As Los Angeles County’s COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to decline, residents can help protect those who are the most vulnerable to the virus. Residents can help reduce the high rate of transmission by being fully vaccinated, getting tested when exposed and before gatherings, masking indoors, and staying home while sick or recovering from COVID-19.
The Omicron variant continues to account for 100% of sequenced specimens and the BA.5 subvariant of Omicron remains the most predominant subvariant. In the week ending July 30, 88% of all sequenced specimens in LA County were BA.5. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC estimates that, across the country, as of the week ending August 13, the BA.5 subvariant accounted for 89% of specimens.
The relative proportions of other key sublineages Public Health is tracking changed only slightly, including BA.2.12.1 which has declined to 4%, and BA 4.6 which remains at just over 1.5%. To date, only three specimens of BA.2.75 have been detected, indicating no increased circulation of this sublineage here. This is welcome news since it indicates that the new strains currently circulating remain at a low level and do not appear poised to outcompete BA.5 in the very near future.
The 7-day average case count today is 3,577 cases, a 2% drop from 3,660 cases a week prior. The 7-day average test positivity rate over the past week also declined slightly to 10.1%, from 10.7% one week ago.
Over the last seven days, the average number of COVID-positive patients per day in LA County hospitals was 1,009, a decline of 10% from one week ago when the seven-day average number of COVID-positive patients per day was 1,118. The CDC reported LA County’s hospital admission rate at 8.9 weekly hospital admissions per 100,000 people, a decrease from the rate of 9.9 reported a week ago.
Deaths, which typically lag hospitalizations by several weeks, dropped slightly to an average of 13 deaths reported each day this past week, compared to an average of 14 daily reported deaths one week ago.
Getting vaccinated continues to provide protection from severe illness and hospitalization, especially for the most vulnerable residents living in communities with high rates of poverty. For the 30-day period ending Aug. 4, unvaccinated residents living in the highest poverty areas were 11 times more likely to be hospitalized than their vaccinated counterparts. And while 77% of LA County residents age five and older are fully vaccinated, only 35% of children 5-11 years old are fully vaccinated, and less than 7% of children under 5 have received at least one dose.
Residents can visit the Public Health website at VaccinateLACounty.com or VacunateLosAngeles.com (Spanish) to find locations, and schedules for clinics offering COVID-19 vaccines.
SACRAMENTO – With children across California headed back to school, Gov. Gavin Newsom Aug. 18, unveiled California’s Master Plan for Kids’ Mental Health to ensure all California children, parents and communities have increased access to mental health and substance use services.
Nationally, youth are reporting symptoms of depression and anxiety at record rates and are considering or attempting suicide at historic levels. Here in California, about one-third of 7th and 9th graders and half of 11th graders experienced chronic sadness in the 2020-2021 school year and it’s estimated that 1 in 10 kids between the ages of 12 and 17 suffered from at least one major depressive episode in the last year. Suicide rates for California youth ages 10 to 18 increased by 20% from 2019 to 2020.
California is taking urgent action to address this crisis. For children and families needing help now, some elements of the Governor’s plan are already available to all California children, including the Children’s Mental Health Resources Hub, which offers youth and parents a central hub for a variety of resources, including several support hotlines, CalHOPE and informational guides on suicide and depression warning signs.
The Governor unveiled the plan at McLane High School in Fresno, which provides social emotional support services for students with a dedicated social emotional support staff made up of psychologists, social workers, and welfare specialists. Over the past decade, the Fresno Unified School District has increased mental health staffing from around 50 to more than 200 professionals. The Master Plan for Kids’ Mental Health provides funding to schools across the state to offer the same kind of resources McLane and Fresno Unified does.
The Governor also signed AB 2508 by Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva (D-Fullerton) to better define the role of school counselors that recognizes the importance of access to mental health.
Over the last three years, California has launched an historic overhaul of the state’s mental health system – investing $4.7 billion to boost coverage options and public awareness so all children and youth are routinely screened, supported, and served. The funding creates new virtual platforms and establishes a new pipeline for the mental health workforce, adding 40,000 new mental health workers in the state.
Other investments include:
$4.1 billion on a community schools strategy to connect kids and families to essential services including health screenings, meals and more.
$5 billion on a Medi-Cal initiative, CalAIM, to better integrate health and behavioral health services for low-income kids.
$1.4 billion to build a more diverse healthcare workforce that expands our capacity to meet the health needs of Californians, including children and families.
