Irvine Watchdog Candidate Q&A: Tammy Kim

• October 28, 2024, 2:18 pm America/Los_Angeles

Tammy Kim is an Irvine mom, nonprofit leader, and has been serving on the Irvine City Council since 2020. Kim is the first Korean American woman elected to the Irvine City Council. She grew up in Michigan and has been living in Irvine for two decades. 

Answers have been edited for clarity. 

Irvine Watchdog: Why did you decide to run for mayor? What inspired you to want to take on the mayor’s race when you were coasting along as a councilmember? 

Kim: Yes, I could have continued coasting and serving the people as a councilmember, but what inspired me to run this time for mayor is I have put forth a lot of creative, forward-thinking, and out of the box ideas during my time in office. 

I also don’t think it’s right for someone who has been in office for nearly five decades and who has been mayor eight times already to proclaim that he is the only person who should be mayor of our city. I think we need a fresh perspective from someone who understands the demographics of our city, who doesn’t come from a place of privilege, owning two homes right next to each other and wants to dictate that the rest of us can’t have housing, and makes it more difficult for families with children who want to eventually own a home here when they become young professionals to have that opportunity. These are the reasons why I decided to run for mayor. 

Irvine Watchdog: Since housing is such a focus in Irvine and you were inspired to run in part by the need that you just articulated, what kind of housing would you champion if you become mayor? 

Kim: I would continue to champion the same housing options that I have been advocating for since I was elected, and that’s mixed use housing. I was the first one to approach the Irvine Company about mixed use housing. I have talked to them about infill projects. I have been talking to them about converting underperforming retail and business properties into housing. I even have raised the issue of turning hotel space into permanent housing, even if it’s one or two floors. I will continue to advocate for mixed use housing and to think outside the box. Nothing should be off the table as far as I’m concerned, we need to start to consider all options. If you want to preserve open space, the best way to do it is to build more densely and to build vertically. 

I’m balancing the need for more housing with our commitment to preserve open space. I want to make sure that Irvine is not the next Huntington Beach, making sure that we are not in a lawsuit with the state. 

Irvine Watchdog: It is strange to think that some cities are ok with making themselves the target of a lawsuit with the state and assuming the costs that go with the legal fight.

Kim: It is, and we have seen this across California in a Democratic majority blue state, where people are saying, “You can build housing, but not in my backyard, not in my city. I have my home, but you don’t deserve your piece of the American dream.” My main opponent has this view, and there are other candidates in this race and I’m glad that they want to serve the community. But my main opponent and I have different philosophical views about housing. He’s basically running a campaign based on NIMBYism, making every excuse in the book about why we should not build more housing and telling people that I’m going to change their lives and change Irvine, making it worse. I think we still have to be careful about where we are going to build and consider all of the factors that come with building additional housing. 

Irvine Watchdog: Dennis and Gail are a retired couple who have lived in Irvine since 1980. As they have grown older, both Dennis and Gail require some additional assistance. Their son, Brian, currently lives in Bakersfield. He’s a single dad who works at a community college. He’s willing to move to Irvine and try to find work in Orange County to help care for his parents who want to stay in their home, but he cannot afford housing in the city that he grew up in. Dennis and Gail are considering building an ADU on their property so Brian and his child can have their own space. If you were advising this family about housing and their desire to remain in Irvine while aging in place, what might you tell them? 

Kim: This is a complicated but a very real situation that happens all the time in Irvine. Gail and Dennis are like a lot of parents living this scenario, which is why I talk about building for our children – building homes so that the children growing up here can have opportunities to buy, rent, and live here when they are older as working adults. I talk about this a lot. 

I’m also the only person on the council, prior to when Kathleen Treseder joined us, who was talking about ADUs. I do not hate ADUs and think that they need to be part of several solutions that we look at to address the need for more affordable housing in Irvine. My opponent hates ADUs with a passion, and most of the other councilmembers are not on board with ADUs as a possible solution. We still need to account for certain factors, but there are some lots in Irvine that have more space. I don’t want to build monstrosities or large add-ons that would look out of place in a neighborhood. But there are ways that we can build these units thoughtfully. 

My opponent has two homes right next to each other, and I live in a 1500 square foot condo with no yard, and I’m not complaining because at least I have that and consider myself blessed and fortunate. I don’t even know if my child will be able to afford a home in Irvine. 

Irvine Watchdog: And in this hypothetical about Dennis and Gail, it’s their son, Brian, who works at a community college, in what many would consider a good job. He is the one having difficulty affording his own space here. 

Kim: Yes, we have a lot of working people who went to college, found a career, and then they aren’t making enough money to be able to afford to live here. There is something that I want to add, and I will make it clear that I’m not running for state senate or assembly, so I will say it, Prop. 13 is part of the problem. We have people who are locked in and won’t move because they will be “penalized.” They will have to pay higher property taxes if they leave their existing homes. A lot of older people are locked into their homes with a fixed income and taxes that they can afford, but they are afraid to move and then have to pay more elsewhere. We have to find some solutions at the state level, but no politician will run on reforming or taking away Prop. 13 because seniors have a high voting propensity. 

