Mayor Karen Bass and City Councilwoman Nithya Raman will attend Thursday evening a nonpartisan environmental and climate forum, two days after both candidates picked up endorsements in the race to lead the nation\u2019s second-largest city.<\/p>\n
Bass and Raman are expected to discuss environmental justice, extreme heat, air pollution, oil drilling, rising energy costs, housing affordability, public safety, emergency response and community health, according to organizers.<\/p>\n
The forum is being organized by a coalition of environmental justice, climate, labor, public health and community organizations, including the Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters, SCOPE LA, Sierra Club, Los Angeles Neighborhood Sustainability Alliance, Communities for a Better Environment and Clean and Healthy California.<\/p>\n
Candidates will participate individually in moderated, fireside-chat-style conversations, organizers said.<\/p>\n
The forum comes amid an increasingly active mayoral race, with both candidates picking up endorsements and sharpening their attacks on each other\u2019s records.<\/p>\n
Unite Here Local 11, which represents more than 32,000 hospitality workers in Southern California and Arizona, endorsed Raman Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need a mayor who will stand with the working people who keep this city running and who isn\u2019t afraid to take on powerful corporate interests when they threaten our communities,\u201d Unite Here Local 11 co-president Ada Brice\u00c3\u00b1o said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Bass, meanwhile, announced Tuesday that she had received the endorsement of Spanish-language publication La Opini\u00c3\u00b3n.<\/p>\n
\u201cLa Opini\u00c3\u00b3n is an institution in our city, and I\u2019m proud to receive their endorsement for the work we have been doing to make LA safer and more affordable,\u201d Bass said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The endorsements followed an attack by the Bass campaign Monday accusing Raman of missing nearly 3,000 votes during her time on the City Council. Bass\u2019 campaign launched a website, NoShowNithya.com, highlighting the absences and criticizing Raman\u2019s attendance record.<\/p>\n
Raman\u2019s campaign called the allegations a \u201cdesperate\u201d attack and said it was \u201cironic coming from a mayor who was missing during our city\u2019s most devastating emergencies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bass and Raman previously faced off Aug. 19 in a 90-minute debate conducted by the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council and Sherman Oaks\/Encino Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n
The candidates sparred over homelessness, housing and public safety, with Bass questioning Raman\u2019s record during six years on the City Council and Raman criticizing the mayor\u2019s handling of city services and homelessness.<\/p>\n
Raman touted a 49% decrease in unsheltered homelessness in her Fourth Council District and criticized the cost and effectiveness of Bass\u2019 Inside Safe homelessness program. Bass defended the program and argued that Los Angeles needs to overhaul a homelessness system divided among the city, county and Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.<\/p>\n
The candidates also clashed over policing. Raman defended her opposition to a 2023 pay raise for Los Angeles Police Department officers, arguing the contract contributed to the city\u2019s financial problems, while Bass criticized Raman for previously supporting efforts to \u201cdefund the police.\u201d Both candidates have supported expanding unarmed crisis-response programs.<\/p>\n
Housing and the entertainment industry were also points of disagreement. Bass highlighted efforts to fast-track housing construction and support local film production, while Raman argued the city needs to do more to keep entertainment jobs in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Karen Bass and City Councilwoman Nithya Raman will attend Thursday evening a nonpartisan environmental and climate forum,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1041073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[6297,1582,276,10109,133968,53600,5376,2961,224,5337,14090,249145],"class_list":["post-1041072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-bass","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-climate","tag-discuss","tag-forum","tag-issues","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-mayoral","tag-raman"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117207957838628612","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1041072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1041073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1041072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1041072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1041072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}