Silver Lake is considering banning vacation-rental website Airbnb. Are short-term rental sites safe for communities? Next, the Dodgers is on a winning streak and has won 40 out of their last 48 games. Then, can collaborative divorce make the process of ending a marriage better, and should the U.S. continue to send aid to Egypt? Also, can parents and child-free adults still remain friends? Lastly, we'll talk about the new exhibit dedicated to Junípero Serra and the California Missions at the Huntington Library.
Is vacation-rental website Airbnb a blessing or nuisance for Angelenos? (Poll)
Silver Lake is considering banning popular website Airbnb that allows people to rent out rooms in their homes for short-term rentals.
It is legal in Los Angeles, but there could be taxation issues and some residents feel it’s a safety hazard bringing in numerous “transients.” There is also a concern that this practice can devalue the property value.
The Silver Lake Neighborhood Council is considering prohibiting them in their area. In New York City earlier this year a judge ruled that these hotel-like homes were breaking the city’s “illegal hotel” law.
Would you rent out your property? Would you feel comfortable if your neighbors rented their home or apartment? Is the government taking this too far? Should Silver Lake prohibit this?
Guests:
Anne-Marie Johnson, Long-time Silver Lake resident; Representative At-Large, Silver Lake Neighborhood Council (SLNC); Board member, SLNC Urban Design & Preservation Advisory Committe
Molly Turner, Policy Director, Airbnb - a peer-to-peer sublet accommodation website; Turner is also an Urban Planner & Preservationist
Don’t jinx that Dodgers streak
The Dodgers continued their red-hot play last night with a come-from-behind win to sweep the visiting New York Mets. Coming back from a 4-0 deficit, the Dodgers tied the game in the 9th on a pinch-hit 2-run home run from Andre Ethier. Then in the bottom of the 12th, rookie sensation Yasiel Puig hustled a single into a double and then scored the winning run on a single from Adrian Gonzalez.
The win was the Dodgers’ 8th in a row, and they’ve won a staggering 40 of their last 48 games, the best stretch that baseball has seen since the 1942 St. Louis Cardinals. The team went from being at the bottom of their division less than 2 months ago to now being 20 games over .500, leading their division by 7.5 games, and now looking like serious contenders, to win the pennant.
Are the Dodgers riding an amazing string of luck, or is this team really as good as it seems? And is this team built to win in the postseason?
Guest:
Bill Shaikin, covers baseball for the Los Angeles Times
‘Til death do us part doesn’t need to kill you
When most couples marry, they vow to stay together in good times and bad. Christo and Sharlene Lassiter of Cincinnati certainly did, when they got hitched in 1986.
They called it quits after 10 years of marriage, but 17-years later, their divorce-related battles are still ongoing. The divorce between the two ex-spouses, who also happen to both be law professors, has been so acrimonious, that a judge recently rebuked the pair saying they make a mockery of the legal profession. Not all divorce cases are this extreme. But the very process of divorce is by nature, adversarial.
So what options exist for couples who hope to split up more amicably? It’s called collaborative divorce and it’s a process that addresses the financial, emotional and legal aspects of divorce, all at once. It’s aimed at saving couples heartache, money and ugly court battles. How does collaborative divorce work? What if one spouse is hooked on fighting?
Guests:
Mary Ann Aronsohn, marriage and family therapist in private practice in South Pasadena; collaborative divorce coach
Leslee J. Newman, attorney at law specializing in amicable divorce
Rising death tolls in Egypt putting pressure on Obama to suspend military aid
Violent clashes in Egypt have raised the death toll to over 500 as supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi grow angrier and call for more protest marches. The aggressive tactics of the Egyptian military have drawn criticism from around the world, and President Obama has been pressured to reduce the $1.3 billion dollars of aid that the US gives the Egyptian military.
In a press conference on Thursday morning, the president announced that US-Egyptian relations are being tested in light of the Egyptian military’s role in the most recent clashes, and he announced the cancellation of US-Egypt joint military exercises scheduled for next month. However, Obama did not suggest that the US would cancel its foreign aid.
With other wealthy gulf states not trumping US aid to Egypt by billions, what significance does US military aid serve in the embattled country? Does the Egyptian military legitimately need the $1.3 billion dollars? Why else might the US benefit from continuing aid? Is their political leverage to be used? At what point does the president draw the line? What else can the administration due to influence the governance of Egypt?
Guests:
Sharif Kouddous, freelance journalist based in Cairo
Khairi Abaza, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Mark LeVine, professor of middle east history at UC Irvine; he just returned from Cairo this week.
Parents and the child-free: can they truly be friends?
In one corner you have sleep-deprived parents who are more concerned about school districts than which are the best new bars in town. In the other corner, you have child-free folks who could care less about preschools or which brand of car seats to get. Yes. Yes. We are firmly in the territory of stereotypes, but the fact remains that the two lifestyles are pretty different and come with different priorities. The divide has caused one mom recently to wonder whether it is indeed possible for people with kids to stay friends with people who are child-free.
If you are child-free, do you like hanging out with friends who have kids? If you are a parent, how is it hanging out with friends who don’t have kids?
Guests:
Brett Singer, freelance writer and editor of daddytips.com
Ellen Walker, a clinical psychologist in Washington and the author of "Complete Without Kids: An Insider's Guide to Childfree Living By Choice Or By Chance" (Greenleaf Book Group, 2011)
Junípero Serra and the Legacies of the California Missions at the Huntington
A new exhibit titled “Junípero Serra and the Legacies of the California Missions” open Saturday, August 17th at the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino.
The show brings together for the first time material from Spain, Mexico, and the missions here in California, to provide new insights into who Father Junípero Serra was, the purpose of the mission experience, as well as contemporary Native California views on what it all means today.
If you grew up in California, no doubt in the fourth grade you learned about Serra’s mission and the buildings he left behind as milestones in the “discovery” of North America by Europeans.
A Map of Junípero Serra's travels
What do the missions symbolize to you?
Guests:
Steve Hackel, co-curator of the exhibition, professor of history at the University of California, Riverside, and Serra biographer (“Junípero Serra: California’s Founding Father”)
Cathy Gudis, co-curator of the exhibition and professor of California and public history at the University of California, Riverside