I’m trying to figure out what we can do on a municipal level to help seniors who might want to leave their larger homes and downsize, and some of them might not be able to maintain their homes. ADUs could also be a solution for seniors who want to live in a smaller space, and maybe their children move into the main home. I’m trying to think of solutions that would be workable for our residents and their families. 

Irvine Watchdog: Another idea is to consider dividing some of the large homes into duplexes. 

Kim: I would consider this and think that there are some parts of Irvine with larger homes where this could make sense. Some of the larger homes where seniors are living alone, some of those homes could be duplexes. 

Irvine Watchdog: Is there a mayor of a California city that you admire or would like to emulate? 

Kim: Gosh, there are a lot of good mayors and people who I admire. I think Irvine is kind of unique, but I would like for people to think of Tammy Kim as being the mayor to emulate if I’m elected. 

Irvine Watchdog: The next question is about allowing infill in parts of the city that are not well served by retail or grocery stores within walking or biking distance of their homes. Would you consider allowing accessory commercial units (ACUs) in the city to give aspiring entrepreneurs more opportunities to start businesses with a lower barrier to enter the market and give Irvine residents more locally owned businesses to patronize? 

Kim: Absolutely, I support this and have tried to do something similar in Irvine. There was a Michelin star chef who prepared a prix fixe menu and would have no more than eight people at their place at a time. This person was receiving citations. I tried to reverse this and bring [the business] into compliance, and I was the sole supporter on the council of this type of business. The council felt that you live where you live and you work where you work, and in their minds, those places should be separate. They didn’t want someone to have this small business operating in Irvine. I was voted down, and we didn’t bring this issue back to open session. I tried to change this, and maybe we can revisit it with newer councilmembers. 

I am excited about the prospect of Irvine having a downtown. Now my opponent has been talking more about this. Guess what? He’s had five decades to create a downtown in Irvine, and he hasn’t. You have to think about where these ideas are coming from and why they are suddenly popular. He had had decades to get behind building a part of the city where we could have better retail and amenities within short distances, but now that I and others are talking about it, he brings these things up and says he supports them. He has had since 1978 to come up with something, but he talks about his accomplishment in the late 1980s and that there’s no airport. I’m not looking backwards. I’m interested in moving Irvine forward. 

Irvine Watchdog: I talk to a lot of people who feel that they aren’t well served by their village shopping center and would like to see more choices near their homes like independently run coffee shops or cafes so they didn’t have to get on the road and deal with traffic to grab a snack or quick meal. 

Kim: A lot of people want the convenience of those things near them, and there is a state law that would allow for permitted vending and selling from homes so it’s possible. But we don’t have a council that is supportive of that now. I’m hoping this will change, and this is what I was trying to address with the Michelin star chef situation. 

Also, we lose out as consumers when we don’t have as many choices for shopping and restaurants. We think about how consumers experience things these days, and the big emphasis is on the experience and how you deliver that to the customer. If you can walk or bicycle to some place that delivers a wonderful dining experience nearby, that’s valuable. I have heard so many excuses about cars and traffic when solutions like this could help alleviate traffic. 

Irvine Watchdog: There is a perception among some Arab American and Muslim Irvine residents that they are not being heard in the city. Irvine obviously is home to many folks from the Middle East and North Africa region. The Arab American Civic Council, CAIR, JVP, and Yalla Indivisible recently held a mayoral forum, and I don’t think you were there. Was there a reason why you couldn’t attend? And is there something you might want to communicate to this community that feels like their concerns are not being heard? 

Kim: Absolutely, there were two events. When the Arab American Civic Council first invited me, they gave me a date when I was available, and then they moved it to another time when I already had another campaign event scheduled. I told them that I would try to get out of the previously scheduled event, but as it turned out, I could not get out of that event without causing disappointment. This really came down to scheduling

The Islamic Center also had an event the same day as the Irvine Global Village Festival, and as a councilmember I was attending and for my day job, the organization was going to have a booth there. I could not attend that Islamic Center event because of this conflict. But I know that people from The Islamic Center knew that I was at the Irvine Global Village Festival because they saw me and we acknowledged each other. 

It’s unfortunate that this is becoming an issue where some think I did not want to attend, but in these instances, it really came down to a scheduling conflict. There may be a tendency to think that I didn’t attend because of the ceasefire discussion or what happened on Oct. 7 last year. I want to say to the Muslim American and Arab American community what I have said before – I keep foreign affairs separate from what I do when I’m on the dais. This decision goes beyond Palestine and Israel, it also relates to China and Taiwan and other issues going on in East Asia. I have been asked about Hong Kong, the one China policy, and other issues. I don’t want to get involved in these issues that are beyond my responsibility to the residents of Irvine. 

For instance, I was bothered when the Mayor offered her regards after the assassination of Shinzo Abe in Japan. I was thinking, “Does she know that he worshiped people who are war criminals in my opinion?” I told the Mayor that I think we should stay in our lanes, especially if you don’t know the region. 

It’s unfortunate that people take things further and say that I support genocide and killing babies. 

Irvine Watchdog: Is it fair to say that you want to be consistent about keeping foreign affairs out of governing decisions in Irvine? 

Kim: Yes, that’s it. I want us to keep the focus on what we have to do here in Irvine to improve things for our residents, to provide good services and create opportunities for us in Irvine.