Tunua Thrash-Ntuk is running as the policy candidate.

“I’m leading the discussion on policy conversation,” she said.

She earned a master’s degree in urban planning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and often gets into the weeds of policy ideas she wants to bring to the council. In the realm of housing, she’d like to explore a program that would allow tenants to purchase their unit at market rate if the property owner decides to sell. She’d also like to see more infill development of accessory dwelling units, which would create more housing without necessarily disrupting neighborhood character.

In regards to economic development, she favors directing sales tax revenue to the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement District to continue the revitalization of that area.

She’d also like to spur more development of commercial corridors in the more working-class parts of the district with careful thought to bring in businesses that will still meet the needs of the community and not trigger gentrification. While at MIT, Thrash-Ntuk wrote her thesis on commercial gentrification, inspired by seeing new higher-end businesses come into her neighborhood and threaten the livability for lower-income residents. 

“You must have community planning (and ownership),” she said. Cities need to attract a range of new businesses and ask, “What are the price points? And how do those price points correspond to truly where the people are today that are in those neighborhoods?”

She’s the executive director of Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Los Angeles, a branch of the nationwide community development non-profit organization. They work as an intermediary between the private, nonprofit, and public sectors to put together projects that tackle issues like housing affordability and economic development. In her time with the organization, she’s been charged with both programming and financing projects.

In Long Beach, the nonprofit partnered with the city and Project Equity, a San Francisco-based consulting firm, to pilot a program that facilitates the transfer of ownership from retiring small business owners to their employees. They also partnered with the nonprofit Kiva to provide micro-loans for purposes like funding the renovation of a property owned by the Boys and Girls Club and also helping a formerly incarcerated photographer start his business. 

Thrash-Ntuk co-chaired the city’s Everyone Home Policy Task Force, an initiative sponsored by Councilmember Rex Richardson to increase economic inclusion in the city. The task force made several policy recommendations, including establishing a Community Development Corporation for which the city allocated $125,000 last September. She’s a noted ally of Richardson’s and recently spoke in favor of a housing bond he sponsored that would have funded housing and homeless initiatives through a parcel tax. Richardson in turn has endorsed her city council campaign.

In addition to her own involvement in city politics, the 44-year-old candidate is married to Long Beach Community College Trustee Uduak-Joe Ntuk.

She’s vigilant about staying affirmative on her messaging, unwilling to critique the incumbent by name, and declining to assess his tenure when asked. 

The incumbent Councilmember Al Austin has made some not so veiled criticisms about the flow of out-of-town money being infused into Thrash-Ntuk’s campaign coffers. The 44-year-old candidate acknowledged that 70% of contributions to her campaign came from outside of Long Beach during a recent forum, but said most of the donors are people she knows, including friends and colleagues. 

Thrash-Ntuk says her upbringing informed her career in public policy. She grew up in South Los Angeles and remembers being both “invisibly homeless” and “nutrition insecure.” 

She lost her father to gun violence when she was very young and was raised by a single mother on the modest income of a special education teacher’s aide and government assistance. After staying with different relatives, they eventually moved in with her grandparents. 

A studious child, Thrash-Ntuk was accepted into a magnet school program and soon began bussing to more affluent neighborhoods to attend class. Block by block, she noticed the changes in neighborhoods, and while not equipped with the vocabulary, began realizing the realities of economic opportunity, or lack thereof. 

“I felt like the people in my community deserved exactly what was in other neighborhoods that made them vibrant,” said Thrash-Ntuk. “I wanted to figure out how could I make a career out of it.”

Thrash-Ntuk has received a large amount of financial and institutional support from labor unions and the Democratic Party. The Los Angeles County party, as well as the Long Beach Democrat Club, have endorsed her. She’s also received support from Our Revolution, Long Beach, a grassroots progressive organization. Along with Richardson, councilmembers Roberto Uranga and Jeannine Pearce have endorsed her. Former councilmember and State Senator Lena Gonzalez has also backed Thrash-Ntuk. 

