The Brief

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

On a recent weekday afternoon, cars were already parked bumper to bumper along the residential streets near Pico Boulevard. On Pico Boulevard itself, parking spots were filling up as drivers hurtled down the busy corridor. 

The corridor is lined with small businesses, from neighborhood markets and nail salons to repair shops, sign makers and restaurants. 

Business owners say they recognize Pico Boulevard has a speeding problem and can be dangerous for pedestrians.

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation wants to make the corridor safer for pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers. But that will come at the expense of 228 parking spots, which are already hard to come by in the neighborhood.

LADOT will overhaul 3.5 miles of Pico Boulevard between Crenshaw Boulevard and Figueroa Street to reduce speeding and unsafe turns and lane changes. The agency said the project is intended to improve safety by adding a center turn lane for left turns and emergency vehicles, protected bike lanes and new TOUCAN traffic signals at Manhattan Place and New Hampshire Avenue. LADOT will also repair sidewalks and curb ramps.

To make room, the city will remove parking on the north side of the street and reduce travel lanes from two to one in each direction. Construction is set to begin by the end of the year. 

An artist’s rendering of protected bicycle lanes on Pico Boulevard and Manhattan Place.

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Courtesy LADOT

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City officials say the changes are needed after years of serious crashes. Between 2014 and 2023, 75 crashes on this stretch of Pico resulted in severe injury or death. Nearly three-quarters involved people walking or riding bicycles, and all 11 people killed were pedestrians, according to LADOT.  

Jose Gonzalez, owner of Jagarhaus, a gallery and event space that has been in the neighborhood for six years, supports most of the city’s proposed improvements. But removing a full side of curb parking from a narrow commercial street does not make sense to him.

“I think it’s essential to have bike transportation,” Gonzalez said. “But I don’t think it goes over the priority of the small business community.”

“We’re killing the Main Street,” he said about the impact on the small business community. “We’re benefiting the big guys that have the parking lots and all the infrastructure.”

Gonzalez said he learned about the plan in May from another business owner, despite owning two properties on Pico and living nearby.

He is not the only business owner raising concerns.

Outreach on Pico Boulevard

Joey Bang, who has run Sign Art on Pico for two decades, said parking is already difficult for both businesses and residents nearby. 

“There already isn’t enough parking,” Bang said. “Even residents of this neighborhood park here in front because there isn’t enough parking. If they get rid of the parking out front, business will go down so much.”

Bang said he had not received any communication from LADOT before a visit last month from LADOT representatives who told him about the project. 

Bang said he’d be on board if Pico were a wider street. He’s also concerned about how construction will affect his business.

“Small businesses are already struggling,” he said. “If this goes through, Pico as we know it will come to an end.”

Vehicles travel along Pico Boulevard between Crenshaw Boulevard and Figueroa Street, where Los Angeles plans to add protected bike lanes and other safety improvements while removing parking from the north side of the corridor.

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Hanna Kang

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The LA Local

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LADOT began outreach in May 2025 and spent about a year gathering feedback from businesses and residents, according to spokesperson Colin Sweeney. The agency said it went door to door, mailed notices to 1,842 nearby addresses, distributed door hangers, met with the Byzantine Latino Quarter Business Improvement District, emailed stakeholders, conducted surveys and shared information online. Outreach materials were available in English, Spanish, Korean and K’iche.

LADOT said it reached more than 2,500 people, with 75% of survey respondents favoring a design that includes protected bike lanes.

Construction will be completed in phases over about a year. Sweeney said the city will notify residents and businesses before work begins, and LADOT will provide traffic control and detour assistance during construction.

The project is one of the major street redesigns moving forward as L.A. implements Measure HLA. 

Lorenzo Martinez, owner of Olympic Tools, learned about the project in June when someone brought him a flyer. Martinez has a few parking spaces behind his business, but said trucks still need to stop in front for deliveries.

“If trucks cannot park in the front, that will affect me,” Martinez said. “I like how it is now. I don’t really see a lot of bikes out here. I want it to stay as it is.”

