met Kristin first as a coworker. We were friends. The feelings I had for her were different than I had for others. I grew to realize that I was falling in love with her, in early 1999. My marriage was falling apart on many fronts. I was extremely unhappy. My ex-husband relied on alcohol and could not support the family properly. My sexual orientation or the discovery thereof did not have anything to do with the failure of the marriage. I had never experienced falling in love before. Olson draws out whether that’s true of her husband. I never thought people “fell in love.” When you grow up in the Midwest with a farming family, there is a pragmatism that is inherent, part of the fabric of life, that is pervasive. I remember my mom saying that marriage is more than romantic love, it’s an enduring long term commitment that is hard work. In my family, that seemed really true. I wanted to have the kind of relationship that my parents did and do. Kris and I have a very romantic relationship. Not only did we fall in love, we wanted to merge our families. I was 36. We wanted that life of commitment and stability.

O: How convinced are you that you are gay? You lived with a husband. Some people would say it’s this, then it’s that and now it’s this.

S: I’ve only been in love once and that’s with Perry. I’m 47. I know. I’m a plaintiff this case because I would like to get married and to marry the person that I choose and that’s Kris Perry and California law prevents that.

Sandy describes her version of their marriage, the toasts, the love from community: When I got that letter saying that our marriage was no longer valid humiliated, angry and that people who brought us gifts and celebrated with us felt pity for us which is the last thing that I ever want to evoke around marriage.

S: It felt great that the court thought we had a constitutional right to get married. It was cloaked in this distension that felt very familiar. The activist groups that opposed marriage made me realize that this was not permanent. I felt strongly that at my age I don’t want to humiliated any more. We got married twice and it was taken way. I want it to be permanent, no chance it get taken away from us. We did have friends that got married. We were proud and worried for them because we did not want them to have the same problems we had.

Read the rest here...

Funkalicious flash-back circa 1970

Doctor who assaulted bicyclists sentenced

This just in - a rare victory of sorts for cyclists in the Southland today. The Twittersphere says that the judge in this case received more than 270 letters and took none of them into consideration when he pronounced sentence.

From the LA Times:

Doctor sentenced to 5 years in prison for assaulting bicyclists in Brentwood

A doctor convicted of assaulting two bicyclists by slamming on his car brakes after a confrontation on a narrow Brentwood road was sentenced today to five years in prison. Christopher Thompson, wearing dark blue jail scrubs, wept as he apologized to the injured cyclists shortly before he was sentenced. "I would like to apologize deeply, profoundly from the bottom of my heart," he told them, his right hand cuffed to a court chair.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Scott T. Millington called the case a "wake-up call" to motorists and cyclists and urged local government to provide riders with more bike lanes. He said he believed that Thompson had shown a lack of remorse during the case and that the victims were particularly vulnerable while riding their bicycles.

The case against Thompson, 60, has drawn close scrutiny from bicycle riders around the country, many of whom viewed the outcome as a test of the justice system's commitment to protecting cyclists.  Millington said he did not take into account more than 270 e-mails and letters from cyclists that were filed with the court urging a tough sentence.

The July 4, 2008, crash also highlighted simmering tensions between cyclists and residents along Mandeville Canyon Road, the winding five-mile residential street where the crash took place. One cyclist was flung face-first into the rear window of Thompson's red Infiniti, breaking his front teeth and nose and cutting his face. The other cyclist slammed into the sidewalk and suffered a separated shoulder.

Read the rest here.

Neighborhood councils scramble for real impact on the fiscal crisis

As neighborhood councils scramble to do something significant during the City's fiscal meltdown, they're calling yet another meeting - never enough of those you know - while continuing to line up like lemmings for the Mayor's Budget Survey - whee! 

I guess we've said our piece about the shamelessly biased budget survey. The City's real financial problems are not magically erased by the Budget Survey's General-Funded services hatchet game. The Budget Survey attempts to force you to balance the City's budget by cutting General Fund services only. City parks and recreational services are unfortunately one of these easy targets because the Department of Recreation and Parks is partially funded through the City's General Fund. Lots and lots and lots of other services and programming are not.

Paul Hatfield rightfully pointed out at Village to Village that governance by survey is a terrible method. He is more than right on that account, but a terrible idea has never stopped our City leaders before.

Jack Humphreville actually gets at the real heart of our complaint about the Mayor's joke process in today's CityWatch.  In Los Angeles, there is a  four-year budget deficit of over $3 billion, an unfunded pension liability of $11.5 billion which is not impacted in any way by the proposed pension restructuring, and crumbling City infrastructure that needs an investment of at least $10 billion. Of course, the more Antonio can shuffle, blur, confuse, and obfuscate, the faster he'll be long gone and it'll be someone else's problem. Our problem. Your and my problem. The People of Los Angeles's problem.If we're still trying to live here.

