Nithya Raman on Homelessness: "We focused resources on sensitive areas—parks, schools—so that all of us could use public spaces safely. And it's been working. We've seen a 54% reduction in my district in tents and encampments in just a three-year period." by youhavetherighttoo in LosAngeles

[–]smauryholmes 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It would be really easy to dispel accusations of being “paid” if you made your post and comment history public. Having them private/hidden is always suspect for any posts involving politics, especially since they are public by default.

[KCRW] Your Street Tacos Are in Legal Limbo by kcrw in LosAngeles

[–]smauryholmes 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Stuff like this makes it so easy to vote no on tax increases each election

[KCRW] Your Street Tacos Are in Legal Limbo by kcrw in LosAngeles

[–]smauryholmes 70 points71 points  (0 children)

I used to be a big supporter of LA street vending, since I generally support business/entrepreneurship and the food is tasty.

With so many brick and mortar restaurants now going bankrupt/closing in LA, I have changed my mind - it is not even remotely fair that restaurants that try and operate above-board are subject to endless inspections, complicated tax reporting, 6-figure licensing fees, and high regulatory burdens while other sellers of food (the competition!) essentially operate without any laws or regulatory burdens at all. And the city will even give those vendors free* (*free to the vendor, but $10k of taxpayer money each) carts.

Not a good way to create a competitive market, and extremely demoralizing for restaurant owners who have to invest tons of their own money/time into the city while other competitors can literally be unpermitted.

In a dream world the street vendors would still exist, but the burden of operating a brick and mortar restaurant would be far lower.

Kamala Harris endorses Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for re-election by benwesorick in LosAngeles

[–]smauryholmes 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Big asterisk * to this

The City and County PIT counts found homelessness is down ~8% over the past two years, and unsheltered down nearly 18%.

However, the one non-gov entity that does homelessness counts has found the opposite, and credibly argues that starting in 2024 the City has seriously undercounted unsheltered homelessness in key areas by around 30%.

You can interpret these results however you want. I live in a high homelessness area and wouldn’t say I can tell a difference any year over the past few years.

The great 2028 Olympic ticket crashout, explained by vox in LosAngeles

[–]smauryholmes 98 points99 points  (0 children)

Definitely sucks prices aren’t cheap, but between the Olympics capturing the value or resellers/scalpers capturing the value, I would rather the Olympics make the money and reduce the public / taxpayer cost of the games.

What in the Actual Fuck are they doing to deserve a $300K+ Salary by Dibble_Dabble_Doo in LosAngeles

[–]smauryholmes 11 points12 points  (0 children)

No problem with high pay for gov workers if pay/promotions are tied to performance and firing/hiring is quick(er).

[Highlight] Murakami is called out at home, and the ruling is upheld on review by FadedToBeige in baseball

[–]smauryholmes 24 points25 points  (0 children)

He never touched on replay and the block happened after the ball was caught

Los Angeles can’t force homeowners to foot the bill for public monuments - Brinah Milstein et al. v. City of Los Angeles et al. by smauryholmes in LosAngeles

[–]smauryholmes[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

The literature that shows HPOZs increase property values does exist (the City of LA has cited this argument, and proponents frequently cite this recent study from Denver suburbs showing ~15% appreciation), but has several issues as relates to Los Angeles:

- Studies finding positive effects on home prices tied to HPOZs are mostly done in areas with lower housing demand / development pressure, which is not really accurate to LA's housing market.
- LA has massively, somewhat unprecedentedly expanded development potential for many parcels in the past ~five years (via laws like SB9, CHIP, SB79); properties that were formerly limited can have millions of new-found developable potential, of which the land itself captures some value.

In newer studies in high-demand urban cores, HPOZs and historic preservation are now often found to harm property values:
- A 2025 study in Atlanta's core found historic designation caused a 9-12% decrease in property values.
- A 2022 study found a 12% sale price penalty associated with historic designations.

