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Five SoCal Must-Reads: Faces of L.A.'s Jobless, Crime by Zip Code & More

By Zach Behrens
December 23, 2011
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A big picture look at the region:

  • Palma Markus, a former reporter for the San Gabriel Valley News Group, was one of the several Occupy L.A. protesters arrested last Saturday night. "It has become pretty common knowledge amongst Occupy L.A. participants that City Attorney Carmen Trutanich is going for the jugular in dealing with us," she writes on LAist in a post about why she was arrested and her experiences in jail.

  • Two emaciated mountain lion cubs found in Burbank earlier this week were first transferred to a wildlife center in Calabasas and are now in Paso Robles for treatment before state officials decide where they go. Central Coast News has a video of them in their new home.

  • A community safety scorecard has been created for Los Angeles, zip code by zip code. It "assesses the factors that foster or fight violence in every community -- from Watts to Hollywood, Koreatown to Century City -- within the city of Los Angeles," reports Miller-McCune. "The strategy -- replacing macro statics with fine-grained analysis, weighing risk factors alongside protective ones -- could be a blueprint for advocates anywhere who struggle to paint the problems of disadvantaged communities in hard data." The rankings put Pacific Palisades at the top of the list while a zip code around the 110 and 105 freeway junction at the bottom.

  • USC's Neon Tommy has put together a comprehensive special report -- over 20 pieces -- called Faces of L.A.'s Jobless.

  • A proposed hydrogen energy plant in rural Buttonwillow, Kern County has farmers worried about the pollution it will bring. KGET 17 reports that the plant is mostly clean energy, but 10% of the carbon dioxide produced will be emitted. Meanwhile, PG&E plans to demolish the old Kern Power Plant, an eyesore in Bakersfield, according to Bakosphere.

Photo by Renee Rendler-Kaplan via KCET's Southern California Flickr Pool

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