The First Time is Always the Best
For 1st time mayor's choice doesn't get past city councilDaily Breeze
Wed, 23 Nov 2005
Attorney Doug Mirell who helped the ACLU sue the city is one vote shy of approval to city-county homeless panel.
Ahhh. We'll have to note this occasion that the council (well, four of them anyways) actually stood up to the Mayor. The pesky four (Councilmembers Bernard Parks, Greig Smith, Jan Perry and Dennis Zine) who are growing to be quite a thorn in the mayor's side, should be commended. Let's hope they can continue this action when it comes back up today!
***UPDATE***
The City Council delayed until Tuesday reconsideration of the appointment of Douglas Mirell to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
The fearless four held strong. No switched votes yet.
Posted by Anonymous @ 11/23/2005 08:13:00 AM
28 Comments:
Good for them. Three of them Parks, Zine, Smith are also the ones who had the guts to vote AGAINST the DWP pay hike. I hope they continue to stand up to Antonio. Let's see if AV tries to persuade them to change their votes. Now, it will be interesting to see when Ramona Ripson goes before council. This will be quite a show.
Interesting. Stand up against the city on behalf of the homeless and be banned from a commission appointment that will make the city more responsive to the morally offensive disregard for the condition of the homeless.
The point is obviously that opposing the City when it violates constitutional rights of individuals removes the possibility of you working for the City. Brilliant.
Yes, god forbid that some of the people charged with looking at solutions to homelessness actually be interested in the rights of homeless people.
Is it really so hard to believe that, in some cases, the LAPD and other city agencies may have violated the law and that a lawsuit to protect the rights of homeless people might have been needed.
By bringing these advocates into the discussion on the front end, we can actually fashion good public policy that addresses a variety of concerns, including the rights of homeless people.
Greig Smith's comment in the article that the ACLU has been part of the problem, not part of the solution really is instructive in helping us to understand what his "solution" is. If your solution is to be able to lock up homeless people at the drop of a hat, ship them out of rich neighborhoods onto skid row and generally adopt a heavy-handed police-centered approach to dealing with homelessness, then, of course, he is correct that the ACLU is not part of this "solution."
If, on the other hand, you want to look at a multi-faceted program to look at the root causes of homelessness, to increase affordable housing, to protect the fundamental rights of all people, then the ACLU should clearly have a seat at the table.
I think the mayor should be applauded.
Commissions require balance of varied interests. Prohibiting individuals because they have challenged the legality of City policies and practices - which, by the way, the Courts have upheld - is nothing more than vindictive and and runs counter to the effort of commissions to SOLVE City problems.
Apparently, everyone seemingly acknowledges that it's the ACLU affiliation that's problematic and cause for opposition. Maybe it's just me, but such a blatant practice of exclusion sounds fairly discriminatory. Kinda' like Archie's argument that John Mack shouldn't be on the Police Commission because he's adamently opposed police brutality against "the blacks."
Interesting that 3 of the 4 councilmembers are/were LAPD affiliated - targets of many ACLU legal actions. Perhaps this historic conflict is ethical grounds for recusal?
how are these people suppose to vote if the pols ar serving turkey at 11 AM.
hmmmmmm...........
You are missing the point. Why put people who have sued the city on commissions? Isn't that a conflict of interest and a bias on their part? Of course it is. You can't tell me Antonio couldn't find other qualified people to appoint. It's payback to his friends in the ACLU people. He's a sneak, slimy mayor with his own agenda. That's the whole point in this matter.
Skid row has 5,000 drug arrests this year alone and that figure is going higher every month. So don't tell me LAPD is arresting poor homeless people.
I have to tell you the drug dealers love the ACLU. They love them with a passion.
At the forum we had a drug dealer who was asking the candidates why the police are corrupt etc. . He is seen around smoking and selling. These people love the ACLU . Where else can you hide behind the poor homless people to do your thing, where else can you kill rivals and even innocent people witout it being a big dela in teh newspapers, whereelses can you pass crack and weed between the seller and the buyer in front of the LAPD and they do nothing because the problem is intractable. God bless the ACLU . God bless them , while the trafficker counts his stash of money earned through death and misery.
