What's Next, Los Angeles? with Mike Bonin
Los Angeles is at a turning point. We are living in a defining moment. What happens next is up to us. Over the past few years, problems and challenges have shaken this city -- and tremendous opportunities for change have presented themselves. How do we rise to this moment and emerge a better place to live? What will it take to create a more just and a more equitable community? Working together, how are we going to create a stronger, forward-thinking Los Angeles? Mike Bonin, writer, teacher, progressive activist and former City Councilmember, looks at the issues and problems facing Los Angeles, examines ideas, and talks with the people who will lead us to a brighter future.
Produced in partnership with LA Forward.
What's Next, Los Angeles? with Mike Bonin
Jillian Burgos for City Council: Candidate Spotlight
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Jillian Burgos is an essential healthcare worker, and a small business owner. She graduated from Emily’s List Ignite Change Fellowship and Los Angeles Democrats inaugural TAP Academy and now a 2023 New Leaders Council fellow. Jillian ran for office and was elected to the NoHo Neighborhood Council as the Arts Organization Representative. Shortly after she was appointed as Treasurer, Chair of the Outreach Committee and Housing and Services Committee. Since then she has created a Tenant Rights Workshop in partnership with The City of Los Angeles, Abundant Housing LA and SAJE, helped pass several Neighborhood Purpose Grants that fed many of NoHo’s Unhoused, and brought mental health services and mentorship to schoolchildren with PESA.
You can learn more about her at her campaign website: https://www.jillianforthevalley.com/
What's Next, Los Angeles? is produced and hosted by Mike Bonin, in partnership with LA Forward.
Ballots are dropping and city elections are right around the corner. Coverage of what's on the ballot is pretty scarce, so I am doing one-on-one, in-depth interviews so you can get to know the candidates. Today I talk with Julian Burgos, a candidate for the 2nd Council District on what's next, Los Angeles. Hi, everybody, and welcome. This is Mike Vaughn. Thank you for joining me. For 14 years, Paul Krokorian has represented the 2nd Council District on the Los Angeles City Council. He has been a powerful leader, chairing the Budget and Finance Committee for several years, and serving as City Council President since October 2022. But in less than a year, he will be termed out of office, and it is time for voters to choose a new representative for the neighborhoods of North Hollywood and Studio City, Sun Valley, Toluca Lake, Valley Glen, Valley Village, and Van Nuys. There is a large field of candidates running for the seat, including today's guest, Jillian Burgos. Burgos is the owner of a theater company. She's a licensed optician and an at-large member of the North Hollywood Neighborhood Council. She was elected to the Neighborhood Council in 2021 as the Arts Organization representative, and she became chair of the Housing and Services Committee, where she's helped organize support for tenant protections and unarmed response pilot programs. Julian, welcome to What's Next Los Angeles.
SPEAKER_01Hey Mike. Hi, everyone.
SPEAKER_00How are you doing today?
SPEAKER_01I am great. I'm having a fabulous week. Just feeling really accomplished and revitalized and ready to go.
SPEAKER_00So uh we are recording on February 2nd. Why are you having such a good week?
SPEAKER_01I am having an amazing week because uh we have qualified for matching funds. Woo! And that was a long journey. So um that's one of the reasons. And I also um so that's gonna influx uh about $79,000 into our campaign. Uh if you know about matching funds, that's where the city of LA matches the donations of any Angelino up to six times. And uh other than that, I just received the endorsement of LA Forward and Streets for All.
SPEAKER_00All right. Well, uh, let's get into the interview. Congratulations on the matching funds award. I helped uh uh create that program, make it more robust. So I'm glad to see it of use. It's been uh uh a big impact in a lot of different races around the city in the past couple cycles. So let me get right into it, and I start these interviews by asking a very simple question. Give me your pitch. Tell me who you are, why you're running, and why the voters of the second district should vote for you.
