Can we buck the trend?

I read this article in the Los Angeles Times this morning and recognized that it is one more challenge facing us in our work to transform our congregation into a community devoted to Social Justice and Social Action. We are residents of a city that has a culture that does NOT promote charitable action in the way that many other cities do. How do we as a community work counter culturally to buck the trend? Our Jewish mission to do tikkun olam can, perhaps, provide inspiration and motivation to involve our selves in causes for the welbeing of all our citizens. Dear reader, how strongly does that vision beat in your heart and if so, can you inspire others?

L.A. residents are not the most charitable, study finds

7:16 AM | July 29, 2009-- LA Times

To the woes caused by bad traffic and bad air, Los Angeles can now add a new concern: uncharitable neighbors.

A new study from the Corporation for National and Community Service has found that Los Angeles ranks 45th out of 51 large American cities in the percentage of people who volunteer their time to help their neighbors or communities.

The winners, as in so many other municipal honors, were Minneapolis-St. Paul (ranked No. 1) and Portland, Ore. (No. 2). More than 35% of residents in those cities volunteer their time, compared with 21% in Los Angeles.

Still, the study did identify some bright spots for California, chief among them that from 2007 to 2008, the number of Californians who worked with their neighbors jumped from 1.6 million to 2.2 million.

-- Jessica Garrison

Health Care Reform

As the health care reform debate continues to move toward resolution in Washington it is important for us to know what the positions of some major religious organizations are.

Click here for the Reform Movement's action initiative.

Click here for the PICO/Sojourners information document. As you'll see, this was endorsed by the United Methodist Church as well as certain Evangelical Associations.

More Challenges and Opportunities on the Affordable Housing Front

From the Los Angeles Business Journal

Developers Brace For Housing Fight
By HOWARD FINE - 6/22/2009
Los Angeles Business Journal Staff

Developers and business groups are mobilizing against the latest attempt by the city of Los Angeles to force developers to include below-market apartments and condos in their projects or pay fees to the city to subsidize other affordable housing.

While the effort to require affordable housing set-asides is in the early stages, some developers contend that any mandates could force them to abandon projects and prolong the downturn in residential construction.

“This is absolutely the wrong time to proceed with this mandate,” said Carol Schatz, chief executive of the Central City Association, which represents downtown businesses and development companies. “We should be doing everything we can to incentivize development, not put burdens on developers.”

While the city has put incentives on the table in the past, developers say the incentives wouldn’t have offset the loss of income from affordable units.

Opposition from developers and some neighborhood groups killed the city’s two previous attempts this decade to craft an ordinance requiring below-market-rate housing.

Developers argued that they would drop projects in Los Angeles if such a requirement was adopted because they would lose money. Neighborhood groups feared the ordinance would force low-income housing in their communities, bringing with them an increased risk of crime and lower property values.

The key issue for most developers is to avoid citywide requirements for affordable housing.

“An incentive-based system is much more preferable to one that relies on punitive measures,” said Bill Witte, president of Related Cos. of Southern California, which has developed several mixed-income projects in the region and is the lead developer on the Grand Avenue project downtown.


Affordable housing shortage

The lack of housing for low-income residents has grown increasingly acute as more rent-controlled units have come off the market, and unemployment and underemployment have increased. This has resulted in overcrowding as people forced out of their own units have doubled up or even tripled up in other units or been forced onto the streets.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa launched the latest drive as part of his 2008 call for up to 20,000 affordable housing units. He wants the new ordinance to require developers to set aside some units for households earning less than the county household median income of $60,000 or pay into a fund for building units elsewhere. This would qualify more people to move into any new affordable units than past proposals, which were targeted to lower-income families.

“This city has produced more than enough housing for people at the high end of the income scale, but way too little for low-income households and virtually nothing for moderate-income households,” said Helmi Hisserich, the city’s deputy mayor for housing. “That’s why we need a mandate as one of the tools to produce more affordable housing.”

However, she said the exact percentage of set-asides and the income thresholds for the affordable units remain open to negotiation and compromise.

City planners are now crafting the ordinance, which should be in draft form this fall and could make it to the City Council for a vote in spring 2010.

This time, they have changed the name of the ordinance from “inclusionary zoning” to “mixed-income housing,” to better reflect the goal of having both lower and higher incomes in the same multifamily buildings. And city officials say they are making more of an effort to reach out to developers.

“We’re trying to move more incrementally this time, to give us a chance to build consensus,” said Jane Blumenfeld, deputy planning director. “We are also trying to be more realistic about what it costs to build housing in the city.”

But so far, developers said that there has been little indication the city is moving to address what has long been their main concern: setting aside a certain percentage of their units for lower rents or prices would make their projects unprofitable.

“There’s a big gap between the cost and return on affordable housing and the cost and return on market-rate housing,” said Renata Simril, vice president of development for Forest City Enterprises Inc., a Cleveland developer that has built several mixed-income projects in Los Angeles, including the Metropolitan Lofts near the Staples Center in downtown. “The incentives that we have seen coming from the city don’t go nearly far enough to bridge that gap.”


Need for incentives

Simril and other developers said the focus should be on providing enough financial incentives so that developers can make money on their projects.

In past proposals for affordable requirements, the city has offered developers density bonuses. Those are rights to build more units than would otherwise be allowed. The city also promised to fast-track the approval process and cut fees.

But those measures might not be enough help, according to Jim Atkins, managing director in the Los Angeles office of Merlone Geier Partners, who was previously with South Group, a partnership that developed three major market-rate for-sale loft projects in downtown Los Angeles: the Elleven, Luma and Evo. Atkins, along with Simril, served on an advisory group set up by the city to study construction costs in order to prepare for the new ordinance.

While giving developers certain advantages, density bonuses make projects more expensive up front because bigger buildings cost more money.

Meanwhile, fast-tracking would require additional city staff workers and fee reductions would cost the city revenue. Neither would be palatable for the council given the current budget crisis.

