LA Puppets Take Manhattan! Or At Least The New York Times!

The New York Times' gal on the ground in LA - Jennifer Steinhauer - has the best story yet on Bob Baker's Marionette Theater's quite stageworthy melodrama of being foreclosed upon by an evil banker just before Christmas.

Other places have covered the dollars and cents angle in more detail, but she really captures the soul of this only in LA, scratch, make that - only in Hollywood venue - that holds forth place right here in Downtown Los Angeles. And be sure and look at the linked to slide show above - and then go to the below Facebook site - and adopt a puppet!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#/group.php?gid=45275503652

Or - donate art or whatever to a benefit auction:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#/group.php?gid=45963899602

December 2, 2008
Forget Citigroup, Puppet Show Needs a Bailout
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER

LOS ANGELES — There are many ways to measure California’s tanking economy: an 8.2 percent unemployment rate; a multibillion-dollar state budget gap; threatened endowments of the city’s museums, causing some cultural institutions to nearly default on mortgages; and the continued weakening of the Hollywood studio system. But the meltdown of the marionettes may say it all.

Near a freeway overpass on a decidedly scrappy edge of downtown Los Angeles is a marionette puppet theater that has enchanted children over nearly five decades, several recessions, two riots, at least four failed urban renewal plans and an earthquake or two.

The Bob Baker Marionette Theater’s shows, employing an eclectic selection of Mr. Baker’s 3,000 handmade puppets prancing about a shoebox-size theater perpetually decked out in gold garlands, are a staple of a Los Angeleno childhood. It is the cultural equivalent of the annual march by the nation’s third graders to the neighborhood firehouse.

But the struggling California economy and some bad business decisions by Mr. Baker have left the Bob Baker marionettes in a deep financial ditch, and Mr. Baker, a rather unheralded Hollywood legend, with an uncertain future. “We have all kinds of problems that have come up recently,” Mr. Baker said. “But we’re not going to close. We’re going to fight this out to the very bitter end.”

Over the last few months Mr. Baker, 84, has fallen $30,000 behind on his mortgage and lost a rent-paying tenant, while his two major sources of revenue have dried up. First, the public schools have reduced financing for field trips. And second, some of his lower-income parents, he said, unemployed and swimming in debt, are unable to come up with the $15-per-ticket admission.

“We’ve had quite a few people call who are losing their houses and have to cancel birthday parties,” he said.

In addition, Mr. Baker said, a few years ago he refinanced the theater’s mortgage to help pay for rising operating costs, and the mortgage payments have shot up. A business deal he made to improve his space went bad. He said he was negotiating with his lenders, and added ruefully, “I am more of an artist than a businessman.”

In a city where children’s movies are often screened in a Hollywood theater with white-glove popcorn service and the organic certifications of birthday cakes are debated at length on Web sites aimed at parents, Mr. Baker’s theater is a charming throwback.

As they have for generations, children gather in a circle on the floor of the 200-person capacity auditorium as Mr. Baker’s elaborately appointed marionettes scamper about to the sounds of old phonograph records, scratches and all. The theater is one of the few places in Los Angeles that routinely attracts racially and economically diverse groups of children.

A typical show requires about 15 workers, including 8 puppeteers, a lighting designer, a costume maker and ticket takers. There are usually two productions a year, one with a Christmas theme. The second show might be “Something to Crow About,” a barnyard spectacular; the Latin-flavored “Fiesta”; or a revue like “Bob Baker’s Musical World,” which might evolve over the season and employ a rotation of 100 or more puppets. Mr. Baker also performs puppet shows around Southern California for birthday parties and other events. The annual budget, Mr. Baker said, is about $360,000.

Victoria Hurley, 42, grew up in Los Angeles going to the shows, and now takes her children, who are 5 and 3. “They still serve the exact kind of ice cream with the exact same wooden spoon I got 30 years ago,” Mrs. Hurley said. “The quality of the entertainment has certainly held up fantastically, but I think the building could use some sprucing. It is almost like they haven’t even repainted. I personally think it is charming, but if I came from New York and brought my children I might feel otherwise.”

At a recent performance of “The Nutcracker,” an eclectic mix of Mr. Baker’s handmade puppets appeared, ranging from a Mouse King, resplendent in velvet, to what is perhaps best described as selections from the “Soul Train” collection, white leisure suits and gold trim included.

The marionettes are handled by Mr. Baker’s students, who spend a good year under his tutelage before they are allowed to don black clothing and work before an audience. As they moved through the room they occasionally dropped a puppet into the lap of a delighted toddler. As usual, the whole affair ended with a cup of vanilla ice cream handed to each child.

The shows are not exactly linear. The “Soul Train” marionettes, for example, are wedged into “The Nutcracker,” and the story seems oddly lacking in the middle section. But the focus is really on the puppets, in their glorious velvet and gossamer.

“There is a magic thing about a live puppet show,” Mr. Baker said recently. “I was watching the children just today and they were hugging the puppets, and then they always come up after me and ask me how they work. A lot of children who come here have never been to a live show and may never go to a live show again.”

The number of people whose careers as puppeteers Mr. Baker started is “amazing, at least a dozen professionally,” said Greg Williams, 51, a professional puppeteer who helps Mr. Baker with his road shows. “I started with him when I was 15, and was cleaning the party room. I went from there to doing the sets to the lights. One day a puppeteer wasn’t available, and I got shoved on the floor,” Mr. Williams said.

Mr. Baker “gets a lot of the neighborhood kids, and some of these kids who look like they would have no future are here entertaining and enjoying it,” Mr. Williams said. Mr. Baker still does many private birthday parties personally. “You get those Beverly Hills parents and you need to keep those people happy,” he added.

Mr. Baker, whose puppet passion began at an early age, has had an authentic Hollywood career — something not immediately evident given his modest site downtown.

He grew up in what is now Koreatown, in a house often full of actors and others from the “theatrical world,” Mr. Baker said, and graduated from Hollywood High School. When he was a little boy, his father took him to a holiday show at an area department store, which featured, as many store entertainments did in the early 20th century, puppets.

When he turned 7 he bought two puppets and soon started working the birthday party circuit. He said his first party was for Mervyn LeRoy, a producer and director for both Warner Brothers and MGM, which set off a word-of-mouth campaign. Years later he would perform at Liza Minnelli’s fourth birthday party. (And, keeping it in the family, a few years after that, he appeared in the 1954 Judy Garland film, “A Star Is Born,” conducting a marionette show.)

In the 1940s Mr. Baker worked as a puppet maker for George Pal, creator of the Puppetoons, whose movies and television credits include cult films like Edgar G. Ulmer’s “Bluebeard” (1944), the original “Star Trek” series and “Bewitched.”

Mr. Baker started his production company in 1949 with his business partner, Alton Wood (who died in 2001). It has remained one of the more well-known training grounds for puppet makers who have gone on to work in fantasy films.

But it is the theater, opened in 1960 in a warehouselike building, for which Mr. Baker is best known around town. The elaborate facade meant to suggest “Alice in Wonderland” is long gone, as are the evening performances, which Mr. Baker said faded after the 1965 Watts riots made people afraid to venture downtown at night. Weekends and shows for school groups — along with sales of puppets and movie work — have sustained him, and he hopes the doors of his theater will stay open.

“My mother used to say, ‘We can fall into a mud puddle and come up smelling like roses,’ ” Mr. Baker said. “We have gone through some pretty hard times, and I just have to see the light of day. We’re just going to make it.”

Why In A Just Society AJ Duffy And Every Other Leader Of The United Teachers Los Angeles Union Would Be Publicly Hung

Obviously, I am indulging in a bit of hyperbole with the above statement - but after reading the below Los Angeles Times editorial - and after you consider that not just tens but hundreds of thousands of LAUSD students have been prevented from getting an education due to AJ Duffy, his union, United Teachers Los Angeles, and the LAUSD Board members his union's money has gotten elected - what should be done to people who have destroyed generation after generation of Los Angeles' children?

And remember, every reform listed in the below editorial was bitterly fought - and is still being opposed - by AJ Duffy, his union and the school board members he helped elect.

A YEAR AT LOCKE
Locke High School's progress
Three months into the school year, a troubled high school is making strides as a Green Dot charter.

December 1, 2008

The lesson was polling. Math teacher Fernando Avila acted as pollster, the students as respondents and the four corners of the classroom their opinions: strongly agree, slightly agree, slightly disagree, strongly disagree. The topic: How Locke High School in Watts had changed since being taken over by charter operator Green Dot Public Schools.

Were the school uniforms of chinos and polo shirts a good idea? The students shuffled into their chosen corners. Many hated the uniforms; some liked them; some were indifferent. And so it went, the students distributing themselves among the corners for each question -- until they were asked whether teachers cared more about them and their education this year, and the entire class crowded into "strongly agree."

Nearly three months into the school year, the changes at Locke are obvious. Last year, when it was still run by the Los Angeles Unified School District, Locke was known for student brawls, rampant graffiti, ditched classes and a dropout rate so high that the senior class was routinely one-fourth the size of the freshman class.

This year, the halls are virtually empty during class. Teachers and aides say the campus is almost graffiti-free, and fights have diminished from one a day or so to less than one a month. Tardiness and ditching are down, now that both of those bring detention. Student attendance for September and October averaged 92%, close to that at suburban high schools.

"The teachers care a lot more," chorused several juniors when asked about the changes at their school. "They ask you things," one boy added in an awed voice, as though this were a strange new behavior among teachers. What kinds of things? "Like whether you're OK, and do you understand what they taught."

Locke High School represents the kind of transformation that can take place practically overnight under committed, energetic new leadership. As the school struggles with crowding and early signs of student backsliding, however, it also illustrates the pervasive and persistent difficulties that challenge urban schools.



Defying logic

Math teacher Carlos Perez believes he has a special understanding of his students. He grew up in the neighborhood but made good, attending UC Santa Cruz. At that rustic campus, he remembers the wonder of waking up and seeing deer outside his window instead of graffiti. He returned to Watts determined to help its teenagers. This is his third year at Locke, and he thinks there's more "student buy-in" to what school is all about. But when he tries to tell students that they can achieve what he did or even more, most don't believe him.