SPEAKER_01All right. Well, um, as you know, uh I am and well, you may not know this. I'm an Afro-Latina, I'm Puerto Rican, and uh I am a small business owner of a murder mystery theater company, an interactive theater company. I'm also an essential healthcare worker because you know how it is here in Los Angeles. You cannot work just one job to survive. Sometimes it takes two and three. And uh I am also a lifelong renter who has faced housing insecurity for much of my life. And I'm, like you said, a neighborhood council member, proudly serving on the Noho Neighborhood Council as a volunteer of this advisory board for the last two and a half years. I don't consider myself a politician, but I have been called to lead. So uh Noho has been my home for my chosen home for 15 years now. And I think I made the right decision. I love it here, and I'm deeply invested in helping the people of my community. So um, I was really inspired to run for office by two huge um life events. Uh, first off, my um I was inspired by uh a senator from Vermont, you may know him. His name is Bernie Sanders, and uh the whole not me us campaign just really, really spoke to me. The helping somebody you will never meet, and that uh so the socioeconomic inequality is the greatest problem of our time, and I truly believe that. And I was ready to run in 2015. I was just so excited, galvanized, wanted to go. And then, you know, sometimes life has other plans for you. Uh, my mother, my strong, hardworking single mother, started showing signs of Alzheimer's, and I'm I'm an only child. So uh the other problem is that she lives in Ohio. So I had to spend the next four years of my life from 2015 to 2019 flying back and forth cross-country, and nobody tells you how to become a parent to your parent and get them safe, you know, get them into a skilled nursing facility. There's a lot of different things it takes to becoming a power of attorney, and our healthcare system is not on our side. So um, I couldn't do it by myself. I had a lot of help from my family in Ohio. I have cousins, I have a ton of cousins, and they were wonderful and amazing, and they stepped in when I couldn't be there. And um, then I started losing them as well through this whole course. So I lost uh my cousin Tony due to um he was sober for many years, and and because we don't talk about mental health crises, he had one and he relapsed and died due to the opioid epidemic. And then my um uncle Joe and I, he was the closest thing I had to a father figure. He and I had just got reacclimated again, and I was so excited to have him back in my life, and he was helping me with my mom, and he died due to the effects of alcoholism. He was a Vietnam vet, and we don't take care of our vets when they come back from war and those atrocities. And so he self-medicated and uh had kidney disease. And then the the one that really, really got me was my cousin Joanna Lise Dominguez, um, aka Lala. And um, Lala was my heart, she she was really my pillar in there for me. And when we got my mother safe in the summer of 2019, I was so excited. We were cleaning out her room, and I said, you know what, I'm gonna come back in the winter and you and I are gonna celebrate. And by October, she was gone. Lala was gone. Uh, she lived in uh a housing development, she lived in so in um the projects, basically in Cleveland. And, you know, to us, her home was always filled with love, but it was also filled with black mold. And so her being a severe asthmatic that led to a lot of health problems. The area was also deemed a rampant crime area, so um law enforcement blocked off the entryway to her apartment complex. It was really hard to get into. She had a medical episode, she called for help, and the ambulance could not get to her on time. So she collapsed on her porch and um was without without oxygen to her brain for eight minutes and left three children motherless. And that really broke me. That really, really drove me into a deep, dark depression. And it I could have let it overcome me, but I realized that I had to snap out of it because we can't let the pillars of our family collapse. And if I let that overtake me, then la la, you know, her death would have been in vain. So I used it to ignite me, to galvanize me, to propel me into running for office. And I first ran for the Noho Neighborhood Council and got elected. I became the chair of housing and services, which was the homelessness committee. Uh, my first day as the chair, I changed the name from homelessness committee to housing and services because I deeply believe that homelessness is a housing issue. And um, you know, I started passing grants after that, passing grants that have fed our unhoused neighbors, grants that have given mental health care to um our at-risk youth and mentorship to them as well. Created tenants' rights workshops with the City of LA, Abundant Housing LA, and um Sage. And this is all just on an advisory level. I started seeing that I was making incremental change in our community. And I felt my work is just beginning. I can do so much more. And that's why I'm really running, is because I want to make housing a human right. I want to make sure that people have a house over their head that is safe, that is affordable, that, you know, they shouldn't have to worry about working multiple jobs or living with multiple people just in order to survive. Right now, the city of Los Angeles, we have just been surviving the people here for a very, very long time. And that's not a way to live. That's not a type of life for anyone. We deserve to thrive. And I really believe that we can have that and we have that opportunity with this election. And I see so many great progressive candidates running, and I'm one of them. And I'm there, I'm not being beholden by any corporate donors. Uh I'm I'm just wanting to be a public servant. And that's why I'm running for Los Angeles City Council District, too.
SPEAKER_00Thanks. Uh let me see if we can get to know you just a little bit better. Uh, did you grow up in Ohio?
SPEAKER_01So, yes, I I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. Um, I was um born just outside of Cleveland and grew up there. Uh, I'm my mother was start strong, sorry, strong, hardworking single mother. Uh, I was also raised by my grandmother. So my grandmother and I spent a lot of time together. She was very ill. So at a long, at a really young age, I had to learn to take care of her. So I uh she was diabetic. I grew up in and out of hospitals with her. I learned how to take her blood glucose and uh give her insulin shots, and that's something that somebody under the age of 10 shouldn't have to learn. But yeah, so I grew up in Cleveland. I I loved my area. I remember just, you know, riding my bike everywhere, hanging out with my friends, and then um, you know, really, really being a theater kid. Theater, uh, I'm an only child, so I had to entertain myself a lot. And uh that's one of my first memories is uh having this box with a uh I drew little figures on there, and I don't know if I was hosting a talk show or whatnot, but I would entertain my grandma. And um that's where my my love of entertaining people and you know just catering to people and helping people came about. Also, my mom really uh showed a love of service from the beginning. She was a the pillar of our church, she always brought people in. And uh my grandma as well. My grandma was known as the lollipop lady, and she handed out lollipops to all the kids. So I was always taught, you know, give back to other people, uh, not to worry about yourself. Maybe we might we might not have everything, but we had um happiness, you know, in that basically happiness through service is is what she taught me.
