BLACK INFLUENCE WOULD RISE DRAMATICALLY IN NEW L.A.

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 4, 2002 -- A little-noticed report by the Los Angeles Times on the ethnic makeup of post-secession Los Angeles shows that the African-American population in the new Los Angeles would increase by 43.5 percent if both Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley are allowed to become new cities, and by 35 percent if only the Valley secedes, an American Reporter analysis shows. Here's a streaming video link to a discussion of the story from Linux Public Broadcasting Network.

The Nov. 5 ballot measure here is hotly contested.

A huge increase in the African-American percentage of the population in the new Los Angeles would be a remarkable overnight gain for blacks, especially since it would be achieved without the growing pains of new migration and other social changes. It would be certainly be mirrored in new clout at City Hall, and could result in a gain of as many as two city council seats, other reports suggest.

But the Times data is not consistent with its own reporting on the demographics of secession, nor does it jibe with a report by UCLA professor Eugene Grigsby on blacks' role in the new city that was commissioned by Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Braithwaite Burke.

The Times data show that the Grigsby report, which was reported in the paper but did not subsequently get published, is statistically flawed. Burke voted against Hollywood secession but is neutral on Valley secession. That report took voter rolls and used them bas the basis for comparison, but council, assembly, state senate and supervisorial districts are all based on population, not registered voters.

Clearly, such an increase would dramatically reshape the Los Angeles City Council and help African-Americans balance the huge 65 percent gain since 1990 in the city's Latino population. Those gains have cut the percentage of African-Americans in the present Los Angeles by half in just 10 years and reduced the political clout the community once enjoyed.

One measure of the black community's diminished influence was the firing of black LAPD Chief of Police Bernard C. Parks, a move undertaken by Mayor James Hahn despite ferocious opposition from the city's African-American voters, many of whom helped put Hahn in office. That may be one of the reasons Parks has long resisted being pushed by Hahn into taking a position against secession.

Now, Hahn - aided primarily by wealthy developers who have shunned South Central and Watts and poured millions into the anti-independence movement - appears to be asking black voters to accept a reduction in their influence on city government rather than increase it enormously through granting cityhood to the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood.

The Times has not yet told the black community of such implications, which contradict much of the editorial opinion so far offered by the paper in the escalating debate over cityhood for the Valley and Hollywood.

Hollywood was not included in the Times' calculations but was examined separately by the American Reporter (http://www.american-reporter.com).

Blacks in Hollywood are now roughly 4.1 percent of the population, or 7,503 African-Americans, according to 1997 U.S. Census data provided to the Local Area Formation Commission (LAFCO) by cityhood proponents. The figure is based on 1997 Los Angeles County estimates gathered by scholars at California State University at Northridge.

Thus, when the small number of African-Americans in the proposed Hollywood city's population of 183,000 is figured together with Valley independence, the corresponding gain for blacks in the newly-downsized City of Los Angeles rises to 43.51 percent.

Thus, if Hollywood and the Valley both break away, there will be 336,926 African-Americans in the new Los Angeles population of 2,159,203, or 15.60%. The 4.73 percentage points of gain represents an increase of 43.51 percent from the 10.87 percent proportion blacks enjoyed in the former city.

The Times report breaks down for the first time the ethnic makeup of the two new cities. It has not been widely examined but appears to based on legitimate data, and can be viewed as a graphic on the Internet at http://www.ekay.com/free-hollywood/newlamap.gif.

Currently, the Times says, blacks comprise 401,695 individuals in the present city, or 10.87 percent of its population of 3,694,323.

However, according to the Times' numbers, if Valley cityhood is approved and Hollywood cityhood is not, African-Americans will number 344,429 in the new Los Angeles, or 14.70 percent. That is a 3.83 percentage-point gain from the current 10.87 percent, or a substantial 35.24 percent increase.

Councilman Nate Holden remarked at a recent City Council meeting hearing secession issues that such a gain "might be worth it" to the city's black community despite any risks associated with independence.

Since it is a gain that does not require any new migration to achieve it, the Times' numbers seem to conclusively demonstrate that the major beneficiaries of secession would be the new Los Angeles' African-American community.

African-Americans: The New L.A. and the Old L.A.

Key: CITY
Population
African-Americans
Proportion of African-Americans
Change (+ or -)

OLD L.A. 3,694,323
401,695
10.87 %
No change

NEW L.A. (minus SFV only)
2,342,203
344,429
14.70 %
+ 35.24 %

* SF VALLEY
1,352,120 57,266 4.2 % No change

HOLLYWOOD
183,000
7,503
4.1 %
No change

NEW L.A. (minus both Hwd and SFV)
2,159,203
336,926
15.60 %
+ 43.5 %**

* Net gain of 3.83 % represents 35 % increase from current 10.87 %
** Net gain of 4.73 % represents 43.5 % increase from current 10.87 %

Sources: Los Angeles Times: Census 2000, LAFCO, Eonomic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley; Hollywood VOTE: California State University at Northridge, based on 1997 Los Angeles County estimates.

