Author: David Hunter

Thorn West: Issue No. 167

State Politics

• A statewide public ballot measure to repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act has qualified for the 2024 ballot. If the measure succeeds, it would allow local municipalities to expand rent control locally; Costa-Hawkins, as state law, dramatically restricts municipalities’ ability to do so.

• Have an opinion on currently proposed statewide legislation? California DSA invites DSA members to recommend legislative endorsements, both in support and in opposition.

City Politics

• Protesters briefly shut down a meeting of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, to demand the closure of Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall, where conditions are inhumane. Los Padrinos was recently reopened only after two other juvenile facilities were ordered to close by the state due to unsuitable conditions.

Health Care

• California is experiencing an uptick in cases of COVID-19.

• Premiums for health insurance sold through the Covered California marketplace will increase by nearly 10% next year, the highest rate hike since 2018.

• In-N-Out Burger recently announced a policy to prohibit its workers from wearing face masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but California regulations prevent them from implementing it here.

Labor

• At a rally this Tuesday, striking WGA workers will deliver a petition with over 25,000 signatures demanding justice from NBCUniversal, which has attempted to thwart picketers by closing down sidewalks and has repeatedly ignored instructions from the city to install pedestrian protections. Details here!

Police Violence and Community Resistance

• The Los Angeles city controller’s office has released a database of all LAPD arrests from the last four years, searchable by race, geographic area, and type of arrest. Among the audit’s findings were that Black and brown people were disproportionately the target of arrests.

• Streetsblog LA thoroughly documents the outrageous contradictions between a report from LAPD Chief Michel Moore on an incident last year in which an officer shot an unarmed man and bodycam footage of the same incident.

Transportation

• Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass took over as chair of Metro for the upcoming year. At her first meeting as chair, a coalition of activists anchored by ACT-LA, and supported by DSA-LA, rallied in support of fare-free public transit.

Housing Rights

• Tenant protections enacted in response to COVID-19 gave many tenants until August 1 to pay off rent debt accrued between March 1, 2020, and September 30, 2021. With that deadline now here, many anticipate a wave of evictions. For anyone with concerns about tenant protections moving forward, Councilmember Nithya Raman published a breakdown of rights, protections, and requirements on Instagram, as well as in a subsequent bulletin jointly released with Mayor Bass.

• A lawsuit initiated by the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles aims to immediately end the freeze on rental increases that applies to LA rental housing currently subject to the Rent Stabilization Ordinance. The rent freeze on RSO units will expire on February 2024 even if the lawsuit is unsuccessful. Currently, this ren freeze is the only thing legally preventing rental increases as high as 8.8%. The maximum allowable increase has recently spiked because it’s indexed to inflation.

Environmental Justice

• CalMatters breaks down the battle between Big Oil and environmentalists over a law that bans new oil and gas wells near homes and schools. Though Governor Gavin Newsom signed the law last year, it’s been on hold since oil companies qualified a measure for the November 2024 ballot that would overturn it.

• A heat wave continues across Southern California, during a July that may be the hottest month in recorded history.

Thorn West: Issue No. 166

Labor

• Jacobin covers the first week of the SAG-AFTRA strike. SAG-AFTRA has released a negotiation status report showing in detail how little the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers has been willing to give. Mayor Karen Bass, after a much-derided initial statement calling on “all sides to come to the table,” released a second statement expressing support for striking workers.

• Members of striking unions including the WGA, SAG-AFTRA, and UNITE HERE attended a Teamster rally and picket on Wednesday in downtown Los Angeles. Some 340,000 Teamster drivers and warehouse workers are poised to go on a nationwide strike against UPS if they cannot come to terms on a contract before August 1.

• In further “this is all one struggle” news, NBCUniversal recently pruned the trees outside their studio, removing shade from picket lines — only a week after LAPD communications revealed a plot to remove a tree that provided shade to an encampment. Universal has been fined $250 by the city for trimming trees without a permit. SAG-AFTRA and the WGA have filed unfair labor practices charges.

Police Violence and Community Resistance

• Knock-LA has published the results of an intensive survey of every time Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies have fired a weapon at a person.

• Local media once again chose to validate the strange and incorrect belief, seemingly prevalent among police officers, that simple exposure to certain narcotics is a health risk, after several LAPD officers were taken to the hospital for “meth exposure.”

