On Aug. 6, Rep. Karen Bass, candidate for LA mayor, spoke at Sirens in San Pedro. Photo by Arturo Garcia-Ayala<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
Backwards or forwards in mayor\u2019s race<\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n \u201cFirst of all, I do not, I never have, supported defund the police,\u201d congresswoman and mayoral candidate Karen Bass said in a meet-and-greet event at Sirens Java & Tea in San Pedro on Aug. 6, responding to rumors being circulated against her in her race against former Republican and billionaire developer Rick Caruso.<\/span><\/p>\nIt\u2019s a familiar situation for Bass who, as a Black woman \u2014 the first ever to lead a state legislature \u2014 has a long history of being misjudged, and surprising those who misjudge her.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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Despite massively outspending her, Caruso still seems unlikely to beat her in November, but he has shifted the debate, ala Donald Trump, back into the territory of \u201cAmerican carnage\u201d with a focus on homelessness and crime, and claims akin to, \u201cI alone can fix it,\u201d leaving Bass with a lot of fact-checking and debunking to do. But in the process, some crucial possibilities for real progress may be getting lost \u2014 from criminal justice reform to housing and homelessness to climate justice and resilience, and more.<\/span><\/p>\nA health-care worker turned community organizer, Bass was first elected to California Assembly in her early 50s, and became Speaker in 2008. Her record was characterized by engaging with and empowering community input on the one hand \u2014 initiating the process that produced the first ever \u201cState of Black California\u201d report, for example \u2014 and engaging in difficult negotiations with political opponents on the other \u2014 receiving the 2010 \u201cProfiles in Courage\u201d award along other legislative leaders for \u201cstanding up to the extraordinary constituent and party pressure they faced while working with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to address California\u2019s severe financial crisis.\u201d Her willingness to work with anyone was the common factor in both sides of this record \u2014 and even extends to those attacking her now.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI have been on record on TV, radio, print, hundreds of times, because, when the Speaker asked me to lead the effort around the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, I worked tirelessly to pass that bill out of the House,\u201d Bass went on to explain at the coffee house that caters to first responders. \u201cThat bill, in itself, provides hundreds of millions of dollars for the police. So, if you don\u2019t support the police, you wouldn\u2019t support the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nWhat\u2019s more, she noted, \u201cIronically, I worked closely with the Police Protective League on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. We worked closely together, which is why I was surprised that they spent $4 million attacking me, since we had worked so closely together. And, interestingly, I worked with Rick Caruso,\u201d who helped her \u201cwith my Republican colleagues, who weren\u2019t really sure where I was coming from.\u201d (Caruso changed his registration to \u201cDemocrat\u201d in January.)<\/span><\/p>\nIt took several minutes before Bass got around to saying, \u201cI believe in stopping the crimes of today, and investing in preventing the crimes of tomorrow.\u201d But even after that, she said little specifically about prevention strategies, despite having deeply detailed plans outlined on her website. But she did promise responsiveness.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI want to have an office of community safety, where we essentially go to all the neighborhoods around the city, and say, \u2018What makes your neighborhood safe?\u2019,\u201d Bass said. \u201cI don\u2019t believe in one size fits all. But what I do believe is that if you define what you want, it\u2019s my job as mayor to deliver it. And I do believe that the number one job of the mayor is to keep the city safe.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nUnfortunately, what people clamor for may not be what they want. There\u2019s only mixed evidence, at best, that increased policing reduces serious crime \u2014 some shows the opposite. What it does do is increase misdemeanor arrests \u2014 which have significant social costs \u2014 as sociologist Brenden Beck explained at <\/span>Slate<\/span><\/i> in April, reporting on the results of a study he co-authored, analyzing 29 years of data spanning hundreds of cities.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cWe found the size of a city\u2019s police budget and the size of its police force both strongly predicted how many arrests its officers made for things like loitering, trespassing, and drug possession,\u201d Beck wrote. \u201cThe trend was clear: When cities decreased the size of their police departments, they saw fewer misdemeanor arrests and when they increased them, they saw more.