October 2006 Archives

That's the color we're painting our house. Actually, it's Yellow Lotus from Benjamin Moore, which we're getting at Catalina Paints on Oxnard Street and Van Nuys Boulevard. It used to be a Magic Muffler shop, meaning it was purple, and they were able to cover that up just fine. And it's not as overrun as Dunn-Edwards on Sepulveda Boulevard.

And yes, we're doing it ourselves. Upon first scrape, I can tell you that our house, which is 57 years old, has been painted a grand total of ... twice. First color: Mylanta Green, if such a color exists. Second coat ... a generic off-white/tan.

As Ilene says, there's a lot of politics involved in painting your own house, especially if the color you choose is not Navajo White and you're not treating the exterior of the dwelling as if it's a 17th-century sideboard.

We're going to do it in stages -- one side at a time. First the front, then the west side, then back and east side.

Interesting post from Mack at L.A. Voice about the Green Dot charter school program in LAUSD, and how the founder of the movement, Steve Barr is seeking a meeting with the admiral, aka incoming superintendent David Brewer:

... to hear Barr tell it, they're able to educate kids in classes of 25 instead of 40 students, pay teachers $47,000 a year instead of $40,000 (they had 800 applicants for 80 job openings recently!). Because they're not supporting a huge bureaucracy that includes 35,000 LAUSD employees who don't even work at schools.

There's a whole "progressive" brouhaha over the L.A. Weekly's coverage of labor leader Miguel Contreras' death from a heart attack last year, not in his car, as was initially reported, but inside a business that later was the subject of a prostitution sting.

From L.A. Observed:

He died there rather than at the hospital, but no autopsy was done — perhaps at the insistence of the many politicians who gathered that night in May 2005.

...

Mayor Villaraigosa, the first city official to reach Daniel Freeman's emergency room, refused to talk to (L.A. Weekly reporter David) Zahniser. The story reconstructs the scene there, a Friday evening during the latter stages of the campaign for mayor. Both Villaraigosa and Jim Hahn were there, as well as dozens of other interested parties. Zahniser says it was then-councilman Martin Ludlow who worked his cellphone frantically to avoid an autopsy.

And from the Weekly piece itself:

Despite his stature, or perhaps because of it, the details of Contreras' death have eluded the public record. Had he been an elected official, or even a low-voltage celebrity, many more questions would have been asked about his final hours. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine such secrets being kept in any other big city, including New York, Chicago or London. Was he at a fortune teller or a botanica? A massage parlor or a den of prostitution? Or all of the above?

Throughout his political career, Contreras had been a behind-the-scenes operator — pouring money into campaigns, mobilizing union workers on Election Day and pushing for the passage of prolabor policies, including such massive public-works projects as Staples Center and the now-abandoned $11.5 billion remodeling of Los Angeles International Airport. Contreras was in the background during the 2000 bus strike, brokering a conversation between then-mayor Richard Riordan and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson. Now, even in death, Contreras has stayed behind the scenes, leaving the public a mystery regarding the circumstances surrounding his demise.

Even if the questions are awkward or unpleasant, they deserve to be asked, if for no other reason than to preserve the record of one of L.A.’s most influential figures at the end of the 20th century. Historians have done the same in the case of Martin Luther King Jr., another powerful figure who spoke on behalf of the downtrodden, seeking to understand the man in totality, by exploring his more private side. And so the question remains, what happened during the final hours of Miguel Contreras’ life? Why is it so hard to track down the woman in the botanica who found him? Who delivered his wallet to the LAPD in the days after his death? And how could his death have triggered a sting operation but not an autopsy?

The facts of the story are not in contention, just that it was reported at all, say angry partisans -- and yes, I am calling them that. They say the Weekly has veered into tabloid-style journalism and is, on the one hand, unnecessarily besmirching one of labor's great leaders and, on the other, exposing details of a man whose stature, quixotically, isn't so public that they should be exposed.

Add that they shouldn't be ratting out a liberal. Save it for the Mark Foleys, I guess, is their reasoning.

Go here on L.A. Observed to see a letter asking for a boycott of the L.A. Weekly, as well as an e-mail from now-former columnist Harold Meyerson, who doesn't think his brother in the labor struggle deserves the truth to be told about him:

But becoming a tabloid in the New Times model is absolutely a disgrace. The New Times model churns out "gotcha" news stories, it snipes at an undifferentiated establishment, it makes little effort to understand larger social forces at work in a city (that would require local deviations from the model), it has a weakness for rants. It produces columns like "L.A. Sniper," in the Jill Stewart mode of reducing commentary to drive-by shootings.

It all makes me feel warm and fuzzy about Fox News and the Washington Times, among the media outlets uabashed in their cheering for the far right.

