Who is Ready to Lead LA into the Future

The pandemic, with all its cresting and falling waves of illness, distress, and hope for recovery, has given us a vivid look at our communities’ strengths and vulnerabilities, and the elected leaders we choose in the next city and county election will shape an agenda that must address the stark contrasts we now see so clearly.

Whatever illusions about the state of our fellow citizens we had before 2020, it’s impossible now to ignore the clash of realities that now define us: LA is at the heart of a trillion-dollar metropolitan economy, fueled by tens of billions of dollars in public, private and philanthropic spending on infrastructure and commerce, yet millions of Angelenos struggle to secure a good paying job that covers their ever increasing costs—rent, healthcare, education, transportation—of living in Los Angeles.

And those are the lucky ones. Every year more Angelenos find themselves seeking shelter on our sidewalks and alleyways just to survive, while those with a few dollars in their pockets flee the Southern California sunshine in search of a better quality of life.

LA was not always like this. It once hosted a diverse and vibrant landscape of business headquarters that supported hundreds of thousands of good paying jobs, while promoting civic and community leadership, local economic activity, and tax revenues.

Though some of the original industries remain today, including entertainment and aerospace, they have been forced to evolve to compete and align with the rapid development of the technology sector, which thrives on a business model where an abundance of capital supports a limited number of highly skilled and highly compensated workers, minus the civic leadership.

What remains in the shadows of these dominant industries is a growing number of Angelenos who wake up to a job that pays next to nothing—61 percent of workers in the city of L.A. (1.22 million) earn less than $36,000 a year, 27 percent earn less than $15,000 a year and 36 percent of working age Angelenos remain on the sidelines. These wages don’t even come close to helping pay the average rent of $2,500 a month for an 800-square-foot unit.

Chart: Cato’s Project on Poverty and Inequality in California Report (Page 15)

L.A.’s solution to this problem seems to be to create a public sector– nonprofit complex to provide the ever-increasing levels of programs and services needed just to keep L.A.’s growing population in survival mode. Data shows that the public sector (L.A. County, LAUSD, City of L.A., State of California, federal government, etc.) now supports 79 percent of all the jobs on the list of L.A. County’s top ten largest employers.

At the same time, that public sector- nonprofit matrix is developing public policies that turn, in most cases, private sector investment and business away. Since 2018, 54 company headquarters, that we know of, have left the county. That represents 20 percent of the total number of corporate departures for all of California.

As candidates emerge for the region's top elected leadership positions, they must find better ways to reverse this unsustainable trend by embracing smart, creative ways, we can leverage our tax dollars to make government a catalyst for economic growth instead of a substitute for it.

The first step is genuinely valuing the idea of “limited government” and letting a broader group of community and policy stakeholders have a seat at the policymaking table. They can be a rich source of leadership, capital, and innovation—but only if elected officials are willing to invite their contributions instead of pushing them away.

All of us are working with different metrics now, realizing that we can’t equate overall GDP growth and an abundance of wealth with success. The true measures of the health of our city are our levels of poverty, homeless, education—and the number of jobs that can sustain families and communities.

This election will be one that defines LA moving forward. Let’s not let these races distract from the reality of the challenges we face beyond just one or two issues. Let’s start with some practical tasks that could quietly but dramatically restore the health and bring needed energy back to the region.

While the vanity and ego of politicians like the dazzle of “big, bold, transformational” programs, the LA Coalition recommends some nuts and bolts initiatives, for the Mayoral candidates, that would begin to substantially demonstrate the importance of meritocratic government, a growth mindset, and an embrace of technology and innovation.

This will in turn attract private sector investment and drive the creation of good paying jobs for those Angelenos looking to achieve their American dream. More than any candidate’s dramatic rescue plan, that’s the solution L.A. needs.