Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Friday
Zev Yaroslavsky will assume the chairmanship of the First 5 LA Commission (established by the statewide ballot initiative Prop. 10 to fund early childhood development programs), and preside over the first meeting of 2007. California voters passed Prop. 10 which established a 50 cent-per-pack tax on tobacco products that generates approximately $700 million a year to be spent on government programs intended to assist young children. This is the measure sponsored by Rob "Meathead" Reiner for which he eventually served on the statewide commission implementing the program. There has been significant controversy over the years surrounding Prop. 10 - including charges of alleged misuse of funds - and Reiner eventually stepped down from the commission.The California Grocers Association recently passed a legal hurdle in their challenge of the grocery worker retention ordinance passed in 2005 by the L.A. City Council. A Superior Court judge ruled that the organization's lawsuit against the city will go to trial. The ordinance requires that new owners of any grocery store with at least 10,000 square feet retain and pay the preceding owner's entire workforce for 90 days, even if the store undergoes significant operational changes. The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce has been opposed to this ordinance. The ordinance is preempted by federal labor laws, conflicts with state health and safety laws and improperly dictates rules of employment. The Chamber will continue to support the California Grocers Association in its legal efforts.
7th District Council candidate Monica Rodriguez is hosting a grand opening event for her campaign headquarters. Saturday, January 13th, noon to 2:00 p.m. at 12680 Foothill Blvd., Unit C in Sylmar.
Radio talk show host Doug McIntyre is always amazed at activists who are opposed to "gentrification." It blows his mind - as well as what is left of this old, dead Republican mayor's mind - that some people actually think that improving blighted properties and increasing their property value is an evil thing. That being said a great opportunity to finally uplift a 22 block section south of Downtown is being critiqued by "affordable" housing providers and other beneficiaries of the welfare state.
The Daily News reports a "mom and pop" hardware store in Woodland Hills is closing after 60 years in business. The usual culprits - Home Depot, Lowe's, etc. are blamed - but the owner makes a very telling remark: customers want to save money. This is why the Sunland-Tujunga wackos who predict nary a one of their neighbors will shop at the new Home Depot in that burb will be in for - as Eddie Murphy once said - "a mother fuckin' surprise."
And finally, I thought we had already dealt with this issue. Mike at Franklin Avenue and the WWG are both smelling stenches.
Posted by Mayor Sam @ 1/12/2007 12:10:00 AM
28 Comments:
this is going to sound funny, but something really did smell fishy at the western edge of the P.Ro neighborhood this evening. P.Ro being Pico Robertson, and fishy being the smell of dead fish. We're land locked, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't a BBQ going, so don't know where it was coming from. Beverly Hills perhaps...
Saving money is indeed a nice thing. But having a shortsighted, dull-witted, clonal populace that will ruin the soul of their neighborhood simply to save maybe a hundred dollars a year isn't.
This weekend will be the GRAND OPENING OF A CAN OF WHOOPASS on Rodriguez.
Wait to see how bad she gets beat on this one.
Rumor is that she will never be able to run again.
You can call us Sunland Tujunga wackos all you want, at least the people in this community have the guts to try and stand up against the corporate greed and unethical behavior of a company that pillages and destroys their communities. Get a clue, a Home Depot DOES NOT belong in a residential neighborhood. This is a quality of life issue for the adjoining residents. They belong in an industrial area like the one located in Sylmar. If you think it's SO great in a residential area, let's see how fast you cry if they wanted to put one in next to you. And check out the pictures on www.no2homedepot.com of "Home Depot Cares" depicting current photos of the mess that is typical around the Sylmar Home Depot. This is representative of how they maintain their sites as I have observed it many times. Just what we want in a residential area adjacent to a school. And let's have tractor-trailer rigs driving down a substandard residential street adjacent to the local elementary school. If this is being wackos, it's a title we graciously accept. Some are just too short-sighted to have a vision of their community.
12:11AM must be an Alarcon staffer in San Fernando. What a loser.
Rumor has it that Key Community Leaders are organizing the community and mobilizing grassroots support on behalf of Oscar Mendoza.
