A Reality Check About Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass
When Fiction Offered by Political Commentators and "Journalists" Supplants Reality
This week, after having had enough of the ignorant and altogether infuriating discourse of online commentators and journalists about the fires in Los Angeles, I decided to be productive.1 I got offline and baked chocolate chip cookies and Nutella brownies for LAFD firefighters.2
I dropped off the platter at Station 71 on Tuesday afternoon (the station that served as LAFD’s headquarters during the 1961 Bel Air Fire) to very professional, kind, and appreciative firefighters.
As I baked for the firefighters, I had time to contemplate the recent torrent of heavy criticism directed at Los Angeles
by punditry. As a born and raised Angeleno, it has honestly confounded me.Since the Pacific Palisades Fire broke out, pundits have informed us that Karen Bass is a failed leader, an ultra left wing, “woke” mayor, who burnt down the Pacific Palisades through her sheer incompetence or worse, intentional negligence, for the purposes of advancing a Marxist social justice agenda. Puck’s Peter Hamby declared “The feckless Los Angeles mayor is certain to lose her seat, if she isn’t recalled first.”
My response is to ask, what on earth are these people talking about?
That description of Bass is entirely fictional. Some clarification is needed. Because while fiction is great, when it supplants actual reality, it can be dangerous.
It might be worthwhile to understand how Bass became Mayor in the first place because many pundits do not appear to know.
In the 2022 Los Angeles Mayoral race, Bass ran on a platform of practical governance instead of big promises about the potential of LA. The last two Mayors, Antonio Villaraigosa and Eric Garcetti, had both campaigned for office with grand promises. Not only would they solve all of LA’s pre-existing problems but under them, LA would finally take our rightful place in the pantheon of the world’s greatest cities.
But after 8 years of Villaraigosa and 9 and 1/2 years of Garcetti, the city’s problems seemed worse than ever and very few grand promises had been delivered. In 2022, Karen Bass’s general election opponent, Rick Caruso, made similar grand promises.
While she wasn’t Debbie Downer, Bass was clear-eyed about the limitations of the Mayor’s office and what she would not be able to fix. She avoided making grand promises that voters had heard multiple times before. She ran on a practical and non-ideological platform, even opposing the disastrous “Mansion Tax”, which should be held unconstitutional if the law is properly followed by our courts.
That resonated with many longtime voters who had been disappointed with being overpromised and under delivered.3
Despite Caruso spending $100 million of his own money against her, she won by nearly 10%, the largest winning margin in any of the last four Los Angeles Mayoral runoff elections without an incumbent.
She’s made good on her campaign promise. As the Mayor, Bass has:
Dramatically increased funding for the Los Angeles Police Department, reversing severe cuts from 2020 (She’s also increased the Los Angeles Fire Department’s budget every year).
Vetoed a City Council ballot proposal to upend the LAPD’s officer disciplinary system that was supported by Black Lives Matter but opposed by the Los Angeles Police Protective League.
Picked Jim McDonnell, a traditional cop’s cop to be the new LAPD Chief. McDonnell, a former Republican who lost re-election as Los Angeles County Sheriff because he refused to become a Democrat. In picking McDonnell, who is a straight white male, she ignored the LA Times and other interest groups who demanded she appoint a Hispanic/Latino Chief or a black woman Chief (solely on the basis of their respective identities).
Appointed City Commissioners who reflect diversity of thought and experience (including real estate developers, charter school advocates, and even conservatives).
Protected single family home zoning across the city, which has been under sustained attack from YIMBY activists and state lawmakers, while still zoning new areas for multi-family housing.
Obtained numerous state, federal, and private sector grants for the city to construct affordable housing and homeless housing.
Made clear that she will not permit people to camp on the streets if they have been offered shelter.
Cleared numerous homeless encampments and, for the first time in over a decade, reduced the numbers of homeless on the streets of LA.
Steadfastly supported and defended Israel, unequivocally condemning the October 7, 2023 attacks without engaging in both-sides arguments like some progressive politicians have done.
Prevented left-wing criminal justice reformer Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon from using events with her office to help boost his sagging popularity (she declined to endorse his re-election bid).
Demonstrated she is a stickler for following governmental ethical rules.
Her responses to various city crises, large and small, have been impressive.
In November 2023, the 10 freeway in downtown LA burnt down (Caltrans allowed a non-paying holdover tenant to store flammable materials on one of its sites directly underneath the freeway for over a year). Beyond a traffic nightmare, this threatened major economic hardship for the city. The freeway was not supposed to be reopened for a minimum of five months.
Bass went to work and eight days later, the freeway reopened.When city sanitation workers went on strike in 2023, the strike was resolved in a day without any resident missing their weekly trash pickup.
While busloads of undocumented migrants sent by Texas Governor Greg Abbot and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis created out of control crises in New York City and Chicago, Los Angeles responded efficiently, absorbing the migrants.
When a major landslide in 2024 washed out Laurel Canyon Boulevard, a major arterial road connecting the Valley to the city, the city re-opened it less than 5 days later and helped affected homeowners quickly recover their properties.
