LOS ANGELES

THE CITY - Home: The dense metropolis of Kolkata is among the only places in India -- and one of the few left in the world -- where fleets of hand-pulled rickshaws still ply the streets.  

COVID WATCH - It was more than two weeks ago that Dr. Peter Hotez, a nationally recognized vaccinologist, put it in plain language.

COVID WATCH - The next time someone tries to tell you that implementing restrictive COVID-19 policies affecting the public is nearly impossible, point them to San Francisco. Or New York City. Or the State of California. Or even Pasadena,

BRAINPOWER DUMBING - The near hysteria, though justifiable, among conservatives concerning the imposition of racialist Critical Race Theory (CRT) in schools fails to address how this theology both reflects and contributes to the “systemic” decline of education itself.

LGBTQ NATION - Ed Buck, the gay white millionaire on trial for the deaths of two Black men, has been found guilty on all nine felony counts.

PLANNING WATCH-The Atlantic magazine, a consistent source of thoughtful American opinion since 1857, has added its voice to the chorus praising trickle-down housing policies through Conor Friedersdorf’s essay: The California Dream is Dying.

RANTZ & RAVEZ-I have been writing RantZ & RaveZ for a number of years. My observations and comments reflect over 70 years of residency in the City of Los Angeles and neighboring communities.

RIGHTS OF THE UNHOUSED-Organizations from across Los Angeles (including U.T.A.C.H, LACAN, LATU, Unión de Vecinos, Reclaiming our Homes, and members of the SNS coalition) gathered at City Hall on Wednesday to protest the City Council’s second hearing of Councilmember Mark Ridley Thomas’s alternate motion that bans sitting, lying down, and sleeping on large swaths of LA sidewalks, leaving the unhoused to ask the question, “Where will we go?”  

COMMENTARY - My view from the ground as a Southern California community organizer is aligned with the latest poll released by Berkeley.

GELFAND’S WORLD - It was one of those half-hours when strangers are thrown together and begin to chat. After all the standard, polite commiseration about how complicated life had become, one fellow said, "I'm young and healthy. Do I really need to get vaccinated? Who will tell us the truth?" A woman in the same area seconded the "young and healthy" line with a similar level of skepticism about the vaccine.

THE CITY-Margaret Sullivan (photo above) writing in the Washington Post (Bezos) recommended more coverage of democracy, less politics.  

THE DOCTOR IS IN-We're exhausted and caught between competing messages and conflicting agendas that vex and infuriate virtually everyone. 

FAIRFAX DEVELOPMENT - On Wednesday, July 7, the Department of City Planning held a public hearing as part of the environmental review process for the large new development planned for 800-840 S. Fairfax Ave.

VIEW FROM HERE - Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye, the 28^th Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, does not deserve all the credit for California’s judiciary’s descent into a cesspool of corruption. 

PROGRESSIVE POLITICS - Millennials have long been cast as the great progressive hope, or "New Progressive America: The Millennial Generation," as one study would have it.

CIVIL LIBERTIES - However improbable, this has become the summer we talk about conservatorship.

COMMENTARY - Those who want voters to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom joined crime victim advocates at the state Capitol last Tuesday to accuse the governor of being too lenient on lawbreakers as the state experiences a new wave of crime.

CAL MATTERS - A little more than a month after California fully reopened, the state’s coronavirus positivity rate has skyrocketed from 0.7% to 5.2% — a figure not seen since early February.

DATA POWERFUL - Amazon continues its relentless crusade to monopolize markets, crush rivals, and extract as much data as possible from unsuspecting consumers and third-party merchants. 

ALPERN-AT-LARGE-It's probably a safe conclusion that many, if not most, Angelenos, want LA Mayor Eric Garcetti to become President Biden's new Ambassador to India just to get his failed mayoral leadership as far away from Los Angeles as possible. 

GELFAND’S WORLD-The City of Los Angeles is moving towards a system in which civic employees can be accused of thought crimes and disciplined for a joke or tone of voice or perhaps just a raised eyebrow.