Her campaign has also received a large amount of support from the Service Employees International Union and Unite Here, who seem eager to unseat Austin, in the form of an independent expenditures.

The unions represent workers in the hospitality industry and their opposition to Austin likely stems from his 2017 vote against an ordinance that would have placed workload restrictions on hospitality workers and also mandated access to panic buttons used to protect against harassment and assault. Supporters argued this was a vital protection for workers undervalued in a lucrative and growing industry that receives tax breaks from the city. Opponents of the ordinance said it was an attempt by labor unions to coerce hoteliers into unionizing (unionized hotels and hotels with less than 100 rooms were exempt from the law).

Long Beach voters eventually passed the ordinance in the form Measure WW in 2018. Thrash-Ntuk was a spokesperson for the campaign. 

Combined independent expenditures from SEIU, Unite Here, and the United Food & Commercial Workers totaled $125,000 between Jan. 1 and Feb. 15.

Thrash-Ntuk has denied being recruited by these unions to get rid of Austin, but she understands why they’d want her to take over the seat. 

“They must be inspired by the things that I’m talking about, the kind of experience and history that I’ve had, and see an alignment with (their) members,” she said.

Questions

Why are you running for office?

I believe it’s time for us to have a change here in Uptown. We need some fresh ideas and new leadership. I’m someone who has the lived experience of understanding what it means to have parents who are able to access work that was dignified and provided them with a living wage, that then allowed us to eventually be able to sustain housing for ourselves. And I believe right now what is needed in our district is somebody who is interested in a two-way conversation with the community, engaging people in neighborhood associations, and coffees and conversation. That’s not happening right now.

I’m running as a well-prepared professional with many decades of experience and want to make sure that we’ve got a strong local economy of investing in businesses so that we have good jobs. I’m thinking about how do we respond with a strong comprehensive housing program so that we are not forced by the state to do something that maybe we’re not ready to do. (We should instead) have a real comprehensive program, fighting to ensure that we have the resources to end homelessness and to help people from falling into that. And finally, because I think that this community deserves a leader that is excited and passionate about hearing from people.

How would you assess Councilmember Al Austin’s tenure? What aspects do you think he did well on and what would you have done differently?

I don’t know if I have an answer for this question.

Austin has proposed exploring a vacancy tax to combat the amount of commercial vacancies in the district. Do you agree with this solution and/or do you have other ideas that could address the issue?

So to me, that’s a last resort option. And this should be reserved in circumstances where all other revitalization efforts have failed. And landowners and business owners are warned that this could be coming. Just deciding to put one out I think can cause an antagonistic relationship with some of the landowners in the area. So as far as what I think is missing, before we get to that point, is actually having bold leadership and proposing some ways to activate with maybe some creative placemaking in parts of the district where there is vacancy. Part of it is engaging businesses that are in other parts of the district and seeing if we can invite them to come out and be part of the community. Part of it is maybe even doing some other festivals and really just trying to be the home and the place for things that don’t have a home right now, so that we can activate those spaces. 

One of the things that I’ve done for the City of Long Beach (is to) help it become a Kiva city. This is allowing the city to be able to help small businesses by providing them with no-cost loans, so no fee and no closing costs, very small micro-loans. One of the things that some of those businesses need is a pop-up space. And so again, having the vision around what do businesses need and what do landowners need. They need each other, and being able to matchmake. Then after all of that, I might be willing to walk into council and say, “We’ve tried this program, these were an option, this was an option, this many landowners took advantage of it, we had this as an option, this many took advantage of it.” And then for those that are still not willing to come to the table, okay. But right now, I think we’re missing the leadership and the vision around what else could be done.

So more carrots than sticks?

Let’s offer something to them first.

What are other solutions for blight?

What I do every day as far as commercial revitalization. I don’t have the ability to tax building owners and landowners for activating space, but instead, I have to focus on proactive activities of bringing land and business owners together, community members together. Identify what are some of the barriers, identifying what are the needs. And then from the council office, I could be actively recruiting businesses for those spaces based on the dynamics of what the community says it needs and what a landowner says that they’re looking for. I talked a bit about this being focused on parts of the district that have a lot of vacancy. This is where we need to be doing creative placemaking, creating pop-up opportunities for small businesses, and creating cultural experiences, to bring people into the space.

