Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass doesn’t agree with the 2028 Olympic Committee’s decision to keep Casey Wasserman on as the chairman, after it was discovered that he is in the Epstein files. “I cannot fire him,” Mayor Bass told CNN on Monday night. “I do have an opinion. My opinion is that he should step down.” Only the Los Angeles committee board can make decisions about its members, and they agreed to keep Wasserman on board. In the emails, it was discovered he had a flirtatious relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell, who was Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice in his crimes. “We found Mr. Wasserman’s relationship with Epstein and Maxwell did not go beyond what has already been publicly documented,” the board shared in a statement on February 11. “The Executive Committee of the Board has determined that based on these facts, as well as the strong leadership he has exhibited over the past ten years, Mr. Wasserman should continue to lead LA28 and deliver a safe and successful Games.”
“The board made a decision,” Bass concluded. “I think that decision was unfortunate. I don’t support the decision. I do think that we need to look at the leadership. However, my job as mayor of Los Angeles is to make sure that our city is completely prepared to have the best Olympics that has ever happened in Olympic history.”
California governor wins a major victory as the U.S. Supreme Court rules the state can use the new election map he championed — which is likely to send five more Democrats to Congress in November.
Karen Bass
Los Angeles mayor takes a political hit as the LA Times reports she ordered changes to a report about last year’s deadly wildfires to cover up city failures, including not deploying enough firefighters.
Lisa Gillmor
Santa Clara’s mayor is a longtime critic of the Levi’s Stadium deal who has battled with 49ers owners. But hosting the Super Bowl brings worldwide attention, along with hotel taxes and other perks to her city.
Karen Bass with 3980 Bill Robertson Lane in Los Angeles
*please pull Getty and/or Google Maps images of LA Mayor Karen Bass and the Expo Center at 3980 Bill Robertson Lane in Los Angeles. This is art for Bass’s state of the city address, which will be held at the Expo Center
Real estate was left wanting more — a lot more when it came to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’s State of the City on Monday.
This summer’s FIFA World Cup and U.S. Women’s Open, along with the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic games, dominated much of Bass’s address beginning with the remarks being delivered about five miles southwest of city hall at the Expo Center in Los Angeles’s Exposition Park neighborhood south of downtown.
After last week’s messy battle over the two-tier property-transfer tax, Measure United to House L.A. (Measure ULA), Bass offered little to shed light on where she stands on major reforms proposed by Councilmember Nithya Raman that would create aggressive carveouts across commercial and residential real estate. Bass’s own push to get Palisades Fire-impacted property owners relief from the tax, which she introduced in October, was also absent from Monday’s address.
Measure ULA applies to sales of properties that sell for at least $5.3 million, applying a 4 percent levy on the deal and increases to 5.5 percent for those trading for $10.6 million or more.
Raman is a Democratic Socialist and prominent local progressive. She represents the city’s 4th District and attempted last week to get her City Council peers to consider and vote on a 15-year exemption from the so-called mansion tax for newly constructed apartments, commercial and mixed-use projects. Raman had hoped to push the item onto the June ballot, but it was instead kicked to the Housing and Homelessness Committee. Her move raised hopes among real estate executives in the commercial and residential sectors, who want to see the city roll back ULA, while also inflaming the Measure ULA Citizen Oversight Committee for bypassing the group established to monitor implementation of the tax.
Instead, the only reference to ULA on Monday was when Bass confirmed the approval of $14 million in rental assistance for seniors and individuals with disabilities. The city confirmed those funds came from the over $1 billion ULA has generated since its inception in April 2023.
While Bass stressed the need to “continue accelerating the construction of permanent affordable housing” — a key point in Raman’s explanation for her proposed carveouts — a firm stance on the mansion tax didn’t factor into the mayor’s address.
Rebuild: year two
Specifics around the Pacific Palisades in year two of the rebuild were also thin.
Bass said she, along with Councilmember Traci Park and Palisades residents, would travel to Sacramento next week “to make clear to the state that continued investment in building the Palisades is not optional; it is essential.”
While permitting was mentioned by Bass, it was to confirm more than 400 homes are under construction in the neighborhood, while “hundreds more” have received approvals.
The remarks come as the mayor and California Gov. Gavin Newsom fend off heat from the federal government over permitting delays. Late last month President Donald Trump signed off on an executive order authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Small Business Administration to leap over local permitting to create a self-certification process for builders, which a federally appointed agency would oversee.
It’s unclear if the Trump administration has authority to step into local permitting processes, and whether it also plans to inject itself into California’s tangled insurance ecosystem, which has been a major cause of delays in jumpstarting rebuilding.
A total of 10 homes have been rebuilt and about 2,500 projects have been permitted post-Palisades and Eaton fires, according to the federal government.
Election year
The rosy outlook was delivered in an election year, crowded with 25 hopefuls looking to unseat Bass as mayor of Los Angeles.
The most recent to enter the field was former “The Hills” reality TV star Spencer Pratt, who announced his bid for the seat in January on the anniversary of the Palisades Fire. There’s also Austin Beutner, a former L.A. deputy mayor and Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent, and Democratic Socialist of America Rae Chen Huang, who some call a longshot candidate likened to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Bass has pulled in the lion’s share of funding, so far raising $2.4 million in campaign contributions as of Dec. 31, according to the Los Angeles Ethics Commission. Meanwhile, Beutner’s raised $314,601, while Huang — who announced her bid for mayor in mid-November — has drawn $107,644 as of Dec. 31.
Read more
“Offensive”: Measure ULA oversight committee lashes out at Raman’s bid for exemptions
“They Let Us Burn”: Palisades rally blasts local, state pols for wildfire handling
Bass asks LA City Council to roll back ULA for Palisades victims
As Los Angeles’ Charter Reform Commission moves toward recommendations that could reshape City Hall for decades — from City Council expansion to changes in financial oversight — a growing dispute over transparency is raising concerns that some elected officials may be privately influencing the process outside of public view.
The debate has sparked a motion by Councilmembers Monica Rodriguez and Imelda Padilla, supported by civic transparency groups, that would require members of the Charter Reform Commission to disclose ex parte communications, or private discussions with elected officials or their staff that occur outside of public meetings.
Supporters say the safeguard is necessary as the commission, formed in 2024 after a series of City Hall scandals, prepares to submit its recommendations to the City Council by April 2, a step that could put major governance changes before voters as soon as November.
Rodriguez said she is concerned that key ideas are being developed through informal, undisclosed conversations, limiting meaningful public input before the commission’s work reaches the City Council.
“Voters are going to have items to consider without a fully vetted proposal, and that’s really problematic,” she said in an interview Thursday. “ Potentially it could do more harm than good for our city.”
She also argued that the commission’s structure heightens those concerns. With a majority of commissioners appointed by Mayor Karen Bass and Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Rodriguez said the process risks being driven by “the will of two or three people,” rather than the public.
“There has been a lot of behind-closed-doors [discussion] with commissioners and elected officials,” Rodriguez said. “A lot of policy suggestions haven’t come forward in a formal manner.”
Padilla, who co-authored the motion with Rodriguez, said the proposal is aimed at strengthening public confidence in the commission’s work as it approaches major decisions.
“Independence and transparency can and should go hand in hand,” Padilla said in a statement Friday. “When proposals have the potential to alter the structure and function of our local government, there must be confidence they are being developed openly, not through informal or undisclosed conversations.”
Rodriguez also criticized the pace at which her ex parte disclosure motion has moved. Introduced in August, the measure was referred to the Council’s Rules, Elections and Intergovernmental Relations Committee, where it remained for several months before being approved in December, but was not immediately scheduled for a full City Council vote.
With the commission facing an early April deadline to submit its recommendations, Rodriguez said the delay has narrowed the window for public debate.
