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Los Angeles Mayor-Elect Karen Bass On Making History and Handling The Crisis of Homelessness
Dec 9, 2022
Mayor-Elect Karen Bass has made history as the first black woman to be named to the office in Los Angeles. She is going to immediately hit the ground running to tackle some of Los Angeles’ biggest issues including homelessness.
She stopped by Sway In The Morning to celebrate and talk about what is to come.
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0:00
[Applause]
0:00
um citizens we are in the midst of
0:03
History being made yes it's already been
0:06
made
0:07
it's already happened
0:10
the change is in front of you and it's
0:12
taking place in this moment
0:15
that was the voice of a man who visited
0:17
our show a few times I feel like I could
0:20
call him a friend
0:21
I've interviewed him at least 10.
0:24
the one and only President Barack Obama
0:27
who I tend to listen to
0:29
I think that man is extremely wise and
0:33
he stepped out to endorse an extremely
0:36
wise person
0:37
someone I've been following for years
0:39
I'm a resident of California born and
0:41
raised have to be you already know Tracy
0:43
G I pay taxes in L.A
0:46
and when I understood that she was
0:49
running on for mayor I thought it was
0:52
excellent because she represented Us in
0:55
the U.S house rep for California give
0:58
her a round of applause for that prior
1:00
to that she served uh in the California
1:02
State Assembly
1:04
uh she's been an activist in this state
1:07
for a long time her family is from this
1:10
state she cares and loves this this this
1:13
city this County she cares and love the
1:16
people of this city and county I want to
1:19
welcome her to this show she's taken
1:21
office officially this Monday she's
1:24
taken office officially this Monday I
1:26
wish I could be in town to walk in with
1:28
her okay we got the mayor elect the one
1:32
and only Karen bass is here L.A stand up
1:36
stand up excellent
1:38
wow mayor Bass
1:41
welcome to the show
1:43
well thanks so much it is an honor to be
1:45
here with you okay my name is sway
1:47
Calloway let me officially introduce you
1:49
to me because you're gonna see my name
1:51
on your guest list
1:53
to the mayor's office and this is my my
1:56
co-partner right here I'm Heather uh
1:59
mayor bass we are so honored to have you
2:01
thank you for joining us today thank you
2:04
for having me on and both of you are
2:06
welcome to the mayor's office okay
2:08
well if you look at that screen right
2:10
there that beautiful young lady
2:11
broadcasting from Brooklyn New York she
2:13
goes by the name of Tracy G hey there
2:16
fast I could fly out I'll accept my
2:19
invitation I'll get there that's right
2:20
and well you got one
2:23
and and then online right now we got uh
2:27
uh we call them our political Insider um
2:30
he works with ABC News as well as with
2:33
us we got the one and only Mike Muse
2:34
online congratulations
2:39
thank you thank you much all right um
2:42
let's talk look we got only a few
2:44
minutes so citizens
2:46
888-742-3345 one of the things I was
2:49
most first of all congratulations yeah
2:51
thank you you know everyone I know in La
2:52
I told was gonna you were gonna be here
2:54
one person said that's the Nubian queen
2:57
of the City of Angels all right my man
3:00
mugs out of England uh so did my guy
3:03
Terry
3:04
um who's from L.A who listens to the
3:06
show a lot of strong
3:07
um uh solid black men uh really
3:09
supported you people considered you an
3:12
underdog yes in this and if most people
3:15
who run for election
3:17
um had to go up against a a major figure
3:20
like Caruso who was a billionaire
3:22
um who spent a hundred million dollars
3:24
how much money did he spend 108 million
3:27
dollars
3:28
to win this election and to still lose
3:31
to you right who spent nine million who
3:33
only spent nine million yes this is
3:35
unheard of yes so what I think is
3:38
important Mega bass is that you to
3:40
discuss your strategy and explain why it
3:43
is you think you were able to win with
3:45
the less resources than your Contender
3:48
well and you know what and I hope that
3:50
it's a lesson for people to take that
3:52
sometimes it doesn't matter how much
3:54
money you have if you have the backing
3:56
of the people that's more powerful than
3:59
the dollar he spent a hundred and eight
4:01
million dollars he flooded every
4:05
platform that you could think of and but
4:08
we had the we had the backing of the
4:10
people and I will tell you that the
4:12
reason why I decided to run is because
4:14
of the crisis that we have in Los
4:16
