Zuma Dogg on Los Angeles Top 40 & Talk Radio Peronalities (There AREN'T many REAL Ones!)

[Pictured: The man behind the icon.]

When I was hired at Z-100, the former #1 station was #11. I took over research dept., shifted "out of touch" music direction & was put in charge of approving EVERY MUSIC SEGUE, 24 hours a day. When I was shoved out door, station was #2 (#1 was non-English). Station sunk upon my exit. PD told corporate, "A big part of our success was Dave Elliott."

Obviously, a radio programming genius, when it comes to music formats, I had to show radio biz how to put REAL PERSONALITY into radio. Has YOUR DJ been on ABC Nightline, LA Times, Daily News, LA Weekly, every local talk radio station, Good Day L.A., Fox 11, KABC, KNBC, KCBS, KTLA, KCAL News? [Yet local radio programmers (or ANY pro media outlet) simply allows all that "top of mind" approval go un-tapped, as they struggle to distinguish themselves in a crowded, over-saturated market. I SEEMED TO HAVE DONE IT...without a signal of my own. (Does that make you a loser? I think it does.)

‎"Hero, icon, legend, genius, prophet..." just SOME of the terms used to describe ZUMA DOGG...by local Los Angeles media.

[RADIO EXECUTIVES: Unless your DJ's/radio hosts are getting unsolicited coverage and feedback like this, you have a problem and you are not doing the job you are being paid for. Especially compared to the job I just did without being paid or having any gig on a local medium. TOTAL TOP OF MIND RECOGNITION AND BUZZ...just for waking up and living my un-employed, out-of-work day.]

"The future of television comedy. Zuma Dogg is the only American comedian today wearing the comedy-genius mantle once borne by Lenny Bruce, Allen Funt and Andy Kaufman." - Michael Heaton/Syndicated Pop-Culture Columnist

REAL UNSOLICITED EMAIL COMMENTS FROM REAL PEOPLE WHO CAUGHT "ZUMA SHOW" ON L.A. CABLE TV, WHILE CHANNEL SURFING. (Not like I had promos running on NBC):

I was not at all prepared for the brilliance of your show. In all honesty I was absolutely blown away. It was the most fresh, funniest, innovative thing that I've seen on television in the past five years.

You're a genius! When can we catch more shows? Do you have any of your old shows available?

honestly, you may have been the funniest person i've ever seen. I was laughing so hard I woke up my girlfriend.

If i owned a big TV company your show would be on 24/7!! I have never laughed so hard for so long, it's awesome. Can't wait for the next one, me and my friends will be talkin about it for a week! lol...

How can I get a copy of tonight's episode? It was the funniest thing I've seen in years. Thank you.

I hope you know you have the best show in the history of the planet!

I was wondering if I could maybe get your Autograph...It would mean alot...I know a ton of kids at my skool that love your show too....They are always talking in your voice and going crazy.....

you have the best show ever, you are the best white rapper in the world!!! It was so beautiful that I had tears in my eyes. Let's just say I was moved.

I think your show displays a VERY intelligent and socially conscience realistic view of the world and you do it in a very original and very artistic way. NOBODY HAS DONE WHAT YOU ARE DOING. Keep it up.

i love your show. it is the most excellent thing in all of televisionland.

My name is Lauren and let me begin by saying you are one of the finest displays of unconventional genius I've seen in a long time.

We just wanted to write to let you know how spectacular we thought your show was. i was just wondering, if there's anyway i can buy your shows on video or something.

my boyfriend and i just stumbled upon you singing saturday night fever tunes - and we can't stop laughing - thanks...

I caught your last episode. Let me tell you that it was a Classic. The part about Elton John had me laughing all night. Do you sell your music or dvds of your show? If not, you should. Your latest song is good as hell.

saw your show the other night and let me say,it was some of the funniest shit i've seen on tv in a long time,keep up the good work.

My girlfriend and i caught your show for the first time 3 weeks ago. I recorded it and show it around to friends. It is so g-damn funny. I keep waiting to see you somewhere.

Just to let you know, I dig what you do, you are a funny and talented person. It took me a couple shows to get it but now I got it so keep it up, look forward to the new shows.

