The Los Angeles City Council welcomed its two new members last month. Adrin Nazarian is the new councilmember for 2nd District and Ysabel Jurado now represents the 14th District, which includes downtown LA, Boyle Heights, El Sereno, and northeast LA. The political outsider unseated incumbent Kevin de León in November’s election.

On this week’s “In Focus SoCal,” host Tanya McRae sits down with Jurado to discuss her priorities in office and to learn more about her background. 

Jurado shared about her drive to study law and to go into public service.

“It came from my family. I think they’ve always been committed to public service. My dad was always a very giving person and so was my mom,” Jurado said. Her parents immigrated to the United States from the Philippines. “And so it was always this ethos of service.”

The councilmember also discussed her top agenda items for 2025, including fixing street lights in her district that are out.

“Most of it is because of lack of maintenance and lack of funding,” Jurado said. “In downtown, solar is not an option, but we can leverage solar in other parts of the district, like the northeast, where it’s more suburban.”

Jurado said that another top priority is to finish projects in her district that have been ongoing, including tackling issues surrounding Skid Row.

“One of the things is that we haven’t been able to convene all of the elected officials and the government agencies in a cohesive way.”

Send us your thoughts to InFocusSoCal@charter.com and watch at 11 a.m. on Saturdays and 9 a.m. on Sundays.