LOS ANGELES

EDITOR’S PICK—(Editor’s Note: You can mix your castor oil with orange juice or vodka but it still makes you gag. The same can be said for corruption at Los Angeles City Hall. You can call it ‘soft corruption’ or ‘moral corruption’ or ‘business as usual’ but the gagging part doesn’t go away. As this guest column mentions, some try to blame pay-to-pay on outdated LA’s Community Plans. We’re not buying it. Taking money … in any form and by any circuitous process from developers whose projects you’re about to vote on is wrong. And, if it weren’t, it’s stupid and clearly demonstrates that you think the people of Los Angeles are fools. Austin Beutner … former member of the LA 2020 Commission … have some thoughts on how we can put a lid on this pay-to-play. It’s worth the 10 minutes it will take you to consider what he had to say.)

A mysterious developer bundles large sums of money from suspicious donors and contributes it to the campaigns of the mayor and several City Council members who then approve, over the unanimous objections of the City Planning Commission, City Hall staff and much of the surrounding community, a controversial real estate project called Sea Breeze. Tammany Hall circa 1870? A remake of “Chinatown”? How about Los Angeles City Hall in 2017.

Allegations of wrongdoing surround the Sea Breeze project are serious enough to spark an investigation by the Los Angeles County district attorney. While many of the allegations involve potential violations of campaign finance laws, what about the elephant in the corner of the room? How did Los Angeles become a place where monied developers can build whatever they want without regard to existing laws or the wishes of the community?

The math on Sea Breeze is simple. The developer’s land in LA’s Harbor Gateway neighborhood was worth about $17 million zoned for industrial use. He donated $600,000, got his land rezoned for residential use and, like magic, the next day it was worth $42 million. Most people have to drive to Morongo to try and turn $600,000 into a $25 million profit overnight.

Los Angeles’ outdated zoning rules and poor planning processes are at the root of this issue. State law requires cities to maintain general plans, which must be updated every five years. The Los Angeles General Plan includes 35 separate community plans that establish legal land-use parameters for the city’s neighborhoods, plus one each for the Port of Los Angeles and Los Angeles International Airport. Unfortunately, most of these community plans have not been updated in 20 years or more. Despite City Hall’s rhetoric about zoning reform and a vision for the future, the plans remain hopelessly out of date.

What happens when Los Angeles tries to move forward with outdated plans? Requests for “updates” — zoning and planning variances — land in the hands of the 15 City Council members. They more or less have the authority to ignore the old rules and decide what projects will be built in their districts, subject to sign-off by the mayor. No project of any consequence can move forward without these approvals.

This “spot-zoning” system gives those who can afford to fill campaign coffers outsized influence over the size, shape and location of new developments in the city, with average Angelenos left out of the backroom cycle of monied interests and City Hall politicians. Is it any wonder developers are the biggest donors to City Hall?

Why is the city gifting $25 million to the Sea Breeze developer and getting back nothing, save for the $600,000 in campaign contributions to a few politicians?

The city and county are raising sales tax rates for funds to address the issues of homelessness and transportation infrastructure in our community. Both issues need to be solved, and it will cost money. But why is so much of the burden falling on the working poor? Won’t property owners benefit from better transportation infrastructure to serve their buildings, and a community with fewer homeless people? Developers already have the benefit of the bargain in Los Angeles, as real estate here is taxed at rates meaningfully less than comparable property in New York.

Is what happened at Sea Breeze unlawful? That’s for the DA to decide. By any moral standard, it is wrong and it’s a terrible waste of economic opportunity for the city. Let’s assume the project should have been approved on its merits and had the support of the community. We know the developer would have paid the City at least $600,000 to get Sea Breeze approved, same as what he gave to the politicians. But he still walked away with $24.4 million in profit, all due to the stroke of a pen in City Hall. Seems pretty obvious the city could get a better deal.

The solution to this:

• Update the city’s community plans. The city should embark on a serious effort to make sure its plans reflect the needs of a city of the future and the input of the community. This will greatly reduce the casino atmosphere in City Hall.
• Restrict the ability of developers to buy favors from City Hall. Several years ago, the Securities and Exchange Commission imposed strict limits on how Wall Street firms and their employees, family members and agents could contribute to city and state politics. L.A. should adopt the same rules and apply them to developers.
• Get a better deal from developers. The city should implement a program to capture for public coffers some portion of the value from the “up-zoning” on large, new projects. This will provide funds to address high-priority needs like homelessness and transportation infrastructure.

The Sea Breeze project and others like it should be a wake-up call. We deserve a transparent and equitable way for land-use decisions to be made in our community. And we deserve to see the benefits reinvested in city services and public infrastructure, not just the pockets of developers and their elected friends.

(Austin Beutner Founder and Chairman of Vision To Learn and former member of the LA 2020 Commission. This perspective was posted earlier at Huff Post.) 

-cw

CORRUPTION WATCH-The reason Los Angeles housing prices are outrageously high will never published by the LA Weekly, the LA Times or any other news outlet. You can be sure you will never hear it from KNBC’s Channel 4's Conan Nolan, Garcetti’s sycophant extraordinaire. Los Angeles residential real estate does not sell for its value as Living Space but rather for the hyped-up value as a Speculative Investment. The result is that Los Angeles homeowners pay a huge Corruption Tax. 

In 2006, Gail Goldberg, then LA’s Director of Planning, warned Eric Garcetti against allowing developers to buy the zoning they wanted rather than allowing the law to set the rules. Eric Garcetti completely ignored Director Goldberg. 

A developer knows he can buy five R-1 homes and then “bribe” for then to be up-zoned to multi-family, allowing him to build 30 to 60 apartments. Sure, he may have to pay an additional $10,000 to $25,000 to Mayor Garcetti’s Fund and kick down some more favors to the councilmember, but in Los Angeles, the developer, and not the law, sets the zoning for land. 

The Need for Families to Park Their Wealth 

If you’re a Family Millennial, you are looking for somewhere to “park” your wealth. Part of everyone’s income needs to be set aside and not consumed for day to day expenses. The question is, where to park one’s income? 

The Pros of Cons of Traditional Places to Park Your Wealth 

Bank accounts do not pay enough interest to make them a good place to park savings long-term. Stocks do well, but in a market rigged for the high-end traders, it’s a serious risk. In the Crash of 2008, some once “ultra-safe” stocks like Hartford Insurance lost over 90% of their value. Whole life insurance can be a very safe place to park cash, provided you deal with an insurance company that is admitted to do business in New York State. If one does not prematurely die, Whole Life Insurance will have accumulated considerable cash value by retirement time and that can become a safeguard in old age. Millions of Americans, however, park most their money in their homes. 

Traditionally, home values tend to increase over time, at least enough to keep up with inflation. The mortgages are usually paid off before retirement, which means seniors can live “rent free” except for property taxes and special assessments. In 1950, the average age to get married was 22.8 years old for men and 20.3 for women. By the year 2000, those ages had increased to 26.8 for males and 25.1 for females. After the Crash of 2008, the age at which the young started families increased to 29 for males and 27 for females (2013 data.) These figures are important because they show that people are starting families and their economic planning about seven years later than the Baby Boomers did. That leaves them less time to accumulate income for old age. 

While typical Baby Boomers will have paid off their 30-year mortgages when they are in their early fifties, most of today’s Millennials will be in their late 50s or early 60s when they finish their mortgage payments. 

When Baby Boomers, many of whom are about to retire, originally put into their homes, it was based on the homes’ value as Living Space. Now, in areas like Los Angeles, the prices of new homes are no longer based on Living Space value but on the Speculative Value to a developer. This is one facet of the disaster which Gail Goldberg foresaw. When developers can just purchase the zoning they want, they know that buying in an R-1 or R-2 area is cheaper than buying into areas which already have been up-zoned. Thus, it makes sense to buy-up detached homes. Their payments to the Mayor’s Fund and to the councilmembers will achieve whatever up-zoning the developer needs. 

In a City not based on corruption, developers would know that zoning sets the property’s use; they would not even try to buy R-1 properties. Had Garcetti heeded Gail Goldberg, today’s families could afford to purchase homes based on their value as Living Space. 

Los Angeles’ Millennial Family has to compete against developers who will bid up the price of a detached home based on its Speculative Value. Even if the family could outbid a developer today, it has to realize that tomorrow another developer can come along and buy up five or ten nearby homes and, after contributing to Garcetti’s Mayor Fund, be able to have the land up-zoned for a four-story condo project overlooking that family’s backyard. 

Residences Purchased on their Speculative Value Result in a Crash 

As more Family Millennials re-locate away from Los Angeles, reality begins to sneak into the housing market. There are fewer people to rent these new apartments or buy those new condos in the sky. 

The birth rate of the Millennials peaked twenty-five years ago. Thus, each year there will be fewer young Millennials moving into dense urban areas. While Los Angeles’ birth rate is currently high enough to out-pace deaths and the flight of the Family Millennials, LA’s birth rate is still dropping. (This is inevitable since the Family Millennials leaving are in the child-bearing age range.) 

Why Economists Fear “Corruptionism” 

There are two types of inflation: There is the normal slow upwards creep of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Since it is slow, people can adjust to a creeping rise in consumer prices and employers can afford to pay their employees a little more so that, over all, the system remains in equilibrium. 

But Los Angeles experiences another type of inflation in the form “corruptionism” which introduces hyper-inflation into the housing market. As we have pointed out, a combination of destroying the homes of poor people and the re-valuation of residential properties for their Speculative Value have resulted in a huge increase in the cost of LA housing – an increase which reflects no increase in actual value. The housing market is based on Speculation, so rents increase in response to price increases based on that Speculation. But employers cannot afford to pay higher wages just because their employees are over paying for mortgages and rents. When housing costs jump 7% in one year, no employer can increase all his employees’ salaries by 7%.   

The increase of housing costs does not reflect an increase in the actual value of these properties as living spaces. A three-bedroom craftsman built in 1920 is not worth any more as Living Space today than it was in 1920, 1960 or 1970. Yet, when one looks at the current mortgages, one sees a monthly mortgage of about $4,000/month on a $900,000 home. Adjusted for inflation, the monthly mortgage in 2017 based on Living Space should be less than $2,000. 

Angeleno Homeowners and Renters Pay a Monthly Corruption Tax 

That means the homeowner or renter is paying over $2,000/month as a “corruption tax.” That is the amount an LA family has to pay to the bank over and above the increase of the CPI. That extra mortgage money paid each month represents no additional value to the property.   

Suppose all the money the homeowner paid in LA Corruption Tax had been invested in the stock market. Let’s be very conservative and assume that the corruption tax is only $10,000 per year. If that money had been invested in 2009, it would show a rate return of 14.315% (not adjusted for CPI inflation.) In other words, a $10,000 stock market investment in 2009 has become $14,315. In ten years, the homeowner would have an extra $140,000! 

We can all figure out our own Corruption Tax rate and how much money we would have if we had been able to invest that money in the stock market. 

Of course, we will all face the financial nightmare when corruption in the housing market again brings down the rest of the economy. That is likely to wipe out stock portfolios as well. The irony is that the closer we get to a crash, the more we should park money in insured federal bank deposits. Unlike equity in a home or stocks, those dollars do not disappear in a crash. In other words, an increase in insured savings is a hedge against the next crash. 

As Keynes knew, liquidity of capital is important to the individual. When the crash starts, you cannot get cash from your non-liquid assets fast enough to save yourself. Thus, money in government insured bank deposits can save a middle class family. But first, that family cannot have parked all its wealth in its home. The only way to avoid that financial trap is to buy a home in states like Texas or Utah or Georgia or Colorado. That way a family does not pay the LA Corruption Tax and has enough money to diversity its investments.

(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.) Cartoon: LA Times. Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

ALPERN AT LARGE--We just saw a huge (yuuuuge?) turnout in Downtown LA (and throughout the nation) to let our new President know he was on notice to represent all citizens and constituencies of our nation.  So why does our City Council get away with treating ITS citizens and constituencies like lower life forms?   

Measure S allows us to have our own local turnout to serve the Mayor and the City Council that THEY, like our new President, is on notice to represent ALL of us. 

