Saturday, April 23, 2005
What's In A Name - Hancock Park -- Or Westchester Gardens? LA Times Forgets Its Roots!
The Hancock Park/Windsor Square area was (and possibly is) the long time home for many of the Chandlers, the previous owners of the LA Times, and home to much of the WASP social elite of Los Angeles. So imagine my surprise when I picked-up the Sunday LAT's real estate section today (which I got for free at the LA Times Festival of Books, which proves that no good deed ever goes unpunished) to discover that a 1904 home built by architect Alfred F. Rosenheim for himself... in Hancock Park... is now on the market for $6.7 million.
Now the reason for my surprise was that Hancock Park was not even subdivided by G. Allan Hancock until well after 1904. Now that still does not preclude the story from being accurate as numerous homes dating from as early as the 1890's were moved to Hancock Park during the last century. However, the picture in the Times of the three story brick building makes it highly unlikely that this particular dwelling was one of the homes that has been moved there.
The other factor that makes this story somewhat... suspicious... is that a remarkably similar looking house was built by the same architect for himself in the Westchester Gardens area of the old Country Club district (a considerable physical and a far larger social distance from Hancock Park) in 1915 on a lot that had been subdivided in 1912.
Or at least that is what my printed source tells me. Now granted the construction date might be wrong since I only have a single source on hand for that date, but unless someone picked up this 10,000 plus home and flew it over to Hancock Park since my long distant deb ball days - I also do not recall any house in Hancock Park looking quite like this one, particularly one built by same the architect in question.
http://www.latimes.com/classified/realestate/news/la-re-newhome24apr24,0,7233450.story?coll=la-class-realestate-news
Lastly, the phrase 'Hancock Park' is used five times in the article between the first and second pages of the real estate section.
LA Times Book Festival Of Books Huge Success! Downtown Poet's Book Makes Debut!!
After the Chicago Tribune closes or sells its rapidly failing branch office out here, they still may have a future in LA... as event planners!
The LA Times today proved that they are far better at making news than at reporting anything resembling news during the latest edition of their hugely successful 'Festival Of Books' on the UCLA campus. It runs again tomorrow - Sunday, April 23rd -- from 10 AM to 5 PM -- and it's FREE!! More info at the LA Times website.
And for downtowners, there was a special note of interest. Fledging LA publishing company, CONFLU:X, run by poet Jim Natal and his wife, book artist, Tania Baban, had just received Downtown real estate agent Ed Rosenthal's first book of printed verse! In fact, I saw a copy of Ed's newly hand-bound poems - beginning with his justly famed ode to Tom Gilmore - even before Ed saw them. So be sure and visit their booth and pick up your copy tomorrow!
PS - The Times is also giving away FREE copies of this Sunday's LA Times! And don't worry about getting there early - even with a captive audience of readers, they were having trouble giving away free copies of the paper...
PPS - Even bottled water goes as high as FOUR BUCKS a bottle!! Free chocolate, though, can be had at least seventeen booths!!! Pack your knapsack accordingly.
The LA Times today proved that they are far better at making news than at reporting anything resembling news during the latest edition of their hugely successful 'Festival Of Books' on the UCLA campus. It runs again tomorrow - Sunday, April 23rd -- from 10 AM to 5 PM -- and it's FREE!! More info at the LA Times website.
And for downtowners, there was a special note of interest. Fledging LA publishing company, CONFLU:X, run by poet Jim Natal and his wife, book artist, Tania Baban, had just received Downtown real estate agent Ed Rosenthal's first book of printed verse! In fact, I saw a copy of Ed's newly hand-bound poems - beginning with his justly famed ode to Tom Gilmore - even before Ed saw them. So be sure and visit their booth and pick up your copy tomorrow!
PS - The Times is also giving away FREE copies of this Sunday's LA Times! And don't worry about getting there early - even with a captive audience of readers, they were having trouble giving away free copies of the paper...
PPS - Even bottled water goes as high as FOUR BUCKS a bottle!! Free chocolate, though, can be had at least seventeen booths!!! Pack your knapsack accordingly.
Friday, April 22, 2005
We Briefly Interrupt Our All Mike Davis, All LA Times Coverage For A Short Cultural Announcement!
Tonight the gutted remains of the long defunct Billy's Cafe and Grill at 5th and Main's Rosslyn Hotel hosted the Korean Traditional Theater Institute and their percussion, dance and song blessing of Imo's soon to open art and architecture gallery. Two dozen art world cognoscenti witnessed the Korea based troupe's shamanistic blessing of the now sacred cultural space, the latest addition to Gallery Row. We downtowners were also entertained by one of the more unique - and entertaining - performances seen in these parts since Tom Mix rode his horse into the lobby of the near-by Alexandria Hotel and performed rope tricks.
We now return you to our normal programming...
We now return you to our normal programming...
Day Four of LA Times/Mike Davis (Lack Of) Truth Watch! And Proof Positive That Mike Davis Is A Big, Fat Liar!!
For four days (and nights) now the LA Times has continued to keep on its website - uncorrected - a column by Mike Davis stating that the San Francisco real estate bubble has... burst. This despite that fact that it only takes minutes to verify that is a lie. For example, the median sales price of a single family house in the city of San Francisco in January 2004 was $648,674 and in the latest reporting period - February 2005 - the median price had RISEN to $790,948! And last year, more houses were sold in San Francisco than at the height of the 1999 dotcom boom.
Now some people have said that I am being overly critical of Mike Davis in stating that he has thousands of lies and errors in his books (and articles) such as City of Quartz and Ecology of Fear. Others have questioned my claim that he fabricated an entire interview in a LA Weekly article.
So let me produce my sources. To being with, my source for his fabricating an entire interview in the LA Weekly - is... drumroll, please... The LA Weekly!
http://www.laweekly.com/ink/99/01/news-McAdams
Below I have printed - verbatim, unedited, what was said by Lewis McAdams about how the interview with him was fabricated:
"The first time I met Mike Davis was in the summer of 1989, when he called to say he was doing an L.A. Weekly cover story on the Los Angeles River. Since it was going to be the biggest piece anybody had done yet about the river, and I was running Friends of the Los Angeles River, I suggested we get together down by the river for a talk. He said he wanted to work on the story a little first. A few weeks later, he called to tell me he'd written the story and wanted me to take a look at it.
I was amazed to discover he'd fabricated an entire interview with me: We were standing together at the Fremont Gate entrance to Elysian Park, a place I'd never been, and I showed him a "dog-eared 1890s topographical map prepared for City Engineer J.H. Dockweiler," a document that I'd never heard of at the time. Though we'd never actually talked, the words he put in my mouth made me sound like I knew a lot more about the Los Angeles River than I actually did. I told him to go ahead with the piece just the way it was.
I was still nonplused at Davis's audacity when, a few years later, I finally saw one of the four 11-foot-long sections of the Dockweiler Map at the Huntington Library. The map was rich in detail, composed by a team of researchers operating before suburban sprawl would permanently obscure the river's riparian roots. I realized that what Davis had unearthed from dusty obscurity was the single document that might, on the strength of science, allow us to reverse the bureaucratic inevitability of ill-conceived flood control. I was the expert and the activist, but it was Davis who had put in my hands the blueprint for the restoration of the wetlands of the Los Angeles River.
Davis is the first to admit that he won't let a fact get in the way of a good story. "I was stunned," I've heard him say twice lately, "to find out that something I said turned out to be true."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, all you skeptics out there, are there any more questions about my statement that UC Irvine Professor Mike Davis fabricated an entire interview in the LA Weekly?
I didn't think so.
And when the LA Times fires writers for getting a few facts wrong and embellishing a basically true story - how do they justify continually hiring someone who completely made up an entire interview?
Now that that is settled, let's move onto my statement that thousands of Mike Davis' so-called facts are either lies or errors.
And for my first witness for the prosecution I shall call... Mike Davis. Yes, dear readers, Mike Davis himself can be shown that he repeatedly lies about... what Mike Davis himself has said!
And that shall be the subject of my next post. Stay tuned!
Now some people have said that I am being overly critical of Mike Davis in stating that he has thousands of lies and errors in his books (and articles) such as City of Quartz and Ecology of Fear. Others have questioned my claim that he fabricated an entire interview in a LA Weekly article.
So let me produce my sources. To being with, my source for his fabricating an entire interview in the LA Weekly - is... drumroll, please... The LA Weekly!
http://www.laweekly.com/ink/99/01/news-McAdams
Below I have printed - verbatim, unedited, what was said by Lewis McAdams about how the interview with him was fabricated:
"The first time I met Mike Davis was in the summer of 1989, when he called to say he was doing an L.A. Weekly cover story on the Los Angeles River. Since it was going to be the biggest piece anybody had done yet about the river, and I was running Friends of the Los Angeles River, I suggested we get together down by the river for a talk. He said he wanted to work on the story a little first. A few weeks later, he called to tell me he'd written the story and wanted me to take a look at it.
I was amazed to discover he'd fabricated an entire interview with me: We were standing together at the Fremont Gate entrance to Elysian Park, a place I'd never been, and I showed him a "dog-eared 1890s topographical map prepared for City Engineer J.H. Dockweiler," a document that I'd never heard of at the time. Though we'd never actually talked, the words he put in my mouth made me sound like I knew a lot more about the Los Angeles River than I actually did. I told him to go ahead with the piece just the way it was.
I was still nonplused at Davis's audacity when, a few years later, I finally saw one of the four 11-foot-long sections of the Dockweiler Map at the Huntington Library. The map was rich in detail, composed by a team of researchers operating before suburban sprawl would permanently obscure the river's riparian roots. I realized that what Davis had unearthed from dusty obscurity was the single document that might, on the strength of science, allow us to reverse the bureaucratic inevitability of ill-conceived flood control. I was the expert and the activist, but it was Davis who had put in my hands the blueprint for the restoration of the wetlands of the Los Angeles River.
Davis is the first to admit that he won't let a fact get in the way of a good story. "I was stunned," I've heard him say twice lately, "to find out that something I said turned out to be true."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, all you skeptics out there, are there any more questions about my statement that UC Irvine Professor Mike Davis fabricated an entire interview in the LA Weekly?
I didn't think so.
And when the LA Times fires writers for getting a few facts wrong and embellishing a basically true story - how do they justify continually hiring someone who completely made up an entire interview?
Now that that is settled, let's move onto my statement that thousands of Mike Davis' so-called facts are either lies or errors.
And for my first witness for the prosecution I shall call... Mike Davis. Yes, dear readers, Mike Davis himself can be shown that he repeatedly lies about... what Mike Davis himself has said!
And that shall be the subject of my next post. Stay tuned!
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Surrender Dorothy! Or Why Won't The LA Times Admit That Mike Davis Is A Big, Fat Liar??
It is now day two in the LA Times/Mike Davis truth watch. When will the LA Times admit that Mike Davis does not just get his 'facts' wrong, but that he simply makes things up out of whole cloth?
When will the LA Times admit that if a writer has gotten not just hundreds, but thousands (yes - thousands) of facts wrong over the years - that should disqualify him from being asked to write for them? And if fabricating an entire interview in the LA Weekly (as Mike Davis did) does not disqualify a writer from writing for the LA Times (or teaching at UC Irvine) - what in God's name will?
Mike Davis' latest assault on the truth was - among other things - his statement that the housing bubble in San Francisco has already burst. Well, in a previous post, I showed that the exact opposite was true. And I further checked today with the California Realtor's Association and their January and February figures for sale prices in San Francisco show that not only has the market up there not collapsed, but that prices are still increasing in the double digit range - and that the latest figures show that the most current rate of price increase is actually INCREASING!
In January, for example - after San Francisco prices hit record highs last year - prices went up by 12.1% in January 2006 over January 2005 and in February 2006, the median price went up by 17.8% over February of last year!
And yet the LA Times still stands by Mike Davis' lie that the housing market has 'burst' in San Francisco!
Lastly - this further illustrates the problem with the LA Times now being increasingly staffed by people with no knowledge of either Los Angeles or California. For anyone - much less four layers of editors and filters - to read the claim that the San Francisco housing market has collapsed (particularly when it is written by a known pathological liar) and to then not instantly know that this claim was a complete lie - demonstrates how the the LA Times has become a civic embarrassment.
When will the LA Times admit that if a writer has gotten not just hundreds, but thousands (yes - thousands) of facts wrong over the years - that should disqualify him from being asked to write for them? And if fabricating an entire interview in the LA Weekly (as Mike Davis did) does not disqualify a writer from writing for the LA Times (or teaching at UC Irvine) - what in God's name will?
Mike Davis' latest assault on the truth was - among other things - his statement that the housing bubble in San Francisco has already burst. Well, in a previous post, I showed that the exact opposite was true. And I further checked today with the California Realtor's Association and their January and February figures for sale prices in San Francisco show that not only has the market up there not collapsed, but that prices are still increasing in the double digit range - and that the latest figures show that the most current rate of price increase is actually INCREASING!
In January, for example - after San Francisco prices hit record highs last year - prices went up by 12.1% in January 2006 over January 2005 and in February 2006, the median price went up by 17.8% over February of last year!
And yet the LA Times still stands by Mike Davis' lie that the housing market has 'burst' in San Francisco!
Lastly - this further illustrates the problem with the LA Times now being increasingly staffed by people with no knowledge of either Los Angeles or California. For anyone - much less four layers of editors and filters - to read the claim that the San Francisco housing market has collapsed (particularly when it is written by a known pathological liar) and to then not instantly know that this claim was a complete lie - demonstrates how the the LA Times has become a civic embarrassment.
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Christian Science Monitor Makes LA Times Look Like A Paragon of Journalism!!
Just when I think that the LA Times has boldly plumbed the furthest depths of journalistic ethics by giving a forum for Mike Davis to further fabricate, Drudge Report links to a story in the Christian Science Monitor (by Daniel B. Wood) called 'For L.A. homeless: a gym, movies, and hair salon.'
In the article, Mr. Wood describes the new Midnight Mission homeless services center as 'plush' which certainly does not describe the building that I toured. Superbly designed, yes, but very much built on a budget.
But that is only the beginning. First the sub-headline says that the 'city opens a $17 million shelter'. Well, the 'city' did not open anything. It was privately built with largely privately raised funds. Second, it is NOT a shelter. It is a treatment center, not a temporary warehouse for the homeless like so many shelters located in places like New York. Then the article implies that 6,000 homeless live on the streets of downtown. That is inaccurate. 2,500 is a far more accurate figure.
The entire article has a Kafka-like quality in which so much of what is said, is the exact opposite of what the truth is.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0418/p01s01-uspo.html
Much, much, much more very soon.
In the article, Mr. Wood describes the new Midnight Mission homeless services center as 'plush' which certainly does not describe the building that I toured. Superbly designed, yes, but very much built on a budget.
But that is only the beginning. First the sub-headline says that the 'city opens a $17 million shelter'. Well, the 'city' did not open anything. It was privately built with largely privately raised funds. Second, it is NOT a shelter. It is a treatment center, not a temporary warehouse for the homeless like so many shelters located in places like New York. Then the article implies that 6,000 homeless live on the streets of downtown. That is inaccurate. 2,500 is a far more accurate figure.
The entire article has a Kafka-like quality in which so much of what is said, is the exact opposite of what the truth is.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0418/p01s01-uspo.html
Much, much, much more very soon.
Mike Davis Lies Again! And The LA Times AGAIN Prints His Lies!!
When you are dealing with a writer who has been proven to have lied not hundreds of times - but literally THOUSANDS of times in his books (City of Quartz and Ecology of Fear being two of them) - it is (almost) amazing that the LA Times would still ask him to write for them. But one would think that they might actually fact check anything he did write for them.
Well - guess what? No matter how many times you have been caught making up 'facts' - the LA Times still believes that dishonestly should be its own reward. So not only have they again allowed Mike Davis to again write for them (a person who once fabricated an entire interview in the LA Weekly) - but the LA Times still didn't even bother to check his 'facts'!
I guess since they knew he was just going to make the stuff up any way - why bother?
To just list his most outrageous - out and out - total and complete lie - Mike Davis claims in an article about housing prices that... the San Francisco housing bubble has 'already burst'. So... since the housing bubble has burst in San Francisco, I guess that means that prices are drastically dropping and that the market is filled with unsold houses - right?
