 I'm not a mayor like Mayor Garcetti, where we are a chartered city with a directly elected mayor that is bestowed with certain powers and authority. It's a little bit different than that, but that being said, it's a great platform and opportunity for people to have someone in their community that they can connect with when they have problems. I will say that sometimes, you know, I've had people reach out to me because they're upset that their next-door neighbor hasn't put their trash cans away in a timely manner. Again, not something I would think to call my mayor about, but it's happened and, you know, you have to meet people where they are and deal with their daily problems in the same way they're experiencing them. So do I have special powers to make people put their trash cans away? No. But, you know, sometimes sending an email, I guess, will do the trick. This is Start Up a Storefront. Today's guest is Mayor Lindsay Horvath of West Hollywood, California. In this election cycle, national political campaigns have taken over the entire news cycle. In the midst of all this political fervor, it's easy to gloss over the local elections that are in many ways just as important as the national elections. Though you may not reside in West Hollywood, the lessons and experience the Mayor Horvath bring to the discussion today resonate far beyond WEEHO. Your own town council and mayor's office probably operate in a very similar fashion. This is not the type of position that comes with national acclaim, a nice salary, and a full-time residence. These positions are filled with community organizers and political activists that can help make your community thrive. It's time we got to know them. So listen in as we cover everything from why she has a full-time job in addition to being mayor, what it's been like to run a city largely via remote digital platforms, and how the city plans to make voting this election day as easy and as safe as possible. Now, back to the episode. Welcome to the podcast. Everyone on today's show, we have the Mayor of West Hollywood, Lindsay Horvath. Thank you so much for joining. Appreciate you joining us. It's my pleasure. Thanks for having me. I wanted to talk to you for a couple of different reasons. One, obviously it's a crazy time. You get sworn in. What is it like being sworn in as mayor in a virtual setting, and all that has come from that? I mean, it's the first and only time it's ever happened in our city's history. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be surprised if we had to do it again that way given the way things are going, but hopefully it's not something that continues to be the trend, but thinking about how do you really get at public engagement and getting people to participate while they're sitting in front of their computer, as opposed to coming to city council chambers or being out in community together. It's totally a different dynamic. So making sure people felt that sense of community and belonging in that space was really important to me. So we did our best. Yeah. I can imagine it's crazy. The one thing I've been super impressed with you by, and I know, so it's interesting, right? I think some of us take this for granted where we have social media and it's kind of our only outlet today. And so we have to produce content in order to like, like my mom, for example, has called me less under COVID because she knows everything I'm doing all the time because of Instagram. And I called her today and I was like, wow, you never call me anymore. And like, I know you're bored. Like, I know there's nothing going on. What's going on? And she's like, I just see everything you do. And so as I was watching you during COVID, every day you had an update, you were really leveraging video on Instagram. And I know we take this for granted, but what was it like for you? Obviously, it was pretty deliberate, but I just wanted to get a sense into, you know, some of the new things that you've kind of moved into during COVID. Yeah, I, you know, I tried to find ways to make myself accessible while you're still virtual. You know, I normally, West Hollywood's a pretty walkable community. You see everybody out in the city. And so it's very strange to not have that sense of community out in person with everyone during this time. And so I tried to figure out how I could best leverage my social media to let people know that I was there and engaged and available, sharing information with them in a personal way, because you can go to a million different websites, but until you see a face and hear a voice that's familiar and that you trust, it can all feel very overwhelming. You know, we're dealing a lot of people are dealing with anxiety and depression and all kinds of stuff, you know, as a result of this time. And so I just tried to figure out how I could best have a personal touch to making sure everybody knew the services and support that were available in the community. It's still weird to see my face on things. So it's not as simple as just recording a quick video. There are several takes before it actually gets posted, but I think that I try to do that as much as I possibly can just, you know, to connect with people, but it's hard because I'm just kind of a one person show, you know, recording it myself, uploading it myself, editing, you know, doing all those things. So, but it's important. And I want to make sure that we stay connected. Well, I, you know, I can personally say I've loved the videos. They were all super informative. You were giving like updates of what was happening on a daily basis. And then all of a sudden, right, it's like COVID hit, we're all together in this, everyone's watching the CDC. We're all wearing masks. There's really, everyone's on the same page for the first time, I've been a long time. And then we