LOS ANGELES

EDUCATION POLITICS--The Los Angeles Unified School District and some of the nation’s highest-performing charter schools are engaged in what one report has called a “game of chicken” – with the fate of 14 of these schools and their nearly 4,600 students hanging the balance. But that suggests this is about two parties engaged in dangerous brinksmanship. In fact, it is about charter schools finally standing up to teachers union’s bullying.

ALPERN AT LARGE--Time for us to admit the truth: if we're having to rely on preferred parking districts to access our homes or businesses, then somebody probably screwed up. 

AFFORDABLE HOUSING BATTLE-Nobody can argue that LA doesn't need Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH). (Photo above:  Star Apartments, PSH in Skid Row) The number of homeless people on the streets has skyrocketed and we have to address this crisis. The city's voters approved ballot measures H and HHH to fund the construction of PSH units, and United Neighborhoods for Los Angeles (UN4LA) agrees that it's time to take action. 

RANTZ AND RAVEZ-Another expensive audit recently released by the City Controller informed us all of what most of us already knew. The City of LA is not sweeping most of the streets in Los Angeles.  In fact, 66% of the city streets are being ignored and not swept at all. That means that only 34% of the streets are being swept by street sweeper machines operated by city crews on any type of a regular schedule. 

CORRUPTION WATCH-Trump sent out the world’s least charismatic person, Secretary of Treasury Stephen Mnuchin, to sell his tax plan and Mnuchin began in Los Angeles. Let’s remember that Mnuchin made a fortune by taking advantage of people’s misery. He is the guy who started a business to target elderly widows and evict them from their Reverse Mortgage homes. One 90-year old widow mistakenly underpaid her mortgage by 27 cents prompting her eviction. These business tactics are what Trump calls “smart”, much like his repeatedly going bankrupt to avoid paying his workers. 

BELL VIEW--Last night, my wife drew my attention to a discussion thread on a Facebook group for LA moms. One of the moms, while carpooling several kids to school, made a comment, which one of the kids pronounced “racist.” The comment appeared relatively innocuous, so the mom posted it on Facebook for a reaction. More than 500 comments later, the debate had devolved into a discussion about whether or not white people should just shut the hell up. 

GELFAND’S WORLD--We call on the City of Los Angeles to advertise the existence of Neighborhood Councils. They are the best kept secret in the city of Los Angeles. 

SUPER-MAJORITY HYPOCRISY-You know who doesn’t look so weird anymore? Vice President Mike Pence. When Pence told the Washington Post that he doesn’t dine alone with women, and never, ever attends an event solo if alcohol will be served, many gasped. He seemed like a too-tightly wrapped antihero from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. 

DEEGAN ON LA-Hauling empty tobacco barrels around in the back of a truck as a teen who didn’t make it through high school in tiny, rural Maxton (formerly called Shoe Heel), North Carolina during the Depression was the beginning.

GUEST WORDS--A UK study published on October 27, 2017 reported that the majority of politicians do not know where money comes from. According to City A.M. (London): 

BCK FILE--Since I last wrote about what seems to be an epidemic of sexual assault and harassment, we’ve watched numerous male actors come forward with accusations against actor Kevin Spacey who responded in social media to the first accuser with an apology for something he did not remember, washed by a coming out statement, which has brought ire from many in the LGBTQ community and others. Spacey has since been booted from Netflix, as well as his publicist and representative. 

CORRUPTION WATCH-Land Banking is a term that is new to Angelenos. The concept is simple: Wealthy people buy land rather than buy stocks or putting their money into a savings bank. They “bank” on the idea that the land value will rise faster than the stock market or interest on savings accounts. Land Banking was recently explained in a Canadian estate publication, Better Dwellings. 

ALPERN AT LARGE--I've said this so many times I feel like a broken record:  I can't stand conspiracy theories and theorists ... but I REALLY can't stand it when those theories and theorists are proven correct. (Photos above: Venice Blvd, left and Wilshire Blvd right.) 

@THE GUSS REPORT-Does the star-struck LAPD reserve its resources for celebrities rather than perform its duties evenly and for all? 

ANIMAL WATCH-Councilman Paul Koretz and his protégé, Councilman Bob Blumenfield (CD3), quietly introduced a motion on October 27 (CF 17-1237, Kennel / Delete Definition) in an apparent attempt to help Mayor Eric Garcetti, and LA Animal Services General Manager Brenda Barnette reach their "No Kill" goal. This latest plan would remove authority of Zoning and Code Enforcement over "kennels" in the LA Municipal Code and, along with the exemptions of the "new-model" pet shops, could permit an unlimited number of surplus impounded pets – likely, cats and Pit Bulls -- to be relocated in “rescues” in residential, as well as, commercial zones citywide. 

PERSPECTIVE-There is no such thing as tax reform, at least when it is framed within the same Byzantine template that has bedeviled taxpayers for generations. 

CAL MATTERS-That sigh you hear is Antonio Villaraigos’s relief that Eric Garcetti won’t be running for governor next year. 

EASTSIDER-The much awaited PLUM Committee meeting to finalize whatever they’re going to do with the Airbnb (Short Term Rental) Ordinance has been shrouded in a veil of secrecy and “moving the ball” hearing dates. Was it because they knew they couldn’t take action at the meeting? You tell me. 

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-It is not easy to remain “king of the hill” on a playground or even in the backrooms of City Hall.  But, to hold on to power, we have seen how desperate times require desperate measures. This is why the violent end of Occupy Los Angeles at City Hall’s front door marked the way for the defeat of Measure S, the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative, several years later.  

BELL VIEW--David Brooks took another crack at The Big Picture this week in his New York Times column. According to Mr. Brooks, America suffers from a species of political idolatry, where no one actually thinks about anything anymore, and we all just believe what our “party” tells us to believe. In Mr. Brooks’s America, the Left and the Right have each wrapped the warm blanket of tribal certainty around themselves, secure in the knowledge that “they’re wrong and we’re right.”   

GUEST COMMENTARY--Little about political contributions in California is hidden. Information is easily accessible at Cal-Access, a website run by California’s Secretary of State. For example, look here to see contributions to a special interest and then here for unfortunate consequences from political activity by that interest. There’s nothing dark about that money. Still, uninformed or lazy commentators all too often blame the state’s political problems on dark money*. But that’s not true.