LOS ANGELES

GUEST COMMENTARY-There has been a lot of ink about José Huizar’s precipitous fall from being the all-powerful chair of the Los Angeles City Council Planning and Land Use Management Committee (PLUM) to being indicted on Federal racketeering charges. 

SPECIAL REPORT--Mob-like intimidation tactics deployed against our community leaders, using Black and Brown people's retirement dollars to cut backroom deals that harm Black and Brown communities, and bringing in corrupt Black developers and telling bold-faced lies in an attempt to divide the community:

@THE GUSS REPORT-Politicians should learn to embrace their mistakes and say hey, I’m human and made a mistake, can we let this one go?

ELECTION POLITICS-I moved to Koreatown more than twenty years ago. The organization I worked for opened its office here.

LEANING RIGHT--It's not unusual for a politician to divert and diminish glaring problems so that he/she can avoid being the obvious perpetrator or enabler of said problems.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING-Which would you say the City of LA needs more of right now, hotels or housing? 

HOUSING POLITICS-Two of three HHH Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) projects in Skid Row have estimated completion dates for the fall of this year, while the third project is specified for completion in the winter of 2021.

HOUSING POLITICS--In analyzing Proposition 21 earlier this year, California’s nonpartisan independent Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) noted that the anti-housing initiative could result in a decline in property values for homeowners and impact renters as well.

@THE GUSS REPORT-It is rational for Americans on the left to see the U.S. Senate moving forward with President Donald Trump’s election-year nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the United States Supreme Court as unfair and hypocritical. 

ONE MAN’S OPINION--The notion that America is a democracy is an example how a lie told 1,000 times becomes the truth.

WHY CALIFORNIA IS ON FIRE---Record setting fires burn in the Western U.S. These fires of recent years are the largest in the California history, and to date 3.2 million acres have burned, tragically taking lives, homes and structures, and property.

GELFAND’S WORLD--Donald Trump believes that if the ballot count comes up against him, then the election must have been rigged. He refuses to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses. 

PLANNING WATCH-The South Pacific cargo cults are gone, but we have plenty of modern cults, and the one I regularly encounter is the Supply-and-Demand cult.

GUEST WORDS-Can you access your bank account online? Are you able to refill your prescriptions online? Do you have children trying to keep up with their school classes using the Internet?

EASTSIDER-Right by an elementary school, across from the restaurant that was formerly Mom’s Tamales, the troubled Avenue 34 Luxury Project wants to use old, outdated data to gentrify Lincoln Heights and cycle out the mostly low-income largely Latino and Asian folks who actually live in the area. 

LEANING RIGHT-Liberals and conservatives, young and old, and renters and homeowners need to come together in each community and neighborhood council to address the following "laundry lists" for their Community Plan Updates. 

HOUSING IS A HUMAN RIGHT-As the battle over California’s Proposition 21 heats up, Steve Maviglio, the contentious political consultant based in Sacramento, is taking center stage as spokesman for the No on Prop 21 campaign.

HOUSING POLITICS-The shortage of affordable housing in LA County and across the state has meant that many families who live here cannot afford the cost of an apartment or single-family home—causing some families to share homes instead. 

PERSPECTIVE--Although this is mainly a piece in honor of the life of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, there is an important personal caveat. 

PERSPECTIVE--The City of Los Angeles is in dire financial condition.  It was in bad condition before Covid 19; things have gotten worse since the pandemic. 

CLIMATE POLITICS-The World Wildlife Foundation, in collaboration with the Zoological Society of London, recently issued an eye-popping description of the forces of humanity versus life in nature,