Nithya Raman (photo courtesy of Nithya Raman’s Facebook)

David Ryu (photo courtesy of David Ryu)

Election season is in full swing, and many candidates are moving quickly to define their messages to voters.

In the Los Angeles City Council’s 4th District, incumbent Councilman David Ryu is facing urban planner and homeless advocate Nithya Raman. The candidates outlined their views during a virtual forum on Sept. 23 hosted by the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council. The candidates will participate in another virtual candidate forum on Friday, Oct. 2, at 7:30 p.m., hosted by the Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council.

Ryu was elected in 2015, becoming the first Korean American to serve on the Los Angeles City Council. During his tenure, he has created policies to improve quality of life for vulnerable groups including renters, seniors, immigrants and the homeless population. Ryu has worked to reduce the influence of developers on City Hall and has vowed to fight corruption. The councilman has also played a key role in the city’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, initiating policies to ensure renters do not lose their homes, members of vulnerable populations have food and struggling workers have enough money to pay their bills.

Raman, a former Silver Lake Neighborhood Council member and co-founder of the SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition, is leading a grassroots campaign focused on getting community members involved. She cites homelessness and a lack of affordable housing as two of the most pressing problems facing the city of Los Angeles. Raman is also an advocate for women’s rights, having served as the first executive director of Time’s Up Entertainment, an organization stemming from #MeToo activism that is focused on equity and safety for women in the entertainment industry. She called for a stronger, community-based approach to solving problems and addressing issues in a more holistic manner.

“This is an incredibly big district, and we’ve had a series of neighborhoods across the city that have been governed in ways that I think have sometimes ignored some of the bigger urban issues and challenges that are facing the city as a whole,” Raman said. “And now, we are at a moment in Los Angeles where those big challenges – our terrible air, climate change, our rising housing and homelessness crisis – are now becoming ones that affect every neighborhood in L.A. and have to be addressed at the citywide level. [They] have to be addressed in ways that meet the scale of those crises, while we still pay attention to all of the unique problems that face individual neighborhoods in Los Angeles. I think that’s a real challenge for governance going forward, and that’s a challenge I’m very excited to meet.”

Ryu, who emigrated to Los Angeles from South Korea with his parents when he was 6 years old, cited his family’s struggles to achieve the American dream. He said growing up in the city and more than a decade of experience working in the nonprofit sector and for Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, as well as the past five years in public office, make him the best choice for continued success in the 4th District

“These lived experiences are why I fight for systemic change every day. In the five years that I have been your council member, we have made real progress for our city. My anti-corruption bills are now law. We have expanded care for our city’s trees. We have created hundreds of units of homeless housing for District 4,” Ryu said. “And, there are many important issues … but the top three right now are your safety during COVID-19, real solutions for homelessness and an economic recovery that starts in our neighborhoods. Since the pandemic began, I have been working 24/7 to secure test kits for free testing, to seek real rent and mortgage relief and to establish interest-free loans for small businesses and local businesses. But I am not done. In my next term, I will continue to build a recovery that works to make us not just return to normal, but return better.”

Ryu added that he believes the homelessness crisis requires a holistic response involving safe parking locations for people staying in vehicles, more mental health treatment and additional supportive housing. The incumbent said it is equally important to create more affordable housing for low- and moderate-income individuals to prevent people from becoming homeless.

Raman said her experience on the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council’s Homelessness Committee and her work with SELAH, a group addressing homelessness in the Atwater Village, Los Feliz, Echo Park and Silver Lake communities, has given her a broad perspective on the best ways to address homelessness. She said a grassroots effort involving people from the neighborhood-level upward can make a significant impact.

“Homelessness isn’t something that knows neighborhood council boundaries. It’s a regional issue,” Raman said. “We were able to use neighborhood council funds [and] direct those funds specifically to resources for those experiencing homelessness. We had hygiene kit drives, we had volunteer days. I also used that position to educate people about homelessness.”

Ryu said he agrees the neighborhood councils are an important liaison between communities and city government, and they are even more effective when they work closely with council representatives. He vowed to continue his work with neighborhood councils and to consider their input when making decisions.

