The Brief

Electric bikes and scooters can be spotted in most major cities in the United States, zooming past their non-motorized counterparts and pedestrians. Despite the devices’ rising popularity, colleges across California can’t come to a consensus on just what to do about them.

Some campuses allow students to ride both e-bikes and e-scooters, while others only allow one or restrict them to certain zones. Several ban them completely.

For college students, these modes of transportation mean shorter commute times compared to walking. They’re far cheaper to rent or buy than vehicles, and easier to park, too. Since they run on electric-powered batteries, the devices are also more sustainable than gas-powered cars and produce fewer harmful emissions.

Riding an e-scooter allows Kristine Bhan, a fourth-year Cal State Long Beach student majoring in studio art, to haul heavy art supplies up the campus’ many hills.

“I hang my art supplies in a folder and the folder has a little hook, so I could hook it onto my scooter and I just ride it to upper campus,” said Bhan, who also prefers her e-scooter over her car during peak traffic.

E-bikes and e-scooters aren’t just booming on and near college campuses: Motorized micro-mobility is gaining traction across the country.

Shared e-bike trips, which are bikes that can be borrowed or rented from automated stations, or docking stations, rose from 9.5 million in 2018 to 17 million in 2021, according to a report from the National Association of City Transportation Officials.

While the devices are attractive in their speed and convenience, they also pose safety risks. They can travel more than 30 mph, meaning accidents can be severe if the rider isn’t wearing protective gear. Pedestrians are also at risk of being struck.

At UC Davis, nearly a quarter of students (22%) who rode an e-bike had an on-campus fall that resulted in an emergency room or hospital visit, according to a campus-wide travel survey conducted in 2022. Among students who rode a regular bicycle, that number was just 7.5%. Nearly 90% of e-scooter riders who fell or crashed reported an injury that didn’t need medical attention.

The devices pose another safety concern: Their lithium-ion batteries have caught fire in some cases.

Weighing the devices’ benefits and drawbacks, California’s public universities are split on whether e-bikes and e-scooters should roam campus. All 10 UCs allow e-bikes while only five UCs allow e-scooters. In the 23-campus CSU system, 10 campuses allow both e-bikes and e-scooters, while of the 116 community colleges in the state, at least 40 allow both devices. Some of those campuses restrict them to certain routes or zones.

Regulating motorized micro-mobility

Micro-mobility refers to all transportation devices smaller than a car — including bikes, scooters, skateboards, unicycles and tricycles. E-bikes and e-scooters are electric-powered with motors of up to 750 watts. The devices typically cost between $150 and $3,000.

The vehicle code allows state colleges and universities to regulate the use of bicycles, e-bikes, skateboards, electric skateboards, roller skates and “electrically motorized boards,” but does not specifically include all scooters and e-scooters. For this reason, some campuses, such as Sacramento State, allow e-scooters because campus officials don’t believe the state gives them the power to deny their use on campus.

“We actually don’t have authority, as the state of California, to tell an electric scooter operator where they can and cannot go,” said Sacramento State Director of Transportation and Parking Services Jeff Dierking.

A student rides their scooter past a dismount sign as they enter the zone where she can be on the scooter rather than walking alongside it at Cal State Long Beach on Oct. 4, 2023.

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Senate Bill 295, introduced in February by state Sen. Bill Dodd, a Napa Democrat, would add e-scooters to the vehicle code. The UC Office of the President approached Dodd after several student accidents led the UC to review the code.

“College campuses have long been home to multimodal transportation, and they should pursue safety through effective education, engineering and enforcement,” Dodd said in a statement to CalMatters. “I’m standing by to help to the extent any clarification in law or other support is needed.”

The bill is pending further evaluation by the Assembly Transportation Committee.

Convenience vs. safety

It’s not hard to see why e-bikes and e-scooters are trending among students: they’re fast, fairly light and can be parked at bike racks.

After trying out her friend’s e-scooter, Anjali Patel, a senior majoring in journalism at USC, bought one of her own last year. USC allows e-bikes and e-scooters on most of its campus but prohibits the parking of rented scooters, which would cause congestion, said USC Department of Public Safety Assistant Chief David Carlisle.

Riding an e-scooter shortens Patel’s commute from her off-campus apartment from a 15-minute walk to less than 10 minutes, which means a lot, she said, when she’s running late for class or during a Southern California heat wave.

