Will Nithya Raman Be the Next LA Mayor?

Summary

Trash Tuesday w/ Esther Povitsky & Khalyla Kuhn

Episode: Will Nithya Raman Be the Next LA Mayor?

Date: May 26, 2026

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Overview

This episode dives into Los Angeles city politics, centering on Councilwoman Nithya Raman’s mayoral campaign. The hosts, Esther Povitsky and Khalyla Kuhn, along with guest Caroline Goldfarb, engage with Raman about her vision for LA, key city issues—homelessness, housing, animal welfare, public safety, the upcoming Olympics, and the film/TV industry's decline—and candidly contrast her approach to that of other high-profile (and sometimes controversial) candidates like Spencer Pratt.

The conversation is relaxed, irreverent, occasionally off-beat but sincere, peppered with humor and personal anecdotes, providing insight for LA voters and anyone curious about local government challenges.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Names, Identity, and the LA Mayoral Race

• The hosts joke about the pronunciation and origin of their names, emphasizing cultural backgrounds and LA’s diversity.
• Memorable Quote:
  • "For the first time she's running for mayor. Heard of it. Nithya Raman. And the H in her name is not silent like the one in mine..." — Esther (02:23)

2. Spencer Pratt as Mayoral Candidate

• Discussion of Spencer Pratt, his campaign’s media stunts, and the contrast with “serious” candidates.
• Key Points:
  • His ads are entertaining but not necessarily responsible or substantive (03:35–04:33).
  • Pratt filming ads outside Raman’s house was invasive, raising safety concerns for public officials with families.
• Notable Quote:
  • "The idea of someone being...identifying my home, you know, with—I have 10-year-old twins—that just felt very invasive." — Nithya Raman (05:21)

3. Disaster Recovery and Government Failure

• Caroline and others recount personal experiences with fires and insurance challenges in Altadena and the Palisades.
• Perception that working/middle-class families are disadvantaged in disaster recovery compared to affluent areas.
• Notable Timestamp:
  • Discussion on insurance company inequities and slow recovery (07:55–09:50)
  • "It just feels like while we're still grieving, while still displaced, while traumatized...insurance is so scammy, like we're paying a premium." — Caroline (07:55)

4. Critique of Mayor Bass and City Leadership

• Discussion about why initial hope for Karen Bass as mayor faded: lack of presence, poor disaster communication and response.
• Quote:
  • "I want a government that shows up for people. Even when you're going to be confronted with anger or, you know, challenges. And I don't feel like LA City is that anymore..." — Nithya Raman (12:23)

5. Homelessness: Empathy, Challenges, and Policy

• Homelessness is “more real” for the hosts since becoming mothers.
• Nithya’s district reduced tent encampments by 54% over three years by offering “relentless shelter outreach”—but emphasizes LA’s lack of shelter beds citywide.
• Discusses differences between types of shelters, barriers for unhoused with mental health or addiction issues, and case management failures.
• Key Segment: 14:11–21:21
• Notable Quotes:
  • "In LA, we only have a third of the shelter beds that we need for our total homeless population." — Nithya Raman (18:03)
  • "When shelter is offered, people tend to take it. The people who don't take it tend to be the sickest." (17:27)
  • "No one is in charge...of all the hundreds of millions of dollars of spending that we're doing." (21:25)

6. City Corruption, Accountability, and Leadership

• Hosts press Nithya about corruption and whether “waste” and “fraud” in city homelessness spending are as widespread as some claim.
• Nithya acknowledges both:
  • Lack of accountability leads to waste and some documented fraud, fueling voter distrust and the appeal of fantasy solutions.
• Quote:
  • "Every instance of fraud that shows up ends up underscoring their lack of faith... That’s exactly what Spencer is drawing on." — Nithya Raman (24:13)

7. Caseworker Burnout & Housing Crisis

• Burnout among front-line workers (case managers), underpayment, and thin city resources.
• LA’s unique housing deficit stems from legacy anti-density legislation, resulting in high rents and homelessness.
• Quote:
  • "We have a shortage of something like 500,000 apartments in LA...we have the fewest homes per adult of any major city in America." (28:42–30:48)

8. Police Budget, Political Power & Transparency

• LA’s $3 billion police budget, union influence, unfunded new contracts, and fiscal impact.
• Nithya voted against a recent police contract, calling it “irresponsible” given LA’s fiscal deficit.
• Quote:
  • "The police union is a very powerful force in local politics...this time they’re spending against me because I pushed back..." (40:56–41:18)

9. Animal Welfare and Shelter Funding

• Caroline's passionate advocacy for better animal services funding and humane leadership.
• Discussion of overcrowded, kill shelters, and underfunded animal department.
• Nithya calls for making animal welfare a core city issue, not an afterthought.
• Quote:
  • "For me, ensuring that we're able to take care of animals...should be as important to us as...homelessness." (45:02)

10. The Dangers of Celebrity/Populist Mayoral Bids

• Concerns about Spencer Pratt running a reality-show campaign paralleling national trends (i.e., Trump).
• Warning about frustration making Angelenos vulnerable to “quick fix” candidates without experience.
• Quote:
  • "It’s dystopic...That is really scary to me...That’s the same energy that I think Trump tapped into." — Nithya Raman (45:53–47:58)

11. The LA Olympics: Cost, Access, and Equity

• Critique of the 2028 Olympics: ticket prices, cost overruns, and doubts about benefit for Angelenos.
• LA is responsible for substantial cost overruns; currently basic city services are underfunded.
• Nithya advocates pushing LA28 for transparency, affordable tickets, and actual post-Olympics legacies in infrastructure and green space.
• Key Segment: 51:30–59:56
• Notable Quotes:
  • "If we don’t make enough money from the Olympics...the debt...will have to come back to Angelinos." (55:09)
  • "We need more cheap tickets. We need to make sure Angelinos can access them." (57:58)

12. Vision, Honesty, and the Need for Serious Leadership

• Advocacy for honesty and acknowledging failure in political office, as a contrast to empty promises.
• Quote:
  • "Anyone who says that this is going to be easy is lying." — Nithya Raman (49:10, 49:18)

13. Rapid-Fire LA Recommendations

• Street tacos: Alejandra’s Quesadillas (61:13)
• Best bar/cocktail: Paloma at Mirate in Los Feliz
• Favorite beach: Santa Monica
• Night markets & Chinatown as hidden gems (62:16)
• Parks: Griffith Park, Deb’s Park on the east side for kid-friendly hiking

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Homelessness Systems:
  • "No one is in charge of all the hundreds of millions of dollars of spending that we're doing." — Nithya Raman (21:25)
• On Burnout and City Pay:
  • "We've had people who are working for nonprofits who are using the services themselves because the pay was so low." — Nithya Raman (28:00)
• On City Culture and Housing:
  • "There was a real movement against density...they did not want the city to look like a New York." — Nithya Raman (29:30)
• On Celebrity Candidates:
  • "One man on a quest to enrich himself...become a bigger figure." — Kalila Khalilah (45:54)
  • "On our show, we really believe that blonde men are the root of all evil." — Esther (37:43)
• On People Wanting Easy Fixes:
  • "When economies are on the down...people gravitate towards these candidates who speak to frustrations and put the blame on someone." — Kalila Khalilah (48:07)

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Important Segments & Timestamps

• Spencer Pratt Ads & Campaign: 03:35–05:21
• Disaster/Fire Recovery Stories: 07:06–10:07
• Failures of Local Leadership: 10:11–13:30
• Homelessness Policy Discussion: 14:11–22:54
• Corruption & Systemic Waste: 23:14–25:36
• Front-line Worker Burnout: 27:28–28:42
• Animal Welfare/City Services: 41:56–45:02
• Olympics Concerns: 51:30–59:56
• Nithya’s Vision / Political Honesty: 49:10–51:20
• LA Recommendations (food, parks): 60:41–63:19

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Tone and Podcast Personality

The episode is frank, deeply conversational, sometimes silly, and earnest about LA’s problems. The hosts' irreverence and strong opinions provide comic relief—as when they joke about the "dumbass Olympics" or call out the curse of "blonde men" in politics—but they remain intensely invested in genuine solutions.

