Post Number 1,000! Mayor Gives Shout Out To Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council For BOXeight Fashion Week!

Yes, just as I was about to hit publish - I realized this was going to be my post number 1000 on this blog. And that was a real surprise to me since it looked as if - a few weeks ago - I wasn't ever going to hit that number. But now I'm back again - at least for awhile.

And how fitting it is that this post be about DLANC (the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council), the increasingly strong relationship between Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Neighborhood Councils - and the arts and the revitalization of Downtown Los Angeles.

This is because at the Saturday morning Mayor's Community Budget Meeting, the Mayor walked up to the podium, nodded at me and told me how much enjoyed the BOXeight Thursday night fashion shows he had just attended. He then introduced me as he told the packed city council chambers about the Fashion Week events members of the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council were producing - on an amazingly small budget - and asked for a round of applause for the the entire Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council.

That was because even though these shows are produced by BOXeight Productions (an off-shoot of Peter Gurnz's BOXeight Studios) after it was founded by DLANC board member Peter Gurnz, DLANC board member real estate developer Gary Warfel and DLANC board member, me - our success is really a story about the success of the Neighborhood Council system.

That's because this whole trip for the three of us started when former neighborhood council board member Cynthia Ruiz, now President of the Board of Public Works, encouraged this fashion impaired cowboy to tackle bringing Fashion Week back to Downtown last February, after which DLANC board member Michael Delijani donated the Los Angeles Theatre for this civic effort and Lynn Myers and Kent Smith (also DLANC board members) of the Fashion BID offered us their support - and invaluable advice.

And because of them, six weeks later - our first BOXeight fashion shows premiered to critical acclaim last March. And last night, BOXeight ended our second fashion season to standing room audiences all because of one reason. The existence of a place where everyone in our community can come together and work together.

The Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council.