Notes from Los Angeles

Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano and an associate will be sentenced November 17th. Both were convicted today on conspiracy to commit wiretapping.

In other crime news, fashion designer Anand Jon could face 122 years—after prosecutors dropped half the charges against him yesterday. A quick Google News scan shows how determined some Indian media remain to advocate for Jon’s innocence.

Gawker: Anand Jon Too Much Like Mahatma Gandhi to Have Assaulted Dozen Women, Claims Lawyer

100,000 gang members, 1,000 gangs, nearly 600 people killed. Those were LA County’s numbers in 1992. Sixteen years later, CAL/GANG stats tell a tale of containment.

In the early nineties, freelance photographer Joseph Rodriguez received a grant from the Alicia Patterson Fellowship to photograph the gangs of East Los Angeles. The images he captured draw you right into the living room, where you can smell the carpet and share in the distress.

Chivo, an East Los Angeles gang member, teaches his daughter how to hold a 32-caliber pistol. Her mother, Yvonne, looks on. Photo by APF Fellow Joseph Rodriguez

Rodriguez writes:

I see Los Angeles as a post-modern Wild West where everyone has a gun and they use it. It is like an uncontrolled and slightly scary place, a land of dreams and beauty, playing by its own rules.

See them here.

Once upon a time, it was acceptable to point fingers. But five years on, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger continues to blame the incompetence of prior governments for California’s current budget mess, despite the fact that revenues are up 40% while borrowing and spending have shattered all records.

The only difference today is that he’s finally getting called on it. Reporters and columnists are asking pointed questions, to which he responds with jokes, or by changing the subject—hoping we’ll forget that he once promised to blow up the boxes, cut spending, reduce bureaucracy and waste.

Schwarzenegger is incapable of admitting wrongdoing, so rather than finally do something honorable—like, perhaps, fight back against lurid propagandist Senator Don Perata—he’s back on the corner, like a dope dealer, pushing another quick fix. This time, a one-percent increase in California’s sales tax, delivered in cynical Arnold wrapping paper: “compromise,” “temporary.”

After weeks of stalemate, the momentum appears to be on his side, and it comes at the worst possible time for the MTA bosses and County Supervisors, who are pushing a half-percent LA County sales tax increase to build several mass transit projects, most notably the Wilshire subway. If Arnold gets his wish, LA County voters will be asked in November to approve what would amount to a 1.5% sales tax hike—to 9.75%.

Printing the ballots would be fiscally irresponsible.

Even staunch tax opponents can see the contrast, in this confluence of events, between the MTA sales tax and the Arnold sales tax. One would build permanent infrastructure. The other would buy one politician an easy ride through the end of his term.

“Juquila”

Superior Court Judge Dennis Aichroth today overturned a new law that prevented taco trucks from parking in one place for more than an hour.

The language of the ordinance, Judge Dennis A. Aichroth said, was “vague” and therefore “unconstitutional” because “men of common intelligence must necessarily guess at its meaning.”

The attorney who won the case on behalf of Margarita Garcia, a cited taco vendor, said he expected that the county would try to rewrite the law. In the meantime, snack vans are once again free to roam across unincorporated L.A. County, a space that includes their heartland: East L.A.

No update yet from the folks at SaveOurTacoTrucks.org. Probably out celebrating.

Thursday morning update:

It’s a great day to stand on the side of hardworking Angelenos, fair capitalistic competition, and delicious food.

More…

In a letter to supporters, the South Central Farm group accuses Mayor Villaraigosa of “shady and suspicious dealings” and labels Forever 21 a “sweatshop manufacturer.” They don’t like Jan Perry either. I wonder where they stood on Measure R…

…The Los Angeles Times ran a report exposing sweatshop manufacturer Forever 21 as the corporation involved with Horowitz in developing the Farm site, and exposing contributions of $1.3 million by Forever 21 to Mayor Villaraigosa’s campaign and certain of his pet projects, and on that basis, and on the basis of our knowledge of a number of very shady and suspicious dealings regarding the land and the transfer of its ownership (including a missing 8 million dollars)the Farmers have issued a call to State Attorney General Jerry Brown for an investigation of the mayor, city attorney and city council members Jan Perry and Nick Pacheco, who have also received “contributions” from Forever 21…

If you want more, ZD has it.

