GUEST WORDS-What if I told you there’s a customer who has a goal to buy $1 billion worth of goods and services from small businesses? This customer buys everything from office supplies and computers, consultant services, clothing, hygiene products, food, bedding, cookware, furniture, and more. 

This customer is Los Angeles County. 

SKID ROW-Little Tokyo (north side) and Skid Row (south side) are neighbors on opposite sides of 3^rd Street in Downtown Los Angeles. The recent election to decide on the creation of a Skid Row Neighborhood Council (SRNC) is mostly known as a battle between Skid Row and the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council. What is not well known is that Little Tokyo was the deciding factor in that election. Over 1600 people voted in this extremely close election, yet it was decided only by a 60 vote margin – it was the Little Tokyo votes that made the difference. Hundreds of LT voters went to pop-up polls or voted online. If Little Tokyo had supported Skid Row, the outcome of the election would have been completely different. 

EDUCATION POLITICS-I spent the Memorial Day weekend with an old teacher friend who lives and works in an upscale bedroom community out on Long Island, NY and was unexpectedly enlightened by yet another lesson on the state of public education in this nation. Our failing, predominantly poor minority-filled inner city public education system bears no resemblance to the still excellent public education system that remains the rule in the affluent suburbs, where the middle class live and can still exert their substantial financial influence.

CAPITAL & MAIN SPECIAL REPORT--Last August, on a scorching afternoon that saw temperatures reach 115 degrees, a small but noisy group of protesters gathered in front of an ARCO gas station in Mecca, an impoverished, unincorporated community 40 miles southeast of Palm Springs. It was an unusual setting for a demonstration: Miles from the nearest city and along a desolate stretch of highway, where the only crowds are typically farm workers and Border Patrol agents gathered during the morning rush at a nearby Starbucks. (Photo above: Elon Musk, center) 

ALPERN AT LARGE--There's a new word in our city that merits an opening in our ever-growing English lexicon: Garcettiville.  Do you live near homeless encampments ... you know:  Garcettivilles.

@TheGussReport – The injuries that 15-year old Van Nuys skateboarder Anthony Hernandez suffered from a fallen tree branch last week were severe; reported to be fractured ribs and a lower back. That raises the question of whether a city which has shown no will, ability – or money - to cure its arbor and other infrastructure dangers is prepared for an Olympics and all of the expense and risk that come to town with it.