Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Thursday

Yesterday we reported that Mayor Villaraigosa has been spending his time hanging around the hotel lobby (though he did get to sit behind President Clinton during Hillary Clinton's speech) during the Democratic National Convention in Denver; if you were wondering how Council President Eric Garcetti is spending his time at the Dem-Fest, Gen Y blogger Maegan Carberry writes: "We spent last night at a party for up-and-coming elected officials, hosted by my LA City Councilman Eric Garcetti. I enjoyed some spirited conversations with policy-wonk types while Shepard Fairey DJed."

Zuma Dogg makes a good catch, as President Clinton was exiting the stage following his speech to the delegates at the Democratic National Convention, the song the band was playing was Robert Palmer's pop hit Addicted to Love.  Zuma Dogg thinks this was a dirty trick against the former President who, along with his wife, went above and beyond to call for support of their former opponent, Barack Obama.  Wouldn't surprise me.  Obama is beginning to show he has a tremendous ego and is incredibly vindictive against those who would cross him.

As appellate court judges consider whether or not to overturn Los Angeles' controversial Proposition R term limits law, chief opponent David Hernandez has issued a message to his supporters.  Hernandez writes "A group of Los Angeles residents and organizations, under funded and outgunned sent a message which seeped into every dark smoke filled back room of City Hall."


 Walter Moore has put up a couple of websites, one opposing Measure Q the multi-billion dollar LAUSD school construction bond boondoggle and another setting the record straight on Janice Hahn's gang tax scam.  If you're opposed to either or both of these measures forward the sites to your friends as both provide excellent analyses of the two measures.

Zuma Dogg opines about the court decision that overturned a county restriction on taco trucks.   Zuma wonders aloud if vendors who recieved citations will now have grounds to sue, or at least get their citations thrown out.
 
In case you were worried, Paris Hilton has confirmed that she's a big fan of Britney Spears. Contactmusic quoted Hilton as saying “I love Britney, I think she looks so beautiful right now."

Raising Taxes in a Recession: A Terrible Idea

I've posted several times that the idea of raising taxes in a recession is a poor one. It doesn't matter if its to balance out of control spending or worse to pay for boondoggles like the transit tax scam or the gang tax.  With Angelenos struggling to pay bills, buy gas and get by the last thing the economy can handle is more taxes.  And to top it off your DWP and trash rates were raised significantly again.

Wednesday I had a conversation with a former elected official who now sits on an important local panel.  It doesn't matter who they are.  With respect to the proposed sales tax increase to pay for Westside transit projects the individual told me "investing in infrastructure is one way to stimulate a stagnant economy."

We've heard many politicians say this but it's never really panned out.  Did constuction of the Metro Red Line boost the economy in the late 90s? No, it came from the dot.com explosion and rising property values.  Indeed, the current downturn will naturally be well over before the first train is even run.

The best thing the City Council and State Legislature could do is to CUT taxes and fees.  That means they'll need to make some pretty painful spending cuts.  However very quickly they will see that revenues will increase the more they cut taxes and the more that private investment is stimulated.

It wasn't George Bush or John McCain or even Ronald Reagan who said that "It is a paradoxical truth, that tax rates are too high today, and tax revenues are too low, and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the tax rates," no, it was President John F. Kennedy who in 1962 significantly cut taxes which led to a long term economic expansion that was stalled by the massive increase in social spending of Lyndon Johnson and his escalation of  the Vietnam War.

Arnold.  Antonio.  Anyone.  Want to follow the lead of JFK?

Obstinate

Unfazed by the L.A. Bridges and Watts Gang Task Force debacles, Councilmember Tony Cardenas, chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Gang Violence and Youth Development, wants more of your money with no strings attached. He wants policy makers to be held accountable to provide a steady stream of funding for anti-gang programs. No call for any measure of program effectiveness.

