David Zahniser

Is Antonio Villaraigosa's One Million Trees Legacy an Official Bust?

Update and correction: An upset mayoral aide says they've achieved a lot and were more than willing to talk. See next page. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraiogosa has a legacy problem. Leaving office on June 30 after eight years at the helm, Villaraigosa's highly publicized Million Trees L.A. ini ... More >>

Los Angeles' Filthy, Fecal-Laden, Sickness-Inducing Beaches: Who Should Pay to Treat the Rain Runoff from Oily, Dog-Poop Streets?

By Matthew Mullins and Jill Stewart Update: The Board of Supervisors rejected the Clean Water, Clean Beaches plan today in a big upset, thanks to what many say was exceedingly poor outreach on the massive tax plan to pay for it. See next page for details. Hundreds of angry people today demanded th ... More >>

Four Most Notorious Times Rhodes Scholar Eric Garcetti Pleaded Ignorance Or Kept People in the Dark When Facing Controversy

For an Ivy League grad and Rhodes Scholar, Los Angeles mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti has the uncanny habit of not knowing certain details when the shit hits the fan. This happens so often that L.A. Weekly has come up with four of the most notorious times Garcetti pleaded ignorant -- or personal ... More >>

Meatless Mondays: L.A. City Council's Wealthy, $178,789 Salaried Members Tell Los Angeles Households, Many of Which Rely on Frijoles

Also See: L.A. City Council Approves Meatless Mondays in Squid Ink. The Los Angeles City Council really failed a pop quiz showing how disconnected, overpaid and puffed-up its 15 elected politicians have become, when it voted 14-0 to urge L.A.'s 3.8 million residents to adopt Meatless Mondays. Woul ... More >>

Austin Beutner's Aides Bail Out: Was He too Tough on City Hall, or too Easy?

​Two top strategists have left Austin Beutner's campaign, in the first major shake-up of the 2013 race for L.A. mayor.Ace Smith and Sean Clegg stepped down just a few days before the next campaign finance reports are due. The news was first reported by the L.A. Times' David Zahniser, who surmises ... More >>

Bud Ovrom, L.A. Building and Safety Manager, Accidentally Outs Himself as Scheming Media Manipulator in FBI Bribery Scandal

Building and Safety General Manager Bud Ovrom: Ignorant, or guilty?​First clue that Robert "Bud" Ovrom is unfit to hold a six-figure seat at the head of the massive L.A. Building and Safety Department? He doesn't know how to send an email. We've often wondered how a man can climb the politica ... More >>

The 42 Most Powerful People in Los Angeles*, According to the Downtown News

AEG CEO Tim Leiweke: He's got downtown Los Angeles in his hands​*Well, technically just in downtown Los Angeles, but that's where all the big players make all their big decisions anyway, right? Just ask a pissed-off Daily News outsider in the Valley. Jon Regardie at the LA Downtown News knows ... More >>

Developers Get A Pass Under Proposal That Would Ban City Hall Contractors From Giving Cash To Los Angeles Candidates

​It looks like you'll soon be able to vote on a law that will make life hard for city contractors who give money to city politicians in L.A. Only thing is, the law would give a huge exemption to the biggest pay-for-play contributors in town: Developers. That's according to our reading of Davi ... More >>

Mayor's DWP Green Initiative Disguises Massive Rate Hikes

​That $2.50 per person carbon surcharge Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa proposes for customers of the Department of Water and Power is actually a pretty huge rate hike that could see bills go up 8.8 to 28.4 percent, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis of the plan. While the mayor has been bi ... More >>

No LAPD Showdown at L.A. City Council Meeting

Today's Los Angeles City Council meeting had all the earmarks of a high noon showdown between LAPD Chief Bill Bratton and the city's 15 council members. But now that fight won't take place...at least for today.L.A. City Council President Eric Garcetti​According to L.A. Times staff writer David Zah ... More >>

Why Bratton's Really Leaving (Among Other Reasons): A Cash-Strapped LAPD

As we reported last week, City Hall is swirling with high-end, believable rumors about why Chief William J. Bratton is really leaving Los Angeles -- having nothing to do with his claim that he's abandoning ship mid-way through a five-year contract merely to go get rich in the private sector. Today, ... More >>