Also, it’s easy for the city to grant density bonuses in concept, but more difficult to deliver them: Neighborhood opposition, stirred by concerns over traffic and building height, would often prevail in the past.

Some developers have sought to avoid an affordable housing set-aside mandate. Downtown developer Geoff Palmer even went so far as to sue the city to prevent the imposition of an affordable unit set-aside for the Visconti Luxury Apartments project just west of downtown. Palmer prevailed and the Visconti was built without low-income units.

Simril said other more substantive incentives are needed. Those could include bond or redevelopment funds. She said the Community Redevelopment Agency sold the land for Forest City’s Metropolitan Lofts at a deep discount in order to get the project built with some affordable units.

“You can have a mandate, but you need major incentives to make the math work,” Simril said.

Hisserich, the deputy mayor, added that a number of city incentives to help developers bridge the cost gap for affordable units are on the table for discussion. Those include density bonuses, expedited permitting, discounts on land purchases for properties in redevelopment areas, and access to low-interest loans or bond monies.


Mandate ‘unfair’

Atkins of Merlone Geier said he supports the goal of building more mixed-income projects in the city. But he believes a mandate would drive up the price of new market-rate housing.

“You’re pushing the burden of subsidizing affordable housing on to a very small group of people, the buyers and renters of new market-rate units, instead of all homeowners or taxpayers,” he said. “That’s fundamentally unfair, both to these buyers and the developers of market-rate housing, which this city desperately needs more of.”

But city officials said they’ve tried other solutions, including asking voters to support a $1 billion affordable-housing bond in fall 2006. The bond narrowly missed getting the required two-thirds majority. Former Mayor James Hahn and current Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa have also set aside general fund dollars to build up an affordable-housing trust fund. The budget crisis has temporarily stalled contributions to the fund.

“This city faces an acute shortage of affordable housing and we desperately need to do something,” said Andrew Westall, deputy for housing, transportation and planning in the office of Councilman Herb Wesson, a backer of the affordable-housing set-aside ordinance. “The key is to do it in such a way that it does not impede the building of more housing.”

Business leaders said a citywide mandate for low-income set-asides would hinder new housing construction.

“We oppose a citywide mandate,” said Stuart Waldman, chief executive of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association. “This has to be done on a case-by-case basis and should be targeted more to areas around transit centers.”


THE ISSUE

L.A. city leaders want developers to include affordable housing units in their projects or pay into a fund that would create below-market units in other projects.

THE BACKGROUND

Two proposals to create an “inclusionary zoning” ordinance in the past were defeated by developers who said they’d lose money, and homeowners who feared poverty, crime and lower property values.

THE NEXT STEP

A new “mixed-income housing” ordinance will be introduced in draft form later this year and could go to a City Council vote next year.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Los Angeles Business Journal, Copyright © 2009, All Rights Reserved.
This article was purchases for re-use.

A Sermon for Your Reactions: The Changing Face of America and Its Meaning for the Jews

Here is Rabbi Stern's recent sermon addressing the challenge or America's tremendous ethnic and religious diversity and what it means for the future of the Jewish community. We'd love to hear your thoughts and responses to the issues he raises. Due to the limitations of YouTube it's in two parts. Both are linked below.

Part I



Part II

Community Organizing is Jewish!

This article is from the current edition. A good history of Community Organizing and places the work we are doing at WiseLA in a broader perspective.

June 10, 2009
Saul’s Children

By Rob Eshman


This is the week to honor a Jew whose influence extends from your neighborhood council, to the field where your grapes are picked, to city halls from Los Angeles to Newark, to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. This week, say a little Kaddish for Saul Alinsky.

Alinsky was born in Chicago in 1909 to Russian Jewish immigrant parents, the only surviving son of Benjamin Alinsky’s second marriage to Sarah Tannenbaum. He was the Johnny Appleseed of justice. Roots he planted 50, 40, 30 years ago — he died June 12, 1972 — are spreading like dandelions in dichondra.

Consider President Obama.

“Barack Obama’s training in Chicago by the great community organizers is showing its effectiveness,” L. David Alinsky wrote to the Boston Globe following the 2008 Democratic Convention. “It is an amazingly powerful format, and the method of my late father always works to get the message out and get the supporters on board. When executed meticulously and thoughtfully, it is a powerful strategy for initiating change and making it really happen. Obama learned his lesson well.”

“When [Obama] announced his candidacy for president last month,” Ryan Lizza wrote in The New Republic in March 2007, “he said the ‘best education’ he ever had was not his undergraduate years at Occidental and Columbia, or even his time at Harvard Law School, but rather the four years he spent in the mid-’80s learning the science of community organizing in Chicago.”

Alinsky was the scientist. In two best-selling books, “Reveille for Radicals” and “Rules for Radicals,” he laid out a step-by-step approach toward empowering the have-nots in society. There are two fundamentals: Clearly communicate the bedrock values of the movement, and organize around these values from the ground up.

“One can lack any of the qualities of an organizer — with one exception — and still be effective and successful,” Alinsky wrote in “Rules for Radicals.” “That exception is the art of communication.” The key to communication, he wrote, is speaking to people where they are, at their level, appealing to their self-interest. Communicating is half the equation, he believed. The other is rooting that message in common values.

Alinsky never lost sight of what his struggle — all successful struggles — was about: “the preciousness of human life ... freedom, equality, justice, peace, the right to dissent.”

In 1939, Alinsky first organized Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood, helping the poor, slaughterhouse-adjacent residents win better wages and living conditions.

He applied the techniques he learned there to organize the residents of Rochester, N.Y., to train the activists who helped a young man named Cesar Chavez organize grape pickers in California; to galvanize Chicago’s all-black Woodlawn neighborhood; where religious leaders like Arthur Brazier fought the all-powerful Chicago machine for better living conditions.

In turn, Brazier and other 1960s community organizers influenced by Alinsky inspired and influenced a young man named Barack Obama to work as an anti-poverty activist in Chicago in the 1980s.