Final Thoughts

Nithya Raman’s appearance stands out as both grounded and hopeful. She calls for greater transparency, institutional accountability, and an approach to city governance rooted in showing up—despite the considerable challenges and the appeal of simplistic, populist answers. The hosts and guests, with energy and wit, dig into what makes LA’s problems both unique and universal, bridging policy talk and personal stakes for Angelenos.

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Call to Action

Voting is repeatedly stressed:

• “There’s two weeks before the primary, so just vote if you haven’t voted.” — Nithya Raman (63:27)
• “Things can be better. Let’s fight for a better future…” — Nithya Raman (63:39)

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For more on Nithya’s campaign: nithyaforthecity.com

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End of Summary

Transcript

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[Caroline Goldfarb]

I'm boots on the ground in this department just because I've been a foster for so long and I think that

[Nithya Raman]

you know my she said when she

[Esther]

was younger so that's kind of the pipelines. Are you allowed to say that she.

[Kalila Khalilah]

Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Mayor. Can you make it so Esther doesn't do that?

[Esther]

I watched your show. It's so good. And you never talk about it on our show.

[Kalila Khalilah]

I know. Thank you for reminding me.

[Esther]

Can you tell us about Business Center?

[Kalila Khalilah]

Yes, it's my show on Tik Tok. Everyone should.

[Esther]

Young Gravy is in it.

[Kalila Khalilah]

Young Gravy is on it. Call Jacob, the guy from the billboards if you live in la.

[Esther]

Yeah, I'm still wondering why I haven't been asked to be on it. But we'll. We'll sidebar about that. Welcome back everyone to Trash Tuesday. Today we have returning champion and pregnant.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Very pregnant.

[Kalila Khalilah]

I just saw myself in the monitor.

[Esther]

Oh, no. Turn all the monitors, black out the screens. Caroline Goldfarb. Congratulations.

[Kalila Khalilah]

Thank you.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

You hadn't announced your pregnancy the last time you heard. We were still concealing it.

[Esther]

Yeah, right. When you were dressed like a fisherman or something.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Yeah. You were dressed in Vibram bottom shoes.

[Kalila Khalilah]

I looked. I mean I looked mentally ill. No, you actually know you were wearing really

[Esther]

baggy clothes and welcome. For the first time she's running for mayor. Heard of it. Nithya Ramen N. And the H in her name is not Silent like the one in mine and yours. Kila. I so badly want your H to be silent.

[Nithya Raman]

Oh, you want to call me Nitia?

[Esther]

Yeah.

[Nithya Raman]

Interesting.

[Esther]

Yeah.

[Nithya Raman]

No, Nithya sounds.

[Esther]

Wait, no, because I have a silent

[Caroline Goldfarb]

H. It depends where who says my name. Because in like you have Middle east is Khalila. Like it has the H in it. But you know, my parents were like, it's Kalila.

[Esther]

Yeah, yeah.

[Nithya Raman]

So whatever.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Yeah, yeah.

[Kalila Khalilah]

Can I call you?

[Caroline Goldfarb]

You can call. You can throw the ha in there.

[Nithya Raman]

Say it one more time the way your parents say it.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

It's Halila.

[Esther]

Caroline, what's it like having just a boring name?

[Kalila Khalilah]

First of all, call me Caroline.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Seriously.

[Kalila Khalilah]

I'm not kidding. I know. Considering I have a Middle Eastern parent. I know she really did not snap with my name and I just sound like a boring straight up Jewish person. But I swear I have my mom's Persian. I'm really interesting. Believe that. Believe that.

[Esther]

Let's get into it.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Yeah.

[Esther]

So I'm going to start by saying this, Spencer Pratt, just that. Okay, I. I do have a lot. We have a lot of questions for you. Like, first of all, I'm just going to be real. Like his ads are awesome and exciting and when he starts talking and he gets in his manic flow state, I'm like, I want to go out to dinner with this freak. Like, it is so interesting. But then when I think of taking it seriously the way some people are, I'm like, what? No. And I kind of almost today, like my goal would be to hear from you. Like, how are you actually gonna do the things that he's fantasizing about? Because I feel like he's doing this, putting on a good show. Yeah, but we all know tail, at least for me, like Taylor's oldest time. Like, my gut instincts are like, the rich spoiled white guy is just gonna like do the rich boiled white guy.

[Kalila Khalilah]

The guy who's living in his parents house in Santa Barbara.

[Nithya Raman]

And I mean, well, he's living at the, at the hotel area. Yeah, yeah.

[Kalila Khalilah]

And then spending some time at his parents house in Santa Barbara and blowing all this money on crystals and being in a hummingbird influencer, like, who is not even good or interesting reality star.

[Esther]

It's kind of that thing where like if you know the name like and you're dumb enough, it's like, oh, it's Ted Kaczynski. I've heard of that name. I'll vote for him. Like, you just don't. That's a Unabomber, right? Yeah.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

I thought you Meant Richard Kuklinski, the guy who killed and maim cats. But that's okay. I'd rather vote for him than Spencer Pratt.

[Kalila Khalilah]

He sounds interesting.

[Esther]

My first question is, did it piss you off that he did an ad in front of your house? Because that's so.

[Kalila Khalilah]

Rude? Invasive.

[Nithya Raman]

Yes. I mean, look, I will just say that as a, even as a council member, I've had some very weird threats and people being very angry at me for various things. And so the idea of someone being. Identifying my home, you know, with I have 10 year old twins, like that just felt very invasive. And it's not like I live on like a. They didn't like give me a house because I'm a council member. Like I just live in my old house.

[Esther]

Yeah.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

You would think that he would understand that, being a parent himself, you know, that above all else, like your kids, privacy and safety need to be, you know, protected at all costs. And so that's.

[Nithya Raman]

That's nasty.

[Esther]

Yeah. That would really piss me off if someone did that to me. Well, I know that, like, this is a pretty serious race for you.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Yeah.

[Esther]

Kalila, personally, because you grew up in Altadena.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Nidia. I was an Altadena resident. I also. Can I just take issue with the fact that for some reason people are saying Altadena now and it's pissing me the fuck off. It's Altadena. Okay? We're not going to Altadena it. We're not going to Nevada it.

[Kalila Khalilah]

What did Esther say?

[Caroline Goldfarb]

I don't know. I don't want to remember it.

[Esther]

Alta. Dina, that's where I hold my points.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Okay, So I was an Altadena resident. So was my sister, my best friend. We all lived within three blocks of each other. A lot of the. And we are not the Palisades. A lot of residents in Altadena. In Altadena feel like the working and middle class families get buried in the red tape after disasters, like with insurance and stuff. And while wealthier neighborhoods like the Palisades recover faster, is that perception fair?

[Nithya Raman]

You know, so Altadena is not in the city of la. It's in LA County. So the recovery efforts are being led by LA county supervisors. I think you're a supervisor, Supervisor Barger. So I know less about the recovery process there. But having been to the Palisades now a few times, talked to residents there, I think that feeling of being left behind and ignored by the government feels pretty universal both in the Palisades and in Altadena, from what I've been hearing. From residents who I know, some of them moved to my neighborhood afterwards. This has been a slower recovery in many ways for everyone involved. And I think it has been extraordinarily frustrating for residents. Extraordinarily frustrating?

