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Nithya Raman is preparing to take control of Los Angeles City Hall with promises to oust the LAPD chief, slash homelessness and overhaul billions in taxpayer spending , but the Democratic Socialists of America-backed mayor-elect faces a City Council where she has made plenty of enemies.
The 45-year-old councilwoman inherits America’s second-largest city with 45,194 homeless residents, a depleted police force, mounting financial pressures and the 2028 Olympics less than two years away.
On the campaign trail, Raman laid out an ambitious first 100-day agenda, promising to shake up City Hall’s leadership, put more police officers on the streets, cut red tape for struggling businesses and hold city department heads accountable for results.
She pledged to appoint a chief operating officer and chief financial officer to oversee city operations and spending, along with a Palisades recovery czar to accelerate wildfire rebuilding and a financial executive to monitor Olympic costs.
Raman also promised to establish a dedicated Hollywood film office to bring production jobs back to Los Angeles, allow restaurants to self-certify for outdoor dining and minor kitchen changes, and launch public dashboards tracking city departments’ successes and failures.
Her public safety agenda calls for hiring more 911 operators, expanding unarmed crisis response teams citywide and shifting administrative work away from LAPD officers so they can concentrate on violent crime.
But delivering those promises could prove difficult for a politician whose six years on the council were marked by bitter clashes with colleagues.
Not one fellow councilmember endorsed her mayoral campaign, and she was stripped of her powerful Housing and Homelessness Committee chairmanship after entering the race.
Councilwoman Imelda Padilla blasted Raman’s leadership, pointing to canceled meetings and hundreds of stalled motions.
“It had started to feel less like a policymaking body and more like a scholastic seminar,” Padilla told the Los Angeles Times.
Raman’s biggest challenge will be homelessness.
She has pledged to cut homelessness in half before the 2028 Olympics and eliminate it entirely by 2030.
With 29,115 people living on sidewalks, in tents and vehicles, that means moving more than 14,500 people off the streets in less than two years.
She wants to shift resources away from Mayor Karen Bass’ costly Inside Safe motel program toward rental subsidies that place homeless residents directly into apartments.
But a $60 million-plus rental subsidy initiative she helped advance had housed just 54 households by mid-August, far short of its 600-household goal.
Her record on encampments could create another showdown.
Raman voted more than 60 times against camping restrictions near schools, parks and other public spaces, yet promised during the campaign not to block councilmembers seeking restrictions in their districts.
Her plans for the LAPD could spark an even bigger battle.
Raman has vowed to replace Police Chief Jim McDonnell before his term expires in 2029, arguing he has failed to maintain the trust of immigrant communities amid federal immigration raids.
The Los Angeles Police Protective League opposed her candidacy, warning that her proposals could threaten public safety.
With LAPD staffing hovering around 8,700 officers, Raman has insisted the city must stop losing officers while expanding alternative responses to mental health and homelessness calls.
Housing is another priority.
Raman said she wants to triple construction by speeding up permits, allowing more apartments in residential neighborhoods and cutting bureaucratic delays.
As a councilwoman, she helped expand eviction protections, but angered some progressive allies by proposing changes to Measure ULA, the city’s mansion tax, arguing it discourages housing development.
She also promises to revitalize struggling commercial corridors, open more school parks to surrounding neighborhoods and launch an initiative to plant 100,000 trees before the Olympics.
