Prioritize Social Rights

PRESERVE AND EXPAND WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Traci grew up in a working class home, in a working class neighborhood, to parents who were lifelong Union members. After her parents divorced, she was raised by a single mom who worked hard to support the family on a limited budget. Traci attended public schools and worked her way through college and law school, incurring significant student loan debt along the way. In college, Traci interned at the Public Defender’s office, and while in law school, worked for an employee’s rights law firm.

As an attorney, Traci has dedicated her career to educating workers across California on their rights. She has fought to tackle big issues like closing the gender wage gap, for flexible work schedules, child care supplements, and paid family leaves, and to end insurance exclusions for essential healthcare. She believes that every woman should have safe, dignified access to all forms of women’s healthcare, without legislative or political interference, including full reproductive care, contraception, testing, screening, counseling, and robust sex and health education. Traci wholeheartedly endorses Prop 1 and will fight to ensure that Los Angeles remains a safe haven for women seeking reproductive healthcare.

From addressing period poverty to battling insurance exclusions for certain procedures or inadequate MediCal funding to cover essential healthcare costs – Traci will always fight to eradicate racial, social, and economic inequities that all too frequently create barriers to essential healthcare.

During the pandemic, the numbers of women in the workplace dropped to the lowest levels we have seen in decades, and women of color were disproportionately impacted. Traci will fight to ensure that women are supported in their roles as mothers, caregivers, and in the workplace. She will also work closely with women in the business community to support and develop women leaders and entrepreneurs.
Traci is proud to be endorsed by Emily’s List, National Women’s Political Caucus – LA Westside Chapter, Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis, State Treasurer Fiona Ma, and women of every age all over Los Angeles!

REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE

• Enshrine abortion rights in our State constitution. Traci support Prop 1 and will fight to ensure that California always remains a leader on reproductive justice.
• Support legislation requiring all CA health insurance plans to cover comprehensive reproductive health care. Too often, insurance plans exclude essential women’s healthcare, which detrimentally impacts the most vulnerable women in our community. Los Angeles can and will be a leader in this area.
• Ensure L.A. remains a sanctuary for women seeking reproductive health care. Traci will invest in the necessary infrastructure to make sure women have access to all the resources they need in Los Angeles. This is true not only of women who live here but of the many thousands who will travel to L.A. for reproductive care they are being denied in their home states.
• Protect/expand public funding for all reproductive health services to ensure that all women have access to reproductive health care. No woman should ever face financial barriers to basic health care. Traci will make sure L.A. is a national leader in affordable and free reproductive health care and she will fight to ensure MediCal providers have adequate funding for these services.
• Expand/enforce laws that protect reproductive health care providers, staff, and patients from violence, intimidation, and harassment. Women seeking healthcare and providers of such care are entitled to dignity, privacy, and a safe environment.

WOMEN IN BUSINESS

• Invest in women’s businesses. During the COVID crisis, women-owned businesses experienced disproportionate losses, closures, and other setbacks. As we enter the recovery phase of the pandemic, Traci will work to provide every available dollar and resource to help women-owned businesses in CD11 recover and thrive.
• Paid family leave and child care supplements. Los Angeles, as well as Santa Monica and Culver City – already mandate paid sick leave. Granted, it’s not sufficient and must be expanded. Still, these policies will be models for paid family leave and child care supplements for working women and families.
• Flexible schedules for working moms. Traci will introduce ordinances to create flexible work schedules for moms and parents who work for the City. Working moms are more likely to shoulder the responsibility of picking up and dropping off their kids at school. Particularly in the era of remote work, these measures will empower women to take control of their own schedules while not skipping a beat in the vital work they do. They also will serve as models for similar measures in the private sector.
• Hire, train, and retain women and diverse candidates in the CD11 office. Traci will hire the best people for every position, while reflecting the diversity of our City and District.
• Workforce development. Traci will ensure that all women have access to educational and economic opportunities that will enable them to grow careers, businesses, and thrive across Los Angeles.

WOMEN’S SAFETY

• Restore safety to L.A.’s mass transit networks. Women are more likely to use transit than men, but they are also far more likely to feel unsafe in the process. The last few years have seen an unconscionable level of violence on mass transit. Traci will work vigorously to restore public safety for all transit users and workers, especially women. All options must be on the table, including dedicated law enforcement teams, rapid response teams in LAPD, mental health workers, and public transit ambassadors.
• Targeted infrastructure investments in public safety. We can and must do better as a City when it comes to things like safe streets, sidewalks, lighting, and other measures to keep women, moms, and families safe across our City.
• Establish a homeless women’s violence task force within LAPD. Homeless women face overwhelmingly disproportionate risks of physical and sexual violence. These are the hidden among the hidden. Traci will introduce an ordinance establishing a dedicated unit within the LAPD to address this crisis. She also will work with the District Attorney’s office to ensure that victims of violence have resources needed to recover and seek justice.
• Expand women’s homeless shelters and facilities for pregnant women experiencing homelessness or extreme housing insecurity. Along with expanding physical protections for homeless women in CD11 and L.A., Traci will work to expand these facilities, modeled on successful programs like Harvest Home. No pregnant woman should ever spend a single night on our streets.

PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES

One-in-five Americans has a disability, which makes disabled people America’s largest minority group. It is also the only one that, due to accident, aging or illness, anyone can join at any time. Indeed, there are approximately one million people living in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area with some form of disability.

Safe and accessible public transportation, workforce development and economic opportunity, and expansion of mental and physical health services are essential components of Traci’s platform. Traci will fight to expand services and resources for disabled people across Los Angeles.

• Reliable, safe transportation for the disabled. It’s imperative that public transportation remain safe, accessible, and reliable for disabled people, and that ride services, such as CityRide, Access Paratransit, and New Freedom continue to be funded and available.
• Fund long term services and supports. Traci will partner with the Aging & Disability Resource Connection to ensure that public and private-funded long-term services and supports, referral services, expedited access, and transitional care programs are funded and available for disabled people and their families.
• Workforce development and worker protections for the disabled. It is imperative that people with special needs have access to educational and job training opportunities and that they are free from unlawful treatment in the workplace. She will invest in City programs and partner with private sector providers to ensure that job training programs, pre-job guidance, and special needs job development opportunities are available for those who need them.
• Accessible Parking Zones and Sidewalks. Traci will work with the LA Department on Disability to ensure that accessible parking zones are preserved and expanded. She will not allowed disabled parking spots to be eliminated as part of roadway improvement projects. Traci will invest in the City departments and staff needed to improve our sidewalks and public amenities to ensure they are safe and accessible for disabled people.
• Community outreach, referrals and education. Traci will create collaborative relationships to promote referrals to social services, such as housing, emergency shelter, legal services, health clinics, caregiver resources, assistive technology, accessible transportation, employment, and job training. She will have staff in the CD11 office dedicated to connecting people to the right programs and services for disability related matters and resources to enhance independent living.
• Deliver social services for the disabled. From legal services to health and mental programs, Traci will continue to build partnerships with the Department of Aging, County, LAHD, and local organizations focused on delivering essential social services to our elderly population.
• Fund ADA Compliance. All too often, public and private spaces, activities, and services are inaccessible to disabled people. Traci will ensure the City’s ADA compliance office is adequately funded and staffed to address all ADA concerns across the City.

PROVIDE SENIOR SERVICES AND RESOURCES

From safe transportation, access to parks and Senior Centers, safe streets and sidewalks, senior housing, and services for older adults, Traci will fight to ensure that vulnerable members of our community have the resources they need to thrive in our local communities.

• Affordability and senior housing. In the last 30 years, our City has focused almost exclusively on adding market and luxury rate housing, and not done nearly enough to protect and preserve our affordable housing stock or invest in housing for the elder. It’s time for that to change. As we implement the Plan to House LA, Traci will insist that we focus on affordable housing for seniors. She will have a team on staff dedicated to the production of affordable and senior housing.
• Prioritize getting seniors off the streets and into safe settings. No senior should be left to live on our streets without the support and care they need. Unfortunately, we have no shelter or transitional housing available that is exclusive to seniors. Under Traci’s watch, that is going to change, and she will prioritize the rapid production of interventions to get vulnerable seniors off the streets and into safe settings specialized to their needs.
• Safe community resources for seniors. In recent years, our parks, libraries, and senior centers, which were once vital community assets, have become unsafe and unwelcoming, especially for older adults to depend on them. Traci will work every day to ensure those spaces, including disabled parking locations, are safe and accessible to those who rely on them. Traci will also enforce the City’s no camping ordinance to ensure seniors can safely access our parks, libraries, and senior centers.
• Invest in general municipal services and maintenance. For too long, general municipal services have been ignored. Traci will invest in the City departments and staff needed to improve our sidewalks and public amenities.
• Reliable, safe transportation for seniors. It’s imperative that public transportation remain safe, accessible, and reliable for seniors and that senior ride programs continue to be funded and available.
• Provide meals to vulnerable seniors. Many seniors depend on meals through their local senior centers or the Department of Aging. Traci will fight for funding to continue congregate and homebound meal programs across the Westside.
• Deliver social services for the elderly. From legal services to mental health programs and the City’s Handyworker Program, Traci will continue to build partnerships with the Department of Aging, County, LAHD, and local organizations focused on delivering essential social services to our elderly population.