After the Compton Community Garden’s lot was put up for sale with a potential buyer, supporters of the community space found out that they have until Tuesday to raise funds to purchase the land.
The Compton Community Garden feeds up to 100 families a week, free of charge.
LA landlords are hiring companies, like Onyx Relocation, that specialize in “buying-out” rent controlled tenants so they can jack up the rates.
@m0thercity
's piece shows why tenants and advocates are pushing to repeal the CA law that makes this possible.
You might be thinking "I should reach out to my reps to voice my concerns about the reopening of LA but who should I contact?"
And the answer is all of them
Huntington Park police raided Ryan Cortez’s family home after he advocated for street vendors facing harassment. A jury has found him innocent, but the raid raises questions about First Amendment rights and city retaliation using police.
If you're wondering what all the fuss about the LA Mayor or City Council is, we've got your back!
"LA Pays Attention" was created to help explain the basics of our local government.
Los Angeles area mutual aid groups are worried city and county officials are not moving fast enough to prepare unhoused residents for Hurricane Hilary, which could bring heavy rain and winds, and flooding, to the Southern California region.
After the Compton Community Garden’s lot was put up for sale with a potential buyer, supporters of the community space found out that they have until Tuesday to raise funds to purchase the land.
The Compton Community Garden feeds up to 100 families a week, free of charge.
In a survey of over 100 unhoused people in the Los Angeles, an overwhelming majority said their belongings were taken and that police forced them off of public property. Nearly 40 percent said they were not offered any housing after such enforcement.
The City of Cudahy passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, after one of the longest city council meetings in the Cudahy's history, making it the first SoCal city to do so.
We investigated why the
@CityofLA
meticulously measured unhoused people's urine, meanwhile their bathroom access was restricted.
Long story short, measurements like this dehumanize unhoused people and paint them as a public health hazard instead of as people, reports
@carlaflou
Serve Robotics, which delivers food for Uber Eats, provided footage filmed by at least one of its robots to the LAPD as evidence in a criminal case. Emails show that the robots, which are a constant sight in the city, can be used for surveillance.
How does a city of 4 million people only have 14 permanent public bathrooms?! 🚽
It turns out that a long history of anti-unhoused sentiment left Los Angeles with no place to go. 😢
Read
@tufacemay
's latest here.
LA bus riders need bus shelters, what they got was...La Sombrita.
Shade at bus stops is a political problem, not a design problem — $30 million in funding for bus shelters is stalled in the bureaucracy.
Read
@tufacemay
's debut for LA Public Press!
Announcing our first podcast!🥁
Don't miss
#SmogLandRadio
, a podcast all about what's happening in LA City and County, for LA people by LA people! We will be breaking down important decisions and uplifting those who ride hard for their neighborhoods.
🎧:
Hey everyone,👋🏼
We're LA Public Press and we're taking over our friend’s (@/lapaysattention) account. We're so excited to report for L.A. County residents. ✨
- Your LA Public Press 💗
Unhoused Angelenos who live at the Travelodge motel in Chatsworth say they were told not to leave their rooms and in one case to “listen through the windows” during Mayor Karen Bass’ housing press conference.
Take this quote from a LA Times article that came out today. They are suggesting more people are homeless because the city temporarily stopped displacing them.
Honestly, what?
Why has the city only pulled together two cooling stations, considering the stations are essentially pop-up tents on the sidewalk with a few tables, some chairs and two attendants handing out water?
Read
@tufacemay
's latest here:
The strippers were eager to take their first hard-earned twirl on the pole after almost a year and a half — now as union dancers — and the audience was equally excited to make it rain dollar bills. ✨
Read
@courtneykocak
’s first for LA Public Press!
“Everyone in LA County uses the bathroom, but it’s only when you’re unhoused that that waste gets measured, chronicled in an LASAN report, and held up as a justification for your displacement.”
Advocates want to know why law enforcement-affiliated consultants are being paid millions to determine how we can reduce incarceration.
#ExposeAccenture
demands the contract be canceled given that a plan was adopted by the Board of Supes back in 2020.
Hey it's
@reporterliz
. Today we're covering the scheduled CARE+ sweep impacting the Jasmine. Ave community. You may have heard of Inside Safe, aimed at eventually housing people. But sweeps have long been a major pillar of LA's approach to homelessness.
Juanita encampment residents are uniting in a campaign to hold the city accountable after they were pressured into Mayor Karen Bass' Inside Safe program with promises of services last October.
