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* Updated with additions at the bottom.
Howard Fine says on the front of the L.A. Business Journal (free) that "Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa plans an ambitious economic development agenda reminiscent of former Mayor Richard Riordan’s initiatives after the 1992 Rodney King riots." Construction projects all over the city are being out on the fast track, Fine reports—75 to 100 development ventures, among them Valley Plaza in North Hollywood, Marlton Square in South L.A., the Sears warehouse site in Boyle Heights and L.A. Live next to Staples Center. "When I took this job, Antonio told me, ‘Bud, I want to see the cranes moving on these projects,'" deputy mayor Bud Ovrom said. He foresees a war room on the 13th floor of City Hall where aides will track the progress of each project on giant maps.
Also: USC professor and political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe writes in the LAT's Current that Villaraigosa is the "anti-Arnold," the Democrats' best bet to defeat Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. But she thinks a run this time is "improbable."...Also in Current, Fred Siegel asks whether Villaraigosa will be like Giuliani or Dinkins...I have a short piece on friends of the mayor in the August issue of Los Angeles Magazine, not yet online...Rick Orlov's Monday column in the Daily News notes that Villaraigosa has hired Barbara Freeman, the former spokeswoman for the city Ethics Commission...Noam Levey does a scene-setter on Villaraigosa's upcoming commission appointments in Monday's LAT. No new names, but a Hahn appointee to the Cultural Heritage Commission, Mike Cornwell, reveals he was ordered by the mayor's office to vote against landmark status for a Crenshaw Boulevard bowling alley two years ago.