The LA Downtown Establishment, the Planning Politburo, the Developer Elites, and the Density Hawks are all ready to send us straight to an unlivable, environmentally-nightmarish, and family-unfriendly City of Los Angeles. 

Oh, those pesky taxpayers and ratepayers.  Give us an LADWP Ratepayer Bill of Rights while overcharging us in order to indirectly get that illicit cash to the City of Los Angeles General Budget! 

Talk to us about raising taxes while spending our taxes poorly and hurting us with initiatives that don't fulfill the intentions of those tax hikes. 

Supposedly, the upcoming Measure S "befuddles" candidates--and 10 out of 14 sitting City Councilmembers and our Mayor have come out against Measure S. 

And developers are "howling" over an end to spot zoning of oversized projects, while they KNOW DAMN WELL they could build aplenty along our major commercial corridors an ocean of 2-4 story livable projects with sufficient affordable housing and parking and infrastructure mitigations to the community.  

Unfortunately our "anti-Trump" "progressive" City Council only backs down when the taxpaying, voting citizens of our City raise a hoopla--like Paul Koretz did when developer Rick Caruso tried to ram an oversized project into the Beverly Center area. 

And now our LA Times, which has supported overdevelopment (to hell with true environmental and sustainable development!) as "progress" for years suddenly comes up with the idea of banning developer contributions to City Hall ... 

... because the Times, the Downtown Elites, and the Planning Politburo know that the process is rigged, favoring big money and sending the taxpayers of our City straight to hell.  We can scream and be ignored. 

• Until Measure S became a reality.
• Homeless advocates:  For Measure S.
• Affordable housing advocates:  For Measure S.
• Environmental advocates:  For Measure S.
• Neighborhood advocates:  For Measure S. 

Measure S is NOT cruel.  It demands that City Hall and the Planning Department obey its own laws, and that they cannot thwart the rule of law and the laws of physics to support oversized development "for the greater good" or "for overriding considerations" of whatever nonsensical tripe that can be thrown into the faces of the rest of us...who have to obey and uphold the law! 

We CAN make more affordable housing.  We CAN obey the law.  We CAN create livable and environmentally-sustainable neighborhoods. 

And the City of Los Angeles can learn to represent us and obey the laws.  It's a doggone pity it had to take Measure S to do it, but at this point it's the only chance we have to ensure that City Hall represents its own constituents and obey its laws. 

Vote YES on Measure S, and reclaim the City of Los Angeles as YOUR city, too!

(Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D. is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties.  He is also a Westside Village Zone Director and Board member of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Planning and Outreach Committees, and currently is Co-Chair of its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11Transportation Advisory Committee and chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at  [email protected]. He also co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at www.fogl.us. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.) 

-cw

GELFAND’S WORLD-Los Angeles Times journalists were forbidden by their management to attend Saturday's enormous demonstration against racism and misogyny. Presumably this edict did not apply to reporters who were assigned to the story, but it did ban everyone else on the staff. Normal people who haven't attended journalism school may find this a bit incomprehensible. If the KKK were marching through Silverlake, would Times employees who live there be forbidden from standing on the sidewalk and jeering? Apparently they would be. 

I would like to suggest that the Times action, although based on an old and honored principle, went too far. I would also like to suggest that the whole underlying philosophical structure that supports this sort of ruling needs to be reassessed because it is causing modern newspaper journalism to fail us. 

What is that underlying principle? The Times management used that old term objectivity to explain their reasoning. You can read about it in Kevin Roderick's piece from LA Observed in which Times representative Marc Duvoisin wrote: 

"The Women’s March on Washington and related events in Los Angeles and around the country will take place Saturday, and a number of newsroom staffers have asked if it is OK for them to participate. 

"In keeping with the LA Times’ long-standing ethics guidelines, the answer is no. Times journalists who are not covering these events should not participate in them. 

"Under our ethics guidelines, we are all obliged to refrain from public expressions of our personal political views, in order to safeguard The Times’ objectivity in fact as well as appearance." 

The idea seems to be that newspapers like the Times feel the need to be seen as honest and honorable to a fault. On a big city daily newspaper, no reporter should bring a personal interest, either emotional or financial, to an investigation, as that direction leads to biased stories. Everybody is supposed to be the reincarnation of Detective Joe Friday from Dragnet: "All we want are the facts, ma'am." 

At the level of simple facts, there is a lot to be said for journalistic objectivity. It's important to avoid printing that Joe Smith was arrested for DUI when it was, in fact, Joe Jones. It is important to quote people accurately and to avoid making accusations without careful fact checking. 

This approach to journalistic care evolved over time. By the time I started writing for The American Reporter, the editor explained to me that before I could report that someone had likely committed a crime, it was my duty to give that person a call. Even in the most obvious cases, it was my responsibility to give the subject a chance to defend himself. The rule goes wider than this, basically to all disputes, both criminal and civil. If you accuse Jones of hitting Smith, then you have to give Jones a chance to respond. 

That's an aspect of so-called objective journalism that is defensible. Our criminal justice system guarantees the right to respond to accusations. There is no reason that journalism should be less careful. 

There is a problem though. Not everyone is honest. Some people being interviewed are not credible. Some responses are grossly illogical and some are clearly and obviously contrary to facts. 

For example, the problem comes to a head when people arguing against the science of vaccination use grossly inaccurate allegations knitted together with illogic. Up until a couple of years ago, reporters took statements from both sides of the vaccine argument and treated them more or less equally. The story would be balanced in terms of pros and cons, even though there is a mass of evidence (and a mass of expert opinion) that vastly tends towards one side rather than the other. Out of this, the defenders of science have developed the term "false balance" to describe the old fashioned (and lazy) way that such stories used to be handled. 

When it comes to journalism, politics can be a lot more difficult to write than science, because politics allows for value judgments. Opposing candidates may disagree on tax policy without necessarily doing damage to the facts. One candidate believes in spending tax dollars on public services while the other believes in protecting taxpayers from rate increases. 

So far so good. Objective journalism calls for providing the statements of both candidates, as opposed to presenting the words of the person you like better or, alternately, glorifying the person who is going to hire your nephew when he gets elected. 

Now listen very closely. That system is fine, but it's based on a world in which big city daily newspapers had a lot of clout. They helped get people elected and once in a while they helped get somebody defeated or even sent to prison. It was considered OK to send somebody to prison by exposing the facts, and not OK to try to send somebody to prison using a lot of made-up lies. 

But we're in a different world. The Los Angeles Times is competing with Fox News and the National Enquirer. They are mostly not competing for advertisers but they are competing for an audience and, critically important, they are competing in trying to present their particular world views. 

Let's consider the assertion that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. The story had supporters in the tabloids and in snarky remarks made on Fox News. According to the old tenets of objective journalism, a newspaper like the Times would be careful to review the facts, provide documents and statements made to reporters, and treat the issue as done as of that point. 

Meanwhile, the big lie was circulated and repeated on a thousand talk radio stations and by the tabloids and Fox News. 

And this is where the big city dailies have failed us. At a certain point, the assertions of the birthers (as they were called) became the story. The misstatements and illogical assertions that made up birtherism had been debunked -- they were not taken seriously by logical thinkers -- but the liars kept lying and the big lie continued to circulate. 

The real story was the violation done to journalism itself in the interest of a nasty form of partisan politics. The dailies treated this national big lie as outside of the boundaries of the objective journalism they were willing to engage in. 

There is another point of view developing. Talking Points Memo refers us to a speech given by a journalist named Dan Gillmore. Speaking to an international group in Barcelona, he argued that journalists must become activists. The full text of his speech is fairly long, but the gist is that freedom of the press and of speech are in jeopardy, and journalists have to defend them. Gillmor argues that journalists need to be activists. 

The Gillmor speech and the actions of the LA Times are directly contradictory. Gillmor presents a model of journalists as critical thinkers who work to unearth the facts and to present them while in all cases maintaining their own integrity and self respect. Journalists are expected to have principles of their own and to directly defend the principles that deal with educating the public as to the real facts. 

It's a little hard to take that heroic view of journalism as a profession and as a calling, and then explain to your staff that they can't even make a personal statement against bigotry. The vision of the newspaper employee as political eunuch comes to mind. 

The Times ban against participating in a demonstration meant to defend personal and reproductive freedom is just one symptom of the problem. 

The right wing has a giant apparatus determined to destroy the ability of the newspapers to teach what is true. That's why the right wingers constantly refer to liberal bias in newspapers. They feel the need to tear down legitimate news in order to get away with the lies they tell. 

The newspapers sort of respond -- not by embracing the idea of a healthy and constructive liberalism or even a healthy and constructive conservatism -- but by denying that any staff member suffers anything close to a political thought. 

Meanwhile, the right wing opposition is nothing but political, and revels in it. 

Until the big city newspapers recognize that they are in a fight not only for advertising dollars but for defining peoples' world view, they are on the losing side. 

The old joke is that reality has a liberal bias. It came out of the recognition that conservatism has denied such straightforward truths as evolution and global warming. 

To newspapers I say, why not embrace your bias towards real truth and allow your stories to bring out the fact that Trump's staff are lying outright to the public? 

I think we can see some of that attitude coming out in the online community. It's only been three days since the inauguration, and the amazing propensity of Trump spokesmen such as Sean Spicer and Kellyanne Conway to lie brazenly is becoming a bigger story than the substance of what they are actually saying. 

Conway has already coined the phrase that may ultimately be best remembered from the Trump years, alternative facts. Here we are, less than a week into Trump's first term (OK, just wanted to see if you were listening) and Conway has already created her own version of Hiking the Appalachian Trail. Who knows what she'll create in week number two? 

It's time that the so-called objective sources including the Times take up the real story, the objective fact that the right wing leadership has made it a practice of telling lies chronically and without moral concern. Conway's defense of "alternative facts" should be the only clue we need. 

It should be perfectly acceptable for a political story to make clear that a politician lied to the reporter. More importantly, it should be the obligation of legitimate news sources such as the Times to develop an ongoing storyline about how the right wing outlets such as Fox are misrepresenting the facts and misleading the public.

(Bob Gelfand writes on science, culture, and politics for CityWatch. He can be reached at [email protected]) 

-cw

ANIMAL WATCH-Priscilla Romero, a beloved and respected ten-year veteran Animal Care Technician (ACT) at LAAS North Central shelter, credits the heroic and selfless efforts of her coworkers with saving her life when she was viciously attacked by a Pit Bull on January 14. Without hesitation, they ran to her rescue, risking their own safety -- knowing they could also become victims. 

The following is how Priscilla remembers this horrific event from her hospital bed, augmented by the emotional memories of shelter employees who were on duty that morning. 

As is customary on Saturday mornings, there had been early visitors in the kennels looking at dogs for adoption or searching for lost pets. However, by around 10:30 a.m. members of the public walking in the kennels had diminished, leaving no one in the immediate area to hear Priscilla’s screams for help. 

Priscilla entered a kennel at the back of the shelter which housed a female grey-and-white Pit Bull, named Cielo. She tried to isolate the dog in a separate area, but the mechanism to keep the metal gate lowered and in place was defective (as are many in the shelter, according to employees.) Since the dog seemed calm and was standing quietly near her, Priscilla scooped the feces from the floor and reached for the hose to wash the kennel.

Without warning, the Pit Bull lunged at her, clamping onto her right arm, disabling her from reaching her holstered radio to call for help and pulling her to the floor. The dog then attacked her left arm, tearing out large chunks of flesh and muscle. 

Because of the loud barking of dogs alarmed by the attack, Priscilla's screams could not be heard at the front of the shelter where most other staff was working. Fortunately, two male ACT's were approaching the area at that time. They heard her cries and saw her covered in blood, struggling on the floor as the dog relentlessly bit and shredded her arm.

As they ran to her, one made a radio "distress" call for assistance. Other ACT’s and the Kennel Supervisor immediately rushed to help, calling 911 and bringing a "catch" pole. The first ACT's were trying unsuccessfully to physically separate the dog from Priscilla, but it kept circling back to attack her and charge them. The Supervisor then arrived with another employee and used the pole to capture the dog. 

