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Hi ,
Last night, as I do each year, I delivered the State of the City address. I reflected on where we are — bruised, but strong — and talked about the work ahead to not just recover, but rebuild, reimagine, and roar back.
Because through the pain and trauma of this past year, we showed who we are — and defined what we believe in.
This is a city whose people never run from tough challenges — we rise together to meet them. This is a city unafraid to acknowledge where we’re falling short and committed to doing better. This is a city in a state of becoming — becoming more equal, more kind, more just and resilient.
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To guide our way forward, I have put forward an ambitious roadmap for the year ahead: my proposed budget for fiscal year 2021-22 is the biggest I’ve ever presented as your mayor, and the most progressive of any city in America.
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It’s a recovery budget — building and deepening our COVID-19 response efforts, delivering tests, PPE, and vaccines to Angelenos, allowing our businesses to reopen and hire up, and supporting our tourism and hospitality industries.
It’s a Back to Basics budget — restoring our city services to where they were before the pandemic, with everything from arts and culture programming to gang reduction and youth development, youth employment, and litter removal, to vital investments in our infrastructure, clean streets, and safe neighborhoods.
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It’s a justice budget — a reflection of our values that targets $1 billion at efforts to deliver housing, services, and support to our homeless neighbors; to untangle the inequities that have strangled our city and our nation for decades; and to lift up people and communities most impacted by COVID-19 — folks who have too often found doors of opportunity closed to them.
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With these investments, we will deliver a massive anti-poverty initiative by enacting the largest guaranteed basic income pilot in America to date. We will start to make up for the wrongs of the past by planting trees in underserved neighborhoods. We will lift up our young people and families with a new Youth Development Department, a new Community Investment for Families Department, and a standalone Housing department. And we will hire youth from zip codes too often locked out of prosperity.
All told, thanks in part to federal support from the American Rescue Plan, we will invest $151 million more to programs and pilots to advance racial justice and economic progress so we can light up every corner of our city that’s been darkened by want or fear.
Simply put: we will clean our streets. We will empower our youth. And we will bring home our unhoused by dedicating, for the first time ever, nearly $1 billion towards ending homelessness.
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When we look back on this moment in history, we will never lose sight of the pain, the sorrow, and the loss. We will always remember what it took to overcome the threats to our lives and livelihoods. We will forever hold onto our L.A. love.
But I have no doubt that we will also be able to say: we were the generation of Angelenos who beat this pandemic and lifted up our young people. We were the generation of Angelenos who made an unprecedented leap forward for racial justice. We were the generation of Angelenos who left behind a stronger, a fairer city for us all.
This budget will help chart that path forward. I look forward to a stronger and fairer city.
Strength and love, Los Angeles.
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Eric Garcetti
Your Mayor
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