CommentsGUEST COMMENTARY-When alert residents of Elysian Valley noticed that a member of their Neighborhood Council posted an anti-Semitic image on social media, it was a glaring signal that the local body had lost its way.
This spring, voters in the small residential enclave along the LA River rose up and chose a new team led by progressive women to represent them on the 15-member panel.
On April 20, the LA City Clerk announced the final tabulation of ballots in the election for the Elysian Valley seats. In the last election, in 2019, fewer than 50 people bothered to cast a ballot. This time, turnout tripled to about 150.
The result echoes beyond the evolving community in the shadow of Dodger Stadium and known for its riverbank bike path. In pledging to reconnect the neighborhood with city services, such as pickup of trash and dumped items, graffiti removal, and crosswalks to make transit safer for people who bike and walk, including kids and seniors, the 9 winners on the diverse team that called itself Community Together are redeeming the vision of Neighborhood Councils as a vehicle for inclusive representation, action, and accountability on local needs.
Their victory also sweeps out several incumbents on the council who drew criticism for demeaning treatment of women stakeholders at meetings and increasingly hostile stances against local small business owners. Some online messages featured appeals to racial antagonism and caricatures of Jewish people.
Elysian Valley, once the home of legendary painter and studio owner Frank Romero, has become a thriving base for artists and activists for environmental justice. High levels of air pollution from the nearby Taylor Yard rail facility and efforts to stop plastic blight from throwaway bags and Styrofoam that bedevil the LA River and its wildlife are catalysts for local advocates.
“I am glad the hard work to inform neighbors about the value of voting succeeded,” says Ceci Dominguez, a resident of Elysian Valley and a committee chair for the East Area Progressive Democrats (EAPD), whose local club members promoted the vote.
“Women who were told by some members of the previous council to be quiet and stay away instead stepped up as candidates, shared their vision for serving our community, and won overwhelmingly,” adds Dominguez, a leader in local and statewide coalitions for clean air and water and against plastic pollution.
“This is a victory for the core values of our Democratic club: participation, inclusion, respecting hard work, and fighting hate and disinformation,” says Dominguez, who encouraged residents in English and Spanish to vote and helped in troubleshooting. The election was conducted entirely by mail as a safety precaution during COVID.
“When we join together to make local democracy work, we have the power to change the chemistry of how we are represented and who represents us.”
EAPD member Christine Louise Mills, the club’s Transit Committee chair, led the Community Together team and won a seat on the Elysian Valley Riverside Neighborhood Council (EVRNC). She says relationships developed through the club and skills gained in past club campaigns proved crucial to the success of her team of candidates.
“For years now, I've been hoping ‘someone’ would take the time to run for our neighborhood council and restore the connection between our community and city government. I knew how hard many of my neighbors, including Ceci, had worked to make sure Elysian Valley even HAS a council, and feared that we might lose our status, if not our funding, as another fiscal year winds down, and our council has thousands of misspent and unspent dollars that could have gone toward genuine local good through community grants to eligible entities.
“Watching this money go unspent at a time when our neighbors need food and support during the pandemic is especially frustrating. It inspired me to be that ‘someone.’
“Through outreach and solidarity, six of my neighbors joined to create the Community Together team. We not only won this election, but we tripled voter turnout and took the first step to reconnecting our council to our community. The work is just beginning. And we are ready.”
(Hans Johnson is a longtime columnist on LGBTQ rights and an advocate on state and federal policy, advising or assisting ballot measure campaigns in more than 25 states. He lives in Los Angeles.) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
