Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Next Step

Posted on by
A recent protest at the corner of Hollywood and Highland.

A recent protest at the corner of Hollywood and Highland.

Nationwide demonstrations against the use of deadly force by police offers have been going on for months. Protests erupted again after grand juries decided not to file indictments in both the Michael Brown and Eric Garner shootings. If you haven’t seen them on the streets, you’ve seen them in the news. There’s widespread outrage over the fact that police continue to use deadly force against unarmed men, and that our legal system seems incapable of holding anyone accountable.

It’s not just in Ferguson and New York that unarmed men are dying at the hands of the police. The LAPD has still not offered a concrete reason for stopping Ezell Ford as he was walking down the street near 65th and Broadway. They claim he reached for an officer’s gun before he was fatally shot. In Echo Park, David Martinez went out to buy some tacos for his family, and used his cell phone to call 911 when he heard gunshots. When police arrived on the scene, they shot Martinez himself, and months later he died from his injuries. This article from the Daily News offers details on recent shootings by the LAPD, and the resulting protests by angry citizens.

Shooting of Ezell Ford Protested at LAPD Headquarters

Protests are good for expressing outrage and drawing attention to an issue, but protests will only go so far. At some point you have to start thinking about concrete measures to bring about change. That’s exactly what the South Central Neighborhood Council has done. On December 16, the SCNC voted to pass the following resolution….

South Central Neighborhood Council resolves to request the Los Angeles City Council District nine, Councilmember Curren Price, to introduce the following resolution before the Los Angeles City Council chamber:

Whereas, accountability for the Los Angeles Police Department has not been achieved through the establishment of the Police Commmission, an appointed review board with no authority to discipline police officers;

And whereas, accountability for the Los Angeles Police Department has not been achieved through the establishment of the Federal Consent Decree;

And whereas, abuses of power by the Los Angeles Police Department continue to violate the Human and Civil Rights of the residents of Los Angeles;

And whereas, democracy and community control is the only way to ensure accountability for public institutions and to promote the general welfare;

Be it therefore resolved that the South Central Neighborhood Council calls upon Councilman Curren Price to introduce a resolution to the Los Angeles City Council to place on the ballot an amendment to the Los Angeles City Charter establishing democratic, community control over the Los Angeles Police Department through an all-elected, all-civilian, police control board with full authority over the department in all aspects at all levels.

They’re absolutely right. The LA Police Commisson has not been effective. They can hold hearings and talk about solutions, but they have no real power to change anything. We need an elected body that has the authority to effect change within the LAPD. This isn’t just a matter of prosecuting officers involved in shootings. We need to change the culture within the Department. We need elected representatives who will insist on accountability.

The SCNC deserves credit for taking this action. I hope Councilmember Price, and the entire City Council, take this up in the near future. And if they don’t, there are other ways to push this forward. I don’t think we’d have any trouble getting enough signatures to put it on the ballot.

Climate Change in LA

Posted on by

DSC07407

Now in the our third year of drought, it seems pretty clear to me that the climate in LA is changing. We’re getting far less rain than we used to, and the fire season is getting longer and longer. Of course, the same thing is happening all over California and throughout the Southwest. And from the reading I’ve done, it seems that the vast majority of scientists now agree that climate change is related to human activity.

Later this month in New York, the UN Climate Summit will take place. World leaders attending the summit will discuss what measures their countries can take to combat global warming. Honestly, I’m not optimistic. After years of debating this topic, we’ve made very little progress, and the consensus in the scientific community is that things are only going to get worse.

To put some pressure on the politicians, people are taking to the streets all over the globe to call attention to the very real dangers that climate change poses. Here in LA, there’s an event on Saturday, September 20. I’m going to be there. For more info, here’s the link….

Building Blocks Against Climate Change

If you’re not in the LA area, there are events happening around the globe. The link below will take you to a page that shows events all over the world.

People’s Climate Mobilisation

The UN has extensive information on climate change available on their web site.

UN Climate Summit 2014

I know there are people out there who are still skeptical about climate change. And if it turns out twenty years from now that the scientists were wrong, then you can all laugh at people like me and call us gullible fools.

On the other hand, if it turns out they were right, I don’t think anybody will be laughing.

Fourth of July on Sepulveda

Posted on by

Sepulveda
I was sitting at a bus stop on Sepulveda. It was late afternoon. There was one other guy waiting for the bus.

A man came walking up. I’d say he was around fifty. He had a full beard. From his face it looked like he’d spent a lot of time in the sun. The blue T-shirt and grey pants were both faded. No shoes, just socks on his feet. He seemed to be looking for something.

‘Hey, you guys seen a pack of Winstons?’

I took a quick look at the sidewalk.

‘No.’

But then I turned to the right and saw something that looked liked a pack of cigarettes lying on the ground a few feet away.

‘Is that it?’

I pointed. He walked over and picked them up. He opened the pack and took one out. Then he offered the pack to me.

‘No thanks. I don’t smoke.’

He sat down next to me.

‘So what’re you guys doin for the fourth?’

The other guy didn’t answer.

‘I’m just goin over to a friend’s house,’ I said. ‘We’re just gonna hang out.’

He reached into his pocket. Pulled out a small metal pipe and a cigarette lighter.

‘I’m gonna see if I can find someplace to watch the fireworks.’

‘Yeah. They got lots of shows all over the place. Maybe in Balboa Park.’

He lit his cigarette and took a drag.

‘They used to have free concerts over there,’ he said.

He went on to tell me about the bands that had played there. I said it sounded pretty cool. We went on talking aimlessly for a few minutes.

Then he put the pipe to his lips. He held the lit end of his cigarette in the bowl. Took a drag. A minute later he put the pipe to his lips again, and this time he took a really long pull.

