Mike, David, and Godfrey go deep on one of the wildest LA City Council votes in recent memory as councilmembers quarrel over Karen Bass’s manufactured deadline to increase police hiring. LAPD reform finally makes it onto the charter commission radar, plus all the different ways that council expansion could happen (27 districts…. or 9 three-member districts?). Then: two important races for open seats in the California State Senate.

In its final session of the calendar year, LA’s City Council sharply rebuked Bass’s demand that they immediately authorize money to allow LAPD to hire 410 new officers 

While most councilmembers said they support hiring more police officers, they warned that the mayor was ignoring the fiscal crisis and the potential impact on other city services. Council approved an additional LAPD Academy class for January, and promised to revisit the issue in January

Opposition to Bass was led not by the council’s progressive bloc, but by many of its more mainstream liberal bloc, such as Katy Yaroslavsky and Bob Blumenfield. Yaroslavsky was a particularly sharp critic of Bass and Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson: watch her comments here

Bass’s approach was backed by an odd coalition of the council’s conservative members (Traci Park and John Lee), her closest personal allies (Harris-Dawson and Heather Hutt), and two moderates (Adrin Nazarian and Imelda Padilla)

The council vote was the culmination of months of tension over police hiring, stemming from the mayor’s budget proposal last spring that called for potentially laying off 1000 city workers to finance a big increase in LAPD hiring. The council balked at that, cutting the mayor’s LAPD hiring request in half, and sparing layoffs that would have led to cuts in other city services. Despite that council direction, however, LAPD had been hiring and spending more than the council had authorized

The timing of this debate — and the sudden deadline — had left a lot of people, including Alissa, wondering if this has something to do with the city’s stalled negotiations with LA28 over who will foot the bill for Olympic related security expenses. (Speaking of the Olympics, LA28 chair Casey Wasserman continues to cozy up to the Trump administration)

As Jim McDonnell prepares to celebrate the first anniversary of his appointment, Los Angeles Times reporter Libor Jany asks “Who’s running the LAPD? Chief’s style draws mixed reviews in first year”

LA’s Charter Reform Commission is rushing to meet a tight deadline to submit potential ballot proposals to the City Council. The body has launched an interesting experiment — engaging with citizen assemblies to get public input; find out more at Rewrite LA

The LA Reporter: “LAPD is finally getting taken up by the LA Charter Reform panel. What took so long?”

The commission will be discussing the size and composition of the City Council at its January 7 meeting. You can track what the commission is doing on its website (subscribe to the newsletter!), and join LA Forward’s Governance Reform working group. You can also watch some great LA Forward teach-ins on the issues, including police reform and council expansion

Two state senate races we’re closely following: SD26 and SD24

SD26 candidates discussed: Wendy Carrillo, Sara Hernandez, Sarah Rascón, Maebe Pudlo, Juan Camacho

Watch the Santa Monica Dem Club debate for SD24; Assemblymember Rick Zbur endorsed four (?) candidates

SD24 candidates discussed: Dr. Sion Roy, John Erickson, Mike Newhouse, Ellen Evans, Brian Goldsmith, Eric Alegria, Nico Ruderman, Republican candidate Kristina Irwin

Listen to our overview of city races from September

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

We’re moving our first subscriber-only event to 2026! Become a paid subscriber at thinkforward.la and you’ll be the first to know the details

Alissa, Rachel, and Sophie dig into an investigation that shows the City of Los Angeles stopped repaving its streets instead of implementing multimodal safety improvements. Remembering Robert Silverstein, the lawyer who tried to halt nearly every major Hollywood development. Plus: an appreciation of LA’s own hometown starchitect, the legendary Frank Gehry, who died at the age of 96.

