LA Observed

Morning Buzz: Friday 5.24.13

2013-05-24T16:47:04Z

Top of the news

A bridge on Interstate 5 north of Seattle failed and dropped cars and people into the Skagit River. LAT

The northbound 405 freeway was mostly closed this morning after a crash near Montana Avenue involving a big rig that spilled diesel fuel on the freeway. Ramps at Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards are closed, along with the connector from the westbound Santa Monica Freeway to the northbound 405.

Politics and government

Some of the most powerful labor organizations in Los Angeles placed huge bets on mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel that went bust. But Tuesday's electoral setbacks do not immediately alter the basic political architecture at Los Angeles City Hall, where the majority of officeholders, including Mayor-elect Eric Garcetti, maintain strong ties to organized labor. LAT

Garcetti will come into office "without the level of trust among the City Hall power brokers that his opponent would have enjoyed. That means he could be in for a difficult first six months in office, as various City Hall players try to see how much they can push him around." LA Weekly

Greuel's defeat demonstrates that independent campaign committees have become toxic for candidates, argues former political consultant Jack McGrath. DN Op-ed

Villaraigosa, Garcetti pledge smooth transition in mayor's office. LAT

The City Council approved Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's final $7.7-billion budget, including a reserve to pay for a 5.5% raise for many city employees. LAT, DN, KPCC

The city of Bell may be on the bring of a new fiscal crisis. LAT

Media and books

Jeffrey Johnson, one of the Los Angeles Times publishers who lost his job in 2006 during the turbulence of the Tribune newsroom-cutting era, was named publisher of the San Francisco Chronicle. SF Gate, All Things D

A few dozen activists opposed to a hypothetical sale of Tribune Company to the Koch brothers marched to the Beverly Hills home of Tribune chairman Bruce Karsh. Hollywood Reporter

Richard Kipling, the managing editor of the CHCF Center for Health Reporting based at USC Annenberg, will succeed David Westphal as editor-in-chief.

Reporter Bryan Schatz buys and assembles a "legal and totally untraceable AK-47" in the Los Angeles area. Mother Jones

LA Times reporter Nicole Santa Cruz tweeted she's now working on the LAT's Homicide Report blog "covering all things homicide. Tips? Ideas?"

The Orange County locations of "Arrested Development." OC Weekly

Los Angeles bureau chief Adam Nagourney reviews the Bel-Air Hotel for the New York Times Travel section.

A low-level judge in Iowa told a newspaper reporter he could not take notes during a trial because jurors might be influenced seeing what he chose to write down. What barn did this guy crawl out of? Romenesko

More news, notes and observations

A magnitude 5.7 earthquake in mountainous Plumas County last night was felt widely across interior Northern California and in Reno. Lots of "I felt it too!" activity on social media but no news. The aftershock flurry has included two at 4.0 or above. SCEDC

KPCC has done a three-part series about the LAPD's use helicopters, plus 13 facts about the LAPD's annoying choppers. KPCC, Curbed LA

Heal the Bay rated the water quality at 84 percent of Los Angeles County beaches as As or Bs. DN, KPCC

The French Garden will close today after 15 years in the Arts District. LA Weekly

Jerry's Deli on Beverly Boulevard has closed. Eater LA

The city of West Hollywood advised residents that coyote sightings are on the increase.

Santa Cruz Island foxes back from the brink of extinction. KPCC

Flynn Robinson, a flashy guard who was a member of the 1971-72 Lakers team that brought Los Angeles its first NBA title, died Thursday at Keck Hospital. He was 72. LAT

The Kings beat the Sharks 3-0 and now lead the Stanley Cup playoffs second-round series 3-2, with a possible clincher on Sunday in San Jose.

Lee Melville, founding editor of LA Stage Times, dies

2013-05-24T03:55:43Z

Lee Melville was the founding editor of the theater news website LA Stage Times and its print predecessor, LA Stage. He has died according to a story on the site. Terence McFarland, the CEO of publisher the LA Stage Alliance, posted a statement.

