August 20, 2020

By Betti Halsell

Contributing Writer

The Los Angeles City Planning Department is the largest of its kind in the United States. They review project applications, process entitlements, and strategize future land use and development for the city. Social change has been wafting through the air and made passage to all levels of government. Equity amid community leadership are critical for upward mobility in society, Faisal Roble has been appointed to be the first within city planning to hold the chief equity officer position. With over 30 years of devotion to the city, Roble plans to give the next generation a “fair shake” of employment into leadership positions and further enhancement in life quality across L.A.

Roble is looking to align broader opportunity with communities of color to establish true equality among residents. City Planning echoes the consensus decision of the city and sets a clear path for its environmental growth. There is a focal point on the diversity among employment and promotion given to anyone who is deserving of incline. Roble explained that there will be heavier support in bringing more people of color into superior roles.

Within his 30 years of service, Chief Equity Officer Roble has seen many cycles of the community, he explained that this time is significant due to the new energy behind the American tragedies of racial injustices reflected in the case of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Roble distinguished the level of atonement the world has come to yield to.

As neighborhoods grow more consciously aware, so does the community plans, regulation, and development benchmarks. Roble expressed the pain from recent racial events impacted various communities to its core. He shared his thoughts on the resurgence for better quality of life and stated, “The country could not keep the American tragedy a secret anymore, it was something too big, too timely, that we have to face, this brewing and festering racial injustice that has been plagued in our society.”

He continued, “ This particular time gave the nation and the city in particular a period to atone, and in that atonement we have reprioritized our political commitment, from the mayor all the way down, there seems to be a new energy.”

Throughout his career, Roble managed areas across Los Angeles including Southeast and West Adams, Baldwin Hills, and the Leimert communities. Throughout his career, he consistently tethered the technicalities of city planning with the ethical side of community building. Roble has been at helm of over 20 projects that contributed to affordable housing and sustainable environments among L.A., physical change that came from his work includes the redevelopment of Jordan Downs, curating a mix-income environment with full service grocery store, community services, and parks with open space.

Roble was inspired by books such as “An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy," 1944 by Gunnar Myrdal. His experience is robust with formulas for empowerment, Director Vince Bertoni fostered Robles seeds within the department.

 Robles explained the significance in his role, “’It’s just icing on the cake for me at this time of my career to become the chief equity officer because I believe cities never get peace.” Roble continued, “At this time in my career, I am responsible and can be the watch dog for making sure that both in terms of internal issues as well as external issues and the way we are planning the city—is using the tools of equity and equity being our measurement.” Roble shared delight in weaving social responsibility into the technicalities of city planning. He explained his leadership work as making sure everyone in the city has a fair shake. 

 A commitment has been made to plot a more equitable community, staffing includes 400 civil servants on the frontlines marching in unison for justice and equality. Within the history of city planning, there has been slanted lines painted in favor of certain communities and means to resources. Robles is looking to continue pushing the agenda of balance division of the city that provokes universally accessible resources to all.

COVID-19 created a new reality for the future of the community, currently the Los Angeles City Planning is in the process of renovating 35 regional plans that will navigate the use of land in Los Angeles neighborhoods.  However, the core of the city plan has adapted to the civic responsibility to not only ensure the construction of the community but also to plant equality and justice as the foundation across the county. Roble explained the pandemic reared the massive focus back to the racial inequalities that are happening daily.

Roble believes Los Angeles is the home for racial justice to be planted in both action and future policy. The Los Angeles City Planning Department were the pioneers in changing their drafting methods to an equitable lens for resources. He shared the unprecedented passion that charges up the city and causes plans for equality to move forward.

“When you know the political establishment is ready to empower the professionals, and the political establishment has taken their leadership very seriously--then it would be incumbent upon us to bring about the right tools to address some of the issues that exhibit themselves.”

He continued, “There is a political energy that gives us the impetus that we need in order to wake up every morning and move forward…” Roble broke down visually how there are polarizing environments within the city, he compared West L.A. and the valley to underserved areas in South L.A. that works off physical evidence for the need for social updates within city planning.

For youth coming up and interested in any branch of government, Robles had this to say, “ The only area where the city is the lead is in land use and the planning department in a way is the entity that establishes something akin to the city’s constitution.” He went on to express the change that the younger generation is marching for is embedded in City Planning. He called for youth of color to understand change, and that will come by knowing how the city is run.

Future projects that Roble will oversee includes deserved upward mobility, giving more senior positions to people of color. He closed by stating, “The journey has started; the destination is still there--we will see where we like to end up and we would like to work with people of color to assume higher management as we approach our destination.”

August 20, 2020

By Betti Halsell

Contributing Writer

L.A. Public Officials delivered news surrounding the coronavirus outbreak. There have been positive signs in recent reports, the public health department remains “cautiously hopeful” as new statistics reflect lower hospitalizations and decrease in average daily cases. Although the county saw a bit of regression within the previous month, August has been showing solidarity. The L.A. Board of supervisors continue to look for ways to adapt to this new normal for facilities such as places of worship, they requested the supreme court to support outdoor church services. 

