Running for the 11th’District City Council seat on March 5, Mike Bonin is aiming to bring a small-town approach to the governance of one of the largest cities in the world–Los Angeles. Bonin’s passion for public service and grassroots democracy began in the small town of Clinton, Massachusetts, where he grew up. This passion, however, didn’t necessarily involve aspirations to hold political office. Currently, serving as chief deputy to Councilman Bill Rosendahl since 2005, the 45-year-old candidate said, “I started in politics at an early age. When I was in sixth grade, my Uncle Bill ran for the Massachusetts state legislature. I started knocking on doors, going to community affairs, shaking hands and doing retail politics.” Facing an incumbent, Uncle Bill lost the race but ran again when Bonin was in high school and finally won the seat. ”Despite being around politics my whole life, I just wanted to be a reporter,” Bonin said, Describing himself as a “news geek,” Bonin recalled how as a child he would get up at 6 a.m. to watch the early morning news in Boston. “I knew about the 1976 presidential elections when I was only nine years old and I helped start our school newspaper when I was in fourth grade.” At Harvard, Bonin covered state politics for the campus newspaper, The Crimson, and “things started to shift,” he said. During his sophomore and junior years, he became involved with something that really shaped his outlook on politics–the culmination of a 17-year effort by secretaries and lab workers, who wanted a stronger voice and health benefits, to form a union at Harvard. ”Their slogan was ‘Dignity, Democracy and a Dental Plan,'” Bonin said. “It was about feeling empowered in the workplace and being respected. Their other slogan was ‘We Can’t Eat Prestige.'” This grassroots effort didn’t use an old organizing model, Bonin noted. “It was a primarily female union and they didn’t do informational meetings where they talked to 60 people at a time. It was all values-based organizing centered on personal relationships and mutual goals, and that’s really how I learned politics–it was from them.” So while Bonin was still writing and covering state issues for The Crimson, he also helped to organize student and community support for his school’s workers. “The university was doing a big anti-union campaign and we helped demonstrate that the student body was behind the workers.” Bonin said his time working with the grassroots effort informed him about the importance of building one-on-one community relationships and the power of making real change. ”It’s one of the things that has kept me at local government as opposed to state or federal because in local government you really get to practice that ideal and that’s really how you get things done–by building communities.” After graduating Harvard with a degree in history, Bonin worked as a journalist for a daily paper in western Massachusetts, the Springfield Union News and Sunday Republican, now known as the Springfield Republican. “I would cover small-town board of selectmen [similar to City Council] meetings, or a fire department of 20 people. I absolutely loved it, but when I turned 25 I started becoming afraid that I would wind up spending my entire life within 45 minutes of where I grew up.” On a whim in the fall of 1991, Bonin sold everything he owned, including his car, and spent the next three months traveling across the country on Greyhound buses. “I bought unlimited travel passes so I could wake up any day and go wherever the hell I wanted.” Bonin slowly traveled down the East Coast, experiencing the foliage and visiting some Civil War battlefield sites such as Gettysburg, Manassas and Harpers Ferry before going on to explore the Great Plains and the Black Hills of South Dakota. ”I finally ran out of money and continent in Los Angeles and didn’t really expect to stay, but I had some friends here in Hermosa, so I crashed on their couch and I fell in love with L.A.,” Bonin said. Initially, he actually lived in Pacific Palisades, in the 100 block of Chautauqua, just above PCH. “That’s where the guy I was dating was living and it was about the smallest place I’ve ever lived in but as he said, ‘It’s about the beach, stupid.'” Bonin said he never had an interest in surfing, but living here quickly informed him on issues having an impact on L.A. residents, notably traffic, development and storm-drain pollution. He then started writing news for KPFK radio and Frontiers magazine before landing a job on the Wave newspaper. ”I mainly covered Compton for about two and a half years,” Bonin said. “When I was there, their former mayor and Congressman Walter Tucker went to jail, former Councilmember Patricia Moore went to jail and there were all sorts of allegations of scandal and unresponsiveness.” Compton was a beautiful city, Bonin said. “I really loved the people, but it was a local