6:31 am: Eric Garcetti wins, Wendy Greuel concedes. Well, it happened in the wee dark hours (the LA Times posted its story at 3:27 am), but as Los Angeles wakes up Wednesday morning, the results are unambiguous: Eric Garcetti will become the next mayor of Los Angeles, succeeding Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is termed out of office. The final count is Garcetti 54 percent to Greuel’s 46 percent.

In another race that was called even earlier in the early morning, Mike Feuer handily beat incumbent Carmen Trutanich in the City Attorney’s race.

10:28 pm: It’s now two-and-a-half hours since the polls closed. A few more ballots have been counted (a very few) but the trends haven’t changed. A virtual tie in the mayor’s race and most everything else way too close to call given how many ballots have yet to be tallied. We’ll have complete results here tomorrow morning and on Morning Edition with Chery Glaser. Good night and good luck, Los Angeles!

9:41 pm: And by soon, we mean not very soon at all. Still waiting …

9 p.m.: Results are trickling in! In the race for mayor, Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti are neck and neck with about 160,000 mail-in ballots cast. In the City Attorney’s race, Mike Feuer has an early and substantial lead over incumbent Carmen Trutanich. And, in the City Controller’s contest, Ron Galperin has a small lead over Dennis Zine.

Among the three competing medical marijuana initiatives, Proposition D, which would cap the number of dispensaries allowed in city limits, is the only initiative to be winning.

More results soon.

8 pm: The polls have closed in Los Angeles and the City Clerk’s office is starting the tally. Angelenos voted today to select a new mayor, a controller and a city attorney. Also on the ballot was an alphabet of pot initiatives: Propositions D, E, F, which all attempt to codify the city’s medical marijuana businesses. There are also a couple City Council and LA school board races on the ballot.

Election results will be available at the City Clerk’s website when the polls close. We’ll keep a record of winners and losers as well. Stay tuned!

The fired Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro

After a less-than-spectacular end to the season, the Los Angeles Clippers are dumping Coach Vinny Del Negro. Clippers owner Donald Sterling waited until almost three weeks after the season was over to tell Del Negro that he wasn’t getting a contract extension. The Clippers’ season ended with a loss to the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round of the NBA playoffs.

Del Negro guided the team to a franchise-record 56 victories and the first division championship in its 43-season history.  Del Negro’s contract expires June 30.

Del Negro coached the Clippers to a 128-102 record in three seasons, including playoff berths in each of the final two seasons.

Brad Turner covers the Clippers for the Los Angeles Times and joined KCRW’s Steve Chiotakis to discuss the reasons for the firing, and some of the rumored possibilities for Del Negro’s successor.

Grand Central Market, with its massive main floor, food stalls and distinctive neon signs, has been a crossroads of L.A. commerce and community since it opened in 1917. Food fads have come and gone, but the Market remains. (Photo by Saul Gonzalez)

When the facelift was announced for the iconic 1917 Grand Central Market cries of concern went up among the regulars (and the chattering class). Will they force out my beloved carniceria to make room for a yuppie oyster bar? Will a fancy cheese shop displace the cheap produce? Where will I get a burrito the size of my head?

You may have heard something along these lines recently. Except the outcry I’m talking about was back in 1987, when a writer for the Los Angeles Times wrote about the changes being cooked up at that time for downtown’s favorite open-air market…

“Grand Central is undergoing a slow but calculated renovation. Owners Ira Yellin and Tracy and Beach Lyon are hoping to keep their bus trade and pull in the carriage trade as well. Can quarter-a-loaf bread buyers coexist with the La Salsa clientele when that quintessential yuppie taco stand opens a branch just inside the Broadway entrance soon? Except for the La Salsa stand, the Broadway section is expected to keep its present tenants (with some remodeling to the stalls themselves). The big changes are slated for the Hill Street side, with the bargain dry-goods section being ripped out in favor of a ceviche and oyster bar and a well-known Chinese restaurant. It will be interesting to see what happens as the now-quite-workable cultural mix is stirred a bit more.”

