Avsnitt
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Alissa, Godfrey, and Loraine examine the public health impacts of the Lineage warehouse fire that burned in Boyle Heights for a week. LA’s council votes to end oil extraction (for the second time). LAUSD superintendent Alberto Carvalho resigns amid a federal investigation into an AI chatbot deal as the board dramatically reduces screen time for students. And yet another ULA backroom deal turns into a win for Howard Jarvis.
After one week of burning in Boyle Heights and decimating air quality throughout the region, the Lineage Logistics warehouse fire was finally out
But the impact to the neighborhood won’t be known for some time, reports Capital and Main: “Short-term consequences for those nearest to the warehouse could be asthma and even heart attacks, but other effects will take time to surface. Much of it has to do with what’s in the smoke, which is hard to trace retroactively.”
The smoke has dissipated but the neighborhood faces new challenges: “‘Like a dead body’: after warehouse fire, LA residents say air thick with smell of rotting food”
LA Podcast founder Hayes Davenport reports for L.A. Material on a similar fire from the same company that burned for 63 days in Washington
Karen Bass’s response has been heavily criticized. She was out of town (again), didn’t hold a press conference until Friday, and didn’t declare an emergency response until Saturday. Then she said the air was “not dangerous” and “There is not anything you need to do to protect yourself. You do not even need to wear a mask” but later walked back those comments
Boyle Heights residents are reporting dizziness, eye irritation, headaches, nausea, and chest pain, the Boyle Heights Beat reports. “Smoke has seeped into their homes. It’s all over their clothes and couches. Air purifiers are in high demand. Meanwhile, a particle pollution advisory continues to be extended day after day.”
Watch the AQI change throughout the region as winds shift
Calls for accountability came from City Controller Kenneth Mejia and candidate for city attorney Marissa Roy
Meanwhile the East LA oil spill last month a few miles away was actually 25,000 not 2,400 gallons? What?!?
What better time to end oil extraction in LA City? The Stand LA coalition celebrates the first step towards victory after a similar 2022 ordinance was challenged by oil companies.
Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky made a great video showing how pervasive oil drilling still is in LA
LAUSD superintendent Alberto Carvalho resigned after being put on paid leave during a federal investigation related to the company AllHere, which made an AI chatbot product LAUSD used. Further reporting by the LA Times revealed potential ethics violations related to gifts and trips paid for by AllHere that Carvalho failed to disclose on his Form 700
LA Podcast listeners remember a previous Form 700 discussion due to a Vegas trip attended by Councilmember John “City Staffer B” Lee who failed to disclose gifts and was fined by the ethics commission — and is now suing the city and taxpayers are paying for it!
Meanwhile sweeping screen time reforms are passed by the LAUSD board which would dramatically limit how much younger students in particular spend on computers, prioritizing teacher-led instruction, and blocking some platforms like YouTube
This is a huge victory for the Schools Beyond Screens advocates, who also advocated for the dismissal of Carvalho
Longtime administrator Andres Chait is now LAUSD superintendent and promises to bring stability to the district
Bass commented to Conan Nolan that a deal was being made in Sacramento that would stop a threatened attack on all transfer taxes if legislative reforms were made to cap them. As it turns, the anti-transfer tax measure coalition collapsed due to the intransigence of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
The final deal made by the legislature removes the anti-transfer tax measure from the ballot, so ULA won’t be affected. The entire process ended up reaffirming Prop 13 and became a huge win for Jarvis
There are going to be so many state ballot measures and the ULA measure on the city ballot is still to come
And due to Prop 218, also passed by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, LA property owners need to vote to raise their streetlight assessments that hadn’t been raised since 1996 — and 80% of the weighted vote said no way, creating yet another huge infrastructural crisis for the city
Support LA Podcast by becoming a paid subscriber at thinkforward.la
This week’s episode was produced by Sophie Bridges
The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward
Alissa Walker writes the newsletter Torched, tracking LA’s megaevent progress. Find her at @awalkerinla on Instagram and @awalkerinla.bsky.social on Bluesky
Godfrey Plata is the deputy director of LA Forward and is @godfreyplata on Instagram
Loraine Lundquist is chair of LA Forward’s board, an astrophysicist, and a sustainability policy expert who earned 49.4% of the vote as a candidate for LA City Council
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Scott, Alissa, and Mike look back at the first week of the World Cup as LA hosts its first of many major events. SoFi’s stadium workers won an unprecedented labor contract and a huge fire in Boyle Heights continues to burn. Then: what charter reforms are going to the ballot, and what decisions — like council expansion — are being punted back for more “study.”
Alissa wrote about the opening weekend of the World Cup and how the city is doing one week later. She also has a daily guide to activities happening around LA
So far the World Cup seems to be going pretty well in LA
One watch party at Seoul International Park in Koreatown with a huge turnout became very overcrowded and families had to leave because it felt unsafe
Metro shuttles to the games — only $1.75! — are seeing surging ridership, with CEO Stephanie Wiggins writing regular updates
Unite Here’s SoFi workers voted to authorize a strike a week before the first game, then negotiated for an unprecedented contract — allowing them to strike whenever they feel they are threatened by ICE. As Mike notes, this strategy of using deadline leverage instead of normal bargaining paid off and this now becomes the template for negotiating with LA28
By the way, many local labor contracts are set to expire May 1, 2028
There hasn’t been any ICE spotted around the stadium but ICE raids regionally have not stopped
We also don’t know how much this is costing us. The deal LA made with FIFA has not been made public — here’s an explanation for why — but other host city contracts don’t look great
Meanwhile DEA agents are conducting sweeps in MacArthur Park, which is also hosting watch parties, and Karen Bass says she’s directing LAPD to support them
LA District Attorney Nathan Hochman made a video saying MacArthur Park would be ready for picnics by Labor Day while Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez made her own video saying don’t wait until Labor Day
A huge Boyle Heights cold storage warehouse fire forced local residents to shelter in place and is making air quality terrible as it continues to flare up. Since we recorded, Bass finally held a press conference and declared an emergency. Boyle Heights Beat has the best updates
Listen to Mike summarize the conclusion of the charter reform process on KCRW’s Press Play
LAist’s Frank Stolze explains what’s going to the ballot in November, including noncitizen voting and police reform
Big changes to the way LA builds things are coming with a Capital Infrastructure Program and ability to budget 5 years in advance, which would prevent us from having to give back money to Caltrans because we can’t build bike lanes
A huge win for parks, which will double their charter allocation to 0.06%. Alissa wrote about why that’s good but still nearly not enough money for what our parks actually need
And altering a tiny clause, 104(g), would change how LA does public-private partnerships, which could help save LA’s beleaguered zoo
Council has instructed the City Attorney to draft a ballot measure to amend ULA, most notably an exemption from the transfer tax for multifamily buildings sold within 10 years of construction. The Yaroslavsky/McOsker proposal is more narrowly tailored than what CM Raman pitched in January but broader than the legislative tweaks pushed by CM Jurado’s ad hoc committee. Council will make a final decision on whether to put it on the ballot in the coming weeks.
Mayoral candidate Nithya Raman says we’re not getting more reform because Bass slow-walked the process — and she’s not wrong!
Veteran journalist Robert Greene offers an incredibly thoughtful explanation of why LA doesn’t have a weak mayor system but doesn’t really have a strong mayor system either
Support LA Podcast by becoming a paid subscriber at thinkforward.la
This week’s episode was produced by Sophie Bridges
The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward
Scott Frazier is an original co-host of LA Podcast
Alissa Walker writes the newsletter Torched, tracking LA’s megaevent progress. Find her at @awalkerinla on Instagram and @awalkerinla.bsky.social on Bluesky
Mike Bonin is the executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at Cal State LA, and can be found at @mikebonin on Instagram and @mikebonin.bsky.social on Bluesky
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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Mike, Godfrey, and guest co-host Jasmyne Cannick discuss the promise and perils of the LA mayoral runoff between Karen Bass and Nithya Raman. Plus, the fake controversy over California’s ballot counting process, and LA’s City Council is poised to ditch years of effort to reform the city’s charter.
