Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Sorted by date Results 351 - 375 of 456
On Wednesday, the City of Los Angeles and Santa Monica issued further emergency orders in apparent reaction to the infamous house party held Monday night in Beverly Crest for an NFL football player. The party was filmed from news helicopters and showed hundreds of people disporting in the 3-story luxury mansion, none of them wearing masks. Ignoring the salient but apparently irrelevant fact that a woman was killed by gunfire at the party, local officials took action to stem the anger of area...
Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Superintendent Ben Drati sent an email to parents and the public outlining the district's plans to combat racism, including a website of parent resources, social justice standards for different grade levels, a revised United States History curriculum, and the future participation of the district in a Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action in February. Although some elements of the plan appear to have been in the works for months, other elements...
The State Legislature has been working hard to attempt to squeeze 1.8 million more units of housing into the state before 2029 by producing at least nine land-use proposals this year, each of which either enable, incentivize, or require cities to build more densely. Specifically, these bills end single-family-home neighborhoods. That is not an exaggeration. It is the stated goal of the proposed legislation. The authors of these bills and, presumably, the majority of state legislators who voted...
In a preview of good times to come should voters fail in November to revoke SB 10, California's No-Cash Bail law, a Huntington Park man stole over a dozen cars in twelve separate incidents - after being released from jail on his own recognizance each time. Emergency orders reducing bail to zero were instituted in Los Angeles County during the last week of March, while all non-essential businesses were ordered closed. A week later, the entire state followed suit. Concern was expressed about the...
Between the State Senate and the State Assembly, nine bills are under consideration that would drastically change the balance of power regarding land use and zoning in California. Each bill seeks to solve the state's "housing crisis" with attacks against local zoning ordinances, in particular those that restrict some areas to single-family homes. Stripping local governments of their ability to decide their own physical appearance, these laws give the state government power to dictate higher...
All over the United States, local and national leaders debate the possibility of opening school in the fall. In many areas, officials and teachers are reluctant to invite children to congregate and act as their usual petri dishes, distributing a variety of viruses to each other and their families. This year, the virus in contention is SARS-CoV-2, a germ that has already killed 138,000 in the U.S. to date. Though the risk from COVID-19 to the children themselves is low, it is much higher for...
Today staff at the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District recommended learning occur solely from a distance when school reopens in August. The SMMUSD School Board will decide at their July 16 meeting if they want to take staff's recommendation, but it is unlikely they will disagree. Schools in Santa Monica closed in mid-March due to the growing epidemic of COVID-19 in the county. They did not reopen for in-person instruction but moved to an online-only format. In a survey conducted of...
The County of Los Angeles has ordered the immediate closure of almost every type of business that had been allowed to reopen during June. All indoor operations of gyms and fitness centers, offices of non-critical infrastructure sectors, places of worship, personal care services, hair salons, barbershops, and malls are now closed again. Basically, the only businesses allowed open are the "essential" services we were allowed to visit after March 19. Earlier today, Governor Newsom ordered the...
Today the Second District Court of Appeal issued a ruling in favor of the City of Santa Monica in the California Voting Rights Act case brought by the Pico Neighborhood Association. The plaintiff had argued that the city's at-large system of voting for city council members disenfranchised voters from a protected minority group because their votes became 'diluted' by the majority of voters. The city maintained that Latino voters had not been unduly affected by the city's at-large system and...
In time for the Independence Day weekend, a time when citizens of this great nation celebrate the freedom of our constitutional republican form of government, local and state officials issued a renewed and strengthened set of restrictions based on a "spike" in coronavirus cases. Beaches in Los Angeles and other counties are closed for the Fourth of July weekend - a huge weekend for visiting the shore. Bars and indoor seating at restaurants, both recently reopened, have been closed again. Santa...
Today the Second District Court of Appeal issued a tentative ruling in favor of the City of Santa Monica in the California Voting Rights Act case brought by the Pico Neighborhood Association. The plaintiff has argued that the city's at-large system of voting for city council members disenfranchises voters from a protected minority group because their votes become 'diluted' by the majority of voters. The city maintains that Latino voters have not been unduly affected by the city's at-large...
The Los Angeles County District Attorney has made sure to tell the press that she is charging the owner of a South Pasadena bar with a misdemeanor for opening his pub on Saint Patrick's Day in defiance of the then-new lockdown order. In post-COVID-19 Los Angeles, no one charged with a misdemeanor is held in jail. Since the county moved to empty the jails to prevent an outbreak of the virus among prisoners, nobody even convicted of a non-violent misdemeanor is serving any jail time. Yet County...
The Ocean Park Association (OPA), which has run Santa Monica's Fourth of July parade for thirteen years, announced on Wednesday that they have cancelled this year's festivities. For over a decade, the parade has marched down Main Street, an amalgamation of home-made car floats, school marching bands, and other local groups. Spectators are residents of all ages who are willing to get up by 9:30 am, the parade's start time. This year, however, organizers decided there were too many uncertainties,...
