Garcetti criticized by activists over $250 million pledge to help communities of color

As protests erupted last year over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said he would slash $250 million from city departments and put the money toward Black communities and other communities of color.

Garcetti and the City Council quickly moved to cut $150 million from the Los Angeles Police Department budget, directing a small portion of the money to jobs programs. The mayor said he achieved the remainder of his goal not by cutting the budget but by tapping hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds provided to the city to respond to COVID-19.

Those federal funds, allocated under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES, went to pay for programs to address homelessness, which disproportionately affects Black residents, Garcetti said.

Still, some activists are criticizing the mayor over his handling of the pledge, saying he shouldn’t have relied on federal funding to fulfill it. Others said Garcetti should have invested a significant amount of money in economic development and youth services.

Read the full story on LATimes.com.