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City Council Bans Homelessness Near Schools

Hunter Chase
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City Council Bans Homelessness Near Schools

The new law will prohibit encampments from 20% of the city

On Aug. 9, the Los Angeles City Council voted 11-3 to ban homeless people from sitting or lying within 500 feet of schools or daycares within the city. Council members Mike Bonin, Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Nithya Raman voted against the motion.

The council’s vote expanded section 41.18 of the Los Angeles Municipal Code, which already allowed the city to ban homeless people from within 500 to 1,000 feet of certain places, such as schools, overpasses or homeless shelters. However, previously each site needed majority board approval before the homeless could be banned, and it required several steps, such as outreach and signs.

Not only does the council’s expansion of 41.18 not require any more signs, it will cover about 20% of the city, according to a map released by Kenneth Mejia, a candidate for city controller.

A large group of protestors came to city hall on the day of the vote, and one was arrested after jumping over the barrier and seemingly going towards the council members. Before this, multiple public speakers spoke out against the expansion of 41.18. After the police grabbed the protestor who went over the border, many protestors chanted, “We won’t go.” Council President Nury Martinez declared a recess, and by the time the council came back, the Los Angeles Police Department had declared the protestors an unlawful assembly. The room was clear, and the council took no more public comment.

“We believe that the majority of Angelenos do not support a policy like this,” said Robin Peterson, a member of Services Not Sweeps, who was present at the meeting. “As much as people are outspoken and want to say that criminalization and arresting homelessness is important for the city, we know that it’s actually an ineffective, expensive and of course inhumane policy.”

On May 31, Alberto M. Carvalho, the new superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District appeared before the city council in support of 41.18.

“I think there is a balance to be struck between compassionate actions towards the unhoused and homeless in our community, but also balancing that out against the protective measures we must take to ensure that students have a safe passage that’s undisturbed, a clean passage, to schools,” Carvalho said.

Councilman Joe Buscaino said he has heard support for the motion from many schools in Council District 15. His wife, Geralyn, is a teacher in LAUSD.

“This is an issue of restoring order and safety among our most precious sites in the City of Los Angeles, our school sites,” Buscaino said. “Our students are already traumatized with socioeconomic issues. Let alone they should not be exposed to sex acts, they should not be exposed to open drug use, they should not be exposed to psychotic behavior that’s taking place next to our school yards.”

Buscaino, a former LAPD officer, has already tried to have the homeless banned from hundreds of sites within CD 15. He claimed that 41.18 has saved lives in his district, but did not provide any details as to how.

“This will pass,” Buscaino said. “It is now up to us to hold the people in this building accountable for enforcing 41.18 at our school sites.”

However, Peterson said the city is not capable of enforcing anti-camping laws at the sites that already have signage. She said she passes by a large encampment with a 41.18 sign on her way to work every day.

“What they’re doing is kind of a false promise about the rhetoric that they’re sharing, that this will take folks off the streets … provide safety, all that stuff is really just pomp and circumstance honestly,” Peterson said. “What it will do and what this does allow, is it allows the city council and LAPD to enforce sites and arrest people who are unhoused when they feel like it.”

Peterson said that if someone calls a council member’s office and says they are not happy with a homeless person near them, then the council member can have the police move that person. She pointed out that since this version of the law does not have signs, it can be difficult for people to know if they are within the boundary.

Councilman Mike Bonin complained about the lack of a map detailing which areas would be off-limits.

“We have not done any study of how comprehensive and how impactful this will be,” Bonin said. “We don’t have a list of the daycare centers that will be impacted, or of the independent or private schools.”

Bonin said the motion would open the city to lawsuits.

“Every time we discuss this issue, it is a waste of time and energy and attention,” Bonin said. “And by approving this ordinance, you are guaranteeing you are going to be back into conversations over lawsuits and settlements and what the city can and cannot do. And that is what the time and money and energy and the focus will be. And you are going to be discussing 41.18 like a nightmare Groundhog Day for years and years to come.”

Peterson said that Project Roomkey, a county program designed to house homeless people in hotel rooms, is coming to an end because funding is drying up, which means that more people will be on the street.

“Our eviction moratorium is ending at some point soon,” Peterson said. “That’s been one of the biggest causes of homelessness every year.”

Peterson said that Services Not Sweeps has called the council offices and tried to convince them to change their minds.

“Our coalition has sent thousands of emails to city council members,” Peterson said. “We ask for meetings, and we ask for conversations all the time.”

Council President Martinez compared the protestor who jumped over the barrier to the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. In a press release about previous disruptions by protestors, Councilman Paul Koretz described them as “anti-democratic anarchists.”

