In the News
The Impending Aesthetics of Displacement (or, Why the North Westlake Design District Is Just Another YIMBY Policy)
Weber is not entirely wrong: Westlake, like the rest of Los Angeles, could undoubtedly benefit from city infrastructure not built by and for the auto industry. What Weber and his fellow city officials miss in their backing of the Design Di…
Gaslighting Californians: No, You're NOT Crazy, But Your Government is Trying to Make You Think You’re a Whack Job
ALPERN AT LARGE--Word of the day: GASLIGHTING. This happens increasingly in the United States, and throughout the world, but especially he…
The Doctor is In … the CA Insurance Commissioner Race
BCK FILE--As a Southern California pulmonologist and doctor of internal medicine, Dr. Asif Mahmood (photo above, right)has been at the fron…
SB 831: Senator Wiener’s Wacky World on Steroids Must be Defeated!
CALL TO ACTION-On January 4, 2018, Senator Bob Wieckowski introduced SB 831, a bill that would have amended the just-last-year enacted "Gra…
Sanctuary Cities … Like Los Angeles … are Sacred Spaces
PERSPECTIVE--According to the Syracuse Post-Standard, data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) states that: "In 2016 in the Buff…
Ports O’Call Demolition: A Town Hall that Was Not
AT LENGTH-Six months ago, the Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka, agreed with my suggestion to hold a public meeting updati…
Orange County Still Acts Like Mayberry R.F.D. When It Comes to Immigrants and the Homeless
CONNECTING CALIFORNIA--Why does a place as big and beautiful as Orange County so often behave in ways that are both small and ugly?
Listen Up LA! We Need Good Jobs and Local Water Projects, Not a Delta Tunnel
GUEST WORDS-As a pastor, there are times when I must speak on behalf of the everyday concerns of my congregation and community.
How a Paralyzed LAUSD May Enable LA’s Next School Shooting
@THE GUSS REPORT-On any given day, the LAUSD is a trudging bureaucracy. But over the course of a year trying to get it to address a multitu…
Don’t Like What the Press is Saying about You? Do What the tech Oligarchs Do … Just Buy It
NEW GEOGRAPHY--What’s an oligarch to do? The putative tech masters of the universe now face unprecedented criticism from both leftand right…
Buying Your Way into College … and Depression
FIRST PERSON-I have written extensively about the purposefully segregated, inherently inferior public education system in de factosegregate…
Bad Reflections: Who Owns the California Court System?
CORRUPTION WATCH-In Snow White, the Wicked Witch asked, “Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who in the land is fairest of them all?”
Animal-Rescue 'Pet Shops' May Soon Open Near Homes Under Flawed LA Plan
ANIMAL WATCH-LA Animal Services and Mayor Eric Garcetti announced on January 25, that L.A had reached its "no-kill" goal for dogs in 2017 a…
LA’s Mayor: Developers’ Water Boy?
LA WATCHDOG--The development of the 27 story luxury high rise development at Catalina and 8th Street in Koreatown (photo above)has hit a sn…
Will Anyone be Accountable for Stephon Clark’s Death?
CAL MATTERS-As the capital of the nation’s most complex and populous state, Sacramento is no stranger to protest marches and other forms of…
Why Do Angelenos Believe Dumb Stuff?
CORRUPTIONISM-Answer: for the same reason that so many people are fat. There is a lot of junk information and it makes us feel good.
There’s More to a Trade War Than Jacking Up a Few Tariffs
GELFAND’S WORLD--From a political standpoint, the Chinese are right to counterattack in the trade war by going after soybeans. That is a di…
SB 827 Is NOT About Transit--It's About Overdevelopment
ALPERN AT LARGE--SB 827--you know, the Wiener Bill from Sacramento that proposes ending city oversight over zoning and environmental law ne…
Professor Amy Wax: Racist or Truth Teller or … a Little Bit of Both?
FIRST PERSON--Amy Wax.began dealing with- or if you will- stubbornly failing to deal with, what remains the intractable issue of racism in…
People and Job Exodus: SoCal’s Growing Demographic Dilemma
NEW GEOGRAPHY-For much of the past century, Southern California has been driven by ever increasing population growth. That era has now ende…
