LOS ANGELES

PLANNING WATCH-If you work as a city planner in Los Angeles, you quickly learn to roll with the punches, typically when visitors ask you, “What’s it like to work in an unplanned city?”

EASTSIDER-Back in late January, CityWatch colleague Jack Humphreville posted an article on the proposal for a DWP Inspector General, which you can find here.  

RANTZ & RAVEZ- “We can and must do something to address homelessness.” -- LA County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas

ALPERN AT LARGE--What IS it with Scott Wiener (and his enabling state senators and assembly members in Sacramento) who, after his latest attempt at making environmental scofflaws enabled to kill our state's health and quality of life, does it yet AGAIN?

ONE MAN’S OPINION-Although most people are too young to have heard these words when uttered by Oliver Hardy in a series of movies from 1929 to 1951, almost everyone has heard the meme.

OTHER WORDS-My granddaughter’s school has planned a trip to Thailand. 

PERSPECTIVE--Like the rest of the country, scholar and activist Dorian Warren woke up today to a new political reality: Joe Biden is suddenly the front-runner in the race to take on Donald Trump in November.

@TheGussReport – At LA City Hall, nobody wore their arrogance more defiantly than then-LA City Councilmember Mitch Englander who, after serving as chief-of-staff to his predecessor Greig Smith, represented the northwestern-most portion of the City of LA in the San Fernando Valley’s District 12 from 2011 thru 2018.

GELFAND’S WORLD--For the Democratic Party, winning this time is as simple as not losing -- again.

DEEGAN ON LA-While several challengers did not upset incumbent candidates in the March 3 primary election -- resulting in a continuation of the same politicos for most of the council district seats up for election --

ALPERN AT LARGE--Again, we lost an hour of sleep last Saturday night. So, while we're miserable in the morning, we're thrilled in the evenings with more light, productivity, and better spirits. Great...now let's KEEP things this way!

S.O.S. FOR LAAS-I am a former volunteer at the South LA / Chesterfield Square Animal Shelter. I am writing to you today because I am deeply concerned about what I have witnessed over the past three years at the shelter.

@THE GUSS REPORT-In Granada Hills at around 5:30 a.m. one day last week, he would have been held at gunpoint by the LAPD, forcefully handcuffed while lying face down with a cop’s knee pressing on his spine, thrown in the back of a patrol car, booked with a mug shot and held in custody until the bail hearing, which most likely would include an Assault with a Deadly Weapon charge, ADW. 

CLIMATE WATCH-Global warming is not waiting around for the signatories to the Paris Climate Accord 2015 to go to net zero emissions 2030/50.

AT LENGTH-To some who don’t know 20th century history, the Green New Deal that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is pitching might sound like a radical departure. It’s not. 

PUBLIC HEALTH-Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Situation Summary:   I can’t begin to tell you how many news broadcasts I have watched or how many articles I have read related to the Coronavirus aka: COVID-19.

ONE MAN’S OPINION-A society that lives by fact-free emotional memes is a low information society. Since knowledge is power, ignorance can be fatal. For the Dems and the GOP, passion rules over reason. 

@THE GUSS REPORT-The more Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean C. Logan screws up our elections, the more taxpayer money he is paid. That’s government for you. 

PLANNING WATCH-Last week I was a panelist at a Bernie Sanders campaign event entitled “A Path to Housing Justice,” uploaded to YouTube. As you can see from the above picture, a packed house closely followed the discussion of the housing crisis. 

EASTSIDER-This saga goes all the way back to 2017, and abruptly ended when Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff denied the Skid Row NC Formation Committee’s election appeal, asking that the Court certify a Skid Row Neighborhood Council in favor of the SRNCFC. 

EMERGENCY PREP--Why is it that too many, not all, but many people wait until the disaster is here to “prepare”?