In a little more than three years, Los Angeles will host the 2028 Summer Olympics. It seems fair to ask if it is going to be up to the task. The city has a nearly $1 billion deficit and will be laying off 1,600 workers. The rebuild after winter wildfires killed 12 and destroyed 68,000 structures is moving as slowly as the state’s high-speed rail project. A federal judge has told Los Angeles officials he is their “worst nightmare.” And the city is being sued by its hometown newspaper.  

Another question comes to mind: Could Los Angeles be the next Detroit? At times, it seems it’s in a race with San Francisco to see which will be the first to reach a Motor City-like nadir.  

Due to its “serious financial headwinds,” the city is going to have to make cuts, immediately and in the future.  

“This is an enormous hole to fill,” Matthew Szabo, city administrative officer, told the City Council last month. “The severity of the revenue decline, paired with rising costs, has created a budget gap that makes layoffs nearly inevitable. We are not looking at dozens or even hundreds of layoffs, but thousands.”  As much as 5% of the city workforce will likely have to go.

A portion of the deficit can be blamed on the wildfires that ripped through the metro region earlier this year, particularly in tony Pacific Palisades. Government officials have blamed the fires on climate change, but the truth is they were not prepared for the disaster that quickly overwhelmed them.   

Nor have they shown themselves capable of leading the recovery. After promising to streamline the permitting process and rebound without delay, only four building permits for owners whose homes were destroyed had been issued 75 days after the fires.  

The first approval was to repair a bedroom, bathroom, and garage damaged by the fire, according to the Los Angeles Times. The second permit approved was a complete rebuild, though the owner resubmitted the same design plans from a previous rebuild. 

“When I hear in the community meeting like we had today that only four permits have been issued … that is concerning to me,” said Councilmember Traci Park, who represents Pacific Palisades.   

Park laid the blame squarely on City Hall.  

“I don’t think it’s a lack of interest in rebuilding,” she added, “I suspect it is indicative of systemic issues that we need to continue to focus on.”  

There are other sore points, as well. U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter last month “lambasted L.A. city officials for failing to properly track billions in spending on homelessness, and called for a forensic audit to look into potential fraud and waste,” LAist reported. “He also threatened to appoint a court-ordered receiver to take control of the spending.”  

“Folks, you’ve got to solve this, or else the court is going to step in,” the judge told Mayor Karen Bass and other city officials.  

“I am your worst nightmare,” Carter said. “I can make your lives miserable.”  

While that plays out, the city also has to deal with a lawsuit filed by the Los Angeles Times. The newspaper says it is “accusing officials of unlawfully withholding and deleting the mayor’s text messages and other public records from January’s firestorm.” The Times argues, as it should, that the texts are public records.  

Bass, who promised that she “would not travel internationally” if elected, was more than 7,500 miles away in Ghana celebrating that nation’s presidential inauguration when the fires broke out.  

Initially, the city said the texts were not saved, so Bass’ claims that she was in constant contact with officials as she was returning to the country could not be verified. Some messages were eventually turned over, but the Times insists it’s not getting everything it is entitled to by law.  

It argues the Los Angeles Fire Department’s actions during the Palisades fire were “shrouded in secrecy,” and that the mayor and her representatives have not provided “answers to basic questions” in regard to “whether they approved the LAFD’s plan to protect the Palisades.”  

This is the same Los Angeles Times that said in January it made “a mistake” in endorsing Bass for mayor in 2022.  

The Times has another shot in next year’s mayoral election, unless Bass is recalled before then. In the meantime, the newspaper and owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong might consider it their civic duty to make sure Los Angeles doesn’t self-destruct before the games begin.  

Kerry Jackson is the William Clement Fellow in California Reform at the Pacific Research Institute.