LOS ANGELES

MY TURN-I don't know about you but the election cycle this year seems interminable. I think we are the only industrialized nation that has an almost two year pre-election cycle. Add to this the fact that in LA we are also in the middle of Neighborhood Council (NC) elections. And they have caused a controversy all of their own. (Photo above: Westwood Neighborhood Council voting booths.)

Of course, this year is a little different from other NC election years. Like our national elections they have their own set of candidates, voters, complainers, winners and those who are crying foul for a variety of reasons.

There were some large organizational changes this year. How the outcome will be judged depends on who you talk to. Only part of the San Fernando Valley has concluded its elections; the rest will continue in other parts of the City each week until May.

Welcome to the Twenty-first Century. For the first time, online voting has been available for those NCs that were willing to be the pioneers. Thirty-two out of the ninety-six neighborhood councils decided to be part of the experiment. We won't know the results until the election cycle is over.

The Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (EmpowerLA), under General Manager, Grayce Liu, spent almost a year investigating ways to make the election system more efficient. They hired city activist Jay Handal as Election Manager whose job has been to focus on nothing but making the elections work. Previous elections had been part of the EmpowerLA’s staff duties on top of everything else. They had an impossible workload.

Handal hired election supervisors for each of the twelve regions. They, with input from NC Board members, developed an entire marketing plan. Some of you might have seen the bus bench advertisements in your neighborhoods. There were templates developed for all kinds of promotional materials. Previously, each NC had had to do all the promotion itself.

Here's where it becomes complex. Right now our Presidential primary elections are taking up all the oxygen with a complicated process in which some states have open primaries, closed primaries, caucuses, and other methods of delegate selection. Likewise, the NCs all have different bylaws governing their elected Boards. For anyone trying to be somewhat efficient, as well as fair, it is a nightmare!  

Voter identification seems to be one of the biggest problems. Some NCs require what they call "self-affirmation," similar to our regular elections. You go to your polling place, sign a document that you are eligible to vote, get your ballot and go on your way. Others have what is called "documentation" -- and that is where the system breaks down.

When the system was devised, it was impossible to anticipate all of the circumstances that could occur. Each NC developed its own by-laws covering many things, including the structure of its board and how it would be elected.

Some NCs have eleven different ballots and the voters are restricted to voting for only candidates in their specific categories. As an example, a business owner in his NC could only vote for the candidates allocated “commercial seats.” Only stakeholders are allowed to vote, but the definition of a "stakeholder” has been redefined several times.

Now, the definition states a stakeholder eligible to vote is anyone who lives, works, owns property or has a continuing long-term organizational interest (kids attend school, family belongs to Church etc.)

This came about because of what was called the "drive-by" voters who claimed eligibility because they bought coffee at Starbucks daily. On a more serious note, it precluded developers from sending temporary workers on a construction project to vote in the NC election for the candidates the developer believed would be more amenable to his projects.

It was also used to keep the "old guard" from having election competition.

This is reminiscent of the way certain States have legislated "voter ID" laws, demanding voters have several different kinds of ID in order to vote. One would think that voting should be made easier. After all, we want big turnouts, right? I guess the adage, “be careful what you wish for" -- in other words, we want large turnouts but are they always desirable? The Republican Party is enjoying record turnouts but not exactly with the outcome they desire.

I have observed that having these types of restrictions doesn't encourage involvement...it chases people away.

On the subject of elections, I attended a gathering of people discussing "Why You Vote the Way You Do,” facilitated by Leon Williams of Sherman Oaks, who has been holding Salons for the past twenty-five years. wice a month he has different speakers come and attend his "Conversations with Leon.” I asked the question, "Do you know who is running for office locally?" I followed that up with, "Do any of you attend your Neighborhood Council Meetings?”

After all, these were intelligent, informed people who obviously cared enough to come out on a rainy evening and discuss politics. Only one person knew the name of his Councilmember. Another couple mentioned that they had tried to volunteer for their local NC but apparently the Board was not terribly welcoming.

I am curious if the online voting system will be successful. Some States have already incorporated it into their election process. California, with only one Tuesday election date, really needs to investigate online voting.

Handel said that some of the NCs who have experienced great turnouts have done an effective job in reaching out to their stakeholders. The NCs that have not even sent out a single mailer asking for candidates and promoting the election site have only themselves to blame for a poor turnout.

City Council President Herb Wesson placed the Neighborhood Councils under his rules committee almost a year ago. It would help if he would tackle some of the major issues affecting the operations of the Neighborhood Councils. He recently organized a task force to look at the issue of funding. Most of the people attending the first task force meeting wanted him to handle some of the other priorities as well.

The solutions are there...this is not nuclear science.

As always comments are welcome.

(Denyse Selesnick is a CityWatch columnist. She is a former publisher/journalist/international event organizer. Denyse can be reached at: [email protected]) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

THIS IS WHAT I KNOW-There’s no question that the affordable housing crisis in LA is a major issue. Median rent grew 27 percent between 2000 and 2013 while household incomes for renters fell by 7 percent in the same period. Bootleg apartments or unpermitted rental units have formed sort of a black market economy -- until the units are discovered by housing inspections. Typically the landlord doesn’t have enough time to bring the units to compliance and in 80 percent of the cases, the tenants are evicted, which brings further challenges to the struggling renters.

Between 2010 and 2015, about 2,560 non-permitted units have been cited by City enforcement agencies and 1,765 of those have been removed. Only 201 (12%) were legalized by complying with the City’s building and zoning regulations. This has caused a net loss in the City’s housing creation.

Back in 2014, LA City Councilman Felipe Fuentes introduced motion CF 14-1150, seconded by Paul Koretz, that examines the consequences and logistics of a program that would legalize LA’s safe but unpermitted rental units. At first, the idea was supported by both tenant advocates and landlords but a new amnesty ordinance backed by the council brings far less enthusiasm from landlords. To legalize the units, the landlords must keep a specified number of units in the building affordable for a 55 year period.

Affordable housing mandates for both landlords and developers are often met with a preference to “just pay the fine” rather than lose out on income. The other issue is if the city will be able to actually enforce the ordinance.

Cities across the country, including West Hollywood and Santa Monica, have similar ordinances. The City of Santa Monica passed a law that permits owners to keep the unpermitted units as long as they meet a basic level of standards without having to meet current development standards like setback and density provisions. Parking requirements may be adjusted if the traffic engineer determines the parking situation is not feasible. Only 30 of about 484 units have actually been legalized since the passing of the ordinance, perhaps in part due to the lack of code enforcement procedures for citing illegal units, as well as the absence of a time limit. Santa Monica’s rent stabilization laws also prevent the units from being removed unless the unit is not habitable or cannot be made habitable.

