Real Estate Calls for End to Status Quo with Next LA Mayor

The Agency’s Zach Goldsmith was born in England and came to Los Angeles when he was three.

His father was inspired by Hollywood lore of American cars and gun-toting cowboys played by Clint Eastwood and John Wayne. The economy was better and so was the weather. When the family went back to England to visit relatives, Goldsmith said they were revered. Now, those same cousins feel sorry for him, based on what they hear in the news.

That’s why he sees plenty at stake with the outcome of the mayoral election.

“I think this is one of the most important races for mayor we’ve had in decades,” Goldsmith said.

He referenced a need to get the city back to its “glory days,” a sentiment that’s been stated many times, whether with respect to specific issues such as housing affordability and homelessness or the overarching theme of strong leadership.

“I’m keeping an open mind, but I haven’t seen anything with our current administration. I don’t feel like [mayoral hopeful Nithya] Raman has a leg to stand on. In [Wednesday’s] debate, she was weak; she couldn’t handle the timing. So, I think it’s going to be between [incumbent Karen] Bass and [Spencer] Pratt at this point. I think it’s going to come down to November.”

His colleague at The Agency, Michelle Schwartz, was more pointed offering an assessment of Wednesday’s debate among Bass, Pratt and 4th District Council Member Raman as a master class in being “gaslit by those currently in charge.”

“The status quo is not working for our city, for property values, for homeowners or for renters. It’s not even a question as to whom I will be voting for,” Schwartz, managing partner of the brokerage’s Valley offices said, of her support for Pratt.

Procedural hurdles and the like

Speaking of governance, the Ad Hoc Committee on Measure United to House LA heard a presentation from supporters of the two-tier tax on Friday.

Buried at the end of the back-and-forth over whether a report critical of the tax is flawed or not was another example of the lack of urgency at City Hall and a culture of performative politics and pragmatic policy making.

Measure ULA established a Citizen Oversight Committee, composed of members of the public to oversee and monitor how the tax is being implemented. This 15-person group meets monthly. It appears updates from those meetings flow to the Housing and Homelessness Committee where it would seem they move no further.

Ad Hoc Chair Ysabel Jurado had to ask Friday’s presenters how they view the COC’s role as different from that of the City Council. Further, Jurado characterized the flow of information between the COC to the City Council as a “whole procedural hurdle” that has preempted updates from moving between the two groups.

With Friday’s meeting it would seem the ad hoc committee that’s supposed to spend time figuring out if reforms to the tax should go to the ballot is now trying to unwind the opaque flow of information among bodies of government. That seems like a task that should have been done when the tax went into effect in 2023.

Who is helping who?

Twice this past week mayoral hopeful Nithya Raman suggested Spencer Pratt and Karen Bass are in on a plan to get one another to the November run-off.

She offered that hot take first on Tuesday at a debate between herself and Bass, which was hosted by the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association. She pressed Bass on why she was “promoting the campaign of a MAGA Republican.” The assertion was a reference to Bass’ reelection website where there are several slams against Raman’s track record, while characterizing Pratt as a “strong contender” for a spot in the run-off.

Raman brought it up again at the next day’s debate: “You’re going to watch today as Mayor Bass and Spencer Pratt attack me because they want to run against each other in the general election. Each of them thinks that running against each other is what’s going to help them win.”

Pratt landed an even bigger counterpunch, part of the reason he was generally deemed to have been the hands-down winner of the debate: “You think it’s easier to run against the incumbent mayor with all the unions [supporting her], or a random City Council member who’s been a failure for six years? I would much rather run against Councilwoman Raman.”