LOS ANGELES

THIS IS WHAT I KNOW-One of LA’s most dubious distinctions is that the city and county have the highest population of chronically homeless people in the country, almost all of whom live on the streets, according to a November report by the US Housing and Urban Development Department. Since 2013, LA’s chronically homeless population has grown by 55% to 12,536. Over a third of the nation’s chronically homeless live in California.

Back in September, Mayor Eric Garcetti declared a homelessness state of emergency and the city is working on finding innovative solutions to fund affordable housing projects. 

In the meantime, many of the homeless are subjected to seizure of the essentials they need to survive. A US Circuit Court judge ruled last Wednesday that local police have been overreaching in their confiscation of property without due cause. The LA Times reported the injunction prevents the city from seizing property without sufficient notice. The injunction also orders the city to sort and store confiscated items of value. 

The plaintiffs of a lawsuit that led to the injunction are four Skid Row residents, along with the Los Angeles Community Action Network and Los Angeles Catholic Worker, who hoped to include the entire city in the injunction that only covers Skid Row and surroundings, where more than 1,300 tons of personal property were confiscated in 2015.

Judge James Otero said, “The city, in many instances, appears to be confiscating all property, without differentiating the types of property or giving homeless people a meaningful opportunity to separate essential medications or medical equipment from their other property.” 

The city argued that the officers had provided notice before seizing the property and that some of the plaintiffs were exaggerating. Judge Otero responded that “some of the individual defendants appeared to take away property from a person lying on the sidewalk, visibly suffering physical pain.” 

The city has been tweaking an ordinance allowing for the confiscation of items left in public areas. An earlier law was struck down by court order in 2012 when it was found to have violated the Fourth Amendment rights of homeless individuals. Business and homeowners in the area have pressured the city and the police to remove the shopping carts, tents, and encampments of a growing homeless population. 

The most recent changes to the ordinance permit homeless people to keep only the possessions they can fit in a trash bin but the lack of adequate storage space precludes this. Homeless individuals tend not to be stationary so they’re left with no other storage space but the sidewalk. The city has two storage bins where the homeless may store property but space is limited and some items might not fit. Instead of coming up with additional options, the city has pursued property seizure, despite rejections in court. 

City Councilmember Mike Bonin addressed his concern about the cost of future lawsuits a few weeks ago but he voted for the recent changes nevertheless. Civil rights attorney Carol Sobel, who represents the current plaintiffs, has profited from suits against the city, taking in $1.7 million over the past few years. 

As the city continues to address the affordable housing issue, the number of chronically homeless in Los Angeles is unlikely to decrease, especially as rents continue to skyrocket. Instead of fending off lawsuits and trampling over rights, the city should focus on temporary solutions to the storage issues. Any changes should also offer an agreeable solution to business and homeowners, as well.

(Beth Cone Kramer is a successful Los Angeles writer and a columnist for CityWatch.) Photo credit: Al Seib/Los Angeles Times. Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

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CYCLE TRACKS--As Joe Linton reports in Streetsblog LA, downtown’s Los Angeles Street will soon see a protected cycle track replace the plain-paint bike lanes that connect Union Station and First Street. 

This is an undeniable Good Thing. I gladly celebrate any upgrade in bicycle facilities in any parts of the city that see, or that could see if they weren’t so daunting, lots of folks going about their business on bikes. It’s not just “One Less Car” anymore; it’s well-proven that urban bicycling improves productivity at work, boosts public health, and raises small business income. It also re-stitches the civic fabric, as people come to view their city as something more than traffic jams, and their fellow denizens as people, not just shadows behind a windshield in the next lane over. Making safe places to ride in through urban areas means that more people will ride -- and the various, albeit incomplete, bike lane networks in the central city are showing it to be so. Bikes are everywhere, and their riders are just about anyone. 

But LADOT is quoted in Linton’s article as stating that that particular stretch of Los Angeles Street was chosen because it was an easy sell: it’s mostly government offices along the route. In other words, it represents a sort of failure of nerve, and one that degrades DOT’s mission of providing access to all. How? Well, while it’s nice that all the bureaucrats can ride more safely to work and back now, and that LA can test yet another cycle track (there are several in town already), Los Angeles Street has absolutely zero accommodation for bikes where it counts, in the Fashion District. 

