John Ferraro, LA City Council Prez, Dies at 76

LOS ANGELES-John Ferraro, the current LA City Council president whose 35-year tenure started as the city began rising from the ashes of the 1965 Watts Riots and blossomed into one of the world’s most important cultural and economic centers, has died after a two-year battle with cancer. He was 76.

Ferraro’s unprecedented reign began in 1966. He was serving his ninth council term as president when he quietly succumbed to spleen cancer yesterday at a Santa Monica Hospital. Ferraro led the charge to secure federal funds to restore poverty-stricken Watts and used the knowledge he gained from that experience later to help re-build LA after the city’s riots.

Ferraro also played a key role in shaping the city’s skyline. While other members of the City Council simply rubber-stamped plans for new housing tracts in the suburbs, Ferraro often forced developers to include commercial space in their projects so new home-buyers wouldn’t have to drive several miles to their jobs.