Editor’s note: LA Philanthropy Watch is going out of existence.  Civic Intersection is the editor’s new blog.

“Thinking to myself: What are we, eight months into the ACORN story and the mainstream media is still telling me that those videos aren’t enough evidence?”

Andrew Breitbart, at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference on April 9, 2010, muses about racism, racial epithets, and the burden of proof. His meditations lead him to comment on ACORN and the undercover videos (introduced at his Big Government website) that successfully bamboozled the mainstream media. Mr. Breitbart, who lives in Los Angeles, takes no note of the California Attorney General’s report, released a week earlier, which offers evidence debunking the right-wing narrative about ACORN that Big Government created.

Rachel Maddow’s April 6 video takedown of this narrative – Context, Lies, and Videotape – provides a useful counterpoint.

See also, “The Undercover Videos: Final Nails in ACORN’s Coffin?” Ht: Talking Points Memo.

During the past several months, coverage at LA Philanthropy Watch has increasingly focused on issues related to advocacy, civic engagement, and political participation – and decreasingly on the nonprofit sector more generally.

Civic Intersection will focus on the region where nonprofit and voluntary organizations (mostly in Los Angeles) are connected with the public sector through the political process.   The new blog will continue to provide coverage of the issues and themes that have been familiar to readers of LA Philanthropy Watch in recent months – including reports on the Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council.  Except the links and comments will appear at Civic Intersection – a new and improved blog.  I haven’t just changed the name – there will be a number of new features as well.

Check it out.

…Nearly 46 percent of the country’s 14.6 million unemployed people have been out of work for more than six months, and forecasters project that the situation will not improve anytime soon. Currently, the Labor Department says there are nearly five unemployed people for every job opening.”  (”No extension of unemployment benefits in sight for the long-term jobless,” by Michael A. Fletcher, Washington Post, July 13, 2010)

“That doesn’t create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work. I’m sure most of them would like work and probably have tried to seek it, but you can’t argue that it’s a job enhancer. If anything, as I said, it’s a disincentive.”

Quoted on All Things Considered, “The Controversy Over Extending Job Benefits,” July 12, 2010.  ATC host Robert Siegel asked Harvard economics professor Ken Rogoff, a conservative economist who advised the McCain campaign in 2008, for his response.

“Well, there’s certainly a truth to it, and many people believe that’s why Europe, with much more generous benefits, has higher unemployment. But today, we’re in a once-every-50-years, once-every-75-years recession. There just aren’t a lot of jobs.

And it’s hard to believe that that’s really what’s holding people back from getting them, that they can collect a modest unemployment check.”

Kevin Drum is one of many commentators who have noted that the obstruction of the majority party – 60 votes are needed to pass legislation in the 100-member Senate – is good politics for Republicans, since it is viewed by swing voters as a failure of Congress.

“Ben Nelson aside, there’s not much question which party is holding up unemployment benefits. You know it, I know it, reporters know it, and political junkies of all stripes know it. But lots of people don’t. They see a headline that says “Congress Adjourns Without Acting on Unemployment” and they don’t read much further. Every time that happens, it’s a big win for the GOP. And it happens a lot.”  (”The Political Passive Voice,” at Mother Jones, July 5, 2010)

(Photograph from Senator Kyl’s website.)

“Before she can revive a coherent vision for the city and its neighborhoods, she has to make Angelenos aware that such a thing exists. At the same time, she’ll have to reinvigorate a Planning Department that, by general perception and according to a performance audit by City Controller Laura Chick, is stuck in a rut. Instead of crafting better frameworks for whole neighborhoods, much less the whole city, it slowly judges individual building projects. The department employs scores of smart people but doesn’t encourage big thoughts or build paths for advancement.” (“Planning for success,” Editorial, January 12, 2006)

In her letter of resignation on June 30 (available here courtesy of City Watch), she writes, “… I have long been ready for retirement and new adventures.”  Her letter celebrates four initiatives introduced in the last 4 ½ years:

• Our first initiative, “Do Real Planning,” resulted in an aggressive community planning program. …
• Our second initiative, “Build an Efficient and Effective Department,” has resulted in significant process changes that are the impetus for the major department reorganization that is currently underway. …
• Our third initiative, “Develop Innovative Solutions,” resulted in neighborhood pilot parking programs and creative policies and regulations to facilitate downtown development. …
• Our fourth initiative, “Engage the Public,” created meaningful interaction with all of our planning constituencies, including the development community and neighborhoods. …

Many neighborhood activists have appreciated these strides, which have marked a sea change in Los Angeles.  The members of the Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council Planning, Zoning & Historic Preservation Committee are among these engaged activists.

Wednesday night, the PZHP Committee unanimously passed a resolution (”Criteria for selection of new Director of the Los Angeles Department of City Planning,” from the July 7, 2010 agenda) endorsing Ms. Goldberg’s four initiatives and urging that a new city planner (to be named by the mayor) continue the commitment to these principles.

In a future post I’ll say a bit about the Hollywood Community Plan, also discussed Wednesday night, which is designed to guide development across many neighborhoods for the foreseeable future.  As the plan nears completion, GGPNC is among the neighborhood councils actively involved in refining it.

(Image from Los Angeles Department of City Planning website.)

From the introduction of California Budget Project’s recent report, “Making Ends Meet: How Much Does It Cost To Raise a Family in California?” [pdf]  The report develops budgets (for single adults; single working parents with two children; two parent families with two children and one working parent; and two working parent families with two children) – by county – that account for the cost of housing, food, utilities, transportation, health coverage, payroll and income taxes, and miscellaneous living expenses.  The budgets, while not ‘bare bones,’ are modest; there is not much leeway for discretionary items, such as college savings, vacations, or emergencies.

In a two parent family (with two children and one working parent) in Los Angeles County, the basic family budget is $54,016 a year, which requires an hourly wage of $25.97 (for a 40-hour, 52-week year).

The California Budget Project (CBP) is a nonprofit organization engaged in: “independent fiscal and policy analysis and public education with the goal of improving public policies affecting the economic and social well-being of low- and middle-income Californians.
The CBP believes that information can help give voice to those who often go unheard in budget and policy debates.  ‘Knowledge,’ as the saying goes, ‘is power.’  Since 1995, the CBP has worked to make the budget more understandable and to shed light on how budget and related policy decisions can affect the lives of low- and middle-income Californians.”

HT: Rebecca Rona-Tuttle Liberty Hill’s News from the Frontlines blog.

The quotation is on the fiscal morass the State of Illinois – where I was born and bred – finds itself in today.  From yesterday’s New York Times, “Illinois Stops Paying Its Bills, But Can’t Stop Digging Hole,” by Michael Powell, July 2, 2010.

Several other quotes also got my attention, including this one on the dire economy nationwide, as states lay off literally tens of thousands of workers: “You’re not seeing these states bounce back, and that could be a big drag on the national economy,” said Susan K. Urahn of the Pew Center on the States. “It could be a very tough decade.”

Image of Rod Blogojevich (from Wikimedia) prompted by this passage in the article: “Few budget analysts are surprised to see Illinois, with a limping economy and broken political culture, edge close to the abyss. Two of the last six governors have served jail terms, and a third is on trial.”