LA Mayor Karen Bass: I’m Dealing With Problems That Have Existed For 3+ Decades, “And I Want Time To Finish My Job”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass appeared on MS NOW’s “The Weekend” to discuss her campaign in a pivotal mayoral primary against Republican Spencer Pratt.
JONATHAN CAPEHART, CO-ANCHOR: Mayor — Mayor Bass, elections are more about the future than they are about the past. LOS ANGELES MAYOR KAREN BASS: Right. CAPEHART: You’re asking for people to give you a second term. What are you going to do in a — with a second term that you weren’t able to do in the first? BASS: Well, let me just tell you, complete many of the things I’ve been working on. For example, we have a terrible problem in L.A. with copper wire theft, which means our street lights go out all the time. Well, about a month ago, I’ve rolled out a plan to install 60,000 solar lights moving away from copper. And we’re installing a couple of hundred a month. Remember, Jonathan, and I know you know well, in a few short weeks we have the World Cup coming here. CAPEHART: That’s right. BASS: The whole world is going to be coming to Los Angeles. Two years later, we have the Olympics. And next year we have the Super Bowl. So Los Angeles’s future is bright. We have a lot to look forward to. And channeling people into all of that excitement is going to happen very quickly. Four days after the June primary, we have the U.S. Open for golf for women, and we’re having golf clinics for girls all around the city. So there’s a tremendous amount to look forward to. But we have to continue getting people off the street, and we also have to continue dealing with our broken infrastructure. So I’m dealing with problems that have existed for three-plus decades, and I want time to finish my job. JACKIE ALEMANY, CO-ANCHOR: Mayor Bass, quickly before we’re out of time. You know, you did previously say that the recovery for the Los Angeles fires in — in the Palisades and Altadena would be on track to be the fastest in California history. BASS: Right. ALEMANY: Do you acknowledge that this is not the case, despite permitting? BASS: Oh, no, I absolutely will. And for the reasons that I said, the insurance industry and the banking industry is what — is what is holding people up. It is not the permitting process. I have passed or signed executive directives to fast-track rebuilding, to mush — move past the the red tape. And so that is going along OK. As a matter of fact, when President Trump did his executive order saying that we hadn’t done permitting and sending out his EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, he was able to document that permitting is not the primary problem. There might be a speed bump here and there. The primary problem is banking and insurance. EUGENE DANIELS, CO-ANCHOR: Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, thank you so much. We have reached out to Spencer Pratt to come on the show. Not heard back. Come on, Spencer, water’s fine, sort of.
