Los Angeles Times - 16.11.2019

CALIFORNIA

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2019::LATIMES.COM/CALIFORNIA

B

Facing a public outcry

over homelessness, three

members of the Los Angeles

City Council said Friday

they want to give Mayor Eric

Garcetti “full authority” to

pick locations for homeless

housing, public restrooms

and parking lots where peo-

ple can sleep in their cars

overnight.

In the proposal, Council-

men David Ryu, Joe Bus-

caino and Marqueece Har-

ris-Dawson said the city is in

a “state of emergency” and

that it’s time to grant the

mayor emergency powers to

rezone property and sus-

pend city rules that block or

delay approving new sites

for housing and other facili-

ties for homeless people.

“Doing business as usual

is not going to cut it for the

situation we have,” said Har-

ris-Dawson, who represents

part of South Los Angeles.

The proposal, if passed,

could require council mem-

bers to relinquish some of

their cherished power over

approval of housing. Ryu,

who represents neighbor-

hoods stretching from Silver

Lake to Sherman Oaks, said

he is prepared to give up his

authority to sign off on

homeless housing projects

— at least on a temporary

basis — in order to get them

built faster.

“People are frustrated

and so am I,” he said. “I’ve

been working within our cur-

rent structure and it is

flawed, it is broken. This

humanitarian crisis needs

a FEMA-like response,” he

added, referring to the Fed-

eral Emergency Manage-

ment Agency.

Whether Garcetti wants

those powers is not clear.

Asked about Ryu and his

proposal, mayoral spokes-

man Alex Comisar said

Garcetti “supports propos-

als that will help us get

housing built faster, and

bring our homeless neigh-

bors indoors.”

“He looks forward to fol-

lowing the council’s deliber-

ations on the motion,”

Comisar said.

The push to cut red tape

comes amid simmering frus-

tration over homelessness in

Los Angeles and the pace of

government action to ad-

dress the crisis. In a new poll

conducted for the Los Ange-

les Times, two-thirds of re-

spondents said the money

that voters had approved for

the city and county to com-

bat homelessness had been

spent “ineffectively.”

Los Angeles voters ap-

proved a $1.2-billion bond

measure to fund supportive

housing for homeless peo-

ple, but none of those proj-

ects have opened their doors

so far, according to housing

officials. The city has also set

up more than 500 beds in

nine new shelters, but tens of

thousands of people remain

on the streets.

Richard Close, president

of the Sherman Oaks Home-

owners Assn., said the pro-

Push to give

mayor more

housing sway

Proposal would grant

Garcetti ‘emergency

powers’ to pick sites

to shelter homeless.

By David Zahniser and

Emily Alpert Reyes

[SeeHousing,B5]

Gov. Gavin Newsom has

called a March 3 special elec-

tion to pick a successor to

former Democratic Rep.

Katie Hill, the Santa Clarita

lawmaker who stepped

down amid accusations that

she’d had affairs with con-

gressional and campaign

staff members.

The 25th Congressional

District vote will be on the

same day as California’s

presidential primary. The

highly competitive Demo-

cratic presidential contest

could draw an outsize turn-

out of the party’s voters.

The district, covering

Simi Valley, Porter Ranch,

Santa Clarita, Palmdale and

part of Lancaster, has be-

come one of the most fiercely

competitive in a state that

strongly favors Democrats.

Hill ousted Republican Rep.

Steve Knight a year ago as

suburban voters nationwide

revolted against President

Trump and his GOP allies in

Congress.

If nobody wins a majority

March 3, a runoff between

the first- and second-place

finishers will be held May 12.

The winner will serve the re-

mainder of Hill’s term.

In a fluke of the election

calendar that risks confus-

ing the district’s voters, the

primary for the regular No-

vember 2020 general elec-

tion will occur simulta-

neously with the special

election March 3. Residents

will be able to vote for the

same House candidate twice

on the same ballot — once to

replace Hill for the rest of

2020 and a second time for

the two-year term that

starts in January 2021.

“That is the biggest chal-

lenge: communicating to

voters, especially to those

who are diligent about fol-

lowing the law, that it will

be legal to vote for me twice

on the same ballot,” said

Assemblywoman Christy

Smith of Santa Clarita, who

has quickly consolidated the

support of Democratic lead-

ers for her campaign to suc-

ceed Hill.

