Friday Free for All

Wendy Greuel is beginning the first steps to run for Mayor when Antonio Villaraigosa terms out in 2013.  Paul Hatfield has a few things to say about that.

20 years to the day that he had his now legendary run-in with LAPD, Rodney King once again gets pulled over by police.

Paul Krekorian has a new commercial out and it features a few of our favorite community activists such as Abby Diamond and Lydia Grant.  Check it out at Paul's website.

Today is the last day you can give your opinion on how the City should spend it's money.  Take the Mayor's Budget Survey.

The Promoinator Pushing Cali Wine in Hangzhou

What else would you do in this stage of your governorship?

-Speaking of Republican Governors and those that wanna-be; Gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, in her ongoing quest ($104 million so far) to buy the governor's office, has come up with a few, uh, corporate ideas for California:

* Replacement of 40,000 state employees by outsourcing or privatizing state services to for-profit corporations.
* Major reduction or outright elimination of a wide range of business taxes.
* Cutting back funding for California's underfunded public education system, apparently by reducing "50 categorical grants, many of which which are duplicative and far to prescriptive, into simplified grants... "
* Her firm pledge to roll back California's historic clean energy and climate legislation, at least for a year, in her continued effort to help corporations at all costs.

-And lately, every time I hear "Governor, Outsourcing, and Corporations" in a story, my thoughts go immediately to Sunland-Tujunga's former hometown girl gone wrong, Jan Brewer, and her love affair with the corporate prison system. Hey, no SB1070 connection here, right? Just asking.

-It's September and what's with the butt cold nights? Why not do what Abby Diamond is doing this weekend and visit the amazing Guadalupe Oasis Hot Springs, located just an hour or so east of Tijuana. This isolated and primitive resort is one of northern Baja's best kept secrets. Don't try to drive in yourself unless you're sporting a 4x4. See their website for alternative means of access.

Hotsheet for Thursday

Watch it go. Mayor Villaraigosa’s favorite land developer, Meruelo Maddux (Nasdaq: MMPI), from nearly eleven dollars to eleven cents in 26 months. The Downtown News reports the company has “stopped making interest and principal payments on loans totaling $266 million,” and faces Chapter 11 if it can’t raise cash to service its debt.

On the ground, beyond the Bloomberg headlines, a certain Zen has set in at Westfield Century City. Like the calm before a storm. Ten-dollar Coral Tree paninis are no match for Subway’s $5 footlongs. Macy’s feels like a museum, frozen in time. Outside, a handful of shoppers scuttle from store to store, clutching unmarked bags, acutely aware. As I pass the future site of the aptly named True Religion—purveyor of $300 blue jeans—I can’t help but smirk. Inside, the muffled bang of a hammer, like forehead against the wall. Ten days ago, Santee Alley was jam-packed, and I spotted True Religion knock-offs for twenty bucks.

Last night, Michael Higby micro-blogged a flurry of updates from the Midtown North Hollywood Neighborhood Council meeting. Among the highlights: Wendy Greuel remains enthusiastic about CFLs, tree plantings, and woodchips, according to her emissary—oh, and the big news: you CD2 commoners will be granted the privilege of choosing her replacement. So will it be Tamar Galatzan or Cindy Montañez? I call this game Tony Tetris, where political offices blast open and Villaraigosa allies slide in. CD5 found a neighborhoodie … will CD2 follow suit?

In other CD2 news, Abby Diamond blogs that the Los Angeles Mission College is researching the possibility of opening a satellite campus on the former Kmart site, recently surrendered by Home Depot.

And finally, Civic Center Park is moving forward without all the bells and whistles (we’ll thank ourselves a generation from now); SEIU boss, James Bryant, is back under the LA Times microscope; and President Obama supports merit pay for teachers. Often, people just need to hear someone they trust say what they already know to be right. Who knows? Change we can believe in may yet come to LA Unified.

Moms Making a Difference

The fabulous ladies over at MomsRising.org would like to remind you that the Women's Campaign Forum (WCF) has launched the second annual She Should Run campaign.

She Should Run is a comprehensive effort to gather nominations of women leaders who should run for public office. WCF is committed to ensuring these women get essential encouragement they need and to providing them connections to key public life decision making tools and campaign resources.

From MomsRising.org:

Do you know a woman who should run for office? Research shows women are much more likely to run if someone asks them to. Tell a woman she should run for office, share her story, and send her on her way toward becoming the influential public office holder she was always meant to be.

Hey, Abby Diamond -- would you run for office ... pretty please?! I kinda like the way "Mayor Diamond" sounds. :)

Joe Barrett Honored By Sunland-Tujunga Neighborhood Council

MayorSam Blogger, NHDC Founder and Chairman Joe Barrett was recently honored with "The President's Award" by the Sunland-Tujunga Neighborhood Council. Outgoing STNC president Cindy Cleghorn made the presentation at the May 14th STNC meeting. Joe was unable to attend, so the award was accepted by the lovely Abby Diamond on his behalf.

From Ms. Cleghorns speech:

This next person I wish to recognize is someone we all know and love. His dedication to our community has put him through many challenges, obstacles, difficult situations, laughter, tears, stress and fears. He's become well known in many circles but his drive for improving our quality of life will forever be a part of the history of Sunland-Tujunga. He is a determined, community volunteer who has the support of thousands of people - I'd like to extend this President's Award to Joe Barrett.

