Tony Castro's America

The Future of L.A.

When Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa got his first glimpse at a design for a future Los Angeles Tuesday, he turned anxiously to philanthropist and political benefactor Eli Broad.

"I want to live another hundred years!" Villaraigosa exclaimed as architects and onlookers crowded into the pavilion of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

A smiling Broad patted the mayor on his back, leaned over and whispered to him.

"I can only look 20 years ahead," the 73-year-old Broad had joked minutes earlier. "But I'm thrilled at what I see for the future."

Various glimpses of the city's future were on display all day as eight architectural teams submitted designs of 22nd century Los Angeles for a $10,000 first prize in the History Channel's "City of the Future" competition.

Full Story...

Alarcon's Staff Behind the Scenes

Mayor Sam's Sister City blog has a great insider item on the Richard Alarcon's staff and what that augurs for his City Council campaign as well as San Fernando city politics.

San Fernando Mayor Nury Martinez, a field rep on Alarcon's former senate staff, is reportedly out, according to the blog.

Alarcon's chief of staff, Saeed M. Ali, couldn't immediately confirm or deny. He says Alarcon is still transitioning from the Senate to the Assembly, still waiting committee assignments and staffing budget.

As for Alarcon's council plans, he and other candidates have from Dec. 9 through Dec. 14 to file their Declaration of Intention to Run papers with the City Clerk's office and until Dec. 28 to submit their signature petitions. The election will be March 6.

The Inevitability of Richard Alarcon

It's not just the blind ambition, if indeed that is what it is, that has critics upset with the San Fernando Valley's Richard Alarcon for choosing to run for Alex Padilla's 7th District Council seat, when he only Monday is to be sworn into the Assembly for a tenure that likely will last only a few months.

It's the fact that other candidates in the council race -- Cindy Montanez, Felipe Fuentes and Monica Rodriguez -- realize the inevitability of Alarcon, who served on the council from 1993 to 1998 and remains perhaps the most dominant Latino political figure in the Valley.

But there is more.

In the runoff, Alarcon endorsed Villaraigosa -- as he did in the 2001 mayoral campaign -- and introduced and nominated him at the important Los Angeles County Democratic Party Endorsement meeting where daughter Andrea Alarcon delivered one of the three critical votes that gave Villaraigosa the party’s backing. Andrea Alarcon was later appointed by Villaraigosa to the city's Board of Transportation Commissioners.

In the upcoming campaign, it will be Villaraigosa who conceivably could exert enormous influence. The mayor endorsed Montanez in her unsuccessful Assembly race against Padilla, but City Hall insiders say there is no guarantee he would endorse her against Alarcon -- and risk backing a double-loser in the Valley within a year’s time.