Barri Worth Girvan, a veteran government employee who ran on a platform of leveraging her experience to advocate for residents, declared victory in the race for Los Angeles City Council’s Third District seat late Friday.
Worth Girvan’s announcement came after the latest vote tally Friday evening showed her widening her lead over rival Tim Gaspar, with 51% of the vote to Gaspar’s 49%.
“I will bring competence, transparency, follow-through, and ethical leadership to City Hall, which Angelenos deserve and too often do not get,” she said in a statement, which also thanked Gaspar for stepping up to run as well.
“I know how City Hall works, and I know how to make it work for you,” Worth Girvan said. “I am ready to hit the ground running on Day One, delivering the services our neighborhoods deserve, and leading with the integrity you have every right to expect.
Earlier Friday, Gaspar’s campaign said he wasn’t yet ready to concede. The campaign couldn’t immediately be reached for comment following Worth Girvan’s announcement.
The current Third District councilmember, Bob Blumenfield, is leaving office because of term limits. The 3rd District seat includes Woodland Hills, Reseda and Canoga Park.
Worth Girvan and Gaspar were virtually tied on election night Tuesday, but on Thursday Worth Girvan began pulling ahead as more mail-in ballots were counted.
Before entering the race, Worth Girvan was L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath’s district director for three years, handling constituent services on the Westside and in the Valley.
A former insurance company owner, Gaspar is running on a pro-business platform and has been endorsed by the Valley Industry & Commerce Assn. and the Los Angeles Police Protective League, a union representing LAPD officers. He’s also been endorsed by Blumenfield, L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, real estate developer Rick Caruso and former Democratic state Assemblymember Bob Hertzberg, Worth Girvan’s former boss.
Worth Girvan was endorsed by the L.A. County Democratic Party and labor unions including the local chapters of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Service Employees International Union. She’s also been endorsed by Horvath and former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
In the race for District 9, both Jose Ugarte and Estuardo Mazariegos remain locked in a tight contest. Councilmember Curren Price is also termed out.
District 9 encompasses South L.A. neighborhoods, the Convention Center and USC. But no matter who wins, District 9 will undergo a shift in representation after decades of being represented by a Black council member.
Price is currently facing charges of embezzlement and conflict of interest and he has denied wrongdoing. Price has endorsed Ugarte, his former deputy chief of staff, whose platform includes protecting city residents from federal immigration enforcement and the Trump administration.
Mazariegos is backed by the L.A. chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. He’s worked as a community organizer for decades and said he’s running to improve quality of life in the city, including by making housing more affordable and spending money on basic services other than policing.
Ugarte’s campaign received outside support from special interest groups including Airbnb, Uber, the California Apartment Assn. and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18, which represents workers at the Department of Water and Power.
Mazariegos was supported by groups including United Teachers Los Angeles and the Progressive Era PAC. Special interest groups have spent more than $250,000 supporting his campaign.
Talk about strange beginnings at Friday’s City Section Division I football playoff opener between Sun Valley Poly and host Marshall.
After the opening kickoff went into the end zone for a touchback, Poly coach Boo Williams immediately called a timeout when he saw his double-wing offense lining up with 12 players. After a discussion, the next play was an illegal procedure penalty on the Parrots.
Looking confused, the Parrots deserved an Academy Award for their acting skills, because on their third play, quarterback King Exusdus took the snap from shotgun formation and sprinted 82 yards for a touchdown.
Marshall, seeded No. 5 after its first 10-0 regular season in school history, never figured out how to slow down the Parrots’ run-oriented attack and couldn’t overcome a sore shoulder that limited quarterback Nathaniel Cadet’s ability to pass in a 20-0 loss to 12th-seeded Poly (10-1).
“Who says Poly can’t win a Division I playoff game?” Williams said.
With each short pass in pregame warmups, Cadet grabbed his right shoulder as if he were in pain — and he was. On Saturday, he couldn’t move his arm because of a contusion and sprain to his AC shoulder joint suffered in the regular-season finale last week against Eagle Rock.
