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1. A Note to Dick Platkin Re. His Story on Caruso and The Grove ...: (VOICES); VOICE IN THE CHEAP SEATS - I can't decide if Dick Platkin's latest “hit piece” (Why the Grove Mall cannot be scaled up to fix LA - 6/9/2022) is targeting the Grove or Rick Caruso or political corrupti ...; Created on June 13 2022
2. Teleconference: City Planner Dick Platkin on Why L.A. Times Refuses to Report that SB 9 Allows 8 Units Not “Duplexes.” ...: (FRONT PAGE EVENTS); This is an RSVP-only teleconference. Please register HERE at this link by noon Friday . Any problems registering email [email protected]. Former L.A. city planner Dick Platkin ...; Created on March 15 2021
3. FACT CHECK: On Sen. Nancy Skinner’s SB 330, Dick Platkin’s Article Was Right on Every Point ...: (LOS ANGELES); BACKTALK-This article focuses on the language of SB 330 itself to show why Dick Platkin’s article on SB 330 as published here in CityWatch was correct, and the response by Senator Skinner’s office as published ...; Created on June 03 2019
4. CA Senator Skinner to LA Planner Platkin: On State Bill 330 You Got It Wrong, Wrong, Wrong ...: (LOS ANGELES); TALKBACK--Unfortunately, this op-ed published on CityWatchLA.com is riddled with false claims about SB 330 by state Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley. (Senator Skinner: Photo above.) Here is a rundown ...; Created on May 30 2019
5. Dick Platkin ...: (Writer Bio Pages); Dick Platkin is a former Los Angeles city planner who reports on planning issues for CityWatch. Please send your comments, corrections, and questions to [email protected]. ...; Created on August 25 2015
6. Dick Platkin's Top 5 ...: (ARCHIVE); ... r a Massive Earthquake. (Dick Platkin is a former city planner. He teaches, writes, and consults on community planning issues in Los Angeles.) (A more detailed version of Dick’s Picks >>>) TE ...; Created on January 07 2015
7. The Perfect Storm That Created the Housing Crisis: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... relocate to other nearby locations. (Dick Platkin is a retired Los Angeles city planner who writes ...; Created on May 25 2023
8. A Look Into LA's Crystal Ball: The Future Looks Grim: (PLANNING WATCH LA); PLATKIN ON PLANNING - Predicting the future, whether relying on tea leaves or statistical regression lines, rarely succeeds. So many factors are in play, especially the ability of our species to take ...; Created on May 04 2023
9. How City Hall Should Properly Honor Earth Day?: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... (Dick Platkin is a retired Los Angeles city planner who reports on local planning issues for CityWatchLA. He serves on the board of United Neighborhoods for Los Angeles (UN4LA). Previous Planning Watch ...; Created on April 27 2023
10. Hollywood Community Plan Update: City Hall is Repeating Fatal Flaws Of The 2012 Nullified Plan: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... stated objectives are not met, City Hall will overlook its failures as long as Hollywood’s building boom continues. (Dick Platkin is a retired Los Angeles city planner who reports on local planning ...; Created on April 20 2023
11. To End Homelessness, You Must Address Its Causes, Not Treat Symptoms With Band-Aids: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... real wages remain stuck at their 1970 levels, Rent Stabilization Ordinances are not strengthened, and restrictions on speculative purchase of residential units remain in limbo. (Dick Platkin is a ...; Created on April 12 2023
12. Why Is LA’s Population Declining, Despite The Rosy Forecasts?: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... to be long gone. As for LA’s population, it will continue to shrink, with the in-fillers and gentrifiers squeezing out as much profit as possible, while they still can. (Dick Platkin is a retired ...; Created on April 06 2023
13. Greenwashing, Yet Another Real Estate Scam To Justify Developer Giveaways: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... these projects. This is greenwashing in action, and the profitability of these projects is worth far more than an occasional fine. (Dick Platkin is a retired Los Angeles city planner who analyzes ...; Created on March 29 2023
14. UN Released Its Latest And Most Ominous Climate Report. And City Hall’s Response Is . . ?: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... new normal. (Dick Platkin is a retired Los Angeles city planner who reports on local planning issues for CityWatchLA. He serves on the board of United Neighborhoods for Los Angeles (UN4LA). Previous ...; Created on March 22 2023
15. Huntington Beach Lawsuit Opposes California’s Up-Zoning Laws: (NEIGHBORHOOD POLITICS); ... as NIMBYs. (Dick Platkin is a retired Los Angeles city planner who reports on local planning issues for CityWatchLA. He serves on the board of United Neighborhoods for Los Angeles (UN4LA). Previous ...; Created on March 15 2023
16. 120 Pages Of LA Times’ Real Estate Ads Shine A Light On The Housing Crisis: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... (Dick Platkin is a retired Los Angeles city planner who reports on local planning issues for CityWatchLA. He serves on the board of United Neighborhoods for Los Angeles (UN4LA). Previous Planning ...; Created on March 09 2023
17. The Hidden Costs Of Real Estate Speculation: Homelessness, Rent Gouging, And Over-Crowding: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... the flow? We don’t know, and this is why public pressure will hopefully make a difference. (Dick Platkin is a retired Los Angeles city planner who reports on local planning issues for CityWatchLA. ...; Created on March 01 2023
