Matt Mason

@_lej44 That was tougher. 16

HARD MODE LA boundaries quiz with 20+ new locations out now! forms.gle/raUAAZkXEe1Qpq…

@DisgracedProp Giant encampment was forced out of Echo Park in March 2021, well before Bass was elected over 1.5 years later.

You know what’s most funny? Is that under Bass’s communist ass regime they actually did clean up one park: Echo Park, where a lot more white people who complain are. Meanwhile they left McArthur Park, where there are basically zero complaining white people, to totally rot. They’re too incompetent to even live up to their own belief system.

@_lej44 24. So close. Missed out on Topanga. I guess it isn’t its own city.

Greater LA boundaries can be mad confusing. I tested some family/friends I grew up with here on if a few well-known places are the City of LA, an independent city, or neither and NOBODY got above 50%. Just made a 25 locations quiz - test your knowledge! forms.gle/dE8JaiCEeCm9sJ…

@jemelehill @TheRealJHair @MagicJohnson Yep. He was already a big superstar before he was even a teenager.

Yes. He’s the most famous entertainer in history. All of the entertainers you mentioned can sit courtside at a NBA game. Michael Jackson could not. @MagicJohnson told the story of how he invited MJ to a Lakers game and it created so much chaos, they had to stop the game. MJ had to leave because fans were leaving their seats to try to get to him. None of the people you mentioned have that level of fame where they can’t attend public events.

@JohnGonzalesLA1 @mikehtrujillo @terrybythebay I’m sure she said it (really doubt they just made that up) but probably told them it was off the record afterwards.

@MattMasonCA @mikehtrujillo @terrybythebay Like I said, that’s not a surprise statement to me, but I wonder if she said that they misquoted her since they apparently pulled it down. Not a smart thing for a candidate running on determination for change and love for the city to put out there.

On the LA Mayor’s race, IF you want Pratt in the run off Republicans and I mean ALL of them are going to have to MAIL in their ballots TODAY. That’s it, massive turnout among LA based Republicans from Sylmar to San Pedro, pick up your ballot, fill it out, and mail it - no postage required. CA democrats will be holding on to their ballots longer because of the fluidity at the top of the ticket (Governors race) Republicans don’t necessarily have that same issue. Starting this week we will be seeing early public data on who has turned in their ballot, you would want to see Republicans with a not so great voter history turning in their ballots now to give Spencer a shot. No conspiracies, no victimhood, just vote and mail. It’s not hard. If we don’t see that trend, then Spencer won’t make the runoff. It’s not rocket science.

@JohnGonzalesLA1 @mikehtrujillo @terrybythebay I actually saw the CBS report. It was mostly a puff piece interview with her and then at the end the reporter says she told them she is done with politics if she doesn’t win.

It will be intersting to see the campaigning in the working class communities. I surely think that Raman will have more trouble in South LA as opposed to East LA or the north valley. In general, I think the impression of her as liberal elite technocrat isn’t in the wheelhouse of working class communities. You touch on a factor about Raman that isn’t discussed much. She just doesn’t have the temperament to be a hard-nosed politician and that’s evident by her six years on Council. She has a hard time figuring out how to be a leader, how to compel others, isn’t built to power through resistance, and gets frustrated by the reality of political process. That translates into the results from her over her council tenure. Being successful politically requires some personality traits, beyond smarts. I saw a report yesterday that there was a CBS piece where she said that maybe she would just leave politics if the mayoral run didn’t result in a win, and that the piece got taken down. I have no idea if it’s true, but it really wasn’t a surprise to me.

@JohnGonzalesLA1 @mikehtrujillo @terrybythebay The primary is interesting because it is mostly people getting their name and message out. Not sure how Raman will do in more working class and Latino hoods. Also, Raman is not built for a brawl if it comes to that. She is thin skinned. She already handled the Pratt video poorly.

Personally, I think the key battle is largely Pratt vs Raman. Bass has issues and is vulnerable in a general, but she’s going to start rolling out spending and some popular policy moves. She has a vote edge on those two and they are very unlikely to make that up in the primary. I don’t believe the Kalshi nonsense of Raman in the lead for a second. To a large extent, anti-Bass sentiment can be rolled out as a dominant message by either of the others for 5 months leading up to the general. For now, they really need to worry about one another as I think they are close. They both have some specific issues that they can be pressed on which will likely cost them votes or keep undecideds away from them. Raman is in a tricky spot on police funding, homeless interdiction, and she’d become more vulnerable with a chunk of the just left of centers on broad upzoning of single family neighborhoods. Pratt hasn’t been held to the fire on many specifics. Whether he’s an actual Republican, general alignment with Trump policy, specifics like ICE enforcement, or his serious absence of any relevant occupational experience. Pratt has the ability to go after Bass and Raman as identical, but will have to step up addressing Raman specifically. Raman is running as a change-to-status-quo agent but, even if successful she has to share that segment with Pratt. I haven’t seen much polling recently but I think Pratt has gained more than Raman in the past few weeks. How Bass campaigns will be interesting. Positive campaigning is a given. She’s on the same side of the political aisle as Raman, but she has a significantly better chance of beating Pratt in a general. She surely has to be sure that she is top two, but may temper going after Pratt as, strategically, she’d prefer that he tops Raman.

@ChasenGreg @DavidEvans9 There is a Metro station right down the block there in Highland Park, but I’d be skeptical hardly anyone is going to want to pay $4-$5k for an apartment and just use that and Waymo.

@DavidEvans9 The number of Waymos out last night got me thinking. And lots of new car free apartments/townhomes in similar 90+ walkscore Seattle neighborhoods I visited last month. But yeah yet to have a tenant without a car here.

