LHS Homecoming Friday at 6 p.m.- v. Eagle Rock H.S.

Lincoln High's last game is the Friday, November 6, 2009, the Homecoming Game - (and, yes, it's at home, and at night- and for you who have been out of touch with things at the campus, we've had lights since about October 2001, give or take a year. There's not much parking, as usual, but there are lights.)

Varsity game vs. Eagle Rock, at 6 PM, the JV at 3 PM, and the Homecoming Dance to follow at 8 PM.

A Parade This Sunday on Eagle Rock Blvd.: It's the 4th Annual Northeast Veterans Day Parade

Northeast Los Angeles Veterans Day Parade
Date: November 8, 2009

Time: 1:00 p.m . Starting Point:
LAFD Fire Station 55
York Boulevard and Eagle Rock Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90041

The route proceeds North on Eagle Rock Blvd. to

end, one block South of Colorado Blvd.

Ending Point: City Parking Lot:
Merton & Chickasaw (1 block S. of Colorado Blvd.)
Los Angeles, CA 90041

Among the entrants will be Lincoln High and Franklin High- Eagle Rock High appears to be continuing with their own technical difficulties and is not making an appearance.

4th Annual Northeast Los Angeles Veterans Day Parade covering the Northeast Los Angeles area which is comprised of Eagle Rock, Glassell Park, Mount Washington, Cypress Park & Highland Park.

Phone: 323 258-0776
Fax: 323 255-6387

Contact Name: Ruby de Vera
Position/Title: Event Chairperson

L.A. City Council- support for LAUSD mandatory uniform policy- Both the resolution and an LAUSD policy are way overdue.

There was something that came on the agenda for Wednesday's Council meeting that appeared to be worthwhile, but the only question to me was, "Why did this take so long to happen?" The Council came to agree on a resolution- and that's all it can do since the City Council has no jurisdiction over the LAUSD schools- and made this resolution, a purely advisory item, to support the LAUSD mandatory school uniform policy when it brings it up.

The motion was co-sponsored by Jose Huizar, Council member for CD-14 and former LAUSD Board President before he arrived at City Council. If you don't remember, it was after Mayor Villaraigosa left CD-14 for the higher calling to the Mayor's office that CM Huizar moved up in office and pay.

The only wonder I have is why Jose did not make a substantial effort WHILE serving as LAUSD's Board President for this. But again that rule of thumb applies, especially so with government, "better late than never."

===================================================
As appearing on the agenda today:

"ITEM NO. (20)
09-0366
EDUCATION AND NEIGHBORHOODS COMMITTEE REPORT and RESOLUTION relative to support for any plan by the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to implement a mandatory district-wide school uniform policy.

Recommendation for Council action, as initiated by Resolution (Huizar - Hahn - LaBonge), SUBJECT TO THE CONCURRENCE OF THE MAYOR:

ADOPT the accompanying RESOLUTION to include in the City’s 2009-10 State Legislative Program SUPPORT for any plan by the LAUSD Board or Superintendent to implement a mandatory district-wide school uniform policy, IF AMENDED to delete the phrase “including in the City’s 2009-10 State Legislative Program.”

Fiscal Impact Statement: None submitted by the Chief Legislative Analyst. The City Administrative Officer has not completed a financial analysis of this report.

Community Impact Statement: None submitted.

(Rules and Government Committee waived consideration of the above matter)"

==================================================

The current policy of LAUSD is to allow each school to decide for itself whether it will have uniforms.

A parent spoke in Spanish through an interpreter to the Council about the positive experience that the policy brings and her remarks were very relevant, perceptive and supported the ideas that I have long agreed with. The benefits of a mandatory school uniform policy far outweigh the disadvantages that may exist from adopting the school uniforms policy.

A big feature she included was that there was some deterrent effect with gang involvement Also mentioned was that the students appeared to do better overall in school after the uniforms were adopted. Discipline is improved and you can identify which are the school's students inside and outside of school by the uniforms. It helps school security. The expense of the fashion race is bypassed and a better attitude is formed by students.