We all knew the L.A. Weekly was leftist in the extreme, and whether that was working for them is another question. But covering up news because its columnists are close personal friends of the subject of that news, even as elected city officials scramble to cover it up, and wishing to report nothing because it hurts "the cause" -- it makes me sick.

So log my vote for the Weekly and David Zahniser. And no, I won't be registering (or voting) Republican any time soon (sorry, Bridget, Aaron, Cathy and Maia). That would be going way too far.

But I just might actually read the still-lefty Weekly more often.

Found via Romenesko, this longish article by Times-Picayune columnist Chris Rose is one of the best I've seen on the subject of depression and getting help for it. A sample:

There were other people pumping gas at the island I had pulled into and I didn't want them to see me, didn't want to see them, didn't want to nod hello, didn't want to interact in any fashion.

Outside the window, they looked like characters in a movie. But not my movie.

I tried to wait them out, but others would follow, get out of their cars and pump and pay and drive off, always followed by more cars, more people. How can they do this, like everything is normal, I wondered. Where do they go? What do they do?

It was early August and two minutes in my car with the windows up and the air conditioner off was insufferable. I was trapped, in my car and in my head.

So I drove off with an empty tank rather than face strangers at a gas station.

Before I continue this story, I should make a confession. For all of my adult life, when I gave it thought -- which wasn't very often -- I regarded the concepts of depression and anxiety as pretty much a load of hooey.

I never accorded any credibility to the idea that such conditions were medical in nature. Nothing scientific about it. You get sick, get fired, fall in love, get laid, buy a new pair of shoes, join a gym, get religion, seasons change -- whatever; you go with the flow, dust yourself off, get back in the game. I thought anti-depressants were for desperate housewives and fragile poets.

I no longer feel that way. Not since I fell down the rabbit hole myself and enough hands reached down to pull me out.

One of those hands belonged to a psychiatrist holding a prescription for anti-depressants. I took it. And it changed my life.

...

I changed the message on my phone to say: "This is Chris Rose. I am emotionally unavailable at the moment. Please leave a message."

I thought this was hilarious. Most of my friends picked it up as a classic cry for help.

My editor, my wife, my dad, my friends and just strangers on the street who recognized me from my picture in the paper had been telling me for a long time: You need to get help.

I didn't want help. I didn't want medicine. And I sure as hell didn't want to sit on a couch and tell some guy with glasses, a beard and a psych degree from Dartmouth all about my troubles.

The Franklin Avenue bloggers took a trip to Underwood Family Farms in Moorpark to pick their own pumpkins. We went a month or so ago, and I heartily encourage a trip out there.

Our visit last month (pictured above) was chronicled at Drawerspace, should you care to know more.

Great story in today's paper about how the Van Nuys High School football team's linemen are winning in academics, if not on the field.

"It's just about having your priorities straight and being willing to work hard," said junior tackle Anthony Lehman.

It helps when you mix in a passionate coach and a group of parents who convinced their sons long ago not to settle for anything less than excellence.

Kudos to Coach Chris Johnson and all the players: Edward Mujila, Joseph Calvo, Eduardo Aburto, Debonair Broadnax, Alan Hersh, Dmitry Tarasov, Anthony Lehman and Michael Johnson.

One day you have a crash that injures 17 riders, the next you celebrate the line's first anniversary. While any crash is bad news, there are probably hundreds of other auto accidents occurring each and every day -- some even with transit buses -- that don't get the publicity of an Orange Line mishap. Not the worst thing, because safety must indeed be "first." That's why those big "BUS COMING" lights flash when the ... bus ... is ... coming. That, the RED LIGHT and the fact that YOU SHOULD KNOW THE BUS IS COMING is more than enough to keep you from getting clipped by a massive bus:

Officials believed Monday's crash was caused by a delivery truck that plowed into the Orange Line at Woodman Avenue. The still unidentified driver admitted running a red light, (County Supervisor Zev) Yaroslavsky said.

"We have to convey to commuters in the San Fernando Valley that red means stop," said Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Los Angeles, said during the morning conference commemorating the upcoming anniversary.

The MTA has logged 30 accidents since the Orange Line opened. Ten of those collisions resulted in injuries, most minor. All were caused by drivers running red lights.

When Brad Sherman (pictured in living color at right) tells you to stop ... you stop.

And ladies, in case you hadn't heard, Congressman Brad is taken:

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), 52, is engaged.

Though the couple hasn’t yet set a date, Sherman has proposed to Lisa Nicola Kaplan, a mid-thirties Hill fellow he met a year and a half ago in Washington. Sherman has made no secret of the fact that he had previously used JDate and other online dating sites. The couple spent two weeks of the congressional recess vacationing in Norway.

