Liberty Hill

LAUSD To Vote On Opening 200 Schools To Private Contractors Today

One of Liberty Hill's grantee partners, InnerCity Struggle has just issued a statement regarding today's LAUSD vote that would open as many as 200 public schools to private contractors. They are supportive, provided certain amendments are made. Read their statement by following the link below.

With my co-host Howard Blume, education reporter at The L.A. Times, I produced a radio program last week about this proposal. Listen to the radio program on today's LAUSD vote.

Howard has just posted this dispatch from LAUSD headquarters.

People are already gathering outside the Los Angeles Board of Education building this morning in anticipation of a vote today on a plan that would allow outside groups to take control of 50 new campuses scheduled to open over the next four years. The proposal has been expanded to include more than 200 existing schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District that have repeatedly failed to meet state and federal improvement targets. These schools could be shut down and then converted to charter schools or turned over to outside groups.

For days competing camps have battled over different versions of the proposal, which was originally introduced by school board member Yolie Flores Aguilar. Seeking to stop or radically change the resolution have been employee unions, led by United Teachers Los Angeles, as well as some community groups and critics from other arenas. Supporters of the resolution include charter school operators — who could bid for the new campuses — along with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and an array of community groups and civic leaders. The mayor has made the measure a centerpiece of his school agenda for his second term. He’s expected to appear today at a rally organized by charter schools. Backers of the resolution plan a noon rally outside the district's downtown headquarters. Opponents also are expected to turn out in large numbers. The board is scheduled to take up the matter at 2 p.m.

Tuesday afternoon update: The Board approved the proposal 6-1.

L.A.'s Taxi Workers Plan A City Hall Protest to Focus Attention on Poor Wages and Working Conditions

Despite the Mayor’s recent pronouncements about commitment to transparency, the City of Los Angeles has failed to stop corruption and sweatshop working conditions in the taxi industry, a public utility where the City has total control over regulating and franchising of the taxi industry.  As a result, the approximately 3,500 licensed taxi workers in Los Angeles, who are predominantly immigrants and people of color, work in unfair, unsafe, and unhealthy conditions.

A 2006 UCLA study entitled “Driving Poor” found that Los Angeles taxi workers toil in a system of modern day sharecropping, working an average 72 hours a week for approximately $8 an hour including tips. 

In the current difficult economic climate, drivers earn even less.  A main cause of drivers’ poverty conditions is that drivers start each week in debt owing $350 to $700 to the companies and must work long hours to pay these fees before earning a penny for rent or food. 

The UCLA study also found that Los Angeles’ taxi industry structure is ripe with opportunities for corrupt and sharp management practices, with long standing complaints of management self dealing and corruption going unchecked.

A Liberty Hill partner, Los Angeles Taxi Workers Alliance (LATWA) is organizing drivers for dignity, respect and rights for thousands of taxi workers and their families in Los Angeles. 

On Tuesday August 18th taxi workers in Los Angeles will rally at the City hall lawn at 11 am. For further information call:
Gray (323) 359-3608, Sentayehu (323) 376-9703, Moges (310) 384-6840, Hamid (562) 230-4578

Green L.A. Agenda Advances With Mayoral Support

Green L.A., the kickbutt coalition incubated at Liberty Hill for the last two years, met with the mayor and Deputy Mayor David Freeman again last week to push for more citywide green policies.

A couple of policy advances were on the table. For years, Liberty Hill has been a frontlines player in organizing environmental justice forces throughout L.A. Those EJ forces asked the mayor to create three pilot "EJ Zones" in Wilmington, East L.A. and Pacoima, three of L.A.'s mostly densely polluted neighborhoods. A Mayoral Directive would prevent further pollution and begin to revitalize these communities. The Mayor's said he's on board.

Green L.A. also asked the Mayor for his support of a Complete Street Policy so that L.A. streets were designed to accomodate bikes, buses and pedestrians as well as cars. (Anybody ever been stuck trying to cross the street at Olympic, Fairfax and San Vicente? The lights are timed so you get half way across San Vicente and then you're stuck for 5 minutes in the middle of the street as cars whiz by you from both directions. Something in the neighborhood of 100 pedestrians are killed each year in L.A. I'm for ped-friendly streets.)