“It’s the fastest option. It’s not the most unsafe option,” Patel said. “For me, it’s the best.”

Since some motorized micro-mobility devices can reach speeds of up to 30 or even 40 miles an hour, and users often ride unprotected without helmets and other safeguards, rider safety is a concern. An October 2022 report from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission found that micro-mobility injuries rose 127% from 2017 to 2021, with e-scooter trips resulting in the most rider deaths. Last year, the California Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System recorded 225 crashes involving an e-bike, up from 80 crashes in 2021.

A student rides his scooter among walkers at Cal State Long Beach on Oct. 4, 2023.

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“[E-scooters] are very vulnerable to irregularities in the roadway and can toss a rider off easily if they’re going too fast,” USC’s Carlisle said.

Though Patel admits to going a little faster than she should on her e-scooter — 18 mph at most — she said she’s attentive. When others aren’t, safety becomes an issue.

“People are like, ‘Scooters and bikers are so rude and so unsafe, and they’re going so fast,’” Patel said. “I can’t use my phone while I’m scootering — my eyes are up. If anything, it’s the people walking that are not looking.”

Although she considers herself a safe driver, Patel was injured while riding her e-scooter in December. As she crossed a small intersection near her off-campus house, an idling car began moving — to Patel’s surprise — and hit her.

Luckily, the fall wasn’t too bad and, amid finals week, Patel nursed a scraped chin. The accident hasn’t led her to change the way she rides. She’s always been careful on roads and when riding around pedestrians, Patel said, though she doesn’t wear a helmet.

But some schools have seen serious student injuries — and even fatalities — from motorized micro-mobility accidents.

After a freshman died from falling off his e-skateboard near campus in 2020, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo officials cracked down on most micro-mobility devices on campus, where e-scooters, scooters and skateboards have been prohibited for over a decade. E-bikes and bicycles, however, are allowed.

UC Irvine bans e-scooters from the campus’ inner core, which consists primarily of pedestrian walkways. Bikes, e-bikes and non-motorized scooters, however, are allowed on a road that circles the school’s central park.

Erika Rule, UC Irvine’s sustainable programs manager, said excluding e-scooters, which are commonly ridden on sidewalks, is a matter of “protecting pedestrian safety.”

The motorized devices come with another safety concern: the chance of starting a fire. Improperly charging e-bikes and e-scooters and using damaged chargers can overload electrical circuits, according to the National Fire Protection Association.

In March and April, Berkeley’s fire department responded to six fires related to mobility devices, including one inside a UC Berkeley dormitory. A charging e-skateboard plugged into a power strip caused an accidental fire in March at Ida Sproul Hall, resulting in damage to the room. The school’s principal mobility planner, David Sorrell, said that despite a campus-wide rule against doing so, students often ride inside buildings and charge their devices indoors.

UC Berkeley currently prohibits rented e-scooters from entering campus, but personal devices are allowed in campus bike lanes.

Disseminating information about safe riding practices has been difficult, Sorrell said, given UC Berkeley’s large student and employee populations. That’s why some at the university are eyeing a ban on micro-mobility in their areas of campus. But Sorrell has pushed back.

“The scooters are a necessity. E-bikes are a necessity,” Sorrell said, adding that high-grade hills on campus make motorized devices the easiest way to get around. “Why would we discriminate against those vehicles?”

Some campuses have struck a balance

Managing congestion, traffic flow, parking availability and student safety is a tall task for colleges deciding on micro-mobility policies.

Laney College in Oakland allows e-scooters on campus, while e-bikes have to be dropped off in designated zones on campus, Public Information Officer Mark Johnson wrote in an email to CalMatters.

Sacramento State redesigned its policy on e-bikes and e-scooters in 2019 and allows personal devices on campus with designated pedestrian-only zones, where campus police watch for violators and ask them to dismount their devices. Storage locations — bike racks and a bike compound — border the zones. A geofence around the campus perimeter deactivates all rented e-scooters and e-bikes.

“Those are high-traffic areas, and those are intended so that we can have a safe environment on campus to facilitate all equitable modes of transportation,” said Dierking of Sac State.

Electric scooters are locked at a bike rack on campus at the UC Davis on Oct. 3, 2023.