Angeles we have 40 000 people sleeping
4:18
on the street every night come on black
4:20
folk are nine percent of the city and
4:22
we're 30 percent of the people in those
4:24
tents and to me what my concern was was
4:28
that I didn't think that a
4:30
multi-trillionaire who had never built
4:32
one unit of affordable housing in his
4:34
life but is a builder who's built
4:38
shopping malls and luxury housing thing
4:40
was really going to take care of 74
4:43
percent of the folks on the street who
4:45
are either black or brown and what I was
4:47
really worried about was we were getting
4:48
ready to see a repeat of the 90s where
4:50
we had big problems then and the only
4:52
solution that politicians offered us was
4:55
a jail cell
4:56
we don't want to see that and that you
4:58
know it's interesting when I come to LA
5:00
and I will say this I hardly recognize
5:03
it right like I've had a home in La
5:06
since 1995. I used to live in Echo Park
5:10
area although Feliz off of Los Feliz and
5:13
moved to the valley you know what it is
5:16
it's all and so when I see this I
5:18
understand I see all of these houseless
5:20
people on the streets and I I do think
5:23
you know I know you talked about your
5:25
solution I'm wondering if in your
5:27
solution not just getting rid of these
5:29
encampments is is there a conversation
5:31
for mental health 100
5:34
now I completely understand you know I
5:37
actually used to work in L.A County's
5:39
emergency room and a lot of my patients
5:42
were unhoused and people have to
5:44
understand that folks are in those tents
5:45
for a variety of reasons it's not all
5:48
the same thing some of it's mental
5:50
health some of it's substance abuse some
5:51
of them are people who were incarcerated
5:53
and because there's so many restrictions
5:56
on people when they get it out they
5:57
don't have any place to go there's
5:59
thousands of children on those streets
6:01
wow there's children from the foster
6:03
care system where we cut them off when
6:05
they turned 18 or there's women who were
6:07
fleeting domestic violence with their
6:09
children or there's veterans do you know
6:11
there are a lot of people on the streets
6:13
in tents who have full-time jobs yes
6:16
full-time jobs but just don't make
6:18
enough money or have credit problems and
6:20
can't get inside and so it's a variety
6:22
of reasons that people are there but
6:24
people in the city are very frustrated
6:27
and angry too because they feel like
6:29
well we keep trying things and nothing
6:30
works so there's some people that say
6:33
well let's just get rid of them and
6:34
whenever you hear that yeah we know what
6:36
that means yes yeah that they don't they
6:38
don't count that they're invisible what
6:41
are you going to do when you get in
6:42
office to address homelessness
6:45
absolutely well first of all we have to
6:47
get people off the streets but on day
6:49
one that we get them off the streets we
6:51
also have to get them help for why they
6:53
were on the streets to begin with and so
6:55
when I'm sworn in on Sunday on Monday
6:57
declaring a state of emergency so that I
7:00
can bypass a lot of the regulations so
7:03
we can get housing built quickly but it
7:06
still takes a while to build we have
7:09
hundreds of motels and hotels that are
7:12
willing and we learned this through the
7:13
pandemic are willing to do to lease out
7:16
the entire Motel to people who are
7:18
unhoused I have to tell you sway that in
7:21
1993 in South Central we were trying to
7:24
take over motels then because from our
7:27
point of view the motels we had 54
7:29
motels in South Central and no tourists
7:31
so we knew it was happening in the
7:32
motels yeah we figured we could deal
7:34
with two things at the same time we
7:36
could deal with the problems that the
7:37
motels were causing but we could also
7:39
get people off the streets it took a
7:41
pandemic for the city to go oh gee we
7:44
have all these motels yeah so took a
7:47
pandemic wow mayor bass I love your
7:49
energy by the way she's looking very fly
7:51
in the paint right now I know I love it
7:55
mayor bass um again
7:58
um thank you for being here but you use
8:00
the word crisis and anytime anyone here
8:03
is that the alarm goes off a bit but I'm
8:06
wondering uh as we were driving here
8:08
this morning sway broke down to me being
8:10
a resident of California he said Heather
8:12
do you understand that she made history
8:15
we haven't seen a mayor a black mayor
8:18
since Bradley you know I'm not familiar
8:20
I grew up in New Jersey and they sat
8:22
with me for a second I was like oh my
8:24
gosh she's the first black female mayor
8:26