How bad will the mayoral runoff be? The LA Times reports on a likely “knife fight” between now and November 3. Jasmyne writes that the “Democratic group chat is about to get messy”
Bass kicked off her general election campaign with a broadside at Raman, indicating she intends to hit Raman on police hiring and homeless encampments.
Raman, meanwhile, held a press conference, outlining her vision and appealing to the frustrations of supporters of Spencer Pratt
Pratt, who promised to leave LA if he lost the mayor’s race, has apparently changed his mind. Friday afternoon he dropped a 3-minute video attacking Bass and Raman in his typical over-the-top fashion, and claiming he has a private recording of one of them making remarks that will force them to resign in disgrace
Mike, on his most recent episode of What’s Next, Los Angeles, talked about the way the candidates are framing the race, and what that could mean for their governing coalitions and their agenda in office
The data analysts have been crunching numbers and creating all sorts of reports on how subsections of the electorate broke in the June primary. Raman carried renters, according to Paul Mitchell of Political Data Inc. Bass dominated in Latino neighborhoods, according to the Los Angeles Times. The New York Times published an updated map of the city, showing which candidates prevailed in which neighborhoods
If you want to go deep on the data, Mitchell has launched a fascinating experimental website that combines LA County 2026 primary election results with voter-file data to provide detailed analysis of nearly every race, including precinct maps, demographic correlations, ecological inference modeling, and candidate-to-candidate voting pattern comparisons. Mitchell also offers a quick look at which mayoral and gubernatorial candidates came in first and second in each LA City Council district
Nationally, the pace of the vote count in California has spawned a bevy of conspiracies, voiced by Donald Trump and other administration figures — although disputed by GOP gubernatorial finalist Steve Hilton. The Atlantic has a good deep dive on the substance of the issue
The conservative attacks have spawned sadly predictable hand-wringing in places like the New York Times editorial board. Yousef Baig, the CalMatters opinion editor, responded to the editorial on Bluesky: “Red states are aggressively disenfranchising Black and brown voters for the third consecutive century, but sure let’s call for federal reforms because California is too slow”
This is the week the LA City Council must decide which charter reform proposals to put before the voters in November. At the moment, the body seems poised to defer most items, saying recommendations from the Charter Reform Commission need more study. Liz Chou in her daily Squawk Box newsletter, gets into it here and here
Happy LGBTQ+ Pride! The two documentaries Mike mentions in this week’s show are The Life & Times of Harvey Milk (1984) and Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin (2003)
LA Forward is hosting an election debrief on Zoom 7 p.m. Tuesday, with special guests Marissa Roy and Estuardo Mazariegos. RSVP here
If you plan on watching or celebrating the World Cup events in Los Angeles, the best resource available is Alissa’s guide to the World Cup, who also wrote about how this is LA’s chance to live out in public
This week’s episode was produced by Sophie Bridges
The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward
Mike Bonin is the executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at CalState LA, and can be found at Substack, or @mikebonin on IG, and @mikebonin.bsky.social on Bluesky
Godfrey Plata is the deputy director of LA Forward and is @godfreyplata on Instagram
Jasmyne Cannick is a political consultant and journalist. You can find her on on Substack at or Instagram at @hellojasmyne
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Alissa, Mike, and guest co-host Marco Santana recap the election results from a wild primary season. Who are the winners and losers? How did progressive incumbents and challengers fare? And the mayoral race numbers seem to show that Angelenos will never have to think about Spencer Pratt again.
After we recorded, Nithya Raman surged ahead of Spencer Pratt and appears set to hold her #2 spot to make the runoff with LA Mayor Karen Bass. Decision Desk has already called the race
Mike rejects the framing that mainstream Democrats “survived” the election
When MAGA loses they say everyone else is “cheating,” but that’s not the case. California makes it very easy to vote and counts every ballot — and that takes time
You can view LA County’s election results, new ballot drops are added every day from 4 to 5 p.m., but the absolute best way to track what’s happening in the mayoral race is to use Scott’s spreadsheet
The biggest winner of this election cycle was Kenneth Mejia, dancing on election night “feeling like 10 million bucks,” a reference to his opponent’s mom spending $10 million — 10! MILLION! — dollars in a failed attempt to defeat him
Hydee Feldstein Soto is also out, the first incumbent LA city attorney to lose in 100 years. Marissa Roy and John McKinney will advance
The New York Times election tracker is the best place to track state elections with more coverage at CalMatters
In the governor race, Xavier Becerra moved to first and will advance to the runoff. Tom Steyer has a very small and dwindling chance of bumping Republican Steve Hilton out of the second spot For insurance commissioner, progressive Jane Kim has a decisive lead over Ben Allen who is still wrestling for a runoff spot with Republican Stacy Korsgaden
U.S. Rep. Jimmy Gomez’s re-election campaign received an election day bombshell as the House ethics committee opened an investigation into sexual misconduct allegations. He’s headed to the runoff with Justice Democrat Angela Gonzales-Torres
Pratt told CNN’s Elex Michaelson he would win outright with 50 percent (HAHAHA)
And MS Now’s Jacob Soboroff offered a very clear-eyed assessment of Pratt’s poisonous populism and connection to Trump
Alissa is honestly very mad that Pratt was boosted so much by elected officials who took him and his conspiracies so seriously
Bass gave a triumphant speech on election night where she rallied supporters
Raman was moved to tears when talking about building a city for her kids (which right-wingers claimed was a teary concession speech)
Monica Rodriguez gave an absolutely brutal interview where she called Raman’s run “disgusting” (remember we told you Rodriguez was toying with a mayoral run)
Monterey Park voted overwhelmingly to ban data centers, the first U.S. city to pass an outright ban
Last month, Rachel came in second in the D Line Dash, the subway/car/bike race from Beverly Hills to Pershing Square. Here’s Rachel’s journey as the driver. The transit rider came in first, of course, and the cyclist came in a very close third
Support LA Podcast by becoming a paid subscriber at thinkforward.la
This week’s episode was produced by Charlotte Landes
The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward
Alissa Walker writes the newsletter Torched, tracking LA’s megaevent progress. Find her at @awalkerinla on Instagram and @awalkerinla.bsky.social on Bluesky
Mike Bonin is the executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at CalState LA, and can be found at @mikebonin on Instagram and @mikebonin.bsky.social on Bluesky
Marco Santana brings over a decade of leadership to the LA homelessness services sector and is a former candidate and active leader within local Democratic party politics. He’s at @Marco4LA on Instagram
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Mike, David, and Liz weigh the progressive divide in the last days of the mayor’s race, the latest polls which show a Karen Bass-Nithya Raman-Spencer Pratt dead heat, and the AI-assisted rise of Pratt. Plus, some reforms are on the way for Measure ULA and voters are being asked to tax themselves with Measure ER to stop catastrophic cuts to the County's healthcare system.
In the final days of the mayoral primary, a new LA Times poll shows a tight three-way race between Mayor Karen Bass, Councilmember Nithya Raman, and Spencer Pratt. Meanwhile, the CA Post poll shows Pratt in the lead
Many lefty voters are wrestling up to the last minute with a decision over voting for Raman or Haung. Huang has been sharply critical of Raman and publicly rebuffed overtures from the Raman camp
Meanwhile, Liz’s reporting shows that Huang’s claims to have qualified for public matching funds were not accurate, leading some voters to feel they were misled about her viability
Just days ago, Knock LA revised its lefty voter guide, going from a Huang-only rec to a dual rec for Raman and Huang
Mike wrote about how Pratt’s mastery of public storytelling is resonating beyond Republicans.
