LOS ANGELES

PLANNING WATCH-If you rely on the corporate media, like the Los Angeles Times, for your take on the housing crisis, you have repeatedly heard that the cure is to “build more housing” through across-the-board zone changes.

ONE MAN’S OPINION-The following is quoted from the U.S. Constitution, Art 1, Sec 2: “The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.”  

GUEST WORDS--Mother Teresa’s Gift of Love House was located in a beautiful Victorian home in a quiet residential neighborhood of San Francisco. These kinds of Victorian homes are called Painted Ladies. 

CLIMATE POLITICS-There’s a problem with America’s favorite statistic: GDP. It avoids pretty much everything that’s actually, truly, really good for society, including the importance of robust ecology. Still, it’s the biggest measure of what’s happening with the economy and used around the world, even though horribly flawed. 

@THE GUSS REPORT-Most telling about local political reporting in the last few weeks of 2019 was when Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti – whose disastrous 19-year tenure on City Council and as Mayor mercifully winds down – assembled LA’s dutiful media to announce (ta-da!) that he is waiving all past-due library fees. 

ATTACKING ANONYMOUS OWNERSHIP-America’s cities are being bought up, bit by bit, by anonymous shell companies using piles of cash.

ALPERN AT LARGE-No one should be blamed for being concerned about killing Qassem Soleimani, the terrorist kingpin who killed had Syrian, Iraqi, Yemeni, Lebanese, and American blood on his hands, because now we're wondering where this will all end up.

VIEW FROM HERE--One of the reasons I stopped identifying as a Christian is that pacifism is too demanding. Personal questions concerning justified warfare, what to do about extremely violent criminals, and protecting two young children, became impossible to rationalize considering Jesus' teachings about absolute nonviolence.

GELFAND’S WORLD--On New Year’s Day, instead of watching the Rose Bowl I watched a sunset. It wasn’t entirely intentional at the time.

Planning Watch:  As detailed by Samuel Stein in The Real Estate State, the world is awash with massive capital investments in urban real estate. 

RANTZ AND RAVEZ—Happy New Year to all … May 2020 bring you Good Health, Happiness and all the Blessings life can offer.

ALPERN AT LARGE--No, we're not ignorant or without understanding of the political compromises and realities of Downtown or other city governments. No, we're not clueless of the imperfect and messy solutions needed to solve intractably-complex problems. But to City Hall, here's a good way to start the New Year: stop the lying! 

DEEGAN ON LA--City Councilmember Paul Koretz (CD-5) told CityWatch, in a New Year’s Eve phone call, that he’s announcing that he will run for City Controller in 2022 when his term as CD-5 Councilmember ends. 

ONE MAN’S OPINION-Just because I would vote for Mayor Pete does not mean I have a detached brain. 

CLIMATE POLITICS-The Amazon rainforest is a crucial life-support ecosystem. Without its wondrous strength and power to generate hydrologic systems across the sky (as far north as Iowa), absorb and store carbon (CO2), and its miraculous life-giving endless supply of oxygen, civilization would cease to exist beyond scattered tribes, here and there. 

VIEW FROM HERE-President Trump routinely touts a strong U.S. economy. Recently, he tweeted, “Stock Markets Up Record Numbers.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING CRISIS-When I came of age in Flint, Michigan, homeownership was a crucial part of the American dream. 

NEW GEOGRAPHY--By all rights, Donald Trump should be packing his bags and headed to the golf links and his favorite fast food restaurant.

ALPERN AT LARGE--Maybe it's the Christmas/Holiday spirit, and maybe it's the message of kindness promoted in the movie "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" (please see it if you've not yet had the chance) but the need to be kind is in all-too-short-supply...and probably will be even harder to find in the next election year. 

OF THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE-I asked the City Attorney for a bunch of nuisance abatement demand letters, which everybody knows are a major tool of gentrification.

GELFAND’S WORLD--Some trends are slow but build steadily. The September 11 attacks and the resulting legislation extended the government’s role in surveillance over the American people.