Nithya Raman promised to change LA. But first she must slay the monster holding the city back

The votes are counted, and Nithya Raman is officially our mayor-elect.Campaign promises run into reality.One thing is clear: LA cannot afford another administration that manages dysfunction instead of fixing it.Raman’s new mandate is not “socialism,” but rebuilding City Hall around competence, responsibility and accountability.

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By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.Never miss a story Raman campaigned as “an agent of change,” and change is what the times demand.

Under outgoing Mayor Karen Bass, the city tried extracting more money out of residents through higher service fees rather than restructuring departments to cut costs.It is significant that Raman is not just a politician, but a trained urban planner, with a master’s degree in the field from MIT.Now she has an extraordinary opportunity to apply that training to how the city is governed.Merging the Bureau of Street Services with the LA Department of Transportation would be a major step toward efficient operations and savings.

In the current setup, for example, sidewalks and crosswalks are excluded from transportation and mobility planning.That means one agency tries to widen streets to outdated standards, while the other seeks grant funds to narrow them back for safety and livability.

I am certain the mayor-elect understands quite well that LA’s cumbersome government has made confusion systemic.Authority overlaps, responsibility is unclear, and accountability is lost.

Without clear ownership, problems persist, costs rise, and government fails to deliver.It is this confusion of responsibility that must be eliminated.

The Department of Public Works also needs to be restructured.It is a wasteful anachronism outmoded by time.

The department was initially a reasonable concept, housing all city physical infrastructure...