Viewpoint – Voting for L.A. Mayor – Choose Facts Not Feelings

A common reason that survivors stay in abusive relationships is that it can be difficult for someone to admit that they’ve been or are being abused. They may feel that they’ve done something wrong, that they deserve the abuse.

That’s the only reason I can think of that one Palisades resident told me that although they don’t like L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, they may vote for her.

MAYOR KAREN BASS:

LAHSA CEO Valecia Adams Kellum and LA. Mayor Karen Bass believe in housing first.
(X-formerly Twitter)

One of the L.A. Mayor’s primary jobs is to make sure all the commissions have top-notch appointees. We can all make a mistake in choosing a friend, but Bass chooses one questionable candidate after another: Lecia Adams Kellum (LAHSA), Janisse Quiñones (DWP), Christine Crowley (LAFD) and Michel Moore (retired 2024) replaced with Jim McDonnell and Public Safety Deputy Brian Williams (on leave for calling in a bomb threat to City Hall during the Palisades Fire.)

All of the Mayor’s text messages and emails disappeared after the fire, according to her deputy Mayor of Communications Zach Seidl (who also quit in October 17, 2025).

Maybe you can’t blame the destructive fire on Bass, just because everyone around her failed, but if she were going to be out of town, she should have directed everyone to be on alert, especially the next person in line, Marqueece Harris-Dawson. Crowley called the Mayor’s replacement at 11:27 a.m. January 7. She received a text from him three and half hours later at 3 p.m. “at command post, eager to connect.”

After the fire, Bass first hired Steve Soborff, then it was Haggerty Consulting, who was replaced by AECOM. Pacific Palisades is not much further along then it was when the Army Corp of Engineers scraped the final lots in August 2025.

Bass also helped Nythia Raman in her run for councilmember – and now Raman is running against her.

COUNCILMEMBER NYTHIA RAMAN:

Prior to Raman becoming a councilmember, she co-founded a nonprofit SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition.

A Harvard graduate with a degree in political theory, she also received a master’s degree in urban planning from MIT.  Raman was one of three members to vote against L.A.M.C. Section 41.18 that banned homeless encampments with 500 feet of schools and daycare centers. She has twins with husband and television writer Vali Chandrasekaran, who worked on Modern Family, which often filmed in Pacific Palisades.

Raman is a strong proponent of increasing housing density and the need to accelerate building construction to address the city’s housing and homelessness crisis. She has been described as one of the most pro-housing members of the LA City Council, advocating for policies that increase development capacity, particularly near transit and increasing density in small-scall multi-family developments. It is not known how she feels about density in very high fire severity zones and how that might affect evacuation in those areas, which includes Palisades, Brentwood and the Hollywood Hills.

In Raman’s prior elections the Democratic Socialists of America (L.A. Chapter) endorsed her. DSA, a left-wing organization, which has about 5,000 members, runs strong ground game campaigns that include canvassing, door-knocking and phone banking. She and Rae Huang sought the DSA’s endorsement for Mayor, but the Democratic Socialists of American is not endorsing either, currently.

ADAM MILLER:

Miller on his website Better Angeles (homeless nonprofit, which received $750,000 from Fire Aid) wrote “Better Angels is not simply another homelessness organization. It is not just a nonprofit. Or even a social enterprise. It is a movement. During the pandemic, after my company, Cornerstone, was taken private, I started focusing on homelessness. I spent several months volunteering with executives at LAHSA (Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority), to try to help improve the organization’s efficacy.

Miller advocates for the Better Angels Affordable Housing Fund, a for-profit real estate investment partnership (where the Better Angels 501c3 owns the general partnership) which will provide investors with diversification across developers, project types and project sizes, construction oversight, and market rate returns. The $250M fund will be levered up to invest in over $1 billion worth of development projects, focused on delivering net new affordable housing units with an approach that is better, faster and cheaper.”

Miller, like Raman and Bass, has not figured out that homelessness is generally caused by mental illness or addiction. After years of working with the Pacific Palisades Task Force on Homelessness, this editor has found that most homeless people refuse services when offered.

The three should be aware that development and building is going on at a massive scale, with homeless nonprofits fighting for money to build, such as the low-income apartments planned for 14^th and Wilshire in Santa Monica. Property was listed for sale at $4 million and sold for $6 million. City sold the parking lot behind the property for $1.  Eight story apartment building for low income. Cost will be around $77 million, with about $25 million of the costs paid from a state fund for fire victims with priority given to Santa Monica residents.

And still every day, six people die on the streets. Housing is not the problem, as close to 27,000 Palisadians found out when they had to evacuate the town after the Palisades Fire and all found apartments, Airbnbs, and rooms with friends and relatives.

RAE HUANG:

Haung, an ordained Presbyterian minister and community organizer, has been described as a progressive housing advocate. She promises free transit and social housing if elected. Haung says the L.A. Economy should serve the working people over billionaires, but doesn’t say who will pay for it, if billionaires keep leaving the state.

She said she will expand the unarmed crisis response program and promises to appoint a police chief that shares her values. On her website she says she played a critical role in organizing fire recovery efforts but doesn’t say specifically what that was.

SPENCER PRATT:

A life-long Palisadian, he was among the first to file a lawsuit against the City/State over the Palisades Fire. A strong social media presence, he is touch with the ordinary citizens/firefighters who gave him insider information about the fire. That information has been vetted and presents strong evidence that this fire should never have happened.

He was responsible for getting senators and federal representatives to the Palisades to examine the cause of the Fire even as the City and State claimed it was climate change.

Pratt helped this editor get FireAid information to federal officials, who opened an investigation. Most of that money went to nonprofits, many of whom were not affiliated with the Palisades.

About the homeless, he has said treatment is essential to get people off the streets.

He’s said that he’ll replace the city commissions with qualified individuals. His campaign money comes from concerned citizens, not big donors or union officials (who will expect favors down the line).

Pratt wants to clean up the city, literally, making it presentable before the 2028 Olympics come to town.

Although he has no control over individual councilmembers, he promises that their districts will be made aware of their votes.

Of the five candidates, he is the only one promising change.