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LA Street Care & Mutual Aid @lastreetcare.bsky.social · 1h

Follow along on our Instagram this morning as we livestream a sweep in City Council District 1 www.instagram.com/lastreetcare

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LA Street Care & Mutual Aid @lastreetcare.bsky.social · 2d

Our friends Jonathan & Eddie have a puppy named Gizmo who was hit by a car that left the scene. Please consider donating toward his surgery costs! www.gofundme.com/f/pp49yr-hel...

Donate to Help Gizmo Heal After Hit-and-Run, organized by Edward Banks

Gizmo was hit by a hit-and-run driver by Dodger Stadium. He needs the money to get bett… Edward Banks needs your support for Help Gizmo Heal After Hit-and-Run

www.gofundme.com

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Daniel Kibblesmith @kibblesmith.com · 3d

The most vulnerable people in our society are under attack right now because that’s where you start when EVERYONE is going to be under attack and when Newsom arranges photo ops throwing out the tents of homeless people and spreads transphobic talking points he is doing the fascists’ work for them.

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LA Street Care & Mutual Aid @lastreetcare.bsky.social · 7d

For all the talk about how important ending homelessness is, Housing sure is a relatively small bar… 🤔

LA City Controller Kenneth Mejia @controller.lacity.gov · 7d

"Don't tell me what you value, show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you value" 🔎

The City of LA's Adopted Budget for FY2026 is now up on our website: controller.lacity.gov/budgets

See the bar chart to see where your tax dollars ($14,103,321,315) are budgeted to be spent! 💰

City of LA Budget Bar Chart for FY2026: $14,103,321,315
Department Total Budget Police ($3.3B) $3,334,843,027 Other Special Purpose Funds ($2.4B) $2,452,470,518 Fire ($1.4B) $1,396,693,759 Sanitation ($1.1B3) $1,121,999,501 Capital & Tech Improvements ($866M) $866,227,931 Wastewater Special Purpose Fund $479,457,124 Recreation and Park $419,825,192 Street Services $391,052,697 Transportation $369,817,004 Library $349,13,080 rop. A Local Transit Assist. Fund $312,258,198 Housing $301,936,599 City Attorney $292,799,228 Building and Safety $232,939,087 Engineering $197,743,486 Other Agencies $170,834,954 Unappropriated Balance $125,000,000
Bond Redemption and Interest $115,168,623 Mayor $108,740,199 City Planning $106,995,489 Finance $93,915,591 Street Lighting $91,482,560 Council $86,483,681 Contract Administration $71,698,880 Controller $66,880,423 City Administrative Officer $62,106,675 Community Investment for Families $55,494,011

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Elizabeth Chou @reporterliz.bsky.social · 16d

LA Councilman Hugo Soto-Martínez said he would end sweeps, when he campaigned for office. Now, activists say he broke his promise.

Read more about that @thelareporter.bsky.social:

thelareporter.la/p/la-city-co...

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LA Street Care & Mutual Aid @lastreetcare.bsky.social · 16d

Before taking office, LA Councilmember @hugoforcd13.bsky.social helpled unhoused people during sweeps.
Now? He sweeps dozens of encampments monthly.

Hugo used to speak out against 41.18, LA’s law that criminalizes being unhoused. During Hugo’s 1st year in office, 41.18 arrests rose 522% in CD13.

Elizabeth Chou @reporterliz.bsky.social · 16d

LA Councilman Hugo Soto-Martínez said he would end sweeps, when he campaigned for office. Now, activists say he broke his promise.

Read more about that @thelareporter.bsky.social:

thelareporter.la/p/la-city-co...

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LA Street Care & Mutual Aid @lastreetcare.bsky.social · 16d

Before taking office, LA Councilmember @hugoforcd13.bsky.social helpled unhoused people during sweeps.
Now? He sweeps dozens of encampments monthly.

Hugo used to speak out against 41.18, LA’s law that criminalizes being unhoused. During Hugo’s 1st year in office, 41.18 arrests rose 522% in CD13.

Elizabeth Chou @reporterliz.bsky.social · 16d

LA Councilman Hugo Soto-Martínez said he would end sweeps, when he campaigned for office. Now, activists say he broke his promise.

Read more about that @thelareporter.bsky.social:

thelareporter.la/p/la-city-co...

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The LA Reporter @thelareporter.bsky.social · 21d

New story @thelareporter.bsky.social:

LA City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez went back on his word to end sweeps and repeal 41.18, a city law criminalizing homelessness, unhoused constituents and mutual aid groups say.

The LA Reporter @thelareporter.bsky.social · 21d

LA Councilman went back on promise to end sweeps, mutual aid groups and unhoused constituents say thelareporter.la/p/la-city-co...

