California regulators hope new utility company safety rules will prevent wildfires, Star Wars fashion goes high end in LA, vandalism and safety issues on neighborhood Candy Cane Lanes.
State of Affairs: London Breed's biggest challenges, CA, FCC showdown looms
Today on State of Affairs:
- Acting mayor London Breed takes over in San Francisco after the sudden death of Mayor Ed Lee. She inherits a grieving city and several pressing concerns.
- The Federal Communications Commission rolled back net neutrality regulations Thursday. Now, state Senator Scott Wiener says he has a plan to keep them in place in California.
- Governor Jerry Brown's chief financial advisor has written a letter to California's congressional delegation detailing Brown's qualms with the GOP tax plan.
KQED's Marisa Lagos on the biggest challenges awaiting London Breed:
Housing, homelessness, and affordability. I know it's a common refrain in Los Angeles as well. Mayor Lee oversaw an incredible period in the city where we saw the unemployment rate drop to near zero, where we saw the median price of a home doubled to more than $1 million just in the short six or seven years. And then a lot of the middle class is being pushed out.
I think that's going to be this core issue. When he came in it was all about jobs, now it's all about houses.
Guests:
- Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, professor of public policy at USC
- Marisa Lagos, political reporter, KQED
Utilities told to do more to keep power lines from starting fires
SoCal's Candy Cane Lanes face growing pains
You may get into the holiday spirit this weekend by taking the family to a nearby Candy Cane Lane, where neighborhoods coordinate to go all out to decorate their homes with lighting displays, gigantic inflatables and even nativity scenes with live animals.
But not everyone is happy that they've decked their halls.
Residents at several Candy Cane Lanes throughout Southern California say things might be getting out of hand.
"We must have had, I would guess, 40,000 people come through last year," says Matthew Wright in Woodland Hills.
He goes all out with his own lawn display, complete with a train set that people can pose in. But in addition to the high volume of traffic, some visitors are being naughty.
"We had people vandalizing and stealing a reindeer and trash is being tossed on the ground," he says. "People seem to be thinking of this as a public attraction or an amusement park, when it's actually people's front doors."
There are similar problems at El Segundo's Candy Cane Lane.
"Within the last four or five years, the crowds have just exploded," says 13-year resident Teresa Lanphere-Ames, "and we sensed this because of social media."
She suspects when people come to take photos and share online, it drives even more visitors to her street, clogging up roads and sidewalks.
Lanphere-Ames isn't afraid of welcoming people. Safety at night is her biggest concern.
"I'm worried that a small child is going to run out into the street, someone's not going to see them and they're going to get hit," she says.
El Segundo officials have heard that fear, and this weekend and next will be blocking off her streets to through traffic.
Law enforcement in Rancho Cucamonga are taking similar measures, too, for its Candy Cane Lane along Thoroughbred Street.
A boom of visitors to the neighborhood has prompted police to close off the street – which has no sidewalk – to pedestrians from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. every night up to Christmas Eve.
"You have to imagine a situation where people are walking in the street, crossing the street, in a manner they normally wouldn't because they want to go from one side to see the other side, with a high volume of vehicles," says Deputy Jacob Bailey with the Rancho Cucamonga Police Department.
Only visitors in vehicles can pass through to see the lights.
Officials say they'll revisit these measures and their effectiveness after the holidays, but they suggest if you plan to see the lights yourself, remember to be polite so the local residents stay jolly.
The concert series that became too popular for its own good
The Twilight Concert Series on the Santa Monica Pier has gotten too big. Last summer 30,000 people showed up to see Khalid — one of many popular musicians who has performed as part of the series.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75ewwFGSY9U
While it's been a staple at the pier for decades, each year the shows draw bigger and bigger crowds, and officials say they've become unsafe. As a result, the Santa Monica City Council this week approved a motion to change how the concerts operate.
Reporter Kate Cagle has been following this story for the Santa Monica Daily Press. She explained to Take Two's Josie Huang why the change came about:
"That's the main problem that the police department is complaining about. The fact is they really can't tell in advance, they can't tell how many people are going to show up on any given night. There's no way to have a ticketing system."
The chief concern is safety. At first, law enforcement and fire officials suggested the series go on hiatus, but that notion was met with an hour of public comments from Santa Monica residents.
"These are local Santa Monicans who grew up with the concerts, who love them, pleading with their elected leaders not to go on hiatus and not to drastically change the concerts, because all these people are showing up for a reason. People love them."
Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel, whose parent company Snap, Inc. is one of the series sponsors, showed up to the council meeting and offered $1 million to cover the cost of policing.
In the end, the city council voted to limit attendance to the pier deck, schedule no more than six events starting after Labor Day and limit public safety costs to no more than $400,000.
