Los Angeles needs civic leaders right now. All it has are political ones

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These days, many Angelenos lament the city’s seeming lack of leadership, a criticism that frequently targets the mayor and council.

That makes sense in one way—these are difficult times, particularly in large cities—but it isn’t very focused in Los Angeles, where history and tradition indicate that civic leadership, rather than political power, is what’s lacking.

The lament centers on a few main points: a large portion of the city feels unsafe and dilapidated; Mayor Karen Bass was disappointing in the early days following the Palisades Fire; the Olympics are quickly approaching, and Los Angeles doesn’t feel prepared to put on a show of that magnitude and importance.

These are valid grievances, but they contain a number of misconceptions and a major misinterpretation of what city leadership entails.

Indeed, when the fires broke out in January, Bass was serving abroad on a diplomatic assignment. The enormity of the task appeared to overwhelm her when she first returned. However, the healing process has proceeded really quickly, and there is no proof that her absence or initial doubt exacerbated the condition.

It is evident that Bass’s efforts have aided rather than hampered the work in the Palisades because Altadena, which is outside the city limits, experienced the same fate and then faced the same recovery challenges, and that area of Los Angeles is recovering at least as quickly.

This fire was larger than any fire department or mayor. Bass should be evaluated based on her recuperation, and thus far, she has received great scores.

Regarding public safety, although some citizens may feel embattled, Los Angeles is actually safer than it has been in a very long time. Both homelessness and crime have improved, according to recent data.The number of individuals sleeping on city streets has decreased in consecutive years, and homicides are expected to hit annual lows in 2025 that haven’t been seen in decades.

Failure doesn’t sound like that.

While it is true that there is a sense of a city in disarray, tackling it in places like Los Angeles and San Francisco begins with acknowledging that the statistics do not justify the unease. This is a far safer city for anyone who lived in Los Angeles in the 1990s, when the annual murder rate was over 1,000. Additionally, even while homelessness is still shockingly common, advancements should be celebrated.

For the Olympics, is the area prepared? No. However, the Olympics-related anxiety serves as a helpful reminder of what matters most for this city’s leadership. Los Angeles is dealing with a lack of civic leadership, not a crisis of political leadership.

Leadership from beyond City Hall

The mayor of the city was but one source of power in this infamously dispersed civic culture not so long ago. In the past, the Committee of 25, a small but influential group of civic leaders, quietly oversaw local affairs. Asa Call, an insurance executive, formed the organization, which brought together some of the most powerful businesspeople in the city and mobilized their support for civic initiatives ranging from the building of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to municipal bond proposals.

Despite its shortcomings, such as being virtually exclusively composed of white Protestant men, the committee served as a form of leadership that supplemented the mayor and council.

When the committee finally disbanded, other well-known people stepped up to take its place. Over his lengthy and illustrious career, Warren Christopher served as a sort of civic consigliere. He was shrewd and modest. In addition to being President Carter’s senior deputy and President Clinton’s secretary of state, Christopher convened the infamous Christopher Commission, which looked at the LAPD following the 1991 beating of Rodney King.

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The foundation for the contemporary police force was established by the commission’s conclusions on racism and violence at the LAPD. I’ve covered local, state, and federal politics for many years, and I’ve never seen a committee whose recommendations led to more significant and long-lasting change.

Christopher passed away in 2011, but others continued the civic duty tradition, chief among them billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad, whose civic accomplishments included school reform, the redesign of Los Angeles’ architectural landscape, and the completion of Disney Hall, which, until Broad took over and saw it through to completion, stood as a monument to civic failure. As a result, the city now has an architectural and cultural treasure.

Those municipal leaders’ efforts were aided by mayors. Although Christopher and Broad had their own status and respect outside of City Hall, Mayor Richard Riordan looked to them for assistance with Disney Hall, and Christopher oversaw the commission that was established by Mayor Tom Bradley.

Ill-advised political aspirations

That’s what Los Angeles is lacking right now. While the city’s governmental leadership occasionally makes mistakes and fails, its civic leadership is completely absent.

Observe the Palisades flames’ aftermath.Bass looked to Steve Soboroff to spearhead that endeavor, but it soon became mired in disagreements on his responsibilities and whether he ought to be compensated for them.April was his bowing out month.

In the meantime, developer Rick Caruso organized his own committee, but it was primarily composed of his political allies and was written off as a means of his personal egotism rather than for true municipal accountability.

In addition to their knowledge and kindness, Christopher and Broad were effective because they had no interest in running for politics. At least in terms of local politics, their personal desire did not taint their recommendations. For Caruso, not so.

Caruso’s ambitions are too high for him to become a civic leader in Los Angeles. He instead sought political office, but failed; Bass defeated him by 10 points in 2022, and he might try again. As a result, he is still a potential politician rather than a civic leader.

Similar breakdowns have occurred in other leadership and power structures, most notably the Los Angeles Times. For better or worse, the Chandler family used to be at the forefront of Los Angeles leadership, and the newspaper was a powerful voice.

The Times is a shadow of what it used to be, and its proprietor is more of a laughing stock than a leader. For instance, he just declared his plan to establish a leadership council. Without a trace, it sank. A leadership council with no leadership ability is not one that anyone wants to be a part of.

And that brings us full circle to the Olympics. One of those estimable L.A. figures who made a name for himself in actually guiding Los Angeles, rather than merely seeking political office, was Peter Ueberroth, whose signature contribution was in spearheading the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Ueberroth helped make those games a roaring successand set a template for the modern Olympics. However, that did not result in political success. Ueberroth was a flop in his ill-advised 2003 campaign for governor.

That only underscores the point: Political leadership and civic leadership are different things. Los Angeles has the former, but it needs much more of the latter.

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