Proposition 50 passed in CA by large margin yet Beverly Hills is only 50/50
Thank you to all of you who mailed in and dropped off ballots or went to the polls on November 4. One of the reasons for starting this newsletter is to share information with our community members about things that are happening in our city, since we have truly become a city divided. The Beverly Hills Weekly https://bhweekly.com/issues/pdf/2025_1369.pdf published on December 25, 2025 reported the official results of the November election along with the area breakdowns for Prop 50 yes and no votes in Beverly Hills. In summary, in "The Flats" which is North Beverly Hills, the majority of people voted no, while in South Beverly Hills, the majority of the people voted yes. In the end, Prop 50 LOST by 117 votes in Beverly Hills . Only 9,075 people voted, which is slightly less than 30% of our registered voters. Our interpretation of this is that people in our community who are passionate about their point-of-view will come out to vote and this time it was more of the conservatives who thought it was important. However, on a positive note, it's clear that it's not inevitable that conservatives control the narrative for Beverly Hills, nor the city's future direction. What it does show us is that we all need to do our part and participate locally to get our city back to where we want it to be.
The result of this election makes our city an outlier in Los Angeles County where Prop 50 passed by over 74%. Los Angeles locals no longer view Beverly Hills as aspirational for living or even shopping due to our current politics. The Maga rallys certainly didn't help and a large group of people who live here are unwelcoming to "outsiders". This can't be good for our home prices, our businesses or our safety. Beverly Hills is not all white and Jewish, slightly over 30% of the population identifies as Asian (12%), Black (2%), Hispanic (6%) and a variety of others make up another 11%. Our city needs to welcome our diversity and instead of trying to become a singular community of people who are the same religion and ethnicity. Sometimes it feels like anyone outside the majority is trying to be pushed out as evidenced by the racial slurs throughout BHUSD and harassment at the No Kings rallys. However, the numbers show there are more of us than there are of them and we need all hands on deck to push back and get our own like-minded people elected to our City Council and School Board, as well as to be active and engaged in local politics. Otherwise, we become Huntington Beach.
We welcome your participation in taking back Beverly Hills and moving it toward a forward-thinking, non-secular, diverse community where everyone feels safe to live. We have the best local police and fire departments and we will not cede that to those who don't want us to raise our voices for what we believe is right.
Mohamed Al Elew, Jeremia Kimelman