LOS ANGELES

THE DOCTOR IS IN - Let's reiterate COVID-19's latest, whether you, Friend Reader, believe these bullet points or not: 

RANDOM LENGTHS NEWS - Until recently, every time you turn around something seems to be in “crisis.”

HOUSING WATCH - In the ongoing and increasingly heated discussions about housing, urban planning, and zoning, I often return to Greta Thunberg’s seething indictment of our world’s decision-makers: “Here we are at the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can do is talk about money and fairytales of eternal economic growth.”

THE DOCTOR IS IN - These times challenge our souls, health, and pocketbooks...to nothing of our collective sanity.

LA LAW - On December 7^th, 2020, the newly elected Los Angeles County District Attorney, George Gascon, was sworn into office.

REDISTRICTING - The Chief Legislative Analyst (CLA) Memorandum of Nov. 8, provides an update on the Nov. 5, L.A. City Ad Hoc Redistricting Committee (Ad Hoc Committee) approved redistricting draft map (Hybrid Map), considered by Council at its Nov 9 meeting.

LAPD SPYING - The company’s letter to the LA police chief comes after the Guardian revealed that the department partnered with a tech firm that enables undercover spying.

RantZ and RaveZ - Is the Los Angeles City Crime Picture as bad as reported in the local media?

PLANNING WATCH -  In recent weeks I have written two critical Planning Watch columns about LA’s 2021-2029 Housing Element. 

THE VIEW FROM HERE - People love to believe in a teleological view of history, i.e. that history is working towards some wonderful conclusion. 

EDUCATION WATCH - In the winter of 2019, two oddities swept Los Angeles: rain and a teachers’ strike.

RANDOM LENGTHS NEWS - South Beacon Street in San Pedro overlooking the Port of Los Angeles is certainly not anything like Skid Row, but you wouldn’t know it by the actions of Councilman Joe  Buscaino.

GENERAL JEFF LEAVES POWERFUL LEGACY - (Editor's Note: Jeff Page, "General Jeff", wrote about LA's Skid Row and LA Homelessness for CityWatch for more than 10 years. He wrote from firsthand knowledge, trying to help us understand what most of us cannot comprehend. He will be missed.) 

A VIEW FROM HERE - The Los Angeles Conservatorship Court set Britney Spears free for one reason – to protect itself from additional public scrutiny. 

COMMENTARY - Many Angelenos took the opportunity offered by working from home during the pandemic to move to a new house – often outside the City and sometimes outside the state. 

No long commutes, no inhaling exhaust fumes while stuck in traffic jams, no threatening gestures from other irate drivers, all while helping reduce global warming. 

For many of us much, if not most, of our work can be completed just as effectively seated in front of our home computers. 

Some meetings require hands-on participation beyond the current capabilities of Zoom or Teams.  Trainings are often more effective in person. 

But it’s hard to stop a robbery in progress, rescue a cat from a tree, perform CPR or fight wildfires remotely. 

Before Zoom, cities usually relied on employee desires for short commutes to ensure their workers reflected those for whom they worked. 

Generally, it has only been at the level of elected officials that residency requirements have been imposed. 

That may be why the Charter of the City of Los Angeles has no such requirements.  Or perhaps the City Attorney’s office nixed it as discriminatory, or perhaps they never considered the ramifications two decades on. 

There is also the aspect of recycling City funds within the community, an aspect of significant benefit for our economy. If everyone buys Chinese-made goods from Amazon or groceries in Palmdale, how can businesses based in Los Angeles thrive? 

To what extent do they or should they pay taxes that support the City (property, sales, hotel, parking, etc.)? 

And while employees of the LAFD and LAPD may enjoy the quality of life opportunities of living in Calabasas or Austin or Hilton Head – be it for cheaper housing, a less ‘woke’ community or to be closer to elderly family members – how does that impact their work in Los Angeles? 

It’s one thing to work from out-of-state on a job that does not entail a physical presence, quite another for those who operate firehoses or chase crooks. 

Even then, there are degrees of impact. 

Is the person commuting on perform a daily basis or weekly? How far? 

In an emergency, how soon can they report to their station? Would some emergencies – roads shut or air travel suspended – impair their ability to report at all? 

Interactions for many in-person jobs benefit when both individuals are part of the same community with similar values and understandings. 

How much is lost when a Caucasian residing in Brattleboro, Vermont has to evacuate Guatemalan residents in Boyle Heights? 

Just living in a homogenous community can limit ability to effectively perform in hugely cosmopolitan Los Angeles. 

Which is more discriminatory – to restrict a worker’s choice of residence or impose another layer of risk on a panicking Angeleno? 

Ultimately the equity lens must be applied on a case-by-case basis. There is no one size fits all. 

And that applies to every employer and every person in every job in the land.

(Liz Amsden is an activist from Northeast Los Angeles with opinions on much of what goes on in our lives. She has written extensively on the City's budget and services as well as her many other interests and passions. In her real life she works on budgets for film and television where fiction can rarely be as strange as the truth of living in today's world.)

SOUTH OF THE 10 - Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva was questioned under oath Wednesday, Nov. 10, by lawyers for Kobe Bryant’s widow in a contentious lawsuit accusing deputies of sharing cellphone photos taken at the site of the helicopter crash last year that killed the NBA legend, the couple’s 13-year-old daughter and seven others.

PLANNING WATCH - Wall Street works through advocacy organizations, public officials, and blinkered housing and planning specialists, to fine tune its schemes for extracting even more rent and mortgage payments from the working and middle classes. 

ENVIRONMENT - Los Angeles is built on oil, literally. For most of us the gently tipping pumps provide little more than background motion down the La Cienega corridor and across the basin.

MARC's ANGle - Recently, I explored Emily Hibard’s grandfather’s business being forced to sell their old functional trucks to meet increasingly stringent environmental regulations.

EASTSIDER - Still running for Mayor, Kevin De Leon is tripling down on using the homeless as centerpiece to his campaign.

SOUTH OF THE 10 - The city of Inglewood has received in excess of $1 million in CDBG/CARES Act funding to provide rent relief for residents struggling to pay their rent. Staff reports suggest the city has only disbursed 10% of those funds.