18. The Hollywood Area Reveals Why Trickle-Down Housing Policies Don’t Work: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... houses and apartments. The ball is in their court. (Dick Platkin is a retired Los Angeles city planner who reports on local planning issues for CityWatchLA. He serves on the board of United ...; Created on February 23 2023
19. How Segregated Is Los Angeles? Do Proposed Fixes Make Things Better Or Worse?: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... would pound yet another nail into the coffin of up-zoning’s false promises. (Dick Platkin is a retired Los Angeles city planner who reports on local planning issues for CityWatchLA. He serves on the ...; Created on February 16 2023
20. Another Argument For Real Estate Giveaways - They Promote Equality: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... But, don’t despair, because this is the price we pay for “progress.” especially the construction of still more expensive, high-rise apartment towers. (Dick Platkin is a retired Los Angeles city planner ...; Created on February 09 2023
21. Mystery Solved. Why Residential Up-Zoning Fails To Reduce Homelessness: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... or build highly profitable market-rate housing. The theme song from Cabaret “Money Makes the World Go Round” is just as valid today as it was a century ago in Weimar Germany. (Dick Platkin i ...; Created on February 01 2023
22. History Repeats - The Not-So-New Hollywood Community Plan: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... and the needs of its residents for better infrastructure and public services, City Hall should brace itself for another defeat at the hands of Hollywood residents and their supporters. (Dick Platkin ...; Created on January 25 2023
23. The Old Refrain “Update LA’s Community Plans” Repeats: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... Restoring HUD and CRA public housing programs. Reducing evictions of existing low-income tenants. Extending LA’s eviction moratorium past January 31, 2023. (Dick Platkin is a retired Lo ...; Created on January 19 2023
24. How Bad Will Conditions Get?: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... of passively allowing events to envelope us, our families, and our communities. (Dick Platkin is a former Los Angeles city planner who reports on local planning issues for CityWatchLA. He serves on ...; Created on January 12 2023
25. Real Estate Industry Camp Followers Fabricate Claims About Housing Crisis to Weaken Land Use Laws: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... the use of transit, even though transit ridership is down, especially in neighborhoods, like Hollywood, with the new, up-scale apartments that the WIMBYs celebrate. (Dick Platkin is a former Los ...; Created on January 05 2023
26. LA’s 2022 Planning Year in Review: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... mass transit projects, does not fund or build planned first-last mile public improvements. (Dick Platkin is a former Los Angeles city planner who reports on local planning issues for CityWatchLA. ...; Created on December 29 2022
27. The Homeless Crisis: What Should the Mayor Do? Address Causes, Not Symptoms: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... the entrenched City Hall land use policies that promote homeless-inducing speculative apartment buildings? (Dick Platkin ([email protected]) is a former Los Angeles city planner who reports on loca ...; Created on December 22 2022
28. Real Estate Scams Purporting to Fix Homelessness: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... caused by deregulation? (Dick Platkin ([email protected]) is a former Los Angeles city planner who reports on local planning issues for CityWatchLA. He serves on the board of United Neighborhoods ...; Created on December 14 2022
29. LA’s McMansions Cause Housing Costs to Rise, Homelessness and Overcrowding: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... (Dick Platkin ([email protected]) is a former Los Angeles city planner who reports on local planning issues for CityWatchLA. He serves on the board of United Neighborhoods for Los Angeles (UN4LA). ...; Created on December 08 2022
30. What Mayor-Elect Karen Bass Is Up Against!: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... need lots of it. Dick Platkin is a former Los Angeles city planner who reports on local planning issues for CityWatchLA. He serves on the board of United Neighborhoods for Los Angeles (UN4LA). ...; Created on December 01 2022
31. LA City Hall’s Dilemma. Corruption Served In Bite-Sized Bits Or Giant Portions?: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... (Dick Platkin is a former Los Angeles city planner who reports on local planning issues for CityWatchLA. He serves on the board of United Neighborhoods for Los Angeles (UN4LA). Previous Planning ...; Created on November 24 2022
32. Modest Proposals For Mayor-Elect Karen Bass And The Reconstituted City Council: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... this to happen, however, City Hall must overcome political, not technical barriers. (Dick Platkin is a former Los Angeles city planner who reports on local planning issues for CityWatchLA. He serves ...; Created on November 17 2022
33. City Hall: LA’s Newly Elected Begin in January - Check Your Optimism at the Door: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... words, in LA growing homelessness is an acceptable tradeoff when City Hall pulls out the stops for real estate speculators. (Dick Platkin is a former Los Angeles city planner who reports on local ...; Created on November 10 2022