Pratt’s candidacy has also drawn sharp commentary from Jimmy Kimmel, and has some wondering if TMZ is now becoming a force in political journalism
The weekend featured a bevy of stories analyzing the race. The LA Times looks at the fraying of the establishment Democratic coalition Tom Bradley forged. The Guardian meanwhile, framed the state’s races as the “most turbulent election in years”
CalMatters reports that big money is pouring into the governor’s race. One of the biggest issues recently has been Chevron’s spending on behalf of frontrunner Xavier Becerra
After months of Democrats worrying they might get shut out of the gubernatorial runoff, there is a slim chance it could be a Democrat vs Democrat race after all
On Friday, an ad hoc council committee chaired by CM Jurado recommended that the City directly enact legislative reforms to Measure ULA and refrain from placing a major overhaul on the November ballot. The rec drew cheers from ULA supporters and jeers from groups who want sweeping changes to ULA
This comes as California voters will be asked this fall to repeal ULA entirely, as part of a Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association prop that would sharply curtail the ability of cities to raise revenue and roll back local taxes across the state.
Voters will also have a chance to thwart the Jarvis measure thanks to ACA 13, which would require any ballot measure that raises the voter threshold to also meet that threshold itself. So the Jarvis measure would need to garner two-thirds of the vote statewide in order to impose a new two-thirds vote requirement for local tax increases
For months, the ULA debate has been shaped by the April 2025 Ward-Phillips report, “Taxing Tomorrow,” which warned that ULA was suppressing production of multifamily housing. ULA supporters say that report has been debunked by a re-analysis of the exact data underlying the April 2025 report, demonstrating that Ward’s quantitative analysis merely showed a decrease in the average size of LA City multifamily housing projects, not a decrease in total units. RAND’s Jason Ward hit back with a new study last week
A really important issue on the ballot for LA County voters is whether to temporarily increase the sales tax to raise money for healthcare programs, backfilling federal cuts. LAist has the most thorough explainer, covering how the measure is structured, the political dynamics, and what the revenue would fund
Are you doing some last-minute cramming to decide how to vote? LA Forward has got you covered. At 6 p.m. Monday, June 1, Election Eve, there’s an cram session on zoom. (BYOB: bring your own ballot.) And of course you can check out the LA Forward’s Voter Guide, which covers nearly everything on the ballot
This week’s episode was produced by Kristen Torres
The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward
Mike Bonin is the executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at CalState LA, and can be found at @mikebonin on IG and @mikebonin.bsky.social on Bluesky
David Levitus is the founder and executive director of LA Forward. He’s doing his best to stay off social media
Liz Chou reports, writes and edits The LA Reporter, which now has a weekday email newsletter called the Squawk Box. You can follow her on X, Bluesky, or IG
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Alissa, Godfrey, and guest co-host Loraine Lundquist track local wildfires, an oil spill, and a leaking tank of methyl methacrylate in Garden Grove. LA Mayor Karen Bass fires her heat officer and other climate champions flee the administration. Then: LA’s Capital Infrastructure Program has finally been launched! How it would transform the city budget process, which just concluded.
LA Podcast is seeking a part-time Digital Producer! Work with our small but mighty team on show notes, social media, and other digital assets for our weekly local news roundup. Go here for the full description and interest form
Several fires continue to burn in Southern California, wreaking havoc on air quality
The Sandy Fire may have been caused by a tractor doing brush clearance; the Santa Rosa Island Fire was started when a shipwrecked sailor set off an emergency flare
Although the Sandy Fire is close to the Santa Susana Nation Laboratory, the site does not pose a threat. In fact, the Woolsey Fire, which literally started on the campus, burned about 80 percent of the site already, and out of 360 samples taken three weeks after the fire, only 3% showed high activities of radioactive isotopes
Meanwhile, about 40,000 people were evacuated in Garden Grove due to a leak in a 7,000-gallon tank of methyl methacrylate, the chemical used to make plexiglass, that could potentially explode at the GKN Aerospace facility. The evacuation zone is so large because they don’t know which way the wind will blow the gas
And a crude oil pipeline was severed in East LA by utility crews, spewing 2,500 gallons of oil into the LA River
Sammy Roth broke the news that LA Mayor Karen Bass fired her heat officer, Marta Segura. This — and the departure of other environmental leaders — is calling this administration’s climate commitment into question, as the mayor releases an unambitious climate plan
LA’s rankings in the Trust for Public Land’s annual ParkScore report has dropped to 93 out of 100, much to Alissa’s dismay
Different ballots are also due June 2 — for property owners to raise the streetlight assessments that haven’t been increased since the 1990s
Both these problems would be addressed if LA had a Capital Infrastructure Program (CIP) allowing the city to budget for improvements, service, and maintenance five years at a time, instead of just one — and the CIP was finally released!
Alissa writes about the CIP, why it’s just focused on Olympics related projects for now, and how these basic changes could help restore infrastructural trust in the city
There are ten proposed recommendations for the CIP, many of which would need to be made through charter reform. The CIP would also help resolve a lot of the issues with LA’s budget, which was just approved this week
One of those reforms is naming a public works director, Investing in Place’s Jessica Meaney tells Steve Lopez at the Los Angeles Times: “If the city gets this right, she said, implementation of the infrastructure plan “could finally show Angelenos the true scale of deferred maintenance, make trade-offs visible, and create a road map for better sidewalks, streets, parks, and accessibility’”
The ballot measure to repeal the business tax was also abandoned after the council approved a shameful deal to delay the Olympic wage for up to 18 months, which Bass said at a Politico event Wednesday she personally stepped in to help negotiate
If you’re listening to this Monday, join LA Forward Institute in Grand Park from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. for food, music, and cheering on the Amazing Vote Center Race. Tuesday there’s a ballot party in Highland Park and Thursday there’s a ballot party in the West Valley (hosted by Loraine!). And here’s LA Forward’s voter guide
Subscribe to Mike’s podcast What’s Next, Los Angeles to hear interviews with candidates all over LA County
Support LA Podcast by becoming a paid subscriber at thinkforward.la
This week’s episode was produced by Sophie Bridges
The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward
Alissa Walker writes the newsletter Torched, tracking LA’s megaevent progress. Find her at @awalkerinla on Instagram and @awalkerinla.bsky.social on Bluesky
Godfrey Plata is the deputy director of LA Forward and is @godfreyplata on Instagram
Loraine Lundquist is chair of LA Forward’s board, an astrophysicist, and a sustainability policy expert who earned 49.4% of the vote as a candidate for LA City Council
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Scott, Alissa, and Mike recount yet another attempt by LA’s City Council to undermine the Olympic Wage and why a corresponding ballot measure to repeal the city’s business tax is like playing Russian Roulette. Then, new LA mayoral race polls show Nithya Raman and Spencer Pratt in a tight race for second place, and what Mike would have asked in the final, now-cancelled debate. And: was the former mayor of Arcadia a spy for the People’s Republic of China?
LA Podcast is seeking a part-time Digital Producer to work with our small but mighty team on show notes, social media, and other digital assets for our weekly local news roundup podcast. We’re looking for someone with about 5 hours a week to spare, and we estimate that most of the work will fall on Fridays, but some weekend availability is key. Go here for the full description and interest form
Los Angeles Times: “In a 9-6 vote, the council gave initial approval of an ordinance to postpone implementation of the $30 hourly minimum until 2030, instead of 2028. But L.A. City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who introduced the motion, called it “a placeholder” that allows negotiations among city officials, hotel and airport businesses and labor unions to continue in the coming days. Another vote would be needed to formally delay implementation”
LAist: " I would expect my councilmember to stand up for working Angelenos, not help giant companies take money out of our pockets," said Jordan Long, a bartender at LAX who said he lives in Harris-Dawson's district. " Do not be fooled by corporate threats against the city budget”
The proposal was paired on the agenda with a ballot measure to repeal the city’s Business Gross Receipts Tax, which workers are calling a “shakedown” from the hotel and airline industry — as of now, this would go to the November ballot
The city would see a “sudden, permanent loss of $860 million on average in annual revenue starting in 2027-28 would coincide exactly with the final, most intensive preparation phase for the 2028 Games,” according to this fiscal report from the City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo
What Mike would have asked in the mayoral debate that was canceled after Bass and Raman backed out
New Emerson College polling in the mayoral race: “30% support incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, 22% support television personality Spencer Pratt, 19% support City Councilmember Nithya Raman, 7% support tech entrepreneur Adam Miller, and 4% support Rae Huang”
LA Forward’s mayoral entry for its voter guide was revised after the newest polls to recommend Raman
Candidates are paying influencers to post content for them, including gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer
Pratt has reportedly inked a reality show if he wins. Are we already living in a reality show?
