During his years as a community organizer in South Los Angeles, Los Angeles City Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson saw the devastation caused by the crack epidemic and the economic fallout that followed the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
Working in South Los Angeles, where he grew up, inspired him to become a politician. There he also met another progressive activist, Karen Bass.
Now Harris-Dawson, 54, will lead the City Council as its next speaker, with Bass, a close ally, as mayor.
Harris-Dawson’s two decades at the nonprofit Community Coalition, which Bass co-founded, will shape her agenda. Homelessness, which disproportionately affects Black and Latino populations, and housing affordability will be her top issues, she said Friday at her first council meeting as president.
“When you have a situation where tens of thousands of people are living on our streets, it literally compromises the public safety of everyone,” he said, as family members looked on.
“First of all, people living on the streets are exposed to all kinds of unspeakable victimization,” he added. “There are other dangers that arise as a result of this disorder: fires, etc.”
First elected to the council in 2015, Harris-Dawson has pushed for more housing in her district and to stop sex trafficking on Figueroa Street.
Represents a district in South Los Angeles that encompasses all or part of the neighborhoods of West Adams, View Heights, Hyde Park, Van Ness, Baldwin Hills, and Adams-Normandie.
Dermot Givens, a political consultant who has watched Harris-Dawson’s career, described him as a relationship builder. The council member won enough votes to become speaker without a public battle with any colleagues, Givens said.
“He's a very likeable person and will continue to build consensus as chairman,” Givens said.
In May, the council voted 14-0 to have Harris-Dawson replace Councilman Paul Krekorian, who had served since October 2022, after the audio leak scandal that led to the resignation of Council President Nury Martinez. Krekorian will leave the council in a few months due to term limits.
As council president, Harris-Dawson must manage relationships with some colleagues whom she has publicly criticized.
Harris-Dawson, who is black, was among those urging Councilman Kevin de León, who participated in the leaked conversation that included racist and derogatory comments, to resign.
He told The Times that he has largely reestablished his relationship with De Leon, who supported his bid for council president along with the rest of the council.
“Some things left a mark,” Harris-Dawson said this week of comments made during the secretly recorded conversation, which included insulting remarks about Black people and others. “Those marks are still there, but I think we’ve gotten to the point where we can actually work on behalf of the people of the city of Los Angeles.”
At Friday's meeting, Harris-Dawson's colleagues, including De Leon, offered their congratulations. Some praised the efforts the new council president has made to work with them behind the scenes.
Councilman John Lee said he felt “lonely” after joining the council in 2019, because he is considered the only conservative on the Democratic-majority council. Harris-Dawson reached out and the two are now friends, Lee said.
“You don’t have to focus on the things that we necessarily disagree on,” Lee told Harris-Dawson. “You have to focus on the things that we do agree on.”
Harris-Dawson grew up in South Los Angeles until gang violence prompted his family to move to the foothill communities of Altadena and Arcadia. He would visit his grandfather in Baldwin Hills on weekends.
He continued studying political science and mathematics at Morehouse College.
At Community Coalition, she worked on initiatives related to education and employment.
“They’re focused on some of the same issues,” Jaime Regalado, professor emeritus of political science at Cal State Los Angeles, said of Harris-Dawson and Bass. “The political concerns that the mayor has are very similar to Marqueece’s.”
As chair, Harris-Dawson can choose which council members will serve on committees dealing with budgets, public safety, homelessness and other key issues. She will also schedule the issues for a vote.
In an interview, he said he would form a new committee focused on “unarmed response” that will look at how police officers handle traffic stops, among other issues.
The council is already studying the cost and feasibility of creating unarmed civilian teams to respond to certain traffic problems, ending some traffic stops for minor infractions and limiting traffic fines in poorer neighborhoods.
Advocates cite racial disparities in Los Angeles Police Department stops and searches in South Los Angeles, arguing that the crime-fighting strategy has alienated generations of Black and Brown Angelenos.
Harris-Dawson has spoken about being stopped by police while driving, even after joining the City Council, and has described his fear of seeing an armed police officer approach his car.
Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.
