"Aristocrats" Class of Winter 1960 Is Looking for Classmates

The LHS Aristocrats, Class of Winter 1960, is planning an October 3, 2009 reunion, as I found out while attending the LHS Alumni meeting today. Some members of their class were on the campus this morning working on collecting some video material for their class reunion, as well as getting familiar with some of the changes that have been made since their graduation. I was able to speak with several members of their contingent, learning that a two of their group present went on to become teachers after graduating from Lincoln, teaching at the high school level and above.

Their reunion committee is looking for more class members and you can help in spreading the word to get in touch with their classmates. For a point of reference in history, this is the class that graduated in the same year that John F. Kennedy was elected as the President of the United States, defeating Vice-President Richard M. Nixon, in 1960. So you see, they go back a long way in the history of Lincoln High, pre-dating even the Vietnam war.

A call for help goes out to neighbors, friends and relatives of Lincoln alumni- see if there are LHS class members of this class among them- There are always Lincoln grads around, and you might be surprised if you check with people you encounter to see how many you find, especially from the older part of the L.A. population. There's also those LHS Alumni that we have spread out across the country and beyond, especially during times of war, serving our country.

The CONTACT PERSON for the class is Ben Chu, telephone: (562) 693-4527

Time for More Answers from "Ask A Mexican"

More that you probably didn't know from Gustavo Arrellano, "Ask A Mexican"



Something you probably never thought about.

And getting into the Mexican food topic one more time and with a lot more substance (and fillings) here's another viewing for your ethnic enlightenment.

Ed Reyes' Birthday Party- did you get your invitation?

Looks like today is a good day for CD-1 CM Ed Reyes, first, he's getting a big wing ding of a birthday party, and second- and more eye-catching- is that it's going to be a big, big payday for his campaign if the "donation" list is followed.

Sorry for the late notice, but this was a late item; You might be able to make it to Barragan's On Sunset (not the one in Glendale or you will have a very different party experience tonight, a very lonely party experience, albeit a less expensive one). This was an announcement that was emailed to the Mayor Sam's blog today, with a separate thread posted there:

"Are you Ed Reyes' Compadre, or just his Amigo?," ( http://mayorsam.blogspot.com/2009/01/are-you-ed-reyes-compadre-or-his-amigo.html ) and they include many more details for quite a picture of this affair, sorry, celebration, including the "host committee" list.

That "list" looks to me as very close to being a Latino version of the rogues' gallery of local politics, with a few that surprise me, but you can form your own opinion.

"ED REYES' BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

Please Join Senator Gil Cedillo, Assemblymember Kevin De Leon, Council President-Eric Garcetti, School Board Member Yolie Flores Aguilar
Com. College Trustees Miguel Santiago, Mona Fields and event MC, Commissioner Herbert Siguenza of Culture Clash for a celebration honoring Ed Reyes' 50th birthday.

Date: Thursday Jan. 15, 2009 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM
Place: Armando & Rosie´s Barragan's Mexican Restaurant1538 W. Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA. 90026
To R.S.V.P. please contact Sandra Figueroa- Villa at (213)215-7551

Suggested donations:

$ 500. Compadre/Comadre
$ 250. Padrino/Madrina
$ 100. Amigo "

I need to add the "update" that was added to MAYOR SAM'S posting that could help put a few more things into sharper focus:

"UPDATE: Observant commenters note that the sponsor's list
is essentially identical to the fake "Southwest Society" list. If true, this little party is nothing but payola to Reyes for his vote on the Autry expansion and rip-off of the Southwest Museum. And here we thought this was just about a birthday... "

You can see that there is a lot invested in CM Ed Reyes and having to start over with a new council member would be much more costly to a lot of people and organizations with the loss of arrangements that have been cultivated over the years in CD-1. They just can't let THAT happen, you know.

And, "Happy Birthday to Ed"

L.A. TIMES actually covers City Hall's shady actions on Special Event waivers

The story posted here Tuesday about City Council's "Christmas-in-January" gift by a unanimous-vote giveaway of over $124.000.00 of services expense for free was caught by the L.A. Times in a story on Wednesday:
"L.A. City Council waives Grammy fees.
Despite facing a $433-million hole in the city's budget for next year, the council agreed to waive $124,163 in fees associated with the Grammy Awards, which will be held Feb. 8."
By Maeve Reston January 14, 2009, http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-grammyfees14-2009jan14,0,5107264.story

It's about time that the L.A.T. stopped letting all the Council's wasteful slickness get by the people's notice. For years, the L.A. TIMES ignored sneaky maneuvers that had been going on commonly and at regular frequency at City Hall, undertaken at will by the office holders. Without any source for providing reports to the general public in common English, a lot of this simply slipped in under the radar.

In the last year, with the addition of a few reporters who don't appear to be dazzled by these politicians, a lot of stories have begun to reach the surface in the L.A. TIMES that present a more realistic picture of the wheeling and dealing that goes on in city politics

Still, it's not the LAT that does the best job consistently. That role has been long held, almost as a monopoly, by the L.A. WEEKLY. The L.A. WEEKLY continues to delve into the political mire and bring stories that obviously wouldn't fit into the campaign brochures or video clips that run during election drives. (Much credit to reporter David Zahniser of the LAT who formerly was L.A. WEEKLY's lonely star city hall reporter.)

You can read the complete story yourself to see "money waste in action" at the link above. One revelation in the story that happens commonly at awards events the goody bags from assorted sponsors, called "gift bags," that contain extremely expensive items, very often reaching the $30,000 range, that are given to the various attendees, usually prominent ones (as if they needed such gifts.) SOMEbody is making some money here for that to be don, but it surely is NOT the City of Los Angeles.

The story brings up another name from Tuesday's post here. It was Zuma Dogg, who made his comments to the City Council on Tuesday very loudly and clearly in opposition to granting a waiver. And this is where you can see things going quickly into City Council's version of "autopilot." Right after the comments were done, the Council took the vote and guess what? It was another vote of "unanimous" approval, as is the usual case in Council's voting. What great group of watchdogs of the taxpayer dollars we have there on Spring Street. It's always as if the Council members are being kept in some soundproof room so that not ONE WORD of public opposition before they vote. And maybe with their rude inattention, that mght be their excuse, but I believe that it's simply that decisions happen before that time.

The phrase "a done deal" comes to my mind when the Council holds these phony sessions to take in the views of the public that they promptly ignore, or, sometimes, the council president, Eric Garcetti, offers some gentle comments along the lines of stroking, and THEN, ALL Council Members present will still ignore those comments that were just spoken, as they cast votes as fast as they can, in their all-for-one style.

The views of Mayor Tony were conveyed in the story by Matt Szabo, his spokesman, who makes statements so that Tony doesn't have to risk exposing himself to being questioned on his views or actions, and when he wants to avoid "misspeaking" on matters. Szabo's comments on behalf of the Mayor were fairly clear,

[H]e believes that the city's "fee waiver policy is clearly broken and needs to be
fixed."

