Follow LA Observed on Twitter here
Erin Aubry writes in today's LA Weekly that councilman Bernard Parks was the toast of the city's black leadership a year ago, but not anymore now that he's running for mayor.
Today, Parks is a mayoral candidate whose official black support has gone from almost universal to almost nil. Observers say Parks has sunk himself in record time by simply being himself: a quick-minded but autocratic, go-it-alone guy with a disdain for shared decision-making and a stubborn streak a mile wide....Of course, many people had predicted that it would come to this. The qualities that alienated Chief Parks from the police rank and file — and from a good chunk of the public — are the same ones that appear to be alienating Councilman Parks from the black support that once looked so ironclad. In both cases, Parks seems to be clueless as to what might have gone wrong. At this point, he resembles a hero in a Greek tragedy, a well-intentioned man at best who remains unaware of a fatal character flaw that is plain to everybody else.
She notes that Bernard Parks Jr., the ex-journalist who became his dad's press deputy, is now chief of staff in the City Hall office.
With that other election concluded, the mayor's race moves center stage. If you needed any convincing of that, consider this: Antonio Villaraigosa will show up Saturday at 9 a.m. out in the far northwest Valley to talk with the Chatsworth Neighborhood Council. Their invitation is rather pointed:
Chatsworth's Neighborhood Council has invited mayoral candidate Antonio Villaraigosa to come tell us how, as the City's Mayor, he would improve life in Los Angeles....A city where according to the Daily News Mayor Hahn and the DWP hid huge planned DWP rate increases during the 2002 vote for Valley secession.
...A city where the Los Angeles Times has reported a probe into allegations of corrupt contracting at Los Angeles World Airports, the Port of Los Angeles and the Department of Water and Power.
...And, a city where Chatsworth equestrians experienced first hand how City Commissioners support each other when a controversial housing project was approved over RESIDENTS' objections.
When Valley secession went down in defeat two years ago many Chatsworth community activists joined the neighborhood council in hopes of working with the city to improve their quality of life.
But now, two years later, the Chatsworth Neighborhood Council (CNC) finds that nearly every request made to the city has BEEN delayed, ignored, or flatly denied.
The CNC will pose questions to Villaraigosa about HOW he would improve a level of city services that we don't presently have.