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
SARA HERNANDEZ: Candidate for State Senate District 26
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Sara Hernandez, an attorney, educator, and member of the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees, is running for State Senate District 26, ans she joins me on this episode of What's Next, Los Angeles.
District 26, currently represented by Maria Elena Durazo, is a dense, urban district centered in Los Angeles, including Downtown LA, Boyle Heights, Echo Park, and surrounding neighborhoods. It’s home to largely Latino and immigrant communities, with a mix of working-class families and renters, and it sits at the center of many of the city’s biggest challenges — from housing affordability and homelessness to economic inequality and access to public services.
Hernandez has spent her career working at the intersection of education, housing, and public policy. She began as a middle school teacher in LAUSD, where she founded the nonprofit Helping Young People Excel, or HYPE, to support low-income students through high school and into college. Her work with students facing homelessness, food insecurity, immigration challenges, and barriers to opportunity led her to pursue a career in law and public service.
After earning her law degree, Hernandez worked in Los Angeles City Hall, helping lead community revitalization efforts through investments in housing, transportation, infrastructure, and economic development. She now practices as a housing and environmental attorney and has done extensive pro bono work representing immigrants in asylum proceedings and assisting students navigating the DACA process.
In 2022, she was elected to the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees, where she has focused on expanding access to education, increasing enrollment, connecting students to housing resources, and growing apprenticeship programs in the building trades.
Hernandez is also active in grassroots organizing, including founding DTLA Strong, a community group that helped significantly increase voter turnout in downtown Los Angeles.
https://www.sarahernandez.com/
What's Next, Los Angeles? is produced and hosted by Mike Bonin, in partnership with LA Forward.
An educator, an attorney, and a member of the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees is running for State Senate. Sarah Hernandez joins me to talk about her campaign on this episode of What's Next Los Angeles. Hi everyone and welcome. I'm Mike Bonnet. Thank you for joining me. As I've mentioned at the start of recent episodes, between now and Election Day, we're going to be doing frequent conversations spotlighting candidates running for office: City Council, mayor, state legislature, and a lot more. Today we turn to the race for the state Senate seat District 26. It's currently held by Maria Elena D'Arosso, who's termed out of office and running for Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. District 26 is a dense urban district centered in Los Angeles, including downtown LA, Boyle Heights, Echo Park, and surrounding neighborhoods. It's home to a largely Latino and immigrant population with a mix of working-class families and renters, and it sits at the center of many of the city's biggest challenges, from housing affordability and homelessness to economic inequality and access to public services. Today's guest is Sarah Hernandez, an attorney, an educator, and a member of the LA Community College District Board. She began her career as a middle school teacher in LAUSD, where she worked closely with students navigating challenges like housing instability, food insecurity, and barriers to higher education. That experience led her to start a nonprofit focused on supporting low-income students through high school and into college, and it eventually pushed her toward a career in law and public policy. She later worked in Los Angeles City Hall on economic development and neighborhood investment efforts. And now she practices as a land use, housing, and environmental attorney. She has also done pro bono work representing immigrants and asylum cases and helping young people navigate the DACA process. In 2022, Hernandez was elected to the LA Community College District Board of Trustees, where she's focused on issues like enrollment, student housing insecurity, and expanding access to career training programs. I sat down with Sarah Hernandez recently to talk about her campaign and her vision. Here is that conversation. All right, Sarah Hernandez, welcome to What's Next Los Angeles.
SPEAKER_01Thank you.
SPEAKER_00Thank you so much for being here.
SPEAKER_01Thank you.
SPEAKER_00Running for Senate District 26. Yes. Got it. So the way I start these interviews with anybody is talk to the voters and give them your elevator pitch. Who are you? Why are you running? Why should they vote for you?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So Sarah Hernandez. I am a housing and immigration attorney. I'm also president of the board for the LA Community College District. I'm a mom. And I'm running for state senate because we are in the midst of an affordability crisis that is strangling this state. A lot of it has to do with affordability of housing, but it also has to do with affordability of energy prices, affordability of just being able to live in a city like Los Angeles. And that's something that I care really deeply about. I've lived in this district for over 20 years, but I actually was born and raised in Salinas, California, a small farm worker town on the Central Coast. And I was born there because my parents were heavily involved in the farm worker movement. I grew up around UFW marches every weekend, bedtime stories about Dolores Huerta, which is why I'm so honored to have her endorsement in this race. But most importantly, growing up in that environment, my parents taught my brother and I that it doesn't matter who you are, whether you're a farm worker or an attorney or a teacher, we all have to do our part to make our communities better, a little bit better than we left off. And my parents' movement was the farm worker movement. Educational opportunity changed my life in Salinas. And so I decided to pay that forward by starting my career as a middle school teacher here in South LA and Watts a number of years back. And it was working as a sixth grade teacher that I created and built a nonprofit from the ground up that helps young people in our communities get to college. And I have been doing that work for the majority of my professional life. It is the most powerful experience that I have had. And we have worked with students that have faced so much adversity and have achieved so much despite that adversity, that have gone on to the best colleges this country has and have done everything right. And I think back to the promise that I made those students as a sixth grade teacher that if you work hard, you get good grades, you go to college, or you go to trade school, you get a good job, that you can have access to this American dream, to this California dream. And I still keep in contact with so many of my students. They are in their 30s now, which makes me feel really old. But they have done everything right. They have fulfilled their end of the bargain, and California hasn't fulfilled its promise to them. They have gone and gotten an education. They have gotten what we would consider nationally good paying jobs, but so many of them have little hope of ever being able to buy a home in Los Angeles or in California in general. Many of them are struggling to make rent in the working class communities that they live in. So many of them are stressed beyond belief about their DACA status. Many of them have children of their own and can't figure out how they're going to make it work, how they're going to pay for childcare in this state. And I'm running because when we break our promise to California as young people, when young people see no future in this state, that is when the California dream dies. And so for me, this is really, really personal. And I believe that I want to be part of that work up in up in Sacramento to figure out how do we solve this affordability crisis, how do we solve this housing crisis, how do we make this state a state of opportunity for people that deserve it?
