LOS ANGELES

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-It is not easy to remain “king of the hill” on a playground or even in the backrooms of City Hall.  But, to hold on to power, we have seen how desperate times require desperate measures. This is why the violent end of Occupy Los Angeles at City Hall’s front door marked the way for the defeat of Measure S, the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative, several years later.  

BELL VIEW--David Brooks took another crack at The Big Picture this week in his New York Times column. According to Mr. Brooks, America suffers from a species of political idolatry, where no one actually thinks about anything anymore, and we all just believe what our “party” tells us to believe. In Mr. Brooks’s America, the Left and the Right have each wrapped the warm blanket of tribal certainty around themselves, secure in the knowledge that “they’re wrong and we’re right.”   

GUEST COMMENTARY--Little about political contributions in California is hidden. Information is easily accessible at Cal-Access, a website run by California’s Secretary of State. For example, look here to see contributions to a special interest and then here for unfortunate consequences from political activity by that interest. There’s nothing dark about that money. Still, uninformed or lazy commentators all too often blame the state’s political problems on dark money*. But that’s not true.

WHAT WHITE LOOKS LIKE--On Friday, October 27, Los Angeles Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters spoke out about morning drive radio host Bill Handel of iHeartMedia’s KFI 640 calling Congresswoman Frederica Wilson a “cheap, sleazy Democrat whore” on the radio.  Handel–who is scheduled to be inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame this week– followed up his comments after social media backlash erupted with a sorry-not-sorry saying that he should have called Wilson a “media whore.”  

CORRUPTION WATCH-Periodically some Angelenos become upset with their councilmember and want to recall him (or her). Last year people in the Valley wanted to recall Councilmember Krekorian and many people in Hollywood want to recall Councilmembers O’Farrell and Ryu. But recalls are notoriously unsuccessful. 

ALPERN AT LARGE--About 20 angry folks gave up watching the last game of the World Series Wednesday night to attend the Mar Vista Community Council Transportation/Infrastructure Committee meeting.  Their only solace appeared to be that it was no fun watching the game, since the Dodgers were losing big time from the get-go.   

GUEST WORDS-South LA mothers halted a city hearing on open space Saturday after city planners failed to involve the black community, held it the day of the huge Taste of Soul festival, and wanted half of the attendees to discuss Culture & Community” instead of open space. (Photo above: Near empty meeting after South LA moms had their say.) 

GELFAND’S WORLD--What did the Trump campaign say when the elephant walked into their headquarters? 

Answer: Nothing. They didn't see it. 

GUEST WORDS-This week, I joined more than 100 Porter Ranch area residents and their supporters to mark the two-year anniversary of the gas blowout at the SoCalGas Aliso Canyon Storage Facility. The 2015 blowout -- the worst gas disaster in U.S. history -- released 100 thousand metric tons of methane and took four months to cap. For five hours on the October 23 anniversary, we blockaded the entrance to the facility that has gotten so many friends and neighbors sick. After two years of insisting that the dangerous gas facility be closed down, we were fed up with getting the run around from SoCalGas, state regulators and public officials. 

CONNECTING CALIFORNIA--Want to spook your neighbors this Halloween? Don’t bother with big displays of goblins, ghouls, or ghosts. Instead, just decorate your door with a picture of an eight-story apartment building.

BCK FILE--Sexual harassment has taken over the news and social media feeds. Every day, there’s another high-profile executive or celebrity who has been harassing female colleagues in the office or on set. As I wrote in CityWatch last week, hopefully, this vigilance to suspend, fire, or elicit resignations isn’t a temporary P.R. move but authentic change.  

On October 25, 2017,  protestors from the Catholic Worker and the LA Community action Network entered Los Angeles City Hall carrying covered toilets protesting lack of hygiene among homeless who have an outbreak of hepatitis A. The protestors tried to deliver the toilets to Mayor Garcetti.

EDUCATION WATCH-Silicon Valley-based Rocketship is a charter school chain with a bevy of star backers that has reported sky-high student achievement and recently landed a $12.6 million grant from Betsy DeVos’ Department of Education. But beyond the hype is a galaxy of problems, including plummeting test scores, litigation and allegations of student mistreatment. 

@THE GUSS REPORT-2017 is the 70^th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking Major League Baseball’s color barrier when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers and faced a tidal wave of hatred ranging from being spit upon to receiving death threats. His doing so, and his succeeding at his job, is not just an element of baseball history, but of American history. As such, Robinson’s 42 uniform number has been retired by every team in both MLB leagues. 

DEEGAN ON LA-A pioneer in so many ways, he was also an early NIMBY-type that railed against development. He was so angry, so distraught about the constructions that were happening outside his dining room window, the stain on his view, the assault on his senses that Frank Lloyd Wright felt he had no other option than blocking out the offending view by boarding up his window. This nugget of information was provided by docents who lead tours through the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio  in Oak Park, a leafy, Wright-residence-filled western suburb of Chicago. 

GUEST WORDS-The recent release of Ken Burns’ Vietnam documentary transported me back to the politics of my youth and the ugly hypocrisy of Lyndon Johnson, whose story contains a critical lesson for California today. 

POLITICS--LA planning commissioners, who wield tremendous power and influence, should obviously have a background in urban planning and land use, right? Not according to Mayor Eric Garcetti. He’s nominated a political consultant for the California Democratic Party to the Central Los Angeles Area Planning Commission.  (Photo above: Mayor Garcetti on right with State Senator Kevin de Leon.)

RANTZ AND RAVEZ-In previous columns, I’ve written about numerous critical issues facing the City of Los Angeles and the State of California, and the elected officials who are responsible for the governance of our City of the Angels and the Golden State of California. 

GUEST WORDS--Let’s play with a word and an idea. “Hegemony” means the dominance of one political group over all others. That, at this moment, is the Republican brand. President Donald J. Trump, a Republican Senate, a Republican House, and a conservative, if not Republican, court system that will judge the law and Constitution for years to come. Hegemony. (Photo above: Jennifer Yarnal searches for keepsakes in the rubble of her home just a few days ago in Santa Rosa, California. LA Times/Getty image.)

CALMATTERS--From the minute you stepped into the carpeted ballroom foyer that separated the California GOP’s semi-annual convention from the rest of the Anaheim Marriott, you could see that something in the Republican party had changed.

THE SERIES, UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL--Almost a day has gone by and I’m still processing last night’s heartbreaking World Series Game 2 Dodger loss, which I attended with my brother Richard, my niece Grace and my son Vin.