Nithya Raman: Fresh Urgency for LA Mayor

0:00Nithya Rahman, Los Angeles City Council member for District 4, jumped into the mayor's race at the last minute. Her area stretches from Van Nij's and Sherman Oaks across the Hollywood Hills to Silver Lake and Los Feliz. A Harvard political theory grad with a master's in urban planning from MIT, she came from India as a kid and led homelessness non-profits before. Politics. She's frustrated with City Hall's slow response to wildfires, poor fire prep, and ongoing crises like housing shortages, pushing her to run now. Instead of waiting for others, earlier this week on air talk, she slammed the mayor's new budget as barely holding the line after last year's billion dollar shortfall forced deep. Service cuts. Things slow street life fixes and crumbling roads, revenues high, but pricey union deals from years back are biting hard. Rahman says she pushed back on labor demands for better fiscal management, even without their big backing and erases. She's done it before by tweaking. The mansion tax to boost housing builds, Angelino's are feeling the pinch from lagging services

1:02compared to nearby cities and Rahman blames weak accountability and no solid multi-year. Infrastructure plans. On ring control, she backs stabilizing existing units, but once exemptions for new builds may be 15 or 20 years out to keep construction, flowing without hurting renters. Homelessness hits home too. She pioneered encampment clearances in her district because the current inside safe motels weigh too pricey at over 80, thousand bucks a room yearly. She's eyeing cheaper fixes like short-term rental aid that houses two or three times more folks with better staying power, plus street medicine teams. For on-site mental health, the meaty cow can partly cover. For LAPD's next chief, she wants someone bold to cut lawsuit payouts, handle protest right, and nicks any ice fives, scaring immigrants. She critiques the current chief for not stepping up on federal clashes and mask rules. Rahman pitches herself as the relentless worker ready to untangle bureaucracy and grind for

2:03real change on these entrenched messes, bringing fresh urgency to lead LAPD forward. California News Today, powered by AI bringing you what matters.