Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Monday
Janice Hahn and Tom LaBonge | Photo by Jim Winstead; used under Creative Commons license.
Deputy Mayor Diego Alvarez will take on a new position one that is charged with bringing light rail closer to LA's airports. First step will be for Alvarez to get the Green Line a few blocks closer to LAX via the new Expo Line however the City Council has asked for a study to bring either the Green or Expo lines actually into the airport. The other task will be to work with the MTA to bring the Gold Line to Ontario Airport.
CurbedLA notes an LA Times report that notes a significant drop in violent and property crimes in LA. Does anyone find this coincidental with the increase in medical marijuana dispensaries in the City? Imagine if we out and out legalized the stuff. I'm just sayin'.
Betty Pleasant not taking a holiday break from running her mouth tries to spin away on her beloved Mark Ridley Thomas' near million dollar office renovation scandal. Ms. Pleasant says the offices are as raggedy as when Kenneth Hahn left them back in 1992. Isn't there an after-Christmas sale Betty can hang out at?
Speaking of the Hahns, here's a fun website for you to check out.
Doug McIntyre pens a good piece for the Daily News. Mayor Villaraigosa said he had a great year. Too bad it sucked for the rest of Los Angeles.
It appears a new end of the year tradition is Time Warner's annual spat (remember last year with Viacom or 2006 and 2007 versus the NFL?) with some provider of programming and threats from both sides that the channels will go dark. Each side attempts to enlist TV viewers as soldiers in the war for one or the other. This year it's TW vs Fox as the two media behemoths tussle over fees as the current agreement expires. As in every year a last minute resolution will occur as TW needs the programming and Fox needs the eyeballs. In the meantime cable companies and television stations will become less and less relevant thanks to broadband based programming sources such as YouTube, uStream, Roku, Hulu and others.
Good tip from our friend Brian Humphrey at the LA Fire Department. Don't be stupid and burn Christmas wrappings nor your Christmas tree in the fire place. Now that the gifts are open it's time to take that tree down. Put it out on your curb (if it won't fit in your green bin) on your regular trash pickup day and the City will collect it for recycling. Or you can take it to any number of drop-off points.
Labels: betty pleasant, crime, doug mcintyre, fire safety, lafd, LAX, Mark Ridley Thomas, mayor antonio villaraigosa, mta, time warner cable
Posted by Michael Higby @ 12/28/2009 02:00:00 AM
25 Comments:
I do have to say for some reason I am in agreement with legalization of marijuana...
I fear that if we do not allow for the proliferation of legal ways to acquire it we could see ourselves in the middle of an all out street violent society.
I had no idea that most of the dispensaries were in wealthy neighborhoods. If that is the case then that means that in poorer neighborhoods you don't have to go to the corner drug dealer to get your fix anymore..I'm just sayin.
Although I don't use the stuff it is time to take hold of the truth : there is no reason for marijuana to be illegal , it is ubiquitous ... let's get real...
why is hemp really outlawed? there has to be a bigger reason than just people saying it is addictive... or is it because the pharmaceutical companies know the truth about how it works and what it does?
Saying that increasing pot stores lowers crimes is as smart as saying that 98 percent of the people in Sweden are Caucasian therefore moving to Sweden will make you Caucasian.
And this looks like a nice birthday picture for MEAT! LOL
I so miss him...
There is some interesting action in the comments section of Metblogs Grinch of the Year poll thread, where anonymous friends of downtown politico Russell Brown (Neighborhood Council president and HDBID employee) are smearing me for having called him out for his bad faith, false claims, ineptitude and bullying of community members and non-profits. This is why people don't like to speak up about Russell Brown's bad work, but I guess I'll put on my raincoat and take it for the team.
http://la.metblogs.com/2009/12/23/polls-open-vote-now-for-l-a-metblogs-grinch-of-the-year/
It is a factor. I realize that probably 90% or more of the actual legitimate people who need medical marijuana would not steal to get pot. However we all know that a lot of people getting medical marijuana are not really cancer or AIDS or whatever patients. (And again I think anyone should be able to smoke pot legally not just the ill)
Many of those people WOULD steal to get pot. However if they are able to get it way cheaper or even free at a collective they won't steal your TV set to get it.
That is a great photo of THE two biggest idiots in the city, not including Phil Jennerjahn.
Hey, they can HAVE my dumb TV if I can't get FOX anymore!! WAAAAAA!! (Michael-- thanks for the "fun website" link--it WAS and it IS hysterically funny!)
Don't be fooled because if you watch the news there is violent crime all over the city. LAPD is cooking the numbers for the Mayor to look good. CRIME IS NOT DOWN ASK ANY PATROL OFFICER. They are furious all the crime is not being reported. There were murders in every part of the city in the last week. There have been robberies, assaults and the media isn't reporting all of it. Dont be fooled.
For a guy who SAYS he walks in Griffith Park EVERY morning at dawn, Tom LaBonge sure has a gut that makes him look like he never leaves the couch. Just like Mayor Sam lol!
So Mayor Sam admits that pot smokers are more likely to be lawbreakers than non-pot smokers. They will steal and rob to get money for their habit. Well from what I have been told the pot dispensaries are not giving away the stuff for free they charge and they charge prices over the street prices. So how exactly does having a pot dispensary in the neighborhood reduce crime? Ask a policeman and he will tell you that adjoining businesses have been complaining about the behavior of the customers at these places.