Monica you don't stand a chance. You've been campaigning for months and $43,000 is all you manage to raise! Mendoza just jumped in the race and has already raised $42,000.
I don't know Oscar Mendoza, but he's got my VOTE and that of my Friends and Family...
He loaned himself 25 thou. Learn to read ethics reports.
Mayor Sam, I agree that "gentrification" is not necessarily a bad thing, especially along the Washington Boulevard corridor, but I'm quite surprised that you're a fan of a CRA project. Why not let "gentrification" happen according to the rules of the free market?
If the CRA gets involved, we'll see eminent domain along Washington, wherein the City government takes private property from one owner in order to give it to another owner in the name of "economic development." Mayor Sam, you shouldn't be encouraging that. Isn't eminent domain a symbol of the (corporate) "welfare state?" Government shouldn't meddle to that degree.
Archie great idea to teach gang bangers a lesson in life. They are nothing more then cowards and Antonio is their leader. When you have a mayor who is against gang injunctions just like the illegals they have free rein.
Monica isn't likely to beat Alarcon but she will come in ahead of Oscar and possibly force a runoff.
Some veteranos who are sick of Richard will vote for Oscar because he is a man even though they don't know him.
Mayor Sam -- you are out of line. I have a "m-f'in" surprise for you. Stay out of Sunland-Tujunga. We live in our community, you do not. Our kids go to school in this community, yours (if you have any) do not. We would like to shop in this community. You go to your local Home Depot, we prefer our Do-It Center and OSH.
Pizza Chain Under Fire for Accepting Pesos....DALLAS A pizza chain has been hit with death threats and hate mail after offering to accept Mexican pesos, becoming another flashpoint in the nation's debate over immigrants. "This is the United States of America, not the United States of Mexico," one e-mail read. "Quit catering to the damn illegal Mexicans," demanded another.
Dallas-based Pizza Patron said it was not trying to inject itself into a larger political debate about illegal immigration when it posted signs this week saying "Aceptamos pesos" - or "We accept pesos" - at its 59 stores across Texas, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and California.
1013 - No worries. I have no plans or need to visit your burb or anywhere relatively close to there. However because I don't live there doesn't mean I don't have a right to speak on behalf of Home Depot's private property rights guaran-damn-teed to them by the US Constitution.
As far as if I would want a Home Depot near where I live sure! I don't know where they would build it but I could use it. There really isn't any hardware store nearby that I am aware of.
Next, Mitch Glaser. You're right. It was late and I wasn't thinking clearly about the CRA component. I am not in favor of the CRA though they've done a few things right overall its been an abject failure. They took over 30 years to turn North Hollywood around but now its only happening by market forces. In fact developers have some great projects underway that are NOT CRA related. So yes, Washington Blvd. redevelopment yes, but CRA no.
Concerning the pizza chain I think its all a publicity stunt. What better way to get tons of free talkradio publicity than to inject yourself into the illegal immigration debate. I doubt few of their customers actually keep pesos as my understanding is that the common currency in most Mexican border towns is dollars not pesos. But who knows.
OUTAKES FROM THE RED SPOT INSTITUTE
"HIS POLLONESS" REBUFFED ON LAUSD
The "BLUE BLOOD" Spat will spread from the slap fight in CD 14 to the coming races for LAUSD. With the "POLLONISTAS" on one side and the "RANK and FILE" of UTLA on the other(PUFF DUFFY and UTLA POTIBURO odmitted). Who will truly speak for the children and families that are starved for a voice ? Lets not lose sight that smaller, accountable district would return ownership and oversight to our communities.
CD 14 "CUT and PASTE JIHAD"
What a colection of post last night on the "ZUMA DOGG, ESQUIRE" thread. A "RED SPOT SOURCE" has some news about a meeting last night in the "PUEBLO DE SERENO". A group of community activist were meeting with a high ranking member of Councilman Huizar office. All of a sudden, lurking through the window is a bi-specticle council candidate known as "HOMER PARRA". According to the source, "HOMER PARRA" then enter the coffee shop where this meeting was taking place. this cause the HUIZZY deputy to become agitated, and ask that the meeting be ended or moved to a different location. Tensions and emotions are running high from the discription provided by the source.