[Caroline Goldfarb]

I think so. Like, one of the examples that make me even more frustrated is I have a friend who is a lawyer, an affluent lawyer who lives in the Palisades. And I was just on the phone with him a couple weeks ago and he basically said he met no resistance from his insurance company after the fires. He lost his home as well. Got paid out full and fast. Meanwhile, my neighbors, my sister, myself, we've had to itemize every single sock, every spoon. It just feels like while we're still grieving, while still displaced, while traumatized. Why does it feel like insurance is so scammy, like we're paying a premium. My sister pays a huge premium, just like everybody else in the Palisades. And it just feels as though if you don't have like the resources like a lawyer would or, you know, even to this day, and it's been a year and a half and we're still having to itemize every single thing to prove our existence and it just is really kind of fucked up.

[Nithya Raman]

Yeah. Well, first of all, I'm so sorry that you lost your homes. I mean, the whole. I remember I was at the emergency operations center during the fires because we had. I represent a big piece of the Hollywood Hills and so we had fires and evacuations in my part of the city as well that I currently represent. You know, from that very first day, just the lack of communication, the confusion amongst different agencies. I don't. There were like false alerts for big evacuations sent out.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

We never got the alerts in some annual.

[Nithya Raman]

We were.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Because I had a three month old baby at that time. Our power went out, our cell service went out. The last text that I got from my stepdad was, hey, there's a brush fire. We saw. We looked at the winds outside of suit. I couldn't even get a hold of my sister, who was a couple blocks away. We had to drive over and say, you know what, let's not chance it. I have a baby. Let's get out of here.

[Esther]

And it was that night you. You chose to ghost me. She calls me, she's like, we need somewhere to go. I'm like, come on over. The door is open. Never shows up.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

I don't think. I didn't think she had a fire plan is why I was like, I don't know if you're that even when

[Esther]

your neighborhood is bur you will not come over. That's weird.

[Kalila Khalilah]

She had to protect herself and her baby.

[Esther]

Can I interject? Like, I feel like when Karen Bass was running, it was really exciting and like she had a lot behind her that got me like excited about her as the mayor. What went wrong? Like, why has it been so bad?

[Kalila Khalilah]

The Ghana trip.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

This was the Ghana trip during the Altadena virus.

[Nithya Raman]

It's hard, you know, hard for me to diagnose what is wrong. Right. But I will say that having been in City hall, one of the things that I've seen just like the kind of the lack of response after the fires, to be proactive, to be present in the community, to support residents through really. I mean, when you're doing stuff like itemizing your losses in order to get insurance without really being supported by the county or by the city, it's re. Traumatizing. I think the city should be standing with you. I think your county should be standing with you in that moment and, and, and advocating with insurance providers really doing everything they can to make sure that you're not having to work so hard to get what you already paid for.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Yeah.

[Nithya Raman]

And it always, you already paid for it.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

It always feels like they're just gonna play the long game enough so that you take the lesser amount. It's kind of, they're kind of like wear you down for X amount of time just so you're like, okay, fuck it, like, what are you going to give me? Fine, I'll take it. And it just, yeah, it's, it's, it's felt like that across the board with all of our Altadena neighbors. Yeah, it sucks.

[Nithya Raman]

Yes. It's very, very, very sad.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Is there a way to hold these insurance companies like accountable liable, like put their feet to the fire and say, hey, like, you cannot do this.

[Nithya Raman]

Yeah. So there is, we have an elected insurance commissioner here in the state of California. And that insurance commissioner, part of their role is to be advocating for you and to be making sure that in situations like this that you are getting what you deserve and what you need in order to be able to rebuild. And to me that's the role of, should be. The role of local elected officials is we don't have necessarily control over insurance, but we can be an advocate and we can be case managing for you and advocating in a group so that you're not going through it alone. I mean, you are not the only person dealing with that. And it is unjust. And what is the county doing to Stand with you again in Palisades, I would ask the same thing. Is the city doing enough to stand with residents to ensure that they're able to get what they need? And this is what I would say. You know, you asked a question about Mayor Bass. It's. For me, it's like I can't say why. You know, it's not for me to say. But what I have recognized is I want a government that shows up for people even when you're going to be confronted with anger or, you know, challenges. And I don't feel like LA City is that anymore, you know, and, and I've really felt the gap in that. That's just not what I want from my local government. I want a local government that's present. I want a local government that's trying, even if it can't solve all of the problems that shows up day after day and that is out there trying and fighting as hard as it can for, for the outcomes that, that we all deserve in the city.

[Esther]

Yeah. It feels like even hearing you say that, I'm like, I, I can't even imagine what that would feel like because it's like the city does just kind of suck. Like we're all moms. Caroline's a mom to be. And obviously, like, I feel like once you're a mom with kids, like the homeless stuff gets a little bit like more real.

[Nithya Raman]

Yeah.

[Esther]

And it has gotten worse, I would say some people say the last couple years, I feel like the last five to 10 years, whatever. But how do you balance, like having empathy for the people who are unhoused and also just facing the fact that like it's a problem for people and what are your, what are the vibes?

[Kalila Khalilah]

Yeah.

[Nithya Raman]

So I, you know, partly because I'm a mom, you know, I've had kids for 10 years of 10 year old twins.

[Esther]

I can't believe you carried two at once.

[Nithya Raman]

It was very intense. It was very intense. You're so small. They were small when they were born too, so. But I, I gained like 60, 70 pounds, something like that.

[Esther]

Do you recommend twins or would you?

[Nithya Raman]

I recommend it now. They're so fun and they always have a playmate, so they kind of take care of each other. So after three or four, it became a lot easier because I didn't always have to be talking to them in order to entertain them. They just loved playing with each other. They're obsessed with each other still. 100%.

[Kalila Khalilah]

They're really cute.

[Nithya Raman]

A hundred percent. They're obsessed with each other. Like one. I remember one time my daughter went with her best friend from school to Disneyland for the day, and she slept over the night before so that they could leave early. And so she was gone like the whole day. Right. And the night before. And so my husband and I took my son and we gave him, like, the best day he had had, you know, like everything that he wanted to do. And my husband was like, this was like such a great time that I got to spend with just, you know, one on one time with one kid. And then my daughter gets dropped off and she opens the door and comes in and my son just runs up to her and goes, ugh. It was torture without you.

[Esther]

Oh, my gosh.

[Kalila Khalilah]

Wow, that's really precious. I still don't want to have twins, though, no matter what. As mayor, what will you do to prevent me from gaining more weight during my pregnancy?

[Nithya Raman]

It does go away.

[Esther]

As mayor, what will you do to help me magically have twins so that my husband wants to kill himself?

[Caroline Goldfarb]

I do appreciate Kylie Jenner recently saying that she got up to 210 pounds in pregnancy. I was like, hell, yeah, girl.

[Esther]

No, because you didn't show it to us.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Oh, that's right. Well, you know, she doesn't have to,

[Nithya Raman]

but what good is it?

[Esther]

Oh, yeah, this terrible thing happened to me and no one.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

I don't think it was a terrible thing. She didn't say it was terrible. She was like, this is just what happened to my body. She didn't say it was bad or good. And I love that.

[Kalila Khalilah]

I just want to hear more women who are on the other side of it tell me that they got big and they look good now. Yeah, that helps me.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Right, right.

[Kalila Khalilah]

That helps me. So I did appreciate that too. Yeah. Thank you, Kylie. But Esther did ask a really important question about homelessness.

[Nithya Raman]

Oh, right, yes. Let's talk about homelessness.

[Kalila Khalilah]

Sorry.

[Nithya Raman]

Yeah. So, I mean, look, I. Part of the reason why I got into this work in the first place, why I ran for office the first time, was because I don't think street homelessness should exist in la. I mean, we are. It's the richest country in the world. We're the second largest city. There's no reason why so many people should be living on the streets. And I think the urgency of addressing that became very real to me once I had my kids in our district, we've been able to reduce tents and encampments in the district by 54% over a period of three years. And we did it by going out and being relentless about offering shelter to people. And moving people indoors quickly. And then once you're able to actually address the reason why they're on the street, you can clean up tents and you can have a clear sidewalk that's walkable for children and families.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

What about if they don't want to accept the help?