"I am deeply saddened by Lee Melville’s passing. He was the most extraordinary advocate Los Angeles theater has known. The entire community owes a debt of gratitude to Lee and his work on our behalf. I will miss most his post-show lean-in, followed by “What did you think?” with that smirk of his mischievous eyes. Thank you, Lee, for a life well spent in the theater. You will be truly missed.”

The actor, director and journalist Steve Julian interviewed Melville for the website two years ago. Excerpt:

When Lee Melville smiles, his eyes beat him to it.

The editor-in-chief of this publication, LA STAGE Times, smiles frequently as he reminisces over his 50-year career in theater: actor, stage manager, producer, critic, editor. His outstanding contributions to theater, principally in Los Angeles, prompted Playwrights’ Arena artistic director Jon Lawrence Rivera this year to rename the company’s prestigious award after Melville....

McFarland calls Melville “a huge resource for me since I was brand new to this community. Lee is our living archive of Los Angeles theater knowledge — fact, innuendo and scandal!”

[skip]

While Melville may be one to hold his tongue with innuendo and scandal, history shows him capable of writing scathing reviews. “I was harsh. I know I was,” he says. “I stopped reviewing in 1989 and, over 20 years later, people still come up to me and say I gave them a horrible review. Sometimes they even quote it!...”

He laments, “Reviewing is a thankless job. The trouble with reviewing is if you’re going to be honest then you’re going to have to be somewhat brutal. You try to finesse it the best you can, but…”

In the 1970s Melville began a 12-year run as editor-in-chief of Drama-Logue.

Photo of Melville: Michael Lamont

Metro board approves full funding for a Leimert Park underground station

2013-05-23T21:05:59Z

You'll remember that Metro's position on the Crenshaw rail line station at Leimert Park Village was that it was desirable, but not fundable. Today the agency's board decided to find the money. Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas brought the motion to the Metro board with co-signers that included Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Supervisor Mike Antonovich, the current chair of the Metro board. From Metro's blog The Source:

Stations at Leimert Park Village and at Hindry and Florence avenues near Westchester for the Crenshaw/LAX Line light rail project were funded today by the Metro Board of Directors, ending a two-year long controversy over whether the stops would be built.

The vote was 10 to 1. The motion by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas included five other co-signers — including Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Supervisor/Metro Board Chair Mike Antonovich — meaning supporters only needed to drum up one more vote to secure approval from a majority of the Metro Board.

Voting for were Ridley-Thomas, Villaraigosa, Antonovich, John Fasana, Jose Huizar, Ara Najarian, Pam O'Connor, Don Knabe, Richard Katz and Mel Wilson. The vote against was from Diane DuBois, who expressed concerns about taking reserve fund money from Metro that may be needed later for other purposes.

The Los Angeles City Council voted on Wednesday to use $55 million in Measure R local return money to help build the two stations — $40 million for Leimert Park Village and $15 million for Hindry.

The motion directs Metro to add another $80 million to that from Metro's general fund for the coming year's fiscal budget. The motion says that it will cost up to $120 million to build the undergroud Leimert Park Village station and $15 million for the street-level Hindry station.

The 8.5-mile Crenshaw Line would run between the Expo Line at Crenshaw and Exposition boulevards and the Green Line, just south of Los Angeles International Airport. Current estimated opening is 2019.

LA Observed photo

LA Weekly says job-seeking Villaraigosa will leave office broke

2013-05-23T20:56:50Z

In a story with a lot more anecdote and commentary than actual data or on the record sources, LA Weekly writer Patrick Range McDonald (with "additional reporting" by editor Jill Stewart) mentions some of the job searching that Antonio Villaraigosa has been doing for his after-mayor life. The piece contends that Villaraigosa lives now like a one-percenter — because of the official home in Windsor Square, the LAPD driver and the out-of-state travel — and would need $750,000 a year to keep up his standard of living, but that he has no money coming in after he leaves office. The reporters acknowledge they didn't find out what his income would be from his public pensions as a longtime state legislator and city official. There's no response from Villaraigosa's side on the accuracy of anything offered. Interesting anecdote at the top about Villaraigosa asking Bill O'Reilly at the Vanity Fair Oscar party about an on-air job for him at Fox News Channel, though it appears to be something overheard by a lone bystander who didn't hear O'Reilly's reply. Here's an excerpt of the more real stuff:

