I, Gina Viola, have signed The Peoples Budget and am fully committed to it becoming the reality of the city of Los Angeles. We can no longer allow elected officials to betray their constituents. “We believe that the government should be responsive to the needs, priorities, and demands of the people. There is clearly a wide chasm between the budget proposed by the ‘current’ mayor (and directly or indirectly endorsed by the ‘current’ City Council) and the one envisioned by Los Angeles residents. The City Charter enables Council to pass or revise the mayor’s budget proposal or submit a new budget for implementation. In a democracy, the Council should listen to the will of the people and pass a People’s Budget that centers the priorities that Angelenos have listed as central to them.” – The Peoples Budget LA on Participatory Budgeting.

I am committed to implementing an increase in the living wage that will allow the citizens of this city to thrive, not merely exist. There are many people who have been working in the city for many years but due to unregulated and ever-increasing rent, hard-working people are being forced to move far away and commute up to two hours daily only to survive. I am proposing a living wage of $39.03/hour. This is possible in the richest city, in the richest county, in the richest state, in the richest country in the world.

Why we say “Defund the Police, Refund the People”

900+ killed by LAPD since 2000 with only 2 indictments

I am 100% opposed to the unofficial policy of Black erasure that has been robbing the Black communities of LA of social wealth, peace, sovereignty and their very lives. The primary instrument of that erasure has been the LAPD. It has been all too easy for us to reduce this assault on our Black neighbors as evidence of some inherent weakness of the group. Whatever assumptions we have made, have allowed too many of us to ignore the disappearance of more than 600,000 Black Angelenos since the year 2000! Black Angelenos are the ones most victimized by the police. Gentrification has destroyed once thriving and vibrant Black communities in this city. 34% of the unhoused population are Black people despite the overall Black population of Los Angeles being 7.9%. Furthermore, 30% of the jail population is Black in this city. Until the year 2020, the Black population of LA has been the only one to experience an annual decrease in its population, based on US Census Bureau statistics. According to the same data, every other community of LA has consistently experienced growth. This is an alarm call, and anyone not alarmed is complicit. The suffering of all other communities centers around this criminal outrage.

As mayor I will be committed to righting this terrible wrong, and I will be calling on all Angelenos to assist me in changing the nature of our relationship to our Black neighbors. My administration will swiftly implement the Peoples Budget which calls for the infusion of capital to support Black businesses, to protect those citizens who are being threatened with losing their homes, and to assist our neighbors in securing gainful employment and home ownership.

Myth of Community Policing

The phrase “community policing” has gained plenty of traction in Los Angeles politics since the 2020 uprisings against anti-Black police violence. In July of that year, LA Mayor Eric Garcetti stood alongside Eileen Decker, then the president of the Los Angeles Police Commission, to announce an expansion of LAPD’s Community Safety Partnership (CSP). Decker and Garcetti disingenuously presented this “reform” as a response to community demands to defund the police. In reality, though, the CSP expansion had been in the works since the non-profit funded CSP pilot program launched in 2011 by former LAPD Chief William Bratton, who has disparagingly referred to Black Lives Matter as “a bunch of Marxists,” in partnership with the Advancement Project, a non-profit organization founded by former civil rights attorney Connie Rice, who gave up suing the police to work alongside Bratton, or, in her words, “I now have a parking space next to the Chief and I have a badge.” Policing has long been influenced by U.S. military tactics abroad, and despite their gentler-sounding names, programs like CSP employ counterinsurgency tactics developed in the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. After communities in Los Angeles are targeted for what abolitionist geographer and CUNY professor Dr. Ruth Wilson Gilmore calls “organized abandonment,” they then experience the organized violence of counterinsurgent community policing. Under the guise of cooperation between police, non-profit organizations, and community members, CSP and other “community policing” programs like it are designed to surveil and control Angelenos, who are pathologized as insurgent populations held in check only by the LAPD’s occupying force. Our communities need care and holistic resources, not anti-Black surveillance and suppression. Defund the police, and fund our communities.

For many decades, the people of Los Angeles have been victimized by elected officials who take money from special interest groups, lobbyists, police associations, big pharma and the like. Whenever things are not working in your city, you must look to your leaders and lay their failures at THEIR feet. The current state of this city is disastrous and constitutes crimes against humanity. There are estimates of up to five deaths of the unhoused and 270 people becoming unhoused every single day! COVID Relief Funds being redirected to the police force is nothing short of a criminal act while we are still suffering and recovering from the impact of two years of pandemic. The current condition of Los Angeles has ONLY its elected officials to blame.

I promise to end the culture of political betrayal and opportunism of continued promises made and betrayed, by signing the Peoples Contract stating that I will resign my position if I do not uphold the interests of the people of Los Angeles. I will also aid my constituents in holding other members of city government accountable. This is my commitment to allowing my constituents to hold me accountable, and to ensure that my office is always being maintained through the creation of a culture of integrity, transparency and accountability.

Immediately establishing a ‘Housing for All’ task force made up of the unhoused/formerly unhoused citizens (members from each of the 15 council districts) that will receive a stipend to provide meaningful guidance on a truly holistic solution to the housing crisis within this city.

Quality, eco-friendly housing through LACAN’s EcoHood project through providing full support of Los Angeles Community Action Network’s EcoHood development project. The Los Angeles Community Action Network is developing a prototype community in South Central L.A. Combining micro homes with solar power and other energy performance features, these EcoHood developments will provide stable housing for those in need while preserving the environment. The property is being developed with non-public sources, utilizing lands that are city or county owned. Each 400 square foot home includes a bedroom, bathroom with shower, fully-equipped kitchen and living area. The goal of the pilot project is to provide a template for how to utilize some of the thousands of city- and county-owned parcels to reduce L.A.’s homeless population at a fraction of cost of traditional construction without harming the planet.

Enforce the LA Charter on Affordable housing; harmonize rent prices and average rate of pay

Strengthen renter protections, and end parasitic renting practices

Decommodify housing and establish community land trusts

Los Angeles has, in recent years, taken outwardly progressive positions concerning its indigenous population such as popularizing Land Acknowledgement and the creation of Indigenous Peoples Day. These are steps in the right direction, but much more is required for this city to ensure principled relationships with its Native neighbors. As mayor of Los Angeles, I will work closely with and support Native organizations and leaders to ensure that their voices are an ever-present part of the tapestry of this great city.

Despite over two hundred years of colonial occupation, displacement and invisibilization, the Gabrieleno/Tongva people continue to live here, revitalize their cultural practices and uphold their responsibilities to protect and care for their ancestral homeland. In response to this history, we hope to provide opportunities for the Gabrieleno/Tongva people to exercise self-determination through policies and redistribution. Inspired by the city of Albany which passed a Rematriation resolution, we recognize that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) states in Article 32, 2, “States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free and informed consent prior to approval of any project affecting their lands or territories and other resources, particularly in connection with the development, utilization or exploitation of mineral, water or other resources”.

In every study conducted over 25 years, single-payer health care financing has demonstrated significant savings on the national, state and city levels.

Single Payer saves money and saves lives. The City of Los Angeles’ financial gains from a single-payer health care system will free up resources for increased employee wages, expanded affordable housing, and improved constituent services. A single-payer healthcare system will help stabilize government budgets, increase available city funds and allow for much-needed investment back into the community and economy.

Single Payer Health Care financing is fiscally rational, responsible governance positively impacting all city services. Constituents deserve proactive planning from city officials to solve our financial crisis with sound leadership on behalf of a healthier, wealthier and more responsive city government.