The Future Is LA: “LA has stopped repaving our streets”

LA has 28 pothole trucks, currently only 12 run daily due to budget cuts

Here are all the HLA appeals and a follow up on “large asphalt repair” by Streetsblog’s Joe Linton

The City is also trying to be ADA compliant (but with this federal administration, who knows)

This was the year traffic fatalities were supposed to be reduced to zero — except people keep dying! For contrast: Vision Zero in London: “Across all 157 schemes on borough roads, there was a 34% decrease in fatal or serious casualties.” Even crosswalks advocates are getting arrested

What will make LA safer when cars kill more people than homicides? Alissa wrote about “Dying to host the Olympics” last year

Traffic fatalities are also a problem at the state level, and advocates recently held a vigil at at Caltrans HQ

LA Times: “Robert Silverstein, who fought City Hall over Hollywood development and won, dies at 57"

Stop the Gondola recently celebrated Silverstein for slowing Metro approvals 

Bernard Luggage was preserved — but is still empty! — and Silverstein also tried to stop a residential tower by preserving a Spaghetti Factory (which is also still empty)

The classic Curbed (RIP) piece about “greenmailing” from 2013 

LA Times: “Frank Gehry dead: Disney Hall architect transformed LA's landscape”

“To look only at the overwrought megaprojects, however, is to miss one of Gehry’s crucial achievements: his ability to turn an existing building, no matter how ordinary, into something humane and delightful,” writes Carolina Miranda in The Atlantic

The Guardian on the “Bilbao effect,” where the Guggenheim “transformed Bilbao’s wider civic fortunes, attracting 1.3 million visitors in its first year and… became shorthand for uplift through cultural tourism predicated on “iconic” architecture”

LA Times: “To a handful of condo owners whose units face the Disney Hall on Hope Street, the view of the Frank Gehry landmark is glorious -- until around noon on a sunny day. Then, the sun hits the stainless steel arches on the hall’s Founders Room and bright light is reflected into their condominiums” (2004)

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

We’re moving our first subscriber-only event to 2026! Become a paid subscriber to LA Podcast at thinkforward.la and you’ll be the first to know the details

Mike, Rachel, and Oscar check in on six months of still-escalating ICE raids terrorizing Los Angeles County. House Dems held a special Congressional hearing to collect powerful testimony about the state-sponsored kidnappings — and immigration advocates, mutual aid groups, and neighbors continue to fight back. Plus, LA’s City Council gives LAPD permission to use tear gas on protesters and journalists. And welcome to the silly season of our local election cycle.

Angelenos spoke publicly about the trauma and due process violations of the immigration raids at a special hearing November 24 hearing in downtown Los Angeles convened by the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee. The event was requested by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and led by Long Beach area Rep. Robert Garcia, who announced the creation of a new oversight dashboard documenting “verified incidents of possible misconduct and abuse” during federal immigration enforcement operations

Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas, who attended the hearing, referred to it as “living an American nightmare.” The most talked-about testimony of the hearing was that of Andrea Velez, a U.S. citizen who was detained on her way to work and held under harrowing conditions

Six LA newsrooms are collaborating to cover the ICE Raids: LA Public Press, Capital B, CALÓ News, L.A. TACO, Capital & Main, and Q Voice News.

L.A. TACO continues to provide standout coverage, documenting the raids on a daily basis. They recently catalogued every person kidnapped by ICE and Border Patrol in LA since August

Leaders of the local trans community helped lead the recent push to get the County of Los Angeles to declare a state of emergency over the immigration raids.

Residents in LA and Chicago are building multiracial solidarity against ICE. Bystanders are beginning to disrupt immigration raids with nothing more than a whistle or a honking car horn

Family members, immigration advocates, and members of Congress are all demanding answers to the question: Where is Vicente Aguilar? Aguilar was taken into custody October 7, suffered a medical emergency, and has not been heard from since

With immigration raids making some people afraid to leave their homes, LAUSD enrollment is dropping

The LA County Board of Supervisors is gearing up for a legal fight with the Trump administration, passing a law — which the feds have said they ignore — to ban face coverings for law enforcement