SPEAKER_00As the father of a sixth grader, uh I'm in awe of the fact that you were a sixth grade teacher. Uh that's gotta be one of the more challenging jobs around. Humbling. You may now be overqualified for the state legislature. Um you talked about a number of different uh experiences in your life and your background. Which of those experiences really do you think would inform how you legislate? And how would how does that distinguish you from the other candidates?
SPEAKER_01You know, I always go back to my teaching experience. I said there is nothing more humbling than being a sixth grade teacher. Your students can teach you a lot. Um and I spent a lot of time in, you know, I worked at Johnny Cocker Middle School on Washington and Crenshaw, started my career at Gompers Middle School in Watts. Um, I spent a lot of time thinking about the disconnect between policy and how that policy plays out in the ground. You know, I believe that for the most part, many folks in government, many policymakers have good intentions, but there is a disconnect about how that well-intentioned policy plays out and some of the unintended consequences. I think there's a lot of folks up at Baudry, uh, L A U S D that have great intentions. But when I was a teacher, uh way back when, I thought a lot about those policies and how they just didn't seem to trickle down and affect my students the way that the district wanted them to. And so that really, really affects the way I look at policy and what how I look at being an elected is how do we make sure that, how do I make sure that I'm embedded in community, that I'm embedded with the people that are doing the work, the hardest work on the ground, whether that's in the classroom, whether that's in the courtroom. I do a lot of immigration pro bono work, representing clients in their asylum petitions and in their deportation proceedings. How do we make sure that we understand really the complexities of how broken the immigration system is, what the state can do, because that's very complicated in terms of the supremacy clause and preemption. Um, and making sure that we know we can be in touch with folks that are living in the communities and understand that lived experience when it comes to every single policy issue that we touch.
SPEAKER_00Uh you you mentioned your your background with um with parents, grandparents uh raising you sort of in in the the farm worker movement. We're recording this on the the 26th of March, just a you know, a week after the news broke about uh Cesar Chaves and Dolores Huerta, and people are still reeling from that. And you're also running for a seat that is held by someone who has really focused her work on both worker and on immigration issues. So I want to start on on worker and on immigration issues, um, because I think it's something that that is is very key to this district. Is um uh this seat has really been closely tied, particularly with Maria Elena, to the labor movement, um, especially uh advocacy for low-wage immigrant workers in hotels, food service, logistics. What are your top policy priorities around wage theft, workplace safety, and unionization?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I look, I grew up very close to the farm worker movement. Um, it was, you know, a part of just the environment that I grew up in in this Linus Valley. Um, making sure that workers have one, a right to unionize and that there is uh dignity in work and that we're making sure that workers get wages that they deserve is incredibly important to me. You know, started my career as a UTLA member. Uh, I serve on the board of the LA Community College District right now, have a great uh relationship with all of our bargaining units, which is why I'm endorsed by the California Teachers Association, uh, California Federation of Teachers, American Federation of Teachers. This seat is a labor seat because one, workers live in this district. And because we currently have a leader who is an icon of her own. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_01But you know, no one's gonna fill the shoes of Maria Elena Durausso.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_01Uh, but the next state senator needs to be someone who is deeply supported by labor. And I'm blessed to have the most labor support in this race, everyone from you know, our education unions to nurses, UNAC UHCP, to the Teamsters Joint Council to AFSME, California. And I believe that that support is earned, right? You have to really develop relationships with working people and show and prove that you can be a deep advocate for them. And so for me, it's working hand in hand uh with the folks that are doing that work on the ground, you know, not dictating that policy for what I believe in as a policymaker or as a legislator, but really making sure that we have an open door co-governance policy around labor issues and taking the issues that they um that are important to them and and and lifting them up in Sacramento.
SPEAKER_00Uh just an aside, you mentioned you just used the term co-governance. Um my generation used to talk about inside-outside strategies. The term now that's in vogue is co-governance. What does co-governance mean to you?
SPEAKER_01Yes. I'm so glad you mentioned that because everyone has a different definition of co-governance, right? Look, I I think this is a real strength, I I consider this a strength. Um, you know, I have my career has been varied. You know, I have worked as a classroom teacher, I have worked in government at the city level and city hall. Um, I have worked as an outside attorney representing clients that are looking for discretionary approvals and at in government. And it has created a breadth of experience to me that I think is incredibly important and I take with me. I look, I think a lot about just my work as a housing attorney. One of the things that can be frustrating sometimes is to sit across the table from, say, a staffer in government who will lecture you on perhaps a policy you've spent a lot of your professional life working on. And I think about that because I don't want to be, I don't want to be that staffer. I don't want to be that elected. Um, and so co-governance to me really means bringing in folks, and we're talking about labor here, um, bringing in our unions and our labor leaders and really making sure that we are being intentional about uh soliciting the type of policy that they know needs to be passed in Sacramento to not take a top-down approach, but to really mine uh the type of policy that we need to move forward based on their expertise. And that is really, really important to me. It's not just with labor, um, but with every issue, you know, because these issues are really complicated, whether you're talking about energy or education or housing. Um, for me, what isn't really, really important as an elected and what I would really want to instill in my staff is this idea that we have to co-govern because there's no way we know what's best when it comes to policy. Um and there needs to be that sort of ethos that we are gonna bring people in. We are going to get um, you know, utilize that institutional knowledge to create policy that's nuanced and that is gonna move this state forward.
SPEAKER_00Both at the state and the local level over the past few years, there have been various different proposals around wages, right? Uh some have tried to set a uniform higher minimum wage, either for the city or for the state. Others have pushed particular wages around different sectors. Uh, what sort of minimum wage increases or minimum wage policies are you in favor of?
SPEAKER_01Look, workers aren't getting paid enough in the state of California, point blank. Uh, and we need to make sure that we pass legislation that is going to create dignity uh for those that work. And I don't think I have a specific uh checklist of what I support and what I don't support. I think for the most part, um, I believe that there is a widening gap between those that are amassing an incredible amount of wealth, an incredible, an unfathomable amount of wealth in this in this state and in this country, and those that are falling quickly into poverty. You know, our middle class is shrinking. And so for me, um I don't have that much of a nuanced approach on this. This is something that I think we just gotta pay workers more. And um, I I am in favor of um increasing our minimum wage across all sectors.