[Nithya Raman]

When shelter is offered, people tend to take it. Almost everyone. The people who don't take it tend to be the sickest. People may require significant intervention by mental health teams or other kinds of efforts, but for the most part, people do not want to be on the streets. And when we're able to offer shelter, people go indoors.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

What does indoors look like for them?

[Nithya Raman]

So it can be a range of things. We have four shelters in the district. One is a congregate shelter. So you know what you think of when you think of a traditional homeless shelter. So with men and women on different areas and kind of bunk bed type accommodations. We have a family shelter where there's a shared kitchen and eating area and then rooms where families can live together. We have a women's shelter which is similar, and a hotel site which has been in under a long term lease where two people stay in a room and you get your own bathroom and you get a little bit of privacy, but you're still sharing the room with somebody else. So this very different types of options. And we try and put people into the option that works best for them so that they're likeliest to say, yes. People with pets, for example, can come into the hotel site. They're not able to bring pets into the congregate site. So we're really trying to get to yes for everyone. You know, we're like, what can we offer that can get you indoors? But I do want to underscore in la, we only have a third of the shelter beds that we need for our total homeless population. Right. So my challenge is always how do you secure a bed and then how do you make that offer quickly so someone can go indoors? And if you just say you can't be here, that individual will go down the street and set up somewhere else. Unless you're actually able to offer something. And sometimes that is what happens, you know. But we're really trying to avoid that. What we're trying to do is get as many people indoors.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Right. Because I think one of the frustrating things I see in LA is that they will clean up an encampment. Clean up. And you're kind of just like pushing around these people. Like, you know, one of the questions I had was, okay, like the, the people that do accept the help. The people who are homeless for economic reasons, the people who are homeless that aren't necessarily suffering from either a mental illness or like addiction, that that system seems to work for them. What about a place like MacArthur Park? What about a place where people are deeply ill? They are practicing their addiction in broad daylight with almost zero intervention, it seems. What do we do about that population?

[Nithya Raman]

So even when people are dealing with addiction, there's multiple pathways that work. Even in those cases, when offered shelter, there's a lot of low barrier shelters that will take anyone. Really the idea is that you don't want people on the street. Right. That's the goal. But there are also rehab beds, substance use beds that people can get referrals to that they can go to as well. So there's multiple ways.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Is that hard to come by? Like, if someone were to be like, hey, I would like to detox today because from my understanding and from having family that been in and out of the streets, it is either very difficult or a huge cost to the family. My sister was the head of the city jails for over a decade and she often talked about her in la. Yeah, here in la.

[Nithya Raman]

Really?

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Yeah. So she's very familiar with just the whole system. And, you know, she often talks about her frequent flyers. And she describes these frequent flyers with like, so much compassion, but also a lot of frustration because she's watched the them deteriorate over the years with constant contact with institutions, whether it be a shelter at one point or the jail at one point. Why do you think so many points of contact still fail to produce, like, lasting interventions for the more. The more ill. I guess the more. Yeah, the more severe cases, the people who are, what.

[Nithya Raman]

What did she call them? Frequent flyers?

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Frequent fliers? Yeah, yeah.

[Nithya Raman]

What you find is that in a system there are a small number of individuals end up taking up a lot of the resources. So they end up going frequently into the hospital system or they end up going frequently into our jail system. Part of the design of some of our homelessness interventions are really to target those individuals and to try and get them into a situation where they're not relying on, where they're not on the streets and where they're not kind of going into emergency interventions like this all the time that don't work. When you go into jail, you're often there for three days and you're right back on the street. It's not addressing the core issue that has brought you into that situation in the first place. But the challenge is that the System is not working very well. And in la, one of the most frustrating things for me is that we don't. Despite my best efforts in City Council, no one is in charge. No one is in charge of all of the hundreds of millions of dollars of spending that we're doing. No one is in charge of making sure that when people come into a shelter bed that they're getting access to mental health or rehab or a referral or health services. The county is supposed to provide those, but the city should be asking for it and demanding it and providing it in the interim when they're not getting it. None of that work is happening. That's the work that I've tried to build, but there's been real resistance within City hall to actually building that out and really putting someone in charge of making sure every piece of this works.

[Esther]

If you're mayor, can you change that?

[Nithya Raman]

Yes.

[Kalila Khalilah]

Yeah.

[Esther]

Why wouldn't Karen Bass be supportive of that?

[Nithya Raman]

It's hard for me to answer why. Why you wouldn't want to create order to a system that is incredibly fragmented. And I think if not. If it doesn't work, people will lose faith in it.

[Esther]

Do you think there is corruption? Like, because that I. Again, like, I'm sorry to keep bringing this up, but I do feel like Spencer is running on this fantasy that, like, a lot of people are into. But for me, I'm just, like, it is a fantasy. The things that he's saying about corruption is, do you. Are you in alignment with that? Like, is that real?

[Nithya Raman]

I will say that because no one is in charge, and because there's so much money going into the system, I think that there is a lot of waste. So one of the things that I found was we were investing in shelter beds in the city, but we didn't have an accounting of how many beds were full or empty on any given night. I pushed work to actually document that, and our shelter bed occupancy moved from 80% to 94%. That was like 20% of the beds were empty at one point, which is waste. Right. There's also been very real instances of fraud, which have been documented in the press and are very alarming. So I don't think fraud is everywhere, but there has been fraud.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Right.

[Nithya Raman]

And so to me, what happens when you have a system like this where no one is in charge is that people are very willing to believe that it is full of fraud, and they lose trust and faith in the system. And every instance of fraud that shows up ends up underscoring their lack of faith. In the whole system. That's exactly what Spencer is kind of drawing on. Right. That's the distrust that he's building on and drawing from. I'm, you know, I'm a progressive. I really believe that government can do good things for people. And I believe in government being out there and addressing issues that the private markets are not addressing or that there's real harm in places and only the government can do it. You have to work really hard to make sure that the government is working. You know, you have to make sure that it's functional. Otherwise people will turn to this, you know, Pratt kind of mentality of just it's all fraud. It's always get rid of it all, you know, arrest everyone. That's the only way forward.

[Kalila Khalilah]

Yeah.

[Nithya Raman]

Even though that doesn't work, as your sister can probably attest to. Right.

[Esther]

It doesn't work.

[Nithya Raman]

So like, what is the real response? The real response is putting someone in charge, making sure every bed is filled, making sure everyone gets mental health treatment, making sure everyone gets case management. That's the work that we need to do. That's what I want to do. I want to be mayor so I can work.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Is there a world where each person has a devoted case manager? Because I'm a psych girly myself as having had a bed in one of our LA hospitals for a crash out in my teens I had a case manager, but then I would kind of just be jumped around a little bit. Is there a world in which we can actually afford one on one care for each individual for the sickest of them?

[Nithya Raman]

Right now, the way that the system works, the sickest people are supposed to be under the care of LA county and a lot of that care is supposed to come through medical right or insurance in some way right through the healthcare system because that's where that care is supposed to be provided. So those standards of care need to be much higher. And that is a county system. Even in our shelter system though, people need more care than they're getting. You have to show up. People need to be present physically once a week at least, ideally more than that at a shelter site talking to people for a long time during COVID they weren't even doing in person visits.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Yeah, it's a little scary for me because I think about, let's suppose I'm a 19 year old who has just gotten diagnosed with schizophrenia. I'm new to my symptoms and I am not able to navigate my own medication compliance, my own appointments, my own paperwork, my own reality. It's like who then If I don't have family support, like, what are my, what are my resources? Right. Like, it's, it's, it's very, it's scary.

[Nithya Raman]

It's very scary. So I, I've been looking across different service providers and some nonprofits that are doing the work are amazing. They hire incredible staff, they train them well. They're really out there doing the work. And you can see it in the numbers. And then there's others that don't, and they're not caring for people, and you can see that too. And a lot of people are returning to the streets. But again, you have to figure out who's doing the work and fund them.

