To Live and Die in LA
How I describe politics here- a good primer to understand the psyche.
Up front, I am sure some will disagree with my assessment here. I would love to be corrected. This post is my history and context to understanding the background of where we are.
These observations are as an observer who has read a lot of the accounts and met some of those who are there, while living through the challenges out there. There are a lot of citations available if necessary. I just wanted to tell the story. Actually, I want to write a book/do a Netflix series called To Live and Die in LA to discuss the politics of the city and the history of how we got here. This post is a summary.
Part of the current journey has been made easier by the past two years or so I have spent reading up on and understanding LA politics (encompassing the City and County as the two are intertwined). There are multiple books and articles describing the evolution of LA evolved.
I was first introduced to LA politics through Mike Davis. I was moving to LA in 2000 and my wife’s sociology professor recommended Ecology of Fear to read. It is still on my bookshelf. After that one, I bought City of Quartz, which was Davis’s seminal book. While Davis and my politics are not the same, the nature of understanding Power is (we lost Mike Davis last year, a sad day for sure).
So, from that framework, I said, “no way would I ever wade in LA politics.” I focused on federal issues.
Still, I tracked politics here because I am a moth and LA politics are a flame. The stories are so textured and raw at the same time as the later corruption and city council leaked tapes reveal.
It is a real life drama in front of you. There are struggles among the various “factions” in LA constantly trying to take on the “mantle.” Game of Thrones could have stolen its story lines from LA (well not all of them). During these 20 years of watching, the tidbits were there. The articles of Power and its being wielded. The curtain is briefly pulled back illustrating the rawness of LA politics. People “walked between the raindrops” here. It was fun to learn about. Then, in 2021, I was brought “home.” My work in DC brought me to understand the three words used so often in describing government spending- “fraud, waste, and abuse.” I have heard the words in alternate orders, but the one above is the one which seems most comfortable. They were used to lure me to the flame.
At the time, LA City Council was dealing with the scandals of Jose Huizar, et al, and the question of what is going to happen to a huge deal for the development of homeless housing at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center. Why I was brought in, I have no idea. The deal was being “renegotiated,” and my relationship with the veterans groups was mixed after my experiences in Washington. I think it was to stir the pot and see what came of it. There was an insistence on trying to understand the “fraud, waste, and abuse” going on there after my multiple demurs in taking on the role. Veterans wanted their “piece,” but like everything in politics, the “piece” was obscured from plan sight. The federals wanted to be sure there was someone on the ground they could trust. I had waded through some nasty battles so maybe I was one of those voices they needed.
That project was a huge one, combining State, County, and City resources with Federal money (seeing a familiarity here). The federals also knew I could do something different, so why not give me a shot at it. To their expectation, I saw something different than everyone else. The deal was structured around Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTCs), one of the “big 3” tax credits for economic development. But there was so much more being left on the table. There were multipliers that were not seen. It taught me how LA politics worked, the A to B model, where I was used the federals and looking at the whole picture.
The allocations of LIHTCs at the City and how the VA was exempt, so it was a true multiplier in their minds, but they missed the context of the bigger picture. LA myopia was very apparent. Everyone had a deal, but they did not see the economic development play as a multiplier, focused on the housing only because the favors were built around that model and no one wanted anything else. It was also a question of who could be trusted in our fair city. Huizar was a cautionary example. He rose and then fell. Was it a precursor? We know what happened a few months later in 2022 with the secret taped meetings at the LA Federation of Labor.
Huizar’s fall coincided with a broader trend occurring in LA at the time. There was a battle (and it still rages) to move the City Council further left. Progressives “knocked off” incumbents. Established deals were gone. Promises were made but could not be kept. New deals were coming. New constituencies and power players were coming in. Someone said it was the “OG’s versus the Newbies.” I trace a lot of the origins to Committee for Greater LA, the Power shift, and the decline of the structures erected during the 1970s which lasted into the 2000s. Change was finally coming to LA.
After Huizar, we saw another City Councilman, Mark Ridley Thomas (MRT) get indicted as well. It was coming fast now. Mitchell Englander was in jail for taking bribes and liberties with ladies of the night. Huizar was the big one- he ran the City Planning Committee and approved building permits. MRT was a powerful County Supervisor and moved to the City Council when he was “termed out” after 12 years. His issue was he took benefits from USC to assist his son who could have continued the family legacy. His fall illuminated the end of an era. He rose during the previous time. He served with that group. His attempts to keep the system rolling into the next generation failed.
Family legacies in this era were not happening. Another, State Senator Bob Hertzberg, a fixture of LA power Politics for years after serving in Sacramento for years, who ran for County Supervisor lost to an upstart from West Hollywood, while his son ran for his seat and also lost. Hertzberg was also the end of an era for Jewish Power in LA.
LA was not to be an inheritance. It was to be earned. Just as it was taken in the 1970s, a new group, using the old tactics, tried to take and hold Power.
Modern LA politics began with the changes in the late 1960s and early 1970s which were attached to Jewish politicians rising in LA. LA has always been a city divided by neighborhood and ethnicity. Latinos had the Eastside. WASPs had Pasadena, enclaves in the City. Black power was South LA. Jews had the Westside and Southern Valley. Generally, these dynamics were in place from the 1970s through to the early 2000s. These leaders had a vision of LA to propel the City to greatness. 1984 and the Olympics. The Lakers, Dodgers, losing and regaining an NFL franchise, rebuilding downtown around LA Live.
These leaders wanted to see LA as a world class city. It was the center of Hollywood and entertainment, it was a major financial center, it was the second largest city in the country. Defense was still strong for a period of that time, creating the technologies launching the future. There was still a memory of the founders of post-war LA and earlier, those who came to the West to create something new. These leaders saw LA as part of something greater. The Times was not a local paper- it was a paper of record, owned by the Chandler family. We had corporate offices, we had local banks, we had philanthropy leading the world. Then consolidation took those local businesses out, aerospace and defense fell, corporations left, the Times sold to Tribune and then became a local paper.