The Master Plan for Kids’ Mental Health outlines action across three key pillars:
Healthy Minds for California Kids
Provide Medi-Cal coverage for parent-child services
Make it easier for schools to provide prevention and treatment
De-stigmatize mental health support for kids
Offer additional resources for parents
Rebuilding California’s Mental Health Systems
Create new virtual platforms
Expand early interventions
More school counselors
Expand clinic and treatment slots
Develop a suicide prevention program
Developing a Mental Health Workforce
Hire, train, and engage 40,000 new mental health workers
Expand remote access to services
Training for teachers
Read the full Master Plan for Kids’ Mental Health here.
If you or a friend or loved one is having suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org/.
One person was injured after being ejected from their SUV in a crash on the 110 Freeway, on Sunday, August 21.
LAFD Spokesperson Brian Humphrey said emergency personnel responded to the crash on the southbound lanes of the 110 Freeway, just north of the Channel Street exit, at around 3:42 p.m. Firefighters found one person had been ejected from an overturned Ford Expedition.
One vehicle was involved in the crash. Two people were reportedly in the car, although only one person was ejected, CHP Officer Edgar Figueroa said. The crash victims were transported to the hospital in unknown conditions.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation. The 110 Freeway leading into San Pedro has been fully reopened.
Update:The LAPD media relations department released a preliminary report about an officer involved shooting in San Pedro during a traffic stop in the early morning hours of Aug. 20. Russell Douthit, 20-year-old a resident of Los Angeles, was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon.
According to the report, Harbor Patrol Division officers were in the area of West 18th Street and South Pacific Avenue, in San Pedro. They observed the vehicle parked in a handicap parking spot in front of a liquor store located in the 1800 block of S. Pacific Avenue. Upon further investigation, officers observed four occupants (two males, and two females) inside the vehicle.
Officers ordered the occupants exit the vehicle one at a time. The driver and a female occupant were detained against a nearby wall of the liquor store. Douthit allegedly remained seated in the rear passenger side of the vehicle until the officers gave the command for him to exit the vehicle. During a pat down search, a Glock-17 handgun was located in Douthit’s front waistband. The officer conducting the pat down removed the firearm and handed it to his partner.
The officers requested backup and the gun was secured in their police vehicle. The officers ordered Douthit to his knees. While waiting for backup, both officers re-deployed to the front passenger side of their police vehicle. The officers issued a verbal command for Douthit to move away from the passenger side of the car. Failing to comply, Douthit instead, allegedly, lunged into the rear passenger side of the vehicle and turned towards the officers, at which point the Officer-Involved Shooting occurred.
Douthit was struck in his left hand. He subsequently dropped a cellular phone and a wallet on the nearby sidewalk and was taken into custody.
He was transported by rescue ambulance to a local hospital for treatment for his gunshot wound and is listed in stable condition.
According to the booking information as of Aug. 24, Douthit has been charged with a misdemeanor with a bail of $10,000. California law makes it a crime to carry a concealed firearm on your person or in a vehicle. As a misdemeanor, the charge carries a penalty of up to 1 year in jail. If charged as a felony, the sentence is up to 3 years in jail. He is currently in LAPD’s Harbor Division jail. Douthit’s first court date, as of 2:20p.m. on Aug. 24, has yet to be set.
The complete investigation will be reviewed by the Chief of Police, the Board of Police Commissioners, and the Office of the Inspector General to determine the thoroughness and accuracy of the investigation and whether the use of deadly force complied with LAPD’s policies and procedures.
Additionally, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office who responded to the scene will review the subsequent FID investigation, evidence collected, and witness statements to determine if the force used by the officer was reasonable.
A man was shot by officers during a traffic stop in San Pedro, in the early morning hours of Aug. 20.
LAPD Public Information Officer, Matthew Cruz said, officers were on patrol on 18th Street and Pacific Avenue when they made an investigative stop on a parked car with four occupants at around 12 a.m. Cruz did not explain the probable cause for the stop.
As officers were searching the passengers, they discovered then confiscated a handgun from the waistband of one of the car’s occupants — a 20-year-old male (not the driver), then held him at gunpoint.
After his gun was confiscated, Cruz said the man lunged back into the car at which point officers shot him. The man sustained a wound to his hand. The suspect was taken to the hospital in unknown condition.
The three other occupants of the car were arrested immediately after the shooting. No officers or bystanders were injured. Pacific Avenue between 17th St and 19th St was shut down for multiple hours for the investigation.
Do you live, work, or play in Wilmington,San Pedro, or Long Beach? You are in an Environmental Protection Agency risk circle for death or serious injury from a release of deadly hydrogen fluoride (HF). Wilmington Valero and Torrance PBF refineries use HF for alkylation to make primarily premium gasoline at the pump. Only these two refineries use HF in California. They are vulnerable to accidents, earthquakes, or terrorism.