Seeing blood flowing profusely from Priscilla's upper left arm, Kennel Supervisor Garens Lloyd quickly used a dog leash to create a tourniquet and apply it tightly above her wounds. Two male ACT's removed their shirts and covered her arms to soak up the blood and also, so she would not see the severity of the attack. 

Paramedics arrived shortly and commended Garens for his quick action. The doctor later said the tourniquet was done perfectly. One fireman commented that Priscilla’s injuries looked like a "shark attack."

Priscilla was admitted to the hospital in critical condition. She underwent emergency surgery that lasted over five hours. Both arms are bandaged from her fingers to her shoulders. From photos, it appears her entire left biceps are gone. She was hospitalized for six days and may need numerous reconstructive surgeries. 

Where was Brenda Barnette? 

No one from LAAS management visited Priscilla at the hospital, although shelter employees from the Valley to the Harbor came. GM Brenda Barnette called Priscilla’s cell phone the day after the attack, saying, “I’m checking in to see how you're doing” and left a short, awkward, dispassionate message, which did not include "I’m sorry this happened to you." 

Brenda Barnette doesn't seem to think employee injuries are serious incidents. At the last LA Animal Services Commission Meeting on January 10, GM Barnette laughed as she described the injury to an LA Animal Services Officer attacked by an aggressive Pit Bull while responding to a call. She laughed again as she announced a second injury when the officer was later attacked by a 160-pound dog and had to fight for his life. This is not the first time GM Barnette -- who has no animal control experience--chuckled about an employee being attacked in the shelter or field. 

LAAS Commission, Council and Mayor Also Ignore Dangers to Employees 

The Commission, which heads LA Animal Services, has never questioned Barnette's inappropriate reaction and dismissal of the dangers to her employees. Neither has the Commission, Councilman Paul Koretz, the SEIU union, nor the Mayor's office insisted that corrections be made to many documented safety hazards at LAAS shelters or that faulty field equipment be repaired or replaced. LAAS  employees are still driving 2001 and 2003 trucks that LA City's Director of Fleet Services, Richard Coulson reported to Koretz’ PAW Committee in Sept. 2015 were “falling apart."  

Another example of faulty equipment and poor management was the attack on a night-shift female Animal Control Officer, who responded to a call about two attacking Pit Bulls in Eagle Rock. The ACO captured one of the 90-lb. dogs (later identified as American Bulldogs) but the other bit her leg and wrist causing serious bleeding. There was no ACO back-up on night shift, her radio emergency button “went nowhere,” and no one answered the shelter phone. Luckily, a witness called 911. 

Attacks by Pit Bulls Available for Adoption 

There are frequent reports of attacks by dogs with a recorded history of aggression adopted from LA City shelters, and numerous tearful accounts of pets being almost instantly attacked or killed. There is also a history of incidents involving humans: 

"Cielo" 

Cielo, the female Pit Bull that attacked ACT Priscilla Romero had two prior entries regarding aggression. Also, she was surrendered on Oct. 16, 2016, because she attacked other dogs. Still, she was being offered for adoption to the public. Since the real world is filled with “other dogs,” why isn’t known background information clearly described on a kennel card for prospective adopters to read?  

On Oct. 27, ACT Romero wrote that the dog bit her finger, but didn’t break the skin. On Nov. 12 another ACT noted, "BE CAUTIOUS OF THIS DOG---DOG WILL GROWL, BARE TEETH AND TRIES TO BITE AS I’M TRYING TO OPEN THE KENNEL DOOR TO PICK UP EMPTY FOOD BOWL." Wouldn’t you want to know this before taking the dog home? 

Keeping behavioral records in the computer only is unfair to employees, who do not have time to check each dog for new information every day. There is no method at LAAS kennels to discover that a new negative behavioral warning has been entered, as at other shelters. Could this be because euthanizing dangerous animals would belie Brenda Barnette’s and Best Friends’ “no kill” claims? 

“Albert” 

On Oct. 23, 2015, a stray blue-and-white male Pit Bull was impounded at the West LA shelter and named "Albert." On August 11, 2016, a man saw Albert and wanted to test his reaction to his daughter before adopting him. Albert seriously bit and injured the 8-year-old child, “… during an introduction to the family in the shelter’s play yard." A critical incident report filing was made. 

A Jan. 14, 2016, note on Albert predicted problems: “This dog is an escape artist….I would use caution around this dog, requires a very strong handler. WILL BITE WHEN IN KENNEL.” Why was Albert offered eight months later to a family with a child? 

On Aug. 30, 2016 -- nineteen days after that attack -- Albert was still at the WLA shelter, with the comment, “No owner information, no interested parties, no networking being done on Albert. Euthanasia scheduled.” Why was Albert still available for release to anyone after a critical attack on a child? And why are taxpayers paying for these prolonged stays for unadoptable animals? 

“Sammy” 

On  April 28, 2016, a Pit Bull surrendered as “Sodam” (renamed “Sammy”) with-a-violent-history of repeated-aggression, and who had just bitten an LAAS kennel worker in the abdomen, was released to NovaStar Rescue at the personal instruction of LA Animal Services GM Brenda Barnette.

However, the Hayden Bill does not require the release of surrendered animals to rescues. 

On May 15, 2016, LA Fire Department and LAPD responded to an unkempt home near downtown LA at approximately 9 p.m., where a Pit Bull was attacking a woman who “was visiting dog to determine if she wants to adopt from the rescue who had been fostering the dog.” That dog was later identified by LA Animal Services as Impound #1608123, “Sammy.” 

Sammy was alive but had been stabbed 19 times by a neighbor who heard the victim screaming.

Warehousing Aggressive Pit Bulls 

LAAS employees have expressed on-going concerns about prolonged warehousing of, especially, Pit Bulls, in the City's six shelters, where confinement and isolation increases the animals' hopelessness, frustration and aggression. Many of the Pit Bulls shown on the LAAS site have been caged for months or over a year. Why? These dogs are miserable. They are not adoptable and they take up space that could allow dozens of dogs to find new homes during that same period.

Nothing in California law requires dogs that have exhibited aggressive or dangerous behavior to be offered for adoption to individuals or families where they may attack/kill humans or other pets. But Brenda and Best Friends are determined to reach a metric called "no kill." If the dogs die from injuries or illness, they are not counted in the shelter's euthanasia stats. 

Are dog attacks just "business as usual" at LA Animal Services? 

Here is an email to Mayor Garcetti by an employee who was present when ACT Priscilla Romero was attacked. Although the writer’s name has been removed, the despair obviously is beyond caring about retaliation. This feeling is increasingly permeating Los Angeles Animal Services: 

Date: January 14, 2017 at 12:04:24 PM PST
To: [email protected]
Subject: Dog mauling city employee 

            You have a serious problem within Animal Services starting and ending with Brenda [Barnette]. An hour ago a fellow employee was wheeled into the medical room, in shock, with a tourniquet on her left arm, pale as a ghost, and with tissue strewn across her chest. Employees also in shock, some crying.  Paramedics responded quickly and rushed her to the hospital.  

            The lack of response of your office, the negligence, and the dereliction that starts as your responsibility is atrocious. You should be ashamed, as this person is a friend and a good employee. Our response from our AGM after being notified and asked to temporarily close the shelter, was that 'dog bites happen all the time.' To be clear there are dog bites, and I've bandaged them, but this was a mauling. 

            This mauling, as most are now a days, was predictable. You the mayor, with the goal of "save them all" have increased and, in fact, demanded that the nature of employee's being attacked, is acceptable. Our kennels are full, dogs are in inappropriate cages, aggressive dogs are held perpetually until our statistics show that we euthanized one less dog than last year.  

            Our general manager isn't here. Why not? If I firefighter was injured on duty, or an officer shot, would the commander tell them "buck up, it's a function of your job, get back to work?" Or would they show leadership and understanding and go to the hospital to personally show their condolences. 

            This department is ridiculous and it's happening under your auspices. This time around I imagine the city will be sued, as this dog has previous memos of its aggressive nature and was otherwise placed in a public area.

(Signed by employee)

I'm sorry if this is bad form, but I'm slightly traumatized by this as well.

Time for a Grand Jury Investigation 

It is time for a grand jury to investigate why “no kill” is more important to the Mayor, Council and Brenda Barnette than protecting humans, ensuring the welfare of employees like Priscilla Romero, and safeguarding children and pets from aggressive/fighting-breed dogs. It also needs to determine the total cost of "no kill" to taxpayers. 

A grand jury should audit how much money is being contributed to LA City political campaigns and/or elected office-holders’ charitable accounts by all humane organizations (including their for-profit and non-profit affiliates/partners) which have programs or contracts with Los Angeles Animal Services and which demand/encourage the very inhumane "no kill" agenda. 

The focus of that myopic agenda necessitates the warehousing of aggressive/fighting dogs and other animals in city shelters despite documented evidence that they pose a safety hazard to employees and the public.  

"No kill" garners big donations from those who don't understand the suffering of these caged animals. It is time to acknowledge the misery and dissect the underlying financial motivation. 

(Phyllis M. Daugherty is a former City of LA employee and a contributor to CityWatch.) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

FIRST PERSON REPORT--On the Saturday following the Inauguration, I joined three-quarters of a million women, men, and children gathered in downtown Los Angeles in what would be the largest women’s march in the world. The crowd represented both experienced and newly minted activists. Perhaps some had originally joined for what my kids refer to as “FOMO” or fear of missing out, snapping selfies in front of colorful signage. For others, being part of something bigger quelled the fears and anxieties that had surfaced on November 8^th. With hope, everyone who participated (and those who followed from their living rooms) will feel empowered to continue activist efforts to protect rights at risk and the future of the planet. 

Helen Reddy’s a capella rendition of her feminist anthem, “I Am Woman,” spoke to those of us who are old enough to remember the seventies. Women, like one in a clip broadcast on the side of a media trailer, never believed they’d be marching again for battles fought decades ago. As I stood near the staging later in the day, I overheard a college student explain to a new friend that she had stumbled into the march– but “I’m also a feminist, you know.” If we’ve become complacent about defending our rights, this election and what’s at stake may serve as a wake-up call for those of us who have been politically active, as well as those who are new to the experience. 

The mission of the Official Women’s March Los Angeles was to “stand together in solidarity for the protection of our rights, our safety, our health, and our families – recognizing that our vibrant and diverse communities are the strength of our country” and in support of “the advocacy and resistance movements that reflect our multiple and intersecting identities.” In many ways, the crowds that gathered downtown represent the diversity that makes our city so special, unified to defend the rights of all. 

As many of the speakers at the event expressed to the crowd, it’s crucial to stay organized, not only for one day. Actress and activist Christine Lahti added, “If you don’t know what choice to make, make one that helps someone else, through city council, your neighborhoods, working on ordinances.” This is just the first step.

• For more pix on ‘sister’ Women’s Marches around the country and the world. 

(Beth Cone Kramer is a Los Angeles writer and a columnist for CityWatch.)

-cw

IMPRESSIONS--The Saturday, Jan. 21 Women’s March in Downtown Los Angeles against the incoming Trump Administration was one of hundreds of similar marches across the United States and in other countries. (Photo above: Marchers on Grand Avenue in Downtown LA, one of many packed streets.) 

Occidental College political scientist Peter Dreir has calculated that the total for all demonstrations in the United States exceed 4,000,000 people. He also wrote that the final tally could be higher once more reliable counts are collected. For instance, in Los Angeles, ABC news, as well as the march organizers, estimated there were 750,000 people in total, while the New York Times reported 100,000, even lower than the LAPD’s estimate. Having been at both, I think this march was comparable in size to the immigrant rights march of 2006, which had 500,000 people. 

With such a mammoth event, many people never arrived on time, or at all, because METRO’s busses and subways were overwhelmed, with waits of two hours in North Hollywood to take the Red Line. Others followed from home through traditional media and social media. 

As an eyewitness, these are my other impressions, beyond the unexpected size of the event: 

• Nearly all signs were made at home, with hardly any handed out at the event itself by organizers or other supportive groups. 

