Thanks to the recent city council redistricting process, most of our Greater Wilshire area, which used to lie within the boundaries of the old City Council District 4, is now split between Council Districts 5 and 13. So most of our neighborhoods now have new representatives…and many of our local neighborhood organizations have been busy holding meet-and-greet events to help residents get to know their new Councilmembers, and to help those new Councilmembers get to know their new constituents. The most recent of these gatherings was held by the Windsor Square Association, with its new representative Mitch O’Farrell, on Tuesday evening. To make sure key issues were covered, the one-hour meeting was featured WSA board members asking pre-selected questions representing neighbors’ primary concerns. Here are many of the topics that were specifically addressed:
Homelessness
Responding to nearly everyone’s number one issue these days, O’Farrell listed several of the many housing efforts his office has worked on in the last few years, noting that CD 13 had done more in this area than most other districts. But he also said the city definitely needs to increase the pace at which it is getting people off the streets.
“I strongly believe people need to get indoors to heal,” he said, stating his belief that keeping people in tents on the streets is not a humane solution. Instead, he said, we need to strike a balance between providing services and keeping our streets clean and usable for all residents. And to do that, he said, we need to continue exploring new housing options, including more permanent supportive housing, and including possible partnerships with owners of private property.
O’Farrell said he learned a lot from last year’s cleanup at Echo Park Lake, but “we all need to step it up” and “the current pace needs to increase exponentially.” At the same time, however, O’Farrell also said that homelessness is a problem that has been brewing for decades, and that while we have the money to fight it, we haven’t had a unified response or administration of the funding we’ve had, which makes accessing and using the money difficult. Homelessness is “a monster, a beast of an issue” he said, and we need to address many different facets of it, such as repatriation (helping people repair ties with and return home to their own families), addiction, and mental health services. “This is the challenge of the day,” he said.
Finally, in response to a more specific question about potential private property partnerships, and whether the former St. Vincent’s Hospital property could be turned into supportive housing for the mentally ill, O’Farrell said he has repeatedly tried to contact the building’s owner, Patrick Soon-Shiong (“the richest man in the city”), but Soon-Shiong refuses to sell the building, even though LA County has resources to help with the project. On the other hand, though, O’Farrell said he is also currently working with the foundation that owns the rest of the St. Vincent’s campus, and there may be a way to use that part of the property and its buildings. But still, he said, he finds it hard to believe that “the wealthiest man in Los Angeles is unwilling to even speak to us” about using the hospital building itself.
Public Safety
O’Farrell responded to concerns about both public safety and police reform by saying the two are not mutually exclusive goals. While we definitely do need strong law enforcement, he said, some things – such as reports of homeless camps – don’t need an armed response, and the city can develop better responses for many kinds of issues using other resources, including building up our community policing relationships, cooperation with neighbors, and involvement of Council Office staff. At the same time, though, O’Farrell also acknowledged that crime has been increasing lately, and he said he and other current Councilmembers have “no appetite” right now to cut police budgets. So it’s just a matter of adjusting which kinds of public safety issues we respond to in which ways.
Priorities for Larchmont Boulevard
In response to a question about O’Farrell’s agenda for the Larchmont Boulevard commercial district, O’Farrell said that although he loves Larchmont, he’s not as intimately familiar with it as he is with other parts of the district that he lives in and/or has represented longer, so he has no preconceived agenda for Larchmont and “your agenda, collectively, is going to be my office’s agenda.” He said he is “all ears” to find out the community’s dreams and wishes for the area, and also lauded the recent efforts of his field deputy, George Hakopiants, in personally removing the “No Parking” signs from in front of the Larchmont Mercantile building after neighbors complained that construction on the project was nearing completion but the parking had not been restored.
