Zev holds off entering mayoral fray

Now in his final term as L.A. County Supervisor, Yaroslavsky tells The City Maven that a decision is not imminent. "I don't think it will make a difference if I make that decision in April or July or September," he said. "People of Los Angeles know me and I don't have to have a long run up of introductory (events)." Several comments would certainly suggest that he's interested:

"City Hall is a mess. They've eviscerated the Planning Department. They have rolling brown outs in the Fire Department, something that would have been unthinkable when I was there," he said. "The city streets are as bad as Leningrad in the former Soviet Union when I was there in 1991."

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"I think the next mayor - whoever he or she may be - is going to have to be tough enough to make some difficult decisions, and the one thing that attracts me to it, other than the challenge itself, is that that would be it for me. I don't have any other ambitions. I'm not running for governor or senator or president or any other job," Yaroslavsky said.

That sounds an awful lot like Jerry Brown when he was campaigning for governor last year. You know, the last round-up approach. Except there are key differences in the two races. Brown had virtually no opposition in the primary, and his Republican opponent, Meg Whitman, pretty much imploded by fall. The race for L.A. mayor is likely to be loaded with experienced, well-connected candidates.