Currently, the number of Angelenos who pay 50 percent or more of their incomes in rent is greater than in other cities. The problem is more pronounced for low-income renters but the housing shortage has also impacted middle- to upper-income renters, which impacts everything from traffic, air quality, jobs, and the quality of life for residents living in unsafe or overcrowded conditions.

Bootleg apartments in multi-unit buildings are constructed from converted rec rooms, storage rooms, or illegally subdivided apartments. If authorities find the unpermitted units, owners typically are given 30 days to remove the unit or legalize. However, the barrier towards legalization isn’t always building code compliance but more often planning and zoning codes, including density and parking.

One concern is that legalization could result in a rent increase or displacement without protections, which is why the council included the affordable housing mandate. The City Council recommends that renters of the unpermitted units aren’t evicted and are protected by any rent stabilization ordinances.

Motivating multi-unit building owners to convert the unpermitted units while providing affordable housing is a challenge, while maintaining a neighborhood’s livability is also a challenge. However, encouraging apartment owners to convert unpermitted bootleg apartments into viable living spaces seems to be one of the logical solutions to a significant and widespread problem.

The bootleg apartments in Los Angeles, as they exist, present problems because the city cannot verify life and safety standards or if the units are allowed under the zoning code. A successful program would allow for the preservation of safe, livable units while respecting the neighborhood character and habitability.

(Beth Cone Kramer is a successful Los Angeles writer and a columnist for CityWatch.) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

DEEGAN ON LA-The threats against an elected official were of enough concern to warrant extra security precautions. The overflow crowd was, by all accounts, hostile and angry. As the meeting unfolded, four distinct parties to the dispute emerged: the Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council and surrounding community members, Councilmember David Ryu (CD4), the Friends of Runyon Canyon, and the Department of Recreation and Parks. 

The verbal brawl and chaos at the Durant Library in Hollywood a few nights ago was prompted by a proposal for the donation of a basketball court, embedded with a corporate sponsor’s logo, planned for installation in Runyon Canyon Park. 

Who knew you could purchase corporate sponsorship rights for spaces in our city’s parks? Or that there was a city department that specializes in matching up private enterprise with public entities expressly for this purpose? Or, that non-profit corporations have been created to work these private-public partnerships to support underfunded city projects? 

Despite these mysteries, everyone there knew for sure that obtaining community buy-in, especially a review by the local neighborhood council, (in this case the Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council) would have been more than politic…it was mandatory. 

Those who overlooked that piece of the review process – meaning, all three on the other side of the issue -- ruefully admitted their omission. 

“What was missed was consulting with the Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council. The City didn't communicate as well as it could have. That’s where the frustration came from, and rightfully so,” said a spokesperson for Councilmember David Ryu (CD4.) 

The Councilmember apologized to the group at the meeting, but also expressed concern about the tone and “hostile language” directed toward him and his staff, the Department of Recreation and Parks staff, the Friends of Runyon Canyon Park, and the neighborhood council. 

Don Andres, VP of the Friends of Runyon Canyon Park, weighed in, saying, “Unfortunately, we did not solicit input from the Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council, and we should have done that, and we apologize for that. We made a false assumption that this had been communicated.” 

“Going forward, the Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council will have a person on their board designated as park liaison. It’s a great lesson learned,” said Vicki Israel, Assistant General Manager of the Partnership and Revenue Branch at the Department of Recreation and Parks. 

The cause of the heated dispute is a plan signed off on downtown that arrived as a surprise up in the hills. It would allow a clothing manufacturer to provide funds to build a basketball court in the middle of Runyon Canyon Park and “brand” it with its corporate logo. 

The corporate donor has also offered to provide Rec and Parks with maintenance funding on an annual basis for a period of ten years. In purely abstract philanthropic terms, this $260,000 donation would be called a restricted gift plus an endowment: a very solid “get.” The donor would also expect a tax write-off. 

The philanthropic exchange is very unbalanced right now because, while the donor may be satisfied, the community-as-recipient is not. 

Councilmember David Ryu says he will speak to the City Attorney, who would need to be the one to unwind what sounds like a “done deal.” Others murmur about litigation. It’s a mess. 

All groups involved -- the Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council, David Ryu, the Department of Recreation and Parks, and the Friends of Runyon Canyon – must figure out a way to provide the community with something they can honor instead of vilify. 

Not only did the community object to the basketball court but they were also concerned with the “commercialization” of the park. Anastasia Mann, President of the Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council, said, “People see Runyon Canyon as a precious wilderness park... As their community park, despite the influx of out-of-the-area visitors. The community members present reflected 99% opposition to building a basketball court in the middle of the park. There are stakeholders now discussing a lawsuit and/or injunctions to halt the building of the basketball court.” 

The councilmember’s spokesperson stated, “David Ryu will consult with the City Attorney’s Office in regards to the future of the basketball court project and possibly scaling the logo back.” 

How does Runyon Canyon Park fit into this puzzle? Who are the Friends of Runyon Canyon”? And what is this unit at Rec and Parks that cultivates corporate sponsorships and partnerships? 

A few facts and stats can help illustrate the scope and popularity of Runyon Canyon Park. This public gem, a site for which Councilmember David Ryu and the Department of Recreation and Parks are “public stewards,” is a 136-acre urban park, including a 90-acre off-leash dog park, an open space turf area and numerous hiking trails -- all situated in the wilderness of the Hollywood Hills. The park is managed by the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks; it has two main entrances, off Fuller Avenue in Hollywood at the bottom of the park and off Mulholland Drive at the top of the park. 

The Friends of Runyon Canyon, a private 501c-3 non-profit support group, surveyed the park visitors in April/May 2015 and found that Runyon has a diverse set of users with diverse needs. It’s a very popular regional park with about 35,000 visits per week (can be multiple visits per day by one person), 1.8 million visits per year, and 300,000 dog visits per year. Visitors from the surrounding zip code (90046) make up 20% of the visitors, while 25% are infrequent visitors or tourists. Overall, 85% of visitors come from greater LA. About one-third of its visitors are under 39 years of age, and about one-fifth are over 50 years old. 

For all that went wrong -- a massive communications breakdown that shut out community input – there is an upside. With community participation and buy-in, there’s a chance to create a model program and vision for Runyon Canyon Park that can give the park sustainability, benefiting the local neighborhood and its extended community of park users – all in an era of lowered financial expectations that has meant doing more with less, unless, of course, you have some friends. 

But “friends” are just what the city and the community need right now. However, like any new relationship, everyone must vibrate on the same frequency. That means the Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council, Councilmember David Ryu, the Friends of Runyon Canyon, and the Department of Recreation and Parks must all get in sync and come to an agreement. 

Summing up the current state of the relationship and the challenges facing it, Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council President Anastasia Mann said, “The Friends of Runyon Canyon are nice, good, dedicated people, who have worked hard and mean well, who love Runyon Canyon and with whom HHWNC has worked and supported emotionally and financially since their inception as a 501c charitable organization. But, because of recent circumstances, if FORC wants to be trusted and therefore continue to raise money to support the park, they should be willing to take to heart the opinions of the local stakeholders, their passions, and their fears, as hard as it may be, without judging them antagonistically.” 

