TRANSIT TALK--After years of calculating and planning and outreach, LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, Westside LA Councilmember Mike Bonin and former Santa Monica Denny Zane reached high with the advocacy of Measure M. And after decades of being told it would "never happen", the Westside/Valley rail line--the Holy Grail of Transit--can become a reality.

Of course, it's remembered by so many how the Expo Line--arguably the seminal effort that made LA County's elected leaders recognize that all of LA County wanted rail alternatives to car commuting and mobility, and not just the San Gabriel Valley with their Gold Line--would "never happen".

So why is the Westside/Valley rail line (call it the Valley/Westside rail line if you live in the San Fernando Valley) the "Holy Grail" of Transit?

Three reasons:  the geographic distance from other connecting rail lines, the cost and the previous lack of political support and cohesion for this project.

1) With Measure M, we can fast-track the Wilshire Subway to reach the 405 freeway and the West Los Angeles VA a decade or more earlier, and upgrade the Orange Line to a rail line, so that the connection between the two east-west lines will occur in a more planned, comprehensive fashion.

The location of this far-west line is what also vexes the Southeast LA County Cities and the South Bay Cities with their own rail lines--they're far away from the central core of Downtown LA, but their regional traffic requires the presence of rail alternatives.

Of interest, though, is that a huge portion of those voting for the measure were from the Westside and Valley. 

One can only hope that the north-south Westside-Valley Subway will be planned and constructed in coordination with the Wilshire/Purple Line Subway.  And for those keeping score on other transit projects, ditto for a Crenshaw/LAX Light Rail Line northern extension that will be a subway between the Expo and Purple Lines. 

2) The cost is prohibitive, but that was true for the Wilshire Subway.  After virtually 100 years of talking about it, the subway under Wilshire Blvd. is being built, with political and financial support that is now universal. 

Demands to both Sacramento and Washington for matching funds will almost certainly be ramped up, and a dogfight between Republican Congressional budget hawks and President-Elect Trump will occur over how to pay for $1 trillion in national infrastructure projects. 

For now, it should be remembered that $1 billion in Measure R's plan (the forerunner of Measure M) was dedicated for a Westside/Valley transit project, and it's not hard to conclude that paying for buses and Rapid Bus stations will occur between the Orange Line Busway and the Expo Line, with stops on Sunset and the Getty Center. 

Perhaps a Busway will be built, but that may be too expensive and inflexible--would that reside in the middle of the 405 freeway, and take over the carpool lanes?  Perhaps...but the stations need to be at the destinations residing off the freeway, so that a Rapid Bus line with many new buses (paid for by Measures R and M) might be what we see in the immediate future. 

At this time, however, the concerns of $5-7 billion for a north-south Westside/Valley Subway appear to have gone the direction of the Wilshire Subway: "Yes, it's expensive.  And?" 

3) The political will of a given region overrides all obstacles, or places a given rail project at the back of the line. 

There was never a counterpart to the "Friends4Expo Transit" for a north-south Valley/Westside (Westside/Valley?) transit project.  Of course, there was also no equivalent or counterpart to an Exposition Rail Line Right of Way.  And there was certainly no cohesion between San Fernando Valley and Westside political leaders, or even political cohesion within the Valley. 

And San Fernando Valley leaders are paying the price for not showing courage and vision when they let a rail right of way become a second-rate Orange Line Busway which could have been a first-rate light rail line like what occurred with the Exposition Light Rail Line. 

What to do, what to do?  The conversion of the Orange Line Busway to a light rail, or doing the big dig with a Valley/Westside rail tunnel?  Which should come first?  Can they both be worked on together? 

Similarly, the South Bay Cities, which did not vote in as high numbers for Measure M, are paying the price for not advocating for a South Bay Green Line Extension earlier (they've got their own roadblocks, and hence that region will have to suffer until the right leaders can expedite that project and confront those among them who are blocking it. 

And ditto for the Southeast LA County Cities (Gateway Cities) who still have major freeway projects and a lower priority for any rail projects.   

The regions without the political will suffer the most, but with Latinos and Millennials overwhelmingly voting for Measure M, it's likely the chorus for more rail projects will grow ever louder. 

On a final note, there is yet ANOTHER "holy grail" that has been ignored, and will remain ignored until LAX is connected to Metro's countywide transit system: a direct LAX to Downtown rail line.  

There almost certainly WILL be more individuals noting how Metro spent money and effort to create a cute Bikeway along the Harbor Subdivision rail right of way between Inglewood and the Blue Line and Southeast Downtown LA and Union Station. 

But that, too, is an issue of geography, cost, and (especially!) political will.   

Because the dilemma of HOW, and not IF, we're going to get to these "holy grails" is one we can now enjoy with the passage of Measure M. 

Which is a dilemma that transportation experts have sought for years to confront.  And that is one dilemma that will bring cheers and smiles (and jobs!) for decades to come. 

(Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D. is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties.  He is also a Westside Village Zone Director and Board member of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Planning and Outreach Committees, and currently is Co-Chair of its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11Transportation Advisory Committee and chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at  [email protected]. He also co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at www.fogl.us. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.)

