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.

Free Downtown COMEDY WALK - Tonight! And Two TV Stations Will Be Filming Us Tonight!

Yes - six free venues with 25 comedians all within 1/2 block of 5th and Spring! 8:30 PM - 10 PM Tonight Thursday September 18th! Go to www.comedywalk.com to print your free ticket that will also get you one dollar off per person for any order at Julie Rico's WEENEZ at 5th and Spring Tonight!

*** COMEDY WALK SHOW FOR SEPTEMBER 18th 2008 ***

COMEDY WALK in downtown Los Angeles is the biggest monthly comedy festival in the world and largest comedy event in Los Angeles. Two dozen comedians from comedy clubs, television and movies. A Los Angeles Times "Best Bet". As seen in The Onion and Hollywood Today. Your best chance to see who's funny and hot in L.A.

Please put COMEDY WALK in your calendar. See you there?

For FREE TICKETS (and pictures and links for all the comedians):

www.comedywalk.com/2008/09/ or call 323-960-7773

Who... This month's featured performers include Jessica Glassberg, Johnny Dam and Keith Ashton. Jessica Glassberg is the head writer and a performer in the Jerry Lewis Telethon. Johnny Dam hosts the politically incorrect radio show DAMnation. Keith Ashton performs at The Improv. Full list of comedians below...

When... Thursday, Sept. 18th, 2008, 8:30pm-10pm

Where... This month's show is presented on six stages centered at the New Los Angeles Theatre Complex, 514 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, and surrounding venues, from 8:25pm to 10pm. There's plenty of parking in the neighborhood for about $5, but check you're not parking in one of the few lots that closes early. This month's COMEDY WALK is the third Thursday instead of our usual second Thursday with Art Walk. Neighborhood galleries will be open on the 18th before COMEDY WALK for you to take in the art scene.

Coming up... Our October 16th show is Momedy, a theme of Mom Comedy and will be centered at the Tower Theatre. Our November 13th show, right after the presidential election, has a theme of Comedy for Peace and will be centered at the Palace Theatre. November will feature Middle Eastern comedians. Different acts and different venues each month. Another performer every ten minutes on six stages. Print the 1-page PDF program with schedule at www.ComedyWalk.com.

Sept. 18th COMEDY WALK Comedians:

COMEDY WALK Comedians Sept. 18th:

1. Dallas Amsden - Hollywood Improv www.myspace.com/dallascomedy
2. Keith Michael Ashton - http://www.myspace.com/keithmichaelashton http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=405282331
3. Aurelio Miguel Bocanegra myspace.com/aureliomiguelbocanegra
4. Roz Browne - ABC The View, Merry Wives of Comedy Show, Laugh Factory, Ice House www.rozbrowne.com
5. Jeff Capri - www.jeffcapri.com
6. Competitive Awesome - Sketch comedy, Monster Office, Treasure Quest, comedy.com, The Newest New News (NNN) www.competitiveawesome.com
7. Johnny Dam - http://johnnydam.com/
8. Celeste Davis - The Improv myspace.com/theofficialcelestedavis
9. Brian Farrell - www.myspace.com/65047864
10. Grace Fraga - Laugh Factory, Comedy Store. www.gracefraga.com
11. Chris Gehrt - The Comedy Store, The Hollywood Improv, The Ice House, Club Aura www.youtube.com/ChrisGehrt
12. Jessica Glassberg - Head writer & performer The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon, History Channel History of the Joke w/Lewis Black, Laugh Factory, The Improv, Comedy Store, Governor's Comedy Club www.jessicaglassberg.com
13. Karen Haber - TV shows such as Eek!Stravaganza and London Underground and movies including My Stepmother Is an Alien
14. Gayla Johnson - BET Comic View, The Comedy Store, The Laugh Factory, The Ice House - www.GaylaJohnson.net
15. Stogie Kenyatta - USO comedy tour in Tokyo, Japan and Okinawa www.stogiekenyatta.com
16. Carl Kozlowski - Laugh Factory, The Comedy Store, The Ice House, Comedytime - www.americasfunniestreporter.com
17. Stevie Mack - Steviemack@Night airing daily at www.steviemack.com
18. Sardia Marley - The Laugh Factory, Comedy Store, Improv and The Ice House www.sardiamarley.com
19. Lisa Mesa - Laugh Factory, Westside Eclectic, Ha Ha Comedy Club - http://lisamesa.blogspot.com
20. Jodi Miller - The Comedy Store myspace.com/jodilmiller
21. Dave Mishevitz - The Comedy Store. "We Love You Mrs. Bevins" a documentary about one of his many comedy trips to Iraq with Comics on Duty at Amazon.com www.myspace.com/daveiscomedy
22. Tim Powers - National Lampoon on XM radio, Hollywood Improv, Comedy Store, the Ice House, Improv Olympic, Second City L.A., Upright Citizens' Brigade www.timisfunny.com
23. Maury Rogow - Entourage, Style Network host, Oceans 13, HaHa, Improv, Comedy Store
www.youtube.com/mrogow2
24. D' Sean Ross - hosts every other Sunday at the Laugh Factory
25. Mikey Scott - The Improv, The Comedy Store, Room 5, Queers of Comedy www.queersofcomedy.com
26. Larry Vazeos - myspace.com/larryvazeos
27. Bill Word - National Lampoon Comedy Radio www.killerkomedy.com


This Month's Venues and Hosts:

Venue 1: Downstairs Theatre #3
Host: James Moorer
The New LATC
514 S. Spring St.
Los Angeles, CA 90013
200-seat theater