“Without ex parte communications, which is a motion that I introduced over five months ago that Marqueece Harris-Dawson, the president of the Council, has sat on and refused to advance—[it hides] the disclosures of what communications are actively happening with elected officials and commissioners,” Rodriguez said. “What it does is it just exposes the lack of transparency that they’re operating here, and that’s a big problem.”
Rodriguez publicly raised those concerns during a Jan. 9 City Council meeting, accusing council leadership of allowing key policy discussions to languish without action.
Harris-Dawson chairs the Rules Committee and, as Council president, plays a central role in setting the City Council agenda, giving his office influence over when motions are heard in committee and when they advance to a full Council vote.
He did not respond to requests for comment. The motion appeared on next Tuesday’s City Council agenda, Jan. 20, as Item 33 on Friday.
The dispute has drawn a response from the Charter Reform Commission itself, whose chair pushed back on the idea that the body is operating without safeguards or public oversight.
Charter Reform Commission Chair Raymond Meza said the body is already subject to multiple layers of oversight and transparency, and that it operates under rules set not by the commission itself, but by the City Council.
“This commission was created by ordinance of the City Council and whatever rules the City Council puts in place, this commission will abide by,” Meza said.
Meza pointed to several existing safeguards he said prevent decisions from being made outside public view. The commission, he said, is bound by the Brown Act and the California Public Records Act, meaning deliberations and votes must occur publicly and records can be requested like those of any other city body.
He also noted that any formal recommendation requires seven votes from the full 13-member commission — not just a majority of those present — a threshold he said makes it difficult to advance proposals without broad agreement.
“You can’t spring things on people,” he said.
While commissioners may speak informally with members of the public, advocacy groups, department heads or elected officials, Meza said those conversations cannot lead to action unless proposals are introduced as motions, debated publicly and approved by seven of the commission’s 13 members.
Meza, a mayoral appointee, also rejected the notion that the commission is controlled by elected officials through appointments.
Under the structure approved by city leaders in 2024, he said, the mayor appoints four commissioners, the City Council president appoints two and the president pro tempore appoints two more. Those eight commissioners then selected five additional members through an open application process — a structure he described as unusual among city commissions and intended to promote independence.
Meza also said ex parte disclosure requirements are not standard across city commissions. Only Los Angeles’ Independent Redistricting Commission currently has such a rule, he said, and unlike that body, the Charter Reform Commission does not send proposals directly to voters.
“No council member put forward any amendments when this commission was created to put ex parte requirements or to change who appointed the commissioners,” Meza said, adding that many of the same council members who approved those rules are still on the Council today.
Supporters of the disclosure proposal, however, argue that the Charter Reform Commission — often described as the city’s constitution-writing body — warrants a higher standard of transparency, given the scope and permanence of the changes under consideration.
The League of Women Voters of Greater Los Angeles said ex parte disclosure rules are critical to maintaining public confidence in the charter process, particularly as the commission moves toward final recommendations.
“The charter is our constitution,” said Chris Carson, chair of the League of Women Voters of Greater Los Angeles’ Government Reform Committee. “And the public has a right to know what is being done to influence the commission’s work behind closed doors.”
League officials said existing open-meeting laws do not replace disclosure rules that reveal how ideas take shape before they reach a public vote.
“We firmly believe that the best safeguard, the only real safeguard, is a ban on ex parte communications—private communications between an elected official and a member of that commission,” Carson said.
Others who have followed the commission’s work say the effects of those gaps in disclosure are already visible in how proposals take shape.
Asked what she believes is at stake in the Charter Reform Commission process, Jamie York did not hesitate.
“The future of the city,” said York, president of the Reseda Neighborhood Council.
She said the Commission’s work goes to the core of how Los Angeles governs itself — and whether it is willing to confront politically difficult issues in a meaningful way.
“It’s asking the questions about what kind of city we want to be, what kind of changes do we think that we need to have,” York said. “And contending with if this Commission is willing to do that work, and then be willing to ask the hard questions and address the tough topics.”
York said she has grown increasingly frustrated with what she described as a staff-driven process that, in her view, has limited transparency and public trust.
“There are two tracks for how things work in this city,” she said. “There’s the public process, and there’s the private process. And the private process tends to be what dominates the city. But the charter should be about what’s good for Angelenos, not about what’s good for politicians. So the entire process should be public.”
York said her Neighborhood Council submitted a community impact statement supporting the motion with amendments, urging that ex parte disclosure requirements apply to city staff as well as elected officials.
Supporters of the disclosure proposal have also pointed to recent commission debates involving City Controller Kenneth Mejia as an example of why transparency concerns have intensified.
On Jan. 10, Commissioner Martin Schlageter — an appointee of Harris-Dawson — introduced a proposal that would significantly restructure the city’s financial oversight system.
The plan would convert the City Administrative Officer into a chief financial officer role and transfer certain financial and administrative functions now handled by the independently elected City Controller.
After widespread public opposition at the meeting, commissioners agreed to advance portions of the proposal while continuing discussion of other elements in committee.
The dispute comes as the Charter Reform Commission approaches the final stretch of a process born out of City Hall’s own credibility crisis.
The Charter Reform Commission was created in 2024 in response to multiple City Hall scandals, including the leak of racist audio recordings involving former City Council President Nury Martinez. Tasked with reviewing the city’s governing document — often described as Los Angeles’ constitution — the commission is examining changes that could permanently alter how power is distributed at City Hall.
Under the current schedule, the commission is expected to submit its recommendations to the City Council by April. The council will then decide which proposals, if any, advance to the ballot — a step critics say further heightens the need for transparency at the commission level.
Among the ideas under consideration are proposals to expand the City Council, adopt ranked-choice voting for city elections, set standards for removing elected officials indicted on criminal charges, and allow the mayor to submit a two-year budget instead of the current annual cycle.
A spokesperson for Mayor Karen Bass said the mayor’s office was preparing a response, but a statement was not provided by publication time Friday evening.
One year after two of the most destructive wildfires in California’s history erupted just hours apart, survivors commemorated the day in Altadena and Pacific Palisades with a mixture of anger and somber remembrance.
At the American Legion veterans post in the Palisades, hundreds gathered at a military-style white-glove ceremony to pay respects to the 12 families who lost loved ones in the Palisades fire.
Just down the street, an even larger crowd shouted the rally cry “They let us burn,” to demand comprehensive disaster planning, relief for families working to rebuild and accountability for government missteps that they say enabled the disaster and have slowed the recovery.
In Altadena, survivors congregated at the Eaton Fire Collaborative’s community center with a clear message: They were not backing down in the fight to return home.
“This year has been the hardest year of our lives,” said Joy Chen, executive director of the Eaton Fire Survivor Network. “Unimaginable grief. The 31 people who died that day, and the hundreds who have died prematurely since. Home lost. Jobs lost. Incomes lost. A sense of safety and identity stripped away.”
In the evening, Atladenans plan to gather at a beloved family-owned burger joint that miraculously still stands amid a sea of empty lots. The restaurant, Fair Oaks Burger, reopened an outdoor kitchen for residents and recovery workers just weeks after the fire and has become a lifeline for the neighborhood.
Jessica Rogers, who lost her home in the Palisades fire and has since become the executive director of the Palisades Long-Term Recovery Group, which organized the remembrance ceremony, said that people are still processing what happened over the last year.
“The five different stages of grief — you can feel them. Sometimes people can feel them almost all at the same time,” she said. “There is no right or wrong way to process grief. Everybody processes it in their own way, at their own speed and their own time. And some need to do it at home, behind closed doors; others need to do it very vocally, out in public.”
Pacific Palisades resident Julia Citron, right, cries with her mother, Lainie, in Palisades Village on Wednesday. The Citrons lost their home in the fire. “It was the only house our children knew,” said Lainie Citron.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Very different communities, the Palisades and Altadena share similar frustrations — with insurance companies, government agencies and disaster scammers. But on Wednesday, they directed their wrath on contrasting targets. In Altadena, activists are focused on real estate speculators and Southern California Edison, suspected of triggering the Eaton fire. In the Palisades, anger continues to mount against Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, the city’s Fire Department and state agencies.
