Unrig LA

Post from Twitter from @UnrigLA observing Rae Chen Huang’s name appearing among candidates for mayor in Los Angeles’ 2026 election in city campaign finance reports.

News comes via @UnrigLA on Twitter (@unrigla.bsky.social on Bsky), who noticed Huang’s name appearing among candidates in city campaign finance reports.

Is the Charter Reform Commission haunted? Is there anything we can do about it?

We'll find out at this Wednesday's meeting.
bit.ly/FRLA26

The LA Reporter this week is debuting The Doughnut Shop Interviews series in which we sit down with a major figure in local politics and regulars at a neighborhood doughnut shop.

The first chat is with Raymond Meza, chair a citizen panel helping to rewrite the LA city charter.

Mayor Bass Takes Action to Provide New Relief to Palisades Fire Survivors, Accelerate Community Recovery Calls on City Council to Provide Fire-Affected Properties with Time-Limited Exemption, Announces Mayoral Executive Directive LOS ANGELES – Mayor Karen Bass announced actions to provide new relief to Palisades Fire survivors and accelerate community recovery. She called on the City Council to adopt an ordinance that would assist in the establishment of a one-time exemption to Measure ULA for Palisade homeowners and announced that once the ordinance is adopted she would issue an executive directive to direct the Office of Finance to create the rule providing this exemption. The letter follows a meeting with Rick Caruso, founder of Steadfast LA, who proposed ideas to help address this issue. The Mayor’s plan to create a time limited exemption from the Measure ULA property transfer tax will help homeowners who need to or wish to move from the fire impacted area and speed up sales of these properties and spur rebuilding and rehabilitation of the Palisades.

Mayor Karen Bass is asking LA's city council to pass an ordinance that would exempt Pacific Palisades transactions from ULA, the city's transfer tax.

Of note: "The letter follows a meeting with Rick Caruso, founder of Steadfast LA, who proposed ideas to help address this issue"

Yes it does, but also says “to the extent practicable” so it’s not a hard requirement

Committee meeting next day is at 2pm🫠

Even if you aren't attending these, please sign it.

You SHOULD, but they can be hard to attend. Making remote public available means you can zoom in and add your voice to critical changes like Ranked Choice Voting, how police are punished, and how we deal with corrupt politicians.

It's important

We *need* to get the commission’s support behind these changes at this Wednesday’s meeting.

They are breaking off into committees and don’t have another full commission meeting scheduled until November 19th.
bit.ly/108crc

Please take a minute to sign and share @cacommoncause.bsky.social’s petition asking the Charter Reform Commission to provide remote public comment at *all* meetings moving forward:
bit.ly/108crc

My "finalizing the Enhanced City Resources Master Agreement" t-shirt has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my shirt

Next week the Charter Reform Commission will be deliberating on potential reforms re: Budget, Personnel, & Periodic Charter Review.

They should also be considering changes that would require them to provide remote public comment at meetings.
bit.ly/FRLA26

This Monday at 5pm the Charter Reform Commission will be hosting a virtual town hall via zoom:
bit.ly/FRLA26

The LA City Charter Reform Commission's Government Structure Committee will be meeting Thursday September 25th at 4pm to hear presentations and discuss reforms re: elections, how we vote, and potentially expanding who may vote in local elections.
bit.ly/FRLA26

"If you think city services are bad now — and I think all of us would agree that they suck — and you thought maybe one day we would have funding to restore service, I have bad news. It's going to get worse."

Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky absolutely shredding the $3B convention center plan to bits

"Remember, Los Angeles is also on the hook for Olympic overruns. The Convention Center bill starts coming due the very same year we could be forced to absorb those Olympic overages."