OK, so who knows? Maybe the NC meeting this Sunday might produce some action. Let's see what, if anything, comes out of it. Meanwhile, boycott the Mayor's Budget Survey and think about feeding it to him for lunch - if you can actually find him in town.
-----

Emergency Meeting of Neighborhood Council Representatives and Leaders
   
Subject: LA’s Financial and Services Crisis and what NCs can do about it

• Sunday, January 10 (1:30 sharp)
   Hollywood Constituent Center
   6501 Fountain Ave (just west of Vine/just south of Sunset)

• ALL LA Neighborhood Council board members/representatives invited
Open to the public

Park pic of the day

Taken by  robdeadtech Tuesday.

RKO property still available to develop

Since Councilman Tom LaBonge bellowed years ago that he had turned his mighty powers toward procuring the RKO property, we were sure he'd have actually done it by now. Unfortunately, it looks like the Mayor of Griffith Park is more than just a little behind on this one. Probably too busy working on that new calendar.

Here's the bad news from Curbed LA:
------------------

Development: Still Available: Good Psyche and a $22 Million Hollywood Listing

Remember two years ago when a group of Chicago investors listed an 138 acre lot right near the “H” in the Hollywood sign for $22 million? The move freaked out the city, and in particular, City Councilman Tom LaBonge, who famously said homes shouldn’t rise near Hollywood sign, and that a clear view of the hills was “good for the psyche of Los Angeles.” Everyone else was just freaked out by the fact that the sellers purchased the plot in 2002 for $1.675 million–what a mark-up.

Anyway, in June 2008, real estate agent Ernie Carswell told us that that four offers had been submitted–and all had been at list price or above asking price. Hmmm. So what’s up now? And why is it no longer listed on the MLS? In an email, Ernie writes: “There is a potential purchaser who has negotiated a one year due diligence term, which is more than halfway finished. Meanwhile, for the possibility that the initial purchaser does not follow thru, the sellers are continuing to show the property, although we have not published it in the MLS. If by end of February there is no significant move forward, then the property will return to market, at a lower offering price, and we will begin a full marketing effort.” Take from that statement what you will.

Here’s the official site.

Campo de Cahuenga re-enactment this Sunday

Please Join Us for the Re-enactment of the Signing of the Articles of Capitulation at Campo de Cahuenga.

Sunday, January 10, 2010 1:00 p.m. to 2:15 p.m.

• Fiesta Dancers 
• Living History and Authentic Uniform Dress 
• Firing of the Howitzer Cannon 
• Tour of the Archeological Dig 
• Memorial Wreath Presentation 
• 12 Flags Over California 
• Complimentary Refreshments 
• $2.00 Taco Bar 

Event Sponsored by Campo de Cahuenga Historical Memorial Association

Visit our Website: www.campodecahuenga.com or
Contact us by e-mail at: campodecahuenga1847@hotmail.com

Presented by
The City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks

Campo de Cahuenga
3919 Lankershim Blvd,
North Hollywood, Ca 91601

Park-ing LA tidbits

Send your Park-ing LA tidbits to GriffithParkWayist@gmail.com


The Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council wants YOU to get involved. Quite honestly, before crazy people completely take over and sink one of the City's first neighborhood councils, please consider becoming a candidate for District Representative on the GGPNC Governing Board. To get your name on the ballot for the March 20th GGPNC Elections you need to file before the deadline on Tuesday, January 19, 2010. Click here for links to more info. Please. Hurry. Take one for Team Not-Crazy-Humans.

Expansion expansion expansion!  That's the plan for Griffith Park 2010, starting with LA Live Steamers!  The Griffith Park LA Live Steamers Station Project is proposed plan for a considerable new station building and restrooms at the Live Steamers facility. The claim is that they don't have any public restrooms, but in reality they do have - IF you are a contributing member.  Vewy eeenteresting.....

Richard Alarcon has decided that he alone is The Decider regarding what to do with the failed Children's Museum building on Hansen Dam land. So far, he's held private parties in the building, and is in the process of interviewing entities who would just love to move into a $55 million free building built on park land for $1 per year.  That $55 mil includes $10 million of Prop K for Kids recreation money - rare PUBLIC RECREATION money.  As we've noted before, Griffith Park barely dodged this salt-water-injected bullet in 1999 thanks to a galvanized group of citizens who knew better than the City officials did, obviously.

There's a new fitness training group meeting Saturday mornings in Griffith Park. Check it out here.

