Alissa, Mike and Godfrey give a full update on how LA City’s budget went from disastrous to just “very bad” — including actions from the council’s budget committee to reduce over 1,600 proposed layoffs to 600. Then, a new minimum wage for tourism workers has hotels threatening to pull their Olympics deals. And LA’s former deputy mayor of public safety pleads guilty to calling in a City Hall bomb threat.

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Los Angeles Times: “LA City Council approves $14-billion budget, scaling back Bass’ public safety plans”

LAist’s Frank Stolze on the ongoing union discussions to prevent even more layoffs

Madeleine Brand interviews LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell about helicopters on KCRW’s Press Play

Sammy Roth’s LA Times column: “Climate change is cooking Los Angeles. Does Karen Bass care?”

“This budget is far from ideal, but this is the beginning of a longer process to set our city on a path to long term fiscal solvency and economic sustainability. There are still investments I want to see restored, and we’ll keep pushing for them, especially if our labor partners are willing to negotiate.” A message from Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, who served as budget chair

LA’s Olympic and Paralympic Wage means that tourism workers in the city will make $22.50/hour by July with an escalator to $30/hour by 2028, plus a healthcare credit starting next year

“As LA pushes a $30 minimum wage for hotel workers, eight hotels are withdrawing from the LA28 Olympic room block, citing financial strain,” according to the Daily Breeze. Although, as the story notes, some of the hotels threatening to withdraw made deals with the city to receive a share of room tax revenue as an incentive to build hotels in LA… for the Olympics

Mark Beccaria of Hotel Angeleno told KTLA: “Common sense says you cannot raise wages over 30% in less than a year when revenue is flat. If this increase in labor costs passes, we will be forced by the City to consider converting this hotel in the heart of residential Brentwood into a homeless shelter”

In 2024, Long Beach passed Measure RW, which raised its tourism minimum wage to the highest in the country at $23/hour

Interestingly, Long Beach isn’t seeing a tourism slump and has been outpacing the rest of LA County: Visit Long Beach CEO Steve Goodling told SFGATE that 33,000 hotel rooms were booked in March for conventions alone: “We’re up 9.6% in revenue per available room over last year”

Alissa’s story on the Olympic and Paralympic Wage from over a year ago

U.S. Attorney’s Office: “Former Los Angeles Deputy Mayor of Public Safety Agrees to Plead Guilty to Threatening to Bomb LA City Hall Last Year”

Brian Williams pleaded guilty to calling in the bomb threat himself. As The New York Times reports: “According to the plea agreement, Mr. Williams, while participating in a virtual morning meeting, used a voice application on his personal cellphone to call his city phone. He then called the Los Angeles Police Department to say that an unknown man had just threatened to bomb City Hall.”

Watch Alissa talk transit on the May 21 episode of Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney over at Netflix

Rachel will be a guest at The Bitchuation Room live show this Friday, May 30 at the Elysian Theater

Produced by Sophie Bridges

Alissa and Mike are joined by guest co-host Laura Raymond for a whole episode on homelessness and housing. Gavin Newsom orders cities to ban visible homelessness, again. Is Measure ULA’s “mansion tax” stifling housing production in the city of LA? And post-fire Altadena is championing new models of property ownership to combat speculation and displacement.  Help us to produce a new LA Pod episode every week – start a paid subscription at thinkforward.la today!

"There are no more excuses." Gavin Newsom wants homeless people to go away but isn’t necessarily offering permanent housing 

"Tough Talk, Bad Policy": Mike’s story on Newsom’s ongoing attempts to criminalize encampments

Under Karen Bass’s leadership, the Mayor’s Fund pivoted to homelessness prevention, and, according to a new LMU study of 30,000 program participants, is keeping people housed: "Nearly 75% of survey participants reported improved housing stability after seeking help from We Are LA"

LAist reported that auditors in Judge David Carter’s court couldn’t verify 1,400 new shelter beds. LAHSA issued a statement claiming the funding data about the shelter beds has been shared

Whistleblowers at LAHSA claimed that outgoing director Va Lecia Adams Kellum "withheld accurate data about Mayor Karen Bass’ signature homelessness program, Inside Safe, 'because [Adams] Kellum did not want Mayor Bass to look bad'"

LACAHSA, the LA County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency, is LA’s regional housing agency that’s funded by one-third of Measure A dollars. You can find upcoming meeting information here

"We are setting up the infrastructure where we can actually create more affordable housing." Read Alissa’s Report Forward interview with LA County Supervisor and inaugural LACAHSA board chair Holly Mitchell: "What is LACAHSA and how can it prevent homelessness?"