To a visitor, his geometry class looks chaotic. In the front, groups of students are noisily practicing their skills with congruent figures; in the back, others are quietly but obviously engaged in social chatter. Girls are plucking boys' eyebrows; meanwhile, the first groups finish their work and borrow a deck of cards from Perez, shouting and cursing as they play. Perez ignores the bluster, moving from student to student, quietly conferring to see if anyone needs help. When he reaches the laggards, they pull out their papers and get to work, and when he wants the class' full attention, he stands in front of the room and speaks in his quiet, gentle voice. In just a few moments, the students settle down.

In Perez's eyes, it's all about appreciating what different students need, especially given their almost universal fear of math. He doesn't worry about the loud ones, because they're always on top of their work. It's the quiet ones who have trouble understanding and avoid tackling the problems, and he allows them to delay -- for a while. He won't ask for an answer from a student who's unlikely to know it; public embarrassment, he is certain, is not the way to teach them.

Though everyone completes the geometry practice, the class defies conventional logic. No student spent even half the period on task; wouldn't they learn more if they were engaged in their subject more of the time? Eventually, test scores will tell, but in the back of Perez's classroom, one sophomore thinks she has the answer. She doesn't like most of the changes at Locke, she says. The tight security means "I don't get to ditch no more," and the uniforms are ugly. But she's certain that she's learning math better and faster than she was last year.



Requiring patience

Each morning at Locke, some students show up without their uniforms; they're sent to the loaner rooms. At each bell, walkie-talkie-equipped staff members position themselves at strategic points on campus to urge students toward their next classes, order their shirts tucked in and keep watch against taggers.

The campus of more than 1,800 students is divided into smaller "academies." Two are for freshmen, who are coached intensively on algebra and other high school skills. Another offers "credit recovery" to students who are so far behind on the courses needed to graduate, they need self-paced online classes to catch up. And one is devoted solely to students who are "back from camp" -- recently released from juvenile hall and a potential disruption to regular classes.

After a tightly controlled start to the new year, some plans are unraveling slightly. An enrollment battle with L.A. Unified ended with Locke being forced to accept extra students. The two main academies on campus, for sophomores through seniors, were supposed to be capped at 650 students each and now have 800, many of whom didn't show up until October.

Less than two weeks ago, someone started a fire in a bathroom. After two months of high attendance, absenteeism rose substantially in November. About 40 students stopped coming to school altogether; many of them returned, but now more have gone missing.

At its other charter schools, Green Dot can control against such frustrations. It caps enrollment at 500 and has waiting lists of motivated parents and students who want exactly what Green Dot has to offer: safer campuses, more academic rigor. But in its boldest experiment, taking over a large urban school, it no longer has these luxuries. Locke is the neighborhood school and educates most of the neighborhood's students. Ronnie Coleman, director of the two biggest academies, hopes for rising test scores this year but predicts that Locke's scores will substantially drag down the Green Dot average.

Still, in ways, the school has come far academically. Avila remembers burned-out teachers who sat in the back of their classrooms reading or snoozing. This year, the school is staffed with idealistic young instructors. Ask to meet an older teacher and you'd probably be steered to Avila, who at age 30 and with eight years at the school is a senior figure. Some students sense the inexperience in their new teachers, but what they lack in classroom years, they make up for in zeal.

They need it. Working with students who haven't developed academic habits, or an understanding of why they should even bother with school, requires utter patience.

Coleman reinforces this dozens of times a day. Between classes, she directs one of her "trouble children" to tuck in his shirt. The student tentatively pushes one corner of the hem toward his belt, ever so slowly, clearly hoping Coleman is too busy to wait for him to obey, or possibly to provoke a reaction. "I'm a patient woman, sir," she says. Half-an-hour later, the student is walking across the quad with his shirttail out. Coleman sighs, noting that if teenagers have to rebel, it's better if it's about something as innocuous as a tucked shirt. Similarly, in a meeting with the Spanish faculty, she advises teachers not to bother lecturing students about classroom profanity; it just escalates into a confrontation with those who resent authority figures and wastes instructional time.

Yet in Lucrecia Nava's English Language Development class, expectations for behavior are high, and the students meet them. Every moment of the 90-minute class is devoted to intense instruction, reading, writing and speaking in English, each task checked off on a large list tacked to the wall. The mental effort is palpable as the students struggle to construct sentences in an unfamiliar language.

Nava speaks loudly and enunciates distinctly as she leads the class through a persuasive five-paragraph essay. Ready ready ready? she asks. Is it better when the two academies have lunch together or, as they usually do, separately? Give three reasons why. The students vote for separate lunches. There's more space; the lines are shorter; and "we avoid problems," one boy says, meaning there's less chance of a fight.

After class, Nava is asked what will happen to these students, who can barely read an English sentence aloud, when they have to take the high school exit exam. "Absolutely, they can pass," she says. And then, as though she is speaking for all the teenagers and teachers at Locke, she adds, "They just have to work harder. They'll always have to work harder at everything."

The Type Of Community Based Reporting The Los Angeles Times Should Be Doing!

This morning's article by Hector Becerra on the potential affects of the new Gold Line on the real Eastside of the City of Los Angeles (which is different than East Los Angeles) is the type of journalism that can only come from someone with first hand - and life long - knowledge of the community he writes about.

It is also a story of how the actual community feels about the project and not a journalist's pre-packaged take on the story as is too often the case in the Times.

Beyond that, I have no comment - just read the above linked story.

If You've Ever Pondered The Dearth Of Cutting Edge Episiotomy Jokes...

.... read Christopher Hitchen's Vanity Fair article - "Why Women Aren't Funny"...

Newspaper Advertising Falls Off A Cliff!

Mack Reed just sent me to the newosaur blog which lays out the bloody details of not just the record drop in newspaper print advertising of 18% in the last quarter (and a staggering 31% drop in classified ads), but also the record second consecutive quarter of online revenue drop.

And only the bravest of newsmen should dare look at the attached graph which closely resembles the north face of the Matterhorn.

It's hard to imagine papers like the Los Angeles Times continuing to publish more than another couple years if ad revenue continues to drop like this.

MOCA Mobilization at Geffen Contemporary at 3 PM - Be There!

If you are interested in the future of the Museum of Contemporary Art - join the Facebook Group above - and then attend the group meeting at the Geffen Contemporary in Little Tokyo from 3 - 6 PM TODAY!

More On MOCA Meltdown!

As usual, Tyler Green has the best coverage of what is going on at our local arts institutions. His summary of recent events is so complete - there is nothing to add to it:

MODERN ART NOTES

Tyler Green

The morning after the Broad offer

Last night's Eli Broad LAT op-ed is a game-changer. Here's what it all means -- for now. (I can't remember the last time an art world news story changed so fast.

Part of Eli Broad's legacy is the founding of the most important contemporary art museum in America. Broad does not want the failure of that museum to be part of his legacy too. His bailout offer says to MOCA's trustees: Consider your legacies. If MOCA fails, its failure forever will be tied to you.

LACMA seems to have over-reached. On Thursday MAN published a post in which LACMA director/CEO Michael Govan acknowledged that he was open to MOCA and/or its collection somehow coming to LACMA. Govan's comments were the first public indication that LACMA leadership was willing to make room to absorb MOCA. I hear that MOCA figures took Govan's comments as an indication of eagerness, as an attempt to signal to some MOCA board members that the "spirit" of a contemporary art museum could and would live at LACMA if MOCA failed.

Also notable: Thirty-six hours after Govan's comments were published on MAN, the Broad offer was made public. Throughout the Broad op-ed are passages likely meant as an extremely public way of Broad saying, 'Hands off, LACMA.' For example: "It is vital that the museum remain on Grand Avenue, keep its collection and continue its tradition of world-class exhibitions," and, "While the MOCA board evaluates its options, the overarching priority should be to keep MOCA independent. Being merged into another institution would destroy the fabric of a great museum and would sacrifice the independent curatorial vision that has created an extraordinary collection and many unparalleled exhibitions."

In a related story, the Broad offer has taken the MOCA collection off the table, at least for now. Any MOCA staff or trustees that were pushing to sell off parts of the collection know that's no longer an option. For now, MOCA's path to survival is through Broad's $30 million (or more) offer.

MOCA trustees and staff who agitated for deaccessioning (or forms thereof) are now on notice that they erred. The Broad offer says to those trustees, 'You did not understand what trusteeship or stewardship is, nor did you understand your obligation to Los Angeles and to the art world." MOCA trustees who pushed deaccessioning should resign so as to make way for leadership that wants to save MOCA and not break it up.

As noted here and elsewhere last night, the Broad op-ed lists no details about Broad's $30M offer. A Broad spokesperson told the LAT that no further details would be released last night. Read the op-ed as an emergency bailout offer, an indication that MOCA's trustees were wandering so far down the road of unacceptable-to-Broad 'solutions' (such as noted above) that a bailout offer had to be made before the bailout details were final.

For now anyway, Broad's offer seems not to come with any mandates to MOCA's board about their own financial involvement in MOCA's future. That is to say, I can't find any evidence that the Broad offer has a 'string attached' that would require each MOCA board member to put up $1 million or $2 million (or whatever) in order to 'earn' Broad's $30M.

That gives MOCA director Jeremy Strick and his board co-chairs room to effectively attach that proviso themselves. If trustees won't open their wallets, 'ask' them to resign effective immediately. Requiring MOCA's trustees to put up or shut up would seperate the dedicated and the committed from the panicky. It would also lay the groundwork for a stronger MOCA board if and when this is all over. (And for the MOCA trustees who don't have that kind of liquidity and who are on the board because they're young collectors, tell them that they may make their commitment to the institution in a different way: Through gifts of art and public promises of gifts of art. It's time to bind MOCA's trustees to MOCA, to require them to be personally invested. That's been missing.)

Eli Broad Proves - Once Again - Los Angeles Is Eli Broad And The Seven Dwarfs!

Whenever there is a crisis in Los Angeles' cultural institutions, there is always one man who will step up and leave the rest behind to follow in his tracks. Below is Eli Broad's Op-Ed piece in Saturday's LA Times.