State-Level Housing Policies Such as SB 9 and 10
O’Farrell said that at first, the two new state-level bills setting new zoning policies for all cities across the state struck him as a “head-scratcher,” but then, as the bills advanced, and now that they have passed, he simply finds them an “outrage,” especially because neither SB 9 (which allows duplexes and lot splits on parcels previously zoned for single-family homes) or SB 10 (which would allow cities to permit up to 10 housing units on any parcel within a certain distance of public transit) requires any officially affordable housing units. He said he is happy, however, that there are “pretty robust protections” in the new laws for official historic zones (like our local HPOZs), so the most vulnerable areas at the moment are working class neighborhoods with smaller single family homes in South and East LA. “That’s a real shame,” he said. But he also said that his office can be a resource for people on this topic, and he invited people to sign up for his weekly newsletters, which provide updates on housing, housing policy and other topics. (You can sign up on O’Farrell’s website at https://cd13.lacity.org/ )
Traffic
In response to a question about traffic safety, O’Farrell said he believes that many of our traffic problems are caused by both drivers and pedestrians using their phones as they drive or walk. He said the 13th District pioneered the use of speed tables (longer, flatter versions of speed humps) to slow traffic elsewhere in the city, and there’s “no reason” speed tables can’t also be used in local trouble spots such as Sixth Street. O’Farrell said his office has also done several streetscape improvements in other locations in the district, usually near a school to help students get to school more safely.  Also, he said, he’s had experience installing other kinds of safety improvements, such as traffic islands, scramble crosswalks, and more.
Corruption in City Government
In response to question from a WSA board member who said they were “disheartened” at recent cases of sitting City Councilmembers being charged with multiple counts of corruption, O’Farrell said he too finds it frustrating that some of his Council colleagues, who presumably shared his early optimism and idealism for public service, have fallen into criminal activity while in office. And while there have been no convictions yet, O’Farrell said “perception is reality in politics.” At the same time, though, O’Farrell also said the city does have very strong ethics laws, which makes it easy for people to get caught when they run afoul of the laws – and that’s a good thing. But the city could still improve its ethics training, he said, and increasing the size of the city council would make governing each district more manageable and reduce opportunities for inappropriate activity. O’Farrell said he would also like to hear suggestions on this topic from constituents, and that he has a “public service agenda, not a political agenda” when it comes to ethics. Finally on this point, O’Farrell reported that he did catch some flack from for his votes to quickly suspend Councilmembers Jose Huizar and Mark Ridley-Thomas when legal charges were first filed against them, but he said he is “1000% proud” of those votes, because he didn’t want the “stain” of their actions to spread to the rest of the Council.
George Gascon and Recall Efforts
On the subject of where O’Farrell stands on the topic of recalls in general, and the current recall effort against District Attorney George Gascon in particular, O’Farrell repeated his belief that “perception is reality” in politics, and that the perception in this case currently seems to be that under Gascon’s authority people can get away with doing bad things, which is causing a lot of anxiety. At the same time, however, O’Farrell said he never signs recall petitions, and even though they’re a constitutional right for voters, he prefers to focus on more idealistic approaches and specific policies and solutions to specific problems. Also, he said, recalls are expensive and difficult, and take up time while “bad guys” are taking advantage of the situation, so we should be focusing more on specific ways to stop those problems.
Infrastructure
Responding to questions about various infrastructure issues in the area over the years – such as power outages, water main breaks, etc. – O’Farrell again said that he is, obviously, more familiar with specific infrastructure in parts of the district he has represented longer, so he once again invited people to contact his office about specific trouble spots it should know about.
Is LA Ungovernable?
A final question from a Windsor Square resident brought up the issue of whether all of these growing problems mean that Los Angeles is becoming “ungovernable,” and O’Farrell said he thinks are actually many reasons for optimism, but they get less media coverage. For example, he said, there was a lot of coverage about the problems at the homeless camp at Echo Park Lake last summer – before and during its cleanup – but he said the media has pretty much ignored the area since then, even though it’s been clean and safe again, with the larger community once again enjoying its resources, since last May. “It’s a terrific story,” he said, adding that he would like to see a lot more coverage of this kind of victory when something does go right.
Overall, though, he said, “We all have to stay and fight for Los Angeles,” and that “we’re on the cusp” of turning things around and he’s optimistic because he knows what we’re capable of. “We can do so much more,” he said, so “let’s collaborate and work together so we can do it.”
If you didn’t Tuesday’s online event, but would still like to watch it, a recording is now available at https://windsorsquare.org/15feb2022-meeting-with-mitch-ofarrell/.