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nIncreased arrests may make some people happy, but \u201cArrests for petty offenses are devastating for the people arrested and their communities,\u201d Beck explained. \u201cEven a single arrest makes a person less likely to stay in school, be hired for a job, or obtain housing. The punishment of an arrest often cascades into fines, fees, and what legal scholar Issa Kohler-Hausmann calls \u2018procedural hassles,\u2019 even in cases that do not result in jail time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cIf intense misdemeanor enforcement reduced crime, these costs might have to be balanced against the public safety benefits of low-level arrests,\u201d Beck noted, \u201cbut study after study has found intense misdemeanor enforcement does not reduce crime. One study analyzed the effects of randomly dropping some misdemeanor charges and found people who had their cases dismissed were less likely to be rearrested over the next two years, suggesting misdemeanor enforcement actively causes crime.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nIt\u2019s findings like these \u2014 hard-nosed empirical data \u2014 that are cited by aspiring progressive prosecutors, such as city attorney candidate Faisal Gill.<\/span><\/p>\nKaren Bass. Photo by Arturo Garcia-Ayala<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBass Reverses Endorsement<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n Bass initially endorsed Gill, only to reverse her decision in June, when Caruso attacked her endorsement. Bass did not respond to <\/span>Random Lengths\u2019 <\/span><\/i>inquiries to explain her reasoning.<\/span><\/p>\nCaruso attacked Gill specifically for his proposed 100-day moratorium on misdemeanor charges, \u201cunless they are particularly egregious or time-sensitive,\u201d which Gill credibly claims was a fear-mongering mis-representation of crimes that would not be charged.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cRick: you may be filthy rich, but no amount of money can change the truth,\u201d Gill said in a statement at the time. \u201cNever did I say I would not prosecute egregious crimes as city attorney. The crimes Caruso lists that I allegedly won\u2019t prosecute are entirely fabricated, made up out of whole cloth.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nWhat\u2019s more, that moratorium was clearly a temporary transition measure, lasting less than 1\/14 of his prospective term. Focusing on it was clearly intended to obscure Gill\u2019s long-term goal to implement a safety-enhancing diversion-focused system. Now that the attempt to recall District Attorney George Gasc\u00f3n has failed, it\u2019s a good time to soberly reconsider just what Gill is proposing.<\/span><\/p>\nThe Homelessness Issue<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n As with crime, Caruso\u2019s homelessness stance is long on tough talk, and claims of competence. But he\u2019s apparently never built a single unit of affordable housing in his career. Instead, he\u2019s relying on public anger and frustration \u2014 the desire to do something, regardless of whether it works. This was reflected in the city council\u2019s recent 11 to 3 vote to dramatically expand the city\u2019s prohibition on camping to public spaces around schools, which even the <\/span>LA Times <\/span><\/i>derided as \u201conly fool[ing] people into thinking something is being done about homelessness.\u201d The new measure \u201cwon\u2019t make a dent in homelessness and it probably won\u2019t even reduce the appearance of encampments,\u201d a <\/span>Times\u2019<\/span><\/i> editorial argued. \u201cIt will simply shift them down the block from a school \u2014 and it might not even do that. Another anti-camping restriction wastes time and city resources and solves nothing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nBoth candidates recognize there are multiple moving parts to the problem, but only Bass has decades of experience working on the multiple levels that need to be brought together. \u201cWe have to have a whole of government approach, which means the federal government\u2019s responsible, the state government, the city and the county.\u201d The city and county need to work together. \u201cIt makes no sense to say the city\u2019s responsible for building, the county\u2019s responsible for services, when we\u2019re talking about the same individual,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd we\u2019ve got to get the federal government to relax a lot of regulations to address this problem like it\u2019s an emergency.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nBut there\u2019s a way the city can lead. \u201cThe city alone owns about 70 acres \u2014 lots. Some of which are completely vacant. Why can\u2019t we put up housing there?\u201d Bass asked. (City Controller Ron Galperin gives a lower figure of 39 acres.) \u201cWe know how to do this,\u201d she said, \u201cWe\u2019ve seen what our government can do. 20,000 Afghan refugees were in Qatar. We had to build a virtual city. Did we know how to do that? Yes. Why can\u2019t we do that here, at home? That\u2019s why you have to have an all of government approach. We have to prevent people from becoming homeless, we\u2019ve got to get people off the streets right away, into housing, and then we have to address why they were unhoused to begin with. What was the problem that led to them losing their housing. If we don\u2019t address why they were unhoused, the odds of them staying in housing is very slim.