Latest / Locatora Radio [A Radiophonic Novela] / From Sun Valley to City Hall: Councilmember Imelda Padilla on El Grito, the 2028 Olympics, and What LA Needs

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From Sun Valley to City Hall: Councilmember Imelda Padilla on El Grito, the 2028 Olympics, and What LA Needs · Locatora Radio [A Radiophonic Novela]

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Locatora Radio. Hola, la Locamores. I'm Diosa. And I'm Mala.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: You're listening to Locatora Radio. A radiophonic novella. Which is
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: an extra way of saying... A podcast.
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  Speaker 2: Today in studio, we are joined by council member Imelda Padilla.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Welcome to Locatora Radio.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you for having me.
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  Speaker 2: You are the council member for the 6th District of
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  Speaker 2: the City of LA. And.
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  Speaker 2: The Valley is like such an integral part of the
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  Speaker 2: city of LA. We've talked about it many times here
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  Speaker 2: on the show. And we're just so excited for you
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  Speaker 2: to join us and talk to us about some upcoming
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  Speaker 2: programming that you have and also just your work as
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  Speaker 2: a city council member.
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  Speaker 3: And we want to start with your origin story.
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  Speaker 1: You grew up in the Valley.
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  Speaker 3: And I think that plays a really significant role in
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  Speaker 3: your desire to become a member.
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  Speaker 4: Of the L.A.
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  Speaker 3: City Council and in the work that you do. So
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  Speaker 3: can you talk to us a little bit about where
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  Speaker 3: you grew up and how that led you to the
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  Speaker 3: role that you're in now?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely.
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  Speaker 4: So I'm shaped by who I am is shaped by
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  Speaker 4: being a Valley girl. My parents met there. They met
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  Speaker 4: in Sun Valley at church at Holy Rosary. My mom
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  Speaker 4: was a singer and my dad had a crush on her.
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  Speaker 4: And when his sisters ran into her at a barbecue,
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  Speaker 4: they were like shocked to see her and said, hey,
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  Speaker 4: our brother has a crush on you.
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  Speaker 1: You're the girl who sings. We want you to meet him.
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  Speaker 4: And she accepted the invitation and they fell in love
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  Speaker 4: and the rest was history.
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  Speaker 1: They had five kids.
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  Speaker 4: I am the fourth of five and they have always
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  Speaker 4: raised us in Sun Valley.
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  Speaker 1: I went to all of my.
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  Speaker 4: Local schools with the feeder program and I was very
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  Speaker 4: lucky that my middle school and high school had what's
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: called the magnet program. And I'm very grateful for that
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  Speaker 4: experience because I had really good teachers and mentors, and
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  Speaker 4: so did my siblings. And it was a combination of
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  Speaker 4: having very overprotective sisters and an overprotective brother and parents
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  Speaker 4: that taught us the value of hard work and service.
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  Speaker 4: that helped me value higher education as well and service.
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  Speaker 4: So I got into my dream school of UC Berkeley,
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  Speaker 4: studied political science. But before college, I attribute my interest
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  Speaker 4: in local politics to my older sisters. My sister Carmen
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  Speaker 4: exposed me to my first campaign when I was a
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  Speaker 4: ninth grader. And my sister Veronica exposed me to, you know,
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  Speaker 4: caring for the streets to be clean because she used
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  Speaker 4: to work for a program called Clean and Green and
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  Speaker 4: she would take me to cleanups and And I got
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  Speaker 4: to see her wear her clean and green T-shirt with
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  Speaker 4: a lot of pride.
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  Speaker 1: So all of that prior.
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  Speaker 4: To even reaching college, I knew I wanted to study
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  Speaker 4: political science. So when I came back home from college,
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  Speaker 4: I went straight into the nonprofit sector and got involved
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  Speaker 4: with the Democratic Party early on and just kind of
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: had a career in community organizing. that was related to
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  Speaker 4: organizing in the Valley, organizing through issues and policies that
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  Speaker 4: affect all of Los Angeles. So I'm grateful for my
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  Speaker 4: time in being an organizer for things related to environmental justice.
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  Speaker 4: Things related to labor justice, when I worked on the
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  Speaker 4: Raising the Minimum Wage campaign, I worked at the county
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  Speaker 4: where I started the Women and Girls Initiative. And also,
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  Speaker 4: I had a few years where I got to work
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  Speaker 4: in health care, but I also always had a passion
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  Speaker 4: for youth justice. One of my siblings, my older brother,
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  Speaker 4: is incarcerated. And that always impacted my personal story and
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  Speaker 4: view on things because here I have these older sisters that.
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  Speaker 1: Went to UCLA. But my brother, you know, had a
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  Speaker 1: different path.
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  Speaker 4: So when I'm over here at UC Berkeley minoring in
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  Speaker 4: Chicano studies and, you know, I hear about the— it' s a
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  Speaker 4: class related to Chicanos in education and then Chicanos in—
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  Speaker 4: the criminal justice system. And I see that for every
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  Speaker 4: four Latinas in the university system, there's one Latino. And
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  Speaker 4: here we are at the age where, you know, women
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  Speaker 4: are trying to find their life partners. So for the
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  Speaker 4: Latino males, it was like a It was like a
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  Speaker 4: big party. Oh, my God, look at all this racial women.
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  Speaker 4: But for the women, it wasn't the same. But I
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  Speaker 4: would go visit my brother in jail and say, oh,
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  Speaker 4: this is where a lot of our guys are. You know,
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  Speaker 4: they made a mistake when they were young, and here
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  Speaker 4: they are. So I knew that I wanted to go
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  Speaker 4: back to the community and do something about that. So
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  Speaker 4: upon coming back, I created something called Adelante Latino Youth Summit,
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  Speaker 4: which And I did.
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  Speaker 1: That for a total of 10 years.
