Apparently, 23-seconds can be a long time for some. That's how long it takes to listen to Mayor Villaraigosa's "Welcome to 3-1-1" speech when you call the city's 24-hour operator hotline which is available for connection to any city service except emergency 911 calls. It's so long, in fact, some crotchety residents rather deal with their local council office than sit around for the speech, that includes an additional 10-seconds that explains pressing 1 for......

God, sometimes we love Orange County. It's such a parody of itself at times, which we admire. Especially when it comes to brilliance like the following found over at Laughing Squid. You see, the city of Santa Ana (oy) wants to help parents determine, via the graphic above, whether or not their child is a rat bastard tagger. The city of Santa Ana's site explains their accusatory and unfair image, along with the final word......

It was a great year of new books, re-discovered books, and books we meant to get to last year but didn't. The end of the year is nearly here and before we look forward, we'll take a look back. LAist Editors share their favorite book they read this year: Who: Zach Behrens, Editor What: The Four-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris Why: Inspiring words on how to improve workflow, automate tasks, and get more......

Simon Pastucha is the kind of city government employee Los Angeles needs more of. Why? He walks the talk and the Daily News tagged along for a day of his car-free, public transportation life. The Pasadena resident is an urban designer and planner at the Urban Design Studio, a two-person office charged with making the city a more community oriented, walkable and people friendly one. With his salary, Pastucha used to lease a Mercedes......

This is why we do all of our Christmas shopping online: first the FBI reported possible terrorist threats to Chicago and Los Angeles malls this holiday season, then took it back. Hey kids! You too can grow up to be a pervert with a social conscience! Dov Charney just signed on for a deal with American Apparel's partner company that could net him millions per year. A Small World it's not: Disneyland is remodeling......

LAist began the month with a new food series exploring the popular and unknown late night eats around town. If a Top Chef winner opened up a late night spot in Los Angeles, denizens would flock it, yet the LA Times and other media might be wary. Turning to sports, the Dodger season was quite memorable in the way that it imploded and the LA County Sheriff's Department made some games of their own......

It's better than winning the lottery. LAist is running three contests right now: a pair of tickets for Bright Eyes with the LA Philharmonic for this Saturday, a pair of VIP passes to LA Weekly's Detour Festival on October 6 and a pair of tickets for next The Crystal Method at The Roxy next tuesday. Speaking of Detour, the line-ups and stages were announced today Hopefully, citizens won't get cheated as much anymore: the......

Yes, like Ventura's split from its original name (San Buenaventura) or San Diego's true Spanish meaning (a whale's vagina), Los Angeles comes from a much larger city name - El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula (The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels on the River Porciúncula). And like other rare departments in the landscape of city government (Port of Los Angeles or Neighborhood......

We’re not really sure when we stopped paying attention to the inconsistencies and broken promises spouted by the political leadership of Los Angeles. “We” not only being the writers of LAist, but also the editors of the Times and the City’s citizens. The instant broken promise we are referring to “Stem Cellgate” as Bob Hertzberg’s former verbal hatchet man, Matt Szabo, called it. (Check his blog out; it’s quite good.) Over and over again......

Two major events dominate the week in LA politics–Bob Hertzberg’s introduction of the first TV ads in the mayoral campaign, and Laura Chick’s secret meetings with the mayoral challengers. (Sorry, fellow hacks–the Hahn signs at the sanitation yards aren’t that important.) Attack of the 50-foot Mayoral Candidate Bob Hertzberg released his first campaign ad to a variety of reviews. Boi from Troy says “Message gets an "A" but the imagery gets a kinda-spooky "C",”......

As promised, LAist looks at the other two “major” candidates for office. Walter Moore deserves (and will receive) his own post in due time. Bernard Parks Bernard Parks is indeed St. Bernard, the patron saint of Villaraigosa and Hertzberg. His sole purpose in the race at this point is to draw off votes from Hahn’s black base in order to make Hahn miss the runoff, or if he makes the runoff, to support the......

Los Angeles Daily News reporter and columnist Rick Orlov is a familiar face at City Hall. He should be—he’s covered the City Hall beat since 1988 and has been writing about politics for over 30 years. Orlov’s columns and articles are required reading for local politicos. He's a straight-shooter, though he says he gets a lot of feedback from readers suggesting he is biased one way or the other. “If you’re covering the circus,”......

Tired of politics? You'd better get your second wind because local politicos descended on City Hall Monday to file the paperwork for the city wide election on March 8th. Should be a noisy fight as 26 incumbents and challengers launch campaigns for Los Angeles mayor, eight City Council seats and a handful of other offices. The Los Angeles Daily Breeze reported "the crowd of [mayoral] hopefuls included Mayor James Hahn and one of his......

The worst kept secret in L.A. is out - Antonio Villaraigosa is running for mayor again. The Times has the scoop. Villaraigosa says that as mayor, his top priorities would be halting gang crime, the economy, and "build[ing] trust in city government." It will be interesting to see if he can credibly act upon the last of these ideas, as cynicism towards government seems to be ascendant in most of American politics. We have to......