Economic Development

Hollywood's Urban Cleansing

12,878 mostly Latinos are pushed out by City Hall, high rents and hipsters

The Isolated Fortress of USC

Can redevelopment address divide?

Skid Row vs. Gensler

Who should get $1 million in poverty funds, the rich or the poor?

Battle For Brooklyn: Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley's Documentary Has Echoes in L.A.'s Football Stadium Controversy

Construction begins on the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn​ There's a moment towards the end of Battle for Brooklyn when Prospect Heights resident Daniel Goldstein peers through a fence at a construction site teeming with workers and cranes. The area was recently home to dozens of small bus ... More >>

Eli Broad Gets $52 Million of Your Money For Parking Garage: Thanks, L.A. City Council

An artist's rendering of the Broad Museum.​We told you it was happening, and now it has. The cash-strapped city of L.A., which is having trouble hiring cops and keeping fire stations manned, is officially giving billionaire El Broad $52 million for a parking lot. You heard it right. The L.A. ... More >>

OECD Report: Mexicans Work Harder Than You

Who's lazy now, betch?​Take that, Slowpoke Rodriguez. The stereotype of Mexicans as drunk, lazy fuck-ups is easily debunked in California by a trip to the town square or Home Depot parking lot, but finally some researchers step in to quiet the racist anti-immigration crazies with cold hard fa ... More >>

Pot Shops: Protesters Decry Move to Ban Dispensaries in San Bernardino County

Troy HoldenA scarce resource in San Bernardino County?​Protesters are pissed off about pot in San Bernardino County. Or lack thereof. A group of demonstrators took to the San Bernardino County Planning Commission meeting Thursday in hopes of changing its mind: The county is headed toward an o ... More >>

San Bernardino Moves Toward Shutting Out Marijuana Dispensaries Entirely

San Bernardino is known for its forests, but not this kind.​Looks like unincorporated L.A. County isn't the only place pot shops are feeling unwelcome these days. San Bernardino County officials are considering a similar ban on marijuana dispensaries in their unincorporated areas. The county ... More >>

Rick Caruso's Greedy Land Grab

A Glendale family must sell him its motel near Americana at Brand or face eminent domain

Los Angeles County Finalizes Its Ban On Pot Shops

Supes say no.​Pro-pot protesters made their stand, but in the end the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors had its way and outlawed pot shops in the areas of L.A. it controls. That means no medical weed dispensaries for unincorporated areas of the county, where about 1 million people live. ... More >>

Mexican Macro-economics

Do undocumented migrants steal jobs from American workers?

Sad Day For Potheads In SoCal: O.C. Bans Dispensaries In Unincorporated Areas Too

O.C. bans pot shops in unincorporated areas ... too.​Orange County banned pot shops in its unincorporated areas the same day L.A. County did the same thing. Sorry, dispensaries. The O.C. Board of Supervisors' vote was the same as L.A.'s too: 4-1. Eerie (not irie). So now if you need your "m ... More >>

Los Angeles County Bans Plastic Bags At Grocery And Convenience Stores

Bags be damned in L.A. County.​Updated after the jump: Fixes date the ban would go into effect. First posted at 12:45 p.m. The California legislature couldn't do it. The city of Los Angeles hasn't done it. But the L.A. County Board of Supervisors got it done: It voted to ban plastic bags in g ... More >>

Los Angeles County Enemy Number One: Styrofoam-Like Containers

​In this vast region where unemployment is high and the economy is especially weak, it's nice to have leaders who have their eyes on the ball. In this dreary, post-recession, pre-recovery zombie dance we call 2010, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has found the enemy, and it is ... ... More >>

California Getting $149 Million From U.S. For Distressed Properties: City Of L.A.'s Cut Is Nearly $10 Million

TheTruthAbout ... via Flickr​It was really nice of the Obama administration to dedicate another $149 million to California communities torn by housing foreclosure. But we wonder if the money could be better spent. In announcing the cash influx Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urba ... More >>

Goldman Sachs Announces Initiative To Assist Los Angeles Small Businesses

​Goldman Sachs announced today a plan to provide $20 million in loans for small businesses in the Los Angeles area, offering educational opportunities and business support services as part of an initiative it calls "10,000 Small Businesses." "Los Angeles is home to many very talented small ... More >>

Influence

Villaraigosa Uses Budget Ax On Neighborhood Councils

​Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Monday announced he's folding the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment and the Community Development Department into one entity in order to shave 27 positions from the ailing city budget. Some activists, however, were up in arms, as Neighborhood Em ... More >>

Queer Town: Election Watchdog Group Says Prop. 8 Vote 'Probably Corrupted'

A new study by the Election Defense Alliance, a national, non-profit election watchdog group, reports that the November, 2008, vote to take away the existing right of gays and lesbians to legally marry in California through Proposition 8 was "probably corrupted."Patrick Range McDonaldProposition 8 p ... More >>

City Hall’s Revenge on Cecilia Estolano

Villaraigosa and his boys pushed out the one woman who topped them all

LA People 2009: Traffic Mythbuster — Eric A. Morris

Taking Over

Eminent Domain Targeted by Propositions 98 and 99

Radically different ideas target the government practice of taking homes

Kenya's Constitutional Crisis

While press fixates on tribal strife, Kenyans fight for their democracy

Broken Bridges

Did City Hall’s plan to fight gangs bankroll a gangster?

Gentrification and Affordability

KCRW's Which Way L.A.? addresses the gentrification question with David Zahniser

The Evidence Room: Five Signs You're Gentrifying

Not So Fast, Antonio

L.A.’s role in farm deal contains a shovel full of legal questions

Fighting High Rents

In L.A.? Good Luck.

Swept Away

Brave New Cityscape

Sam and His Pals

L.A. is a Wal-Mart town. Get used to it.

Fox in the Hen House

A progressive for L.A.’s redevelopment agency

Life on the Edge

Argentina’s disappearing middle class

Davos, American Style

The state of global protest

Hitting the Streets

The top six demands of anti-globalization protesters

Back to Business

A new war gives new urgency to the globalization debate

Bad Timing

Globalization meetings, protests called off in Washington

Naked in Quebec

Why the three-day trade summit will fail

Can Biology End World Hunger?

Less Bank — More World

First Seattle, then A 16. Now it’s time to ask not where — but what?

D.C. Diary

Downs and ups of a protest

After Seattle

Free-trade protests coming soon to a city near you

The Battle in Seattle

World-class protest at trade summit may be turning point in fight against right-wing economics

Overriding Democracy

Bernie Sanders on the WTO, the IMF and the democratic process

October Demise

Moscow stares into the abyss

Five Big Ideas

Gridlock

A Weekly roundtable discussion on the future of transportation in Los Angeles (that is, on the future of Los Angeles)

Global Vision

IMF is bad medicine for Asian flu