This was clearly an exaggeration by Martinez, as all of the protestors who entered the council chambers had to be screened and checked for weapons. No one broke into the council; they were let in and spoke at the very limited public comment on the agenda.

Peterson said her coalition has tried to set up meetings with Martinez multiple times with no response.

“They complain about us coming down and being angry,” Peterson said. “But I think we have a right to be angry.”

CeSP Neighborhood Council President Resigns

Hunter Chase
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CeSP Neighborhood Council President Resigns

‘Mr. Caravella has on several occasions publicly demeaned and disparaged other CeSPNC members,’ board’s motion states

On Aug. 13, Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council President Lou Caravella resigned as both president and board member. This came after a censure motion against him, and a vote from the board asking him to step down in July. The board will likely elect a new president at its September meeting.

“I did not join a Neighborhood Council to undermine it or to compromise my own principles by helping others undermine ethics and law,” Caravella wrote in his resignation letter. “Members of this Board have retaliated against me for trying to uphold Bylaws & Standing Rules and for refusing to violate the law at their request. Since these illicit patterns show no sign of significantly abating, and since it is clear that I cannot serve as the Board wishes without violating laws and other regulations, I cannot in good conscience and will not continue to serve as its president.”

On July 28, the board held a special meeting where it voted 13-1 asking that Caravella resign. Board member Eugenia Bulanova voted against the motion. Caravella was not present.

“Mr. Caravella has on several occasions publicly demeaned and disparaged other CeSPNC members,” the board’s motion states. “Additionally, Mr. Caravella has disseminated written statements to public officials wholly inappropriate, regardless of whether those written statements were made as a private citizen or in his capacity as CeSPNC President.”

Board member Linda Alexander criticized the emails that Caravella sent when she spoke at the meeting, saying that they consisted of inflammatory and unfounded accusations.

Board member Anya Sipivy expressed her own concerns with Caravella’s emails.

“All the emails that I was sent for my small business in this neighborhood that were defamatory and slanderous, I wasn’t given a voice,” Sipivy said. “I had to go through another method to make sure other people saw what was being said and what was being sent back. I totally have no confidence, I don’t feel safe around this person. These rantings are of someone who is unwell.”

Bulanova, the only board member who voted against the motion, said she had not observed any misconduct from Caravella.

“It seemed to me that he’s been provoked over and over and over again, for many, many months, maybe years even,” Bulanova said.

Board member Matt Garland said Caravella has been a dysfunctional president.

Records show that he is the fifth central president not to finish a full term.

“Our council has been unable to serve our community for many, many months,” Garland said. “The efforts of this board have been outright thwarted and undermined and sabotaged.”

The board’s meeting came a few weeks after board member James Preston Allen, the publisher of this newspaper and the port committee chair, submitted a motion to the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, or DONE, to censure Caravella on July 12. Censuring means formally disapproving of a person’s actions, and the motion lists several complaints, including harassing and slandering board members and improperly running meetings. Caravella submitted a grievance against the board prior to Allen submitting the censure, and in his resignation letter, Caravella said that the city’s Regional Grievance Panel unanimously sustained the grievance.

Prior to the board’s meeting asking Caravella to step down, Gibson Nyambura, a chief equity officer with DONE, reached out to the board to tell them not to discuss the motion.

“The predisposition of any board member when a grievance is filed against the board can be deemed as retaliation or bullying as it was filed by a board member,” Nyambura wrote.

However, some have questioned the timing of his grievance.

“It just seems like he’s got this manipulation going with DONE, or whatever, that he’s a victim of retaliation,” Sipivy said at the special meeting. “In fact, I’m starting to wonder if the grievance was filed because he could sense this was coming.”

Garland had similar sentiments, saying the censure was in motion beforehand.

“All of the evidence, supporting documents, predate the grievance by a longshot,” Garland said. “So, I don’t agree that this censure was written in response to the grievance, I think it stands on its own merits.”

The final actions of the council and Caravella’s resignation come after a series of disputes with DONE over placing letters of admonishment against this president on the monthly agenda. Several people on and off this council have commented that DONE has over-reached its authority in its meddling of this matter.

The Golden Age of Hollywood

Terelle Jerricks
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The Golden Age of Hollywood

Tracking Her Father’s Footsteps

Capturing photos of Hollywood stars was photographer Joe Ackerman’s passion. He operated in a media landscape that was a bit more innocent and less intrusive and perhaps less hungry for the intimate details of popular radio, television and film stars and their lives. Over four decades, Ackerman would collect more than 5,000 autographed photos from established performers to the up-and-coming stars.

