Hooray for Hollywood on its 125th Birthday

Councilman LaBonge, Jimmy Kimmel and Councilman Eric Garcetti pose next to Hollywood's 125th Birthday cake.

Councilman LaBonge helped blow-out-the-candles on Hollywood's Birthday cake on Tinsel Town's 125th Birthday bash at Hollywood and Highland on February 1st. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce organized the fete to mark the occasion, with Councilmembers LaBonge and Garcetti, various members of the Chamber Board of Directors, including Marty Shelton and Leron Gubler, and Late-Night Talk-Show host Jimmy Kimmel, who does his ABC show on the Walk of Fame. The birthday cake was created by celebrity chef -- "Ace of Cakes" Duff Goldman. A flash-mob of dancers kicked-off the festivities, which included memorabilia and vintage photos from the Hollywood Historical Society.

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Honoring the Anniversary of the "Sig-Alert"

Councilman LaBonge holds a photo of him and Loyd C. "Sig" Sigmon at the anniversary ceremony for the Sigalert at the Caltrans Building in downtown Los Angeles.

– Los Angeles City Councilmember Tom LaBonge marked the anniversary of the first broadcast of what we now know as a “SigAlert” on January 23, 2012. The term has a special place in the lexicon of southern California life. It’s become symbolic of the Los Angeles car-culture and the resulting congestion and difficulty getting around the five county southern California area and its interdependent freeway circuitry. The SigAlert has become a staple of radio and television traffic reporting, issued by the California Highway Patrol when an unforeseen incident causes the closure of at least one lane of traffic for a half hour or more. In the early 1950’s, more and more vehicles were flooding LA’s freeways, causing traffic tie-ups. Radio stations began doing traffic reports. 710AM KMPC was one such station. But Gene Autry’s Golden West Broadcasters station had an advantage in Executive Vice President Loyd C. Sigmon, a former communications expert in the US Army Signal Corps during World War II. Sigmon – or “Sig” as he was known – developed a specialized radio receiver and reel-to-reel tape recorder based on technology used to monitor German radio broadcasts.
In Los Angeles, Sigmon set-up a system that enabled police dispatchers to transmit an inaudible radio tone. That tone could trigger special SigAlert receivers in local radio stations, which would record the dispatchers emergency bulletin, flash a red-light and sound a buzzer to alert the radio station engineer. The engineer could then simply press a button to broadcast the “SigAlert”. The first “SigAlert” was broadcast on January 22nd, 1955. Sigmon told the LA Times that “SigAlerts” were such attention-grabbers that a lot of companies wanted to sponsor them; but that KMPC had a strict policy against that. Then-LAPD Chief William Parker approved the program, but told KMPC that they must make it available to all Los Angeles radio stations … but Chief Parker is said to have coined the phrase when he reportedly said, “We’re going to name this damn thing SigAlert.” And so they did. By Labor Day of 1955, six radio stations broadcast the first SigAlert for a train-wreck at Union Station. Ironically, the broadcast caused a traffic-jam, as so many doctors and nurses responded to the LAPD’s call for medical help.
The term “SigAlert” was added to the Oxford English Dictionary several years ago. Loyd “Sig” Sigmon died in 2004 at the age of 95. Click here to see more photos of the event

And the Inaugural Made In Hollywood Award goes to ... "The Artist"

Councilman LaBonge presents the Made In Hollywood Award to the Cast and Crew and Producers of "The Artist", including Academy Award-nominated Director Michel Hazanavicius and Lead Actor Jean DuJardin.

Los Angeles City Councilmember Tom LaBonge presented the Cast and Crew of the Academy-Award Best Picture nominated “The Artist” with the first-ever “Made in Hollywood” Award on January 31st, 2012. The film has been honored by the Golden Globes, the Directors Guild of America and the Producers Guild. And, this past weekend, Jean Dujardin won the SAG-award for Best Actor for his starring role in “The Artist”, while Director Michel Hazanavicius was honored as Film Director of 2011 by the Directors Guild of America. Ironically, “The Artist” -- produced and financed primarily from France -- is the only one of the nine Best Picture Oscar-nominees that was shot exclusively in Los Angeles and Hollywood. Local locations for the film include the Orpheum Theater, the American Film Institute, Cicada Restaurant, the Bradbury Building, the Wilshire Ebell Building and the Paramount and Warner Brothers back-lots, among other recognizable Los Angeles landmarks. “We want to recognize and honor productions that are made right here in the cradle of the movie business … Hollywood,” said Councilman LaBonge. “Every movie shot here in Los Angeles brings jobs and revenue to our city, utilizing the best film professionals in the world – from the grips to the caterers, actors to post-production houses.” Councilman LaBonge says he'd like to make the "Made In Hollywood" Award an annual, presented in the run-up to the Academy Awards to the Best Picture nominee or other notable feature film that is filmed exclusively in Los Angeles. The Councilman and his staff are working on declaring February 3rd, 2012 as "The Artist" Day in the City of Los Angeles. Click to see more photos of the event

Redistricting Draft Maps of City Council Districts released

Councilman LaBonge reacted with disappointment on the draft redistricting maps released on January 25th by the Redistricting Commission.