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-Kids say the Darndest Things is long gone from television, but based on the rib-tickling comments from the planning and environmental consultants who Caruso Affiliated hired to support its high-rise luxury apartment project at 333 S. LaCienega, a revival in now warranted. Instead of kids, though, I suggest Art Linkletter’s and Bill Cosby’s successor can interview the various officials, architects, lawyers, planning expediters, outreach specialists, environmental specialists, and hoodwinked neighbors on the payroll to sing the praises of one unplanned mega-project after another. 

Based on their performance in promoting Caruso Affiliated’s 333 S. LaCienega project at the City Planning Commission, I think the new show might even deny Julia Louis Dreyfuss her ninth Emmy. We also may need to move quickly because if the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative passes in March 2017, developers will no longer be able to select their own environmental consultants, and all their reality-defying performances will be lost forever. 

To scope out the revival of Kids Say the Darndest Things, let us examine how these Santa’s little helpers deflected an obvious criticism: a 240 foot high-rise apartment tower constructed on a lot with a 45 feet height limit and facing one of the most congested intersections in Los Angeles does not meets the General Plan’s policy that new high density residential must match the character and scale of surrounding residences. 

Then let us move on to their equally droll defense against the public comment that some of this planet’s wealthiest tenants are not going to travel around Los Angeles on METRO busses or hoof a half-mile to the future Purple Line station at LaCienega and Wilshire for forays to LACMA, the Wiltern, Little Tokyo, or Universal Studios. 

The consultants replied that any claims of a clash in scale and character were purely conjecture, and they then asserted the opposite, that the proposed structure is visually consistent with nearby residences because they spotted some mid-rise buildings in the vicinity. Then Little Sir Echo from the Department of City Planning repeated these consultant claims to an obliging City Planning Commission (CPC). While that is obviously sufficient for a CPC whose members are insiders handpicked by the Developer-in-Chief, Eric Garcetti, it is not likely to pass muster with less enlightened outsiders. 

To begin, the Wilshire Community Plan, which governs 333 S. LaCienega Boulevard, presents two clear policies: 

Policies

1-1.1

Protect existing stable single family and low density residential neightborhoods from encroachment by higher density residential uses and other uses that are incompatible as to scale and character, or would otherwise diminish quality of life.

1-3.1

Promote architectural compatibility and landscaping for new Multiple Family residential development to protect the character and scale of existing residential neighborhoods.

New high-density residential buildings should be consistent with the character and scale of nearby low-density and single family residential areas. 

At this location the highest surrounding buildings, at Cedars-Sinai Hospital and the Beverly Center Shopping Center, are about 8 stories tall, while 240 feet translates into approximately 19-21 stories. As a result, the 333 S. LaCienega tower is at least twice the height of the tallest surrounding buildings. Furthermore, most buildings on LaCienega Boulevard, to the north, between Beverly Boulevard and West Hollywood, conform to the corridor’s 45-foot height limit, as prescribed by the General Plan and its C2-1VL zone. To the south, nearly all buildings between this site and Wilshire Boulevard also conform to the General Plan designation and to existing zoning. 

Improving the visual character of the area? 

In hopes that the pilot will become a comedy hit, the consultants also claimed that the proposed project would improve the visual character of the immediate area, even though a 240-foot tall building would tower everything else in this part of Los Angeles. To find other buildings this tall, one needs to drive west to Century City, south to some parts of Wilshire Boulevard, or north to West Hollywood’s Sunset Strip. But, the planning and zoning in these three areas permits such high rise structures, and these legal buildings are not two (2) to eight (8) times taller than everything else. While the project’s renderings are designed to shrink the building’s height, it can still be observed in the following. Despite architectural trickery and traffic-free streets at one of LA’s and Beverly Hill’s most congested corners, the high-rise still towers over the Beverly Center, which is one block to the north and Cedars Sinai, which is to its immediate northwest. 

Auto-centric high-rise structures, like this, are transit adjacent, not transit oriented. 

In response to public comments that it is highly farfetched to re-package a luxury high-rise tower as a transit-oriented development whose super-wealthy tenants will ride METRO busses, the consultant’s rejoinder was so ingenious that Larry David must be cribbing the lines. Any claims about high rents and low transit use are purely speculative. But, this complaint about the proposed project was not speculative. It is based on data that the high-rollers shelling out $12,000 to $40,000 per month for rent will NOT take METRO busses or the future subway. 

The information comes straight from the project’s developer, Rick Caruso, as corroborated by the Los Angeles Times. At several meetings with the Beverly Wilshire Homes Association, Mr. Caruso stated that his project will be a unique luxury apartment building, and about half of its tenants would be occasional visitors from other countries. It would offer the up-scale amenities of a five star hotel, including a concierge service that shops for tenants and provides on-call chauffeur-driven luxury cars for all their mobility needs. 

Apparently, the meeting did not last long enough for the developer to mention that there were nearby METRO bus stops and his future tenants would quickly grow tired of their chauffeur-driven luxury cars. At that point, they would switch to METRO busses, and beginning in 2023, stroll a half-mile to LaCienega and Wilshire to venture forth on the Purple Line Subway. 