The policy makers need to make a commitment to fund these programs that work, and to hold them accountable to make sure that they continue to fund them, and make it institutional, just like every community has made it institutional to have a budget for a police department.

Cardenas made these remarks at a recent conference of “gang experts” organized by the Pat Brown Institute at Cal State L.A., which, judging by KPCC’s coverage amounted to another exercise in wheel-spinning and self-indulgence. To his credit, Cardenas was the only expert who managed to express a coherent thought.

Listen to excerpts of the conference below. If you can stomach it.

A Laundry List of Taxes

Though the deadline has passed to put measures on the November ballot in California, the State Legislature and other government bodies can waive those deadlines to put a boatload of tax and bond measures to voters.  Among the soak the taxpayers plans on or potentiallly coming to the ballot include:



California Veterans' Housing Bond

California High Speed Passenger Rail Bond

California Children's Hospital Bond

California Alternative Energy Vehicles Bond

City of Los Angeles $30 Million Gang Tax

LA Community College Construction and "Green Technology" $3.5 Billion Bond

LAUSD $3.2 Billion Property Tax Increase for Construction

MTA Half-Cent Sales Tax for Transportation (which they round up by the way)

City of LA Personal Income Tax? (Also known as the "Occupational License Fee")



Of course there a ton of other fees the politicians can raise without your vote such as the trash tax and DWP rate increases.



So when is enough enough? When do we tell the politicians no more?

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Monday

Your Los Angeles city officials are lying to you about the need for more taxes.  We've told you that.  Walter Moore has told you that.  And now the Daily News makes the case about Goofy Janice Hahn's gang property tax scam (so she can use your tax money to pay more gang members and give them guns).  By the way the Council voted last week to put this scam on the ballot and almost sneaked in a provision to allow them to raise the tax every year. 





Councilman Bill Rosendahl has decided to cancel a town hall meeting to discuss an important community issue and replace it with closed door meetings.  Rosendahl was to have sponsored the community forum on issues of bicyclists' rights this evening but later announced it would be cancelled and replaced by a "task force." However, the task force does not include members of a bicyclists' group who have been advocating a cyclists bill of rights.  With the price of gas going sky-high and the need to find alternate methods of transportation the bicycle issue will not go away despite the wishes of the NIMBY-pamby wishes of homeowner groups in Rosendahl's tony district.



The Griffith Park, Interrupted blog takes the Westside White Guy to task for writing a puff piece on DWP General Manager H. David "E wastewater pluribus" Nahai presenting the controversial utility chief as some sort of environmental hero.  Good point as the DWP is filling up reservoirs with plastic balls which has been questioned by some environmentalists.  In an unrelated (maybe?) story Joseph Mailander reports that the lotus flowers in Echo Park Lake have died off.  For the first time, the annual Lotus Festival will have no blooming lotuses.





Local politicians want to raise your taxes and cut your services but that hasn't stopped them from living high on the hog.  The Daily News reports that dozens of top Los Angeles County officials drive in luxury official vehicles costing as much as $50,000 each.  Over the last few years these vehicles have been involved in nearly 2000 separate traffic accidents costiing the County millions of dollars.





The Kennedy Republican is possibly looking for a job in a potential Obama administration.  Though Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has endorsed John McCain for President he says he'd be interested in being an "energy czar."





Cityhood for East LA begin in earnest Friday.  Leaders begin a petition drive which if successful would force a study of the city's viability by the County's Local Agency Formation Commission.  The petitions will require the signatures of 9000 registered voters within the future city's boundaries.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Thursday

LA Bridges, the City's boondoggle of an anti-gang effort is coming to an end.  The LA Times says "good riddance" to the program.  Citing the cause of the failure of the program the Times said that  City Council members "made sure city contracts went to their supporters, and second, they landed L.A. Bridges programs for their own districts, whether they needed them or not." Isn't that the problem in general with anything the City Council brings forth? This should give pause to anyone who is considering voting for Janice Hahn's gang tax this fall.



