Month: April 2022

Issue No. 106 – April 22, 2022

City Politics

• Nice surprise: the Los Angeles Times editorial board endorsed Kenneth Mejia for Los Angeles city controller, citing the work he has already accomplished with the Mejia campaign to make the city’s budget transparent.

• Councilmember Nithya Raman endorsed Hugo Soto-Martínez for councilmember in District 13. She also endorsed Karen Bass for mayor, drawing criticism for ignoring candidates running as progressives in favor of the “lesser of two evils” candidate.

• Knock LA spoke with three candidates for City Council in District 15: Tim McOsker, Danielle Sandoval, and Bryant Odega.

Police Violence and Community Resistance

• Sheriff Alex Villanueva became a national story after an unhinged press conference on Tuesday, during which he threatened to investigate Los Angeles Times reporter Alene Tchekmedyian for reporting on footage, leaked by a whistleblower, of a sheriff’s deputy abusing an inmate. Villanueva is facing several lawsuits connected to the incident, which allege that he saw the video and directed attempts to cover it up.

• The state auditor investigated the social media profiles of officers with five law enforcement departments across the state — including the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department — and found a pattern of racial and ethnic bias. Report here.

Transportation

• The Metro Board has approved the Bus Rapid Transit Corridor between North Hollywood and Pasadena. Traffic lanes will be transformed to bus-only along much of the route. The project now heads into the design stage. More detail on implementation here.

• A new plan from Democrats in the state Senate proposes $200 rebates to all Californians, regardless of car ownership. CalMatters catalogs the numerous proposals to address rising gas prices, none of which seem particularly close to implementation.

Environmental Justice

• The Metropolitan Water District’s board voted unanimously today to require six major water providers and the dozens of cities and local districts they supply to impose one of two options: limit residents to outdoor watering once a week or reduce total water use below a certain target.

• On Thursday, Rob Bonta, California’s attorney general, opened an investigation into the role oil and gas companies played in promoting the idea that plastics could be recycled in an effort to manipulate the public to buy more of it.

Issue No. 105 – April 15, 2022

City Politics

• Several candidates for Los Angeles mayor, including Gina Viola and Alex Gruenenfelder, held a rally to protest their exclusion from a May 1 debate being held at Cal State LA. The exclusion is especially egregious given that the most recent poll, released this week, has Viola favored over Councilmember Joe Buscaino.

Labor

• In March, workers at a Starbucks location in Little Tokyo became the latest to announce their intent to unionize. This Saturday, DSA-LA Labor Committee and Central Branch are rallying members to show up in support.

• Two weeks after voting to authorize a strike, Southern California members of United Food and Commercial Workers have voted to authorize a new contract with Kroger and Albertsons. The new contract wins workers at these stores the largest wages they’ve seen in decades, and is more than double what the chains were offering before the strike vote.

• The assistant chief counsel for California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing resigned in protest this week, alleging that Governor Newsom’s office had improperly interfered with a discrimination suit against Activision Blizzard Inc.

Police Violence and Community Resistance

• A study commissioned by the Board of Supervisors indicates that the county policy of zero-dollar cash bail, instituted as a pandemic measure, has not had any impact on crime rates, and, per Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, may “safely remain in place.” Knock LA covers.

• Citing poor recruitment numbers, Los Angeles Police Commissioner Michel Moore has floated the idea of officially requesting landlords provide free or subsidized apartments to cadets.

Environmental Justice

• Pacific Gas & Electric has agreed to pay more than $55 million to avoid criminal prosecution for last year’s Dixie Fire and the 2019 Kincade Fire. 

• Two years ago, Governor Newsom launched the California Vegetation Treatment Program to fast-track wildfire mitigation efforts. CapRadio investigates the reasons that program hasn’t yet been able to complete a single project.

• California’s Air Resources Board, the state’s clean-air regulators, unveiled a proposal requiring a ramp-up in sales of zero-emission cars, culminating in a ban on new gasoline-powered cars by 2035. If adopted, the regulations would be the first in the world and could pave the way for nationwide standards.

Thorn West: Issue No. 104

City Politics

• Los Angeles City Hall will finally reopen to the public, starting May 4. This announcement comes one week after City Council President Nury Martinez acknowledged that the delay in reopening was due to anxiety over an “angry electorate.”

Housing Rights

• The City of Los Angeles has settled a lawsuit brought by LA Alliance, a coalition of downtown LA businesses and landlords that seeks to compel the city and county to conduct encampment sweeps in Skid Row. The city agreed to commit approximately $3 billion to produce enough shelter beds or housing units for 60% of the city’s unhoused population, while maintaining that the county is responsible for the other 40%. The county has pulled out of settlement negotiations.

