David Duel didn’t think he’d have to lay off 45 of his 52 employees.
But that’s what the 23-year-old and his two partners, Sean Neman, 23, and Kevin Refoud, 25, did in April after their company, ReGreen, didn’t receive $900,000 for water efficiency work from an incentive program run by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
“In every sense, we’ve had to downsize our company,” said Duel in a barren office so new that fresh paint scent was still in the air.
The incentive program provides rebates to customers and vendors such as ReGreen, which installs water-efficient devices, including toilets and washing machines, for clients.
The pugnacious tone of City Atty. Carmen Trutanich’s letter to members of the Los Angeles Planning Commission last week has raised eyebrows around City Hall – and a city planning commissioner said today that some of the language in the letter’s last paragraphwas “disturbing and frankly a little bit frightening.”
Trutanich skewered commissioners in his missive after they ignored his request Thursday to delay deliberations on a plan for placing 40,000 square feet of billboards and other outdoor signs on the Los Angeles Convention Center so his assistants had more time to study it as part of a broader billboard policy review.
In his July 10 letter, the new city attorney told commissioners “there are limits to the discretion and governmental immunities that you enjoy as public officials. I will not hesitate to act in the future if it appears that you are aiding and abetting unlawful conduct despite my contrary advice.”
Speaking to the City Council this morning during a routine item on his reappointment, Planning Commissioner Sean Burton said the last paragraph of the letter “implied there might be some personal liability for the commissioners,” in part because of the use of the aiding, abetting and unlawful action.
Responding to the state’s deepening budget crisis, authorities shut down most Los Angeles County Superior Court operations today as an unpaid furlough program took effect for the first time.
Although all courthouses will remain open, 93% of the county’s 5,400 court employees have been told to stay home on the third Wednesday of each month until June. Presiding Judge Charles "Tim" McCoy said he was forced to take the step in anticipation of a $138-million funding shortfall for the fiscal year that began this month.
“This is not a good day for the people of Los Angeles County,” McCoy said in a statement. “For the first time in modern memory, we are forced to shut down most of our court system because we can’t afford to keep it operating.”
The Los Angeles City Council today approved plans for a new 43-story mixed-use building downtown, on South Figueroa Street just south of Staples Center.
The high-rise will include 273 residential units stacked atop an eight-level podium, restaurants and a spa. The project, approved 10 to 0, was supported by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Councilwoman Jan Perry, who represents that portion of downtown.
The project is backed by CA Human Technologies, a joint venture of two Korean firms, and the building was designed by Daniel Libeskind, best known for his Jewish Museum in Berlin and his much-altered master plan for the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan.
Los Angeles City Councilman Herb Wesson plans to ask his colleagues today to consider issuing a yet-to-be-calculated amount of bonds for a series of green projects. The work would include the early stages of the city’s $2-billion plan to revitalize the Los Angeles River, the retrofit of city buildings to make them more energy efficient and the acquisition of land to attract and house green manufacturing firms in the area east of downtown designated as the CleanTech Manufacturing Corridor.
Wesson’s staff said he also hopes that money from the potential bonds could be used to aid firms in building factories and purchasing equipment if they locate in the CleanTech Corridor.
The Community Redevelopment Agency has begun talks with an Italian rail firm, AnsaldoBreda, that has said it would build a rail car manufacturing plant in the CleanTech Corridor if it wins a $300-million contract from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Wesson plans to hold a news conference this morning to discuss his proposal, but most of the details are still vague.
Wesson’s aide said the councilman was open to issuing the bonds any time in the next three years, depending on the pace of economic recovery. Part of the proposal, which would have to be approved by the City Council, would ask that officials spend the next six months studying how much money the city should seek through the bonds.
The city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, for example, would be asked to calculate how much would be needed to purchase desired land in the CleanTech Corridor; the Bureau of Engineering would look at how much money would be needed for river revitalization projects over the next 10 years -- with a focus on removing concrete along the river bed to return the waterway to its natural state.
Newly-elected Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich sent a blistering letter to city planners who approved a billboard plan over his objections last week -- stating that by “acting in haste, for no apparent reason,” they “undermined and jeopardized” the work of his office.
Trutanich sent the letter to members of the city Planning Commission on Friday, the day after the panel approved a plan for placing 40,000 square feet of billboards and other outdoor signs on the Los Angeles Convention Center near the congested interchange of the 10 and 110 freeways downtown.