Venue 2: Red Dot Room
Host: Yasmin Spain
Weeneez
500 S Spring St
Los Angeles, CA 90013
1,500-sq.ft Seated

Venue 3: The Onion Room
Host: Dr. Dennis Neder
Spring Arts Tower
207 W. 5th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
1,400 sq. ft. SRO

Venue 4: The Chicken Room
Host: Mary Nicole Walker
Spring Arts Tower
215 W. 5th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
1,000 sq.ft. SRO
Wrangler:
Camera:

Venue 5: The Secret Room
Host: Hillary Layman
Rowan Building
460 S. Spring St.
Los Angeles, CA 90013

Venue 6: The Underground Vault
Host: Gabrielle Pantera
Taping comedy talk show Gosh! TV
The New LATC
514 S. Spring St.
Los Angeles, CA 90013
1,000 sq. ft. SRO

SPECIAL THANKS to Jose Luis Valenzuela, Mark Friedman, and William Flores of The New LATC, Paul Su of Spring Arts Tower. Tom Gilmore of Gilmore and Associates. Brady Westwater of the Historic Downtown Los Angeles Business Improvement District (BID)and the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council (DLANC). For the City of Los Angeles: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, District 9 Councilwoman Jan Perry, District 14 Councilman Jose Huizar. For the Cultural Affairs Department: Executive Director Olga Garay, Assistant General Manager Saul Romo.

A big thank you to the many volunteers who make COMEDY WALK possible as a FREE event!

Executive Producer Robin Rowe, Casting Director Gabrielle Pantera, Associate Producer Brian Frederick, A production of MovieEditor.com.

And The Winner In The Browser Wars Is....

Google's Chrome! And it ain't even close. Totally blows away the 'competition'.

Single Funniest Line Of The Campaign!

Hell, this may be the single funniest thing anyone says about anything all year. But - warning - if you have never lived in a small town and you have never been directly involved in small town politics - you will never understand, much less appreciate this line.

Pollster John Zogby: "Palin is not to be underestimated. Her real strength is that she is authentic, a real mom, an outdoors person, a small town mayor (hey, she has dealt with a small town city council - that alone could be preparation for staring down Vladimir Putin, right?)

Why Downtown Los Angeles Is Exactly Like Buffalo!

Well, maybe not... exactly... alike (Buffalo being only second to Detroit in poverty and second to almost no place when it comes to snow), but there is one feature we do share - and one way in which we both differ from New York City. And that is because in Downtown Los Angeles - unlike in Manhattan - any boy can grow up to be.... Newell Nussbaumer!

Newell Nussbaumer has never lived in New York City. He has not, in fact, lived anywhere for any significant amount of time outside of Buffalo. But if I’d met him out of context, I’d have assumed he lived in San Diego and spent his nights sleeping on his surfboard on the beach. Nussbaumer, who’s 40, arrives at my hotel on Saturday morning wearing blue-tinted sunglasses, his blond hair pulled back in a short ponytail. He’s riding a tandem bicycle with his girlfriend, Amelia Schineller, on the back. Nussbaumer is the publisher of Buffalo Rising, a free monthly magazine and Website he started in 2003, mostly because he realized that there wasn’t a single media outlet in the city that ever said anything upbeat about Buffalo.

As we head out on our scheduled bike tour—Nussbaumer, Schineller, their friend Tim, and a couple named Jason and Sara—it quickly becomes apparent that, in his capacity as media mogul and tireless advocate and general dude-about-town, Nussbaumer’s become a kind of unofficial mayor of Buffalo. Every few blocks we pass someone who waves and shouts, “Hey, Newell!” or “What’s up, Newell!” Suddenly, a thought occurs to me: If I lived in a place like Buffalo, I could be Newell Nussbaumer, too.

And that’s before we arrive at Newell Beach.

It’s not officially called Newell Beach. That’s just what his girlfriend calls it. (The term makes him squirm, actually.) But as we park our bikes and look over this small, 150-foot patch of sand, where the boulders and deadwood and debris have been cleared away, right there on the rocky shore of Lake Erie, it’s quite clear that, were it not for Nussbaumer, this beach would not exist. Because Nussbaumer got it in his head one day that the good people of Buffalo deserved a beach. So he went to City Hall, met with the appropriate councilman, and convinced that guy, too.

“You see all kinds of people here now,” Nussbaumer says. “I met a guy from the inner city who brought his daughter down here, and she was building a sand castle. He said to me, ‘She’s never in her life been to a beach before.’ ”

And here’s the thing: You can bike around Buffalo and point to a lot of things and say, “Newell Nussbaumer did that.” That week he’d been to City Hall with a group of cycling advocates and had persuaded the city to convert some of its old parking meters to bike stands, which is part of his grand scheme to make Buffalo the most bike-friendly city in North America. (Current title holder: Portland, Oregon.) Later, at the offices of Buffalo Rising, Nussbaumer explains how most of his staff are unpaid interns, who work for free not because they’re hoping to scrabble their way up some media ladder (in Buffalo, that ladder has no rungs) but because, as he says, “they know they’re helping to create this city where they want to live.” I think of the many valiant unpaid interns I’ve known in New York, and while most of them were working hard to create their own lives, not one of them (or at least not the sane ones) imagined they were helping to create New York City.

The moral of this story is that just like in Buffalo - in Downtown Los Angeles - an indidivual can still make a difference.

Why Our Taxes Are So High!