Mike Briggs, Sherman’s spokesman, offered no details on the proposal. “He’s always been interested in maintaining a certain level of privacy,� Briggs said. “And even though this is news, I don’t believe his views of privacy have changed.�

Kaplan, a native of New York City, came to Capitol Hill by way of a Brookings Institution fellowship sponsored by the State Department, where she will resume working this fall. She is a foreign affairs officer in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. She holds a masters degree in public policy from Harvard, a masters in international administration from the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vt., and a bachelor’s degree from Williams.

Guess that means we'll never have "The Bachelor: Capitol Hill," at least not with Brad Sherman.

Daily News on the impending nuptials.

L.A. Observed on same.

It's easier than ever with our new URL: http://dailynews.com/feelthenuys

Thanks, Josh Kleinbaum, Daily News online guru, for making s**t happen.

Also, see the 20 most recent posts across the entire, growing Daily News blogosphere at http://dailynews.com/blogs

And thanks to L.A. Observed for noticing our new blog, Click, at which I channel my über-geekiness. Check me, particularly on the fetishizing of the iPod.

... at that troublesome intersection -- Oxnard Street and Woodman Avenue.

Who would've thunk that Jack Kent Cooke -- erstwhile sports-team accumulator, Bentley driver and former Daily News owner -- would resurface at the below-the-radar Museum of the San Fernando Valley's "Museum Sundae" event? Not I, but he left his tag, and probably got a small, gratis bowlful of tasty ice cream to go with it.

Ilene wrote about it for Valleynews.com and blogged here, and I agree that the art table -- of which both of us, as well as our little one, availed ourselves of -- was one of the coolest parts of the event (if three people get the JKC joke, I'll consider the whole thing worth it).

Anyhow, the museum itself is housed in a bungalow at Los Angeles Valley College. It's not as far along as the Andres Pico Adobe, in terms of its exibit-worthiness, but there's not a whole lot out there in terms of credible SFV museum action, and this is as good as start as any. They've got a board of directors and a bunch of people dedicated to turning it into something, and for that I say "well done."

Despite being held on the same day as the Sherman Oaks Street Fair, there were plenty of people at Museum Sunday. Never underestimate the power of free ice cream.

Now that the crowds are gone, I plan to return to the museum to do some research on W.P. Whitsett, the guy who made Van Nuys happen (and who named it after Isaac Newton Van Nuys instead of himself) and who pushed V.N. lots with a manifesto that had would-be residents doing small-scale "farming" -- gardening, really -- on their Valley plots. That ethos returned big-time in the Victory Gardens of WWII and are something that I, in my four-tomato-plant euhphoria, am extremely interested in today.

I refer you to the amazing Chris Nyerges' book, "Extreme Simplicity," (not available from Amazon but very available from Chris) for a look at how urban homesteading can actually happen in the Los Angeles area.

I stumbled on a Web page with a weather bug from this site, and I decided to check it out myself. Get on over there and get a weather banner or bug for your personal Web site or blog. Go!

The link above is for Van Nuys, so on the off chance you live somewhere else, go here, type in your ZIP code or city, then scroll down and click on "Get Your Weather Sticker!"

Update: I added the weather bug at right. They come smaller, but those don't have the words "Van Nuys" on them. I might just type in "Van Nuys" and shrink it, but let's live with this awhile, shall we?

Here's what the little one looks like:

While I advocate saving some old computers (This Old Mac, This Old PC), some are just too old to be anything but museum pieces or scrap. The city of Los Angeles collects what it calls "e-waste" at its facility in Sun Valley, as well as others, and also offers mobile collection events.

But there's another way. Goodwill Industries has its own computer recycling program. And it's something that actually makes money for this worthy organization:

Income from Goodwill Computer Recycling helps fund education, training and job placement services for people with disabilities and other barriers.

Here's what they do:

How do we recycle computers? Wipe hard drive to Department of Defense standard Refurbish & resell - 10% Dismantle & sell plastic and metal parts for salvage - 70% 20% sent to authorized recyclers for "cancellation"

So ... somewhere they are selling the worthy pickings from what gets donated -- and it seems like they won't turn you away if you have "e-waste." To find the exact place to take your old hardware, call 323-539-2130, or e-mail
ComputerRecycling@goodwillsocal.org.

Other Goodwill services that could help your business -- while providing jobs for those who need them -- include Secure Shredding, laser-toner cartridge recycling, professional packing and shipping -- even assembly, plus janitorial, construction and other cleanup. Go to the Web site for a free quote, or call (866) LABOR 4U (522-6748). Here's their pitch:

With 42,000 square feet of warehouse/production space in Los Angeles, 8000 square feet in San Bernardino, and 10,000 square feet in Panorama City, Industrial Services can help private companies meet critical production deadlines, address shortage of production space in their facilities and reduce their production costs. Our production teams handle contracts for assembly, sorting, collating, labeling, coding, pricing, packaging, and shrink-wrapping.