[MEDIA EXECUTIVES: IMAGINE IF I WAS ON YOUR STATION, EVERYDAY? Will NEVER happen, cause you are stuck in an un-innovative, choking on your same old Alan Burns recycled air...and are too out of touch to "get it." I've heard it all before. I'll just keep getting more famous, without even wanting to or trying.] HERE'S TODAY'S ADDITION TO MY EVER-GROWING PROFILE IN THIS REGION: ZD quoted in today's LA Weekly. (Notice I'm the only name in the "keyword?" At least LA Weekly knows how to boost audience.)

When Adam Sandler told me to call his office, his receptionist said, "I don't know WHO you are, but I have NEVER heard Adam speak about anyone like that, before. I've NEVER heard him laugh so hard." Adam's production guy said, "I heard so much noise through the wall, I ran in to see what it was (thought it was an emergency). It was Adam rolling on the floor, howling at your video." (Sandler stiffed me.)

When I FIRST moved to L.A. in '94, I contacted the floundering 97.1 KLSX GM Tim L. Presented a memo detailing the niche/demand for an ALL-TALK FM station, to go along with Howard Stern. Tim sent me a letter, thanking me. The rest is history, as the station is STILL "FM TALK" to this day. [Glad I could help. Anyone got a sandwich? Maybe Tom Leykis can buy me one?]

Remember KIIS-FM GM Roy Laughlin? (I DO think he's the single, greatest, most-talented, overall radio executive I've ever known/worked with.) BUT, when KIIS was in BIG trouble (which meant his job was in trouble) he called ZD (we worked together in Houston) to invite me to dinner to discuss station. After he explained the problem, I fired back with some positioning slogans, along with a new music focus they needed to shift to. Never heard back, but while walking down street, saw a bus drive by with a bus ad using my EXACT wording. THEN, I saw HUGE BILLBOARDS all across the city. AND, they made the music shift (based on actual sample hours I provided to the GM.) STATION SHOT TO #1. [ZD never got anything but promises...]

In '89, I sent a memo to my executive idol, Bob Pittman (co-creator of MTV), who was President of Time Warner Enterprises, at the time. I sent him a memo, detailing the concept for a narrowly-focused cable channel, like MTV, but for the Entertainment industry. Gave specific ideas like, "re-playing Jerry Springer/talk show clips from the day, people at work miss." Pittman created E! for Time-Warner, based on that memo. He DID have me into his office, years later to chat. (BIG DEAL. That was the payment?) That was always a tough one to get over.

YOU CAN SAY I'M A MORON FOR SENDING THESE PEOPLE MY IDEAS...BUT I ALWAYS THOUGHT THEY WOULD HIRE ME TO DO THE JOB!!! (But I find they just take the memo, scratch my name off, and write theirs over it. So that's why I created "Zuma Dogg." NO ONE IN THE WORLD is capable of TOUCHING me as a performer. Can't steal that. Even though others have tried. Hi, Courteney C. and Jamie K.!)

HERE'S HOW DUMB RADIO EXECUTIVES ARE: I was asked to fly into a radio company for a big gig (job interview) that was practically a "gimme" cause the PD wanted to hire me. But the GM called me, to CANCEL THE INTERVIEW. I had a quote from Quality Management consultant Dr. Ed Deming, who praised my work. She said, "I KNOW about Dr. Deming, and he would NEVER send a letter saying that." (WOW...too good to be true? EXCEPT IT WAS, ASSH*LE!!! So I didn't get the gig...and they lost out on what they thought was too good to be true. LOSERS!

Does Zuma Dogg Have A "Cease & Decisist" Case Against LA WEEKLY for their use of "LA DAILY" for their BLOG, when ZD uses "LA DAILY BLOG"

I'm not Johnny Cochran, Jr., but it DOES bother me that LA Weekly is using "LA Daily" for their blog, when ZD has been using "LA Daily Blog" way before they even launched a blog.