I asked Yaroslavsky for her prepared remarks because I felt they captured this particular moment in LA so perfectly

Our full video of this Charter Reform Commission meeting is now available at: youtu.be/TpC-7x6vH4c

Torched Talks with Rick Cole Let's build an LA that works on Monday, September 15 at noon on Zoom

"If we can’t pave our streets, repair our sidewalks, trim our trees, house our homeless, light our bridges, and fix our firetrucks, how can we host an Olympics in just three years?" Good question, and only one of many I hope Rick will answer. Get ready for some real talk!

Dog wearing LA28 Olympics hat puts water gun in his mouth.

YouTube video by Fair Rep LA LA City Charter Reform Commission (Meeting 9) September 6, 2025

Full video now up
youtu.be/bkFLPKw-Zew?...

Full meeting video won’t be up til late tonight but the @fairrepla.bsky.social presentation focused on removal & replacement of elected officials is on YouTube:
youtu.be/FFZHcJIjJ20?...

Hello! I've started a newsletter on LA government and politics, The LA Reporter.

You can subscribe here: thelareporter.beehiiv.com

I think we have identified an intersection that needs some street calming measures!!

Next Saturday, September 6th, the LA City Charter Reform Commission will be meeting in CD 11 at LMU to hear presentations on issues like the removal/replacement of electeds, anti-corruption measures, & neighborhood councils.

More info: bit.ly/FRLA26

There's now a motion from LA City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez asking LA28 to "provide a detailed presentation on the new federal Olympics taskforce, its purpose, jurisdiction, anticipated activities."

It's been referred to the ad hoc committee: cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkc...

August 25, 2025 The Han. Karen Bass Mayor 200 N. Spring St., Room 303 Los Angeles, CA S0012 Mr. Matthew Szabo City Administrative Officer 200 N. Main St., Room 1500 Los Angeles, CA 90012-4137 Ms. Sharon Tso Chief Legislative Analyst 200 N. Spring St., Room 255 Los Angeles, CA 90012-4137 The Hon. Marqueece Harris-Dawson President, Los Angeles City Council 200 N. Spring St., Room 435 Los Angeles, CA 90012 The Hon. Hydee Feldstein Soto City Attorney 200 N. Main St., Suite 800 Los Angeles, CA 90012-4137 Attachment A 1150 S. Olive Street Jth Floor Los Angeles, CA 90015 Dear Mayor Bass, Council President Harris-Dawson, City Attorney Felstein Soto, City Administrative Officer Szabo, and Chief Legislative Analyst Tso: Pursuant to section 6.6 of the Games Agreement made and entered by and among the City of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2028 [LA28J, please find attached as Appendix A-8 LA28's request for the City's written consent of amendments to the venue plan submitted to the City on January 18, 2017 that move the Olympic Diving competition outside of the City of Los Angeles.

2028 Ol ymp ic Venue Plan I. Overview In the summer of 2028, in addition to welcoming the world's tap athletes to compete on the biggest stage in sports, the Olympic and Paralympic Games will be a celebration of the people and communities of the Los Angeles region. When bidding to host the Games in 2017, LA28 submitted a venue plan (Bid Venue Plan] to the City of Los Angeles and the International Olympic Committee (IOC]. This Bid Venue Plan included the proposed competition venues far the sports and disciplines featured in the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 sport programs for those specific editions of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, as the 2028 sport program was not yet determined, along with proposed placements far athlete housing, media housing, broadcasting and press facilities. Since 2017, the Los Angeles venue landscape has changed, with new professional sports stadiums built or under construction, previously assigned venues no longer available for use in 2028, and other major capital construction projects led by entities outside of LA28. Additionally, new sports have been added to the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic sports program, requiring LA28 to assign additional competition venues for the Games. Finally, the new IOC policy, the Olympic Agenda 2020+5, urges organizing committees to reduce the complexity and cost of the Games, including making use of existing facilities that may be outside the region of the Host City. These developments give LA28 an opportunity ta adapt and improve its venue plan, first and foremost, by creating greater cast certainty and reducing financial risk. On June 21, 2024, LA28 proposed several updates to the 2028 Venue Plan that collectively achieved more than $150 million in combined cast savings and revenue increases which were unanimously approved by the City Council on March 28, 2025. Thanks to the approved updates, LA28 has been able to progress its planning with greater cost certainty and detail. Within these proposed updates in June…

