How did Los Angeles deteriorate to the point that it now leads the nation in population exodus? To paraphrase Ernest Hemingway: gradually, then suddenly — and then even more suddenly.
I wrote in January about how, after moving out of L.A., where I lived for the first 30 years of my life, I've been able to see the city's decline more clearly whenever I go back for family visits or appointments every few months. I noted that "just as friends who haven’t seen your kids for a while recognize how much they’ve grown — much more than you, who are with them every day — whenever I drive into Los Angeles once every couple of months, the deterioration of the city is more evident. Many parts truly feel third-world."
In that article, I focused on L.A.'s homelessness crisis, which can be seen under freeway underpasses, in city parks, and even in reports of homeless people getting into strangers' cars to sleep. This is not only visually disturbing but also anxiety-inducing. You never know how dangerous a homeless person might be, whether high on meth or suffering from severe mental illness.
The danger facing Angelenos was perhaps best illustrated when 24-year-old Brianna Kupfer was stabbed to death in 2022 by a homeless man with a long rap sheet who entered the furniture store where she was working alone.
Former mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt had a plan to clean up the city's streets that he summed up straightforwardly: "No more nakedness. No more drug use. No more robbing. No more dog abuse." But with Republicans outnumbered 4-to-1 in Los Angeles, the small hope for an L.A. renaissance was dashed when Pratt, despite an inspired campaign, finished third in the 2026 primary election.
The only new mayor who could possibly ride into town to end the failed leadership of Mayor Karen Bass is City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who just got the endorsement of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) Los Angeles chapter.
We know where the DSA, which would like a world without police officers, ranks public safety. Now even Bass can look like the tough-on-crime candidate, noting correctly that Raman "said kids aren't safer if an encampment is 500 feet away from a school and voted repeatedly to cut basic public safety funding to make L.A. safer."
Comedian Bridget Phetasy, who recently returned to Los Angeles after years away, described a similar sensation to the one I feel upon returning: "It's like when you see someone and they've, you know, lost a lot of weight and they don't see it because they've see themself every day and you see them and you're like, whoa. Right. That's how it feels."
Related: Dems Flunk Homelessness Test in California
Phetasy used the word "unsettling" to describe "how much commercial real estate is empty." And she chose as an example a place where I spent many a happy day in both my childhood and young adulthood: Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade. The three pedestrian-only blocks were a favorite destination for so many in the '90s who wanted to catch a movie, grab dinner, shop, or watch street performers.
A California Post report earlier this year noted that the Promenade’s vacancy rate is now 25% and that the popularity of the destination began to decline because of the homelessness crisis, then fell further during COVID and the looting inspired by the “Summer of Love” following George Floyd’s death.
If you've never been to Third Street, which the report notes used to be a favorite family destination, its decline won't hit you as hard as it does me or Phetasy, who says:
So, right, like Third Street. It makes me emotional. It is It is empty. I should take a video of it and post it. It is. I'll take a video of it next time I go down there. There's still some stores, like Sephora is still down there, but it is shocking how many are just empty. I know. And Third Street was so bustling, vibrant. It was vibrant. And there was a big article actually just last week in the Wall Street Journal about like how bad it is for Santa Monica and how much money they're losing and how they're about to like go broke.
Although Santa Monica is its own city, it is part of Los Angeles County. And the financial troubles aren't limited to Santa Monica. The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is also facing a crisis. The New York Post reported in July that "the Los Angeles County Office of Education has concluded that LAUSD shows 'severe' signs of insolvency and could be $231 million in the red, unable to make payroll, by November 2027."
Phetasy connects LAUSD's crisis to the broader decline she sees across Los Angeles:
There was an article that came out today that they were sharing in the Dumpster Fire chat that LAUSD might go bankrupt, which [didn't surprise] me at all because not only are they overspending on all the administrative people that they overspend money on, on all these public schools, but they are losing kids. You've lost so many kids. The middle class has left, and the liberals aren't having kids. So you don't have that machine being even fed. So all the schools are—I mean, that's the other thing, too, I've noticed, because the middle class has been so hollowed out here. There just aren't as many kids around, and being in Texas, there are so many kids everywhere you go, and young families, and it feels more vibrant.
I moved out of the city after years of teaching in failing LAUSD schools when my kids were young. We left before a homeless encampment with people living in tents sprung up just a block from our condo. Years later, a very different kind of homeless encampment — this one fake — appeared outside mayoral candidate Nithya Raman’s home. The man who set up the stunt said he brought it to the councilwoman's doorstep so she could see what people throughout the city are experiencing. Raman complained that the stunt crossed the line and threatened her children's safety.
There you have it: the socialist woman who could be mayor says a homeless encampment 500 feet away from your kid's school is okay; just don't endanger her kids.
I shudder to think what Los Angeles will look like on my drives there next year.
Editor's Note: The Democrat Party has been infected by socialism, and it's spreading FAST. Democrats are claiming there's nothing to worry about, but we know the truth.
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