Chris Yarzab

Just couldn't quite reach the ballot box.

>Update: Prop. D is far ahead and the only medical pot measure with more than 50 percent of the vote, as required to win. Vote-counting continues like molasses at City Hall. See details at bottom. First posted 8:57 p.m.

Early election returns show Proposition D strongly leading measures E and F as voters in Los Angeles decide whether to severely restrict the number of medical marijuana shops or allow them to open in dozens of new neighborhoods.

It was a matter of speculation all day today whether marijuana users, both recreational and medicinal, weighed in at the voting booth in great enough numbers to influence the citywide vote. As one journalist quipped on the campaign trail, "Did they remember to vote?" The Battle of the Blunts has been raging for months:

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Shabdro Photo / LA Weekly Flickr pool

In 1984 Los Angeles hosted the Olympics, Ronald Reagan was president and crack and AIDS were just starting to do damage.

So much has changed since then, from the gentrification of Echo Park and downtown to the development of an actual subway system, that it seems like eons ago. Google, with the help of satellite imagery from NASA's Landsat Program, puts the development of L.A. since '84 in motion with this time lapse map:

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5chw4r7z

Not really LA 20/20. But close?

Is LA 20/20, the high-powered committee that includes former Gov. Gray Davis and was selected by former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Mickey Kantor and multimillionaire Austin Beutner to find ways to bring economic health to L.A., a bit light on entrepreneurs and others who can create jobs?

Jack Humphreville, the city's Neighborhood Council budget advocate, says, "There's no one ... from neighborhood councils. There also aren't any members from our key industries: aerospace, entertainment and tourism."

Two prominent members of the committee, Gray Davis and Latham & Watkins attorney David Fleming, were much more upbeat about their ability to suggest changes that could alter the city's moribund economy:

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Courtesy of Maverick2003

Los Angeles City Hall

Eastside L.A. voters in the March 5 primary might elect someone outright for City Council District 1 without awaiting the May 21 runoff if either candidate gets 50 percent plus one vote. The spoils? A $178,789 job, a staff of about 20 aides, and eight free cars paid for by L.A. taxpayers. So the Jose Gardea vs. Gil Cedillo race got ugly in recent weeks.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa endorsed his old Assembly chum, Cedillo. But Gardea is better-known to many voters because he's the ex-chief of staff to outgoing Councilman Ed Reyes. So Gardea is pushing hard the fact that the Chevron corporation is backing Cedillo.

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Courtesy of Cary Brazeman Campaign

Before: Sidewalk repairs underway on Councilman Dennis Zine's street.

L.A. City Councilman Dennis Zine may wish sidewalks had gotten fixed anywhere other than his own street a few years ago -- after all, there are 5,000 miles of broken sidewalks in Los Angeles from which to choose. Instead, Zine yesterday handed his rival City Controller candidates Cary Brazeman and Ron Galperin a club with which to smack Zine.

Galperin called Zine a "camera-hungry politician" and Brazeman was disgusted after Zine announced on the same day that absentee voters began mailing in their ballots for City Controller that Zine will spend $1 million to repair the 50 worst sidewalks in the voter-rich West Valley. (It's public money but Zine alone controls it. More on that later.) Bristling, Brazeman says, "After using taxpayer money to fix sidewalks on his own street, it's nice to see Councilman Zine spread the wealth ..."

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Eric Demarcq / Flickr

Despite our potholes and celebrity a-holes, we still think L.A. is the greatest city on earth.

Some folks out there agree. For example, you're flying into LAX from the east and you see this great metropolis as it rises from the desert and lights up for miles and miles.

One of the greatest approaches in global aviation? Yes:

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skinnybmel / Instagram

Last month we told you about how Southern California locations dominated the year-end list of top Facebook location check-ins.

Along comes Instragram with its own year-end list of "most popular locations" for photos uploaded to the social-networking service.

Once again ...

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LAPD Chief Charlie Beck at today's gun buyback

Hundreds of people showed up at the Sports Arena this morning to turn in their guns in exchange for grocery store gift cards. But they faced a very long wait -- and the possibility that they would walk away empty-handed.
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Google

The shocking quadruple murder of four people outside a boarding house in an otherwise nice Northridge neighborhood has some community activists steamed about such residences.

The City Council has been considering an ordinance that would eliminate boarding homes in residential areas and limit single-family houses for rent to single leases.