• Domestic issues prevailed. The messages of these homemade signs were focused on domestic issues such as opposition to all types sexism, bigotry, racism, and nativism. They also included opposition to mass deportations, erosion of health care, and violations of civil liberties, as well as the need to combat fascist trends through more enormous street actions. 

• Foreign policy issues ignored. Media and Democratic Party finger pointing at Russia and Vladimir Putin did not gain any traction with the demonstrators. During the entire march, among the tens of thousands of signs that swept by me, I only saw two that mentioned Russia or Putin. Clearly this highly charged dispute within the foreign policy establishment over US-Russian relations did not motivate 750,000 people to walk the streets of downtown LA for this anti-Trump Women’s March. 

• Diversity: Those attending were of all ages. They ranged from babies to the elderly. On the east coast, I even heard a personal story of a 93-year-old woman who attended her first demonstration and loved it. Despite being called a Women’s March, there were also lots of men, but Latinos, Asians, and African-Americans were under-represented. If they were there in proportion to those who voted by Hillary Clinton or Jill Stein in the November election, there would have easily been over 1,000,000 demonstrators. 

• Missing: During four hours at this march, we did not see anyone from the LAPD, LADOT traffic control officers, or the media. On the various approach routes, there were many LAFD trucks, but otherwise it was just waves of marchers, in some cases mixing with snarled traffic. According to news reports, a few public officials spoke at Pershing Square and City Hall, including Mayor Eric Garcetti. Apparently Hizzoner was unaware of the irony of a mayor whose administration is in total collusion with Big Real Estate through pay-to-play protesting a President whose cabinet represents total collusion between Big Business and the federal government. 

• Insufficient planning: The organizers, working with City departments, expected 80,000 to 100,000 people, but downtown LA’s streets were overwhelmed with much greater numbers. The demonstrators had to compete with traffic on streets like Grand until sheer numbers imposed total gridlock. At Red and Purple line subway stations, there were hardly any METRO employees to help those new to transit navigate the ticketing systems and entrances. At bus stops METRO had not posted alternative routes and times because of the march. To METRO’s credit, though, bus drivers were extremely helpful in getting demonstrators into and out of the downtown 

• What next? The tiny fraction of demonstrators who heard speeches or got handouts at Pershing Square or City Hall might have been give direction for next steps, but the vast majority of those who made it to downtown LA left in quandary over what comes next, despite their feel-good day. There are so many ways, though, for them to be engaged, including those I outlined in a previous City Watch article on climate issues, that anyone who so desires can find a vast array of local projects to help with, such as immigrant rights, environmental-justice, or the expected military conflicts either in the works or to be blundered into by the new administration.

(Dick Platkin is former LA City planner who recently taught courses on sustainable city planning at USC and CSUN. He is also a former union officer, who worked hard to create labor-neighbor alliances in Los Angeles. Please send corrections or comments to [email protected].)

-cw

BUTCHER ON LA-Let me tell you a little bit about CityWatch. Before it was CityWatchLA, it was CharterWatch. Mark Siegel kept us all updated throughout those twenty-two tedious months we affectionately think of as “charter reform” back at the turn of the millennium. Ken Draper and the Neighborhood Councils took over and remade it as a “voice of the neighborhoods” after the new charter passed. He tells me the first mailing went to 255. Today that number has increased both logarithmetically and influentially.

Ken has an extreme vision of dramatically more engagement, deep advocacy, crisp respectful dialogue. He’s always right, you know. So: If you’re not signed up to get CityWatch, do that right now. Please share it on every one of your social media platforms. Find us on Twitter and Facebook as well. Like us, share us! For Ken! Not for me, for Ken. And Mark. And every one who claims it as part of our past and history. 

Way back when we won Neighborhood Councils in the charter, many of us wanted more; many of us took shit for years because of it. Charter §900 establishes the purpose of LA’s NCs to “promote more citizen participation in government and make government more responsive to local needs…” 

Are we all doing all we can to make that real? Participating to the maximum in upcoming city elections? For candidates as well as on issues? Is it time for that next new generation of activism and leadership in your neighborhood? What’s your Neighborhood Council doing? Attend a meeting! Check out an event!

If it’s cold in LA that means that it’s budget season in the departments as the CAO’s office is preparing the next budget. With a fairly unpopular interim CAO in that spot, it’ll be wildly interesting to watch the budget process, as it is always! 

Watch for and help the volunteers who’ve agreed to crack the code on the City and dive deep into the budget. It is, after all, the finest refinement of program development.

As President Obama said so beautifully in his farewell speech: 

“Ultimately, that’s what our democracy demands. It needs you. Not just when there’s an election, not just when your own narrow interest is at stake, but over the full span of a lifetime. If you’re tired of arguing with strangers on the Internet, try to talk with one in real life. If something needs fixing, lace up your shoes and do some organizing. If you’re disappointed by your elected officials, grab a clipboard, get some signatures, and run for office yourself. Show up. Dive in. Persevere. Sometimes you’ll win. Sometimes you’ll lose. Presuming a reservoir of goodness in others can be a risk, and there will be times when the process disappoints you. But for those of us fortunate enough to have been a part of this work, to see it up close, let me tell you, it can energize and inspire. And more often than not, your faith in America – and in Americans – will be confirmed.” 

“If you’re disappointed by your elected officials, grab a clipboard, get some signatures, and run for office yourself.” 

“Show up. Dive in. Persevere.” 

I’ll see you in Downtown Los Angeles this Saturday for the Women’s March, even if it’s cold, even if it’s raining (wah!) Pershing Square at 9:30 a.m. 

I am so inspired by the Indivisible organizing guide put out by former congressional staff members (on their own time) and the movement it is birthing. Read it, share it, love it and live it! 

There are more than 3000 “indivisible” groups organizing and mobilizing across the U.S. right now, using these lessons learned from the Tea Party’s local organizing. 

When they go low, we go local! 

As Bayard Rustin said, “We need in every bay and community a group of angelic troublemakers.”

(Julie Butcher writes for CityWatch, is a retired union leader and is now enjoying her new La Crescenta home and her first grandchild. She can be reached at [email protected] or on her new blog ‘The Butcher Shop - No Bones about It.’) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

RANTZ & RAVEZ--I will begin with Governor Jerry Brown’s California High Speed Rail commonly referred to as the Bullet Train. The 800 mile and 220 MPH top speed Train is expected to run from San Diego to San Francisco sometime in the distant future and possibly in our lifetime. 

The projected budget for this transportation project began at $60 plus BILLION DOLLARS with the Central Valley portion scheduled for completion in 2017. The new date for completion of this phase is now expected in 2024, seven years behind schedule. 

We now find the current facts about this transportation project that is way behind schedule and struggling for additional dollars to move forward by a Federal Railroad Administration audit. It is now known that the project is currently being built by an independent authority that has never built anything and depends on a large network of consultants and contractors for directions. 

When I talk about behind schedule I am not kidding. With this in mind, how long will this craziness continue? It will continue until the State of California gets a governor that has some common sense and is willing to admit that the Bullet Train is not going to work for California and scraps the project saving billions of dollars that can be used for a host of pressing state issues. Issues like the homeless, crime, finding the funds to keep state prisons open and a host of other serious matters that impact our daily lives. More to come on this subject as additional reports are released.

+++++++

METRO SECURITY–While I am reviewing public transportation on trains, I must bring to your attention that the Metro, our Bus and Train Service in the Los Angeles Region, has established a 24 – Hour Hotline to provide counseling to transit riders who have experienced unwarranted sexual contact or harassment on buses or trains. The Hot Line number is 844-Off-Limits or 844-633-5464. Counselors from Peace Over Violance, which has been offering counseling for sex-abused victims for more than 40 years, staff this service. 

Since I am an infrequent rider on the Orange and Red Rail Lines, Metro should start placing uniformed officers on the Lines to provide protection for the passengers. Seldom do I ever see a law enforcement officer actually riding on a bus or train in the Los Angeles region.

+++++++

CRIME REPORT--We are now in January 2017 and the crime stats for the year 2016 are being tabulated by the LAPD.   I will publish them when they are available. It is interesting to note that as of January 7, 2017, the LAPD is at 9,892 officers compared to 9,897 as of December 17, 2016. That is 5 fewer officers protecting and serving the people of Los Angeles. 

Knowing that the LAPD is having a difficult time recruiting police officers and keeping crime down, why would the City of Los Angeles try and take over from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Transit Policing throughout Los Angeles? MONEY. It is all about the MONEY and how the City of LA can use it for various programs. 

While the Metro Board reviews the proposals from the Sheriff’s and LAPD, the people of Los Angeles deserve to have sufficient police officers available to protect their homes and businesses. 

A recent protest in San Pedro brought to light the fact that the jail in the harbor station has been closed and that crime is increasing in the neighborhoods. From the San Fernando Valley to San Pedro and all parts in between deserve their fair share of police officers. Assigning transit operations to the LAPD will only reduce the number of LAPD officers patrolling the streets of Los Angeles.

+++++++

ILLEGAL ALIENS AND DEPORTATION--It has been recently reported that the City of Los Angeles does not have the funds to pay pending lawsuits. While the City is now pleading poverty, they come up with $2 MILLION to help defend illegal aliens facing Immigration Enforcement with the LA Justice Fund. It is all about priorities. 

While I have always believed that the legal system is there to sort out the truth and that justice must prevail, I can’t see how the taxpayers should be responsible to defend people facing Federal Immigration matters. While the City is posting $2 million dollars, the County of Los Angeles is posting $3 million. An additional $5 Million is coming from the private sector.

+++++++

LA ELECTION--Our Mayor Eric Garcetti is facing an election on March 7 along with half the City Council and the City Attorney and Controller. 

As far as the contests for Mayor, it is smooth sailing for Garcetti who is facing light opposition and over $2 Million to spend. 

Both Mike Feuer the City Attorney and Ron Galperin the City Controller are both running unopposed. The City Attorney has raised $682,091 and the Controller has raised $446,838. 

The City Council Races will be featured in my next article.  

+++++++

GRACIAS--Thank you to Ron Rinard for his email concerning my RantZ and RaveZ article that is “A Great Read.” 

Thank you to Jan Kanowitz for her comments and concern about the lack of a pedestrian safety zone in West Hills. I am working with Councilman Bob Blumenfield’s office to correct the situation.

(Dennis P. Zine is a 33-year member of the Los Angeles Police Department and former Vice-Chairman of the Elected Los Angeles City Charter Reform Commission, a 12-year member of the Los Angeles City Council and a current LAPD Reserve Officer who serves as a member of the Fugitive Warrant Detail assigned out of Gang and Narcotics Division. Disclosure: Zine was a candidate for City Controller last city election. He writes RantZ & RaveZ for CityWatch. You can contact him at [email protected]. Mr. Zine’s views are his own and do not reflect the views of CityWatch.) Graphic credit: LA Daily News.

-cw

DEEGAN ON LA---"This compromise is a joke!" exclaimed Diana Plotkin, president of the Beverly Wilshire Homes Association, responding to CD5 Councilmeber Paul Koretz’ announcement to the the city council’s Planning and Land Use Management committee that he had reached what he called a “reasonable compromise for a middle ground” where developer Rick Caruso would reduce the height of his proposed 333 La Cienega tower by almost 25% (from 245 feet to 185 feet), and contribute a half-million dollars to the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund that creates affordable rental housing for low and very low income households. (Photo above: Developer Rick Caruso in front of La Cienega tower, Councilman Paul Koretz-inset.) 

Caruso, who told the committee that he agreed to the height reduction and was “happy to provide $500,000 to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund”, and Koretz had settled their differences, but one very interested party was left out in the cold and was steaming hot about what had just happened: Diana Plotkin who said “we need affordable housing, not luxury housing. It’s pay to play and we ask you (PLUM) to say no.” In a hallway interview with CityWatch, Plotkin amplified her distress charging that “Paul Koretz’ statement that he supports the community is a lie. The fact is that he never supported this community on this issue, all the way through. Our community is being crushed by this pay to play. They want a monument to their ego. Paul Koretz is out of touch with the residential community of people who vote”. 

