TRANSPORTATION AND MOBILITY

One of the greatest joys in my life is riding bikes with my wife and daughter. But I’m reminded, every time we ride, just how unsafe and unhealthy our streets still are. Cracked sidewalks. Faded crosswalks. Cars flying by with no bike lane in sight. For too many families in South LA, just getting around can feel like a daily gamble. Whether it’s the cost of gas, the price of a Metro card, or how long you’re stuck waiting for a late bus, transportation in LA is too expensive and unreliable for working families. Los Angeles has some of the deadliest streets in the country, and that’s especially the case in District 9. South LA residents are disproportionately killed and severely injured by car crashes. 

As your Councilmember, I’ll fight to make sure communities like ours aren’t an afterthought. I’ll work to fix broken sidewalks, build safe and protected bike lanes, calm speeding traffic, add safer pedestrian crossings, and deliver better bus stops and a network of dedicated bus lanes.

I’ll fight to give people SAFER, MORE affordable, and cleaner ways to get around. Because no one should have to risk their life — or empty their wallet — just to get to work, drop off their kid, or ride a bike with the people they love.

Make Transit Accessible, Affordable, and comfortable for All

Los Angeles isn’t known for reliable mass transit – but many CD9 residents rely on the bus to get to work, school, and the grocery store. Multiple bus and rail lines in the District directly connect our communities with the major employment and entertainment centers in Downtown, West Hollywood, Hollywood, and Santa Monica. But our buses are too unreliable and slow, the E and A line are always delayed. Even just to get to a transit stop, we navigate dangerous intersections and broken sidewalks, and when we finally arrive at a transit stop, we wait in the hot LA sun without a place to sit.  South Central residents spend large amounts of time commuting to school and work, often longer than most of their peers in the County.

  • Bus service should be faster and more reliable, which can be achieved through a dedicated network of bus-priority lanes and signal prioritization. I will push Metro to complete the 12.4-mile Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line along Vermont Avenue for the Vermont Transit Corridor and advocate for a longer-term underground rail option. I will work with LADOT and Metro to implement priority bus-only lanes on Martin Luther King Blvd, Florence Ave, Broadway, and other priority routes identified by Metro, LADOT, and the community. I’ll work with LADOT and Metro to implement signal priority for popular bus routes and for the E-Line and A-line.

  • We ran the largest fare-free bus pilot in the country for the first two years of the COVID pandemic. I support fare-free transit because in a district where the median household income is around $28,000, even a few dollars a day in transit costs can be the difference between getting to work or staying home.

    I will push for fare-free buses for riders on the City’s DASH bus system and will work with Metro to advance free fares.

  • Transit should be free, and while we work to achieve that, it should be further subsidized for low-income families. I will work to expand and institutionalize the City’s Universal Basic Mobility pilot to expand access to affordable and flexible transportation options for low-income families.

    Expanding transportation subsidies like Metro’s Mobility Wallet pilot program that will allow our residents, particularly low-income residents, to get to their workplaces, schools, and grocery stores.

  • Dramatically improve frequency and coverage of Metro bus service citywide, with a particular focus on streets like Vermont Avenue (which sees 36,000 daily boardings on buses that serve this area) and especially during off-peak hours and weekends.

  • I support expanding Metro Micro service to Council District 9 to give residents more options to move around the city.

  • We can make transit more accessible by investing in electric scooters, bike-share, and safe pedestrian connections to help people get to transit stations and their final destinations.

  • Riding transit should be safe and comfortable for all. I will ensure we invest in and expand the Metro Ambassador program, which provides a friendly, non-police presence on buses and trains, helping riders feel safe and supported. I will also advocate for more resources in mental health crisis response to ensure our neighbors experiencing mental health crises on our transit system are met with the care, compassion, and expertise to keep everyone safe. Finally, I will work to establish partnerships with community-based organizations for culturally competent safety programming and outreach on and around transit lines.

