Homeless is an enormous and seemingly intractable crisis facing our city. It has left an undeniable impact on the livelihoods of individuals and families from the Harbor to the Valley. It has also touched countless families across the nation. As families fight every day to survive, the struggle to provide the basic necessities of a home, food and healthcare continues.  Continue reading

  Los Angeles has come a long way since the dark days of the Great Recession. Our task is to make sure the city is doing what it can to stimulate job and economic growth in Los Angeles. Earlier this week, I joined Mayor Garcetti to discuss the progress our local economy has made creating jobs and what we as a city are doing to help.  Continue reading

New forms of transportation are helpful to the public and popular with consumers. At the same time, implementing adequate safety standards, including fingerprint-based background checks, is essential for the Angelenos.New forms of transportation are helpful to the public and popular with consumers. At the same time, implementing adequate safety standards, including fingerprint-based background checks, is essential for the Angelenos.New forms of transportation are helpful to the public and popular with consumers. At the same time, implementing adequate safety standards, including fingerprint-based background checks, is essential for the Angelenos. Continue reading

  After two years of concentrated work, community meetings and neighborhood input, this week I announced a final policy framework to repair every broken sidewalk in Los Angeles.After two years of concentrated work, community meetings and neighborhood input, this week I announced a final policy framework to repair every broken sidewalk in Los Angeles. Continue reading

Keeping our neighborhoods safe and livable have always been my top priorities as your Councilmember. Ensuring traffic safety is a huge part of that equation. From adding all-way stop signs on Valley Village's residential streets to installing rapid flashing beacon crosswalks in North Hollywood and traffic signals in Tujunga Village, Sun Valley and elsewhere; from redesigning LA's parking signs to urging Waze to help calm traffic by reconsidering the app's impact on small streets, I have focused much of my time and energy on traffic safety measures that will improve our neighborhoods. Pedestrians, cyclists and drivers deserve to feel safe on our public streets, just as homeowners and renters should feel secure living next to them. Continue reading

The San Fernando Valley is a large, diverse and populous place. Our Valley makes up 260 square miles of Los Angeles County, and one in every five county residents lives in the Valley. Continue reading

This week, I had the opportunity and pleasure of speaking to the joint board meeting of the Sierra Club in Studio City. It was a very interesting event, focusing on the group's Clean Energy agenda for 2016, which is an issue I have worked on for years. I'd like to share with you some of what I discussed with them, including LA's recent environmental successes. Continue reading

Our economy is strong and growing in Los Angeles, which is good news for local businesses, residents and the city as a whole. In July of last year, I took on the task of heading up the City Council's new Jobs Committee with the purpose of finding ways the city can help stimulate job creation and focus on community-driven economic development throughout Los Angeles. Although this committee is relatively new -- we've had six very fruitful meetings so far -- the topic is something I've been working on for years. Continue reading

This week, dozens of local faith leaders, law enforcement officers and violence prevention activists representing grassroots organizations joined me to discuss the impact of violence in our communities and to begin a dialogue on how to make change through collective action. It was our first conversation and an important step to take. Continue reading

I want to bring you up to speed about two motions I recently introduced to improve the quality of life of my constituents. The first will utilize LA traffic officers to cut down on congestion at two Studio City intersections, and the second will create a sensible temporary parking permit program to relax ticketing on residential streets where parking restrictions currently exist.  Continue reading

When it comes to offering leave time for new parents, the United States lags behind other industrialized nations around the world, but things are changing. In the private sector, companies like Netflix and Microsoft are offering very generous paid leave plans, and cities like Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago and Washington, D.C. are granting public employees weeks of paid leave after the birth of a child. Today, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced that all branches of the U.S. military will grant 12 weeks of maternity leave and nearly three weeks of paternity leave to active and full-time reservists. Continue reading

When you're out in your community or hopping on the DASH, take a close at the new ads on LA streets raising awareness about gun safety. Continue reading

Graffiti is a huge problem throughout Los Angeles. It impacts businesses, billboards, schools, public places and our homes. Some vandals even deface beautiful murals and public art pieces. The destruction and defacement of murals and spaces in our neighborhoods leaves a lasting effect on our quality of life.  Continue reading

You may have heard on the radio this week a series of stories about manufacturing jobs in the United States. One segment, called "What Gets Made in LA is Way More Than Movies," highlights that the LA area is the biggest manufacturing hub in the country. With a great climate -- weather and business -- and the two biggest ports in the Americas, the aerospace, technology, apparel, medical equipment, printing, plastics and furniture industries, among others, are still going strong and remain home to hundreds of thousands of good jobs. The importance of LA to aerospace manufacturing is clear when you consider that 80 percent of the nuts, bolts and other fasteners that hold airplanes together are made right here in Southern California. One of the challenges this and other industries face, however, is finding a pool of skilled workers ready to accomplish the technical work. There is a need for government and industry to partner with more local schools to make them useful training grounds for these types of good, middle-class jobs. Continue reading

This week was an extraordinarily busy and productive one at City Hall. The City Council not only considered significant items related to homelessness and moved forward with our citywide El Niño preparations, we also held committee hearings on topics that likely will be extraordinarily important to the present and future well-being of our city. Continue reading