Villaraigosa has suggested to friends, civic leaders and neighborhood activists that he's the right choice for a Wall Street firm, a think tank, a university seeking a scholar-in-residence or a publisher looking for a hot new memoirist....
Villaraigosa's years of legally required "statements of economic interests" from 2001 through 2012 verify that, aside from a few thousand dollars he annually collects from a modest rental home he owns in Moreno Valley, he has no revenue streams, no financial investments. No stocks. No bonds. (The Weekly could not determine how much public pension Villaraigosa will collect, or when. Through a spokeswoman, Thomas Moutes, head of the Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System, said LACERS has "no records" regarding this public information.)

Villaraigosa has been paid a total of $1,682,937 as mayor, a serious chunk of which, for the past several years, has gone to his ex-wife and children in alimony and child support. He has risen to the 1 percent, in practice if not in fact, by relying heavily on other people's money. Taxpayers, private groups and foundations have footed huge travel bills, as Villaraigosa spent fully 42 percent of his official city working hours, according to his own calendar, out of town between Sept. 1 and Dec. 16 last year.

[skip]

From Sept. 1 to Dec. 16 [2012], Villaraigosa traveled to 18 destinations, including Charlotte, Houston and San Francisco, and stayed at the luxury Hay-Adams Hotel in Washington, D.C., and the Andaz boutique hotel in New York. He took a 10-day trade mission to South America, where he was photographed at the glitzy Forever 21 fashion show at the upscale Titan Plaza mall in Bogotá, Colombia.

Whether at home or on the road, others were there to cover the mayor's restaurant bills, air travel and hotels. The Willie Brown Jr. Institute paid $1,188 for one of his trips to San Francisco; the Academy of Achievement paid $4,573 for one of his stay-overs in Washington, D.C.; the Center for American Progress paid $2,937 for another of his D.C. visits; and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, of which Villaraigosa served as president from June 2011 to June 2012, spent $34,227 on his "airfare, lodging, ground transportation, plus reasonable and necessary expenses"...

Good-government advocate Bob Stern expects Villaraigosa to be jarred when the flow of gifts, liquor, meals and VIP freebies slows, saying, "It's going to be a real letdown for him in July."

He will leave without a place to live or a car, and as yet with no work lined up that anyone has confirmed. There's talk of a book, a university gig and speaking engagements. The story goes over the speculation that Villaraigosa will run for governor in 2018 or county supervisor in the Yaroslavsky district next year. This morning, Villaraigosa hugged mayor-elect Eric Garcetti for the cameras outside Getty House, but abruptly left without taking questions. That struck reporters and even his press secretary as unusual. Maybe he didn't want any questions about this story, which is getting a lot of airplay from Villaraigosa critics.

One short lane to open on 405 freeway

2013-05-23T13:50:23Z

While the 405 widening project slogs along late and over budget, one nugget of good news if you drive that stretch of freeway. As of Friday, a northbound lane will open for 1.7 miles between the 10 Freeway and Santa Monica Boulevard. All drivers, not only carpoolers, will be allowed to use the lane. More details.

File photo of 405 construction: LA Observed

Campaign 2013 photo gallery by Gary Leonard

2013-05-23T06:48:52Z

Gary took photos throughout the runoff campaign for mayor between Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel. Here is a selection. Click on any of the images to gigantify.

Eric Garcetti surrounded by supporters and media in Echo Park on Wednesday.

Greuel and former mayor Richard Riordan outside The Original Pantry.

Garcetti mobbed while leaving today's appearance in Echo Park.

Greuel with Bill Clinton at Langer's Deli.

Garcetti and Amy Wakeland share a moment on Election Day.

Garcetti and Wakeland vote while the journalists look impatient.

Wendy Greuel rally outside City Hall.

A recent Garcetti rally.

Poll workers in Silver Lake.

Election post-mortem in quotes (some very pointed)

2013-05-23T05:41:45Z

Eric Garcetti surrounded by supporters and media in Echo Park on Wednesday. Photo by Gary Leonard - click to gigantify.

Quotes often tell the story. These are from a variety of sources.

