tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-306969732024-02-28T22:49:22.868-08:00SoapBoxLAACCESS AND MOBILITY ISSUES FROM TWO URBAN ADVENTURERSSoapBoxLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03423782294035596253noreply@blogger.comBlogger510125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30696973.post-20661347551828529922012-12-04T02:28:00.000-08:002012-12-31T02:28:18.271-08:00Beyond the Ballot Box: Neighborhood Council 2012 Election Wrap-Up
CityWatch, Dec 4, 2012
Vol 10 Issue 97
EMPOWERMENT REPORT - It was just over six months ago that LA’s City Council passed Ordinance #182128, authorizing the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment to conduct the 2012 Board elections for LA’s Neighborhood Councils.
The journey began in September of 2011 at the Congress of Neighborhoods when Neighborhood Council representatives SoapBoxLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03423782294035596253noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30696973.post-76278308417083032342012-08-11T02:24:00.000-07:002012-12-31T02:25:15.036-08:00Neighborhood Council Elections: Beyond the Ballot Box
CityWatch, Aug 10, 2012Vol 10 Issue 64
RETHINKING LA-Voters in the Northeast Valley
turned out for the first of 11 regional Neighborhood Council elections,
exceeding expectations and raising the standard for participatory
democracy.It was just two months ago that the City Council
passed the ordinance that empowered the Department of Neighborhood
Empowerment to partner with Neighborhood SoapBoxLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03423782294035596253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30696973.post-27306178405598711492012-07-25T02:22:00.000-07:002012-12-31T02:23:30.562-08:00My First Nurse-In and the Right to Breastfeed in Public Places
CityWatch, July 24, 2012 Vol 10 Issue 59
RETHINKING LA - My wife Enci and I have marched in the streets, we’ve
turned out with signs and picketed, we've Stormed the Bastille, ridden
Critical Mass, and filibustered public meetings from the public
speaker’s podium. We’ve gone to Sacramento, we’ve spoken Truth to Power,
and along the way we’ve sat-in, stood-up and even laid-down in a
die-in.SoapBoxLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03423782294035596253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30696973.post-87199453693800710752012-07-18T02:21:00.000-07:002012-12-31T02:21:41.275-08:00Rumors of the Brown Act’s Demise are Greatly Exaggerated
CityWatch, July 17, 2012Vol 10 Issue 57
NEIGHBORHOODS LA - California’s financial woes resulted in a state
budget that failed to fund the Brown Act mandate that specifies 72 hour
posting of agendas, resulting in a statute that lacks enforcement teeth.
This passive suspension of the Brown Act posting requirement has caused
many to wonder if the City Council and the Neighborhood Councils SoapBoxLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03423782294035596253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30696973.post-88174997787115760522012-07-18T02:19:00.000-07:002012-12-31T02:19:59.732-08:00LAPD Chalks Its Rubber Bullet Behavior Up to Vandalism
CityWatch, July 17, 2012 Vol 10 Issue 57
HOW LA’S DOWNTOWN ARTWALK BECAME A CRIME SCENE - When Lance Armstrong
came to Los Angeles for a bike ride with 700 of his closest friends, the
streets ran yellow with chalked messages of hope and encouragement.
Mayor Villaraigosa and then City Council President Eric Garcetti stood
in the middle of a heavily chalked Sunset Boulevard to welcome Lance SoapBoxLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03423782294035596253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30696973.post-7787699232588384902012-07-14T02:17:00.000-07:002012-12-31T02:18:11.177-08:00What NCs Learn from City Council: Some Good, Some Bad, Some Illegal
CityWatch, July 13, 2012Vol 10 Issue 56
RETHINKING LA - Neighborhood Councils learn much from watching LA’s City
Council in action, some of it good, some of it bad, and some of it
illegal.
For example, when the City Council doesn’t have a quorum of members
present, it can’t start the meeting, setting up a charming situation
where the City Council President twiddles his thumbs while the SoapBoxLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03423782294035596253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30696973.post-88630088838374823692012-07-11T02:16:00.000-07:002012-12-31T02:16:52.249-08:00Want Better Press? Be Better Press
CityWatch, July 10, 2012 Vol 10 Issue 55
NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS - Jim Newton’s recent editorial in the LA Times
paid tribute to a decade of Neighborhood Council struggle and stirred
two responses from those embroiled in LA’s civic engagement battle.Some
folks were tickled to find LA’s Neighborhood Council system given a nod
by Newton, a longtime observer of LA’s Charter reform movement and SoapBoxLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03423782294035596253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30696973.post-69420320182604964722012-07-07T02:15:00.000-07:002012-12-31T02:15:32.361-08:00Tweeting, Texting, Liking and Other Weapons of Mass Distraction
CityWatch, July 6, 2012Vol 10 Issue 54
RETHINKING LA’S NC’S - If a group of Neighborhood Council leaders got
together at the local library to discuss public business without
inviting the public, it would constitute a violation of the Brown Act
but it would hardly be grounds for closing the library. After all, the
library wasn’t party to the crime, it was merely the scene of the crime.
SoapBoxLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03423782294035596253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30696973.post-90918456258232202052012-07-03T02:13:00.000-07:002012-12-31T02:13:52.006-08:00LA Municipal Election Field Flooded with Neighborhood Council Veterans
CityWatch, July 3, 2012 Vol 10 Issue 53
RETHINKING LA - Jim Newton, Editor at Large of the LA Times, contends
that Neighborhood Councils “have yet to prove either as revolutionary as
their backers hoped or as obstructionist as their opponents feared.”Newton’s editorial offers his perspective as a journalist who
covered the Charter Reform Commission during the days when Neighborhood
CouncilsSoapBoxLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03423782294035596253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30696973.post-3093373900935195962012-06-30T02:11:00.000-07:002012-12-31T02:12:10.538-08:00Neighborhood Councils: Death by Meeting!
CityWatch, June 29, 2012 Vol 10 Issue 52
RETHINKING LA - Neighborhood Councils face many obstacles as they set
out to “promote more citizen participation and make government more
responsive to local needs” and the most formidable is the threat of
“Death by Meeting!”In many ways, Neighborhood Councils have
become the enemy, taking on the bad habits that were the original seeds
of discontentSoapBoxLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03423782294035596253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30696973.post-36313731072076102032012-06-27T02:10:00.000-07:002012-12-31T02:10:51.003-08:00Experts Split on Whether the Brown Act will Kill LA’s Neighborhood Councils
CityWatch, June 26, 2012Vol 10 Issue 51
RETHINIKING LA - The mere suggestion that it might be time to revisit
California’s open-meeting law with a Sunshine Ordinance draws two kinds
of responses, best summed up as “It’s about time that common sense
prevailed!” and “Have you joined the regulatory race to the bottom?”
California’s Brown Act is currently under attack amidst charges that it
SoapBoxLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03423782294035596253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30696973.post-45198948218908486512012-06-23T02:08:00.000-07:002012-12-31T02:09:12.948-08:00Will the Brown Act Kill LA’s Neighborhood Councils?
CityWatch, June 22, 2012Vol 10 Issue 50
RETHINKING LA - When it comes to California’s Brown Act and Public
Records Act commitment to open meetings and transparency, LA’s
Neighborhood Councils are held to the same high standard as the LA
County’s Board of Supervisors and LA’s City Council. On the one hand this seems fair, after all, we’re all in this together and the spirit of the law is SoapBoxLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03423782294035596253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30696973.post-59885908374609296182012-06-20T02:07:00.000-07:002012-12-31T02:07:31.070-08:00Are Neighborhood Councils Ready for Facebook?
CityWatch, June 19, 2012 Vol 10 Issue 49
RETHINKING LA - The great thing about participating in a Neighborhood
Council is the fact that it provides a crash course in the Brown Act and
in the Public Records Act. Unfortunately it's typically a literal
crash, one that brings meetings to a screeching halt as members share
anecdotal experiences, second hand information, and collective fears of
SoapBoxLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03423782294035596253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30696973.post-11254867946675716082012-06-16T02:05:00.000-07:002012-12-31T02:05:57.433-08:00Can LA’s Neighborhood Councils Keep Up?
CityWatch, June 15, 2012Vol 10 Issue 48
RETHINKING LA - Neighborhood Councils face an uphill battle as they
attempt to fulfill their City Charter mandate to engage the public and
advise City Hall, after all, they typically meet once a month while the
City Council meets three times a week, making it tough to keep track of
the issues and resulting legislation.
Even the members of City SoapBoxLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03423782294035596253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30696973.post-21016819823869170712012-06-13T02:03:00.000-07:002012-12-31T02:03:55.915-08:00Los Angeles: Are Neighborhood Council Elections Worth the Price?
CityWatch, June 12, 2012 Vol 10 Issue 47
RETHINKING LA - It’s Neighborhood Council election season, a period of
time that is marked by the perennial debate within City Hall over the
high cost of representative government and the challenge “Do
Neighborhood Council elections matter?”
Elections are a Neighborhood Council’s most significant outreach
opportunity, one that allows them to SoapBoxLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03423782294035596253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30696973.post-8183677637637932192012-06-09T02:01:00.000-07:002012-12-31T02:01:37.501-08:00Neighborhood Councils: Do They Matter?
CityWatch, June 8, 2012 Vol 10 Issue 46
RETHINKING LA - LA’s Neighborhood Councils are finally getting some respect, unfortunately it’s from admirers who live in cities such as London, Toronto, and Nagoya who look to LA and find inspiration.As
for hometown love, Neighborhood Councils find themselves struggling to
get attention in a city that threatens their survival each budget cycle,
SoapBoxLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03423782294035596253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30696973.post-21938615402678467512012-06-06T01:59:00.000-07:002012-12-31T01:59:49.806-08:00Los Angeles: The People Must Come First
CityWatch, June 5, 2012
Vol 10 Issue 45
RETHINKING LA - Los Angeles will take its place as a Great City when
it shifts from a complaint-driven system to a standards-driven
structure, putting the people of LA first and positioning respect as the
foundation for developing powerful relationships between the public and
those in public service.
