Eduardo Lara is the son of Mexican immigrants from the state of San Luis Potosí. Growing up, his father was employed washing cars and his stay-at-home mother became a cafeteria worker after learning to speak English by watching PBS, according to his campaign website.

“I saw how that hard work ethic translated into opportunity, not just for me, but for my siblings and for the larger community,” he said during a recent candidate forum.

The 41-year-old candidate earned his bachelor’s degree from George Washington University and earned a doctorate in education from the University of California, Los Angeles. He has taught middle school for the Los Angeles School District and is currently a sociology professor at Cal State Long Beach, where he is also the faculty advisor to La Raza Student Association. 

Lara has lived in the city for over a decade and met his husband in downtown Long Beach, his campaign website says.

In the dedication to his doctoral dissertation, he recalls his grandfather “taught me to open up the newspaper to learn about the social, cultural, economic, and political wor(l)d around me in order to transform it.”

Between 2015 and 2016, Lara was involved in the Fight for Five, a successful union campaign for a 5% general salary increase for all California State University faculty. He partnered with former Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez to help pass the city’s Justice Fund in 2019 and served on the board for The LGBTQ Center Long Beach, though he said he stepped down last November “to focus on the campaign.”

He’s been endorsed by Second District Councilmember Jeannine Pearce, who ended her 2020 re-election campaign last year. He is also one of the two candidates in the race endorsed by Councilmember Roberto Uranga.

Other endorsements include the California Nurses Association, SEIU Local 721, and Our Revolution Long Beach, a progressive grassroots organization, at both the local and national level.

He’s put forth what he calls his BEACH plan, which addresses beautification, economic inclusion, access, climate change, and housing. He has pledged to approach parking with an environmental lens and increase transitional housing and mental health services to curb homelessness.

What will be your biggest public safety priorities if elected? Do you support increasing police presence? Are there other programs or policies that are not law enforcement-based that you believe can decrease crime? 

I approach public safety through a holistic and community lens. Under this approach, my public safety priorities include bolstering mental health, social workers, and the firefighters’ HEART team. Strengthening these programs systematically reflect a preventative approach toward crime and speaks to a long-term approach toward decreasing crime in our city.

Do you believe money in local elections plays an undue influence? Would you be in favor of reforming officeholder accounts or even abolishing them?

Over 80% of Americans understand that corporate money has too much influence in our elections and policy outcomes. Large-donor financing, especially via select PACs, exerts too much influence on our political process and hurts our democracy. Additional public funding of campaigns at the local level would help ameliorate this problem. I am in favor of reforming officeholder accounts to stop politicians from funneling money to buy seats in other districts.

The mayor indicated in January that the city is committed to preserving the Queen Mary despite needing what is estimated to be over $200 million in repair work. A $23 million city bond for repair work has already been spent. Do you believe the city should continue to invest in the ship and how?

The Queen Mary is (an) iconic, part of our city’s rich history and serves to promote Long Beach’s image around the world. I am supportive of examining the best path forward in ensuring the Queen Mary stays anchored in our city. However, the best path forward must not compromise other priorities that benefit the general welfare of city residents. When possible, investment in the ship should come from private sources, including foundations. In the spirit of preserving a historical treasure, I would also turn to state and federal resources for repair work when and if applicable.

Projected city budgets for fiscal-years 2021 through 2023 show shortfalls of up to $22 million primarily due to ballooning labor, pension and insurance costs. Would you vote for cutting city services in order to alleviate this deficit? If not, how would you deal with it?

Our city is booming with development and economic activity and all our residents should benefit from this prosperity. We should not cut or privatize public goods and services. City Council should focus on expanding public goods and services. Our budget represents our priorities and my priority is improving the quality of life for all our residents, especially our most vulnerable populations.

LiBRE: Despite the passage of AB 1482, we are working with multiple residents in District 2 facing a 60-day notice right now. There is no proper enforcement of the law and since it’s new there’s no cases tested in court yet. There is also a loophole that allows landlords to evict a tenant if they want to “substantially” remodel the property. We would like to know what you would do to protect tenants from unjust evictions? Note: The City Council passed an ordinance to close this loophole on Feb. 18. 