Incarceration

• Starting on October 1, Los Angeles County will all but eliminate the use of cash bail for defendants accused of misdemeanors or nonviolent felonies. Before this announcement, the use of cash bail had already been paused, as a result of a lawsuit. The decision comes as the public has become increasingly aware of decrepit and unsafe conditions of LA County jails.

Environmental Justice

• Southern California is in the middle of a record-breaking heat wave. LA Public Press covers the annual shortcomings of Los Angeles’ system of cooling centers, which in the neighborhood of Skid Row has only gotten worse.

• California’s three largest electric utilities have proposed a plan to charge customers not just for how much energy they use but also based on their household income. Their proposal is designed to accommodate a new law to make energy less costly for California’s lowest-income customers.

• An experiment in Pacoima applied “cool paint” to 10 square blocks of streets. One year later, the results have shown temperatures that are 10 degrees cooler than regular asphalt.

Thorn West: Issue No. 156

City Politics

• The Los Angeles City Council Budget and Finance Committee wrapped up two weeks of hearings with a presentation from the People’s Budget LA coalition that began by calling out “eleven LAPD officers doing nothing” in the lobby of City Hall. A revised draft of the budget will now move on to the full council for deliberation.

Labor

• The Writers Guild of America has gone on strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Stakes for writers are high, as the job is becoming one that doesn’t provide a sustainable living, and the two sides were still far apart in contract negotiations. Jacobin covers in further detail. Picket lines are ongoing, and DSA-LA is rallying members to support any way they can.

Anti-Gentrification

• In Compton, community members are fundraising to purchase the Compton Community Garden, which will otherwise be purchased for redevelopment. LA Public Press covers.

• DSA-LA joined with United Teachers LA, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, and Reclaim Our Schools LA to rally against a proposed zoning waiver that would allow a charter school to be built on vacant land owned by LAUSD.

Transportation

• In Culver City, a newly installed council has voted to roll back parts of MOVE Culver City, the highly successful road redesign that reallocated space away from cars and toward buses, cyclists, and pedestrians.

Police Violence and Community Resistance

• Reporting in the LA Times covers the deposition of a whistleblower from within the LAPD SWAT Unit, alleging a deeply ingrained culture of corruption and violence controlled by an inner circle of officers known as the “SWAT Mafia.”

Environmental Justice

• In a lawsuit filed this week, environmental groups argue that the California Public Utilities Commission acted illegally when it slashed compensation payments for power generated by solar panels. 

• Grist explains state Senate Bill 233, which mandates that all electric vehicles be equipped with bidirectional hardware. Bidirectional charging allows the power in vehicle batteries to be rolled back into the grid itself to bolster grid reliability.

Issue No. 152 – April 7, 2023

City Politics

• DSA-LA’s annual convention will take place on Saturday, April 22. DSA-LA members will discuss and vote on chapter priorities for the upcoming year. RSVP here, and read about the proposed resolutions here!

• Results in the CD6 special election have started to come in, with Imelda Padilla and Marisa Alcaraz in the top two spots. Both candidates are in favor of the recent revisions to 41.18 designed to further displace unhoused people; current totals project a runoff election between the two of them. More on the candidates here.

• The only currently active petition to recall Councilmember Kevin de León will not move forward, as signatures were not submitted by the deadline. The petition was organized in part by a CD14 resident who had attempted to recall De León several times already, motivated by opposition to a Tiny Homes Village in Highland Park.

Health Care

• Governor Newsom has proposed two major changes to the state’s mental health system during his state-of-the-state press tour: a bond measure to fund an increase in the number of residential psychiatric treatment beds, and a regulation requiring counties to spend a certain amount of their mental health services budget on housing for unhoused people with severe mental health issues. CalMatters covers the pushback the second of these has received from mental health workers.

• The LA Times published a historical look at the LAPD’s anti-abortion squad, which existed before Roe v. Wade.

Police Violence and Community Resistance

• The City of Los Angeles filed a lawsuit “immediately denounced as legally meritless” against a journalist with Knock LA, who legally obtained a database of photographs, along with names, badge numbers, and other public information, of LAPD officers. The information is public and was provided by the LAPD in response to a public records request. The “Watch the Watchers” database, hosted by the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, can be found here.

Housing Rights

• Knock LA has platformed a letter from residents of an encampment on Aetna Street in Van Nuys that may be the target for an Inside Safe operation. The letter, responding to shortcomings in previous incarnations of the program, forcefully asserts the needs of the community that will have to be met in order for them to participate.

