LA City Council District 9 Candidates: Adriana Cabrera
On March 7, District 9 residents will vote either Adriana Cabrera, Jorge Nuño or Curren D. Price, Jr. into the Los Angeles City Council.
Adriana Cabrera is a multitasker. On a recent February evening, she leads teens in cold-calling, pays for pizza delivery, and answers interview questions, all while trying to ignore the uncontrollable barks of her neighbor’s Chihuahua.
The 24-year-old South Los Angeles native has been campaigning as candidate for City Council District 9, and simultaneously working to complete a master’s degree in public administration.
While she may be young, Cabrera will be the first to tell you age is but a number. “At a very young age I’ve always been all about community,” she said.
At 17, she founded Empowering Youth in South Central, a grassroots organization that has helped more than 900 students from CD9 with their college, financial aid and scholarship applications. She currently serves as the education representative for the Central Alameda Neighborhood Council.
Cabrera is proud to say she’s devoted her life to civil service, and explains it was a particular experience in her childhood that motivated her to better the lives of others. In middle school, she lost a close friend to gun violence and from then on decided she didn’t want to see anyone else in her community suffer from injustice or feel the same helplessness she had. “I want others to know that they too can make it, that they too can have a brighter future, aside from what we see every day in the streets.”
She’s also made it her mission to show her community how important civic engagement is, especially among youth. Her campaign headquarters, run out of her mother’s home in South Central, is crammed with teens who volunteer their time making calls and sending emails on her behalf. “I think we give them the opportunity and let them know that just because you’re young doesn’t mean you don’t know or you can’t make it better.”
In addition to youth advocacy, Cabrera says what sets her apart from her competitors is her stance on voter eligibility. As a child of immigrants, Cabrera is advocating to allow undocumented immigrants to vote in local elections like they do in the neighborhood council. “Many who are undocumented in this area have lived here for 35 years and have no say on who their leader is in City Hall.”
Cabrera says it was not always her intention to run for City Hall, but she felt her voice had not been heard. After she participated in a number of protests at City Hall herself, she realized the only way to challenge the current leadership directly was to get her name on the ballot.
“I’m a huge believer that it’s important to complain, and it’s important to protest, but it’s also important to be sitting at the same table where people make decisions about our future.”
Intersections South L.A. asked community members to send in their questions for the District 9 Candidates. Here’s how Adriana Cabrera answered:
(The following questions and answers have been edited and condensed for clarity.)
What are some community based initiatives (requiring the involvement of residents through a grassroots model) you would implement to help improve the quality of life of our community?
— Evelyn, 28, social worker
AC: We have a lot of trash in our community. I would like to inform people to call the 311 number because a lot of people do not know that. I think we’re very limited in the type of staff that we may have. Another thing I want to do is create more opportunity for the young people to get involved in our community. One of the things we’re talking about implementing in the future is the youth development centers across the city. Its very important that we connect the residents with non profits and other community based organizations so they know the resources they have. That helps them identify different projects that they can do something for the community. As exemplified in the Homeless Count Initiative, having a more grassroots approach to the issues we want to tackle is important. It’s more effective when you go talk to someone than when you send a police officer to go and talk to them because they get very defensive.
Our community is policed heavy by LAPD. How do you plan to finance increased police presence in our neighborhoods? Is that one of your goals?
— Luis Lopez, 31, Warehouse manager
AC: Currently, we have 53.4 percent of our entire LA City budget going toward the enforcement and the LAPD. I feel that that’s not fair. We need to reallocate some of that budget to go toward other areas that can help prevent the crime that’s taking place in our community. I do not agree that we need to fund the police more. Our community is heavily policed already. We’ve seen that that has gotten a negative effect in our community. We do not see a major or drastic improvement on crime. It’s still happening. So, one of the solutions that I would bring to the table is to make sure that we start funding a lot of programs that can take preventative measures to make sure that we start addressing the root of the cause. A lot of it goes back to the youth not having opportunities, having no employment opportunities where they can go and get a job, and also get access to education. If people who commit crimes were to have access to the tools they need to be successful, the crime would not be happening.
What are you going to do improve the conditions of the area such as clean alleys, trash on street, and homelessness?
— Lona Diggs, 73, retired
AC: I would work closely with the departments that are in charge of those specific issues to try to figure out how we could send caseworkers instead of sending enforcement. It’s important to reevaluate the current process and establish accountability, even within the homeless. I’ve gone out there and talked to people and they feel that the current situation is very unfair. The number has gone up, so clearly the process in place right now is not working. One of the things we want to do is try to analyze what they’re going through right now and talk to the people ourselves. Out of respect we have to acknowledge that they’ve been there for a while and they know their issues. We should then bring in people who were formerly homeless and have them share their experiences and how they made it. We need to take time to talk to the people that were once affected by those issues and how they overcame them. This way, we can reevaluate the process and change our approach. If we keep the same approaches we’re using now, things are only going to get worse.
What is your vision for South Central LA? As a citizen of South LA of 30 years I am concerned of what our future will look like.
— Pablo, 64, retired
AC: My vision for South Central is that we have a community that is secure and safe. Where people are not afraid when they walk down the street. A community where people feel like they’re an asset. That their voice matters. That they are able to impact the quality of life that we have in our community. In particularly, I’m really big on that with the youth. Not only because of my age, but because I understand they are our future and believe that when we look at the vision, we are looking at the future. It’s important to teach youth how to write their own proposals, and how to do data research to back up their ideas. They need to understand that they have to be engaged in the process of beautifying our neighborhood and making it safer and cleaner. We must teach them and provide the necessary tools at all our public institutions like our libraries, so they can learn different skills that can contribute to that vision. It’s a really tough question because I have a really big vision.
Why can’t I walk or ride my bike without being messed with in South LA?
— Omar Gonzalez, 29, Entrepreneur
AC: So, that’s actually very true. Unfortunately, while growing up, I’ve had friends not able able to walk home without their shoes being taken away. These are realities that happen at times, especially at night. I think part of the problem is that right now we have a lot poverty in our community and when we have poverty, people rely on crime to make ends meet. Sometimes people steal bikes to resell them because they don’t have a job to make a living. If you have kids at home to feed, you do anything to make sure they have food at on their table. I totally disagree with the way people do it if they steal and commit a crime. I do believe have to be held accountable for their actions. However, I also believe that when we look at the bigger picture and why that’s happening, it’s because people grew up seeing that here and have internalized it.
As a Guatemalan immigrant I fear Donald Trump how will you represent the immigrant community at City Hall against Donald Trump?
— Luis Lopez, 31, Warehouse manager
AC: Resistance toward Trump starts at a local level. City council is a great, important tool to ensure that people in our community are not living in fear every single day. That’s not a good quality of life for someone to be fearful if they step out of their house that they might be arrested in a raid.
One-third of our population here is undocumented. I think it’s not fair for them to be disenfranchised from the voting process. Some people have been living here for 35 years, but if they do not have citizenship they do not have the right to vote locally; they’re able to do so at the neighborhood council. However, I think it’s important that at least at the local level, they should have a voice on the leadership that’s going to take place in city call. So, I am the only candidate right now out of the three candidates who has dared to challenge the current status quo and allow our undocumented community to vote. If they’ve lived here for 5, 10, years, why should they not have the right to decide the person who is going to be representing them in City Hall? I think that’s not fair for them, they’ve been disenfranchised for so long and I think it’s time we really consider giving them a voice.