Trutanich, who took office July 1, promised during the campaign that he would immediately crack down on illegal billboards and revamp the city’s sign regulations. The day before the commission meeting, Trutanich sent a letter to members asking for a two-week delay on decisions about the Convention Center billboards so that he would have time to review the policy.
Their decision to ignore his request, Trutanich wrote Friday, amounted to “an unfathomable lack of courtesy” for his administration and granted new billboard rights at a time when the city is trying to reduce the number of signs.
The City Council passed a 2002 ban on billboards, which has been the focus of a number of successful legal challenges by outdoor advertising companies. One of the ban’s weaknesses, Trutanich noted, was that the council approved numerous exceptions to the restrictions.
In his letter, Trutanich said the city had not been able to enforce its billboard ban due to its practice of “authorizing exceptions much like the ones you purported to authorize Thursday.”
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said this morning that it was the city’s responsibility to provide police protection and crowd control for the memorial of pop star Michael Jackson last week and that no one else should pay the cost.
The mayor, who had been on vacation in South Africa during the event, said he disagreed with his staff’s decision to put up a website requesting public donations to help cover the city’s cost.
“I thought it was ridiculous,” the mayor told reporters during a visit to Los Angeles Trade-Technical College.
Villaraigosa said Los Angeles is a large metropolitan city where major events occur routinely, and that the city is obligated to protect public safety. He added that no one would have expected New York or Chicago to ask others to donate for basic city services during a major event, and said he is not going to ask AEG, the owner of the Staples Center, to either pay or raise money to offset the city’s expenses.
Last week, city officials estimated that the memorial cost the city $1.4 million -- with $1.1 million directed toward police equipment and overtime costs. Several City Council members have called for a full accounting of the costs and new policies to govern the city’s response and financial obligations for extraordinary events.
A mid-summer festival is underway this weekend in Echo Park, but don’t even think of calling it the annual Echo Park Lotus Festival.
The city’s landmark lotus bed is dead, and the Asian community group that since 1972 held a summer celebration around the blooms couldn’t raise enough money to put on the event.
When the neighborhood’s chamber of commerce stepped in to put on a festival in its place, Lotus Inc., the nonprofit behind the original festival, refused to allow the chamber to use Echo Park Lotus Festival name, by which it has been known for years.
Saturday, at the event called the Echo Park Community Festival, indy rock music blared on loudspeakers, and ducks and turtles idly swam in the murky lake devoid of its once-teeming lotus blossoms and the dragon boat racing that had become a staple of the festival.
“It’s a little less of a celebration,” said Vanessa Garcia, 27, noting that this year’s festival was missing its theme celebrating Asian culture. “It was like a treat that came around once a year.”
Maxime Ung and his 10-year-old son, Nicky, were sitting on the edge of the lake Saturday, staring into the dark waters as plastic bottles, dead lotus stems, and duck feathers bobbed up and down. Without the lotus blossoms and the Asian theme, Ung said, the festival feels decidedly different. “It looks sad this year,” he said.
For those keeping track of potential Michael Jackson investigations, here are a couple of new requests to add to the list.
Los Angeles City Councilmembers Dennis Zine and Jan Perry are asking the city's administrative officer to review all city expenditures "made in response to the public reaction to the passing of Michael Jackson," and report on possible measures to offset those costs. They are also asking the city's budget and legislative analysts to come up with a policy that would create financial oversight and determine liability for "extraordinary, non-emergency, multi-departmental, large-scale events."
Zine, who shares City Controller Wendy Greuel's concern about a $48,826 boxed lunch order for 3,500 Michael Jackson first-responders from a sandwich shop in Wrightwood, has asked the city's chief legislative analyst to report back on how the city selects its vendors, particularly those outside city limits.
"The city's contracting requirements must not become so onerous that taxpayers are left footing exorbitant bills from non-local businesses," Zine said in his council motion.
While Zine has railed against the costs of the memorial, Councilwoman Janice Hahn offered a different view, saying the city benefited from the Jackson memorial. Today, Hahn introduced her own motion calling for a complete accounting of the tourism benefits derived from the memorial, saying it promoted Los Angeles as a global destination for Jackson fans.
“Los Angeles really looked good to the world,” she said.