This simplistic statement amounts to a SoapBoxLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03423782294035596253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30696973.post-56350496984415854492012-06-02T01:56:00.000-07:002012-12-31T01:56:49.553-08:00City Hall’s Welcome Mat Says It All
CityWatch, June 1, 2012Vol 10 Issue 44
RETHINKING LA - To live in Hollywood is to assume the role of tour
guide. On a daily basis I am reminded that I live in a great city, one
that attracts tourists from around the world who come here to experience
the stories that Los Angeles tells, some true and some fiction, but all
of them compelling.
I frequently meet strangers who have that lost SoapBoxLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03423782294035596253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30696973.post-62285015342218312012-05-30T01:53:00.000-07:002012-12-31T01:53:57.842-08:00LA’s City Council Needs a Maître d’
CityWatch, May 29, 2012Vol 10 Issue 43
RETHINKING LA -One of City Hall’s best defenses against public
participation is its charming tradition of vagueness with regard to the
business of the people.
With great regularity the City Council acts with firm authority
and calls on city departments to conduct surveys, to issue reports, and
to return with proposals and drafts suitable for SoapBoxLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03423782294035596253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30696973.post-20107715426304211292012-05-26T01:51:00.000-07:002012-12-31T01:51:22.196-08:00City Hall: Everybody's Talking, Nobody's Listening
CityWatch, May 25, 2012 Vol 10 Issue 42
RETHINKING LA - Brown Act be damned, it takes a skilled tracker to
navigate the City of LA's Byzantine process for communicating
announcements, policies, meetings, hearings, agendas and actions.Veterans
of the bureaucratic jungle typically develop tracker instincts that
allow them to monitor the subtle signs of City Hall activity and stay
informed SoapBoxLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03423782294035596253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30696973.post-49336390744483049932012-05-23T01:48:00.000-07:002012-12-31T01:49:18.029-08:00LA’s City Hall: Too Many Departments, Not Enough Light Bulbs
CityWatch, May 22, 2012Vol 10 Issue 41
RETHINKING LA - Austin Beutner, while still stumping the Mayoral
campaign trail, told a story of how many City of LA Departments it took
to change a light bulb. In this case a light bulb on a light pole.Apparently
it takes the Department of Water and Power because they control the
electricity to the bulb.
It also takes the Bureau of Street ServicesSoapBoxLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03423782294035596253noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30696973.post-40512997184971198662012-05-18T23:20:00.002-07:002012-05-18T23:20:39.828-07:00Why Does Illegal Dumping Take Place in Hollywood? Because it Works!
CityWatch, May 18, 2012
Vol 10 Issue 40
RETHINKING LA - The Pastor of a local church arrived at his office to find a large pile of debris on the sidewalk next to his church property. It consisted of some furniture, some busted boxes of personal belongings, some trash, the kind of debris that is typically left behind when somebody moves.
The Pastor called 311 and then sent an email with a SoapBoxLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03423782294035596253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30696973.post-20283315505341942552012-02-28T11:41:00.000-08:002012-05-19T11:44:39.499-07:00Beutner defends his record in City Hall...Efficiency, Accountability, Connectivity
CityWatch, Feb 28, 2012
Vol 10 Issue 17
LA MAYOR'S RACE 2013 - Austin Beutner arrived fashionably late for his AIA/LA Mayoral Candidate Forum, a conversation moderated by Bill Roschen, President of LA’s Planning Commission, and Christopher Hawthorne, Architecture Critic for the LA Times, with an audience made up of architectural and planning professionals, City Hall insiders, transportation SoapBoxLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03423782294035596253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30696973.post-46050282889570738812012-02-22T11:36:00.000-08:002012-05-19T11:39:29.525-07:00“Mr. Brown” Takes His Act to City Hall
RETHINKING LA - This past Tuesday, “Mr. Brown” headed over to LA’s City Hall in order to attend the City Council’s regularly scheduled public meeting. He never made it.
Mr. Brown knew that parking opportunities downtown were expensive and limited so he took the Metro, arriving at the Civic Center station and walking east, pausing to admire the impressive architecture of the Times building, theSoapBoxLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03423782294035596253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30696973.post-15878675816697231982012-02-20T23:19:00.000-08:002012-02-20T23:21:57.849-08:00LA: City Where the Buck Never StopsCityWatch, Feb 21, 2012
Vol 10 Issue 15
NO ONE IN LA EVER TAKES THE BLAME - Mayor Villaraigosa, the 11% Mayor who could balance the budget with his frequent flyer miles, has a long tradition of empowering a rotating cast of Deputy Mayors and General Managers in an effort to distance himself from his legacy of non-performance.
The City Council, completely impotent in its ability to direct city SoapBoxLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03423782294035596253noreply@blogger.com0