The above linked article lists just the newest way Los Angeles County social workers have found to steal from the taxpayers. And they have found so many ways to steal from the public - it's a wonder they ever do any actual work.

My only question is - what's worse? The brazen corruption in local and state government that none of our elected officials is willing to do anything about - or the fact that the below article excerpt does not mention how many (if any) of these hundreds - yes - hundreds of criminals when you add up all different schemes discovered in just one year year - are being sent to jail - or even being fired.

The answer, likely, though - is zero on both counts. But don't worry. They'll eventually get theirs. Yes, they will all be getting their life long pensions and free medical coverage as their rewards for stealing from the public.

Hundreds of L.A. County social workers either liars or really bad drivers, audit suggests
By Troy Anderson, Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 08/26/2008 11:36:40 PM PDT

AUDIT HIGHLIGHTS

360 of 690 claims between July 2005 and November 2007 were for single-vehicle accidents based solely on employees' own statements that they were work-related.

80 employees filed about 170 claims - an average of two or more per employee.

One employee submitted four claims in a year, all single-vehicle accidents, totaling about $6,000.

One employee filed two claims totaling $5,800 for damage that occurred on days the employee's timecard indicated she was not at work.

In yet another stinging audit of Los Angeles County's Department of Children and Family Services, a new investigation has found that hundreds of social workers in the past two years racked up $1.1 million in vehicle-damage claims that included a host of questionable payouts, officials said Tuesday.

Auditors said one social worker sought reimbursement for vehicle damage while off-duty, others forged supervisors' signatures on claims and dozens of claims for windshield damage were paid out at an average cost of $950 when the usual cost is about $265.

In one case, auditors said, a social worker claimed a vehicle was totaled and filed a claim exceeding $10,000 - more than the vehicle's fair market value - even though a police report described the accident as a minor "fender bender."

And overall, auditors said a widespread lack of management oversight and controls in reimbursing the county's 3,000 social workers for work-related vehicle damages from July 2005 to November 2007 resulted in nearly 700 claims.

"We took a sample and discovered 80 employees had filed approximately 170 claims," said acting Auditor-Controller Wendy Watanabe. "That's an average of two or more claims per employee. That seems very excessive.

"And more than half of the claims were single-vehicle accidents. ... Many involved windshield damage, which appeared to be excessive. That just seems very high."

`Lax in oversight'

DCFS Director Trish Ploehn acknowledged the problems and said the department has strengthened management controls over the claims process.

"The review found we were lax in our fiscal oversight and authorized a number of reimbursements without ensuring the required procedures were followed," Ploehn wrote in a letter to her managers.

"This failure to follow procedure negatively impacts our integrity as a fiscally responsible agency. This is especially troublesome at a time when we are expecting reductions in our county and department budget."

The audit follows a spate of similar inquiries that have found systemic problems in the department. In August 2007, auditors found that the DCFS misspent millions of dollars on unnecessary and overpriced supplies and violated county spending limits.

The next month, auditors found that social workers pocketed at least $100,000 in unwarranted overtime and bonus pay. And last November, an audit found that social workers spent tens of thousands of dollars on meals and entertainment, including tickets to the musical "Wicked."

And...

Auditors launched a review of the agency's damage claims after a routine review of vehicle claims found that the number of DCFS claims was proportionally higher than other county departments.

Of 690 accident claims, 360 were for single-vehicle accidents, many involving windshield and tire damage or driver error, like running over parking lot spikes and backing into poles.

Auditors also found that 80 social workers filed 170 accident claims.

"For example, one employee submitted four claims in one year, all single-vehicle accidents, totaling approximately $6,000," auditors wrote.

Another social worker received more than $600 in rental car expenses for 23 days, which appeared excessive, auditors wrote.

"The employee's vehicle required minor bumper repairs for $1,100, which included eight hours of labor," auditors wrote.

Meanwhile, the DCFS also paid 28 of 58 employee claims reviewed without all of the required documents and approvals. On five of these claims, the required documents were not approved by the employees' supervisors.

"For example, an employee approved her own field itinerary by signing her supervisor's name and putting her initials next to the signature," auditors wrote.

"Another claim had three different signatures for the division chief, but the division chief only signed one of the forms."

In response to the audit, Watanabe said the DCFS now requires senior managers to approve any work-related vehicle damage claims.

And to help reduce the costs for windshield damage, Ploehn said, the DCFS has contracted with a company that comes to DCFS offices to fix windshields.

"I had told my administrative staff that I wanted a 100 percent audit of every process we've got to make sure we are using our money wisely, particularly in light of the potential budget cuts," she said.

troy.anderson@dailynews.com

What's $60 Million To A LA Times Copy Editor?

The headline reads - 40 million awarded to Mattel by Jury. But the AP article reads - 100 million awarded by jury to Mattel. And at the moment it is the lead front page story on the website and has been for over 90 minutes. Doesn't anyone at the LA Times read their own website?

Jury awards Mattel Inc. $40 million in Bratz lawsuit
From the Associated Press
4:37 PM PDT, August 26, 2008
RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- A federal jury awarded Mattel Inc. $100 million in damages today in a federal copyright lawsuit that pitted the house of Barbie against MGA Entertainment Inc., the maker of the saucy Bratz dolls.

MGA and its chief executive officer, Isaac Larian, were told to pay a total of $90 million in three causes of action related to Mattel's employment contract with designer Carter Bryant, who developed the Bratz concept.

The jury also ordered MGA, Larian and subsidiary MGA Hong Kong to pay a total of $10 million for copyright infringement.

MGA contends the three awards related to the contract were duplicative and said it plans to ask a judge to set total damages at no more than $40 million.

