Los Angeles City Council

Los Angeles City Council District 3 Primary Results: Bob Blumenfield Wins Over Joyce Pearson

Despite his massive spending, Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield barely gained the votes needed to beat neighborhood council activist Joyce Pearson in Los Angeles City Council District 3 race in the West San Fernando Valley. Blumenfield, one of the more audacious job-hoppers from Sacramento, who has nea ... More >>

L.A. City Council Approves Meatless Mondays

If you want more validation for choosing not to eat meat today, the Los Angeles City Council just gave it to you. On Friday, L.A. became the largest city in America to support the Meatless Monday campaign when the City Council voted unanimously, in a 12-0 vote, to support the resolution.

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 >>

Marijuana Ban's Demise Finalized By L.A. Council Today; It's Over

Updated at the bottom: They did it. It's over. The headline has been changed to reflect this. First posted at 8:05 a.m. The Los Angeles City Council today was expected to pound in the last and necessary nail in the coffin of its own pot shop ban. In other words, it will take a final vote. Medical ... More >>

Buscaino vs. Furutani

L.A. City Council race is about preserving lifer politicians

Animal Control Shenanigans

L.A. Budget Fix? City Analyst Suggests More Parking Tickets, Fees for On-Scene Medical Treatment and 911 Calls

Bill ya later.​When the Los Angeles City Council is low on cash, they tend not to look to their own overfunded executive offices -- or alleged untouchables like the corrupt, bulging Housing Authority -- for the answer. Nope: They look to their broke-ass constituents, already drowning in a dis ... More >>

L.A. City Officials Can Force Porn-Makers Here to Use Condoms, But Probably Won't

Protesters want to force condoms on porn.​A Los Angeles City Council committee will take up the issue of mandatory condoms in porn this week. This after the City Attorney's office recently ruled that L.A. could indeed require that condoms be used on the sets of adult videos shot under city pe ... More >>

El Camino Real High School in San Fernando Valley, Nationally Respected, Flees LAUSD to Become Charter School

Office-clinger Tamar Galatzan, behind Zuma Dogg, unsuccessfully humping to become a Los Angeles City Council member.​Update: The school was in the news recently for the Jeff Stenroos faked shooting. One of the top-rated schools in the Western U.S., El Camino Real High School -- so good that ... More >>

New Fast-Food Joints Barred From Opening Near Old Ones In South L.A.

babble.comFight for your right​The Los Angeles City Council is painting itself green and health-conscious again -- this time, with a strict city ordinance that holds down a temporary South L.A. ban on new fast-food restaurants opening within a half-mile of existing ones. The zone also includes ... More >>

L.A. City's Attempts To Regulate Pot Shops Drags On For Years As Residents Complain About Related Crime

Kind For Cures in Palms was said to be operating outside the city's pot-shop law: It's still open.​Los Angeles is the pot-shop capital of the nation. At one point our dispensaries were said to outnumber Starbucks outlets here (a dubious claim but, still, you get the idea). It has taken the Lo ... More >>

Carmen Trutanich, L.A. City Attorney, Wins Billboard Crackdown Ruling From U.S. Judge Audrey Collins: They Ain't Free Speech

Don't stand here during a quake​Reason to cheer the departure of Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo: Carmen Trutanich, his replacement, won another courtroom victory against the 11,000 billboards slathered all over sad-sack L.A -- up to 4,000 of them illegally installed without an eart ... More >>

Antonio Villaraigosa and L.A. City Council, Badly Slimed for Airhead Library Cuts, Get a Solution -- They'll Probably Ignore

Ted SoquiDemonstrators at a recent rally where budget cuts to the L.A. Public Library system were denounced​Almost certainly prompted by queries from L.A. Weekly as it gathered info for its blockbuster story "City of Airheads," council members Tom LaBonge and Janice Hahn are asking for a dela ... More >>

City Council Votes To Give New Los Angeles Businesses Tax Exemptions For Two Years

​The Los Angeles City Council unanimously voted on Friday to give tax breaks to new businesses that open in Los Angeles. The businesses will qualify for the "Business Tax Holiday" exemption only if they gross less than $500,000 a year. The exemption will only last until the end of 2012.

Saturday Is Yu-Na Kim Day In L.A. Yay!

