LOS ANGELES

RANTZ & RAVEZ--I recently met some friends for coffee at a shopping center in Woodland Hills.  When I arrived, they informed me that a man had approached them and attempted to sell them some drugs including marijuana. 

ALPERN AT LARGE--As with the Affordable Care Act, the GOP-drafted Tax Reform Bill of 2017 will have dramatic economic, political, and potentially cultural changes for all of us.  Presuming that the president will sign this bill, and it will become law, the big question so many of us are asking ourselves is ... will our taxes go up or down? 

HOLLYWOOD BRIGHT LIGHTS-As the year winds down, it is nice to be able to share some very positive news. Hollywood will soon be the home of two very innovative Japanese concepts, Japan House and Miniso, that are both scheduled to open within the next couple of weeks. 

EASTSIDER--If ever there was a system that is broken beyond repair, it is DONE.  As I have reported before, their election systems and Election Grievance Panels make a mockery of due process of law, and Ryu’s Committee knows it! 

BELL VIEW--If I had to come up with one word to describe this past year it would have to be “ugly.” I think that’s what gets to me the most, the unfathomable ugliness of this American moment. If beauty is truth, truth beauty – then surely we live in a false time. Ugliness has wrapped its greasy fingers around – not just Christmas – but even Thanksgiving, that most perfect holiday. 

BUDGET ADVOCATES---The Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates have been reaching out to the executive office of the LAPd for more than two months … attempting to set up our annual Charter-authorized meeting to discuss their 2018-19 budget. 

GELFAND’S WORLD--It came out this week that the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has been instructed not to use certain words in its budget documents. According to the press reports, this instruction came down from the Trump administration. At least one of the terms is "science-based." Another forbidden term is "evidence-based." 

GUEST COMMENTARY--ON January 1, the new State and City Marijuana laws kick in. 

ALPERN AT LARGE--Yes, my family is Jewish, but we love our annual holiday retreats to the Mission Inn in Riverside.  The staff is friendly, the rooms are delightful and classic, and the beds are oh-so-comfortable.  And the adjacent pedestrian-friendly walkway combined with the hotel itself makes for a daytime visit for tens of thousands of visitors every year who delight in the Christmas/Holiday lights, the fun events, and the sinful-but-delicious food that is so emblematic of the Festival of Lights. 

CORRUPTION WATCH-The handwriting has been scribbled all over the walls for more than a decade – densification is killing Los Angeles. In fact, logic tells us that we have passed the point of no return, but who doesn’t hold out hope for the Hail Mary Pass for the winning touchdown? 

LA CARES--The devastating impact of wildfires exploding across swaths of California is captured nightly in dramatic television footage. Largely unseen, though, is how those same fires affect Los Angeles’ growing homeless population, many of whom have abandoned menacing urban streets for the relative safety of woodland encampments. 

SLICING AWAY AT THE SAFETY NET-The Senate’s version of tax reform, 479 pages with last-minute, handwritten changes in the margins, passed shortly before 2 a.m. on December 2, with only one Republican voting against it. The GOP plan is a windfall for the wealthiest Americans, slashing the top corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent, and while a final version won’t be unveiled until later this week, the gains for the rich appear to come at the expense of the elderly. 

@THE GUSS REPORT-It is the proverbial loose thread on the free speech sweater. It should not have been pulled, but now that it has, it will undoubtedly cause endless additional aggravation for the Los Angeles City Council (and its committees and commissions) in 2018 and beyond. 

TENANTS’ RIGHTS-That's what City Councilman Mitch O'Farrell and United Way board member Jerry Neuman are permitting as they look the other way while residents are being ordered from their homes in a 1980s apartment tower, seen by thousands of commuters on the 101 freeway. 

CAL MATTERS-When the Legislature reconvenes and the campaigns for governor heat up next year, Californians will be hearing a lot – and a lot of hot air – about universal health care. 

CORRUPTION WATCH- People love lies, myths and feel-good beliefs, but we shun facts. The sooner we recognize that our lives are founded on our emotional attachment to lies and myths, the sooner we can combat their deleterious effects.  

DTLA SKID ROW- Last week, Philip Alston, a United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, visited Skid Row in Downtown Los Angeles as part of a national tour investigating human rights conditions for the poorest U.S. citizens. 

RACISM CUTTING BOTH WAYS-Overall, perceptions of worsening racial relations have been building since the Obama years. And now, with everything from the Kate Steinle murder verdict to President Trump’s dog-whistling Muslim tweets, they seem destined to worsen further. 

CAL MATTERS--California, which had led the nation in cracking down on crime in the 1980s and 1990s by locking up tens of thousands of felons, has dramatically reversed course in the last half-decade, to wit:

PREVEN REPORT--In California, public agencies are required to put major contracts out to bid, so why did the Mayor and City Council of Los Angeles just award a seven-year, sixty-four million dollar contract to Motorola Solutions, Inc. with no request for proposal (RFP)? 

EASTSIDER-Just when I was going to do a column on Neighborhood Councils, the National Democratic Party struck again! I just don’t understand how their politically correct and morally bankrupt pandering is supposed to gain them election victories.