All week, Cadet alternated between applying ice and heat to his shoulder. He looked at Instagram and found a shoulder sleeve designed to provide support. He took four Advil tablets. The Barristers badly needed him. He came in with 1,570 yards passing and 24 touchdowns, but on his second pass of the game, he came to the sideline in severe pain revealing the challenge he was facing. He ended up passing for just 55 yards and was intercepted twice.
For Poly — the East Valley League champions under Williams in his first year as coach — the turnaround from a football program with little history of success to competing in City Division I has been meteoric. After problems at the start of the game and a few illegal procedure penalties, the Parrots ran the double wing to perfection, with 290-pound lineman Diego Rodriguez clearing a path like he was knocking down pins with a bowling ball.
Exusdus, usually a receiver, finished with 174 yards rushing in 13 carries. Justice Brown rushed for 86 yards and caught Poly’s only pass, a 26-yard touchdown on fourth down from quarterback Alijah Ochoa.
“One pass, one touchdown, baby,” former Sylmar All-City quarterback Clarence Williams said. He’s the quarterback coach at Poly.
On defense, linebacker Stephon Boyd was all over the field making tackles. Exusdus and Boyd used to attend Birmingham before arriving at Poly this season.
Exusdus is grateful just to be out on the field. He missed all last season attending a continuation school as he tried to improve a grade-point average that he said was once below 1.0. Playing football in his senior year made him start showing up on time to practices and making progress in the classroom.
King Exusdus of Sun Valley Poly takes off on an 82-yard touchdown run.
(Craig Weston / For The Times)
“I had to get everything right,” he said. “It motivated me. Seeing friends go Division I fueled me.”
It was a difficult ending for a Marshall team that won the Northern League title and had not won a Division I playoff game since 2000. Poly moves on to the quarterfinals and will face either Chatsworth or Banning.
Democratic candidate Randy Villegas has defeated Republican incumbent David Valadao in the race for California’s 22nd congressional district, clinching one of the state’s most closely watched congressional races and notching another win for the Democratic Party’s progressive left.
Villegas, an educator who grew up in the Central Valley as the son of Mexican immigrants, ousted the Republican representative after a campaign that won support from figures such as Senator Bernie Sanders and railed against the rising cost of living, healthcare cuts, and sweeping immigration raids.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
“I want to take a moment to acknowledge my family. Both of my parents, who I’m blessed to have with me here today. I’ve gotta tell you, the reason I believe in this country, the reason I believe in the United States, is because of the sacrifices that they made,” Villegas said in remarks to his supporters gathered in the city of Bakersfield on Tuesday evening, calling the result a “historic victory for the Central Valley”.
“And let me tell you, that victory is not because of me. It is because of us,” he added.
Here are some of the key takeaways from the race.
Democratic candidate Randy Villegas speaks with the press at a midterms watch party on November 3, 2026 in Bakersfield, California [Brian Osgood/Al Jazeera]
Cost of living concerns
The story of the district fits a larger one playing out across the country as votes come in on election night: angry about surging prices that were driven partly by the Trump administration’s decision to launch a war on Iran, and overreach in areas such as ICE raids, voters decided to punish the president and his party.
Polls had indicated for months that the president had become deeply unpopular, and that this trend was closely linked to collapsing faith in his handling of the economy and cost of living, issues that had previously helped return him to the White House in 2024.
Despite his image as a relative moderate with strong ties to the Central Valley, Valadao did not escape that trend on Tuesday night.
Immigration raids trigger backlash among Latino voters
Following Trump’s win in 2024, much was made of the Republican Party’s successful inroads with Latino voters despite the party’s embrace of rhetoric vilifying immigrants and restrictive immigration policies.
Less than two years later, those promising gains have entirely evaporated.
Incensed over the administration’s aggressive and often indiscriminate approach to immigration enforcement and the toll of rising prices, Latino voters across the country swung heavily back towards the Democrats.