SPEAKER_00And when did you come to Los Angeles and what brought you here?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I actually um real quick, I I I moved to Columbus, Ohio. Um I graduated from the Ohio State University. Um I had to say the otherwise my friends would really like nudge me about that. So uh, and I was a resident actor for a while, and um, I was teaching marginalized groups, marginalized kids, and and I really loved the work that I was doing, but I found that I was being stifled because there wasn't much to do in Columbus, Ohio at that time. So uh I'm one of those people who just had a big dream. And in 2009, I bought a one-way plane ticket, I sold everything I owned, and I moved to Los Angeles. I had never visited here before, and I really think that that was one of the best decisions I have ever made.
SPEAKER_00Where did you live when you first got here?
SPEAKER_01So, my very first year here, I lived in Hollywood. I like really, like literally a block from Hollywood and Highland. And um, I loved it down there. I don't know, I know a lot of people don't like Hollywood. Um, they think it's, you know, too many people. Um, they think some some people say it's it's grimy. I loved it. I thought it just was really like an inclusive little city for me. Um, I didn't need to use my car. I could walk to the grocery store that was nearby. My gym was there. Uh, if I wanted to have nightlife, that was also there. And it just felt like everything was in walking distance. But um I moved to the valley in 2010 and no hope ever since.
SPEAKER_00Why'd you make the move to the valley?
SPEAKER_01I I made the move to the valley because the my my roommate at the time, she went back to Ohio. And uh to be honest, living in Hollywood is is deeply unaffordable. Uh, and at that time, living in the valley was much more affordable. It was a little bit closer to work for me. I also had to uh rent rooms from people because they're I was unable to afford, even though I had a full-time job, I was making above minimum wage, I was unable to afford my own place. So I had to have multiple roommates.
SPEAKER_00And when did you start the theater company?
SPEAKER_01So I started uh my theater company in 2014. I actually had to, so I have a full-time job as an essential healthcare worker. I'm an optician, a licensed optician, and that wasn't enough to pay the bills. So I started, you know, taking gig work and I was uh an actor for another theater company. And then I realized that, you know, I'm a writer, I'm a director, I'm a producer, and an actor, and I I could do my own. And so uh my part, my business partner and I left that company and we started our own company. And we really wanted to um kind of give an upper echelon on the whole murder mystery genre. Uh, we saw that there wasn't a lot of representation of women. A lot of times women were um, you know, women weren't the strong characters in the shows of the company that we used to work for. And so we wanted to show women's strength, show strength to LGBTQ characters as well, because they were non-existent in the shows that we were doing, and we thought that wasn't fair. And we wanted to highlight marginalized BIPOC communities as well. So uh our shows are completely customizable, interactive. Uh, we've done non-binary kids' shows. And I think that, you know, women can be smart and funny, and we wanted to breathe life into that.
SPEAKER_00And where is the theater located?
SPEAKER_01So we do not have a physical space uh for a couple of reasons. Uh, rent is expensive. And we also um pride ourselves on going wherever you are. So we uh if you want to have like a murder mystery birthday party, it will come to your home, restaurant of choice. Uh, we also have corporate events as well, and um, we write custom shows too, which is actually becoming my favorite part of it is having a custom show. Somebody has a vision and they want to see um they like currently I'm writing a revision of Clue right now. And and last a couple months ago, I got to write a revision of Knives Out meets Clue. So uh just coming up with all of these fun new spins on uh trope characters and breathing life into them and making more modern is so much fun. And uh the other thing I love to do is to put a little bit of LA history into our shows. I put a lot of history, and it's a little hard for me to uh to separate my politics. I had to write a Christmas show once, and uh, you know, Santa Claus didn't realize that his workers weren't happy with him, and Rudolph wanted to unionize. So it's just it's just part of who I am. And uh fortunately, it's uh a lot of people enjoy it.
SPEAKER_00Uh and where in the second district do you live? What neighborhood?
SPEAKER_01So I'm in the heart of Noho. And yep, I've been here in my current place. We've been here since 2017.
SPEAKER_002017, you said you were a renter?
SPEAKER_01I am a renter, lifelong renter.
SPEAKER_00And uh uh roommate, significant other, who do you pets, who do you live with?
SPEAKER_01Uh I live with my significant other, and um, we've been together since since 2017, and so we've been together for quite some time now, and we have two adorable cats.
SPEAKER_00Um curious, since you've been uh engaging more and more politically since the the Sanders campaign, um, what is the most frustrated you have ever been with uh Los Angeles city government?