International Migrants Day is on Wednesday, December 18, and CHIRLA, DSA and other groups are organizing a big event in downtown Los Angeles

In an 8-4 vote, the Los Angeles City Council reauthorized LAPD’s authority to use tear gas and other military grade equipment on protesters. They did so at the vigorous insistence of LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell, who claimed that using tear gas on a crowd is a “de-escalation” tactic

Prior to June 8, the LAPD had not used tear gas in crowd-control settings in almost 50 years, an LAPD spokesperson told L.A. TACO

Los Angeles City Controller Kenneth Mejia is famous for his prominent use of his adorable corgis in communications. Former State Senator Isadore, who is challenging Mejia, is trying to use that as the basis of a laughable ethics complaint

Meanwhile, Raul Claros, a challenger to Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, held a self-described “publicity stunt” claiming that he would move into MacArthur Park if elected

Silly season is underway in Santa Monica as well, where councilmembers Caroline Torosis and Jesse Zwick are being attacked for, well, having full-time jobs in public service and public policy. Torosis and Zwick are set to rotate into the posts of mayor and mayor pro tem this week

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

We’re moving our first subscriber-only event to 2026! Become a paid subscriber to LA Podcast at thinkforward.la  and you’ll be the first to know the details

As the LA Podcast team takes off for the Thanksgiving long weekend, we’re featuring Mike’s recent one-on-one interview with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. In a wide-ranging conversation, they discuss Bass’s leadership style — she says she prefers to govern from the center — and how it has been tested by wildfires, ICE raids, and the ongoing homelessness crisis.

The conversation, which took place on October 16, is part of a new series of fireside chats focused on public leadership hosted by the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs, which Mike runs as his day job

Bass faces reelection in just six months — the primary is June 2! The interview with Bass was recorded a few days before former LAUSD superintendent Austin Beutner officially announced his campaign to unseat her, and a few weeks before progressive organizer Rev. Rae Huang announced a challenge from the left

At CalMatters, Jim Newton of UCLA (and an esteemed former LA Times political reporter) writes that Bass is vulnerable, but still tough to beat

Mike asks about some of the mayor’s controversial moves to undercut the voter-approved Measure ULA. It is a stance that angered many progressives. In recent weeks, Bass has taken another swipe at the voter-approved measure

Bass’s second term could look dramatically different as the Los Angeles City Charter Commission discusses expanding the 15-member City Council. The panel is preparing to discuss three different models of council expansion, each with unique benefits and challenges for Angelenos. This Wednesday, December 3 at 7 p.m. join LA Forward Institute, AAPI Equity Alliance, and LA Voice to explore the three models and consider pros and cons of each model. Organizers will also share how community members can make sure that commissioners hear their voices! RSVP here

This episode was produced by Daniel Huecias and Olive Greenspan. The interview previously aired as part of Mike’s podcast, What’s Next, Los Angeles? (Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts)

We’re moving our first subscriber-only event to 2026! Become a paid subscriber to LA Podcast at thinkforward.la and you’ll be the first to know the details

Alissa and Mike are joined by journalist Sammy Roth to answer all your questions about LA’s climate and environment goals. Why are green bins clustered on every corner? How can we save even more water? When are we weaning ourselves off coal? And is California slowly losing its status as a global environmental leader? Plus: a new way to think about getting to Dodger Stadium.

Los Angeles Times: “Green bins clog L.A. curbs as city’s organic waste program goes into overdrive”

Thanks to The Los Feliz Neighborhood Council for the best video on the Great Green Bin Apocalypse of 2025

One LA resident estimates the botched bin rollout cost $4 million that Sanitation Department doesn’t have

What can you compost in your green bin? Here’s a good guide

Meanwhile, many LA residents are about to pay more for less trash pickup while Sanitation general manager Barbara Romero is departing at the end of the year. Some advocates, like Bruce Reznik of LA Waterkeeper are saying she was pushed out

LA’s stormwater capture for this water year (since October 1) is equivalent to 10 Rose Bowls

Now LADWP is going to double the amount of water it plans to recycle at the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant amidst state orders to take less water from Mono Lake

Over at the Metropolitan Water District (MWD), advocates argue another leader was forced out: Adel Hagekhalil, who the board voted to remove after “an investigation into claims of harassment and a toxic workplace"

Once again, LA Waterkeeper’s Bruce Reznik has strong feelings about who should lead MWD

Yes, LA and California are actually getting off coal: this month!

