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. 50 - March 12, 2021
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- Governor Newsom gave the State of the State address at Dodger Stadium, where the number of empty seats was equal to the number of Coronavirus deaths in California. Both CalMatters and LAist fact-checked his address.
- There are now $1,400 stimulus checks being issued by the federal government and additional $600 checks coming from the state, but they are means-tested. Do you qualify?
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- A newly released study from Strategic Actions for a Just Economy looks into the impacts of corporate landlords in Los Angeles. The study implicates corporate rental property ownership as a major factor contributing to faster neighborhood rent increases and increased mass evictions. SAJE also found that 75% of Los Angeles tenants live in properties owned by corporate landlords, dispelling myths about the prominence of mom-and-pop landlords and highlighting the utility of a landlord database such as the one proposed by Nithya Raman during her campaign. A breakdown of the SAJE study can be found here.
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Police Violence and Community Resistance
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- An independent report commissioned by the LA City Council concluded that the LAPD severely mishandled the racial justice protests which erupted after the death of George Floyd last summer. The report criticizes LAPD’s excessive use of force, lack of preparedness, and violations of protesters’ civil rights. The report will be discussed by the Public Safety Committee during its meeting next Wednesday.
- The just-passed stimulus bill contains an estimated $1.9 billion for the city of Los Angeles. This article in the LA Times discussing how that money might be disbursed also forebodingly touches on how the LAPD will attempt get a piece of that money, as an email from the LAPD union board to the Times warned that it planned to work with the city to use those funds to “reduce the increase in shootings and random violence plaguing our city.”
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- The Los Angeles City Council mandated temporary hero pay for grocery store workers last week. In a retaliatory capital strike, Kroger will close one Food 4 Less and two Ralphs locations in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Southern California Food 4 Less workers are expected to vote down the new contract proposal from the supermarket chain. Their union, United Food and Commercial Workers, has advised them to “take economic action” if necessary.
- Los Angeles Unified School District and United Teachers Los Angeles have reached a deal that would allow schools to reopen in late April if several safety benchmarks are met.
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KNOCK-LA wrote about the push left activists are making to "take over” in the current neighborhood council elections. (Additional coverage on NCs appeared in LAnd Magazine). Neighborhood council elections are taking place right now, as NCs hold their vote-by-mail elections in shifts that will rotate through until the summer. As far as taking over, many DSA-LA members are running and you can find them here!
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