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  Speaker 4: I'm currently trying to figure out how to bring something
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  Speaker 4: of that sort back in my capacity as a council member.
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  Speaker 1: But it really was a space where.
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  Speaker 4: My district, not just the sixth district, but the entire
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  Speaker 4: East Valley, I got to build a lot of relationships
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  Speaker 4: with teachers and principals with that in mind.
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  Speaker 2: And in 2023, you were elected in a special election, right?
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  Speaker 2: After former city council member Nury Martinez was essentially pressured
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  Speaker 2: to resign. So you came in, you were elected at
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  Speaker 2: a time where the city was in chaos, right? There
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  Speaker 2: was a lot of distrust and folks were looking at
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  Speaker 2: Latino leaders and specifically with some skepticism. How did you
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  Speaker 2: come in in the aftermath of all that? And how
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  Speaker 2: did you move forward?
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  Speaker 4: You know, well, I definitely was part of the uh,
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  Speaker 4: folks in town that, uh, were heartbroken by the scandal.
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  Speaker 1: That's what we refer to it as the scandal.
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  Speaker 4: Um, so I actually went through a few days of, uh,
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  Speaker 4: of a lot of crying, a lot of reflection, a
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  Speaker 4: lot of disappointment, but it actually was, uh, something that
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  Speaker 4: forced me to do a This was not the first
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  Speaker 4: time that I ran for office. I had run for
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  Speaker 4: school board and I lost by a very small margin,
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  Speaker 4: but they spent a lot of money to to defeat
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  Speaker 4: me because when I ran for school board, I was,
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  Speaker 4: I got caught up in a philosophical fight between charter
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  Speaker 4: schools versus traditional. And, you know, I was the labor candidate, right?
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  Speaker 4: So I was the UTLA candidate and the Charter School
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  Speaker 4: Association had a lot of funds and had a big
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  Speaker 4: interest in having their candidate win. So $ 16 million.
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  Speaker 1: To beat me.
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  Speaker 4: So for a few months, even a year after that,
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  Speaker 4: I felt very defeated myself and jaded because by definition,
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  Speaker 4: I was technically California's most expensive loser.
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  Speaker 1: Do what you have to do to get over it because.
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  Speaker 4: Noreen Martinez was someone that was someone that I saw
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  Speaker 4: as a mentor and someone that I highly respected.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, I worked for her for a total of
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  Speaker 1: six years in my career.
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  Speaker 4: I worked for her for four years. when she was
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  Speaker 4: the executive director of Pacoima Beautiful. And then I followed
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  Speaker 4: her to the city as a field deputy, which I
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  Speaker 4: hated at the city level. I really missed working under
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  Speaker 4: her during the nonprofit space where we were you know,
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  Speaker 4: really helping children and we were youth and we were
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  Speaker 4: really helping the community. But when I went to be
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  Speaker 4: a field deputy, uh, I didn't like it. I felt
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  Speaker 4: like it was very dog eat dog. And I felt
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  Speaker 4: like I had to always explain myself for being, um,
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  Speaker 4: ambitious because I would, how is this field deputy hosting
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  Speaker 4: so many community cleanups so fast and doing events and, uh,
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  Speaker 4: you know, um, Martinez would, uh, lean on me to
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  Speaker 4: get stuff done, but I was just a field deputy,
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  Speaker 4: you know? So there was definitely folks on that team
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  Speaker 4: that wondered.
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  Speaker 1: Like, what is it with her? Why is she so.
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  Speaker 4: This and so that, and so ambitious. And the thing
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  Speaker 4: with me is that I just cared so much about
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  Speaker 4: my community. So it was a lot to, to soak
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  Speaker 4: up after that scandal occurred. And, um, I just had
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  Speaker 4: to do it. Like I said, I felt like it
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  Speaker 4: was a calling. So it took me like two weeks
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  Speaker 4: to let it go.
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  Speaker 3: So now, being in this position and being a city
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  Speaker 3: council member, reflecting on the scandal and how we got
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  Speaker 3: there and how those Latino leaders got to that place,
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  Speaker 3: where they're gerrymandering and doing things to harm black and
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  Speaker 3: indigenous voting communities. How does the new current wave of
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  Speaker 3: Latino politicians not become that?
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  Speaker 4: The current Latinos in office, specifically in city council, we
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  Speaker 4: have yet to go through an.
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  Speaker 1: Era of redistricting.
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  Speaker 4: I was back from college in 2009, so I did
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  Speaker 4: get to learn a lot about redistricting during 2010. when
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  Speaker 4: we had Obama as president. And he was a president
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  Speaker 4: that very much invested in making sure that the census
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  Speaker 4: was done right and that we had all of the
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  Speaker 4: appropriate data to be able to, you know, draw some
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  Speaker 4: decent maps.
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 4: And 2020 was very different because we had a president
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  Speaker 4: that did not put in the resources to have a
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  Speaker 4: good census. And also we were going through the pandemic.
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  Speaker 4: So I think that created a situation where these Latino
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  Speaker 4: leaders locally had essentially more power and less community input
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  Speaker 4: about what these maps can look like. And I just think,
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  Speaker 4: you know, it was just their minds were oversaturated with
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  Speaker 4: power and it was just easy for them to to
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  Speaker 4: speak this way.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And, you know, I don't I don't want us to
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  Speaker 2: like rehash, you know, this the scandal that you weren't
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  Speaker 2: a part of. You know, that's not part of the interview,
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  Speaker 2: but more so because this is the context of you
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  Speaker 2: becoming elected and that you inherited, you know, this distrust
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  Speaker 2: that was not yours necessary to carry.
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  Speaker 1: And so since then, don't go anywhere, Locamores. We'll be
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  Speaker 1: right back.