According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the second public meeting for the Sepulveda Basin Master Plan update has tentatively been scheduled for Saturday, February 6, 2010 beginning at 10:00 a.m. Location:  TBD  The second Hansen Dam Master Plan meeting hasn't been announced yet, or if it has then the Hansen Dam Park Advisory Board isn't telling anyone - i.e. the public - about the public input meeting. That wouldn't exactly be a surprise from this group, or from the Army Corps of Engineers either.

On January 2nd, a male teenager had a thought - wouldn't be a great idea to get absolutely blitzed and then go hiking on mountains in Griffith Park? Sure! After being found by Park Rangers, this Darwin award special mention was transported to the hospital without incident.

The same day, a man was seriously injured in Griffith Park when an off-leash dog went after his horse, who then threw him, breaking his arm.  People: keep your dogs on-leash. We know you hate it, but public parks are not your private property. For the safety of everyone, all animals, including horses, dogs, and little humans, must be "under control" at all times by the responsible party. 

To kick-off the year ETI Corral 38 (Griffith Park) invites you all to clean out your closets, tack rooms, barns and garages and participate in the Corral 38 "Used Tack & Show Clothing Sale & Fundraiser" on February 14 to raise funds for the corral and help everyone sell what they don't need or get what they do need for their horses and upcoming shows. So get cleaning and mark your calendars.... and we have no idea who to contact on this event. Someone e us with that info...

Park pic of the day

Taken by lacemastarson on Monday.

Kevin James likes us

Well, he likes MT anyway. Fascinating.

Much thanks for the hat tip from Kevin James, who featured MT's Top Ten Stories of 2009 on his December 30th show radio show.

Finally official

PaulKrekorian The drive to reform LA has begun. The City Council just ratified the results of the Dec.8 election, making my victory official.
about 2 hours ago from UberTwitter


Check out Paul's CD 2 web site.

Mayors Budget Survey: irrelevant in 2010

Boycott the Mayor's Budget Survey

It's that time of year again in the Mayor's office: time to make the citizenry decide what services they can and will do without in the next budget year under the guise of "empowerment". It's become an annual ritual, and  like a competitor of PT Barnum once voiced, Antonio Villaraigosa is betting that there isn't just one born every second, but that they will keep coming back year after year.

What does this budget survey hope to accomplish? If anyone thinks for one second that the Mayor's budget survey process isn't biased or that it has any real relevance in an unprecedented fiscal crisis, then they must be on multiple mind-altering substances. The survey is hardly comprehensive across City services. It basically opens with the Mayor's pet projects and projects lined up for cuts, and asks the public to be the hatchet man.

Yet in 2010, Los Angeles is facing a budget situation never before seen  in its history. Entire restructuring and consolidations of departments, payrolls, and services are the only way there will be a viable budget this year. In these days of historic financial weakness, this survey game of the Mayor's isn't just obsolete, it is a smokescreen for what is really happening in Los Angeles - a complete financial meltdown that may yet be followed by actual bankruptcy.

Since the Mayor first introduced his survey as a way to appear the public had a voice in the process of spending their money, Los Angeles's neighborhood councils have dutifully jumped through the Mayor's budget survey hoops. One assumes that the fear of not having a say-so in even what is assuredly a fixed game has kept them playing the sucker role year after year.
  
Now in 2010, it's time to say NO. Taxpayers should not be handing a lame-duck Mayor the means to defend his personal budget choices by putting it on the backs of the neighborhood councils. The Mayor should be forced to defend his choices in public hearings, where everyone has a chance to hand him a piece of their minds ... in two minutes or less... if they're lucky.

Better yet, it is time Neighborhood Councils held their own budget summit. Witness the defeat of Measure B.  Neighborhood Councils are powerful en masse. If they chose to boycott this farce and do it their way, Tony and his fifteen fiefs would have to listen.

From:
Date: December 29, 2009
To: Neighborhood Council Friends and Colleagues
From: BongHwan (BH) Kim, General Manager, Department of Neighborhood Empowerment

Dear Neighborhood Council Members:

The Mayor's Office is launching the Fiscal Year 2010 -11 Budget Survey, the "LA Budget Challenge," an interactive online survey that allows Angelenos to provide direct input on real budget issues that the City is facing, by participating in a budget balancing simulation exercise. The LA Budget Challenge survey is also designed to educate users on the actual development of the City budget, which will be particularly challenging during Fiscal Year 2010 -11. Please visit the survey site at http://labudgetchallenge.lacity.org/budgetchallenge/sim/budget_master.html and be among the first to take the survey!