The Markham Middle School experience in city was cited by an official who also spoke. I believe he may have been a school police representative. The beneficial outcomes that arise from adoption of the school uniforms policy were related by him

Council Member Cardenas said he would vote for the motion, but that he requested also that there be documentation of the benefits that resulted that were attributable to the wearing of school uniforms, rather than making the assumptions that the beneficial changes described will actually happen and that they will happen as a result of school uniforms being adopted by a school.

This was something interesting and unexpected to hear from a CM. Usually it is THEY, the CMs that make far-reaching assumptions and predictions, citing no authority or factual basis for the conclusions that they present in proposing the assortment of motions that they continue to generate.

In that same process there is little opportunity to challenge the conclusions that the CMs state in their presentations, especially right before a vote that ends up in the usual fashion, a “unanimous” vote of all CMs present, apparently reflecting little of any contrary public comment made by members of the public to whatever degree that it appears compelling, immediately preceding the vote. The “done deal” effect in operation again.

But here, CM Cardenas seemed to be hedging his bet and on the face of it, I don’t see any ill wind blowing from that Northernly direction. Am I suspicious or doubting? Over time and through observation, I have just come to see that all that happens is not usually a result of only what is presented in city council meetings and there’s often more happening to be seen later.

For now, this is all that can be done by the City Council- they have their own greedy hands full now with trying to fix the city budget with a mounting deficit. The ball is in the LAUSD’s court- to use another sports metaphor that I follow with one more below.

The LAUSD’s action on uniforms would be something more than a pure “Hail Mary” pass to try to improve the performance of a generally failing school district. There is much present to address the concerns of the opponents of such a policy and we can get to that later, if and when LAUSD get things moving.

As I have said before, the District moves too slowly on things, too much attributed to putting politics ahead of function usually. It’s the students that get churned out of the District's schools year after year in June graduations, or earlier by dropping out, that are shortchanged. THEY suffer and WE all will suffer, too as a result of the consequences of an under-educated youth.

===========================================
When I was last at Lincoln already four years ago, there was no leadership in handling dress code violations, to the extent that the existing dress code was known. Teachers were not encouraged to do anything about that. In fact, there was more of an environment to ignore even obvious violations that mostly arose with the female students, lest you be accused of some misdeed yourself as a teacher.

And so it was at LHS, from the top down. Only one teacher, who I admired for actively and successfully addressing the problems as they arose, able to act on this. (It was something that motivated me as a teacher to not ignore students throwing trash on the ground, especially when they were standing right next to a trash can, as I walked from one classroom to another. Those things CAN be handled successfully for all concerned with some postitive attitudes.)

Here, a mandatory uniform policy would essentially bypass that entire situation and maybe help to right the ship. If concerns are that "expense" is an issue, there are many solutions for that as the need arises.

For now, let's see how long LAUSD takes to try to save it's programs and schools with a practice that's been followed in most if not all Charter Schools and the Catholic and other private schools for years. The prospect of a Charter School taking over some or all of the facilities at Lincoln is real- 5 consecutive years of PI status, "PI-5," but the process moves so slowly, maybe some effective changes can be made to ward off those proposals when made.

City Controller Wendy Greuel, tonight's guest speaker at ERNC meeting.

City Controller Wendy Greuel will be visiting the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council meeting as a guest speaker tonight. The ERNC meetings are from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The last word received from Yvette Rojas of the City Controller's office was a confirmation of the visit. There will be a short presentation with a Q&A to follow before getting to the agenda items.

You might ask, "And where is this meeting supposed to take place?" The ERNC meets at "The Eagle Rock Center for the Arts," 2225 Colorado Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90041, one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd. http://www.eaglerockcouncil.org/

Side Note: By the meeting time, Mayor Villaraigosa will have announced his selection for the next LAPD Police Chief. (News update: The expected Chief will be Charlie Beck, Chief of Detectives- official announcement to be made at 11 a.m.)

Tony Cardenas thinks the City needs to make "lactation rooms" in City buildings/Offices.

