Results tagged “mayorantoniovillaraigosa”

Yesterday, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa met with all three of the finalists for the position of Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, to replace William Bratton, who surrendered his star this weekend and is moving back to New York to work in the private sector. The three candidates all come from within the LAPD, a consideration that the departed Bratton and many Angelenos felt was essential to the future success of the department. Sunday's meetings were the second of the week between the three and the Mayor; Villaraigosa's "request to see them again appeared to indicate that the choice was not an easy one," notes the LA Times.

On the agenda today for the City Council is consideration of a proposal that will "replace the city government's crash-prone e-mail system with a Google-based application," according to the Daily News. The impetus behind what some view as a costly or belated upgrade is the fact that the system they currently use, GroupWise, is often down and unreliable.

Swept up in the good time-y vibes surely prevalent during last night's heavily-touted U2 concert at the Rose Bowl, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa took a couple of opportunities to share his exuberance over the occasion via Twitter. Villaraigosa and his girlfriend, KTLA reporter Lu Parker, were among the approximately 96,000 fans who packed the Pasadena stadium to see one of the last engagements in the rock band's "360 Tour" with support from the Black Eyed Peas.

If it's broke, fix it, right? Only what happens when the people who are supposed to fix it are the ones who broke it in the first place? And they happened to have run out of the money it's going to likely take to do the fixing? Easy solution: Sell management of the school(s) to the highest--well, "superior"--bidder.

If you follow (the person who ghost-tweets for?) the Mayor of L.A. on Twitter, you may have noticed, as LA Observed did, that he was happy to be at home after his vacation in Africa. "Good to be back in LA!" he remarked.

With one day left before the LAUSD Board is due to vote on the postponed motion for thousands of layoffs district-wide at their regularly scheduled meeting, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is expected to meet later this morning with teachers and parents to talk about ways to avoid the ax falling so mightily.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is packing this weekend full of man-about-town stops where he can meet the people and pose for photos all in prep for Tuesday's municipal election, when he hopes the voters will put him into office for a second term.

As part of his Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI), former President Bill Clinton will join Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at City Hall today to "unveil what is being billed as the largest light-emitting diode street light program undertaken by a city," according to the Daily News.

The 36th Annual Los Angeles Mayor's Breakfast was held this morning downtown at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel. The key speaker was none other than Orange County Pastor Rick Warren, who "spoke about influence, affluence and peace," according to the OC Register. Warren, who heads the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, made national headlines when President Barack Obama selected him to deliver the invocation at his January 20th inauguration. After very publicly declaring his love for gay people while denouncing their right to marry and supporting California's Prop 8, Obama supporters feared his inclusion in the historic ceremony would scar the President's pre-Oval Office rep as a man of true change.

Last week, LA Times columnist Steve Lopez asked readers if they wanted to see incumbent Mayor Villaraigosa debate his top challenger, Walter Moore, and he reveals today that a resounding 97% say yes.

In a press conference held at 8:00 this morning, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa addressed the continuing concerns for the City of Los Angeles created by the Sayre Fire, which is being battled by a "unified command" of the LA Fire Department, the LA County Fire Department, the US Forestry Service, and the LAPD.

While the housing crisis is a national issue, how the problem is dealt with sometimes comes down to local response. Yesterday, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa took part in the Los Angeles Business Council's Mayoral Housing Summit, and spoke to those gathered regarding his thoughts on the issue. The event's focus this year was on a regional emphasis for addressing the housing crisis and on the issue of "housing affordability and availability" and aimed at "attract[ing] the county’s major employers, mayors and elected officials as well as business leaders from across all 88 L.A. county cities."

Early yesterday afternoon, members of SEIU Local 1877 who work at LAX in a variety of capacities in jobs as janitors, skycaps, and wheelchair attendants, went on strike. They have been seeking "higher wages and affordable health care," explaining that they wish to have more pay and security in order to ensure the quality of their lives and their work. The workers opted to strike only when talks between their union and the 9 contractors who broker their employment with LAX hit a stalemate. Although the walk-out was not expected to derail operations at the city's very busy airport, it did affect travel times for customers of United, Southwest, and American.

But why does a city that's under ice half the year have a better system of bike lanes, not to mention a bike-riding mayor, while Villaraigosa has a deputy mayor for transportation who dopes around L.A. in his Hummer?

Continue reading "'Saving' Los Angeles: Is Chicago Our Kind of Town? "

Fundraising events when re-election campaigns are imminent are nothing all that noteworthy, unless you happen to be the Mayor of Los Angeles getting cash in another Mayor's territory, namely Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco.