SPEAKER_01Oh, the most frustrated. Um which moment? Um, I mean, obviously, LA Fed tapes was a super frustrating time for me being Afro-Latina and hearing those words. Um I heard those slurs as a child being lobbied at me, and and it really was traumatic for me to hear that, um, being Afro-Latina. And um, you know, it hurt. It really did hurt. And uh knowing that my district was talked about, and why are we not talking about this? My district was talked about and gerrymandered for a specific candidate. Um it's really, it's really hurtful that, you know, we're taking that they plotted to take away the choice of the people of North Hollywood, of Toluca Lake, of Valley Village, Valley Glen, Studio City, Van Nuys, Sun Valley. And also they took away, you know, a huge part of the district that was part of Nithia's district to disenfranchise her. And um, that's Toluca Lake. It was never part of our district. So, you know, it's it's just really disheartening to see that um the reality of the LA Fed tapes is is actually coming to life right now, and we have the ability to stop it. But uh, I don't think that, you know, a lot of people have listened to that part of the tape.
SPEAKER_00And what is the most optimistic or happy you have been about LA City government?
SPEAKER_01Uh definitely with the election of 2022, is that when they got elected? Uh when Eunicius Hernandez, um, when Ugo um with Nithya, seeing that little progressive block starting to come together, it really, really just it made me excited. It made me invigorated. And um I volunteered for a lot of those campaigns. I I was happy to volunteer for our city controller Kenneth Mejia, and um I volunteered for Ugo, um uh also for um State Senator Caroline Menschbar. But uh it just gave me hope uh seeing that there was a lot of young progressive people who uh, you know, were seeing Ugo as a renter and having um been on council now and seeing Aunyssi is just being so steadfast in her values, you know, and and and Nithya helping, like leading on the housing front there, I think that that really just has made me super optimistic seeing the renter protections coming in for sure, um, right to counsel, universal just cause. And uh I want to add to that, I want to support that.
SPEAKER_00So the second district, uh, how would you describe it?
SPEAKER_01We are uh an a renter district, uh highly renter district, 60% renters actually, and we've never had renter representation. So I think that's so, so important. And uh we're an artist uh made up of the entertainment industry. So we have you know SAG AFTRA members, a lot of WGA members. Uh we are known as the arts district. Noho is the heart of it, uh, but I think it spreads out through the entire valley. And I I I love that we have murals, we have a ton of theaters, although I I don't know if you know this. Magnolia had the second um largest street of theaters in the entire United States, and we lost a lot of them due to the pandemic and uh due to the economy and just not being able to keep up. But uh yeah, I'm very hopeful that you know, myself, who is an artist at heart, uh, that I can I can definitely help to revitalize the arts.
SPEAKER_00Well, the second district once had as its representative decades ago, Joel Wax, who was probably one of the biggest uh patron of the arts in uh in Los Angeles political history, now runs uh the Andy Warhol uh Foundation on the East Coast. Uh so 2nd District is is sort of a a uh a spear carrier for uh the arts movement. Um where in the second district do you enjoy spending time other than where your your apartment?
SPEAKER_01Um other than my apartment. I know it's it's so hard with uh campaigning. I feel like I'm in my apartment a lot lately, which is not where I want to be. I I definitely feel um I love uh our the Chandler bike path, biking there. I think that it's just so beautiful uh having the murals running alongside that. Uh that's a place that really speaks to me. I love our our little beat path here with we have a lot of restaurants on Magnolia and Lancersham. I love exploring those as well. And uh Tuluca Lake, definitely just another beautiful area. There's just a lot of really cool, eclectic small businesses in our district. And um, sadly, we've been losing a lot of them. And uh we've lost like three or four, actually, I want to say five or six businesses that were very integral. We lost them to um, you know, corporate greed from landlords and trying to protect those.
SPEAKER_00Uh, what would you say are the top three issues facing the district?
SPEAKER_01Ah, definitely housing and homelessness is is one of the biggest problems um for district two. Uh, we, like I said, are a highly renter, um high renter district. And I feel that like a lot of people are being pushed out. A lot of artists are being pushed out due to gentrification, uh rising rents, and they're going further and further out into the district. And sadly, I've had a lot of friends that have had to move out of the district because they just can't live there anymore. So I'm definitely think that one of the things we need to do is protect our renters first. Um, something else, uh definitely public transportation, expanding our public transportation and making it uh more accessible and hopefully fare-free eventually. I think that uh the biggest problem with Metro is that it's just it's not consistent. And so a lot of people give up on it. And um, if if it was more consistent, I know the other night my friend wanted to take a Metro Micro home and just couldn't get one. So um I ended up giving him a ride home. And you know that that's somebody who thank goodness we carpooled, but that might have been one more car on the road, and that's the last thing that we need.
SPEAKER_00Uh when I was in office representing the West Side, there were a couple issues that I dealt with regularly that were really big issues in the district, but weren't citywide issues. One of them was LAX. I had a huge airport in my district, neighbors have concerns. Another was uh fires in the in the in the hillsides, which was not a universal issue around the city, but was very important in my district. Are there any issues in the second district that you've identified that may not be citywide issues, but are very important to the people of the district you seek to represent?