The right loathed Alinsky and continually tried to brand him as a pro-Stalinist communist (he wasn’t). The ‘60s left accused him of selling out because his focus was to help people make it in society, not to destroy society itself. But Alinsky’s lessons endure because they are rooted in one basic idea: “.... No ideology should be more specific than that of America’s founding fathers: ‘For the general welfare,’” Alinsky wrote.

I saw some of Alinsky’s genius incarnated last week when I moderated a discussion at UCLA Hillel between Rabbi Shmuely Boteach and Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, N.J.

After graduating Stanford University, Booker attended Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, where he met Boteach, then a Lubavitch-affiliated rabbi and founder of the L’Chaim society, a Jewish student union. Boteach made Booker, who is African American and a devout Baptist, the head of the society, to the dismay of the Lubavitcher movement. And the friendship endured, after Booker graduated Yale Law; after Booker, raised in a privileged Palo Alto home, moved into Newark’s worst projects and began organizing residents; after Booker beat an entrenched, corrupt Newark machine to become the city’s mayor.

The key to Booker’s success — beyond a fearsome intellect and enough charisma to make Obama look like Richard Nixon — is a burning desire to confront injustice through grass-roots organization — as Alinsky developed and taught it.

Our dialogue was about bridging America’s cultural and political divide. I asked Booker how such a feat is possible, considering how just days earlier a madman on one side of that divide had assassinated Dr. George Tilley, a Kansas doctor who, despite years of death threats, had continued to protect the lives of his women patients by performing abortions.

Booker said it’s a mistake and a waste of time to focus on the extreme right or left — the key is to find common values and language that will bring together the greatest number of people in the center. Booker, by all accounts, has done that in Newark, and Obama is doing it (again) with his Organizing for America, a reconfiguration of his grass-roots Organizing for Obama election campaign, this time aimed at bringing together a consensus for change in America’s health care system.

And it all goes back to Alinsky, the roots of whose passion for social justice and radical change are not all that mysterious. Until he was 12 years old, Alinsky, the son of Orthodox Jews, was steeped in Jewish learning.

“But then I got afraid my folks were going to try to turn me into a rabbi,” he told Playboy in 1971, “so I went through some pretty rapid withdrawal symptoms and kicked the habit. Now I’m a charter member of Believers Anonymous. But I’ll tell you one thing about religious identity: Whenever anyone asks me my religion, I always say — and always will say — Jewish.”

If Alinsky rebelled — a very Jewish thing to do, by the way — he didn’t abandon the prophetic directives that are as plain as day in the ancient texts: to do justice, to love mercy, to walk humbly. His entire life was motivated by belief in the dignity of the human being, by the idea that we are all created in the image of the Divine. And his life’s work was inspired by the awareness, embedded in the daily “Shema,” of universal oneness.

“A major revolution to be won in the immediate future,” Alinsky wrote, “is the dissipation of man’s illusion that his own welfare can be separate from that of all others.”

They teach Alinsky in some college courses, but I suggest his books become required reading in our Jewish day schools — in Hebrew schools, even. You can trace the words of the prophets from ancient times through this man’s life and writing to our modern-day leaders — and you will learn every thing you need to know about the Jewish contribution to civilization.

© Copyright 2009 The Jewish Journal and JewishJournal.com
All rights reserved. JewishJournal.com is hosted by Nexcess.net

Acérquense a La Gente - Get Close to Your People

Reported by Diane Kabat

Throughout Jewish literature, we are called to tear down the walls that silent the voices of the poor. A Talmudic story tells of a righteous man who was on such a high level that Elijah the Prophet visited him regularly. One day, this righteous man built a gate in front of his courtyard. The cries of the needy were shutout, and Elijah the Prophet ceased visiting him. By shutting himself away from the poor, he blocked the gate between heaven and earth.

Our society as well has put up gates that prevent these cries for help from being heard, especially in our cities divided by neighborhood boundaries, language, and culture. With the advent of the Internet and the immediacy for global news, we hear more about impoverished areas in Southeast Asia, Central and South America, or Africa before we "see" that which is before us.

On Sunday afternoon, May 31, Rabbi Stern opened a conference of over 100 Los Angeles community leaders at the Hollywood 7th Day Adventist Church with this story and message from the Talmud. Nearly 20 faith-based-groups affiliated with LA Voice PICO were represented as we assembled for this bi-annual Leadership Assembly to strengthen our bond with other religions and ethnicities in our greater L.A. community.

At the retreat, with the aid of a Spanish interpreter, we talked about the issues that LA Voice is tackling (affordable housing, immigration reform, health care issues), but most importantly, we spent time getting to know one another, sharing our congregational successes along with our challenges. We were one of two synagogues present. Stephen S. Wise Temple and IKAR were there to "open the gate."

Each congregational leader reported on their work to date. It was empowering to hear and be supported in our work thus far. All congregations are having similar one-on-ones and relationship building sessions with their members. The residents of Boyle Heights, along with other communities, were impressed with our 6 areas of potential engagement (see below). But along with this positive exchange, many questions were asked.

Why does LA Voice PICO exist with such strength at this time given all of the challenges in our city? What can we do differently now? One of the leaders of LA Voice Pico, Zach Hoover, outlined our cyclical vision of community interaction each item flowing into the next around a wheel: NECESSITY - What is lacking in our communities and what do we care about? CAPACITY - What are we capable of accomplishing together? OPPORTUNITY - Is there an opportunity today that meets our needs?

We need to take this opportunity and test and talk about current issues and realities. How does Stephen S. Wise Temple as a congregation respond to this call to action, to this need and opportunity at this time? What is our story going to be and how will we get closer? Acérquense a la gente. For the sake of our spiritual health and tikkun olam, we must start to open these gates and connect our lives to those who are most vulnerable. Do these actual and symbolic walls that we have built permit our apathy and passivity?