“We have people who said that they regret having voted for him [Trump], because he has not done what he promised,” a member of the United Farm Workers (UFW) labour union who knocked doors in Latino communities for Villegas, told Al Jazeera on Monday.
Residents and officials in the Central Valley said that ICE raids sent shockwaves through immigrant and Latino communities, with arrests of farmworkers and family members cutting against the administration’s claims that it was targeting criminals.
Villegas slammed the raids and linked them to Valadao’s support for a massive increase in the budget for ICE, one of the agencies at the centre of the mass deportation raids.
A recent survey from the Pew Research Center found that 56 percent of US voters now view ICE unfavourably, making it one of the least popular agencies in the federal government.
Progressives make the case for their competitiveness
Before facing off against Valadao on Tuesday night, Villegas had to win a hard-fought primary race against California State Assembly member Jasmeet Bains, a candidate aligned with the party’s establishment wing who warned that his progressive positions would be too far to the left in the traditionally conservative region.
But Villegas and his supporters challenged that premise. His populist message seems to have resonated in a race dominated by concerns about the cost of living and access to healthcare, and at a time when many feel that politics and the economy are skewed in favour of the wealthy and well-connected.
Villegas won endorsements from Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and energised supporters from the party’s base, including members of organised labour who pounded the pavement to get out the vote.
Supporters of Democratic candidate Randy Villegas dance as the results of the midterm elections come in on November 3, 2026 in Bakersfield, California [Brian Osgood/Al Jazeera]
“We beat the Democratic establishment. We beat the Republican establishment. We beat corporate PAC money. We beat AIPAC!” Villegas told supporters on Tuesday night.
Villegas can now add his name to the list of elected officials seeking to prove that progressives can win tough races outside of traditional strongholds.
“Randy’s race has shown us that the Central Valley cannot be counted out of following the really urgent change that we need in every corner of our country,” said Manpreet Kaur, the progressive vice mayor of Bakersfield who was an early supporter of Villegas. “And the Central Valley is included in that.”
In the 1820s, a young painter left London to live in Shoreham in the west of Kent. In his waterside cottage, Samuel Palmer – remembered now as a key figure of British Romanticism – depicted moonlit cornfields, apple trees bowed under fruit and hills swollen with light. He dubbed the area his Valley of Vision. Two centuries on, Palmer’s own vision of Shoreham – and the surrounding Darent Valley – as a demi-paradise isn’t too far from the canvas.
I’ve lived in the area for five years and can’t quite believe how few people come to Shoreham. It feels like a secret yet is less than an hour from London by train. The village itself sits on the River Darent, remarked on by Edmund Spenser in his poem The Faerie Queene for its gentleness and clear water: “The still Darent, in whose waters cleane, ten thousand fishes play and decke his pleasant streame …”.
Lullingstone Country Park on the Darent Valley Trail. Photograph: AMcCulloch/Alamy
This 21-mile chalk stream glides into the Thames from Westerham and can be explored by the scenic waymarked Darent Valley Path. Shoreham is a pretty place. The road into the village drops to a stream under a weeping willow, flanked by two good pubs, and it makes a good base for exploring. Lopsided Tudor chimneys and pastel cottages lean over the lanes, and the Grade I-listed church of St Peter and St Paul keeps watch over the churchyard. It’s no surprise artists still come here to capture Palmer’s magic.
Neighbouring Otford and Eynsford are minutes on the train (or a short drive). Otford is the antique-hunter’s village, with waterside houses, the ruins of a 16th-century palace and a listed duck house on the pond – check out the labyrinthine Otford Antiques and Collectors Centre. Eynsford has the history: Lullingstone Roman villa with its beautifully preserved painted walls; Lullingstone Castle, favoured by Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn; and the ford, ringed by half-timbered houses.
