Los Angeles Times - 04.10.2019

CALIFORNIA

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2019::LATIMES.COM/CALIFORNIA

B

SACRAMENTO — California vot-
ers are sharply divided over the future
of cash bail in a new statewide poll, al-
though a slight plurality supports a
new law to replace the system with
one that would allow more defend-
ants to be released before trial.
The poll, conducted by the UC
Berkeley Institute of Governmental
Studies for the Los Angeles Times,
finds that 39% of likely voters would

keep the new law in place. Thirty-two

percent would cancel the law and re-

instate the cash bail system, while

29% of voters are undecided.

The contested law, Senate Bill 10,

was signed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown

last year. In January, a campaign

funded by the bail bond industry

gathered enough voter signatures to

place a referendum measure on the

November 2020 statewide ballot in

hopes of overturning the law.

Unlike a ballot initiative, which

asks voters to enact a new law, a refer-

endum provides a chance to cancel an

existing law. As a result, the bail in-

dustry’s campaign will urge a “no”

vote on the ballot measure, while sup-

porters of SB 10 will urge a “yes” vote.

Justin Salters, a spokesman for

the bail industry group that qualified

the referendum, said the coalition “in-

tends to run an effective campaign to

educate voters on why they should re-

ject SB 10” next November.

In the intervening months, the

new law remains on hold. Even so,

SENATE BILL 10,approved last year to overhaul the cash bail system, remains on hold as the bail indus-
try pushes for the law to be overturned. Above, a bounty hunter takes a man into custody in Hemet in 2018.

Irfan KhanLos Angeles Times

Voters are split on 2020

bid to preserve cash bail

Referendum on SB 10 divides many by age, politics, poll finds

By John Myers

[SeeBail reform,B5]

First West Nile

fatality of 2019

in L.A. County

South Bay resident

had a neuroinvasive

illness resulting from

mosquito-borne virus,

health officials say. B

Mother held in

girl’s heat death

Woman is accused of

leaving her 2-year-old

in a hot car while

drinking with a friend

in another vehicle. B

Lottery.........................B

Drinking and driving is
already a deadly cocktail.
New research finds that add-
ing gun ownership to the mix
heightens the risk for violent
outcomes.
A study that set out to
track about 80,000 legal gun
purchasers in California
found that handgun buyers
with a DUI on their record
were more likely to go on to
be arrested for a violent
crime. That was the case
even if driving under the in-
fluence of alcohol was the
only criminal conviction in
his or her past.
In the roughly dozen
years after purchasing a gun
in 2001, Californians who had
already been convicted of
drunk driving were 2.5 times

more likely than those with

no DUI convictions to be ar-

rested on suspicion of mur-

der, rape, robbery or aggra-

vated assault, according to

the study, published this

week in JAMA Internal Med-

icine.

If the range of violent of-

fenses was broadened

slightly to include crimes

like stalking, harassment or

child neglect, handgun buy-

ers with a prior DUI were

more than three times likeli-

er than those with no DUI

conviction to be arrested.

The state Senate passed

a bill in May that would re-

voke a person’s right to own

a gun for 10 years if he or she

has been convicted of two or

three (depending on the of-

fense) misdemeanors in-

volving alcohol within three

years. Senate Bill 55, which

passed 26 to 10, was sent to

the Assembly’s Public Safe-

ty Committee, and the Leg-

islature is now in recess.

The legislation is op-

posed by Gun Owners of

Study sees higher

risk in gun buyers

with a prior DUI

Such purchasers are

more likely to be

arrested in a violent

crime, research finds.

By Melissa Healy

[SeeGuns,B2]

Joaquin and Jude Perez,

like many children in their

Long Beach neighborhood,

learned how to ride their

bikes on the blacktop at Fre-

mont Elementary School.

The school grounds have

long been their de facto park,

where they play with friends

after school and on week-

ends while parents chat.

But last week, Fremont

Elementary parents were

told the school would soon

become a “closed campus.”

New fences would secure the

school and after-hours pub-

lic access would be blocked.

A few days ago, a school

police officer asked 6-year-

old Jude and his dad to leave

while they were playing

soccer with friends in the

evening.

The new security mea-

sures are designed to keep

campuses safe from violence

in an era when protecting

children from violence and

mass shootings is a top pri-

ority, Long Beach Unified

School District officials said.

Fremont will join most of

Long Beach’s 85 other cam-

puses that are fenced in and

require visitors to enter

through a single front-office

door, often armed with a

buzzer and camera.