hit with the riots and all of a sudden, even, and that will fast forward to today, or it's just everyone's believing in a different thing. What has that been like for you? Because it's, it's hard because you're doing this all virtually. Yeah, it's, it's really challenging, you know, because as I said, you know, people are experiencing so much emotionally and in isolation. And so normally, you know, when you hang out with your friends or spend time with your family or whoever, you know, whether it's your family by birth or choice or whatever, you normally have some outlets to help with some of those things. But for people who are living alone in isolation for fear of going outside because they're older or have health conditions or what have you, sometimes I'm the only person that they talk to in a day. And so I get to hear a lot of things that you might not always call your mayor for. But in this time, you know, you kind of have to meet people where they are, show up, listen, and be prepared to, you know, connect and respond in a way that's real. And I don't always have the answers that I, you know, I was pretty clear about that when I first got elected, I'm not going to have all the answers, but I'm hard to get you to the solutions that you need for the problems that you're experiencing. And, you know, that's really what I try to do is make myself available to connect people to the, you know, whether it's city hall staff that can help them solve their problems, or maybe somebody else in the community, whatever it is to try and solve those problems. I'm not always going to get it right. You know, I am human and make mistakes, but hopefully people see that, you know, I really want to, it's not like I'm trying to be something. I'm trying to do something. What made you want to first get into politics? And obviously, we're on city council for a while, but what was, what led you to jump on board? If you had told me growing up, I was going to do this. I would have been like, yeah, you're crazy, because it's just not what I ever expected for myself. I was involved in grassroots organizing, women's organizations, progressive organizations, environmental groups. And in 2009, one of our council members who was long serving, he was in his 90s, he passed away. And so there was a vacancy on the city council and people I was serving with on the women's advisory board, you know, people in the community who knew me were like, you should apply, you know, they went through an appointment process. So they were accepting applications. And I was like, I had just become the vice president of my ad agency at the time. I was in my mid 20s, you know, and I was like, what business do I have trying to apply to be on the city council? And, you know, eventually a good friend and mentor said, you know, what's the worst thing that could happen? You apply, maybe some doors will be open, people will know you want to get involved, you know, just, you know, put yourself out there. So I did and never in my wildest dreams expected to actually be the person who was unanimously appointed to the city council. But I love West Hollywood. I love my community. I love being able to help people. The fact that people in my community thought I was a person who could do the job sort of gave me like a sense of responsibility that, you know, if you see in me something that I can offer back, I was like, okay, you know, I have to take that seriously and be of service to my community. If I'm being asked, I have to step up and do the thing. And so that's really what I tried to do. And as you serve more and you see more things going on in the community, your vision broadens and deepens. And, you know, I saw things going on in the city that were great. And I saw things going on in the city that were not great. And, you know, 50% of our city is under the age of 40. And until I was on the council, that demographic was not reflected in terms of the leadership, certainly on the council, but even in boards and commissions. And so I really wanted to empower a new generation to feel like this community is theirs. If they want to step up and be a part of it, there's room for you here. You know, if there's not a seat at the table, we'll pull one up and make one for you because, you know, you can't wait till you're in retirement to be engaged in your community. Your ideas matter now. Your vision matters now. And so that's what I've been trying to do is make room for many more people to get involved, understand how the city works and have a stake in what happens here. I love that. I didn't realize half the city was under 40. That's kind of an amazing statistic. That's exciting in a lot of ways because it's, I don't know, it's like a hot spot in some way, but there's also a lot going on and a younger demographic, I'm sure has challenges. I've spoken to some politicians and I've always wondered this because I think West Hollywood is such a unique sliver of LA where you have Beverly Hills and you do want to make it a place where a lot of people come. What are some of the challenges associated with like growing this city while knowing you're still in between so many hot spots between downtown, between Beverly Hills? You know, what are the challenges given even what you just mentioned where half the people are under 40? Well, you know, West Hollywood has always been a place where people like to go out and have fun. I mean, you can think back to the old, old sunset strip and, you know, just the legacy and history of music and culture and entertainment that's happened here. You know, we became a city in 1984. So that's officially when we became West Hollywood. Before that, we were the West Hollywood area that was unincorporated Los Angeles County. And a lot of things went on here just because it was like in a way almost forgotten