Don’t miss
My top recommendation is cream tea at the Shoreham Aircraft Museum. The valley saw heavy aerial combat in the second world war, and this volunteer-run museum remembers it. You enter through the garden door of artist and proprietor Geoff Nutkins’ home, past overgrown flowerpots, witty hand-painted boards and an antique Hovis sign above a converted bakehouse, now a tearoom frozen in the early 20th century. The delicious puddings and doorstop sandwiches come from Nutkins’ own kitchen. (My Tunisian girlfriend describes it to friends as “exotically English”.) The £5 ticket to the museum buys entry to a lifetime’s collection, plus the story of his work building memorials to lost servicemen from both sides.
Take a hike
A path near Shoreham. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian
Bring comfortable shoes. The beautiful gentle four-mile stretch of the Darent Valley Path from Shoreham to Eynsford suits all abilities, and is as good on a crisp winter day as in July, following the river through empty woodlands and rolling hills. It’s just four minutes by train if you’d rather ride back.
A 20-minute stroll from the churchyard in Shoreham brings you to Castle Farm (five minutes by car), one of the UK’s largest lavender growers. The farm shop, under rafters hung with hops, sells lavender oils, teas and ice-cream made from the harvest. Stock up on a box of gypsy tarts, a Kentish staple made with condensed milk and muscovado sugar. Grab some lavender honey, too (the farm keeps beehives). A coffee shed serves lavender teas and coffees. In summer you can picnic among the rows, à la Provence, or book to join in the harvest.
The Samuel Palmer in Shoreham. Photograph: Nathaniel Noir/Alamy
In Shoreham stop by The Crown for lunch. This dog-friendly locals’ pub has an intimate dining room and serves hearty, locally sourced classics such as fish and chips and a handmade pie of the day. Portions are large, but leave space for dinner at The Samuel Palmer. The beamed, fire-lit bar serves traditional pub favourites and small plates, while the bright, kid-friendly restaurant at the back presents chef Kieran Farquhar’s elevated seasonal discovery menu at £48 a head. At Mount Vineyard, the on-site restaurant has a pizza menu, and a quaint cafe by the vines serves coffee and handmade pastries.
In Otford try The Bull, with its pretty gardens. In Eynsford, The Malt Shovel is a favourite locally for lunch, with big portions and fair prices.
Where to stay
My pick is White Hill Woods, five minutes’ walk from Shoreham station, which has a log cabin for families (from £150 a night), and a shepherd’s hut for couples and solo travellers (from £100 a night, both two night minimum). There is a heated pool or just relax in the forest. Book ahead, as it’s popular with repeat visitors.
Getting there and around
There is a twice-hourly train from London Blackfriars to the villages, which takes about an hour, and using it to hop between them takes minutes. The Line 2 bus from Swanley to Sevenoaks runs along the road between the villages. Drivers will have no trouble parking, even on weekends.
Voters will elect two new Los Angeles City Council members on Tuesday, one representing the San Fernando Valley, the other South Los Angeles.
In the 3rd District, businessman Tim Gaspar and longtime local government employee Barri Worth Girvan are vying to replace Bob Blumenfield, who is termed out. The district includes Canoga Park, Reseda, Tarzana, Winnetka, and Woodland Hills.
In Council District 9, residents are preparing for a historic shift: No matter who wins, the district will elect a Latino council member for the first time since 1963.
The South L.A. district has long been represented by a Black council member, but over the last few decades it has undergone a demographic shift and today is about 80% Latino. Councilmember Curren Price also has termed out. Estuardo Mazariegos, co-director of the L.A. chapter of Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, and Jose Ugarte, who previously served as a deputy chief of staff to Price, are vying for the seat.
District 3
Gaspar led the June primary with 46.1% of the vote compared to Worth Girvan, who secured 42.5%. Both candidates have spent the last few weeks of the campaign knocking on doors and making their case to voters, saying major issues like public safety and cleanliness are common concerns.
Gaspar, who founded an insurance agency in the Valley that he sold in 2021, would bring a pro-business perspective to City Hall, and among his top priorities would be eliminating “red tape” to stimulate small businesses in the region.
“We need somebody who’s going to come to the table with different ideas,” Gaspar said. “If we keep doing the same thing as before, we’re going to keep getting the same results.”
