Hillel Aron

Credit: Emmanuel_D. Photograph

Top 10 Reasons to Love Los Angeles and Never, Ever Leave

Hillel Aron
It's February. It'll be 24 degrees and might snow tonight in New York City as frigid Canadian wind sweeps the East. It's 30 degrees in Boston, Chicago is dropping soon to 14 degrees (sweet Jesus), and even in San Francisco it's 50 degrees and oppressively gray -- naturally. In Los Angeles,......

Kevin James' Mayoral Dreams Get Legs

Hillel Aron
At a debate late last year attended by homeowners groups in pricey Holmby Hills, the four leading Los Angeles mayoral candidates, Wendy Greuel, Jan Perry, Eric Garcetti and Kevin James, were asked to give their 10-second elevator pitch on why they should represent a city of 3.8 million. The candidates......

Victim Finds Hit-and-Run Driver

Hillel Aron
Bicyclists have been the loudest critics of the hit-and-run epidemic gripping Los Angeles, a crisis that has been ignored by the mayor and LAPD Chief Charlie Beck. One chilling incident in Echo Park, in particular, galvanized the bike community: the running down of cyclist Don Ward, also known as Roadblock......

LAUSD Rubber Rooms Crowd Up

Hillel Aron
On the outskirts of LAUSD's sprawling, mazelike Educational Service Center in Reseda sit seven long, shabby, peach-colored bungalows with barred windows and rotting wood, which all but scream Southern California public education. In one of them is a roughly 35-square-foot room where 25 or so teachers (and a couple of......

Bad Dogs Die in L.A.'s Pound

Hillel Aron
You can hear the barking a block away, desperate cries of every pitch, hundreds of dogs calling out for help. Even though she's been to the shelter countless times, Whitney Smith has never gotten used to it. Her mouth goes dry when she pulls into the parking lot. She can......

Can Kate Anderson, Mom of Twins, Fix LAUSD?

Hillel Aron
Steve Zimmer is a man without a country. Parents at school board meetings wear T-shirts that read, "SHAME ON YOU, MR. ZIMMER." Union officials make wisecracks when he speaks. Preventing the Westside school board member's re-election to the powerful Los Angeles Unified School Board in March is one of the......
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Proposition 36 Three Strikes

Hillel Aron
Trevon Wilson won't be voting on Tuesday. He can't — he's on parole. "They don't want me to vote," he says, although he wishes he could. "I do believe there's a gang of good stuff on the ballot." For instance, there's the small matter of re-electing President Barack Obama. There......

Mike Gatto's Blogger Problem

Hillel Aron
On the surface, Assembly District 43 legislator Mike Gatto is everything an up-and-coming California pol should be: young, polite, handsome, slightly wonky and not on the fringe. So it is something of a surprise that Gatto has incurred the enmity of a small cadre of bloggers, gonzo journalists and gadflies......

Measure J Transit Tax — Too Soon?

Hillel Aron
When Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa leaves office in July, his legacy will be spotty, at best, marked by unfulfilled promises, political failures such as the attempted takeover of the Los Angeles Unified School District, a freebie-ticket scandal and excessive absenteeism from L.A. — not to mention the little matter of an affair......