Results tagged “greigsmith”

A Los Angeles city council committee will look into the long-delayed outdoor smoking ban draft ordinance this morning. If approved, it will then move on to the full city council where if passed, the ban will go into affect after a six-month education campaign. Basically, the ban says no smoking--unless you're just walking by--within 10 feet of an established outdoor dining area (think restaurants and cafes with sidewalk dining or outdoor food courts).

Have a frank talk with an LADWP official this month and they'll tell you it's been a tough few weeks. The perception of the city-owned utility has gone downhill amid a series of water main breaks, the sudden resignation of David Nahai (however, with a comfy consulting gig) and one moderate rainstorm knocking out electricity service to nearly 50,000 customers.

Los Angeles City Councilman Greig smith has brought up some legitimate points in the recent drought-related debates, but his most recent announcement about his scofflaw watering may be pushing it. Yesterday at a committee meeting, the Northwest Valley representative said he was challenging the current water laws by watering his lawn three times a week for 8 minutes. "And my grass is greener than it's ever been, and I bet I'm using less water," he said.

This rumor has been floating around for years. If you're getting robbed and forced to take out money at an ATM, you can alert police by entering your PIN in reverse, but still get the money out so the bad guy is none the wiser. The locally based Snopes.com calls the rumor false and gives a history of the technology, which was first patented in 1994 by a Chicago businessman, but hasn't found an real-world use. Even a bill related to the idea went through the Kansas legislature but never became law. However, the LA Times reports today that Councilman Greig Smith, in his new role as chairman of the Public Safety Committee, wants to explore the technology in light of teenager Lily Burk's murder. She was killed after attempting to withdraw money from ATMs with a credit card (it never worked). Smith says the technology would cost $25 per ATM to install. If this technology were to become citywide, ATM robberies would likely become seldom, or at least and unfortunately, more efficient.

In a direct and to-the-point opinion in the Daily News yesterday, Councilman Greig Smith further shamed the firefighters' union for a mailer sent out last week depicting the Chatsworth metrolink crash, which left 25 dead and 135 injured, juxtaposed with information about budget cuts to the LAFD. Smith, who represents Chatsworth and is the incoming chairman for the city's Public Safety Committee, lambasted union president Pat McOsker in his writing:

       

As LAist noted earlier today, tonight is National Night Out, uh, night. If you live in Northridge, you can catch a free outdoor screening of Kung Fu Panda at Northridge Park this evening. As noted in the press release from the office of Councilman Greig Smith (Greig? Really?):

Last Friday, a federal judge lifted a federal consent decree that oversaw the Los Angeles Police Department for eight years in order to reform patterns and practice of excessive force, false arrests and unreasonable searches and seizures. It was placed over the agency after the infamous Rampart Scandal in which anti-gang officers working in the named division were implicated in a plethora of crimes over several years.

At yesterday's city council meeting, a nearly unanimous vote prompted a half million dollar study on whether the city should sell its parking meters and six city parking garages to help fill massive budget gaps. The one councilman who stood up for common sense was the Northwest Valley's Greig Smith. "We're selling property at the bottom of the market. What a stupid idea," he said. "If we were stockbrokers, we'd be in jail with Bernie Madoff for this kind of scheme. This is foolhardy economics." Will JP Morgan Chase own Los Angeles' meters someday soon? The parking lots in question include Hollywood & Highland complex, Pershing Square and the Cinerama Dome.

The Daily News has published their analysis of LAFD salaries and overtime pay, and the results might have some folks feeling burned. The report shows that overtime pay has risen 60% in the past ten years with a personnel increase of only 17% (to 3, 586 firefighters), and "there is no real effort to rein in the expense despite the city's budget crisis."

       

Yesterday, hundreds of Valley residents headed towards their front and backyard lawns, picking orange and grapefruit trees, lemon bushes and other juicy fruits in name of one of the largest single-day community food donation drives in the city. Around 20,000 pounds of citrus was gathered at Citrus Sunday, a project run by Councilman Greig Smith who represents the 12th district. Residents drop off the fruit to various Valley fire stations and it all ends up with the Valley Interfaith Council (VIC), who serve 80,000 people (not just meals, but individuals) a month. The amazing thing is, without Citrus Sunday, all the fruit may have just gone to waste. If you have fruit ready to be picked off your tree, VIC has food pantries around the Valley where you can drop it off (we recommend you call first). As for the fruit, all of it is being distributed to low-income families this week starting today.

We don't understand why no one wants the Las Lomas project, a proposed 5,500 unit/555-acre development, to be built between the 5 and 14 freeways just north of Los Angeles' border. Come on, how cool would it be to live between two freeways so close together! Not to mention two other freeways are near by, the 405 and 210. Access to so many freeways = good quality of life. Cough, cough.

Back in November, it was announced that the West Valley would be getting an additional LAPD station in a former sex toy manufacturing plant on Schoenborn Street between Owensmouth and Canoga in Canoga Park. Tentatively called the Northwest Division, it will serve Woodland Hills, West Hills, Canoga Park, and Winnetka when it opens this or next year. Those neighborhoods lay within Council Districts 3 and 12, both represented by LAPD Reserve Officers, Councilman Dennis Zine and Councilman Greig Smith.

