LA Squawk Box for Wednesday, May 20, 2026
Go make public comment on the LA city budget today, Nithya Raman gets an earful from Olvera Street merchants, LA's park ranking drops to 93, as park funding proposal hits charter reform, and more.
What’s happening today?
The full City Council will be discussing next year’s budget at 10 a.m., and the public will be able to give comment on it… Mayoral candidates will be speaking for 20 minutes each on all the hot topics of the day, at a forum hosted by the San Fernando Valley Chamber of Commerce in the Valley. It’s taking place at 4:15 p.m. Even though in-person space is full, people can still tune in through a live-stream… LA Mayor Karen Bass, Supervisor Kathryn Barger and others are guests in a summit at 3 p.m. hosted by Politico. It’s too late to register to be there in-person, but they offer a livestream.
What just happened?
Nithya Raman meets struggling Olvera Street merchants, promises TLC for historic site if she is mayor
LA Council member Nithya Raman, who is running for mayor, got an earful on Tuesday from the merchants at Olvera Street, which is part of the city’s El Pueblo de Los Angeles historic park, who had many critical things to say about the people now managing the park, including leaders like the current mayor and officials that were appointed by her.
Many of the businesses that operate out of storefronts and stalls at Olvera Street are passed down through generations, but they have been struggling amid numerous crises over the last few years, including the pandemic, the ICE raids, and the homelessness crisis. The aging infrastructure has also challenged businesses. One merchant, Edward Flores, told The LA Reporter that La Golondrina, a Mexican restaurant that he said pre-dates even Olvera Street and that has been a go-to for special occasions such as birthdays, was one among the many victims of the neglect and battles that merchants have been facing at the park. Despite efforts by other legacy business owners to try to take up the baton, that restaurant shuttered in 2024.
Raman joined the merchants just as one of them, Richard Hernandez Chase, was to be evicted, according to Esotouric. Chase runs a well-known photo concession called “El Burro” that features a model of a donkey and a cart that visitors can take a picture with as a souvenir. Esotouric points out that Raman had actually voted on a motion related to the concession lease, but they wondered if any further actions were taken.
The lack of attention to the condition of Olvera Street seemed at odds with the city’s overall efforts to prepare the city for the Olympics and FIFA, some merchants said. “Something is up,” one remarked during the meeting with Raman, as they discussed the numerous vacant stalls that remained that way for longer than normal, with others saying they felt as though the actual goal of the city seemed to be to get rid of them. One merchant also noted that any focus on Olvera Street related to the Olympics seemed surface level, and more about branding.
“I know how special this place is for Los Angeles,” Raman told the merchants at the end of their meeting. “And with care, focus and love, this can become a mecca for visitors… And it needs that attention from city hall, and if I’m mayor, I’m deeply committed to giving you that attention.”
Earlier in the meeting, merchants also shared stories about LA and community leaders of years past who have stepped in to keep legacy merchants alive due to their historic importance. An after hearing only bad things about recent political leadership, Raman asked the merchants if they could name any elected officials they felt had done a good job. They pointed to Mayor Tom Bradley, who they said would stop by often. Another merchantnamed Mayor Richard Riordan.
“Let’s make sure leadership at City Hall is deeply connected to the communities that they represent,” Raman said in a media availability with reporters after the merchant roundtable, when The LA Reporter asked about her takeaway on that topic. “Let’s make sure we have a mayor who is active in our neighborhoods and who people feel like they can have a connection to… and that’s the role that I hope to play in our communities and neighborhoods.
Raman’s campaign stops have been primarily at LA city parks, ranging from a pocket park in West Adams to the Barnsdall Art Park in Los Feliz. This one was at a park of sorts, but on a grander scale. Olvera Street is part of El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument, a landmark and attraction that is managed by its own city department, rather than the Recreation and Parks department. The “destination” includes several museums, such as the Italian American Museum, the Chinese American Museum, Sepulveda House, Avila Adobe, and the America Tropical Interpretive Center, which displays the restored mural painted by political activist David Alfaro Siqueiros that depicts an American eagle and an Indigenous worker crucified on a cross amid a landscape scene that’s heavily critical of U.S. imperialism. Siqueros’ mural, which had been commissioned to be part of several murals at the newly formed Olvera Street attraction back in the 1930s, was whitewashed just a few years after it was painted, and was only recently restored.