Arcadia residents wonder if former mayor Elieen Wang was a foreign agent for the People’s Republic of China
LA Times: “The scandal had mostly quieted — until Monday, on the eve of President Trump’s planned trip to Beijing, when a plea deal was unsealed revealing Wang’s own murky role as an agent for China”
Here’s the unsealed plea deal from the U.S. Attorney’s Office
The situation was pretty clear back in December 2024 when Mike Sun, her former fiance who seemed to be orchestrating this deal, was also indicted. He was sentenced in February
Have you ever wanted to compete in a big scavenger hunt, kind of like the Amazing Race, but with a get out the vote twist? Register by Wednesday, May 22 to enter a team of 3 to 5 people in LA Forward Institute’s Amazing Vote Center Race for a chance to win a $500 Hollywood Bowl package.
This week’s episode was produced by Charlotte Landis
The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward
Scott Frazier is an original co-host of LA Podcast
Alissa Walker writes the newsletter Torched, tracking LA’s megaevent progress. Find her at @awalkerinla on Instagram and @awalkerinla.bsky.social on Bluesky
Mike Bonin is the executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at CalState LA, and can be found at @mikebonin on Instagram and @mikebonin.bsky.social on Bluesky
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Metro’s D line extension is finally open! Alissa, Mike, Godfrey, and David discuss the many ways a longer Wilshire subway can be a game-changer for LA. Then: more dark and dirty money is flooding into local races as ballots hit mailboxes. Plus, a recap of recent mayoral debates — and why you won’t see Mayor Karen Bass on the debate stage anymore.
“Why it took 65 years for LA to build its most important rail line”
The Guardian: “Riding the D in Los Angeles: city famous for traffic hopes new subway stations will be a ‘game changer’”
Even the New Yorker wrote a story about LA’s new subway
Read Alissa’s story about the opening of the D line extension and also read her story about the release of LA’s Capital Infrastructure Program, another highlight from the week (more on that soon)
Unrig LA highlights a new dark money network named American Middle Ground that’s sending out mailers in CD 1 and CD 11
LA Times: “Neighbors First has sent mail pieces boosting more moderate City Council candidates and criticizing those backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, which pursues leftist policies. Because it is a 501(c)(4) charitable organization, Neighbors First doesn’t have to say who paid for those messages”
Listen to our previous episode where we discussed dark money and read Mike’s piece that lays out the strategies from these groups
Incumbent City Attorney Hydee Feldstein-Soto is quickly losing support
Airbnb just gave $1.5 million to an IE backing John McKinney for LA City Attorney and the Los Angeles Police Protective League gave $20,000 to the same IE a couple days ago, sponsored by Central City Association
Controller candidate Zach Sokoloff’s mother, who we talked about previously, has now put $4 million in an IE to defeat his opponent Kenneth Mejia
Watch the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association debate, which was really just Bass and Raman talking policy
The vibes were very different at the NBC LA debate featuring Bass, Raman, and Spencer Pratt
“In fairness to Raman, the moderators’ uneven application of the rules gave the impression everyone was against her,” writes Orange County Register reporter Rafael Perez in his analysis “moderators flail as Pratt bullies and Bass deflects”
The LA Times’ Gustavo Arellano said both Pratt and Bass won the debate
After signing an agreement with the Pat Brown Institute, Bass is pulling out of this week’s debate organized by the Pat Brown Institute, the League of Women Voters, and Fox 11, claiming she has to go to Sacramento
Did the California Post write the best story about Bass refusing further debates?
Voter guides discussed included Thrive (don’t use this one), DSA LA, Knock LA, and of course, the one just out from LA Forward
Subscribe to Mike’s podcast What’s Next, Los Angeles to hear even more interviews with candidates all over LA County
This week’s episode was produced by Sophie Bridges
The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward
Alissa Walker writes the newsletter Torched, tracking LA’s megaevent progress. Find her at @awalkerinla on Instagram and @awalkerinla.bsky.social on Bluesky
Mike Bonin is the Executive Director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at CalState LA, and can be found at @mikebonin on Instagram and @mikebonin.bsky.social on Bluesky
Godfrey Plata is the Deputy Director of LA Forward and is @godfreyplata on Instagram
David Levitus is the Executive Director of LA Forward and is trying hard to stay off social media
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Alissa, Rachel, and Sophie talk about yet another new ICE detention center that’s opened in a former private prison in the Central Valley. How a new citywide adaptive reuse ordinance could convert vacant buildings into housing. Then, UCLA’s Los Angeles County Quality of Life Index dips to an all-time low. How bad are the vibes?
CalMatters: “ICE quietly opens another detention center in a former California prison”
The opening is part of a larger push by the regime and ICE to acquire more than 20 warehouses to be converted to concentration camps, according to a new ACLU report, which also notes that at least 17 people have died in ICE custody this year
In March, Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez honored Alberto Gutierrez Reyes, “a Westlake resident, husband, and father,” who died in ICE custody after being denied medical care at a facility in Adelanto
Rachel would like to remind everyone that California’s new concentration camp is about a three-hour, 200-mile drive from Manzanar, one of ten camps that were used to incarcerate our Japanese-American neighbors not even 100 years ago
LA Times: “Thousands of apartments set to take over empty office buildings with new L.A. ordinance”
“Changes to the original 1999 ordinance — which was created to incentivize the conversion of underutilized buildings into multifamily housing — include a substantial expansion of eligibility both in a building’s age and location as well as the removal of minimum unit size requirements for these projects,” reports the Los Angeles Business Journal
Mayor Karen Bass visited downtown’s World Trade Center building, which is set to be converted into 500 housing units
Bass also instituted Executive Directive 19 which streamlines some development
On AirTalk this week, Bass told Larry Mantle: “If you want me to describe the culture of the city, I would describe it as 'slow' and 'no'"
“Misery and malaise cloud LA Why it feels so hopeless this time,” is the title of Shelby Grad’s piece at the LA Times
The vibes were also noted in a recent LA Material newsletter quoting No Bad Days responding to Blackbird Spyplane
The Los Angeles County Quality of Life Index is measured every year by the UCLA Luskin School of Public Policy, and this year, the index was the lowest ever measured
Subscribe to Mike’s podcast What’s Next, Los Angeles to hear interviews with candidates all over LA County
Support LA Podcast by becoming a paid subscriber at thinkforward.la
This week’s episode was produced by Sophie Bridges
The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward
Alissa Walker writes the newsletter Torched, tracking LA’s megaevent progress. Find her at @awalkerinla on Instagram and @awalkerinla.bsky.social on Bluesky
Rachel Reyes is an LA native and community organizer. Follow her advocacy and antics at @rchrys on Instagram
Sophie Bridges is a writer and audio producer , who produces LA Podcast. Her work has appeared on This American Life, Radiolab, and Reveal
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Alissa joins Mike and Godfrey to decipher LA’s new budget, Karen Bass’s second (or third?) State of the City, and which departments are getting more money this year. Then, how a plan to help Airbnb snuck into the budget, and fundraising updates for candidates as ballots for the June 2 election arrive later this week.
Here are all LA’s budget documents and the press conference where Mayor Karen Bass presented her budget to the people, not to be confused with her 7-minute State of the City shared only on video
We highly recommend using Controller Kenneth Mejia’s awesome budget app to understand it all. And he also has a new campaign billboard highlighting the city’s problem with liabilities (guess which department’s mistakes are costing you the most!)