Recently, San Pedro resident, Julie Anderson, self-published a glossy hard-bound 192-page book as a homage to her father’s passion.

To curate this book out of 5,000 photos, Anderson chose the most reputably recognizable actors from the golden age of Hollywood including the likes of Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, Lena Horne, Clark Gable and others — the list just goes on.

“I took those people knowing how important they were to film at that time,” Anderson said. “My father did get a lot of other actors. There were also actors who starred in a lot of different movies but never really became as popular.”

Ackerman’s family was well aware of his hobby but it wasn’t until Anderson published The Golden Age of Hollywood that they understood the depth of his passion.

“He was very private,” Anderson said of her father. “We didn’t even know a lot of the things that he had done such as going out to premieres and stuff like that. A lot of it, he did when he was younger.”

Anderson, who was the second eldest of five children, said her father wasn’t the type of person who would go out and tell everybody everything. She said he felt there was more of his hobby that he did for his own enjoyment.

But he didn’t keep this hobby just for his own enjoyment. He began presenting slideshows featuring his photography and the stories he picked up along the way as he captured his photos.

“For a lot of the places he had put in the manuscript where he did a slideshow and he presented this to different groups in the area, during the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s. And at that time there were quite a few different places where the stars would go, they would go to the Brown Derby, and they would go to Hollywood Boulevard … they go shopping,” Anderson explained. “They do normal things like everybody else. So back at that time, they were more at ease with being out in the public. Not like today’s Paparazzi.”

Anderson said her dad made it very clear to his family that when he sought an autograph, he would be polite … be a gentleman, and respectful of the stars and say to them, “May I have your autograph?” If they said no, he understood.

Anderson shared an oft-told story of a single interaction between her father and four-time Oscar- winning actress Katharine Hepburn. Anderson explained that her father would go to various events he knew Hollywood actors would attend, like charity tournaments. And so at a charity tennis tournament, he encountered Hepburn who was coming off one of the tennis courts.

“My dad went up and asked her if he could take her picture. She said, ‘Sure, no problem.’ My dad then said, ‘Well do you want to put your tennis shoes down?’ Because she was holding her tennis shoes. ‘I thought maybe you’d want to put them down and not have them in the picture.’ The actress looked at him and said, ‘No, absolutely not. These are my lucky tennis shoes and they’re going to be in the picture.’”

Anderson explained that the story became the quintessential characteristic of Katharine Hepburn for Anderson.

“She was very sweet and everything,” Anderson said. “So [my father] enjoyed that interaction.”

Anderson said of her father’s interaction with the “titan of the skies’’ and Hollywood producer, Howard Hughes, that he didn’t consider him important enough to obtain his autograph. Anderson surmised that it had to do with the timing by which her father encountered Hughes, whose years as a trailblazing aviator were long behind him, even if he owned an airline in his namesake.

“[By the time my father met him] Howard Hughes was a recluse. He had called my dad to find out if he could get some hearing aids because he was having problems with his hearing, and he just wanted to make sure … because he was a germaphobe and all that… that nobody would touch any of the hearing aids. My dad couldn’t say that, no, no one’s going to touch these [hearing aids].”

So Hughes ended up not buying any.

Hearing aids for use on film and television stages was the basis of one of two businesses Ackerman would build that would tie him to film and television production in Hollywood.

Ackerman had patented hearing aids that would allow directors to speak with actors as they’re performing and founded a company that allowed him to rent sound equipment to production teams around Hollywood.

Anderson explained that because her father had patented certain hearing aid technology, he also started working with different sound studios in the film and television industry using his earpiece technology that would allow the director or whoever to talk to the actors without stopping the film from rolling. They could just tell them stuff through this earpiece which later became the ear pieces they use now for music videos and concerts.

“My dad, he worked on a lot of movies back in the ‘80s and ‘90s and 2000s … namely movies where they had a soundtrack. And so they had to incorporate that,” Anderson explained. “So they work with Bette Midler on The Rose. He worked with Robert De Niro on the musical drama New York, New York. He worked on TV shows like Seinfeld and so that brought it full circle for him. So he really enjoyed it.”

Anderson relied on what she learned in her college history courses about black and white films.

“The talkies silent film and then it progressed, to color, with sound quality and everything,” Anderson explained. “I wanted to show that progression, the photos that it started out with, people who were from the silent era all the way through [the talkies]. And then it turned into color.