One Northridge leader says that, in light of the homicides, it's about time this rule goes through:

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steve / Flickr

It's a little painful to hear out-of-towners say L.A. has no center.

Sure, we're part of a sprawling urban region, Southern California, that's bigger in both geography and population than many countries. And yes, SoCal is an collection of cities. Some -- San Diego, Santa Ana, Long Beach -- are their own metropolises. But ...

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celebuzz.com

Kim Kardashian in her Buckley School uniform.

Updated at the bottom: The City Council granted a similar loan to Loyola High -- the private school where the mayor sent his own kids -- in 2005.

Originally posted at 7 a.m.

Of all disintegrating LAUSD campuses that need a tax-exempt loan to build new facilities, the Buckley School in Sherman Oaks isn't even in the top 700.

This place attracts the richest of the rich. It's like Candyland meets Secret Garden meets Enchanted Forest: Buckley describes itself as "a beautiful 18-acre campus, nestled away in a wooded canyon," where "the most serious distraction a student might face on campus is watching the deer descend the hillside in the search of an afternoon snack." (And not the paper-mache kind.) Alumni reportedly include...

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tinisanto/ CC 2.0

The highly politicized crackdown on America's fat people hits Los Angeles today, with a motion from L.A. City Councilman Mitchell Englander to ban all soda vending machines on city-owned property.

Englander, a physically fit frat-bro type who is clearly trying to one-up New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his proposed ban on extra-large sodas, warns in his motion that...

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Rust O'Leum

Skid Row lives up to its name, despite the decade's long, loft-dwelling gentrification just to the west.

Drug dealers deal, homeless call it home, and trash grows tall. The city of L.A. has tried to battle all of the above with cops, cash and, now, clean-ups. Until today, City Hall was reluctant to fully sweep up the mounds of filth along the Row because a court ruling prevented officials from taking transients' stuff.

Something changed:

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Sean Hackworth

The mayor blends in with a group of tourists passing through.

After being invited to the White House on Friday for a roundtable discussion on issues pertaining to the Latino community, inside sources confirm that L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has not yet left the premises.

At press time, the Secret Service's attempts to remove the Los Angeles mayor had entered the 36th hour.

"I want to thank President Obama for kindly welcoming me back into my home away from home..."

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Corey Miller Sun

Los Angeles is the densest metropolis in the nation, according to an analysis of the latest U.S. Census figures.

What's really important here is that we beat New York!

The U.S. Census today stated that the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim region has 7,000 people per square mile, beating out not only New York (No. 5) but ...

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portoflosangeles.org

The Angelena II.

Awww! L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says the darndest things when he's caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

Dogged CBS LA investigator David Goldstein asked the mayor why, so deep in a budget hole, the city is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to maintain a million-dollar touring yacht at the Port of Los Angeles.

Villaraigosa's adorable reply:

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Zoolander

We'll admit it. L.A. is an underdog town. Not just because it comes in second to New York in population, or because NYC's culture and arts scenes get way more attention. But because sometimes we fall on our face, and it's all our own fault. Look at the people we elect. Look at our sorry roads. Look at our divisive AM-radio talk shows.

Frankly, it makes for great news, and sometimes the Weekly gets snarky about it.

No more. Here is our moment of Angeleno pride:

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MatM

You, the taxpayer, might have missed out on $1 billion or more in free money because the geniuses at City Hall failed to coordinate their grant applications.

That's according to the latest audit from city Controller Wendy Greuel, whose office says today that ...

... the lack of an effective centralized oversight unit to coordinate grant applications among the City's departments led to various oversights and ultimately reduced Los Angeles' share of competitive grant funding.

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L.A. County

The suspect.

For a month authorities have been on the case of a vicious suspect alleged to have assaulted a 3-and-a-half-year-old girl.

They even procured an off-road vehicle to track the predator in the Lancaster area, to no avail. The suspect would run off into the desert and allude the long arm of the law.

But today county officials announced they were victorious:

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LA Times

In protest, activist John Walsh (left) plans to repeat the word "pussy" 20 times today at L.A. City Hall.

About an hour into another snoozeworthy L.A. City Council meeting yesterday morning, a female public commenter injected a little color into the conversation.

Antonia Ramirez told her elected officials that some sheriff's deputies in East L.A. had been acting like "unethical corrupted pussies." (OK, Ramirez also seemed a little off her rocker, but that's beside the point. Plus, given the state of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department, she might not be far off.)

Brand-new City Council President Herb Wesson took particular offense to that last term:

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