We've been busy! And we've gotten a ton of press coverage for our work over the last six months. We played an important role in progressive wins in the March primary, weighed in on transportation projects, and advocated at City Hall to increase funding for effective, care-based responses to people experiencing mental health crises instead of sending armed police who only make the situation worse. Just this week, our Deputy Director, Godfrey Plata, was quoted in the LA Times with our take on the new LA City Charter Commission and the delay of LA city council expansion. 

Don't forget to RSVP for our Member Assembly this Sunday, 6/23. And if you want to learn how to run and win electoral campaigns, apply for LAFI's Campaign Leadership Academy by Sunday, 6/23!

Scoring a Big Win Against the Corporate Landlord & Police Lobbies

The CD4 race was fiercely contested with record-breaking special interest spending against incumbent Nithya Raman. David Levitus, our Executive Director, was quoted several times by LAist and LA Public Press, providing analysis of the primary and LA Forward's critical role in helping Nithya Raman get reelected.

And listen to this episode of Airtalk, in which LA Forward's independent expenditure work to defeat Raman's challenger is described as "a maturing of the progressive movement in Los Angeles."

Advocating for the Best Transit Option from the Valley to the Westside

Disputes over surrounding public transit plans for the Sepulveda Pass are heating up, as Bel Air homeowners fight attempts to build a subway that would go under their neighborhood and insist on a monorail along the 405 that would be slower and with less conveniently located stations. In this LA Public Press article, David weighed in:    

Speaking Out Against LA City Council's Procrastination On Key Reforms

The effort to expand the number of LA City Council seats was at a standstill in May. David expressed his disappointment over the stalling of the Los Angeles City Council expansion proposal in this LAist piece. 

Then on Tuesday of this week, the council voted to create a 13-member citizens commission to look into the possibility of expanding the number of council seats. This commission will consider changes to the city charter for the November 2026 ballot. Godfrey shared his thoughts on this development in the LA Times:  

We are going to keep up the fight for a more democratic, diverse, and effective City Council. Stay tuned!

Fighting to Fund Effective, Care-Based Crisis Response

On May 18th, we organized a press conference in front of LA City Hall to call on Councilmembers to allocate an additional $4.5 million in the budget for unarmed crisis response. We were joined by the Represent LA Coalition, Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez and others. ABC7 covered the story, watch and read here. 

Thank you to our incredible volunteers who have been working on unarmed crisis response advocacy for over a year. One of our star volunteers, Jason Enright, shares his personal story in Los Angeles Daily News: 

Check out LAist for more coverage of the press conference, and consider joining the Unarmed Crisis Response Working Group meeting on Monday evening to tap into this work!