Meet Your Mayor: How Well Do You Align With LA Mayoral Candidate Craig Greiwe

Craig Greiwe is a business executive who previously served as the chief strategy officer at Rogers & Cowan PMK, where he finds complex solutions to impossible business problems. He seeks to bring the business principles to fixing issues in L.A.

Website: craigformayor.com

Positions

LAist sent a multiple-choice survey to every mayoral candidate on the ballot for the June 7 primary, starting in April. LAist sent out more than 30 questions to every mayoral candidate who was actively campaigning for the June 7 primary. Categorizing their responses was a challenge, and there was a lot of agreement and overlap among the candidates. We ultimately focused on 12 questions that we think help to distinguish their positions on key issues. You can review Greiwe’s positions below. And you can read his full, unedited responses to the questionnaire here.

Housing and Homelessness

View topic guide

L.A.’s “anti-camping law” (Municipal Code 41.18) bans people who are unhoused from camping on public property close to locations such as schools, parks, libraries, and underpasses. Should it be kept as is, repealed, or changed?

Keep it as is

Keep it, but expand support for those experiencing homelessness

Change the law, or change how it's implemented

Repeal it

41.18 is a poorly-written partial band-aid with no real solution. We cannot have encampments, but we must have places for people to go. We must regulate and enforce public space, but we must have places for people to go and services they are required to receive.
I believe the primary cause of most homelessness in Los Angeles is…

A history of racial inequity in housing and wealth

Economic hardship

It’s not that simple. It's a complex problem that includes issues like housing costs, addiction and mental illness, racial and social inequity, and a crumbling social safety net

L.A. is no different from hundreds of American cities. There are lots of contributing factors from mental health to addiction to rising costs of housing, but the #1 immediate source is "one bad day," one mistake that tips someone into homelessness.
Do you agree with Angelenos who say that the large number of people living outside makes the streets less safe?

Yes, the homelessness crisis makes everyone less safe

Yes, but most significantly for the people living on the streets

It's debatable

No

Yes. It's unsafe on every level. It's unsanitary, it provides hiding places for criminals, it fosters drug use, and it incentivizes bad behavior for communities.
Who should build housing for the unhoused community: the city or private developers?

The city. The public/private partnership has resulted in our tax dollars being transferred to the private sector

Private developers

Both. We need an all-hands-on-deck approach with support from public and private partners

We need to focus on temporary stabilization, not permanent housing

Housing for the homeless should be a temporary stabilization method. We need to stop thinking we have to house the homeless forever. Some will need permanent support, but most do not. We just need to get most people back on their feet.
I believe the biggest barrier to building more affordable housing is…

Red tape, funding challenges or bureaucratic hurdles

NIMBYism ("Not In My Back Yard")

Restrictive zoning, and having no requirement that new developments include affordable units

The growing number of private equity firms involved in the process has made securing financing for developers more difficult

Our arcane regulations, insane bureaucracy, and city leaders make it impossible to build any housing, including affordable housing.

Policing

View topic guide

Should the Los Angeles Police Department remain at its current size of 9,500 sworn officers, should it be downsized, or should it increase?

Increase to full authorized force (around 9,700)

Increase to 10,000 or more

Downsize

Keep the same

I believe that budgeting and adding new officers is a false choice... We need to start by focusing officers on police work, instead of asking them to show up to everything, and remove them from the homelessness response. Only then can we see how many officers we need.
The current LAPD budget of $1.76 billion represents almost 16% of the overall city budget. Should LAPD funding stay the same, increase or decrease?

Increase

Decrease

Stay the same

We cannot defund the police, but no one knows how much funding they need. We need to put LAPD to work doing just police work, and see how much that costs. There are definitely cost savings we need to put in place that can bring the budget down, but we also need to fully fund the LAPD's work to keep our communities safe.
Is it possible to reduce crime in the city without increasing the LAPD budget?

Yes

No

Yes. We need officers to live in the communities they serve, we need to implement the 2015 Community Oriented Policing Report, we need to fully fund a non-violent community engagement force focused on mental health, addiction, and other issues. We need to ensure that people who commit real crimes serve their time, and we need to focus on anti-recidivism efforts so those people don't commit crimes again.
Media investigations have found that LAPD officers have disproportionately stopped Black drivers, and were much more likely to search Black and Latino drivers. Do you believe racial profiling is a problem?

Yes

No

The Obama Department of Justice put together a bipartisan 2015 Community Oriented Policing Solutions roadmap that showed how to bring crime down, build trust with communities, and bring more fairness to policing while eliminating bias — we should implement that plan wholesale.
District Attorney George Gascón came to office on a progressive agenda that includes fewer prosecutions for low-level crimes. What statement best reflects your opinion of his agenda?

Broadly aligns with my beliefs

I disagree with some of his agenda

I think he should be recalled from office

I was the first candidate to call for his removal, as he is not fulfilling his constitutional duties. I believe criminal justice reform is needed, but his work is extreme and makes Angelenos more unsafe while creating a divisive environment.

Climate Change

View topic guide

California is in a chronic drought. Which of the following strategies most closely reflects what you think should be done at the city level to improve individual water conservation?

Increase DWP rates

Enforce rationing

Encourage voluntary conservation, but be willing to enforce rationing

Individual water use is not the right intervention point

Promote conservation, but also secure our local water supply by modernizing our infrastructure, recycling water, capturing rain and stormwater, and using native or drought-tolerant plants

We need to focus on increasing supply, not asking people to cut back, when 80%+ of water goes to Agriculture, not individuals.
Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Los Angeles. Where do you see the biggest opportunity to lower those emissions?

Convert all city transportation to electric or hydrogen

Expand public transit

Help Angelenos live closer to their work to reduce transportation within the city

Make our streets safer for pedestrians, expand our electric vehicle network, and electrify our bus fleet

Building a more affordable city where people can live near where they work takes more cars off the road than any other initiative.

Craig Greiwe

Positions

Housing and Homelessness

L.A.’s “anti-camping law” (Municipal Code 41.18) bans people who are unhoused from camping on public property close to locations such as schools, parks, libraries, and underpasses. Should it be kept as is, repealed, or changed?

I believe the primary cause of most homelessness in Los Angeles is…

Do you agree with Angelenos who say that the large number of people living outside makes the streets less safe?

Who should build housing for the unhoused community: the city or private developers?

I believe the biggest barrier to building more affordable housing is…

Policing

Should the Los Angeles Police Department remain at its current size of 9,500 sworn officers, should it be downsized, or should it increase?

The current LAPD budget of $1.76 billion represents almost 16% of the overall city budget. Should LAPD funding stay the same, increase or decrease?

Is it possible to reduce crime in the city without increasing the LAPD budget?

Media investigations have found that LAPD officers have disproportionately stopped Black drivers, and were much more likely to search Black and Latino drivers. Do you believe racial profiling is a problem?

District Attorney George Gascón came to office on a progressive agenda that includes fewer prosecutions for low-level crimes. What statement best reflects your opinion of his agenda?

Climate Change

California is in a chronic drought. Which of the following strategies most closely reflects what you think should be done at the city level to improve individual water conservation?

Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Los Angeles. Where do you see the biggest opportunity to lower those emissions?

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