Valley Plaza, Before Wendy Greuel Got Hold of It

The Valley Plaza shopping center in North Hollywood was once a jewel of the Valley, in fact it was nationally known for it's then innovative development.  Three generations of North Hollywoodians grew up hanging out at Valley Plaza and it's neighbor mall, Laurel Plaza.

That was then...

Both shopping centers have fallen on hard times these days, and none so much as plans languished during the nearly 7 years Wendy Greuel represented the area on the City Council. Still today in 2013, the mall remains shuttered. Businesses are boarded up and it's a true blight on the city. Wendy showed zero leadership on the issue during a time that market forces presented the opportunity to create a new and fabulous mall. Even Mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti made mention of this in a recent debate.

This is now.

All those opportunities went to other cities, such as Burbank.

Imagine, what she will do if she gets a hold of the ENTIRE city?

Los Angeles Politics HotSheet for Tuesday

Carmen's Future?

Oh, Carmen. In a Trutanichesque display of chutzpah and tuna canning bravado our City Attorney packed up a bodyguard and a $2 million check representing the County's share of a city won lawsuit and headed to the County Hall of Administration to personally deliver the check and suggest that it go to political pal, Sheriff Lee Baca, to address the high profile issue of a backlog of rape investigation kits. Trouble is, state law says the County has to spend the dough on consumer protection.  Carmen's former BFF - DA Steve Cooley - called it a cheap political ploy (as Carmen has designs on Cooley's seat) and that the backlog was resolved some time ago.  One wonders if Carmen had the check in a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist and offered the County Administrative Officer "an offer you can not refuse.
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Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Thursday

Keep dreaming

In a real body blow to residents of North Hollywood and surrounding areas, Curbed LA is reporting that the iconic Valley Plaza in North Hollywood, a long time shuttered and vacant retail site will not be coming back to life for the foreseeable future. Valley Plaza had been owned for the last 10 years by developer J.H. Snyder, who promised but never delivered on a $333 million redo complete with restaurants, retail space, movie theaters, and even sound stages for the film industry.  Instead, J.H. Snyder has now handed the property back (foreclosure?) to the lender, Istar.  A sad day for our friends in NoHo.

Mayor Villaraigosa gave his annual "State of the City" address yesterday, titling it "A New Contract", whatever that means. Something about 300,000 potholes that he's going to fill, port traffic up, fixing education, blah, blah, etc. City Maven live blogged the speech perfectly!

Food sprayer and LACCD candidate Scott Svonkin continues to catch heat for his deceptive absence from Tuesday night's San Gabriel School Board meeting. Our mention yesterday of his lying about being ill in order to attend and schmooze at a LA Democratic Party event at UTLA was picked up and expanded on by the LA Weekly. We're also receiving reports that Scott fled the event as soon as he realized he was being photographed by our sources.

Apparently, we really are the City of Angels.