If Los Angeles and other troubled cities in the U.S. collapse into dystopian Third World hellscapes, it will not be with a bang — but a series of whimpers.
That became evident once more when a city garbage truck pulled up last week in front of my apartment, located on the city’s west side in a neighborhood populated by UCLA students, retired seniors, and young couples with preschool children.
As I sat at my desk, I watched the driver remove a small green bag of dog excrement that somehow was stuck to the outside of his truck, a vehicle designed for the sole purpose of consuming trash.
He examined the bag for a moment — then threw it on my lawn.
“Hey,” I said, scrambling out my door. “Don’t throw trash on my property.”
“It’s not my job,” he said, inexplicably.
Then he drove off.
Critics of Democratic leadership in the city and state typically blame the exodus of more than a million people from California since the 2020 census on “sky-high taxes and a sweeping regime of costly and onerous regulations,” as the California Post’s editorial board described it this week.
As someone who moved to L.A. in 2003, I have watched the city in two decades change into something I no longer recognize. But I will argue it’s not just regulations and monetary policies that have negated the promise of the Mama and Papa’s song “California Dreamin’.”
It’s the small stuff.
Angelinos are intransigent residents. They will tolerate wildfires, earthquakes, mud slides, traffic congestion, long lines everywhere, and a high cost of living, all in exchange for 10 months of sunshine, a Mediterranean climate, and a topography that can have you surfing in the Pacific in the morning and hitting the snowy ski slopes by late afternoon.
I certainly have tolerated it all, and still do, even despite the Pacific Palisades fire incinerating my home and all my possessions in 2025.
But when quality of life and flagrant lawlessness begin to resemble something out of John Carpenter’s Escape From L.A., people finally start looking elsewhere.
I could list a dozen things that have changed since I came here under contract to adapt my first true crime book to film. Many of the changes are the result of policy and funding decisions of Mayor Karen Bass and her city council, but previous administrations as well.
Ironically, I left the Detroit area where twenty of my years were spent reporting on the decline of a once-great Motor City, only to watch another one go downhill.
But instead of offering an L.A. laundry list, I will stick to two items officials consider the ‘small stuff’ they no longer sweat — cleanliness and behavior on the city’s streets.
First, a little background.
When I arrived in L.A., the mayor was Antonio Villaraigosa, who billed himself as an “unabashed progressive” but governed more towards the center as he pushed to hire more police and reform the city’s schools.
Not long after I arrived, HBO launched a show called Entourage. It was about a fictional young actor and his three pals who moved to L.A. so he could pursue a career in Hollywood. It was loosely based on the experience of its executive producer, actor Mark Wahlberg, who came to the city from Boston with his pals.
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