LA Weekly: AEG to Kick in Money for the Non-Permitted Jackson Memorial

"AEG's Tim Lieweke and a couple of civic friends"

The LA Weekly is reporting this afternoon that AEG will pay an undisclosed amount of money to offset public cost for the non-permitted AEG/Michael Jackson Memorial.

By Tibby Rothman and Dennis Romero

Anschutz Entertainment Group, the owner of Staples Center and the organizer behind the controversial Michael Jackson memorial there in July, will pay to defray at least some of the city's costs to police, direct traffic and clean-up during and after the event.
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Councilman Dennis Zine on Monday said he had breakfast with company CEO Tim Leiweke and that the executive pledged to help end the controversy by contributing some money to cover the city's costs.

The July 7 memorial has been the source of much ire: On Friday the city released a report indicating that it spent nearly $3.2 million to deal with the crowds that came to witness the memorial or just to be near it. The memorial was produced as a television special and was carried on channels throughout the world. A subsequent concert film based on Jackson's rehearsals for his AEG-promoted This Is It concert residency in London has grossed $200 million, with 10 percent of that going to AEG.

As Romero reported in his Friday post "City Spends $3.2 Million To Market The $200-Mil, Michael Jackson Blockbuster 'This Is It'" and follow up this morning. The city through someones unauthorized actions, payed out money to subsidize the making of AEG's flick of Michael Jackson's last moment on a stage in his life.

For Councilman Dennis Zine and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, here is hoping that both of these public servants do not get "weak in the knees and continue in their quest to see that the city is fully refunded for the unauthorized costs of the AEG/ Michael Jackson Memorial.

Is The Mayor Serious on Public Transit?

Allen Mittelstaedt writing at CityBeat de-constructs Mayor V's press conference (the one where he accused the LA Times' Steve Hymon of raining on his parade) about extending the Purple Line Subway to Santa Monica.

Mittelstaedt takes Villaraigosa to task for not staging the photo op at least at the terminus of the Purple Line at Wilshire and Western, for not working simultaneously with Zev Yarovslasky to end his subway funding ban (while getting Henry Waxman to remove his construction ban) and for not collaborating with the leaders of other cities on the line's route, such as former Santa Monica Mayor Denny Zane (no relation to Dennis Zine).

What was Allen thinking? That the Mayor actually had a plan and wasn't looking to get his picture taken?