Sing It: "I'm Bad. I'm Nation-Wide."
The answer is, "$200,000."The question is, "How many tax dollars are budgeted for Mayor Villaraigosa's travel this year?
This expenditure -- which exceeds Hahn's budget by a factor of 10 -- is supposedly justified by the access Villaraigosa gets to other elected officials. Is anyone aware, however, of any actual benefit to our city?
Oh, and this is your open thread. As Mayor Sam would say if he weren't temporarily unavailable, "Blog away, dum dum's."
Posted by Walter Moore @ 5/22/2006 06:01:00 AM
24 Comments:
If you think you are having a bad dream, fellow angelenos, you are actually experiencing your worst nightmare.
I tried to warn my friends before this maniac was elected, but no one listened.
Today is the last day to register for the June primary. Do it! Start becoming proactive.
You are witness the unravelling of our city and he will do the same thing to the country. Stop him now! He is the most evil pseudo public figure on the planet.
Google him, print out ALL the material on him...there is NOTHING good, and mail it to all of your friends, neighbors, etc. Bombard the city with his bad press. Track him back to UCLA in the 70's. Get the word out,...it's your last chance.
Knowledge is power.
,
If you think you are having a bad dream, fellow angelenos, you are actually experiencing your worst nightmare.
I tried to warn my friends before this maniac was elected, but no one listened.
Today is the last day to register for the June primary. Do it! Start becoming proactive.
You are witness the unravelling of our city and he will do the same thing to the country. Stop him now! He is the most evil pseudo public figure on the planet.
Google him, print out ALL the material on him...there is NOTHING good, and mail it to all of your friends, neighbors, etc. Bombard the city with his bad press. Track him back to UCLA in the 70's. Get the word out,...it's your last chance.
Knowledge is power.
,
The biggest problem facing LA today is the illegals. Antonio hasn't said a word about it. People in the valley aren't happy about the trash fee hike, traffic is still horrible, schools still overcrowded and read the Daily News today. Seems Antonio is losing his steam on the LAUSD issue. Didn't LA lose money when Antonio went to Washington to ask for more funds the last time? The media reported it.
Said it before...show me the money.
Tony the Lilar is going to milk the city for every penny he can get. This is just the budget for travel, wait until those sexual harrassment suits start to roll in. A tiger can't change his stripes, a sexual predator can't change his urges. Wait and see.
Let's check those numbers, Westsider;
1. The city budget was the same proposal as Hahn tried to pass last year, according to the recent L.A. Times editorial, which MAV turned down when he was a council member. In other words, he put off hiring officers for political advantage.
2. LAUSD Reform is still a proposal, and a lousy one at that. It takes away our right to vote for local education specific representation. It has thus far ignored the recent progress of our educators and that the progress that will likely conyinue once we have smaller campuses and student to teacher ratios. Finally, if you are not aware, it appears to be yet another "reform effort" for LAUSD which has seen way too many since the education budget was deflated beginning in the seventies(Bussing, LEARN, year-round schedules, to name a few.) What LAUSD needs more than anything else is some stability as it drasticly increases the number of neighborhood campuses which are increasingly open to community events, greener (more lawns and trees), and will eliminate the neccessity for students to leave their neighborhoods for a seat in the classroom. Will that eliminate bad test scores? No, but it could eliminate excuses for poor scholastic scores due to traveling and a lack of neighborhood pride.
3. MAV can take ownership of Sunshine Canyon mediation but I don't think it matched his campaign promises or really satisfied anyone intricately involved.
4. LAX litigation was essentially resolved under Hahn, and those suits that were still hotly contested were being pursued by MAV supporters who were also holding up progress for political reasons
Compare that list to Hahn's first year in office; fired Parks to speed up police reform, successfully stopped efforts to break up the city, passing a budget that wasn't flush new revenue and facing a REAL deficit, and establishing a new city charter and neighborhood councils, all while dealing with a majority of brand new council members.
Oh yeah, that MAV is really something else during his first year in office.
