Anti-cyclist motorist goes to jail.
In case you missed it, check out Los Angeles doctor gets 5 years for injuring cyclists in yesterday’s LA Times.
Cyclists and lovers of transportation justice had something to cheer about yesterday.  Of the thousands of motorists guilty of threatening the lives of pedestrians and cyclists every day, sometimes killing and injuring them with their reckless driving, one such driver is getting five years in the slammer. Continue reading
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Of course, I’m talking about Santa Monica’s newly adopted rent increase of 1 percent (effective September 2009 through August 2010) for their rent-controlled units, compared to the 4 percent increase the city of Los Angeles will allow in our rent-stabilized units (effective July 2009 through June 2010). Santa Monica’s Rent Control Board approved the relatively small increase last week in consideration of the hard times that currently afflict even the bourgie classes of renters in that city.  To say the least, it’s thought-provoking to see the contrast between the two cities’ rent policies… to think that those of us lucky enough to live in rent-stabilized units in LA could see our rents go up 4 percent after July 1—even while housing market rates actually drop in the face of rising unemployment. Â
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How the hell can that be, you ask?
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For sure, everyone reading this blog cares about keeping up with local happenings, not just of cultural or artistic significance, but also of social and political—of human-life—consequence, which the commercial media coverso poorly on the Eastside (a problem exacerbated over the years with the disappearance of once-competing newspapers and the continual downsizing of the Los Angeles Times). So even if the Times doesn’t shed much light on the life and times of the people of Boyle Heights/East LA (we really are a single entity, you know, despite the city’s borderline at Indiana), I know many of you have heard about the struggle to save our homes at Wyvernwood Garden Apartments (most recently, the marching hundreds on two separate occasions last month) and that you might be hoping to get a little more background on it all. Here is this piece, which I hope answers some basic questions about what Wyvernwood and this fight are all about. I hope to write about the actual struggle being waged by tenants in a subsequent posting in the near future. Â