Chick dismisses ‘carpetbagger’ label for 2009

Let’s begin with something that surely gets everyone quivering with excitement -- the 2009 Los Angeles City Council elections.

OK, maybe you’d rather watch a lint-picking contest.

But maneuverings are already underway for that election, and City Controller Laura Chick recently announced that she is “seriously considering” a run for the council’s Westside-based 5th District seat.

Hey, doesn’t that make her a carpetbagger?

Chick lives in Silver Lake, about four miles east of the 5th District boundary. She last lived in the 5th District in 1992, before she moved into the 3rd District, in the west San Fernando Valley, to run for that seat, which she held from 1993 to 2001.

In an interview, Chick politely disagreed with this column’s use of the term “carpetbagger.”

“What voters care about is finding a person who is going to effectively represent them and fights for what they care about and someone whom they trust, and not how long the person has been living in their district,” Chick said. She noted that she grew up in Beverly Hills -- which is next to the 5th District -- and lived for a time in her 20s in Cheviot Hills, which is in that district. She said that running would be like “coming home.”

There were two reasons that she didn’t want to run for her old council seat in the West Valley, Chick said. The first is that it’s more pragmatic to run for a 5th District seat that will be open in 2009 than to run against incumbent Dennis Zine. The second reason: traffic. Chick said the commute from the West Valley to City Hall was a bear and maintaining “quality of life” was important.

“I think I’m a perfect example of how awful traffic congestion has gotten in L.A. and how it has become a No. 1 crisis priority issue,” Chick said.

In 1993, didn’t Chick criticize then-incumbent Joy Picus for sticking around too long?

Yes, in an opinion piece that Chick wrote in The Times in 1993, she said that 16 years on the council was enough for Picus.

And in 2009 how long will Chick have served in office?

Sixteen years.

But Chick said this is different because in 2009 she will have served eight years on the council and eight as controller, and not trying for 20 straight years in one office -- something that would be a “total overload.”

Chick opposed the easing of term limits last year for the council because she thought the campaign was misleading, and she thought the citywide offices should have been included. They weren’t, and she will be out of a job in 2009 as a result.

Chick is a savvy public servant. But the voters of the 5th are savvy too. And so her challenge, if she runs, will be proving that she’s getting into this not for her -- but for them.

Turning our attention south, what are Jan Perry’s plans for Central Avenue?

She wants to bring it back, once and for all.

From the 1920s through the early 1950s, the neighborhood around Central was the center of African American culture in the city. It was the place where blacks could start a business, find a hotel room, buy a home and start a church. And it was the center of the city’s jazz scene.

But the area was raked over by riots in 1965 and again in 1992. It is now predominantly Latino.

The street these days isn’t looking so hot. Many of the old buildings have been covered with stucco, and maybe this says it best: A well-landscaped KFC at the corner of Central and 43rd is one of the more striking structures to be found.

So what is Perry’s plan?

To use the good things starting to happen in the neighborhood as a foundation.

Ground was broken recently for a new constituent center at Central and 43rd Street that would be the first in the city to be built to the highest environmental standards. It will have a landscaped roof with a garden and walking path.

The Community Redevelopment Agency has several mixed-use projects planned along Central, new police and fire stations have been built in recent years, the neighborhood’s jazz festival enlivens the scene every July, and new schools are going up.

Several historic churches remain, some splendid old homes are there, and there’s a farmers market every Saturday. Regular readers of the column may recall that Perry has no problems grabbing a shovel if someone does something disgusting on the sidewalk on market days.

“Central Avenue has an emotional pull with me because people have so many active memories of it -- it’s a neighborhood street,” Perry said. “We want to give people back their history and restore the reason why so many people came here in the first place, both after World War II and even more recently.”

In the 1950s and ‘60s, urban renewal was often done with a bulldozer. Here on Central Avenue nowadays, it’s a parcel-by-parcel approach. Like so many things in L.A., it seems overly ambitious for the City of Low Expectations -- the reason this column looks forward to returning there soon.

What ever happened to that woman who was ticketed for not having a front license plate?

Judith Linde finally got her day in court -- with this column in tow.

A recap: Linde was ticketed for not having a front license plate while parked in West L.A. in October. Linde maintains she had a front plate, and another parking officer agreed with her.

So here she was a couple of Mondays ago, in a tiny office in the city’s Parking Violations Bureau on Pico Boulevard. The office had little else but a security camera, clock and mostly blank walls. Think basic workplace coffin, and you get the picture.

The hearing officer was a young man named Joe Kunkaew, who was working under a contract with the city. He provided the ground rules -- rules of evidence did not apply -- and asked Linde to tell her story. Did she have photos of her car wearing a front plate?

Uh-oh. Linde did not.

“You have to believe everything I’m telling you,” she said. Kunkaew then concluded the hearing, which lasted about six minutes. He told Linde the verdict would arrive by mail within 10 days.

Afterward, Linde said she was not optimistic. It was her word against the officer’s.

“What evidence could I have?” she said, referring to the fact that she didn’t photograph her car when she was ticketed. “What am I supposed to do -- drive through the door here” and show the court the plate.

This column suggested that that may not get her $25 back. Eight days later, the verdict arrived: not guilty. Linde’s testimony was found to be “detailed, consistent and credible.” There was, however, no mention of The Times reporter with a tape recorder standing behind her at the hearing.

Any ideas for the city of Los Angeles’ Rose Parade float?

Final designs are due soon, and this column hates to admit its campaign to help the city win a prize in the parade isn’t going too well. The theme is world celebrations. The best idea -- and we use the term “best” loosely -- comes from the office of Councilman Tom LaBonge. The winner: A celebration of the under-construction 405 and 101 interchange. With that, this column resigns from the float-building business.

Next week: Down to the river we go.

steve.hymon@latimes.com