Los Angeles mayoral candidate Nithya Raman empathized with Spencer Pratt voters Thursday, saying she plans to “do better for them” if elected in November.
“I want to speak directly to them, and to say that I share your frustration with City Hall, and I will work with every molecule of my being to ensure that this city is working for you,” Raman promised onstage at Bloomberg Screentime.
The L.A. councilmember also pledged to establish a film office and attempt to reverse declining production days if elected mayor, beating out her competitor incumbent Mayor Karen Bass.
“We have under this mayor’s leadership, we have moved in the wrong direction and and away from actually delivering the kinds of services that we were able to deliver just a few years ago because of fiscal mismanagement,” she added. “To those Pratt voters, I just want to say to you, I will do better for you.”
Raman also stated that she would support an uncapped tax credit program that is in place in other states. She reiterated that she would create a film office on Day 1, putting experienced entertainment professionals in charge. She did not name people directly that she would place in her film office.
“These are conditions that need to change in order for Los Angeles to be more attractive and straightforward to shoot in for larger productions and especially for medium and small size productions,” she said.
“As mayor, I would ensure that we had a film office in the mayor’s office that was liaising with other jurisdictions that was making it as simple to shoot here as possible, as low cost to shoot here as possible, and that work would be established almost immediately.”
Raman clarified that the L.A. mayor does not have as much power as other cities like Zohran Mamdani in New York City, but she pledged to use “every bit of power” possible to make actionable change in the city.
On-locations shoot days in Los Angeles have fallen from about 40,000 before COVID to below 20,000 days. Raman said that reversing that decline would be the most important metric she could take care of.
The moderator pressed that getting production days back to pre-pandemic levels would be particularly challenging because less films and television shows are being produced overall.
“I think you have to dream big. You have to be ambitious. You have to set those goals,” Raman said. “That’s how people organize themselves in bureaucracies: is to meet goals … Let’s increase production days year on year over the next four years. And if I’m mayor, I’ll be committed to that.”
