Karen Bass

and to develop the policies in collaboration with each other.

And I think that goes across the board, the business community, but also a neighborhood association on all levels.

When you involve people, when you collaborate, when you build coalitions,

That's the way you bring about true and lasting change versus imposing change and forcing change on a population that is not in the same place where you are.

And I think that that's a critical factor.

The challenge of today is one, there's incredible opportunities to communicate, which is why I appreciate this opportunity.

But on the other hand, there is so much noise that people can easily be confused by all of the information that is put out there because you don't really have a way, unless you're really attentive, to distinguish fact from fiction.

You need to do your homework a little bit to see.

that Los Angeles is 500 square miles and what took place happened in one square mile.

You need to do a little bit of work versus just look at the pictures of one area and assume that that spanned it and impacted a population of almost 4 million.

Well, by staying connected to the people and by never isolating myself, you know, in the ivory tower of City Hall.

And I believed that when I was in Congress and I believed that when I was in Sacramento.

I have always maintained strong ties within the community so that my purpose is never confused.

But, you know, when times are hard, I do look to history.

I mean, I'll never forget, by the way, when Trump was first elected and we were all so traumatized.

You remember that time.

I mean, just in disbelief for a while.

And I remember going to the African-American Museum and spending three hours in the basement

reading every exhibit, watching every video about what happened during the time period of enslavement.

And you just think about all that the African-American population has been through.