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  Speaker 2: You know, what have been the changes that you've made
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  Speaker 2: and how have you held your constituents in mind for
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  Speaker 2: during this last term?
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  Speaker 1: You know, City Hall is not a place for the weak.
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  Speaker 1: I will say that.
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  Speaker 4: It is a place that you don't go into City
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  Speaker 4: Hall and get this training on how to be a
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  Speaker 4: council member.
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  Speaker 1: It just doesn't happen.
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  Speaker 4: You are in there and you are pretty much like
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  Speaker 4: thrown in the pool and you have to learn how
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  Speaker 4: to swim.
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  Speaker 1: So for me, it was about understanding how to swim.
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  Speaker 4: And what really guided me was to lean on what
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  Speaker 4: I ran on on my platform. I knew that my
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  Speaker 4: district had a lot of potential, a lot of potential
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  Speaker 4: in transportation, a lot of potential with the Sepulveda Basin
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  Speaker 4: and the Olympics, a lot of cleaning up to do
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  Speaker 4: as it pertained to the homeless crisis. So what I
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  Speaker 4: wanted to do was what guided me to find my
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  Speaker 4: answers within that building. So I, you know, I get
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  Speaker 4: nicknamed the field deputy council member because I can, you
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  Speaker 4: block by block, you know, neighborhood by neighborhood in the
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  Speaker 4: sixth district.
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  Speaker 1: So I have used that as sort of like my
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  Speaker 1: my North Pole. Right.
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  Speaker 4: I knew I know that I wanted to clean my parks.
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  Speaker 4: I know that I want to build more parks. I
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: know that I want to make sure that as we
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  Speaker 4: have this conversation about building density, that it's dignified density.
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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 4: I don't want to build ugly apartments just because, you know,
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  Speaker 4: I want to make sure that kids.
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  Speaker 1: Have a place to play.
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  Speaker 4: Seniors have a place to congregate and not live in
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  Speaker 4: an apartment where they're gonna feel like they're isolated and
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  Speaker 4: can't talk to folks. So that's really what I've been
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  Speaker 4: trying to do. And I also haven't forgotten how much
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  Speaker 4: I care about our youth, right? So I've been focusing
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  Speaker 4: on things that impact them too. And that to me
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  Speaker 4: isn't just something that is good for Latinos, but it's
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  Speaker 4: actually good for everyone.
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: You have some major events coming up. Like the big
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  Speaker 3: event that comes to mind is El Grito. which is
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  Speaker 3: a Mexican independence celebration that takes place on the steps
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  Speaker 3: of City Hall in downtown L.A. And I'm so curious
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  Speaker 3: what it must be like to organize this type of
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  Speaker 3: cultural pride event in the wake of the immigration crisis,
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  Speaker 3: the ICE raids, the Trump regime. How do you go
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  Speaker 3: about putting together an event like that?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, well, you know, I think my colleagues, this event
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  Speaker 4: gets rotated amongst the Latino council members. And I think
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: my colleague, Eunice Hernandez, probably had it on the worst
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  Speaker 4: year of the immigration.
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  Speaker 1: Rates, right, last year.
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  Speaker 4: So it was still decently attended, though, you know, because
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  Speaker 4: at the end of the day, In the time of
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  Speaker 4: the raids, there was a lot of us that were saying,
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  Speaker 4: for those of us who can't come out, we have
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  Speaker 4: to come out, and we can't let this take away
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  Speaker 4: our joy and our laughter. and keep us from celebrating
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  Speaker 4: who we are. So for myself, when I knew that
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  Speaker 4: this was gonna be the year that I had it,
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  Speaker 4: I have very much, with a lot of intentionality, told
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  Speaker 4: myself that I wanted to host it for my community leaders.
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  Speaker 1: And a lot of my community leaders are.
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  Speaker 4: They say the señoras who run the block and the
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  Speaker 4: guys who defend it with their life. So I wanted
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: to make sure that my señoras and their husbands were
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  Speaker 4: be able to enjoy a band that was going to
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  Speaker 4: make them dance. So I chose Los Angeles Azules and
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  Speaker 4: I am very happy that we were able to do
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  Speaker 4: everything to be able to get them. And I'm just
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  Speaker 4: looking forward to seeing my gente dance. I sometimes refer
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  Speaker 4: to my district as a lot of Latinos, Mexicanos, that
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  Speaker 4: were the— they' re Ronald Reagan Latinos, right? When the Republican Party
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  Speaker 4: used to understand the value of immigration and used to
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  Speaker 4: value family, right? When Ronald Reagan gave us amnesty, it
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: was because the Republicans that understand business know the contribution
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  Speaker 4: that Latinos and immigrants contribute to the economy and also
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  Speaker 4: value family. And therefore, you get your papers, you have
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  Speaker 4: an opportunity to bring the rest to your family, right?
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  Speaker 4: The Republican Party doesn't do that anymore. But I represent
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  Speaker 4: a community where a lot of folks got the amnesty.
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  Speaker 4: and did what they could to bring their families. And
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  Speaker 4: because they didn't have to fear ICE, they were able
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  Speaker 4: to invest in homes, start small businesses, and really take
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  Speaker 4: on and bring to their entire family the American dream.
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  Speaker 4: And that's who a lot of my 6th District constituents are,
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  Speaker 4: and that's who is going to be the majority and
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  Speaker 4: the bulk of the folks that come to this concert.
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  Speaker 1: Fabulous.
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  Speaker 2: Can you talk more about that, of who— you know,
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  Speaker 2: the type of constituents. I think this term or how
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  Speaker 2: you identify as like the Ronald Reagan Latinos, I think
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  Speaker 2: is really interesting because it speaks to how different, right,
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  Speaker 2: even within a city, Latinos can be.
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  Speaker 1: So can you talk more.