To become more engaged in our LA vision, attend the Town Hall Meeting at Stephen S. Wise Temple on Wednesday, June 17, 7:30 p.m. We'll roll out our Social Justice Plan with personal testimonials, a text study, and breakout groups.

As Rabbi Stern, Sharon Almany and the Social Justice Leadership team continue to reiterate to our Social Justice Leadership Team, at House Meetings, and from the bima, "This is among the most meaningful experiences that I have as a rabbi -- I want you to have that potential as well."

Progress on the Affordable Housing Ordinance

LA City Council Votes Unanimously (13 - 0) to Pass a Framework for a Mixed-Income Housing Ordinance.

Energy filled the Los Angeles City Council Chambers on Wednesday, May 27th as momentum built for a Mixed-Income Housing Ordinance. After hearing a report from city staff, the council listened attentively as Housing LA leaders eloquently told the story of why we need this ordinance. Following on testimony by County Federation of Labor leader Maria Elena Durazo, and preceding testimony by an ACORN community leader, Hollywood Adventist Church Pastor Ryan Bell, speaking on behalf of LA Voice, gave compelling testimony of congregants who are homeless or "couch surfing" with supportive friends. Housing LA coalition members cheered after each speech.

While council members asked specific questions about issues to be dealt with moving forward, the tone was one of seeking cooperation and shared leadership on this issue and a building consensus to make these ideas concrete. Garcetti, Hahn, Rosendahl, and Reyes all gave rousing remarks -- with Hahn speaking to the reality of a city where half of all workers earn less than $25,000 a year and Rosendahl bellowing for a 25% set-aside.

The consensus to move forward firmly encourages us all. Councilmembers Perry and Garcetti both spoke directly to the importance of the organizing work being done by LA Voice congregations and Housing LA. Don't hesitate to call your council member and tell him or her "thank you" for taking this step and asking them to lead the way on creating and implementing a bold Mixed- Income Housing Ordinance that will create thousands of units for hard working Angelinos and their children.

While the next report back is scheduled for September of this year, you can be sure that LA Voice clergy, leaders, and congregations will continue to pray and move our feet for the transformation of our city's housing crisis.

What is LA Voice

Our congregation is associated with LA Voice the regional network of the PICO National Organizing Network. LA Voice works to give power for change to communities that are more often than not powerless. As one of two Jewish congregations (the other is IKAR) connected with LA Voice we have the opportunity to engage with the people of the city of Los Angeles in ways we never have before. LA Voice is leading the charge on the Affordable Housing ordinance and has been mobilizing the community to act on its behalf. Additionally, LA Voice is the conduit through which we have found our path to Boyle Heights and the work that we are doing to strengthen our community.

Follow this link and consider making a small contribution to help LA Voice do the good work it does.

See the "new" poster child for LA Voice and a particularly bad picture of yours truly below.
LA Voice Fundraiser

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Brochures & Catalogs magazine culture

The Social Justice Vision: Connecting Communities in a Vast City

The Social Justice Leadership Team had an incredibly productive meeting this past Wednesday (May 13th) which reflected the culmination of our year’s worth of conversations, one-on-ones and relationship building with Temple members and the residents of Boyle Heights. In addition we engaged a wide variety of professionals to develop strategies to move our work forward. Click on active links for information about partner organizations.

The Leadership Team determined that the overall theme guiding our work will be Connecting Communities – bringing people together across geographic, ethnic and religious expanses and we will focus on Boyle Heights.

• Our primary focus will be on the Boyle Heights Neighborhoods and the various ways that members of Stephen Wise Temple can bring their talents to that community. Far from being a one way street our experiences in Boyle Heights will help us learn about the complexity, challenges, and opportunities that are presented to us as fellow citizens of one of the most diverse cities on the planet!

• Through the Police Activities League and with training from Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters our athletic teams from Milken Community High School as well as students in our Academy program will develop mentorship (long term) relationships with children in PAL.
• Stephen Wise Business owners will be recruited and we will work with Roosevelt Senior High School to craft an internship program for kids from Roosevelt High to have internships in SSWT member’s businesses

• Together with the UCLA school of Medicine and Dentristy (and Temple member and psychiatrist Dr. Susan Donner-Klein) we will recruit SSWT therapists (and interns) to teach and facilitate the program. (Father Scott Santarosa has given us permission to begin recruiting participants from BH and to work with Dolores Mission.)

• Los Angeles City Youth Council (LAYC) – thanks to Joey Freeman students from Roosevelt High and MCHS are working together to strengthen both schools’ involvement in the youth council. Incoming MCHS student body president Jenna Freeman (not related to Joey) will continue the efforts after Joey graduates.
  

• Affordable Housing Ordinance – many of the developers and other interested parties on our Social Justice Leadership team and in the congregation are participating in attempts to facilitate and advocate for a workable Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance in Los Angeles. We are working with a variety of faith-based groups and othersthroughout our city on this project.

• Affordable Housing Ordinance Hearing: City Hall on Tuesday, May 19th, 2:00, Rm 350, 200 N. Spring Street (ID required to enter but open meeting). If you’d like to attend email Jared Rivera: jared@lavoicepico.org

Town Hall Meeting – The Culmination and Next Step after our Year of House Meetings and Communal Involvement. Here we will begin our work to gain the commitment of participants and our congregation to action around our Social Justice Vision.

• Remember: It’s all about RELATIONSHIPS! We are determined to engage people in this process through interpersonal connections – not publicity campaigns.

• June 17th – Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. All those who attended House Meetings (and more) are to be invited by the Leadership Team directly – through personal calls. At the Town Hall Meeting we’ll roll out the Social Justice Plan with personal testimonials, have a text study and hold breakouts into groups around the action items above.

House Meetings will, of course, continue throughout the year as we continue to develop relationships and energize our base around our social justice vision.

Want more information about any of the above? Email Rabbi Ron Stern, click here.