Why it bothers me now, is I was bamboozled by a Google search. I saw an article with a link to "LA Daily" in a blog search, and I thought it was from MY blog. So I could be wrong, but I need to contact an attorney today, because I don't like that LA Weekly is using "LA Daily" for their blog when Zuma Dogg came up with the name and concept for "LA Daily Blog" first. I let it slide, cause no one reads their blog, but now that it is fucking up my Google searches and people may be confused and think they are reading world-class exclusive content from the prophetic genius, and it's only a bunch of crap from LA Weekly's blog. NOT FAIR, Y'ALL! (I've said my URL http://LADailyBlog.com is on the market, if they want to buy it. Otherwise:

LA WEEKLY...cease and desist from the use of "LA Daily" for your blog immediately for violating Zuma Dogg. (Attorney being contacted, today. )

LA Weekly's Jill Stewart & LA City Council President Eric Garshady Finally Both Talking Like Zuma Dogg (Jill Called Council, "Dumb & Stupidest")

"There is a real ANGER in this city, right now. There is an anger about a lot of things in this country, but in particular, I think it's an anger that many of us feel around here, too about saying, 'We have to stop doing business the way that we have.' We want our pipes to be fixed and we have ignored that for too long." NO, not Zuma Dogg...that's Los Angeles Shitty Council President Eric Garcetti this week during the council meeting during a discussion of MORE DWP rate hikes.

Hey, he's pretty quick to catch on! Maybe he IS smart and not as DUMB as Zuma Dogg has repeatedly accused him of. NAW? He's just running for office, so he has to start talking "peoples' talk and start saying things that sounds like something Zuma Dogg would say.

ERIC GARCETTI!!!...the PEOPLE'S CHAMP! CHAMPION OF THE PEOPLE!!! A CHANGED MAN! HE'S SEEN THE LIGHT! I guess I can't call him "Garshady" anymore. How could I? He's the new VOICE of the PEOPLE!

BUT THE REAL POINT HERE, FROM ZUMA'S STRATEGY TAKE (besides making fun of Garloser) is IMAGINE HOW BAD HE MUST BE FEELING THE OUTRAGE TO OPENLY ADMIT IT ON TV DURING THE MEETING. You know how these Councilmembers are. They NEVER admit anything is bad, until it is SO after the fact and obvious that it doesn't even do any more damage casue everyone already knows. Like when the mayor finally comes out and admits he was dating that reporter. He denied it all along, until the WHOLE WORLD KNEW IT...AND THEN, he admits it.

So for Eric to allow himself to publicly BRING UP how angry people are...means it's bad! And I feel good about that as someone who did a lot to raise awareness of the issue. Even if I'm the Elephant Man and you have to stay away from me and let me rot on the street in pain, today.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: "L.A. is a city that almost doesn't work." - Outgoing LAPD Puppet Chief Bill Bratton

LA WEEKLY'S JILL STEWART SEES THE ZD LIGHT!: Ah, gotta love that Jill Stewart, who has the best vocabulary in the business, and has finally been pulled to the ZUMA SIDE and is now "reduced" to using extravagant verbiage such as, "bumbling, dumb and stupidest" to describe Los Angeles City Council and the frustrating madness.

DOESN'T IT FEEL GOOD JILL..TO NOT HAVE TO LAVISH AND FRILL IT UP WITH CALLIGRAPHY-LIKE TALK...AND JUST LOSE YOUR MIND IN FRUSTRATION AND BLAST THEM FOR THE DUMB, STUPIDEST LOSERS THAT THEY ARE. (Oh yeah, you forgot to call them "losers.")

Bumbling L.A. City Council: Let's ban convenience stores in South L.A.

By Jill Stewart (Aka: The new Zuma Dogg)

Wed., Oct. 14 2009 @ 9:12AM

Is the Los Angeles City Council the stupidest political body currently active in Southern California?

These 15 council members each have a personal staff of 15 to 20 (the White House Office staff is 480 roughly, but LA City Council needs an incredible 320 staffers), yet keep proving they are too dumb to do their basic job of overseeing city infrastructure and wisely spending people's money.

YEAH, YEAH!!! NOW I CAN FINALLY UNDERSTAND HER!!! THEY'RE BUMBLING, DUMB AND THE STUPIDEST!!! I knew there was something I didn't like about those guys!

NEXT TIME...TYPE IN ALL CAPS!