Labor

• The Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) has set a strike authorization vote, with voting to begin next week on April 11. The WGA is entering contract negotiations with the American Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP); a yes vote would authorize the guild’s negotiating committee to call for a strike, if deemed necessary, on May 1. At issue are lagging pay and job security for writers, especially as the shift to streaming platforms has allowed studios the opportunity to reset the labor market in their own favor.

• A dockworker shortage at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports drew attention to protracted labor negotiations between the union that represents West Coast dockworkers and the industry group representing maritime shippers.

Environmental Justice

• The California Air Resources Board (CARB) will soon decide on a rule that would require most new heavy-duty trucks to be zero-emission by 2036. CARB proposed to extend the zero-emission deadline for some 200 garbage trucks, but after pressure from waste companies, that exemption grew last month to around 10,000 conventional combustion trucks.

Thorn 119

State Politics

• The current state legislative session will close on August 11, leaving the fate of several bills with a dwindling window of time to be passed. Streetsblog Cal urged support for AB 2438, which aligns transportation policy with climate goals. A reader brought our attention to AB 2632, which significantly regulates the use of solitary confinement in California prisons. Both bills have passed the Assembly but need to be passed in the state Senate by the deadline.

Healthcare

• A Los Angeles County indoor mask mandate, scheduled to go into effect today, has instead been paused. The county has been in a “high” state of community transmission for two weeks, triggering a mandate according to the CDC’s revised guidelines. The County Board of Health has pointed to a recent decline in hospital infection rates to explain the reversal.

Police Violence and Community Resistance

• A town hall was convened on Zoom to address widespread concerns about the LAPD shooting of Jermaine Petit, who was unarmed and was shot in the back. LAPD representatives were unable to coherently answer community questions about the incident and abruptly ended the Zoom. Petit has inexplicably been charged with felony assault with a deadly weapon. Knock LA has been covering.

• On Monday, Sheriff Alex Villanueva was again scheduled to testify before the Civilian Oversight Commission about deputy gangs. He once more canceled his appearance at the last minute, this time refusing to comply with his subpoena until a list of formal demands were met, including the right to cross-examine witnesses.

Housing Rights

• With a crowd of protesters outside Los Angeles City Hall to denounce the City Council’s proposed expansion of 41.18 anti sit/lie/sleep zones, the vote was continued until August 2.

• Council also discussed the Declaration of Local Emergency, which is currently one of the only things preventing a flood of evictions in Los Angeles, and which must be extended monthly. The council voted to extend for another month, but Counclimember Bob Blumenfeld pulled the item for discussion and spoke ominously about the need for an “exit strategy” for “mom and pop housing providers.”

Labor

• Frequently, newspapers devoting disproportionate attention to property crimes are asked why they don’t report on wage theft committed by employers. This week, CalMatters did some reporting on wage theft.

Transportation

• LAPD shutdowns and councilmembers bickering over graffiti: agony over the new Sixth Street Bridge continued to deepen and intensify this week. L.A. Taco recaps from a community perspective.

Environmental Justice

• Reuters published an investigation focused on the radioactive contamination from Santa Susana Field Lab just outside LA, but also broadly surveying the way corporations such as Boeing are granted “conservation easements,” which critics see as a tool for companies to limit their toxic waste cleanup responsibility.

• The LA Times interviewed Max Gomberg, who this month resigned in protest from the California State Water Resources Control Board over Governor Newsom’s inaction in combating the state’s worsening drought.

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.

Issue No. 101 – March 18, 2022

State Politics

• In response to rising gas prices, some state legislators have now proposed sending a $400 rebate to every California taxpayer (not just drivers). Curbed LA promotes a more impactful approach: a federal buyback of gas-powered cars.

City Politics

• With petition numbers now finalized, it’s clear that DSA-endorsed candidate Eunisses Hernandez will be incumbent Gil Cedillo’s only challenger on the ballot in Council District 1. This means the primary on June 7 will decide the winner.

• LA Podcast’s newsletter highlights a particularly substantive mayoral debate from last week, organized by the Los Angeles Provider Alliance to End Homelessness.

• Knock LA talks with “The Defenders of Justice,” a slate of public defenders running for judgeships in the Superior Court of LA County.

