Who is Rich Sarian?
I’m a third-generation native Angeleno, a (Van Nuys) born and (Chatsworth) raised “Valley Boy” that pretty much grew up in trash. My great-grandfather fled Armenia during the genocide and made his home in Los Angeles and starting Sarian Disposal, the family trash company. Summers were spent on a trash truck driving the streets of Los Angeles with my Papa and sorting trash at the Pacoima yard with my brothers. From Kindergarten on I found a way to lead. Be it choir or student council, launching classroom theater productions or making movies, I was constantly collaborating and inspiring groups. I studied cinematography at CSUN (Cal State Northridge) and was captivated by the ins and outs of lighting. I set down the camera after college, but kept my fascination with lighting and have taken it organically into many aspects of my career.
It was my work with a client in Hollywood that got me involved in the Hollywood community in 2011. For being a world-famous city, the community of Hollywood has a surprising small-town vibe and they took me in with open arms. I started volunteering with the Hollywood Arts Council immediately and that was the first time I realized I could be a part of something bigger and give back. It was also in 2011 that I rented my first apartment in LA and I’ve been a proud tenant since. In 2018, I was hired by the Hollywood Business Improvement District and began to make changes to the streets of Hollywood and expand the Hollywood community. I oversaw the organization’s clean and safe programs and helped move those programs into more amiable services for the community, all the while adding hundreds more trash cans throughout Hollywood that were (and still are) picked up multiple times a day.
I joined the Hollywood PAL board in 2019 and at the beginning of Covid, I helped build Hollywood Harvest. What we started as a free, weekly grocery delivery service to elders in Hollywood ended up with our constructing a food warehouse, complete with an industrial refrigerator and freezer in a derelict Pawn Shop at 1223 N. Vine St. Our operation outgrew us and we gave the whole thing over to the Hollywood Food Coalition where it became their “Community Exchange” operation that has since redistributed 11 million pounds of food waste from landfills to local non-profits. My involvement with the Hollywood Arts Council, of which I am now Chair, has included restoration of the Dolores del Rio mural in Hollywood and working to restore the You Are The Star mural, also in Hollywood. Our pre-pandemic art programs in Hollywood LAUSD schools saw countless children hone their talents and passion for the arts and helped shape the Hollywood community and its future generations. I have made significant improvements to Hollywood’s community, streets, sidewalks, and economy that have included the reconstruction and restoration of the Walk of Fame during Covid and the planting of almost one hundred trees. I’ve helped restore and create murals, I strung the lights over Cahuenga (that inspired the others throughout District 13 and the City) and added hundreds of color-changing lights in the trees along the Walk of Fame that increased safety and added necessary light to “The Walk” at night. The nonprofit boards I serve on have provided decades of youth programs to help foster new generations of community in Hollywood through arts, sports, mentorship, and service.
I am now Vice President of the South Park Business Improvement District (now “The Social District”) in Downtown Los Angeles since 2023 and have made that area of the world brighter too. I’ve had more trees planted there as well as hundreds of rose bushes along the sidewalks and in 2023, I organized and launched the weekly Saturday morning “Social District Farmers Market” on Grand Ave. Just this year our market was voted “Best Downtown Farmers Market” by the Los Angeles Downtown News for all of 2025. In 2024, I had hundreds of lights installed in the trees along 11th St. and over Pico St. that enhanced the public realm and caught the local news by storm! These projects also inspired the council office to initiate and fund the lighting projects along 7th St. and Broadway. With the Olympic and Paralympic Games coming to the district, I have been working with various organizations and city departments to ensure we are all successful for hosting the world for The Games. Let’s just say, we have our work cut out for us with all of that…
I’ve resided in the district for about seven years and have called Silverlake “Home” for two and a half of those years. In my almost ten-year career of place management, I have learned firsthand from the leaders of other cities and downtowns that bounced back from the pandemic without sliding back. I am a certified “Leader in Place Management”, the International Downtown Association’s certification program that “recognizes place management professionals who demonstrate the knowledge and skills to manage and lead a place management organization.” I am passionate about people and I am passionate about place.
My work in the City of Los Angeles has brought a necessary light, built community, enhanced the public realm, fostered economic development, bolstered the environment, cost very little, and simply put, has helped others! I would like to do more of the same as the Councilmember for District 13.