Which Way, L.A.?

Living Wage Study and Santa Monica-s Measure JJ

Once so liberal that it was dubbed -the People-s Republic,- last week the City of Santa Monica cracked down on the homeless. In November, the city-s voters will get a chance to throw out its living wage ordinance. In cities including Los Angeles, such ordinances boost the pay of low-income workers for municipal contractors above the minimum wage. Although Santa Monica-s City Council passed its own version of the ordinance, which targeted big hotels and restaurants along the beach, business interests immediately funded a petition drive that suspended the law and subjected it to a vote of the people. Will Santa Monica-s -living wage- reduce poverty or wipe out jobs? We hear from proponent Michael Feinstein, mayor of Santa Monica, and UCLA law professor Richard Sander, who has studied the measure-s impact on the city. Newsmaker: Poll Shows that Secession Trails in the Valley Today-s LA Times poll is the first to show that the campaign to break up the City of Los Angeles has fallen behind, not just in the city, but in the heart of the secession movement. A telephone poll of likely voters shows Measure F losing 56-to-27 citywide, 47-to-42 in the San Fernando Valley. Richard Close, chair of Valley Vote, questions the results, and shares secessionists- winning strategy for a successful campaign. Reporter-s Notebook: Gordita Youth Radio has become a fixture in the San Francisco Bay Area and on public radio around the US. Now, KCRW is collaborating with Youth Radio LA. In this first of a series of commentaries about growing up in Southern California, Carolina Herrera shares her experience of being affectionately gordita at home, while being young and overweight in a thin-is-in society.