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  Speaker 2: About the types of voters that you have in your
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  Speaker 2: district and the needs that they have and what they
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: want to see from their council member? Because I think
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  Speaker 2: that for folks who don't, are outside of L.A.
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  Speaker 1: Or not too.
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  Speaker 2: Familiar with the part of the valley that you represent,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we think of Hollywood and we think of
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: like the valley girl, you know, who has like the
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  Speaker 2: valley girl accent. And we can think of like Cher
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  Speaker 2: Horowitz from Clueless, you know.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, who got jacked in Sun Valley.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, yes. And there's like those associations of like what
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  Speaker 2: a valley girl is. Right. But you're giving us a
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  Speaker 2: different definition of a valley girl and you're talking about
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  Speaker 2: Ronald Reagan Latinos. And so I would love to hear
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  Speaker 2: more about that of your district and who they are
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: and what their needs are.
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  Speaker 4: Well, similar to, you know, most folks, they just want
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  Speaker 4: safe parks, right? They want clean streets. They want good jobs.
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  Speaker 4: They want access to good transportation so they can access
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: the entire city.
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  Speaker 1: But yes, it's a lot of folks.
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  Speaker 4: That, you know, bought their homes when in the 90s
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  Speaker 4: and in the 80s and raise their families and, you know.
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: were able to utilize things like the magnet programs. They
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: have kids and people my age who also went into
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: the military and, you know, work in the backyard. Right.
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  Speaker 4: They they work in union jobs because that's what's available.
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  Speaker 4: So it's a it's a combination of those things. But
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  Speaker 4: similar to I don't think they want anything different than
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  Speaker 4: what any other resident would want. But what isn't happening
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  Speaker 4: is because of maybe a combination of the language barrier or,
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: you know, the distrust of government because of the countries
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  Speaker 4: that we come from.
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  Speaker 1: You don't necessarily have folks that it's.
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  Speaker 4: Easy for them to pick up the phone and say,
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  Speaker 4: clean my streets or improve my street, or I really
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: need these sidewalks so that we have, you know, a
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: registered docket of people advocating. So I try to remind
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: myself of that.
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: In that chatter and the feedback you hear from your constituents,
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: What are you hearing about their feelings about the Olympics
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: and about the World Cup, which just wrapped a few
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: weeks ago? But what are your constituents worried about or
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: excited about when it comes to these big global games
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  Speaker 3: coming to the city?
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  Speaker 4: Well, we just had FIFA and people loved the fan zones.
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: I'm still really impressed with how we were able to
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: coordinate that as a city. A lot of people were
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: coming out. A lot of people were actually following every
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: single council member so that they can jump around and
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: attend as many as possible.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: So I'm really happy that we were able to buy
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: those screens.
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: I actually was able to do another event with Rec
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: and Parks at Delano Park with those screens where we
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: showcased a Dodger game and people came out. People bring
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: their lawn chairs. People are bringing their... picnic baskets. And
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: they really enjoyed that. So that was a really beautiful
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: component to what we were able to do with FIFA.
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: I think it helped folks that didn't necessarily think they
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: were going to be able to buy a ticket and
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: go to the game but they felt like they were
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: part of the game because there's we as their city
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: uh brought it to them um and I think that
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: now that they saw that I am hearing people uh
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: talk about like where are you guys going to do
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: the same thing for the Olympics you know um what
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: is going to uh happen in our local park does
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: this mean that we're going to have uh Amazing things
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: get left behind as legacy. So I'm talking a lot
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: to my constituents and they're talking to me about how
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: they want to make sure that we use this as
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: a time to make sure that, you know, because we're
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: going to have the skating and the BMX and the.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: Pantathlon at the Sepulveda.
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: Basin, that it's an opportunity to make sure that some
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: of those amenities can stay there. Because who doesn't want
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: a permanent new installation of a skate park, right? Who
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: doesn't want a permanent installation of an Olympic-sized pool?
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: You bringing up the legacy of the Olympics and what
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: the is bringing to mind for me some comments that
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: Mayor Bass made at a recent L.A. Chamber of Commerce event,
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: the State of L.A.
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: Business.
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: She was one of the speakers.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: And she pointed out that L.A.
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: Is still benefiting from the 1984 Olympics, that all of
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: the infrastructure and the resources and the preparation to house
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: the Olympics here in 84— continue to make LA a
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: thriving city. And I'm wondering what your projections are for
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: the 2028 Olympics and what you imagine LA is going
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: to be like afterwards and in what ways LA is
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: going to thrive.
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: Well, you know, when to this day, we all know
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: and still see the logo for LA 84. And as
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: a foundation, they have been a great partner in making
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: sure that, you know, youth throughout our whole city are
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: continue to have access to sports. So to me, LA
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: 28 is a community partner that made sure that kids
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: weren't just studying, but also involved in sports. We know
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: that it's good for self-esteem. We know that it's good
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: for your health and so many different things. So we
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: are still, you know, in conversations to make sure.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: That LA 28 is.
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: Is equally responsive and a partner the way we see
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: it from 84. There is kids all over Los Angeles
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: taking advantage of Play LA. I actually just had a
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: park director tell me We got to make sure we
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: keep Play LA. It has really increased our numbers here.
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: I'm sure you guys have also seen the logo of
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: Girls Play LA. You know, we have record number of
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: young ladies playing softball and playing soccer thanks to Play LA.
• 22:56
  Speaker 4: So I think that in itself, just within the people,
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: just within our youth who are being able to do this,
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: that in itself is already changing the makeup industry. and
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: the personalities of these kids.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: What have been some of the challenges? I mean, we
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: know that the city of L.A. has had budget deficits,
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: and there's been different city services that have not received
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: all the adequate funding. So what are some of the
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: challenges of bringing such a global, massive event like the
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: Olympics to the city of.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: L.A.? Don't go anywhere, Locamores. We'll be right back.
