An electric top handler moves cargo off of semi-trucks at Yusen Terminals at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro.
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Joel Angel Juarez
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CalMatters
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Topline:
California and 23 other mostly Democratic states on Thursday sued the Trump administration over its new justification for the president’s wide-ranging tariffs.
About the lawsuit: State Attorney General Rob Bonta is co-leading the lawsuit with the attorneys general of Oregon, Arizona and New York. They say President Donald Trump’s use of Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 — which he invoked after the U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 20 ruled that his use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act was unconstitutional — is also illegal. Trump immediately issued 10% tariffs across the board after the Supreme Court ruling that struck down most of the tariffs he imposed last year.
Why it matters: In California, tariffs have disrupted businesses and industries including agriculture and wine, whose exports have fallen, according to a Public Policy Institute of California analysis. The attorneys general also mentioned that Trump’s tariffs have raised prices for U.S. consumers and businesses. A recent Yale Lab study estimated that tariffs have cost the average household about $1,000 a year.
California and 23 other mostly Democratic states on Thursday sued the Trump administration over its new justification for the president’s wide-ranging tariffs.
State Attorney General Rob Bonta is co-leading the lawsuit with the attorneys general of Oregon, Arizona and New York. They say President Donald Trump’s use of Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 — which he invoked after the U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 20 ruled that his use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act was unconstitutional — is also illegal.
Trump immediately issued 10% tariffs across the board after the Supreme Court ruling that struck down most of the tariffs he imposed last year.
“He’s desperately grasping at straws,” Bonta said in a virtual press conference Friday. “The president’s rationale for these unlawful tariffs has gone from unreasonable to ridiculous.”
The group filed the lawsuit in the Court of International Trade. It says that Section 122 has never been invoked and can be used only under limited circumstances, such as to deal with “large and serious balance-of-payments deficits” and to prevent an “imminent and significant depreciation of the dollar,” and that the president’s justifications do not meet those requirements.
“The President is using his authority granted by Congress to address fundamental international payments problems and to deal with our country’s large and serious balance-of-payments deficits,” White House Spokesperson Kush Desai said in an email. “The Administration will vigorously defend the President’s action in court.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who was also at the press conference, said the president “conflates the balance-of-payment deficit with the trade deficit. They’re two distinct issues.”
The 35-page lawsuit explains that the balance of payments — the record of all transactions between U.S. and foreign residents that includes goods, services, income, assets and liabilities — consists of more than just the trade deficit.
Section 122 also requires that tariffs be applied evenly across products, which the lawsuit says the administration is not doing because Trump’s tariffs proclamation includes exemptions of goods from Canada and other countries, and many product exceptions.
The attorneys general also mentioned that Trump’s tariffs have raised prices for U.S. consumers and businesses. A recent Yale Lab study estimated that tariffs have cost the average household about $1,000 a year.
“President Trump ran on the promise of making life more affordable for families, yet here he is breaking the law to make life more expensive for Americans,” Bonta said.
In California, tariffs have disrupted businesses and industries including agriculture and wine, whose exports have fallen, according to a Public Policy Institute of California analysis.
The other states that brought the lawsuit are Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
On Wednesday, a judge for the Court of International Trade ruled that companies that paid broad tariffs under the previous law cited by Trump are due refunds.The United States collected more than $264 billion in tariffs in 2025, according to the Tax Foundation. More than $130 billion of the tariffs collected were under the law the Supreme Court ruled the president did not have the authority to use.
South Pas residents raise alarm about surveillance
Libby Rainey
is a general assignment reporter. She covers the news that shapes Los Angeles and how people change the city in return.
Published March 5, 2026 2:48 PM
Residents gathered in South Pasadena this week to tell the city council to cancel its contracts with Flock Safety.
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Libby Rainey
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LAist
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Topline:
South Pasadena residents are urging their city council to end its contracts with Flock Safety, the controversial surveillance company that operates AI-powered automated license plate readers in thousands of communities across the U.S., including many in California. They're part of a growing movement.
How other communities are responding: Santa Cruz killed its contract with Flock in January following reports that the city's data was accessed by agencies outside of California and shared with ICE. Last month, Mountain View Police Department shut off its Flock cameras after an audit found that federal agencies had accessed its data in 2024. The Oxnard Police Department also suspended its use of Flock license plate readers last week.
Keep reading...for more on how Flock works, what California law says, and the decision ahead for the city of South Pasadena.