The stirring continues. History can indeed repeat itself, because we’re hearing the same outcry today about the dreaded, yuppie oyster bar.

As KCRW Producer Saul Gonzalez reports, the latest facelift to Grand Central Market that was announced in December is now slowly underway on the ground floor of the Homer Laughlin Building at 3rd and Broadway. For now that means a new Thai stand, a hip Texas-barbecue joint and a third-wave coffee shop. The artisinal cheese is coming. And freshly shucked Carlsbad Lunas from the Oyster Gourmet. We explore what’s in and out on “Which Way LA?”

There will be some push-back from the devoted market goers followed by delicate balancing on the part of the management and consultants to refurbish and update the market without alienating “the bus trade.” While they’re at it, the managers should think hard about their 6 p.m. closing time. Or else these new vendors could go the way of Flanders Frites -  that was a stand that managed to win “Best Fries” from Los Angeles Magazine in 2012 only to shutter because, well, drunk people aren’t clamoring for fries at rush hour. In that regard, hopefully times they are a changin’.

Since change has been decried for decades, we were curious what the Grand Central Market looked like in its earlier heyday.

The aisles and counters of Grand Central Market circa 1966. (William Reagh Collection)

An exterior view of the open market from the street end circa 1951. (William Reagh Collection)

The meat and fish aisle of Grand Central Market circa 1930 (Security Pacific National Bank Collection)

A sign at Grand Central Market promises all you can drink root beer or buttermilk for a nickel, circa 1937 (Herman J. Schultheis Collection)

Campaign’s end. Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel are leaving no stone unturned as they engage in a last-minute scramble to sway undecided voters. The mayoral candidates were in constant motion yesterday, canvassing the city from Sherman Oaks and Westwood to East L.A. and San Pedro in a final push for votes.

Today, the campaigns turn their attention to mobilizing supporters to go to the polls. With low turnout expected, every vote could be important.

Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC, is anticipating that just 25 percent of eligible voters will cast ballots, which he calls “an embarrassing statement about the level of interest in this campaign.”

The mayor’s race has set a spending record for spending, with the candidates and their supporters burning through more than $33 million.

Whoever wins today will represent a breakthrough for city politics: Greuel is vying to become L.A.’s first female mayor. Garcetti would be the first L.A. mayor with Jewish ancestry. L.A. Daily News

Election info. In addition to the mayor’s race, L.A. voters will be casting ballots for city controller, city attorney and three city council districts. There’s also an election for a member of the school board and a trustee of the L.A. Community College District. Voters are also being asked to decide among three medical marijuana initiatives and a symbolic measure about campaign financing. The polls close at 8 this evening, with the first returns expected about half-an-hour later. L.A. City Clerk

Hospital strike. Medical workers at UCLA, U.C. Irvine, and other U.C. medical centers across the state walked off the job today in what’s expected to be a two-day strike. The union representing some 13,000 hospital pharmacists, nursing assistants, operating room scrubs and other health care workers is battling U.C. over staffing and pension issues. KTLA

Jail plan. Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky says L.A. County should tear down part of Men’s Central and Jail and build a new facility for inmates who are mentally ill or addicted to drugs. Yaroslavsky says his proposal would save money and give prisoners a better chance at rehabilitation. The county has been talking for more than a year about replacing the downtown jail, which is outdated and considered dangerous for inmates and jailers alike. Sheriff Lee Baca wants a major renovation of Men’s Central and the adjacent Twin Towers at cost of more than a billion dollars. L.A. Times

Left behind. California won’t seek a waiver of a federal law that requires that every student be proficient in math and English by 2014. The decision means that the state will once again fail to qualify for funds from the No Child Left Behind program. California’s bid for a waiver was rejected last year because of the state’s unwillingness to tie teacher evaluations to student test scores. L.A. Unified is part of a coalition of nine districts around the state seeking its own waiver in an attempt to get No Child Left Behind money. L.A. Daily News

Robbery plot. The FBI has arrested three men in connection with a bizarre East L.A. bank robbery. One of those in custody is the boyfriend of an assistant manager at the bank who told authorities that she was kidnapped, fitted with a bomb and forced to rob her own bank. Officials say there is not enough evidence to charge the assistant manager, but yesterday’s arrests make it clear that authorities aren’t buying her story. More than $500,000 was stolen. The money has not been recovered. ABC News

Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek

Musician Ray Manzarek, keyboard player of The Doors, died today in a hospital in Germany. He was 74.

