Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Thursday

I guess it's one thing for City employees to buy bottled water on the City's dime when the DWP supposedly has perfectly good tap water; it's the height of hubris for the Los Angeles County Supervisors to pay someone to peel the brand name labels off water the County purchases and affix a County label to them.  Who's boneheaded idea was this? Zev's?

Mayor Villaraigosa wants to plant a million trees in Los Angeles.  He just planted another 55.  According to the LA Weekly, at the current rate, Villaraigosa will have planted his million trees sometime by the 2020s, well past his time as Mayor.  In the meantime, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is well ahead of schedule in his tree plantings.

Westside White Guy didn't get his invite.  Mayor Villaraigosa held a birthday party bash for former California Speaker and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown (to get Willie's endorsment for Governor?) at Getty House recently. WWG assumes the Times didn't get an invitation either or forgot about because (GASP!) America's Favorite Suburban Crank had to read about the party in the San Francisco Chronicle.  Kevin, the question to ask is not what did the Los Angeles Times know and when did they know it but were any public resources expended on this non-City business event?

What was loaded on the iPod that President Obama gave Britain's Queen Elizabeth? Besides some photos of past visits to the US by Her Majesty, a greatest hits of oratory by The One, himself.

Efforts to rebrand a portion of Van Nuys as Sherman Oaks do not appear to be picking up much support outside the group behind the campaign.  Besides opposition from both the Sherman Oaks and Van Nuys Neighborhood Councils, Van Nuys based Councilmember Tony Cardenas is against it.  The area's other Council Member, Wendy Greuel is remaining neutral.  At a recent community event, I heard whispers that rebranding effort leader, LA's solution in search of a problem, Laurette Healey, is rumored to be using the effort to jump into the race to replace Greuel who will become City Controller in July.

LA Times archictecture critic Christopher Hawthorne is the first person to frame the billboard issue in a rational light.  While Hawthorne views that the city's policy is broken and that much signage is often schlock he does not see billboards as the latest scourge since Al Quaeda or Rock of Love Bus with Brett Michaels as do a small but very vocal band of billboard wackos.  Hawthorne also makes a point that I've made to local activitsts that crime and other issues in our city far outweigh the singage hysteria, which is refreshing.

Franklin Avenue picks up on Mickey Kaus' bizarre plea for someone to bankroll a Westside newspaper. I thought we had that, it's called the LA Times? And if you want a myopic Westside view that is more immediate than fishwrap, you can always find it here.  The Westside wants a newspaper? Yea, people in Hell want ice water.