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nWhile it\u2019s important to address individual problems, there are broader underlying drivers \u2014 income inequality and the shortage of affordable housing \u2014 that have been worsening for decades. One way to address them would be through direct government involvement in building mixed-income social housing \u2014 a much larger scale solution than just building housing for the homeless, which is well established elsewhere in the developed world. And the need for something similar in California is clear.<\/span><\/p>\nThe National Low Income Housing Coalition\u2019s \u201cOut Of Reach\u201d report documents the \u201csignificant gap between renters\u2019 wages and the cost of rental housing across the United States,\u201d using its central statistic, the Housing Wage \u2014 what a full-time worker must earn to afford modest rental without spending more than 30% of their income on housing. California currently has the second highest housing wage in the country \u2014 $39.01\/hr. Even with its $15\/hr minimum wage it would take 104 hours per week to afford a 2-bedroom rental home.<\/span><\/p>\nFacing this reality, a bill to bring social housing to California, AB 2053, by Assemblymember Alex Lee, of Milpitas, passed the Assembly but died in a Senate committee by one vote in June. As mayor of LA, with wide-ranging influence, Bass would be a formidable force in getting such legislation passed next year, and she could explore how much LA could do on its own. This seems like a natural extension of her past advocacy and ideas, but again, Bass did not respond to <\/span>Random Lengths\u2019<\/span><\/i> queries on the subject.<\/span><\/p>\nClimate Justice<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n Another issue area Bass highlights on her website \u2014 climate and sustainability \u2014 has gotten far less attention, while it ought to be front and center, given how crucially it interconnects with virtually everything else local governments are responsible for. Here, again, she has some deeply detailed ideas, summed up in what she calls \u201ca jobs and justice-centered plan to decarbonize our economy.\u201d For example, under the heading, \u201cTransition to Zero-Emission Vehicles and Dramatically Reduce Vehicle Emissions,\u201d specifics include:<\/span><\/p>\n\n Expand the network of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations throughout Los Angeles, both in households and corridors \u2013 where Angelenos live, work, and play \u2013 specifically in communities where access has been limited.<\/span><\/li>\n Create\u00a0 jobs installing and maintaining EV charging stations particularly in underserved communities and ensuring that small and minority-owned businesses can participate in the rapid growth of the charging network.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nThere\u2019s a careful weaving together of diverse concerns here and throughout her climate plans. What\u2019s missing is something noted in our last issue story about the 710 freeway: anything akin to Munich\u2019s planned Freiham ecodistrict \u201cwith 15,000 jobs, a mix of homes for 25,000, schools, daycare, cafes, shops, car-free streets, parks and courtyards, all combined with high capacity transit.\u201d The many fine pieces that are in Bass\u2019s plan could realize even greater benefits if they could be brought together in some similar fashion.<\/span><\/p>\nFinally, under the heading, \u201cClean Up Our Port To Benefit Communities,\u201d she not only commits to 100% zero emissions by 2030, \u201cpartner[ing] with all levels of government to meet public health and climate goals,\u201d and \u201csupport[ing] healthy land use and permitting policies that prevent or mitigate community impacts,\u201d she also pledges to \u201cSupport investment of port revenues in community benefits for impacted neighborhoods, including public health and mobile clinics, parks, open space, and community gardens, climate resilience and adaptation projects, technology development and deployment, education enhancements, and projects that address noise pollution.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nIt\u2019s an impressive statement of commitments, but what\u2019s missing is something touched on in our story about the recent \u201cSomebody Else\u2019s Ocean\u201d report: the need for some kind of institutional structure to alter the long-term incentives that have allowed the port to become captive to the interests of foreign shipping and manufacturing companies.<\/span><\/p>\nBass has a long history of working to get unheard voices heard, and fostering collaboration. She could be a truly transformational mayor if she dares to double down on that legacy by creating new institutional forms \u2014 not just at the port, but elsewhere as well \u2014 to not just create a more inclusive, collaborative policy structure under her administration, but to establish it as a permanent feature of how Los Angeles functions, not just internally, but in all its collaborative dealings with other governmental entities as well.<\/span><\/p>\n
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