Read
@reporterliz
's latest for LA Public Press
For everyone whose landlord STILL hasn’t fixed those leaks. 😩
Here's how to pressure your landlord into doing their job and keeping your home habitable. 💪🏼✨
✏️:
@carlaflou
Hey, 👋🏼
We’re looking for pitches for reported twitter threads. Do you cover public meetings? Are you knowledgeable about local governments, agenda items, how these items affect residents?
We pay $150 per thread.
Email: mscastaneda
@lapublicpress
.org
LA City Councilmember Kevin de León spent nearly half-a-million dollars in public funds in 2023. In total, his council office (not his campaign) mailed nearly 1.2 million pieces of paper in nine months, spending over $460,000 in postage costs.
Do you ever wonder what
@LACity
’s approach to homelessness looks like?
A big part of that approach looks like this—sweeps.
We covered a sweep scheduled by
@CD5LosAngeles
last Thursday impacting the Jasmine Ave. community.
"Pushed from location to location, and promised that we are on waiting lists and that housing is coming soon. Yet again we are being told we will be arrested or forcibly moved without any plan as to where we can go."
✏️: Clarendon Encampment Residents
A new rule at LA city council meetings changes the usual public comment process so that general public comment is pushed the end, sometimes 5.5 hours after the meeting starts. Some critics say the new rule are a “tactic to silence us.”
After occupying empty homes owned by Caltrans during the early days of the pandemic, the Reclaimers struck a deal with the city of Los Angeles to stay in them. Now the city wants them out.
An advocate from
@YouthJusticeLA
speaks out against funds being recommended for the LA County Sheriff's Department for the 2023-24 budget.
The advocate also brought up the tragic death of a youth who passed inside of Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall yesterday.
Several members of our staff contracted COVID during this recent surge over the last few weeks. We won't be able to put out as many stories this week. We want to make sure our staff has time to recover. ❤️🩹
Stay safe everyone!
Punk rock is alive and well in Southeast LA! 🖤 🤘
"Multo and many other local bands often play shows to raise funds for members of the community who are struggling with housing, funeral costs, food insecurity, or to support families in Palestine."
We need more coverage that doesn’t take what politicians and police say at face value.
We need more coverage with and from people who are living on the street.
We need coverage that explains the history of these broken systems.
Former LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva lost his race for a seat on the LA County Board of Supervisors and is falsely denying the validity of the election results.
There is a stark difference between the coverage of Venice as told by electeds and wealthy white people
and
the examination of the handwashing stations
@ShotOn35mm
just did
Political newcomer Ysabel Jurado surged ahead of incumbent Kevin de León in the race for the City of Los Angeles’ 14th District City council seat on Tuesday.
Jurado is now ahead by 314 votes.
Hello! This is Jon Peltz. I'll be live-tweeting LA City's Ad Hoc Committee on City Governance Reform now!
Committee formed bc of leaked audio of LA politicians colluding with the LA County Federation of Labor on City business and will discuss lobbying exemptions for labor orgs.
Glad to hear
@FilmThePoliceLA
is out.
It's always scary when those who are highlighting what's in the shadows are silenced. We have to keep raising hell about this.
Volunteers and community organizations are stepping up to feed Angelenos. LA residents struggling with food insecurity is increasing since additional Federal food stamp funding was cut in Spring, leaving volunteers scrambling to feed more and more people.
LA City Council unanimously approved a bailout deal for Chinatown Landlord, Tom Botz, for almost $15M.
The deal, however, does not include canceling the affected tenants’ rent debt, estimated at a little over $1 million.
Read more from
@phoenixctso
here
A yearlong
@KnockDotLA
analysis of LASD records reveals that at least 916 people have been fired upon by deputies since 1984. Of those, 387 were killed by the gunfire and 311 were wounded.
✏️ :
@cerisecastle
Republished w/ permission by Knock LA.
The Cudahy City Council passed a
#RentControl
ordinance, which limits the annual rent increase at 3%, and tenant protections. The Council will vote on June 6 whether to officially adopt ordinances.
Thousands of Angelenos marched over the weekend to condemn Israeli airstrikes on Gaza and to support Palestine against Israeli occupation.
According to United Nations, the death toll in Gaza has surpassed over 5,000, with children making up half of all casualties.
Calling LA City renters! Do you have back-rent that you can't pay? Check out
@adelcidlugo
's latest on how to apply for the new "emergency renters assistance program” and what you need to qualify, but act fast because the application period closes Oct. 2!
The next issue of LA Pays Attention is about effective public comment but until then...
🎙️A short thread on giving public comments and contacting elected officials ✉️
The City of Bell Gardens unanimously approved a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza last Monday.
