What's Next, Los Angeles? with Mike Bonin

Who will unseat disgraced Los Angeles City Councilman Kevin de León? That’s the question a lot of people are asking as we head into the March primary. There is a big and impressive field of candidates   – and on this episode I talk with Ysabel Jurado. Jurado is a tenants rights attorney, affordable housing activist, single mom, daughter of undocumented Filipino immigrants, and lifelong Angeleno. S...

Who will represent South Los Angeles in the California State Assembly? That’s a big question facing voters of the 57th Assembly District,  which includes  South Los Angeles, Southeast Los Angeles, West Adams, University Park, Florence, Watts, Downtown Los Angeles and Skid Row. Greg "Baba" Akili is a longtime community, civil rights,  and labor organizer and a well-respected leader in Bla...

Who will represent South Los Angeles in the California State Assembly? That’s a big question facing voters of the 57th Assembly District,  which includes  South Los Angeles, Southeast Los Angeles, West Adams, University Park, Florence, Watts, Downtown Los Angeles and Skid Row Dulce Vasquez currently serves as Assistant Vice President for  Arizona State University in Downtown Los Angeles. She was p...

Who will represent South Los Angeles in the California State Assembly? That’s a big question facing voters of the 57th Assembly District,  which includes  South Los Angeles, Southeast Los Angeles, West Adams, University Park, Florence, Watts, Downtown Los Angeles and Skid Row One of the first candidates to jump into the race was Sade Elhewary, an educator, organizer and advocate who worked for yea...

 Lots of big news to kick off 2024. Late last week, LAPD Chief Michel Moore announced a sudden retirement, putting Mayor Karen Bass in the hotseat as she begins to choose a replacement. Meanwhile Former Sheriff Alex Villanueva denies the existence of deputy gangs while under oath.  The Supreme Court has decided to take up a draconian anti-homeless law, and people who usually call themselves progre...

As part of a series of in-depth, one-on-one interviews with candidates on the March ballot, I talk with Serena Oberstein, who is running to unseat incumbent Los Angeles City Councilmember John Lee to represent the 12th District in the northwest San Fernando Valley. It is a fascinating race, pitting Oberstein, former president of the city's Ethics Commission, against an elected official who is...

Does our criminal justice system work? Does it really provide for public safety? Or is it a broken, racist system that makes society’s troubles even worse? I talk with leaders of La Defensa , a nonprofit working to end our reliance on jails, cash bail, and a system that throws people away. Guests: Ivette Alé-Ferlito , executive director and co-founder, La Defensa Megan Castillo, ReImagine LA Coali...

"Sorry, Not Sorry!"  That's essentially the message of Nury Martinez, Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo, who spent the past week on a faux apology tour, trying to rewrite the history of the racist Fed Tapes scandal, and portray themselves, ridiculously, as the victims. Mike talks about it with Jelani Hendrix , former president of Black Los Angeles Young Democrats, Dr. Diandra “Dr Dee” B...

With Adam Schiff running for U.S. Senate, his Los Angeles area 30th district congressional seat – which stretches from Burbank and Glendale and Sunland Tujunga down to Hancock Park and West Hollywood – is up for grabs for the first time in twenty years. There is a wide field of candidates running for the seat in next year's election, and we are going to talk with the major candidates, one on...

LOTS to talk about this week. Big wins for workers in the state legislature, and now Gavin Newsom needs to be decide whether to sign or veto a bunch of important bills. Former Sheriff Alex Villanueva announced a run for the board of Supervisors in what will be a very busy election cycle.  And huge LAPD police raises have killed a golden opportunity to keep Los Angeles safe.  All that and more as B...

With Adam Schiff running for U.S. Senate, his Los Angeles area 30th district congressional seat – which stretches from Burbank and Glendale and Sunland Tujunga down to Hancock Park and West Hollywood – is up for grabs for the first time in twenty years. There is a wide field of candidates running for the seat in next year's election, and we are going to talk with the major candidates, one on...

With Adam Schiff running for U.S. Senate, his Los Angeles area 30th district congressional seat – which stretches from Burbank and Glendale and Sunland Tujunga down to Hancock Park and West Hollywood – is up for grabs for the first time in twenty years. There is a wide field of candidates running for the seat in next year's election, and we are going to talk with the major candidates, one on...

Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto is blocking affordable and homeless housing, refusing to help tenants facing eviction, and violating the First Amendment rights of reporters -- and more. Mike is joined by two special guests: civil rights attorney Marissa Roy and Godfrey Santos Plata . They discuss the foibles and scandals of the city attorney, as well as LA's hot labor summer, t...

Journalists have been detained, beaten, and targeted by the government -- right here in Los Angeles.  It has happened to freelance, independent journalists, as well as journalists with major organizations, such as the Los Angeles Times, KPCC, and Spectrum One News. How bad and how comprehensive are efforts to handcuff the press? What impact is it having on hard-hitting coverage in Southern Califor...

For forty years, Zev Yaroslavsky was a major force in Los Angeles politics. As a member of the City Council and then the Board of Supervisors, Zev played a leading role in civic affairs at a time of dramatic change. He wasn’t just a witness to LA history, he was a shaper of it. If there was a major issue in Los Angeles, he was in the thick of it. Police reform. Mass transit. Health care. Budget cr...

Last October, one the biggest news stories in Los Angeles and around the nation was the release of the Fed Tapes -- revealing an ugly, racist conversation between some of my council colleagues and the head of the labor federation. For me and my family, it was brutal and personally wrenching. For Los Angeles, it was a scandal of epic proportions . It was a window into the ugly souls of of some of t...

Los Angeles is about to experience the biggest mass eviction in generations – and it might be just the beginning of a huge wave of mass evictions – unless we stop a corporate real estate giant that is trying to force hundreds of families out of their homes. The multi-billion dollar firm Douglas Emmett is using the need to install fire sprinklers as a pretext to evict every resident of its 700 rent...

In a special Father's Day episode of What's Next, Los Angeles, Mike talks with Los Angeles area Congressman Jimmy Gomez , who this year formed a Congressional Dads Caucus to focus on pushing legislation that helps working families. A first-time Dad, Gomez gained attention when young Hodge accompanied him onto the House floor for January's prolonged vote for Speaker of the House of R...

  The national wave of anti-gay, anti-trans hate is erupting here in Los Angeles County – and it’s a lot uglier and even more sinister than you think. It’s being led and fed by dangerous forces – Proud Boys, right-wingers, and Capitol Hill rioters. On this episode, Mike talks with independent journalists Sean Beckner-Carmitchel and Joey Scott, who explain what really went down in North Hollywood a...

What will it to take to keep our neighborhoods safe?  Both progressives and conservatives agree we need an alternative to always calling the police. People usually at odds are in consensus that we need an unarmed response to non-violent emergency calls.  What would that look like and how would it operate? In Denver,  they have created a tremendously successful and popular model. Denver STAR routin...

How can we fix a broken political system? How can we re-energize grassroots democracy? How do counteract the poisonous influence of big money in our elections? One big idea is something called "democracy vouchers." “Democracy vouchers” is a campaign finance system in which all residents are issued vouchers that they can donate to political candidates who, in turn, redeem them for public...

Los Angeles has some of the worst traffic, some of the worst air, and some of the most unsafe streets in the country -- and LA voters are going to have a chance to do something about it next year. I talk with Michael Schneider of Streets for All ,  the driving force behind the Healthy Streets LA ballot initiative, on this episode of What's Next Los Angeles. What's Next, Los Angeles? is p...

It’s been 100 days since Mayor Karen Bass and the new crew of elected officials took office in the city of Los Angeles. How are they doing? I talk about that, homelessness, public safety, LA Metro, and a lot more with Alissa Walker and Scott Frazier of LA Podcast on the latest  edition of What’s Next Los Angeles. Alissa is co-host of LA Podcast, and a writer for Curbed/New Yorker . Her twitter han...

Bribery. Prostitution. Betrayal. Courtroom drama. The FBI investigation into LA City Hall has it all.  It had led to a series of guilty pleas and guilty verdicts, for elected officials, staffers, developers, and lobbyists. The investigation's biggest trial -- against former Deputy Mayor Raymond Chan -- is underway now, and it is has continued to generate revelations about former City Councilm...

When Nury Martinez resigned from the City Council in October, it left 270,000 residents of the east San Fernando Valley without representation.  The special election to fill the seat is April 4, and Mike is talking one-on-one with each of the candidates. In this episode, he talks with Douglas Sierra .  He has a background as a consultant at Deloitte Consulting, a business analyst at the nonprofit...