Friday, March 29, 2024

AdvertiseDonateSubmit
NewsSportsArtsOpinionThe QuadPhotoVideoIllustrationsCartoonsGraphicsThe StackPRIMEEnterpriseInteractivesPodcastsBruinwalkClassifieds

Los Angeles mayoral candidates discuss platforms in lead up to election

(Christopher Kha/Daily Bruin)

By Lyah Fitzpatrick

June 2, 2022 1:15 a.m.

This year, 10 candidates are running for mayor of Los Angeles. The mayor is the head executive officer of LA and is tasked with proposing, modifying and enforcing policy. The mayor also submits the annual budget and appoints and removes city officials.

 

Karen Bass, congressmember

Policy stances

  • Homelessness
    • House 15,000 people by the end of year one, reduce homelessness, end street encampments and improve mental health and substance abuse treatment
  • Housing prices
    • N/A
  • Public safety
    • Increase effectiveness of LAPD through actions such as hiring civilians for desk jobs and preventing ownership of illegal firearms
    • Work with the community and officers to build relationships and end harmful policing practices
    • Create an office of community safety in the mayor’s office to oversee the implementation of safety tactics
    • Focus on preventing crime without excessive law enforcement action
  • Climate
    • Reduce city emissions made by vehicles, cars and homes
    • Ensure communities adapt with an advancing environment
    • Build resilience against pollution and natural disasters
    • Improve efficiency of water infrastructure and invest in water conservation
  • Transportation
    • N/A
  • Jobs and economy
    • Install departments to allot internal taxpayer dollars efficiently and attract a workforce
    • Invest in small and large businesses
    • Create support systems to funnel low-wage workers into higher-wage jobs

History with city politics

  • Founded Community Coalition in 1990, a social justice organization in South LA that supports African American and Latino communities across generations to address substance abuse, poverty and crime
  • Founded the LA-based National Foster Youth Institute, elevating the voices of those in and associated with foster care
  • Current member of congress and the California State Assembly

 

Rick Caruso, businessman

Policy stances

  • Homelessness
    • Declare a state of emergency and cut financial waste
    • Build emergency shelter beds to combat the housing shortage
    • Hire professionals and create departments to address mental health and addiction
    • Remove encampments and offer job opportunities to support those living in encampments
  • Housing prices
    • N/A
  • Public safety
    • Refund the LAPD’s budget for community-based policing and increase officers on patrol
    • Address the safety of the supply and demand sides of the gun market
    • Ensure consequences for property crime
    • Address mental health through response systems and resource centers
    • Expand violence prevention programs
  • Climate
    • N/A
  • Transportation
    • N/A
  • Jobs and economy
    • N/A

History with city politics

  • Appointed to the LA Department of Water and Power Commission as a commissioner in 1985
  • President of the DWPC from 1997 to 2000
  • President of the Board of Police Commissioners
  • Chair of the University of Southern California’s Board of Trustees

 

Kevin de Leon, LA City Council member

Policy stances

  • Homelessness
    • Build emergency units to combat homelessness
    • Focus on homelessness prevention
    • Create a centralized LA department of public and mental health
  • Housing prices
    • Create affordable down payments and mandate affordable housing
    • Encourage higher wages and small business growth
    • Create middle-class jobs by freeing up capital for small businesses and entrepreneurs
  • Public safety
    • Integrate mental health professionals into the LAPD
    • Confront crime through confiscating illegal firearms, keeping guns away from domestic abusers and targeting smash and grab crimes
    • Improve officer training for the LAPD
  • Climate
    • Push for additional electrical car charging infrastructure
    • Expand and maintain urban canopy to combat heat by planting new and maintaining old foliage
    • Electrify the Port of LA
    • Construct new parks with irrigation from recycled water
  • Transportation
    • Subsidize transportation fares for youths and seniors
    • Focus on the Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project that will connect the San Fernando Valley, the LA Metro and the Westside
    • Create a more efficient, safe Metro that further spans across LA
    • Integrate LA Department of Transportation, Metro and Metrolink services
    • Drop Metrolink train prices
    • Make Metrolink more accessible and frequent
  • Jobs and economy
    • N/A

History with city politics

  • Elected in 2010 to the California State Senate
  • Elected to lead as president pro tempore of the California State Senate in 2014
  • Represents the 14th District as an LA city councilmember
  • Helped organize a march against Prop 187, a bill that aimed to prevent undocumented immigrant children from using public health services

 

Craig Greiwe, businessman

Policy stances

  • Homelessness
    • Collect real-time data on every person experiencing homelessness in LA and the available support services
    • Provide immediate and transitional housing
  • Housing prices
    • Ensure that no one pays more than 30% of their income in rent
    • Expedite permitting processes for construction and facilitate new construction
  • Public safety
    • End homelessness to return officers’ focus to crime
    • Expand the use of force training for police officers and civilian control and oversight
    • Fund a peace officer corps with mental health professionals for nonviolent response
  • Climate
    • Favor market incentives over generalized policy on sustainability efforts to force compliance
    • Include mitigation of climate change in every government program and policy
  • Transportation
    • Create smooth streets and clean sidewalks
    • Start a remediation program for sidewalks and streets
  • Jobs and economy
    • Bring new industries to LA to create jobs
    • Create a city innovation fund with annual investments of $100 million

