The Thorn West is a state and local news roundup compiled by members of DSA-LA. Our goal is to provide a weekly update on the latest developments in state and local politics, and to track the issues that are most important to our membership.

Issue No. 163 - June 23, 2023

City Politics

• Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson has been appointed to serve as president pro tempore of LA City Council. Councilmember Curren Price, who previously held that role, is facing corruption charges and has been suspended.

Labor

• Last week, members of Unite Here Local 11, which represents 15,000 California hotel workers, voted to authorize a strike ahead of several upcoming contract negotiations with hotels. This week, the union held a demonstration which shut down a section of Century Boulevard near LAX. The picket resulted in nearly 200 arrests of workers and their supporters. Arrested in solidarity were elected officials including Councilmembers Hugo Soto-Martinez and Nithya Raman, and many members of DSA-LA. Worker demands include higher wages and improved workplace safety.

Police Violence and Community Resistance

• In April, City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto filed a lawsuit attempting to force a journalist to return photographs of LAPD officers obtained by a public records request, and used to create a database to combat police misconduct. That lawsuit, denounced by experts as “meritless,” failed. Now, Feldstein Soto is lobbying California legislators to introduce a bill weakening the California Public Records Act.

Housing Rights

• In Culver City, data from a public records request was used to create a makeshift database of rental prices, information not available to the public.

• A blockbuster study of homelessness in California (here) was released this week. Key findings include the large percentage of seniors who make up those experiencing homelessness, the fact that the vast majority of unhoused people in California are from the state, and that the lack of affordable housing is a primary driver of homelessness.

• A report from the controller’s office revealed that 41.18, the section of the municipal code that criminalizes sleeping, sitting, or lying down in certain public spaces, has resulted in a hugely disproportionate number of arrests of Black people. 

• The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted 4 – 1 to fast-track implementation of CARE Court, California legislation that will further empower the state to compel people experiencing both homelessness and mental health issues into treatment facilities. CARE Court is vehemently opposed by the ACLU and by disability-right groups. Implementation requires mental health resources the county has not invested in; the county will now rush to do so ahead of a December 1 deadline. Supervisor Lindsey Horvath was the lone vote in opposition.

Environmental Justice

• Following sustained activism from both environmentalist and student groups, the district attorney has filed criminal charges against S&W Atlas Iron and Metal Co. for unlawfully disposing of hazardous waste at Jordan High School in Watts.