Got Trees? (*Update)
Not to be outdone, Hahn's folks quickly pulled a play out of Ace Smith's playbook and fired back challenging Villaraigosa's ties to Cadiz Inc. at Antonio's press conference.
The others all started touting their environmental records and saying the move by the League of Conservation Voters was expected.
In other Villaraigosa news, we also learned that Villaraigosa will be out of town yet again, this time in Arizona (Thanks to anonymous poster on previous post for tip) at a Latino Forum and most likely a few fundraising stops. At what point does someone need to generate a freedom of information act request demanding Villaraigosa's schedule to figure out just how often he is in his district? This is beginning to border on the absurd. He must have thousands of frequent flier miles by this point. Maybe Meat will fill us in? In previous posts he has challenged others accusations about Villaraigosa's attendance. Now is the perfect opportunity to clear the record.
If not, thanks to LAist, I think we know who could help.
*UPDATE*: In response to comments on this post, Villaraigosa's interview with KTLA can be seen via their feedroom here. (You may need to click the 'more' button to view the clip) I'll leave the commentary regarding his performance and whether or not he was ambushed up to you. Happy Commenting!
Posted by Anonymous @ 1/07/2005 08:39:00 AM
30 Comments:
To any council staffer: Is Tony being excused because of personal business or city business? Meat apparently isn't doing his job so Tony needs to go out of town to get advice on stopping the recall. I agree with Chief Parker that someone needs to file a FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT REQUEST.
Yeah Tony bring us the trees after you bring us 100 more police officers both for Northeast and Hollenbeck.
FROM MEAT:
Well if the Mayor would sign on to Antonio's cop plan like Bratton did then we'd be on our way to getting those cops.
If fact we can get those cops sooner if Hahn agreed to councilman greg smith's (a reserve cop) proposal.
But the fact that its not hahn's idea means there won't be any action behind it. The only action going on in the hahn campaign is the massive fines his contributors now have to pay.
blog away.
Well, Mayor Sam, thanks for the use of your blog. The recall has to move on now to the business of collecting signatures and we don't think too many CD14 voters read Mayor Sam. By the way, that slab of MEAT? It's mostly FAT - and all between his ears. Bye bye DUM-DUMS.
FROM MEAT:
Sweet thats one less wacko i have to deal with. I suspect in about 2 weeks they will be back blogging as they are going to find out that collecting 15,000 sigs in CD 14 is harder said than done.
They are going to haveto collect more signatures than Nick Pacheco or Antonio Villaraigosa got in votes during the last City Council Race.
blog away dum-dums.
Ok Meat here I go. Greg Smith's proposal to borrow from a bond is a quick fix and a bandaid to a long term problem. That's how Tony and Huggy Bobby almost bankrupt CA when they were in assembly. Sure we get 250 cops right away but then how the hell do we continue to pay for them and keep hiring? Greg says with the Federal Grant. That's not a guarantee and WA is cutting everything because of war. So if we borrow and don't have money to pay it back we up deep shit. Tony's plan for cops won't work until 2006. WE can't wait that long. Meat ask TONY why he took off his 1st year record document off his city website. Could it be he lied and took credit for stuff he didn't do? REcall people won't have a problem. Constituents in 14th say they are madder then they've ever been at a councilman and will go looking for the petitions with their friends.
You might take note that WA is the abbreviation for the State of Washington. If your referring to Washington D.C., that happens to be on the other side of the country right between Virginia and Maryland and its abbreviation is D.C. (that is, District of Columbia).
Antonio shouldn't be blindsided by the question. His office has been fighting the recall with the city clerks offices since day one.
He did, however, in typical Antonio style lie about the recall committee. He said it was 3 people and only one lives in the district. Under the rules, there must be 5 CD 14 residents on the committee and the City clerk approved the notice to Antonio, so there must be 5 who live in the district. He KNOWS this because he accepted the notice to recall and chose not to respond.
I know the number is trivial, but if it was important enough for Antonio to lie about it, then it is important enough to correct.
5 filed but hundreds want him OUT. I hear from inside sources he's really nervous about the recall now that he didn't respond. He knows they're organized and ready to rock and roll. Let's get a move on. People are waiting to sign.
I think the Mayor should take a look at CM Smith's plan for more cops. I think asking the voters to vote on something we just voted on two months ago is the dumbest idea yet. Does the Mayor think the voters are stupid???