Anderson also did it this way because she wanted to follow suit The Wizard of Oz, when the movie started out in black and white and progressed to color.

San Pedro has always celebrated its mark on Hollywood. This Los Angeles Harbor Area town has two film festivals and scores of film credits as site locations. Its last remaining theater built at the start of the golden age of Hollywood still stands in its downtown core. At least with the Los Angeles Harbor International Film Festival, we are reminded of the stars that made the film world go round during the golden age of Hollywood. In the case of Joe Ackerman’s family, the golden age of Hollywood is passed down from generation to generation as family lore, allowing Ackerman’s memory to live on.

To purchase the book, visit https://joeackermanshollywood.com.

False Patriots, Liars and Crooks

James Preston Allen
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False Patriots, Liars and Crooks

I keep hearing the refrain from Evita — the song made popular by Madonna — Don’t Cry for Me Argentina

Someone accused me of “being prejudiced” the other day and I admitted that I am. I have a prejudice against phony patriots, liars and crooks I told them. Then I added they come in all shapes, colors and genders. I particularly can’t stand it when liars try gaslighting me by accusing me of what they themselves are guilty of doing. There’s plenty of this going around, inspired by the twice impeached, sore loser, ex-president who just had his mansion raided in Palm Beach, Florida by the FBI. It couldn’t have happened to a more deserving individual-one.

Once again, he’s putting on the victim mask calling this latest investigation another “witch hunt” like he’s done so many times before. The echoes of “lock her up” seem to be resonating in the halls of justice with a gender modification.

One needs to contemplate whether this time somebody or anybody will get to the bottom of all his misdeeds, i.e., Russia stealing the Democrat’s data in 2016; the Ukraine Just do me a favor before we sell you arms deal; or “just find me the votes in Georgia”? Or his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection along with the rest of his alleged financial crimes.

In the background I keep hearing the refrain from the song that Madonna made popular, Don’t Cry for Me Argentina. Don’t pull the Eva Perón act on us Don. She was the wife of a fascist dictator.

So yes, I have my prejudices about leaders who wrap themselves in the flag, carrying the Bible and then sell out our country. The term is traitor. I have no patience for the “it’s-both-sides” argument, that all politicians are corrupt, or Joe Biden is just as bad as him. You don’t get to plead innocent just because you say somebody else did the same thing. That’s just not the way our justice system works.

And for those who complain about the legal system being used against a sitting president, Bill Clinton was investigated over a bad real estate deal by the Republicans. He ended up getting impeached for lying about receiving a blow job in the Oval Office. So much for high crimes and misdemeanors– that was more of a low blow. Trump gets impeached for attempting to blackmail a foreign leader into slandering a political rival and Republicans throw a fit and deny witnesses! He gets impeached again over Jan. 6 and it’s another “witch hunt.” There were seven Benghazi hearings that lasted longer and cost more than the Mueller investigation and Hillary Clinton testified without taking the fifth. Instead, she calmly answered every question and they found nothing.

The Republicans started the political vengeance and theatrical power plays and cannot stand it when the tables are turned. The American people want to actually see someone be held to account and go to jail.

Then there’s this report from the New York Times that Donald Trump sent an ally with access to the Justice Department to “pass along a message” to Attorney General Merrick Garland that “the country is on fire” and Trump is willing to act “to reduce the heat.” The unusual attempt to secretly back-channel with the DOJ, after Trump’s home was searched and as he is the subject of multiple investigations. This comes amidst “a spike in threats” to police identified by FBI director Christopher Wray, and several alarming incidents and arrests and a call for “civil war” by his followers. Clearly the ex-president is still trying to bully his way out of being indicted by any means possible.

And the Republican backlash against the FBI continues even as this report gets buried in the news.

On the morning of July 29, the FBI conducted raids at multiple locations, including the Uhuru House in St. Petersburg, Florida, the private residence of Omali Yeshitela, founder African People’s Socialist Party, in St. Louis, Missouri, as well as the Uhuru Solidarity Center, also in St. Louis. The FBI employed flashbang grenades and handcuffed Yeshitela and his wife while the house was raided. The FBI says that the raids are connected to the federal indictment of a Russian man, Aleksandr Ionov, alleging that he has been working to spread “Russian propaganda” in the United States.

Now just think for a moment the contrast between that raid and the raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago and it being called an “unprecedented assault” — an assault in which no one was arrested and the FBI didn’t use flash bang grenades. I’m surprised that in the later case the agents weren’t offered coffee and donuts by the hotel staff.