A new climate budget was included, as part of the mayor’s new climate action plan, released earlier this month
“A Passage Buried in L.A.’s Budget Hints at an Unusual Airbnb Gambit,” writes LA Material’s Julia Wick
And Aaron Schrank also reports at LAist: “Airbnb claims proposal included in mayor’s budget will bring tax revenue to LA ahead of Olympics”Remember the “Save Our Services” campaign that Airbnb was trying to roll out last year? Yep, now it’s basically part of the mayor’s budget recommendations
“Los Angeles doesn’t need new loopholes for the STR industry. It needs enforcement of the laws already on the books,” says Better Neighbors LA, which estimates that enforcing just 5% of illegal short-term rentals would add add $42 million to this year’s budget
Featured in the LA Times On The Record newsletter, City Attorney’s Hydee Feldstein-Soto’s presence at the anti-LGBT “HopeFest” festival was originally reported by LA Ten Four and Left Coast Right Watch. Feldstein-Soto has yet to denounce the event
LAist: “$19M and counting in LA races. Campaigns for LA mayor and city attorney lead the fundraising”
Here’s the dashboard for all the campaign finance information for LA City candidates
If you’re listening on Monday, LA Forward’s Charter Reform Advocacy Launch is happening Monday night, 4/27, at 7 p.m. on Zoom
Subscribe to Mike’s podcast What’s Next, Los Angeles to hear interviews with candidates all over LA County
Support LA Podcast by becoming a paid subscriber at thinkforward.la.
This week’s episode was produced by Sophie Bridges
The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward
Alissa Walker writes the newsletter Torched, tracking LA’s megaevent progress. Find her at @awalkerinla on Instagram and @awalkerinla.bsky.social on Bluesky
Mike Bonin is the executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at CalState LA, and can be found at @mikebonin on Instagram and @mikebonin.bsky.social on Bluesky
Godfrey Plata is the deputy director of LA Forward and is @godfreyplata on Instagram
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Alissa, Mike, and Rachel on the 2 a.m. union deal that prevented an LAUSD strike. A major hack of sensitive LAPD information causes City Attorney Hydee Feldstein-Soto to lose her police endorsement. Mad about pricey LA28 tickets? So are LA’s councilmembers. Then: how a whisper network of accusers ousted Eric Swalwell from the governor’s race — and Congress.
LAist: “A late-night labor deal averts LAUSD strike and keeps schools open. Here are the details”
“The mayor’s role was a mixture of shuttle diplomacy, jumping from room to room, and convening senior leaders together into the wee hours”: LA Material reports on how Mayor Karen Bass helped close the deal during negotiations
Some LAUSD board members apologized to parents for waiting so long to share information about the school day
How will the district pay for it? Especially with declining enrollment? LAUSD doesn’t actually know
A trove of “337,000 files, including some of the LAPD’s most closely guarded records” were leaked in a major data hack of a third-party file system used to store documents regarding LAPD litigation
Reporter Liz Chou was the first to get a statement about the hack from the city attorney’s office, which initially tried to downplay the magnitude
The Los Angeles Police Protective League then rescinded its endorsement of City Attorney Hydee Feldstein-Soto
Councilmember Ysabel Jurado introduced a motion to get more answers about the hack and what city systems were affected
Alissa covered a similar Metro hack and how it impacted riders last month
Ten photos of City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson listening to the City Clerk read a list of lawsuit settlement payouts into the record for council approval, totaling $5,735,650.72
LA28 has an estimated $4 billion in contracts that it’s trying to award to local businesses. But what “local” means is riling up councilmembers, who want the definition to include more city of LA businesses
Are expensive LA28 tickets the only way the city can break even? Good analysis from California state budget advisor Jason Sisney
LA28’s human rights strategy is finally public but anti-trafficking advocates say it just pays “lip service” to prevention
Alissa has more details about all the recent LA28 encounters with city officials in her Torched news roundup
San Francisco Chronicle: “Ex-staffer says Eric Swalwell, candidate for California governor, sexually assaulted her
Politico: “The whisper network that caught up to Eric Swalwell”
Mike’s interviews at What’s Next, Los Angeles include gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer, Raymond Meza, chair of the LA City Charter Reform Commission, and LA mayoral candidates Nithya Raman, Rae Huang, and Adam Miller
Alissa and Rachel will be appearing at Torched LA Live at frank.radio on Thursday night — all details here, plus a week’s worth of events celebrating Torched’s 2nd birthday, including a screening of the documentary Changing Lanes on April 20 in Santa Monica Mayor Caroline Torosis
LA Forward’s Spring Into Action fundraiser is April 25, honoring Dr. Loraine Lundquist, EAA Union, and Cofax
This week’s episode was produced by Sophie Bridges
The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward
Alissa Walker writes the newsletter Torched, tracking LA’s megaevent progress. Find her at @awalkerinla on Instagram and @awalkerinla.bsky.social on Bluesky
Mike Bonin is the executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at CalState LA, and can be found at @mikebonin on Instagram and @mikebonin.bsky.social on Bluesky
Rachel Reyes is an LA native and community organizer. Follow her advocacy and antics at @rchrys on Instagram
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Mike, Rachel, and Laura reveal the troubling story of the Neighbors First dark money network that’s mucking up LA City Council elections, including previously unreported details. Then: the latest in the ongoing Measure ULA saga, and a potential new progressive revenue stream for housing and basic services in the city of Long Beach
Details about the dark money network in Los Angeles were first shared by Rob Quan, including images of the mailers and billboards
Mike followed up and dives much deeper for a piece in Think Forward
CalMatters wrote about the emergence of “Govern for California” as a political force back in 2022
Nielsen Werkasamer, the law firm at the hub of the dark money network, played a key role in ousting progressive officials in San Francisco like DA Chesa Boudin, and flipping control of SF City Hall
The law firm also played a key role in passage and defense of Proposition 22, the 2020 ballot measure that stripped workers rights for Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash drivers
The local arms of the dark money network are Vibrant LA and Neighbors First, which have websites that tell you zilch about who they are
In the 2024 Los Angeles elections, a local network called Thrive LA emerged to try to knock out progressive candidates. (They’re still around.) A piece in The Nation co-authored by Mike covered the story in depth
LA’s Housing Department is proposing an allocation of $360 million in Measure ULA money to fund 80 projects, construction of 1,528 new units and repairs to more than 2,500 affordable units
Anti-tax groups like the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and the California Business Roundtable submitted 1.3 million signatures for ballot measure that would require two-thirds vote for local special taxes, cap transfer taxes at 0.11%, and repeal all the transfer taxes that exceed that cap
LA’s City Council formed a new Ad Hoc Committee to consider reforms to Measure ULA, and is studying potential impacts of changes. Critics of ULA say the potential changes do not go far enough
In Long Beach, a coalition of renter advocates and firefighters are pushing a proposal to tax wealthy homeowners to pay for road repairs, new housing, and new fire stations. Advocates call it the ‘fair share’ tax proposal
Listen to this week’s episodes of What’s Next, Los Angeles, featuring interviews with gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer, and Raymond Meza, chair of the LA City Charter Reform Commission. And don’t miss recent interviews with LA mayoral candidates Nithya Raman, Rae Huang, and Adam Miller (Apple Podcasts, Spotify)
This week’s episode was produced by Sophie Bridges.
The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward
Mike Bonin is the executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at CalState LA, and can be found at @mikebonin on Instagram and @mikebonin.bsky.social on Bluesky
Rachel Reyes is an LA native and community organizer. Follow her advocacy and antics at @rchrys on Instagram
Laura Raymond works on housing campaigns and strategic initiatives in Los Angeles at ljraymondstrategies.com
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Scott, Mike, and Godfrey go long on Metro’s greenlighting of a major regional transit expansion – the northern extension of the K Line – and the politics that almost derailed the action. Plus, what recent polls say about LA Mayor Karen Bass’s reelection chances, and political attacks that backfired in the race for City Controller and Council District 9.