LAPD OPEN MEETINGS ON DISCILINE
THOUGHT TO PONDER, who would want to work for the LAPD when as an employee, your right to confidentiality in regards to work place issues, are set aside in order to pacify the "HATE COP LOBBY, CABEL" of the ACLU, "GANG, ERR, COMMUNITY ACTIVISTS, and the DENIAL CULTURE. Why don't we instead have a place to highlight the activities of the "URBAN TERRORISTS", the demographics(ie. ethnicity, and legal status of Gang Members) and The same for the victims ? PC has no place in the dialog that is needed to discuss solutions to the gang emergency.
FREEDOM and FREE ENTERPRISE,
"RED SPOT OF REASON IN CD 14"
"Unfortunately Tutor hung up before I had a chance to ask about his company's $25,000 contribution to the campaign to relax term limits for L.A. City Council members;"
Prop R supporters already cashing in on their contributions to Reform LA Committee...
Watching a hole in the ground fill with money
Steve Lopez
Points West
January 10, 2007
Just so you understand, I'm not accusing anybody of anything. But I'm peering through my office window at eight guys looking at a hole in the ground on the taxpayers' dime.
And now, 12 minutes later, I'm looking at four guys watching a dump truck move slowly through the construction site for the new Los Angeles Police Department headquarters. One of the four guys has his arms crossed, which is never a good sign on a public works project.
It's true the vast majority on the crew were working up a sweat building what will eventually be Parker Center's replacement, but if they weren't, I'd be the first to know. I couldn't have a better seat from which to keep an eye on this project.
And believe me, someone needs to be watching.
The city initially estimated that the new 11-story cop shop would cost $177 million and then adjusted that to $200 million, but they're still moving dirt around and the price is up to $231 million. Add the planned parking facility a block away and add furnishings, and the original estimate for the whole project was $302 million, but that was increased to a projected $340 million. Then, in September, the City Council approved an increase to $396.8 million and was warned by city staff that the tab could be $420 million before long.
The building's being constructed by Tutor-Saliba, a contractor with a long history of high-profile disputes with public agencies. Los Angeles-based Tutor-Saliba and several partners agreed last year to pay $19 million to settle a suit alleging over-billing on a project at San Francisco International Airport.
Tutor-Saliba has also been involved in contract disputes with Los Angeles airport officials, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Los Angeles Unified School District and UCLA. So it was no surprise that just before Christmas, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa appointed a committee to keep an eye on the LAPD project.
If the city is so nervous, why did it hand this job to Tutor-Saliba?
Gary Moore, who oversees the project for the city's Bureau of Engineers, said the city invited 600 construction companies nationwide to submit bids, but only Tutor-Saliba did so. It came in at $243 million, but the city — which was projecting a $200-million cost — bargained them down to $231 million.
"There's a lot of construction going on, so we're seeing less and less bids," said Moore, who feared that waiting to try to find another bidder might be futile and could run up the cost because of delays.
That's a frightening prospect. With school building projects all over Los Angeles, a state bond issue about to finance dozens of major public works projects across California and New Orleans still being rebuilt, noncompetitive bidding could end up costing taxpayers a fortune. We need closer scrutiny than ever on these projects, and on this one, at least, I'm at your service.
When I told City Controller Laura Chick about my bird's-eye view of the project, she used the powers of her office to appoint me honorary monitor.
"For me this is less about Tutor and more about this thoughtless, shoot-from-the-hip, throw-deals-on-the-table-without-thinking way that the city of Los Angeles builds its major public facilities," said Chick, who broke her own record for hyphens in one sentence.
Not long ago, she said, the new LAPD site was supposed to become a park and the cops were supposed to move to Little Tokyo; then all of a sudden that was scuttled.
"It was mindless and thoughtless and last-minute. We've got all this money, so let's figure out where we're going to put it, and let's screw the park."
In my new role, I wandered over to the construction site Tuesday and asked a supervisor if he could explain why I had seen eight guys staring at a hole as if they'd found Jimmy Hoffa in there.