SPEAKER_00Yes, across all sectors. Okay. Uh want to switch to immigration. Uh this district, you know, no secret, has a very large immigrant population. Uh people around Los Angeles and in this district in particular have lived through deportation raids, essentially, you know, kidnappings of their family members, people are afraid to go to work, people are afraid to go to school, um, all sorts of anti-immigrant rhetoric out there. What are your top priorities in Sacramento on immigration?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I so I have been fascinated with the work that has been happening up in Sacramento around immigration. So I taught constitutional law at Valley College for a couple of years before running for the LA Community College District. I do a lot of immigration work, as I mentioned. Um, and you know, when you were talking about immigration, when I talked about immigration to my con law students years back, I would say this is this is a federal issue. There is a supremacy clause. There's um, and that is not the case anymore. Right. All of a sudden, California has been become the champion of states' rights, which is jarring.
unknownIt is.
SPEAKER_06It's like 10th Amendment. Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_01Um, so for me, I am really fascinated about one, the immigration package that's already been passed and that Newsom signed this summer and that is inevitably tied up in the courts. Yeah. Um I and I think it's gonna be incumbent that we have legislators up in Sacramento that are really well versed in constitutional law and immigration policy to continuously go back to the drawing board and tweak what the legislation we have created to ensure that it's a defensible in court because everything's gonna get challenged at this point. And it feels unsatisfying because a lot of that is kind of, you know, nibbling around the edges, but we've got to do whatever we can to codify into California law the ability to expand our safe zone doctrine, whether that's around healthcare facilities or educational facilities. You know, as someone who sits on the board of the LA Community College District, you know, we are very committed to doing whatever we can to ensure that we protect our students, their families, and the staff within our college system. But we rely very heavily on the state to be able to provide some cover through through California code on what we can and can't do. And so I think that um there's a lot of creative policy that's coming out and by necessity that I'm really excited about. I think the ability to tax um private immigrant detention centers in California up to 50% is a great way that we can utilize um state power to really put pressure on the federal government around some of their enforcement actions. And I think it's gonna take some really creative policy like that. Obviously, super in favor of the mask, the mask ban um for ICE officers, but it's gonna take continuously going back to the drawing board. I think one of those, one of those pieces of legislation was upheld and the other one was struck down. Yeah. It's gonna take consistently going back and tweaking our our legislation around that. That is something that I'm um really committed to. I've talked to folks, um, small business owners along Cesar Chavez, uh, that are struggling, you know, that their business has gone down by 50% because the community is paralyzed in fear. I'm deeply supportive of what LA County is doing right now to provide that sort of assistance, specifically for small business owners that are really affected and that are doing their part to protect their people as well. And so um, any way that the state can create some sort of supplemental fund to encourage that sort of behavior at the city and county level, I think is really, really important.
SPEAKER_00There have been fights over the years, over the decades, really in Sacramento about uh what sort of uh benefits uh to extend to undocumented immigrants. Uh healthcare, all sorts of uh stuff. Uh the state has at times moved forward, at times not. Uh whenever it happens, you know, Fox News goes crazy and it winds up becoming a whole thing about crazy California. Um where do you stand on on what benefits we should be extending? Or and is there anything that that we should pause about?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, look, I mean, like so many people in California, I'm a child that came of age of in prop during Prop 187. It radicalized me as well as probably so many Californians. Um, it is a moral responsibility to provide healthcare education to every Californian, regardless of their documented status. Um I struggle with this uh because for me it's an issue of morality. Yeah. But even if you don't feel that way, it's an issue of self-interest as well. You know, I think there is uh elected here in Los Angeles that used to always talk about enlightened self-interest, you know, this idea that if you don't care about these people, which is abhorrent in and of itself, right? At least think about it through the viewpoint that we can't live in the society we want to live in if we are not taking care of people, either through healthcare, education, basic basic social services. And so to me, that is something that we're that's the principle that I stand on. I believe that the Cal that California as a state has a responsibility to provide those services to everyone that lives here. When it comes to budget, obviously much easier said than done when we're not talking about actual budget and line items. So I know that that has been, you know, that that's where it's gotten controversial in the last few cycles. But um, you know, just on broad strokes, it's something that I know, you know the future predecessor of this of this seat has fought valiantly for and won on in providing healthcare to every Californian. And it's something that I would continue that fight to promote as well.
SPEAKER_00I wanted to ask a couple questions about housing. Uh one in particular I wanted to ask you about is about displacement. Um Central East, Northeast LA, they're all facing intense displacement pressures, rising rents, gentrification in some places. What um what specific state level tools would you use to prevent displacement while still building the additional housing we need?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I it's a great question. Um it's something that's on the minds of any anybody that lives in this district in general. Actually, I was gonna say just Boyle Heights in East LA, but it's actually across the board. And you know, this as someone who's been involved in local politics. We have a housing crisis in this city that is is and was a policy choice. Um, it has created decades of underbuilding. And so, you know, young families that want to live on the west side have realized that they can't afford that.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01Doesn't mean they're gonna leave Los Angeles. It means that they're gonna go find a house elsewhere. You know, they're gonna be a good thing. Yes, right. They're gonna utilize their buying power and maybe they don't live in Venice, but they live in Palms. And then when palms becomes too expensive, they don't live in palms, but they live In West Adams. And then when what's that Adams becomes too expensive and it moves farther and farther east.
SPEAKER_00Until you get to Lancaster.