"Enthusiasm — real grassroots enthusiasm — trumps money, trumps endorsements, trumps everything." — Eric Garcetti on his election victory.

“This election was never for sale. People want you to be independent.” — Garcetti today in Echo Park.

"Soy uno de vosotros." — Garcetti. ("I am one of you")

"You showed the daughters, sisters, wives and mothers of Los Angeles that one day we will have a woman mayor of Los Angeles." — Wendy Greuel.

"Eric cares deeply about Los Angeles and he will work tirelessly and be a strong and innovative leader at a critical time in the city’s history." — Greuel to the media.

“They would be so proud... They never would have thought I would run for mayor of Los Angeles.” — Greuel emotionally discussing her late parents.

"In the end, [Greuel] proved unable to carry her home precinct in Studio City." — Michael Finnegan and Ben Welsh, LA Times

"We did much better in her base than she did in ours." — Garcetti strategist Bill Carrick, in the LAT.

"In the Valley, Republicans, especially in the western part of the Valley, deserted her." — Fernando Guerra of Loyola Marymount University, in the Daily News.

"I am flabbergasted; I thought women would really want to see the first woman mayor of LA but somehow that just didn't resonate." — Guerra on Greuel splitting the female vote with Garcetti.

"The most liberal man in the race carried Republicans by a substantial margin. To me, that can all be traced to the DWP, and the perception that was created around the DWP. " — William Wardlaw, chairman of the Riordan and Hahn mayoral campaigns, in the LAT.

"Garcetti may be the most politically progressive mayor Los Angeles has seen in recent history." — Times editorial.

"Voters showed they want something new." — Daily News editorial.

"It was one of the worst run campaigns I've ever seen in my life." — Parke Skelton, Mayor Villaraigosa's former election strategist, on the Greuel campaign to the LA Times.

"Greuel has been a high-profile public servant who believes in Los Angeles and has devoted much of her career to improving it. But boy, did she run a lousy campaign for mayor." — columnist Jim Newton

"Labor gambled and lost." — columnist Steve Lopez

"The potential for [DWP workers] going on strike, or having walkouts or slowdowns, is real. The potential for that happening when it's 110 degrees in the San Fernando Valley is also real." — City Hall lobbyist Steve Afriat, in the LA Times.

"Eric is a true leader who I trust to guide our city into its bright future. I know I am leaving Los Angeles in good hands....Wendy, like Eric, is a dedicated public servant who I've worked with for many years. She has devoted her career to making our city a better place, and I know she'll continue to do so in the future." — Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa

"I think the election signals a new generation of leadership for the city." — Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, to Los Angeles Magazine.

"I made a mistake and I can't turn back the clock." — City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, on the pledge not to run for DA that led to his defeat, in the LA Times.

"He's a very good lawyer. He's not a very good politician." William W. Carter, chief deputy to Trutanich.

"It would definitely seem that people did their homework." — Ron Galperin, on voters choosing him over Councilman Dennis Zine in the city controller race.

"It’s got to be disturbing to people who like good government." — Raphe Sonenshein, director of the Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs, on the low voter turnout, to KCRW.

"Well I'd say this mayor's race is about complete. IBEW boss Brian D'Arcy just gave me the middle finger from his 2nd floor office window." — LA Weekly reporter Gene Maddaus tweet.

Losers in the mayoral race: Latino leaders?

2013-05-23T04:12:01Z

The lasting impact of Tuesday's vote on the power of labor in LA elections will be debated until the next time that influence is tested at the polls. The few million spent by unions on behalf of Wendy Greuel, led by $1.65 million from the DWP's International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18, didn't get her into the mayor's office. The labor-hatched John Choi also lost his bid for City Council — but labor candidates Gil Cedillo and Curren Price did win seats on the council. So the tally sheet is mixed. As of now, though, can anyone claim to be a kingmaker among local Latino politicians? Supervisor Gloria Molina, Councilman Jose Huizar and Valley electeds such as Rep. Tony Cardenas and Sen. Alex Padilla endorsed Wendy Greuel for mayor. They couldn't deliver even the Latino vote: 63 percent of Latino voters cast ballots for Eric Garcetti, according to Fernando Guerra, who oversaw Tuesday's exit poll by Loyola Marymount University.

