I love the way Hollywood Mayor Mara Giulianti turns otherwise normal citizens into rabid activists. It may be the only benefit of the woman's shameful career in public service.
Take David Mach. He's a member of the family that owns commercial property in downtown Hollywood that Giulianti tried to seize by eminent domain to hand over to one of her pet developers. He was so steamed he ran for a seat on the commission (losing to Dick Blattner in February). But Hollywood hasn't heard the last from Mach, whose story you can read here.
His most recent bit of political digging has been into the financing of Mayor Mara's campaign. He did an extensive analysis of her contributions and tied them to city projects she backs. Here's a short list:
Project Sian Ocean -- $6,000 Villas of Positano -- $2,700 Sherifan Station -- $8,250 Marriott -- $3,000 Trump Hollywood -- $2,600 Young Circle Commons -- $5,000 SoHo Lofts -- $2,000 Hollywood Grande -- $1,400 "Unidentified New York Group" (Includes Alexandria Mall LLC) -- $5,000
That's just a bit of the list. I wish I could give you the whole spreadsheet Mach created (and maybe I will a bit later) because it has every individual contribution listed from every developer. (One other interesting Mach finding: La Piazza Pasta Corp., a restaurant that has been delinquent on a $300,000 city loan, gave $500 to the mayor. Nice priorities there.).
Good work, Mr. Mach.
One other thing this morning: I'm following up Howard Schnellenberger these days on Barry Epstein's radio show. It's pretty cool, since Schnelly is a veritable god in my home state (even though he never brought Louisville to the promised land). You can hear the show (which also includes Palm Beach Post gossip columnist Jose Lambiet) every Friday at 10 a.m. on WWNN 1470 AM or go here and click "Listen Live."