Friday Hotsheet at 3 a.m.

Joseph Mailander a guy in la • elsewhere • email

Vox Populi: The Daily News's item on the debate that focuses on the carnival atmosphere outside has perfect pitch. When there is celebrity focus overload and nothing at all is really said, the people will say more than anyone else. "There were tears in Godoy's eyes as she said she would lose her downtown Los Angeles home in 30 days. Her 8-year-old son, Angel Martinez, held up two handwritten letters. "I want to give them to the future presidents," he said. "Maybe they can help me save my house."

Re the LA Times series on Broadway, chronic fishwrap factchecker Brady Westwater says, "The final article in that series (by Ari Bloomekatz, concerning the Cecil Hotel) was so bizarre it managed to archive a new LAT record of ten factual errors in one sentence...." in "The Times Plays the Race Card on Broadway."

I don't know why, but a pet sterilization ordinance sounds like a very bad idea to me. Actually, I do know why: the City's renter-to-owner-occupied ratio is so out of whack that the first best step to cleaning up our pet problem is to make for more homeowners in the City of Los Angeles. The amount of no-pets-allowed apartment buildings here is a driver of many animal reg problems. Work on creating more homeowners, not on less pets.

People have asked me to say something about my appearance on Larry Mantle's AirTalk yesterday; thanks, but I'd rather not critique myself. [ed.: You can listen here if you like]. I will tell you receive quite a few congratulatory calls immediately after wrapping up, including one from Red Spot, and Mantle himself told me after that I did well exchanging views on Prop S the Mayor's special counsel Thomas Saenz.

But one thing for sure: the guy who especially does well on a day like yesterday is Larry Mantle. He almost comes out of his shoes with excitement on such a big political day. And he had tons of info in pocket on Prop S. It felt like he argued my case to Thomas, and Thomas's case to me.

Thomas Saenz? The head of the Mayor's Office of Counsel and longtime MALDEF honcho. Oversaw the Mayor's ethics reform efforts when the Mayor was still talking ethics---you know, before the adultery. But you should know him as the guy who overturned Prop 187.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Friday

Politicians want Neighborhood Councils to spend money on security cameras; Walter Moore has the story of how Mayor Villaraigosa wants to spend $17,000 per camera to be loaded into police cars.

Could the City of Santa Clarita's opposition to the Las Lomas project be based on the City's desire to annex the area for local developers before the City of Los Angeles does?

There's a budget crisis yet the city is taking in more money than ever. Check out Walter Moore's latest blog.

The City does not have enough funds to buy security cameras or other things we need but we have enough for Tom LeBong's ego parade called the Hollywood Santa Parade. However they've picked a cool dude, tv host Bob Barker, to be the grand marshall.

If you need a free Thanksgiving dinner, the County of Los Angeles has one for you.

Broadway Downtown has been a bustling center of Hispanic culture for decades. Now Councilman Jose Huizar wants to gentrify the place into a west coast version of its New York namesake. That's great if the property and business owners there buy into the idea; but no city funds should be spent on it.