In Los Angeles, Politics Are More Complex Than a Racist Recording Indicates

Politics

In Los Angeles, Politics Are More Complex Than a Racist Recording Indicates

Published

2 years ago

October 20, 2022

Recently leaked audio of Latino leaders exposed their ambition to gain power. But loyalties don’t always follow racial lines in the city’s most Latino district.

LOS ANGELES — Once synonymous with Black culture, South Los Angeles has undergone a dramatic demographic shift.

There is Catholic Mass in Spanish at the theater where Duke Ellington once headlined. In the halls of Thomas Jefferson High School, whose famous Black alumni include Alvin Ailey and Dexter Gordon, roughly nine in 10 students are Hispanic. On historic Central Avenue, ranchera music blares from the grocery stores.

But in the city’s Ninth District, which encompasses the stretch of Los Angeles once known as South Central, one element hasn’t changed: Voters have chosen Black candidates to be City Council members for nearly six decades, including their current councilman, Curren Price.

On a leaked recording that has upended Los Angeles politics this month, four Latino leaders were heard discussing how to redraw political districts to their benefit, using racist terms and disparaging words that were widely condemned. The audio also exposed frustrations that there weren’t more Latinos in elected office, at a time when they comprise half the city’s population.

Decades of political decisions and deals have resulted in the current composition of the City Council, where white and Black leaders hold more seats than demographics might suggest. The release of the recording also has opened a debate over how much the racial bloc politics of prior generations still matter.

Voter participation in the Ninth District is low, and some residents said that they pay little attention to city politics, despite their daily concerns with crime and homelessness. Hustling her 8-year-old son home from school in South Los Angeles, Maria Robles, 30, wondered what local politicians would do to solve problems.

“I don’t vote — I just don’t,” she said. “I don’t believe any politicians are really representing Latinos. They’re not standing up for us.”

In the city’s political circles, however, the gap between the Latino population and its level of clout has been a longstanding issue. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Ninth District, where 80 percent of residents now are Latino.

“People feel uncomfortable talking about this, but Latinos in L.A. are underrepresented,” said Fernando Guerra, director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University. He regularly conducts surveys and focus groups of city residents, and he said that “when we talk to Latinos in those communities, they would like Latino representation.”

In the 1980s, increasing numbers of Latino immigrants moved into South Los Angeles, fleeing Central American civil wars and Mexican economic disruption. At the same time, manufacturing jobs were disappearing and gang violence and drugs were proliferating, and the Black middle class was moving elsewhere. By 1990, according to census data analyzed by SocialExplorer.com, for the first time more than half of the area’s residents were Latino.

Lauren Justice for The New York Times

Political representation often trails demographic change, and Los Angeles has been no exception. In some cases, Latino leaders struck mutually beneficial deals to preserve district boundaries that protected Black colleagues. In others, the heavily Latino labor movement in Los Angeles has backed reliable Black incumbents over Latino challengers who were unproven and unfamiliar. Union members provide the volunteer and financial support necessary to turn voters out in local elections, in which participation might otherwise be lackluster in a big, transient city.

Latino residents now comprise the largest ethnic group in 10 of the city’s 15 Council districts, according to city data. But their share of the eligible voting population is smaller than their share of the overall population, a gap that reduces their electoral power.

Even before Nury Martinez, a Latina Democrat, resigned as City Council president and gave up her Council seat last week because of the uproar over the audio recording, only four of the 15 Council seats were held by Latinos.

The damaging conversation has had the unintended effect of reducing Latino power, at least temporarily. Ms. Martinez was replaced as president on Tuesday by Paul Krekorian, an Armenian American. The other two Council members on the recording, Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León, have been stripped of their committee assignments and have not attended meetings for a week.

