Recently in SoCal Val

So you think it's impossible to outsource our streets? Take a look at these manhole covers. One from Mexico. Another from India, proudly displayed under the "City of Los Angeles."

If you spot any covers from other countries DO snap a photo and send it to us. We'll start a gallery and call it the "Small small world of manhole covers."

OK—everybody sing to the tune of "It's a Small World." Ready?

It's a world of pavement.
A world of tar.
It's a place where manholes come from afar.
So our jobs disappear
Cause we don't make them here.
It's a manhole after all.

Hey. I think I heard someone harmonizing.

So it's 6:00 on Friday and I realize I am the Grand Marshall of the Latino Heritage Parade in Pasadena the next morning -- and yikes!

I don't have a single thing to wear!

My father was from Mexico and my Spanish is conversational, but my closet is full of Talbot's.

I beeline it down to Olvera Street and for $29 -- voila! A Oaxacan blouse, sash and fake flower and I am Senorita Zavala.

The car I'm riding is, by the way, is a 1973 French something-or-other that has been in enough movies for a SAG card.

What kind of Grand Marshall would I be if I didn't throw candy to the kids. Add $20 for that and the total comes to $49. I also got $20 in cash but I realized later I forgot to get it from the cashier. Damn. Have you ever done that? I won't add that in.

The funny part was when adults actually would yell, "Hey -- over here! Over here!"

I don't know if anyone actually knew who I was, but what the heck. Tuve un gran tiempo! And what a bargain.

So I’m walking down the leafy lanes of San Marino the other day -- no I don’t live there -- and couldn’t help but notice how lush and green all the lawns were. Hey. Wait a minute. Aren’t we in a drought? Aren’t Socal homeowners all being watched by the irrigation police?

A quick call to a spokesperson for city of San Marino revealed that residents of this affluent community don’t have to worry about what day of the week it is when their automatic sprinklers pop up. No water diet for these well-tended lawns. They get all the H2O they need to stay picture-perfect.

I asked the city official why? With TV commercials and the threat of fines reminding the rest of us to follow the watering schedules, how can they have virtual golf courses for front yards? And we’re talking some pretty big lawns for a city with only 13,000 residents. That means the water consumption per person must be pretty high!

He explained that the city isconsidering some lawn watering restrictions. But right now they don’t have any. San Marino gets its water from the MWD. So they DO have to abide by something called the “model water ordinance.” And the city has done good things like installing more efficient sprinkling systems along street medians. But as far as private lawns are concerned, it’s just another day in Seattle. So if you get tired of seeing blocks of brown and yellow in your neck of the woods, take a stroll among the moneyed mansions in San Marino.

Oh.. FYI.. the Huntington Gardens in San Marino, with its spacious lawns and scenic gardens --they get their water from their own wells. God bless the lawn that’s got its own.

So you're driving along and see a sign: "Estate Sale." I can't help wondering who died. What stuff did they leave behind? But these days, dying is not a prerequisite to bargains.

Tricia Benitez Beanumis is the owner of a small company called L.A. Estate Sales. They go into homes—often high-end celebrity mansions—and inventory, photograph, set prices, and market countless items. Tricia tells me she has seen a distinct change in business. More of her clients are among the living. They may be laid off executives who have to downsize and turn their stuff into cash. Or people who can't handle California's cost of living and are moving to Washington or Nevada. It's also people who have bought foreclosed or abandoned property full of stuff that has to go.

And get this. Say you buy a foreclosed home full of furniture, appliances and countless other personal items. You bought the house—but NOT the contents. And the law requires that you give the former owner 18 days to come collect it. If they don't, then you have to try to sell it. That's where Tricia's company comes in. And even after selling the stuff, you have to give any proceeds (minus expenses) to the city. Jeez! All that trouble and not even lunch money.

Tricia tells me one abandoned property was owned by a hoarder. It was filthy. Her people had to wear masks while they cataloged and photographed thousands of items. They'd open a closet and stuff would come spilling out. They still had to give the hoarder 18 days to come get it all. I suspect the compulsive collector just started again in a new place.

So what conclusion has Tricia come to after four years of estate sale organizing? First, she's a clutter cop. Second—no surprise—we Americans have TOO MUCH STUFF! And these days it's the grim economy and not the grim reaper that is driving that lesson home.

Then again, if you haven't learned your lesson yet, and want to get some GREAT bargains, check out Tricia's website for a preview of upcoming estate sales. I admit I love browsing.

Grunion run between March and September. So there’s still some time to get your grunion hunting in.  

Last year I went to the very fun and funky Santa Monica beach art event called “Glow”. It was an all-night happening. Tons of fun capped off by a really lucky event - the appearance of tons of tiny silver sparkling fish doing their spawning thing in the sand. Seems that grunion wanted in on the performance art and they were a hit. 

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Remember our story from last fall about a group of nighttime “guerrilla gardeners” who descended on an ugly, trashed-out plot of dirt in Hollywood? Well, it’s been about ten months and I thought I’d go back to Sunset and Van Ness to see if our labors were all for naught - or if the plants we put in survived life in L.A.