Here's something that caught my attention in the news on the radio this afternoon. Tony Cardenas in a sound bite says, that when he speaks with women, and I don't know if this is an ice breaker at a party or something that's part of official communication: "every time I bring up the idea of a lactation room they think it's a great idea."

This just seems so much a low priority thing that affects such a small part of the population that it doesn't support taking attention from other things that are looming for the Council as city business with an urgency.

This was also mentioned in Mayor Sam's blog in the Comments posted that I did not notice Friday:
http://mayorsam.blogspot.com/2009/10/los-angeles-politics-hotsheet-for_30.html

By Anonymous:

More pages from the "nanny" state . . . (although what this has to do with
either "information technology" or "government affairs" is tough to figure. . .

Information Technology and Government Affairs Committee Tuesday,
November 3, 2009, Room 1010, City Hall - 2:00 pm

Members:
Councilmember Tony Cardenas, Chair
Councilmember Jan Perry

FILE
NO. SUBJECT (2)
09-1950
Motion (Cardenas – Perry) relative to the
feasibility of creating lactation rooms for mothers with newborns in City
facilities with 250 or more occupants, and related actions. (Arts, Parks, Health
and Aging Committee approved motion on October 13, 2009)
October 30, 2009
11:23 AM

The 2pm meeting's Agenda is here: http://ens.lacity.org/clk/committeeagend/clkcommitteeagend2463332_11032009.pdf

Of course it's useful to lactating women but in terms of absolute numbers, how many women are in that condition AND are city employees AND can't manage otherwise without the City creating physical space for this purpose? Tony Cardenas says that maybe they can get Gerber or some other baby product manufacturer to pay for the cost. Oh, really? We have a poor economy and companies have been cutting back all around for nearly a year, and "donations" from corporate sponsors have been dwindling for standard charities and public service organizations. There is very little to motivate a busines, especially without a trade-off in return, to pay for such a thing .

I would guess it's either city-paid or it doesn't happen and if it's city-paid, it should come with a chunk of salary from the Council members that approve it.

Student cheating a life long-skill? Richmond Gang Rape a sign of Moral Decay?

A couple of things in the news this week have a connection to each other although only indirectly.

Students and Dishonesty.

First, "Seeds of adult dishonesty are sown in youth, study finds," by Carla Rivera, October 29, 2009. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dishonest29-2009oct29,0,25349.story

The story in the L.A. TIMES on Friday seems to establish a couple of things that some have already thought were happening generally. Namely, that standards of honesty and doing right don't rate as highly with youunger people than older ones and that the students that cheat in high school are more likely to do so in later life. The study was done by the Josephson Institute, an organinzation that works on ethical issues training and information.

The story in the TIMES does go into the possible reasons for more teen cheating and dishonesty. That discussion of reasons makes sense but still does not justify the behavior, it only explains its possible causes.

If the results of the study are accurate, there's a lot less that's good to expect of our future leaders and future politicians (as if the politician types needed new reasons for dishonesty). The story goes on to show that an ethics program in Downey Unified School District was begun four years ago and suspensions and expulsions are down and attendance is up.

The Second Story- Gang Rape Outside Homecoming Dance.

In the news this week there was the other story about the Richmond, California gang rape of a 15-year old student (Ed. note: corrected from earlier "16-year old" reference.) outside the school's homecoming dance. A group of males acosted her as she left the dance early to get picked up outside by her father. The men took her around the location an alley and raped her for 2-1/2 hours, witnessed by at least 20 persons with no one calling 911 for the police or trying to stop it. some people were said to have recorded the scene on cell phone videos.

The girl's assault was being talked about inside the dance and another woman called police to report it. Some reports say they were still in progress when police arrived. The question in most people's mind is "Why" no one called the police at all, even if they did not want to be seen doing it at the scene?

Another question is "Why would anyone record the video and not call police?" Did they consider this crime to be some form of entertainment?

This loosely ties in with the idea in the "dishonesty" treand among young people. A lot of disinterest in the welfare or caring about fellow human beings could result in this kind of inaction. The Kitty Genovese murder in NY was the clasic example of such failures to help. In that case, decades ago, the woman was assaulted and her screams were heard by a large number of people, but no one called police. The conduct at Richmond, a high crime area as described by many, shows that we haven't had any consistent instilling of values in young people.