Manzarek’s chance meeting with Jim Morrison at Venice Beach in 1965 led to the band’s formation.  Manzarek, a Chicago native, moved to Los Angeles to study film at UCLA.  He met Morrison on the Westwood campus while the future Doors frontman was briefly studying there.

“[Manzarek] was the only one at UCLA who was smart enough to know that Jim Morrison wasn’t just a jerk, like a lot of people thought. To me, that make him a genius.” – Doors guitarist Robby Krieger

It was that Venice Beach meeting that marked the beginning of The Doors, when Morrison showed Manzarek a rough version of the song “Moonlight Drive”:

After Manzarek graduated in 1965, the two met again by chance at Venice Beach and decided to start a band, adding guitar player Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore. Because the band lacked a bass player, Manzarek usually played the bass lines on his Fender Rhodes piano. Manzarek was  the oldest in the band and occasionally sang as well.

“[Manzarek] was relentless in his pursuit of the vision. And you have to give Ray a lot of credit because he understood what Jim [Morrison] was and what was magic about Jim, and he just never backed down from that.” – Bill Siddons, former manager for The Doors

Morrison died in Paris in 1971 at age 27. Manzarek tried to hold the band together, becoming the lead singer, but it fell apart and he turned to working with other bands, producing and filmmaking. In the past decade or so, he had toured with Krieger.

The Doors were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 and have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, where flowers were placed this afternoon in Manzarek’s memory.

KCRW’s Steve Chiotakis spoke with Krieger, as well as Bill Siddons, who managed the Doors from 1968 to 1972.

Fans of the cult favorite TV show Arrested Development already have this Sunday blocked off the calendar. That’s when Netflix will release all 15 episodes of the latest season. FOX canceled the show seven years ago, yet it has only grown in stature.

While the program is a comedic masterpiece, far more interesting is its choice of setting: Orange County, California. What statements does Arrested Development make about OC in the show—and what lessons can we learn about its warnings?

Gustavo Arellano of the OC Weekly joined KCRW’s Steve Chiotakis for Orange County Line.

The mailers I examined are simple advertising vehicles: Candidates pay for their images and messages to be sent to targeted voters. But that’s not always obvious at first glance. One of the most interesting things I learned about the industry is that the companies that produce slate mailers often set up non-profit arms, framing their newsletters under the auspices of those entities. That’s why you’ll see some mailers with generic-sounding organization names across the top, like the “Coalition for California.”

Doing this allows the slate mail companies to take advantage of non-profit postage rates, which are significantly cheaper than regular postage. But it also requires them to include some educational material on their mailers, which is why you’ll see ones with non-political messages inside.

To hear how it all works, listen in:

And here’s what the mailers look like:

This mailer produced by Jill Barad has a message about tax refunds.

This slate mailer produced by Jim Lacy targets female voters in Los Angeles.

Election’s eve. Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel will be criss-crossing the city today in a last-dash effort to sway undecided voters. After two years of campaigning, the hard fought and expensive campaign for mayor of L.A. comes to an end tomorrow.

A new USC-L.A. Times poll gives Garcetti a seven-point lead over Greuel – 48 percent to 41 percent – with 11 percent of likely voters still undecided. Greuel’s campaign says the poll was flawed and she says that she expects to win tomorrow. Garcetti is similarly confident. He says voters are tuning out the noise and focusing on which candidate can best improve the L.A. economy.

The polls will be open between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. tomorrow. If you’re not sure where your polling place is, the L.A. City Clerk can help.

