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In her Inaugural Address, Mayor Karen Bass shared her vision for leading Los Angeles in a new direction by housing people immediately and making our neighborhoods safer, healthier and filled with opportunity. Following is the text of the address, as prepared for delivery:
Madam Vice President – thank you, thank you for taking the time to be here today. Your responsibilities send you around the nation and around the world, but today you chose to be here in your home city, and you were kind enough to bring several members of Congress and other community leaders here with you on Air Force Two. Know that we appreciate you.
And Vice President Harris – know that your city has your back.
Senate President Atkins, my thanks to you as well.
It was my honor to swear you in as California’s second female Assembly Speaker, and you continued to blaze a trail as California’s first female Senate President Pro tem. You are an inspiration for women and the LGBTQ community – and you have been an impactful leader on one of our most critical issues, housing.
We are also graced by Lt. Governor Eleni Kounalakis, California’s first female Lt. Governor. Thank you for your leadership.
Making history with each of you today is a monumental moment in my life and for Los Angeles.
The four of us – Californians, leaders, women …
And let’s not forget our all-female County Board of Supervisors! We are all going to make so much history together in a state that has enshrined in our constitution a woman’s right to decide what happens to her body!
Governor Newsom – thank you for joining us today, and expect me to be calling on you again so we can get big, bold things done together…and know that you can always call on me.
And our State’s First Partner, Jennifer Siebel Newsom — I look forward to working with you to house the thousands of unhoused women and children in our city.
Mayor Garcetti – thank you for your 21 years of service to our city.
When we light the Olympic Torch in 2028, when we take public transit to the airport, when we go to bed in apartments safer from earthquakes, and when we breathe in cleaner air, Angelenos will be benefiting from your legacy.
And thank you for being supportive in every possible way during this very brief transition period.
From all over the country, I am so blessed to be joined by my Congressional colleagues — the best part of Congress is the lifelong relationships you develop, and I will always treasure our friendship.
To the city’s outgoing officials – thank you for your service; we build on your work.
And to those remaining and newly taking office, I look forward to a closely aligned relationship as we create opportunities for the people of this great city.
I am also honored to see so many other public officials. To see city workers, who labor day in and day out to make sure our city functions, and to those who helped plan today, thank you as well.
Now to my family:
My three brothers…
My brilliant and beautiful daughters and son…
My nieces, nephews and cousins …
My boys — my grandsons – the lights of my life…
I could not be here without your support.
And to those no longer with us, Emilia and Michael, you are always in my heart.
My parents did not live to see me be elected to any office, but their love, support and guidance is why I stand before you today.
My mother always taught me that it is so easy to be kind, and that having compassion and empathy is so much more powerful than self centeredness and self promotion.
My father taught me to be a critical thinker and to understand the historical context of national and international events — my daily conversations with him led me to make a lifetime commitment to do whatever I can to change the world.
And now, the people of Los Angeles have asked me to serve at an inflection point in our history:
The pandemic;
The rapidly changing economy;
The rapidly changing climate;
The cost of living;
40,000 people sleeping on the street…
I believe that times of inflection require reflection – I believe, it’s time for Angelenos to remind ourselves where we come from and who we are.
My father fled Jim Crow Texas during the great African American migration after World War 2.
He worked for the postal service as a letter carrier. It was a union job, and his paycheck supported my brothers and me and allowed my mother to choose to be a homemaker.
When I think about the dreams of working people today, I reflect on the fact that my mother and father were able to buy a home in Los Angeles for their family of six with one paycheck.
When I think of the unaffordability, the difficulty, the struggle working people face today in Los Angeles, I reflect on the challenges Angelenos have faced across our history. I reflect on the fact that no matter what, we have never, ever given up.
And our magic, L.A. magic, it’s still here.
Just think about how the goods coming through L.A.’s port stock the shelves of America coast to coast.
The ideas and inventions spinning out from our Silicon Beach are powering our future.
We stir the soul of the world – we make the movies, the music, the culture that entertains and influences people all across the globe.
So our task is not always to make magic, but to make sure it’s sprinkled across every neighborhood and available to every family, like it was for my family growing up.
Today, too many Angelenos have no choice but to crowd multiple families into one home, and to work multiple jobs to just barely pay the rent.
Tragically, our city has earned the shameful crown as being home to some of the most crowded neighborhoods in the nation—Pico Union, South L.A., East L.A., the East Valley.
We know our mission – we must build housing in every neighborhood.
And the very best way for this to happen is by neighbors working together and deciding where housing should be built.
We cannot continue to overcrowd neighborhoods that are already overcrowded.
This is my call to you, L.A. – to welcome housing in every neighborhood.
The struggle to pay the bills.
The stress of not knowing how you will fix the car if it breaks down.
It’s what causes anxiety and despair for so many.
And it pushes too many of us into crisis – degrading mental and physical health, and driving addiction and self harm.
