LOS ANGELES

ALPERN AT LARGE--One of my favorite classes in college at UCSD/Revelle College was Freshman Humanities, a damned-hard writing/history/humanities course that (despite the demanding reading/writing requirements) forced its students to explore the recurring question civilized societies have asked since the dawn of recorded history:  What makes us human, and what makes us special? 

CORRUPTION WATCH-Los Angeles’ corruptionism will last until LA real estate crashes and burns.  A sociological explanation for this might be that “we grow up to become our parents.” Many of LA Millennials’ parents or grandparents were immigrants from the East Coast or other countries, which means their history has been to leave bad conditions rather than stay and fight for reform.   

ANIMAL WATCH-When Assembly Bill 485, which banned pet shops from selling dogs, cats or rabbits other than “rescued" animals or face a $500 fine, was signed into state law by Governor Jerry Brown on October 13, it also created and legalized an entire new California industry, devoid of regulation and oversight. It seems that the ramifications were also not considered. Sacramento legislators basked in a near-nirvana moment of media attention and glowed in the hype that they were “saving lives” -- as if they had just solved a problem, rather than potentially creating one. 

DEEGAN ON LA-The recent news that an as yet gender-unidentified mountain lion has been discovered in the Hollywood Hills reminds us that, while we live in a very dense city, our urban landscape also includes a thriving wilderness. If the mystery cat is a female and if she mates with one of the better-known local mountain lions – such as the iconic P-22 – we could soon have a new family in search of a hillside habitat. It would be, however, a family without a “dad” since male mountain lions leave “mom” within days of mating. 

GELFAND’S WORLD--Harlan Ellison, Timothy Snyder, and Ta Nehisi Coates are modern authors who have written with great eloquence that Truth Matters. It may seem strange that someone has to say so, but in this era it becomes a painful necessity. Snyder wrote On Tyranny, Coates has written two well received books and a column for The Atlantic. Ellison has published nearly two thousand stories and columns. And they all keep saying that truth matters. They're not alone, but their outspokenness in response to modern forms of public dishonesty stands out. 

CAL MATTERS--California Gov. Jerry Brown and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo shed some alligator tears last week over Republican plans to eliminate the federal income tax deduction for state and local taxes.

CALWATCHDOG--The California chapter of the NAACP is distributing a resolution to California lawmakers that calls for the removal of the “Star Spangled Banner” as the official national anthem of the United States.

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-It is easy to understand how street and prescription drugs became a gateway to opioid addiction, which now kills 64,000 people per year in the United States. 

CA VOICE GOES UNHEARD IN DC--Despite a growing sense that a Democratic wave could be coming in 2018, House Republicans showed little sign of letting up on their tax proposal Wednesday, with a bill set to move out of committee on a party-line vote Thursday and onto the floor as early as next week. (Photo above: California congressman Darrell Issa.)

EDUCATION POLITICS--The Los Angeles Unified School District and some of the nation’s highest-performing charter schools are engaged in what one report has called a “game of chicken” – with the fate of 14 of these schools and their nearly 4,600 students hanging the balance. But that suggests this is about two parties engaged in dangerous brinksmanship. In fact, it is about charter schools finally standing up to teachers union’s bullying.

ALPERN AT LARGE--Time for us to admit the truth: if we're having to rely on preferred parking districts to access our homes or businesses, then somebody probably screwed up. 

AFFORDABLE HOUSING BATTLE-Nobody can argue that LA doesn't need Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH). (Photo above:  Star Apartments, PSH in Skid Row) The number of homeless people on the streets has skyrocketed and we have to address this crisis. The city's voters approved ballot measures H and HHH to fund the construction of PSH units, and United Neighborhoods for Los Angeles (UN4LA) agrees that it's time to take action. 

RANTZ AND RAVEZ-Another expensive audit recently released by the City Controller informed us all of what most of us already knew. The City of LA is not sweeping most of the streets in Los Angeles.  In fact, 66% of the city streets are being ignored and not swept at all. That means that only 34% of the streets are being swept by street sweeper machines operated by city crews on any type of a regular schedule. 

CORRUPTION WATCH-Trump sent out the world’s least charismatic person, Secretary of Treasury Stephen Mnuchin, to sell his tax plan and Mnuchin began in Los Angeles. Let’s remember that Mnuchin made a fortune by taking advantage of people’s misery. He is the guy who started a business to target elderly widows and evict them from their Reverse Mortgage homes. One 90-year old widow mistakenly underpaid her mortgage by 27 cents prompting her eviction. These business tactics are what Trump calls “smart”, much like his repeatedly going bankrupt to avoid paying his workers. 

BELL VIEW--Last night, my wife drew my attention to a discussion thread on a Facebook group for LA moms. One of the moms, while carpooling several kids to school, made a comment, which one of the kids pronounced “racist.” The comment appeared relatively innocuous, so the mom posted it on Facebook for a reaction. More than 500 comments later, the debate had devolved into a discussion about whether or not white people should just shut the hell up. 

GELFAND’S WORLD--We call on the City of Los Angeles to advertise the existence of Neighborhood Councils. They are the best kept secret in the city of Los Angeles. 

SUPER-MAJORITY HYPOCRISY-You know who doesn’t look so weird anymore? Vice President Mike Pence. When Pence told the Washington Post that he doesn’t dine alone with women, and never, ever attends an event solo if alcohol will be served, many gasped. He seemed like a too-tightly wrapped antihero from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. 

DEEGAN ON LA-Hauling empty tobacco barrels around in the back of a truck as a teen who didn’t make it through high school in tiny, rural Maxton (formerly called Shoe Heel), North Carolina during the Depression was the beginning.

GUEST WORDS--A UK study published on October 27, 2017 reported that the majority of politicians do not know where money comes from. According to City A.M. (London): 

BCK FILE--Since I last wrote about what seems to be an epidemic of sexual assault and harassment, we’ve watched numerous male actors come forward with accusations against actor Kevin Spacey who responded in social media to the first accuser with an apology for something he did not remember, washed by a coming out statement, which has brought ire from many in the LGBTQ community and others. Spacey has since been booted from Netflix, as well as his publicist and representative. 

CORRUPTION WATCH-Land Banking is a term that is new to Angelenos. The concept is simple: Wealthy people buy land rather than buy stocks or putting their money into a savings bank. They “bank” on the idea that the land value will rise faster than the stock market or interest on savings accounts. Land Banking was recently explained in a Canadian estate publication, Better Dwellings.