I served as Los Angeles City Councilwoman for the residents of District 9 which includes Downtown, Little Tokyo, and South LA. During my 12-year tenure I led catalytic projects such as LA Live, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, and the new Police Administrative Building. I brought in $15 billion in investment, $52 million in net new tax revenue for the City of Los Angeles, and approximately 90,000 full-time jobs.
In our country conversations that we needed to have are finally taking place. There have been many times that I felt as if I was howling in the wind and that no one was listening. This is our time of reckoning and our chance to get it right.
In a county where Blacks are less than 10% of the population but over 50% of the homeless clearly there is more work to be done. In a country where Black people are being shot at an alarming rate the roadmap for public safety needs to be rewritten. In a country where income inequality, wage disparity, no safety net for healthcare it’s clear our work is unfinished.
While the Black experience may be the litmus test for how this country treats its people we are not alone in facing those challenges.
If we truly stand for social justice all we need do is grab the very issues that are right in front of us every single day and turn them in a new direction.