In a victory for MGA, the jury did not award any punitive damages and found that neither Larian nor MGA acted willfully when they employed Bryant, a finding that could have dramatically increased the damages.

Los Angeles Times Once Again Proves It Knows Nothing About Los Angeles!

The above linked story about the renovation of the historic Westlake Theatre on Alvarado shows the LA Times continuing lack of even a cursory first hand knowledge of our city.

For those who do not know the Westlake area, it was a fashionable Victorian neighborhood in the 1880's and the 1890's with some larger homes being built into the World War I era (mainly craftsman, Tudor, colonial, etc.) and a few very larger homes - but mainly apartments - being built in the 1920's by which time the elite of LA had mainly not only moved themselves to the West by the time the theater had opened, but they had sometimes even picked up their homes from the now unfashionable neighborhood and moved them to Hancock Park and Windsor Square where the elite had now moved.

And by the 1930's - the pre-WW II era, the neighborhood no longer had any new single family homes being built in it, the new apartments were middle class - at best - and the area had begun its long decline.

As for architecture, the homes were almost all wooden with a few that were purely stucco - and a very few of those were of early Mission or Moorish Design. Very rarely were any of them of the later Spanish revival style of the 1920's and 1930's.

Now read the parts of the article below that describe the neighborhood and its architecture:

Renovation of historic theater evokes hope and grumbling
The 1920s Westlake Theatre is being reborn for performances, but some vendors who use the building as a swap meet wonder where they will relocate.
By Esmeralda Bermudez, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 23, 2008

This was the place where, decades earlier, Charlie Chaplin delighted audiences and Los Angeles' elite, the residents of the district's Spanish-style mansions and high-rise homes, gathered to relax with an evening of theater.

And...

The surrounding community has been transformed dramatically since the theater opened 82 years ago across from MacArthur Park on South Alvarado Street.

Before World War II, it was one of Los Angeles' more fashionable districts, home to some in the movie industry.

Not huge glaring errors - other than the non-existent neighborhoods filled with non-existent Spanish-styled mansions - but still a rather complete lack of real understanding of every single aspect of the social and architectural history of the area; a lack of local understanding that one now expects - and gets - from the Los Angeles Times.

LA Times Article On Eddy Hartenstein Speech!

Not a lot new in the below article - other than to say he is a native of the Southland for the first time, but nothing more specific on that other than to say his childhood was spent in Alhambra. And for those of you who currently write for the Times, Alhambra (not to be confused with Windsor Square or East Los Angeles) is an incorporated city located just east and north of Downtown Los Angeles....

New Los Angeles Times Publisher Eddy Hartenstein asserts independence
The Southland native says he will have more latitude from Tribune bosses in Chicago.
By Michael A. Hiltzik and Martin Zimmerman
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

10:46 PM PDT, August 18, 2008

The Los Angeles Times' new publisher, Eddy Hartenstein, said Monday that the newspaper would operate with greater autonomy from its corporate parent in Chicago as it tried to reverse steep declines in circulation and revenue while overcoming the trauma of recent staff cuts.

Hartenstein, 57, who is credited with building satellite television leader DirecTV, was named publisher and chief executive Monday. He is the newspaper's fourth publisher since it was acquired in 2000 by Chicago-based Tribune Co., but the first with Southern California roots to hold the job since Otis Chandler, whose family controlled the paper for more than a century, resigned the post in 1980.

Raised in Alhambra, Hartenstein said he expected his familiarity with the community and with the paper -- which he said he began reading at the age of 11 -- to be a major plus.

"To be publisher here in L.A., you need a local, and I am a local," he told an overflow crowd of Times employees at an afternoon meeting. "I'm a 213 kind of guy, not a 312 kind of guy," he declared, referring to the area codes for downtown Los Angeles and Chicago.

The Times has struggled with rapidly changing economic, demographic and cultural conditions that have produced declining revenue and circulation for newspapers across the country.

But it has also struggled to adjust to out-of-town ownership that some critics say has been insensitive to or unaware of the peculiarities of the local market. The resulting tensions continued after Tribune was taken private in December under the leadership of Chicago entrepreneur Sam Zell.

Hartenstein signaled that he would have greater latitude than his predecessor, longtime Tribune executive David Hiller, to run the newspaper his own way. In the conversations with Zell that preceded his appointment, he said, Zell "satisfied me that I was going to be able to do this the way I saw fit."

He said his top priority was increasing revenue rather than cutting costs -- an elusive goal that has been oft-expressed by Tribune executives. Hartenstein said he would step up efforts to improve ad sales. He offered few specifics on his plans, other than to say he would "talk to any existing, new or prospective advertiser."

He also suggested that his experience at DirecTV would help him break fresh ground in presenting new content to readers of The Times and viewers of its website, latimes.com, while building their audiences.

"All of the folks I know in the content business are always looking for other avenues, other venues, other combinations, other cooperative agreements," he said. "I'm open to any and all ideas that increase our viewership and increase the number and range of demographics we can pull in." Those ideas include increasing ties between The Times and KTLA-TV Channel 5, the Tribune-owned station in L.A.

"I think our society and our technologies and our habits have changed dramatically," he said in an interview in his office before the staff meeting. But that does not eliminate the need for vigorous journalism. "You can have all the fancy appliances that you want, but it is still the discovery, the pursuit, and the active chronicling and reporting of the story that will always need the human touch."