"At a time when we could be facing a half-billion deficit, the council
absolutely must reform a policy, which costs the city upward of $5 million a
year," Szabo said.

Well, that's one of the commonly presented styles of operation for that office. Mayor Tony could just tell the City Council what he wants and they would follow it. He's the one that they follow for nearly all purposes. If Tony wants something, they're on it. Who do you think gave the direction to find more ways to "generate more revenue" that brought such a rush to create the changes taxes and fees for residents and businesses that make life in L.A. cost us more, regardless of the impact it has on such people of low or fixed incomes?

The council members continue to reinforce their position with the Mayor at every opportunity. Have you heard the way the reference items during council meetings when there's a connection to the Mayor? "This is brought under the great leadership of Mayor Villaraigosa," or, "...Our great Mayor is doing a fine job for us in (fill in the activity)..." Such self-indulgent baloney is too often taken for the truth by those who only casually observe these events.

It's all P.R. coming from the Mayor's office at a time when the city election is less than 2 months away. Tony is looking for his second term and he's done a "great job" in his first term to show why Tony's bid for a return to that office should be REJECTED. Any candidate for mayor would be hard pressed to do a poorer job than Tony has done during his first term.

Visit City Hall and you will most definitely find that the council members are actually quite a RUDE bunch. They don't have much or any attention focused on the speakers until their own motions come up. Very frequently they are seen having their own private conversations going on at the same time as members of the public are using their 2-minute alloted time to speak on a matter. That routine inattention is something that doesn't show up in the online video coverage of meetings.

As I repeat from earlier items, Council Members don't pay attention to the small guy (and that means you and me) at least they are not paying any attention to do something of benefit to the small guy, UNLESS there is some clout behind them, like a community group, OR a union (but then we cross over into another kind of special interest group when unions enter the picture, becoming another one of the "big" guys).

The Grammy Awards Show obviously have a superior rating with city hall that places it well above us. They easily get the Council Members to give up some big bucks at a time when tax dollars have become scarce and new taxes and fee expenses for the residents and businesses (other than the Grammy Awards) can't be boosted fast enough- after all, it's not the council members' money being given away. Wouldn't that be a very different picture if that happened?

Supt. Ramon Cortines speaks in E.R. on LAUSD budget crisis

Ramon Cortines made a special appearance in Eagle Rock last night to a packed auditorium at Dahlia Heights Elementary School. The superintendent was accompanied by Yolie Flores Aguilar and other LAUSD higher-end staffers who presented a picture of extreme changes and belt tightening, and describing the past efforts done in anticipation of this funding cutback, with the further effects that can be expected.

Supt. Cortines said this is not a temporary condition and severe impact will continue, causing changes through 2010. In terms of possible solutions, he told the parents that they need to be the ones who contact as many of their elected representatives by all means they can find for support of funding to the district. The crowd was largely a combination of teachers and parents of the local school.

Supt. Cortines was unable to give the exact range of changes that would be required until the budget numbers are settled upon by the legislature and Governor. The state does not yet have a budget settled upon. He did say that he would expect to be able to make a report on projected changes at the end of March. One of the cost cutting steps to be done was to take in Supt. Alonso's sub-district office and house it at the Beaudry H.Q. of the District.

Among cutbacks affected are use of non-LAUSD consultants, usage of out of school sites for professional development and reduction of the buy-back days for professional development. Teachers to be laid off would not be determined until much later when numbers are settled upon, and there would be more cutbacks in administration, with teachers primarily assigned to Beaudry offices to be sent to the classroom. The overall picture would be also affected by the bumping rights of employees, with seniority to others who may be assigned to schools. Classroom size increase is one of the primary concerns that Mr. Cortines discussed and he assured the audience that the children are the priority.

There was some hostility shown in the comments of one attendee who suggested particular action at one school where she said space was given away to charters school use. Supt. Cortines reminded her that there was an order from a settlement in court that provided for charter schools to be allowed certain space in school facilities. He corrected the woman who said it should not go to private use, saying that charter schools ARE public schools and the district must abide by the terms specified in the settlement, done before he was handling matters.

Mr. Cortines said that there would be another school district sponsored tax initiative authored that could possibly qualify for the November 2009 elections, raising the state sales tax for application to classroom and teacher needs only, in contrast to other funds that never do reach the announced targets. A sizeable number of signatures would be needed to qualify it for the ballot. Mr. Cortines also mentioned that the District was trying to sell its bond as authorized by voters but it was a difficult job as the financial situation of the district was so unsettled.

Among other things brought up was that teachers who were on probationary status, that is without sufficient job-time in, mostly applying to those working in a credential program, would be the first ones affected if a layoff were to occur. Notices advising of potential layoff would be sent out in anticipation of that need to layoff to fulfill the legal requirements before a layoff can happen.

One woman, speaking in Spanish, went into a non-stop, lengthy question at a rapid pace that quickly went beyond the ability of the interpreter to precisely re-state the question in English, and Mr. Cortines apologized for himself as not speaking Spanish. He said that interpreters definitely would have to be among those retained.

A member of the audience, possibly a teacher, challenged Mr. Cortines to himself take a pay cut to help the budget situation. The superintendent told the woman, who was apparently unaware of the terms of his employment contract that were announced when he succeeded Adm. David Brewer, that he DID have a pay cut back from the amount OFFERED to him. Mr. Cortines added that he was taking the promotion, but keeping the same salary he had in his old Asst. Supt. position. He continued, saying that there was no $45,000 expense account or $3,000 monthly housing allowance among other things he's paid, as his predecessor was allowed. The exchange was friendly and all were amused at this time, bringing the meeting to a conclusion for the moment.

Supt. Cortines responded to an audience member coming from another school, concerned about information that school community would not received, but Cortines replied that he would go to any school that wanted him to speak about this.

There were a few pages of papers distributed to the audience by the District representative setting up the facility for the meeting with the district position stated as far as possible, and additional materials from the PTA were distributed that included a summary of the changes facing the schools and the suggestions and alternatives that parents could apply as measures in working on retaining the most as possible in the budget outcome by demonstrating outside of schools before and after class are in session.

Nightline "bumped" Zuma Dogg segment from Wednesday's slot

The ABC network notified Zuma Dogg that they have "bumped" his segment that WAS SET for airing tonight, Wednesday. So it will come up anytime AFTER tonight, but exactly "when" is not certain. The easier way to see this segment, unless you just watch Nightline every night anyway, will be to see it on YouTube after it airs, which is what ZD will do.

The segment features the public access television topic, including Leslie Dutton as the host of the "Full Disclosure" program, an investigative television presentation of various topics.

You can see a "Full Disclosure" segment about the New Belmont/ Beaudry high school project- see that program at: http://www.fulldisclosure.net/Programs/521.php - The school finally opened last year as the most expensive high school in the U.S. (followed by the "arts" high school, competed but not ready until after summer, as the second most expensive school in the U.S., also an LAUSD-creation on the old site of the District's headquarters at Grand Avenue and Cesar Chavez).

