Planning Candidates in GSA Elections - CONGRATS!

As many of you are aware, there were two Planners in last week's GSA elections, along with 7 other candidates vieing for the leadership roles in our oft-unnoticed by potentially influential student government.  Those two Planners, 2nd Year MA students Luis Limon and Cheye-Ann Corona were victorious, along with the rest of their Public Education Party, sweeping out the old administration and bringing in a full slate of new leadership.  BruinPlanners wishes them good luck in the coming year - though for Shoup's sake, perhaps they'll find a way to cash-out of the GSA OFFICER FREE PARKING.

For full results, including what happened to the referenda items and the numeric breakdown, click below for the rest of this story.

East Los Angeles One Step Closer to Cityhood

Repost from laist:   

East Los Angeles has made one step further in its goal of becoming an incorporated city after a critical bill was passed by a 7-2 vote yesterday by the California Senate Appropriations Committee.

The bill, AB 711, co-authored by Assembly Majority Leader Charles Calderon (D-East Los Angeles) and Senator Gloria Romero (D - East Los Angeles) will authorize a loan of $45,000 from the California Main Street Program, which will go towards the $135,000 needed for the mandatory Comprehensive Fiscal Analysis. Supporters of cityhood in East L.A. have already raised the rest.

Calderon says yesterday's passage of the bill in the Committee means that cityhood for the community is closer than it has ever been in the last fifty years since the movement began. Adds Romero: Cityhood has been a long time coming for East Los Angeles and this study is critical to moving forward. East Los Angeles is recognized across the United States as the corazon of the Latino community. It's time for it to have the power to determine its own future."

*as a reminder, student work from the East LA Design Studio is posted here

these photos were taken during one of our site visits for that studio.

Graduate Student Association Elections

At stake in this week's Graduate Student Elections:

- A GSA budget of roughly $900,000 annually

- Substantial administrative and planning influence

- All winning officers are paid a salary of $600/month out of our student fees, plus FREE PARKING (oh no!)

Please vote using http://my.ucla.edu. As an individual, I am supporting PEP, the Public Education Party, which includes two of our very own MA students: Luis and Cheye-Ann. Learn why myself and countless others are taking 3 minutes out of our day to vote for PEP by viewing this introductory video:

For information on all of the candidates, links to their websites, and info on the freebies you can win by participating, read more after the jump...

CD2 releases neat Google Map mashup of repaved streets

View Streets Resurfaced in CD2 - FY 2009-10 in a larger map
Check out Councilmember Paul Krekorian's latest "Gov 2.0" deliverable, thanks to Zach Behrens at LAist: a custom Google Map which shows allll of the streets which have been repaved during FY09-10 and their funding sources (Map of the Day: What Streets Have Been Repaved So Far This Year? - LAist).

The map is embeddable (see above) and you can download the KML file to fiddle with in Google Earth or in ArcView GIS.

Live Blog: Social Sciences Council Meeting

There are three meetings of the Social Sciences Council per quarter, and today wraps up the the last of Winter Quarter.  SSC represents the 16 Social Sciences Departments (including all 3 departments in the School of Public Affairs).  After the link you'll find all pertinent information covered at the meeting.

LA City to Eliminate Neighborhood Council Budgets?

LA CAO Miguel Santana will propose the total elimination of neighborhood council budget allocations (plus the sweeping of all rollover funds in council budgets) tomorrow, February 1st at 1pm at the City Council Budget and Finance Committee Council Chamber. Room 340, City Hall. If you can't make the meeting, email the members of this committee to share your opinion:

Councilmember Bernard C. Parks, Chair COUNCILMEMBER.PARKS@LACITY.ORG
Councilmember Greig Smith COUNCILMEMBER.SMITH@LACITY.ORG

Councilmember Bill Rosendahl COUNCILMAN.ROSENDAHL@LACITY.ORG

Councilmember José Huizar COUNCILMEMBER.HUIZAR@LACITY.ORG
Councilmember Paul Koretz PAUL.KORETZ@LACITY.ORG

and copy the Mayor MAYOR@LACITY.ORG

From Budget LA Press Release:

Neighborhood Council Representatives
Deliver Statement to City Hall
"Honor the City Charter!"

LOS ANGELES – Neighborhood Council representatives from throughout the city are headed to City Hall to call on the Mayor and the City Council to honor the City Charter which established the neighborhood council system and which mandates appropriate funding. They take with them a BudgetLA Statement that says "At this time of financial crisis for the City, the solutions require a partnership between the elected officials at City Hall and the elected representatives of our 90 neighborhood councils."
Neighborhood Councils exist to advise the Mayor and the City Council on City Budget priorities, to monitor the delivery of services, and to involve the community in the governance of the City of Los Angeles. The Charter goes so far as to call for periodic meetings with responsible officials of City departments.
As the CAO's "City Restructuring Proposals" are considered by the Budget and Finance Committee on Monday afternoon, Neighborhood Council leaders will stand in defense of the neighborhood council system and will position the NC system as a Funding Solution, a Communication Solution, and as a Community Building Solution. Ultimately, the NC system is an ASSET, not a LIABILITY, and it is protected by the City Charter. To that end, neighborhood councils stand as partners with the Mayor, the City Council, and the City Staff in working together for "An LA that Works!"
BudgetLA has hosted two emergency workshops which have drawn 110 different members from 47 different neighborhood councils, all focused on working together to take on bankruptcy, pensions, the delivery of city services and the reorganization of the city system. The BudgetLA position starts with two basic premises, that "everything is on the table and must be considered as we work together to solve the budget crisis, and that neighborhood councils must be at that table as partners in the process.
The NC reps have taken a full-spectrum approach to the budget crisis and believe that it is essential that the community engage with our elected officials as well as city staff to pursue Revenue innovations along with Pension reform while maintaining prioritized delivery of City Services and the implementation of Organizational improvements, all of which work together to guarantee that Los Angeles take its place as a Great City.
This past Saturday, BudgetLA opened with Alex Rubalcava who addressed LA's future on "The Road to Bankruptcy." It also featured Department of Neighborhood Empowerment's GM, BongHwan Kim and his "Vision for Neighborhood Councils" presentation. Visit CityWatchLA for a details on Saturday's BudgetLA workshop. BudgetLA will meet again on Saturday, February 13 and on Saturday, February 27 at Hollywood City Hall. Both BudgetLA sessions will start at 10:00 am.

Press Conference
Monday, February 1, 2010 12:30 pm
City Hall Rotunda
200 Main Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Budget & Finance Committee
Monday, February 1, 2010 1:00 pm
City Council Chambers
200 Main Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Westwood Neighborhood Council formation meeting, 9/24

Pre-Certification Meeting, to discuss formation and present bylaws of the Westwood Neighborhood Council ("WWNC")

Thursday evening, September 24th
6:30 pm

Westwood Presbyterian Church
10822 Wilshire Blvd.
(just east of the Avco Cinemas)

Bylaws and other information are now available online:
http://www.westwoodnc.org/

Comments or corrections can be sent to bylaws@westwoodnc.org
Please enter the church parking lot from Ashton Ave. and park in the south parking lot.
We look forward to seeing you there!