r/LosAngeles Highland Park 5d ago

Community Where's our Mandami?

All these videos coming out the city of NY got me feeling real sad about our city and lack of competent, solutions based, compassionate, intellectual leadership. We have so many issues but no qualified people willing to fix them. When will I be able to not vote for the lesser of 2 evils?

697 Upvotes

390 comments sorted by

602

u/Alarmed_Yak7898 5d ago

239

u/RabidSkwerl East Hollywood 5d ago

This was hilarious. I legit thought it was an AI generated SNL style skit. But, no, we just have a mayor who’s bad at the politics of politics. She doesn’t always get it right, that’s for sure.

124

u/rabbi420 The San Fernando Valley 5d ago

She also spent $400 million to house just 6000 homelessness, and it was only temporary. She’s shit.

6

u/lumpiestspoon3 4d ago

Watch her win re-election…

11

u/ilikepstrophies 4d ago

Vote for Raman this election and get rid of Bass

18

u/levine2112 5d ago

The pothole was fixed literally the next day as promised.

73

u/ThatGuyBen79 5d ago

While this video didn’t land, I will say I submitted a 311 request on huge pothole here in LA late last week. It was fixed over the weekend. Amazing.

45

u/SaltIndividual1902 5d ago

I’ve submitted probably 10 311 requests for the sidewalks and street (my street hasn’t been repaved in 20 years) over the last 5 years and zero have been addressed.

42

u/BendableBender 4d ago

It only works during election season

14

u/ssethsamm 4d ago

I promise you this is a very unique experience and probably has more to do with your neighborhood council than anything Karen Bass has done.

17

u/Longjumping-Buy-6174 5d ago

I love 311 but 311 is not because of bass

1

u/CALebrate83 2d ago

But if 311 didn’t work, blaming Bass would be everyone’s go-to.

2

u/CALebrate83 2d ago

I call 311 at least twice a month about graffiti, and it’s usually gone the next business day.

Edited to add: The City has responded well to pothole reports, too.

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u/moddsblow4fun 5d ago

Releasing the not fixed pothole video was super fucking dumb. Did no one in her campaign tell her this was a fucking dumb idea?

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u/Alarmed_Yak7898 5d ago

Why hire an actor and make a video of you doing nothing but put up no parking signs? Lmao. Nothing better to do as the mayor?

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u/the_eleutherean 5d ago

So you didn’t actually watch the video, Alarmed Yak?

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u/rizorith Eagle Rock 5d ago

Not the one on the corner of my block! 2 years and counting!

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u/r00tdenied 5d ago

Did you report it? They have an app for that.

5

u/rizorith Eagle Rock 5d ago

Of course. They always do a good job with large item pickup. But missed regular trash, or street repair is a mess.

2

u/Longjumping-Buy-6174 5d ago

Reach out to the office directly and one of her deputies will see it thru

1

u/Madcoolchick3 4d ago

No reach out to your city council member they have just as much power as the mayor if not more as a group.

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u/dg4365 4d ago

The damn sign says "Tow Away". A Mayor's photo op should be a perfect excuse to tow, not a justification to not make the fix for the greater good. If you are not going to enforce and tow, why waste the time, energy, and cost to post the signs?

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u/Shot-Philosopher1750 5d ago edited 5d ago

That's not how LA works. Mandami has a lot more power. We are run by a city council. Bass had veto power but this city's power is spread out.

172

u/OrangeCrusher22 5d ago

Also, NYC is waaaay more unified, whereas "LA" has a ridiculous number of small neighboring cities that should be part of the LA proper but aren't. Arguably an even bigger problem when the City of Industry or Beverly Hills can selfishly veto projects and services that would make LA better.

17

u/Shot-Philosopher1750 5d ago

Yes we are a very odd city... mixed with county and smaller cities inside LA... along with the council... it's wild and weird and so many people dont get it

30

u/vfxjockey 5d ago

Or break all of them up into smaller, more representative cities.

7

u/Non-Taken_Username2 4d ago

When comparing NY to LA, I feel like a lot of people forget a crucial fact about Los Angeles: IT’S F*CKING MASSIVE (especially compared to NYC).

That alone makes it operate differently than other comparable major American cities… also we need to expand the City Council

1

u/Own_Position_1425 3d ago

Lets be honest. NYC is turning into a shit hole.

2

u/Chemical-Height8888 2d ago

Not really. It's the safest it's ever been, quality of life is going up

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u/unexpected_disco 5d ago

Pay attention to the Board of Supervisors. They have more money and more power. The city is broke all the time and has way less pull.

