LOS ANGELES

PLANNING WATCH - Large cities in the US, especially Los Angeles, are now filled with squalor, with tens of thousands of people sleeping on the streets, in tents, or in cars.

FILM REVIEW - Even as a kid I never found I Love Lucy funny (that I nonetheless watched hours upon hours of it says nothing good about my childhood);

JUSTICE WATCH - Civil rights leader the Rev. Al Sharpton delivered the eulogy at the funeral for 14-year-old Valentina Orellana Peralta, who was killed by a Los Angeles police officer December 23 while shopping at a North Hollywood store.

THE DOCTOR IS IN - Perhaps all who closely follow L.A. City and local politics are well aware that--despite 25,965 legitimate CD11 signatures supporting Mike Bonin's recall--the City threshold of 27,317 signatures to qualify for a recall ballot measure was not met.

DEEGAN ON LA—-Tightening his grip on a final decision about a prospective mayoral run, businessman Rick Caruso, longtime registered as “no party preference,” made it official today with his announcement that “Today I am registering as a Democrat so that I can stand firmly on the side of the fundamental values that we will all need to invoke and enforce to thwart the coming attacks on our democracy.” 

COMMENTARY - No less than the Editorial Board of the venerable Los Angeles Times has come out to castigate SoCal leaders for opposing the developer rip-off perpetrated in the name of California’s desperate need for affordable housing. 

PLANNING WATCH -  Public opinion polls consistently report that Angelinos consider the homeless crisis to be the city’s most pressing problem.

LAKEWOOD STAKEHOLDERS - When Joan Didion passed away on December 23 of last year at the age of 87, Governor Gavin Newsom praised her as “easily the best living writer in California.”

THE VIEW FROM HERE - Because early news reports always have errors, one should not accept early news reports at face value.

RantZ and RaveZ - While Mayor Eric Michael Garcetti waits for confirmation by Elected Representatives in Washington, D.C., to the distinguished position of United States Ambassador to India, his record as Mayor and 8 year leader of the City of Los Angeles can be described by some as an embarrassment to his Legacy as the 42nd Mayor of Los Angeles.

COVID WATCH - Unauthorized pop-up testing sites have been reported in northeast Los Angeles, along the Wilshire corridor and across LA County. 

THE DOCTOR IS IN - I very much prefer the company of children to that of adults, because only children act their age. 

PLANNING WATCH - In last week’s Planning Watch column, I pointed out that LA’s underwhelming urban forest is a key indicator that the city’s planning glass is mostly empty.

NEIGHBORHOOD POLITICS - The Los Angeles City Council Tuesday called for the state to pass legislation requiring a minimum of five years of ownership before a homeowner can invoke the Ellis Act to evict tenants and take the property off the rental market.

EDUCATION COMMENTARY - If “zoom schooling” has taught us anything, it’s that we’re locked in and our kids are learning things that shock us.

HOUSING WATCH - New laws that took effect on January 1 end single-family home zoning in California.

HOUSING WATCH - For as long as California has been a state, local governments have decided where housing will and won’t go and how much to allow. 

PLANNING WATCH - From the Dog Bites Man Department:  The recently adopted Los Angeles 2021-2029 Housing Element met its first legal challenge, with the likelihood of more to come. 

JUSTICE WATCH - Everyone is entitled to an opinion about “justice” for a 14-year-old girl who was an unintended victim of a ricocheted bullet fired by an LAPD officer after responding to desperate 911 calls that a male suspect inside the North Hollywood Burlington Coat Factory had badly hurt several people and had a gun.

DEEGAN ON LA—One thing is for certain in a simmering concern in the Mid City area:

COMMENTARY - We cosmopolitan coastal progressives tend to look down on any hint of conspiracy theories, especially after the plethora circling the drain of the Trump oligarchy.