The Ninth District was considered a Latino seat in the 1950s, when Edward R. Roybal became the city’s first Latino councilman since the late 1800s. When Mr. Roybal went to Congress in 1962, Gilbert W. Lindsay, a Black community organizer with strong labor ties, was appointed to replace him. Mr. Lindsay became one of the most powerful politicians in the city, reigning for three decades and dubbing himself “the Emperor of the Great Ninth.” All three of his successors on the Council have been Black.

Tracy Nguyen for The New York Times

When Mr. Price, a pro-labor Democrat and former state legislator, first ran for the Ninth District seat in 2013, the $1 million or so that he raised in direct campaign contributions was supplemented by some $700,000 that labor groups independently spent on his behalf.

Labor leaders have stuck with Mr. Price, to the consternation of challengers who thought the time was ripe for Latino representation.

“I told people I was going to run, and they looked at me like I had Covid,” said Jorge Nuño, 45, a local activist and small-business owner who grew up in the Ninth District and lost to Mr. Price in the 2017 election. “They said, ‘No, man, don’t do it — the unions are going to stick with Curren.’”

Dulce Vasquez, 36, a university administrator and a progressive Democrat who challenged him this year, received more than $500,000 in total support, but it was only about a third of Mr. Price’s war chest, and no match for the union phone banks and precinct walkers who backed him.

Mr. Price also was endorsed by all four of his Latino colleagues on the Council in his race against Ms. Vasquez. He overwhelmingly won his third term in June.

When walking the precincts, however, Mr. Nuño and Ms. Vasquez each said they encountered a genuine thirst among Latino voters for cultural connection. “People want to see leadership that looks like them,” Mr. Nuño said. “They want someone who, like, could go to their living rooms and have pan con café.”

Both predicted that union leaders would back a Latino candidate when Mr. Price, 71, leaves office; he is entering his final four-year term under city term-limit rules. In another leaked recording, Ron Herrera, who has since resigned as head of the Labor Federation, referred to that likelihood. When asked about finding a Latino candidate to succeed Mr. Price, he said, “We have someone.”

A Stanford-educated lawyer and native Angeleno who has also served on the Inglewood City Council, Mr. Price said the quarter-million or so people who live in the Ninth District have kept him in office because he understands their bread-and-butter issues.

Outside his office on Central Avenue last week, a farmer’s market offered ruby strawberries, jars of honey, cartons of eggs, advice on composting. The councilman said that expanding the market was his idea, to bring produce to a food desert and give people a place to gather and find information about food stamp vouchers and community resources.

Across the street, every day, there is an unofficial market where Latino vendors sell ears of corn, bags of duros, clothing and toys around the parking lot of a discount department store. Strolling along the corridor, Mr. Price looked at them and nodded: They are welcome here, too.

He pointed to signposts that feature details in English and Spanish about landmarks from the area’s heyday as a thriving hub for Black Angelenos: The Lincoln Theater at 23rd Street, nicknamed the “West Coast Apollo” in reference to the famous Black entertainment venue in Harlem. The Liberty Savings and Loan Association, a Black-owned business that offered mortgages to local residents when white lenders had shut them out.

“It’s not just for Black people,” Mr. Price said about the historical markers. “It’s also for brown people to understand our history.”

The crowning jewel back in the day was the Dunbar Hotel, where greats like Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne and Mr. Ellington stayed at a time when they could draw crowds at Los Angeles performances but were not allowed to stay in white hotels. The Dunbar serves now as affordable housing for seniors.

Lauren Justice for The New York Times

Outside of Mr. Price’s earshot, Jose Andrade, a mariachi musician, complained that City Hall had failed to respond to requests to install speed bumps on residential streets to deter street takeovers. “These guys race like they are on the freeway,” he said, “and no one is doing anything about it.”

Born in El Salvador, Mr. Andrade said he immigrated with his wife, Iris, to Los Angeles in 1983, and settled in the Ninth because they could not afford the rents elsewhere in the city.

“There were gangs at every corner,” he said of those days, as he strolled the aisles of Superior Grocers on Central Avenue, speaking over piped-in Mexican country music. “You lived in fear that you would be assaulted or robbed.”

