Dedicating the new Sister Cities Signpost at the Los Angeles Convention Center

Councilman LaBonge was joined by several Consuls General representing nations with which Los Angeles shares a Sister City relationship at a special dedication ceremony of the new Sister Cities Signpost at the Los Angeles Convention Center on January 27th before the Los Angeles Times Travel Show. The Councilman also welcomed representatives from Sister Cities of Los Angeles Incorporated. Los Angeles has 24 official Sister Cities, which include Aukland, New Zealand; Berlin, Germany; Beirut, Lebanon, Bordeaux, France; Busan, South Korea; Eilat, Israel; Giza, Egypt; Guangzhou, China; Ischia, Italy; Jakarta, Indonesia; Kaunas, Lithuania; Lusaka, Zambia; Makati, Philippines; Mexico City, Mexico; Mumbai, India; Nagoya, Japan; Salvador, Brazil; San Salvador, El Salvador; Split, Croatia; St. Petersburg, Russia; Taipei, Taiwan; Vancouver, Canada; Yerevan, Armenia. There is already a Sister Cities Signpost at the northeast corner of 1st and Main Streets across from Los Angeles City Hall. This new signpost welcomes the world to the Los Angeles Convention Center for years to come. Councilman LaBonge serves as Chairman of Sister Cities of Los Angeles Incorporated.

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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

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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Gauging the impacts of proposed Postal Service cutbacks

There aren’t many people who don’t mail something via the U-S Postal Service during the holidays.
But with the Postal Service now moving forward with planned closures of mail-processing centers and local post offices in May 2012, how will those packages get through next Holiday Season? Will people be able to afford the private delivery services? In addition to closing postal facilities, the Postal Service has cutback on staff, and lopped-off billions of dollars in operating costs. Postal officials are also considering terminating Saturday service. “The U.S. Mail is one of those things you can always count on in America,” said Councilman Tom LaBonge, who sits on the Los Angeles City Council Jobs and Business Development Committee, as well as Chairing the Trade, Commerce and Tourism Committee. “You put that stamp on a letter, and you know that – no matter how remote your Grandma’s house is – that letter will come right to her front door, or at least to her nearby Post Office.” That might not always be the case. Of the post offices being considered for closure, more than 100 are in California – from Honeydew up in northern California to a Post Office at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego. The closure list also includes several post offices in Los Angeles, as well as Long Beach, Beverly Hills, South Gate, Bell, Cudahy, La Puente, Inglewood, Compton, San Bernardino, Ontario, Orange, Huntington Beach, Laguna Woods and Santa Barbara among others. Therefore, Councilman LaBonge has introduced a motion in the Jobs and Business Development Committee, calling on the City of Los Angeles Chief Legislative Analyst and United States Postal Service officials report to the committee on the economic impacts of the post office and processing center closures in Los Angeles, as well as the potential job displacement of postal employees.

Saying Goodbye to Jackson from Guangzhou

Councilman LaBonge embraces Li Zenquan or "Jackson", who served as official tour-guide and interpreter during the recent visit to Los Angeles' Sister City Guangzhou. Tom and the delegation were so taken with Jackson and his desire to visit the United States and Los Angeles, that the Councilman raised private money from the delegation to fly Jackson to Los Angeles for an 18-day stay, much of the time spent at the home of Councilman LaBonge in Silver Lake. Jackson said his life will never be the same after his visit to southern California. His favorite food: Pink's Hot Dogs with chili and onions and jalapenos. He also liked the grilled steak salad at Musso and Frank and the Quesadilla at Lucy's El Adobe. Jackson loved the houses in Los Angeles, saying every one seems to have its own personality. While in Los Angeles, Jackson bought a pair of Levi's Jeans, a Levi's Army-Style Jacket, two pairs of Converse All Stars and an American Cell-Phone. He said that the people in Los Angeles are very nice and that people drive very gently - not like in China, he said; drivers here let you cross the street. Jackson also visited other parts of California: his favorites were Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica Beach. He also liked Solana Beach near San Diego and San Francisco. About his host, Tom LaBonge, Jackson said he serves a lot of government officials in China and he's never seen anybody work so hard and who is so friendly with the people in the community. Jackson remarked that Mr. LaBonge always picks up all the trash in the street ... even when he's visiting China. Jackson feels the Councilman works too hard.