In his meeting with the staff, which has been pared in two rounds of early retirements and layoffs this year, Hartenstein said he had no plans for further cuts, and no directives from Tribune management to contemplate them or to reach a staffing target. "I don't think we can cost-cut our way through this."

Nor did he believe that Zell would cavalierly impose cuts in violation of his agreement to give Hartenstein broad discretion to run the newspaper. He noted that Zell, knowing his experience and independent streak, approached him to come out of retirement to run The Times. "If he's hired me to do this, he's not going to come in here and micromanage me."

"I don't need this job," he added. If Zell were to renege on his word, he said, "I'm gone."

That said, some of the financial pressures facing The Times are beyond Hartenstein's control. Zell's privatization plan increased Tribune's debt burden to a daunting $12 billion. As the largest of Tribune's operating units, The Times has been expected to contribute the largest share of the cash flow needed to service that debt -- part of the impetus for this year's staff cuts. Hartenstein said he and Zell agreed that any discussion of financial targets would take place in six months.

Hartenstein said he was committed to maintaining the global reach of The Times' news gathering, part of what makes it what he called "a world-class newspaper."

"You cannot accurately reflect where we stand in the world without covering the world," he said. "That's as important an aspect of doing the job as covering local news."

Staff members who attended the afternoon meeting said they were impressed with Hartenstein's local roots and "reverence" for the paper. His media background and familiarity with several reporters' work also didn't hurt.

But others said they were waiting to see Hartenstein prove himself.

"I would love to love this guy, but we've learned the hard way before not to invest our hearts in new leadership," said Geoff Mohan, an environment editor. Mohan said he was troubled by Hartenstein's comment about leaving the paper if Zell reneged on promises to let him be an independent executive.

"The test for every good fighter is whether he can take a punch," Mohan said. "I'm tired of good people standing up for what's right, and then reaching the breaking point and walking away."

michael.hiltzik@latimes.com

martin.zimmerman

@latimes.com

Times staff writer Tiffany Hsu contributed to this report.

Early Report On Inaugural Speech By Eddy Hartenstein To The Troops!

Below are portions Kevin's post over at LA OSERVED quoting an email from a LA Times employee:

Just got out of a meeting with Eddy.... He says all the right things--but so did the previous publishers. He seems genuine, bright and has poise. He's a local and is familiar with the paper; a dedicated reader (and yes, it's apparent he reads the sports section, unlike some I could mention). When people asked questions, he recognized their bylines--very heartening to the staff.

And....

He emphasized that he hadn't been recruited for the job; that he was happily retired and was introduced to Zell through a mutual acquaintance. He and Zell had lunch and that was that. About a month ago Zell called and asked: "How'd you like to run the L.A. Times?" He also emphasized that he doesn't need this job and left the strong impression that he expects Sam Zell to be a man of his word about freedom to run The Times and if Sam doesn't keep his word, Hartenstein will be gone. Hartenstein and Zell are supposed to talk in roughly six months about how things are going....

People asked about his lack of experience with newspapers. He said he has lots of experience with DirecTV in getting and retaining subscribers.

And...

He says he's a "213" guy, not a "312" guy. Also much laughter.

Biz is doing the real story, these are just a few random notes.

More at above link.

Los Angeles Times Still Doesn't Know The Difference Between Windsor Square And Koreatown!

Despite the combined efforts of a staff writer, an editor and a copy editor - the LA Times story with a headline claiming that 400 S. Western was in Windsor Square and the body of the article saying that it was near Windsor Square, even after a post by me, four different emails to the paper and a published comment on the LAT blog - the best the paper can do is change the headline to saying that the 400 block of South Western is just near as opposed to actually being in Windsor Square. Still not mentioned in either article is the name of the community that the 400 block of South Western is in - Koreatown.

Hopefully, new publisher Eddy Hartenstein can fit some copy editing into his duties since he - at least - grew up in LA and just might know something about this city.

Eddy Hartenstein Inspects His Troops At 3 PM!

Today's LAT's Staff memo from FISHBOWLLA:

New L.A. Times Publisher Eddy Hartenstein sent the staff the following good morning:

Good day,

As an avid reader of The Times for more than 45 years, I never dreamed that I would awake one morning to find my name at the top of the masthead. I am honored to have the opportunity to lead this venerable institution, humbled to be in the building where journalists ply their noble craft, and sober to the difficult economic realities of the newspaper business.

You will find that I manage by walking around, try to listen more than speak, make decisions quickly after hearing all sides, and am not afraid to reverse course if we happen to stumble into the cauldron of unintended consequences.

We need to continue to be many things to many people, with the utmost urgency, and without ever sacrificing our integrity. I took this job because I firmly believe that we, the women and men of the Los Angeles Times, can show the rest of the world how the Fourth Estate can not only survive, but thrive in the 21st century. Whether our journalism is delivered electronically, on latimes.com, in the printed paper, or through some other medium, a vibrant newsroom is essential to our mission.

Please join me for an all-hands meeting this afternoon at 3 p.m. in the Chandler Auditorium.

LAPD Power Grab Threatens Both Film Production In LA Plus Safety In The Streets!

Nikki Finke has just exposed one of the worst ideas ever to hit this city. Taking active duty cops off the streets and having them baby sit film shoots. So not only will fewer cops be on the streets, but red tape, scheduling problems and higher costs will only further accelerate the film and TV industries fleeing LA for other states. Additionally, if being forced to hire active duty police officers to work film sets works out anything like being forced to hire active duty firemen to monitor fire safety at events, this will quickly devolve into a feather bedding boondoggle.

