Karen Bass vs. Nithya Raman: Who Does More Damage to LA?

The John Phillips Show

The John Phillips Show explores the contentious Los Angeles mayoral race between incumbent Karen Bass and challenger Nithya Raman, highlight

Key takeaways

• Small business owners in LA face eviction without support despite long-standing contributions to local economies.
• Nithya Raman's tenant-focused policies contrast with lack of protection for small businesses during development projects.

Main topics

• Los Angeles mayoral race: Karen Bass vs. Nithya Raman
• Eviction of small businesses amid urban development

Notable quotes

"They don't even care when small businesses are getting evicted in the name of all of this development. There's no support."

"The race for mayor of Los Angeles will be decided by all of us, for sure, in L.A., but the San Fernando Valley, like it or not, is the swing vote."

Conclusion

The episode underscores the growing disconnect between urban development policies and community preservation,

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:01) Speaking up in all caps for those that done the red caps. It's the John Phillips show. Speaker 5 (0:13) And we continue at two Oh five in the afternoon on the John Phillips show. Mr. Randy wags and Culver city. Speaker 1 (0:21) Johnny, we are broadcasting live on the radio on 790k ABC and 810k SFO, and we're also broadcasting live on video. You can watch us do this show every single day at johnnydontlike.com. That's Johnny with a Y, johnnydontlike.com. That is where you can see us do the show, react to the stories along with us, play around in the very filthy at times chat room, vote in our poll. What is the most useless word? Accountability or affordability? Accountability is winning. We're here. until 3 o'clock. Speaker 5 (0:53) A lot of reaction to that interview that we just did with Angela Marsden. A lot of people upset over what's going on, not just to her, but the other small business owners in the area. And it just seems like the push that we're seeing right now, coming not only from City Hall, but from Sacramento. is that they just don't want the homeowners here. They don't want the small business owners here. They want us all gone to make way for Chinese investors to come in and dump a ton of money into high-density housing. That's what they want. That, to them, is the future of California. Speaker 1 (1:31) And there's no plan for the fallout of a business owner that's been paying taxes and supporting jobs in this community for years and years and years and years. When the developer decides to buy a property and evict all of the tenants that have been paying, that have been contributing to the economy, nothing. There's no support. Nithya Raman is the city council person. for that district. And Nithya Raman is running for mayor based on her record of all the eviction protections and tenant protections that she's had for people living in apartments. But there seems to be no protections or even the city caring at all when small businesses are getting evicted in the name of all of this development. They don't even care. Speaker 5 (2:16) No, no. And she's so right, Angela is, when she talks about that small businesses like hers are the fabric of society. I mean, they are how we experience these areas. And in a place like Southern California, where there's just not a whole lot of history, it's special places like that that... people remember when they travel here, when they come here from another state, from another country. They remember those iconic restaurants. I can't tell you the number of times people say, how in the world did we let the Brown Derby go away? How did we let Chasen's go away? How did we let so many of these old-time Hollywood fixtures just evaporate into the night sky when so much of our history took place there? Speaker 1 (3:07) It's just, we're losing so many things that make Los Angeles unique. You go to the Pineapple Hill, which I frequent. I go there, you know, usually on Tuesdays for trivia. It is such a throwback to the old kind of bar that you don't really see because almost everything in Los Angeles is just another chain that's repeating itself. It's such a unique place. And taking that away, it is heartbreaking. Make sure, if you weren't already thinking of coming out next Friday, come out. not only to support us and to support Prop 43, but come support Angela, come support the Pineapple Hill. You've got any ideas, any connections on what we can do to save this business? I don't know if there is anything that we can do, but let's start thinking about it. They are going to be operating for at least the next month and a half or so. So get down there. Go enjoy yourself, whether it's Trivia Tuesday, Wing Wednesday, whatever. I love that place, and I'm sure you all love it too. Let's show them our support more than ever, not only just for Angela, the bartenders, the waiters that work there, because a lot of people are going to be out of a job in just a couple of weeks. Speaker 5 (4:12) 800-222-5222 is the telephone number. It is our pleasure to welcome our next guest to the program. She is the professor of political science emeritus at California State University at Fullerton, Professor Barbara Stone. Welcome. Speaker 3 (4:27) Good afternoon, John. Speaker 5 (4:29) Well, thank you so much for being here. So I want to read a tweet for you and have you respond to it because I get a ton of email from people in the city of Los Angeles who voted for Spencer Pratt for mayor, who now are looking at a November ballot that has socialist Nithya Raman and incumbent failed mayor Karen Bass on it. and they don't know what to do. The number one question I get is, can they write in Spencer Pratt? The answer is no. The city of Los Angeles will not allow those votes to be counted. So that leaves them with the question of, what do they do? Do they vote for Rahman? Do they vote for Bass? Or do they leave it blank? Here is what longtime L.A.