Inside the Palisades Legion Post, the 11-year-old daughter of Jim Cragg, the Post’s former commander, handed white roses to the families of fire victims. One of these was a family member of Rory Sykes, who perished in the blaze, who told Cragg: “He would have loved this.” Both held back tears.
The families then led hundreds of Palisadians waiting outside — many wearing “They Let Us Burn” T-shirts — in a procession down to a small community park, where the legion had placed 13 memorials: One for each victim, and one for the many uncounted lives lost in the fire’s wake.
In a moment of silence, Palisadians called out the names of loved ones who had died in the aftermath. Many sobbed.
Researchers estimate the January fires resulted in upward of 400 excess deaths in L.A. County beyond the official death toll.
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1.Steve Salinas shields from intense heat as he hoses down a neighbors rooftop on Sinaloa Ave. as the Eaton Fire continues to grow, January 8, 2025.(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)2.The view from the same rooftop, one year later.(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
“People burned alive in their homes. There was nobody going to get them,” Kathleen Boltiansky said through tears as she watched the ceremony.
Boltiansky, who lost her house in the fire, planned to attend the “They Let Us Burn” rally after the service. “Public safety should be item No. 1 — if they cannot provide public safety, what are they doing?”
Just across the street, Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” played over a loudspeaker as protesters gathered in front of the burned husk of the historic 1924 Business Block Building.
Rally organizer Jeremy Padawer, who lost his home in the Palisades fire, took the stage. “The days of gaslighting should be over,” he called out.
Padawer asked the audience to raise their hands if their home burned or remains contaminated.
Hundreds of hands shot up.
Josh Lederer, clutching a “They Let Us Burn” banner, described how he, his wife and 2-year-old daughter moved five times since the fire and are still unable to return to their home amid fights with their insurance company. He’s glad his child is too young to really understand what’s going on.
“You feel, when there’s an emergency, your city’s going to be there to protect you, and we had nobody,” said Lederer, 42. “And since then, we’ve had nobody helping us. All we get is lip service from Karen Bass and Newsom that it’s somebody else’s fault or we’re trying to profit off this. We’re not trying to profit off anything. We want our lives back.”
Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonald, left, speaks with Mayor Karen Bass after a private ceremony where they remembered the fire victims with faith leaders, LAPD officers and city officials as flags were lowered outside City Hall.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
When ABC 7 Eyewitness News asked Bass if she thought the “They Let Us Burn” rally is how residents should commemorate the one-year anniversary, she dismissed the event.
“I don’t think so,” she said. “But again, I think there are people who are profiting off this, and that is what I find very despicable.”
Padawer said he had invited Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom to the rally to listen to survivors and accept accountability, but neither joined.
A spokesperson for Newsom’s office said the governor would meet directly with survivors in Los Angeles this week. Bass started the day at a private vigil at the Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine in Pacific Palisades, then presided over a flag-lowering ceremony at City Hall to honor the victims.
Jessica Rogers with the Palisades Long Term Recovery Group, third from left, hugs Marina Shterenberg, who lost a loved one in the Palisades fire, during a community ceremony in partnership with the Palisades American Legion Post 283, marking the one year anniversary of the fire on January 7, 2026. The ceremony honored those who lost their lives in the fire, including Mark Shterenberg.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
Several elected officials attended the American Legion ceremony — including state Sen. Ben Allen and county Supervisor Lindsey Horvath — but only one attended the rally too: City Councilmember Traci Park. She stepped on stage at the rally in a far less somber tone than at the memorial.
“Let’s end this culture of half-assed solutions,” she said — also noting that there were “some folks” who “didn’t want me to come here today.”
“What happened on Jan. 7 was catastrophic failure and to pretend otherwise is just insulting,” she told the crowd. “You did not imagine what happened, and you are right to be angry.”
In Altadena, a coalition of lawmakers, survivors and advocates at the Collaboratory community center set the tone for the second year of recovery.
Recently, a survey from the nonprofit Department of Angels found that more than 7 out of 10 Altadena residents remain displaced from their homes. Nearly half have exhausted their savings, and over 40% have taken on personal debt to survive, said Miguel Santana, co-founder of the nonprofit.
Among them are people like Ada Hernandez, who owned a 1950s home on Mountain View Street with her husband, Miguel, where they lived with their 5-year-old son, Mason, 2-year-old Sadie and 14-year-old dog Bentley. They moved into their home in 2018, on the same day she lost her firstborn son. But in the fire, she said, she lost every physical memory of him, including his neonatal intensive care unit pillow and handprint.
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Now, the pain has compounded as her family has been forced to move three times over the last year. They have spent the last two months in an Airbnb with help from the Salvation Army, she said, but that runs out next Wednesday.
“We feel forgotten,” Hernandez, 37, said. “We feel like we’re at a standstill.”
Bass and Newsom have touted L.A.’s recovery as one of the fastest in modern California history. Bass, in particular, points to her work in cutting red tape at the Department of Building and Safety, which is reviewing and signing off on the rebuilding plans. But to many survivors, recovery still feels painfully slow.
Avaristo Serrano helps build a home on Highview Street, one year after the Eaton fire.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
As of December, L.A. County had issued rebuilding permits for about 16% of homes destroyed in Altadena, and the city of L.A. issued permits for just under 14% for the Palisades, The Times found. Many whose homes survived the fire but were contaminated by smoke and ash are still fighting with their insurance companies to remediate their homes. Many homes in Altadena remain contaminated even after remediation.
Mark Mariscal, a longtime Altadena resident, said he faced months of delays by his insurance company but, with help from the Eaton Fire Survivors Network, finally got a check in the mail. He became emotional as he remembered the lives lost and everything that transpired since Jan. 7.
“It’s just a battle, a good one because we’re pretty sure we’re never moving again,” he said. “After we build this house the way we want it, we’re not moving again. Unless I’m sent up to my higher power.”
For many survivors, finding a sense of peace in their healing journeys one year into recovery has proved difficult without closure. Investigations and reports into the failures that led to and exacerbated the disasters have left residents with more questions than answers.
Meanwhile, emergency officials failed to issue evacuation orders for west Altadena, a historically Black enclave, until five hours after the fire began to engulf homes in the neighborhood. An investigation by The Times found that even as the fire progressed far into the west side of town, the majority of Los Angeles County Fire Department resources remained elsewhere.
“So many different layers of mistakes had to be made for this to occur,” Padawer told The Times. He said the rally was intended to highlight both the “gaslighting” and “solutions that can help our neighbors come home.”
The Palisades Long Term Recovery Group, in partnership with the Palisades American Legion Post 283 hosts a community ceremony with white glove presentation of flags for the families of those lost, marking the one year anniversary of the Palisades fire on January 7, 2026.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
Sue Kohl, president of the Pacific Palisades Community Council, said she had mixed feelings early Wednesday as reporters gathered for a news conference on the barren front lawn of what will be her new home on Iliff Street in the decimated Alphabet Streets neighborhood.
Construction on her two-story home — surrounded by empty lots — is well underway. But she has no memories here, she said. It’s not the place where she lived for 32 years and raised five children and three stepchildren.
The anniversary, she said, is “like emotional ping pong. You want to be positive. But at the same time — I mean, look around. At least now you see a lot of construction.”
Many survivors say a hope for the future is the one thing that motivates them. In five years, or maybe ten, Rogers looks forward to all the little things that make the Palisades the Palisades.
“I’d like to see children running down the streets happily. I’d like to hear them, see them on their bikes, watch the teenagers hang out at CVS, in the parks. I’d like to see all Angelenos from all parts of Los Angeles back up in our hiking trails,” she said.
