Downtown Los Angeles gets new Chrysler car dealership

November 16, 2010 By 2 Comments


Listen to the audio story:

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Los Angeles is the capital of the car world. The city is perhaps trying to be the car buying capital of the world. The Chrysler Group unveiled ambitious plans for its newest dealership, called Motor Village of Los Angeles. The dealership will be located on South Figueroa Street, just blocks from the Los Angeles Convention Center, the Staples Center and LA Live.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa supported the move, saying the presence of the auto dealership will be essential to the city’s economic comeback. It will create jobs and raise tax revenue. The mayor also announced a new partnership with the Los Angeles Federal Credit Union. Under the partnership, customers can get car loans with rates as low as 2 percent.

This partnership is a part of the city’s yearlong campaign called Shop LA, aimed at encouraging Angelenos to spend within the city. The dealership’s jewel will be its five-story glass tower, which will display Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram Truck and Fiat vehicles. It will open for business early next year.

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Target comes to downtown Los Angeles in 2012

November 4, 2010 By 1 Comment


By: Kyle Tabuena-Folli, Laurel Galanter and Stephanie Sherman

Listen to the audio story:

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Read the audio script:

By 2012, locals can get everything from food to fashion at the new Target store in the 7th and Fig shopping center downtown. That is where Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa held a news conference to announce what he says is the biggest retail deal downtown has had in 20 years.

Villaraigosa: There’s no question about this. This is a reversal of a long trend of retail leaving downtown. This is a great day for downtown Los Angeles, for people who live here and work here as well.

The store will be more than 100,000 square feet. The lease is signed with Brookfield Properties. Representatives from Target say there will be a heavy emphasis on food and household products.

Some workers downtown say they are thrilled with the prospect of more shopping.

Worker: 7th and Fig, it needs that. It needs it because it’s dying. Little by little, all of these businesses are going away. There’s no traffic, there’s really nothing going on there, so I’m sure it will bring the shopping center back.

The shopping center has been without a major retailer since Macy’s left early last year.

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Democratic politicians attend labor rally

November 2, 2010 By 1 Comment


Listen to the audio story:

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Despite the background music, there was not much running going on at this get-out-the-vote labor rally. While democrats elsewhere are scrambling, in Los Angeles, they seemed ready to celebrate.

John Chiang: We are seven hours and 23 minutes from a huge victory. I count the minutes, and I am a math man.

That is democratic State Controller John Chiang, who is expected to win re-election.

Other candidates there included United States Congress hopeful Karen Bass and incumbents Xavier Becerra and Lucille Roybal-Allard.

Few of them face more than token opposition, either. Los Angeles County democrats have nearly a 30-point lead in registration over republicans. That lack of competitive races in Los Angeles poses a challenge: getting voters excited for a midterm election.

Chiang says that is crucial.

Chiang: We need help from the top to the bottom of the ticket because every single elected official makes a difference.

United States Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis also sounded optimistic. But the former Los Angeles Congresswoman called on the crowd to boost the turnout in California.

Solis: Today’s a special day. We’re going to change the course of California. And I just got word from back East, from some of our friends, that the voter turnout is surprisingly high in the Northeast. So please understand, if they can do it, you can do it.

Antonio Villaraigosa: I can tell you that at my own polling place, it looked like people were coming in greater numbers than you might expect. My hope is that people do go out and vote because this election matters.

But the Los Angeles mayor and other Los Angeles democrats have focused their attention largely on other races.

Villaraigosa and Bass have campaigned for more vulnerable democrats in other states, including Colorado, Kansas and Mississippi.

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Changing how teachers make the grade

September 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment


The Los Angeles Unified School Board voted unanimously Wednesday to reform teacher evaluations.

The district will now begin negotiating with members of the teachers’ and administrators’ unions.

All sides agree that the current method of grading teachers needs work, but controversy remains over how to measure something as complicated as good teaching.

“It would be very difficult to design a worse system than we have currently,” says Gabe Rose, the deputy director of a Los Angeles parents’ union. He said valuations are not based on fact.

“The current system uses data for zero percent of evaluation,” he said. “It completely ignores and throws out all the data that Los Angeles Unified School District collects.”

That data, called “value added,” measures how much students’ test scores improve over the year.

But the teachers’ union and other groups worry that such numbers do not tell the whole story.

David Tokofsky, a former teacher and board member who represents the administrators’ union, said the tests ignore all subjects except English and math. He also said the tests might miss other parts of teaching.

“The excitement aspect, you can’t measure that as smiles per minute, but you certainly can measure whether or not a child is feeling competent enough,” he said.

South Los Angeles parent Rob McGowan agreed.

“Just like parents don’t want to be seen in a negative light over one thing, or one aspect, of what’s happening with their kids out of context, I think the same holds true for teachers,” he said.

School district officials agree that testing should not be the only metric used. They said most of the debate going forward will be about how large a part those test scores should play.

“What you’re going to see is a discussion around how much weight does each of these multiple measures get, and how do you do the specific formulas,” said Drew Furedi, a policy expert for the district. “And I think that’s to be discussed.”

Furedi did not know how long those negotiations would take.

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Low income schools search for gifted students

May 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment


Some Los Angeles schools have put a new emphasis on finding gifted students, especially those who are minority or from low income families, Los Angeles Watts Times reported.

The Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, a non-profit organization, launched the initiative. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa oversees the program. Last year, about four city schools began testing almost every second grader for exceptional abilities.

The search turned up Emariye Louden, a student at 99th Street Elementary School. Since he could speak, he has been debating subjects with his mother. He also knew a number of birth dates, phone numbers and words by the age of 4.

But in 2008, the district determined there were no other gifted students at his school. The school is 75 percent Hispanic and 25 percent black. About half of the students do not know much English, and almost all of the students are from low income families.

The purpose of the partnership is to give students the attention they need. The program will also demonstrate that neglected schools have extraordinary students.

“It has allowed us to ramp up our expectations for children,” Angela Bass, the non-profit’s superintendent of instruction, said. “We’ve missed the fact that our children are really talented. We need to make sure our teachers know that, our parents know that and our students know they are gifted.”

Gifted students will participate in additional activities in their classrooms, receive bigger campus projects and partake in discussions with scientists. Some will also go on field trips to museums.

“In the second grade, Emariye now has something not everybody has,” Tynesha Warren, Emariye’s mother, said. “And it is going to follow him for the rest of his life. It could expand his life and open doors. It gives him the opportunity to be noticed.”

Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines said racism is one reason most Latino and black students have gone unnoticed. However, Cortines also believes the district focuses its efforts on middle-class white and Asian students who are possibly more likely to leave the district for a better one, or for a private school.

In the district, white and Asian students make up 12 percent of students enrolled, but about 39 percent of students designated as gifted.

If a student is designated as gifted, his or her school does not receive any additional funding.

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Local cities fall behind in 2010 Census

April 2, 2010 By 2 Comments


Everyone said it would take 10 minutes to fill out the 2010 Census.

Karen Rubin, an opinion writer for Long Island Populist Examiner, said “everyone lied.”

“It took two minutes, maybe three,” Rubin said.

John McDonald, mayor of Cohoes, said this year’s form is much simpler and much shorter than the form he filled out 10 years ago.

“I finished it from beginning to end in eight minutes, and I did not rush to fill it out,” McDonald said. “The form is what they promise – simple, safe and secure.”

But despite the short, 10-question form, some California cities, including Compton and Inglewood, are behind the rest of the country in returning forms.

While 52 percent of households nationally have mailed back their forms, only 40 percent of Compton households and 39 percent of Inglewood households have returned their forms.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa attempted to motivate these Angelenos to stand up and participate in this once-in-a-decade event.

“I am calling on a little friendly competition between cities, [where] the prize will be funding for services and projects that will benefit your community for generations to come,” Villaraigosa said. “We need to show these other cities once and for all that Los Angeles is the greatest city in the world, with residents who represent the most civic pride.”

In 2000, more than 76,000 Angelenos went uncounted. Villaraigosa’s blog lists that number as “the second highest undercount in the nation, resulting in a loss of about $206 million in state and federal funding for local services and programs.”

What do you think?

Is it the city’s responsibility to make sure all of its residents do not go uncounted? Or is it the resident’s responsibility to stay informed? What should be done to make sure residents understand the importance of this event?

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Students rally against education budget cuts at Cal State Los Angeles

March 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment


Students gather for a Day of Action on the Cal State Los Angeles campus today, to protest the $283 million budget cuts to California education. Amanda Herman was there and filed this report:

“Make some noise if you’re tired of these budget cuts!” protesters yelled on the Cal State Los Angeles earlier today.

Dozens of students gathered at Cal State L.A. today, wielding signs and demanding the government reconsider the $283 million dollar budget cut to education.

Jose, who did not want to give his last name, is a fifth year theater student.

“People should start taking more action and not ignoring things, because if they start ignoring it won’t go away,” he said.

This state side Day of Action hopes to draw attention to the severe budget cuts affecting all of the Cal State Universities. As public universities, they have been forced to cancel classes, order furloughs, and increase student fees. The Cal State system usually enrolls 450,000 thousand students, but incoming student enrollment for this year has been cut by 10,000 students.

Mabel is working towards her masters degree in political science. She says the packed classrooms and limited choice of classes are not worth the increased tuition rates.

“We’re being punished by the budget cuts. I applied on time, I got my classes, then they were canceled. So I had to pay,” Mabel said. “The quality of education is suffering, the professors are suffering, the students are suffering, and no one seems to care.”

Students are faculty members are showing a united front against the cuts. Even the campus security officials monitoring the rally are being forced to take furlough days.

Until changes in the budget are made, students say they do not plan on giving up the fight. Joan Anagosa is a third year social works student.

“March 4th is not the solution to the budget cuts. It’s the start to what as a nation we can create and awareness to the government about how we are being affecting as students,” Joan said.

Cal State Los Angeles students continue their protests all across campus, some planning to march to the governors office in downtown Los Angeles.

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Bill to help homeowners avoid foreclosure

October 13, 2009 By Leave a Comment


California Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and other assembly leaders joined Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in Los Angeles on Tuesday to push a bill that would help homeowners avoid foreclosure. The Monitored Mortgage Workout Program would force banks to meet with borrowers and a state-appointed mediator before foreclosing homes. Hear an audio report by Ariel Edwards Levy of Annenberg Radio News.

Around the Capitol Report on AB 1588

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