On Election Day, if you missed it, Samantha Gonzaga wrote about how Johnie’s Broiler–the sad ’50s drive-in in Downey that was (mostly) illegally demolished a year ago– is supposed to rise again as a Bob’s Big Boy restaurant.

This sounds like good news–Johnie’s had a fat boy sign/Bob’s has a fat boy that is a sign; Johnie’s had great architecture and so do some of the Bob’s franchises.

But it’d be interesting to know more about what the new lessee–Torrance Bob’s Big Boy franchise owner Jim Louder–has planned.

Then back on Sunday, staff writer Gene Maddaus took us on a trip down memory lane–if your memory lane consists of remembering the cut-throat politics of Southeast Los Angeles–with his tale of Big Al Robles and Little Al Robles (no relation).

Gene Maddaus … lessee … oh that’s right: he works for the Daily Breeze–but there was his story in the Press-Telegram under a staff byline. That’s how Singleton rolls.

Fortunately, the Big Al/Little Al story’s a good one. Big Albert Robles was–is–the man who became South Gate’s youngest mayor, at age 26 in 1992. Today, at 43, Maddaus writes, Big Al “is serving a 10-year federal prison sentence for money laundering, bribery, and other corruption charges.”

Yikes! I inherited some of the Albert T. “Big Al” Robles beat from former P-T reporter Sharon Hormell, when I covered Downey and South Gate for the Press-Telegram in the late 1990s–and it was always something with that guy.

Either Robles was being accused of trying to smear someone running against him or–as South Gate’s treasurer–he was withholding his signature from city checks so the checks couldn’t go out, or he was being accused of running his own slates of candidates ins assorted South Gate political contests.

Anyway, Maddaus’s news hook is the other Al: Little Albert Robles, 39, who actually approached Big Al for political support in the ’90s when he was running for a seat on the water district.

Today, Little Al is running what Maddaus calls a “long-shot bid” for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s seat. He’s also facing charges from the district attorney’s office.

Tags: "Big Al" Robles, "Little Al" Robles, Albert Robles, Albert T. Robles, Bob's Big Boy, California, downey, Gene Maddaus, Jim Louder, Johnie's Broiler, Long Beach, Los Angeles County district attorney race, Sharon Hormell, South Gate, Southern California, The District Weekly, Theo Douglas