about or overlooked. And so people kind of got away with things here because it wasn't, you know, where people were focusing their attention in terms of rules or development or things like that. So I would say, you know, there's a lot that the city naturally had going for it. We do have the sunset strip, we have Santa Monica Boulevard, we have Melrose and Beverly Design District, you know, we have entertainment studios that are here and now Oprah Winfrey Network is here and Showtime and so many others have come to West Hollywood and made it their home. But, you know, I think we also were 1.9 square miles were very small. And so for all the things that happened in West Hollywood, we're all kind of on top of each other. We, you know, a lot of times things can be very close quarters. And so we have some challenges in that there are lots of big city feeling things that happen here, but it's still a small town. And so how do you balance those competing interests? How do you make sure that the business that is done here also benefits the residents and that the community sees benefit of that business and that hustle and bustle because that comes with sometimes some quality of life stuff that people have to deal with. But, you know, I would say another thing that's both a blessing and a curse is, you know, communication. We are in sort of a media hot spot of the world. And yet if you want to tell people, hey, we have this nightly shuttle for you to take so you don't have to drive your car when you go down the Boulevard, like how do you cut through all the media and messaging that people are hearing about the entertainment industry and all kinds of other things that have nothing to do with local services and support that, you know, your city hall is offering. So, you know, we have some interesting and unique challenges. We have some challenges that every city's facing, you know, especially now with COVID, it's been a great unifier for many communities in terms of how do we rely on each other and how do we learn from each other to deal with different things. And so, you know, a lot of cities have turned to us for our example of how to, you know, best be of service to our residents in this time of global health pandemic. But there are definitely answers we're getting from other places, too. So the challenges are there, but they also present a lot of opportunities for us to do some good things. It's funny when I first moved here, so I was from Massachusetts, we live in Boston for a while, and we were like exploring what neighborhoods to live in. And we first picked the Hollywood Hills. And I just hated it, because it's like, you forgot something at the grocery store, you had to get in your car and then go all the way down to like the Trader Joe's. And it was just like this huge bummer. And after meeting a lot of business owners, they're all like, yeah, if you're from the East Coast, you moved to West Hollywood. And I was like, Oh, why? And they're like, because everything is walkable. And that's what you're used to. So this is where we all hang out. And I started to realize like, Oh, wow, this person's from New York and Jersey, Massachusetts. And it was like this wonderful thing. Or I was like, Yes, it is. That's what I'm seeking. It's I want to walk to my favorite bar, which I think is so great. In terms of like planning, obviously, I'm a developer. So I'm always curious, there's this corner. I think Las Yenegas Santa Monica, it says like 2050 vision. What can you tell us a little bit about? And not just development related, but you know, in terms of what's coming, I had no idea about that shuttle. That was really good to know. I had no idea that was even a thing. And it's free. And there's a DJ on it and everything. It's really fun. That's incredible. I had no idea. That's amazing. What other things can you tell us a little bit about maybe on that corner? What's coming? What are some of the things that you guys are working on in terms of growing the city, growing what's what's available? So there's, there's so much that's coming to the community up on sunset. We have embarked on embracing digital advertising and incorporating it to have a public art component. So not only is it part of, you know, the architecture of what will exist on sunset, but also hopefully an opportunity for us to showcase, you know, our creative city motto and moniker through partnering with a lot of really interesting artists in that public space and making something that, you know, feels like the future. You know, the sunset strip has always been a very iconic destination to do things, but also to see things and the billboards and the culture up there. All of that kind of speaks for itself. And so bringing that into the 21st century has been really exciting. I think another big development is we have been working with LA County Metro to bring light rail to West Hollywood, which will connect us with the rest of the region. The alignment that we're working to bring to West Hollywood once it's built will be the highest ridership of any light rail line in the country. And it will connect us to places, you know, all the new destinations in Inglewood, but also, you know, the airport and with our hotels and nightlife getting people, you know, up into our community is going to be really important. So that train is, it could be a great connector for people. And that intersection that you talked about, you know, could very well be the site of a new metro station, a whole new kind of development. You know, we're always thinking about how do we have live entertainment and how do we always enhance our nightlife experience. But also, as we know, West Hollywood is over 40% LGBT. And so how do we make sure that we are inclusive and thinking about what does the future of our LGBT community look like? How