[Guest Interviewer 1]

We had a question on this subject.

[Guest Interviewer 2]

Hi. Okay. So my girlfriend, Gen Z. Yeah, My girlfriend is a case manager for high acuity homeless.

[Kalila Khalilah]

Wow.

[Nithya Raman]

So you know a lot about it.

[Guest Interviewer 2]

Yeah. She and her coworkers experience like a ton of burnout. So would you consider posing a budget that increases pay? The people that are actually like, working on the front lines come home exhausted and working with these populations, there's so much burnout because they're not seeing people really get helped some of the times. So I'm just curious about that.

[Nithya Raman]

It is. It. I really feel for our workforce in, in homeless services. And I have actually pushed for higher salaries, both to address the thanklessness of the job and how exhausting it is and how hard it is, but also very practically to retain our workforce and to make sure that our workforce is also not experiencing homelessness. Like, we've had people who are working for nonprofits who are using the services themselves because the pay was so low, which is just like, what are we doing at this point?

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Well, that's the reality of la. I really do feel as though all of us are one missed paycheck away from being in this exact situation. So it's like this could happen to anyone.

[Nithya Raman]

And, and, and I just want to take a step back here and underscore that our homelessness crisis is deeply intertwined with our lack of housing. And we have not built housing in LA for decades. We've underbuilt apartments. We have a shortage of something like 500,000 apartments in LA. We've actually stopped the construction of new housing through our planning regulations in the past. For decades, we didn't allow exactly the kind of housing that young people need, that working families need to be built across most of Los Angeles.

[Kalila Khalilah]

Why is that? You go to other cities and there's so much high density urban housing and high rises. LA just feels like, I only Ever see luxury mixed use, four story housing that like ends up sitting half empty?

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Right, right.

[Nithya Raman]

So in LA in the 80s and really in the 80s, there was a real movement against density and it was called the anti Manhattanization effort. They did not want the city to look like a New York. Right. And that's why we have so little of it. And that's why along our major boulevards they actually put forward a measure that was spearheaded by two elected officials who realized that they could win a lot of votes if they didn't, if they also oppose new housing. So they put something on the ballot that actually brought down density along all of our major thoroughfares and our main roads. So that's why Wilshire Boulevard, Ventura Boulevard, you see a lot of single story strip mall construction. And as a direct result of that legislation that they put on the ballot at that time and passed it, we ended up not building hundreds of thousands of units. And now we have that exact number as the shortage of housing units. And it has led to a deep, deep affordability crisis. Like housing is really expensive here and this city is not. Like a lot of people in the city are not very rich. Right. This is a city of real diversity. There's a lot of poverty here, working class, and so we have the fewest homes per adult of any major city in America and the highest rent burden population.

[Kalila Khalilah]

I door knocked a lot for you in your first thank you campaign for CD4 and it was such an illuminating experience and I feel like so many of these same issues are still here, like a lack of affordable housing, a lack of available shelter beds. And what gives? Like, what is it with the NIMBYs and the people that don't want to build more housing, build more shelters? Like is this a uniquely LA thing? And what have you found actually being in office? Like, what is this resistance all about?

[Nithya Raman]

So I think that there has been there, we've, we've, you know, tripled the shelter available in Council District 4, which is great. That's why we were able to address so many people, so many encampments on the streets, which is really exciting. I think there is a growing awareness that in order to meet the moment, in order to address the challenges that we have, in order to make this into a city of opportunity going forward, that LA has to change that we need more housing. And I think that's become much more part of the conversation. And I played a small role in that, in running on it twice and talking about these issues and telling a district that sometimes has opposed new housing actually we need it. And more and more people are saying, yes, we do need it, because we're feeling the impacts of it every single day. And so I think slowly the culture is changing in la, and I think all of us and our approach to these issues are part of that change. And by the way, this is not unique to Los Angeles. Across California, you're seeing this kind of resistance and you're seeing the impacts of it. And it also has national implications because we're losing population in California, we're going to lose congressional seats, and the states that are building more are getting more congressional seats. So the balance of power across the entire country, I think, depends on us being able to accommodate more people here.

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[Esther]

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[Nithya Raman]

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[Esther]

I feel like LA has sort of just left the film and TV industry, like, behind. Like, is there anything that you have planned or is that something that is on your mind at all?

[Nithya Raman]

Yeah, it's been shameful that we've kind of watched the film and television industry leave the city and not been fighting for it. And it. I. You know, it's obviously incredibly important to me and my family. The idea of who. What Los Angeles is is deeply intertwined with the entertainment industry. I think we should be doing much more to fight for this industry. Part of it is just being better advocates with the state. The state has a tax credit program. That tax credit program was significantly lower than other states across the country. We needed a much better one. Last year they increased it a little bit, which is good. And it definitely brought more productions back. But we needed a tax credit with no cap. We need one that's guaranteed years into the future. And I think it's incumbent upon LA leadership to tell Sacramento and to tell our governor what we need. You know, this mayor has not done that or didn't do that until I got in the race. You know, that's what we need to be absolutely advocating for in order to make sure that productions can stay here. Because even now with an increased credit, it's still a lottery. Productions can't count on shooting in la, and we absolutely need to be able to count on shooting in California and shooting in Los Angeles. The city can also do a lot more to make it easier to film here. We right now have an approach to filming that takes it for granted. You know, it's always happened here. And so that we have high fees, we have slow permitting timelines, we have neighborhood conditions that can stop productions from filming. Like, sometimes when you shoot in a particular neighborhood, you have to pay the homeowners association a fee in that neighborhood. And all of that needs to change in order for us to be able to retain filming. It has to be cheaper, faster, easier, smaller productions. Many of them don't even need, shouldn't even need permits to shoot here. I mean, if it's a small enough production, you should just be able to shoot. And that's.

[Esther]

That would be amazing.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Yeah, that would be so cool.

[Kalila Khalilah]

But much like homelessness, it's such a multi. It's like a hydra issue, right? Like, entertainment has been taken over by tech and it's now become about the bottom line and squeezing every penny and doing things for as cheaply as possible. Like, one thing I've really noticed about this race is and the way that people are engaging with the race is there's so much anger. And a lot of that anger is really justified. I mean, I feel like Esther and Kalila Khalilah have both touched on it. Thank you.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Sorry.

[Kalila Khalilah]

Thank you. Have both touched on it. Right. It's anger around the fires. I mean, that's like a huge part of Spencer's campaign. And it's an understandable anger. We all empathize with him and empathize with people that have lost their homes. Anger around the film and television industry and, like, where people's lives are and how they've noticed anger on homelessness. But all of these issues are so complicated and so complex. And it's not back to what Esther was saying. It's not a fantasy or an AI ad or saying like, we're gonna clean up the homelessness cause we're angry. Right.

[Esther]

It's like, I wanna believe that, but it's so fake. Hell hath no fury like a blonde man who had something taken away from him, by the way. He's really just. On our show, we really believe that blonde men are the root of all evil.

[Kalila Khalilah]

I can get behind that.

[Esther]

Yeah, they're scary.

[Kalila Khalilah]

Yeah. It's sort of. I'm like reverse Hitler. Like, I don't like Aryan men. Prefer brunettes. Just like. As a global,

[Guest Interviewer 1]

I had a question when I was just looking recently at the. The LA budget. You can tell me if these are up to date, but I got these from the LA city controller. And I was just curious, like, where do you think we are underspending? And, you know, where do you think that we're overspending? And what does a more balanced budget look like to you?

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Oh, that's a big, big green chunk right there.

[Guest Interviewer 1]

And also, is this big green chunk

[Esther]

too big that says police three, basically $3 billion.

[Nithya Raman]

Yes.