The people of Sunland-Tujunga know it; his fellow Burros and readers of MayorSam know it; and now it's time for the rest of Los Angeles to know it: Joe Barrett is a dedicated, caring and wise citizen of this city and we need a lot more like him around these parts. We're all so very proud of you Joe, and thankful to you for all of your efforts on behalf of the people of Sunland-Tujunga!

The Top Ten Mother Figures

Before we close the books on Mothers' Day 2008, I want to take up a suggestion by Valley Doll that I list the city's top 10 hottest moms or mom like figures. There's a term that is often used for attractive women of advanced childbearing years that I won't use here, but the following is LA's top ten:

10 - Kelly Lange - The former KNBC anchorwoman is no longer on the air but should be. She now keeps busy by writing novels

9 - Janice Hahn - If she's not rescuing alligators, paying gangbangers, parking in the wrong spot or banning roosters, many fellas still think she's kind of cute.

8 - Colleen Williams - A fixture on local news programs since the 80s; about 15 years ago she finally started dying that famous prematurely gray streak in her hair. She's only 53 so she'll be on the air for some time to come.

7 - Wally Wharton AKA Rita of Sunland - The actress and writer turned local activist, blogger and talkradio gadfly technically isn't a mom but an aunt. Still, boys line up for her eccentric blend of screwball comedy and oozing sensuality.

6 - Terry Davis - One time at a Mid Town North Hollywood Neighborhood Council Meeting I saw a hard nosed activist speaking out against planned development at Universal Studios. The well informed, articulate speaker was the President of the Greater Toluca Lake Neighborhood Council

5 - Abby Diamond - A tough as nails fighter who always does it with extreme grace and professionalism is a Sunland-Tujunga based activist who voraciously reads planning laws, specific plans and zoning rules. The self taught Diamond has become so much an expert on planning that other cities have hired her for her expertise. If the fight against Home Depot in Sunland-Tujunga relies on the brawn of Joe Barrett; it's brain for sure is Abby.

4 - Valley Doll - The Mayor Sam blogger and self described riot grrrl is an uber-educated philosopher and super mom. The Doll proves that a mom can still be girly and kick anyone's ass at the same time. Watch out!

3 - Kim Thompson - The "Erin Brockovich" of the Valley was one of the leading forces putting the breaks on the controversial Las Lomas development. The blonde bombshell who was a candidate for San Fernando Valley City Council during the secession movement was in her younger days an auto worker and punk rocker.

2 - Valerie Bertinelli - Okay she has nothing to do with local politics but have you seen her lately? Not bad for a 48 year old! More importantly, she's the mom of Van Halen bass player Wolfgang Van Halen who is a homegrown second generation rocker who tours with his dad, uncle and David Lee Roth.

and finally...

1 - Corina Raigosa - The former first lady of Los Angeles was scorned by the Mayor for a television temptress but showed dignity and grace throughout. She remains hot, has a long record of community activism and really should be the one to be our Mayor.

Wednesday Hotsheet at 3 a.m.

JM, Little Joy, 3.24.08

Joseph Mailander a guy in la • elsewhere • email

Take a look at this, and use the magnifying glass: an LA transit map for the year 2030. Among the stops: Wilshire/La Cienega, Palms, La Cienega/Jefferson, Maravilla, Crenshaw/Slauson. Story on the map here.

But we might need it by 2010: more growth, more congestion, more schlocky commercial spaces thrown up by out of town businesses, and less departmental oversight of new building are all coming to Los Angeles, giving our City's talentless doormat of a planning chief more ability to surrender to developers, under a new Mayor's office plan to be implemented in the next six months. Garcetti loves the idea, which would give LA's Mayor-beholden planning chief in its history more authority, at the expense of other City deparment checkpoints of reason.

The Mayor mumbles something, neither pro-management nor especially pro-union, about the urgency of avoiding a prospective actor's strike, thereby creating the illusion of involvement. We criticized the Mayor persistently for staying mum through the writer's strike. Without bolder public statements, his office's involvement is useless.

As Sam says last night, eyes are now on Robin Kramer, as one ex-Riordan cohort, Karen Sisson, splits the Mayor's office. We think Kramer is also going. The moves fit the split between the Mayor's office and the Gang of Four we first alluded to eleven days ago. The Daily News quotes the departing Sisson as leaving for "a challenging job," one she had been recruited for.

The former fishwrap of record doesn't even have its own scribe rework the AP item about the LAPD's suicide rate. The item trivializes the numbers of officers fallen in the line of duty---scarcely a way to honor them in perpetuity.

Times ed Russ Stanton canceled his Thursday night appearance at the LA Press Club. Which is a shame, because Stanton's decisions since taking the helm have been uniquely awful, scrubbing the paper in a way that trivializes news itself, and some less-than-fawning types have some questions for him.

Congrats to our friend Abby Diamond, a force of nature in a part of the town where nature matters, Sunland-Tujunga, on becoming Woman of the Year in the community.

A block down from The Shortstop, a cop dive turned westsider-looking-for-Silver-Lake scenester bar, is the Little Joy, above, which has been Yelped as well as any bar gets Yelped.