do we create safe spaces? How do we create a nightlife and destinations that cater to the community that's been here and help make West Hollywood what it is? And so thinking about who some of those key partners are to bring nightlife destinations, you know, everybody knows the Abbey, of course, but Rocco's is a new place on the Boulevard now too. And so a lot of people have been going there. But how do we make sure that those businesses are able to thrive during this time of COVID once again is always a challenge. And so I think we have a lot of big plans for what the future of the city will look like. And hopefully as we move through and out of ultimately the economic recession, how we re-envision what public space looks like and how we develop our community, I think is going to be completely different as a result of this. Yeah, that's super fair. And then is housing an issue here in West Hollywood? Is there a shortage of housing? It seems like it to me, but I mean, I see developments all the time. They're all, all these buildings are basically just going up from your perspective. Is it, if the demographic is under 40, is there a lot of thought around like keeping families here and trying to build or, you know, stimulate, add more housing, bring more people? So there's a housing shortage throughout the state of California. West Hollywood is no exception, but I will say we have done a better job than most in terms of meeting what the state's expectations of housing development have been and creating especially low and very low income affordable units for people to be able to afford to live in West Hollywood. Because it's not just about creating any types of housing, but how do we make sure we're creating the types of housing that we actually need and that people can afford? One big part of that has been our rent stabilization ordinance that allows, you know, many units in the community to remain rent stabilized and affordable in that sense. And so I know, you know, for me, I wouldn't be able to afford to live in the city if I didn't live in a rent control department. And I know that that's the case for many people. But we also know that we have to build new housing stock to grow the community, to make sure that the housing stock that people live in actually is habitable and, you know, is going to be able to last. We've been working on seismic retrofitting to make sure that the places that have been here for a long time stay safe, while also thinking about what that new housing looks like. To your point about, you know, we often hear a lot that one of the reasons people leave West Hollywood after living here for some period of time often is to grow a family. We have most of our housing is multifamily housing. Most of it is renters. About 80% of our city are renters. And so single family homes with yards, when you have kids or dogs or things, they're not a lot of what exists here and not a lot of what's getting built here. And so more often than not, people are living in apartments and condos. And so that changes, you know, how people experience things too. I wanted to ask you something that I'm just curious about. So obviously, we had a lot of peaceful protests really beautiful throughout West Hollywood throughout the city of LA and really like moving, you know, very, very touching and incredible. Recently, probably two weeks ago, I was on, I'm on a different site in Lincoln Heights, and I had to call the LAPD. And while we're just kind of hanging out talking, I just asked the officer, you know, what does this spend like for you given given the media? And he, he shared something with me that really blew me away. He's like, so it was a Monday and he said, this morning we had our staff meeting. And it turns out there was an LAPD vehicle that there was a bomb under it. And so now we're being told that we have to search our cars every morning. And then he shared with me that he has a son, he's a parent, and he's walking on the street. And a four year old or a kid, he said, flicks him off. And then his mother says, don't even look at the police officer. I didn't say, don't flick this adult off this police officer, but said to not even look at them. And one of the concerns I obviously have is like, I just feel like nobody's talking and we're just moving into these completely scary situations. As you think about leadership during this time, obviously, this is like an impossible challenge, right? Or so it feels like it. And I don't know if you have the right answer, but I just kind of wanted to get your thought process around this, because for me as an outsider, to some extent, right? I'm not, I'm certainly not a politician, but just hearing these two anecdotal stories, I just thought this has got to be a tough time for leadership, for politicians to navigate. Yeah, I mean, many problems would fall into this description, but this one in particular, you're not going to politician your way out of it. You have to be real. You have to be willing to have tough conversations. You have to be willing to create the safe space for people to be honest about what their experiences have been. And also be prepared to dig in and do the work for the long haul. This isn't something that's going to change overnight or get better overnight. And I have a friend who's raising her with her husband, raising two kids in their home. And her son had said that he always thought that when police showed up, you were supposed to run away. He was very young and had this impression, like when police show up, you're supposed to run away. And she goes, huh, I have to do something about that. And she actually reached out to our local sheriff station and had a conversation with the lieutenant there and said, would you mind, my son's about to have his birthday, would you mind coming and meeting my