LA WEEKLY ARTICLE: Los Angeles Corporate Welfare: Ritz-Carlton and AEG Rich entities siphon taxpayer money while real communities struggle

Published on October 07, 2009

• South Central Neighborhood Council budget expert Daymond R. Johnson: Less than impressed by the new, luxury, taxpayer-subsidized Ritz-Carlton

Los Angeles Corporate Welfare: Ritz-Carlton and AEG

Rich entities siphon taxpayer money while real communities struggle

By Tibby Rothman

(Yea, Tibby!)

EXCERPTS:

...A thin, shimmering downtown tower, 54 stories high, wrapped in tints of blue, the nearly completed Ritz-Carlton Hotel & Residences and JW Marriott at L.A. Live. A short walk from Staples Center and the L.A. Convention Center, downtown’s newest asset is set to open in February 2010. From the days of Mayor Tom Bradley and through the years of his successors, Richard Riordan, James Hahn and Antonio Villaraigosa, L.A.’s political elite and city boosters have lobbied for what the Ritz-Carlton and its surrounding enclave embody: a long-sought luxury hotel for conventioneers, a centralized city, a populated downtown more like Manhattan.

L.A. Live is set to flourish, but the city is falling apart.

“I call it environmental racism,” says Daymond R. Johnson of South Los Angeles. “The streets leading into downtown have always been taken care of, but as you cross the 10 freeway and come south of downtown L.A., you begin to see the difference in the environment.”

“Environmental racism” might seem like hyperbole, but Johnson is a thoughtful neighborhood council member named by the California Democratic Party as Democrat of the Year for Assembly District 48. Johnson has represented the South Central Neighborhood Council on budget matters for the last six years. He works as a safety officer at a respected charter school.

He says that even such simple quality-of-life services as the synchronization of streetlights are handled differently in West L.A. than in his own neighborhood. Thanks to those double standards, he claims, “My neighborhood council area is one of the most deprived in the city of Los Angeles.”

Johnson, who lives in Councilmember Jan Perry’s district, notes that sectors of the city that have been starved, like South L.A., felt the budget pain long before any recession hit: “There was never a lot of attention to the area — so it would be an understatement to say that there have been cuts.”

Yet the city has, and is, aggressively pouring money elsewhere. Beginning with a deal signed on October 31, 1997, City Hall lavished millions of dollars in subsidies and tax credits on companies owned by Denver-based billionaire Philip Anschutz to fund the politicians’ downtown dream. City officials forced the poor out of 27 “blighted” acres of downtown around Figueroa Boulevard and replaced the aging neighborhood with lucrative ventures.

Although AEG’s Staples Center/Ritz-Carlton/L.A. Live endeavor will pay increased property taxes and sales taxes thanks to an expected growth in visitors to the area and its upscale hotels, L.A. taxpayers, who have poured so much of their public money into the deals, will not recoup the revenue from the lucrative hotel bed tax for 25 years. Thanks to agreements City Hall made with companies controlled by Anschutz, the 69-year-old recluse will keep pocketing these “bed” taxes — money that would normally flow to city coffers — until he is 95 years old and Villaraigosa and the City Council are long out of office.

A city-solicited study once boasted that taxpayers would reap $1.7 million annually from the bed taxes; in fact, Anschutz will see the first $62 million.

Moreover, instead of requiring the wealthy developer to secure private financing for the 27-acre project encompassing Staples, the Ritz-Carlton and L.A. Live, the city — meaning the Los Angeles public — provided an Anschutz company a $70 million, 25-year loan, which is being repaid on a yearly basis through Staples ticket sales.

Anschutz will not pay off that $70 million loan provided by L.A. taxpayers until 2025, yet public documents filed with the Los Angeles County Recorder’s office reveal that an Anschutz company has already sold off three significant parcels within the project area.

AEG took the revenue from the resale of the three parcels, a transaction allowed by the redevelopment agency, and then the city shifted the planned projects on that land over to new owners. Yet at least one of those key parcels contained lots seized by the Community Redevelopment Agency from a private owner, using the eminent domain statute, purportedly to fight “blight.”