-based Democratic strategist Michael Trujillo tweeted on that subject. Quote, The race for mayor of Los Angeles will be decided by all of us, for sure, in L.A., but the San Fernando Valley, like it or not, is the swing vote. And it's not the first time they've had this position. In 2005, former Valley Assemblyman, soon-to-be state senator Bob Hertzberg, came in third and supported former ACLU president Antonio Villaraigosa for mayor, which brought out the Valley vote for him. Fast forward to 2013, Kevin James, a local talk radio host, formerly with KABC, came in third with his base being Republican voters in the San Fernando Valley. He endorsed Rhodes Scholar Eric Garcetti for mayor, which put him over the top. You may not like it, but the reality is reality star Spencer Pratt and his base vote in the San Fernando Valley. is key to whoever becomes mayor this year. This is a nonpartisan race, not a Democratic primary. Speaker 3 (6:29) And so you're going down the road. What do you do if you are an L.A. voter and are not totally nuts, right? Pretty Speaker 5 (6:39) much. Speaker 3 (6:41) Okay, I have a question before I offer up. All I can do is tell you what I would seriously consider doing. And by the way, what I seriously consider doing was never living in that city. Actually, excuse me, never owning property in that city. Actually, has Spencer Pratt said anything? Speaker 5 (7:05) He has attacked both of the candidates and says he has information on one of the two that will destroy their political career that he's going to release after the election. Speaker 3 (7:17) That's interesting. So he's looking to thinking maybe there'll be a vacancy or something like that. Fine. Then he's playing that game. But from his point of view, there's nothing to be gained by supporting one or the other. I will go back in the two cases Trujillo was talking about. Actually, while neither of those were particularly good mayors compared to what's on the ballot this time. Man, they were models of sanity. I guess if I didn't already know that Karen Bass is really, really stupid. Speaker 5 (8:04) Well, Speaker 3 (8:05) that bothers me. You know, at least Garcetti was not stupid. Antonio was not stupid. This woman is. Speaker 3 (8:16) And so you can't expect anything good out of her. And interestingly enough, I've paid enough attention to the ramen woman. Man, this is called a race to the bottom. So it's the, John, what I think I would do, I never don't vote, if that makes any sense. It just somehow, I know they won't count it. I probably would go vote and vote for Spencer Pratt anyway. Speaker 5 (8:45) Here's the way I see it. Under no circumstances would I ever vote for a DSA candidate. I just wouldn't. Speaker 3 (8:53) I Speaker 5 (8:53) believe in capitalism, Speaker 3 (8:54) private Speaker 5 (8:55) property rights, public safety, which means you can't vote for them. So Rahman's a no-go. Which means you're left with two options. You can vote for the failed mayor, or you can leave the ballot blank. And it kind of puts Pratt voters in the old life jacket ethical dilemma, where you're on the boat with a limited number of life jackets, and one of the people in the water is Karen Bass. And the question is, do you turn around and go to Ghana because the fire chief never told you the surf would be high? Speaker 3 (9:34) You're hitting on something that seems to me unbelievably relevant. that you go, well, surely she would be better than a democratic socialist. Hmm, maybe. But in terms of anything that local government is supposed to be doing, and you just mentioned one of them, try public safety, she's a disaster. If you want to vote for her on the basis that you just can't give the DSA a victory here, and after all, I really don't want government-run grocery stores. then you can justify it on the basis, but I'm not going to guarantee you it's going to stay this way, that at least she hired a decent police chief. And while they may not be building the department, at least she hasn't abolished it. And so maybe she's not quite as... Well, the other one's going to be horrible. And whether or not Bass, she won't improve. Don't fool yourself. But if you can go, well, I can look at that little corner. I can look at a few other corners. Just don't go near Boyle Heights. I can, you know, I can justify voting for her. But it really, really, really wouldn't make me happy. Speaker 3 (11:11) Anyhow. Speaker 5 (11:11) Let's shift gears. Speaker 3 (11:13) Let me do one last thing. Speaker 5 (11:15) Part Speaker 3 (11:15) of