Results tagged “antoniovillaraigosa”

The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education voted 6-1 yesterday to approve a controversial plan put forth by Board VP Yolie Flores Aguilar called the "School Choice" plan which will allow private organizations and companies to submit bids for operational control of several schools in the district, including as-yet unopened campuses as well as troubled schools.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa may be out of town until the end of the week, but his office is still working to keep the finances of the City under control. One unexpected expense this week: The estimated $4 Million cost of hosting the public memorial service for the late King of Pop Michael Jackson. Although City Councilmember Jan Perry, acting in her capacity as Mayor pro tem, went public with a plea for donations, much like the manner in which the costly Lakers Championship parade and rally was funded, no major donors, including the Jackson family or Staples Center owner AEG have come forward with funds.

Los Angeles' "photo-op" Mayor has spent the past few weeks with the word 'FAILURE' hanging over him, so to speak, thanks to Los Angeles Magazine's recent cover story on Villaraigosa's approaching second term in office. Now it seems that the bulk of his Partnership schools within the LAUSD have also given the Mayor an 'F' in the form of a "thumbs down from teachers," according to the LA Times, adding:

Eight out of 10 schools delivered a "no confidence" vote, and we're talking landslides (84 to 17 at Santee Education Complex, 96 to 13 at Stevenson Middle School, 70 to 13 at Gompers Middle School, 61 to 8 at Markham Middle School and 184 to 15 at Roosevelt High, which the mayor himself once attended).

Will he or won't he? That seems to be the question of late when it comes to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's 2010 bid for California Governor. In an item run this weekend in the San Francisco Chronicle, the seeds of the no-go rumor were planted, watered, and sprouted: "Our sources in L.A. say Villaraigosa has come to the conclusion that the time is just not right for him to make a state run - given that he hasn't even been sworn in yet to a second term, and that he's facing bloody political fights at home."

Late yesterday afternoon LA Observed's Kevin Roderick offered up some insight on the recent goings-on in local politics during his KCRW commentary. In addition to taking a look at this week's winners and losers--err, in the context of elections--Roderick took a look at what may or may not be the pop culture litmus test for potential electoral success. Yes, you guessed it: Twitter.

ALOUD at Central Library hosts a conversation with Reza Aslan, cofounder and creative director of BoomGen Studios as well as the Editorial Executive of Mecca.com and journalist Amy Wilentz for Young Literati Members tonight at 7 pm. They’ll talk about “launching a revolution in the way we understand - and confront - radical Islam.” After the program, join both authors and Young Literati members for an intimate gathering, including cocktails and hors d'oeuvres at Café Pinot. (ALOUD Program is open to the public, the post-program cocktails are limited to current Young Literati members.)

Tonight LACMA presents “Sound & Image: A History of Bollywood Film Music with Robin Sukhadia” from 7-9 pm at the museum’s Bing Theater. The seminar is focused on the sound and music of Bollywood, including the works of master film composers Naushad, SD Burman, & RD Burman. The program will feature music videos and film clips, accompanied by historical and political commentary and context by Sukhadia. The evening’s free and kid friendly.

April 2010 is now one year away, and LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is hoping to inspire many Angelenos to take an active role in the Census due to take place. Today he was joined by City Council President Eric Garcetti, Councilmembers Wendy Greuel and Jose Huizar, director of the U.S. Census Bureau Los Angeles Regional Office Jamie Christy, Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Taboo, member of the Black Eyed Peas, to launch the City of Los Angeles 2010 Census initiatives, according to a press release issued today.

Incumbent Mayor Antonia Villaraigosa wouldn't take Steve Lopez up on the offer of comparing french dip sandwiches along with his challengers a few days ago, but according to his Twitter feed, he's happy to shake a few hands with voters at another famous LA meat sandwich shop: Langer's Deli. Villaraigosa is kissing babies and finding photo ops as part of a very busy weekend campaign bus tour of the city. Already today he has "rallied the troops in support of the solar plan Measure B" and "open[ed] a Fire Station in the Pico Union area." His campaign blog lists many such visits today and tomorrow (although the midday ones are absent from today's agenda) and includes an awful lot of greeting, and a lot of potential meat-eating. His late-night nosh stops include Canter's Deli at 10 pm and Pink's Hot Dogs at 11.

LA Times columnist Steve Lopez had what he thought was an ingenious way to gather the candidates City of Los Angeles voters have to choose from in Tuesday's Mayoral election. His plan was to get them together to chat and to determine "who makes the best French dip sandwich in Los Angeles, Phillipe the Original or Cole's?" he explains in his column this weekend.

With just over a week to go before the City of Los Angeles takes to the polls to elect--or re-elect--a Mayor, candidates for the job have been participating in public forums to get their platforms and pot-shots out. Yesterday, five of the nine candidates gathered in Tujunga at an event moderated by the Daily News' Ron Kaye; one of those five was decidedly not incumbent Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Saturday at noon marked the deadline for hopeful candidates to take out filing papers for the March 3rd local election for multiple local offices from City Council to School Board, including the Mayor's. Those hoping to run have "until Dec. 3 to return their nominating petitions and qualifying signatures of eligible Los Angeles voters," explains the LA Times' Opinion LA blog.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is in Chicago today, taking part in meetings with President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden.

                 

Yesterday morning hundreds of students holding handmade pinwheels lined up on the street in the middle of Skid Row for a parade to celebrate the expansion of Inner-City Arts. They were joined by the staff and board members of Inner-City Arts, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, community leaders, and many guests. Everyone gathered together to commemorate a huge milestone in the history of this amazing organization.

This morning Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Bob Bates the Artistic Director of Inner-City Arts led a parade of children and community leaders to the entrance of their newly expanded campus. The art center has become an oasis of creativity in the middle of skid-row and serves thousands of LAUSD students every year.

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

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?

Almost two years ago, Frank Gehry, Eli Broad and the big developer folks from Related Companies announced the Grand Avenue Project. A blocklong development of housing, a hotel, retail & greenspace -- all designed by Gehry -- would complement Disney Hall. Getting the development together was tremendously complicated, and it probably wouldn't have happened without Broad's power and support. Since the exciting, fancy unveiling in April 2006, the Grand Avenue Committee has successfully navigated a series of hearings and approvals.

Tomorrow is the ribbon cutting of the third and newest downtown Famima!! at the California Plaza on Grand Avenue near MOCA. It's about time this part of downtown receive some new food options, even if this is quasi Japanese 7-11 style. However, a made-to-order sushi bar will be the centerpiece of this location.

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."

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, one of Hillary Clinton's national campaign chairs, is returning to Iowa to campaign for her, the Daily News reports. It is caucus day, so there's not much campaigning left to do.