Eric Garcetti is Batman!

He's Batman.

Venice for Change, and picked up by LA Streetsblog, reports that City Councilman and candidate for Mayor, Eric Garcetti, happened upon the scene of a badly injured and bloodied man in Silver Lake Saturday night.

The witness to the entire event, a resident named Chris Cruse, didn't even recognize the good samaritan as Garcetti until it was resolved and Cruse asked his name.

Cruse posted his detail of the event on his Facebook page:

The nicest thing just happened.

I walked down my street to pick up some food, and came across a young guy laying on the sidewalk. His friend was yelling at him, slapping his face to wake up. The guy on the ground had a big gash and was bleeding out of his head. Not moving. I asked his friend if he was ok, but it was clear he needed help.

Right then, a black car pulled up on Silver Lake Blvd and a handsome businessman-looking guy rolled down the window. Asked if everything was ok. I told him this guy hit his head real bad. The car pulled over and 2 guys got out. They seemed to know exactly what to do. One brought a shirt and rolled it up and stuck it under the guy's head. Asked a bunch of questions. The other called the paramedics. The friend was worried that they'd be in trouble, and asked us to just leave them there. The handsome one said they work for the city, they can't just leave someone hurt on the ground. He hit his head, he needs to be checked out. The friend nodded ok.

Once the paramedics got there, they got the kid up and on a stretcher and into the ambulance. Seemed like he was in good hands. I was in awe that these two guys came in and handled this whole situation so quickly and solidly. As they headed back to the car, I stopped them and asked, "You said you work for the city, what's your name?" I wanted to know what city employee was being a civil servant and Good Samaritan even on a Saturday night. The guy shook my hand and said, "Eric Garcetti."

No joke.

The story has been since confirmed with the Garcetti team, however, as noted by Streetsblog, there is an interesting sidenote to the matter. Garcetti did not tell anyone about the event after; his own campaign discovered it via the blogosphere.

Contrast that to Wendy Greuel who would have had sent six press releases and a City film crew out.

Mini Pips for a Humpday Afternoon

How does a controversial local newspaper publisher with an extensive criminal record continue to publish his paper and serve as a "principal for the day" at a local high school? That's the question on the mind of many residents of Sunland-Tujunga; follow the reporting at Joe B's Mop and Bucket Blog.

The Chairman of the Democratic National Convention AKA 11% Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is coming after your wallet. He wants to extend LA's increased sales tax to pay for more transportation boondoggles. With news of the utter failure of California's goofy high speed rail plan, is this really the time to tie up much needed tax dollars in a down economy?

Congressional candidate and former MayorSam blogger Phil Jennerjahn details his property rights platform.

In case you missed it, last Saturday night Frank Sheftel, David Hernandez and I spoke with political consultant John Thomas about Carmen Trutanich's embarrassing court defeat last week over his ballot title.

Cool random photo shot by Joseph Mailander in Silver Lake over at this Street Hassle Blog.

By the way, if you haven't "liked" us on Facebook yet, please kindly consider visiting our page and doing so. Additional content and a great way to network with other MayorSam fans.

Robberies or hate crimes in Silver Lake?

My neighbor just called me to tell me what her neighbor told her - a link from another neighbor, from LA Metblogs:

This past Friday January 30, a friend of mine was brutally assaulted walking from Blair’s near Hyperion to Edendale Bar and Grill on Rowena. It was maybe between 11:30 PM or 12:30 AM near the West Silver Lake Street entrance on Rowena. He was pulled into the back of a dark driveway, had a gun pressed against his temple and then savagely thrown to the ground and beaten, crushing his left cheek; he blacked out and doesn’t remember what happened next. He couldn’t see both suspects but got a look at one who he describes as a tall, young Hispanic male.

I guess this is how you find out about crimes in LA now - by word of mouth, as the LAPD just suggested to me, or through a phone tree. That's the modern way, is it? This may be because the LAPD DOES NOT HAVE any kind of blog or announcement page about crimes. This is definitely a wave of crimes: 10 scary robberies within 2 weeks is a wave! Maybe they were waiting for a tsunami or something, to actually make this public. They have this site here, http://lapdcrimemaps.org/, but it only records crimes for 7 days, and doesn't seem to have these robberies on it.

I talked with the Northeast Watch Commander, Sargent Milewski about this just now. She was very pleasant and forthcoming, and said there was supposed to be a press conference about this string of crimes tonight, but she wasn't sure when. So you guys got me, instead.

