Hollywood’s Political Delusion Is Driving Los Angeles Off a Cliff
And at Six Dollars a Gallon, That's a Crying Shame
When celebrities start lecturing ordinary Angelenos about how we should vote, that’s usually the moment anyone with a functioning brain should run for the hills. Ironically, many of the people I know who live in Los Angeles and can vote are backing former reality star Spencer Pratt of “The Hills.”
Hollywood is in trouble. We hear about it every day. Production is leaving. Jobs are disappearing. The restaurants, coffee shops, and countless small businesses that once depended on the entertainment industry are struggling to survive. Even iconic institutions have vanished. Barneys is gone. Entire commercial corridors like the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica are literally ghost towns, sadly being haunted by homeless drug addicts. Hollywood Boulevard is unrecognizable. Countless stores sit empty with “For Rent” signs everywhere, including up and down the iconic Melrose Avenue.
It’s so upsetting.
What makes this decline even more frustrating is how we can pinpoint why the city and state have been run into the ground is directly due to the Democratic Party. Decades of corruption cloaked as social justice have eroded the fabric of our communities. Homelessness continues to spiral out of control. Reports of animal abuse and neglect in encampments have become a horrific reality. Meanwhile, Karen Bass seems more focused on providing needles and other accoutrements for addicts rather than building viable shelters, expanding drug treatment programs, and addressing the root causes of addiction.
People are fleeing in droves. Gas prices hover around six dollars a gallon. Entire neighborhoods feel less safe since Karen took the reins. Try telling me we don’t need major change.
And yes, in this moment, a reality star may actually be the better option. Karen Bass has been a disaster. The other progressive candidate, Nithya Raman, has spent time aligning herself with figures like Hasan Piker and Hannah Einbinder, reinforcing concerns that her politics are driven more by the ideology of the Democratic Socialists of America rather than practical solutions. For many voters, that makes her a non-starter.
Raman’s claim to fame is spending over a million dollars on an outdoor bathroom at Runyon Canyon — a project that became a safety issue and left neighborhood residents furious. Then she rolled her eyes at a community meeting where concerned mothers wanted a 500-foot perimeter around schools to keep homeless encampments away from children. She argued there was no meaningful difference. Yet when an encampment appeared near her own home, she ran to the press.
Los Angeles doesn’t need more slogans, hashtags, or celebrity endorsements. It needs leadership, accountability, and results.
Spencer Pratt lost his home in the fires and has more skin in this game than most of the people commenting from the sidelines. Shame on those who dismiss him outright without acknowledging that he has lived through the consequences of the policies they’re defending.
I’ve lived in both New York and Los Angeles. New York is one of the world’s great cities, and I loved living there for thirty years. But Los Angeles offers a quality of life that, at its best, surpasses New York hands down. The weather, the stunning terrain, the space — the weather. Which is precisely why watching its decline has been so painful.
The people telling us to stay the course are often the same people insulated from the consequences of these policies. This election cycle, a growing list of Hollywood personalities — including Chelsea Handler — have lined up behind Karen Bass. Bass has long been associated with the progressive wing of Democratic politics and spent time in the 1970s with the Venceremos Brigade, a pro-Cuba organization that organized trips for American leftists during the Castro era. For many voters, that history raises questions about how she approaches urban crisis management today, which we can all agree is pitiful at best.
Celebrity endorsements have become central to our voting ecosystem. But for a growing number of Angelenos, they carry less weight than the concerns of parents, small business owners, and neighborhood groups dealing directly with homelessness, public safety, and declining public services. The divide between Hollywood perception and city reality has rarely felt wider, and it makes the constant moralizing exhausting.
Los Angeles increasingly feels like a city managed by activists, consultants, and influencers rather than serious civic-minded leadership. I live in Beverly Hills, so I can’t vote in the Los Angeles mayoral race myself. But nearly everyone I know who can vote is talking about Spencer Pratt — not because they think he’s a flawless savior, but because they’re desperate for disruption after years of dysfunction.
That may be the most revealing thing of all.
Hollywood celebrities still think they’re speaking for “the people.” But increasingly, they sound like a protected class lecturing a city they no longer understand — and frankly, benefit from.