A week after Mayor Karen Bass made one of the dumbest “own goals” in L.A. political history, mayoral candidate and L.A. City Councilmember Nithya Raman is still riding high on the public backlash against Bass’ trashing of street vendors at their first debate.
“If you come for our street vendors, you're coming for the heart of L.A.,” Raman said at a hastily-set-up campaign event next to Brothers Cousins Tacos, a popular street taqueria on the Westside’s Sawtelle Boulevard, on Wednesday night.
If you don’t recall, at the first mayoral debate at the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association last week, Bass said that street vendors should be in “certain locations,” and compared vendors to encampments of unhoused people if they’re set up next to brick-and-mortar restaurants.
The Raman campaign event was ostensibly put together to announce that she had just published a nine-point plan laying out what she would do if she was elected mayor to change city policy towards street vending.