The Federation and Israeli Consulate in Boyle Heights

Inclusionary Zoning/Affordable Housing and the Mayor

On Wednesday, April 6 I was part of a delegation to meet with Mayor Villaraigosa to press the cause for work force housing in Los Angeles. The mayor has made this a part of his goals for the city since he took office. For the first time it appears that there is support and mommentum to actually pass an inclusionary zoning ordinance for Los Angeles! Should this happen, Los Angeles will join with great cities throughout the world that have such ordinances including London, Paris, New York, San Francisco and Chicago.

The goal of the ordinance is to enable middle class workers to live nearer to their workplaces, thus reducing traffic, air polution and congestion as well as to make life more liveable for these essential workers. Currently thousands must travel long distances from home to work or are forced to live in substandard housing. I encountered the harsh reality of that first hand when I spoke to one of the members of our delegation. She is a housing activist and also a personal assistant employed with a company that provides services to celebrities. Joanna is a single mom who has worked in that field for 15 years and still must live in a one bedroom apartment that she shares with her 8 year old daughter -- often she's one paycheck away from affording her rent.

Fifteen of us from a variety of organizations heard the mayor say that the time is ripe and he wants to get the legislation passed by the end of June (this legislative session). When he heard about the work that our Affordable Housing Network at Stephen S. Wise is doing, he said that we could quite possibly make the difference between success and failure. Because we have incorporated real estate developers into our network and they are interested in acheiving meaningful solutions the situation is more hopeful than it has been in the past. The state of the economy and the general depression in the building industry also makes meaningful legislation possible.

This Tuesday advocates for the cause will be meeting downtown to discuss strategies for gaining broadbased support for a meaningful change. Hopefully some of our housing advocates will join me for the meeting! In addition, I've asked the Southern California Board of Rabbis to host a session for area rabbis to increase rabbinic awareness of this issue. A number of speakers will address the rabbis and encourage them to advocate in their communities. This is a complex issue and rabbis may not be experts on the financial aspects of real estate development but we can certainly challenge developers, neighborhood groups and regional chambers of commerce to see the moral justification for legislation and minimize opposition they might present. A resolution will be presented to the Board of Rabbis for consideration in support of inclusionary zoning/workforce housing proposals.

For any who might be policy wonks -- see the mayor's plan here.

Chag Sameach -- Happy Pesach!

As you all gather around your Seder tables I hope that your years spent deepening your own knowledge and commitment to Judaism make the experience that much more meaningful.

May the Haggadah's story that immerses us in the historical memory of our people evoke a renewed consciousness of the place that our people have in human destiny. As you recite the words: Avadim Hayinu -- we were slaves, may you come to believe that our collective memory of the chains of slavery compells us to unshackle any in our own society who are bound by economic, medical, environmental and yes physical bonds so that we can one day celebrate Pesach knowing that all are truly free in this world.

Chag Sameach,

Rabbi Ron Stern and the Social Justice Leadership Team

An Encounter Between the Leadership Teams: Boyle Heights and Stephen S. Wise

Written by Melissa Benton Corleto

Last night six members of the Social Justice Leadership Team (including Rabbi Stern) traveled to Boyle Heights to visit the Dolores Mission and meet with some of its members. Our journey was a mere 14 miles, and only took us twenty minutes (it’s true, everywhere in L.A. takes twenty minutes), but Boyle Heights probably seems very far for most of us.

When we arrived, we were taken on a tour of the church and school. We visited chapels, classrooms, a student-created vegetable garden, administrative offices, and living quarters for the fifty men who are temporary residents of the Mission. Each of the facilities is immaculately maintained, and immediately makes visitors feel welcome.

The Dolores Mission and school are surrounded by “projects”; however these are not the graffiti-covered, crumbling high-rises that you might be picturing. They are known as “casitas”, small townhouses whose manicured gardens and fresh paint reflect a strong pride of ownership.

At 7:30 our bilingual, bi-denominational meeting began. We began with prayers and ice-breaker activities, which allowed us to get to know each other. Everyone was warm and friendly, and it hardly felt like a first encounter.

Then it was down to business. We discussed our definitions of community, why we are proud of our communities, and the issues facing our communities. Through our discussion, it became evident that there are several connections between the Stephen S. Wise and Boyle Heights The discussion was honest, and people shared true concerns and hopes about their churches, synagogues, families, neighborhoods, and city. Each group is concerned about jobs, health care, and education. It turns out both groups also really like tamales. communities.

Our next step is to identify how our interdependent relationship will allow us to create positive change in our communities.

Jewish Funds for Justice National Strategy Meeting

I just returned from a quick 36 hour visit to Temple Israel of Boston where a meeting of select leadership guiding Congregational Based Community Organizing around the country was convened.  Temple Israel is the congregation where it all essentially got started six years ago.  They were the first synagogue involved in interfaith, city/state-wide activism to address a societal issue.  Massachusetts is one of the few (if not the only) state in the nation to have near universal health care.  While it is by no means perfect. after spending some time with my college roommate who is a Boston area pulmonologist, it was clear that most doctors are both happy with the program and doing quite well financially. 

The meetings focused on developing a national strategy for expanding the place that Congregational Based Community Organizing (CBCO) has in the Jewish community.  I was invited to represent both Los Angeles and SSWT because the work that we are doing is pioneering.  Never before has a synagogue of our size and influence engage in this work in Los Angeles!  (Temple Judea, Temple Emanual, and IKAR are also involved at different levels in CBCO work.)

No major breakthroughs came from the session but it is quite incredible to hear about the work that other communities are doing and the successes (as well as challenges they face).  A few of the highlights:

• The Jewish Community Relations Council of Boston has actually hired a Community Organizer to enhance the effectiveness of Jewish community organizing for social change
• Boston is working to engage the youth through Youth Groups and confirmation programs in community organizing -- training the next generation's leaders
• Despite the cutbacks at the URJ, the Just Congregations Department (leading CBCO work in the Reform Movement) remains fully funded because its work is so important
• The economic chaos that our world is in, while painful for so many, has also motivated more people to engage in organizing for meaningful change.  Currently 100 synagogues from different denominations are involved in the same process that we at SSWT are undergoing.
  
