Councilman David Ryu, 4th District, recently celebrated his first 100 days in office and visited Park Labrea News and Beverly Press for a question and answer session with the editorial staff. The following is the second part of the discussion with the councilman regarding his time representing the district.

Q: With homelessness on the top of the list of the city’s concerns and as chair of the Los Angeles Health, Mental Health and Education Committee, what can constituents expect from your joint meeting with the homeless committee? What are your thoughts on Los Angeles’ efforts to curb homelessness?

(photo courtesy of 4th Council District) Councilman David Ryu

A: “Homelessness issues are very near and dear to my heart. I’ve worked on mental health, especially mental health of the homeless, for 10-plus years. The aspect that I want to make sure that we don’t forget is mental health. A third of the homeless population is diagnosed with a mental illness. And I would say another third is probably just not diagnosed.

“Mental health treatment is a huge component of the solution. That’s why we’re having the joint meeting because it’s very important that we have collaboration. It’s also going to be about taking inventory of everything that’s being done to address homelessness directly and in the peripherals – and not just what the city of L.A. is doing – but what the county and state and nonprofit providers are doing, and coordinating with different services so we know what the right hand is doing.”

What can constituents expect from your office in regard to infrastructure improvements, such as your motion to fund the Green Youth Program?

“The residents and constituents have my guarantee and my pledge that I’m going to be working with them and consulting with them first. It’s about working together to identify the problem areas – whether it’s potholes, street repaving, sidewalk repair, graffiti removal, tree trimming, trash pick up – I need the neighborhood’s help to identify those key choke points. Once they’re identified it’s about properly responding and that’s why I dedicated $100,000 to do that.”

The city council adopted Ryu’s motion to fund street maintenance efforts in the 4^th District at its Oct. 16 meeting on an 11-0 vote.

Ryu’s communications director Estevan Montemayor explained that Ryu’s predecessor, Tom LaBonge, utilized a beautification truck staffed through city hall. Ryu instead opted for a six-month contract with the Los Angeles Conservation Corps for his “Clean Streets Initiative” launched Oct. 17.

“We’re going to try and do it smarter and more efficiently,” Ryu said. “We’re going to get community input. They love Tom’s truck, but it was very expensive. It required two or three dedicated staff. We want to do it cheaper and cover more area.”

Ryu said his office is considering ways to formalize volunteer clean up days with homeowners’ associations in the district through a possible street or trail adoption process.

What are the larger scale infrastructure issues your office is tackling?

“We’re going to schedule street repaving. That’s why it’s important to have a system of feedback. I want the neighborhoods to help identify their problem streets and we’re going to compare that with what the Bureau of Street Services provides, and make sure we integrate those two request lists and have a calendar for the next five, 10, 15 years for a schedule of what streets are going to be done each week, what streets are going to be done in the next five years, so people can see for themselves where their streets are [on the schedule].”

Ryu said another larger scale effort will be sidewalk repair. He said the public works commission is working to create a formula on how to prioritize the repairs.

“Right now the city is pushing to fix those public spaces in front of fire stations, police stations, hospitals, because it’s more traveled on. I tend to disagree because I think it needs to be a mix of residential areas and those high-traffic areas. We got a report from public works on the recommended area that they want to replace in front of LAPD and LAFD, but the sidewalks are fine. And I would expect calls from the community saying, ‘why would you fix those sidewalks and not these [residential sidewalks]?’”

You released a “report card” for your first 100 days as the councilman for the 4^th District, detailing what your office has accomplished. What can you tell me about that?

“I took a huge inventory of all the pledges – hard pledges, soft pledges, even insinuated pledges ­– from the campaign. We did that exercise in my office, and we listed them all out. One by one, we’re trying to tackle them all. We’re not done with the list yet. And just because it’s the arbitrary 100 days we had to give some sort of a status report, but we’re going to go down and tackle all of them.”

The report card included a list of commitments, such as restoring trust in local government and fighting for fiscal accountability with corresponding actions taken. The full report card can be viewed on Ryu’s Twitter page at twitter.com/davideryu/status/652575914228711424.

What is next on the list? What can constituents expect in your next 100 days?

“I’d really like to tackle two big issues … homelessness is really something I want to tackle, and the second thing is jobs development. The whole encompassing aspect of it is economic development – helping small to mid-size businesses and attracting international development.

“And you have to understand that jobs development and homelessness go hand-in-hand because homelessness is not just about current homelessness, but preventing those at risk [of becoming homeless]. And how do you create good high-paying jobs? You need to help the businesses. You need to create a good economic climate.

“Before I can do that, I have to tackle the issues I got elected for, which are potholes, making sure that the trash gets picked up, restore faith [in local government], having transparency with the discretionary task force, showing them where the money is and how it’s being spent. It’s the building blocks so we can do these bigger and greater projects.”

Ryu said his office is also looking at ways to keep a portion of city fines and fees in the district or areas they were collected from, and with the enforcement division that issued the fines.

Aside from the specific work, can you categorize your experiences and how the first 100 days went for you personally?

“It’s been an awesome experience. I’m blessed and honored, truly, for the opportunity to serve. It was a real hard-fought election, but it was worth every bit of it. And because it was so hard-fought, every minute and every moment means that much more.

“It’s a rewarding experience. Everyone, my staff, gives it their all. Day in and day out, they’re giving their 150 percent. It’s to a point where I have to tell people when to go home and tell myself when to go home as well.

“So work-wise, I think we’re doing a stellar job, but with personal lives – I don’t think anyone has one – which is bad, because there’s burnout. We’re trying to make it a point where we tell each other to go home, because there’s always another day. And it’s not going to do anyone good if we burn out. So it’s about the long haul. On the personal front, including staff, and myself, it’s about getting that balance.