LOS ANGELES

BCK FILE—(As Beth Cone Kramer explains, another billionaire thinks he can buy his way around California law.

AT LENGTH-Los Angeles Police Department Cmdr. Dominic H. Choi appeared at the Los Angeles Police Commission this week and explained that LAPD officers had arrested 14,500 homeless people in 2017 as part of his year-end homelessness report. This is a 10 percent increase from the year before for an agency that claims that this is a problem that we can’t arrest our way out of. But apparently, they’re trying. 

ANIMAL WATCH-Not everyone who loves animals has a “rescue” mentality. Many loving, responsible pet owners do not see adding a dog or cat to their family as a purpose, but just as an enrichment to their normal lives. If an Angeleno chooses to obtain a dog (or cat) from a source other than LA Animal Services or another shelter, or decides to clone a current beloved pet, does that make them a traitor or less compassionate than an adopter?   

CORRUPTION WATCH-“Gallia estomnisdivisa in partestres.”(Julius Caesar, de Bello Gallico.) Likewise, our California judiciary’s money laundering is divided into three parts: (1) the judges and justices themselves (2) The Commission of Judicial Performance and (3) the California State Bar.  

RANTZ AND RAVEZ-When I joined the LAPD in 1968, the world existed just fine without the Internet, electric cars, Amazon, Costco, the delivery of fast foods to your home or business and a host of other current conveniences that we can’t seem to live without. Today, here in LA, along with other major cities throughout the state and the nation, we face the challenges of high taxes, seven days-a-week gridlock, andincreasing numbers of homelesspeople in our neighborhoods, as well as many other obstacles. 

ALPERN AT LARGE--I am NOT a fan of guns in the wrong hands (including poorly-trained teachers), and I am NOT a fan of weapons normally used for self-defense turned into weapons able to kill defenseless children.  

FIRST PERSON-The public debate over assault weapons brings to mind the harrowing experience I had in my early twenties. I learned from experience that people do not know what they would do in an emergency situation…until they do it. 

GELFAND’S WORLD--This week, a Democrat won a special congressional election in a solidly red Pennsylvania district. It wasn't by much, but it was equivalent to at least a ten point turnaround. Trump won the district by twenty points in 2016. 

CAL MATTERS--Should an organization that opposes abortion be required to tell women where they can seek an abortion? It’s a question the U.S. Supreme Court will face this month as it considers a challenge to a California state law.

GUEST WORDS--On January 3, 2018, Senator Scott Wiener, representing Senate District 11 (San Francisco and environs), introduced two statewide housing bills, Senate Bill 827 and Senate Bill 828.  SB 827 had two principal co-authors – Senator Nancy Skinner representing Senate District 9 (Contra Costa and Alameda counties along RTE 880, including Berkeley and Oakland) and Assembly Member Phil Ting, representing Assembly District 19 (San Francisco and Daly City).  Because SB 827, but not SB 828, acquired a co-author from Southern California, it was sent to the Senate Committee on Transportation and Housing. 

TRUMP MEETS THE RESISTANCE--The usually hyper-manicured Beverly Hills Park seemed oddly juxtaposed with the bohemian drum circle and a rowdy crowd of hundreds that gathered in the wake of President Trump's Los Angeles March 13 fundraiser. Unlike the smoky air rising from some corners of the event, their message was clear: Trump not welcomed here. With all the chanting, you would be forgiven for wondering if the messaging memo was prepared by Vitruvius – no, not the famous Roman who gave us perfect proportion theory, but the Lego Movie character voiced magically by Morgan Freeman who defended his prophecy thus: "... all this is true because it rhymes." 

BELL VIEW-I became a liberal during the first Bush Administration. Everything about George H.W. Bush – as quaint as that now seems – appalled me. I disliked him, his upbringing, his ancestors, his wife, and his kids. I became enamored with Bill Clinton (and blind to his many faults) for the simple reason that he could beat Bush. When Bush’s frat-boy son ascended to the presidency, my loathing filled every molecule of my being. 

GETTING THERE FROM HERE-The behavior of some on Metro buses and trains, and indeed within Southern California transit agencies, has so disturbed some people who are shocked that there is rudeness on public transportation. This type of rudeness is not restricted to Metro and other SoCal transit agencies but is found throughout the country. 

CAPITAL & MAIN REPORT--Up to a million Californians have been convicted of crimes that may no longer exist. Those convictions remain on their records, however, and removing them — especially in Los Angeles County — may take years. Proposition 64, the voter-approved 2016 ballot measure, legalized the recreational use of marijuana and reclassified most state-level felony cannabis offenses as misdemeanors. Some misdemeanors were reduced to mere infractions.(Photo above: Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey with interim L.A. County Sheriff John Scott, in 2014)

GELFAND’S WORLD (BRIEFLY TOLD)--I had suspected that Trump would find some way to walk back the tariffs. He went part way, as he is now claiming that Mexico and Canada will be exempted. But even here, there are strings attached.

ALPERN AT LARGE--Ours is a nation united in our revulsion against violence, terrorism (domestic or foreign), and bigotry.  Only the bizarre fringes are accepting of such divisive and dangerous paradigms or actions, but what prevents us from true unity is our willingness (and, perhaps, choice) to hear things that are not being said, and being guilty of focusing on what truly divides us. 

TRASH TALK--What began in the back rooms of LA City Hall between Special Interests Groups, allies on City Council and the Mayor’s Office hit Housing Providers, HOA’s and all Commercial Business in Los Angeles like a 100-foot Tsunami. 

PRESERVE LA--“Getting It Right,” a stunning report by Berkeley Law and Columbia University researchers, drives a stake in claims by Gov. Brown and legislators that the California Environmental Quality Act, CEQA, has worsened the housing crisis.

SUPPLY-SIDE SHENANIGANS-The real estate research firm CoStar caused a stir in 2017 when it reported a 12.4% residential vacancy rate in Downtown LA. But Steven Sharp published a piece in the LA Times saying that the rate has subsequently dropped considerably. ("Downtown has a high apartment vacancy rate? The rest of LA should be so lucky." LAT, 2/13/2018) Sharp notes that CoStar's data showed a drop to 10.3% in January 2018. He also states the vacancy rate has since declined further to 8.1%, and 4.7% for buildings that have been open for one year or more. 

@THE GUSS REPORT-In a move that could ultimately backfire on the city’s ongoing legal efforts to keep boisterous critics away from Los Angeles City Council meetings, its president Herb Wesson was caught on video – twice – verbally and physically taunting one of his loudest ones. 

CORRUPTION WATCH-In 1962 when Hannah Arendt wrote about the Jerusalem trial of Adolf Eichmann, she pointed out that great evil can flow from banal, everyday activities, e.g. repetitions of small lies. The Banality of Evil does not deny the individual’s sadistic nature, but rather shows how others fail to see the potential enormity of the evil lurking behind everyday actions.