Not Faster Than a Speeding Armstrong, but Still

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Herbalife chief executive Michael Johnson is a good competitive bicycle rider even at 54, and he really impressed some spectators during the recent Amgen of California Tour.

One 75-mile leg of the race “had a 41-mile climb in it, which was a real gut check,” Johnson said of the Feb. 21 Santa Clarita-to-Pasadena segment that Herbalife sponsored.

As he neared the top of a long, steep hill, bike enthusiasts lined the road and asked, “Where’s Lance?” as in Tour-de-France champion Lance Armstrong, who participated in the Amgen tour for the first time this year.

Johnson responded: “Lance is behind me!”

Actually, Johnson was right, but not because of his bike racing skills. Armstrong had started in another group of cyclists three hours after Johnson.

“That was my favorite line of the day,” Johnson quipped.



Taxi Dance

The Los Angeles City Council recently honored Joe Czyzyk for his 10 years of service on the Board of Taxicab Commissioners. The honor came even though it was the council that pushed him off because of its pro-union agenda.

Czyzyk, chief executive of aviation maintenance firm Mercury Air at the Los Angeles International Airport, said his departure was a mutual decision, given the current political popularity of labor.

“There has been, in the last three to four years, an attempt to organize the taxicab drivers, and based on my experience, I was not in favor of it,” he said. “It became too political, and my position wouldn’t advance the agenda of those who wanted the drivers to organize.”

He further quipped: “I was perceived as too level-headed.”

Czyzyk said cabbies are so entrepreneurial that the union model has never worked, not even in New York, which he called “the capital of taxicabs.”

After serving under three different mayors Richard Riordan, James Hahn and Antonio Villaraigosa Czyzyk left the commission with a major victory in the legalization of cab “hailing,” an act previously illegal in Los Angeles but now allowed in downtown and Hollywood.


Call of the Port

Geraldine Knatz never really thought of herself as a role model.

But as the executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, the country’s largest, and a driver of its groundbreaking clean air program, she is earning credit for opening doors that used to be reserved for men.

“It was a male-dominated industry,” she said. “I used to go to meetings and it would be very common that I was the only woman there.”

Knatz started working in the port business in 1977 and is now one of just two female port directors in the entire country. For her trailblazing ways, Knatz was recently honored by the National Association of Women Business Owners, taking home its leadership award.

“This is really a big deal,” she said. “I’m very excited.”


Staff reporters Howard Fine, Joel Russell and Richard Clough contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by Editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at

[email protected].

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