Protesters decry USC expansion
Tomo Chien
April 18, 2024
Good morning. It’s Thursday, and I’m reading about “cool, hidden and unusual” things to do in Los Angeles. Onto the five USC, LA and California stories you need to know for today.
1.
Protesters marched through USC yesterday to decry what they say is unchecked expansion by the university into the neighborhoods that surround its campuses. Indeed, a loophole in housing regulations has for years allowed developers to rapidly convert single-family homes into student-minded housing, effectively pushing out predominantly Black and Latino residents near the University Park Campus. “This campus has grown tremendously and it’s at the expense of the people who used to live here,” one protester said.
2.
LA County officials charged a woman with murder for supplying fentanyl to two young men who later overdosed on the drug. It’s the latest case in which a California district attorney has employed the once-novel strategy of charging drug dealers with murder, as officials search for answers to the state’s fentanyl epidemic. Last August, a Riverside jury found a drug dealer guilty of second-degree murder in what was then hailed as a landmark case in California. It’s unclear if this is the first time that LA has used such a strategy.
3.
California regulators moved to punish farmers who have for years drained groundwater supplies with little to no oversight. State officials said farmers in the Tulare Lake subbasin, one of the state’s largest agricultural regions, must pay a first-of-its-kind fee on the groundwater they pump: a punishment for extracting so much water over the last decade that the ground sank by 6 feet in some areas and household wells which everyday people rely on are at risk of running dry.
4.
San Francisco is coming down hard on pro-Palestinian protesters who blocked the Golden Gate Bridge earlier this week. The city’s district attorney said she plans to charge the 26 people arrested by police with false imprisonment, an unusually harsh charge that could force them to pay restitution to commuters who were trapped on the bridge during the hourslong demonstration. Legal experts say the charge is based on shaky grounds, and activists called the move a “criminalization of dissent.”
5.
Griffith Park has long been notoriously dangerous for cyclists, who must dodge rush-hour commuters speeding through the park with no official bike lanes. Two years ago, a cyclist was struck and killed by a drunk driver, and in another gruesome incident, a cyclist was dragged under a car for nearly a quarter mile. But that could soon change. City officials approved some $4 million in safety improvements throughout the park, which include reducing the number of lanes for cars and dedicating them to bikes and pedestrians. “This will bring the roads back to their purpose, which is to bring people to the park,” one cyclist said.