The United to House LA city dashboard includes all sorts of information about what Measure ULA dollars are doing

UCLA Lewis Center’s report: "The Unintended Consequences of Measure ULA"

See the United to House LA coalition’s letter of opposition to state legislation AB 698

"Compounding Disaster: A Spatial Analysis of Housing Risk and Speculation in Post-Fire Altadena": a new report by SAJE

"As developers swoop in post LA fires, one nonprofit offers an alternative to Altadena sellers," writes Josie Huang in LAist 

State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez introduced SB 658, which would create a Community Opportunity to Purchase Program

Alissa’s Report Forward on social housing models in Vienna

Community ownership and land banking are the topline recommendations of a preliminary report from the UCLA Blue Ribbon Commission on Climate Action and Fire-Safe Recovery. A LA Times story about the preliminary report includes commentary from Mike

"In Altadena, the fire’s embers have been extinguished, but a new threat is spreading. In order to stave off an impending land grab and community displacement, state and local leaders must act quickly to establish a community land banking strategy." Doug Smith’s essay for Think Forward

"The right kind of government action can peel back layers of inequality and redirect our region towards a more just, environmentally resilient future." Alfonso Directo’s essay for Think Forward

Produced by Sophie Bridges

Mike, Alissa, and Rachel discuss how LA’s budget crisis could lead to an LAPD with fewer officers and more accountability around its helicopter fleet. Metro hires a chief for its new in-house police department. Plus, why LA County approved a $4 billion settlement for thousands of sexual abuse claims, and what this means for survivors.

Support LA Podcast -- become a paid subscriber today at thinkforward.la

It is almost certain that LAPD will be reduced to its lowest numbers since 1995, despite LA Mayor Karen Bass’s goal to hire more officers

A JPL study on the "effectiveness" of LAPD helicopter patrols was conducted in the 1960s. The authors later said the study was flawed and the study findings — which include statements like: "The citizens of Los Angeles accept helicopter patrols as a necessary part of the City’s police system and strongly favor their continuation" — are still presented as facts on the LAPD website

UCLA researchers at the Carceral Ecologies Lab have determined that police helicopter surveillance disturbs physical and mental health

City Controller Kenneth Mejia’s 2023 helicopter report showed that LAPD’s program costs nearly $50 million annually while most of the flight time is not devoted to high-priority events

LA City fire union leaders including Freddy Escobar were suspended after an International Association of Fire Fighters audit showed over $800,000 expenditures without receipts

Bill Scott is Metro’s new police chief and he wants to hire 700 officers

Meanwhile Metro is testing new fare gates and weapons screening at some stations now

"Instead of privatizing good union jobs, those dollars should be staying in-house:" Striking LA County workers list of demands

LA County approves $4 billion sexual abuse settlement, the largest in history, and now survivors are being blamed for costly settlements

"I cannot forget that for weeks survivors were told that seeking justice for our abuse will bankrupt the state. How is that our problem? Why do survivors need to be reigned in?" Rachel’s piece about efforts to roll back AB 218

On Friday, May 30, Rachel will join Francesca Fiorentini for The Bitchuation Room Live in Los Angeles at the Elysian Theater — get tickets here

Congratulations to LA Podcast producer Sophie Bridges for being named a 2025 Pulitzer Prize finalist in audio reporting!

Scott, Hayes, and Alissa dive into LA City budget fallout: how positions were eliminated, which departments are getting funded, and why LA’s liability payouts are so much higher now. 100 days out from the fires, LA hits major recovery milestones. And former LA County sheriff Alex Villanueva is evaluated for emotional distress.

