Stephen Box: The current redistricting process has resulted in the complete evisceration of Koreatown, a move that disregards the well organized message “Keep Wilshire Center Koreatown Neighborhood Council whole and in CD13.”
“Mr. Brown” Takes His Act to City Hall
By
Stephen Box: It has been 59 years since the Ralph M. Brown Act was passed by the California State Legislature and it guarantees the public’s right to attend and participate in meetings of local legislative bodies.
No One In Los Angeles Ever Takes the Blame
By
Stephen Box: General Managers, also appointed by the Mayor, find themselves caught between a term-limit restricted Mayor and a Civil Service hard place. Critics claim that they often serve as simple cannon fodder and Mayoral expeditors.
Dealing with City of LA: Get It in Writing
By
Stephen Box: The City of LA is fast to find fault with its residents and slow to accept responsibility for its mistakes, a pattern that is demonstrated by its reluctance to put things in writing when it puts the City of LA in an unfavorable position.
Support Sustainability Bill of Rights for Santa Monica
By
Santa Monica has worked hard to protect the natural ecosystems that make life possible. It is time for these sustainability goals to be legal, enforceable obligations and not just voluntary intentions.
Reasons Aplenty for No Farmers Field
By
Elizabeth Knipe: Who can afford a $100 to $200 ticket to a pro football game? Who wants to pay that freight, when we can stay home and watch it on the big screen, and save the environment
The Fix Is In: A Tale of Two Bans
By
Stephen Box: As community activists continue to fight for a ban on city park advertising, the Mayor is pursuing an overhaul of LA’s sign ordinance that will create “innovative revenue sources” such as wilderness advertising.
LA’s Scandalous Housing Authority: For Better or For Worse
By
Stephen Box: The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) is the latest department to fall victim to the oversight and accountability scrum that starts when the media shines a spotlight and concludes when the public gets bored.
LA First Major City on “Move to Amend” Bandwagon
By
Michael R. Evans: Los Angeles became the first major city to call for a constitutional amendment to abolish corporate personhood as a City Council resolution passed unanimously before hundreds of enthusiastic local residents
LA Fights to End Corporate Personhood
By
Los Angeles Poised to Be the First Major U.S. City to Call for an End to Corporate Personhood. Grassroots Momentum Builds Toward Passage of Vote on December 6th
Charlie Beck’s Anniversary: A Walk in the Park
By
Stephen Box: Beck occupies a unique position in the world of Occupy protests and is one of the only Police Chiefs in the country to establish a relationship with protesters that is based on respect and dignity.
Occupy LA: Time to Get Off the Lawn?
By
Stephen Box: It’s time that we stop looking to the tents at City Hall Park and instead look inside City Hall and ask the Mayor and the City Council the tough questions, “Where is the leadership and what is the plan?”
Los Angeles Occupy Encampment Still Stands
By
Sharon Kyle: Occupy encampments across the country have had bad encounters with police. Many Occupy encampments are being cleared out. But so far, Occupy LA stands – for now.
Occupy LA: Writing on the Wall
By
Stephen Box: Occupy LA is slowly discovering that City Hall’s welcome mat has disappeared, that the Mayor’s gift of ponchos during the first rainstorm was more of a bon voyage gift than a welcome.
Maybe They Should Occupy LA’s Neighborhood Councils
By
Stephen Box: Occupy LA has faced one of the most potent of enemies, an ambivalent audience, one that is most likely to respond with a tired dismissal based on aesthetics or a weary look of disbelief as issues such as unemployment, foreclosures, homelessness, collapsing infrastructure and a collapsing economy are presented as a call to action.
Occupy LA’s Greatest Opportunity: The Polls
By
Stephen Box: Occupy LA’s greatest opportunity to impact the policies and actions that are responsible for eviscerating the middle class, for destroying our economy, for unleashing predatory greed and for selling political access to the highest bidder is to mobilize voters at the polls on election day.
Occupy LA Faces the Ultimate Opponent: A Jaded Audience
By
Stephen Box: Occupy LA should be thanked for challenging the turf lawn status quo and for giving City Hall an opportunity to rethink its commitment to unsustainable landscaping.
It’s a Tremor, Not a Quake. Yet.
By
Tom Hayden: The LA occupation is not merely symbolic, but constitutes an interruption of government-as-usual by its presence on the City Hall lawn. The protest simply cannot be avoided by those in power.
Stephen Box: Balancing Budgets on Labor’s Back
By
Stephen Box: The City of Los Angeles is experiencing a Crisis of Leadership, one where the people of Los Angeles are being asked to pay more for less and the people who deliver the city services are being treated as if they are expendable. They’re not.
Save Libraries? Tax Oil Producers? Stop Pay to Play?
By
Wendy Block: Here is one conglomerated guide, the result of studying the few remaining newspapers, endorsements from the LA County Democratic Party, DPSFV, the League of Women Voters, the Courage Campaign and LA Progressive; plus analysis from several progressive Dem clubs and recommendations from electeds.
Is Parks’ Representation Worth The $2.3 Million Paid Over The Next Four Years?
By
Anthony Samad: Ask yourself the question if you’re an 8th District voter, “Am I getting $50,000 a month value out of the leadership (the) Parks provide in this district?”
Bell Officials Earned Thousands for One-Minute Meetings
By
Marian Wang: More revelations in the city of Bell overpaid officials controversy. On top of it all, the state has found that Bell illegally raised property taxes. Legislators are considering plans to refund some $2.9 million to residents.
Sarah Palin by Anne KilKenny
By
I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992. Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her father was my child’s favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a first name basis with her [...]
PCL offers monthly Open House Events on the 2nd Saturday at 2pm and 3rd Thursday at 6pm. Click here to learn more.
LA City Hall: The Great Pabulum and Placebo Dispenser
Stephen Box: From medical marijuana to fast food to code harassment, LA is the Capital of Moratoriums, demonstrating that there is nothing as attractive as the opportunity to kick an issue down the road and to leave it for the next round of elected officials.