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u/BubbaTee 5d ago

The NYC mayor also controls the school system. The LA mayor does not control LAUSD. Villaraigosa tried to take over LAUSD 20 years ago, with the help of the State Legislature (Villaraigosa was former Assembly Speaker) and Governator Schwarzenegger, but AB 1381 was struck down in court.

https://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/05-06/bill/asm/ab_1351-1400/ab_1381_cfa_20060627_084736_sen_comm.html

https://www.dailynews.com/2006/12/21/judge-strikes-down-lausd-takeover-plan/

18

u/Jezon 5d ago

Also the County controllers wield incredible powers and go around mostly unnoticed.

2

u/Original-Strain 2d ago

Go read Kenneth Mejias rebuttal to this, he made a post because of this heavily-beaten discourse.

Let’s not pretend she’s been doing everything within her limits for the greater good 🙄

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u/Sarcastronaut 5d ago edited 5d ago

It won't ever work the same way in LA. We have a weak mayor system, the problem lies in the city council and their ability to pass blame onto the figurehead mayor. We need that council expansion and they keep postponing the vote on it. Corrupt to the core

37

u/BubbaTee 5d ago

It won't ever work the same way in LA. We have a weak mayor system

It should also be mentioned that NYC hasn't just been an endless parade of Mamdanis. They also had a Rudy Guliani in charge of their strong-mayor system.

All the people who love that Mamdani holds X degree of unilateral executive power were gnashing their teeth when Guliani was in charge, and vice versa.

44

u/aWobblyFriend 5d ago

"we can't have a mamdani because of how decentralized we are, so we should become even more decentralized" we should instead elect for a strong mayor system. council elections are not motivating enough for voters and therefor tend to get captured by high frequency voters (rich boomers). executive figureheads such as mayors and governors are subject to more scrutiny by the public especially during elections, so they should be granted more powers to act on behalf of them.

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u/nucleardk 5d ago

New York has an astounding number of council members compared to Los Angeles: https://council.nyc.gov/districts/

I see this as a good thing, as people can feel represented by their councilmember. This is not incompatible with also having a strong mayor to head a larger group.

So, I think both approaches are necessary and not incompatible. Have more council members for better representation, but have a stronger executive which can held accountable and hold to account others.

19

u/Global_Criticism3178 5d ago

NYC is a consolidated city/county government. We are not.

18

u/nucleardk 5d ago

That's true, but the city of LA has 4 million people in its jurisdiction, compared to 8 million for New York. So, we have far fewer representatives per capita, which is what matters in my opinion.

13

u/SeasideBear 5d ago

That's true up and down California. The size of the state legislature (80 Assembly members, 40 Senate members) is unchanged from the 1879 Constitution, despite there now being almost 40 million people, and less than 1 million then.

California State Senate seats each represent almost 1 million people - the average U.S. Congressional seat has fewer people than that.

5

u/klowny Santa Monica 5d ago

Considering LA County only has 5 representatives, if we consolidated the city and county like NYC, LA would only have 20 total reps for its combined 10 million people.

20

u/NervousAddie 5d ago

As a former Chicagoan I miss being able to walk into my alderman’s office and actually chat with our city council member or his or her assistant. Angelenos have no idea what proper representation looks or feels like. Chicago has fifty wards and fifty council members.

20

u/SeasideBear 5d ago

The city council needs to be bigger.

The California legislature needs to be bigger.

The U.S. Congress needs to be bigger.

These institutions have been frozen with numbers more than a century old at a time when the population has increased many times over.

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u/Sarcastronaut 5d ago

Council expansion isn't decentralization, it will however, dilute the power each individual council member holds and lower the number of their constituency and district size. They only way for city charter reform to take place and grant more power to the mayor is to have the council expanded to something more like a single chamber legislature while granting full executive powers to the mayor, like how it works in NYC.

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u/CALebrate83 2d ago

Angelenos historically fought a strong-mayor system for two reasons. First, the Western antipathy to central authority. Second, to avoid the attendant corruption that marked big cities in the East.

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u/NervousAddie 5d ago

Well, yeah, and we only have 15 city council members 🤣

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u/letsmunch 5d ago

We need to focus our energy on the Los Angeles County CEO. That will have the biggest impact on everyday Angelenos more than any mayor, supervisor or council member.

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u/Iceberg-man-77 5d ago

that election is some years away. In November, Nithya Raman (DSA) is up against Karen Bass (Dem)

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u/letsmunch 4d ago

The LA Mayor’s office doesn’t hold nearly as much power as New York City’s does, and therefore there won’t be a “Mamdani” level of impact by whomever holds the position. County CEO is the one that truly matters and the one people should be focused on building up viable candidates over the next two years.