LA city’s park score drops to 93, as LA City Council takes up charter proposal to increase park funding
Los Angeles city’s parks rank 93rd out of 100 cities, dropping from 90th in last year’s rankings, according to new rankings released by the Trust for Public Land. The group released a 28-report on Los Angeles last year in which they said that Los Angeles typically ranks between “the middle of the pack (49th) and in the bottom (90th).” They blame the “precipitous decline” on leaders who don’t prioritize park investments.
Parks are “among the few settings free from partisan divide,” with the Trust for Public Land saying that their research shows a “plurality of Americans wish they’d spent even more time outdoors last year than anywhere else, including home, place of worship, or the gym.” While other cities have “doubled down” on park investments, following the pandemic, LA isn’t one of them, they write.
The ranking comes as the group has been helping to advocate for more funding for LA parks through a proposal to double the 0.0325% of the property taxes that the city is required to set aside in the charter (this is in Section 593 of the Charter).
The Charter Reform Commission that just concluded its work is recommending to the City Council to place a measure on the ballot that includes increasing this allocation to 0.065%. A staff report from the commission points to advocacy group Streets for All figures that says the LA budget allocates $267 per resident, which is “almost half” of what New York and San Diego spends, and a third of what San Francisco, Chicago and Seattle spends.
Business groups to withdraw tax repeal measure, as LA City Council votes to slows $30 tourism wage
In the latest development in a major City Hall battle between labor and business groups, the LA City Council voted to delay the $30 tourism wage, backpedaling on an earlier ordinance that calls for having that wage go into effect by the 2028 Olympics (If this sounds familiar, that’s because the council did a similar vote last week, but the proposal they approved was a “placeholder” to allow for continued negotiations). But the job’s not quite done. The proposal is set to come back next week for a “second-read” vote, because it wasn’t approved unanimously, with four City Council members (Nithya Raman, Hugo Soto-Martinez, Eunisses Hernandez and Ysabel Jurado voting against it). In return, business groups that qualified a ballot measure to repeal the business gross receipts tax, which threatens to crater LA city budget with the loss of as much as $860 million a year in revenue, are expected to withdraw that measure.
The proposed wage applies to workers at the airport and hotels, whether or not they’re part of unions. Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson told The LA Reporter after the vote that the reason they wanted to give that sector of workers a higher wage was because they are work at places — such as the city-operated LAX — that the city has a role in building and maintaining. Harris-Dawson also noted that even though there were concerns raised by business groups about the wage threatening business’s ability to stay afloat, there is a hardship provision in the existing wage law. The wage proposal also includes an increase to health benefits. The existing language, unchanged by the latest proposal (because the vote on Tuesday isn’t the final one) for the law is here.
The wage proposal that was approved on Tuesday isn’t available yet on the council database maintained by the City Clerk, as of Wednesday morning. The motion had be requested from from Harris-Dawson’s office. For now, you can view the motion here on The LA Reporter’s DocumentCloud account. Motions are posted on the City Council board, which cannot be accessed when meetings aren’t in session.
Quick updates: LA County Board of Supervisors moved forward on creating an independent Ethics Commission, including starting preparations for a ballot measure that would implement changes to make the body more independent (Frank Stoltze’s report at the LAist, Lindsey Horvath’s press release)... More than two dozen anti-camping LAMC 41.18 zones in the northeast San Fernando Valley were approved by the City Council, with the progressive bloc (Nithya Raman, Eunisses Hernandez, Ysabel Jurado, and Hugo Soto-Martinez) voting against them (City News Service, Council File)... Aida Ashouri, who’s running for City Attorney, shared the link to a video the debate held last week by the LA County Bar Association. It’s the only in-person debate for that race so far, says Ashouri, and it includes every candidate that’s on the ballot. (Aida4LA’s post)… And finally, a few things to read: No Bad Days has questionnaire responses from Nithya Raman and Rae Huang, the progressive leaning candidates in the mayor’s race. Eric Langberg, who has been taking naturalistic photos of politicians and everyday life at local government meetings, reports on some questions he has about LA’s sanctuary policy, and what positions Nithya Raman has been taking on it.
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