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Ex-Daily News editor (and future candidate?) Ron Kaye is encouraging readers of his politics blog to bring their trash to City Hall on July 14. Bastille Day — get it? He calls it his Saving L.A. Project, or SLAP, "a movement that will bring together people who love L.A. and want to see change...It is the start of something big." Well, we'll see. The masses in L.A. haven't been mad enough to throw out many incumbent councilmembers, they rejected Kaye's secession dreams for the Valley, and the great majority don't even bother to vote in local elections. The SLAP website takes a fairly narrow view of what ails L.A. — "our schools are failing, our streets are third-world, our communities are under siege and our leadership offer false dichotomies and a commitment to mediocrity" — but if Kaye and his AM radio pals draw 10,000 to the City Hall steps the media will have to take notice. Jewish Journal editor Rob Eshman buys in, with one foot anyway, in a column that blames "famously lethargic" Angelenos and failed leadership: "I love Los Angeles, but let's face facts: We're fast becoming a second-rate city."
Add Kaye: He tapped Doug Dowie, the convicted former Fleishman-Hillard insider, to drum up support. Unlike the government and the jury, Kaye blames Dowie's crimes on underlings. (Dowie's 42-month federal sentence is stayed pending appeal.)
Second add: Kaye didn't care for my Los Angeles mag story about David Nahai, written before the controversy arose over the DWP chief's personal water bills. That's fair, Kaye and I disagree about more than we agree on.