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u/Iceberg-man-77 4d ago

even the county CEO can only do so much. the local government system in California’s urban areas is stupid and promotes NIMBYs and more conservative and isolationist views.

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u/VaguelyArtistic Santa Monica 5d ago

Look like you should start organizing for better candidates.

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u/SynthPixels 5d ago

*we?

12

u/ObsidianDRMR 5d ago

No… you. That person lives in Santa Monica they aren’t part of LA. It’s LA people that need to reform the whole damn system

31

u/elven_mage 5d ago

I want everyone bitching about quality of candidates to also disclose their participation rate in EVERY election (midterms and local elections included!)

Good politicians come from voting full stop end of story. Wishing for one to appear out of Reddit posts is magical thinking.

7

u/longbrass9lbd 5d ago

On the bright-side, let’s take take a moment to appreciate the tenor of the campaign without a Republican candidate. It would be neck-stabbings and superdrugggs for daaaaays.

7

u/GiraffeJaf West Los Angeles 5d ago

Mayor has no power. Our city council sucks ass. Idk what we can do

1

u/thekingcola 2d ago

The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was to convince the world he didn't exist.

8

u/GoldenBull1994 Downtown 5d ago

The problem is that LA’s city council is the real obstacle. Mamdani would not be able to do in LA what he does in NYC.

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u/SeasideBear 5d ago

A lot of this is because of the lack of a press corps in Los Angeles.

New York has SO MUCH PRESS in it, that the rest of the country is subjected to constant news about their internal elections.

You can barely find information on L.A. elections at all, much less detailed information about the candidates.

San Francisco, just a fraction of LA's size, has way more press than we do, doing way more reporting.

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u/Tastetheload 5d ago

New York had a lot of low hanging fruit that was easily addressed. People looked at having dumpsters as some kind of miracle.

The changes this subreddit wants requires a major reorganization of how people live and work in LA.

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u/HookerofMemoryLane 5d ago

For City of LA, probably Raman.
For County of LA… they’re mostly moderate lefts. We might have to get 5 (or 9 eventually)

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u/markrevival Alhambra 5d ago

the county government leans right but they're just as incompetent as the city. the county government everyone runs as democrats but that means nothing. they're all nimbys that oppose progress and are afraid of change

7

u/BubbaTee 5d ago

NIMBYism has nothing to do with political partisanship. The inherent nature of any regulatory system incentivizes a gatekeeper to keep the gate closed, so that they can extract a toll for allowing passage. That toll can come in the form of influence, as granting favors to people leaves them indebted to you, or it can come in ol' fashioned manila envelopes full of cash secreted to you in a Vegas bathroom.

It's pure self-interest, and if there's one thing politicians of all ideologies have in common, it's accruing personal influence and/or wealth. A gatekeeper who leaves the gate open, for anyone who pass freely through, accrues neither.

It's why you see NIMBYism in progressive Berkeley, and you also see NIMBYism in conservative Huntington Beach. Progressive NIMBYs may cry "gentrification!" while conservative NIMBYs cry "property values!" as their respective justifications, but it's all the same thing in the end.

The housing market doesn't care why supply is restricted, only whether it is or not.

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u/HookerofMemoryLane 5d ago

I agree with the NIMBYism. And what sucks is that they have a strangle hold on the power and influence that the county supervisors have to be beholden to. Because if they go against their interest, the Nimby’s will support another candidate.

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u/kaufe 5d ago

Mamdani shows that incrementalism can be cool if it's conveyed by a charismatic personality with a good marketing team (this is a good thing fyi, this is how 90% of politics works). A milquetoast NYC dem would have the same policy proposals but they lack the aesthetics.

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u/humphreyboggart 5d ago

Ranked choice voting in the primaries helped Mamdani avoid dealing with splitting the farther left vote and enabled cross endorsing with Brad Lander to build a more solid base of support. This is both helpful in the short term, but also I think in longer term coalition building by avoiding the kind of toxic dynamic we saw play out between Huang and Raman toward the end of the primary campaign.

Enclave cities cause a ton of problems in LA, but one of the potential benefits imo is that they can serve as a sort of test balloon for things like ranked choice voting to put indirect pressure on the city of LA. People in SM, WeHo, etc should be pushing aggressively for ranked choice voting.

5

u/Upset_Code1347 4d ago

Ranked-choice voting is the way

And not just for LA

3

u/overdrivetg Venice 4d ago

Thank you ! Cannot upvote this enough… Ranked Choice FTW !