History with city politics

  • Chief strategy officer of Rogers & Cowan, Pickwick Public Relations & Maslansky/Koenigsberg
  • Board member of nonprofit organizations including Christopher Street West (focus on the rights, education, outreach and better understanding within the LGBTQ+ communities) and the American Dance Movement (building healthy communities through dance)
  • Launched nonprofit Rise Together LA, an outreach, education and awareness campaign to motivate the public to vote for change

 

Alexander Gruenenfelder, Echo Park Neighborhood councilmember

Policy stances

  • Homelessness
    • Focus on ending homelessness without raising taxes
    • Open vacant lots to house people experiencing homelessness
    • End subsidies and tax cuts to corporate hotels and luxury developments
    • Create affordable housing and high-rise residences
  • Public safety
    • Redirect funds from the police budget into community programs
    • Focus on leveraging social workers and mental healthcare instead of police officers
    • Emphasize the Black Lives Matter movement
    • Transportation
    • Free public transit in LA
    • Invest in the public transit system to increase accessibility and encourage riders

History with city politics

  • Echo Park Neighborhood councilmember
  • Member of the ad hoc Reimagining Public Safety committee and co-chair of the Planning and Land Use committee of the Echo Park Neighborhood Council

 

John Samuel Jackson, community member

Policy stances

  • Homelessness
    • Research the causes of homelessness
    • Invest in mental health, shelter, retraining, job creation and counseling
  • Housing prices
    • Start investigation of construction contracts related to affordable housing
    • Propose changes to zoning laws
    • Require quarterly accountability reports detailing the services available to people experiencing homelessness
    • Consider allotting housing benefits for seniors and veterans
  • Public safety
    • Establish antibullying educational programs for third graders to high schoolers
    • Create support groups for victims of hate crimes

History with city politics

  • N/A

 

Andrew Kim, lawyer

Policy stances

  • Homelessness
    • Declare a state of emergency and appoint an official to oversee the homelessness situation
    • Create more housing for individuals experiencing homelessness
    • Hire mental health and addiction caseworkers to increase mental health care
    • Increase job training for unemployed individuals
    • Demand funding from the state and federal government for initiatives against homelessness
    • Expand emergency rental assistance
  • Public safety
    • Support the recall of LA District Attorney George Gascón
    • Strictly enforce misdemeanor offenses
    • Create a community policing model and more after-school programs
    • Promote job training
    • Deep clean streets
    • Enhance penalties for crimes against seniors
    • Create gang intervention programs

History with city politics

  • Ran for California’s 46th Assembly seat in 1996
  • Ran for LA City Council District 10 seat in 2011
  • Served as LA County Commissioner for the Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs commission
  • Temporary judge of Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles

 

Gina Viola Peake, businesswoman

Policy stances

  • Homelessness
    • Fully support the Los Angeles Community Action Network’s EcoHood and sustainable housing for the unhoused
    • Start a housing-for-all task force composed of unhoused and formerly unhoused citizens
  • Public safety
    • Defund the police
  • Climate
    • Abolish fossil fuel drilling in LA
    • Approve the Sunrise Movement LA’s Green New Deal, an effort to mobilize society to 100% clean energy and guaranteed living wage jobs for all within the next 10 years
  • Jobs and economy
    • Increase living wage to $39.03 per hour
    • Implement an infusion of capital to support Black businesses, protect threatened homes and encourage employment

History with city politics

  • Organized for LGBTQ+ rights with AIDS Project LA
  • Sat on the board of Girls & Gangs, supporting and advocating for young women involved in the juvenile justice system

 

Mel Wilson, businessman

Policy stances

  • Homelessness
    • Create temporary and permanent supportive housing shelter beds
  • Housing prices
    • Build more housing faster at a lower cost and preserve single-family neighborhoods
    • Reduce construction costs by waiving building fees and using new construction techniques
    • Create the housing wealth creation program to support middle-class first-time home buyers
    • Create a rental assistance program to subsidize rental costs for low-income residents and individuals with disabilities
  • Public safety
    • Hire more officers and continue de-escalation training
    • Hire mental health experts to assist police
    • Create a Metro police department
    • Create the Tomorrow’s Youth Works program to provide part-time employment for high school students
    • Implement the Accountable Community Policing plan, cut a five-member police commission meant to hold the police chief accountable for crime reduction and officer performance
  • Climate
    • Convert to zero-emission fuels and invest in wind, solar and wave technology
    • Invest in water conservation, water recycling and water transportation technology
    • Implement low irrigation landscaping
    • Encourage gardening and allow food sources to grow in parkways
  • Jobs and economy
    • Abolish the receipt tax
    • Create the Start Small, Think Big program, offering small businesses loans that are forgivable for up to 12 months
    • Create the Restaurant Rescue plan focusing on restaurant needs such as street space

History with city politics

  • Served twice on the LA County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board from 1993 to 1997 and 2010 to 2013
  • Served as president of the United Chamber of Commerce of San Fernando Valley

 

Share this story:FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Lyah Fitzpatrick
Fitzpatrick is a News staff writer on the science and health beat and has contributed to the Daily Bruin since 2021. She is a third-year ecology, behavior and evolution student with a minor in art history.
Fitzpatrick is a News staff writer on the science and health beat and has contributed to the Daily Bruin since 2021. She is a third-year ecology, behavior and evolution student with a minor in art history.
COMMENTS
Featured Classifieds
More classifieds »
Related Posts