Monthly Archives: May 2010

No Excuses: A City Left Dangling in the Wind

Posted on May 11, 2010 by

Let’s be perfectly clear about this: There is nothing the mayor and City Council know today about LA’s dire financial straits that they didn’t know when they cut the sweetheart early retirement and contract deals with city workers, gave raises … Continue reading →

Posted in City Hall, Hot Topics, Los Angeles | Tagged , , , , , , | 27 Comments

Dick Riordan’s Fight Is Our Fight

Posted on May 10, 2010 by

In standing up in public and denouncing Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as irrelevant and calling out the corruption at City Hall that leaves Los Angeles teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, Dick Riordan has assumed a role that no other prominent … Continue reading →

Posted in City Hall, Community Activists, DWP, Hot Topics, Los Angeles | Tagged , , , , | 13 Comments

Adventures in the Blogosphere: A Journey of Self-Discovery and Uncivil Discourse

Posted on May 7, 2010 by

This is my blog and I can say anything I want. That was the attitude I took when I started this adventure after I was sent out to pasture by the Daily News, the newspaper I loved for 23 years … Continue reading →

Posted in Hot Topics, Los Angeles | Tagged , | 27 Comments

Essel and the CRA: No Way to Run a City

Posted on May 6, 2010 by

Apart from the DWP, LA has no other government institution as reviled as the Community Redevelopment Agency. The CRA sucks tax dollars by the hundreds of millions and gives them away in subsidies, often to build luxury hotels, apartments and … Continue reading →

Posted in City Hall, Hot Topics, Los Angeles | Tagged , , , , , | 19 Comments

Undoing Bratton’s LAPD: Beck’s Gamble with Public Safety

Posted on May 5, 2010 by

You got to feel for poor Charlie Beck — he was always going to get left holding the bag. Here was a street cop who Chief Bill Bratton snatched from the middle ranks of his command staff  to anoint as … Continue reading →

Posted in City Hall, Hot Topics, Los Angeles | Tagged , , , , , | 23 Comments

Bruno, LA’s Watchdog: Alas poor Zev, To Run or Not To Run

Posted on May 5, 2010 by

Get ready to groan – again. Los Angeles’ own Hamlet is ready to take the stage once more, or maybe he isn’t. To run or not to run, that is the question, alas in this case it has been the … Continue reading →

Posted in Bruno Watchdog L.A. | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

The Austin Beutner Show: He’s Got Your Whole World in His Hands

Posted on May 5, 2010 by

If the mayor and City Council had the courage to admit they were incapable of fixing LA, the federal bankruptcy judge probably could find no one better suited to clean up the mess they have made than Austin Beutner. Smart, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Beutner Faces the Music: No Trust, No Transparency

Posted on May 4, 2010 by

In advance of Tuesday’s grilling by the full City Council, Austin Beutner and  his DWP management team faced questioning from the Budget and Finance Committee on its spending and rate hike plans. Smooth as always, Beutner outlined in general terms … Continue reading →

Posted in City Hall, DWP, Hot Topics, Los Angeles | Tagged , , , , , | 12 Comments

DWP’s Scofflaw Problem: Operating a Parking Lot Without a Permit

Posted on May 3, 2010 by

Psst! Don’t tell anyone but if you got charged for parking at the DWP Headquarters at 111 N. Hope St., you were ripped off. The DWP has been charging visitors and other non-employees $16 a day — recently raised to … Continue reading →

Posted in City Hall, Hot Topics, Los Angeles | Tagged , , , , | 11 Comments

Can Austin Beutner Save L.A.?

Posted on May 2, 2010 by

I. The private sector paradigm: Alignment of Interest, Governance and Transparency   Austin Beutner has spent his entire career in investment banking and private equity. His major accomplishments include advising on major deals (GM bankruptcy, AT&T consolidation), or private equity … Continue reading →

Posted in City Hall, DWP, Hot Topics, Los Angeles | Tagged , , , , , , | 22 Comments