What replaced that group of leaders? The next generation inherited it, they did not create it. They kept the legacy for about 20 years after the shift around the new millennium, but they did not create it. They do not know how to create it. They were holding on to what was, not what could be. They are talented at what they do, but they are also limited.
Understanding the “why” of it all is important because it explains the paralysis we are at right now in LA. Prior to the changes of the “Waxman-Berman Machine,” white, Republican politics controlled most of LA. Token seats were in various neighborhoods, but it was the rise of the Waxman-Berman Machine and the election of Tom Bradley, uniting the West Side Jewish voters with South LA which changed the dynamics of LA politics. The mantle went to a new group.
As the title, the “Waxman-Berman Machine” describes, it was a Power shift, but it was not a machine like the old East Coast cities. It was about “redistricting.” Howard Berman, his brother Michael, and Henry Waxman figured it out. They learned to “target” voters with messaging (before it ever got to where it is now), and learned to make district lines critical to consolidating Power. In fact, at the heart of the discussions which brought down LA City Council in 2022, the substance of the conversations were about the distinct voter groups and redistricting (though it was the “color commentary” which was what created the story. Power in LA was won through redistricting a shift that changed everything. It is still the driving force.
The story of the Power being exercised is always fascinating to me. In fact, most of those who rose to Power in that era are still with us, but at the point where they more or less tell the stories to the “young ones.” They can advise though they do not control the levers of Power anymore. They are respected, but they are retired.
Henry Waxman, Mel Levine, Howard Berman, they are all retired from office and are consulting or relaxing. Gray Davis is also still advising people. Jane Harman is back east. Those are the federals and the Statewide. But, there is a whole cadre who are local.
Who we have now are ones who bounce between Sacramento and LA City, and very limted time in DC. Kevin DeLeon is but one example, going to Sacramento, becoming “king” of the Senate, and retiring back to LA City Council before he precipitated his decline. How many speakers of the Assembly are from LA? Antonio, Fabian Nunez, Jonathan Perez, Anthony Rendon to name a few. Karen Bass went to Sacramento, then DC, and came home to end. Hilda Solis went to DC and came home. There is something about LA.
There are those who tried to break out of LA too. Antonio Villaragosa was Speaker and then Mayor. He never got beyond LA. What about Tom Bradley? He famously almost won the governorship. It was not to be. Eric Garcetti? There were such high hopes for him. None were able to break out of district politics or a broader plurality in the County/City to go Statewide or beyond. The only Statewide people we have had over the years win an election and not be appointed have been Gray Davis and Adam Schiff.
Mayor of LA is the end, not a beginning of careers. Supervisor for LA also the end. I have discussed this dynamic with many electeds looking at their futures. How many get beyond those positions? Who went from Mayor to Governor? Mayor to Senator? Mayor to Congressman? Same with Supervisor? San Francisco, yes, LA no. It is important to understand because our Supervisor in Altadena will be termed out in 2028 and who will replace her? More of the same or the “new?” Leaders of the recovery will be a part of that discussion for sure, but will they live and die in LA? That seat is a terminal one historically.
To me, LA is a place that careers are either local or are killed. Even in the Waxman-Berman days, it was hard to break out of LA. Today is even worse. Adam Schiff is an extraordinary exception, running State wide and winning from LA (Alex Padilla was appointed).
You have to get out of LA to make it. LA is not the LA of old. The vision and dream is gone. It is not dead, it just needs new blood, new leaders.
Today, LA politically is a shell. Those inheriting the mantle did not build it. They only know the levers to pull, not how the levers were created. They are operators. It is becoming more insular. It is becoming more provincial. It is the biggest small town in our nation. There are no big political personalities. It is not because of the system. The system has big names. It is something soul killing about LA politics to go beyond the provincial nature of the districts, likely what it takes to win here.
Can we break out of it. Can we move beyond our provincialism, tribalism, and lead? LA always follows San Francisco or elsewhere. Our leaders look elsewhere instead of inside or are so consumed by the inside, they cannot look outside to create. LA, the center of the creative industries, cannot create a political culture since the 1970s.
LA County is a State in and of itself, with more people than all but 7 states in our nation. Yet, it is also very small town. The network is tiny. The commissions have the same people, representing the same groups, and have for years.
Fear permeates. Fear of being wrong. Fear of losing Power. Fear of being exposed as a provincial or worse, the fear you do not know actually how to work “the machine” you claim to control. Fear holds you back. Fear is why so few get out of LA City and County to more. Fear creates a self fulfilling prophecy. There are a lot of sharks smelling blood in the water. The old machine is fighting to hold on but they need new blood. New blood challenges those in Power. New blood will overwhelm, but what are they creating? Where are the builders of the City? Altadena and the Palisades represent that moment to challenge all those on the other side and show what it looks like to build again.
The old guard do not want to let go. I see it here. Altadena, the rebuild and Palisades is their crowning moment. The old guard did it in the 1990s, see Soboroff, and they damn well want to do it again. Things are different now. They do not have the fast ball like they used to. It is just a little slower, with a little less movement. The new generation cannot do it though, and therein lies the paradox. They were brought up for loyalty not originality. They are obedient, following orders, not risks. They can do boardroom politics, or go out and be activists, but they do not know what it takes to build. Why have there been no new ideas? That is why. Managers, not leaders. We do not get beyond LA. There is a glass ceiling in the 300 days of sunshine here.
That is why we were where we are.
We live and die in LA, as our leaders do until we change the mindset. Is this our moment?