A large release of HF could cause mass casualties. If you or your family lives within 5 miles of the Valero or Torrance refinery you are in danger for a large release of HF. There have been many near misses at refineries. Much safer chemical processes are now available and being implemented at other refineries. Why not here? Find information about their options at https://TRAA.website/#HFAlternatives.
The Problem
HF released under conditions typical in these refineries alkylation can flash atomize into a lethal, ground- hugging fog that carries with the wind. Brief contact with such a fog could result in death or permanent injury.
Nearly 40 schools and six hospitals are in the risk zone (as reported by the refineries to the EPA). Communities in this area rank high for Environmental Justice burden.
Huge quantities of exceptionally dangerous HF sit one mile from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union ILWU Dispatch Hall on Anaheim Street. Twice a day, 2,000 union members unknowingly risk their lives getting their job assignments.
Anti-terrorist experts have recently highlighted the national security threat of soft targets like HF at refineries.
The Solution
Upgrade to a safe alternative. Many refineries have converted or are building new units with these alternatives. While expensive, such expenditures are not uncommon.
The Torrance Refinery Action Alliance does not seek to close these two refineries. Valero and PBF have said, “There are no alternatives.” The truth is there are multiple commercially available vastly safer technologies and these two in the harbor/South Bay need to be encouraged.
What can you do? Write to the EPA to require upgrading to a safe chemical operation.
You can become part of the campaign fight to bring about conversion and upgrade from HF.
The effort by residents like you has been joined by all the neighborhood councils, Janice Hahn and the Board of Supervisors, all the local Congress members like Nanette Barragán, Alan Lowenthal, Karen Bass, Maxine Waters, Ted Lieu, plus environmental community groups.
Efforts to regulate through local agencies have met resistance. However, the fight effort has now risen to the federal level, focusing on the EPA.
At the direction of President Joe Biden, the EPA is revising their toxic chemical rules in September. Now is the time for you to write the EPA a letter.
You have a unique opportunity to make an impact on the community. Write to the EPA immediately. Your letter could be addressed as follows:
The Honorable Michael S. Regan Administrator U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of the Administrator 1101A 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20460
I live close to two of the 40 oil refineries in the US using highly toxic Hydrofluoric Acid. “Near misses” have occurred in Torrance, CA near me, Philadelphia, Superior Wisconsin, Bellingham Washington, Corpus Christi Texas and elsewhere.
Using a chemical as dangerous as HF when there are commercially available alternatives that carry no offsite risk are irresponsible. Conversion should be required.
I support a strong rule that prioritizes conversion away from the use of toxic chemicals like HF that can cause mass casualties.
Naengmyeon (n-yang-me-on) translates to “cold noodles” in Korean. This simple name renders incomplete justice to this kaleidoscopic dish. The noodles are indeed cold, thanks to pieces of ice floating amongst them in the pre-chilled daikon radish broth. Atop the noodles are a colorful combination of proteins and plant parts, including meat, egg, blanched vegetables, pickled radishes, hot peppers and cucumbers, renowned for their coolness. Who knows what else is in that bowl? There is only one way to find out: dig in and slurp your way to the bottom of this treasure hunt of a meal.
I first enjoyed naengmyeon on an August afternoon in a Vancouver, B.C. restaurant, after being lured inside by a sign advertising a summer menu. I was expecting seasonal vegetables. What I got was a spicy and sour juggernaut that stopped my sweat in its tracks.
Back in 15th century North Korea, where naengmyeon came to be, the ice came from the mountains. While cold is practically the definition of refreshment, most refreshing foods are sweet. But in this case, aside from the occasional slice of Asian pear, the meal is decidedly savory.
There’s no limit to the number of variations this dish can accommodate, but the radish broth itself remains the soul of naengmyeon. As soon as the daikon, ginger and onion begin simmering, an intoxicating fragrance fills the room. This mysterious smell is enticing.
In addition to the broth, there are several more steps to preparing naengmyeon, and each is basically its own recipe. We must make the daikon pickles, blanch the proteins, cook the meat, and make perfect hard-boiled eggs. When these have all been prepared we can finally assemble the finished dish.
One extremely useful piece of equipment for this dish, and many others, is a pot with a pasta boiler insert that you can remove. With so many ingredients being pre-cooked in boiling stock, the pasta basket allows us to remove things from the kettle without the hassle and potential danger of pouring hot liquid through a strainer.
