Michael Woo

I would like to complete the statements that I made, and which your reporter quoted out of context in the profile on Woo. After a lengthy discussion on why I thought Woo would be an outstanding mayor, and how his training and experience have readied him for the job, your reporter "pressed" me to come up with a weakness in his character. I said: "He doesn't like to be the bearer of bad news, nobody does. He doesn't like to make unpopular decisions, but he has become much better at making tough decisions, and he is prepared to make them now."

Wilbur K. Woo, a banker and produce merchant who first immigrated to Los Angeles in 1921, when he was 5, and decades later became an influential leader of the city's Chinese American community, has died. He was 96. Woo, who also worked to strengthen trade relations between the U.S. and Taiwan, died Monday at his home in Monterey Park of complications from a stroke and pneumonia, his family said. His son, Michael Woo, was the first Asian American elected to the Los Angeles City Council, in 1985.

One Los Angeles City Council seat will be filled in a runoff election June 4. The winner will represent the diverse 13th District, which includes Hollywood and adjacent hillside communities--Los Feliz, Silverlake, Echo Park, Elysian Valley and Cypress Park. Michael Woo, the challenger, is the better candidate. His urban-planning background would add breadth to council debates over coping with growth.

June 4, 1985: Michael Woo, the grandson of a Chinese laundryman, became the first Asian American member of the Los Angeles City Council, defeating Peggy Stevenson in the 13th District. His victory was "a near landslide," The Times reported. "I can't promise any special favors to Asians. I'm not trying to make special claims for myself as an Asian," said the 33-year-old former aide to state Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys).

Perhaps nowhere in Los Angeles are voters more eagerly waiting to cast ballots in the April 10 primary election than the 13th Council District. Its citizens have been without representation in City Hall since soon after former Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg was elected to the state Assembly in November. Goldberg was popular in the district, which sprawls from Hollywood through Silver Lake, Echo Park, Atwater and Glassell Park to Mount Washington, north of downtown.

Michael Woo, a member of the Los Angeles City Council since 1985, has cast himself as the mayoral candidate best qualified to ease the city's racial and social tensions. In his eight years at City Hall, Woo, 41, has positioned himself as a new breed of politician, sponsoring a liberal urban agenda that frequently put him at odds with the city's status quo. Woo, who lives in Silver Lake, leaves a mixed record of accomplishment in his Hollywood district.

Fryman Canyon. A rustic and tranquil getaway spot from urban worries? Hardly. In fact, the controversial Studio City canyon--center of an increasingly tense development fight--seemed more on the edge of chaos than on the edge of a lazy curve of Mulholland Drive on Friday. An effort by the developer to construct a fence around the 63-acre site set off an hours-long squabble with environmentalists that featured name-calling and threats, all dutifully recorded by news cameras.

What role will the Valley play in the June runoff election for mayor? A big one. It has already played a major role in deciding the candidates in the runoff. What must the candidates do to gather the Valley's votes in June? More than they have already done. As the primary votes were counted, it became clear that Richard Riordan had done his Valley homework, and Michael Woo had not (see top graph below).

City Councilman Michael Woo surged to an early lead in the mayor's race on the strength of his reputation as the council leader in the struggle to oust former Police Chief Daryl F. Gates after the police beating of Rodney G. King. Now Woo is looking to a base of support reminiscent of the multiethnic coalition that sustained outgoing Mayor Tom Bradley for 20 years.

I am one of the few people who truly knows what Gray Davis is going through this week because I too once had to go through a recall election. And I won. I believe there is still the crazy chance he can too. Long before I was making movies or writing books or going after elected officials, I was an elected official. In fact, I held the record as the youngest officeholder in the country. Just months after the 26th Amendment to the U.S.

Running for Los Angeles City Council is anything but glamorous. Candidates start their campaigns talking about their plans to end poverty and social injustice and they finish the race promising to fill potholes and put in more speed bumps. Take former Councilman Mike Woo, who has slogged through half a dozen political campaigns over the years. In his quest for a political comeback in the 13th Council District, Woo vowed to make the fight for more affordable housing his No. 1 priority.

In a watershed election featuring five open seats for the Los Angeles City Council, political novice Eric Garcetti claimed a narrow victory over veteran lawmaker Mike Woo as another newcomer, Jack Weiss, pulled ahead of longtime legislator Tom Hayden. And in the southernmost slice of the city, Janice Hahn declared victory after midnight in the 15th District, a race she led all night. "I think the voters chose experience and history in the city over a newcomer," she said.

From San Pedro to Woodland Hills, candidates for five open seats on the Los Angeles City Council walked precincts Friday, topped off campaign war chests and plotted the last big push for votes in Tuesday's election. A final round of campaign finance reports before the election showed $1.79 million has been spent by the 10 candidates in the five runoff elections that will fill a third of the seats on the council.

Jackie Goldberg was considered the most liberal politician ever elected to the Los Angeles City Council when, eight years ago, she won a seat representing parts of Hollywood, Echo Park and Silver Lake. With Goldberg now seated in the state Assembly, the two candidates seeking to succeed her are engaged in a battle of rhetoric over which of them is the more progressive.

Perhaps nowhere in Los Angeles are voters more eagerly waiting to cast ballots in the April 10 primary election than the 13th Council District. Its citizens have been without representation in City Hall since soon after former Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg was elected to the state Assembly in November. Goldberg was popular in the district, which sprawls from Hollywood through Silver Lake, Echo Park, Atwater and Glassell Park to Mount Washington, north of downtown.

Mike Woo has been cleared to attempt a comeback. The two-term city councilman from Hollywood, who resigned in 1993 to run unsuccessfully for mayor, had been barred by the city clerk from running again. The clerk, acting on the advice of the city attorney, cited a provision of the new City Charter that limits elected city officials to two terms in office.

Former Los Angeles Councilman Michael Woo on Thursday filed a lawsuit challenging the city clerk's interpretation of the new city charter, alleging that the document was erroneously amended to restrict all former council members from serving more than two terms. Seeking to run again for his old council seat, Woo contends that one line was mistakenly extracted from the document, which takes effect Saturday.