[Guest Interviewer 1]

And on the other side, it does say 24%. So I was just wondering if maybe

[Nithya Raman]

it's, you know, public safety response is one of the city's important responses. You know, I think when. When you don't respond to calls for help, when you don't respond to 911 calls quickly, this loss of faith that you both are identifying. Oh, all three of you are identifying. The loss of trust in government is so real. And I've heard that so many times, like, you call 91 1, no one picks up or no one shows up.

[Esther]

And yeah, I hear that they're like, they took. They came six hours later.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Yeah.

[Nithya Raman]

And I think that feeling of being let down by your city is. Especially when you're feeling risk or danger is really, really not. We cannot have that.

[Esther]

And we pay a lot in taxes.

[Nithya Raman]

We do.

[Esther]

I try to get my money's worth by using the library, but I need more.

[Nithya Raman]

You know, that's. The role of the mayor, is to really be the point person for emergency response, to rally. The mayor is the chief executive of the city, and it is their responsibility to bring together the systems to be able to respond to these issues quickly.

[Kalila Khalilah]

I'm seeing something concerning on this. If you could zoom in on that section says Esther's Erewhan budget. It's taking up a large portion of our city's budget.

[Guest Interviewer 1]

But are there any places in particular that you'd like to see an increase or, you know.

[Nithya Raman]

Yeah, so I. So I had. You know, one of the reasons why this chart is so big on, on PD is because we had a new police contract that. That was signed in 23. The driver of each of these is really the size of the contract that you're getting. And in 2023, the mayor signed a new contract with PD that gave them more money, really, than the city even had, which I pushed back against. I voted against. I believe all city workers should. You know, I think city workers should be paid. And its cost of living is very high here. Like, I'm not, you know, I'm not opposing that at all. But we have to be able to pay what's fiscally responsible for the city. And the contract was absolutely enormous. And it led to this enormous fiscal deficit for LA last year, like a billion dollar budget deficit that we then had to grapple with.

[Esther]

Why did she do that?

[Nithya Raman]

The police union is a very powerful force in local politics. And in Mayor Bass previous election, they had funded Caruso and had spent against her, and this time they're spending against me because I pushed back against what I thought was irresponsible spending.

[Esther]

So the police union, like, donates to her campaign, basically.

[Nithya Raman]

They spend through PACs, like, independent expenditures, basically.

[Esther]

Okay.

[Nithya Raman]

Yeah.

[Esther]

So it's just like shady stuff that we see everywhere where, like, they're paying for that so that she'll give them a big contract.

[Nithya Raman]

It's a lot of how local politics works is that people who are funding kind of PACs and independent expenditure committees for supporting political candidates end up having decisions made that benefit them.

[Esther]

Do you have any of that?

[Kalila Khalilah]

I mean, they just gave you a banana. Do you have to report that?

[Guest Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Nithya Raman]

That's really sad. The entire banana budget.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

I want to get into this tiny little sliver of the pie, which is animal services. I've Been a foster here in la. I foster dogs and Esther maybe will tell you too many, too, too much.

[Esther]

It's really good.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

It's a problem.

[Esther]

Yeah, she was fostering a raven at one point.

[Kalila Khalilah]

Oh, you don't have to foster those, babe.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

They take care of themselves.

[Kalila Khalilah]

I just gave it a couple.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

So I've been fostering dogs all around Los Angeles and cats for well over a decade. I've pulled dogs from the shelters myself. I've rehabbed them. I've intercepted dogs from even entering the shelter system just because I know how pressed they are over there. And let's be honest, like, there is no such thing as a no kill shelter. They're all kill shelters. And a lot of dogs get euthanized daily. And I have one in my care right now from the Downey shelter.

[Esther]

Can you take it? Will you take the dog?

[Nithya Raman]

If I don't win this race, I will.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Thank you.

[Nithya Raman]

My parents, my kids are begging us for, oh, for a dog.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

So I think my perception is, I think how a city treats animal welfare says a lot about how it treats vulnerability in general. I want to know where you stand and what is your actual philosophy around animal welfare Here in Los Angeles, we

[Nithya Raman]

don't have a shelter in our. In my district, the council, District 4 that I represent, but we've done dog adoption events. We just did a Pausapalooza at Griffith Park. I think it's the third year that we've done it. We bring a spay and neuter truck there. We've really pushed to try and ensure that we're doing more in the district to help animals and help animal welfare. But citywide, I think this issue has been really neglected. The shelters are underfunded and they have been for many years. And that's a place where I really. I want to make sure that we are funding them much more, that we're ensuring that they have the staffing that they need. The department also needs better leadership. For a long time, a general manager had been in place who was not aligned with true animal care. And I think we need to be able to appoint leadership in the department who has the capacity to be able to manage the system, who has the capacity to be able to engage with the huge network of volunteers and nonprofits who care deeply about this issue, to ensure that the system is working well, who can ensure that any gaps in care are actually being provided for through philanthropic efforts. Like, you need a real visionary in that role. And I'm, I'm, I'm excited to. If I'm Mayor to be able to appoint someone who can really do the job.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

I'm boots on the ground in this department just because I've been a. A foster for so long. And I think that, you know, my

[Esther]

question when she was younger. So that's kind of the pipelines. Are you able to say that she.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Thank you.

[Kalila Khalilah]

Thank you, Ms. Mayor. Can you make it so Esther doesn't do that anymore?

[Caroline Goldfarb]

You know, and I think that, you know, people who work in, you know, animal welfare are very vocal because I feel like, you know, these dogs don't have a voice. These cats, these animals like. Right. And so is there a world in which the city can actually see this as a core issue and not treat it as an afterthought, which it's felt like for however long?

[Nithya Raman]

Yeah, I believe very strongly that the city can see this as a core issue. And, you know, for me, ensuring that we're able to take care of animals that are in our care should be as important to us as caring for, you know, caring about the issue of homelessness like this. These are issues that really matter for Angelenos, and these are issues that deserve funding. These are issues that deserve attention.

[Esther]

What scares you about a Spencer Pratt, Mayor la.

[Kalila Khalilah]

Oh, my God, A lot. He has a contract with a production company and has started filming a reality show already.

[Esther]

Is that true?

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Yeah. His whole mayoral journey is being filmed,

[Kalila Khalilah]

and if he wins, part of the contract stipulates that the reality show will continue. I mean, this is just so clearly.

[Nithya Raman]

It's dystopic.

[Kalila Khalilah]

Yeah. And it's Trumpian. It's overused and, like, cliche to say that. And it's one man on a quest to enrich himself and. And get himself more in the public conversation and become a bigger figure.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

And this is also back to the whole animal welfare thing, because this is a platform that he's really kind of, like, you know, fake championing. Right. Like, I don't necessarily see Spencer Pratt, like, doing any kind of public service for animals. That's his whole thing.

[Kalila Khalilah]

Done any public service his entire life.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

This is his whole. Like, I've seen people really rally, especially in, like, for him, because it's like, the animals. The animals and I. And. And I get that. Like, I'm part of that community as well, but it's like, he has no actual track record of doing any kind of, like, real work or real service towards this issue that they care so much about and.

[Nithya Raman]

Or towards any issue.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Right.

[Nithya Raman]

Like, it's very clear to me right now that we have a very Broken status quo in la.

[Kalila Khalilah]

Yeah.

[Nithya Raman]

That has let down so many people across so many fronts so deeply. And then you have this person who is this kind of reality TV star who has these pronouncements that I will solve it. And I think at this moment when people are feeling so much frustration, so much fear, so much anxiety about this moment, that can seem very attractive. And I understand that he's tapping into frustration, but he's also tapping into, I think, someone to say, yes, I can solve this. You know, I. I just feel like we have a moment right now here in la where that kind of message, because people feel so let down by their city, we have a moment when that message can have a lot of purchase. And that. That is really scary to me because I don't think there is an experience. There's the experience to actually deliver on results. And we've seen what happens nationwide when that kind of, you know, yes, I'll fix this, I'll do this, I'll do that has happened. That's exactly the same message, that and the same energy that I think Trump tapped into.

