LOS ANGELES

NC PROVIDES A REAL VOICE FOR COMMUNITY--Neighborhood Councils who count strategic, long-term thinkers among their members can be important players in regional and local land use and transportation matters – both on their own and as partners with other community leaders and organizations.

GELFAND’S WORLD-It is interesting that John Paul Stevens, a retired Justice of the Supreme Court, has just published an essay calling for the repeal of the Second Amendment. Just like the fact that the term democratic socialism isn't scary to the younger generation, there are -- suddenly -- a few calls for amending the Constitution in this way. Perhaps the idea doesn't scare the younger generation because the prospect of being murdered during second period English scares them more.

BELL VIEW--Dehumanization: the process by which tribal politics justifies every excess. Donald Trump may be a crook, but he’sour crook in a crooked system. His policies may be cruel, but the cruelty is the point when those people are the victims. After all, they have no inner lives. They exist only to victimize us. 

RANTZ & RAVEZ-I attended the LAPD Mounted Unit open house last Saturday at their headquarters near Griffith Park and listened to the mounted unit officers discuss their unique and specialized ability to ride a horse in a major metropolitan city with traffic congestion, pedestrians and other serious hazards. The expertise of these mounted officers is impressive, to say the least. The well-trained and experienced officers and horses serve an important function in crowd control during special events and in patrolling high crime areas. When you see the mounted officers, stop and let them know you appreciate their service. 

MY TURN--We can almost set our clock around post-Thanksgiving time when we will begin to see the start of the ranting about the prejudice in saying “Merry Christmas”. One has to wonder if it is part of the church sermon schedule and parishioners are given a list of what they think are disparages that fall upon their religion.

CALMATTERS-Just a few weeks before Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized for the “breach of trust” that allowed Cambridge Analytica to access the private social media activity of 50 million people, Facebook plunked down $200,000 to fight a data privacy initiative in California. 

FIRST PERSON-Last Thursday at KPCC's Crawford Family Forum in Pasadena guests Fabian Debora, community connection director, Arts for Incarcerated Youth Network; Kim McGill, organizer with Youth Justice Coalition; and Dave Mitchell, deputy director, LA County Probation Department of Residential Treatment Services Bureau, gave an inspired presentation on how using an arts education program has been successful in breaking patterns caused by a dysfunctional, punitive model that has resulted in hyper-expensive often lifelong incarceration and criminal recidivism. 

IMMIGRANTS’ RIGHTS-Riding a bus while brown is not illegal, of course, but the letter of the law and how laws are actually enforced are not often the same thing. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, having skin that’s darker than pale is an increasingly common reason for U.S. immigration agents to interrogate a passenger — without a warrant, without probable cause — on private buses across the country, far from any border. 

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-The urban growth machine, including its enablers in public office and academia, dish out endless cover stories to camouflage their hidden agenda of priming the pumps of real estate speculation. When one of their self-serving theories bites the dust, they quickly advance another one, knowing they can depend on the corporate media and “business-friendly” policy experts to quickly pickup the beat. 

Everyone in L.A. knows homelessness is one of the biggest challenges facing our region and last year voters delivered a clear mandate: Help people come off the streets and into homes. An overwhelming majority supported ballot measures to raise nearly $5 billion to tackle the issue. The funds will build housing and provide services to the more than 50,000 people in L.A. who have nowhere to sleep at night. 

ADVICE TO THE COMMITTED-The March for Our Lives was almost entirely organized by the leaders of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The event on Saturday, March 24 drew hundreds of thousands of people to Washington D.C., and it inspired other marches in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and Seattle. 

@THE GUSS REPORT-Opening day of the 2018 baseball season is on Thursday, but the joy of the diversion of the game and season is no longer enough to shield us from the things that punch us daily. Still, the Dodgers host their nemeses from the north, the San Francisco Giants, an adversary in a battle dating back a century to their days in Brooklyn and Manhattan respectively. 

DEEGAN ON LA-There are over one billion voter-approved dollars and taxes in the pipeline to help our homeless, thanks to Proposition HHH (housing) and Measure H (supportive services). Now comes a new pledge and a slogan that have been added to the rhetorical arsenal. The big picture, however, tells us we still have, according to LA City Council, 25,237 homeless people sheltering on sidewalks throughout the city. Even though there have been dozens of expectations and promises made over the years, the number of homeless is rising. But now there is money to go with the talk. 

GELFAND’S WORLD--I was a little concerned that the number of people showing up for the march against gun violence might be lower than expected. After all, it's been a month since the last mass shooting, and you know how the American people are always being accused of having a short attention span. Instead, the streets were packed and the rally area going from the City Hall to the Music Center was jammed. 

CONNECTING CALIFORNIA--California education finances are an unholy mess—with incomprehensible budget formulas, a new equity funding program that doesn’t produce equity, and cuts to schools even during the current economic expansion. And our state’s so-called education leaders steadfastly refuse to fix the system. (Photo above: Camino Real Charter High wins national Academic Decathlon.)

ALPERN AT LARGE--Fair is fair, Mr. Garcetti:  If you want to throw your hat into the 2020 presidential ring, you need to confirm if LA is better BECAUSE of you (as you will try to claim) ... and not IN SPITE of you (the sad truth). 

PIECEMEALING IN HOLLYWOOD-If you've ever been involved in the approval process for a project in your neighborhood, you know it can be a long and complicated ordeal. Developers, city officials and citizens can spend years arguing over various issues, but there are good reasons to review everything carefully. 

TRUMP WATCH--"The nation, in fact, could conceivably benefit from the indictment of a president. It would teach the valuable civics lesson that no one is above the law."

RISE UP, COMMUNITIES OF COLOR-You'll be hard pressed to find a bill in the state legislature proposed by a Democrat that is a bigger threat to the stability of our community than SB 827, authored by the State Senator from San Francisco, Scott Weiner. 

DATELINE ENCINO--The photo above are prima facie evidence that the infrastructure in and around Encino and LA is taxed and at the breaking point. While I was taking these pictures the DWP crew was insistent that I leave the area because it was just not a water main break. The force of the water from the broken main corrupted a natural-gas line which was leaking creating an explosive situation!

GUEST COMMENTARY--This may sound like a movie synopsis or the plot of a novel, but it’s a true story.