Director of Los Angeles Public Health Dr. Barbara Ferrer updated the county on the case of disproportionate rates of severity within communities of color. She referred to a model that showed the total number of cases, hospitalizations, and mortality rates by race and ethnicity. The numbers foreshadowed accumulative rates that were captured since the health department began the investigation.

It reflected a spike in the rate of cases happening in July, affecting Brown and Black communities on a higher scale.

Recent statistics shown on Wednesday reflect 61 additional deaths, 26 of these individuals were over the age of 80, 17 of them had underlining health conditions. 20 people who died were between the ages of 65-79, 14 victims had preexisting health concerns. Six individuals were between the ages of 50-64, and four of them had underlining health problems.  Three people who passed were between the ages of 30-49, all of them had previous medical issues.  One person passed away and were between the ages of 18-29, with no underlining health issues. This brings the total COVID-19 related deaths in L.A. County to 5,392.

There were 1,956 new COVID-19 reports. In summary, there is a total amount of 225,827 coronavirus cases in the Los Angeles region. 9,795 incidents were reported in the city of Long Beach and 2,248 cases in the city of Pasadena. Amid the unsheltered, there were 1,380 positive cases. 92% of those who died due to COVID-19 had preexisting health concerns.

Sun Valley Church has been placed under scrutiny after violating health officer orders. Places of worship are permitted to gather outdoors. The L.A. Board of Supervisors addressed the issue by stating, “Los Angeles County is working around the clock to contain and slow a deadly virus that has killed more than 5,000 of our residents and made thousands of others gravely ill. Most residents, businesses and institutions are following the Health Officer Orders, demonstrating the care and compassion for our neighbors that is so urgently needed at this difficult time.”

The Board continued to outline the severity of the COVID-19 transmission by explaining the process of going to the Supreme Court as their “last resort,” since the Sun Valley church continued to have large indoor congregations.

The numbers reflected Black and Brown residents are most likely to have been working essential industries with little prevention of spread. This factor became pronounced during the July spike. Ferrer stated, “It’s only by working together that we can continue to implement the solutions and take the actions that we need to take to reduce the devastating impact of this pandemic.”

August 20, 2020

By Steve Peoples, Michelle L. Price and Alexandra Jaffe

Associated Press

Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president Wednesday night, cementing her status as a leader in a party staking its future on building a diverse coalition of voters as the first Black woman on a major party ticket.

She addressed the Democratic National Convention’s third night after former President Barack Obama, another barrier breaker, warned that American democracy itself was at risk if President Donald Trump wins reelection this fall.

Harris, a 55-year-old California senator, issued an urgent plea for voters of all colors to rally behind Joe Biden and find a way to vote despite concerns about the pandemic and postal slowdowns.

“Donald Trump’s failure of leadership has cost lives and livelihoods,” Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, said in remarks from a largely empty arena near Biden’s Delaware home. She said she shares his vision of America, “where all are welcome, no matter what we look like, where we come from, or who we love.”

Harris closed a night in which some of the most prominent Democrats outlined – in remarkably frank terms – their views of the consequences of a Trump reelection. Obama, speaking from Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, warned that American democracy was at risk of faltering. Hillary Clinton, the party’s 2016 nominee, said lives are at stake in an election being conduct against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic.

The third night of the Democrats’ four-day convention focused on the party’s commitment to progressive values on issues like gun violence and climate change, while highlighting speakers most likely to connect with women and all people of color, voters whose energy this fall could ultimately decide the outcome.

Democrats targeted Trump’s policies and personality throughout, casting him as cruel in his treatment of immigrants, disinterested in the nation’s climate crisis and over his head in virtually all of the nation’s most pressing challenges.

Above all, there was an urgent focus on voting.

Harris called on supporters to have a specific “voting plan” to overcome obstacles raised by the pandemic and a postal slowdown Democrats and some Republicans blame on Trump.

“When we vote things change, when we vote things get better, when we vote we address the need for all people to be treated with dignity and respect,” Harris said.

Just 76 days before the election, Biden faces the difficult task of energizing each of the disparate factions that make up the modern-day Democratic Party – a coalition that spans generation, race and ideology. And this fall voters must deal with concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic that has created health risks for those who want to vote in person.

Biden leads many polls, but his supporters report being motivated far more by antipathy toward Trump than genuine excitement about Biden, a 77-year-old white man who has spent nearly a half century in politics.

Democrats hope that Harris and Obama in particular can help bridge the divide between those reassured by Biden’s establishment credentials and those craving bolder change.

The pandemic has forced Biden’s team to abandon the traditional convention format in favor of an all-virtual affair that has eliminated much of the pomp and circumstance that typically defines political conventions.

The Democratic convention will build to a finale Thursday night when Biden will deliver his acceptance speech in a mostly empty convention hall near his Delaware home.

And after two nights that featured several Republicans, Democrats on Wednesday emphasized their party’s values on issues like climate change and gun violence, issues that particularly resonate with younger voters.