Most in high school, adults that is, when it comes to teaching right from wrong and seeing a value in doing good, simply say, "That's the parents job." You'd be surprised how young people see violence and crime as an acceptable kind of behavior. There was a very large proportion of students that had no idea of common courtesies such as "Please, Thank You, or You're Welcome." (There's enough adults. too, with this pattern, so you can see that's why it was not learned or reinforced. I had to say, to respond, for each instance that another teacher shrugged it off, "Well, SOMEBODY has to show them and they can't do that in my class."

It was a pretty novel concept to many but progress was made slowly but surely. It's just that not enough attention is given to see the voids in the makeup of young people, maybe with all the pressures of teaching to the standards and the tests, there's no time to teach as much about fitting in with other human beings.

Yet, simply explaining with some examples and asking a question, "How would you like to be treated in the situation?" often begins to turn on some lights and begins to put it together for students. No one wants to be treated badly and to further demonstrate things, you could ask, "What if this were your friend, your mother, your sister, your baby sister or brother?" or some less numerous combination presented to not go overboard in the exercise.

And now this rape situation seems that it should be intolerable to ignore and not call police, but that's what happened. Maybe the kinds of questions and discussions I had with students never were presented to these young crime witnesses.

That's why the gang rape story, a horrific and brutal example of human behavior, could be explained to some extent, but it would never be justified. Those perpetrators, some adult and some teens, look like they are facing the most serious penalties for the felonies and the youth offenders are said to be charged as adults.

So there are the two stories that do have a connection of sorts, something that calls for causes to be addressed since neither should be an acceptable level of behavior.

The quietly launched LAUSD Duffy-Cortines summer deal that bumped out permanent subs

On 10-29-09:

"Senority system in LAUSD keeps good teachers out,"
By Larry Sand, Updated: 10/29/2009 04:42:33 PM PDT

The writer is a former teacher. He sides with the union's deal to give priority for substitute teaching calls to go to the laid off teachers over the existing body of substitute teachers, many of whom have been subs for years.

This is a story that has generated a few comments. Some of these favoring the laid off teachers and some favoring the subs, especially noting that most of the subs have the greater seniority. You can see that at http://www.dailynews.com/opinions/ci_13669698

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Earlier stories as the Substitute Teachers came to realize their dangerous reality:

Sept. 22, 2009

"Veteran substitute teachers protest loss of work," L.A. TIMES- "L.A. NOW" section online http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/09/veteran-subs-protest-loss-of-work-and-endangers-health-benefits.html From the story:

Under the agreement, 1,800 full-time teachers who were laid off this summer are given preference for open substitute jobs. In L.A. Unified there are roughly 2,200 openings for substitute teachers every day.

Subs must work one day a month to keep their health benefits and must total
100 days worked in a school year to earn benefits for the next year. In his
statement, Duffy pledged to help the veteran subs recover the work hours they
needed.

The deal was criticized as a secret one because this part of the agreement was not given much or any publicity. The Times' writer says they had to go find this out.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

October 15, 2009

"L.A. schools chief stands by controversial deal to use laid-off teachers as subs," [Updated] October 15, 2009 11:47 am, L.A. TIMES' "L.A. NOW" -

The Los Angeles schools superintendent says he opposes revoking an agreement that has imperiled health benefits for more than 1,000 veteran substitute teachers while costing hundreds of them regular work.

In an interview, Supt. Ramon C. Cortines said he stands by a deal that was designed to help recently laid-off full-time teachers by giving them preference for available substitute jobs over veteran subs with more seniority.

I think that Cortines is just tired of dealing with the same work and especially, he's not interested in helping AJ Duffy, the union president, to look good to his members- and then create more power for Duffy. The idea of dealing with the union to save jobs was a task in itself and this detail is more Duffy's problem than that of Cortines.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

October 22, 2009

"Veteran L.A. substitute teachers losing work -
L.A. Unified Supt. Ramon Cortines stands by a one-year deal made with the teachers union to give assignment preferences to laid-off instructors, including those with less seniority" By Howard Blume, October 22, 2009.