Mann continued, “Sadly, the situation has resulted in some damage within the local stakeholder base to FORC's credibility due to their acknowledged lack of transparency about the corporate sponsorship of a basketball court in Runyon, the story behind the acquisition of the sponsorship, as well as the legal precedent it sets for the future. Legitimate questions were raised about the possible future use of the ball court site for publicity, charity events, impact on wildlife, etc. What angered people the most was the apparent avoidance of proper public disclosure, therefore input, as well as the lack of any environmental impact study (CEQA).” 

“Our very engaged community here is upset that there was no proper publicly noticed process until Monday night's meeting by HHWNC at which time they were told it is "too late" to turn back. That anger seemed to blur anyone's willingness to participate in a discussion of the pros and cons of any aspect of the professionally presented proposed "Vision Plan”, added Mann. 

Now, because they were overlooked in the initial process, the neighborhood council and the community actually have an advantage in round two. As tempers cool down and all sides prepare for an upcoming town forum on the topic, neighbors can be at the center of attention and can possibly leverage their influence for a better result than offered in the original plan. “Going forward, there will be town halls with CD4, the community, the Neighborhood Council and us, hopefully for a date very soon in May,” Friends of Runyon Canyon VP Don Andres told CityWatch. 

The Friends of Runyon Canyon have been working on a Vision Plan for the park that extends beyond the current basketball court and logo dispute. 

“The park has many challenges and needs so much infrastructure improvement,” stated Don Andres, VP of the Friends of Runyon Canyon. He continued, “If it remains unsafe, it may ultimately face closure. To ensure this wilderness area remains, we must focus on infrastructure, and so we have commissioned a landscape architect to do a Vision Plan, to get an independent view of a very large regional park in the middle of neighborhoods. What is it that we should do with this park, independent of any individual bias, or parks and recreation, and be objective? 

“This Vision Plan is a conceptual set of ideas of what the park could be, not a blueprint for implementation. It focuses on a park improvement and preservation plan. How to deal with erosion control, run-down trails, DWP lines, storm water runoff, and increased public safety. LAFD frequently rescues hikers, so we must consider the public safety aspects of the overall park plan.”

Amplifying the needs, Andres continued, “We need more water fountains, better trails, repair of the east trail steps. We have a diverse set of users who don't understand some of the potential dangers of the park. We also have to know how to make park land safe, to restore it to a level that it wouldn’t erode away, and understand the importance of maintaining the sustainability of the land. 

“Given the diversity and enormous number of people visiting Runyon and the related neighborhoods, the only real solution is a compromise and balanced approach”, concluded Andres. 

Speaking about the Vision Plan, the Ryu spokesperson pointed out that, "80% of visitors are from outside the Hollywood area. We must consider the overall infrastructure needs of the park to make it safe for all users. On Monday, we heard from many residents who live near the park, but it's also important that we hear from as many park users as possible." 

The city has opened a new branch at the Recreation and Parks Department to identify sponsorship possibilities and to cultivate prospective sponsors. The beneficiary project receives cash, and if processed through a 501(c-3) such as Friends of Runyon Canyon, the donor (such as this clothing manufacturer) receives a significant tax write-off; donors get both branding and promotion as well as a tax-deduction. That's a lot. Ideally, it would be a very discrete acknowledgement, handled appropriately, maybe on a side fence, and without commercial slogans or other marketing overtones. This requires very careful monitoring. 

Vicki Israel, Assistant General Manager Partnership and Revenue Branch at the Department of Recreation and Parks, explains how this unique program works: “With budget reductions we cannot do it alone anymore, and have started creating public-private partnerships with the Department of Parks and Recreation. They are necessary and we seek them. Our naming policy and a sponsor recognition policy, that create the guidelines and policy to continue to reach out and obtain partners, were approved by the Board of Park Commissioners and the City Attorney. 

“One of our partners is the Friends of Runyon Canyon that came to the Department of Parks and Recreation about their plans. We created a MOU (memorandum of understanding) that we took to the Board of Park Commissioners as public process. When it was approved, the Friends of Runyon Canyon went out to do fundraising on behalf of Runyon Canyon. They don’t want commercialization.” 

When asked if it was accurate to say the basketball court donation was "facilitated by the Friends of Runyon Canyon,” FRC’s Don Andres told CityWatch, “Not really. That implies much more Friends involvement than what really happened.” 

Unknown, or yet-to-be-revealed, is how this project got launched to start with -- by whom and exactly when? How did the San Francisco area-based donor know to go to an unheralded department in the city bureaucracy, if it was not with the navigation that FRC and their MOU with the department could facilitate? Now that the idea has become almost toxic, nobody seems to want to own the origin of the plan. The donor is a voice still to be heard from, although it may wind up wishing it never got involved, no matter what its good intentions. The public relations backlash could hurt more than the corporate branding in the park could help. But if the donor pulls out, that issue might dissolve. 

This is a matter that needs more (hopefully civil) conversation and clarity to reach a resolution. The neighborhood council has undeniable parity as an interested party, and the councilmember has stepped in. There must be an agreement between them. 

For now, considering where this dispute is taking place, let's let a Hollywood icon have the last word: “What we've got here is failure to communicate.” - Paul Newman, from the 1967 movie, “Cool Hand Luke.”

(Tim Deegan is a long-time resident and community leader in the Miracle Mile, who has served as board chair at the Mid City West Community Council and on the board of the Miracle Mile Civic Coalition. Tim can be reached at [email protected].) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

LATINO PERSPECTIVE-A recent study released by Beacon Economics for the Los Angeles Latino Chamber of Commerce found the number of Hispanic households earning between $100,000 and $200,000 in 2014, jumped 10.2 percent increase from 2000, leading to $72.4 billion in spending across heavily-marketed consumer categories, including electronics, food, and clothing. 

According to Theresa Martinez, the Chamber’s chairman, Latinos are a consumer powerhouse. This study does a remarkable job at really looking at and quantifying the enormous “spending power" of Latinos in Los Angeles. 

The increase in Latino aggregate spending to $72.4 billion has been driven by significant demographic and income growth. This has allowed Latino consumers to outspend other ethnic groups in most consumer segments. 

The Latino community in Los Angeles County that continues to grow and spend its dollars well over other ethnic groups is creating opportunity for many businesses. 

Latinos accounted for a large proportion of spending in various categories, including food at home, laundry and cleaning supplies, cellular phone service, audio and visual equipment and used cars and trucks. 

Spending on housing by Latinos totaled $29 billion and $10.9 billion on food in 2014. In comparison, African American, Asian and other non-white households spent a combined $8.5 billion on food that year. 

