AIA|LA Presents….Q&A Roundtable with Mayoral Candidate Nithya Raman

AIA|LA Presents….

Q&A Roundtable with Mayoral Candidate Nithya Raman

The next Mayor of Los Angeles will inherit a city at a crossroads — facing a housing crisis, a broken permitting system, fiscal pressures, and an urgent need for climate-resilient design leadership. Your voice as an architect and design professional matters in this election.  That’s why AIA|LA is bringing the candidates directly to you.

As part of our ongoing civic engagement initiative, AIA|LA is working to host candid Q&A roundtables with each of the top five leading mayoral candidates. We are pleased to confirm that Council Member Nithya Raman will be our first guest. Outreach to the remaining candidates is actively underway, and we look forward to announcing additional dates as confirmations are received.

*Please note: AIA|LA has not made an official mayoral endorsement. These sessions are nonpartisan forums designed to inform our membership and advance the policy priorities that matter most to our profession and our city.*

What We’ll Be Talking About

This isn’t a campaign event — it’s a professional conversation. AIA|LA’s recent advocacy work has identified a clear set of policy challenges where mayoral leadership will be decisive. Come ready to ask questions and engage directly on topics including:

Development Services & Permitting Reform
LA’s permitting system remains one of the most significant barriers to housing production and project viability. We’ll ask: What concrete steps will the next Mayor take to modernize the process — from online permitting to unified case management — and hold the Department of Building and Safety and Planning Department accountable for performance?

City Budget Priorities
Years of underfunding have hollowed out the very departments architects depend on. We’ll explore: How will the next Mayor prioritize restoring and expanding resources for planning and development services, even amid fiscal constraints?

Charter Reform & Governance
Structural reform may be the key to unlocking a more functional, design-forward city. We’ll discuss: Does the candidate support charter-level changes that reduce bureaucratic redundancy and give planning and design departments greater independence and authority?

Chief Design Officer
AIA|LA has long championed the creation of a Chief Design Officer for the City of Los Angeles. We’ll ask: Do they support this role — and how would they use design leadership to elevate public spaces, civic architecture, and infrastructure quality citywide?

Housing, Density & Missing Middle
Architects are essential partners in solving LA’s housing crisis. We’ll explore the candidate’s vision for transit-oriented development, design-forward density, and the role of the profession in delivering more — and better — housing.

Climate Resilience & Sustainability
From green building standards to climate adaptation in the built environment, we’ll ask: How will their administration embed sustainability into city planning, permitting incentives, and public infrastructure investment?

Public Space & Civic Design Excellence
Parks, libraries, streetscapes, civic buildings — how does the candidate envision LA’s public realm, and what standards will they set for design quality in publicly funded projects?

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This is your opportunity to hear directly from a leading candidate, ask hard questions, and make your expertise heard at the highest level of city governance.

We look forward to seeing you on May 18th — and to many more conversations with the candidates ahead.

Nithya Raman – Councilmember, District #4, City of Los Angeles & LA Mayoral Candidate

Nithya Raman is an urban planner, a graduate of Harvard and MIT, a working mother, an immigrant to America, and a member of the Los Angeles City Council representing District 4.

After serving several years as the Co-Chair of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council Homelessness Committee, as well as co-founding the SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition, Nithya felt there was a gap between city services and the expanding homelessness crisis – a gap she was equipped to fill.

She ran for City Council in 2020 and won a historic victory, becoming the first Asian-American woman and the first South Asian ever to serve on the City Council. In March 2024, she was decisively elected to a second term.

Since taking office, Councilmember Raman has prioritized delivering compassionate and effective services for people experiencing homelessness, building more affordable housing, and moving with greater urgency to meet our city’s climate goals.

She has built a dedicated team that takes a proactive approach to constituent services, ensuring her office both responds to incoming requests and goes out in the field to meet people where they are, informing them about renter protections, neighborhood upgrades, community initiatives, fire safety, and more.

Councilmember Raman serves as Chair of the Housing and Homelessness Committee, Vice Chair of the Rules, Elections, and Intergovernmental Relations Committee, and member of the Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee, Energy and Environment Committee, and the newly formed Ad Hoc Committee on Unarmed Crisis Prevention, Intervention, and Community Services.

Councilmember Raman also represents Los Angeles on the Governing Board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District and serves on the Board of the Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency (LACAHSA). In 2024, she was nominated by Mayor Karen Bass to serve as Vice Chair on the LA County Executive Committee for Regional Homeless Alignment.

Nithya lives in Silver Lake with her husband, Vali Chandrasekaran, and her young twins, Karna and Kaveri.

To read more about Mayoral Candidate Nithya Raman, PLEASE CLICK HERE.