Dr. Sharma Henderson, known by friends and supporters as Dr. Sharma, knows that running for elected office isn’t for everybody. The long-time educator and perennial volunteer believe those seeking office are usually opportunists. But for people who are genuine about doing the work, it’s weary having to constantly validate who you are over and over again.
Dr. Sharma recounted a back and forth in which she was engaged on social media before arriving at our scheduled interview. A poster had concluded their remarks with, “So who really lives in the district because that’s going to determine my vote.”
According to Dr. Sharma, if we focus more on the issues, it’s easily discernible who lives in the district. You discern it by their service, what they talk about in their lives in their own home, and who knows them in the community.
“Meet Me at the DoubleTree”: Why Carson needs places in town to hang out.
“That will tell you far more than what they say their address is,” Dr. Sharma said.
Dr. Sharma has lived in the City of Carson for 15 years, but grew up in South L.A., primarily in Baldwin Hills Village (Not Baldwin Hills) colloquially known as the Jungles. She said she experienced all of the things that a low-income black girl in the ghetto could experience from gang violence to both of her parents struggling with drug addiction.
“My family was on every government program under the sun,” she said.
Dr. Sharma explained that she came to see education as her primary means to change her life. She did well in school and went to USC for her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and a doctorate from Pepperdine University.
It is because of her background that she pursued a career in the nonprofit and education sectors.
As an Upward Bound graduate, she pays it forward by doing a lot of college preparation work with high school students.
Upward Bound is a federally funded educational program that is a part of a cluster of programs now referred to as TRiO, all of which owe their existence to the federal Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 (the War on Poverty Program) and the Higher Education Act of 1965. Implemented and monitored by the United States Department of Education, the goal of Upward Bound is to provide disadvantaged students better opportunities for attending college, particularly students from low-income backgrounds, first-generation college students, and rural areas.
She is also a grant writer, a craft she learned from the federal perspective from Upward Bound — an experience she says, served her well.
Professionally, she has done a lot of consulting work in the public and private sectors, but she said her passion has always been her community work involving advocacy and outreach. Nonprofit work is her heart and soul.
Dominguez Channel Stench
Dr. Sharma is happy Carson residents have been motivated if not driven to participate in Carson’s civic life as a result of the hydrogen sulfide stench from the Dominguez Channel. She just wishes that there is more of that level of engagement on a regular basis. Residents have reported being made physically ill from the stench, resulting in taking time off from work and otherwise impacting finances and quality of life. Dr. Sharma thinks it’s unfortunate it took a crisis having a direct physical impact on people’s health to get Carson residents to use their voice.
The one positive outcome of the Carson stench: more residents are getting involved and holding their electeds accountable.
“I’m glad to see people speaking up and voicing their concerns and learning about who’s in charge of what,” Dr. Sharma said. “That excites me.”
What she would like to see is greater engagement by Carson’s city council with residents, and for the city to acquire data on the experiences of Carson residents to address issues that are really impacting residents.
“I know that they know their responsibility is to protect the city,” Dr. Sharma said. “It shouldn’t have to be where we have a stench and now everyone’s trying to figure out what to do with the channel.”
But she has little confidence that the city council as it is currently composed will do what is necessary. To her mind, everything is rigged to secure the best interest of those who are on the city council today.
“We don’t have a mission statement,” Dr. Sharma said. “We don’t have a strategic plan. We don’t have a vision statement. There are no priorities,” she said. “There’s nothing driving the council. It’s all whatever they think off the cuff in terms of decision-making… They argue about who gets to set the agenda. But whoever gets to set it, what is it based on? There’s no forward-thinking. It just kind of happens. That’s how they roll.”
Dr. Sharma is unafraid to say what she means and able to cut to the bone the problems affecting her district and the city at large.
She notes that the city council members have their own vested interests and the way things have been up until now has served them well. The diminutive level of engagement with all Carson residents up to this point has led to complacency — a complacency that has gone unchallenged. And in the instances where the city council’s complacency is called out, it’s not being heard in places and spaces that matter.
“I get appalled when I see people even on social media say, ‘that’s why I don’t vote.’” Dr. Sharma said. “Not only is that the wrong attitude, [but that’s also] exactly what [this city’s electeds on the city council] are banking on.
Dr. Sharma says her number one goal, above and beyond anything, is to disrupt the status quo and change things so that there’s a responsible and responsive government that actually cares about what people think.
“They’re only going to care if people make them care,” Dr. Sharma said. “And in order to have that happen, you have to inform people. You have to empower them and encourage them and let them know how much power they do have in Carson.”