Sweeney said LADOT is still making adjustments to the project, including adding loading zones, creating more parking on the south side of Pico and nearby streets, relocating some bus stops and identifying additional ADA-accessible parking. Peak-hour parking restrictions will also be removed.

How businesses interact with the neighborhood

Fashion designer Galadriel Mattei owns a brick-and-mortar clothing store on the same long block between Union Avenue and Bonnie Brae Street.

She said the lack of alleys and limited places to cross the street already make it difficult for customers to reach her business, particularly older adults and people with disabilities who need to park nearby.

She also worries customers will end up parking deeper in the neighborhood, adding pressure to already crowded residential streets. 

“With neighborhoods like this that are so densely populated, it is really always a fine line with how the businesses interact with the people who live here,” Mattei said.

A cyclist herself, Mattei said she doesn’t oppose bike lanes or other safety improvements. She agrees that drivers often speed along Pico and that the street can be dangerous for pedestrians. But her concern is that the city’s design doesn’t account for how the block actually functions.

During the school year, parking on the north side of Pico is restricted for several hours each day for student drop-offs at a nearby school, she said, forcing drivers onto her side of the street. 

Daniel Serrano, a Pico Union resident who mostly walks and takes public transit, said he supports the changes as a pedestrian.

He said reducing lanes could slow drivers and that protected bike lanes would add more space between cars and people walking. But he also said businesses deserve clearer answers about how the project will affect them. 

“This could be a good opportunity to do a financial analysis. That will also help businesses understand how this project is affecting them and that they feel included in the decision-making,” he said. 

Community members can find information on the project website or by emailing visionzero@lacity.org.

Rep. Thomas Massie moved Monday to force a vote to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, setting the stage for a dramatic vote on whether to remove one of the Trump administration’s most prominent figures following sweeping election losses.

The impeachment resolution was introduced by Massie, a Kentucky Republican, as soon as the House opened for the first day of sessions after the midterms. It largely focuses on the war in Iran but also includes references to Hegseth’s role in carrying out military actions in Yemen and Venezuela.

Massie said the secretary’s actions amount to “high crimes and misdemeanors” and his leadership at the Pentagon “thus warrants impeachment.”

A vote in the House could come by mid-week, putting pressure on Republicans — many of whom blamed their election wipeout on the Iran war — but next steps are highly uncertain.

House Speaker Mike Johnson had tried to prevent this outcome, and warned lawmakers against impeaching the Defense secretary while the U.S. is engaged in military actions in the Middle East.

“Impeaching a Cabinet secretary right now, especially the Department of War in the middle of hostilities abroad would be a terrible, terrible look, a terrible thing for our allies and our enemies to see that,” Johnson, a Republican, said as he opened the chamber.

“We don’t impeach Cabinet secretaries for political gain or for cheap tricks, and I think that’s what this is and I think everybody knows it.”

Most House Democrats are expected to support impeaching Hegseth, with Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries saying over the weekend it’s time for the Defense secretary to go.

If the House votes to impeach Hegseth, it would next go to the Senate for a potential trial. Republicans remain in the majority in both chambers, until the new Congress convenes in January with Democrats in control.

Hegseth issues his own defense and prepares for a fight

Hegseth maintains he’s eager to litigate the military actions that he and President Donald Trump have taken against Iran, Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and Venezuela’s previous leaders.

“If you want to take issue with what we did in Epic Fury or Rough Rider or nabbing Nicolás Maduro, you’re taking issue with the troops and what they accomplished, which is historic,” Hegseth told reporters Monday, using the military code names for the Iran war and campaign of strikes to halt the Houthis’ attacks on shipping in the Middle East.

Hegseth also announced that he would hold a rare news conference on Tuesday — his first in over 180 days — on the impeachment threat. His last briefing was in May, and he has not held one on the Iran war, strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats or other U.S. military actions since then.

The Pentagon chief is bearing the brunt of anger and calls for his ouster after the Iran war and its economic impact contributed to severe Republican losses in the midterm elections that cost the party control of Congress.

Hegseth waves off impeachment push as ‘noise’

Hegseth, after giving a speech at the Naval War College in Rhode Island, brushed aside the impeachment push.