"Come here," he said. "You see that backhoe over there?"
A concrete slab was found there, he said, and it would have to be dug up. You often find such surprises on a major construction site, he said, and workers meet to consult. Not long ago, a buried storage tank was found, and all sorts of experts had to be called in to test for hazardous materials.
"What's that going to cost us?" I asked.
"A lot," he said.
Again, I'm not accusing anyone of anything, but moments after this conversation I was almost run over by a truck.
I had to jump out of the way, and the supervisor told me it wasn't safe for me to stay. I told him to keep in mind that I'd be watching from across the street, but he wasn't impressed when I told him Laura Chick had given me special oversight powers.
"Write something nice about us," he said.
OK. For the record, Tutor-Saliba has not asked for any cost increases since it began the project in November. Of course, the project won't be completed for nearly three more years.
Nice guy that I am, I called the supervisor's boss, Ron Tutor, to see if maybe I could tour the site with him or buy him lunch, since we'd be working together, in a manner of speaking.
Not only did he decline, but he took the Lord's name in vain. He wondered why I thought the project was any of my business, and I tried to explain the watchdog role of the press. But he was the one doing the barking.
"I don't want to talk to you," he snarled, telling me he wasn't going to waste his time trying to educate a [expletive] newspaper columnist.
The reason nobody else bid on the job is that construction companies have gone out of business in droves, Tutor argued, saying that doing work for public agencies in California was "a traumatic process at best."
He seemed to be doing OK, I suggested.
"I'm not hurting. Hey, I'm a successful contractor, if that bothers you."
Not at all. Congratulations.
"The truth of it is, I don't trust anybody who works for the L.A. Times," Tutor said as I tried to keep him on the phone, because there was no telling what might come out of his mouth in such an agitated state.
When project costs go up, he said with utter disgust for me and my ilk, it's because of requests by the client 90% to 95% of the time.
"You have this pathetic idea in the media that contractors bid low and then go in and ask for changes, and people in the city roll over and start givin' us money."
No, I swear it. Thought never crossed my mind.
Unfortunately Tutor hung up before I had a chance to ask about his company's $25,000 contribution to the campaign to relax term limits for L.A. City Council members; nor did I get to ask why eight guys were looking at a hole in the ground.
Wait a minute. What's this I see out the window now?
Reach the columnist at steve.lopez@latimes.com and read previous columns at latimes.com/lopez.
Hey Red Spot CD 14 great point on LAPD open meetings. Its always the same small group of racists blacks bitching but yet they stay silent about their own people killing eachother and shooting at officers trying to help them. Mind you John Mack who hosted a fundraiser for twice convicted felon Martin Ludlow is leading the bricade of these blacks cause he use to be with them criticizing LAPD and our midget mayor appointed him on the police commission with all his biases. The rank and file are sick of this bullshit and look to see another blue flu if it continues.
11:17
Lets add Racist Mechitas to that same list. Further the "LA ANTONIA TIMES" needs to to be held accountible when they report on the LONG BEACH HOLLOWEEN BEATINGS through a bias PC myopia (READ last weeks LA WEEKLY article on the trial reporting) In addition, the "LA ANTONIA TIMES" gives a forum to "CCOMMUNITY ACTIVIST"(ie. Gangster apoligist) Lupe Angrade who Hollenback officers had to take out an Restaining Order on. Also the "LA ANTOINIA TIMES" has discontinue the OP-ED's of "JACK DUNPHY" who was a voice for "RANK and FILE" LAPD officers. THE "LA ANTONIA TIMES" is a wall of denial in reporting to truth on gang warfare.
"RED SPOT OF REASON IN CD 14"
Gary Moore, who oversees the project for the city's Bureau of Engineers, said the city invited 600 construction companies nationwide to submit bids, but only Tutor-Saliba did so. It came in at $243 million, but the city — which was projecting a $200-million cost — bargained them down to $231 million.
THIS IS A STRAIGHT OUT LIE. "BUT ONLY TUTUOR-SALIBA DID SO..."
