L.A. City Council District 10 election voter guide: Heather Hutt vs. Grace Yoo

L.A. City Councilmember Heather Hutt is defending her seat in the Nov. 5 election against Grace Yoo, a longtime City Hall critic.

Hutt was appointed to represent District 10, which stretches from Koreatown and Mid-City to Leimert Park, by the City Council after then-Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas was removed in the wake of federal corruption charges. She has worked for a number of elected officials, including then-Sen. Kamala Harris.

She frequently talks about growing up in District 10 and touts her work with Mayor Karen Bass to get homeless people off the street. In her district, homelessness was down 12.2% compared with last year, according to Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority data analyzed by The Times.

“I love helping people,” said Hutt. “I love the people I live next door to, across the street, or around the corner of the block. I was brought up to love people.”

Yoo, an estate planning attorney, offers a bleak assessment of L.A., which she describes as a city in decline. She vows to bring more resources to District 10.

“The streets have gotten darker,” she said at a debate in August. “The street lamp lights are off, not working, and [the streets] are just filled with more homeless encampments.”

She casts herself as an underdog who sued on behalf of community groups to stop the city from removing shade trees during sidewalk construction. She also successfully blocked the city’s approval of a 27-story mixed-use tower in a residential area of Koreatown.

Who are the candidates?

Hutt, 65, served as a senior advisor to then-Assemblymember Isadore Hall III and as California state director for then-Sen. Harris. She lives in Baldwin Vista and has three sons.

Yoo, 53, lives in Angelus Vista with her elderly parents. She was born in South Korea and moved to the district when she was 3 years old. She previously served as director of communications and community engagement at St. Barnabas Senior Services in L.A. and as executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Assn. in Washington.

Hutt finished ahead of Yoo by 14 percentage points in the March primary against five other candidates.

Where is the district?

The 10th Council District takes in all or part of Mid-City, Little Ethiopia, Leimert Park, La Cienega Heights, Baldwin Hills, Jefferson Park, Koreatown, Country Club Park, South Robertson and Little Bangladesh.

Policing

Hutt and Yoo agree on many policing questions, including how much funding the LAPD should get and that mental health calls should be diverted to outside agencies. However, they do differ on some points.

Yoo said she would encourage the LAPD to aggressively enforce quality of life issues, including littering.

“Why do we even have littering laws if everyone just litters and nothing’s done about it?” said Yoo. “I’m going to be the person who says, ‘Sorry, I need you to clean that up.’ She also wants police to crack down on unlicensed cannabis dispensaries.

Hutt said she largely believes that police should decide which laws to enforce. When it comes to drugs, she wants the LAPD to arrest dealers and gangs and emphasized that street medicine teams should deal with people using drugs. “These people are in crisis,” she said.

Last year, Hutt voted against a high-profile LAPD plan for a dog-like robot to use in police standoffs. Hutt, in an interview, drew a comparison between the robot dog and the LAPD’s “battering ram” — a massive truck that tore down crack houses in the 1980s and prompted an uproar from community groups.

“We need to have a system that will help build a community relationship and help people feel safer, not less safe. There’s no element of connection with a robot dog,” she said.

Yoo supports the robot dog and compared it to an LAPD drone. “I’m not sure why we wouldn’t use new, advanced technology,” she said.

Homelessness

Both Hutt and Yoo support Municipal Code 41.18, a city law that bars homeless encampments within 500 feet of schools and day-care centers.

But Hutt views the law as a way to deter people, rather than a tool to make arrests. She said she’s seen homeless people move into shelters after they’re informed about the law.

“I don’t believe in criminalizing our homeless,” said Hutt, adding that the city needs “tools in our tool belt.”

Hutt called Yoo a “law-and-order person that believes in arresting everyone, and I don’t believe in that.”

Yoo disagreed with that characterization, calling herself a “humanitarian” who supported construction of an affordable housing project directly next to her home.

“It is not humanitarian of us to allow people to stay on the street,” she said.

Yoo wants the city to stop homeless people from blocking sidewalks.

“If you’re a homeowner or an apartment dweller, you are not allowed to hoard, causing hazards to your neighbors,” said Yoo. “People in the streets also should not be allowed to hoard.”

Hutt supports Inside Safe, Bass’ program to move people into hotel and motel rooms, and wants to secure more rooms for the initiative.

Yoo is critical of the cost of affordable housing units under Proposition HHH, the $1.2-billion bond measure approved by voters in 2016. She wants to convert commercial buildings into housing and use prefabricated materials to build affordable units.

Both Hutt and Yoo support Measure A, a half-cent sales tax on the November ballot to fund homelessness programs, including mental health care, affordable housing, rental subsidies and services.

Measure A would repeal the quarter-cent sales tax voters approved in 2017, two years ahead of its mandatory expiration in 2027, and would stay in effect indefinitely.

Transportation

L.A. is in the midst of a transportation boom as the county transit agency builds out major rail lines, and organizers of the 2028 Olympics seek a “car-less” event that will rely on electric buses and other modes of transit.

Hutt serves as chair of the city’s transportation committee, while Yoo is a former transportation commissioner who was appointed by then-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Michael Schneider, founder of Streets for All, described Hutt as a “champion” on transit.

Hutt supported Healthy Streets L.A, which was passed by voters in March and requires the city to build bus and bike lanes. She backed a plan to extend bike lanes farther east on Venice Boulevard.

She also put $100,000 of her council district’s discretionary funds toward a study to add a bike path near Ballona Creek.

Hutt, in an interview, said she wants to focus on making the streets safer for children by ensuring that 15-mph speed limits are enforced by police around schools.

One hot-button issue in District 10: the locked gates that block off the Country Club Park neighborhood from Pico Boulevard. Some transportation advocates and community leaders want the gates opened, angering many homeowners who said they feel safer with the barricade.

Yoo said at a debate earlier this year that she supports “equal access” to Country Club Park’s sidewalks and that the gates’ pedestrian doors should be opened.

However, Yoo told The Times that she has since learned that Country Club Park homeowners paid for the gates. In that case, they should decide the gates’ use, she said. Hutt takes the same position.

Both also oppose a possible route for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s K Line extension that would run underground through Wellington Square and Lafayette Square.

Who is supporting the candidates?

Yoo is endorsed by labor leader Dolores Huerta; Jackie Goldberg, an LAUSD board member and former L.A. City Council member; Laura Chick, former city controller, council member and state inspector general; John Chiang, former state treasurer and controller; and many others.

Hutt’s backers include Bass, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, the pro-development group Abundant Housing, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 11 and 18, and many more.