On Monday, the DOJ returned the confiscated passports, which is probably a bad idea, for once it looks imminent that he’s going to be convicted, I fully expect him to flee to Russia, a country with no extradition treaty. This will be the one and only action he takes that could possibly Make America Great Again, rid us of this false patriot or at least give us all a collective sigh of relief.

Still, the great hypocrisy about this is all of the Republicans who in the past supported the use of force against Black Lives Matter protests that called for “defunding the police” but who now are chanting the refrain “defund the FBI.”

Yeah, hypocrisy is up there on my list of prejudices too.

What Happened When Twitter and Other Social Media Platforms Cracked Down on Extremists

Reporters Desk
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What Happened When Twitter and Other Social Media Platforms Cracked Down on Extremists

In a Q&A with ProPublica reporter A.C. Thompson, former intelligence officer and data scientist Welton Chang explains how conspiracy theorists and violent racists fled to smaller platforms. Once there, their remarks festered and spread.

Since Donald Trump’s election in 2016, an entire ecosystem of right-wing social media platforms has come into existence — from Gab (where the alleged Pittsburgh synagogue shooter posted hateful screeds) to Parler (a hot spot for insurrectionary activities in the run-up to Jan. 6) to the former president’s own Truth Social (which was frequented by a fan of his who was recently shot to death after attacking a Cincinnati FBI office). This new wave of apps and sites follows in the footsteps of 4chan and 8kun, older internet message boards that continue to attract a sizable audience of conspiracy theorists and violent racists.

Welton Chang knows this corner of the digital world well. A former Army intelligence officer and human rights activist, Chang runs Pyrra, a small tech startup dedicated to identifying and tracking the extremist ideas circulating in these spaces. Pyrra, which launched in early 2022 with $1.3 million in funding, monitors more than 20 alternative social media sites and online forums, scanning some 100 million messages per week.

Chang, a data scientist, says increased content moderation at major social media platforms — including the ouster of figures ranging from Trump to Alex Jones — has driven a sizable contingent of users to the spaces Pyrra tracks, which tend toward an absolutist view of free speech.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Can you tell me in simple terms what Pyrra does?

Pyrra is a threat intelligence company. We do three things: We collect content — publicly available information — from alternative social media sites. We use machine learning and advanced algorithms to detect violent threats, hate speech and disinformation that are popping up on these platforms. And then we display that information for our clients, either through reports or through a platform that we have.

We got our start in the human rights community. We were a project inside of Human Rights First [a U.S.-based advocacy group]. … We spun out of HRF as our own company in December 2021 and launched our platform earlier this year.

In general, what are the big extremist threats that you’re following these days? What worries you?

One is just the death of critical thinking and the amount of evidence-free speculation that becomes the truth, small-t truth, on these platforms. It can be something as innocuous as something done by some celebrity all the way to things that really have impacts on the health of our democracy.

But it’s also just the general lack of confidence in institutions writ large. … We’re at an all-time low in terms of government trust, based on all the different metrics that are out there. …

[This brings us to] the inherent incoherence of conspiracy theories and these really outlandish ideas about how the world actually works. People believe that the government is simultaneously totally incompetent and also all-knowing and all-seeing and capable of pulling off a massive effort like helping Bill Gates spread the COVID vaccine through mind control via 5G technology.

These are diametrically opposed ideas, yet folks are simultaneously believing both of them and saying, “This is what is happening in the world today.”

I’ve been really immersed in this stuff since 2016, and I’m still routinely appalled, surprised and taken aback by some of the things I read on these platforms. And maybe the day I become inured to this stuff is the day I need to leave the biz. But I’m still really shocked by the things I read.

Look at the Pew Research polls that are out there about how many people believe the core tenets of QAnon. I think we’ve entered a new phase in which social media has altered and warped how we encounter information, how we process it, how we internalize what counts as the truth. It’s having significant impacts on our democracy.

I really do believe that social media is an accelerator. …

An accelerator of societal disintegration?

Yes, yes, exactly.

You had an interesting Twitter thread about the disinformation you’re seeing around the Jan. 6 committee. Can you tell me about that?

On these alternative social media platforms, the narrative about Jan. 6 started getting pushed on Jan. 7. People started by saying it was antifa that was responsible. That got amplified by more mainstream characters, even Tucker Carlson talked about antifa maybe having a role in Jan. 6.

Right off the bat they were trying to deflect blame. You had card-carrying members of the MAGA community like [Jan. 6 protester] Ray Epps getting falsely accused of being FBI informants and being responsible for pushing people into the Capitol. He came out and said, “I was one of them [the pro-Trump movement], and they just kind of turned on me.”

