The Griffith Park Fire in 2007 | Photo by Atwater Village Newbie Councilman Tom LaBonge, who represents the district that has Griffith Park within it, is meeting up with residents and hikers in two meetings tonight to discuss the seven fires that were lit at the park this past weekend. Arson is suspected. “We need the public to be our eyes and ears in the park,” said the Councilmember in a statement. “These fires......

Councilman Tom LaBonge suggested bringing back the Cold-War era air raid sirens back into use in 2003. That, so far, has never gone through. But in light of the recent earthquake last Tuesday and considering how poorly people are prepared, he's called for the City Council to ask Gov. Schwarzenegger to declare the first Friday of every month “Emergency Preparedness Day” in California. It would be a monthly reminder to have schools hold drills and......

Today, Councilman Tom LaBonge announced that he has asked City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo for a legal opinion on including cyclists to ride at the Griffith Park holiday light festival that had once been open only to automobile traffic. Public pressure to allow cyclists on all days that cars use the road has been building up for some time now. “I’d like to include bikes along with automobiles, but my first priority is to protect the......

Tonight is ride number two for Councilman Tom LaBonge's cutely name "Tour LaBonge" bicycle ride series where constituents are invited to come along. At 6:15 p.m., riders will meet at the Mulholland Fountain (Riverside Dr./Los Feliz Blvd.) and embark on a 10-mile ride along the LA River and in Griffith Park. Half way through, it's ice cream time at Travel Town, which is near where a brush fire ignited on Sunday afternoon, and then back......

Last night's 13th Annual Griffith Park Holiday Light Festival community meeting opened with the DWP reps explaining to the public that the Festival is off limits to cyclists because "these aren't public streets." Protests from the audience elicited a response from Councilmember Tom LaBonge to have the lawyers take a look at it. When it was pointed out that they are indeed public streets, operated by the City of Los Angeles and open to the......

Last month, Col. Griffith J. Griffith's grandson and the Griffith J. Griffith Charitable Trust put in an application has applied to formally preserve the park by getting it designated as a historic landmark. "We're doing it to stop commercialization," the grandson told the Daily News. "They want to build aerial trams, hotels and build restaurants. "We don't need any of it. I believe my great-grandfather would be turning over in his grave." Lots of people......

To help balance Los Angeles' massive budget for the next Fiscal Year, parking fines are to be increased $5 across the board. The move begins July and will raise an additional $6.6 million towards filling the $406 million gap in the budget, according to the Daily News. Originally, City Council looked into increasing the fines $10 to $15, raising up to $20 million extra, but had worries it would lead to voter anger and violence......

The DWP has much to be proud of, not the least of which is the prestigious EcoMoron Award it picked up last year in recognition of its commitment to an auto-centric and bike-free Griffith Park Holiday Festival of Lights. Tonight, cyclists ride to the Griffith Park Ranger Station to join the Sierra Club, local Neighborhood Councils, Homeowner Associations, Community groups and Equestrians in asking the DWP to lift the ban on bikes and to instead......

Photo by skunks via Flickr One year ago today, the blaze that ripped through more than 800 acres at Griffith Park began. Seen from all over Los Angeles (see this photo essay), the sight of the fire eating up Los Angeles' gem saddened many in the city. It took three days to knockdown. Today, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Councilman Tom LaBonge and other city officials will be holding a ceremony to honor those who fought......

An uncharacteristic home on Sunnyslope Ave. in Sherman Oaks | Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist The Los Angeles City Council passed the first citywide anti-mansionization ordinance today, stopping the development of single-family houses that are built more than the half the size of their lots. Mansionization has been an ongoing point of discussion in neighborhoods as community members saw out of scale and uncharacteristic homes built by developers. For example, on a block full of......

Photo of Tom LaBonge by Greg Katz for LAist If you missed Tom LaBonge talking with Patt Morrison on KPCC Tuesday, you missed hearing the charismatic council member for Silver Lake, Miracle Mile, and North Hollywood say that he sleeps with his lights on. The subject of their chat was the latest DWP rate hike. When asked whether he thought the DWP should use a carrot-and-stick strategy to compel energy conservation, LaBonge went off......

With an online guide for names like "Villaraigosa", we thought it's time to help educate Angelenos on other elected officials whose names often get mis-pronounced. Now,we don't have an handy audio files like the Mayor has for his name, but we've done our best to help you pronounce their last names phonetically. Councilman Tom LaBonge: luh-BONJCounty Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky: yaar-o-SLAV-skeeCouncilman Jose Huizar: WEE-sarDon't even get us started on how to pronounce the City's name (or......

Photo of the 605 Freeway by billaday via Flickr It's about time. As of today, NYC Streets Renaissance's StreetsBlog has officially franchised out to our city, that is, you know, duhhhh, full of streets and the love and hate of them. NYC Blogger Aaron Naparstek welcomes the LA Editor and so do we! LA.Streetsblog is edited and run by Damien Newton, formerly the New Jersey Coordinator for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign and a recent......

A clear, crisp early spring morning greeted the participants in this year's LA Marathon, and the runners are filling our city's streets. Local NBC affiliate KNBC has full coverage of today's big event, which is comprised of two wheelchair divisions, a bike race, a 5k run, and the full 26 mile marathon. With an 8:15 start, the "elite" groups of men and women lead the way in small sets, and they are hoping to finish......

Photo by el daverino via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr A Musical Valentine to Santa Monica: Sia just announced a last-minute show (definitely her last before Coachella!) for tomorrow, February 14th at 2PM in Santa Monica at the Starbucks Hear Music Coffeehouse on Third St. Promenade, first come first serve. She kicks off her North American tour the following day, Friday, in San Diego. The 15-year-old boy shot on Tuesday at a......