Black families with means packed up and moved inland to San Bernardino or the Antelope Valley, where the houses were bigger and the streets safer. More immigrants arrived, drawn to lower home prices in the Ninth. The economy began to improve, driven by California’s tech boom. Crime rates, for a range of reasons, fell.

By 2000, Mr. Andrade had bought a three-bedroom house for $170,000 that was once occupied by a Black family. He planted lemon, avocado and mango trees and built two apartments in the back, which he rents to immigrants. Three of his four adult children have left the neighborhood for college and professional careers.

He became an American citizen a few years ago, and he said he did not vote for Mr. Price because he didn’t trust the councilman.

Lauren Justice for The New York Times

Mr. Price acknowledged that meeting his district’s needs has been a work in progress. Of about 100,000 registered voters in the district, only about 12,500 voted in the February primary in which he was elected.

“A lot of times, people say, ‘Hey, listen, I’ve got to work my third job, I don’t have time to go to a meeting, or I don’t have time to call in a complaint, because, you know, nothing’s going to happen anyway,’” Mr. Price said.

Elmer Roldan, a Guatemalan American, settled in the neighborhood in 1989. He said Ninth District residents have long desired more parks and grocery stores, and that he felt that the area of the city near the University of Southern California received disproportionate resources and attention.

Still, Mr. Roldan said, the race of his Council member has nothing to do with the state of the neighborhood. He said Latino residents should partner with Black Angelenos “who have more in common with us politically and economically.”

“Latinos don’t believe they’re not getting help because Curren Price is Black,” said Mr. Roldan, who voted for Mr. Price. “They feel that politicians, no matter who they are, they aren’t responsive to the neighborhood.”

“I don’t believe having a Latino Council member would change these conditions,” he added.

On Mr. Price’s walk back to his office, constituents who flagged down the councilman had plenty to say. A woman selling pozole and fried mojarra outside a storefront offering Zumba classes reported that a street lamp had gone out nearby, and she was worried about safety. Another was worried about a streetlamp on a different block and wanted a traffic signal installed.

They addressed him in Spanish. A spokeswoman walking with Mr. Price translated for him.

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Politics

Politics Briefing: Younger demographics not swayed by federal budget benefits targeted at them, poll indicates

Published

4 hours ago

April 24, 2024

Harry Miller

Hello,

The federal government’s efforts to connect with Gen Z adults and millennials through programs in last week’s federal budget has not yet worked, says a new poll.

The Angus Reid Institute says today that the opposition Conservatives are running at 43 per cent voter support compared to 23 per cent for the governing Liberals, while the NDP are at 19 per cent.

Polling by the institute also finds the Liberals are the third choice among Gen Z and millennial voters, falling behind the NDP and Conservatives.

According to the institute, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is viewed more positively among Gen Z adults than Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, with Poilievre at 29 per cent approval and Trudeau at 17 per cent. Poilievre also has a higher favorability than Trudeau’s approval among younger and older millennials.

Gen Z adults were born between 1997 and 2012, while the birth period of millennials was 1981 to 1996.

The poll conclusions are based on online polling conducted from April 19 – three days after the budget was released – to April 23, among a randomized sample of 3, 015 Canadians. Such research has a probability sample of plus or minus two percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Asked about the poll today, Trudeau said the budget is aimed at solving problems, helping young people and delivering homes and services such as child care.

“I am confident that as Canadians see these measures happening, they will be more optimistic about their future, the way we need them to be,” Trudeau told a news conference in Oakville, Ont.

He also said he expected Canadians to be thoughtful about the future when they vote. “I trust Canadians to be reasonable,” he said.

The Globe and Mail has previously reported that Trudeau’s government has set an internal goal of narrowing the Conservative Party’s double-digit lead by five points every six months. A federal election is expected next year.

This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Ian Bailey. It is available exclusively to our digital subscribers. If you’re reading this on the web, subscribers can sign up for the Politics newsletter and more than 20 others on our newsletter sign-up page. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.

