LA County voted Tuesday to install temporary restrooms near homeless encampments even as Santa Monica locks its public bathrooms at night.

LOS ANGELES, CA — As Los Angeles grapples with the nation's largest homeless population and a hepatitis A outbreak that prompted Gov. Jerry, Brown to declare a state of emergency in California, community leaders are battling over starkly divergent approaches.

Hoping to curb the deadly spread of hepatitis A, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved a plan to install portable toilets and hand-washing stations near densely populated homeless encampments in four unincorporated areas and along the Los Angeles and San Gabriel riverbeds.

However, even as County officials commit tax dollars to install bathrooms for the homeless in some parts of the county, officials in Venice and Santa Monica have chosen over the years to lock their abundant public restrooms at night for fear of attracting more homeless residents. 

Read More:   https://patch.com/california/santamonica/santa-monica-odds-county-combating-hepatitis-outbreak

LOS ANGELES, CA — After decades of gang-related shootings, rapes, homicides, robberies and drug sales at a single Baldwin Village apartment complex, Los Angeles city officials think they have a solution to the problem: make the landlord live in his own crime-ridden apartment complex.

Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer filed a lawsuit Monday asking a judge to order the owners and managers of the he 425-unit Chesapeake Apartments to live in the apartment complex considered a stronghold for a violent street gang called the Black P-Stones.

Read More: https://patch.com/california/los-angeles/la-aims-force-landlord-live-his-own-crime-ridden-complex

The City of Santa Monica announces it has committed funds in the amount of $9,558,843 to Community Corporation of Santa Monica for the acquisition of property located at 1820 and 1826 14th Street and predevelopment activities regarding a future affordable housing development targeted to low-income seniors.

Notice of Community Meeting: Date: Monday, December 4th, 2017 Time: 6:00-7:30 PM Location: Virginia Avenue Park, Patio Room, 2200 Virginia Avenue, Santa Monica

Read More on page 8: http://backissues.smdp.com/112817.pdf

The City Council will decide the fate of 164 new apartments in the downtown area Tuesday night when it reviews potential Development Agreements for two plots owned by NMS Properties and its offshoot, WNMS Communities. The developments are connected – both require the Council to sign off on excess parking spaces and will contribute to the construction to affordable housing on Colorado Avenue.

Read More on page 1: http://backissues.smdp.com/112817.pdf

Nearly four months after a local hotel received one of the biggest fines in FPPC history for money it spent in Santa Monica elections, two City Councilmembers are asking for a City review of the case.

Read More on page 1: http://backissues.smdp.com/112817.pdf

WHY THIS FIGHT?

Over district vs at-large elections?

Is it an obscure bit of political infighting, a clash of personalities, that doesn’t really mean anything to residents?

Or could it possibly change the way our City is run? Take much of the big money influence out of our elections? Give minorities, and neighborhoods, a voice? End the 40-year one-party dominance of SMRR that has given us a steady stream of Council members hell bent on developing Santa Monica into a high-rise megalopolis-by-the-sea, with all the resultant problems of traffic, crime, corruption, skyrocketing rents and more, that trying to cram way too many people and big buildings into 8.4 square miles inevitably brings.

It could. It remains to be seen. But one thing you should put your money on: district voting will come. Soon. 

Read More: http://smdp.com/play-money/163408

Rent-control policies are a cause célèbre advocated by progressive politicians such as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and U.K. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

But evidence shows that getting rid of these rules causes a reduction in crime.

Read More: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/does-rent-control-on-property-increase-or-reduce-crime-rates-these-economists-have-the-answer-2017-10-09?dist=realestate

Fifty-five percent of Orange and San Diego county voters support rent control to help middle- and lower-income people remain in their communities, according to a recent UC Berkeley online poll of registered voters released this week. Statewide, 60 percent of voters responding to the poll support rent control.

In Los Angeles County — home to four cities with rent control laws — 68 percent of poll respondents support limits on how much landlords can raise rents. Fifty-nine percent of voters support such a measure in the remaining Southern California counties of Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Imperial.

Read More: http://www.ocregister.com/2017/09/20/majority-of-orange-san-diego-county-voters-support-rent-control-poll-says/

Council will tackle homelessness with a major discussion at its Nov. 28 meeting. The council will receive its annual Homelessness Report at the meeting including dense proposals for addressing the local crisis. 

The report calls for endorsing five concepts currently contained in the city’s Strategic Goal Action Plan including proactive engagement, smart deployment of local resources, proving the effectiveness of models to connect individuals to housing, increasing the availability of housing/services in other communities, ensuring safe use of the Library and working collaboratively with other agencies to address the problem.

Read More: http://smdp.com/major-homelessness-plan-to-be-presented-to-city-council/163402

By Thomas M. Sipos

Editor:

Keyser Marston Associates’ report proves that when landlords use the Ellis Act to remove rental units from the market, Santa Monica benefits.

1. The report says that Ellis Act withdrawals create “downzoning.” Many rental units are replaced by a few condos or single family homes.

Excellent! This reduces density, traffic, water usage, school over-crowding, and strains on city services, resulting in a greener, more sustainable city. And progressives complain?

2. The report says that developers are replacing old buildings with new buildings that are sold for “a tidy profit.” Fantastic! This means that our city and schools are likewise raking in massive windfall tax profits.

Read More: http://smdp.com/go-ellis/163410