“That would bring me a lot of joy, to see our schools thriving again, and I’d love to complain about the 3 p.m. traffic — the kids’ pickup time from schools in the village,” she said. “That’s what I’d like to see come back in our community as soon as possible.”
LOS ANGELES — Community organizer and minister Rae Huang formally announced her candidacy for mayor of Los Angeles on Sunday, offering voters an option to the left of Mayor Karen Bass and potentially complicating prospects for Bass avoiding a runoff.
“This campaign is not about me,” the 43-year-old Huang said Sunday afternoon at Arts District Brewing Co. in downtown Los Angeles. “It is about us, all of us, all Angelenos, it is about the future that we will and must build together this new season for our city.
Rev. @raeforla painted a picture of a better, more livable Los Angeles at today’s launch of her campaign for Mayor of Los Angeles:
“In this new season, we are going to make housing affordable for all. We are going to make transit free, safe and fast. We are going to make sure that wages and work are dignified.”
Huang is deputy director of Housing Now California, a coalition of over 150 organizations that fights tenant displacement. She is also a member of the Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, and if elected would be Los Angeles’ first Asian-American mayor.
Huang is a long shot to win with little name recognition or political experience, but if her campaign gains traction she could siphon enough votes from Bass to keep the mayor from a majority in the June 2 primary. If no candidate receives over 50%, the top two finishers will meet in a runoff in November.
Bass has drawn criticism for her handling of the devastating Palisades fire in January. When the fire broke out Bass was in Ghana as part of the four-member presidential delegation attending the inauguration of John Dramani Mahama as president.
Bass has also drawn criticism for not doing enough to address high housing costs.
Doug Herman, a spokesperson for the Bass campaign, told City News Service in an email that “Under Mayor Bass’ leadership, there has been unprecedented progress on the issues that matter most to Angelenos.”
“Homelessness has declined for the first time in two consecutive years, neighborhoods are safer with significant drops in crime, and the Palisades fire recovery continues far ahead of pace with the fastest recovery and rebuilding in California history,” Herman said.
“In addition, there was no better defender of Los Angeles than Mayor Karen Bass when Trump’s ICE raids started and we won a court ruling to help stop the illegal raids and unconstitutional arrests. That’s what we need to move Los Angeles forward.”
Former LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner declared his candidacy on Oct. 13.
“Rev. Huang and I share many concerns about the direction of Los Angeles, including our city’s lack of affordable housing. I look forward to getting to know her during the campaign ahead,” Beutner told City News Service on Sunday.
The 72-year-old Bass, a former congresswoman and Assembly speaker and a onetime community organizer herself, defeated businessman Rick Caruso in 2022 to become mayor.
Caruso has not announced whether he will run for mayor again in 2026.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen announced on Tuesday that her administration has reached a deal with labor unions that averts all remaining layoffs in the city’s fiscal budget, resolving one of the most contentious issues in this year’s budget cycle.
The agreement marked a sharp reversal from Bass’ original FY 25-26 budget proposal in April, which included more than 1,600 layoffs to address the city’s budget shortfall. The deal averts those cuts entirely, ending weeks of uncertainty for city workers and preserving public services that had been at risk.
“This is not about numbers on a spreadsheet, this was always about protecting our skilled city workforce who have trained for years and honed their craft,” Bass said at a press conference in downtown Los Angeles, where she was joined by city leaders and representatives from several municipal employee unions.
A Los Angeles Zoo employee monitors tree trimming at the LA Zoo on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. On Tuesday Mayor Karen Bass announced a labor agreement that averts the previously proposed layoffs in the City of LA’s 2025-2026 budget. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
A Los Angeles Zoo employee at the LA Zoo on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. On Tuesday Mayor Karen Bass announced a labor agreement that averts the previously proposed layoffs in the City of LA’s 2025-2026 budget. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Los Angeles City workers repair a sidewalk at Victory and Western avenue on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. On Tuesday Mayor Karen Bass announced a labor agreement that averts the previously proposed layoffs in the City of LA’s 2025-2026 budget. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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A Los Angeles Zoo employee monitors tree trimming at the LA Zoo on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. On Tuesday Mayor Karen Bass announced a labor agreement that averts the previously proposed layoffs in the City of LA’s 2025-2026 budget. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Bass’ original $14 billion budget proposal had included 1,647 layoffs and the elimination of more than 1,000 vacant positions as part of a plan to address a $1 billion budget deficit.
A revised version adopted by the City Council in May — and signed by Bass in June — saved roughly 1,000 jobs by trimming proposed increases to the Fire Department, scaling back LAPD hiring plan and shifting some positions off of the general fund. But several hundred jobs remained at risk until this week’s announcement.
According to the mayor’s office, those remaining layoffs were ultimately avoided through a combination of negotiated labor agreements, department transfers and creative staffing alternatives.
City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo said that after the revised budget was adopted in June, 614 employees still faced potential layoffs. His office worked with labor groups to calculate the savings required to keep those workers on the payroll, then helped broker agreements to meet those targets, including changes to overtime policies, unpaid holidays and staff reassignments.
About 250 of the at-risk employees worked in civilian roles at the Los Angeles Police Department. To save those positions, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents sworn officers, agreed to let its members voluntarily receive overtime as paid time off, reducing LAPD overtime expenses and avoiding civilian layoffs within the department.
For the remaining 300 or so employees, the city partnered with civilian unions to expedite transfers into vacant positions and secure commitments for up to five unpaid holidays in the latter half of the fiscal year.
Two major labor groups — the Coalition of L.A. City Unions, which represents more than 20,000 city workers, and the Engineers and Architects Association, which represents over 6,000 technical and professional staff — agreed to the unpaid days.
Those days are February 9, March 27, April 6, May 22 and June 22. The final number of unpaid days will depend on how many employees remain to be transferred into funded roles by the end of 2025.
Additional savings came from shifting employees from at-risk positions into vacant or specially funded roles — including transfers to departments such as the Port of Los Angeles, Los Angeles World Airports, and the Department of Water and Power, which operate outside the city’s general fund and have more flexible funding sources.
“Our members secured a historic agreement that will avert layoffs and establish a joint effort with the city to increase revenues, to protect and restore our city services,” said David Green, president and executive director of SEIU Local 721, which represents 11,000 city employees.
Marlene Fonseca, executive director of the Engineers and Architects Association, recalled reaching out Monday to a member who had recently been laid off but was slated to return thanks to the agreement. He had planned to attend the press conference but was unexpectedly hospitalized over the weekend.
“Had we not had this agreement, he would be facing a medical crisis with no health insurance,” Fonseca said. “This is the real human difference that solidarity makes.”
The mayor’s announcement comes months after a contentious budget season that drew pushback from several City Council members and employee unions.
In the council’s first vote on the revised budget, Councilmembers John Lee, Traci Park, and Monica Rodriguez voted no, citing concerns about cuts to public safety. The budget passed on a second vote, 11–2, with Lee and Park maintaining their opposition. Rodriguez and Nithya Raman were absent.
“I commend the collaborative efforts that led to this result, and I’m especially proud that the LAPD civilian positions previously identified for elimination were saved,” Lee said in a statement Tuesday. “These professionals are essential to the department and to keeping our communities safe.”
Some community leaders and neighborhood council members welcomed the news, saying it was a relief for both workers and for residents who rely on city services.
Lionel Mares, a member of the Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates, who spoke on his own behalf, said, “I have been urging the Los Angeles City Council and Mayor to save city employees from potential layoffs, because at this critical moment in our city we need to preserve city services, especially for low-income communities and neighborhoods.”
Mihran Kalaydjian, president of the Winnetka Neighborhood Council, said the agreement would benefit city workers and called it “a courageous step by the mayor.”
While the agreement resolves immediate concerns over layoffs, Szabo said his office remains cautious about the city’s financial outlook amid falling revenues and global trade uncertainty. His office plans to release its first quarterly budget report in October.
