What’s happening today?
🧛 The counting continues: More election results are posting at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. today. LA county tallies are here. And check the state’s election results website, for any statewide contests, or for political offices with districts that extend outside LA county.
What’s squawking: 🧑⚖️Reducing overcrowding at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall: Agenda / YouTube // 🥬 The water lettuce invasion at Echo Park Lake: Agenda / Video // 🚲 Proposed extension of an LA river bike path in Griffith Park: Agenda / Video // 🏠 Etta James’s home, as historic landmark: Agenda / Audio (Zoom) // 🌲 A plan to manage our ‘urban forest’: Agenda / Zoom // 🌳 Cannabis shop licenses in Wilshire and Venice: Agenda / YouTube // 👷 🧑🏭 One Big Beautiful Bill work requirements spur effort to boost job opportunities: Agenda / Video // 🛫 Van Nuys Airport’s impact on the economy: Agenda
A bit more on all the squawking:
🧑⚖️ A civilian oversight panel to monitors reform of the Probation Department is expected to get some updates at their 9 a.m. meeting about a court-ordered depopulating plan to reduce overcrowding at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall. They are also set to take up a report on charges filed against youth in custody, an inspection report for the Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall facility (the Probation Department’s response is pending), and a report on ending the incarceration of girls.
🥬 Recreation and Parks Commissioners are meeting at the Valley Plaza Recreation Center in North Hollywood this morning. At their 9:30 a.m. meeting, the parks department’s general manager is on tap to give updates on the water lettuce invasion at Echo Park Lake, the ongoing work on a 12-acre recreation space under the Sixth Street Viaduct that connects Boyle Heights and the Arts District, an “ambassador” program that provides outreach, case management and community engagement to a bridge home shelter in Council District 4 (which is represented by Nithya Raman, who was just elected mayor), and a report on a park fee developers pay the city to be used for new parks for new residents. They’re also taking up items related to replacing the air condition system at the Downey Recreation Center in Lincoln Heights, improving walkways at a senior center in the Fairfax area, and a pavilion project and a contract for educational nature programming at Green Meadows Recreation Center in South Los Angeles.
🏠 LA city’s cultural heritage commissioners are taking up an application of Grant D. Venerable’s home in West Adams, which is being submitted as an example of a residence that helped desegregate the neighborhood, at their 10 a.m. meeting. They are also reviewing an application to designate Etta James’s home in the Harbor Gateway community as a city historic landmark, and an application for Chateau Alto Nido that reflects multi-family buildings that were built during a boom in LA’s motion-picture industry, including in Hollywood.
🌲 Los Angeles city’s community forest advisory committee is getting some updates on an urban forest management plan at 1 p.m. today. They’re also discussing brush clearance and tree removal regulations.
🌳 Cannabis shop licenses in the Wilshire area and Venice are up for review at 2 p.m. by LA city’s cannabis regulation commissioners.
👷 🧑🏭 Work requirement changes under HR.1 (One Big Beautiful Bill) appear to have spurred a motion by Supervisor Holly Mitchell that calls for renewed efforts to create more job opportunities for people who face obstacles in their job search – such as homelessness, incarceration and coming out of the foster care system – through the county’s “social enterprise” program that is meant to increase contracting opportunities for businesses that employ people who typically find it hard to get a fair shake in their job searches. The motion, which is being taken up at a 2:30 meeting by a “cluster” of LA county officials who work on economic development, flags the LA 28 “procurement” for the upcoming 2028 Olympics as a potential wave to catch to include the so-called “social enterprise” businesses. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath is also working on a motion that would support a federal bill to boost film tax credit to help with LA’s film industry. And the “cluster” is also looking at a Long Beach proposal to set up special districts that pull from property tax revenue to spur economic development, such as for building infrastructure.
🛫 The economic impacts of the Van Nuys Airport is on the agenda for an airport citizens commission, with Los Angeles World Airport’s Director of External Affairs Jessica Barker set to give an overview of a recently released economic impact analysis of the San Fernando Valley airport where noncommercial flights touch down and take off at the panel’s meeting is at 7 p.m., at Van Nuys City Hall.
What just happened?
Calling the LA mayor’s race for Nithya Raman: Nithya Raman is assumed to be the next mayor, now that Decision Desk has called it. Some congratulations trickled in, not only from supporters, but also from BizFed, a group that had been working to elect Karen Bass in this election. BizFed’s relatively new executive director Stuart Waldman (who spent years at VICA), released a statement late Wednesday congratulating Raman “on her apparent victory.” There was no word from Mayor Karen Bass’s campaign in terms of a response. But additional results will get posted at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. today.
LA county voters renew support for ‘alternatives to incarceration’ funds: Measure J funds – which go toward “alternatives to incarceration” type programs – should be safe now, after Los Angeles voters passed a measure to fix a screw-up that would have eliminated those mandatory line items. By passing Measure E on Tuesday, LA voters essentially renewed their support for setting aside county funds for programs that are meant to ensure we’re not just casually (thoughtlessly?) sticking people in jail for things that we could be better resolving amongst ourselves, outside of the carceral system. It also might have helped that this was bundled with other measures to boost the independence of LA county’s new Ethics Commission, and ethics measures tend to do well with voters. The election results show the “yes” votes at a very high 73%.