Month: August 2022

Issue No. 122

State Politics

• Governor Newsom vetoed a pilot program for safe-injection sites to prevent drug overdoses. The veto is being covered nationally, widely interpreted as an attempt to cater to moderates and Republicans in advance of a presidential run. The pretext for the veto was that the program as designed had a dangerously broad scope, even though it was only slated to run for five years in three cities.

• Newsom did sign a law giving more latitude to legislative bodies to remove members of the public from meetings for being “disruptive.”

• And, with the state legislative session ending on August 31, CalMatters looks at which bills will have their fate come down to the wire, and which have already been placed in the suspense file.

City Politics

• Herb Wesson has officially resigned as interim councilmember in CD 10. Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez quickly drafted (and scheduled) a motion to appoint Heather Hutt, Wesson’s appointed district caretaker. Though there had been some local support for appointing Hutt, simply to fill the seat, this Our Weekly editorial argues that giving the seat to “the appointee of an appointee” is undemocratic. A competing motion earlier today from Councilmembers Bonin, Harris-Dawson, and Rodriguez calls for a more transparent process.

Labor

• After a years-long battle with ownership, workers at Chateau Marmont have voted to unionize with Unite Here Local 11!

• The Observer takes a deeper look at the organizing that led to the strippers at Star Garden voting to unionize with Actors Equity, contextualizing it within the history of sex worker organization.

Transportation

• Thanks to the hard work of signature gatherers, Healthy Streets LA, a measure which compels the city to comply with its own frequently ignored street safety guidelines, will be on the ballot in 2024. City Council had a window to directly approve the measure, making it effective immediately, but though councilmembers spoke extensively in support of the measure’s goals, they voted unanimously against approval, in favor of a competing measure that has yet to be drafted. Streetsblog LA has the details.

Police Violence and Community Resistance

• A jury awarded $31 million to Vanessa Bryant and Christopher Chester in their lawsuit against Los Angeles County. The suit was for damages caused by employees of the county sheriff and fire department sharing photos of the deceased victims of the helicopter crash that killed family members of Bryant and Chester. The court found that sheriff’s deputies habitually share the photos of deceased people.

Environmental Justice

• On Thursday, the California Air Resources Board adopted the world’s most stringent rules for transitioning to zero-emission vehicles –– all new cars, pickup trucks, and SUVs must be electric or hydrogen by 2035.

• A proposal circulated Friday by California Democratic legislators would reject Governor Newsom’s plan to extend the lifespan of the state’s last operating nuclear power plant — and instead spend over $1 billion to speed up the development of renewable energy.

• In 2023, residents of Imperial County are projected to experience 102 “dangerous” days with a heat index exceeding 100, according to nonprofit First Street Foundation’s peer-reviewed model.

Issue No. 121

City Politics

• A united front of unhoused people and advocates once again obstructed a vote to expand 41.18 zones. This week, Los Angeles City Council escalated the confrontation with the public, bringing riot police to the meeting, ejecting people for going over their public comment time, and clearing the chambers when activists shouted down councilmembers. Two arrests were made and a bobblehead fell off of a desk. The motion passed 11–3 again, with only the three councilmembers opposed staying in chambers through the recess. In the aftermath, numerous councilmembers who voted for the (likely unconstitutional) measure lashed out, as if their own choices had been exonerated, or at least made immaterial, by the breach in decorum, and they could safely focus only on what they felt had been done to them. @UnrigLA makes the valuable point that the most recent council, chaired by Herb Wesson, though ideologically similar, was able to gracefully hear out criticism.

• In an interview in Capital and Main with incoming councilmember Eunisses Hernandez talks about her plans once she is seated in December, and touches on 41.18 and the protests: “I’m an organizer. My background is in trying to persuade and move the government to do the right thing. Part of that has been to stop meetings. It’s a tactic.”

• Activists were able to dismantle a significant length of the fence around Echo Park Lake, repurposing it as a statement on behalf of community self-determination. It was reconstructed as a fence the next day. At a CD 13 candidate forum, DSA-LA–endorsed challenger Hugo Soto-Martinez and Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell discussed the fence, along with other issues related to the environment.

• DSA-LA members have voted to endorse an additional round of candidates and ballot measures for the November elections! These are: Estefany Casteñeda for Centinela Valley Union HS District Board Member, Ricardo Martinez for La Puente City Council, Rocio Rivas for LAUSD School Board, and the Los Angeles City ballot measure United To House LA.

