Category Archives: LA County

My Sunday Column: Respect for the Council of Governments — The Valley’s Last Shot at Getting Its Fair Share

Posted on March 16, 2013 by

One of my first impressions when I called the San Fernando Valley my home nearly 30 years ago was that this vast middle-class enclave suffered from a bad inferiority complex, like it was populated by a lot of Rodney Dangerfields … Continue reading →

Posted in 2013 Election, 2013 LA Elections, City Hall, Community Activists, Glendale-Burbank, Hot Topics, LA County, Los Angeles, Transportation | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

My Sunday Column: Democracy wins a round — How the County’s 87 Cities (Not LA) Found Common Ground in a Storm

Posted on March 9, 2013 by

The setting was beautiful: a hill high above the intersection of the Santa Monica (10) and Long Beach (710) freeways, with panoramic views of downtown L.A. and much of the San Gabriel Valley, even on this dark and misty Thursday … Continue reading →

Posted in 2013 Election, Glendale-Burbank, Hot Topics, LA County, Transportation | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

The Art of the Political Holdup: Raising Taxes to Fix Street and Storm Water Systems without Fixing the Corruption of Power

Posted on January 16, 2013 by

Tracy Rafter, founder of BizFed representing tens of thousands of businesses in LA County, and Jack Humphreville, community leader and LA watchdog, laid out a long series of questions to the Board of Supervisors Monday.   Supervisor Gloria Molina eloquently … Continue reading →

Posted in 2013 Election, 2013 LA Elections, City Hall, Hot Topics, LA County, Los Angeles | 9 Comments

My Thanksgiving Column: Holiday philanthropy is vital in time of cutbacks

Posted on November 22, 2012 by

Charity begins at home — and for Southern California communities that was never more important than it is today, when government is cutting back sharply on providing services and funding for those in need, while poverty is soaring amid enduring … Continue reading →

Posted in LA County, Los Angeles | 16 Comments

My Sunday Column: Fun and Games at the MTA — Why Is It So Hard Just To Do What’s Right for the People?

Posted on September 29, 2012 by

In the climactic scene of director Ivan Reitman‘s 1993 political satire “Dave,” President Mitchell (Kevin Kline) tells a joint session of Congress he lost his way, forgot his job was to make people’s “lives a little better…care more about you than … Continue reading →

Posted in 2012 Election, City Hall, Community Activists, Glendale-Burbank, LA County, Los Angeles, Transportation | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

People Power Forces LA City Council to Oppose 710 Freeway — for Now

Posted on August 28, 2012 by

Residents of Northeast LA generously gave thanks to Councilman Jose Huizar Tuesday and celebrated him as a hero for pushing through a resolution putting the City of Los Angeles on record as opposing the 710 Freeway extension through their neighborhoods … Continue reading →

Posted in 2012 Election, City Hall, Community Activists, Glendale-Burbank, Hot Topics, LA County, Los Angeles, Transportation | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

YUCK, the TRUCKS: How People Power Is Killing 710 Freeway Extension and Winning the Fight for Sane Transit Solutions

Posted on August 27, 2012 by

On Tuesday at LA City Council Chamber before a sea of NO 710 red shirts, the spike likely will finally be driven into the money-sucking heart of a freeway nobody wants. It has taken more than 50 years of community … Continue reading →

Posted in 2012 Election, 2013 Election, 2013 LA Elections, City Hall, Community Activists, Glendale-Burbank, Hot Topics, LA County, Los Angeles, Transportation | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

DRAFT ZEV: Can Anybody Do a Better Job as Mayor Than the Last Lion of LA Politics?

Posted on August 25, 2012 by

A few days ago I told a friend of Supervisor Yaroslavsky that I thought I would wind up supporting him for Mayor of Los Angeles. At the least, I said sarcastically, “Zev is the lesser of four evils.” On Thursday, … Continue reading →

Posted in 2013 Election, 2013 LA Elections, City Hall, Community Activists, Hot Topics, LA County, Los Angeles | Tagged , , , , , , | 21 Comments

The Perversion of Democracy, Part One: Derail Measure J, the 60-Year Transit Tax — It’s Highway Robbery

Posted on August 15, 2012 by

Let me be the first to formally oppose what is now Measure J on the ballot in November, the sequel to 2008′s Measure R that was supposed to raise $40 million from a 1/2 percent sales tax increase for highway … Continue reading →

Posted in 2012 Election, 2013 Election, 2013 LA Elections, City Hall, Community Activists, Hot Topics, LA County, Los Angeles, Transportation | Tagged , , , | 31 Comments

Why Can’t Everybody Be Like Public Employees and Have Lucrative, Guaranteed Defined Benefit Pensions?

Posted on August 13, 2012 by

A recent Internet missive from the LA Police Protective League argues as have other public employee unions that the nation’s ballooning elderly population are on “a path to poverty” because private employers are getting rid of defined benefit pension plans. … Continue reading →

Posted in 2012 Election, 2013 Election, 2013 LA Elections, City Hall, Hot Topics, LA County, Los Angeles, Pensions | Tagged , , | 23 Comments