Happy Birthday Griffith Park Wayist

Griffith Park Wayist celebrates it's first anniversary Monday.  It's not often blogs in Los Angeles remain consistent let alone continually knock home runs out of the park.

When I first saw GPW I didn't get it. Now I do. I don't think there is a more unique blog in the City in that you have taken what is seemingly a very local mission and applied it Citywide in a very pleasurable fashion.

GPW dovetails nicely with Mayor Sam, has had our back on more than one occasion, and provides some equilibrium to our dysfunction. I know that if Mayor Sam ever went away, I would be less worried as long as GPW is here.

Congratulations to Petrafried in the City, Mulholland Terrace and the whole GPW team!

Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Tuesday

Party time at Getty House!

Ron Kaye notes that the Mayor may have figured out a way to lay low while Ticketgate blows over.  Instead of making the rounds of glittering events and parties, he's brought the party to his crib, Getty House which is actually your house to the tune of at least $125k per year.  Monday evening the Mayor hosted a party for the cast of the musical The Heights.  Among the gliterrati in attendance were That 70s Show star Wilmer Valderama, legendary actor Edward James Olmos and pop star LaLa (Tweeting away about the event) who caught the eye of former Mayor Sam Blogger Michael Trujillo who wrote on Facebook that the musical diva was "his date."

Dueling posts at Griffith Park Wayist about the possibility of a potential run by City Attorney staffer Jane Usher for the 4th Council District seat held by Tom LaBonge.  First off veteran blogger Mulholland Terrace quotes a Rick Orlov piece quoting Usher that she has no plans to run.  MT, who has been a persistent Usher critic, is pleased not such much to the chagrin of many CD4 denizens who feel Usher is simpatico with their anti-development leanings and that replacing LaBonge is critical.  MT however has been critical of Usher for her association with "Republican" policies of her boss City Attorney Carmen Trutanich as well as efforts by Usher that many viewed as an attempt to intimidate MT away from criticizing her boss.  On the other hand MT's blogging partner Petra Fried in the City is coming down hard in favor of an Usher run.  Citing Usher's opposition to the controversial state planning law SB1818 and her experience on development issues, Petra makes the point that Usher has endeared herself to many community activist types.  Stay tuned.

Speaking of next year's races the LA Times reports on efforts to gear up for the spring's City Clowncil elections.  Two candidates are set to oppose Jose Huizar; non-profit worker Arnulfo Yanez and, as reported last week by Red Spot, businessman and reality TV star Rudy Martinez.  While various community organizations seek to recruit others to run against incumbents and/or anointed ones, another candidate gearing up is West Valley activist Armineh Chelebian who will seek the 12th Council District seat being vacated by Greig Smith.

One of the few but consistent media outlets covering local Los Angeles politics has been radio talk show host Kevin James of KRLA.  Due to some recent schedule shuffling, James' 9:00 p.m. show is being pushed back to an 11:00 p.m. start time.  However, as Paul Hatfield reports and as James told me over the weekend, the broadcaster intends to use his evenings visiting Neighborhood Council and other community meetings across Los Angeles and to report on his findings on his show the same evening.  Sounds like an excellent way to get good on the ground reporting of what is happening in LA's neighborhoods.

Hope you caught our story on the LA Business Journal's interview with Chris Essel.  We learn that the former CD2 candidate was once a hippie traveling Europe with a guitar.  Who knew?

And finally speaking of Chris Essel, her number one fan Phil Jennerjahn plans a few days of blog down as he drives a rented Mustang to Las Vegas to seek entry into the World Series of Poker.

Smothers Brothers After All These Years

Petra had a great post about the Smothers Brothers who many of us remember from their childhood. So I thought I would post some videos for those of you who would like to see them again and for those who never knew Tom and Dick.  Still performing, amazingly, both now in their 70s, they haven't skipped a beat.

Back in the day, 1968


In 1988 for their 20th reunion


On The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson just two months ago, in the same studio complex where it all started 40 years before


And to top it off, the original video of Mason William's Classical Gas from The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour

LA Doesn't Need To Build An Elephant Sanctuary

Leave it to politicians to jump on high emotion, high profile issues where they seen an opening to pull a scam.

