WRITING
TOUGH TALK, BAD POLICY
With his new executive order, California Governor Gavin Newsom shows he's concerned more about looking like a leader on homelessness than actually being one.
Continue reading on Substack.
L.A.’S NEW REDLINING
In recent years, the City started to correct those injustices, making equity a lens for decisions about policy and budgeting. Officials recognized that we need significantly more public investment in low income neighborhoods. They understood that wealthier “higher opportunity” neighborhoods needed to provide more affordable housing and offer at least their fair share of homeless housing, shelter and services.
But city officials are now releasing wealthier neighborhoods from their obligations and asking poorer communities to once again carry a disproportionate burden, in this case to solve the citywide crises of homelessness and affordable housing. Across Los Angeles, officials are exempting the wealthiest areas from policies promoting affordable housing. On the Westside, it’s even more disturbing. City officials have defiantly refused to protect existing affordable housing, are blocking homeless housing, and are even closing interim housing sites.
Continue reading on Substack.
LA’s Corporate Class Wants to Reverse Progressive Gains
The LA left’s newfound electoral muscle has transformed the city into one of the most renter-friendly in the country. Business and real estate interests are fighting back.
Continue reading at The Nation.
A PREDICTABLE FAILURE
When the Los Angeles City Council voted to vastly expand criminalization of homelessness in 2021, its champions promised it would clear encampments from neighborhoods and force unwilling homeless people inside.
Predictably, the strategy has been a total failure.
Continue reading on Substack.
The Racist Tapes: What I Heard
For most people, the infamous Fed Tapes are probably a receding memory. They saw the news last October. They might have heard or read one or two of the most offensive snippets.
That is not how it is for me. It is seared in my memory. I listened to the whole tape. I read the full transcript. I heard the voices of my colleagues attacking and mocking my little boy, describing him with ugly racist epithets, and laughing at the thought of beating him. I can still hear Nury’s poisonous slurs and cruel laugh, and Kevin’s conspiratorial whisper and malicious tone.
A year later, I am still angry and disgusted. I am still processing it, still wrestling with what was said, and what I heard.
Continue reading on Substack.
BARRINGTON PLAZA
As rising eviction rates cause fear of yet another spike in homelessness and housing insecurity, hundreds of renters in West LA are about to be thrown out of their homes in the largest mass eviction in Los Angeles in decades. It would set a dangerous precedent – and it is based on lies and fraud.
Continue reading on Substack.
A WILD RIDE AT LA METRO
After nearly a decade of service, this week marked the end of my term as a member of the Board of Directors of LA Metro, our regional transit agency. It was a fun, challenging, rewarding and wild ride. I’ve been proud to advocate for #PeoplesTransit — and I intend to stay engaged on these issues until we truly have a robust system that provides #MobilityforAll.
Continue reading on Medium.
THIS IS NO TIME TO GIVE RAISES TO POLICE
Angelenos are about to feel a lot of pain — and our police union’s insistence on more money for raises is largely responsible.
In the middle of a deadly pandemic and an economic collapse, the city of Los Angeles is poised to declare a fiscal emergency. It is considering furloughing thousands of employees, cutting basic city services, and gutting programs that help our most vulnerable residents — all while giving big raises and bonuses to members of the police union. Those raises will have to be paid for by budget cuts that will make Los Angeles residents less healthy, less secure and considerably less safe.
Continue reading at the LA Times.