To Be Fair, It's Not Just Dykes But Jesus Too

You may remember the controversy over the City Council's approval of a special event fee waiver for something called Dyke Day.

Now, the City wants to waive the fees at an event sponsored by a large church in the San Fernando Valley.

07-1736-S1 CD 12 e. MOTION (SMITH - CARDENAS) relative to declaring the Shepherd of the Hills Fourth of July Spectacular on July 4, 2009 a Special Event (fees and costs absorbed by the City = $17,374)


At what point does it stop? I thought we were broke? We can't afford to spay and neuter the animals but we can fund pet projects?

What happened to separation of church and state?

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Wednesday

If there is a tipping point for the City's controversial practice of offering special event fee waivers - that is covering the costs of traffic control, police, trash, etc. for events held in the City, history may show that it was Tuesday when the Council approved over $3K in waivers for something called :"Dyke Day." Many gays and lesbians were offended at the approval of an event that many feel includes a derogatory term; many other Angelenos were offended that Tuesday the Council approved another $75K in the waivers at a time when Los Angeles may be facing bankruptycy. The word of "Dyke Day" kicked up quite the meme in the blogs-LA-phere with coverage at LAist and RonKayeLA.

The Beckford Elementary School Parents Blog gives a good blow by blow of the scene from Tuesday's LA Unified Board of Education meeting where teachers' union members and other activtists were on hand to protest planned teacher layoffs. The District will send layoff notices to about 9,000 employees as a precautionary measure should the LAUSD actually have to reduce staff later this year.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is leading the pack in the number of people who are following his micro-blogging "tweets" on the Twitter service. Newsom has over 43,000 followers while potential opponent Mayor Villaraigosa has just 798. Your favorite old, dead Republican Mayor has 48 followers and I'm not even running for office.

We send our best wishes to Downtown Central City East Blogger Don Garza. As you may know Don has been living and blogging from Skid Row for several years and has experienced health problems due to his living situation. Don now has an opportunity to create a blog design firm and had his first presentation Tuesday. Good luck to Don who not only wants to earn a living but use the resources his business will provide him to help the homeless. That's not only admirable, it's the way things should be.

Franklin Avenue reports on a new local digital channel for New York City created by NBC, "New York Non-Stop." Of course comes the usual whine "Why don't we have this in LA?" But, as even the Franklins note, LA does have an NBC digital station, the excellent KNBC News Raw. The station is able to use the expanded time it has to cover imporant issues in-depth and has recently produced well-done reporting on the nonsense at City Hall and outshone all the local media in covering the recent elections. On the other hand, New York Non-Stop is the usual namby-pamby crap seen on shows like "2 on the Town" or "Eye on LA" that covers what yuppies had for dinner or some artist that is building the Mona Lisa out of trash. Nice stuff, but we already have that programming.

And finally, Valley Doll says she's heard a rumor that a member of the City Council we all know and love may have knocked up their "partner." Congrats on the coming bundle of joy!

Dyke Day?

09-0499 CD 13 c. MOTION (GARCETTI - ROSENDAHL) relative to declaring the Dyke Day Los Angeles on June 13, 2009 a Special Event (fees and costs absorbed by the City = $3,252).

Thanks to a tipster we found out among the many special event waivers totaling nearly $75K the City Clowncil is considering today is over $3K in subsidies for something called "Dyke Day."  Our tipster says:

This is absurd in and of itself but I am particularly appalled that among the events being sponsored is DYKE DAY in East LA. I am a member of the LGBT community and feel this is UNBELIEVABLE that we work so hard to get rid of words like faggot and dyke from school yards yet we condone it here? This is disgusting!

Garcetti and Rosendahl may have some 'splainin' to do.