God bless the ACLU who wants to solve homelessness by suing municipalities and tkaing the money that could be used to build housng and go towards services.
God bless the ACLU for all of the deaths that have occurred here because it is ok for people to live in their own filth and on the streets and not be bothered.
The ACLU should sue the municipalitied into creating housing.
We are in ahousing crisis. The plague was spread back in the midevil period due to living close together and bad hygeine , not to mention rats. We live in a time that it should no longer be acceptable to allow people to live that way in the streets, If any of you out there really cared you would create institutions and permananet supportive hosuing , but with the contribution of people who have lived in different facilities.
We shouldn't force people to do anything. But those oof us who live in Central Cty East know too well , that not until the 5th of the month do we begin to see expressions of mental illness , due to people either tweaking off of drugs , tweaking on drugs , or tweking for drugs. LEt's get real. These substances cause a vast majority of the expression of mental illlness here in Central City East and anywhere else.
If you lived here you would know.
SO of course god bless the ACLU who ahve never lived here to know what really goes on.
Can the ACLU solve these problems? They haven't thus far.
I am a bit ambivalent on this issue.
If the solution is displacement, that's not a solution.
The other night I took the Metro to a play, and walked from the Hollywood/Vine station down to Theater Row on Santa Monica.
Along the way, I crossed four homeless encampments, including one on Selma with a tent right on the sidewalk.
Homeless shuffleboard is not a solution either.
funny,
you really think you have the mayor?
you do know the appointment can come right back up once wesson and huizar are on the council.
with 11 councilmembers the mayor has everything he needs.
It is funny how mediocrity cowers together. Time and time again, these four (Parks, Perry, Smith, and Zine)have no notion of constituent services nor of creating effective public policy, but are good at getting their names in the press, often for doing something stupid. These mental midget have no idea what they are doing in public office.
This is not a big deal. Huizar and Wesson will take their seats on Tuesday. Those two votes will put the nominations over the top.
"dong something stupid" Yeah like voting for the sake of the city. These council members are at least showing that they aren't rubber stamping AV's appointments. Agreed Dgzilla that ACLU talk a good game but their best interest is not for the homeless.
Sen. Cedillo made a good point yesterday. He said that when inmates are released from prison right down the street they should be dropped off where they were arrested. This way they can't go down the block to SKid Row and start drug selling again and becoming part of the large problem there.
You don't think the press will be all over Jose and Herb if they vote for the commissioners and know what was behind it? They will be risking getting into the media quickly as AV lap boys. I hope Jose who is smart will decide on his own.
oh Joseph,
you actgually beleive these people are coming from Skid row? These people are coming from places all over the country and they choose not to stay in Central City East.
Joseph:
You need to thank the ACLu for this happening all over the city. The LAwsuit did not just affect Central City East. It also affected teh whole city, that is why neighborhoods like eagle rock may be a having a problem now that people are sen sleeping anywhere and everywhere because the ACLU sued the City over this same thing.
Let's see these same people on the LAHSA board continue tp create policy that denies property owners their rights in those neighborhoods and beleive me they will.
Plus when the weather gets better the tents go down. Right now we have an influx in winter californians.
Why oh why do the people not see?
Because they choose not to.
Whereas the city workers have their unions to represent them, business has groups like the LA Chamber and VICA, criminals, child molestors, drug dealers, racists, atheists, communists, Democrats and religion haters have the ACLU as their lobbying group of choice.
Jose will do what he's told to. (that was a PERIOD at the end).
He was not handed this job on a silver platter to get uppity with the boss man any time soon, and he does want to get his gonads back from AV at some point when they're no longer working the same jurisdiction.
Wesson may actually think for himself, once in awhile. He would also have to go against the majority of the African-Americans on the council to assist AV on this one (and PLEASE don't even try and spin me that THAT's not a consideration. . . in a city with disproportionate Black homeless numbers).