Saving MOCA Philanthropist Eli Broad says his foundation will give $30 million if others will come forward to help. By Eli Broad November 21, 2008 With the news this week that the Museum of Contemporary Art on Grand Avenue is in dire financial straits and might have to merge with another institution, or even close, in the not too distant future, the time has again come for this city to step up. I'd like to make a proposal to the MOCA board and to the civic angels of Los Angeles. I'll step up if you do too. The Broad Art Foundation is prepared to make a significant investment in MOCA -- $30 million -- with the expectation that the museum's board and others join in this effort to solve the institution's financial problems. It is vital that the museum remain on Grand Avenue, keep its collection and continue its tradition of world-class exhibitions. This is not a one-philanthropist town. MOCA's needs are great and will require the financial assistance of numerous supporters. Already, civic leaders and artists have begun to rally behind the museum to keep its doors open. But with a global recession that has hit every American's pocketbook, charitable giving has declined. The philanthropic community must not turn its back on MOCA. We must make it one of our civic priorities. I was the founding chairman of MOCA in 1979, working closely with then-Mayor Tom Bradley to create a contemporary art museum for the city in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. Working with city officials, we also opened the "Temporary Contemporary" in Little Tokyo. Since then, MOCA has been enjoyed by millions of Angelenos and by visitors from around the world for nearly three decades. The two downtown Los Angeles locations -- including the iconic Grand Avenue building designed by Arata Isozaki and the renovation of the Temporary Contemporary (now known as the Geffen Contemporary) by Frank Gehry -- make MOCA the most important contemporary art museum in the world. The two spaces have been the venue for a host of ambitious and groundbreaking exhibitions, including "Helter Skelter: L.A. Art in the 1990s," "Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Object, 1949-1979," "WACK!: Art and the Feminist Revolution," "© Murakami," "Andy Warhol Retrospective," "Robert Rauschenberg: Combines" and "Basquiat." I believe that MOCA's exhibitions and engagement with local artists are an important part of the reason that L.A. thrives as a center for artists and art schools. MOCA also has one of the best and most extensive contemporary art collections in the world. As the board member who negotiated the acquisition of the Abstract Expressionist and Pop Art works in the renowned Panza collection, I know firsthand what a treasure trove of artworks it has. The greatest travesty to come out of MOCA's current financial crisis would be for it to sell any of its artworks to cover operating deficits -- an action that would be anathema for a museum. While the MOCA board evaluates its options, the overarching priority should be to keep MOCA independent. Being merged into another institution would destroy the fabric of a great museum and would sacrifice the independent curatorial vision that has created an extraordinary collection and many unparalleled exhibitions. The loss of MOCA's downtown location would be a blow to the Grand Avenue project, the $3-billion development project to go up adjacent to Disney Hall. The project is already delayed because of the economic downturn. We cannot lose sight of the promise of downtown's renaissance as a social, cultural and recreational center for not only those who work and live in the city's heart but also for the entire Southern California region. The shuttering of MOCA's Grand Avenue venue would severely set back the burgeoning downtown revitalization. MOCA is one of our city's cultural treasures, and it would be tragic both for the cultural health and civic reputation of Los Angeles if this institution ceased to exist. 

Not since the creation of Disney Hall has a civic issue arisen requiring the bold leadership and collective support of Los Angeles. We came together to save Disney Hall. We can do it again. Eli Broad is the founder of KB Home and SunAmerica and he and his wife, Edythe, created the $2.5-billion Broad Foundations to advance entrepreneurship for the public good in education, science and the arts.

How The City Of Los Angeles Can Save MOCA Without Spending A Dime!

As everyone should know by now, MOCA - the Museum of Contemporary Art, is in such financial trouble, there are discussion about it merging with LACMA - the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art. Everyone - other than some MOCA trustees - also seems to agree - this is a very bad idea. Below is a brief summary of what should be done instead:

One of MOCA’s on-going problems is that it has no physical room or logical way to expand. It cannot show even 5% of what it should be showing of its permanent collection and it cannot attract any major collectors to its board since it has no room to display what the museum already owns – much less what they will get in the future.

At the same time, the Getty Museum is building the world’s largest photography collection, but – by law – it cannot add even one square foot to its campus in Brentwood - and MOCA has a very modest photography collection.

In addition, Eli Broad is looking for a place to build the storage facility for his collection.

Adding to that mix, there are acres and acres of under-utilized infrastructure owned by the City of Los Angeles within one to two blocks of MOCA.

The obvious solution is that the Getty be given rights to part of that land for its photography museum (which would then replace the need for MOCA to spend its resources on that subject) in exchange for short term help for MOCA.

The same could be done with Eli’s collection – and he has already - supposedly - offered help for MOCA to stay independent.

There is also sufficient land for a mixed use component to help pay for the costs of the long term home for MOCA's permanent collections. There is also the possibility for reconfiguring the final phase of the Grand Avenue project to coordinate with these efforts.

Now I have already walked all these sites with various civic leaders – and each one of them has agreed – this is a physically feasible project.

So... why not?

FREE Comedy Shows + Film at Los Angeles Theatre 8 - 10 PM - TONIGHT!!!!

All of this month’s COMEDY WALK events will be held at the majestic 2,100-seat Los Angeles Theatre, 615 S. Broadway, Los Angeles Thursday, November 20th from 8pm to 10 pm. COMEDY WALK will present an evening of 15 comedians straight from major comedy clubs, television and radio plus an Oscar winning short film. All free!

The evening starts at 8pm with a screening of the West Bank Story, a Oscar-winning and seriously FUNNY musical comedy short film about two warring falafel stands on the West Bank. A Q&A with actor Joey Naber who stars as Ahmed follows. This along is worth the price of admission which is – of course – FREE!
http://www.moviecitynews.com/arrays/media/2007/west_bank_story.html

Then there is the comedy show from 8:30pm to 10pm featuring American, Iranian and Israeli stand-up comedians who will collectively solve all the problems of the Middle East – in just one evening!. And you get your money back if you’re not satisfied!
Parking is only block away at Pershing Square - $6.60 after 5 PM – or at local garages for $5 or $6 but make certain your garage stays open past 10:30 PM! 5th and Hill Subway stop is also only one block away.

COMEDY WALK and IranDokht Present...

Host: Stevie Mack

8pm Stevie Mack - Intro
8:05 'West Bank Story' Screening
8:30 Q&A with actor Joey Naber
8:40 Nadine Rajabi
8:45 Noel Elgrably
8:50 Willis Turner
9pm Brian Farrell
9:05 Stogie Kenyatta
9:10 Michael Goldstrom
9:15 if.net winner Alec Sobel
9:20 Gayla Johnson
9:25 Max Amini
9:30 Stevie Mack
9:35 Jeff MacKinnon
9:40 Aurelio Miguel Bocanegra
9:45 Ara Basil
9:50 Elham Jazab
9:55 The Mooney Twins
10pm Good Night!

Comedy Walk To Solve Middle East Problems Thursday Night at 8 PM!

COMEDY WALK Solves Middle East Crisis On Thursday November 20th from 8 – 10 PM!

All of this month’s COMEDY WALK events will be held at the majestic 2,100-seat Los Angeles Theatre, 615 S. Broadway, Los Angeles Thursday, November 20th from 8pm to 10 pm. COMEDY WALK will present an evening of 15 comedians straight from major comedy clubs, television and radio plus an Oscar winning short film. All free!

FREE TICKETS at www.comedywalk.com, www.plays411.com or call 323-960-7773.

SHOW PROGRAM

One Stop COMEDY WALK November 20th, 2008

The evening starts at 8pm with a screening of the West Bank Story, a Oscar-winning and seriously FUNNY musical comedy short film about two warring falafel stands on the West Bank. A Q&A with actor Joey Naber who stars as Ahmed follows. This along is worth the price of admission which is – of course – FREE!
http://www.moviecitynews.com/arrays/media/2007/west_bank_story.html

Then there is the comedy show from 8:30pm to 10pm featuring American, Iranian and Israeli stand-up comedians who will collectively solve all the problems of the Middle East – in just one evening!. And you get your money back if you’re not satisfied!
Parking is only block away at Pershing Square - $6.60 after 5 PM – or at local garages for $5 or $6 but make certain your garage stays open past 10:30 PM! 5th and Hill Subway stop is also only one block away.

COMEDY WALK and IranDokht Present...

Host: Stevie Mack

8pm Stevie Mack - Intro
8:05 'West Bank Story' Screening
8:30 Q&A with actor Joey Naber
8:40 Nadine Rajabi
8:45 Noel Elgrably
8:50 Willis Turner
9pm Brian Farrell
9:05 Stogie Kenyatta
9:10 Michael Goldstrom
9:15 if.net winner Alec Sobel
9:20 Gayla Johnson
9:25 Max Amini
9:30 Stevie Mack
9:35 Jeff MacKinnon
9:40 Aurelio Miguel Bocanegra
9:45 Ara Basil
9:50 Elham Jazab
9:55 The Mooney Twins
10pm Good Night!

And Comedy Walk would like to thank the entire Delijani family, the Los Angeles Theatre, Councilman Joe Huizar of the 14th District, the City of Los Angeles, The Onion, the Los Angeles Conservancy, the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council and the Historic Downtown Los Angeles Business Improvement District for their assistance in making this event possible.

Ed Hardy To Open Store On Spring Street? UPDATE!

UPDATE at bottom of post!

That's the rumor of the day in Historic Downtown Los Angeles. Fashion designer Ed Hardy, who has some of his facilities upstairs at 433 S. Spring Street in the old Title Insurance Building, is rumored to have inked a deal to take at least one of the two new glass windowed storefronts just being built out in the same building. This increasingly important fashion building next to the Spring Arts Tower at 5th and Spring is helping make 5th and Spring one of the major creative intersections of Los Angeles. To post everything that is now located within one block of that intersection would now take a full day of work so maybe I'll tackle it over the holidays.

UPDATE - There will be an Ed Hardy store, but it will be operating as a licensed store. It will also take both of the large new storefronts that were just built-out and it will be operated by the owner of the building.

Downtown's Bob Barker Puppet Theater Threatened With Foreclosure!

Below is a press release I received today from several sources:

November 13, 2008

WHAT: Emergency Campaign to generate funds to save The Bob Baker
Marionette Theater from Foreclosure

DEADLINE: $29,000 needed by December 3 or Bob Baker's theater and home
will be sold

LOS ANGELES- For more that sixty years, puppeteer Bob Baker has brought
delight and amazement to children of all ages with his innovative
marionette performances. Through shows at his Bob Baker Marionette
Theater, located just west of downtown LA and his huge list of film and
TV credits, he has entertained millions of people. Today Bob Baker's
puppet theater continues to operate on a daily basis with a crew of
young puppeteers trained by the master.

But unless you help, this magical theater will disappear in a matter of
weeks. Bob Baker, a proud man and a humble artisan, has no choice but to
reach out to his public for a lifeline.
Two years ago, Bob Baker was the victim in an elaborate mortgage fraud
operation bent on stealing his theater and home. This outrageous
mortgage, written under threatening and deliberately misleading
conditions, has left him owing ever increasing payments that are beyond
his ability to pay.

