Editorial

| January 27, 2022 | 0 Comments

Local, local, local!

A theme for us, as we start this New Year, is “local.” We shall focus on: maintaining your local newspaper (with your continued support); addressing the local issue of crime, which relates to local elections; and discussing local control of real estate and land use.

Local newspaper
This community newspaper remains very thankful for the support of our readers, both locally and across the country.

The checks we receive from our readers really make a difference. This is especially so at a time when there is general inflation — plus extra inflation in the printing industry.

Despite these increases in costs to us, the Chronicle works hard to provide exceptionally reasonable advertising rates for the local businesses that communicate with our local readers. We have not raised our display advertising rates for about five years, and we hope to be able to avoid doing so this year.

How can we do that? Partly, it is because of the support of our readers. If you did not make use of the envelope enclosed last fall, we enclose another in this issue and seek your support. Thank you.

Local crime / local elections
As you will see on Page 18 of this section and on the back cover of Section 2, this is a big year for elections, including those for officials most local to us. As readers know, there is serious concern about a perceived significant rise in local crime, including last month’s tragic, brutal murder at the Croft House furniture store on La Brea Avenue. Not surprisingly, potential voters are starting to hear a lot of candidates say they will be tough on crime. We have four months to listen to what they have to say, on that and other subjects, and to make up our minds for whom we shall vote next, on June 7.

Local control of real estate
If the people of California are concerned that legislators in Sacramento are dictating local rules for real estate, then the concerned people must step up now and sign petitions. The petitions are for a statewide ballot measure to “provide that local land-use and zoning laws override conflicting state law.”

Learn more: ourneighborhoodvoices.com

You also can learn more about this movement — to take back local control of real estate development — from the column on the page at right, Page 3. There, thoughtful political observer Tom Elias writes about the clever, moneyed interests who were behind the adopted SB 9 and SB 10, the “one size fits all” Sacramento diktats that affect properties everywhere in the state from Yreka to San Diego.

In his column, Elias focuses on the way the real estate lobby in Sacramento now is working to undermine the “Our Neighborhood Voices” initiative that seeks to return local control to the people and to our most local elected representatives.

Indeed, 2022 will be an important year for local news, local elections, and local control.

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Category: Real Estate

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