When everything is prepared and assembled, dive into this glorious bowl of diverse textures and flavors, and eat strategically. If you get too much heat from a sliced jalapeno, head for the Asian pear for refuge. It all adds up to a savory and sour soup that’s as refreshing as ice tea, but even more nutritious and exhilarating as the chilled ingredients carry the cold deep inside of you, where you need it the most.
Daikon Broth
There is a lot you can do with this daikon broth in addition to making naengmyeon. Last night I used it to make a pot of rice, and that captivating flavor impregnated every grain.
1 pound daikon, peeled and sliced into half-inch rounds
4 ounces of peeled ginger, sliced to about a quarter-inch-thick
1 large onion, cut into quarters
1 pound beef brisket or similarly lean, tough red meat (optional)
If you skip the brisket, replace a quart of the water with beef (or vegetable) stock, or use bouillon cubes
Add the ingredients to a pasta basket and set it in a pot with five quarts of water. Bring the pot to a boil and then turn it down to a simmer, and cook for two hours. Remove the pasta basket and let the broth cool to room temperature, and then chill in the fridge. Allow the brisket to cool and slice it thinly, toss the slices with salt, and refrigerate them until it’s time to assemble the dish.
While the broth simmers, make the daikon pickles, boil the eggs, and prepare the noodles and vegetables as follows.
Pickled Daikon
8 ounces daikon radish, peeled
½ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
Use the peeler to cut the radish lengthwise into ribbons. Place the daikon ribbons in a bowl, and toss with the salt. Add the remaining ingredients. Toss again, and refrigerate until it’s time to assemble the bowl.
Hard Boiled Egg
4 eggs
Bring a quart of water to a boil. Gently lower the eggs into the water and cook for a minute at full boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook for another 12 minutes. Remove the eggs and transfer them to a bowl with two quarts of cold water, and let them cool for 15 minutes. Peel under running water.
Noodles and veggies
½ pound soba noodles
Baby bok choy, spinach or other greens
Boil 4 quarts of water in a pot with the pasta basket insert. You can also cook the noodles and vegetables in the radish stock.
Cook the noodles per the instructions on the package. Then remove the insert and plunge the noodles into cold water. Drain and set aside.
Briefly blanch the vegetables you intend to use, according to how much time they need. For bok choy and spinach, a minute in the boiling water is all you need.
Naengmyeon
Here we assemble all of the previously prepared ingredients into bowls.
As discussed above, the brisket was cooked with the broth. But this time of year, when the garlic is fresh, I use beef bouillon in the daikon stock and go with a more tender cut of meat for the final dish. If you go this route, slice the meat thinly and fry it with minced garlic in olive oil with salt and pepper, and add these slices to the final bowl.
4 servings
2 trays ice cubes or similar amount of crushed ice
1 pound cooked soba noodles
1 pound sliced cooked brisket
4 hard-boiled eggs, sliced in half lengthwise
1 pound cooked bok choy, spinach or other green vegetables
1 pound pickled daikon radish
1 large cucumber, peeled and sliced
Sliced jalapeno, if you like spicy
Soy sauce
Rice vinegar
Chili paste
Divide the ice among the bowls. Add the noodles and give them a twist with your fingers or a fork, so they make a bit of a spiral pattern.
Artfully place the proteins, fruits and vegetables in little piles atop the noodles and ice. Place these bowls on the table and ladle in the broth. Season with a splash of soy sauce, and leave the bottle on the table, along with cider vinegar and pepper paste, so the diners can personalize their salt and acid levels.
If you’re extra-thirsty, consider slurping the broth out of the bowl straight away, without chewing anything. Then refill the bowl, adjust the salt and sour, and begin eating in earnest.
Legendary Radio Producer and Activist, Founder and Publisher of CityWatch
This column was excerpted from Jim Hampton’s obituary for Ken Draper. Read Hampton’s column in full at the following link, https://tinyurl.com/Ken-Draper-Passing.
Most knew Ken Draper as the publisher of CityWatch, but back in the 1960s, he produced radio shows in Portland, Cleveland and Chicago. Draper died at the age of 89.
Draper later founded in Hollywood a radio consulting and syndication company where he produced programming for radio stations all over the U.S. Draper then became the executive editor of KFWB in Los Angeles and created the ‘You give us 22 minutes; we’ll give you the world’ format based on all that he learned programming Top 40. This was a first for all news radio.
In the late 1990s, the City of LA approved the charter to create neighborhood councils as a grass roots way to connect LA’s diverse communities with City Hall. Draper helped launch Mid-City West, which was one of the first neighborhood councils and a model for others.