The eminent domain takings in the area of what is now Staples and L.A. Live in the 1990s left many private landowners deeply embittered over being forced off their property at “market/fair value.” City Hall’s recent decision to let AEG sell seized lands means “they ‘flipped’ the property,” declares Marko Mlikotin, president of the California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights. He calls the resale by private developers of lands taken via eminent domain “egregious.”

“The CRA was using public dollars to seize private properties. Shouldn’t that property revert to the original owner?” he asks.

It is almost impossible to tabulate how much money Anschutz made off the resale. Eminent domain was used in some form to take 107 of 152 lots around Figueroa, which were then consolidated into a huge property.

“Taxpayers are subsidizing these projects, but then developers and brokers are making huge profits.”

Many political insiders see AEG, its president and CEO Tim Leiweke, and Anschutz as comprising a shadow government that continually persuades City Hall’s leaders to funnel public money to downtown, at the expense of South Los Angeles, the Eastside, the Valley and several other areas.

In fact, although the Los Angeles public is not aware of them, huge, additional subsidies are about to flow to the L.A. Live/Staples area. With a push from Villaraigosa and Perry, $50 million is being taken from the state Housing and Emergency Shelter Trust Fund of 2006, bonds approved by California voters to finance housing for battered women and the poor — or so voters thought. But in Los Angeles City Hall, the pols sought $50 million from the bond, a large chunk of which they plan to spend on sidewalk and street amenities to dress up Figueroa Boulevard downtown — which feeds directly into AEG’s publicly subsidized lands. [Remember ZD's, "Prop 1C money for Emergency Shelter For Battered Women, Children, Veterans and Disabled being used for the Grand Ave Project, commercial, cement park!?!?" Looks like since Grand Ave Project is on "hold" (LOL!) the money is being used for another commercial function.]

Mlikotin believes that “sound redevelopment projects don’t require developers to feed at the public trough or require eminent domain to create profitable business ventures. When public agencies continue to offer subsidies, why would any developer want to pay full market price, when they know that the local CRAs will provide taxpayer funding?”

SIDE BAR EXCERPT: "It generally does not concentrate huge profits, or tremendous political power, in the hands of one developer, like Anschutz — or the New York–based Related Companies, the chosen megadevelopers for the currently stalled luxury Grand Avenue hotel and shopping project."

Full Article from LA Weekly.com

Related Reading by Zuma Dogg...his greatest work ever, in his opinion, including uncovering pension money was invested in Grand Ave Project (CRA) and that it would never get off the ground, which it hasn't but I was told I was conspiratorial and crazy and that it WOULD get off the ground. That was over two years ago. Now it is referred to as "stalled."

Saturday, June 9, 2007

Downtown Los Angeles Presents: Eli' Broad, Related Co., CRA, City Council and County's GRAND AVENUE PROJECT (Planning Details and Project Review)

You may have heard of the nearly $2 Billion Downtown CRA mixed use project called, LA LIVE. (A Ritz Carlton Condo/Hotel, Marriott Hotel, PF Changs, Movie Theaters, Specialty Retail and open space. [If you are a rich billionaire visiting from Asia, you will love investing in this area! If you are a business or organization planning a convention near the convention center, well you better try Vegas, this will price the city right out of the ballpark!]

Plus a few other minor issues I am concerned about: Like the fact that there is no wat the City can be serious about thinking they can build another Universal City Walk Type project near Staples Center. They might be able to get some of it approved and built, but this is "pie-in-the-sky" fantasy land talk.

So just when you think there isn't enough demand for more five start hotels, luxury condos (instead of a range of affordable, middle and upper level residential housing for workers in the area), you forgot to factor in the fact that there is another OVER $2 billion five star hotel, luxury condo, specialy retail, restaurant and open space project to compete with the minimal demand. It's called...drumroll please...because it really deserves a prodigious, magestic, regal, fantastic, tribute of an introduction...

ELI BROAD & CORPORATE WELFARE FUNDSUCKERS INC'S...GRAND AVENUE PROJECT!!!

THE SAVIOR OF THE CITY, REGION AND WORLD!!! We are just lucky to have it. (Or at least have the approval to start spending the money!)