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Safety concerns arise, Dierking said, when pedestrian-only zones converge with areas allowing wheeled devices. At the start of each school term, the university deploys workers wearing yellow vests to chat about safety with students on mobility devices. It also puts up signage telling road users to slow down at these intersections.

At UC Davis, a fatal student accident involving a non-electric bicycle in May 2022 led university officials to evaluate all micro-mobility policies and safeguards. The university formed working groups and conducted a campus-wide survey about safety and theft.

The working groups heard that motorized micro-mobility devices go too fast and that bikes are often stolen, said Active Modality Manager Jeff Bruchez, who heads the school’s bicycle program. According to the same study, 12% of UC Davis students who rode a bike to school in 2021-22 reported having their bike stolen.

To limit speed and theft, UC Davis introduced a shared e-bike and e-scooter program. UC Davis and the City of Davis launched a partnership with Spin on Sept. 8, making 400 e-bikes and 200 e-scooters available to students while eliminating personal liability for theft and allowing the university to regulate the devices’ maximum speeds, Bruchez said.

“By bringing a shared system onto campus, we can ensure that everyone can operate a device that fits within the ecosystem that we have, specifically that 15-miles-an-hour speed limit,” he said.

A student carries his scooter down the sidewalk at Cal State Long Beach on Oct. 4, 2023.

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The university is hoping that revving up public education programs — including its “Helmet Hair Don’t Care” campaign that rewards students with free helmets after the completion of an eight-minute online safety course — will help reduce the number of severe collisions involving micro-mobility devices.

Across the UC system, another initiative is underway to incentivize e-bike use.

In December, an agreement UC reached with the United Auto Workers union, which represents postdoctoral workers and academic researchers, gives employees access to an e-bike discount program starting with the fall 2023 term.

The program has “made it possible” for UC San Diego sociology master’s student Beatrice Waterhouse to consider buying an e-bike. Climate demands were a key part of bargaining, she said, so the devices’ low environmental impact interested them.

“We care about the environment and we care about our universities being part of change, trying to fight for a more climate-just California and world,” Waterhouse said.

It's spring break season in the U.S. — and travelers are facing long airport lines as security screeners work without pay while the Department of Homeland security is shut down.

Congressional Democrats have declined to fund the agency in an attempt to force reforms of federal immigration enforcement practices.

Wait times at major hubs in Houston and Atlanta reached two hours on Friday, while New Orleans's Louis Armstrong International Airport advised passengers to arrive at least three hours before their scheduled departures. In Philadelphia, airport officials closed three security checkpoints entirely this week because of short staffing.

On Saturday, President Trump threatened to send Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to staff airport security lanes if Democrats don't "immediately" agree to fund DHS. A bipartisan group of senators has been negotiating with the White House over immigration enforcement and ending the shutdown.

"I will move our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports where they will do Security like no one has ever seen before, including the immediate arrest of all Illegal Immigrants who have come into our Country," Trump posted on Truth Social. In a follow-up post he said he told ICE to "GET READY" to deploy to airports on Monday.

Why are wait times so long?

Officials say wait times are unpredictable and can fluctuate sharply as airports struggle with Transportation Security Administration staffing shortages.

TSA staffers are considered essential workers, so about 50,000 have been working without pay due to the shutdown that started Feb. 14. Last week, they missed their first full paychecks. The Department of Homeland Security says more than 300 TSA officers have quit. More than half of TSA staff in Houston called out sick and nearly a third called out in Atlanta and New Orleans last week, DHS said.

The staffing shortage comes as travel has also been disrupted by severe weather, and as schools across the country close for spring break.

Some 2.8 million people were projected to travel on U.S. airlines each day in March and April, adding up to a record 171 million passengers, according to the industry group Airlines for America.

What do officials say?

Transportation officials are warning the situation could get worse if the shutdown isn't resolved. A second missed paycheck would put even more strain on TSA workers, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told CNN on Friday.

"If a deal isn't cut, you're going to see what's happening today look like child's play," Duffy said. "Is it still safe as you go through the airport? Yes, but it takes a lot longer because we have less agents working." He added that some smaller airports may be forced to temporarily close if more staff calls out.

In the U.K., Foreign Office officials are also warning travelers of "travel disruption" caused by "longer than usual queues at some U.S. airports," and recommended passengers check with their travel provider, airport, or airline for guidance.

On Saturday, billionaire Elon Musk weighed in with an offer to personally pay TSA staff.