TOXIC GASES SHUT DOWN HOLLYWOOD & HIGHLAND PARKING GARAGE

HOLLYWOOD -- The $75 million parking garage built by the CRA for a Canadian developer in Hollywood is causing new headaches unrelated to the financial parking fiasco there -- deadly carbon monoxide fumes shut the garage down and sent three parking valets to the hospital Saturday.

The garage beneath the white elephants at Hollywood & Highland, a $450 million Trizec-Hahn project that is reportedly up for sale along with the firm's Paseo Colorado location in Pasadena, was the subject of heated complaints when it opened before the Oscars and charged $10 or more for short-term parking. The structure uses the money to pay the CRA bonds off, but the plan to do so fell apart under wilting criticism from community leaders, and the rates got cut back to $2 for up to four hours with movie theater validations.

But now a garage stairwell has tested positive for the fumes and sent three Latino workers to the hospital complaining of nausea and eye and throat irritation. That could make it hard to sell, especially since the authorities don't know what caused the poisoning episode and don't want to know, apparently.

Low levels of CO2 were found in the parking garage stairwell but not in other parts of the garage where cars are parked. The episode marked the first time the garage had to be shut down for toxic fumes. The on Sept. 18 is the next big event at the Kodak Theater above the garage.

Meanwhile, the Fire Dept. does not plan to investigate, according to L.A.F.D. spokesman Brian Humphrey.

For obvious reasons, investigations could prove tricky in the highly volatile financial circumstances that now envelop Trizec-Hahn projects. The Paseo Colorado project is up for sale for about $114 million, according to today's Los Angeles Business Journal. Although business appears to be very slow there, the Trizec-Hahn folks say it is "has exceeded sales projections." They don't say it is "making money."

With the Canadian developer's point man serving as chairman of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, it's likely that while the Chamber -- which itself is in a CRA-owned building with a big garage beside it - is running Hollywood's sidewalks, Hollywood & Highland will be safe from official scrutiny on public safety grounds.

The developer has made an enemy of the Hollywood independence movement, however.

The chamber last Friday adopted (by a vote of 23-0, with 1 abstention and 12 absences) a $20,000 report by the firm that manages its Business Improvement District (BID) on Hollywood Blvd., purporting to show that a City of Hollywood would be bad for business. More than a dozen pro-independence candidates and supporters showed up to protest on an hour's notice Friday afternoon.

The idea that cityhood would not pace propserity flies in the face of the common sense view, which is that the most famous city in the world can be turned into an enormous draw for tourists that is not dependent on business taxes and permit fees to stay afloat.

However, as the Business Improvement District shows, a turnaround requires that Hollywood's resources need to be spent in improving Hollywood's attraction to visitors. The chamber wants to turn it around using big private firms who own large chunks of the prime property and to negotiate their deals through the familiar politicvins at City Hall.

Thus, the Chamber of Commerce is in the odd position of believing the CRA and City Hall nine miles away can somehow make that happen while cityhood cannot. An exhaustive state study approved by LAFCO - with Supervisors Yvonne Braithwaite Burke and Zev Yaroslavsky on its board - is a powerful contradicition of the Chamber report by MuniFinancial.

In fact, the Hollywood Blvd. Business Improvement District, or BID, actually does what the City of Hollywood would do on a large scale - and without special taxes on boulevard property owners.

The new city would keep all the tax revenues it generates instead of sending them to the rest of Los Angeles, and would use that money to rebuild its ruined streets, its broken dreams, and its battered image.

Los Angeles, a city with 465 square miles to care about and 15 councilmembers fighting over its priorities, can never come to together to help Hollywood as its own City Council can.

None of the three Los Angeles City Councilmen who divide Hollywood into three parts even live here

, and they are like the blind men and the elephant - unable to see the whole because they only represent its parts. But there's two big white elephants they can't miss on Hollywood Blvd., right atop Trizec-Hahn's Hollywood & Highland.

RIOT ERUPTS ON SUNSET BLVD. AFTER SHOTS ARE FIRED IN HOLLYWOOD NIGHTCLUB

HOLLYWOOD, Aug. 31, 2002 -- Hollywood residents who have long complained about the voluminous traffic and crowds that bar them from their homes and slow or stop emergency vehicles' access to them were almost proved right Friday night. After shooting erupted in a Hollywood night club, a task force of Hollywood LAPD and California Highway Patrol officers responding to the traffic complaints found themselves in the middle of a riot involving somewhere between 200 and 1,000 people, according to differing police accounts.

The riot, at the corner of Sunset Blvd. and Crescent Heights in Hollywood, broke out about 1 a.m. Saturday morning and traffic backed up for miles in both directions. Emergency vehicles were able to get to the scene, however, but many residents had difficulty escaping from it as quickly as the rioters did.

