Clean and Green Infrastructure

This year, Wall Street banks and hedge fund managers will take over $300 million of the City’s budget by lending to LA. These are tax dollars that could be directly funding City services or assets. Meanwhile, the City’s investible public money, over $7.2 billion, is sitting in Wall Street bank accounts earning little interest instead of being put to use to improve the lives of Angelenos or the City’s finances. Additionally, the billions of public dollars Los Angeles invests each year in capital projects that create infrastructure (roads, water and power, wastewater, transportation) lack defined and consistent community benefits. Rae wants to see our publicly funded capital investments create local high road "living wage" jobs, infuse the local economy, improve the environment, expand open space, and integrate art. Overlooking these opportunities creates one dimensional projects that further harm communities that have experienced historic disinvestment. 

Los Angeles Public Bank

A Public Bank would allow the City of Los Angeles to recapture fees and interest currently leaving the community. We pay investment managers a 20% bonus for simply doing their jobs, which means we're giving money generated by taxpayer-funded investments to Wall Street and Private Equity. Half of what we pay in bonds is interest. A public bank could cut those costs by 50% saving taxpayers billions of dollars in the years ahead. As loans are repaid, that money cycles back into new projects, keeping taxpayer dollars local.

Community Benefits for Public Investment

Los Angeles has a long history of building infrastructure through communities rather than for them. Freeways carved through Boyle Heights and South Central. Transit lines that connected wealthy neighborhoods while bypassing the ones that needed them most. Public works that treated working-class Black and brown neighborhoods as corridors to somewhere else. As we expand and modernize our city's infrastructure, we are committed to doing it differently.

When the city invests public money in major infrastructure projects, those investments should generate lasting benefits for the communities they run through. Today there is no consistent requirement that they do. Rae will establish one, directing every city department to identify and deliver measurable community benefits as part of any capital project, grounded in genuine engagement with the people who actually live there. That means local hiring, environmental improvements, expanded public space, and real economic investment, with a particular focus on the frontline neighborhoods that have given the most to this city and received the least in return.

Los Angeles residents are gridlocked by a lack of safe, reliable transportation options. Los Angeles is notorious for being a car-centric city and LA residents are paying the price. In addition to infuriating traffic and long commute times, the city’s car dependence is a leading contributor to poor air quality within the City. Additionally, hundreds of people are killed or severely hurt annually while trying to get around the city, despite a Vision Zero Initiative to reduce traffic-related fatalities and injuries.Traffic collisions remain the leading cause of death of our children in Los Angeles.To move Los Angeles forward, as Mayor, Rae will work with local and regional transportation and public works agencies to reduce car-use by implementing programs to improve the safety and accessibility of transit systems and active transportation infrastructure.

IMPROVE TRANSIT EFFICIENCY

To reduce the social, environmental, and public health impacts of Los Angeles’ traffic, the first step will be increasing access and efficiency of transit options such as buses and trains operating in the City. Overall, LA bus systems are underutilized, leading to increased costs per user, missed environmental benefits, and equity issues. As Mayor, Rae will use her position and appointments on the Metro Board and her authority over LADOT to deliver trains and buses that run on time.

Fast and Free Buses

Angelenos are overpaying for transit services. According to LA Metro, the majority of transit users are low-income, and while they qualify for free and cost reducing programs like LIFE, GoPass, and UPass, these programs are not utilized due to lack of awareness and inaccessibility. 

Rae will make buses in Los Angeles free. Our bus system needs to be accessible and equitable. We don’t have to spend money on fare enforcement, and we can increase ridership, as DASH’s COVID program did. Rae wants to encourage new ridership, help residents save money, and improve public safety, including continued reliance upon and support for community safety representatives. 

Transit-First Infrastructure 

Our buses and trains carry more people and move them more efficiently than cars, and transit riders should not be slowed down by traffic. Rae will prioritize transit by directing LADOT to complete a study on transit signal priority that was already ordered by City Council in 2024. As Mayor, Rae will then direct LADOT to give buses and trains signal priority at crossings with car traffic. She will also seek to expand dedicated bus lanes through major thoroughfares to make bus trips faster and more efficient. 

Metro Board for Transit Riders

The Metro Board helps shape the future of our transportation system. Public transit investments should prioritize the needs of current transit riders and future riders who will incorporate transit into their daily lives, not billionaires’ pet projects. To help LA Metro more accessible and efficient for people who live and work in LA, Rae will appoint experts and transit riders to the LA Metro Board, ensuring transit planning and decisions are based on rider needs. A rider-serving Metro Board will understand the need to expand Metro lines across the City and devise a plan to better accomplish that goal.

IMPROVE MOBILITY OPTIONS FOR A VIBRANT AND EQUITABLE LA (MOVE LA)

Los Angeles has not done enough to support and protect Angelenos walking, biking, and using other forms of human-powered travel. In addition to improving accessibility and efficiency of local transportation systems, improving LA’s Active Transportation infrastructure such as sidewalks, trails, and bike lanes will help Angelos reduce their use of cars, helping improve public health and safety for all. 