government that was broken and corrupt and unresponsive. There were so many days I was sitting there on the edge of my chair and I just wanted to raise my hand and say ‘No, you can do better, do it this way,’ but you can’t do that as a reporter.” The impulse to make a change, coupled with newfound sobriety, pushed Bonin to get into government. ”I’ll be sober for 18 years on February 4,” said Bonin, who openly admits to having a drug problem for a couple of years after college. “When I got sober it was as if an obligation of my sobriety was to give back–I was given a second chance.” He then got his first tattoo, that of a recycling symbol, to signify “taking a life that was trashed and wasted and making it productive again.” Bonin’s first job in Los Angeles city government was as staff deputy for Councilmember Ruth Galanter, who served on the Council from 1987 to 2003. Galanter’s South Bay district included two-thirds of the boundaries that constitute the current 11th’District. ”I started out downtown working on environmental policy, cleaning up the bay, public safety policy, gang injunctions and handicap accessibility. I liked it a lot, it was great for a couple of years but then it didn’t feel tangible,” he said. “Ruth will tell the story of how I came into her office one day and I begged to be sent out into the district.” Bonin was placed in charge of district operations, and before long he was working on a variety of projects and programs, including rebuilding Venice Beach “and helping to establish handicapped-accessible playgrounds.” The Boston transplant ended up working for Galanter for seven and a half years. ”Even now if I’m having a bad day, I can walk down to the Venice Pier and know I helped do this’this might not be open if it weren’t for the work I did,” Bonin said. After Galanter termed out, Bonin went to work for 36th’District Congresswoman Jane Harman for about 18 months, during which time he met Rosendahl, who hosted a series of local cable talk shows, including the acclaimed “Local Talk.” ”I had known of Bill through his TV show,” Bonin said. “I was someone who was thinking of running for this seat eight years ago and so I thought of him as formidable and an incredible force. I was like ‘Wow, what an amazing candidate he would be.'” Bonin and Rosendahl met at The Firehouse restaurant in Venice in October 2003 to get acquainted and before long, the two were discussing traffic relief, the need for community involvement in development decisions, and affordable housing and homelessness. ”What he was talking about just resonated with me,” Bonin said. “He and I just hit it off and he asked me to be his campaign manager. I believed in what he was talking about and believed he had this boundless optimism that could get things done.” Rosendahl, who won in 2005 and 2009 and was heavily favored to win a third and final term, was diagnosed with advanced cancer last July. In October, Rosendahl announced his retirement and said that he will be leaving office at the end of his term on June 30 to focus on his health. Having lost his sister Maureen to cancer about two years ago, Bonin is quite aware of the hardships that come with the disease. ”It’s been really tough to go through, but it has also been inspiring to see Bill’s strength,” Bonin said, “and it was very inspiring to see all the people and staff rally behind him. You really saw the true size and scope of people’s hearts.” ”You also get to see how strong people are. I saw my sister Maureen battle like hell and I saw Bill summon this strength and will that just powered him through it. It was challenging because I had to kind of step in and, in some ways, be like a long-term substitute teacher.” If elected to office, Bonin is eager to bring that same spirit of resilience and optimism shown by Rosendahl to the District 11 job, and to focus on keeping the City’s streets safe and clean, investing in infrastructure and making L.A.’s neighborhoods vital, green and sustainable. He also plans on continuing to advocate for issues having an impact on the Palisades, such as improved bike paths along PCH, the Potrero Canyon Park project and ‘increased public safety.’ ”I am particularly concerned with traffic access in and out of the Palisades and the impact of the coming California Incline construction project,” he said. Some of Bonin’s proposed solutions include increasing LAFD and police presence in both the Palisades and Brentwood. “There are tremendously difficult geographical challenges in both areas,” he noted. In the March 5 election, Bonin will face Tina’Hess, a 25-year prosecutor with the City Attorney’s’office; Odysseus Bostick, a Westchester parent and teacher who has worked in both district and charter schools; and 28-year-old Frederick Sutton, who said he will bring “fresh perspective and ideas” to the 11th District seat.
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