LAPD keeps complaining its officers are overworked. And the Los Angeles public keeps complaining there aren't enough officers on the streets. So why in the world is the Los Angeles City Council even contemplating the LAPD making a grab to take back jurisdiction over L.A. television and movie location sets by replacing movie cops with off-duty active police? As one location manager advocating the status quo system that's worked well for decades told me, the LAPD wants this added responsibility "regardless of their ability to adequately man or administer the volume of work that the retired officers provide".

The movie cops are retired LAPD officers in charge of traffic and crowd control on TV and film locations. They see themselves as professionals and have even formed the Motion Picture Officers Association, with 150 or so members who have the required LAPD-issued permits to assist movie and TV productions. Interestingly, the Hollywood studios who employ the movie cops don't want changes. The MPAA points out that retired officers aren't subject to the same overtime limits as active duty police, so staying on schedule and on budget may prove impossible if TV and film sets are brought under LAPD control. Last year, the MPAA and LAPD agreed to start assigning a sergeant to oversee film sets and make spot checks to ensure permit compliance. But the LAPD is arguing that the rules regarding filming permits are still not being enforced toughly enough by the retirees.

The changes being advocated by the LAPD are part of its lobbying for a new overall Contract Services Section to give Parker Center control over law enforcement at major events, like sporting and filming. I've looked at the different sides of this issue, and I don't understand why the LAPD wants to fix something that ain't broke, especially when the police have far more serious matters to worry about. But now this issue is heating up before the Los Angeles City Council and the LAPD plans to start moving in the retired officers as soon as October, according to Hal Dejong, the president of the Motion Picture Officers Association. Here's the email DeJong sent to his members and was made available to me:

To All MPOA members
From Hal DeJong

LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell has been in City Council offices shaking hands, finding ways to help with general constituent problems, and promoting his plan for Contract Services Section. He has all but won over the Council members and their staff members at this point. He and Duran have been selling the Council members on what an awful disciplinary problem the retired officers are, with Duran using the things he has been doing to us as evidence to back up those claims. The Council is getting the same impression of the retired officers that the Chief of Police got from Futrell and Rives.

We have to get OUR message to the Council members. They need to know that we are not out of control as LAPD is painting us. We need to, and our friends in the industry need to, let them know the following points:

The film industry values the services of the retired officers. Their experience makes it safe for them to do running shots, stunts on the streets, and significantly contributes to the effectiveness of their production efforts within the City. Many of these activities are specifically planned in Los Angeles because they do not get anywhere near the level of support from off-duty active officers in other jurisdictions. It is not the fault of those officers. They simply lack the experience and know-how that the retired LAPD officers have developed over the years. This industry has a $52 billion per year impact on the economy of the region. Other areas of the country are actively seeking to lure production to their cities and states, building elaborate sound stages and offering incentives to move production there. Yet much of it remains here, in part due to the support they receive from the experienced retired officers who facilitate their production requirements. The LAPD proposal will take away this experience, and substitute the same type of "crime fighter" officers that they get in other jurisdictions, who have little or no concept of how to safely set up for a movie closure .

The LAPD has embarked on a campaign to portray the retired officers as unfit to serve in the uniform of the Los Angeles Police Department. They have assigned a Sergeant to harass the retired officers with petty complaints, documenting numerous alleged infractions of the rules so that they may use those in their case to eliminate the retired officers. The truth is that the vast majority of the retired officers are dedicated, experienced, seasoned officers who truly work to facilitate the delicate balance between the rights and safety of the public and the needs of the film companies.

These retired officers have from 20 to 30 years of experience handling police situations before they retired. They also have years of experience working film locations. Those are different skill sets. The retired officers know from experience where the film sensitive areas are and why they are sensitive. They take steps to mitigate the impact on the location in those situations. A large cadre of active officers rotating through off-duty movie jobs would prevent those officers from acquiring the skill level of the retired officers for a very long time.

These retired officers have earned the respect of the production industry, which has given them de facto authority over enforcement of the film permit provisions, even in the absence of formal statutory authority.

The retired officers are able to respond to the highly dynamic schedules of the film industry without impacting the cost or level of police service in the City.

The current system under which coordinators facilitate the assignment of retired officers to movie jobs provides the necessary level of flexibility to change call times, add or delete officers, even at the last minute. The LAPD proposal would require 4 days notice. The current system often changes call times at wrap the day before.

While police patrol work is demanding and requires an officer to maintain a state of readiness to enter into a gunfight at any moment is his shift, location film work does not require such a high state of readiness. Retired officers are able to work the long hours of production schedules. Active officers would have to limit their movie job hours to avoid conflict with their scheduled LAPD shifts, court appearances, and other obligations.

Because the retired officers are not employed by the City, any lawsuits arising out of their actions would be against the retired officer and/or the studios they are working for. The actions of active officers working on City payroll would subject the City to legal liability for their actions. While the track record of citizen lawsuits against retired officers for their actions is nearly nonexistent, that is not the case for the actions of active LAPD officers.

Because retired officers are not City employees, their injuries are not treated at City expense and the City does not lose the services of an officer while the retired officer recovers from his injuries. An active officer injured on a movie job must be paid his regular salary while he recovers, even though he is unable to work his regular shifts during that time.

The City Council needs to hear the true impact of allowing LAPD to take away the retired officers and substitute active duty officers. The time is now to use any and all contacts you have. If you have access to a City Council member, go in and tell them. If you have friends in the industry who have access to City Council members or the Mayor, encourage them to go in, or at least call in, and promote retaining the retired officers. If you have contacts in the media, present the case to them. Media disclosure of the potential for increased costs to the City for this plan could result in a public backlash against LAPD taking these over.

