March 22, 2018
By Niele Anderson
Contributing Writer
George Lucas Star Wars fans will be happy to know that last week marked the official groundbreaking for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. The event took place at the site of the museum and included remarks from co-founders George Lucas and Mellody Hobson along with Mayor Eric Garcetti, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley Thomas, Los Angeles City Council member Curren Price and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art founding president Don Bacigalupi. Other surprise notables in the audience included President of Los Angeles City Council Herb Wesson and famed director producer Steven Spielberg, who is also a board member of the Museum.
The Museum will be located at Exposition Park in South Los Angeles and will celebrate the art of visual storytelling and enable people of diverse backgrounds to experience the power of narrative art across all mediums, including painting, illustration, comic art, photography, film, animation and digital art. Designed by Chinese firm MAD Architects, the $1.5 billion development will act as a gateway to Exposition Park. The Museum will look as though it has landed in Exposition Park with the interior designed as a huge, bright and open cave. The roof and first-floor of the 11-acre building will be public areas.
“The focus of the Museum is to open up people’s imagination and inspire them to dream beyond what is considered possible “stated co-founder George Lucas. “Narrative art and storytelling stirs our emotions, shapes our aspirations as a society, and is the glue that binds us together around common beliefs.”
Lucas’ wife and co-founder Mellody Hobson further stated, “Our goal is to create the world’s most inclusive and accessible art museum. A place that brings together people from every walk of life. We are excited to call Exposition Park home, surrounded by more than 100 elementary and high schools, one of the country’s leading universities, as well as three other world-class museums.”
The futuristic project will transform a series of asphalt parking lots into a museum surrounded by 11 acres of new park land and gardens. Thousands of jobs will be created directly and indirectly as a result of the museum. A talking point supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas championed and celebrated as he spoke. He further stated, “The Lucas Museum will not only display brilliant works of art, but will also teach countless children the science and technological skills needed for careers in film, animation and design industries. It will cement Exposition Park’s reputation as a world-class destination for arts and entertainment.
Mayor Garcetti, gleefully stated, “I thank Mellody Hobson and George Lucas for their incredible generosity and vision, which will inspire countless Angelenos and visitors from around the world.” Los Angeles beat out Chicago and San Francisco as possible sites for the Museum. The project is due to open in 2021.
March 15, 2018
City News Service
A UC Irvine study of the effect of Proposition 47, which is part of the state's attempt to reduce prison overcrowding, shows it has not led to an increase in crime in California, a professor who authored the review said Wednesday March 7.
The study, which will be published in August in the journal Criminology & Public Policy, contradicts the claims by many law enforcement officials that the proposition has led to an increase in crime.
“We set out to answer a very simple question — what impact does Proposition 47 have on crime a year following its implementation,” said Charis Kubrin, a professor of criminology, law and society at UCI.
The results match a study Kubrin led on the Public Safety Realignment Act — better known as AB 109 — that was published two years ago in the Annals of the American Academy of Political & Social Science. AB 109 redirects non- violent offenders to county jails and puts them under the supervision of county probation officers instead of sending them to state prison.
Proposition 47, approved by voters in 2014, reduced some nonviolent felonies like drug and property crimes to misdemeanors.
After the AB 109 study, Kubrin said, “I kept waiting for someone to look at Proposition 47 and then I figured somebody’s got to do this so I might as well do it.”
Analyzing the proposition’s effect on crime was tricky because it would be difficult to show what would have happened if it had not been implemented, Kubrin said. So the professors and experts who worked on the study analyzed 44 years of crime data in California and every other state in the country.
The data helped the researchers create a “counterfactual California,” or “synthetic California” with crime trends from states like California that did not adopt a similar proposition, Kubrin said.
The research showed an increase in larceny and car thefts after 2014, but the experts concluded that was likely not due to Proposition 47, but other factors, Kubrin said.
A comparison of actual California crime statistics with the “synthetic California,” only car thefts and larceny increased, Kubrin said. But synthetic California ranked 13th out of 50 states in car thefts, so Proposition 47 couldn't have been a factor, she added.
All the other major violent crimes, such as murder, rape, aggravated assault and robbery were virtually the same comparing actual California with synthetic California, Kubrin said.
March 15, 2018
City News Service
A Los Angeles City Council committee discussed a major proposal last Wednesday that seeks an emergency plan to provide a safe place for the city’s entire population of homeless people, which at last count numbered more than 34,000.
The motion, which went before the Homelessness and Poverty Committee was introduced last month by Councilmen Mike Bonin and Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who said there is little evidence that anything is being done to create more or better shelters for the homeless in the city and that a true sense of emergency is needed to deal with the problem.
The motion says the city’s 2016 Comprehensive Homelessness Strategy resolution — a $1.85 billion outline for homeless initiatives over a 10-year period — called for an expansion and “dramatic transformation” of the region’s emergency homeless shelters. But that “has not happened,” according to the councilmen.
“In fact, there is scant evidence of any progress, no apparent plan or strategy to make progress, and no evident sense of urgency or attention to any efforts to make progress,” according to their motion. “Even though officials have repeatedly declared a ‘state of shelter emergency,’ there is no institutional or organizational sense of emergency to move thousands of people off the streets immediately, or even in the next several weeks or months.”