Other stakeholders---dozens of them made pro or con public statements at the hearing-- had mixed feelings about the impact this building will have in an area currently zoned for 45 feet high. 

An overflow crowd had assembled in council chambers at City Hall to learn what’s next for developer Rick Caruso’s dream project at 333 S. La Cienega Boulevard. Leading up to the hearing, Caruso was accepting compliments from some in the community, including the Mid City West Community Council and the residential tenants of the Westbury tower adjacent to the proposed building site, but he was also fending off complaints from the homeowners association and the local Councilmember. 

At back to back press conferences two weeks ago, Diana Plotkin and Councilmember Paul Koretz (CD5) publicly announced opposition to the project. Plotkin presented Koretz with 1,000 signatures on a petition to block the project, because it was 240 feet in a 45 foot zone, and that was enough for Koretz to say the tower would be “too tall. 

Leading up to the PLUM hearing was the expectation that Caruso and Plotkin would have reached a state of detente. It turned out that it was Koretz and Plotkin that never made it to the alter. 

The neighborhood council (Mid City West Community Council) voted 22-6 to support the original 240 foot height of 333 La Cienega, and was touted by themselves and other project supporters as one of the crucial stakeholders able to influence the project. But it, too, was showing signs of disunion, through divergent takes on the value of the 333 project. “The reduction is a disappointment”, said Planning and Land Use chair Ravi Bhatia, who continued “the fund amount is only 1.4 units at MCW market price. City council does not understand the cost or importance of inclusionary zoning. Mom and pops must continue to bear the burden. It’s a land acquisition cost of well over $500,000 for mom and pops. They would still have to pay to build. That is one unit”. 

It raises the question if this is really affordable housing coming into the community. That was answered obliquely by his colleague’s public statement when MCW chair Scott Epstein said that “We are very concerned about affordable housing. A project like this will not displace affordable housing. It has the strong support of the Mid City West Community Council”. While not “displacing” affordable housing, because no housing units are being torn down to make room for the tower, this project is not creating significant affordable housing in the community either, as Bhatia points out. 

A guy that initially was the focus of community opprobrium seemed to walk out of the chamber in Teflon armor, a happy warrior in this battle that now shifts to being an almost certain done deal when the full city council meets as soon as next week to vote approval of his project, while a Councilmember and some of his constituency are at serious odds. Building a tower may be much easier than mending fences.

(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].)

-cw

THIS IS WHAT I KNOW-Last week, I introduced you to Caney Arnold, a progressive candidate running in the March primary. Arnold and I sat down to discuss some of his ideas to turn the city around. The candidate, who brings a background in Air Force acquisition and program management, as well as a graduate degree in Public Policy and Administration, shares that he was inspired to support progressive causes around the time of the Gulf War. 

“This campaign and my commitment while serving in office will be built around the following values: government transparency, grassroots democracy, ecology, social justice, and nonviolence,” he says. 

Transparency: 

Arnold says he is ready to support transparency because he’s “used to dealing with bureaucracy to weed out this sort of thing based on (my) career work for the Department of Defense and in the Air Force” where he learned how to work with management to get things done right. He is committed to stand up to the City Council and to work with the media to uncover conflicts of interest. “It’s not just in the campaign business but officeholders and committees are getting money from developers for office and city related purposes,” he says. 

Grassroots Democracy and Transparency: 

Arnold says listening to citizens will be an integral part of the daily management of the city -- and Neighborhood Councils will play a big part in that. “I want to increase communication with the NCs and with constituents to ensure citizens have more input in the decision-making process,” he says. He plans to actively seek input from the neighborhood councils and provide research to them before casting a vote on City Council, which is the reverse of the current practice. “As volunteers, NC board members usually don’t have the time to do this research. My office will provide information packets to each NC and formally request feedback.” 

Ecology: 

Arnold notes that his 15th District is “home to numerous oil drilling and refineries, as well as oil and natural gas storage facilities.” Safety failures involving explosions and toxic releases at these facilities have placed the community at risk. The candidate also supports reducing energy use by providing incentives to consumers and businesses, especially in fossil fuels consumption, by creating a plan to transition to sustainable 100 percent renewable energy sources, which must be approved by the Mayor and Council, backed with a firm schedule, adequate funding, and oversight. Water consumption is also an important issue that should be addressed in part by reconsidering plans for urban growth and development. 

Social Justice: 

Arnold was inspired to run in part by his volunteer involvement with the homeless population. “We need to do a better job helping our neighbors without housing,” he says. “The Housing First strategy has worked in cities across the U.S. and is the preferred approach by the federal government. We need to move away from treating homelessness as a police issue and see the root causes of homelessness, as well as to help keep people in their homes.” The Housing First approach removes the homeless from unsafe environments on the street to get them into housing, providing them with services to help them find employment and become self-sustaining again. 

Nonviolence: 

Arnold’s platform includes improved relations between police and citizens to reduce over-policing and use of excessive force. He cites the positive approach of bringing police together with citizens to address issues, promoting programs such as the Institute for Nonviolence in Los Angeles Days of Dialogue program on the Future of Policing, sponsored by Mark Ridley-Thomas’s office. 

Arnold is focused on rolling up his sleeves to turn around the status quo so that Los Angeles is a city for all residents and not just a selective few.

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

CORRUPTION WATCH-Now that we’re all beset upon by the new Tweeter-in-Chief, we have to take seriously the Power of the Ignoranti. While Donald Trump makes his wisdom or lack thereof visible for all to see, most of America is smugly unaware of that of which they are unaware. That’s just in the nature of being unaware. 

Over ninety-nine percent of Americans do not know that John Maynard Keynes was murdered. That does not disturb them because they don’t even know who Keynes is, or rather, was. It would be more accurate to say that Keynesianism was murdered by the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act. Again, that does not disturb the public because they don’t know who or what Glass-Steagall was either. 

The Danger of Not Understanding the Laws of Economics. 

The problem with vast ignorance is that Ignorance Kills. Los Angeles City Hall is a Temple to Crimogenics due to the fact that Angelenos are suffering from fatal doses of Ignoranitus Economicus. See my June 26, 2016 article in CityWatch. In brief, we know nothing about the laws of economics. The rest of America similarly suffers ever since Bill Clinton, Wall Street, and Congress joined together to kill off Keynesian economics with the repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999, the legitimizing of criminal Credit Default Swaps and allowing Wall Street to evade the 1936 Commodities Exchange Act. 

Since Hollywood is the land of re-runs, sequels, and remakes, it is fitting that this remake of Keynesian Economics comes from La La Land.

The Price System - The Bedrock of All Economic Systems. 

John Maynard Keynes, as well as Adam Smith and Friedrich Hayek, found the need to protect the Price System to be axiomatic – and what honest person wouldn’t? The Price System involves the billions of individual decisions made each day by billions of people about what to buy and what to sell and for how much. Adam Smith referred to this as the Invisible Hand which many people misunderstood to mean God. No, God does not set prices. People set the prices. 

The first domestic function of any and all governments is to protect the Price System so that the prices we pay for things and services are based upon their actual values. No frauds and no manipulation can be allowed to taint the Price System. No economy can function properly when people do not know what things are worth. 

If I buy a Mercedes SL and all I get is a shell with a 1970's Pinto interior, I feel cheated. Fraud destroys the Price System. People need to know what they will get for their money. Likewise, if I buy a real Mercedes and give the guy counterfeit money which the government then confiscates, the guy is cheated. If I buy a home for $900,000, but it is worth only $390,000, I have been cheated. 

It bears repeating: The first priority of any government is to guarantee that the Price System reflects the actual value of everything. 

Los Angeles Has Corrupted the Price System for Housing. 

The Price System for housing in Los Angeles has been destroyed by massive corruptionism. 

Everywhere people are talking and writing about Los Angeles’ high housing prices with no knowledge why our housing prices are so much higher than elsewhere. It is not due to increased demand for housing. Since our modest population increase comes from our birth rate rather than people moving to LA, the demand for housing is either stagnate or dropping. In fact, LA has a net exodus. The Family Millennials in particular are leaving. Babies do not rent new apartments, but every person who leaves LA for Austin Texas leaves a vacancy. 

The City Intentionally Spreads False Information about Housing. 

Because of constant disinformation from City Hall, people falsely believe that the demand for housing is increasing. A shortage does not mean an increased demand. Because our mayor, Eric Garcetti, has destroyed over 22,000 rent-controlled units, there has been a dramatic drop in supply. A reduction in supply means the same number of people are bidding against fewer units and that forces up prices. 

In fact, the unlawful eviction of poor people – something at which judges like LA Superior Court Judge Deborah Christian excel, raises the average rent. As soon as the old tenant has been unlawfully evicted, then the landlord raises the rent. There has been no increase in demand – only an unlawful eviction. 

Los Angeles’ poor people are involved in a different housing market than the middle and upper middle classes. The long-term financial health of a city, including its ability to provide for the poor, depends on a vibrant middle class. When massive fraud and financial manipulations from a corrupt city hall artificially raise all housing prices, the middle class moves away from LA. 

As Keynesian economics shows, material misinformation in the housing market can cause the entire economy to crash. Of course, we do not need Keynes to verify this fact since Corruptionism in housing is what crashed the economy in 2008. Nonetheless, there have been no reforms and similar distortions in the Price System for the housing market are killing Los Angeles.

How LA’s Temple to Crimogenics Drives up Housing Costs. 

Residential housing should be based on its value as Living Space. Once zoning is destroyed, residential housing in Los Angeles is not based on its value for raising a family. About 80% of the nation’s population prefers a detached home with a yard for their families. Thus, any city which adopts the New Urbanism, with its war on the single family home, is telling 80% of the new middle class that it is not wanted. 

“Corruptionism,” which has infested Los Angeles City Hall since at least 2001 when Eric Garcetti was first elected councilmember for District 13, has destroyed the Price System for residential housing. Because any developer can buy or bribe whatever zoning he wants, the value of homes then becomes their Speculative Value. 

Housing Prices should be Based on the Value as Living Space and not on the Value of Speculative Redevelopment. 

California and Los Angeles have laws which intentionally destroy the Price System for residential properties. One of them is allowing Granny Flats. Any developer can buy a house and turn it into a commercial enterprise by building a second house in the backyard and then renting out both houses. Then, he buys another house in a single family area and builds another Granny Flat and rents out both houses. It may take a few years, but eventually an owner-occupied single family neighborhood becomes an area of multi-family renters with absentee landlords. 

Into this deteriorated and demoralized neighborhood comes a developer. He buys or pays bribes to get an up-zoning to a 4-plex; another developer then buys or bribes to get an up-zoning to multi-family apartments along, say along Magnolia. Now there’s a 4-story apartment overlooking a single family neighborhood. 

The Key to Los Angeles’s High Residential Prices is: Residential properties cost an arm and a leg because their prices are set by the lands’ Speculative Value and not by its value as Living Space. 

To aggravate matters, home buyers know that the day after they buy their dream home for three times its actual worth, a series of Granny Flats can be constructed or a gaggle of “single family homes” will be build next door because the developer chanted the magic words: “Small Lot Subdivision.” Small Lot Subdivision means the developer can build six or more small homes on one lot with eight inches between them next to your newly purchased single family home. The eight inches between these de facto apartments allows them to be fictitiously treated as if they were detached homes and not apartments or condos in a neighborhood of single family homes. 

Keynes Opposes a Stimulus as the Business Cycle Moves into the Boom Phase. 

People think that Keynes says to spend money to stimulate the economy. This belief is false. Just because a doctor prescribes chemotherapy to treat cancer does not mean he prescribes it for pneumonia. When an economy suffers from a decimated Price System and it is entering the Boom Phase of the business cycle, Keynes does not recommend a stimulus. Yet, that is exactly what the Garcetti Administration is doing. There is probably no greater fiscal error than dumping billions of tax dollars into an economy whose Price System is wracked with fraud. 

Keynesian Steps to Fix Los Angeles’s Economy: 

1. Down-zoning. The Los Angeles Basin needs to de-densify. Thus, the Basin needs drastic down-zoning. This need is particularly strong in Hollywood. No more offices should be constructed on Bunker Hill or elsewhere in DTLA. 