The arrangement to bypass teacher seniority only came to light when the district provided a copy of the agreement to The Times. The deal then created a firestorm within United Teachers Los Angeles, especially when veteran substitutes noticed that they were getting little or no work. Many subs rely on their district employment as primary income. They also get health benefits when they work at least 100 days a year and at least one day a month.

Because of the ongoing state budget crisis, the Los Angeles Unified School District on July 1 laid off about 2,000 full-time teachers who had not yet earned tenure. About 1,800 of them then signed up for sub work. On average, the district employs about 2,200 substitutes a day.

You can see from the numbers that after assigning the substitute assignment calls to the laid-off teachers, there's not much left for anyone else. It doesn't do much for the regular subs, who were effectively doomed by the Duffy-Cortines arranged agreement. Cortines say it is designed to keep teachers around until the economy improves and they can come back to LAUSD.

He did not mention that there is a steady decrease in enrollment in LAUSD schools over the last decade, at the same time a school building surge is continuing, now producing about a new school per month.

As an aside, consider that (1.) many of these new schools will ultimately become managed by charter schools and (2.) you have lots of school in the fifth year of PI (Performance Improvement) status.

After 3 consecutive years of PI status, the state can take over the school. Right now, taking over schools is sort of "on the back burner" for the State, preoccupied with some other problems, so any changes will be slow to come, but meanwhile, 2 or 3 more years worth of students will be churned out of the LAUSD, either by graduation or dropping out, educated NOT to their fullest potential.
==========================================================================

Here's an abstract of a doctoral work: "National Implications: An Analysis of E-Mentoring Induction Year Programs for Novice Alternatively
Certified Teachers" that considers the importance of mentoring on novice teachers, a category of teachers that leaves the profession at high rates (30% and up) within the first five years of teaching. It considers the impact of mentoring and e-mentoring to reduce the attrition rate. Pay rate, to the surprise of lots of people, is not among the leading reason for leaving teaching.
http://www.nationalforum.com/Electronic%20Journal%20Volumes/Anthony,%20Taiwanna%20D.%20An%20analysis%20of%20E-Mentoring.pdf

The object of the study is what to do about keeping and making good teachers by mentoring approaches that will support them and make them better teachers who, in turn will produce better educated students.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From the Article of June 8, 2005:

The issue of The Total View newletter from Success Performance Solutions that advises on hiring at topic 1. Fifty Percent of New Teachers Leave in 5 Years. on http://www.super-solutions.com/teachershortages.asp

According to a National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) survey of 8,400 public and private school teachers, the main reasons for high teacher turnover and attrition rates are with inadequate administrative support (38 percent) and workplace conditions (32 percent).

Teacher recruitment and other supply-side solutions may not only fail to solve the problem, but could also make it worse if recruitment strategies involve lowering teacher standards, or if the effect of increasing teacher supply is to deflate salaries or erode working conditions.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2008

Here is an article "Why Are New Teachers Leaving- The Case for Beginning-Teacher Induction and Mentoring? -that talks about what's needed to help new teachers become successful, namely the mentoring of new teachers and how the structure should be to establish such support on a systemic basis. This is a very detailed plan that is described showing the entire plan and what should be done and what is the purpose of the actions.

http://www.icfi.com/docs/beginning-teachers.pdf

DWP is going to be collecting more from you, but why?

Here is more from a Tuesday entry on Ron Kaye's blog http://www.ronkayela.com/ that you can examine to see that the DWP collects and has been collecting for years, loads of money. "DWP Calling: Your Money or Your Life (Or Why We Need to Know Where Our Money Goes)," By Ron Kaye on October 27, 2009. http://ronkayela.com/2009/10/dwp-calling-your-money-or-your.html


You might have sensed that part about collecting loads of money from you, but did you ever wonder WHERE it went? All that money was collected as a public utility only have it passed along to the "General Fund" of the city to use as it pleases. Instead, they could have been using it to improve service and maintain facilities and infrastructure.