On this comment page alone, archie bunker uses the following words:
"Cholo" - 3 times
"Tortilla" - 1 time, inexplicably to describe AV - what does that even mean?
"Chocolate Love Muffin" - 1 time
I know Archie Bunker's character on TV was a racist, but do you really have to fulfill that stereotype on every posting? Seriously, can't we have a discussion about issues without name calling, particularly racist name-calling?
I know Archie Bunker's character on TV was a racist, but do you really have to fulfill that stereotype on every posting? Seriously, can't we have a discussion about issues without name calling, particularly racist name-calling?
One of the reasons I am always defending this blog is that I think it gives people a chance to see things not as they are faked, but as they actually are. I don't especially like to read it either, and yet I'm glad to read it, because it's just like talking to some my virtual in-laws. I know it's out there, and maybe we aren't cognizant enough of the fact, and here's a good reminder. I read the Internet in general to look into the hearts of people, from RogerLSimon to DailyKos, and it never fails to be far more expressive---and true to the heart---than usual discourse.
Thanks, Dr. Garzila also---you have taught me to look for something, and I'll look for it tomorrow when I go to Vine Street. I don't know that a lot of people around town, especially a lot of the displaced, know about any relationship between the ACLU suit and increasing homelessness.
I agree with Mailander that just covering up our racism isn't a solution, but I guess part of what I'm saying to archie is that we should challenge ourselves.
Archie's rant is nonsensical. I mean, first of all, why does he assume that lots of people aren't complaining when other people and media sources are racist. I think those things are equally horrible.
"What's wrong with Cholo? because it shows a Latino Thug/gangster stereotype. Ok. Tortilla Puppet (use the full phrase please) was a new one, what should I have called it him a "w**b*** Pinocchio"?"
So - look he is behaving as a politician. If you want to criticize that, fine, but let's not pretend that anything other than his skin color is particularly "cholo"
I mean, your main defense to being called a racist, is that you could have used worse terms? C'mon.
You guys should know that there are many of us who blog here that totally agree with Archie. Why? Cause we know Antonio all to well in fact better than most he has fooled. We have personal experience with his corrupt, vindictative, arrogant, stubborn self. We have personally experienced the fact that he never cared about the community he was suppose to serve. Finally people around the city are getting what we've all known. Yes, the AV lovers will come out and say he got voted in blah blah blah blah.
It was only by 9% and now the rest of those who didn't vote are scratching their heads.
Mailander,
Thanks to the ACLU lawsuit. The homeless , not the displaced are not being told to move on from the different communities that complained about them.
This is the blindness of the people in teh surrounding communities.
People think these people are all of a sudden cropping up from gentrification of Downtown , they have always been there but now all of a sudden people choose to see them and blame the redevelopment of Downtown for it. The redevelopment of Downtonw when the City Business District redevelopment project area came into being and bunker hill and other parts of downtown were razed and ton's of people were displaced, how about a whole african american meighborhood in Santa monica that was dispalced to build the santa monica freeway 3o yrs ago. How many of those people acyaully reside in the replacement hosuing built on bunker hill? COme on man.
Contiannment is not the answer and neither is pushing people around, now, becuase of the ACLU you can't just push people from one place to the other. These are the unintended consequences of these aclu lawsuits.
Now those in the neighborhoods who didn't want them have to put up with them because the LAPD just can't stop somoene just because they are homeless , of course that is the consitution , so they shouldn't anyway.
Welcome to the world of containment.
As long as you are not in Downtown City Center are, your neighborhoods are where the homeless are contained.
The displaced are all over the country. Go to vine and find out.
Andone of the reasns people are in Hollywood is because of the lawlessness in Central City East.
Come on.
Unless.............
Whether it's the appointment of an ACLU-affiliated person to the Homeless Commission or the article in today's LA Times, the entire issue of homelessness and the reasons why it exists is in downward spiral.
It's dishearting to see that many of the solutions for skid row revolve around a law enforcement perspective.
It's a no-brainer that we can't arrest are way out of this situation. So instead of focusing on mental health treatment or affordable housing for the homeless, we let the LAPD recommend video surveillance cameras on skid-row streets. Brilliant!
