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Karen Ruth Bass, a former physician assistant who shattered glass ceilings with her rise to a leadership post in the California legislature and later a prominent spot in Congress, took a ceremonial oath of office on Sunday as mayor of Los Angeles.
A progressive Democrat, Bass becomes the first woman and second Black person to hold the city’s top job and will formally assume her duties Monday amid multiple crises in the nation’s second most populous city.
She was sworn in ceremonially by Vice President Kamala Harris, a longtime friend and former California attorney general. The formal oath was administered privately by the city clerk.
Bass will be tasked with easing rising crime rates, restoring trust in a City Hall shaken by racism and corruption scandals and addressing the issue of over 40,000 people living in trash-strewn encampments or rusty RVs that have spread into virtually every neighbourhood.
Striking a tone of unity, Bass said the many, disparate arms of government must come together to confront homelessness.
To move in a new direction we must have a single strategy that brings together government, the private sector and other stakeholders, Bass said, speaking in a downtown theater near City Hall.
She said if people link arms rather than point fingers, lives will be saved. She called that my mission as mayor.
She also urged residents to become involved in city government, echoing John F. Kennedy’s presidential inaugural address in which he said, « Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.
I call on the people of our city to not just dream of the L.
