Happy B-Day, George Takei - Actor, Activist, (Almost) City Councilman

Today is the 74th birthday of native Angeleno Geroge Takei, who is many things - actor, writer, Asian American and LGBT community activist and pop culture icon. But did you know he was almost elected to the Los Angeles City Council?

It goes like this - in 1973, after The Great Tom Bradley made history being elected as Los Angeles' first Mayor of African American descent in the May 29 General Municipal Election, he had to resign his incumbent seat as 10th District City Councilman, which he held since 1963.

With the seat vacant, a Special Election took place on September 18 of that year, which attracted around a dozen candidates for the seat. Being a Special Election filing a vacant seat, there was to be no run-off; the top vote-getter wins the office.

Takei ran for the Mid-City area council seat under the ballot description, "Television Moderator" - he was the co-host of Expression East/West, a local public affairs show that aired on KNBC at the time.

City legislative deputy David Cunningham won the election with 8,062 votes and served the seat until 1987, when he was succeeded by Nate Holden. The runner-up? Geroge Takei, with 6,387 votes - losing by a tally of only 1,675.

Had Takei been elected, he would have been the City's first Asian American on the Council, which was eventually achieved by Michael Woo, elected to the 13th District in 1985 (Takei would not have been the first openly-gay City Councilman (assuming he would have come out back then), as Joel Wachs preceded him in 1971). But he would have certainly become the first celebrity to serve in Los Angeles City office - not an unusual thing even back then, considering who was sitting in the Governor's office at the time.

Takei did have some experience in public policy; Mayor Bradley appointed him to the Board of Directors of the Southern California Rapid Transit District (the predecessor agency to today's Metro), where he served for 11 years. While filming Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1978, he was called off the set to cast a tie-breaking vote for the RTD to create what we know now as the Metro Rail system. He was also credited with helping to create an arts program for Metro Rail, which is why nearly every Metro station is decorated with public art pieces.

Who knows what things would have been like had he been City Councilman? Mayor Sulu? Only a visit to a parallel universe through a multidimensional wormhole could tell.

George Takei campaign poster image from AngryAsianMan.com

The Quantum of Solis*: An Angelena Joins Obama's Cabinet

Okay, so the Militant may or may not have been selected as the new LAUSD Superintendent (damnit!), but the Militant is pleased to find out today that The Funky President has selected a native Angelena to head the U.S. Department of Labor. Congresswoman Hilda L. Solis, who represents California's 32nd congressional district, which stretches from The Real Eastside and through the San Gabriel Valley to Covina, was chosen by Obama on Thursday to join the 44th President's cabinet. Cool deal, since the Militant was concerned that Obama was being a little too Chicago/Illinois-centric in his picks.

Solis is the first person from the Southland to be on board the new administration, especially since her colleague (and the Militant's own congressman) Xavier Becerra opted to stay in da House rather than take on the U.S. Trade Representative position. Though she's a native Angelena, she's not the first So Cal native on Obama's cabinet -- Commerce Secretary-designate and New Mexico governor Bill Richardson was born in Pasadena. And for anyone keeping score, Obama's got three Latinos and two Asian Americans in his cabinet...tokens no more!

So congrats, anyway, Congresswoman Solis! We got an Eastsider (What? And these fine folks haven't taken notice of it yet? Tsk tsk...) in the executive branch!

* The headline alone was the main reason for writing this post, and the Militant is surprised no one's jumped on that headline yet.

Superintendent Militant Angeleno?

With the recent stepping-down of Supernintendo Superintendent David Brewer from the Los Angeles Unified School District, it appears that the second-largest public school system in the country is in need of a new leader. Someone with new ideas, who's not afraid to take risks, and one with a true vision for education in Los Angeles.

The Militant knows exactly the person who can accomplish this.

Himself.

Yes, the Militant Angeleno is putting it right out there: He would like to be the next Superintendent of Schools for the LAUSD.

So the Militant lacks the experience, you say? Surely you jest. The LAUSD needs someone who really knows the school district. Brewer's predecessor, Roy Romer, was once the former Governor of Colorado. Brewer, a former Navy admiral, has military experience. This blogger has, of course, militant experience.

