Ahead of her second anniversary since taking office, Mayor Karen Bass Wednesday began the first leg of a tour around Los Angeles to highlight her administration’s efforts in reducing homelessness, creating jobs and delivering more city services.
“By focusing on and improving processes, the city delivered more services to Angelenos this year than the last two years and our Metro system is seeing continued record ridership while we open new playgrounds and parks to benefit Angelenos for decades to come,” Bass said during a morning news conference in Koreatown.
“We are making Los Angeles more livable, and that urgent action will continue into the new year,” she added.
Vahid Khorsand, president of the Board of Public Works, said the board will support the mayor’s directives to improve customer experience and bolster services via the 311 app, which can be used to request bulky item pickups, pothole repairs and fallen tree limbs, among other things.
Board Commissioner Steve Kang, a Koreatown resident, invited all Angelenos “to join us in taking ownership of our communities and partnering with the city through volunteer cleanups, reporting maintenance needs and partnering with community organizations to help beautify our neighborhoods.”
Jennifer Vides, Metro chief customer experience officer, touted Metro’s ridership growth under Bass’ leadership when the mayor served as the chair of the agency’s Board of Directors in the 2023-24 fiscal year.
“As we look forward to hosting the World Cup in 2026, the Super Bowl in 2027, and the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2028, we’re going to keep working with you, Mayor Bass, to make our system better,” Vides said. “That means more bus priority lanes, (and) more transit signal priority to speed up our buses and trains.”