Rev. Rae Huang on Free Metro, religion, homelessness, and Sawtelle

Rev. Rae Huang wants Metro to be free, is an ordained pastor, and has some very progressive views that position her as a legitimate alternative for mayor for those who do not want more of the same from the incumbent mayor Karen Bass, or councilmember Nithya Raman (both of whom agreed to give the LAPD a raise of hundreds of millions of dollars in the next budget.)

In this 44 minute conversation we talked about a variety of topics which you can hear in the completely unedited audio above. Meanwhile below are a few chunks from the transcript edited for clarity and conciseness. Listen to the audio for the full deal.

Free Metro

Hear in LA: I have not really followed your campaign as closely as I should have, and I’m embarrassed because we share something that I’ve been trying to get people aware of for a while, which is free Metro.

I love your point of view that collecting the fares cost as much as what we receive in the fares, but I would take it a step further. I would say moving 2% of the budget from the LAPD and 2% of the budget from the Sheriff’s Department would not only allow everything to be free, but provide the security to keep the busses and subways clean. Would you be up for that?

Rev. Rae Huang: 100% I am with you. Yeah, it needs to happen. Traffic ambassadors have been found to be extraordinarily successful in supporting people on our metro and that’s the model we actually need, not just on transit, but actually across the city.

LAPD comes after crime has occurred. When you call them and you say, “Hey, I’m feeling nervous,” or if somebody’s having some sort of breakdown and they need help, they’re like, “okay, well, call me when it’s happened.”

They can’t do anything until that point. In which case, then you ask the question, “well, then how are you preventing crime? How are you protecting the situation? How are you ensuring like safety for everybody?”

Whereas Traffic Ambassadors, when you actually have street outreach teams dedicated to not just waiting until after a crisis or crime has occurred, but to help to prevent the crisis and the crime, that’s when real safety is able to happen.

And, of course, I’m sure you agree with me here, but if we can provide people with their basic resources, so they don’t get into survival mode, then we are able to actually help people provide them with the stability they need, so we are less likely to experience crime, and less likely to experience crises.

Homelessness

Hear in LA: Absolutely, the biggest pushback I get on Twitter, is, “oh great, now all the homeless will now have the bus and the subway for their home.”

Usually I get back at them and say, “I’ve actually talked to these safety ambassadors, especially when Metro is free, as it is from time to time, and I ask them, ‘Have you noticed homelessness going up on these busses and trains, or violence, or anything like that?’ And they say no. If they see somebody has ridden the entire length of the line, they make them move along. It’s not hard.

What would you say to people who are concerned about homelessness when you talk about free metro?

Rev. Rae Huang: The way that I talk about it is right now we don’t provide a safe place or homes — let’s just talk about the fact that we don’t provide homes for those who are unhoused.

We don’t have affordable housing, and we don’t have a place that they can hang out safely. There’s so few public spaces that they’re allowed to hang out.

We have so much punishing infrastructure in that even a bench, oftentimes, there’s like an extra arm thing to make it hostile for everyday people to be able to use it.

And so the only places that are free where you can publicly sit without being interrupted to have a rest or to keep your things together is the park, the library, and our busses and trains, if you can get on them.

Oftentimes bus stations and train stations, where they have it available… are where people are plugging in their cell phones. When you’re unhoused, the cell phone is actually one of the most important resources people have to be able to contact when they need help, or to be able to stay in contact with their community, or to be able to find jobs. It is an important resource.

So if we are denying people the opportunity and space to hang out and to be a human being, to use the restroom, to sit and to rest, then what options do they have?

And so if we are able to make busses and trains free, so that way people can go to the resources they need to go to, so they can get on and then get off at the homeless service provider… or so they can go to their job interview, or so they can go to work, or to school, or whatnot, that’s going to support people to be able to use their money towards things that they really need in their communities.

We want to be able to support all basic fundamental rights that people should have, and transit is one of them, on top of housing, on top of healthy food, on top of clean water, and clean air.

Religion

Hear in LA: I think it’s good that people talk about religion, especially Christianity, these days, because most of Congress identifies as Christian, and yet I feel like most of the politicians that claim that don’t really walk in the way of Jesus’s teachings. Would you agree?

Rev. Rae Huang: Yes, yeah, 100% I mean, for me, the Jesus that I follow is a revolutionary who was a political revolutionary who was really calling people to fight against the powers that be and to be able to support those who were oppressed and marginalized and help them find salvation, not just through spiritual salvation, but also through physical salvation.

He was known to have broken bread and fed the poor. Talk about really changing the system, where the rich would have a harder time getting into Heaven than the poor would — and challenging people at that time.