of this amazing City I wonder what she
8:29
did to celebrate like I know you have a
8:31
lot to take in but has it really sank
8:34
into you oh
8:37
and you know what because I am so driven
8:40
and focused on the work that I you know
8:43
I think after we get what we are trying
8:45
to do off the ground which is focusing
8:48
on getting the people in the encampments
8:50
off the street once we get that
8:51
operation going then I celebrate okay I
8:55
heard that until then I gotta get I got
8:57
work to do okay I love that Tracy G you
9:00
wanna you got something from Brooklyn oh
9:02
yes I do you already know this so I
9:04
would love your thoughts on this mayor
9:07
um oftentimes when a woman is in a
9:10
position of power right business-wise
9:12
she will be called a girl boss there
9:15
might even be another moniker of CEO and
9:19
I've noticed that there is a divide in
9:21
how the public receives this right some
9:24
women they love to paint everything pink
9:26
right some other women are like no I
9:29
really want to be seen as an equal there
9:31
shouldn't be an extra emphasis on my
9:35
gender I'm curious for you
9:37
um do you personally like to highlight
9:40
your gender when it comes to business
9:42
roles or do you feel like that's
9:45
something that's I don't know kind of
9:47
diminishes the power of where you are
9:50
like if someone calls you madam mayor
9:52
instead of just mayor oh no no no no no
9:55
I I don't feel that I need to diminish
9:57
it at all I feel I can celebrate it I
10:00
feel that my gender brings me strength
10:02
and it also has me lead in a different
10:05
kind of way and so I always tell tell
10:07
young women that you know embrace it you
10:09
don't have to copy what someone else is
10:11
doing you can have strength in your own
10:14
way but now the part that annoys me
10:18
is when people say well oh is she going
10:21
to be just like so and so and it's like
10:23
I've been who I am for all of these
10:25
years I was in Congress I was in the
10:28
state house why am I all of a sudden
10:29
going to be like somebody else judge me
10:32
for who I am and what I do
10:34
mayor bass I love that Mike Muse what
10:38
part of the country are you in
10:41
I'm in New York City for right now
10:43
headed to Florida pretty soon though
10:47
okay mayor bass uh as I said before
10:50
congratulations to you I know California
10:52
we always talk about climate change and
10:55
we look at it from the lens of an
10:56
electric vehicle California's always
10:58
been kind of Forefront of climate change
11:00
but I'm just curious when it comes out
11:02
how are you looking at climate change
11:03
and perspective of environments adjusted
11:05
and particularly when you think about
11:07
like the air pollution that is existing
11:09
that is impacting some of Los Angeles's
11:10
most vulnerable communities as well as
11:13
you think about you know trees and a
11:15
lack of trees that in certain areas too
11:18
um that has to deal with class
11:20
um some share your thoughts on that
11:21
exactly and I think we've learned a lot
11:23
about that lately you know especially in
11:26
our communities where we have no canopy
11:28
because there are very few trees or the
11:30
type of trees we have here palm trees
11:32
don't provide a canopy which is shade
11:34
and and the impact of not having shade
11:37
especially as LA's gotten hotter and
11:39
hotter so I do think that we have to
11:41
move forward in La we have some really
11:43
good climate change goals okay and I
11:45
want to follow through and Implement
11:47
those but here's what I want to do
11:49
differently I want to bring a lens of
11:52
equity to climate change so I was in
11:55
Sacramento when we passed the first
11:57
climate change bill I had no idea the
11:59
amount of wealth that that bill would
12:01
create well I know that this time so we
12:03
have a road map on climate change why
12:06
can't we travel that road with an idea
12:08
of creating businesses in our community
12:11
jobs in our community and in other
12:14
communities that are struggling
12:15
economically because at the end of the
12:17
day the reason people are on those
12:19
streets is because of Economics now
12:21
other issues they might have but if they
12:24
had enough money to stay inside life
12:26
would be a little different so I want to
12:29
use our climate change goals to address
12:32
economic inequity I love this
12:36
um what I'm what I'm concerned about
12:38
with you is this city council here in
12:42
L.A
12:44
that have that has
12:46
lost all credibility you know you've
12:49
seen people headed to jail for bribery
12:51
for graft all sorts of things you hear
12:53