“It’s about how do we improve the process for more participation, more engagement in the community, so that all stakeholders can be heard,” Ryu said. “Neighborhood councils are a wealth for the council members to get things done for the community.”

Ryu also addressed social justice, racial equality and public safety. He said it is important to examine ways to prevent people from becoming involved in the criminal justice system and better educate them to address problems with inequity that currently exist.

“We need to strive for a society that is more equal and more equity-driven,” Ryu said. “It’s cheaper to send somebody to college than to jail, but our country builds more jails. That is a problem and that is why as a council member, I was one of the first to step up in the light of the racial injustice that’s going on and the death of George Floyd to say  we must transform how the police department works and transform how public safety looks in the 21st century. We can take the jobs that armed police officers don’t need to do and [put them] in the hands of social-welfare workers, mental-health clinicians and civilian employees who can better respond to these calls, while at the same time freeing up police officers to respond to violent crimes.”

Raman also said it is important to consider the nature of the work police officers are doing in Los Angeles and seek ways to address nonviolent crime with alternatives to law enforcement. She said it will be critical to ensure any such programs are adequately funded.

“I think this has been a really tough moment in America. One of the things I have found frustrating as a resident of Los Angeles is how often people are killed by law enforcement without much of a comment from our local officials,” Raman said. “These are issues that don’t just happen in Minneapolis, they happen here as well, and I think we need to be proactively thinking about it. We should have been thinking about this a long time ago.”

The candidates also addressed rent control and housing, with both stating more needs to be done to ensure people earn fair wages so they can afford to live in the city. Raman advocated for strengthening rent-stabilization ordinances, while Ryu said he would like to create equity housing zones where affordable housing is protected.

In terms of housing for homeless individuals, Ryu touted temporary transitional shelters and emergency homeless housing that has been created throughout the 4th District, including in Los Feliz and Hollywood. He said he will continue to look for unused and under-utilized city properties that can serve as shelters and supportive housing.

Raman said she is disappointed by the local government’s response to building homeless housing and added that there needs to be more types of housing considered to lower costs. She agreed that city-owned properties are a good place to build homeless housing and would like the city to work more closely with private and nonprofit entities to reduce difficulties in finding funding and eliminate bureaucratic red tape.

The candidates also addressed neighborhood issues affecting the communities served by the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council, as well as traffic and transportation issues. Both said they plan to continue vigorous campaigns and encouraged people to vote.

“For me, a city that works well is a city that brings people into it and makes it possible for every resident to really thrive. And the work I want to do on the council and the work I have been doing in my neighborhood is really to make sure our city is working better for so many people,” Raman said. “Here in Los Angeles, we’ve had for many, many years, low engagement in city races. Not because residents haven’t been engaged, but because city officials haven’t gone out and gotten people engaged, gotten a wider range of people engaged in local issues. And I think that is a detriment to the city. One of the things I am excited about doing is to make sure we are continuing to engage a wide group of people [and] that we are continuing to make sure we are building a city that truly reflects the needs of every single one of its residents, from homeowners to people who are most vulnerable.”

Ryu added that there is much more work to do and his job is far from over.

“Five years ago, I ran on a simple promise, to restore trust in government, to listen to neighborhood voices and to invest in the communities that have been ignored for far too long. I challenged the way that business was done in City Hall, I won’t stop now,” Ryu said. “I am leading the charge against corruption with the Office of Inspector General, reforms to the planning process and my tried-and-true practices for transparency. It’s been a long five years, and I am so grateful to have worked together with you. There have been some real tough fights – homelessness, infrastructure, restoring city services – and I am proud to have stood with you on all of these fights because that is the work of government and that is the work of your elected official. This job is not a grab for attention or a stepping stone for me. It is a privilege.”

Members of the public wishing to hear more from the candidates can view the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council forum by visiting shermanoaksnc.org, or can register for the upcoming Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council forum on Oct. 2 by visiting hhwnc.org/cd4-virtual-candidate-forum.