This is Mayor Karen Bass’ Moment 

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has always met the moment. Whether it was working as a nurse and helping others or rallying the locals behind important issues as the founder of the Community Coalition. 

Bass has morphed from community advocate to an elected powerhouse.

She has gone from talking about neighborhood matters to statewide and national problems while yet keeping her focus on issues affecting or impacting Californians. No, this is not an advertisement for Bass. 

It’s more of a acknowledgement that Bass, the first Black woman and first woman to take the reins of mayor for Los Angeles, deserves her flowers as a sworn representative who constantly wants to her city improve. Bass best represents Los Angeles in just about every way possible.

She is a homegrown native. Her legacy as an elected official has a lot of stairs she has managed to climb. She was a member of the California State Assembly. She was a House of Representative member from 2011 to 2022. By now, you have a clean picture of her political endeavors. 

As she fights for her political life in her reelection campaign journey, the one thing for sure about Bass is that she gives Angelos a voice they can identify with. Like the city she represents, Bass is caring, but she can also be tough. 

She can be empathetic. However, Bass has the grit and fortitude inside of her to push aside her detractors to get the job done. Bass is about solutions, not running her mouth in an endless and empty cycle. She produces results. 

Her first four years as mayor has been marked by accomplishments as well as controversy and a little bit of turbulence when it comes to dealing with matters such as containing the destructive Palisades Fire, battling homelessness around the city, protecting immigrants,  and at times, using measured responses to temper forms of civil disobedience from protesters. 

Bass has seen Los Angeles at its worst (Rodney King beating, Los Angeles riots) and its best (1984 Summer Olympics). Now with Super Bowl LXI and the 2028 Summer Olympics on the horizon, Bass is hoping to steer Los Angeles through these unforgettable moments. 

But first, she has to beat back mayoral challenger Nithya Raman.  For Los Angeles voters, Bass will either get four more years to complete what she started or look for change in Raman. 

In a digital interview with the Compton Bulletin and News4usonline.com Editor Dennis J. Freeman, Bass talked spoke on a plethora of issues she’d address should voters side with her on election night. 

Dennis J. Freeman: What do you see as  the city’s most urgent need and how have you addressed the problem?

Mayor Karen Bass: “Affordability and getting Angelenos housed are at the top of the list. Within my first few weeks in office, I issued Executive Directive 1 to fast-track 100% affordable housing. Today, more than 10,000 affordable homes are ready for families to move into, with over 25% of them in Black Los Angeles. That’s more affordable housing built in the last four years than in many years before. We’ve also eased costs for families by capping annual rent increases at 4%.For our unhoused neighbors, we’ve reduced street homelessness by 11%, the first reduction the city has seen in years.” 

“Through Inside Safe, the first citywide strategy to reduce encampments by bringing people inside voluntarily, we’ve removed 145 encampments and housed thousands of Angelenos, and 30% of them are Black. On jobs, we’ve hired 1,500 people into city jobs through Local Hire, Bridge to Jobs, and Hire LAX. That’s nearly 40% more than the prior administration, and 26% of those jobs went to Black Angelenos. Through Executive Directive 20, we expanded Fair Chance hiring so people with a past conviction get a fair shot at good jobs. We’ve helped local businesses win more than $45 million in city contracts through ProcureLA, over 17% of them Black-owned, and launched the Business Navigator to open city contracting to underrepresented businesses. And because LA is the home of Hollywood, we fought to more than double California’s Film and Television Tax Credit, from $330 million to $750 million a year, to keep good-paying production jobs here.”

Dennis J. Freeman: When it comes to homelessness, what have you done or are doing to address or assist those with mental illness? 

Mayor Karen Bass: “We will not end homelessness in Los Angeles without addressing addiction and mental illness. Many of the people living on our streets are struggling with both, and we know that a tent on a sidewalk is no place to heal. Through Inside Safe, we have housed thousands of unhoused Angelenos, providing them with mental health services and addiction support, to help them stabilize and move toward permanent housing. Inside Safe is done with care and attention. Additionally, we’ve housed more than 1,300 veterans through House Our Vets, with a 99% housing retention rate.”

Dennis J. Freeman: Why is the public safety issue, especially with events such as the Super Bowl and Olympics coming into town, so important to you and the city?

Mayor Karen Bass: “Our number one job as city leaders is to keep Angelenos safe and that’s whether the world is watching or not. With the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games coming, millions of visitors will experience our city, but the real measure of success is whether the families who live here every day feel safe in their neighborhoods. That’s why we’ve built a public safety strategy that goes beyond policing. I created the City’s first Mayor’s Office of Community Safety to lead violence prevention, intervention, and civilian crisis response. We expanded GRYD, our gang reduction and youth development program, by funding trusted community organizations, and 36% of our GRYD partners are Black-led. We launched programs that send mental health professionals, instead of police officers, to help Angelenos suffering from mental illness. And through Summer Night Lights, 42 parks offer free recreation for families, with a 22% increase in young people hired to work at the sites.This approach is working. Homicides are at their lowest level in nearly 60 years. Our goal is to make sure that progress lasts long after the Games are over, so every Angeleno can feel the difference.”

Dennis J. Freeman: As the Mayor of Los Angeles, what would you say is your proudest moment? 

Mayor Kaen Bass: “My proudest moments are the ones where I get to see someone’s life change. When I was a community organizer in South Los Angeles, we had plans to take over motels and bring people off the streets, but we didn’t have the power to make it happen. Now, as Mayor, I get to actually implement those ideas.”