Our Favorite Events of 2021

New Ideas, a New Home, and a New Hybrid Event Format Connected Us With Angelenos—and Audiences Around the World

Over 18 years and 650 events since we hosted our inaugural Zócalo event in 2003, Zócalo Public Square remains as fiercely committed as ever to bringing people together around ideas. We also have continued to build on our mission, expanding the dream of the zócalo—a grand plaza where anyone and everyone is welcome to gather—to bring even more people and perspectives into the fold.

COVID only accelerated this work, moving our events to a livestream in spring 2020 and, this year, once public health restrictions allowed, pushing us to introduce a …

December 22, 2021

A Complex Homelessness Crisis Requires a Complex Response

L.A. Needs Coordination and Cooperation—Plus More Resources—to Solve Its Most Urgent Problem

by Jackie Mansky | June 16, 2021

Homelessness is the biggest crisis Los Angeles faces today—one that’s only expanded in urgency with the COVID-19 pandemic.

In search of solutions to the problem and its root causes, Zócalo, United …

Los Angeles Is Failing California

The County’s Pandemic Failures Point to L.A.’s Long-Term Problems, and the Statewide—And National—Urgency of Fixing Them

by Joe Mathews | March 30, 2021

California has a huge problem that it can’t remove with a recall election.

The problem’s name is Los Angeles.

We Californians love to blame our woes on San Francisco, an easy target …

How Two California Lakeside Communities Are Ending Chronic Homelessness—at Jet-Ski Speed

In the Pandemic, South Lake Tahoe and Lake Elsinore Are Showing Other Cities Ways to Support All Their Unhoused Neighbors

by Joe Mathews | March 9, 2021

Have you given up hope that California will ever get its 150,000-person homeless population off the streets? Are you dubious that your hometown could ever reduce its homelessness to zero? …

Law Enforcement Isn’t Going Away—That Doesn’t Mean It Can’t Be Reimagined

‘De-Tasking’ Non-Crime Police Work Could Go a Long Way Toward Building a Safer Society

by Joe Mathews | December 11, 2020

If our communities had fewer police officers doing fewer tasks, they could become less dangerous places for everyone, said panelists during at the debut event of a new Zócalo/University of …

Now Is the Time for California to Think Big, Again

Will the State Use This Moment to Be Ambitious—Or Shrink Back Into Its Old Habit of Budget Cuts?

by Joe Mathews | April 21, 2020

Coronavirus is forcing Californians to isolate themselves. But it has brought us together in one big way: by fusing all of our biggest problems into one colossal crisis.

That crisis could …

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