Let The City Know.
Today in the U.S. Capitol Michigan Democratic Representative Rashida Tlaib, the sole Palestinian-American member of Congress, held a news conference alongside Rabbis for Peace and several colleagues calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Rabbis for Ceasefire & Members of Congress Hold Press Conference at US Capitol https://t.co/fKQAdnbnLc
— IfNotNow🔥 (@IfNotNowOrg) November 13, 2023
J.T.
This is a special rebroadcast episode for the first ever panel-discussion by K-Town Is Oaxacan Korean.
On Thursday, November 2, 2023, K-Town Is Oaxacan Korean, also known as K-Town Is OK, brought together long-time and former residents of Koreatown into conversation. The panel, free and open to the public, was held just over a year after the public release of a private discussion between L.A. City Council Members Nury Martinez, Gil Cedillo and Kevin De Leon, and Federation of Labor leader Ron Herrera, in which they dismissed Korean-American residents of the area and ridiculed Oaxacan or Mexican-American members of the community as “short, dark people” and “feos (ugly).” The panel discussion was held online and featured a line-up of guest speakers, culminating a year-long effort by my colleague Helen H. Kim and I documenting Oaxacan-American, Korean-American and other voices in Koreatown through our website and podcast, K-Town Is OK.
Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Quien Es Tu Vecindario to support this panel and help create more such dialogue for our communities.
J.T.
Allegra Padilla is the Executive Director of the Levitt Pavilion, which has hosted concerts at MacArthur Park in the Westlake area for sixteen years. During our chat, we talk about Allegra’s journey from South Pasadena to organizing on the streets of Los Angeles, including for Mumia Abu-Jamal and the South Central Farm; we also discuss how her Levitt Pavilion Summer Concert series isn’t just for fun, but a matter of equity for tens of thousands of park-goers and community members in one of the densest neighborhoods of L.A. County. Allegra also tells us about the Levitt Pavilion’s nonprofit status and how the organization seeks to include long-time business owners and other small vendors in its events. In this vein, we both give a special shout out to the Central-American communities uplifting Central Los Angeles daily, including Sweet L.A. by Cuscatleca, the bakery line through which we first connected!
To make a one-time donation to my fundraiser for the 9th anniversary of JIMBO TIMES, please do so through jmbtms.com. To support the production of J.T. the L.A. Storyteller Podcast, please check out my PATREON.
J.T.
In our 73rd episode, we chat with Jamie Tijerina, a Cal Tech Researcher, president of the Highland Park Neighborhood Trust, and author of The Legacy of Redlining in Los Angeles, a white paper absolutely adored by yours truly. Jamie and I discuss the paper, as well as the city’s egregious pension benefits for L.A.’s former police officers and firefighters (exceeding the IRS limit of $200,000 a year), and her candidacy for Council District 14 (formerly Jose Huizar’s and now Kevin De Leon’s) in 2019. We also discuss Jamie’s successful, three-year long effort to designate the Chicano Arts Collectives of the Highland Park neighborhood as Historic-Cultural Monuments (HCMs) through an official voting process at the L.A. City Council, student debt, and more. A can’t-miss session for community organizers in Los Angeles.
J.T.
This free presentation and discussion, held by Public Counsel and the UCLA School of Law Economic Development Clinic, is set for August 11th, 2021 at 10:00 AM Pacific Time. You can register for the event HERE.
“Despite the landmark effort to legalize sidewalk vending in California, little-known and poorly designed food laws still make it functionally illegal for most vendors to sell food. While non-food merchandise vendors now have a relatively clear path to legal vending, most sidewalk food vendors are still denied access to the formal economy by a potent combination of inaccessible permitting procedures, exorbitant costs, incompatible equipment and design standards, and punitive enforcement measures.”
“During the report launch we will hear from the authors of the report, advocates, and street vendors who are fighting for their right to work without harassment and criminalization.”
J.T.