Council members will take up the proposals later this month, and we hear there is more legislation in the works.
-- Maeve Reston and David Zahniser at L.A. City Hall
Photo: Police line the front of the Staples Center prior to the Michael Jackson memorial service. Credit: Sean Masterson / EPA
[Updated at 9 a.m.: Police and fire officials are investigating
an indoor growing operation found inside a downtown L.A. commercial building
that was engulfed in flames.
After the fire was extinguished by
firefighters, investigators discovered growing equipment inside, said police
spokesman Richard French. What was being grown though is not yet known, he
said.
Fire department spokesman Erik Scott said it
was a possible illegal operation.]
Firefighters knocked down a structure fire this morning in downtown Los Angeles that engulfed a one-story commercial building.
Several Los Angeles Fire Department trucks were called to the scene in the 600 block of South Santa Fe Avenue at 6:40 a.m., department spokesman Erik Scott said.
It took 75 firefighters 37 minutes to extinguish the blaze, Scott said.
No injuries were reported, and the cause was under investigation.
-- Raja Abdulrahim
Photo: Los Angeles city firefighters extinguish an early-morning fire in an industrial building in downtown L.A. Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times >>More photos
The Los Angeles Police Department is urging people who aren't attending Tuesday's Michael Jackson memorial service to stay away from the Staples Center area in downtown Los Angeles.
Roads in the immediate area of the Staples Center and the
Nokia Theatre already are closed to vehicles and non-ticket holders, according to LAPD Officer Tenesha Dobine.
On the east side, Flower Street is closed. On the south
side, Pico Boulevard is closed. Blaine Street is closed to the west and Olympic Boulevard to the north.
The roads will remain closed indefinitely, Dobine said.
According to the California Department of Transportation, some freeway
ramps will be closed due to the memorial service. The specific ramps
have not been finalized yet. More information to come soon.
Organizers of Michael Jackson's memorial said that in the first hour after ticket details were announced this morning, the website www.staplescenter.com had received more than 500 million hits.
Fans must
register on the site for a chance to be awarded, by lottery, a pair of the 17,500 free tickets that will be made available to the public for Tuesday's memorial service.
A news release from the Jackson family said the website is set up to prevent duplicate registrations from being accepted and that registering more than once would not increase a person’s chance of getting the wristbands and tickets necessary for the event.
Meantime, up in Los Olivos, the owners of Neverland Ranch released a statement today saying they will not allow any more tours or interviews to be conducted at the estate until the memorial service is over. The statement read:
"In deference to Michael Jackson and his family, Neverland Ranch will close its magical gates to the media and will not conduct any events from 7:00 pm Friday, July 3 until after the scheduled memorial for Michael Jackson on Tuesday, July 7. This will enable all of us, including his fans and family, to focus on the Tuesday celebration of Michael’s life at the Staples Center in Los Angeles."
A tagger whom the Los Angeles mayor once offered to mentor after he was photographed scrawling graffiti on a bus was arrested again today for allegedly tagging a tunnel and another bus.
The 17-year-old boy known as Zoner was arrested at about 1:20 p.m. when he surrendered to sheriff's detectives who earlier in the day served a search warrant at his home. The teenager was booked on suspicion of felony vandalism. Sheriff’s investigators claim he scrawled his street name on an MTA bus and other property.
“He started tagging again. Sadly, he is back at the buses again." said Lt. Erik Ruble. "This time it was the Red Line and a bus. You think he would learn after the first time.”
In 2007, when Zoner was a 15-year-old student at Santee Educational Complex south of downtown, he scrawled his nickname on the outside window of a city bus carrying Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Schools Supt. David L. Brewer, among others.
The act was captured by a photographer and appeared on the front page of The Times.
In the aftermath, Villaraigosa offered to help the boy by becoming his mentor. But Villaraigosa ran into a host of obstacles. According to sheriff investigators, the mayor did not mentor the boy.
A Santee school principal at the time called the brazen act a "cry for help" from a troubled youth who needed counseling.
Zoner’s brush with infamy occurred as the mayor and superintendent were inaugurating an MTA bus stop at the school that would eliminate a two-block walk that exposed students to dangers of life in the area. When the bus stopped one block from the school, the youth struck.
A federal judge tentatively decided today to dismiss the case against a Missouri woman who had been convicted of computer fraud stemming from an Internet hoax that prompted a teenage girl to commit suicide.
