USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy
Resident of the Hollywood Dell neighborhood and senior fellow of the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy; former reporter for the Los Angeles Times
PROFILE
Laurie Becklund
Guest
FROM Laurie Becklund
Which Way, L.A.?
For the Hollywood Skyline, How High Is Too High? At a major intersection in Hollywood, KCRW's Saul Gonzalez talked with Adrian Glick Kudler, editor of Curbed LA, about Millennium Hollywood , a horizontal city going vertical. City Councilman and mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti is opposed. So is the other Hollywood councilman, Tom LaBonge. But the city planning commission — to Mayor Villaraigosa's applause — has approved more than one million square feet of offices, apartments, condos and retail stores on just five acres of land surrounding the Capitol Records Building. To opponents it's an "alien implant," an "eyesore" that's "disproportionate" to a historic district. To New York developer Phil Aarons it's part of a much needed new urban core. He's co-founder of Millennium Partners, which has changed the skylines of New York, Boston, Washington, DC and San Francisco. (This is the first of an occasional series, LA Grows Up, on WWLA? and other KCRW programs about high-rise development and LA's changing skyline.)
Recommended
To the Point
Ex-FBI Director Comey tells his side of the story Today, former FBI Director James Comey came close to calling the President who fired him a liar. The White House denied the claim and called it insulting, but Republican Senators did not challenge Comey’s truthfulness. Many questions remain: did the President try to obstruct a federal investigation? Later, we’ll go behind the “velvet rope” for a look at 5-Star health care for the richest Americans.
To the Point
White House budget proposal slashes and burns President Trump's first budget request is considered dead on arrival in Congress — a familiar development in Capitol Hill. We hear what it reveals about the priorities of the new administration. What's likely to die… and what might survive?
To the Point
Who's to blame for the opioid crisis? Some of the lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are now going after Big Pharma. It’s all about the deadly epidemic of opioid use. Are the drug companies to blame? What about the users? Later, on today’s Talking Point: making sense of Britain’s upset election.
To the Point
The longest US war: Will Trump send more troops to Afghanistan? The Trump White House is divided over the Pentagon's request for more troops in Afghanistan—where the US has been fighting for the past 16 years. Is there a formula -- either for "victory" or a political settlement? Is there an end in sight for America's longest war?