Morning Briefs on the Los Angeles Political Machine for Tuesday

CD 11 City Councilman Bill Rosendahl and Zuma Dogg in more congenial times.

We start off this Tuesday morning with this bloggin public service announcement from 2013 Mayoral Candidate David "Zuma Dogg" Saltzburg.

Tune into TV 35, Tuesday at 10am, Wed at 10am, Fri at 10am...EVERY CITY COUNCIL MEETING at 10am, for the "Bill Rosendope Comedy Roast," during public comment. Have you HEARD Zuma Dogg's impersonation of Rosie? Wait till you hear what the community has to say about him. COPS not happy with him, either. His spineless, lack of leadership and constant fall-through is a REAL issue for them, from what I'm told.
MEANWHILE, thanks for confirming what I've been saying: DOWD/DOGG UNDER COUNCIL'S SKIN!

In an ideal Councilman Rosendahl world, crapping, urinating, camping and destroying public property, is a by-product of expressing your First Amendment rights, while highlighting the ills of a dysfunctional government at City Hall is grounds for expulsion.

Hecho En Mexico Restaurant. Boxed in on both sides by Academia Semillas del Pueblo properties. 

** Under the political radar to most is a growing controversy within the community of El Sereno. It appears that controversial educator Marcos Aguilar is bullying the owner of the well-liked restaurant "Hecho En Mexico" (the restaurant hosted President Barack H. Obama's sister during the 2008 Campaign and has sponsored numerous community events) over parking access near their respective properties. In recent years, Aguilar's Academia Semillas del Pueblo Charter School has purchase property directly on both sides of the long establish eatery. Complicating the situation is that Hecho En Mexico has a liquor license to sell beer, wine and liquor which makes you wonder what happen to the zoning process when Aguilar's non-profit purchase the properties (including the old El Sereno Library)?

Marcos to Huizar: "The Aztec Gods (with the help of my supporters campaign contributions) see a day when the city gives us "surplus property" on Elephant Hill for our Charter School".

After repeated complaints between Hecho and Academia over parking, Academia is now preparing to challenge the ABC renewal of Hecho's liquor license. Many in the El Sereno Community are questioning the actions of Marcos Aguilar considering that Hecho has been a good neighbor to the community and that the restaurant was established long before Academia set up its educational commune on another location further south on Huntington Drive.

But what is the real goal for Marcos Aguilar in his battle with Hecho En Mexico? Could it be that Marcos has his eyes set on "surplus city property" north of his current location? Its no secret in the El Sereno Community that Aguilar wants access to "open space". Early last decade, Aguilar tried securing open space at Debs Park for his initial charter school site but was rebuffed by community members. Currently, Aguilar's school has been working behind the scenes with SMMC/MRCA on education ideas for its just purchase five acre site on Elephant Hill. Could Aguilar crave asking the City of Los Angeles to allow his educational commune to relocate to the remaining "surplus property" on Elephant Hill, away from Huntington Drive? Thus, granting Aguilar his much sought after open space (at city cost) for furthering his connection to the Azteca Educational Gods?

Your thoughts..............

Scott Johnson in CD 14       

Morning Briefs on a "Divided Los Angeles Political Machine" for Thursday

The convoluted political boundaries in a divided community.

Welcome to the morning after the unveiling of the first proposed redistricting map for the City of Los Angeles and the reaction? Where do we start? Lets spin the political bottle and it points at Downtown LA.

Downtown Developer Tom Gilmore.

One of the major redistricting battlegrounds in the weeks ahead will be Downtown LA where CD 14 Councilman Jose Huizar may expand his downtown territory at a cost to CD 9's Councilwoman Jan Perry. But not if Developer Tom Gilmore has is way, from the LA Times, "In downtown, developer Tom Gilmore said he was shocked that the redistricting panel proposed shifting Councilwoman Jan Perry’s district south, causing her to lose much of the city's central core.

“It’s so counter-intuitive,” said Gilmore, who praised Perry for her role in bringing redevelopment to the area and who said "downtown unity" is key to future growth. “You finally have a downtown that after 30 years is moving ahead. I really have to question why all this incredible gerrymandering is going on to fix something that isn’t broken."

Gilmore and other downtown leaders will appear with Perry at a rally Thursday to protest the changes, which would give Eastside Councilman Jose Huizar large parts of downtown". We should note that Gilmore and Councilman Huizar have had some differences in the past but Gilmore knows Councilman Huizar's "S.O.P." which should cause pause among other downtown leaders.

CD 11 City Councilman Bill Rosendahl.

Councilman Bill Rosendahl CLAERLY let everyone know how he felt about parts of Westchester being added to CD 8 of Councilman Bernard Parks. An "outrageous case of gerrymandering." 

Sunland-Tujunga Alliance Founder and former Mayor Sam Blogger Joe Barrett.

In the northern hinterlands of the City of Los Angeles, don't expect many in Lake View Terrace and Sunland-Tujunga to welcome CD 7 Councilman Richard AlarCON with open arms. Joe Barrett said members of his Sunland-Tujunga community would "flip out" over a plan to take it out of Councilman Paul Krekorian's district.

Koreatown Sign.

But by far yesterday, the most vocal group were the hundreds of Korean-Americans who attended the Redistricting Committee meeting yesterday in Van Nuys. They all spoke on being united in one council district, especially one that does not have a " number 10 designation".

“When you neglect the Asian community, when you talk about every other ethnic group and yet you forget a population that is 15 percent of this community, it’s hurtful,” said Grace Yoo, executive director of the Korean American Coalition. But more interesting is why the Korean Community wants nothing to do with City Council President Herb Wesson's CD 10.

But then it may be the same reason why some Downtown want nothing to do with CD 14. After all, the "real cost" of doing business in the City of Los Angeles is predicated on what council person controls the services of government.

Your thoughts ..............

Scott Johnson in CD 14.                                                                                

An "Outrageous case of Gerrymandering"

Draft Map of the 2012 City of Los Angeles Redistricting Committee.

The Los Angeles Times and the LA Weekly are on top of the blow up that will come from the Draft Map on new council district boundaries just released by the City of Los Angeles Redistricting Committee. And the initial response from CD 11 City Councilman Bill Rosendahl sums up the growing opinion of many local political observers when he states that the draft map is an "outrageous case of gerrymandering" (** especially when you separate Westchester from LAX).

We took the time to contact a couple of local observers and base upon the early dissemination of the proposed new boundaries, we come up with this preliminary "Winners and Losers List".

Winners:

City Council President Herb Wesson, gets most of Koreatown within his boundaries, good for future "fundraising".

CD 14 City Councilman Jose Huizar, moves Councilwoman Perry south to gain control of most of Downtown. In the north, Huizzy no longer needs to worry about the Southwest Museum. Huizzy's "bagman" may need some larger sacks.

The Valley, moving CD 4 north,by northwest gives the area its sixth council district.

Losers:

Councilwoman Jan Perry, she keeps LA Live but most of her downtown enclave has disappear (for now).

Sunland-Tijunga, say hello to Councilman AlarCON/Fuentes.

Andrew Westall, say goodbye to CD 4 city council aspirations (but hey, your boss keeps the Korean fundraising base).

Michael Trujillo, read Simone Wilson's "scribeslap" of MEAT in Weekly post above. 

Assemblyman Mike Gatto, read above.regarding CD 4.

** Hot rumor: Councilman Huizar wanted to rid himself of Eagle Rock for more of the riches of Downtown LA, but ddoes get rid of Highland Park.

Disclaimer: This map is not final to until the last rounds of secret backroom discussions are completed.