Eleven Asian elephants marched briskly down Chick Hearn Court toward the neon glow of Staples Center and a thicket of news satellite trucks in the wee hours of Tuesday.
The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus was a day away, the Michael Jackson memorial extravaganza was hours away and the craziness already had begun for Los Angeles' stand-in mayor, City Councilwoman Jan Perry.
"Full moon. That's not good," said Perry, who at 4:30 a.m. was zipping up and down city streets around Staples Center in her Honda Accord hybrid, checking in with Los Angeles Police Department commanders on Jackson contingency plans one minute, chatting with elephant trainers the next.
On a day when people around the world had their eyes on Los Angeles' star-studded farewell to the late pop singer, the city's top politician was nowhere in sight. On July 1, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa took off for a nine-day vacation in South Africa, and, with Council President Eric Garcetti also away, the job of acting mayor fell to Perry, the council president pro tem.
Representing a district that includes Staples Center and much of downtown Los Angeles, Perry spent days warning the Jackson faithful to avoid crowding around the arena if they didn't have a ticket to the memorial. Still, fearing the city might see a deluge of restless fans spilling into the streets, 3,200 police officers and 250 firefighters and paramedics were deployed around the arena.
"You know, you just have to be prepared the best you can be," Perry said before the event. "Despite what you may hear, though, I think this is going to be a great moment for Los Angeles."
And, as it turned out, a good day for Perry, one of a few council members toying with the idea of running for mayor when Villaraigosa ends his second and last term in 2013.
Authorities had feared that animal rights activists might disrupt the circus' traditional elephant walk from the rail yard, but a threat never materialized. And at the Jackson memorial, the crowd of spectators was overwhelmingly respectful.
Between briefings at the city's emergency operations center and the LAPD's command post -- and chairing a council meeting -- Perry also was all over the airwaves. Shortly before Jackson's memorial began, she was perched atop a 40-foot-high MSNBC stage overlooking Staples Center and being interviewed about the cost of the overwhelming police presence.