“In the interest of the city as a whole, I’m very disappointed in the draft-map released by the Redistricting Commission," said Councilman LaBonge. "The people of the 4th District participated in the public hearings on redistricting, stating loud and clear the importance of neighborhood integrity, the balance of diversity and the political representation of communities of interest in Council District 4. This draft redistricting map weakens the political representation of the Santa Monica Mountains, fractures the community of Hollywood among three Council districts and dissolves the historic core of Council District 4 – the greater Wilshire area, including the Miracle Mile, Larchmont Village, Windsor Square, Pan Pacific Park and Park La Brea. What disappoints me most is that the will of the people of the 4th district was seemingly ignored by this important process. “I therefore encourage all interested residents and community leaders of the 4th District to attend the upcoming public meetings on redistricting and make their voices heard unequivocally on keeping their neighborhoods and communities of interest together.”

Click to see a larger map of the proposed new boundaries of CD4

Come to one of the 7 public hearings below to comment on the draft maps, make your voice heard, and share your vision for our great City!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012, 6:30PM Wilshire Ebell Theatre 4401 West 8th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90005

Thursday, February 2, 2012, 6:30PM Loyola Marymount University, Ahmanson Auditorium, 1 Loyola Marymount University Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90045

Saturday, February 4, 2012, 11:00AM Pierce College, The Great Hall 6201 Winnetka Avenue, Woodland Hills, CA 91367

Monday, February 6, 2012, 6:30PM Occidental College, Thorne Hall 1600 Campus Road, Los Angeles, CA 90041

Wednesday, February 8, 6:30PM
Los Angeles City Hall, John Ferraro Council Chambers 200 North Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012

Thursday, February 9, 6:30PM Walter Reed Middle School, Auditorium, 4525 Irvine Avenue, Studio City, CA 91602

Saturday, February 11, 11:00AM South Los Angeles (To be announced later this week)

Welcoming a new colleague to the Los Angeles City Council

Councilman LaBonge welcomes Councilman-elect Joe Buscaino to Los Angeles City Hall the day after Buscaino won a special-election to fill the 15th Council District seat of former Councilwoman Janice Hahn. Buscaino is a former Los Angeles Police Department Senior Lead Officer in the San Pedro area. He prevailed over former Assemblyman Warren Furutani in the 15th District race, which saw a turnout of only about 16% of the registered voters.

Metropolis II opens at LACMA

Councilman LaBonge and artist Chris Burden hold the ignition-key to start-up Metropolis II during the opening at LACMA on January 11th, 2012

Councilman Tom LaBonge was on-hand to help "start-up" LACMA's new Kinetic Sculpture installation called Metropolis II. Designed and built by artist Chris Burden, who created the Urban Lights installation outside of LACMA, Metropolis II is a complex, large-scale kinetic sculpture modeled after a fast-paced modern city. The armature of the piece is constructed of steel beams, forming an eclectic grid interwoven with an elaborate system of eighteen roadways, including a six-lane freeway, train tracks and hundreds of buildings. 1,100 miniature toy cars speed through the city at 240 scale miles per hour on the specially-designed plastic roadways. Every hour, the equivalent of approximately 100,000 cars circulates through the sculpture. It's futuristic and retro at the same time ... and sure to fascinate kids of all ages.

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For whom the Bell tolls

Councilman Tom LaBonge -- at the request of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa -- rang the bell atop Los Angeles City Hall on January 8th to mark the one-year anniversary of the shootings at a Tucson shopping center that killed six people and wounded 13 others, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who is on the road to recovery despite a gunshot wound to the head. Mayors of 21 cities across the country participated in the bell-ringing commemoration at the exact moment of the shooting one year ago. Councilman LaBonge tolled the bell six times in memory of the six people who were killed the day Rep. Giffords was shot and wounded. The councilman says Los Angeles participated along with 21 other cities at the request of Tuscon's Mayor Jonathan Rothschild. "It's important that we all come together at this moment to remember the victims of that tragic and shocking attack on 19 people, and to speak-out against violence. I'm honored to stand in for Mayor Villaraigosa for this commemoration on top of Los Angeles' majestic City Hall, joining with other US cities who've pledged to raise the civility of political discourse in these challenging times." Said Councilman Labonge.

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Councilman LaBonge moves to help victims of the Hollywood arson-spree

Councilman LaBonge, surrounded by Los Angeles City and County officials, at a news conference announcing the arrest of a suspect in the string of Hollywood Arson Fires.

Councilman LaBonge introduced an emergency motion in City Council this week to help victims of a wave of arson fires in Hollywood during the New Year's holiday. With the arrest of a suspect, and the apparent end of the fires, Councilman LaBonge is looking to recovery for those affected. There were more than 50 deliberately-set blazes in Hollywood and the neighboring communities of Studio City and North Hollywood, causing more than 3-million dollars in damages. The arsonist mostly targeted vehicles parked outside homes or in car-ports under apartment buildings. Councilman LaBonge's special motion -- seconded by Councilman Paul Koretz and passed unanimously by the City Council on January 4th -- requests the Department of Building and Safety establish or modify any existing expedited permitting process to assist the victims of the arson fires to make the necessary repairs to their damaged structures. "We want to help our residents get back to normal as quickly as possible with as little red-tape as possible in the wake of the arson-fires," said Councilman LaBonge.

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