A year after voters approved Measure H, we talk with city/county leaders about the progress that's been done, LA school safety policies, dying malls face a choice.
Solving homelessness takes neighbors, not just money, LA leaders say
Voters in L.A. city and county passed a pair of two ambitious funding plans last year to combat homeless – measures H and HHH.
Together they funnel billions of dollars towards housing, services and prevention. But as most Angelenos can attest, the problem seems to be getting worse – not better.
Even before the sales tax money generated from measure H kicked in last October, L.A. County reported that the homeless population jumped 23 percent between 2016 and 2017.
Many residents are seeing the increase on their own block, while some are ending up on the streets themselves.
Take Two interviewed three of the region's leaders for a status report on where the strategy stands and what victories people can point to right now.
Guests
- Eric Garcetti, mayor of Los Angeles
- Mark Ridley-Thomas, L.A. County supervisor
- Elise Buik, CEO of United Way L.A.
interview highlights
People are looking for results. What have politicians done about it?
Garcetti: Securing the funding's the easy part. Now it's about convincing communities that this is everyone's responsibility.
Is that what stops spending — convincing first?
Garcetti: It slows it down. The quicker we can get to "yes" in a neighborhood, the quicker we can build something. And we're doing our part. Not only do we have a plan, government has to lead. So whether it’s opening new bathrooms up, whether it’s saying we’re going to use our city parking lots like we’re doing now, whether it’s looking at [how] we can make sure that what used to take four years to get something built from idea to finishing can now take maybe six months by changing the rules to get this housing built. Those are really important things where government has to lead, but we can't do it without the community buy-in.
What do you say to voters who agreed to be taxed more when it seems the problem is out of control?
Ridley-Thomas: I'm most impressed with these voters. They understand that this problem didn't evolve overnight and they don't expect for it to be fixed overnight...
People's lives are being saved every single day. May I simply say that we are just now ramping up. This is not even a full year of funding at our disposal. When we have the benefit of that, you will see even more progress, more results happening.
When homeless projects are proposed in neighborhoods, there are the NIMBYs who say Not In My BackYard. A lot of times that can stop a project before it can break ground. United Way has a new survey that touches on this.
Buik: Sixty-nine percent of those polled said they support supportive housing for the homeless in their neighborhood. And so we really view our job, in working with the leaders I'm here with, is to activate that silent majority.
To give you a preview, on Friday we'll be launching a campaign called "Everyone In." This is really to activate individuals to be a part of the solution.
Mayor Garcetti and Supervisor Ridley-Thomas, what does this survey mean to you two, especially when you might hear from angry people at future city and neighborhood council meetings?
Garcetti: It shows how huge the heart of this city is. We can't get this stuff done if people are roadblocks locally...
The question is not whether we bring homeless people to our neighborhood or not. They're there. The question is, "Do you want them on the sidewalk, or do you want them behind four walls?"
When a poll like this says [a majority] of people say it's everyone's problem and we all have to be part of the solution, I think people realize it's not enough to ask for City Hall or ask for our county board of supervisors or others to take care of this. We now have to spend our money where we live to house people.
Ridley-Thomas: We can do this. It's not just in City Hall, it's not just in the Hall of Administration. It's shot through communities from one end of the county to the next.
Geographically, where in the county are you putting the most focus when it comes to this problem?
Ridley-Thomas: The epicenter of the crisis is well-defined – 30 percent or so – in the central areas. That would include Skid Row.
What's interesting about this is the San Fernando Valley, there was a 35 percent uptick. The San Gabriel Valley had a 30-plus percent uptick. In the South Bay, it was 22 percent. Every sector, for the most part, is experiencing an intense climb. We look forward to helping those communities manage these numbers and move to a place where they can more effectively see the quality of life increase.
How should people in L.A. measure whether strategies are working?
Buik: By how many people we're housing at the end of the day, and that the housing is in all 88 communities of the county.
I'm really encouraged — all five [L.A. County] supervisors are on board. We haven't had that in the past. All 15 [L.A. city] council members are moving towards taking their fair share of units. I think that's how we should think about it.
