Marc B. Haefele

Has our freshly Chicagoized L.A. Times really forgotten which new century we‘re in? In June and July, columnists James Ricci and Steve Lopez cascaded blame for all California’s problems upon the immigrant population. Suddenly, we found ourselves back in the foreigner-bashing, night-riding days of the early 1900s. Then last Thursday,......

HAS OUR FRESHLY CHICAGOIZED L.A. TIMES REALLY FORGOTTEN which new century we're in? In June and July, columnists James Ricci and Steve Lopez cascaded blame for all California's problems upon the immigrant population. Suddenly, we found ourselves back in the foreigner-bashing, night-riding days of the early 1900s. Then last Thursday,......

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors this week voted unanimously to authorize a $250 million bond initiative that would enhance fire and seismic safety at the two major county museums. Sources confirmed that the initiative also could provide the lion’s share of funding for the controversial proposed $200 million......

PARIS IS A CITY OF THE NORTH, LOCATED ALONG THE SAME 49TH PARALLEL that forms the U.S.-Canada border. That's why, in mid-July, you still need your sunglasses at 9 p.m. and twilight waits until 10:30 to conquer the day. During their warm and blessed 10-hour summer afternoons, couples and families......

Way back in the ’60s, those with entry-level salaries, including me, had our own Great Good Place in New York‘s Chinatown. Lin’s Garden offered the best Big Apple Cantonese -- fried-duck won ton soup and beef-with-black-bean-sauce kind of stuff -- I‘ve ever had. All for upward of 85 cents per......

One thing was made perfectly clear from the Shock Corridor reductions of Los Angeles County health care last week: providing health care for this region’s needy is not a problem that can be handled, ultimately, on either the state or local level. The Board of Supervisors last week tentatively voted......

Photo by Slobodan Dimitrov CAN HEALTH CARE FOR THE POOR AS IT NOW exists be saved in Los Angeles County? The answer looks like "no." Even the Department of Health Services' (DHS) usual strong supporters -- Supervisor Gloria Molina, for instance -- seem resigned to an "inevitable" downsizing that will......

So when was the last time you saw Los Angeles happy? I mean, happy like it was happy Friday morning, when the big guys, Shaq and his titanic pals, trundled down Figueroa Street, not in sumptuous convertibles like a bunch of mere astronauts, but atop double-decker sightseeing buses. And the......

What makes a city fly apart? It’s not yet clear: Urbanologists don‘t have many precedents. Just as it pioneered so many other lifestyle innovations -- swimming-pool-centered apartment complexes, muscle-toned surf bunnies, Kung Pao pizza, free alternative weeklies and an NFL-free major metro area -- Los Angeles is now contemplating the......

There are no checks and balances in our county government. If you don’t believe me, just look at the closed-meeting-law dispute of the past few weeks. There‘s a simple reason for this lack of oversight. The Los Angeles County supervisors own the franchise. They ordain the spending. They direct the......