"It's been in continuous disrepair and derelict circumstances. There were reported firearms, individuals walking out onto the street with assault rifles, drug paraphernalia that you can even find today, a lot of drug use."
The accusations against Swalwell are serious, and range from abuse of power to rape. One woman, Lonna Drewes, says Swalwell drugged her before raping her in a California hotel room.
Raman described the city as rudderless and criticized the rebuilding effort as indefensibly slow, citing a lack of leadership on critical issues like insurance and health concerns.
I had to set fire to my scorecard, and to the column I had just drafted, which touched on all the expected big-name challengers who had bowed out of the mayoral race in the past several days: L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, billionaire businessman Rick Caruso (who forced a runoff with Bass the last time around), and former L.A. Unified schools chief Austin Beutner.
Immediately after a snappish and off-putting TV interview, Porter showed up in a years-old video profanely reaming a staff member for - the humanity! - straying into the video frame during her meeting with a Biden Cabinet member. Not a good look for a candidate already facing questions about her temperament and emotional regulation. (Hang on, gentle reader, we'll get to that whole gendered double-standard thing in a moment.)
On the last day of January, hundreds of people filled the pews of Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Koreatown to hear not the word of God but the gospel of the Democratic Socialists of America. It was the local chapter's bimonthly meeting and also a kickoff event for a year during which they planned to build on an already impressive foothold in L.A. politics.
Though he was better known before running for his charitable leadership as founder of the poverty-fighting nonprofit Tipping Point, Lurie immediately after getting elected began focusing on crime, homelessness, housing bottlenecks and quality-of-life issues like cleaning the streets. Lurie streamlined housing approvals, re-organized and sped up city safety responses, launched an anti-homelessness campaign and won a 73% approval rating at Thanksgiving among local voters.
It's been a pleasure working with you for the past three years you've shown compassion, you've shown an effort to make our community a little bit better, said Sunnyvale Mayor Larry Klein to Mehlinger at Tuesday's meeting. I look forward to the partnership.