Attacks on the LGBTQ+ community in LA County are on the rise. Who's really behind it? Proud Boys, right-wingers, and Capitol Hill rioters. We've got details. Journalists

@ACatWithNews and @joeyneverjoe join me to discuss on What's Next, Los Angeles: bit.ly/43SkRK6 These demonstrations have been too often described as parents concerned about what their kids are being taught in local schools. But, as independent media has documented, the loudest and most prominent voices are part of a road show of right-wing protesters from outside the area.

If you want to see what grassroots organizing can do, just take a look at Los Angeles, where in the past 4 weeks, progressive activists have scored major victories in multiple areas.

Housing. Environmental Justice. Transit. Policing.

Read on to find out more 🧵: Due to grassroots organizing, in the past month:

*Voters approved big funding for affordable housing and renter protections.

*Council voted to end oil drilling in LA.

*LA Metro rejected a proposed fare hike, and instead reduced fares.

*Voters chose to #CheckTheSheriff.

Providing free public transit is one of the most important things @metrolosangels can do. That’s why I have serious concerns about a fare restructuring plan that moves us in the opposite direction.

There's a public hearing tonight: bit.ly/3g5dYBS

🧵 Eliminating fares entirely would boost ridership, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and provide economic justice to our mostly low-income riders.

Fares actually generate little money for the agency, and collecting and enforcing fares costs them a lot.

When all ballots are counted, LA’s top vote getter will likely be an unabashedly progressive tenant advocate whose signature issue was excessive police spending.

City Controller-elect @kennethmejiaLA defied -- and obliterated -- conventional wisdom.

🧵 Political professionals and even other progressives initially dismissed him.

They scoffed at his lack of government experience. They mocked the way he campaigned. They criticized the issues he focused on.

He and his formidable and mostly unpaid movement proved everyone wrong.

We’ve all heard the ugly things three of my colleagues said on the infamous tapes.

It is also important to remember what they did. The legislation they killed, stalled or weakened. The laws and programs they stopped that would've helped people. The bad policies they passed.

🧵 As president of the council, and as chairs of the committees handling housing policy, COVID recovery, and all issues impacting homelessness and poverty, Nury, Gil, and Kevin wielded enormous power, and often used it to the detriment of people in Los Angeles

LA is about to end COVID-era renter protections, leaving tenants more vulnerable and at risk of homelessness than they’ve been in years.

And the City Council’s actions will be based on a false narrative, being artfully spun by corporate landlords and their supporters.

🧵 The landlord lobby and its supporters keep talking about the need to “balance” the interests of landlords and tenants.

But they don’t mention what's really imbalanced: There are far more renters than landlords in LA – but landlords hold more power, politically and economically.

The results of the homeless count are in – and the biggest reduction in LA is in Council District 11.

It shows housing and services -- not enforcement and criminalization -- end homelessness.

🧵 According to @LAHomeless, homelessness ticked up citywide (2%) and countywide (4%). But the Westside as a whole (including CD11, SaMo, Culver City, etc) is down 23%.

The data shows homelessness in District 11 has dropped 38.5%, more than in any other part of the City of LA.

Police shootings in Los Angeles – including fatal shootings – are happening with alarming frequency.

And, by and large, it’s not being treated as a crisis, as an emergency, or even as a problem.

That needs to change.

🧵 Last week, LAPD officers shot Jermaine Petit, an unarmed Black man, in Leimert Park.

Witnesses say they shot him in the back while he was running away.

LAPD had to retract its initial claim that he was armed. He was actually carrying an auto part.

latimes.com/california/sto…

By elevating and listening to the voices of its passengers, @metrolosangeles today made a huge investment in reimagining public safety, creating and funding a program that will help make our transit system safe and welcoming for all passengers. 🧵 Metro approved a three-year program to hire 300 unarmed transit ambassadors, recruited from local communities, to welcome and guide passengers, provide a visual presence on the system, and summon crisis response specialists or initiate emergency response as needed.

Today the City Council voted 9-2 to create a $25 minimum wage for healthcare workers in LA.

With hospitals making huge profits and execs pulling in exorbitant salaries, it would be obscene to require anything less.

1/6 The wage will cover workers at privately owned hospitals, clinics and acute care facilities. It be adjusted annually for cost of living, and it will prohibit employers from funding the wage increase by laying off workers or reducing benefits or hours.

2/6

Two of the most conservative forces in LA are spending a fortune to stop progressives in city elections, and it's not getting enough attention .

I’m talking about the police union and corporate landlords.