SPEAKER_01Issues that are not citywide. Hmm. I feel like I don't know, I feel like everything to me is citywide. Uh definitely I think uh the expansion of um protected bike lanes is a big concern in in District 2 because we're such a car-centric culture, and I feel like we have our one gem, the Chandler Bike Path. And yeah, people are starving to like the other day. I actually had a community bike ride as a as um a community get-together fundraiser, and we rode and that six miles went really fast, and we got down to Burbank and we saw the railroad tracks down there and wondered, well, why is this not expanded through here? I know that's I know that's not the second district anymore because we we ended up in Burbank, but that could have connected over to Nithia's district in the fourth district through Griffith Park. And um it really, you know, it's a problem that we are just so car reliant and unwilling to, I don't know if we're unwilling, but haven't worked with other um neighboring governments to go ahead and and and have that expansion go through. Yeah, I know there's some, there's definitely um other issues here. I I hear a lot about um Airbnbs, uh illegal Airbnbs, but again, I think I feel like this all this stuff is citywide.
SPEAKER_00You know, are there any any specific projects that you uh want to complete or deliver for the district?
SPEAKER_01Well, definitely would love to see uh measure HLA pass so we can start on the mobility plan. I see a lot of sidewalks in CD2 that are non-existent, like areas that should have sidewalks that are non-existent. Um, I during my call time, because you know, as a candidate, you have to do call time. I I love to ask people, what do you want to see in our district? What's going on right now? And I talked to a constituent and she was telling me about how there is no sidewalk on her street, and people park up against her fence, and they consequently knock into this fence all the time and they're always having to repair it. And I think that's a bigger problem. Um, the missing sidewalks, the missing crosswalks. We've had issues where um people have been run over and victims of traffic violence. We had a family in December of 2022 where the entire family was struck by the school by Oxnard Elementary. And um unfortunately a five-year-old child died because of that. Uh, so I think that's definitely, you know, it's not just in District 2, it is citywide. And so, like measures like HLA need to pass.
SPEAKER_00Uh uh since we've sort of moved into some citywide issues, I want to hit some more of them. You mentioned earlier uh your work on homelessness through the neighborhood council. Uh, I like to ask people what they think the cause of homelessness is. You indicated you think it's a housing issue. Uh elaborate a little bit.
SPEAKER_01Well, not just a house, I mean, it it there's a lot of issues that lead to homelessness. Um, the whole socioeconomic inequality right now going on. Um, you know, somebody not being able to have one job and be able to afford an apartment, food, car payment, student loans if they have them. Let's not even go there. Uh, I think that that's one of the one of the biggest um problems that leads to homelessness. I like I said, I there I've been at a point in my life where I had to rent rooms and I had to rely on people who, you know, were very kind to me because my hours got cut at my job and at times. And, you know, working as an optician is actually retail work. And so, you know, sometimes your hours get cut and you can't afford your rent. And I was, I, if it was not for the kindness of people that allowed me to pay my rent in increments, I probably would have been out on the street several times over. Uh, you know, and other things that lead to homelessness, uh, the rent increases now that are just coming on. I'm really scared for the COVID renter protections that just ended. So, as you know, uh people starting February 1st, which was yesterday, uh, are having to pay their rent from October of 2021 through January 31st of 2023. And I don't feel that we've done a great job of giving them a pathway to having that rent paid. You know, I know we've people were able to apply for renter assistance and different things like that, but as we know, sometimes that doesn't go through quickly and people are still waiting for that help. Uh, fortunately, the city council passed that those people cannot be evicted if they're waiting for that renter um assistance. Other than that, I think um Airbnbs are very harmful uh in short-term rentals. Uh, city controller Kenneth Mejia put out a really useful tool where you could see the eviction notices. And so I was just playing around with it one day and I looked in. And um, in one apartment building here in our zip code, it was a luxury apartment building. I looked into it a little further. And in September and October, it had about 224 evictions, and then the next month it had 174 eviction notices. And then so I looked into it further. I went to that website, and that apartment building actually uh actually boasts being an Airbnb community. So they say, Oh, you know, do you want to go to sh, do you want to go to New York for a couple of months? We'll help you rent out your place. And we're holding up really, really valuable housing that way. So I think you know, that's really harmful. And then just us not updating our zoning laws. Uh, we have such opportunity to convert a lot of empty retail space into housing and to invest into social housing and community land trusts. I think that these are the ways to, you know, get people out of homelessness and into housing. But the biggest thing is obviously keeping renters housed. And um I think that there's a big misuse of funds when it comes to homelessness. Uh currently, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I was gonna ask, what do you think the biggest impediments are to Los Angeles' efforts to solve homelessness?