[Esther]

And then he does the opposite of, like, what they promise. And I don't even think I'm that smart. But why am I able to see this and some people can't see it?

[Kalila Khalilah]

People are looking for a quick fix. And historically, when economies are on the down or, like, times are tough, people gravitate towards fascism or gravitate towards these candidates who know who put the shutter down my spine, speak to frustrations and put the blame on someone. Like, it's so much easier just to say Karen Bass is why I live in a trailer when it's like, no, there's. There's a lot of complex reasons why the fire happened and why the response was so horrible and let so many people down. But it's just so appealing when you're so angry to jump on a bandwagon of hate and blame and these sound bites and pronouncements. But I think city government is complex, and I'd always rather put my undying support behind someone who's fought the fight, was on the front lines, has the experience and the leadership and the team to make the city a better place.

[Nithya Raman]

Yeah. And I think anyone who says that this is going to be easy is lying. That's the reality.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

You know, that should be the biggest red flag.

[Nithya Raman]

Anyone who says that this is gonna be easy is lying. Like, we have a budget crisis that, you know, I. We're in this now for a set of decisions that I didn't agree with. But we are here. We have a budget crisis. We have a real challenge in our economy. We have a real challenge with housing. We have a real challenge with homelessness and access to mental health and recovery. And how do we support people who are desperately in need of support in the recovery process? All of these are very real challenges. None of them have an easy answer. What I want to do, what I'm committing in my race is really to say, like, I will do the work. And that is what this city to me needs more than anything. Is just someone who is here to work relentlessly to address these issues, not to be there for political gain. Like, I'm not running for higher office after that. I don't have. Are you filming a reality show that I am doing. But I that aside, I have a

[Caroline Goldfarb]

question about like, just, just politicians in general, including Karen Bass. Is it a big no no for her to say, like, hey, I up royally here and I'm so freaking sorry because I feel like I would be so endeared to a politician or anybody in office just saying like, yo, I thought this would work and it's not. My bad. Let's like, you know, get back to the drawing board. And I feel like I don't hear that enough. And so everything feels so, like, dishonest and like, kind of like we're just in this huge pageant of saying the right things.

[Nithya Raman]

Look, I have stood up and said I was wrong. It was hard and I got a lot of flack for it and stood up against my former. My allies and said I think we were all wrong. They didn't agree with me and it was painful. It still continues to be painful. I've broken relationships as a result of that. So I think it's not easy to do that. And I understand why people don't want to, but I personally, that's what I would prefer is someone who can stand up and say, and I think you guys too, right?

[Guest Interviewer 1]

Absolutely. Everyone, I feel like is sick of the politician. He answers. And that's why someone like Pratt can sneak his way in. Or all the grifters that seem to exist in politics now.

[Esther]

What scares me is like, we have these dumbass Olympics coming up.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Oh wait, I have so much beef with this. This is my next topic. I had a whole page on it.

[Esther]

A bad idea. But it's like too late. We have to make the best.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

First off, can you not say dumbass Olympics? Cuz like the Olympics is like my whole. I remember in sixth grade. No, it was 1998 Atlanta Olympics. I. I built a whole scrapbook of every.

[Kalila Khalilah]

We can appreciate the international significance and pageantry of the Olympics while also acknowledging the ruin that they can bring upon already challenged city. And we both truths can wait.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

But I think what you're. I'm about to. I have so much beef with LA Olympics.

[Esther]

Well, I'm just scared of having someone who doesn't know what they're doing or who is already fudged up. Major shit like being like overseeing the Olympics because the Olympics are scary.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Well, I'll say this.

[Esther]

That's crowd.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

I put my big girl panties in. You know, I have ADHD and you know, I don't get a lot of shit done on time. What I did do on time was I submitted my Olympic ticket request early. You're going to go, wait, no, listen to this bullshit. Nathan, you can give me your two cents in a second. So I got selected for purchase time. A purchase window. There's my purchase window. I got my alerts. I was like, here's your chance, Kalila. You're gonna go see swimming. You've been a swimmer your whole life. You're gonna watch a 200 meter butterfly. You're gonna watch track. You've never been to the Olymp to actually see an Olympic event. They're in gonna be in your backyard. Here's your chance. Put all my alarms on.

[Kalila Khalilah]

I'm hearing that you're going for a lot of really popular sports, Caroline.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

It's very expensive. I feel like it's my inherent right.

[Nithya Raman]

Okay, okay.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

As an Angelino, as a. As a ground level, Angelino promises that

[Kalila Khalilah]

Angelenos would get early access to tickets.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

So I go in, I log in the cheapest ticket I could find.

[Kalila Khalilah]

Yeah, you got to go see skateboarding at the Balboa at the Sepulveda Basin if you want to get affordable tickets.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Was a 400 ticket for an event I didn't even. I didn't even want to see.

[Kalila Khalilah]

If you want to go see ribbon dancing in Pacoima, I can get you tickets for $10.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

And then the worst part of it all is, okay, number one, is this acceptable for Angelinos? Number two, they say, well, if you really want to watch it, you can volunteer. So I'm going to bring you love

[Kalila Khalilah]

the Olympics so much, maybe you should put on a bib and I'll share people to their seats. That's not a bad idea.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

I'm just really incredibly mad because the city is obviously going to absorb the traffic, the infrastructure strain, all of these things just so that I have to

[Nithya Raman]

watch it on tv.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Really pisses me off because I thought this was my chance. Caroline, at 42 years old.

[Kalila Khalilah]

No, it's really. They are. The tickets are really expensive.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Who is this for?

[Nithya Raman]

It's supposed to be for us and, and for the world, right? It's supposed to be for inviting the world. And we have signed up for it. It is happening. We have a contract with LA28.

[Esther]

We can't back out of that.

[Kalila Khalilah]

No, no.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Who sets prices?

[Nithya Raman]

LA28 does. And. But here's the thing that I think the city has to balance right now, which is that the contract that we signed with the Olympics, which was signed well before I was, long before I even thought about running for office, is one that basically says that if the Olympics runs over cost, that the city of Los Angeles is on the hook for those cost overages for the first $275 million. Then the state, then the state is on the hook for the next 275. And then after that, anything over that we're on the hook for.

[Esther]

I see why there's so much fraud. Because It'd be like 275 million. What's 1 million? Who's gonna care?

[Nithya Raman]

Yeah, but it's, you know, it's a lot, especially as we already have a very, you know, a very tight budget right now. We're already funding less in services basics. We're not able to fix street lights, we're not able to fix potholes because of how, how badly they can't even neuter your raven because they're not funding animal services. I mean, it's like we are not funding some of the most essential services in LA because of our fiscal crisis, which we're already in. And now if we don't. One of the big things that I worry about is if we don't make enough money from the Olympics that then the cost of that, the debt from that will have to come back to Angelino's to pay.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

So that's, that's what dictates the prices.

[Kalila Khalilah]

Then it's not, isn't it a private

[Nithya Raman]

company, ell, la 28 dictates the prices, but they're trying to price it so that they're able to make enough money so that they're not.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Then why the fake show of being like, hey, Angelinos, sign up.

[Nithya Raman]

Yeah, just kidding.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

You won't see a single event except for that one in Pacoima you are looking at.

[Kalila Khalilah]

With all due respect, Kyla, you are talking about more popular events that historically are more Expensive at Olympics in every city.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

But I've done the math. So it would have been cheaper for me to fly internationally to any of the previous Olympics and watch multiple friend

[Kalila Khalilah]

going to see Rosalie Leah in Miami as opposed to Rosalia in la because it's cheaper. This is the thing.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

It doesn't feel fair for the everyday Angelino to have this in our backyard to people who cannot travel internationally or have those resources to like, you know, see this international event, right? And now it's here and like none of us are gonna go.

