LA mayoral candidates talk extreme heat, Lineage fire during environmental forum<\/p>\n
Mayor Karen Bass and Councilmember Nithya Raman sat down for fireside-style chats with LAist’s Erin Stone Thursday night at a candidate forum in downtown L.A. Lucas Brady Woods was there and reports on the two different pictures they painted of the city.<\/p>\n
With a little more than two months to go until the general election, the two mayoral candidates running to lead the city of Los Angeles fielded questions about the environment at a Thursday night forum hosted by LAist.<\/p>\n
Incumbent Karen Bass and her challenger, L.A. City Councilmember Nithya Raman, each answered questions separately about how they would approach many environmental challenges facing the city, including emergency preparedness, water resiliency and transportation policy.<\/p>\n
These and other environmental and climate issues are top of mind for many Angelenos during a summer marked by extreme heat, humidity and the Lineage warehouse fire in Boyle Heights that affected surrounding neighborhoods for months. Communities are also still rebuilding from last year\u2019s destructive Eaton and Palisades fires.<\/p>\n
The forum, held at Los Angeles Trade Technical-College, was organized by the L.A. League of Conservation Voters<\/a>, SCOPE-LA, <\/a>Sierra Club<\/a>, Clean and Healthy California<\/a>, Neighborhood Council Sustainability Alliance<\/a> and Communities for a Better Environment<\/a>, and was moderated by LAist climate and environment Reporter Erin Stone.<\/p>\n Keep up with LAist.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, you’ll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less. <\/p>\n Here are three takeaways from the event:<\/p>\n Differing visions of LA<\/p>\n Bass, who was elected mayor in 2022, painted a picture of an L.A. that\u2019s made significant progress on environmental issues during that time, while Raman said the city has stalled under Bass\u2019 leadership.<\/p>\n Bass referenced her work transitioning the city off of coal-generated energy and expanding the city\u2019s electric bus fleets and clean-energy jobs. She said she wants to build on that momentum, particularly with a focus on helping communities impacted by environmental and industrial pollution.<\/p>\n She pointed to many communities of color that bear the brunt of industrial pollution, including in South L.A. neighborhoods dotted with oil wells and residents who live in close proximity to the Lineage warehouse in Boyle Heights.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere we need to go now in the future is focusing on environmental justice, focusing on the communities that are disproportionately impacted by greenhouse gases and by the environment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Raman also talked about a need to focus on environmental justice, but she said environmental programs are underfunded and understaffed, and that she would invest more in them if she becomes mayor.<\/p>\n She said Bass\u2019 administration has not prioritized environmental climate issues enough, and that there should be a more aggressive policy around them.<\/p>\n \u201cToo much of that work remains unfinished,\u201d she said. \u201cOur transition to clean energy has slowed. Efforts to build a resilient water supply, close neighborhood drilling sites, make our streets safer, all of these have slowed over the last four years.\u201d<\/p>\n Raman specifically called out Bass for her proposal to cut funding for the Climate Emergency Mobilization Office as the city faced a billion-dollar budget shortfall last year.<\/p>\n Bass defended the proposal, arguing the program had not developed a climate action plan as directed and needed to be revamped.<\/p>\n The office has shrunk under Bass\u2019 leadership, and she removed the city\u2019s chief heat officer and quietly appointed a new one earlier this year.<\/p>\n Emergency response failures<\/p>\n Both Bass and Raman said L.A. has room for improvement when it comes to preparing for fires, earthquakes and other disasters.<\/p>\n Raman criticized the city\u2019s response to last year\u2019s Palisades Fire, saying there was no clear leadership to guide the community through the recovery effort. She pointed to Bass’ appointment of Steve Soboroff to head the recovery. He left the post after his three-month term and was not replaced.<\/p>\n \u200a\u201dWhat we saw in the Palisades, I think, was an example of what shouldn’t happen,\u201d Raman said. \u201c\u200aA lot of residents in the Palisades have been feeling like they don’t know who to reach out to, who is the person that they need to connect with in order to make sure that recovery really happens.\u201d<\/p>\n But she defended her administration\u2019s response, and said confusion over city and state land made it more difficult.<\/p>\n \u200a\u201dPart of the brush was the city, part of the brush was the state. There was a reluctance to go into state territory because our folks were told they couldn’t do that,\u201d Bass said. \u201cAs far as I’m concerned, that’s not gonna happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n Bass said the biggest impediments to the recovery process \u2014 and to people moving back into their homes \u2014 are insurance companies and banks. She called for legislative reforms to the insurance process.<\/p>\n Raman also criticized the response to the Lineage warehouse fire in Boyle Heights this summer, calling out Bass directly for sharing misleading information about air quality.<\/p>\n Bass said she relied on inaccurate information from public health and air quality management officials.<\/p>\n Both candidates said there\u2019s a need for stronger enforcement and higher fines that could be levied against corporations like Lineage, the warehouse owner, and better planning for emergencies around industrial buildings.<\/p>\n Shared goals<\/p>\n Although the candidates leaned into their differences, the reality is that they align on many climate and environmental policies.<\/p>\n