HLA Compliance

As Mayor of LA, Rae will ensure StreetsLA complies with HLA, a measure passed by Los Angeles voters that ensures bus, bike, and walk infrastructure is improved when the City repaves a street.

Pedestrian & Cyclist Greenways

Los Angeles has not done enough to support and protect Angelenos who are walking, biking, and driving. Vision Zero - the City’s program to eliminate traffic fatalities - must become more than a slogan. At the same time, pollution is harming our communities, much of it caused by maddening, gridlocked traffic. Through safe and sensible transportation planning and regional cooperation, she will direct the Departments of Transportation and Public Works to develop creative solutions to reduce traffic.

Electric Bicycle Rebate 

LADWP currently offers rebates to help customers purchase electric vehicles, but these incentives primarily benefit residents who can afford the high upfront cost of a car. Many Angelenos cannot afford a vehicle or may not need one for daily travel. Electric bicycles offer a more affordable, energy-efficient transportation option that reduces traffic congestion, lowers emissions, and decreases electricity demand from the grid. Rae will work with LADWP to create an electric bicycle rebate program, including a point-of-sale incentive component that eliminates financial barriers for income qualified households. By expanding access to e-bikes, we can lower transportation costs, reduce vehicle emissions, and advance Los Angeles’ broader clean energy and climate goals.

Angelenos have witnessed the destructive nature of extreme weather events resulting from climate change. From wildfires and catastrophic flooding to prolonged periods of extreme heat, the City must do more than respond to disasters after they occur. Large, capital projects that focus on built infrastructure will always be essential to Los Angeles’ climate future, but they cannot do the work alone. Climate resilience must originate where people live, walk, wait and gather, through distributed investments that operate at the neighborhood and parcel scale. Los Angeles must prepare for them by strengthening resilience at the household and neighborhood level. 

BUILD THE GREEN LATTICE

Los Angeles needs to invest in programs that will create an interconnected, Citywide network of cooling, permeable, and habitat rich spaces that will serve as green infrastructure. By replacing unnecessary concrete and non-functional turf with stormwater capturing landscapes, shade trees, and native ecosystems, this green infrastructure will serve as a “Green Lattice” system woven through streets, transit corridors, commercial parcels, and residential properties. These transformations will help reconnect Angelenos to natural systems that once defined this region while also cooling neighborhoods, absorbing stormwater, restoring biodiversity, and preventing damages from wildfires. By transforming our cityscape into climate-positive infrastructure, the “Green Lattice” reimagines Los Angeles as a city where water infiltrates, trees cool communities, native species return, and resilience is built block by block.

Shade LA

As Mayor, Rae will launch ShadeLA, a Citywide program focused on reducing the urban heat island effect through strategic tree planting and installation of native and low-water use shrubs that provide shade, cool buildings, and reduce energy demand. City staff will be directed to prioritize plantings in transit corridors so that bike paths, bus routes, and bus stops benefit from shading. Rae will leverage the 2027 state requirement to remove non-functional turf as an opportunity to encourage commercial property owners to replace turf with sustainable trees and shrubs. We will strategically prioritize neighborhoods vulnerable to extreme heat, keeping in mind that communities with heavy reliance on transit and active transportation are disproportionately exposed to extreme heat, with limited shade and few cooling interventions.

Unpave LA

As Mayor, Rae will establish Unpave LA, a City of Los Angeles incentive and technical-assistance program that supports voluntary removal of unnecessary impermeable surfaces, such as pavement, on private residential and commercial properties. This program would help replace qualifying private paved areas with permeable, habitat-positive designs featuring native landscaping through a simple, streamlined process. This will improve local climate resilience by helping to restore urban biodiversity, recharge local groundwater sources, and reduce stormwater runoff. 

EXPAND INFRASTRUCTURE FOR DISASTER PREVENTION

Building true emergency readiness also requires equipping residents, community institutions, and local spaces with the tools and resources needed to withstand and recover from emergencies. By expanding community preparedness, supporting climate-adapted rebuilding, and ensuring access to essential resources during extreme conditions, Los Angeles can better protect lives and property while empowering communities to play a central role in preparing for the next disaster.

Citywide Community Resilience Hubs Network

As Mayor, Rae will establish a Citywide network of community resilience hubs by upgrading existing recreation centers, community centers, libraries, and other trusted public spaces to serve as neighborhood-based anchors for emergency response, resource distribution, and long-term climate adaptation. We will also collaborate with the City and County to leverage emergency readiness toolkits and ensure communities don't just know the hubs exist, but are prepared for how to best utilize them and organize themselves in an emergency. This initiative helps build local capacity before disasters, ensures access to resources during disruptions and accelerates recovery afterward.

Plug-In Solar LA

Traditional rooftop solar is often out of reach for Angelenos due to economic and administrative barriers that prohibit them from participating in the clean energy transition. As Mayor, Rae will launch “Plug-In Solar LA”, a pilot program aimed at making certified plug-in solar systems allowable under a City, utility and union approved framework. Participants would install simple solar systems by plugging it into a standard electrical outlet. The solar panels can be placed on a balcony or backyard to produce clean solar power that directly reduces the electricity a household requires from the electric grid, helping lower energy bills without requiring rooftop installation or complex permits. The pilot would generate real-world data on customer savings, utility operational impacts, safety performance, and administrative feasibility, with the goal of determining whether and how to scale a Citywide program. This approach can also support Los Angeles’ clean energy goals by reducing customer demand on the grid and complementing LA’s plan to achieve 100% clean energy by 2035. Although the goal would be to expand the program Citywide, Rae is committed to ensuring that this pilot plug-in solar program protects grid reliability and utility worker safety through clear equipment standards, circuit limits, shutoff protections, and utility oversight.

