Los Angeles County’s voters have demonstrated what a powerful tool these local constitutions are for self-governance. Home rule fosters experimentation — and a feisty and irreplaceable resilience.
The mayor declared a city emergency on homelessness, granting herself certain powers to address the crisis. Now, some members of the City Council want to reassert their authority and end the emergency declaration.
In Los Angeles, as in other parts of the state, the city and county are failing to cooperate in effective ways.
Over the years, Los Angeles voters have approved billions in homeless funding — and created layer upon layer of independent institutions.
Steve Soboroff has finished a three-month run coordinating wildfire recovery efforts. He says he was shut out of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ planning, but the mayor’s office calls him a loose cannon.
Voters approved $9 billion in school construction bonds last fall. The district must rebuild schools destroyed or damaged by smoke or fire and intends to make them more resilient.
The city was already in the grip of an affordability crisis — last month’s massive fires just made everything worse. What can L.A. learn from other disaster recovery efforts?
The Eaton Fire consumed a home and community I had loved for decades. I went from writing about homelessness to living it.
Lots of prosecutors, judicial staff and jurors lost their homes. Many others left court because they felt ill from dangerous air.
Karen Bass has come in for criticism over her handling of the fire department’s budget and other issues. Her chances for reelection may depend on the city’s long rebuilding process.
Los Angeles County voters have approved changes that include an expansion of the county Board of Supervisors and creation of a separate executive leader. Reform advocates had pushed for such changes for decades and an atmosphere of scandal helped them succeed.
Only $599 million of the record $1.3 billion homelessness budget last year was actually spent. City Controller Kenneth Mejia blamed “a sluggish, inefficient approach” for the underspending.
Arizona is the only state to require all jurisdictions to livestream ballot processing, but there are other places to watch.
The unanimous vote supports the removal of a rule that allows renters to be evicted when landlords remodel their buildings.
The Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority has a $3.3 billion list of projects to achieve ahead of the 2028 Games that is only 5.2 percent funded so far.
A ballot measure would replace an existing tax with a larger one, raising more than $1 billion annually to fund a wider variety of services. It faces an uncertain future at the ballot box.
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