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. 55 - April 16, 2021
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- LAUSD schools resumed in-person classes this week for some students, marking over a year since the district’s schools first switched to a virtual learning environment. The school district’s reopening plan will occur in phases and includes requirements like weekly COVID-19 testing for students. (Among other complications), LAUSD officials have been met with mixed feedback on proposals for an extended 2021-2022 school year.
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- Under the Biden administration, the city and county of LA could massively upscale the Project Roomkey program (PRK) to shelter more unhoused people, and be fully reimbursed. Instead, Mayor Garcetti and other officials have claimed that it would be a burden on the city’s cash flow to handle the upfront costs. However, at a recent meeting, City Controller Ron Galperin directly disputed that excuse, maintaining that the city has over $10 billion in its treasury at any given time. A coalition of LA community organizations have since issued a statement urging Mayor Garcetti to use that surplus for reimbursable PRK funding.
- LA City Council is discussing a settlement offer in the massive LA Alliance lawsuit, which attempts to compel the city and county to resolve our homelessness crisis (to the liking of a consortium of downtown businesses who want to displace the residents of Skid Row). The terms of the settlement would force each council district to increase its stock of shelter beds to 60% of its population of unhoused residents, and provide a mechanism that would allow each district to prioritize the legal displacement of encampments deemed “most problematic” by whichever local NIMBY group is complaining the loudest. The Brown Act allows the council to discuss legal settlements in closed session; backroom talks continue next week. Per Pete White, of LACAN, the settlement would “force the city to sink hundreds of millions of dollars into incredibly expensive temporary band-aids… in exchange, the LAPD gets to arrest houseless people and banish them from public spaces.”
- On Wednesday, the city council’s housing committee voted to move forward with a Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance. The proposed law would ban landlords from enacting certain predatory actions, including threatening tenants with physical violence, revealing their immigration status, or retaliating against tenants who organize into unions. Councilmember Nithya Raman’s suggested amendments to the ordinance will be incorporated into the final version of the bill.
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The anti-fracking bill that was drafted by the State Senate on the request of Governor Newsom — and ended up far more ambitious than he called for — failed to pass out of the Natural Resources and Water Committee committee, falling short by one vote. One Democratic senator voted against the bill, while Majority Leader Bob Hertzberg did not vote.
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Police Violence and Community Resistance
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In Hollywood, a vigil for Daunte Wright — who was killed by police this Sunday in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota — was met by an embarrassing number of police officers, many inexplicably dressed up in riot gear.
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