[Kalila Khalilah]

I would argue that the Olympics are not for the everyday Angelino and they're

[Caroline Goldfarb]

sucks because the sports itself comes from. The athletes themselves come from. They're not. It shouldn't be a luxury event.

[Nithya Raman]

I think it's outrageous that the costs are this high. It is really outrageous. And I think one of the things that I have been very worried about is what are we actually doing to monitor the costs that LA28 is putting up as a result of this? What are they investing in? Are they appropriate expenditures? Are they frivolous expenditures? Is there the helicopters?

[Kalila Khalilah]

Do you guys know what I'm talking about? There was like this big news story about these special traffic evading helicopters that are gonna be put into use.

[Nithya Raman]

Is that something that LA28 is paying for?

[Esther]

Oh my gosh.

[Kalila Khalilah]

It's not a fast check.

[Nithya Raman]

You're not even hear about this.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Okay, pull up the helicopters.

[Kalila Khalilah]

Pull up the weird helicopters. It's like such a non solution. But it's also like it sucks that the tickets are expensive, but the trickle down is so much.

[Nithya Raman]

But it's bad because yes, we are going to have to. We are gonna have to deal with the events being here. It's going to be a big burden for the city.

[Kalila Khalilah]

But it trickles down to the most vulnerable people and are known definitely not either, you guys. It's very much not you guys. It's, you know, the unhoused and like the trickle down effects are really it.

[Nithya Raman]

Yeah, it's gonna be. I think it is gonna be scary. It could be. It definitely could be scary. I think it requires significantly more management and requires engagement with LA28 to see what are they spending on. Are these expenditures appropriate? Is the. Because we're eventually going to have to bear the cost of overspending. Right. So it requires that kind of engagement. And also we need to be making sure that Angelinos can go to these events. Like we need more cheap tickets. We need to make sure Angelinos can access them. Yeah, I agree with you. It is it feels very, very alienating to have this big event in our backyard and not be able to experience it.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

I will volunteer though, just to be clear. I've already signed up to volunteer.

[Nithya Raman]

But my hope is also that we can have community. Both two kinds of things that I that can ameliorate some of this. One is can we have real community events? Maybe watch parties, maybe events in public spaces across the city that are inviting Angelenos in and creating a sense of community and togetherness around events that we're all excited about. And I think that would be amazing. And I, you know, we're doing some of that. We're doing the prep for that. I would love to see much more. And if I'm mayor, I'll be laser focused on ensuring that that happens and that we're doing it not just where the Olympics venues are, but across the entire city. So the entire city feels like they can participate in and celebrate an event that's happening here. The second is, what is the legacy? Like, what are we getting afterwards? Is there more trees that are being planted? Are there, you know, walking and biking infrastructure that's put in?

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Was LA greatly improved after the last

[Nithya Raman]

Olympics here for many reasons? That was a very unusual Olympics, but they did leave a big legacy for la.

[Esther]

Can we get some of that?

[Nithya Raman]

We might. If we again, we might push for it.

[Kalila Khalilah]

No new stadiums or structures were built. There were. There was some thoughtfulness I remember around like when the Olympics were announced and obviously like, what was it in a transit first, like there was this whole transit initiative that sort of.

[Nithya Raman]

Yes, it was supposed to be a car free Olympics. Now it's.

[Kalila Khalilah]

But I guess the flip side is, like was part of the acceleration of the D line because of the Olympics.

[Nithya Raman]

So we, yeah, the city, the county actually voted for an effort to build more transit in advance of the Olympics. And the D line was funded through that tax. And that's exciting. That is a big legacy that we

[Kalila Khalilah]

have to say, seeing the way the city has galvanized around the D line and how it brought out this kind of unified joy, unilaterally positive joy.

[Nithya Raman]

Oh, the new train line down.

[Kalila Khalilah]

A huge subway line was built from it, basically. Guess downtown in Beverly Hills.

[Guest Interviewer 1]

Seeing as you are running for mayor of la, we were hoping to get some recommendations from you on your favorite LA places.

[Esther]

First of all, rapid fire best place to get street tacos.

[Nithya Raman]

Alejandra's quesadillas.

[Guest Interviewer 1]

Okay.

[Nithya Raman]

They're so good. And it's like blue corn with huitlacoche. And it's near the parking lot. You know where that. That municipal parking lot is on behind Sunset. I went there recently, and it's so good. So good. I don't eat meat, so, like, I can't go to every street. Taco stand fair. Best concert venue or favorite, you know, the Hollywood Bowl.

[Guest Interviewer 1]

Favorite bar or club. Oh, like, go to go out. Dancing Night out.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

I need this answer from you.

[Esther]

I don't.

[Kalila Khalilah]

I can't. Not anyone on any of these couches can answer this question.

[Nithya Raman]

I'll tell you, my favorite cocktail right now is at Mirate in Los Feliz. They have a. A Paloma, which is, like, really the best paloma I've ever had.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

And it's.

[Nithya Raman]

It's weirdly, it's canned, but it is so good.

[Guest Interviewer 1]

Favorite beach?

[Nithya Raman]

Oh, interesting. I just like going to the beach in Santa Monica. Like, whatever is the easiest. Honestly. I just take the 10 all the way down and I'm there.

[Esther]

Spoken like a true East Sider.

[Kalila Khalilah]

Doesn't know anything about the beach. Yeah, I'm not.

[Nithya Raman]

I'm. Yeah, we don't go. I don't go too far. When my kids were little, that was, like, the way that we would entertain them was that we would drive over to the beach and it was hours

[Caroline Goldfarb]

of hours, because you can just let them.

[Nithya Raman]

You can just let them free. Huge sandbox.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Yeah.

[Nithya Raman]

And they could just do, you know, whatever.

[Esther]

Will you take my daughter?

[Caroline Goldfarb]

Yes, I'll take her.

[Guest Interviewer 1]

All right, next.

[Progressive Insurance Announcer]

Thanks.

[Guest Interviewer 1]

Street vendors.

[Nithya Raman]

Oh, street vendors. I went to an amazing night market in Chinatown recently and had these incredible. I don't even know what they are, but I think they're like a Thai treat. But they're coconut milk and flour.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

That sounds good. Already with the coconut milk.

[Nithya Raman]

Yeah, but it. But they're very good. I wish I could. I wish I knew what they were called, but the night market in Chinatown, I think it's on Friday night.

[Caroline Goldfarb]

I love Chinatown.

[Guest Interviewer 1]

And this is the last one. Do you have an underrated outdoor hidden gem?

[Nithya Raman]

So, you know, I represent Griffith park, so obviously I love. I love Griffith Park a huge amount. And I love the Tom LaBonge panorama, which is a hike that you can do. That's right. Old city council member. But for. Again, since we're all so kid focused here, I like Deb's park, where you can hike up and there's turtles, and it's a very easy hike. And there's a swing for kids. It's really like Griffith. No, it's on the east side. Oh, okay.

[Guest Interviewer 1]

And that was the last one.

[Kalila Khalilah]

Great.

[Nithya Raman]

Wrecks. Yes.

[Esther]

Thank you. We love you for taking the time out of your campaign for us.

[Guest Interviewer 1]

Where can people go if they want to support or contribute to the campaign?

[Nithya Raman]

Yes. Nithyaforthecity.com but really, there's two weeks before the primary, so just vote if you haven't voted.

[Kalila Khalilah]

Send in your ballots.

[Nithya Raman]

Send in your ballots.

[Kalila Khalilah]

Spread the word.

[Nithya Raman]

We things can be better here.

[Esther]

Things can be better.

[Nithya Raman]

Things can be better. Let's fight for a better future. For exercise your civic responsibility to vote. We cannot. We cannot succumb to blonde men.

[Kalila Khalilah]

Okay?

[Esther]

Or we will see you guys next week with a brand new episode. Thank you.