Brewer has had a total of two years of experience in the LAUSD. Romer had five years.

The Militant, on the other hand, has 13 years of experience in the LAUSD.

Okay, granted, all of those 13 years were being a K-12 public school student. But still, who better to know the needs and issues of the school district than an actual product of it?

The Militant, as a high school student, excelled in subjects like English, History and the arts. At the same time, he was an awful Math student, was not so hot in Science, and very mediocre in foreign languages.

When the Militant was but a little kid, he was fascinated with science, so much that one of his childhood aspirations was to be an astronaut. But see, the poor quality of teaching and educational materials made science a dull subject for him so much that his desire waned, and so did the grades. So there you go, that's one of the areas where our schools are sorely lacking.

Again on the topic of experience, maybe it is true the Militant is not experienced enough -- the Militant will gladly admit that he sorely lacks experience in corruption, allowing massive cost overruns and gross incompetence.

And Brewer's $400,000 salary? Heck, the Militant will work for half that! Even quarter that! (It'll still be oodles more than his current militant income...)

As far as a vision, the Militant definitely has one:

• First off, stop this idiotic LAUSD land grab we have seen in the past few decades. It's no secret that we've lost a lot of our history because of this. The Militant will build school sites with a smaller footprint, rather than large-acreage schools that take away people's homes, commercial areas and precious parks, recreation and open space.

• Develop vocational partnerships with local industries, such as health care, trade/manufacturing and the entertainment/tourist industry. That way we can develop a loyal local pool rather than rely on transplants showing up at the Greyhound station to take all the jobs.

• And speaking of local, establish a local history curriculum. The Militant knows his Los Angeles history, as you all know, but virtually none of it came from the classroom. He had to learn it on his own. We have kids who live and breathe and learn and play here, yet they have absolutely no concept of how this City came to be, and how it functions, on a societal, cultural, economic and governmental level.

• Lastly, as superintendent, the Militant will make sure the LAUSD follows this one motto: Quality over Quantity. For decades the LAUSD has been psychotically obsessed with capacity, capacity, capacity, resulting in the aforementioned land grab to accommodate the overcrowding. Enough of this, it's the quality of the edjumakation that has to be at the forefront. And losing kids to private and charter schools shouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, if they're that obsessed with containing capacity and keeping classroom sizes down.

Seriously now, the Militant saw his share of teacher's strikes and walkouts back when he was in school; those things leave a lasting impression for a young, aspiring militant. He also recently had a conversation with an unspecified former member of the Board of Education who candidly told the Militant that the situation regarding the relationship between the teachers union and the District is "downright chaotic" nowadays as compared to when the Militant was in school.

Enough of this, the Militant says, crap will be cut and credibility will finally be restored to our ailing school system.

And if he doesn't do such a great job as superintendent, well...they can always buy out his contract.

Happy Super Fat Tuesday, California!

Make no excuses. Get out and vote today.

Why Can't Los Angeles Have A Mayor Like This?

This is Michael Nutter, the newly-inaugurated mayor of Philadelphia, PA, droppin' some rhymes on the mic in his rendition of The Sugarhill Gang's seminal 1979 hip-hop hit, "Rapper's Delight." Now why can't Tony Villar have a cool special talent? Uh, aside from that one.

Local Music Store Hearts Huckabee?

While StormWatch 2008 has been keeping the Militant from much of his reconnaissance missions, Decision 2008 has been the talk of the town - not just in Iowa and New Hampshire, but much more locally.

Aside from our City Council President and City Controller stumping for last week's Iowa Caucus Democratic winner, it seems at least one local business appears to be giving props to last week's GOP winner - or at least is riding on some free Mike Huckabee publicity.

Local music store chain West L.A. Music, with stores in Universal City and in...West Los Angeles (duh) recently splashed a pic of the bass guitar-playing Arkansas Republican posing with store staff on its website. The site also displayed an audio link and transcript of American Public Media's Weekend America radio show segment on Huckabee, which followed him on the campaign trail and featured the candidate (gratuitously?) mentioning the store by name when the topic suddenly shifts to music:

"McCartney was more innovative. Entwistle had a more traditional concept of the bass. But McCartney was the most innovative bass player of that era. He really was. And let me tell you this: I was in Los Angeles and I got to play John Entwistle's actual Thunderbird bass. It's at the West LA Music Company, and Don Griffin, the guy who owns that store, owns that guitar. And so he pulls it out, and I got to play on that guitar that he played on all The Who's earlier stuff."

