By the time this week’s column comes out, the die will already have been cast. Mayor Karen Bass will either have been retained as L.A.’s mayor, as she rightfully should be, or she will have lost a close election the best did not win.
Rick Caruso, whom Mayor Bass beat the first time she was elected mayor, and who is known as a hard-nosed executive and a brass-knuckleler in politics, recently said he was voting for Mayor Bass to continue her leadership of the city. That was significant in many, many ways.
Mayor Bass had significantly transformed Los Angeles into an outstanding host for the FIFA World Cup in 2026 (the world’s largest sporting event), along with numerous other big business expansions and major accomplishments. For example, the 2028 World Olympic Games are already scheduled and well into planning in Los Angeles. Also, the World Paralympic Games, next year’s Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, and the NCAA Men’s March Madness Basketball tournament at L.A.’s Pepperdine University are on the way.
Ditto the Los Angeles Museum of Narrative Art (celebrating “A Billion Years of Futuristic Architecture”), and, after much negotiating, politicking, and grandstanding, the curtain-raising of Destination Crenshaw to showcase the Black-Brown-Asian and world communities occupying, culturally gesticulating and singing praises to the ethnic cultural achievements of one of L.A.’s major cultural thoroughfares.
The point is about being the chief executive of the whole shebang. The leader must radiate not only the confidence to get things done (including not just talking about firing the current police chief), but also sound executive decision-making and the ability to step out of the spotlight and let other expertise shine when necessary. Mayor Bass has had enough successes not to need to hog the various spotlights that will continually be on Los Angeles in the next few years.
And executive demeanor and expertise are the precise points being raised here. One candidate–Mayor Bass–has that temperament in spades, while the other candidate, Mrs. Raman, does not. The latter, in fact, has had minimal experience running things at this highest level. She’s not even the President of the Los Angeles City Council, where she serves.
So, hopefully, by the time this column is published, Mayor Bass will still be in charge. Los Angeles needs her.
