LOS ANGELES

RANTZ & RAVEZ-My column this week reflects the continuation of the high car registration fees and gas tax that California voters failed to modify with Proposition 6 not long ago.

ALPERN AT LARGE--One of the stupidest, knee-jerk tweet-wars President Trump has ever leaped into was that with Lakers star LeBron James, who like the recently slain Grammy-nominated rapper Nipsey Hussle has given a great deal back to the inner city and truly cares about his fellow Americans, black or otherwise. 

SPORTS POLITICS--Probably the Lakers will recover. They’re the Lakers. Anyway, judging by the vaguely bitchy tweets, he wasn’t actually doing all that much work in the first place, and judging by the results of the past two-plus years, he may not have been very good at it.

TONGUE-IN- POLITICAL-CHEEK--To use the words of the great Swedish bard Cornelis Vreeswijk: ”Last night, my friends, I dreamed a dream I never dreamed before.” 

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-The who-benefits list is the same list as those who sing the praises of Scott Wiener’s proposed Senate Bill 50 as a masterful solution to California’s chronic crises of housing, transit, and climate change. 

OTHERWORDS--In tax season, most of us think more about getting our forms in on time — and getting our refunds — than about where our tax dollars actually go.

POLITICS-On October 17, 2014, a document was uploaded to the website of the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC). It went out to people on their distribution list for the Santa Susana Field Laboratory. The notice said:

AT LENGTH-I mailed the last issue of this newspaper first class, to a long-time subscriber, from the San Pedro Post Office to a San Pedro address, and it took nearly a week to get there.

@THE GUSS REPORT-Why might a deeply troubled member of LA City Council allegedly have people solicit donations on his behalf if he is termed-out in another year and has zero chance of ever being elected to another office? 

CONNECTING CALIFORNIA--If we can’t get rid of the California Rule, can we at least ditch the name?

BCK FILE-In 2018, 117 women were either appointed to or elected to Congress. Just two years earlier, only 89 women had been elected. The increase led to the media designation as The Year of the Woman. Yet, just one year later, the four women who have thrown their hats into the Democratic presidential primaries are getting less media coverage than the men. 

NEW GEOGRAPHY--Whatever one thinks of Donald Trump’s proposal to build a “beautiful wall,” it is unlikely to resolve the crisis sending ever more people—largely from Central America—to America’s borders.

GELFAND’S WORLD--After years of intending to read Winston Churchill's A History of the English Speaking Peoples, I've finally gotten to it.  Someday I'll talk about the work as a whole, but for the moment I'd like to mention something about the chapter I'm going through right now. 

GUEST WORDS—Tuesday April 9, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will vote on a singular new building for the County Museum of Art.  Much of LACMA as we know it will disappear under the plan.

ONE MAN’S OPINION-Why is Pogoism American but MAGA is un-American? Before answering the question, we need to expand it to include, “Why are identity politics un-American?” 

CLIMATE POLITICS-Global warming is starting to hit hard like there’s no tomorrow, and at current rates of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, there may not be a tomorrow, as emissions continue setting new records year-by-year, expected to hit a 62-year record in 2019. So much for the Paris 2015 climate agreement. 

OTHERWORDS--For years, most of the U.S. has been changing death penalty laws in the direction of phasing it out, or at least applying it in a more humane way. California’s governor Newsom generated considerable controversy recently as he moved to use his own resources to put a halt to the death penalty.

ALPERN AT LARGE--The last two nights I witnessed a couple of Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) committee meetings that addressed development, traffic, and the environment. Discussions were had, the presenters were smart and sensitive to those doing the questioning, and the MVCC did what it does best: they were reasonable. 

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-By now most CityWatch readers are familiar with SB 50, California State Senator Scott Wiener’s reboot of last year’s SB 827, a bill that died in committee. 

LEANING LEFT— As long as the GOP can fool some of the people all of the time, they don't give a rat's ass about the rest of us.

EASTSIDER-Back in May of last year I wrote a column in CityWatch on the secret, underhanded hiring of Austin Beutner in violation of the Brown Act. Now we find out that, as Jackie Lacey runs for re-election for District Attorney, it was all a misunderstanding and there was no problem.