What the new tax proposal could mean for LA freelancers
From actors and Uber drivers to journalists and lawyers, Los Angeles is filled with freelancers, many of whom are likely to be affected by what's currently happening in D.C. as House and Senate Republicans hammer out a final version of their tax overhaul.
For advice to L.A. gig workers, Take Two turned to Mary Tonden, an accountant at Tonden & Associates in Los Angeles.
Actors and other workers on film productions
Actors, production assistants, coordinators and everyone else involved in a production project are considered employees, even if they only work for a day on a commercial. It's the actor's job to find employment.
They pay 10 percent to managers, 10 percent to agents, sometimes 10 percent to lawyers.
Under the new proposal, they don't get to deduct [those kind of] unreimbursed employee expenses. And that's where things will get tricky.
Lawyers, graphic designers, personal trainers and others who work on contract
These people are not going to see that much change in their income.
As long as they still report their income, report their expenses, not much will be different.
There have been things floating around on social media saying they can no longer deduct their business expenses, but that's not true.
Airbnb hosts, Uber and Lyft drivers and other sharing-economy workers
These people are similar to an attorney with a contract.
They can deduct their mileage, their cleaning supplies for the vehicle.
With Airbnb, they can deduct their expenses on the house. Nothing much will be changed in that sense.
LA's shelter dogs may go vegan
L.A. city's Animal Services Commission is considering a proposal that would switch shelter dogs away from meat-based kibble towards vegan food.
It was proposed by board member Roger Wolfson.
"This idea that L.A. Animal Services could stop supporting the killing of farm animals just to feed dogs that no one questions are omnivores, thereby having our small department do its part in protecting the environment, it seemed like a no brainer," he said at last Tuesday's commission meeting.
Daily Breeze reporter Donna Littlejohn adds that Wolfson and his supporters in the audience believe there are other benefits, too.
"He feels that a vegan diet is much healthier for dogs," she says. "The jury's a little bit out on it, it's very new. But there are some vegan commercial dog foods available now, however, and some dogs apparently do quite well on it."
There are a number of scenarios in which this could happen. One idea is to pilot a program at one of LA's six animal shelters.
But the commission's board will spend the next 60 days looking over the research and talking with experts to determine if it's a viable move.
The next board meeting for the commission is January 9th at LA city hall.
The force is strong with these LA fashion stores
"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" hits movie theaters across the nation Friday night and a constellation of fashion offerings is coming along with it.
Think Princess Leia ankle boots, Obi-Wan hoodies and whole Hoth inspired ensembles.
Michelle Dalton Tyree from Fashion Trends Daily checked out the latest looks from a galaxy far, far away.
Star Wars and merchandising
Merchandising has always been a big deal for the Star Wars franchise, but now it's going into hyperdrive.
"To get a sense of the enormity of sales in this industry, here's a number: $118 billion," says Tyree. "That's how much the licensing experts at the firm LIMA say came from entertainment/character licensing sales in 2016. And they said Star Wars is the largest franchise in the business. It's truly a force to reckoned with."
The Last Jedi Collaborations
This time around, one of the biggest fashion collabs with the movie has been with designer brand Rag & Bone. It's is known for edgy urban essentials, like cool denim and leather jackets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RClZeyuBmgE
Tyree headed down to Rag & Bone in West Hollywood and shared some of the cool stuff they had to offer:
"There were t-shirts, but only a few left because most of them sold out in minutes. Some had Aurebesh — the Star Wars language – on them and included little-hidden secrets for super fans on the hang tags. If you could translate Aurebesh, it took you to a secret fan web site."
But Rag & Bone released a new stock of these t-shirts Friday morning, which you can check it out at their website.
On the more luxurious side, there was a Hoth-inspired ensemble.
"It's a a nod to Princess Leia's look from 'The Empire Strikes Back' when she was on the Planet Hoth," she says. "If you remember she had a posh monochromatic creamy ensemble. The store manager said there were people who stood in line and bought the look head-to-toe the morning the collection debuted so they could wear to the L.A. premiere."
And if you don't want to spend a whole paycheck...
- For women & girls, there's the Clarks' x Star Wars "Force of Nature" collection. The hot item is the Rey bootie, which is a high-top sneaker/hiking boot hybrid that works well on both the deserts of Jakku or hiking Runyon. And there's a little emblem on the heel symbolizing the resistance.
- Columbia also harkened back to Empire Strikes Back and collaborated with Harrison Ford on an uber-limited run of parkas, only available in select Columbia stores and each jacket is hand-signed by Ford.
- And beauty is a big category -- we've seen companies from Storybook Cosmetics to Cargo creating make-up palettes inspired by the Dark and Light sides
May the force be with you!