“But as of now, the $1 billion deficit was closed, and as this budget is implemented, we are projecting a structural balance in the following fiscal year, along with surpluses in years three and four,” he said.
With arguably the most anticipated World Series in decades kicking off this week in Los Angeles, city leaders say a massive effort is underway to ensure the Fall Classic and other local events go off without a hitch.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and other local leaders announced a comprehensive plan on Thursday to prepare for a full slate of events beginning Friday and taking place throughout the weekend, including Game 1 of the World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees.
Bass said the city is gearing up to welcome visitors while ensuring safety, minimizing traffic and highlighting its cultural landmarks.
“We’re working to make sure the City is safe, that traffic is minimized, and that visitors and Angelenos alike are able to enjoy the many attractions, culture, food and neighborhoods that make L.A. an iconic international destination,” Bass said.
Below are some of the efforts Los Angeles and its regional partners are planning to institute in the coming days:
Traffic and safety measures
Expanded Metro service: Extra service on the A, B/D, and E Metro lines will be available, along with increased Dodger Stadium Express buses.
Deploying traffic officers: Over 100 LA Department of Transportation officers will manage car flow near major events.
Specialized traffic management: LADOT’s Special Traffic Operations will implement plans for efficient access to venues, including Dodger Stadium Express lane adjustments.
Real-time traffic monitoring: The Automated Transportation Systems and Coordination Center will manage congestion at key intersections.
Los Angeles Dodgers fans disembark from the Dodger Stadium Express at Dodger Stadium in this undated photo. (LA Metro/The Source)
Safety Efforts
Law enforcement visibility: Los Angeles Police Department officers will be deployed at event locations and pedestrian corridors to ensure safety.
Emergency services: The Los Angeles Fire Department is coordinating with Dodgers’ Public Safety Team for medical support.
Welcoming Visitors
Cultural landmarks: The City Tourism Department is promoting free admission to many local cultural landmarks, and highlighting the diversity of its neighborhoods through discoverlosangeles.com
Airline traffic: LAX expects increased traffic ahead of the World Series, with tips for early arrivals and pre-booking services for departing guests.
Supporting businesses
Assistance for local businesses: The Mayor’s Office Business Concierge will provide resources to help businesses benefit from the influx of visitors. Additionally, the new “ProcureLA” program aims to prepare businesses for upcoming events like the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympics.
The city is also hosting watch parties for Game 4 of the World Series at El Sereno Recreation Center, Algin Sutton Recreation Center, Ritchie Valens Recreation Center, and Michelle and Barack Obama Sports Complex. Additional watch parties will be held for Games 5-7, if needed.
Those watch party events will feature entertainment, activities and a PlayLA sports zone for kids to inspire the “next generation of world champions.”
“My message is that L.A. is ready – ready to host the World Series, ready to welcome visitors from near and far, and we are ready to win,” Bass said. “Go Dodgers!”
In addition to Game 1 of the World Series, Friday also features USC vs. Rutgers at the L.A. Coliseum, Phoenix Suns at Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena, and the 89th East LA Classic between James A. Garfield High School and Theodore Roosevelt High School taking place at SoFi Stadium. The Lakers will also host the Sacramento Kings on Saturday.
The Intuit Dome will host English singer-songwriter David Gilmour Friday, and the Kia Forum will have two nights of performances from classic rock band Electric Light Orchestra, or at least, Jeff Lynne’s ELO, Friday and Saturday.
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Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was met with chants of “Karen! Karen!” after she described Vice President Kamala Harris as a role model who would fight to protect children at Monday’s opening night of the Democratic National Convention.
Bass told the energized crowd in Chicago that she and Harris worked together on youth homelessness and fixing the child welfare system more than a decade ago when Bass headed the California Assembly and Harris was a state prosecutor.
“Our bond was forged years ago, by a shared commitment to children,” said Bass, who has known Harris, 59, for nearly two decades. “A belief that it is everybody’s responsibility to care for every child, no matter where they come from or no matter who their parents are.”
Bass, 70, a well-known advocate for children who created the bipartisan Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth while in Congress, also used her short speech Monday to describe Harris’ work as California attorney general to help youths in the juvenile justice system.
“I know Kamala,” Bass said. “And she feels the importance of this work in her bones. When Kamala meets a young person, you can feel her passion. You can feel her heart. And you can feel her fearlessness.
“That is what defines a commitment to children: being willing to fight fiercely for every child. And trust me, Kamala has done that her entire life.”
Bass grinned at the crowd and appeared to relish her moment in the spotlight. She chuckled as she talked about how she and Harris made history and when Harris, the first female vice president, swore her in after Bass became the first woman to become L.A. mayor in 2022.
Ahead of the swearing-in, “we knew we were sending a message to young girls everywhere: that they too can lead,” Bass said.
Also, Harris and Bass have opened up to reporters about their respective families. Harris is a stepmother and refers to herself as “Momala,” while Bass has three adult stepchildren.
Other Californians who spoke during the convention’s opening night included U.S. Sen. Laphonza Butler, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, Reps. Maxine Waters and Robert Garcia, and Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr.
Before Harris was chosen to be then-candidate Joe Biden’s running mate in 2020, Bass was also viewed as a possible pick for the ticket. But some assumed Harris’ political consultants were behind a perceived effort to knock Bass off the list of potential candidates.
Still, the buzz around Bass being a possible vice president brought her national attention. A year later, Bass launched her campaign for mayor of Los Angeles.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Billions of dollars have been spent on efforts to get homeless people off the streets in California, but outdated computer systems with error-filled data are all too often unable to provide even basic information like where a shelter bed is open on any given night, inefficiencies that can lead to dire consequences.
The problem is especially acute in Los Angeles, where more than 45,000 people — many suffering from serious mental illness, substance addictions or both — live in litter-strewn encampments that have spread into virtually every neighborhood, and where rows of rusting RVs line entire blocks.
Even in the state that is home to Silicon Valley, technology has not kept up with the long-running crisis. In an age when anyone can book a hotel room or rent a car with a few strokes on a mobile phone, no system exists that provides a comprehensive listing of available shelter beds in Los Angeles County, home to more than 1 in 5 unhoused people in the U.S.
Mark Goldin, chief technology officer for Better Angels United, a nonprofit group, described L.A.’s technology as “systems that don’t talk to one another, lack of accurate data, nobody on the same page about what’s real and isn’t real.”
The systems can’t answer “exactly how many people are out there at any given time. Where are they?” he said.
The ramifications for people living on the streets could mean whether someone sleeps another night outside or not, a distinction that can be life-threatening.
“They are not getting the services to the people at the time that those people either need the service, or are mentally ready to accept the services,” said Adam Miller, a tech entrepreneur and CEO of Better Angels.
The problems were evident at a filthy encampment in the city’s Silver Lake neighborhood, where Sara Reyes, executive director of SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition, led volunteers distributing water, socks and food to homeless people, including one who appeared unconscious.
She gave out postcards with the address of a nearby church where the coalition provides hot food and services. A small dog bolted out of a tent, frantically barking, while a disheveled man wearing a jacket on a blistering hot day shuffled by a stained mattress.
At the end of the visit Reyes began typing notes into her mobile phone, which would later be retyped into a coalition spreadsheet and eventually copied again into a federal database.
“Anytime you move it from one medium to another, you can have data loss. We know we are not always getting the full picture,” Reyes said. The “victims are the people the system is supposed to serve.”
The technology has sputtered while the homeless population has soared. Some ask how can you combat a problem without reliable data to know what the scope is? An annual tally of homeless people in the city recently found a slight decline in the population, but some experts question the accuracy of the data, and tents and encampments can be seen just about everywhere.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has pinpointed shortcomings with technology as among the obstacles she faces in homelessness programs and has described the city’s efforts to slow the crisis as “building the plane while flying it.”
