The WeHo for the People Candidate Forum introduced residents to Sarah Adolfson-Reimer. Adolfson is a resident of King’s Road and a business owner with offices on Norwich Drive. WEHOville went to meet the rising star this afternoon after her performance, which everyone in town was talking about.
Adolfson is a straight married woman, small business owner and longtime resident of West Hollywood. While we didn’t see or hear Sarah talk about issues prior to her debut yesterday, she was well-informed and had a telegenic charisma. She is beautiful and smart.
WEHOville received several messages such as “WHOOOOO it’s Sarah!”
Other text: “I love Sarah.
And another comment from a concerned resident: “She should continue to participate and run in two years, I would even vote for her against Joe Biden.”
Adolfson’s impeccable tone, warm demeanor, and down-to-earth, concrete perspective lifted the spirit of the discussion that anything is possible in the magical city of West Hollywood.
My dream was awakened by the founding of a time limit initiative so that the voices of the people could rise. There are new leaders ready to serve. Some of them work full-time and cannot go into politics every day, but are “forced to run”.
So I went to meet Sarah. She welcomed me to her office on Norwich Drive. Her entire team was busy with work.
Sarah, congratulations on an incredible performance last night. Who are you?
I can go all the way back… I was born and raised in Saratoga, California. My father was always active in the community, ran for the student council. (She shows me his old campaign button she recently found and smiles.) He ran for the student council when I was in elementary school and stayed there until I graduated from high school. There is a very active social life. I’ve been on the youth commission and worked with the city council to make sure our community, which also has about 35,000 people, has youth services.
When did you move to West Hollywood?
My history in West Hollywood….. I came to Los Angeles, went to the University of Southern California for a bachelor’s degree in journalism. I was assigned a junior year, everyone was assigned a city, and I was assigned West Hollywood. To be honest… I was a bit disappointed, I wanted something a little more raw, something that could tell a whole story. And then I found out that West Hollywood has a special history. It has a really special history. I would sit at city council meetings. Everyone was full of love, full of light. There were interesting stories, there were interesting people, there was no crime. For my crime blog, there was a wallet kidnapping. And I thought, “This is where I’m going to move as soon as I graduate from college.” I grew up in such a society.
Where do you live now?
North Kings Road. I ended up joining the Peace Corps right out of college. I was in the Republic of Georgia for two years, then returned, then immediately went to West Hollywood. That’s where I’ve been since. We moved upstairs from bedroom 1 to bedroom 2 but I didn’t want to leave North Kings Road.
Do you have a partner or husband?
I found a husband. I met him in 2006, shortly after I moved here. Then he moved from Sacramento. We worked long distances. I met him through his Peace Corps friends.
What does he do for work?
He is engaged in real estate financing, works with developers.
This is good?
This is good. He gives me a point of view in which I have no information or experience. Thanks to him, I learned a lot about development. It is more residential than commercial.
So from the left field you suddenly decided to collect the papers and run. What motivated it ‘Am I going to do it? ‘
Well, I told you about why I fell in love with West Hollywood when I was in college and studying it. And I lived here, and I liked it, and then everything changed. For lack of a better term, I don’t know if it was a pandemic, I’m sure it was a mixture of pandemic and leadership. But we’re just focusing on the wrong issues. West Hollywood seems like a small town in a big city to me. I know all my neighbors. I know everyone who has a dog in many of the neighborhoods where I live. Now I don’t feel safe walking my dogs at night. The problem of the homeless is very serious. This is not a housing issue. These people are seriously mentally ill and we don’t care about them. They also make us feel very threatened. We need to do something about it. And then when I heard we were downsizing the sheriff’s department when the crime rate is always high. This is when I went for it.
Perfect… Your campaign is late with the game. Do you have the means to compete?
I have zero dollars now. But I have many friends and relatives who promised support. From day to day I will receive my identification number, open a bank account and be able to collect funds. I’m not going to compete with people who raised $200,000. I am a man of the masses. My entire career has been focused on social impact and using limited resources to make a difference in the world. I will take this experience and apply it to my campaign.
Do you have a site set up?
SarahAdolphson.com
So what are your three biggest challenges? Where have you been?
I’ve been building a business that requires a lot of work, but my team is excellent and we’re in a really great place where I can find a place to fight for the city of West Hollywood the same way I fight for my clients.
What business are you in?
Philanthropy. We are a social impact agency. We started out as a celebrity agency to be able to use their celebrity, their influence and their finances for good. I used to manage the fund of the talent agency William Morris Endeavor. I was working with Lady Gaga at the time and was able to launch Artemis with her as a client and help the Born this Way Foundation. Since then we have expanded, my business partner has been working with Al Gore for a long time on his client work and she brought him into the herd and some others. There are several articles that I can share with you.
Any thoughts on yesterday’s debate?
I thought it was interesting. There are so many of us that it is very difficult to get to the bottom of any of these issues. Trying to solve the problem of homelessness in 60 seconds is not easy. I have been in the philanthropic field for over 20 years. I have worked with a number of organizations for the homeless. I can talk about it, about my thoughts and my experience, but 60 seconds was not enough to express all my ideas and views on this.
Do you have any events planned?
We are working on them. One of them will definitely be official. I want one of my jobs to focus on cleaning up the city and picking up trash. Do good for West Hollywood. That’s who I am.
I want to run as green a campaign as possible. I understand that it can’t be perfect. But it’s important to me too. But I will share on my Instagram. And if people subscribe to my site, I will send out emails about when we are going to get together.