  • Walking to and from bus stops and train stations, and waiting for your bus or train, should be safe and comfortable. Too many working families in District 9 wait for the bus in extreme heat, rain, or darkness without basic infrastructure. I will work with the Department of Public Works to add shaded shelters and proper lighting at every stop to improve the rider experience, boost transit use, and promote public safety.

Safe Streets

Like so many families in South LA, I want my daughter to get to school and back safely. Traffic deaths are one of the leading causes of death for families in Los Angeles. Due to decades of disinvestment in our communities, South LA residents experience worse traffic crash outcomes than any other neighborhood. Council District 9 has just 4% of the total street miles in the city, but sees 10% of the total collisions involving a death or serious injury, and our district had nearly twice as many serious or fatal pedestrian and bicycle collisions as Council District 11 and nearly three times as many as Council District 5. The victims of these crashes are too often people of color, seniors, and young people. It’s time for us to take a hard stance on ensuring that we get the investment we deserve and make walking, biking, and scooting safe and viable for everyone—especially children, elders, disabled residents, and our most vulnerable people.

  • I will ensure the City invests in safe streets infrastructure around schools to ensure our children arrive at school safe and ready to learn. Improvements like protected bike lanes, signalized crosswalks, accessible curb ramps, and traffic calming measures in school zones will ensure our kids get to and from school safely.

  • We must implement bold safety improvements with urgency, prioritizing areas with the highest deadly crash rates like the Slauson, Central, and Vernon corridors. We will fully fund these improvements and ensure projects are community-led and informed. 

  • I will implement a district-wide network of protected bike lanes consistent with the Mobility Plan, including protected bike lanes on Main, Central, and Manchester, and improving upon the existing bike lanes on Jefferson, Avalon, Figueroa, and MLK.

  • We must fix our sidewalks and invest in the pedestrian experience to create a safer, healthier, and more accessible city. A safer, healthier street network includes wider sidewalks, more trees, better lighting, safe crossings, bus shelters, public bathrooms, and places to gather. I will focus on reforming the broken Sidewalk Repair Program to fix more sidewalks more quickly, and will ensure we prioritize sidewalk repair, street lighting, and ADA accessibility in neighborhoods long neglected by city infrastructure plans.

  • Explore additional streams of revenue for infrastructure investment: Require that a share of revenue from major car dealerships, sporting events, and concerts in the district be reinvested into local priorities, including public transportation improvements, new green space, and complete street projects that advance environmental justice.

  • Currently the demand for crossing guards outstrips the number of guards employed by the Citydespite the fact that the leading cause of death for children between the ages of 5 and 14 in Los Angeles is traffic collisions.

    In order to reduce these tragic and preventable deaths, the number of crossing guards should be increased to meet demand.

    Furthermore, the City’s Department of Transportation should work with LAUSD to ensure that the City’s deployment methodology matches district needs and prioritizes dangerous areas along the High-Injury Network.

  • The City Council passed a measure in May 2025 that increased the number of School Safety Zones with 15 mph speed limits to protect an additional 201 schools, and it should continue to explore establishing more zones at other schools where students and families would most benefit from the protection afforded by the additional reduction in the speed limit.

Invest in Housing and Green Infrastructure

In South Central, our streets and freeways have been built to move trucks and cargo to and from the port, not to serve the people who actually live here. We’ve been treated as a pass-through zone, not a place people are supposed to thrive.

We need to start building for ourselves, making sure the way we design our streets reflects the lives of the people who live on them. Integrating mobility planning with affordable housing policies and stronger renter protections to ensure that transit investments do not displace the residents who need them the most. 

South Central deserves beautiful, functional neighborhoods just like anywhere else. It is time we design a city that works for us and invest in the infrastructure and public space we have always deserved.

  • When we build more homes near transit hubs, we reduce the need for long car commutes, cut greenhouse gas emissions, and make it easier for people, especially low-income residents, seniors, and people with disabilities, to access daily needs without relying on a car.