Not long after that he started talking again, but now he wasn’t talking to me, and he wasn’t making any sense. He spoke in a low voice, and he just kind of rambled on. I couldn’t understand much of what he said. Slowly he started slouching forward. And then he kind of nodded off.

The bus came and I got on board. As I was riding down Sepulveda, I wondered how many other people like him were wandering around LA on the Fourth of July. Lost, lonely people, looking for someone to talk to, looking for a place to watch the fireworks.

How Safe Is Your Home?

Posted on by

Quake Graphic 3

I have to say I’m impressed by Mayor Garcetti’s earthquake safety plan. The idea of rating buildings according to how well they’d weather a quake, and making that information available to the public, is pretty smart. It’s been suggested that LA should a adopt a mandatory retrofit program for soft story buildings, which is what San Francisco has done. The problem, of course, is that property owners are freaked out by the potential cost. Renters aren’t happy either, since San Francisco’s law allows landlords to pass the cost along to tenants over a twenty year period.

But soft story buildings need to be upgraded. Failing to do so could mean a massive death toll when the next major quake strikes LA. So how do you get property owners and renters to support a costly retrofit program? By rating buildings according to how safe they are. Garcetti’s plan will make the public aware of how serious the threat is. People will probably be much more willing to support retrofitting once they realize that their property or their life could be at stake.

The only drawback is that this will take time. Garcetti’s earthquake czar, Lucy Jones, has emphasized that this isn’t going to happen right away. The work of creating a rating system and then actually evaluating all the buildings at risk will probably take two or three years. Let’s hope we have that much time.

But this is a good first step. I’m impressed that Garcetti is leading the way on this. I’ll be even more impressed if he makes it happen.

For more details, here’s the story from the LA Times.

Garcetti Wants Buildings Graded for Earthquake Safety

Caution: Quake Zone

Posted on by

Nrthrdge Quake

Yesterday’s small temblor was really no big deal. But it does serve as a reminder that we need to be thinking about earthquake safety. Researchers at UCLA and Berkeley have determined that there are many buildings in LA which could collapse in a major quake. They warn that thousands of “soft-story” buildings (mostly condos and apartments), and over one thousand “nonductile” concrete buildings are at risk.

Earlier this month, the LA Weekly ran an excellent article by Gracie Zheng, which not only discusses the danger we’re facing but the inability (or unwillingness) of local politicians to take action. You can read the article by clicking here.

We can make these buildings safe. It won’t be easy. It will cost money. But it can be done. San Francisco has already tackled this problem and found a solution. We need to follow their lead. If, after reading the article, you’re as concerned as I am, a good first step might be to call your council representative. Let them know you want action.

The photo above is from Wikimedia Commons. It shows a damaged building after the Northridge earthquake, and was taken by Gary B. Edstrom.

It’s Up to Us

Posted on by

protest 1

Recently the Los Angeles 2020 Commission released a report on the current state of the City of Los Angeles. A lot of people have dissed the report, and I have some gripes with it myself, but for the most part there’s no disputing the conclusions they came up with. This city’s a mess. Sure, we can say some of the commission members are pushing their own agenda, and sure, I have some problems with their process. But still, the problems they point out are real. This city’s in deep trouble.

The report details the crises we’re facing on several fronts, but it points out two areas that I think are particularly important, and closely related. First, our elected officials are sadly lacking when it comes to demonstrating leadership. Second, voter turnout for elections is appallingly low.

In the last mayoral election, only twenty three percent of registered voters went to the polls. Mayor Eric Garcetti was elected by less than thirteen percent of registered voters. I will confess up front that I did not cast a ballot. Ordinarily I make it a point to vote in every election, but I was so demoralized by the prospect of choosing between Wendy Gruel and Eric Garcetti that I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

Obviously part of the reason for the low turnout was that most Angelenos, like me, were completely underwhelmed by the candidates. We had to choose between two long-time insiders who had no new ideas, no imagination, no vision. The only real difference was that Garcetti was backed by developers and Gruel was backed by the unions. The campaigns they ran let us know that their highest priority was preserving the status quo.

And that won’t work any more. LA is facing several serious challenges. The budget is locked into chronic deficits, our water supply is seriously compromised, response times for emergency services are sub-standard, the city’s infrastructure is crumbling. We can’t afford to stick with business as usual.

While Garcetti and Gruel were the front-runners, there were several other candidates on the primary ballot, and some of them had interesting ideas about how to address these issues. I know many of you will say, ‘But the other candidates didn’t have a chance. It was either Gruel ort Garcetti.’ And this is the kind of thinking that has gotten us into the situation we’re in now.

As long as we keep voting for the same hacks, we keep perpetuating the status quo. City Hall is controlled by a group of powerful insiders who are beholden to another group of powerful special interests, mainly developers and unions. It’s the political insiders who get the money to mount high-profile campaigns, and when they get into office they keep perpetuating the same cycle of patronage and corruption. As long as we keep accepting the same old hacks, over and over again, refusing to look in new directions, refusing to think outside the box, the city will continue to be run by the same pack of losers that got us into this mess to begin with.

Maintaining the status quo is not an option. If we don’t change course, we will slide into the abyss. We need to find new leadership. We need elected officials who will actually face up to the problems, instead of looking for a way to slide around them. And the only way that’s going to happen is if we get engaged. We need to be informed. We need to be involved. We need to vote. Just because the city’s budget situation isn’t as dire this year as it was last year, don’t fool yourself. LA is sliding off a cliff, and our elected officials aren’t going to do anything unless we make them do it.

We need to act.

You can read the full report by clicking on the link below.

A Time for Truth

The photo at the top is from the Los Angeles Public Library photo archive. It shows an anti-apartheid protest, and was taken by Chris Gulker in 1989.