This 23-Year-Old Might Become The First POC to Represent His District on LA City Council
Interview by Joaquin Romero and Jelina Liu
Photo by Abieyuwa Omoruyi
We spoke with Bryant Odega, candidate for Los Angeles City Council for District 15. Odega, a recent graduate from UCLA, has a background in environmental activism and is presently a member of the Harbor Gateway South Neighborhood Council. He is running on a platform that includes issues of policing, public housing and pushing for a Green New Deal for Los Angeles. Odega’s candidacy is part of a developing slate of progressives who are running in local elections throughout the LA area, in part to create what he describes as “a city council that lives up to the values of its people”.
Here, Odega speaks about his candidacy, the need for more aggressive environmental policy in Los Angeles, and the dispersal of unhoused people in the neighborhood of Echo Park, which occurred in late March.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Joaquin Romero: Why don’t you tell us about yourself, your background, and what prompted you to run for office.
Bryant Odega: Sure, so I just want to start out by saying thank you for inviting me for this interview. I really appreciate it. I’m just really grateful for being in this space with you all, and sharing about myself and my district with your audience.
And so just a bit about me, my name is Bryant Odega. I’m a lifelong resident of District 15, which is the district in Los Angeles that includes Watts, Harbor Gateway, Harbor City, Wilmington and San Pedro, basically connecting South LA to the harbor region. So it’s a very diverse district. I’ve lived in this district all my life, but my parents immigrated to this country from Nigeria. So I’m a proud son of Nigerian immigrants. For most of my life I grew up in a single-parent household led by my mother, after my father got detained by ICE in a detention center here in my district when I was about 7 years old — ultimately separating our family for 15 years. We lived in rent controlled apartments, and I started working two jobs in college to pay the bills back at home while being at UCLA. So I know how it feels to struggle, to...live on the margins. I also know the anxiety, the constant anxiety, especially here in Los Angeles, about figuring out how you’re gonna pay next month’s rent. Because rent is just so expensive, and it’s so damn hard to live in this city as a working class Angeleno.
And so this is an experience that is shared by many folks in my district. We are a majority working class district, a majority people of color district, and we’ve had ten folks represent this district since 1925. And since then we’ve never had someone represent us who lives north of San Pedro. And just to give a bit more context, San Pedro is a district that includes parts of LA. That’s where a lot of the economic power is, and thus the political power, and as a result everyone else has been neglected, and left behind. But we also haven’t had a person of color represent us either, by the way.
And so I’m running as someone who knows what it’s like to struggle, who can best advocate on behalf of the working class interests of everyday Angelenos, and is willing to put people over profits, which is another issue in our district — where the current incumbent has accepted money from cops, from real estate developers, and has sided with them when it comes to the movement to reimagine public safety, or even when it comes to who influences votes on real estate development projects.
And so I’m running to change that, to serve the interests of all residents of the district, regardless of your income, regardless of whether you live in a home or not.
And also what pushed me to run was just frustration, anger. Honestly I didn’t plan on running for city council right after graduating college last year. But with all that has happened with the movement for black lives, and with this pandemic, it’s just a constant reminder of how backwards our city is. And knowing that the main reason is because we don’t have fair representation, we don’t have leaders who are committed to the people over corporate interests…I decided to throw my hat into this race.
JR: Tell me a bit about your district, because what I hear from people who are involved in LA politics is that there are a lot of communities in the area that have a definite need for a more progressive approach to local governance, especially with issues like wealth inequality or the need for housing justice. Can you describe your district, and if you’ve seen that need. And also what has the response been to your campaign, has there been a positive response towards you?
BO: Specifically for CD-15, a lot of our story is characterized by neglect and lack of representation. So like I mentioned before since 1925 we’ve never had someone represent us who was from the other neighborhoods that are majority black and brown, majority working class. Communities like Watts, they are heavily impacted by pollution, industrial waste, because our councilmembers just haven’t been doing what it takes to protect our communities. Watts is in the top 5% most heavily polluted neighborhoods in all of California. Wilmington, similarly, is also heavily polluted. And so what’s unique about our district is that we also have the majority of the oil interests in Los Angeles. There are hundreds of families who live less than half a mile away from an oil well. And so residents of Wilmington actually have one of the highest rates, if not the highest rate, of cancer in all of California. And I’d be remiss to not mention the fact that these communities are also, like I mentioned before, majority communities of color. And so this is a clear example of environmental racism. And these issues aren’t new, right? These oil refineries have been here generations, for decades. And the response from our incumbent is that our councilmember doesn’t support — not even having a buffer zone between communities and these oil wells — but he definitely doesn’t support a total phaseout, as I do.