This week the situation has reached crisis point, and Bob quietly
reached out for help. Many talented people have responded to his call. A
plan for improving the theater's financial prospects is being formulated
by the Valley Economic Development Center and many of Bob's friends and
fans are working behind the scenes to protect Bob and his theater and
home from the sharks. The theater has enormous potential, Bob wants
everyone to know that he is not going out of business.

But time is of the essence, and right now, Bob Baker needs your
donations if he is going to be able to keep up with his mortgage
payments long enough to get the loans modified. As of today, Bob needs
$23,000 for past due mortgage payments on the theater, and $6,000 for
past due mortgage payments on his home. The deadline for payment in
December 3, or the buildings will be sold and Bob and his thousands of
puppets will be homeless.

If you have been entertained by Bob Baker's Marionettes, if you love the
spirit of old Hollywood creativity that he embodies, if you want to
reach out and help someone wonderful who has been terribly wounded by
the mortgage crisis and outright fraud, please open your heart and give
to Bob Baker at this difficult time. The children of Los Angeles are not
ready to be without this great entertainer, who has many more years of
magic before him.

Tax deductible donations can be made to "The Academy of Puppetry and
Allied Arts." Send your check to 1345 West First Street, Los Angeles, CA
90026 or call 213-250-9995 to make a donation by credit card.

Puppeteer Bob Baker is available for interviews. Contact Richard at
bobbakerpuppetmaker@yahoo.com, or call 213-250-9995. Legendary Puppeteer
Bob Baker Seeks Donations To Save Theater From Foreclosureback

Massive Fire In Alhambra On TV For Over An Hour!

But not a word on the LA Times website

Daniel Libeskind Comes To Downtown Los Angeles!

When I walked into the meeting room of the monthly meeting of the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Planning and Land Use Committee, I noticed the renderings of our first presentation on the opposite wall; yet another glass covered high rise condo in South Park.

But this one looked a little different than the standard glass box. So I immediately assumed it was some hack architect ripping off some 'real' architect. But as I got closer, I soon realized - I was looking a real architecture. Seriously real architecture.

And when I asked who was the architect, the presenters smiled and said - Daniel Libeskind; one of the top ten architects working today. The reason for their smile was that they had somehow managed to keep word of this project from leaking to press despite it having been before the staff at the CRA and the LA City Planning Department for... months.

So we were all... stunned.... that this project - at 1340 S. Figueroa, south of Pico - could have been lying around City Hall for months and yet none of the people from the CRA, the Planing Department or the Planning Department's Design Studio - whom many of us speak to or see on an almost daily basis - ever bothered to mention to us they were reviewing this project. And yes we mean you Emily and Simon and Patricia and both David's!

As for the project, it is a 43 story condo building with a 7 story podium for parking (the first two floors also have two restaurants - both Asian and both already leased despite the project being 3 -4 years from completion - plus a high end health spa) and two stories are below grade for more parking and mechanicals.

The best part is the presenters confirmed it was fully financed with Korean money and when I asked if the financing was in-house - I was told yes. And that is the reason why they had kept the project so quiet. Since they already have financing, they didn't want to announce it until were about to pull the permits since they can start construction - and intend to - the second they have a permit. They said they did not want their development lumped together with all the 'paper projects' out there today.

As for the architecture, it is a very buildable design with most of the flourishes at the bottom were it meets the ground with a very cool jagged edge - and extensive public space that is still being designed - and at the upper half of the tower which will be the part most visible from a distance. The parking podium's function will be hidden behind a metal scrim and there will be a light show art component to enliven that part of the facade at night. And since the podium makes the residential tower taller than the convention center - the tower will have unobstructed views to the west and it's upper profile will be visible from much of LA to the west.

To the east of the tower, two lots on Flower that are part of the project provide another entry for both cars and pedestrians plus some well landscaped surface parking - and this also gives that side of the building some view protection.

Other pieces of information given out was there will be no hotel component and that if this project goes well, the same team wants to develop a second project in Los Angeles.

Lastly, this will be the first project by Libeskind in LA despite the fact he lived in our fair city for about... five minutes... back in 1989 when he as still pretty much a 'paper architect'. He was moving here to take up a position at the Getty as a resident scholar. Unfortunately for LA, before his furniture could even arrive via a slow boat from Milan, he was lured back to Berlin to fight to get his Jewish Museum finally built there (ten long years later!) - and that was the building that... finally... made his career.

The Melting Myth Of Man Made Global Warming!

It took me a long time before I could accept the fact that man caused global warming is not just a myth - but that it is - increasingly - a deliberate fraud.

And now those who support this myth are resorting to lying about the past and fabricating present day figures to support their claims of global warning while trying to hide the fact we have instead entered a period of global cooling. This coolinh due to reversal of the solar cycles that also produced the recent - and temporary - spike in global temperatures. These same people are also trying to hide the fact that even those temperatures - at their peak - were below the global temperatures of the 1930's.

The below article is from the London Telegraph:

The world has never seen such freezing heat
By Christopher Booker
12:01am GMT 16/11/2008


A surreal scientific blunder last week raised a huge question mark about the temperature records that underpin the worldwide alarm over global warming. On Monday, Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is run by Al Gore's chief scientific ally, Dr James Hansen, and is one of four bodies responsible for monitoring global temperatures, announced that last month was the hottest October on record.

This was startling. Across the world there were reports of unseasonal snow and plummeting temperatures last month, from the American Great Plains to China, and from the Alps to New Zealand. China's official news agency reported that Tibet had suffered its "worst snowstorm ever". In the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month, and ranked it as only the 70th-warmest October in 114 years.

So what explained the anomaly? GISS's computerised temperature maps seemed to show readings across a large part of Russia had been up to 10 degrees higher than normal. But when expert readers of the two leading warming-sceptic blogs, Watts Up With That and Climate Audit, began detailed analysis of the GISS data they made an astonishing discovery. The reason for the freak figures was that scores of temperature records from Russia and elsewhere were not based on October readings at all. Figures from the previous month had simply been carried over and repeated two months running.

The error was so glaring that when it was reported on the two blogs - run by the US meteorologist Anthony Watts and Steve McIntyre, the Canadian computer analyst who won fame for his expert debunking of the notorious "hockey stick" graph - GISS began hastily revising its figures. This only made the confusion worse because, to compensate for the lowered temperatures in Russia, GISS claimed to have discovered a new "hotspot" in the Arctic - in a month when satellite images were showing Arctic sea-ice recovering so fast from its summer melt that three weeks ago it was 30 per cent more extensive than at the same time last year.

A GISS spokesman lamely explained that the reason for the error in the Russian figures was that they were obtained from another body, and that GISS did not have resources to exercise proper quality control over the data it was supplied with. This is an astonishing admission: the figures published by Dr Hansen's institute are not only one of the four data sets that the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) relies on to promote its case for global warming, but they are the most widely quoted, since they consistently show higher temperatures than the others.

If there is one scientist more responsible than any other for the alarm over global warming it is Dr Hansen, who set the whole scare in train back in 1988 with his testimony to a US Senate committee chaired by Al Gore. Again and again, Dr Hansen has been to the fore in making extreme claims over the dangers of climate change. (He was recently in the news here for supporting the Greenpeace activists acquitted of criminally damaging a coal-fired power station in Kent, on the grounds that the harm done to the planet by a new power station would far outweigh any damage they had done themselves.)

Yet last week's latest episode is far from the first time Dr Hansen's methodology has been called in question. In 2007 he was forced by Mr Watts and Mr McIntyre to revise his published figures for US surface temperatures, to show that the hottest decade of the 20th century was not the 1990s, as he had claimed, but the 1930s.

Another of his close allies is Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, who recently startled a university audience in Australia by claiming that global temperatures have recently been rising "very much faster" than ever, in front of a graph showing them rising sharply in the past decade. In fact, as many of his audience were aware, they have not been rising in recent years and since 2007 have dropped.

Dr Pachauri, a former railway engineer with no qualifications in climate science, may believe what Dr Hansen tells him. But whether, on the basis of such evidence, it is wise for the world's governments to embark on some of the most costly economic measures ever proposed, to remedy a problem which may actually not exist, is a question which should give us all pause for thought.

A few points here. First, the Russian 'mistake' was not initially a fabrication - but if Hansen had any interest in science as opposed to proving his case - even a cursory investigation into why Russia's temperatures suddenly skyrocketed by 10 degrees while temperatures declined in the rest of the world - would have uncovered the error. But when he tried to make his old, false figures work by manipulating other data - that was an attempt at fraud.

Second, his fight to keep hidden the fact that the 1930's were hotter than the 1990's in this country is another indication of his disregard of the truth.

Third, Dr Pachauri's bizarrely false claims demonstrate just how far removed from reality the Global Warming advocates have gotten. They clearly seem to feel that the bigger their lies are - the more likely we will believe them.

Lastly, there are very real reasons why we should conserve our natural resources and why we should try and reduce energy consumption. But it will be much harder to get the public to believe that once the entire Global Warming Hoax collapses.

Los Angeles Listed As One Of Seven Great Contemporary Design Cities Of Past 150 Years!

The Istanbul Modern and the London Design Museums have selected 7 cities to tell the story of modern design (starting with London's Great Exhibition in 1851) - by focusing on each city at it's cultural peak. And Los Angeles was chosen as one of the cities and it's peak year is - 1949 - no doubt due to Charles and Ray Eames' multiple ground breaking design achievements during that period.

The above link has a few other links at the bottom left hand of the linked to page (though today it moved to the upper right hand corner) - but there do not seem to be many photos on the site. A catalog however has been printed and while the show does not appear to be touring after it closes in London - but maybe local venue might step up and off it a home.

05 September – 04 January 2009

"From Morris to Muji, 150 years of (the good bits of) design are here" - Architects Journal

Design Cities tells the story of contemporary design through seven key cities at their creative height: London (1851), Vienna (1908), Dessau (1928), Paris (1936), Los Angeles (1949), Milan (1957), Tokyo (1987) and London (2008).

The exhibition features a full range of objects from textiles and fashion to industrial pieces, furniture and prints. It includes design classics such as chairs by Charles and Ray Eames, as well as work by a spectrum of designers that together evoke an impacting impression of their era. Key exhibits include work by William Morris, Christopher Dresser, Adolf Loos, Marcel Breuer, Le Corbusier, Eileen Gray, Achille Castiglioni, Issey Miyake, Zaha Hadid and Ron Arad.