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-davis19apr19,0,3879635.story
Well - guess what? - the exact opposite is happening in San Francisco. Repeat - the EXACT opposite of what Mike Davis has to say! So I guess besides knowing absolutely nothing about Los Angeles, San Francisco is another city about which the publisher and the editors of the LA Times know absolutely nothing about.
More shortly.
-----------------------------
Below is the opening of a April 15th story by Carol Lloyd in the San Francisco Gate about the 'burst' San Francisco real estate bubble:
"Last week, a little duplex in Bernal Heights was listed for $799,000. As is customary for most real estate sales in the City, offers were to be reviewed on an appointed date about two weeks later. But after the property had been on the market for only a few days, as agents and prospective buyers were still swarming the property at the broker's tour, the building was already in contract. The price? More than $1 million. The buyer? Someone who knew better than to wait around for the offer date."
-------------------------------
I do not know what the most amazing thing is about Mike Davis. That he is incapable of ever fully telling the truth about... anything, or that when he lies, his lies are always so easily proveable, as if he wants to be caught. Or is it that papers like the LA Times continue to print him and colleges such as UC Irvine continue to hire him despite the fact that not even the simplest fact is ever safe in his hands.
--------------------------------
More on Davis' claim that the housing market has gone bust in San Francisco. According to the State Realator's Association, not only did sales figures last year surpasss the number of sales at the height of the 1999 internet bubble economy, but prices went up in double digits during last year.
"By far, the most remarkable story comes from the Bay Area, where the regional economy is still reeling from some of the largest job losses ever. Regional sales increased 6.3 percent over 2003 to a new record high level, surpassing the previous record of sales that was established in 1999 at the height of the "dot.com" era. The December median was the highest of the three regions at $658,910. While the median fell by a slight 0.3 percent from the prior month, it rose 13.2 percent over the December 2003 median of $582,320."
Well - guess what? No matter how many times you have been caught making up 'facts' - the LA Times still believes that dishonestly should be its own reward. So not only have they again allowed Mike Davis to again write for them (a person who once fabricated an entire interview in the LA Weekly) - but the LA Times still didn't even bother to check his 'facts'!
I guess since they knew he was just going to make the stuff up any way - why bother?
To just list his most outrageous - out and out - total and complete lie - Mike Davis claims in an article about housing prices that... the San Francisco housing bubble has 'already burst'. So... since the housing bubble has burst in San Francisco, I guess that means that prices are drastically dropping and that the market is filled with unsold houses - right?
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-davis19apr19,0,3879635.story
Well - guess what? - the exact opposite is happening in San Francisco. Repeat - the EXACT opposite of what Mike Davis has to say! So I guess besides knowing absolutely nothing about Los Angeles, San Francisco is another city about which the publisher and the editors of the LA Times know absolutely nothing about.
More shortly.
-----------------------------
Below is the opening of a April 15th story by Carol Lloyd in the San Francisco Gate about the 'burst' San Francisco real estate bubble:
"Last week, a little duplex in Bernal Heights was listed for $799,000. As is customary for most real estate sales in the City, offers were to be reviewed on an appointed date about two weeks later. But after the property had been on the market for only a few days, as agents and prospective buyers were still swarming the property at the broker's tour, the building was already in contract. The price? More than $1 million. The buyer? Someone who knew better than to wait around for the offer date."
-------------------------------
I do not know what the most amazing thing is about Mike Davis. That he is incapable of ever fully telling the truth about... anything, or that when he lies, his lies are always so easily proveable, as if he wants to be caught. Or is it that papers like the LA Times continue to print him and colleges such as UC Irvine continue to hire him despite the fact that not even the simplest fact is ever safe in his hands.
--------------------------------
More on Davis' claim that the housing market has gone bust in San Francisco. According to the State Realator's Association, not only did sales figures last year surpasss the number of sales at the height of the 1999 internet bubble economy, but prices went up in double digits during last year.
"By far, the most remarkable story comes from the Bay Area, where the regional economy is still reeling from some of the largest job losses ever. Regional sales increased 6.3 percent over 2003 to a new record high level, surpassing the previous record of sales that was established in 1999 at the height of the "dot.com" era. The December median was the highest of the three regions at $658,910. While the median fell by a slight 0.3 percent from the prior month, it rose 13.2 percent over the December 2003 median of $582,320."
Monday, April 18, 2005
Eric Slater Takes Fall For LA Times Sins!!
Eric Slater was fired today from the LA Times after his now infamous Chico State story turned out to have even more 'incorrect' facts than most LA Times editorials. But at least there were SOME facts in it that were correct, unlike Robert Scheer's 'expose' of last Tuesday - in which every single word about William Bennett was total fiction. But if you expect either Mr. Scheer or any of the four layers of LAT editors and filters to lose their jobs (including Michael 'What's A Fact' Kinsley who thinks Zell Miller is still in the US Senate)... don't hold your breath.
Friday, April 15, 2005
LA Times Death Watch Has Officially Begun!!
Not since the waiting for Franco's death has such a long over due death rattle been provided for public amusement. The soon to be published circulation figures for the LA Times will show a 5.5% circulation decline in just ONE year! And on the bad news side (for the LAT, at least) - single copy sales are dropping even more rapidily than that.
However on the good news side - for those us us who actually live in LA as opposed to just visiting it - the LAT's solution to this is the same as always. Bring in lots more out of towners who know and care nothing about this city! I mean - is there ANYBODY left in Chicago??
Though, to give credit where credit is due - the editorial page's pointless ramblings and Steve Lopez's mind numbing columns about himself can in no way be faulted in driving readers from the LAT in ever increasing numbers. At least at the LA Times -- failure is always a team effort!
http://slate.msn.com/id/2116601/
However on the good news side - for those us us who actually live in LA as opposed to just visiting it - the LAT's solution to this is the same as always. Bring in lots more out of towners who know and care nothing about this city! I mean - is there ANYBODY left in Chicago??
Though, to give credit where credit is due - the editorial page's pointless ramblings and Steve Lopez's mind numbing columns about himself can in no way be faulted in driving readers from the LAT in ever increasing numbers. At least at the LA Times -- failure is always a team effort!
http://slate.msn.com/id/2116601/
Thursday, April 14, 2005
LA Times Further Embarrasses Itself On Special Order 40!
The editorial page of the LA Times finally admits (kind of) that there are 30,000 illegal alien criminals (who largely prey on law abiding immigrants) in LA County who are - essentially - protected from the police. So do they - finally - directly address that issue in the editorial? Does the LA Times - at last - look the issue square in the eye and take a firm position on the subject? Can anyone on the LAT editorial page ever write a simple declarative sentence?
The answer to all these questions, of course - hell, no.
Instead, for FIVE paragraphs they whine and complain about the very idea that a police officer might ask a criminal suspect if he is in this country illegally. Then in paragraph six they finally - grudgingly - say that they "don't oppose the LAPD's power to go after convicted felons who have illegally re-entered the country."
And again - they do not support this, you understand - they just do not oppose it. The Times is simply incapable of saying that would support anything might make it easier for the police to protect the millions of immigrants in our community that these criminals prey upon.
And then, even, with their 'don't oppose' clause - the LA Times still demands a set of guidelines (such as police officer would have to get a supervisor's permission to even TALK to the suspect) that would make it virtually impossible for any officer in the field to question, much less detain anyone he suspects of being a violent criminal who is in this country illegally.
The truly wonderful irony here is that when it comes to 'protecting' the people of color being killed at King/Drew, the LA Times' editorial page is too afraid to make any recommendations. But when it comes to protecting criminals who prey upon people of color in the central city - then the LA Times is filled with recommendations and demands they are willing to make.
Someday someone will have to explain this all to me.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-police14apr14,1,1716903.story
Mattel Toys Says Get Lost To Los Angeles! Prefers New York To LA!!
In a recent New York Times article on the future of two New York toy fairs, it was speculated that one or both toy fairs might relocate to another city with lower costs, despite the advantages New York has with its access to both the media and international buyers.
Well, with LA's burgeoning wholesale Toy District and with Mattel as one of the few major corporations located in the LA area - it might seem that LA would be a prime spot for one or both toy fairs to relocate. But... no.
First, that international gateway - and media capital - Dallas, is described as the prime competitor for NYC, and LA is not even mentioned. But - wait - since Mattel is located here, surely they will help LA's dying convention and hotel business - as well as our growing toy business- by pushing for LA as the place for at least one of the conventions.
Right?
Well, uh... no. And not only is that not the case, but Neil Friedman, president of the Fisher-Price unit of Mattel, Inc. further stated that, "Mattel and Fisher-Price will not attend any shows outside of New York." The article then said that the Toy Association will meet next week to discuss the issue.
I can only hope that LA, Inc. plans on being there to pitch them our dying, bargain priced convention center (along with our serious media presence and international buyers) and that somebody at Mattel's corporate headquarters might bitch slap some sense into Mr. Friedman.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/14/nyregion/14toy.html
Well, with LA's burgeoning wholesale Toy District and with Mattel as one of the few major corporations located in the LA area - it might seem that LA would be a prime spot for one or both toy fairs to relocate. But... no.
First, that international gateway - and media capital - Dallas, is described as the prime competitor for NYC, and LA is not even mentioned. But - wait - since Mattel is located here, surely they will help LA's dying convention and hotel business - as well as our growing toy business- by pushing for LA as the place for at least one of the conventions.
Right?
Well, uh... no. And not only is that not the case, but Neil Friedman, president of the Fisher-Price unit of Mattel, Inc. further stated that, "Mattel and Fisher-Price will not attend any shows outside of New York." The article then said that the Toy Association will meet next week to discuss the issue.
I can only hope that LA, Inc. plans on being there to pitch them our dying, bargain priced convention center (along with our serious media presence and international buyers) and that somebody at Mattel's corporate headquarters might bitch slap some sense into Mr. Friedman.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/14/nyregion/14toy.html
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Major New York Book Publisher To Move To LA! LA Times In Major Denial!!
On last Monday night, the New York Times announced that Judith Regan was going to move her Harper-Collins imprint - ReganBooks - headquarters from
Now, of course, if the LAT's publisher (the Tribune Company) was covering a major New York book publisher moving to
"She (Regan) also said she intended to bring a different idea of culture to
So once again, if you want to know what is happening in Los Angeles, the only paper to read... is the New York Times, our true hometown newspaper.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/12/books/12rega.html?
Deaths Continue at Killer King -- And LA Times Editorial Page Shamelessly Hides From Its Own Editorial Cowardice!!!!
Two more dead At Killer King/Drew Medical and the LA Times editorial page finally revisits the subject after having almost nothing to say since its (seemingly yearly) expose of the hospital last year. But do they - finally - take a stand? Does the LA Times finally call for cutting loose the
Yeah, right.
Instead they blame Mayor Hahn for lacking leadership (in which case, they are dead right, btw, even though he has no control over the hospital) - bu, once again, the LA Times still refuses to endorse any of the tough choices that need to be made. Instead the spineless editorial shamelessly states, "Tough truths and tougher choices are needed to save even a scaled down hospital. That is what leadership is about."
And I agree. But the LA Times - once again - refuses to take any kind of leadership role in stopping the killings at Killer King. Even with all these additional, totally needless deaths, the LA Times still continues to refuse to endorse, much less demand the tough changes they still too cowardly to even list, much less demand, in their editorial.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-me-kingdrew12apr12,1,7042575.story
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-kingdrew13apr13,1,2342408.story
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
GM Accuses LA Times Of Getting Facts Wrong! But - Stop The Presses - LA Times Likely... Innocent!!
Last week General Motors pulled its national advertising from the LA Times saying that the LAT's coverage of GM was both inaccurate and unfair. But GM declined to state exactly which articles - or what facts - were inaccurate. The final driveshaft, however, appears to have been a recent column by Pulitzer Prize winning car critic Dan Neil that talked about GM... about the way I talk about the LA Times.
Now while I know about as much about cars as the Chicagoans who run the LA Times know about putting out a newspaper - I saw no smoking gun in the article. Just some hard hitting commentary and tons of Neil's wonderfully off-the-wall humor. I would be a lot more impressed with GM's case if they had asked for even one error to be corrected. But they did not.
However, the LA Times still said (properly) they would review their coverage to see if there was anything that needed to be corrected. For once, though, I hope they do not find anything that needs to be corrected. As bad a newspaper as the LA Times is, Neil's coverage is one of its better features and allowing advertisers to dictate either news or editorial coverage is completely unacceptable.
Now, if advertisers start pulling ads because the Times is no longer read by anyone (which is increasingly the case) or if advertisers get tired of supporting a newspaper that does not even bother to report on the city it purports to cover - then that is something else. In that case, let the ad cancelations begin!
But for the LA Times to any way to cave into GM, assuming the LAT's facts are correct, is something the LA Times should never do.
Now while I know about as much about cars as the Chicagoans who run the LA Times know about putting out a newspaper - I saw no smoking gun in the article. Just some hard hitting commentary and tons of Neil's wonderfully off-the-wall humor. I would be a lot more impressed with GM's case if they had asked for even one error to be corrected. But they did not.
However, the LA Times still said (properly) they would review their coverage to see if there was anything that needed to be corrected. For once, though, I hope they do not find anything that needs to be corrected. As bad a newspaper as the LA Times is, Neil's coverage is one of its better features and allowing advertisers to dictate either news or editorial coverage is completely unacceptable.
Now, if advertisers start pulling ads because the Times is no longer read by anyone (which is increasingly the case) or if advertisers get tired of supporting a newspaper that does not even bother to report on the city it purports to cover - then that is something else. In that case, let the ad cancelations begin!
But for the LA Times to any way to cave into GM, assuming the LAT's facts are correct, is something the LA Times should never do.
Saturday, April 09, 2005
Six Reporters!! And The LA Times Still Can't Honestly Cover The Special Order 40 Story!
Or -- is it the six reporters that keeps the LA Times from actually covering the story?
First the 'good news'. After every other media outlet in Western Civilization has printed the fact, the LA Times - with six reporters as opposed to the NY Times' one man wrecking crew - Charlie LeDuff - has finally - FINALLY! - discovered there are 30,000 criminals who are illegal aliens walking the streets of LA County.
As for the bad news - let's start with the blatantly dishonest - and I mean, embarrassing dishonest - headline reading 'Officers Back New Vision of Sanctuary'.
Now I know a lot of cops - and I talk to them every day on the streets of LA - and they are overwhelming against the concept of allowing sanctuary for illegal aliens who are criminals, even with the 'new vision' part added. So making the lede of the story the claim that cops support this new concept of sanctuary is inexcusably dishonest, no matter how one modifies the statement. Cops are angry and frustrated over the concept. While on one hand, they do not want to be (and should not be) immigration police, they DO want the right to be able to use immigration status to get serious criminals off of the streets.
But since the LA Times' position is in favor of sancuary, that is what both the headline and the start of the story reflect.
Eventually, the LA Times does get around to interviewing cops who are opposed to the concept of sanctuary (cops whose 'vision' is, of course, totally ignored in the headline of the story). But the damage is already done by then. It is often the headline and the start of the story that people just skim when they read a newspaper.
But the most serious damage done by the six reporters, and the god knows how many editors involved in the LA Times version of the 'truth' is, the damage done to the art of journalism. Read below first the LA Times version of the story, and then read Charlie LeDuff's article on the same subject. In one story you get great writing, a visceral sense of what it is like to be a cop in LA and some harsh, unedited truths. In the other version, you find out why the LA Times is daily hemorrhaging readers.
So once again, if you want to know what it is like to live in this city - you have to go to the NY Times and not the LA Times.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lapd9apr09,1,5546337.story?coll=la-headlines-california&ctrack=2&cset=true
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/07/national/07crime.html?
First the 'good news'. After every other media outlet in Western Civilization has printed the fact, the LA Times - with six reporters as opposed to the NY Times' one man wrecking crew - Charlie LeDuff - has finally - FINALLY! - discovered there are 30,000 criminals who are illegal aliens walking the streets of LA County.
As for the bad news - let's start with the blatantly dishonest - and I mean, embarrassing dishonest - headline reading 'Officers Back New Vision of Sanctuary'.
