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Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Morning Briefs and Outtakes on the Jackson Memorial continues

"AEG's Tim Leiweke, NBA Commish David Stern and local politicos"
An axiom of life is "if one wants something, then you must pay the price".
With that theme in mind, lets use the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) and Los Angeles City Hall as an example.
AEG wanted to built a "destination attraction" to stimulate the development of new revenue streams, radiating from the area around the Staples Center, at the best possible price.
The politicos at City Hall wanted a new tourist draw in an area vacated on most evenings after events at the Staple Center, to bring in new tax revenues.
And what did each party get in their respective quests ?? Lets consider the numbers......
For AEG, it was $270 million in subsidies from city tax payers for their $2.5 billion "LA Live Project".
For Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and other members of the city ruling class, their cut included the following.
AEG and its executives have given hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions to local politicians and their political projects, including $100,000 to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's Partnership for Better Schools and $100,000 to the Mayor's Committee for Government Excellence and Accountability, state and city election records show.
AEG also has contributed to at least 11 of the 15 current members of the City Council, as well as City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo and Controller Laura Chick.
So one must wonder if Councilman Dennis Zine was one of the four councilpeople who did not get any AEG cash, considering the comments directed in his direction by AEG's Tim Leiweke ??
And who gets it in the rear after viewing these numbers ?? Can you say the Taxpayers ??
Comments from bloggers, writers and pundits.
Are there a few opportunists out there, you ask?
More than a few.
A lot of scrappy vendors trying to sell a piece of the man, the media hordes cashing in on the celebrity culture it helps manufacture, the cops collecting overtime, the international telecast selling merchandise to benefit the estate, the owner of Staples Center working a marketing angle or two.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa tried his best to get in on the action as well, asking Jackson fans worldwide to help defray the high price of the city's massive preparation for crowds that never showed.
"Donations will help the city of Angels provide the extraordinary public safety resources required to give Michael the safe, orderly and respectful memorial he deserves," said the mayor in an appropriately strange announcement on a strange day even by L.A. standards, and he added that donations would be tax deductible.
The city should pay, of course. Sure, there's outrage over the costs of policing and other services, and yes, we are in the grips of the Great Recession that has L.A. running a half-billion dollar deficit. But in the life of a city stuff happens, whether it's the Jackson spectacle or the Lakers parade. Just be glad the thing came off with minimum fuss. Local officials have a fiduciary responsibility to deal with these one-time, extraordinary events, just as a company would deal with unexpected crises that cost money.
There were those who argued that the Jackson memorial might have brought more money into the local economy than it cost.
Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., said his group estimated that the memorial brought about $4 million to local businesses in the form of food sales, parking, miscellaneous shopping and hotel stays.
"We're a center of celebrity," he said.
"You have to be able to deal with it. You have to look at the positives and the negatives. Yes, you have some expenses, but if you handle the whole thing in a smooth fashion, which they did, you get a real positive."
Carol Schatz, president and chief executive of the Central City Assn., said the memorial was actually a mixed bag, economically.
"All the downtown hotels were close to being full as a result of the service," she said. "However, it did not spill over to the restaurants, especially on the day of the service, because so many businesses fearing these enormous multitudes had their employees stay home.
"Still, she said the memorial was "worth its weight in gold" for the attention it brought to "the new downtown that we've created in the last 10 years.
"Taking that argument a step further, Joel Kotkin, presidential fellow at Chapman University in Orange, said that Jackson's death and memorial helped "brand" the city and would have lasting economic value.
Other news:
This excerpt on a "Dropout Summit"
The dropout summit is, by itself, a great educational experience for students who are missing several hours of class, says dropout czar Duardo — the kind of claim made continually over the years by bureaucrats in a district where high school kids watch lots of films, go on field trips, and still can’t multiply fractions.
Finally, the session breaks up into small “think tanks,” where students have a chance, alongside teachers and parents, to voice their ideas for solving the dropout crisis.
One of their main proposals, Duardo says later, is that the kids want to sleep in. “One of the things they said is that [classes start] too early. They’re not awake. If you look at the research on brain development, that’s not their functional time.”
Good to know — another fact for the district and Villaraigosa to address in their strangely parallel, Rube Goldberg–esque attempts to sift through priorities. “Kids are saying we shouldn’t start school until 10 o’clock,” Duardo offers. “I think it’s definitely something the district could look into — possibly make it an option. Give them more flexibility.”
Over flexibility leds to breaks or breakups, the last possible hope for LAUSD.
Your thoughts..........

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9 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said:

So the mayor says it cost 1.4 Mil??

Lets see, 3,000 officewrs including mainly detectives and supervisors in uniform, 12 hours minium of work @ $75 per hour including benifits=36,000 work hours=$2,700,000!!!