Lori Drew of Dardenne Prairie, Mo., was convicted in November of three misdemeanor counts of illegally accessing a protected computer.
The decision by U.S. District Judge George H. Wu will not become final until his written ruling is filed, probably next week. Wu said he was concerned that if Drew was found guilty of violating the terms of service in using MySpace, anyone who violated the terms could be convicted of a crime.
Drew 50, was to be sentenced in May but Wu had delayed the sentencing until today, saying he wanted to consider the defense motion to dismiss the entire case.
A federal jury convicted Drew in November of the three misdemeanor charges but deadlocked on a felony conspiracy charge that would have carried a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
The verdict was a blow to prosecutors who indicted Drew on what some called tenuous legal grounds after authorities in Missouri declined to file criminal charges.
Drew was widely criticized after the 2006 death of eighth-grader Megan Meier, an acquaintance of Drew's daughter.
Prosecutors said Drew, her daughter and her 18-year-old employee used a fake profile of a teenage boy to flirt with Megan online via Beverly Hills-based MySpace. Megan hanged herself with a belt after getting a message, purportedly from the boy, telling her that "the world would be a better place without you."
At the May hearing, Wu grilled Assistant U.S. Atty. Mark Krause at length about whether the government had prosecuted Drew under the appropriate laws when they asserted that violating MySpace's terms of service amounted to a crime.
"Is a misdemeanor committed by the conduct which is done every single day by millions and millions of people?" Wu asked. "If these people do read [the terms of service] and still say they're 40 when they are 45, is that a misdemeanor?"
Krause argued that Drew's acts were criminal because she signed up for the fake account with the intention of harming Megan by humiliating her. Drew knew her acts were illegal and deleted the account shortly after Megan's death to cover up her crime, he contended.
Prosecutors had asked Wu to impose a sentence of three years. Defense attorneys argued for probation and vehemently criticized the prosecution in court filings, calling its argument "utterly absurd."
Megan's parents, Ron and Tina Meier, made statements in court in May describing their daughter as a loving but vulnerable girl who went fishing with her father and cared deeply for her friends. They asked Wu to impose the maximum prison sentence.
"It just sickens me that it was an adult playing with the mind of a 13-year-old child," Ron Meier said in May.
-- Alexandra Zavis
Photo: Lori Drew. Credit:Nick Ut / Associated Press
Job creation will top the agenda of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's second and final term in office, which begins today when he is officially sworn in on the south steps of City Hall.
Villaraigosa also will call for a crackdown on the city's failing schools, vowing to work with his political allies on the Los Angeles Unified School District board to find "competitive alternatives," including charter schools, to clean house and to take control of subpar campuses, according to some of the mayor's top aides.
Photo: Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa gestures during an interview
Monday, June 22, 2009, at City Hall in downtown Los Angeles. Credit: AP Photo/Nick Ut
A private funeral Mass will be said this afternoon for actress Farrah Fawcett at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles.
The “Charlie’s Angels” star died Thursday of a rare cancer at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica.
A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge issued an ordered that would allow Fawcett’s 24-year-old son, Redmond O’Neal, who has been jailed on a pair of drug-related cases, to attend her funeral. O’Neal will be able to wear civilian clothes and will be accompanied by deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, said sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore.
After the funeral, O’Neal will be returned to Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic, where he is undergoing what the Sheriff’s Department calls an “intense drug rehabilitation program.”
Los Angeles detectives have used DNA from downtown car burglaries to connect three men to separate crimes and have one of the suspects in custody as they search for two others.
Detectives opted to pursue the car burglars with technology more often used in murder and sexual assault because of the potential number of victims.
“This was an unexpected windfall,” said Lt. Paul Vernon, head of detectives for the Central Police Station. “Car burglars are among the hardest criminals to tie to crimes because few are ever seen, so to identify three from DNA like this is rare, but becoming more common."
Two of the suspects -- Clifford Sutherland and Victor Garcia -- remain at large.
Blood left on a door handle identified Garcia, 28, of Los Angeles, as a match for a car burglar who smashed the window in 2007 and took cash from a man’s sports car parked near 4th and Hill streets, police said.
In another case, blood found on a paper bag left behind by a car burglar from 2008 was collected and placed in the laboratory queue for analysis. The blood was analyzed a year later and results uploaded in the state database.