• The Empowerment Congress West Area Neighborhood Council voted to request that Heather Hutt, who currently serves as the “caretaker” of CD 10 but is not able to vote along with city council, be officially appointed to the seat. CD 10 has been largely without representation since the indictment of Mark Ridley-Thomas and subsequent court intervention blocking the interim appointment of Herb Wesson. The Los Angeles Sentinel is covering.

• The second attempt to put a potential recall of Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón on ballots has failed. Whistleblowers in the recall committee have alleged that personnel systematically forged signatures on unsigned attestation forms.

Labor

• The dancers at Star Garden, a Los Angeles strip club, have filed a petition to unionize with Actors’ Equity, which represents stage performers. The petition follows months of protests staged outside the club after a number of workplace safety concerns went unaddressed.

Transportation

• The Healthy Streets L.A. initiative has officially qualified for the 2024 ballot! If approved by the public, this would compel the city to comply with its own Mobility Plan, installing bike and bus lanes whenever it repaves streets. The city council, in response, has drafted its own watered-down version of the measure. Streetsblog LA compares the two, while Streets For All, which drafted the ballot measure, urges the public to support the original version in the critical next few weeks with the following tool kit.

• A ban on cars along a dangerous stretch of road in Griffith Park, piloted after the death of a cyclist, has now been made permanent.

Environmental Justice

• A NASA-funded study published on Monday showed that “dry lightning,” or lightning without rain, has been a driver of the increasingly destructive California wildfires, and is more likely to occur under climate change conditions.

• Governor Gavin Newsom sent a memo to the heads of both California legislative chambers pushing legislators to enact a slate of proposals strengthening the state’s climate goals. But with the legislative session ending on August 31, there is some question as to whether the governor’s goals are realistic.

Issue 120

City Politics

• L.A. Taco breaks down a report on how the city spent its $1.28 billion in federal COVID relief, finding that it largely was used to pay salaries for government employees, with the biggest chunk taken by the LAPD. The report itself describes the disbursement as “allocated in support of initiatives that will directly benefit Los Angeles communities.”

• It’s official: the LA County Board of Supervisors voted 4–1 to put a measure on the November ballot that would give a 4/5 majority of the Board the power to remove the sheriff. Ordinance here.

• Knock LA continues their reporting on the decision to reinstate cash bail in Los Angeles County, having just heard back on a records request into the secretive Bail Committee that makes these decisions behind closed doors.

Healthcare

• The Board of Supervisors declared a local state of emergency to combat the spread of monkeypox. Though the order will allow the accelerated distribution of vaccines, dosages remain in short supply. The portal to schedule a vaccine appointment has been closed since Tuesday; you can sign up here to be notified as that changes.

Housing Rights

• Pete White of Los Angeles Community Action Network (LACAN) talks about the numerous shortcomings of Project Roomkey, the COVID-related emergency program to use hotel rooms as temporary shelter for unhoused people. It ends in September, despite the fact that very few project participants have been able to take the next step into permanent housing, and many are unsure if they’ll have a place to go.

• Los Angeles City Council held another vote on the proposed escalation of 41.18 anti-sit/lie/sleep enforcement. After Councilmembers Mike Bonin and Nithya Raman spoke against the motion, the public in attendance, essentially unanimous in opposition, chanted over Councilmember Joe Buscaino, the motion’s author. In response, the council called recess. With chambers to themselves, those remaining, most of them unhoused people and advocates, held an extended “public comment” session for people who had not gotten a chance to speak during the original public comment lottery. After an hour the space was ceded back to the council, who voted on their motion before a largely empty house. It passed 11–3 with Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson joining the opposition. “I don’t think it’s constitutional,” he said of the blanket ban. This was expected to be the last of several votes on this measure, but a last-minute amendment means it will need another vote, scheduled for Tuesday. Entire session live-tweeted by Jon Peltz here.

Labor

• In July the city passed an ordinance guaranteeing a $25 minimum wage for healthcare workers in private hospitals. The healthcare industry is attempting to overturn this via a public ballot measure being framed as pro-worker. SEIU is urging people to be extra careful not to sign the petition for this anti-worker ballot measure; if the measure even gets on the ballot, it will delay the implementation of the pay increase until November.

Environmental Justice

• Governor Gavin Newsom pressured lawmakers to approve an energy plan that aimed to expedite and streamline construction of new clean energy facilities. Included is a controversial clause that lets developers bypass local permitting, and leaves rural populations out of the conversation for projects planned in their counties.

• The Klamath River wildfire has claimed two more lives, raising the death toll to four in the state’s largest blaze of the year.