The mayor’s budget summary FINALLY DROPPED 12 days later. On page 47, a letter notes that “there has been confusion” over animal services funding, and the budget hearings confirmed that $5 million had been restored to keep shelters open

Alissa’s story about 24 percent of positions in the transportation department being eliminated, with city staffers describing “DOGE-like” cuts

Meanwhile Bass and City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto went to Sacramento to ask for a budget bailout (but didn’t manage to meet with Governor Newsom)

“Clearly the request — which must have originated in City Hall — uses the fires as a smokescreen to rationalize a bailout for a deficit that is fundamentally the result of years-long fiscal malpractice,” writes Dan Walters at CalMatters: 

A big Los Angeles Times investigation found that Freddy Escobar, president of the fire union UFLAC, made over $424,000 in overtime benefits as he claimed LAFD was underfunded

Karen Bass and Rick Caruso made nice to announce the rebuilding plan for the Palisades Recreation Center. Caruso also announced his mall would reopen in 2026

“They haven’t asked me to do anything in a month and a half, nothing, zero,” said LA’s recovery officer Steve Soboroff in his exit interview with Julia Wick at the LA Times

The city and state are claiming the fire recovery is the fastest in U.S. history

New York Times: “How do you rebuild a place like the Palisades?”

Former LA County sheriff Alex Villanueva sued the county last year because he was placed on “do not hire” list after publicly harassing several county supervisors

As part of that suit, the LA Times’ Keri Blakinger reported a psychiatric evaluation that concludes Villanueva has "many attributes of a 'white collar' psychopath"

Become a paid subscriber and help us continue to make LA Podcast episodes weekly at thinkforward.la

Produced by Sophie Bridges

Alissa and Mike are joined by guest co-host Oscar Zarate, director of external affairs at CHIRLA, to discuss how workers are mobilizing for immigrant rights on May Day. The Real ID deadline is on May 7, creating another barrier to travel in Trump’s America. And the first phase of LAX’s long-awaited rail connection has an opening date, while Inglewood’s pricey people mover gets revamped as a much better transit solution.

Join CHIRLA and other immigrant rights advocates at May Day 2025 on Thursday, May 1, International Workers Day, starting at 9 a.m. at Olympic Blvd and Figueroa Street downtown: Instagram, Facebook

"Humanity flows in the streets on May Day within us and among us. We embrace it to create a deep sense of solidarity and interconnectedness with one another.” Victor Narro, CHIRLA’s former workers rights project director, reflects on the history of May Day in LA

If you see immigration enforcement, call CHIRLA's rapid response number: 1-888-624-4752

Mike’s episode of "What’s Next, Los Angeles" on the Fighting Oligarchy rally which includes Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez speaking about the city’s budget priorities (AHEM)

Los Angeles Times: "What is stopping Trump from exiling you to a foreign prison?”

There’s been efforts at the federal level to create a registry to track immigrants and share immigrant taxpayer data with the IRS. Local nonprofits are fighting back. CHIRLA joined a lawsuit to protect LA’s sanctuary city status and Inclusive Action for the City joined a lawsuit to stop the IRS from disclosing information

"Under Real ID, an international criminal with a valid passport can automatically travel around our country as he or she wishes. But your neighbor who can’t find her certified birth certificate can’t fly Southwest to Phoenix to watch spring training baseball,” writes Joe Mathews at Zocalo

If you learn one thing from this show: YOU CAN STILL USE A PASSPORT TO BOARD A PLANE

Trump is threatening to require Real ID for voting and the Republican House passed the SAVE Act which would require a passport or other proof of citizenship to vote. Meanwhile, Huntington Beach is trying to require voter ID right here in LA County

The LAX/Metro Transit Center opens June 6, although as Metro’s video points out, the people mover into the airport won’t open until 2026

The new website for the bus-focused Inglewood Transit Connector, which formerly included a people mover, and Alissa’s thread breaking all the changes down

The Inglewood people mover began to lose steam after Rep. Maxine Waters pulled her support last summer, citing Eno Transit analysis  showing costs of $470,000 per rider by 2040

Mike will introduce author Alec Karakatsanis before he reads from his new book “Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News” at Occidental College on Thursday May 1 from 7 to 9 p.m.,details here

Get your tickets to LA Forward's Spring Into Action garden party fundraiser on Saturday, May 3 and hang out with your favorite LA Podcast co-hosts!

Better yet, become a paid subscriber to support the podcast at thinkforward.la! All "Patron" level subscribers will get two free tickets to the Spring Into Action event on May 3.

Produced by Sophie Bridges

Alissa, Mike, Godfrey, and Rachel watch LA Mayor Karen Bass’s State of the City address and discuss why a speech that was hyped as a "fundamental overhaul of city government" didn’t deliver on that promise. And a first look at the city’s budget includes major layoffs and department cuts to cover a billion-dollar funding gap.