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: Well, you know, there's still a lot of negotiations going on,
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: a lot of things to continue to discuss. I was
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: actually just on a panel yesterday where I talked about
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: how we still need to make sure that they commit
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: to helping partner with our small businesses and local businesses
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: for the things that they're going to need.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: So there's definitely things to do related to that. And
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: there's also still things related to making sure that we
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: get reimbursed for the investment that we make.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: But, you know, one of the things that I like
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: to tell folks is.
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: There's definitely a lot of things that we as a
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: city need to be better at funding.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: But I also remind at least my team that when
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: I operate and when I'm serving my constituents, I don't
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: like to focus on the money that we don't have.
• 24:32
  Speaker 4: I like to focus on the money that we do have.
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: And sometimes when, you know, the press is saying the
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: city has zero dollars or is broke or is bankrupt,
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: that is a headline related to everything that we want.
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: But we still need to not lose focus of what
• 24:51
  Speaker 4: it is that we need.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: So we always, you know, find a way to adjust it.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: We cut here. We move over there. You know, we
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: balance the budget.
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: I love this about what we want versus what we need.
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: And I feel like what LA, of course, needs more
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: of is more public transportation. And you are heavily involved.
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: You sit on the Metro board, correct? And I love
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: the Metro. I take the Metro all the time.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: I live downtown.
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: I'm a USC student. And I got rid of my car.
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: So I take the Metro everywhere.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: To the studio here in Hollywood. Good for you. Yeah,
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: to get to class.
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: And.
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: I'm excited about the fact that the Olympics are going
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: to be car-free. But what does that mean as far
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: as our metro needs, our public transport needs to get
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: ready for those car-free games? And then is that going
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: to allow L.A. to eventually be on par— with cities
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: like London and Tokyo and New York as far as
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: having our metro rail system?
• 25:54
  Speaker 4: Well, what it means is that, well, with FIFA, we
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: really utilized it as our guinea pig to prepare for
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: The Union Station activation site.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: Was one of my favorites. I absolutely loved it.
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: And it really showcased the Metro team and staff really
• 26:19
  Speaker 4: be all hands on deck. Even the executive members of
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: their staff were out there guiding folks, handing out waters.
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: It was a very nice sight to see. But the
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: thing is, when it came to FIFA, it was... Getting
• 26:35
  Speaker 4: everybody to one specific location.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: So I think now what we have to recognize and
• 26:41
  Speaker 4: be prepared for is that there is multiple locations throughout
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: all of L.A.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: County. And originally, when I first got to the Metro board,
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: Metro had... they over-planned, right?
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: They were like, we're gonna need this many buses, we're
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: gonna need this much capacity. But then once the facilities
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: agreement was finally finalized by LA-28, they were able to say,
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: turns out we over-planned. Turns out we actually are gonna
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: need a little bit less than we assumed. So that's
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: a positive thing when it comes to the public transportation
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: part of the Olympics. So now we are focused on
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: making sure that we have enough buses. to move people
• 27:22
  Speaker 4: from one location to another. So yes, if you want
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: to go to the games, there will definitely be a
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: way to get there through public transit.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: So that's what that means.
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: But at the same time, You know, to answer the
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: second part of your question, we're being very intentional about,
• 27:40
  Speaker 4: you know, not just for the Olympics, but for the
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: entire next.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: Couple of years.
• 27:48
  Speaker 4: I'm a very big fan of Stephanie Wiggins, the CEO
• 27:53
  Speaker 4: of Metro.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: She is very well versed in transportation.
• 27:58
  Speaker 4: Like, I've never met anybody who really understands that space
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: as well as her. And she's very unapologetic. about getting
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: things done and getting things done right. And bringing a
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: lot of.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Pride to the to the system.
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: So, you know, voters gave us measure R and measure M.
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: So we have the ability to build. And we are
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: one of the things that I want to bring to
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: the construction committee that I'm now going to be chairing
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: is making sure that we build.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: Based on our lessons learned.
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: So We have, for example, learned.
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: That if you first build a bus line and the
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: ridership is high, then it's more cost effective to then
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: turn it into rail. And that's exactly what we're seeing
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: with the gold line now called G, right?
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: No one thought it was going to be popular, but
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: the ridership is so high.
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: So that is one of the things that we're going
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: to do now is we're going to turn it into rail.
• 28:58
  Speaker 4: So that's a thing that I want to bring. But,
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: you know, I'm just really excited to be on Metro
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: because it's, Immediately coming back home from college, I was
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: a community organizer for Pacoima Beautiful. And I was one
• 29:12
  Speaker 4: of the organizers that when Metro was doing outreach to
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: find out what the East Valley wanted on Van Nuys Boulevard,
• 29:19
  Speaker 4: I was mobilizing between 50 to sometimes 150 people to
• 29:25
  Speaker 4: go to their meetings to say, we don't want to
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: be shortchanged. We want light rail. Van Nuys Boulevard is
• 29:30
  Speaker 4: one of our most heavily used corridors. So don't shortchange
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: us and give us rail. So it feels very full
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: circle for me to now be on Metro. and be
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: able to make sure that that is built right and
• 29:43
  Speaker 4: that we built something that people are very proud of.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Fab.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: And very very serendipitously i was in mexico city on
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: a personal vacation you were in mexico city on a
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: work trip and we just so happened to be at
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: the same restaurant in the lobby and i bring this
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: up because you were meeting with mexico city's metro and
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: you know mal and i both travel to mexico city
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: regularly we love their public transportation i think there's a
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: great city there's so many things that Mexico City does
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: really well.
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: When it comes to public transportation.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: And I don't know how many people know this, but
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: LA and Mexico City are sister cities. So I'm curious
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: on that trip, what you learned or what kind of
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: exchange was had and how you see that maybe being
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: implemented here in LA if possible?