  • Enforce anti-displacement protections around new transit developments, including rent stabilization, community land trusts, and deeply affordable housing requirements near transit hubs.

  • Apply for funding programs like Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program (AHSC) that integrate affordable housing investment with active transportation and transit investments.

  • Supporting small, community-serving small businesses located in existing commercial corridors and assisting small, community-serving small businesses to locate in new ground floor retail spaces in mixed-use developments.

  • Planting 10,000 trees over the next four years. This will help combat extreme heat, improve air quality, and create more walkable and welcoming streets. Building on the success of initiatives like the South LA Eco-Lab, we must invest in planting drought-tolerant, native shade trees along corridors like Vermont, Central Ave, and Broadway, and work with community members and CBOs to ensure ongoing maintenance.

Electrify Our Transportation

In Council District 9, families breathe some of the dirtiest air in the city because our neighborhoods sit next to freeways, industrial corridors, and heavy traffic. Vehicle pollution is a major reason why so many of our neighbors end up in the ER with asthma attacks, heart problems, and other preventable illnesses. Across the country, nearly 20,000 people die prematurely every year because of it. 

Electrifying our buses, trucks, and cars is one of the most powerful tools we have to change this, with the transition helping us to save up to 90,000 lives nationally.

For South Central families, electrifying transit is about ensuring every child growing up in the district has healthier air to breathe. (read more about my climate platform)

  • Tackle diesel emissions by investing in zero-emission trucks. Because of the number of warehouses and industry we have in Council District 9, Black and brown families are being forced to breathe the pollution that powerful industries leave behind. I will fight to change this by working with the state to expand financing options for zero-emission trucks to electrify our corridors and by requiring any industrial projects to commit to a transition plan for ZE trucks and invest in strong air-filtration protections for the families who live nearby.

  • Expand LADOT’s zero-emission DASH fleet and push Metro to electrify at least 50 percent of its buses by the 2028 Olympic Games, prioritizing routes in South Central where ridership is high and working class residents bear a disproportionate share of pollution and health burdens.

  • Increase funding for e-bikes and e-bike share programs, including expanding Metro’s bike share fleet, and partner with community based organizations to grow South Central Power Up, the e-bike lending library pilot.

  • Build a neighborhood-based network of EV chargers across Council District 9 by working with LADWP, ensuring convenient, affordable access to charging stations in every community and supporting a fair transition to clean transportation.

  • Work with developers by incentivizing EV chargers in new multifamily housing in the district, if financially feasible for the project. Because the district is mostly renters, most residents can’t install home chargers. This will ensure that communities like South Central don’t fall behind as we accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles.

  • We’ll teach residents how to locate and access public charging stations, and address common concerns like charger availability and range anxiety.

  • Work with LADWP to strengthen grid reliability and resilience as more vehicles and buses electrify.

  • Launch a green workforce development pipeline by partnering with LA Trade Tech, labor groups, and community organizations that includes certification pathways and apprenticeships to careers in EV maintenance, charger installation, and electrical grid upgrades, prioritizing local hires.

Regulate and Tax Autonomous Vehicles to Fund Community InfrastructurE

As autonomous vehicles start showing up on our streets, we cannot just sit back and let tech companies call the shots. These companies make a profit off public infrastructure, but they are not paying a dime toward the sidewalks, curb ramps, bus shelters, or bike lanes they depend on.

Any rollout of this technology needs to be done hand in hand with labor, with strong protections for workers. We also need to listen and solicit community input from our neighborhoods.

  • Tax autonomous vehicles operating in the district to fund sidewalk repair, curb ramps, bus shelters, bike lanes, and other neighborhood infrastructure that AVs use but do not currently pay into. I will ask the city to explore creating a local permitting authority and charge recovery fees for emergency response disruptions caused by AVs (for example, blocking fire trucks). We could also explore a fee for curb space usage (for pickups/dropoffs), especially as AVs scale up.

  • Prioritize safety and transparency, by conducting deep community engagement that is culturally responsive and meets community interests.