What if the project never even gets completed? With only phase one agreed to, and even that has not been executed, who’s to say people can’t drop out, default, or what if City money doesn’t come through?

See also:

Monday, June 11, 2007

VILLARAIGOSA UPDATE: AEG "LA LIVE" PROJECT: The Mayor's Attempt To Save Los Angeles with Five Star International Convention Center

ZumaReport.com

Aka: The "I Told You So Report" (Unless I Am Telling You.)

LA Weekly HOME RUN Issue (City Hall is the ball park, and shadiness is the ball!)

Wow! What a home-run issue of LA Weekly this week! I saw Patrick's cover story this morning, and then saw the rest of the issue. Nothing but hits, baby! You got the "Safest city the '50's" story, DWP $30 Million SLUSH FUND story, Jane Usher Slams Current LA City Planning Department, Jan Perry's Grand Ave Project shadiness (as if it's anything BUT) and way more good bad stuff to read! Here are links to all the fun:

• 

  Bratton: L.A. Is as Safe as 1956

  By Patrick Range McDonald

• DWP Slush Fund

  By Daniel Heimpel

  In Los Angeles vs. All Persons, a tough judge makes Villaraigosa return $30 million

• L.A.'s Density Bonus Blowup

  By Daniel Heimpel

  A judge says City Hall broke the law by allowing outsize projects

• Jane Usher Slams Gail Goldberg

  By Steven Leigh Morris

  A former commission president slams L.A.'s planning director as a developer sellout

• On City Officials: Useless and Overpaid? Or Just Weekly Hyperbole?

  By L.A. Weekly readers

• Jan Perry's Grand Avenue Conflict

  By Tibby Rothman

  An L.A. politician votes for public subsidies that boost her home's value

• Donald T. Sterling's Fake Homeless Center

And THIS little ole story that may come "Tumblin' Down" on City Hall like John Mellencamp on MTV in the 80's.

George Torres, Numero Uno No More: Even After His Racketeering Conviction, Questions Remain About Which L.A. Political and Business Figures Were Influenced by His Money

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LA WEEKLY ARTICLE: Shutting Down Public Access TV (Featuring Zuma Dogg, Candidate for Mayor of Los Angeles)

PROGRAMMING NOTE: The final two episodes of "The Zuma Dogg Show" will air on Time Warner's Hollywood system on Sunday December 21st and 28th at 11:00 pm on the public access channel. And no...Viagraosa won't like it.

You gotta admit, Patrick Range McDonald has got to be the best investigative news reporter in America. And LA Weekly has got to be the best weekly newspaper in America. (Maybe even the whole world.)

Here is the beginning of the massive 5000 word article that underscores the shadiness of the end of public access as only LA Weekly could do.

Masked avenger: Once derided, Zuma Dogg earned respect on public access TV. - LA Weekly photo: Orly Olivier

Shutting Down Public Access TV
AT&T and L.A. City Hall quietly lead a national push to silence the little guy

By Patrick Range McDonald
Published on December 10, 2008

The day before Thanksgiving, Zuma Dogg, an outspoken community activist who has a comedian’s sense of the absurd, stands in the far back of the thinly attended City Council meeting at Los Angeles City Hall, waiting his turn to speak during the public-comment period. Wearing a black ski cap pulled down to his eyes, with black wraparound sunglasses and a black, long-sleeved T-shirt, he looks like a bank robber. But as host of The Zuma Dogg Show, he’s not only one of the most recognizable figures at City Hall, cordially greeted by passersby, including security guards and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, he also has the ear of high-level insiders, who feed him information in the hope that he’ll expose, and possibly stop, one questionable government project or another.

“People say no one watches public access,” Zuma Dogg uncharacteristically whispers, “but if you’re on there consistently, then people absolutely watch it. You now have a guy who’s famous in L.A. and without spending a lot of money. Public access changed my life.”

Zuma Dogg, who takes his stage name from Zuma Beach and the rapper Snoop Dogg, hears City Council President Eric Garcetti politely call out his name for the hundredth time or so in the past few years. He hustles off to the podium at the front of the cathedral-like chamber, where bright lights shine down from the ceiling and automated television cameras roll for L.A. CityView, the public-access channel that broadcasts every City Council meeting.