Controller and city attorney. The USC-L.A. Times poll says incumbent Carmen Trutanich trails former Assemblyman and City Councilman Mike Feuer by a large margin in the city attorney’s race, 42 percent to 24 percent. The city controller’s race is tighter, with City Councilman Dennis Zine leading lawyer and businessman Ron Galperin 31 percent to 28 percent. L.A. Times

Campaign cash. More than $33 million has been spent on this year’s mayor’s race. That’s a record. Garcetti and Greuel account for more than $25 million of that spending with the rest being raised on behalf of candidates who didn’t make the run-off. More than 40 percent of the money in the race came from outside groups. The single biggest contributor is a pro-Greuel PAC funded largely by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the union that represents DWP workers. L.A. Times

Villaraigosa Pavilion. It doesn’t exactly roll off your tongue but the Board of Airport Commissioners is expected to name the great hall of the international terminal at LAX after L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The official name would be the Antonio Villaraigosa Pavilion at Tom Bradley International Terminal. A vote is scheduled tomorrow. Meanwhile, the estimated cost of rebuilding the Bradley terminal has risen by $200 million and now stands at $1.7 billion. L.A. Daily News

U.C. strike. Lawyers for the University of California will be in court today in an attempt to limit the number of medical workers permitted to walk off the job in a planned two-day strike. The strike is scheduled to begin tomorrow at UCLA and other U.C. hospitals. The university is seeking a temporary restraining order that would prevent workers from striking who are considered essential for patient care. The union representing the workers – including nursing assistants and techs – says it will continue to staff critical care departments during the strike. KABC

Foreclosures. Three of the largest mortgage-holders in the state temporarily halted nearly all foreclosure sales after federal regulators revised instructions on the treatment of troubled borrowers during the 60 days before they lose their homes. Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup say they paused foreclosure sales on May 6 to make sure that their procedures met new guidelines. Wall Street Journal

Just a few more days before you go to the polls.  Let’s review, shall we?

We’re in the final stretch, so here’s some information you need to know about the candidates and propositions before you punch, pull or bubble-in that ballot.

KCRW’s Warren Olney, host of Which Way, LA? and To The Point joined us, as did KCRW reporter Saul Gonzalez, who’s been covering some of the campaigns this cycle as well. We call it our House Mix. Remember, politics can be fun.

The city of Los Angeles has more than 2 million eligible voters. But about 1.6 million of them are expected to skip the election on Tuesday – that means 80 percent of voters will let the remaining 20 percent choose their next mayor.

While we delved into the historic numbers over the years on Thursday, today the panel agreed that there isn’t much excitement in the mayoral race. And that’s because the candidates are very similar to one another.

L to R: Warren Olney, Saul Gonzalez and Steve Chiotakis

That similarity may be driving an uneventful race, but it’s also driving some negative campaigning. Something KCRW’s Avishay Artsy tackled in his report about outside money and influence in the race.

There’s a controversy now in the mayor’s race with Spanish-language ads by supporters of Eric Garcetti who say Wendy Greuel — who was a Republican in the early 1990s — was a proponent of Proponent 187. That’s the controversial proposal pushed by then-Gov. Pete Wilson that would deny state benefits to undocumented immigrants.

Guilt by association, they say.

But Greuel says she changed parties by 1992. Before Proposition 187 was on the ballot.

Garcetti then tweeted that he takes her at her word that she was against 187. But the accusation is still out there. And that’s a genie that’s out of the bottle — true or not.

Not to be outdone, supporters of Greuel tried to pin controversial Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his policy of Latino self-deportation on Garcetti. L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa even chimed in on both allegations, saying they went over the top and should ease up on the mud-slinging.

Speaking of campaign nastiness, our panel also talked about the race between incumbent Carmen Trutanich and former Assemblyman Mike Feuer in the City Attorney’s race. They appeared on Which Way, LA? last Thursday.

Separately.

Neither campaign would agree with the other on debate rules, so Warren had to interview them one at a time.

Dennis Zine and Ron Galperin are competing for the City Controller’s chair, the seat Wendy Greuel is vacating. We talked about what the controller does. Which is not much. But the Controller does have a bully pulpit and the ability to hold budgetary feet to fire.

