LOS ANGELES

ONE MAN’S OPINION--People call America a democracy; it is not. People say America is based on equality.

CLIMATE POLITICS-Amazon Day, a day of celebration for over 100 years on September 5 has passed.

GELFAND’S WORLD--What a remarkable coincidence. A few days after Nancy Pelosi was outed for getting her hair cut inside a building (instead of on the sidewalk), President Trump was outed for insulting our nation’s war dead.

LABOR DAY ANGER--This Labor Day, immigrant and worker's rights advocates are sounding the alarm in response to reports of migrant grape pickers, many of whom are undocumented,

ALPERN AT LARGE--In California, in Michigan, in New York, in Florida, and throughout the nation, the economy of the COVID-19 pandemic and pre-election strategies have fast-forwarded and heightened the cultural divides lingering throughout our nation: whether it's capitalism or socialism, or a combination of both, the big issue of "who gets paid, and who gets crumbs" is becoming louder than ever. 

PANDEMIC POLITICS--This rent crisis is particularly acute in Los Angeles and other high-cost cities, where a lack of affordable housing and the economic slowdown from COVID-19 intersect to threaten the stability of many households.

COMMENTARY-What are your values? What core beliefs underpin your view of life in the United States of 2020?

GUEST WORDS--During the COVID-19 pandemic, essential workers have struggled balancing their own personal safety with the demands – often unreasonable, selfish and misguided -- of their deep-pocketed employers. 

CONNECTING CALIFORNIA--If you want to make your California city government stronger, don’t make your mayor more powerful. Instead, make your city council bigger.

VOICES-The LA City Council voted on August 11, 2020, to start the process of creating two new oversight entities to root out corruption in City Hall.

ALPERN AT LARGE--Normally, when a vote is held in Sacramento on a Sunday, and at 11:30 pm on the Monday before a vote is finally due and on extremely short notice, there are some serious shenanigans involved that have NO business in a functioning democracy. 

EASTSIDER-On August 27, the Planning Commission held a Zoom/Public Hearing concerning a piece of property at 412-426 Crocker Street, in downtown LA. Superficially, no big deal. Right? 

PLANNING WATCH-Nury Martinez, the Councilmember from LA’s Council District 6 in the north Valley, is the President of the Los Angeles City Council.

@THE GUSS REPORT-The streets of Los Angeles are worse than ever thanks to our Peter Pan-like Mayor Eric Garcetti, a recipient of a public paycheck for 20 years and counting.

MOVE LA--California’s latest Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA)—the state-required estimate of the need for housing for people of all incomes over an 8-year period—projects that Southern California will need to provide more than 1.3 million new housing units, almost 60% of them affordable to moderate and low-income households. 

NEIGHBORHOOD POLITICS-Previous articles have addressed issues specific to the LAPD --  Feet on the Street and Who Wants to Wear the Blue.   

RANTZ & RAVEZ-Many cities in the more liberal states across America have gone wild with the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown and upcoming election between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.

ONE MAN’S OPINION--Perhaps Angelenos got lucky and someone threw a bucket of water on Judge Elizabeth Lippitt and she’s melted away like the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz.

WORLD WATCH-I am addressing this article to the Palestinian Authority with a warning -- having missed so many opportunities in the past to settle their conflict with Israel, it has now reached a point of no return.

GELFAND’S WORLD--We had been dreading the Trump presidency beginning the morning after the 2016 election, and we have been enduring the Trump presidency since January of 2017.

ALPERN AT LARGE--So what is more surprising, that another Councilmember is caught up in a scandal, or that none of us are shocked about it?

Disappointed, of course, but hardly shocked. 

After Mitch Englander and Jose Huizar, Curren Price (photo above) is on the hit parade of proving that Los Angeles is high and mighty on the list of corrupt, pay-to-play cities, and that developers and real estate companies are the primary constituents of the City Council and Mayor of Los Angeles, with the tax-paying citizenry relegated to a mere afterthought.

Apparently, a $1.2 billion skyscraper complex just south of Downtown, pushed by developer Ara Tavitian, received permission to install three huge digital billboards on a 12-story building as urged by Councilmember Price, and which was approved in 2016.

Apparently, there were strong objections from city planning commissioners, but that the digital billboards have already been installed (and are very large and bright), sparking complaints from those who live and work nearby while provid ing a dangerous distraction for drivers (who can clearly see it from the I-10 freeway). 

Apparently, three months after approval of the development, Tavitian's real estate companies poured $75,000 into a political action committee working to re-elect Price.

Apparently, Curren Price is a goddamned crook who is being indicted by the FBI for corruption.

Of course, there are no reforms for our benighted City Council, despite a slew of indictments that continue to give the FBI lots of job security exploring pay-to-play corruption in our neck of the woods.

So how should properly-funded and "clean money" campaigns in the City of the Angels be funded? By the taxpayers, of course.

Because the citizenry just can't rely on our elected officials to run clean campaigns without our money. 

Because the City Council (and the Mayor, who was once the City Council President) is comprised of three subsets: those indicted by the FBI, and those under scrutiny and surveillance by the FBI but without any formal indictments yet. 

There's a small third subset, which may or may not actually exist: those City Council and Mayor/Mayoral staff who've not received inappropriate donations from developers, sign/billboard companies, bicycle "advocates" who've gone way beyond the pale of being pro-mobility (and maybe tied to developers), and pro-homeless "advocates" (who also are developers).

And we're supposed to think that all of this is under the category of "good governance", "economic development", "affordable housing", "transit-oriented development", and so on.

And those of us in neighborhood councils are supposed to take ethics courses, thinking that they also apply to the City Council and Mayor/Mayoral staff.

But there's a "price" to be paid for all of this corruption, and that price is exemplified by the inappropriate actions and behavior of Councilmember Price (and his enabling and equally-guilty colleagues): the Environment, Economy, and Quality of Life in the City of the Angels.

But none of us are really surprised to hear about this new development, are we? 

And imagine how many of these crooks and miscreants will somehow be re-elected, and/or elected to new offices once they're termed out. 

I guess we DO get and deserve the government we vote for. 

Because the Price isn't right...yet we're somehow willing to keep paying that Price.

(CityWatch Columnist, Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D, is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties, and is a proud husband and father to two cherished children and a wonderful wife. He was termed out of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) twice after two stints as a Board member for 8-9 years and is also a Board member of the Westside Village Homeowners Association. He previously co-chaired the MVCC Outreach and Planning Committees, and currently is Co-Chair of the MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He was previously co-chair of the CD11 Transportation Advisory Committee, the grassroots Friends of the Green Line (which focused on a Green Line/LAX connection), and the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at Ken.Alpern@MarVista.org. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.)

-cw