The General Plan draft projects more intense development on “the transit corridors,” those commercial streets that are currently served by major bus routes, yet Metro (MTA) is a County agency with a budget and will all its own.

Metro is also facing an historic operating deficit - $250 million in the fiscal year starting July 1, 2010 - and recently raised its rates.

More than 500 Metro jobs are being eliminated as well as steep cuts in administrative overhead and other expenses.... [full story]

Plummer Park is turning into an intolerant replica of Moscow’s Gorky Park and I, for one, resent it.

I am not referring to the valuable services rendered by social services within the community center building where classes, lectures for seniors and teens are perhaps the most useful parts of West Hollywood’s social services efforts.

I am referring to the literal takeover of the outdoors by Russian men of dubious character.... [full story]

It had always been conventional wisdom that local municipalities were the best custodians of tax payer dollars.

Last year, West Hollywood Council members called a press conference to demand that the California legislature not cut any funding to cities, asserting that municipalities could not bear any diminution in revenues.

Still the growth of West Hollywood city government deserves more scrutiny. It’s not just that we have the salary costs. It’s the pension costs that are going to overwhelm…... [full story]

We are in a period of drought during which the Metropolitan Water District ("MWD") has already mandated water supply and use reductions.

The draft General Plan states, “the City may adopt or modify height or density bonuses in the future to further [its] goals and policies...”

Additionally, the “planned increase in dwelling units, population, and nonresidential building water supply and water pressure for fire flow [needs]… could strain water supply sources.”... [full story]

My first reaction to hearing of the so-called 'Ground Zero Mosque' controversy was to wonder aloud, “What kind of a country have we become?”

I recalled, then, that Eugene O’Neill wrote “We fought so hard against the small things that we have become small ourselves.”

Then I heard Mayor Bloomberg of New York City give an exquisite speech from Governors Island in New York harbor with the Statue of Liberty in the background, looking over his shoulder.... [full story]

All this to-do about “gay” marriage and the fact that the redneck nation (the ones who believe Gold created the world in six days and created Adam and Eve and not Adam and Steve) firmly believe that a marriage is between a man and a woman got me to thinking.

Who invented marriage, anyway? Who decided that there had to be a ceremony in front of an altar with a priest taking time out fondling choir boys to twirl a censor and mumble a few appropriate psalms?... [full story]

In May, 2000, the West Hollywood City Council chose Arevalo (who was already a city employee) to be its city manager. They agreed to pay him $10,833.33 a month -- $130,000 a year -- to do that job, with annual merit raises of up to 7 percent.

In December of 2008, the council amended Mr. Arevalo's contract for a third time, raising his salary to $21,486.42 a month -- $257,837.04 a year. With later annual raises, Arevalo now makes a base salary of $285,496.... [full story]

No one is immune from scrutiny – nor innuendo.

False claims and planted “anonymous tips” to news outlets which back the Old Boy pols are beginning to surface.

Our own councilmember, Jeff Prang, is the victim of an anonymous claim of impropriety. ... [full story]