After a brush with fame, longshoreman reprises his role as a movie reviewer.

TAKE TWO, TANK: Longshoreman Rawlan (Tank) Nelson is back. An avid movie buff who posts his favorite Academy Award picks outside his San Pedro apartment, Nelson became a sensation earlier this year when Hollywood discovered his common-man analyses of major motion pictures. (This is the guy who summed up “Singin’ in the Rain” like this: “I can’t think of a man who saw Cyd Charisse dancing with Gene Kelly and was not in love.”)

But all the attention--including appearances on the “Today” show, “The Dennis Miller Show” and a regular movie reviewing spot on a local radio station--dried up not long after profiles of him appeared last February in local papers.

Nelson considered the hoopla his 15 minutes of fame and went back to his regular life hoisting baggage at the Port of Los Angeles and talking about movies over breakfast with his pals.

Until “The Joan Rivers Show” called last week.

Nelson was flown to New York City, put up in the ritzy Plaza Hotel and shuttled to the studio in a stretch limousine. To hear his pithy critiques of the holiday releases, tune in at 9 p.m. Thursday.

RENT-A-TREE: It looks like a publicist’s dream: advancing a worthy cause (recycling) in a way that just happens to promote your client (in this case, furniture giant IKEA, which recently opened a new store in Carson).

What else could explain a recent press release from IKEA, which boasts it is continuing a longstanding holiday tradition by “renting Christmas trees to customers and then recycling the trees after the start of the new year.”

“This year,” it said, “IKEA is continuing another tradition by joining forces for a second time with Treepeople, a nonprofit environmental organization, to encourage local tree planting after the holidays.”

Here’s the deal: First you pay $10 for a 5- to 7-foot Douglas Fir Christmas tree and $10 for a lease (total price: $20 plus tax). Then in January, the trees can be brought back to IKEA for mulching. Customers have three options regarding their deposit: IKEA will refund the $10 deposit, provided they have the original copy of the lease; customers can donate their $10 deposit to Treepeople, which will plant a tree in someone’s honor; or customers may choose to receive a $20 IKEA coupon toward the purchase of merchandise worth $100 or more.

There are a few stipulations; for one, the trees must be returned to the same IKEA store from which they were rented.

BAY WATCH: Not to be outdone by IKEA’s holiday promotion, Heal the Bay has gone one step further by mixing environmentalism with--what else?--holiday shopping.

The nonprofit group, which promotes a cleaner and healthier Santa Monica Bay, announced it has opened two stores, one in the Westside Pavilion and the other at The Galleria at South Bay in Redondo Beach.

All proceeds will support Heal the Bay’s year-round education, research and policy programs to stop beach pollution in Southern California. The organization said it will operate the stores through Dec. 31.

“Not only do our stores generate revenue for Heal the Bay, they also advance our ecological agenda because the stores carry environmentally friendly products,” said Adi Liberman, executive director of Heal the Bay. “It’s all part of thinking globally by acting locally.”

A Heal the Bay press release said the stores carry “quality, environmentally friendly items, from Heal the Bay’s signature logo shirts to jewelry creations crafted from recycled glass and sterling silver. Also, all the classic favorites, such as Heal the Bay baseball caps, coffee mugs, canvas tote bags, pens and stationery, are available.

“This year, more than 80% of the retail wear for infants to adults is made of 100% organically grown U.S. cotton, which not only feels and looks better, but also never sends one drop of pesticides into the water table or as runoff into rivers and oceans,” it added.

HOLD EVERYTHING: Just when City Hall wags were preparing farewell speeches for Joan Milke Flores, the longtime Los Angeles councilwoman said Friday she may seek reelection after all.

“Right now, I’m leaning toward it,” said Flores, who lost a bid for a congressional seat. “It would give me a chance to finish up some things we’ve started” like the cleanup of industrial East Wilmington and several new facilities including a new senior citizens center in Wilmington, she said.

While Flores is not committing to any timetable, she said she hopes to make an announcement on her plans before the New Year. “I’d like to get it decided so I don’t think about it through the holidays.”

LAST WEEK’S CITY HALL HIGHLIGHTS

Rancho Palos Verdes: The City Council elected Susan Brooks mayor. She succeeds John McTaggart. Councilman Steve Kuykendall was elected mayor pro tem. The council also gave second approval to revised plans by Palos Verdes Land Holdings Co. and Zuckerman Building Co. to develop 258 acres of oceanfront bluff property.

Gardena: The City Council last week formalized its commitment to annex Gardena High School’s 57 acres, which currently are part of the City of Los Angeles. A school board committee earlier this year recommended the move as a way to improve police response time to incidents at the school. The council unanimously passed a resolution backing the annexation and will now apply to the county’s Local Agency Formation Commission.

THIS WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS

Inglewood: Good fences may make good neighbors in Robert Frost’s New England, but in Inglewood officials are worried that the drive to fence one’s self off from the mean streets is producing a walled city. Next Tuesday the City Council will take up a proposed amendment to the zoning code that would require fences to be of an open design, with only the first two feet of any fence allowed to be solid.

GOVERNMENT MEETINGS THIS WEEK Avalon: 7 p.m. Tuesday, 209 Metropole. (310) 510-0220. Televised live on Channel 3 (Catalina Cable) and repeated Saturday morning. Carson: 6 p.m. Tuesday, 701 E. Carson St. (310) 830-7600. Televised at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday on Channel 26 (Continental Cablevision) and repeated the following Wednesday. El Segundo: 7 p.m. Tuesday, 350 Main St. (310) 322-4670. Televised live on Channel 22 (Paragon) and repeated at noon Wednesday. Inglewood: 7 p.m. Tuesday, 1 Manchester Blvd. (310) 412-5280. No cable telecast. Lawndale: 7 p.m. Thursday, 14717 Burin Ave. (310) 973-4321. Televised live on Channel 60 and repeated several times during the week. Lomita: 7 p.m. Monday, 24300 Narbonne Ave. (310) 325-7110. No cable telecasts. Los Angeles: 10 a.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday at 200 N. Spring St., Los Angeles. In San Pedro, (310) 548-7637; in Wilmington, (310) 548-7586; in Harbor City/Harbor Gateway, (310) 548-7664; in Westchester, (310) 641-4717. Televised live on Channel 35; meetings repeated individually at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday and collectively on Sunday starting at 10 a.m. Manhattan Beach: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, 1400 Highland Ave. (310) 545-5621. Televised on Channel 3 (MultiVision) at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Rancho Palos Verdes: 7 p.m. Tuesday, Hesse Park, 29201 Hawthorne Blvd. (310) 377-0360. Televised live on Channel 3; repeated at 7:30 p.m. the following Thursday. Redondo Beach: 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, 415 Diamond St. (310) 372-1171. Televised live on Channel 8 (Century); repeated at 3 p.m. Wednesday and 6 p.m. Sunday. Torrance: 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, 3031 Torrance Blvd. (310) 618-5880. Televised live on Channel 22 (Paragon), and replayed at 10 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, and at 10 a.m., and at 3 and 8 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.