Karen Bass

Competence May Not Be Enough.

Karen Bass was not a celebrity candidate, and neither was she a chaos politician. She served well in the California Assembly, Congress, and as chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. She also made history as the first woman elected mayor of Los Angeles and the city’s second Black mayor. She’s a steady, experienced public servant.

That still matters.

But it may not be enough.

As a long-time Angeleno, I know we all feel tired, frustrated, and impatient. She leads the race, but polling shows a large number of Angelenos remain undecided. We’re talking 40%.  That’s a warning sign.

So yeah, she’s ahead.

But, she’s not safe.

I personally feel that part of the reason is that we don’t want safe. We don’t want to just get by, cruisin’ along at 55mph. We want some acceleration. We aren’t happy with the status quo because we’re so damned tired of just treading water. We aren’t drowning, but we’re not on dry land either. In fact, we can’t even see it.

It may sound strange, but Bass’s strongest argument is homelessness, and that’s because the numbers show homelessness and unsheltered homelessness in Los Angeles have dropped under her administration. Her administration also pushed faster housing approvals and more shelter options (some of which are controversial such as the Inside Safe, wherein  individuals are voluntarily moved out of tent encampments and into temporary hotel and motel rooms.) That approach feels more like sweeping the mess under the rug than finding an actual solution.

And while some of the actions are real actual progress, others are not.

Best intentions may (or may not) be present, but here is the real issue: WE don’t feel it.

WE still see the tents. WE still see the RVs. WE still see untreated mental illness, open drug use, and sidewalks that feel like we’re on the set of a Mad Max movie.

That is Bass’s central weakness.

She may have improved the numbers, but she has not changed OUR daily experience.

Putting that aside, her greatest strength in the eyes of most Angelenos is probably compassion. She does not talk about unhoused people like garbage to be removed. She treats homelessness as a human crisis, not just a political nuisance.

That should matter.

But it requires that Angelenos share that compassion as well. That we as a community have empathy for the homeless that we often ignore as we walk by, or sadly step around as we go about our daily lives.

And we’re tired. So so very tired.

Every day we see monuments of our city, like the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, and we wonder, “Will we ever return to those days?”

So while we can remember to embrace our compassion, without real “visible” improvement, we aren’t healing our exhaustion.

We also can’t ignore the Palisades fire.

It wasn’t just on the news, it was literally outside our window. Many of us had friends who lost homes. It was a personal disaster. We all felt it. The Palisades Fire hurt her badly. She was out of the country when the fire erupted, and the image was brutal: Los Angeles was burning while the mayor was in Ghana.

The fire department budget debate made things worse. The details are complicated, but residents don’t care about complicated explanations when a disaster is looming over their heads.

For many of us, the takeaway was simple:

The city was suffering, and our local officials looked unprepared.

The mayor looked absent.

And City Hall seemed defensive.

It was a bad look. A real bad look.

Bass’s other challenge is that she is an old-school institutional politician in a city that now runs on anger, exhaustion, and a desire for visible action.

Her calm style can read as seriousness, but again, we’re tired and we don’t want to keep treading water… we want to be rescued.

That may be what Angelenos are most disappointed in.

Not just the slow pace of change.

The lack of visible urgency.

People want to feel that someone is taking command of the city. Bass often looks like she is managing the situation, going through the process, and honoring protocols. That may be responsible government, but in these turbulent times it may also be bad politics.

What we NEED is a competent, steady hand at the wheel.

While, what we WANT is someone screaming outrage and moving mountains.

My fear is that in our desire to have visible change to the landscape, we may be reactive to those loud (obnoxious) voices <cough> Spencer <cough> that will most definitely bring about change, but not for the good of the residents of this amazing city.

So I find myself asking, is Karen Bass good for future of our city?

She’s produced some measurable progress on homelessness. She has governed with seriousness. She is not reckless, or cruel.

But, if she is to win, she needs to read the room.

She needs to let us know she understands why we’re exhausted, and why we’re concerned.

Homelessness. Cost of living. The film industry leaving town.

This city doesn’t need a bandaid – it needs triage.

And if she can’t convey not only that she understands the urgency, but that she has an answer that does more than keep our heads above water… Angelenos will look for a new direction. Even if that direction is risky and chaotic <cough> Spencer <cough>.

Do I support her? Not really. And here’s the rub, I’m a pragmatist at heart, and while there are other candidates I do support, my fear is that in supporting them I will take votes away from Bass, which during close margin elections could give Angelenos our own version of Trump 2.0.

<cough> Spencer <cough>

FYI, this blorg was written by an actual human creature. Not AI, no AI, never AI.
We like to use good, old-fashioned brains.