Fire-Resilient Landscapes for Rebuild LA

As Mayor, Rae will establish a Fire-Resilient Landscapes for Rebuild LA directive that gives fire-impacted homeowners a pathway to seek landscape turf rebates to install low-water, native, and fire-resilient landscapes. City staff would be directed to collaborate with Metropolitan Water District (MWD) staff to establish alternative qualifying methods (i.e. Google Maps imagery, LIDAR data) for quantifying square footage of pre-wildfire turf in lieu of traditional program enrollment. Additionally, city departments would be directed to help create sample planting templates that homeowners could use to plant defensible landscapes with native plants in urban neighborhoods that are bounded by undeveloped wilderness prone to wildfires.

Water Station Direct-Install Network

No one should have to buy a disposable plastic water bottle to access clean drinking water. Rae will dramatically expand Los Angeles's network of public drinking water stations, installing them in parks, on busy streets, outside small businesses, at churches and community organizations, and anywhere else Angelenos gather. The City will handle installation and maintenance at no cost to participating sites, so that clean water doesn’t come with a corporate intermediary.

Public Bathroom Expansion and Network

Have you ever struggled to find a restroom while getting around Los Angeles? Rae has, too. There are only 14 permanent public bathrooms in all of Los Angeles, which is not nearly enough. We need more public bathrooms that are clean and safe. Rae wants to add more by looking at where people are most often, like busy streets, parks, and shopping areas, so they’re placed where they’re actually needed.

Extreme Weather Intelligence Preparation

Rae will hire a dedicated city meteorologist, housed within emergency management, whose job is not just to track the weather but to translate it into action. That means giving city departments advance warning they can actually use, telling LADWP when to pre-stage repair crews and the Bureau of Street Services when to deploy drainage equipment before conditions deteriorate. It means using the same advanced forecasting tools that other major cities and utilities already have, so we can see danger coming before it arrives. And it means building that capacity here at home, because the federal administration is actively defunding the National Weather Service, and Los Angeles cannot afford to depend on a system that is being dismantled.

The City of Los Angeles is weighed down by outdated, disaggregated technology systems that don't talk to each other, making cross-departmental collaboration a challenge, and frustrating the public with the lack of real-time and responsive systems. City workers are frustrated too, doing their jobs on antiquated systems that make everything harder than it needs to be. And because technology infrastructure has no consistent citywide oversight, departments duplicate tools, waste money, and hoard data that should be shared. 

The consequences of this dysfunction go beyond inconvenience. When disaster strikes, Angelenos need accurate, real-time information about what is happening and what to do. When the next emergency hits, every Angeleno must get clear, accurate, moment-by-moment information through every channel available, not contradictory updates and dangerous gaps in coverage.

Fixing our technology systems from the ground up means creating a consistent citywide approach to IT, investing in tools that work across departments, and treating the flow of information as public infrastructure. When city systems work, city workers work better and Angelenos get the services and the transparency they are owed.

Citywide IT Department Restructuring 

Angelenos deserve a City that operates with a modern technology infrastructure with a focus on delivering better services to the public and improving workflows for City staff. As Mayor, Rae will ensure there is a consistent Citywide approach to IT which will reduce costs across the City and improve availability of information of both the public and City staff.

City-Developed AI and AI-Enhanced Citywide Data Sharing

We can't rely on tech companies to responsibly manage our sensitive data, and we can't allow ourselves to be left behind. Rae will direct our City IT to create a plan to develop our own AI to ensure we have total ownership of our data, and we will use our City-developed and owned AI to facilitate Citywide data sharing.

A Telecommuting First Approach for Desk-Based Knowledge Workers

The City is still operating under the emergency telecommuting policy from March 2020, which essentially defers all decisions on telecommuting to the General Managers. This lack of permanency creates longstanding instability for workers who don't know if they will be required to return to office. City workers deserve a clear policy. Rae will ensure we implement a Telecommuting First Approach for Desk-Based Knowledge Workers.

Modernized Civil Service Testing

Before the City of Los Angeles can hire someone for most jobs, that person has to pass a test and get placed on a waiting list before they can even get an interview. While changing this civil service examination can require changes to L.A. City Charter, simplifying the process using technology can be a transformative method to accelerate hiring while maintaining civil service safeguards. Presently, the hiring process can be as long as 18 months. This is during a time when we have critical vacancies and need to expand our staff capacity to increase responsiveness to our residents.

As Mayor, Rae will require the Information Technology Agency, in partnership with other departments in the Information Technology Policy Committee (ITPC), work with the Personnel Department to reinvent civil service testing using technology to accelerate civil service hiring lists while maintaining essential civil service safeguards.