TODAY’S HEADLINES

Pierre Poilievre visits convoy camp, claims Trudeau is lying about ‘everything’: CBC reports that the Conservative Leader is facing questions after stopping to cheer on an anti-carbon tax convoy camp near the border between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, where he bluntly accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of lying about “everything.”

Smith defends appointment of task force led by doctor skeptical of COVID-19 measures: The Globe and Mail has published details of the little-known task force that was given a sweeping mandate by the government to assess data used to inform pandemic decision-making. Story here.

Canadians should expect politicians to support right to bail, Arif Virani’s office says: The office of Canada’s Justice Minister says, warning that “immediate” and “uninformed reactions” only worsens matters.

Parti Québécois is on its way back to the centre of Quebec politics: The province’s next general election isn’t until 2026, a political eternity away, and support for separating from Canada remains stagnant. But a resurgent Quebec nationalism, frustration with Ottawa, and the PQ’s youthful, upbeat leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon have put sovereignty back on the agenda.

Anaida Poilievre in B.C.: The wife of the federal Conservative Leader has been on a visit to Kelowna in recent days that was expected to conclude today, according to Castanet.net.

Ontario to do away with sick note requirement for short absences: The province will soon introduce legislation that, if passed, will no longer allow employers to require a sick note from a doctor for the provincially protected three days of sick leave workers are entitled to.

Australian reporter runs into visa trouble in India after reporting on slaying of Canadian Sikh separatist: In a statement, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said Indian authorities should safeguard press freedom and stop using visa regulations to prevent foreign journalists covering sensitive subjects.

Canadian military to destroy 11,000 Second World War-era pistols: The Ottawa Citizen reports that the move comes as the Canadian Forces confirmed it has received the final deliveries of a new nine-millimetre pistol as part of a $19.4-million project.

B.C. opposition leader in politics-free oasis: The first hint that there may be more to Kevin Falcon, leader of the official opposition BC United party, than his political stereotype comes when you pull up to his North Vancouver home – a single-level country cottage rancher dwarfed on one side by large, angular, modern monstrosity. A NorthernBeat profile.

TODAY’S POLITICAL QUOTES.

“Having an argument with CRA about not wanting to pay your taxes is not a position I want anyone to be in. Good luck with that Premier Moe.” – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the Canada Revenue Agency weighing in on Saskatchewan’s government move to stop collecting and remitting the federal carbon levy.

“That’s not something that we’re hoping for. We’re not trying to plan for an election.“ – NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, at a news conference in Edmonton today, on the possibilities of an election now ahead of the vote expected in the fall of 2025.

THIS AND THAT

Commons, Senate: The House of Commons is on a break until April 29. The Senate sits again April 30.

Deputy Prime Minister’s day: In the Newfoundland and Labrador city of Mount Pearl, Chrystia Freeland held an event to talk about the federal budget.

Ministers on the road: Cabinet efforts to sell the budget continue, with announcements largely focused on housing. Citizens’ Services Minister Terry Beech and Small Business Minister Rechie Valdez are in Burnaby, B.C. Defence Minister Bill Blair is in Yellowknife. Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault is in Edmonton. Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne and Natural Revenue Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau are in the Quebec city of Trois-Rivières.

Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu is in Lytton, B.C., with an additional event welcoming members of the Skwlāx te Secwepemcúl̓ecw band to four new subdivisions built after the 2023 Bush Creek East wildfire. International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen is in Sault Ste. Marie. Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly is in Québec City. Diversity Minister Kamal Khera is in Kingston, Ontario. Immigration Minister Marc Miller and Tourism Minister Soraya Martinez Ferrada are in Whitehorse. Justice Minister Arif Virani and Families Minister Jenna Sudds are in North York, Ont. Veterans Affairs Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor is in Charlottetown.

Meanwhile, International Trade Minister Mary Ng is in South Korea leading a group of businesses and organizations through to tomorrow.