SPEAKER_01Until you get to Lancaster, or you get to Boyle Heights, or you get to East LA, right? And so for me, displacement is directly tied to our inability to create housing. Um, what I have seen as a someone who's worked deeply on this issue is that there's a real gap in providing missing middle housing. And what I mean by that is, you know, we're building market rate, not enough. We're building deeply affordable, not enough. But we don't have the tax credit incentive structure to build workforce housing, which is essentially uh for non-practitioners, probably somebody who's making around 60 to 110, 120,000 here in Los Angeles. School teacher. School teacher, uh, someone who works in government, someone who works at a nonprofit, receptionist at the doctor's office. Yeah, a young person just starting off in their career. We don't have any of that development happening right now. We don't have any development happening in general, but that's a whole different issue. But we don't have the incentive structure to really build that type of housing, which is what we desperately need if we want to keep young people here in this city, if we want to keep people that work in the public sector in this city tied to the city they work for. Um, and so that is something to me that I think is really, really important. And it's something that we can be doing in Sacramento to really tweak that incentive structure to build more of that workforce housing, which is going to directly affect um some of these displacement issues. And look, I have a lot of friends that grew up on the east side, that grew up in Lincoln Heights, East LA. Um, you know, they went off to college, they're making decent money and they want to live in the communities they grew up in.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_01But there isn't, unless they are qualifying for extremely low-income, low-income housing, it there's really not a lot of housing stock available. And so when we talk about displacement, it's not just folks that um have been here for a long time, it's their children and their grandchildren and the ability for families to stay intact in communities. It's really, really important. Look, we got to walk and shoe gum at the same time. So while at the same time we're talking about increasing housing production, we also have to make sure that we have strong tenant protections for those that are already here. And that means making sure I'm a big fan of um rolling rent control legislation like the 2009 Tenant Protection Act, and making sure that we have um, you know, renter protections that are not gonna chill existing, you know, future housing development, but are really gonna protect people that have been here and lived their entire lives and given so much to this community.
SPEAKER_00I'm glad you mentioned the the tenant protections, uh, because there's the the state has done more on tenant protections in the past years than they have in decades.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh tenants are more of a political force now. There have been a lot of things the city of Los Angeles has done, like uh uh just cause eviction rules, making it harder to do what they call renovictions, where they evict somebody under the guise of renovations. Are there any of the things that have been passed by LA or other local governments that you think the state should adopt?
SPEAKER_01I think that, and I can't remember who did it first, actually. I I think the tenant protections under SB 330 that allow for um that allow for compensation, rent compensation in the event that say uh an apartment building gets else and is, you know, demolished, that making sure that we have stronger protections um and we're constantly looking at how we can protect folks that have lived in the community for a long time to allow them to be justly compensated for uh the demolition of their property, I think is important. Um I want to say that LA did it before the state did, because that's why SB330 wasn't really that big of a lift, because I believe that those tenant protections were already in place in Los Angeles. And so I think, you know, in a in a way, Los Angeles has really led the way uh when it comes to tenant protections. You see that in the difference between LA City and LA County.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, and and then obviously in other parts of the state as well. Yeah. So I think it's constantly being vigilant about how um, you know, how this is working on the ground. What, what, what is really happening for folks that are experiencing this in real time. And I think that that is really important. Look, I we've got to make sure that there is a balance when you look at um Boyle Heights and East LA, you have a lot of mom and pop landlords, folks that grew up in the community and own a duplex or a quadplex. And we want to make sure we don't want a corporate takeover of our real estate market. And so I think there's also that balance of making sure that we are, you know, we're creating policy to create the outcomes that we want. Yeah. And I think that only works if you're really on the ground talking to folks in the tenant, you know, tenant unions, when you're talking to folks in affordable housing developers and making sure that we really understand the nuances of this policy.
SPEAKER_00Uh you mentioned earlier about the need for more workforce housing. We were still not doing enough for deeply affordable, still not doing enough market. There's been a real tension between local government and state government for housing production for the past decade. You know, every year or so, Scott Wiener has had a bill that uh has tried to force the local government's hands or take away local control. Uh local governments tend to freak out over this. Um most recent was SB 79, uh, which the city of LA opposed and which uh will allow easier housing production around transit corridors. You worked for the city for a couple years. Uh you are running for state office. Where do you fall on that line about uh taking away some local control if they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's a great question. Um look, I 79 is a very controversial bill uh that I've had a lot of conversations with folks across the district. And what I tell people, one, I am unapologetically uh a zealous advocate for building housing around transit. That is something we have to do. We have invested billions of our dollars. You know, we have paid for this, of this expansion of our metro line, which is needed if we're gonna have the world-class city that we deserve. Um and we have to build housing around it. That being said, SB 79 is taking a sledgehammer to what probably should have been a scalpel, but it is the direct manifestation of counties and cities being unable or unwilling to move the fall forward when it comes to housing production. And so I think that that has to be taken into account. Um, and it's one of the reasons why I'm running. You know, if we're gonna be serious about housing production and cities want to retain local control, then they got to get moving on this.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, and if we really want to create nuanced housing policy that's gonna work for Southern California, that's gonna be crafted through a Southern California lens, then we need folks that are housing advocates up in Sacramento that go beyond San Francisco and the Bay Area, right? That understand that the topography is different here and that we need to craft legislation that recognizes that and takes into account um, takes into account those differences. And I think that's probably some of the the drawbacks on 79 is that um there could have been a little bit more finesse, but we need we need housing advocates from SoCal, from LA that are gonna be at the table to be able to weigh in. And so um I I believe that you know ultimately there will be an ability to um refine 79 to make it work for Southern California communities, but we have to build density by transit. The thing that the the issue that I have with 79 is that at times because we are getting uh like the five, what's it called? The five fire alarm. We're getting five alarm fire uh from you know, from homeowners in single family neighborhoods that are losing their shit over this. Um, it distracts us from the fact that we have real opportunity to incentivize housing in parts of this city that need and want it. You know, in downtown LA, residents there, you know, would be disappointed by a nine-story apartment building. They want a 25-story apartment building. And we have, you know, ground level surface lots that could that have that capacity, but we have to figure out how do we create policy to incentivize that type of development. And the fact of the matter is, is that nobody's gonna buy you know your $5 million home in Hancock Park and raise it so that they can buy another $5 million home right next to you to raise it, to build your nine-story apartment building in the middle of an HPOZ. Doesn't make an economic sense. Yeah, it's not gonna happen. But there is a sort of antagonization with 79 that creates that consternation.
