The Los Angeles mayoral race is in its endgame. Ahead of next week’s vote, many (most) are already filled with dread and disgust over the outcome — stuck with the nagging sense that whatever happens in the election, residents lose.
So, today, I wanted to focus on the much more germane and slightly more manageable question:
What does it mean for the entertainment industry?
One thing that stands out is that two of the three leading mayoral candidates have some tangential experience with Hollywood: reality TV villain Spencer Pratt and former Time’s Up executive director Nithya Raman.
Their past histories might imply that, if either were to win, the fate of the entertainment industry could be of greater interest to their administrations than the level of zero interest it has reached over the previous 30 mayoralties.
Is it possible that, with the city’s leading industry experiencing Great Depression-level unemployment, with worse still to come, and with production wholesale abandoning the region, that sort of collapse might finally get City Hall’s attention?
We can dare to dream.
With all this in mind, I crossed a line I never imagined: I turned to the internet and read the candidates’ positions on saving Hollywood. Where their positions were thin, I searched for other statements they have made on the topic.
So here are my thoughts on what we want out of a mayor and what these candidates have to say — including a perhaps surprising champion hiding in plain sight.
Don’t stop here
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