Results tagged “ericgarcetti”

On the heels of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's announcement about a locally grown food policy, a move by city council has some farmers markets concerned about their survival. On September 1, the L.A. City Council passed a special events ordinance, changing the rules about how and which events are eligible to have fees waived for expenses like street closures. Some community events such as block parties get a break, but farmers markets do not under the current language.

Passing the measure known as "Cash for Clunkers" looms before lawmakers--and their summer recess--and has been met in the media with its fair share of critics and cheerleaders. Categorizing himself as the latter, Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti published a post today on his website declaring his support--"love," actually--of the program that "gives car-buyers vouchers worth up to $4,500 for trading in their low-mileage vehicle for one that’s significantly more fuel-efficient."

In a media availability session around noon today, LAPD Chief William Bratton officially announced his resignation, effective as of October 31st, so he can pursue a career in the private sector. He joined Los Angeles in October of 2002 and will soon join Altegrity Inc., a worldwide private security firm based in Falls Church, Virginia.

After nearly a year of grueling and dramatic meetings between Sunset Junction Festival organizers, the city and local neighbors and businesses, the festival will be likely be permitted for August 22nd and 23rd after addressing concerns, according to City Council President Eric Garcetti's office.

World-renown acrobatic entertainers Cirque du Soleil have been dangling a 2011 permanent stay here in Los Angeles for several months now. Talks to have the troupe set up their act at Hollywood & Highland's Kodak Theatre for a ten-year residency at the venue have been in the works for sometime, but now it falls to the City Council to decide if Los Angeles can afford to have them here, according to the Daily News.

State Assemblyman Paul Krekorian will be soon be voting on the proposed budget solution, which severely impacts local governments including Los Angeles. If it passes, Los Angeles could lose millions and has leaders like Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Council President Eric Garcetti worried. Krekorian also happens to be one of the frontrunners in the race for Los Angeles Council District 2. That's quite a pickle of a situation and when pressed about it, his office declined to comment. Will he vote along Democratic party lines to approve the budget, which could hurt Los Angeles yet immediately help the state, or will he make a statement as someone who really wants to represent Los Angeles on the City Council? No matter what he does, it's not a black or white situation--it's not like the Democrats have many choices with Schwarzenegger, who basically is unwilling to compromise with many workable ideas. Still, politics are politics: if he votes for the budget, expect that to be a major issue his opponents will use against him in future debates.

On Monday, crews will begin construction on the LA River bike path, extending it further south towards downtown. The 2.5 mile stretch will go from Fletcher Drive to Barclay Street over an asphalt easement previously owned by the Army Corps of Engineers. The current path, running from the northern end of Griffith Park to Fletcher Drive is about 4.25 miles. The project is expected to take 6 to 7 months based on preliminary reports.

Out with the old meters, in with hand-me-down bicycle racks called meter hitches. When the city last year began replacing parking meters with the new pay station ones, that either left headless meters or no meters at all along stress, which meant less options for bicycle parking. Then last night, as part of a pilot project between the Department of Transportation and Council President Eric Garcetti's office, came 52 new bicycle meter hitches on Hollywood Boulevard between La Brea and Vine.

Word of the Taco Zone truck that parks near Vons in Echo Park being on fire spread in much the same manner as the blaze last night via Twitter and food-centric message boards.

North Hollywood: What do you do when the city owns a vacant lot that's being used by people as an unofficial trash landfill? Clear it out and make it into a park. On Monday, Councilwoman and Controller-Elect Wendy Greuel and others will make the first ceremonial dig on the Bellaire Pocket Park Project, located at the corner of Bellaire Ave and Strathern St.

Eric Garcetti proposed to have the city do bicycle sharrows--basically painted graphics on street lanes indicating bicycles and cars should share the lane, per state law--as a pilot project. That was last year June. One year later, here's the latest via the LA County Bicycle Coalition's e-mail blast today: "At a meeting, held last week, the pilot project timeline was reevaluated and due in part to LADOT and Alta Planning's priority to finish the Bike Plan, the Sharrow Project prioritization won't begin until September. We were hoping to see paint on the ground before the end of 2009, but unfortunately it looks like we will not see paint until early 2010. "

This morning's Daily News raises an important question in the era of social networking: "What do you do if you're a local official on a political mission to Washington, D.C., but find there's no media there to cover your activities?" The answer, of course, is to use services like Twitter and YouTube to pass along short pieces of information a la minute to your followers and constituents.

Blogger Daniel Barassi spoke to LA City Council President Eric Garcetti about last week's Depeche Mode Concert at Hollywood and Vine. Will there be more huge concerts like this? Will we get an official Depeche Mode Day? Good stuff.

An e-mail sent out from an online ticketing vendor today advertised this year's Sunset Junction, but city officials say no street closure and event permits have been granted to the festival. TicketWeb lists admission for the popular and longstanding event at $15 each day for August 22nd and 23rd confusing attendees who thought the festival was gone or should be free of charge.

       

"They say nobody walks in LA, but many people cross Sunset Blvd. at Portia everyday. This new signalized crosswalk will make it safer for them when they do," Council President Eric Garcetti said today at a news conference introducing Echo Park's new pedestrian friendly feature.

Earlier this year, Council President Eric Garcetti's office hosted a bicycle rack competition for artists to design bicycle racks for East Hollywood. Today, after city and community input, Melrose Hills artist Forester Rudolph and his SpokesQuotes design were announced as the winner.

