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LOS CUENTOS SALUTE 2023

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Happy 2023, Los Angeles! If you’re listening from Spotify or Apple Podcasts, you’ll notice a new look to the show. This is courtesy of Aspen Leavitt, whose illustration for yours truly captures the spirit of Los Cuentos like few others could. See more of Aspen’s work via Instagram at @artbyazpen.

Secondly, save the date for our next IG Live session taking place next Tuesday, January 17th and featuring Eva Recinos, a writer on arts and culture in L.A. who’s going to take us through some of her latest, must-read stories.

And if you’ve been anywhere in California lately, you know it’s been fiercely cold; so pick up some Los Cuentos pink and yellow beanies to keep you and your counterparts warm over the next few months; this way you’ll not only support the show, but you’ll do so in style. Place your order via jmbtms.com and thank you in advance, it means the world.

This tidbit also reflects for a moment on recent developments in Los Angeles, where Karen Bass was just elected to the mayor’s office. Bass recently declared a state of emergency for the city’s roughly 50,000 people without shelter, and her administration’s Inside Safe initiative has been slowly but steadily offering hotel rooms in exchange for removal of tents along the street; we’ve not yet seen the numbers for tracking this system but will make them available if and when we can access them.

We also note not one but three new progressive L.A. City Council Members, including Eunisses Hernandez, Hugo Soto-Martinez, and Katy Young-Yaroslavsky. A shout out also goes to Lindsey P. Horvath, who just became the new representative for the 3rd District, of which West Hollywood, Hollywood and East Hollywood are a part of. For more of these updates and then some, please follow the show on Apple or Spotify, then rate and review us!

And if you’d like to tune into the show from elsewhere, please see our RSS feed here: https://jimbotimes.com/category/podcast/feed/

J.T.

EPISODE 108 – MIKE BONIN ON RACIST LEAKS AND NEVER RETIRING FROM THE WORK

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L.A. City Council Member Bonin and yours truly discuss a range of things: The racist L.A. City Council leaks. The fight against his office’s work to expand transitional housing for unhoused people in Venice beach. The Los Angeles Police Union’s efforts to recall Bonin. The passage of measure ULA (or a tax on transfers of residential and commercial real estate in L.A. valued over $5 million to support renter’s assistance programs; other tools this measure provides the new L.A. City Council. The L.A. City Council’s Transportation Committee and Bonin’s time on the L.A. Metro Board; the path towards fareless transit, the expansion of L.A. City Hall over the next few years and how it might be phased out, and more. Another can’t-miss episode for the people of Los Angeles and a great way to acknowledge Council Member Bonin’s years of service for communities in the city.

J.T.

EPISODE 92 – DR. ANANYA ROY ON ECHO PARK DISPLACEMENT

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For our 92nd episode, J.T. the L.A. Storyteller Podcast is honored to feature Ananya Roy (@ananyaUCLA), Professor of Urban Planning, Social Welfare, and Geography at UCLA and the inaugural Director of the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy. Roy is also co-author of (Dis)Placement: The Fight for Housing and Community after Echo Park Lake, which is a major new study of state-backed displacement and gentrification in L.A. released just this March 2022. Our conversation touches on Roy’s arrival to Los Angeles from Kolkata, India–the seventh most populous city there–as well as what makes our Southern California region a critical battleground for civil and human rights in the U.S. today; we also discuss a special anecdote from Roy’s time in Kolkata–which you can hear more about here–and finally, revanchism, a term used to describe the state and authorities’ retaliatory and property-based valuation of people and their rights, or lack thereof.

J.T.

EPISODE 83 – SCOTT EPSTEIN FOR COUNCIL DISTRICT 5

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In our 83rd episode, we sit down for a chat with Scott Epstein (@scottforla), a former chair of the Mid-City West Neighborhood Council and current candidate for Council District 5, which is home to–among other L.A. landmarks–the L.A. County Museum of Arts, UCLA, the Pico-Robertson area, and more of what makes up the “west-side” of Los Angeles. Scott and I discuss the growing number of unhoused residents in CD-5, including unhoused UCLA students, as well as his take on Mitch O’Farrell’s militaristic response to the unhoused crisis in Echo Park. Scott and I also consider the major discretionary powers of L.A. City Council members, and how Los Angeles is–with a few key exceptions–more of a City Council “town” and not that of a mayor’s. To learn more about Scott, find his campaign page at scottforla.com.

J.T.

EPISODE 72 – MAEBE A. GIRL FOR CONGRESS DISTRICT 28 FROM SILVER LAKE

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In our 72nd episode, we chat with Silver Lake resident and Neighborhood Council Representative, Maebe A. Girl (pronouns: she/they). Maebe and I discuss her candidacy for the 28th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, challenging incumbent Adam Schiff, who has held the office since 2001. We also discuss Maebe’s status as the first drag queen elected to public office, as well as how Schiff’s office has failed to address the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles over the course of two decades. A galvanizing conversation for residents throughout Hollywood, Echo Park, Glendale, and more. To learn more about Maebe’s campaign or get involved, visit maebeagirlforcongress.com.

J.T.