And that is the update on the ever-changing priorities of network television news.

Alumni Meeting for January on Saturday at LHS

Reminder that the LHS Alumni Association meeting for January is coming up. (There was no December meeting.)

Date: Saturday, 1-17-2009
Place: LHS Student Cafeteria
Time: 9:30 a.m.

One of the topics will be a final report on the 95th Anniversary Gala event held on November 1, 2008, along with events and business for the rest of 2009. Alumni and guests are invited to attend these meetings, and, if they feel up to it, become dues-paying, voting members, as well. An agenda, as available, may be requested from directly from the Alumni Association; see contact information from the sidebar link.

Zuma Dogg on ABC's Nightline Wednesday Night

For many who do not keep up with local city (Los Angeles) politics, there a change happening in City Hall Council Chambers. This change is the stir made by one person who is not afraid to call city officials on the carpet for what errors of judgment, fairness or ethics that he finds. What the council says is the effect or purpose of a proposed ordinance or motion very often is found to be something that is not quite that, and often, the consequences of council actions serve to benefit special interests more than anyone else. These are commonplace scenarios that are brought about by a certain individual, very much the activist to reveal the waste, fraud and abuse in L.A. politics.

This is Zuma Dogg. He will be one featured part on the ABC television network news show, "Nightline" scheduled for Wednesday, January 14th, at 11a;35 p.m., carried on KABC-TV 7 locally.

Whether this program will give us a good sample of his activities in city hall politics or whether it's going to be just a glimpse, I don't know. but there's always something going on that works to annoy our politicians, but they need to be watched. In any event, if you are not familiar with ZD, check it out Wednesday night.

O.K., you say so what, this has been going on for years, what's changed now? For one thing, we have the L.A. CITY election that includes the offices of the Mayor, City Attorney and City Controller, as well as the odd-numbered council district, such as CD-1, Lincoln Heights area included where Ed Reyes is running against Jesus "Jesse" Rosas.

Zuma Dogg qualified to be placed on the ballot as a candidated for Mayor, one of many challengers to Mayor Tony's effort to extend his personal empire to a second term. You will find Zuma Dogg's name right next to Tony's on the ballot. ZD collected nearly all the petition signatures himself, an effort that provided him with the opportunity to share views with the public in an immediate fashion, something that commercial services or even volunteers cannot provide to those whose signatures are sought.

The presence of Zuma Dogg at City Hall has had the effect of getting people interested in what is going on inside City Hall, and you can follow the manipulations of council and the mayor with ZD's often extreme and passionate presentations that get the point across to even the most casual observer. The view that City Hall was some mystical place that was rarely visited has been completely converted by Zuma Dogg's theatrics and confrontational presentations to bring a level of communication that engages the regular person in terms that no longer are esoteric code and legal-double-talk, but instead, plain English.

The ideas and effects of what is going on there has been continually translated and put into common sense, everday terms for the general public to follow and instead of changes in the law being buried in oddly-crafted phrases, the workings and consequences have been brought out to see the light of day, much to the displeasure of the incumbent councilmembers. And who has been doing this? Zuma Dogg.

ZD has brought to many in the public a sense of accessibility to the local government that did not exist before. You are finding more and more people showing up at City Hall and others organizing in order to be heard. The power of organizing, formerly a trademark of the 60's activists, is showing a resurgence. Many of these "take-back-the-city" groups are from so-called grass roots origins. Previously, access to the local political forces was only available to the special interest folks that brought noticeable campaign contributions with them. They still are in the game, but they are not the only ones now.

That was the face of traditional politics that has a chance to change now. Most of the incumbents hold their office because they are aligned with a political force, be it a party or group of particular politicians to make holding an office about the same as a family passing along property by a will when leaving this Earth. Except that the difference here is that these politicians leave office due to term limits and keep that seat warm while choosing who will be the next occupant of that office, all while they work on moving to the next political office themselves. It's their own style of "Musical Chairs" and when the music stops, we usually wind up worse off than before in terms of the quality political representation.

That's not good for the general public, and you will see that kind of thing happening now. If you are not able to afford a lobbyist or make a contribution to the campaign war chest, you remain a stranger to them. Your vote is a long sought commodity but their interest in you takes that dramatic dive once the elections are over. This is not the best way to run a government for the benefit of the people and more will be brought up here on that thought.

There are the haters in this area- many of them working overtime at it. You can read the Mayor Sam blog (listed also in the sidebar) for bloggers who have the ritual of berating, ridiculing and just being nasty when it comes to comments about ZD or anyone supporting him. You can also read Zuma Dogg's own blog, http://ladailyblog.blogspot.com/ for the latest news on the local level, brought to you in a certain down to earth style.

For all the hopelessness claimed by the haters that Zuma's campaign involves, you do not see these guys let up. It's at all part of the effort to try to shake people from following ZD to the polls on March 3 as the Candidate of Choice. (Many of the posters undoubtedly have jobs in the City. Keeping that job depends on on their guy (Tony) remaining in office- he's got over 90 people working directly for him as it is and others indirectly are connected- so who would really leave their continued employment up to chance?)

If you read the Tony Villaraigosa 11%-All About Me story in the L.A. Weekly, http://www.laweekly.com/2008-09-11/news/the-all-about-me-mayor/ you might see why the Mayor might be a little more than concerned, even with his millions collected to sway voters in the coming weeks- there are a lot of people dissatisfied with Tony's actions in his first term.

Check Nightline for Zuma Dogg on Wednesday night (barring being pre-empted) or just check the City Council meetings online or on CH. 35 (for the time being) at 10 am on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, replays on 35 later, OR, online at anytime by selecting the video for the date you want to see and jump by subjects right to Public Comment. http://www.lacity.org/cdvideo.htm

More, much more, later.

City of L.A. Special Event Waivers- a tax-dollars giveaway

There's a regular part of the City Council meetings whereby they vote on Motions made by individual members of the Council to give your money away- they just waive fees for events, that is, the city will not charge an event holder for the expenses that the City incurs for that event in the specified dollar amount. In other words, they get things for free and the city soaks up the costs. It costs money to pay for extra time for police and traffic officers and services that are needed for such events.

In better financial times this was not such a significant matter, but now when the city is in a budget crisis, with over $400 million as a deficit, the policy needs to be given another look. The council has gone on a crusade since before summer to find ways to get more money from the residents and businesses of the city.

Look at your $1-per-hour parking meters and check your $36 a month trash fee that comes up as $72 on your DWP bill every 2 months, up from $11 last year. THAT is a result of more expenses that the city DOES NOT have enough money to pay for. That increase was supposed to be gradually phased in over 3 years in step increases, but TONY would not wait.

The trash fee explosion was pushed by Mayor Villaraigosa in order to increase the size of the LAPD to 10,000 officers. And of course, TONY will take the credit for that "achievemenet." That money, by the way, was NOT spent for that task, but for other LAPD expenses, so STILL the need for more money to make those hires just continues.

