Los Angeles City Hall’s penchant for waging...

Los Angeles City Hall’s penchant for waging its own foreign policy dates back at least as far as 1959, when Mayor Norris Poulson gave his 2 cents to visiting Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. Since then the City Council has passed resolutions condemning Cuba, China, the Soviet Union and others.

So City Councilman Nate Holden was only acting in the grand tradition Friday when he urged the nation to buy American-made products and boycott foreign goods. Citing figures that Americans conduct 40% of their buying during the holidays, he said such a boycott could “really make a difference.”

In fact, sales were a little sluggish at some malls on the day after Thanksgiving. Maybe the rain was a factor, too.

Perhaps it won’t clear up the controversy regarding the financial condition of the insurance companies, but it’s nevertheless true that a Reseda discount store is displaying a selection of blue-and-white ties with Farmers Insurance Group logos. They’ve been rolled back to 99 cents each.

The city of Long Beach may be the “Most on the Coast,” as it claims in its new advertising, but it’s come up short in a couple of departments. The town discovered too late that its specially ordered 80-foot Christmas tree was not the tallest in the area; that honor went to a 100-footer at Newport Beach’s Fashion Island.

And Long Beach hotel officials, wooing Michigan’s Rose Bowl team, said they were told by the school that the team had decided to stay in Irvine because that city is “more aesthetically pleasing.” (This came as no surprise to Irvine, whose slogan is “Another Day in Paradise.”)

In search of a comment from Michigan University, a reporter placed a call to Bob de Carolis, Michigan’s assistant athletic director.

It was answered by a man who said: “Bob de Carolis.”

The reporter asked him why Michigan had passed over Long Beach.

“This isn’t Bob,” the man responded and hung up.

Of course, Los Angeles also has that left-out feeling when it comes to hosting teams.

Notre Dame, which plays USC in the Coliseum today, is staying in Newport Beach. And the school’s band didn’t come West. The Notre Dame musicians get to make only one trip during the football season and they chose to accompany the team to . . . Pittsburgh.

Los Angeles’ Metro Hoof transit system kicked off as horse-drawn carriages began giving shoppers rides down Broadway on Fridays and weekends. Businesses will give free ride coupons to customers who make minimum purchases of $25 between now and the end of the year. It’s all part of a revitalization effort in the area. Broadway is the most heavily traveled street west of Chicago, with an average of 125,000 people during business hours, said a spokeswoman for a local merchants group. Make that 125,000 people and three horses.

If you’re going to drop by the Long Beach Hyatt-Regency Hotel this weekend, shhhhhhhh. Seven hundred chess players are competing there for $100,000 in prizes.