“There’s a lot of politically motivated people who may have substantial policy disagreements, but their disagreements are with success,” he told reporters. He added that “if we want to litigate” the military actions that the Trump administration has taken, “I’m happy to do it all day long.”

“My team, we’re not worried about the noise — it’s what I told the troops, too — ‘don’t worry about the noise,’” he said.

Asked about Vice President JD Vance blaming the Iran war for the massive GOP losses in the election, Hegseth noted that Trump said he would do it again, and “I agree.”

He largely repeated a line that Secretary of State Marco Rubio said to reporters a day earlier: “It doesn’t have to be necessarily popular, but it can be necessary.”

Hegseth argued that the war was necessary because “someone had to confront the Iranian regime’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon” and said “the choice was don’t act and wish it away or take a bold move.”

Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran has 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium that is enriched up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%.

Trump defended Hegseth to reporters on Sunday night.

“He’s guilty of two things, basically winning two wars,” Trump said. “I believe we saved the Middle East and Israel combined. And it’s awfully hard to say let’s impeach somebody who did that.”

Pentagon chief insists ‘Iran is devastated’

Hegseth reiterated that “Iran is devastated,” even though the Islamic Republic has been able to keep striking military bases in the Middle East that are used by the United States, causing billions of dollars in damage, as well as commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Disruptions to shipping in the waterway, where one-fifth of the world’s oil passed before the war, have led to higher energy prices that hit voters’ pocketbooks.

He said the next steps on the war are up to Trump, including telling Iran: “Hey, we’re done, and we’re going to watch your nuclear material. You better not move it.”

Hegseth’s defense of the war comes after about 6 in 10 voters said the U.S. made the “wrong decision” in taking military action against Iran, according to The AP Voter Poll, a survey of more than 100,000 voters in the United States.

With anger in Congress rising, Hegseth has been on a social media blitz, posting a video last week acknowledging the threat of impeachment. He said it would be “all about the politics of personal destruction” and insisted that “won’t work with me. You can rest assured of that.”

Since then, scores of political appointees within the Pentagon have posted images of Hegseth emblazoned with the words, “Stand. Fight. Defend the Republic.” The White House also posted a video to social media that featured praise from Trump.

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Associated Press writers Kevin Freking and Joey Cappelletti contributed to this report.

It is the final hoorah for the 119th Congress. Republicans have just weeks left in control of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The main thing on the agenda: keeping the federal government open. Funding is set to run out on December 11, when a stop-gap measure passed about a month ahead of the midterms expires.

Any funding extension is all but certain to be done through another short-term bill, known as a continuing resolution. The typical government funding process — 12 carefully negotiated appropriations bills — would take time and political will that lawmakers currently lack.

Congress will also need to find a path forward on the National Defense Authorization Act, long considered a must-pass annual military funding package. This year, the bill is quagmired in the unforgiving politics of the Iran war. The conflict is opposed by a majority of Americans — something President Trump has acknowledged was a key force in driving his party out of power.

The House is also likely to vote on an impeachment effort targeting Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Introduced by Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a key figure in forcing the administration's release of the Epstein files, the impeachment measure lists a number of charges, including that the administration failed to properly consult Congress on the military campaign.

Democrats are unlikely to be in a compromising mood on legislation, just weeks away from taking control of both chambers. That means continued work on big-ticket items like the Protect College Sports Act, meant to introduce new regulations around college athlete compensation, and a bipartisan energy permitting overhaul will likely wait until the new term.

With slim majorities in both chambers, they could also have to contend with some attendance problems after a demoralizing performance in last week's midterm elections. That further complicates passing legislation through chambers already governed by the thinnest of majorities.

Mike Ricci, a Republican strategist with the group Seven Letter and aide to former Speakers of the House John Boehner and Paul Ryan, told NPR that a number of forces could help draw reluctant lame duck legislators back to Washington, including winding down their offices, finding new work and attending the White House Christmas party.

Copyright 2026 NPR

As he campaigned for California governor, Xavier Becerra reflected on the way his Catholic upbringing informs his politics. “The sanctity of life is something that’s really ingrained in you,” the Democrat and former U.S. health and human services secretary said earlier this year.