But that is just a small sample of so many things that are costing us more to be in L.A. How we got here is a simple story. The Council kept spending more money than they had coming into the city account. The City Council gives funding to many programs, over and over, making the city's bills higher and higer. Some programs may be worth having but many are not. And programs usually cost more and more each year, along with projects and services that were underestimated and now need MORE money to accomplish their stated objectives.

There are expenses made that are just wasteful, but the bottom line is that SPECIAL EVENT FEE WAIVERS really now need to be done very carefully, if they are to be done at all.

For every $1,000.00 that is "spent" or waived by the Special Event Waiver, MORE than $1,000.00 has to be collected to balance the expense- "more than" the amount is needed to take in the expense of the overhead of having city employees and processes doing more work just to get that amount of money back into the city treasury from the various supply sources, ultimately from the residents and businesses.

BELOW is a copy of today’s Council "Agenda Item 28", listing the requests and naming the council member making the motion for special event waivers. All of the items were approved UNANIMOUSLY, as is usually the case on vote patterns of the council members.

There seemed to be a loose guideline or policy that used to be followed generally for granting the waivers. A showing that the event was open to all persons in the community, and that it was not a for-profit event holder conducting the event.

Please check number 09-0030 below sponsored by CMs Jan Perry of CD-9 and Ed Reyes of CD-1 that gives the waiver of $124,163.00 for holding the Grammy Awards on February 8, 2009. As far as I know, the recording industry and artists are making some big money for somebody, and this event is NOT going to be letting you or me in to check it out simply because we are residents of the city. (You can be sure a LOT of the people who will be showing up there don't live all in Los Angeles themselves, either.)

The question of HAVING special event fee waivers is one matter.

It is an entirely different matter to consider WHO GETS THE WAIVERS.

Question: Should the Grammy Awards be paying all their expenses for the show? Do you think there is some money coming in to the promoters for the t.v. rights and the commercials? If it MAKES money, the city should not be a partner without some return on the expense. AND even if it did not make money, the city does not have to cover the costs.

People who FAVOR granting the waivers ask us to consider the amount of money that the event brings to the city. I do believe that this may be some value but the event will be happening here ANYWAY, so why give away services, especially in this time of city financial crisis?

Even for those who say it is a drop in the bucket compared to all expenses, shouldn't we start requiring some belt-tightening all around since the city will be coming to US for those dollars when they are needed? And shouldn't city council members be some sort of role model for something GOOD for constituents?

A lot in this area has to do with "attitude" and "symbolism" created by the actions of the city council or anyone else who acts in public office. Even if the sum for the Grammy event is small compared to lots of other city bills, the thought counts a lot. We would, at least, I would, like to think that the politicians CARE about being careful with the money they pull from us.

I don't believe they would spend their own money so freely if they had to find ways to replace some of it due to overspending style they have developed. It would be nice if a percentage of payment of costs came from their pay checks and then we'd see how important all these things were to them.

Below is a sample of routinely made expenses. Are you happy with this? And, do THEY, the councilpersons even CARE what you think? Maybe you could hear from Ed Reyes since he represents Lincoln Heights and he could explain this from their point of view.

Councilperson Reyes could also give you a list of all the expenses to residents that have GONE UP from changes the Council has made in the past year, including $5 added to all tickets, the trash fees mentioned, the phone tax deception that was made permanent, and now, the Measure B on Solar Energy that will send DWP bills skyward if it passes, and all put on the ballot with minimal public input.

For your information:

"[AGENDA] ITEM NO. (28)

08-0202-S1
et al. MOTIONS relative to “Special Events” to be held in the various Council Districts.

Recommendations for Council action:

DECLARE the following community events as “Special Events”; APPROVE any temporary street closures as requested; and, INSTRUCT the involved City departments to perform such services as detailed the Council motions attached to the various listed Council files, including the waiver of fees, costs and requirements and other related issues, as specified:

08-0202-S1
CD 11
a. MOTION (ROSENDAHL - CARDENAS) relative to declaring the 2009 Northern Trust Open on February 16-22, 2009 a Special Event (fees and costs absorbed by the City = $23,174).

09-0030
CD 9
b. MOTION (PERRY - REYES) relative to declaring the 51st Annual Grammy Awards on February 8, 2009 a Special Event (fees and costs absorbed by the City = $124,163).

07-2647-S2
CD 9
c. MOTION (PERRY - PARKS) relative to declaring the Trinity Street Block Party on January 10, 2009 a Special Event (fees and costs absorbed by the City = $1,670).

09-0027
CD 9
d. MOTION (PERRY - PARKS) relative to declaring the Light of the Angels Strike Days on January 2, 2009 a Special Event (fees and costs absorbed by the City = $350).

09-0028
CD 9
e. MOTION (PERRY - REYES) relative to declaring the Second Annual Walk For Wishes on June 6, 2009 a Special Event (fees and costs absorbed by the City = $2,800).

07-0560-S1
CD 3
f. MOTION (ZINE - PERRY) relative to declaring the Fourth of July Fireworks Show and Concert on July 4, 2009 a Special Event (fees and costs absorbed by the City = $12,424).

08-1196-S1
CD 3
g. MOTION (ZINE - ROSENDAHL) relative to declaring the 34th Season of Concerts in the Park on Sundays from May 31, 2009 through August 30, 2009 a Special Event (fees and costs absorbed by the City = $4,600).

07-1010-S1
CD 3
h. MOTION (ZINE - ROSENDAHL) relative to declaring the 21st Annual Canoga Park Memorial Parade on May 25, 2009 a Special Event (fees and costs absorbed by the City = $16,125).

09-0038
CD 9
i. MOTION (ZINE - PERRY) relative to declaring the Dia De Los Muertos Festival Event on November 1, 2009 a Special Event (fees and costs absorbed by the City = $8,404). "

Something for Dancing on Saturday Night

[The following event announcement was forwarded to me and I present it to you for what it states- the rest is up to you. It sounds pretty good for the price. You may be familiar with this venue; see the website http://www.jegrp.com/index.php?pr=Jan_17_Concert for more info. There's a "201 Club" event that overlaps the time period with a separate charge that you can sort out from their website, http://www.jegrp.com/index.php?pr=Jan_17_@_Club_201]

Concert & Dance-5 Great Bands for Only $10-Recession Buster
Saturday, January 17, 2009

5:00PM to 1:30AM

"What a Recession Buster"Concert , Dance & Party to 5 Great Bands for Only $10

Sangria
Suave
HindSite
The Company Band
Kool Breeze

Doors open at 5:00 PM and entertainment starts at 6:30 thru 1:30 AM.
The Radisson famous Tacos ($1.50) and Hot Dogs ($2.00) will be sold and two 50/50 raffles.

Don't Miss this event with all of this Talent for $10.00

VIP seating and bottle service is available-562-945-8511

Please see www.jegrp.com for further details

Category Dancing
When Saturday, January 17, 2009
5:00PM to 1:30AM
Where Radisson Whittier Hotel-Grand Ballroom
7320 Greenleaf Ave.
Whittier, CA 90602
Admission Ages: 21 and over
Price: $10

Contact 562-945-8511

End of the break- back to school on Monday; March 3- City Elections

We are into 2009 and school is still out for a few more days of "winter recess" (aka "Christmas Vacation") to January 12th for Lincoln any other LAUSD schools on a "traditional" track, while the 3-track and 4-track schools were back in session on this past Monday.

