#006 - Who is LA's "Mamdani"?
Plus a party report from Angella d’Avignon
Today’s newsletter: A party report from Angella d’Avignon, how we can create LA’s “Mamdani moment”, and what to do this week—with a few recs from my favorite people in the city.
I was with LA-adoptee Maya at Stir Crazy when Cuomo’s concession hit the airwaves, so we didn’t see the news until the celebrations were in full effect. I rarely experience envy at anything that is happening in New York, but this week I’ve been MARINATING in it. I’m not alone — this tweet has 12K likes as of the publication of this newsletter:
At dinner, Maya and I struggled to name an LA counterpart who could match Mamdani’s conviction, charisma, and—respectfully!!!—camera-ready good looks. In the words of X.com user dondisappoints, “We have 4 dsa electeds in city council but their performance and behavior are not meaningfully different than any other democrat in office tbh.” Those electeds in question:
Eunisses Hernandez, CD1 (elected in 2022)
Nithya Raman, CD4 (elected 2020)
Hugo Soto-Martinez, CD13 (elected 2022)
Ysabel Jurado, CD14 (elected 2024)
Mamdani was at 3% just a few months ago and LA’s next mayoral election is in 2026. Can an LA newbie take some lessons from Mamdani’s campaign and apply them here? And I’m not talking about his social media strategy, which has become a preoccupation of every overpaid political consultant with a Substack or podcast.
Because the media strategy would never have worked without the politics. You need the politics (and potentially powerhouse publicist Kaitlin Philips, who offered her services to the campaign pro-bono) to make the strategy work. And the politics in question would work here too. As LA is faced with its own worsening affordability crisis—with a government in fiscal disrepair—the electorate is primed for a strong leader who’s ready to take on those challenges.
Despite the popular wisdom that LA has a “weak mayor” system, LA’s mayor holds a lot more power than most people realize. But LA’s mayors, of course, have historically avoided exercising their executive power. That’s why they called him spaghetti Garcetti. That’s why Karen Bass currently has a favorability rating of 37%. After bungling the emergency response to the devastating fires in January, she is now seemingly allowing alleged ICE agents kidnap anyone they find loitering around a Home Depot parking lot (while getting worked up over anti-ICE graffiti).
It’s this refusal to exercise real power—or real leadership—that has relegated the LA mayoral position to a “figurehead” role. And why much LA’s power is concentrated in its City Council.
“The name of the game is 8. As in 8 City Council votes, or the minimum majority for the 15 seat City Council,” writes one Redditor. For LA to orchestrate its own “Mamdani moment”, they write, a couple of things have to happen:
Estuardo Mazariegos, currently director of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) Institute, needs to win the open seat in CD9.
Faizah Malik, Managing Attorney of Public Counsel’s housing justice initiatives, needs to win her run for the seat in CD11.
Jillian Burgos, a “small business owner, essential healthcare worker, life-long renter”, who lost her campaign for the CD2 seat in 2024, needs to run again in 2028.
Hernandez needs to win re-election for her seat in CD1.
Ysabel Jurado needs to hold her seat in CD14 — where she’ll likely face a fierce challenger from the right.
Which means our best chance at a “Mamdani moment” won’t come until 2028.
Party report: An arts publication gets a stylish debut at Taix
By the time Rachel and I arrive at Taix for the Los Angeles Review of the Moving Image launch, Anthony Tran, the progenitor, only has five copies left. Tran explains he values a strong edit that still lets the writer’s voice breathe—a good editor like that is hard to come by in our era of writing shlock for clouty bylines. I'm frankly just excited there's another viable arts publication in town that isn't run by total sycophants who don't care about writing. Watching the media landscape dwindle over the last seven plus years of my career has been dispiriting.
To walk into the moody dining room of Taix without recognizing a single soul thrilled me (turns out the handful of acquaintances I did know were tucked into corners, engrossed in conversations—refreshing). What I love about LA is the legible disparity in priorities and looks: hot people with ugly haircuts, ugly people in expensive and stylish outfits; you'd never know someone was famous or a model since everyone hides in plain sight. We grab our drinks—a martini and a diet coke with lime—and hold court at a corner table.
Hard to tell who is here for the launch and who is just enjoying their Thursday night in the usual places. I observe a gaggle of young male models at a table who can't seem to sit still, a woman in cropped business casual pacing the restaurant, girls in low slung jeans pinching unsmoked cigarettes between their fingers, and many tall handsome people in tinted eyewear giving Kiarostami or Kurosama cosplay. We stay for a single drink and do a lap: I spot anti-ICE signs on Taix's kitchen doors, then we exit through the plume of Taix's attendant cigarette smoke beyond their double doors.