• CBCO work for change is SLOW it takes time to build the relationships between people that create the power necessary to identify issues and organize for change
• The Los Angeles Jewish community will continue to be a priority of the URJ and Jewish Funds for Justice because of our size, potential and importance to the larger Jewish community and our nation.

Meanwhile at Stephen S. Wise:   Four more house meetings are planned before and after Pesach meaning that we'll have brought the challenge of CBCO to 200 members of our community.  We are hoping to pull all house meeting participants together for a "Town Meeting" by early June.  There, the Social Justice leadership team will facilitate organization around the issues that are realistic undertakings for the SSWT community in the next months.  Attendees at the Town Meeting will be invited to take a place "at the table" as we move our community towards action on issues that affect the quality of all of our lives as residents of this city.

Solving LA's Housing Crisis One Meeting at a Time!

Posted by Ron Stern

On Thursday, March 19th I joined a group of clergy, community activists and others for a meeting in Councilman Herb Wesson's office. Herb (as he invited all of us to call him) represents the 10th City Council District; see his web site here. He is chair of the Housing Committee of the City Council. As I have mentioned, there is a groundswell of activism for workforce affordable housing throughout the city and a large number of organizations are mobilizing their forces to pressure city hall for meaningful legislation. Many cities in California and across the country have such legislation on their books including San Francisco, Sacramento and West Hollywood.

Advocates are lobbying for a 25% affordable housing mandate either through actual units or in-lieu of payments for every housing unit built in Los Angeles. That is a significant request that may or may not make it through the legislative process. However, it is painful to hear about the tremendous challenges that confront nearly 75% of our citywide workforce that earns less than $50,000 per year for a family of four to find housing. You'll see that most of those people are full time workers employed in jobs such as teachers, receptionists, secretaries, social workers and even some nurses. These are people who work for and with many of us, certainly not anyone who we might look upon as "poor." The workforce housing intiative is not targeted for Section 8 (low income) housing either. The lack of affordable housing causes many workers to live in substandard units or at a great distance from their jobs adding to congestion and pollution when they commute to work. As citizens of this city and recognizing the Jewish imperative to care for the poor we as a synagogue must be part of the solution.

Fortunately, there are many real estate developers who are committed to doing their best to advocate for those solutions. Many of the most influential are members of Stephen S. Wise Temple. We have convened a committee of Real Estate professionals to provide a meaningful proposal to the ciy council that developers will support. In addition, some of our real estate professionals as well as representatives from the housing advocacy groups as well as the city are going to address the next meeting of the Southern California Board of Rabbis to raise this issue higher on the priorities of our city's rabbis. You should have seen Herb Wesson's eyes light up when he heard that members of the Stephen S. Wise community are actively seeking solutions for the crisis. He said: "If we are going to succeed, we need the Jewish community and other well-established members of Los Angeles to get involved."

If you have more questions or would like to participate in upcoming meetings for Workforce Housing, please let me know. Click here.

If no documents are visible below. Click here to view the documents.

Notice the symbol in the upper right window below to toggle to full screen for easier viewing. A note: "AMI" = adjusted median income: Affordable Housing Documents

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Periodicals & Report affordable housing los angeles

The First Meeting of the Boyle Heights Professionals

Today, the key professionals working on the Boyle Heights project held their first meeting to discuss the partnership process.  It was quite an inspirational meeting as people who are passionate about the work that they do and inspired by their faith and commitment to making a difference in our community reflected on how that energy could be transformed into meaningful work.  Fifteen people sat around a table including leadership from the Dolores Mission School, staff from Proyecto Pastoral (the social services department of the Dolores Mission group including Cynthia Sanchez the executive director), staff from Dolores Mission (including Father Scott Santarosa) and, of course, the Stephen S. Wise contingent (yours truly, Dr. Susan Donner-Klein, Joey Freedman, Rose Reid) and finally to our great excitement, Margy Feldman the executive director of Jewish Big Brothers.  In addition, Jared Rivera (executive director) and Zach Hoover from LA Voice also provided their vital guidance. 

Our opening prayers reflected the fact that this was indeed a profound and ground-breaking undertaking.  Never before have two communities of faith, literally from opposite sides of town, attempted to develop a partnership committed to benefitting both communities.  It is vital that our Stephen S. Wise readers understand that this is indeed a cooperative venture where we stand to gain a great deal through our connections even as we give of our talents and energy to the residents of Boyle Heights.  They in turn will give of their skills, perspectives and cultural richness to us. 

When the time is right (read below to see what I mean) there is potential for Dr. Susan Donner Klein to launch parenting programs that not only give our counselors the chance to provide parenting support to residents of the community, but also engage potential parenting coaches in Boyle Heights in our work.  Together we'll work to strengthen an already cohesive and determined community.  Jewish Big Brothers and Big Sisters already trains our Milken Students to mentor elementary students at Stephen Wise Elementary School, these kids can bring their knowledge to Roosevelt High School and help JBBBS facilitate mentor training and partnerships for RHS kids and Dolores Mission elementary students.  There are so many other areas ripe for joint ventures, however, the path we take towards implementation is as important as the goal.

The community organizers in our group insisted upon a track that includes the building of relationships between our communities and engaging our Boyle Heights partners in the planning.  Just as the process at Stephen Wise cannot be "top down" so should the partnership between our communities resist top down planning.  So, to this end we are convening a SSWT Lay steering committee that will join with the parallel group from Boyle Heights to first, meet each other as fellow residents of LA and people of faith and second, develop the plan for what exactly where we should move the program forward and how.  We have assembled some important resources and they still be available to us, but the process of implementing the program depends upon cooperative planning.