"Mitt Romney will never play that guitar," I said.

Huckabee smiled. "If he did, he probably wouldn't play all that well."

With a month to go before the California Primary election, is this pretty much the store's endorsement of Huckabee? Or is it just cashing in on the election?

One thing's for sure, West L.A. Music's primary competitor, the Guitar Center music store chain (founded here in Southern California), most likely would not heart Huckabee, as the borg-like chain was recently purchased by the Massachusetts-based Bain Capital - a company founded by...this guy.

Of course, former governors with presidential ambitions displaying their musical talents on television is not a new concept. So maybe for his own sake, Mitt might want to pick up the bass himself.

Who knows? Perhaps the Republican nomination might be ultimately decided by a game of Guitar Hero.

Garcetti, Chick Backs Barack

Around 150 local supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama rode high on the previous night's caucus ruckus and staged a small noontime rally Friday at the historic Farmers and Merchants Bank of Los Angeles building in Downtown's Old Bank District.

The program, organized by campaign staffers and led by Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti and City Controller Laura Chick - both active Obama supporters - was designed to energize and solicit campaign volunteers and precint leaders leading into the February 5th California Primary election. Supporters of The O chanted and waved signs, while the Militant also spotted some of his operatives who work in unspecified positions in City government there.

The event also featured Echo Park-based local reggae DJs Aurelito and Shakespeare from the I&I Sound System to provide some musical background (their trademark ice cream truck was parked on Main street, adorned with Obama signs).

The rally, originally scheduled to take place outside of City Hall was moved to the lobby of the 103-year old Classical Revival-style historic cultural monument due to rainy weather.

So does this reveal the Militant's primary election leanings? The answer is - of course - it may or may not. Draw your own conclusions (One thing's for sure, the Militant is not a Ron Paul supporter -- he doesn't spend his time playing video games all day and he has been kissed by a girl before. But he would support Sean Paul for President, though).

Xavier Self A Merry Little Coffee

The Militant, may not have had the opportunity to hang out in the Dodger dugout with a U.S. congressman, but he did spend noontime Saturday with him and fellow constituents (that is, making the hypothetical assumption the Militant is a constituent) as Representative Xavier Becerra hosted a "coffee" event at the new Frank Del Olmo Elementary School in the Koreatown area.

Okay, okay, the Militant will offer full disclosure: He is a resident of the 31st Congressional District (you are required, though, to publicly deny ever having read that sentence). Good luck finding the Militant, though. The Militant attended one of these "coffee" events a couple years ago when the congressman hosted one fairly close to the Militant's compound. The Militant was glad that reapportionment made him a Becerra constituent, as his previous congressman under the old district map would never do one of these events as he only cares about the more economically-advantaged members of the district.

The constituents present represented the broad diversity of Becerra's district, with a number there requiring Spanish translation equipment, and a little on the older side, yet still not that old. A line of over 30-deep lined up to ask questions of the congressman, which doubled the length of the event which was originally scheduled for one hour. Thankfully for Becerra they stuck to House-relevant issues like the Iraq war, immigration, health care, the economy and transportation. A few constituents even impassionately urged him to support the impeachment of Bush and/or Cheney, which the Democratic representative, though heavily critical of the Bush administration, felt there's no time for Congress to pursue that route. He also blamed the Republican-mandated "supermajority" rule in the Senate, which now requires a 60% approval rather than the usual 51% simple majority to pass bills - a situation which requires any Democratically-supported measure to garner a number of Republican votes to pass.

Agree or disagree with them, it's a wonderful thing for members of Congress to have a one-on-one meeting with constituents. Too many elected officials out there - on all levels of government - like to feel important and avoid any contact with the people they were elected to represent (unless the constituents contribute mad moolah for them during election season). Also, a lot of politicos do things like this only when the media is present. The press was nowhere to be seen at Becerra's Saturday event - which the House representative actually preferred to avoid sound-bite posturing (ironic though for the venue since the elementary school was named after a Los Angeles Times editor who died in 2004).