A group in South Pasadena gathered Wednesday to urge their city council to end its contracts with Flock Safety, the controversial surveillance company that operates AI-powered automated license plate readers in thousands of communities across the U.S., including many in California.
The small town has 27 Flock cameras that monitor the cars that come and go in the community of around 25,000 people — one of the highest densities in the region, according to the mayor. That information is temporarily stored in a database that's shared with law enforcement agencies across the state.
"I’m deeply concerned for the safety of our community. Flock has proven to be careless with our data," Olivia Ramirez, a South Pasadena resident, told the city council in public comment Wednesday. “Continuing to work with Flock will erode public trust and, as a consequence, will harm public safety.”
The speakers are part of a growing movement, as residents across California push local law enforcement and city governments to reconsider their ties with the Flock over concerns about surveillance and how their data could be used in the federal government's mass deportation campaign.
How other communities are responding
Santa Cruz killed its contract with Flock in January following reports that the city's data was accessed by agencies outside of California and shared with ICE. Last month, Mountain View Police Department shut off its Flock cameras after an audit found that federal agencies had accessed its data in 2024. Other local governments in the Bay Area have followed suit.
The Oxnard Police Department also suspended its use of Flock license plate readers last week, after an audit revealed that data from the city's cameras was made available to federal law enforcement agencies between February and March of 2025 through a "nationwide query" setting, against the city's wishes and state law. A California law prohibits sharing license plate reader data with agencies outside of the state.
Flock acknowledged the incident in a blog post this week, saying that out-of-state law enforcement agencies' access to some of its camera networks was "inadvertent" and it was not possible in some cases to determine the cause.
The post also said that Flock had strengthened its protections, including by excluding federal agencies from national and statewide lookup networks, and implementing guardrails that keep California agencies from accepting or initiating data sharing with federal agencies or out of state entities.
"Flock sincerely regrets the confusion and mistrust this has created within several communities," the blog post reads. "Flock takes full accountability for this situation, and has made changes and improvements to significantly enhance agency ability to effortlessly comply with applicable laws, regulations, and community norms that govern information sharing."
That wasn't good enough for Sam Gurley, who rallied with his neighbors in South Pasadena on Wednesday night.
“It isn't until they get caught that they say, 'Hey, I know that this is a law in California. We got caught, let's fix it,'" said Gurley, who said he became alarmed when he learned that Flock cameras were deployed. " Now that I have a better understanding of how the system, the city use and share this data with each other, I'm more terrified than I've ever been."
How Flock works
Flock has contracts with more than 5,000 law enforcement agencies around the nation that use its cameras and license plate readers. The cameras are sometimes attached to telephone poles — including one on Fair Oaks Avenue in South Pasadena near the entrance to the 110 Freeway, where cars streamed by the nondescript camera under a small solar panel on Wednesday evening.
There are 27 Flock cameras installed around the city of South Pasadena.
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Libby Rainey
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LAist
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Flock cameras "continuously scan and record images" of vehicles' license plates numbers, color, and make, according to a report put together by city staff in South Pasadena. The cameras record the date, time and GPS location every time a car passes by. According to Flock's website, the cameras also pick up other identifying features of cars, like stickers and roof racks.
The technology automatically cross references license plate numbers with law enforcement databases and alerts the police department if it detects a vehicle connected with a criminal investigation, according to the report.
Flock's database also allows law enforcement agencies to search the location of vehicles outside of their own city. Flock stores the data for 30 days and then automatically deletes it, although cities can adjust the length of time they retain the data. Flock emphasized to NPR that cities control how the data they collect is shared.
Law enforcement agencies have hailed the technology for helping them locate suspects and stolen vehicles. At a February city council meeting, South Pasadena Sergeant Andy DuBois called the Flock cameras a "force multiplier" for officers trying to solve crimes.
" It allows agencies to share relevant information in a secure and regulated way. By participating in this network, we benefit from broader technological coverage without needing to add additional staffing," DuBois said.
Nick Hidalgo, senior staff attorney with ACLU of Northern California who has done work on automated license plate readers for years, called the technology a "dragnet.”
"What they are collecting is a person's location — because any license plate information can be connected very easily to a driver," he said. "You can capture a ton of information about where a person lives, works, etc. We're talking about truly sensitive information here."
