Both predicted that union leaders would back a Latino candidate when Mr. Price, 71, leaves office; he is entering his final four-year term under city term-limit rules. In another leaked recording, Ron Herrera, who has since resigned as head of the Labor Federation, referred to that likelihood. When asked about finding a Latino candidate to succeed Mr. Price, he said, “We have someone.”
A Stanford-educated lawyer and native Angeleno who has also served on the Inglewood City Council, Mr. Price said the quarter-million or so people who live in the Ninth District have kept him in office because he understands their bread-and-butter issues.
Outside his office on Central Avenue last week, a farmer’s market offered ruby strawberries, jars of honey, cartons of eggs, advice on composting. The councilman said that expanding the market was his idea, to bring produce to a food desert and give people a place to gather and find information about food stamp vouchers and community resources.
Across the street, every day, there is an unofficial market where Latino vendors sell ears of corn, bags of duros, clothing and toys around the parking lot of a discount department store. Strolling along the corridor, Mr. Price looked at them and nodded: They are welcome here, too.
He pointed to signposts that feature details in English and Spanish about landmarks from the area’s heyday as a thriving hub for Black Angelenos: The Lincoln Theater at 23rd Street, nicknamed the “West Coast Apollo” in reference to the famous Black entertainment venue in Harlem. The Liberty Savings and Loan Association, a Black-owned business that offered mortgages to local residents when white lenders had shut them out.
“It’s not just for Black people,” Mr. Price said about the historical markers. “It’s also for brown people to understand our history.”
The crowning jewel back in the day was the Dunbar Hotel, where greats like Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne and Mr. Ellington stayed at a time when they could draw crowds at Los Angeles performances but were not allowed to stay in white hotels. The Dunbar serves now as affordable housing for seniors.