Potential Mayoral candidate Zev Yaroslavsky rides the subway with the Former Fishwrap of Record's Steve Hymon.  Zev is now taking public transit himself a few times a week and is more in favor of subways than he used to be.  He has some concerns about the transportation sales tax that may be on the November ballot but is adamant that money raised be spent primarily on the Westside.



A gay blog says that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's gay agenda could both help and hurt him in the race for Governor of California.  His early championing of gay marriage and other civil rights for homosexuals will help propel him in the Democratic primary in key party constituencies.  However should Newsom be nominated Republicans will surely exploit the "San Francisco Agenda" statewide; and the Mayor's alcoholism and relationship troubles will also haunt him.



New teen mom Jamie Lynn Spears says motherhood is "so much fun!" The 17 year old celebrity who gave birth to a daughter last month is living with the baby daddy and child in Mississippi.  Spears told OK Magazine "I love taking care of her. It is so much fun. I just want to hug her and kiss her, and I'm happy all the time!"

Hump Day Hotsheet

“This is the most important election of our lifetime!”

I know I’ve heard this before—haven’t you? Why, of course! 2004 was the “most important election of our lifetime.” And, come to think of it, so was 2000.

One thing we all know about our absentee mayor: he has nary an altruistic bone in his body. His recent red-eye to Washington was hardly “testament to his newfound loyalty” to Barack Obama, as the Times would have us believe. Truth be told, this is probably the most important election of Antonio’s lifetime, and I wish him all the best; if he scores a new job in D.C., Los Angeles will be better off for it.

Surprise, surprise. According to City Controller Laura Chick, the trash tax increase you were told would be spent hiring new cops isn’t all being spent hiring new cops. Walter Moore and David Zahniser have the shocking details.

Hey, did you know Rocky Delgadillo’s birthday is coming up? Next week, according to Wikipedia, he’ll be 48, but, the official celebration—a small gathering of family and close friends—will be held July 22nd in Larchmont Village. I was honored to receive an invitation to the party (the darnedest things arrive on my fax machine), but regrettably cannot afford the $1,000 admission price. You see, as much as I’d like to support Rocky’s unannounced candidacy for the unknown, times are tough. My trash bill is up, my cell phone bill is up, and Janice Hahn is shaking me down for more gang money.

Just how many cans of Old Style beer did Steve Lopez drink on a recent getaway to Chicago? Enough, apparently to return with the following headline: A role model for L.A.? Chicago.

As a guy who fled the Windy City, I can tell you that visiting and living Chicago are two polar opposites. Let me put it this way: there’s a good reason Mayor Villaraigosa has such admiration for his Midwestern counterpart. How would you like to live in a town without mayoral term limits? Ruled with force; by order and decree? Mayor Richard M. Daley’s name is inscribed on nearly every piece of public property. Oh, and Chicago’s City Council makes ours look sane and sober.

I moved here for a reason. With freedom comes a little chaos. Los Angeles is America’s freest big city—you can love this place despite its leadership.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Tuesday

Without view of the harm that additional taxes will do to our economy and the regressive effect on poor families of increasing sales taxes blogger Kenneth Alpern throws his support behind a significant increase to in that tax ostensibly for rail transit.  Alpern even acknowledges that government spending could be curtailed elsewhere to provide funding to transportation but figures that's too hard so why bother.  The key to ending gridlock and providing transit is to reduce the barriers to business in California, work to place jobs near housing so folks don't have to commute and open up public transit to competition from the private sector who would absolutely do a far better job in providing this service than the MTA has ever done.



Speaking of taxes, Dennis Zine is making noise that he may oppose Janice Hahn's ludicrous gang property tax increase if he isn't certain Canoga Park will get it's "fair share."  There could be a glimmer of Denny's former Republican soul shining through however as he told the Daily News "People are feeling the pinch," Zine said. "The economy is really in bad shape, and it might not be a good time to ask people for more taxes."  Bingo Former Motorcycle Cop of Record!  THAT's the reason to oppose the tax and not whether you get your slab of bacon or not.  Make us proud Councilman Zine - send goofy Janice Hahn the message that the people are tired of tax increases.



