LA Podcast - LAHSA Cause

Alissa, Mike, and guest co-host Matthew Reagan of The LA Local dive into accountability, litigation, and federal assistance in Boyle Heights after the Lineage fire. LAHSA as we know it is over. And on the same day as a safe streets rally, five Angelenos are killed when a driver crashes an SUV into a Metro bus, then a news helicopter covering the crash also crashes. Only in LA?

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SHOW NOTES

We celebrate local independent news outlets! The LA Local is training citizens to attend public meetings and report back to their journalists and the community at large. And the Boyle Heights Beat has led the charge in Lineage fire reporting. So important and needed

LA City Council voted to block any Lineage rebuilding efforts until LAFD has completed its investigation (though Lineage CEO Greg Lehmkuhl says they aren’t sure they’ll rebuild anyway)

Lineage has sued their solar power provider, blaming them for the fire

A Garden Grove neighborhood was preemptively evacuated over a chemical leak last year, fearing their own Lineage story, which posed the question: why weren’t Boyle Heights residents evacuated? 

Boyle Heights residents were frustrated by Mayor Karen Bass’s virtual attendance (or no attendance at all) at meetings

Federal disaster loans are available to affected businesses (but, meeting this administration’s politics, only if you are a citizen or green-card holder) 

The Lineage fire’s sweet smelly legacy is emanating from Simi Valley landfills and as you can imagine, no one is thrilled about it 

After LAist reported on Mayor Karen Bass skipping more than half of LAHSA’s meetings, she officially stepped down from the board

LAHSA is also stepping down from LAHSA, forfeiting the federal roles it has been performing for years like the annual homelessness count

LAHSA had already been on thin ice fighting a lawsuit from the Trump administration this summer 

City, county, and private agencies are placing bids to take over LAHSA’s work

Congress summoned Mayor Bass to a hearing in DC about LA’s homelessness spending but she declined, calling it “politically motivated.” Committee Republicans vow to “use every tool” to make her testify

Earlier this summer, the Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a $4.4 billion Notice of Funding Opportunity — a NOFO, if you will — directing aid money away from a “housing first” approach

The feds were in LA that week anyway, arresting two people for misusing millions of taxpayer dollars. You know that situation where you’re supposed to provide housing but you accidentally buy a nightclub and go to Tahiti? Haven’t we all been there?

As usual, this begs the question: but what will this look like during the Olympics?

Continuing our city and society’s addictions to cars and the crime news cycle, after an impaired driver crashed her SUV into a Metro bus, the news helicopter covering the situation also crashed

In a rare move, the driver was arrested and charged with second-degree murder

The New York Times analyzed the dangers of flying news helicopters in big cities like Los Angeles

Poignantly and ironically, there was a rally to declare a state of emergency over our dangerous streets the morning before the crashes

(Advocates cited facts like the city had to return $100 million of state grants for street safety projects and removed 5 miles of bike lanes despite the fact traffic fatalities are up 8% from last year)

Plans to slow cars on Forest Lawn Drive had been in the works for years. However, California lawmakers swooped in at the last minute 

** Since recording the podcast, Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 194 into law, stopping traffic safety improvements on Forest Lawn Drive

Forest Lawn and Mount Sinai cemeteries spent $500,000 to lobby against these plans, wanting to generate future customers

Streetsblog LA’s Joe Linton has explained why the city is only doing “large asphalt repairs” to avoid having to upgrade street safety

Postively: it will eventually feel safer to walk on Spring and Alameda streets in Chinatown. And speed cameras! Many speed cameras! And speed governors, someday, maybe!

Thank you to Charlotte Landes for producing this episode and to our production assistant Bianca Cockrell

The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward

Alissa Walker writes the newsletter Torched, tracking LA’s megaevent progress. Find her at @awalkerinla on Instagram and @awalkerinla.bsky.social on Bluesky

Mike Bonin is the Executive Director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at CalState LA, and can be found at @mikebonin on Instagram and @mikebonin.bsky.social on Bluesky

Matthew Reagan is the assignment editor of LA Documenters, a program that trains and pays LA residents to put public meetings on the record. Documenter notes are published online and inform the community journalism produced by The LA Local