Latino spending on eggs, poultry, beef, and pork combined is estimated at $1.3 billion. Approximately $11 billion in transportation spending in 2014 coming from Latinos included purchases of new and used automobiles. If corporate America is looking to invest in the most dynamic Latino market in the United States, the findings of this study clearly suggest that they should bring their marketing and advertising dollars to the City of Angels, the Chairman argues. 

Mrs. Martinez also said that by isolating these numbers in the county, marketers now have a snapshot of Latino consumer buying power in Los Angeles, which she believes is the most important Latino market in the country. 

Advertising firms aren't the only ones who can potentially benefit for the ever-growing Latino population. Presidential candidates are courting the Hispanic vote like never before, creating bilingual TV ads and courting Latino leaders to endorse them in potential swing states. 

Latinos participating in the 2016 presidential election are expected to hit the ballot box in record numbers, particularly in response to proposed immigration reform views shared by Republican candidates. 

A recent USC Dornside/ Los Angeles Times poll found California Republicans are split on who to vote for, siding with party front-runner Donald Trump over Texas Sen. Ted Cruz by a 37-30 margin.

Immigration is a hot topic among many Latinos in the Golden State and the hardline anti-immigration reform stance some have taken has softened over time. In the Chamber survey, about 65 percent said undocumented immigrants should have a chance to stay, compared to 16 percent who said they should leave the country outright. 

Latinos in Los Angeles are an integral part of the economic engine of the city, county, and the state of California. Immigrants documented and undocumented are part of this equation as well. Let’s never forget that.

(Fred Mariscal came to Los Angeles from Mexico City in 1992 to study at the University of Southern California and has been in LA ever since. He is a community leader who serves as Vice Chair of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Coalition and sits on the board of the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council representing Larchmont Village. He was a candidate for Los Angeles City Council in District 4. Fred writes Latino Perspective for CityWatch and can be reached at: [email protected].) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

EASTSIDER-Speaking as a 3^rd generation Californian, I finally just couldn’t take the babblings of the talking heads today as they cheerfully said how Bernie should pack it up and go home – that he would have, except for the fact that he has bags of money and got lucky in six of the last seven states, including Wisconsin. 

SORTING OUT ELECTION SCENARIOS-Senator Bernie Sanders has repeatedly emphasized the importance of mass movements as an essential instrument for social, political and economic change in the United States. For example, here is a typical Bernie quote from a recent CNN interview, “The only way we bring about real change in this country, which represents the needs of the middle class and working families, is … a mass movement, and that's what we are trying to create and are succeeding in creating right now." Bernie has also repeatedly argued that a Sanders administration could only implement his campaign platform with the strong, sustained support from an external mass movement. 

HERE’S WHAT I KNOW-The consumer financial site WalletHub has released a study assessing how efficiently some of America’s largest urban centers apply taxpayer money on key expenditures and LA is at the bottom of the list. WalletHub analysts compared 78 cities for Return of Investment (ROI) on Adjusted Education, Adjusted Law Enforcement, and Parks & Recreation ROI. LA ranked at 55. 

CALIFORNIA PRIMARY PREP--Now that Sen. Ted Cruz has thumped Donald Trump in the Wisconsin primary, the campaigns of Cruz, Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich will turn their attention to the April 19 primary in New York State. 

LA’s CHANGE AGENTS--Later this month, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (photo) will present his 2016-17 Budget to the City of Los Angeles. 

PERSPECTIVE--I’ve watched AMC’s hit show, ‘The Walking Dead’, since season one.

The characters grew on me, although only a few of the original cast have survived the zombie apocalypse to date.

But I am losing interest in the show. There was a time where I eagerly looked forward to the new season. I would plant myself in front of the TV at 6:00 PM on Sunday night – thank God for satellite TV, or it would have been 9:00 PM.

THE CITY--Neighborhood activists scored a rare victory recently at LA City Hall when lawmakers reversed their prior approval of a 252-unit townhome/condo project that critics say was part of a backroom deal cooked up by former councilman Tom LaBonge and a project that exemplified the city’s immoral practice of allowing residential projects to be built in freeway-adjacent ‘Black Lung zones.’

HERE’S WHAT I KNOW-LA hikers aren’t too pleased with the four-month shutdown for pipe replacement work but there’s another issue that seems to be raising the ire of many Runyon Canyon Park regulars. 

JUST THE FACTS-I am pushing my article on the Los Angeles Police Commission to a later date due to the “rants” I received about my last piece in CityWatch on the Second Amendment and guns. 

NEW GEOGRAPHY--In principle, there is solid moral ground for the recent drive to boost the minimum wage to $15, with California and New York State taking dramatic steps Monday toward that goal. Low-wage workers have been losing ground for decades, as stagnant incomes have been eroded by higher living costs.

BILLBOARD WATCH-Seven years ago, just a few days before Christmas, a construction crew pulled up to a lot on the north side of the 110 freeway in downtown LA and proceeded to erect a 60 ft. high, double sided billboard. (Photo above, left on Plumbers’s Union property.) Less than 50 ft. from the freeway in the Staples Center/L.A. Live area, its two 700 sq. ft. faces would broadcast ads for such products as fast food, computers, and financial services to nearly 300,000 motorists every day. 

City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, who brokered the backroom deal two years earlier to allow Clear Channel and CBS Outdoor to convert hundreds of their billboards to digital, was certainly no hero to anti-billboard activists. But on the day after Christmas he announced the filing of criminal charges against the owner of the construction company that put up that billboard and two others along the freeway in the same vicinity. Criminal charges were also filed against all three property owners. 

Everyone knows the wheels of justice often turn slowly, and despite the absence of any credible defense against a brazen defiance of city laws, those three billboards displayed a variety of ads to motorists for more than seven years. Just this month construction crews again appeared, this time to yank them from the ground and cart them away. (Photo above, right after billboard removal.)

Why so long? Suffice to say that lawsuits were filed, and with them a variety of motions and other tactics designed, it seems, to postpone the inevitable as opposed to resolving serious legal questions.

But all’s well that ends well. Or so it would seem, if one overlooks another fundamental question, which is: How much money did those property owners and the company that put up the billboards make by displaying ads for seven years to motorists on one of the most heavily-traveled sections of freeway in the city? 

In other words, what about those ill-gotten gains? One of the property owners was Local 78 of the Plumbers Union. How much did they pocket from what was, essentially, a criminal enterprise? And why shouldn’t they be forced to disgorge those tainted funds? 

That question is particularly relevant to that union, because it had been lobbying for city permission to put up a new digital billboard on that property. Just months before the illegal billboard appeared, City Councilman Ed Reyes had introduced a City Council motion to allow an exception to the sign code provision that prohibited any new billboards. 

That motion died in committee, ostensibly because such an exception for a single billboard could never be justified on legal grounds. Yet the Plumbers Union leaders, who certainly had full knowledge of this, allowed a billboard company renegade to come along and put up the billboard without so much as a shred of official approval. 