The Industrial Services also bids for and obtains government contracts for various services: janitorial work, administrative/clerical services and commissary shelf stocking at federal facilities.

If you're Jewish, live in L.A. and read the Jewish Journal, you've probably heard of the Journal's Singles column, in which staff members and others bemoan (or is it just *moan* about) the state of singlehood and dating in the '00s. Well, Amy Klein is one of the writers at the JJ, and believe me, I wonder if it's worth it, as evidenced here by one of the threads in the JJ's own reader forum:

I'm 44 and dated a lot of Jewish women after my divorce. I found that with quite a few of them,had an inflated sense of themselves. I often heard them say "I want a guy to buy me things, take care of me, and treat me like a princess." Eventually, I just started asking them "so what's in it for me?". The response was usually to the effect of: "well, you get to take me places, and if you're lucky have sex with me."

What really pissed them off is when I would tell them:

1. "I already have two children, I don't need a third child to take care of", and,

2. "If I want to lavish gifts and attention on a woman and treat her like a princess in exchange for a date and sex, I think I'll go for someone younger and prettier. There's plenty of shallow girls willing to sleep with me in exchange for gifts who are cuter than a divorced yenta nearing 40."

I wasn't trying to insult them (well maybe a little), just bring them back to reality.

My present reality is that I'm dating a beautiful Chinese girl. She's 10 years younger than me and has a body on her that causes men to turn their heads and stare. I'm not very tall -- 5' 8". She's the same height and has no problem with it. When she's in heels, she's 2'-3" taller than me. She has has a good job. She drives a beautiful new Mercedes. She picks up the bill half the time. She drives half the time. She is delighted just to spend with me. She has never looked at me as a meal ticket or someone to lavish gifts upon her.

What's my response to all this good treatment -- I love it, and I reciprocate. I want to do good things for her and make her feel great.

My motto -- I date women who are really into me. If they're like Amy, well they're just destined to be single (or destined to marry some poor schmuck who doesn't know that there are nicer women out there). My suggestion to Amy -- try getting a little nicer.

Peter

P.S. I saw Amy Klein's picture on J-Date. My friends, beggars can't be choosers. She should grab onto the next guy who can speak in complete sentences and shows an interest in her.

On the one hand, I feel sorry for Amy Klein, having to put up with this kind of crap. On the other hand, it means people are reading ...

In case you missed the link, Klein's Singles article on the site at present is Let's confront, I mean, let's talk.

Canadian transplant Gareth of We's in California ran into a little turbulence while riding on the Orange Line bike path from Woodland Hills to Van Nuys:

This week on the bike path home from Woodland Hills to Van Nuys a person on a bike far ahead of me threw their Gatoraide bottle on the ground when they finished it. He was on one of those weird high bicycles with the pedals 3 feet off the ground and the super high handle bars. Tired of the insane amounts of pure garbage lining the streets of our neighborhood, I picked it up and and, going one more block that I needed to, stopped at the next stop told him "Excuse me, you dropped your bottle." It was at that point I noticed his gangbanger t-shirt, a small suspicious looking duffle bag on his handlebars, a 3 inch scar on his forehead, and the distinct smell of a life criminal activity and personal failure. I also noticed I had stopped him at part of the Orange Line bike path where there is nothing but concrete walls and nobody else in sight.

...

To which he replied: "F-ck you, I'll f-ck'n shoot you." and then glanced at the duffle bag hanging off his handlebars.

Wow ...

But all that "I almost got shot" stuff aside, that's a 13-mile ride, in my estimation. I'd love to do it myself, but I fear it taking 2 hours and me arriving at the oh-so-debonair Daily News HQ a sweaty, palpitating mess. And now I've gotta worried about being capped by some gangbanger?

Remember all the trouble with the Pierce College weather station? Seems the college's new Internet firewall was keeping the data from getting out:

A computer glitch has crippled the 57-year-old Pierce College weather station for weeks, forcing fans around the world to forgo their Woodland Hills weather fix.

"We're under the weather here, for sure," said Steve Woodruff, a Van Nuys Airport weather station supervisor who oversees the Pierce College Station for the National Weather Service. "It's generating hundreds of e-mails a day from all over the world."

On Oct. 2, a computer-security firewall intended to thwart Internet hackers cut the station's online connection to its popular weather Web site.

According to the Los Angeles Pierce College Weather Station Web site and weather guru Woodruff, all is about to be well once again:

The Internet connection to the weather station has been fixed! Our techs have remedied the problem. Today at 4pm I will be out to the station to reset the data software.

A huge thanks goes out to our computer techs for a job well done!