Check out Bass’s proposed budget :cao.lacity.gov/budget

Watch the State of the City address: mayor.lacity.gov/SOTC2025

The New York Times: "Los Angeles is rebuilding, but new crises are mounting and Mayor Karen Bass has been haunted by her absence when the fires started. This week, she is trying to reset"

Shine LA is Bass’s new volunteer effort for "cleaning, greening, and preparing our city for the world stage," starting this weekend

The city’s unarmed response pilot programs are funded in the budget (so far). Join LA Forward’s Unarmed Crisis Response working group to protect them

LAist’s look at how liability payments have tripled in recent years

A scathing audit of Vision Zero, the city’s plan to end traffic deaths by 2025 (which obviously did not happen) points to major failures in leadership and funding priorities

Alissa’s story about the city’s capital infrastructure plan, or CIP, and how the first one will be focused around making improvements for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games

"Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Monday proposed laying off 1,647 workers and closing some city departments in the fiscal year that starts July 1. It's the most austere budget since the city was wracked by the 2008 recession," writes LAist

Meanwhile LA residents are likely facing higher trash fees and an increase in streetlight fees

A new UCLA survey shows Bass's unfavorability ratings soaring after years of being the most favorably ranked local elected official, leading many to question her political future as she faces a recall effort

Give public comment at upcoming Budget & Finance Committee meetings on April 25 at 1 pm at Van Nuys City Hall and on April 28, 4 - 8 pm, at City Hall

CD5 (Yaroslavsky) is hosting a series of budget conversations, so is CD14 (Jurado), and CD1 (Hernandez) is asking for videos from constituents about their priorities

Join your LA Podcast co-hosts at LA Forward's Spring Into Action garden party fundraiser on Saturday, May 3

And support the podcast directly by becoming a paid subscriber at thinkforward.la, the new home on the web for LA Podcast episodes! All "Patron" level subscribers will get two free tickets to the Spring Into Action event on May 3.

Alissa, Mike, and Rachel talk about how the Trump administration is attempting to stoke fear and uncertainty at the port, schools, and cultural organizations — and how some local institutions are resisting. Plus: LA28 is getting challenged on Olympics venues, and LA’s budget-busting $2.2 billion convention center expansion lives to see another day.

LA Times: "As a center of global trade, L.A. could be in for a bumpy ride after Trump tariffs"

“Expensive cars, expensive trains, expensive bikes, expensive everything,” writes Streetsblog

Rebuilding after the fires is also going to get more expensive

At least 600 student visas have been revoked, with at least 83 California campuses, and the federal government seems to be targeting Muslim students

The Guardian: "Gaza protesters sue UCLA for civil rights violations after ‘brutal attack’ in 2024"

A House investigation requested information on USC’s 5,993 Chinese national students, saying the students posed a "direct threat to our national security”

USC also removed DEI from its list of values and replaced the phrase with “community”

But some institutions refuse to back down: “Our community is based on diversity, equity is guaranteed to us in the Constitution, and inclusion is what we believe in,” said Japanese American National Museum board chairman Bill Fujioka

More on the JANM’s program that lost its funding and how you can support the museum

LA Times: "Federal agents sought access to students at two Los Angeles elementary schools this week and were denied access”

Spectrum’s Kate Cagle reported that Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said the federal agents claimed they had permission to question the students -- which was a lie

Alissa’s coverage of LA28 venue battles including beach volleyball in Santa Monica and sailing in Long Beach (and since we recorded, Galway Downs in Temecula suddenly learned it was no longer the equestrian venue) 

LA Daily News: "$2.2 billion LA Convention Center expansion moves forward as council votes to keep project alive”

Listen to Mike’s most recent episode of "What’s Next Los Angeles” on LAHSA funding with guests LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath and LA City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield

And join LA Forward for a city/state budget-focused zoom with Kenneth Mejia on April 15 and a community happy hour on Monday, April 21 for a first look at the Mayor's budget proposal

Produced by Sophie Bridges

Hayes, Alissa, and Mike are joined by guest co-host Carla Hall, former Los Angeles Times editorial board member, to discuss LA County’s dramatic decision to pull funding from the LA Homeless Services Authority. Plus County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath is making big moves in a role known for anything but. And a discussion about the future of the LA Times.

