ShakeOut Scenario Shows Faults in Preparedness



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When it comes to major earthquake activity in Southern California, the past 20 years has been what U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones called a “particularly quiet period” that “will not continue.”

As a part of the Sept. 30 National PrepareAthon Day, a campaign aimed at increasing community preparedness and resilience in the event of catastrophic events, The 2015 Great California ShakeOut Breakfast Leadership Summit aimed to shed light on the many faults in the city’s preparedness for the elusive “big one.”

Hoping to shake up communities just enough to get them looking into cementing emergency plans, Jones, whose research is supported by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, presented data on potential earthquake damage and introduced possible solutions to help facilitate city-wide resiliency—the ability to recover from an emergency state as quickly as possible.

“Somehow human nature hopes against hope that we can ignore science away,” Garcetti said. “It is a matter of when, not if, we need to be prepared.”

Working with the mayor’s office and using the ShakeOut Earthquake Scenario, Jones and a team were able to prioritize the most important ways in which to create and maintain integrity in the event of a large-scale earthquake: water, telecommunications, and building integrity.

Strengthening each of these three systems in order to quickly recover the city’s economics after sustaining a violent jolting was emphasized.

“What we’re trying to do is keep this system working. But when we have a big earthquake our financial activity is going to drop,” Jones said. “We don’t have electricity, we don’t have water, we’re not opening our buildings.”

Both Jones and Garcetti referenced the demise of San Francisco after the metropolis’ devastating 1906 earthquake. Jones illustrated the city’s dramatic fluctuation in population attributed to the seismic catastrophe.

[Read more…]

South L.A. Structures on Shaky Foundations



Thousands of South L.A. homes are at risk for collapse during a large earthquake.| Flickr

Experts say thousands of  Los Angeles homes will collapse in a large earthquake.| Cameron23, Flickr Creative Commons

Imagine the Los Angeles skyline in its entirety. Include the apartment and commercial buildings; the houses old and new. Now, imagine 50 percent of those buildings gone—collapsed either partially or completely.

That is the bleak picture that U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones painted for attendees during the 2015 Great California ShakeOut Breakfast Leadership Summit on Sept. 30.

Los Angeles has not experienced a major earthquake in 20 years. The last large temblor to slam the region was the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Since then, California faults have been in a quiet period that Jones and other experts on her team insist won’t last.

The period of smooth sailing has caused home and commercial building owners to relax their approach to protecting structures against the damage they could sustain in the violent shaking during a substantial quake.

Lack of action to strengthen structures, however, renders the millions of people who live and work in the city’s 300,000 unstable buildings susceptible to displacement from work or homes, and even disaster-related death.

[Read more…]

The Bare Necessities Earthquake Kit



Water is the most important item in an earthquake survival kit. | Nancy Phillips, Flickr Creative Commons

Water is the most important item in an earthquake survival kit. | Nancy Phillips, Flickr Creative Commons

As the topic of earthquake preparedness continues to get hotter each passing year without a mega quake, the items recommended for earthquake and emergency kits seem to become increasingly haute.

In September of 2005, The Los Angeles Times published a list of earthquake kit materials to keep in homes, cars and at work. The list, which was 59 items long, included items ranging from food and water to fire extinguishers and tarps—all very useful items.

This year, on Sept. 19, the Times again published an emergency kit list, this time including posh items such as a $30 24-pack of canned water with a 50-year shelf life, solar generators and more.

In the event that the Great California Shakeout scenario’s 7.8 magnitude quake actually devastated the Los Angeles area as projected, aid for many Angelenos would first come in the form of self-help.

Earthquake and emergency kits have become an essential way to help promote survival, but when dealing with tight budgets, some areas of Los Angeles are placed at higher risk due to the inability to afford all the necessary items.

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USC professors draw parallels between past racial issues and current events



The USC Speakers Committee holds talks throughout the year related to topical issues.

The USC Speakers Committee holds talks throughout the year related to topical issues.

A stream of videos depicting police brutality continued conversation over current relations between the police and communities of color at USC.

An event titled “Trending Topics: Police Brutality,” held at the University Park campus, highlighted how excessive force caught on tape has kept these events in the news.

A New York Times’ video compilation of the most well-known instances of police brutality caught on mobile phone cameras in this past year was shown to the 35 USC students. USC’s Speaker Committee and Black Student Assembly hosted the on-campus event.