LADWP plans to also convert one natural gas plant to hydrogen — although those plans are a bit more controversial

Billionaire hedge-fund founder turned environmentalist Tom Steyer announces campaign for governor — what are his climate credentials? He doesn’t mention environmental issues in his launch video

New York Times: “California’s Environmental Past Confronts Economic Worries of the Present”

One way California is starting to backslide: Gavin Newsom seems to be giving up on his 2035 EV mandate

Sammy has been following the calls for the Dodgers to cut ties with fossil fuel companies

After LA’s City Council voted 12-1 to oppose Metro’s environmental review of the gondola, LA Mayor Karen Bass voted to approve the EIR in her Metro board role. She also had a chance to say something — anything! — about the project, and she didn’t

Subscribe to Sammy’s newsletter, Climate-Colored Goggles

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

We’re moving our first subscriber-only event to 2026! Become a paid subscriber to LA Podcast at thinkforward.la and you’ll be the first to know the details

Mike, Rachel, Godfrey, and Olga analyze the significance of last week’s vote by LA’s City Council to limit annual rent increases for 1.5 million tenants — and somehow explain it all using Dodgers metaphors. The LAPD and city attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto are bucking civilian oversight in a variety of shocking (or maybe not-so-shocking) ways. Then, how labor power is brewing at your local Starbucks.

LA’s City Council voted to limit rent increases in rent-controlled units to 1 to 4%, based on an annual formula published by the Los Angeles Housing Department — a big change from the current 3 to 10% cap. It is the first time since 1985 that the formula for rent increases has been changed

Some see the council vote through the lens of the Zohran Mamdani victory in the New York City mayoral election. That misses the five-year arc of progressive victories in LA, which we discussed on last week’s show. Those victories have focused heavily on tenant protections, including the pandemic-era eviction moratorium, the passage of a “just cause” eviction ordinance, and the funding of a right to counsel for tenants facing eviction

On the council floor, the legislation was pushed by the progressive renters bloc of Nithya Raman, Hugo Soto-Martínez, Eunisses Hernandez, and Ysabel Jurado. But it is the undeniable result of years of organizing and hard work from the housing justice activists, like the members of the Keep LA Housed coalition

Housing justice activists had pushed for a 0 to 3% formula, while the landlord lobby wanted the old rules to stay in place. In the end, tenants won a huge chunk of what they wanted, but the landlords still tried to claim a partial victory, saying they defeated a more extreme proposal

The council action was based in large part by a study conducted by the Economic Roundtable, an esteemed nonprofit public benefit research organization that has long been a source of analytical foundations for L.A.’s progressive policies. The organization, which issued the report last fall, shut its doors recently after a 34-year run

LAPD has been all over the headlines lately, for all the wrong reasons. The department is refusing to release crime data, warning it could lead to public panic and bad public policy. (Um, what about Citizen?) 

