JULIE WALMSLEY

I wrote about tire slashings in Silver Lake for this month's Los Feliz Ledger. Pending corrections will update the map and copy to accurately reflect the area that gets hit: Effie Street and Crestmont, Maltman, and Golden Gate avenues. According to one of the unnamed sources mentioned in the story, about 90 percent of the activity is within a 100-yard radius of the corner of Effie Street and Golden Gate Avenue. I didn't have the editorial space to go as deep as I wanted to. Within this story, there were several issues which merit examination: The use of the senior lead officer system in the LAPD - the very relationships that keep the police in touch with neighborhoods keep benevolent residents from criticizing, not wanting throw the officer who's become their friend under the bus The larger trend of property crime in Los Angeles, overshadowed by a recent spike in violent crime What it actually takes to arrest and prosecute any offender, and why it's not hard to

This morning the LA Times' David Zahniser wrote about the arrival of David Ryu in Los Angeles City Council, and how he could interact with that body's president, longtime City Hall denizen Herb Wesson.  Zahniser's article primarily covered the election's outcome as a function of controversial redistricting and the resultant disgruntled voters looking to smack back at City Hall, but he also discussed Wesson's role: Wesson, who has served on the council for a decade, said he expects to get along with Ryu just fine. The job of a council president, he emphasized, is to help the 14 other members become successful. Ryu, he pointed out, had few serious policy disagreements with Ramsay. The council president has another responsibility, which wields dealmaking (or breaking) power over all legislative action: agendizing. Wesson, who supported Ryu's opponent Carolyn Ramsay, decides what goes on the agenda when, and how to break out single motions and ordinances into

The Cypress Village Art Tunnel was open to the public tonight, providing a model for what Silver Lake hopes to create out of the now-closed pedestrian tunnel next to Micheltorena Elementary School on Sunset Boulevard.