When Norm Langer, owner of the legendary Langer’s Deli went on local news to complain of the terrible crime and the city’s neglect around MacArthur Park forcing local businesses to close (the fault of local DSA Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez), Bass was at Langer’s the very next day, having lunch with Langer, taking notes, and calling various city departments to resolve the issues.
At a follow up lunch with Langer, she brought Councilwoman Hernandez with her for an educational experience. After the meeting, Councilwoman Hernandez, a hardline socialist who favors abolishing the police, became more favorably inclined towards the city’s small businesses.
With the Pacific Palisades Fire, Bass faces perhaps the greatest crisis any Los Angeles Mayor has ever faced. Unlike past disasters impacting Los Angeles where people rallied behind the Mayor, this time, many highly paid pundits and “journalists” have savagely attacked her.
The main criticisms are for:
Her lack of psychic abilities for when a wildfire would strike and being out of town when it occurred (she was in Ghana to lead a Presidential delegation at the behest of President Biden and immediately flew back).
The actions of Los Angeles County and other cities that she does not control and the actions of unelected Los Angeles County bureaucrats who she didn’t hire and has no authority to fire.
Not micromanaging the Los Angeles Fire Department to move all the city’s pre-deployment units to the Pacific Palisades before the fire instead of just those that were deployed. The high fire severity zones in LA extend throughout the 550 square miles of the city. Doing what commentators have demanded as “leadership” and “competence” would have burnt down wide swaths of the city.
Being indifferent to the suffering of fire victims if not happy about the occurrence of events based upon a belief that she doesn’t care about those who live in high fire zones. Of course, her longtime home in the Baldwin Vista neighborhood that the LAFD designates as a high fire zone, the same as Pacific Palisades. Her brother also lost his home in the Palisades Fire.
Smiling too much while thanking emergency first responders and city workers. Bass lost her then only child (her daughter Emilia), her son-in-law, and her unborn grandchild in a fluke car accident in 2006. Parents of predeceased children have different emotional reactions to losing their children.
I have already wasted enough brain cells responding to the above mentioned criticisms. However, beyond responding to criticisms, I credit her leadership during these fires.
She has avoided being baited into having arguments with hostile reporters. She even avoided getting into a fight with Trump at his shitshow roundtable even as he rudely and repeatedly interrupted her with false information. She has resolved any disagreements with her top department leaders with private meetings.
In communicating to the public, she has kept her comments solely to information that fire victims need to hear from their leaders. It’s not about her, it’s about us.
Within a week of the fires, she issued a comprehensive executive order that over-rode massive layers of bureaucracy for Pacific Palisades homeowners and business owners who are attempting to rebuild. Compliant plans (what existed before the fire in size and land use) will be automatically approved within 30 days of submission with one application for all city agencies. She also waived all city fees for those rebuilding.
She has appointed former mayoral candidate, Republican Steve Soboroff, a successful real estate developer who built Staples Center and the Playa Vista neighborhood, to be the Chief Recovery Officer. Soboroff was the handpicked successor of the last Republican Mayor of LA, Richard Riordan, in 2001, and is the last Republican to come even close to winning the Mayor’s office.
This selection demonstrates great leadership. As a leader, Bass appoints highly qualified people to get the job done, regardless of their personal ideology. The only background she considers is whether that background demonstrates their competence for the position.
Meanwhile, the city has continued to be responsive to the needs of fire victims, even with continually evolving circumstances and new challenges arising (for example, the LAPD had to help with pet recovery from evacuation zones when it was learned that people had not been able to get their dogs and cats before having to evacuate).
All this leaves me with a question. Where does this torrent of media hatred towards Bass come from?
It appears to be disgruntled supporters of Caruso, who right wingers and even some centrist Democrats have lionized.
It’s somewhat strange to witness because:
In 2020, Caruso endorsed George Gascon for District Attorney, gave him the maximum campaign contribution, and hosted fundraisers for him. Gascon ran on a left wing platform of implementing social justice through the prosecutor’s office. Bass declined to endorse George Gascon for District Attorney, breaking with the Democratic Party and many progressives.4
Caruso campaigned on a platform of implementing race-based and sex-based quotas for his administration, promising that 50% of his Administration would be Hispanic/Latino and 50% would be women (even though that’s illegal and violates the California Constitution). Bass, who has never campaigned on identity politics, declined to make such promises.
Caruso criticized Bass for owning two guns when her home was burgled during the campaign.
Observing right wingers who decry “DEI” and who hated Gascon as a “Soros backed DA” (most of LA County did, 60% of voters voted him out of office in 2024), it is baffling to see them bemoan the electoral loss of someone who helped put Gascon into office, ran on implementing strict race and sex based quotas, and seemingly dislikes guns.
It’s even more baffling to see highly paid centrist leaning Democratic commentators launch all out attacks against Bass, claiming she is the problem with the party.