"I would like to offer to pay the salaries of TSA personnel during this funding impasse that is negatively affecting the lives of so many Americans at airports throughout the country," Musk posted on X early Saturday morning.

U.S. law generally bars government employees from receiving outside compensation for their work.

Even with disruptions, travel demand is still high

On top of long security wait times and weather impacts, travel is being affected by the war in Iran, which is driving up global oil prices.

On Friday, United Airlines said it would cut some flights over the next six months after jet fuel prices doubled in recent weeks. Capacity cuts are likely to send airfares even higher, even as ticket prices are already rising, said Clint Henderson, a spokesperson for the travel website The Points Guy.

Still, he said, none of that seems to be deterring Americans from flying.

"The appetite for travel is insatiable," he said. "People seem willing to endure a lot of stuff to travel. And I don't see any signs of that decreasing."

How can travelers prepare?

Travel experts say it's not just long wait times that travelers should prepare for — it's the uncertainty.

"Every day this goes on, it's getting worse and worse and worse," Henderson said.

Here are some tips on how to prepare for upcoming air travel:

1. Know before you go

Many airport websites list estimated security wait times. That should be the first place you check to get a sense of how long lines might be, Henderson says. (TSA also estimates wait times on its website and app, but that's not being regularly updated because of the shutdown, he added.)

"Knowledge is power," Henderson said. "You should know what's going on at your local airport."

He noted there are 20 U.S. airports where security screening is done by private contractors, not the TSA — and they are not experiencing staffing shortages or long waits. Some are smaller regional airports, but the list also includes some larger hubs, including San Francisco International Airport and Kansas City International Airport.

"There's big, big, big metropolitan areas where it's not an issue at all," Henderson said.

2. Budget extra time

If you're someone who shows up at the airport when your flight starts boarding, think twice, says travel writer Chris Dong.

"I'm the type of traveler who usually arrives pretty last minute," Dong said, "but I think that that advice would not be sound for the current situation."

Even if wait times are listed as short, things can change on a dime. Dong recently flew out of John F. Kennedy Airport in New York and found the TSA PreCheck line unexpectedly closed.

"So then everyone that was funneled through the regular line, it was an extra like 20, 30 minutes," he said. "I was sweating it out because I usually arrive super last-minute. And those levels of uncertainty are just higher now with the shutdown."

3. Consider biometric screening

Henderson typically recommends signing up for TSA PreCheck or the Global Entry program to move through airport security more quickly — and to opt in to biometric screening. That has to be done in advance, and travelers also have to choose biometric screening in their airline apps.

"Make sure if that's an option that you're opted in for that, because that will save you so much agita," he said.

For those who haven't signed up in advance, there is a last-minute alternative: the private CLEAR program, which allows people to enroll at the airport. Henderson notes it's pricey — annual membership costs $209 — but that some credit card companies will refund that fee.

"For me to skip a three-hour line is probably worth the membership fee, especially if you know your credit card will pay you back for it," he said.

That said, expedited screening lanes are not always faster than regular screening, both Henderson and Dong warned. Always check what all the lanes look like when you arrive at the airport.

4. Make a plan B

If you miss a connection or your flight is canceled, be proactive about rebooking. "Have all the tools available to you in the toolbox in case things go wrong," Henderson advises.

That includes installing your airline's app on your smartphone and writing down their customer service number, so you aren't scrambling to find it.

"And then, you know, obviously have a plan B," Henderson said. "Know what other airlines fly the route that you want to take in case, you know, you missed your Delta flight and American is offering a flight you can take later that day."

He says while airlines don't generally like to rebook passengers on competitors' flights, it's worth asking. He also recommends having the information at hand to give to customer service agents, including flight number, airline and departure time.

And if an airline cancels your flight in the U.S., you're entitled to a refund, according to the Department of Transportation.
Copyright 2026 NPR

Updated March 21, 2026 at 17:36 PM ET

Robert Mueller, the former FBI director and special counsel who led the high-profile investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and the possible obstruction of justice by President Trump, died on Friday at 81.

"With deep sadness, we are sharing the news that Bob passed away," his family said in a statement Saturday shared with NPR. No cause of death was given.

Mueller had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease four years ago, his family told The New York Times in August.

Trump, who openly despised Mueller and his investigation, celebrated his death on Saturday.