• Cat Packer, the head of Los Angeles’ Department of Cannabis Regulation, resigned last week. Packer had been battling the city for more personnel in the department, which has struggled to process licenses in a timely fashion. The city’s licensing program prioritizes social equity applicants who have had undue exposure to the criminal justice system, many of whom have been left on the hook leasing storefront space they cannot use.

Housing Rights

• Housing Is Key Rental Assistance Program, a fund that helps pay off back rent for Californians affected by COVID, will be closing for new applications on March 31 at 5 PM. (Apply here.) The program has so far struggled to disburse its funds to tenants in need.

• A planned sweep displaced an encampment at Toriumi Plaza in Little Tokyo this week. Councilmember and mayoral candidate Kevin de León, who ordered the sweep, embraced the full Orwellian playbook, conflating temporary shelter with “housing,” while demonizing on-the-ground activists as “agitators.” Disgraceful.

Labor

• A second Starbucks location in Los Angeles has announced an intent to unionize, and DSA-LA is organizing its members in support.

Environmental Justice

• Despite a drought emergency being declared and the state pleading to cut back water usage, ​​Californians used 2.6% more water in January 2022 compared to January 2020. Newsom has yet to issue a mandatory conservation order.

• California legislators have been given a “D” grade for their actions (or lack thereof) in 2021. EnviroVoters — an environmental group that has been evaluating politicians’ voting records, budgets, and policies since 1973 — gave California its lowest marks ever, writing that “state legislators are taking money from fossil fuel companies and dragging their feet on climate action.”

Issue No. 100 – March 11, 2022

State Politics

• Governor Newsom has suggested pausing a scheduled increase in the gas tax as a response to soaring gas prices, but legislators warned this would harm the state’s ability to maintain roads. During Tuesday’s State of the State Address, he shifted focus to a proposed gas rebate that would be paid to California’s car owners. (Biking in LA addresses the unfairness of that.) Newsom also resisted calls to increase oil drilling in the state.

City Politics

• Across several races, Los Angeles’ political incumbents have, predictably, begun trying to leverage the crisis in Ukraine to score points against any challengers who are supported by the DSA (whose calls for peace in the region they deride as utopian). If you would like to learn what the left actually stands for regarding Ukraine, join the DSA’s panel this Sunday at 2pm, where you’ll hear from Ukrainians and other folks with ties to the region. The panel will be followed by a hybrid in-person/online fundraiser for civilian relief and refugee support efforts.

• A great resource from UnrigLA on Twitter: a calendar of all upcoming Los Angeles candidate debates.

Labor

• Writers for animated TV shows are arbitrarily paid far less than their counterparts in live action television. With contract negotiations underway with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the Animation Guild is pushing for fair compensation using the hashtag #Rally4Animation. The guild is holding an in-person rally on March 20 (with DSA Hollywood Labor support).

Housing Rights

• Streetwatch LA and J-Town Action are rallying in opposition to another displacement of an encampment — and the fencing off of more public space — this time at Toriumi Plaza in Little Tokyo. Petition here.

• The Homelessness and Poverty Committee unanimously approved a motion for the city to purchase from Caltrans many of the vacant homes along the abandoned planned 710 freeway extension for development as housing. These are the same homes that were occupied by the Reclaiming Our Homes movement before a police eviction conducted over Thanksgiving in 2020.

Education

• The Los Angeles Unified School District released its Second Interim Financial Report this week, showing $2.8 billion in unspent reserves and a projected year-end reserve of over $3 billion, even as the Superintendent’s office is currently proposing to close a number of schools.

Environmental Justice

• The Biden administration has restored California’s authority to set emissions rules for cars and SUVs that are tougher than federal standards, reversing a Trump administration policy. 

• The Environmental Science and Technology Letters published a study on Wednesday that showed a correlation between past redlining and current air pollution in communities such as Boyle Heights.

Los Angeles Media

• Happy 100 issues of Thorn West! We are always looking for new writers, new sources, new friends, as well as new ideas for longer-form content. Email us at dsalathornwest@gmail.com.

Issue No. 99 – March 4, 2022

State Politics

• Governor Newsom’s new homelessness plan, called CARE Court, empowers the courts to forcibly compel unhoused people with mental health or drug addiction issues into treatment. “Subjecting unhoused people to forced treatment is extremely draconian,” said one critic from the ACLU. “It’s morally wrong.” Mayor Garcetti has already expressed gushing support for the plan, which will need the approval of the legislature.

