LOS ANGELES

GELFAND’S WORLD--From a political standpoint, the Chinese are right to counterattack in the trade war by going after soybeans. That is a direct message to Trump supporters. (Darn! I was intending to write a piece without mentioning this particular president, and there I go right from the outset.)

ALPERN AT LARGE--SB 827--you know, the Wiener Bill from Sacramento that proposes ending city oversight over zoning and environmental law near rail lines, bus lines, bus stops, and anything resembling transit because, you know ... affordable housing and pro-transit and the homeless crisis, and all that.  Right? 

FIRST PERSON--Amy Wax.began dealing with- or if you will- stubbornly failing to deal with, what remains the intractable issue of racism in the United States, that continues unabated to negate any possibility of a more perfect and fully integrated union, we might now beatify a dead Martin Luther King 50 years after he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennesee, but I have no doubt that his life might be just as much- if not more- be in danger in a 2018 America as it was back in April 1968. 

NEW GEOGRAPHY-For much of the past century, Southern California has been driven by ever increasing population growth. That era has now ended as the region’s demographics stagnate, a trend that, according to the latest Census numbers, is, if anything, accelerating. This follows a distinct national trend, notes demographer Wendell Cox, where the largest metropolitan areas are losing domestic migrants and growing far more slowly than smaller, often less expensive regions.

EASTSIDER-Wow! This is far from the acquiescent Lincoln Heights Neighborhood Council I was part of back in the day, quietly controlled by USC’s David Galaviz as Council President. No sir, this NC and Community is spunky, calling out the bait and switch of Measure HHH, a so-called $1.2 billion dollar “Homeless” Measure. 

CAL BUZZ--According to the New York Times, “President Trump said on Tuesday that he planned to order the military to guard parts of the southern border until he can build a wall and tighten immigration restrictions, proposing a remarkable escalation of his efforts to crack down on migrants entering the country illegally.” In light of this, we offer here our report from February 2017 predicting exactly this.

SKID ROW, DTLA-For well over a decade, Downtown’s revitalization efforts, which include luxury housing, high-end hotels, and expensive bars and restaurants -- some with celebrity Top Chefs in their kitchens -- have been deemed a success in all places except Skid Row, aka, “the homeless capitol of America.” A map of development projects in DTLA looks like a well-glazed donut -- a whole lotta sweet stuff all around but Skid Row is stuck in the hole in the center with no donut and definitely no glaze! 

LA WATCHDOG--The Fire and Police Pension System had an unfunded liability of $3.3 billion in 2016.  So why did Mayor Eric Garcetti and the other four members of the Executive Employees Relations Committee (Councilmen Wesson, Englander, Kerkorian, and Koretz) make a decision behind closed doors in February of 2016 to ignore the recommendations of Miguel Santana, the City Administrative Officer, to terminate the very expensive Deferred Retirement Option Plan (“DROP”) that had cost the Pension System $1.6 billion since its inception in 2001? 

BELL VIEW-An assassin took the 39-year-old Martin Luther King 50 years ago this week. King came to Memphis to support a garbage-workers’ strike – the one where strikers carried signs proclaiming, "I AM A MAN" – a simple, seemingly uncontroversial message reminiscent of “Black Lives Matter.” 

For a man who cannot stop talking on Twitter about every single thought that pops into his head, Donald Trump's silence on the killing of Stephon Clark in Sacramento says all you need to know about how the President of the United States of America views the death of young black men. 

URBAN PERSPECTIVE--The tragic fatal shooting of  Stephon Clark has captured the nation’s attention and elevated the conversation around whether police can and should investigate themselves, especially when the public’s trust weighs in the balance.

TRANSIT TALK--Because I am a transit rider since 1992 in what is many times called a not-transit-rich Los Angeles, I am quite interested in this bill. I am a transit rider because I am worried about air pollution in the Los Angeles Basin which after years of improvement is now slipping backwards toward more polluted. With the Trump Administration and EPA Secretary Pruitt ready to gut mandatory vehicle mileage requirements it seems certain air pollution will now get worse.

GELFAND’S WORLD--This year, April Fools' Day was kind of a bust. There have been a few jokes including Jack Humphreville's March 29 column, but things have otherwise been kind of dry in the hoax biz. Perhaps this is because April 1 happened to coincide with Easter Sunday, but I suspect that the main reason has to do with the tsunami of fakery we've been getting drowned under since Trump started his run for the presidency. It's been a real life restaging of Lily Tomlin's famous old line, "No matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up." 

CAPITAL & MAIN REPORT--Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) invented shortages to justify using the troubled Aliso Canyon storage facility, the site of the October 2015 blowout that forced nearby residents from their homes for months, residents and lawmakers have charged. The blowout, caused by a ruptured well, sent more than 100,000 metric tons of natural gas into the atmosphere and resulted in a four-month-long leak.

BCK FILE--Since the #MeToo movement has taken hold in just about every workplace, from Hollywood and the hospitality industry to the Silicon Valley and government, just about all workplaces have been working to change policies to protect employees and shield employers from costly lawsuits. 

ALPERN AT LARGE--If this topic weren't so frequently raised by community and educational leaders, it wouldn't be so boring (and yet so timely).  We hear about the Millennials being so poorly prepared for the real world, and so unable to be independent, but it could be easily stated that theirs is a generation that is just extending a trend that has been occurring for decades.

WATER PITCH IS FROM FANTASYLAND--This time, “Chinatown” is fooling itself.

CORRUPTION WATCH-Although the Orange Buffoon suffers from a couple diagnosable personality disorders with episodes of paranoia, Donald Trump did not cause our problems. If Trump-a-Doodle and his shenanigans should disappear overnight, nothing would change. “The fault, Dear Brutus, is not in our (reality TV) stars, but, in ourselves….”Julius Caesar (I, ii, 140-141). 

@THE GUSS REPORT-The “free” in freedom of speechcan come with a costly price tag when those who exercise it mistakenly assume it is limitless and without repercussions. 

DEEGAN ON CALIFORNIA-Who will be honored? Will it be the beach boy (and girl) surfers, the board boy (and girl) skateboarders or even the snowboarders?Thousands of boys, girls, men and women in California and beyond enjoy all three sports.But which is the most reflective of California andworthy of being named the state’s official sport by the California Legislature? Hint: two of the three (surfing and skateboarding) will debut as Olympic sports at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. 

ALPERN AT LARGE--Credibility, intellectual honesty, and fairness aren't just big things that determine success in life … they're the ONLY things.  So while it's only fair to criticize both our Mayor and City Council when they lack those above qualities, it's also fair to praise them when they do things right.