Here in the San Fernando Valley we have seen a new kind of advertising that is worse than the usual billboards. At least the usual boards are above my line of sight as I look down a boulevard. The new kind is on trailers parked along all of our main streets. Just call Mobile Advertising at 818-723-0497 and you to can advertise your business at a really low cost. There are laws limiting the parking of any vehicle for more than 72 hours in one place on our streets. Apparently they are not being enforced. When I called Councilman Dennis Zine’s office in December I was told they are working on a law to limit this form of advertising.
How long does it take to write and implement a law in Los Angeles?
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Friday, March 14, 2008
Help for the Rich
Isn’t it nice to be a big financial firm? Bear Stearns Cos., one of Wall Street's oldest banking firms, has received a bailout from the federal government and JPMorgan Chase & Co. Bear Stearns, the nation's fifth-largest investment bank, made its fortune dealing in opaque mortgage-backed securities - a strategy that might be its undoing amid the worst housing slump in a quarter century. The bank has racked up $2.75 billion in write-downs since last year, and faced a possible collapse without some kind of lifeline. This was reported today in a lead AP story http://apnews.excite.com/article/20080314/D8VD9NG80.html.
Meanwhile the Los Angeles Times reported today that the Region has seen a 19% decline in housing prices from the peak in less than a year. http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fi-homes14mar14,1,7243732.story. In my own neighborhood homes are selling so poorly that asking prices have already dropped more than 25%. There is little help to bail out homeowners who bought their homes in the past few years by taking advantage of adjustable rate mortgages.
When you consider the paltry help to private individuals compared to aid the big corporations receive is it any wonder that the public yearns for new government leadership? It’s what we all knew in our hearts. The government protects the rich and to hell with the rest of you.
Meanwhile the Los Angeles Times reported today that the Region has seen a 19% decline in housing prices from the peak in less than a year. http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fi-homes14mar14,1,7243732.story. In my own neighborhood homes are selling so poorly that asking prices have already dropped more than 25%. There is little help to bail out homeowners who bought their homes in the past few years by taking advantage of adjustable rate mortgages.
When you consider the paltry help to private individuals compared to aid the big corporations receive is it any wonder that the public yearns for new government leadership? It’s what we all knew in our hearts. The government protects the rich and to hell with the rest of you.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
A California Attack on the Poor
California’s Proposition 98 (California Property Owners and Farmland Protection Act) and Proposition 99 (Homeowners and Private Property Protection Act) have misleading titles. Both are about preventing government from redeveloping blighted areas where the property will be returned to private ownership. In other words community redevelopment agencies would be eliminated because no redevelopment would be permitted. Slums could go on existing indefinitely.
Proposition 98 goes one step further by eliminating rent controls on apartments and mobile home parks. Apartment owners associations and mobile home park associations couldn’t be happier. The consequence of that will be the dislocation of the poorest in our society.
The ongoing issue of affordable housing in Los Angeles has been well documented. Proposition 98 would allow legalized unreasonable rent hikes on those least able to pay. That includes the poor and the elderly. Mobile home parks are commonly occupied by the elderly as a form of low cost housing. Most of those living in those parks are on social security and have little in the way of additional forms of income.
Who is supporting Proposition 98? The primary contributors are mobile home park owners and apartment associations. The information is listed on the California Secretary of State’s web site.
Who is supporting Proposition 99? The California League Of Conservation Voters http://www.ecovote.org/. This organization says its mission is “to protect the environmental quality of the state by increasing public awareness of the environmental performance of all elected officials, working to elect environmentally responsible candidates, and holding them accountable to the environmental agenda once elected.” What’s the connection between this conservation group and Proposition 99? They do not say on their web site. When I telephones them to ask about their support for this imitative I told someone will be calling me back later in the week. They are the only group that has donating money to support this issue. The state says they have donated $300,000.00.
This website, http://rentersrights.blogspot.com/, is a good place to start in fighting these two laws.
Proposition 98 goes one step further by eliminating rent controls on apartments and mobile home parks. Apartment owners associations and mobile home park associations couldn’t be happier. The consequence of that will be the dislocation of the poorest in our society.
The ongoing issue of affordable housing in Los Angeles has been well documented. Proposition 98 would allow legalized unreasonable rent hikes on those least able to pay. That includes the poor and the elderly. Mobile home parks are commonly occupied by the elderly as a form of low cost housing. Most of those living in those parks are on social security and have little in the way of additional forms of income.
Who is supporting Proposition 98? The primary contributors are mobile home park owners and apartment associations. The information is listed on the California Secretary of State’s web site.
Who is supporting Proposition 99? The California League Of Conservation Voters http://www.ecovote.org/. This organization says its mission is “to protect the environmental quality of the state by increasing public awareness of the environmental performance of all elected officials, working to elect environmentally responsible candidates, and holding them accountable to the environmental agenda once elected.” What’s the connection between this conservation group and Proposition 99? They do not say on their web site. When I telephones them to ask about their support for this imitative I told someone will be calling me back later in the week. They are the only group that has donating money to support this issue. The state says they have donated $300,000.00.
This website, http://rentersrights.blogspot.com/, is a good place to start in fighting these two laws.
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