I want to stress how vital this is for the development of power among the Boyle Heights residents.  It is critical that the leaders of their community are engaged in conversations about how the partnership will develop. It is not for professionals to suggest and it is not for SSWT members to implement alone. We must do it together and approach this on equal footing so that a true partnership develops. 

Will it be easy?  I doubt it. We come from different worlds in so many ways.  There are cultural, economic, geographic and language hurdles to overcome.  But that is what makes this challenge unique and potentially transformational for both communities.  Patience is critical as trust is developed and we learn to appreciate each other's strengths and potentials. 

I will be working to convene the Steering committee but if you are reading this and would like to join, please email me.  Click here.  Our first meeting of the joint committee from both communities will be April 1st at 7:30 p.m.

At the same time, Joey Freeman will be developing a partnership between our High School Students.  He is looking to revitalize the LA Youth Council (click here) and cannot do it without the participation of kids all around the city.  It turns out that he already has a relationship with some kids from Roosevelt High.  The groups will meet and discuss the partnerships and process they can undertake.  Adults might be present at this meeting, but ultimately this is kid driven.  Joey is a second semester senior, so he both has time on his hands and recognizes the need to bring in new leadership from Milken to carry on his work. 

LA Jewish Foundation Rejects Project Renew LA Grant Application--but we are not giving up!

I'm disappointed to report that the LA Jewish foundation has rejected our grant proposal.  For reasons yet unknown to us we did not make the initial clearing process.  This means that we are back to the drawing board looking for new potential grant providers.  Jay Epstein our development director at Wise LA has suggested two foundations and we are in the process of drafting proposal letters to see if they might be interested in a fully developed proposal.

We're moving forward anyway!
Professionals' Task force:  Beyond that, regardless of the status of the grant we are moving forward with the partnership to the best of our abilities.  Thanks to our Milken High School Student Intern we've pulled together a meeting of the professionals from Stephen S. Wise and Dolores Mission/Proyecto Pastoral so that we can determine the tasks that are reachable.  The staff include, Father Scott Santarosa, Cynthia Sanchez (director) from Dolores Mission, representatives from Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters, me (Ron Stern), Susan Donner, MD (UCLA school of Medicine), Joey Freeman and Wendy Ordower from Milken High School and staff from LA Voice Pico organizing network. 

Volunteers and Supporters' Task Force:  Father Scott has a committee called the Finance and Development group.  They are professionals (lawyers, film industry etc) who are well established in the LA Catholic community and support his work at Dolores Mission.  He and I have discussed setting up a Task force that combines his committee with those from the Social Justice Leadership Team who would like to guide the work with Boyle Heights.  The resources brought to the table by this group of our leadership and his leadership will increase our chances of success for the Partnership Project.  Please email me if your interested.  Click here.

Milken High School Students and the LA Youth Council

Did you know that Los Angeles has a youth council?  Check it out here.  In fact, the latest article on the web page is written by our own Milken Student and Stephen S. Wise Temple member Noah Ickowitz. 

Rabbi Stern met with students from Milken High School who are active in the LA Youth Council and shared information about our Social Justice work. Milken is looking to work with representatives from the Youth Council who go to school at Roosevelt High in Boyle Heights (any graduates reading this?).  The students at Roosevelt are interested in setting up a Youth Council chapter just like Milken's.  Students are planning some meetings between the high schools to learn about each other's experiences of life in LA and see what kinds of partnerships they can establish.  Possibilities include mentoring relationships, Koreh-LA activities and perhaps even some discussion groups between students at both school just to let them get to know each other better. 

Joey Freeman is the LAYC chapter chair at Milken and was the president of the entire LAYC previously.  He is an enthusiastic participant and is working hard to create excitement at Milken so that the work will continue after he graduates this spring. 

Social Justice Networks Now Forming!

Community Organizing for Social Justice depends on interest, opportunity and potential. As our house meetings continue, we are discovering that there is interest and potential for us to start working on a number of areas:

Housing Action Network
LA Voice is involved in an affordable housing action and many on our leadership team are connected to the real estate industry. Our Housing Action Network is involving real estate professionals with those in Los Angeles looking to increase the pool of affordable housing. Often on opposite sides of the issue, if we develop a dialogue between developers and community advocates for housing focused on cooperative problem solving the potentials are endless. Through our involvement with LA Voice we are presented with a unique opportunity. Imagine if solutions satisfactory to both sides can be developed! What an opportunity! The first meeting of the Housing Action Network and the LA Voice professionals happens this Friday, January 30th. More details to follow.

Community Support Network
Throught the efforts of Temple member Dr. Susan Donner and the project coordinator from LA Voice we are developing a parenting program for parents of young adolescents. Together with Counseling interns and professionals from the Stephen S. Wise Community (some of them Spanish speakers!) we'll develop a program to teach and strengthen parenting strategies for adolescents. This was something requested by the residents of Ramona Gardens (an area of Boyle Heights) at their latest meeting with the LA Voice rep and Susan Donner. As things develop there is potential to include Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters to help train student and young adult mentors to guide the young people in Boyle Heights.

It is exciting to see how our efforts are begining to take wing after only five months of organizing and house meetings that have involved about 100 people!

Interested in joining a network? Send an email to Rabbi Stern.

Community Organizing Writ Large

This article reflects the extent of the grass roots organizing that led to Obama's success and is still in operation as a means to implement the vision that he outlined. It is interesting for us and the work that we are doing at Stephen S. Wise because the networks that we are attempting to establish will also derive from our House Meetings (in the article they are called House Parties) and hopefully enable us to reach the goals for organizing Stephen S. Wise that we are developing as a Social Justice Leadership Team.

Time Magazine, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009
Obama's Permanent Grass-Roots Campaign

By Michael Scherer / Owings, Md.

