Jose Huizar

Los Angeles Voter Guide May 21, 2013: Mayor, Weed Measures, City Council, City Attorney, LAUSD Board and The Works

Here's a quick guide to the key races and issues on the May 21, 2013 ballot in the city of Los Angeles. Los Angeles Mayoral Race: Read this fascinating dissection of the five main behavioral and philosophical differences between 2013 Los Angeles mayoral candidates Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti, ... More >>

Marijuana Dispensary Ban Repealed by Los Angeles City Council

Fresh updates at the bottom. See also: *Marijuana Dispensary Crackdown by Feds Could Go Citywide in Los Angeles. The L.A. City Council repealed its own pot shop ban today. Woo-hoo!? Facing the choice of letting you vote on overturning the ban or doing so itself following a referendum effort that ... More >>

Man One, Graffiti Artist Honored by L.A. City Hall, Sees His Downtown Mural Buffed by City

Man One and Vyal -- two of L.A.'s most respected graffiti artists -- got a slap in the face yesterday in exchange for beautifying a tagged-up brick wall downtown. Last week, with the permission of Sun Buster Inc., a sunglasses shop at Winston and Los Angeles Street, the OG writers spent two days co ... More >>

Marijuana Dispensary Ban Starts Sept. 6: L.A. Moves Forward With Pot Shop Closures

Stock up now, people. The day Los Angeles dispensaries are supposed to close by city decree is Sept. 6. The mayor signed the City Council's dispensary ban last Thursday, and the ordinance was published today, giving it 31 days, or until Thursday, Sept. 6, to take effect, according to what the City ... More >>

Marijuana Decision by Calif. Supreme Court Allows Cities Like L.A. to Shut Down Pot Shops

Added at the bottom: Americans for Safe Access argues that the decision doesn't outlaw cannabis sales just yet. Medical marijuana is legal in California. But you can't sell medical marijuana in California? It's a contentious issue, one that even the author of California's dispensary legislation ar ... More >>

L.A. City Council Bans Camping in Public Parks; Occupy Declares It a War on Civil Rights

Local politicians keep insisting that their new ban on camping in city parks was not in reaction to Occupy L.A. That's insanely hard to believe, considering they're smack-dab in the middle of a makeover story starring the L.A. City Hall lawn -- which got thoroughly wrecked by the hundreds of protes ... More >>

Plastic Bag Ban Watered Down by L.A. Leaders

Updated at the bottom: The council approved the watered-down version of the ban. First posted at 6:04 a.m. The L.A. City Council almost brought home an unprecedented "double ban" on paper and plastic bags at your local market. But last-minute lobbying pressure might have caused the body to back do ... More >>

Downtown L.A.'s Awesome New Civic Park May Be Designed to Keep Occupiers Out

The gushing has begun anew over downtown L.A.'s under-construction Civic Park -- a $56 million, 12-acre public space set to open this summer. But don't expect to spend August nights gazing at its spectacularly lit central fountain. According to the LA Daily News, city politicians are hatching a pla ... More >>

The Five Most Furious Reactions to the Redistricting of Los Angeles

As insanely boring -- and incomprehensible to the average voter -- as the redistricting of Los Angeles may be, it's kind of a big deal. We understand the apathy. In a city where only a little over 10 percent of eligible voters turn out for municipal elections at all, they can hardly be expected to ... More >>

L.A. City Redistricting Land Grab: Appointed Commissioners Try to Gerrymander Westside, Downtown

Updated at the bottom with a map of the land grab. This just got ugly. Every 10 years, Los Angeles is required to readjust its 15 City Council districts to accomodate for population shifts. But as with most decisions made at City Hall, the 2012 redistricting effort has turned from what should be a ... More >>

Ace Hotel Comes to Downtown Los Angeles: Hipsters Rejoice

As if downtown could take one more hipster, the Ace Hotel chain is opening a venue on Broadway. Post-hangover, you might retain some memory of the Ace Palm Springs bar from your last trip to Coachella: Yeah, that place. The office of City Councilman Jose Huizar this week announced the development ... More >>

So it Begins: Marijuana Dispensary Ban For L.A. Weighed by Council Committee Today

Updated at the bottom with what happened (it's not looking good for pot shops). First posted at 7:09 a.m. Boy have we got an investment opportunity for you. It's called legal weed, and it could soon be a very limited commodity in the Los Angeles area. That's because L.A. Councilman Jose Huizar has ... More >>