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, of course. So I was there, yes, on a
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: work trip. We were there to talk policy.
• 30:38
  Speaker 4: Specifically to talk about international policy and how it is
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: relevant to big cities. So I was there for the
• 30:48
  Speaker 4: Mexican American Policy Alliance, which is an organization that is
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: trying to bring more cognizance to how.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Our economic relationship exists with Mexico, right? So what we
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: were doing in.
• 31:05
  Speaker 4: That conference was emphasizing the importance of how much that
• 31:11
  Speaker 4: international agreement impacts our local communities.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: So I was there.
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: We were there to talk about that importance and also
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: figuring out what the future of NAFTA can look like,
• 31:24
  Speaker 4: because I believe the agreement is up— I believe it's this
• 31:28
  Speaker 4: year or it's coming up soon. But, you know, one
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: of the things that a lot of the leaders were
• 31:32
  Speaker 4: talking about is, unlike the EU, which is— capital goods
• 31:39
  Speaker 4: and labor, NAFTA.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: Doesn't have labor.
• 31:43
  Speaker 4: So we wanted to make sure that if we talk labor,
• 31:47
  Speaker 4: it's an opportunity for us to finally talk about a
• 31:50
  Speaker 4: good immigration policy, right, between the three countries. But in
• 31:54
  Speaker 4: the process, yeah, I mean, I wanted to make sure
• 31:57
  Speaker 4: that if I was going to be on this business trip,
• 32:00
  Speaker 4: that I also use it as an opportunity to to
• 32:03
  Speaker 4: talk Metro. And what I mainly got out of it
• 32:08
  Speaker 4: was that when there's a.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: When there's intentionality.
• 32:12
  Speaker 4: Things get done so um meeting their meeting with you
• 32:17
  Speaker 4: know their um their transportation lead uh he was showing
• 32:22
  Speaker 4: me how they completely remodeled some of the stations and
• 32:26
  Speaker 4: you know he you'd be surprised how he wore it
• 32:30
  Speaker 4: with pride all of the tiktok videos that were um
• 32:34
  Speaker 4: were kind of teasing it and being sarcastic with how
• 32:39
  Speaker 4: it looks like it was designed to be like the
• 32:45
  Speaker 4: chandeliers and very Victorian.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: They actually were very proud of that.
• 32:49
  Speaker 4: They didn't feel like they were being made fun of.
• 32:52
  Speaker 4: They wore it with pride. And what they were showing
• 32:56
  Speaker 4: me was, you know, We did this in a very
• 32:59
  Speaker 4: short amount of time.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: And it was because they wanted to.
• 33:02
  Speaker 4: Show the best of Mexico on Mexico City workers and
• 33:06
  Speaker 4: Mexico City transportation. So while we were there, we as
• 33:10
  Speaker 4: my team was there, we were incredibly impressed by how
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: fast they got it done. We were impressed by how
• 33:17
  Speaker 4: constituents and writers were actually coming up to the group
• 33:20
  Speaker 4: and they were very grateful. But the two things, it
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: was a few things that impressed me. They actually have
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: two of the buses or a little, you know, the
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: container spots or whatever. Two of them are 100% dedicated
• 33:34
  Speaker 4: to women so that they can reduce the cat calling.
• 33:38
  Speaker 4: And also so that mothers are more comfortable, you know,
• 33:41
  Speaker 4: with breastfeeding and things of that sort.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: So that was very impressive. I was also very impressed
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: that they... incorporated a ton of art. It felt like
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: you were in a museum.
• 33:53
  Speaker 4: And also we were incredibly impressed that they had these
• 33:57
  Speaker 4: walls that were tapizados with plants and, you know, making
• 34:02
  Speaker 4: it feel more like a indoor outdoor. That was actually
• 34:07
  Speaker 4: my favorite thing was seeing those plants on the walls
• 34:09
  Speaker 4: because it felt fresh, you know, it felt fresh and
• 34:12
  Speaker 4: it felt clean. So a lot of different things, but
• 34:16
  Speaker 4: more than anything, it was just great to see that
• 34:19
  Speaker 4: they were able to do it so quickly and And
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: just able to see that people were grateful because, well,
• 34:25
  Speaker 4: you know, you can always say, oh, well, you only
• 34:28
  Speaker 4: did it for FIFA, but they still did it.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: And it's still going to stay.
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: The staying part is what matters. It stays there for
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: constituents to use it or ciudadanos to use it.
• 34:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: There's so many things to talk about.
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: I mean, we can go for hours, like talking to
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: you about City of LA and all of your work.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: But I think.
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: On the topic, again, of what do we need versus
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: what do we want, in the city of Los Angeles,
• 34:52
  Speaker 3: we need to address homelessness, right? And our houseless community
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: members need solutions and need help. And in light of
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: FIFA and the Olympics and how do we welcome all
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: these people from all over the world— to come to
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: our city to then see our own people like suffering
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: and going without. And I know that you also are
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: working on homelessness in the city of L.A. I'm curious
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: what your observations, your thoughts are, the plans that you'd
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: like to see put in place.
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, so I give credit to our constituents
• 35:31
  Speaker 4: because they have voted on multiple occasions now to tax
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: themselves so that we can fix this, right? We have
• 35:39
  Speaker 4: measure A and before that was the H ones, HHH
• 35:42
  Speaker 4: is H. I am unapologetic about making sure that we
• 35:49
  Speaker 4: get to the nitty gritty of this. I tell folks,
• 35:52
  Speaker 4: you know, it took us it took 10 years for
• 35:54
  Speaker 4: us to get to where we are now.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: Where we feel like our city has ballooned out of
• 35:59
  Speaker 4: control with street based homeless. So upon entering this position, I,
• 36:07
  Speaker 4: you know. used and did what I know how to
• 36:10
  Speaker 4: do best. On my campaign trail, I emphasized that for
• 36:15
  Speaker 4: subjects that my constituents care about, that I was going
• 36:19
  Speaker 4: to create something called a community council model. Just yesterday,
• 36:22
  Speaker 4: we launched our industrial corridor one. We have one also
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: for parks. I have one for pets. I have one,
• 36:31
  Speaker 4: we're about to start one for the film community. But
• 36:35
  Speaker 4: the one that we started immediately, we have one for tenants.