According to Hollywood LAPD spokesman Sgt. Glen Hees, the traffic task force was on its regular summer weekend traffic-stop duty when security guards ran out of the popular Coconut Teaszer rock club and pleaded for help after someone started shooting inside the club, which was packed with the Labor Day crowd that throngs this area.

Twelve officers "were overwhelmed" when they tried to get inside, he said, and were pushed back by about 200 people "pouring out" of the club. The patrons then began fighting in the middle of the boulevard amid the jammed traffic. Overwhelmed, Sgt. Hees said, he called for backup and about 80 officers in patrol cars and on motorcycles responded from the LAPD, the CHP and the Sheriff's Dept., along with fire engines, a helicopter and an ambulance. The location is a few hundred yards from the West Hollywood border served by the deputies.

This correspondent found himself in the middle of the riot when he and his wife approached the club in our car several minutes after the shooting.Police cars came screaming from every direction and we saw young men fighting police officers in the middle of the street.

As we watched, some police officers drew guns and started to duck behind cars as rioters showered them and the other rioters with rocks and bottles and began to run across and down both sides of the broad boulevard. When the guns came out, we abandoned our car a few feet from cruisers and ran to the sidewalk, where groups of young black men came running from the club. Asked what had happened, they did not respond. They did not appear to be gang members.

It is not clear what precipitated the shooting. I alerted City News Service, which sent out an advisory that was broadcast on KFWB as we returned home. I returned to the scene and videotaped the aftermath about 25 minutes later. KCBS-TVChannel 2, owned by the New York-based Viacom, which also owns the two Hollywood all-news stations, arrived at the scene shortly after the riot began. Neither the Los Angeles Times nor the Daily News, nor any other print newspaper, carried the City News Service report. The Associated Press also declined to cover the incident because there were no injuries reported from the gunshots, although there may have been some.

Such riots have plagued Hollywood for years, and some have resulted in deaths and crippling injuries, but they often get little coverage in local newspapers, radio and television stations because there is no one staffing news departments when they occur, and possibly because their owners, none of whom are based in Los Angeles, feel they have little stake in the city's future.

Police said that in addition to The American Reporter (http://www.american-reporter.com), only Channel 2 showed up to film the incident, which lasted about 45 minutes. There was one arrest, Sgt. Hees said, of a man who repeatedly urged the crowd to keep fighting as police tried to quell the violence. The unidentified man was being held at the Hollywood LAPD station on charges of inciting a riot. It was unclear why police did not make more arrests, or charge the man who was shooting at patrons inside the club.

Apparently, the gunman and the wounded ran outside before police came through the doors and may have escaped even with police parked in front of the club as they came outside.

Although police said they had cleared the club to permit any injured patrons to get treatment, none were transported by ambulance. Sgt. Hees said an investigation of possible injuries is continuing.

Later, when this correspondent returned to the scene with a camera and caught the last of the tactical alert, LAPD Cmdr. Stuart Maislin - who heads the entire department when the police chief is not on duty - arrived to find about 20 officers in about as many patrol cars regrouping to hear senior officers congratulate them for a job well done. There is no question that their rapid response helped prevent more violence.

Had it been covered by the media, the riot might have once again focused attention on the problem of rioting, murders, fighting and traffic jams associated with the vast increase in new liquor licenses in Hollywood that occurred during the tenure of Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg on the Los Angeles City Council.

More than 5,000 arrests for alcohol-related crimes -- including drunk driving, drunkenness in public and drunk and disorderly counts -- were made in Hollywood in 1999, the last year police made such figures available. Although I am a contributor to and often a supporter of Jackie, I do not support her liberal stance on alcoholic beverage licenses, and will work against the oversaturation of liquor permits that now exists if I am elected to the Hollywood City Council.

As a community leader, I dealt with such riots forcefully by calling press conferences and demanding quick action from city officials. As a result, after a series of riots under earlier management I was able to get the Hollywood Palladium briefly closed down in 1993, its management changed and its tattered insides completely refurbished. I also got the La Iguerita sports bar on Yucca Street closed down after four people were shot there one night, and the Triangle Liquor Store at Cahuenga and Franklin closed down when its owner began providing prostitutes to patrons in trailers parked on the property. I also closed down the infamous M/B Club, a "man-boy" sex club that operated on Melrose Blvd. near the 101 Freeway for 25 years without a liquor license despite having a bar that dispensed beer and wine for sale.

I only learned of the M/B Club after a lawyer asked me to investigate the case of an 83-year-old patron who successfully sued the owners when he fell down a flight of stairs while watching a sex act and broke his hip. Rather than call police and alert them to their presence, the club tied the man to a chair, put him in the back of a pickup truck and drove him home, where he stayed for three days before calling paramedics.

Sgt. Hees, however, pointed out that the problem at the Coconut Teaszer, which generally has had a good rapport with the police department, did not stem from it operators but from the patrons who came there Friday night. In fact, I have found them to be reputable operators in the past when I sponsored a draft committee benefit for U.S. Senator John F. Kerry there in 1986, headlined by John Doe of X.