about these racial disparities some of
12:55
these Council people have spoken out
12:58
loud which is uh was really upsetting to
13:01
me but the city council here has a lot
13:03
of power right that's right yeah and so
13:06
it's it's not like you could just snap
13:08
your fingers and make things happen
13:09
right and so I'm I'm curious too what is
13:12
your plan
13:14
um without if you can without using the
13:17
word compromise
13:20
how do you plan to get things done that
13:23
you know need to be done in this city
13:25
with this current city council well you
13:28
know uh on Monday the city council
13:30
actually will dramatically change okay
13:32
because there's several new people
13:34
coming in so the folks that created
13:38
problems are gone uh there's one that
13:40
still refuses to resign but for the most
13:43
part we're going to have a brand new
13:44
city council and for some of the council
13:47
members that have been there for a while
13:48
some of them I know really well I served
13:51
with in Sacramento I served the speaker
13:53
in Sacramento and a couple of them were
13:56
part of my leadership team so I have
13:58
good relationships with a few of the
14:00
ones that are there and then getting to
14:02
know the new one so I'm actually very
14:03
optimistic with the council were you
14:06
shocked or did you kind of know what was
14:08
going on in that city council the kind
14:10
of behavior and ideology
14:11
I will tell you I was shocked because
14:15
one guy in there I've known for 40 years
14:19
yeah another one I've known for 20 years
14:21
and and two of them I was you know
14:24
hadn't known for that long so to hear
14:26
the way folk talk about you behind your
14:28
back yeah it's always something it's
14:31
always something Amelia bass is here uh
14:34
we have people on the line I know we
14:36
only got a few minutes but let me go to
14:37
one of these callers Carlos what's your
14:39
question Carlos hey Carlos what's going
14:41
on hello good morning good morning sway
14:43
I'm gonna take the gloves off for a
14:45
minute I I'm not I'm not gonna pass my
14:47
question right so I want to keep it
14:50
though I'm not a California citizen
14:51
mayor I was just wondering because I
14:53
heard what you said about
14:55
um your position on homelessness right I
14:58
want to know about a state of a state of
14:59
emergency for uh uh for mass
15:02
incarceration especially dealing with
15:04
California right and because of the the
15:06
you know the situation out there and how
15:09
um prosecutors
15:10
don't even want to acknowledge a person
15:13
after they've been
15:15
um you know Vindicated they still want
15:17
to keep them incarcerated and I'm not
15:19
going to point your fingers but you kind
15:21
of know where I'm going with this right
15:22
what's your position on mass
15:23
incarceration
15:25
you know what uh mass incarceration is
15:28
something I have been deeply deeply
15:30
involved in for the last 32 years
15:32
actually in 1990 I started an
15:35
organization in South Central because
15:38
all politicians were offering us was
15:40
locking us up when the crack cocaine
15:42
epidemic hit and to me I have a medical
15:44
background so crack cocaine to me was a
15:47
a disease people needed Health it was a
15:49
health issue and um and then the
15:52
violence that was taking place with the
15:54
gangs to me I looked at the social and
15:55
economic drivers that led to kids you
15:58
know being disaffected and so we were
16:01
fighting against the laws we fought
16:03
against three strikes we fought against
16:05
all of the laws and then when I went up
16:07
to Sacramento and was elected I was
16:10
trying then to deal with some of the
16:12
impacts of mass incarceration because
16:14
one of the things politicians did is
16:16
that they passed laws to lock people up
16:18
then they kept passing laws that punish
16:21
people once they got out so it's like
16:23
you served a life sentence you served
16:25
part of it and side and the rest of it
16:27
outside and so there's all these
16:29
barriers that people face who are
16:31
incarcerated you should know that just
16:33
last week as I lit as I in my time in
16:35
Congress I'm resigning on on Saturday
16:38
but last week uh Congress passed two of
16:40
my bills one of which was to provide
16:43
resources to people who were formally
16:46
incarcerated to start their own programs
16:48
because that's what a lot of folks do
16:50
when they get out and I passed another
16:52
bill addressing pregnant women who were
16:55
incarcerated because I feel uh being
16:57
involved in Criminal Justice Reform for
16:59
all these years most of it is focused on
17:02
