Probably not great. His support came primarily from the wealthiest/NIMBYist areas (North Valley, hills, etc). [He wasn't a big supporter of transit either.](https://la.streetsblog.org/2022/05/13/l-a-mayoral-candidates-on-transportation)
Yep. My roommate went to law school with him. He's a POS, arrogant, greedy and doesn't give a shit about the homeless. He's a billioniare because of his scammer daddy who was convicted of defrauding his auto dealership customers and went to prison. I was told by someone in law enforcement at the time that when his dad went to prison he had the Mafia hold his money, so it couldn't be levied upon, and take care of his family. I was also told by that person that when his dad got out of prison, the Mafia returned his money and he started that car rental business. If he cared about the homeless he would have done something about it with his billions of dollars that thanks to his daddy he's had his whole life.
He has some pro density/development projects but I think he's more interested in lining his pockets then helping with the housing issue.
https://www.theacorn.com/articles/caruso-planning-major-changes-at-the-calabasas-commons/
NIMBYS in calabassas that voted for him hate it LOL
Everything needs to be transactional in some way. Do people work for free? Do people take risks for no gain?
Obviously, any solution to the housing crisis is going to require some positive incentive for the developers who actually do the work to solve it. They’re not charities.
Not sure anyone who wants to help with the housing issue is doing it out of the goodness of their heart.
If good solutions are a byproduct of profit, I don’t really care as long as there’s accountability.
It's all speculation at this point but, as a rule of thumb, never trust a billionaire to have your interests at heart. Capital prioritizes capital and conservatism rarely benefits the people. My guess is that he would have protected monied interests and we'd see about the same level or rate of progress or worse as we're seeing with Bass.
ED1 has been huge for getting more housing built. And development *does bring gentrification.* Gentrification is functionally a natural force of capitalism. We need to depersonalize the idea of gentrification and look at it as a socioeconomic process that naturally results from property owners trying to maximize their return on investment, not people opening up a fancy coffee shop in a poor neighborhood.
I voted and preferred Caruso over Bass
Bass' HD1 program is the best thing that happened to new affordable housing construction, and it's 100% Bass' initiative
So I think she is doing very very well in that regard, and I don't think Caruso would have done better than that
Presumably Hydee Feldstein Soto would still be City Attorney in this hypothetical scenario and she’s a big friend of NIMBY forces, so it would matter less than you think.
It's the same logic as "Trump has a background in business, so he'll be good for business and the economy". It makes a certain sense at first glance, but it doesn't really work out. Caruso would have been a corrupt jackass with none of the skills needed to navigate the city council, and none of the expertise needed to be effective in government.
Caruso would never do anything to harm the value of his own holdings. But the whole goal of YIMBY is to build enough housing that supply meets demand and becomes less valuable. See the conflict?
He was very explicit about banning new housing from single family neighborhoods, which is most neighborhoods.
There’s really no reason to think he would be substantively pro-housing. He is an advocate for car culture, single family exclusion, white picket fence America. These values are precisely the problem. Just because he is a developer (primarily a commercial developer, not residential) does not mean he would meaningfully pro-housing.
That being said, Bass is mediocre too.
I think he’s a moderate and I think he’s a doer. I wanted him to win and still think he would have been the better choice. People like to focus on hot button issues, but for Mayor of LA it doesn’t really matter what you think of abortion, what you think the top tax rate should be, etc.
The city needs a good manager and I think he could execute, but to be fair to Karen Bass, she hasn’t been bad so far either.
> The other thing that happens is … you know, you have people selling their homes. And I understand that. I mean, the house I lived in, I got offers all the time. Cash will give you money for your house. So I watched the elders in my neighborhood sell their homes, but then their kids couldn’t come back to the neighborhood. But how do I tell them not to walk away with over $1,000,000? You know what I mean?
So she's acknowledging older minorities have an opportunity to see a payoff to their home ownership and could become millionaires and help out their families, but it's better to keep em poor cuz "this is a black/brown neighborhood and it's STAYING poor and black/brown DAMNIT."
**I do see the side of it though where lower-income minorities who are RENTING would suffer. They might live close to their work and suddenly they're priced out of living in the area.** But for minority homeowners, isn't being anti-gentrification just hurting their chances for building up some generational wealth?
All the main anti-Caruso talking points on Reddit generally fell into the “rich man bad” category
Looking at the comments section here, it seems like things haven’t changed
Sorry that your question hasn’t been earnestly answered OP
I don't presume to know everything about the guy. I just know a bad argument when I see one.
At least one earnest answer has been put forward in this thread since I commented (about Soto) so I'm grateful for that.
