Cities

Despite bitter-cold winters and snow extending through April, Madison, Wis., ranked as the best place to live in America, but Los Angeles/Long Beach is gaining, moving up 54 notches to 40th place in Money magazine's annual readers poll released Tuesday. Madison, home to a University of Wisconsin campus with 40,000 students and a vibrant economy boasting just 1.

Councilman Greg Smith will ask the county chapter of the League of California Cities tonight to delay action on a report that recommends against allowing cities to withdraw from the county library system. "A vote on endorsing this report and sending it to the supervisors for action is premature," Smith said. "It would impose the condition of forcing Irvine to stay in the county system." Council members are considering pulling the city's two libraries out of the 27-branch county system.

Biloxi's a deal, the Big Apple's unreal. Those are some of the findings of the 1996 Corporate Travel Index, an annual survey of business travel costs put together by Business Travel News. The index forecasts hospitality costs of the nation's 100 top business travel cities. New York topped the 1996 list of the most expensive domestic destinations. Business travelers to New York can expect to drop $357.72 a day for lodging, meals and a decent-sized rental car this year, up 9.1% from 1995.

Backers of a plan to incorporate 10 foothill communities into a single South County city said Friday they may give up the fight because of a lack of local support. The Foothills Cityhood Committee needs money, volunteers and signatures if it is to stay afloat, said leader Michelle Lamb, who said the group will meet Monday evening to consider its future. "It's very painful to say, but it's not looking good," Lamb said.

Interaction with cities around the world can help American mayors find solutions to urban problems ranging from homelessness to health care, said U.S. delegates to the U.N. Habitat II summit, which wound up its deliberations here Saturday. The two-week summit, which brought together representatives from 171 countries, adopted a declaration endorsing equal access to shelter, health care, food, water and education and urging special attention to groups such as women and the disabled.

With a population approaching 350,000, Nice is the fifth-largest city in France. It is also one of the liveliest, prettiest and most seductive. It nicknames itself, without false modesty, "La Bella"--The Beautiful.

Burger King Corp. and an executive who has experience running inner-city restaurants agreed to open at least 125 such restaurants in the next five years. The fast-food chain and La-Van Hawkins plan to open 25 restaurants in the next 18 months in Washington, Chicago and Detroit. The first will open in the U.S. capital across from Howard University. Hawkins, the founder of Urban City Foods, was responsible for Checkers Drive-In Restaurants Inc.'

Saying that police badly need it, the City Council has approved joining a new countywide communications system, despite a higher cost than expected. The council Tuesday night voted unanimously to pay $567,168 for its share of the new Orange County 800-megahertz communications system. That is about $100,000 more than what the city originally authorized last May, City Manager Daniel E. Keen said. The system will be a countywide network for police, firefighters and other emergency workers.

It is a classic Malibu vista: green mountains sloping into a deep blue sea with a yellow sun hanging in a pastel blue sky. The idyllic scene, representing the view along the coastline, was chosen this week by the Malibu City Council for the city's official seal. The design, conceived by a city engineering employee, will be featured on the city's letterhead, municipal vehicles and signs. The seal reflects the charm of Malibu, officials said.