On Monday’s broadcast of MS NOW’s “Katy Tur Reports,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass blamed immigration raids for a failure to have widespread adoption of the city’s light rail and also floated the possibility that ICE raids will increase homelessness in the city.
Host Katy Tur asked, “I remember a few years ago, on the issue of affordability and housing, I was interviewing Mayor Garcetti, and this, gosh, now, is probably like six years ago. And he kept telling me that the housing problem was going to get solved in L.A. and solved really quickly, they were building up new affordable housing along the new light rail that was being put up in Los Angeles…and that people would move and they’d use the light rail, the traffic would ease, and people would be able to live in the city again. It hasn’t happened. So, what’s the delay?”
Bass answered, “Well, let me just tell you that the rail is being built, and, in different areas, things have changed. But, again, you know our city. Our city is massive. But I will tell you that, prior to the immigration raids, we had record-high participation on public transportation. And that’s a whole cultural shift in Los Angeles. But once the raids happened, then people became afraid to use public transportation.”
Tur then cut in to follow up on housing specifically, and Bass stated that she is “very worried about an increase in homelessness because of the ICE raids.”
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