At these meetings Mr. Caruso also emphasized that his tenants expected lavish amenities, including semi-private elevators that allowed them to avoid other tenants. This was, in fact, his primary reason for not building a shorter building with more luxury units on each expanded floor. 

While it not possible to know the exact rent structure of the proposed project, according to the real estate site, Curbed LA, it is intended to match the luxury Caruso building one block to the south, at 8500 Burton Way, where the penthouse rents for $40,000 per month. 

Furthermore, according to the March 9, 2015, Los Angeles Times, the typical rent there is $12,000 per month, which is at least four times the average rent in Los Angeles, and comparable to the highest rents in New York City. This press report also quotes the developer directly: 

"It's very eclectic," he said of the tenant mix, "sort of the rich and famous of all categories….About half of them have a primary home outside Los Angeles, in many cases overseas, he said, "It's a second home to many." 

A key factor in the building's appeal is hotel-like service, Caruso said. There is a driver and car to help tenants run errands or get to the airport. A concierge will secure concert tickets or see to it that tenants' grocery lists are fulfilled and the food is stocked in their pantries. 

"We shop everywhere," Caruso said. "If you want a salad from the Polo Lounge, we'll bring you a salad from the Polo Lounge. People want to be pampered." 

While the environmental and planning consultants might contend that these rich and famous tenants will take METRO busses and the future Purple Line subway, their sole evidence is proximity to several bus stops. But, a transit adjacent apartment building is hardly the same as a transit-oriented one. In the latter, the tenant mix is transit-oriented, and programs to generate transit ridership are front and center, not an after-thought slipped into an Environmental Impact Report. 

Had the consultant team looked further, though, they could have easily obtained a demographic profile of METRO passengers derived from on-board surveys. Eighty percent of the bus passengers are Latino, Black, and American Indian. Their average income is $16,377 per year, which means they are not likely to rent luxury apartments at 333 S. LaCienega. In fact, with such low incomes, it is doubtful they could even afford the 13 low income and affordable apartments that Caruso Affiliated pledges to build to qualify for on and off-menu Density Bonus incentives.  

While I realize that some readers may struggle to find the humor in this column, can’t we at least agree that the creativity of the consultants and their abettors at City Hall ought to be recognized? If not through a new comedy series, then perhaps we should consider something else, perhaps the next Doublespeak Award from the National Council of Teachers of English.

(Dick Platkin reports on local planning issues in Los Angeles for CityWatch. He is also serves on the Board of the Beverly Wilshire Homes Association, which opposes the requested zone change, height district change and General Plan Amendment for the proposed luxury apartment tower at 333. S. LaCienega. Please send any comments or corrections to [email protected].) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

IT’S THE ECONMOMY, STUPID (PART 2)-In Part I, we explored how Trump’s “Make America Great Again” was Obama’s “Promise of Hope” and both plagiarize Bill Clinton’s, “It’s the economy, stupid.” But no one cares as long as they deliver. 

“We have a mandate” is a pathological delusion in which politicians believe that because they won, they have a mandate to do whatever they want. Trump has no mandate, just as Obama had no mandate to do Health Care before fixing the economy. 

It turns out that not fixing the economy is the true third rail of American politicians, but I guess it’s the great talent of politicians to deceive and mislead, which then causes them to deceive and mislead themselves into thinking that they personally have some mandate. No. They do not. 

How will Trump fix the economy? 

If Trump has any idea, he is as secretive about it as he is about his plans to defeat ISIS. In fact, if I were a betting person, I’d bet he has better ideas how to decimate ISIS than he does how to manage the economy. 

The Basic Flaw in Managing the Economy 

The worst people in the world to manage a national economy are businessmen -- including people with a Wall Street mentality. That was Geithner’s fatal flaw that paved the way for Trump. 

The government’s responsibility for the economy has nothing to do with how one runs a business or how a family manages its finances. While sometimes an analogy can helped illustrate an aspect of macro-economics, it is dangerous to use examples from business or personal finances because they are based in micro-economics. Asking a businessman about macro-economics is like asking a person who only speaks German to teach you French. 

Managing the Economy Is the Function of Macro-economics 

Businessmen run businesses and people run their family finances, but the government has an entire different responsibility. Its main domestic function is to set the parameters for the economy itself. It sets the rules of the system. 

The Price System 

Adam Smith, writing in 1776, John Maynard Keynes, writing in 1936, both placed protection of the Price System at the core of the economic system – much in the same way as the Right to Privacy is at the core of Liberty. Without a right to privacy, there is no liberty. Both the price system and the right to privacy are so intrinsic to the economy and our constitution that we seldom enunciate them. 

The Price System is the mechanism by which everyone knows what something is worth from moment to moment. It is sometimes called the law of supply and demand. In totalitarian systems like Communism, they try to have a central authority set prices. There is nothing better to establish the value of any commodity than what a willing buyer will pay to a willing seller. These decisions are made billions of times a day. 