In short, we can applaud the City Attorneys -- first Delgadillo, then Carmen Trutanich, now Mike Feuer -- who pursued the ultimate removal of those billboards. We can also ask that people who profited from blatant nose-thumbing at city laws be made to pay. 

If you agree, we suggest sending an email to Mike Feuer ([email protected]).  Something like, “Good work, but now go after those ill-gotten gains.” And be sure to send a copy of that message to your City Councilperson, because some political pressure always helps.

(Dennis Hathaway is the president of the Ban Billboard Blight Coalition and a CityWatch contributor. He can be reached at: [email protected].)  Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

CA’s ‘FORGOTTEN’ RACE-The California Attorney General Kamala Harris has won a $1.2 billion judgment against the for-profit Corinthian Colleges for predatory practices that left tens of thousands of students with large debts and useless degrees. Students whom Corinthian had targeted for their “special characteristics” like "isolated", "impatient", "low self-esteem" folks "who have few people in their lives who care about them" according to documents Harris' office discovered.  

Does the case reveal any special characteristics of Kamala Harris? (photo right above) That's especially important since she's running for US Senate. 

She’s in the lead for the retiring Barbara Boxer's seat. In a race that not enough of us are watching, she handily beat out Orange County’s Loretta Sanchez for the State Democratic Party’s endorsement last month. 

Even if we were paying attention to this important election, education advocates know that an election for national office is not exactly the best venue to find out a candidate's stand on public education. With so little campaign emphasis on our cause, candidates’ actions and occasional words are open to interpretation. So what do the tea leaves say about Kamala Harris? 

The bulk of the judgment in this case is loan forgiveness for former students. The rest is to punish the shyster Corinthian and try to deter other profiteers from creating business models that prey on hopeful students. That's a good sign. 

The win shows Harris to be a fighter for pupils over profits, something that should help her distinguish herself to voters concerned about the privatization of public education.  

One of Harris’ Republican opponents is cringe-worthy to education voters. Ron Unz is a Palo Alto software executive whose interest in education stems from his effort to obliterate bilingual education in our state. He successfully championed the 1998 “English only” ballot initiative, which the state legislature has nearly finished repealing. This has so ticked off Unz that he decided to throw his hat in the ring for the Senate seat. 

So Unz can make some anti-immigrant noise, which apparently is a selling point in this reality-TV-based election season, though he has little chance of winning against either Democrat. 

The Democrats are having their own difficulty breaking through the cacophony of the presidential election. An LA Times article this week reported one third of California voters are still undecided in the Senate race that includes four Democrats. Harris polls first, ahead of Sanchez among registered voters and Harris’ take doubles Sanchez's among likely voters. 

There’s no poll of education voters, but if there was, this shellacking of for-profit colleges by Kamala Harris surely would put her at the front of the class.

(Karen Wolfe is a public school parent, the Executive Director of PS Connect  and an occasional contributor to CityWatch.) Photo: AP. Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams. 

Tags: Karen Wolfe, CA state election, US Senate race, Kamala Harris, Barbara Boxer, Corinthian Colleges, predatory education practices

JUST SAYIN’--While I'm sure there are many potential candidates for people who were targeted and labeled toxic for having reported something that even remotely approximated truth, I find the summary public career execution of television personality Phil Donahue to be a compelling first contender for this dubious distinction. 

In 1996, television talk show host Phil Donahue celebrated what until now remains "the longest continuous run of any syndicated talk show in U.S. television history." And this success was clearly based on the trust his honesty inspired in his fiercely loyal audience. 

And yet by February 25, 2003, when Donahue who "was ranked #42 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time," had his career brought to an abrupt end when he was fired by MSNBC for his opposition to the selling of the imminent U.S. invasion of Iraq to the American people. 

Clearly his opposition to the fear and bogus claims of weapons of mass destruction had to be silenced, given his popularity with the American people and any potential that might have had for causing the American people to question this done deal. 

Long before the current film Spotlight deigned to make a film about tolerated child molestation and cover up in the Catholic church, Donahue produced the first national television program in the 1980s showing widespread child molestation by Catholic priests. 

This level of difficult honesty was still something that was tolerated and had a place in American media, but with the selling of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the profit motivated endless war footing this country has remained on, clearly that is no longer the case. 

I don't recall who once said to me that freedom in the 19th century was expressed as the freedom from oppression, while freedom in the 20th century was to be seen as the freedom of expression. But in the 21st century, it seems painfully clear that any supposedly constitutional guaranteed right of expression or any civil liberty that in any way challenges the corporate oligarchy's exclusively profit motivated agenda has been made illegal. 

It is seen as intolerable heresy requiring someone who dares to engage in it like an Edward Snowden someone who must have the moral courage to literally put their life on the line or be willing to seek sanctuary in Russia or elsewhere. Dare to point out that what the U.S. government and its state and local government components openly advocate and implement as being completely and utterly in violation of basic constitutional rights and you better starting looking for a deep hole in which to hide. 

The problem with this awareness is that barring some other insight or proposed course of action, people have tended to become demoralized by their expression of an alternative truth to government party line. 

What people don't realize is their feelings of powerlessness are merely the well executed end product of a corporate media whose goal is to make the majority of people in this country think they are in the minority, because if corporate media no longer reports the tree falling in the forest then it must not have fallen. 

However, this well nurtured corporate media fantasy that the majority is merely a disgruntled and maladjusted minority- be they Left, Right, or somewhere in between- is starting to break down due to an Internet individually connected world where the success of a "not serious candidate" like Bernie Sanders openly contradicts this corporate media "dominant narrative."

In reality, all Americans can still believe and democratically implement that we the people should decide what is good for we the people...if we have the persistence to see through the corporate media exquisitely executed charade of seamless virtual reality.

(Leonard Isenberg is a Los Angeles observer and a contributor to CityWatch. He was a second generation teacher at LAUSD and blogs at perdaily.com. Leonard can be reached at [email protected])

-cw

ANIMAL WATCH-On February 1, 2016, in my CityWatch article, “Has L.A. Animal Services Brenda Barnette Crossed the Line with Questionable Fundraising MOU?”  I questioned why a nonprofit corporation created by former Villaraigosa-appointed Commissioner Maggie Neilson, Global Philanthropy CEO, as a charitable arm for LA Animal Services, was registered as “The Los Angeles Animal Rescue Foundation.”  

On January 12, 2016, LAAS GM Barnette urged the Animal Services Commission to approve a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and stated the purpose is “…to support the work of the Department much the way the LAPD Foundation, the LAFD Foundation, the Library Foundation and others support the work of City Departments.”  

However, other City department “supporting foundations” clearly mention in their name the agency for which they are soliciting funds.  

So why wasn’t “The Los Angeles Animal Rescue Foundation” incorporated as “Los Angeles Animal Services Foundation” or “Friends of Los Angeles Animal Services?” Both were available according to the CA Secretary of State.