SPEAKER_01Um, I think sweeps are harmful and they're not cost effective. So I would love to see um the repeal of 4118, um, the ordinan ordinance that uh basically criminalizes poverty, sitting, lying, and sleeping. And I think that, you know, it we are doing a huge disservice, and the people of Los Angeles don't realize it. They they think, oh, great, you know, that sidewalk is clean, there's nobody there anymore. And we're just visually solving the problem temporarily, and it's not a problem. People are not problems. Uh, that's the that's the first problem there is that we need to see people as people, whether they are housed or unhoused, and get them compassionately into housing. So, with 4118, you know, we're displacing people, we're causing trauma. So a lot of times people fall into homelessness, they stay close to where they used to live. So they still have their social networks, they still have their family, uh, they may have a social worker that they're working with. And when we sweep them, we are getting rid of their property. We're ticketing them. So we're ticketing somebody who is already have not already has nothing. Uh and when we get rid of their property, they're losing their social security cards, their IDs, uh, birth certificates, things that are so hard to get if you were housed. And if you imagine if you are living on the street, it's 10 times as harder to get that stuff. Uh, on top of that, we are um contributing to climate change because all of their stuff lands in landfills. And, you know, then we're not giving them an actual blueprint into housing. We don't have enough shelter beds for the people who are living on the streets. So how can we criminalize prop poverty and ask them to move? We're basically just shuffling them from neighborhood to neighborhood to neighborhood. And then people say, housed people say, oh, you know, they're service resistance. They don't want help, they don't want to get housed. Well, this is the question that I pose to people. I say, well, if somebody comes up to you and says, you know what, hey, I can get you into housing right now, and you've never met this person, you don't know them at all, are you gonna trust them? Probably not. We haven't built that trust yet. So we need to build that trust. Um, we need to work with mutual aid organizations who are already doing the work on the ground and get these people um into an actual relationship, working relationship, and into housing, housing with services. So um, my plan is for a housing first model and having wraparound services that treat people like people and diagnose every single thing that they need from whether it's from job placement, from mental health um wellness, help, health care, and uh, you know, mentorship.
SPEAKER_00So I think you think of the mayor's inside safe program.
SPEAKER_01So um I think it is an admirable start. Uh, but I I feel like overall we're wasting a lot of money. And how do I say this? We're putting people into motel rooms and into hotel rooms that are quite often in food deserts that are far away from where they originally lived. And sometimes they're not fit. These places should be closed down, they should be condemned, some of them. Like there's been reports of people having bed bug infestations, having roaches, not having clean sheets, and also um not being allowed visitors. And so, I mean, when you think about all that stuff, okay, you've given them four walls, but you haven't given them food. Because quite often they'll give gift cards that are not a lot of money, and like I said, in food deserts. So they have four walls, but they don't have food, they don't have clean sheets, they don't have access to friends or family, and they don't have access to services. So, what is that? It sounds like not a not a good place for them to be. It's it honestly, it kind of sounds like a prison.
SPEAKER_00And are there any particular places you have in mind in the second district that would be a good place for additional housing, either interim or permanent?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, there's definitely a lot of great places here in the second district. I mean, there like I said, there's so many uh retail spaces that have been abandoned and emptied. And I'm not sure why there's no development going on in them. I think we can convert them. Really, we need to go into like a 15-minute city model where we have businesses on the bottom and housing on the top. Uh, I think there's so much opportunity if we're building up, especially by transit areas, so people can use public transportation. And um, you know, I definitely think that we need to see why commercial landlords aren't utilizing these spaces and change zoning laws for that.
SPEAKER_00Uh I want to shift to public safety, another issue that's in the news quite a bit. Um what do you think it takes to keep our neighborhood safe? And what does safety mean to you?
SPEAKER_01I feel like we are safer than we think we are. Um I feel like there's a big misconception of safety. Uh and you know, a lot of it is because we are so media hungry, and and you know, you can look at Facebook, you can look at all these different social medias, you have CNN, whatever, all at your fingertips. And, you know, a lot of it is being sensationalized. The the biggest part of safety to me uh that we really need to improve is traffic safety, deaths due to traffic violence, I think, is the first thing we should be prioritizing. But as public safety, I think um as far as like crime goes, I don't think crime is as bad as people think it is. And I think if we go into taking care of our most marginalized groups, we'll see it even more reduced. If people already have their needs met with housing, food, uh, job placement. If they have their initial basic needs taken care of, we will be safer. Those communities that are most well loved are the safest. And uh the other thing I would like to see in safety is the removal of police from areas that they don't need to be in, um, removing them from traffic stops, removing them from mental health crises, and replacing them with unarmed crisis response. I think that that's our our biggest opportunity for safety.
SPEAKER_00When's the last time you felt unsafe?