10:49
What bullshit. The going rate for an 1/8 at a dispensary is $45, sometimes less. The "street" rate for the same is $65 to $85 with all the risks.
Ask a policeman, what a joke. There are more police involved in the operations of dispensaries than any other profession.
Legal dispensaries are driving the crime element out of business. Thier marijuana is higher grade, legal and cheaper.
The users are usually not the criminals here, it is the corner drug pusher who won't miss the opportunity to commit a petty crime. The dispensaries are driving these bozos out.
Try visiting a dispensary and join the mellow community before you spew your second hand vile. We have enough with Trut and Cooley.
The pot dispensarie are about to get rid of another criminal element - Jose Huizar. Eagle Rock dispensaries are starting to collect money to launch a recall against Huizar. With a pro-marijuana stance, Boyle Heights & El Sereno will come out in droves against Huizar and the Eagle Rock voting base will be stomped.
But that is what happens when you dictate your policy and agenda by who can get through your office phone games faster. The Eagle Rock Homeowner Association has Huizar's ear and soon will be credited with ruining his career.
Parke, gear up for a campaign against some very deep pockets and a very committed industry.
Could it be that the criminals are too busy running their pot dispensaries to commit other crimes on the street?
Apart from a handful of legitimate pot shops that actually screen their "patients," most of LA's new pot shops are staffed by really scary looking criminal types.
Legalizing pot is long overdue, but these creeps should not be allowed to have anything to do with it.
So the pot shop owners want to recall Weezy?
Is this a sequel to the sleazy bar owners who wanted to recall Villaraigosa when he was CD14?
What happened to the 80 FAKE NEIGHBORHOOD WATCHES?
The sleazy bar owners couldn't muster up $500,000 at the drop of a hat. At the meeting that I was at, a person by the name of Daniel collected several thousand within minutes and he is going door to door to every dispensary.
The medical marijuana industry needs a politician to take down to send a message to Cooley and Trut. Strategically, the voter apathetic 14th District is an easier bet since you don't need to collect as many signatures as in the Westside or a County-wide recall.
Plus with 3 marijuana initiatives coming up on the ballot, it looks like the perfect storm for a recall.
Is it illegal to give a joint for a signature or vote? Afterall, it's not being sold and technically it has no value in this non-profit industry.
Here's a campaign slogan,
"Stop the Weezing - Legal Marijuana Now". Higby, you'll get due credit on this.
For a guy who SAYS he walks in Griffith Park EVERY morning at dawn, Tom LaBonge sure has a gut that makes him look like he never leaves the couch. Just like Mayor Sam lol!
That's because Tom is always eating the nuns. Their bread that is.
Mayor Villaraigosa is a nincompoop when it comes to mass transit. Does he really think that people will take the Green Line to the airport if it stops a mile short of the airport instead of two miles short? Riders will still need to transfer to another system. Who cares if it's a shuttle bus or a people mover. In other cities the light rail comes in underground at the terminal, not some distant, off site location. His latest idea is a huge waste of public funds and should be stopped before another dime is wasted.
The real crime about medical marijuana is the City Council's inability to deal with the lax proliferation it allowed through incompetence.
They have spent endless hours debating it with no result.
However, we have a bigger problem than MM. It's the budget. Before our elected officials spend another minute on MM, they had better deal with fiscal realities or we will all be dealing dope to pay for any kind of service in this town.
Why is it that other cities like San Fran and Oakland, and others got it but not LA. Those cities have the right amount and everyone is happy. But because PLUM did nothing with Huizar, Reyes and Garcetti it allowed dope shops to splurge all over now its out of control and pot shops are rampant in LA so everyone is coming here for it because even students can get dope with a prescription.
It's Ed Reyes who should have the guts to admit that he screwed up. First, he sat on the ordinance for 4 years while pot shops exploded. Second, his secret advisor was a pot shop owner. What kind of idiot is he? It's not for nothing that he's called El Stupidio around City Hall.
3:25
Hey stupid, that's El Estupido. Ed & Huizar both have the same consultant here, so who is the real culprit?
Ed's got the guts, but not the brains. Huizar's got the brains, but not the guts. That's why they both turn to Parke to wipe their asses.
11:11 is clearly among pothead criminals running these sleazy "medical" marijuana dispensaries. They are not dispensing anything medical and they are not a collective. 11:11 just admitted it in his overwrought posting.
Wasn't it Garcetti and Reyes who controlled and managed the timing of the whole marijuana mess? If you listen to the last meetings on this, it is clear that Garcetti and Reyes are driving this thing--they are hip to hip with the marijuana advocates no matter the impacts on local neighborhoods and they are controlling how and when the oridinance finally came to the floor. Huizar and Alarcon are correcting this ship that went wrong...they sound more reasonable and pragmatic and interested in protecting neighborhoods while allowing for access...just my thoughts...
9:31PM: isnt it obvious? Even the pot store owners recognize they have gone too far and will have to cut back their operations when the ordinance finally passes. In the meantime, every day the ordinance is delayed is one more day they can stay open for bu$$ine$$. A gift from Reyes and Garcetti.
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