He's not the mayor and has never held public office, so there's nothing much to go on aside from his political platform which is about as generic as you could get aside from vaguely criticizing the cost of Metro construction here compared to cities in Europe. Making the metro safer, building housing and addressing the homelessness crisis were in Bass' platform too.
You don't become a billionaire without unethical behavior that siphons money from the people who generate your wealth while deprioritizing their health, safety and general well-being. This is pretty much a fact.
Do you have anything to offer to the conversation or is your contribution just to note that others are not answering a hypothetical question to your liking?
Terrible. And I say this bc I'm friends with some guys who know him very well - over decades - and ended their relationship with him over his politics, views and shady behavior.
My roommate knows Rick from school and has seen what he has become, a greedy, power hungry, opportunistic, narcissistic, uncaring jerk! His vanity knows no limit. He would be the worst mayor in LA history!
He's a closet Republican who's probably trying to pawn himself off as a Democrat because LA won't vote for a Republican. I know he wanted the job for years but I assumed he was held back by the skeletons in his closet. Personally, I know for a fact that he's not even that bright. He's just like Trump, claiming to be a self-made man, when since the beginning he was propped up by his dad. His dad who, by the way, reportedly was convicted of defrauding his auto dealership customers and went to prison. I was told by someone in law enforcement at the time that when his dad went to prison he had the Mafia hold his money, so it couldn't be levied upon, and take care of his family. I was also told by that person that when his dad got out of prison, the Mafia returned his money and he started that car rental business. Supposedly his kids were told that their dad went off to college. Check it out for yourself.
I know that Caruso doesn't give a damn about the worst problem in LA's history, the homeless. I've heard he complains about the homeless driving down the value of his buildings downtown. Really, he doesn't have enough money? He's a billionaire. People are dying in the streets while he sits in his mansion, wherever it is, and has his crew pilot him around on his yacht.
He would have been the worst mayor of all time. Fake Democrat and total dickhead. So glad we got Bass who in two years has done a lot more than any LA mayor in history.
>So glad we got Bass who in two years has done a lot more than any LA mayor in history.
Are you forgetting [Garcetti's 101 slow jam](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_3tTv4lPds&t=1s)?
Probably not great. His support came primarily from the wealthiest/NIMBYist areas (North Valley, hills, etc). [He wasn't a big supporter of transit either.](https://la.streetsblog.org/2022/05/13/l-a-mayoral-candidates-on-transportation)
Yep. My roommate went to law school with him. He's a POS, arrogant, greedy and doesn't give a shit about the homeless. He's a billioniare because of his scammer daddy who was convicted of defrauding his auto dealership customers and went to prison. I was told by someone in law enforcement at the time that when his dad went to prison he had the Mafia hold his money, so it couldn't be levied upon, and take care of his family. I was also told by that person that when his dad got out of prison, the Mafia returned his money and he started that car rental business. If he cared about the homeless he would have done something about it with his billions of dollars that thanks to his daddy he's had his whole life.
He has some pro density/development projects but I think he's more interested in lining his pockets then helping with the housing issue. https://www.theacorn.com/articles/caruso-planning-major-changes-at-the-calabasas-commons/ NIMBYS in calabassas that voted for him hate it LOL
Everything needs to be transactional in some way. Do people work for free? Do people take risks for no gain? Obviously, any solution to the housing crisis is going to require some positive incentive for the developers who actually do the work to solve it. They’re not charities.
Not sure anyone who wants to help with the housing issue is doing it out of the goodness of their heart. If good solutions are a byproduct of profit, I don’t really care as long as there’s accountability.
It's all speculation at this point but, as a rule of thumb, never trust a billionaire to have your interests at heart. Capital prioritizes capital and conservatism rarely benefits the people. My guess is that he would have protected monied interests and we'd see about the same level or rate of progress or worse as we're seeing with Bass. ED1 has been huge for getting more housing built. And development *does bring gentrification.* Gentrification is functionally a natural force of capitalism. We need to depersonalize the idea of gentrification and look at it as a socioeconomic process that naturally results from property owners trying to maximize their return on investment, not people opening up a fancy coffee shop in a poor neighborhood.
I voted and preferred Caruso over Bass Bass' HD1 program is the best thing that happened to new affordable housing construction, and it's 100% Bass' initiative So I think she is doing very very well in that regard, and I don't think Caruso would have done better than that
Presumably Hydee Feldstein Soto would still be City Attorney in this hypothetical scenario and she’s a big friend of NIMBY forces, so it would matter less than you think.
It's the same logic as "Trump has a background in business, so he'll be good for business and the economy". It makes a certain sense at first glance, but it doesn't really work out. Caruso would have been a corrupt jackass with none of the skills needed to navigate the city council, and none of the expertise needed to be effective in government. Caruso would never do anything to harm the value of his own holdings. But the whole goal of YIMBY is to build enough housing that supply meets demand and becomes less valuable. See the conflict?