CHECKING THE NEWS - A name from the past.

There was a bit of sadness in reading the L.A. TIMES news of the passing of an original "Mouseketeer" from the original Mickey Mouse Club t.v. show. "Cheryl Holdridge dies at 64; popular Mouseketeer," http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-me-cheryl-holdridge9-2009jan09,0,5009695.story

It's something to think about for us, the folks of accumulated years, with a memory of the times when those shows were new. Back then, we had only the regular channels, and no cable or satellite, plus the added feature of black and white television that relieved us of the duty to adjust any colors in the picture. The Times story was fairly informative and brought out information on what happened to Cheryl and a few other Mouseketeeers.

NEWS- Dog helps fight crime.

There was another story in the California section of the L.A. TIMES this week that was just a brief item about a dog that alerted his owner to a burglary that led to an arrest, "Retired Marine credits smuggled dog from Iraq with alerting him to thieves" http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/01/san-diego-_-a-r.html?cid=144718212#comments

The special part of this story is that the 4-year-old dog, named "Lava," was the subject of book, "From Baghdad, With Love," written by his owner, Jay Kopelman, who was an officer, a Lt. Colonel, in the U.S. Marines in Baghdad and found the dog while he and his men were in Baghdad during the first week of the battle for Fallujah. The book is separated into sections that tell different parts of the work to get Lava out of Iraq, since dogs were not allowed as pets for the military and such situations were handled by killing them.

I borrowed this book from the L.A. Public Library last year and it turned out to be particularly compelling reading. The book describes all the work done to get the dog out and all the assortment of people in different roles who helped get it done, including instances of the major disappointments along the way to get Lava safe.

The news story shows that the dog is doing fine now, a long way from where he slept in a boot. There's a brief item about the story told by the book on a blog that shows more pictures from puppyhood, as well as a recap of the book, with blogger comments about the book, too: http://litterascripta.wordpress.com/2008/02/13/from-baghdad-with-love/

Go ahead and check out this book and see how close things came to not having a happy ending. It was very good reading.

[If you were wondering why a big gap in the posts here this week, well, I put a few items together on other blogs concerning the L.A. City elections coming on March 3 and did not get around to do much for your reading until now.]

HOW ABOUT THAT MAYOR, TONY VILLARAIGOSA and his crew? More coming tomorrow.

New posts are coming; meanwhile, think "Lincoln Heights History"

Yes, you are right. It lo0ks like the holiday season has slowed the movement of news, criticism and observation on these pages. There are a couple of things of entertainment and informational value to say before getting to the very real state of things that need attention.

LINCOLN HEIGHTS OF OLD
You might have noticed on the side bar that there is a link to the HISTORY OF LINCOLN HEIGHTS website that has a section all about Lincoln Park. It is an amazing compilation of things that were unknown to most local residents, even the long-standing ones, and you might take a look at it. It is loaded with old photos, some just old and others of the antique class. One part that jogs my memory is the section on the original Carousel "or "Merry-Go-Round". The present version is simple a distant cousin to the original.

The original Lincoln Park Merry-Go-Round was truly magnificent, presenting the wooden horses with some especially fine craftsmanship, unknown by today's standards, since those things just don't get built anymore as simply too expensive. The other thing I remember was the dispenser with "golden rings" that you could try to reach out for as you go around: it was like the "take-a-number" dispenser at the meat counter in the market- when the large metal ring, the "Gold Ring," was showing, you could try to reach out grab it. If you were successful, well, I don't remember exactly what happened. It didn't seem that hard to do, but I don't remember whether I was able to do it myself. The payoff, I think, was a free ride.

Another reason for no more golden rings these days might be the huge lawsuits that the city would risk if a rider reached out and fell off. The same risk of liability if a hand or finger were injured by the device would be a big reason in this day and age for its dissapearance.

Visit that site and see how different life was when the city began to develop in this area. Be a "contributor" if you can. If you have photos or information, it is always a welcome addition. You may just visit the "Guestbook" and relate some of the personal memories that you have in that part.


BE A CONTRIBUTOR TO LOCAL HISTORY.
One resource that is valuable and often ignored are the family elders with their accumulated experience and knowledge. You might check with your older relatives and ask about "back in the day" events. I think I have long ago crossed the line on this- I used to ask others who were around in WW II or at times past, for what THEY did. Now, especially from my past students, I was the one getting the questions. As a teacher, being among the older Lincoln High alumni, the questions were phrased just as above, "Hey, mister (all male teachers get the "mister" label), back in the day, ... (and the question goes here)." Those questions always made me feel unusually old, so a few times I started off the answer with someting like this, "First, we had to ride horses to school if we missed the covered wagon, ...."

You or a family member, neighbor or friend may have some bits of first-hand information sitting back in the memories area of the brain that just need some prodding for more of us to know another view from the "first person" accounts of the day. I am a believer in taking oral or verbal histories as much as possible. All young persons should get to know the stories of others in their families, beginning with their parents, so that they can at least pass them on.

Once any one of us happens to die, all that memory that wasn't written, recorded, spoken to others or saved in some way, is completely lost. In that situation, you will have only stories or accounts from OTHERS that become the history of the period. The other benefit- and there are several- for doing this is that the questioning makes anyone feel good that somebody cares to ask what they think and have done. It also also helps to know others better and maybe know why they are so cranky, happy, friendly or negative about some things.

WHAT'S IN A STREET NAME?
There's another shorter web site linked in the sidebar that gives information about the history of the street names. Mozart was the name of the composer- funny that a tiny street (at least from Ave. 17 to Ave. 20) bears the name of composer of huge fame. And think about Griffin Avenue, that some sometimes is mixed up with the name from "Griffith Park", resulting in "Griffith Avenue." There are two separate people represented by those different names. Some of the names were pretty important people in city and state history in their day.

And for the record, the main street running through Lincoln Heights is called "North Broadway." That's all it needs for a complete name. I still see local residents and groups print references to "Broadway Ave." or "Broadway St." The "way" part of the word "Broadway" means a "street" or "path", so there is no need for anything else in the name. It is fine the way it is.

Adding anything more to the name it is like saying "Main Street Avenue" instead of just "Main Street."

And that is more about Lincoln Heights.

Some Band Sights and Sounds

Penn State band gets into their steps here.









This is the "Aguilas Doradas Marching Band" with a sample of their talent.
They are Mexico's top marching band and have performed around the world. They come from Puebla.

The Rose Parade Still Is Irresistable

Well, it looks like we made it into the New Year o.k. but I was a little worried when my New Year's Day task to travel to Colorado Blvd. (in Eagle Rock, not Pasadena) to photograph the jets each year that open the Rose Parade was not working out well at all.

