LOS ANGELES

ALPERN AT LARGE--Still looking for your next gig, huh, Eric? Senator? County Supervisor? Governor? Lobbyist? 

RANTZ & RAVEZ-The California Presidential Primary Election will be held on March 3. Unlike previous years, you will now vote at “Vote Center Locations” throughout Los Angeles County. 

AT LENGTH-If anything defines this era of American politics it is the question of how someone as corrupt as Donald J. Trump can become president.

ONE MAN’S OPINION-After the sturm and drang of Herr Trump’s ersatz impeachment, maybe we can engage in contemplation and find room for rational thought. 

DEEGAN ON LA-In Silicon Valley they call it a “unicorn” -- a privately owned start-up that reaches a market value of $1 billion or more -- making investors wildly rich.

INSIDER REPORT-First, de León can best be described as a career politician. He served as both a California State assemblyman and State senator. He termed out of office.

THE CITY-Despite last week’s announcement of the infusion of $50 million into the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s fund for its new building bridging Wilshire Boulevard, LACMA is still deceiving the public and its donors about the true costs of the proposed span.

NEW GEOGRAPHY--Frank Gehry doesn’t have any particular penchant for the concrete that lines the LA River.

GELFAND’S WORLD--Barely more than a week ago, elected board members from four neighborhood councils from the harbor area submitted a letter to the mayor of Los Angeles, asking him to take action against the newly appointed General Manager of the city’s Department of Neighborhood Empowerment.

ALPERN AT LARGE--One way of preventing the answers to a problem is to ask all sorts of questions to distract the questioner and keep him/her stumbling off-balance. 

LA SKID ROW- On February 5, 2020, the much-anticipated trial for the Skid Row Neighborhood Council-Formation Committee (Plaintiffs) v. City of Los Angeles (Respondents) took place.

TOXIC CONTAMINATION-This Thursday night, February 13, 2020, there will be a meeting of what is being called: the “SSFL Work Group.” I personally don’t think this term should be used because the “SSFL Workgroup” was an agency lead forum created by Charter on September 27, 1990 – almost 30 years ago this year.

@TheGussReport – As shown in local headlines often prompted by this column, LA City Councilmember Herb Wesson loves to rig the game, big or small, if it enriches himself and his family. 

INSIDE POLITICS---At one point when he felt under siege by possible indictments and impeachable offenses, the president whined petulantly, “Where’s my Roy Cohn?” 

Planning Watch:  Three strikes and you are out may apply to baseball, but it does not apply to California State Senator Scott Wiener’s failed effort to offer a sweet heart deal to real estate developers of in-fill commercial and residential parcels.

CAL BUZZ-Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has taken the lead in the California Democratic primary with a little help — $30 million in broadcast advertising — from one of the billionaires he loves to rail against: former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. 

GUEST WORDS-The problems with SB50 and its companion bills have been well stated by many.  But the public is still asking what should the State Legislature do about housing? 

ALPERN AT LARGE--State Senators Scott Weiner and Toni Atkins have been defeated yet again in their attempts to destroy California, and create a zoning/planning nightmarish, hellish, environmental wasteland. 

CONNECTING CALIFORNIA-As California’s March 3 presidential primaries approach, I survey the field of candidates and ask myself: Will this country really accept a president who makes history, a president who breaks longstanding barriers of bigotry, a president who challenges our deepest biases about the identities of our leaders? 

AT LENGTH--On the day before President Trump’s State of the Union speech, Rep. Adam Schiff in his closing arguments for conviction on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress gave the following argument. It’s probably one of the most historic speeches of Schiff’s career: 

CLIMATE POLITICS-A radical call to action has never been more vital than today, as the abomination of capitalism known as neoliberalism tears apart society from stem to stern, continuing the grand experiment that originated under the watchful eyes and vision of aristocratic plantation-owners like Washington and Jefferson as wealthy patriots.