By the way, Westsider, how are those traffic reforms MAV established working for you? No construction during rush hours, right? Waiting for the Subway to the Sea? (Remember, the Expo line was essentialy approved under Hahn.
Otherwise I'm glad to see your remaining objective, anyway. Keep on flying!
Looks like Walter is a ZZ Top fan.
Check out the John and Ken show website. There is a link to their appearance on the Conan Nolan show yesterday. Good stuff.
200,000.00 Chump Change for that guy. You watch...
Even if Westsider were correct about the items he listed being "accomplishment's" of AV's - SO WHAT???? Who gives a rat's ass about LAX, the schools and a landfill when we have REAl problems: Gang violence - mind you, I don't care if they kill each other but they keep hurting innocent bystanders; 24/7 traffic - why isn't some plan implemented to ease it up, not everyone can take that damn train or Valley bus line; housing - now that homes are too expensive, rents have gone thru the roof because everyone's forced to be a renter, I'm paying $1100 for a dump nowhere near my job; illegals - this explains any school system problems, as well as trauma center closures, crime, and the inability to consider visiting - let alone living - in many parts of the city. Ever driven by MacArthur Park? Could be a beautiful spot but instead it's the scariest place on earth. Shame on everyone who tolerates this. Shame on our mayor for not using his platform to tell them this city is for people who want to make this city better, shame on him for not telling criminals to get out and stay out.
11:05
Get used to it. All this mayor has done is offer window dressing. And window dressing tends to get old and yellow, just like the stripe running down his back. Even with Parke Skelton as his "interior decorator" Tony's stories are getting old really quick.
But, hey, everyone, Antonio has that "special shimmer", right? that will open doors and pocketbooks and make others eager to agree with him, to support him, to be seen with him, etc.?
What mediation on Sunshine is the Mayor supposed to be taking credit for?
Are we embarrassed yet? We have a mayor who doesn't care about anyone but himself. Until we all stand up and let our voices be heard he will continue to do nothing and run for higher office. Newspapers and radio and television media who do not report the truth must suffer the consequences of no audience. Only then will they report the real news...
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's personal wealth allows him to take only a $1-a-year salary and to pay for all his own travel...Bloomberg's travels, typically are short hops for the day to Washington, D.C., or New York's state capital, Albany, to lobby for the city's interests, said deputy press secretary Virginia Lam..."His priority is New York City," Lam said..Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley's office has a $32,592 fiscal 2006 travel budget..Travel costs for San Jose's Mayor Ron Gonzales and his staff generally run no more than about $25,000 per year...In more than seven years, Gonzales has been out of the country just twice. His domestic travel is basically two to four trips to Washington, D.C., each year, said his communications director David Vossbrink...San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders' travel budget was $13,000 for fiscal 2006, with no private funding to augment it, said Kevin Klein, the mayor's press assistant.
But Hey, Antonio is a movie star so its allowed. Can anyone figure out just how much money AV has gotten the city since being out almost every month since last July? Most of what he takes credit for was already in the workings by Hahn.
Have AV use mass transit
abc7.com
City Officials To Make Pitch For NFL FranchiseOn Friday, the L.A. city council voted to spend twenty-five million dollars on improvements around the Coliseum, if the NFL agrees to rebuild the stadium, at a cost of about $800 million dollars
Los Angeles, May 22, 2006 - Los Angeles city officials are scheduled to appear at a National Football League owners meeting in Denver today to make a pitch for a return of professional football to their city.
Hey Walt, since you are obviously a ZZT fan, the great Billy F. Gibbons will be appearing on tomorrow's Country Music Awards show as part of the tribute to the late Buck Owens. The guitar that Billy played on a tour a few years back had "Think Buck Owens" on the neck.
Love the ZZ Top.
Cops plan: Hahn (and his sister, who I think was first--joined later by Parks--to suggest trash fee increase) and the council. Kudos, though to AV for joining the train.
LAUSD reform: nothing yet. Nothing productive. But thanks for starting the conversation. Let's see what you can do.