Based on the numbers and past history, it's not likely Republican Presidential candidate John McCain will win California's boatload of electoral votes.  Hence, it appears the GOP standard bearer is not going to make much of an effort in the Golden State. However McCain owes it to the downticket Republicans, especially those in tight races, to do his best to turn out as many votes for himself as possible.



My friend Ron Kaye isn't the only one opposed to big screen flat panel HD televisions.  Apparently Barack Obama wants to rip them out of the White House.  Sure he does, when Richardson comes over for Superbowl Sunday yea they're going to read Lincoln's speeches instead.  By the way Ron I was at the store pricing 60" flat panels the other day.  Contributions to this goal from Mayor Sam readers would be greatly appreciated.  What a great way to give back to your favorite old, dead Republican Mayor who has brought you four years of enjoyment as he remodels his home.



Residents in Venice are up in arms over folks who move into their hood and live in RVs and cars parked on the streets.  Councilmember Bill Rosendahl feels that there should be some compassion shown these semi-homeless folks and wants to set up special "districts" to keep these vehicles from parking overnight in Venice (and sending them to someone else's neighborhood).



The City Council is considering placing a 25 cent per bag tax on plastic bags used in stores in Los Angeles.  Along with the trash tax, telephone tax and a coming sales tax for public transit how much more are we going to pile on, especially for the poor? This is a free market issue and the free market can solve the problem.  Check out stores like HOWS, Walgreens, Trader Joe's and others who sell reusable cloth bags.  I have to tell you as much as I hate plastic bags (the stores use WAY too many of them to put 1-2 items in each and they're not convenient) I hate excessive taxes just as much.  Imagine a poor family buying groceries having to spend less money on food so they can cover the extra sales and bag taxes on their weekly grocery take.  There are other ways to protect the environment.



Rick Orlov joins the war on billboards.  Laws should be followed and illegal efforts should be punished, however just because one group of folks in LA doesn't like the advertisements doesn't mean a lot of other folks don't find them cool when done right in the right place.  This again goes towards the need to eliminate the class warfare element of the Battle of Los Angeles.



Britney Spears' guest appearances on the sitcom How I Met Your Mother earned her some fan appreciation and critical notice but it wasn't enough to get her an Emmy nomination in the guest star category.  Also snubbed: Olsen twin Mary-Kate for her appearances on the Showtime series Weeds.

Crime and Punishment in Los Angeles

Today I arrived to my vehicle - parked in a secure garage - to find this:


Unfortunately, the bandits made off with the Mayor Sam Mobile Unit - laptop, web cameras and other assorted remote blogging doo-dads (but not the dreaded BlackBerry).

Digital security cameras and a crack Senior Lead Officer might nab the bandits. And auto and rental insurance may cover some of the damage.

Still I will not vote for or support any of the shady taxes, fees, assessments etc. allegedly for hiring more cops. Let's cut the rest of the budget first and eliminate the nonsense.

Mayor Sam readers, bloggers, politicians and local denizens alike should not worry that the theft of this laptop means the loss of any sensitive Sister City data. The old, dead Republican Mayor makes use of online applications like Google Apps so nothing is saved locally.

I just miss all my doo-dads.

City adopts Gang Model without Fiscal Impact Statement

JM, Atwater Bridge Stairway, 2.13.08

City Council today passed Councilman Tony Cardenas's motion to adopt a Gang Intervention Model as presented to the City in a Human Relations Committee Report of February 6, 2008.

You get the feeling someone is about to be fleeced again when you read the motion's bottom line:

Fiscal Impact Statement: None Submitted by the Human Relations Commission. Neither the City Administrative Officer nor the Chief Legislative Analyst has completed a financial analysis of this report.

