By Jeff Hall
Tom Safran held another one of his fabulous backyard fundraising get-togethers recently for Congresswoman Karen Bass. Bass is running to become the next mayor of Los Angeles.
More than 300 attended. The mood was bright, lifted by Bass’s message of “we’re all in this together and together we will figure this out.”
She said she was never good at “drawing between the lines” and is open to creative thinking when it comes to dealing with issues like homelessness, affordable housing, traffic and rising college tuition.
For example, she said students and recent college grads who work to solve homelessness could be given credits that would reduce their tuition or student loan balances.
Bass seemed highly knowledgeable about the issues facing Los Angeles, and emphasized her ties to both Sacramento and Washington. Because she knows people in high places, she said, she could do a good job of corralling resources needed to deal with LA’s challenges.
After quite a few questions, Tom Safran, a developer of low-income housing and housing for the homeless, tried to bring the event to a close. But because everyone had been cooped up for a long time thanks to COVID, Bass said she was having fun and happy to keep answering questions. And so the crowd continued asking and Bass continued answering.
One member of the audience, who identified herself as Sally, asked Bass about a parking situation in her Hollywood neighborhood. Bass immediately confessed she didn’t know anything about this particular issue and told Sally she would now be in charge of helping come up with a solution. The audience chuckled in unison.