Now I know a lot of cops - and I talk to them every day on the streets of LA - and they are overwhelming against the concept of allowing sanctuary for illegal aliens who are criminals, even with the 'new vision' part added. So making the lede of the story the claim that cops support this new concept of sanctuary is inexcusably dishonest, no matter how one modifies the statement. Cops are angry and frustrated over the concept. While on one hand, they do not want to be (and should not be) immigration police, they DO want the right to be able to use immigration status to get serious criminals off of the streets.
But since the LA Times' position is in favor of sancuary, that is what both the headline and the start of the story reflect.
Eventually, the LA Times does get around to interviewing cops who are opposed to the concept of sanctuary (cops whose 'vision' is, of course, totally ignored in the headline of the story). But the damage is already done by then. It is often the headline and the start of the story that people just skim when they read a newspaper.
But the most serious damage done by the six reporters, and the god knows how many editors involved in the LA Times version of the 'truth' is, the damage done to the art of journalism. Read below first the LA Times version of the story, and then read Charlie LeDuff's article on the same subject. In one story you get great writing, a visceral sense of what it is like to be a cop in LA and some harsh, unedited truths. In the other version, you find out why the LA Times is daily hemorrhaging readers.
So once again, if you want to know what it is like to live in this city - you have to go to the NY Times and not the LA Times.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lapd9apr09,1,5546337.story?coll=la-headlines-california&ctrack=2&cset=true
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/07/national/07crime.html?
Boss Tweed Is Alive And Well In Sacramento And Los Angeles! Whose Heads Will Roll Once Truth Comes Out??
Who is behind the plot to give away one of LA's cultural landmarks??
Stay tuned.
Stay tuned.
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Dog Bites Man! Sun Rises In East!! Pope To Be Catholic!!! New York Times Kicks LA Times'... BUTT!!!!
New York Times' star reporter -- two descriptive words I never thought I'd be typing one year ago -- Charlie LeDuff thoroughly spanks the LA Times!
Big time!!
In an article in the Thursday edition of the New York Times, LeDuff describes in painful detail what the LA Times refuses to tell the citizens of Los Angeles -- that there are over 30,000 criminals in LA County who are here illegally and who are PROTECTED from being arrested by the policies of the City and County of Los Angeles.
And Good Old Charlie does an absolutely brilliant job of explaining - and bringing to life - an extremely complex, and tragic - situation. Now if we can only convince the LA Times to steal him away from the New York Times -- and put him in charge of the editorial page! You're on notice John Broder!
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/07/national/07crime.html
Big time!!
In an article in the Thursday edition of the New York Times, LeDuff describes in painful detail what the LA Times refuses to tell the citizens of Los Angeles -- that there are over 30,000 criminals in LA County who are here illegally and who are PROTECTED from being arrested by the policies of the City and County of Los Angeles.
And Good Old Charlie does an absolutely brilliant job of explaining - and bringing to life - an extremely complex, and tragic - situation. Now if we can only convince the LA Times to steal him away from the New York Times -- and put him in charge of the editorial page! You're on notice John Broder!
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/07/national/07crime.html
Pigs Fly! Mules Procreate!! David Shaw Gets Something Right!!!
In a startling development today, LA Times Media critic, David Shaw luridly acknowledged a personal lust for under-cooked... and under-aged hamburger. And in a brave, searingly raw confession of his long secret addiction to burger porn, Shaw stoutly defended his personal choice of loving meat that most others felt had not yet reached its time.
However, the most shocking part of this story was when Shaw explicitedly described the hidden places where he goes to gratify his implacable demons, leading the list was the long infamous Wilshire dinery -- Cassell's! A place where I, alas, had once lost much of my own, once youthful innocence.
I might add that even though I was raised within walking distance of this... flesh house.... my parents had wisely felt that someone of my tender years needed to be protected from the sight - much less the caress - of such voluptuarian slabs of raw, pink, firm flesh; thus it was left up to Bill Roberts and Stu Spencer (of the famed political PR firm of Spencer-Roberts) to personally arrange for my debauching. So one spring day, they took me there to fully initiate me into the forbidden pleasures of so much unadorned flesh unashamedly on display. And it was easily the second most enoyable losing of my virginity of my teen age years.
And many thanks to Fishbowl at Mediabistro for alerting me to this story. As I had yet acquired my daily copy of the LA Times from the local trash baskets, I had not read it until I saw it on their site.
http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-fo-matters6apr06,1,4254386.column?ctrack=2&cset=true
http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlla/
However, the most shocking part of this story was when Shaw explicitedly described the hidden places where he goes to gratify his implacable demons, leading the list was the long infamous Wilshire dinery -- Cassell's! A place where I, alas, had once lost much of my own, once youthful innocence.
I might add that even though I was raised within walking distance of this... flesh house.... my parents had wisely felt that someone of my tender years needed to be protected from the sight - much less the caress - of such voluptuarian slabs of raw, pink, firm flesh; thus it was left up to Bill Roberts and Stu Spencer (of the famed political PR firm of Spencer-Roberts) to personally arrange for my debauching. So one spring day, they took me there to fully initiate me into the forbidden pleasures of so much unadorned flesh unashamedly on display. And it was easily the second most enoyable losing of my virginity of my teen age years.
And many thanks to Fishbowl at Mediabistro for alerting me to this story. As I had yet acquired my daily copy of the LA Times from the local trash baskets, I had not read it until I saw it on their site.
http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-fo-matters6apr06,1,4254386.column?ctrack=2&cset=true
http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlla/
Three More Dead In Four Days At Killer King/Drew.
And yet both the County Board of Supervisors and the Editorial page of the LA Times have their heads so far up their butts, that they refuse to take the actions that the Times series on Killer King so clearly showed need to be done. But at least the politicians have some excuse - with the 'local' press refusing to demand the drastic changes that need to be done, why should they take the political risks of doing the right thing?
I might add this is something very personal for me. If I had not been in the emergency room with my mother on one occasion, they would have let her die. But when I overrode the do not resuscitate order that was mistakenly on her charts, they revived her and she had almost two quality years of life left and was able to die peacefully at home. And this was in a top rated private hospital. I cannot even imagine what the families whose loved ones are being brutalized at King/Drew must be going through.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-kingdrew6apr06,0,3640178.story?coll=la-home-headlines
I might add this is something very personal for me. If I had not been in the emergency room with my mother on one occasion, they would have let her die. But when I overrode the do not resuscitate order that was mistakenly on her charts, they revived her and she had almost two quality years of life left and was able to die peacefully at home. And this was in a top rated private hospital. I cannot even imagine what the families whose loved ones are being brutalized at King/Drew must be going through.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-kingdrew6apr06,0,3640178.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
LA Times Blows Lede On Own Pulitzer Story!!
Killer King Exposed! Countless deaths laid at the door of criminally negligent hospital staff! Read all about it in gory detail in the Pulitzer Prize winning series in the LA Times! But here, below, is the first line in today's front page story about that Pulitzer:
"The Los Angeles Times won the Pulitzer Prize for public service Monday for a series of stories that detailed how Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center provided care so poor that it sickened and imperiled some patients."
Sickened? Imperiled? Why not just say... mildly annoyed???
"The Los Angeles Times won the Pulitzer Prize for public service Monday for a series of stories that detailed how Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center provided care so poor that it sickened and imperiled some patients."
Sickened? Imperiled? Why not just say... mildly annoyed???
Shiny New Ornaments For The Titanic! Pulitzers For The Times! Or - Why The King-Drew Pulitzer Is The Ultimate Indictment Of The LA Times!
I'll start with the Pulitzer for - yawn - foreign reporting (snore). Kim Murphy's name didn't ring a bell with me - which is no great surprise, as names are not my strong suit. Plus when it comes to foreign stories, I read so many papers and magazines covering the same events, that I just kind of glaze over them each day.
So I - dutifully - began to plow through the first submitted story. But, to my surprise, I recognized the first line. And I also recalled the first paragraph -- and the last one, and quite a bit that was in-between. And the same was true of all three articles.
It wasn't so much that I recalled her writing style, good as it is; rather, I remembered the people she wrote about and the lives she brought to life. And what more can you ask for from a reporter?
As for the second award, on the day the King-Drew series began, I heard groans all over town as people reached down to pick-up their morning paper only to find his year's pre-packaged Pulitzer Prize submission - with five chapters ready to assault them.
Except this series was actually about... Los Angeles. And it was good. Actually, it was great. But rather than me telling you this - just over to the Times website (honest, it won't kill you... just this one time; I promise I'll never ask you this again) and re-read it. Tracy Weber, Charles Ornstein, Mitchell Landsberg and Steve Hymon - along with photographer, Robert Gauthier, all did a superb job
But... after they exposed how cowardly politicians have allowed countless people to unnecessarily die at Killer King to protect corrupt and incompetent hospital administrators and staff, the editorial staff then took this information... and betrayed the people of this city.
Instead of a demand for specific reforms, and instead of offering political cover to the elected officials who have allowed this outrage to go on for 30 years so they could implement these desperately needed reforms - the editorial page said...absolutely nothing. See below:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-kingdrew121204_latpul,1,879918.story?coll=la-home-headlines
That was later followed up by a summing up article which clearly implied that the best possible option was to suspend civil service rules, shut down the hospital (briefly) to regroup and to then only hire back those who can prove they can meet the highest standards. But these obvious solutions were not only not demanded by the Times, but this article all but stated that it was politically impossible for politicians to do what actually needs to be done, and then accepted that it will not be done. See below:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-me-solutions23dec23,1,2745979.story?coll=la-home-headlines
So the LA Times - after exposing what the conspiracy of silence and cowardice has created, has joined those politically correct politicians too afraid to demand the measures necessary to fix this problem. So instead of becoming the solution to the problem of Killer King - the LA Times has become apart of the problem.
But at least they have a shiny new Pulitzer...
So I - dutifully - began to plow through the first submitted story. But, to my surprise, I recognized the first line. And I also recalled the first paragraph -- and the last one, and quite a bit that was in-between. And the same was true of all three articles.
It wasn't so much that I recalled her writing style, good as it is; rather, I remembered the people she wrote about and the lives she brought to life. And what more can you ask for from a reporter?
As for the second award, on the day the King-Drew series began, I heard groans all over town as people reached down to pick-up their morning paper only to find his year's pre-packaged Pulitzer Prize submission - with five chapters ready to assault them.
Except this series was actually about... Los Angeles. And it was good. Actually, it was great. But rather than me telling you this - just over to the Times website (honest, it won't kill you... just this one time; I promise I'll never ask you this again) and re-read it. Tracy Weber, Charles Ornstein, Mitchell Landsberg and Steve Hymon - along with photographer, Robert Gauthier, all did a superb job
But... after they exposed how cowardly politicians have allowed countless people to unnecessarily die at Killer King to protect corrupt and incompetent hospital administrators and staff, the editorial staff then took this information... and betrayed the people of this city.
Instead of a demand for specific reforms, and instead of offering political cover to the elected officials who have allowed this outrage to go on for 30 years so they could implement these desperately needed reforms - the editorial page said...absolutely nothing. See below:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-kingdrew121204_latpul,1,879918.story?coll=la-home-headlines
That was later followed up by a summing up article which clearly implied that the best possible option was to suspend civil service rules, shut down the hospital (briefly) to regroup and to then only hire back those who can prove they can meet the highest standards. But these obvious solutions were not only not demanded by the Times, but this article all but stated that it was politically impossible for politicians to do what actually needs to be done, and then accepted that it will not be done. See below:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-me-solutions23dec23,1,2745979.story?coll=la-home-headlines
So the LA Times - after exposing what the conspiracy of silence and cowardice has created, has joined those politically correct politicians too afraid to demand the measures necessary to fix this problem. So instead of becoming the solution to the problem of Killer King - the LA Times has become apart of the problem.
But at least they have a shiny new Pulitzer...
Monday, April 04, 2005
LA Times State Bond Rating 'Correction' As Bogus As Original Editorial! OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!!
To refresh, in an editorial last Wednesday, the LA Times tried to make us believe that Arnold's approaches to taxes and spending had caused the state's bond ratings to plummet. They finally 'corrected' this (four days later...) by confessing that they had 'misstated' the facts (i.e., lied like a rug) as they admitted that even though the bond ratings at two agencies had been 'sharply' lowered the month after Arnold was sworn in, that they had since risen to about where they were before.
And notice how the ever impartial LA Times said the rates had been 'sharply lowered' when they dropped, but when they went back up, the 'sharply' part somehow got... dropped.
Now this bond rating drop was just slightly over two weeks after Arnold took office as the true extent of the Gray Davis budget disaster was becoming clearer and clearer. So even though one of the bond agencies did cite the car tax repeal as one of their several reasons, it is disingenuous to say that this drop was caused by two weeks of Arnold's policies that hadn't even been developed, much less passed or implemented.
In contrast, once Arnold did get his tax and spending policies approved - not just two - but all THREE bond rating agencies 'sharply' raised their ratings, and all three bond rating agencies cited his policies (along with an improving economy) for their 'sharp' improvement of California's bond rating.
So, to be perfectly clear, before Arnold's tax and spending plan was passed - dropping bond ratings, and after Arnold's tax and spending plan was passed - rising bond ratings. The exact opposite of what the Times said.
But did (or will?) the LA Times ever come out and say that Arnold's spending and tax policies actually RAISED the state's bond ratings? Will the LA Time ever apologize to Arnold and the people of this city and this state for such a monumental error? Will anyone at the LAT fall on his sword to atone for this journalistic sin? Will the LA Times ever hire anyone who was born and raised - or even LIVES - in LA?
Of course not.
Doing something like that might actually improve the LA Times' rapidly plummeting credibility or the Times' equally rapidly dropping circulation figures. And, luckily for those us who care about this city, the LA Times' soon to be realized death wish will prevent that from ever happening.
And notice how the ever impartial LA Times said the rates had been 'sharply lowered' when they dropped, but when they went back up, the 'sharply' part somehow got... dropped.
Now this bond rating drop was just slightly over two weeks after Arnold took office as the true extent of the Gray Davis budget disaster was becoming clearer and clearer. So even though one of the bond agencies did cite the car tax repeal as one of their several reasons, it is disingenuous to say that this drop was caused by two weeks of Arnold's policies that hadn't even been developed, much less passed or implemented.
In contrast, once Arnold did get his tax and spending policies approved - not just two - but all THREE bond rating agencies 'sharply' raised their ratings, and all three bond rating agencies cited his policies (along with an improving economy) for their 'sharp' improvement of California's bond rating.
So, to be perfectly clear, before Arnold's tax and spending plan was passed - dropping bond ratings, and after Arnold's tax and spending plan was passed - rising bond ratings. The exact opposite of what the Times said.
But did (or will?) the LA Times ever come out and say that Arnold's spending and tax policies actually RAISED the state's bond ratings? Will the LA Time ever apologize to Arnold and the people of this city and this state for such a monumental error? Will anyone at the LAT fall on his sword to atone for this journalistic sin? Will the LA Times ever hire anyone who was born and raised - or even LIVES - in LA?
Of course not.
Doing something like that might actually improve the LA Times' rapidly plummeting credibility or the Times' equally rapidly dropping circulation figures. And, luckily for those us who care about this city, the LA Times' soon to be realized death wish will prevent that from ever happening.
Getty Museum To Further Abandon Los Angeles?
Besides having its newspapers all owned by out-of-state interests, corporate backwaters LA might now also see the Getty Museum partially decamping. See the below excerpt from the March 30th New York Times (which, of course, is the best newspaper to get news about... Los Angeles):
"The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, which opened its Richard Meier-designed complex eight years ago and is reopening its Malibu villa next winter to house Roman antiquities, is thinking about its own future with the aid of Mr. Ellis. As the Guggenheim Museum continues to expand with satellites all over the world, for example, "We're asking ourselves, does that pattern make any sense for us?" said Barry Munitz, the president and chief executive of the J. Paul Getty Trust. "Do we want other sites? Do we want other partners?"
To refresh your memories, when the Getty Trust became the richest arts institution in the world, it was widely assumed that we would - finally - have a world-class art museum in Los Angeles. Alas, that was never to be.
Instead of building a world-class art collection, the Getty money has been increasingly funneled into various (albeit, very worthwhile) programs all over the world as the last remaining masterpieces of many artists in private hands have been picked up by museums in other cities.
And now, inexplicably, the Getty appears to be considering not only even further cutting back on building its local collection, but to then also distribute its very small painting collection - compared with art museums in other world class cites - to other parts of the world.