During the pre-charter years, Ken worked with long-time activist and political consultant Mark Siegel. Mark was monitoring the work of the Charter Commissions with his Charter Watch reports. Neighborhood councils were born when the Charter was approved in 1999.
When Siegel took a sabbatical from publishing in 2000, Ken converted Charter Watch into CityWatch. It began as a printed handout, which was published bi-weekly to an email list of a few hundred. If you attended city council meetings in LA, you would invariably see it in the hands of council members.
Draper’s longtime collaborator and friend convinced him to transition his printed newsletter to a website in 2002. Now, it is available 24/7 with twice weekly e-news blasts to more than 90,000 electronic subscribers and millions of users. The purpose of CityWatch remains unchanged: To hold City Hall accountable and to encourage grass roots civic engagement.
To do this, Ken enlisted the help of some of LA’s best writers, who week after week, year after year, provided original stories to be published on CityWatch. Their voices, their opinions. Left, center, right … it didn’t matter. Ken just wanted people to be passionate and involved.
Re: “South Pacific Avenue: A Metaphor for Post-Industrial America”
I thoroughly enjoyed and benefited from your recent essay, “South Pacific Avenue: A Metaphor for Post-Industrial America,” in the “At Length” section of the Aug. 4-17, 2022, edition of Random Lengths News. I am not a resident of LA/LB Harbor Area, but I have visited it several times and definitely appreciate the rich history of San Pedro and its environs. Using the colorful history of South Pacific Avenue and the erosion of its legacy to ultimately get at the problem of “modernization” and how the mindless installment of automation can harm communities and their workers—in this case, longshore workers, their families, and so forth—was a writing strategy one can admire. Thanks for this one and for highlighting the challenge that “the machine” can present to us all.
Harvey Schwartz, El Cerrito
Sobering Automation
I found James’ last column (“South Pacific Avenue: A Metaphor for Post-Industrial America,” in the “At Length” section of the Aug. 4-17, 2022,) both informative and sobering. Automation has been around a while. Almost a century ago hundreds of thousands of people, mostly women, worked as manual phone operators. When automation came, proponents assured us that the new technology would create more jobs than the ones that were lost. More recently auto workers have lost a lot of jobs to robotics as well as seeing plants move overseas. In the mid-1990s automation hit radio. Disc jockeys were replaced with tapes that made “one-hit wonders” out of Roy Orbison (Pretty Woman), Van Morrison (Brown-eyed Girl) and—gasp—the Rolling Stones (Satisfaction).Major league baseball has hinted that it would not mind replacing umpires by expanding the technology it already has in place to call balls and strikes. And just a few years ago there was a lot of talk about driverless vehicles. This hasn’t received much media coverage lately but you bet the ranch, this isn’t going away. Automation should be part of the political debate, especially if the technology was developed on taxpayers’ dime, The sooner the better. In fact, somebody should talk about it at the Labor Day Picnic in a few weeks.
Steve Varalyay , Torrance
My Apology
Throughout my life, my actions have been far reaching, and have hurt many. I have lived a selfish and self-centered life. The damages untold and for me unknown. And for this, I am truly sorry. I live now with God in heart, with an unshakable faith that His son laid his life down for me. To all of you, I apologize.
Bus riders are set to see new changes at their local transit stops. Some of these changes can be attributed to the new Sidewalk and Transit Amenities Program (STAP), a program conducted through the Bureau of Street Services, Streets LA, to replace the city’s current bus stops.
If you’ve sat on a bus stop in Los Angeles in the past 40 years, chances are that it was a product of the former provider of the Coordinated Street Furniture Program, OUTFRONT Decaux Street Furniture, LLC. The long-lasting contract between the former street furniture provider and the city expires in late 2022, allowing outside companies the opportunity to take its place.
In July of 2021, StreetsLA hosted a demonstration with the intention of what one might assume to be competition-fueled innovation, during which the two frontrunners being considered for the street furniture program, OUTFRONT Decaux and Tranzito, had the chance to showcase new modernized designs. StreetsLA has confirmed that a new contract between the city and Tranzito has been negotiated and is currently awaiting approval by Los Angeles City Council. If approved, this project is set to officially begin in January 2023, and is expected to take between three and six years to complete.
Other changes in local transit may be attributed to the LA City-Metro Transportation Communication Network (TCN). Though separate, the line between the two programs is blurry, as both share similarities. According to the Metro website, the TCN program aims to “create a network of digital display structures with intelligent technology” through the removal and replacement of approximately 200 static displays. Both STAP and the TCN program have raised concerns from locals. Each program regards the installation and usage of digital advertising and signage on our streets.
