In the middle of a national debate over which statues should continue standing, Los Angeles Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, 13th District, is ready to fulfill a two-year effort to remove an homage of a different sort: Columbus Day.

The idea has proven divisive among council members. A few have said they’d rather add the proposed replacement, Indigenous Peoples Day, to another part of the calendar. But O’Farrell, a native Oklahoman and member of the Wyandotte Nation, has joined local advocacy groups who say that Columbus Day exalts a history of slavery, oppression and genocide that beleaguered America’s indigenous peoples following the arrival of Christopher Columbus.

“When I propose initiatives, I’m very observant of all points of view,” O’Farrell said during an interview at his district office in Echo Park. “But I’m also a fact finder, and the whole notion of Columbus Day has reached such a broader level of awareness for the real, undisputed history of Christopher Columbus and his legacy that more people understand the folly of actually celebrating that as a federal holiday, much less a local holiday on our municipal administrative code.”

(photo courtesy of the 13th Council District Office)

City Council will next consider the issue on Aug. 30. A slow trickle of cities in the U.S. have adopted Indigenous Peoples Day over the last few decades, including the California cities of Berkeley, Santa Cruz and Sebastopol.

“In that sense we’re a part of the zeitgeist,” O’Farrell said.

Rewriting the calendar is the first of several challenges the newly re-elected O’Farrell faces; but, with Los Angeles transitioning its local elections from odd- to even-numbered years, he has a five-and-a-half-year term to contend with them.

Homelessness, lack of affordable housing and rent-burdened residents are a few of the existential issues that have worsened in L.A. County over the last four years. Results from the 2017 homeless count showed CD13 third among the city of Los Angeles’ 15 council districts in the number of homeless – 3,282, representing an 8 percent increase from 2016, according to Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. Countywide, homelessness increased by 23 percent.

City Hall is hamstrung from slowing certain catalysts of the homeless crisis, such as the Ellis Act, a state law that gives landlords a vehicle to vacate their rental units. The act was passed in the 1980s to allow “mom and pop” landlords a way to exit the rental business if they were losing money, but city officials and residents have accused larger corporations of exploiting the act to replace affordable housing with luxury units.

“We have to produce more affordable housing, we have to protect the affordable housing we have and we can only do that if there is Ellis Act reform at the state level,” O’Farrell said.

Council will have funds from Measure HHH, a November ballot initiative approved by 77 percent of L.A. County voters to issue $1.2 billion in bonds to house the homeless, in its arsenal to attempt a reversal of the homelessness trend.

Other reforms, especially to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), would also help, O’Farrell said, adding “it’s become this tool for anti-growth individuals to stop projects.” CEQA reform has eluded members of the state Legislature for years. Some of the projects prevented under CEQA-related lawsuits would provide infill development that, O’Farrell continued, might prevent an environmentally destructive urban sprawl. The local environment is one of the differentiating factors between L.A. and other cities, such as New York and its most famous borough.

“Will L.A. become Manhattan? No,” O’Farrell said, referring to a common refrain from longtime residents and preservationists about the future of Los Angeles. “We’re a different character, we’re a different animal, we’re a different city. We have a different culture.”

O’Farrell’s critics in his district aren’t as convinced, particularly a few of his opponents during this year’s campaign for the CD13 seat. They’ve said the councilman hasn’t done enough to channel new development without undermining affordable housing and preservation – a line of attack used against council incumbents in other districts, but perhaps magnified in CD13, which comprises some of the city’s more populated and trendy neighborhoods.

However, “I am largely supported, I think, in my views and my process for how the district evolves,” O’Farrell said, a claim congruent with the 60 percent of the vote he received in a six-candidate CD13 March primary race this year.

“And it’s important to note that out of these projects that are almost universally along transit lines, I negotiate affordable housing out of them all,” he said.

On the national stage, driven especially by today’s hyper-partisan online media, the councilman’s views on initiatives such as Indigenous Peoples Day prove much more divisive. It’s a fitting way to honor a relatively unheralded chapter of American history, or political correctness run amok, depending on the blog. That type of scrutiny, coming from the whole country and political spectrum, is the price of admission for presiding over the second largest U.S. city.

“I definitely am observant of media attention, but I’m also not beholden to it,” O’Farrell said.

O’Farrell (second from right) is on the verge of having the Los Angeles City Council vote on whether to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day. (photo courtesy of the 13th Council District Office)

An O’Farrell motion in City Council late last year to consider banning adults unaccompanied by children in park playgrounds received similar treatment. Versions of the same law have been passed in cities including Santa Monica, New York and Hollywood, Florida, but a fervent opposition rolled in from far outside CD13’s 13 square miles. (The proposed legislation is still pending at the committee level.)

The online media landscape also presents new challenges for maintaining good relations with constituents, some of whom gather information from an ever-fragmented array of sources of varying credibility and truthfulness.

“There’s misinformation on many levels quite often,” O’Farrell said. “And sometimes the exact opposite of what I’ve done or what I’ve said comes back in some sort of slam, which is always interesting to me. But that’s OK, I signed up to take the hits.”

Waking up at 6 a.m. each day in his Glassell Park home, O’Farrell starts off with traditional news sources, such as the Los Angeles Times and Daily News. He discusses the current events with his partner, George Brauckman, each morning and throughout the day keeps an eye on the current up-to-the-second news cycle. The councilman frequently takes to social media to promote local events, offer his opinion on the day’s news and respond to his constituents.

“I always try to provide a resource when someone comes across as unhappy with something, and then every now and again I’ll challenge them on it and just kind of say, ‘Here’s the reality of what your claim is, for additional information please feel free to contact me,’” O’Farrell said.

The problems facing the city of Los Angeles may not have changed much in four years, but the federal government has. President Barack Obama was sworn into his second term in January 2013, several months before O’Farrell prevailed in a May runoff election to win his first term on the City Council. The councilman’s second swearing in, at East Hollywood’s Barnsdall Art Park on June 24, took place with a much different administration looming in Washington, D.C. Countering the administration of President Donald J. Trump on marijuana law, immigration, LGBT and other issues has quickly become a preoccupation of city halls throughout the state. O’Farrell said Trump’s election has made him “more determined.”

“I think it’s more important than ever that people and elected officials at every single level stand up and resist his incredibly destructive and toxic views of this country and where he wants to take it,” he said. “This has nothing to do with partisan politics at all. We always have to look out for people who purport to speak for others who do not have the public’s interest in mind. … It’s a threat to the American way of life and the American ideals. So what we do locally, and in this state, are more important than ever before, and that responsibility is not lost on me.”