Joseph Mailander writes in the Daily News:
"BLOGS move so quickly that they demand action and accountability," City Council President Eric Garcetti recently told me. "I have learned about fires, hit-and-run accidents and day-to-day constituent concerns on blogs. I have used mine and other blogs to have the ongoing, deliberative conversations so crucial to the success of our democracy that other media don’t allow. Blogs have given us a platform to show that government can and will listen and act, and when it doesn’t, will be held accountable."
All that makes Los Angeles’ blogs a wonderful tool for local political figures and community stakeholders – and they are. Beyond their immediacy, they are unique among media – especially in an industry dominated by corporations – in giving voice to the people and in their ability to hold the city’s politicians’ feet to the fire.
Mailander evaluates a dozen local blogs including:
Lukeford.net – Everything you would expect from a loose-lipped, fearless Aussie expat and former skin-trade observer who converted from Adventism to Judaism and who keeps getting tossed out of synagogues.
Mayorsam.blogspot.com – Everyone in City Hall reads Jaycee nabob Michael Higby’s Valley-based local politics blog, often unhinged, often spot-on, featuring the likes of Higby, civic hyperactivist Zuma Dogg, and bloggers "Antonio Watch," "Red Spot of Reason" et al. The cast of characters in comments often makes the show for some, and breaks it for others.
WitnessLA.com – Before today’s abominations of justice become tomorrow’s political headaches, they pop up here, at author Celeste Fremon’s blog on street-level justice and injustice.
