Los Angeles

As homelessness numbers in the United States rise, no state has escaped untouched by the crisis. In an effort to unify problem solving in the face of such a widespread issue, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, founded in 1932, privately convened recently in Los Angeles to open more collaboration and data sharing on their respective methods for combating the issue. VX News presents this excerpt from a public press conference on the meeting, featuring comments from the Mayors of Reno, Houston, Los Angeles, and Riverside. In the press conference, the mayor’s shared their hopefulness on the utility of the meeting, as well as answered questions from the press on California’s new CARE Courts and the future of Mayor Bass’ Inside Safe program.

Though all of Los Angeles was impacted by COVID, Council District 11, which includes Venice, Brentwood, LAX and much of the Westside coast, felt the loss of retail and tourism revenue particularly strongly. As the district recovers and deals with post-covid and economic pains, among those increased homelessness and greater housing density, constituents are demanding a return to normal. VX News spoke with the district’s new council member, Traci Park, on what’s being done to address these challenges to livability. In the conversation, Park talks about LA’s Sensitive Location Resolution 41.18, the usurpation by the State of local planning, and the need for civic engagement and political transparency.

As the process to begin pulling together the City of LA’s yearly budget moves forward this fall, LA’s City Council is also beginning efforts to seriously explore a Capital Infrastructure Plan (CIP), a document that provides a long-term, unified direction for investment in a city’s infrastructure. VerdeXchange News spoke with Investing in Place’ Executive Director, Jessica Meaney, on how the city’s budgeting could better address the needs of the city, improve equity and be more transparent. Meaney opines that the current way of doing things is failing to serve residents and why her organization’s work to push for a Capital Infrastructure Plan for the City of Los Angeles has been so important.

In this exclusive interview with VX News, former CA Senate Majority Leader and former Speaker of the State Assembly, Bob Hertzberg lays out five pieces of advice that he has learned throughout his impressive political career for a future generation of decision-makers, based on some of the mos

This Mono Lake team of water experts argue that the State Water Resources Control Board needs to update its rules that are supposed to raise Mono Lake to the mandated ecological protection level while enabling LADWP to obtain future water from Mono Lake.

Aquarium of the Pacific President Dr. Jerry Schubel highlights the role California can play in a growing blue economy.

Lyft Senior Director of National Transportation Policy Lilly Shoup shares how Lyft is progressing on public-private partnerships in Los Angeles County, and integrating active transportation technologies.

At the Milken Global Conference 2018, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti introduced former Vice President Al Gore to present on “The Sustainability Revolution: Seizing the Investment Opportunity of Our Generation.”

VX2018 convened smart city leaders Brian Swett (Arup), Amanda Daflos (City of LA), Miguel Santana (LA County Fair Association), LA Controller Ron Galperin, Michael Kelly (LA Coalition), and Rick Cole (Santa Monica) to discuss strategies for using data and building public-private partnerships.