For years now, the Los Angeles Bus Riders Union, the doughty local-transit lobby, has rabble-roused for more buses to carry the vast majority of Los Angeles–area transit users. Now, disclosures in a recent report from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s inspector general suggest that the union might also take interest in just how well the MTA […]
Month: July 2018
Down, Boy
Nearly four months after it first appeared, a highly publicized report critical of Mayor Richard Riordan’s efforts to bolster the city economy was attacked in turn by the mayor’s own business team this week.The original report, largely compiled under grant aid by the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE) with UCLA’s Center for […]
Growth Is Great
It’s another old saying, but sometimes you can‘t avoid them: “The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.” And on. The dogs may not like who’s on the camels, the color of their saddles and where they‘re headed. But the caravan’s on the road, headed toward its destination anyway. Despite the ambient canine noise.I‘m talking […]
Sport of Supes
Some people collect little trains; others heap up stamps and coins in tidy folders. Here in Southern California, hobbies tend to be strenuous: kickboxing, sailboarding, surfing.But Alan Clayton‘s hobby is political redistricting. “It’s like the world‘s biggest puzzle,” he says.And he wants to redistrict Los Angeles County — the nation’s most populous. No, he doesn‘t […]
Rough Justice
Now the Los Angeles School District officially wants to abandon the Belmont Learning Complex as a school site. This may not be a good idea, but who could blame the LAUSD superintendent and COO for their finding? Whether Belmont is irremediably dangerous due to its oil-field history is something that may never be proved. But […]
Doctor’s Appeal
A Sri Lanka–born physician at King-Drew Medical Center has won his appeal in a long-fought legal case in which he argued that he was denied a promotion for 16 years simply because he was not African-American.Last week’s decision by the Second District State Court of Appeal reinstated a finding by the county’s Civil Service Commission […]
Wanted: Backbone
So, in the end, the Eastside community was right about Ruben Zacarias and I was wrong. All I can say now is that I‘m sorry.Last year, it seemed time for Zacarias to quit. The last of the old-guard Los Angeles Unified School District supers, he made a career of hearing nothing he didn’t want to […]
Mean and Cheap
When last we wrote of local home health-care workers, there was hope in the air. As you may recall, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors asked the state for some health-care benefits for primary health-care givers. Those workers — 73,000 of whom have registered with the county — come into your home when you […]
Personality Politics
When 13th District L.A. City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg talks about her major accomplishments in 16 years of public office, she likes to talk about Hollywood — and you like to listen. That’s because it‘s a good story. Anyone who’s spent some years in the world-famous, 4-square-mile entertainment district that‘s in both her present council district […]
Things as They Were
The two apostles of things as they were sat in the Los Angeles City Council last week and flaunted their lack of vision.Our police chief and our mayor were trying to explain their responses to the Rampart police scandal that keeps spreading like an ink stain on a white pile carpet.By insisting that the LAPD […]