Ari Bloomekatz
Editor. Storyteller. Movement Publisher.
Some highlights from Ari's journalism and recent writings
Ari had nearly 700 bylines, with dozens of front page stories, between 2007 and 2014.
South Sudan troupe sees new country's struggle in Shakespeare
LONDON — Posthumus, the protagonist of Shakespeare’s “Cymbeline,” marched through the Herculean columns of the Globe theater, stopped abruptly at the front of the stage and looked up at an audience of hundreds — most of whom didn’t speak a whisper of the language they were about to hear. His voice boomed, and he raised his arms and curled his hands into fists. “All these people have come from the newest country in the world,” shouted actor Francis Paulino Lugali in Juba Arabic, “and this country is South Sudan!” Read the rest of the article by clicking here.
Suits could force L.A. to spend huge sums on sidewalk repair
Los Angeles may be the land of the freeway, but it is notorious for its bad sidewalks — buckled, cracked and sometimes impassable. By the city’s own estimate, 42% of its 10,750 miles of pedestrian paths are in disrepair. Now a series of civil-rights lawsuits against Los Angeles and other California cities is for the first time focusing attention — and money — on a problem that decades of complaining, heated public hearings and letter-writing campaigns could not. Read the rest of the article by clicking here.
For her an uproar, for him a whisper
They were killed on the same day, in the same way. One of the deaths captured the attention of a city and spurred the Los Angeles Police Department into overdrive. The other slipped by unnoticed, leaving a lone detective with little more to go on than hope. Read the rest of the article by clicking here.
Peace activist brings a message of hope
Drinking a cup of hot tea in the back room of the MacArthur Park band shell Saturday afternoon, Vietnamese activist Thich Nhat Hanh said he brought the “peace walk” to a neighborhood that needed healing. “This is a place where we can offer our peace. Where there is true suffering, there is misunderstanding,” said Hanh, a Buddhist monk made world-famous by working to stop the Vietnam War; for that he was nominated by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. Read the rest of the article by clicking here..
Interrogation, the revenge
On a cool spring night five years ago, 16-year-old Martha Puebla sat on the curb outside her Sun Valley home, talking to a friend, when a man walked up from behind. “Who are you?” the man demanded of Puebla. “I’m Martha,” she responded. “You know me.” With that, the man pulled a 9-millimeter handgun from his sweat shirt pocket and started shooting. The fatal shot -- fired from so close that it left soot and burn marks on Puebla’s cheek -- struck just below her left eye. Read the rest of the article by clicking here..
Wolfpack Hustle cyclists: mettle, and nettle, with their pedals
It’s past midnight, and a fluorescent glow settles over LAX as travelers wrestle bags down the sidewalk and shuttles dart in and out of terminals. A gust of whirring chains and gears cuts in. Speeding onto the departure level, a pack of bicyclists fans out across open lanes. Some sit up and stretch, no hands. One rider on a fixed-gear bike puts his feet up on the frame as the pedals furiously spin on their own. “Whoop! Whoop!” chirps one of the riders, warning of police up ahead. Wolfpack Hustle is on the move. Read the rest of the article by clicking here..
A nurse who’s healing patients and himself
He was riding in his aunt's sedan, a kid in elementary school, watching senior citizens walk in and out of the Lynwood retirement home where his mother worked. Then she emerged in scrubs. That's it. David Fuentes holds on tightly to that simple memory: his mother at work. It's easier than recalling many other parts of his childhood — "a blur," as he calls it. Like the time when he was little and his father, drunk, socked his mother.." Read the rest of the article by clicking here..
One God, two cultures
To those who know it only by reputation, the Nickerson Gardens housing project in Watts is a forbidding place, plagued by violence and poverty and ruled by African American gangs. So naturally, Father Peter Banks brought 200 Latino parishioners there in December for a posada, a Christmas ritual that re-creates Joseph and Mary’s search for a place for Jesus to be born. Read the rest of the article by clicking here..
MTA targets bus line serving Westside workers who live in South L.A.
As the Metro bus lumbered through South Los Angeles carrying passengers headed to work or school, Jesus Navarro could barely keep his eyes open after finishing a graveyard shift in Westwood. The slender 30-year-old security guard with a long, black metal flashlight poking out of his backpack wasn’t worried about nodding off. Line 305, which zigzags diagonally for about 20 miles across Los Angeles, carries him home, and he doesn’t have to change a seat. Read the rest of the article by clicking here.
Thousands rally against Wal-Mart in Chinatown
“We believe small business will be hurt. Some will close down and there will be layoffs,” King Cheung, a member of the Chinatown Committee for Equitable Development, told the crowd. “We just can’t support a Wal-Mart who has no heart and no morals. We don’t want you in Chinatown. We don’t want you in Los Angeles.” Read the rest of the article by clicking here.