Data will be back within 24-hours of 4pm PST 10-18-06.

I was as clueless -- nay, even more so -- than the always-clued-in L.A. City Nerd about the Museum of the San Fernando Valley, which is hosting Museum Sundae from 1 to 4 p.m. Oct. 22 at its Los Angeles Valley College location. In this case, I will steal the Nerd's picture, because it says it all ... or most (no address). Among the highlights, an exhibit on W.P. Whitsett, founder of Van Nuys. Again, L.A. City Nerd has pretty much done all the work for me here ... thanks!

Still, I add the following, from the museum's Web site, about WHERE the dang thing is happening (go here if you want the whole thing in glorious PDF largeness:

Los Anjealous made me laugh with Mysterious Tagger DWP Strikes Again. I won't filch his pic. Go over to check it.

From BoingBoing via National Geographic:

Roving gangs of big baboons are terrorizing suburbanites in Cape Town, South Africa, brazenly breaking into homes, cleaning out refrigerators, and shitting all over the place.

"These animals are quick. They can cross walls and roofs at speed. For two or three people to try to keep them away is impossible."

"They move in a troop of about 30, and they are so wide apart that it is impossible to stop them slipping into built-up areas ..."

File this under, "And you think we've got problems."

In the Daily News' Hollywood Babble-On, I review two new NBC sitcoms:

"30 Rock":

At this point, the show is Baldwin's to steal. His GE-"trivection oven"-creating executive is over the top -- but quiet (for Baldwin) and focused about it. The fact that the real General Electric ran about eight commercials during the 30-minute broadcast suggests that NBC-GE-Universal-Kmart (the real one, which hasn't yet purchased the flailing retail chain) either doesn't get it ... or really, really does.

...

Given that it's half as long as dramatic doppelganger "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," and probably costs about a fourth as much to produce, "30 Rock" should outlast Aaron Sorkin's entry in NBC's show-about-a-show sweepstakes.

"Twenty Good Years":

Why does "Twenty Good Years" work?

Two words: John and Lithgow.

Just letting him loose on a sitcom stage to do his thing is more than enough. There is plenty of fodder for what amounts to a second midlife crisis, and I have to say, I've got a good feeling about where the show is going.

In his latest entry, Sherman Oaks NC member and blogger Zach Behrens explores the voting patterns in the recent SONC election, which elevated him to the lofty post. Vote totals in the SONC election were low but not exactly even across the represented area's various districts.

Zach quotes from the newsletter of the powerful, influential (and potential or actual NC rival) Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association:

One District was quite different. In Area 7, almost 300 people voted (68% of the total vote). Why was the turnout so much higher in Area 7? What is so different about Area 7?

The Association has learned that most of these voters ere related to the Buckley School (parents, employees, etc). Most of the voters did not live in Sherman Oaks!!! Why the interest of the non-Sherman Oaks residents? The Buckley School has plans to enlarge its campus and enrollment, and they need City approval.

So there's a Buckley School conspiracy afoot? Well, what I'd like to know is whether or not there is a SOHA vs. SONC fight going on -- in general -- over who is the "voice" of Sherman Oaks. Of course, as Zach points out, the NC is NOT a homeowner-only group. It has spots for residents -- renters AND homeowners -- as well as business people and other "at-large" community members, referred to altogether as "stakeholders."

When, during the recent VNNC meeting, chairman James "Jamie" Cordaro referred, as he did many times, to those in his meeting's audience as "the stakeholders of Van Nuys," it had a non-California, non-L.A. feel to it that was not in the slightest way unpleasing. The idea that somebody in L.A. or state government gives a rat's ass about what a non-financial-contributor thinks is ... rare and refreshing. (But am I being snowed?)

So Zach, is the SOHA aiming for a SONC takeover -- trying to get its own people into as many of the seats as possible? Guess I'd better ask Richard Close.

In response to the generally low vote totals, Zach says he has learned this from SOHA:

-- Hold meetings in an easily accessible and comfortable environment

-- Consistent presense in the Sherman Oaks Sun

-- Consistent flyering of the monthly newsletter

-- Warm food at meetings always helps too

The Van Nuys NC, at its monthly meeting, proffered wrap-style sandwiches, chips and bottled water. Not bad. I don't imagine that the L.A. City Council offers refreshments. And I second you (see, it's NC talk) on the community outreach via ads and the like. An e-mail list is also essential.

Hey stakeholders! Between all the committee meetings and the regular meeting -- all for no pay, of course -- Zach has taken on quite a task here, being a member (is it "board member," or "executive board member"?) of the neighborhood council. I applaud his dedication and encourage each and every one of you out there to attend your next neighborhood council meeting. If you don't know -- or need comfirmation of -- the meeting time and place, call the very helpful Department of Neighborhood Empowerment's Van Nuys City Hall satellite office at (818) 374-9898.