Experts in public records law scoff at the LAPD assertion that withholding data is in the public interest 

Meanwhile, LAPD spends millions of dollars annually shaping public narrative

LAPD and City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto are fighting to preserve the department’s right to use force on journalists at recent protests. They’ve been sharply rebuked by the courts and by a unanimous LA City Council. Despite the legal and political reprimand, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell is still pushing back

LA Daily News: “Los Angeles city attorney to press: drop dead”

The LAPD is also pushing back on spending restrictions in this year’s budget, blowing way past the number of authorized hires and putting the city in further fiscal jeopardy

Mike considers the LAPD’s bucking of civilian oversight to be significant, harkening back to days when the LAPD ran roughshod over LA’s elected officials. If you can find it, Mike recommends Joe Domanick’s excellent 1994 book: “To Protect and To Serve: the LAPD’s Century of War in the City of Dreams”

Did you know current charter reform conversations do not include LAPD reform? Join an LA Forward teach-in on Policing and LA's City Charter on Thursday, November 20 from 6 to 7 p.m. to learn more. Details and RSVP here

The Guardian: ‘Red cup rebellion’: striking Starbucks baristas urge customers to stay away”

Here’s where Starbucks workers are striking around LA

Starbucks Workers United also filed a complaint with the IOC after Starbucks was named official coffee partner of the 2028 Olympics. As the LA Times reports, the complaint says “Starbucks’ treatment of U.S. workers looking to unionize and bargain a contract — as well as allegations of forced labor abroad — conflict with the Olympic Games’ code of ethics”

Catch upcoming interviews with Council District 9 candidates on Mike's show What's Next, Los Angeles?

This 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

We’re moving our first subscriber-only event to 2026! Become a paid subscriber to LA Podcast at thinkforward.la and you’ll be the first to know the details

Alissa, Mike, and Rachel break down last week’s election results and some major progressive victories. Zohran Mamdani is the new democratic socialist mayor of New York City! Prop 50 passes, temporarily redrawing California’s districts! And a blue wave produces downballot wins nationwide! What does it all mean for LA politics as our 2026 election cycle kicks into gear? Plus, surveying the state’s gerontocracy as 85-year-old Nancy Pelosi announces her retirement.

Zohran Mamdani wins New York City’s mayoral election: watch his victory speech

New York City saw turnout that was the highest since the 1969 mayoral race. Over 1 million votes were cast for Mamdani, even with fewer eligible voters — the electorate has shrunk to 5.3 million from 5.6 million four years ago

Alissa thought this clip of Jamaal Bowman at Mamdani’s victory party was the exact right sentiment

Contrary to pundit belief, socialism has been a part of New York City’s political fabric over the years, but as Mamdani takes power, the stakes are high. Luckily he has an outstanding all-women transition team

Here in California, Prop 50 passed easily, temporarily redrawing the state’s Congressional districts. Here’s what happens next

Prop 50 turnout is 38.6 percent so far, matching the Gavin Newsom recall election from 2021(another odd-numbered year election)

Yes on Prop 50 leads by 28 points, 64 percent to 36 percent. Kamala Harris won the state in 2024 by only 20 points, writes the New York Times’ Nate Cohn in “Why Democrats Could Win the Redistricting War”

What about LA? Watch and share Mike’s video on our Zohran Mamdani moment

Mayoral candidate Austin Beutner is trying to hit Karen Bass on affordability but he isn’t presenting his own solutions for making the city more affordable. Meanwhile, as we discussed last week, housing justice leader Rae Huang is going to declare her candidacy soon. Still not sure about Rick Caruso, who is going to make a decision about mayor or governor in the next few weeks

85-year old Nancy Pelosi announced she will not seek re-election

“The challenge for Democrats is to wrest control from the gnarled grip of gerontocracy while containing the chaos that will naturally ensue from younger politicians who are mad as hell at their own party,” writes New York Magazine’s Rebecca Traister in “It’s My Party and I’ll Leave When I Want To“

Many young progressives who won aren’t being talked about as much this week, like Michelle Wu, who ran unopposed for her second term as mayor of Boston (maybe she should have been quoted as one of the mayors giving advice to Mamdani)

Progressive prosecutors still notched big wins coast-to-coast

Catch upcoming interviews with Council District 9 candidates on Mike's show What's Next, Los Angeles?