If your representative puts on these kinds of events, do make it a point to go - they are excellent ways not to only meet your member of congress, but their staff and fellow people in your community as well. If your House rep hasn't done any events like this yet, the Militant strongly encourages you to demand them to.

Councilman LaBonge Backpedals (And That's A Good Thing)

Not to be outdone by half a dozen or so members of his colleague Eric Garcetti's staff participating in a Midnight Ridazz tour a couple weeks ago, Los Anga-les City Councilman Tom LaBonge (pictured left) took to a bike himself on Thursday evening and joined riders on a 6-mile round-trip ride along the 4th Street corridor - the extreme southeast corner of his own 4th district. Organized in conjunction with the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, the ride was both a social event to meet the councilman and a way to help promote 4th Street as a bicycle-friendly boulevard.

About two dozen bicyclists that consisted of constituents, staffers, bike activists, three LAPD bike cops and at least two bloggers rode against the setting sun along 4th St. from Shatto Park in Koreatown, and up the socioeconomic ladder from the dense apartment blocks on the eastern side of the street to the stately near-mansions of Hancock Park, ending at Fire Station 61 near Park La Brea. Along the way, the police officers corked (velospeak for "blocking traffic to keep the mass of riders together") most of the cross streets, and even the councilman did some corking himself. An LAPD cruiser rode behind the pack to assist any possible flats or breakdowns. At the fire station, the riders were allowed to use "the facilities," as other participants chatted with officers, firefighters and fellow riders before riding through the station on the way back (pictured right).

The ride made a pit stop at Larchmont Village where most of the cyclists took over a metered parking spot (pictured left) right in front of the Above The Fold newsstand after an SUV just left.

"Let's see, how many bicycles can you park in this space?" the councilman asked aloud. "Seventeen!" he said, after tallying it himself, with room for a few more bikes to spare. The Bicycle Coalition folks got excited about not only the public demonstration of the bicycle-to-auto parking space ratio, but that a city councilman gave it his blessing.

At the pit stop, LaBonge treated the riders to a free cone of chocolate chip ice cream at the Larchmont Baskin-Robbins (the chain originated right here in Southern California) as the councilman chatted it up with not only the riders, but people who strolled along the village, including the daughter of KTLA reporter Stan Chambers. The councilman, wearing a light blue t-shirt and grey shorts, walked into the Louise's Trattoria next door, meeting and greeting folks. Los Angeles is LaBonge's small town as well.

The ride went along 2nd street for most of the way this time, the councilman calling out the route, and eventually landed back onto 4th Street at Kingsley Drive. There were definite signs of the "bike boulevard" concept in more than just the green "Bike Route" signs -- at Normandie Ave., the crosswalks were even outfitted with street crossing signal buttons for bicyclists! (pictured right)

The Militant even chatted with the councilman along the ride, telling the politico how he enjoys biking in streets of the Valley at night during the summer. It might have been because of the conversation, that near the end of the route, LaBonge announced to the riders that he would make this ride a monthly event, on the last Thursday of the month, and that the next one on September 27 would go from his Valley field office in Toluca Lake on through the Chandler Blvd. bike path in North Hollywood.

See? The Militant has proven he already has influence on our public officials.

Tom LaBonge's style has been described as loud, garish, grandstanding, extroverted, showy. But the Militant got to see another side of the councilman: The city geek. Which was a good thing, as a number of the riders were city geeks as well (most especially the blogging contingent). From mentioning the historical significance of nearby Hoover Street at the beginning of the ride (it was the original western boundary of the city when it was incorporated in 1850) to Western Avenue (the city's new western boundary in 1915) to chatting about the design of the Los Angeles River bridges, this guy not only knows the city, but seems to have fun with it. During the ride back, he led the pack, not just because he was the councilman but because he seemed so damn excited about doing this, including pushing the crosswalk buttons at major intersections. He even stopped to pick up a piece of paper left on the street and disposed of it in a nearby trash bin (of course, this was in Hancock Park...). Yeah, maybe he was showing off, but unlike many other local politicians who insist on getting chauffeured around town, LaBonge seemed to enjoy experiencing the city...which is probably as close to being Militant as far as a local public official can get...(well, for now, at least...).

