Economist.com Cities Guide: Los Angeles Briefing - May 2006

News this month

Helping the homeless

There are some 88,000 homeless people in Los Angeles County—an ugly fact apparent not only in downtown LA but also in well-to-do Santa Monica. The question is what to do about it. One answer, approved by the LA County Board of Supervisors on April 4th, is to spend $100m on five centres to provide social services and temporary housing.

The new centres are part of a larger initiative led by LA’s energetic mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, to eradicate homelessness. Since taking office in 2005, Mr Villaraigosa has dedicated $50m to build affordable housing for low-income and homeless Angelenos. He has also set out to reform the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, an agency that distributes between $45m-60m each year. The agency's financial management has been criticised for some time, and on April 21st Mitchell Netburn, the authority’s director, announced he would step down in mid-May.

Rubbish plan

What will Angelenos pay to keep their streets clean and safe? In April Mr Villaraigosa announced a plan, subject to approval by the city council and LA’s voters, to raise each homeowner’s monthly charge for rubbish disposal from $11 to $18 starting in July, and then raise the charge each year. Under the mayor’s scheme, by July 2009 residents would pay $28 each month for the service. A steep price, but the money will go towards hiring more police officers. Mr Villaraigosa hopes LA will get another 1,053 officers by 2010.

Though crime is falling under the aegis of William Bratton, the chief of the LA Police Department (LAPD), most Angelenos would agree that the 9,314-officer force needs more manpower. But critics of the rubbish-fee scheme say that a new infusion of cash will not solve the LAPD’s problem of finding qualified officers. In the last financial year some 5,545 people applied to the department, but only 381 were accepted. This year the LAPD has enough money to hire 720 officers, but expects to approve only 607.

And the winner is

The democratic process can be strange. This is especially true in the tiny industrial city of Vernon, south of downtown LA. On April 11th Vernon, home to fewer than 100 residents, most of them city employees, held its first contested council election in 25 years. But the city clerk, Bruce Malkenhorst, then announced that the ballots would not be counted—perhaps not for months—because of continuing lawsuits over who was entitled to vote.

The election drama began in January, when eight newcomers moved to the city and three of them filed petitions to run for the council. Incumbent officials accused them of being in cahoots with a convicted felon who nearly bankrupted nearby South Gate City when he served as its treasurer. City officials evicted the newcomers, rescinded their voter registrations and cancelled the election, so leaving themselves in power. A judge, however, ruled that the incumbents could not cancel the election. There seems to be little resolution in sight, with each side accusing the other of wrongdoing. After Mr Malkenhorst’s announcement the challengers called for a federal investigation, arguing that the ballots were not being counted because incumbents were afraid that they had lost.

Security for security

At least some of LA’s security guards could soon get a pay rise. Thanks to the mediation of Mr Villaraigosa, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which represents America’s janitors, security guards and other low-paid workers, reached an agreement on April 11th with Rob Maguire, the biggest property owner in downtown LA. The deal will allow more than 300 Maguire employees to join the union. Moreover, Mr Maguire and the SEIU will contribute $750,000 over the next three years to a guard training programme.

The SEIU has been trying to unionise LA’s security guards for four years, and had been lobbying Maguire for 18 months. The SEIU and Mr Maguire finally reached an agreement when union leaders conceded that the security guards would be in a union chapter separate from Mr Maguire’s janitorial workers. The union’s hope is that where Mr Maguire has led, other private-sector landlords will follow, providing both extra pay and health benefits for a workforce that is comprised mostly of African-Americans and other minorities. Just how big any pay rise will be is up for debate. At the moment, average pay for security guards is about $8.50 an hour—above California’s $6.75 minimum wage but far below the $12 or more that an illegal immigrant can make cleaning a house in affluent West LA.

Rubber necking

Ferrari cars are particular favourites of wealthy Angelenos—which may be why so many have been fascinated by the aftermath of a Ferrari crash. Posh residents of Beverly Hills and Malibu mourned the loss of a $1.2m Enzo Ferrari (only 400 were ever built) that crashed on Malibu’s Pacific Coast Highway on February 21st. The car’s supposed owner is a failed Swedish video-game entrepreneur, Stefan Eriksson, who told the police that at the time of the crash the car was being driven by a German acquaintance, known to him only as Dietrich. Dietrich, he said, had run away from the shattered Ferrari.

That story never convinced the police, not least because Mr Eriksson’s blood-alcohol level was over the legal limit and his face was bloodied, as was the car’s driver-side air-bag. Investigators’ subsequent inquiries kept the story in the headlines for weeks, and on April 8th Mr Eriksson was put in jail, charged with grand theft of three cars imported from Britain. The police say that Mr Eriksson, who served time in a Swedish prison for crimes such as counterfeiting and assault, moved to Bel Air from Britain last year but failed to keep up payments on two Enzo Ferraris.
That may be true, too, of a $600,000 Mercedes SLR McLaren which Mr Eriksson claims to own but which Britain’s Scotland Yard says is a stolen car. Adding to his troubles, the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is also investigating him. Prosecutors have charged him with embezzlement, grand theft, drunken driving and a firearms violation; Mr Eriksson has pleaded not guilty.

Catch if you can

May 2006

Gustav Klimt: Five Paintings from the Collection of Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-Bauer

Until June 30th 2006

Gustav Klimt, a leader of the Austrian art nouveau, is one of those iconic masters whose paintings are instantly recognisable. His luminescent subjects often seem to dissolve into gold-flecked mosaics, such as in “The Kiss” and “Judith I”. Five exemplary paintings from the early 20th century, never before shown together in America, are now on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

Until recently the paintings hung in Vienna’s Austrian Belvedere Museum. But thanks to a lawsuit that proved the paintings had been illegally looted by the Nazis, the Austrian government recently agreed to return them to Maria Altmann, a 90-year-old who fled Austria and settled in Los Angeles in 1942. The paintings belonged to Mrs Altmann’s aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer, and her husband, a Jewish industrialist named Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer. Mrs Altmann believes the paintings should remain on public view—hence their appearance at LACMA. The display includes the extraordinary “Apple Tree” and two portraits of Adele Bloch-Bauer.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Boulevard. Tel: +1 (323) 857-6000. Open: Mon, Tues, Thurs noon-8pm; Fri noon-9pm; Sat-Sun 11am-8pm. Entry: $9. For more information visit the museum’s website.

More from the Los Angeles cultural calendar