When a parent is hospitalized, when a job is lost, when the rent can no longer be paid – this is how so many Angelenos lose their housing.
And when life is this hard for some Angelenos, it affects all Angelenos.
That is why tomorrow morning, I will start my first day as mayor at our city’s Emergency Operations Center, where my first act as mayor will be to declare a state of emergency on homelessness.
My emergency declaration will recognize the severity of our crisis and break new ground to maximize our ability to urgently move people inside, and do so for good.
And it will create the structure necessary for us to have a true, unified and citywide strategy to set us on the path to solve homelessness.
If we are going to bring Angelenos inside and move our city in a new direction, we must have a single strategy to unite our city and county and engage the state, the federal government, the private sector and every other stakeholder.
And so I call on our City Council, and our City Attorney and City Controller, to continue the work we started during the transition on a unified and urgent strategy to solve homelessness.
I call on the County of Los Angeles, with its authority over health, including mental health and substance abuse, to lock arms with me — and we have already started these discussions.
I ask the Mayors and Councilmembers of the 87 other cities in our county to lock arms with me, too, because we know that problems don’t stop at our city limits.
Vice President Harris, Governor Newsom — my colleagues in Congress here today — look for me on your caller ID.
If we come together and focus on solutions rather than jurisdiction, on linking arms rather than pointing fingers – if we just focus on bringing people inside, comprehensively addressing their needs, and moving them to permanent housing with a way to pay their bills — we will save lives and save our city – that is my mission as your mayor.
You elected me to lead, and lead I will do.
But I am also asking you, Angelenos, to join me in moving our city forward.
In addition to asking you to join me in bringing Angelenos inside, I am also calling on you to lock arms with me to make our neighborhoods – every neighborhood — safe, through a strategy that is informed by our communities.
Of course, we must stop crimes in progress and hold people accountable. Some neighborhoods have asked for additional officers, and we will deliver…but what neighborhoods are asking for and what they need is as diverse as our city.
That’s why my administration will launch an Office of Community Safety so that we meet with neighbors, store clerks, dog walkers, and teenagers who know what’s actually going on behind the statistics — we want to have block by block information on how to truly keep each neighborhood safe – is it more officers, better lighting, cleaner streets, a closed alley that you need?
The founder of Homeboy Industries, Father Greg Boyle – a true hero of L.A. – famously said, ‘nothing stops a bullet like a job.’
Let me be so bold as to add that we can prevent crime and community violence by addressing the social, the health, and the economic conditions that compromise a safe environment.
So let’s partner with the people, ask them what works in their neighborhood, and create our public safety policy from the ground up. And keep our neighborhoods safe.
By helping people pay the bills, by helping people feel safer, we’re going to help people breathe easier – and we should literally do that by cleaning up our environment.
It’s a necessity that we must clean and green the way we power our lives…
And that necessity presents a tremendous opportunity to put Angelenos to work in good paying careers.
Achieving 100 percent clean power, zero emission buildings, and a zero-emission port will take hard work.
And while I put in the work from City Hall, I want to make sure the work done in our communities is rewarded with paychecks building community wealth – let’s make sure it’s Angelenos who are creating our greener future. A future that’s healthier; a future that’s cooler because we are doing our part on climate change and we’re planting trees and expanding the green canopy.
We have so much opportunity and wealth here in LA already. And let’s keep it here!
Let’s compete, not against the business community, but with them, side by side to preserve and grow our economic and employment base.
That starts with bringing people inside, and safer, cleaner neighborhoods with reliable city services.
It also takes a fundamental shift – away from ‘no, that’s not my problem’ and to ‘how can we work together, and get to yes?’
It starts when we understand — when businesses open, when businesses grow, when businesses thrive, they hire people.
And putting paychecks in people’s hands – that solves a lot of problems, so to the business community, I am ready to partner with you!
Angelenos, we need to recreate the spirit I have seen in L.A. after our most trying times.
After an earthquake, everyone in the City looks around and asks what part they can play, what effort they can join — what specifically can they do to help their fellow Angelenos.
And right now, there is a role for everyone.
If you are a Hollywood creative, I call on you to help me inspire people to help our city.
If you are a tech entrepreneur, I call on you to help me make City Hall run smarter, faster and with more accountability.
If you are retired, I call you to share your wisdom with our youth.
If you are a community organizer, let’s organize our neighborhoods together.
And finally I call on you to come work for the City!
Did you know L.A. City has hundreds of vacancies in the very departments that respond to community needs?
If you want a good paying union job — you should literally come work for the City of L.A.
I call on the people of our city to not just dream of the L.A. we want, but to participate in making the dream come true.
Please join me in this effort. A city where people are housed and tents are gone.
A City where people are comfortable walking and shopping in all neighborhoods at all hours.
A City where murals replace graffiti; A City where we lock arms with each other until we get the job done.
That’s the reality we can build, Los Angeles.
Let’s build it together.
Thank you Los Angeles for the honor and the opportunity.
Thank you.
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