LOS ANGELES

GUEST WORDS--Urban planning exists to serve people and communities, not the other way around. Unfortunately, urban planners these days, perhaps under the influence of academic arrogance as well as the lure of developer dollars, seem to forget this simple truism.

CORRUPTION WATCH-The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5) does not list a Sadistic Personality Disorder. But the DSM is a work in progress, so its on and off approach to sadism does not mean the problem is not real.

ALPERN AT LARGE--There's been a lot of increases in the Mar Vista region (which is smack dab in the center of the Westside), and a lot of decreases as well.  We've got increased commute times, increased cut-through traffic through residential neighborhoods, potentially an increased response time for first-responders, and certainly an increased division among neighbors, thanks to "the Road Diet". 

GELFAND’S WORLD--Earlier this week, Donald Trump was shown on television pulling the United States out of the Iranian anti-nuclear deal. Trump likes to say that unlike other politicians, he keeps his word. We got a bit more of that bragging this time around: 

GUEST WORDS--The City has a problem. The Urban Forestry Division (UFD) has scores of trees sitting in boxes in storage that it can’t plant. Why is this? In large part it’s because when developers remove trees to build projects, they agree to replace them by purchasing new ones for the City to plant elsewhere.

BCK FILE--A GOP candidate for the Senate seat held by longtime incumbent Dianne Feinstein, Patrick Little was removed from the Republican state convention in San Diego on Saturday. Patrick Little, a Holocaust denier who characterizes himself as a “Counter-Semitic” and a white nationalist, polled as high as 18 percent in an April 27 SurveyUSA poll. 

GELFAND’S WORLD--I took a swipe at the annual Neighborhood Council Congress in a previous column and got some positive feedback. In brief, I suggested that the yearly meeting spend less time on goody-goody subjects.

ALPERN AT LARGE--For the past several decades, honest and generous taxpayers have bravely offered their hardworking dollars to creating an Expo Line, a Wilshire Subway, a Foothill Gold Line, a LAX/Metro Connection, and a Downtown Light Rail Connector to help wrap these projects together in a coherent rail network. 

@THE GUSS REPORT-It was a brutal suggestion, to say the least, from a member of the public at Friday’s LA City Council Jewish Heritage Month event, where Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti spoke a few minutes earlier at the same podium: 

VIEW FROM HERE--Loyalists of the western empire have been growing increasingly honest about their desire to use censorship and propaganda in order to win an “information war” against Russia.

PERSPECTIVE--Serious issues are surfacing at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). These issues are reflected in disparities’ that involve civil rights, education, discrimination and employment. An adverse treatment that has a direct impact on members of a particular minority group and the failure to enforce implicit rules that regulate behaviors seem to be non-existent.

FIRST PERSON-In the selection of Austin Beutner as the new Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) permanent superintendent last Tuesday, those against his choice found his biggest deficit to be his lack of a background in education.

AT LENGTH-For as long as I can remember, the narrative pushed by the Port of Los Angeles and other boosters of industry and commerce has been this: the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are an “economic engine” that are jointly responsible for more than $400 billion in annual cargo value and create some 190,000 jobs in Los Angeles and Long Beach. That’s 1 in 12 jobs with an impact of creating 2.8 million jobs nationally in direct or indirect employment. 

PUBLIC ED IN PERIL?-That noisy rumbling sound in LA County comes from teachers who are in “teacher jail” rattling their cages at the news this week that the bought and paid for LAUSD Board of Education announced they hired Wall Street billionaire, Austin Beutner, to finally privatize the District.

CORRUPTION WATCH-Vicious, predatory and unaccountable are three words that describe the environment for starlets near Harvey Weinstein, for children coached by Jerry Sandusky at Penn State, and for Olympic gymnasts who had Larry Nassar for their doctor at Michigan State University.  These three words also describe the California judiciary. 

Institutions that have an isolated predator in their ranks differ from institutions whose very culture is vicious, predatory and unaccountable. The distinguishing feature is how the institution reacts to the abuse. Does it protect the victim or the abuser? Hint: Systems that use secrecyand terrorto perpetuate their abusive behavior are corrupt.           

Predators Use Secrecy and Terror Against their Victims 

The Olympic Committee used secrecy when it told parents that the molestations had to remain undisclosed because publicity would interfere with official investigations. The reality is that parents’ disclosing what happened to their teenaged girls would have blown the cover-up. The terror was the threat that their children would be excluded from the only programs that could enable them to achieve their gymnastic dreams. 

These techniques were also Harvey Weinstein’s modus operandi. His victims had to keep his molestations and rapes secret or else “they’d never work in this town again.” With Penn State, there was secrecy and terror. The few who knew about Sandusky’s molestations had to remain silent in terror of their careers being destroyed. The 2015 movie Spotlight, showed how the Catholic Church used secrecy and terror against its victims to perpetuate sexual abuse. 

The California judicial system is adept at both secrecy and terror to guarantee that there is no accountability for its vicious predatory behavior. 

Secrecy: The First Level of Judicial Protectionism 

In California all public meetings are subject to the Brown Act, Government Code, §§ 54950-54963 -- except the courts. Under the Brown Act any member of the public can record any public meeting as long as the recording does not interfere with the meeting. Recording court proceedings, however, is tightly controlled. 

As Anatole France observed, “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges . . .” In Los Angeles, both the rich and poor may record court proceedings.

NEW GEOGRAPHY--In the past, wrote historian Kevin Starr, California “was a final frontier: of geography and of expectation.” Today in the Trump era, California remains a frontier, but increasingly one that appeals largely to progressives. “California,” recently suggested progressive journalists Peter Leyden and Ruy Teixeira, “today provides a model for America as a whole.”

420 FILE--On Monday the Los Angeles Department of Cannabis Regulations (DCR), Executive Director Cat Packer presented to the City Council Budget and Finance Committee made up of Council Members; Chair Paul Krekorian, Mitch Englander, Paul Koretz, Bob Blumenfield and Mike Bonin in consideration of the Mayor’s Budget for the fiscal year 2018-19.  Councilmembers focused on two areas; Enforcement and Cannabis applications. 

BELL VIEW-The conviction of Bill Cosby this week on three counts of aggravated indecent assault once again stirred the pot of the #MeToo movement. By adding race to the mix, Cosby’s conviction gave those frightened of the movement of women to take control of the narrative of their lives more ammunition.

ALPERN AT LARGE--I ended my last CityWatch column calling all adults (including JFK Democrats and Reagan Republicans):  Retake your liberalism before it's too late!   

EASTSIDER-Sometimes god just hands you the perfect juxtaposition of events that crystallize the state of our United States of America today. The overlap of the Milken Institute’s Global Conference (April 29 - May 2) with labor’s annual May Day (May 1) celebration is such an event. 

GELFAND’S WORLD--During the 2016 election campaign, conservatives made a big deal about political correctness.