Photo courtesy of Kevin Liao
By LILY TINOCO | Reporter
Palisadian Allison Holdorff Polhill announced her candidacy for Los Angeles City Council District 11 on Thursday, November 4, with a campaign to “deliver solutions to the unhoused crisis, protect the environment, improve transportation and address other tough challenges at City Hall.”
“Angelenos are living through crises facing our city that our elected representatives aren’t addressing with swift and meaningful solutions,” Holdorff Polhill said in a statement. “I’m running for City Council to cut through red tape and address our longstanding challenges, from the homelessness crisis to climate change threatening our environment to congestion on our roads and highways.”
The Alphabet Streets resident, originally from Long Island, New York, grew up in Southern California. She studied political science at University of California, Los Angeles. While at UCLA, she said she couldn’t help but fall in love with the Westside.
When she moved to the Palisades in 1996, nine months pregnant with her daughter, Lucy, and with her son, Alex, she said all of her neighbors were eager to help the family unpack their boxes: “That’s when I realized I was living in the right place … and have lived here ever since,” she said to the Palisadian-Post. “I’m not planning on going anywhere anytime soon, I love it here.”
Holdorff Polhill earned a law degree from Loyola Law School, but she said after having three children, she realized being a litigator was not compatible with raising her children and instead dove into local education.
She served on the governing boards of Palisades Charter Elementary, Paul Revere Charter Middle and Palisades Charter High schools. She spent six years as an elected member of the Pali High Board of Trustees.
“At that time, the school had a board of 11 and they had a revolving door of leadership,” Holdorff Polhill said. “I knew that long-term stability was critical to the success of that high school. I knew we had to have a stable board that was aligned with the strategic planning of that school to go in the right direction.”
She took her experience and involvement to another level when she became one of four candidates for the Los Angeles Unified School District 4 school board seat on the March 7, 2017, ballot. She was up against Steve Zimmer, Nick Melvoin and Greg Martayan. Board District 4 serves Brentwood, Marina del Rey, Playa Vista, the Palisades and more.
After losing in the primary, Holdorff Polhill campaigned for Melvoin, and was later appointed his chief advisor and district director. She said she is in the process of introducing her counterpart to take her place as she runs for LA City Council in District 11.
“Because I love this city dearly and I feel like we can do much, much better with handling the unhoused crisis, the environmental issues and also the congestion, I was asked by a number of community members from Palisades to Venice to Westchester to run for this seat,” she said to the Post. “In part because there are a lot of issues that I deal with on the school board that overlap with the city, I think community members realized … that I was the one who could bring people together with the strong skill set that I have and solve problems.”
Holdorff Polhill shared that she also plans to address environmental concerns and global climate change, congestion, improve transportation, and more. She said it would “mean the world” to her if she was elected to lead CD 11.
“I am so excited to be in that position, to be in that position of leadership and to be able to make positive changes,” Holdorff Polhill said. “People refer to me as the ‘happy warrior’ because I try to be as optimistic as possible when dealing with complicated manners.”
Holdorff Polhill is running to unseat incumbent Coucilmember Mike Bonin, along with Gary Copeland, Traci Park and Vincent Sulaitis. The city expects to hold its Primary Nominating Election on June 7, 2022, and the General Municipal Election on November 8, 2022.
To learn more about Holdorff Polhill and her campaign, visit allisonforla.com.
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