Thursdays are killer at the Daily News, so I haven't had time to gather my thoughts regarding last night's Van Nuys Neighborhood Council Meeting.

Overall, I was very, very surprised at what I saw: A roomful of people who care deeply about their community -- and who want to do something about it -- are actually making things happen.

It's really small-town -- in the best possible sense -- and there's a certain edgy chaos to the whole thing (I move that we BLANK ... SECOND! -- LET'S VOTE). There's a very good group of people on the Neighborhood Council -- a somewhat diverse group, I might add, with an emphasis on the nitty gritty of life in Van Nuys and how to improve it.

It doesn't hurt that field reps from Councilman Tony Cardenas and Councilwoman Wendy Greuel's offices, as well as a senior lead officer from the Los Angeles Police Department were there to listen, take notes and offer input.

The whole thing began at 7 p.m. with an audience of about 50 or so. That dwindled to 10 by the time 9:30 rolled around, and I bailed out shortly thereafter, but it was an invigorating night of people-centric government. At first blush, the Neighborhood Council concept looks like a valuable piece of L.A.'s oft-bewildering political puzzle.

Coming up: The people, the proceedings, no turntables, no microphone, and following the money.

For the working man, such as myself, 7 p.m. is better than the Sherman Oaks NC's 6:30 meeting time, but not as good as 7:30 would be. And Wednesday is big-time double-deadline day on the Daily News features copy desk, where we're working on the Thursday AND Friday U sections, as well as Sunday's Great Escapes travel section.

Enough jibber jabber from me. If only Mr. T was attending tonight's meeting. Because he pities the fool.

With a whopping 32 votes (and no opposition), blogger Zach Behrens is now a member of the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council. Now that a genuine blogger is on a neighborhood council, albeit one with a pretty kick-ass Web site already, expect more info about what really goes on in the NCs to start making it out here. Go to the Web site, or click here for full election results. While most vote totals were in the 20s through 40s, some of the races were actually competitive, in a class-president sort of way -- but competitive nonetheless. A guy named Neal Roden dragged in 293 votes, and Laura Smith Nash brought 290 to the mat. Both ran unopposed. A total of 429 ballots were cast.

My first question for Zach: What are y'all doing with your $50,000 in city-issued mad money? And don't let any of those 200+ vote people push you around, know what I mean? Call on your inner Maxine Waters if needed.

Addendum: Zach is a humble guy. Of the 550 pictures on his Flickr page, not one is of him ...

I reviewed Mr. T's new reality show, "I Pity the Fool,'' debuting at 10 tonight on TV Land, at the Daily News' Hollywood Babble-On blog.

As I tell everybody who doesn't run away when I mention it, Mr. T is, by far and away, my best celebrity sighting ever. During my two-year stint at Electronic Media (now TV Week) at 6500 Wilshire Blvd. -- the Media Tower of Power -- Mr. T's agent was one floor away, and somebody managed to drag him to our office, and he was as Mr. T-ish as he ever was. He's no different in this show, where he goes out in the world to help motivate fools and get them off their collective butts.

The big Van Nuys Neighborhood Council meeting begins at 7 tonight -- WEDNESDAY ... WEDNESDAY ... WEDNESDAY ... BE THERE!!!! (Apologies to monster-truck rallies everywhere.)

And if you're coming over from today's L.A. Observed link, thanks for checking in (and thanks Kevin for the mention).

In today's news ... every street in our Southeast Van Nuys neighborhood ... except for ours ... is being repaved this week. Does God hate us, or is it just the city of L.A.? I will to pray to Asphaltus, the patron saint of street maintenance, for guidance. Oh well, if I need a pile of rocks, I can just go outside and pick up pieces of the street. If ever I needed Antonio to come home and get to bid'ness, now's the time. He's probably busy fighting that school-board lawsuit. Hey, school board, if Antonio can line up the entire state Legislature and Arnold on his side, what does that say about y'all? Can't remember where I read/heard it, but the whole idea that Antonio and current Superintendent Roy Romer could've joined forces in a quest for better schools ... file it under could've, would've, should've, I guess.

Back to neighborhood-council news: Signing up for the city's Early Notification System for all 80-something Los Angeles neighborhood councils has yielded paydirt in the form of two Silver Lake Neighborhood Council agendas:

SLNC Outrch & Comty Liaison Agenda
DATE: 10/12/2006
TIME: 07:00 PM

and

SLNC Beautification Agenda
DATE: 10/17/2006
TIME: 07:00 PM

Hey, if Silver Lake can do it ... the big Valley should be able to step up to the plate.