Say it isn't so Barry!
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/30/arts/artsspecial/30expand.html?
"The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, which opened its Richard Meier-designed complex eight years ago and is reopening its Malibu villa next winter to house Roman antiquities, is thinking about its own future with the aid of Mr. Ellis. As the Guggenheim Museum continues to expand with satellites all over the world, for example, "We're asking ourselves, does that pattern make any sense for us?" said Barry Munitz, the president and chief executive of the J. Paul Getty Trust. "Do we want other sites? Do we want other partners?"
To refresh your memories, when the Getty Trust became the richest arts institution in the world, it was widely assumed that we would - finally - have a world-class art museum in Los Angeles. Alas, that was never to be.
Instead of building a world-class art collection, the Getty money has been increasingly funneled into various (albeit, very worthwhile) programs all over the world as the last remaining masterpieces of many artists in private hands have been picked up by museums in other cities.
And now, inexplicably, the Getty appears to be considering not only even further cutting back on building its local collection, but to then also distribute its very small painting collection - compared with art museums in other world class cites - to other parts of the world.
Say it isn't so Barry!
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/30/arts/artsspecial/30expand.html?
Sunday, April 03, 2005
The LA Times And Running With Scissors. The Fine Line Between Error -- And Deliberate Libel.
When I briefly scanned an editorial in the LA Times' Wednesday section, I instantly knew what the LAT said was not only not true -- but that it was the exact opposite of what had happened. But with all the drama over the Neighborhood Council/DWP MOU agreement being finalized the day before and the aftermath, I forgot to follow up.
But now - four days later - the LA Times has placed the below retraction on-line:
"GOP governors - An editorial Wednesday on Republican governors' approaches to taxes and spending misstated California's bond rating history under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in saying that the state had "watched its bond rating plummet." Two of three major bond rating agencies sharply lowered the state's general obligation bond ratings in December 2003, the month after Schwarzenegger took office, but raised them in 2004 to about the levels that existed before he took office."
That's it. Now to refresh your memory, California was virtually bankrupt in 2003 due to LA Times supported Gray Davis' out of control spending. And shortly after Arnold was put in office by the voters, the state's bond rating plunged, due to his predecessor's policies. But once Arnold cut spending and refinanced the debt without new taxes, the bond ratings promptly went back up to what they were before the full truth came out about the state's fiscal mess.
So instead of the state's bond rating plummeting under Arnold's policies - as the LAT said -- they actually rose due to his approaches to taxes and spending.
Now since all of this was reported in depth by the LA Times, there is only one of three things we can believe. First, the editorial board actually read what was printed in the paper and knew the truth, but still decided to lie about what really happened. Second, they actually never pay any attention to what is going on and just make this stuff up. Third, and most likely, they are so disconnected as to what is really going on in this city and in this state, that they can not grasp the difference between the real world - and the world as they would like it to be.
But no matter which of those options is true, it is clear that the only honorable thing for whomever wrote, edited or approved that editorial is to publish a front-page apology to both the Governor and the people of this state, and to then submit their letters of resignation to the president of the Tribune Company in Chicago.
But now - four days later - the LA Times has placed the below retraction on-line:
"GOP governors - An editorial Wednesday on Republican governors' approaches to taxes and spending misstated California's bond rating history under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in saying that the state had "watched its bond rating plummet." Two of three major bond rating agencies sharply lowered the state's general obligation bond ratings in December 2003, the month after Schwarzenegger took office, but raised them in 2004 to about the levels that existed before he took office."
That's it. Now to refresh your memory, California was virtually bankrupt in 2003 due to LA Times supported Gray Davis' out of control spending. And shortly after Arnold was put in office by the voters, the state's bond rating plunged, due to his predecessor's policies. But once Arnold cut spending and refinanced the debt without new taxes, the bond ratings promptly went back up to what they were before the full truth came out about the state's fiscal mess.
So instead of the state's bond rating plummeting under Arnold's policies - as the LAT said -- they actually rose due to his approaches to taxes and spending.
Now since all of this was reported in depth by the LA Times, there is only one of three things we can believe. First, the editorial board actually read what was printed in the paper and knew the truth, but still decided to lie about what really happened. Second, they actually never pay any attention to what is going on and just make this stuff up. Third, and most likely, they are so disconnected as to what is really going on in this city and in this state, that they can not grasp the difference between the real world - and the world as they would like it to be.
But no matter which of those options is true, it is clear that the only honorable thing for whomever wrote, edited or approved that editorial is to publish a front-page apology to both the Governor and the people of this state, and to then submit their letters of resignation to the president of the Tribune Company in Chicago.
Saturday, April 02, 2005
The LA Times Achieves The Harmonic Convergence of Journalism! The Perfect Storm of Journalistic Incompetence!
The Chicago owned LA Times has taken a lot of internet heat the past week on two issues. First, David Shaw looked down upon us bloggers in his media column, saying we are incapable of getting our facts correct as does the LAT due to the LAT's many layers of filters and editors. If you read my posts of the past week - you can determine yourself how true that is.
Second, the LA Times has been justifiably criticized for ignoring the fact that 30,000 Los Angeles-based criminals and violent gang members are in this country illegally and daily terrorizing the streets of LA and yet the LAPD is helpless to stop them due to political correctness run amuck. And, then, even when the LAT is finally forced by outside circumstances to address the issue, they are too afraid to ask the hard questions that need to be asked, much less to take any leadership on this issue. But, in a way, that's fully understandable. I mean, what impact does this have on the citizens of Chicago?
Now with the editor and publisher of the LAT both knowing of these two problems - what are the odds that they would then allow a story to be published that is both factually incorrect - AND also still fails to tell us the facts about this threat to our city
Well, as it turns out -- 100%. Just read below - and weep:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOR THE RECORD
April 2, 2005
Immigration laws - The headline for an article in Friday's California section about Orange County Sheriff's Department officials' plans to train deputies to enforce federal immigration laws stated that Los Angeles County's sheriff said he would do the same. In fact, Sheriff Lee Baca said he would give his deputies the same powers as those being given to Los Angeles police. Under the LAPD's proposed rules, officers who encounter people they believe had reentered the country illegally would call their supervisors, who would contact federal immigration officials. If the suspect were once convicted of a serious crime and deported, LAPD officers could seek a federal warrant and then make an arrest.
Second, the LA Times has been justifiably criticized for ignoring the fact that 30,000 Los Angeles-based criminals and violent gang members are in this country illegally and daily terrorizing the streets of LA and yet the LAPD is helpless to stop them due to political correctness run amuck. And, then, even when the LAT is finally forced by outside circumstances to address the issue, they are too afraid to ask the hard questions that need to be asked, much less to take any leadership on this issue. But, in a way, that's fully understandable. I mean, what impact does this have on the citizens of Chicago?
Now with the editor and publisher of the LAT both knowing of these two problems - what are the odds that they would then allow a story to be published that is both factually incorrect - AND also still fails to tell us the facts about this threat to our city
Well, as it turns out -- 100%. Just read below - and weep:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOR THE RECORD
April 2, 2005
Immigration laws - The headline for an article in Friday's California section about Orange County Sheriff's Department officials' plans to train deputies to enforce federal immigration laws stated that Los Angeles County's sheriff said he would do the same. In fact, Sheriff Lee Baca said he would give his deputies the same powers as those being given to Los Angeles police. Under the LAPD's proposed rules, officers who encounter people they believe had reentered the country illegally would call their supervisors, who would contact federal immigration officials. If the suspect were once convicted of a serious crime and deported, LAPD officers could seek a federal warrant and then make an arrest.
Friday, April 01, 2005
LA Times Corrections Du Jour - Proof That Even The Publisher Doesn't Read The LA Times! Plus, The Ultimate Fish Story!
It's one thing for the LA Times to print both the wrong hometown and the wrong home state of the new publisher of the LA Times. One expects that from the LA Times. And one's expectations, no matter how low, are always profoundly exceeded at the Los Angeles Times.
But for the Times to then take NINE days to discover and correct the error... now we're talking industrial strength Schadenfreude! The only conclusion one can logically draw is that while this year's publisher of the LAT may have to publish the paper during his visit to our city, that doesn't mean that he ever intends on reading it.
See below:
CORRECTION
New publisher - An article in Section A on March 23 said the new publisher of the Los Angeles Times, Jeffrey M. Johnson, was born in the Chicago area. Johnson was born in Fargo, N.D., but lived for much of his youth around Chicago.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Faux Public Service Announcement From The Faux LA TIMES:
We at the LA Times are always striving to find new and unique ways of entertaining our ever more exclusive (i.e., rapidly plumenting) readership. With that in mind, The Los Angeles Times is pleased to announce its latest feature (exclusive to the Los Angeles Times!) -- Our Correction Correction Section! Yes, our very special place where we will daily correct our incorect... corrections!
And if our readers embrace this new LAT exclusive feature, as we are certain they will - then look out for our new Correcting the Correction Correction Section!
April 1
CORRECTION
Fish report - A March 25 correction about a fish report item in the March 22 Outdoors section said yellowfin tuna should have been labeled yellowtail tuna. Yellowtails are not tuna.
Note: Tune in to tomorow's Correcting the Correction Corection Section to find out what yellowtails really are now that they are no longer... tuna.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Finally... recently spotted ad on Craig's List:
Help Wanted - Proof Reader! No experience needed! However, Ichthyological expertise in Tuna related taxology a big plus!!
Respond to clueless@latimes.com.
But for the Times to then take NINE days to discover and correct the error... now we're talking industrial strength Schadenfreude! The only conclusion one can logically draw is that while this year's publisher of the LAT may have to publish the paper during his visit to our city, that doesn't mean that he ever intends on reading it.
See below:
CORRECTION
New publisher - An article in Section A on March 23 said the new publisher of the Los Angeles Times, Jeffrey M. Johnson, was born in the Chicago area. Johnson was born in Fargo, N.D., but lived for much of his youth around Chicago.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Faux Public Service Announcement From The Faux LA TIMES:
We at the LA Times are always striving to find new and unique ways of entertaining our ever more exclusive (i.e., rapidly plumenting) readership. With that in mind, The Los Angeles Times is pleased to announce its latest feature (exclusive to the Los Angeles Times!) -- Our Correction Correction Section! Yes, our very special place where we will daily correct our incorect... corrections!
And if our readers embrace this new LAT exclusive feature, as we are certain they will - then look out for our new Correcting the Correction Correction Section!
April 1
CORRECTION
Fish report - A March 25 correction about a fish report item in the March 22 Outdoors section said yellowfin tuna should have been labeled yellowtail tuna. Yellowtails are not tuna.
Note: Tune in to tomorow's Correcting the Correction Corection Section to find out what yellowtails really are now that they are no longer... tuna.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Finally... recently spotted ad on Craig's List:
Help Wanted - Proof Reader! No experience needed! However, Ichthyological expertise in Tuna related taxology a big plus!!
Respond to clueless@latimes.com.
Thursday, March 31, 2005
To Err Is Human - But To Screw Up Even the Simplest Facts -- You Absolutely, Positively Have To Be The LA Times!
Getting back to David Shaw's diatribe on bloggers and our inability to perform up to the LA Times' high standards - not to mention how the LAT's many layers of editors and filters protects them from getting their facts wrong... well... just look at Slate's Jack Shafer PRESS BOX column today at http://www.slate.com/id/2116013/
In this article Shafer beautifully dissects an article in this Tuesday's March 29th LA Times and its staggering array of bonehead errors that make Jayson Blair look like Brenda Starr. And even after the LAT published a retraction in its print edition - after a stinging critique in another newspaper - the LA Times had still failed to correct the story in its on-line edition! And even tonight - the article is STILL uncorrected!
But this is hardly an unusual case for the LA Times. Besides the typical incorrectly spelled names, misidentified photos and errant facts in stories that are written on the fly, where one can understand errors happening, the types of errors that daily appear in the Times are at times, inexplicable.
Take, for example, the Sunday Calendar section a week ago. Among the things the LA Times got wrong are such fast breaking news stores as where Mozart's Magic Flute was premiered... in 1791, the correct color of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society wristband, the last two films of Vincent Price, and the premiere date of a 1935 piece of music. The Times also reassigned the tuba to the... woodwind section - and prematurely retired dancer Stanley Holden.
Not bad for a single days work in just ONE of the paper's many sections.
At least, though, the editors and proofreaders at the LAT can be expected to know who works for the LA Times, if nothing else. Well... actually, no:
Sunday, February 27, 2005 For the record Lipari, Italy: A Feb. 20 article on Lipari identified writer Susan Spano as a contributor to the Los Angeles Times. Spano is a Times staff writer.
Tuesday, March 22, 2005 For the record Pesky plants: In last week's Outdoors section, the byline for an article about trail plants misspelled writer David Lukas' last name as Lucas.
But saving the best for last - there are the endless errors that any sentient, breathing person should be able to spot.
Tow Truck Operator Uses City Bus to Tow Cars in Carpool Lane!
Tuesday, March 29, 2005 FOR THE RECORD Gasoline prices - An article in Monday's Business section on rising gasoline prices attributed the following quote, about how driver behavior would change once the price of gasoline topped $3 a gallon, to tow-truck driver Jesse Gurrola: "That's it - I think I'd have to carpool or maybe take the bus." In fact, that statement was made by motorist Gladys Paz
Bait Licking New Fishing Fad! Or... Sudden Onset Dyslexia Strikes LAT Writer!
Tuna fishing - An article in Tuesday's Outdoors section about tuna fishing referred to an angler as Rusty Johnson. His name is Frosty Johnson. The article also said Jack Nilsen caught a 24--pound fish using a tuna-catching device called a kite; Nilsen did not catch the fish using a kite. In addition, Gayle Johnson was quoted as saying, "Fish hard, lick the bait, and don't think you know more than the crew." In fact, she said, "Fish hard, pick the bait, and don't think you know more than the crew."
San Gabriel Valley City - Vanishes!
Friday, March 25, 2005 FOR THE RECORD Restaurant review - A review of the New Concept Restaurant in Wednesday's Food section indicated that the San Gabriel Valley city of Covina was located elsewhere in Southern California.
The New LAT Mini/MAXI Car! Wider Than It Is long!
Wednesday, February 9, 2005 For the record Auto review - An article about a new Honda pickup truck in the Feb. 2 Highway 1 section included incorrect specifications for the Ridgeline's wheelbase and overall length. The box accompanying the Ridgeline review listed the wheelbase as 122 inches and the overall length as 106.8 inches. The correct figure for the wheelbase is 122 inches, and the overall length is 206.8 inches.
Finally... Proof That Even The LAT's Proofreaders Do Not Read The LAT! Tom DeLay Is Now A... Democrat!
Thursday, March 24, 2005 For the Record Schiavo case - In a commentary Tuesday on the Terri Schiavo controversy, Rep. Tom DeLay's party/state designation was incorrectly given as D-Texas. It is R-Texas.
Lastly, admitedly, it is a high standard that David Shaw wants us bloggers to aspire to, but, somehow, I think that with a lot of work and a lot of effort on our parts, we can all achieve that standard!
PS -- The truly wonderful irony is that almost all of the errors in the above articles could have been discovered in seconds... by fact checking them on the internet.
April Fool's Update -- Now Infamous, Error-Ridden Chico State Story Still Not Corrected on LAT On-Line Site! Will Shortly Be Posting Official Vegas Odds on When LA Times Finally Notices This!
BREAKING NEWS!! LA Times Finally Corrects Chico State Story This Friday Morning!! Or -- does it? Increasing suspicions about other aspects of story now being rumored on the web.
In this article Shafer beautifully dissects an article in this Tuesday's March 29th LA Times and its staggering array of bonehead errors that make Jayson Blair look like Brenda Starr. And even after the LAT published a retraction in its print edition - after a stinging critique in another newspaper - the LA Times had still failed to correct the story in its on-line edition! And even tonight - the article is STILL uncorrected!
But this is hardly an unusual case for the LA Times. Besides the typical incorrectly spelled names, misidentified photos and errant facts in stories that are written on the fly, where one can understand errors happening, the types of errors that daily appear in the Times are at times, inexplicable.
Take, for example, the Sunday Calendar section a week ago. Among the things the LA Times got wrong are such fast breaking news stores as where Mozart's Magic Flute was premiered... in 1791, the correct color of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society wristband, the last two films of Vincent Price, and the premiere date of a 1935 piece of music. The Times also reassigned the tuba to the... woodwind section - and prematurely retired dancer Stanley Holden.
