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This archival content was originally written for and published on KPCC.org. Keep in mind that links and images may no longer work — and references may be outdated.

KPCC Archive

#MakeAlCare: Why Angelenos think he should vote

Chef Al Gordon is the founder of Community in Los Feliz.
Chef Al Gordon is the founder of Community in Los Feliz.
(
Maya Sugarman/KPCC
)

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Responses have started coming in to KPCC reporter Meghan McCarty's effort to #MakeAlCare.

Al Gordon lives in Los Feliz, where he is also the chef and partner of a restaurant called Community. He doesn’t vote in municipal elections.

Fourteen people are competing to represent L.A. city council district 4, where he lives.

And Al has agreed to let McCarty try to convince him to care enough about the issues and candidates to cast his first vote in a city election.

On Wednesday, you'll hear how a political scientist tried to convince him to vote. And Friday you'll hear how it went when McCarty took Al to a debate to brush up on who's who.

Will she convince him? Only time will tell.

What would you tell Al to make him care about the March 3 primary elections? 

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On Instagram, @deniselopezdiaz says:

"Public funds/grants can be used to reconstructed medians and sidewalks, new traffic signals, bicycle lanes, enhanced bus stop, trash cans, new light fixtures. Improving the street where his restaurant is located will not only increase property values and create a safer neighborhood for residents and future workers."

Our Facebook friends are talking about Al, too. Donna Ann Ward wrote that it pays to get involved:
"I can say in West Adams, Herb Wesson helped us shut down an oil well that had 5 outstanding violations and was completely ignoring residents, got us a million dollars to upgrade a park next to a library and has provided tons of support for our Senior Lead Officers. City Council is a good place to see how your future mayoral candidates work when they don't have a massive budget, but a lot of public interaction in their job.

But we are a very active, united neighborhood, so it has been to our own benefit to be involved, given out location and challenges."

Even some of the 14 candidates dropped Al a line. You can read those tweets below. 

What would you tell Al? Let us know here through our Public Insight Network. Or you can join in the conversation in the comments below, or our Facebook page or on Twitter, using the hashtag #MakeAlCare.

This is part of our weeklong series on voter apathy. Monday’s story covers the search for Al, who is representative of the average nonvoter, which you can listen to here. You can read and listen to Part 2 here.

Facebook: #MakeAlCare

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Twitter: #MakeAlCare

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