Editorial: L.A.'s new leaders have a mandate to change City Hall (via latimesopinion)
Bass will take the helm of a city in desperate need of leadership. She will need to quickly show residents that she’s in charge and ready to make change.
Now the hard work begins. This was an election of change, and these newbies have the responsibility to make things happen within a deeply entrenched bureaucracy, in a city where residents are clamoring for leaders to fix the big problems but divided over how to do it. There’s no bigger problem than the city’s homelessness and housing crisis. City leaders can start by unwinding byzantine development and funding regulations to make it faster, easier and cheaper to build homeless and affordable housing. There will be tension over the details of how to expedite housing production, including when to relax height, density and parking requirements, reduce or eliminate public hearings and block project appeals.
Likewise, there is broad agreement that Los Angeles should transfer some responsibilities from police to social workers and mental health experts, including homeless outreach and nonviolent mental crisis intervention. But there is less agreement over whether that should result in a reduction in police officers and whether the police budget should be cut to help fund a new alternative response system. Bass wants to maintain the authorized size of the LAPD force.
There’s nothing wrong with difficult debates — these are hard issues to solve, but making progress is crucial for the future of the city and its residents. L.A.’s new leaders and the incumbents have a mandate for change, and we’re hopeful they can deliver.
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