On guns, Biden wants to repeal a law shielding firearm manufacturers from liability lawsuits, impose universal background checks for purchases and ban the manufacture and sale of assault weapons and high capacity magazines. On climate, Biden has proposed a $2 trillion plan to invest in clean energy and end carbon emissions from U.S. power plants by 2035, even though his proposals don’t go as far as activists’ preferred “Green New Deal.”

A face of the Democrats’ support for gun control, former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords reflected on her own journey of pain and recovery from a severe brain injury nearly a decade after being shot in the head while meeting with constituents. She urged America to support Biden.

“I struggle to speak, but I have not lost my voice,” Giffords said. “Vote, vote, vote.”

Next week it’s Trump’s turn.

The president, who abandoned plans to host his convention in North Carolina and Florida, is expected to break tradition and accept his nomination from the White House lawn.

Trump spent much of this week hosting campaign events in battleground states in an attempt to distract from the Democrats’ virtual festivities. While he did not travel on Wednesday, the Republican president railed against Biden and his party at a press conference while praising a conspiracy theory group that claims Trump’s opponents have links to satanism and child sex trafficking.

“We’re saving the world from a radical left philosophy that will destroy this country,” Trump said. “And when this country is gone, the rest of the world would follow.”

Hyperbole and praise for far-right extremists has become a hallmark of Trump’s presidency, which has inflamed tensions at home and alienated allies around the world.

Voting was a dominant theme for Democrats on Wednesday.

Harris insisted that Democrats to have a specific “voting plan” to overcome the obstacles to voting raised by the coronavirus pandemic and postal slowdowns.

She warned that the nation is at a critical point, struggling under Trump’s “chaos,” “incompetence” and “callousness.”

“We can do better and deserve so much more,” Harris said. “We must elect a president who will bring something different, something better, and do the important work. A president who will bring all of us together — Black, White, Latino, Asian, Indigenous — to achieve the future we collectively want.”

Hillary Clinton, the first woman nominated for president by a major party, spoke ahead of Obama, the nation’s first Black president, and Harris, Biden’s running mate and the first Black woman on a major party ticket.

“For four years, people have said to me, ‘I didn’t realize how dangerous he was.’ ‘I wish I could go back and do it over.’ Or worst, ‘I should have voted,’” Clinton said. “Well, this can’t be another woulda coulda shoulda election.”

She added: “Vote like our lives and livelihoods are on the line, because they are.”

Obama, speaking earlier in the night, hoped to serve as a bridge between those reassured by Biden’s lengthy resume and more moderate record, and a younger generation of Democrats agitating for more dramatic change.

He warned that American democracy might not survive another four years of Trump. He urged voters to “embrace your own responsibility as citizens – to make sure that the basic tenets of our democracy endure. Because that’s what is at stake right now. Our democracy.”

Obama confidants say that the former president’s support for Biden is unequivocal, but he does worry about enthusiasm among younger voters, particularly younger voters of color. Democrats concede that one of the reasons Trump won the presidency in 2016 was because those voters didn’t show up in the same large numbers as when Obama was on the ballot.

Beyond the carefully scripted confines of the virtual convention, there were modest signs of tension between the moderate and progressive wings of Biden’s Democratic Party.

In particular, some progressives complained that pro-Biden Republicans such as Ohio Gov. John Kasich have been featured more prominently than the party’s younger progressive stars like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Climate activists also complained that the party appeared ready to drop a provision in the platform that calls for an end to fossil fuel industry subsidies and tax breaks.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a favorite of progressives for demanding bold change, only spoke for around five minutes.

It remains to be seen whether the unconventional convention will give Biden the momentum he’s looking for.

Preliminary estimates show that television viewership for the first night of the virtual convention was down compared with the opening of Hillary Clinton’s onsite nominating party four years ago.

August 20, 2020

By City News Service

With fewer than 80 days to go until Election Day on Nov. 3, the FBI in Los Angeles has launched a public awareness campaign about election security at fbi.gov and across the agency's social media platforms.

The goal is to increase public awareness about threats to the upcoming election and to inform Americans how they can help the FBI ensure security. The threats include crimes the FBI has been investigating for decades, including campaign finance crimes, voter/ballot fraud, civil rights violations, and unique cyber threats targeting the election process.

The campaign also cites the potential for foreign influence on the democratic process, elected officials and institutions.

“In these uncertain times, the FBI remains steadfast in its efforts to protect and defend the United States and its people from election interference by criminals operating from near or far, at the ballot box or via cyber space,” said John F. Bennett, the acting assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles field office. “This includes safeguarding our elections to ensure fairness and to prevent influence by foreign governments who wish to leverage relationships via threats or bribery for their own political motives or national interests.”

U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna said that free and fair elections “are critical to our democracy. As our nation nears the Nov. 3 general election, my office will continue to work with the FBI to protect the voting public from all manner of threats – both foreign and domestic – that could compromise the balloting process.”

The FBI is the primary investigative agency responsible for engaging with election security counterparts to coordinate strategies and to safeguard election integrity. The FBI is also the lead federal agency for identifying and combating malign foreign influence operations targeting democratic institutions through the agency's Foreign Influence Task Force.

In Los Angeles, election security information and educational resources about how to protect your voice can be found by following @FBILosAngeles.