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

We’re moving our first subscriber-only event to 2026! Become a paid subscriber to LA Podcast at thinkforward.la and you’ll be the first to know the details

Alissa, Godfrey, and Mike review a new city controller assessment of LAPD’s “armed-first, police-first, patrol-first” response to mental health crisis calls. Plus, what in the world is going on at LAX? The people mover is delayed to June 2026 at least, while billions in public transit investments are about to be undermined by new elevated roadways that are certain to make airport traffic worse.

If you’re hearing this on Monday — get your ballot in today or Tuesday!

The LA City Controller’s office published a comprehensive assessment of LAPD’s Mental Evaluation Unit and Systemwide Mental Assessment Response Team (SMART) program

There’s some troubling data: “Only 6% of the incident report narratives describe an attempt to de-escalate by the responding officers and/or SMART; 61% include no description of an attempt to de-escalate, and 33% describe no need for de-escalation”

Interestingly, LAPD would not comment on the report to the Los Angeles Times

“When it comes to LAPD mental health crisis response, LAPD requires an armed-first, police-first, patrol-first response to mental health crisis incidents,” Dinah Manning, who also is the controller’s chief of strategic initiatives, told LAist

Efforts to remove LAPD from some types of traffic stops have also stalled, although there is a set of draft recommendations from 2023

Compare these efforts to the very successful outcomes of LA’s Unarmed Model of Crisis Response, which we discussed in September: “6,700 calls were diverted from 911 dispatch and fewer than 4.1% of calls required police backup”

Karen Bass appointed a new LAFD chief: 30-year department veteran Jaime Moore

LAFD Chief Moore has his first big challenge: reports that firefighters were ordered to leave the still-smoldering Lachman Fire a week before the Palisades Fire may have started in the same place

Unrig LA spotted a big update in the mayoral race: pastor and housing justice advocate Reverend Rae Chen Huang enters the race to Bass’s left

Alissa is losing her mind about spending $1.5 billion on new roadways into the LAX horseshoe

Nick Andert made a great video about why this is such a bad idea

Meanwhile, what is happening with the LAX people mover? It was supposed to open in 2023 and is still at 95% completion

LAWA CEO John Ackerman told the LA Times that the people mover will not be open until June 2026 and may not be open in time for the World Cup

This week’s show is produced by Olive Greenspan

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

We’re hosting a party for all paid subscribers soon! Become a paid subscriber today at thinkforward.la and you’ll get the invite. Your support is critical to enabling us to release new episodes every week. Thank you for bringing more independent voices to California media with your paid subscriptions

Alissa, Mike, and guest co-host Liz Chou discuss a secretive $2 million payout to LA County’s CEO, who claims she suffered “reputational harm” from Measure G. An LA City charter reform proposal would bring dramatic changes to the Board of Public Works. Yet another fire investigation, this time from Republican senators who are trying to blame the flames on DEI. And remembering river advocate Melanie Winter.

LA County CEO Fesia Davenport was “quietly paid a $2 million settlement,” as LAist reported first, “over claims she was harmed” by the passage of Measure G one year ago, the ballot measure that expanded the Board of Supervisors from five members to nine members, and changed her position from an appointed role to an elected role

As Julia Wick reported in her final story for the Los Angeles Times, many think that Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who pushed for Measure G, would run for the County CEO role. “There are people who are never going to be convinced that I created this measure without seeing a seat for myself in it,” she says. “I’m not interested in convincing people of that. I’m interested in doing the work”

“With six months remaining before the commission’s recommendations are due, several commissioners, city officials and good government advocates told LAist they have concerns about transparency and independence,” LAist reports. “Some say they doubt the commission is in a position to accomplish a fraction of what it first set out to do”

More on LA City’s Charter Reform Commission, including upcoming meetings. Sign up for the charter reform newsletter

Read more proposals on planning and infrastructure charter reform platforms from Investing in Place and Streets for All, including dissolving the Board of Public Works. Here are some of the reforms being proposed by the commission, and a set of recommendations from Mayor Karen Bass