Coliseum track construction projects due to limited space within the surrounding footprint. Moreover, the historical nature and close proximity of these facilities adds further complexity and cost given the need to protect the building's unique character and attributes. Beyond venue delivery risks, further operational analysis of this site and its space constraints revealed hosting Diving at 1932 Pool adds operational complexity to the overall delivery of events in the Exposition Park Zone. This competition zone is home to three multi-event competition venues in the Olympic Games Plan - the LA Memorial Coliseum [Athletics (Track and Field] and Ceremonies), Exposition Park Stadium (Flag Football and Lacrosse) and Galen Center (Badminton and Rhythmic Gymnastics] - with a combined capacity of aver 90,000. The LA Memorial Coliseum will host three out of four Ceremonies, a significant undertaking for a venue that already faces operational complexities in order to host back-to-back Athletics (Track and Field] events. In order to deliver on these major events, LA28 will need ta maximize the space around the Coliseum so as not to compromise on concept and delivery of Ceremonies and to ensure a smooth transition over to Athletics (Track and Field) competition. Additional congestion of this area would significantly impact the Games- time experience for athletes, spectators, stakeholders and events in the vicinity. limiting LA2B's ability ta fully deliver on marquee events. For these reasons and given the strong recommendations and grave concerns raised by the International Federation, LA28 has concluded that the 1932 Pool at Exposition Park is not a viable competition venue to host Diving in 2028. LA28 then explored other existing pools in the City of Los Angeles and after further analysis, it became clear there was no viable existing pool within the city that could meet Olympic Diving standards. LA28 then turned to the Venue City of Pasadena and the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center…

More 2028 venue drama at today's ad hoc meeting. Apparently the Expo Park swim stadium is *not* up to "international standards," and LA28 is asking to move diving to Pasadena's Rose Bowl aquatic center.

The pool itself is not wide enough, something I would think might have been measured before now?

Post-Fire Sales of Lots Occurring between February 11 and July 5, 2025 A map shows the number of corporate buyers in yellow dots that dominate the Altadena community Buyer type of post-fire property sales in Altadena from February 11 to July 5, 2025 72 (47%) Private Buyer -74 (49%) Corporate Landlord Figure 9: Buyer type of post-fire property sales in Altadena from February 11 to July 5, 2025. Of the 151 recorded purchases, 74 (49%) were made by corporate entities. Source: Greenline Housing Foundation 4(2%) Non-Profit or Alternative Ownership

Sobering data out of Altadena: of 151 post-fire sales, half were purchased by corporate entities. A new report from SAJE, Inclusive Action, Morena Strategies and more, is out today with urgent policy recommendations to prevent displacement.

Read it here: www.morenastrategies.com/post/our-lat...

Watching a Waymo stuck in the middle of a block party, creating a surreal traffic jam because it can’t figure out how to briefly cross the yellow line to get past the crowd. Now the cops are here. They don’t understand the problem and are yelling at everyone but the car. The future is so stupid

Now a bunch of riot cops are here with pepper ball guns and face shields and a dangerously low-flying police helicopter is giving orders to disperse, because police in Los Angeles are unusually wound up at all times

YouTube video by Fair Rep LA LA City Charter Reform Commission (Meeting 8) August 22, 2025

Well, at least yesterday’s Charter Reform Commission meeting was a lot more productive than Monday’s.

@fairrepla.bsky.social recording now up:
youtu.be/mTTymEg_-TE?...

The meeting of the Charter Reform Commission on reforming the structure of LA's government will be starting shortly in Room 350 at City Hall.

We'll have video up soon after, but you can watch live via Zoom here: www.zoomgov.com/webinar/regi...