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: That's right, tenants and managers. But the one that I
• 36:42
  Speaker 4: started immediately was homeless. So my community council for the
• 36:49
  Speaker 4: homeless is we bring all of the service providers who
• 36:53
  Speaker 4: are funded to serve the 6th District to come together.
• 36:57
  Speaker 4: And we were bringing LASA to the table. We're still
• 37:00
  Speaker 4: bringing LASA to the table where we're matching the numbers.
• 37:04
  Speaker 4: And we're making sure that LASA hears directly from the
• 37:08
  Speaker 4: service providers with my office present on accountability. I think
• 37:12
  Speaker 4: one of the biggest things that we've unpackaged in the
• 37:16
  Speaker 4: last couple of years is that you know, Los Angeles
• 37:19
  Speaker 4: and the county has always had LASA responsible for addressing
• 37:23
  Speaker 4: the homeless crisis. But nobody was really watching it. Nobody
• 37:26
  Speaker 4: was watching it. No one was paying attention. The oversight
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: wasn't there. And it was just fund and get it done,
• 37:33
  Speaker 4: fund and get it done. But nobody was really noticing
• 37:36
  Speaker 4: on the paying attention to the get it done. It
• 37:38
  Speaker 4: was just everybody was all these people were getting funded
• 37:40
  Speaker 4: and no one knew where the money was going. And
• 37:42
  Speaker 4: then but now because it's ballooned out of control, everyone
• 37:45
  Speaker 4: is wondering where are my taxpayer dollars going? How do
• 37:48
  Speaker 4: I get my streets back? How do I get my
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: park back? So that community council has been very good
• 37:55
  Speaker 4: to us. It has, you know, forced even the county
• 38:00
  Speaker 4: now comes to them. Hakla now comes to them. because
• 38:04
  Speaker 4: of how effective it has been. And when the county
• 38:08
  Speaker 4: built out their ECRC, which is a new department where
• 38:13
  Speaker 4: they are prioritizing locations, they would talk about how the
• 38:17
  Speaker 4: sixth district was the.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: First one to start to use it.
• 38:19
  Speaker 4: So my homeless team, whenever there is an individual that
• 38:24
  Speaker 4: needs the mental health, or needs the substance support.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: The county knows.
• 38:31
  Speaker 4: And they know that we are watching that they actually
• 38:34
  Speaker 4: do the work that they.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: Are in charge of doing.
• 38:37
  Speaker 4: So everyone has to do something on the prevention side,
• 38:40
  Speaker 4: for sure. But then there's the housing side and there's
• 38:43
  Speaker 4: the affordability side, right? There is, some of my colleagues
• 38:47
  Speaker 4: like to say, build, build, build, build the housing, but
• 38:51
  Speaker 4: they're not building it. I am someone who in my district,
• 38:56
  Speaker 4: not only am I building market rate, but I am
• 38:58
  Speaker 4: also building permanent supportive. But also, for those that are, unfortunately,
• 39:06
  Speaker 4: at the street level, we can't. not invest in the interim. Right.
• 39:13
  Speaker 4: And a lot of the interim when I first got
• 39:15
  Speaker 4: to council was getting folks into hotels, which was incredibly expensive.
• 39:20
  Speaker 4: But that's why also I you know, it was a
• 39:24
  Speaker 4: lot of work to appease and reduce the fear of
• 39:28
  Speaker 4: my constituents in my hometown of Sun Valley when I
• 39:31
  Speaker 4: wanted to bring a tiny homes village. It is now
• 39:34
  Speaker 4: being called one of the most beautiful ones and, you know,
• 39:38
  Speaker 4: nicest ones where do you want people to continue to
• 39:42
  Speaker 4: be in front of the post office, in the park
• 39:45
  Speaker 4: and behind your elementary schools? Or do you want to
• 39:47
  Speaker 4: create a situation where we are like, you can't be there,
• 39:50
  Speaker 4: come to the tiny homes. And then we help folks
• 39:54
  Speaker 4: with case management. and resource identification, workforce, you know, connection
• 39:59
  Speaker 4: so that they can get into the permanent, supportive, affordable housing.
• 40:03
  Speaker 4: And then once again, be productive members of our society.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: So there's just a lot.
• 40:08
  Speaker 4: It is a lot. But I want to emphasize that
• 40:11
  Speaker 4: it really is going to require all my council colleagues
• 40:15
  Speaker 4: building the density. And then, of course, like I've said,
• 40:19
  Speaker 4: I don't want to just build apartments for the sake
• 40:21
  Speaker 4: of building them and stacking people up like sardines. I
• 40:24
  Speaker 4: don't want to create a situation where we have isolation
• 40:26
  Speaker 4: of seniors, mental health issues from kids because they can't play.
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: You know, we have to build with dignity.
• 40:33
  Speaker 4: And we also have to be about the accountability of
• 40:36
  Speaker 4: those who are getting funded to help us alleviate this
• 40:39
  Speaker 4: in this generation.
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: You mentioned, you know, everyone coming to the table and
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: like everyone being part of the solutions. And my question
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: for you is getting like our neighbors, right? The NIMBYs,
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: the folks who don't want solutions in their backyard because
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: they see homelessness as a nuisance as opposed to a
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: humanitarian issue. I'm curious, like in your experience, how you
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: meet those people and And you use the example of
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: the tiny homes.
