During his tenure in Los Angeles politics, Yaroslavsky played an influential role in limiting housing construction and development in the city, leading a "slow-growth movement.

"[4] He authored Proposition U, a successful 1986 ballot initiative, that the Los Angeles Times called "the largest one-shot effort to limit development in the city's history.

He and his older sister, Shimona (married name: Kushner), were the children of Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire and grew up in a Zionist household in Boyle Heights.

[13] Yaroslavsky first gained public notice as a UCLA student who had begun orchestrating high-profile protests in Los Angeles against oppressive treatment of Jews in the Soviet Union.

[14][15][16] He also was "deeply involved" in a campaign to burn Standard Oil credit cards after the company sent a letter to 300,000 stockholders that appeared to support a pro-Arab Middle East policy.

Savitch had secured endorsements from, among others, California's two U.S. senators, members of Congress and an assortment of state office holders—"some of the strongest political muscle ever assembled in a City Council race," as the Los Angeles Times put it in a post-election analysis.

[27] The following year, Yaroslavsky and Braude teamed up again, this time to gather signatures for a ballot initiative that would block Occidental Petroleum Corp.'s decades-long effort to drill for oil in the Pacific Palisades along the city's shoreline.

In early 1988, as the councilman was preparing a potential mayoral bid, his "slow-growth" credentials came under harsh scrutiny in a lengthy Los Angeles Times story headlined, "The Two Sides of Zev Yaroslavsky."

While the piece praised Yaroslavsky's growth-control record in Century City and elsewhere, it accused him of quietly taking actions on behalf of some projects that he had publicly criticized, including the Westside Pavilion mall and two buildings that would have been blocked under his ill-fated Wilshire Boulevard construction moratorium.

In an open challenge to then-Chief Daryl F. Gates, Yaroslavsky accused the department's Public Disorder Intelligence Division of spying on some 200 law-abiding individuals and groups.

[35][36] The unit was disbanded in early 1983 amid mounting disclosures that the department had not only been spying on critics and left-leaning groups, but also had been secretly storing intelligence files in the home and garage of a detective.

A confidential report by three top Los Angeles police officials concluded, among other things, that the unit was riddled with management problems and was plagued by attitudes rooted in the past.

[37] The ensuing outcry set the stage for Yaroslavsky to prevail in his five-year effort to win passage of a local freedom of information act, which was strongly opposed by police officials who argued that it would be "stupid" to tell a potential "terrorist" whether the department had a file on him.

Although the council majority weakened the final ordinance under pressure from the department, Yaroslavsky and the American Civil Liberties Union, which had sued the LAPD, proclaimed victory nonetheless.

"[38][39] The ACLU suit was settled in 1984, with the City of Los Angeles agreeing to pay $1.8 million to 131 plaintiffs and to establish more rigorous controls over future intelligence-gathering activities.

Yaroslavsky and his committee initially negotiated new guidelines for use of the technique, aimed at subduing suspects by either choking off air supply or blocking the flow of blood to the brain, causing unconsciousness.

As a councilman, Yaroslavsky announced that he would go to Skokie, Illinois, in June 1978 to attend a rally protesting a planned march by American Nazis through the heavily Jewish Chicago suburb.

Ferraro purportedly struck back by engineering the election of Councilman Joel Wachs to the council presidency over Yaroslavsky's favored candidate, Councilwoman Pat Russell.

In his 2006 re-election race he ran against David Hernandez, a Republican and retired insurance adjuster who unsuccessfully campaigned to keep a cross on the Los Angeles County Seal, and Randy Springer.

[57] In 2004, Yaroslavsky helped craft a controversial ordinance that made it more difficult to develop scenic ridge lines in the Santa Monica Mountains, while also cutting in half the amount of grading allowed without a conditional use permit.

"[62] Yaroslavsky created a county pilot program in 2008 called Project 50, aimed at providing permanent supportive housing to the 50 people most likely to die on the streets of L.A.'s Skid Row.

[65] But Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez, whose relationship with a homeless violinist became the basis of the movie The Soloist, studied the program and concluded that "for the most part the results have been remarkable.

[71][72] Officially called the "Orange Line," the $350-million busway began service in 2005 and soon achieved ridership numbers that far exceeded planners' predictions and led to better freeway commute times.

[75] Money was restored to subway construction and other major transit projects in 2008, when county voters approved a half-cent sales tax measure promoted by Yaroslavsky and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

[79] In 2002, Yaroslavsky authored a ballot initiative to raise $168 million annually in an effort to avert the potential collapse of Los Angeles County's vast emergency and trauma-care network, which was threatened by a deep health-care budget deficit.

[85] After a 2001 diagnosis with Type 2 diabetes, Yaoslavsky sponsored an ordinance requiring fast-food outlets in unincorporated Los Angeles County areas to post calorie counts on their menus.

Current and previous supervisors were accused of failing to take action for decades because of internal board politics and fear of an angry backlash from some African-American community leaders who strongly supported the hospital, despite its documented problems.

[96] Explaining his arts advocacy, Yaroslavsky told the Los Angeles Times: "Even if you don't like ballet or classical music or opera, it's an economic engine, it puts people to work, and it pays well.

"[98] In 2019, Yaroslavsky expressed opposition to SB 50, which permitted the construction of duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes on much of the residential land that had previously been zoned exclusively for single-family homes.

[104] He has been a supporter of the Los Angeles Opera, conducting the national anthem at the 2014 performance of La Traviata at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, directed by Marta Domingo.