“I’m hearing rumors of a hiring freeze over fire and police!” Zuma Doggs yells into the microphone. “Will the council member who has that idea please raise his hand because I’d like to say it’s the stupidest, dumb idea! It’s outrageous! How can you put a hiring freeze on fire and police? It’s the first line of defense of public safety and the city, and here’s why I’m really upset! You did nothing but put up high-density [apartment and condo] projects! High density! With millions of people! So you’re prepared for all of these people! You must keep up with the fire and police hiring to go with the population boom!”

After his allotted two minutes are over, Zuma Dogg takes a breath and returns to the back of the council chamber, where strangers, who enjoyed the hard time he was giving to city leaders over the crowded new housing erected in L.A., give him the thumbs-up, shake his hand, and, on two separate occasions, slide him 20-dollar bills. Since he spends most of his time producing public-access shows and attending City Council meetings and hearings, Zuma Dogg doesn’t hold a traditional job. Instead, fans and friends help him get by. In fact, in his first years on the scene, because he sometimes slept in his van, he was quietly derided by insiders, including a gaggle of journalists who attend council meetings, the subtext being, who cares what some homeless guy thinks?

His persistence, and now, even critics must admit, his growing expertise on city policy and city government, have changed all that. “I always feel the love,” Zuma Dogg says. “I walk down the street anywhere in this city and people are always coming up to me. I think they’re a little more generous today because of Thanksgiving.”

Zuma Dogg largely built his cult status, and the much-needed donations that came with it, through appearances as a rapping, rhyming watchdog of the Downtown powers on such public-access stations as Channel 98 on the Westside. Just last week, he turned that notoriety into the ultimate public-access fantasy: The Los Angeles City Clerk formally approved his signed petitions, officially placing his name on the March 3, 2009, ballot in his exceptionally improbable run for mayor.

Despite his standing as the Eminem of public access in L.A., he may have already involuntarily taped his final cable show.

If everything unfolds as planned, on January 1, Time Warner, which owns more than 90 percent of the cable-television market in Los Angeles, will walk away from operating 12 public-access studios in L.A, which help everyday people to create hundreds of hours of content on 11 freewheeling, neighborhood-based public channels.

The dozen studios will go dark, their freely provided TV cameras and other pricey equipment — now available for anyone in L.A. to use without charge — will immediately be off-limits, and most of the little guys who dominate public access will be silenced.

READ MORE


ZumaDoggForMayor.com

Join Zuma Dogg and Mayor Sam's Blog for the HOLIDAY EVENT at Casa Princesa THIS FRIDAY December 12th at 7pm. Click here for event details.

ZUMA DOGG COMMERCIAL FOR "HOLIDAY PARTY" EVENT AT CASA PRINCESA

LA Daily Blog Sunday Paper Scan For March 2, 2008

All the news that's fit to link...

Inflated art appraisals cost U.S. government untold millions
The IRS audits only a handful of the transactions. Data suggest overvaluation is rampant.

An alleged tax-fraud scheme involving donations of overvalued art to four local museums is part of a larger, unchecked problem with inflated art appraisals that has cost the federal government untold millions, a Times analysis has found.


LAX project manager may get $25 million
Los Angeles-based DMJM stands to make at least $25 million to oversee modernization efforts at Los Angeles International Airport if airport commissioners approve a one-year contract Monday.

Calif.: Affordable Housing Rules Slammed
LOS ANGELES — Affordable housing advocates are criticizing state guidelines that distribute money from an affordable housing bond measure, saying the new rules shortchange small projects that help poor people.


L.A. Unified consultant under scrutiny of D.A.'s watchdog
The Public Integrity Unit chief is looking into alleged bill-padding in school construction effort.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's Public Integrity Unit is reviewing whether a high-level consultant for the Los Angeles Unified School District's building program engaged in a conflict of interest.

Tangling over Net traffic cops
The battle between Internet users and network operators has heated up again after cable giant Comcast was caught quietly blocking customers from sharing movies, music and other stuff that can clog the Internet's pipes.


