Tom Hayden Over the weekend, the Daily Bruin
Editorial Board sat down with the two city council candidates for
the fifth district to ask them about issues specific to Westwood
and the UCLA community.
The city council seat for the fifth district ““ which
includes the UCLA community and Westwood ““ needs someone with
realistic goals and clear plans to implement them. And of the two
candidates running for the job, Tom Hayden best meets these
criteria.
Hayden’s ideas for the district focus on an approach that
balances the needs of its diverse constituents, who include
students, homeowners and businesses.
Hayden said he wants to deal with the parking situation in
Westwood by ensuring that money from the meters is channeled toward
developing a local parking lot. This, coupled with Hayden’s
support for expanding the BruinGo! program, will directly help
UCLA’s transportation problems. He also wants to make
Westwood more visitor-friendly by relocating parking
officers’ routes to focus less on the Village. Parking
enforcement officers have a quota of 45 citations a day and often
see Westwood’s crowded streets as a target.
Jack Weiss’ goals for the district are less specific. If
Weiss believes his experience as a federal prosecutor will give him
more leverage, then he should consider running for city attorney,
not city council. His vague ideas for Westwood would at best
maintain the status quo.
Fixing the corruption in the Los Angeles Police Department and
improving the quality of education in Los Angeles are among his top
priorities. And even on these issues he’s unclear: though he
wants to reform the LAPD, he has supported current Police Chief
Bernard Parks in the past and favors extending his term when it
expires next year, something Hayden opposes. While Hayden also
supports reforming the LAPD and improving education, he has strong
ideas for the fifth district.
Hayden proposes restructuring Westwood’s Business
Improvement District to be more inclusive of small businesses and
UCLA. In contrast, Weiss proposes the harebrained idea of putting
students on the BID, but leaving the smaller businesses ““
which primarily serve students ““ with unbalanced
representation. Hayden also supports making the Village more like a
college town by bringing in an additional bookstore.
Hayden’s method of addressing the homeless problem in
Westwood and Los Angeles is clear: he supports efforts like those
at the Chabad house, which distributes food and financial aid to
the homeless, and believes he can work with Los Angeles’
resources to provide housing and care to the homeless. Rather than
confronting the problem, Weiss simply acknowledges it as a
“complex issue.”
Unlike Weiss, Hayden seems prepared to tackle the complex
issues, and though he has larger goals that extend beyond the fifth
district, he seems focused on his constituents and realistic
change. Hayden’s political experience and connections at both
the state and local level of governments make his goals feasible.
With clear plans and a comprehensive understanding of the diverse
interests of this district, Hayden stands in stark contrast to
Weiss.
But we shouldn’t rely on his name recognition to get him
into office: it’s necessary that students and community
members vote. After all, city council members make decisions that
most directly affect our community ““ it’s important to
have the best person in office. And in this district, that person
is Tom Hayden.