“Things That Make Me Mad, I Tend to Do Something About It.” Jonathan Wilson Joins Race for West Hollywood City Council

Jonathan Wilson has a quality he will tell you about himself. “Things that make me mad, I tend to do something about it,” he said. Living and working in West Hollywood gave him reasons for both.

Wilson was the inaugural chair of the City’s Social Justice Task Force, appointed in 2021. When it became the Social Justice Advisory Board, the City limited it to quarterly meetings, the only advisory body in West Hollywood on that schedule. He said it slowed everything down and drove people away. So he started showing up to other commission sessions, going to public safety hearings, joining ad hoc committees, business development sessions, reading the reports most residents don’t even know exist. The more he saw, the less he could unsee. “I started realizing, wait a minute, there are a lot more challenges in our City than I was aware of.” So he got mad and decided to do something about it.

Wilson is now a candidate for West Hollywood City Council. He’s the founder of Dubb Value Creation, a West Hollywood-based management consulting firm, and holds a BS in chemical engineering from UC San Diego and an MBA from UCLA Anderson. To date, he’s locked down endorsements from Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur, who said Wilson has “a proven track record of service and a deep commitment to this community… and is ready to lead,” and West Hollywood Public Safety Commissioner Tod Hallman. His official campaign launch is May 13 at 5:30 p.m. at Mic Drop Karaoke.

WEHOonline spoke with Wilson about a few of the issues on voters’ minds and the personal journey that shaped the candidate he is today.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Small Businesses

Wilson said what’s missing on the dais is someone who has lived on both sides of the equation. He has leaned on City services through hard times and come out the other side to build a successful business. He describes what he does as being a doctor for businesses, helping entrepreneurs navigate challenges, make payroll, and build something that lasts.

He said the disconnect starts with a basic failure of understanding. “Not many people understand what it’s like to have to make payroll,” Wilson said. “It is extremely stressful.” He said business owners are not sitting around looking for opportunities to engage with City policy. They are trying to get through the week. “Sometimes a business owner is just trying to get through the day, every day for a year,” Wilson said. “They just don’t want anything to disrupt what they’re trying to do.” He said throwing new requirements at businesses without understanding the compliance load they already carry, payroll, bookkeeping, taxes, benefits, federal, state, and local regulations running simultaneously, is what happens when the people making those decisions have never done any of it themselves.

He believes the solution starts with the City first deciding what kind of businesses it actually wants here. “What they have not done is [build] incentives around industries,” Wilson said. “Really trying to focus on what industries we want here in the City of West Hollywood, and how do we promote those industries.” He said the City also needs to stop measuring economic health through its restaurants, bars, and hotels alone, and start treating the broader business community as something worth cultivating. “The idea that you have all the businesses helping one another and lifting each other up,” Wilson said, “is an opportunity that I see.”

Public Safety

Wilson said the City’s public safety failures follow the same pattern as everything else. Take the drone program. The City Council approved it in 2023. Wilson stood up that year and asked for a real implementation plan. One never came. “I don’t think the blame is anywhere other than with us on improper planning,” Wilson said. He said if elected he would sit down and demand a milestone chart. “Give me a real timeline,” Wilson said. “What date are we targeting? What’s the roadmap to get there?”

He said the same failure shows up in how the City handles crime reporting. A neighbor of his was robbed in an elevator in her building. She called the sheriff’s department. No one came. She waited hours trying to file a report. She moved out. Wilson said he has been through the same exercise himself, and said the data the City uses to measure public safety may be missing everyone who walked out before finishing. 

Housing

Wilson says the City has watched SB 79, the density bonus law, and other state mandates arrive without doing the work of translating what any of them mean for West Hollywood specifically. Residents are left to fight developers project by project with no meaningful direction from the City on where density belongs. He believes most folks agree on the basics. “Most people believe development makes sense along Santa Monica Boulevard and parts of Sunset.” He asked “why aren’t we openly supporting this as a city council?” Wilson also believes labeling people as NIMBY or YIMBY only serves to make things worse. “When you label people, you create divisiveness.”

He said the root of the conflict is residents being caught off guard. “When someone’s shocked, it’s like, wait, what do you mean, this building’s pulled up in a week, and I haven’t had a voice,” Wilson said. He said the City should be documenting that residents are actually being notified, with timestamped proof that notices were posted before decisions were made.

He said the council owes all West Hollywood residents, renters and homeowners alike, a clear process before decisions are final. “It should not be the city council saying, here’s what we think. They should be saying, ‘let’s hear from the residents’ on this,” Wilson said.

Fountain Avenue Bike Lane

When asked about where he landed on one of the hottest issues in town, Wilson said he comes to his position as a resident who is also a cyclist.  The project has an obvious question nobody seems to be asking: “what other streets could we be looking at,” Wilson said.

He drives Fountain every day and wonders where all those cars are expected to go when lanes disappear. He has serious concerns on whether the corridor can really handle the change, especially during an emergency.

He said there is another concern getting lost in the noise around the project – property owners’ fear of taking an economic hit. Wilson, currently a renter, once owned a condo. He sold it so he could use the equity to support his business. He said property and small homeowners who fear their property values will be negatively impacted are not being irrational. “When people start fearing their equity will diminish, it becomes worse,” Wilson said. “Especially as you get older, and you’re thinking about and planning to age in place.” He said if there’s this much disruption, “we have to ask ourselves, is it really worth it.” He said he hopes the City finds “alternative paths to using Fountain.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​“

Tired of the Divisiveness

He said the political climate inside City Hall has to change. When public safety commissioner Tod Hallman wrote publicly about what he described as threats from Councilmember John Erickson for supporting Wilson’s campaign, he said that was exactly the kind of behavior that doesn’t belong in a 1.9-square-mile City trying to hold itself together. “I applaud [Tod] for putting himself on the line and putting himself out there like that,” Wilson said. He said threatening someone over a political endorsement runs counter to everything the left argues about the value of diverse thinking. “Diversity of thought is still diversity,” Wilson said. “We need to create community, and I’m tired of the divisiveness.”

A Chance to Give Back

As we wrapped, I asked him what the one thing was he wanted voters to know about him. Wilson didn’t hesitate. “What people may not know is that I have gone through some major struggles while here in West Hollywood,” Wilson said. “I’m not speaking from some ideal. I’ve experienced it; I’ve gone through the process myself.”

The City caught him when he needed it. “I’m coming from a place of understanding, having gone through it before,” he said. He paused. “At some point, I imagined myself in this space. I didn’t know how it would show up, but I dreamt of the place I’m in today, with the chance to give back. I owe a lot to the City. It’s the honest reason why I’m running,” Wilson said.

Wilson’s campaign launch is May 13 at 5:30 p.m. at Mic Drop Karaoke in West Hollywood.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​