A deeper look at the law
In California, state law SB 34 prohibits agencies from sharing information gathered by automated license plate readers with out-of-state and federal agencies. Police departments also must keep a record of their queries of the system. Another state law, SB 54, limits California law enforcement agencies from assisting with immigration enforcement.
"The majority of California law enforcement agencies collect and use images captured by ALPR cameras, but few have appropriate usage and privacy policies in place," a press release from Bonta's office said at the time.
Last year, Bonta sued the city of El Cajon in San Diego County, saying it had shared data from its system of Flock automated license plate reader cameras with more than 100 out-of-state law enforcement agencies. The mayor of that city responded with defiance, saying it shares data with other states because "crime doesn't stop at the border."
Flock Safety says that it does not work with ICE or any agency within the Department of Homeland Security. It also emphasizes that it is local agencies that own the data that their cameras collect, not Flock.
South Pasadena faces a deadline
The city of South Pasadena pays around $83,000 annually for two contracts with Flock – one which sunsets this month, on March 19. The council has until March 18 to decide whether or not to auto-renew the contract for two more years.
If the city decides to terminate the contract, it will have to repay a federal grant of around $45,000 it used to install 14 cameras. The city could also decide to end its second contract with Flock before its March, 2027 end date. That would cost the city a $6,500 termination fee, but it would receive a refund for the unused days of service, according to a city report.
South Pasadena Mayor Sheila Rossi told LAist that she's concerned about Flock's system and reports about data being shared out of the state of California. She also told the city council in February that South Pasadena had a far higher density of cameras than many surrounding communities, saying it reached "the category of surveillance."
South Pasadena says it's implementing changes to its camera policies, including requiring monthly audits of how the system is queried and requiring agents that search the data include a case number.
Councilmembers in February also raised the idea of reducing their system's data retention to less than 30 days. The state of New Hampshire requires law enforcement agencies to delete automated license plate reader data after three minutes if it does not yield a hit with criminal investigations.
Rossi said the council will look into options including contracting with other automated license plate readers and canceling one of the city contracts with Flock.
" Cities have a responsibility to make sure the safeguards around these tools keep pace," she said.
Susan Seager, a First Amendment lawyer and South Pasadena resident, said she wants the cameras gone, period.
" I don't trust Flock and I don't trust our federal government, and I want to be able to trust our local police department," she said. "I don't think our little small city should be part of that surveillance state."
Aaron Schrank
has been on the ground, reporting on homelessness and other issues in L.A. for more than a decade.
Published March 5, 2026 2:41 PM
Gita O’Neill, interim CEO of LAHSA, speaks ahead of the annual homeless count on Jan. 20, 2026.
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Jordan Rynning
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LAist
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Topline:
L.A.’s regional homeless services agency revealed last month that it’s behind on paying tens of millions of public dollars to homeless services providers currently operating shelters and other services for unhoused Angelenos. Now, the city of Los Angeles and L.A County are investigating the causes of LAHSA’s cashflow problems and pushing to get those contractors paid.
Why it matters: Leaders at the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, or LAHSA, said the agency currently owes more than $50 million to organizations for services they’ve already provided. Several LAHSA contractors told LAist they’re taking on debt to maintain operations while awaiting payments.
The context: LAHSA’s latest crisis comes as it has been under heightened scrutiny for more than a year, after an L.A. County audit and federal court-ordered review found widespread financial mismanagement.
Blame game: The agency’s finance team blames the payment delays on a variety of factors, including LAHSA’s own outdated policies, disorganized workflows and low morale among staff. They also point to the bureaucracies of the county and especially the city, which LAHSA said has failed to pass along tens of millions in public funds meant for providers.
Officials respond: L.A. County’s auditor-controller is launching a review of LAHSA’s financial operations. The audit is expected to begin Thursday and conclude this month, officials said. County supervisors also approved a motion this week asking staff to come up with a plan to speed up late payments to county-funded providers. Officials from the city of L.A. said the Los Angeles Housing Department, City Administrative Officer and LAHSA are working together to expedite the contracting and payments processes on the city side.
Los Angeles' regional homeless services agency revealed last month that it’s behind on paying tens of millions of public dollars to homeless services providers currently operating shelters and other services for unhoused Angelenos.
Leaders at the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, or LAHSA, said the agency currently owes more than $50 million to service providers for services they’ve already provided. Several LAHSA contractors told LAist they’re taking on debt to maintain operations while awaiting payments.
