People and Events

The sight of the iguana is not uncommon in Los Angeles, a census of the Department of Animal Regulation indicates.

The spiny-backed lizard made famous by such writers as Tennessee Williams and James M. Cain is the most popular exotic critter in the city. There are 511 residents who hold iguana permits.

Monkeys are next on the list of documented animals with 43, followed by such unusual house pets as tarantulas (14), scorpions (11), llamas (9), boa constrictors (8), raccoons (4), alligators (2), deer (male) (1), tigers (1) and African lions (1). The iguana, which is common to Mexico, is apparently a favorite of the heavy Latin population here. Meyer Levine of Animal Regulation theorized that while some permit-holders might station the animals in their yard as watch-lizards, others could be trying to raise little iguanas “because they are considered a delicacy.”

Although it’s not reflected in the city figures, the exotic animal population has decreased with the recent move of singer Michael Jackson’s menagerie to his new ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley.

Jackson has one-year permits to keep a llama, a chimp and a deer at his one-acre estate in Encino, having previously disposed of a baby giraffe and a boa constrictor. “We had an inspector out there the other day and all the animals were gone,” Levine said.

Jackson’s chimp, Bubbles, may well prefer the seclusion of the Santa Ynez Valley since the humiliation of last year when the animal was denied entry with Jackson into Great Britain because of quarantine laws.

There’s an Ortega in Central America who doesn’t like Ronald Reagan. However, an Ortega on Central Avenue in Duarte feels differently.

Robert Ortega, the principal of Northview Middle School, wants to rename his school after Reagan, no matter what Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega might think.

“This has nothing to do with politics,” Northview’s Ortega said. “I just think it would be very good publicity for us to have one of the first schools in the country named after Reagan.”

Ortega plans to poll local school officials as well as Northview’s students.

“The poll of the students will be structured,” he said, explaining that merely asking the students who they’d like to name the school for would likely result in a rock group being honored.

“You might wind up with AC/DC Middle School,” Ortega noted.

Pershing Square was called Central Park back then. On Feb. 21, 1889, the City Council established the first Los Angeles Department of Parks.

To mark the anniversary Tuesday, the city Recreation and Parks Department is throwing a noontime party in the plaza near Olvera Street, featuring ethnic dance groups as well as a presentation by Mayor Tom Bradley of memorabilia to be placed in a time capsule.

The capsule, which will be buried in the plaza, will contain such items as two feathers from the endangered California condors at the Los Angeles Zoo, a bottled grunion from Cabrillo Marine Museum and a letter from Bradley to whoever is mayor of Los Angeles in the year 2089, assuming it’s someone different.