With all due respect to the Sheriff’s deputy who told me we don’t have any hoods in Carson, that’s not okay because I feel very hood-like where I live.
On Crime
Dr. Sharma is generally chagrined at the degree the Carson Sheriffs are applauded for their work. It is just that it hits different when you don’t feel safe in the community the Sheriff’s department and the city council are supposed to protect.
“I know I’m not safe in my community,” the self-proclaimed super-volunteer said. “I don’t leave things in my car. I have bags and bags of stuff because [thieves] keep breaking into my vehicle.”
Dr. Sharma says she doesn’t feel safe walking outside her door at certain times and night because of all the drug dealers and people getting high. She said she has told some of the members of the city council about her issues and shown video footage of people swirling around in her backyard.
“What I’ve gotten as a response from some of the people on the council is, ‘Oh we need to move you out of there.’ No, that’s not the solution,” Dr. Sharma said. “We need to deal with the issues. But when you don’t have to live with it … When the people who vote for you and support you don’t have to live with it … When you’re numb to what’s going on … When you’re okay with whatever the level of crime … Until there’s zero crime, you shouldn’t be applauding anything.”
The Carson Volunteer Stroke Center Association founder recounted a conversation she had with a Sheriff about crime in Carson.
“With all due respect to the Sheriff’s captain who told me we don’t have any hoods in Carson, and I’m like, no, that’s not okay because I feel very hood-like where I live,” Dr. Sharma said.
While Dr. Sharma is not a medical doctor, she has policy prescriptions for the problems that ail the city of Carson.
The good doctor believes that the fourth district probably has one of the higher concentrations of renters in it because of the abundance of apartment complexes there. But even within the complexes, there are a lot of modest units that are owned.
“I live in Avalon Greens, which is a small condominium complex. It used to be military housing,” Dr. Sharma explained. “The units are 700 to 736 square feet. That’s tiny. So even for someone who owns something in that area, it’s a small piece of property.”
She said one of the things she has been pointing out to the city is that there isn’t much accessible data that are very specific to the fourth District and the City in general.
“What I’d like to see is a community-wide citywide needs assessment so that we’re not talking about things just in general … so that we could really address things specifically,” Dr. Sharma explained. “How many renters do we have? How many of those rentals or even the homes that are owned are overcrowded? We have a homelessness problem in Carson, but we don’t know how many of those people are folks who have a mental illness, which we know is common, but we don’t know how many of those folks are simply unemployed or underemployed.
Dr. Sharma goes further and explains that a needs assessment can be used to determine what’s going on that’s creating this crime.
“My perception is that we have a lot of young people who lose their direction,” Dr. Sharma explained. “It’s not enough to just have our Explorers program. We need significantly more.”
She acknowledges that the city has its college prep courses, a robust sports program, and lots of parks, but she says it’s not enough and that no one is doing anything to promote and amplify that.
“We have a lot of undereducated and unemployed people,” Dr. Sharma explained.”What do they do when they have nothing else to do? They rob and steal.”
She believes the city should be using the sheriff’s department and its resources more effectively. That there should be more task forces assigned to areas where there are concentrated crimes.
She highlighted the fact that the city had to pay $1 million more for its contract with the Sheriff’s department because the county had its own budgetary issues.
“That’s all well and good, but we didn’t get anything additional for that extra million dollars,” she said. “That’s not okay.”
Dr. Sharma noted that the city had started the Carson Community Foundation and instead of using that foundation as a 501c3 charity to bring in donations and grant funds to address some of these issues, the city used it as a pass-through for funds that it was already getting donated from local businesses.
Now the foundation is just sitting there doing nothing, Dr. Sharma explained, and the city went back to the old way of getting money directly from businesses.
“Well, we have the capacity with that nonprofit arm, as a Community Foundation, to bring in additional monies and resources,” Dr. Sharma said. “I’m a grant writer by trade. I’ve amassed over $40 million in funding for organizations to do these kinds of programs. Why are we not using that to access funds that as a city, we cannot acquire … funds that can be used for programs and services to increase community policing efforts in the city. The Sheriff’s department has some deputies who have started a Carson Cares program. We’ve been working with them through the Sheriff’s Station Support Foundation to try to more formalize that effort and bring in more programs and services, but so much more if the Carson Cares Program was working in partnership with the city and bringing in more specified resources.
Dr. Sharma argues that there needs to be a strategic plan with goals and priorities about public safety when developing an agenda for the city. She says every council agenda should address the numbers that do exist because Carson does not have zero crime.
“That needs to be on every agenda,” Dr. Sharma said and it’s not.