Mayors of SF and LA want their cities to CLEAN and GREEN

Mayors of two large and prominent cities have proposed new building standards vowing to make their cities the cleanest and greenest of them all.

Mayor of San Francisco Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa are using their jurisdiction to make their cities healthier for the environment.

Both cities plan to use green building councils to certify all construction in their cities meet green standards making them LEED certified.

Mayor Villaraigosa plans to slash L-A’s greenhouse gases by 35 percent by the year 2030 making the L-A the cleanest and greenest in the country.

Meanwhile Mayor Newsom has also planned to cut San Francisco’s greenhouse gases by 20 percent by 2012 creating the largest green city in the U-S.

With a population nearing the four million mark, Los Angeles would have a bigger effect on reducing global warming than San Francisco’s aggressive plan for a smaller population.

Municipal leaders for both cities will meet to vote on the mayor’s proposals in the upcoming weeks.

L.A. Parkers Fear the Tiger

Los Angeles traffic officers are aggressively ticketing parked cars.

The city is implementing its fourth “Tiger Team” to ticket illegally parked cars on Sunset Blvd. between Vermont Ave. and Laurel Canyon Blvd.

The “Tiger Team” consists of five traffic control officers and seven tow truck drivers.

The “team” will cite violators from illegally parked from 7am 9am—and from 4pm to 7pm.

A Department of Transportation spokesperson Bruce Gillman says the “Tiger Team” will help improve the flow of traffic.

Gillman says the anti-gridlock zones are throughout the city and they are on major arterial roads.

The city also has four “tiger teams” throughout L.A. boulevards on Sunset, Wilshire, Crenshaw, and Ventura.

Gillman adds that gridlock zones prevent people from parking, walking, or standing on the curbside lanes—allowing for more lanes of traffic to drive through—including buses.

Also the “Tiger Team” will be looking for stolen vehicles.

Utilizing new license plate recognition technology—officers will scan license plates to see if the car is stolen or wanted in any Amber Alerts.

Drivers parking illegally will face a $70 dollar fine.

The fine could be doubled if the car is parked in an “anti- gridlock” zone.

The towing fee will be an additional $185 and is effective immediately.

La Unified students are improving on standarized tests

The Los Angeles Unified School district is continuing to score higher on the Academic Performance Index.
L-A-U-S-D’s A-P-I score is 662-- an increase of seven from last year.
According to the state Department of Education the target score is 800 and the highest score possible is one thousand.
The Director of Policies and Evaluations for the State Department of Education- Rachel Perry says the A-P-I allows schools to compare its scores with all California schools.
Perry says the A-P-I scores give local schools and districts an insight as to how they are doing compared to other schools in California and to other schools similarly situated in terms of their demographics.
The A-P-I calculates student scores based off the Standardized testing and Reporting Program and the High School Exit Exam.
Elementary schools tended to have the best index rating with a statewide average of 763.
Middle schools averaged a score of 720 and high schools scored 689—all three schools ranked higher than previous years.
The top three high schools on the A-P-I are Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies, the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies and Harbor Teacher Preparation Academy.