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Last week after receiving the Hottest Politician award from Downtown News, 13th District Councilman Eric Garcetti headed up to the Valley where he grew up. "You can the kid out of the Valley, but you can't take the Valley out of the kid," he told a the San Fernando Valley Jaycees at their monthly membership meeting. Garcetti, a Jaycee alumnus himself, spoke eloquently about the history of Los Angeles and how we got to where we are today (it was such a good speech, we are kicking ourselves for not having our digital recorder on us).
One Jaycee member asked what people can do to start getting involved and Garcetti gave four tips:
- Be Positive: So often it is the bad-mouthing and the crass attitudes that are found during public comment in public meetings. People are against this, against that. But when something is good, public comment is a field of crickets. A good example was this past Wednesday at the medical marijuana hearings where every comment was positive.
- Replace Your Light Bulbs: If everyone in the City of Los Angeles replaced their regular light bulbs with compact fluorescents (which you should get free from your city council office), then the City could rid itself of one coal fire plant. Simple enough, right?
- Take Charge Of Your Block: Become a block captain, just for your block. If one person per block in Los Angeles took charge, we would be graffiti tag free. See www.UnTagLA.com for more info. (Author's note: from personal experience as block captain for my street, it works. It is a rarity to see tags anymore.)
- Public Transit: Commit to one trip a week using an alternative transportation method. Buses, trains, bikes, walk? Your choice. Then measure the carbon offset and car trip/miles saved.
Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist
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free compact fluorescent bulb from the city council office? how come i didn't know about this? and I am in garcetti's distrcit too! how do i get some of those?
give the office a call and see what happens. Then let us know by posting a comment here after you register :)
you should also mention that it would be unwise to dispose of CFL's in normal trash cans...but there are many waste facilities where they will take in cfl's, batteries, and whatnot.
~Sam
I also didn't know about the free lightbulbs! That should be announced to the NC's, and disseminated.
Poor Eric's number one gripe is being more positive, to offset the foul-mouthed and crass comments at City Hall: If they got rid of Zuma Dogg, that would solve a lot of the problem right there. He gives our whole city a black eye: abuse of democratic openness for the purpose of crudity and insults at every CM and the Mayor, is bad enough, but worse, he has used Ch. 35 telecasts -- OUR City tv, paid for by OUR city dollars -- for his self-promotion, and launching his own website and so-called journalism -- which has published even libelous things, and hostility is the norm.
(Lately Zuma has been offering Tony Robbins' advice, but his ragtag followers have been trained to scream for blood.)
And since Zuma started appearing and getting away with insulting, even abusing, the CM's to their face, there are others, like his bud Matt Dowd and three women from Van Nuys, who have taken to doing the same. Once standards disappear in the sewer, others appear to follow right behind.
If the Council is banned from promo regarding their personal campaigns, he should be too, now that he's lobbied his anonymity into something of a following based solely on appearing on Ch. 35 AND in the process, taking up valuable time our CM's should spend working for their constituents by attacking them. They need to pass a law against this kind of thing: one person who takes up more time -- and in the WAY Zuma does -- than the other 99.999% of the public, is akin to frivolous litigants who are now being penalized.
Kudos, Eric, for trying to uphold some civility!
You should call your council office (I work for Eric Garcetti) and ask whether they have any bulbs you can pick up. It's that easy! Typically we're giving out one per household, but if you are having a large event we can help you get a box of them from DWP.
To find out who your councilmember is, just go here and enter your address, or call 3-1-1 from any Los Angeles-based land line (and not a few cell phones.