The DWP collected so much money that the City Council had simply used it as a regular supplier of cash, not really doing much for the utility's customers of water and electricity. Remember, too, that this is a monopoly, the only game in town, and you really have no choice when it comes to sellers of water and electricity. It's all DWP and only DWP when it comes to getting electricity or water.

Check the numbers and see the added note at the beginnig of the October 27 blog posting that reflects the City Council meeting's outcome. The DWP requested approval for bonds for applying to DWP improvement on Tuesday, October 28, 2009. Bonds are the way that money is obtained. Actually it is borrowed to pay for things such as government projects. They are very expensive and the amount used comes from selling them to investors who will get paid back, usually from more taxes imposed upon the publie. The High Speed Rail to San Francisco sounded cool and I
am sure many voted to approve the project because of that, but it won't be ready for many years, while the costs to cover the bond repayment begins to mount fairly promptly.

That approval by the City Council, often colorfully referred to by many critics as the "City Clowncil," is mentioned in the linked posting and repeated below:

Editor's Note: The City Council, after a lengthy debate about Google
vs. Microsoft email products, unanimously approved both the water and power bond plans of DWP without debate, setting the stage for further rate increases. Google email won unanimous approval to be City Hall's email.

The DWP has a history of actions that cause most reasonable people from wondering, "Who's in charge here, anyway?" This ranges from the breast feeding classes for employees paid for at the work site by the DWP when the health insurance already provides this benefit, to the payments for an outside Public Relations company when an in-house ability already exists and when there is no other competing utility because DWP is a monopoly. All these came at hefty prices and the PR problem was corrected finally but it shows that they need serious watching.

By the way, David Nahai, ex-GM, resigned earlier this month and is getting paid as a "consultant" to answer emails and phone calls "during business hours" at just under $150,000 for the time left this year. Nahai was solidly behind the breast feeding expenditure. That was back when Nahai and the IBEW (union) were more in agreement than when Nahai left. Ron Kaye's blog gives a lot more of the details for dozens of the city politicians' activities that are not what they should be doing for the public and the voters.

Another resignation from L.A. City Pension Board, LHS alum Moctesuma Esparza

"Another member of L.A. pension board resigns," by David Zahniser, Oct. 28, 2009 . http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/topofthetimes/national/la-me-pension28-2009oct28,0,5787968.story The news here involves an alum from the Lincoln High Cl. of 1967, producer Moctezuma Esparza, who was appointed by Mayor Villaraigosa to the "Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System," aka "LACERS." Esparza's position was a volunteer position. This makes him the seventh of the Villaraigosa appointees to resign in the last six months according to the Times' story.

The story explains some of the reasons for departures, and while there is no actual violation of anything now. Esparza has some business interest that could be considered within the newly changed law that prevents a person from holding a commission appointment while having dealings that may conflict with the public's interests.

The city's retirement system has lost a huge amount of money over investments in the downturn of the economy. This is something that is being investigated to determine whether any dealings happened to benefit individuals making the investment selections. The City is responsible to make up losses to the pension fund, something that doesn't happen with most private pension investments. The city's budget woes were made significantly more serious by these losses, with many investments made in projects of unusually large size and carrying significant risk. Losses were suffered when those went belly up or were otherwise devalued in the real estate market's plunge.

The various reasons for resignations of the other members are stated in the story. It appears to be a good choice on Esparza's part to leave in order to be clear as not having any question of conflicts of interest raised from potential personal benefits that could arise as a commissioner on the pension board. It's a problem he doesn't need to be involved with. Esparza is known for producing many notable movies, among them, Selena, Gettsburg, The Milagro Beanfield War, and Walkout.

Council plans to ban more outdoor smoking

"L.A. officials express support for smoking ban in outdoor dining areas,"
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/10/a-los-angeles-city-council-committee-voiced-support-for-a-ban-on-smoking-in-the-citys-outdoor-dining-areas-tuesday-but-or.html Something that the L.A. City Council does to pass time instead of deal with real issues of budget, crime or traffic, not to mention soaking the public for as much as they can in as many ways as they are able to invent- parking meters, trash fees, traffic tickets raised, telephone tax created, fee waivers as special events to unqualified events, and on and on.

