Given that I remain a happy resident of a small rural community in Alaska, I'm as ever an odd one indeed to be writing about the state of America's urban areas and Democrat/leftist jurisdictions. If you've been reading my work for the last few years, you know I grew up in a rural setting in Iowa and am now, having gone back to my rural roots, a content rural dweller myself. I have little time for cities, despite having lived in them for four decades. I find them unpleasant; crowded, noisy, and, to be honest, they stink. I like the clean country air of the Susitna Valley, and if that means I have to put up with the occasional moose looking in the office window, that's fine.
So, why am I still worried about America's cities? Because our cities are the beating hearts of our nation. Much of the country's economic activity happens there. Urban areas host much of the country's industry and academia. What's more, our cities used to be the pride of the nation, but that's less the case now. Case in point: Los Angeles, where the incoming Democratic Socialist mayor has some problems: The 2028 Olympics are coming to the City of Angels, and there's a huge mess to be cleaned up before that happens.
So what is Mayor-elect Nithya Raman planning to do? Well, like most leftists, she's figuring on kicking that can right on down the road.
Incoming Los Angeles Mayor Nithya Raman has promised to cut the number of people sleeping in tents and homeless encampments by at least 50% before the 2028 Summer Olympics, but one local activist believes her vision may not be realistic.
The blue city’s growing homeless population became a major focus of Raman’s mayoral campaign. A member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), she plans to expand shelter and housing options while stretching "every dollar as far as possible."
John Alle, a business owner and co-founder of the Santa Monica Coalition, told Fox News Digital Raman won’t be able to "hide" the city’s homelessness problem from tourists arriving for the Games and raised concerns about potential gaps in in her plan to deliver lasting results.
"I don't think we're going to be able to hide that before the crowds," Alle said, adding that the city has become a "third-world country."
So how is the incoming mayor planning to put lipstick on this pig? She's not; she's just going to hide the pig.
Alle warned that Raman’s plan will be a temporary solution that will have homeless people moved off the streets ahead of the Olympics and returning once the Games are over.
"When the Olympics come, they'll be picked up, they'll be bused, they’ll be sent elsewhere, and they'll wander right back after the three-week Olympic and Paralympic events."
We have seen, too many times, that this is just how the Left deals with these kinds of urban eyesores; they don't do anything until some major event makes it embarrassing, so they hide it. We've seen it in Chicago, we've seen it in Seattle, we've seen it in leftist-controlled jurisdictions all across the fruited plain, and it's for sure and for certain we'll see it in 2028 when Los Angeles hosts the Summer Olympics. And here's the real problem: Her stated policies, over the long term, will perpetuate the problem, as opposed to stopping it.
By the end of her first term, Raman has pledged to expand housing, shelter capacity and rental assistance to eliminate long-term encampments. Raman has previously called the city's "desensitization to homelessness" a "moral failing." Her plan calls for sending medical teams directly into encampments to provide mental health and addiction treatment and help with transitions into long-term housing or care within 90 days.
She'd better plan on sending those medical teams into encampments with a SWAT team, because those aren't Depression-era Hoovervilles, filled with families trying desperately to find work so they can live with dignity. No, these are modern Bidenvilles, crime-ridden pestholes of addiction, crime, human trafficking, drug use and sales, and even animal abuse. Any medical team sent in unaccompanied will be, at the least, robbed of all their medical supplies before they have walked a dozen yards. The problem remains something that the Left never seems to understand: Incentives. Every program the mayor-elect proposes will exacerbate, not help, the problem. Every program she is proposing will make matters worse; it will draw more drifters and criminals into the city. The things that might help, including vigorous prosecution of offenders and prison sentences on conviction, including serious mental health intervention including involuntary commitment if necessary, those just simply aren't on the table. And they never will be, as long as majorities of Los Angeles voters keep voting for the perennially clueless socialists, like Karen Bass and Nithya Raman.
In 2028, once more, we'll see the homeless can kicked down the road. Oh, the Raman administration will make things look good. They'll get ahold of that pig, and they'll put a nice fresh coat of lipstick on it. Then, once the Olympics are over and all the attendees from around the world have gone home, it will be back to business as usual. Count on it.