Metro’s approval of the K Line northern extension promises to fill a missing link in the region’s network, connecting Hollywood Bowl, West Hollywood, Cedars-Sinai, and the Grove, different rail lines, as well as major bus lines, by 2040
The project was approved after a dramatic week of negotiations, protests, and public advocacy, with transit advocates warning Bass was trying to delay or kill the project. Bass strongly objected to the characterization but her public statements only exacerbated the fears
Bass tried to calm the residents of Lafayette Square, a historically Black neighborhood worried about the impacts of tunneling, comparing the K Line to the history of nearby Sugar Hill, an affluent Black neighborhood that was devastated by the construction of the 10 Freeway
Although Bass and Supervisor Lindsey Horvath – one of the project’s biggest champions – reached a kumbaya moment and jointly claimed credit for progress on the project, it felt like yet another chapter in an ongoing feud between the two public officials
LA Material: “Why is everyone so mad about Metro’s K Line extension vote?”
New polls in the mayor’s race show Bass struggling in her bid to win a second term. A poll from LMU’s Center for the Study of Los Angeles put Nithya Raman in first place by nearly two-to-one, with the mayor only .4% ahead of community organizer Rae Huang. The poll’s methodology was controversial, and many decried it as an outlier
UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs released its own poll, showing Bass with 25%, ahead of Spencer Pratt with 11%, Raman with 9% and Huang and Adam Miller with 3% each. The Luskin poll showed 40% undecided
Jim Newton on the potential Bass-Pratt runoff at CalMatters: “Top-two race in Los Angeles makes strange political bedfellows”
When Controller Kenneth Mejia’s campaign qualified for and received public matching funds, challenger Zack Sokoloff said he was exploiting a loophole in the program’s rules and tried to block Mejia’s access to the funds. Liz Chou of LA Reporter talked to Zokoloff’s campaign consultant
The LA Times published a story about CD 9 candidate Esturado Mazariegos’s 2009 arrest on a gun charge – a story opponent Jose Ugarte had been hinting about on What’s Next, Los Angeles last fall – but Mazariegos shared an emotional story about how the arrest was a turning point in his life and prompted him to turn to activism and public service
As election season heats up, be sure to listen to subscribe to Mike’s podcast What’s Next, Los Angeles to hear interviews with candidates all over LA County
Support What’s Next, Los Angeles and LA Podcast by becoming a paid subscriber at thinkforward.la. We’re already planning our next paid subscribers-only event!
This week’s episode was produced by Kristen Torres
The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward
Scott Frazier is an original co-host of LA Podcast
Mike Bonin is the Executive Director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at CalState LA, and can be found at @mikebonin on Instagram or @mikebonin.bsky.social
Godfrey Plata is the Deputy Director of LA Forward and can be found at @godfreyplata on Instagram
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Alissa, Mike, and Sammy discuss the resignation of Janisse Quiñones as head of LADWP and what this will mean for LA’s clean energy goals. Then, takeaways from the first LA mayoral debate and how climate is factoring into the governor’s race. And a new baseball season means more complaints about how the Dodgers can be doing more for the community.
LADWP CEO Janisse Quiñones stepped down earlier this month to return to Puerto Rico and work on modernizing the grid
Sammy’s excellent story about Quiñones leaving describes the role as “one of the most important roles in global climate policy” — and she helped push forward that vision
LA Mayor Karen Bass named David Hanson as interim director. He’s worked at DWP two decades, starting as an electrical mechanic
The LADWP board has almost completely turned over under Bass, and, in addition, four out of five of her Fire Commissioners have also stepped down
If you want to catch up on LA’s clean energy goals and all the various colors of hydrogen, listen to the last episode where Sammy joined us
The LA Local: “Bass orders 60,000 streetlights to get solar upgrade in 2-year plan”
Meanwhile, LA’s City Council advanced a plan to raise streetlight assessments, with ballots going out April 17
And Councilmembers Katy Yaroslavsky and Eunisses Hernandez announced their own “solar surge”
A general reminder to read India Mandelkern’s excellent book: Electric Moons: A Social History of Street Lighting in Los Angeles
Watch the first LA mayoral debate sponsored by Streets for All and Housing Action Coalition. It was unusually friendly turf for a candidate — one of the moderators used to work for Nithya and the other helped recruit Nithya to rum for mayor
So far, only Rae Huang has a climate platform
Nithya Raman is talking about parks as a neighborhood-cooling solution — and look at those Griffith Park bike lanes!
Raman was also removed from the AQMD board by Bass just before she declared for mayor, and just after this bizarre vote where an AI-powered campaign bot sent 20,000 emails and helped defeat a motion to phase out gas-powered appliances (Raman voted yes, but it failed)
Watch Sammy’s climate forum with governor candidates and read his take on the governor’s race
Politico: “Tom Steyer’s climate pivot signals new playbook for Dems”
LA Material: “Why USC Really Spiked the Gubernatorial Debate”Alissa’s quoted in Bill Shaikin’s LA Times story on walking to Dodger Stadium
As election season heats up, be sure to listen to subscribe to Mike’s podcast What’s Next, Los Angeles to hear interviews with candidates all over LA County
And support What’s Next, Los Angeles and LA Podcast by becoming a paid subscriber at thinkforward.la. We’re already planning our next paid subscribers-only event
This week’s episode was produced by Sophie Bridges
Alissa Walker writes the newsletter Torched
Mike Bonin is the executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at CalState LA
Sammy Roth writes the newsletter Climate-Colored Goggles
The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward
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Alissa, Rachel, and Sophie discuss the bombshell sexual abuse accusations against the late labor leader Cesar Chavez, including by Chavez’s fellow labor leader Dolores Huerta and two women who were abused as children. A reckoning is underway to erase Chavez’s likeness from public space and rename the March 31 holiday honoring Chavez to Farmworkers Day. Then: LAUSD teachers and staff are set to strike April 14.
If you or someone you know is dealing with sexual abuse, please reach out to RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline. Help is available 24/7 by texting HOPE to 64673
The New York Times: “Cesar Chavez, a Civil Rights Icon, Is Accused of Abusing Girls for Years”
“I am nearly 96 years old, and for the last 60 years have kept a secret because I believed that exposing the truth would hurt the farmworker movement I have spent my entire life fighting for,” Dolores Huerta wrote in her statement
Before the NY Times story dropped, United Farm Workers issued a statement Tuesday canceling all Cesar Chavez Day related activities: “Far more troubling are allegations involving abuse of young women or minors. Allegations that very young women or girls may have been victimized are crushing”
The Los Angeles Times, also published a story before the NY Times story: “’Profoundly shocking' allegations against Cesar Chavez spark soul-searching in movement
Change was swift: Supervisor Janice Hahn was the first to call for a renaming of the March 31 holiday celebrating Chavez’s birthday; California House Speaker Robert Rivas introduced the legislation to change the name to Farmworkers Day that day, and LA Mayor Karen Bass held press conference also calling for a change to Farm Workers Day
“As the UFW looks to move forward, with an understanding of Chavez’s conduct that contradicts his longtime use as a symbol, perhaps they can look to feminism for guidance. Feminists, after all, have learned how to commit to a principle even as one must discard a cult of personality,” Moira Donegan wrote for The Guardian
Meanwhile, UFW held a rally at a federal courthouse in Fresno to protest the Trump administration cutting farmworker pay
Many Boyle Heights residents didn’t want Brooklyn Avenue to be named for Chavez in the first place
Statues boxed, signs covered, murals defaced or repainted: the erasure of Chavez’s name and likeness from public space was just as swift
“Everything should be named for the martyrs of the Farm Workers Movement. Every street should be named after them,” Huerta told Latino USA
LAist: “LAUSD's teacher and staff unions will strike if no deal is reached by mid-April”
“One undisputed example of contracts that went awry is $6 million allotted to AllHere, a tech startup that was hired to design an all-purpose, artificial intelligence chatbot for L.A. Unified. The district spent about $3 million of that contract for a chatbot that was never fully deployed and quickly withdrawn from service when AllHere collapsed financially,” reports the LA Times
The FBI hasn’t commented on why Superintendent Alberto Carvalho was detained and investigated — and handcuffed outside his home — but sources have said it’s because of the AllHere chatbot contract
One reason LAUSD’s budget is in trouble is due to payouts for sexual misconduct and abuse cases
This week’s episode was produced by Sophie Bridges
The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward
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Alissa, Rachel, and Mike discuss LA city’s six-year journey to end the racist and ineffective practice of pretextual stops by police. For the first time in a decade, the number of homeless people who died in LA County went down, not up; from a high of seven deaths per day to six deaths per day. Then: the Noma pop-up in Silver Lake is protested after allegations of abuse by Danish chef René Redzepi resurface, fueling a reckoning over how restaurants treat workers.
