LOS ANGELES

PLANNING WATCH-At LA’s City Hall genuine and contrived planning processes are quickly repurposed so City Hall’s little-known alchemists can transform commercial properties in aging LA neighborhoods into modern gold.

EASTSIDER-I usually stick to the local political scene, but with all the whining and hand-wringing of the establishment Democratic Party, I couldn’t help myself. 

GUEST COMMENTARY--The future of a proposed housing project on Hilgard Avenue is uncertain following the sale of an adjacent property by the project developers.

GELFAND’S WORLD--Were the impeachment hearings really as frustrating as many of us felt? In a way, they were, due to the failure of the Republicans to break ranks and admit to the terrible truth.

ALPERN AT LARGE-Lemme get this straight: crime rates are. . .down? So why is everyone I know, you know, and we all know increasingly scared? 

GUEST WORDS-Do you remember when the Republican Party was led by staunchly anti-communist Cold Warriors such as Ronald Reagan, issuing dark warnings that the Soviet Union was an “Evil Empire” posing an existential threat to America’s freedoms and way of life?

AT LENGTH-Listening to the Trumpster’s endless rebukes, Twitter attacks and denials are enough to make one question the sanity of it all.

NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL BUDGET ADVOCATES-(This is the fourth in a series of articles on the history of the Budget Advocates.) 

ALPERN AT LARGE--The lack of parking--or at least accessible parking--is a problem that we increasingly encounter in the City of the Angels. We know we need parking, but we want "someone else" to pay for it. 

SOUTH OF THE 10--Compton City Attorney Damon Brown is proposing an ordinance that will ban e-cigarettes in the city of Compton. Brown gave an oral presentation at this week’s city council meeting declaring he will return with an ordinance for the councils approval.

@THE GUSS REPORT-It’s no wonder that Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti can’t stop the ever-worsening homeless crisis that ballooned on his watch; he can’t even get out the door two pigs with a safe, open sanctuary waiting for them. 

GUEST WORDS--As the struggle for immigrant rights continues to be fought across America, new battlegrounds may come into view, then fade from public attention.

EDUCATION POLITICS--Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke with her constituents in The Bronx on Sunday about a public housing plan under the Green New Deal.

ONE MAN’S OPINION-The impeachment process has removed only one President, Richard M. Nixon. Whoa! Hold your horses, I said the “impeachment process.”  

DEEGAN ON LA-Often, the very thin membrane between going to bed in your own home at night, or waking up homeless on the streets the next morning, is a single piece of paper called an unlawful detainer, which is part of the legal process, using a court, to evict someone from their home when the tenant has not paid their rent to the landlord. 

BCK FILE-The prototypical TV or film western climaxes in a fight between two cowboys on a dusty street, a classic struggle of good vs. evil.

CONNECTING CALIFORNIA--Peace out, Pacifica.

Don’t despair, Del Mar.

Never stress, Newport Beach.

ALPERN AT LARGE--As with racism, the national debt, the cost of health care, rent and living expenses, and illegal immigration, there's a long-overdue discussion to be had...

TRUTHDIG--I’ve followed this issue during the campaign. Some candidates have made passing mention of the need for affordable housing, a popular issue related to homelessness.

VIEW FROM HERE--If the chief of a fire department purposely refuses to deploy firefighters until the victims curry a personal favor, the public would view such an action as not only a violation of their professional duty but also criminally negligible.

PLANNING WATCH-To solve a worsening problem, like homelessness, you have to ask the right questions if you intend to come up with the right answers.