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: And how there were constituents who didn't want it. And
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: so how do we get to that place where it's
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: not just the elected?
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: It's also us. Right.
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: As everyday people, as neighbors looking out for each other,
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: wanting solutions and being OK with it being in our backyard.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: So I'm curious how you navigate that. You know, you
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: you just have to listen.
• 41:26
  Speaker 4: My experience in all of these years of being involved
• 41:29
  Speaker 4: in local politics, you know, homelessness is not the only
• 41:33
  Speaker 4: issue that brings out the NIMBYs, right? When there is
• 41:37
  Speaker 4: a new, it could be that you're building a new
• 41:43
  Speaker 4: industrial building, you know, a new freeway, a new bike path,
• 41:48
  Speaker 4: anything that people just don't like or don't understand or
• 41:52
  Speaker 4: don't want, creates a sense of not in my backyard.
• 41:56
  Speaker 4: But in my experience, it has always been that there's
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: two things that are happening when people are the NIMBYs. One,
• 42:06
  Speaker 4: they don't understand it. And two, they just want to
• 42:08
  Speaker 4: feel heard. So as a leader, you have to provide
• 42:12
  Speaker 4: the space for them to be heard. And also you
• 42:14
  Speaker 4: have to explain to them what is going on. And
• 42:18
  Speaker 4: in the process of doing both, sometimes, most of the times,
• 42:22
  Speaker 4: you mitigate.
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: Right? So I'll give you an example.
• 42:25
  Speaker 4: Even with my tiny homes, and mind you, a lot
• 42:28
  Speaker 4: of the locations where I experienced working with folks that
• 42:32
  Speaker 4: don't want something in their backyard was when I was
• 42:34
  Speaker 4: on the neighborhood council. And I'm very grateful for that
• 42:37
  Speaker 4: because it made me understand how to mitigate, right? Some
• 42:46
  Speaker 4: developers just want to make as much money when they
• 42:50
  Speaker 4: Build anything.
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 42:52
  Speaker 4: So when you do go to the community and you
• 42:54
  Speaker 4: hear them out, things improve. So now that I'm an
• 42:58
  Speaker 4: elected official and I was going to build a tiny homes,
• 43:02
  Speaker 4: you know, it was the same thing. People knew that
• 43:04
  Speaker 4: they want people off the streets.
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: People do want.
• 43:09
  Speaker 4: Them to be supported and taken off the streets with
• 43:12
  Speaker 4: some empathy. So what I needed to do was make
• 43:15
  Speaker 4: sure that they knew that that was exactly what we
• 43:17
  Speaker 4: had in mind. So what we did in my office
• 43:22
  Speaker 4: was we created we did a few things. We had
• 43:25
  Speaker 4: a town hall. where we explained why this would be
• 43:28
  Speaker 4: a good thing. And we also created a neighborhood watch
• 43:31
  Speaker 4: with the community nearby. And it's a neighborhood watch, so
• 43:36
  Speaker 4: we meet with them on a bi-monthly basis. And you
• 43:39
  Speaker 4: had everything from the service provider to the police to
• 43:45
  Speaker 4: our CAO who are going to this neighborhood watch. And
• 43:49
  Speaker 4: we explained to them everything. Why this location? What is
• 43:53
  Speaker 4: it going to mean for the pedestrian bridge? What is
• 43:56
  Speaker 4: it going to mean as it pertains to increasing lighting?
• 43:58
  Speaker 4: What is it going to mean related to the Metrolink
• 44:01
  Speaker 4: station that's nearby? All of these questions were answered and
• 44:05
  Speaker 4: they also got to see the design, you know, and
• 44:08
  Speaker 4: we emphasize that the staff is going to be closer
• 44:11
  Speaker 4: to the cul-de-sac so that, you know, no negative element
• 44:14
  Speaker 4: can happen at the cul-de-sac. Where we were two years
• 44:18
  Speaker 4: ago when we first started talking about it compared to now,
• 44:23
  Speaker 4: people are actually really proud of it. People are proud
• 44:26
  Speaker 4: to say we are a community that is actually working
• 44:31
  Speaker 4: to improve this. And I even have people saying, how
• 44:34
  Speaker 4: do I get a job there? Because they want to
• 44:36
  Speaker 4: be part of the solution. But that's how you address
• 44:38
  Speaker 4: the NIMBYs. Hear them out, you know, explain to them
• 44:42
  Speaker 4: what is truly going on, because sometimes it's a lack
• 44:44
  Speaker 4: of information and it's still a dialogue. You also have
• 44:48
  Speaker 4: to go and recognize that what they're saying has some
• 44:52
  Speaker 4: validity to And you adjust and you try to negotiate.
• 44:55
  Speaker 4: I think that that's the whole point of being in
• 44:57
  Speaker 4: elected office is being the one who listens and then
• 45:03
  Speaker 4: executes based on trying to make the greater good for
• 45:06
  Speaker 4: the greatest amount of people. But the greatest amount of
• 45:08
  Speaker 4: people is still going to have some naysayers. But again,
• 45:11
  Speaker 4: if the greater amount of people are OK with it,
• 45:14
  Speaker 4: we move on.
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: Amazing. It's a big job.
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: It's a big job that you're doing during an incredible
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: time in L.A.
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: History.
• 45:23
  Speaker 3: So thank you for taking time out of your day
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: and your schedule to come talk to us and our
• 45:27
  Speaker 3: listeners about what you're working on in City Hall.
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: We really appreciate it.
• 45:32
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: Thank you. It means a lot. All right.
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Council Member, for joining us today.
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: Thank you for having me. We'll catch you next time.
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: Catch you next time.
• 45:41
  Speaker 4: Besitos. Besitos.