Not bad for a single days work in just ONE of the paper's many sections.
At least, though, the editors and proofreaders at the LAT can be expected to know who works for the LA Times, if nothing else. Well... actually, no:
Sunday, February 27, 2005 For the record Lipari, Italy: A Feb. 20 article on Lipari identified writer Susan Spano as a contributor to the Los Angeles Times. Spano is a Times staff writer.
Tuesday, March 22, 2005 For the record Pesky plants: In last week's Outdoors section, the byline for an article about trail plants misspelled writer David Lukas' last name as Lucas.
But saving the best for last - there are the endless errors that any sentient, breathing person should be able to spot.
Tow Truck Operator Uses City Bus to Tow Cars in Carpool Lane!
Tuesday, March 29, 2005 FOR THE RECORD Gasoline prices - An article in Monday's Business section on rising gasoline prices attributed the following quote, about how driver behavior would change once the price of gasoline topped $3 a gallon, to tow-truck driver Jesse Gurrola: "That's it - I think I'd have to carpool or maybe take the bus." In fact, that statement was made by motorist Gladys Paz
Bait Licking New Fishing Fad! Or... Sudden Onset Dyslexia Strikes LAT Writer!
Tuna fishing - An article in Tuesday's Outdoors section about tuna fishing referred to an angler as Rusty Johnson. His name is Frosty Johnson. The article also said Jack Nilsen caught a 24--pound fish using a tuna-catching device called a kite; Nilsen did not catch the fish using a kite. In addition, Gayle Johnson was quoted as saying, "Fish hard, lick the bait, and don't think you know more than the crew." In fact, she said, "Fish hard, pick the bait, and don't think you know more than the crew."
San Gabriel Valley City - Vanishes!
Friday, March 25, 2005 FOR THE RECORD Restaurant review - A review of the New Concept Restaurant in Wednesday's Food section indicated that the San Gabriel Valley city of Covina was located elsewhere in Southern California.
The New LAT Mini/MAXI Car! Wider Than It Is long!
Wednesday, February 9, 2005 For the record Auto review - An article about a new Honda pickup truck in the Feb. 2 Highway 1 section included incorrect specifications for the Ridgeline's wheelbase and overall length. The box accompanying the Ridgeline review listed the wheelbase as 122 inches and the overall length as 106.8 inches. The correct figure for the wheelbase is 122 inches, and the overall length is 206.8 inches.
Finally... Proof That Even The LAT's Proofreaders Do Not Read The LAT! Tom DeLay Is Now A... Democrat!
Thursday, March 24, 2005 For the Record Schiavo case - In a commentary Tuesday on the Terri Schiavo controversy, Rep. Tom DeLay's party/state designation was incorrectly given as D-Texas. It is R-Texas.
Lastly, admitedly, it is a high standard that David Shaw wants us bloggers to aspire to, but, somehow, I think that with a lot of work and a lot of effort on our parts, we can all achieve that standard!
PS -- The truly wonderful irony is that almost all of the errors in the above articles could have been discovered in seconds... by fact checking them on the internet.
April Fool's Update -- Now Infamous, Error-Ridden Chico State Story Still Not Corrected on LAT On-Line Site! Will Shortly Be Posting Official Vegas Odds on When LA Times Finally Notices This!
BREAKING NEWS!! LA Times Finally Corrects Chico State Story This Friday Morning!! Or -- does it? Increasing suspicions about other aspects of story now being rumored on the web.
LA Times Discovers Crime in LA!! And They're Shocked! SHOCKED!!
After years of not only hiding from the subject - but also hiding it from the citizens of Los Angeles - the LA Times has finally discovered that we have a crime problem in River City.
It is currently illegal for the LAPD to arrest known criminals if they are illegal aliens... for being illegal aliens. Yup - that's right. And on today's front page - in response the to LAPD finally taking action of their own to address the problem - the LA Times is finally forced to admit that this problem actually exists.
Now this is a far more complicated problem that what I just posited and there are some very real issues that need to be publicly debated. And in any other city with a real newspaper - these issues would have been debated long ago. But at least the issue has been finally raised. Or at least... partially raised. There is still one thing we are not being told by our paper of non-record.
And that is that we have 30,000 (that's THIRTY Thousand - almost the same number of people who live in Beverly Hills) illegal alien criminals - largely preying on other immigrants - roaming the streets of Los Angeles. And that fact is still considered information that the LA Times feels needs to be hidden from us. And that is why you will only find facts like that reported in the New York Times, our default paper of record for Los Angeles.
Andy many thanks to Mickey Kaus at www.kausfiles.com for keeping this issue alive.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-order31mar31,1,621980.story?coll=la-headlines-california
http://slate.msn.com/id/2115861/
It is currently illegal for the LAPD to arrest known criminals if they are illegal aliens... for being illegal aliens. Yup - that's right. And on today's front page - in response the to LAPD finally taking action of their own to address the problem - the LA Times is finally forced to admit that this problem actually exists.
Now this is a far more complicated problem that what I just posited and there are some very real issues that need to be publicly debated. And in any other city with a real newspaper - these issues would have been debated long ago. But at least the issue has been finally raised. Or at least... partially raised. There is still one thing we are not being told by our paper of non-record.
And that is that we have 30,000 (that's THIRTY Thousand - almost the same number of people who live in Beverly Hills) illegal alien criminals - largely preying on other immigrants - roaming the streets of Los Angeles. And that fact is still considered information that the LA Times feels needs to be hidden from us. And that is why you will only find facts like that reported in the New York Times, our default paper of record for Los Angeles.
Andy many thanks to Mickey Kaus at www.kausfiles.com for keeping this issue alive.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-order31mar31,1,621980.story?coll=la-headlines-california
http://slate.msn.com/id/2115861/
LA Times' David Shaw Explains It All To Us Poor, Benighted Bloggers!
When I started this blog, I had no intention of turning it into a LA Times bashing site; however... when the Los Angeles Times daily home delivers us fish-filled barrels and then passes out loaded shotguns with hair triggers -- well -- what are we poor bloggers supposed to do?
The immensely frustrating part is that the LAT has so many skilled and gifted writers -- two rather different qualities, I might add -- that it almost seems impossible for the LAT to then so totally fail the people of Los Angeles in delivering a product that in any way explains or reflects the city it purports to cover.
But fail the LA Times does do in its ever-continuing downward spiral -- and then the Times has the chutzpah to pointedly look down upon whomever dares point out their columns of clay.
The latest repeat offender is David Shaw in his March 27th column (http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/showcase/la-ca-shaw27mar27,0,5319183,print.story) on bloggers. While his main topic was whether or not us bloggers deserve our constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech protection, his main offense, as far as I am concerned, is to challenge the ability of anyone other than institutions like the LA Times to get their facts correct.
Now many people have already taken him to the wood shed for his journalistic sins -- Jack Shafer and Mickey Kaus in Slate to name just two (http://slate.msn.com/id/2115883/ and http://www.slate.com/id/2115861/), but in subsequent posts I will point out just a few recent examples of the LA Times much vaunted filter system that has so superbly protected them against the errors that we bloggers are so prone to committing.
The immensely frustrating part is that the LAT has so many skilled and gifted writers -- two rather different qualities, I might add -- that it almost seems impossible for the LAT to then so totally fail the people of Los Angeles in delivering a product that in any way explains or reflects the city it purports to cover.
But fail the LA Times does do in its ever-continuing downward spiral -- and then the Times has the chutzpah to pointedly look down upon whomever dares point out their columns of clay.
The latest repeat offender is David Shaw in his March 27th column (http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/showcase/la-ca-shaw27mar27,0,5319183,print.story) on bloggers. While his main topic was whether or not us bloggers deserve our constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech protection, his main offense, as far as I am concerned, is to challenge the ability of anyone other than institutions like the LA Times to get their facts correct.
Now many people have already taken him to the wood shed for his journalistic sins -- Jack Shafer and Mickey Kaus in Slate to name just two (http://slate.msn.com/id/2115883/ and http://www.slate.com/id/2115861/), but in subsequent posts I will point out just a few recent examples of the LA Times much vaunted filter system that has so superbly protected them against the errors that we bloggers are so prone to committing.
Spring on Downtown's Spring Street! Sunday April 3rd Walking Tour!!
The Los Angeles Conservancy is celebrating Spring on Spring Street with a behind-the-scenes look at historic landmarks that are coming back to life with surprising new uses.
What was once known as the Wall Street of the West is now home to a National Register Historic District, hip new lofts, night spots, art vibrant future. Spring Street is a microcosm of downtown's renewal, as showcased in a special, one-day tour on Sunday, April 3, 2005 from 10:00 - 4:00 PM. The self-guided tour will include:
Art galleries along Gallery Row -- 10 galleries will be open specifically for the tour.
The immense bank vaults beneath the 1911 Los Angeles Trust and Savings Bank building,which are being converted into a cocktail lounge.
The 1913 El Dorado Hotel,closed to the public and remarkably intact from its heyday.
A nightclub on the trading floor of the former Pacific Stock Exchange
Brand-new lofts in the century-old Douglas Building and 1924 Mercantile Arcade building.
The 1906 Alexandria Hotel, L.A.'s premier hotel at the turn of the 20th century, featuring the 196-foot Palm Court with a spectacular stained-glass ceiling.
The magnificent Globe Lobby in the 1935 Los Angeles Times building, with 10-foot-high murals by Hugo Ballin that were covered for nearly 30 years.
Tickets are $25 for Los Angeles Conservancy members, $30 for the general public, and $15 for children 12 and under.
Over 900 tickets sold! Due to overwhelming demand, we are no longer taking advance orders. Tickets will be available for purchase the day of the tour at the LA Times Building.
The LA Times Building is located at 202 W. First St. (SW corner of 1st and Spring Streets). Parking is available in the surface lot on Spring Street between 2nd and 3rd Streets. Covered parking is also available on Spring Street between 3rd and 4th Streets.
Proceeds benefit the LA Conservancy's efforts to recognize, preserve, and revitalize the historic resources of downtown and greater Los Angeles.
"Spring on Spring" is generously sponsored by Bank of America. Additional sponsors are Killefer Flammang Architects and Paul Su/Spring Arts Tower. Patron sponsors are Gilmore Associates, David Lawrence Gray Architects, and Spring Towers LLC/City Loft LLC/Izek Shomof.
What was once known as the Wall Street of the West is now home to a National Register Historic District, hip new lofts, night spots, art vibrant future. Spring Street is a microcosm of downtown's renewal, as showcased in a special, one-day tour on Sunday, April 3, 2005 from 10:00 - 4:00 PM. The self-guided tour will include:
Art galleries along Gallery Row -- 10 galleries will be open specifically for the tour.
The immense bank vaults beneath the 1911 Los Angeles Trust and Savings Bank building,which are being converted into a cocktail lounge.
The 1913 El Dorado Hotel,closed to the public and remarkably intact from its heyday.
A nightclub on the trading floor of the former Pacific Stock Exchange
Brand-new lofts in the century-old Douglas Building and 1924 Mercantile Arcade building.
The 1906 Alexandria Hotel, L.A.'s premier hotel at the turn of the 20th century, featuring the 196-foot Palm Court with a spectacular stained-glass ceiling.
The magnificent Globe Lobby in the 1935 Los Angeles Times building, with 10-foot-high murals by Hugo Ballin that were covered for nearly 30 years.
Tickets are $25 for Los Angeles Conservancy members, $30 for the general public, and $15 for children 12 and under.
Over 900 tickets sold! Due to overwhelming demand, we are no longer taking advance orders. Tickets will be available for purchase the day of the tour at the LA Times Building.
The LA Times Building is located at 202 W. First St. (SW corner of 1st and Spring Streets). Parking is available in the surface lot on Spring Street between 2nd and 3rd Streets. Covered parking is also available on Spring Street between 3rd and 4th Streets.
Proceeds benefit the LA Conservancy's efforts to recognize, preserve, and revitalize the historic resources of downtown and greater Los Angeles.
"Spring on Spring" is generously sponsored by Bank of America. Additional sponsors are Killefer Flammang Architects and Paul Su/Spring Arts Tower. Patron sponsors are Gilmore Associates, David Lawrence Gray Architects, and Spring Towers LLC/City Loft LLC/Izek Shomof.
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
LA Times - Still In Denial; Still Unwilling to Tell the Truth
In today's editorial on LA's violent transnational gangs, the LA Times still refuses to tell the people of Los Angeles the truth. As many other outlets - including the NY Times and SLATE's Kausfiles - have reported, one of the biggest problems facing the LAPD is that they are powerless to deport the estimated 30,000 illegal alien criminals who prey on the citizens of Los Angeles, and particularly the immigrant community.
Now it is one thing if the LA Times wants to continue to support this policy and it is yet another thing for the LAT to correctly report and acknowledge this problem, but to then not take a position on it. But to refuse to even allow the people of Los Angeles to know about the extent of the problem... is criminal.
Now it is one thing if the LA Times wants to continue to support this policy and it is yet another thing for the LAT to correctly report and acknowledge this problem, but to then not take a position on it. But to refuse to even allow the people of Los Angeles to know about the extent of the problem... is criminal.
Monday, March 28, 2005
Mindlesss Tv Newscaster Remark of the Night
"This is the longest that Terri Schiavo has survived without food or water."
Sunday, March 27, 2005
Real Pro Wrestling vs. Totally Amateur LA Times
Today is the TV debut of a professional sports league for amateur style wrestling (www.realprowrestling.com). And while I had watched all the matches live when they were shot at the downtown Los Angeles LA Center Studios last year, I was anxious to see how the shows would come across on TV, particularly after a fire destroyed or damaged many of the taped bouts.
And while I knew it was going to be shown on air on PAX TV (Channel 30) some time during the day, I now had to check my TV guide to see at what time. So I turned to my LA Times TV Guide and discovered... no PAX listings, which puzzled me as I had seen them listed before. Then when I checked the evening listings, I saw that the LAT did list the shows on that network - but only in the evening.
So as usual, if you want to find out about anything that is happening in LA - the very last place to look - is the ever bush league LA Times.
And while I knew it was going to be shown on air on PAX TV (Channel 30) some time during the day, I now had to check my TV guide to see at what time. So I turned to my LA Times TV Guide and discovered... no PAX listings, which puzzled me as I had seen them listed before. Then when I checked the evening listings, I saw that the LAT did list the shows on that network - but only in the evening.
So as usual, if you want to find out about anything that is happening in LA - the very last place to look - is the ever bush league LA Times.
Friday, March 25, 2005
No Matter How Low One's Expectations of the LA Times Are -- The Times will Always Manage to Undercut Them
In the previous post of yesterday, I predicted that the LA Times would dismiss the major revolution in city government proposed by Mayor Hahn (his giving the Neighborhood Councils unparalleled powers) with a few paragraphs while they would likely play up the Maxine Waters endorsement of his opponent.
Well, I was wrong.
This tectonic shift of power in this city didn't even rate a single sentence of its own. Instead the Neighborhood Councils were parenthetically grafted onto the butt end of a sentence about Maxine Waters's endorsement. So an announcement of how one politician will vote - which in itself has nothing to do with what either candidate will do once in office - is given two pages of coverage, while a major policy shift that will forever change how Los Angeles will work - was virtually ignored.
So when one reads Kevin's post today on LAOBSERVED about how the LA Time's circulation is now down to what it had been in 1968 - it is clear that the LA Times has been and is still increasingly losing touch with the city purports to cover. I know if I want to know what is happening in LA - it is now down to the 5th source I would check with.
Well, I was wrong.
This tectonic shift of power in this city didn't even rate a single sentence of its own. Instead the Neighborhood Councils were parenthetically grafted onto the butt end of a sentence about Maxine Waters's endorsement. So an announcement of how one politician will vote - which in itself has nothing to do with what either candidate will do once in office - is given two pages of coverage, while a major policy shift that will forever change how Los Angeles will work - was virtually ignored.
So when one reads Kevin's post today on LAOBSERVED about how the LA Time's circulation is now down to what it had been in 1968 - it is clear that the LA Times has been and is still increasingly losing touch with the city purports to cover. I know if I want to know what is happening in LA - it is now down to the 5th source I would check with.