No plane or planes showed up at 8 a.m. this morning. I thought I might have missed it by having it sneak in on a tight turn to get to Pasadena behind me. These kind of things are supposed to be very reliable. Did I just outright miss it? Was our national budget that tight to have to scratch that appearance this year?

Well, I gave up around 8:25, thinking that this parade is already started, so I will just check it on television, thinking I might just go and catch it in person at the end of it's route if it looked good to me.

I'm getting my stuff together and the t.v. is on. Very nice parade. Just then Bob Eubanks comes on to say "There's the B-2 bomber. We thought it wasn't going to make it this year." I take the cue and head outside to the street, looking back at the hills and sure enough, there's this huge plane in a banking turn, looking like a manta ray in the air gliding so smoothly above my roof. The bomber seemed absolutely huge as the entire underside was facing me while it banked, and at the same time, it was so quiet. It was just about then that I realized that I left every one of the three cameras I was planning to take to the parade just sitting on the table inside and that plane just sailed on to Pasadena and that was it. No photos this year.

But here are some shots of assorted things today. Mind you, these floats have to be a bit disassembled to go under the 210 Freeway at Sierra Madre and when they got to my spot it dawned on me that sections of many floats were in the "reclining" position. I guess they don't set them up again until they go on display after the parade. By that time, several floats needed to be towed, and a lot of the animation and steam effects had dwindled down. But they were still impressive.

I have to remember next time to get on the south side of the 210 so I can see the floats completely set up. My last trip there was on a cold rainy day that continued the entire parade until a few minutes after it ended. Today was like spring, or even summer. I guess we'll have a lot more people packing up to come to California and leave their snow and cold for this climate after watching the parade on t.v.

Alhambra Unified School District Marching Band made up of musicians from all three high schools.




Another view of Alhambra's big band

Benny Martinez, doing this for the whole parade-






USC's band and one majorette


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





Ballou Marching Band from Washington, D.C.

As another year comes to an end

Well, here's a final post for the year 2008- and getting ready for another year to come.

I was sorting out the neverending paper supply of the past that seems to survive sorting and cleaning out, and found a lot of names from the past. From my teaching notes over the years, there were a lot of odds and ends of things and I found some of the Hollenbeck Middle School summer school notes that brought back to mind so many recollections of the collection of energetic, defiant, resourceful, mischievous and honest minded students that could bring out so much frustration and then make you feel that your day was well-spent by working with them. And this was only for summer classes that I mention from 2004. They are almost adults now and I hope other teachers were able to do their best for them all.

The students that I had at Lincoln brought a longer history for my time with them and I see some of them from time to time in the community. These students were equally as remarkable but of course, I knew them for a long time, some of them for years. I hope their year was fine.

Then I found another item from the funeral of my friend, Tomas Orcasitas, Class of Summer 1968. It was on New Year's Eve in 2002 that his body just could not work anymore and we lost him. He was a good friend of mine and of a lot of other people, too. I was kind of surprised to think that six years had passed since he died. He was a special person, and the first one of my good friends to die. I did not see him very often in those last year's but we spoke on the phone and he always made me laugh and was, above all, very opinionated and passionate about things. Miss, you, Tommy.

I guess that the New Year's Eve for me is a time of recollection of the things we've done and people we have known. I would like to think that no matter what time of the year it is, that we do things thoughtfully and consider that our time for everything is limited by things other than our own desires. Nevertheless, we can all make our decisions for the best- and who wants to make decisions for the worst?- and work in a positive way to improve things. My friend Tommy was somebody who was one who cared about others, especially young people and enjoyed getting them motivated to do better- but knowing him over the years, that was no surprise.


Have a Happy New Year.

More expenses to you coming from City Hall occupants

This is CITY HALL, a very nice looking building that's home to some of the worst and most expensive politicians around. Not only do the Council Members get paid over $186,00.00 a year- that's $15,500 a month- that is more than U.S. Congressmembers receive, they are searching for more ways for YOU to pay more fees and "taxes."

There's more to come (and there's always "more" with this group) - but for now, think about using a credit card to pay your parking meters. By the end of next month, the meters will be updated and you will see triple and quadruple fees for parking.

Council Members (and the Mayor, Tony Villaraigosa) really don't care since they don't have to live by most of the rules they pass (free car, free gas, staff of 20 each- over 90 for the Mayor-and on like that). Yes, there's so more that they have been up to, but they are taking a break now.

What a nice job of handling things for constituents.

A little more Christmas with parade photos

Some of the Lincoln Heights Christmas Parade photos of Lincoln High entrants.

there's a bunch more, but you get the idea.

I will post a little more in a few days, but smaller sized for a little better loading time.

Merry Christmas- 2008

Taking a break today, so, meanwhile, Have a Merry Christmas.

Back at you in a bit.

Pardon me, your Racism is showing through: Carson school shifts naming choice because "not a Latino"

Today’s L.A. TIMES is loaded with stories of controversy and political influence. The one I’ll mention now that will be the subject of my opinion is the LAUSD’s school naming process now becoming a politically-based decision as the TIMES headline captures- “Carson officials split over naming school after slain officer: City Council members endorsed naming a new high school after L.A. SWAT Officer Randal Simmons, but two have reversed course after Latino residents complained of not being consulted.” http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-simmons23-2008dec23,0,2523668.story

The Carson city council agreed over 2 months ago with a decision to name a new high school after the fallen LAPD SWAT officer Randal Simmons, the first ever killed in the line of duty nearly a year ago. It was taken to be a good idea since Simmons spent lots of time working with the youth in the community as a church minister. Now there are members of the Carson council and community- and it’s not the L.A. City Council for a change- making the spineless, backsliding move to rescind the support for the name change. They say that the area is majority Latino and the naming should be for a Latino, choosing Cesar Chavez as their pick.

This school will open in 20012, and maybe the leaders should go back to school to learn a little about racism. THEY are complaining about the appropriateness of naming a school after a man who is Black because the NEIGHBORHOOD is mostly Latino. What? Some of the reasoning, if you could call it reasoning, is coming from a council member Harold Williams, a Black man. He seems to be yielding to pressure more than anything else, now doing some position-changing and looking for a way to make it look like it was his choice all along. Politics- how wonderful.

What goes into naming a high school? From the story:

District guidelines say high schools must be named after dead U.S. presidents
"and other nationally as well as internationally famous men and women." A
cross-section of the community is supposed to be consulted about the name,
and a survey performed.

Councilman Mike Gipson pushed the measure to honor Simmons,
who lived in Rancho Palos Verdes.

"We recognize his faithfulness to our community, to the children and young people who face challenges growing up and what he has given them and to making their lives better," Gipson said. "One person said Randal spent more time in Carson than his own community. He was someone who gave selflessly."

