UEPI News and Commentary

UEPI's Benefit Assessment of the Los Angeles State Historic Park and Rio de Los Angeles State Park is now Available Online

"Connecting the Parks to the Community and the Community to the Parks", UEPI's Community, Economic and Environmental Benefit Assessment of the Los Angeles State Historic Park (Cornfield) and Río de Los Angeles State Park (Taylor Yard), is now available online.

In the report, Andrea Azuma and Robert Gottlieb provide a synthesis of published literature on the benefits of parks and an evaluation of community perspectives from a series of interviews with key community residents and stakeholders. In addition, demographic information about the parks is paired
with the other sources for an analysis of the issues and a series of recommendations for maximizing community benefits associated with the two new parks.

Strengthening the "right to organize"

A sure sign that progressives are changing the political debate in the country is the fact that the New York Times devoted its entire June 10 magazine to articles about inequality and poverty.  The issue includes an article on an SEIU union organizing campaign, another on global poverty, another on the role on class and schools, and one on widening economic equality. There's also an article (and cover photo) about John Edwards, reflecting the fact that he's been focusing on these issues as part of his presidential campaign.  The Edwards article is pasted below.

What's the real story behind the US Attorney scandal?

Most of the mainstream media has missed the real story behind the firing of US Attorney David C. Iglesias of New Mexico and his counterparts in other states. As John Atlas explains in the summer 2007 issue of Shelterforce, Iglesias lost his job in December 2005 after he declined to prosecute a voter-fraud case against ACORN, the community organizing group that had been registering large numbers of voters in the state's low-income and largely minority neighborhoods in 2004.  But this isn't an isolated incident.  Karl Rove's strategy has been to make it much more difficult for poor and minority people to register to vote and to vote, particularly in key swing states. Harrassing groups like ACORN that register and mobilize the poor, on trumped up charges of "voter fraud," has been a major tactic of the Bush administration. In firing Iglesias, Attorney General Gonzales was just following orders.  Although the Bush administration has been unable to back up its "voter fraud" charges against ACORN,  the group has had to spend time and money defending itself against the Bush administration's harassment -- another part of the Bush strategy to keep progressives off-balance and on the defensive.  Fortunately, ACORN has fought back and has continued to register voters, mobilize the poor, and win grassroot campaigns for living wages, affordable housing, and other issues.  In the short-term, making Gonzalez the scapegoat serves the Bush administration's purposes of deflecting media attention away from the misdeeds of Bush, Cheney and Rove. But having a Democratic majority in Congress has made it more difficult for B, C, and R to hide their corrupt practices, especially with people like Cong. Henry Waxman using their power to investigate and hold public hearings on everything from Bush's attempt to suppress voter registration and turnout to the war-profiteering of politically-connected corporation.

The New Gilded Age and the Burgeoning New Progressive Era

America's new Gilded Age -- widening inequality and deteriorating social conditions -- is triggering a new Progressive Era, an upsurge of progressive organizing, ideas, and electoral shifts. This is reflected in several ways, including:

This year's LA Business Journal look at the 50 Wealthiest People in the LA area came out this week.  The net worth of LA's 50 richest -- $118 billion this year - has doubled in less than a decade. The LABJ editor asked me to write a commentary on this year's list.  I initially called the piece "LA's New Gilded Age" but the editors changed the title to one I'm not happy with. At the end, I suggest four federal policies that would both lift many people out of poverty and reduce the widening gap between the rich and everyone else.

One aspect of the burgeoning progressive movement is the upsurge of grassroots organizing among LA's renters, which I discussed in my op-ed, "LA Renters Strike Back," in Sunday's Los Angeles Times. 

Another aspect is the immigrant rights movement. One of its key national leaders is Angelica Salas, an Occidental graduate who heads the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in LA (CHIRLA).  I was proud that Oxy gave Angelica an honorary degree at our May 20 commencement, which led to this wonderful column in the Sunday LA Times by Steve Lopez. 

Finally, another progressive sign of the times is the anti-poverty and pro-union focus of John Edwards' presidential campaign, about which the LA Times published an article yesterday, although tinged with the typical media skepticism. As the Times reports, Edwards has spent much of the past two years working with unions and community organizing groups like ACORN around grassroots campaigns to mobilize low-wage workers. His presidential campaign reflects this commitment.

Good news on the housing front

LA's persistent housing crisis is getting more attention, thanks to the growing activism of community and tenant groups, including a creative protest last week, reported in the LA Times article below, at a UCLA real estate finance class taught by a local landlord who is trying to evict his Section 8 tenants. Three weeks ago, activists held a Tent City protest outside LA City Hall and a week later organized a march to City Hall that included civil disobedience inside the City Council chambers.   These protests generated media attention but, equally important, a positive response from elected officials, who are now more involved in responding to concerns of Housing LA, a broad coalition of community and tenant groups, nonprofit developers, unions, and others.  This demonstrates the importance of grassroots organizing.  In general the mainstream media downplay or ignore the housing crisis and the plight of tenants unless grassroots groups promote policy ideas and then create the political tension needed to inject them into the media and the public debate.   More good news is reflected in this article from yesterday's LA Times about the efforts of local building trade (construction) unions to recruit people of color and residents of inner city neighborhoods, including former gang members. My old boss, Boston Mayor Ray Flynn, used to say that "the best social policy is a good job." This article suggests the truth of that statement.