I hear from inside sources that the recall people are scared out of their pants because they realize all they can do to stir anything up is go on these blogs, not say who they are (and give credibility to what they're doing) and say the same thing over and over again.
I guess it's true if it's now on the blog!
From MEATEATER:
OK, so can anyone stick to the actual posting? Dang, partisans on all sides seem to ignore Mayor Sam, and I don't like that. It is disrespectful to a dead mayor (and I'm not talking about Hahn).
So I laughed when AV said we should plant 1 million trees. There are about 5,000 new trees planted a year right now and 2,000 taken out, for a net of 3,000 new trees a year. So, assuming AV doesn't keep things at current levels (term limits--and life expectancy--prohibiting him from serving for the 333 years it would take to plant them), and being generous and assuming he is talking about over eight years (two terms), we would need about 113,000 trees a year (115,000 new ones minus the 2,000 taken down)--an increase of about 2300%. Now, there may be a problem about where to put all these trees, but let's assume there are plenty of places to put them. We currently have about 184 people in the Street Trees Division of Street Services, according to their web site (http://www.cityofla.org/BOSS/streettree/StreetTreeFacts.htm), and an average city employee costs at least 50K with their generous benefits (I am sure this is a low number). To add the staff to plant and maintain these trees we would need 2300% the current level of 184. 184x23 is about $212 million a year for the staffing, and there must be some cost to the trees (but we will exclude that).
This is $212 million A YEAR. About the same amount of money to hire 2000 cops. About an increase in the city budget of about 5% in the general fund. With a budget deficit in the city of roughly $300 million, this proposal is totally unrealistic.
Wonder if anyone will hold him to it if he wins?
MEAT, blog away. I own you.
Hey Meat why hasn't Tony confirmed his attendance for the Feb 7th debate? At least that's what lavoice.org is saying.
FROM MEAT:
Hey Meateater - you really got me this time, i am really shaking in my boots. Unfortunately, you sir did not realize the details of his plan.
I don't think the proposal calls for the city picking up 100% of the tab on the million trees at all -- in fact if you talked with the League, Sierra Club or even Tree People -- they want civic engagement in the local environment, and if this means using the bully pulpit of the Mayor's office to get folks involved so be it. If this means getting folks attention with a real proposal for a million trees to spark this civic engagement great. Promoting this idea with the LAUSD and other school districts within the area while making sure the DWP concurrently promotes Green Power is a dual approach at attacking A. Smog and B. Civic engagement in our local environment.
Perhaps this proposal is a bit pollyannish for you MEATEATER, i don't mean to ignore your very thorough internet research, but thats not what the proposal was based on. Sometimes buddy inspiring people to do better, to make their city better, is how we as a city become better.
And MEATEATER if you owned me you be about 10 times smarter than your post suggest. Dum-dum
blog away.
C'mon Antonio doesn't know what he is talking about and he doesn't care. As long as it sounds good, he'll say it.
And as long as he says it, MEAT will say he's trying to inspire people.
As long as it will get him elected he'll say it. Like the vow not to run for Mayor. He had to say that to get elected in 2003 and he doesn't care that he's breaking the vow.
Wait, Antonio won the CD 14 election with less than 15,000 votes? In a district with 80,000 registered voters? Man, that's depressing.
Meat- So what you're saying here is that when the Times said that Antonio was "pledging to plant 1 million trees," it should have actually said that he was "pledging to
have someone, but not necessarily the city, plant 1 million trees." Right?
Let's look at the rest of AV's enviro plan, according his website--
* Green LA with tree-lined streets, roads and parking lots;
Hey, who doesn't like trees? But I guess the city isn't necessarily going to be planting them.
* Create an emerald necklace of parks along the LA River and in the neighborhoods;
Nice use of the language from the LA Business Journal's article a few months ago. But does it mean anything?
* Clean up our beaches;
OK. How?
* Make cleaner air a City Hall priority;
Great. What is he actually going to do?
* Commit to a goal of recycling 100% of waste;
Bullshit. Did someone just pull this one out of their ass? You're saying that Antonio wants to recycle absolutely every ounce of waste in the city? How is he going to do
it? Magic pixie dust?
* Ensure that DPW purchases 20% of its power from renewable sources by 2010;
Good deal. But it's spelled DWP. Trust me on this.
* Create a Green Gateway to the Pacific Rim at the Port of Los Angeles;
Man, I read press releases for a living, and I can't tell what the heck that means.