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Mayor Hahn, the Neighborhood Councils... and Northern Kyrgyzstan.
While people's revolutions from the Ukraine to Lebanon and now the capital of Kyrgyzstan make international headlines, an increasing transfer of power from a handful of government officials in Los Angeles to the far more broadly based neighborhood councils is all but ignored by the LA press (i.e., the LA Times).
As an example, today Mayor James Hahn unveiled a new - and unprecedented - gift of power to the Neighborhood Councils, but it is unlikely you will hear any of this on the six or eleven o'clock news - and it is just as likely that there will be very little in the printed press other than a few brief paragraphs.
Among the Mayor's extraordinary proposals anounced are agreeing to place at least one Neighborhood Council member on each city commission - including those supervising the Police Department, the Department of Water and Power, Public Works, LAX, and all the other city agencies.
This once unimaginable move will not only give us a voice - and a vote - on each of these commissions, but it will also give us an advocate we can directly talk to about our individual concerns on the governance of each of these agencies. Plus with the Memorandum of Understanding between the NC's and the DWP possibly just days away from being preliminarily agreed upon - soon we will have agreements with each city agency on how they will work with us and how we will work with them, creating a true partnership between equals.
Mayor Hahn has also agreed to allow the NC's to help vet every new general manager - as he is already doing for the new Planning Director, and he also agreed to allow us to review the performance and budget of every city department. He also restated his agreement to allow the NC's to audit the city budget and to be involved in every step of its preparation.
All this was communicated today before an audience of NC activists from throughout the city and a gaggle of the local press. But when it came time for the press to ask questions - not one, and I mean not even one question asked of the Mayor addressed what he - or any of us present - said about the Neighborhood Councils. They were only interested in a sound-bite on what he thought about Maxine Waters endorsing his opponent or how he handled the replacing of Chief, now Councilman Parks, with Chief Bratton.
Finally, two widely respected South & Central LA activists exploded in anger at how the press not just completely ignored the Neighborhood Councils - but how they were only interested in what politicians felt about Bratton replacing Parks and had zero interest in talking to the people who actually lived in the gang threatened inner city. And these two plain talking Black women let the press know loud and clear how much they supported the Mayor's hiring of Chief Bratton and how much safer their neighborhoods are because of that decision. And the rest of us there loudly applauded them both.
But, again, don't look for this on the 11 o'clock news, or in the LA Times.
LATER UPDATE--
Kevin Roderick at LA OBSERVED has some excellent comments on the import of this story (though I do not recall him being there and it appears he is working off of the press release), but, even more illuminating, are his ruminations on what long term affects this might have on the Neighborhood Councils.
He correctly opines that as we develop real power, we are going to have to be increasingly vigilant on special interest groups and people with hidden agendas getting elected to the councils. The danger is that will just push their own narrow interests and not the interests of the community of large. Plus the rather loose voting requirements will also have to eventually be firmed up. And Kevin is the first - to my knowledge - journalist - to bring up this point that many of us in the NC revolution have been concerned about. More on this over the weekend.
As an example, today Mayor James Hahn unveiled a new - and unprecedented - gift of power to the Neighborhood Councils, but it is unlikely you will hear any of this on the six or eleven o'clock news - and it is just as likely that there will be very little in the printed press other than a few brief paragraphs.
Among the Mayor's extraordinary proposals anounced are agreeing to place at least one Neighborhood Council member on each city commission - including those supervising the Police Department, the Department of Water and Power, Public Works, LAX, and all the other city agencies.
This once unimaginable move will not only give us a voice - and a vote - on each of these commissions, but it will also give us an advocate we can directly talk to about our individual concerns on the governance of each of these agencies. Plus with the Memorandum of Understanding between the NC's and the DWP possibly just days away from being preliminarily agreed upon - soon we will have agreements with each city agency on how they will work with us and how we will work with them, creating a true partnership between equals.
Mayor Hahn has also agreed to allow the NC's to help vet every new general manager - as he is already doing for the new Planning Director, and he also agreed to allow us to review the performance and budget of every city department. He also restated his agreement to allow the NC's to audit the city budget and to be involved in every step of its preparation.
All this was communicated today before an audience of NC activists from throughout the city and a gaggle of the local press. But when it came time for the press to ask questions - not one, and I mean not even one question asked of the Mayor addressed what he - or any of us present - said about the Neighborhood Councils. They were only interested in a sound-bite on what he thought about Maxine Waters endorsing his opponent or how he handled the replacing of Chief, now Councilman Parks, with Chief Bratton.
Finally, two widely respected South & Central LA activists exploded in anger at how the press not just completely ignored the Neighborhood Councils - but how they were only interested in what politicians felt about Bratton replacing Parks and had zero interest in talking to the people who actually lived in the gang threatened inner city. And these two plain talking Black women let the press know loud and clear how much they supported the Mayor's hiring of Chief Bratton and how much safer their neighborhoods are because of that decision. And the rest of us there loudly applauded them both.
But, again, don't look for this on the 11 o'clock news, or in the LA Times.
LATER UPDATE--
Kevin Roderick at LA OBSERVED has some excellent comments on the import of this story (though I do not recall him being there and it appears he is working off of the press release), but, even more illuminating, are his ruminations on what long term affects this might have on the Neighborhood Councils.
He correctly opines that as we develop real power, we are going to have to be increasingly vigilant on special interest groups and people with hidden agendas getting elected to the councils. The danger is that will just push their own narrow interests and not the interests of the community of large. Plus the rather loose voting requirements will also have to eventually be firmed up. And Kevin is the first - to my knowledge - journalist - to bring up this point that many of us in the NC revolution have been concerned about. More on this over the weekend.
LA Unified School District Gets Another Failed Grade
With a School Board still under control of the teacher's unions, there is little surprise that much needed reforms have been either stalled or out right killed. Proof of that is a Harvard University study released Wednesday that revealed that the abysmal high school graduation rates previously told to us taxpayers were incorrect. The real dropout rates turn out to be far, far worse. The only possible explanations are either the people who run the school district are incapable of doing simple arithmetic - or they have been lying to us.
The report's conclusion is that we have been lied to. Yes, the same school board that has just agreed to give the teacher's union who elected them lifetime free health benefits without the teachers having to pay even one dollar towards those benefits, has been lying to us about what those teacher are doing (or in this case, not doing) in the classroom.
Prepare for five minutes of meaningless outrage, and then business as usual.
The report's conclusion is that we have been lied to. Yes, the same school board that has just agreed to give the teacher's union who elected them lifetime free health benefits without the teachers having to pay even one dollar towards those benefits, has been lying to us about what those teacher are doing (or in this case, not doing) in the classroom.
Prepare for five minutes of meaningless outrage, and then business as usual.
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
LA United School Board Pays Off Unions - Again
The complete domination of the School Board by the teacher's union was evident today as a new contract was announced that calls for tax payers to continue to pay for 100% of all teacher's health care premiums - with the teachers not having to pay even one dolar towards their health insurance either now - or for the rest of their lives. We will continue to pay all of their payments for them.
Needless to say, virtually no one in the real world gets this kind of a free ride. And, equally needless to say, the LA Times, omitted this little detail from their 'coverage', leaving the Daily News to let us know what is really going on in this city.
Additionally, the teacher's union is now also taking greater control of the hiring and firing and discipling of teachers, allowing them to even more protect the far too many incompent - and even at times even dangerous and violent - teaches and principals in our school district - from being removed from our schools. Exactly how bad that situtation continues to be - no one knows as they only paper willing to cover that story - NEW TIMES - was bought and closed by the LA Weekly in their attempt to stifle any competing newspapers.
Needless to say, virtually no one in the real world gets this kind of a free ride. And, equally needless to say, the LA Times, omitted this little detail from their 'coverage', leaving the Daily News to let us know what is really going on in this city.
Additionally, the teacher's union is now also taking greater control of the hiring and firing and discipling of teachers, allowing them to even more protect the far too many incompent - and even at times even dangerous and violent - teaches and principals in our school district - from being removed from our schools. Exactly how bad that situtation continues to be - no one knows as they only paper willing to cover that story - NEW TIMES - was bought and closed by the LA Weekly in their attempt to stifle any competing newspapers.
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Four Writers - And LA Times STILL Misses The Story. But At Least the NY Times, As Usual, Covers The Story Accurately.
Both LA Times (four reporters) and the New York Times (one reporter) cover the story today of over 100 violent Central American gang members being arrested around the country. And both papers report that many of those arrested are here in this country illegally, even though many of them have been deported several times. But only the New York Times' single writer - Charlie LeDuff, who has finally learned the territory - has the courage to cover the real story affecting LA - that over 30,000 criminals who are illegal aliens are preying on Angelinos. And that they are esentially being given sancuary here since the police are not allowed to even inquire if they are in this country illegally. Makes you wonder what else does not get covered in a one newspaper town. Below is the end of the New York Times article:
One problem with dealing with criminal illegal immigrants, law enforcement officials say, is that cities like Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami and New York have either written or understood "sanctuary" policies that prohibit their law enforcement officers from asking a suspect about his immigration status. This makes it difficult for police officers to work with federal immigration authorities until an illegal immigrant commits a crime.
The thinking is that illegal immigrants who lead normal and productive lives would be unwilling to approach the police as witnesses if they feared that they, too, would be deported.
The problem is especially acute in Los Angeles, where gang members often return after being deported. Local police officers may know a criminal by face, but until they catch him in an illegal act, he is allowed to remain on the streets.
But a new era may be dawning in the fight against gangs, as police departments like Los Angeles's share street intelligence with the federal authorities.
"You think an immigrant Hispanic family who is here illegally would mind if we targeted the violent criminal?" Capt. Michael Downing, commander of the Hollywood precinct, asked. "I don't. But every time you mention it, they say it's a slippery slope and so the violent criminal is tolerated."
In Central America, the judicial system has employed a no-tolerance policy for gang members deported from the United States known as "mano dura" or the "hard hand." Gang members deported there may prefer to return to the United States rather than risk the long sentences for gang affiliation and particularly onerous prison life there.
Federal immigration officials estimate that there are 80,000 to 100,000 criminal illegal immigrants in the United States. If the 30,000 in the Los Angeles area were all to be apprehended at the same time, they would overwhelm the 1,400 beds allotted for them. So immigration officials say the current operation is meant to single out the most hardened criminals with longstanding gang ties.
"L.A. isn't the only place where this is happening," said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the immigration bureau. "We've thrown down the gauntlet, and this is only the beginning."
One problem with dealing with criminal illegal immigrants, law enforcement officials say, is that cities like Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami and New York have either written or understood "sanctuary" policies that prohibit their law enforcement officers from asking a suspect about his immigration status. This makes it difficult for police officers to work with federal immigration authorities until an illegal immigrant commits a crime.
The thinking is that illegal immigrants who lead normal and productive lives would be unwilling to approach the police as witnesses if they feared that they, too, would be deported.
The problem is especially acute in Los Angeles, where gang members often return after being deported. Local police officers may know a criminal by face, but until they catch him in an illegal act, he is allowed to remain on the streets.
But a new era may be dawning in the fight against gangs, as police departments like Los Angeles's share street intelligence with the federal authorities.
"You think an immigrant Hispanic family who is here illegally would mind if we targeted the violent criminal?" Capt. Michael Downing, commander of the Hollywood precinct, asked. "I don't. But every time you mention it, they say it's a slippery slope and so the violent criminal is tolerated."
In Central America, the judicial system has employed a no-tolerance policy for gang members deported from the United States known as "mano dura" or the "hard hand." Gang members deported there may prefer to return to the United States rather than risk the long sentences for gang affiliation and particularly onerous prison life there.
Federal immigration officials estimate that there are 80,000 to 100,000 criminal illegal immigrants in the United States. If the 30,000 in the Los Angeles area were all to be apprehended at the same time, they would overwhelm the 1,400 beds allotted for them. So immigration officials say the current operation is meant to single out the most hardened criminals with longstanding gang ties.
"L.A. isn't the only place where this is happening," said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the immigration bureau. "We've thrown down the gauntlet, and this is only the beginning."
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Mark Swed Redeems LA Times! (for one day... at least)
Every once in a while one of the LA Times better writers - and there are many fine writers at the LA Times - produces a article so well written, so inspiring and so spot on in its coverage and its understanding of Los Angeles - that one almost forgets how completely the paper as a whole... totally sucks.
And today's (Tuesday March 1st, 2005) Calendar article by Mark Swed about the LA Philharmonic's weeklong residency in Cologne is one of those articles. Rather than detailing all the data he gathers up, dissects and then elegently displays together under one wide spreading umbrella... just read the article, savor the crescendo of his words, and appreciate the intellect behind his thoughts and his observations. And then become profoundly depressed at how rare it is that an article that actually tells you anything important about LA ever appears in the LA Times.
And today's (Tuesday March 1st, 2005) Calendar article by Mark Swed about the LA Philharmonic's weeklong residency in Cologne is one of those articles. Rather than detailing all the data he gathers up, dissects and then elegently displays together under one wide spreading umbrella... just read the article, savor the crescendo of his words, and appreciate the intellect behind his thoughts and his observations. And then become profoundly depressed at how rare it is that an article that actually tells you anything important about LA ever appears in the LA Times.
Monday, February 28, 2005
Mayor Hahn Agrees to Allow Neighborhood Councils to Audit City Budget - And All City Departments!
At tonight's debate by candidates vying to become Mayor of Los Angeles (sponsored by the Alliance of Neighborhood Councils, City Watch, KCBS-TV Channel 2, KCAL-TV Channel 9 and KFWB radio), I was one of the people chosen to ask a question. My query was: Would any of them would support a commission organized by the Neighborhood Councils to audit not just the Mayor's budget, but also all of the departments of the City of Los Angeles. While four of the candiates gave the idea varying degrees of support or opposition, Mayor Hahn jumped right in and not only pledged to have such a commission convene - but he said that he welcomed and needed our help in doing this. The moderators, Laura Diaz and Paul Magers, were so surprised by this - Magers of them gave each candidate an opportunity to clarify their answers - and Mayor Hahn reiterated his full support of the proposal.
Now should Mayor James Hahn be successful in being reelected, and should Jim Hahn follow through on this pledge - then the relationship between the Neighborhood Councils and the City will be completely reinvented. And the Genie will be totally out of the bottle.
Now should Mayor James Hahn be successful in being reelected, and should Jim Hahn follow through on this pledge - then the relationship between the Neighborhood Councils and the City will be completely reinvented. And the Genie will be totally out of the bottle.
Mayor James Hahn Asks Neighborhood Councils to Help Vet LA's New Planning Director.
Quick -- who is LA's City Planning Director?
Ok -- don't feel bad. No one knows who he is, other than, of course, Mrs. Con Howe, and I wouldn't even want to put a lot of money on that bet. For a variety of reason's (the CRA, the powers of councilpersons in their own districts, etc.), the City Planning Department has become a backwater with little impact on the actual planning of the development of Los Angeles. But all that may changed -- either under a new Mayor or by the appointment of a new Planning Director by the current Mayor. See the below e-mail I just received from the Mayor:
As Neighborhood Councils continue to grow and develop in our City, I
want you to be a part of important city decisions before they are made.
Since planning issues are of great concern at the most local levels, I
want to make sure that Neighborhood Councils are involved in the
selection of the City's next planning director.
I need your input to help develop the key selection criteria that will
guide my selection of the best candidate for the job. Surveys will be
available for you and public comment will be heard throughout March at
the following Area Planning Commission (APC) and Planning Commission
meetings:
City Planning Commission March 10
South Valley APC March 10
South LA APC March 15
Harbor APC March 15
West LA APC March 16
North Valley APC March 17
Central APC March 22
East LA APC March 23
City Planning Commission March 31
Additionally, I will appoint a seven-member Neighborhood Council
advisory group to interview the final three candidates for Director of
Planning to make a hiring recommendation directly to me. One
Neighborhood Council representative from each of the City's Planning
Areas will comprise the advisory group.
The Planning Director is an important position in our City, and I look
forward to hearing from your councils and the community. I will make
sure our new Planning Director will promote sensible, balanced and
proactive planning to preserve single-family neighborhoods, manage
development in key areas, promote affordable housing, and stimulate
mixed-use development and 'green' construction, especially near
public transportation.
I look forward to your input and working with you on this important
appointment.