Worth Girvan, who worked as L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath’s district director for three years before running, would use her experience in the public sector to advocate for the West Valley.
“I am fortunate to have experience at every level of government,” she said. “That’s going to allow me to leverage relationships and know how to work together across jurisdictions to get things done.”
The race has been filled with accusations. Two weeks ago, Worth Girvan’s campaign published an ad featuring Christina Rackohn, a former employee whose family company merged with Gaspar’s insurance company, who alleged he created a hostile work environment.
Worth Girvan also filed an ethics complaint against Gaspar with the City Ethics Commission in October, alleging he failed to report more than $150,000 in personal and business expenditures related to his campaign and violated the city’s matching fund rules.
Gaspar called the allegations about creating a hostile working environment and violating campaign finance violations “lies.” He said he is focused on campaigning in the final week before the election.
Gaspar said Worth Girvan is a career politician who will only maintain the status quo.
“If she ends up getting elected, she’s going to have the same ideas and the same ways of addressing these issues as what got us into this mess in the first place,” he said.
On homelessness, Gaspar has criticized the city’s Inside Safe program and said a housing-first approach doesn’t work. He praised the anticamping zone law but believes the city should be tougher against encampments.
Worth Girvan supports Inside Safe but wants more permanent housing built instead of relying on interim housing. She would expand the city’s CIRCLE program, which provides 24/7 unarmed mobile response for nonviolent calls involving homeless individuals, to the West Valley.
In fundraising, Gaspar reported bringing in nearly $600,000 during the runoff campaign including matching funds, compared with about $287,000 for Worth Girvan.
District 9
Both Mazariegos and Ugarte share many similarities, including having arrived to the U.S. from Latin America as children and growing up undocumented. Both spent years working as community organizers, but now they diverge on issues such as policing and homeless policies.
Mazariegos and Ugarte were nearly evenly matched in fundraising, with both raising about $350,000 for the runoff in contributions and matching funds. Ugarte placed first in the June primary in a crowded field against five others, winning 39% of the vote. Mazariegos, who has been endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America‘s L.A. chapter, came in second with about 26%.
Ugarte’s campaign has received more than $1 million in support from independent expenditures, committees that can receive unlimited donations but cannot coordinate with a candidate’s campaign. Airbnb, Uber and the California Apartment Assn. are among the groups supporting Ugarte.
Mazariegos has criticized the companies supporting Ugarte’s candidacy, accusing them of attempting to displace low-income residents by pouring money into the election.
“They’re trying to displace our community. That’s what this fight is all about,” Mazariegos said. “I know this is a righteous campaign and a righteous cause with the people, alongside the people. Solo el pueblo salva al pueblo.” Only the people can save the people.
Ugarte said he has never met with Airbnb officials but would take a call from any group to figure out what is going to best benefit South L.A., including prioritizing protecting renters.
“I’d open my eyes and see what’s going to benefit South L.A.,” he said. “I want to focus on making South Central clean, safe and affordable.”
While both would defend immigrants, they diverge on issues such as the police budget. Ugarte supports Mayor Karen Bass’ goal of restoring the L.A. Police Department to 9,500 officers, while Mazariegos supports increasing oversight of the department’s budget and reducing its budget to fund other departments, including Recreation and Parks and the Bureau of Street Services.
Ugarte supports enforcing Municipal Ordinance 41.18, which prohibits camps near schools, daycare centers and other “sensitive” areas as a tool to clear homeless encampments. Mazariegos has said all the ordinance does is shuffle people around, and instead the focus should be on addressing addiction and mental health issues.
Mazariegos has been endorsed by Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, City Controller Kenneth Mejia, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), United Teachers Los Angeles, L.A. Forward and several labor unions.
Ugarte has been endorsed by the L.A. County Democratic Party, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights Action Fund, Rep. Sydney Kamlager Dove, the late Dolores Huerta and Councilmember Tim McOsker.
