Greene County Democrat

Tag: Mayor Eric Garcetti

  • Newswire : Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is sworn-in, focuses on homelessness

    Mayor Karen Bass being sworn-in by Vice-President Kamala Harris

    By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

    In her first act in office, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass will declare a state of emergency against homelessness in an announcement at Los Angeles’ Emergency Operations Center.
    The new Mayor asserts that the move “will allow her to take aggressive executive actions to confront the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles. The declaration will recognize the severity of Los Angeles’ crisis and break new ground to maximize the ability to urgently move people inside.”
    On November 16, 2021, during an interview on Black Press USA’s daily morning show Let It Be Known, Bass spoke on homelessness saying it was “a humanitarian crisis,” and added that there were “40,000 people in the city unhoused, many living in tents all around the city.”
    Clearly Mayor Bass is moving quickly to make homelessness a top priority during her first weeks in power.
    On Dec. 11, Bass, 69, was sworn-in as Los Angeles’ 43rd Mayor at a historic ceremony by Vice President Kamala Harris. Her predecessor, Mayor Eric Garcetti, looked on at City Hall with thousands of others taking in the history of the moment. Karen Bass earned more votes than any candidate in the history of Los Angeles.’ Her election was also the most expensive ever, as Bass defeated Rick Caruso, who spent $100 million on his campaign.
    Bass served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2011 to 2022 for California’s 33rd congressional district and was Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. She was also a member of the California State Assembly from 2004 to 2010 and spent her final years there as Speaker of the California House.
    Bass acknowledged California’s first female Lt. Governor Eleni Kounalakis in the audience and Los Angeles’ all-female County Board of Supervisors.
    “I believe that times of inflection require reflection – I believe, it’s time for Angelenos to remind ourselves where we come from and who we are. My father fled Jim Crow Texas during the great African American migration after World War 2. He worked for the postal service as a letter carrier. It was a union job, and his paycheck supported my brothers and me and allowed my mother to choose to be a homemaker. When I think about the dreams of working people today, I reflect on the fact that my mother and father were able to buy a home in Los Angeles for their family of six with one paycheck,” Bass said in her inaugural speech.
    She then commented on the high cost of housing in Los Angeles. “Tragically, our city has earned the shameful crown as being home to some of the most crowded neighborhoods in the nation—Pico Union, South L.A., East L.A., the East Valley. We know our mission – we must build housing in every neighborhood,” Mayor Bass said.
    The new Mayor then focused on homelessness — a huge problem in Los Angeles and across the U.S.
    “I will start my first day as mayor at our city’s Emergency Operations Center, where my first act as mayor will be to declare a state of emergency on homelessness. My emergency declaration will recognize the severity of our crisis and break new ground to maximize our ability to urgently move people inside and do so for good. It will create the structure necessary for us to have a true, unified and citywide strategy to set us on the path to solve homelessness,” Bass announced.
    “If we are going to bring Angelenos inside and move our city in a new direction, we must have a single strategy to unite our city and county and engage the state, the federal government, the private sector and every other stakeholder. And so I call on our City Council, and our City Attorney and City Controller, to continue the work we started during the transition on a unified and urgent strategy to solve homelessness. I call on the County of Los Angeles, with its authority over health, including mental health and substance abuse, to lock arms with me — and we have already started these discussions,” the new Mayor told the crowd.
    In a city of many challenges, Bass’ four-year term will no doubt be eventful. But her long political resume and experience as a community activist and establishment actor in local, state and federal government will no doubt be beneficial as she navigates policy over the next four year.

  • Newswire: Karen Bass wins election to become first Black woman Mayor of Los Angeles

    Karen Bass at victory celebration

     By Bruce C.T. Wright, NewsOne


    Following more than a week of counting ballots and tabulating votes, U.S. Rep Karen Bass was finally projected to win the Los Angeles mayor race and become the first Black woman to ever serve in that role. In fact, Bass is also now the first woman period to ever be elected mayor of Los Angeles.
    The Associated Press called the race on Wednesday night with more than 70% of the votes counted as it became apparent that the electoral math wasn’t in the favor of Bass’ billionaire opponent, Caruso.
    Mayor-elect Bass “amassed an insurmountable lead of nearly 47,000 votes,” the AP reported. “She had 53.1%, with Caruso notching 46.9%.”
    The election was hailed in part as a victory for women.
    “Karen Bass’ victory is important to the people of Los Angeles because she is one of us,” Emiliana Guereca, Founder and President of Women’s March Action, said in a statement emailed to NewsOne after the election results were announced. “She will fight for women’s rights, build bridges, help house the homeless, secure federal dollars and bring fresh energy to City Hall. She is going to be a great role model and will make us proud.”
    Last week’s election served as a runoff months after neither Bass nor Caruso eclipsed the 50% mark during the primary in June.
    At the time, Bass said she was confident of her chances in November and accurately predicted, “we are going to win.”
    Bass, a sitting U.S. Congresswoman who has served California’s 37th Congressional District, which includes Los Angeles, since 2010. But she began gearing up for her mayoral run last year and suggested at the time that she was the right person to address Los Angeles’ “humanitarian crisis in homelessness and a public health crisis” from the pandemic.
    Caruso, a wealthy real estate developer who similarly ran on a platform that promised to “clean up” homelessness in Los Angeles, where Black people make up 34% of the city’s homeless population, also placed a heavy emphasis on policing.
    In a memorable moment during the campaign, Caruso rejected the notion that he is “a white man” during a debate against Bass last month. Caruso claimed his “Latin” heritage as an Italian precludes him from being described as “a white man.”
    Caruso is, of course, a white man.
    The victory for Bass — a 69-year-old native Angeleno who Joe Biden seriously considered to be his vice-presidential running mate in 2020 — makes her the latest inductee into a growing club of Black mayors of major cities who have been elected in recent years, at least 11 of whom were sworn in this year alone. She will also become the second-ever Black mayor of the city. Tom Bradley served as Los Angeles’ first Black Mayor from 1973-1993.
    The current Mayor Eric Garcetti was forced to leave office because of term limits.
    Prior to running for mayor, Bass was a core member of the bipartisan Congressional group leading the efforts on a police reform bill. The former Congressional Black Caucus chair has also been an ardent advocate for voting rights particularly for Black people.