LA Councilman went back on promise to end sweeps, mutual aid groups and unhoused constituents say

City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez and his staff were honored Sunday by a tenant advocacy group for their work on housing and homelessness. But harmful sweeps that displace his unhoused constituent...

thelareporter.la

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The LA Reporter @thelareporter.bsky.social · 21d

LA Councilman went back on promise to end sweeps, mutual aid groups and unhoused constituents say thelareporter.la/p/la-city-co...

LA Councilman went back on promise to end sweeps, mutual aid groups and unhoused constituents say

City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez and his staff were honored Sunday by a tenant advocacy group for their work on housing and homelessness. But harmful sweeps that displace his unhoused constituent...

thelareporter.la

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LA Street Care & Mutual Aid @lastreetcare.bsky.social · 21d

Why won't @hugoforcd13.bsky.social put his money where his mouth is?
It's time for Hugo Soto-Martinez to end sweeps, decriminalize poverty, and repeal 41.18 criminalization zones in his district--like he promised on the campaign trail four years ago!

Other activists handing out flyers noted that many of people hosting and attending the fundraiser were sympathetic to their cause. One activist, Peggy Lee Kennedy of Venice Justice Committee, shared that the banquet room for the fundraiser was filled with "lefty activist lawyers," some of whom attended the People's College of Law that educated many of the National Lawyer's Guild attorneys.
Roxy, one of the activists, said there are
"some shared values, and also there's a lot of people don't know that the sweeps are happening or are aware of the extent of harm, and so trying to activate people on what the problem is and where pressure is needed to make things better, is a lot of the work."

A longtime board member for Inquilinos Unidos, Steve Zrucky, was among those who spent a good hour, just before Soto-Martinez arrived, talking to activists. He told The LA Reporter they had decided to honor Soto-Martinez based on
recommendations from other tenant advocates and the council member's record on tenants issues.
Zrucky, who had worked at Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles as a tenants rights lawyer, said that while he believes Soto-Martinez has "always been on the right side of tenants rights," he would be supportive of talking to the council member about 41.18, which Zrucky said he opposes and should be repealed.

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LA Street Care & Mutual Aid @lastreetcare.bsky.social · 21d

If this is how Hugo treats a reporter doing their job, how do you think he treats poor people with no recourse?

At the fundraiser earlier that day, The LA Reporter had tried to approach Soto-Martinez to inquire about the flyers being circulated outside. The council member quickly declined to comment. Instead, he questioned the reporter repeatedly about whether she had purchased a ticket to the fundraiser. He also said that the reporter approaching him to ask for an on-the-record comment at the fundraiser was "a little unethical."
The LA Reporter did not get a chance to talk to Soto-Martinez again over the next few days, despite requesting an interview.
His spokesperson Nick Barnes-Batista provided a written statement that said very little about what the council member's current stance is on 41.18.

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LA Street Care & Mutual Aid @lastreetcare.bsky.social · 21d

The people being harmed disagree. Listen to their firsthand accounts. Hugo certainly won't.

An unhoused constituent of Soto-Martinez's echoed what activists have said about the continued harassment they face in the district for simply living outdoors. In an interview with The LA Reporter on Sunday - the day his council member's homelessness team was being honored for their work - the 13th District resident said that his day-to-day experience tells him Soto-Martinez has not kept his campaign promise to end sweeps.
The police are frequently harassing him and his neighbors for living on the street, he said, even though there own efforts to leave enough room for wheelchairs to pass by and to access scarce resources and services were far from lacking on their end. He also said they don't have the benefit of routine city services such as trash pick-up, the constituent said.

The flyer the activists handed out at the fundraiser also called on Soto-Martinez to
downgrade the sweeps to what are known as "spot cleanings," which don't force people to move their homes out of the way. Typically trash is picked up during such operations, which also don't require as much city resources to complete.
"[My council member] wants to say that he wants to decriminalize and not have the arrests," said the constituent, who asked that his name not be printed for fear of retaliation from the police. "Well, I'm here to tell you I was just threatened by the LAPD that I would be arrested if I didn't move."

That constituent — who said he is a veteran and registered voter — recounted that last week he was displaced from a street, a block over, due to a major encampment sweep. Such sweeps, known as CARE+ sweeps, are scheduled by Soto-Martinez's council office.
This 13th district constituent said he and others had chosen that location because it was a place where they felt safe. But when tried to go back to the spot after the sweep, a police officer said he would arrest him. A fence had also been set up there, taking up the entire sidewalk.

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LA Street Care & Mutual Aid @lastreetcare.bsky.social · 21d

@hugoforcd13.bsky.social and his @cd13.lacity.gov team say their sweeps aren't harmful...

Los Angeles City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez and his staff were honored as "housing champions" Sunday, Sept. 14, at a fundraiser held to benefit the tenant advocacy organization, Inquilinos Unidos, for his office's work on housing and homelessness.
But several activists handing out flyers outside the event, hosted at the Ahmanson Senior Citizen Center in Exposition Park, said Soto-Martinez has not kept his campaign promise to end encampment sweeps in his 13th City_ Council District.