The Price System needs to be protected. The biggest threat is fraud, such as when people send out false information about the cost of wheat and deceive people into selling it far below market value. The fraudsters buy up huge quantities and when the market corrects itself, they sell their wheat for a huge profit. Not only are the people who sold their wheat for below market value harmed, but others who depend upon them to purchase merchandise are harmed. The fraudsters have nothing of value to wheat and they have provided no value by their transactions. 

Wall Street has been allowed to run wild with fraud since the end of the Clinton Administration and neither Bush nor Obama did anything to stop that from being the modus operandus. People were deceived into investing in housing, based upon the fraudulent idea that there was a huge market of buyers for single family homes; in fact, the market was already greatly over-built. Many people chose to invest in home construction, but what about all the places where they did not invest their money? We will never know what medical advances could have been made if those billions of dollars had gone into genetic research. No one knows how much farther along science would be if those billions of dollars had gone into space exploration. 

Thus, the first domestic job of the Trump Presidency is to “Protect the Price System.” 

That will require beefing up the old Glass-Steagall law and outlawing credit default swaps. Dodd-Frank is a poor platform from which to begin. We need to separate the investment banks from the commercial banks and make certain there are no loop holes allowing them to indirectly coordinate. 

Raise the cap on incomes which pay Social Security, Increase Unemployment Insurance, and Insure Residential Mortgages 

The government needs to follow the basic principle that Joseph explained to Pharaoh. During the fat years, you need to save so that during the lean years you can spend. 

There is no rational reason to cap the income for making Social Security contributions at only $118,500. The wealthier a person becomes, the less burden it is to pay Social Security taxes on higher income. It is the government’s duty to explain that Social Security payments have a benefit for businesses as well as for the individual who collects them. 

When the economy turns down, and it always does, the government can ward off recession by adding money to the economy. The higher the social security payments to seniors, the more disposable income they have and the better that is for business. The entire society benefits when seniors have more money to spend. 

Social Security was devised when people thought individuals would all have private pensions, but as we have seen, private pensions have become a fiction for everyone except the extremely wealthy.   Thus, Social Security has to be the main source of income for the elderly. To this end, it is the duty of the Trump Administration to increase Social Security payments. 

There are two basic ways to do this: 

(1) Starting in 2018, and each year thereafter Social Security payments will by at least 5% more than any increase in the Consumer Price Index. 

(2) An alternative would be to keep the current rate of increase at the CPI, but set an automatic “sur-increase” if there is a decrease in the economy. That way, as the economy becomes weak and moves towards recession, seniors and the disabled with have more money to spend and that extra money will help businesses weather the downturn. Since this increase would allow the country to head off a crisis, the amount of increase would have to be significant. 

Either way, Trump needs to lift the cap on Social Security contributions. 

For the same reason, we also need to start increasing the deductions for Unemployment Insurance. We need to set aside more funds to handle increased unemployment insurance payments because an economic downturn always increases unemployment.   

Similarly, we need to insure all residential mortgages with a type of insurance that is similar to life insurance and fire insurance. An economic downturn is similar to a fire that only burns down the den and the master bedroom. A family may lose part of its income due to a layoff. Thus, the mortgage insurance would kick in to pay that portion of the mortgage that has become out of reach. An automatic program like insurance with pre-set criteria is required; a time consuming and complicated refinancing system would only harm the banks at the time when everyone needs help. 

Thus, two things which we need to hear from Trump are his vigorous protection of the Price System and the institution of more programs to remove money from the economy while it is doing well in order to have the funds to add to the economy when it becomes weak. 

A Word about Los Angeles and Macro-Economics 

Measure HHH, Affordable Housing for the poor, is a horrible idea and is pseudo-macro-economics. It is a relic from the soviet-style CRA type of government in which Garcetti bureaucrats decide where poor people will live. Garcetti and the other central planners of the world suffer from the delusion that somehow GOD imbued them with the right to make these personal decisions for other people just because they are poor. The only thing that Measure HHH does is give the corrupt city council $1.2 billion to dole out to their buddies. 

Late Breaking News Article about LA’s Decline 

Although we’ve been writing for a couple of years about Family Millennials’ leaving Los Angeles, LA Weekly has presented some additional confirming data in its November 15, 2016 piece by David Romero, “Millennials Are Leaving Los Angeles.” 

Here is the underlying study in the November 4, 2016 issue of Apartment LIST, “Where are Millennials Moving to?” by Andrew Woo. Note that the article’s focus on 18 to 35 year olds tends to conceal that the exodus is among the older Millennials, i.e. the Family Millennials. The City’s investment in high rise Transit Oriented Districts is a local form of mismanagement of macro-economics. The diversion of billions of dollars into DTLA high rises and into Hollywood InFill Projects, along with Garcetti’s war on the single-family home, have driven out the replacement generation for Los Angeles’ Middle Class. 

Part III will discuss the political evil which allowed this disaster to befall the City.

(Richard Lee Abrams is a Los Angeles attorney. He can be reached at: [email protected]. Abrams views are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

EASTSIDER-I guess I have a very different view of our recent Presidential election. Truth is, Donald Trump won, Hillary Clinton lost. Period. Donald Trump will be President of the United States come January, and no amount of protests or whining is going to change that outcome. 