* Respect and protect the environmental health of every neighborhood equally;
OK. Hard to argue. But again, a statement that sounds nice even if it's not clear that it really means anything.
* Protect and improve our reliable and clean water supply.
Sure, good. Any plans on how?
Man, it's amazing that AV can roll out this kind of drivel and get away with it. It's one thing for Alarcon to say that he's going to give planning authority to NCs or
establish a thousand neighborhood watches--I don't think anyone (with due respect, Senator) thinks he can win. But it's funny that for all the fact that liberals and the
newspapers love AV, nobody really points out that the emperor is buck naked....I mean, buried in all the politcal hackery, this proposal has exactly three concrete ideas.
1. A million trees. That someone else is going to plant, or that the city is going to spend $200 million on.
2. 100% recycling, accomplished via magic and dreams.
3. DWP, 20%. I think we're all OK on this, as long as AV's willing to agree that we're talking about DWP-Water & Power, not DPW-Public Works.
Two are frankly stupid, and the other one's something that almost everyone else agrees on.
Who's voting for this clown?
loverboy? villaraigosa has always had your vote. you were quoted in the LA Times saying you were supporting him.
Hey everybody..Antonio sent out a flyer yesterday saying he was going to put 300 officers on the street TODAY. I want to know how many officers Antonio put on the streets yesterday. Anyone know? I didn't think so. What a lame flyer. I also heard that he's being investigated by the Bush administration. Anyone know about that story? Something about the Kerry campaign. C'mon guys give us some stuff.
From MEATEATER:
I'm a little hungrier this week than in past weeks, and MEAT, no need to be so defensive--you are one of the few folks who usually has some substance to your postings (though that last one got a bit shrill). Remember, without MEAT, there could be no MEATEATER.
I am never above being a little inspired. Hell, I've been waiting for a little environmental inspiration from this mayor for four years, with only late results. Alarcon is OK on this front, Hertzberg too mod squad to be concerned in any deep way with the urban environment, and Parks (despite his environmental name) has yet to establish himself in this area, though he is proving a quick study.
Nevertheless, AV is walking a fine line between inspiration and pandering. I want proposals that actually have a chance to happen, and saying that the Tree People and others would plant 1 million trees is fine, but this is still a gigantic number, even looking at the 30,000 trees or so that the Tree People and like groups plant throughout LA County (not just city remember). And the city gets to take care of these things. We need specifics if this is even in the realm of possible, and you didn't provide 'em. That's what blogging is about--more than Internet research, MEATY.
Next, Anonymous, though quite anti-AV, had a good posting about the environmental claims of AV (and all the rest should be held up to the same standard). I appreciate the detail. Here are a few of my thoughts:
AV says:
* Green LA with tree-lined streets, roads and parking lots;
ANONYMOUS RESPONDS:
Hey, who doesn't like trees? But I guess the city isn't necessarily going to be planting them.
MEATEATER ADDS:
I agree--let's be specific here, as in tight budget times, it isn't enough to say we are going to do things and they will happen. As someone who has been to my share of tree plantings as a participant and observer, this is a really high threshold.
AV says:
* Create an emerald necklace of parks along the LA River and in the neighborhoods;
ANONYMOUS RESPONDS:
Nice use of the language from the LA Business Journal's article a few months ago. But does it mean anything?
MEATEATER ADDS:
AV even admitted when he first started using this phrase that it was not his. So don't beat him up about that. It comes from Olmstead in the 30s (?) I think, and AV usually credits them. It definitely isn't taken from the LABJ.
AV says:
* Clean up our beaches;
ANONYMOUS RESPONDS:
OK. How?
MEATEATER ADDS:
Good point--we need more AV specifics. AV is usually at the beach cleanups that Heal the Bay and others do and has a pretty unimpeachable record here, but Jim Hahn and others also show up, too. More substantive was Proposition O, which will really clean up the beaches. Who joined Garcetti and Perry in this campaign? Did AV, JH, BP, or anyone else help out? We should ask each candidate what their role was.
AV says:
* Make cleaner air a City Hall priority;
ANONYMOUS RESPONDS:
Great. What is he actually going to do?