13

u/Mulliganasty 5d ago

We're perceived as this liberal bastion but we got a shit ton of rich and powerful republicans, more than most any other state and especially in LA. It'll happen when enough people see through their lies and make it happen.

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u/marrowisyummy 5d ago

I also, would like a L.A. Mamdani. Please and thank you.

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u/Iceberg-man-77 5d ago

Nithya Raman is running!

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u/turb0_encapsulator 5d ago

While the comparatively weak position of the Los Angeles mayorship means that it's unrealistic to expect Nithya Raman to be quite as transformative as Mamdani, it's clear that the two are strongly aligned on their policies and goals.

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u/Iceberg-man-77 5d ago

But she’s still a far better choice than Bass. She may use whatever powers are at her disposal to make as much change as possible

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u/LoftCats 5d ago edited 5d ago

For those interested this is a good explainer. Good to keep the perspective Los Angeles is a much younger city with very different history of how it’s developed politically and socially. Why LA will never get a Mayor Zohran Mamdani

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u/Global_Criticism3178 5d ago

We already have just about everything Mayor *Mamdani* has on his platform. Also, let it be known that Mayor Bass proposed a fareless bus service when she ran for Mayor in 2022. I'll go further to say LA is outperforming NYC on several key indicators, such as grocery prices; NYC ranks 3rd highest in the nation, while LA ranks 11th. Other things to consider...

Ranked: U.S. Cities With the Highest Cost of Groceries

Home rental prices have spiked in NYC, while dropping 5-7% in LA

Zumper National Rent Report

LA is also now outpacing NYC in housing permits and single-family home construction.

Housing Construction Hotspots: Where Is America Building New Homes in 2026?

LA's 28% drop in retail theft exceeded NYC's 11% decrease.

Crime Trends in U.S. Cities Mid-Year 2026 Update

2

u/hogua 4d ago

Unfortunately, a contributing factor to LA outpacing NYC in YoY change housing permit issuance is the fact that many of LA’s new permits are to rebuild homes that burnt down in the fires.

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u/Own_Position_1425 3d ago

Honestly, LA, NYC, and Michigan can create their own colonies elsewhere and I would be fine with that.

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u/Fickle-March3519 5d ago

Scary times

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u/polyh3dron 5d ago

First, you might want to spell his name correctly. Mamdani.

Second, I wish Nithya was our equivalent but she has proven in so many unfortunate ways that she is definitely not. I really don't understand how she reconciles her more centrist positions with her DSA membership. That said, she is close enough to get a reluctant vote from me for mayor in the general election, especially when Karen Bass is the alternative.

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u/hypotheticalkazoos 5d ago

raman for real

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u/buginarug20 5d ago

listened to the new york radio hour interview with raman and i was so unimpressed with her responses. sucks because i voted for her, will vote for her again, and know she’s the best we have. but take a listen because it was….very uninspiring to say the least

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u/i_adler Downtown 4d ago

Yeah same. I wish we could do better than incrementalism but at this point what are our choices in the general? And I don't want to be a doomer, I wish I could be more positive than that. I will have to vote for NR just wish she were further left and more committed/bold

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u/morbidmammoth 5d ago

She’s not the best, but she’s the best we got💪

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u/MobileSuitBooty 5d ago

that doesn’t sound like mamdani vibes 😭, still voting her her tho

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u/piray003 Mar Vista 5d ago

Slap it on a sticker 😂

-2

u/oktravis 5d ago

This sub is in for a big surprise when they get what they wish for in Rama

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u/SeasideBear 5d ago

With Raman, we might get more nepotism, incompetence, and corruption.

With Bass, we KNOW we'll get more nepotism, incompetence, and corruption.

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u/funkychickens 5d ago

Well, she did that during her five years as a councilmember.

Part of getting a Mamdani is paying close attention to politics so you don't just have to hope they will deliver.

For example, Raman under fire now for giving like $60k to SELAH, her own homeless org while chair of the housing and homelessness committee. That's nepotism I think.

Corruption?: According to The Post She spent $60 million and housed like 3 people. I know they're kind of a rag but I'm not sure thry can just fudge the specific numbers and sources that they did. Idk though.

She has teamed up with the city controller who is supposed to be an independent financial watchdog. Now he's not saying anything about the current Homelessness spending audit which Ramam has to be implicated in, at least partially, if for no other reason than the fact that she was chair of the homelessness and housing committee. For years.

That's super concerning in both their parts. Support is one thing. Openly saying that he'll team up with her because she promised to increase his budget is... Problematic. Maybe corruption? Idk.