On top of that, LAPD is giving kids tickets to keep them off the streets to keep them "safe." Yet, when they finally leave skid row, they have a warrant on their record, which prevents them from getting a job. We have to stop criminalizng poverty and the use of these idotic practices.
For pete's sake, is there an elected that actually has a brain or the heart to do something? I doubt it, therefore, let the merry-go-around continue or let's wait until Steve Lopez's next article to care.
ANonymous I agree with you.
The problem is that the laws as they are writtten now are not enforced. What makes people think that increasing penalties will change things here.
I am in agreement with anonymous also that targeting the children of central city east needs to stop.
This country has created a new category of people , people who can't get jobs because of their rap sheets and the marks they carry from when they made mistakes.
These people want to survive one way or another. If that means drug dealing so be it. They will do that , even using thier own children to hold the dope for them so the cops don't search the children. Probable cause.
These people will fight back and they will be fighting back real soon. We ahve reached a time that is way beyond huge proportions , we have the ex felon , who is nontheless nothing but a second class citizen or treated as such. One of these days they will fight back in a large manner. We have to do something to stop the creation of these types. And that starts with the children , so how do we handle the kids ?
I think the above poster could give us some pointers.
But I agree that we need to have the laws enforced as they stand now.
But i think it is time we began to look at something else. Expunging of records if they do not fall into these categories , murder of any type , or sex offenses. We should take a look at others on a case by case basis and see if we can't clear peoples records if they are clean for a certain period of time and have them either sealed or completely destroyed. That way we can get people back into the main stream and if they stay clean , let's also put it on them to do something constructive with their lives , like school.
I will probably get heak for this. BUt I am throwing it out there.
I do know plenty of people who will give people a chance. But reaching that first rung is the most difficult.
My opinion.
LAUSD has a program for anyone who is a felon. They help train and get jobs for them. The homeless issue is way above most of our council members heads. WHY has it taken so long for them to react? Because now that million dollar development deals are going through in that area they don't want the homeless around. They will be pushed to the Eastside and South LA.
I agree, no politican wants to get in the way of the "revitalization" of Los Angeles. So, skid row, will always play second fiddle until another news media organization profiles the injustice in the "nickel."
As for the kids. LAPD simply needs to stop using Bratton's broken window policing. Senor Bill needs to realize that Los Angeles is not New York. How do you compare 90,000 homeless people in LA to 40,000 in New York?
You can't give tickets to children for jaywalking or blocking the sidewalk as a method of crime prevention. It costs $104 for a jaywalking ticket, which is 1/3 rent for most families on the row.
How about the LAPD work with the department of Recreation and Parks to open Gladys and San Julian to let the kids play rather than allow the drug addicts and mentally ill to occupy the park. What is a park, if kids can't play? And, it's not about the money, because Controller Chick found $22.5 million in the parks account, which includes $2 million earmarked for downtown parks. That's some low-hanging fruit we can tackle now. If you don't help the kids, you're basically setting them up to enter the system, which eventually boots you out and "dumps" you in skid row. We need to stop the cycle of homelessness at an early age.
How many times can a commission appointee go up for a vote? Perry pushed the issue again yesterday and Mirell was not confirmed 6-4. Now I see its on the council agenda again next week. That will be 3 times.
Also, who swears in the new council members? I thought it was the city clerk. Jose is being sworn in on Nov. 29th then again on Dec. 2nd at his party at the LA Theater by Antonio. Why doesn't AV just swear him in at city hall or can't he?
Every time the ACLU gets blasted like this, I try to send them a little more money.
We are all going to be looking for their help when the Department of Homeland Security (remember the Thought Police?) comes knocking on the door.
Yeah, give your money to an organization (ACLU)Antonio supports that defends hard core gang bangers. We should reward those who sue the city and the ex police chief by giving them an appointment to a commission. That's what's happening with Antonio's administration. All paybacks to friends and family who helped him. But wait, didn't he say he would CLEAN CITY HALL?
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