Los Angeles' Westside is staring down a high-stakes June 2, 2026, primary in City Council District 11, where incumbent Traci Park and civil-rights attorney Faizah Malik are locked in a one-on-one fight. The race has turned into a referendum on how to recover from the January 2025 Palisades Fire and how to tackle homelessness and housing across Venice, Pacific Palisades and Westchester. Whoever wins will help decide how burned-out neighborhoods are rebuilt, how infrastructure gets funded and how visible encampments are handled for the next four years.
Incumbent's pitch: recovery and order
Park, first elected in 2022, is centering her reelection case on wildfire recovery and what she casts as visible cleanup across the district. “We’ve had a drastic reduction in homelessness across the district,” she has said, pointing to changes in Venice and her work on Palisades Fire recovery as proof, according to LAist. She has also indicated she is open to a sales tax increase to pay for infrastructure improvements and upgrades to evacuation routes.
Challenger's platform: housing first
Malik, a public-interest attorney who led housing-justice efforts at Public Counsel, casts the race as a choice between enforcement-heavy strategies and a long-term housing-first play. Her campaign calls for zoning changes, quicker permitting and stronger tenant protections as top priorities, as laid out on Faizah for LA, and she has secured an endorsement from the Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. Backers argue her legal background and years at Public Counsel position her to push for permanent housing solutions instead of relying on temporary encampment sweeps.
Why the Palisades fire looms large
The January 7, 2025 Palisades Fire, one of the most destructive urban wildfires to hit the region, leveled homes, triggered mass evacuations and left behind long-term recovery questions that still drive neighborhood politics. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, Park has cast herself as a hands-on player in recovery planning and has introduced council motions aimed at permitting relief and remediation across the burn zone.
How the primary works
The primary nominating election is set for Tuesday, June 2, 2026, with the general municipal election following on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, according to the City Clerk's election calendar. If no candidate tops 50% of the vote on June 2, the top two finishers will advance to the November ballot and the winners' terms will begin in December. The City Clerk's candidate guide also lays out council salaries and term lengths. City records list Traci Park and Faizah Malik as qualified for the June ballot, and the guide states that councilmembers serve four-year terms and receive $244,727 a year in base pay, with terms starting in mid-December. Voters can consult the City Clerk's candidate information and nominating-petition filing list for the official calendar and roster of qualified candidates.
What voters are watching
The race is unfolding in candidate forums, neighborhood gatherings and a steady stream of campaign mailers, with Park leaning on a narrative of cleanup and disaster recovery while Malik pushes hard on housing production and tenant protections. Critics contend Park's focus on encampment enforcement has at times meant taking away services like toilets and showers even as homelessness remains a major concern, a criticism detailed by LA Public Press. With ballots about to hit mailboxes, Westside voters will have to decide whether they prefer a recovery-and-order approach or a housing-first agenda to steer District 11 into the next term.
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