In the News
Like every tourist in a foreign country finds themselves at some point, Eyvin Hernandez was a little lost. The public defender from Los Angeles was traveling in the border town of Cucuta, Colombia, with a friend when they realized they needed directions. They were pointed to a dirt road that led to an unmarked bridge.
Partnership for Growth Los Angeles is led by the Rev. Eddie Anderson (CEO) and Rabbi Joel Simonds (president). The pair announced the Freedom Farms initiative at a press conference attended by Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove, Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas and other community leaders.
In his Crenshaw neighborhood, Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles) passes liquor store after liquor store, while fresh fruit and produce are hard to find.
The district he represents was still known as the 54th Assembly District when his predecessor, Sydney Kamlager-Dove, hatched a dream to build 54 urban farms in the area.
“I thought she was joking,” said Bryan, whose district is now the 55th. But Kamlager-Dove’s vision may yet become a reality.
Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove: “Today is a dark day for equality and democracy in our nation. This ruling to end affirmative action sets the clock back on civil rights, overturning decades of precedent and establishing a colorblind standard in our justice system that will be detrimental to cases on race and equality in the future. The Court today chose wrong when they ruled to ignore race in a nation that has yet to accept its history rooted in racism.
U.S. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles), who sponsored AB 1950 when she was a member of the California Assembly, said she was pleased with the court’s decision, which she said will “have a huge impact” and help to address inequalities in the criminal justice system.
Democratic Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove of California also spoke out against tough restrictions being placed on women’s right to choose.
“Given the likelihood that so many women, Black women, are likely to be raped, or to have a complicated pregnancy, or need an abortion in order to stay alive, it seems terribly unjust that that same woman can now be criminalized,” she said.
Last year, then-state Sen. Sydney Kamlager, a Democrat who is now U.S representative for California’s 37th Congressional District in Los Angeles, sought to increase from $200 to $1,300 the amount provided to formerly incarcerated persons upon their release from state prison. But Gov. Gavin Newsom rejected the bill (SB-1304), citing budget constraints.
On Friday June 9, Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove in collaboration with U.S Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator Martha Guzman hosted an environmental funding roundtable to discuss issues surrounding climate change and environmental justice at the Beehive in Los Angeles.
“The care that is present in our prison systems is really focused on men and not women,” said Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif., “and the goal is to re-center the kind of care and reforms that we can offer and develop in a way that also recognizes gender plays a role.”
When it comes to finding an affordable apartment, you may have more in common with your local congressional representative than you think.
“The rent really continues to be too damn high,” said Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif., a freshman lawmaker who represents Los Angeles. “I'm a renter, and many of the freshman class are renting and we're struggling to find places that we could afford right here in Washington, D.C., so that we have a place to stay and lay our head and then get up and go to work.