As an important part of the annual budget development process, the City Charter requires that each Neighborhood Council have the opportunity to present the Mayor and the City Council with a list of priorities for the City budget. Over the past four years, Mayor Villaraigosa has implemented a structured process to ensure that all Neighborhood Councils and community members have the opportunity to become informed about the proposed City budget and have the ability to submit their ideas, comments, and budget priorities directly to his Office.

The Los Angeles Budget Challenge survey asks respondents to address next year's projected General Fund budget deficit of approximately $400 million by making decisions on reductions to programs and services, implementing Citywide cost-cutting measures, and by raising revenue through taxes or other initiatives While completing the Los Angeles Budget Challenge survey, participants will receive educational information about the City's finances and opportunities for community input, thereby making the City budget process more transparent and accessible for all Angelenos. Responses to the Los Angeles Budget Challenge will be compiled, analyzed and presented to Neighborhood Council budget representatives and community members at a budget workshop meeting in early March 2010. Participants will be able to provide additional input on budget priorities, as well as take part in a valuable dialogue on City budget issues. The Mayor's Office licensed the budget challenge software from Next 10, a non-partisan, non-profit organization that in 2005 released the "California Budget Challenge" survey to engage Californians in the State budget process. Next 10 can be visited at www.nextten.org or at http://www.nextten=

Original image from http://mrsfligs.blogspot.com/

(LA Times) "Who's going to stand up for the mountain?"

I really don't think it is NIMBYism to fight the 'Entitlement Establishment', do you?

Steve Lopez is a little wishy washy on that issue, but in the case of The Edge and his 5-building compound planned for a pristine cliff top near Malibu, he's pretty much right on target with the local NIMBYs: Build It Elsewhere.
------
  
Go tell it on the mountain: The Edge doesn't need five homes here

The U2 guitarist is lining up political muscle and environmentalist star power to support constructing his eco-friendly castles on a pristine ridge near Malibu. What's greener? Not building at all.

By Steve Lopez

Just so you know, it's not easy for me to refer to U2 guitarist David Evans as "The Edge." Sure, there was a time when I referred to myself as S. Lo. But I quickly realized that once you've gone gray, it's hard to get away with anything other than what's on the birth certificate. And I can't keep a straight face when I tell you that the five eco-friendly castles Mr. Edge wants to carve into the top of a pristine ridge near Malibu already have names. There's "Clouds Rest" and "Panorama," "Shell House" and "Blue Clouds." And my personal favorite, "Leaves in the Wind." The latter is also the name of a website (www.leavesinthewind.com) promoting the controversial project, which would sit high above the Malibu pier, with a sweeping, miles-long view of spectacular coastline. You'd think a guy from one of the greatest bands in history could come up with a name that was a bit, shall we say, edgier, for a rock 'n' roll compound.

The Malibu area has been buzzing since a video was added to The Edge's website in the last several weeks, perhaps in anticipation of an upcoming California Coastal Commission hearing on the proposal. Against a gag-inducing track of New Age music, with birds tweeting in the background, fawning proponents of The Edge's plans praise the project. His supporters include Bonny Reiss, Gov. Schwarzenegger's former senior advisor, and, more surprisingly, Mark Massara, head of the Sierra Club's Great Coastal Places Campaign. "It's going to take those visionary leaders being associated with projects like these, that are going to show how to make the California coastline a model of sustainability," Massara says on the video, in which he all but encourages the Coastal Commission to embrace the proposal. Clearly The Edge is lining up all the political muscle and environmentalist star power he possibly can. He's even got a well-connected PR and lobbying firm -- California Strategies -- backing him up.

And that combination of clout and slick marketing is part of what riles Malibu City Councilman Jefferson Wagner. Although the compound would be outside Malibu city limits, it would require major expansion of a road within the city. Wagner is not inclined to vote in favor, and he's not a fan of the website testimonial, which makes no mention of all the dust in the wind there'd be once the bulldozers take the mountain. "It's a sales-pitch video," said Wagner, a local surfing legend who has his own nickname -- Zuma Jay. He called the video The Edge's way of saying: "I'm doing the right thing." "But if he was doing the right thing," Wagner went on, "he wouldn't need that video, right?" And if he were doing the right thing, why would the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy have fired off a letter to the Coastal Commission that attacks the project on one point after another, bang, bang, bang?

"Unfortunately, it is impossible to construct the five homes strung over a mile of ridgeline and 7,800 feet of water main without resulting in unavoidable significant adverse visual and ecological impacts," says the nine-page letter, which was signed by the conservancy's chair, Ronald P. Schafer. "None of the five houses is consistent with the Coastal Act," the letter went on, contending that "each would result in permanent and significant disruption of Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Area." There'd be a series of 1,800-foot driveways slicing up the terrain not far from Malibu Creek State Park, the letter went on, and the conservancy also worried about the possibility of more houses being erected by property owners who could tap into the water line The Edge would have to build.