During a July 18 meeting, the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council noted its concern over the STAP program, voicing distress over various aspects of the project, especially the collection of individuals’ personal data, misrepresentation to the public, and potential environmental implications, among others. In compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act, the city has prepared a Mitigated Negative Declaration in place of an environmental impact report for STAP. When asked directly about the program’s potential effects on light pollution, increased energy consumption and impacts on wildlife, Paul Gomez, a public relations representative for the Department of Public Works, responded with the following on behalf of Streets LA:
STAP’s Request for Proposals and resulting negotiated contract with Tranzito has numerous controls and requirements to help the overall program address and mitigate the environmental effects of STAP elements … Examples include limitations on the maximum and minimum illumination levels of STAP elements, a requirement that all lighting and displays be fully adjustable in relation to ambient light and accountable to a real time content management system, energy efficiency requirements, size limitations on media displays, and compliance with the City’s draft sign ordinance.
StreetsLA did not provide any other specifics on these limitations and regulations. Accusations of increased energy consumption due to STAP elements were overlooked in the response from StreetsLA as well, claiming that these factors will be offset through the encouragement and facilitation of transit use over single occupancy vehicles, thus reducing fossil fuel consumption and related emissions over time.
As previously mentioned, a main concern of the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council has concerned the collection of personal data by these new digital signs. As confirmed by StreetsLA, Tranzito is the service provider selected to operate STAP. While the StreetsLA representative corresponded with evaded confirmation of Vector Media’s involvement with STAP, the proposed contract on the StreetsLA website names “Tranzito-Vector, LLC” as the contractor. Vector Media is a company that specializes in out-of-home digital advertising. As part of their services, Vector has integrated Blue Comet software from a company called Blue Bite. Blue Bite’s “Blue Comet” software utilizes shadowfencing, a method of digital geofencing that collects first-party data, including device IDs, from nearby devices. This first party data can then be used in retargeting initiatives from then on out.
Furthermore, both the STAP and TCN programs have faced public scrutiny regarding the potential impact of their digital signage as a driver distraction. Public comment on the TCN program was met with citizens citing studies linking roadside message boards to an increase in the likelihood of drivers crashing.
“While we have searched for studies that further discuss the distraction levels and effects of displays associated with transit shelters, we have not found any studies,” Gomez said. “All studies found and researched regarding driver distractions and media displays relate to much larger, elevated billboards (again typically 30 times the size of STAP displays).”
In further attempts to alleviate unease, StreetsLA justified STAP displays through claims of a reduced refresh rate between advertisements (a 10-second minimum, rather than the industry standard of eight) as well as the promise of smooth transitions. Those in opposition of STAP and the TCN project note these projects’ contradiction with the mayor’s Vision Zero plan, a mission to reduce the number of traffic fatalities in Los Angeles. Instead, StreetsLA claims that STAP “complements Vision Zero efforts.”
“First of all, I do not, I never have, supported defund the police,” congresswoman and mayoral candidate Karen Bass said in a meet-and-greet event at Sirens Java & Tea in San Pedro on Aug. 6, responding to rumors being circulated against her in her race against former Republican and billionaire developer Rick Caruso.
It’s a familiar situation for Bass who, as a Black woman — the first ever to lead a state legislature — has a long history of being misjudged, and surprising those who misjudge her.
Despite massively outspending her, Caruso still seems unlikely to beat her in November, but he has shifted the debate, ala Donald Trump, back into the territory of “American carnage” with a focus on homelessness and crime, and claims akin to, “I alone can fix it,” leaving Bass with a lot of fact-checking and debunking to do. But in the process, some crucial possibilities for real progress may be getting lost — from criminal justice reform to housing and homelessness to climate justice and resilience, and more.
A health-care worker turned community organizer, Bass was first elected to California Assembly in her early 50s, and became Speaker in 2008. Her record was characterized by engaging with and empowering community input on the one hand — initiating the process that produced the first ever “State of Black California” report, for example — and engaging in difficult negotiations with political opponents on the other — receiving the 2010 “Profiles in Courage” award along other legislative leaders for “standing up to the extraordinary constituent and party pressure they faced while working with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to address California’s severe financial crisis.” Her willingness to work with anyone was the common factor in both sides of this record — and even extends to those attacking her now.