He then explained his rationale, confounding to some, for supporting abortion rights. Becerra exemplifies how Catholicism’s deep roots often go hand in hand with California’s progressive reputation. That complexity is a snapshot of a larger reality — that American Catholics are in many ways a politically mixed bag.

“There is no Catholic vote,” said David Gibson, the director of Fordham University’s Center on Religion and Culture. White evangelicals for Republicans or Black Protestants for Democrats are more politically reliable religious groups, he said.

With Becerra’s win this week, California has elected five consecutive Catholic governors — a remarkable streak indicative of Catholicism’s enduring influence. “Catholicism is part of the fabric of California culture the way Puritan Protestantism is part of the New England regions,” Gibson said.

Catholic voters — especially Latinos — helped elect Becerra, according to The AP Voter Poll, a survey of roughly 100,000 midterm voters. He became the state’s first elected Latino governor.

Beginning with Gray Davis, who took office in 1999, four of those five governors also have been Democrats. Some have been more vocal about their faith than others — notably Jerry Brown, who was a seminarian in the 1950s.

California is home to more Catholics than any other U.S. state. A Pew Research Center poll in 2024 found that 25% of adults in California identify as Catholic, accounting for almost half of the state’s Christians.

But numbers aside, Catholicism has been woven into the fabric of the state for centuries.

California Catholics are politically diverse

From economically progressive strains of Catholic social teaching and explicit rejections of the death penalty to official teachings against abortion and in vitro fertilization, Catholic theology rarely fits neatly into political categories, which helps explain the unpredictable voting habits.

Take Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose strong support of abortion rights is at odds with Catholic leadership. Yet his announcement this week that he planned to change more than 500 death sentences in the state to life in prison without the possibility of parole was celebrated by the California Catholic Conference, the public policy organization representing the church in California.

“I take this action because I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values, undermines the foundations of our legal system, and diminishes each of us,” Newsom said in a public letter.

Some leaders within the church have subverted Trump administration policies, like San Bernardino Bishop Alberto Rojas, who last year formally excused parishioners from their weekly obligation to attend Mass following immigration detentions on parish properties in the diocese.

Others have taken high-profile conservative stances, like San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, who in 2022 barred U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a Catholic, from receiving Communion over her support of abortion rights.

About 2 in 10 voters in the California governor’s race were Catholic, and they mostly voted for Becerra, according to The AP Voter Poll. About 6 in 10 Catholic voters supported Becerra, while about 4 in 10 voted for his Republican opponent Steve Hilton.

About 7 in 10 Latino Catholics voted for Becerra, while white Catholics were split between Becerra and Hilton.

Those complex political patterns are also reflected nationally. Catholics were split evenly between Democrats and Republicans.

That’s a modest shift from 2024, when just over half of U.S. Catholics voted for Trump, according to AP VoteCast.

California Catholics are ethnically diverse

Catholics in California are also ethnically diverse. Many are immigrants from Latin America and the Philippines. Resident Tracy Creighton’s ancestry goes back to the missions founded more than two centuries ago by Spanish Franciscan priests.

As the mother of teenagers, Creighton has sought to pass on the importance of serving others and respecting nature — values she believes are both deeply Catholic and Californian.

“I feel in the last several years we have lost our way in terms of being of service to others,” she said, citing Saint Francis of Assisi as a model. “That is why I stay Catholic.”

Catholic faith, history and culture contribute to many Californians’ understanding of themselves, such as their relationship to the 21 missions founded between 1769 and 1823.

“Obviously, the legacy of the missions is a mixed one and has problematic implications,” said Cecilia González-Andrieu, a theology professor at Loyola Marymount University. “For Latina theologians like myself, there’s a need for us to be able to hold that in tension, the fact that within our very selves we have this mix of cultures and bloods.”

Leaders are increasingly reckoning with that tension and how it should be communicated to young people. The history of the missions is included in the statewide public fourth-grade curriculum, which is often accompanied by a field trip to one.

A law signed by Newsom went into effect last year that requires schools to teach in social studies class about how missionaries mistreated Native Americans, and to share Native perspectives.