Our LA Podcast party for paid Think Forward subscribers is coming up this Saturday, March 21! Subscribe today at ThinkForward.la to join us
Alissa, Rachel, and Mike discuss LA city’s six-year journey to end the racist and ineffective practice of pretextual stops by police. For the first time in a decade, the number of homeless people who died in LA County went down, not up; from a high of seven deaths per day to six deaths per day. Then: the Noma pop-up in Silver Lake is protested after allegations of abuse by Danish chef René Redzepi resurface, fueling a reckoning over how restaurants treat workers.
Our LA Podcast party for paid subscribers is coming up this Saturday, March 21! Subscribe now to join us. Here’s a personal plea from Alissa
LAist: “Black and Latino Angelenos are overrepresented in traffic stops used to investigate serious crimes”
The city’s Chief Legislative Analyst office report noted Black people made up one third of all pretextual stops, despite being only 8% of the city’s population. LAPD released its own report, and Catalyst California released a report showing the ineffectiveness of such stops
Meanwhile, traffic enforcement of actually dangerous driving has decreased since 2020
Listen to Mike’s interview with Chauncee Smith of Catalyst California and Leslie Cooper Johnson of the Community Coalition
NACTO’s 2020 statement: “The harassment and injustice that people of color, particularly Black people, experience at the hands of law enforcement on transit and in streets and public spaces is unacceptable and wrong”
During a joint hearing of the transportation and unarmed response committees, Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson testified that he had been stopped four times in a city vehicle, including the previous Wednesday
A new poll shows LA Mayor Karen Bass is polling very poorly for an incumbent, with just 20% support
Read the LA County Department of Public Health report: “Lives Lost : Mortality Trends and Prevention Opportunities For People Experiencing Homelessness in LA County, 2015-2024”
The Guardian: ”LA county reports first drop in deaths of unhoused people in a decade”
But as the LA Times reports, “health officials warn that steep cuts to federal and state homeless services threaten to reverse the progress achieved over the last two years”
LA City Council had to overrule City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto to fund $107 million in tenant aid after her office tried to end the Legal Aid Foundation contract
Watch Feldstein Soto’s very disingenuous campaign video claiming she supports renters
The famous Copenhagen restaurant Noma was just about to start an LA pop-up for $1500 a person when new allegations surfaced about chef René Redzepi
Former Noma employee Jason Ignacio White has been collecting allegations of abuse from workers on his Instagram
Protests at Noma LA have been organized with One Fair Wage, which has been fair wages for restaurant workers
Eater LA: “Noma LA Sponsors Exit Amid Abuse Allegations”
Redzepi stepped away from Noma — posting a statement and video — but the protests have continued
LA Times food critic Jenn Harris wrote that she would not review Noma LA. “Normally, an event of this scale would warrant coverage. Instead, I found myself making no plans to attend, and even rethinking how I approach my job”
As Meghan McCarron and Julia Moskin write at the New York Times, local chefs were promised spillover economic impact by Noma coming to town that never really happened. And some of them have joined the protests
This episode was produced by Sophie Bridges
The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward
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Mike, Godfrey and Oscar dive into two big charter reform debates: oversight of the LAPD and the role of LA’s city controller, which current Controller Kenneth Mejia is turning into a public battle. The Trump administration is planning to evict thousands of immigrant families, but community groups are fighting back. Plus, the proposed “Billionaire’s Tax” that’s dividing California Democrats.
COME PARTY WITH US! Join all the LA Podcast co-hosts and producers on Saturday, March 21! This gathering is exclusively for paid subscribers so sign up today at thinkforward.la to get the invite
Godfrey is quoted in this LAist story by Frank Stoltze: “LA commission recommends expanding City Council power over LAPD”
Meanwhile, even some commissioners are expressing confusion about the significance of the recommendation
The commission originally punted on the issue entirely before facing pushback from the public, advocacy organizations, and Councilmembers Eunisses Hernandez and Hugo Soto-Martinez, who wrote letters proposing specific and significant reforms
The debate over whether the City Council can set policy for the LAPD gained new energy when Chief Jim McDonnell flatly stated he would not enforce a law against immigration agents wearing masks, and a later executive order from Mayor Karen Bass instructing LAPD to enforce the ban and train their body cameras on immigration operations. A recent Police Commission meeting revealed LAPD’s enforcement of the mayor’s orders has been minimal
The subject of police liability — and police immunity — is covered by UCLA’s Joanna Schwartz in her excellent book Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable
The commission has also been looking at ways to rein in LAPD liability costs, which have resulted in massive taxpayer-funded settlements, as often highlighted by the City Controller
City Controller Kenneth Mejia has been marshaling public support on social media to fight back against efforts to limit his power, including the suggestion to add a CFO
Public comment was overwhelmed with over 1,000 pages of written comments supporting Mejia’s agenda after he issued pleas to back his recommendations
Mejia has also been pushing for expanded resources and greater oversight of other elected officials at the same time. Here's more on his vision — including a Capital Infrastructure Plan! — on Spectrum's "Inside the Issues," and his history of LA's budget priorities
You can watch the full March 7 charter commission meeting hearing here
A mixed-status family is a household with members holding different citizenship or immigration statuses, often consisting of U.S. citizen children living with undocumented parents or relatives. A new proposed regulation from the Trump administration to deny these households rent subsidies could have a devastating impact on families living in public housing or using federal housing vouchers. More than one-third of those families are in California
Capital & Main: “Community organizers in Los Angeles are rallying in opposition to a Trump administration rule that they say will displace and fracture immigrant families, increase homelessness and potentially throttle rent collections to the point that local housing authorities might be forced to shutter some of their stock”
LA officials are fighting the policy, warning it could force 1,700 local families into homelessness
Weigh in on the proposed policy by making a public comment or attending one of many virtual teach-ins organized by Keep Families Together, and you can also sign up for email updates
California voters may get a chance to impose a one-time 5% tax on the state’s estimated 200 billionaires in November. The proposal is dividing Democrats, and causing concern the uber rich may flee the state
LA Forward, CHIRLA and dozens of other groups are planning a mass mobilization, LA Strikes Back: A Call to Action, this Saturday, March 14 at 9 a.m. at LA Trade Tech College. Details and registration here
This episode was produced by Sophie Bridges
The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward
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Alissa, Mike, and Godfrey report back from the California Democratic Party state convention where endorsement battles plague the governor’s race. Will Republicans end up nabbing the top two spots on the November ballot? LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho is placed on leave after an FBI raid of his home and office. And Metro wants you to ride the D — with crop tops to match — on May 8.
Join all the LA Podcast co-hosts and producers on Saturday, March 21! This gathering is exclusively for paid subscribers so sign up today at thinkforward.la.
Here are the full CADEM endorsement results
CalMatters: “CA Democrats can’t agree on endorsement for governor. Will Republicans benefit?”