If you can get a tax, that can be helpful. But for the most part, my years of experience in doing neighborhood revitalization have never included that kind of authority. So I’ve never focused on that as a way to activate space, but instead being proactive around a vision for what can be in those spaces, and then aggressively pursuing those options.

The city’s own research shows that the climate crisis will pose a significant threat to Long Beach in the coming decades, whether it be by rising sea level on the coast or by heat islands inland. If elected, what would you do from behind the dais to address this issue?

This is so critical. Those are some of the things that are adding to our climate catastrophe that we see on the horizon. There are other things as well. And for me, living in this neighborhood and not being very far from the 710 Freeway, I’m experiencing personally with my asthmatic son the fact that those pollutants, those small carbon pollutants going into the airways, particulate matter, is impacting the health of young people in this community and really people of all ages. For me, we have got to get our climate adaptation program moving as quickly as possible. We’ve got to continue to put time and resources behind it, not just to get a report done, but to start moving in terms of taking action.

We must electrify the 710 as quickly as we can. We must demand that (the South Coast Air Quality Management District) help us monitor what’s happening at the oil fields and the refineries that are also contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. If we’re going to be the port, the source of goods for this entire country, to the tune of 40% or more, then we have to make sure that we are not bearing the brunt of the negative impacts of health. And so, really looking at how we electrify even the big ships that are out in the seaways idling. So this is definitely something that’s personal to me and to my home.

I’m a Girl Scout Leader. I’m constantly like, ‘There could be a patch for that.” And I’d love to see the Girl Scouts get involved also in helping us with tree canopy work here in the city.

In 2015, 13.3 million barrels of crude oil were extracted in Long Beach. This oil is in the top fifth in regards to carbon intensity throughout its life-cycle compared to other oils around the world, meaning from extraction to burning, it is quite dirty, according to the city’s draft Climate Action and Adaptation Plan. Do you believe fossil fuel extraction should be phased out in the city, and if so, how soon?

So Long Beach is the only city in the country to have its own oil islands and to rely on oil revenue in a very significant way. But that also means that we have an opportunity to lead the way in trying to figure out how we phase out the reliance on this as a source (of revenue).

What we know is that oil and its extraction process can have detrimental impacts on our environment. There are things that we can do as a city, but we also know that in addition to the extraction process, leading to fuel for our cars, it also leads to the production of other products, many of which people probably don’t even realize is in their home and their couches and their dining room table and other things like that. But certainly, as a city, I think that we’ve got to get smart about trying to figure that out.

The state is starting to do that. And if we don’t do that, what will happen as the industry begins itself to make a transition, how will we as a city make a transition if so much of our revenue comes from those oil islands? So I’m all for as a city trying to figure out how do we rely less and less on that? How do we focus on what the transition might be and how we as a city can take advantage of that, having had the history with the oil islands.

Austin recently voted against exploring the possibility of placing a bond measure on the November ballot that would have raised nearly $300 million for homelessness and affordable housing initiatives. Do you agree or disagree with his decision and why?

Homelessness is complicated. The reason why we don’t have affordable housing—it’s not just Long Beach’s fault, it’s not just Los Angeles County’s issue—it’s a statewide issue, it’s a national issue. And in some cases, you’ll look and realize it’s an international issue. I am not of the “politics of no.” I am interested in: “Here are some ideas. Let’s see where they go.”

I think about being a mom and having kids and trying to figure out, “How am I going to put together a dinner that everybody is going to eat and like.” Even if I start out with, “Here’s what I’m thinking,” by the end, it’s something different that I had not necessarily thought of but works for everybody.

