How Karen Bass, Nithya Raman have driven LA off the road

“It wasn’t me” is a funny line until you realize it’s basically the operating manual at City Hall right now. Mayor Karen Bass is running for reelection, and the louder the complaints get, the more the public gets a shrug and a finger pointed somewhere else. Not my department. Not my decision. Not my fault. If you’re in charge, you don’t get to outsource responsibility.

The piece puts Bass alongside Councilmember Nithya Raman for a reason: Los Angeles keeps getting sold big promises and then handed the bill for the mess. Streets feel less safe. Basic services feel shakier. Housing costs keep punishing anyone who isn’t rich or subsidized. And when residents ask why their neighborhood is sliding, they get the same routine: a press conference, a program name, and a reminder that the real culprit is always “complex.” A city can’t be run on excuses and acronyms.

We’re not buying the idea that LA’s problems are some mysterious weather system nobody can predict. Leadership is a choice. Priorities are a choice. Enforcement is a choice. You can either back the people who keep the city running, clean up the obvious chaos, and make it clear that rules still mean something, or you can keep playing whack-a-mole with “initiatives” that never touch the daily reality on the ground. Governing is results, not vibes.

If Bass wants another term, she can start by dropping the “it wasn’t me” act and naming what she will do differently tomorrow, not after the next study, the next task force, the next election. Angelenos don’t need another round of soft language about hard problems. They need a mayor who owns the outcomes, even the bad ones, and fixes what’s broken without treating taxpayers like an ATM and residents like an inconvenience.