WTF? WHO'S PALMS DID YOU GREASE? TUTOR CORRUPT SALIBA
Antonio keeps stating he grew up in Boyle Heights when it suits his purpose. So you would think he of all people would know how the gang problem has gotten out of hand all these years. Only in 2007 does he state "Gang members are Public Enemy #1." To add insult to injury I get an e-mail today saying ANTONIO has given $1 MILLION DOLLARS to the PAL (LAPD youth group) at Devonshire Div. which is in the valley out of the CBG fund. You would think ANTONIO would have either split the $1 mil amongst all LAPD PAL programs (19 stations) or given the money to the most in need on the Eastside or South LA where crime from gangs is 14% up. I guess ANTONIO doesn't care about the poor kids in high crime areas or he should have made up for the bullshit he made CD14 go through when he was gone campaigning.
To show the difference in media coverage the Daily News didn't rant about the LAPD decision and throw their spin like the LA Slimes. Its shocking this paper is still in business. The LA Slimes reporters are in somebody's pocketbook. As residents have stated someone needs to remind John Mack and the police commissioners they represent the entire city not just South LA where Mack's buddies like Naji Ali and Tony Mohammed like to call home. Once again the politicans are folding because the blacks are threatening violence if they don't get their way. Weiss ASs is now weighing in with his stupidity again. Next thing we know he'll be standing next to Mack at a press conf. kissing his ass. Weiss Ass will never be voted in city attorney. He would be a bigger embarrassement then Rocky. Antonio is also folding to the same group of black activists for their vote. Politics before officer safety and these clowns are getting paid with our taxes.
Home Depot is leasing the property.
If you lease a property, does that give you the guaran-damn-teed right to do with it as you please?
I think not.
Who can tell me about this Monica R that everyone is talking about...
I am intrested because I understand that Alarcon spent money (about 10K) removing her occupation description.
Sounds like RA is concerned...
And if he's spending $$$ on her maybe she is a considerable candidate.
Monica Rodriguez has my vote!
Mayor Sam, first of all, the Constitution of the United States of America gives no such rights to Home Depot. The building of a big box store or any building for that matter in the City of Los Angeles is allowed according to the laws of this City which in this case is the Los Angeles Municipal Code, and in Sunland's case, additionally the Foothill Boulevard Corridor Specific Plan which is a City of Los Angeles Ordinance that controls and regulates the commercial district of Sunland - Tujunga.
Have you read the Municipal Code or the Specific Plan? I would suggest you shut your Mother F***ing mouth until you do!
Second of all, you want a Home Depot near you, because you do not have a hardware. Sunland - Tujunga has access to three hardwares, a Do It Center, a building supply, an Osh, and a lumber yard either in Sunland - Tujunga or in La Crescenta which is the community just to the east.
I have a suggestion. You take our Home Depot; we don't want it; you do want it; and after reading your blog, today, you Mother F***ing deserve it!
If Home Depot is leasing the property the property owner's rights extend to the lessee.
Ha ha Mayor Sam you have really stirred up these clowns here in my town. Most of us know them to be the usual busybodies who claim to represent us.
I have been told the Mayor is doing everything possible behind the scenes to make the Home Depot project happen. Wendy knows this but he is allowing her to save face with the voters so that she may not have any issues with them.
RED SPOT OF REASON IN SUNLAND TUJUNGA
looks like you shut up those gabachos in sunland
viva home depot!
Hey, STICKY ORANGE SPOT OF IRRATIONAL THOUGHT PROCESSES SUPPOSEDLY FROM SUNLAND TUJUNGA, we all know who you are.
Long Life and Great Success to our Brilliant, Caring, Valiant, Diverse, Persistent, Hard-Working, Community-Supported, and Certain-to-Win No Home Depot Campaign. See you at the Hearing on the 19th!
Dear God,
Please vanquish the evil spirit that has possessed Mayor Sam. He now speaks
as if he is possessed by the lowlifes
at Dakota Communications, Home Depot's PR firm. Show him the way, and make him return the money that Home Depot is now paying him to attack the good citizens of Sunland-Tujunga.
Thank you, and amen.
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