Very Truly Yours,
JAMES K. HAHN
MAYOR
----------------------- Headers --------------------------------
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Ok -- don't feel bad. No one knows who he is, other than, of course, Mrs. Con Howe, and I wouldn't even want to put a lot of money on that bet. For a variety of reason's (the CRA, the powers of councilpersons in their own districts, etc.), the City Planning Department has become a backwater with little impact on the actual planning of the development of Los Angeles. But all that may changed -- either under a new Mayor or by the appointment of a new Planning Director by the current Mayor. See the below e-mail I just received from the Mayor:
As Neighborhood Councils continue to grow and develop in our City, I
want you to be a part of important city decisions before they are made.
Since planning issues are of great concern at the most local levels, I
want to make sure that Neighborhood Councils are involved in the
selection of the City's next planning director.
I need your input to help develop the key selection criteria that will
guide my selection of the best candidate for the job. Surveys will be
available for you and public comment will be heard throughout March at
the following Area Planning Commission (APC) and Planning Commission
meetings:
City Planning Commission March 10
South Valley APC March 10
South LA APC March 15
Harbor APC March 15
West LA APC March 16
North Valley APC March 17
Central APC March 22
East LA APC March 23
City Planning Commission March 31
Additionally, I will appoint a seven-member Neighborhood Council
advisory group to interview the final three candidates for Director of
Planning to make a hiring recommendation directly to me. One
Neighborhood Council representative from each of the City's Planning
Areas will comprise the advisory group.
The Planning Director is an important position in our City, and I look
forward to hearing from your councils and the community. I will make
sure our new Planning Director will promote sensible, balanced and
proactive planning to preserve single-family neighborhoods, manage
development in key areas, promote affordable housing, and stimulate
mixed-use development and 'green' construction, especially near
public transportation.
I look forward to your input and working with you on this important
appointment.
Very Truly Yours,
JAMES K. HAHN
MAYOR
----------------------- Headers --------------------------------
Return-Path:
Received: from rly-yg05.mx.aol.com (rly-yg05.mail.aol.com [172.18.180.1
Eating Humble Pie On Grand Avenue - And Savoring Every Bite of It.
This morning the Grand Avenue Authority met for an update on the first set of development plans by the Related Companies for the 1.2 billion dollar project along Grand Avenue on Bunker Hill and their proposed plans for the new Civic Park Between the DWP Building and City Hall.
And history was made on two counts.
First, I privately told Eli Broad that I should have never doubted him when he told me that Related was an appropriate choice for the project. Of course, considering Mr. Broad's quite advanced age, I needed to break this to him very gently to keep from outright killing him. Second - in a move that stunned the audience - I publicly admitted I was wrong about Related.
Then, after paramedics finished resurrecting audience members, I further announced that this project was going so well - that I couldn't believe that it was actually happening in Los Angeles. At this point everyone realized that it actually was me speaking - and not a non-celebrity imposter.
In the less life threatening parts of the meeting, Bud Ovrum - head of the CRA - expressed his concerns about the three streets the cut across the various parts of the new civic mall. And he and I had earlier talked about platforming over Spring to have the monumental - but now closed Spring Street entrance to City Hall - with its great staircase re-open and attached to a bridge/plaza built over of a slightly lowered Spring Street - creating a great civic park across from City Hall.
The other positive note was that Supervisor Gloria Molina expressed her desire to demolish both the old Courthouse and the old Hall of Administration (yea!) - something that the vast majority of downtowners will concur with.
The only negative note was that there was no juice served with the coffee and the pastries... were lacking in imagination.
And history was made on two counts.
First, I privately told Eli Broad that I should have never doubted him when he told me that Related was an appropriate choice for the project. Of course, considering Mr. Broad's quite advanced age, I needed to break this to him very gently to keep from outright killing him. Second - in a move that stunned the audience - I publicly admitted I was wrong about Related.
Then, after paramedics finished resurrecting audience members, I further announced that this project was going so well - that I couldn't believe that it was actually happening in Los Angeles. At this point everyone realized that it actually was me speaking - and not a non-celebrity imposter.
In the less life threatening parts of the meeting, Bud Ovrum - head of the CRA - expressed his concerns about the three streets the cut across the various parts of the new civic mall. And he and I had earlier talked about platforming over Spring to have the monumental - but now closed Spring Street entrance to City Hall - with its great staircase re-open and attached to a bridge/plaza built over of a slightly lowered Spring Street - creating a great civic park across from City Hall.
The other positive note was that Supervisor Gloria Molina expressed her desire to demolish both the old Courthouse and the old Hall of Administration (yea!) - something that the vast majority of downtowners will concur with.
The only negative note was that there was no juice served with the coffee and the pastries... were lacking in imagination.
Sunday, February 27, 2005
A Night at the Oscars - OR ... Billy Crystal, Please Come Home!
Chris Rock did a good, entertaining, hard working performance hosting the Oscars tonight. BUT... the problem was that the hard working aspect was visible during every second of the performance. The great thing about Crystal - and Bob Hope and Johnny Carson before him - is that they were the effortless hosts of a party who made the audience feel at home.
In addition, the material could have been funnier (I smiled a lot, but never laughed), but the jokes were always never less than good, if not stellar. Still, in the hands of a Billy Crystal, I think they might have been a lot funnier.
In addition, the material could have been funnier (I smiled a lot, but never laughed), but the jokes were always never less than good, if not stellar. Still, in the hands of a Billy Crystal, I think they might have been a lot funnier.
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Can't the LA Times get ANYTHING right?
Once upon a time there existed in Los Angeles a newspaper that actually wrote about the people of Los Angeles and provided the information the people of Los Angeles wanted to know about their lives and their city. Once upon a time the LA Times was run by people who had lived in this city more than a few years and had columnists and reporters who actually knew about and cared about this city.
Once upon a time the front page of the sports section actually had the standings of the local teams so one could start off by seeing where the teams stood before delving into the rest of the section. Once upon a time there actually was a Metro section that actually had stories about the City of Los Angeles.
But, of course, it was too much to expect for any of this to continue.
But - is it totally unreasonable to ask that the TV section actually tell us what is on TV during all the hours of each day?
Is it to much to expect that the weekly TV Guide - inadequate as it is - actually be included in the Sunday Times - which it was not the last two weeks I purchased the paper?
Is it too much to expect the newspaper to actually give even the most basic information about the weather during record setting storms? I mean - how hard is it to have a little column that says how much rain we have had during this storm, how much we have had so far this year - and how much last year?
I guess it is. And I would ask other people if they, too, miss these little things, but no one I know (at least among those under 65) actually reads the LA Times - even the very few I know who subscribe to it.
Once upon a time the front page of the sports section actually had the standings of the local teams so one could start off by seeing where the teams stood before delving into the rest of the section. Once upon a time there actually was a Metro section that actually had stories about the City of Los Angeles.
But, of course, it was too much to expect for any of this to continue.
But - is it totally unreasonable to ask that the TV section actually tell us what is on TV during all the hours of each day?
Is it to much to expect that the weekly TV Guide - inadequate as it is - actually be included in the Sunday Times - which it was not the last two weeks I purchased the paper?
Is it too much to expect the newspaper to actually give even the most basic information about the weather during record setting storms? I mean - how hard is it to have a little column that says how much rain we have had during this storm, how much we have had so far this year - and how much last year?
I guess it is. And I would ask other people if they, too, miss these little things, but no one I know (at least among those under 65) actually reads the LA Times - even the very few I know who subscribe to it.
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
A Bakery Comes to Main Street.
The former site of the single most notorious den of Skid Row drug dealers on Main Street - between 5th and 6th Streets - has just been officially leased to a new French Bakery and French Cafe. It will be open before summer. The rebirth of Main Street continues.
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Barry Munitz and Getty Musuem Fail Los Angeles - Once Again!
Christopher Knight in yesterday's LA Times details the tragic loss to our city of one the most important paintings to become available in years, Duccio di Buoninsegna's 'Madonna and Child'. This painting has instead just been hung at its new home - the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York - instead of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
And why you might ask? Well, because Barry Munitz's Getty seems to be interested in spending money for art everywhere in the world - except Los Angeles.
And why you might ask? Well, because Barry Munitz's Getty seems to be interested in spending money for art everywhere in the world - except Los Angeles.
Monday, December 06, 2004
GENE SAVOY
It's odd looking at the LA Times and suddenly seeing the name - and face - of a person you have not seen in... quite a few decades. While I have not been on the Inca Trail since the late 1960's/early 1970's - I'll never forget the time Savoy and a buddy of mine - first came face to face high up in the Andes. And those two larger than life personalities instantly realized that this planet, much less that trail, was simply not going to be big enough for the two of them. More later - though likely... much later.
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
THE WINNER OF THE WORST SCRIPT OF ANY KIND EVER WRITTEN IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND CONTEST.....
... has a new winner: The just aired two part mini-series CATEGORY 6: DAY OF DESTRUCTION. While there is often a reverse correlation between the quality of special affects and the quality of a writing in a film, there has never, and I mean never... been as delightfully wide a gap as just witnessed on CBS.
For true appreciators of really, really, really bad writing - this was a feast beyond compare. It was hard to even find a single line that could imaginably be spoken by a real human being - and that was only the start.
We had 'characters' watching the world end around them while they acted as if they were discussing the finer points of needlepoint, an often total disconnect between what was going on and what people were saying and, as a special treat, jaw-dropping, heavy-handed moralizing that had some of the funniest lines of dialogue anyone has ever had the pleasure to hear. In fact, it is impossible to imagine that all the political point making was not intended as wonderfully subversive low comedy since the awfulness of it was so deliciously over the top... awful.
So while I had been tempted to turn off the sound five minutes into the first episode and just look up from working to watch the special affects, I would have missed the joy of fully appreciating the biggest turkey ever to grace the nation's Thanksgiving season.
For true appreciators of really, really, really bad writing - this was a feast beyond compare. It was hard to even find a single line that could imaginably be spoken by a real human being - and that was only the start.
We had 'characters' watching the world end around them while they acted as if they were discussing the finer points of needlepoint, an often total disconnect between what was going on and what people were saying and, as a special treat, jaw-dropping, heavy-handed moralizing that had some of the funniest lines of dialogue anyone has ever had the pleasure to hear. In fact, it is impossible to imagine that all the political point making was not intended as wonderfully subversive low comedy since the awfulness of it was so deliciously over the top... awful.
So while I had been tempted to turn off the sound five minutes into the first episode and just look up from working to watch the special affects, I would have missed the joy of fully appreciating the biggest turkey ever to grace the nation's Thanksgiving season.
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
GETTY MUSEUM - 0 METROPOLITAN MUSEUM - 1
While it was no surprise that one of the greatest works by the first master of Western Art - Duccio di Buoninsegna - was just acquired by the Metropolitan Museum, what was at least a small surprise was that when the Metropolitan spoke of their competition to purchase the painting - they mentioned the Louvre, but not the Getty Museum.
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
BARRY MUNITZ AND THE DEATH OF THE GETTY MUSEUM
When Getty Museum director Deborah Gribbon resigned yesterday, she made it clear that the mission of the Getty Trust was no longer the mission that J. Paul Getty had intended it be, the acquisition and public exhibition of great works of art. What she did not say, though, is what art world insiders have long known - that Getty Trust President Barry Munitz has instead turned the institution into an ego driven self-aggrandizement of... himself.
Aided by a board that has little or no knowledge of art - and a board that has few connections with Los Angeles - the money that should be going into building a great Los Angeles arts institution is now being squandered in hundreds of projects all over the world.
The upshot is that as masterpiece after masterpiece goes up for auction with the Getty sitting on the sidelines - it is becoming increasingly impossible for J. Paul Getty's dream of creating a first class art museum in Los Angeles to be realized. Instead, the money he left in trust to better the lives of the people of Los Angeles is being funneled to everywhere but Los Angeles.
Now I do not know the exact terms of Getty's will - but perhaps some of his heirs can sue the Trust to remove Munitz and the board from their offices and save J. Paul Getty's bequest to the people of Los Angeles. The secondary hope would be that even if they can not prevail in court - that possibly this would shame them into resigning and allowing new caretakers who will follow Getty's intent and vision.
Aided by a board that has little or no knowledge of art - and a board that has few connections with Los Angeles - the money that should be going into building a great Los Angeles arts institution is now being squandered in hundreds of projects all over the world.
The upshot is that as masterpiece after masterpiece goes up for auction with the Getty sitting on the sidelines - it is becoming increasingly impossible for J. Paul Getty's dream of creating a first class art museum in Los Angeles to be realized. Instead, the money he left in trust to better the lives of the people of Los Angeles is being funneled to everywhere but Los Angeles.
Now I do not know the exact terms of Getty's will - but perhaps some of his heirs can sue the Trust to remove Munitz and the board from their offices and save J. Paul Getty's bequest to the people of Los Angeles. The secondary hope would be that even if they can not prevail in court - that possibly this would shame them into resigning and allowing new caretakers who will follow Getty's intent and vision.
Thursday, September 23, 2004
WATCH OUT WATER GRILL!
A new top gun/spatula is headed downtown. A lease was signed today in the Historic Core by the latest contender for the title of the top restaurant in downtown - if not all of LA.
Developing...
Developing...
A GIANT OF CINEMA PASSES
All men who came of age in the 1960's and 1970's will mourn the recent passing of Russ Meyer. A throw back to the age when actual sex did not need to be shown in a soft core porno for the film to be mesmerizingly erotic, Meyer somehow managed to combine his four passions in life - women with enormous cleavages due to the wonders of advanced modern technology, violence - but mainly women against exploitative men and - most bizarrely of all - anti-communism and anti-racism, in films that continue to be shown and appreciated all over the world.
And in recent decades, the idiosyncratic appeal of his films has increasingly brought them to the attention of film critics - and museums and universities - all over the world.
My own personal connection - other than as a profoundly appreciative viewer during my teenage years - was when a buddy of mine who felt Meyer was the world's greatest filmmaker (long before he had any critical respect) - somehow got the opportunity to work with him and I was able to crew on one of his films for a few satisfying days during my gratefully misspent youth.
And in recent decades, the idiosyncratic appeal of his films has increasingly brought them to the attention of film critics - and museums and universities - all over the world.
My own personal connection - other than as a profoundly appreciative viewer during my teenage years - was when a buddy of mine who felt Meyer was the world's greatest filmmaker (long before he had any critical respect) - somehow got the opportunity to work with him and I was able to crew on one of his films for a few satisfying days during my gratefully misspent youth.
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
TODAY'S BUSINESS SCORECARD - WORLD - 3 - LOS ANGELES - 0
Today is a day like every other day in LA. Three Los Angeles companies are gobbled up by out of state companies - and no companies are acquired by Los Angeles area companies. Irvine's LoanCenter.com is acquired by a subsidary of Barry Diller's New York-based IAC, Carson-based Bistol Farms is snapped up by Idaho-based Albertsons and New York-based Bank of New York swallows Santa Monica's Wilshire Associates. Cries of protest by area media and politicians - zero.
Sunday, September 19, 2004
ITALIAN JOB REVS UP PERSHING SQUARE
The ITALIAN JOB was screened al fresco in Pershing Square tonight in what is hoped will become a regular event. It was put on by the Central City Association - among other groups - and it gave a chance for downtowners from all the neighborhoods to gather together and watch a cool film, much was which was filmed on the streets only blocks from Pershing Square.
It is exactly the kind of free, social event that we need to create an overall community and the kind of event that is very common in New York. So let's see what the follow-up event will be.
It is exactly the kind of free, social event that we need to create an overall community and the kind of event that is very common in New York. So let's see what the follow-up event will be.
SUNDAY MORNING IN THE CITY
The sounds of the city.
On Sunday mornings I come to the office early to pursue my novel and my memoirs - that being only time that I can expect to get anything done on anything that might actually financially benefit me.
But even then the lure of downtown comes creeping into my office. And, inevitably, the sounds of the city slink into my consciousness - and slowly seduce me away from my work. Leaving my office door open, I hear the sounds of Spring Street though the windows of the vacant offices down the hall and I listen to a lone trumpet player sweetly playing Moon River with a sad, unusually melancholic lilt.
