Comedy for Civics
The Issue
Tax Payers spend $400k / year on fliers, I think that money should go to entertainers
Full Proposal:
I'm a trans man and last year I decided to get involved with grass roots government because my community is vulnerable and we have very little representation. What I discovered during the process of getting elected was terrible, but not surprising - the Neighborhood Council System is broken.
Neighborhood councils are elected boards of volunteers who connect constituents to city hall, keeping residents informed about what is happening in their city. I live in Central San Pedro, where only 141 people voted in the last neighborhood council election, about 1.3% of the population. Before that election, the council had gone 17 years without a contested board seat, because not enough people ran to fill it. This is not a one off problem. LA has 99 neighborhood councils, and most fight the same losing battle: residents do not know these councils exist, do not understand what they do, or do not believe their voice matters enough to show up.
The city has tried to fix this the traditional way. Flyers. Mailers. Tabling events. Print advertising. Los Angeles spends roughly $400,000 a year on these efforts, and turnout stays flat. You cannot organize around apathy with a pamphlet.
Meanwhile, national numbers tell the same story at a larger scale. In the 2024 presidential election, 89 million eligible voters, 36 percent of the electorate, did not vote at all. Disengagement is not an LA problem. It is a civic infrastructure problem, and neighborhood councils are where it starts or stops at the local level.
When Central San Pedro tried something different, comedy instead of pamphlets, a QR code sign up instead of a folding table, the results were immediate. Within two weeks, enough new people signed on to hold the district's first contested election in 17 years. That single show now anchors a case for scaling comedy driven civic engagement across every council district in the city.
The problem is not that Angelenos do not care about their neighborhoods. The problem is that the city has been asking people to engage through the least engaging methods available, and calling it outreach. It is time to fund something that actually works.
Please help me make live entertainment a public good that attracts more Angelinos to the Neighborhood Council System.
128
The Issue
Tax Payers spend $400k / year on fliers, I think that money should go to entertainers
Full Proposal:
I'm a trans man and last year I decided to get involved with grass roots government because my community is vulnerable and we have very little representation. What I discovered during the process of getting elected was terrible, but not surprising - the Neighborhood Council System is broken.
Neighborhood councils are elected boards of volunteers who connect constituents to city hall, keeping residents informed about what is happening in their city. I live in Central San Pedro, where only 141 people voted in the last neighborhood council election, about 1.3% of the population. Before that election, the council had gone 17 years without a contested board seat, because not enough people ran to fill it. This is not a one off problem. LA has 99 neighborhood councils, and most fight the same losing battle: residents do not know these councils exist, do not understand what they do, or do not believe their voice matters enough to show up.
The city has tried to fix this the traditional way. Flyers. Mailers. Tabling events. Print advertising. Los Angeles spends roughly $400,000 a year on these efforts, and turnout stays flat. You cannot organize around apathy with a pamphlet.
Meanwhile, national numbers tell the same story at a larger scale. In the 2024 presidential election, 89 million eligible voters, 36 percent of the electorate, did not vote at all. Disengagement is not an LA problem. It is a civic infrastructure problem, and neighborhood councils are where it starts or stops at the local level.
When Central San Pedro tried something different, comedy instead of pamphlets, a QR code sign up instead of a folding table, the results were immediate. Within two weeks, enough new people signed on to hold the district's first contested election in 17 years. That single show now anchors a case for scaling comedy driven civic engagement across every council district in the city.
The problem is not that Angelenos do not care about their neighborhoods. The problem is that the city has been asking people to engage through the least engaging methods available, and calling it outreach. It is time to fund something that actually works.
Please help me make live entertainment a public good that attracts more Angelinos to the Neighborhood Council System.
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Petition created on August 21, 2026