The guidelines don't say anything about race or ethnicity being a qualification for anything. The schools are supposed to be practicing the idea of being racially neutral or non-preferential in terms of race. That is what caused a lot of the civil protests in the 1950’s. Terms like color-blind and equal opportunity are so quickly left behind in a race to get favor with voters. We are supposed to be teaching young people to NOT base decisions on color or other factors that one has no part in choosing for himself, and instead, use character and deed for any judging to be done. At least, that is what I used to include when I was teaching. For many students, high school students, it was a novel concept that did not get their attention before, I learned. My students taught me a lot about view and conditions, and I appreciated that for my own development on issues and views held.

That whole picture seems to be forgotten so conveniently these days. Now, you have complaints that there needs to be a Latino selected for the naming of the school. That’s a big step in the wrong direction. The culprits here are at the local level more than the LAUSD, but you have a sure bet that under the current leadership of Monica Garcia, the scale will tip towards the naming decision to be for a Latino when it reaches them.

Julie Ruiz-Raber, a Carson ex-council member says that the Simmons choice is politically motivated, and Chavez is her first choice, claiming the process was a political ploy and was railroaded. Now, Ms. Ruiz-Raber, that "political ploy" assessment sounds strangely a fitting label for your own position, but then, I suppose it all depends on which side of the issue that you find yourself on.

Officer Simmons showed conduct of a heroic quality, and he practiced what he literally preached as a minister for youth. Now, you have a political career getting a little push by adopting the race-based approach.

The overall idea here is something most people of so-called leadership positions forget and that is that education is not all done in the classroom. The way that they handle this matter simply demonstrates for a lot of young people that there really should not be racially neutral (or ethnically neutral) for evaluating achievements or anything.

It looks more like a people-pleasing situation rather than simply being a well-deserved choice. Here, you have the lesson that race/ethnicity DOES matter. It is just another example of divisive behavior that the less-educated and the well-educated both share.

There are lots of schools named for Cesar Chavez, so the naming-honor is not something that is lacking for this figure of contemporary history. Putting the name of a local hero is has a lot in its favor. There are a lot of young people who personally knew and befitted from the man’s activities and efforts to better their lives. Choosing to name the school in this situation would be something that is relevant to the current student population and they could attach a greater connection to doing well for society, when they might not really connect with that idea where the school’s name honoree is so distant from their generation and not personal to them or their contemporaries.

I wonder what the view would be if there was an all white neighborhood in another state that said it did not want a new school named after a Latino, Cesar Chavez, because the community is all white. Would that be a right decision, and I mean "right" in a "right vs. wrong" context, not "right wing" and "left wing" orientatiions? It all depends on who is doing the judging, unfortunately. Did you ever see a game where the referees made calls that favored their own team or favorite player? It's like that now and it's wrong. The right answer should be a right answer in any examination on the topic and not change because you have different "referees." Here, they are moving to a very wrong answer if the ethnic aspect of voter demographics rules this choice.

Passing along a one-day deal: Free QuickBooks

Need a free copy of "QuickBooks"? I received an email from Steve Bass (check his newsletter, TechBites, < http://www.techbite.com/ > ) that was passed on to him- GOOD FOR MONDAY ONLY- at Staples-here is part of the copy:

Announcing one-day "Free" QuickBooks Pro sales event at Staples. See Web version.

December 19, 2008

QuickBooks® ProAdvisor Program Alert Top Product FAQs Monthly Newsletters Archived Alerts Feedback More Resources"Free" QuickBooks Pro 2009 for One Day Only.

Chance for Clients to Get "Free" QuickBooks Pro 2009 On occasion
Intuit will have short-lived promotions that exceed the continuing ProAdvisor
discount, and we are sensitive to the fact that these can be disruptive to you,
especially if you do not have advanced warning.

Our team just learned of a one-day promotion in which a buyer
can obtain QuickBooks Pro 2009 for next to nothing – this coming Monday.To help
small business owners grow and run their companies, Intuit will offer the
Windows version of QuickBooks Pro 2009 for free* at all
Staples stores on Monday, Dec. 22, for one day only. Why? This effort originally
started out as a small test, but Intuit decided to expand the offer. Intuit
wants to help small businesses through tough economic times, and of course we
are always working to bring more business owners on board as QuickBooks users –
increasing the number of potential clients for QuickBooks ProAdvisors. The Meaning of "Free" We’re using free* in
quotation marks or with an asterisk because there are some conditions attached
to this offer.

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See the original web announcement: http://intuit.p.delivery.net/m/p/itu/prw/preview.asp?cid=13836959244&mid=1200586410&pid=398222

If you can use it, decide today, if not, subscribe to Steve Bass' free newsletter "TechBite" and get news of lots of things that will help, educate or just amuse you.

The City "asks" for your advice- Really?

Today's Sunday L.A. Times story starts off like something clever, "Go ahead: Try to run L.A. better; A city questionnaire let residents weigh in on how to allocate fund, given a budget gap of $433 million," by Marve Reston. I know that the writer does not control the headlines used, but this sounds like an outright challenge to the residents to come up with a way to do a better job than the City Council and the Mayor. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-losangelessurvey21-2008dec21,0,1574151.story

It would be a nice thought to believe that our city's managers are thinking about the wishes of the common folks in how the city operates, but in my opinion, it's a rare occasion that such a thought crosses their mind. Actually, I don't think they intend that this really is to “manage” the city, but really functions to see what numbers of people will be bothered by what the Council and Mayor will be doing anyway.

The idea that we are getting a chance to tell them anything is totally fallacious- phony, bogus, completely untrue. First, the mess they are in is really pretty much beyond our limited input to change at this stage of the game. Now if they had told us they really were looking for ideas maybe, say, earlier when they were SPENDING the money, it might be believable. Well, now that they are finding that their budget was blown, and all was "overspent,” it’s something of a waste of time. But we don't get "invited" for a real participation since we don't have a real idea of where the spending choices came from to make our tax dollars disappear because they hide information from the public and they don’t want anyone in their way.

It's really just another illusion of “participation” that is supposed to make you feel like you have a responsive government. The city survey is posted on the city home page, according to the story. I think I saw it while I was going through the website in several different and unsuccessful efforts at finding the Council Meeting Agendas “posted within the 72 hours before the meeting” that Council President Eric Garcetti says are there. If the surveys were really something that we were SUPPOSED to know about in the first place, you would have the council phones and all the websites and newsletter of these council members telling you that it's there. How many of you knew they were looking for your opinion? Maybe I am too critical.

They ask you about what should be cut. Where was that question when it was time to ask what money should be SPENT? Here’s a little taste of how freewheeling the council is. There is an event fee waiver category that allows city services to be done for free to the event organizers. That is, without having the costs collected or charged to them, as with expenses when there is a parade or festival or something that calls for more police and other services.

Some events that are for all the public and free are good reasons, but there used to be things like $7,000 here for the Dodgers playoff traffic control costs a few years ago and other money-makers getting a free ride, too. The continual complaints by the people that go to City Hall and bring it up every time seems to be getting them to cut down on the generosity, since we ARE in a budget crisis after all.