It is also perplexing that the Articles of Incorporation for ‘The Los Angeles Animal Rescue Foundation’ state: 

“The specific purpose of the Corporation is to ensure every animal has a home and that no adoptable animals are euthanized in Los Angeles.” 

While the official mandated Mission Statement of the Department of Animal Services, which is budgeted as a public-safety agency, is: 

“To promote and protect the health, safety and welfare of animals and people.” 

Why would a nonprofit charity be set up with an idealistic statement of purpose not closely related to the realistic mission of the agency for which it purports to raise funds? There is a major difference between a municipal, taxpayer-funded public animal shelter which takes in all animals in need (regardless of condition or behavior) and a “rescue,” which is a private organization and can choose to accept only adoptable animals.  

According to the Board Report, Deputy City Attorney Dov Lesel had been working on this MOU with Ms. Neilson and LAAS staff “for the past couple of years,” indicating that City Attorney Mike Feuer is fully aware of this proposal. She also mentioned that it is supported by the Mayor.

So, if a Deputy City Attorney is preparing documents for a private company to submit to the City Council -- prior to instruction or approval by that body -- is he acting as counsel for the City or for the non-profit? And, what other City officials and/or employees have been involved? 

No accusation of wrongdoing has been alleged, but inquiring minds want (and deserve) to know.

To that end, on February 23, 2016, I sent California Public Records Act requests to City Attorney Mike Feuer, Mayor Eric Garcetti, Councilman Paul Koretz and LAAS GM Brenda Barnette, which can be read at CF16-0070 in the City Clerk’s file. Certified receipts show the letters arrived on February 25.

Those familiar with the process know that the agency has ten days to either respond and provide the information, deny that they have such documents, or ask for a 14-day extension of time. Councilman Koretz and Mayor Garcetti were informed that a copy of each of their letters was also being sent to the City Attorney as the City’s legal advisor. 

Not one of these officials responded -- including City Attorney Mike Feuer. 

Is it possible nothing was done in writing? According to Brenda Barnette’s report, a number of City officials collaborated and this is essentially a fait accompli. Could a several-year project simply have been conducted by phone, with not a single person writing a note or sending even one e-mail? 

Or did they possibly use private e-mail accounts -- a la Hillary Clinton? 

Although we don’t want to believe steps would intentionally be taken by the City to limit transparency, Jim Bickhart, former aide to Mayor Villaraigosa, sent a very rambling e-mail to the LA Animal Services Commissioners on January 14, 2012 which appears to be an effort to do just that. (Bickhart is now under contract to Councilman Paul Koretz as Speedway Policy Associates.) 

Jim Bickhart oversaw the Department of Animal Services and the Commission for the Mayor. He coordinated the appointment of animal issue-neophyte Maggie Neilson, CEO of Global Philanthropy, in April 2013 to replace the very popular, knowledgeable and independent Commissioner Kathleen Riordan  (who had recently been appointed to a new term.) 

I am providing the lengthy e-mail from Bickhart to the Commission in its entirety (below) to assure full disclosure. However, I direct your attention to the bolded areas (emphasis added)--especially the first paragraph, which begins, “You’ll note that I’m e-mailing you from my personal e-mail address.”

Then in a later sentence Bickhart writes: “So I would suggest that you take the this [sic] precaution: If you don't want what you say to be subject to possible public disclosure, don't put something in writing to a public official's work e-mail account.”  

(Ironically, I received this e-mail in a response to a CPRA on an unrelated topic.) 

Note: All emphasis in the following e-mail is added.

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] ,  [email protected] ,  [email protected]
CC: [email protected]
Sent: 1/14/2012 5:03:22 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time
Subj: some notes on use of correspondence in the public sector

Dear Commissioners,

You'll note that I'm e-mailing you from my personal e-mail address.  I'm doing so by way of providing an example, even though I believe it would have been fully appropriate to send this to you from work.

Because of all the stir being created relative to your work by a certain member of the public, I am reminded that I owe you all an apology for a couple of things.

First, I apologize for not checking with each of you during your appointment processes to be sure you were not overlooking any paperwork-related situations that someone with an agenda might later be able to exploit in efforts to embarrass you. I don't think I have to belabor the point that in contemporary politics, there are people looking to say "Gotcha!" at the slightest provocation and a variety of tools have been provided to them for doing so.

Much as one of my jobs as a staffer for an elected official is to try to eliminate opportunities for people to do that to my boss, it's also my obligation to do that for those of you who are volunteering your valuable time, along with your reputations, to help us all try to do a
better job on behalf of the people (and, in this case, the animals).  By not doing that due diligence with you when I should have, I let you, and my boss, down.  So, again, I apologize.

Second, my other sin of omission was to fail to make it known that EVERY kind of written correspondence that emanates from or is received by a public sector official (elected or otherwise), is subject to public disclosure via either the state Public Records Act or the federal Freedom of Information Act.

That means your e-mails, memos and letters to anyone working in government are potentially subject to being revealed to the media or other individuals if they request it in accordance with the procedures set forth in those laws.  For sure there are limitations - usually comparable to those applied to evidence being excluded in court procedures - but in general we all need to keep in mind that anything we send to each other might end up being seen by people we didn't expect would ever see it.

During my tenure in the Mayor's office I've been subjected to no fewer than a half dozen Public Records Act requests for my City e-mails and other documents.  I can attest that it's a royal pain to be forced to comb through hundreds of e-mails at the behest of someone who's on a "fishing expedition" for one reason or another.  I certainly understand the motive behind these disclosure laws and support transparency in government, but I highly doubt that those who created these laws properly anticipated how they might be employed in ways that shed more nuisance than they do sunlight.

A key rule we in the Mayor's office are told early on is, "Don't put anything in an e-mail you wouldn't want to see in the newspaper later on."  It's good advice that I should have told you a long time ago (and should remind myself of way more often than I do).  Not that it's been a
problem with 99.9% of your e-mails to City Hall, but you just never know when that 0.1% might be sitting around in somebody's in-box when a PRA request comes in.  Believe me, I know, because I'm a way bigger offender than any of you will ever be.

So I would suggest that you take the this [sic] precaution: If you don't want what you say to be subject to possible public disclosure, don't put something in writing to a public official's work e-mail account.  This doesn't need to apply to simple communications such as, "I can't attend the next meeting," or "Can you call me this afternoon?"  Messages that don't contain opinions or potentially problematic revelations are not the issue.  None of us really cares if someone else is bored (or disappointed) by them after they're disclosed.