The one of the originally published versions of this story in the L.A. Times had incorrectly stated that a ban would extend to a 40-mile radius from a taco truck

The actual application of the proposed city ordinance is "40-foot radius of mobile food trucks and refreshment kiosks." Note: "mobile food trucks" appears to be the current descriptive title for the more common term, "taco trucks.' And historical note: Does anyone remember the label, "Catering Trucks?" Those were trucks that had a route to stop by businesses daily for breaks and lunch but the food was already preapared instead of a carrying cook and kitchen on board. At that time the franchise fast food places were not found everywhere like today, and McDonald's was still establishing its place on the horizon. Now you find McD's, Burger King, Wendy's, Taco Bell, and many other franchises in a short drive, or even walk, from whereever you work, go to school or live.

Well, first, a while back, the city wanted to limit where taco trucks could park for any length of time before they had to move on. The courts struck that law down, so now the city goes the other way, and constructs a zone that appears to be more accommodating of their operations and including them within conventional eating establishments. Right about here, I think it's a good place to remind you that City Council is known neither for its consistency or proper prioritization of any issues.

The comments on the L.A. Times blog responded to the story's initial typo banning smoking within a "40-mile radus" instead of 40-foot radius from a taco, or, "mobile food truck" or "food kiosk.'

Some samples of comments from the version, "L.A. council to consider banning smoking in outdoor dining areas," October 26, 2009, at http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/10/la-council-to-consider-banning-smoking-in-outdoor-dining-areas.html,


That's a tough new law. I don't think you can ever be 40 miles from a taco truck in California.
Posted by: Omond October 26, 2009 at 06:52 PM

What? Within 40 miles of a mobile food truck? That has to be a typo. If it were county wide that'd mean if there's a truck in San Gabriel I couldn't smoke in Pasadena.
Posted by: Matt Reed October 26, 2009 at 06:55 PM

How will I know if I'm within 40 miles of a mobile food truck?
Posted by: Kevin October 26, 2009 at 07:12 PM

How will I know if I'm within 40 miles of a mobile food truck?
Posted by: Kevin October 26, 2009 at 07:12 PM



The City Council will spend hours in a hearing on ONE agenda item and still bungle the outcome. To offset this time imbalance, many times they will then pass agenda items in other important areas very quickly with unanimous votes after little or no discussion. (Where there is public comment on an "agenda item," within seconds of the last speaker, they call for the vote and you get in ALMOST EVERY CASE, a UNANIMOUS vote that makes you think what the speakers said mattered not a bit. I think it's the case and you'd have been paid more attention speaking a foreign language instead of English. (That's because you would have an interpreter there, and everything you say will come out twice.)

There are lots of blogs around that chronicle these things so I won't go on any longer with my own list. www.ronkayela.com is one place each day to find so many examples of a malfunctioning city government that you really have to wonder, "Who elects these people anyway?" ANSWER: usually a "majority" of a 12% to 18% turnout- barely 1/5 at most, of the registered voters. . In other words, a different outcome could result with way less than 1/4 to 1/3 of the REST of the registered voters choosing differently.

Dance Contracts for High School students

There's a story in the news this week about the use of "contracts" for high school students. This contract happens to be directed to dancing. Aside from the dress codes that never seem to be handled well in LAUSD, as far as I have seen, there is the dress and behavior at school dances.

The L.A. Times story on the topic carries the headline, "Schools putting the moves on hold," By Carla Rivera, October 26, 2009 . http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dances26-2009oct26,0,1724549.story

Downey and Aliso Niguel High are using "dance contracts" to address the problem of explicit teen dancing. The story covers a lot of the experiences in student behavior and this is an attempt to address the matters. Read this for some enlightenment on current student culture if you haven't seen what's happening yourself.

I think it's about time for this to happen. LAUSD should take notice.