SPEAKER_00There's a lot of people who lost their shit over 79 that if they had bothered to look at the details of the bill would have realized it has nothing to do with their neighborhood.
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh. I have I've been to that community meeting where I have gotten in a huge debate over 79 and then walked out to my car and been like, oh my God, this doesn't even apply to this neighborhood.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. Like uh when I looked at the final map of 79, I'm like, I can't believe the areas that were fighting this because it had nothing to do with them.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um you you mentioned mass transit. I want to ask a question about that. Um, in a few weeks, LA Metro is gonna be opening up the next phase of the uh Wilshire subway. Uh today, the day Yep. Um yes, ride the D. That's the t-shirts.
SPEAKER_01I tried to buy one of those t-shirts. I I got mine. Did you?
SPEAKER_00Yes, absolutely. I'm wearing it to the opening. Oh, okay. Uh today, as we're talking, Metro is voting on whether to extend uh the the K-line north, uh Crunchhaw line north to West Hollywood. Both of those projects on the west side, uh, there's people don't argue the merits of the projects, but they do argue that, okay, the west side's getting a lot, the east side still needs more. What's your public transit agenda?
SPEAKER_01So uh it was teaching in South LA that made me realize that public transportation is a civil rights issue. You know, I taught students in Watts that had lived here their entire lives and had never been to the beach.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And that is a manifestation of not having a public transit system that reflects the type of city we want to live in. Um it is something that I care deeply about because I we deserve nice things in this city. And we, you know, I think that it is absolutely imperative that we continue to expand our lines, but it's not enough just to expand. We've got to make sure that we are increasing reliability, frequency, cleanliness, and safety. And, you know, we need people who do who do have an option to take public transit to start taking it. Right. It can't be because you have no other way to get around this city. And so there's a lot of work to be done when it comes to building out a world-class public transit system. And I think there's a role, there's absolutely a role to play at the state level to ensure that we have the dollars to make that happen. Um the K-line needs to happen. Um, and this is where I, you know, I I I think that we've got to have the political will and the political courage to move these things forward, even if not everybody's pleased by it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But we have to, we have to do it. Someone was telling me the other day that they went on a delegation trip to Madrid, um, where they have just the government there has um closed off all of the streets in the center of Madrid and created a pedestrian zone. Yeah. It's amazing. It's lovely. You can walk.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_01Madrid's so much more walkable. And it was these legislators that sat down with uh folks in government, Spanish government officials, and said, How did you, how did you do this? I'm sure there was so much community. Like, did you get any community feedback? Were people upset about it? And they're like, Oh yeah, people hated it. Oh yeah, nobody wanted us to do this. It was there was so much outcry. And all of these legislators were like, Well, well, how'd you deal with that? What what about the lawsuits? And what about the community groups? And what about this? And and these Spanish officials were just like mystified. They're like, we just did it. We just did it. And obviously, we have a highly litigious society. There's a lot more to that. But like somebody turned to the group, they're like, guys, we're the weird ones. Like, we're the weirdos. Like, if we want to do big things, if we want to save our environment, if we want to make sure to reduce vehicle miles traveled, if we want to live in the city that we know we all want to live in, sometimes it just takes political will to get this done. And that going back to your question about, you know, local government versus state, I think there is an ability to do big things at the state and sometimes push back against uh local government that is sometimes so close to the ground that they get mired in a lot of the delay and the infighting that comes from trying to do this stuff, which is really, really hard. So with public transportation, that's something that I care about so much because one, my son loves training. So we take the metro a lot. And also my 76-year-old mother takes the A-line every day from Highland Park to downtown in the morning and then comes back at night. Wow. And I gotta say, I sometimes get a little nervous about, you know, my mom doing that. But it's one, I admire her for her commitment to public transit. Um, but two, like a public transit system is a system that is comfortable for our vote most vulnerable citizens. And the way I look at vulnerability is it means it's a system that can be taken by a six-year-old little boy or a 76-year-old woman.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And that to me is that's my measure for success. How do we create a system where more people like my son and my mother can take it with ease?
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. Um environmental justice. I want to talk about uh some of the neighborhoods in this Senate district have some of the worst air pollution around. Near industrial sites, freeways. Uh you get elected. What sort of environmental justice bills do you want to carry?
SPEAKER_01So air quality is number one. You know, anything that we can do to increase uh EV uh transit-related vehicles, especially the ones that are going on the 710 that are, you know, we are mired in freeways all around us uh in this district. It's so incredibly important.
SPEAKER_00For folks who aren't familiar, the 710 is just loaded with trucks.
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_00Loaded with trucks.
SPEAKER_01And it's important because they are those trucks are coming from the port. And that's a huge economic driver for the state of California and for Los Angeles. But we've got to figure out how to do right by communities that have suffered from uh, you know, environmental racism for decades. For decades. Uh, before living in Eagle Rock, where I live now, we lived in in Boyle Heights, and you can you can feel the air quality difference. You know, it when you just think about air quality, um, it's a good indication on how stratified this district is. And so um, that is something that's really important to me. But it's also green space and park space. We know that children that don't live within a 10-minute walk of any sort of green space or park space or plaza have a more than 50% chance of developing a psych psychiatric trick disorder later on in life. That is that's the data. We know that. We know that it's a social determinant of health to have access to parks and green space. And we know that parts of this district, whether you're talking about Pico Union, MacArthur Park, uh, Boyle Heights, East LA, do not have the type of green space and open space that places like Eagle Rock, Glasgow Park, the Northeast have in this part of the in this district. And so for me, environmental justice also means doing um what we can to expand and preserve open space in park space. I'm not interested in recreating the wheel. I think Assembly member Jessica Celosa is doing a lot of great work about on this already. And I'd be really eager to partner with her on that work. But I think a great proof point, and it's a park that my son and I use all the time, is LA State Historic Park.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know, which went from empty cornfields and an industrial site to a park that is one of my favorite spots in Los Angeles. It's well maintained, it has some revenue generation. So you can still you can see the difference in that urban state park than say other parks in the area. And we've, I think there's a real role for the state to play in preserving and expanding park space where it's most needed. And for that, I I always include trails in in that sort of kind of bucket of work that I want to do. And I think there's a real opportunity in this district to expand on trails and bicycle infrastructure. Um, one thing I care about deeply, because we do a lot of biking in my family, is the LA River Path.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Which is a great little bike path that dead ends before you get to downtown, right? Picks back up after downtown, goes all the way to Long Beach. Um, that's a real opportunity to create mobility, to create a trail that people can utilize that has nothing to do with cars. Right. That's not going to take up a lane of traffic, it's not going to take up any existing parking that can be done if we are really focused on creating some real world outcomes. And right now, that's not a reality when you look at the existing environmental at Metro. And so there's some movement by some community groups to create a joint powers authority with a nonprofit to create something much more simplified that goes through the river channel and creates the bike lane and the path that we all want that we can always improve upon and get that done before the 2028 election. That is mostly a local issue that requires a city council member, a metro board member to really get involved. But if there's one thing that I've learned in politics in Los Angeles is that the power of a bully pulpit and any elected official, whether it's a mayor or a state senator or assembly member, if you create, if you become a political champion for a project, you can get it done.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And that's something for me that is really important. And it's tangible. It's something that you can deliver. And that's what I think when you when you think about people's frustration with government in California right now. It's the idea, can we just get something done? You know, and that's something to me that is totally feasible that we can do, uh, but it's going to take some political will.