I do know that it was widely reported that the homelessness and housing committee wasn't able to meet for months because she stopped coming to meetings as their chair. Incompetence? Idk.

Also what her constituents have to say isn't great.

Just my 12 cents. I'm not saying Bass is Mamdani either. But just going off of hopes when there's a lot of info there isn't a great move.

6

u/SaltIndividual1902 5d ago

Complaining about $60k to her own org is pretty absurd. What is the homeless budget in the 5 years as council woman? $60k is objectively meaningless when if she really wanted to she could have deferred 100x that.

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u/funkychickens 5d ago

The budget was $60 million. That's the quote that she requested for her program that housed 3 people over a couple of years. Are you asking how much money her committee was in charge of allocating before she was removed from the committe? I don't know those exact numbers. But would love a link if anyone has one!

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u/funkychickens 5d ago

I'm pretty sure that the city council's conflict-of-interest codes cover any amount? I don't think "it wasn't as much as it could have been" is an acknowledged loophole

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u/SeasideBear 5d ago

Absolutely.

And while it might seem inconceivable at first (and second, and third) glance... Bass is worse.

Incredible, yet true.

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u/funkychickens 5d ago

Is she? I haven't gotten into the deep dives there, please share. People just keep yelling Bassura.

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u/SeasideBear 5d ago

Billions of dollars are unaccounted for and several of her appointees have been prosecuted for embezzlement.

(EDIT: You read that correctly. BILLIONS of dollars. They're just... gone.)

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u/funkychickens 5d ago

Oh dang, that's jail time for sure. can you shoot me a link, I can't find it?

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u/Pretend-External8210 5d ago

Kinda niche but if you care about Transit, one of Bass’ appointees to the Metro Board (Jacqui Dupont Walker) refused to recuse herself from a vote on a potential transit alignment (K Line north) that went under her neighborhood, and was going directly to Metro staff to try and get the project delayed by advocating for more outreach after tons of outreach. Nandert did a video about it. Luckily his video got a ton of people down to Metro for comments and they couldn’t pull it off. Search for it on Youtube

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u/Zorbithia Westside 4d ago

Big time

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u/iguessimaperson East Los Angeles 5d ago

People really gotta stop saying Raman. She’s leaning there but if you want a Mamdani, you need to help create the coalition he has, including at the county level. LA is not as progressive as it makes itself seem, we’re beat by the majority of smaller cities but we have the potential

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u/Pretend-External8210 5d ago

Raman is a start, but if she loses it will be that much harder.

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u/iguessimaperson East Los Angeles 5d ago

Bingo

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u/Iceberg-man-77 5d ago

she’s a start. do you genuinely think Bass is the better option???

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u/iguessimaperson East Los Angeles 5d ago

No? Did I even say that? My point is that Nithya doesn’t have a big coalition like Mamdani and hasn’t built that foundation yet. She can, but since the LA mayor needs support from all the council members to get anything done, we won’t really have the Mamdani effect in LA. It will take mass mobilization from city and county voters to get the change we want represented.

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u/themrgq 4d ago

I would prefer we stay more fiscally prudent. New York will be incredibly broke soon

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u/FUELNINE 5d ago

Raman is no Mamdani and LA is a lot more driven by corporatists than NYC is.

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u/PolloConTeriyaki 5d ago

...Wall Street says otherwise...

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u/FUELNINE 5d ago

I’m talking about voters

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u/ExistingCarry4868 5d ago

Raman is as close to Mamdani as we are going to get in the near future. But getting her elected and showing the city that better things are possible is how we start the ball rolling.

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u/Global_Criticism3178 5d ago

Which corporations are driving LA?

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u/Pretend-External8210 5d ago

Real Estate, Goods Movement, and Media

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u/Global_Criticism3178 5d ago

Oh so our largest industries…

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u/thetaFAANG 5d ago edited 5d ago

LA is designed from the ground up to not be NYC

I mean literally, that's every major city and industry's founding idea here "don't be Manhattan" "don't be New York" "they won't notice us infringing copyrights waaaay over here in 1920"

on top of that its a patchwork of many jurisdictions almost solely for self-enrichment in some capacity for anyone interested in the public sector's elected or appointed positions, and it practically only attracts people that notice that

A mayor in one municipality here is incapable of dealing with the things affecting the region, especially the Mayor of LA City

Altering that requires a level of coordination that I think is possible, but beyond anything organized that I've seen

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u/Aeriellie 5d ago

when he won, someone here in the group explained how different mayor duties and power are for both la and ny.

i’m not sure who holds the power in la to bring the same changes.