I ran a tiny clothing company for several years, and I still dabble in the rag trade. I have made probably hundreds of trips up and down Los Angeles Street, on foot and by bike, and I can tell you, after a decade of observation, that that street and its neighboring roadways absolutely swarm with bikes. Beaters, cruisers, fixies, road bikes, folders, homemade cargo bikes, just about every damn sort of pedal-powered two-wheeler, all duking it out in mixed traffic all day long. Yet the Los Angeles street bike lanes, now as before, stop at First Street. The Fashion District, where bikes are a significant part of the traffic mix, begins around Third and stretches south to at least Twelfth Street. 

Bad … and clueless. Really, we don’t need to “test” cycle tracks: they’ve already been tested, all over the world and in several parts of LA itself. Plenty of data has been published showing that they smooth traffic, boost safety, entice hordes of new riders onto the streets and are good for business. 

We don’t need more “tests.” We need to rationalize our roads, because the present arrangement is killing us, directly and indirectly. Another “pilot project” is little more than a delaying tactic by an agency that’s afraid to do its job.

(Richard Risemberg is a writer. His current professional activities are focused on sustainable development and lifestyle. This column was posted first at Flying Pigeon.)  Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams. 

EASTSIDER-There’s a lot to like in the Draft Short Term Rental Ordinance.  Check it out to see the exact text. In a nod to the City of Santa Monica’s Ordinance, the City of LA uses SM’s reference to “Home-Sharing” in categorizing the type of allowable short term rentals. Further, it requires the type of disclosures from the Hosts that we’ve been urging for some time. 

LA City Council has even adopted the Santa Monica idea of regulation through requiring registration and a tax certificate (fancy for hotel tax.) This provides the critical data necessary to track and enforce the Ordinance. 

Recognizing the lawsuit that is still giving City Attorney Feuer an identity crisis, the Draft Ordinance also specifically holds that renters of units cannot participate in Home-Sharing without an express approval by the landlord. That was the underlying issue in the case which proved for once and for all that short term rentals are not legal in residential zones. 

For the poor decimated folks who have been zapped from their rent-controlled apartments or their “affordable housing,” the Ordinance finally makes it clear that RSO units and designated affordable housing are exempted totally from any short term rentals. Pretty much a case of “after the horse left the barn” and “oh gee, what part of the zoning laws didn’t you understand?” But you gotta start somewhere. 

The Ordinance also provides for enforcement and fines for violation. 

Don’t Get Too Giddy 

Understand that Airbnb, HomeAway and their progeny are going to go nuts -- just like they did over the City of Santa Monica’s Ordinance, and for the same reason. 

Using Pareto’s law, around 80% of Airbnb’s profits come from around 20% of the listing entities -- entities that are in the vacation/party house business as a business. Eliminating those players from the mix seriously affects Airbnb’s bottom line – which is serious for this bunch of wannabe billionaire venture capitalist types who desperately need that IPO to monetize their wealth and fortune. Tank the profits, tank the IPO. 

So we can expect a fierce, incredibly well-funded, and uber-coordinated push back as the Draft Ordinance moves forward. 

Which brings me to my next point. If we want this Ordinance to pass, if we want to patch some holes and ambiguities in the Draft (like Santa Monica did in expressly prohibiting Vacation rentals,) then we are going to have to fight for it. 

Many of you will remember the PLUM Committee hearing that was held way back in August of last year. It was a serious food fight that had so many people attending that they had to use the Council Chambers to hold all of us. And of course, Airbnb was there in force. 

Going to the Hearing 

The City Planning Department knows that this Ordinance is contentious. Witness the fact that the Public Hearing is going to be held in the large auditorium next to the new LAPD building -- Deaton Auditorium, 100 W. 1^st Street, LA 90012. And they’re even holding in on a Saturday -- May 21 -- starting at 10:00 am so that regular people can attend. Be there. 

Not to be cynical, but the elected officials in the City of Angels respond best to two things: (1) incredible amounts of heat, as in lots and lots of citizens getting up and attending meetings, writing to Councilmembers, telephoning, emailing and such, and (2) Money. Of the two, we can never outspend Airbnb with their billions. 

But what we can do is suit up, show up, and provide the backbone for our politicians to stand up to Airbnb. They need to do the right thing for the actual people who live in Los Angeles. In this regard, I honestly believe that our Councilmembers finally understand that if we let Airbnb destroy the character of our neighborhoods, then we will have destroyed the City of Los Angeles. 