All it takes is a single user on one of these platforms to write something outlandish without any factual basis or evidence. They’re not citing anything, they’re not looking at any hardcore piece of information or they’re taking things out of context. And that just gets endlessly amplified by other users. People who are not sophisticated consumers of information see that on these platforms, and they go: “I agree with that. That sounds plausible. It’s now the truth for me.”

If you ask people, “Who was responsible for Jan. 6?” significant numbers of people will tell you antifa had a role in Jan. 6. Multiple credible investigations have shown that antifa had no role in Jan. 6. … Yet this maintains a consistent narrative, and that narrative started spinning basically as soon as people were cleared from the Capitol building.

In the past that’s the kind of thing that would’ve happened on Twitter. But now it starts on the smaller platforms. It may eventually migrate to Twitter. But Twitter and the larger platforms actually do some content moderation, making it harder for this stuff to gain traction or get picked up.

These smaller places either don’t have the resources to do content moderation or don’t have the will to do it. They are allowing these narratives to fester and gain traction and eventually jump hosts.

Out of all the alternative social media apps and sites, which seem to be the most successful? Where is the energy?

It’s still 4chan. … One secret about 4chan is they actually have to do a significant amount of content moderation now — where they remove posts because of how bad and violent they are. There’s a massive amount of people on 4chan on a regular basis, who are frequent flyers on the boards. It’s still crazy there.

More than Telegram, an instant messenger service?

Telegram is also huge. Right now we track thousands of Telegram channels, but that’s just a drop in the bucket.

Oakland’s Largest Homeless Camp Dodges The Bullet For Now

David Bacon
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Oakland’s Largest Homeless Camp Dodges The Bullet For Now
Photoessay

The Nation, 8/17/22
https://www.thenation.com/

“Housing is a Human Right!”

OAKLAND, CA 7/26/22 — Seven years ago people began setting up what became Oakland’s largest and oldest encampment under a freeway maze by a train yard, as the city’s housing crisis grew increasingly serious. Some folks drove RVs and trailers into the huge space next to an old railroad trestle, used decades ago to move boxcars between the port and army base and the main rail yard. Other home seekers set up tents or even more informal housing. One enterprising individual even built a room up under the trestle ties twenty feet off the ground. In an environment a camp resident compared to the wild west, it provided safety and some peace during the night.

The camp lines Oakland’s old Wood Street, which was cleared to build the freeway maze leading to the Bay Bridge. In one small section residents and supporters erected several small homes and a common area for meetings, entertainment and other collective activities. The structures are made of cob – a mixture of straw, clay and sand – so they called it Cob on Wood.

Fires in the camp began to increase a year ago – over 90 in the last year. The worst broke out two weeks ago, on July 11. Propane cylinders used for cooking and heating exploded in a blaze so hot that vehicles parked under or near the trestle were incinerated. Residents fled. This time no one died, but last April one man lost his life in a smaller conflagration, when his converted bus filled with smoke and he couldn’t get out.

Firefighters responded to these fires, but there is no hydrant near Cob on Wood. To reach the informal homes they have to stretch hoses over hundreds of feet. A city audit in April, 2021 documented 988 fires in 140 encampments over the previous two years. Fires in camps of unhoused people made up 12.5 percent of all Oakland blazes requiring fire department response, and cost the lives of two people during that time.

A week after Cob on Wood’s last big fire CalTrans announced it would close the area and evict the residents. The day after the announcement, however, unhoused people signed individual legal complaints, and their lawyers convinced Superior Court Judge William Orrick to issue a temporary restraining order barring CalTrans’ planned action. While the injunction was still temporary, residents feared the eviction would happen anyway, and appealed to supporters to come bear witness. The day following the judge’s order a Highway Patrol SUV showed up, escorting a group of workers and heavy equipment. After standing around for an hour they left, perhaps in compliance with the TRO or maybe to evade interfering photographers and witnesses.

Two days later Orrick extended his order, saying that replacement housing had to be found for residents before they could be displaced. “I understand everybody wants to wash their hands of this particular problem, and that’s not going to happen,” he told authorities during a zoom hearing. When he asked them to detail their plans for providing replacement housing, none could provide any. Residents say, however, that CalTrans and the railroad have been slowly clearing areas under the freeway and near the train tracks for weeks. Last week Oakland city police tased and then arrested one camp resident when he resisted efforts to remove people from the section of the area that is city land. In this property checkerboard some pieces belong to Oakland, some to CalTrans and some to the BNSF Railroad. Residents have no way to know which piece of land belongs to whom.