If you know this area at all, I would consider Rowena EXTREMELY safe, and I walk on it nearly every night. And it's only maybe one long block between these 2 restaurants, quite well lit, with foot and street traffic.

From Sargent Milewski:

There have been 10 robberies in the last 2 weeks, 6 near Glendale and Sunset, and 4 near Hyperion and Rowena (like the one above.) They have all been at gun or knifepoint, by 2 young (15?) Hispanic males. Sometimes just a cell phone is taken, sometimes a wallet, and they happen from evening to early morning - last one was 3:35 last night. (I was there at 3 AM.)

All attacks have been on single males. At this point, the Sargent said that after thorough investigations, they are sure they aren't hate crimes, but robberies. Well, I don't think so (said in a sing-songy voice.) They sound like attacks on gays to me, when they don't always rob. (Could have been helpful if the writer to Metblogs mentioned if that man was gay.)

In any case, I hope they get these creeps very very soon. You can believe that I will be on the alert, myself, now that I finally know about this. Get out of my 'hood.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Wednesday

Barack Obama is one step closer to the Democratic nomination after a massive victory in the North Carolina primary and a near tie with Hillary Clinton in Indiana. With a significant lead in the popular vote and delegate count, will more Superdelegates begin to jump ship? Will Michael "MEAT" Trujillo be headed to an EDD office in LA? Stay tuned. By the way, go back in time about a year ago when Zuma Dogg wrote about Trujillo's hiring by the Clinton campaign. Read how wrong many of you were about this campaign's outcome.

A blogger who is sort of another type of KENNEDY REPUBLICAN uses the Janice Hahn gang pay-for-play scandal as yet another reason why Los Angeles is going into "the crapper."

The Silver Lake reservoir will no longer be used as a source of drinking water but will continue to serve as a fake lake. One blog asks why not use the space instead for much needed parkland and open space?

It used to be a person's home was their castle. Not anymore in Los Angeles. Busybody NIMBYs who would be better off fighting Home Depots and toxic waste dumps decide to jealously tell others how big your house could be. I've heard comments like "no one needs a house that big." Who the hell is anyone to decide that? In Los Angeles, it's impossible for anyone who is not a multi-millionaire to purchase a small estate, hence if you want to give up your backyard for a bigger family room or more bathrooms, it should be your right.

If you thought you had a chance with actress Scarlett Johansson you're now ever more wrong than you were before. The 23 year old actress is engaged to be married to actor Ryan Reynolds.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Tuesday

Personal Trainer Jack Witt at the NoHo Metro Station - Photo by Mayor Sam

Walter Moore asks who said "Members of violent transnational gangs often prey on our immigrant communities here in the United States, only to return to their home countries to commit more violent crime there." No, it wasn't Doug McIntyre, Mayor Sam or Kevin James. It was none other than Mayor Villaraigosa. All the more reason to support Jamiel's Law since a tool is needed to fight illegal gangs who almost exclusively prey on the poor, including law-abiding illegal aliens.

Illegals Kill Freely, While Good Kids Die is the title of a blog post at Yahoo. The poster, Thundercat, makes a good point. Some Clowncilmembers are more concerned with paparazzi than gangs. A bit extreme but when you examine the priorities of the Council by looking at their actions, how can you come to a different conclusion?

The news for fishwraps continues to get worse. Newspaper Death Watch reports that the number of newsroom journalists employed has sunk to a near 25 year low. The LA BLOOMBERG TIMES will likely report quarterly revenue losses of up to 5%. And Ron Kaye quit the Daily News.

The DWP plans to dump hundreds of thousands of ping pong type balls in the Silver Lake Reservoir. The idea is to trick birds into thinking it's not a lake. But one blogger wonders if soaking the reservoir in plastic is any better than letting the birds shit in it. As well as hiding the lake from people as well.

Street-Hassle has put up a gate and gone the moderated route too. Pretty soon a wacko group of commenters will have nowhere to go.

We told you it was coming up. David Markland covers the going ons at a Barack Obama delegate caucus here in North Hollywood Sunday (David how come you didn't call me up after to meet up for a glass of wine at HOWS?)

The former Doogie Howser, MD star Neil Patrick Harris clarifies his comments about the notion of Britney Spears joining his current television series, How I Met Your Mother as a regular or recurring character. He's all for her joining the cast, he just wants to make it real clear it's a quality show. Proving genetics is a real science, Britney's 16 year old embarazada sister Jamie Lynn, who is definitely showing at seven months, decided to take a ride on an all terrain vehicle. Nice.