Oscar Garza, a KPCC editor who was formerly the editor-in-chief of the late Ciudad magazine, writes that Garcetti is a new kind of Latino figure for Los Angeles. Sample from his story for the NPR station's website:

Eight years ago, when I was editor-in-chief of Ciudad Magazine, we heralded the election of Antonio Villaraigosa as L.A.'s first modern-day Mexican-American mayor.
At another junction during the magazine's three-year life, we published a cover story titled: "The New Angelenos Are Half-Latino: How They're Changing the Face of Our Wildly Diverse Metropolis." The story examined how Latinos in L.A. are increasingly the children or partners of people from other ethnicities and races.

And now L.A. has a mayor who fits that bill.

Some Latinos quibble with Eric Garcetti's pedigree. His mother is Jewish, and his Italian surname comes from a European ancestor who emigrated to Mexico. But he is firm about his ethnic bona fides.

“Both of my father’s parents were proudly Mexican-American, both spoke Spanish as their first language," Garcetti told KPCC last year. "My grandfather was born in Mexico, my grandmother’s parents were from Mexico.” He's also spoken of his grandparents' former house in Boyle Heights being his second home.

Garcetti, argues Garza, "represents the 2.0 model of Latinos in L.A." At his press conference today in Echo Park, Garcetti talked about the multi-ethnic face of the city and of his own family, then shifted seamlessly into Spanish to deliver his message of Los Angeles as a world capital to the viewers listening on Univision and Telemundo. Garcetti, raised in the Valley partly by grandparents who spoke Spanish at home, famously spoke better Spanish than Antonio Villaraigosa when they both got to City Hall.

Yaroslavsky: No regrets and some advice for the next mayor

2013-05-23T01:40:57Z

LA County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky might be the mayor-elect of Los Angeles today if he had decided last year (or sooner) that he was up for a run. He will be termed out of his seat on the Board of Supervisors in 2014, but he opted last August not to continue his long elected career. He told Los Angeles Magazine today that he's going to see his granddaughter this weekend and doubts he could have done so if he had just finished a campaign for mayor. "I'm very sanguine and happy about my decision," he tells Shayna Rose Arnold. "It was carefully thought out and I did what I thought was best for myself and I have confidence that the new leadership of the city is up to the task."

Yaroslavsky, who took no public position on the race before the election, praised the election of Eric Garcetti, along with Mike Feuer as city attorney and Ron Galperin as city controller. "I think the election signals a new generation of leadership for the city. Eric's election and Feuer and Galperin's elections represent a group of smart, public policy people, and it bodes well for the city." He also says there is a message in the results about the influence of the DWP union, which put several million into an independent campaign for Wendy Greuel and in the end may have cost her the election. The union's outsized role and coverage of the DWP's high salaries turned her image from that of a fiscal watchdog, and Garcetti ads hammered on her as "the DWP mayor." A Garcetti strategist told me today the DWP issue always polled strongly as a negative for Greuel.

Yaroslavsky framed Garcetti's first big jobs as mayor:

Eric has two immediate challenges to face. One is to put his administration together. My advice there is, in the words of John Wooden, "be quick but don't hurry." He needs to get the right people in there and not rush to the point where he gets the wrong people and has to make changes. Everybody has that experience. I had it over the years, Villaraigosa had it, Bradley had it—everyone does. He should cast his net broadly for competent people, people who will give him unvarnished advice so he can make up his mind....

On the policy side, his first challenge is to get the city's finances in order, to deal with the transportation issues that are quite timely right now. He'll have to hit the ground running with the MTA. And he's got to deal with the salary obligations that the current contracts with the employee unions require.

The Los Angeles piece also talks to City Council President Herb Wesson and lameduck council member Jan Perry. Check out their thoughts at the magazine's website. Also there, writer Ed Leibowitz imagines the magazine's 2017 endorsement for Garcetti's second term.