Call it an itch. Call it a long time coming. You know me as Antonio Watch from the Mayor Sam blog. You’ll still find me there—I’m not leaving—but I need the extra leg room afforded by my own blog again.

Notes from LA will follow local politics, too, but we’ll often go elsewhere. Beneath the surface. Above the fray. We’ll explore culture, design, theory; from slum villages to the ridgeline of the Santa Monica Mountains. Across the megalopolitan landscape of subdivided kingdoms. The City—and its region.

Commenting is turned off for now, but I will publish reader feedback if you’d like to send a message using the contact form. Thanks for stopping by—and please, check in often!

—Solomon Wolfson

Ron Kaye posts an excellent postmortem on the legal challenge to Measure R argued today in court. He isn’t optimistic:

The heart of the legal argument is whether the state Constitution’s ban on multiple subject state initiatives and legislative measures applies to a charter city like L.A. And if it does, whether there is any logic that brings together as a single subject a ban on lobbyist contributions and giving council members three, instead of two, terms.

I wish I could say that the judges were as ready to embrace applying the Constitution’s single subject requirement to L.A. as they appeared to be willing to find false the claims that lobbyists and term limits had some legitimate connection.

It’s always risky to try to read the minds of judges but my money is on them holding their noses and ruling that laws against public corruption and corruption of the political process don’t apply to L.A.

P.S. Still no update from David.
Previously: Measure R returns to court

The AP is reporting that City Controller Laura Chick was scratched and bruised this evening by a Clinton delegate who allegedly stole her chair:

“This man just took my chair, knocked into me, look at this!” she said, showing a bright red nick on her arm, and then pointing to her ankle, which she said [the man in question] had stepped on.

Developing…

While Councilmembers Eric Garcetti, Wendy Greuel, et al indulge in bacchanalian self-adulation in Denver, Measure R heads back to court today. Had Measure R been subject to truth-in-advertising rules it would never have survived to this point, but the question before the court today is whether or not a state constitutional ban on bundling multiple issues (in this case, ethics reform and term limits) into a single ballot measure also applies to LA City.

Challengers David Hernandez and Ted Hayes battle a defense team comprised of attorneys from Rocky Delgadillo’s office, the League of Women Voters and the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. David remains confident:

In a year charged with political intrigue, the defeat of Prop R on “unconstitutional grounds”, will set the stage for a major political frenzy leading up to the March 2009 city elections. The immediate consequence will be six open city council seats with no incumbent eliminating the usual advantages enjoyed by incumbent office holders.

If the court strikes the measure down, all odd-numbered City Council seats will be in play for 2009 (though Jack Weiss is running for City Attorney anyway). Regardless the outcome, Councilmember Richard Alarcón has already cashed his check; Measure R allowed him to run for a third term in 2007.

Alarcón was termed out of the Senate and had failed in a bid to become Mayor in 2005. So, with approval of Measure R in November 2006, he announced his candidacy for City Council—just days after being elected to serve in the state Assembly:

I believe the voters approved Measure R because they want greater experience, which is what I have to offer.

Upon his return to City Council, Alarcón immediately set out to downgrade one block of one street in Panorama City in order to maximize the redevelopment plans of a property owned by his fiancé. He also lobbied Councilmember Greuel to redraw her district’s boundaries such to allow him to live at his fiancé’s other property in Sun Valley. Indeed, not matters best left to the inexperienced.

Dr. Dre’s 20-year-old son was found in his Woodland Hills home Saturday morning unresponsive. AllHipHop.com reports:

The cause of death will be revealed after a toxicology report. Andre Young Sr., professionally known as Dr. Dre, has not released a statement on the death of his son.

Dr. Dre has reportedly been recording an album titled Detox.