Progressive Democrat Issue 98: LOS ANGELES FOCUS

I have noticed that next to NY, California is where the most readers come from. So, I am starting to be on the lookout for more CA-specific stuff. This caught my eye not only for Los Angeles, but also for any city. This is from the Progressive Los Angeles Network (PLAN).

The Progressive Los Angeles Network (PLAN) was formally launched in December 1999. PLAN was founded and built on the success of the 1998 Progressive L.A. Conference which was co-sponsored by a number of local and national institutions and organizations including Occidental College, The Nation Institute, Liberty Hill Foundation, LA Weekly and the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. The Progressive LA Conference was an overwhelming success and gave participants a sense that the growth of a wide variety of progressive social movements had reached an important threshold. As a result, attendees and others within the progressive movement in Los Angeles expressed a desire to participate in further discussion about how to develop a common agenda that is community based, inclusive and brings together the wealth of experience and knowledge of organizers, activists, and researchers.

In 1999, the organizers of the 1998 Conference consulted dozens of grassroots, community, labor, and environmental leaders about how to capitalize on the conference's momentum. Participants decided to develop a community-driven network that could develop a public policy agenda and action plan for Los Angeles, using the resources and knowledge of public policy experts and the experience and leadership of influential activists and organizers in Los Angeles. PLAN is this network.

Plan has devised a 21-point plan for Los Angeles going into the future. This plan is well worth looking over not only for people living in Los Angeles, but for people around the nation who are looking to improve their city. I urge you to look it over and to lobby your city council reps. to consider some of its measures.

Sadly PLAN's website seems to be largely inactive at the moment, but you can contact them to see what they are doing and how you can help:

email: plan@oxy.edu

Get involved in your community! If you don't I guarantee the big money interests will.

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