CityWatch

PERSPECTIVE-City watchers embraced the recent news that Frank Gehry has been rehired as designer of the Grand Avenue project. This is the $650 million stack of towers and plazas long-planned next to Disney Hall, also designed by Gehry. Grand Avenue has been on the drawing board for nearly a decade. Like downtown itself, its fortunes have risen and fallen with the economy, and with planning decisions good and bad. No one wants this key part of Downtown to remain barren parking lots. And Gehry's exuberant designs are sure to boost LA's reputation as the capital of creativity. So let's applaud the progress. Read More...

LA WATCHDOG-As we expected, on Tuesday afternoon, March 4, Jose Huizar railroaded the approval of the over height variance for the speculative 42,409 square foot monster mansion located at 10550 West Bellagio Road in Bel Air through his Planning and Land Use Management Committee, overriding the unanimous decision of the West LA Area Planning Commission to deny this variance requested by two campaign funding real estate developers from Beverly Hills. There was no meaningful discussion of the issues other than a softball question by Huizar to Paul Koretz’ Planning Deputy, leading many to speculate that Huizar and his fellow Committee member, Mitch Englander, had not even read the supporting documents. Read More...

THE VIEW FROM HERE-Everyone knows how left-leaning I am, but don’t let that color what I am about to say. I am addressing the current, very tenuous Ukraine-Russian issue. Either people forget history or they never knew it in the first place. Hillary Clinton (not my favorite for President in 2016—I prefer Joe Biden or Elizabeth Warren) recently stated that what Putin is doing in Ukraine is reminiscent of what Hitler did to eastern European countries prior to and during World War II.  Read More...

ALPERN AT LARGE-I've repeatedly considered credibility--"cred", for short--to be a critical "Vitamin C" necessary for a person, entity or even government to both survive and thrive. Human beings need to have "cred" in order to willingly follow a leader, be he/she appointed or elected...and the City is going to have to confront whether it will lead by "cred" or by force. Lack of "cred" has brought down City mayors, state governors and even Presidents (at least in the polls). Villaraigosa was brought down by his personal scandals and his inability to make the tough decisions when the budget called for it. Gray Davis was brought down by his image of being "coin-operated" and inept. G.W. Bush was shredded by Hurricane Katrina, blundering in Iraq and his inability to reign in Wall Street excesses.  Read More...

STATE DIVIDED- As all the Californians who celebrated the deluge of rain that fell the week before last know, it did not do much to ameliorate the state’s deep drought. We are likely to enter our traditionally dry spring, summer and fall in a crisis likely to exacerbate the ever greater estrangement between the state’s squabbling regions and classes.  Read More...

BOSTICK REPORT-As the curtains fell on the California Democratic Party Convention this past Sunday, it became abundantly clear that our state will spend the next two years determining what our nation’s political identity looks like. That debate will rest less with the moot battle of Republican versus Democrat and more within the mire of who is the best Democrat.  Read More...

LONG ROAD TO IMMIGRATION REFORM-Will there be immigration policy reform in 2014? This question, in one form or another, comes up every time we speak in public these days, most poignantly from anxious families who live in constant fear of being torn apart by deportation and detention. The answer, sadly, is “probably not” — at least not the kind of reform that would result in solid, forward-looking public policy.  Read More...

MY TURN-Over the last seven years as I have become more and more embroiled in conflict with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the… Read More...

EDUCATION POLITICS-My children’s job is to learn while they are young. That is their profession as long as they remain a minor. It is every bit as… Read More...

HEALTH POLITICS-When is a stroller a bicycle? When that stroller is in West Hollywood, where any human-powered, wheeled vehicle must yield to… Read More...

STATE ECONOMY-The recent decision by Occidental Petroleum to move its headquarters to Houston from Los Angeles, where it was founded over a… Read More...

THE WAY THINGS ARE-I’m not saying I’d be dead by now, or that e-cigarettes saved my life or anything. Not exactly. But those e-cigs do have something… READ MORE...

MAILANDER’S LA-On 8 May 2007, I fixed a margarita and pulled up a beach chair, and set it on the highest point of the lot, and watched the amazing… READ MORE...

THE VIEW FROM HERE-About two years ago I was contacted by a husband-and-wife team, Bayou Bennett and Daniel Lir, (see photo) from Dolce Films, a… READ MORE...

GELFAND’S WORLD-I'll make this short and to the point. Please ask the Republican leadership to stop weakening the United States in its foreign… READ MORE...

EL SERENO-Last August Billy Branch of El Sereno set up a Facebook page as part of his one-man campaign to get a buckled and broken section of sidewalk on Cudahy Street near Locke Avenue fixed up.  READ MORE...

THE VALLEY - The Valley Alliance of Neighborhood Councils (VANC) held its monthly meeting at the Sherman Oaks Hospital, complementing a full agenda with a few moments of celebration as the representatives of the 34 Neighborhood Councils in the San Fernando Valley honored VANC Founder and Sherman… READ MORE...

LA NC COALITION - The Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Coalition held its monthly meeting at the Hollywood City Hall and featured Board of Public Works Commission President Kevin James, who has long been a partner with LANCC and the many Neighborhood Councils that represent the four million people… READ MORE...

SILVER LAKE NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL - SilverLake Neighborhood Council got to experience a taste of mob democracy Wednesday night when an 8-8 tie vote failed to support a motion NOT to support the proposed gang injunction aimed at about three hundred members of six criminal street gangs along the… READ MORE...