MEATEATER ADDS:
Judging by the number of hybrids in the City Hall garage and the city's Environmental Affairs web site, we already have the largest pc fleet in the country, apparently. The coal plant stuff isn't LA air, but JH and AV both took stands agains this (did Alarcon when he was a councilmember?) though I can't remember if Parks did. JH started the program of plugging in the ships in the port with electric power, but Parks says he ain't doing it fast enough. I agree. Shipping interests are powerful, but let's set the bar in L.A. God knows that Wilmington and San Pedro (as well as the rest of us in the basin) could use the help.
AV says:
* Commit to a goal of recycling 100% of waste;
ANONYMOUS RESPONDS:
Bullshit. Did someone just pull this one out of their ass? You're saying that Antonio wants to recycle absolutely every ounce of waste in the city? How is he going to do
it? Magic pixie dust?
MEATEATER ADDS:
Nothing wrong with 100% as a goal. Shit, if we can get away from landfilling as Greig Smith is trying to get us to do, we'd be pretty well off. But how much is this going to cost. And who is going to crack down on apartments?
AV says:
* Ensure that DPW purchases 20% of its power from renewable sources by 2010;
ANONYMOUS RESPONDS:
Good deal. But it's spelled DWP. Trust me on this.
MEATEATER ADDS:
:-0 That is funny. And it is already done. Good to promise. Everyone can claim credit on this one--Cardenas, Padilla, Garcetti, Galanter, Deaton, Hahn, Villaraigosa, Parks, your mother in Dayton.
AV says:
* Create a Green Gateway to the Pacific Rim at the Port of Los Angeles;
ANONYMOUS RESPONDS:
Man, I read press releases for a living, and I can't tell what the heck that means.
MEATEATER ADDS:
;-) Another funny. How does this jive with keeping the port as an economic engine? That is the question that NO honest mayoral candidate can answer.
AV says:
* Respect and protect the environmental health of every neighborhood equally;
ANONYMOUS RESPONDS:
OK. Hard to argue. But again, a statement that sounds nice even if it's not clear that it really means anything.
MEATEATER ADDS:
I think it refers to environmental justice--don't take poor commnunities for granted. But we already have that champion on the council, as one Jan Perry beats up everyone for environmental racism, and does it quite well.
AV says:
* Protect and improve our reliable and clean water supply.
ANONYMOUS RESPONDS:
Sure, good. Any plans on how?
MEATEATER ADDS:
Agreed--pretty vague. See Prop O stuff above. And what can we do about dwindling Owens Valley and Colorado supplies? This is an area where Hertzberg owns EVERYONE. Seriously. Look at his state legislature work. Speak up, Bob.
Stay dry everyone!
FROM MEAT:
Hey Meateater -- i actually respect you. As to the sometimes shrill nature of my postings -- thats just for fun. No harm, no foul.
I am not going to claim to be an environmental policy wonk on this one, but i can help fill-in some of the details. Though i am sure not all of them, as i am not a member of Antonio's staff (because i am not on his payroll).
Antonio's role on Prop O was substantial. In council he filed various motions to stregthen and provide more oversight and accountability for Angelenos. Also it was with the permission of Antonio that his political team ran the campaign for Prop O. Is it possible another team could've won the campaign, sure, but it was Antonio's campaign team that ran Prop 0, it was Antonio's motions that put more accountability in the initiative. Remember Antonio was also concurrently trying to get Measure A passed county-wide. Something this Mayor didn't do squat for.
As for the Greengateway -- it really means cleaning up the port, I think the difference between Hahn and Antonio on the environment is that it won't take a lawsuit to get any action. The correct name of the term is called "cold ironing" and we need more of this at the port. This is how we cut down on pollution coming from the port and hurting communities like Wilmington.
It's quite a sin of Hahn to claim he cares about the port because he lives in San Pedro and has to deal with the pollution the same as everyone else. The truth is Los Angeles's wind pattern conveniently bypasses Hahn's house and always dumps its pollution over wilmington and the poorer communities of San Pedro. So lets be honest about your claim mr mayor.
At the end of the day -- meateater, myself and mr anonymous aren't environmental activists or experts ( i am guessing here of course on the those two guys) but the city should listen to the folks that are the experts. The League of Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club know this issue very well. Sierra Club had their candidate interviews couple of days ago, so we'll see where they go. Unless these folks have a problem with any of the statements, and they don't, no anonymous bloggers is going to really shake up anything except their own typewriter.
Lastly, one piece of MEAT knowledge on the recall supporters, since i have infiltrated your small group, i think its here i should expose the folks financing this effort.