“I have been on record on TV, radio, print, hundreds of times, because, when the Speaker asked me to lead the effort around the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, I worked tirelessly to pass that bill out of the House,” Bass went on to explain at the coffee house that caters to first responders. “That bill, in itself, provides hundreds of millions of dollars for the police. So, if you don’t support the police, you wouldn’t support the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.”
What’s more, she noted, “Ironically, I worked closely with the Police Protective League on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. We worked closely together, which is why I was surprised that they spent $4 million attacking me, since we had worked so closely together. And, interestingly, I worked with Rick Caruso,” who helped her “with my Republican colleagues, who weren’t really sure where I was coming from.” (Caruso changed his registration to “Democrat” in January.)
It took several minutes before Bass got around to saying, “I believe in stopping the crimes of today, and investing in preventing the crimes of tomorrow.” But even after that, she said little specifically about prevention strategies, despite having deeply detailed plans outlined on her website. But she did promise responsiveness.
“I want to have an office of community safety, where we essentially go to all the neighborhoods around the city, and say, ‘What makes your neighborhood safe?’,” Bass said. “I don’t believe in one size fits all. But what I do believe is that if you define what you want, it’s my job as mayor to deliver it. And I do believe that the number one job of the mayor is to keep the city safe.”
Unfortunately, what people clamor for may not be what they want. There’s only mixed evidence, at best, that increased policing reduces serious crime — some shows the opposite. What it does do is increase misdemeanor arrests — which have significant social costs — as sociologist Brenden Beck explained at Slate in April, reporting on the results of a study he co-authored, analyzing 29 years of data spanning hundreds of cities.
“We found the size of a city’s police budget and the size of its police force both strongly predicted how many arrests its officers made for things like loitering, trespassing, and drug possession,” Beck wrote. “The trend was clear: When cities decreased the size of their police departments, they saw fewer misdemeanor arrests and when they increased them, they saw more.”
Increased arrests may make some people happy, but “Arrests for petty offenses are devastating for the people arrested and their communities,” Beck explained. “Even a single arrest makes a person less likely to stay in school, be hired for a job, or obtain housing. The punishment of an arrest often cascades into fines, fees, and what legal scholar Issa Kohler-Hausmann calls ‘procedural hassles,’ even in cases that do not result in jail time.”
“If intense misdemeanor enforcement reduced crime, these costs might have to be balanced against the public safety benefits of low-level arrests,” Beck noted, “but study after study has found intense misdemeanor enforcement does not reduce crime. One study analyzed the effects of randomly dropping some misdemeanor charges and found people who had their cases dismissed were less likely to be rearrested over the next two years, suggesting misdemeanor enforcement actively causes crime.”
It’s findings like these — hard-nosed empirical data — that are cited by aspiring progressive prosecutors, such as city attorney candidate Faisal Gill.
Karen Bass. Photo by Arturo Garcia-Ayala
Bass Reverses Endorsement
Bass initially endorsed Gill, only to reverse her decision in June, when Caruso attacked her endorsement. Bass did not respond to Random Lengths’ inquiries to explain her reasoning.
Caruso attacked Gill specifically for his proposed 100-day moratorium on misdemeanor charges, “unless they are particularly egregious or time-sensitive,” which Gill credibly claims was a fear-mongering mis-representation of crimes that would not be charged.
“Rick: you may be filthy rich, but no amount of money can change the truth,” Gill said in a statement at the time. “Never did I say I would not prosecute egregious crimes as city attorney. The crimes Caruso lists that I allegedly won’t prosecute are entirely fabricated, made up out of whole cloth.”
What’s more, that moratorium was clearly a temporary transition measure, lasting less than 1/14 of his prospective term. Focusing on it was clearly intended to obscure Gill’s long-term goal to implement a safety-enhancing diversion-focused system. Now that the attempt to recall District Attorney George Gascón has failed, it’s a good time to soberly reconsider just what Gill is proposing.
The Homelessness Issue
As with crime, Caruso’s homelessness stance is long on tough talk, and claims of competence. But he’s apparently never built a single unit of affordable housing in his career. Instead, he’s relying on public anger and frustration — the desire to do something, regardless of whether it works. This was reflected in the city council’s recent 11 to 3 vote to dramatically expand the city’s prohibition on camping to public spaces around schools, which even the LA Times derided as “only fool[ing] people into thinking something is being done about homelessness.” The new measure “won’t make a dent in homelessness and it probably won’t even reduce the appearance of encampments,” a Times’ editorial argued. “It will simply shift them down the block from a school — and it might not even do that. Another anti-camping restriction wastes time and city resources and solves nothing.”