Garcetti thanks Greuel and LA, says election was 'never for sale'

2013-05-22T22:35:45Z

Eric Garcetti chose a playground in Echo Park for his debut as the mayor-elect of Los Angeles. He thanked Wendy Greuel for a good campaign and says they will always be friends. Under questioning from reporters, he expressed some regret at the tone of the race for mayor and said his people-oriented campaign connected better with Angelenos. "The message from last night is that this election was never for sale," Garcetti said. "This election couldn't be bought. It had to be earned."

Garcetti delivered remarks in English and Spanish in front of about 50 supporters who he called the face of Los Angeles: natives, immigrants, Latinos, Asian, blacks and more. There may have been two dozen TV cameras on hand and members of the national media. Garcetti told me afterward that he had a congratulatory phone call earlier today with the White House. An aide said later it was with Valerie Jarrett.

Garcetti said he planned soon to take one full day off to spend with his 16-month-old daughter. The transition, he said, would take several months into his new administration , which begins July 1, and could involve the replacement of some city department heads. One immediate change in status, however: the presence of an LAPD detail to protect the mayor-elect. Garcetti will have the services of an escort driver as of today, aides said.

More to come when I get to a place where I can more fully disgorge my notes.

LA Observed photos

Let's stop this '19 percent turnout' meme right now

2013-05-22T20:01:17Z

The voter turnout in Tuesday's Los Angeles city election will be shamefully low by the time the ballots are all counted. But it won't be the 19 percent that some in the media are using (or the 15 percent that at least one national outlet went with today.) All the ballots aren't counted yet, folks. Something like 82,000 votes remain to be tabulated, and when they are added to the votes counted last night, the turnout will rise. That number of votes should push the total to about 24 percent of the pool of registered voters (not counting deceased people, the moved-away and other dead weight carried on the voter rolls in Los Angeles County.)

The 19 percent figure comes from the City Clerk's election bulletin, and as far as we know it's correct for what it is: the share of registered voters whose ballots were counted last night. In the primary election in March, the comparable 16 percent figure that was bandied about rose to over 20 percent when all the votes were finally counted several weeks later. some people still complain about the embarrassing 16 percent turnout of March, even though it didn't happen.

On KPCC this morning, Fernando Guerra of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at LMU railed about the City Clerk's publication of the misleading 19 percent figure for yesterday's vote..Guerra seems quite frustrated generally with the clerk's efficiency at counting votes. If the mayoral election were close, he said, it could have taken weeks to know who won and made Florida look like it has its act together.

Photo of Eric Garcetti campaigning: Gary Leonard

Greuel did not win women, the Valley or Republicans

2013-05-22T19:13:01Z

In order to become the first woman mayor of Los Angeles, analysts believed that Controller Wendy Greuel needed to win a majority of female voters and pick up both her home turf in the Valley and, as the somewhat less liberal of the two candidates, win the niche of Republicans who vote in LA. But it didn't happen. Fernando Guerra, who runs the Center for the Study of Los Angeles exit poll at Loyola Marymount University, says that Greuel and Eric Garcetti split the vote among women 50-50. Greuel won in the Valley but only narrowly, 51-49, and that wasn't going to be enough to offset Garcetti's strength elsewhere in the city, Guerra says. Garcetti got 59 percent of white voters and 63 percent of Latinos, according to the exit poll, which correctly predicted Garcetti's eight-point victory margin. The only group in which Greuel did better than expected was among African American voters, where she got 71 percent, says Guerra.

It all adds up to the Kevin James endorsement of Garcetti — letting the progresive Democrat claim a patina of conservative image too — being one of the most valuable in the entire race, Guerra said. He was on KPCC's "Airtalk with Larry Mantle" at the top of the 11 o'clock hour giving his analysis with Raphael Sonenshein of the Pat Brown Institute at Cal State LA and USC's Sherry Bebitch Jeffe. All agreed that Greuel's strategy of lining up powerful endorsers such as President Bill Clinton, Sen. Barbara Boxer and the chambers of commerce in LA and the Valley did not overcome the image Garcetti pushed of Greuel being a tool of the DWP unions. The DWP as an agency is very unpopular among voters, Sonenshein pointed out. He noted that without Republican voters lining up for Garcetti, the race would have been close.