But mistreatment isn’t the only fraught legacy of the missionaries who arrived in the late 18th century.

“The mission system spread disease and was ill-equipped to deal with the immunological effects of old-world people and their immunities,” said William Deverell, a historian at the University of Southern California. “It’s your major consequential institutional moment which brings with it a horrible demographic decline of the Indigenous population.”

California Catholicism is about more than faith

Despite their complicated legacy, the missions are landmarks. Many still operate as Catholic parishes.

The missions also helped influence the Spanish Colonial Revival style of homes that became signatures of California architecture. “Why I love California so much is the architecture and the beauty of it. And I think Catholicism plays a lot into that,” Creighton said.

Creighton says it’s difficult to overstate the significance of Mission San Luis Rey in Oceanside, near San Diego, where she lives.

“Everyone does their homecoming pictures, their Christmas pictures. It’s just ingrained in us,” she said, adding that even non-Catholics will often take photos there. “It’s a landmark that’s important in who we are here.”

Beyond architecture, Catholic influence is all over many California homes.

Between the crucifixes and votive candles on display, Brian Murillo’s Fresno home is a testament to his Catholic upbringing. The state employee describes himself as a lapsed Catholic who stopped going to Mass because he felt the American church’s leadership was too aligned with Republican politics.

But Murillo, whose father is from Mexico, still says a Hail Mary or an Our Father prayer whenever he leaves the house.

“Sometimes I’ll be cleaning the house and I’ll be doing a prayer or in the car by myself,” he said. “It’s been such a part of my growing up, even to this day.”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

In the home-stretch of the L.A. mayor’s race, Mayor Karen Bass and her former ally-turned-challenger Nithya Raman met for the only televised debate of the campaign.

They traded jabs over public safety, homelessness and other core issues for Angelenos. But one dig was particularly eyebrow-raising. It came toward the end of the debate, when Bass chided Raman for her support from bike lane advocates.

“There’s very influential people who are supporting your campaign who are very, very much advocates for bike lanes,” Bass, who conceded the race Thursday, said in the Oct. 13 debate hosted by NBCLA and Telemundo.

“Um, yes,” Mayor-elect Raman can be heard quietly saying as one of the moderators tries to move the conversation along.

While it represented just a moment in the race, the brief exchange encapsulated what was at stake for public transit and bike champions: Maintain the status quo with the current mayor, or take a chance on a candidate who made improving transportation and mobility across L.A. a centerpiece of her campaign.

Since the race was called for Raman by the Associated Press, public transit supporters have been cheering her win.

“I’m just on Cloud 9 right now,” said Jonathan Hale, street safety activist and founder of the grassroots group People’s Vision Zero.

 ”It is time for a cultural shift towards a city that prioritizes pedestrians and cyclists and people who take public transit,” Hale added. “We finally have a mayor who believes that.”

It’s not just bike lanes. Raman’s successful campaign hinged on a policy platform that viewed broken sidewalks, streetlights in disrepair and pothole-ridden roads not as intractable issues, but urgent crises that can be addressed with better governance.

Raman, who has said she used trains and buses to commute to work in the past, also has her eyes on L.A.’s larger transportation network. On election eve, while riding the L.A. Metro B Line with supporters, Raman said the region can buck its car-centric reputation and be home to a fast, safe and connected transit system.

“That vision is totally achievable, if you have the will. I have the will,” Raman said.

The will of the people meets political will

For years, L.A. voters have signaled their support for better public transit and improved mobility.

More than 70% of L.A. city residents voted in favor of countywide sales tax measures in 2008 and 2016 to fund transportation projects, which have resulted in transit projects like the first section of the D Line extension.

In 2024, two-thirds of voters passed Measure HLA requiring bike, pedestrian and transit improvements throughout L.A.

Streets for All, the influential transportation advocacy group that put up Measure HLA, has supported Raman throughout her political career. Its political action committee buoyed the mayor-elect’s run with nearly $1.7 million in ad spending opposing Bass, according to campaign finance filings.

Its founder and chief executive officer, Michael Schneider, said Raman’s victory further solidifies the sense that Angelenos want to see their built environment improve.