Mayor Garcetti, rumors keep flying that you may run for president in 2020. Do you believe you're ready for the White House if L.A.'s homeless problem isn't solved under your watch by 2020?
Garcetti: I don't care about that question. I care about the homeless...
The number of people we have housed in four years is more than the number of people that were homeless when I started. We've accelerated this incredibly but we netted 40 percent more people out there. In other words, we got better at swimming up the river, but the river got stronger.
I don't wake up on a given day thinking about my legacy or what to look back on. One person at a time, one community at a time is how I look at the homeless problem. And for me, we can win this.
If people are expecting one person, whether that's a mayor or a supervisor or anybody else to solve this, our message is, this isn't about one of us. This is about an entire city coming together.
Have ideas for making LAUSD schools safer? This blue ribbon panel wants to know
The supply of licensed home day cares is drying up
The Westside Pavilion mall is being turned into office space
It's not easy being a shopping mall these days. On Tuesday, developer Hudson Pacific Properties announced plans to turn most of Westside Pavilion into office space. Only a small fraction of the mall will still be used for retail.
Hudson Pacific plans to spend over $400 million dollars on this joint venture with current owner Macerich and to complete construction in 2021. Long term, the partners hope to attract tenants in entertainment and technology.
This announcement is part of a larger trend. Shopping malls are making drastic changes in the name of survival. Anthony Dukes, professor of marketing at the USC Marshall School of Business, explains why the reimagining of Westside Pavilion is not a surprise:
It's consistent with a broader trend across the country with respect to malls. We've seen malls being closed across the U.S.
Westside Pavilion, I think, is in a fortunate situation in that it is still in a dense area. It's not like a lot of the struggling malls across the U.S. that are in more suburban, more distant areas.
The rise of online shopping contributed to this trend.
Online shopping in general is an important factor, because as people become more comfortable shopping online, many of our purchases can be done online, and we don't have to physically go into a store like we used to.
Amazon gets a good bit of credit because they were one of the first online retailers, and they helped pave the way and [gave] consumers confidence that they could buy things online.
But not all shopping malls are getting smaller or disappearing. In fact, some are moving in the opposite direction, reinventing themselves to focus on the experience of shopping.
If you look at some of the malls across L.A., such as the Americana in Glendale and Westfield Century City, and even the Grove, they offer something that online can't, which is a shopping experience. So, what you can't get online is a trip with your friends or your family to experience the shopping process, to visit Santa, to take in a movie or a cup of coffee or dinner.
That you can't get online. I think that what some of these malls are recognizing is that if they provide those sorts of alternatives, people will come and enjoy those and spend their money there.
Dukes anticipates that, in the future, malls will continue to shrink or grow, and will not look much like they did a few decades earlier.
Frank Ocean croons Moon River and Stax Records releases another classic box set
Oliver Wang joins us for our weekly segment on new music, introducing us to some of his favorite new tracks.
Frank Ocean
Album: NA
Song: Moon River
Recently Frank Ocean did the most Frank Ocean thing. He dropped another unannounced single in time for Valentine's Day. It's a cover of “Moon River,” the hit ballad originally released in 1961 from the film, "Breakfast at Tiffany’s."
Aimee Mann
Album: The Assassination of Gianni Versace Soundtrack
Song: Drive
In another cover song for this week, Aimee Mann delivers a minimalist, acoustic cover of The Cars’ 1983 hit song, "Drive." The song is featured on the FX show, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.
Mann’s voice lacks the kind of small embellishments of her work in 2000, but the sober approach here really works with the original sound. It’s melancholy without being morose.
Rance Allen Group
Album: Stax Singles, Vol 4: Rarities and The Best of the Rest
Song: There’s Gonna Be a Showdown
Notes: Stax’s singles box sets have been an incredible musical catalog since the first, nine-disc set came out in the early 1990s. This latest, which may very well be their last, highlights the more obscure side of the famed Memphis label including a whole disc devoted to the label’s gospel music subsidiary The Gospel Truth, which is where this Rance Allan Group single was first released.