So what was the hurry, absent fiscal impact? NBC quotes Cardenas:

"The item before us today is about the city of Los Angeles having the will and the ability to look in the mirror and say, `What do we need to do to do it right?"' Cardenas said.

Evidently, we need to take Council's word for it that Council can tell what we need to do it right, even without a budget before it. Cardenas's Council office says the motion is simply all about defining prevention and intervention.

Monday Hotsheet at 3 a.m.

JM, Subliminal Advertising? 12.21.07 - click image to enlarge


Joseph Mailander a guy in la • elsewhere • email

The Daily News this morning has a handy roundup of MLK Day events from Pacoima to Pasadena. Here's our favorite: "The California African American Museum will celebrate with galleries opening at 11 a.m. and a cake-cutting ceremony at 1 p.m. CAAM director Charmaine Jefferson is expected to attend."

Lots of people have taken James O'Shea's dismissal as an opportunity to look silly. The cuts were no big deal, says Managing Ed John Arthur, sitting up a little straighter; which must be why O'Shea's only substantive public comment is that he's seeking an attorney. And Mark Lacter's appraisal is surprisingly clumsy. For instance, Lacter suggests Citi's and Merrill's bad quarters and BofA's recent acquisition of Countrywide somehow translates into "enormous pressure to keep down expenses" at the Times. But commercial bankers are highly siloed and only snicker at each other from across the industry groups they bank. They just don't face extraordinary pressures from problems elsewhere in their orgs that way. Besides---there is always pressure to perform well early in the life of acquisition financing. The front page ad discussion is a complete non sequitur; does it really have anything to do with O'Shea?

But in case you were worried, nobody beats MayorSam at looking silly, so you might want to visit our own item on the firing if you haven't yet done so.

The Daily Breeze revisits its own story on Saturday's party shootings in Long Beach, and suggests that gang members may have noticed the party on the Internet and then crashed it. One of the reason's Janice Hahn's gang tax is such a bad idea is that it would turn the policing of gangs into whack-a-mole; we'll spend all this money here but they'll pop up there.

Have a good day off, except for you folks in Sanitation, who apparently have to work. I don't get that at all.

Saturday morning "Breakfast Bits" from the "RED SPOT INSTITUTE"

Good Saturday morning from the Institute high above the "BLUE SEA" of government junkies in CD 14. For your viewing pleasure, we give you this lovely shot of Elephant Hill in "PUEBLO DE SERENO".

It seems that the "MIXING" of a full moon, alcohol, computer keyboard and a lurking "SANCHO" has someone spilling their "BROKEN HEART". This makes for "BLOGGIN GOOD ENTERTAINMENT". So let this be the "DR. PHIL THREAD OF THERAPY".

On to the news.

DOWNTOWN NEWS ONLINE:

Always fun to watch a "WEEKLY LOCAL FISHWRAP" out report the "OLD GREY HAG ON SPRING STREET". The Downtown weekly continues its reporting on the fiasco that is the Rec. and Park Quimby Fund. This week, Rec. and Parks admits that land they were looking at for park space is no longer available.

http://www.downtownnews.com/articles/2007/10/29/news/news03.txt

DAILY NEWS:

City Councilwoman Janice Hahn will not give up her dream of "TAXING OUT THE GANG PROBLEM". She will place her "PARCEL TAX" on the November 2008 ballot. Meanwhile, we have a sighting of the "GENERAL SECRETARY OF GANG INTERVENTION", the Rev. Carr.

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_7294556

QUESTION OF THE DAY:

What will be the final resolution to the Elephant Hill affair ?? It seems that El Sereno is always a fertile area for thought, and quite diverse at that. Blog away, enjoy your Bruin win and the demise of the Trojans.

****Trojans Burst Under Pressure**** Oregon 24, S.C.C.C 17

****Bruins are ruin, UCLA 7, Washington St. 27****