EPA Awards Million Trees L.A. Initiative

Last Thursday, two days after Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa gave his "State of the City" address and touted his questionable environmental record, the United States Environmental Protection Agency appeared to throw the self-described "green" mayor a much-needed bone. L.A. Mayor Antonio Vill ... More >>

Zuma Dogg Gets Candidate Interview -- With the LAPD

The L.A. Times reports that long-shot mayoral candidate David Saltsburg, also known as Zuma Dogg, was questioned by police regarding alleged death threats he made to fellow candidate Craig X. Rubin. The Times says Saltsburg was approached by officers prior to a candidates' forum and taken to the Wil ... More >>

Home Depot Throws in the Trowel in Sunland-Tujunga Fight

Inglewood had its war with WalMart,  Glassell Park fought to keep Home Depot out of an old Kmart site. And now one of the other great neighborhood v. big-box store battles is apparently over -- again won by a community determined to keep a retail behemoth from landing its extra-large footprint ... More >>

Coming Home

Editor's notes

What Happened at the Botanica

The death of a labor leader and its reverberations

Luring Cougars, Wooing Audiences

And more from our readers

Sam Zell Gets out the Ruler at Los Angeles Times

I ran into some friends from the Los Angeles Times at a party this weekend at the home of my predecessor at the Weekly, Al Mittelstadt (he was celebrating his recent, unplanned departure from the downsizing CityBeat). The Times folks were commiserating over Sam Zell's huge upcoming cuts, in which he ... More >>

Developmental Disorder: More on "Doomscraper"

Plus, "Nikki Finke is a badass," and other judgmental remarks

“Nikki Finke Is a Badass” ... and Other Judgmental Comments

It’s the season for journalism awards, and over the past two weeks L.A. Weekly has emerged with a significant number of fresh honors in four different contests. In the AltWeekly Awards, jointly administered by the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies and Northwestern University’s Medill Schoo ... More >>

Ship's Secrets, Powers Back On

Los Angeles and Mexico City: A Tale of Two Cities

The urban ties that bind L.A. to its southern sister

City Hall's "Density Hawks" Are Changing L.A.'s DNA

Bitter homes & gardens?

Smarting Over Growth

Letters from our readers

Do As We Say, Not As We Do

Smart growth�s biggest boosters still love suburban living

A Denser L.A.

Understanding the map

We�re Honored

L.A. Weekly ranks high in 2007 AltWeekly Awards finalists and L.A. Press Club finalists

April 20, 2007

April 6, 2007

To Play or Not to Play: Tales of glory and folly on local stages by STEVEN LEIGH MORRIS and STEVEN MIKULAN

Feb. 23. 2007

The Town the Law Forgot by JEFFREY ANDERSON. No Peace in the Valley by STEVEN MIKULAN. Li'l Dickens Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Make Love to the Vice President by JERRY STAHL

Donations, Not Payments

And what's not in a name

Feb. 9, 2007

L.A.�s 20 Best Italian Restaurants by Jonathan Gold, Separated at Birth by Steven Leigh Morris and The Bastard Question by Ernest Hardy

Jan. 26, 2007

The End of Murder by David Zahniser

Dog Food Caper

Journalists and City Council cave to iffy lawsuit

Voters’ Guide

Making sense of the ballot measures L.A. City Measures:

Voters' Guide

Making sense of the ballot measures

The South Shall Rise Again

Progressive Tactics

Gentrification and Affordability

KCRW's Which Way L.A.? addresses the gentrification question with David Zahniser

Marching Orders

Tickling the Binaries

May 1, 2006 Si Change

Blight Fighter

Cecilia Estolano

Master of Budgets

Karen Sisson

Not-So-Free Trade

Moving Beyond 500,000: Now What?

Talk of a national strike, or maybe another shot at driver�s licenses for illegal immigrants

Another for the Bushel

Bushel of Complaints

Farmers at South Central Community Garden unload on their activist organizers

The Big Test

Big-money candidate limps to the finish line

The Pot and Kettle

Jim and Antonio seek high ground