California job growth slows to a crawl
The state added just under 15,000 positions in 2007 and January saw another shrink in employers' payrolls. Training programs and other initiatives will be pursued, officials say.

Here's more evidence that California is losing its struggle against recession: The state shed 20,300 jobs in January, more than the other 49 states combined for the month, a government report showed Friday.


Official urges new rules for cutting California's dropout rates
The incoming state Senate chief seeks to raise high schools' goal for graduation rates and better track how many students give up on education.

The incoming leader of the state Senate said Thursday that he wants to overhaul California's programs for reducing the number of high school dropouts, calling it a top legislative priority.

Next speaker enjoys broad support
Assembly colleagues describe Bass as 'unflappable' and praise her 'quiet capacity to lead.'

Anyone who knew Wilhelmina Bass might understand why her daughter Karen Bass, the Los Angeles Democrat elected Thursday as the next leader of the California Assembly, has devoted her Capitol career to making the state a better parent to its 80,000 foster children.


Finally, the masses are roused by rampant development

Roy P. Disney, who has lived all his 50 years in Toluca Lake, didn't mince words about what he believes will be the fate of thousands of poor souls living in the southeast San Fernando Valley.


State, preparing to borrow, faces cold market for munis
Tax-free bonds attract few buyers amid risk fears and tight credit

The credit crunch is taking a heavier toll on the municipal bond market, a favored sector for individual investors.

New details offered in private eye's case
Prosecutors preview next week's trial of Anthony Pellicano, including an alleged talk with super-agent Michael Ovitz.

Los Angeles police officer on Anthony Pellicano's payroll plumbed law enforcement databases for confidential information on two reporters after Hollywood super-agent Michael Ovitz told the private eye he believed the journalists had written negative stories about him, federal prosecutors alleged in court papers released on Friday.

L.A. schools' hires are loaners
Two in mayor's program are being lent by another district.

The mayor's office acknowledged Thursday that two top hires it introduced this week are technically on loan from the San Diego Unified School District. One of the employees is Angela Bass, who was presented at a Monday news conference as the superintendent of instruction for the two academically struggling high schools and four middle schools that will fall under the stewardship of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.


Home sales, prices plunge
Los Angeles County's housing market continued its decline in January with the median price retreating to 2005 levels, a trade association said Monday.


Let's install 'user pays' for council
By Doug McIntyre
SOMETIMES you just have to take a swing at the pinata even if it's not your pinata.

The Los Angeles City Council is famous for this: whacking away at issues completely outside its jurisdiction. How many nonbinding resolutions have members proposed and passed encouraging "free and fair elections in Guatemala?" How many impassioned speeches have filled the cave of winds as Bill Rosendahl out-Gandhis Eric Garcetti on the Iraq war?

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HILLARY ON SNL


And click here to see what happens when you are a small time anchor and you aks Hillary the wrong question. (Aaron Sorkin couldn't have written this!)

LA Weekly SEVEN PAGE Website Post on Density Problems

From LAWeekly.com

Soon after taking the job of director of the Los Angeles Department of City Planning in 2006, Gail Goldberg made a declaration that let slip how City Hall is allowing developers to pursue a building frenzy straight out of the storied tale Chinatown.
Said Goldberg, newly arrived here from a similar post in San Diego:

"In every city in this country, the zone on the land establishes the value of the land. In Los Angeles, that's not true.

"The value of the land is not based on what the zone says ... It's based on what [the] developer believes he can change the zone to.

"This is disastrous for the city.

"Disastrous.

"Zoning has to mean something in this city."

Goldberg probably wishes she hadn't said that, not necessarily because she got reprimanded by L.A.'s famously vindictive Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, but because Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavksy has repeated her words in public, over and over. Yaroslavsky, who represented the city's affluent Westside District 5 as a councilman until 1994, has been staging a one-man campaign to slow City Hall's feverish promotion of density — a quiet war on the large swaths of suburbia and few hunks of countryside remaining inside the city limits.

ZUMA DOGG ON LA CITY'S "DUMB" GROWTH (Yes, I coined the phrase!)

(notice: turn volume way down.)


Full article

More on Dumb Growth/Density

Zuma Dogg's Eminent Domain Alert

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