SPEAKER_00Take some political will, but it's the rare uh political win-win. Yes.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_00On environmental issues, particularly environmental justice issues, I think some of the policymakers who have the hardest time uh navigating the complexity of the issue are people who represent uh EJ impacted communities. Because it's it's it's the the worst pollution. So you have the the greatest need to get off fossil fuels to protect those communities. But the the people who work in the jobs in in the fossil fuel industry, a lot of them live in those districts and are very concerned about things that impact their industries. How are you going to navigate that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, I think that's a great question. And it is the complexity of this work, right? Um I I believe, as many Californians do, in a clean energy future. Uh I am not a subject matter expertise in clean energy or energy in any way. But what I do know is that we are stalled out in creating the future that we want. Our goals, our aspirational goals are completely disconnected to the reality on the ground. And the reality on the ground is that we're still deeply reliant on fossil fuel. And the reality on the ground is that we are literally using environmental laws to hold up the development of green energy infrastructure that will get us to our clean energy energy future. So that to me is something that I think we need to figure out first, right? We we've got to, you know, folks talk about making sure that we can transition uh workers in uh the existing um in existing energy industries into that clean energy industry as well. But before we do that, we need to create an environment in California where clean energy is happening, right? That where we're attracting the types of companies and the type of infrastructure build out that we need to actually get us to where we want to go. And that to me is something that I'm really fascinated with as a land use attorney that does a lot of work around Sequa is how do we unstick the process? We all know we want it, but our lunch is getting eaten by states like Texas, who have no environmental regulation, but have just created, cleared a pathway to create the type of transmission infrastructure that the state needs to be able to encourage. Clean energy development. And so for me, that is kind of the first step in making sure that we can get to where we need to be around clean energy. Because I do feel that there is a bit of a cart before the horse if we start start talking about a future without fossil fuel, if we haven't created the clean energy infrastructure to actually make that a reality.
SPEAKER_00So we're recording here today at Cal State LA. You are a former uh middle school teacher. You present the community college board. So I got to ask some educational questions. Um California is currently spending, I think, historically high le amounts of money on TK through 12. Um, but districts are still facing, you know, budget stress, enrollment declines. How should the state change its school funding formula or oversight so that money actually reaches the highest need students in classes?
SPEAKER_01That's a great, that's a great question. One, I am in favor of changing from an attendance-based funding model for K through 12 to enrollment. I think that that really goes to, you know, some of our high need communities where you have folks that are keeping their kids home from school because they're worried about immigration enforcement.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_01Um, or, you know, really struggle with certain attendance requirements because of just they're trying to survive in this city and in this state. I think we need to um, we're one of the only states that actually still utilize an attendance, a student funding uh model based on attendance. I know there's a lot of other states that are using an enrollment-based funding model. But yeah, I think that that's the first step into creating some equity in funding. Um, and I think we've got to hold school districts accountable to make sure that they are spending dollars the way we want them to, that they don't have top-heavy sort of administrative models, that we're making sure that we're getting as many folks that are qualified into the classroom as possible, and that we're creating a sense of accountability that voters feel comfortable with. I'll give you a really good example of something that I'm incensed about as a parent of an LAUSD student. Uh, a few cycles back, I voted for Prop 28, as most people I think did because it passed by 70 to 80%. Prop 2028 was a ballot measure that allocated more arts funding into our public school system. And like imagine a city like Los Angeles, the creative hub of the world, who doesn't want more arts funding, more arts education into our schools? Passed by flying collars. Um, the city of Long Beach did what it was supposed to do, and they took that additional money, millions of dollars, and they hired over 150 art professionals into their school system. Wow. So if you have a child that goes to Long Beach Unified, you are getting this exponentially better arts education program for your students. What voters wanted.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01What LAUSD did is they zeroed out their line item for arts education and supplanted the Prop $28 that voters passed. And so if you have a student in LUSD, you don't have any sort of supplemental or added arts education. And that to me is where people lose faith in government. When the voters, the will of the voters is subverted for whatever reason, right? You know, I'm sure the district will say that there was some serious budgetary issues, but that's when people lose faith in the public school system, when they lose faith in government's ability to deliver. And when people lose faith and faith in government, they lose faith in democracy.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And when we lose faith in democracy, we create an opening for a wannabe dictator. Start implementing a fascist government. So, I mean, not to get too dramatic about that, but I think it for me as a parent and as someone that cares about the state of California, I think we need to make sure that the state is really creating some accountability, especially for large districts like LAUSD, to make sure that dollars are spent wisely.
