as 2023 begins….

Last year we completed our first full year as WEHOville. We survived. They say the first year is the hardest for any new business and we made it through. It was a year filled with chasing news stories, giving life to the issues, protecting the voices of the people and lots of learning curves.

When some of our local politician’s looked outside of WeHo to the County we followed them. When OUR Public Safety took center stage we looked past our local Sheriff Station to meet with the Los Angeles County Sheriff face-to-face. It was crazy when our apple phone interview was utilized by the candidate in their campaign ads.

Bill Maher picked up the craziness of WeHo politics in a WEHOville story about reverse discrimination, the city council’s policy to only provide a universal basic income to those who identified as lgbtq. From the LA Times to the Daily Mail, our grass roots, small little band and the WEHOville brand beamed round the world.

Our local inflation skyrocketed partially to national trends but also local decisions. The previous city council had voted on a .0075 sales tax increase on every sale in the city. — the highest sales tax in the county. And the minimum wage increases were local to our little city and carried a highest in nation cost. At one local eatery a 2pc chicken combo cost $14.52. That same combo is $11.99 plus tax at the franchise owner’s other store just outside of WeHo. The average daily room rate at our local hotels is now $100 higher per night than just a few years ago. That is hyper-local inflation based on our local city council decisions.

The council also began to reap the benefits of a 7.5% sales tax on all Cannabis. Yet with all those new taxes and businesses screaming for more Public Safety the City Council voted to cut the Sheriff deputies.

Our Google ad reports proved our strength in numbers. In the early days when we brought WEHOville home our ad reports would register ten or twenty thousand unique page viewers per month. But today Google reports for our advertisers often show a hundred thousand to quarter million unique page viewers per month. WEHOville’s reach is well beyond our borders to all those who wish to follow and watch the latest follies in West Hollywood life and politics..

Our ownership ranks expanded too. Today is January 1st, 2023 and Brandon Garcia has vested as a partner, and equity participant of 10% of the company in accordance with the company operating agreement.

And glad to welcome Renee Sotile and her wife Mj Godges to the WEHOville team. They both bring a love for West Hollywood that belongs on our pages. Renee and Mj have been given options to become shareholders. Their instagram @LGBTHollywood, describes themselves as “Covering LGBTQ Hollywood in a way only 2 Gay Broads can deliver. #TheOFFICIALLesbianCrew on the scene. They have direct access to the WordPress to post photos and videos that will bring more events and stories to these pages in real-time.

All in all I have divested almost 30% of the company shares over these past 18 months. It’s important to bring WEHOville home to all of you and have it stand on its own with a community board of directors. We are still building, growing, and learning. Please contact me if you can help support a vision of local community journalism, for the people, by the people. A community resource that is ours, not mine.

Thank you to all the contributors, Linda Cauthen, Jerome Cleary, Don Kilhefner, George Nickle, Steve Martin, Lauren Meister, John Heilman, John Duran, Alan Strassburg, Keith Kaplan, too many to list. And the commenters who treat each other with dignity and respect. To the three commenters who had been banned, the pages are re-opened — we begin the year with a clean slate. Let’s start fresh and stay on topic. And thanks to the board monitors who do their best to keep the conversation on the subject matter.

It has not always been easy. As you heard from the dais about city council members receiving threats, well they came this way too. We did not have the ability to call city hall and request a sheriff or security ambassador like one city council member. It’s unusual how the threats ended when the election was over. There are powerful forces at work. I’m still digesting those fears. It shook me to the core of living or trusting West Hollywood. I want to live in a city where public safety, for my employees and myself are taken for granted as the number one priority and those resources are provided before frivolous other projects.

It’s the end of the year and regrets I’ve had a few. Sorry to those who I have been inpatient with. Too much work. Too many messages round the clock.

We got real deep into the politics of the day trying to save the city from ‘union control’. We lost. I’ll be fine. — not sure about the rest of you. We won’t see the effects of these changes for a few years to come but it will be bigger, taller, faster, louder, and more expensive.

Our job now is to celebrate our city and bring to light the foibles and fantasy of life in WeHo.

And your job is to speak up.

So thank you all very much, –

Have a happy and healthy 2023,

xo Larry