David Zahniser

Failing the Smell Test

David Zahniser
You can’t blame most of Los Angeles ?for assuming that hazing in the Fire Department — spiked spaghetti, feces in inappropriate places, private parts lathered up with shaving cream — is the only thing occupying the minds of our politicians at City Hall. Certainly, nothing dominated the news like the......

Gravy Train

David Zahniser
IF YOU’VE HAD REPAIR WORK done at your home, you know the trepidation of watching a work crew rip open the walls. Who knows what you’ll find? Long-ignored problems, failing systems, even massive rot. The same holds true at City Hall, at least when it comes to employee lawsuits. Most......

Shameless in Sacramento

David Zahniser
IS IT POSSIBLE TO LEAVE skid marks when abandoning a political office? That’s the first question for Richard Alarcón, a longtime pol from the northeast San Fernando Valley who is so eager to take advantage of a measure weakening term limits in Los Angeles that he’s thrown himself into a......

This Just In: Voters Snookered

David Zahniser
THE FOLKS PUSHING PROPOSITION R, the measure that rolled back term limits in Los Angeles, pulled off an especially crafty one-two punch. First they cruised to victory on Tuesday, overcoming some of the worst political buzz to dominate City Hall since the waning days of former Mayor James Hahn. Then......

It's About Term Limits, Stupid

David Zahniser
NEIGHBORHOOD ACTIVIST JOE BARRETT sounded a little gloomy this week as he discussed the ultrahot political battle being waged in his Sunland-Tujunga neighborhood — a bitterly contested plan for a new Home Depot on Foothill Boulevard. Barrett, who works in the film business, has spent two years fighting the home-improvement......
Honoring the king maker: a young Miguel dreams (Photos by Slobodan Dimitrov)

The Final Hours of Miguel Contreras

David Zahniser
His death grabbed the attention of the national media, which noted his leadership of the 2000 janitor’s strike. His funeral drew 3,000 people to the Cathedral of the Lady of the Angels. Contreras and his funeral Mass were name-dropped in the play Water and Power, a discourse on Los Angeles......
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A Black Antonio?

David Zahniser
From the moment he marched in front of the television cameras, the new superintendent of the L.A. Unified School District proved himself to be a bit of a show pony, someone whose charisma and vigorous public-speaking style easily rivals Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s. He has the mayor’s energy. He has his......

Hand Jobs and Handouts

David Zahniser
LAST WEEK, THREE YEARS AFTER he launched his “pay to play” investigation of former Mayor James Hahn, District Attorney Steve Cooley finally answered the question that had been nagging the public for so long: How big a tip should you give for a hand job at the Bonaventure Hotel? Former......
(Illustration by Ronald Kurniawan)

Best Dig Site for Civic Sleuths & History Nerds

David Zahniser
Best Dig Site for Civic Sleuths & History Nerds YEAH, YEAH, SO YOU’VE BEEN TO GRIFFITH PARK. Who hasn’t? But what do you know about Colonel Griffith J. Griffith, the occasionally delusional oddball who made the city’s biggest park possible? Go look for him on ProQuest, the database that contains......
(Illustration by Ronald Kurniawan)

Best Post Cards From the Lake’s Edge

David Zahniser
Best Post Cards From the Lake’s Edge Los Angeles may sit next to an ocean, but it’s also chock-full of big-city lakes, from the sprawling one at MacArthur Park — cruelly bisected by Wilshire Boulevard in the 1920s — to ?Wilmington’s Machado Lake, which hit the big time once an......