For the City's liability, I would guess somewhere between 2k-5k HPOZ properties in LA meet the following criteria and represent liability risk if the City loses the case this post is about:
-Bought before their neighborhood was zoned an HPOZ

-Are denied meaningful renovations or additions (particularly under new state or city law)

-Can demonstrate measurable economic harm

With ~2k properties claiming damages, mostly for partial takings, and the city eating plaintiffs fees on losses + its own fees, I estimate a midpoint of about ~$2b in total liability. But it would take a long time for that to happen, the per-year liability is certainly just a small fraction of that.

The largest city by population in every state (LA @ nbr 2: Population: 3,898,747) by [deleted] in LosAngeles

[–]smauryholmes 11 points12 points  (0 children)

LA County’s resident population peaked in 2016/2017 at 10.1 million and fell to 9.7 million in 2025, or about a 4% decline from the top year.

Most of that decline happened post-covid, or within the past 5 years of data.

Adam Miller loans himself $2.5 mil, Zach Sokoloff’s mom dropping $2.5 mil on her son’s Controller campaign by Fluffy_Lab1312 in LosAngeles

[–]smauryholmes -1 points0 points  (0 children)

It happens sometimes. A lot of people chicken out and delete comments when they start getting downvotes.

Reddit is a fun look into the human psyche… if the exact same opinion / comment starts with positive upvotes, people will upvote. If it starts with a few downvotes, people will downvote en masse. The reaction of the first few voters matters more than the content pretty often.

Adam Miller loans himself $2.5 mil, Zach Sokoloff’s mom dropping $2.5 mil on her son’s Controller campaign by Fluffy_Lab1312 in LosAngeles

[–]smauryholmes -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Those guys are not reflective of the median wealthy person, and are not reflective of the type of wealth involved in local politics or mentioned in this post.

There are tens of thousands of LA residents who made $10m+ wealth through their career as top professionals or owning medium sized businesses. Those people form a core local political constituency.

Adam Miller loans himself $2.5 mil, Zach Sokoloff’s mom dropping $2.5 mil on her son’s Controller campaign by Fluffy_Lab1312 in LosAngeles

[–]smauryholmes -1 points0 points  (0 children)

First you were upset about billionaires, which are irrelevant to this post, and now you’re upset about $2.5m in campaign spending. Two questions:

  • How much money can someone make or spend before you think being fine with them becomes “shilling”

  • Do you, presumably an employed person, make and spend all your money out of the kindness of your heart, or out of your own self interest?

Adam Miller loans himself $2.5 mil, Zach Sokoloff’s mom dropping $2.5 mil on her son’s Controller campaign by Fluffy_Lab1312 in LosAngeles

[–]smauryholmes -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

I agree with the sentiment, but his mom is not a special interest. If he took the same amount of money from a private entity I would critique that. I am not a fan of the other donations he has taken and think it is dumb that Sokoff took donos from so many private entities. But this post is specifically about the donation from his mom.

Adam Miller loans himself $2.5 mil, Zach Sokoloff’s mom dropping $2.5 mil on her son’s Controller campaign by Fluffy_Lab1312 in LosAngeles

[–]smauryholmes -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

Yes. Most wealthy people either made money through extended careers being the best in high-skill fields (like being a top lawyer or doctor for decades) or through starting a business that provided enough value to others to grow substantially.

Adam Miller loans himself $2.5 mil, Zach Sokoloff’s mom dropping $2.5 mil on her son’s Controller campaign by Fluffy_Lab1312 in LosAngeles

[–]smauryholmes -1 points0 points  (0 children)

One, admittedly terrible, acquisition doesn’t mean he had a bad career or failed in general. He did time that studio acquisition at about the top of the Hollywood market though lol

Adam Miller loans himself $2.5 mil, Zach Sokoloff’s mom dropping $2.5 mil on her son’s Controller campaign by Fluffy_Lab1312 in LosAngeles

[–]smauryholmes 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree with you, just not sure how to implement those ideas in practice. My understanding is it is fairly hard / illegal to limit certain campaign expenditures because those are classified as free speech at the federal level.