DISQUS

Aw, the humanity.

Yeah, Toad, it's not in the absolute best area of town; it's at Atlantic and Burnett. You should be okay, though. Have fun!

I mean really, Disco_bill, is posting on our site your life's important work? We're going bankrupt, buddy--it must be true 'cause YOU said it, right, not me? Why waste your precious time on little old us?

And so you take time out of your busy day to post on our site and legitimize us because ... ?

You should. I went there last night, and their batter's a little heavier than I'm used to, but it was really good.

(Also, maybe the reason it seemed heavy is 'cause I ate like eight pieces of fish. You eat enough of anything, it seems heavy.)

LB City Girl, thanks for writing. Obviously, I agree. I think we should be able to be safe in our city regardless of our sex, our age, or what time of day or night we're outside. And I think it's a shame that the time of night this happened and the victim's age sometimes seem to be in danger of overshadowing the crime that was committed against her.

Hi, Mike, you know, the subject of advertising in The District Weekly never came up.

Hi, Toad, good question, but I'm not sure that's the case here. This may sound like a simple deal to those of us on the outside (myself included). But as Salvation Army Major Madsen told me on June 10, when I asked him about the money, a portion of the valuations placed on this deal--which could affect how much money remains to be raised--involve the Salvation Army's own holdings. I agree with you (I think) that in-kind donations are not the same thing as handing over a wad of greenbacks--but I would argue that these are not the only numbers which could be subject to change. And while we're on that subject, I should say this in defense of Snoop's $5 million in-kind donation: that's one number which hasn't changed.
Long story short: while it's possible that some financial numbers may have changed since last we wrote about this project, I don't believe Snoop's donation is among them. That's still $5 million, as far as I'm aware.

Reminds me of that great quote from "Repo Man": "Let's do some crimes." (Which, by the way, I am not advocating. I just think it's a good line.)

Toad, you're right. Thanks for the catch. Interesting that you met THE Julian. I'm not sure what they're going to call the new courthouse--but that's certainly an idea. (Currently, of course, I think it's just called the County Building.)

Hi again, Toad, looks like you were right about some comments disappearing: apparently a few comments did somehow get marked as spam by our spam filter--which obviously doesn't seem to have been doing its job. I'll talk to our web guys and see what we can do about getting those comments restored. Not sure where they are now--somewhere in the ether.

Hi, Toad, thanks for being more specific. I'll contact our web guys and see what they can tell me.

Hi, Toad, good question--but I don't think this story had any comments until this morning, about three hours ago (give or take). You may be thinking of a piece I wrote Monday, in advance of this press conference; or of an exclusive I wrote last November, when Snoop and his wife came to town to help feed some folks less fortunate than themselves. Both those pieces--particularly the latter--had comments on them, and to the best of my knowledge, none of those comments were deleted.

sunshinelb and howardx, here's the deal with points assigned to comments: basically, howardx is right. Our web folk tell me that Disqus allows commenters to rank each others' comments using that "like" option at the bottom of the post. That's about it. We're not spying on you from our satellite; in fact, we don't even have a satellite. Now, as for those black helicopters ... .

Hi, sunshinelb and howardx, I have no idea what the deal is with points assigned to comments. Until reading your comment, I seriously didn't know there was such a thing. But I'll find out, and I'll get back to you. Thanks for letting me know about this.

Howardx, I agree with you. I wondered about the timing--but I think it's a good ordinance. Sound as a pound (which I think is still worth about $2 U.S. American.)

Hi, Toad, good question. The answer: Mark Ficarra is leaving the company that owns the P-T. The newspaper he's joining, the Union-Tribune, was formerly owned by Copley--the same family-based company that owned the Daily Breeze--but it was purchased earlier this year by a concern called Platinum Equity. The P-T and the Daily Breeze (and the Grunion and Downtown Gazettes) are, of course, all owned by Dean Singleton's MediaNews Group.

RDM24 and Rob08, congratulations on exercising your rights as American citizens. I'm serious: you two are doing exactly what we're entitled to; and what--as in the case of Ms. Richardson--we all should do. Think about it--you're only two people. But what would the Congresswoman's response be if her Long Beach office logged, say, 50 calls a day from constituents wanting to know her position on Prop. 8? What about 100 calls? I think we might see a kindler, gentler, more accessible Laura Richardson. (I did say "might".)

Rob08, thanks very much for pointing out Laura's pro-same-sex marriage stance. You're a can-do kinda guy. If only the Congresswoman's own staffers were so forthcoming on their boss's voting record and positions on issues. I guess I'll always be flabbergasted--and not a little pissed off--that we let our elected officials get away with stonewalling us like this. I happen to think our elected officials owe it to us--the voters--to keep us informed on what they're doing. Sadly, I don't see that kind of communication (or, here, any communication) from Richardson or her staff. (I'm still waiting for her to "reach out" to me!)

Hi, Wanderlust. I, too, thought the rally was amazing. It was really encouraging to see so many folks of all ages out there. I felt like what Kimberlee Woods said--during the rally at Bixby Park--really summed up a lot of what I heard out there last night. Thanks for reading.

Downtown, thanks for writing; you make some interesting points. I think it's worth noting that recreating the past as it was once done--pouring massive streamlined concrete fronts a la Acres of Books or the KFOX building--is increasingly impossible today given the way we build buildings now, and how costs have risen. So we are indeed faced with the choices of A) not tearing down what remains; B) creatively reusing what we have, as in the case of Courtyard Lofts; or C) trying to recreate the past using the technologies and perspectives we now have, as in the case of some of the newer pharmacies on Long Beach Boulevard.

M'ster, thanks for the tip.

Hi, Jackie, I'm afraid I have to disagree a little with your description of City Hall. City staff does report to the City Manager. But ultimately, they ARE also responsible to our elected officials--who, of course, represent us. If this doesn't make sense, just ask yourself: if we the people weren't able to have some tiny degree of oversight through our elected officials, wouldn't we be living in some sort of weird police state? We would--but, of course, we don't. We live in a democracy--and believe me, if you make enough noise, through your council person, and in person, you can effect change.
In a situation like this, I feel like we should absolutely let our Mayor and our council representatives know how we feel about things like late-night fights on Second Street. They may not do anything; they may not be able to--but we need to get this stuff on the record, as they say in court. Otherwise, no one even knows that we care.

Shea, here's Hanson's take on it in his story: "Riverside, for example, says increased freight rail traffic from the ports through their city could lead to unbearable traffic delays at the city's 25 rail crossings--including for emergency vehicles like police cars and ambulances."

I WAS worried about that--but now I'm not! Yay!