Earlier this year, Mayor Villaraigosa introduced his 2008 Traffic Relief Initiatives, which outlines ten proposals for improving driving conditions throughout the city (full document downloadable here). One of the initiatives is called "Pico East Olympic West" (or, alternatively "Olympic West Pico East") which was labeled a "Priority Express Corridor." The three-phase project will see a "seven-mile stretch of both streets between La Brea Boulevard and Centinela Avenue" have more "consistent rush hour parking restrictions" first, followed by a change in signal timing to promote traffic flow, then lastly a re-striping of the streets that will see more lanes going West on Olympic and East on Pico.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has once again set off for another city that is not his own to help a candidate that has no stake in running Los Angeles. And you could be paying for it.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed one of the country's most stringent pet sterilization laws yesterday, requiring dog and cat owners to spay/neuter their pets or face hefty fines.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has begun to get the word out that he plans on running for a second term. According to the LA Times, Mayor Tony made mention of his plans, along with "his most personal remarks to date about the political fallout from his extramarital affair" on Wednesday during an interview on the Charlie Rose show.

Now here's the quote of the day via the Daily News: ""I think if there were laws that required mayors to take transit, you'd see transit systems improve remarkably." That's Ted Balaker, a policy analyst for the Reason Foundation who spoke to transit beat writer Sue Doyle, who wrote a piece on Mayors across the country and their public transit use.

7:43 The spin is winding down and the media room is beginning to empty. Reporters are putting the finishing touches on their debate articles and the crew is beginning to clean up the bottles and box dinners provided. But the next six days until Super Tuesday will be anything but quiet. Commercials will continue to fill the airwaves, candidates will have events around Southern California and LAist will party as we watch the results. Thanks for tuning in and stay tuned to LAist for all your political coverage.

"Traffic congestion is unfortunately a way of life for most commuters in Los Angeles," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa starts off in his introduction to the 2008 Traffic Relief Initiatives report released on Wednesday. The recent budget crisis you-better-vote-for-measure-S-next-Tuesday theme and undertones are definitely present: "Now more than ever, as the City faces tight budgets and an uncertain economy, we have an obligation to deliver that relief in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible."

Photo by ~db~ via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr

As revitalization takes place throughout LA's downtown area, many are seeking to extend the developments and improvements to the Broadway area, which is home to many majestic and historic theaters, once the crown jewels of our city's movie palaces. "Among the most prized treasures of the area are Broadway's twelve historic movie palaces, which in their heyday evoked - and often surpassed - the magic of stage and screen," explains Historic Downtown LA.

The Grove's new neighbor is considerably less trendy than an outpost of Abercrombie & Fitch, but also far more important. A symbolic ground-breaking ceremony was held yesterday in Pan Pacific Park (pictured) for the new permanent facilities of Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. The Museum is a development of the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles, and will be the only museum in the city to focus exclusively on the Holocaust.

dineLA Restaurant Week kicked off in style yesterday at Neal Fraser's Grace on Beverly Boulevard. Neal Fraser is the only Angeleno ever to have won Iron Chef, against none other than Cat Cora.

• With exactly one year to go until a new president is inaugurated (and one more year of Jon Stewart's hilarious Bush headlines), the field of Republican hopefuls just got smaller. After poor showings in, well, every primary, caucus and poll, San Diego Congressman Duncan Hunter is ditching the presidential race. No word on what he will do now, but rumors are flying that Hunter will continue to build that fence along the Mexican border he started months ago.
• And speaking of the election, Gov. Arnold is holding off on endorsing a Republican candidate, preferring to stay "neutral." For now. Some are postulating that Schwarzenegger is waiting to endorse someone in the Republican field to see if his friend and NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an Independent, will enter the race.
• It's been a rough Saturday night/Sunday morning in LA County as 11 people have been shot at two separate parties in Long Beach and Compton. The first shooting happened late Saturday at a birthday party in Long Beach, when several gang members apparently crashed the party and started a fight. The second shooting took place early Sunday in Compton, when four or five men turned up to a party and started shooting partygoers, shooting eight and leaving three in critical condition.
• Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is expected to address the Chatsworth/Porter Ranch State of the Community Breakfast next month. It's the first time the mayor will speak to the group about issues affecting the area. Yawn. The interesting thing about this is that in the the Daily News headline, they referred to the mayor by his first name: "Antonio to speak to area chamber." I didn't know the Daily News and the mayor were such good friends.
• The Dodgers will play two March exhibition games against the Padres in Beijing. While some veteran players are privately saying they don't want to go, Matt Kemp sounds downright giddy about the trip. I hope the old versus young rift that ripped through the clubhouse late last season does not carry over into this season. Isn't this why we go Joe Torre?
• Several gay porn sites have posted pictures of under age water polo players from Orange, LA and San Diego counties without them knowing. Authorities think a campus police dispatcher may have played a role in taking the pictures. Gives a whole meaning to block that ball, doesn't it?

Photo by C-Monster via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr

The City of Los Angeles in 2007 saw a 5% drop in serious crimes, bringing the number of homicides down to the lowest it's been in 37 years. The LA Times reports that, "The Watts area alone last year saw a nearly 50% drop in homicides, according to LAPD crime statistics."