Westwood Community Leaders Met With Representative Lieu At Belmont Village In Westwood
By Dolores Quintana
Westwood community leaders were given the opportunity to hear from U.S. Representative Ted Lieu, 36th District of California, on Monday, May 1, 2023. The town hall meeting was held at Belmont Village Westwood and was focused on the legislative agenda in Washington, D.C., as it specifically relates to California, Los Angeles, and Westwood.
The meeting started at 7:00 p.m. with remarks from Congressman Lieu on several key topics that impact the Westwood community. The congressman spoke about Artificial Intelligence, Veteran Homelessness, and the Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project. After the congressman’s remarks, Westwood community leaders had the opportunity to ask questions and engage in a discussion on the topics.
Invited guests included board members from Belmont Village Westwood, Comstock Hills Homeowners Association, Friends of Westwood Library, Holmby Park Advisory Board, Holmby-Westwood Property Owners Association, North Westwood Neighborhood Council, UCLA Government and Community Relations, West Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, Westwood Community Council, Westwood Design Review Board, Westwood Homeowners Association, Westwood Neighborhood Council, Westwood Park Advisory Board, Westwood South of Santa Monica Boulevard Homeowners Association, Westwood Tomorrow, Westwood Village Improvement Association, and Westwood Village Rotary Club. The town hall meeting was held at the Belmont Village Westwood Town Hall located at 10475 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90024. Free parking was provided on levels P2, P3, and P4, with the town hall located on the ground floor P1.
Representative Lieu spoke about his background and some of the recent laws passed in the last year in Congress, he said, “I was elected in Torrance City Council and served nine years in the state legislature. And now I’ve been in my fifth term in Congress. And last term was one of the most productive congresses in US history, we pass a number of laws that are moving America forward. So we started with the American Rescue Plan, with the goal of creating jobs, putting shots in people’s arms, and helping schools open and remain open. We achieves all of those goals and others the administration in the first 15 months, and over 10 million jobs are created, and most in US history. We then follow that up with a bipartisan infrastructure law to rebuild your roads and bridges and highways. We also put money for broadband to be accessible from inner cities to suburbs, rural areas to everywhere in between. We put money into taking the lead out of (drinking) water. We follow that up with the PACT Act, which is going to help a lot more veterans get the compensation that they deserve for being injured. Then we passed inflation reduction, half of which goes to reduce the deficit, half of which is going to fund the largest number of climate change projects in world history. So that is quite a number of laws. We are now in the implementation stage of those laws and are working at making sure that we can get all those projects and all those programs funded. On the local level, I support the Sepulveda Transit Corridor and feel that it must include a station located directly on the UCLA campus. The Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project must seamlessly connect to the Purple (D Line) Westwood Village station which is located on Wilshire Boulevard.”
Lieu spoke about homelessness and the many different causes of homelessness, he said, “Like any large population, there are 17,000 reasons why someone is homeless. Someone could be homeless because they were working but don’t make enough money to pay the rent so they become homeless, some people could be homeless because they’re addicted to drugs. Some people could be homeless because there are mental health issues. Some people could be homeless because they were released from a job, or in a transition phase, they just have had trouble getting another job for a while. So there’s all these different reasons. And that’s why I think we need this support for as many different solutions as possible because it’s a very diverse population.”
On the topic of unhoused veterans, Representative Lieu served in US Armed Forces, he was able to note, “ I am pleased with what we have been able to do about veteran homelessness and we are making progress. At the West LA VA, before I entered Congress, it was sort of a mess. So what I did first is that I authored a bill that was signed by President Obama and created a whole new master plan for the West LA VA that led a signing to improved medical care and standards and a build-out of homeless veterans’ housing, about 1,200 units. Already this year, we have opened up a building with fifty-nine units. Tomorrow, I will attend the ribbon cutting for two new buildings of veterans’ housing that are open. We will have another 100 units this June and the other three buildings are going to break ground this year.”
Representative Lieu called himself a “recovering computer science major” and let the audience know that AI enthralls him and that it can do amazing things for society, but it can also kill you. He compared it to the invention of the steam engine which he said was disruptive to society when it was first introduced but said that in a few years, AI is going to be “a supersonic jet with a personality.” and that we are not prepared for that. He said, “AI already helps you in your lives. The GPS that you use to get from one place to another relies partly on AI. It is in all sorts of systems that prevent fraud on your credit card and helps protect our homeland from hacking and different attacks.”
Not only did Representative Lieu use an AI chatbot, ChatGPT to write a bill, but he also introduced legislation to prevent AI from being allowed to launch nuclear weapons because he does not believe that it is safe to allow that to happen. The Block Nuclear Launch by Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Act was introduced with Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA) and numerous other bipartisan co-sponsors which is an important step towards ethically regulating AI and preventing what could be a worldwide catastrophe.
Overall, the event was a great opportunity for Westwood community leaders to engage with their representative in Congress and to discuss key topics that impact their community. Congressman Lieu was well-received by the community, and the meeting was a great success.
