In the News
Fixing LA’s Housing Crisis … Cheaper Homes is Not the Answer
ECONOMIES OF PLACE-This time of year, the swallows return to Capistrano, and I return to my birthplace, San Francisco, for the city’s annual pre-budget finance conference. For the last few years I have kicked things off with an economic ou…
Chief Beck Concerned: Deportation Fears Preventing Latinos from Reporting Rape
TRUMP’S AMERICA-Latinos in Los Angeles are making dramatically fewer reports of rape and domestic violence amid a climate of fear over incr…
Parking, Barking, and Snarking
ALPERN AT LARGE--The City and County of Los Angeles are moving away from liberalism, and even beyond progressivism, to the extent that a so…
Public Policy Survey: California Hates Trump, Loves Brown
CALBUZZ--President Donald Trump’s approval rating, just 39% nationwide, is an anemic 31% in California, according to the latest survey from…
Replacing Rep. Becerra: How Small ‘d’ Democratic are the Dems in Northeast LA?
EASTSIDER-The resignation of Xavier Becerra (photo above) to become California’s Attorney General has opened up a rare opportunity for some…
The Brown Act: How California’s Open Meetings Law Became a Gag Rule
CONNECTING CALIFORNIA--The Ralph M. Brown Act, first approved in 1953, is celebrated for its supposed guarantees that we citizens have a vo…
The LA Times Should School Itself before Preaching about Planning the Future of LA
PLATKIN ON PLANNING-It is distressing, but hardly surprising, that the Los Angeles Times would use a lead editorial to preach about plannin…
LA Transportation: The Good, The Bad, and The Stupid
TRANSIT WATCH--So here we are in spring of 2017--we've just had two elections that were both bruising and decisive, either in victory or in…
How Do LA Dems Explain: MIA at the Polls?
TOO LITTLE DEMOCRACY-Los Angeles is solidly Democratic and has voted so twice in the past five months to prove it. However, it is a sad com…
Dems Ready to Roll Over in Supreme Court Confirmation Fight … and Will Pay the Price
URBAN PERSPECTIVE-The day the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died, Appeals Court Judge and Scalia’s nominated replacement, Neil…
Can LA’s Tech Oligarchs Thrive Under Trump?
NEW GEOGRAPHY--With the first billionaire in the White House, Wall Street booming and, for the first time in almost a decade, very solid an…
California Schools’ Disconnected Dashboard Breaks the Thermometer
EDUCATION POLITICS--If you know Shakespeare's play “Julius Caesar,” the Ides of March -- or March 15 – it is the date in 44 BC when Julius…
Why California Teachers Are Getting Layoff Notices Despite Historic Teacher Shortages!
EDUCATION POLITICS--California’s school districts expect to issue close to 1,750 teacher layoff notices despite a statewide teacher shortag…
When Leaving Stuff Out is the Same as Fake News
EDITING INFORMATION-Only a fool would accuse the mainstream LA press of dabbling in fake news. But what to call a political endorsement, th…
When Alt-Facts Become the Norm
CORRUPTION WATCH--People do not operate on the basis of reality. Rather, they function on their beliefs. If their beliefs are close to real…
The Numbers Game and the Real Cost of Phony Social Security Cards
PERSPECTIVE-Deportations of illegal immigrants has been in the news quite a bit since Donald Trump took office. Possession of stolen Social…
Shame, Shame on Los Angeles
MY TURN--I really thought this time would be different. Especially after all the toxic political atmosphere had spurred thousands into ma…
LA’s Modern Identity: Resolving the Fault Lines of an Uneven Growth
WEST COAST CITY OF LIGHTS-Imagine stepping into a time machine and traveling 100 years into the future. You find out that the city of Fargo…
Joe Bray-Ali: Ray of Hope?
RUN-OFF?-Last week, I had a brief sit down with Joe Bray-Ali – the upstart, independent candidate for the City Council seat in Council Dist…
Home District 'Stakeouts' Begin In California and Across the Nation as TrumpCare Advances
HEALTHCARE WATCH--The GOP's healthcare plan narrowly passed out of the House Budget Committee on Thursday, while "stakeouts" began in Congr…
