Got a minute?The L.A. mayoral election not...

Got a minute?

The L.A. mayoral election not only didn’t excite voters, it didn’t interest some TV news directors either. The Washington Post, referring to a study by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, said the late evening local newscasts on Channels 2, 4 and 7 devoted “a combined total of 30 seconds” to the Riordan-Hayden race from March 24-30.

We could be wrong, but it seems to us that Riordan received at least 20 of those seconds.

ALL CAR WRECKS, ALL THE TIME: When the folks at the renovated Santa Monica Pier installed a bumper-car ride, they had no trouble coming up with a name for the accident-filled attraction (see photo). The only things missing are jackknifing big-rigs.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS: “Even the street vendors are offering layaway plans,” writes David Beranek of Long Beach. He snapped a sidewalk scene of a fruit-filled shopping cart with a placard saying, “A small deposit will hold the item of your choice.” (See photo.)

LIST OF THE DAY: Some interesting and offbeat tidbits about the City of Angels in the guidebook, “Access L.A.,” by Richard Saul Wurman.

* Skank World, on Beverly Boulevard, a ‘50s furniture store “with punk overtones . . . opens late so the owners can watch [TV’s] ‘All My Children.’ ”

* The oldest building in L.A. is a 600-year-old pagoda that was moved from Japan to the Yamashiro Restaurant in Hollywood in 1914.

* La Poubelle, a brasserie in Hollywood, translates as the Garbage Pail.

* The family that owned the rancho in what is now Beverly Hills sold the land and moved closer to downtown L.A. in 1854. Reason: Too many Indian attacks in the neighborhood.

* And, if you’re one of the few people who hasn’t slept in the Lincoln Bedroom, the Biltmore Hotel in downtown L.A. offers a Presidential Suite. The Biltmore says it’s about $2,000 a night, though the price is negotiable (just like the rooms at the White House!).

EXTRA WORK FOR MAPMAKERS: When Berendo Street in Hollywood was renamed L. Ron Hubbard Way after the Scientology founder, it joined a small number of streets bearing the full names of individuals. Some others:

* Astronaut Ellison S. Onizuka Street (Little Tokyo)

* Bob Hope Drive (Burbank)

* Cesar E. Chavez Avenue (L.A.)

* Edward Everett Horton Lane (Encino)

* George Burns Road (L.A.)

* Gracie Allen Drive (L.A.)

* Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (L.A.)

* Gen. Thaddeus Kosciusko Way (L.A.)

* Thurgood Marshall Street (Pasadena)

Hubbard, by the way, is the first sci-fi author to be so honored.

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A recent edition of the Jewish Journal carried an apology from a food distributor for labeling a brand of pork and beans as kosher. “It’s a good thing the company ‘fessed up,” writes Stuart Weiss of L.A., “or it would have gone completely unnoticed.”