We really should have been consulted before the choices were made to dive head first into more debt. The Mayor tries to sidestep this problem and act like it was a surprise, but he was playing fast and loose with the budget money years ago and allowing some generous pay raises to happen in DWP contract negotiations. A consequence of those big raises was to make other departments expect the same big raises. They were not happy when that didn’t happen, creating a hostile frame of mind at contract time, with some work stoppages having occurred to show their displeasure.

No, we don't get to be part of the spending spree, but this slimy way that they want to say, "See, it's not so easy to run a city," doesn't fly with me. Asking if we should spend more on police and fire protection is kind of a loaded question- we need that, but with all the development and "smart growth" that they try to press on with, it just makes the need more urgent when more people are put into the same space. The Council and Mayor cannot be so stupid as to NOT see this, OR, maybe they are. (The mayor already announced he’s not cutting back on his spare-no-expense crusade to achieve his 10,000-police officer level for the LAPD. He’s ego and campaign involved here, but that, too, will be another story.)

In an odd way, their actions may show some logic in the way they happen to work out. By continuing the over-development of the city- besides getting money flowing to their special interest-campaign fund contributor-developer friends for construction and sales to generate profits- more development will mean there will ALWAYS be a need for MORE police officers and fire fighters. How about SLOWING DOWN on this trend to lighten up on the demand for services? Sorry, the Council and Mayor are way too far into development and “DENSIFICATION,” or packing more people into the same space that had LESS people before, for them to back up now and disappoint the special interests or admit they actually goofed it all up.

The other purpose that I think is too attractive for them to resist is the money they see coming in when development happens. They see that more people and business will make more numbers in the taxing operations of the city so that it's "making money" for the city. They ignore the fact that it also makes more traffic and parking problems, more crime, more pollution and more demand for good streets, water supply, police and fire protection services and just about anything else needed by people. In the end, I would say that the city comes out short.

I liken the Council's method to how a thief will sell the stolen goods, like a watch or electronic device, for just a small fraction of the price that the victim actually paid for it. The thief thinks it's a fine profit since he started out with a zero cash figure and now has some money. The victim who paid a full price loses out completely since ALL the value is gone by reason of the theft; the victim might even have been financially better off if he could have been able to buy the stolen goods back for whatever bargain price it was sold for.

So the city, by collecting taxes from the larger group of taxpayers, is doing the "selling" like the thief (and I don't think the labels are completely separated) and it's all profit to it. The residents who were here before now have to "share" an already insufficient amount of services and infrastructure with the addition that development brought in.

The city doesn't really care. Look at the giveaway of sign rights that happened a few weeks back when the council approved a deal that lets a developer have rights for Convention Center electronic billboards to be erected. The council gave this right away for peanuts when the advertising will bring in millions of dollars to the advertising company.

Furthermore, the electronic billboards are more accurately called a "blight" on the environment. Let’s see, first you had a clear view of things and now you have a big electronic billboard cluttering up the view and shining on with its messages all the time. And consider this: Is there a traffic hazard involved here? The council doesn't think so, or, at least not compared to the money that they will get- and as I mentioned earlier, ANY money is worth a lot to them, even if they ripped themselves off by the giveaway price collected. You can compare your own experience when passing the big billboard by the Harbor Freeway between Staples Center and USC, or the billboards on the Citadel property by the Santa Ana Freeway (I-5) in Commerce. Can you keep from looking at them?

I will continue with this in the next installment- and there’s a lot to question when it comes to our shifty city hall occupants.

LHS Band and Drill Team- Lincoln Heights Christmas Parade

Taking a pause from the more serious items to show a little sample of sights and sounds of the Lincoln High School Band and Drill Team from last Sunday's Parade. This is just one clip to give you an idea for now of what went on if you were not there.

AND -You can see what the new band uniforms look like in this clip

There's quite a few more photos that will probably show up over the school break here as I can add them in.

(If your browser displays a second video title frame, well, I see it, too. "There is nothing wrong with your set." Those are technical issues that take up far too much time at the moment to try to fix- I have already re-sized the image from the earlier one that was a very small size, and that's enough for now. Besides, this is just a sample.)

LAUSD Board Pres. Garcia Runs Unopposed in March Elections

Monica Garcia, LAUSD Board President, is going to get a second term without any challenge, and being friends with Mayor Villaraigosa helps out all around. Here is a item from the Daily News Opinion blog that bears this out, written by Mariel Garza on March 5, 2008 12:01 PM:

"Friendly Fire: 'LA politics, it's all relative(s)'"

Lilia Esther Garcia was appointed to the East Area Planning Commission today. The board is responsible for planning decisions in Silver Lake, Echo Park, Boyle Heights and northeast Los Angeles.

The appointment means nothing to many until you realize she's the the sister of Monica Garcia, the rather unremarkable president of the LAUSD board of education and one of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's special hand-picked board members. She was also the former aide to Councilman Jose Huizar when he was the president of the LAUSD school board, who was the anointed replacement when Villaraigosa left the 14th council district for the mayor job. It's just like a big happy family here in Los Angeles politics. http://www.insidesocal.com/friendlyfire/2008/03/la-politics-its-all-relatives.html

A lot of the Mayor's relatives and friends (and their relatives) are moving up in the political goings-on, locally. The Mayor works to support them and I imagine it is expected to work both ways. Villaraigosa just saw his cousin John Perez elected to the state Assembly in June, as reported in the L.A. WEEKLY article,

"Villaraigosa's Mini-Me, John Perez" by LA Weekly , June 4, 2008 10:41 AM
"Who needs voters? The fix was in on the Eastside last night" By Max Taves. For the uninitiated, this is just the way politics works, friends and relatives added into the picture as you might see from another paragraph in this same article:

This isn’t the first time the mayor has made certain his family got into
power positions. For the past two years, Perez has been Villaraigosa's appointee
to the city's Community Redevelopment Agency. More recently, Villaraigosa’s
sister, Mary Lou Villar, was tapped to be a Superior Court judge in L.A. County
by the mayor’s sometime-political friend Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

This is just a sample of the idea that "There are no coincidences," when it comes to politics. We could make a family tree if you laid out all the friends and relations, especially prevalent with Latinos, when applied to political offices.

There was a triva game, "The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" that showed how this was a small world and that any actor could be linked to Kevin Bacon in no more than six links; like "he worked with (somebody) who was in a movie directed by (director) who was a director of Kevin Bacon in (a movie)." This is even more pronounced in Latino circles. And just think, there was a time when only Ed Roybal was the Mexican-Americans' singular political representative in city and then higher level politics. Have we come a long way or what (at least in terms of representation, because ethics and forthrightness are in a league of their own for the modern day politicians)?

It's like the old charts of bands that traced artists as they moved from one band to another in their rise to fame, seeing their origins, like Eric Clapton playing with Cream, and then on to Derek and the Dominoes and solo. A lot of other rising stars could be traced who moved up after working together with other artists, also moving up. But here, its all politicians, and they really are not at all entertaining or pleasing. Maybe just "tolerable" is the best that we can expect.

Monica Garcia will be celebrating a victory early. It would be nice if the LAUSD had something to celebrate.