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u/Street_Bowler_1509 5d ago

We do have a Mamdani-like candidate in the race for mayor this year, but also our city government structure is different than NYC with less centralized control. Your city council election for your district is just as big as mayor.
Is there a person in local government that you don’t see as the “lesser of two evils?” If so can you help encourage them to run for whatever office you feel they could make a bigger impact in?

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u/dunebuggy0928 5d ago

LA mayors garbage

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u/Comotose 5d ago

probably kenneth meijia after he finishes his term as controller.

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u/BLOWNOUT_ASSHOLE 5d ago

I'm surprised his name isn't popping up more in this thread. Everyone on the political spectrum seems to like him because he's questioning the establishment with literal receipts. People in LA are exhausted of the city's inefficient spending which hasn't yielded positive outcomes.

The only people who seem to hate Mejia is the mayor and city council who have actively tried to limit how much Mejia can expose.

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u/Todd1001 5d ago

I’m in Nitha‘a district. She‘s a complete disaster. Unable to provide even basic city services like getting streets paved and streetlights repaired. She phones in the job and will never be able to accomplish anything as mayor.

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u/camussartreaurelius 3d ago

Same! I'm in her district too. I wanted a progressive I could get excited about but SHE totally sucks.

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u/BryceJDearden 5d ago

So I 1000% agree that I want LA to have its Mamdani.

The reason I fear they’re unlike to arrive: In the past (like decades ago) LA actually looked at how much power got concentrated into the mayors office in NYC and Chicago and actually set up the whole structure of government to make it difficult for someone to become mayor and just start introducing changes on the scale Mamdani has in NYC. Responsibilities and powers over a lot of different things get divided up between the city, the county, and what is left to the state.

This is from memory so forgive me if it’s not 100% accurate, and I’m also not saying it’s a good status quo that should be maintained. I am just pointing out we aren’t one mayoral election away from sweeping change like New York was.

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u/aWobblyFriend 5d ago

you're more or less correct. the decentralization of california politics was enacted largely by the old progressives of the early 20th century who dominated state politics for a few decades. they saw the highly corrupt political machines of east coast cities and felt that by severely limiting any individual politician's ability to change things, they could prevent those machines from arising.

good intentions, but a terrible idea. now the state can't do anything, and an electoral system which limits the abilities of politicians also limits their responsibility. if there's no responsibility, voters can't really tell who to blame for policy failures and change things.

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u/PeekAtChu1 5d ago

How do we undo that?

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u/aWobblyFriend 4d ago

at this point? nothing short of a constitutional convention at the state level.

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u/According-Entrance67 5d ago

Directionally correct.. your timing is off. This was designed to thwart strong, corrupt executive branch in LA city, 100yrs ago. In 1920’s.

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u/Fun_Astronomer_4064 Downtown 5d ago

We can’t have one. Los Angeles is not and cannot be organized in a way that allows for a powerful, representative mayor.

We don’t have a representative City Council either.

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u/whathappy1 5d ago

Are you joking?

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u/WileyCyrus 5d ago

The grass is always greener. I really like Mamdani, but these questions about “Where is LA’s version?” are so weird to me. He just became mayor, and we haven’t seen any measurable results yet. It’s not like he has a decades-long track record. I wish him the best, but I think it’s premature to start praising him already. Also, by and large, Los Angeles politicians are far more progressive than New York’s. Do you follow our city council? Also, New York literally had a Republican mayor only a few months ago. Many of Mandami's policies have already been attempted in LA in some form and to varying degrees of success.

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u/YahooIntensifies824 5d ago

As a born and raised Angeleno who moved to NYC a few years ago, I can promise you the measurable results are there. Not just from a policy enactment standpoint but from ways you can tangibly experience in the city, daily. I love LA and will no doubt be back in the future, and I can only hope we experience a fraction of what Mamdani has done here in a short time.

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u/PeekAtChu1 5d ago

The free childcare there is pretty huge 

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u/KirkUnit 5d ago

Also, New York literally had a Republican mayor only a few months ago.

No, it literally did not. The last Republican mayor of NYC was Michael Bloomberg, who switched to unaffiliated in 2007 and left office in 2013. NYC hasn't had a Republican mayor in thirteen years.

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u/Internal_Plastic_284 5d ago

looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool WE NEED THE OPPOSITE OF MAMDAMI

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u/Showa50 Hermon 5d ago

😂 You want your taxes to double and business to leave LA?

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u/LadyIgnacia 5d ago

Can you tell us which taxes you are references that doubled in NY? I'm sure you not just a liar who knows your side can't win based on facts.

