LOS ANGELES

FIRST PERSON-On July 10, 2019, I interviewed John Lee, one of the two remaining candidates for Council District 12’s special election to replace Councilmember Mitch Englander. The election will take place on August 13, 2019. 

ONE MAN’S OPINION-People do not realize that sprawl reduces their tax burden and significantly lowers the cost of housing while increasing its quality. Even a dimwit, however, should realize that if they spend most their consumable income on high rents or on excessively high mortgage payments, they are working to support two entities: the government and Wall Street. 

@THE GUSS REPORT-The blissfully ignorant LA City Council will be back soon from its frolicking, multi-week summer recess despite the tumult, crises and emergencies it caused and failed to remedy, including the immediate health risk of a bubonic plague outbreak, according to Dr. Drew Pinsky, the apolitical M.D. heard on KABC-790 AM from noon to 3 p.m. each weekday. 

NEW GEOGRAPHY--When there is a general change in conditions, it is as if the entire creation had changed, and the whole world altered. —Ibn Khaldun, 14th-century Arab historian 

CALBUZZ--Fans of U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris rejoiced last week when the well-known Quinnipiac University Poll found her leading former Vice President Joe Biden in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination in California.

PERSPECTIVE--Trump rally participants chanted about Ilhan Omar: “Send her back! Send her back!” They are shameless so I feel shame for them.

GELFAND’S WORLD--I would like to extend upon Tim Deegan's excellent article from last week, "Help wanted: a climate Czar for LA" The article comments on action taken by the Los Angeles City Council to create the Climate Emergency Mobilization Department.

DEEGAN ON LA-Inspired by President Barack Obama to pursue a career in organizing to build community and advocate for change, Aura Vasquez (photo above) became a community organizer early on, a path that led to her leadership role as an organizer and activist for environmental justice. 

ONE MAN’S OPINION-Rats, disease, pestilence are merely symptoms of a city run by criminals.

RANTZ & RAVEZ-For the skeptics among you who are reading this edition of RantZ and RaveZ, if you think that I’m going to continue discussing the ever-increasing homeless population in Los Angeles and beyond, please read on… 

EASTSIDER-This one is going to tear up the communities in Northeast LA for a long, long time, particularly Eagle Rock, Glassell Park and adjoining areas. 

JUST SAYIN’--As I navigate life as a queer disabled woman, I frequently think of Yale political scientist James C. Scott’s concept of the “weapons of the weak.” 

GELFAND’S WORLD--The tension is almost unbearable. And that’s just watching the PBS recreation of the Apollo 11 mission that culminated in the moon walks of July 20, 1969.

ALPERN AT LARGE--For those of us looking beyond the soap opera in Washington ("Go back to where you came from?"

CONNECTING CALIFORNIA-Of all the lies Californians tell ourselves, one of the biggest is that we hate earthquakes. The unspoken truth is that we love earthquakes, as well we should. 

AN ANIMAL STORY-I recently responded to a casting call for a reality TV show. Producers were seeking folks to confess crimes—secret crimes for which they’d never been caught.

OTHER WORDS-You’ve heard the cliché: If you’re taking heat from “both sides,” you must be doing something right.

NEW GEOGRAPHY--A critical component in the rise of market-oriented democracy in the modern era has been the dispersion of property ownership among middle-income households

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-No, your eyes aren’t lying. Los Angeles is experiencing a building boom, mostly high-rise luxury hotels and apartments in a few select neighborhoods.

BCK FILE--President Trump took to Twitter Sunday am, more than doubling down on the accusations he’s a racist.

AT LENGTH-“Don’t you know … They’re talkin’ bout a revolution … It sounds like a whisper …” -- Tracy Chapman. The psychology of fear is one of the most motivating and debilitating factors of the human condition.