LA Forward has both Governance Reform and Capital Infrastructure Program working groups

Liz reports on Councilmember Monica Rodriguez’s appearance at last week’s charter reform meeting and why she accused the commission of having an “agenda”

Subscribe to Liz’s newsletter, The LA Reporter

U.S. Senate investigations subcommittee requested Palisades Fire records from LA Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson including "records referring or relating to the creation or oversight of diversity, equity, and inclusion ('DEI') hiring policies for the LAFD and the LADWP"

As the LA Times notes, the letter mentions the Eaton Fire but no similar request was sent to LA County representatives

LA County passes an emergency declaration against ICE

Remembering river advocate Melanie Winter, who died last week, through this beautiful obituary as well as a 2024 profile, both by Ian James at the LA Times

This week’s show is produced by Olive Greenspan

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

We’re hosting a party for all paid subscribers soon! Become a paid subscriber today at thinkforward.la and you’ll get the invite. Your support is critical to enabling us to release new episodes every week. Thank you for bringing more independent voices to California media with your paid subscriptions

Mike, Godfrey and Carla welcome former LAUSD superintendent Austin Beutner to the LA mayoral race as the first serious challenger to incumbent Karen Bass. The state’s housing department sends a blistering letter to the City of Los Angeles about its obstruction of affordable housing in Venice. Plus, Governor Gavin Newsom signs (and vetoes) major pieces of legislation, including the highly anticipated passage of transit-density bill SB 79.

Warning that Los Angeles is “adrift,” Austin Beutner throws his hat in the ring for mayor with a four-minute launch video and coverage from major media outlets like the New York Times and Politico

Beutner was superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District during a turbulent time. The historic six-day 2019 teachers strike happened on his watch, and he oversaw the district's pandemic shift to online learning and food-relief efforts that served over 100 million free meals

Beutner also served as publisher of the Los Angeles Times for a year, pushing the paper to do a series of editorials giving letter grades to elected officials

Mike talked about Beutner’s entry — and a lot more — with Bass during a fireside chat for the Pat Brown Institute. You can listen to the interview in its entirety on this week’s episode of What’s Next, Los Angeles

The state’s Department of Housing & Community Development sent a stern letter to city officials for road-blocking already-approved homeless and affordable housing on a public parking lot in Venice. The letter says LA is now in danger of losing its “pro-housing” designation

The letter came just days after the City Council voted to support a “mobility hub” study on the same parking lot put forth by Councilmember Traci Park, who is trying to kill the housing project

Governor Newsom issued a flurry of bill signings and veto statements last week, weighing in on the hundreds of bills sent to him by the legislature this session. To the delight of housing production advocates, Newsom signed SB 79, which will limit the ability of cities to say no to some additional housing in certain areas near transit hubs

Will SB 79 have any impact in your neighborhood? While people are still debating precisely where it will apply, LAist did its best to understand the impacts

Newsom also signed a bill to raise wages for prisoners who fight wildfires, and a bill making it easier for Uber and Lyft drivers to unionize.The governor vetoed a bill that would make it easier for transgender patients to get a long-term supply to hormone-therapy drugs.

CalMatters has extensive coverage of what Newsom signed and what he vetoed

LA Forward has a full schedule of Prop 50 events leading up to November 4

Next week, Hollywood FWD will host “ULA: 3 Years In” at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre. The October 29 panel will feature: Joe Donlin from United to House LA; Greg Good formerly with the LA Housing Department; Nella McOsker with Central City Association of Los Angeles; Shane Phillips from UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies; and Zerita Jones with ULA Citizens Oversight Committee. Register here

This week’s show is produced by Olive Greenspan

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 We’re hosting a party for all paid subscribers soon! Become a paid subscriber today at thinkforward.la and you’ll get the invite. Your support is critical to enabling us to release new episodes every week. Thank you for bringing more independent voices to California media with your paid subscriptions