Photo by Slobodan Dimitrov

While it’s odd to think of Los Angeles as fitting in the theme of a Resistance City, there are hardcore struggles going on in various sectors of the vast metropolis.  For instance on the economic front, in what’s becoming a familiar refrain, yet again public worker union members had to mobilize and descend on Los Angeles City Hall on January 12 at a city council hearing.  Mind you, I’m not an unbiased observer as I do contract communications work for one of the affected unions, Local 3090 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).  The local’s members include 911 police emergency dispatchers, clerks in the Building and Safety department, and message clerks in the library system.  It’s predominantly a female local, with a high number of people of color in its numbers.

On the table before the council was another drastic proposal by the city’s Chief Accounting Officer, Miguel Santana.  He’d argued for the city to lease out nine city-owned parking garages to private entities — a deal that’s supposed to realize $300 million eventually, with the city seeing some $53.2 million this fiscal year to help balance the budget.  Another round of so-called “shared sacrifice” the pols like to call it.  A phrase unionized auto workers would tell you has a cynical ring to it.

If the council voted not to do this, then Santana said there would have to be another work day furlough imposed on the workers.  This would not be rolling furlough days as there are now – 26 in a fiscal year, but one furlough day a week until the end of this fiscal year on July 1 (the shortfall for fiscal year 2011-12 for the city is projected to be $350 million).

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No doubt I’m the last cat who should be writing about public space.  I mean here at home in Los Angeles I rarely think about public space and congregating in same.  That is, I do congregate occasionally, I just don’t go out of my way to do it.  Because mostly I’m in my car going to and fro – and when I get to my destination, it’s rarely to a park.  I have nothing against open spaces, I like open spaces and certainly L.A., particularly our urban areas of the city, that are green poor – though this is not the only way in which gathering spaces are manifested in this city.

Lord knows people have meetings, write screenplays or work on the Great American Novel on their laptops (or playing World of Warcraft with who knows who all else online) at many a Starbuck’s or Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in this considerable town.  Maybe somebody has tracked this, but I’ve yet to see or hear about a sinewy barrista kicking somebody out for staying too long in their coffee shop.  But then, it seems these folks now and then buy a coffee, frappachino and/or bottle of water to keep the static down.

My gym, which the lovely and talented Dr. Pop pays for – as one has to have perks in this line of work – is an L.A. Fitness housed in a former Montgomery Ward department store in a mall on La Cienega near the 10 Freeway.  Okay, so already it’s not a public space, but bear with me a moment.  Given this is ethnically rich L.A. and the geography of where the gym is (located in between several distinct neighborhoods), this facility gets a cross section of its inhabitants from young sleek-muscled tatted ballers wearing just the right shoes for their hops to, what I presume to be, orthodox Jewish woman in sweat gear that includes long stretch skirts, sweat pants under that and coverings for their head.  Admittedly, you don’t generally find representatives of these two groups awaiting their respective turns at the preacher curl machine, gabbing about the latest episode of Rookie Blue.

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This Saturday, April 17, in honor of Earth Day, there will be activities in South L.A. This is a good thing, of course, as all of us should be concerned about the fate of our environment and what we can do to not kill our world and us. Now I’m not going to enjoin the debate about whether climate change is happening or not, I mean, it seems to me the evidence is clear that Polar bears are losing their ice floes, but hey, I’m no expert.

For even the experts are divided…just look at the debate between climatologists who pretty much agree that global warming is happening versus meteorologists, some of whom are TV weather forecasters, who are skeptical. There’s a recent study done by George Mason University and the University of Texas on this divide, with something like a fourth of the weathercasters surveyed agreeing with the statement, “Global warming is a scam.”

But back to South L.A. I’m sure one of the aspects of the celebrations will be about green jobs and green job training. For as this Great Recession has affected the middle class and those with technical skills, it has devastated the job prospects for youth of color, particularly black and brown young folks. The jobless rate for whites in the United States in March was 8.8 percent. For blacks it was nearly double – 16.5 percent; and for Hispanics 12.6 percent. These unemployment rates increased for both minority groups from the previous month – while it stayed steady for whites.

There are efforts here in Los Angeles to create a wellspring of green jobs opportunities in new construction and in regards to retrofitting existing structures, and apprenticeship programs partnering with the building trades. Mindful too that the building trades has traditionally been a white male bastion of workers where it was somebody you knew or your brother or cousin who got you on the job. Though there has been work buy some of the forward thinkers in and outside of organized labor to break down that good ol’ boy system We even have Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa trying to push through his and Councilman Richard Alarcon’s Green Energy Compromise Plan. The plan relies on a one-time only rate increase, and setting aside certain earmarked monies for renewable energy.

