CityWatch LA - Los Angeles

How to Deal with the World’s First Troll-Based Presidency

BELL VIEW-What is a troll? I’ve been accused of being one myself – although I never thought I fit the profile. In fact, it took me forever to admit trolls even existed. “Don’t feed the trolls,” I am often cautioned when I engage with people who disagree with me. I didn’t believe trolls were real because I was brought up in a tradition of vigorous debate. My grandfather was a lawyer and dinners at his table often erupted into shouting matches. I loved it. I couldn’t understand why anyone would have wanted dinner to be anything other than a raucous debate over the most difficult issues of the time.

Is California Hiding the Truth about Our Mentally Ill

GETTING THE FACTS-Recently there was a story on local NPR affiliate KPCC about how the homeless population, which disproportionately suffers from untreated mental illness, has exploded in recent years. This story was presented without ever mentioning that, during the 1960s and 1970s, the State of California consciously emptied out most of the state mental institutions of patients who knew their own names and what day of the week it was, irrespective of whether they were profoundly mentally ill and in dire need of treatment.

Is LA for Sale? Mayor Solicits Millions for His Favored Causes

KPCC SPECIAL REPORT--Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti — a longtime critic of big money in local politics — has set a surprising city record requesting large contributions, using a little-known and largely unregulated process called “behested payments,” KPCC has found.

Los Angeles: Who Has the Right to Live in the City?

GUEST WORDS—In 1950 my parents and grandmother were able to afford to buy a duplex for us to live in for $11,000 a mile north of the LaBrea tar pits here in Los Angeles. For two years I have watched the destruction of house after house in my neighborhood to build ugly McMansions selling for $4 million, and my block is a noisy construction pit to make developers rich.

Spay and Neuter War Heads to Local Dog Parks

NEIGHBORHOOD POLITICS-There is a war going on in Long Beach, a war fought in the most unlikely of places: the dog park. It can be seen in the nervous sizing up of new dogs when they enter the metal gates, as their owners unlatch harnesses from bellies. It is a war often fought only with stickers, flyers and sharpened glares as pets are corralled into opposing corners of a dust-covered park. But on occasion, these hostilities bubble up into angry words that boil in the unrelenting sunlight: “Fix your dog!”

There’s a Force Destroying California’s Quality of Life and It’s Not the Orange Man in the White House

TRANSPORTATION & INFRASTRUCTURE--In my last CityWatch article, I reminded everyone that the need to create transportation/infrastructure for mobility, water, electricity, sewage, etc. is greater than ever … but our political polarization is getting in the way.

Corporate Greed: I’m Blacking You Out!

STAND UP AND BE COUNTED-What has regrettably become the sole motivation behind using technology to communicate with customers, is not what it should be – providing better service -- but rather to increase profit by reducing costs, which further degrades service. Corporations have as their sole raison d'etre the yearly increasing of profit (growth), no matter what the effect on their ability to fairly and morally supply goods and services to the customer.