Now, the city of L.A. and L.A County are investigating the causes of LAHSA’s cashflow problems and pushing to get those contractors paid.
The agency’s finance team blames the payment delays on a variety of factors, including LAHSA’s own outdated policies, disorganized workflows and low morale among staff.
They also point to local bureaucracies, especially within city government, which LAHSA said has failed to pass along tens of millions in public funds meant for providers.
Starting Thursday, the county’s auditor-controller is launching a review of LAHSA’s financial operations. The audit is expected to conclude this month, officials said. County supervisors also approved a motion this week asking staff to come up with a plan to speed up late payments to county-funded providers.
Officials from the city of L.A. said the Los Angeles Housing Department, City Administrative Officer's Office and LAHSA are working together to expedite the contracting and payments processes on the city side.
This budget year, which ends June 30, LAHSA is responsible for doling out nearly $700 million in city, county and state and federal dollars to the local organizations it contracts with to provide homeless services.
LAHSA’s latest payments crisis comes as L.A.’s lead homelessness agency has been under heightened scrutiny for more than a year, after an L.A. County audit and federal court-ordered review found widespread financial mismanagement.
County officials cited LAHSA’s oversight problems when they voted last April to shift more than $300 million in funds away from the agency next budget year and oversee the funds itself within a new homelessness department.
“LAHSA does not have the staffing or expertise to pay its bills,” Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said in a statement. “These failures have destabilized providers and eroded public trust — and they must end.”
Now, the L.A. City Council is weighing moving the city’s roughly $300 million away from the troubled agency soon, too.
Some officials are calling for serious reforms at LAHSA's finance department. L.A. City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez told LAist the delayed payments aren’t an isolated incident, but a symptom of the agency’s broken governance structure.
“When the City routes hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars through a joint authority without directly negotiating and contracting with providers, accountability becomes blurred and finger-pointing replaces responsibility,” Rodriguez said in a statement.
L.A. County began issuing quarterly advance payments to LAHSA to pay homeless service providers ahead of time, officials said, instead of weeks or months later. The city started doing the same thing for many of its LAHSA contracts.
Janine Trejo, LAHSA’s chief financial officer, was instrumental in developing the new advanced payment model, according to the agency.
But that fix, which was meant to speed up payments, is now a bottleneck. The advance-payments system has become administratively burdensome for overworked and undertrained staff, LAHSA officials said. And the agency failed to release many of those advances to providers on time this year.
“Having an advanced model is great for the providers, but it’s extremely difficult for LAHSA,” said Gita O’Neill, the agency's interim CEO, in a public meeting last week.
In December, LAHSA put a new plan in place for contracts, which O’Neill said “will prevent the avalanche of invoices” next budget year. She said LAHSA is working to identify consultants to help the agency modernize how it issues and recoups advances, submits cash requests to funders and disperses checks.
“We're actually gonna go through it with an outside firm and make sure it works,” O’Neill said last week at a LAHSA Commission meeting. “Not just fixing the tools, but actually checking the process to see if we can make it better, since it's my understanding that this happens year after year at LAHSA and it can't continue. We aren't just gonna put a band-aid on it.”
O’Neill acknowledged the agency is in deep crisis.
“LAHSA has been structured for decades as the entity that takes the blame,” O’Neill said. “Political incentive has always been to point at LAHSA rather than to address structural issues.”
Janine Trejo, LAHSA's Chief Financial Officer, speaks at a LAHSA Commission meeting on April 25, 2025.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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LAist
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The blame game
Last month, LAHSA finance deputy Janine Lim told the commission overseeing the agency that delayed payments were partly caused by the city of L.A. not passing along funds.
LAHSA Commission member Amy Perkins, also a policy deputy for county Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, pressed Lim on why the agency had not raised an alarm.
“Providers are submitting invoices for work they've completed for the city of Los Angeles and you don't have that money, and you are not calling out that as a 911?” Perkins said. “That feels like a 911 to me.”
Lim said she had informed providers consistently that LAHSA was waiting on payments from the city — more than $40 million as of last week.
Contracts for the Inside Safe program, which moves people from encampments into shelter, had the longest delays, Lim said. That program is funded quarterly, making payments more complicated.
“ Government funding, I think as we know, is some of the toughest dollars to manage,” Lim said.
Several homeless services providers told LAist that the wait is typically longer for city-funded contracts, because there are more departments and offices involved.