Digest this
Just What I Kneaded is selling a Vegan lunch box in collaboration with CHAINSAW, Bub & Grandma’s, Justine’s Wine Bar, and more to raise money for CHIRLA. You can order it via the Toast app.
I struggle to understand the hold that All-Time has on people. It’s… fine? It shows up on every one of these lists. There are at least 20 better restaurants within a 5-mile radius of this place. (Will this opinion get me dragged out back and shot?)
Celebrity burglaries are BACK! A recession indicator, IMO. Brad Pitt’s house on Edgemont Avenue was reportedly ransacked while he was at the F1 premiere.
ICE is using a facial recognition app on their phones to identify people.
LA Taco is doing daily recaps of ICE raids and ICE-related news. On Thursday, they reported on a suspected bounty hunter helping ICE round up immigrants. At least 1600 people have been detained in Southern California so far.
DJ Bae Bae aka Kumi James is looking for an investor to help her take over a small bar venue open in her neighborhood and turn it into a space for ungerground music and sound, in the spirit of Nacho from Mustache Mondays and Jewel from Catch One. She calls it a longshot but Kelela is in the comments expressing her support.
Eva Victor’s Sorry, Baby is getting some really good press. I got to see it a couple of months ago. It’s a lovely, touching movie with a few weak moments here and there.
The city of Los Angeles needs to pause on parking tickets while its inhabitants are being forced into homelessness. (Here’s another headline about how fast food workers have to choose between rent and food.) If they can’t afford a home, they can’t afford these parking tickets.
Go here, do that
Post up outside LAPD HQ for a James Baldwin film marathon (6/27)
STOP LAPD Spying is showing three short documentaries on James Baldwin and his time in Istanbul, Paris, and London for their monthly screenings outside the LAPD Headquarters.
Experience the spirit of a California summer in Nibha Akireddy and Shivy Galtere’s paintings (6/27)
The Rajiv Menon Contemporary presents “California Fables”, an art show that “interweaves autobiography with the timeless and current mythologies of the Golden State.”
Pull up to Stanley Musk Courthouse wearing red on Friday (6/27)
“…to support Echo Park elders fighting a house flipper's third attempt to evict them from the home they've lived in for over 60 years.” - writer Tosten Burks
Scroll through some analog stuff at Analog Outlaw: Print and Sounds From The Underground Book and record fair (6/28)
“Los Angeles' first analog faire focusing on the counterculture and underground is back and better than ever! Featuring local weirdos, dilettantes, sleaze bags, nice guys, cool guys, queers, hoarders, witches and some of the most interesting and boring babes you can ever meet.” - 2220 Arts
Go to Freakz Street (6/28)
“They're literally selling cookies at this benefit hardcore rave featuring a couple of my favorite L.A. DJs, Kunt Cobain and Androcided. Why? Cuz the benefit is for PBS, of course. Like, let your hair down, kiddos, and dance like fucking Elmo. Ok, so the benefit is actually 18+ but if you're like 7 years old, just know that the hardcore community is there for you, and they will be in 11 years when you should definitely go to lots of hardcore shows. Call the info line to get the deetz: INFOLINE : 626-790-2388” - DJ and perfumer UFO Parfums
Take the Pacific Surfliner
“I recommend the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner, the chic train that glides along the coast from San Diego to San Luis Obispo and also my new fave club in LA. If you lack the reckless courage required for Southern California freeways or care about the “environment,” the Surfliner might be your new bff. Business is only slightly more and gets you free drinks including beer and wine AND Diet Coke. Honestly, you haven't lived until you've sipped a cold (free) beverage from a train that's literally cresting the ocean.” - Novelist and perfume Substacker Anna Dorn
Learn how to grow things at the East Hollywood Community Garden
“I cannot recommend the East Hollywood Community Garden at 1177 N Madison Avenue highly enough! I'm the definition of an indoor gay, but my volunteer shifts at the garden (which happen from 5 to 7pm on Wednesdays and from 10am to 12pm on Saturdays) make me feel like I'm four years old, sitting around and playing in dirt. I'm on the waitlist for a plot, and as of now, it looks like I'll be waiting about two years, but I plan to use that time to actually...learn how to grow things, and in the meantime, weeding crabgrass while sipping garden-provided seltzer and chatting with incredibly friendly fellow volunteers twice a week gets me access to an incredible communal harvest. Just yesterday, I brought home amaranth, chamomile and sorrel and got the pleasure of taking a long, hot bath to soak the garden dirt off my arms and legs while listening to Enya and Googling "how to make tea from fresh chamomile." I still don't understand how to do that, but I'll learn!” - VOGUE Culture Writer and author of MORE, PLEASE Emma Specter
Got recs, goss, or opinions? Send them to nobaddaysinla@proton.me.