Misty Wilks is working to cause a paradigm shift in the way that people of color think about money. “We’re trying to cause a paradigm shift in the way that people of color think in terms of money,” she said. “We are often marketed to buy depreciable assets. Cars, clothes and (car) rims. We are rarely marketed to buy appreciable assets. Stocks, bonds, and things of that nature. I think that as the fear settles in the community about gentrification, instead of us rejoicing in our property values increasing, we are afraid that our property taxes are also increasing.”

The council Wednesday also approved Garcett’s nominees to the Cannabis Commission, backing the mayor’s picks of Robert Ahn, a former planning commissioner; Rita Villa, a certified public accountant; Philip D. Mercado, regional chief of general surgery at Southern California Permanente Medical Group; Misty Wilks, an attorney; and Victor Narro, a former member of the police commission’s Police Permit Review Panel. …

Misty Wilks is a long time community activist who understands how the younger and older demographics go about making change. She staged her first walkout over teachers’ salaries back in the mid 1980s, when she was only 13 years old.