In May, state database officials notified detectives that the blood matched Sutherland, 23, of Los Angeles. His DNA was on file from a prior arrest, and he is currently on probation for grand theft.
The third suspect, Ruben Vera, 43, of Lincoln Park, was arrested last week in connection with a February 2008 robbery in which a window was smashed and a stereo and CDs were stolen from a car parked on Jesse Street west of Santa Fe Street.
A lab analysis of blood recovered from the broken glass led detectives to Vera, who was on parole for burglary.
“We’re very pleased to see these matches return, even after one year,” Vernon said. “Car burglaries are a low priority compared to murders and sexual assaults, so those cases do and should take priority. We’ll see more and more of these cases coming in as more criminals are entered ... and DNA collection becomes more commonplace.”
-- Richard Winton
Photos: Victor Garcia, left, and Clifford Sutherland. Credit: Los Angeles Police Department
Leading members of the Iranian American community in Los Angeles gathered today at the corner of 7th Street and Broadway to celebrate the dedication of the first city intersection to be named after one of their own: real estate magnate and noted philanthropist Ezat Delijani.
For many of those attending, the event offered a brief respite from days of worry about family and friends in Iran, which has been rocked by the worst unrest in 30 years.
“In the midst of sadness and tragedy and bad news, we need a shining moment like this,” said Najmedin Meshkati, an engineering professor at USC.
Although the timing of the event was a coincidence, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa asked for a moment of silence in honor of those killed in the days of protests against a disputed election, which saw hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad returned to power.
“Half a world away, at this very moment, there are freedom fighters speaking out and standing up for democracy and the rule of law, some of whom have died for their conviction,” said Villaraigosa, who formally dedicated the intersection Ezat Delijani Square.
Night-time military helicopter flights over downtown Los Angeles this week are part of training exercises to familiarize military personnel with urban settings and prepare them for future assignments overseas, according to authorities.
The helicopters, which have appeared nightly for almost a week, have attracted the attention of residents as they hover over downtown landmarks like City Hall, or maneuver quickly between office skyscrapers on Bunker Hill. While many residents speculated that the diving and climbing helicopters were part of a movie shoot, authorities confirmed Wednesday that they were part of a joint exercise.
A short notice saying the LAPD would be supporting an urban military exercise was posted on the department's official blog.
The notice says the exercises started June 15 and are scheduled to end Saturday and that they will occur throughout Greater Los Angeles.
Authorities said training sites and times have been selected so they do not disrupt the daily routines of businesses and residents. Safety precautions have also been taken to protect the public and military personnel. The training is not open to the public.
Los Angeles police released security video today that captures unruly celebrants of the Lakers NBA finals victory helping themselves to merchandise at a Shell gas station convenience store blocks from the Staples Center.
The footage, shot June 14 by a security camera at the rear of the store in the 600 block of West Olympic Boulevard, shows a group of about two dozen men swarming the store and helping themselves primarily to juice, soda and energy drinks in a large cooler.
The mob shouted, “Free soda, free soda” as they grabbed merchandise in a two-minute rush in which they also smashed bottles on the floor, trampled bananas, knocked over display racks and broke a window. A YouTube video shows dozens of people assembled outside the gas station.
The owner of the gas station reported $1,200 in damage and $5,200 in lost property, said LAPD Lt. Paul Vernon. The department made nearly two dozen arrests and about the same number of crime reports for vandalism and burglaries.
A shoe store near the Staples Center that was ransacked by rowdy fans after the Lakers' victory Sunday reopened today.
Looters stole hundreds of vintage and special edition consignment sneakers from the Holy Grail, causing the store to incur $140,000 in losses and damage.
Looters grabbed shoes and set some of them afire in the street.
Richard Torres, the 29-year-old owner of the store, located at 604 W. Pico Blvd., said he hoped that people would come to his store today and support his business' reopening
"It felt like people came into our home and took something we poured our heart into. But today, we want the community to be aware that the events of Sunday did not break our spirit," Torres said.
Torres opened the business, his first, about 19 months ago, and decided to open at the corner of Pico Boulevard and Flower Street because he was a Lakers fan and he thought the post-game crowd would be the right clientele for his consignment sneakers.