LAX: Deserves credit. His leadership was the difference.
SUNSHINE CANYON: Was barely at the table and dodged all over the place.
Just to set the record straight.
$200 THOUSAND to travel around the country -- can you say self promoting at the LA tax payers expense? maybe EAA isn't as half baked as everyone is accusing them of being.
Mayor Sam,
Thanks for the good times. The 4th Floor under previous ownership was fun and informative. Your site during the first couple years and with the CD 14/Hahn crowd and then Pacheco/Huizar crowd was fun. Really bare knuckles. The 2 AD races, although not as urgent and crazy, are also fun and informative as well. Many a great memory with Chief Parker and Brian Hay and all the anonymous and self-named bloggers.
But now unfortunately, this site has really moved into being a 1 trick pony. With Walter Moore blogging like a geyser and the only responders being the 10 people who hate the Mayor, I think it's time to call it quits for my viewership. I can barely get through the actual topics now, much less read the responses without being sick of the two dimensionality of the responders. You too should also be able to detect the lack of diversity of opinion and voice here on the blog. Is that maybe why you've been conspicuously absent lately?
Thanks for the memories. It was a fun run while it lasted.
By the way, Walter, please run for council. Maybe then you'll actually get a clue.
Did it occur to anyone that maybe it's a GOOD idea to fly around the country, esp to DC, building support for LA and lobbying for tax money?
Do all the anti-AV people really want a redux of Jim Hahn, who laid low and did NOTHING for the city he was supposedly running?
And how do you tell the difference between self-promotion and LA-promotion? Isn't the latter his job? He's the mayor of the second-largest city in the country -- shouldn't he be visible and well known?
Last time I checked the mayor's job included included many duties; lobbying, city promotion, meeting constituents, AND leading the city by making the tough decisions that are neccessary to prepare for the future.
I think the point made is that the only LOCAL decisions he has made was to finally agree to promote what was his predecessor's proposals (budget, LAX, etc.). If he truly wanted to improve the city ASAP he would have worked to pass Hahn's budget a year ago and lobbied his supporters to accept similar settlement offers on LAX suits. He didn't and I can only assume it was for his personal gain. That's not terrible, it just shows that he's not doing his public service solely from the bottom of his heart.
Which leads to two things, his habit of concentrating on proposals he will likely never see come to fruition and his intensive lobbying habit.
LAUSD, believe it or not, will likely have improved test scores as student to teacher ratios drop on new, smaller campuses that are being built closer to where the students live. If they don't a whole lot of studies (not just one) are wrong. Could it be that he just wants to get in front of that parade? He's already admitted that his reform proposals will not likely be in full effect during his tenure. In the mean time his buddies at UTLA are asking for the biggest annual increase in at least thirty years. Has the Mayor said anything? What does that say about his administrative desire?
Subway to the Sea? Not in his tenure. He just needs that for an excuse for the city to pay for his DC trips. Infrastructure? Let's see if the Mayor will be there when they have to use eminent domain or close down a major thoroughfare. Think he'll get in front of the cameras for that? Something tells me that his support had a lot more to do with the Governor's term limits than his desire to lead the city in structuring for the future.
And lobbying in DC with a Republican controlled Congress that was put in place by Red, rural dominated states and Bush? Yeah I bet they're just about jumping to cut that check for LA not that they met MAV! What was LA's potion of the transportation funds last year? I know DC is just abuzz with funds for urban low-income housing. Yup, this is the time to make that strong lobbying push!
Again, his actions are not terrible. They're just, in large part, self serving. The majority of voters knew what they were getting and voted for him over the alternative. End of story.
But is it OK if I say I'm not impressed yet? Will you still visit the blog if I post in the future and say I'm still not impressed?
Our mayor is not only human, his vision for the city that he professes is not pure. I think if most of his supporters did a little examination of their own urban vision they would at least a few dark clouds overhead. The problem is if they actually did that they would have to wake up from the dream.
Lay off the mayor
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