Raman says she's running for L.A. mayor because the city is 'really, really struggling'

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Set us as preferred Nithya Raman, 45, has served on the Los Angeles City Council since 2020, when she defeated incumbent David Ryu to represent a district that includes Los Feliz, the Hollywood Hills and Sherman Oaks.She was reelected in 2024.Born in India, Raman moved to the U.S.

at age 6.A graduate of Harvard with a master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she started a homelessness outreach nonprofit after moving to Los Angeles.

On the City Council, she passed significant legislation around tenants’ rights and rent stabilization and chaired the council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee starting in 2023, but lost that position in a council shakeup this summer.Raman’s last-minute entry into the mayoral race alienated many of her council colleagues, who have almost unanimously endorsed Bass.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.The Times: What do you feel, since you joined the council, has been your biggest accomplishment?Raman: Probably leading the the tenant protections over the years has been my biggest accomplishment.Coming out of COVID, we passed Universal Just Cause eviction protections.

We passed increased relocation support.We created a floor under which you could owe rent but not be evicted.

And it was a big change in renter protections.We also created a database mandate where landlords had to tell the city when they were evicting someone.

Council offices and the city were actually able to do for the first time, proactive outreach to someone who had received an eviction notice, ideally being able to say, “Hey, if you’re facing eviction, because you owe some rent, we have programs that might be able to help you.”The Times: So, conversely, what is Karen Bass’ No.1 failure as mayor? Raman: There are a lot of issues that I could point to that have to do with...