For me, the more useful analysis has to do with what in the heck we do with our Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Party here in California. After all, the Republican National Committee and the Republicans have already given us their version of change -- President Trump. 

My point of view is framed by having been a lifetime Democrat, and my dad was one of a handful of dentists in Orange County who was a Democrat. But the Democratic Party I belonged to and fought for back in the day is not the Democratic Party of 2016. 

Nobody wants to admit that both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump were responses to two national private clubs, the DNC and the RNC, that are absolutely rigged against ordinary Americans. Trump won, and we will have to see how he copes with the reality that the nation also re-elected most of the same old same old Senators and Congress Critters that he argued against. And they are mostly still charter members of the one dollar one vote brand of politics in America. 

As for the Democrats, I see no real movement to get back in touch with that 90 percent of the electorate that does not represent the 1/2 of 1% of the rich and powerful. Face it, the DNC is a slush fund that sets its own rules to keep its current members in power, and those folk’s skill set is doing whatever it takes to grab as much corporate and billionaire money as they can. I think we all know the price for that trade. 

As long as television networks like MSNBC are a subdivision of the DNC, paying ridiculous sums of money to DNC agents like Donna Brazile and other talking heads, you and I are in a world of hurt if we actually believe they represent us beyond the sound bites heard during the national elections, even as they look for gigs in a new administration. 

Hillary Clinton Did Not Happen In a Vacuum  

I remember when Bill Clinton got elected. He talked so good, and I gave him my hard earned money and thought how grand life would be. Sure. Then we got GATT & NAFTA & Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. 

Bill Clinton was a “better” Republican than most in the Republican Party. I was crushed. And then we got Bush’d. Holy Moly, war without end, amen, and militarization of our police departments. Maybe Clinton wasn’t so bad after all. Except for the fact that most of my friends didn’t have jobs, and none of us had laws protecting us from the financial elites. 

Then came my final disappointment: Barack Obama. Again, he talked so good that I gave him a bunch of money and bought into the “audacity of hope.” Boy did we hope and pray it was true. Maybe we could all get along and remove ourselves from the endless wars that were economically destroying our way of life. More on his legacy in a bit, but first, why don’t we try and put all of these relatively recent happenings and disappointments in historical context? A context I should have remembered. 

A Fine History of Political Corruption 

Most folks don’t realize it, but we in the United States have a fine history of political corruption. For those mildly interested in American history, Mark Wahlgren Summers wrote a couple of great books, The Plundering Generation about the Civil War Period, and the even more revealing, The Era of Good Stealings about the post Civil War Reconstruction period. 

In his Preface to The Era of Good Stealings, Summers wrote, “From the bribery of lawmakers to ballot-box stuffing to administrative officers on the take, corruption had less important consequences than the corruption issue.” 

That issue has never really gone away. We had muckrakers like Lincoln Steffens (The Shame of the Cities) at the Turn of the Century into the progressive era, proving again that political corruption has always gone hand in hand with financial corruption.

When the Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890) was just laying around, President Teddy Roosevelt dusted it off and made it his vehicle for “trust busting” the Wall Street financial class. I find it fascinating that his first target was J. Pierpont Morgan in the early 1900s. Under the heading, “you can’t make this stuff up,” I cannot resist noting that old J.P.’s current incarnation, J.P. Morgan Chase, was at the heart of our 2007/08 financial services industry meltdown.

To jet ahead to now, we had the Great Depression and the establishment of the Glass-Steagall Act, designed to reign in the financial services industry. And then we had President Bill Clinton who repealed it. Good move. 

Now we have been given, in order, the almost great depression of 2007/08, Obama, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Ain’t progress grand? All the same political and financial corruption issues that Summers and Steffens wrote about over a hundred years ago. 

Back to the Obama Presidency 

Presidential candidate Obama did something that hadn’t happened for quite a while: he articulated a vision of hope and working together for a better America, and did it well. A lot of us bought into this vision because we wanted to believe that it was possible, even in the face of the meltdown of our financial services industry and permanent war around the globe. 

I won’t go into the details of his presidency, other than to say “so sad too bad,” and to point out a few things that we now know were actually going on within the campaign even as we all stood in line to attend Obama rallies. 

As a quick popular read, you might check out a book by Ron Suskind, Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President. 

The book is not without its critics or faults, but most of the criticisms are inside baseball kind of stuff. Frankly I could care less about Larry Summers or Timothy Geithner or Ben Bernanke. What they and their cronies did and who they took money from is a matter of public record. 

My interest in the book is simple: It shows that while Barrack Obama was running for the White House on a platform of populism and togetherness, he was, in fact, in bed with and subsidized by the very financial services industry he was promising to fix. As for targeting blocks of voters, Suskind’s electoral math at the beginning of the book shows that Obama was targeting the “ten million low to moderately skilled white workers,” under the banner of restoring our infrastructure. Sounds right to me. Of course it didn’t happen, and oh gee, I wonder what current president-elect echoed those refrains? Hint: it wasn’t the Democratic nominee. 