I am supportive of these measures intended to protect tenants from excessive rent increases and unfair evictions. The immediate step forward is to inform the Long Beach renters of these new policies to ensure that their housing rights are protected. The city must also crack down on slumlords who exploit renters by circumventing these laws and ignore their responsibilities to provide a safe, livable environment for their tenants. I will make this happen by working with the city’s legal team and with local organizations like LiBRE, Housing Long Beach, DSA Long Beach, the Grey Panthers, and Our Revolution Long Beach. I also support requiring landlords to pull applicable permits from the city before claiming to “substantially remodel” a unit as a basis for an eviction.

Everyone In (Long Beach): Homelessness has been identified as an issue of top importance by Long Beach residents. How will you, as the District Two Councilmember, step up to help end homelessness in your community and in Long Beach as a city?

Los Angeles Times Columnist Steve Lopez recently wrote an in-depth series on homelessness where he identifies the biggest impediment toward solving the problem: No one is in charge. He approached the homeless crisis around Los Angeles County lines, and Long Beach is one of the 88 cities with “their attendant bureaucracies, along with a huge county presence, but no command center or field marshal.” Worse yet, a billion dollars in Measure HHH has already been spent, but has not been very effective in large part due to uncoordinated efforts. I propose reviewing best practices in Long Beach and relaying information to the county while also working more effectively at the county-level. The county needs to be empowered through policy to have more robust leadership on this issue because homelessness has no borders and it makes more sense to work with the county and other cities on the homelessness crisis. It’s also important to note that homelessness disproportionately affects African-Americans and this racial injustice needs to be addressed as part of the homelessness discussion. 

Surfrider Foundation, Long Beach Chapter: Given the certainty of increasing sea level rise how does the candidate feel about the City’s efforts to build new structures on the beach, such as the Jr. Lifeguard tower, the Belmont Pool, and the expanded Alfredo’s concession stands?

Expenditure decisions on structures need to (be) made using both a climate change and environmental justice framework. In other words, as a councilmember, I will consider rising sea levels before deciding to earmark funds for projects that will be threatened by the climate crisis. While on this subject, I am providing my position on climate change below: Climate change is a top priority; it’s what keeps me up at night.

Research shows that we have an ever-closing window of time–some climate scientists estimate five years–for the global community to act systemically before it’s too late. Systemic changes include drastically reducing carbon emissions, especially our reliance on fossil fuels, decreasing our plastic production, and curtailing the amount of waste in the environment. The data is iron-clad; human activity is to blame for climate change. However, a more critical framing of this finding is that it’s a specific kind of human activity that disproportionately has ushered in climate change–corporations. Though the crisis is global, local communities need to take assertive action and work in concert with state and federal government to aggressively move forward green policies helping to mitigate climate change.

It’s important to note that green policies must also adopt a worker-rights framework ensuring that green jobs pay a living wage and that we build in effective structures that transition and train workers into green jobs. My rationale for rating this my top priority is twofold: climate change intersects with other issues (e.g. migration, racial justice, economic inclusion, etc.) and other priorities become a moot point if we don’t have a livable planet. We all have a stake in crafting visionary green, worker-friendly, policies and I will lead that charge.

Long Beach Transportation And Parking Solutions: What are you willing to do to fight for a comprehensive Parking Plan that uses modern parking planning, data, and professional evaluation to balance the needs of drivers with other modes of transportation?

I have a short- and long-term approach toward solving the parking problem. The short-term approach includes auditing of loading, emergency, and 30-minute restricted parking zones to determine which ones can be converted to regular parking spaces. Additionally, there is an ordinance already on the books allowing residents to get a permit to park in front of their driveways. However, most residents don’t know about this ordinance and I will ensure there is wider awareness through advertisement of the driveway parking permit. Fees for the permit need to also be lowered to increase the number of permits and therefore add parking spaces. Finally, under a short-term approach, I will bring in technology-utilizing apps for users to locate available parking spaces.

My long-term approach requires viewing the parking issue as it relates to local job creation, public transportation, and environmental justice. Currently, an astonishing 77% of Long Beach working residents are employed (outside) the city. I will lead with a local job creation agenda and in that process bring down both the percentage of residents who work outside the city, while lowering the over-reliance on cars. Public transportation also needs to be bolstered because it’s friendlier to the environment and in time, with more residents working in the city and a cultural shift away from over-reliance on cars, we can work hand-in-hand to lower our carbon footprint.