The primary election for Los Angeles City Council District 2 in the east San Fernando Valley was packed with seven candidates seeking to fill the soon-to-be-open seat now held by Council President Paul Krekorian. We picked the person with the most legislative experience — former Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian — and we again recommend him in the Nov. 5 runoff.
Nazarian served in the state Assembly for a decade until 2022, and his district overlapped with much of Council District 2, which stretches from Toluca Lake and Studio City in the south through North Hollywood and Valley Glen to Sun Valley in the north. He was also Krekorian’s chief of staff, first in the Assembly and then in the City Council when Krekorian took office in 2010.
He’s deeply familiar with the district’s challenges and opportunities, and he has the relationships and knowledge to be an effective member of the council immediately.
Nazarian describes himself as a problem solver — an elected official who spends the time listening to constituents, understanding their concerns and then working collaboratively to get issues resolved. That’s not always easy, especially with deep-rooted problems such as housing affordability, homelessness and street safety that evolved from decades of bad decisions and inaction.
Nazarian has shown persistence in fighting for change, even when it’s difficult. In the Assembly, he repeatedly introduced bills to increase seismic safety, even after governors vetoed his efforts. Still Nazarian didn’t give up and passed smaller reforms, including opening up financing programs to help people afford to retrofit their properties, knowing that even modest steps could help make homes and businesses more resilient to earthquakes.
He’s an advocate for not just building a lot more housing in the district but also diversifying the types of new development. That means he will encourage a mix of affordable, middle-income, market-rate, rental and for-sale homes in this district. He wants to see more housing on major corridors and near transit, which is good. But Nazarian should also be willing to consider opening single-family zone areas near transit and commercial corridors for low-rise apartments, townhomes and bungalow courts, which will facilitate the kind of diverse housing portfolio he promotes.
Nazarian said he’s committed to a humane approach to addressing homeless encampments, including working with Mayor Karen Bass’ Inside Safe program to move people into temporary housing and then permanent housing. He supports hiring more mental health and crisis intervention workers to respond to nonviolent service calls instead of police. But he also supports hiring more police officers so the department has sufficient staff to be responsive to community concerns and to investigate and solve crimes.
Nazarian is facing off against Jillian Burgos, an optician and owner of a theater company who joined the North Hollywood Neighborhood Council in 2021. Burgos has helped organize support for tenant protections and unarmed response pilot programs. Like Nazarian, she wants the city to spend more money on civilian teams that can respond to calls for mental health and homelessness issues, but she supports reallocating money from the police budget to pay for these services.
Burgos is a smart and committed grassroots advocate, but Nazarian is the stronger of the two candidates because of his on-the-ground experience, his lengthy record of service and his demonstrated ability to collaborate and deliver for the community. We think he will be a strong representative for the district and a valuable voice on the City Council.