Don't Believe Da Hype(rion)

The Militant has often said that driving in Los Angeles is like watching a movie, while walking or biking in the city is like seeing a play. The Militant might have lived in the same city all his life, but he has seen the chronological changes over the years. The people of the city are the actors in the play and the streets set the scenes. Over time, these scenes have even changed their roles, or at the very least have framed different scenes using the same props.

One such street is Hyperion Avenue, straddling the line between Silver Lake and Los Feliz. Both places today are known as hipster heaven (or hell, depending on your perspective), but in the Militant's younger years, they were known as places where older folks lived (Los Feliz was jokingly known back in the '80s as "Menopauseville"). Starting at the end of Fountain Avenue and ending where Glendale Blvd. crosses the river, at 1.5 miles, Hyperion is one of those streets that didn't have to be individually named, but since someone thought up the idea, they might as well have chosen a 19th Century poem by John Keats.

Today the Militant enjoyed his two-wheeled play for today by passing the newly-installed stoplights on the jammed and risky 3-way intersection of Hyperion and Monon St. (pictured above). Though still fresh out of the box and still fragrant with that new stoplight smell, the lights were yet to be put in operation, possibly waiting a large dedication ceremony by area councilman Tom LaBonge, who would no doubt proclaim that such a day would be "A great day for Los-Anga-les."

Pedaling north towards the AWV, the Militant approached the famous Hyperion Bridge, or so he once thought it was named so. The Militant recalled, in his high school years, the day the bridge was blocked off for some on-location filming shoot, only to see it a year later in this film which he saw at the Cinerama Dome. But before reaching the actual bridge, there stood a copper plaque on a retaining wall (pictured right). It lists the various politicos and city officials of the day when the bridge opened in 1927. The first three lines of the plaque read:

WAVERLY APPROACH
GLENDALE-HYPERION VIADUCT
GEO. E. CRYER, MAYOR

Of course no one speeding by at 40 miles per hour in their car could read the text on the plaque, much less know it even exists (the two-foot wide pedestrian-hostile excuse for a sidewalk that straddles the retaining wall isn't much help either). Mayor Cryer was best known (at least to the five of us who care about Los Angeles history - Mr. Howser, Ms. Rasmussen, Will Campbell, The City Nerd and yours truly) as the mayor who brought us today's City Hall. But other sources have linked him to an organized crime mob that ran gambling and prostitution rings in the Roaring '20s. Which got this Militant wondering, if Angelenos don't even recall a mayoral administration of 80 years ago, would the Los Angeles of 2087 even know that the mayor of 80 years past banged a television news reporter if they saw "MAYOR ANTONIO R. VILLARAIGOSA" on some heavily-oxidized and graffiti-tagged (the taggers of the future will use lasers (laser-tagged?) -- you heard it here first...) copper plaque? Would they even know what a "television" was? Or perhaps the people whose names are emblazoned on dedicational plaques are keenly aware of such things, and that the plaques are the only objective indicators of their legacy?

Perhaps, this Militant believes, that the common-knowledge ignorance and disregard of Los Angeles history is intentional.

Villaraigosa So Far...

Call it a progress report, or some spin for this city to prove Da Mayor has been doing more than just Mirthala Salinas, but a 40-page document from the Mayor's Office entitled Midterm Report 2005-2007: Delivering Results for Los Angeles was released last week and personally handed to various community leaders from around the city at a meeting this past weekend by Deputy Mayor Larry Frank. (The Militant was able to obtain a copy, but the report is available online as a .pdf in the link above). The report enumerates various accomplishments and works-in-progress from Mayor Villar. In the report:

• Sidewalks repaired: 145 miles
• Streets resurfaced: 425 miles
• Potholes filled: 540,833
• Trees trimmed: 147, 209
• Graffiti removed: 35 million sq feet
• New parks opened: 10
• Recreation facilities opened: 20
• New fire stations & training facilities opened: 6
• New libraries opened: 6

In the works-in-progress department, the report indicated that 300 of the 1,000 new LAPD officers promised by Villaraigosa have been added to the force, and according to Frank, 98,000 of the one million trees promised by El Alcalde have been planted (They can reach their goal by re-greening Griffith Park alone). Frank also admittedly attributed the pothole-filling progress to our recent lack of rain (water helps erode the integrity of asphalt), and jokingly stated that "we might run out of potholes to fill."