SPEAKER_00Uh, recent years, the state has cut the base funding for the UCs and the CSUs, but still expect those places to meet the same goals on enrollment and equity, workforce prep, all that kind of stuff. Uh so you know, they're resorting to tuition hikes or cuts in classes or services. Uh how do we how do you stabilize public university funding while still protecting affordability for low and middle income folks?
SPEAKER_01It's it's difficult. And I know, you know, the the UC system as an example is a shining sort of beacon of an example of a public university system that we have to maintain. That is something that California is known for. When we talk about Cal States, um, you know, there's no dedicated funding stream for the Cal States, reliant solely on the general fund. And so this is where the middle class gets built. Yes. Through our Cal State programs uh system, through our community college system, community colleges have prop K funding. So not as not as dire as the Cal States, but I I am deeply in favor of creating a dedicated funding stream for the Cal State system because it is where we educate Californians that need access to higher education the most. And if we are going to get folks ready for the future of work, if we are going to be able to offer advanced degrees that don't saddle students with a lifetime of student debt, it's gonna be at a Cal State. Yes. And so that's something that I think we have to, you know, obviously every it's much easier said than done because we are in difficult budgetary times, but I think we need to be committed to a dedicated funding stream for the Cal State system. Right.
SPEAKER_00Uh right now there's this fight going on over whether or not community colleges should offer uh more bachelor's degrees. Uh UCs and CSUs are freaking out about it. They think it should be duplicative, may you know cannibalize them. Uh where do you stand?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I mean I probably a little biased because I'm a community college trustee. Uh look, I am deeply concerned about the future of work and the future of young people in this country, in this world right now, with the advent of AI and just this evolving, ever-changing workforce um reality. And so I think whatever we can do to ensure that our students are prepared to enter into careers that are going to uplift themselves and their families and create a better life for them is that's my end goal. Um, and I'll give you an example of something that I'm in favor of, uh, which probably goes to answer your question. Um, a couple cycles ago, um, UNAC UHCP, the nurses union, proposed a bill that would allow for four-year nursing degrees at community colleges, much to the consternation of the Cal States. Um, but here's the thing. We know in this world of AI and automation, there's a few jobs and industries that are not going to be automated, at least not soon.
SPEAKER_06Right.
SPEAKER_01And that is the care economy, right? That means nursing, that means healthcare professionals that are doing the actual care. Right. We know we already have a workforce shortage as it is in healthcare professionals. We can't get enough. And we know that our community college students that are getting an AA in nursing, when they apply to a nursing program at the Cal States, they're getting rejected because the programs are completely impacted. Right. Um, and so what do those students do? They don't just quit, they go to a private for-profit college to get their nursing degree so that they can move into a highly lucrative industry that will change their lives. And so for me, um, I think there's a real opportunity, specifically with that legislation, to look at the workforce that we need, uh, look at the gaps um in our healthcare system and provide an opportunity for people that we know need those opportunities to get a four-year degree from a public institution rather than a for-profit college that's going to saddle them with debt.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01Um, that's scary, I know, for Cal states because what happens if that changes? What happens if that reality changes?
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_01But I think there's an opportunity and there's a way to create some flexibility in that legislation so that it's not a zero-sum game between the community college system and the Cal states. Um, that to me is really, really important because you can go through, we don't have a nursing, a four-year nursing degree program at the community colleges because that legislation didn't pass, but uh, you can get a dental hygiene, a four-year dental hygiene uh degree from West LA College for $10,000. Wow. That is the best deal in the country. You can't get a four-year degree for less. Right. And so when we're talking about, especially in a place like Los Angeles, where so many of our students are living below the poverty line, where one in five of our students in the community college system are homeless, over half are housing insecure, to provide that type of opportunity is critical.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01It's absolutely critical. And so for me, that is my rationale why I think it's a good thing. I think that it the policy needs to be nuanced and we need to make sure that we're supporting our Cal states to do whatever we can to also um provide, you know, create some delineation on where roles lie.
SPEAKER_00Uh public safety. There's so many um uh really bitter polarized debates over public safety, right? Um tough on crime on one hand, care not cages on the other. Uh at the local level, that plays out in sort of police budgeting fights, right? At the state level, it plays out more on questions of uh do you do anything to make changes to sentencing or probation or parole or or policies that would meaningfully reduce in incarceration? Um where do you fall on those efforts in in Sacramento? Are there any particular pieces of legislation or efforts about reducing incarceration that that you you like or dislike?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I am this is an area I'm interested in learning more on. And I would not say that I'm a subject matter expert on criminal justice reform. Uh I'm I'm really deeply interested in elder parole. I know it's very controversial, especially when a certain, you know, when particular cases come up before the parole board and it's somebody who's committed a heinous crime. And um, so I think that that's it's it's something that needs to be approached with a real sense of nuance. But I think anything that we can do to create a sense of dignity and rehabilitation in our carceral system, specifically in our prison system, is absolutely necessary. Um, and again, enlightened self-interest. If you don't care about it from the standpoint of humanity, it's really expensive to keep people locked up like that. And so um, it's something that I'm that particular issue, I'm really interested in. You know, you talk to small business owners in in the district and throughout California, you know, you have folks that are frustrated with crime levels in their communities. I think that has to be balanced with a keen sense of what the constitution is and the constitutionality as a lawyer and worked in the legal profession. I think that's where the balance is, you know, really understanding the needs of the community, but making sure that we're not just throwing out um kind of hastily crafted legislation that goes directly against um some of the worst instances of policing that this country has seen.
SPEAKER_00Uh quick lightning round, uh, a few questions. Um an issue that is always under debate every legislative session in Sacramento, uh, Calcare.
SPEAKER_01Calcare. I'm in favor of Calcare. Um the reason why I I I pause is that look, we've got the Trump administration that we're dealing with. We're not getting that waiver from the federal government, so I'm in favor of it. Yeah. Do I think it's realistic at this point in time? No.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01Uh, but I think we need to get to a world where um where we create universal healthcare. And if single payer is feasible, yeah, then I'm I'm 100% for it.
SPEAKER_06Right.