SPEAKER_01Uh on June 2nd, outside of Satakoy Elementary. It was the Pride Month. And uh I was there to support the LGBTQ community. There was, I'm not sure if you remember this, a reading. Uh it was an optional assembly, the reading of the great big book of families, which is a fabulous book. Uh, I got it because I wanted to see what all the Hubbaloo was about. And uh, this book basically celebrated different kinds of families. It said, you know, some kids may be raised by their grandparents, some children may have foster parents, some may have two moms, some may have two dads. And uh there was a movement of I'm sure you're familiar with it, called the Leave Our Kids Alone Movement or LOCA, and they uh they showed up in droves. We showed up to support the children, we showed up to support the LGBTQ community. We were there with you know the clergy in the area, we were there with the LGBT center, and um, we were just there to spread love and kindness and this other side that I don't know, I think I I think I thought Los Angeles was this lovely bubble of sunshine. Um, and it got busted for me when this other group showed up and they screamed in our faces and they told us to unalive ourselves, and um they just said really, really hateful things. And LAPD was right next to us and they did nothing. They did nothing for us. Uh, if we stepped off of our side of the street, they were the police were on us really quickly, like get back to the other side of the street. But if the other side, if the Leave Our Kids Alone people came over and came screaming in our faces, they did nothing to stop them. And uh it it was a really eye-awakening day. And uh I have several, I have several members of my campaign who are non-binary in LGBTQ, and I had to watch them live horror, the horror of being persecuted. And uh after that, after we left because we we couldn't stay there any longer, um, they actually beat an unhoused person, uh, unhoused non-binary person to unconsciousness. And that person had to be hospitalized. After that, I received death threats. So um I didn't know that was a part of running for office. So um I I know now. Um, but you know, that that really kind of threw me for a loop getting those death threats. And I realized that that's what they want. They want me to be afraid. And as a black and Latino woman, it's I mean, that's not new to me to being hated for my color of my skin. But being hated because I'm standing up for other people to be able to live authentically and live their life, uh, that just that just really threw me.
SPEAKER_00On that day at Satquoy, when you said you were there and the police were there and it didn't make you feel safe, what would have made you feel safe instead of the police?
SPEAKER_01Uh, what would have made me feel safe? I mean, it would have been nice for you know LAPD to be on our side and to say, you know, to be at least fair to both sides. There was an obvious bias for the other side. Um, so I mean, to to feel that we were also equally protected, and it's just like, hey, you you both have opposing opinions, um, but we're gonna allow both of you to have this this protest at the same time, would have felt a little bit better. Also, um knowing that people ship are shipping in January, we're shipping in January Sixers and fascists, and uh maybe not having those people in our area would have made me feel safer. Uh I I don't know. It's just like I said, I was in a little bit of a bubble. I really thought that Los Angeles was a community of love, and it is, it is, let me tell you, it actually is. Um, I believe in my heart that most of these people are from outside of the community.
SPEAKER_00Uh shifting gears a bit, uh, what do you think, what role do you think that the city of Los Angeles has in combating the climate crisis?
SPEAKER_01The climate crisis. Uh a lot of things. We have a car-centric culture that we need to get away from. So uh I actually did not get my license until the age of 23. And that's because I relied on public transportation. And surprisingly enough, the public transportation in Ohio really met my needs at that time. Uh, could I say that here? Um it depends. If I was staying in a small area that wasn't that far, you know, I could bike to work. I really could bike to work. Um, but I don't think that, you know, the public transportation here has kept up. I also think we really need to push for expanding bike lanes. I'm always going to say that. It's just it's beyond me on why we don't do that. Um expanding our public transportation and making it fare-free, we have that possibility. I feel that Metro doesn't really isn't profitable and that we're spending more money in policing people with fare evasion and different things like that when we can and the actual electronic hardware to collect fares when we could just make it more fare free and it's more environmentally friendly. I think also um I love to see what Nithya was doing with the composting. I think that that's something that we can expand upon more as well. And um, I mean, really the biggest thing is. We need to remove cars. We need to remove cars. They cause the most pollution. And we need to push for electrification. So I myself, um, it's not a perfect solution, but I do drive an electric car and I've been committed to an electric car since 2018. I think that uh a lot of people um shy away from electrification, especially renters, because they're worried about not having a charging station or access to that. But I've proven that I've been able to do it now for six years. You do have to kind of plan your life a little bit in a little bit different of a way. And um, but it's it's definitely very possible. And I'd love to see uh, I don't know if Los Angeles can do this, but pushing the technology to going to solar. I I do have my next car on order and it'll be a solar car. Uh just because I'm committed to, I know that electric isn't a perfect solution and that we have to move further. And hopefully I'll be able to move away to car free uh with an electric bike and with public transportation. I think um also we need to expand our tree canopy uh is one of the things. We're very park-starved here in Los Angeles. So protecting our green spaces, removing hostile architecture, uh, and working at water recapture, I think are are some of the greatest opportunities. I was so floored that like anytime we get rain here, especially in the valley, that some neighborhoods don't have storm drains. And that's just it, it just totally just floods and you're stuck and you can't go anywhere. Uh, that's something that was just astonishing to me that the streets were, some of them were designed without that.
SPEAKER_00Uh there has been a lot of discussion uh since the Fed tapes came out about government reform in Los Angeles, things like independent redistricting, uh things like expanding the size of the city council, giving people fewer uh constituents to represent. Uh, what are your thoughts on the size of the city council?
