LOS ANGELES

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.

ONE MAN’S OPINION-Query: What is wrong with Los Angeles? Answer: Angelenos. “The fault rests, dear Brutus, not in the stars but in ourselves.”  -- Cassius, Julius Caesar (I, ii, 140-141) 

@THE GUSS REPORT-This weekend, federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) launched raids in a handful of American cities to capture and remove from the United States thousands undocumented immigrants who are not only in the United States illegally, most of whom committed other crimes while here, but who also who ignored a federal judge’s orders to exit the U.S.

ENVIRONMENTAL BOOK REVIEW-In his new book, “Food or War,” Julian Cribb writes, “The most destructive object on the planet…is the human jawbone.” (Cambridge University Press, 2019, p.177). 

GELFAND’S WORLD--We've been talking a lot about earthquake awareness of late, but there's one more topic that bears mentioning. It will seem science-fictional at first, but there's serious, real-world significance to it.

NEW GEOGRAPHY--It would be comforting if Nike’s decision to ditch its “Betsy Ross” flag sneakers at the behest of former NFL quarterback and social justice warrior Colin Kaepernick was exceptional, but, sadly, it is not.

ALPERN AT LARGE--This piece is neither "pro-Trump" nor "anti-Trump” and is neither "pro-Democrat" nor "anti-Democrat".

CHARTER WARS-An email thread documenting the unseemly coziness between LA schools superintendent Austin Beutner and the California charter school lobby set off political pyrotechnics late last month when the investigative blog — and indefatigable California public records miner — Michael Kohlhaas dot org published a cache of documents revealing the covert relationship in the midst of last year’s contract stalemate with UTLA.