First, while there is always room for improvement and she’s certainly made mistakes, Bass is currently doing a fine job as Mayor.5
Second, these centrist commentators are completely contradicting their own narrative. Centrist commentators argue that the Democratic Party needs to shed wokeness and blame the Democratic Party’s loss in 2024 on the party’s refusal to confront its radical fringe wings. They should like a Democrat like Bass.6
If there is a problem with today’s Democratic Party, too many elected officials are afraid of saying “no” to radical fringe forces within the party. This can mean adopting bad public policies or simply embracing talking points that turn off wide swaths of the electorate (think identity politics).
However, Bass is willing to say “no”.
Not in an antagonistic way that provokes conflict, but in a firm parental way. Similar to a good parent who responds to a request from their child to only eat ice cream for dinner and stay up till 3 am playing computer games. “Sorry, but no.”
Looking at her actual record, Bass is continually (1) sensible, (2) practical, (3) not motivated by identity politics, (4) open to different ideas, (5) tolerant of people with views she doesn’t agree with, (6) recruiting talented people to government service regardless of ideology, and (7) not a micro-manager of government agencies, enabling good people to get important work done.
Frankly, at this moment, she seems to be the kind of leader that the Democratic Party desperately needs more of.
One final note.
One reason I resent the injection of politics into this crisis is the level of divisiveness it creates. There are real people who are suffering. At the worst time in their lives, when they have lost everything, they are being given a scapegoat to blame for what has occurred by those who are seeking power.
Of the many fire victims I know, most do not blame Bass or buy into the media nonsense about the fires. Some rather resent it. However, I know a small handful who do. While I don’t agree with them, their feelings are completely understandable because in tragedy, it is human nature to seek out something to blame.
In those cases, I’m not arguing with them and I’m still helping them. Because they deserve nothing less. Moreover, if I am being consistent in my opposition to those injecting politics into this disaster, I cannot respond in kind.
However, I will speak out and educate the rest of the public. Because you should be properly informed even if pundits will only offer fiction.
Thus far, Bass has done her job as Mayor very well. For the sake of the displaced Pacific Palisades residents, let’s hope she continues.
The author of this article is an attorney licensed to practice in the State of California and the District of Columbia. This article and all of the works on this Substack page are statements of the opinions of the author, only, and do not constitute legal advice; they are not intended to be relied upon by any individual or entity in any transaction or other legal matter, past, pending, or future. A paid subscription to this Substack page supports the author’s scholarship and provides access to research that the author has compiled, but does not establish an attorney-client relationship. The author does not accept unsolicited requests for legal advice or representation, and this Substack page is not intended as legal advertising. The opinions expressed on this Substack page reflect the personal views of the author only.
The timing was good. The very next evening, that same fire station was one of the first to respond to the Sepulveda Fire. The LAFD put it out without any casualties or property damage.
Her campaign also benefitted from longtime friendships with unlikely sources - gained not from experience in office but from her days as a community activist. In the 1980’s and 1990’s, she had often forged alliances on local issues with conservative white homeowners in the Valley and on the westside.
In the 2001 LA Mayoral race, she had kind words for the leading Republican candidate who almost won (he remembered). She also defied black political leadership in that same race to endorse and campaign for Antonio Villaraigosa. Over 90% of black voters backed Villaraigosa’s opponent. Longtime Hispanic political activists always remembered her willingness to think independently.
Caruso, whose first instinct at the breakout of the Palisades Fire was to criticize Bass and attack Los Angeles as a “third world city” and has continued to make this tragedy about himself, seems to believe that a chief qualification of being Mayor of Los Angeles should be having psychic abilities.
If that’s the case though, I think his decision to bankroll George Gascon into the District Attorney’s office in 2020 is worthy of scrutiny. Because surely one with natural psychic abilities could easily have predicted the massive mess and resulting immense harm that his election would create for Los Angeles County.
Further, even if he lacked psychic abilities, perhaps he could have determined what would happen simply by (1) reviewing Gascon’s record, (2) reading Gascon’s campaign platform, or (3) spending five minutes talking to Gascon during the campaign.
If right wingers have changed their mind about George Gascon, who was handily defeated for re-election, I am fascinated to know why. But otherwise, I remain confused by the talking points.
My opinion is subject to change. Currently, a new problem has arisen. The United States Army Corps of Engineers has reportedly stated that it will take 18 months to clear the debris from the Pacific Palisades Fire. That is an unacceptable amount of time to wait.
We wanted to start rebuilding Pacific Palisades last week. Donald Trump is of course responsible for the United States Army Corps of Engineers. While he criticized Bass for the 18 month period, he could do something about it. But if he won’t get them to do it, either because he’s (1) lazy, (2) incompetent, or (3) spiteful towards Californians, Bass needs to find a Plan B.
If she is unable to do so and the Palisades remains unbuilt, she will lose support among the city’s voters. Most normal people with a half functioning brain will understand she’s not responsible for the wildfires. And most will understand that Trump is a horrible person. But it will still fall on her to figure out the solution and implement it. If she fails, voters will rightfully blame her for it.
I consider myself a Team Normal Democrat. Depending on the specific issue, I swing more liberal or more centrist. Generally speaking, I have a bleeding heart but I am practical about the limits of government and the need for responsible public policy. If a conservative policy idea furthers liberal goals, I am not against it simply because of the source of the idea.