I am an independent journalist and contributor to a number of news organizations. I'm also a 2026-27 fellow for the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation. The fellowship supports my ongoing, comprehensive and close examination of how Los Angeles--county, city and more--rethinks and remakes how it is governed.
I've lived and worked in the city of Los Angeles most of my life. I grew up in the sixties and seventies in Woodland Hills, a community in the San Fernando Valley. After attending USC and then law school at Georgetown, I was a municipal bond lawyer for a mercifully short time before joining the Metropolitan News-Enterprise, a legal newspaper, as a reporter and associate editor. After a few years as an LA Weekly reporter, I was an editorial writer for the Los Angeles Times for 18 years until 2024.
At the MetNews, I reported on the legal community while also producing Charterama, a column chronicling the 1996–2000 effort to rewrite the Los Angeles City Charter. At the LA Weekly and the Times, I focused extensively on Los Angeles city and county government. I frequently examined the issues behind restructuring county government such as creating an elected executive and expanding the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. My work at the Times earned several national honors, including the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for editorials examining the justice system during the year of lockdowns and racial justice protests.
I once lived in a part of the city whose name no one can agree on - Westlake? Rampart? Koreatown? The Wilshire District? The Parks District? Lafayette Park? I've now lived in the Highland Park community in northeast Los Angeles for over 30 years.
Contact me at Robert@LosAngelesRules.com. News tips, scuttlebutt, questions and corrections are welcome.
Online producer: Dana Chinn. Published with Ghost.