John Ferraro had many friends. This was his strength and his weakness. He stuck up for people he liked, even when it turned out they did not have the city’s best interests at heart. In his more than 35 years on the City Council, however, it‘s fair to say Ferraro did more to keep Los […]
Month: July 2018
Naked in Quebec
John Ferraro had many friends. This was his strength and his weakness. He stuck up for people he liked, even when it turned out they did not have the city’s best interests at heart. In his more than 35 years on the City Council, however, it‘s fair to say Ferraro did more to keep Los […]
Richard’s Bracelet
It may not be rough, but it is justice. Richard Alatorre has been sentenced to serve eight months in the Eagle Rock home his lies bought, and for the sake of whose mortgage he falsified a property lease on his previous dwelling. A longtime crony had re-roofed the house with $13,200 worth of fashionable red […]
The Great Library Robbery
Let‘s face it: Pretense aside, the proposal from the Library Commission to name the Central Library after Mayor Dick Riordan was about as spontaneous as the Chinese Communist Party’s terming Mao the Great Helmsman.It is also completely unjust. After the old library was gutted by arson fires, it was Riordan‘s predecessor, Tom Bradley, who inspired […]
Alatorre’s Cat
Richard Alatorre, the notorious former assemblyman and Los Angeles city councilman, is about to pay his debt to society in the form of an eight-month home detention. But his politics live on, and some contend that he’s actually grooming a new political heir in a May 15 special election. The poll is to choose a […]
Barking for Change
Hardly anyone ever notices that the fourth largest city in the nation’s most populous county is Torrance. This is probably because the larger cities — such as L.A. and Long Beach — are so much more interesting.So are many smaller ones. Even Torrance’s motto, “A balanced city — commercial, residential, industrial,” is sheer anhedonia. Torrance […]
Killer Bob
Who would have thought the confession — media-wise as the debut of a new luxury SUV — by former Senator Bob Kerrey that he was responsible for the massacre of at least 14 Vietnamese women and children would evoke so much sympathy?Well, there’s ol’ Killer Bob himself, for one. Whose grizzled mug appeared on the […]
Fathers and Sons
Gil Garcetti was hard put to make the right choice for his son, Eric. “Do you think this one would be quite right?” he asked a fellow customer at a Westside Trader Joe’s last Sunday. The other allowed that for $2.99 a bottle, that particular chardonnay wasn’t actually bad. “Then it will do for this […]
Antonio’s Line
It was probably as much Dick Riordan’s paternalism as his lingering aversion to City Attorney Jim Hahn that birthed the ultimate endorsement of the 2001 Los Angeles mayor’s race. Distant as they might be on pure ideology, and as contrastingly beguiling and unbeguiling personally, Antonio Villaraigosa and Richard Riordan, the up-from-poverty legislator and the well-born […]
The New Alignment
Much has happened in the 35 years since young Mexican-Americans first marched to demand social justice and economic opportunity. As the conflict gradually moved off the streets and into the voting booths, the city councils, the state legislatures and Congress, the issues and personalities became increasingly complex. The goals have changed too. What began as […]