Council Member Tony Cardenas is on the right track when he says that construction on the LA Zoo's wrongheaded multi-million dollar elephant pen needs to be halted.  He's also correct that the Zoo's last elephant (after killing nearly 15 of them over 30 years), Billy, needs to be moved to a sanctuary where he will have the space to roam and companionship of several other elephants.

However Cardenas and his partner-in-crime Council Member Richard Alarcon are absolutely wrong to pursue the City of Los Angeles going into the animal sanctuary business.

Cardenas and Alarcon seem to think that if we halt the elephant pen at the Zoo, then they get to build an animal sanctuary in their Districts.

When the City is in fiscal crisis, folks are losing their homes and a boatload of City employees are about to be laid off, this is the last thing the City needs to do.  As the Daily Breeze said "Rome is burning here, and this is no time for fiddling about over elephants."

Most everyone who has a heart, except for Councilmember Tom LeBong who thinks he owns the zoo, Zoo officials who want to keep their jobs and a cadre of LA Zoo fanatics who think it's okay to keep majestic animals in cages, agrees that Billy needs to go to a new home.  Numerous elephant preserves exist throughout the US that would be more than happy to take Billy.  Citizens including retired game show host Bob Barker have offered to cover the costs of Billy's move.  Those who want Billy out of the zoo and are not up to speed on how LA politics really work need to resist the siren song of the Northeast Valley Boyz and not support the LA sanctuary.

"Rome is burning here, and this is no time for fiddling about over elephants."
Daily Breeze

Los Angeles is not a proper place for such a preserve as much as we would like to perhaps have one nearby.  Assembly Lloyd Levine, who is in favor of moving Billy to a sanctuary and closing down the Zoo exhibit, does not see the need for an LA based sanctuary.  As he said sure, we'd like to see elephants in LA.  But we might also might like to see glaciers.  But we're not going to haul one down from Alaska and park in the LA Harbor.


As PetraFried in the City so well put it, Alarcon and Cardenas are looking to benefit rich developers in their district and have yet another "legacy" to their administrations.  That's the kind of thinking that moved the Children's Museum from Downtown to Lake View Terrace, miles from most kids in LA, which has become a boondoggle of it's own.

Those who care about both Billy and LA need to advocate to immediately send Billy to an established sanctuary and at the same time shut down both the LA Zoo's elephant exhibit and Cardena's boondoggle preserve.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Thursday

Department of Animal Services General Manager Ed Boks isn't the only city department head in trouble.  BongHwan Kim, the General Manager of the City's Department of Neighborhood Services - the department that oversees the City's system of Neighborhood Councils - is facing a complaint from the union that represents DONE's workers.  Among other things, the complaint alleges Kim demoted a staffer for taking complaints to the union.  You may remember that before Kim was given the GM job, we reported on a DONE management report that many of the department's staffers found Kim to be unqualified to take the position.

In the hub-bub of the Presidential campaign, hopefully you have not missed some excellent reporting by Petrafried in the City with respect to important issues around Griffith Park, the most recent of those can be found here. Most notably, some bizarre ideas coming out of Council Member Tom LaBonge.

In case you missed it last night, rumors abound that soon to be termed out Assemblyman Lloyd Levine may be replacing controversial Department of Animal Services General Manager Ed Boks.  Stay tuned.

Much has been said about the high class junket that executives of bailed-out financial firm AIG took to the tune of nearly $400,000.  However one blogger tries to make the case that there's no connection to the bailout as the junket was undertaking by the insurance side of the house, which is not involved in the current mess.  Hmmm, not sure most folks will get the distinction, still a poor choice by those execs.

We report a lot of bad news about LA so here's something good: The American Planning Association has chosen Echo Park as one of the great neighborhoods in America.  By the way, according to CurbedLA, Echo Park Lake is stocked with trout and catfish at different periods of the year and, apparently, bass breed freely in the lake.  So take your kids fishing and have a ball.

Don't forget Zuma Dogg's event Friday night at Casa Princesa Cafe in Highland Park.  Karaoke, voter registration, public comment, karaoke, the $5 Gift Store and, of course, Zuma Dogg will be there.  Who knows, maybe the old, dead Republican Mayor himself will make a cameo.