There is currently no uniform practice for caseworkers to collect and enter information into databases on the homeless people they interview, including notes taken on paper. The result: Information can be lost or recorded incorrectly, and it becomes quickly outdated with the lag time between interviews and when it’s entered into a database.
The main federal data system, known as the Homeless Management Information System, or HMIS, was designed as a desktop application, making it difficult to operate on a mobile phone.
“One of the reasons the data is so bad is because what the case managers do by necessity is they take notes, either on their phones or on scrap pieces of paper or they just try to remember it, and they don’t typically input it until they get back to their desk” hours, days, a week or even longer afterward, Miller said.
Every organization that coordinates services for homeless people uses an HMIS program to comply with data collection and reporting standards mandated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. But the systems are not all compatible.
Sam Matonik, associate director of data at L.A.-based People Assisting the Homeless, a major service provider, said his organization is among those that must reenter data because Los Angeles County uses a proprietary data system that does not talk to the HMIS system.
“Once you’re manually double-entering things, it opens the door for all sorts of errors,” Matonik said. “Small numerical errors are the difference between somebody having shelter and not.”
Bevin Kuhn, acting deputy chief of analytics for the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, the agency that coordinates homeless housing and services in Los Angeles County, said work is underway to create a database of 23,000 beds by the end of the year as part of technology upgrades.
For case managers, “just seeing … the general bed availability is challenging,” Kuhn said.
Among other changes is a reboot of the HMIS system to make it more compatible with mobile apps and developing a way to measure if timely data is being entered by case workers, Kuhn said.
It’s not uncommon for a field worker to encounter a homeless person in crisis who needs immediate attention, which can create delays in collecting data. Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority aims for data to be entered in the system within 72 hours, but that benchmark is not always met.
In hopes of filling the void, Better Angels assembled a team experienced in building large-scale software applications. They are constructing a mobile-friendly prototype for outreach workers — to be donated to participating groups in Los Angeles County — that will be followed by systems for shelter operators and a comprehensive shelter bed database.
Since homeless people are transient and difficult to locate for follow-up services, one feature would create a map of places where an individual had been encountered, allowing case managers to narrow the search.
Services are often available, but the problem is linking them with a homeless person in real time. So, a data profile would show services the individual received in the past, medical issues and make it easy to contact health workers, if needed.
As a secondary benefit — if enough agencies and providers agree to participate — the software could produce analytical information and data visualizations, spotlighting where homeless people are moving around the county, or concentrations of where homeless people have gathered.
One key goal for the prototypes: ease of use even for workers with scant digital literacy. Information entered into the app would be immediately unloaded to the database, eliminating the need for redundant reentries while keeping information up to date.
Time is often critical. Once a shelter bed is located, there is a 48-hour window for the spot to be claimed, which Reyes says happens only about half the time. The technology is so inadequate, the coalition sometimes doesn’t learn a spot is open until it has expired.
She has been impressed with the speed of the Better Angels app, which is in testing, and believes it would cut down on the number of people who miss the housing window, as well as create more reliability for people trying to obtain services.
“I’m hoping Better Angels helps us put the human back into this whole situation,” Reyes said.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass highlighted Los Angeles’ strength and resolve through tough times during her State of the City on Monday, underscoring strides made tackling the unhoused population.
“Getting Angelenos off the street into interim housing is a critical step in our new strategy,” Bass said.
The mayor’s Inside Safe program has moved thousands of people off the streets and into temporary housing.
Clifton Grant is one of those people. “She got us housing, got us services as far as getting your driver’s license, your identification,” Grant said.
For permanent housing, the mayor called on businesses, wealthy individuals and charitable organizations to help out.
“We are asking the most fortunate angelenos to participate in this effort, with personal, private sector and philanthropic funds – to help us acquire more properties, lower the cost of capital and speed up housing,” Bass said.
The homeless crisis and public safety are arguably the biggest challenges facing the city – and with the world cup and the olympics just around the corner the mayor is promising a los angeles to be proud of.
“She is focused on trying to do whatever it takes to get the job done,” Paul Krekorian, president of the Los Angeles City Council, said.
Many council members reacted positively to Mayor Bass’s address, but admit tough times are ahead as the council tries to balance a budget deficit that keeps increasing.
“We are doing to have to buckle down and make the necessary cuts,” Councilmember Kevin de Leon said.
“Having a deficit like that means we have to make choices we can’t keep doing everything we have been doing,” Councilmember Bob Blumenfield said.
“We will need to make some hard choices and this gives us the opportunity to really focus on the city’s core services,” Krekorian said.
While the number of ED1 projects is poised to accelerate this year, a growing number of developers and advocates question the math behind it.
Soon after assuming office, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass issued Executive Directive 1 in December 2022, aiming to streamline the approval process for affordable housing by exempting it from lengthy environmental reviews — and trim the approval process to less than 60 days.
More than a year after ED1 was issued, there is still growing support for it from affordable housing advocates. But along with enthusiasm, there are concerns that not all of these projects are going to pan out and make financial sense for developers.
“We did a huge deep dive and we could not make sense of the numbers,” Jared Goldstein, managing partner at Canfield Development, speaking at the Bisnow Annual Multifamily Conference in Los Angeles on Feb. 29. “As they stand now, I would just be very shocked if they move forward.”
Adrian Berger, managing director for acquisitions at Cypress Equity Investments, also cited reliance on traditional financing and lack of parking as obstacles to ED1-based projects.
“When you actually underwrite them with real numbers, then these things don’t pencil,” Berger said at the same event.
Popular program
This hasn’t deterred new ED1 applicants, with recent data showing that the number of ED1 project applications has accelerated in 2024.
There were a total of 30 applications, according to data compiled by ATC Research, a Los Angeles-based real estate research firm, and shared with TRD.
January alone represents 14.5 percent of the total ED1 applications to date.
“It has been a tremendous success,” said Scott Epstein of Abundant Housing LA, citing 16,000 units in the pipeline. “Not all of these are fully entitled, but that’s sort of unprecedented when it comes to affordable housing entitlements.”
Scott noted the 60-day window stipulated in the order from the application date to full entitlement as one of the draws, as well as alignment with the statewide density bonus program because they’re 100 percent affordable housing projects.
JZA Architecture, a Los Angeles-based firm, has nearly doubled in size due to an inflow of ED1 projects, with a payroll of 19 people now compared to 10 a year ago. The executive directive projects now account for 95 percent of the firm’s work.
“There has been a massive transition to affordable housing — people are really seeing that the way to cut out months of red tape and just be able to expedite their projects is far more valuable to them,” said Jeff Zbikowski, founder of JZA Architecture.
He notes that a lot of the ED1 projects he’s aware of are located in South L.A.
“What we’re starting to see now is projects pop in nicer areas on the Westside or in the Valley and Reseda, some of these higher resource areas, where they’re more centered around hedging against nicer areas — providing mixed-income projects within those areas that are always going to be occupied.”
While ED1 has generated plenty of interest and early movers, it isn’t codified yet. Its long-term future in Los Angeles is uncertain.
Maximum rent models
Goldstein’s firm spent weeks researching ED1, but ultimately decided it wasn’t for them.
“The program is designed around rents on an affordable housing covenant that would be attached to your project,” he said. “And those rents are lower than Section 8 rent you could potentially collect if your building had Section 8 tenants.”
Without having experience with affordable housing, Canfield Development management felt it was an aggressive assumption to make that every single tenant would have a voucher.
“So the projects that exist are taking pretty aggressive stances on the rents they’ll achieve,” he said. “The rents that they’re inputting in their financial models are often the maximum Section 8 rents. That rent is greater than what the unit would lease for, in many cases, as even a market-rate unit with no restrictions.”
For some of these projects to go forward and to take advantage of tax abatements, a partnership with a nonprofit may be necessary.
“There are a lot of nonprofit firms that are very skilled at this, who know how to get these types of transactions done,” Goldstein told TRD. “So there will be a bit of a learning curve figuring out what the skilled nonprofits know how to execute and how to bring them into effective partnerships together.”
