Woman Emerges As First Female Mayor

A Woman identified as Karen Bass was sworn-in as mayor of Los Angeles, California on Sunday.

She is currently the first woman to lead the second-largest city in the US.

She pledged to fight homelessness as her first act as mayor.

“Making history with each of you today is a monumental moment in my life and in Los Angeles,” Ms Bass told the assembled crowd of California leaders.

She declared she would issue a state of emergency on Monday to address the estimated 40,000 homeless people living in the city of Los Angeles, which will release funds to address the problem.

“If we are going to bring Angelenos inside and move our city in a new direction, we must have a single strategy to unite our city and county and engage the state, the federal government, the private sector and every other stakeholder,” Ms Bass said.

Ms Bass also addressed the coastal city’s broader cost of living crisis, saying that “too many Angelenos have no choice but to crowd multiple families into one home, and to work multiple jobs to just barely pay the rent”.

According to her, the solution was to “build housing in every neighbourhood,” an allusion to California’s ongoing fights over zoning and development that critics say prevents much-needed housing from getting built.

This is not the only historic first Ms Bass has claimed throughout her lengthy career in politics.

In her time in the California state assembly, she became the first black woman to serve as a House speaker in any state legislature.

She most recently served six terms in Congress representing parts of Los Angeles, before announcing her historic bid for mayor in 2021 September.