But Frank mentioned some interesting factoids on Los Angeles regarding energy and the environment that were news to this Militant, mainly that 60% of Los Angeles' (population: 4,000,000) electricity comes from a coal plant in the Great Basin town of Delta, Utah (population: 3,200). Further Militant research indicated that, according to the town history, "Delta is rather unusual among the primarily agricultural towns in the state, since it was founded in the twentieth century and owed virtually nothing regarding its establishment to direction from the general hierarchy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." The power plant (pictured above) is part of the Intermountain Power Project and run by the Intermountain Power Agency. Seventy-five percent of its power goes to Southern California, which, besides Los Angeles, also juices-up the cities of Anaheim, Riverside, Pasadena, Burbank and Glendale (The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, whose stadium once sold its naming rights to an energy company, has their Triple-A Minor League affiliate based in Utah. Coincidence?). Frank mentioned that the Mayor more than doubled the amount of renewable energy sold by the DWP - from 3% to a whopping 8%. Frank did mention to the community leaders (and not mentioned in the report) that the City is working out some deal with companies in China to create training and manufacturing opportunities to build solar energy panels locally. Fingers crossed...

Shield Us From Destruction!
The Militant finds humor in repetition, cliches, the predictable. So on Saturday on his way to the Pilibos School in Little Armenia for the LACommons event he spotted one of those little FilmLA filming notices posted in front of an apartment building for a shoot on Tuesday. Gee, that's cool they're filming in this neighborhood, I just hope it's anything but The Shiel...D'oh!

City of (Thai) Angels

The long- awaited Thai Town Gateway was inaugurated this morning in a ceremony on a cordoned-off Hollywood Boulevard with a sizeable number of politicians, city staffers and community folk in attendance.
The project was spearheaded by the non-profit organization Thai Community Development Center (Thai CDC) which took six years to come to fruition.

The statue depicts a 6-foot tall bronze apsonsi, which is a guardian angel figure from traditional Thai folklore ("apson" being Thai for "angel" and "si" meaning "lion"). Situated on the southeast corner of Hollywood and Western, the statue will be joined by another sister which will be installed across The Boulevard, and two more sisters which will be placed on the eastern end of Thai Town near Hollywood and Normandie. The apsonsi were all made in Thailand and were transported to Los Angeles gratis by Thai Airways.

Speaking of Thailand, the name of its capital, Bangkok, is an abbreviated form of a phrase which is translated as "City of The Angels." So I need not explain the obvious similarity to El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles del Rio Porcincula. There are efforts to designate Bangkok as Los Angeles' 22nd Sister City, but the Thai capital already shares her wardrobe and goes shopping with the U.S. Capitol, Washington D.C. Still, with EPDNSLRDLADRP being the largest concentration of Thais outside of Thailand, the sister city boosters are trying to get D.C. to find anotha sista.

After comments by Councilman Eric Garcetti, Thai CDC Executive Director Chanchanit Martorell, Mayor Antonio Villar and Thai Consul General Jurk Boon-Long, the stragglers who stayed at the end were treated to some free Thai chow courtesy of Palms Thai Restaurant. Unfortunately, the great Kavee Thongpricha, a.k.a. Thai Elvis, was not present to grace us in song.

The unexpected highlight of the event happened while Garcetti was speaking at the podium, three gang wannabe-looking teenagers in black baggy clothes spotted Da Mayor, suddenly got star-struck and shouted, "YO! MR. MAYOR!" pointing and waving at him, one even took off his shirt. They did this about three times, and after the formal ceremony Da Mayor posed for pictures with them. They seemed to trip out at the fact that El Alcalde even acknowledged their presence, and even gave each other congratulatory high-fives and fist-pounds after their impromptu photo shoot with Antonio. Then one of the teens made some reference to his recent marital problems and shouted towards Da Mayor's way as he was leaving and said, "Blame it on ADHD, it's not your fault, Mr. Mayor!"