They're terrified of anyone who will stand up to them at City Hall.

🧵 The LA Police Protective League and the California Apartment Association are spending unprecedented sums of money to defeat candidates who challenge their chokehold on LA politics, and to support candidates they trust will vote to support their special interests.

2/14

Lots of houses of worship and nonprofit agencies would love to help provide interim housing and emergency shelter for people who are homeless — but too many rules stand in the way.

@nithyavraman @mhdcd8 and I are trying to fix that. 1/8 This past week we submitted a motion proposing that the City cut the red tape and allow churches, synagogues, mosques and nonprofits to quickly expand the number of available beds in the city.

cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkcon…. 2/8

We interrupt your politically-charged crime & carnage narrative with some actual data.

We don’t have a big crime wave. (See LAPD stats below). We have candidates, police associations and media trying to scare you so they can get what they want: votes, ratings, and more cops. Whenever there is a push for real investments in people & neighborhoods, or big strides for criminal justice reform or civil rights, there's massive backlash.

Whenever there's promise, there's a huge effort to kill it.

We are experiencing that now.

Today I announced I've decided not to seek reelection to the LA City Council.

This is a difficult, deeply personal decision, and I’ve wrestled with it for several days, but I’m confident it is the right choice for the right reasons. (thread)

I've struggled for years with depression. It's a constant companion, and often a heavy one.

There are times when this job has made that easier, and times when it has made it more challenging.

Instead of seeking another term, it's time for me to focus on health and wellness.

Tomorrow is a huge day for environmental justice. I'll eagerly vote YES on @STAND_LA legislation that will phase out oil and gas extraction & storage in LA.

I'm proud to be one of its first supporters -- and I salute the relentless grassroots advocates who made it happen. Since 2014, neighbors and advocates have been demanding “no drilling where we’re living” and calling for an end to the urban oil fields that have caused air pollution disproportionately affecting predominantly Latino and Black neighborhoods for generations.

No one should live on our streets. Period.

But laws like 41.18(d), which criminalize being unhoused, don’t lead to more people in housing.

How do I know this? Because we’ve been enacting them for over 100 years in LA — and the situation has only gotten worse. (thread) As the saying goes, insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

And yet, as last year’s report from the UCLA Luskin Center makes clear, criminalizing homelessnesss has been LA’s primary approach for over a century.
luskincenter.history.ucla.edu/2021/02/10/lch…

Today, opponents of homeless housing on the Westside, backed by anonymous “dark money” donors, turned in signatures to recall me from office.

If you care about solving our homelessness crisis in LA, it’s time to "Break Glass in Case of Emergency."

Here’s why. (thread) This recall, and my reelection (they would take place just several weeks apart), isn’t really about me.

It’s about how we, as a city, should respond to homelessness.

And the outcome will shape decision making on this issue for some time to come.

A big problem with homelessness policy is that it’s often based on the assumption that most unhoused people are “service resistant.”

It's largely a myth that leads to failed, expensive enforcement strategies, keeping people & encampments on the streets.

(thread) Blaming people for being unhoused disguises the real problem: systemic barriers that keep people from accepting shelter or housing.

Those barriers prevent real progress.

@SpecNews1SoCal profiles a family that went from Venice Beach encampment to permanent home. bit.ly/3nzpM0m

Our Encampments to Homes program busted the myth that people prefer to be homeless.

Outreach can work - with time, trust & real housing resources.

(Thread) LA’s approach to homelessness fails because it’s often based on false assumptions. One of the worst is that most unhoused people are “service resistant.”

Blaming people for being unhoused disguises the real problem: systemic barriers that keep people from saying yes.

In Venice this summer, we showed how transparency, trust, time, partnership, and outreach with *real* housing resources could address homelessness and reduce encampments. Today, in Mar Vista, the city did the exact opposite, disrupting housing efforts and causing harm. thread 1/8 There were about 15 unhoused people, mostly seniors, living in a remote corner of Mar Vista Park. Working with @hollymitchell @lahomeless and community partners, we were on track to find housing for people by an Oct deadline from @lacityparks. 2/8

The LA Times looks at the Venice Beach Encampments to Homes program, which helped 211 people move indoors, and asks: ‘Can’t this happen all over the city’?

The answer is Yes.

Here’s a rundown of what we did, what we learned, and what we need. (thread)
latimes.com/opinion/story/… The E2H program, a collaboration of agencies and run by @StJosephCtr, was designed as new approach to help our unhoused neighbors quickly and compassionately. It helped bust a pervasive and negative stereotype about homelessness and how to solve it