Kevin James is a candidate for mayor of Los Angeles. He is a political outsider and many think he has a chance to make it into the top two next month for a runoff later this year.
James is a Republican, openly gay, has connections to the entertainment industry, an advocate for cleaning up the animal control situation in the city of Angels and an advocate for fiscal responsibility. In other words, he is his own man and doesn’t fit into any traditional box.
James agrees to answer a few questions for Examiner.com. This is the second part of a two-part story. It should be noted that this interview was conducted prior to the Christopher Dorner situation.
Q: How is Chief Beck performing as leader of the LADP?
James: I favor his style of community based policing, however, he has allowed his position to be politicized.
Q: What is your position on Metro expansion?
James: We absolutely need to connect our city and alleviate L.A.'s world famous traffic congestion. In order to do so, we must better plan and implement our public transportation projects, and make sure every transportation dollar goes as far as possible. We have a green line to the airport that stops a mile and a half from the airport. I know my luggage has wheels on it, but I'd rather not have to drag it a mile and a half to the airport. There are battles that can be had to prevent poor planning decisions and cost over-runs, and it will take a Mayor with the independence from the special interests that I bring to the office to win those battles.
Q: How do you plan on finding adequate parking? What is your opinion on the city's greater enforcement of parking violations?
James: Parking fines are outrageous and so is the fact that City Hall depends on parking fines and violations as a major revenue stream. If you lower the price of parking tickets, more people will pay, and the city ends up collecting more money in the long run. The steep fines also harm local businesses, as they chase customers away.
I recently heard on KABC that a study showed that over 30% of traffic in Los Angeles is caused by people driving around, looking for parking. Los Angeles actually had the money to alleviate this problem to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars - a special revenue fund specifically put in place to alleviate the parking problem. It is called the Special Parking Revenue Fund. However, under the direction of my City Hall insider opponents, the fund was drained (as well as other infrastructure funds) and the money was moved to the general fund and reserve fund to pay salary increases that the city could not afford. I will end this practice, and spend infrastructure money on infrastructure projects.
Q: Do you support laws to crack down on aggressive paparazzi?
James: Yes. In my law practice I have represented celebrities that have been harassed by paparazzi, including Jennifer Aniston, and I believe aggressive paparazzi have now become a public safety issue and problem in Los Angeles so I do support reasonable laws to crack down on the paparazzi's unreasonable conduct.
Q: Hollywood creative community has donated over $3 million to Garcetti and Gruel combined. Should you get elected, what message do you have for Hollywood, which has overwhelmingly supported your opponents?
James: My opponents have been asleep at the wheel while we have watched the exodus of an entire industry from Los Angeles. Some people call it run-away production, I call it what it is: outsourcing. Under my leadership, we will bring Hollywood home. I have published two position papers on Hollywood outsourcing and have proposed realistic plans attract entertainment jobs back to Los Angeles. All of my position papers are available at my website, www.kevinjamesformayor.com, and can be found under the "issues" section.
For additional information about Kevin James’ campaign, check out these sites/social media:
If you enjoyed this article, you might enjoy one of these:
- Focus on the Los Angeles mayor’s race: An interview with Kevin James
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- Focus on Sheriff 2014: Paul Schrader on CCWs
- Focus on Sheriff 2014: Paul Schrader on sobriety checkpoints
If you have any tips or suggestions, you can contact me at iepolitics2010@gmail.com.
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