Close to 60,000 signatures have been gathered as of this writing asking for the recall of Santa Monica Police Chief Cynthia Renaud. Most residents of the city are furious about the wide-scale looting that occurred during and after the "mostly peaceful" protest that paraded from Montana Avenue and down Ocean Avenue early in the afternoon. The City of Santa Monica has received 350 damage reports with 150 retail businesses claiming significant damage from the unrest on Sunday, May 31. At a town...
In a County wracked by looting, arson, and rioting during the end of May and beginning of June; LA County's chief law enforcement officer, District Attorney Jackie Lacey, declined to file charges for curfew violations or failure to disperse. Curfews were imposed for several days during this period, both county-wide and within cities. In Santa Monica, curfews were imposed as early as 1:30 pm on June 1 and 2:00 pm on June 2. Obviously, these curfews were a severe imposition on the liberty of...
On Sunday, a protest in Santa Monica regarding the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police shifted toward violence and looting later in the afternoon and on into evening. Fires were set, windows were smashed, graffiti spray painted, and stores trashed and looted. So far, the City of Santa Monica has received 350 damage reports with 150 retail businesses claiming significant damage. Widely publicized video from Sunday night shows scores of ecstatic individuals rushing from...
Ever since the COVID-19 disease began spreading through the world, countries and localities have been publicizing the number of cases and deaths from COVID-19. In Los Angeles County, this metric is updated daily. As I write this, with a click to the county website, I can discover there have been a total of 47,822 cases of COVID-19 in Los Angeles and purportedly 2,143 deaths due to the virus. These numbers are presumably given in order to inform the public, but like many statistics, the way they...
On May 14, the City sent out one of its dreaded "updates." This one required citizens to wear face masks when outdoors, even when exercising. Previously, masks had not been required while exercising. Before that, masks outdoors had only been advised and not required. We wondered if there was any science behind the new restriction, which had been instituted the same day by the City of Los Angeles. Both Los Angeles and Santa Monica point to a May 13 Los Angeles Department of Public Health order as...
Every day, the city of Santa Monica sends out at least one "Covid-19 Update." The word 'update' is a euphemism for a new commandment. In fact, there is often more than one 'update' per day. These so-called updates from the ruling class graciously inform we lesser orders what activities we may engage in, where we may engage in such permitted activities, and how we must be outfitted in order to be permitted such unexpected boons. Never do these orders cite any studies or data to prove their...
On Monday, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that he would conditionally allow the reopening of certain types of businesses in the state. Since March 19, only "essential" businesses have been allowed to remain open. The lockdown order plunged 3.4 million Californians into unemployment as most business outlets closed their doors. Newsom cited the necessity for testing and contact tracing for the coronavirus as a condition for reopening so-called low-risk businesses. On both local and national level...
Following the example of the state and county, Santa Monica is allowing certain types of businesses to reopen today in a limited fashion. The city began closing businesses during the third week of March, ending with a complete shutdown of all but "essential" businesses March 19. Ever since, restaurants, retail outlets, and business offices have all been off-limits. But today, our wiser and more knowledgeable overlords are allowing certain, very select businesses to open their doors , albeit for...
On March 16, the City of Santa Monica, the County of Los Angeles and the State of California almost simultaneously began shutting down businesses, beginning with bars and gyms. Within days, both local and state authorities had shut down all but "essential" businesses. The length this lockdown was supposed to last was extended several times until the current deadline of May 15. Ostensibly, the reason for shutting down nearly all economic activity was to allow hospitals to ramp up ICU beds, ventil...
At his press conference today, April 15, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced a plan to give $125 million in direct disaster relief to the undocumented aliens living in the state. $75 million of the fund comes from government coffers, and the other $50 million is being donated by various philanthropic entities. Prefacing his announcement of the aid, Newsom pointed out that half of the children living in the state have at least one immigrant parent, though he did not point out how many of...
The entire United States, with a population of 350 million, shut down nearly all economic activity on March 16, unwilling to expose its citizens to a disease estimated to kill approximately 2 percent of those who contract it. While data is lacking regarding how many people worldwide have been infected with COVID-19, how many develop symptoms from it, and how many ultimately die (as a percentage), what data exists points to no more than a 5 percent mortality rate - at the very most. That...
On Monday the Judicial Council of California adopted new rules to lower jail populations in the name of stemming the spread of COVID-19. Chief among these is no-cash bail for certain non-serious, non-felony crimes. The Los Angeles District Attorney had already moved to eliminate cash bail for similar crimes in an effort to "reduce the number of people both in local jails and courthouses as part of her office's response to help curb the spread of the coronavirus," as stated in a March 20 press re...
