Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Tuesday

"Vendido"

Photo by Ted Soqui, LA Weekly

 Chalk up a victory for the billboard wackos.  A federal judge has upheld for a now the City Council's ban on billboards and supergraphics despite the fact most real people don't care. Despite the setback for Liberty Media Corp. a City Attorney's office official says that the case could eventually go forward.  Additionally another 20 lawsuits against the city are pending.  How much will that cost and are the billboard wackos prepared to pony up?

Tired of illegal dumping and other reportable to 311 woes in your neighborhood? If you have an Apple iPhone, Curbed LA reports you can use the device to snap photos and upload the complaint directly to City computers.  The CitySource app can read your GPS position and easily tag the issue for City action.

Voter turnout in the recent CD2 election was abysmally low as are most City elections. One solution may be to follow the lead of cities like Burbank and states like Oregon who conduct elections by mail only.  Though LA's City Clerk has recomended this move for some time, the Clowncil has been relucatant to consider it.  Always on top of things City Councilman Bill "Open Shirt" Rosendahl told Rick Orlov "I really regret the low turnout, but that's what happens in these elections when there is so little media attention." Yea, it's the media's fault Bill.


As DWP infrastructure continues to crumble, more signs of the coming appocalypse following years of shoddy management and stealing from the utility by the City Council.  A short power outage of unknown origin hit Downtown LA Monday striking many skyscrapers causing stuck elevators and the like. Then, another water main broke, this time in the Miracle Mile discontinuing service to about four dozen homes.

And finally things continue to get curiouser in the recent defacing of a mural of Mayor Villaraigosa in East Hollywood.  As previously noted here on the blog, vandals splashed the face of the Mayor with red paint and scrawled on the sidewalk below the mural "This is Our Town."  LA Weekly photographer Ted Soqui revisited the mural last Friday and see that someone has painted the word vendido on the Mayor's shirt collar, a term that is Spanish for "sell-out" or "Uncle Tom."  The Weekly reports that the red paint and "our town" remain but "vendido" has since been removed.

Dumping trash on our city

I'll be calling 311 about this one shortly.

Update: I called 311 around 5:00 p.m. I was told that I had to call Sanitation. I asked if they could transfer me. The operator told me that Sanitation's calls were now transfered to 311 because Sanitation closes at 4:45 p.m. That seems like an odd time to knock off. The ironic thing is that if I had dumped the stuff myself, 311 could have taken the request to have it removed. But because it was done illegally, I have to call Sanitation myself. You would think 311 could just take the report, route it to Sanitation and at some point Sanitation would take care of it.

Welcome to LA!