Green L.A. also secured support for a strong, low-impact development ordinance to help capture water and improve water quality to complement the City's Green Bulding program and an expansion of the City's Green Retrofit Program.

Jonathan Parfrey Appointed To DWP Board of Commissioners

Environmental leaders throughout Los Angeles hailed the appointment of Jonathan Parfrey to the Department of Water and Power Board of Commissioners today.

 

Parfrey was appointed today by Mayor Villaraigosa. For the last two years, Parfrey has been the director of Green L.A., a coalition of environmental groups working to clean and green Los Angeles. Green L.A. was incubated at and is housed at Liberty Hill Foundation. From 1994 to 2007, Parfrey was executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles.

 

In two years, Green L.A. has helped catapult an environmental agenda in Los Angeles, including the city’s recently-announced green certification program, to incentivize green business practices.  

 

In making the announcement, the Mayor said, “Jonathan will bring a needed perspective as we continue to transform the DWP into a green utility. He will be in a unique position to affect the issues confronting the sustainability of our City. I am proud to have him on our team.”

 

Kafi Blumenfield, President of Liberty Hill, said “This appointment signals the Mayor’s seriousness in cleaning and greening Los Angeles. Jonathan is a tremendous bridge-builder working on the frontlines of change.” 

 

Read after the jump to see the list of environmental community leaders commending Parfrey's appointment. 

 

Moving Forward, Conclusion: The New Politics of "Yes We Can"

The world turned on November 4.  A new movement is taking shape. I was immersed in it for two months and from my 40 years of activist experience, I can tell you the following:

 

*The Obama movement is about finding commonality and shared purpose: E Pluribus Unum.  Both pragmatic and idealistic, it’s rooted in core patriotic values of democracy, equality and civic engagement.  Most of all, this new movement looks at the positive and not the negative traits of our schizophrenic American history, valuing above all the jagged journey toward justice – the progressive American story of ever-expanding  “liberty and justice for all”.  It brushes aside the culture of identity politics and its tendency for competing victimization: its motto is “YES WE CAN”, not “I’M OPPRESSED”.  It has faith that people can change if you treat them with respect; its stated mantra is “Respect, Empower, Include.”   There is no place for inequality in this new era, but after 30 years of Right wing power, America has some catching up to do.  Both homophobia and economic inequality have been hallmarks of the past thirty years of Right wing dominance in America, so we will need to do some work to align our different struggles for justice – economic and equal-rights.  But it will happen, with faith and hard work.   The winds of change are at our back, and when my Obama-campaign friends vow solidarity on marriage equality and defeating Prop 8, I believe them.  There is a new and diverse army of supporters out there just waiting to be tapped, for us.  Just as we will need to stand in solidarity to restore equal opportunity to economic security and achieve racial justice as we go forward.  All in the name of a shared commitment America’s highest ideals.   

 

At last Saturday’s rally, my longtime friend, former boss, and a true brother in solidarity for full and complete equality for LGBT people, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, gave a gorgeous speech about marriage equality that you can find all over YouTube. It included these words:    “In the eyes of the law and the eyes of God, THOU SHALT NOT DISCRIMINATE...…This is not just about protest and this is not just about the internet.  Let us go back to our homes and into our neighborhoods and start this conversation and take it to the shuls and to the churches and to every civic institution and to City Halls and to the Halls of Congress and all the way to the White House…..” 

If we do this, in very short order, we will beat Prop 8.  Not to mention help forge a new American movement for democracy and equality that cannot be stopped.

                                                           

YES WE CAN.  SI SE PUEDE!

Checkbook Activism

     Recent polls show Yes on 8 moving ahead in the polls. We have been “out-fundraised” by $10 million.  The campaign to protect the rights of same-sex couples is in trouble. At a fundraising event in West Hollywood the other night you could feel fear gripping the 500 plus No on 8 supporters in the room. Then Mayor Villaraigosa pledged $25,000 and the mood started to shift.

