Why Should I Be Elected? – L.A. Council District 11
By Traci Park

Top 5 reasons for supporting my candidacy

Reason 1 – You want effective policy changes.

For more than 20 years, I’ve been a municipal law attorney providing counsel to public sector clients. This included advising on complex policy issues and facilitating negotiations to reach fair resolutions when conflicts arose. So, I speak from deep expertise when I say that what we see happening in CD11 is NOT how city government should operate.

Our current City leadership – and CD11 leadership in particular – has lost touch with constituent needs and opinions. Emails to our Council office go unanswered. Phone calls are unreturned. The rights of everyday working people are compromised and ignored in favor of allegiance to the loudest voices. We’re subjected to a self-serving bureaucracy that’s far out of sync with the moderate center.

Nearly all my opponents are part of this L.A. bureaucracy. So while experience is typically a plus, our city’s bureaucrats have become experienced in doing whatever they want – while spending enormous quantities of taxpayer money – with no accountability for outcomes. Instead of seeing goals met, we get endless excuses, continual finger-pointing, and a long trail of broken promises. Different results are not going to come from the same group of people.

That’s why voters prefer my experience over that of my opponents. I bring broad expertise because I’ve crafted municipal policies that are working in numerous cities across L.A. County and beyond. My opponents bring experience with L.A.’s municipal bureaucracy that is failing us all.

When I am CD11’s Councilmember, I expect every one of you to hold me accountable. Because that’s what constituents deserve.

Reason 2 – You want to see public safety prioritized.

We know from research and experience that safe communities thrive. Children learn better, businesses attract more customers, and overall quality of life improves when people feel safe on their streets and in their parks, schools, and businesses.

But the sad truth is that in CD11, we’ve lost our sense of safety. Years of failed policies have led to an unsettling rise in crime. Residents and visitors have been attacked and assaulted. Businesses have been robbed and vandalized. Kids don’t feel safe walking to school. RV and tent fires threaten our communities. Too many families feel unsafe in their homes and neighborhoods, while crime stats show that unhoused people are even more likely to be victimized in their makeshift encampments.

It doesn’t have to be this way. I will use my experience working with police, fire and other public safety partners to make sure first responders have the funding, training, tools, authority, and resources to compassionately serve CD11’s ever-growing and diverse population.

I’m proud to be endorsed by our local police, park rangers, and sheriff’s deputies.

Reason 3 – You want inhumane street encampments ended.

We have the resources to help everyone. Billions of dollars are being spent, but they need to be responsibly reallocated. We must help our unhoused community by NOT leaving them out on our streets without sanitation and services, but by bringing them in to safe sleeping situations while creating pathways to better lives.

L.A.’s current policy is to leave people in encampments – for years, if not decades – supposedly waiting for individual housing units to be built. Our CD11 councilmember has been a leading supporter of Housing First policy, yet the math will never work. Mere hundreds of units are in the pipeline, which won’t come close to housing the tens of thousands on our streets. Pretending otherwise is wasting time and money while hurting everyone.

Meanwhile, rampant street drugs are killing people. Hundreds have died of overdoses on our streets, as well as in shelters and motels, because the city doesn’t provide anywhere near enough funding or resources for addiction recovery.

All over our district, neighborhoods have experienced increases in encampment densities that directly correlate with increases in crime.

Despite claims by my opposition, I do not support criminalizing homelessness, poverty, addiction, or mental health disorders – but I will end the inhumanity of leaving fellow human beings to eke out a precarious existence on our streets and other public spaces, and I will insist that criminals are held accountable for criminal behavior.

By working together, we can renew our Westside communities with compassion and responsibility.

On my website you’ll find detailed plans to compassionately end encampments.

Reason 4 – You want our thriving Westside economy restored.

A vibrant local economy underpins our Westside way of life. As we emerge from the pandemic, our businesses and their workforces need support more than ever. Los Angeles lost over 300,000 jobs during the pandemic, and independent, women, minority, and family-owned businesses were the hardest hit. Every time we lose a local business, we lose a piece of the tapestry of our daily lives.

I will support business friendly initiatives that restore CD11 to its distinctive place as a hub for entertainment, technology, clean energy, and hospitality. My business team and I will help reduce the bureaucracy and delays that keep would-be small business owners from getting permits, and we will work will restore our coastal district as a destination point for visitors from around the world.

A thriving business economy means thriving neighborhoods. We must invest in business and jobs on the Westside.

Reason 5 – You’re tired of our crumbling infrastructure.

Infrastructure supports daily life. But our CD11 infrastructure is full of disasters waiting to happen. From century-old water mains to inadequate flood channels and storm drains, we need updates now. Public infrastructure projects provide jobs that pay well and help our Westside economy. Among other efforts, I’ll ensure our infrastructure money is invested in sidewalks, streets, and environmentally-sustainable water and transportation projects.

Let’s keep the conversation going!

I hope my love for our Westside communities comes across loud and clear in what I’ve told you here. We’ve been doing Town Halls and Community Conversations across all of CD11, and there are more to come.

Please check out TraciPark.com and vote on June 7!