34. New York Times on LA’s Housing Crisis. Even a Broken Clock Is Correct Twice a Day: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... from disease and exposure. (Dick Platkin is a former Los Angeles city planner who reports on local planning issues for CityWatchLA. He serves on the boards of United Neighborhoods for Los Angeles ...; Created on November 03 2022
35. LA Times' Overcrowding Report Gets a Lot Right, But Its Remedies Make It Worse: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... without addressing the overlapping housing crises created by the termination of HUD public housing programs during the Nixon and subsequent presidential administrations. (Dick Platkin is a former ...; Created on October 27 2022
36. Forcing Bigoted Politicians to Resign is Easy, Rooting Out Racist Policies, Programs, and Practices is Hard.: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... What Los Angeles needs are elected officials intent on rooting out racist programs and practices, not aggrandizing themselves. (Dick Platkin is a former Los Angeles city planner who reports o ...; Created on October 20 2022
37. To the Members of LA City Council from United Neighborhoods for Los Angeles: (VOICES); ... for Los Angeles UN4LA Board: Casey Maddren, President Cherilyn Smith, Treasurer Richard Platkin, Secretary Annie Gagen Jack Humphreville Kim Lamorie Gina K. Thornburg ...; Created on October 12 2022
38. Climate Change Is Here. Can Someone Please Tell Those In Charge?: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... and anticipated climate crises. (Dick Platkin is a former Los Angeles city planner who reports on local planning issues for CityWatchLA. He serves on the boards of United Neighborhoods for Los Angeles ...; Created on October 05 2022
39. Who Controls City Government In Los Angeles? Stay Tuned To Find Out.: (PLANNING WATCH LA); ... to keep their progressive patina, while supporting City Hall’s green light for real estate speculation. This is why I say, “Stay tuned!” if you still wonder who controls City Hall. (Dick Platkin ...; Created on September 29 2022
40. What Do Magicians, Card Sharks, And City Hall Have In Common?: (LOS ANGELES); ... sound familiar because it was the essence of forgotten Measure S, the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative, which went before LA’s voters in 2017. (Dick Platkin is a former Los Angeles city planner ...; Created on September 21 2022
41. Status Report: The 17 Mile Long Ventura/Cahuenga Boulevard Specific Plan Is 30 Years Old: (LOS ANGELES); PLANNING WATCH - The Planning Report’s 30 year old article by Richard Platkin on the Ventura/Cahuenga Boulevard Specific Plan is still mostly current and correct. It notes that most of the "planning" alon ...; Created on September 19 2022
42. Homeless Numbers Are Up Again In LA, And City Hall Wonders Why: (LOS ANGELES); ... media to frame the housing crisis as a strictly local issue, even though the main causes (#’s 1, 2, and 3 above) are statewide and nationwide. ( Dick Platkin is a former Los Angeles city planner who ...; Created on September 15 2022
43. Bass’ And Caruso’s “Solutions” To Homelessness Explain Why LA’s Housing Crisis Is Getting Worse: (LOS ANGELES); ... routine zoning and planning waivers, clamp down on corporate purchases of existing housing, preserve existing low-cost housing, and stop the mansionization of LA neighborhoods. (Dick Platkin is a former ...; Created on September 08 2022
44. City Hall’s Fanciful Justifications for its Real Estate Scams: (LOS ANGELES); ... and then rented to vetted low-tenants? If you can answer these questions, please let me know (rhplatkin@gmail.com) since my research came up dry. If every low-income project approved by City Planning ...; Created on September 01 2022
45. Unlike High Profile Crimes, Petty and White Collar Crimes are Under Reported and Often Unpunished: (LOS ANGELES); ... he Godfather movies were fiction, but their revelation that white collar crimes are massive and seldom prosecuted remains an important real-world take-away. (Dick Platkin is a former Los Angeles city plan ...; Created on August 25 2022
46. How Bad Planning Thrives in LA -- the case of the Wilshire Community Plan: (LOS ANGELES); ... traffic congestion and homelessness worse. (Dick Platkin is a former Los Angeles city planner who reports on local planning issues for CityWatchLA. He serves on the boards of United Neighborhoods ...; Created on August 18 2022
47. Ken Draper 1933-2022: (VOICES); ... Jay Handal, Jack Humphreville, Dick Platkin, Eric Preven, Denyse Selesnick, and more. I asked some of them to give a thought or remembrance about Ken Draper. Linda Abrams – “Sad news. Although I knew ...; Created on August 11 2022
48. Homeless Crisis Will Get Worse, But There Is A Path Forward: (LOS ANGELES); ... can finally end the current housing crisis instead of resorting to anti-camping ordinances and police sweeps when market-manipulation programs predictably fail. (Dick Platkin is a former Los Angele ...; Created on August 04 2022
49. Electric Cars: To Generate Corporate Profits Or Combat Climate Change?: (IMPORTANT READS); ... extended ranges, and high profits. (Dick Platkin is a former Los Angeles city planner who reports on local planning issues for CityWatchLA. He serves on the boards of United Neighborhoods for Los ...; Created on July 28 2022
50. Some Still Claim ‘More Market Rate Housing Will Solve the Housing Crisis’: (LOS ANGELES); ... the pols ensure that the consequences of their folly temporarily disappears from view. (Dick Platkin is a former Los Angeles city planner who reports on local planning issues for CityWatchLA. He ...; Created on July 21 2022

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