Apparently mr villaraigosa as a councilman has shut down many many bars in the community (which is a great thing) seems as though these owners of these establishments are upset and want revenge. So upon hearing of the political ploy, they decided to help the Nadar supporters and give the initial financing to make this happen.
If i have time, the names of the bars will be posted to include the owners names, since these are the deginerate alcohol pushers in the community who want to recall Antonio.
One question that always bugged me about this recall -- If Antonio wins his campaign to become mayor, doesn't it make this recall null and void? I think it does, which can only lead to the conclusion that this is a political ploy to distract people away from the issues this city faces.
blog away lil sad people, blog away.
Let's give credit where credit is due. The one responsible for closing bars on the Eastside is Rocky Delgadillo not AV. Again he likes to take credit for things he didn't do. All AV does is show up to the press conferences. He also wasn't responsible for the crack house in El Sereno being knocked down. Again Rocky. Why hasn't AV done anything about the blight of the vendor issue MEAT? They are out of controll taking away business and getting tax free money from legimate business companies. A Latino needs to write a letter to LA Times to set them straight. In today's paper it says Latinos voted for AV because they wanted him to become 1st Latino mayor back during council elections. They voted for him because he promised to be a good councilman. Big difference. I high doubt he will have their vote this time round.
Maybe the recall people don't think Antonio will win MEAT. And since you are always asking for documentation MEAT, could you post anything on Eliseo Villaneuva being a Nader supporter, although I am not sure what that has to so with anything, and anything you have on bar owners financing the recall? And, maybe you will post where Villaraigosa gets his money for his campaigns? While I am against recalls in prinicple, look who we have as Governor because of one, and I am against the recall of Villaraigosa, it is this sort of sleaze and unsubstantiated bs tossed around by MEAT and people like him MEAT that relegates any serious discussion of issues to the gutter.
Meat since you're the biggest AV supporter and seem to know everything without filing a Public INformation request tell us where AV has spent his CD14 budget in his district. He has tons of money from his old campaign and seems to be spending that money outside of CD14. We want to know where his budget money that is suppose to go to CD14 has been spent. Ok forget abou the brooms he bought for constituents to sweep the community. Give us some hard cold facts since you're always us for facts.
Hey Chief Parker, post the article in today's LA Times on Bitter Bernie losing again another one of his top campaign staffers. Pretty sad this is the fourth. If this doesn't show the people he has not leadership skills or doesn't have what it takes to be mayor maybe he should read article. Give Jr. a lot of credit for taking a leave of absence. Antonio's staff is working on his campaign on city time but would never think of taking leave. They have no integrity just like the old boss
I look forward to that list of bar owners financing the recall, MEAT. By the way, I am still waiting for that list of 72 neighborhood watches you promised to get back with some 2 or 3 weeks ago. Or is this all Antonio's spin, MEAT? Your credibility, and Antonio's, is going down the toilet fast.
Yeah Meat where are the 70 or so neighborhood watches AV been telling everyone he created. We asked officers at both Hollenbeck and Northeast and they say that is a total lie. They said no where near that many exist at both stations. So c'mon Meat where can we find them? AV made that number up and he's going to get nailed for another lie
I was at a community meeting where Hertzberg said that Villaraigosa in fact took credit for Bills that he did not even attend meetings on. Hertzberg referred to some of the above Bills. Instead of attacking Hahn why doesn't Huggy come out and state misleading facts that Villaraigosa is taking credit for? Where's MEAT when all the answers?
I hope it's clear to everybody by now that MEAT is all spin and no information.
Antonio said on KTLA channel 5 that Ascot Hills was an acquisition when asked what he has done as a councilmember.
His exact words were, "The largest open space on the eastside, in fact Los Angeles, acquisition. 100 acres for Ascot Hills, that’s now going to be a nature preserve and a passive park."
This space has always been owned by the City of Los Angeles. I remember attending meetings in El Sereno with Alatorre about this space becoming a park but the residents on Multnomah hated the idea. I understand Pacheco had a plan with 80% passive natural open space and 20% active space, i.e, baseball fields.
What ACQUISTION is he talking about or is he just making things up as he goes?? What ACQUISITION??
Is he trying to take credit for Alatorre's and Pacheco's work on keeping this space for the community instead of more apartments. I know that a developer approached DWP to put apartments up there around 1999 and Pacheco stopped that.
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