Our councilmember, he opposed the effort to reinvest money from police into communities. $1.8 billion was what was allocated to the police last year, 54% of our general funds, and the folks were only asking for $150 million. We know that communities that are invested in are safer, there’s research that backs that up. And we know the majority of Angelenos, a bit over 60%, according to the LMU poll, support reallocating funds from police into community programs.
So when I launched last month, February 4th, the response has been really exciting, really engaging. Our campaign video has over 16,000 views on Twitter, and that was like a low budget video that I made with my cousin and my sister.
After officially announcing in February, I’ve been building a lot of relationships within the grassroots organizations that resonate a lot with my values. So like DSA, the Democratic Socialists of America Los Angeles chapter, as well as the Long Beach chapter as well, which I’m a member of, because DSA LB organizes in the Harbor region. People’s City Council… they don’t endorse candidates, but I’m the only candidate in this race to sign their pledge to have a participatory budget pledge, which means whenever we’re in a budget cycle, to have at least one session, a town hall, where residents have a say and have an impact in the budgeting process, because one of the reasons we are so neglected in this district is that the current and past councilmembers just don’t engage with us. So that’s been a really exciting experience, seeing a lot of the support I’ve been getting from folks.
Yeah, so we’ve been enjoying a lot of support from a lot of these grassroots organizations that did play a huge role in the victories of folks like Nithya Raman, and Jorge Gascon and Holly Mitchell in Los Angeles.
JR: In terms of LA Politics in general, one of the biggest stories recently has been what’s going on in Echo Park with the removal of the homeless and the police response and the demonstrations in response to that. A couple of things you focus on in your campaign right now are the issues of housing justice, you have a Housing for All proposal on your campaign platform, and also police reform. Can you outline where you stand on those issues. I saw that you took a No Police Money pledge recently, is that right?
BO: What’s been happening at Echo Park is really a travesty. It is also a representation of the failure of the city of Los Angeles to tackle this crisis at the scale and urgency required, as well as with the humanity. It’s a humanitarian crisis, and in one of the richest cities in the country. One out of every fifth person that’s unhoused in America is in LA.
And so the issue isn’t whether we have enough resources or not, because our economy is similar to that of small nations. And in regards to resources, even President Biden has offered 100% FEMA reimbursement for housing folks and putting them in hotel rooms. And our so-called leaders just don’t have the political will to really act. Honestly it doesn’t really make much sense to me, how we can just let this crisis get worse. Last year, at least four homeless folks died every night; today it’s between five to seven unhoused residents. One of the top causes is hypothermia.
What’s been the major response by the city council, aside from inadequate funding for housing units is also these so-called “sweeps”. So my platform on my website talks a bit about that, because it’s been something that Mitch O'Farrell supports, who is the guy who represents CD-13 which includes Echo Park, but so does Joe Buscaino: huge proponents of these sweeps, which basically involve sanitation workers, outreach workers as well, and police to go to these homeless encampments. Sometimes, it’s just to pick up trash here and there, around folks, encampments. Other times — a few weeks ago in my district — it’s total displacement, total devastation, of unhoused folks, you know, of where they’re staying when they have nowhere else to go. Or this past week when Mitch O’Farrell took it up a notch by calling in basically… battalions to go after unhoused folks.
And so the reason why I’m such a huge opponent to these sweeps is…it’s counterintuitive. I think the last thing we should do, when it comes to serving the most vulnerable members of our society, is responding to them with police violence, or with a handgun or a baton, all types of weapons that can harm folks and traumatize them and thus make it harder for them to trust us. Because another reality in Los Angeles, is one out of every third use of force involves an unhoused Angeleno.
So it makes it harder to house people because they don’t trust the government when they brutalize them. And folks lose a lot…they literally destroy peoples’ tents, and people don’t have enough time to collect all of their contact information or things they use to identify themselves or get connected to a social worker. So it just makes it really hard, sets folks back by months.