son and having this conversation with him? And so they did, and they brought the police car and the flashing lights and all the things that the kids got excited. But you know, putting a human face on something helps to address what you talked about, you know, create that very tense dynamic. And that tense dynamic also comes from human interactions in neighborhoods where that's not how people are experiencing law enforcement. And that isn't how law enforcement shows up in a community. And so we have to also be mindful that just because you know, in a place like West Hollywood, that's relatively safe and has, you know, for the most part of good working relationship with our sheriff station, there are communities where that is not the case. And we have to be open to hearing that and willing to do better and work at it. And, you know, and also be willing to be as upset about, you know, when we're hearing, you know, incidents of police brutality as we are, when we're hearing about property damage or, you know, things like that, we have to make sure that we're prioritizing people's lives first. That's why people say Black lives matter. We have to make sure that, you know, we're really thinking about those things and taking, being accountable and taking responsibility. And then flipping gears here for a second. So if you could, if you could wave like a magic wand and get like one or two, one to three things done in West Hollywood that are either just wishless items for you or that you hope to see one day, what are some of those things? Well, I'd love to see the end of COVID. Not only because, you know, people are really anxious and nervous and, you know, struggling with illness, but also because it's hurting us economically and because we're, you know, a nightlife and tourism destination. I want people to always feel welcome and safe here, whether it's COVID or, you know, to safely protest or what, you know, making West Hollywood a welcoming city is something we've done for many years. But right now, this is the first time I think that people have really felt like I can't go out safely, you know, I'm thinking about whether I'm going to contract the virus or have some sort of bad experience. And so really, I think that global pandemic has impacts beyond measure. So if I could get rid of even just one thing, it would be that right now, because West Hollywood has been in really great shape for a long time. I think we also need to make sure that we continue to have the resources to care for our most vulnerable in the community. You know, that's why we promote economic development so we can have the money in the community to invest in services and support. You know, there's been a big push in LA County to have more of LA County's budget dedicated towards services and support. And that's actually something we've always done as the city of West Hollywood. Somewhere between 5% and 10% of our budget since we've been a city has been dedicated solely to social services and making sure that people who are in most need are prioritized. I think that's really important. So those are some of the big issues that, you know, keep me up at night, making sure that people are cared for, that they're housed, that they're fed, and that they know that they're safe and they belong here. That's what I want people to experience in West Hollywood. That makes sense. And then I'm sure people don't really know what you do or like blame you for things that they probably you have nothing to do with. What are some of the things that you can debunk as like these myths that people think you're in your pro people probably think you're in control of everything, but we know that's not necessarily the case. Are there like three myths that you'd love to just for the record clear up right now in terms of what people think being mayor is and what it actually is or maybe some things that people think you're responsible for but at the end of the day you're so far removed from it. So I think when you hear the word mayor you think it's like a person who kind of runs the town right but the way our city government is structured our city council is a group of five people and the mayor is you know the head of the city council for one year you get elected to a four-year term but you serve as mayor for one of those four years and you're kind of like the chairman of the board in that position and the person in our case in our city in our form of government who kind of runs the city day to day is our city manager which is kind of like if you think about a nonprofit structure like the executive director and so a lot of people come to the mayor with their problems but ultimately it's city staff that's going to help solve them and so I'm not a mayor like mayor Garcetti where we are a chartered city with a directly elected mayor that you know is bestowed with certain powers and authority it's a little bit different than that but that being said it's a great platform and opportunity for people to have someone in their community that they can connect with when they have problems. I will say that sometimes you know I've had people reach out to me because they're upset that their next-door neighbor hasn't put their trash cans away in a timely manner again not something I would think to call my mayor about but it's happened and you know you have to meet people where they are and deal with them you know deal with their daily problems in the same way they're experiencing them so do I have special powers to make people put their trash cans away no but you know sometimes sending an email I guess will do the trick. I also think being mayor of the city it feels like we also are not full-time and so I have a full-time job outside of this that's how I'm able to afford to live in West Hollywood and the city council is not considered a