As we've seen in the last few months, it doesn't take much for certain kinds of people to go out of their way to make you, as volunteers who are trying to do something positive, wonder why you bothered in the first place.  To be frank, I feel that way regularly, but I'm being paid.  You're not (at least not for this).  I owe it to you to do what I can to protect you from being placed in that position and I should have taken steps to do so earlier.  Once we've made an error, there's not much any of us can do to avoid taking some lumps, and our ethical obligation is to make sure we're treated like anyone else would be in the same circumstances.  So it's best to be doubly sure we're staying out of harm's way in the first place.

On that sobering note, I hope everyone is having a good MLK weekend.

Jim 

The Mayor, City Attorney, Councilman Paul Koretz, and Brenda Barnette have another chance to respond to my CPRA about the proposed Global Philanthropy MOU before any further action is considered. 

On March 23, a letter advising them of their Failure to Respond to the CPRA was sent and also placed in the City Clerk’s file CF16-0070. It provides the opportunity to rectify this matter promptly. I hope they will do so.

(Animal activist Phyllis M. Daugherty writes for CityWatch and is a contributing writer to opposingviews.com. She lives in Los Angeles.) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

ATTACK ON AFFORDABLE HOUSING-An irresponsible and complicit City Hall has sat idle in recent years as 20,000 rent-controlled apartment units in Los Angeles have been destroyed or converted, forcing working class tenants into the streets, scrambling to find replacement housing while luxury units were built to replace the affordable apartments that have been lost. 

That was the story told in part by Los AngelesTimes in a page-one investigative report. “The paper did a good job of documenting the destruction and pain caused by this housing trend,” said Jill Stewart, campaign director of the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative. 

“Unfortunately the Times did not go the extra mile and properly lay the blame for this tragedy at City Hall’s doorstep – as it should have,” said Stewart. “This is a crisis that City Hall has helped create because of its cozy relationship with the real estate industry, and it is a crisis that City Hall has certainly failed to correct.” 

Stewart called on Mayor Garcetti and the City Council to immediately place a moratorium on projects that will destroy affordable housing unless the new project will provide significant numbers of affordable units – at the very least replace the lost affordable units with an equal number of new affordable units. 

“Homelessness is spiking in Los Angeles as a direct result of City Hall's thoughtless behavior,” said Stewart. “Yet our elected officials have looked the other way for years as landlords and developers razed or converted building after building and wiped out our inexpensive rent-controlled apartments.” 

Since January, the Coalition to Preserve LA, sponsor of the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative aiming for the March 2017 ballot, has challenged the frequent back room deals and votes by the Los Angeles City Council to place outsized luxury buildings in neighborhoods that were once affordable. 

The City Council has openly ignored critics who say the preservation of existing affordable housing is the only way to prevent a housing disaster and the spiking homelessness in LA. 

The actions and inactions of the City Council have set off a dramatic domino effect on block after block of Los Angeles: landlords jack up their rents and evict existing tenants — so they, too, can join the “luxury” density movement promoted and approved by City Hall. 

As the Coalition to Preserve LA has reported, all but one of 17 elected officials at City Hall are accepting campaign cash, gifts and/or money for their pet projects, from developers and the real estate industry. Since 2000, the City Council and mayor have accepted $6 million from real estate industry sources alone. This amount does not include contributions from an army of land-use attorneys and lobbyists who facilitate the real estate industry’s big-growth agenda at City Hall. 

In the face of this conflict of interest, Los Angeles city leaders have touted the wrong-headed idea that constructing luxury housing for the rich will help poor and low-income families. “There is no evidence to support this conclusion,” said Stewart. “Their argument is essentially that luxury housing will become over 25 or so years affordable. That’s no solace to families now who are being evicted. They need affordable housing now – not 25 years from now.”

The Los Angeles Times investigation by Ben Poston and Andrew Khouri notes: “The number of lost units is a fraction of the roughly 641,000 rent-controlled apartments in the city, but in a tight market the removals have had an outsized effect, tenant advocates say.” Most of the units were lost to demolition but some were converted into condos. 

Approval by voters of the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative next March will end the most egregious actions by the City Council to uproot communities in favor of luxury housing built by their developer friends. But until voters put a halt to this, and require non-corrupt planning by City Hall — a core aspect of the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative — the City Council should enact a moratorium to bar further destruction and conversion of LA's desperately needed rent-controlled units, according to Stewart. 

The initiative will impose a two-year moratorium on the biggest and worst projects that can be built only if City Hall provides developers with building exemptions and special favors. This time-out will give Los Angeles a breather from the current development frenzy now swamping LA’s streets with traffic, ruining neighborhoods, creating an environment of concrete and pollution, displacing working class families and overwhelming the city’s infrastructure. 

In addition, the initiative will empower neighbors to have a bigger say in shaping the community plans that govern growth in their neighborhoods. “Our initiative will help level the playing field so residents can have as much say or more say in how their communities are developed than the developers – who are now almost exclusively in control of the city’s growth machine,” said Stewart.

(John Schwada is a former investigative reporter for Fox 11 in Los Angeles, the LA Times and the late Herald Examiner. He is a contributor to CityWatch. His consulting firm is MediaFix Associates.) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING HANDICAP SCAM--Just when you think that the Mayor and the Los Angeles City Council could not sink lower, new evidence comes to light. 

We see and hear the publicity stunts by Mayor Garcetti and various councilmembers, crying for the need to construct more Affordable Housing. What has the City been doing to create Affordable Housing? According to the LA Times on April 2, 2016, It has been demolishing Affordable Units to make way for pricy apartments, condos and McMansions! 

That’s right, the City has been helping developers not only destroy affordable housing, but then through its HCIDLA Committee, the City has been giving tax money for the developers who just demolished the rent controlled properties. They justify these gifts of our money on the grounds that the poor need housing. As a result of this scam, the City Council has been voting unanimously to allow rent controlled units to be destroyed and then giving hundreds of millions of our tax dollars to the very people who tore down the homes. 

It’s like a late night Infomercial, “Wait there’s more.” While Mayor Garcetti and current Council President Herb Wesson have been shedding crocodile tears for the less fortunate, they have been abusing the City’s disabled population in order to divert more tax dollars to the billionaire developers. On camera, they speak in the name of the disabled, while screwing them off camera. 

No need to take my word for it. We have documented proof. In January 2012, while Mayor Garcetti was City Council President, the City and its now defunct Community Redevelopment Agency [CRA] was sued in federal court for systematically and knowingly cheating Los Angeles’ disabled persons. (Independent Living Center of Southern California et alia v City of Los Angeles, Community Redevelopment Agency [CRA], United States District Court for the Central District Court of California, Case Number SACV12 0062JST.) 

