美国国家公共电台 NPR--Karen Bass is sworn in as LA mayor as the city grapples with homelessness

Karen Bass¹ is sworn in as LA mayor as the city grapples with homelessness

Transcript²

Los Angeles has a new mayor, former Rep. Karen Bass, who now is the first woman to head City Hall. NPR's A Martinez talks to Benjamin Oreskes, a metro³ reporter for the Los Angeles Times.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

For the first time in its 241-year history, Los Angeles' mayor is a Black woman. Karen Bass was sworn in on Sunday by Vice⁴ President Kamala Harris.

ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:

Her first order of business, this city's homelessness crisis.

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KAREN BASS: I will start my first day as mayor at the city's emergency operations centers, where my first act as mayor will be to declare a state of emergency on homelessness.

SCHMITZ: She'll also deal with a scandal-ridden city council as she tries to push her agenda through.

MART?NEZ: Benjamin Oreskes is a metro reporter with the LA Times. Benjamin, so Mayor Bass wants to start with a state of emergency on homelessness. Who's on board and what will that do?

BENJAMIN ORESKES: Thanks for having me. The question of who's on board, she has - it's sort of answered by who was at her inauguration⁵. Almost every member of the city council save one - and we're going to talk about him in a minute - was there and was excited to be there and excited to be working with her on this issue. A state of emergency has a sort of political and practical dimension.

The practical one is that it gives her a lot more power, flexibility⁶ and freedom to deploy⁷ resources, staff and money in various different directions to address this crisis that voters, you know, indicated in any number of ways was the most important in the city. The political part of this is that it, again, tells people this is the most important thing on my plate. And it's all I'm going to be thinking about. So conveying an urgency to Angelinos, who are very angry about the state of their streets.

MART?NEZ: And, Benjamin, catch us up on the politics part of Los Angeles because there's a lot of dysfunction happening around the city council. And the last few days have been especially terrible.

ORESKES: They are. The one member of the city council who didn't show up to her inauguration was Kevin de Leon. Kevin was caught on a tape that was recorded last year. And he's on it with two members of the city council and a labor⁸ leader. And they're making crude, racist⁹ remarks. It's in the context of redistricting. They're talking about that process. But he says and they all say some not-so-nice things about their colleagues, some racist comments about one of their colleague's sons. And two of the members sort of hid. One resigned. One just sort of stayed out of the way. He's now termed out. But Kevin has dug his heels in. He hasn't, though, showed up for city council meetings - he did, though, for the first time in months on Friday.

What also that occurred is that he went to a holiday party. And protesters, who have been dogging him for much longer since this tape came out, got in his face. And he was fed up and sort of attacked one of these protesters. It was a brawl¹⁰ of sorts. All of this takes place under the backdrop of a city where we have a member of the city council who was indicted¹¹. We have multiple former members who were indicted. And just a broader sense from Angelinos that the bodies of government in this city are not working for them, it's what propelled the candidacy of Karen Bass' opponent, Rick Caruso. And it's also what a lot of the healing that Karen Bass has talked about needing to do.

MART?NEZ: And so how is the new mayor talking about how she'll try to heal some of those divides?

ORESKES: Well, she is someone whose biography is about bringing people together. So this is a community activists¹², starts - after the civil unrest in 1992, starts a nonprofit called Community Coalition¹³. She then joins the state assembly and then onto Congress. You know, she has been all about meeting with people, listening to their problems and trying, again, to bring people together. And I think you saw during her inauguration a real sense - a real relief even from other elected officials about her ascendance and a desire to work with her to get things done.

MART?NEZ: That's Benjamin Oreskes from the LA Times. Benjamin, thanks.

ORESKES: Thank you.

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1 bass   

n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴

参考例句：

• He answered my question in a surprisingly deep bass.他用一种低得出奇的声音回答我的问题。
• The bass was to give a concert in the park.那位男低音歌唱家将在公园中举行音乐会。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 metro   

n.地铁；adj.大都市的；(METRO)麦德隆(财富500强公司之一总部所在地德国，主要经营零售)

参考例句：

• Can you reach the park by metro?你可以乘地铁到达那个公园吗？
• The metro flood gate system is a disaster prevention equipment.地铁防淹门系统是一种防灾设备。

4 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

5 inauguration   

n.开幕、就职典礼

参考例句：

• The inauguration of a President of the United States takes place on January 20.美国总统的就职典礼于一月二十日举行。
• Three celebrated tenors sang at the president's inauguration.3位著名的男高音歌手在总统就职仪式上演唱。

6 flexibility   

n.柔韧性，弹性，（光的）折射性，灵活性

参考例句：

• Her great strength lies in her flexibility.她的优势在于她灵活变通。
• The flexibility of a man's muscles will lessen as he becomes old.人老了肌肉的柔韧性将降低。

7 deploy   

v.（军）散开成战斗队形，布置，展开

参考例句：

• The infantry began to deploy at dawn.步兵黎明时开始进入战斗位置。
• The president said he had no intention of deploying ground troops.总统称并不打算部署地面部队。

8 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

9 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

10 brawl   

n.大声争吵，喧嚷；v.吵架，对骂

参考例句：

• They had nothing better to do than brawl in the street.他们除了在街上斗殴做不出什么好事。
• I don't want to see our two neighbours engaged in a brawl.我不希望我们两家吵架吵得不可开交。

11 indicted   

控告，起诉( indict的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The senator was indicted for murder. 那位参议员被控犯谋杀罪。
• He was indicted by a grand jury on two counts of murder. 他被大陪审团以两项谋杀罪名起诉。

12 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。