From its beginnings to today:

It's a crap job in Sherman Oaks

Your Van Nuys Neighborhood Council president is ...

The elusive Van Nuys Neighborhood Council (update)

Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council knows how to do it

L.A. City Nerd thinks Neighborhood Councils are A-OK

I'm setting my watch by the Van Nuys Neighborhood Council

Neighborhood councils, where art thou?

Van Nuys Neighborhood Council countdown

Number of neighborhood council blog posts I've written: 10 (Hey, looks like only nine -- I might've missed one somewhere.)

My guiding lights are two of Glendale's most famous City Council gadflies, who I had the privilege of meeting and covering when I worked in that city in the early 1990s:

John Beach and Emzy Veazy III (now keeping his eagle eye on the municipality of Aspen, Colo.)

Both of these gentlemen ran for the council at various times, never successfully, and both were faithful watchers of city government despite being labeled "gadflies." I expect they were and are proud of that designation.

The Van Nuys Neighborhood Council meeting is now one day away. I don't know what they're doing .. but I'm sure it'll be exciting. If you care to be in the audience, or on the off chance that you're a member of the council and didn't know it was meeting (an honest mistake, given the information gap), I have all the info here.

Will the election results (what scant evidence that there even was an "election" has been erased from the Web) be revealed? Did more than a dozen people make it to the Marvin Braude Constituent Center to vote?

More importantly, what is the Van Nuys NC planning to do with it's $50,000 in city-provided mad money?

All these questions ... and more, I hope will at least be hinted about, if not wholly answered at tomorrow's meeting.

It's been 20 days since I signed up with the city's Early Notification System for neighborhood council agendas, and so far, the total number I've received is zero. I signed up for every Valley neighborhood council -- about 20 -- and nothing has come over. Initially, I worried that my e-mail would be inundated with detailed agendas of committee meetings and the like.

I hadn't anticipated receiving absolutely nothing.

I'm not giving up on the city of Los Angeles, or its many, many neighborhood councils. So I signed up to receive the Early Notfication System e-mails from every NC. Here's the list:

Arleta NC
Arroyo Seco NC
Atwater Village NC
Bel Air-Beverly Crest NC
Boyle Heights NC
Canoga Park NC
Central Alameda NC
Central Hollywood NC
Central San Pedro NC
Chatsworth NC
Coastal San Pedro NC
Community and Neighbors for Ninth District Unity (CANNDU)
Del Rey NC
Downtown Los Angeles NC
Eagle Rock NC
Elysian Valley Riverside NC
Emp. Congress Central Area NDC
Emp. Congress North Area NDC
Emp. Congress Southeast Area NDC
Emp. Congress Southwest Area NDC
Emp. Congress West Area NDC
Encino Neighborhood Council (ENC)
Foothill Trails District NC
Glassell Park Neighborhood Councils
Granada Hills North NC
Grass Roots Venice NC
Greater Cypress Park NC
Greater Echo Park Elysian NC
Greater Griffith Park NC
Greater Toluca Lake NC
Greater Valley Glen Council
Greater Wilshire NC
Harbor City NC
Harbor Gateway North NC
Harbor Gateway South NC
Historic Cultural NC
Historic Highland Park NC
Hollywood Hills West NC
Hollywood United NC
Lincoln Heights NC
LA-32 NC
MacArthur NC
Mar Vista NC
Mid City Neighborhood Council
Mid City West NC
Mid-Town North Hollywood NC
Mission Hills NC
Neighborhood Council of Westchester/Playa del Rey
North Hills West NC
North Hollywood North East NC
Northridge East NC
Northridge West NC
Northwest San Pedro Neighborhood Councils
NC Valley Village
Old Northridge CC
Olympic Park NC
P.I.C.O. NC
Pacoima Neighborhood Council
Palms NC
Park Mesa Heights CC
Pico Union NC
Porter Ranch NC
Reseda NC
Sherman Oaks NC
Silver Lake NC
South Robertson NC
Southeast/Central Avenue NC
Studio City NC
Sun Valley Area NC
Sunland-Tujunga NC
Sylmar NC
Tarzana NC
United Neighborhoods of the Historic Arlington Heights West Adams and Jefferson Park Communities
Valley Village NC
Van Nuys NC
Vermont Harbor NC
Vernon/Main NC
Watts NC
West Adams Neighborhood Councils
West Hills Neighborhood Councils
West Los Angeles NC
West Van Nuys / Lake Balboa NC
Westchester/Playa del Rey NC
Westside NC
Wilmington Neighborhood Councils
Wilshire Center-Koreatown NC
Winnetka NC
Woodland Hills-Warner Center Neighborhood Council

That's 88 neighborhood councils.

So if any of these various and sundry bodies have any life in them, I expect I'll know about it. Or ... not. The ball's in your court, city of Los Angeles. Stop looking like an idiot.