For at least the last decade, during which time Eric Garcetti had been Council District 13 Councilmember (2001-2014) and City Council President (2006-2012), the City and Garcetti’s beloved CRA cheated both disabled persons and the tax payers. Here’s the scam they used: 

(1) In order to receive tax money to construct affordable housing, the City had to guarantee that the developers made their apartments and condos disabled accessible. [Lawsuit ¶ 76] 

(2)   Because making apartments and condos accessible to disabled persons costs the developers more money, the City not only allowed developers not to provide the legally require handicap facilities, but Garcetti and other councilmembers also frustrated the efforts of advocates for the disabled to document the violations. [Lawsuit, ¶ ¶ 78-82] 

As a result, Mayor Garcetti and current Council President Herb Wesson, along with all the rest of the Los Angeles City Council, have helped to divert hundreds of millions of tax dollars to developers by allowing them not to make the required handicap improvements to their projects.

“By the actions described above, Defendants have engaged in, and continue to engage in a pattern or practice of discrimination against people with disabilities in violation of the Rehabilitation Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Government Code § 1135. The Defendants continue to engage in such a pattern, practice, or policy of discrimination so as to constitute a continuing violation.” Lawsuit ¶ 85 

That’s right; Garcetti and Wesson are still at it! Look at how many of the projects named in the lawsuit are in Wesson’s Council District #10. 

“. . . Defendants have known that their acts and omissions create a substantial likelihood of harm to Plaintiff's federally protected rights, and Defendants have failed to act upon that likelihood.” Lawsuit¶ 86   

We are not dealing with innocent mistakes of a complicated law. The law is as simple as one could want: “This money is to be used to make the housing accessible to disabled persons.” What’s not to understand? How does this then become, “Use this tax money to buy yourself a mansion in Bel Air?” 

Let’s remember that in 2011, the State abolished Los Angeles CRA due to rampant corruption. Garcetti and Wesson knew about this scam as they were actively aiding and abetting the diversion of hundreds of millions of tax dollars away from disabled people to enrich their buddies, the real estate developers. (CityWatch wrote a series of articles about the corrupt CRA, especially about Garcetti’s pet project, The Cesspool on Vine.)  

Angelenos have to ask themselves: Do we want to be ruled by men who steal from the disabled in order to give more of our tax dollars to developers? That is exactly what Garcetti, Wesson and all the other councilmembers have been doing. They know that the tax dollars were to make this housing accessible to the disabled, yet they allowed the developers to pocket this money while leaving the disabled persons out in the cold.

(Richard Lee Abrams is a Los Angeles attorney. He can be reached at: [email protected]. Abrams views are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

AT LENGTH-I remember traveling one hot July day in 1955 to the opening of Disneyland in Anaheim. For the “happiest place on earth,” that day was a disaster. 

When Disneyland’s gates opened for the first time, the park unveiling was plagued with epic traffic jams, counterfeit tickets, broken rides, food shortages and a lack of water on a 100-degree day.

It was a bold move opening a theme park in the outer-reaches of Orange County -- an event that heralded the urban sprawl that has now become epic in Southern California. 

Gone now are the orange groves, vineyards and dairy pastures that once fanned out across the Southland from places like Torrance, Lomita, Gardena and even San Pedro. San Pedro locals still remember Lochman Farms Dairy on Western Avenue. 

Los Angeles County was once the largest agricultural region in the state. All of it has been divided and subdivided by freeways and thoroughfares, housing communities and shopping malls except for the last piece of vacant Lochman Farms land that’s to be developed known as Ponte Vista. 

This was part of the “dream” of an ever-expanding future. Disneyland and Hollywood fueled those dreams until they hit the brick wall of the Watts Riots in the summer of 1965. The hard reality set in that some parts of sunny California weren’t a part of the “happiest place on earth.” I watched the fires burn on TV from the hills of Palos Verdes and wondered. 

There is a lot more to this narrative that leads right up to Los Angeles today being the capital of homelessness that makes me believe that what we are witnessing is the demise of this dream. That all of the anger expressed by the Tea Party and the Donald Trump hostility on one side and the “enough is enough” campaign of Bernie Sanders are part of the same reaction to the squeeze.

More symbolic to this end were the recent deaths of both former First Lady Nancy Reagan and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. 

With the first being a champion of the “Just Say No to Drugs” campaign and the latter a constitutional “originalist” appointee to the Supreme, both were extensions of President Ronald Reagan’s dubious legacy. 

The worldview of this Reagan triad that started back when he was governor of California and continued with his now discredited “trickle down economics” in the 1980s. This has persisted as a legacy up until President Barack Obama got his signature Affordable Care Act passed. 

The ACA continues to be a thorn in the side of conservative Republicans, Tea Partiers and neo-Trumpites even though it has survived three Supreme Court challenges, massively exceeded expectations, and has covered millions of Americans for whom the “dream” has slipped from their grasp along with their last middle-class job. 

What we are clearly witnessing in this curious presidential campaign year is the end of the Reaganomics era and the beginning of something else. That’s what the real debate is about. What’s the alternative to trickledown economics, free trade and inequitable wage compensation? 

Both Trump and Sanders criticize the free trade deals as a gambit that ships manufacturing jobs overseas, but clearly Sanders has the better grasp of the complexity of the issue and only recently has Hillary Clinton signed on to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. 

The TPP treaty is only understood by some 10 percent of the California electorate, but conservatives and liberals alike oppose it once it is explained. It is a curious phenomenon that, in a time in which Republicans and Democrats can’t agree on much of anything, that voters both left and right oppose the TPP. This probably has something to do with the growing realization that “the dream” is slowing slipping from both hands. 

Back here in the Los Angeles Harbor Area we also have these dreams of waterfront development and of saving San Pedro. Perhaps someone will make a hat that reads “Make Pedro Great Again.” Yet, the issue of a few hundred homeless people camped out on our streets or the slow boating of waterfront development are only a veneer of the true problems that plague many parts of this great metropolis by the sea. Sustainable jobs, faster public transportation to the rest of Los Angeles and better access to capital investment for small business is the cure. 

The one key element that’s missing from the current plan to expand the MTA’s light rail system over the next 20 years is the connection from LAX to the Port of Los Angeles. 

This one change in the transportation plan would solve two of the three causes listed here for poor economics and would improve the lives of millions of county residents who live south of the 405 Freeway, as reported on in the LA Weekly. Read the story. Supervisor Don Knabe and Mayor Eric Garcetti need to hear from you. 

In the end, what’s needed for this new era is a different dream that is not predicated on more freeways, more cars or more urban sprawl as we ship jobs overseas. What is needed is for city governments to connect residents to themselves and to their city both physically and technologically.  What is needed are cities committed to being both economically and environmentally sustainable while ensuring shelter for everyone, even those who have the least.

(James Preston Allen is the Publisher of Random Lengths News, the Los Angeles Harbor Area's only independent newspaper. He is also a guest columnist for the California Courts Monitor and is the author of "Silence Is Not Democracy - Don't listen to that man with the white cap - he might say something that you agree with!" He was elected to the presidency of the Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council in 2014 and has been engaged in the civic affairs of CD 15 for more than 35 years. More of Allen … and other views and news at: randomlengthsnews.com.)  Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.