Torres had been watching the Lakers game at his father's house in Corona on Sunday night and recognized that his store was in the middle of the melee on the news. Torres and his girlfriend, who manages the store, headed to the shop and found shoe boxes scattered all over the block and the storage room nearly empty.
Fewer than 20 pairs of shoes were left of about 800 pairs of consignment sneakers.
Neighbors told them the rioters had ripped open the back door while chanting, "We want shoes, we want shoes." Glass display cases had been shattered. Two computers, cash, sunglasses and hats were looted.
The term "knucklehead" is enjoying a popular comeback of sorts thanks to Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton.
Bratton has repeatedly used the word as an all-encompassing description of unruly celebrants of the Lakers' NBA title who started fires, looted stores, pelted police officers with objects and generally tried to spoil the fun for everyone else.
Now, local artist Rudy Martinez has created artwork with his own take on Bratton's new favorite word.
The silkscreen work, left, has Bratton in a definite tough-guy stance.
It's too soon to say whether the chief has created a knucklehead renaissance or knucklehead chic. But it's far from the first time the outspoken chief's language has created waves.
He likes words like "characters" and "idiots" to describe those he considers bad actors.
Five years ago, Bratton famously referred to community activist Najee Ali on a CNN television interview as "one of the biggest nitwits in Los Angeles" and to gang members as "tribal," "thugs" and "terrorists."
In the run-up to the Lakers' victory parade, Los Angeles police tried to consider and prepare for every possible contingency.
So it was cause for some angst in the pre-parade command briefings when one request in particular by the Los Angeles Police Department went unfulfilled by the city's general services department.
Los Angeles police commanders had asked the department to apply grease to lighting standards along the parade route in an effort to thwart anyone who might get the idea to climb up them for a closer look, or worse.
Pierce College student Andrea Sixtos, 19, ducked into a courtyard near Figueroa and 23rd streets to have her picture taken. She turned a bit to the side so her friend could catch the purple "L" and "A" she painted on each bare knee. She also wore her friend's purple Lakers jersey, short shorts and purple boots and a yellow Lakers cap.
"Seeing Kobe up there with his trophy and seeing all the players you see ... on TV, it was amazing," she said. "We're definitely coming back next year when they win again."
Laura Watson, 62, a technical librarian who works in Torrance, was dragged to the parade -- her first despite being a lifetime Lakers fan -- by her grandkids. A Carson resident, she was a big fan of the Magic Johnson Lakers but thinks this is the most special celebration for the 10-time champs "because of all the ups and downs they've been through."
Watson, who got there on Metrolink, her first L.A. train trip, was about to take a buyout from a downsizing at her workplace after 40 years with the company. She said the people of L.A. needed the parade to get "their minds off their troubles."
Share your Lakers victory photos on the Lakers blog
Photo: Albert De La Cruz and his wife, Blanca Cadena, with their son, Meyo,
sitting in his custom Laker stroller along the parade route. Credit: Mark Boster / Los
Angeles Times
Victor Martinez, 18, and Oscar Delcompare, 19, took three buses and the Metro from their homes in Wilmington to catch a fleeting glimpse of the Lakers atop buses riding by.
"It was worth it," Martinez said. "Even though it was just 10 seconds, it was worth it."
Delcompare skipped a welding class and Martinez skipped out on Avalon High School. But Delcompare also said it was worth it to see "the best team in the world."
Jeannette Hernandez, 18, whose friend left his car behind at the train station -- where it will be ticketed -- so they could make it to the parade, came from Pico Rivera and said it was worth it because Shannon Brown winked at her from his bus.
"I wish it could have gone by a little slower, but it was worth it," she said.
Her group took three trains to get to the parade and said they had no idea how they were going to get home.
It was the second victory parade for Ronie Gibson, 20, who attended the 2002 celebration and was impressed that even more people showed up this time.
Gibson, who is unemployed, came from Watts on the Blue Line, walking all the way from Pico Boulevard to the Coliseum only to be turned away because the stadium was full. But he also was glad he came.
"Kobe was real happy," Gibson said.
-- Gale Holland on the parade route
Fans wear Lakers clothes at the start of the Los Angeles Lakers NBA
championship victory parade outside the Staples Center on June 17, 2009
in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
The KTLA Traffic Blog provides regular updates of the Southern California traffic situation during the morning drive. This feed is live from 4 to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday.
Subscribe