LA County votes to move $300 million out of LAHSA and start new homeless agency

"We are making forward movement. We must keep building on this and confronting our challenges, together.” Mayor Karen Bass and Councilmember Nithya Raman urged the Board of Supervisors not to defund LAHSA

Preliminary reports from LAHSA show unsheltered homelessness went down 5-10% again

After we recorded, Va Lecia Adams Kellum resigned as LAHSA director

Judge Carter discusses naming a receiver as LA’s “homelessness czar"

LA Public Press: "Unhoused LA residents react to LAHSA’s unraveling"

Patt Morrison asks why LA can’t accomplish big things

Carla's last opinion piece: "To understand homelessness, listen to homeless people. Here’s what I learned"

And Carla’s last piece as editorial board member: "Stop finding ways to kill the Venice Dell homeless housing project and get it built instead"

Nieman Lab: "The LA Times adds AI counterpoints to its opinion pieces and guess what, there are problems”

48 more journalists take buyouts at the LA Times: “Tremendous amount of institutional knowledge lost”

"Notably, these buyouts will further hollow out the Times’ Editorial Board, which, starting in April, will have no writers left,” writes Laura Nelson at the Guild Eagle, the publication of the LA Times union

And yes, LA Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong went on Tucker Carlson

Produced by Sophie Bridges

Check out this episode and all future ones on our new website, www.thinkforward.la

Alissa, Mike, and Rachel discuss proposed changes to LA city’s slur-strewn public comment process. Karen Bass found her deleted text messages sent during the fires, but what conversations are we still missing? And Metro advances an incomplete street for Vermont Avenue.

LA Times: "LA City Council seeks crackdown on the N-word and C-word at meetings”

In 2014 Michael Hunt was paid a $215,000 settlement after wearing a KKK hood to a city council meeting

Adam Smith’s original songs have elevated public comment to an art form

The LA Times asked Mayor Karen Bass for her text messages during the fire, then two months later the city said she had deleted them, then a few weeks later she found the messages after all, but the LA Times is still suing the city for unlawfully withholding the messages and other public records

Coverage of Vermont Avenue’s bus rapid transit project from LAist and Streetsblog LA

Metro’s letter to LA City saying it won’t include HLA improvements for Metro projects on city streets

Data from Metro shows that new bike lanes increase bus ridership

Alissa’s story on how the city’s first capital improvement plan will be focused on Olympics infrastructure

The Dodgers are going to Trump’s White House to celebrate their world championship

Produced by Sophie Bridges

Alissa, Godfrey, and Rachel gather on the first day of spring to try and figure out what the hell Gavin Newsom is doing with his new MAGA-platforming podcast. Plus, new LA County District Attorney Nathan Hochman won’t resentence the Menendez brothers until they apologize for "all the lies that they have told.” And some real estate influencers want LA to suspend the Measure ULA transfer tax after the fires — can the City do that?

Supporters held a rally for the Menendez brothers after a resentencing hearing was delayed by LA District Attorney Nathan Hochman

ABC: "DA says he would reconsider resentencing only if Menendez brothers admit to 'lies'"

Mike’s interview with former LA County DA George Gasçon on why he reopened the case 

Separately, Gavin Newsom ordered a risk assessment as part of a clemency review, something he talked about on his new podcast

Yes, Gavin Newsom has a new podcast: This is Gavin Newsom

CalMatters: "Gavin Newsom’s MAGA-curious podcast mystifies listeners — and sets Democratic lawmakers on edge”

Politico: "Gavin Newsom is getting in Republicans’ heads”

Paul Mitchell’s polling on how much Newsom is tanking his approval ratings

Former Republican strategist Dan Schnur told Spectrum’s Kate Cagle that says Newsom is trying to position himself as a moderate — and get in with young men — ahead of a potential presidential run 

Brokers have been calling for a suspension of ULA ever since the fires happened, with realtor-influencers like Ben Belack making the case on Instagram

Breitbart directed the question to LA Mayor Karen Bass, who said she was looking into suspending ULA “maybe temporarily.” But can she? (No)

The city’s ULA dashboard shows nearly $600 million in revenue, with the majority coming from single-family home transactions

LA is looking for new revenue streams to fill its $1 billion budget shortfall

Produced by Sophie Bridges