Across the U.S., cities are bearing the brunt of homelessness. In Los Angeles, mayor Karen Bass is focusing on keeping people sheltered and working to expand housing supply in the city. CBS News’ Michelle Miller has more on how her policies are making an impact.
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This week on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Palm Springs Mayor Grace Garner discuss preparations for Hilary as the National Hurricane Center issued its first-ever tropical storm warning for the area; plus FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell.
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A man was taken into custody Thursday in connection with the shootings of two Jewish men outside synagogues in Los Angeles this week that investigators believe were hate crimes, police said.
The violence set off fear among the city’s Jewish community as police increased patrols around houses of worship and officials decried the attacks.
The two separate shootings occurred after the men left synagogues in the city’s Pico-Robertson neighborhood, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s Southern California branch. Both men survived.
“This is a relief,” the branch wrote on Twitter after the detention was announced. “Tonight, we can rest easy. Tomorrow, we will continue to fight against antisemitism.”
“We are incredibly grateful for law enforcement’s diligence in apprehending the suspect,” the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles said in a statement, CBS Los Angeles reports.
The synagogues are less than two blocks apart, the station says.
One victim was hit in his arm by a drive-by shooter and the other was shot at least twice as he was walking up to his car, CBS L.A. added.
The suspect was tracked and taken into custody Thursday in Riverside County, Los Angeles police said in a statement. Detectives seized a rifle and a handgun.
The shootings happened on Wednesday and Thursday mornings. Detectives said they were probably carried out by the same man, though it wasn’t immediately clear whether he was the person who was taken into custody on Thursday.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass denounced the violence after news of the arrest broke.
“I want to be very clear: Antisemitism and hate crimes have no place in our city or our country,” Bass said. “Those who engage in either will be caught and held fully accountable.”
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For the first time in U.S. history, the four biggest and most diverse cities in the country are led by Black mayors. Michelle Miller sat down with New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who collectively lead a population of nearly 20 million. The mayors spoke about the greatest challenges they face and reflected on what this history-making moment means to them.
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SAN FRANCISCO — President Joe Biden’s administration announced Monday it is ramping up efforts to help house people now sleeping on sidewalks, in tents and cars as a new federal report confirms what’s obvious to people in many cities: Homelessness is persisting despite increased local efforts.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said that in federally required tallies taken across the country earlier this year, about 582,000 people were counted as homeless — a number that misses some people and does not include those staying with friends or family because they do not have a place of their own.
The figure was nearly the same as it was in a survey conducted in early 2020, just before the coronavirus pandemic hit the nation hard. It was up by about 2,000 people — an increase of less than 1%.
The administration aims to lower that by 25% by 2025.
“My plan offers a roadmap for not only getting people into housing but also ensuring that they have access to the support, services, and income that allow them to thrive,” Biden said in a statement.
The 2022 All In strategy roadmap made public Monday follows a 2010 effort called Opening Doors, which was the nation’s first comprehensive strategy seeking to prevent and end homelessness.
Ann Oliva, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness and a former HUD executive who worked on the first roadmap, said the federal government can influence local action with financial incentives, streamlined processes and strong policies.
Homelessness among veterans, for example, has plummeted as a result of federal leadership, and the country has also made inroads among youth, she said.
“What they’re trying to do here is to show, as a federal government, we are going to work across agencies, we’re going to break down silos, we’re going to lead with equity, we are going to talk about upstream prevention and work on those issues,” Oliva said.
The federal plan highlights racial and other disparities that have led to inequity in homelessness. It seeks to expand the supply of affordable housing and improve on ways to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place.
Potential steps include a campaign to encourage more landlords to accept government housing vouchers and encourage local governments to build more apartment complexes that are affordable for working families.
The administration also announced a program to have federal agencies work with local officials to reduce unsheltered homelessness in select cities that have not yet been named.
Homelessness has become a major political issue, especially in the nation’s biggest cities and on the West Coast. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass took office this month and promptly declared a state of emergency. New York Mayor Eric Adams last month announced a plan to treat mentally ill people and remove them from the streets and subways, even against their will.
This year’s Point in Time survey reflected a balancing of opposing forces. The pandemic brought massive job losses, particularly for lower-income people, and higher rents. It also spurred an eviction moratorium and temporary federal aid, including tax credits for families that helped keep people housed.
The count found homelessness declined among veterans, families, children and young adults. But more people were staying in places not intended for habitation rather than shelters, and more had been homeless for more than a year. Black people continued to be disproportionately likely to be homeless.
The new count was heavily anticipated because the 2021 survey was incomplete due to the pandemic. This year’s survey wasn’t a full return to normal, however. While the individual tallies normally take place in late January, many were pushed back to February or March because of the pandemic. The local reports compiled into the national data showed the numbers rose some places and fell in others.
WASHINGTON — The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare for the District of Columbia and other major cities that public transit was a lifeline for essential workers and that even modest fares could be a burden to them. So the nation’s capital is introducing a groundbreaking plan: It will begin offering free bus fares to residents next summer.
Other cities, including Los Angeles and Kansas City, Missouri, suspended fare collection during the height of the pandemic to minimize human contact and ensure that residents with no other travel options could reach jobs and services at hospitals, grocery stores and offices.
But D.C.‘s permanent free fare plan will be by far the biggest, coming at a time when major cities including Boston and Denver and states such as Connecticut are considering broader zero-fare policies to improve equity and help regain ridership that was lost with the rise of remote and hybrid work. Los Angeles instituted free fares in 2020 before recently resuming charging riders. Lately LA Metro has been testing a fare-capping plan under which transit riders pay for trips until they hit a fixed dollar amount and then ride free after that, though new Mayor Karen Bass has suggested support for permanently abolishing the fares.
Analysts say D.C.’s free fare system offers a good test case on how public transit can be reshaped for a post-pandemic future.
“If D.C. demonstrates that it increases ridership, it reduces the cost burden for people who are lower income and it improves the quality of transit service in terms of speed of bus service, and reduces cars on the road, this could be a roaring success,” said Yonah Freemark, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute. “We just don’t know yet whether that would happen.”
The $2 fares will be waived for riders boarding Metrobuses within the city limits beginning around July 1. In unanimously approving the plan last week, the D.C. Council also agreed to expand bus service to 24 hours on 12 major routes downtown, benefiting nightlife and service workers who typically had to rely on costly ride-share to get home after the Metro subway and bus system closed at night.
A new $10 million fund devoted to annual investments in D.C. bus lanes, shelters and other improvements was also approved to make rides faster and more reliable.
“The District is ready to be a national leader in the future of public transit,” said D.C. Councilmember Charles Allen, who first proposed free fares in 2019 and says the program can be fully paid-for with surplus D.C. tax revenue. Roughly 85% of bus riders are D.C. residents. The Metro system also serves neighboring suburbs in Maryland and Virginia.
About 68% of D.C. residents who take the bus have household incomes below $50,000, and riders are disproportionately Black and Latino compared with Metrorail passengers, according to the council’s budget analysis.
Not everyone is a fan.
Peter Van Doren, a senior fellow at the D.C.-based Cato Institute, said the plan risks high costs and mixed results, noting that the opportunity to improve ridership may be limited because bus passengers have been quicker to return to near pre-pandemic levels. He said government subsidies to help lower-income people buy cars would go farther because not everyone has easy access to public transit, which operates on fixed routes.
“The beauty of automobiles is they can go anywhere and everywhere in a way that transit does not,” he said. “We don’t know the subset of low-income people in D.C. where transit is a wonderful option as opposed to not such a wonderful option.”
The council’s move, which will be finalized in a second vote later this month, came over the concerns of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who supports the concept of free fares but raised questions about the $42 million annual cost over the long term. “District residents and taxpayers will have to pay for this program,” she wrote in a letter to council members. “Our neighbors, Virginia and Maryland, should absorb some of these costs as their residents will benefit from this program as well.”