Now whether that is the musician's heartfelt response to this particular song or his own personal feelings as he discovers that the mere handful of pedestrians that pass him by are unlikely to be able to afford to fill his awaiting, upturned hat on the sidewalk, I do not know. I only wish I could afford to pay him to remain there the remainder of the day so I could continue to enjoy his playing.
Then, though the opened windows that face my building's courtyard, I can hear the sporadic enthusiasm of a power drill - the patron tool of all artists - busily working screws into studs and drywall for an art space (Kristi Engel Gallery) in the adjoining suite that will shortly become yet another contributor to Gallery Row.
But I can also hear the monotone sound of the sewing machine of the young fashion designer across the air well, the muted sound of a score for an Indy film being mixed next to her and the playbacks from a recording studio across the hall from them both.
And I find myself thinking more and more about all that is surrounding me rather than paying attention to my word smithing of the never-ending travails of Jed Matthews. in The Long Rider.
On Sunday mornings I come to the office early to pursue my novel and my memoirs - that being only time that I can expect to get anything done on anything that might actually financially benefit me.
But even then the lure of downtown comes creeping into my office. And, inevitably, the sounds of the city slink into my consciousness - and slowly seduce me away from my work. Leaving my office door open, I hear the sounds of Spring Street though the windows of the vacant offices down the hall and I listen to a lone trumpet player sweetly playing Moon River with a sad, unusually melancholic lilt.
Now whether that is the musician's heartfelt response to this particular song or his own personal feelings as he discovers that the mere handful of pedestrians that pass him by are unlikely to be able to afford to fill his awaiting, upturned hat on the sidewalk, I do not know. I only wish I could afford to pay him to remain there the remainder of the day so I could continue to enjoy his playing.
Then, though the opened windows that face my building's courtyard, I can hear the sporadic enthusiasm of a power drill - the patron tool of all artists - busily working screws into studs and drywall for an art space (Kristi Engel Gallery) in the adjoining suite that will shortly become yet another contributor to Gallery Row.
But I can also hear the monotone sound of the sewing machine of the young fashion designer across the air well, the muted sound of a score for an Indy film being mixed next to her and the playbacks from a recording studio across the hall from them both.
And I find myself thinking more and more about all that is surrounding me rather than paying attention to my word smithing of the never-ending travails of Jed Matthews. in The Long Rider.
Saturday, September 18, 2004
COWABUNGA, DUDE! SURF'S UP IN THE 'HOOD!
You know the neighborhood is changing when on a single Saturday morning I observe not one, not two - but three (three - count'em - three!) seperate dudes carrying surf boards in or out of three different loft buildings on Spring or Main Streets. The ex-Westsiders are definitely representin' themselves in the 'hood..
BELOW IS MY VERY FIRST UPDATE from the incredibly distant year of 2021
Well, while there are undoubtly many sufers in DTLA, none of them have been walking around in my neigborhood with their surfboards on - or off - of their heads during my waking hours. And the three surfer dude were all buddies who were caravaning out to Malibu after picking up their surfer girls along the way.
Friday, September 10, 2004
GRAND AVENUE - WAITIN' FOR THE PHONE TO RING
The August 8th, 2004 Edition of the Slatin Report (a leading real estate newsletter) describes New York's The Related Companies winning the Grand Avenue 'competition'. Peter Slatin does his usual superb, concise overview of the project and its most recent history (though I would disagree with some of his more subjective judgments) and he hits the major points of both the community's almost unanimous distain for the secretiveness of the process and the concerns that many of us have in Related's past failures in developing even one project with any strong sensibility for either design or urbanism. (And in interest of full disclosure, I am the unnamed community activist they identity as stirringly speaking in favor of one of the their competitors, Forest City.)
But Slatin's most interesting point, though, was that West Coast Related head Bill Witte was quoted as saying that he would start working with the community the very day he got back from vacation on August 19th. Well, it is now September 10th - three (3) weeks later and if anyone's phone has rung - no one has yet told the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council, which is only organization officially designated by the city charter to represent the community in land use matters.
But Slatin's most interesting point, though, was that West Coast Related head Bill Witte was quoted as saying that he would start working with the community the very day he got back from vacation on August 19th. Well, it is now September 10th - three (3) weeks later and if anyone's phone has rung - no one has yet told the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council, which is only organization officially designated by the city charter to represent the community in land use matters.
Thursday, August 26, 2004
THE LA WEEKLY vs. THE NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS
The phone calls started coming in early today as the LA Weekly and its cover story on the Neighborhood Councils hit news racks around town. And all the callers had the same message. They each wanted me to sternly reprimand the writer of the article and to defend the tarnished honor of neighborhood councils with a strongly worded letter.
But upon reading the article - while I deplored the sub-title (What can save LA's broken neighborhood councils), which suggested that the NC's overall needed to be fixed - the article was actually quite accurate in the individual stories it told. And it was even understated when it came to describing the problem children of our NC's.
The mentally challenged lunatic fringe running the Venice Grassroots Council actually came out far better than any of the first hand reports I have heard of them, and the factionalism that has split the Van Nuys Council (and which is legendary in NC circles) was calmly dealt with. And the writer very accurately described the nursery school antics of the Lincoln Heights Council which equal if not surpass some of the early Malibu City Council meetings where I once opined that what Malibu's new city manager would need most was a degree in child psychology.
The only real problem I had with the article is that these councils are the exceptions rather than the rule, a fact that was not at all made clear. Now, granted, the article does cover the activities of some of the more typical councils and it does end on a very hopeful note, but I do feel the article really only tells one (albeit, important) side of the story. Still, as for being an examination of the problems that do face the handful of true problem NC's and the pitfalls that all NC's are and will be faced with - it is a very accurate article.
In the interest of full disclosure, I might add that I have run into the writer - Robert Greene - a number of times during his writing of the article and we have developed a kind of relationship that can best be described as follows; when a person once asked him if he wrote for a newspaper, I graciously answered for him that he did not - that he wrote for the LA Weekly.
But upon reading the article - while I deplored the sub-title (What can save LA's broken neighborhood councils), which suggested that the NC's overall needed to be fixed - the article was actually quite accurate in the individual stories it told. And it was even understated when it came to describing the problem children of our NC's.
The mentally challenged lunatic fringe running the Venice Grassroots Council actually came out far better than any of the first hand reports I have heard of them, and the factionalism that has split the Van Nuys Council (and which is legendary in NC circles) was calmly dealt with. And the writer very accurately described the nursery school antics of the Lincoln Heights Council which equal if not surpass some of the early Malibu City Council meetings where I once opined that what Malibu's new city manager would need most was a degree in child psychology.
The only real problem I had with the article is that these councils are the exceptions rather than the rule, a fact that was not at all made clear. Now, granted, the article does cover the activities of some of the more typical councils and it does end on a very hopeful note, but I do feel the article really only tells one (albeit, important) side of the story. Still, as for being an examination of the problems that do face the handful of true problem NC's and the pitfalls that all NC's are and will be faced with - it is a very accurate article.
In the interest of full disclosure, I might add that I have run into the writer - Robert Greene - a number of times during his writing of the article and we have developed a kind of relationship that can best be described as follows; when a person once asked him if he wrote for a newspaper, I graciously answered for him that he did not - that he wrote for the LA Weekly.
Sunday, August 22, 2004
GRAND AVENUE... BE AFRAID... BE VERY, VERY AFRAID.
In Roger Vincent's excellent (as usual) article in today's LAT's Sunday business section, he mentions the until now only rumored details about the final selection of Related over Forest City in the Grand Avenue 'competition'.
While one member of the Forest City team told me their not trying to compete with the massive retail complex being built at Staples as the main reason they were not selected, Eli Broad instead posited in the article that the proposals were essentially tied with the deciding factor being Related's agreeing to pay more ground rent and to put forth more subsidies for low and moderate income housing on the site. However, of course, the building of far more high-end retail would enable them to pay higher rents and subsidies, so there could be some correlation there.
The one part of the article that should worry anyone concerned about the future of Los Angeles, though, was that statement that the head of Related - former tax attorney Steve Ross - is intensely involved in every detail of his projects - down to the art work and the lighting fixtures.
The only problem is that as one who has seen many of their projects, I have not seen any art or a lighting fixtures in their projects that would be particularly suitable for any place in Los Angeles (and this is - alas - especially true of theIr one built project in downtown LA), much less on Grand Avenue.
Now this is not to say that their projects are tacky or in bad taste, for they are not. They are generally quite tasteful - if your taste is 1960's corporate modernism (though their lead architecture David Childs prefers a very heavy handed 1930's Art Deco style 'updated' to the 1960's) - modernism after modernism has lost its edge and its nerve - or an inoffensive shopping center Taco Bell type of Spanish revival pastiche architecture such as their highly suburban Florida shopping mall with apartments on the roofs of the stores in West Palm Beach.
They are highly efficient machines with which to make money and have it shipped back to their corporate headquarters in New York. Nothing less and nothing more.
In short - it is the kind of taste that is antithetical to true urbanism, antithetical to quality design - and inappropriate for a great street even during the middle to late 20th Century, much less what is needed to redefine what is necessary to create a great urban center in the 21st Century.
While one member of the Forest City team told me their not trying to compete with the massive retail complex being built at Staples as the main reason they were not selected, Eli Broad instead posited in the article that the proposals were essentially tied with the deciding factor being Related's agreeing to pay more ground rent and to put forth more subsidies for low and moderate income housing on the site. However, of course, the building of far more high-end retail would enable them to pay higher rents and subsidies, so there could be some correlation there.
The one part of the article that should worry anyone concerned about the future of Los Angeles, though, was that statement that the head of Related - former tax attorney Steve Ross - is intensely involved in every detail of his projects - down to the art work and the lighting fixtures.
The only problem is that as one who has seen many of their projects, I have not seen any art or a lighting fixtures in their projects that would be particularly suitable for any place in Los Angeles (and this is - alas - especially true of theIr one built project in downtown LA), much less on Grand Avenue.
Now this is not to say that their projects are tacky or in bad taste, for they are not. They are generally quite tasteful - if your taste is 1960's corporate modernism (though their lead architecture David Childs prefers a very heavy handed 1930's Art Deco style 'updated' to the 1960's) - modernism after modernism has lost its edge and its nerve - or an inoffensive shopping center Taco Bell type of Spanish revival pastiche architecture such as their highly suburban Florida shopping mall with apartments on the roofs of the stores in West Palm Beach.
They are highly efficient machines with which to make money and have it shipped back to their corporate headquarters in New York. Nothing less and nothing more.
In short - it is the kind of taste that is antithetical to true urbanism, antithetical to quality design - and inappropriate for a great street even during the middle to late 20th Century, much less what is needed to redefine what is necessary to create a great urban center in the 21st Century.
Tuesday, August 03, 2004
Mr. DeMille... I'm ready for my Close-Up.... (not)
I can count on one hand the number of times I have been photographed since age 17 other than by family or by female and other friends. I have also managed to avoid even once being captured by a TV camera. However, today, at the request of Greg Nelson of the Department of Neighborhoods Empowerment (DONE - the agency in charge of Neighborhood Council's), I just shot a half-hour TV show for the city cable channel on the economic development in the Old Bank District/Gallery Row area of downtown. I am beginning to realize that this sort of thing comes with the territory, but do not expect the time and date of its showing on this site.
Saturday, July 31, 2004
Mayor's Budget Day - Strike Two.
If anything proves the Neighborhood Councils are a work in progress, today's Mayor's Budget Day did. Last year, each Neighborhood Council was asked to list five categories they would like to see better funded. Then each of the five regions of the eighty odd NC's were to meet and vote on their collective five highest priorities. The biggest hitch was that the priorities were so broad - and also already in the budget - it was impossible to quantify if anything actually happened because of our lists.
Now this year the Mayor's office tried something a little different. They gave us four categories of priorities and asked us to rank them, and to then sub-rank smaller categories within each of the larger categories.
Unfortunately, the categories make no sense. Under economic development were homelessness services and low income housing while under livable neighborhoods (which would seem to suggest... housing, but which was not addressed there) were social programs such as the status of women, civil rights and AIDS assistance programs, which should have a fifth section of their own. And infrastructure issues were mysteriously split between neighborhoods and mobility.
But the biggest problem is that we are not being asked which (often politically motivated) programs we would like to cut or drop. Nor are we going to be engaged in the examination of the programs we are being asked to endorse. Plus nothing as sensitive as pension reform is even hinted at. Lastly, there is no way of quantifying if any of our input has any impact at all. Not surprisingly, not a single member of a Neighborhood Council was involved in the development of the survey.
Now this year the Mayor's office tried something a little different. They gave us four categories of priorities and asked us to rank them, and to then sub-rank smaller categories within each of the larger categories.
Unfortunately, the categories make no sense. Under economic development were homelessness services and low income housing while under livable neighborhoods (which would seem to suggest... housing, but which was not addressed there) were social programs such as the status of women, civil rights and AIDS assistance programs, which should have a fifth section of their own. And infrastructure issues were mysteriously split between neighborhoods and mobility.
But the biggest problem is that we are not being asked which (often politically motivated) programs we would like to cut or drop. Nor are we going to be engaged in the examination of the programs we are being asked to endorse. Plus nothing as sensitive as pension reform is even hinted at. Lastly, there is no way of quantifying if any of our input has any impact at all. Not surprisingly, not a single member of a Neighborhood Council was involved in the development of the survey.
Friday, July 30, 2004
LA Cowboy... Returns!
Shortly after I started this blog... my life abruptly changed, a not too uncommon occurrence in my life; hence my recent hiatus.
To my surprise, I found myself elected the president of the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council (DLANC). I also was appointed by the Mayor to DWP Green Ribbon Commission. Additionally, I was already serving on a number of committees that deal with many of the city's agencies.
So, more than just being an observer - I am now, increasingly - more of an active participant in many of the issues facing this city.
To back track - the City of Los Angeles a few years back started an experiment in democracy called Neighborhood Councils. More than eighty of a projected over a hundred councils have already been certified citywide and each council is elected by the stakeholders of each community. Depending on the individual council, seats can be held by business owners, residents, workers, non-profits, the arts, social service agencies - among many other stakeholder groups - and - in our case - even the homeless.
Importantly, this is the first time the city has charter mandated stakeholder groups that directly communicate with the Mayor and the City Council, along with city agencies. It is also, even more importantly - the first time each of the different groups that make up all the communities of LA can sit down and... talk to each other and get to know and, most importantly - understand each other.
It will also be the first time that any one other than the lobbyists and special interest groups will consistently be at the table every time any issue of importance comes before the City Council or before any city agency. But rather than detail the history/current status of the Neighborhood Council - check out the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) website at www.lacityneighborhoods.com/sitemap.htm for further information.
So along with the life, politics and culture of Los Angeles I had planned on essaying about - this blog will, from now on, also report on (and, sometimes, opine on) the birth pains of this new grass roots experience in local, town hall style democracy. Neighborhood Councils.
So - Cowboy Up!
It's going to be an interesting ride.
To my surprise, I found myself elected the president of the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council (DLANC). I also was appointed by the Mayor to DWP Green Ribbon Commission. Additionally, I was already serving on a number of committees that deal with many of the city's agencies.
So, more than just being an observer - I am now, increasingly - more of an active participant in many of the issues facing this city.
To back track - the City of Los Angeles a few years back started an experiment in democracy called Neighborhood Councils. More than eighty of a projected over a hundred councils have already been certified citywide and each council is elected by the stakeholders of each community. Depending on the individual council, seats can be held by business owners, residents, workers, non-profits, the arts, social service agencies - among many other stakeholder groups - and - in our case - even the homeless.
Importantly, this is the first time the city has charter mandated stakeholder groups that directly communicate with the Mayor and the City Council, along with city agencies. It is also, even more importantly - the first time each of the different groups that make up all the communities of LA can sit down and... talk to each other and get to know and, most importantly - understand each other.
It will also be the first time that any one other than the lobbyists and special interest groups will consistently be at the table every time any issue of importance comes before the City Council or before any city agency. But rather than detail the history/current status of the Neighborhood Council - check out the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) website at www.lacityneighborhoods.com/sitemap.htm for further information.
So along with the life, politics and culture of Los Angeles I had planned on essaying about - this blog will, from now on, also report on (and, sometimes, opine on) the birth pains of this new grass roots experience in local, town hall style democracy. Neighborhood Councils.
So - Cowboy Up!
It's going to be an interesting ride.
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