Politics & Government
Meet City Council Candidate Mito Aviles
This challenger says he wants to bring a sense of creativity, as well as accountability and transparency, back to City Hall.
City Council candidate Mito Aviles loves West Hollywood, which he moved to four years ago.
“West Hollywood is a melting pot of people," he said. "It is a progressive-minded city, in terms of its residents. It is a very open city. It’s a city that loves creativity and the people in it appreciate creativity which is why, I, being a creative-minded individual, would love to represent the city of West Hollywood.”
He’s been doing a lot of talking about that love since he announced his candidacy 15 months ago, the first candidate to formally do so. Since then, he’s been shaking hands, kissing babies and listening to people’s worries.
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“There’s a lot of concern about what’s happening in . People don’t feel like they can trust their politicians,” the 30-year-old Aviles explained, saying that officials seem to be doing some shady things. That’s why he keeps talking about bringing accountability and transparency back to City Hall.
“The public and the residents need to know what exactly is going on in their city,” he said. “If you are an elected official, you are a public servant. That said, there’s a lot of closed-door meetings that happen, there’s a lot of interaction that happens behind closed doors that the residents don’t know about. And they should know, or at least be able to know, about everything and anything going on in City Hall.”
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A major proponent of the green movement, Aviles believes in mandatory solar panels for new buildings. But he believes the city needs to reconsider its Green Development point system, which provides developers “bonuses” that allow them to build taller buildings, circumventing current height restrictions. “This creates a perverse incentive for developers to build large, out-of-place, buildings in areas throughout West Hollywood,” he said, “counteracting many of the environmental benefits that the green technologies would provide.”
He also believes that the city should create incentives for landlords to continue to own and operate apartment buildings and eliminate incentives that encourage developers to tear down apartment buildings and replace them with luxury condominiums. “We need to do everything to keep our neighborhoods intact, to keep our diverse population intact,” he said.
Living on the east side, he’s talked extensively with members of the Russian community (he relies on a friend to act as translator) and is disturbed by how little they know about City Hall decisions affecting them. “ grocery store [La Brea at Fountain] is the main grocery store for the Russian community; they carry a lot of ethnic items,” he explained. “But it’s going away. A new project is going in and so many of them don’t know it. Or that the Russian delis are in danger of being torn down if the City Council approves a new building on the site. Or that is being redone, but all the old growth trees will be cut down for subterranean parking. What they want is to be able to go to the park, be able to go to the Russian delis. They really don’t ask for much. What is familiar and comfortable for them is disappearing.”
Aviles knows about losing what is comfortable and familiar. Raised in the San Gabriel Valley, he told his family members that he was gay just after graduating high school, but they kicked him out. He’s still estranged from them, but says the experience made him more self-reliant. He paid his own way through UC Riverside, majoring in political science and international affairs. He volunteered on political campaigns, including Jackie Goldberg’s Assembly campaign. After college, he worked for California Congresswoman Hilda Solis.
Aviles and boyfriend Chad Michael Morrisette own CM Squared Designs, a window display design company that’s created a number of displays seen around the Los Angeles area. In fact, they use the roof of their home on Fountain at Orange Grove to create displays that tour buses now regularly point out. Their current rooftop design is of Lady Gaga, but the one that brought them national notoriety came in 2008 when they hung a mannequin dressed as Sarah Palin in effigy.
The pair both chuckle about that incident, but are happy to be bringing art and creativity back to West Hollywood, something they think has been missing. “Art and creativity are at the heart of this city, at the heart of the gay community, but somehow it feels stifled,” Aviles said. “City Hall should be fostering creativity, encouraging artistic expression. But they’re more interested in developer dollars. We need to change that."
There are nine candidates running for the three City Council seats up for election Tuesday. The other candidates are , Steve Martin, Lindsey Horvath, , Scott Schmidt, Mark Gonzaga, Lucas John and John D'Amico. We will continue to profile other candidates.
You can also check out other candidate profiles from Weho Daily and LAist online. Aviles' profile on Weho Daily is available here and LAist's profile on Aviles is available here. A video profile of the candidates is also available on YouTube courtesy of LGBTPOV and Frontiers. To view Aviles' video and other candidates videos, click here (Aviles' video is also embedded to the right of this story).
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