It is a fact that, under the Obama administration, not one of those crooks in the financial services industry has been indicted or gone to jail. Instead, they got private meetings with the Attorney General of the United States and cut deals to have their shareholders pay fines without any admission of personal liability. And their lobbyists in Congress got to turn the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 into a 2300 page giant telephone directory of mishmash. 

Ultimately, as a result of endless litigation, stalling, and an army of lobbyists buying both houses of congress, the bill is still getting (re)written. Further, between the legislative budget manipulation, fiddling with the regulatory agencies, and the Administration’s own lame appointments (read industry shills,) Niccolo Machiavelli would have to update The Prince to be current. 

I was especially amused by Morrison & Forerster’s Cheat Sheet from 2010. If you take a look, it will give you a taste of what I’m referring to in Dodd-Frank. 

As an A-List San Francisco behemoth, I just had to give some credit to MoFo as a relatively “local,” front for corporate America. Not to mention they produce a spiffy pdf. 

So What the Heck Do We Do Now? 

Ok, ok, even if what I say is true, what now? The real question after the 2016 Presidential election is what can we do to change this mess? Trump or no, the fact is that the vast majority of both houses of congress represent politicians totally beholden to the DNC, the RNC, and the billionaire class that owns the financial services industry. Groovy. 

Bernie was right on. You and I have about as much influence with these people as the serfs of Imperial Russia.

Here in California, there are also warning signs that the relative stability and economic success of my generation is now gone forever, for both us and our children. Factor out the uber-rich from Silicon Valley and the Entertainment Industry moguls, mix in the incestuous California Democratic Party, and I think you will find a state that’s not that different from the rest of the nation underneath; just more diverse. And our budget is largely dependent on the “temporary tax” on those rich folks that was just extended by the voters on November 8th. 

When I talk to my neighbors and people who actually live in Northeast LA, it’s about jobs and economic survival. Something like nine million jobs disappeared between 2007 and 2010, and by and large, they haven’t come back. A lot of those jobs were good paying jobs that let people have a home and send their children to school and plan for retirement. 

Don’t They Get that It’s All about Jobs? 

The jobs that have been generated lately have been either at the bottom end of the wage scale or the high-end tech and professional occupations. CityLab’s Laura Bliss has a good article on this reality here.  

Notwithstanding all the statistical modifications and revisions, simply disappearing the long-term jobless from the rolls of our state and federal employment statistics doesn’t do a heck of a lot towards getting them work. Just because the Democratic elites joined with the Republican elites in ignoring any pretense of providing full-time decent jobs with benefits, doesn’t say much for either one of them. William Black has a telling article about the phenomenon.  

Further, our younger workers, categorized as “Millennial’s,” are very nervous about their own employment prospects and for cause. The “shared economy,” “gig” employment, student debt and low wages do not make for anything other than anxiety and pessimism about the future. See the recent study results on the Millennial Economy. 

Millennials are leaving LA in droves, and our young people can’t get jobs at all. 

Back to the Roots - Re-Forming the Democrats 

It used to be that the Democratic Party represented working people, their hopes and aspirations. Those days went bye bye with Bill Clinton and have never returned. Bernie Sanders has it 100% right about politicians needing to represent the 99% of people instead of toadying up to the 1%. 

This not about “left” or “right.” Those are simply stupid and divisive labels used by professional political elites to brand their version of two party HORSE PUCKEY. My name is Tony, not “white college educated.” My wife is Paula, not “multi-racial API with PhD.” My friend Edwin is named Ed, not “African-American professional,” and my pal Raul is named Raul, not “high-school educated Latino.” 

I think that we all have an absolute moral imperative to either hang up or lie through our teeth to any political pollster. Let them rot, instead of making money in trying to manipulate us. 

We need to get rid of fear and get the Democrats moving on -- worrying about how to create and maintain decent jobs for Angelenos, jobs where they can get and stay out of poverty. As the Brookings Institute noted, “poverty crosses party lines.”  Duh. 

On the Local Level 

We do not need our essentially all Democrat LA City Council and Mayor to continue to run around and spend money we don’t have on new tax initiatives, even as they sell their souls to big developers. They will not be around when the bill comes due and you and I need a job or help. We need to elect Democrats who will generate decent jobs that are more than a gig or a project. 

We need to elect Democrats who will actually represent the men and women of their political boundaries, not just cater to and manipulate a fraction of the less than 10% of people who even bother to vote in municipal elections. And stop blaming us that only 10% of the City votes. Look instead at our choices of candidates and their performances. 

I know you will not be surprised that I am a great fan of Bernie Sanders and OurRevolution.  

Bernie is joined by other people across the country, like Tim Canova in Florida, who recently lost to Debbie “PayDay Loan” Wasserman Schultz. He also has set up a grass roots movement called Progress For Now. Other real Democrats throughout the country are doing the same. 

It’s time for real people to get together, organize, and elect people who will take care of the 99% for a change. Otherwise, these idiots in both parties are going to take us down in another crash they can’t fix. 

Let’s go for it. As The Donald said, “What have we got to lose?”