The LAPD take-over seems to be very much closer than we thought. Lieutenant Ray Garvin has been given the direction to assemble his team within the next two months in preparation for their implementation of contract services. We now believe that the October general meeting of retired officers working movie jobs that Duran has told us he has planned will be the announcement that retired officers will no longer be allowed to work movie jobs in the uniform of the Los Angeles Police Department. We have a very short window of opportunity to try to counter this.

If You See Only One Art Show This Season - Tonight...

.... join me at the 01 Gallery for a new opening curated by Retna! .... Undisputed Champions, featuring the work of Sam Fuchs and Adam Gray. It is the first official opening at O1's new space on South Hewitt Street in the Barker Block Lofts. The opening will run from 6 pm until 10 pm. So come on down, get some refreshments, listen to some music, and check out the art!

To get a feel for Sam and Adam's work, go to them on the web at www.hellamorefunner.com.

Also, there will be an after party at LaCita Bar in downtown Los Angeles after the opening. They are located at 336 S. Hill St. Go to their web site for directions, etc: www.lacitabar.com. Oh, and if you mention the 01 Gallery you get into the bar for FREE!




Contact Information
01 Gallery
530 S. Hewitt St., Suite 141
Los Angeles, CA 90013
phone: 213.689.0101
web: www.01gallery.com

BOXeight Opens New Gallery Tonight!

BOXeight Studios is celebrating the grand opening of their new, permanent space Downtown with a big ol' party tonight. Head down to check out the inaugural exhibit, featuring Dirk Mai, Peter Eaton Gurnz, Marc Mez, Ben Cope, Urk Denman, Alie Ward, Mike Vensel, Bryden Lando, Casino Nelson Berto H, Soo Yong Kim, Jerry Park/Tara Jean, Marco Rached, and Valou, and live performances from Chester French, Crooked Cowboys & The Fresh Water Indians, and Nite Jewel, along with DJs Keith 2.0 and Cam Francisco.

Why The Los Angeles Times Has No Street Cred!

The headline on the morning version of the LAT website was:

2 found dead in burned building in Windsor Square

Now why would it use the term 'building' when Windsor Square is 100% single family homes. Then came the headline:

2 charred bodies found at Windsor Square fire scene
More than 100 Los Angeles city firefighters worked to control the blaze at a skin-care business on Western Avenue.

Western Avenue is in Windsor Square?? Then the story:

By Jia-Rui Chong, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
11:23 AM PDT, August 16, 2008
Two charred bodies were found early today after a fire in a skin-care business in the Windsor Square area, Los Angeles Fire Department officials said. The cause of the blaze is under investigation.
The fire broke about 2:30 a.m. on the 400 block of South Western Avenue, said department spokeswoman d'Lisa Davies. Authorities were alerted to the blaze by a 911 call from a nearby building, she said. More than 100 firefighters worked for 38 minutes to bring the fire under control.

Now as anyone in this city knows - or should know - 400 S. Western is in the heart of Koreatown. It also used to be called Mid-Wilshire and it has had a couple other names since then. The area between this neighborhood and Windsor Square has also had several names of its own.

But until this moment in time no one has ever claimed that South Western is in Windsor Square - which both headlines do - nor has South Western ever been described as being even in the Windsor Square area. And the only way I can imagine it being called that is if someone picked up a Thomas Guide and looked for the coolest name anywhere near this site and said - well, that works for me!

Now what makes this particular error so embarrassing for the Times is that just two nights ago at a panel discussion on the Times I sat on - the civic tragedy that the reporters and editors of the Times don't even know the streets or the neighborhoods of the city they are supposedly covering was the single most shameful problem at the Times.

And this proves - if anything - we considerably understated the problem.

More On New Publisher Of LA Times!

Eddy Hartenstein may be the perfect publisher for the Los Angeles Times - at least on paper. And I've had some time to check him out though mutual acquaintances since Nikki Finke first floated his name over two weeks ago.

Hartenstein comes from the generation that reads/read newspapers, but he is also an innovator in electronic data delivery. He has an engineering background - which creates the problem solving mind needed to tackle the myriad of issues facing the newspaper industry, but he is also very much a people person according to everyone I've spoken with.

He was also born (I believe, but need to confirm), raised and schooled in Los Angeles.

He is also very, very bright.

L.A. Times names Eddy Hartenstein to publisher's post
The former DirecTV chief must contend with steep declines in circulation and advertising revenues.
By Martin Zimmerman
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

August 16, 2008

Eddy Hartenstein, the former head of satellite television provider DirecTV, will become the new publisher of the Los Angeles Times on Monday.

Hartenstein said Friday that he would fill the post vacated when publisher David Hiller resigned July 14, the same day parent company Tribune Co. began implementing the latest round of staff cutbacks at the paper.

Hartenstein takes over at a time when The Times and most other newspapers are losing readers and advertising revenue at a significant rate. Some observers are even questioning whether the newspaper business as currently constituted can survive.

"I'm not coming into this with blinders on," said Hartenstein, 57. "I realize that the problems are huge and daunting, but I don't believe there's anything that can't be fixed as long as everyone is pulling in the same direction."

An avid reader of The Times since his boyhood in Alhambra, he said, "I love challenges. I love complex issues and problems, and this certainly met all that."

Sam Zell, who has led Tribune since taking the Chicago-based media company private last December, approached the former satellite TV executive about becoming publisher about a month ago, said Hartenstein, who met Zell for the first time last fall.