The mostly full room was filled with tudents, many of whom weren’t born when the 1991 video of Rodney King’s beating was captured on tape.

Many analysts mark that video as the beginning of of police brutality being recorded. In the Rodney King video tape, taken by witness George Holliday from his balcony, a group of four LAPD officers is shown continuously kicking King and beating him with batons. Their acquittal is generally believed to have incited the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Moderator Jody Armour, a professor at the USC Gould School of Law, said this fact has been taken for granted. Though the King beating occurred 24 years ago, he said, it remains in the forefront of people’s mind.

“It was the first time you have a video tape spark this kind of prosecution. Now we take it for granted,” Armour said.

The other moderator Judy Muller, a USC journalism professor who covered the Rodney King trial almost 25 years ago, said incidences of police brutality continue to be on the public’s radar because of the rise of technology.

“We are in a major communications revolution,” Muller said. “This makes everyone with a phone a journalist.”

Armour contested the idea that police brutality is not a wide scale issue. He said a faction of people feel that police violence is not an issue because “blacks kill more blacks than police ever could.” But Armour said the difference between black-on-black crime and police brutality is that officers have a responsibility to protect the people and not do harm.

Muller reached back into history to show the different reactions to news events by playing a clip of groups of white people and groups of black people watching the outcome of the 1995 OJ Simpson case. Where black people were overjoyed, white people held expressions of discontent. The professor said this clip showed the disparity between the “racial perceptions of police.” She says white people see the police as serving justice whereas black people feel threatened by police.

She says the rise of social media and the prevalence of unedited videos of the events still elicits different perceptions of events from racial groups, contrary to what one would expect.

These racial perceptions likely reflect the phenomena of mass incarceration, the moderators said. Mass incarceration is the increased rate in imprisonment of black people in the U.S. since the 1980s as a result of strict drug laws with unintended racial implications. According to Pew Research Center, in 1980 10% of black men aged 20 to 29 without a high school diploma were in prison, where that had raised to 26% by 2010. This is compared with the statistic that in 1980 only 4% of white men aged 20 to 29 without high school diplomas were in prison and this raised to 7% by 2010.

He stated a main issue in the criminal justice system is that Americans have been conditioned not to “view criminals through a lens of human frailty,” but rather, with a sense of hard justice.

When the floor was opened for questions, one student called attention immediately to the fact that the audience did not in any way reflect the demographics of USC. One black person commented “props to the three white people here” and she claimed that the issue of police brutality for many can be a She wondered what students can do to keep the conversation about police brutality going.

Another student said for her, when she is the only person of color, discussions can be “emotionally exhausting.”

Muller told students that they had to be unafraid and bring their concerns up in the classrooms.

Event coordinators said this was one of many goals for the event and they hoped it raised awareness that creates dialogue between students and experts.

Armour and Muller said there are current movements that are helping to expand the dialogue. They specifically highlighted the social movement of #Blacklivesmatter, having the potential to make changes in America.

#Blacklivesmatter is a movement with roots in social media that aims to put an end to stereotyped views of black people as dangerous based on their skin color.

But, “We’re not there yet,” Muller said. “We still react from our racial backgrounds…How many video tapes we have to view before that changes?”

 

LAPD lays out its plan for safety measures in South LA



LAPD Chief Charlie Beck spoke with the South LA residents at his forum in Exposition Park. | Photo by Etienne Smith

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck spoke with the South LA residents at his forum in Exposition Park. | Photo by Etienne Smith

The Los Angeles Police Department is promising changes in the way it relates to the community, it announced just weeks after saying it would add more officers to South Los Angeles streets.

About 40 community members were present to hear Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck discuss the relationship between the city’s police and the community. The discussion, in the format of a breakfast, was held at the California African American Museum this past Friday.

“Everybody has a responsibility to make this a safer place to live,” Beck said, “a place our young people and all of us can go to have a sense of community.”

These types of forums began in 1999 to “[involve] minority communities in time-sensitive issues,” according to the forum’s website. On that Friday, the forum was discussion-based and then audience members asked questions to LAPD’s top man. The LAPD has evolved in its relationship to the South LA community. More efforts are being made to not just police the community, but work as partners with it.