• Last Friday, Los Angeles City Council passed a motion authored by Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell calling for a report back on the city’s contract with the County Department of Health. The motion calls for more oversight of the county’s provision of medical services to unhoused Angelenos.

• Long-term tenants of the homes in the abandoned 710 corridor in El Sereno are demanding to be prioritized as purchasers now that Caltrans is selling the properties. Tenants are being prioritized where the corridor passes through Pasadena and South Pasadena.

Police Violence and Community Resistance

• A superior court judge has ruled that Sheriff Alex Villanueva must comply with a subpoena issued by Inspector General Max Huntsman compelling him to testify about deputy gangs within his department.

• Knock LA held a forum for candidates for Los Angeles County Sheriff. Villanueva did not attend, but those who did answered serious questions about deputy gangs and deputy violence. Video here.

• Also in Knock LA: coverage of a political battle in West Hollywood, where concerns over fraud and waste in the city’s contract with the Sheriff’s Department have fueled a movement to divert a significant portion of the city’s law enforcement budget to social services.

Labor

• Last week, members of United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents 48,000 workers in Southern California and is renegotiating its contract with Albertsons, Vons, Pavilions and Ralphs, voted to authorize a strike. This week they have appeared to come to a tentative agreement. Details will not be released until after the contract authorization vote. The union was seeking wage increases.

• Did you know there’s a Thorn in NYC? And that it’s actually the original Thorn? Food for thought if you are interested in tracking the historic vote to unionize at an Amazon fulfillment center in Staten Island.

Environmental Justice

• On a day of record-breaking temperatures, four members of a scientist-led organized day of worldwide protest chained themselves to a downtown JP Morgan Chase bank on Wednesday, demanding the bank divest from the fossil fuel industry. They were met with an overwhelming force of LAPD officers in riot gear.

• California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office released a series of reports detailing the devastating impact climate change will have on California: “Climate change could alter everything, and spare no one in California, so legislators should consider preparing for sweeping impacts.” Reports collected here.

• The city plans to expand its pilot program for curbside food scrap collection to 40,000 households this summer — and 750,000 households next year — putting their food scraps in green bins instead of the trash so they can be composted instead of sent to a landfill.

Thorn West: Issue No. 103

State Politics

• Most Californian tenants are again exposed to pre-pandemic eviction protections following the close of applications for the Housing Is Key rental assistance program and the expiration of the state’s eviction moratorium. The legislature did pass AB 2179, emergency legislation that extends the moratorium until June 30, but only for tenants who applied for rental assistance before the deadline and are still waiting on resolution from the backlogged program. AB 2179 also prevents municipalities from passing additional, stronger protections, and strips many that were already in place, including in Los Angeles County. It is supported by landlord lobbyist groups such as the California Apartments Association.

• The nine-person advisory task force assembled to craft a potential statewide policy on reparations voted 5–4 to limit benefits to those who can demonstrate a direct lineage to enslaved ancestors.

City Politics

• Los Angeles County has begun taking applications for “Breathe,” its guaranteed income pilot program. Those accepted into the program will receive $1,000 a month for three years.

Housing Rights

• After a six-month-long tenant-led campaign, the Pasadena Tenant Justice Coalition is celebrating the submission of over 15,000 signatures in support of amending the city charter to guarantee rent control and stronger eviction protections for Pasadena tenants; 13,366 signatures were needed to put the amendment on the November 2022 ballot.

Police Violence and Community Resistance

• Knock LA is hosting a candidate forum for Los Angeles County Sheriff, moderated by Cerise Castle, this Tuesday, April 5.

Labor

• Many celebrities crossed a picket line to attend a post-Oscars party thrown by Jay-Z at the Chateau Marmont. Unite Here Local 11 has been calling for a boycott of the hotel since it laid off most of its workforce two years ago, and two former employees have since filed a lawsuit alleging a pattern of sexual harassment and racial discrimination.

Environmental Justice

• State regulators entered a South LA oil drilling site with a warrant and bolt cutters after being unable to schedule an inspection. “It demonstrates that the state oil and gas regulator is willing to take actions that would assist in protecting the health of the community,” said Hugo García, campaign coordinator with social justice nonprofit Esperanza Community Housing Corporation.

• Governor Gavin Newsom ordered water suppliers across California to step up their local drought responses, but fell short of requiring water rationing or setting a statewide conservation target.

• With drought conditions leaving California vulnerable to a dangerous wildfire season, the state auditor reported that officials are failing to hold electric utilities accountable for their equipment failures.