                                       

                           

      Five hundred checkbook activists, working class and wealthy alike, began writing their 2^nd, 3^rd or – like me – even their 5^th checks to the No on 8 campaign. Checkbook Activism - it’s a term that’s usually used in a derisive way to describe the role of the wealthy who write checks but don’t get their hands dirty.  How wrong that connotation is! “Checkbook activism” isn’t just for the wealthy.  Movements need money to succeed.  Not all of us can give a lot, but, in addition to volunteering, we can all put our money where our mouth is. It’s one of the most powerful things anyone can do for positive social change. 

The Parks-SCOPE Mano a Mano Gets Resolved, Maybe

Although Mayor Villaraigosa did rescind the eviction of community organization SCOPE yesterday, this morning The Daily News reports that Councilman Parks will push on and ask the City Council to cancel SCOPE's lease. The L.A. Times has also gotten wind of the story. The most thorough coverage, however, can be found on the blogosphere. Witness L.A. has done more reporting and dug deeper into the thicket than anyone else in town.

SCOPE has been a leader in Liberty Hill's work in civic engagement the last few years. We tallied the numbers yesterday and found that as of this November's election, our partner organizations including SCOPE have added a projected 100,000 low-income voters to L.A. County's voter rolls. For my tax dollars, I'd say that merits two buildings at $1 a year!

SCOPE is asking its supporters to continue to send letters to all City Council members and the Mayor no later than Friday, September 26.  

Why does Councilman Parks want to evict one of his district's most effective community organizations?

Why does Councilman Parks want to evict one of his district's most effective community organizations?

That’s the question I’ve been chewing on. About three weeks ago, a longtime grantee of Liberty Hill, Strategic Concepts in Organizing & Policy Education, known in these parts as SCOPE, got an eviction notice from the city. No explanation for the eviction. Just “Get out in 60 days. Sincerely,” For the last 8 years, SCOPE has been located in a city-owned building on Florence Avenue in South L.A. It’s hardly the trendiest piece of real estate in the city.

When they got the eviction notice earlier this month, SCOPE staff immediately called the City’s General Services Department to find out what was up. They were told that Councilman Parks had sent them a letter demanding SCOPE’s eviction so that the city could sell the building or rent it. (Right now, SCOPE – like many nonprofits around the city - pays a dollar a year to the city in rent.) The letter also said the Councilman didn’t know what SCOPE does.

That’s what tripped my Fib Alarm. The Councilman doesn’t know SCOPE? Anybody involved in L.A. grassroots politics knows SCOPE. And if you represent South L.A. like the Councilman does, you’re even more likely to know what SCOPE does. They are fantastic at community organizing. They’ve conducted great research on the economic needs of South Los Angeles. A couple years back they created a job training program that helped open up the entertainment industry to South L.A. residents. They spearhead dynamic get-out-the-vote work prior to elections. And they’re the engine behind creating an L.A. Apollo Alliance, linking new industries to green the environment with good jobs to sustain prosperous communities. If SCOPE was in my district, I’d do everything to help them. Unless of course, I was worried that SCOPE's nonpartisan work to create a more informed and organized electorate is a threat. Do the math: 60 day eviction notice received September 3rd. Eviction date: November 3rd. Election Day: November 4th.

After talking to General Services, SCOPE sent a letter to the Councilman explaining what it does, its history and contributions to the community. They underscored that no partisan activities have been run out of its building. It explained that they had not been approached about paying rent or purchasing the building, and they offered to meet with Parks to clarify any misunderstanding he might have about SCOPE and its operations. Councilman Parks didn’t respond. And according to SCOPE, Parks called General Services to demand that the 60-day eviction notice be made 30 days.

The Mayor’s gotten involved. Villaraigosa will rescind the eviction notice today after the City Council meets. But that still leaves Councilman Parks with the option to take the issue before the full City Council. So that’s where it’s headed. The Council will get to debate whether one of the city’s outstanding community nonprofits should be evicted for no cause.

If you live in the Councilman’s current district, or even in his proposed Supervisorial district, it’s not hard to find his phone number.