Los Angeles' climate future hangs in the balance as city votes for new mayor

[marmar]

Los Angeles’ climate future hangs in the balance as city votes for new mayor
While voters have cited environment as a top priority, the issue has become secondary to the homelessness crisis and crime

Gabrielle Canon
@GabrielleCanon
Thu 2 Jun 2022 06.00 EDT

(Guardian UK) As Los Angeles heads to the polls for the first round of voting to elect a new mayor, the climate future of America’s second largest city may hang in the balance.

Los Angeles has built a reputation as a leader on sustainability and climate solutions, setting first-in-the-nation goals to decarbonize and plans to achieve them. But the progressive metropolis – home to nearly 4 million people – faces environmental challenges that will only get worse as the climate grows more extreme. The temperature is rising, water is waning and LA smog is nearly as renowned as the world-famous Hollywood sign.

Although many voters have cited climate as a priority, the topic has taken a backseat in the heated mayoral campaign, crowded out by what candidates and constituents have cast as more pressing problems, like the homelessness crisis and crime.

But addressing the environmental problems LA faces will require more than embracing the status quo, experts say. To secure LA’s grip on climate leadership, the new mayor will have to bridge the city’s immense divides.

Worsening air pollution

LA has made big strides in environmental policy in the past decade. Under outgoing mayor Eric Garcetti, the city made climate a priority, launching a “Green New Deal” composed of 445 different initiatives to get LA to a “zero carbon grid, zero carbon buildings, zero carbon transportation, zero waste and zero wasted water”, as stated in the latest annual report. Together, the efforts are promised to make LA the first large city in the nation to operate on clean energy, prevent 1,650 premature deaths, add 400,000 new green jobs and build resilience into LA’s water supply as drought conditions worsen. ...........(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/02/california-los-angeles-mayor-elections-climate

[hunter]

1. Homelessness shouldn't be left for cities to deal with.

Homeless people migrate to places where they can survive. Many places don't have a homeless problem by means of violence or threats of violence. To put it bluntly, the police and self-appointed vigilantes beat homeless people up or otherwise threaten them. They can also encourage them to go elsewhere by means of social pressure, bus tickets, etc..

This sort of exclusion was perfected by racist U.S.A. as a means of excluding non-white people, especially black people, from "whites only" communities. ( I grew up in a place that was 99% white. )

The solution to the problem is obvious. Build homes for the homeless, even in communities that have a history of exporting their own homeless. That's why this is a federal problem.

We also have to accept the fact that many homeless people are unemployable even with a "shower and a shave," sobriety, and clean work clothes. They may require mildly supervised living situations. Most U.S. Americans have a really hard time accepting this reality. We tend to "treat" these kinds of problems of addiction and mental illness in our jails and prisons, or we leave people on the streets, both of which are very expensive options.

"Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps" doesn't work, especially in a society that's as punitive as ours.