Los Angeles has over 180 official neighborhoods. These are those communities designated with the city sealed blue sign. However, if you tried to figure out your neighborhood and its official boundary, there's a good chance you are going to come upon a) conflicting information b) no information, or c) confusing information. Trust us, we know. We've been digging into official Los Angeles city neighborhoods with our Neighborhood Project and have yet to come upon...

Despite the risk of building a home, selling a home and moving into a home in a high risk fire zone, companies, homeowners and governments still find it acceptable finds the LA Times today. "This is a land rush into danger," said Roger Kennedy, former director of the National Park Service and author of a recent book on wildfires. "A land rush by people who do not understand what they are doing and who...

Here's a theme for City Council: they publish e-mail addresses on their websites so the public can contact them, but you e-mail them and get a bounced e-mail in return. You've seen this before. 1. The city's Webmaster (see the LaBonge story link) 2. Councilman Tom LaBonge 3. Councilman Greig Smith The next victim in the city's published e-mail address shenanigans is Councilman Tony Cárdenas, representing Council District 6 in The Valley. "No such recipient."...

In 2003, the New York City Council voted to oppose the war in Iraq. Two years later, they drew a resolution for the "orderly and rapid withdrawal" of Iraq. Now, three days short of exactly two years after New York, the Los Angeles City Council, in a 12-2 vote, voted yesterday to support pulling out of Iraq.The council said it approved the resolution because it wants the federal government to end the war, which...

The New Downtown Ralphs: "They went — loft-dwelling yuppies, SRO dwellers, office workers and even some homeless people — for a chance to browse the aisles of the long-awaited, 50,000-square-foot Ralphs on 9th Street." Not Putting in Crosswalks Near Schools: "'Our Department of Transportation is one of the slowest, most bureaucratic departments in the city,' said City Councilman Greig Smith. 'I am constantly banging my head against the wall to get them to do...

Even when you are an dishonest person, a tiny bit of honesty can go a long way. LA City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo could have avoided a week of scrutiny if he only told the truth a week and a half ago when asked by reporters if his wife was using his city-assigned vehicle when it was damaged and paid for by the taxpayers. Instead, he avoided questions for a simple answer until the LA Times...

Last night we visited the Valley's Relay for Life which supports the American Cancer Society. The 24-hour event is wrapping up right now over at Birmingham High School in Van Nuys. Why have an event that lasts 24-hours? Because cancer never sleeps and so the 90 plus teams participating in this year's Valley Relay for Life raised over $225,000 and are spending a full day of their life in the name of awareness. Even Councilman...

We all know with the budget shell game, money gets shifted, programs beget and programs get dropped. Another program on the cutting board of the proposed budget is the CERT training, otherwise known as the Community Emergency Response Team. This free training by the fire department is invaluable (we know). The fact of the matter is that when a huge earthquake comes and makes life much worse than 1994's quake, the city is not...

In our attempt to have City Council offices get LAist added to their press release lists, we have found another City Council e-mail address defunct. Enter councilman Greig Smith, the man with one of the best City Council websites (maybe not in design, but an aggressively updated one, unlike other council websites). After failing to communicate with Tom LaBonge, a similar problem now exists with Smith. Unreported on LAist, this exact same thing happened on...

If you don't know Melrose Larry Green, you might recognize him from Howard Stern. Or maybe you know of his book, Why The Clintons Belong in Jail. Maybe not. Maybe you knew him in Brooklyn in the 50s as Laurence Victor Greenblatt. Whatever the case is, Green is a local celebrity of some sort. Last Saturday at the Keep America Beautiful launch, where Hillary Clinton spoke, Green popped into our little video as we...

This March, we will vote again. All even-numbered Los Angeles council districts will be up for grabs. Well... sorta. A few will be running unopposed: CD2: Wendy Greuel CD4: Tom LaBonge CD12: Greig Smith Competition will be found in: CD6: Tony Cardenas CD8: Bernard Parks CD10: Herb Wesson CD14: José Huizar (a story about this race) And since Alex Padilla will resign his seat in CD7 to go to the State Senate, there will...

Today City Councilman Greig Smith will propose new housing and pension incentives to help boost the LAPD's flagging recruitment efforts. Hmm... will the success of Crash have any effect? Matt Dillon's LAPD officer is a prick, but he's also kind of heroic, and he gets to handle Thandie Newton.

Contrary to popular belief, LA politics isn’t boring, it’s just really poorly covered. That’s somewhat a problem with the structural nature of news coverage. There’s quite a lot actually going on, and quite a lot of really interesting personalities, each with their quirks, closeted (and not-so-closeted) skeletons, and dreams of power. It’s just hard to fit all that into a deadline story without providing background over and over again, so the interesting stuff gets lost in the day-to-day foreground.

Back in April, things looked promising for the proposed 555-acre, mixed-use development known as Las Lomas when a judge blocked the City of Santa Clarita’s attempt to annex unincorporated land in its effort to thwart the controversial development.