Morning Briefs on the Los Angeles Political Machine for Monday

Nothing like a little Monday morning 4.4 Earthquake to remind everyone (including the supporters of the Millennium Project) of the seismic hazards associated with development in Los Angeles.

This morning's shaker is located near what fault? Hint, it rhymes with "Bollywood".

Great Monday morning to all as Mother Nature and her Seismic Sancho treated us to a quarter's worth of bedrock shaking in the early A.M. Thanks to Social Media, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) will have ample cyber-testimonials on this morning's 4.4 quake centered in the Santa Monica Mountains west of the 405, to archive the shake intensity. 

That said, this morning's brief episode in seismic landscaping, is bound to rekindle the dialog over the multitude of buildings within the City of Los Angeles, both old and new, that are in immediate need of earthquake retrofitting. As USGS's Seismologist Lucy Jones greets the media regarding this morning's shaker, lets remember that her side gig in working with LA Mayor Eric Garcetti in prepping the city for the dreaded "Big One", will surely become more pronounced in the days and weeks ahead.

Yet, as common sense would predicate a pro-active approach to earthquake preparedness and seismic retrofitting, there will be those in local government and the development community, who's monetary priorities will reinforce their act of denial about potentially dangerous projects such as the Millennium Project in Hollywood. Last week, the developers behind the controversial project were seeking to have changes made on State of California Earthquake Maps that would show the proposed development was not on the Hollywood Fault Zone.

Lets hope this morning's shaker will impede that effort.

** Longtime City Hall Reporter Rick Orlov of the "Daily Valley Moldy Green Sheet" (aka Daily News) notes in his "Tipoff Column" that Westside Congressional Candidate Wendy "Boss D'Arcy Rizzo's Greuel" was seeking the ballot designation of "Controller/Businesswoman". One problem, state election laws prohibits espousing a designation on a ballot that is no longer current. Thus, we offer up this alternative. "Call Greuel for LA's Special Interests".

** For my fellow CD-14 Constituents east of the Los Angeles River, if you were pondering why you see so little of your elective representative who happened to graduate from Princeton, maybe this missive on the State of Development in Downtown LA could educate you on the new political priorities in CD 14. Simply follow the money.

** Note from South LA Soulvine Columnist Betty Pleasant ........, SHUT UP!! If you think that Betty was directing her ire at CD 8 City Councilman Bernard Parks, Mayor Eric Garcetti or a certain blog, then we have a cut and paste surprise below. From Betty .........

Political campaigns can be one of two things: either exciting or disgusting, and comes now one of the latter — the campaign of Alex Johnson for the District 1 seat on the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education
Johnson, whom nobody knows except Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, for whom he works as an “education aide,” was just certified by the city clerk as an official candidate in that election last week and then kicked off his campaign in the vicious attack mode by pouncing on fellow candidate, Genethia Hudley-Hayes, like a mountain lion. Instead of telling us who the heck he is, Johnson chose to tell us Hudley-Hayes — a woman we have known, loved, respected and worked with for more than 30 years — is falsifying her resume with regard to her having a doctorate!! Who cares?! The only thing of concern to voters in this election is determining which of the seven or eight candidates will be the most effective and committed advocate for quality education which the 1st District’s woefully underserved minority students deserve.Johnson needed to come out telling us what’s in his resume, not what’s lacking in the resume of his opponent. Whose jugular is he going for next week? Probably candidate George McKenna, who, like Hudley-Hayes, (and unlike Johnson) are above reproach and are proven warriors when it comes to LAUSD matters. All Johnson did last week was make people mad, including the Soulvine and a bunch of civil rights leaders who denounced Johnson’s opening campaign gambit as “a smear attack.”  They sent me the following statement:

“Hudley-Hayes has a long and honorable track record of dedicated public service and is a staunch and experienced education advocate for the LAUSD’s underserved students. To have her name and reputation sullied for cheap and dirty political one-upmanship does nothing to advance the fight for educational excellence. When smear tactics are used in a campaign, the only losers are the voters. This must not be the case in the vital race for the 1st District seat.”
This statement was signed by Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Roundtable; Dwayne Wyatt, L.A. Black Employees for Fairness; Debbie Washington, National Council of Negro Women; Robert Taylor, Black Ministerial Alliance; Lita Herron, Youth Advocacy Coalition president; Pedro Baez, Voice of the People founder; Skip Townsend of Cease Fire and Vicky Lindsay, of Project Cry No More.
But I tell you what, Johnson needs to drop out of the race and spend more time as Ridley-Thomas’ aide so the supervisor can teach him some manners, because he’s certainly shown that he doesn’t have any.
Safe to say that Betty may not be visiting "Home Renovation Thomas" Man Cave anytime soon.
Your thoughts ..............
Scott Johnson in CD 14