I think that just going ahead and saying no to exploring this (housing bond) as a possibility, when you could see the momentum and the number of people in the city, two-thirds of likely voters at least saying, “I’ll look at it, I’ll give it some consideration.” And then not only just saying no but saying, “No, in my opinion” to any kind of progress. The measure that the council voted on was “let’s research state and federal programs” when we know the federal government continues to cut home funds and (Community Development Block Grant) funds so you don’t have any resources, when we know the state has cut redevelopment authorities where you don’t have your affordable housing set aside. 

And the other thing, because it was baffling to me, but I can imagine people who don’t do this every day, don’t realize but because I do this every day I know all the state programs, and there’s nothing new. And many of the state programs require a local match. So to say, ‘I’m going to study what else is out there” is lacking vision, lacking bold leadership and the courage to say, “How about this? What about that?” 

There’s nobody sitting on that council right now that is a champion for any kind of housing, let alone affordable housing. And, you know, if I were there, at least we’d be looking at what are some ideas. I’m not saying everything I have will work, but we’ve got to put some ideas out there.

What are other funding sources for affordable housing?

Nearly all of the sources are looking at what the local match is. So explaining how affordable housing right now gets built, we basically have one tool. It’s called the low-income housing tax credit. The federal government provides each state, based on population, a certain number of tax credit allocations. The state then decides what its plan is for distributing those to developers directly. The state has a finite number of those. When the state distributes those it says, “We’ll give you so much, and then you have to fill that gap.”

There’s some county funds that local developers can go after. There are some other state funds that they can go after. I talked about the Federal Home Loan Bank, there’s a small set of funds that they could go after. And you could see, as I’m itemizing them out, you start to look at 6, 7, 9 more sources in order to make a project work. So no, there probably isn’t anything any experienced developer isn’t drawing upon. It’s just that only so many projects are going to get done this year and next year because there’s only $3 million left or there’s only $2 million available this year. So maybe you only get one project this year. Maybe you get two projects. You know, that year you got $3 million maybe. But more than likely you’re getting one project done. 

One program some housing advocates have called for to combat the housing crisis is the creation of a public rental housing registry to collect data on rent levels and evictions. AB 724 would have created such a program on the state level, but it failed to reach a full assembly vote this past year. The author, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, said that it would have helped “decision makers better gauge displacement risks and potentially identify landlords who engage in illegal evictions.” Santa Cruz is currently debating the creation of such a registry. What are your thoughts on this type of program and would you be open to supporting a rental housing registry in Long Beach?

So this certainly could be part of a comprehensive strategy. It’s probably not the first thing that I want to do. I mean, when you know people who are having a hard time staying at homes and managing in their homes, you’re trying to figure out an immediate solution. One of the things that I do talk a lot about is the importance of how we as public servants use data to really understand what’s happening. We know now that the new currency in the market is data. Every major company is interested in data and we should be interested in data too, as a city. I think that there are probably some trends that we would be able to spot if we had a better sense of what’s happening. So to the extent that this would be part of a larger comprehensive strategy, then I might be interested in it. I’m always interested in data that could help us do more good.

Long Beach—and the state—is in the housing crisis. Vacancies are at 3.8% and rents have risen 28% citywide in the past decade with neighborhoods like Bixby Knolls seeing some of the sharpest increases. One solution being considered by the city is inclusionary zoning. The city study on inclusionary zoning published last year, says that inclusionary zoning will only be able to meet “a small portion” of the affordable housing needs of the city. What are your thoughts on inclusionary zoning?

So, first of all, I think that inclusionary zoning is part of a comprehensive strategy. And we have moved entirely too slow. And if I were on council, I’d be pushing to make sure that we move past this as quickly as possible. But we have already experienced a boom in construction of housing, maybe not in the Eighth District, but certainly within other parts of the city that are interested in density and have set cut-outs for that kind of density. And we needed to be in position to ensure that those new units, at least some of them, were made affordable.

So yes, I believe in inclusionary housing as one of the tools within the toolkit around housing. Critical is making sure that as we check off that these units are inclusionary, we’ve got to make sure we have the enforcement mechanisms in place to ensure that the people who are living in those units are, in fact, income-qualified. And so to me, that is part of the success.