Late night openings Friday 31 October and Friday 5 December until 10pm.

Your Design City
The Design Museum has partnered with Flickr and Don’t Panic to invite you share your photography on the theme of Design Cities.

Your work could be featured in an exhibition at the Design Museum in January 2009 and one entry will be made into 80,000 specially-commissioned Don’t Panic Posters.To submit your photograph, add it to the Design Cities group on Flickr before 1 December 2008.

Find out more at flickr.com/groups/designcities

Design Cities has been organised by the Design Museum, London in association with Istanbul Modern and is curated by Design Museum Director Deyan Sudjic. The exhibition originally opened at Istanbul Modern, Turkey from 23 April until 10 August 2008.

READ THIS STORY! Sometimes Burying the Lede Can Be A Good Thing

Washington Post writer Wil Haygood has a moving story in today's Los Angeles Times about a now retired black butler who worked at the White House from Truman through Reagan. Haygood details how Eugene Allen and his wife felt about a black man possibly entering the White House as president. But the real kicker is buried at the end - and that was the only place to put it. So make certain you read the whole story...

The butler sees a new White House
Now retired, he started when blacks were in the kitchen.
By Wil Haygood

November 7, 2008

Reporting from Washington — For more than three decades, Eugene Allen worked in the White House, a black man unknown to the headlines. During some of those years, harsh segregation laws lay upon the land.

He trekked home every night to his wife, Helene, who kept him out of her kitchen.

At the White House, he worked closer to the dirty dishes than to the Oval Office. Helene didn't care; she just beamed with pride.

President Truman called him Gene. President Ford liked to talk golf with him. He saw eight presidential administrations come and go, often working six days a week.

"I never missed a day of work," Allen said.

He was there while racial history was made: Brown vs. Board of Education, the Little Rock school crisis, the 1963 March on Washington, the cities burning, the civil rights bills, the assassinations.

When he started at the White House in 1952, he couldn't even use the public restrooms when he ventured back to his native Virginia. "We had never had anything," Allen, 89, recalled of black America at the time. "I was always hoping things would get better."

In its long history, the White House -- note the name -- has had a complex and vexing relationship with black Americans.

"The history is not so uneven at the lower level, in the kitchen," said Ted Sorensen, who served as counselor to President Kennedy. "In the kitchen, the folks have always been black. Even the folks at the door -- black."

Before Gene Allen landed his White House job, he worked as a waiter at a resort in Hot Springs, Va., and then at a country club in Washington.

He and wife Helene, 86, were sitting in the living room of their Washington home. Her voice was musical, in a Lena Horne kind of way. She called him "Honey." They met at a birthday party in 1942. He was too shy to ask for her number, so she tracked his down. They married a year later.

In 1952, a lady told him of a job opening in the White House. "I wasn't even looking for a job," he said. "I was happy where I was working, but she told me to go on over there and meet with a guy by the name of Alonzo Fields."

Fields was a maitre d', and he immediately liked Allen.

Allen was offered a job as a "pantry man." He washed dishes, stocked cabinets and shined silverware. He started at $2,400 a year.

There was, in time, a promotion to butler. "Shook the hand of all the presidents I ever worked for," he said.

"I was there, honey," Helene said. "In the back maybe. But I shook their hands too." She was referring to White House holiday parties, Easter egg hunts.

They have one son, Charles, who works as an investigator with the State Department.

"President Ford's birthday and my birthday were on the same day," he said. "He'd have a birthday party at the White House. Everybody would be there. And Mrs. Ford would say, 'It's Gene's birthday too!' "

And so they'd sing a little ditty to the butler. And the butler, who wore a tuxedo to work every day, would blush.

"Jack Kennedy was very nice," he went on. "And so was Mrs. Kennedy."

He was in the White House kitchen the day Kennedy was slain. He got an invitation to the funeral. But he volunteered for other duty: "Somebody had to be at the White House to serve everyone after they came from the funeral."

The whole family of President Carter made Helene chuckle: "They were country. And I'm talking Lillian and Rosalynn both." It came out as the highest compliment.

First Lady Nancy Reagan came looking for him in the kitchen one day. She wanted to remind him about the upcoming state dinner for German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. She told him he would not be working that night.

"She said, 'You and Helene are coming to the state dinner as guests of President Reagan and myself.' I'm telling you! I believe I'm the only butler to get invited to a state dinner."

Husbands and wives don't sit together at these events, and Helene was nervous about trying to make small talk with world leaders. "And my son said, 'Momma, just talk about your high school. They won't know the difference.'

"The senators were all talking about the colleges and universities that they went to," she said. "I was doing as much talking as they were.

"Had champagne that night," she said, looking over at her husband.

He just grinned: He was the man who stacked the champagne at the White House.

Colin L. Powell would become the highest ranking black of any White House to that point when he was named Reagan's national security advisor in 1987. Condoleezza Rice would have that position under President George W. Bush.

Gene Allen was promoted to maitre d' in 1980. He left the White House in 1986, after 34 years. President Reagan wrote him a sweet note. Nancy Reagan hugged him tight.

Interviewed at their home last week, Gene and Helene speculated about what it would mean if a black man were elected president.

"Just imagine," she said.

"It'd be really something," he said.

"We're pretty much past the going-out stage," she said. "But you never know. If he gets in there, it'd sure be nice to go over there again."

They talked about praying to help Barack Obama get to the White House. They'd go vote together. She'd lean on her cane with one hand, and him with the other, while walking down to the precinct. And she'd get supper going afterward. They went over their election day plans more than once.

"Imagine," she said.

"That's right," he said.

On Monday, Helene had a doctor's appointment. Gene woke and nudged her once, then again. He shuffled around to her side of the bed. He nudged Helene again.

He was all alone.

"I woke up and my wife didn't," he said later.

Some friends and family members rushed over. He wanted to make coffee. They had to shoo the butler out of the kitchen.

The lady he married 65 years ago will be buried today.

The butler cast his vote for Obama on Tuesday. He so missed telling his Helene about the black man bound for the Oval Office.

Haygood writes for the Washington Post.

On Reaching 60....

Looking at myself in a mirror – if I am buck naked, wearing a ski mask and standing far enough away - 60 can look a lot like the new 17.

For some perverse reason, my body has elected to take the Dorian Gray approach to aging. Not a line or wrinkle can be found anywhere on my shoulders or chest – or below, but from the neck up…. well, my face more than makes up for the lack of aging on the rest of my body.

I’ve lived 60 physically hard years – and my face reflects every one of those years, and then some – to the point that catching a glimpse of myself in a mirror these days – startles me.

That is first of three odd things about my hitting 60 years of age.

The second odd thing is that hitting 60 means nothing to me. It’s only the attention other people are giving to this unexpected millstone, I mean, milestone – that makes me wonder why getting older has never bothered me. My age or what age I am about to is nothing I’ve ever paid attention to, even though pondering my health is another matter – but we’ll soon get to that.

As for the third odd thing about my turning this new age, possibly that particular anomaly helps explains this lack of concern.

My entire life has been lived by two very different me’s. Well, to be specific, there have been quite a fair number of me’s – but even then – each of those different lives could be placed within one of two different categories.

My life with a brain filled with dopamine and my life with a brain partly or largely deprived of dopamine.

My dopamine fueled brain – and thus a dopamine powered body - even today - is pretty much what it was when I was 17. When properly stimulated, I have the physical and mental capacities I had when I was 17 – the year my life so totally changed on a late night trip to the Owens Valley when I suddenly found myself living the cowboy life.

When my dopamine levels are up, I don’t have a single ache or pain and I can still catapult out of bed each morning with the same energy I once had every moment of my life.

And even after 20 operations to remove all the scar tissue and tumors caused by my 10 years of underground fighting, wild horse breaking and even more dangerous activities (and the complete replacement of my lower vertebrae with hip bone) – whenever my dopamine level is up, I have no physical pain or discomfort of any kind – much less anything resembling arthritic or rheumatoid problems.

I still can swim a full hour – non-stop - each day without ever breathing hard. And, on the days I have the time, I can still do non-stop laps for 2 hours – without even a 60 second water break – and still not be breathing hard.

I can also still hit the heavy weights in the gym for a full hour, then do an hour swim and then spar on a wrestling mat with a 250 pound wrestler less than half my age (and sometimes one-third my age) who is almost twice my weight for another full hour – and in ten minutes, he’ll be the one panting for breath.

And as for my better half – Mr. Cowboy – well, Mr. Cowboy still thinks and acts as if he’s 17 years old - and his endless enthusiasm continues to embarrass me in ways regular readers of mine will recall. So I’m certain his fans will be pleased to know my organ donor card has been updated with special instructions to find him a suitable new home once my time finally comes

But now there are my far too typical dopamine deprived days – and nights.

On the really bad mornings, it will take me two or three hours to even roll my body out of bed and onto the floor, my muscles are so frozen. Walking up a single flight of steps can be almost an impossibility for days at a time and breathing or swallowing – particularly at night – is often a constant ordeal.

On the worst days, though, I barely even know who I am and once, when I had to abruptly stop wrestling due to an injury some years ago – I walked out of my loft – and that sudden loss of dopamine caused me to end up living on the streets for over a year.

But none of this is (directly) age related. The first time a had a full dopamine crash (long before I realized what my problem was), I was hospitalized by doctors who were convinced I had polio.

I was in the first grade at the time.

Starting then – throughout my life – large chunks of my brain have just… vanished… overnight when I have crashed - usually to never open again – but other times those parts of the brain have reopened once I got sufficient physical or mental stimulation. As one example – I lost the ability to draw or paint when I was in the first grade – and that has never returned.

And ever since my cowboy – and fighting days - suddenly ended – my life has been an unconscious search for the mental dopamine rush to survive. The problem was, every time I succeeded at anything from writing TV pilots to feature films to doing real estate sales to doing development - or whatever – once I was successful at anything - there was no longer a challenge, and I couldn't do it any more – and I crashed and lost everything.

I then had to start my life over with whole new challenges until I finally gave up trying to make a living – and decided to devote myself to fixing LA and helping rebuild Downtown – pro bono. I finally realized that was the only job complex enough for me to always be challenged.

Unfortunately , though, the very last drugs that had worked to help my dopamine have just stopped working at the same time getting anything done in this city is getting harder and harder and finding local wrestling partners has gotten harder and harder - so everything has gotten tougher and tougher – but not because of my new age.