The Edge, whose famous band has taken up the cause of social justice and environmental protection around the world, argues on his website that there's really nothing to worry about. "I hope you will agree that my partners and I have worked diligently to design homes that meet the highest environmental standards; that fit appropriately and aesthetically into this beautiful part of Southern California; and that are truly remarkable examples of the best architecture and design," he wrote. "Why did we go to so much effort? Because my family and I love Malibu. We've maintained a residence here for more than a decade, and once our new home is finished we expect to spend much of our time here."

Ted Harris, of California Strategies, said design and construction changes have been made to further minimize impact and make the houses blend organically with their surroundings. The conservancy complaints, he said, were not surprising because the agency simply "doesn't embrace residential development" in the mountain areas. Perhaps that's because, as the conservancy argued, this development would sit on a ridgeline that "is the most prominent landform along the coast between Topanga Canyon Boulevard and the Ventura County line." I'm awaiting a call back, by the way, from the Sierra Club's Massara. I'd like to let him explain why a longtime champion of coastal protection is so enthusiastic about a project that raises so many questions.

Steve Hudson, district manager of the commission's central coast office, told me he's reviewing "potential impacts to public views, environmentally sensitive habitat areas and questions about engineering and geological issues." Minimizing impact, Hudson added, "typically means siting residences below ridgelines." There's no doubt that if this project goes ahead, the houses would blend into the landscape more neatly than most of what's been built in Malibu over the years. And without question, there's some hypocrisy and NIMBYism at play in a region that has already seen far too many houses erected in fire zones, not to mention the longtime resistance to sewer lines despite nasty ocean pollution. But the truly green thing for The Edge to do would be to stay in the house he's in, and avoid yet another ego-propelled incursion into one of the great wilderness areas of the state. I was up on that ridge the other day with Zuma Jay, and the natural wonder was beyond words. A lot of people are standing up for The Edge, said Zuma Jay.

"Who's going to stand up for the mountain?"

steve.lopez@latimes.com

Sepulveda uprising

Griffith Park has SaveGriffithPark.org, and now Sepulveda Basin has Friends of the Sepulveda Basin, a new watchdog site dedicated to bringing important issues in the City's second largest regional park to light.

Check out their site and their latest issue: a renovation of the baseball fields whose size, scope, and lack of meaningful public input has parks activists concerned.

How long until all of the City's large regional parks have similar sites, and how long until their local activists realize their individual issues are eerily similar?

LaBonge in 2011: City FunZone Coordinator

Just in case you missed this LA Weekly piece Wednesday, or worse yet - you didn't get a calendar!

 
City Councilman Makes A Pretty Calendar For 2010

LA Weekly
Wed., Dec. 30 2009 @ 3:31PM

By Dennis Romero in City News, community, politics

If after looking at the city's looming, $400 million deficit, its difficulties in hiring cops, and its five-year (losing) battle with mushrooming marijuana dispensaries, you thought the Los Angeles City Council was useless, we would kindly ask you to take a second look.

Councilman Tom LaBonge, whose district has been so overrun with potshops that some activists have taken to calling him Tom "La Bong," is a true artist, and he's giving his aesthetic gift -- photography -- to his constituents in the form of a 2010 wall calendar, one that he notes was "not printed or mailed at taxpayer expense."

Whoa. Were we wrong. After lambasting the council for sitting on its hands on the budget, pot shops, and other looming matters while earning a higher salary than what's slated for the governor of California, we really feel bad. Here's a councilman who cares.

"The city of Los Angeles may be facing considerable budgetary problems," LaBonge, who represents the 4th District, writes in an introduction to his calendar, "but we still switched on the first solar-powered park lights at North Hollywood Park, broke ground on the first green-roofed fire house, Station 82 in Hollywood, installed a new track and field that John Marshall High School has needed for 70 years, and helped secure a $6 million CRA grant that is one of the last pieces of the fund-raising puzzle for the Wilshire YMCA."

Right. Forget about the 18 marijuana dispensaries that have cropped up in Miracle Mile, part of LaBonge's district. Forget about the looming city layoffs. Forget the fact that some neighborhoods go without their usual fire companies on an odd day because the city can't afford to staff them. What L.A. really needs is solar-powered park lights -- and a pretty calendar -- to save the day.

"I feel privileged to share with you fourteen moments from the past year when I stopped and said, 'Wow, this is spectacular,'" LaBonge writes.

We feel the same way each time we look at the Los Angeles City Council.