The motion seeks a number of actions from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, which coordinates homeless services for Los Angeles County. The agency would be asked to provide several comprehensive reports within 14 days, including the framework for an Emergency Response Homeless Plan, outlining what steps and what funds would be required to provide an alternative to homeless encampments for 100 percent of the homeless population by the end of the year.
A spokesman with LAHSA last month told City News Service the agency had “no position” on the motion.
According to the motion, the Comprehensive Homelessness Strategy resolution called for the expansion and “dramatic transformation” of emergency shelters into crisis and bridge housing opportunities, which offer less restrictions than traditional homeless shelters along with 24-hour service. Traditional shelters typically require anyone staying there to leave each morning and not allow them back in until the evening hours, which can discourage participation
Homelessness in the city of Los Angeles jumped by 20 percent in 2017 while the county saw a spike of 23 percent compared to the previous year, according to the results of the 2017 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count. In the city, the total number of homeless went up to 34,189 and the county number increased to 57,794.
The city’s biggest response to the problem of homelessness the last few years was the passage in 2016 of Proposition HHH, a $1.2 billion bond measure to fund permanent housing for the homeless, but the units will take years to approve and build.
“Los Angeles must provide genuine alternatives to sidewalk encampments — urgently,” the Bonin/Harris-Dawson motion states.
The motion would also require LAHSA to provide information on how many homeless people are currently being provided shelter or housing, how many it aims to house by the end of this fiscal year and the next three fiscal years, what steps have been taken to replace barracks-style shelters with 24-hour crisis housing and bridge housing, and what steps have been taken to recruit houses of worship and other nonprofits to provide shelter beds.
The motion would also direct the Los Angeles homeless coordinator to provide a list of every public facility in the city legally eligible to be used to provide shelter, temporary housing or safe parking.
March 08, 2018
LAWT News Service
Leimert Plaza Park – located in the heart of the Crenshaw District – will undergo a series of enhancements this month as part of a partnership with the Office of Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson, city of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, the LA Parks Foundation and City National Bank.
The enhancements will include construction and installation of an enclosure around the perimeter; restoration of the central fountain; new grass, flowers and plants, a state-of-the-art irrigation system; and general beautification and clean-up amenities.
“Leimert Park is the center of the African-American community here in the Crenshaw District,” said Los Angeles City Council President Herb J. Wesson, Jr. “The planned enhancements to Leimert Plaza Park complement the development and investment in our community. This partnership between the city, the LA Parks Foundation and City National Bank is a great example for others. ”
“The renovated Leimert Plaza Park will better serve the local community in this historic area,” said Judith Kieffer, executive diretor of the LA Parks Foundation, a nonprofit started to support the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks. “We’re proud to have this public-private partnership with City National Bank and the Department of Recreation and Parks to improve Leimert Plaza Park.”
Built in 1928 and designed by Walter H. Leimert, Leimert Park stands out as one of Los Angeles’ first planned communities. Leimert Plaza Park was designed by the Olmsted Brothers, sons of Frederick Law Olmsted, who was considered the "father of American landscape architecture." Over a long and distinguished career, he designed New York's Central Park, San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, and many other important public spaces across the U.S. The park that the brothers built, Leimert Plaza Park, was the pride of the community – a gem of a park whose centerpiece was a majestic cascading fountain.
“This investment demonstrates City National’s deep commitment to support the social, cultural and economic prosperity of the Crenshaw District as it continues to undergo significant development,” said Peter Jackson, branch manager at Crenshaw branch for City National Bank, the largest bank based in Los Angeles. “We look forward to the multi-year promise to restore this park and make it a beautiful, safe and inviting place for residents to spend time.”
City National Bank opened a full-service banking office in the Crenshaw District in 2017. Its team delivers relationship-focused personal and business banking capabilities to individuals and their families as well as small businesses, nonprofit organizations, professional and investors. The branch is located at 3739 South Crenshaw Boulevard.
The office enables City National to support the economic growth of the Crenshaw District and support opportunities there. With $48.7 billion in assets, City National Bank provides banking, investment and trust services through 72 offices in Southern California, the San Francisco Bay Area, Nevada, New York City, Nashville, Atlanta, Minneapolis and Washington, D.C. In addition, the company and its investment affiliates manage or administer $64.9 billion in client investment assets.
City National is a subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), one of North America’s leading diversified financial services companies. RBC serves more than 16 million personal, business, public sector and institutional clients through offices in Canada, the United States and 34 other countries.
Leimert Plaza Park has long been part of the African-American community in Los Angeles and is a frequent gathering place for community acitivism, culture and celebration. For nearly 10 years, Leimert Plaza Park has hosted the Leimert Park Art Walk, which highlights both contemporary and historic African-American art. Lemiert Plaza Park has also hosted the Kwanzaa Heritage Festival, held by the Kwanzaa Heritage Foundation every December, and the Louisiana to Los Angeles Festival, held by the Louisiana to Los Angeles Organizing Committee.
The Los Angeles Parks Foundation is a nonprofit created to support the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks. The mission of the Foundation is to enhance, expand, preserve and promote recreation and parks for the people of Los Angeles. The Foundation is an example of the unique benefits that can be realized through public-private partnerships. The Foundation supports LA City parks through programs and initiatives such as Adopt-A-Park, Donate-A-Bench and Friend of the Parks. In addition, the Foundation raises funds for small and large projects throughout the city.