MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Mary Louise Kelly in Washington.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
And I'm Ailsa Chang in Culver City, California, where I have been watching a mayoral race heat up. The counting of the ballots for the Los Angeles mayoral contest has yielded two candidates to choose between in a November runoff. They are both Democrats - no surprise there. Incumbent Karen Bass will face LA City Council member Nithya Raman. And Nithya Raman joins us now. Welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
NITHYA RAMAN: Hi. Thank you so much for having me.
CHANG: Thank you for being with us. So let me ask you - you once called the incumbent mayor, Karen Bass, the most progressive mayor the city has ever had, and you initially endorsed Bass for reelection. So what changed for you? What made you want to run against her?
RAMAN: You know, I did support this mayor in her first election. But I've been in City Hall, you know, under her leadership for the past few years now, and I have been frustrated at the lack of urgency, at the lack of focus on the issues that matter most to me and that I think matter most to Angelinos, whether it is the extraordinary cost of housing that's driving people out of this city - this mayor hasn't had a deputy mayor of housing for the last two years - whether it is our enormous homelessness crisis on which we are making incremental progress, but at very, very high costs and without the accountability that Angelinos are looking for. We're not seeing that leadership from this mayor.
CHANG: Well, that said, as is often the case when you are running against the incumbent, Karen Bass has a lot of muscle on her side in this race, I mean, the Democratic Party, for one, Big Labor, most business groups in LA. They all support her in this race. How do you plan to go up against that?
RAMAN: You know, I am up against the political establishment in this race, but I've run as an outsider multiple times. I ran as an outsider in my first race. I've had a lot of money spent against me in multiple races, and I'm very hopeful that standing up for what Angelinos need against sometimes what the political establishment wants to see happen will be visible to voters and that they'll support that. I (inaudible)...
CHANG: OK. Let's pick up on two issues that you mentioned, housing affordability and homelessness. Homelessness is one of the biggest issues in this race. You oppose an ordinance that calls for the removal of homeless encampments around sensitive areas like schools, parks, daycare centers. Explain why.
RAMAN: Well, to me, I don't think Angelinos wake up thinking about municipal code sections. They care about whether encampments are gone. I don't want encampments near schools. I'm the mother of 10-year-old twins who walk to school every single day. I don't want encampments in parks. I don't want encampments on our streets at all. This is what...
CHANG: So what do you do about those encampments, if not remove them, around certain areas?
RAMAN: Well, camping is essentially banned across every part of this city already, and we still have a massive encampment problem.
CHANG: Exactly.
RAMAN: This is the law of the land right now.
CHANG: So what do you do about that?
RAMAN: It has not resolved the encampments.
CHANG: So what do you do about that when people flout the law?
RAMAN: My plan is to target beds, shelter beds at encampments, to make sure that people have housing and to bring them indoors and to ensure that we can remove encampments from our streets in a sustainable way. And that approach in my district has delivered a more than 50% reduction of tents and encampments in just three years. I've addressed the encampments that were near schools when I first got elected, and as mayor, I'll bring that same approach citywide.
CHANG: OK. Let's talk about affordable housing now. It's one of the biggest challenges facing LA. You have said that the city needs to become denser with housing, including in single-family residential neighborhoods. What do you say to homeowners who just don't want to see high-rise apartment buildings in their neighborhoods? I mean, do you just tell them, too bad, don't be such a nimby?
RAMAN: Well, I have pushed for greater density around transit zones as state laws have been pushing us to do and, yes, adding some additional density in some single-family neighborhoods that are close to these transit zones.
CHANG: Yeah.
RAMAN: And I do believe that that is...
CHANG: But there are a lot of people that don't like that idea. If it's a - if it's in their neighborhood, they don't want to see a high-rise apartment building.
RAMAN: Absolutely. My vision of adding more housing in Los Angeles is about adding gentle density in some of these single-family neighborhoods. These are two- and three-story buildings, duplexes.
CHANG: But that's the thing - a lot of people pay good money to live in houses where there isn't density. They crave to live in a place where there is the opposite of density, and they've paid a premium for those properties. What do you say to them if they don't want to see even slightly denser units in their neighborhoods?
RAMAN: I think that Los Angeles is grappling with a cost-of-living crisis that is driving families out of the city. This issue, the lack of housing, the lack of affordable housing, is having impacts on every aspect of the future of this city. And if we don't take actions to be able to resolve it, and if we're not realistic and honest about what actions we need to take, this city will face the results. It's already facing the negative results of that. And so to Angelinos who are saying, I don't want to see our neighborhoods change, I would say your neighborhoods are changing already, often in ways that you don't like.
CHANG: Well, I have to ask you this question because a lot of people are comparing you now to Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of New York. I mean, yes, the two of you are both progressive. You're both pretty young. You both share South Asian ancestry. Do you think that comparisons between the two of you are fair or even helpful? What do you make of the comparisons?
RAMAN: You know, it's always flattering to be compared to a politician who is, I think, a generational talent in communication. He's really a remarkable politician. But I also do want to say, you know, I'm - I am me. I'm an urban planner. I'm a mother. I have been a city council member for the last five years and delivered results for the residents of this city. I am a politician that cares deeply about Los Angeles and has a track record of my own, and I invite people to learn more about who I am and the kind of politician that I've been and the kind of mayor that I want to be.
CHANG: Nithya Raman is running for mayor of Los Angeles. Thank you very much for speaking with me, and good luck to you.
RAMAN: Thank you so much for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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