“What may take the County a few days or a week to approve, can take considerably longer at the City level,” said Kelvin Driscoll, CEO of HOPICS, in a written comment. “The City has a much more complex process that can, and has, caused delays for months in both finalizing contracts as well as funding.”
City pushes back
City officials acknowledged the need to streamline their processes, but said LAHSA was slow to finalize contracts for the current budget year.
The city of L.A. executed its eight contracts with LAHSA in September, a few months after the budget year had already started. It then took LAHSA until this February to finalize 160 subcontracts with the providers, city officials said.
“While there is certainly room to move faster on the city side, most of the delay this year in contracting was at LAHSA,” L.A. City Councilmember Nithya Raman told LAist.
Matt Szabo, L.A.’s city administrative officer, said the city has already given LAHSA more money than it has asked for when it comes to advances.
“The City has disbursed more than $138 million to LAHSA in advance-payments this year, far in excess of what we have been billed for to date,” Szabo told LAist in a statement.
Raman, who chairs the council’s homelessness committee, said the overdue payments are unacceptable.
“I do not think the city should sign any new contract with LAHSA for next fiscal year until LAHSA has an outside, qualified accounting firm in place to process its payments and cashflow,” Raman said.
Meanwhile, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass blamed the City Council for contributing to the delays.
During this year’s budget process, the council voted to move half of all funding for shelter beds into the city’s unappropriated balance, to allow for more spending flexibility and oversight. That decision has caused severe payment delays this budget year, the mayor’s office said.
“Mayor Bass is exploring all available options to improve this system, including reevaluating the cost-reimbursement model, advocating for a multi-year budget, and working with the city council to keep all homelessness funding outside of the unappropriated balance,” a Bass spokesperson told LAist.
The Housing Department administers LAHSA’s city-funded homelessness contracts. The department did not immediately respond to questions about the delayed payments.
Large trash piles and sprawling homeless encampment in downtown Los Angeles Sept. 25, 2025.
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Allen J. Schaben
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Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
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What’s next?
The evaluation by the Auditor-Controller’s Office will focus on the agency’s delayed processing of invoices and its failure to draw down available funds in time to pay scheduled advance payments to some county-funded providers last month.
Acting County CEO Joe Nicchitta sent a letter notifying LAHSA of the review last week.
“ Why this happened, I think, remains unclear,” Nicchitta told county supervisors this week. “We all agreed that a review of LAHSA’s policies, procedures, and financial records relating to the advances was warranted and necessary to make sure that we understood what was happening.”
County officials are expected to return to the Board of Supervisors with a financial analysis and corrective action plan next month.
In July, L.A. County will start managing its homelessness funds directly, through the Department of Homeless Services and Housing, instead of relying on LAHSA.
After an L.A. City Council committee discussed options at a meeting Wednesday, Bass released a statement urging the council not to withdraw funding from LAHSA without a plan in place.
“We need to continue putting people and services first,” Bass said.
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Mayor Rex Richardson speaks at a groundbreaking of the 51st Street Greenbelt project in Long Beach.
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Thomas R. Cordova
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Topline:
Incumbent Mayor Rex Richardson has raised more than $336,000 in contributions for his reelection bid, while his four declared challengers have not yet reported raising any money, according to campaign finance filings. This comes as the field for the mayoral race, the marquee local race, is nearly finalized ahead of the filing deadline on Friday, March 6.
The candidates: Richardson, looking to secure his second term, will so far face four contenders: former Marine and National Guardsman Joshua Rodriguez; Lee Goldin, a nonprofit worker; Rogelio Martinez, who gained notice for calling upon gangs to “take back” the city from ICE; and childcare specialist Terri Rivers. None has held elected office in Long Beach before.
What's next: Experts say such a large gap in fundraising is a strong indication of how the election will likely turn out. Any candidate that earns more than 50% of the vote in the June 2 primary election will win outright; if no candidate gets a majority vote, the top two vote-getters will advance to the general election on Nov. 3.
Incumbent Mayor Rex Richardson has raised more than $336,000 in contributions for his reelection bid, while his four declared challengers have not yet reported raising any money, according to campaign finance filings.
This comes as the field for the mayoral race, the marquee local race, is nearly finalized ahead of the filing deadline on Friday, March 6.