Last May the state gave Oakland a $4.7 million grant to house 50 of the 200+ people who live at Cob on Wood, but the city hasn’t used it to create any housing. Nevertheless, Governor Gavin Newsom criticized the judge’s decision, unhappy with any delay in moving the residents out. “This encampment is risking public health and safety,” he said in a press statement.

More than 5000 unhoused people live in Oakland, but the city only has 598 year-around shelter beds, 313 housing structures and 147 RV parking spaces. All are filled. United Nations Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing Leilani Farha visited Oakland in 2018, and told reporter Darwin Bondgraham, “I find there to be a real cruelty in how people are being dealt with here,” comparing Oakland’s treatment to what she observed in Manila, Jakarta and Mexico City. In those cities, she observed, homelessness is basically tolerated, while in the U.S., a far wealthier country, being unhoused is criminalized.

“These are communities,” Cob on Wood resident John Janosko told Oaklandside reporter Natalie Orenstein following the July 22 hearing. “People stay at these places because they feel safe there.” Nevertheless, the judge made it plain that the respite was temporary, and that eventually the encampment dwellers would have to go. Where is still the big question, however.

Captions.

Small homes created by residents and supporters.
The Highway Patrol bring in workers to clear part of the encampment.
Workers brought to clear the encampment.
Authorities bring in a big scoop on caterpillar treads.
Trailers, toys and tires.
A resident loads belongings into a pickup truck.
Zelda Fitzgerald, a supporter, walks into the camp.
A home built above the ground, under the tracks.
Jason is a resident.
“Keep the fuck out!’
Jason looks at the impact of the last fire.
Someone is fixing up this motorcycle.
Jake gets angry about people who steal belongings.
“Under video surveillance”
A wall of picture frames and plywood.
A living room or artist studio.
A car burned in the last fire.
When these cars were burning they had to close the freeway above.
Devastation under the freeway.
How hot the fire must have been!
All that’s left is this tire rim.
Each space under the pilings is a room.
Who or what is the trash?
Benjamin Choyce died from smoke inhalation in his converted bus.

 

BOE to Hold its Annual Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights Hearing

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BOE to Hold its Annual Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights Hearing

Taxpayers and stakeholders are invited to participate and provide input

SACRAMENTO – The California State Board of Equalization OR BOE will hold its annual Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights Hearing on Aug. 30, in conjunction with the Board’s August 2022 Meeting. Taxpayers and stakeholders are invited to attend in person, participate by phone, or submit comments online on items described in the BOE’s Taxpayers’ Rights Advocate’s Annual Report, and share suggestions, comments, or concerns on California’s property tax system. Taxpayers and stakeholders can also present any ideas or changes to the Alcoholic Beverage Tax Law or comment on their experiences or issues regarding BOE services.

“Californians fund schools, local communities, and state programs by paying property taxes and the Alcoholic Beverage Tax,” said BOE Chair Malia M. Cohen. “The BOE is constitutionally and statutorily responsible for the oversight of California’s property tax system and the Alcoholic Beverage Tax, and taxpayers and stakeholders are strongly encouraged to participate and directly provide input to assist the Board in fulfilling its duties.”

How to Participate:

Time: 10 a.m.Aug. 30

Venue: 450 N Street, Auditorium Sacramento, CA 95814

By phone 1-877-336-4440, access code 4192718#

In writing Submit written comments online in advance.

The 2022 Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights Hearing will be livestreamed on the BOE website.

Background: The Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights Hearing is held in accordance with the Morgan Property Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights and the California Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights related to the Alcoholic Beverage Tax Law.

Details: Find additional information on the Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights Hearing webpage and by viewing the public service announcement featuring Taxpayers’ Rights Advocate Lisa Thompson.

EPA Announces $3.6 Million In Funds for Tribes to Protect and Expand Critical Wetland Habitats

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EPA Announces $3.6 Million In Funds for Tribes to Protect and Expand Critical Wetland Habitats

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or EPA Aug. 17, announced $3.6 million in available funding for federally-recognized Tribes and intertribal consortia to develop or refine wetland programs. During this competitive solicitation, EPA anticipates awarding funding for up to 25 projects that help build wetland capacity, strengthen nation-to-nation relationships, promote equity, and improve climate resilience.

EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Radhika Fox said wetlands are some of the most productive ecosystems in the country, and with this funding the EPA will be able to enhance and build capacity for Tribal wetlands to further support fish and wildlife, absorb the impacts of flooding and recharge water supplies.