Ari mostly oversees overall production of the magazine, but sometimes conducts interviews and writes articles.
“Instead of Going to School or University, Ukrainian Children and Young People Are Hiding in Shelters, Trembling, and Shuddering from Every Noise”
This is an interview with Kateryna Maliuta-Osaulova, International Secretary, Trade Union of Education and Science Workers of Ukraine. Rethinking Schools managing editor Ari Bloomekatz sent a series of questions to Maliuta-Osaulova and she responded in mid-March over email. Read the rest of the interview by clicking here.
Black Lives Matter at School: A Roundtable Discussion
In early August, Rethinking Schools managing editor Ari Bloomekatz sat down (over Zoom) for a roundtable interview and discussion with four organizers and national steering committee members of the Black Lives Matter at School movement. At the “table” were Awo Okaikor Aryee-Price, Kyna Collins, Jesse Hagopian, and Christopher R. Rogers. Read the rest of the interview by clicking here.
Victory for Mexican American Studies in Arizona: An Interview with Curtis Acosta
In 2010, state lawmakers in Arizona passed legislation that banned courses that “promote resentment toward a race or class of people.” But the legislation was, in reality, specifically targeting a Mexican American Studies program that started decades ago after Black and Latino students filed a desegregation lawsuit. While Tucson initially kept the Mexican American Studies program, the school board caved in 2012.. Read the rest of the interview by clicking here.
Outrage — and Resources for Teachers — After the Trump Administration Ends DACA
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was once dubbed a “champion of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant extremists” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, announced Tuesday that the Trump administration was rescinding DACA, an Obama-era program that allowed hundreds of thousands of undocumented youth to live in the United States without the constant threat of deportation. Read the rest of the article by clicking here.
“This Is Not Happening Without a Fight”
“The government of Puerto Rico neglectfully has denied more than 150,000 students their right to education. Capitalism and its shock doctrine is being implemented against our people,” Mercedes Martinez, president of the Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico, told Rethinking Schools. “This is not happening without a fight, without resistance. Teachers, mothers, students, and community members have united to fight back. They’re fighting and requesting their schools to be opened. They’re occupying schools,” she said. Read the rest of the article by clicking here.
Ari covered county politics while at Voice of San Diego.
Jim Wood: The Populist Candidate With Some People Problems
When Oceanside Mayor Jim Wood first filed papers to run for county supervisor, he was relatively unknown outside of his beach city. That anonymity was considered an asset, though: All people needed to know was that he was not Bill Horn. Horn is a Republican who has served on the Board of Supervisors for two decades. His penchant for polarizing positions and inflammatory rhetoric earned him a slew of enemies over the years, including those willing to put forth hundreds of thousands of dollars to unseat him. Read the rest of the article by clicking here.
The County Pension’s Wall Street Game
The County of San Diego offers its employees some of the best retirement benefits around, and to pay for them, it has amassed a $10 billion fund. But it’s not enough money. In recent months pension officials have green-lighted changes to their investment strategy in hopes of boosting the fund’s performance to better ensure it’ll have the cash it needs to pay what’s promised to retirees. This situation is a lot different than it used to be. Read the rest of the article by clicking here.
Even Pension Board Members Can’t Understand Pension Jargon
Think it’s difficult to understand the county pension agency’s new investment strategy? Or how $10 billion in assets could magically become $20 billion invested in the market? Or what rules regulate the road? You’re not alone. Many of those who sit on the pension board appear a bit lost themselves. And during Thursday’s San Diego County Employees Retirement Association board meeting, trustees searched for clarity – and got a little annoyed when there was none to be found. Read the rest of the article by clicking here.
The Desert Line, a 70-mile stretch of defunct railroad in southeastern San Diego, has been nicknamed the “impossible railroad.” It’s revival has been filled with controversy – but why? NBC 7’s Catherine Garcia and the Voice of San Diego’s Ari Bloomekatz explain.
SD County Still Crawling Out from ‘Bunker Mentality’ on Transparency
Perhaps nothing demonstrates the County of San Diego’s ongoing struggles with transparency issues more than a vote it took this week. On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors put its stamp on 21 recommendations to improve its response to wildfires. Almost all of the recommendations dealt in some way with boosting transparency and communication. The only problem: The report detailing all the recommendations, more than 100 pages long, came out just after 9 a.m. Tuesday. Read the rest of the article by clicking here.
Opinion: Adults are remembering Elie Wiesel. But his testimony mattered most for youths.
Most of the discussion surrounding Elie Wiesel’s life and legacy seems to be focusing on him as a person, his politics, what his life and survival meant to Jews and the memory of the Holocaust and, to put it simply, what his death means to adults — those old enough to remember his Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 or his efforts to dissuade President Ronald Reagan from visiting the Bitburg cemetery a year earlier. Read the rest of the article by clicking here.