Another Democrat in the

race is Cenk Uygur, host of

“The Young Turks,” a left-

leaning online politics show.

The former Republican is

now an outspoken support-

er of Vermont Sen. Bernie

Sanders’ presidential cam-

paign. Uygur, who lives

about 30 miles outside the

district in West Los Angeles,

apologized in 2017 for a series

of demeaning statements he

made about women in the

Governor calls

special election

in Hill’s district

Vote will land on day

of March 3 statewide

primary, which could

benefit Democrats.

By Michael Finnegan

[SeeElection,B6]

California sues

Trump again

over emissions

Second lawsuit

challenges the EPA’s

move to revoke waiver

to authorize tougher

tailpipe rules. B

Last survivor of

the Hindenburg

Werner Doehner, who

lost his father and

sister in the 1937

dirigible disaster that

killed 36, was 90. B

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

I was invited to a
dinner in a small,
well-heeled city
near Anaheim. I
drove along
serene, gently
curving roads,
past homes with
green-velvet lawns.
Arriving, I walked up a drive-
way and entered a backyard fea-
turing a banquet table of the sort
you’d expect at an elegant wed-
ding.
There were gilded bamboo
chairs and floral centerpieces and
candles that looked like they were
made out of birch. Menus printed
with fancy calligraphy had been
placed on the plates. Crab bisque,
mocha mousse cake with cocoa
nib ice cream — the feast would be
five courses long.
I wasn’t the star attraction.
Neither was the food, the event’s
main organizer stressed to staff
gathered on the porch.
“What’s special tonight is the
connections ... the friends becom-
ing family,” he told them.
A few minutes later at this
gathering called the King’s Table,
those friends arrived in shuttle
vans — from a homeless shelter six
miles and a world away.
Did I mention that the staff was
entirely volunteer as was the chef,
who had donated the food? Or
that all of us wore name tags that
let us slip quickly over any first-
meeting awkwardness?
As the guests appeared, every-
one instantly was on a first-name

HOMELESS PEOPLE enjoy fine dining at a Villa Park home last week. The organizer of the King’s Table,
an elegant monthly dinner for the homeless, says: “We want everyone ... to be treated like royalty.”

Photographs byFrancine Orr Los Angeles Times

CITY BEAT

A seat at a King’s Table

Homeless people are honored guests for dinner at an O.C. home

NITA LELYVELD

CELEBRITY SURF instructor and dinner organizer Lambert Lo, left,

comforts David Foster, 61, during the King’s Table event in Villa Park.

GUESTS GATHER to embrace and pray for

[SeeCity Beat, B5] David Foster after he shares his story.

‘Feeding the

homeless, that’s

not new. What’s

new is sitting

together and

being together as

a family.’

— Lambert Lo,

King’s Table organizer

He was the oldest of four
brothers, a football player
with a goofy grin. “A little guy
with a big heart,” a friend
said.
She was a cheerleader
who loved fashion and
brought out the best in other
people. A friend remem-
bered: “You would just smile
looking at her.”
Dominic Blackwell, 14,
and Gracie Anne
Muehlberger, 15, were killed
this week when a gunman
opened fire at their high
school in Santa Clarita. The
two are now united by a trag-
edy that has become all too
common on school cam-
puses nationwide.
On Thursday morning, a
16-year-old student pulled a
pistol from his backpack
and began firing in the quad
at Saugus High School. He
wounded five students, then
turned the gun on himself,

officials said.

The shooter was pro-

nounced dead Friday. The

other three teenagers who

were shot are expected to re-

cover, doctors say.

By late Friday afternoon,

the horror and shock of an-

other school gave way to

mourning in Santa Clarita.

Dozens gathered at a

makeshift memorial at the

city’s Central Park, just a

‘This world lost a shining light’

By Colleen Shalby,
Alejandra
Reyes-Velarde,
Leila Miller and
Soumya Karlamangla

Teenage victims of shooting at Saugus High School are remembered

SISTERS Isabella Esser, 16, and Sophoia Esser, 12, embrace at a memorial to the

victims at Santa Clarita’s Central Park, a short walk from Saugus High School.

Kent NishimuraLos Angeles Times

Motive sought

As detectives investigate,

those who knew the

shooter are stunned. B

[SeeVictims,B4]