Marijuana Stories That Burned The Hottest in 2011: LA Weekly's Top 5

Smokin' hot, right off the digital presses, here are our Top 5 marijuana stories of 2011. You've got an L.A. City Council that's probably going to consider putting all of our pot shops out of business, a federal government that's cracking down on medical marijuana in California, and a new renaissan ... More >>

Occupy L.A: Top 5 Would-be City Giveaways That Might Inspire Occupiers to Give up The Lawn

Leave it to L.A. leaders to make a half-assed offer to Occupy L.A. in an attempt to extract demonstrators from the City Hall lawn. The city said occupiers could take over the old old B. Dalton Bookstore space in the nearby, subterranean L.A. Mall if they gave the lawn a permanent break. Occupiers pr ... More >>

No Food Trucks at Downtown Art Walk

Guzzle & NoshCrowds gather at the Flying Pig truck.​In some ways, last night's Downtown Art Walk looked exactly the same as it has for the past couple years: gallery hoppers, drunken revelers and pedestrians all enjoying the breezy street fair vibe. In one important way, it looked very differe ... More >>

Ethics Fines For L.A. Council Members Garcetti, Huizar, Wesson, Cardenas

Ethics fines for city leaders.​Looks like Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wasn't the only leader in City Hall invited to this here party. But, unlike other events officials have attended, this one will cost you. Yeah, four City Council members got caught up in ticketgate and will also have to pay ... More >>

L.A. Clean Sweep Nets Big Endorsements, Drops Big Dime in Last Seconds of Election Season

Full disclosure: We have a huge crush on Ron Kaye.​L.A. Clean Sweep may have started small and controversial, but after a rowdy few months of almost mainstream redevelopment scandal and municipal mud-slinging, the out-with-the-old "political action committee" has seen a few of its candidates b ... More >>

L.A. Launches Graffiti Database to Track Taggers, Keep Evidence on File

Graffiti meets database.​Los Angeles is launching its own tagger database and expanding graffiti tracking to four areas of the city, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Councilman Jose Huizar were scheduled to announce today. Workers equipped with smart phones will have the ability to upload photo ... More >>

West Hollywood Revolt

Incumbents Huizar And Parks Hold Fundraising Advantage In L.A. Council Races

​The incumbents have the edge in fundraising in the two most hotly contested L.A. City Council races, according to finance reports filed this evening with the Ethics Commission.On the Eastside, Councilman Jose Huizar has $123,000 in the bank as his re-election campaign gets down to the final 12 da ... More >>

Michael Trujillo's "bullet in forehead" email: Squirm-inducing antics by Jose Huizar aide take Los Angeles politics to new low

Michael Trujillo, right, at 2008 DNC, before his foot got wedged in his mouth.​Michael Trujillo's creepy, self-obsessed email to 28 insiders in the Jose Huizar campaign, in which he strutted and proclaimed like Captain Queeg: "We are about to put a political bullet in between Rudy Martinez's f ... More >>

L.A. City Council Bums

Entrenched and ridiculed, they line up for a March 8 "coronation"

MTA Hid Report on Councilman Bernard Parks' Illegal Contributions

Blanca Martinez-Navarro Case: What Happens When L.A. City Officials Come Under Suspicion? They Get a Paid Vacation

FacebookBlanca Martinez-Navarro.​Blanca Martinez-Navarro is one of L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's gang-reduction staffers. She's also in trouble: Cops said she attacked an officer last weekend at the Conga Room downtown. And so the mayor's office placed her on administrative leave. What, e ... More >>

L.A. City Schedule Cut to Four Days a Week? Out-of-Wack Council Meetings, More Euthanized Cats... But Less Traffic!

Legal PlanetWhy yes, I'd love the day off!​And on the fifth day, they rested. It's a wild notion: Would the Los Angeles City Council really go so far as to cut an entire day out of the workweek for all city-run agencies? The LA Daily News thinks it's a real possibility, and Councilman Bernard ... More >>

Welcome To 2011: Worst Potholes Ever, Los Angeles?