After mulling it over and doing some research -- which included a 3 1/2 -hour lunch with Times Editor Russ Stanton -- Hartenstein agreed to take the job.

"I wanted to know that I would have the ability . . . to call the shots," said Hartenstein, who said his new boss made no demands concerning future staff cuts. Zell "basically said, 'You're the publisher and CEO. It's yours to run,' and that was pretty much it."

Hartenstein said he also sought assurances that Zell had no intention to simply "dress up the paper for a sale."

"One of the questions I asked Sam was: Are you going to keep this?" Hartenstein said. The answer "was a strong, affirmative 'Yes. This is a keeper.' "

The Times has been particularly hard hit by the current turmoil in the newspaper industry. Its daily circulation has tumbled from a peak of 1.2 million in the early 1990s to about 774,000 this year while advertising revenue has slumped. Traffic to the paper's website, at latimes.com, has increased sharply in recent years but that has not offset the declines in advertising.

Management turnover has accompanied the circulation decline. Hartenstein will be The Times' fourth publisher since Tribune acquired the paper in 2000. The paper has had four editors since 2005. Hartenstein said he had "no intention of changing the editor of the Los Angeles Times."

His appointment continues Zell's tendency to name former executives from electronic media to positions within Tribune, including Chief Operating Officer Randy Michaels, a former radio executive.

Friends and associates say Hartenstein, regarded by many as the father of the satellite TV industry, combines the analytical thinking of a Caltech-educated engineer -- which he is -- with the people skills needed to lead a complex, consumer-oriented organization, which he also happens to have done.

"He'll meet you once and he won't forget your name, he won't forget what you do -- and he'll care about all of that," said Stanley E. Hubbard, chief executive of Hubbard Media Group in St. Paul, Minn., who has worked with Hartenstein in the past. "It's a very refreshing way for a senior leader to be."

He left a positive impression at the Glendora offices of the National Hot Rod Assn., which was working with an investment group headed by Hartenstein on a $121-million deal to turn the drag racing organization into a mini-NASCAR. The deal abruptly fell apart in February after 18 months of work. With the credit crisis on Wall Street worsening by the day, what had seemed a good deal a year earlier was no longer viable.

"The market conditions were the driving force behind it not happening," said association President Tom Compton, who worked with Hartenstein and his investors. "Those guys are very bright guys. If they couldn't get it done, I'm not sure who could've."

It was a rare setback for Hartenstein, whose career path has been mostly upward. After graduating from Cal Poly Pomona in 1972 with degrees in math and aerospace engineering, he went to work for El Segundo-based Hughes Electronics Corp., a defense contractor and satellite maker that was later acquired by General Motors Corp.

While pursuing a master's in applied mechanics at Caltech in his spare time, Hartenstein was moving up the ladder at Hughes and germinating an idea that would shake up the television industry: using satellites and digital technologies to deliver programming to viewers' homes. Not only would the sound and picture be sharper, satellite TV would make an end run around local cable monopolies, he reasoned.

In the early '90s, Hartenstein persuaded his bosses at GM to finance the venture that would become DirecTV Group Inc. In 1994, DirecTV revolutionized the satellite TV business when it introduced a small receiving dish that could be mounted on a rooftop or apartment balcony, eliminating the need for the wading-pool-sized backyard dishes that had been the standard until then.

The innovation helped win over reluctant consumers and also gave DirecTV a leg up on rivals. Hartenstein, who had been president of DirecTV since its inception and was named chairman and CEO in 2001, distinguished the pioneering medium from its cable competitors by improving customer service and offering innovative packages of sports programming.

By the time he left at the end of 2004, a year after GM sold its stake in DirecTV to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., the company was among the nation's top pay television providers, with 13.9 million subscribers.

Associates say DirecTV's growth illustrates Hartenstein's ability to combine technical innovation with customer-oriented initiatives, shedding when necessary the numbers-driven, pocket-protector persona generally associated with engineers to focus on the commercial aspects of the business.

Other than the failed deal with the drag-racing group, Hartenstein has kept a fairly low profile since leaving DirecTV, serving on the boards of SanDisk Corp., XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., Broadcom Corp. and the City of Hope hospital in Duarte.

Although well known in the industry (he's a member of the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame and received a lifetime achievement Emmy last year), Hartenstein isn't exactly a household name. The Wikipedia page for Alhambra High School doesn't even list him on the roster of notable alums, which includes model Cheryl Tiegs and Hillary Rodham Clinton's mother.

"He doesn't go to the annual gatherings of industry big shots," said Brian Lamb, CEO of C-SPAN and a longtime friend. "He's not a high roller."

Whether Hartenstein's success at building a business from scratch translates to a declining industry that's under assault from a range of newly sprouted competitors remains to be seen. Those who have worked with him say he's adept at choosing effective lieutenants, which could help compensate for his lack of publishing experience.

"Eddy knows what he knows and he knows what he doesn't know," said Compton of the National Hot Rod Assn.

Efforts to reinvent the traditional daily paper so far have failed to gain traction with subscribers, advertisers or investors. At The Times, in addition to halting the slide in circulation, Hartenstein will need to lure advertisers back to the paper and to the website and shore up a demoralized staff.

Even so, those who know Hartenstein don't expect him to make changes impulsively.

"Eddy's not a guy to panic," said Joe Clayton, former chairman of Sirius Satellite Radio. "When things get difficult, he remains calm. He'll assess the situation, get a consensus and then make an appropriate decision."

martin.zimmerman@latimes.com