Nithya Raman faces growing criticism as residents and political allies question her leadership

Residents in Nithya Raman’s district have expressed concerns, accusing the progressive candidate of neglecting their needs despite her promises to amplify their voices. They claim to feel ignored and unable to get responses from her office.

Raman gained attention in 2020 when she entered City Hall as a grassroots political insurgent, unseating an incumbent councilmember in a surprising victory. As an urban planner and co-founder of a homelessness outreach organization, her campaign focused on housing affordability, homelessness, and tenant protections. Raman often positioned herself as an outsider ready to challenge the City Hall status quo.

Now, as Raman aims for Los Angeles’ highest office, critics throughout her district describe a different experience, feeling frustrated, excluded, and unheard.

According to The California Post, residents repeatedly expressed similar complaints: unanswered calls, difficulty in setting up meetings, and being left out of decision-making processes affecting their communities.

“I was shocked and horrified at how she treated people,” said Shira Scott Astrof, a resident near Runyon Canyon. Astrof’s frustrations began when trying to assist residents in her building with affordable housing issues and fears of losing their homes.

“Because tenant protections had become one of Raman’s signature issues, I thought for sure the council office would become involved,” Astrof told the California Post. She encouraged neighbors to contact Raman’s office for help but was disappointed by the response.

“I either got wrong information, rude information, but most of the time they just wouldn’t answer our emails or return calls,” Astrof said, pointing out Raman’s campaign promise to protect renters.

Maria Kalban shared her frustration, stating it was not due to a single disagreement but stemmed from years of working on land-use and planning issues, where her community efforts often hit a wall with Raman’s office.

Kalban initially believed Raman’s urban planning background would facilitate meaningful collaboration. She and her husband were deeply involved in neighborhood planning, including helping to establish United Neighbors, which connects about 150 community groups across Los Angeles.

Kalban noted that residents spent months developing proposals they thought would comply with state housing mandates while guiding growth towards major corridors and commercial zones instead of single-family neighborhoods. “We did our homework on this,” Kalban said.

Despite meetings with city agencies and presentations to planning officials and the mayor’s office, they felt they were gaining little ground with Raman. “We began to realize there was nothing we could do because she was definitely focused on adding a lot of density into single-family areas, and she didn’t care what else you could come up with,” Kalban said.

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Kalban’s experience led her to question Raman’s willingness to collaborate. “She has an idea of what she wants to do and no interest in talking to anybody that can offer balance,” Kalban said. “Nithya looks like she’s a friendly person, but of all the people we’ve worked with, she is very much an island.”

Tom Glick, a member of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association and a former Los Angeles city planner, expressed his disappointment as well.

Glick mentioned that during his extensive time in government, constituent service was a fundamental duty of elected officials. “All these council people understood that constituency was important,” he said. Glick and members of neighborhood groups made multiple attempts to schedule meetings on community issues. Eventually, he filed a public records request to access calendars from Raman and her staff to see who was included in meetings.

Glick noted that he never heard back from Raman, although he later received a heavily redacted copy of her chief of staff’s calendar through the public records request.

The California Post reviewed the calendar records obtained through that request.

The documents revealed significant redactions and limited details about meetings, providing little insight into outreach or engagement by Raman’s office. “She is a council member who only wants to deal with people who support her,” Glick said.

This criticism appears to be resonating within City Hall as well. Recently, Raman faced a political challenge when some Democratic Socialist-aligned council colleagues withdrew their support for her mayoral bid and instead backed Mayor Karen Bass. The California Post reached out to Raman’s campaign and council office for comment.