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Whose Convention Is It?

The new chairman of the Democratic National Committee claimed what could be considered more than his fair share of credit for last week’s DNC announcement that L.A. will host the party’s 2000 convention.

“I am pleased and proud to announce that I have decided that the 2000 Democratic National Convention will be held in the state of California, and the city of Los Angeles,” DNC Chairman Joe Andrew told assembled Democratic leaders, including Gov. Gray Davis, at the L.A. Convention Center.

The credit-taking did not stop there. Andrew praised the largely private sponsorship of the convention, which represents a first for either party:

“When you leave here today, I want you to ask the Republican leaders in Washington this question: If Republicans are serious about cutting taxes, then why are they using 10 million more tax dollars to put their convention on than we are?” he asked.

Andrew did not mention the fact that DNC negotiators hemmed and hawed for weeks when L.A. put forward the private sponsorship proposal.

Tale of Two Dans

When you call Mayor Richard Riordan’s Office of Economic Development and ask to speak with Dan Margolis, you’re likely to be asked which one.

That’s right, there are two guys named Dan Margolis on Riordan’s economic development staff. And to make matters more confusing, their offices are literally across the hall from one another and they share a fax machine. They’ve even been asked to attend the same meetings with business owners whom the office is trying to attract or retain in the city.

“We get each other’s faxes all the time,” said Daniel Reuben Margolis, who has worked as an economic and financial analyst in the office since November 1997. He uses his middle initial to distinguish himself from the other Dan, a communications deputy who joined the office two months later and goes by Dan I. Margolis or just Dan Margolis.

Analyst Dan R. Margolis said there is one advantage to the similar names: “If something ever goes wrong, saying the other Dan Margolis did it is a convenient excuse.”

Bad for Business

James Hinds, a bankruptcy attorney in Century City, recalled that a decade ago, during the bankruptcy boom, about 400 attorneys would regularly attend meetings of the Los Angeles Bankruptcy Forum.

But he said a recent forum attracted only 60 bankruptcy lawyers.

“In this town, there’s a core group of bankruptcy lawyers who have gone through good and bad times,” he says.

Fellow attorney Pamela Webster said that with bankruptcy filings down 77.7 percent in L.A. County since 1992, there’s a lot less work out there.

“Bankruptcy lawyers are a perverse group,” she says. “We’re waiting for the economy to turn bad. Every time the Federal Reserve holds a news conference, we’re praying for the Fed to increase interest rates.”

Comparing N.Y. and L.A.

At a recent concert at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood, rock musician Dave Matthews told the packed house that after years of touring, he had finally pinpointed the critical difference between New York and Los Angeles.

Forget cultural events; forget attitudes. The main distinction is directional.

In New York, Matthews said, there is lots of up-and-down movement (in elevators), and only a little side-to-side. In L.A., meanwhile, there are few opportunities to go up and down but lots of side-to-side movement.

Especially during earthquakes.

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