Author: Jessica Stevens
On any given morning in Eagle Rock, you can catch a glimpse of Los Angeles’ political power players, from the local to federal level, going about their day in the unassuming Northeast L.A. neighborhood. Congressman Xavier Becerra (CA-31) often accompanies his three daughters to Dahlia Heights Elementary off Colorado Blvd. and former Los Angeles City Councilman Nick Pacheco lives nearby. Recently retired Los Angeles Unified School District Boardmember David Tokofsky is also a regular at Swork Coffee, children usually in tow.
Elected officials and opinion leaders are packed into the eclectic suburb, giving Eagle Rock and Occidental College a unique position of influence in the City’s political landscape. When Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa visited the stage of Thorne Hall to deliver Occidental’s Founder’s Day address in April 2006, it was not the first time the powers-that-be in Los Angeles made their way back to the biggest little College in the city.
“I am here to honor the degree of leadership that Occidental has provided our city, our state and our nation since its founding-to honor the contributions of Oxy’s sons and daughters,” Villaraigosa said. “Oxy founders were men and women of vision, and it is that vision that we honor today.”
Political engagement is nothing new for Occidental, which counts Vice Presidential Candidate Jack Kemp ’57 and Presidential Candidate Barack Obama ’83 among alumni. However, the legacy of Occidental’s progressive mission of multiculturalism and socially responsible leadership has been best implemented at Los Angeles City Hall. Alumni support numerous city departments and current students often spend summer vacations as council interns. Oxy’s influence continues straight to the top of the political ladder, as former Politics Professor Eric Garcetti currently manages Los Angeles’ 13th council district and serves as City Council President.
“Occidental College has been a great resource for my work in City Hall,” Garcetti said. “Even before I ran for office, I was on the board of the Progressive Los Angeles Network (PLAN), based out of the [Urban and Environmental Policy Institute]-PLAN’s research informed many of the accomplishments of my first term, most importantly the push for an affordable housing trust fund,” he said. “Oxy’s thumbprint on Los Angeles policy, activism and organizing is very visible.”
UEP Department Chair and Professor Peter Dreier founded PLAN with Garcetti’s help in 1999. As a former Deputy Mayor of Boston, Dreier said he expected to get involved with “community issues” following his move to California in 1993. “The idea is to build bridges between [Occidental] and the real world and PLAN brought together practitioners, activists and academics to develop a policy agenda,” Dreier said. “Oxy is the kind of neutral ground that we have been able to use to get people to work together-that’s why we started UEPI.”
Villariagosa acknowledged Occidental’s contributions to Los Angeles’ development in his address. “UEP fought the headwaters to restore and reclaim that L.A. River, the Food and Health center led the fight to change food in LAUSD and the Center for Community Based Learning has served the institutions of Los Angeles,” Villaraigosa said. “Occidental College is an opportunity maker.”
Drier said UEPI continues to focus on issues of housing, food availability and public health. “Some of my students are working on a study of supermarket redlining, discussing why prices are higher in poor neighborhoods and there is less healthy food available,” he said. “I think that this study will have a big impact.”
Dreier currently serves as Co-Chair of the Housing Innovations Roundtable, sponsored by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s office, to identify “best practices” in housing policy and programs that can be adopted by the City. “I think that there is a lot more the Mayor and the City Council could do around affordable housing and homelessness,” Dreier said. “However, there is only so much that one city can do, because this is a national problem.”
Politics Department Chair Regina Freer agrees that housing in Los Angeles is quickly approaching crisis levels. “I would ask [Mayor Villaraigosa] to lend his bully pulpit to the cause of inclusionary zoning, which mandates that a percentage of all new development go to affordable units,” she said. “Our economy as a whole is going to suffer if we don’t figure out how to house people.”
Appointed by Villaraigosa to the City Planning Commission in 2005, Freer said she has especially enjoyed her work with residents in the rebuilding process. “For too long, development in L.A. has been captive to the politics of money and access. The result is projects that are poorly planned, don’t integrate well into existing communities, and/or don’t offer enough benefit to the larger public,” Freer said.
Freer additionally serves on the Advisory Committee for GREEN LA, a working group chartered to make policy recommendations for a just and sustainable future in Los Angeles. Freer directly consults with a committee tasked with improving health in communities, typically those of color, which suffer a disproportionate health impact from environmental hazards.
“GREEN LA is an exciting new model for public, developing proactive policy agendas and working inside and outside the formal political arena to bring these visions to fruition,” Freer said. “I see my role on the Commission as being a facilitator of this type of inside/outside strategy. Community groups have come to rely on me to alert them to opportunities to shape policy and I also rely heavily on community groups to keep me informed as I make policy decisions,” she said.