After all, in its immense and sprawling structure, only neighborhoods truly define the City. 

Hope to see you there. 

For Contact Information on the Ordinance and the Hearing:

Matthew Glesne, Housing Planner

City of Los Angeles Department of City Planning

Policy Planning and Historic Resources Division, Citywide Unit

200 N. Spring Street, Room 667, Los Angeles 90021

[email protected] | 213-974-2666

(Tony Butka is an Eastside community activist, who has served on a neighborhood council, has a background in government and is a contributor to CityWatch.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

CORRECTION—CityWatch published a story on March 31 titled: “LA’s Cash-Strapped Rec and Parks Sold Its Soul for a Million Bucks!”. 

IMMIGRATION WATCH--There is no place in the country that will be more affected by the Supreme Court battle over President Obama’s plan to shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation than sprawling Los Angeles County.

PROVOKING A NATIONAL DEBATE-On the surface, the new California Field Poll really wasn’t bad for Hillary Clinton.

THE CITY-Plans to build a park in densely-populated Koreatown were trumped by the developer of a proposed 364-unit luxury apartment project who … joined by family and business associates … contributed $25,600 to the campaign warchests of city officials, including $2,900 for Council President Herb Wesson and $4,500 for Mayor Eric Garcetti, city records show.

“Good morning and welcome to your Los Angeles City Council,” says its President Herb Wesson at the thrice weekly, pre-determined and robotic meetings that are hardly anyone’s but his.

WHO CAN YOU TRUST?—(Editor’s note: This open letter was intended for Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Jimmy Gomez. It deals with critical city planning issues and the ongoing matter of trust and transparency. We felt it was important for you to see this letter.) Photo above: LA’s ongoing air quality crisis.

BUTCHER ON LA-“Don't tell me what you value, show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you value.” -- Joe Biden.

CAMPAIGN 2016-Candidate Janice Kamenir-Reznik is the sole woman running for State Senator Fran Pavley’s 27^th District Seat. The longtime attorney and social activist shared her thoughts about the implementation of the state’s expanded Paid Family Program, the housing crisis, and education. In the second part of this interview, we discuss the drought and infrastructure issues, utilities, campaign finance reform and criminal justice.

TAX OVERLOAD--In my last CityWatch article, I addressed the national/global issue of taxes, and how the mighty who want us to pay ever more taxes have their own tendencies to avoid paying them, and to avoid playing by the rules on just about everything else. Well, the same thing applies on a local level for the City of the Angels.

EDUCATION MATTERS-In the last few days, the LA Times has published misleading information on the California Appeals Court decision this week denying the lower court ruling in the Vergara lawsuit – a suit wherein a few carefully chosen students were urged to press a lawsuit to terminate teachers without due process, changing the law pertaining to what they call tenure. In addition, this lawsuit would serve to weaken teachers unions.

RECLAIMING THE POWER-For the first time in decades, California is poised to play a significant role in determining each party’s presidential nominee. Being a reliably blue state, presidential candidates in the recent years have done little campaigning in the Golden State. As Angelenos know, whenever President Barack Obama’s entourage arrives in town, Southern California in particular has served little purpose in national and state politics other than as a source of money from the region’s Hollywood elite.

LATINO PERSPECTIVE--I want to dedicate my column this week to a great man. A man who lived his life with dignity and integrity. A man who deeply cared about his country, his city, his fellow man and a man who never betrayed his beliefs and convictions.

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-We live in a city where the Mayor’s ambitions are as high as the luxury high-rise buildings he promotes as his program to address LA’s affordable housing crisis, including homelessness. These ambitions and high-rise buildings are matched by a Mayoral staff skilled at writing press releases that make crony capitalism actually sound enlightened.

TRANSIT TALK-With the Metro Expo Line to Santa Monica scheduled to open in May, this piece revisits an interview I conducted four years ago, shortly before the opening of the first phase of Expo to Culver City. Like the line itself which follows the Pacific Electric’s right of way of the Santa Monica Air Line streetcar, I have always been a recycler.

JUSTICE--In California, murder and embezzlement cases don’t face the clock ticking on a statute of limitations. Per California law, the prosecution of felony sexual offenses is generally limited to ten years following the offense, barring DNA evidence, which may buy extra time. The bipartisan Justice for Victims Act (SB 813), which passed the Senate Public Safety Committee earlier this week, is posed to change that.