This is just one more time I need to find another way to return me to being 17 again – just like I have found that path back to who I used to be so many times before.

So the fact it’s my physical birthday is no interest.

My only interest is if there is a doctor who has found the new dopamine drug or if I can find those willing to tackle the 25 Projects for Downtown or if I can find the next opponent on a wrestling mat big enough to put the ‘fight’ back in my ‘fight or flight’.

And as soon as any of those things happens – that will be my new birthday.

And that’s when you can really wish me a happy birthday.

Free Downtown Comedy Walk + Downtown Mixer Both Thursday Night!

From 8:30 PM - 10 PM Thursday October 16th, Comedy Walk presents 24 top stand-up comedians in six different venues at 8th and Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles at the Tower Theater and the Chapman Lofts.

Prior to that, the Downtown Community Mixer will be held at the Broadway Bar just 1/2 block away at 830 S. Broadway from 6 PM - 9 PM with drink specials staring at $5.

http://www.thelamix.com/

COMEDY WALK Oct. 16th, 2008

"Venue #1

" 8:25 Host Warm-Up
Host: Sasha Faynor 8:30 Paul Jacek
"The Main Stage
The Tower Theater
802 S. Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90014
Built 1927, Seats 906" 8:40 Mary Kennedy
8:50 Laurie McDermott
9:00 Stephanie Blum
9:10 Sardia Marley
9:20 Sasha Faynor
9:30 Celeste Davis
9:40 Grace Fraga
9:50 Michael Goldstrom
"Venue #2


" 8:25 Host Warm-Up
Host: Johnny Dam 8:30 Keith Michael Ashton
"The Launch Pad
The Chapman Building
756 S. Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90014
Built 1911, Seats 40" 8:40 Pat Branch
8:50 Brian Farrell
9:00 Johnny Dam
9:10 Rene Garcia
9:20 Stogie Kenyatta
9:30 Jodi Miller
9:40 D'Sean Ross
9:50 Johnny Dam
"Venue #3

" 8:25 Host Warm-Up
Host: Stevie Mack 8:30 Stogie Kenyatta
"The UFO Room
The Chapman Building
756 S. Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90014
Built 1911, Seats 40" 8:40 D'Sean Ross
8:50 Willis Turner
9:00 Stevie Mack
9:10 Grace Fraga
9:20 Keith Michael Ashton
9:30 Sardia Marley
9:40 Stephanie Blum
9:50 Stevie Mack


"Venue #4
" 8:25 Host Warm-Up
Host: Bill Word 8:30 Cesar Cervantes
"The London Room
The Chapman Building
756 S. Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90014
Built 1911, Seats 40" 8:40 Celeste Davis
8:50 Jeff MacKinnon
9:00 Bill Word
9:10 Laurie McDermott
9:20 Pat Branch
9:30 Willis Turner
9:40 Aurelio Bocanegra
9:50 Bill Word
"Venue #5
" 8:25 Host Warm-Up
Host: 8:30 Jodi Miller
"The Candy Room
The Rialto
812 S. Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90014
Built 1923, Seats 40" 8:40
8:50 Aurelio Bocanegra
9:00 Michael Goldstrom
9:10 Cesar Cervantes
9:20 Jeff MacKinnon
9:30 Brian Farrell
9:40 Paul Jacek
9:50 Rene Garcia
"Venue #6

" 8:30pm-10pm
Host: Gabrielle Pantera
"The Hot Box
The Chapman Building
756 S. Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90014
Built 1911, Seats 40" Gosh! TV Talk Show

Three-minute interviews with each of the comedians in a talk show format.

If The Word Downtown Is In A LA Times Headline - You Can Be Sure Some Fact Will Be Wrong In The Headline! UPDATE!!

(The below needed correction has how been actually corrected - but the link and the dateline of the story was not changed - so it goes to the corrected story as opposed to the original story. So read the below story - then below that is the now corrected story. And whether some editor spotted the mistake - or if someone saw my post - I don't care. The point is that the story is now correct)

Now there are a number of possible definitions of the phrase high-rise in Los Angeles. Most people think a high rise is 15 or 20 stores - or more. Some think it is anything taller than the old 13 story high limit. But the legal definition is a grand total of... 10 stories. Except, of course.... in the Los Angeles Times...

Fire in downtown L.A. high-rise quickly extinguished

No injuries are reported after flames erupt in a garment manufacturing business on the top floor of a nine-story building. The cause is under investigation.

By Richard Winton and Catherine Chang-Hsin Ho, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
6:19 PM PDT, October 15, 2008

Firefighters extinguished a small blaze at a downtown Los Angeles high-rise within minutes this afternoon, officials said.

The fire was reported about 4:15 p.m. on the top floor of the nine-story building at 830 S. Hill St., where a garment manufacturing business operated, said Asst. Fire Chief Robert Franco of the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Now here is the corrected version:

Fire in downtown L.A. building quickly extinguished

No injuries are reported after flames erupt in a garment manufacturing business on the top floor of a nine-story building. The cause is under investigation.

By Richard Winton and Catherine Chang-Hsin Ho, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
6:19 PM PDT, October 15, 2008

Firefighters extinguished a small blaze at a downtown Los Angeles building within minutes this afternoon, officials said.

The fire was reported about 4:15 p.m. on the top floor of the nine-story building at 830 S. Hill St., where a garment manufacturing business operated, said Asst. Fire Chief Robert Franco of the Los Angeles Fire Department.

LA Times Gets Location Of Double Murder - Wrong - Then Right - Then Wrong Again!

Below is a story that demonstrates why the LA Times local coverage is deeply handicapped by it's policy of hiring people without roots in our city. The first headline is on the front page of the website is where the problem starts:

11-year-old among 2 slain downtown

Then clicking onto the story - as usual - the shootings were NOT in Downtown, despite the claim on the front page. Instead, they were in the heart of the gang controlled Pico-Union district west of the Harbor Freeway which, while near Downtown - is light years away when it comes to crime.

But the below headline is correct in that the nearest major landmark is the LA Convention Center:

11-year-old boy is one of two shot dead near L.A. Convention Center
The other victim is a 25-year-old man. Police say the Sunday night shooting is believed to be gang-related.
By Andrew Blankstein
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

10:33 AM PDT, October 13, 2008

An 11-year-old boy was one of two people killed when gunmen opened fire on a group gathered west of the Los Angeles Convention Center, police said today.

The fatal shooting Sunday night of Steven Munoz and a 25-year-old man was believed to have been gang-related, said Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman Norma Eisenman.

OK - so far, so good. The correct neighborhood the shootings took place in is still not mentioned - nor is it ever mentioned in the article, but a correct near-by landmark is identified. But then comes the next major blunder:

It occurred in the 1400 block of Connecticut Street near Western Avenue at about 8:30 p.m., when unidentified men got out of a car and fired at the group several times, police said.

Umm - the 1400 block is near Western Avenue? The Convention Center is near... Western Avenue?

Uh - no. First anyone who know anything about the Central Los Angeles area knows the 1400 block of an east/west street is just west of the Harbor Freeway. Second, anyone who knows... anything.... knows the Convention Center is nowhere near Western Avenue. So with these two things being true - how the hell could the LA Times say the 1400 block of Connecticut is near Western Avenue?

Well, easy! Now long time readers know I have pleaded - for years - for the LA Times to buy Thomas Brothers Guides for their reporters - and - more importantly - their editors. Well, I neglected to have added that the LA Times should also give courses on how to read maps.

Because the Thomas Brothers Guide does show Connecticut Avenue being right next to Western Avenue. Unfortunately, for the LA Times credibility - that is the 3200 block of Connecticut Avenue...

Michael A. Hiltzik - One Last Reason To Still Read The Los Angeles Times

Without realizing it, I have - like almost everyone I know - stopped reading the LA Times.

Oh, I still read many of the blogs on the website and I still read most of the feature articles on-line, but I just abruptly realized I have recently stopped reading any actual 'news' stories in the newspaper.

One reason is that I have other on-line sources to choose from - and each of them has far more detailed - and often more reliable - coverage and so I click on them long before I ever open up the LA Times website each morning.

Real Clear Politics and Politico (among others) have every possible point of view on the election (and I always prefer to read opinions that differ from my own), other sources cover state government in far great depth, local neighborhood affairs & politics are covered by local blogs in a way no print paper ever can and many business sites cover the financial situation.

But I suspect the main reason why I - without ever realizing it - no longer use LAT as a source for any kind of hard news seems to be that too many of the reporters and editors are only interested in indoctrinating us with their own partisan views and no longer have any interest in the old fashion concept of giving us the facts we need to make up our own minds.

Today, any actual facts - which I can easily find on other sites - are increasingly buried - or hidden - in carefully edited and staged stories that only 'push' one side of the story to a degree which would have been unthinkable even a year ago. And, even more so than in the past, photos and particularly headlines are chosen to so advocate for one specific point of view that the paper often seems like a deliberate satire of slanted political coverage.

There are several reasons for this. But mainly each new generation of reporters and editors increasingly no longer see themselves as mere reporters of the news – but, instead, they visualize themselves as heroic crusaders of their own personal version of the truth; truth tellers with a mission to educate us, the unwashed masses.

And with all the new hires, there is now far less diversity of opinion within the LAT's newsroom than there used to be; so increasingly there is no one left to say anything when the emperor has not a stitch of clothing on him.

So if the facts sometimes get in the way, well, it's OK as long as it’s in the service of the greater good. And, even worse, one recent hire launched his career with a series of outright fabrications, but that - luckily - is still a rarity though in his case - it has become a well rewarded career path.

But there are, of course, still many, many exceptions to this decline in traditional news coverage within each edition of the paper but the question yet remains –how do you know what – and who - you can believe when you read the paper? So, too often – the answer is – not to read any of the news sections of the paper.

Increasingly, within this context, Michael Hilzik's business articles dramatically stand out. Hilzik not only presents a rigorous examination of the basic facts - but he also accurately reports the two - or more - points of view within each story.

What makes this even handedness even more noteworthy is that he long had a highly opinionated opinion column in the business section; a column where he usually had - in my mind – a decidedly anti-business point of view; a point of view I often disagreed with.

I did, however, respect him as a writer and I respected his opinions (moronic as they occasionally were) as exactly what they were supposed to be - opinion pieces. But in reading any of his recent news coverage of the recent financial turmoil - it's impossible for me to tell what he personally thinks about what is happening.