Richardson, looking to secure his second term, will so far face four contenders: former Marine and National Guardsman Joshua Rodriguez; Lee Goldin, a nonprofit worker; Rogelio Martinez, who gained notice for calling upon gangs to “take back” the city from ICE; and childcare specialist Terri Rivers.
None has held elected office in Long Beach before. The city has not voted in a mayor who hasn’t first sat on the City Council since Beverly O’Neill’s inaugural victory in 1994.
Outside of Richardson, only Rivers has filed to form a campaign fundraising committee, which is required if they plan to receive over $2,000 in contributions. None of the challengers has reported making any expenditures. Richardson has so far spent $138,000, mostly on campaign consultants.
Any candidate that earns more than 50% of the vote in the June 2 primary election will win outright; if no candidate gets a majority vote, the top two vote-getters will advance to the general election on Nov. 3.
Experts say such a large gap in fundraising is a strong indication of how the election will likely turn out.
Winning against a local incumbent like Richardson is “extremely difficult,” barring a major scandal or instance of corruption, said Matt Lesenyie, a political science professor at Cal State Long Beach.
“The strength of the incumbent can scare off quality candidates,” he said. “And then, should somebody take them on, they’ve got this machine with inertia that is going to push back against them mightily.”
Behind Richardson is a donor coalition of labor and business groups, politicians like Assemblyman Josh Lowenthal and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, two sitting Long Beach council members in their own re-election races and L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna, formerly Long Beach’s police chief.
Beyond that, analysts who spoke with the Long Beach Post say Richardson holds the advantage in experience, name recognition and backings than his less well-heeled competitors.
The power of the mayor includes running council meetings, advocating on a regional, state and federal level, providing budget recommendations, among other duties. The measure of a good candidate, in many ways, is their ability to drive momentum around a plan.
Winning the seat, Lesenyie said, requires strong name recognition, a sizable war chest, and tight-knit backing from business associations, unions and other civic leaders. Winning candidates also need a track record that shows wherever they previously served, success was left in their wake.
David Wagner
covers housing in Southern California, a place where the lack of affordable housing contributes to homelessness.
Published March 5, 2026 1:23 PM
Lisa Ross stands outside the Palisades Bowl mobile home park where she and her family lived for 33 years.
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David Wagner
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LAist
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Topline:
Before it was destroyed in last year’s fires, the Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Estates was a rare piece of beachfront real estate. The mobile home park provided affordable housing to families unable to buy one of the multi-million dollar homes more typical of the neighborhood. But that affordable housing could be permanently lost now that the owners of the destroyed property have started quietly seeking new buyers.
The sales pitch: In a confidential offering memorandum obtained by LAist, the former 173-lot mobile home park is being pitched to investors as “a rare blank canvas for transformative development.” Former residents are still fighting to return to the rent-controlled lots where they hope to rebuild new manufactured homes. But they say the owners have not been clear about the park’s future.
The fight to return: State and local politicians say they’re working to get former residents back to their homes. But affordable housing advocates worry that the Palisades Bowl could suffer the same fate as other California mobile home parks that were never rebuilt after fires.
Read on… to hear from former residents who say the Palisades Bowl was “paradise.”
Before it was destroyed in last year’s fires, the Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Estates was a rare piece of beachfront real estate. The mobile home park provided affordable housing to families unable to buy one of the multi-million dollar homes more typical of the neighborhood.
“This was like paradise,” said Rashi Kaslow, a sailboat rigger who had lived at the property for 17 years. “There's nowhere else I want to be.”
Kaslow has been living on a boat since his Palisades Bowl home was lost in the fire.
Now that affordable housing could be permanently lost, with owners of the destroyed property now quietly seeking new buyers.
In a confidential offering memorandum obtained by LAist, the former 173-lot mobile home park is being pitched to investors as “a rare blank canvas for transformative development.”
Former residents are still fighting to return to the rent-controlled lots where they hope to rebuild new manufactured homes. But they say the owners have not been clear about the park’s future.
“A lot of our residents are already traumatized and still grieving,” said Jon Brown, president of the Palisades Bowl Community Group, an organization formed by displaced residents.
“Without the park owners communicating with us, we don't really know what's going on,” Brown added. “We can only remain confident that our government is going to continue to try to protect us.”
Rashi Kaslow stands in a beach parking lot across from the Palisades Bowl mobile home park, where residents' burned cars still haven't been removed.
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David Wagner/LAist
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No price disclosed
The Palisades Fire ripped through the Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Estates.
