The candidates provided perspectives on issues affecting residents in Larchmont, Windsor Square and the surrounding area. (photo by Edwin Folven)

The four candidates in the race for the Los Angeles City Council’s 13th District squared off in an online froum on April 23 hosted by the Larchmont United Neighborhood Association, Windsor Square Association, Saint Andrews Square Neighborhood Association and Ridgewood Wilton Neighborhood Association.

Incumbent City Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez is facing Colter Carlisle, Dylan Kendall and Rich Sarian in the June 2 Primary Election. Nearly 275 people watched the forum moderated by journalist Andy Murr. Organizers said turnout far exceeded expectations.

“We had tremendous community engagement,” LUNA president Sam Uretsky said. “I think the moderator Andy Murr did a great job and the candidates differentiated themselves well. We got to hear their viewpoints. They have an understanding of the different issues that are important in our community.”

Uretsky said the key issues are safety, security, quality of life, infrastructure repair and land use. The candidates each outlined varying views on how to address them.

Carlisle stressed his experience as vice president of the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council, as chair of its land use and the business committees, and emphasized protecting rent control and promoting public safety.

“I’m running because our neighborhoods are under threat. The current council member and the other candidates are not committed to protecting our rent controlled apartments or protecting our single-family neighborhoods and our property,” Carlisle said. “I am running because I am a renter, I ride the bus, I don’t own a car, and I’m really worried about the safety of the people in my neighborhood and throughout the district. I’ve seen across the city a sense of despair and apathy towards the city of Los Angeles and towards our government. I absolutely believe that I am the candidate that can help lead and organize us. Part of the reason for that is because I’m the only candidate, outside the current council member, that actually has experience running a neighborhood and dealing with a legislative body.”

Kendall, who has lived in the district for more than 30 years, said she has a background as a community organizer with extensive experience in running organizations. She founded Hollywood Arts, which uses arts, music and performance-based education to help homeless young people, and has also worked in the private sector. She added that she is a foster mom with a strong commitment to family, and a strong desire to serve the community that led her to run for office.

“[It’s] restoring trust in government. I feel like this council district has broken that bond between the constituents, the community members and the council office, and we’re going to [restore trust] using what we call CRMs, consumer relationship management tools, we will adapt it for the constituents. A constituent relationship management tool will allow every single email, every single phone call that comes into the office to get bucketed so we can actually hear every single constituent,” Kendall said. “The second thing we’re going to do is we’re going to form a Hollywood Olympics committee immediately, because if we don’t prepare Hollywood for the Olympics, we will … see tourism basically go off the cliff. And the third thing I want to restore are our neighborhood main squares, small businesses, clean streets, housing right above where you’re walking and living, so we bring back that sense of community.”

Sarian is a third generation “Armenian Angeleno” who was formerly with the Hollywood Business Improvement District and is currently vice president of strategic initiatives for the South Park Business Improvement District in Downtown L.A. He has served on the Hollywood Police Activities League Board since 2019 and is chair of the Hollywood Arts Council. He stressed the importance of economic development and community-guided housing initiatives.

“Economic development is huge. We as a city do not focus on it. We have no plan for it. Economic development, that’s my background, that will create new revenue streams for our city to break us from our budget deficit,” Sarian said. “Budgeting, line by line, figuring out exactly how we’ve gotten into this chaotic deficit that is cyclical and annual. Those two, hand in hand, will help re-strengthen our city and make sure that the city services are re-initiated and brought back up to the standard that we all deserve. And then also building a Los Angeles for the future, which means restoring infrastructure, bringing it back up, fixing our sidewalks, fixing our streetlights, fixing what’s broken and building a future of Los Angeles so that more and more people can live and thrive here.”

Soto-Martinez, who was elected in 2022 and is seeking a second term in office, said his parents instilled the importance of hard work in him at a young age, and his background in union organizing has helped him build partnerships in city government and the community.

“I think those two experiences, of my parents and the union, taught me two things. One, you have to work very hard to achieve the things that you want. And the union taught me that in order to deal with the issues of our society, it’s not about one single person. You have got to bring people together to take on these really intractable things that are happening in our world,” Soto-Martinez said. “I want to point to a few things that we accomplished. No. 1, there’s been a 25% drop in homelessness in our district. That’s because we have a team that is dedicated to this, and we coordinate all the services that are happening. We’ve created a team that supports tenants in crisis, going to them, calling them, phone banking to make sure that they don’t become homeless. And as a result, we have saved hundreds of people from becoming homeless. I know there’s a lot more things we need to work on, but I’m motivated to do that with the people.”

Land use issues were a major part of the conversation. Each of the candidates said they support the Livable Communities Initiative, a planning strategy to create walkable streets with affordable housing over retail spaces. The initiative has wide support in the community, Uretsky said.

To varying degrees, the candidates highlighted the need to protect single-family communities from the impacts of Senate Bill 79, which allows larger multi-family buildings near transit stations and rail lines. Carlisle, Sarian and Kendall said they support preserving single-family zoning in neighborhoods, while Soto-Martinez said he doesn’t support a blanket approach and wants to look for certain areas where zoning can be changed to add more housing.

Constituent services were also a major topic at the forum. Sarian proposed creating a “street team” to drive around, remove trash and debris and beautify neighborhoods. Kendall stressed the importance of preserving the character of historic neighborhoods such as Windsor Square and Windsor Village. Carlisle said more support is needed for the LAPD and public safety, particularly ahead of the Olympic Games in 2028. Soto-Martinez said he supports expanding the unarmed model of crisis response, which deploys specialists trained to address people suffering from mental health crises, freeing police officers to address crime.

Uretsky said he hopes people gained a better understanding of the candidates and the issues during the two-hour forum, which can be viewed in entirety on YouTube at youtube.com/watch?v=IGR5SwjtJgE.

The candidates will come together again for an in-person debate hosted by the CD13 Legislative Action Committee on Thursday, April 30, at 6:15 p.m. in the Los Angeles City College Student Union, 855 N. Vermont Ave. Space is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Early arrival is recommended. The forum is also available via Zoom. To register and for information, visit cd13.info.