Los Angeles is one of the great cities of the world. Geographically situated in one of the most ideal locations on the planet, it is a true melting pot for people from all over the world to pursue the American dream. From our beaches to Hollywood, LA has been world-renowned as a great place to be and create. It is for these reasons and more that LA is worth fighting for.
The same cannot be said of the Los Angeles city government.
As the city prepares to welcome the world for the World Cup, visitors flying into LAX may hear something about a delayed and over-budget people mover they can’t use. Those who stay in the downtown area and wander too far may see for themselves the horrors of Skid Row or the vast blight. They may notice the Sixth Street Viaduct, which has been repeatedly used for chaotic street takeovers and raided for copper.
Visitors will notice the shoddy streets and sidewalks and will hear about the rampant copper wire theft taking out the city’s street lights. Thanks to the city’s fondness for imposing mandates on businesses, visitors to the city will pay far more than they should for a hotel bed or going out to eat. And if anyone thinks about living in Los Angeles, good luck to them unless they’re prepared to pay up large portions of their paychecks on housing since City Hall hasn’t figured out that the answer to high housing costs is more housing.
These are all things Angelenos have sadly come to accept as normal and unavoidable.
They aren’t. They’re a choice.
There is perhaps no clearer distillation of the city’s incompetence and mismanagement than the wildfires that destroyed the Palisades and the infamous tape of Mayor Karen Bass awkwardly staring into the void as she was asked about the city’s abysmal wildfire response.
When a Los Angeles Times headline later blared that “Bass directed watering down of Palisades fire after-action report,” no one was surprised and fewer moved by her denial. That is par for the course with the mayor, who has proven to be a much more competent campaigner than a leader.
The city is in decline, and change at the top is badly needed. A vote for Bass is a vote to continue LA’s slide into high-priced mediocrity and decay.
Fortunately, there are alternatives. Some of the choices are better than others.
Reality television star Spencer Pratt is righteously angry about losing his home in the Palisades and articulates what many in Los Angeles feel, but he is utterly unprepared to serve as mayor of one of the largest cities in the country. Clever quips and social media clips are not a substitute for relevant experience.
Councilmember Nithya Raman has pivoted away from her Democratic Socialist roots and has spoken like a reform-minded, “good government” liberal in recent months. She rightly identifies wasteful spending, the need for more housing, and the undue influence of special interests. However, she’s also backed failed policies like Measure ULA, opposed enforcement of anti-camping laws, and supported the failing mayor right up until she decided to challenge her.
There’s Rae Huang, who is further to the left while touting as much experience as Pratt. The worst of all worlds, in other words.
And then there’s Adam Miller, an entrepreneur and nonprofit leader who is running for the right reasons and with the right ideas to put LA back on course.
After receiving his BA, BS, JD, and MBA and then passing the exams for CPA and Series 7, he started his first company at age 29 and later sold it for over $5 billion. And so it went with other ventures, including his work now with Better Angels, which works to keep people from falling into homelessness.
Drawing from his private sector background, Miller, a lifelong Democrat, believes the key to saving LA is setting clear objectives and taking the necessary steps to achieve them.
His practical approach might be best summed up in his policy platform on the city’s deteriorating streets: “A city that cannot fill a pothole in a reasonable timeframe cannot ask its residents to trust it with anything more ambitious. Getting the basics right is not a low priority. It is the foundation everything else is built on.”
Accordingly, he calls for pulling money from “underperforming general fund programs” and putting more into the Bureau of Street Services so the city can execute on his goal of rebuilding our streets and rapidly addressing potholes.
When it comes to both public safety and government in general, his message is simple: Bring LA into the 21st Century. That means funding the police and fire departments like they’re actual priorities, leveraging technology to streamline government functions, and holding city contractors and bureaucracies accountable.
Miller understands that when housing is as unaffordable as it is in LA, life becomes much harder. His answer is straightforward: the city needs to allow more housing to be built. He has set the goal of slashing permitting times by 80%, to be accomplished by self-certification expansion, eliminating unnecessary permits, AI plan check reviews, and more. He wants to suspend Measure ULA on all new construction and set a 30-day maximum permit timeline for all developments with 100% affordable units.
On homelessness, he has a similarly practical view. He supports enforcing anti-camping laws so kids and parents don’t have to feel nervous or scared walking to school. At the same time, he wants to dramatically refocus the city on ensuring people on the streets are connected to the services they need and have places to go, and he wants to ramp up the city’s ability to prevent people from falling into homelessness in the first place.
With respect to the city’s business environment, he recognizes the harm of the city’s gross receipts tax and overall hostile environment. Instead of fighting with, slapping mandates on, or taxing away businesses, he wants to foster an LA where job creators and innovators can do what they do best.
We recognize that Miller doesn’t have the name ID of Bass, Raman, or Pratt, but he’s clearly the best candidate on the ballot for anyone who is tired of the direction of Los Angeles and just wants someone competent in the mayor’s office. The city cannot afford four more years of mismanagement from the mayor’s office.
Vote for Adam Miller.