GG in Saskatchewan: Mary Simon and her partner, Whit Fraser, on the last day of their official visit to Saskatchewan, is in Saskatoon, with commitments that include visiting the Maternal Care Centre at the Jim Pattison Hospital and meeting with Indigenous leaders.

Ukraine needs more military aid, UCC says: The Ukrainian Canadian Congress says Canada should substantially increase military assistance to Ukraine. “As President Zelensky stated, “The key now is speed,’” said a statement today from the organization. The appeal coincides with U.S. President Joe Biden signing into law an aid package that provides over US$61-billion in aid for Ukraine. “We call on the Canadian government and all allies to follow suit and to immediately and substantially increase military assistance to Ukraine,” said the statement. An update issued on the occasion of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s February visit to Ukraine noted that, since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the Canadian government has provided $13.3-billion to Ukraine.

New chief commissioner of the Canadian Grain Commission: David Hunt, most recently an assistant deputy minister in Manitoba’s environment department, has been named to the post for a four-year term by Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay.

PRIME MINISTER’S DAY

In Oakville, near Toronto, Justin Trudeau talked about federal-budget housing measures, and took media questions.

LEADERS

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet is in the Quebec city of Victoriaville, with commitments that include a meeting at the Centre for Social Innovation in Agriculture

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, in the Vancouver Island city of Nanaimo, attended the sentencing of deputy party leader Angela Davidson, also known as Rainbow Eyes, convicted of seven counts of criminal contempt for her participation in the Fairy Creek logging blockades on Vancouver Island.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, in Edmonton, held a media availability.

No schedule released for Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre.

THE DECIBEL

James Griffiths, The Globe’s Asia correspondent, is on the show t to discuss Article 23 – a new national security law in Hong Kong that includes seven new offences related to sedition, treason and state secrets that is expected to have a chilling effect on protest. The Decibel is here.

OPINION

The Liberals’ capital-gains tax hike punishes prosperity

“In her budget speech this month, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland pointed to 1980s-era tax changes by the Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney as a precedent for boosting the tax take on capital gains. … If one were to leave it at that, the Liberals come off quite well, having decided to boost the inclusion rate for capital gains – the amount subject to tax – to two-thirds, well below that of the latter years of the Mulroney government. But Ms. Freeland was only telling half the story.” – The Globe and Mail Editorial Board

The Liberals weight-loss goal shows they are running out of options

“The bad polls are weighing down the Liberals, so they have decided to shed some weight: They aim to cut the Conservatives’ lead by five percentage points by July. Like middle-aged dieters beginning a new regime, they’ve looked in the mirror and decided they have to do something. They’ve committed to it, too.” – Campbell Clark

Fear the politicization of pensions, no matter the politician

“Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland don’t have a lot in common. But they do share at least one view: that governments could play a bigger role directing pension investments to the benefit of domestic industries and economic priorities. Canadians, no matter who they vote for, should be worried that these two political heavyweights share any common ground in this regard.” – Kelly Cryderman

The failure of Canada’s health care system is a disgrace – and a deadly one

“What can be said about Canada’s health care system that hasn’t been said countless times over, as we watch more and more people suffer and die as they wait for baseline standards of care? Despite our delusions, we don’t have “world-class” health care, as our Prime Minister has said; we don’t even have universal health care. What we have is health care if you’re lucky, or well connected, or if you happen to have a heart attack on a day when your closest ER is merely overcapacity as usual, and not stuffed to the point of incapacitation.” – Robyn Urback

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Politics

Pecker’s Trump Trial Testimony Is a Lesson in Power Politics

Published

10 hours ago

April 24, 2024

Harry Miller

David Pecker, convivial, accommodating and as bright as a button, sat in the witness stand in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday and described how power is used and abused.

“What I would do is publish positive stories about Mr. Trump,” the former tabloid hegemon and fabulist allowed, as if he was sharing some of his favorite dessert recipes. “And I would publish negative stories about his opponents.”