SPEAKER_01But I'm interested in outcomes. I'm not interested in ideology. And so that is uh that's the hard part about legislation like that. What we need is a single payer system throughout the United States, like every other country does. It is incredibly difficult to try and carve that out in the state of California. And I'd be very interested in learning um more from folks that are doing this work on the ground. How do we do that that's different than any other state uh has attempted? Um, how do we create that? Because I'm I'm open to it and I'm supportive in theory. It's just I struggle with the feasibility of how that would work.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. An issue that has been debated in Sacramento a few times has been to the ballot a few times, uh, repeal of Costa Hawkins, which uh sort of governs when cities can do rent control.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I am in favor of rent control in the 2019 Tenant Protection Act. I'm in favor of re-upping that in 2030 and looking at how to adjust or tighten those caps. I am not in favor of repealing Costa Hawkins because, quite frankly, I do not trust cities and counties to do the right thing on rent control. And I not getting the endorsement of the California Legal Cities, probably. Uh, but look, I mean, look, Los Angeles has led the way on tenant protections. Right. But we are surrounded by communities, and not to name any names, but a few of them are in Orange County, that I could quite very likely imagine a scenario where they create um rent control caps that basically freeze the development of any affordable housing in their communities, right?
SPEAKER_00For the sake of just making it look like they're going tougher than LA, but doing it in a way that would stop housing.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. Or, you know, that would just essentially create an anti-growth ecosystem, which is what these cities want. Let's be real serious. And so I I don't um that is something that I a reality I don't want to see because we all have to do our part in building affordable housing.
SPEAKER_00Uh three questions that are uh going through the certification process, likely to be on the ballot in November. One uh proposed one-time uh billionaire tax.
SPEAKER_01I am supportive of the concept. Um again, similar to Calcare. I'm interested in the outcomes, not the ideology. And if that I believe that we need to really find some ways, some progressive taxation uh methods to create some revenue generation for the state, just to keep us at baseline, because we're staring down the barrel of a lot of federal cuts right now. Um I'm in favor of that if it gets us where we need to be. I'm worried about a um, I don't know the details of the billionaire's tax, but um, I'm worried about a highly transient billionaire class that can very easily utilize a team of lawyers to change residency requirements, change the way they conduct their business to get out from under that. And because we have a taxation system that relies very heavily on high income earners, um, I don't want to I I want us to be results oriented. And so I guess that is a kind of a long-winded way of saying I'm supportive, but there, you know, the devil's in the details.
SPEAKER_00And interestingly, and I imagine this will be the subject of some litigation. Um, the way I understand it is it sets it, it applies the tax based on uh your residency and your income at the beginning of 2026. So you can't just move out, right? Right. And but people say that's gonna get litigated all over the place. Right. There's a proposal on the ballot uh that would require proof of citizenship to uh register to vote.
SPEAKER_01Against it.
SPEAKER_00Uh there is a potential ballot measure from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association that would uh effectively repeal measure ULA in Los Angeles and at the same time would uh raise the um the the the threshold of a vote for local governments to uh raise revenue.
SPEAKER_01Against it. Um because of which part we're both I think ULA needs to be reformed. Um, I can go into a long-winded analysis about that, but I think that uh, you know, we've we've got to make sure that we're not um creating a chilling effect on creating more multifamily, more affordable multifamily in the city of Los Angeles. And um, there's a real concern that ULA has created that chilling effect. Um so that that I believe does need to be reformed, but it can't be on the backs of raising the threshold for for taxation.
SPEAKER_00Yep. Final question I asked this of any candidate in in this cycle is we're living in really difficult, challenging times. Economy, ice raids, the collapse of you know democratic institutions. Um You're running for office, so clearly you believe that there's a better future that's possible. Uh you're a mom of of a young kid. Um how do you how do you keep faith and how do you encourage your your kid to have faith?
SPEAKER_01That's a great question. Um definitely my family keeps me grounded. Uh that is something that I this is the third election I've run in. It's the first one with a six-year-old child. When I ran for LAC C D, he was a he was a toddler. So um, but it's been it's it definitely keeps me grounded. But I have to say, it's been so important for me as a candidate to run a people-centered campaign and not just say that, yeah, but to really do it. Um, I was very insistent early on, and a lot of people will say state senate races are million people. Like, don't try and create a ground game when you're dealing with um a huge electorate. I have I've dispelled with that, with that advice. And we have created a really um amazing college internship program where we have over 35 students that are joining us every Saturday and Sunday to walk the district. And those students give me hope, you know, especially as someone who's been involved with LA politics for uh quite a while. And, you know, you know that there's ideological divides, there's a lot of polarization in this city. People, you know, there's code words and traps and booby traps for how you say things. And these kids are just so they they just have they inspire me to um to run to create a California that's better. And we have kids from UCLA that are taking like three or four bus lines just to get to Eagle Rock to walk, you know, knock doors every weekend, which one is an amazing testament, or maybe not amazing testament to our public transit system. Um, you know, we have interns that have grown up in South LA and gone through the public school system and are now students at LMU and you know, have this amazing hope for this city. Um, we have students that, you know, from USC and from Occidental and from Cal State Northridge and from our community college system. And those students just really give me a lot of hope. And we've seen it on the doors. Uh we we started telling them because of the feedback we've gotten when one of our students knocks on the door and says, Hey, I'm a UCLA student and I'm walking because I just want to do something. It's really inspiring to people because I feel like a lot of us are just kind of wallowing in this sort of despair that this democracy is slowly eroding around us. And I think it's gonna be the young people that save us.
unknownGreat.
SPEAKER_00Sarah Hernandez, thanks so much.
SPEAKER_01Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00And that's it for this episode of What's Next Los Angeles. My thanks to Sarah Hernandez for joining me. My thanks to Tonya We see us for editing and producing, and my thanks to LA Forward for sponsoring this podcast. Please also tune in to our sister podcast every Monday morning, LA Podcast, where I'm part of a stable of co-hosts discussing and analyzing the latest news about politics, policy, and government in Los Angeles and California. You can find it wherever you listen to podcasts. And stay tuned for more episodes of What's Next Los Angeles. We're going to be talking to lots more candidates running for office. Until then, thank you for joining me. Peace and take good care.