Zev's Los Angeles : : From Boyle Heights to the Halls of Power. A Political Memoir / / Zev Yaroslavsky.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Academic Studies Press Complete eBook-Package 2023
• VerfasserIn: Yaroslavsky, Zev,
• MitwirkendeR: Getlin, Josh,
• Place / Publishing House: Boston, MA : : Academic Studies Press, , [2023]; ©2023
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (360 p.)

A LA Times Bestseller“…[A] compelling history of our city’s last half century, as conveyed through the life of one of our most impactful leaders. …”- Los Angeles Mayor Karen BassThis is the story of Zev Yaroslavsky, the son of Ukrainian Jews who immigrated to the United States in the early 1920s. His memoir charts the journey of a young social activist who battled to free Soviet Jews before becoming one of the most consequential elected officials in Southern California. Fiercely independent, he combined an activist’s passion with a seasoned politician’s skill to challenge the region’s power brokers. He fought the Los Angeles Police Department’s excessive force and political spying policies, led the effort to ban local taxes from funding the 1984 Olympics, teamed with President Clinton to avert a catastrophic county bankruptcy, helped develop L.A.’s modern transit system, won a bruising battle with real estate interests to save the Santa Monica Mountains from rapacious development, and was pivotal in the development of Walt Disney Concert Hall and the modernization of the iconic Hollywood Bowl. “I may be part of the establishment,” he said on the day he was first sworn into office, “but the establishment is not part of me.”

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- “I Will Love You Forever, if You Let Me”: A Dedication to Barbara Edelston Yaroslavsky (1947–2018) -- Introduction -- 1. Roots of a Legacy: Shimon Soloveichik -- 2. My Parents: Minna and David -- 3. The Sandman Awakens -- 4. Coming of Age -- 5. The Walls Have Ears -- 6. “Why Zev?” -- 7. Be Indispensable to Your Constituents -- 8. The Taxpayer and Renter Revolt -- 9. The Untold Story of the 1984 Olympics -- 10. Taking on the LAPD -- 11. Big Money and the Battle to Preserve Neighborhoods -- 12. The Mayor’s Race That Never Was -- 13. Sudden Change -- 14. Designed Not to Govern -- 15. The Crisis That Nearly Bankrupted the County -- 16. The Transit Revolution -- 17. Arts and Culture: Los Angeles’ Golden Age -- 18. God Isn’t Making Mountains Anymore -- 19. Confronting the Homeless Crisis -- 20. Tragedy and Resurrection at MLK Hospital -- 21. Every Cause Needs a Champion -- 22. Witness to History -- 23. Who Could Have Imagined? -- Epilogue -- Acknowledgments -- Source Endnotes -- Index