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OP-ED - It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. These are words I wish I could have originally written but clearly predicted the current state Lost Chaos Angeles finds itself in.
The best of Times. We are an amazing city. We have an amazing diverse, creative, industrious population which is sadly declining. We are home to many world class cultural institutions and museums. The new LA County Museum of Art is architecturally stunning and awe inspiring and needs to be visited and revisited. The power of Art reflects many qualities--beauty, daring, politically incorrect, peaceful, powerful, controversial, antagonistic, creative---the adjectives are too many to enumerate and all are missing from our current political landscape. Art is in the eye of the beholder which makes its genius readily apparent. Free societies respect, appreciate and celebrate freedom of expression. Holly Mitchell, County Supervisor, was at the opening and understands the power of public, private partnerships--which represents government that works. We have other great cultural institutions--the Getty, the Broad, the California Science Center and others. These institutions are feasts for the eyes and for the minds.
LA has amazing first-class sports facilities and world class teams--Sofi Stadium where the NFL Rams and Chargers play; the Crypto.com Arena which is home to the Lakers and Kings; the Intuit Dome where the Clippers play; Dodger Stadium where of course the Dodgers play and two stadiums for the two main professional soccer teams. I haven't even mentioned the LA Coliseum and the Rose Bowl and the myriads of fans who support USC and UCLA facilities and sports. No other city in the world can compete with this menu of first-class sports, music venues, entertainment attractions and art institutions. The world is coming here for the World Cup and the Olympics.
The worst of Times. Let's start with our city government (City Council). Our city is woke and broke and one step away from bankruptcy. That is totally honest. That said, some of the members of the City Council are completely out of touch with reality and are antagonistic to the majority of the residents in this city. Government is a compact between the population/citizens and the elected officials whose obligation is to provide basic services for all its citizens. These are all supposed to be non-political. These departments include police, fire, sanitation, roads, building and safety--all departments which should be oblivious to politics and are to provide safety and security and essential services for all the city's residents. Last week, four socialist members of the City Council--Ysabel Jurado, Eunisses Hernandez, HugoSoto-Martinez and Nithya Ramen (mayoral candidates--heaven forbid) voted against a measure to allow the city to enforce anti-camping rules in public spaces in Venice. This is America and everyone is entitled to their opinion, but the question must really be asked---what exactly are they thinking (which in their case--a mind is a terrible thing to use)and do they understand that they are advocating positions that are abhorrent to more than 85% of than citizens of our city? Our citizens want all our streets and communities safe and no one living on them. When you vote like this it shows a complete lack to common sense and a failure to live up to your civic and official responsibilities. Exactly who are you protecting? Certainly not the majority of the citizens of this city. When I watch videos of Eunisses speaking there is an air of smugness and arrogance that this is her way to "get even" with the property owners in our city and she's still talking about Defunding the Police. She was elected by about 16,000 votes in our city of 2,000,000 people and she's clearly clueless about the wishes of more than 90% of its citizens. To be clear--the DSA are economic leeches in our city. They are not responsible for bringing one major business to Los Angeles. All their economic programs are based on one word "Covet". I want what you have. Nithya, by lying to her constituency, basically severely impacted the construction industry in Los Angeles which cost the city thousands of construction jobs--and this economic fool is running for Mayor.
Socialism has failed everywhere it’s been enacted. In the last few years, Socialists have lost power in Argentina, Peru and recently in Hungary; and let's not discuss its horrendous impact in Eastern Europe under Soviet rule. It's a descent into mediocrity and will only further LA's decline. Before you bring up Mamdani's success in NYC, let me remind everyone that the real estate and business community is extremely powerful and strong there (not weak as it is here) and he can only make progress on the margins. Last week he made some statement that it wasn't fair that the average New Yorker cannot afford to buy tickets to attend the Knicks games. That is totally preposterous and ignorant---tell me one player on the team who will reduce his salary. In professional athletics competence and ability counts and athletes are clearly entitled to be paid for it. (Does anyone think that Othani is going to share his salary with anyone who wins one game or hits .200) Furthermore--and I know this for an incontrovertible fact---because demand is so much greater than the supply--if the average New Yorker could buy a ticket, that ticket will be worth more than 4 or 5 times its face value and the average New Yorker will sell it and he should. That's true and not subject for debate. By pricing the tickets high, the stakeholders are the ones who rightly receive the money---and even then, no one can sell a ticket for the full value of what it’s worth in certain circumstances.
As written above this is the best of times and worst of Times for our City. Elections are coming and it will be a slow painful path to recovery. Let’s elect people who can work to rebuild our city--not those who will continue its descent.
(Fredric D. Rosen is a retired businessman and former CEO of Ticketmaster, where he led the company for 16 years and transformed it into the world’s leading ticketing service. He has served on numerous corporate and nonprofit boards, offering leadership across both private enterprise and charitable initiatives. With decades of experience in business and civic engagement, Rosen brings a seasoned perspective to issues at the intersection of commerce, culture, and community.)
