Monthly Archives: April 2011

Thinking Big, Acting Small: Eli Broad in the ’60 Minutes’ Lens

Posted on April 25, 2011 by

For the last generation in the Los Angeles, Eli Broad has been the city’s Mr. Big — too big, in fact, to touch, if not to fail. CBS’ “60 Minutes” took a shot at defining Broad on Sunday as a … Continue reading →

Posted in City Hall, Los Angeles | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Jerry Brown’s Defense for Budget Failure: “I Am Not a Jerk, Clown or Crook”

Posted on April 25, 2011 by

New polling data on the state budget fiasco suggests the common folk, ignorant and uninformed as they might be, have enough common sense to know that when you’ve been living beyond your means for years and years, you need to … Continue reading →

Posted in Hot Topics | 3 Comments

My Sunday News-Press & Leader Column: Stop deifying the good ol’ days

Posted on April 24, 2011 by

Surprise, surprise! The budget holes facing Burbank, Glendale and just about every other city just keep getting deeper. It’s a sure thing that next year’s deficits will be even worse, even in reasonably well-run cities. America is undergoing a dramatic … Continue reading →

Posted in Glendale-Burbank | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Money and Power in LA — It’s All in the Family

Posted on April 22, 2011 by

Dick Riordan is there for his pal Austin Beutner to help launch of his dark horse mayoral campaign. “The basic thing is jobs, jobs, jobs,” says the former two-term mayor and long-time civic leader. Well, not exactly. The basic thing … Continue reading →

Posted in City Hall, Hot Topics, Los Angeles | Tagged , , , , , , , | 26 Comments

Major League Baseball Seizes Control of the Dodgers from McCourt

Posted on April 20, 2011 by

Life is beautiful — novelists, filmmakers, liars, cheats and scoundrels can try all they want to make up story lines all they want but they are still just imitations of life. Real life wins every time. On the very day, … Continue reading →

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

Budget Day: Bad News for City Workers, Worse News for City Residents

Posted on April 20, 2011 by

EDITOR’S NOTE: The mayor makes his pitch today on the city budget, continuing  most of the same one-time solutions and cooking the book tricks with the exception of civilian workers being asked to pay a portion of their health care … Continue reading →

Posted in City Hall, Los Angeles | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

CRA Lives Again: Blood(money)-Sucking Vampire Agency Resumes Welfare-for-Rich Giveaways

Posted on April 19, 2011 by

The CRA has come back from the dead — won’t somebody drive a stake into its heart and kill it once and for all before it sucks all our money? Clearly, the board members of the Community Redevelopment Agency are … Continue reading →

Posted in City Hall, Development/CRA, Hot Topics, Los Angeles | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

Previewing Antonio’s New Budget: New Tricks for Old Problems — No Magic, No Solutions

Posted on April 18, 2011 by

Long before Antonio Villaraigosa led LA down the path toward ruin, city leaders papered over its structural deficit — costs exceeding revenue by more than $200 million a year — by borrowing, juggling funds from one account to another and … Continue reading →

Posted in City Hall, Community Activists, Hot Topics, Los Angeles | Tagged , , , , , , | 8 Comments

My Sunday Column in News-Press & Leader: Educating Emily in a changing world

Posted on April 17, 2011 by

Emily Gabel-Luddy knows a lot about politics — she has seen how politics works from inside Los Angeles City Hall as a high-ranking planner, and her husband, Bill, is West Coast political director for the United Brotherhood of Carpenters. But … Continue reading →

Posted in Glendale-Burbank | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Fixing the City Budget Crisis: It’s Child’s Play to the Mayor’s Team, Literally

Posted on April 16, 2011 by

Neighborhood Council leader and community activists staged a revived Budget LA forum Saturday in Hollywood, luring a crowd of about 100 in sweltering heat to listen to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s top people explain why the crisis is city over-spending has … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 19 Comments