(Tony Butka is an Eastside community activist, who has served on a neighborhood council, has a background in government and is a contributor to CityWatch.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

IMAGINE VENICE-Well, that hasn’t happened yet -- but it won’t be long before Venice residents really do hire a fully engaged law firm just to represent all their neighborhood concerns and interests. 

Sick and tired of endless meeting hours, organizing and talking, talking, talking with city officials in one city department or another and the California Coastal Commission, residents are organizing. When all that talk falls on the deaf ears of the “deciders”’ and legitimate questions and problems blown off, the noisy annoying resident rabble will rise up -- and they are doing that now. 

Serious misdeeds are ignored and rules regularly broken. Our “deciders” quickly and efficiently serve constituents with “juice.” In case you don’t know what “juice” is… it’s those big landowners, developers, “Silicon Beach” powerful techies and “hot” restaurateurs who have lots of power, real influence, spend plenty of money paying for consultants and who put lots of dollars in politicians’ coffers. Voila! Parking requirements get changed secretly, bar operators get permits to take over public parking spaces for their private moneymaking use and building and safety rules get massaged with private “adjustments.” Public property deed restrictions are ignored and bogus building permits issued. Might makes right in Venice now. There are so many pissed off people around here and so many real problems, they don’t know which war to join. 

Residents have engaged the services of law firms to force enforcement of the rules. Groups not yet in full combat are consulting with lawyers now. Residents want development decisions based on the rules and that’s not happening now in Venice. Lobbyists, consultants of one stripe or another are running the show. Residents don’t have those kinds of warriors on their side. Banding together and hiring lawyers to even up the playing field is mandatory in Venice now. 

Don’t think for a minute that residents want to spend their own dollars, putting in endless frustrating hours of personal time exhausting themselves because they love a good fight. Every one of the “hot” issues here in Venice is all about residents’ unmet expectation that the rules on the books are for everyone and the rule of law is important to the “deciders.” 

There are a half dozen neighborhood associations already formed to level the playing field. It is war.

Lax enforcement allowed a massive amount of our housing stock to be taken over by the Airbnb’s of the new economy, restauranteurs have pages of unenforced citations on the books. Zoning Administrator conditions are ignored. Citations mean nothing. Secret deals at Building and Safety and Planning are a daily occurrence. Right now there is a taking of a Deed restricted public recreation property for a homeless use. Residents’ complaints and suggested alternatives are ignored. It’s not hard to understand why this neighborhood group hired a lawyer to fight the city and protect their neighborhood from predictable future problems. Residents now believe that only a lawyer will get their voices heard. 

Residents “manning the barricades” are not a bunch of crazies. They are from every neighborhood. Each of the recently formed Neighborhood Associations has its own crisis to manage. They want to assure their efforts yield real results -- there is a coalescing of neighborhood groups which never occurred before. Maybe now, the “little people” will finally get some R-E-S-P-E-C-T. 

Residents just want the rules enforced. They want an end to the rules-avoiding secret deals made for the powerful. They are not asking for anything more. 

The New Venice 

We don’t know how many commercial buildings and how many residential apartments were converted and taken over by Snapchat this past year or two, but it is getting easier to recognize a building housing the Snapsters. 

How? Take a look. (photos left) 

The Snapsters now have their own quasi police force. These private security people are all over our town from Abbot Kinney to Ocean Front Walk – reminding us of San Miguel de Allende where every rich person’s villa had an uzi-wearing guard outside on 24 hour patrol. 

It sure looks like our new fabulous people just don’t want to mix with Venice’s un-washed. So much for all that PR: “We love Venice’s culture and we love being here.” These are our new Venetians. We know they just love to hang out on Abbot Kinney and drink at Venice’s pubs and bars -- it won’t be long before we see their security force everywhere they are -- protecting our new elite. 

This is what we have become. First the takeover of our neighborhoods by Airbnb and the rest of the STR Wall Street gold rush tycoons who have turned our neighborhoods into neighborhoods of strangers -- and now, our new “Silicon Beach” eliterati who even have their oven private security protection to keep us away from them. 

The sharing economy and the social media crowd have brought a tide of money to Venice, got their huge tax breaks from the City, and are filling the coffers of our politicians -- but what have they taken? 

We are concerned, longtime Venice residents who no longer want to watch what we treasure about our community melt away. Our aim is to lead the conversation clarifying, informing, and uniting us in the preservation of our unique community. 

We hope you will find interesting new thoughts here as we ImagineVenice together.

(Marian Crostic and Elaine Spierer are Co-founders of ImagineVenice.) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.)

RANTS AND RAVEZ--While California and the Los Angeles region remain a strong Democratic Blue State, Republican President - Elect Donald Trump won the race for president of the United States of America. What a blow to all the pollsters and newspaper editorial boards and so-called political pundits. 

While most Liberal Americans were banking on Hillary Clinton winning the office of President, they were suddenly surprised and shocked when the election returns began rolling in. One by one the states across America were turning Red for the somewhat wild and controversial billionaire Donald Trump to rescue them and set a new course of action for the citizens of America. 