Both candidates recognize there are multiple moving parts to the problem, but only Bass has decades of experience working on the multiple levels that need to be brought together. “We have to have a whole of government approach, which means the federal government’s responsible, the state government, the city and the county.” The city and county need to work together. “It makes no sense to say the city’s responsible for building, the county’s responsible for services, when we’re talking about the same individual,” she said. “And we’ve got to get the federal government to relax a lot of regulations to address this problem like it’s an emergency.”
But there’s a way the city can lead. “The city alone owns about 70 acres — lots. Some of which are completely vacant. Why can’t we put up housing there?” Bass asked. (City Controller Ron Galperin gives a lower figure of 39 acres.) “We know how to do this,” she said, “We’ve seen what our government can do. 20,000 Afghan refugees were in Qatar. We had to build a virtual city. Did we know how to do that? Yes. Why can’t we do that here, at home? That’s why you have to have an all of government approach. We have to prevent people from becoming homeless, we’ve got to get people off the streets right away, into housing, and then we have to address why they were unhoused to begin with. What was the problem that led to them losing their housing. If we don’t address why they were unhoused, the odds of them staying in housing is very slim.”
While it’s important to address individual problems, there are broader underlying drivers — income inequality and the shortage of affordable housing — that have been worsening for decades. One way to address them would be through direct government involvement in building mixed-income social housing — a much larger scale solution than just building housing for the homeless, which is well established elsewhere in the developed world. And the need for something similar in California is clear.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition’s “Out Of Reach” report documents the “significant gap between renters’ wages and the cost of rental housing across the United States,” using its central statistic, the Housing Wage — what a full-time worker must earn to afford modest rental without spending more than 30% of their income on housing. California currently has the second highest housing wage in the country — $39.01/hr. Even with its $15/hr minimum wage it would take 104 hours per week to afford a 2-bedroom rental home.
Facing this reality, a bill to bring social housing to California, AB 2053, by Assemblymember Alex Lee, of Milpitas, passed the Assembly but died in a Senate committee by one vote in June. As mayor of LA, with wide-ranging influence, Bass would be a formidable force in getting such legislation passed next year, and she could explore how much LA could do on its own. This seems like a natural extension of her past advocacy and ideas, but again, Bass did not respond to Random Lengths’ queries on the subject.
Climate Justice
Another issue area Bass highlights on her website — climate and sustainability — has gotten far less attention, while it ought to be front and center, given how crucially it interconnects with virtually everything else local governments are responsible for. Here, again, she has some deeply detailed ideas, summed up in what she calls “a jobs and justice-centered plan to decarbonize our economy.” For example, under the heading, “Transition to Zero-Emission Vehicles and Dramatically Reduce Vehicle Emissions,” specifics include:
Expand the network of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations throughout Los Angeles, both in households and corridors – where Angelenos live, work, and play – specifically in communities where access has been limited.
Create jobs installing and maintaining EV charging stations particularly in underserved communities and ensuring that small and minority-owned businesses can participate in the rapid growth of the charging network.
There’s a careful weaving together of diverse concerns here and throughout her climate plans. What’s missing is something noted in our last issue story about the 710 freeway: anything akin to Munich’s planned Freiham ecodistrict “with 15,000 jobs, a mix of homes for 25,000, schools, daycare, cafes, shops, car-free streets, parks and courtyards, all combined with high capacity transit.” The many fine pieces that are in Bass’s plan could realize even greater benefits if they could be brought together in some similar fashion.
Finally, under the heading, “Clean Up Our Port To Benefit Communities,” she not only commits to 100% zero emissions by 2030, “partner[ing] with all levels of government to meet public health and climate goals,” and “support[ing] healthy land use and permitting policies that prevent or mitigate community impacts,” she also pledges to “Support investment of port revenues in community benefits for impacted neighborhoods, including public health and mobile clinics, parks, open space, and community gardens, climate resilience and adaptation projects, technology development and deployment, education enhancements, and projects that address noise pollution.”
It’s an impressive statement of commitments, but what’s missing is something touched on in our story about the recent “Somebody Else’s Ocean” report: the need for some kind of institutional structure to alter the long-term incentives that have allowed the port to become captive to the interests of foreign shipping and manufacturing companies.
Bass has a long history of working to get unheard voices heard, and fostering collaboration. She could be a truly transformational mayor if she dares to double down on that legacy by creating new institutional forms — not just at the port, but elsewhere as well — to not just create a more inclusive, collaborative policy structure under her administration, but to establish it as a permanent feature of how Los Angeles functions, not just internally, but in all its collaborative dealings with other governmental entities as well.
