New Leadership in the Third District
After 20 years on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Zev Yaroslavsky is leaving office.
That leaves his seat on the notoriously entrenched board open, and
candidates are vying to represent the third district, which stretches
from the West Valley to West L.A.
With issues like business development, homelessness and transportation on the
plate, whoever gets the seat will have a lot on his or her hands.
One candidate, former Santa Monica mayor Bobby Shriver, said that an
infusion of new political blood will allow for positive change.
“The current state of play needs significant reform,” he said. “It
keeps you up at night, but it also makes you pretty outraged.”
Former state legislator Sheila Kuehl, also vying for the seat, said
that reform can be significant because of how much the board oversees.
“The county has a lot of responsibilities that people don’t know
anything about,” she said. “Healthcare, mental health, foster kids,
transportation, environment. Just a whole panoply of issues.”
For candidate John Duran, one of the most important responsibilities
of the county is encouraging business.
“Government doesn’t create wealth,” the West Hollywood councilmember
said. “Government relies on other people creating wealth so we can tax
part of it and use that tax money to provide social services.”
Kuelh said that the county itself is a powerful tool for employment.
“We have 100,000 people working for the county,” she said. “That’s an
important workforce. That’s an important aspect for avoiding
unemployment.”
But Shriver said the recent relocation of Toyota’s headquarters from
Torrance to Texas was indicative of a greater problem.
“I think we should have competed to keep them here,” he said.
“I think we’ve lost 200,000 jobs here in L.A. In the last 20 years,”
he said. “That’s not the result of the recession; that’s the result of
capital, private capital, leaving the area.”
Kuelh said that developing county public transit could create jobs–and
improve transportation throughout the county.
“I think the light rail is essentially coming back to Los Angeles,”
she said. “It was very different when people could take public
transportation.”
Shriver said that, although an improved transit system would be a boon
for the county, it would be a long term solution.
“The subway to the airport is great, 10 or 15 years in the future,” he said.
A near term solution that worked in Santa Monica was giving Santa
Monica College students free rides on the Big Blue Bus system, Shriver
said.
“Although that hasn’t solved the traffic problem heading east at
night, it certainly has made a significant contribution to offloading
the roads there and decreasing the amount of the money being spent on
new parking structures,” he said.
Duran said that more Metro stops could be a solution, but the process of creating
them often gets bogged down by political red tape.
“To get from the city of Santa Monica to the 405 during rush hour
takes an hour. It is three miles,” he said. “There is no reason that
should exist. But it exists because of political compromise.”
Duran said the county should be doing more to encourage the arts.
“In some ways, we’ve been somewhat neglectful, waiting for students to come to the arts rather than taking arts out to the students,” he said.
“It should definitely be a priority,” Kuelh agreed.
More than that, it’s very possible because L.A. County owns and
operates its own theaters, symphonies, and museums, she said.
“The LAC in LACMA is L.A. County,” she added.
Shriver said that arts have always been an important part of Los
Angeles culture and economy.
“Someone once said that more people in Los Angeles make their living
off imagination than anywhere else in the country,” he said. “We want
to keep that energy here. We want to keep the imagination business
alive and strong. The county should be doing a lot to make that
happen.”
Election day for the third district seat is June 3. If a candidate
receives more than 50 percent of the vote, he or she will be elected
to the board of supervisors. If no candidate receives 50 percent of
the vote, a runoff will be held in November.
Moderator: Hannah Townsley
Producer: Colin Newton
Anchor: Nelssie Carillo
Reporters: Hannah Townsley, Nelssie Carillo, Judith Retana, Mahina Haina, Adam Schumes and Colin Newton
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