full-time job we get paid a stipend but it's not even enough to pay my rent that stipend per month so the full-time job that I have is what I do so the work that I do for the community really is because I love it and because I want to be of service and I want to help people in the city. I love that and does this make you want to have do you have broader political aspirations now that you're kind of in it you get to sort of see and feel the improvement that you're making in the impact do you do you want to maybe one day go to Congress or a Senate or? That's I don't know about Congress um you know I think there's a lot going on in Washington that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me right now but I also know that having served in the city council and worked with the county the state the federal government I've been able to learn a lot and so you know I never would have thought I would have become an elected official but now you know I've had people write to me you know you should go to the county you should do this you should do that and you know I'll go where my services are wanted and are able to best be of service for others I don't have personal aspirations but I do think that all of the things that I've been that I've been able to learn in my service to our community I want to make sure that those skills I'm able to bring to bear for others so we'll see what happens yeah no I love that and obviously uh we're in election season right so look at you've dealt with all of it it seems right you get you you go in dealing with the pandemic as mayor now you're in election season at the probably the most turbulent time in American history or recent history anything you want to tell people about whether they can where they can vote how they can vote all that good stuff yes so this year for the general election every voter in California who registers by the deadline will be sent a ballot to their house and that will be the easiest way for people to be able to vote you'll get a ballot it's nailed right to you you fill it out you can drop it at one of three ballot collection boxes or you can drop it in any post office box anywhere and that's the easiest way to vote there will be on elect leading up to election day and on election day there will be three voting locations in the city of west Hollywood and this is different than in years past where there were lots of locations or ones that were pretty familiar to people this year we'll have voting at Palmer Park at the Iranian American Jewish Center up on a fountain in Crescent Heights and also at Lapeer Hotel so those are three places you can go leading up to the election or on the day of if you vote on the day of the election be prepared for some lines because voting centers are functioning a little bit different now it's not just west Hollywood residents that can show up anyone in LA county can show up and go and vote in our voting centers we saw in the primaries this year in March that there were very long lines and so we hope to not have the same experience that's why sort of where I started making sure you look at your ballot and drop it in early is going to be the easiest way and the safest way they'll keep you from being out in a crowd whatever it is you do please make a plan to vote everybody's vote counts and everybody's voice needs to be heard and we're a better community when more people are participating in it I love that and I love the Lapeer Hotel that's amazing yeah that is a center that's so cool that place is so beautiful yeah and they actually stepped up to do it you know the city um partnered with the county on plumber park is a location but Lapeer and the IAJC stepped up and said they wanted to be locations so kudos to them for for stepping up and doing their civic duty as an avid tennis player I love west Hollywood because there are courts everywhere in this 1.9 square mile city there's a there's plenty of courts to go around it's unbelievable I'm so glad to hear that yeah I'm sure you don't get praise very often because it's just I'm sure you just get a lot of blame on things but between tennis and parking which are too prompt well parking being probably a big thing that people yes parking is a big thing but I will say tennis players have a you know a very special place um in terms of their expectations and and how important tennis is to people in this community I will say unlike anybody else I've experienced in our in our recreation so it's very it's very strange it's yeah it's true they're very particular well listen I want to thank you for coming on during this crazy time I don't think ever in my lifetime I'll be able to talk to someone who is dealing with these random not random but crazy black swan events that you've been able to to sort of encounter during your time um where can people find you where can they follow and learn more a little bit about a little bit about you sure so you can go to weho.org that's our city's website if you go to the city council page my picture my bio and more importantly my email which comes directly to me is right there so you can click on it and it'll send automatically send me an email I'm the one who reads them nobody reads them for me um so it might take me a minute behind because there are a lot of people who do email but that's the best place in terms of our website you can follow the city on social media it's at weho city on facebook on instagram and on twitter myself i'm on twitter and instagram at lindsay p whorebath and I also want to thank you for your vested interest in west hollywood we're really excited to welcome you to the city and have a new fun project and your innovation your creativity is something we're excited about so thank you for thinking about what's hollywood absolutely thank you lindsay i appreciate it my pleasure