Secondly, in a public health crisis, I think it is reckless to displace unhoused residents. Because as a result, that would increase the likelihood of spreading Coronavirus throughout the community. And this is not just me saying this, but the CDC.
And thirdly, it’s just very immoral, this pro-carceral approach to these issues. It’s just not working. So that’s why I support reimagining public safety. We need to reinvest funds away from the over-bloated police budget. A lot of that, the reason why it’s so bloated, is because police associations have so much sway in our politics.
And so although I was never going to seek police association money anyway, nor would they give it to me anyway because it would be a bad investment on their part, I think it’s very important that we have leaders that take a public stance in not only rejecting police association money, but also holding them accountable. We also need to end police associations, push them out of the LA Fed, because they run counter to the greater labor, social justice movement.
There is a link between a disinvestment in social services and an increase in law enforcement money. And so what we need to do is reverse that; we need to reinvest in our communities so that they’re safer. The reason why communities like Brentwood are so much safer, is not because they have such a heavy police presence — because they don't. It’s because they have more resources. So that’s what we need here in CD-15. Communities like Watts, communities like Wilmington need resources, we need jobs, we need cleaner air, we need cleaner water, we need folks being more secure in their housing situation. And then we can have more public safety in that regard.
Governing via police violence isn’t governing at all: it’s oppression. So we need to end that, especially after last year.
JR: So I want to touch on environmental policy. You have a background, in part, in environmental organizing. And I noticed in your policy platform on your website that you had reference to a Green New Deal for Los Angeles. Can you kind of outline what that means, what that would look like?
BO: LADWP, which is the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the public utility we have in Los Angeles — one of the largest public utilities in the country — they have researched two scenarios where we can achieve 100% clean, renewable energy. And for a while now they were looking at 2045, which is not just in my opinion but also based off of the science…we need to be more aggressive. And so not only am I fighting for a Green New Deal for LA, but I’m fighting for a real Green New Deal. So I’m calling for 100% clean, renewable energy, transitioning to that type of economy by 2030.
It’s about tackling climate change at the scale and urgency required. We know that the worst effects of this can be felt as soon as 2040, but we’ve already seen, year after year, record breaking hot temperatures, wildfires, et cetera.
It’s also a jobs program, right? Our working class, one of the main pathways to a middle class job is working in the oil refineries. So when we talk about environmental policy we also wanna make sure that we do it in a way that protects affected workers and affected communities and that we are creating jobs that are family-supportive, that pay just as well, if not not better, than the jobs they had before. And that they are also unionized, because we can’t transition to a 100% renewable economy and still maintain the same types of inequities we’re producing right now.
Jelina Liu: I have a couple questions for you. With all the Echo Park stuff, I was just looking at the livestreams, looking at the comments, and I could see that a lot of people in the comments were kind of surprised, like, “How could this happen in a democratically controlled city, how could this happen with a blue city council?” So I was wondering if you could just give your thoughts on that.
BO: As I started getting more involved in local politics...I had just a shock, right, about how unprogressive our city is. So, 14 out of the 15 councilmembers are registered Democrats. But it is a nonpartisan government, so I am running in a nonpartisan race, but I am a registered Democrat because that is where my values are aligned with for the most part. However, being a registered Democrat isn’t enough. And so, let me use my own councilmember as an example, because he’s a registered Democrat. He’s a registered Democrat representing a very progressive district. He was one of the few to vote against the less than 7% cut from the LAPD’s 1.8 billion dollar budget. Right now, the mayor is proposing almost 3 billion dollars, because we haven’t learned from last year, right? He may be the only Democrat to vote against it, but he’s still a Democrat nevertheless.
I think a lot of it also has to do with money in politics...who has more influence in your decision making process. We just can’t possibly trust folks who accept these special interests’ money to hold them accountable. A lot of these councilmembers, including my own councilmember and Mitch O'Farrell, have accepted money from luxury real estate developers. With that perhaps you have an influence on what type of housing they prioritize. We get a lot of housing that’s one thousand or so luxury housing units and then twenty affordable ones. And then they wonder why we’re in an affordable housing crisis.