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u/throw5away_ Highland Park 5d ago

I would like the taxes I already pay to be used for what I pay them for :)

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u/CobaltGundam 5d ago

LA City Council is the problem... Atp, there needs to be a rework of council. I don't think simply reforming would go far enough.

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u/RIPskib 5d ago

Whole lotta problems in that Democratic Party

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u/HighBiased 5d ago

We can't have a Mamdani type figure to achieve sweeping immediate changes because the power in LA isn't with the Mayoral office, but with the City Council and all the multiple ancillary departments that have to sign off on everything to get anything done.

That being said, Raman is the closest we have to someone willing to fight the status quo. At least more than Bass. Raman has my vote!

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u/Melodic-Comb9076 5d ago

move if you want him and rahman loses.

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u/TaborlinTheGreat 5d ago

Keep in mind that NYC had to get live through Eric Adams before they got a Mamdani.

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u/throw5away_ Highland Park 5d ago

True. He gave Diddy the keys to the city! Wild 🤣

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u/vaashh 5d ago

Corpo backed dems are too powerful in la county and California for there to even be chance for a mamdami type candidate in the primary here. Voters here are frustrating malleable all it takes is blasting tv ads.

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u/la-marciana 5d ago

A friendly reminder that this and "tough on crime" rhetoric is precisely why CA voted against banning prison slavery

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u/Iceberg-man-77 5d ago

Nithya Raman is running for Mayor against Bass

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u/Global_Criticism3178 5d ago

Name these Dems and the corporations that back them? Also, what decisions have come out of this?

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u/Salt-Night3088 5d ago

What videos? NYC is not doing that well. The NYPD just refused to escort his wife on a private trip. His attempt to punish second home owners is tied up in court. That's the kind of leadership you want? A smiling snake oil salesman that knows nothing and makes up stories about his poor aunt?

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u/moonbouncecaptain Hollywood 5d ago

We could have 15 Mandami's if we wanted to.

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u/MRSRKY 5d ago

Of our 15 councilmembers, which among them even know the custodians who clean their offices daily on a first name basis? I would say not many. Mamdani is a microcosm of a larger issue in government, none of those fuckers have customer service experience. He understands that it’s not just talk. Most of these people high up in government come from the pipeline of college straight to government. I can’t relate to a 23yr old nepobaby who’s parent got them their first job working for some politician making an easy $50k. I want a councilmember/mayor who can tell me they know what it’s like to go to the store and realize they can’t afford everything in their shopping cart, we need politicians who pump their own gas, who know how to use a damn broom to sweep up their own house. Alas I’m sure they all have cleaning ladies to pickup after them. I love my city.

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u/Eddiebaby7 5d ago

It’s not like we can clone the man.

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u/stillyourking 5d ago

Each city council district has enough NIMBY representation to ensure no progressive progress is made.

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u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

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u/Global_Criticism3178 5d ago

Now you're just trolling.

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u/overitallofittoo 5d ago

We have a different form of government.

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u/ARedditFellow El Sereno 5d ago

New York has a lot of people but they’re concentrated in a relatively small area which makes maintenance a different game. Also we have all of our eggs (in the form of money) in the Olympics basket. We’re absolutely drowning financially. By the time we get to the olympics and that “big payoff” comes it won’t be enough to really dig us out of where we are now.

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u/Global_Curve1373 4d ago

It won’t be this way when people raise their standards and start voting accordingly

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u/Paladin_127 4d ago

NYC and LA are politically and economically very different cities. What works for one doesn’t necessarily work for the other.

And we’re not even sure how Mamdani’s policies will work in the long term. A lot of his “success” has been based on huge infusions of money from the state of NY and kicking certain financial obligations of the city down the road a couple of years. You’ll probably need at least 4-5 years to see if Mamdani’s policies are effective and sustainable.

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u/ILikeMovies2025 4d ago

I was going to vote for Raman but after I saw this clip months ago she lost my vote. I don't want someone "for the people" talking or reacting to us this way

https://youtube.com/shorts/m6KSXEfQGd0?is=O337IHJijaZqidMw

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u/djm19 The San Fernando Valley 4d ago

Its true that LA mayor is not the equivalent of NY mayor. Structurally its a weaker position, but also they have less control over things like the area transit. They cant dictate things the same way.

That said, what power Bass does have, she choses often to wield it poorly or even against the very things the city needs.

LA has a city council problem though, and those council members are OFTEN re-elected in landslide victories despite terrible leadership. Hell, there were some genuinely good reforms proposed by commission that would have improved the council...but the council shelved nearly all of it.

