Hollywood Shakes
To learn about an earthquake fault underneath you in Hollywood, you can ask a land developer, a city planner or a state geologist who has spent a career studying the subject. You’ll get a somewhat different answer from each one, illustrating the confusion that has helped make regulating land development in Los Angeles such a […]
Why Didn’t LA Government Agencies Uncover City Council Corruption?
The fact that federal authorities, rather than local investigators, arrested Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar in a huge racketeering-bribery scheme speaks poorly for the county and city watchdogs who are supposed to keep politics and government clean. Where was the district attorney’s Public Integrity Division, created almost 20 years ago to root out corruption […]
Book Review: Jerry Brown, The Man Who Would be President, or a Monk
Jim Newton’s “Man of Tomorrow: The Relentless Life of Jerry Brown,” explores in unparalleled detail the rich, varied and complex spiritual forces that have shaped the former governor and made him such a challenging political leader. Newton is editor of Blueprint, the public policy magazine of UÇLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs, and a faculty […]
Rent Control Issue will Rise in the Aftermath of the Protests
The immediate cause of the demonstrations in Los Angeles and elsewhere following the police killing of George Floyd is well known—brutality by cops inflicting racist treatment on African Americans. But dig deeper into Floyd’s and other killings and you’ll find a more complex story. For Los Angeles, it is a story largely shaped by […]
Garcetti Keeps his Balance on a Tight Rope
Faced with the challenge of the coronavirus pandemic, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has risen to the occasion. He’s taken charge, just as local and state chief executives have done around the country, filling the vacuum left by President Donald Trump. You can check this out yourself. He’s live on local television and on line […]
The True Story of COVID-19 in LA Must be Confirmed by a Lot More Testing
Who is suffering most from coronavirus in Los Angeles County? The affluent or the poor? Whites or people of color? The answers to these questions are to be found through a rigorous but now inadequate system of testing. Such a system is necessary for identifying and isolating those who have been infected with the disease […]
CA Primary Presents Big Test for L.A. County’s New Voting System
After the fouled up Iowa caucuses gave vote-counting a bad name, there will be heavy pressure on Los Angeles County officials to make sure their brand new electronic voting system works for the March 3 primary election. Media attention will be intense. March 3 is Super Tuesday when California and 13 other states, plus American […]
Will the LA Mayor Get Emergency Powers to Build Homeless Housing?
In a proposal likely to touch off a heated debate, Los Angeles City Councilman David Ryu has proposed giving Mayor Eric Garcetti emergency power to build housing for the homeless. It would be a huge grant of authority to Garcetti, now limited by a City Charter that divides power between the 15- member city council […]
In LA, Where the Homeless are and Where Complaints about Homeless Come from Don’t Match Up
The fewer the homeless in a neighborhood, the more residents complain about their presence. As the headline on a study by USC journalists and other researchers put it: “In some neighborhoods hundreds of calls about encampments but only a few people living on the street.” The study, covering the first six months of the year, […]
Los Angeles County’s Got a New Voting System. Will it Work?
These are busy times for the many volunteers helping Los Angeles County officials educate voters on a new system for the March 3 primary that will revolutionize voting in the nation’s most populous county. Say good-bye to the familiar neighborhood polling place. Voters will have to find their way to centralized voting centers or vote […]