CityWatch exists to monitor the political business of City Hall, and other government agencies, to monitor the progress of the empowerment of LA's neighborhoods and to encourage grass roots civic engagement.
CityWatch is an electronic journal of observations, analysis and perspectives ... complimented by ideas and information all viewed and presented from the POV of LA's myriad grass roots neighborhoods engaged in the ongoing struggle for empowerment. We hope you find it useful, informative and provocative.
For those of you who have been with us for the two years past, we thank you for your support and your input. Without which we could not have grown from the 256 email addresses of two years ago to the better than 60,000 subscribers of today

The Birth of CityWatch

CityWatch was the inspiration of founder Mark Siegel, a long-time activist and political consultant. These were the pre-Charter years and Siegel was monitoring the work of the Charter Commissions. He called his reports Charter Watch. Neighborhood Councils were born when the Charter was approved in 1999 and Siegel's reports became City Watch. He also helped found the Citywide Alliance of Neighborhood Councils at the time.
Siegel took a sabbatical from publishing in 2000 and with a new partner and editor rehabilitated his highly respected CityWatch in September of 2003. The rest, as they say, is somewhat recent history.
At its rebirth, CityWatch was published bi-weekly to an email list of a few hundred. Today, it is published weekly and reaches more than 60,000 electronic subscribers. CityWatch has become CityWatch Media Group and has ventured into television production and neighborhood non-political print publications.
The purpose of CityWatch remains unchanged: To hold City Hall accountable and to encourage grass roots civic engagement.