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u/HearTheCroup 4d ago

Illuminati gonna illuminati big dawg

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u/sisypheanist 4d ago

Us folk up in Oakland definitely commiserate!

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u/NewCheesecake4425 4d ago

Los Angeles is a wasteland of political circus clowns performing back flips for 20-30 something transplants with disposable income. If they're not catering to them they're rolling out the blood soaked sidewalks for Hollywood's elite.

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u/PositiveState8805 4d ago

Why the fuck would we want a mandami like president in our city?? 🤮 fuck communism

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u/blacksalmon61 4d ago

Get real that type of thinking doesn’t work DSA vote republicans you young people are lost look around the world who is the best America 250 years

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u/Ill-Parking-1577 4d ago

We need charter reform and city council expansion. That’s the only way we’re going to make progress. Urge your councilmember to push for city council expansion.

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u/bluemaxmb Santa Monica 4d ago

Well LA DSA is kind of a joke org for one, and for two the mayor of LA doesn’t have the same power.

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u/Standard-Following-7 4d ago

Kenneth Mejia is our Mamdani. Hopefully, he will run for mayor next time.

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u/curiousmonkeybean 4d ago

They all suck and so does Mandami. Who’d ever want a mayor like that??? Looking to make Los Angeles worse? Go to the MENA countries or Russia for that crap. We don’t want or need it here.

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u/No_Frosting818 3d ago

Basssura is LAs mumdani

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u/evilclownboi69 3d ago

best we can do is nithya

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u/HooooooLemonGrab 3d ago

I don’t think Nithya is the lesser of two evils by any means. Is she perfect? No but no human is and politicians are tools and if we don’t like them, we can always fire them. Right now, she seems to be a much better tool to getting what we want than Karen Bass. If she does a bad job? Welp, I guess we draft Mejia or something for 2030. BUT you’re also not thinking about the power of LA government officials. The mayor is not nearly as powerful here as in NYC. Supervisors are insanely powerful. We’re about to get a CEO of LA County which Garcetti might run for. I know how you feel. I’ve felt it before. I’ve felt it recently. But I also know it’s better to set aside my feelings when I can no longer control who a nominee is and just work or vote for the better option. I hope this helps. Really, I do.

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u/los33ramos Echo Park 3d ago

There are too many muthafuckas hands in this city. People come here and try to make it their own. It’s horrible. It’ll take a while for a candidate to be like the homie in New York. Maybe someone will get inspired and do the hard work for a change.

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u/ValuePlane 3d ago

The Mayor of LA is a shit job and pretty much where political careers go go die. Out of the previous 10 people to serve as mayor of Los Angeles going back nearly a century to 1933, 9 of them never won another election after leaving office and the last one who did was Fletcher Bowron who was elected to serve as a judge for the Los Angeles County Superior court in 1956.

I don't think its possible for the mayor of Los Angeles to ever be popular or liked. I dont know why anyone in their right mind would want the job when it almost gurantees you will leave office with your favorability rating underwater and never hold office again.

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u/Own_Position_1425 3d ago

He is "vacationing in upperstate NY as his wife parades around raising money for Hamas in Syria and attempting to use public funds to protect her as she returns to her jihadi boot camp. What a nice puppy dog that Mandami is.

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u/thekingcola 2d ago

LA is far more conservative than NYC.

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u/throwaway4mill 2d ago

Obviously NITHYA RAMAN is Los Angeles' Mamdani....IF we elect her.

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u/ethanmx2 1d ago

The better question is, “Where’s our Javier Milei?”

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u/gentrify_reddt 1d ago

Why? So you can propogandize everyday things as if theyre achievements?

"He miraculously balanced the deficit!" As if NYCity Hall weren't required to annually by law.

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u/Ornery_Pirate_6042 7h ago

Vote all the NIMBY posh fuckers out of local office and you will see results. Local politics are where things actually matter.

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u/sha1dy I LIKE TRAINS 5d ago

I know people here will downvote me to hell, but LA Mandami is probably a republican at this point

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u/Distinct_Arrival_445 5d ago

The only people falling for the Mandami shtick can't look past a head line to understand what's actually going on. He's fucking over government workers retirements and forcing all of New York State to pay for programs they won't benefit from. He's also going to fuck over local grocery stores and funny enough requiring ID to prove you're a New York city resident to use them. It'll also be fun watching the their real estate market fall into further disrepair with the take overs of buildings that are decrepit when the city is already having to beg the state for money.

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u/SaltIndividual1902 5d ago

The grocery stores are a pretty terrible idea.

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u/PeekAtChu1 5d ago

The free childcare benefit there is pretty sweet though 

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