Op-Ed: Five Years, Farewell, and What I’m Fighting For

Today marks my 5th anniversary as the Publisher of WEHOonline, and its former namesake WEHOville. The years have been bittersweet. An impossible challenge for a visually impaired person and an incredible journey of learning, telling the stories of WeHo and sharing your voices on these pages.

My ideals for an honest community platform have always been the goal. There was no paycheck and my efforts have been to support a community platform for all of us. Together we challenged the City and the City Council on countless issues. The public, all of you, have an endless appetite for what is going on in West Hollywood and we did our best to help shape the issues of the day in a fair and honest manner.

For me, it’s been an incredible learning experience. Digesting each issue. Understanding both sides. Weighing in when necessary. Your voices always free to tell your side on these pages. It wasn’t easy. There were many forces against us. But we survived. Today our readership is the highest in its history thanks to the leadership of Brian Holt. 

There were some great times. Our first Op-Ed Sunday when John Heilman told the story as a private citizen after having recently been voted off the dais.

There were many favorites, but for me, the interviews with Sheriff Alex Villanueva will stand out forever. Former Editor Brandon Garcia and I sat one-on-one with the LA County Sheriff with unfettered access and no limits on questions. I was an amateur, but Villanueva would love the raw footage so much he asked permission to use it in his re-election campaign. You can read that interview in full here:

There were many interviews. There was only one condition with each interview and that was there could be no conditions or questions off limits.

Our whistleblower series told the behind the scenes struggles of some City Hall employees who could not trust their superiors and faced retaliation. We threaded the needle to bring you the whole story.  

Insiders confided in us with the confidential employee survey of City Hall employees. The sh*t hit the fan. It was not easy. But through it all, credit to former City Manager David Wilson. He always kept an open door and we always maintained dialog through all the tough issues we faced as a City. 

But, what nobody realizes, is that despite the criticism our purpose and mission was and is to celebrate the City of West Hollywood, and to stand up for its values when the politicians seem to have abandoned the residents and the resident-centric issues we face.

The past five years have been marked by WeHo politicians seeking higher office. We tried to keep focused on local issues while three WeHo politicians seemed more focused on their quest for higher office. Kudos to Lindsey Horvath on her successful bid for County Supervisor in 2022. She was soon followed by former Councilmember Sepi Shyne’s bid for the US Congress in 2024, and current City Councilmember John Erickson’s quest for a State Senate seat. All three politicians supported by UNITE HERE Local 11. All three voting to defund the sheriff, and to raise the WeHo minimum wage to the highest in the state. The West Hollywood City Council would often take a line from Donald Trump’s playbook — calling us ‘fake news,’ ‘just a blog,’ and for years would move to intimidate our advertisers from supporting this publication. We fought on. It was never about money. It was about truth and standing up against the big money interests.   

Then there was one surprise in real time: Bill Maher’s HBO series, Real Time, referenced one of our stories on the guaranteed income program. I popped out of the chair.

And there was my biggest regret and apology. My regret for letting some influence these pages and my apologies to Mr. Robert Oliver. During the 2022 election Oliver was not treated as fairly as he should have been in a political guide. The political guide, funded by the WEHO PAC, would support former Councilmember John Duran against Oliver. In the 2024 election Duran would resign from the WEHO PAC, after a series of actions that led to the political action committee of the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to a final dissolution.  

Of course, there were the people, places and events of WeHo. Every issue. Every day. Five years. There was never a time when we denied any party or anyone the opportunity to make their case or rebut an argument. My goal and efforts were always to support your voices. Speak truth to power. Help to keep the City on their toes, on any issues, from security to street vendors. We went into the issues other publications were afraid to address.

Then there were my own personal issues. A surgery would restore light and vision in one of my eyes. It changed my life. For the past many years I had depended on others for every posting. Nobody appreciated or understood how hard it was to write with a magnifying glass, or need help daily to see my way through a supermarket. Nasty comments would often demean the publication for its spelling errors or more. But, I pushed forward. Until one letter from a resident, Brian Holt, required a response which led to a dialog and plea for help.

