Vote for a Green LA City Council... or Lose One

 The current Mayor and Los Angeles City Council have made great progress in moving the bar on the vitally important environmental issues facing us, including: climate change, water scarcity, renewable power, getting LA off coal power, revamping the waste system to make it cleaner and move us more quickly toward zero waste, fighting the restart of a broken nuclear plant at San Onofre, revamping the entire transportation system, supporting urban farming and using the city’s purchasing power for good with the good food purchasing policy, the plastic bag ban, greening our buildings and instituting urban planning that makes sense (multi-use density surrounding mass transit stops), putting in place the clean trucks program at the Ports, and on and on.

Since there are so many special interests at play in the current LA City Council election, I want to put out there what I believe would be the greenest, most progressive city council.  I have made my choices based on reading the candidate statements and by watching these videos from the environmental candidate forum (which Curren Price didn't even bother to show up for...):  http://us5.campaign-archive2.com/?u=9462f04b3464958cb5337e982&id=60e92b708e

Council District 1: Vote for Jose Gardea. His opponent, Gil Cedillo, is receiving major funding from Chevron and, despite being in town, did not show up to vote for the groundbreaking climate change bill AB-32.  Especially at this time in history when we need to be doing everything in our power to address climate change, we need a leader who will make it a priority to show up and vote, not one who might listen to his Chevron donors. He votes in line with the Sierra Club only 67% of the time.  Gardea will continue the excellent work that Councilmember Reyes has done for the river and for the city. Reyes will be sorely missed.  

Council District 9: Vote for Ana Cubas. Her opponent, Curren Price, has, among other things, helped kill statewide legislation for the plastic bag bans twice and received campaign support from the plastics industry (see attached photo), received money from Phillip Morris (the cigarette lobby) and generally votes the way the special interests want him to vote.  According to VoteSmart, Price votes in line with the Sierra Club only 64% of the time. Cubas will likely do similarly good work like her former boss, Councilman Jose Huizar.

Check out this Curren Price article: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cd9-council-money-20130513,0,6171917.story

Council District 13: Vote for Mitch O’Farrell. His opponent, John Choi, is actually pretty good on the environment according to a friend in Public Works, but I believe we need some more independent voices on the council who are not always beholden to labor, (which is how we end up with dirty awful environmental justice projects such as the SCIG train yard getting approved). Choi will be beholden to labor. If you talk to O’Farrell (and listen to him speak at the candidate forum link above), you will hear that he understands environmental issues on a fundamental level and he understands his district better than his opponent, who only moved into the district in order to run for the seat.

Mayor: Vote for Eric Garcetti. He’s green, he gets it. Has pushed solar, bag bans, green buildings, transportation. He will be an independent voice in dealing with the city's utility, DWP at a time when climate change and a move off of coal power need careful scrutiny, which his opponent, though I believe she will be pro-environment, will not.