Guerra used the occasion to needle the LA Times for leading this morning's papers with a holding headline that said the race for mayor was close. The results, and Guerra's exit poll which he first talked about last night, showed that the runoff for mayor was never as close as some of the polls showed. The Times data team, meanwhile, put up early this morning a nifty map showing the precinct breakdown by Garcetti and Greuel voters. It shows a swath of green from the Eastside to the Westside for Garcetti, a cluster of magenta for Greuel in South Los Angeles reflecting her support among blacks, and a scatter spray of both colors across the Valley. It's frankly amazing that this can now be done so quickly — it omits the 80,000 or so uncounted ballots that remain, but still. A very cool info graphic and it's interactive.

Greuel came out for the media shortly after 10 a.m. at her Van Nuys field office. She was very cordial toward Garcetti, her former seatmate on the City Council horseshoe, and offered him any help he wants as mayor. "I’ve known Eric Garcetti for over a decade, since our days in the City Council together. But after going toe to toe with him as political opponents for two years now, in roughly five thousand debates … you really get to know a person. And the one thing I know about Eric Garcetti, is that he cares deeply about Los Angeles, and that he will work tirelessly to be the strong and innovative leader we need at this critical moment in our history."

Greuel got emotional several times talking about son and husband, and the volunteers who worked on her multi-year campaign to become mayor. When asked her immediate plans, she exclaimed, "I'm going to Disneyland." It's apparently a promise to her son Thomas.

Greuel expressed some frustration that money and union influence became the defining media issues of the campaign, and that more voters didn't care that she could have been the first woman mayor of LA. She took credit for pushing against "the glass ceiling" and vowed that someday there will be a woman in the third floor office at City Hall.

LA Observed photos

10 green room things you didn't know about Eric Garcetti

2013-05-22T16:05:38Z

Today seems like a good day to bring back out the cute photo that Eric Garcetti posted to Facebook a few years ago, of him and his father Gil Garcetti. "Nice mustache, Dad!," the son wrote at the time. That was when Gil, the former district attorney turned photographer, was out with his new book, "Paris: Women and Bicycles." Anyway, there will be a lot of new material around about Eric Garcetti now that he is the mayor-elect of Los Angeles. Zocalo Public Square gets it going this morning with a post on ten questions that Garcetti answered in the group's green room a couple of weeks ago. It's light stuff, but fun. Sample:

Q:What animal fills you with terror?

A:I think it’s the chupacabra. I don’t know if it’s out there, but if it is, that frightens the heck out of me.

Q:What has been the most bruising campaign you’ve ever experienced personally?

A:The first campaign that was the most bruising, and highly unsuccessful, was to create veloways with my uncle. They would have been bicycle lanes along the freeways. Probably would have been a really bad idea for asthma and health to have bike lanes alongside five-lane freeways. But it was bruising. I almost never recovered. It’s a wonder I’m in politics.

Challenged to compose a 140-character tweet about Antonio Villaraigosa's tenure as mayor, Garcetti wrote: "Dared to dream, made us safer, investing in young people and set the bar high. Will go down as one of the best."

Eric Garcetti is the next mayor of Los Angeles

2013-05-22T13:06:14Z

Updated story

Eric Garcetti is 42 years old, the youngest mayor of Los Angeles in more than a century, and he will be the city's first Jewish mayor. He's also the first to have grown up in the San Fernando Valley. Garcetti won with 53.9 percent of the vote to 46 percent for Wendy Greuel, with 100 percent of precincts counted. That eight points mirrors the margin predicted by Tuesday's Loyola Marymount University exit poll. In the battle of the polls, the USC-Times poll that showed a wide lead for Garcetti appear to have gotten the voter sample correct. The other polls showing a dead heat for Greuel ahead appear to have been off in their sample. Tough to sample in LA when so people vote and so many tell pollsters that they will vote.

At the Garcetti party at the Hollywood Palladium, Sam and Dave's "Hold On I'm Coming" blasted when Garcetti came in before midnight to tell supporters the early numbers looked good. He was joined by his wife, Amy Wakeland, his father Gil Garcetti, and by the defeated mayoral candidates who endorsed him: Kevin James, Jan Perry and Emanuel Pleitez. "I say to you this: Tonight is just the beginning," Garcetti shouted. "Our work has just begun. Tomorrow we roll up our sleeves and we get to work rebuilding a great Los Angeles. Thank you Los Angeles. Onward."