The City of Pasadena also passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire on March 18.
Thousands protested outside the Israeli consulate and through Westwood on Saturday Oct 14.
The march was one of dozens of similar protests happening all around the world in solidarity with Palestine challenging what Human Rights Watch and… 1/3
After signing an open letter critiquing the killing of journalists in Gaza, and asking for more balanced reporting,
@latimes
journalists were banned from coverage.
Read
@phoenixctso
’s investigation.
"...LAHSA may not have been been evaluating service providers based on the type metrics that most Angelenos would have expected — which is whether people were being successfully housed and were able to stay housed."
📓 New issue of LA Pays Attention 📓
Our series on getting involved in government concludes with a look at our most local option: the Neighborhood Councils.
⭐️If you live in city of LA, you can find City, County, State and Federal reps here:
⭐️If you don't live in city of LA, find your County reps here:
Find state reps:
and then google your city
Money plays a huge role in who gets into office and how they govern. It shouldn’t but it does.
Next Thursday,
@UnrigLA
and
@GroundGameLA
will explain how you can look up candidates and who’s funding their campaigns
This upcoming Thursday at 6pm we'll be co-hosting an online teach-in w/
@GroundGameLA
on how to follow the money at LA City Hall.
6 months of campaign/ethics data will be uploaded to the Ethics database the following day, so we want you to be ready.
The fence has come down around Echo Park Lake, but the legacy of Los Angeles’s largest sweep in recent history — and the vilification that accompanied it — lives on.
Read
@carlaflou
’s latest.
Despite the recent passing of SB 972, Huntington Park has become a hostile environment for street vendors and their advocates making a habit of sweeping vendors like Xiomara Rodriguez and arresting vendor advocates.
🎧Listen to Smogland Radio ➡️
The zero-bail policy went into effect a month ago on Oct. 1. This new system prioritizes releasing people who commit non-violent and non-serious crimes. A report by the LA Superior Court found that the policy has “significant public safety benefits.”
Buckle in, Los Angeles. We have a lot of public accountability work to do this year.
Together, we’re going to separate out the real story from the confusing contradictions coming from our elected leaders. And then, we’re going to tell our friends.
The mayor didn't specify who was responsible for those decisions or apologize for allowing a timeline he now says was too fast.
He explained that miscalculating is just part of the process of dealing with a pandemic.
"That's what science is," he said.
A new
#SmoglandRadio
episode just dropped! Hear how community members stepped up to stop an encampment sweep in Van Nuys. You'll also hear an update about
@hillside_villa
and about eviction defense from
@LATenantsUnion
.
🎧 Listen here:
Perennial tweet for no matter what you're pissed off about. Learn about and plug into the work that's already happening. Just because you haven't been doing it doesn't mean someone else isn't.
Former LA Sheriff Villanueva dodged subpoenas until this year, finally providing contentious testimony during a special hearing on deputy gangs held by the Civilian Oversight Commission last Friday. Read the full story from
@cerisecastle
below:
📣 Support local independent journalism! LA County deserves and needs more news, not less! 🗞️
Read CEO and Publisher Matthew Tinoco's note about the current state of journalism.
After questions from LA Public Press on why police were arresting drone pilots flying in downtown, LAPD says they will stop enforcing the city’s drone law.
Echo Park artists have created numerous murals that reflect the area’s cultural diversity and history over the decades. A group of locals came together to save and recreate one they felt celebrated their neighborhood.
I've teamed up with
@TheoHen95302259
and
@shaylarmyers
to help answer your questions about LAMC 41.18, a recently amended ordinance that advocates say further criminalizes ppl living on the streets. Text/DM/comment below w/ questions and we'll answer them next Thurs. (3-4 PM)
Little Tokyo faces gentrification due to its prime spot as Metro expands, and Japanese American legacy businesses might not survive. Case in point: the beloved Suehiro Cafe, which has thrived for over 50 years, is set to close early this week.
The sweep is over. There’s a lot of debris left in the street.
There’s also a memorial for Jesse, an encampment resident who recently died. A mutual aid volunteer tells me he was waiting to move into a Project Homekey development that kept getting delayed.
Four members of the LA City Council are finding it difficult to explain why they voted for both more policing and less policing at the same time. Our publisher,
@onthatbombshell
, looked into the reasoning behind their decision in his latest piece.
Longtime residents of Boyle Heights are voicing their concerns over a potential development, fearing it could open the door for further gentrification of this historically low-income, working class area of Los Angeles.
Read
@ADelCidLugo
's latest.