For Kenneth Richardson II of Owings, Md., Barack Obama's election-night victory was not the end but the beginning. "We can't let this go," the 58-year-old father of three remembers thinking. "People feel invested. They feel they can actually do something." So he did. A couple of weeks after the confetti settled, he posted an alert on MyBarackObama.com proposing a new activist group in Calvert County, a rural exurb of Washington where the rolling farmland is dotted by weathered barns and crab shacks. Complete strangers signed up. A retired Air Force pilot, Phil Pfanschmidt, and his wife Joyce, both 71, came to the first meeting in December. So did Chris Melendez, a self-employed art dealer who lives about 30 miles away. Richardson's old motorcycle buddy Al Leandre brought his wife, a public-school teacher, and passed the word to some friends he had met through his government-contracting business. With a few clicks of a mouse, the Owings Grass Roots Group was born.

They were white and black, old and young, middle-class professionals who shared a collective frustration with the state of their country. At least four of the founding 12 had once been registered Republicans. Most had stories of helping the Obama campaign; all had internalized Obama's message of bottom-up, people-powered political change. "For anything that is going on in southern Maryland, Barack Obama personally can have an impact — through us," explained Leandre. (See pictures of Obama on Flickr.)

This sort of thing has been happening quietly all over the country this winter. For the first time in decades, a President will enter office at the spearhead of a social movement he created. The exact size can be measured in various ways. He controls a 13 million-name e-mail list, which is nearly the size of the NRA and the AFL-CIO combined. Three million people have given him money; 2 million have created profiles on Obama's social-networking site. More than 1.2 million volunteered for the campaign, which has trained about 20,000 in the business of community organizing.

But the best measurement of Obama's grass-roots power may still be its unrealized potential. In December, when the Owings group first met, about 4,500 house parties were held around the country, and a total of 550,000 people responded to an online survey asking how they would like to contribute their time and energy over the coming years. At about the same time, nearly 5,000 groups responded to a call from Obama's transition team for reports on the best ways to tackle health-care reform. More recently, some 100,000 people participated in an interactive feature on the transition website Change.gov, which allows people to vote on questions they want Obama to answer. Some popular examples: Will you legalize marijuana? Will you appoint a prosecutor to investigate possible Bush Administration crimes? All this was done with almost no publicity and barely a whisper of encouragement from Obama himself. As a scholar of online politics, Personal Democracy Forum's Micah Sifry, puts it, "I think Obama is sitting on a volcano."

The question for Obama is, Can he harness its power? Obama anchored his presidential ambitions in his background as a bottom-up community organizer and in his belief that two people together are exponentially more powerful than two people alone. "In the last 30 or 40 years, a lot of politics turned into marketing," explains Marshall Ganz, a Harvard professor and community organizer who has worked with Obama. "Marketing is all about selling soup to individuals. It's not about bringing people together." Obama's model, which has made him the envy of a generation of political consultants, focuses both on selling the soup and on giving his supporters the tools to make soup together — for one another. (Watch a video about Obama paraphernalia.)

This formula delivered huge returns during the campaign, and Obama swamped his opponents with vastly superior fundraising and grass-roots organizations. But it has never been tried on a large scale by a sitting President. So Obama's web of supporters and his online organizers must now feel their way into uncharted territory. During the campaign, Richardson, an unemployed customer-service specialist, downloaded phone numbers from the Obama website and then made calls from his home office to nudge voters to the polls. He hasn't heard directly from the Obama organization since, but with the help of the Obama website, Facebook and e-mail, he has created an Obama satellite organization on his own. The Owings group is in business, with a mission statement, the beginnings of a logo and plans to incorporate as a nonprofit.

Richardson's group has signed up overseas supporters and planned a series of community dinners and a potluck in honor of the Inauguration. On a recent NFL-playoff Sunday, 11 members gathered in Richardson's brick-lined den to discuss ways to improve local schools. "When we as a group put a package together to send to Barack Obama, what should we ask for?" Richardson posed the question at the start of the meeting. The answers were varied and thoughtful. Why not encourage high school students to get passports to promote foreign travel? Why not sponsor overseas pen-pal programs via the Internet? Should there be more awards to recognize great teachers?

Though few talk in public about it, a 13 million-man army, with foot soldiers ready to act in key congressional districts, could come in handy if the White House has trouble lining up votes for various bills and proposals that reach Capitol Hill. Obama's army can make a lot of phone calls and send a lot of e-mails — and it has proved it knows how to act fast. Rallying support for legislation is one mission; so is making sure the army is intact — and still writing checks — in a few years, when Obama is likely to seek re-election.

While his supporters seek out ways to stay involved, Obama's team is working to connect with citizens outside politics. Buffy Wicks, who helped run Obama's Missouri campaign, has spent the past couple of months putting together a new website, USAservice.org, designed to capitalize on Obama's call for Americans to volunteer in the days before the Inauguration. Even James Dobson's conservative Focus on the Family, no friend of Obama's campaign, is encouraging members to participate.

Meanwhile, at the transition office, Macon Phillips, 30, the director of new media, has been experimenting with other ways to remake the stodgy White House website. The new transition website invites comments at nearly every turn, with regular video responses from all ranks of Obama's incoming Administration and a promise to collate feedback into reports for policymakers, Cabinet officers, even the President. Citizens can view and comment on briefing papers submitted by the interest groups that have been lobbying Obama ever since he won the election. Most of these interactive devices will be carried over to the Obama White House site. Asked if all this feedback would really reach decision makers, Phillips responded, "I wouldn't enjoy my job if I felt the whole thing was a charade."

As one campaign ends and another begins, Obama will need to broaden his base without disappointing true believers like Richardson. In the 1970s, Richardson graduated from college with a degree in urban studies and hoped to work in the public sector. But his first job, working for then D.C. mayor Walter Washington, was dispiriting. He found himself handing out public-assistance checks to people who were gaming the system, an experience that led him to register as a Republican. Now, he says, he may finally be able to serve as he had always hoped. "I will be 59 in April," he said, "and I have never, ever come across something like this."