Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Thursday

Happy New Year!

Though NBC is planning to move its Beautiful Downtown Burbank facilities to Universal City, the Burbank Leader reports its not a done deal. Though the City of Burbank has approved NBC transferring its development rights to a new developer, the City of LA has yet to approve this deal which will bring significant economic opportunity to the San Fernando Valley. Due to NIMBY nonsense and the lack of foresight of Councilman Tom LeBong, NBC is going to have tough sledding here.

This is kind of odd. Its an old story and as far as I know nothing has come up lately, but a fine waters website is carrying a post about LA's Toilet to Tap water program.

The blog Cheat Seeking Missiles declares Mayor Villaraigosa as Bill Clinton's "spiritual brother." The blog posits that Antonio - who says of his conversations with Iowans - "I say I'm mayor of Los Angeles, and some of them put up a smile," probably doesn't tell the locals that "his popularity has plummeted with his zipper" since The Summer of Love.

"Wacko Jacko" Weiss continues his journey towards libertarianism as he promotes a sort of modified free enterprise approach to transit in Los Angeles - some degree of privatization of subway and transit lines. He doesn't go far enough but this type of heresy coming from a local elected is a breath of fresh air for an old, dead Republican Mayor such as, well, uh, me.

I've been trying to tell my friends in Sunland-Tujunga (as well as Wal-Mart and Costco haters) that the best andidote to big box stores is the free market. And it appears I was right. Big boxers like Wal-Mart, Home Depot and even chains like Starbucks often find its not so easy to compete against small independents and are struggling because as Reason Magazine's Michael Moynihan writes; "The inability to adapt to local tastes and the failure to anticipate technological market shifts have been the Achilles heel of many big box retailers."

Speaking of Sunland-Tujunga don't forget our big Mayor Sam wing-ding there on Sunday, January 13th. To RSVP click here.