Tomorrow is a huge day for environmental justice. I'll eagerly vote YES on @STAND_LA legislation that will phase out oil and gas extraction & storage in LA.
I'm proud to be one of its first supporters -- and I salute the relentless grassroots advocates who made it happen.
Since 2014, neighbors and advocates have been demanding “no drilling where we’re living” and calling for an end to the urban oil fields that have caused air pollution disproportionately affecting predominantly Latino and Black neighborhoods for generations.
What started as a longshot effort to create a buffer zone between oil drilling and homes has become broad, landmark legislation that begins the process of getting the dirty fossil fuel industry out of neighborhoods and our city.
I recall meetings early in this effort, where neighbors who have suffered from the harmful damage of oil and gas wells told moving personal stories about how wells affect their lives. It is why I was determined to act, and why I co-sponsored the original @STAND_LA proposal.
Since then, the scope of the proposal has gotten much bigger. Tomorrow the City Council will vote to direct the City Attorney to draft a new law that will prevent any new oil and gas wells in Los Angeles, and begin the process of phasing out all the existing wells.
Advocates made this happen through persistent effort and smart organizing. This is a major action, and it is long overdue. It should not have taken the City years. Combating the climate crisis and fighting environmental injustice needs to happen with much greater urgency.
To me, @STAND_LA has always been “the #GreenNewDeal made real” - a chance to protect public health and right an environmental injustice by moving beyond dirty and dangerous fossil fuels. It is the most important environmental justice effort in our city’s recent history.
Tomorrow’s vote is a milestone. I celebrate this progress. I thank those who made it possible. And I look forward to continuing this work.
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Today I announced I've decided not to seek reelection to the LA City Council.
This is a difficult, deeply personal decision, and I’ve wrestled with it for several days, but I’m confident it is the right choice for the right reasons. (thread)
I've struggled for years with depression. It's a constant companion, and often a heavy one.
There are times when this job has made that easier, and times when it has made it more challenging.
Instead of seeking another term, it's time for me to focus on health and wellness.
It is hard for me to speak publicly about mental health, but I’ve always been forthcoming about my addiction and recovery, and about my struggles with housing insecurity. I want to be honest here, too.
I believe that sharing about our fragility is how we build common strength.
But laws like 41.18(d), which criminalize being unhoused, don’t lead to more people in housing.
How do I know this? Because we’ve been enacting them for over 100 years in LA — and the situation has only gotten worse. (thread)
As the saying goes, insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
And yet, as last year’s report from the UCLA Luskin Center makes clear, criminalizing homelessnesss has been LA’s primary approach for over a century. luskincenter.history.ucla.edu/2021/02/10/lch…
In the 1880s, as the area that would become Skid Row filled with transient, mostly male laborers, LA responded with a barrage of anti-vagrancy laws, arrests, and forced labor camps.
Our Encampments to Homes program busted the myth that people prefer to be homeless.
Outreach can work - with time, trust & real housing resources.
(Thread)
LA’s approach to homelessness fails because it’s often based on false assumptions. One of the worst is that most unhoused people are “service resistant.”
Blaming people for being unhoused disguises the real problem: systemic barriers that keep people from saying yes.
This week Council approved a new “street engagement strategy” for homelessness.
It’s an improvement over the current system, for sure, but it was constructed as a reaction to other policies that assume people need to be coerced into leaving the streets.
In Venice this summer, we showed how transparency, trust, time, partnership, and outreach with *real* housing resources could address homelessness and reduce encampments. Today, in Mar Vista, the city did the exact opposite, disrupting housing efforts and causing harm. thread 1/8
There were about 15 unhoused people, mostly seniors, living in a remote corner of Mar Vista Park. Working with @hollymitchell@lahomeless and community partners, we were on track to find housing for people by an Oct deadline from @lacityparks. 2/8
This morning, rangers forced people out of the park and onto the sidewalks in nearby neighborhoods. We need to know why and how this happened and at whose direction. It was the opposite of the best practices we modeled with Venice Beach Encampments to Homes. 3/8