​Sometimes we're critical of the Los Angeles City Council for dragging its feet on tough issues while giving itself almost Bell-like salaries and falling over itself to pass lame rules like is cat-declawing prohibition. Well, gosh darn it, this council finally got something right: It's "Yu-Na ... More >>

Los Angeles City Council To Consider New Water Rationing Schedule

KTLA News​The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday was expected to consider changing the city's lawn-watering schedule in order to relieve pressure on subterranean pipes that burst last year at alarming rates. The new schedule would allow residents at odd-numbered addresses activate sprinklers ... More >>

L.A. Council Puts Off Vote On Possible Arizona Boycott Buster

​The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday put off for one day a vote on whether or not to grant a red-light camera operator based in Scottsdale an exception to its economic boycott of Arizona travel and business. The council decided to delay the vote because a key member of the Public Safety ... More >>

Neighborhood Council Defies L.A. City Hall's Arizona Boycott

Photo by S.C. Asher via Flickr​When the Los Angeles City Council approved a boycott of Arizona travel and business last month, the vote was almost unanimous, with only Valley Councilman Greig Smith going against the group. Who could blame the body? With nearly one in two people in L.A. being L ... More >>

L.A. City Council Backs State Law That Would Ban Open Display Of Firearms

​The Los Angeles City Council this week backed a proposed state law that would ban the open display of handguns in public, a practice that has been advocated in recent months by the pro-gun "Open Carry" movement. The law, proposed by San Diego Democratic Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña, would most ... More >>

Jay Leno Makes Ribs Mayor, L.A. Council Over Arizona Boycott

​During his Tonight Show monologue Thursday, Jay Leno made fun of the Los Angeles City Council's vote to boycott Arizona over the state's controversial immigration law. "The council vote wasn't even close," he said. "The council voted trece to uno." Then Leno aimed his chin at Mayor Antonio ... More >>

With California Moving To Fully Legalize Pot, Are Chain-Store Dispensaries Far Off?

​With Californians voting on full-legalization of marijuana in November, is the prospect of Starbucks-like chain-store dispensaries far off? In Los Angeles there are a handful of owners who control more than one pot shop. But this slick notice really raised our eyebrows: A pot-shop "merchant ... More >>

L.A. City Council Approves Arizona Boycott

​The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday approved an economic boycott of Arizona over the state's new immigration law that would allow police to ask people they stop for proof of legal immigration status. L.A.'s move, which only councilman Greig Smith opposed, would ban official city travel ... More >>

Stage Raw: 7 Local Theaters in Danger of Eviction

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSCURRENT STAGE FEATURE ON THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD and THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO7 LOCAL THEATERS IN DANGER OF EVICTIONAn internal memo to the Los Angeles City Council dated April 16, and co-signed by Chief Legislative Analyst Gerry F. Miller and C ... More >>

City Hall's Gift to Goldman Sachs

A vast upsizing of the Playa Vista minicity means $146 million for Wall Street partners

Bleak House at L.A. CityView 35

How eight layoffs at the gavel-to-gavel channel threaten more than jobs

Council Committees Inch Toward Final Pot Shop Law; Dispensary Crackdown Expected In May

​Two Los Angeles City Council committees approved nearly $1,600 in fees for medical marijuana dispensaries, marking the beginning of the end for hundreds of pop shops that will be wiped out by a city ordinance that severely limits where they can operate. The fees will fund criminal background ... More >>

Facing Catastrophic Deficit, L.A. Council Actually Adds To Red Ink

​After seeing the Los Angeles City Council drag its feet for years over regulating medical marijuana dispensaries it should be no surprise that, when faced with the worse budget crisis any of the council members have ever seen, the body actually added to City Hall's red ink and put off any har ... 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 >>

Many On Council Admit To Having Smoked Pot

​As the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday gave its final approval to a law that would shut down hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries in the city, several City Council members recalled their own relationships with the drug. KPCC (89.9 FM) reporter Frank Stoltze queried the representati ... More >>

L.A. Council Will Take Another Shot At Pot-Shop Law

​The Los Angeles City Council will take another shot at enacting a law to rein in medical marijuana stores in the city Wednesday but, as history attests, just because the matter is on the body's docket doesn't mean it will act. This time around the city has before it a law that would cut the ... More >>

City Councilman Makes A Pretty Calendar For 2010

Tom LaBonge's calendar.​If after looking at the city's looming, $400 million deficit, its difficulties in hiring cops, and its five-year (losing) battle with mushrooming marijuana dispensaries, you thought the Los Angeles City Council was useless, we would kindly ask you to take a second look. ... More >>