In some cases, if it doesn’t work out, and the developer and the city agree that maybe the inclusive units will not be in that particular development, there (needs) be considerable price that is paid (as an in-lieu fee) so that we are able to replace those units quickly within the city somewhere else.

What are other solutions you’d propose for creating affordable housing?

My comprehensive strategy includes inclusionary housing. I also want to explore looking at opportunities to give tenants the option to be able to purchase their units or apartment buildings. Based on last year’s analysis by the city, we know that investors are coming in and buying B- and C-class apartment buildings in our city at an alarming rate, which is what led to the reactionary conversation to focus on how do we provide additional tenant protections in the form of tenant relocation assistance and some tenant protections to keep people from being evicted for really no cause?

But part of what we need to look at is how we can intervene from a market standpoint, and if an owner is interested in selling, there is maybe an opportunity to use that time period to get the owner certainly a fair market value for what they’d like to sell their property for. But then to also be able to have the tenants purchase those properties so that we maintain that naturally occurring, affordable housing into the long term and into the future. So that’s another strategy I’m looking at.

Keep in mind that these kinds of policies are not new in our country. This is very consistent with what we’re seeing in other major cities across the country. And so there are several models and based on my professional work experience, that I’ve looked at, that we know are working and are helping to sustain affordable housing in it. In addition to that, there’s also you know, we need to be looking at community land trusts as well. So all throughout the state, and this is gaining momentum in the city of Irvine, for example, the city and has helped to start a community land trust. And when you’re connected with the city, there are lots of different benefits of having a land trust in that way. I’m specifically interested in community land trusts that can help some of our low- and moderate-income residents be able to purchase homes on a community land trust.

We’ve got you know, some vacant properties and other city properties. And as we look at identifying potential resources for affordable housing, being able to purchase land that in perpetuity can serve as an entryway for families, again of low- and moderate-income to be able to access homeownership. It allows us to be able to help them gain some equity and then hopefully move on to other homeownership opportunities within our city. That’s another area that I’m looking at. In addition to that, I am also, and I talked a bit about accessory dwelling units the last time you and I spoke. We’ve already got the ability in our city to have multifamily units, or at least more than one unit on a single family lot state of California also allows for this. And I think we might want to look at getting a little more serious about trying to identify where we can do that kind of infill development. And this may be an alternative, especially if we can identify enough homeowners and land owners who are interested in either garage conversions or adding additional units to their property, and even go so far as to say that if they have one, we want to fast-track that for everybody who wants to do that and help them do that as quickly as they can and hopefully not just to be used for like Airbnb. But then in addition to that, if there were landowners and property owners who were interested in doing that, I’d like to look at what city resources it can make available to help expedite getting that happen. And to the extent that you are accessing city resources to make that conversion, we’d like to make sure a low- and moderate-income family is able to utilize that unit, possibly a family who might be using an income source such as a Section 8 voucher.

Apart from money, there’s a growing consensus among urban planners that exclusionary zoning, that is areas that are only allowed for single-family homes, will need to be upzoned in order to deal with the housing crisis not to mention the climate crisis. Oregon last year eliminated single-family housing zoning statewide. Virginia is considering legalizing duplexes in all residential zones. The Long Beach City Council positioned itself against SB 50, which would override local zoning laws to allow for more mid-rise apartment buildings. Do you think the city stances correct me against state legislation? Following the interview, SB 50 was shelved by the state legislature. The bill’s author, Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) has committed to bringing it back in another form.

So as an urban planner, one of the things that you learn is that the state actually has land use authority. It is the state’s area of authority. I know as a homeowner I would like to think that, “I’m in charge of land use in my neighborhood as a landowner” but I’m not. Every city and every local elected official would like to think that they have the last say on local land use authority. And they should be and they could be, but they’re not. And so we have to be very careful about the fact that the state has the authority, they delegate it to the cities. And if cities are not able to take the steps that are necessary to meet whatever goals that the state thinks that it needs to make, that authority will be taken from cities. I don’t want that to happen, which is why I’m running. But saying blanketly, “Not in my neighborhood, I don’t want that here” is fine. But we have to figure out where. Saying no is not an answer. Saying no is saying yes to state (control) and that we cannot come to some consensus as a local community about our need to house everybody.

