Forget that. Forbes did a story last year about the lawsuit filed against Casden by his own brother. That guy, Rishawn Riddle (or is it Tittle or something) did that story. Here's the link at www.forbes.com/forbes/2002/1014/050_print.html. But yeah, anyone who's been following Vincent knows that he's little more than a third-rate hack whose lucky the local biz journal doesn't steal any more scoops from under his nose.

I guess "third rate hack" is a judgment call. I've never had any problems with his reporting. But tell us, what scoops on his beat (whatever it is) have been stolen out from under his nose?

So Mack would wait until City Hall--or City News Service--announces Casden's plans for Chavez Ravine?

Why not say thanks for getting the word out early? What's wrong with triggering some discussion? Let the sharpshooters whack any trial balloons as they drift over our resurrected 1st Stage Alerts.

But is Mack the real hack here?

I love what Rip does. But why would he rip somebody who actually bothers to report an LA developer's proposal before escrow closes?

The old Daily News wouldn't have. Rip's newer Daily News wouldn't have, either.

Hmmmm...wasn't Vincent the first to disclose that the "Dragnet"-sanctified, neo-modern architectural landmark Parker Center was falling apart and the bigs inside were talking about vacating?

That didn't come out of City Hall, CNS or any of the local cop-shop reporters.

Now there's an early-enough-to-do-some-good debate about where the interim LAPD HQ should go.

Thanks to Vincent.

I think Rense is Right on this one. There are plenty of experts around who could have been drawn in to discuss this idea, and people associated with the Dodgers are only one variety of them. Also, there is always a high cringe factor attendant to a complete pie-in-the-sky development article. Developers are linear thinkers but also riverboat gamblers, far from entirely stable people--acting alone, in fact, before they get sensibly bloodied by other city stakeholders, they can easily come off as gadflies, no matter how powerful or monied. Articles about their incunabula-phase fantasies, if not balanced by the thoughts of other potential stakeholders, do indeed look like press releases; sometimes, the scribe gets too awestruck by proximity to topfloor money and pricey eye-candy to drum up necessary counterweights to make for responsible reporting.

Scoops? For one, Roger missed out on the news about Merv Griffin's sale of the Beverly Hilton (he did manage to get the news that the sale was aborted though.) Then he missed out on the news that the guys behind the Sunset Millennium project in WeHo got the owner of the Fairmont Miramar Hotel to buy two hotels the developer is building on the property. Bot were reported first by the biz journal.

Then he got scooped by a whole slew of people, including the Real Estate Alert trade rag, about the Picerne group's deal for Arco Center, and after that, the deal to ultimately sell the buildings to Rob Maguire's old partner.

This is just three in the past year. In reference to the Arco story, Roger also didn't bother looking closer into Ken Picerne, the guy who orchestrated that deal. A national magazine, Forbes, also did that and turned up dirt about him. Of course, there's also the Casden brothers feud, which no one at the times bothered to report about and still haven't mentioned.

Is Roger a third-rate hack? Yes he is.

Do you know that those stories are on his beat? He's one of about 30 business reporters in L.A.

If you never get scooped, then you're not competing ...
This is an interesting discussion because some of the points mentioned above explain why the real estate-development beat is a tough one .... When is a proposal a project, and not just some developer's fantasy? When somebody starts a negotiation? When they meet with staff at City Hall? When the consultant is hired? When the editor can dress up the page with architect renderings? There's no real answer to this question, obviously. As for Casden and Dodger Stadium: OK, so the first story didn't cover the full scope of reaction from all the stakeholders ... but it got the story out, and the reaction could follow. So what do we have here: Some people are kicking Mr. Vincent for getting scooped in the past -- and this in response to a comment about him being a developer's flak when he breaks news. It's a tough biz, huh?

Perhaps the Raven is right. If you don't get scooped every now and then, you're not competing. But Vincent is the only commercial real estate guy at the Times--Jesus Sanchez who used to cover the beat, now does residential pieces. So Vincent should be a presence. But he only seems to appear when some developer puts out a press release instead of actually ferreting out news. Those stories listed above were all commercial real estate deals--and other guys got it.

Sure, real estate is a tough beat. But they all are and a reporter should at least be in the mix. From what any of us in real estate can see, Roger isn't--unless we're issuing a release.