CicLAmini on Sep. 17, Ballot initiative targets AHF, and more

Tropical Storm Hilary may have stopped August's CicLAvia, but you can still get your car-free kicks in later this month with the latest CicLAmini event.

CicLAmini, which is a smaller-scaled event oriented toward pedestrians, will return on September 17 with a North Hollywood route. The one-quarter-mile event will run between Lankershim Boulevard's intersection with Vineland Avenue to the south and the North Hollywood Metro station to the north, as well as short stretches of Magnolia and Chandler Boulevards.

Check it out from 9 am to 3 pm on September 17.

Here's what we're reading this week:

Commentary: Los Angeles, 2043: An optimistic scenario for transportation "Imagine a metropolis where many people have forsaken cars in favor of e-bikes, robo-taxis and public transit." (LA Times)

California's LOST Skyscraper | The Rise and Fall of Richfield Oil Tower DTLA's lost Art Deco landmark (It's History YouTube)

Opinion: How L.A. can build more housing without looking like New York "Los Angeles has a unique urban landscape. Because of our many dispersed employment-rich centers and broad geography, we don’t have to mimic East Coast cities to increase housing density. We don’t need to build condo towers or skyscraper apartment buildings to house everyone. The path to a more livable and equitable future is clear: Allow more housing in a diversity of well-connected neighborhoods, and L.A. can still remain L.A." (LA Times)

As challenges loom, L.A. City Council approves $150 million in ‘mansion tax’ spending "Early proponents of Measure ULA estimated the tax would raise roughly $900 million per year. In March, a report from the City Administrative Office lowered that number to $672 million....But once the tax took effect, L.A.’s luxury market froze. Only two homes sold for more than $5 million in the month of April, and the market hasn’t quite recovered since." (LA Times)

California proposal would sideline a prolific ballot measure player "The new anti-Weinstein initiative — named the Protect Patients Now Act — would target Weinstein over how he amasses the money he spends on campaigning. AHF relies on the decades-old federal drug discount program designed to help hospitals and other healthcare nonprofits treat low-income patients. Known as 340B, it allows the organization to purchase prescriptions at a deep discount and charge public programs the standard amount. AHF has long argued that it spends 340B funds for their intended purpose and that the foundation is allowed to spend a certain percentage on political activity....But its spending on campaigns, a growing portfolio of property and to bring in paid consultants such as former California Senate Pro Tem Kevin de León, now a member of the Los Angeles City Council, has drawn persistent scrutiny....The new ballot measure is highly targeted. Specifically, it would apply only to drug program participants that have spent more than $100 million on issues other than direct patient care and have 500 or more health and safety violations on their low-income properties. POLITICO could find no other organizations that match that criteria." (Politico)

LAX People Mover Delayed Pushed back four months to Fall 2024 (LA Business Journal)

As one more housing project stalls on noise concerns, another head sprouts from ‘CEQA Hydra’ "Earlier this year, a state appellate court blocked a proposed housing development for some 1,100 UC Berkeley students, partly on the grounds that the state’s marquee environmental protection law requires the university to study and mitigate the potential noise impacts from loud student parties.'...Now, that logic is being applied to a second housing development, this one in Los Angeles, creating a fresh clash between defenders of the environmental law and housing advocates who see it as an impediment in battling California’s severe housing shortage" (CalMatters)