SPEAKER_01It's wild to me that in the second largest city in the United States, that uh the city council members have just as much, if not more, power than some city's mayors. Uh that each city council member is like a mayor because they have about 264,000 constituents. And I think that we're setting ourselves up for failure with that, expecting one person to be able to accurately um represent that many people. So I'm definitely an advocate for city council expansion. I think that we need to um have anywhere from, I mean, ideally I'd love to see 50 seats. That's not going to happen. But I'll take a good 29 to 33 seats to lower that and to allow more services to be allocated to the community. I think that's better representation for the people. Uh a lot of people are looped in. Like actually, I was at a um a town hall a couple of weeks ago for the for Valley Village um for their residence association. And and this person was really just um telling me about their displeasure with the council member and not hearing from the council member's office. They say, you know, I contact Kricorian's office all of the time and I don't hear back and I don't get that, you know. Um I feel like I don't have a relationship with my office and they don't care about me. And that's really sad to hear that, you know. And I feel in I was telling them, you know, what I'm hearing from you is that we really do need city council expansion because if we had more council members and they had smaller districts, you would hear from them.
SPEAKER_00Uh any other uh government or campaign finance or ethics reforms you'd like to see?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, ethics reforms. Uh I definitely a big advocate for for transparency. Um I'm I'm endorsed by city controller Kenneth Mejia and I love the tools that he's putting out. Uh for I also believe that uh Jamie York should have been on the ethics committee. I'm just gonna go ahead and put that out there. And I really am disheartened that that motion was just overturned. I feel like that that's a possible Brown Act violation there. Uh being a city count being a neighborhood council member there, it was overturned with no public discussion. Uh the other things I would like to see changed is bringing public comment back to the beginning again. I feel that a lot of people are disheartened. They take their day off of work to engage with their government. And um, it's disheartening that they they're not being able to have their their voice heard. Uh also, I'd like to see the meeting times get changed. I would love to see a city council meeting happen in the evening or a weekend so that way people who are working a nine to five can actually engage with their government. Uh and I think that we need to do a better job of um the virtual meetings as well, making sure that people who um actually show up are able to speak and the people who are online are able to speak. Sometimes the people who show up and spend hours waiting there get cut off. So um I'm not sure how we can um fix that, but I think that's something that we definitely need to investigate.
SPEAKER_00Uh, if you were elected, which members of the city council do you think you would be most politically aligned with?
SPEAKER_01I love this question. I mean, obviously, obviously, um council member Eunicis Hernandez. Um, yeah, she's my golden star. I I look up to her. And uh that's who I most align with. I do also align with council member Nitya Brahman on a lot of things, and some with um Hugo Soto Martinez as well. I mean, us being renters, uh, we we have a lot in common there.
SPEAKER_00And in this campaign, are there any uh uh individuals or interests that you refuse to accept money from?
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. I am running to be a public servant. I am not running to be a corporate servant. So I am not taking any money from police, from realtor companies, from healthcare companies, from fossil fuel companies. Uh anyone who is going to try to manipulate me and make me beholden to them, I'm not seeking money from you. Uh, keep your money. I'm taking money from the people of Los Angeles, the hardworking people uh who have been disenfranchised for such a long time because I only want to be beholden to them. So uh I'm of the people and I'm for the people, and that's what I will always be.
SPEAKER_00Last question. Give me three words to describe Los Angeles.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I love this question. I love this question. And I've thought about it for a while, uh, because I listened to your podcast. Um creative, definitely creative. Uh, we we are the movers and we are the shake, mover and shakers. That's why everybody looks to us uh for the arts and entertainment. And uh we're resilient, you know. Let me tell you, we are definitely resilient. If people here, we have so many people who are immigrants, who are descendants of immigrants, and they have definitely built themselves from the ground up and they are fighting. We are fighters here. Uh, if you can make it here, I think you can make it anywhere. I know they say that about New York, but um I think that's very true about Los Angeles. You can you definitely, definitely can make it anywhere if you make it here. And we are hungry. We are so hungry. And when I say that, we are hungry for opportunities. We are hungry for change. We are hungry for the truth and authenticity. You know, we don't we don't want somebody feeding us stuff, we want the actual truth.
SPEAKER_00Creative, resilient, and hungry. Um, Jillian, any uh websites or social media handles you'd like to share with people? Where can they find you online?
SPEAKER_01Yes, please find me, everybody. Please, please, please. Um, my website is gillianfo-r thevalley.com. And uh my socials are Jillian F O R C D2. I'm I love the socials, uh, especially using them to educate. So I do a lot of videos, you know, telling people how to use 311, telling them what does city council do. Uh I've talked about unarmed crisis response, and I would love to hear from people and engage with people in the community. Tell me what you want to learn about, and I will make a video about it.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. Gillian Burgos, candidate for the second district. Thank you so much for joining me on what's next, Los Angeles.
SPEAKER_01Thank you.
SPEAKER_00My thanks to Gillian for joining me today. My thanks to my friend Marta Avery for doing the sound editing and producing on this podcast, and my thanks to you for listening. Uh, if you haven't already, please follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you listen. And please tune in next time uh for further episodes of What's Next Los Angeles. I'll be talking with more candidates for office and talking with more people about what the important issues are in Los Angeles and California. Until then, take good care. Peace.