I am interested in having a vision for the city that could be a model for the rest of the state of what you can do as a city to overcome. Where is it appropriate to put in higher density housing? Where is it not, (while) still making sure we’re still meeting our goals. But just saying no is not the answer.

Is upzoning part of the solution?

Yes, it’s gotta be. We’re 49th in the country out of 50 states in terms of housing units per capita. So we have to figure out where to put additional units? Where do they go? Do we necessarily need to change the zoning that we have right now? Maybe. Maybe not. But what I would say based on all the things that I’ve just described, there is a way for neighborhoods within Long Beach to increase the number of units but still maintain the character and fabric of the neighborhood in a way that a majority of the residents would like to see.

Does money have too much influence in Long Beach politics?

Money has too much influence in any kind of politics anywhere, not just Long Beach. When I hear money, I’m talking about institutions that can spend tens of thousands of dollars in elections. I’m not talking about people who give less than $400 to a candidate. I don’t feel like that is “money.” That is a hard-working person who believes in another hard-working person and decided to show that by providing them a $50 contribution. That is not money in politics.

I have worked on campaign finance reform. I do not believe that corporations should have the ability to provide unlimited amounts of money. I believe we should have more of a public infrastructure system. I cannot lend myself $50,000. I have children. I have a family. I talked about being a first generation (college graduate), I just don’t have it. Should I not be able to run because I don’t personally have that kind of money? So, money is in politics because individuals who run here in the city can decide to loan themselves infinite amounts of money. Is that okay? I don’t think so. I wish that we had a system that did not have money in politics. Everybody got the same amount of money, and you just figured out how you were going to use it to run and that was that. We don’t live in that America.

Are you in favor of reversing a 2017 rule change that allowed for officeholder accounts to be used to donate to political campaigns?

I don’t see a problem in letting that go. I mean, you can raise money (in) other ways to help other candidates. The officeholder account is only $30,000 a year that you could potentially raise.

If it’s that important to people, then I don’t see why we necessarily have to use our officeholder accounts in that way.

In recent years, the Long Beach Police Department Police Department has drawn criticism for transparency. This publication was first to report on the destruction of police misconduct records that shortly before a state law went into effect that would have made those records public. It was also reported that the department was using a self-deleting messaging app possibly preventing those communications from being discoverable in criminal or civil proceedings. The department has denied that was the intent of using the app but did suspend its use. Does the Long Beach Police Department have a transparency problem?

So I’m very embarrassed by TigerText. You look at the news and you’re like, ‘Not in Long Beach. Really!?’ That was something that I was surprised about. It probably speaks to a history within the department of having some sense of being separate and apart from the community and not seeing enough of their role as being part of integrating within the community. TigerText is definitely a flag that there’s a lack of transparency. Who decided to do that? Why did you have it? Why would it even be necessary for texts to disappear? What does that mean? Especially if we’re teaching our kids, any- and everything you put on Facebook and Instagram will live forever and you won’t be able to get into the school of your choice, get the job that you want because of it.

I think that there’s clearly something going on (if) there would be this sense that there was a need to erase. I don’t know if it’s their own fear about something that I’m not aware of. But in today’s world, we’re talking about making sure that we’re presenting well and we are as truthful as possible.

Are there any reforms that you think could be implemented to increase police transparency?

So there have been a number of state legislative reforms that are going to keep them pretty busy right now. The chief often speaks about it. And I’m interested in seeing how we go about implementing some of those transparency reforms. Seeing what that means in terms of what new data we learn, and what impact that might have in terms of whether we need any additional transparency reforms.

What kind of music do you listen to? 

So it grew up on R&B. Anita Baker is my favorite. And not that I’m her age at all. It’s just that her music was important to providing (a) voice for me at a time and in a place. Just kind of what my life was like as a little girl. But I like to dance so stuff that’s upbeat, too.