With a majority of ballots counted, incumbent Heather Hutt leads challenger Grace Yoo in the race to represent L.A. City Council’s District 10.
Hutt was appointed to the council in 2022 after Mark Ridley-Thomas was indicted on federal corruption charges. She is now running for a full term. Yoo is an attorney and Neighborhood Council member; this is her third time running for this seat.
The makeup of the council determines what kind of laws get passed that affect the entire city — rent control, housing, transportation and pedestrian safety, etc. The council proposes solutions to all those kinds of problems.
The winner of this race will represent Central L.A., including Koreatown, Mid-City and West Adams. Hutt is the first woman to represent District 10, and also serves as chair of the council’s Transportation Committee.
Ahead of the election, LAist asked the candidates to weigh in on three consequential actions taken by the L.A. City Council over the past year, along with other issues that were being discussed:.
- Hutt and Yoo backed allowing rent increases of up to 6% for rent-controlled apartments.
- They were also in favor of an LAPD contract with increases in officer pay.
- Both of the candidates opposed a 3% annual cap on rent increases for rent-controlled units, as well as the use of arrests for homeless encampment enforcement.
- Hutt and Yoo, however, did not agree on the expanded use of digital billboards, which the incumbent supports.
What voters told us
But the most pressing issue by far, among voters LAist talked to, was housing and the cost of living.
"It's very difficult to gather the money you need for rent every month,” said Koreatown resident Silvia Rosales. “And, then, food — it's so expensive!”
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Brittny Flint and Lebrandon Smith cast their ballots at the Southern Missionary Baptist Church, just off of Adams Blvd. in South L.A. When it comes to down-ballot issues, they said affordable housing is among their chief concerns. They also paid close attention to the propositions that aimed to abolish forced labor in the state’s prisons and raise the minimum wage.
“I think those things do affect us, even though we aren’t making minimum wage,” Smith said. “I think the better the community does, the better for everyone.”
Jackie Soto, who also lives in Koreatown, was ready to wait as long as it took to cast her ballot at the local YMCA. “I have a lot of family members [who] can't vote, so I feel like I'm here to be a voice for them,” she said. For Soto, the homelessness crisis was also top of mind.
Daniel Gillette was in the same line as Soto, just a few feet ahead. “L.A. is a big city, so there's a lot of housing. But I think the quality tends to take a very sharp decline after a certain price range,” he said. “A lot of people are simply stuck with pretty crappy housing and improper management.”
At her election watch party last night, Hutt pledged to continue working on permanent housing for unhoused Angelenos, as well as affordable housing and eviction protections for renters — “things that make daily life better for folks in the tenth district,” she said.