Holt wrote: I want to apologize for my comment about typos on the BBB story. I hadn’t read your “All By Myself” column and now I appreciate the situation. Aside from my apology, if there’s any way I can offer support please let me know. WeHoOnline is too important for it to go away and you are only 1 man. As a community we should all be offering to support.  

I asked Brian if we could meet for coffee at Javista. Brian’s love for the City of West Hollywood and his history and track record in the media industry piqued my interest. After our meeting I’d write Brian asking for his help: You would be a much better daddy to this baby than I could ever be. Is there like a movie where there’s this really poor lady and she knows she can’t raise the child so she brings her baby all wrapped up with tears in her eyes and leaves it on this family’s doorstep who had a nice house and a yard and could raise that baby so much better than she could?   

A couple of months after our first meeting Brian took on the role as Managing Editor. Tomorrow, April 1st, 2026, Brian Holt will take the reins as President of Boystown Media, with full control over all aspects of the business. 

Brian also laid down the law. If I am intending to run in this year’s City Council race I would have to resign from and relinquish editorial input or control over the publication for the duration of any campaign. Today I officially step back.  

In the next two weeks it is my intention to file Form 501 with the City Clerk, declaring my intent to seek, and hope to preserve a resident-centric seat on the West Hollywood City Council free from special interests.

The fight continues. David vs. Goliath.

When I ran for City Council in 2020, it was to stop what was happening. The sign read: Crime is Rising, And Too Many Homeless on our Streets, The Young Can’t Afford to Move In and the Old Have No Place to Go. Not much has changed.

I used to want to run for City Council to stop what I saw coming. Today, my hope is just to have a voice, a resident-centric, small business voice on the City Council to help shape policy to benefit West Hollywood, its residents, its businesses, and all who come to work or visit. 

Playing in the Super Bowl of WeHo politics is a lot of fun.  Win or Lose.  They spent 2 million dollars against my 80k in 2024, and we got over 4,000 votes. I don’t know how much fun it is to win a council seat but losing is also lots of fun. Standing up for myself, and for the City, is a great experience.  

I’ve never taken any money from the developers, unions, or billboard companies. I’m for reasonable development. I’m for workers. And I’m for the Sunset Strip. But, I am against pay-for-play politics. And I’m not selling out a vote for a donation, or with intentions to curry favor to seek higher office. I’m simply a senior citizen who loves my city and wants to address our local problems.

I’m fighting for a city where the residents have a voice. It’s why I founded the term limits initiative to get rid of the entrenched power interests. It’s why I’ve spent the past five years working to keep this community platform — speaking truth to the powerful interests.

I’m fighting for safer streets so a guy like Andrew Solomon can ride his bike to work without getting hit by a car, and for a disabled senior, like Mikie Friedman, so she can walk her dog on the sidewalk safely without the hazards of scooters and delivery robots dominating the pedestrian right of way.

I’m fighting for a city where a small business like BlockParty can survive in the big money, highest cost of doing business environment in West Hollywood. I’m fighting to keep the last Pride shop left in West Hollywood thriving and celebrating our city.

I’m fighting for my staff and all the employees to be able to come to work in a safe environment. And it’s interesting to note, myself and all the business owners in West Hollywood are now paying higher wages to their staff than the original hotel worker package passed by the City Council.

I’m fighting for renters who are going to get displaced by new developments in this era where the City Council failed to pass an on-time housing element and state mandates have taken over our local housing policy. I will be fighting to develop transitional housing for those renters who are displaced by City Council policies that seem to have abandoned those protections.

I’m fighting for small businesses to have incentives to open in this new WeHo we are building and fill those vacant storefronts with community-serving businesses. I’m fighting for a sense of community.

I’m fighting for us. To make West Hollywood more affordable. To make West Hollywood more accessible. 

Thank you and hope to be in touch again soon.