On Friday, January 23, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs hosted its twentieth annual Luskin Day at Los Angeles City Hall, in partnership with UCLA Government & Community Relations and Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky. This yearly event gives Luskin students the chance to connect directly with city and county leaders, attend panels on local government reform and immigration policy, and see firsthand how public policy is made. Undergraduate student Shay Rivera-Bremner shares her reflections on her experience attending Luskin’s City Hall Day.
Sitting on the 26th floor of City Hall overlooking Los Angeles was a powerful experience. I was joined by Luskin students, local leaders, and former leaders whose work has left a lasting mark on the city. Listening to the panelists revealed how meaningful local change is envisioned, coordinated, and carried out across both the city and county. Los Angeles is a pioneer in local policy and others look to our city, our efforts, and our people as models for what is possible.
Leaders from across different sectors, with countless years of combined experience, also recognized that we are living in unprecedented times. Like the students at Luskin, they are still learning and applying their knowledge to navigate uncertainty. This created space for students like myself to recognize that our new ideas and lived experiences can contribute to meaningful change at the local level. Seeing that impact reflected in the city below reinforced the role students can play in shaping Los Angeles.
Los Angeles is a unique, vibrant, and vast city that needs students and lifelong learners to bring together the new and the old as a united front to move forward.
In comparing Los Angeles to other counties and cities, panelists highlighted how uniquely the city has developed over time and how it continues to shape local, state, and national politics. Discussion of the recently passed Measure G—including the expansion of the Board of Supervisors and the creation of a county executive—sparked conversation about how these changes may transform county operations and potentially set a precedent for jurisdictions across the nation.
A panel focused on immigrant rights and affairs in Los Angeles particularly captured my attention. While public attention has shifted elsewhere, City Council Member Eunisses Hernandez emphasized that although the cameras have left Los Angeles, federal agents have not. Our communities continue to feel the effects daily through fear and direct harm. Leaders from Los Angeles County and the City’s Office of Immigrant Rights shared how they have strategized, collaborated, and adapted their approaches to address these ongoing challenges across the city and beyond. With new and unexpected problems comes a need for new solutions to uphold rights and protect public safety for all.
Watching students and local leaders question, discuss, and grapple with the issues directly affecting our communities—and explore new ideas alongside lessons from the past—demonstrated how Luskin fosters dialogue and equips students not only to study theory, but to implement real change.
To view more photos from this day, please see photo album.