Photo by manmadepants via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr The relationship between real estate and the Hollywood Sign is as old as, well, the sign itself. Built in 1923 as a promotional billboard to attract buyers to make their homes in the hills of the burgeoning Hollywood community, the sign that once read "HOLLYWOODLAND" has become one of the most iconic landmarks in LA. Now real estate and the sign have a......

A small patch of land in Silver Lake is about to learn its fate, as are the residents and officials who have been debating about what to do with it for close to ten years. At stake are six acres termed "the Meadow" by locals on the property of the Silver Lake Reservoir which is going to be opened to the public soon, but concerns are already swirling about the nature of the land's purpose,......

US Figure Skating champion Christopher Bowman, 40, was found dead yesterday in a room at the Budget Inn in North Hills. The former child actor and successful figure skater in the late 80s and early 90s was also known for his powerful struggles with alcohol and drug use. His death is being investigated as a possible overdose. A fire that took place last night at San Jose Edison Academy, a West Covina charter school, is......

An opinion piece in today's LA Times raises the issue of what seems to be the rampant Pinkberry-fication of many of our local neighborhoods, using recent food and retail closings and openings in the popular Larchmont Village as an example of how major-chain development affects the unique vibe of a given area. Larchmont Village, which is the bustling strip of shops located on Larchmont Boulevard between Beverly Boulevard and 1st Street, is starting to......

Today, in his weekly city hall column, Steve Hymon takes on funding that darn 'Subway to the Sea.' It's projected to cost a dazzling $5-billion and we can't seem to find a tree that grow this amount of money. Here are the funding ideas Hymon uncovers: The feds tend to contribute half, but some say they won't if the next bullet item is not repealed. In 1998, voters declined the government to use local......

Los Angeles CityBeat's Greg Katz asks Tom LaBonge why cyclists can't ride through the Griffith Park DWP Light Festival and Tom almost completes a sentence before simply dodging and deflecting and offering more hollow promises for the future. Greg asks "You’re a bike advocate, a Griffith Park advocate, and you want to fix gridlock. Why can’t you bike through the Griffith Park DWP Light Festival while there are cars there?" Tom responds "The impact they......

For the past two weeks Councilmember Tom LaBonge has been proudly welcoming visitors to the 12th Annual LADWP Holiday Light Festival at Griffith Park, announcing with a straight face that this year's Festival demonstrates the DWP's commitment to a "Greener LA." Tom deserves credit for maintaining a straight face as he makes this outrageous claim because this Festival is far from Green! Granted, there is a lighting display at the entry that clearly states "DWP......

Here's a theme for City Council: they publish e-mail addresses on their websites so the public can contact them, but you e-mail them and get a bounced e-mail in return. You've seen this before. 1. The city's Webmaster (see the LaBonge story link) 2. Councilman Tom LaBonge 3. Councilman Greig Smith The next victim in the city's published e-mail address shenanigans is Councilman Tony Cárdenas, representing Council District 6 in The Valley. "No such recipient."......

Once while driving down the freeway from Santa Clarita into the LA over the Newhall Pass, I came upon a boat. No, not some truck pulling a boat. But a speed boat sitting in lane one (that's the furthest left lane). It obviously became detached from a vehicle. But where were they? There was no one pulled over looking distraught. DID THEY NOT NOTICE?!!? So I called 911 because that is what you are......

As of next Thursday, the Summer Solstice, it will be a little more than 6-weeks since the Griffith Park fire. What better way than celebrate the longest summer day by hiking into the night with city councilman Tom LaBonge through his district's treasure - Griffith Park. "I seem to be hiking Griffith Park more than ever now. Every day I see something else surprising," writes LaBonge in his weekly newsletter. "This week, there are......

- National Spelling Bee is down to just 15 adorable nerds - LA Times (spoilers if you are going to watch it tonight) - Headline of the day: Lady Who Fucked Up Iraq to Fix It - Wonkette - Gang crimes down 32%, slackers - LAT - Tommy Lasorda, representing the LA Dodgers, acquired a 40-foot bus from the MTA with help from Tom LaBonge and donated it to some underprivileged sports writers in......

While it may be true that no one walks in LA, people do ride their bikes, and this week is your chance to ride your bike to work while feeling superior to your coworkers. Metro will kickoff its 13th annual celebration of Bike to Work Week with a bike rally and fair featuring Ed Begley, Jr. and a free concert by the Ditty Bops at Los Angeles City Hall, Monday, May 14. Metro also......

State Assemblymember Mike Feuer represents the 42nd District, which includes parts of Hollywood, West Hollywood, the Westside, Sherman Oaks and Studio City -- basically, hill hugging 'hoods. Yesterday, he came out with his first e-mail newsletter (you can sign up here). It was well-done, informative and used the new "My Maps" feature on Google Maps. The Google Maps part make hims like totally rad. You can view his district and the proposed plot of......

Wilshire is the most congested artery in the nation, right? So putting dedicated bus lanes during rush hour until the subway is built would make it worse for the cars, right? Good. Let's do it like City Councilman Tom LaBonge said in his recent newsletter: "I do support a dedicated Rapid Bus lane during peak traffic hours along Wilshire to encourage riders… as long as the MTA fixes the roadway they are helping to......

In our attempt to have City Council offices get LAist added to their press release lists, we have found another City Council e-mail address defunct. Enter councilman Greig Smith, the man with one of the best City Council websites (maybe not in design, but an aggressively updated one, unlike other council websites). After failing to communicate with Tom LaBonge, a similar problem now exists with Smith. Unreported on LAist, this exact same thing happened on......