Your Guide To The L.a. City Council District 11 Race: Traci Park Vs. Faizah Malik

Traci Park won nan Los Angeles City Council’s 11th District spot successful 2022 connected a committedness to cleanable up nan rising number of bum encampments dotting nan able Westside district.

The homelessness rumor is again adjacent halfway shape arsenic Park faces a situation from Faizah Malik, a nationalist liking lawyer and lodging advocate. Other issues besides are animating nan race, including statement complete nan consequence to nan Palisades occurrence and a arguable lodging task successful Venice.

Park is seeking her 2nd word pinch nan use of incumbency and nan backing of 2 powerful unions, nan Los Angeles Police Protective League and nan United Firefighters of Los Angeles City.

Malik comes to nan title and nan June 2 superior backed by nan section section of nan Democratic Socialists of America. A onshore usage attorney, Malik astir precocious worked for Public Counsel, a nationalist liking rule firm.

The territory encompasses immoderate of nan richest neighborhoods successful Los Angeles, including Brentwood, Pacific Palisades and Playa Vista, but besides has been plagued by homelessness issues and suffered nan devastating and deadly Palisades fire, which destroyed thousands of homes.

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  Traci Park

  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

A municipal rule attorney, Traci Park won nan spot aft predecessor Mike Bonin declined to activity a 3rd term. Park, a erstwhile Republican, has been a adjacent state of nan constabulary and occurrence unions successful nan city, calling for much cops and firefighters. Park gained prominence pursuing nan Palisades occurrence and chairs nan city’s recently erstwhile Ad Hoc Committee connected LA Recovery.

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  Faizah Malik

  (Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)

Faizah Malik is 1 of six candidates crossed nan elections endorsed by nan Los Angeles section of nan Democratic Socialists of America, which bills itself arsenic nan nation’s largest socialist organization. Former territory councilman Bonin besides is backing her. She grew up successful Orange County, a Muslim American pinch a begetter who immigrated from Pakistan and a mother who came from Myanmar erstwhile she was a teenager. Malik has galore national endorsements, including nan Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and Unite Here Local 11, which represents edifice and airdrome workers.

The Westside territory is bounded by nan Santa Monica Bay connected nan west, nan 405 Freeway connected nan east, Mulholland Drive to nan northbound and Imperial Highway to nan south.

It includes Venice, Mar Vista, Pacific Palisades and Brentwood.

The Palisades occurrence successful January 2025 decimated nan district. In nan aftermath, Park became a benignant of folk leader successful nan Palisades, while Mayor Karen Bass took overmuch of nan blasted from residents for nan failures of nan occurrence department and nan pace of nan recovery.

Park called herself a “tireless and fierce” advocator for nan interests of nan occurrence victims. She pushed permit interest waivers for Palisades residents looking to rebuild their homes, calling it a “meaningful measurement guardant successful nan betterment process.”

She stepped down arsenic nan chair of nan council’s committee connected nan 2028 Summer Olympics to chair nan Ad Hoc Committee connected LA Recovery.

Park besides is simply a backer of nan firefighter union’s ballot measurement aimed astatine backing nan LAFD pinch a half-cent income taxation summation that could bring successful hundreds of millions for nan section per year.

“This is astir preparedness ... It’s astir consequence times and redeeming lives,” she said astir nan tax.

Malik, meanwhile, does not support nan ballot measurement for occurrence section funding. She opposes caller income taxes that would “hurt moving people” and said nan metropolis must make judge nan section is adequately funded without a caller tax.

Malik besides believes Park has been excessively focused connected single-family homeowners affected by nan occurrence and would attraction much power connected renters.

She cited nan council’s decision not to walk a rent freeze and further eviction protections pursuing nan fire.

Both candidates are fiercely passionate astir 1 circumstantial improvement successful nan district: Venice Dell.

The development, which would switch a metropolis parking batch pinch 120 units of lodging for low-income and bum people, was approved nether Bonin but has stalled nether Park, who opposes its completion.

Park said nan task has been mired in “scandal and litigation” for years and that payer costs are skyrocketing. Instead, Park wants to create nan batch arsenic a “mobility hub” and move nan lodging task to an adjacent lot.

She called nan conflict complete Venice Dell “manufactured controversy.”

Malik worked arsenic a lawyer representing nan developer, which revenge suit against Los Angeles claiming that Park and different officials improperly sought to termination nan task by failing to motion disconnected connected approvals and cutting disconnected meetings pinch developers. The metropolis has disputed nan allegations and nan lawsuit is pending.

Malik said Venice Dell’s hold was a large logic why she decided to tally for Council District 11.

“Now we’re blocking nan task and it’s costing america millions of dollars [in litigation] and we’re not lodging people. The crushed should person already been surgery connected it. We are wasting clip and wasting money... It is so, truthful tragic,” she said.

Park ran for agency connected a committedness to region Westside bum encampments and says her strategies — bringing homelessness nonprofits together, expanding interim lodging done master-leased hotels and utilizing anti-encampment laws to cleanable up streets — are working.

“We person drastically turned astir nan circumstances connected nan ground,” she said.

Park supports nan the mayor’s Inside Safe program, which moves bum Angelenos retired of encampments and into impermanent lodging successful edifice and motel rooms. She said nan programme has “enabled nan metropolis to drastically summation its inventory of interim housing” and credits Inside Safe pinch advancement connected homelessness successful her territory and crossed nan city.

Park besides supports nan city’s anti-encampment law, known arsenic Municipal Code 41.18, to clear encampments adjacent schools and different protected places. When a area is designated arsenic 41.18, nan metropolis puts up signs banning encampments from nan area. She has projected expanding nan rule to see areas of captious infrastructure, environmentally delicate areas and precocious occurrence severity zones, though that hasn’t passed.

Malik acknowledged Bass committed resources to lodging nan bum but said Inside Safe needs much “accountability and transparency.”

“What we cognize is people are cycling successful and out of Inside Safe. If group don’t person services and imperishable lodging exits, past it’s conscionable a cycle,” she said.

Malik said 41.18 is “not a argumentation that solves homelessness,” but alternatively shuffles bum people from thoroughfare to thoroughfare and territory to district.

Signs banning encampments “is not really we get our neighbors disconnected nan streets and into housing,” she said.

The candidates diverge sharply connected policing.

Park said nan LAPD needs astatine slightest 12,000 officers — though she concedes that number isn’t realistic. The LAPD has astir 8,700 officers. She said nan metropolis should get to 10,000 arsenic soon arsenic possible.

“Everywhere I spell successful nan district, group inquire for much constabulary resources,” Park said.

Park voted successful favour of the 2023 LAPD national contract, which boosted starting salaries for cops and gave 3% increases to officers for each of nan adjacent 4 years. She said keeping constabulary salary competitory is simply a apical priority.

Malik would person voted against nan 2023 agreement, which each DSA-backed assembly personnel opposed astatine nan time. She besides said nan constabulary unit does not request to turn from wherever it stands, arguing that much officers will not lick underlying information issues.

Malik said nan metropolis needs much unarmed unit to woody pinch situations successful which equipped constabulary are not necessary, specified arsenic unarmed group experiencing intelligence wellness crises.

Instead of saying she would trim constabulary positions, Malik said she would cautiously analyse nan constabulary fund for areas wherever nan assembly could make cuts. She highlighted nan department’s petition for new helicopters arsenic 1 area wherever she would diminution to support nan usage of millions of dollars.