And so it is a majority Democrat-run city council, but our city isn't as democratic as it should be when it comes to the budgeting process. Last year, just a quick example, reimagining public safety, the mayor gave out a budget and the city council was so quick to accept it, without actually engaging with the community. That’s not very democratic.
We have unhoused Angelenos, and the #1 cause of homelessness in LA is lack of affordable housing. And instead of helping folks, who if given housing or resources could be able to sustain themselves, rather than doing that our city instead focuses on policing them.
JL: So I read that in December the environmental division of the LA city council voted to phase out oil drilling in LA. But obviously that’s not the end of it...and I’m really surprised that wasn’t covered more. I found out about it in February, much later. So I was gonna ask you, what are the next steps? And what can we do to make sure they actually follow through on that?
BO: Right, so I definitely want to shout out STAND LA, and a lot of the environmental justice organizations and community organizers who have been fighting for this for years, for a long time. So I’m really excited that we’re making a lot of progress.
And so, from my understanding, I believe it has to go to two more committees, one is a public land use committee, and then I think another committee before being voted on by the full city council. I believe in April the public land committee will be considering it for a vote.
So speaking in favor of that, telling your stories, reaching out to folks who are from the communities to share their stories, to push city councilmembers to support this. Because there are some councilmembers who have signalled their support, but to my understanding I don’t think there is a majority yet, including my own councilmember who does oversee the district that has the majority of the oil interests.
And so I implore folks to follow Communities for a Better Environment, a statewide organization that focuses on environmental justice issues. They are one of the biggest groups in Wilmington here in my district. They are offering next steps for going about this, so I would take the lead of Stand LA and CBE. And so although we have ample time to make our voices heard, there is still also time for the fossil fuel industry to also make their voice heard. So we definitely have to get engaged because nothing is for certain, especially in Los Angeles.
JL: My last question for you is… I’d love it if you could just talk about how important local elections really are. Obviously a lot of people just vote every four years for the president and then they’re just done for four years until the next. And so I’m wondering if you could just talk about the importance of local elections, especially because I think some people also do feel like, “Oh, you can’t even do that much on the local level; you won’t even have that much power”. But obviously in LA these elections are really big. So I was wondering if you could just talk about the importance of participating in your local election.
BO: Well I definitely appreciate that question. When I was part of Holly Mitchell’s campaign for LA County Supervisor, one of the things I’d joke about with people in the community when I was going over what the LA Supes does, is that it’s also called The Silent Giant. Because on the Supes, there’s only five people who represent tens of millions of people. If you rely on food stamps, that’s LA County. If you are going to a local public hospital, that’s overseen by LA county. If you care about the jail system, that’s the county as well, it’s the district attorney’s office. Obviously if you care about reforms to make our system more anti-carceral and more rehabilitative, that’s local. You know, in Congress, or with the president, they can sign executive orders or push for legislation to help emphasize this, but if people care about…the environment for example, every level of government does have some jurisdiction over it. But I’ll just speak on the LA city council level. We have one of the largest public utilities in the country, so if folks want our city to transition to cleaner, renewable energy that is sustainable and protects frontline communities: that’s the mayor’s office, that’s LA city council. We’re the ones who oversee that, we’re the ones that fund it. If folks care about holding police accountable: that’s the city. Although the people fund the budget, it’s the city council that holds the purse strings. So if you think it’s unjust that we spend little to nothing on community programs, then you have to get involved in your local elections. And I could go on.
To give one last quick example, we talk about public housing units and wealthy cities. The top two wealthiest cities in the country…there’s New York, that’s number one, and there’s the city of Los Angeles. In New York they provide over 170,000 public housing units. The biggest landlord in New York City is the City of New York. You know how many they provide in the city of Los Angeles? A bit over 6,000. And so, you know, our city has the power, has the resources to provide an alternative to the private rental market that is so hard for many people to live in. So if people can’t afford to rent from a private landlord, they can afford to still have a home.
Actually the Los Angeles City Council is the most powerful city council in the nation; only fifteen people represent over 4 million people. It’s not on my platform yet, but I also support having more districts, because I think it also teeters on being a bit anti-democratic. There’s so much consolidation of power into such a few number of people.
But yes, local government is so important — whether it’s potholes or air pollution.
