Feuer Heads for Robinsons- May Complaint Desk--in St. Louis
Unhappy with the lack of enthusiasm the Robinsons-May department stores are showing for a proposed renovation of the Sherman Oaks Galleria, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and City Councilman Mike Feuer are planning a road trip to St. Louis to put pressure on the retailer’s corporate bigwigs.
The date for the meeting has yet to be set, but Feuer’s staff says the trip--his first official jaunt since taking office in July--is expected to be scheduled in the next few weeks.
The hangout for the mythical Valley girl portrayed in Frank Zappa’s 1982 anthem, the Galleria is expected to undergo a $30-million face lift that would add 13 movie screens and 27,000 square feet of new restaurants.
The merger of Robinsons and the May Co. left the mall with the same store operating at each end of the mall. Unlike most stores that rent space in the mall, the Robinsons-May outlets own their own sections.
Although the renovations have been approved by the city’s Planning Commission, company officials are skeptical that the improvements will ever become reality and are offering no plans of their own.
Feuer and his staff have met with local representatives of the stores but have been unable to get them to make a commitment.
“It doesn’t really make sense to do this major renovation without Robinsons-May participating in some way,” said Jane Blumenfeld, Feuer’s chief of staff.
When Feuer broached the idea of the trip to Riordan, hizzoner decided to tag along to add his own influence to the cause.
Feuer is also trying to arrange a stopover in Cincinnati so he can meet with representatives of Federated Department Stores to discuss the continued operation of two troubled Macy’s stores on the Westside.
Web Site on a Budget
Four inches thick and weighing a couple of pounds, Gov. Pete Wilson’s proposed 1996-97 budget is not exactly light reading. Nor is it very easy to tote around.
But the Department of Finance, the office that actually puts the spending plan together, has a site on the Internet where Web wonks can take a break from the usual cyberspace offerings of girls in bikinis and techno-babble.
Located at https://www.dof.ca.gov, the page offers summaries of the budget as well as primers on just what the Department of Finance does. But be warned: Downloading some of the rather wordy documents can take a while.
More time, in fact, than it took for opinions of Wilson’s $65.1-billion budget to filter through the Capitol building. Even before the governor finished briefing reporters at one end of the Capitol, critics and supporters were queuing to whip up a little political Sturm und Drang.
How the budget played depended in large part on which side of the aisle the opinion came from. Republicans loved it. Democrats hated it. Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl, a Santa Monica Democrat, characterized the split as “deeply partisan” and said the two camps were separated by the “deepest ideological divides.”
But Assemblyman William “Pete” Knight (R-Palmdale) figured Wilson’s budget was not bad at all, as it tries to meet the conservative goal of reducing government’s role in people’s daily lives.
Whatever the case, the first draft is almost never the last draft. With an uneasy balance in the Legislature, it takes 54 Assembly votes to approve the budget, so Democrats will almost surely win concessions.
“There will be compromises,” Kuehl said.
Alphabet Soup
The alphabet begins with the letter I and ends with the letter O, in the eyes of the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder’s office.
In an annual exercise, county elections officials recently threw the letters into a fishbowl and plucked them out one by one to determine the order of ballots for the March 26 primary.
The practice began back in 1975 in response to court rulings that declared the standard alphabetical order to be unconstitutional, unfair to the Zev Yaroslavskys of the world. The courts did not consider putting the incumbent first to be fair, either.
Political consultants say a candidate can receive extra votes by appearing at the top of the ballot, which could prove to be a critical boost in a tight race. So candidates wait for the county’s randomized alphabet with bated breath.
The general rule is that being first on the ballot is best. Being in the middle of a large pack is dreadful. Falling at the bottom of the ballot is so-so.
The county’s new alphabet is: IEZUHDQVRCPNTKBGJXLSFYMWAO.
Most of the rest of California will use the order selected by the secretary of state’s office:
GEFCYPDBZIVAUSMLHKNTOJQRXW.
Name Games
Question: Who among the following is running for Congress this year: Michael Jordan, Sonny Bono or Michael Jackson?
Answer: All three.
Yes, Jordan, Bono and Jackson have all filled out papers to run for California congressional seats. But Michael Jordan is a Pepperdine University journalism professor, not the basketball ace. And Michael Jackson is a Northern California attorney, not the one-gloved wonder. Only Sonny Bono, the onetime Mr. Cher now representing Palm Springs in the House, is the person you’re thinking of.
Jordan is one of seven Democrats hoping to replace retiring Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) in the 24th District. The others are Brad Sherman, Elisa Charouhas, Craig Freis, Elizabeth A. Knipe, Jeffrey A. Lipow and Mark Steven Pash.
Four Republicans hope to succeed Beilenson, including Rich Sybert, who came within a hair of unseating him in 1994. Others are Joe Gelman, Kyo R. Jhin and Stephen C. Brecht.
Erich Miller is the Libertarian candidate, while Ralph Shroyer will represent the Peace and Freedom Party and Ronald Lawrence will represent the Natural Law Party.
By the way, Jordan, the journalism professor, does play basketball. But it’s for the Pepperdine faculty intramural team, not the Chicago Bulls. He says he averages about three points a game and can’t dunk.
Martin reported from Los Angeles, Curtiss from Sacramento and Lacey from Washington, D.C.