July 09, 2009 6:57 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Why aren't any of the lazy LA reporters writing about this corruption and the ties to politicans? You read all the blogs and taxpayers in this city are pissed at the Mayor and Jan Perry. But not one damn story from the LA Slimes or Daily News connecting the dots. WE get more from the blogs now then the papers

July 09, 2009 7:33 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Red Spot

I want bloggers to know how to not misspell "Anschutz" when writing a story.

What's it going to cost me to get you not to spell it "Anshultz"?

Are you going to correct it and delete this comment, are can you take the heat?

Dum dum.

July 09, 2009 8:52 AM  

Blogger Red Spot in CD 14 said:

Take the Heat ??

I thought Global Warming was an hoax.

"l" = you loser!!

July 09, 2009 9:16 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

u asked what we want.

that's what I want.

a blogger who knows how to spell a well known (but not well known by you) proper names.

July 09, 2009 10:00 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

What's the complaint about the Times and Daily News about? Nothing is different now from how it's been for years- in fact, it's been getting a little better with the Times' local political scene reporting.

If you want probing, see the L.A. Weekly. And that's been going on for years.

I don't think the reporters are lazy since there's so many of the jobs cut and they don't want to join the group of "former" reporters, but maybe the Daily News and Times control what stories they want and hold the purse strings for resources they allow these days.

And even if there were more stories reported locally, each newspaper is so thin these days that there's little roome for more content.

AEG mades all those contributions to campaigns and favorite charities of politicians that it's been doing for years for the purpose of causing breaks to go their way.

The politicians have enough hesitation and reservations in deciding on what they will do in handling AEG that AEG wins what they need as the fumbling officials reach more dilemmas that overwhelm them.

Meanwhile, the deed is done, AEG gets its way and all this discussion on what SHOULD have been done is after the fact and the money battle is all uphill for the city.

Trutanich is left now with looking internally to lay some responsibility for authorizing the expense. That's not much help now, but would it have been any different if Tony was in town? I doubt it, except he'd be in more of the camera shots.

The city needs to plan the future way it's going to protect itself from rare but hugely expensive events instead of trying to be the nanny-state micro-managers for personal decisions the residents should be left to decide.

Priorities has always been a city council and mayor problem. A simple example- look at the Friday council presentations where time spent on the front end for awards often leaves a quorum in jeopardy at the other end of the meeting.

Why not put BUSINESS first, hear out the speakers and THEN have the awards when loss of a quorum is not fatal for the day's remaining business? The recipients aren't going anywhere without their awards.

Instead, the CMs use their discretion to put citizens last in all categories.

in l.a.

July 09, 2009 10:19 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

WHAT'S THIS... HUH?

City employees were given Jackson Memorial tickets furnished by AEG as a "perk" to keep them quiet about the costs to the city?

How many? At what cost to the TAXPAYER?

Certain COUNCIL staffers have been making it known widely, even gloating to the public, that THEY are among the boss's favorites, because they got to go to the "circus" before the circus. (A little "gimme" because they're going to have to be furloughed some, and the kid who used to run for their coffee is being pink-slipped).

But NO problem, take the day off (not as a "furlough") and ENJOY the show, knowing that for every one person IN the arena, there are 2-3 expensive cops twiddling their thumbs OUT on the street "guarding" you.

(Wendy G. - look into that will you??)

Yeah, RIGHT!!

July 09, 2009 11:39 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

As Jane t. Taxpayer, why should I have to pay BIG BUSINESS like AEG? There where people out there who would have paid BIG bucks to see the Jackson Memorial service.
Will AEG pay for my water, gas, phone bill if I can't pay it, NO THEY WONT. I agree with Mr.Zine, never thought I would say that. As a tax payer I'm sick of being nickeled and dimed to death, my home needs repair, my days are cut from work, I live off rice and beans cause I dont have any other choice. YET millonairs get subdidized or dont pay at all. I dont get it. KICK ASS ZINE GET AEG to pay for there event. Wheh I die I'm sure I will not get that kind of send off. for our MAYOR TONY GET REAL DONATIONS??? HOW BOUT YOU GIVE BACK THE MONEY YOU AND FABIAN NUNEZ HAVE STOLEN IN THE NAME OF DONATIONS, that might cover the bill. OH right to busy chasing the PUNANNY, right?

July 09, 2009 3:21 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

There are many proven studies that say that high school students should not start school until 10 AM. Then they should go until 5 PM and not bring home any homework.

Brilliant idea that is before its time here. Too new for the LAUSD who doesn't think outside the box.

July 10, 2009 1:58 AM  

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