The landmark Casa Vega Mexican restaurant in Sherman Oaks was honored in May with a sign proclaiming its corner of Ventura Boulevard as “Casa Vega Square.”
Mayor Karen Bass was there, and so was City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, whose district is on the other side of the San Fernando Valley. The event was perhaps more notable for who wasn’t there: Nithya Raman, the mayoral candidate whose City Council district includes Casa Vega.
To Raman’s critics, the episode represents what they say is one of her biggest flaws as an elected official: not tending to the parochial needs of her district. Bass has sounded that theme repeatedly during the mayoral election campaign, including calling Raman “contemptuous of her constituents” during their televised debate on NBC4 and Telemundo 52 Oct. 13.
Raman called that “a lie.” Some of Raman’s constituents beg to differ, saying her office has seemed unwilling to help with a broad array of city services, including fixing broken sidewalks and removing homeless encampments.
“She’s just been MIA,” said Jessica Lewis, who owns Dragonfly Cycle and Train, a fitness studio in Sherman Oaks. “I would send photos of what I was experiencing, like human feces at my front door, encampments at the back door … all those emails just fell on deaf ears.”
Raman spokesperson Stella Stahl disputed that contention, saying the council office has “a proactive constituent service team.”
“Our approach is to listen to those who live and work in a neighborhood, then use every tool the city has to fix what they’ve told us is broken,” Stahl said.
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, left, and challenger Nithya Raman during their debate before the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn.
(David Butow / For The Times)
Raman co-presented the motion to designate Vega Square, along with Councilmember Rodriguez, according to documents filed in March. Raman was unable to attend the ceremony because of scheduling conflicts, Stahl said, but other Raman staffers were present.
Councilmember Rodriguez said her staff spearheaded the designation, part of her broader work to “enshrining the many positive contributions that Latino families have made throughout our city.”
To be sure, Raman has constituents who are big fans. Marissa Rodriguez said she wasn’t aware of the web of licenses and city permits she would have to obtain before she could open her wine shop in Studio City, Dia Natural Wine. The process felt monumental, she said, and nearly impossible to complete on her own.
She reached out to Raman’s team, and said the council office’s help was integral to Dia Natural Wine making its debut in 2022.
“I thought I could do this myself, and at a certain point, I hit a ton of roadblocks at the city,” Marissa Rodriguez said. “They were extremely helpful in just sort of helping me navigate who I needed to talk to.”
Tyler Simmons, who owns a coffee wine bar, Reunion & Co., on Hyperion Avenue in the Franklin Hills neighborhood of Los Feliz, said Raman and her team have always been receptive to his community’s needs.
In response to complaints of speeding, he said, Raman’s office helped get four speed tables — a flatter, wider version of speed bumps — installed in the intersection near his business last year.
“She’s done her best,” Simmons said. “I think there’s larger systemic issues at play within the city … it’s bigger than a councilperson, unfortunately. I’m hoping, if she wins, she’ll help change all that.”
Sidewalks in disrepair along the 1300 block of Ventura Blvd on Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, in Sherman Oaks, California. Christy Vega, owner of Casa Vega, claims that Nithya Raman, Councilmember, Fourth District, has been unhelpful and ignored her requests to get certain city services, including street sidewalk repairs and addressing homelessness in her parking lot. (Gary Coronado/For The Times)
A street in disrepair along the 1300 block of Ventura Blvd on Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, in Sherman Oaks, California. Christy Vega, owner of Casa Vega, claims that Nithya Raman, Councilmember, Fourth District, has been unhelpful and ignored her requests to get certain city services, including street sidewalk repairs and addressing homelessness in her parking lot. (Gary Coronado/For The Times)
On the other hand, Casa Vega owner Christy Vega rattles off a long list of complaints when discussing Raman and her office. She said she’s spent years seeking help from Raman’s staff, including to make repairs on sidewalks and pavement outside the restaurant, and to remove a homeless encampment that sprang up during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“With Raman’s office, they viewed me as a nuisance rather than someone who’s trying to keep her employees safe,” Vega said.