EPA’s Wetland Program Development Grants assist tribal, state, and local government agencies and interstate/intertribal entities in developing or refining comprehensive programs to protect, manage, and restore wetlands. Wetlands constitute some of the most important and productive ecosystems in the country and comprehensive wetland programs help tribes protect them.

Under this announcement, EPA will support Tribes that are developing or refining their programs. Projects will advance the Core Elements of an Effective State and Tribal Wetland Program Framework. The framework includes approaches to monitoring and assessment; voluntary restoration and protection; regulatory approaches; and development of wetland-specific water quality standards.

Applicants have until October 7, 2022, by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time to submit their applications on Grants.gov for Funding Opportunity Number: EPA-OW-OWOW-22-03. See Section IV for further submission information. Further information can be found at Grants.gov.

 

 

Public Health to Begin Administering Second Doses of Monkeypox Vaccine

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On August 9, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or FDA issued an Emergency Use Authorization or EUA to allow the JYNNEOS vaccine to be given between layers of the skin (intradermally) for people 18 years of age and older at high risk for monkeypox infection. The recent EUA also allows the vaccine to be given beneath the skin (subcutaneously) for people younger than 18 years of age at high risk for monkeypox infection.

This change makes it possible for the number of monkeypox vaccine doses in the country to increase five-fold, as one vial of vaccine can now potentially yield five doses instead of just one dose. Based on the earlier federal allocation plan, LA County expected to receive 14,000 vials this week, which would have yielded an estimated 70,000 monkeypox vaccine doses for eligible LA County residents. However, the federal government clarified earlier this week that LA County will receive 5,600 vials (totaling 28,000 doses), not 14,000 vials. Public Health has received assurances from the federal leadership that additional doses will be available in the coming weeks.

With the arrival of 28,000 doses later today, LA County will open up eligibility to about 8,000 individuals eligible for their second doses. Residents who received their first dose more than 28 days ago can receive their second dose the following ways:

  • Residents who received their first dose through their healthcare provider over 28 days ago should contact their provider to schedule an appointment.
  • Residents who registered through the Public Health registration system and were vaccinated at a Public Health location will receive a second text message when their second dose is due with instructions on where to receive their second dose.

There will be an additional 19,000 doses distributed to community providers and public vaccine sites providing first doses to those eligible; 1,000 doses are reserved for close contacts, outbreak response, and special populations.

Eligible residents needing their first dose can now register by visiting ph.lacounty.gov/monkeypoxsignup.

All first and second doses will be administered intradermally, unless contraindicated. The FDA has advised that those under 18 years of age and adults who have a history of developing keloid scars should get the vaccine beneath the skin (subcutaneously), not between the layers of the skin (intradermally).

Those without access to the internet or needing help with registration, can call the Public Health call center for more information on monkeypox, including general information, testing, treatment, and vaccines at 833-540-0473. The Public Health Call Center is open 7 days a week 8am – 8:30pm.

Details: http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/monkeypox/.

Port of Long Beach Welcomes Pasha Hawaii LNG-Powered Ship

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Port of Long Beach Welcomes Pasha Hawaii LNG-Powered Ship

The Port of Long Beach Aug. 17 welcomed Pasha Hawaii’s MV George III, the first container ship powered by liquefied natural gas to refuel on the West Coast. The ship’s LNG-powered engines are dramatically cleaner than those of a traditional cargo ship.

Following George III’s inaugural visit to Long Beach, the newly built 774-foot-long ship will begin its maiden voyage to its home port in Honolulu. And there’s another LNG Pasha ship on the way – the Janet Marie will be the second of two “Ohana Class” container ships to join Pasha Hawaii’s fleet, in the fourth quarter of 2022, in service between Hawaii and the U.S. mainland.

The vessel was named after George Pasha IV’s late father, George Pasha III. Operating fully on natural gas, the new vessel surpasses the International Maritime Organization’s 2030 emission standards for ocean vessels, representing the most technologically advanced and environmentally friendly class of vessel to serve Hawaii and one of several that serve Long Beach. Energy efficiencies are also achieved with a state-of-the-art engine, an optimized hull form, and an underwater propulsion system with a high-efficiency rudder and propeller.

LNG-powered ships achieve a 99.9% reduction in diesel particulate matter and sulfur oxide emissions, 90% less nitrogen oxides and a 25% reduction in carbon dioxide compared to ships running on traditional fuels.

Accommodating Pasha Hawaii’s new LNG-fueled ship aligns with the Port of Long Beach’s dedication to environmental sustainability and strengthens its commitment to the Green Port Policy and San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan enacted more than 15 years ago.

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