The most common theme in the Bible has nothing to do with homosexuality, has nothing to do with abortion. It doesn’t mention that at all. It is about being poor in poverty and God being with the poor and God walking alongside in solidarity with the poor, and that is the theology that I practice. That is the theology that I believe in.

Hear in LA: I feel like Jesus’ final commandment was, “you know, what I’m about done here. And to sum it all up, how about you guys just love each other?” That’s how I interpret his final commandment. Am I off?

Rev. Rae Huang: I am totally in agreement with you. It’s why I do what I do, and why, as a pastor, I am doing this very unusual turn of running for office. I’m not doing it, of course, to become pastor of the city. I am running to be the mayor of the city, but it’s definitely the influences and understanding of my theology that God is a God who walks with the poor and fights for the poor, that I am, here now in this role, trying to continue to do the same.

Future in politics if this election doesn’t work out

Hear in LA: I don’t remember you in the political field much before this, and now you’re getting a lot of support. I don’t know if it’s enough to get you the goal that you want, but people are starting to get to know you and like what you’re about.

But now that you’re known a little bit more, would you be interested in running for council if this doesn’t work out for you for mayor?

Rae: I really hope Pfizer Malik wins the CD 11 council race. I actually supported her and encouraged her to run for this seat, I am so excited about her race, and I want her to win, and so my hope is that she will win, and we don’t need to worry about having to run, you know, that she can take that seat and be a powerful sitting city council member over the next number of years.

Hear in LA: Great. Perfect political answer. Then, if I may follow up, will you be interested in moving to Hollywood, so that you could be the CD 13 person when that happens? [laughing selfishly]

Rev. Rae Huang: I look, I am running for office because I felt called to serve in this role, because there was nobody running against Karen Bass. She has done such a bad job of working with the community and being transparent about her making decisions behind closed doors without any community partners.

Meanwhile I’m working on the ground with so many organizations and neighbors who know what we need and have the solutions, and we haven’t been able to move it forward.

So, when you ask the question, am I planning on running again in the future? I will say that I am somebody, I’m a pastor, I follow where I feel called to best serve our community, and I will do that where I feel best, that is. I don’t know if that is going to be in another political office again, or working as a pastor on the streets of Skip Row.

I genuinely will go where I feel called, where my services, my gift set can be best utilized to serve.

Sawtelle

Hear in LA: Hear in LA is about the neighborhoods of LA. We have over 450 of them, and I don’t want to dox you, so you can talk about your neighborhood if you like, but if you don’t, is there a neighborhood that you really love that you would like to give a shout out to?

Rev. Rae Huang: I am obsessed with my own neighborhood. When people, tourists come to LA, they know nothing about it. It’s called Sawtelle. Are you familiar?

Hear in LA: Of course, probably the best Japanese food on the West Side, wouldn’t you say?

Rev. Rae Huang: Totally. I love this neighborhood because it is historically a Japanese ethnic enclave. When you walk around the neighborhood, you’ll see, because we have a number of gardens that were run by Japanese gardeners for a long time.

When you walk around the neighborhood, you’ll see amazing Japanese-inspired landscaping, you’ll see Japanese-inspired architecture, even in the homes and in the buildings.

The food, of course, is phenomenal. If you like anime culture, we have adorable anime shops like Giant Robot. We have some of the best desserts here. You could walk down the street and have 10 to choose from, from like a coconut Jello to shaved ice, Hawaiian shaved ice, to, you know, Korean shaved ice, which is going to be coming in soon to our neighborhood. My kids and I cannot wait.

It’s such a gem and not only that, but the best part of my neighborhood is the people. I’m part of the Buy Nothing group online — the Facebook group, for those who don’t know about it. We just have such an amazing community that take care of each other.

People will in our group will say, “Hey, I just moved into the neighborhood, I was told about this group, and I was formerly unhoused, and so I don’t have anything… I don’t have any furniture. I was wondering if anybody had stuff they want to give away?”

In one week that person had everything they needed, from kitchen supplies to plates and bowls to furniture.

I know every single neighborhood of LA does this. We all have ways to take care of each other, and that’s what makes LA not a huge city, but a very small village. And that’s what I love most. I mean, I could brag about my neighborhood for a couple more hours if you wanted.

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That was just a few highlights from our chat. Click the audio on top for the whole convo where we talk about a voter who changed his vote from Spencer Pratt to Rev. Rae, her idea about a public bank, and much more.

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this is now our second guest from Sawtelle, our first being the great Justin Fisher who’s bff is the singer of Weezer and together they lived in the Amherst House close to the Taco Bell on Pico. The house - and the whole block has been demolished for reasons we hope to get into in the future.