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Myung J. Chun
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Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
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Matthew Wenzel, a broker with the firm Marcus & Millichap, did not share the price the owners are asking for the 861,181-square-foot property. When asked about the former residents, he told LAist, “The owner is exploring all options for future use of the property.”
LAist contacted park co-owner Colby Biggs for comment, but did not receive a response. We also received no response after emailing the attorney for co-owner Loretta Biggs.
According to the sales document, the land is zoned to allow single-family homes with minimum lot sizes of 40,000 square feet.
Muhammad Alameldin, senior policy advisor at the pro-housing group California YIMBY, said at that size, fewer than two dozen homes could fit on the property. He said redevelopment could involve replacing former residents with much fewer — and much wealthier — homeowners.
“It's a shame that these fires happened, they destroyed people's lives, and now the existing local rules say the only thing that can be built is mansions,” Alameldin said. “This is one of the last parcels of affordable home ownership in the Palisades area. That's going to disappear.”
What rights do residents have?
Mobile home residents have a unique relationship with park owners. Unlike most renters, they own the structures they live in. But unlike most homeowners, they don’t own their land — they rent lots from park owners.
Clemente Mojica, president of the affordable housing nonprofit Neighborhood Partnership Housing Services, said legal protections are often lacking for mobile home residents after natural disasters. He said mobile home parks have rarely been rebuilt after past California fires.
“Rebuilding isn't a choice for residents, but for the park ownership,” Mojica said. “In the case of the Palisades Bowl, the park ownership clearly does not intend to rebuild, which means that the next best option we see is a sale to the residents.”
Former residents have hung signs on the chain-link fence outside the Palisades Bowl mobile home park.
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David Wagner/LAist
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Former residents say the Palisades Bowl owners should continue to honor their tenancies, which were subject to the city of L.A.’s rent control laws.
“They're hoping that somebody with a lot of money comes along, and maybe they don't do their due diligence,” said Lisa Ross, who lived at the Palisades Bowl for 33 years.
Since the fire, her family has been renting a Marina Del Rey apartment, but insurance money for rent has run out.
“I don't know what they possibly think,” Ross said of the owners. “I do know that we have people behind us in government officials who are adamant.”
State lawmakers worry about displaced seniors
State Sen. Ben Allen has introduced Senate Bill 1092, which would require mobile home park owners to give residents the chance to put in competitive bids to buy properties with the help of nonprofits or local governments.
“This park has been home to hundreds of seniors and families over the years,” Allen said in a statement to LAist. “The idea of deliberately and permanently displacing these residents, in such opportunistic fashion, puts a bad taste in all of our mouths.”
But even if Allen’s bill is signed into law, it likely wouldn’t take effect until 2027. Palisades Bowl residents worry a sale could be finalized before then. Allen said that if the sale goes through in the near future, residents should be legally entitled to relocation payments.
Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the neighborhood’s on the L.A. City Council member, told LAist she supports preserving the property’s use as a mobile home park. L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who represents the Palisades, said elected leaders are working to get the residents back to their former homes.
“After surviving one of the most devastating wildfires in our nation’s history, residents of Palisades Bowl should not be facing new uncertainty about their homes,” Horvath said.
Giorgi Antinori and her husband stand at the edge of Will Rogers State Beach.
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David Wagner/LAist
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Sellers say park is a ‘generational offering’
The firms CBRE and Marcus & Millichap have been circulating the confidential sales document to institutional investors and developers. They’re positioning the property for high-end development. Just across Pacific Coast Highway from Will Rogers State Beach, the property is described as “a prime asset in a highly coveted, supply-constrained market.”
The document notes that the neighborhood’s average annual household income is north of $350,000, and average home values are above $1.9 million. It states that the Pacific Palisades is “one of Los Angeles’ most exclusive residential enclaves,” with “high barriers to entry,” such as “strict zoning regulations.”
Residents worry the plans are designed to stop them from ever returning.
Giorgi Antinori lived at the Palisades Bowl for five years with her husband. Their 3-year-old daughter was born in their home. Antinori, a Santa Monica native, said she and her husband spent years looking for affordable housing on L.A.’s Westside before discovering the Palisades Bowl.
Addressing potential buyers, Antinori said: “I would want them to really understand the heart of this place, and appeal to them to rebuild this for what it actually is and what it was. It was beautiful.”