Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Wednesday

Shut The Front Door! A new Field Poll reveals that Californians are losing interest in politics and government and the internet is in part to blame. While TV or print media exposes a viewer or reader to multiple opinions and positions (Fox News being the exception, of course), voters are "rarely exposed to information outside of their realm of interest" on the internet.

California's independent redistricting process, currently underway, may be shifting up to 5 Congressional seats over to the Democrats. 24 is the magic number needed for the Dems to retake the House.

We're not out of the woods yet, but the tax credits designed to keep film & tv production in California are starting to work. From the Daily News-"More than $3.8 billion and 20,040 jobs were generated by the 77 productions that received tax incentives for filming in California, according to a study released Tuesday by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp". LA City Councilman Paul Krekorian was co-author of  the tax credit legislation back when he was serving in the state Assembly. Krekorian is now encouraging passage of AB1069 that would extend the tax breaks for 5 more years. Shoot Movies in California is asking everyone to sign this petition that seeks to have the State Senate approve the legislation.

You can beat City Hall! Ron Kaye has the story of the Olvera Street merchants vs Spring Street.

Goodbye CRAs!  Governor Jerry Brown's newly passed budget takes $1.7 billion away from redevelopment agencies, with a large portion of that coming from the developers' trough known as CRA Los Angeles.

Morning Briefs on the Los Angeles Political Scene for Wednesday

Olvera Street

"The Great Olvera Street Compromise of 2011" is nearly complete via CD 14 Councilman Jose Huizar.

From the Los Angeles Times, "What we came up with was a compromise that takes into account the economy, the budget needs of the city and the merchants at Olvera Street" who have been the backbone of the popular destination for years, said Councilman Jose Huizar, whose district includes El Pueblo De Los Angeles Historical Monument, of which Olvera Street is part. El Pueblo is run by the city and has its own general manager and oversight commission.

As an afterthought, the "Great Olvera Street Compromise" would be a excellent topic for "JOSE's Blog" which has been inactive for over a month until yesterday. And guess the topic of Rick Coca, errr Councilman Huizar's latest blog posting??

More news after the bloggin leap.

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Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Tuesday

Politicians are scared out of their gourd that Jerry Brown is going to shut down the CRA and all their shady projects.  Problem is, a lot of the money local pols need to run come out of those projects.  Jerry Brown's people at least are honest and saying they don't buy the crap from Jose Huizar or Antonio Villaraigosa that CRA projects create any real jobs.

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Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Tuesday

This could be it for Hillary Clinton. Democratic primaries in South Dakota and Montana Tuesday are the last of the bunch and could be sufficient to push Senator Barack Obama over the top with a little bit of Superdelegate juice. The Senator's husband, former President Bill Clinton told crowds in South Dakota Monday that this could be the very last day he campaigns for a candidate. In a related story sources are saying that the Obama campaign is negotiating with Hillary Clinton, presumedly to get her to campaign for Obama this fall in exchange the presumptive nominee paying off some of the New York Senator's campaign estimated $40 million campaign debt.

Rick Orlov must be reading Mayor Sam and Street Hassle. First he mentions that Mayor Villaraigosa is taking heat for his junket to Israel. Next he mentions in light of the Israel trip, speculation is rife on the blogosphere that Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky is running for Mayor. The only question is - Joe and I have been talking about these things for weeks - why did Rick wait until now to report this?

By way of Franklin Avenue we learn that Starbucks has picked LA to test a super secret new Italian style coffee beverage. Any idea what it might be?

The primary campaign season is over today and just in time for political consultants looking to get a new paycheck is the big battle over same-sex marriage. Both sides intend to raise upwards of $30 million in a likely ballot measure in November.

The City is planning to stick it to the tenants of Olvera Street, the many merchants who add to the flavor of the historic destination. Bill Rosendahl wants the vendor stalls to be raised to market rates even though many other tourist attractions are subsidized by the City. If the City is looking to balance it's books how about cutting back on the event waivers and leave the poor, mostly immigrant vendors of El Pueblo alone.

The mostly gay burg of West Hollywood is up in arms over a coming Walgreens. However Boi from Troy points out that a Walgreens in San Juan, Puerto Rico was the only business making a visible show of support for a gay pride event. Read between the lines of the anti-Walgreens screed it's more about supporting a union agenda and other liberal missions like impeaching President Bush.