LA City Council's new ad hoc Committee on Economic Recovery and Reinvestment met last week for the first time carefully deciding how stimulus will be handled. "At that meeting, we established a set of 9 guiding priorities by which we intend not only to fulfill the president’s vision for efficient allocation of the stimulus funds, but also to make Los Angeles the most accountable, transparent, and effective city in moving economic recovery programs forward," Council President Eric Garcetti wrote on his personal blog on his campaign website. With this transparency, he believes the city will get up to $1 billion.

       

Yesterday evening, cyclist Lance Armstrong rallied friends, the bike-friendly, and local leaders as they took to the streets of Hollywood as part of his Livestrong: Hope Rides Again promotion. Armstrong was joined on two wheels by local civic leaders like Councilmembers Eric Garcetti and Tom LaBonge, and later by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and artist Shepard Fairey all to raise funds and launch a global art exhibition called "Stages, which features the work of 21 artists and will help support the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Fairey's iconic work can be see emblazoned on the buildings of Hollywood; although "Hope" is a key term for Armstrong's exhibit, it's also one that Fairey has used elsewhere--maybe you've seen it? Here he's making do with "Defiance," "Courage," and "Action!"

The 13th District's Eric Garcetti will be live on Crooks and Liars at 3 p.m. to take your questions. Interesting to note that it's a nationally focused site (although it is based locally in Mar Vista), which might have some speculating that one day we'll be addressing him as a congressman (and disappointing a lot of people hoping he'll make a run for mayor). But on the other hand, Garcetti as of late has been big on pushing the local/municipal progressive perspective with a wider stroke these days. Never a bad thing considering no one shows up to vote in local elections, but still complain about local issues.

"The American people are watching," Obama told a gathering of mayors at the White House today, saying he would call them out if the public's money went to waste.

"We threw Gray Davis out of office because of his tax increases," a Los Angeles resident told the Daily News about the new state proposed tax increases. "Now they're trying to do this, and it's three times worse."

"Let's not forget the local perspective when talking national policies," LA City Council President Eric Garcetti said last night in a telephone press conference about the federal stimulus package going through Washington D.C. right now. "The economic recovery isn't going to happen in Washington, it's going to happen on our streets."

       

What became clear at Thursday night's packed community meeting about a rash of street robberies in the Silver Lake and Echo Park communities is that police and the community need to work more closely together. The need has always been there, but after residents felt angry when the city was slow to identify and report crime patterns, they took to the streets and internet with the information they had and spread the word themselves.

              

Since December 30th, the Silver Lake and Echo Park communities have experienced ten street robberies where all the victims were males walking alone. Six of them took place in Echo Park around Sunset and Alvarado through the first week of January (only one took place later in the month) and in the last week, four were committed in the Rowena-Hyperion area of Silver Lake. One such incident over the weekend, where the victim later woke up in the hospital, spread like wildfire through e-mails and community-made flyers handed out on the streets.

LA County Board of Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky has jumped on the bandwagon of politicians begging the LA Times not to kill the California section of the paper. "Despite its profitability even in the current market, the Times recently boosted its street price by 50% even as it was accelerating plans to further degrade its news product by eliminating sections and cutting additional staff," he wrote in the letter (via LA Observed). "Charging the newspaper's customers more while giving them less is never sound economic policy, nor is it a sustainable journalistic practice. In essence, the Times' current trajectory can be described succinctly as follows: 'We are going to save the newspaper by destroying it.'" LA City Councilmember Eric Garcetti started a popular Facebook group to urge the section's survival.

Today is the first Car Free Friday, a day to encourage bike commuting and hopefully convince people that the option is not that bad at all. Councilman Eric Garcetti helped the event gain media attnention by riding from the Hollywood/Western Subway station to City Hall with around sixty bicyclists. “Riding your bike on Car-Free Fridays is a great way to reduce your impact on the environment and get a work out at the same time,” Garcetti reportedly said via Damien Newton at Streetsblog LA, who give us this eco-nugget fact of love: "Riding a bicycle for just 10 miles a week can save at least $520 a year, shed calories, work to reduce California's emissions from cars and light trucks..." Car Free Fridays will continue on the last Friday of every month.

Jesus Sanchez caught Echo Park and LA City Councilman Eric Garcetti last night at a community meeting. While talking about crime statistics, he said "I had a wallet stolen from my car. I think it was Tweaker Tom. We actually saw three people with flash lights going down the street."

88-year-old veteran actor Ricardo Montalban has died, abc7.com is reporting. The news was announced by City Council President Eric Garcetti today; Montaban lived in Garcetti's district, and died at his home there in the Doheny Estates. Garcetti says: "The Ricardo Montalban Theatre in my Council District - where the next generations of performers participate in plays, musicals, and concerts - stands as a fitting tribute to this consummate performer." Montalban was born in Mexico in 1920, and had a long-spanning career in film, television, and radio. Two of his best-known roles were as Mr. Roarke on the TV show Fantasy Island (1977-1984) and as Star Trek's villainous Khan. Montalban's wife of 63 years, Georgiana, died just over a year ago. The cause of Montalban's death has not been released.

The young, hip and cute superstar City Council President Eric Garcetti of LA's popular 13th district (Hollywood, Silver Lake, Echo Park, Atwater Village, etc), is now a married man. "It should mellow me out," Garcetti joked at today's City Council meeting. The small wedding was on Sunday with parents and close friends. Amy Elaine Wakeland and Garcetti have been dating for a while now; they currently reside in Echo Park. He's up for reelection on the March 3rd ballot with little competition.