The fire alarm that was sounded in Los Angeles was also a wake-up call for cities across America.
It is a contemporary fact that virtually all large cities and most other cities have governments controlled by Democrat mayors and Democrat city council majorities. For decades these leftist or progressive politicians have won elections by pandering to the assumed interests of the various groups who have moved into the cities and replaced the groups who have moved into the suburbs.
The political mantra of urban Democrat politicians has been: “Vote for us, and we will take care of you.”
That “care” consisted of constant empty promises, welfare payments, other economic handouts, and special work privileges, including city government jobs, perks, and pensions paid for by taxpayers.
As Democrat politicians and local administrations became more and more entrenched, they created more and more government welfare programs and bureaucratic jobs — along with ever-higher salaries and more and more perks for themselves.
It is now common for many local officials to receive higher salaries, not counting perks, than the President of the United States.
At the same time, the political ideology of many urban Democrat politicians has moved sharply to the left. This has resulted in those politicians cutting local police jobs and reducing neighborhood security, ideologically altering education policies and standards, overloading schools with administrative roles, and imposing woke values on teaching and school curricula. Often using climate change as an excuse, Democrats in cities changed priorities of local public service needs and transferred funds and resources to controversial special interest programs.
Minority groups such as blacks, Hispanics, the homeless, and others were supposed to be the beneficiaries of this widespread urban largess. But it soon became apparent that defunding the police, non-prosecution of shoplifting and other crimes, removing necessary community resources under the rubrics of climate control, racism, and other social prejudices, and the redistribution of wealth were not benefiting the vast majority of black and Hispanic urban families, the homeless, or working class families who remained in the cities.
The reduction of police and fire protection, the ignoring of blatant shoplifting and other “minor” crimes, and the reduction of funding and resources for general community needs drastically increased crime and violence in urban neighborhoods and downtowns. As we’ve seen in Los Angeles, these policies also increased the risk of local natural disasters in the inner cities.
A wave of new city and county prosecutors also appeared who asserted that most criminals were really victims and needn’t be prosecuted. Not surprisingly, in those communities widespread shoplifting and acts of violence soared — and those who suffered the most were the majority of black and Hispanic families, working class families, and the homeless — who were allowed to pitch tents anywhere they pleased, but were left vulnerable to violence, disease, and the proliferation of deadly drugs like fentanyl.
The apotheosis of this profound dissolution and decay of urban neighborhoods and downtowns has now occurred in the nation’s second largest metropolitan center, Los Angeles, where 13 million persons live.
During periods of drought, certain areas in and adjacent to Los Angeles are subject to frequent brushfires. For many months now, the area has received no rainfall, and the whole area has been at the highest level of risk for wildfires.
Nevertheless, the Democrat mayor and the Democrat city council took no steps to prepare for a fire emergency. In fact, they reduced the city firefighting budget by $16 million and used those funds for woke special interests.
The Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom spent his time and efforts grooming himself to run for president and supporting economic and legislative efforts to resist President Donald Trump. The then-Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, herself a homeowner in Los Angeles and as recently as 2020 a California U.S. Senator, became the Democrat nominee for president in 2024, but ignored the fire danger issue in her own home town.
Mr. Trump, however, warned early in 2024 that southern California and Los Angeles specifically faced disaster if fire prevention steps were not taken.
Democrat Mayor Karen Bass then went on a junket to Africa just before the first brushfire exploded, and didn’t return to Los Angeles until several brushfires were out of control.
Understaffed firefighters were unable to bring these fires under control for days. Despite heavy rainfall last year, reservoirs were left empty, fire hydrants ran dry, and the fires spread.
Mr. Trump, who again had warned about the danger months before, was then criticized by the mayor and the governor for being critical of them! This ludicrous attack on Mr. Trump is standard operating procedure of urban Democrats — when things go wrong because of their own failures, they blame everyone else but themselves.
The Los Angeles fires have now burned for more than two weeks. More than 12,000 buildings have been destroyed, more than 30 lives have been lost, and many others are missing. Damages are already estimated at $150-$250 billion — and climbing. Whole neighborhoods have been destroyed. Historic city landmarks are gone. Thousands are homeless.
The cause of the fires is still unknown and under investigation. Some individuals have been arrested for arson, but these fires often have natural causes or result from power lines.
With proper management of the very dry brush, maintaining adequate water supplies in reservoirs, and more firefighters and planning — along with better zoning in allowing residential and commercial areas of construction — the present unprecedented catastrophe might have been either avoided or contained earlier, and the dimensions of the disaster significantly lessened.
Other large cities in the U.S., each controlled by Democrats, face different risks and challenges. Many which have declared themselves sanctuary cities have been overwhelmed by undocumented immigrants, overcrowded and failing public schools, growing homelessness, and rampant violence and crime. New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago are among them.
In 2024, local urban elections showed some signs that the Democrat voting base was beginning to revolt, but Democrat politicians still maintain control. Property taxes and other taxes are rising sharply, and local city budgets are exploding — much of it to pay for local officials’ mismanagement and misplaced priorities.
Isn’t it time for urban voters to wake up and demand new and better local government?
Herald Boas is an AMAC Newsline contributor.