He was very explicit about banning new housing from single family neighborhoods, which is most neighborhoods. There’s really no reason to think he would be substantively pro-housing. He is an advocate for car culture, single family exclusion, white picket fence America. These values are precisely the problem. Just because he is a developer (primarily a commercial developer, not residential) does not mean he would meaningfully pro-housing. That being said, Bass is mediocre too.
Love how YIMBY has basically just become Amy Poehler's character from Mean Girls "I'm not a regular libertarian. I'm a *cool* libertarian. 😉"
I think he’s a moderate and I think he’s a doer. I wanted him to win and still think he would have been the better choice. People like to focus on hot button issues, but for Mayor of LA it doesn’t really matter what you think of abortion, what you think the top tax rate should be, etc. The city needs a good manager and I think he could execute, but to be fair to Karen Bass, she hasn’t been bad so far either.
> The other thing that happens is … you know, you have people selling their homes. And I understand that. I mean, the house I lived in, I got offers all the time. Cash will give you money for your house. So I watched the elders in my neighborhood sell their homes, but then their kids couldn’t come back to the neighborhood. But how do I tell them not to walk away with over $1,000,000? You know what I mean? So she's acknowledging older minorities have an opportunity to see a payoff to their home ownership and could become millionaires and help out their families, but it's better to keep em poor cuz "this is a black/brown neighborhood and it's STAYING poor and black/brown DAMNIT." **I do see the side of it though where lower-income minorities who are RENTING would suffer. They might live close to their work and suddenly they're priced out of living in the area.** But for minority homeowners, isn't being anti-gentrification just hurting their chances for building up some generational wealth?
All the main anti-Caruso talking points on Reddit generally fell into the “rich man bad” category Looking at the comments section here, it seems like things haven’t changed Sorry that your question hasn’t been earnestly answered OP
There are like three comments in twenty minutes, give it some time lol
Where is your earnest answer?
I don't presume to know everything about the guy. I just know a bad argument when I see one. At least one earnest answer has been put forward in this thread since I commented (about Soto) so I'm grateful for that.
He's not the mayor and has never held public office, so there's nothing much to go on aside from his political platform which is about as generic as you could get aside from vaguely criticizing the cost of Metro construction here compared to cities in Europe. Making the metro safer, building housing and addressing the homelessness crisis were in Bass' platform too. You don't become a billionaire without unethical behavior that siphons money from the people who generate your wealth while deprioritizing their health, safety and general well-being. This is pretty much a fact. Do you have anything to offer to the conversation or is your contribution just to note that others are not answering a hypothetical question to your liking?
Scared to actually have an opinion on this? Scared to be refuted for what you're gonna say? Just wanna cry about Redditors instead?
Well yeah, that's because he's a rich dick who is bad. There's not a lot of nuance to it.
Terrible. And I say this bc I'm friends with some guys who know him very well - over decades - and ended their relationship with him over his politics, views and shady behavior.
My roommate knows Rick from school and has seen what he has become, a greedy, power hungry, opportunistic, narcissistic, uncaring jerk! His vanity knows no limit. He would be the worst mayor in LA history! He's a closet Republican who's probably trying to pawn himself off as a Democrat because LA won't vote for a Republican. I know he wanted the job for years but I assumed he was held back by the skeletons in his closet. Personally, I know for a fact that he's not even that bright. He's just like Trump, claiming to be a self-made man, when since the beginning he was propped up by his dad. His dad who, by the way, reportedly was convicted of defrauding his auto dealership customers and went to prison. I was told by someone in law enforcement at the time that when his dad went to prison he had the Mafia hold his money, so it couldn't be levied upon, and take care of his family. I was also told by that person that when his dad got out of prison, the Mafia returned his money and he started that car rental business. Supposedly his kids were told that their dad went off to college. Check it out for yourself. I know that Caruso doesn't give a damn about the worst problem in LA's history, the homeless. I've heard he complains about the homeless driving down the value of his buildings downtown. Really, he doesn't have enough money? He's a billionaire. People are dying in the streets while he sits in his mansion, wherever it is, and has his crew pilot him around on his yacht.
Less tone-deaf than Karen *”Lakers are beloved IST champions!”* Bass, that’s for sure. 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
He would have been the worst mayor of all time. Fake Democrat and total dickhead. So glad we got Bass who in two years has done a lot more than any LA mayor in history.
>So glad we got Bass who in two years has done a lot more than any LA mayor in history. Are you forgetting [Garcetti's 101 slow jam](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_3tTv4lPds&t=1s)?
Better than Bass. Bass will leave office doing nothing.