After she defeated her Democrat opponent, the wealthy developer Rick Caruso, in last month’s city race to replace outgoing city mayor Eric Garcetti (D) – who’s been in office since 2013 – former Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) was sworn in on Sunday the first Black female mayor of Los Angeles.
Bass is now officially the first female mayor of the nation’s second-largest city in 241 years and the second Black mayor of the city after she was sworn in by Vice President Kamal Harris- the first woman and first woman of color to become vice president- on Sunday at the city’s Microsoft Theater.
The inaugural festivities for Los Angeles’ 43rd mayor were open to the public.
After thanking Harris for making the time to attend her inauguration, Bass focused her remarks in her inauguration speech on her plans to solve LA’s housing crisis, stressing that her first act as mayor will be to declare a state of emergency on homelessness.
Underscoring that some 40,000 people in the city are living on the streets, Bass noted the need for a fundamental shift in the approach to issues like crime and housing, urging the city to join the efforts.
Bass noted the fact that Los Angeles has, tragically, earned the shameful crown as being home to the most crowded neighborhoods in the US with too many citizens being forced to crowd multiple families into one home and to work multiple jobs just to barely pay rent, having no other choice.
She reiterated that her mission now is to build new housing in every neighborhood on top of her first act as mayor to declare a state of emergency on homelessness.
With regard to the problem of confronting crime in the city, Bass pledged to create an Office of Community Safety and to increase police officers in some communities in her efforts to prevent crime and community violence by addressing the social, health, and the economic conditions.
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