What do America’s three largest cities — New York, Chicago and Los Angeles — all have in common?
First, all three are in decline, shedding jobs, adding debt and seeing a steady decline in public services.
Each of them also has a mayor with no real private sector job experience.
Zohran Mamdani was a “community organizer” before being elected to the New York state legislature at age 29.
Brandon Johnson of Chicago was a paid organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union when he took office in 2023.
Karen Bass briefly worked as a physician’s assistant before becoming a community organizer and launching a political career that pole-vaulted her into the job of LA mayor in 2022.
All three have demonstrated a lack of practical management skills, knowledge of how complex organizations ru,n and an addiction to patronage politics.
In Bass’ case, her limitations were dramatically on display during the 2025 wildfires. Her major contribution appears to have been altering, in her favor, a critical after-action report on the devastating fires. (Bass’s office has said she did not demand changes to the report, and only asked the LAFD to confirm the accuracy of certain items.)
She followed that up by appointing Jaime Moore as her new Fire Chief, who promptly announced that he wouldn’t investigate how the report was allegedly altered, making a mockery of any accountability for the scandal.
Indeed, the mayor’s appointees have become a key feature of her failure in office.
Her picks range on a scale from unimaginative to mediocre to ethically compromised failures.
Here are just some members of the Bass “rogue’s gallery.”
Bass appointed developer Steve Soboroff as her handpicked czar to rebuild after the fires, and saw him leave after controversies, which included him claiming Bass had told him he would receive half a million dollars for three months of work.
Bass appointed Staycee Dains to manage the city’s Animal Services programs. Critics accused her of a lack of transparency and failure to address dangerous conditions, including severe dog maulings at city shelters. Dains left office after only a year.
Bass reappointed Edward Rainey Renwick to a plum job as commissioner for the Port of Los Angeles, which generates one out of 15 jobs for the city. This despite his record running an investment firm that bought hundreds of distressed homes in African-American neighborhoods in Midwest cities such as Ferguson, Missouri.
Renwick’s firm, Raineth Housing, went into foreclosure in 2021, after allegations of mismanagement, including failure to pay property taxes.
In 2025, Va Lecia Adams Kellum was forced to resign as head of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority after two years.
A county audit and a RAND report found serious oversight and accounting issues at the agency. RAND found that its homeless count increasingly understated the number of unsheltered people. Adams Kellum also allegedly had renewed a contract worth $2.1 million to a nonprofit that employs her husband in a senior leadership role.
The old political machines, such as New York’s Tammany Hall and Chicago’s Daley Machine, were certainly corrupt, but they delivered quality city services at the same time they feathered the nests of machine politicians.
The new public employee-dominated machine presided over by Mayor Bass delivers deteriorating services while spinning a web of mismanaged funds, pay-to-play schemes, and collapsed public trust.
The sad part is that the candidates running to oppose Bass this year show no signs they can restore that trust.
Socialist Councilmember Nithya Raman was a Bass ally until recently, and would bring full-blown Mamdani-style socialism to LA. Bass allies are pulling out all the stops to throw conservative reality TV star Spencer Pratt off the ballot by challenging his residency in the city.
Economic growth and civic dynamism is occurring in cities such as Dallas, Houston, Phoenix and Miami. All are in red states, which have become a magnet for residents and businesses fleeing states where they are mistreated to states where they can rely on competent government.
John Fund is a columnist for National Review who writes frequently on California.