Coronavirus and Relief

• Los Angeles County is one of several California counties that have magically had their risk of COVID infection set to “low,” thanks to new guidelines from the CDC that weight hospitalizations more heavily than infections. Today the county dropped its indoor mask mandate, though masks are still “strongly recommended.” CalMatters speaks with immunocompromised people who have been left behind by the rushed return to “normalcy.”

Police Violence and Community Resistance

• The Los Angeles Police Commission approved reforms that prohibit officers from making “pretextual stops” for minor offenses without first recording on bodycam why they believe a more serious crime may have been committed. The policy has been called “the middle ground” by LAPD officials and has drawn criticism from activists for its loopholes.

Transportation

• Knock LA wants Angelenos to know about the city’s Metro Micro pilot program, a $1 rideshare program currently being tried out in a few areas around the city.

Education

• LAUSD officials have presented plans to displace the students at Orville Wright Middle School STEAM Magnet, in Westchester, to make way for a charter school. They also plan to close Pio Pico Middle School in the Mid-City area, where students are 90 percent Latine, and over the past five years the share of the student body qualifying for free and reduced-price meals has increased from 75% to 90%.
• LAUSD has committed to installing solar panels on 30 schools by 2027, and on another 50-to-70 more schools by 2030. With enough available roof space for solar panels to meet the LAUSD’s power needs and then some, the program is a potential revenue earner for LA’s public school system — but has fallen behind schedule. Plan details here.

Environmental Justice

• After the driest consecutive January and February in the Sierra in recorded state history, the statewide snowpack has dropped from 160% of normal to 63%. LAist covers the season’s wild weather swings.

Issue No. 98 – February 25, 2022

State Politics

• SB 972, introduced by State Senator Lorena Gonzalez, makes it simpler and more affordable for street vendors to obtain permits, a process that is effectively impossible to complete as currently designed. LA Times coverage in Spanish here.

City Politics

• Five candidates for Los Angeles mayor participated in a debate at Loyola Marymount University this week, presenting five versions of the same uninspiring platform on policing and homelessness. Protesters loudly heckled all candidates. Knock-LA covers. Video here.

• Writing in LA Progressive, Melina Abdullah and Patrisse Cullors lament Karen Bass’ pivot to the right as a mayoral candidate and express hope for a return to form.

• On Tuesday, the City Council voted to approve former Councilmember Herb Wesson as interim replacement for Mark Ridley-Thomas, whom they previously voted to suspend while he faces corruption charges. On Thursday, a judge blocked the appointment on the grounds that Wesson has already hit the term limit. CD10 remains without representation.

Education

• On Thursday, new LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho released a “100-Day Plan” for his project to reform the district. Absent from all of the reporting on the plan is any mention of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), or the union’s struggle to reduce class size. On this vital question, all Superintendent Carvalho says is that LAUSD will study “the effects of reducing class-size on academic achievement.”

• The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor voted on school board endorsements on Thursday, voting to endorse Maria Brenes for Board District 2 over UTLA’s endorsed candidate Rocío Rivas, and to endorse Nick Melvoin in BD4, over UTLA’s objections.

Labor

• CalMatters diagrams a rift within California labor over “just transition” plans as fossil fuel production within the state is being phased out.

Housing Rights

• A motion from Councilmember Mike Bonin making it easier to open a shelter for people experiencing homelessness without requiring a lengthy application process has advanced out of committee.

• State housing regulators rejected Los Angeles’ Housing Element for failing to expand the city’s zoning capacity to meet state mandated housing and affordable housing targets on a fast enough timeline. Hundreds of millions of dollars in housing grants are at stake.

• A discrimination lawsuit has been filed against real estate company K3 Holdings LLC by a group of tenants organized in part by the K3 Tenants Council. Coverage on Univision and ABC7. Details about the campaign against K3 Holdings can be found at K3TC.org.

Environmental Justice

• Local activists have filmed construction proceeding illegally on a build site that citizen journalists discovered, earlier this year, was known to be contaminated.

• State regulators have hand-waved aside a study exposing the likely ineffectiveness of California’s “cap-and-trade” program at restraining polluters.

• This week’s Boiling Point column in the LA Times lists all the climate legislation eligible for movement in the current state legislative session.