In the below story - he moderates a classic debate among the differing points of view on the future of our economic system - and he gives each side the chance to make their best points - and allows for the nuances of their differing opinions – and he also brings out the ways in which they agree. He also brings his sweeping knowledge of the subject matter to the piece.

It is a superb example of what journalism can - and should - be.

Lastly, the below article also has the by-line of Ken Bensinger and several other reporters are listed at the end. And I do not wish to in any way minimize the contributions of Mr. Bensinger in this remarkable article- or the other mentioned reporters - but the specific qualities of Mr. Hiltzik I reference are also found under all of his solo by-lines.

Bank rescue plan to test capitalism
The government's plan to take stakes in financial institutions could backfire, some analysts say. Proponents say it's an efficient solution.
By Michael A. Hiltzik and Ken Bensinger
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

October 12, 2008

Are we witnessing the erosion of capitalism, or its salvation?

That question is swirling around the federal government's latest proposed intervention in the private financial markets since Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson announced Friday a plan to take equity stakes in banks as a quick and efficient way to pump them with new capital.

Combined with the government's takeover last month of the mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and its huge ownership stake in the crippled insurance company American International Group, the bank plan represents perhaps the largest federal intervention in private enterprise since President Truman's attempt to nationalize the steel industry to avert a strike in 1952 -- a move blocked by the Supreme Court.

The idea of taking direct stakes in financial institutions was adopted last week by Britain, which will in effect partly nationalize banks with as much as $87 billion in capital infusions and an additional $350 billion available for short-term loans. Some of the country's biggest banks have signed up, including Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The Italian government has also authorized a recapitalization package to be enacted if the need arises. Germany, with Europe's biggest economy, has resisted such plans, but there were reports Saturday that Chancellor Angela Merkel might unveil a recapitalization plan as early as today.

A consensus seemed to be emerging among leaders of the world's top economies meeting Saturday in Washington that whatever economic or political differences existed among them, all countries must act aggressively and in concert in guaranteeing deposits in their banks and pumping government capital into faltering institutions to help ease the global crisis.

A stubborn seize-up of bank lending to businesses, individuals and each other has sharply heightened the prospects of a deep and lengthy recession in the U.S. and abroad.

The fact that devoted supporters of laissez-faire economics are falling in line to bless the aggressive foray into free enterprise by the U.S. government is a sign of the seriousness of the crisis.

"I'm against the government owning anything . . . ," Stanford University finance professor Jonathan Berk said. "That said, buying an equity stake may be the cheapest way" to achieve a banking recovery.

But others believe that scrapping free-market principles in a crisis atmosphere may doom the banking industry to a future of inefficiency.

"It's a move in the wrong direction, both economically and ideologically," said Casey B. Mulligan, a conservative economist at the University of Chicago who believes that predictions of an economic meltdown are overblown. "Government enterprises don't do well, because public management doesn't pay attention to the bottom line."

Paulson said the Treasury's investments would be in nonvoting stock, an important concession to conservatives and others who might be uneasy about giving government officials more direct sway over management of private institutions.

Whether the Treasury will stay out of management decisions -- or even whether it should leave the institutions in the hands of the executives who turned them into beggars for a federal lifeline -- is one of the greatest uncertainties of the program.

"I've got big reservations about the government deciding which banks need help and how they should be administered," said Bert Ely, an Alexandria, Va.-based banking consultant. "We haven't heard about the strings tied to this program. This is not going to be free capital."

Proponents contend that the new plan is sure to be a more efficient and cheaper solution to the banks' ills than the main proposal of the economic rescue package passed by Congress less than two weeks ago. That arrangement granted Treasury's request to spend as much as $700 billion to take soured assets, especially mortgages and mortgage-backed securities, off the banks' hands.

A little-noticed provision of that plan authorized direct investments in financial institutions of the sort Paulson now plans to pursue. As the rescue unfolds, the pace of the new program may well outstrip that of the original asset-purchase approach. Paulson said the government could begin these equity purchases within weeks; the mortgage securities acquisitions might not begin for a month or more.

Details of the government's bank intervention are unclear. But the Treasury may try to link its investments with parallel capital infusions by private investors, offering to contribute a stake equal to the private capital a bank raises on its own.

In a fundamental way, the Treasury plan contradicts two centuries of American economic orthodoxy. Americans have always been wary of giving the government a direct role in the banking sector. These concerns date to the first Treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton, who founded the nation's central bank, the Bank of the United States, in 1791, but ensured that the government would be a minority stakeholder by contributing only one-fifth of its $10 million in capital.

As president, Andrew Jackson, who yielded to no one in his suspicion of bankers, essentially abolished the bank's successor in 1832. The U.S. went without any central bank until 1913, when Congress established the Federal Reserve System. The new institution, however, was a regulatory weakling, rendering it all but powerless to address the Great Depression. It was a complete overhaul during the New Deal that gave the Fed the almost unlimited monetary and regulatory authority it has been aggressively deploying in the current crisis.

By then the perils of a loss of confidence in the banking system had become all too clear. The most vivid example was the failure of another Bank of the U.S., this one a small Depression-era institution with a grandiose name that served mostly Jewish merchants in Lower Manhattan. When J.P. Morgan rebuffed regulators' pleas for a rescue, it collapsed, shattering trust in the nation's banks. The loss of faith helped trigger the Depression.

Similarly, a determination to instill confidence in banks so that they will keep credit flowing underlies the Treasury's extraordinary new steps.

"Nobody . . . believes in the rule of the 'free market' in a financial crisis," UC Berkeley economics professor J. Bradford DeLong wrote on his blog Friday.

DeLong points to the example of Sweden, which nationalized its banks during its financial crisis in 1992. After the government disposed of their troubled assets, it refloated them as public companies.

The Treasury's plan does not look quite as drastic as Sweden's. Instead, it is designed to conform more to the traditional American aversion to outright ownership. To many economists and business experts, the key is the nonvoting nature of the equity that Paulson proposes to acquire.

"It's not nationalizing the banks," said Peter Morici, a business professor at the University of Maryland and former chief economist for the U.S. International Trade Commission. "It would only be nationalizing the banks if we bought warrants, converted them into common stock and started voting the shares."

James Barth, senior fellow at the Milken Institute and former chief economist at the Office of Thrift Supervision, contended that the government should take further steps to remain a silent partner in any investment.

"There's no need for the government to change a company's directors or vote on anything," he said, "because you have a great backstop: prompt corrective action with federal regulators taking control should things get too bad."

Clearly, economic ideologies have taken a back seat to calls for quick action.

"Many countries have nationalized their banking systems over the years, then reprivatized them and become very strong," said Lawrence E. Harris, a finance professor at USC and former chief economist at the Securities and Exchange Commission. "The government will undoubtedly want to get out of the business as quickly as it can. This is certainly not the end of capitalism. Extraordinary problems require extraordinary solutions."

michael.hiltzik@latimes.com

ken.bensinger@latimes.com

Times staff writers Peter Y. Hong, Martin Zimmerman and Henry Chu contributed to this report.

Mear One Show Opens at 01 Gallery Tonight!

Opening Exhibition. October 11th 7-10pm

Mear One, who is among the most prominent artists in the world(and not just the grafitti world)today, with numerous successful shows under his belt in galleries(his last two solo shows were in Paris, France and Portland, Oregon)and museums(he was in a major three person show at the Orlando Museum in Florida with Andy Warhol and Keith Haring a few years back, for example), is coming back to the gallery he started out in fifteen years ago, the legendary Zero One Gallery.

01 Gallery at Barker Block
Artist District of Downtown Los Angeles

530 South Hewitt Street #141 / Los Angeles CA 90013 213.689.0101

Show runs through December 6

After Party @ Far Bar

Please join us at The Far Bar, 347 East First Street, CA 90013, for the after party. A VIP pass will be handed out at the opening for a reduced admission, just $5!

Enter the alley and follow the Christmas lights to the lounge from 10-2 am.

What Works - And Doesn't Work - In The Mayor's New Housing Plan!

Below is my article in today's CITYWATCH about the newest housing plan for the City of Los Angeles. However, if you click the link above - the on-line version has live links to the plan itself and related stories. So read that instead.

Here are the four things you need to know about the proposed 40 page housing plan just announced by the Mayor.

First, much of it is common sense, well vetted ideas. Rebuilding crime ridden public housing projects into mixed income neighborhoods, developing specialized, supportive housing for the homeless with substance abuse and mental illness problems, bringing housing closer to jobs and transportation and making it easier for developers to get building permits while providing proper safeguards for neighborhoods, are all no-brainers. The only problem in the past has been the city's inability to make these often proposed policies actually (and, more importantly, effectively) happen.

Second, equally on the good news front, the plan proposes that all the various agencies, departments and fiefdoms that deal with housing in LA actually – in theory, at least – work together. And this is genuinely good news, assuming it really happens.

Third, though, on the bad news front, where bold new ideas are desperately needed to find ways to make housing more affordable for all the people of Los Angeles – no attempt was made to examine the root causes of the problem: nor was there any critical review of the many present policies that do not work. And if there was even one new or remotely innovative idea in entire 40 pages - I couldn't find it. But I did find a lot of the failed old polices that make our housing problems – worse and not better – in this 'new' plan.

The single biggest flaw is the plan's bringing back the discredited inclusionary zoning proposal but with a new name. In truest Orwellian Newspeak it is now called – mixed income housing – which is the single most dishonest aspect of the program.

Mixed income housing – when financially practical, is an excellent concept – but it is an end result; it is not a process. And there are many ways that mixed income housing projects can be successfully developed for the betterment of the overall community. But - to try and use inclusionary zoning to successfully create mixed income communities on any kind of meaningful scale will not only fail, but - as several independent studies have demonstrated – it will very likely make all housing in our communities more expensive.

So to try and force us – and the press - to call the process of forced inclusionary zoning – mixed income housing – is dishonestly designed to make it look as if people who support mixed income housing, but who oppose forced inclusionary zoning to achieve that, are opposed to mixed income housing. This is the type of blatant dishonesty that makes it hard for the public to believe anything politicians say.

And even if the independent studies on inclusionary zoning (as opposed to the studies done by people trying to push the program – and there is some legitimate debate on both sides of this issue) – do not convince you this type of program does not work in any meaningful way - common sense should tell you that any program that makes it more expensive to build housing – and far harder to get financing – is only going to raise housing costs in Los Angeles.

