Local News in Brief : Steps Taken to Aid Dancer

Eileen Anderson had been a fixture for 15 years at a Temple Street intersection in downtown Los Angeles, dancing in leotards to an audience of commuters and gaining some notoriety as the perennial “singing and dancing” candidate for whatever political office happened to be contested at any given time.

She retired from her daily bump and grind last year when she could not win permission to park nearby. But help may now be on the way.

Saying that Anderson, 50, “is an essential thread to our city government’s fabric, a gadfly who has the courage to go out publicly and demonstrate for her cause,” City Council President John Ferraro asked the city Department of General Services to find a parking space for the one-time rush-hour dancer.

Ferraro, like Anderson, is a former candidate for mayor, and his wife is a former exotic dancer. Anderson had asked for Mayor Tom Bradley’s City Hall parking space in the evenings but was denied.