“It's a mainstream moment for safe streets advocacy,” Schneider said.

In her policy platform, Raman promised to “fast track safety improvements by delivering on HLA.” Progress on the voter-approved initiative has been slow and the subject of ongoing legal battles.

Damian Kevitt, the executive director of the street safety nonprofit Streets Are For Everyone, is also optimistic. Kevitt said the nonprofit tried its best to engage Bass and “multiple council members” on the issue of traffic violence, which, in recent years, has killed more Angelenos than homicides.

“Raman's office was one of the few that engaged,” Kevitt said. “Time will tell, but we think that the future looks brighter.”

Raman has said she wants to create a Vision Zero director in the mayor’s office to “make safety the governing lens for every decision made related to our streets.” In 2015, then-Mayor Eric Garcetti adopted a policy framework known as Vision Zero to zero out traffic deaths by 2025.

Now that Raman’s been elected mayor, the future of a contentious road project near Griffith Park could shift. The project emerged as a flashpoint about street safety during the campaign. Raman had pushed for a long-studied lane reduction plan along Forest Lawn Drive. Bass canned that proposal just a few weeks before the project’s groundbreaking and adopted a design to widen the roadway’s lanes instead.

Reinstating her vision for Forest Lawn Drive will require Raman to work with her colleagues on L.A. City Council, nearly all of whom endorsed Bass in the mayoral election. Most have said they’re ready to work with her. 

A powerful voice on Metro’s board 

The mayor of L.A. has a dedicated seat on the 13-person Metro Board and can appoint three of its members. That accounts for roughly a third of the voting power on the powerful body that makes countywide transportation planning decisions. The rest of the board is made up of all five L.A. County supervisors and non-L.A. city representatives.

Nick Andert, a documentary filmmaker and transit advocate YouTuber, said he wants to see Raman appoint people who use Metro “at least from time to time” and also someone with relevant expertise to transit planning.

Bass' current appointments include the founding member of a faith-based development group in South L.A., Jacquelyn Dupont-Walker, as well as L.A. City Councilmembers Katy Yaroslavsky and Imelda Padilla. When Raman joins the board in December, she’ll have the power to change those appointments.

L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said the mayor’s appointees often vote as a bloc. She said disagreements with the L.A. mayor often mean disagreeing with “potentially four votes on the board,” as was the case earlier this year during deliberations over how to extend a Metro rail line into West Hollywood.

Horvath, who endorsed Raman for mayor in October, said she’s looking forward to working with someone who has demonstrated interest in transit. She pointed to Raman’s support of projects like the Sepulveda Transit Corridor and K-Line Northern Extension, and making day-to-day operations of the transit system more reliable.

“Raman has really listened to what people are looking for,” Horvath said. “If we listen to our riders more and make those improvements, those are the things that help bring people into the system.”

The mayor-elect has signaled her support for extending Metro’s operations later into the night, a proposal that Cassy Horton, co-founder of the Downtown L.A. Residents Association, hopes materializes.

“Downtown is a nightlife hub,” Horton said. “It would be a huge game changer, probably reviving nightlife, if trains were running until bars and restaurants close.”

In a statement, Metro congratulated Raman on her victory.

“We look forward to welcoming her to the Board,” Metro said, adding its gratitude to Bass for making Metro a “safer, more welcoming and equitable agency.”

Workers repair potholes and skim a large portion of street in Los Angeles on Jan. 13, 2026.

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Genaro Molina

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Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

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Quick-turn improvements promised in Raman’s first 100 days

As the incoming mayor, Raman will lead city departments that impact transportation and mobility. In her first 100 days in office, Raman has pledged to begin addressing urgent road repairs and potholes. She also said she’ll make public when broken streetlights in the city will be fixed.

“ I love the fact that Nithya Raman has built her agenda on making cities work from the sidewalks up,” said Hilary Norton, executive director of FastLink DTLA.

Norton said cities are successful when residents, including those with disabilities, can travel through local infrastructure with ease.

“ We meet on the sidewalks and we travel together and we interact together, we're bringing our democracy back,” Norton said.