The year of the pothole: 2011​Are these the worst potholes in Los Angeles in modern times? We had the second wettest December on record (leading to some pretty deep craters), the city budget is on thin ice (leading some to wonder who will fill the holes), and friends are starting to post photo ... More >>

Pot Shops Gone Wild: Eagle Rock Community Leaders Ask U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder To Crack Down On Dispensaries In The Community

Weed not welcome in Eagle Rock?​Long fed up with pot shops in the area that are alleged to be operating outside the law, the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council voted this week to ask federal law enforcement officials for help, according to Eagle Rock Patch. Because, apparently, the LAPD, the loc ... More >>

L.A.'s Light-Rail Fiasco

Reader Letters

L.A. City Council Election 2011: Remaining Stragglers Turn In Candidacy Paperwork

LA Talk RadioFrank Sheftel, the guy who once carved chocolate statues in the likeness of Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley for their '90s wedding, now thinks he can run City District 4​The last of the L.A. City Council candidates have filed for the March 2011 municipal election. There are ... More >>

City Activists Push For Locally Elected Seat On Each Of Villaraigosa's Incestual, Downtown-Heavy Commissions

S.C. Asher via FlickrOnce again, the Valley feels left out​Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's downtown-centric frame of vision -- one that certainly sticks to City Hall tradition -- is (once again) pissing off the people. The mayor currently selects all five members on each of 51 City C ... More >>

Wanna Run For L.A. City Council? Move To Your District Of Choice Now Or Steve Cooley Will Getcha (We Have Some Recommended Digs)

​All you politicians and would-be politicos out there it's time to play that game we call musical chairs: The L.A. City Clerk warns that it's time to move to the voting district you plan to temporarily represent while you think of a better political gig.If you don't move now, you won't just be ine ... More >>

City of Airheads: Villaraigosa Dismantles L.A.'s Vaunted Library System

Mayor mirrors Detroit's disastrous choice

Feeling Taxed? Fines Increase For Leaving Extra Trash Out In Los Angeles

.imelda via Flickr​ The city of Los Angeles continues to find new and inventive ways to essentially tax residents as it struggles to keep its budget in the black. City officials on Thursday warned residents that if they leave extra trash on the curb they could face newly increased fines of $50 ... More >>

Live in L.A.: Prop. 15 benefit, Ruby Friedman Orchestra, Shane Alexander, the Bullets, 3OH!3

San Diego's White Apple Tree​Can L.A. City Councilman Jose Huizar rock a dancefloor? Will he take home a free set of headphones? Will anybody be able tell Proposition 15 from Questions 67 & 68 (sorry, bad classic rock reference) after DJ Jeremy Dawson's set tonight? Answers to these questi ... More >>

Council Committee Recommends Cuts To Police, Fire Departments

​Getting down to serious business, the Los Angeles City Council's Budget and Finance Committee on Monday recommended that cuts be made to the police and fire department -- sacred cows in city budgeting -- as well as to council offices, including the mayor's. The city is operating $208.5 milli ... More >>

Facts or No Facts, L.A. City Council Still Plows Ahead on Medical Weed Law

Whether they were taking their cues from medical marijuana advocates or still dreadfully ill-informed, several Los Angeles City Council members continued to throw around bad numbers and loose facts as they worked for hours on a medical marijuana dispensary ordinance yesterday.L.A. City Councilman De ... More >>

Pot Shops Must Grow Their Own, According To Proposed Law

​Medical marijuana dispensaries and collectives in the city of Los Angeles must grow their own pot, according to the latest version of an ordinance that will be considered soon by the City Council. But an earlier proposal to limit pot shops to five pounds of marijuana on-hand at any particula ... More >>

Potshots Over Los Angeles Pot Shops

A year late, the City Council tries to uninvite its unvetted marijuana collectives

L.A.'s Reefer Revolution

City Hall's yawning loophole for pot dispensaries spawns a Woodstock economy

Villaraigosa's Autry National Center Hubbub

Why a sophisticated collection of Indian artifacts may end up over by the L.A. Zoo

Politics Meets Street

Why are politicians and civic leaders bellying up to the eyebrow-raising 740 Club?

Is This the Part They Call Reform?

Villaraigosa doesn’t win a decisive victory, and one of his own candidates is already minimizing his role

Ignoring is Bliss

L.A. City Council blows off critics – and commissioners – and approves Mount Washington project

Fast One, Roy

Now that L.A.-schools chief got his school bond, he can watch enrollment drop by 100,000

So Long, Chris

Union’s soiled candidate drops out of school board race

All About Breaking Up

Antonio plays the bully in this school-board race

Cowboys and Indians

Gene Autry vs. Southwest Museum: Piracy or preservation?

Not So Fast

Herb Wesson’s cakewalk turns into a challenge

Up On A Roof

Plan for school playground atop garage has critics hitting ceiling

No Experts Please

Mayor Riordan backs interested novices for the school board