There are three marijuana measures on the city ballot on Tuesday.

Proposition D would hold the city to 135 dispensaries. Why 135? That’s the number of clinics operating in Los Angeles when the City Council imposed a moratorium on pot shops.

Proposition F would allow unlimited medicinal marijuana shops. But each one would have to abide by a list of requirements. Like not allowing minors inside. And forcing not only employees, but volunteers, to get background checks.

Yeah, I know. We left out E.

That’s because E is very similar to D — the one that caps the number of shops. But E doesn’t raise marijuana taxes like D and F would. And its support has waned tremendously since enough signatures were gathered to get it on the ballot.

Here’s a helpful guide to who’s running for what, courtesy of the City Clerk’s office.

Now you can educate yourself before taking that democratic dip on Tuesday.

Eric Garcetti (L) and Wendy Greuel (R) celebrate after winning a place in the May mayoral election.

This Tuesday is the Los Angeles general election. Thousands of paid canvassers have taken to the streets to get out the vote. And there have been lots of TV ads that have been increasingly negative.

Much of the money for these efforts isn’t actually coming from the campaigns. They’re coming from outside expenditure groups – PACs. They can pretty much say and do whatever they want. And they’re largely targeting Latino voters.

One of the most common things we’ve heard in this election is that City Controller Wendy Greuel and City Councilman Eric Garcetti aren’t all that different. Both are well-off, well-connected, Democrats with relatively similar views on education, labor and development. So there’s really nowhere to go but negative.

Two independent groups have been leading the charge. Working Californians is the biggest PAC, backed by city labor unions, mainly those representing Department of Water and Power employees, and has spent at least $3.5 million for Greuel. And then there’s Lots of People Who Support Eric Garcetti for Mayor 2013. It’s raised over $1 million. They ran a Spanish-language TV ad linking Greuel to former California Gov. Pete Wilson and Proposition 187, his 1994 measure to deny benefits to undocumented immigrants:

Greuel was a registered Republican for 13 years. But she blasted the ad as misleading. She switched her party affiliation to Democrat in 1992 and opposed Prop187. Even Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa denounced the ad during a press conference on police reform, calling it “a bald-faced misrepresentation of fact.”

But Rick Jacobs, co-chair of “Lots of People Who Support Eric Garcetti,” denied those accusations.

“It is a very simple series of facts. If Wendy didn’t think Pete Wilson was the right person to lead her party, why didn’t she leave her party?”

Garcetti himself sent out a tweet that day saying “I trust @Wendy_Greuel when she says she was not for Prop 187.”

But the fact is, the negative ad may still help Garcetti, according to Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School. “He gets to benefit from the attack, and then he benefits from getting to say, I don’t agree with that. It can become a downside if people associate Eric Garcetti with that attack and there’s backlash against him, but I think in most cases it’s a win for the candidate.”

Another Spanish language ad from a Greuel supporter tried to link Garcetti to Arizona’s controversial Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Mayor Villaraigosa went after that one too.  “I know Eric Garcetti. Eric Garcetti does not support the policies of self-deportation,” Villaraigosa said. He called both ads “over the top” and said they should be taken off the air.

Meanwhile, another controversy has brewed up over these mailers sent to Latino voters:

In fact, Greuel has only said she’d supporting raising the pay of hotel workers to $15 an hour.

“There isn’t a specific proposal on the table, but we want to raise the expectations of all workers, said Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary–treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, which helps fund the group behind the mailers.  “And we believe, and it’s our opinion, that she will be the kind of candidate that will raise wages and help us raise wages for all workers,” Durazo said. Also, there’s no city minimum wage.

It’s messages like these that could boost voter turnout on Tuesday, according to Loyola Law School’s Jessica Levinson. Fear, she says, is a great motivator. “So if some of these negative ads by the outside groups will scare people into going to the polls, that could make a big difference,” Levinson said. And as long as these outside groups are allowed to raise unlimited amounts of money, she said, negative ads are here to stay.