Cindy Montanez, Nury Martinez to face off again in LA City Council District 6 race

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Los Angeles voters will go to the polls on March 3 to cast their ballots in several races for the City Council, including the seat for District 6, which represents a large portion of the north San Fernando Valley.

The candidates in the race for District 6 are Nury Martinez and Cindy Montanez. If that sounds familiar, it's because the two fought against each other for the seat just 18 months ago in a special election. Martinez won, and now they are fighting again for a full four-year term. I asked them about the issues facing the community.

"People want to see their sidewalks repaired. They want to see their streets resurfaced or trees trimmed. People want to be able to live here and work here at the same time," said Martinez.

Montanez said the biggest issue is that people in the area are being "ignored by City Hall."

"So you have all the basic city services where people in District 6 are saying, 'We deserve better,'" said Montanez.

District 6 runs across the north San Fernando Valley, including the neighborhoods of Sun Valley, North Hollywood and Van Nuys. Residents I spoke with told me what they feel needs to be addressed.

"It's just a lot of prostitution and stuff like that. The violence has gone up lately," said resident Zabriean Miller.

Martinez says they're working to solve these issues.

"These issues have existed for a very long time in this area so it's very difficult to overnight try to solve them, but we are trying to work with LAPD. Just last year, we arrested 54 pimps and arrested almost 699 johns," said Martinez.

Some residents say they're concerned about the amount of homeless people in the area.

"You come to our local parks and they've become homeless encampments. That's unacceptable," said Montanez. "We deserve better, and people have a voice. They have a choice: you either vote for what you have currently going on or you vote for change."