LOS ANGELES

PLANNING WATCH -  Growth is an elusive term that boosters tout it as the ideal outcome of successful governance.  But what exactly is it? 

DEEGAN ON LA…The Radical Democratic Left may be left out of the crime conversation this Mayoral election season which is already shifting toward public safety as the signature issue for several prospective mayoral candidates.

THE VIEW FROM HERE - When we’re born, we dunt know nuthin’ from nuthin’ including proper grammar. 

RANDOM LENGTHS NEWS - Exposing the culture of secrecy in corporations. Putting sunshine on policing across California. Illuminating the toll the pandemic took on their neighbors.

LA POLITICS - It’s no secret that Council President Nury Martinez wants to be Acting Mayor of Los Angeles as the U.S. Senate is likely to confirm Eric Garcetti as President Biden’s Ambassador to India any day now. 

RantZ and RaveZ - The Time has come for Los Angeles County Voters to RECALL District Attorney George Gascón from office. 

WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH - Minnie Mouse will don a designer pantsuit for Disneyland Paris’ 30th anniversary celebration and conservatives are frothing over “woke politics” and polka dots.

THE DOCTOR IS IN - Back before transportation fell into the same chasm as all other politically-charged topics, there was a group of us who were transportation advocates who recognized the destruction of our overall mobility, and we focused on alternative forms of transportation: rail, bus, and all things Transit.

MY THOUGHTS - Yes, I took a long hiatus from writing articles in City Watch.  In answer to those of you who questioned my absence, there were multiple reasons.

2URBANGIRLS - The Citizens Redistricting Commission for LA County did what few other “citizen redistricting” bodies have done – stay independent.

THE DOCTOR IS IN - Contrary to all the vitriol building up against Mike Bonin over the past several years (particularly after he was re-elected overwhelmingly 4-5 years ago), Mike Bonin was for most of his political career a champion and a friend to the Westside. 

LA RACE - Across LA groups are getting together to interview candidates for local races.

CRIME WATCH - In December 2021 Los Angeles City Council member Joe Buscaino made a resolution to reinstate cash bail for those individuals arrested for low level, non-violent criminal offenses throughout the whole of the county of Los Angeles. 

PLANNING WATCH - Large cities in the US, especially Los Angeles, are now filled with squalor, with tens of thousands of people sleeping on the streets, in tents, or in cars.

FILM REVIEW - Even as a kid I never found I Love Lucy funny (that I nonetheless watched hours upon hours of it says nothing good about my childhood);

JUSTICE WATCH - Civil rights leader the Rev. Al Sharpton delivered the eulogy at the funeral for 14-year-old Valentina Orellana Peralta, who was killed by a Los Angeles police officer December 23 while shopping at a North Hollywood store.

THE DOCTOR IS IN - Perhaps all who closely follow L.A. City and local politics are well aware that--despite 25,965 legitimate CD11 signatures supporting Mike Bonin's recall--the City threshold of 27,317 signatures to qualify for a recall ballot measure was not met.

DEEGAN ON LA—-Tightening his grip on a final decision about a prospective mayoral run, businessman Rick Caruso, longtime registered as “no party preference,” made it official today with his announcement that “Today I am registering as a Democrat so that I can stand firmly on the side of the fundamental values that we will all need to invoke and enforce to thwart the coming attacks on our democracy.” 

COMMENTARY - No less than the Editorial Board of the venerable Los Angeles Times has come out to castigate SoCal leaders for opposing the developer rip-off perpetrated in the name of California’s desperate need for affordable housing. 

PLANNING WATCH -  Public opinion polls consistently report that Angelinos consider the homeless crisis to be the city’s most pressing problem.

LAKEWOOD STAKEHOLDERS - When Joan Didion passed away on December 23 of last year at the age of 87, Governor Gavin Newsom praised her as “easily the best living writer in California.”