"Good, I'm glad he's dead," the president posted on social media. "He can no longer hurt innocent people!"

WilmerHale, the law firm where Mueller served as a partner, remembered Mueller as a "friend" who was "an extraordinary leader and public servant and a person of the greatest integrity."

"His service to our country, including as a decorated officer in the Marine Corps, as FBI Director, and at the Department of Justice, was exemplary and inspiring," a spokesperson for WilmerHale told NPR in a statement. "We are deeply proud that he was our partner. Our thoughts are with Bob's family and loved ones during this time."

Former President Barack Obama on Saturday called Mueller "one of the finest directors in the history of the FBI, transforming the bureau after 9/11 and saving countless lives."

"But it was his relentless commitment to the rule of law and his unwavering belief in our bedrock values that made him one of the most respected public servants of our time," Obama wrote on social media. "Michelle and I send our condolences to Bob's family, and everyone who knew and admired him."

Path to public service

Born on Aug. 7, 1944 in New York City, Mueller was raised in Philadelphia and graduated from Princeton University in 1966. He received a master's degree in international relations from New York University.

Mueller, throughout his career, ran toward tough assignments. Following the lead of a classmate at Princeton, Mueller enrolled in the Marines and served in the Vietnam war. He earned the Bronze Star for rescuing a colleague. Mueller said he felt compelled to serve during that conflict, an idea he returned to throughout his life.

Law professor and former Justice Department lawyer Rory Little knew Mueller for many years.

"Bob is kind of a straight arrow, you know, wounded in Vietnam," Little said. "You keep wanting to hunt for where is the crack in that façade — 'Where is the real Bob Mueller?' — and after a while you begin to realize that's the real Bob Mueller. He is exactly who he appears to be. This kind of sour-faced, not a lot of humor, sort of all-business guy. That's him."

But with his closest friends, Mueller let down his guard. They teased him — saying Mueller would have made an excellent drill instructor on Parris Island, where Marine recruits are trained.

Instead, Mueller went to law school at the University of Virginia. He joined the Justice Department in 1976. There, he prosecuted crimes, big and small, for U.S. attorneys in San Francisco and Boston. He was a partner at Hale and Dorr, a Boston law firm now known as WilmerHale.

He later became a senior litigator prosecuting homicides at the U.S. attorney's office in Washington, D.C.

Head of the FBI

In 2001, President George W. Bush nominated him to serve as the director of the FBI. Mueller was sworn in a week before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"I had been a prosecutor before, so I anticipated spending time on public corruption cases and narcotics cases and bank robberies, and the like. And Sept. 11th changed all of that," Mueller told NPR during an interview in 2013.

He shifted the bureau's attention to fighting terrorism. He staffed up the headquarters in Washington. He pushed those agents to try to predict crimes and to act before another tragedy hit.

"He directed and implemented what is arguably the most significant changes in the FBI's 105-year history," said his former FBI deputy, John Pistole.

Along the way, Mueller drew some criticism when his agents erred. During the investigation of the deadly anthrax attacks, the bureau focused on the wrong man as its lead suspect.

Mueller left the bureau in 2013.

Return to the national spotlight

After Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, Mueller in May 2017 was appointed by then Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as special counsel to oversee the probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible connections to Trump associates.

Trump called the investigation "a witch hunt" and Republicans in Congress started to attack the investigators.

When then the investigation eventually concluded in March 2019 with the more than 400-page "Mueller report," the special counsel said the investigation did not establish that Trump's campaign or associates colluded with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election. The report did not take a position on whether Trump obstructed justice.

Mueller said the report spoke for itself. But Democrats wanted more and insisted he testify. A reluctant witness, Mueller once again fulfilled his duty. He was visibly older than at the time of his appointment and kept his testimony restrained.

He said Justice Department guidelines would not allow him to charge a sitting president with criminal wrongdoing. But he also refused to exonerate Trump.

"If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so," Mueller later told Congress.

In the end, the team charged 37 people and entities, including former campaign chair Paul Manafort, national security adviser Michael Flynn and 25 Russians.

Trump went on to grant clemency to or back away from criminal cases against many of the people Mueller's investigators had charged.

Copyright 2026 NPR

At the Koreatown Senior and Community Center, people were used to seeing Keum-soon Lee arrive early. When she didn’t show up for the 11 a.m. group harmonica class at the center last Friday, people took notice. 

