Another episode about local politics that's really about so much more.
Meghan's guest is Tanya Tsikanovsky, a candidate for West Hollywood City Council. (West Hollywood is part of greater Los Angeles but functions as its own municipality.) Tanya came out at 14 and founded her high school's first Gay-Straight Alliance, was a die-hard liberal Democrat, and later worked on Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign in Iowa. But everything changed after the attacks of October 7th, 2023, when she says her Zionism cost her friendships, a rec-league invitation, and access to LGBT community spaces. She eventually did something she never could have imagined: registered to vote as a Republican. Now she's entered politics herself.
They talk about West Hollywood's small-city politics, why Tanya opposes new bike lanes on Fountain Avenue (a surprisingly contentious issue), the difference between "safety ambassadors" and actual law enforcement, and a West Hollywood care team's success getting an unhoused, mentally ill woman into treatment and housing. They also get into Prop 47, the limits of housing-first policy, and the DSA's growing influence in LA city politics.
They close on a topic Meghan's listeners have heard her discuss a lot lately: the seeming intractability of chronic street homelessness, including animal abuse and neglect on Skid Row and in other encampments around the city.
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