The activists, who are part of coalition of LA-area mutual aid groups that do regular outreach and advocacy at encampments, say Soto-Martinez is far from being a champion for such communities' unhoused residents. Their flyer pointed to continued enforcement in his district of Los Angeles Municipal Code 41.18 - a law that criminalizes sitting, sleeping, lying down and storing personal property in public - during his first year in office.
And since getting elected in 2022, sweeps in the 13th District have been just as brutal under Soto-Martinez as they had been under the previous council member, they said, even though Soto-Martinez had stated he was opposed to the law during his 2022 campaign.

Back in 2021, Soto-Martinez had taken City Council members to task for their support of 41.18, calling what city leaders were doing as having "everything to do with politics." He wrote that it reminded him of the "broken windows" theory of policing, which he described as "another failed strategy."
For the activists, Soto-Martinez's political career has hinged on the stances he took in his 2022 campaign, when uproar over 41.18 was at its height amid the brutal and militarized treatment of unhoused residents at Echo Park Lake and throughout the district.

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LA Street Care & Mutual Aid @lastreetcare.bsky.social · 21d

Hugo Soto-Martinez once compared 41.18--an LA law that criminalizes existing in public--to racial profiling.

Hugo later admitted he wouldn't repeal his district's 41.18 zones but claimed he wouldn't enforce them.

During his first year in office, 41.18 arrests went up 522% in Hugo’s district.

THE LA REPORTER
LA Councilman went back on promise to end sweeps, mutual aid groups and unhoused constituents say
City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez and his staff were honored Sunday by a tenant advocacy group for their work on housing and homelessness. But harmful sweeps that displace his unhoused constituents are still taking place in his district, mutual aid groups said.

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LA Street Care & Mutual Aid @lastreetcare.bsky.social · 22d

It’s hot as hell outside. Help provide some shade!
tinyurl.com/lascdonate

HEAT WAVE TENT DRIVE
IF YOU'RE HOT, YOUR UNHOUSED NEIGHBORS ARE HOT TOO!
EVERY N$85 GETS A TENT TO HELP ONE OF YOUR NEIGHBORS BEAT THE HEAT. IF YOU CAN, RECURRING DONATIONS HELP US GET TENTS YEAR ROUND.
TINYURL.COM/LASCDONATE

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LA Street Care & Mutual Aid @lastreetcare.bsky.social · 22d

It’s hot as hell outside. Help provide some shade!
tinyurl.com/lascdonate

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onion person @junlper.beer · 22d

coates is genuinely a generational writer

What are we to make of a man who called for the execution of the American president, and then was executed himself? What are we to make of an NFL that, on one hand, encourages us to "End Racism," and, on the other, urges us to commemorate an unreconstructed white supremacist? And what of the writers, the thinkers, and the pundits who cannot separate the great crime of Kirk's death from the malignancy of his public life? Can they truly be so ignorant to the words of a man they have so rushed to memorialize? I don't know. But the most
telling detail in Klein's column was that, for all his praise, there was not a single word in the piece from Kirk himself.

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LA Street Care & Mutual Aid @lastreetcare.bsky.social · 26d

Karen’s still on that all-boot diet

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LA Street Care & Mutual Aid @lastreetcare.bsky.social · 26d

Karen’s still on that all-boot diet

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Ahhhhh @nerdjpg.com · 28d

(Person who destroyed homeless peoples belongings with a smile on their face) political violence is bad

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Gallifreyan Jedi @jediofgallifrey.bsky.social · 28d

there's really a whole whole lot of horrific political violence that happens every dawn to every dusk and on through the night without a bunch of politicians coming out to say "political violence is never acceptable," so i wonder what's so fucking special about today

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Gallifreyan Jedi @jediofgallifrey.bsky.social · 28d

or when people succumb to exposure because housing people would be too woke or something

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Totoro in a Bucket Hat @ailaminad.bsky.social · 28d

I would posit that CA Governor Gavin Newsom, LA Mayor Karen Bass, and City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez consistently enact political violence on my community.

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LA Street Care & Mutual Aid @lastreetcare.bsky.social · 27d

Political violence includes destroying encampments, actually.

Two photos inset on a larger photo, all 3 depicting CA Governor Newsom personally throwing away peoples’ belongings at an encampment.

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LA Street Care & Mutual Aid @lastreetcare.bsky.social · 28d

LA Street Care members were on the ground at two locations in Council District 13 this morning, where so-called “progressive” @cd13.lacity.gov Hugo Soto-Martinez ordered two MORE sweeps. We’re awfully busy for having a Councilmember who insists he doesn’t do sweeps.

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