Allen also had proposed a $100 monthly transit benefit for D.C. residents to access the Metrorail system, but shelved the plan until at least fall 2024 due to the $150 million annual estimated cost. He described free bus fares as a “win-win-win” for the District because they will help the transit system recover and offer affordable, green-friendly travel while boosting economic activity downtown.
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which currently faces a budget deficit of $185 million, part of which it attributes to fare evasion, praised the plan as “bold.” It said it looked forward to working with the city council, mayor and regional stakeholders “toward our goal of providing more accessible and equitable service for our customers.”
Nationwide, while transit ridership has returned to about 79% of pre-pandemic levels, that figure varies widely by region. In New York City, for instance, MTA chief executive Janno Lieber has suggested that city and state government step up to pay for trains and buses more like essential public services, such as a fire department, citing millions of transit riders he believes may never come back. In 2019, fares made up over 40% of total transit revenue there but have since slid to 25%, leading to an anticipated $2.5 billion deficit in 2025 along with the risk of soon using up the transportation authority’s federal COVID relief funds.
In D.C., where bus fares amount to a modest 7% of total transit operating revenues, the transit agency may be able to more easily absorb losses from zero fares, said Art Guzzetti, the American Public Transportation Association’s vice president of mobility initiatives and public policy. He noted savings for city taxpayers from speeding up boarding, which could allow for more routes and stops, as well as reducing traffic congestion and eliminating the need for transit enforcement against fare evaders.
Currently, D.C. bus ridership stands at about 74% of pre-pandemic levels on weekdays compared to 40% for Metrorail.
Still, free fares can be a tough choice for cities. “If the consequence of a zero-fare program is you have less funds to invest in frequent service, then you’re going backwards,” Guzzetti said.
In Kansas City, which began offering zero-fares for its buses in March 2020 and has no planned end date, officials said the program has helped boost ridership, which has risen by 13% in 2022 so far compared with the previous year. The free fares amount to an $8 million revenue loss, with the city paying for more than half of that and federal COVID aid covering the rest through 2023, said Cindy Baker, interim vice president for the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority, who describes the program as a success.
The program has eliminated altercations between passengers and bus drivers over fares, although there have been more instances of passenger disputes due to an increase in homeless riders, according to the agency. Baker said the transit agency has been adding security in response to some rider complaints.
Ché Ruddell-Tabisola, director of government affairs for the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington, cheered free fares as a much-needed economic boost, showing D.C.’s commitment to the well-being of late-night bartenders and restaurant workers needing an affordable way home.
“A lot of industries have moved on from the pandemic, but for D.C.’s bars and restaurants, the pandemic is still happening everyday,” he said, citing the effects of hybrid work, inflation, gun violence and other factors that have hollowed out the downtown. “Anything that helps encourage diners to get to downtown D.C. and enjoy the world-class dining and entertainment we have is a great thing.”
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Associated Press writer Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Former President Barack Obama on Saturday endorsed Karen Bass in her bid for mayor of Los Angeles on Saturday, saying that the Democratic congresswoman “has always been on the right side of the issues we care so deeply about.”
“I am asking Los Angeles to vote for Karen Bass for mayor. I know Karen, she was with me in supporting my campaign from the beginning, and Karen Bass will deliver results,” Obama said in a statement. “Make no mistake, there is only one proven pro-choice Democrat in this race.”
The endorsement was also depicted in a video Bass shared on Twitter account that captured her and the former President on a FaceTime call.
“I’m confident you’re going to be an outstanding mayor of LA,” Obama told Bass, while also recalling her campaigning for him in 2007 when he was running for president.
Obama’s endorsement comes just days ahead of the election in which Bass could make history as the first woman and the first Black woman to lead America’s second-largest city. She faces real estate developer Rick Caruso on November 8 after neither candidate took a majority of the vote in the June primary.
Bass, who was on President Joe Biden’s short list for a running mate during the 2020 campaign, said she was “humbled and honored” to have Obama’s support.
“It is impossible to overstate the impact of his work leading this country for eight scandal-free years advancing social and economic justice had on the nation and the world,” she said of the former President in a statement Saturday.
“President Obama’s support underscores the contrast in this race and inspires our campaign as we share our plans to solve homelessness and make LA safer and more affordable for everyone during the home stretch,” she added.
Obama has recently been wielding his political weight in an effort to help Democratic prospects across the nation.
The former President hit the campaign trail in Georgia on Friday night to begin a five-state tour that includes visits Saturday to Michigan and Wisconsin. He has recorded nearly two dozen television commercials for Democrats and the party’s campaign committees, with new ads popping up nearly every day this week.
Bass currently represents California’s 37th Congressional District. She previously served in the California State Assembly, where in 2008 she became the first Black woman to serve as speaker of a state legislature, according to her congressional biography.
Bass has centered her campaign on tackling the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles and increasing public safety.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said Sunday that California Gov. Gavin Newsom should “absolutely” appoint Rep. Barbara Lee to the Senate should Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s seat become vacant before the end of her term.
“I absolutely think he should appoint Barbara Lee. But we will see,” Bass told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”
Newsom has pledged to appoint a Black woman to the Senate in case of a vacancy.
Bass pointed out Sunday that Lee had been under consideration to fill Kamala Harris’ Senate seat, which became vacant in 2021 when she assumed her role as vice president. Newsom, however, ultimately picked California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who became the state’s first Latino senator.
Feinstein, who was first elected to the Senate in 1992, returned to the Capitol last month after an extended absence while recovering from shingles. During her absence, the 89-year-old senator faced calls to resign from some fellow Democrats in the House, with many pointing to the delay in advancing certain judicial nominees of President Joe Biden that her absence had caused.
But Bass noted Sunday that with Feinstein still in office, “It’s not an issue right now.” Pressed by Tapper if the senator should be in office, Bass said, “That’s her decision.”
“I worry about her. I worry about her health. But, ultimately, of course, that’s her decision to make,” the mayor said.
Newsom is under enormous pressure to stick to his pledge to appoint a Black woman to the Senate. In 2021, the governor said, “The answer is yes,” when asked on MSNBC if he would appoint a Black woman should Feinstein’s seat become open.
But choosing Lee wouldn’t be a simple choice for Newsom. The US Senate race is already underway, with Lee and fellow House Democrats Adam Schiff and Katie Porter representing various factions of the Democratic Party in the race. Another Democrat, tech executive Lexi Reese, recently filed paperwork to run for Senate.
There are currently three Black men in the Senate and no Black women in the legislative body that is made up of 100 officials. Throughout history, there have been eleven Black senators in total, including two Black female senators – Harris and former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun.
In her interview with Tapper, Bass spoke about the pushback former President Barack Obama has received over his call for the Republican Party to acknowledge issues of racial inequality in the US instead of espousing rhetoric that opportunities in the country are equal and fair.
“What President Obama was talking about was basically our history,” Bass said. “We are in a period right now where there are certain states, certain cities, where they literally do not want to tell the truths about US History.”
“What’s great about our country is everything, the whole package. You can’t just talk about the nice stories – George Washington’s cherry tree but not the 350 enslaved individuals that he had. All of it is the American story, and it all needs to be told, because we’re not going to overcome the problems if we cannot even reflect on how we got where we are,” Bass continued.
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, a GOP presidential contender whom Obama had mentioned by name in his remarks, said Sunday that there was “no higher compliment than to be attacked by President Obama.”
“Whenever the Democrats feel threatened, they pull out, drag out the former president and have him make some negative comments about someone running, hoping that their numbers go down,” Scott told Fox News. “The truth of my life disproves the lies of the radical left.”
Scott had earlier responded on Twitter to Obama’s comments, saying, “Let us not forget we are a land of opportunity, not a land of oppression.”
This story has been updated with additional details.
Lisa Gillmor