[Read more…]

High homicide rates move LAPD to put more officers in South LA



Mayor Eric Garcetti and LAPD Chief Charlie Beck speak about crime statistics at a recent conference held at the 77th Division station in South L.A. | Daina Beth Solomon

Mayor Eric Garcetti and LAPD Chief Charlie Beck speak about crime statistics at a recent conference held at the 77th Division station in South L.A. | Daina Beth Solomon

The Los Angeles Police Department is responding to a hike in crime rates by adding more officers to South Los Angeles streets. So far this year, 43 people have been killed in the 77th Division, which covers most of South L.A.

In August, according to data from the LAPD, the number of people killed in Los Angeles rose 7 percent compared to this time last year. Almost half of last month’s killings took place in South L.A. The majority of violence, Police Chief Charlie Beck said, was gang crime.

Capt. Jeff Bert told the LA Times that additional police officers will allow the department to respond more quickly to crimes and also possibly help prevent them.

“We’re concerned because it’s a loss of life,” Bert told the LA Times. “That’s why we’re doing this big shift and we’re pointing the nose of it south, because that’s where most people are losing their lives.”

Fatal police interactions spark ‘Know Your Rights’ panel in Compton



LA protests Ferguson grand jury decision | Charlie Magovern (Neon Tommy)

In response to recent alleged incidents of police brutality, panelists talked about how citizens should interact with the police.   | Charlie Magovern (Neon Tommy)

Educating residents on how to interact with law enforcement was at the top of the agenda for the “Know Your Rights” panel recently held in Compton. The event, held in the wake of the deaths of African Americans Sandra Bland and Sam DuBose, which involved police interactions that began as traffic stops that escalated in both cases. Panelists, pointing to these national headlines, stressed the importance of the black community knowing their civil rights in such situations.

[Read more…]

Additional neighborhood safety comes with Price



Councilman Curren Price looks up at the new traffic signal on the corner of Figueroa Avenue and 56th Street.

Councilman Curren Price looks up at the new traffic light on Figueroa Avenue and 56th Street. | Photo by Marisa Zocco

 

Alysia Busher did not notice the new traffic signal near her daughter’s daycare as she navigated the pair’s way from the bus stop at Figueroa Avenue and 56th Street, having to cross the busy six-lane intersection.

The struggle to cross the street had become so routine that Busher dropped her daughter off before noticing Councilman Curren D. Price standing on the corner July 22 poised to speak to a dozen community members gathered to celebrate the new safety measure.

[Read more…]

Activist and political commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson talks racial tensions



By Max Schwartz

Earl Ofari Hutchinson | Photo by Angela Hoffman

Earl Ofari Hutchinson | Photo by Angela Hoffman

Activist, author, columnist and political commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson called in to The Hot Seat to discuss his background, the case of Marlene Pinnock and the broad issue of racial tension in the United States.

The case of Marlene Pinnock, the woman who was beaten by a California Highway Patrol Officer, is in the news again because her attorney, Caree Harper, was held in contempt of court. Host Max Schwartz and Hutchinson disccused the issue of Harper making $600,000 from the Pinnock case, the resignation of the CHP officer involved and changes the agency has put into place. The two also talked about the results from the changes that have already been put into affect, and they talked about the remaining reforms Hutchinson expects the agency to make.

Schwartz and Hutchinson also talked about racial tension in the United States. Two key points of the discussion were the starting point for increased racial tension in the recent past and the reasons for the current racial tension.

Reach The Hot Seat here; follow Max on Twitter here. Please use #TheHotSeat and #ASCJ when Tweeting about The Hot Seat.  Like Intersections on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and sign up for the Newsletter to stay in the loop on news and views from South L.A.

LA pledges $1 billion to smooth its sidewalks



A cracked sidewalk in South L.A. is hazardous to pedestrians. | Kate Guarino

A cracked sidewalk in South L.A. is hazardous to pedestrians. | Kate Guarino

Los Angeles will spend more than $1 billion over the next 30 years to repair disrupted sidewalks, curb ramps, crosswalks, pedestrian crossings and other walkways, according to city officials.

The allocation of funds comes as part of a settlement announced Wednesday in a class action suit against the city. The suit alleged that crumbling sidewalks made it difficult for people in wheelchairs and those with mobility disabilities to access public walkways, thus violating the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“This $1.4 billion settlement is the largest disability access class action settlement in U.S. history,” said attorney Guy Wallace, representing the plaintiffs, in a statement. [Read more…]