The legislation, sponsored by Senator Connie M. Leyva (D-Chino) and the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office, would allow indefinite criminal prosecution of rape and other felony sex crimes, including continuous sexual abuse of a child.

“I introduced the ‘Justice for Victims Act’ earlier this year for a simple reason: It will help to ensure that rapists and sexual predators are not able to evade justice simply because of a shortened statute of limitations,” the senator shares. “Survivors of sexual assault should always have the ability to seek justice in a court of law, even years after the alleged crime was committed.”

Senator Leyva notes that the bill would not impact the burden of proof but would provide victims more time to come to terms with the assault and to build up courage to come forward to authorities. Supporters of the bill include San Bernardino County DA Michael Ramos, California Women’s Law Center Executive Director Betsy Butler, Assembly Member Mike Gipson, and women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred.

SB 813 has strong bipartisan support from legislators, including principal co-authors Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills,) Assembly Member Mike A. Gipson (D-Carson,) Assembly Member Das Williams (D-Carpinteria) and Assembly Member Autumn R. Burke (D-Inglewood) on the Democrat side of the aisle. Republican supporters include co-authors Rocky J. Chavez (R-Oceanside) and Assembly Member Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale.)

“As a Principal co-author on Senate Bill 813, I am proud to support this legislation,” noted Assembly Member Gipson.  “Sexual assault is one of the most personally invasive crimes that can be committed against someone leading to deep pain and life-long trauma. When we think about the emotional pain that is held by the survivors of sexual assault, it is only made worse by the knowledge that you are helpless in receiving justice. SB 813 is long overdue, but will serve to ensure that if these crimes happen in the future, the state of California will have an effective remedy for the survivors who deserve closure. I serve as a proud male ally on this issue.”

The “Justice for Victims Act” is co-sponsored by San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael A. Ramos and the California Women’s Law Center (CWLC) and supported by Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley, Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey, California Police Chiefs Association, Peace Officers Research Association of California, Crime Victims United of California, End Rape SOL, National Association of Social Workers, among others.

Critics of extending the statute of limitations often point to the difficulty in mounting a prosecution or defense due to destruction of evidence including emails, text messages, and surveillance video, as well as diminished memory for details.

However, sexual assault victims may be reluctant to come forward at first, as emotional reactions may include self-doubt and shame, as well as the awareness that very few cases end in conviction. According to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN), for every 100 rapes, 32 will be reported to law enforcement; 7 will lead to arrest; 3 will be brought to prosecution; 2 will lead to felony convictions; and 2 will spend a day in prison.

Eliminating the statute of limitations should be just one of the steps taken to ensure justice for sexual assault victims. We need to provide better support to encourage victims to come forward, ensure speedier processing of rape kits, and continue efforts to educate about consent.

• For information and support for rape and sexual assault, visit www.rainn.org.

(Beth Cone Kramer is a successful Los Angeles writer and a columnist for CityWatch.)

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VOICES--(Editor’s Note: This letter is in response to John Schwada’s recent CityWatch column, “LA Activists Score Big: Reverse a ‘Backroom Deal’ at City Hall …”) “Dear Mr. Schwada. I read your article in CityWatch LA and as a well-established and seasoned Investigative Reporter I would like to ask if you can meet and or we can speak. The article written was missing key and vital information and facts as follows:

THE DEVIL’S IN THE DETAILS-Last month, the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority (METRO) released a draft of their Long-Range Transportation Expenditure Plan. When approved in June, it becomes the basis for a countywide ballot measure asking voters to extend our current one-half cent sales tax and add a new one-half cent sales tax for the next 40 years – until 2057. This is a huge decision and many voters don’t know what to do.

CAMPAIGN 2016-As State Senator Fran Pavley terms out for the 27^th District seat, Janice Kamenir-Reznik is the sole female candidate to throw her hat in the ring. Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl reminded a gathering of voters in Encino last weekend that women officeholders often lend additional oversight to issues impacting women and families. Kuehl provided the example of Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s (D-MD) sponsorship of the Bipartisan Women’s Preventive Health Amendment to the Affordable Care Act. Of course, gender shouldn’t stand alone as a reason to vote for a candidate.