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For our story on food waste, I went to the L.A. Regional Food Bank and talked with Michael Flood. He said demand for food is up 35% from a year ago. But at the same time, taking cooked food or leftovers from caterers is hard for them. They are not set up to store it or turn it around fast enough. But they have increased their store of fresh fruits and vegetables thanks to some innovative relationships with grocery stores and produce suppliers.

So do pickups from catered events make sense for a large food bank?

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I did a webcam interview with Zac Sunderland who is sailing around the world solo, hoping to set a record as the youngest person to do that. Here are some bites that didn't make it on air.

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Here in Hollywood/ Los Feliz we have the nation's biggest hospital. This $600 million Kaiser Medical Center  opened in March. It is completely computerized, with electronic records, state-of-the-art equipment and spacious design.

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$178,789 a year. That’s how much you’d be earning if you were an L.A. City Council member. In fact you’d be earning more than any other city council person in the nation. Higher than New Yorkers. It also puts them in the top 5% of wage earners in the U.S. Plus the raises happen automatically, so L.A. City Council members don’t actually have to vote themselves an increase. Nice.

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It’s hard to imagine that hundreds of thousands of Angelenos don’t have an ATM card, or a checking account, savings account, retirement account, etc. But it’s true. LA is the #1 city in the country for “unbanked” as they are called.

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Marc will often perform concerts at nursing homes and schools. And he performs concerts for charity. He raised more than $800,000 for the victims of the earthquake in China. I asked what it feels like to be so well-known.

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Is there really a place where tax time makes people happy?  Yes there is. Take a look.

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Hello All -

L.A. has some strange sights. But this one is a winner. I took this photograph in Silverlake on March 10th. My caption is attached, but I invite you all to add your own. (No, I did NOT photoshop it.)

Our story this week on Sergeant Angie Peacock shows you how one woman really wanted to make the Army her career. She was committed and gung-ho. But in 2001 she was raped by a fellow soldier while stationed in South Korea. Then was traumatized by combat in Iraq. In 2003 she was diagnosed with PTSD and discharged.

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You gotta see this documentary called The Garden. (And not just because a Life & Times segment I did is in the doc for a whole 30 seconds.)

Remember a few years ago when there was big fight over a huge community garden south of downtown? It’s where mostly Latino gardeners used to grow everything from cilantro to bananas. You may remember the news stories with Darryl Hannah up a tree. But the full story is fascinating and revealing. And now the doc has been nominated for an Oscar!

The battle starts when the property owner wants his land back. That sets off a multi-year legal fight that uncovers - surprise - some L.A. City Hall shenanigans, Black-Brown tensions, and a behind-the-scenes feud between Mayor Villaraigosa and City Councilwoman Jan Perry. The ending is as dramatic as a Hollywood film. Only this one is real.

I’ll be rooting for it on Sunday. Here’s a clip along with comments from the director, Scott Hamilton Kennedy.

Val Zavala gives you a behind-the-scenes look at how SoCal Connected is made. Meet our editors, our cameramen, our producers, and, well, just about everyone else who makes the show happen.

I felt so bad for Keith Woodard, the tenant whose landlord didn’t pay the mortgage. Keith was evicted, lost his security deposit and had to leave behind thousands of dollars of appliances that he bought with his own money. (No place to store them.)

So whether you are a long-time tenant, or are about to rent a place don’t be naïve. Check out your landlord. Is he/she in foreclosure or close to foreclosure? It’s not hard to find out. You just have to know the steps.

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Ok. Here what a non-animal activist, non-zoo supporter has concluded after learning more about elephants than I care to know. (Don’t ask me about the herpes virus.) In short:

Yes. Billy should stay at the zoo. No. Elephants in general should not be in zoos.

And finally, spending $42 million an elephant house is nuts.

Billy should stay at the zoo, but only because he’s been there since he was a toddler living in a very small enclosure. He’s now 23. When he moves into his new home he’ll be in pachyderm paradise relatively speaking. Also, zoologists point out that Billy has pristine DNA material. He came from Malaysia and has yet to make elephant whoopee. So if you’re going to try to help an endangered species, Billy got blue ribbon genes. Let’s just hope future babies have a better survival rate than past attempts have achieved.

But overall, I’ve come to believe elephants should not be on a zoo’s viewing menu. They need WAY more space than even the L.A. zoo is giving Billy. Too little space leads to serious foot and joint diseases. And a new study shows elephants have a much shorter life expectancy in zoos compared to those in protected natural areas. If they want to breed Asian elephants, can’t they do it sanctuaries?

Finally, the cost of this whole project is ridiculous. $42 million dollars for an elephant enclosure - even before cost overruns - while the City is facing a $110 million deficit and a bigger one coming next year! How did this happen? Well, as one city council member who prefers to stay nameless said, once a government project gets going it’s nearly impossible to stop. And the elephant project is already a third complete.

And on a final financial note … It’s hard to believe, but for reasons that only a municipal accountant understands, it would actually cost MORE to stop the project than finish it. That’s right. They’ve spent $12 out of $42 million. So simple math says you’ll save $30 million. Right? But wait. This is municipal math. There’s nothing simple about it. So taxpayers they tell us will save money by spending another $30 million to finish the project.

All the while human beings are homeless on the streets, gangs are terrorizing neighborhoods, and millions of people are without adequate medical care. But the zoo officials assure us they will spare no expense to give Billy the elephant the best medical care possible.

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