Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Monday

As public employee pensions become a bigger and bigger issue in the news the City of Los Angeles received even more bad news.  According to Chief Administrative Officer Miguel Santana pensions and health benefits for City workers will jump nearly $800 million in the next four years so much so that by 2015 the cost for these pensions will consume nearly a third of the City's budget. While the Council looks for a way out of the mess they received stern warnings from union leaders about messing with the pensions.

The Daily News reminds us that when Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was sworn in in 2005 he laid out a grand vision of Los Angeles as a "Venice of the 21st century."  Yet the City remains to be perceived as unfriendly to business and the local economy is in the crapper.  The News recommends three courses of action where the Mayor could "re-brand" the City as amenable to business.  Among them; streamline city permitting and processing, have Villaraigosa serve as the "pitchman" for LA (okay that one is funny), and repealing the business tax (won't happen until there is new leadership in LA).



Mulholland Terrace writing at Griffith Park Wayist chronicles the efforts of the new fishwrap version of blogdowntown to get distributed throughout Downtown.  Without the traditional infrastructure of other papers including newsracks and designated locations the blog's owner Eric Richardson plans to pass out the paper via donated cargo carrier bicycles.  More troubling as  noted by MT is the print version's cozy relationship with the owners of LA Live who have provided office and warehouse space.  To what extent this relationship will influence coverage is yet to be seen but other downtown developers and businesses might be correct to be concerned.  MT also notes that much of the content in the inaugural issue leaves much to be desired.

The City Council Friday unanimously approved Eli Broad's plans to build an art museum downtown.  You may remember the City has made a sweetheart deal with Broad to make available land, which by the way the majority of the space will be for "non-public" use by Broad's foundation with only a small part making up the actual museum.  In the meantime the City of Santa Monica has made competing offer to provide rent-free land adjacent to the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.

Another DWP water main burst Sunday; this time in the 9500 block of Figueroa in South LA.  About 20 homes were without service before crews fixed the leak.