In the final count, Donald Trump received 290 Electoral Votes (60,072,551 Popular Votes) while Hillary Clinton received 228 Electoral Votes (60,467,601 Popular Votes.) Once this sweeping victory for Donald Trump was confirmed, out came those that can’t accept the results. Their course of action was immediate protests and vandalism across many American cities. Breaking windows and blocking freeways and all other types of protesting actions.   

When the Democrats won other elections in the past, I don’t remember any Republicans protesting or carrying on in a hostile manner. While every American has the legal right to protest any and all issues, they don’t have the right to block freeways and break windows and cause damage to public and private property. Like many other issues in our society, this too will pass and there will be another Presidential election in four years to judge if Donald Trump delivers to those who voted for him or fails on his promises like many other politicians in the past. 

Local Elections and increased Taxes

With a $15.00 an hour minimum wage coming to workers in a few years, some of those dollar will be chewed up by new taxes. 

Measure M …

… Was passed by the voters and will add a one-half cent tax to all purchases in Los Angeles County. The one-half cent tax will increase to 1% on July 1, 2039. The money will be used for a variety of promised transportation projects. Some will take up to 40 years to complete.  

It is interesting that the move to public transit has become so popular with our elected officials. Those of us who grew up in Los Angeles can remember the rails that ran across Los Angeles in past years. Down Santa Monica Blvd and so many other areas around Los Angeles like the Red Line and all the others that were so popular. It was the car industry that pushed to scrap the rails around Los Angeles and push for the comfort and relaxing ride in a car. 

The General Motors plant was built in Van Nuys and those Chevys rolled off the assembly line and into our driveways. There was Cruise Night along Van Nuys Blvd. Now the homeless occupy many parts of Van Nuys Blvd. There was the Ford plant in Pico Rivera and more jobs for those in the auto industry. That is all a lost memory for many and the congestion and road rage has replaced it all. 

The safety and convenience of your personal car is going to be replaced in future years with more bus lines and rail lines and bicycles as the city sees more congestion and jammed roadways. You can thank our city leaders for the situation we are in and the voters for the increased taxes we will all be paying in future years. 

LAPD TRANSIT COPS?

While reviewing Measure M, you may be seeing LAPD Officers enforcing the transit routes in Los Angeles City next year. The Metro Board has recommended that Transit Security within the Los Angeles City Area be transferred from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to the LAPD. This change is expected to occur in 2017. It will be interesting to see how the LAPD will handle this added responsibility with the current number of LAPD Officers many working 12 hour shifts.  

Measure CC …

… is a $3,300,000,000 bond that will cost you in your property tax. This will add $15.00 per $100,000 of assessed valuation. CC is aimed at spending money at the community colleges.

Measure HHH …

… is a $1,200,000,000 Bond Measure to address the 30 some thousand homeless population in Los Angeles City. The city is preparing to buy, build, or remodel facilities to provide supportive housing for the homeless. These facilities may be coming to your community since the city wants to spread the units throughout the city. The Bond will be paid from an increase in your property taxes. 

Additionally, the city will need an additional $800 million for various services associated with Measure HHH. When you see the “FREE” HHH Housing coming to your neighborhood for the homeless, don’t complain since the voters of Los Angeles approved this bond measure that was pushed by Los Angeles City Hall. 

Measure RRR …

… failed to pass. It was a way to take more of your money associated with the DWP and have a PAID expanded DWP Commission. 

Now some RaveZ for you … 

• I want to Thank Steve Meyers for recognizing that the number of current LAPD Officers listed in my previous column was incorrect. The LAPD is actually 163 officers short of the authorized 10,000 officers.      

• Thank you … David Gould for his comment on his favorite bumper sticker. “Don’t like cops?   Next time you have a problem call a Hippie.” Do we still have any Hippies left? 

• Thank you … Sam who is 80 years young for his compliments on my column. I am glad you enjoy reading them. 

• RaveZ for Councilman Bob Blumenfield … We have all heard stories about the city throwing away good items. Councilman Bob Blumenfield came up with a great idea to save old computers and put them to use for those in need. When city computers are up for salvage, they are collected and refurbished and distributed to low-income individuals or families. This program provides a connection for those less fortunate to the world of the Internet. A great program that keeps the computers in use and provides assistance to many in Los Angeles.                

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL

As we approach Thanksgiving, I want to wish each of you and your families a very Happy Thanksgiving. We need to recognize our many blessings and the opportunities we all share in America. Remember our military personnel that will not be enjoying Thanksgiving Dinner with their families since they are deployed around the world and our police officers, firefighters, ER doctors and nurses and all the others that will be working on Thanksgiving Day to provide services for all of us. 

Thanksgiving 2016 is truly a time to reflect, remember and give thanks for all of our blessings.

(Dennis P. Zine is a 33-year member of the Los Angeles Police Department and former Vice-Chairman of the Elected Los Angeles City Charter Reform Commission, a 12-year member of the Los Angeles City Council and a current LAPD Reserve Officer who serves as a member of the Fugitive Warrant Detail assigned out of Gang and Narcotics Division. Disclosure: Zine was a candidate for City Controller last city election. He writes RantZ & RaveZ for CityWatch. You can contact him at [email protected]. Mr. Zine’s views are his own and do not reflect the views of CityWatch.)

-cw