How Mayor-Elect Nithya Raman Plans to Remake Los Angeles

Mayor-elect Nithya Raman will reshape Los Angeles City Hall by pushing for more housing, street safety over freeway expansion, and a data-driven approach to city services. The Los Angeles Times reported, she offers a leftward shift in public safety while promising to end homelessness by the end of her term.

Los Angeles has a new mayor, and with her comes a new playbook for running a city of nearly 4 million people. Nithya Raman’s victory isn’t a radical break from the past; she’s a Democrat like outgoing Mayor Bass, sharing the goals of ending homelessness, ensuring public safety, and fixing basic services. But the details of her agenda signal a more forceful approach to urban issues, a focus on data to measure success, and a willingness to challenge the city’s long-standing political traditions.

A City That Finally Measures Up

Raman’s campaign slogan, “a city that works,” is more than a catchy phrase. It’s a fundamental promise to change how L.A. operates from the inside out. Rick Cole, a former deputy mayor and her key campaign adviser, told the Los Angeles Times that she is “dead serious” about making city departments work together and making them effective. He drew a sharp line to the current administration, stating, “L.A. has been flying blind when it comes to measuring the impacts of the dollars spent. That is going to change.”

Nithya Raman will be next mayor of Los Angeles; Karen Bass concedes

This new focus on data isn’t just an abstract goal. Raman plans to be a hands-on manager, wielding the mayor’s power to hire and fire agency heads and appoint hundreds of citizen commissioners who will act as an extension of her administration. Her transition team is expected to be co-led by Cole and Andrea Conant, her former chief of staff. She will also have a powerful ally in City Controller Kenneth Mejia, the only elected official at City Hall to endorse her. Raman has promised to let Mejia’s office audit every single dollar spent on homelessness, a move that could lead to a major overhaul of the city’s approach to the crisis. She also pledged to allow his investigators to monitor encampment cleanups and efforts to move people indoors, something Bass resisted.

Building a New L.a., One Neighborhood at a Time

Perhaps the most visible part of Raman’s agenda is her plan to remake the city’s housing system. She has vowed to cut homelessness in half by the 2028 Olympics and eliminate it entirely by the end of her first term. To do this, she is pushing back against the current strategy of using expensive and, in her view, ineffective hotel and motel rooms for temporary housing. Instead, she champions short-term rental vouchers as a better alternative. Her allies in the YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard) movement see her as a champion for increasing housing supply to lower rents. She promised to create a 60-day “shot clock” for approving new apartment projects that comply with zoning laws and criticized Bass for opposing Senate Bill 79, a state law that allows for denser housing near transit stops.

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The most contentious part of her housing plan is her vow to bring “gentle density”—duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes—to single-family neighborhoods near public transit hubs. Scott Epstein, policy director at Abundant Housing LA, which endorsed Raman, explained why this resonates. “These are the kinds of homes that built L.A. and the kind of homes that many Angelenos want to live in,” he said. While her predecessor made some strides in speeding up housing production, Epstein noted, “he sees ‘a lot more energy with Nithya.’” For renters, Raman has promised to create an Office of Tenant Protections to enforce laws against harassment by corporate landlords, a move expected by her supporters in the Democratic Socialists of America.

The Public Safety Tightrope

Where Raman will land on public safety is murkier, but she has already made clear that Police Chief Jim McDonnell will be replaced. She says he has lost the trust of Angelenos, though she has offered conflicting timelines on when that will happen, telling one outlet she would keep him until 2030 and another she would start the replacement process on Day One. Her position on the size of the Los Angeles Police Department has also shifted. When she began her campaign in February, with the LAPD at 8,700 officers, she said it should not get any smaller. The force has since lost another 200 officers. Now, she simply offers, “I don’t think it should be shrinking indefinitely.”

How Mayor-Elect Nithya Raman Plans to Remake Los Angeles — Photo: yahoo.com

Her first 100 days will be dominated by salary negotiations with the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which spent heavily to defeat her. Raman opposed the union’s last contract, arguing that the package of raises and retention bonuses “bankrupted the city” and forced cuts to other taxpayer services. This fiscal hawkishness is a recurring theme, even for a candidate backed by the Democratic Socialists. Political science professor Fernando Guerra, of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles, pointed out that when Raman voted against police raises or the $2.6-billion Los Angeles Convention Center upgrade, she used fiscal arguments, not ideological ones. “She understands numbers and their consequences,” Guerra said.

Reclaiming the Streets from Cars

Raman’s vision for Los Angeles extends beyond buildings and into the streets themselves. She has already promised to move forward with blocked plans for new bike lanes through Griffith Park, calling the improvements urgently needed to reduce traffic deaths. Her push for these policies has been significantly boosted by the advocacy group Streets For All. The group, which successfully passed Measure HLA in 2024 (requiring street improvements during major repairs), saw its work amplified by a massive $8 million donation from hedge fund manager Aaron Sosnick, who supported Raman and attacked Bass’s record.

L.A. mayoral candidate Nithya Raman addresses supporters on election night

Michael Schneider, who heads Streets For All, predicts Raman will consolidate city departments responsible for street maintenance to make them more effective and will likely pursue a 2028 ballot measure—possibly a bond or tax hike—to fund sidewalk repairs, curb replacements, and wheelchair ramps. He believes she will go much further than former Mayor Eric Garcetti on issues like bike lanes. “I think she has much more of a political spine than Garcetti did when it comes to street safety, pushing projects through that may ruffle some feathers but are worth it for the safety benefits,” Schneider said.

Raman will also join the 13-member Metropolitan Transportation Authority board, where she will have the power to appoint three of her colleagues. How she will manage the often-contentious relationship with other regional elected officials remains one of the great unknowns of her new administration. Her approach will be tested immediately as she inherits a city with crumbling infrastructure, a deep homelessness crisis, and a police department in flux. The question for Angelenos is not just what she will do, but whether her ambitious agenda can deliver on the promise of a city that finally works for everyone.