Nithya Raman

We're producing less.

San Diego, which is facing the same macroeconomic conditions that we are, is actually increasing permits, while L.A.

has seen a 25 percent drop in permits.

I mean, to me, the evidence was very clear that this was impacting multifamily housing production significantly.

I think there's two things that are happening here that are preventing more robust action from being taken on issues that are obviously addressing housing production.

One is that there is significant pushback from, again, those same kind of insider groups that have huge sway in City Hall, both the ULA Coalition that I worked with very closely to try and

negotiate a pathway forward.

I was talking to them for many, many months to say, because I too was a supporter of ULA, I really value the money that it provides to the city for rent relief and other things.

And so I worked very closely with them to say, hey, can we craft an exemption that allows for this much needed housing to be built here?

Ultimately, we just were not able to come to an agreement on what that would look like.

And I got extremely frustrated because to me, this is the single most important issue that is

you know, hampering our future resiliency.

That is making Los Angeles into a place of less opportunity.

Secondly, I think both labor groups that funded the effort also were not on board with making any changes.

And so with nonprofits and with labor groups that had supported the effort not making any changes without a real push from the mayor and from other leadership to really move this forward, this effort died.

It is now going through a committee process, but I'm not sure what is going to come from it.

Well, look, I don't want to betray my private conversations.

I still have relationships with people on the council that I'm working with.

And, you know, whatever happens in this election, either outcome, I will need to work with them going forward as well.

But I will say that, you know, I've interacted with a lot of local political figures here, not just people on the council, but across the entire country.