It was shortly before noon Friday when a group of people in T-shirts emblazoned with “INVEST IN YOUTH” formed a circle at Mariachi Plaza. In between bites of tamales and laughter, they chatted about the looming L.A. city budget.
“If this budget passes, I see there being a bit of a risk in loss of [youth] services and loss of the youth focus,” said Araceli Rodriguez, a program manager at Legacy L.A., a Boyle Heights-based youth development nonprofit.
Rodriguez and her group, also from Legacy L.A., were about to board the “budget bus,” a shuttle organized by Councilwoman Ysabel Jurado, taking residents on a 20-mile journey from Boyle Heights to Van Nuys City Hall for the first public hearing on the city’s proposed budget.
Daisy Amaro, an intern at Legacy L.A., was there to represent the young people she served, who were in school and couldn’t attend the meeting.
“I know it would have been beneficial to have their voices be heard, but I feel like just being able to represent them was one of the reasons why I wanted to go out there,” Amaro said, excited to attend what would be her first public hearing.
For many riders, this wasn’t just a civic field trip– it was their chance to voice their concerns about which departments the city chooses to prioritize.
Facing a nearly $1 billion shortfall, Mayor Karen Bass has proposed more than 1,600 layoffs, including 403 civilian support staff at the Police Department, more than 260 people at the Transportation Department and 130 workers at the Bureau of Street Services. Under her plan, the departments of Youth Development, Aging and Economic and Workforce Development would be consolidated under the Community and Family Investment Department– moves critics say cut vital services in favor of ramping up law enforcement spending.
“I think the city has its priorities very wrong and their vision of public safety is completely different from what the community’s vision of public safety is,” Rodriguez said. “I understand the budget deficit, I understand the budget cuts, but they don’t need to get rid of the entire [youth services] department.”
Other riders echoed her concerns. They questioned why departments central to community well-being– those that repair street lights, provide youth services or keep communities clean– were being slashed, even as the proposed budget allocates most of its funding to the Los Angeles Police Department.
As the bus weaved through several L.A. freeways, Boyle Heights resident Dayle Diamond pointed to the city’s infrastructure failures as a public safety issue in itself.
“We’ll replace a light but we won’t investigate where the wire was sold,” he said “We keep creating the illusion of progress without work.”
“I know this one meeting won’t solve everything,” Diamond said, frustrated with what he called an overly bureaucratic process and the city’s reactive rather than preventative approach.
Outside Van Nuys City Hall, hundreds of people could be seen holding signs demanding protections for city departments like Animal Services. Among them was Elizabeth Goldy, a Department of Animal Services employee worried about layoffs and her department.
“We’re just as important as LAPD, we’re just as important as the fire department. We are public safety, and we are a huge asset to the safety of the city and are, at the end of day, caretakers for the animals of Los Angeles,” Goldy said. “We need to fix the budget. Cutting funding and cutting essential services is not the way to go.”
Inside the building, speakers shared their frustrations, pleading with the five-member Budget and Finance Committee to protect services that support youth, housing, seniors and efforts like tree planting across L.A.
As the “budget bus” prepared to return, emotions were mixed. Some riders boarded with a look of hope. Others looked weary.
Jaime Galvan, a 75-year-old Highland Park resident, left feeling anxious about the proposed cuts, including the elimination of 10 positions at the Department of Aging.
Galvan, who walks with a cane, frequents senior centers and relies on public transportation to get around. “Now the streets still won’t get fixed,” he said.
The City Council will spend the next few weeks deliberating on the budget before voting to approve or modify it by June 1. The final budget takes effect on July 1, 2025.