L. A. City Council ducks medical pot vote at wild meeting; harsh land-use limits anger crowd

No surprise: At a raucous meeting today, the Los Angeles City Council decided to hold off on voting on a controversial medical marijuana ordinance that would severely reduce the 545 pot shops in Los Angeles. ​ The postponement came after the city's Planning Department presented hurriedly crea ... More >>

Cash For Pot Is Cheating, Judge Says; City Moves Forward To Allow It Anyway

FoxMoses Griffin.​At this point Moses himself could descend from the mountaintops with a declaration that thou shalt not sell freakin' pot in retail storefronts and the Los Angeles City Council would move ahead with its ordinance to allow cash-for-marijuana in L.A. This week a superior court ... More >>

City To Spend $7.2 Million On Free Email

The Los Angeles City Council today approved a $7.2 million deal to transition its internal-server-based email system to Google's free email services. The move was designed to save the city money, and apparently it will, but why is the council paying more than 7 mil to use the kind of gmail services ... More >>

L.A. City Council Blinks, Public Wins

A controversial plan to more than double planning department appeal fees was set aside today by the Los Angeles City Council.Los Angeles City Hall​Today's city council vote came after homeowner groups, neighborhood councils, and environmental groups crammed into Los Angeles City Hall and protested ... More >>

Judge Strikes Down L.A. Pot Shop Moratorium

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant ruled today that the Los Angeles City Council's two-year-plus long moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries is illegal, and granted a preliminary injunction blocking the enforcement of the ban, reports the L.A. Times.L.A. City Council President ... More >>

L.A. City Council Considers Lowering Appeal Fee for Developers

At the Los Angeles City Council meeting tomorrow, council members such as Ed Reyes, who chairs the powerful Planning and Land Use Management Committee, will consider lowering a planning department appeal fee for real estate developers while raising that same fee for citizens, according to community ... More >>

Ruining the L.A. Marathon

Preachers pressured City Hall to change it. Now the race faces uncertainties

Fighting City Hall: A "How-To" from L.A. cartoonist Donna Barstow

With Los Angeles City Council ready to approve a train wreck of a budget, and with their vote on May 26 to delay for months a bizarre plan to place "sign districts" potentially filled with pulsating digital billboards in more than 20 residential and business districts citywide, arm yourself by knowi ... More >>

The Unsung in Today's Los Angeles City Council and LAUSD Elections

L.A. is a city of steamroller politics and barely aware voters. It is exceedingly difficult for everyday citizens to beat an incumbent running for Los Angeles City Council or Los Angeles Unified School Board. It is almost as difficult to win an empty seat on either body unless you are the one being ... More >>

Is Google Joining AT&T to Shut Up the Little Guy?

We're fascinated to see a Variety journalist pick up on our last week's cover story, "Shutting Up the Little Guy," as a cautionary tale about not just what AT&T, Fabian Nunez and the Los Angeles City Council are doing to decimate local public access TV, but what might happen if net neutrality -- ... More >>

Los Angeles City Planning Commission Adopts Preliminary Motion to Ban all New Electronic Billboards

Taking aim at digital billboards in the wake of intense opposition from community groups in Hollywood, Venice, Encino, Silver Lake and other areas, the Los Angeles City Planning Commission adopted a preliminary motion to ban all new electronic billboards for a year. The Interim Control Ordinance w ... More >>

City Council Will Consider Selling Rights for Electronic Billboards

The Los Angeles City Council will consider a proposal today to allow massive electronic signs along the 10 and 110 freeways next to the Los Angeles Convention Center. The proposal by Anschutz Entertainment Group reportedly calls for 50,000 square feet of advertising signs. Last week, the Trade, Co ... More >>

New Foe Against Digital Billboards?

Eli Broad's Grand Avenue Follies

Mecca for the monied can't get a loan, but is likely to get City Council's nod

Crackdown on Gigantic Ads

Companies that put up huge “supergraphics” on buildings and the building owners who allow the gigantic illegal signs could be fined $2,500 a day under a new plan announced today by Los Angeles City Council Member Jack Weiss. “These monster signs turn buildings into billboards,” said Weiss ... More >>

The Last Egg Man

Defending his poultry farm, Ken Arno faces off against the Valley�s king of rezoning

A Denser L.A.

Understanding the map

No Airport Rescue

Northwest flouts council effort to save jobs

Frittering Away

What the City Council does instead of governing