The fact that 91 percent of Hollywood property owners last week voted to renew and expand the business improvement district in their neighborhood is a testament to how far Hollywood has bounced back and how effective the improvement district has been.

A decade or more ago, Hollywood was populated by miscreants, the homeless and shocked tourists who covered their childrens’ eyes. And while Hollywood Boulevard can be edgy still, its transformation is remarkable. Streets are clean and walkable. Armed guards patrol the area. Lots of construction is going on.

A big part of the transformation is due to the improvement district there called the Hollywood Entertainment District. The district pays for armed guards, tree plantings, extra trash pickup and the like. In the new vote by property owners, the district also will start collecting an extra assessment to clean up alleys in Hollywood in an effort to make them pedestrian friendly and even usable for retail or outdoor dining.

This is a stupid distraction. That is the only way to describe the latest effort by the prison guards union to recall Governor Schwarzenegger.

Make no mistake, we have our issues with the Governor based on legitimate policy disputes. He believes that tax increases will help California and we don’t. But what is needed is grownups dealing with the many crises facing California like grownups.

Does anyone really think this action by CCPOA won’t be seen for what it is – a desperate and transparent attempt at political extortion? Unlike the recall of Gray Davis, this effort has absolutely no grassroots support that we can see. It is motivated by a greedy public employee union trying to get a massive pay hike notwithstanding California’s precarious financial situation.

One thing’s for sure. CCPOA’s limited supply of sympathy from the taxpaying public is about to disappear entirely.

The prison guard union’s announcement that it will file recall papers against Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger may not work out as union officials expect. This action will put a spotlight on the union and add evidence to the charge that public employee unions want to wrap up control of state government. Two weeks ago on this site, Patrick Dorinson drew a comparison between the public employee unions’ efforts to dominate state government and the railroad barons’ control of state government at the beginning of the 20th century. This recall effort is another piece of evidence to endorse that argument.

The California Correctional Peace Officer Association’s charge that this recall effort is not about money and the two-year old contract dispute with the governor is laughable. Everyone will see it for what it is.

While the union may be attempting to send a message to the governor and perhaps future candidates for that office, they may instead be opening the eyes of ordinary citizens to the fact that the state’s financial crisis has been brought on by the incessant demands of the unions.

Political actions often begat unexpected reactions. Here’s a long shot possibility. Proposition 5 on the November ballot, the Nonviolent Drug Offenders Act, would reduce jail time and increase rehabilitation programs for some drug offenders. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a prodigious fundraiser and someone who is not shy about putting his own wealth behind political efforts. Might Schwarzenegger endorse and raise funds for Prop 5, which, if successful, could result in the need for fewer prison guards?

I’ve now read two separate posts about Sarah Palin by colleagues whose friendship I value and whose opinions I respect. Both question various aspects of Sarah Palin’s fitness to not only function as John McCain’s running mate, but also to serve as America’s vice president. While they clearly have a right to their questions, concerns and opinions about John McCain’s vice presidential pick, they have missed the boat about Alaska’s current governor.

Gov. Palin, in spite of her political beliefs, is the second woman to serve on a presidential ticket. That, in and of itself, is historic. Nowhere is it written that only a pro-choice, Democrat woman could serve on a presidential ticket. Second, her character, warmth and charm have resonated with the American voter – except for those die-hard Obama fanatics. Living in California, we are in a bubble and view the world differently than the overwhelming majority of the United States – a blessing in some circumstances and a curse in others.

The Obama campaign’s initial instinct – to attack Sarah Palin for being mayor of a small town even prior to her formal introduction – coupled with Senator Obama’s juicy comments about small town folks “clinging to guns and religion” (comments made in San Francisco, by the way) unknowingly played right into the McCain campaign’s hand. Hilary hit Obama hard on the rural, small town voter issue. Clearly, these folks had and still have serious questions and doubts about Barack Obama.

I think the governor should embrace the recall proposed by the prison guards union.

Read my reasons in today’s Los Angeles Times here.

California environmental regulators have proposed a multitude of new rules that aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions below their 1990 levels. Virtually every measure would cost a lot of money, either through mandated new investments in alternative energy or energy efficiency technologies, or in foregone economic opportunities to expand industries in California.

However, there is at least one strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that costs absolutely nothing, could save workers and businesses time and money, and even make people happy — the use of four-day/ten-hour work weeks.

Imagine: by shortening the work week by one day, a worker would not only free up that day for personal use, she would spend less money on gasoline and automobile expenses, reduce congestion on the roads, and reduce smog-forming pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

Based on the e-mails, phone calls and other discussions I have had with my fellow Republicans throughout California, I can attest to the fact that GOP activists are pumped as never before following last week’s National Convention; at least since 1980.

The reason, as anyone who has watched TV or read a newspaper the last few days knows, is Gov. Sarah Palin.

Now, Palin or no Palin, no one but the must enthusiastic Republican partisan believes that McCain will carry California come November. This remains a “blue” state.

But if you are Tom McClintock running in CD4, or Dean Andal running in CD11, or Jack Sieglock running in AD10, or Bill Berryhill running in AD26, you are very thankful to John McCain’s bold selection of Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate.

This is because the above GOP candidates are running in races currently targeted by Democrats that are located in the “red” portions of California, districts that George Bush handily carried over Kerry in 2004.

I’m trying so hard to understand the nexus between Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton, which Palin discussed during her speech. She is trying to position herself as the woman who can use Hillary’s 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling to finally bust through. But Sarah Palin isn’t qualified to walk through the same door as Hillary, much less claim the mantle of her legacy fighting for the issues that women care about.

Let’s see. Palin is against abortion, even in the case of rape or incest. The majority of women in this country are pro choice, and even those who waver draw the line much more broadly than Palin does. I hope one of the debate questioners has the temerity to ask her what she would have done if her daughter was involunarily pregnant instead of voluntarily pregnant. Palin is a card carrying member of the NRA, not known for its legions of female members. Palin sued the federal government for trying to protect polar bears – polar bears! – saying they got in the way of oil and gas drilling.

Because of extensive reporting at last week’s Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, we know what the politicians and the delegates thought about the proceedings. But I wondered what a reporter might think of all the activity swirling around in the convention hall as he did his job. On one of the many long bus rides the California delegation had to take from its hotel to the convention center, I turned the tables and interviewed reporter John Myers from San Francisco’s National Public Radio station, KQED.

Myers is a respected veteran covering California politics as Sacramento Bureau Chief for KQED. In addition to his radio duties, he also blogs on politics at his Capitol Notes website.

Last week’s convention was the third one Myers covered. Previously, he reported on the Democratic Conventions in New York in 1992 and Los Angeles in 2000.

Sometimes when you look at a ballot proposition it is best to look not at the language of the proposed initiative, but who is behind it. Such is the case with Proposition 2 on the November ballot.

Proposition 2 would mandate new housing standards for egg laying chickens at great cost to California’s egg producers and potential health risks to the rest of us.

It is sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States. But this is not your mother’s or your aunt’s Humane Society. It is now led by seasoned political operatives whose agenda goes far beyond protecting animals.

And according to a UC Davis study, if they are successful, California’s egg industry and the $600 million in economic activity it generates annually as well as thousands of jobs would be wiped out. A whole industry that is a key for California agriculture lost in one fell swoop.