Yet the City of Los Angeles is in the midst of one of the worst budget deficits in its history while simultaneously the state of California is damn near broke. On top of forced furloughs and layoffs abounding, there are at least 4,000 city jobs are on the chopping block or facing further curtailing of work hours. Added to that, the Department of Water and Power (DWP) is in a pissing contest with the City. The DWP didn’t turn over some of their surplus to the general fund because it didn’t get the rate increase it wanted from the City Council. As this matter gets wrestled out, notions like a green tax seem like an awfully big rock to push up the deficit hill and get cash-strapped, future uncertain voters or their elected to approve.

Let alone then where does the money come from to fund green jobs programs, particularly as this relates to inner city youth? Is all this green talk just feel good rhetoric? I don’t know, but in my next post, I’ll go looking for a few answers.

Until then, check out these L.A. efforts:

L.A. Apollo Alliance

Black Workers Center

poster Seth Tobocman

While health insurance and bank lobbies vie for the comic-book-villain-of-the-year award, there is nothing more insidious than the invisible health threats that attack us daily without our consent or knowledge — through our water, our food, and our air.

For parents, the very notion that the homes in which our children play, eat, and sleep might be silently poisoning them, gradually causing nerve and brain damage to developing bodies, is a very hard pill to swallow. Yet for tenants who are trapped by high housing costs in slum housing, this is often the case.  The cause is chipping and peeling lead paint, and the uber-villians are the slumlords who profit, often hugely, from dangerous, unhealthy housing conditions.

Although lead paint has been banned from the U.S. since 1978, existing lead paint that chips and peels in neglected homes flake into dust that contaminates the air that children breathe indoors and the soil where they play outside.  (intact paint is not a hazard).

In Los Angeles, it is estimated that 48,000 families are living in extreme slum conditions and getting sick as a result, from exposure to lead and other hazards in their homes.  In New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina washed chips of lead paint from the homes into the soil, where it remains as a constant threat to children’s health.

The ecological principle that “diversity ensures resilience” applies to the business of solving intractable urban problems.  It is not simply a matter of how many eyes and brains are brought to bear on difficult problems, but rather,it is  the diversity of those eyes and brains that lead to the best solutions.  In the case of childhood lead-poisoning, the solutions are available, but hampered by lack of political will, commitment, alignment, and intelligent resource allocation.

What follows are stories about two efforts, the Healthy Neighborhoods, Same Neighbors Collaborative in Los Angeles and the New Orleans-based Fundred Dollar Bill Project that employ diverse methods and thinking to transforming homes and neighborhoods from sources of poison to healthy sanctuaries for our nation’s children.

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Here’s another little Havana/L.A. mashup about art and redevelopment.

One of my other favorite places in Havana is the Callejón de Hamel, a small alley near the University of Havana that is an explosion of color, afro-cuban imagery, and sculpture — produced by Cuban artist Salvador Gonzales Escalona.

Salvador started making murals and sculptures in the street in 1990, using scrap objects and whatever paint was available, including car enamel (good paint is in short supply in Havana).. Inspired by the support of local residents and visitors, he continued painting and sculpting and the street is now a jewel of a place that also serves as an active Afro-Cuban center. Children can take painting workshops there, and every Sunday Rumba musicians and dancers perform (it has become a tourist attraction, hence the nickname “rumba alley”).

The street is still Salvador’s artistic headquarters. Here is a lovely Havana Cultura video interview with the artist (sorry its just in Spanish, but even for people who don’t know the language, it is visually engaging, and gives you a sense of his personality):

I didn’t have to go far to see what L.A. has to offer along the lines of Callejon de Hamel.  I live a stones throw from St. Elmo’s Village, which is now celebrating its 40th anniversary year as a live/work space for artists and as a community arts center.

The Village, as its residents call it, was founded by artists Roderick and Rozell Sykes and is run today as a non-profit by Roderick and his wife Jacqueline Alexander-Sykes.

City Mask by Roderick Sykes

Like Callejon de Hamel, St. Elmo’s offers art classes for children, and also hosts a weekly open house, frequent tours for local schools, and hosts the Poetry in Motion festival each fall.