Vega is supporting Bass in the Nov. 3 election, and she sits on on the board of Thrive LA, an advocacy group backed by business and community leaders that is running ads against Raman in the mayoral race and also ran anti-Raman ads during her 2024 City Council reelection campaign.
Vega says she’s not supporting Raman because of her experience seeking help from Raman’s council office for problems her business encountered, including cars being broken into in the restaurant’s parking lot and muggings on the street out front. One employee was stabbed at a nearby bus stop, and another fell because of the potholes in the alley behind her restaurant, she said.
At one point, Vega said, she called Raman’s office to ask for help in fixing the curb near her restaurant that was damaged during a street racing incident.
Vega said she was told by Raman’s office that she would need to fix the curb herself, meaning she’d have to pull permits, hire a contractor and pay out of pocket for the repairs Vega said she pushed back, and a staff member suggested she move to another district.
Raman’s office didn’t comment on that assertion, but Stahl said that the Bureau of Street Services isn’t funded to repair damaged sidewalks, and the responsibility falls to the adjacent property owners.
“Every constituent who contacts our office deserves a response, and we take Ms. Vega’s concerns seriously. People often reach out to us on their hardest days,” Stahl said. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to accommodate it at that time. Telling constituents no to basic service requests is frustrating for residents and for us, and it’s part of why the council member ran for office.”
Councilmember Rodriguez, who represents the northeast San Fernando Valley, said she’s stepped in to help business owners in Raman’s district over the years. Most recently, she helped Vega with permitting issues on the restaurant’s outdoor patio.
A sign for L.A. Councilmember Nithya Raman’s district office on Ventura Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley.
(Gary Coronado / For The Times)
“I’ve heard some of the same frustrations and stories from many people. … It reflects a pattern,” said Rodriguez, who is backing Bass for mayor. “If this is your audition [for mayor] based on your performance in your own district, I think it’s an example of the responsiveness of what people can expect.”
Sophia Brodetsky, who owns the Valley Inn restaurant with her husband in Sherman Oaks, isn’t happy with either mayoral candidate, but said Bass’ office has been more receptive to her needs.
Brodetsky has endured robberies, property damage and homeless encampments that have disrupted her restaurant that dates back to 1947, she said.
“They’re running for office right now. They promise you an arm and a leg, but they don’t deliver,” Brodetsky said.
According to Vega and Lewis, owner of the Dragonfly gym, a number of Sherman Oaks business owners reached out to Bass after she was elected mayor in 2022 to voice their concerns about Raman’s stewardship of the district.
The mayor met with a group of business owners in the area in 2023 and she convened weekly safety meetings between business owners, district leaders and local law enforcement to address their concerns, Vega said.
Vega said it was Bass and Rodriguez who helped her navigate the permit process when she sought to open an outdoor patio for her restaurant last year.
“I wasn’t a supporter of hers. I wasn’t someone that she owed any favors to,” Vega said of Bass. “She answered the phone immediately, and she heard the panic of my voice and my tears, and she said, ‘I’m on it.’”
Lewis, however, said she and others felt betrayed by Bass when she endorsed Raman for reelection in 2024.
“That just felt like a huge slap in the face,” Lewis said.
Lewis said she plans to vote for Bass, but reluctantly. Keeping her business afloat has felt nearly impossible at times, she said, but getting help from both the council and the mayor’s office has been an even tougher hurdle.
“The council office would blame the mayor’s office. The mayor’s office would blame the county,” Lewis said. “It was like everyone was just pointing fingers at someone else, and no one was actually doing anything about it.”
After spending years as an assistant football coach at Sylmar and San Fernando, Boo Williams arrived at Sun Valley Poly this season with a mission to turn around a program that always seemed to have talent but rarely put together many victories.
In his rookie season, Williams has Poly with a 7-1 overall record and a 5-0 mark in the East Valley League going into the final games against Verdugo Hills and Arleta.
Justice Brown has rushed for more than 1,000 yards. King Exudus has been an impact player on defense.