Recently hired UEP Assistant Professor Martha Matsuoka and Geology Professor Jim Sadd also work with GREEN LA as academic advisors. “I work most closely with the Port of Los Angeles work group and will continue some of this work in the fall when I come on to the faculty full time,” Matsuoka said. “UEPI is also a part of a Goods Movement Collaborative that involves USC and community based organizations in Wilmington and Commerce that organize neighborhoods directly impacted by rail and other goods movement generated by the Port,” she said. Matsuoka reported that Sadd was working primarily with the Cumulative Impact Work Group, to develop an assessment model to analyze public health risk as it relates to such factors such as land use.”
Matsuoka said she would tell Mayor Villaraigosa that his “bold vision” for a green L.A. is shared by many Angelenos. “I’d remind him, however, that sometimes relatively non-sexy issues such as parking are everyday challenges that could also make tremendous impact in people’s lives,” she said. “Timing street lights isn’t as sexy as planting a million trees, but it would still make a difference.”
Students are also influencing the L.A. political scene. Ariana Kennedy (junior) took Freer’s Politics 207: Los Angeles Politics class in 2005. Students said they incorporated contemporary events into a narrative of Los Angeles’ political development to understand how the Los Angeles became the metropolis it is today. “The class was encouraged to volunteer for a local campaign-being involved in the campaign and class simultaneously fueled my interest,” Kennedy said. “I gained a lot from my experience I probably would not be interning for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee here in Washington D.C. if not for my positive experience [in Los Angeles],” she said. While completing the class, Kennedy attended Freer’s confirmation hearing before the full City Council.
Studio City native Ryan Cassutt (junior) also took Freer’s class and used his experience to land an internship with 4th district City Councilman Tom LaBonge. “Many of the issues we talked about in the class came up frequently in office discussions and council meetings,” Cassutt said. “Tom really wanted us to go out and see as much as the city as possible. In fact, he even made a list of sights for us to see, although he’s a pret
ty busy guy so I doubt he ever checked on it. I felt a lot more connected to Los Angeles that way.”
“I think that it would be great if Oxy requires students to do one internship before they graduate,” Dreier said. “I definitely want my classes to help students clarify their values and help them find ways that they can become more engaged citizens,” he said.
Internships with elected officials are not the only way that Oxy students have gotten involved with the Los Angeles political scene. UEP and Critical Theory/Social Justice Major Phil Barney (senior) worked as a community advocate for LA VOICE PICO, organizing around issues of liquor store concentrations in Boyle Heights. As a student in Dreier’s UEP310 Class: Community Organizing and Leadership, Barney said he supported the idea of the class’s required internship.
“I think that the school should stress students going out into the community more,” Barney said. “Typically, its thought of as supplemental, while I would say that I learned a ton at Oxy and only part of that was in the classroom. I don’t think that students are doing enough to make their voices heard.”
Freer said at least some members of the Occidental community are making their impact felt. “I have learned that Oxy has a tremendous reputation-anytime I mention that I teach here, I receive glowing comments about the campus. I think our profile in the City is growing in positive ways,” she said.
Dreier agreed that Occidental is building a political reputation in Los Angeles. “Part of what I try to do as a public intellectual, is to use my expertise to shape policy, laws, ideas and politics,” he said. “Students can be publicly intellectual too.”
With a new class of alumni ready for the workforce in May, Los Angeles stands to gain from the experience and expertise developed over the course of an Oxy education. Several alumni have already started to chart the course.
Monica Rodriguez ’96: Despite support from the Los Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Daily News, Rodriguez, manager of housing opportunities for the California Association of Realtors, lost her bid to the Los Angeles City Council District 7 seat in the San Fernando Valley, against former State Senator Richard Alarcon.
Christina Ortega-Libatique ’01: Beginning as a community organizer, Ortega-Libatique got her start doing fieldwork with Council President Eric Garcetti and continues to serve in the LA City Department of Neighborhood Empowerment.
Greg Buss ’04: A native of Portland, Oregon, Buss serves as a caseworker and field deputy to Congressman Xavier Becerra in nearby Echo Park.
Mike Hernandez ’74: First Elected to the Los Angeles City Council’s 1st district seat in 1991, Hernandez was arrested and pled guilty to purchasing and possessing cocaine. Chair of the Council’s Community and Economic Development Committee, Hernandez was allowed to seek treatment without resigning his seat, beating a recall effort to successfully serve out his term until 2001.
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