2. Get rid of Granny Flats. They are a dagger into the Price System for Los Angeles residential housing. 

3. Get rid of AB 1818. This is a foolish state law. Los Angeles should down-zone everything as much as possible so that when a developer tries to up-zone density by 35%, he will be at a livable level for Los Angeles. 

4. Abolish all Small Lot Subdivisions. 

5. Modify the Anti-Mansionization ordinance so that larger homes can be constructed and older homes can be upgraded, but only in strict compliance with the nature of quality of the neighborhood. I would call them quasi-HPOZs. The “palaces” that loom over their neighbors’ homes and yards are unacceptable and unnecessary. 

6. End the vote trading pact at City Hall since it is criminal under Penal Code § 86. No city should be governed by a feudal criminal conspiracy no matter how much Judge Richard Fruins loves the idea. 

7. Never allow any CRA or EIFD type district for any reason. Simply put, they are vehicles to steal money from City Hall and give it to billionaires. 

8. Prohibition on City investing in any private project. Although Eric Garcetti loves the Chinese model where the government is the developer, that arrangement is verboten under Keynes. The City should never invest in a private project. It destroys the relationship between the marginal efficiency of capital and the rate of interest. This only results in bad projects being constructed and money being misdirected away from better uses.

(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.

EASTSIDER-The smart money crowd (Democrat insiders, lobbyists, developers and their progeny) have already basically claimed victory for incumbent Gil Cedillo. You can tell by the fact that they are warehousing campaign funds and, so far, are not going to engage in any debates. 

As I have written before in CityWatch, the political math is all in their favor. Less than 10% of the voters in CD1 even bother to vote in municipal elections, and these days a majority of them are vote-by-mail voters. With a few hundred thousand in the war chest (and bags more available if needed), Gil has the hip, slick and cool mainstream dems/political consultants and democratic party insiders all already lined up. They’ve got the machine, the incredibly detailed voter databases, and we can look for the usual postcard deluge just prior to the vote-by-mail start date in February. 

In terms of deep-pocket backing, they are secure in the belief that Giovany Hernandez, Jesse Rosas, and Joe Bray-Ali won’t be able to make the race competitive and Gil will cruise to victory in March with over 50% of the vote. 

I say this because the last race for CD1 was a doozy. Ed Reyes was termed out, and it was a race between his Chief of Staff Jose Gardea and Gil Cedillo, recently termed out from the California legislature. Between the primary and runoff elections, they spent close to $2 million dollars in the race! The final margin was 52% for Cedillo vs. 48% for Gardea. 

Of interest here is the fact that the only reason we had a runoff was because Jesse Rosas got 7.2% of the vote, forcing it to happen. There’s a message there. 

So Who is Joe Bray-Ali? 

I have met Joe Bray-Ali (photo above) three times. The first time was during what I call the “Bicycle Wars” in CD1. And I do mean war. To give you a taste of how bad it was, here’s a quote from my CityWatch article from last year: “These 2014 meetings were ugly -- somewhere between the Jerry Springer Show and a really bad hair day meeting of the Echo Park Neighborhood Council. For example, at the Highland Park NC meeting, they voted to cancel advertising in the Boulevard Sentinel (our local newspaper) on the grounds that the editor, Tom Topping, was anti-bike. There were a number of comments casting aspersions on his person and character. Public comments were simply a litany of “pro” and “anti” sentiments regarding bike-lane people. And there was virtually no discussion on the merits of the plan before the NC reversed its position.” 

At the time, I recall referring to Joe as “one of the loudest and least civil pro bike-lane supporters.” 

The second time I met Joe was at a Northeast Democratic Club meeting. He was a new person, coat and tie civil, enthusiastic, and talking about more inclusive issues like the environment, land use, and neighborhood public policies. The Northeast Dems, of course, largely ignored his presence. 

The third time I met Joe was last week at the Bowtie Parcel of the Los Angeles River. He was there to announce his Endorsement from Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters. It was presented by their director, Stephanie Molen, and was streamed on Facebook live. Again Joe was civil, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable about the issues facing voters in Council District 1. He is also a small businessman whose business actually lies within the boundaries of the District. 

I’ll admit it…I was impressed. 

Does Anyone Stand a Chance Against Gil? 

My initial cynicism about the race has been based on the “‘normal” math of beating an incumbent with huge resources and the ability to lock up the overwhelming lions’ share of vote-by-mail during the primary election in March. 

But a funny thing happened on the way to the forum. I remembered that seven percent Jesse Rosas got the last time in the battle of the giants, and the fact that his percentage of votes denied Gil the 50% plus 1 he needed to win. 

I have also noticed that there is a generational issue going on. The party insiders know how to crush someone using the traditional tools of targeted outreach, bags of money and phone banking. But it’s all old stuff, sorta like Hillary vs. The Donald. 

The Bray-Ali folks are betting on serious use of social media. Not just putting up a Facebook page, or sending out some emails -- serious social media. It’s something new and it’s a wildcard. Just ask Hillary. Let’s see if a candidate can effectively use the media to fire up younger voters who mostly don’t participate because they know the system is rigged. Lessons from Bernie and The Donald. Also something that the traditional consultants like Parke Skelton (aka SG&A Campaigns) aren’t that good at. 

For someone who’s not a part of the Democratic Party establishment, this is an advantage. Also, actual progressives are starting to step up for a change -- witness the results of the recent AD51 Delegates Election where Bernie folks scored big, and a poll was conducted by Latino Decisions for who’s who in the upcoming Congressional District 34 election to replace Xavier Becerra. You can check out the posts from January 6 and 18 at MayorSam.  

The Takeaway 

Look at it this way: it isn’t as if Mr. Cedillo is beloved in the District. He’s mostly loved by big real estate developers and the Democratic Party machine. And most of them don’t live in the District. As readers of CityWatch know, there is a large sentiment of “throw all the bums out” among the City’s electorate. The trick is to get some of them to the polls. 

Also, as reported in a couple of recent CityWatch articles by Beth Cone Kramer, the Cedillo campaign has had some troubles with the Ethics Commission.  While there may or may not be violations that are ultimately upheld by the City Ethics Commission, the behavior complained about seem to be beginners’ errors for a big bucks, professionally-run campaign. 

Helping the challenger is Joe’s recent announcement that he is the first candidate for CD1 to have qualified for 2:1 matching funds from the City. In order to do this he submitted over 1000 signatures of registered voters and raised contributions from over 270 CD1 donors. 

So is it a long shot? Sure. But if Joe Bray-Ali can force Cedillo into a runoff, all the electoral math changes in a hurry. If an incumbent with all the advantages can’t put the election away in the primary, he’s viewed as wounded meat and all bets are off. 

So for now, all Jesse Rojas and Joe Bray-Ali have to do is attract some new voters, get some more of the “regular” voters to simply vote against Gil Cedillo (or not vote at all), and try to deny the incumbent 50% plus 1 of the vote on March 7. 

Maybe they can even force Mr. Cedillo to have a public debate or two. Should be interesting. And, like I said, Joe Cleans Up Nice!

(Tony Butka is an Eastside community activist, who has served on a neighborhood council, has a background in government and is a contributor to CityWatch.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-In an increasingly desperate tactic to stop Measure S, Big Real Estate -- a handful of large real estate companies -- is opting for the Big Bamboozle. They are pulling out all the stops to defeat the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative in LA City’s March 7 election. 

Their Big Bamboozle is a pack of blatant lies targeting key interest groups in the hope that they can sway them into voting against their own self-interest. The goal is to keep City Hall’s pay-to-play soft corruption in motion for their pet mega-projects. But, when their whoppers fail to gain traction, their fall back position is an old magician’s trick: distraction. Their strategy is to keep the voters’ attention averted from Measure S’s primary impact: ending City Hall’s soft corruption for the spot-zoning and spot-planning that allow hundreds of parcel-level mega-projects to sprout up in nearly every nook and cranny of Los Angeles. 

In this case, their magic trick is to conjure up obscure, hypothetical conflicts with Measure S. The hope is that low information voters will think these imaginary scenarios are so real and so important that they will prevail over the real corruption and real spot-zoned mega-projects harming communities throughout Los Angeles.

Why is Big Real Estate opting for this smoke and mirrors? 

There is no mystery here. They want to make sure that such minor hurdles as LA’s legally adopted General Plan element and their zoning implementation will not block their business model: squeezing as much profit as possible from individual parcels through unplanned, openly illegal mega-projects. But, since it impossible to win an election with such an honest, but highly unpopular campaign position, Big Real Estate has only two choices. They can sacrifice some short-term profits by adhering to Los Angeles’ land use laws. This means building by-right projects that conform to adopted General Plan elements and the Los Angeles Municipal Code (LAMC). 

Their other option, the one they have turned to, is the Big Bamboozle: throwing the kitchen sink at Measure S, hoping that enough gunk will stick so City Hall’s corrupt political culture can linger on. They are crossing their fingers that once the March election is over and the Los Angeles Times’ impressive coverage of their skullduggery fades; they can re-emerge from the barely drained swamp. 

If they pull off this Big Bamboozle, newly adopted General Plan Elements, including Updated Community Plan and zones, will be severed from City Hall’s land use decisions. Those major cases with multiple entitlements that preoccupy City Hall and Neighborhood Councils – to the tune of between 300 to 600 per year – can then reemerge, at least until the next round of public outrage sweeps Los Angeles.  

Who are Big Real Estate’s players in this “Toxic Sludge is Good for You” game? 

As I previously wrote there are four major Big Real Estate players funding the opposition to Measure S. These large firms have a global reach, with billions of assets stretching far beyond their pay-to-pay operations in Los Angeles.  They include: 

• Westfield Group, based in Australia, owns and operates shopping centers throughout the world, including 38 malls in the United States. In Los Angeles their malls include Century City and Warner Center. In Warner Center their latest project, rebuilding the old Promenade Center, will cost $1.5 billion. 

• Crescent Heights, based in Miami, builds and operates up-scale commercial and residential projects throughout the United States, including the proposed Palladium high-rise tower in Hollywood.  By August 2016 this firm had already donated over a half million dollars to their No on S astroturf organization: the Coalition to Protect LA Neighborhoods & Jobs. 

• Lowe Enterprises is headquartered in Los Angeles and invests in commercial and residential real estate projects throughout the United States. Their local projects include 1.4 million square feet of commercial space at the Howard Hughes Center in LA’s Westchester area.  

• Eli Broad, based in Los Angeles, has not completely moved on from insurance and tract housing to philanthropy and museums.  He did find time to donate $25,000 to oppose Measure S. 

What is their actual Bamboozle? 

Like every magician, these opponents of Measure S are trying to keep voters distracted by obscure, rare, or totally hypothetical glitches with the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative until March 7. For example, at a recent Measure S debate in Sherman Oaks I heard the following allegations, all of which fell apart when I researched them: 

• Under Measure S, private schools, churches and synagogues, and hospitals cannot get building permits because they require General Plan Amendments. In fact, these uses are allowed by right in many zones throughout Los Angeles, and in other zones they can be permitted as a Conditional Use. They can all be built without the City Council adopting the spot-zones and spot-General Plan Amendments blocked by Measure S. 

• Under Measure S real estate development on Ventura Boulevard and other areas with a legacy of “embedded parking zones” will be obstructed. In fact, this is another rare and almost entirely hypothetical problem. This is also an argument for the quick and proper updating of Community Plans to address this rare problem, not allowing soft corruption and spot-zoning for mega-projects – as well as “embedded P zones” -- to continue unabated. 

• Under Measure S, desirable projects, such as the repurposing of an old LA Times printing plant for a Google Fiber facility, will be blocked. In fact, this project did not require a General Plan Amendment, and this hypothetical conflict rarely if ever appears as real cases that Building and Safety sends to City Planning for a legislative fix. And, with the expedited updating of the General Plan and the Community Plan that Measure S triggers, these make-believe problems can be addressed by comprehensive planning based on extensive public participation. 

Who is being targeted by the bamboozle? 