Rhetorical question for LA developers: Why build housing in the densest neighborhoods? I was at the Lodge Room in Highland Park yesterday evening and I noticed a petition to built a 7 unit apartment building on the site of a 2-3 unit property with a small lot . In a neighborhood where it’s impossible to find parking, why would you do this ? (And later commiserate about how lease up the property being challenging) these properties often create more problems (both for the neighbors and the developer) than they solve.

@tonyannett Massive deductions then so no one paid those rates. You could deduct credit card interest. Kennedy thought the rates were too high and lowered them.

During the 30 golden years, the American top income tax rate varied from 70% to 94%.

@mikehtrujillo @terrybythebay Pratt will have to get some of us independents. A week ago, I thought he had absolutely no chance to make the runoff. Now, not so sure. He gets $ and that ad playing a lot on TV, you never know. Lots of people fed up with Bass and see Raman as a phony clone of her.

Well…June turnout in Los Angeles is expected to be in the mid 30 percentile. If Republicans have a much higher turnout than in the 30’s they can absolutely get Pratt into the runoff. It’s a TALL order for sure, but it’s still essentially a math problem. 20-25% of the vote “could” be Pratts on the natural but if that vote gets JUICED up with higher then expected turnout he could get 30% which is a ticket into the runoff. Now do I “expect” this, No I don’t. I think Pratt gets a respectable low double digit number citywide (if he’s lucky). That said, the reality for LA based Republicans is still math, they just need to turn in their ballots.

@CohenSite If the hardening is so effective why are so many lights out and why such a big increase? Why the need for solar lights then? They just increased trash fees by 130% in one year. Only way this passes is that they count unreturned ballots as a yes and the City votes their own land.

This is just patently false. I spoke with LA’s head of street lighting this week. The city HAS been rolling out hardening, and they’ve seen significant success with it. CA Post also seems unaware that hardening doesn’t fix lights that are already out. (What the $1 M is for)

@texasrunnerDFW I did for one trip. It was the only direct flight from LA to New Orleans at the time I needed. It wasn’t that bad but I prob just got lucky.

Genuinely curious, so doing a poll Have you ever flown on Spirit Airlines?

@Liathetrader Rental property is way too risky for someone short on cash.

Just took a ride with a friend of mine. He is 62, has a paid-off condo, and $100,000 to invest. That’s all he has. He works a part-time job making at most $2,000 monthly and can’t find a better one. He is short on bills every month. Needs 3,5-4k. He wants to buy a shitty real estate property with his $100k and rent it out. (I don’t even know what you buy in FL for 100k? Garage? ) I suggested passive income from dividend stocks instead. I believe the market provides a better investment with this money. Am I right?

@LyndonTucker @tobyhardtospell Exactly. What is City of LA doing to reduce theft? Their only answer is expensive solar lights which will take decades to fully implement and cost taxpayers a fortune. Already voted no on the assessment.

@tobyhardtospell I'd rather see it tested than immediately pivot to expensive Solar Lamps in a budget crisis. There's no shortage of bright minds on how to scale up production.

LA should be doing a lot more to stop metal theft On the other hand “random guy says he invented a great new thing to save money, city should immediately drop everything to buy it for everywhere” is not persuasive

@DavidEvans9 I don’t find Highland Park to be very dense at all. They can get high rents there. However, I do agree a no parking building is tough and I’d be skeptical of its success.

@FrankMalfitano @probablynewshq This idiot blocked me of course. Century City and the Grove have higher rents. Yet, they have retailers banging down the door to get into their centers. Meanwhile, Santa Monica Place went into foreclosure.

@FrankMalfitano @probablynewshq Rents are down in Santa Monica. REI, Anthropology, Nordstrom, Misfit and more didn’t leave because of their rent.

Anthropologie is moving their Flagship location away from the homeless-riddled Santa Monica Promenade. A Taco Bell Cantina is replacing a 30 year old Pub. The City Council thinks this is a fresh start. We think we have a solution: probablynews.org/story/the-prom…

@BladeoftheS There is a big difference between the value of the copper being stolen and the cost to repair the lights, which is usually in the thousands.

He's charging $300 for this 'device'. The value of the copper in every lampost is less than $50. The cost of these devices alone, never mind fitting them. would cost the same as repairing 250 years worth of copper theft.

@VegasAdjacent @Cassy_Horton @DTLA_RA Undecided pretty much means no on these.

@Cassy_Horton @DTLA_RA As an undecided voter who is leaning towards Pratt, it’s concerning that he did not participate. Equally concerning that Rae was undecided on most of her responses. 🤔

The DTLA Residents Association @DTLA_RA just dropped our 2026 Primary Voter Guide with replies from 41 candidates across 10 races on 10 Downtown issues. From Mayor, to Governor, to City Attorney, it’s worth a read for all Angelenos. Please share widely …-primary-dtla-voter-guide.netlify.app

@esotouric @babyYaga4 She filed for a demo permit though right?

@MattMasonCA @babyYaga4 We actually broke the story about the proposed demolition of Raman's 1940s house, while looking for unwanted historic buildings that might be moved to Altadena or Pacific Palisades to replace those destroyed in the fires. Permits have not been pulled yet. esotouric.substack.com/nithyaraman

CBS LA reporting: Less than three months after announcing her candidacy, Nithya Raman says if she doesn't win the Mayoral election, she's leaving politics. Does this mean she will step down from Los Angeles City Council without serving out her term? youtu.be/b-XQAM2NXQg?si…