“She would always be there first,” said conductor Eun-young Kim. “If she couldn’t come, she would tell me ahead of time. This time, I didn’t receive any messages from her. I thought, something isn’t right.”

Kim tried calling and sending messages. She didn’t get a response.

Members of the center later learned that Lee, 73, was critically injured in a hit-and-run crash while biking home in Koreatown after attending early morning prayer at her church. She died in a hospital March 13 from her injuries, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

“I was shocked,” said Jin-soon Baek, who has played with Lee for years. “We’ve been friends for a long time. We ate together, practiced together. She was like a sibling to me.

“She was so hardworking. Always the first one there to sign in for class. She’d walk ahead of me and I’d follow behind. That’s how it always was.”

Baek, who is in her 80s, said the two also shared something more personal: Both had cancer.

“I had cancer years ago, and she was going through treatment recently,” Baek said. “We understood each other.”

In January, Lee played with the harmonica ensemble at an LA Kings game. Lee spoke with a journalist about undergoing surgery and chemotherapy, and what the group meant to her. 

“I think I’ve almost fully recovered,” Lee told journalist Chase Karng at the hockey game. “Even while receiving chemotherapy, I felt encouraged when I heard that I could perform here.”

At the Koreatown Senior and Community Center, people were used to seeing Keum-soon Lee arrive early. When she didn’t show up for the 11 a.m. group harmonica class at the center last Friday, people took notice.

Lee was born in 1952 in South Korea and immigrated to the United States in 1998. She was an elder at Saehan Presbyterian Church in Pico Union and is survived by her husband, Sang-rae Lee, and son, Young-jo Lee.

The senior center, where Lee was a fixture and known as a reliable friend, has designated March 20 as a day of mourning.

On Friday, Lee’s church held a funeral service, where members of the harmonica ensemble performed the hymn, “Nearer My God to Thee,” in her memory.

“I usually don’t attend funeral services, but I had to come for hers,” said Alice Kim. “Whenever I came to church, I would see her watering the grass, bent over, and she would smile and say, ‘You’re here, Alice,’ and hand me the Sunday bulletin.”

In her eulogy, elder Gyu-sook Lee said the sudden loss has hit the congregation hard.

“She always greeted everyone with a warm smile,” she said. “She was the kind of person who always stepped forward first to do the hard work that no one else wanted to do. And when she took something on, she saw it through to the end.”

At the Koreatown Senior and Community Center, people were used to seeing Keum-soon Lee arrive early. When she didn’t show up for the 11 a.m. group harmonica class at the center last Friday, people took notice.

“She still had so many years ahead of her,” Baek said. “She was younger than us. Full of hope. It feels like it should have been me instead.”

According to police, Lee was riding through a crosswalk when a white Dodge Ram truck turning right struck her around 6:40 a.m. near Olympic Boulevard and Vermont Avenue. The driver briefly stopped, then drove away, authorities said.

Investigators found the truck and are looking into whether the driver was impaired on drugs or alcohol. The truck was seized and there was no information about the driver.

Kim, the conductor, said Lee was the first person to reach out to her when she started to lead the ensemble in September. 

“She sent me a message saying thank you for coming,” Kim said. “She was such a special person to me.” 

At Friday’s service, speaker after speaker described Lee as someone who was a light in every community she was part of. 

“The way she served the church behind the scenes became a lesson in faith for all of us. There isn’t a single part of this church that hasn’t felt her touch. Her warmth, her love, her dedication — I can still feel it,” Gyu-sook Lee said.

When Gilbert Lindsay became the first Black person elected to Los Angeles City Council in 1963, it gave the residents of the predominantly Black District 9 someone who understood the challenges they faced living in South Central. 

This area was the center of Black political power in LA because it was one of the few places in the city Black people were allowed to live and thrive due, in part, to housing restrictions. For the next 63 years, voters in this district — which includes historic South Central, Exposition Park and a small portion of downtown Los Angeles — consecutively chose a Black representative. 

That will end with Curren D. Price Jr., the current District 9 councilmember who can’t run again due to term limits. 

Twelve candidates announced campaigns in February to replace Price. Of them, six candidates have qualified to be on the June 2 primary election ballot, none of whom are Black. They include: Estuardo Mazariegos, Elmer Roldan, Jorge Hernandez Rosas, Jorge Nuño, Martha Sánchez and Jose Ugarte. 

