People and Events

The people at City Hall are taking no chances, the Detroit Pistons’ 3-2 series advantage over the Lakers notwithstanding.

They are preparing for the thousands of fans expected to pour into downtown for a Broadway Laker Day victory parade and City Hall rally in the event the locals manage to pull it out. Mayor Tom Bradley’s staff conducted a “technical walk-through” for the media Friday.

“We always have to get a running start in case the world champions bring the crown back to the city,” said Fred MacFarlane, the mayor’s news secretary. As one might surmise, it takes the coordination of LAPD, City Hall security, RTD, sanitation, parking enforcement and a few other agencies to handle a massive demonstration.

“Last year about 40,000 people converged on City Hall,” MacFarlane pointed out. He expects this Laker Day to be bigger because it has been 19 years since a team won the NBA championship back to back.

Presuming it happens this time.

As for other City Hall matters:

In case it slipped past you, May was Pothole Month in Los Angeles, where people were asked to notify the city of any pesky dents in the asphalt. Consequently, says Board of Public Works President Edward Avila, crews filled in twice the usual number of them.

“Operation Pothole” called attention to the street maintenance bureau’s policy of filling potholes within 24 hours after they are reported, Avila said. The bureau, he said, took 2,461 calls during May and filled 14,775 potholes--an average of 477 a day.

He asked the public to keep up the good work, pointing out the obvious:

“We can’t repair them if we don’t know where they are out there.”

It comes down to a single scrap of paper.

Apparently signed by a Chinese man, it is the only clue homicide detectives have in their effort to identify a young woman beaten to death in South-Central Los Angeles last week.

The body of the victim, either Asian or Latino and age 18 to 24, was found the night of June 9, face down on the sidewalk at Long Beach Avenue and 40th Place.

The bit of paper was found nearby. Detective Tim Moss said it seems to be a garment district piece-work receipt bearing numerical tallies in English and Chinese.

Below the Chinese figures is an illegible signature, apparently in English, but written with the same pen. Because it consists of thick, bold strokes, police believe the signature is that of a man. If they can find him, perhaps he can tell them who she was.

Moss said that the murder appeared to be “very vindictive” and that the woman “probably died after a vicious struggle.”

The victim was 5 feet, 2 inches tall, weighed 105 pounds and had black, shoulder-length hair. Two of her teeth were framed in gold. She was wearing a brown, long-sleeved blouse and lavender pants.

“Our main goal now is to identify the victim,” Moss said. “We hope we can do that from this piece of paper.”

A lawyer who said he can dent the roof of his $38,000 off-road vehicle with his elbow filed a class-action suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court Friday.

But Range Rover of America, which distributes the British-built machine in the United States, replied that attorney Edward J. Navarro appears to be the only one who signed up for the class.

“I stood in the door of the car to wax the top, put my arm down on the roof and left an elbow imprint,” Navarro said. “Tonka Toys are made of better materials than that.”

A spokesman for the distributor said more than 200,000 Range Rovers have been sold in Europe since it was introduced in 1970 and more than 4,000 have been sold in the United States during the last year with no previous complaints about denting.

When last heard from, Agoura sculptor John Perry was going to check with Baxter Ward to learn whether the former newscaster and former county supervisor would like to have a 16-foot inflatable kangaroo and a 28-foot inflatable whale help him in his runoff campaign against incumbent Supervisor Mike Antonovich.

The blow-ups had been used extensively by a coalition of challengers (not including Ward) during the primary.

Ward, Perry reports, has politely declined the inflatable help. “He thought it was a little too far out,” said the man who created both balloons several years ago. “He wants to run a more orthodox campaign.”