LOS ANGELES

MORE THAN THE MIDDLE IS MISSING!--At Scott Wiener’s February 3 town hall in San Francisco’s Outer Sunset neighborhood, I was startled to hear the city’s state senator say that his controversial new bill, SB 827, co-sponsored by Senator Nancy Skinner and drafted by California YIMBY Executive Director Brian Hanlon, was all about fostering the construction of the “missing middle”—“small to mid-sized apartment” buildings that are three to five stories tall with “maybe 8 to 20 units.”

SMALL BIZ---In an address to the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), a non-profit which counts over 325,000 small business owners among its members, Vice President Mike Pence gushed that small businesses “create jobs.

TRUMP WATCH—I wasn’t going to comment on this, but the Rob Porter wife beating story is now going on its seventh day. And to the extent that this story has "legs," given the Hope Hicks angle, there are just too many available puns not to take this on.  As reported on yahoo: https://tinyurl.com/y9rhjq4h (Photo above: Hope Hicks with the President.) 

DEEGAN ON LA-Mansionization could be seen as kid’s stuff by some, compared to what’s being proposed in Sacramento -- in SB827 -- that’s being called a “transit-rich housing bonus bill.” 

LAND USE--I recently attended UCLA Extension’s 2018 Land Use Law and Planning Conference at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. Seated in long rows of tables under the glittering chandeliers of the hotel’s Crystal Ballroom, hundreds of elected and appointed public officials, developers, attorneys, and consultants are annually briefed by sharp pro-growth land-use lawyers and other like-minded experts on the latest California land-use legislation and case law.

@THE GUSS REPORT-Despite denying for the past year that he is a bigamist, Los Angeles City Councilmember Curren D. Price, Jr. is on the precipice of getting what he has pursued for the past dozen years: a divorce from Lynn Suzette Green, a Trenton, NJ, attorney, to whom he is presently married. Price is also presently married to Delbra Richardson, a Los Angeles real estate professional.

AT LENGTH-At a Jan. 10 news conference, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that the city’s economy is “a beast,” but some residents wonder if it isn’t a monster. 

EDUCATION WATCH-The privatizers’ ideal candidate for California State Superintendent, Marshall Tuck, recently suffered a serious blow to his credibility when he announced he was returning a contribution from a mysterious anti-gay zealot but keeping over $61,000 from a PAC. The situation revealed a campaign scrambling to maintain a narrative that appeals to California’s mostly progressive voters when the reality is much darker.

ALPERN AT LARGE--An interesting thing happened when my very large medical group had its meeting in Downtown Los Angeles.  Virtually no one came via mass transit, and no one realistically expected them to, despite attracting physicians and medical executives from all over Southern California. 

GELFAND’S WORLD--(This is another article in a continuing campaign to inform, educate and energize  Angelenos on the reformation of city government … explaining the how, the why and the possibilities.) The advantage to having term limits for City Council members is that you can look forward to seeing the ones you really dislike being forced into retirement -- somebody like Tom LaBonge for example. 

CORRUPTION WATCH-Will Patrick Soon-Shiong M.D. continue the LA Times’ tradition to print only news that the LA elite desires Angelenos to read … or will he use the paper to address Los Angeles’ dire problems? 

BACKTALK--The CityWatch article “Pet Dogs: LA Becomes a No-Limit City” (February 5, 2018) misrepresents the simple intent of my City Council motion (seconded by Councilmember Bob Blumenfield) on pet limits and distorts that intent beyond recognition. 

BCK FILE--Last week, I wrote a CityWatch piece about Devin Nunes, (CA-22nd District) who is at the GOP epicenter of the Trump defense team as Chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

PERSPECTIVE--Much has been written and said about the City of Los Angeles’ implementation of the ill-conceived exclusive trash franchise arrangement. 

CAL BUZZ--Gavin Newsom and Antonio Villaraigosa, both Democrats, are virtually tied in the race for governor of California, but Villaraigosa has a secret weapon: a 4-1 lead among Latino voters who, if they turn out in big numbers, could swing the election.

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-“The more you stir it, the more it stinks” usually refers to Rover, but it is time to give this crude expression a battlefield promotion. It should also apply to proposed planning legislation from Sacramento, in particular Senator Scott Wiener’s much-discussed SB 827. This bill, also known as “Planning and Zoning: Transit Rich Housing,” uses proximity to bus and subway lines as a pretext to massively up-zone hundreds of thousands – perhaps millions -- of properties throughout California, including Los Angeles. 

EASTSIDER-The other day I was sitting on the freeway on the way to see a friend in Santa Monica, and after 1 1/2 hours of getting from Glassell Park to the beach, I realized that the LA I grew up in and around is gone, gone, gone. 

GRIPES, GRUMBLES, GRUDGES--The Thursday rundown: Devin Nunes has made a name for himself by carrying water for the right wing, even when he has to resort to logic that is, to put it mildly, illogic. His latest exploit as chair of the House Intelligence Committee is the release of a memo that purports to expose FBI wrongdoing. The best response comes from Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo.  who writes in The GOP and Big Lie Politics, 

ALPERN AT LARGE--As stated in my last CityWatch piece, we're not refusing to give up our cars but still are quite OK with paying for more mass transit.  This piece focuses on a few "tough love" answers to that paradox.  And thanks to Steve Lopez of the Times for his excellent piece. 

CORRUPTION WATCH-UCLA’s Institute for Transportation Studies issued its January 2018 report, “Falling Transit Ridership: California and Southern California.”  Here are some observations: 

LABOR WATCH--While online shopping has fundamentally changed retail and several major brands have shut down shops, America is not experiencing a so-called retail apocalypse. Brick and mortar stores still employ almost 16 million retail workers nationwide, and according to Forbes, “90% of consumer spending is still happening in the real world.” In fact, the 2017 holiday season saw the “strongest growth in holiday retail sales since the end of the Great Recession.”