Affordable Housing Advocates: he No on S campaign is targeting organizations and groups with totally legitimate concerns about LA’s lack of affordable housing. They are told that Measure S is either a total development ban, a housing ban, or it creates impenetrable barriers to the construction of affordable housing. Of course, Measure S is nothing of the sort. 

For nearly an entire year I have repeatedly asked City Watch readers to identify any affordable housing projects that required a General Plan Amendment or even a zone change to begin construction. So far, I have only been told about one case in all of Los Angeles. And, City Planning's recent Citywide Metrics Report confirms this. Only two (2 !) percent of LA’s new housing is affordable, and this tiny fraction results from Density Bonus/SB 1818 projects, not the City Council adopted spot-zone changes and spot-General Plan Amendments barred by Measure S. 

Another allegation against Measure S is that it will prevent the construction of affordable housing on parcels owned by the City of Los Angeles. In fact, the idea of building affordable housing on City property originated with Mayor Tom Bradley in 1988. That is nearly 30 years ago, and as far as I can determine, since then the only result has been the use of air-rights above several city-owned parking lots for affordable housing. 

In three decades the City of Los Angeles has not managed to use any of its 9,000 documented properties for affordable housing, including sites where housing is permitted by-right. Now, suddenly, this long-ignored affordable housing option has been taken out of mothballs. It has become a pressing reason to tolerate hundreds of illegal mega-projects that a benevolent City Council routinely legalizes for its patrons through spot-zoning and spot-planning ordinances. 

Nevertheless, other claims about Measure S barring the construction of affordable housing keep popping up. One of the more imaginative assertions is that Measure S is punitive because it only allows zone changes for projects that are 100 percent affordable housing. If projects are less than 100 percent affordable, they are therefore out-of-luck. This hypothetical problem then leads to an imaginary corollary; Measure S is punitive against affordable housing contractors despite any supportive evidence. In fact, its only punitive actions are against Big Real Estate companies opting for luxury housing on parcels where such projects conflict with the General Plan and with zoning. 

This line of reasoning, however, ignore the obvious benefits of updating the General Plan when it comes to affordable housing. These updates will identify areas where there are existing parcels already zoned for denser housing construction, as well as neighborhoods with the greatest need for additional affordable housing.  Most likely, these areas will overlap in the form of long, low-rise commercial corridors, such as Pico Boulevard. Their commercial parcels could all be built out as four or five story apartment or mixed-use buildings through SB 1818/ Density Bonus incentives.  

If these were legitimate reasons to stop Measure S, its subtext is, "I have no problem with the many mega-projects sprouting up in many LA neighborhoods through City Council spot-zones lubricated by developer money handed over to city officials." 

Environmentalists: Some clever-by-half advocates of sustainability imagine that every large and tall apartment building is automatically transit-oriented. If they actually looked at the transportation patterns of the residents, however, they would have to return to the drawing board. Nearly all of LA’s high-rise apartment buildings, such as the luxury towers in Hollywood, Century City, Wilshire Boulevard, Koreatown, and elsewhere are only transit-adjacent, not transit-oriented. They are all auto-centric buildings whose tenants own and drive cars that they park on-site.   

What these unwitting shills for Big Real Estate have not realized is that two other elements are necessary to build transit-oriented buildings. The buildings’ units must have affordable and low-income rents, and the tenants must be transit dependent. Without these features, clichés about transit use are just ploys for real estate speculators to get their valuable spot-zones and spot-General Plan designations. 

While it is certainly possible to rebuild Los Angeles as a transit-oriented city, it will take much, much more than locating high-rise apartment buildings with well-off tenants near bus stops. To become another New York City, London, Paris, Tokyo, or San Francisco, Los Angeles needs a dense, fully built-out dense mass transit system. It also needs better streetlights, street trees, pedestrian-oriented sidewalks interfacing with transit, and a fully developed system of bike lanes and bicycle infrastructure. 

When these components of LA’s built environment finally appear, then transit-adjacent buildings can finally become transit-oriented housing. Until then, extravagant claims about transit-oriented projects are just another bamboozle ginned up by real estate speculators to take advantage of well-meaning but poorly informed supporters of alternative transportation modes. 

Labor: The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor has been co-opted to become a public bamboozler for the No on S real estate interests. As a former union officer at the City of Los Angeles, I am not surprised, but it is time for union members to call out the union staffers who made this sordid deal. Don't they know the identities of the Big Real Estate companies who asked for their endorsement? Don’t they know that most building projects, whether by-right or permitted through spot-zones, prefer short-term, non-union construction workers?ies will treat organized labor like chumps once the election is over and their political support is no longer needed? Don’t they know that every zone change and General Plan Amendment is also a transfer of wealth to large corporations that comes out of the pockets of their members and non-unionized working people in Los Angeles? 

Their supporters will not benefit from these shady land-use deals, and in fact, they will soon be on the short-end of the stick when they are gouged for expensive rents, down payments, or monthly mortgage payments. And, for those many union members and other employees who are pushed out of LA by real estate speculators demolishing rent stabilized apartments to make way for units renting at $3000 per month or more, cheaper housing in distant suburbs is offset by long, deadening commutes. 

Why do they have no shame about their Big Bamboozle? 

As we learned from the Corleone family in The Godfather trilogy, “It’s just business.” They are checking-in facts and ethics at the door as the March 7 election looms closer.

(Dick Platkin is former LA City planner who recently taught courses on sustainable city planning at USC and CSUN. He is also a former union officer, who worked hard to create labor-neighbor alliances in Los Angeles. Please send corrections or comments to [email protected].) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

THE PREVEN REPORT--On December 15 of last year, Mayor Garcetti approved by signature an expenditure of $50,000 for specialized legal services to assist in responding to a Department of Justice investigation.  

Provided by Arent Fox LLP, the specialized legal services are described as a “new” two-year contract. New two-year contract? There’s more than one? Have there been others, with different law firms perhaps? 

The people of Los Angeles need to know what is going on. We won’t tolerate another “Independent Living Ctr. vs. the City of Los Angeles” … a case that should have been settled years ago but instead was litigated endlessly by Mayor Garcetti and the rest of the Council. The losses, already $225 million, continue to rise. A similar case, Willits vs. City of LA, soared all the way to $1.37 billion.  

The people of Los Angeles have a right—indeed, an obligation—to see all invoices to date that specify the amounts that the City of Los Angeles has been billed by Arent Fox LLP, or any other law firm, in connection with this Department of Justice investigation. 

On December 29, 2016, the California Supreme Court, ruling in favor of petitioners  Eric Preven (co-author of this article) and the ACLU of Southern California, affirmed, in effect, the right of the public, in the face of secretive government malfeasance, to pull back the curtains and have a look around, to confront our elected representatives and assess the damage (and so start the process of repair).  

It's time for us to exercise that right.

(Eric Preven and Joshua Preven are public advocates for better transparency in local government. Eric is a Studio City based writer-producer and a candidate for Los Angeles mayor. Joshua is a teacher.)

-cw

THE REAL WORLD--I've had enough of CD 5 Councilman Paul Koretz. I can't be spun by his niceness, anymore. And, I'm sick of hearing him say, 'Perhaps we should consider, at some time in the future, entertaining the notion of pursuing this matter with further discussion, possibly leading to a study, in the future; before we move ahead." (Way to take a stand, Paul! The softest community stiff-armer, in the horseshoe.)

There are two other candidates running against Paul "Korrupt" Koretz, in the March 7th election: Jesse Creed and Mark Herd. Jesse has a lot of money raised; and Herd is the only #YesOnS candidate in the CD 5 election. Get out the word, to get out the vote; for one of these two candidates. We must take Koretz and replace him to show City Hall that enough community backstabbing is enough.

As you probably know, the LA Times did an article exposing all the money that billionaire developer Rick Caruso was spreading around City Hall to get his 20-story mixed-use, mega-project approved for the Beverly Center area, where average (big) building height is 8 stories.

Of course, Paul Koretz was on Caruso's payroll, as was LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, to get this project, out of scale and character of the community, approved.

After the LA Times article, Koretz came out against the project. But, here’s how the game is played: ask for a little more than you know you can get ... then say, "Well, we scaled back the project, and I am now for it." Guess what. Caruso offered to cut 3 stories off the project and Koretz said “I am now for it.”

Koretz can hide behind scaling it back from 20 stories to 17 stories; but the people weren't against the project over the 15% reduction of something that is completely out of scale and character for the area.

Just because Caruso wants to jam something into the area for his portfolio doesn't mean the community wants to jam up the neighborhood with another shopping plaza of stores and restaurants for tourists.

And there is big citywide outrage over the exposure of how Carsuo buys off elected officials to do what he wants; with the pay-to-play type donations he makes to Koretz, Garcetti and others.

Q: Did Paul Koretz and Eric Garcetti give back the money they took from Caruso? A: NO!

Does reducing it three stories, when they always ask for more than they expect; and reduce it down in the negotiation ... I'm pretty sure this was a back room deal all along. ("Yeah, we'll ask for 20 stories, then cut it down to 17.")

The Caruso project should have its own district and councilmember. Is EMS/Fire/Police going to be able to staff up for increased demand this project will be placing on city infrastructure? Traffic is so gridlocked in the area this is certain to increase response times; for emergencies across the community. (Like when elderly call for ambulance; or you call for fire response.)

I know some people are unsure about Measure S. They think it goes too far.

But, Garcetti, Koretz, Council and the developers who run them have proven they are out of control, corrupt, pay-to-play maniacs who can't stop themselves, like any addict. Replace Koretz with one of the other two candidates on the ballot in his race.

The problem isn’t the Koretzes of the city, it’s the people who keep voting for them. Look in the mirror. Do the right thing.

(David (Zuma Dogg) Saltsburg is a candidate for Los Angeles mayor. He has been a community activist in Los Angles for more than 10 years successfully taking on City Hall on numerous occasions. Learn more here.) 

-cw

LATINO PERSPECTIVE--Zillow which is the leading real estate and rental marketplace dedicated to empowering consumers with data, inspiration and knowledge around the place they call home, and connecting them with the best local professionals who can help has published a report that concludes that minorities in Los Angeles are more likely to have negative equity loans. 

In LA’s predominantly Latino neighborhoods, 7 percent of all homeowners owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth — that’s compared to 4.3 percent of homeowners in predominantly white neighborhoods and 5.7 percent of all homeowners in L.A., according to the Zillow report. 

“Our previous research has shown that negative equity is more concentrated among less expensive homes, and now we know that it is also more prevalent in minority neighborhoods than in white communities, which are also trailing in the overall housing recovery,” Zillow chief economist Svenja Gudell said in a statement. “These gaps can and will have long-lasting implications for growth and equality.” 

That conclusion is important for Latino residents in Los Angeles. For Latinos one of the most, if not the most important issue facing the city of Los Angeles right now is housing and development. Latinos in particular need to pay close attention to this problem since they can be directly affected by what voters decide in regards to measure “S” and other measures. 

Housing in Los Angeles is increasingly becoming extremely expensive, and things will get worse before they get better. It just doesn’t make sense to live in this city when 50 percent or more of a family’s income goes to pay just for rent. What’s going to happen? Families will have to move out of the city and commute, this will not only increase traffic but the quality of life for all will be affected. This is not the way to grow. 

Our city leaders along with community leaders, developers, residents, and lenders need to work together and be smart about how to grow the city of Los Angeles, just look a the homelessness problem. We still have time to figure things out, let’s do it.

(Fred Mariscal writes Latino Perspective for CityWatch. He 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 can be reached at [email protected].)

-cw

@THE GUSS REPORT-It would be easier to write something positive about Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti if there wasn’t the gnawing feeling that virtually everything he says is torturously measured, in need of dissection and adding an asterisk or three.

For example, last week the San Diego Chargers announced they are leaving the team’s home of 56 years to come to LA … the County of Los Angeles, not the City of Los Angeles where Garcetti is Mayor.  

The Chargers wisely chose to play their next few seasons in the nearby City of Carson’s diminutive, but new and fun 30,000-seat StubHub Center and have the place filled to the brim with fans rather than in Garcetti’s half-empty, soon-to-be-vacant and soon-to-be 95-year old LA Memorial Coliseum while the Rams’ billion dollar stadium in the City of Inglewood is being built. 