Greuel called Garcetti in the early morning to concede and offer congratulations. A photo of the call was posted to Facebook by an aide. Garcetti then took to Twitter:

Thank you Los Angeles--the hard work begins but I am honored to lead this city for the next four years. Let's make this a great city again.
— Eric Garcetti (@ericgarcetti) May 22, 2013

Greuel has called a 10 a.m. news conference at her headquarters in Van Nuys to address the election results.

The voters also kicked City Attorney Carmen Trutanich out of office after one term, replacing him with former city councilman Mike Feuer. Feuer got 62.1 percent of the vote in the initial count, to 37.8 for Trutanich.

Newcomer Ron Galperin also pulled a surprise in the race for city controller and defeated councilman Dennis Zine. Galperin got 56.2 percent to Zine's 43.7.

The new members of the City Council look to be veteran state lawmakers Gil Cedillo (CD 1) and Curren Price (CD 9), and former Garcetti aide Mitch O'Farrell (CD 13), although the races remain close and with so few voters taking part the results could shift during the final count. In the Valley's 6th district, Cindy Montañez got the most votes in the special election primary and faces Nury Martinez in the July 23 runoff. Until that winner is seated, as of July 1 there will be no female members of the Los Angeles City Council. For the first time in awhile, there will be no women in any elected City Hall post.

Voters agreed to restrictions on medical marijuana outlets and passed Measure D, 62 percent to 37 percent. Rival Measure F lost with a 59 percent no vote.

In the race for school board, Monica Ratliff appears to have defeated Antonio Sanchez with 51.8 percent of the vote. Nancy Pearlman got 57.1 to return to the college board.

Here are the results from the City Clerk.

Mayor Villaraigosa, who never took a public position on the mayoral race, despite many on his staff backing Greuel and some for Garcetti, released a statement early this morning:

I would like to congratulate my friend Eric Garcetti on his victory.

I have worked with Eric for many years to solve tough issues from balancing our budget to making LA a better place for business. Eric’s leadership as Council President and his turnaround of the neighborhoods in the thirteenth district are positive indicators of the work he will do as mayor.

Eric is a true leader who I trust to guide our city into its bright future. I know I am leaving Los Angeles in good hands. I look forward to working with Eric and his team over the next month for a seamless transition so that we can keep Los Angeles moving in the right direction.

I also want to thank Wendy Greuel for her commitment to the people of Los Angeles and admire her for being willing to put her name on the ballot. Wendy, like Eric, is a dedicated public servant who I've worked with for many years. She has devoted her career to making our city a better place, and I know she'll continue to do so in the future."

Garcetti and wife Amy Wakeland in Hollywood on election night in photo released by his campaign.

Exit poll says Garcetti by 8 points, but who knows

2013-05-22T04:48:25Z

The Loyola Marymount exit poll conducted today by students under the Center for the Study of Los Angeles forecasts Eric Garcetti will win the mayoral election with 54 percent of the vote. The exit poll has Wendy Greuel with 46 percent. "The projection is based on results from 800 surveys administered by students from Loyola Marymount at polling places in 25 precincts and an earlier telephone survey of voters who had already cast mail-in ballots. Both surveys were conducted in English and Spanish," LMU says in a release. The margin of error is +/- 3.46 percent.

If you were wondering, the Loyola Marymount poll's forecast in the March primary was pretty close to the actual results in the mayoral race — calling it 33-28 Garcetti when the actual vote came in 33-29. So that's a track record.

Now to the results of actual voting. With the first 160,471 mail-in ballots counted, Greuel leads 50.9-49.0. Some were predicting that Garcetti would win the vote-by-mail ballots. Down ballot, the first results show Mike Feuer leading Carmen Trutanich 58-41 for city attorney. Ron Galperin leads Dennis Zine 52-47 in the first results for city controller.

Check results yourself

File photo of Garcetti campaigning: Gary Leonard