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CityWatch Los Angeles
Politics. Perspective. Participation.
NEW GEOGRAPHY-A metropolitan economy, if it is working well, is constantly transforming many poor people into middle-class people, many illiterates into skilled people, many greenhorns into competent citizens. . . . Cities don’t lure the middle class. They create it. -- Jane Jacobs
CAL MATTERS-Mary Nichols, the powerful head of the California Air Resources Board, didn’t even need to explicitly threaten a ban on gas-powered cars last week to get the attention of carmakers.
PLATKIN ON PLANNING: Unlike Senator Scott Wiener’s and California YIMBY’s SB 50, which could not withstand a torrent of public opposition, other supply-side housing bills have managed to survive. The worst are SB 330 and AB 1279, whose multiple shortcomings are discussed below.
ALPERN ON MEMORIAL DAY--My son and I again woke up early Saturday morning to help our Boy Scout troop … for whom he and I are still loyal despite my son aging out at 18 years of age … plant flags in honor of our fallen troops at the West Los Angeles Memorial Cemetery. An ocean of flags came up within minutes at each and every grave of our fallen heroes.
HUMAN RIGHTS--Carrie Severino leads the Judicial Crisis Network, a 501(c)(4) secret-money "social welfare" nonprofit that has spent millions of dollars promoting conservative judges and plays a key role in the campaign to ban legal abortion in the U.S.
@TheGussReport – For precisely 100 tedious but remarkably uncomfortable minutes last week, the LA City Council debated ways for its 15 members to legally accept bribes for selling their votes, but without all the hubbub and inconvenience of the FBI raiding their home and City Hall office, followed by indictment, prosecution, incarceration, appeal, parole, bankruptcy, divorce, custody battle, etc.
GELFAND’S WORLD--While our giant metropolis was anticipating a long weekend of barbecues and Indi racing, nineteen neighborhood council activists showed up to work on a plan to educate our residents about saving their own lives (and health) during a natural disaster.
ONE MAN’S OPINION-Back in 2011, I wrote on CityWatch : "Hollywood’s decline correlates with the number of new CRA Projects. In brief, density causes deterioration.
MAKING OUR LIVING-Since his days as a San Francisco Supervisor in the late 1990s, Gavin Newsom has spoken and written about the interplay between technology, government, and employment: how technology is changing the types and structure of jobs, how it can improve government services, how it can generate greater citizen participation.
THE CITY--The slow demolition of Parker Center is a reminder that by now we could have housed 720 homeless Angelenos inside the famed police building.
MORE WAR THAN WE NEED--In an effort to rein in the bloated military-industrial complex and free up funds for "programs that nurture human lives rather than take them away," a coalition of nearly two dozen progressive advocacy groups on Thursday launched a campaign urging 2020 Democratic presidential candidates to support cutting the Pentagon budget by at least $200 billion per year.
VOICES--Hi, Steve. I’ve been a reader and admirer of yours for years. I’m a writer, too, having penned the screenplay for Denzel Washington’s THE GREAT DEBATERS, among other credits. I was born to a working-class family in Los Angeles, and I’ve worked with the homeless and against mansionization. (Photo: LA Times.)
SPECIAL REPORT-Even before the formal proclamation of the #MeToo Movement in October 2017, Texas State Rep. Jessica Farrar (D-Houston) had taken a bold and unique public stand against the subjugation of women to men's rules on sexual equality and abortion.
ALPERN AT LARGE--To think that transportation/infrastructure grassroots advocates used to enjoy tackling a bipartisan, or even non-partisan, issue! It appears that the grassroots will have to take it up again, because (again!) our political leaders are failing us!
RANTZ & RAVEZ-How many times do you have to be snookered by government officials until you begin to question the numerous tax increase proposals they claim will rectify the many quality of life and educational issues facing those of us who live in Los Angeles and the State of California?
CLIMATE POLITICS--A recent article in Arctic News on the outlook for global warming foresees a frightening scenario lurking right around the corner.
GRADING LA’S CHARTER SCHOOLS--School suspensions are out, restorative justice is in.
VOICES-Last week, SB 50, a controversial bill proposed by State Senator Scott Wiener, was stopped by the Senate Appropriations Committee.
EASTSIDER-All the pro-life “heartbeat” laws are being discussed as a matter of law. They’re not. They are religion masked as a legal issue.
BUSINESS POLITICS--What’s the matter with Donald and The Trumpeteers?
WORLD WATCH--Waging a war against Iran, or even thinking of doing so, is sheer madness. Trump has thus far wisely rejected the warmonger National Security Advisor John Bolton’s outrageous advice.
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