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.
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Issue No. 48 - February 26, 2021
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Coronavirus and Relief Efforts
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- Recent data posted by the County Department of Health reveals ongoing racial disparities in vaccine access: white residents are receiving the vaccine at a significantly higher rate than Black or Latinx residents. The disparity also exists between higher-income and lower-income cities and neighborhoods, with areas like Beverly Hills and Bel Air appearing at the top of the list of most vaccinations per capita.
- Targeted codes, intended to guarantee vaccinations for citizens in some of the majority Latinx and Black neighborhoods that have been hardest hit by coronavirus, have instead been misused by members of higher-income communities.
- The West Covina City Council has actually voted to secede from the LA County Department of Health, over frustrations from businesses being forced to close during the pandemic. “The rush to do this, it doesn’t feel like a serious move, it really feels like it was more of a political move,” said Councilmember Brian Tabatabai, the only dissenting vote.
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- Councilmember Nithya Raman took to Twitter to express regret for voting in support of last week’s unanimous motion to divert funds from the Housing Authority (HACLA) into a policing program called the Community Safety Partnership, citing the council's “culture of consensus” which compels councilmembers to set aside the values they ran on in service of unspoken rules of decorum. A motion was proposed by Raman and Councilmember Mike Bonin (who also voted for last week's funding of the CSP) to investigate how these funding allocations are calculated and to move HACLA toward a participatory budgeting process.
- The LA City Council passed an ordinance mandating hero pay, or an additional $5 an hour, for workers in large grocery stores, acknowledging the dangerous work grocery employees have been doing during the pandemic. The Board of Supervisors approved a similar measure applying to unincorporated LA County. Meanwhile, the lawsuit from the California Grocers Association to stop a hero pay measure from taking effect in the city of Long Beach has failed. The Los Angeles version of the law passed nearly unanimously, but a single “no” vote — from Councilmember John Lee — will delay the implementation of the pay raise an extra week. (In case you wondered if the culture of consensus worked in the other direction as well.)
- The Homelessness and Poverty Committee discussed a motion to direct the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority to make a presentation to city councilmembers on outreach efforts to the unhoused, including “the percentage of persons who reject services.” Committee chair Mark Ridley-Thomas said he wants to dispel the “myth of service resistance.” Councilmember Buscaino on the other hand insisted that the ugly stereotype of “urban campers” among the unhoused was real. Councilmember Raman questioned LAHSA’s ability to even gather clean data given the fact that a majority of encounters between LAHSA and unhoused Angelenos happen during encampment sweeps. She cast the only vote opposed to moving the motion before council.
- Activists held a demonstration outside the home of City Council President Nury Martinez, presenting her with a “blank check” representing the guaranteed reimbursement from FEMA for all city money spent on non-congregate shelters for the unhoused. A motion from Councilmembers Bonin and Raman to use this money to greatly expand Project Roomkey is currently stalled between committees.
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- An essay on Knock-LA talks about the various harmful ways local media talks about the unhoused people living at Echo Park Lake.
- From The Trouble, an article about the significant overlap between absurdist comedy and left activism in Los Angeles.
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