OpEd: Moving WeHo Forward

After this weekend, the YMLA store will close. For the next 100 days we will open the WEHO TOWN HALL.  A community space and my campaign headquarters.

After two years and a 200k investment with mostly free rent offsets, we could barely break even with just one employee. The first $100 per hour in sales covers the cost of one employee, the lights, and the cost of goods but not rent or any profit.  When we opened just over two years ago there was a big gay Starbucks and Kitchen24 across the street,  Sprouts Market was next door. There was a WING upstairs.  Subway, Cousins Lobster, Supercuts and many other stores that used to shape our community are gone.  The vacant storefronts and how we rebuild WeHo is my number one priority.

I’m in the race for City Council.  I’m the only small business owner in the race.   Small business deserves a seat at the table too.   Running for office is not what I thought to do at 65 years old. The best years of life are ahead,but I am partially sighted and this nest we call WeHo is my life. I’m in love with West Hollywood and everybody knows it.  But for the past few years it’s been like a funeral hymn for a friend watching friends and businesses leave West Hollywood.

In 2020, I ran for City Council with these words, “Crime is rising, there are too many homeless on our streets, the young can’t afford to move in, and the old have no place to go. Has anything changed? I ran against Sepi and John, and they did not run on cutting the sheriff budget, or one lane Fountain, or layering costs onto businesses that led to surcharges and hyper-local inflation in WeHo.   We missed the housing element. We lost control of our zoning laws.  The homeless get worse.  City Hall is broken. The City Manager does not have control of his own staff. Whistleblowers turn to me because they can’t trust their process.  City Manager David Wilson has two years left on his contract, and he is not our long-term solution. We need a vision for the future and a new City Manager.

Oh, there’s lots to do, and they don’t like me. The attacks are coming already. But actions speak louder than words. I was the person who knocked on a neighbor’s door to ask him to write the language for term limits because I believe in the voices of the people.   My first city council campaign was ‘Block for the People.’ Much later, Kamala is running ‘Kamala for the People.’  Maybe this is our year.

And when this publication was sold to outsiders, and with great respect for its founder, I brought it home so we can all talk together. I’m partially sighted. I’m blind in one eye and wear a -11.50 lens in the other eye, so I do not see well. But my vision is different. At my store, I don’t have keys or know how to ring the register, but the people are empowered. Block Party is about to have its 15th anniversary. All my staff is there 3, 5, 7, 10 years. Working as a team is my greatest skill set. And when it comes to this publication, I need help with every single post. Brandon Garcia is the hero behind these pages. And it is my greatest pleasure to call him a partner. This is Brandon’s baby; I’m a contributor.  You people give me too much credit when he is the nuts and bolts behind this publication.  We came so far against so much hate.  It was not easy, but he never gave up even when I did.   We do it for the people to have a voice.   

For three years, I’ve tried to be the moderator of these pages or of city issues. I’ve learned a lot. I hope that all of you feel these pages as your own. We have covered Danielle Wilson from Unite Here as well as the other side. All were always invited. And because of Brandon, we survived with or without advertising. We survived with common love for the city.  But it is my time to turn the page.

We cannot fill vacant storefronts when homeless people are lying all over the streets. I cannot own a business where the phone rings that says there is a homeless person in front of the door, and we can’t open, what do I do? — and wait an hour for a Sheriff or Block by Block to show up. The people walk into the store and say, “What happened to West Hollywood?” BlockParty gross sales Jan-June 2022 were $980,000, Jan-June 2023 $840,000, Jan-June 2024 $714,000.  Ten percent of that is sales tax and the costs have risen exponentially.  That’s how a small business folds.   The streets are dead during the day.  The nights end early.  My neighbors are closed one night a week in peak summer.  The crowds are not the same. It’s impossible to own a business with so many mentally ill people all over the streets. It’s business owners and customers vs. the homeless, and the homeless won. I want to pass a no loitering law and sweep the streets. Bring them all to the West Hollywood Housing Corp and see if there are any empty beds. Work with our local partners and solve this problem.   

The City has a $30 million surplus but had to cut a couple of deputies two years ago to save $600,000. The City Manager and Chief Risk Officer failed to inform the City Council that we have enough money to do both. The crime wave that ensued with businesses getting robbed at gunpoint, La Boheme multiple times, and stabbings and spiked drinks and pickpockets, and nobody has the balls to stand up and scream, but I’m screaming.   The city needs a kick in the ass.   

My mom passed a month ago and I hear her everyday.  Fight for what you believe in.   Have confidence in yourself.   Fight for Weho.. To help reshape and rebuild our future. To reflect and carry our history with us forward. To level the playing field for our businesses. To push our sheriff budget to $30 million and show overwhelming safety and force to our businesses and visitors. To make it easier for our seniors and those who live with disabilities who have been left behind as a proportion of our total spend.  To build housing that is affordable and clean up all the fraud in the affordable housing program. To restore confidence in our community that it’s your voice that counts.    

And I’m excited for the WeHo Town Hall. We will open next week with my campaign kickoff on Saturday, August 3, at 2 p.m., but it is also open to you and other candidates if they need a place to meet and greet. Because it’s not really about me, it’s about us. So let’s talk more about our problems and work together to move WeHo Forward.