So let’s back-up and dissect, shall we? 

The Chargers are moving between three cities not named Los Angeles. They are leaving San Diego, temporarily to Carson, and will eventually wind-up in Inglewood. They will only be in the City of Los Angeles if, and when, they play the soon-to-be-leaving Rams. 

But in Garcetti’s mind, he needs to make the public (i.e. voters) feel as though he accomplished something, and so put out a statement welcoming the Chargers “back to” LA: 

“….Today, we welcome an important part of (LA’s sports) history back with the Chargers returning to Los Angeles….The Chargers will make our NFL tradition even richer….” 

What NFL tradition? The City of Los Angeles does not have its own franchise anymore, and hasn’t in decades. What is this “will make” you speak of, Mayor Garcetti? 

The Chargers played in the City of Los Angeles for just one season, in 1960, when the Coliseum was only 37 years old. There was so little interest in them despite their having a winning season that on December 10, 1960 only 9,928 people attended the game in the nearly 100,000 seat Coliseum. Their highest attendance that season was 21,805. 

By “returning to” Los Angeles, Garcetti once again tries to blur the lines between the City which he does govern and the County which he does not.

The only City of Los Angeles Mayor to bring the Chargers here was C. Norris Poulson, who also lured the Dodgers to LA from Brooklyn. Garcetti misleads the public on the NFL because there is nothing that an ambitious politician loves more than those awkward stadium groundbreaking photos where he (or she) wears a pricey suit with a silver hard hat and holds a shovel. Politicians crave them because, they feel, the massive cost of the project to the taxpayers takes a backseat to being able to claim that they brought a sports team and thousands of jobs to the area. 

In each chapter of Garcetti’s career in City Hall he never got that photo so he issues statements and Tweets, all deceptively. 

(Note: there is an unintentionally humorous and ironic anecdote on Mayor Poulson’s Wikipedia page which reads “Poulson's victory in the Los Angeles mayoral race came after a contentious battle in which his opponent, incumbent Mayor Fletcher Bowron, claimed that the Los Angeles Times wanted to control city government and, by endorsing Poulson, would have a puppet in the mayor's office.)

Some things never change, but I digress. 

Garcetti’s NFL charade is nothing new. During his failed quest for the Rams to make the City of Los Angeles its permanent home, he discouraged other U.S. mayors from doing the same thing, telling ESPN, “Don't be so desperate for a sports franchise and don't put your city in debt for decades.” 

But that is precisely what Garcetti did during his 12 years on the LA City Council, six of which he spent as its president, and during his first term as Mayor. 

Last May, I wrote that City Hall squandered too much time groveling for a Super Bowl that it wouldn’t – and didn’t – get. 

And in June, I pointed out that Garcetti was still awkwardly and deceptively Tweeting that he succeeded in getting the 2021 Super Bowl when he didn’t. 

The only rich NFL tradition that Garcetti and the LA City Council have is their ill-advised begging for it, always coming up empty and never quite telling it like it is.

(Daniel Guss, MBA, is a contributor to CityWatch, KFI AM-640, Huffington Post and elsewhere. Follow him on Twitter @TheGussReport. His opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

@THE GUSS REPORT-It’s so very “Rich” in both the proper noun and the adjective sort of way. Last week, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti appointed his adviser Rich Llewellyn as interim Chief Administrative Officer after Miguel Santana’s exit, a departure that is referred to in some corners of City Hall as another Garcetti mammal jumping off a sinking ship. 

It’s true that Llewellyn has held a number of Chief-of-Staff-ish positions in the City and has a background with the County government as well. That is valuable experience. But make no mistake; there is nothing about this appointment that will help unlock the gridlock, and rid us of waste and status quo. If anything, Llewellyn is the Super Glue that holds the deep dollar deceptions together.

Llewellyn has, at most junctures of his career, taken measures to suppress transparency that many of us CityWatch contributors and our brethren elsewhere work to crack open for you. 

In my own never-ending quest to shine a light on Garcetti’s deceptions, I had numerous occasions to make public records act requests of the Mayor’s office. 

The most shameful response ever written to me was by Llewellyn on April 27, 2016, and it takes the cake. 

In it, he explained the myriad reasons why I got virtually none of my requested records. One was an unwanted invasion of personal privacy, except that I did not request any private information. Another was that the documents are pre-decisional. I get that. You get that. There is no argument there. But Llewellyn’s third reason was perfectly telling about the corrupt nature of local politics. 

“….records for which the public interest served by withholding the records clearly outweighs the public interest served by disclosure, and may be withheld pursuant to Government Code 6255.” 

In other words, less disclosure is better than more, because the “public interest” is not, and never will be, defined. 

But as I showed in my articles throughout 2016, public interest in Garcetti World means his own personal and political interest, not ours and that of the city as a whole. 

The most telling comment about Garcetti appointing Llewellyn, who served as Chief Deputy and Chief of Staff respectively, to those paragons of virtue former City Attorney Rocky “Crash” Delgadillo and current Councilmember Paul Koretz, is this assurance from City Council President Herb Wesson: “We are pleased the Mayor is committed to a national search to fill the vacancy of Chief Administrative Officer.” 

Wesson was similarly committed to finding a replacement for Felipe Fuentes (who shockingly quit his City Council position in his first term) but decided that Fuentes’ district was better off with himself (Wesson) running it than it would be by immediately electing someone who actually lived there. 

Llewellyn is the ultimate insider where the game first and foremost involves kicking the can down the road and keeping elected officials employed in their jobs or getting them elected to the next ones. His career of knowing the insider stuff will serve the city’s 18-elected officials well, but will benefit few others. Well-paid insiders rarely do right by the people, and you shouldn’t expect this appointment to be any different.

(Daniel Guss, MBA, is a contributor to CityWatch, KFI AM-640, Huffington Post and elsewhere. Follow him on Twitter @TheGussReport. His opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

CITYWATCH ‘FIRST PERSON’ COVERAGE BEGINS THURSDAY--More than 20 U.S. lawmakers have now said they will not attend Friday's inauguration ceremony, while Saturday's Women's March continues to gain steam. 

TNN Editor/Publisher Dianne Lawrence will provide ‘first person’ perspectives on Saturday’s Women’s March from Washington DC beginning Thursday in CityWatch.

Fusion is keeping a list of representatives who are skipping President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration—a list that grew overnight after Trump lashed out  at Rep. John Lewis in a series of tweets. 

"While I do not dispute that Trump won the Electoral College, I cannot normalize his behavior or the disparaging and un-American statements he has made," California Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) said in a statement on Saturday. "For me, the personal decision not to attend Inauguration is quite simple: Do I stand with Donald Trump, or do I stand with John Lewis? I am standing with John Lewis."

In a statement posted online Sunday morning, Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) declared:

I was planning on attending the Inauguration on Friday out of respect for the office of president, while still making it back home on Saturday to attend the Women's March in Madison. However, after long consideration based on reading the classified document on Russian hacking and Trump's candidacy on Thursday, the handling of his conflicts of interest, and this weekend's offensive tweets about a national hero Rep. John Lewis, I am no longer attending the event. At minimum, it's time for Donald Trump to start acting like President Trump, not an immature, undignified reality star with questionable friends and a Twitter addiction. I hope for better, but will not hold my breath.

Speaking to Politico, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, suggested there might be similar announcements in the works. 

"You can guarantee this will cause people to organize with even greater intensity," he said of Trump's attacks on Lewis. "This will make it even more likely that additional members skip the inauguration."

Many of those who are ditching Friday's festivities have explicitly stated that they do plan to participate in the Women's March on Washington happening the following day—or in a solidarity event taking place closer to home.

The march's organizers this week released a four-page platform (pdf) described as "the definition of intersectional feminism" and "an unapologetically radical, progressive vision for justice in America." In keeping with the march's broad agenda, the document does not mention Trump, but honors "the legions of revolutionary leaders who paved the way for us to march," including Ella Baker, Berta Cáceres, Rachel Carson, Shirley Chisholm, Winona LaDuke, Audre Lorde, Gloria Steinem, and Harriet Tubman. 

"Our liberation is bound by each other's," its authors write, outlining demands including:

• accountability and justice for police brutality and ending racial profiling and targeting of communities of color;
• dismantling the gender and racial inequities within the criminal justice system;
• reproductive freedom;
• LGBTQIA rights;
• workforce opportunities that reduce discrimination against women and mothers;
• rights, dignity, and fair treatment for all unpaid and paid caregivers;
• a living minimum wage;
• restoring and protecting voting rights; 
• ending mass deportation, family detention, violations of due process, and violence against queer and trans migrants; and
• clean water, clean air, and access to and enjoyment of public lands.

"We believe Gender Justice is Racial Justice is Economic Justice," the document reads. "We must create a society in which women, in particular women—in particular Black women, Native women, poor women, immigrant women, Muslim women, and queer and trans women—are free and able to care for and nurture their families, however they are formed, in safe and healthy environments free from structural impediments."

There's a good chance the Women's March will outdraw Trump's inauguration—despite the president-elect's Saturday night claim that his celebration "is turning out to be even bigger than expected." 

The Washington Post reported Thursday that "far more parking permits are being sought for buses for the Women's March on Washington the day after inauguration than for the inauguration itself," according to D. C. city council member Charles Allen.

Meanwhile, pink yarn is reportedly flying off the shelves as knitters fashion pink "pussy hats" for Saturday's demonstration, and Broadway star Jennifer Holliday said this weekend that she would not, in fact, perform at an inaugural event Thursday after outcry from fans. 

(Deirdre Fulton writes for Common Dreams … where this report originated. Watch for CityWatch ‘first person’ coverage beginning Thursday.)

-cw

EXPOSED--Last week, we reported on Councilmember Cedillo’s possible violation of LA Municipal Code section 49.5.5b in his quest to keep his CD 1 seat. Cedillo doesn’t appear to be changing course, according to activist Marc Caswell, who first shared this info with CityWatch. 

One of the attendees at Cedillo’s kickoff event on Saturday emailed Caswell with additional ethics violations. Photos from the event show taxpayer funded newsletters at the check-in table – next to campaign materials, a definite no-no. (See photo above) 

He also reported at least two CD1 staff members at the event were sporting City Seals, a second no-no. (See photo below left.) 

Both activities would be in violation of the Los Angeles Governmental Ethics Ordinance (LAMC 49.5.5) for misuse of city position and resources. 

Three formal complaints have been filed detailing that at the January 14 ‘Gil Cedillo for City Council’ campaign event held at 1139 W. 6^th Street, Council Office staff members Fredy Ceja and Conrado Terrazas both wore Team Cedillo windbreaker jackets, prominently displaying the official City Seal of the City of Los Angeles. 

In addition, the complaint cites Misuse of City resources through the “use of two Council Office-funded newsletters, (“1Voice/1Voz Summer 2016 and Winter 2016) distributed by City Staff at the sign-in table for the campaign event and placed beside a prominently displayed “Gil Cedillo, Democrat for City Council District 1’ banner, manned by Council Office staff members Alfonso Palacios, Suzano Muro, Moniquea Roberson, and Kimberly Salazar. 

The complainant continued: four stacks of Council Office-prepared newsletters bearing the City Council District 1 field office address of 5577 Figueroa Street were displayed and distributed adjacent to the sign-in sheets, along with “Gil Cedillo for Los Angeles 2017” buttons and stickers. The newsletters, according to the attendee, indicated that they were “published by The Office of Los Angeles City Council District 1. 

“It is unclear,” he said, “how Gilbert Cedillo’s campaign was provided with this large quantity of taxpayer-funded newsletter materials for use as a campaign advertisement at the event.” 

These reports raise serious ethics questions about the candidate. Is Cedillo … a long time Los Angeles politico … unfamiliar with the law? Does he think no one is paying attention? Or, with today’s soft corruption climate at City Hall, does Cedillo presume no one cares?

The search for answers goes on. Stay tuned.

(Beth Cone Kramer is a Los Angeles writer and a columnist for CityWatch.)

-cw