Give city hall a good S.L.A.P.
Annoyed with the high density housing being forced into our community and the increasing traffic gridlock? Tired of streets and sidewalks in disrepair or double digit increases in water rates while the DWP admits that it has hundreds of millions of excess dollars! Is your personal checking account getting raided by the city, time after time with back to back increases in trash collection fees?
Tired of elected officials failing to respect the needs of our community and treating you with respect?
Here is your opportunity to give City Hall a good S.L.A.P!
Ron Kaye, former editor of the Daily News is organizing something big that all of us could rally around.
At noon Monday, July 14, Bastille Day, We, the people who care about the future of Los Angeles, are coming together on the South Lawn of City Hall to protest the failure of our elected officials respect the needs of our communities and treat us with respect.
This is actually much more than a protest. It is the launching of our concerned citizens coalition that is intended to bring neighborhood councils, service clubs, residents groups, business groups, churches and activists of all types together. Our plan is to form a third force in L.A. politics that will have a unified seat at the table of power with the unions and the developers-contractors-lobbyists. We all have different neighborhood issues and we might not always agree on everything our city, as a whole, needs. But, we can support each other in our individual goals. We can spark public conversation that will lead to faster progress in solving our problems in order to help create a greater L.A.
The operating name of the group is the “Saving L.A. Project” or S.L.A.P. and the theme protest is “Take Back Los Angeles — Demand A Great City.” I’ve been writing extensively about local politics, and the July 14 rally, ever since I retired two months ago as Editor of the Daily News. I have since met with dozens of community groups and I have learned a lot that has better informed my own views about what’s wrong with the way City Hall operates, and more importantly, how we fix it.
Thousands of people all over L.A., like you, have worked long and hard for years to make our neighborhoods better. I believe what’s needed is for all our groups to unite and develop an agenda for a great L.A., to bring the Spirit of L.A. back to life, a city with healthy neighborhoods, good schools, safer streets and less congestion. Our Neighborhood Councils are vital in achieving this.
During our rally we plan to put forward a “Contract for a Great Los Angeles,” that challenges our officials to sign and commit themselves to a new way of doing business. We need your ideas for this!. We need your participation! We need the biggest crowd we can muster to send City Hall a message! A message that we are serious and we are going to go forward to build an organization that will change the politics of our city and offer hope to our apathetic, alienated and defeated residents.
The future of L.A. is in our hands! We have set up an email address for your responses. Please let us know if you want our printed flyers, if buses or other transportation is needed and what ideals you feel we need to emphasize, during our protest and in our future.
This is the first step in bringing real democracy to L.A., to truly empower our community, to make a difference in our lives now, and in our children’s lives in the future. I hope you will take a look at what I’ve been writing regarding our city on my blog, ronkayeLA.com. Please give me the feedback I need to help me understand what you see. I want to better articulate the frustration and desires of our people, who have already stepped forward and worked hard to make L.A. better.
Please share this information and the attached flyer with all members of your organizations. I would also appreciate it if you would post the flyer wherever it is appropriate. I am looking forward to hearing from you as soon as possible. For further information, and to respond, visit: www.ronkayela.com
Join the movement to save L.A.Sign up now.
Ron Kaye is the former editor of the Los Angeles Daily News where he spent 23 years helping to make the newspaper the voice of the San Fernando Valley and fighting for a city government that serves the people and not special interests.
However, a rather large shift took place right away when an exploratory committee was formed by the LMU/iDivision consisting of 16 people. 14 of them were affiliated with the LAUSD and only 2 were from the community.
H. David Nahai, the General Manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is right up there in the stratosphere of water wasters. After being 
Today there were a pair of articles in the Los Angeles Times articles on education written by Mitchell Landsberg that were exceptional!
Shouldn’t the Metropolitan Transportation Authority be just dealing with transportation?
The story begins when fellow team mates, Tom Lieb and Knute Rockne, played football together at Note Dame, in South Bend, IN. Rockne would go on as head coach of the Notre Dame “Ramblers” (they were known up until the 20’s as the “Notre Dame Catholics,” and did not adopt the “Fighting Irish” moniker until ’27), and Lieb was an assistant coach- ”LIEB TO ASSIST ROCKNE.; Former Football and Track Star Signs Notre Dame Contract, August 1, 1924,” Notre Dame Archives. When Rockne was ill and in a wheelchair, incapacitated with thrombosis, Lieb head-coached the 1929 Irish.

So apparently with Rockne’s death (or before?), Lieb was offered and accepted the head coach position. One need only imagine what kind of a powerhouse Loyola might have become, if Rockne had indeed accepted the post and lived to coach in Westchester. Although, Lieb did have a good coaching record, and was responsible for bring NCAA hockey to the school.
Ten years later, in March 1940, in a final interesting twist, filming began on the movie: “Knute Rockne-All American,”-starring Ronald Regan as George Gipp, and Pat O’Brien as Rockne.