Nithya Raman: First woman to hold L.A. city council district 4 seat
Nithya Raman was recently sworn in to L.A. City Council, representing district 4. She's an immigrant, an urban planner and the first woman to hold this seat.
SILVER LAKE (KABC) -- Los Angeles City Council District 4 has a new councilmember: Nithya Raman.
The progressive candidate replaced David Ryu. The first councilmember to be ousted by an opponent in 17 years.
"I'm very proud of the election that we ran. And I think we ran a kind of campaign that invited people into municipal government, many of them participating in local politics for the first time," said Raman.
Raman recently worked as the Executive Director of Time's Up Entertainment.
Her career also includes a background in urban planning and she co-founded a nonprofit called SELAH Neighborhood Homelessness Coalition.
"I feel the intensity of this moment so keenly and I'm bringing so much energy to this moment to take it on in the most effective way possible," said Raman.
She was officially sworn into city council in December.
At her first city council meeting, she introduced two motions regarding the homelessness crisis-an issue that spearheaded her campaign.
"One was around thinking through how we do outreach in L.A.," said Raman
She also proposed that city departments look for places that could support community access centers. Which was another bullet point on her campaign.
Raman is the first woman to hold the district 4 seat.
She immigrated to the United States from India when she was six-years-old.
And when she's not a city hall, she's at home with her family in Silver Lake. She's the mother to five-year-old twins.
"I am really excited for them that they have the opportunity to see me as somebody who is welcomed in America and who is seen as someone who can lead a city during a time of real crisis," said Raman.