The list is a reflection of the demographic shift of the area, but candidates also told The LA Local that it shows the strength of the district’s Black-Latino political coalition. And with the civil rights gains since the 1960s, while some locals are concerned that issues facing Black voters won’t get the attention they need, others who live in the district said they’re less concerned with what their representative looks like. Instead, they said they want someone who listens and gets things done. 

“As long as you do good in the community, we’re going to be happy,” said Dennis Anya, who works on Central Avenue and has lived in the district for nearly 40 years.

What the demographic shifts in District 9 mean for the June election

The upcoming election comes as the demographics have changed in District 9 and South LA. The Black population in South Los Angeles was 81% in 1965, according to a special census survey from November 1965 of South and East LA. 

As of 2021, District 9, specifically, is about 78% Latino and 13% Black, according to LA City Council population demographic data taken that year as part of a redistricting effort. 

Officials have predicted the district’s shift for years. Former City Councilmembers Kevin De León and Nury Martinez discussed the district’s future in the leaked 2021 audio — checkered with racist remarks — that the LA Times reported in 2022.“This will be [Price’s] last four years,” De Leon said at one point in the conversation, the transcript of which the LA Times published in full. “That eventually becomes a Latino seat.” 

Erin Aubry Kaplan, a writer and columnist who traces her family’s roots to South Central, told The LA Local that because District 9 has historically voted for a Black candidate, there is some anxiety amongst Black voters about losing Black representation in Los Angeles. 

“I would hope that whoever wins, will carry the interest of Black folk forward,” she said.

Manuel Pastor, a USC professor and co-author of “South Central Dreams: Finding Home and Community in South LA,” told The LA Local that traditionally, voters are older. While District 9 is now home to a younger, immigrant community, they may not vote at the same rate as older generations, and undocumented residents are ineligible to vote.  

Pastor said it’s likely for this reason that the current District 9 candidates are not emphasizing being Latino but are modeling their campaigns after other city leaders and focusing on Black-Latino solidarity. 

“Just because the demographics have changed, doesn’t mean that the voting population has changed,” Pastor said.  

Here’s what the candidates say about the transformation of District 9

Chris Martin, one of the two Black candidates who campaigned for the seat but did not qualify for the ballot, said he believes the city’s Black elected officials should have supported Black candidates in the race. Martin said he will challenge the city clerk’s decision on his nomination petition in court. 

“The story of Black political power in the city of Los Angeles is dying,” Martin said. “I felt like I had a good chance of keeping it alive.” 

When Gilbert Lindsay became the first Black person elected to Los Angeles City Council in 1963, it gave the residents of the predominantly Black District 9 someone who understood the challenges they faced living in South Central.

Michelle Washington, the other Black candidate who also did not qualify, did not respond to a request for comment.Price, the current District 9 councilmember, endorsed his deputy Jose Ugarte in the race and wrote in a statement that this election is about solidarity. 

“As a Black man who has served a majority-Latino district, I know that progress in South Central has always come from Black and Brown families moving forward together,” Price wrote. “We’ve had to fight harder for housing, safety, opportunity and the basic investments every neighborhood deserves. And when we’ve made gains, it’s because we stood united.”  

Five of the six candidates who qualified for the ballot told The LA Local that not having a Black candidate on the ballot doesn’t diminish the place of the district’s Black community. (Candidate Jorge Hernandez Rosas did not return requests for comment.) 

“It has always been a Black community and will always be a Black community. This isn’t about a passing of the baton or one community taking over another. It’s about building a solidarity movement,” Estuardo Mazariegos said. 

Elmer Roldan, who carries endorsements from LA Mayor Karen Bass and City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, said the district needs a councilmember who won’t leave anyone behind.“We have to avoid at all costs contributing to Black erasure and Black displacement,” Roldan said.

Ugarte said that the major quality of life problems — like dirty streets and broken street lights — affecting the neighborhood’s Black and brown communities haven’t changed since he was a child living in the district. 

“The same issues are still here,” he said. 

Here’s what happens next

If you haven’t registered to vote and you want to receive a vote-by-mail ballot, you must register to vote by May 18.

Results from the primary election will be certified by July 2. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the top two candidates will move on to the general election on Nov. 3, according to the City Clerk’s website. 

The winner of District 9 will begin a four-year term Dec. 14.