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Opinion: Fear the politicization of pensions, no matter the politician

Published

11 hours ago

April 24, 2024

Harry Miller

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland don’t have a lot in common. But they do share at least one view: that governments could play a bigger role directing pension investments to the benefit of domestic industries and economic priorities.

Canadians, no matter who they vote for, should be worried that these two political heavyweights share any common ground in this regard.

It became clearer in the federal budget last week as Ottawa appointed former Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz to lead a working group to explore “how to catalyze greater domestic investment opportunities for Canadian pension funds.” The group will examine how Canadian pension funds can spur innovation and drive economic growth, while still meeting fiduciary and actuarial responsibilities.

This idea has been in discussion since it was highlighted in the fall economic statement. In March, dozens of chief executives signed an open letter urging federal and provincial finance ministers to “amend the rules governing pension funds to encourage them to invest in Canada.”

Rewind to last fall, and it was Alberta’s plans that were dominating controversial pension discussions. As Ms. Smith championed Alberta going it alone, Canadians (including Albertans) were dumbfounded by her government’s claim the province could be entitled to 53 per cent of Canada Pension Plan assets – $334-billion of the plan’s expected $575-billion by 2027. The Premier has made the argument that starting with this nest egg, and with the province’s large working-age population, a separate Alberta plan could provide more in the way of benefits to seniors with lower premiums.

The main point of contention between the Smith government and Justin Trudeau’s Liberals has been what amount Alberta would take, should it exit the Canada Pension Plan. All parties are now waiting on Ottawa’s counter assessment; the Office of the Chief Actuary will provide a calculation sometime this fall.

But lost in this furious debate over that dollar amount is Ms. Smith’s desire to see the province have a say in how the pension contributions of Albertans are invested. The Premier has long expressed frustration that Canadian pension funds were being influenced by fossil-fuel divestment movements, and has suggested a separate Alberta pension plan could be a counterweight to this.

In addition, a key part of the promise for many supporters of the Alberta pension plan idea – including former premier Jason Kenney and pension panel chair Jim Dinning – has been the benefits that would accrue to the province’s financial services sector.

But just as the UCP government might see the potential of using the heft of pension assets to bolster the province’s energy sector, or to spur white-collar jobs in Calgary, the federal Liberals would like see more pension dollars directed toward Canadian AI, digital infrastructure and housing. These are some of the areas Ms. Freeland has directed Mr. Poloz’s working group to focus on.

Some would deem Mr. Freeland’s goals admirable. Tax dollars are already flowing to these sectors. It comes at a time of increasing concern about the housing crunch, Canada’s weak GDP numbers, and the fact that Canada’s economy is being carried along by strong population growth.

But many Canadians are already concerned with government priorities and federal spending. Many more would balk at governments picking winning industries with pension contributions. And governments change. A Conservative government, for instance, might have very different industries in mind for its own pension-fund working group – say, for instance, to make sure Canada doesn’t cede oil market share to Venezuela or the United States.

This pension working group is a convenient sweetener for a business community that has in many ways soured on this Liberal government. It comes at a moment when Ottawa is facing pushback – from technology entrepreneurs to doctors – to its proposed capital-gains tax hike.

It doesn’t appear Ottawa wants to go as far as recreating the CPP in the image of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, which has a formal mandate that includes contributing to the province’s economic development. And this isn’t to say there’s such a thing as complete neutrality in pension management now. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board makes decisions open to debate and criticism. It should hear what governments and industry have to say, and setting up a couple of regional offices, beyond Toronto, could be helpful.

But if pension plans are formally burdened with policy imperatives from politicians, it could distract from the main goals of reasonable premiums and retirement security for Canadians. It could see the prioritization of being re-elected over returns. The regional and sectoral tug-of-wars over the cash would be never-ending.

There’s good reason to fear what an Alberta government would do should it take control of its citizens’ pension wealth. The same is most definitely true for Ottawa.

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