“Some of our campuses

have been fully enclosed for

decades,” district spokes-

man Chris Eftychiou said in

an email. “But two months

after [the] Parkland [shoot-

ing in 2018], our school board

voted to provide additional

STUDENTSand parents protest a new fence and “closed campus” plans at Long

Beach’s Fremont Elementary. The school is the de facto park for many in the area.

Brian van der BrugLos Angeles Times

A fence goes up at school,

and neighbors lose a park

For campuses in

communities lacking

open space, tightened

security can mean one

fewer place to play.

By Sonali Kohli

[SeeSchool,B4]

A federal appeals court

on Thursday unanimously

upheld a Santa Monica ordi-

nance banning most short-

term vacation rentals.

A three-judge panel of

the U.S. 9th Circuit of Ap-

peals rejected a potential

class-action lawsuit against

the city, which passed the

law in 2015 on the grounds

that visitors who rent

through Airbnb Inc. or other

companies “sometimes dis-

rupt the quietude and resi-

dential character of the

neighborhoods.”

The ordinance prohibits

vacation rentals of 30 days or

fewer, except when a pri-

mary resident remains in

the home.

Santa Monica resident

Arlene Rosenblatt had been

renting out her home for

$350 a night when she and

her husband traveled. She

charged in a lawsuit that the

ordinance hindered com-

merce in violation of the fed-

eral Constitution.

Online short-term rental

companies allowed tourists

access to affordable lodging

over “the ultra-luxurious,

highly occupied and pricey

hotels in the city,” the law-

suit argued.

Santa Monica’s real in-

tent in passing the ordi-

nance, Rosenblatt con-

tended, was to boost de-

mand for the hotels and re-

verse a decline in revenue

from the city’s 14% transient

occupancy tax, paid by ho-

tels but not by short-term

renters.

The lawsuit alleged that

the ordinance illegally de-

nied travelers from out of

state access to Santa Moni-

ca’s residential neighbor-

hoods. The 9th Circuit re-

jected that contention, con-

cluding the city offered rea-

sonable alternatives to the

vacation rentals.

The ordinance “does not

discriminate against per-

sons outside of Santa Moni-

ca, who stand on equal foot-

ing with Santa Monica resi-

dents in their ability to pur-

chase Santa Monica

property and reside there,”

Judge Jacqueline H. Ngu-

yen, an Obama appointee,

wrote for the court.

Court upholds

Santa Monica

short-term

rental limits

Federal appeals panel

rejects potential

lawsuit against the

city, which passed the

ordinance in 2015.

By Maura Dolan

[SeeRental,B2]

Frequent fliers, beware.

Los Angeles International

Airport will soon ban ride-

hailing companies from

picking up passengers out-

side its terminals, LAX offi-

cials said Thursday.

Starting on or about Oct.

29, travelers looking to hop

on an Uber or Lyft will be

taken by shuttle to a parking

lot next to Terminal 1, where

they can book their rides,

said Keith Wilschetz, deputy

executive director of the Op-

erations and Emergency

Management Division at

Los Angeles World Airports.

Drop-offs at terminals will

still be allowed.

The decision is in re-

sponse to worsening con-

gestion at the airport, which

is undergoing a $14-billion

overhaul of its aging road

network and terminals. In

recent months, construc-

tion has often required LAX

to close some lanes.

And because airlines

have been adding routes,

more people are coming to

the airport in general,

Wilschetz said. Passenger

volume increased from

63.7 million in 2012 to 87.5 mil-

lion in 2018, according to

LAX officials.

The increased use of ride-

hailing services has also con-

tributed to the traffic, which

sometimes backs up into

nearby neighborhoods.

“We understand that try-

ing to get into the central ter-

minal area is a challenge and

has been for a long time, and

we’ve been working to make

that much better,” Wilschetz

told The Times. “This is a

way we can do that.”

The news was first re-

ported by Skift, a media

company that covers the

travel industry.

Passengers will wait

three to five minutes for a

shuttle, Wilschetz said, and

the trip should take no long-

er than 15 minutes total. The

airport plans to reconfigure

its lower-level curb to allow

shuttle buses to have unim-

peded access around the

central terminal loop.

Travelers will also be able

to walk to the ride-hailing

parking lot, officials said.

LAX to

ban Lyft,

Uber

pickups

at curb

Starting around the

end of the month,

ride-hailing customers

will need to take a

shuttle to a nearby lot.

By Laura Newberry

[SeeAirport,B4]