I'm going to feel the Nuys in a whole new way -- at this month's Van Nuys Neighborhood Council meeting.

Yes, the meeting will be on Wednesday, Oct. 11, at the Marvin Braude Community Constituent Service Center, 6262 Van Nuys Blvd., Van Nuys. (Picture is of the contractor Snyder-Langston's artist rendering -- the joint's got 300 parking spaces, so I'm fairly confident I'll be in like automotive Flynn).

But don't believe the time given by the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment Web page. Arriving at their start time of 7:30 p.m. will be a half-hour too late.

How do I know this? In the last Daily News list of NC meetings, the time given is 7 p.m. So I call the number in the listing and get somebody at council president James Cordaro's electrical-contracting office confirming the 7 p.m. time. He's the president of the thing, so he should know, I imagine. Since this is professional journalism, or a reasonable fascimile thereof, I made a second call to the Van Nuys satellite office of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, and the woman on the line reconfirmed.

So 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 11, Marvin Braude Community Constituent Service Center, 6262 Van Nuys Blvd. Get it? Got it. Good.

As my car sat for a day and a half at Vista Ford, whose service department is intent on sucking the money -- if not the very life along with it -- out of me, I made it home and back to the Daily News via the ever-lovin' Orange Line bus.

The whole thing was quick and pretty much uneventful -- except for the lady with stroller who crossed against the light in Encino. The driver saw it coming, though, and slowed down appropriately.

Ridership was pretty good both times, and I didn't get too screwed on travel time either.

Grimy windows notwithstanding, I took in the industrial background of Van Nuys, the sod fields and National Guard and reserve bases of Lake Balboa, then the back streets of Reseda and more on my way to Warner Center. If only the bus stopped at the Daily News -- it goes right by the building, after all. A little walk won't kill me, but the 15 minutes from home to bus stop and 10 minutes from bus stop to Daily News, timewise, just might. This morning, I rode with Ilene and our Lulu to school, so I got a drop-off (and pickup last night), saving me the aformentioned 15 minutes both ways.

It looks like crews are working on the road that will extend the bus from De Soto Avenue to Canoga Avenue. Bring it to Owensmouth and Vanowen, delivering people to Westfield Topanga (it already hits the Promenade), and you've really got something.

It was just days ago that I was lamenting how much I missed my pal Antonio.

Well, Mayor Villaraigosa just came barreling through the Daily News newsroom, entourage in tow.

Today it was Motivational Speaker Antonio, who loudly (and yes, proudly) told us all to "Smile, it's a beautiful day." Could be, but I'm stuck in this windowless box editing poker columns and tomorrow's YouTube feature. And no, I don't participate in Editorial Board discussions. I've got coffee to drink ...

Anyway, before A-Dog and his posse made it to the Zebra Room (the meeting room at Daily News HQ, named for the zebra photograph on the wall, and possibly for a zebra wallpaper theme decades ago) for the Editorial Board meeting (LAUSD-centric, no doubt), he encouraged all of us to head to Griffith Park for the reopening of the observatory. He didn't mention the $5.50 shuttle bus fee.

And Antonio doesn't come without information. He even gave us the opening date -- Nov. 3. Go here for more official Observatory info, or direct for the full press release.

More: L.A. Observed on the observatory.
Daily News is all over it, too.

Update: Antonio was here about his upcoming trip to Asia. They'll never know what hit them. Oh, and the junket will cost a half-mil.

Hizzoner returned from London and Manchester last week. He should've taken mope rocker (and ice-cream eater) Morrissey with him as a guide.

Hey Van Nuys Neighborhood Council President Jim Cordaro, what's the deal?

It's been 13 days since I signed up to get e-mails of agendas from 25 of Los Angeles' Neighborhood Councils.

So far, I've received none. Not for Van Nuys, not for anywhere.

Should you want to play along with me, sign up here for the still-nonexistant e-mails.

To double-check, I'm scrutinizing the city calendar for agendas.

The Van Nuys Neighborhood Council meets the second Wednesday of every month. This month, that's Oct. 11. Here's what's on the city calendar for that date:

Let's review. There's an official government meeting scheduled for Oct. 11. No agenda online. No mention of the meeting, which is set for 7:30 p.m. at the Marvin Braude Constituent Center, 6262 Van Nuys Blvd., by the way.

Now there's no law mandating that the agenda be placed online, but it's the right thing to do. And the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council is doing it.

Want more neighborhood council info? Start with the L.A. City Neighborhoods page, where you can figure out which shadowy neighborhood council is supposed to represent you, even though you probably didn't vote for anybody on it, nor knew that there even was a vote, or that there is even is a body, warm or cold (and I mean that in every possible sense).