7 years ago when Streets for All started, the situation in Los Angeles was dire. Bike lanes were being ripped out of the ground, traffic deaths were climbing, and road widening was rubber-stamped.
Our premise was simple: "No amount of transportation advocacy matters if the wrong people are in office." So we started the first transportation-focused PAC in LA.
We've now been working hard for three election cycles. Educating candidates, running debates, making endorsements, and in some cases, supporting transportation champions with our PAC. It's paying off.
We just won 24 of 28 general election endorsements, including helping elect Nithya Raman to the next Mayor of LA.
Help us keep up the momentum and work with newly elected leaders to deliver safer streets and better transportation. Become a member today!
It's a new day for Los Angeles City Hall. All three LA citywide positions are now filled by candidates endorsed by Streets for All. Nithya Raman will become the next Mayor of LA. Our PAC worked very hard behind the scenes supporting her, with by far our biggest ever investment in a single candidate, spending nearly $2 million on billboards, digital ads, and television.
City Controller Kenneth Mejia won his primary handily with the most votes of any candidate in City of LA history. Then, just a few months later, Marissa Roy won her race for City Attorney and took that title with an astounding 700k+ votes.
It's hard to express the magnitude of this shift. Nithya, Marissa, and Kenneth occupy the three most powerful positions in City Hall. The Metro Board will radically change, focusing more on the needs of transit riders over NIMBY voices or highway expansion.
Nithya Raman will run the mayor's office as an urban planner, as the largest builder of protected bike lanes of any Councilmember, and as a champion of speeding up buses. The City Attorney's office will figure out how to build the projects that Angelenos have overwhelmingly voted for instead of fighting Measure HLA and affordable housing. Controller Mejia will have the freedom to audit our skyrocketing liability payouts and exorbitant curb ramp costs.
For the first time, a majority (8) of LA City Councilmembers have been endorsed by Streets for All. When SFA started in 2019, we had just a single Councilmember as an ally. Now it's a majority. Congratulations to Barri Worth Girvan for her victory in CD2!
SFA also endorsed Measure LA and Measure PRK, which both passed easily. These measures will increase park funding, reform the Board of Public Works, mandate a Capital Improvement Plan, and move the city to a 2-year budget cycle. Long term, these changes will lead to more efficient infrastructure delivery in LA.
The good news isn't just for the City of LA. We won almost every SoCal race, and SFA endorsed candidates now hold a majority of City Council seats in four other cities!
Chelsea Byers, Helen Krieger, and Stephen Post all won seats on the West Hollywood City Council. This makes a full sweep, with every Councilmember now endorsed by SFA, giving us a 5-0 majority! It's especially critical considering that, for the second election in a row, protected bike lanes on Fountain Ave were a divisive election topic. K Line North, Santa Monica Street improvements, and other projects will maintain strong support.
In Burbank, Nolan Southerland and Mike Van Gorder won their races. This flips the council to majority SFA-endorsed. Hopefully this brings a swift end to the City's current lawsuit over bus lanes as part of the Noho-Pasadena BRT.
Sara Hernandez won her election for California Senate District 26, giving some of the densest communities in the state a strong champion for transit, bike, and pedestrian improvements.
In Lynwood, Mishaun Watkins and Juan Muñoz-Guevara both won their elections. And congratulations to John Pickhaver for coming in first in El Segundo.
In Santa Monica, Caroline Torosis won re-election, and we maintained our council majority. Santa Monica's bike lane building spree will continue. Similarly, Freddy Puza won his election in Culver City, maintaining a majority. Bus lanes on Sepulveda and bike lanes on Overland will move forward.
Across the state, we won every single endorsement.
Voters killed Prop 43, protecting funding measures for transit and infrastructure. Prop 45 also failed to pass. This poison pill bill would have gutted environmental protections for bad projects like freeways, without doing the work to accelerate High Speed Rail and other infrastructure that continues to be burdened by CEQA.
In San Fransisco, voters overwhelmingly voted No on G, supporting Sunset Dunes and park space over highways. Measure H and Measure RTM passed. Both of these funding measures will keep transit in SF and the Bay Area running frequently for years to come, and prevent a looming service death spiral.
Winning isn't easy. We are a small team working hard to support everything from local street improvements to major state laws.
The Streets for All Members Club is the best way to support our work. Your recurring donation gives us predictable funding that enables our team to show up and represent YOU with all of these new elected leaders—and their colleagues across the state. Members also get discounts to partner retailers, invites to exclusive events, and free merch. Join us!