Contrary to the complaints they've heard, "We are meeting the moment" w/ the move to override the mayor's veto, says CM Nury Martínez. But as @UnrigLA pointed out earlier, this new proposal only came after the mayor 🚫 their original funneling of the $ into beautification projex.
Most emblematic of the shamelessness of that first stab at redistributing those funds was David Ryu's effort to give himself a legacy, by putting funds toward a program he had championed. 
Instead of working with other CMs to put the money into some of the programs they're directing the $ to now, Ryu put it toward the Children's Savings Account Fund...which gives $50 to all first graders to use **a decade from now.**
https://twitter.com/sahrasulaiman/status/1336754820355518464
Speaking now, CM Marqueece Harris-Dawson (who was the only one to put $ into specific efforts like those finally being targeted now⬇️) underscores that reorienting the way we engage Black comms has been much longer fight & will require more sustained work
https://twitter.com/sahrasulaiman/status/1336767625385242624
Blumenfield is definitely not here to meet the moment. Says he was proud to have voted against the motion the first time and now sees it as the city being irresponsible by spending $ it doesn't have.
He's also making a somewhat convoluted argument regarding giving CMs the power to direct so much $ in contracts to groups in their CDs, effectively injecting politics into addressing deeper systemic problems. While not reaching similarly disenfranchised folks outside those CDs.
There's something to be said for that (even if his motivations for making that case are less altruistic). But it's also a symptom of the fact that council and the city have not wanted to address the harms the city is historically responsible for imposing on Black & brown comms.
I mean where do we begin? Redlining? Freeway construction, first splitting South L.A. to keep Black folks on the east side then across the top of the community to contain it? Operation Hammer and the sweeps that saw hundreds of youth arrested on weekends?
When a young woman was killed in Westwood in gang crossfire in 1988, it got outsized attention and folks south of the 10 would pay an even higher price so that others north of the 10 could feel safe.
https://twitter.com/sahrasulaiman/status/1124060668741681152
The hypocrisy was devastating and it was called out at the time, including by some of the same folks who find themselves still having to call for reinvestment in their communities today.
https://twitter.com/sahrasulaiman/status/1124061367458312209
The tragic death of that young woman was leveraged in truly obscene ways...
https://twitter.com/sahrasulaiman/status/1275886095922683904
South Central residents were terrorized - even in their own homes.
https://twitter.com/sahrasulaiman/status/1275886730793463808
A line can be traced between those events and the uprising in 1992. The point being the city participated in imposing these harms and in silencing and undermining Black and brown voices. So of course it does not have the infrastructure to appropriately engage these issues now.
CM MHD just commented now to speak to this theme, saying that people in his district don't like the regular process CMs like Blumenfield are complaining they are not adhering to...b/c that process produced a budget that cut $ to needed services and added $ to LAPD's budget.
All that said... it is an imperfect motion, and hearing a number of folks call in specifically to praise Price and Cedillo as being visionary while voicing support for the motion does help make that case. But there is real value in some of what they're trying to achieve w/ it.
Item 34 passed, 11-4
A few final thoughts. Bonin's comments and decision not to support surprised me. I was not alone.
https://twitter.com/BLMLA/status/1366840061426159616
He spoke of the importance of ensuring Black and brown folks in his district were also able to benefit. I think, one, it speaks to the need for a real interrogation of what constitutes equity within council and a discussion of the intensity of the disparities.
But it also is why MHD underscored the importance of taking this up again "next year" (in the next budget cycle, which begins pretty soon)... they're at the beginning of the process of trying to restructure and effectively have very few mechanisms in place right now.
It's why some of the money is going toward funding the study needed to figure out how to provide alternatives to armed law enforcement in traffic enforcement and non-violent crises, for ex. Those alternatives do not yet exist...
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