Columnists like the Los Angeles Times’ George Skelton are arguing for some Democratic candidates to drop out
Watch Mike’s video which provides the critical analysis that the candidates being urged to drop out are almost all people of color
Meanwhile, the race for insurance commissioner is interesting, but who would want this job?
An early morning FBI raid of LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho’s home and office appears to be tied to an AI chatbot that Carvalho championed
The chatbot, named Ed, was made by the company AllHere which collapsed in 2024 when its CEO was indicted for defrauding investors. Carvalho said he’d set up a task force to investigate the company but never did
After meeting for a total of seven hours, the LAUSD school board placed Carvalho on paid leave and named Chief of School Operations Andres Chait as interim superintendent
SEIU Local 99, which represents educational workers, put out a statement calling for more accountability. SEIU Local 99 and UTLA had previously planned a rally on March 18 to draw attention to proposed layoffs
Harbor Peace Patrols first broke the news of Carvalho’s home being raided. The group which had formed to track immigration raids staging on Terminal Island recently celebrated a win when federal agents packed up their operations
The Graffiti Ghost Towers are being bought by developer Kali P. Chaudhuri — but he doesn’t want to save the graffiti
Artist Sayre Gomez built an astonishing sculpture of the towers
Unfortunately for Alissa’s 2025 predictions, but fortunately for everyone else, the D line extension is finally opening on May 8!
But the even bigger news was that Metro made ‘Ride the D’ shirts and the internet went wild
Alissa wrote about the astonishing demand for ‘Ride the D’ t-shirts
Some LA City charter reform recommendations are moving forward, including expanding the council to 25 members and ranked choice voting starting in 2032
Plus, LA City Council votes to make Unarmed Crisis Response a permanent city program. But $40 million a year is needed to make the program citywide
This episode was produced by Sophie Bridges
The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward
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Scott, Alissa, and Rachel dry off after yet another flash flooding event and absorb a new report that says LA County could eliminate half of its pavement. Casey Wasserman is leaving his own company but will apparently stay on as LA28 chair (?!?) as more elected officials call for him to step down. And LA’s City Council searches for more ways to not build more housing near transit by delaying implementation of SB79 as many places as possible.
Coming up on Saturday, March 21 –a fun gathering exclusively for paid subscribers with LA Podcast co-hosts and producers! Become a paid subscriber at thinkforward.la to join us and to keep this podcast coming out every week
Melrose stores flooded again and business owners are blaming the city’s lack of response. Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky is calling for an investigation: "The response was delayed, inadequate, and local businesses were left dealing with flooding and damage”
Elsewhere: food delivery bots can’t swim, Santa Monica channel in Rustic Canyon lost all its concrete, Trader Joe’s parking lot floods store in Silver Lake
Alissa would like to remind everyone we would have had stormwater gardens to stop the flooding on Melrose if former councilmember Paul Koretz hadn’t killed the Uplift Melrose project
The new DepaveLA study from Accelerate Resilience LA shows that LA County contains 488 square miles of pavement — that’s about the size of the city of LA — and nearly half of it may be unnecessary
Accelerate Resilience LA’s Devon Provo writes about LA County’s sustainability plan, which calls for “the first explicit depaving target from a major U.S. public agency, signaling an emerging shift in how policymakers are rethinking infrastructure” — but it’s only 1,600 acres by 2045
There are incentives for property owners to reduce impermeable surfaces through Measure W, also known as the Safe Clean Water Program
Flooding happens pretty much exactly where we paved over old creeks, which are easy to see thanks to maps from UC Irvine’s Flood Lab that show flood risk. Unsurprisingly, LA’s Black communities would be hit the hardest in a major flood
Last Friday, after dozens of the artists he represents fled his agency due to his ties with sex traffickers Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, Casey Wasserman announced he was selling his entire company and issued a heartfelt apology to his employees
Yet he will stay on as LA28 chair, because the board voted to keep him. Here’s a really good Guardian story that sums it all up, with some very angry quotes from Councilmember Monica Rodriguez
Alissa wrote about “LA28's big gamble” over at Torched
LA Mayor Karen Bass finally said she thought Wasserman should step down
CNN: LA mayor calls for head of 2028 Olympics to step down over Epstein ties
West Hollywood had a rally with survivors and Councilmember John Erickson said he was introducing a resolution to call for Wasserman’s resignation
More state representatives have called on Wasserman to resign, including a statement from the LA County delegation (although some said they didn’t know they were signed on)
Sports Illustrated’s Michael Rosenberg puts the emails in context and argues why Wasserman is a liability
NOlympics LA: LA28 Chair Casey Wasserman: A Lifelong Pattern of Abuse
LAist: “How much housing is LA actually building?”
LA’s planning department has delivered a plan to delay SB79 effectuation (also in StoryMap form), the new state law requiring cities to build more (as in taller and denser) housing around high-quality transit stops
Come learn about SB79 implementation on Thursday evening and why LA Forward, Abundant Housing LA, and others are supporting Option C in the planning department's proposal
Meanwhile, Beverly Hills has a thoughtful plan to reluctantly implement SB79 (which the city only has to do for a ¼-mile area around at the three new D line stations)
Although Beverly Hills is also forced to approve multiple “builders remedy” projects because the city didn’t build enough housing
This episode was produced by Sophie Bridges (allegedly)
The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward
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Alissa, Mike, Rachel, and Olga unpack Nithya Raman’s surprise mayoral run. How the LA city councilmember’s last-minute decision to challenge incumbent Karen Bass has rattled establishment Democrats and angered activists on the left — and why comparisons to progressive officials in other cities don’t really hold up. Then: Trump’s attorney general Pam Bondi is suddenly worried about crime in Culver City.
Become a paid subscriber at thinkforward.la to keep this podcast weekly. A fun gathering exclusively for paid subscribers with LA Pod co-hosts and producers is coming up Saturday, March 21!
New York Times: “Rising Progressive Star Shakes Up Race for Los Angeles Mayor”
Here’s Raman’s campaign video and her first TV interview with NBC LA’s Conan Nolan
LA Daily News: “Nithya Raman’s entry tests Karen Bass from the left in Los Angeles mayoral race”
More reaction stories from the Los Angeles Times and Politico
“Now is not the time for distractions from a political opportunist — especially one who backed the Mayor’s re-election campaign just weeks ago,” said Yvonne Wheeler, president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO told the LA Times
“As Raman scrambles to build a campaign apparatus before the June election, Bass’ supporters have rallied around the embattled incumbent with fresh energy and barely-veiled fury,” writes Melanie Mason at Politico (includes a quote from Mike!)
LA Times: “The record of Nithya Raman, L.A. mayoral candidate, may surprise you”
Meanwhile, mayoral candidate Rev. Rae Huang got her mic cut at a charter reform meeting about LAPD reform
One of Raman’s key platform planks is addressing the city’s streetlight outages. While some councilmembers might prefer dark skies, the truth is that the city needs to raise the streetlight district assessments not increased the 1990s — and Raman has already been messaging this reality to her constituents
Read Alissa’s story at Torched about the new SAJE report looking at the financial risks of hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games and how the city could turn a bad deal into a less-bad one
And if you need a refresher about who, exactly, is running for mayor, check out Mike’s video about the five front-runners
In response to questioning about the Epstein files from Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, Attorney General Pam Bondi went off on a bizarre tangent: “Her district includes Culver City, and she’s not talking about any crime in her districts”
“Kamlager-Dove shrugged off Bondi’s comment, saying Culver City was known for “breakfast burritos — not crime,” reports the LA Times
“The first thing I thought was, ‘What is she talking about?’ said Bryan Fish, the vice mayor of Culver City, whom everyone calls Bubba but doesn’t look like someone whom everyone calls Bubba. ‘The only crime here,’ he added, ‘is like the $18 strawberry at Erewhon,” reports the New York Times
Yes, Culver City actually bought a gun store and they’re turning it into 67 units of affordable housing with a preference for teachers
This episode was produced by Sophie Bridges
The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward
- Visa fler