Now for some more details on why this type of program does NOT work to lower our overall housing costs, take a look at my earlier CITYWATCH article .

This article explains a way in which housing costs can be reduced for everyone in the city of Los Angeles – and how true mixed income communities can be developed. And that is only one of many changes in our current, failed housing policies that can create true mixed income neighborhoods.

But this 'new' plan does not examine any real world, pragmatic solutions because that would take actual thought and some real work as opposed to just having bureaucrats waving a magic wand and expecting developers to magically produce affordable housing out of thin air without their having to pass on their additional costs to those who rent or buy their other market rate housing.

That brings us to the fourth thing you need to know about the Mayor's Housing Plan; the part that explains why there are no new or innovative ideas – and explains why dishonest proposals such as the' mixed income' proposal are still being pushed – and explains why this plan will ultimately fail to work on the scale we need it to work.

The reason is that this entire plan was drawn behind not just closed, but locked doors at City Hall. And the only people allowed in the room were a handful of special interest groups; the people who will profit financially or politically from these proposals. And from the very start, the general public and the neighborhood councils have been carefully and totally excluded from the actual drafting of this plan. For an example of how one reporter has discovered policy is developed at City Hall – and how neighborhood councils are ignored at City Hall – click here . - and if you cannot read the full article, just read the second half of page 5 and the start of page 6 here.

Now, granted, before the actual drafting of the plan, there was a carefully controlled 'Listening Tour' where the public was invited to testify before the process started; but even then only those people who agreed with their plans were specifically invited to attend. And even then, when it came to the one neighborhood which has built the most affordable housing – and almost all the supportive services homeless housing – Downtown - even though we have been the only neighborhood to consistently welcome such housing – we were – as usual – specifically and deliberately excluded from this 'Listening Tour'.

And, as usual, the nearest meeting was over the river in Boyle Heights and a city provided list of the attendees shows a long list of subsisted housing advocacy groups and politically connected organizations (all of whom should, of course, be listened to on this issue) – but there was also a total absence of any groups that represented a broad range of people in our neighborhood. Nor was even one person listed from any organization that represented Downtown businesses or builders or home owners –or any of our local neighborhood councils.

Coincidence? I think not.

But even if we had been listened to during that tour – or even if we are listened to during the next series of carefully staged propaganda rallies, I mean community input meetings – it still will be meaningless because all the major policy decisions have already been reached in meetings behind the closed doors of City Hall; meetings that the neighborhood councils will always be excluded from unless there is a major policy change in the Mayor's Office.

And it is ironic that the one group of organizations that can most help the Mayor achieve meaningful housing reform in this city is the one group his staff refuses to allow him to meet with – and the one group they refuse to allow to take part in the policy decisions that most impact our neighborhoods.

We represent the people most impacted by the lack of affordable housing, the lack of jobs in our communities – and the horrendous traffic caused by the disconnect between jobs and housing. We are also the people best able to ask the questions that need to be asked before any policy is even drafted. But we are also the only people who are never invited to help draft the solutions to these problems.

Luckily, though, it is not too late.

With the collapse of the local housing market and the current inability for developers to get financing – even the most regressive members of the city council must realize that forced inclusionary zoning is dead on arrival – and that we have to find other ways of creating meaningful mixed income, workforce and low cost housing in our communities.

So I propose that there be not a meeting, but a series of working sessions between the mayor's housing team and representatives from the NC's – selected by the NC's – to reexamine the more controversial parts of his proposal and to look at some new ideas on how to solve our jobs/housing/transportation problems. And then open the locked doors of City Hall and invite not just the NC's – but a true cross selection of this city - to debate these issues and come up with a plan that will actually work in the real world.

(Brady Westwater is a writer, a long-time downtown and neighborhood council activist and Chair of the LA NC Congress Economic Development Committee. Westwater is a contributor to CityWatch. He can be reached at: bradywestwater@gmail.com ).

(Photos courtesy: Curbed LA)

(Other perspectives on the Mayor’s Housing Strategy: LA Times “A foundation at least” and Bill Boyarsky “Affordable Housing in the Worst of Times”

CityWatch
Vol 6 Issue 80
Pub: Oct 3, 2008

How The Whole Mortgage Mess Started!

There is a lot of blame to go around for the current financial meltdown, but it's increasingly clear as to how it all started. When Fannie Mae - and Freddie Mac - decided - for political reasons - to dramatically lower credit requirements in the late 1990's - the road to hell was opened.

Then once profits started flowing in from all these new borrowers and once real estate prices started to skyrocket due to all this easy credit - even lenders who initially resisted the sirens of temptation - jumped overboard. And then greed and quick profits attracted the crooks who made the bad situation even worse.

But without pressure from politicians in Washington to lower credit standards - none of this would have - or could have - happened.

And read about how it all happened - in a 1999 article in the New York Times...

September 30, 1999
New York Times
Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending

By STEVEN A. HOLMES
In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.

The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets -- including the New York metropolitan region -- will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring.

Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.

In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been pressing Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers. These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans, can only get loans from finance companies that charge much higher interest rates -- anywhere from three to four percentage points higher than conventional loans.

''Fannie Mae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the 1990's by reducing down payment requirements,'' said Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae's chairman and chief executive officer. ''Yet there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.''

Demographic information on these borrowers is sketchy. But at least one study indicates that 18 percent of the loans in the subprime market went to black borrowers, compared to 5 per cent of loans in the conventional loan market.

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's.

''From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,'' said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ''If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.''

Under Fannie Mae's pilot program, consumers who qualify can secure a mortgage with an interest rate one percentage point above that of a conventional, 30-year fixed rate mortgage of less than $240,000 -- a rate that currently averages about 7.76 per cent. If the borrower makes his or her monthly payments on time for two years, the one percentage point premium is dropped.

Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, does not lend money directly to consumers. Instead, it purchases loans that banks make on what is called the secondary market. By expanding the type of loans that it will buy, Fannie Mae is hoping to spur banks to make more loans to people with less-than-stellar credit ratings.

Fannie Mae officials stress that the new mortgages will be extended to all potential borrowers who can qualify for a mortgage. But they add that the move is intended in part to increase the number of minority and low income home owners who tend to have worse credit ratings than non-Hispanic whites.

Home ownership has, in fact, exploded among minorities during the economic boom of the 1990's. The number of mortgages extended to Hispanic applicants jumped by 87.2 per cent from 1993 to 1998, according to Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. During that same period the number of African Americans who got mortgages to buy a home increased by 71.9 per cent and the number of Asian Americans by 46.3 per cent.

In contrast, the number of non-Hispanic whites who received loans for homes increased by 31.2 per cent.

Despite these gains, home ownership rates for minorities continue to lag behind non-Hispanic whites, in part because blacks and Hispanics in particular tend to have on average worse credit ratings.

In July, the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed that by the year 2001, 50 percent of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's portfolio be made up of loans to low and moderate-income borrowers. Last year, 44 percent of the loans Fannie Mae purchased were from these groups.

The change in policy also comes at the same time that HUD is investigating allegations of racial discrimination in the automated underwriting systems used by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to determine the credit-worthiness of credit applicants.

Hell May Not Have Frozen Over - But It's Snowing On Mars!

Yes, when the impossible seems to be happening all around us - just another sign of the Apocalypse.

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has detected snow falling from Martian clouds. Spacecraft soil experiments also have provided evidence of past interaction between minerals and liquid water, processes that occur on Earth.

A laser instrument designed to gather knowledge of how the atmosphere and surface interact on Mars has detected snow from clouds about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) above the spacecraft's landing site. Data show the snow vaporizing before reaching the ground.

"Nothing like this view has ever been seen on Mars," said Jim Whiteway, of York University, Toronto, lead scientist for the Canadian-supplied Meteorological Station on Phoenix. "We'll be looking for signs that the snow may even reach the ground."

One of the First Great Preservationists Passes at 100

Margot Gayle was one of the first advocates for the preservation of Victorian architecture in New York and she is also an excellent example of how much a single dedicated person can do.

September 30, 2008
Margot Gayle, Urban Preservationist and Crusader With Style, Dies at 100

By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Margot Gayle, who marshaled shrewdness, gentility and spunk to save the Victorian cast-iron buildings of New York — using a little magnet as a demonstration device — in a crusade that led to the preservation of historic SoHo, died Sunday at her home in Manhattan. She was 100.

The death was announced by her daughter Carol.

Ms. Gayle began her mission in the late 1950s, when a group of neighbors gathered in her Greenwich Village apartment to plot how to save the Victorian-Gothic curiosity that was the Jefferson Market Courthouse around the corner.

A half-century later, not only was the courthouse preserved (as a library), but so were scores of iron-framed buildings, Bishop’s Crook lampposts, stately public clocks and many other wisps of a past that Ms. Gayle had deemed worth keeping.

“Why not let people in the future enjoy some of the things we thought were extremely fine?” she said in an interview with The New York Times in 1998.

Ms. Gayle’s crowning achievement was helping to win the establishment of the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District, encompassing 26 blocks in what was originally an industrial quarter known as Hell’s Hundred Acres. The designation not only preserved important buildings and artifacts, it also saved SoHo from the kind of large-scale urban renewal that occurred north of Houston Street.

“It would be hard to find a district that was so single-mindedly engineered and promoted as that district was by Margot,” Harmon H. Goldstone, a former chairman of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, said in an interview with The Times in 1988.

Much more at the above link...

Jim Newton Returns To LA Times!

It's been a long time since some good news has come out of the Los Angeles Times, but the return of Jim Newton is the best news I have heard in some time. Below is announcement from LAT Times publisher Eddy Hartenstein:

From: Hartenstein, Eddy
Sent: Friday, September 19, 2008 11:50 AM
Subject: Editorial Pages Editor
I’m pleased to announce that Jim Newton has agreed to return to The Times to resume his duties as editor of the editorial pages. You all know Jim, so no introduction is needed. I would like to note that his decision to rejoin our enterprise, despite the demands of his book-writing career, is a vote of confidence in what we are trying to accomplish.

He’ll start on Monday and report to me. In the meantime, Jim asked that I send along this note:

“As you all know, The Times has a special claim on my heart and I’m convinced that Eddy represents our best chance for sustaining and building great journalism. Given that, I’m delighted that he’s offered me the chance to return, and I’m thrilled to move back into my old office—the best in the building. See you all in a few days.”

Please join me in welcoming Jim back to the team.

eddy

More details and some commentary at the LAO link above.