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. 28 - September 18, 2020

Transit

• Councilmember Paul Koretz has effectively killed Uplift Melrose, a plan to invest in making Melrose Avenue friendlier to pedestrians and cyclists. Uplift Melrose enjoyed support from local businesses and neighborhood councils, but was opposed by LAPD on the pretext that fewer traffic lanes would reduce response times — a concern not shared by many fire departments. LAPD has previously killed bike lanes in other parts of the city for similar reasons, for example at the request of NIMBY group Fix the City, which argues the city is “stealing” lanes from drivers.

Housing Justice

• Project Roomkey fell short of its goal of placing 15,000 of the most vulnerable unhoused people in vacant hotel rooms for the duration of the pandemic. Despite paying full price for rooms, the program was only able to find beds for 4,100 people. During a discussion about Project Roomkey at last week's council meeting, Councilmembers Mike Bonin and Marqueece Harris-Dawson requested a report on the justifications supplied by hotels that declined to participate. That report was released this week, and it revealed that several hotels held out because of an open bias against the unhoused. It’s the second time in two weeks that city programs have been exposed as naively relying on the “reasonableness” of landlords and businesses; these interests’ most valuable assets are their class privileges, and they won't reliably sell them at cost.

• LA Magazine published a story recognizing the successful efforts last week of community activists to draw attention to and push back against the illegal displacement of an unhoused encampment by the South Robertson Neighborhood Council.

Police Violence and Community Resistance

• On Sunday, KPCC reporter Josie Huang was covering the interaction between sheriff’s deputies and a small group of protesters. While she was recording an arrest the deputies shoved Huang to the ground and arrested her. The Sheriff’s department issued a statement claiming she never identified herself as a reporter. This was later blatantly contradicted by video evidence in which she is heard shouting “I’m with KPCC” and is seen wearing her press badge.

• At Thursday’s meeting of the Los Angeles County Civilian Oversight Committee, which oversees the sheriff’s department, Commissioner Robert Bonner — known as a conservative member of the committee — shockingly called on Sheriff Alex Villanueva to resign. This follows the false report of the Huang arrest, as well as other recent incidents that have destroyed the sheriff’s relationship with the public and his ability to work with other elements of government. The call was immediately echoed by two of the five county supervisors. “He really is a rogue sheriff,” said Supervisor Sheila Kuehl.

Local Politics

• An article in L.A. Taco checks in on the Los Angeles District Attorney race between George Gascón and Jackie Lacey. The candidates met on a zoom call this week, where Lacey was grilled about contributions from police unions and her failure to prosecute a single LAPD officer for a police shooting.

• Mayors of five Los Angeles County cities that have legalized card room casinos met to lobby the city to allow outdoor gambling. The boundaries of many of the cities in the county have been drawn up to separate residential communities from the nearby industrial tax base. Some of these cities rely on card rooms for up to 50% of their tax revenue.

Climate

• Surveying the devastation of the historic, ongoing wildfires, Gov. Gavin Newsom broke with President Trump and acknowledged the scientific reality of climate change, calling it a “climate damn emergency.” But we are far past the point of debate. Scientists estimate that the fires in California this year have burned enough forest to emit about 90 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, some 30 million tons more than the total CO2 emissions from providing power to the entire state. The climate emergency is here. We are living through it. What matters now is action. Newsom said that he had directed two of his top environmental officials to review the state’s current climate strategies “and accelerate all of them, across the board,” but climate activists remain skeptical. As the COVID-19 pandemic has raged, critics have charged that Newsom has squandered an opportunity to move faster on reducing emissions, and has even slowed down or backtracked on climate action. Most recently, Newsom defended the state water board’s decision to extend the shutdown deadline for four gas-fired power plants that were supposed to close this year.
  

JOIN US & FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL:

INSTAGRAM // TWITTER // FACEBOOK // YOUTUBE