men very little attention is given to
17:04
women in prisons and I was visiting the
17:06
prison up in Dublin California I don't
17:10
know if you heard about that which one
17:11
Rita no no it's Dublin OH the Dublin one
17:14
okay they called it the rape Club the
17:17
the um the warden and the chaplain were
17:22
arrested for raping the inmates wow and
17:25
what goes on and and yeah and the warden
17:27
is on trial right now what goes on in
17:30
women's prisons goes uh unnoticed so
17:33
I've tried to lift up the plight of
17:35
women who are incarcerated so I'm sorry
17:37
but you you talked about my one of my
17:39
number one issues and by the way it's
17:41
all connected to homelessness too
17:43
absolutely a mayor Karen bass is here um
17:46
I'll be remissed if I allowed you to
17:48
leave this room we are in La we are in
17:50
California if I didn't talk about the
17:52
Los Angeles Department of cannabis come
17:54
kind of business regulation in the
17:57
social Equity program uh that's designed
17:59
to uh allow people who were formally
18:02
incarcerated for the sale of cannabis to
18:04
participate
18:06
um in the profit in cannabis today and I
18:09
just wanted to get your views on the
18:11
Cannabis industry right now in the
18:13
larger LA area well I think it's got a
18:16
lot of problems
18:17
um but you know what I I don't think
18:19
it's that unusual because it's such a
18:21
different industry it's a brand new
18:22
industry everybody's trying to get it
18:24
set up and then I think that La uh City
18:27
councils that's something I think they
18:28
did that was very enlightened as a
18:30
matter of fact it was the first program
18:31
in the country as that I understand that
18:34
had the social Equity piece when what
18:36
that means is is that if you had a
18:38
marijuana conviction uh of possession no
18:41
violence associated with it you could go
18:44
to the front of the line in order to get
18:46
a license well that sounds nice but you
18:49
have to have some money yeah yeah you
18:51
have to have money and so I think people
18:53
meant very they were very well
18:55
intentioned but a lot of times when you
18:58
pass big legislation that created the uh
19:01
the industry you spend years cleaning it
19:04
up and I think it's in the cleanup phase
19:06
now so we have to figure out how to get
19:08
equity for the um the individuals who
19:13
who can invest in them so they can
19:15
actually afford to open up store and
19:18
then some people got the investment
19:20
opened up the store and then had
19:21
difficulty getting the license and so
19:24
I'm going to have a lot of work to do
19:25
yeah when it comes to it I think it's a
19:27
work in progress but I think it will
19:29
continue to move forward mayor Karen
19:31
bass y'all here on Sway in the morning
19:33
wow wow man I know you have to go the
19:35
mayor has stuff to do okay she just
19:37
can't sit here with us all day I wish I
19:40
could I wish you could too real quick
19:42
Lakers or Clippers a Lakers oh okay all
19:47
right okay what is it Angels or Dodgers
19:49
[Applause]
20:08
in the morning
20:13
well congratulations to you I'm sure
20:16
your family are thrilled yes that's
20:18
right yeah are they applauding you in
20:21
your neighborhood yeah they are yeah
20:24
okay no it's always wonderful to be in
20:26
the neighborhood absolutely beautiful it
20:28
takes me a long time in the grocery
20:29
store now though yeah I'm sure you're
20:32
gonna you go this you're gonna be this
20:34
flying every day you're gonna be the
20:35
flyers
20:36
I love it mayor Karen bass thank you for
20:40
joining us today thanks for having me
20:41
excellent okay and thank you to your
20:43
team Kelly Kincaid for making this
20:45
happen uh the mayor's a citizen now have
20:47
the best way all right we're gonna come
20:49
right back yo wait hold up hold up if
20:52
there's any song what did you say the
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song you wanted to hear living in the
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city living in the city we dedicating
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this one right now to Mayor Karen bass
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and all of Los Angeles it's a new day
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yes it's a new era it's a new time Swain
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morning shade 405 at the B Tracy G and
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the mayor Karen pass like news Mike news
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Mike news thank you
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