Larry Block: “I’m Still Fighting for WeHo”

I had to ask the question straight up. The same one people had been buzzing in my ear for weeks. “Is Larry gonna run? What do you know? What can you tell me?” Truth is, I would say I have no clue. See, what many may not understand is that Larry and I are not friends. Not in the way most probably think. We’re not buddies, we’re not pals, we don’t hang out and shoot the sh*t. What we have is an honest, and mutually respectful working relationship. I consider him a friend in that the guy’s a mensch. Anyone who really knows Larry, knows that. But do I know what’s going on in his life outside of the paper, no. Not really.

So when I say I don’t know, I mean it. Until now. 

I called Larry this week and asked him straight up. Are you running for city council? 

He didn’t hesitate. But his first answer wasn’t yes. It was the store. His employees. Getting BlockParty back on its feet and making sure the people who showed up for him through the renovation are taken care of first. That came through without any spin on it. He said the store has to be stable and his staff has to be in good shape before he can commit to anything else. Once that’s settled, he’ll know more.

But then he said this.

His plan is to file a Form 501, a candidate intention statement, sometime soon. A Form 501, a candidate intention statement filed with the City, doesn’t mean you’re running. It means you’re putting yourself in position to. “I can’t imagine that I’m not running because I love the game too much. But the honest answer is I’ll know more in April.”

His critics will say here we go again. Block’s been hearing that for years. It doesn’t bother him. “I’m a fighter, I’ll always fight for this city. Never count me out” he says.

In 2024, Block finished third in a nine-candidate race for two seats, trailing John Erickson and Danny Hang with roughly 4,200 votes. He spent $80,000 — $55,000 of it his own money, the rest from donations. No special interests, no developers. Unite Here spent nearly $2 million against him.

Block said he also knows that elections aren’t about looking back. They’re about looking forward. He’s not interested in fighting with the current council. He said if he runs it’s to have a seat at the table to work with whoever is there, to make sure seniors have a voice in decisions that affect their future, to make sure small businesses and the young people who work in them aren’t an afterthought, and to push hard on affordability, which he said is the issue that connects all of it. He said West Hollywood needs to be a city future generations can actually afford to live in, not just visit.

“A small business owner should have a seat at the table,” he said. “A resident, a homeowner. There’s no diversity of thought on this current city council.”

What the City Is Losing

Block said what the City is about to lose when Lauren Meister and John Heilman leave the dais is hard to overstate. Both are termed out. He said the candidates now entering the race are still catching up on what’s happened over the last several years, and that he never stopped paying attention.

“Losing Lauren and John are going to be very big blows to common sense policies and history,” he said. “Nobody could ever doubt that they did their homework and came prepared with smart solutions and smart attention to the residents.”

It’s not lost on him that he’s the one who knocked on attorney and former councilmember, Steve Martin’s door, and asked him to write the language for term limits. That fight started with a donated rainbow flag on City Hall the council at the time voted unanimously to take down and replace with a new City flag. Block said he doesn’t regret fighting for term limits. It was the right call, he says. But losing two level-headed, experienced people with that kind of institutional knowledge doesn’t come without a cost.

He also said the City has been giving away too much of its own authority, that the state has already taken a great deal of local control and the City doesn’t need to hand over whatever is left. He pointed to SB 79 as exhibit A, a state housing mandate he said is going to displace the very residents the City claims to be protecting.

“We lost a lot of our power when the council voted to give away their rights,” he said. “We need to fight for our local voice and not just yield to the county and yield to the state and follow their lead.”

A Long Record in the City

Block co-founded Cross Safe WeHo in 2014 after a series of pedestrian deaths on Santa Monica Boulevard, a grassroots campaign that pushed the City to redesign crosswalks and install new safety infrastructure along the corridor. He brought forward the idea that became AB 1620, a state law that gives senior and disabled tenants the right of first refusal to move from an upper to a lower floor unit in their building. He named it after West Hollywood resident Yola Dore, who had to climb more than twenty uneven steps to reach her rent-controlled unit on Norton Avenue. He distributed COVID masks door to door when no one could get them and offered monkeypox shots out of the store before most people had heard of the outbreak. He served as chair of both the Disability Advisory Board and the Public Facilities Commission.

There’s something else. In June, after years of severely limited vision in one eye, Block had surgery. His eyesight came back. He got his driver’s license restored. A new lease on life, he said. It reinvigorated everything — the store, the fight, all of it.

I asked again, telling him he sounds like someone who is running. He doubled down on his sincerity. He said he needs to make sure BlockParty is in good shape and his employees are taken care of, and if all that is there he’ll have a clearer head on what’s best. He said he’s never had to win an election to have a voice. 

Then, just as the call was ending: “I’m still fighting for WeHo,” he said. “I don’t know how to let wrong take over. I don’t know how to let the city slip away and not fight for it.” 

Editor’s Note: Larry Block is a co-owner of WEHOonline and has indicated he intends to file a candidate intention statement for the 2026 West Hollywood City Council race. For the duration of any candidacy, Larry Block will have no editorial role at WEHOonline. This decision was made to ensure that even the appearance of a conflict of interest does not compromise the independence of this publication’s coverage. Larry Block agrees and fully supports this position.