TL;DR
Los Angeles mayors have significantly less power than their New York counterparts due to fragmented governance, a smaller budget, and historical decisions to decentralize authority—a system designed to prevent corruption but now hampering solutions to modern crises like homelessness.
Key Takeaways
- 1NYC mayors control a $125B budget and centralized departments; LA mayors control under $13B and must coordinate across 88 separate cities and multiple jurisdictions
- 2LA's fragmented system stems from early 20th-century progressive reforms designed to prevent political corruption and machine politics, making it difficult to implement sweeping changes
- 3Proposition 13 (1978) capped property taxes, forcing LA cities to rely on state funding and incentivizing commercial over residential development
- 4Solving regional issues like homelessness in LA requires cooperation across city, county, state, and federal agencies with overlapping and competing jurisdictions
- 5Affluent LA neighborhoods incorporated as separate cities to maintain control over schools, zoning, and tax revenue, deepening inequality and fragmentation
- 6A new county executive position launching in 2028 could further complicate LA's power structure and mayoral authority
Notable Quotes
“In New York, to solve homelessness, you need to deal with social services, with health, with housing, with public safety. All of those departments report to the mayor of New York. In Los Angeles, the mayor has to cooperate tremendously with the feds and the state, and also with the county, a completely different jurisdiction, which New York doesn't have to do.”
— Expert on LA governance
“LA in some ways was designed to be the anti-New York. They were pretty clear that they did not want to replicate the government that existed in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, etc.”
— Historian/Expert
“Homelessness was almost perfectly designed to frustrate and increase the vulnerabilities of LA's regional governance.”
— Expert on LA governance
Chapters
1. The Rise of Powerful Mayors
Recent mayoral elections, particularly Zohran Mamdani's success in New York, have put mayors in the national spotlight. Democratic Socialist candidates like Nithya Raman are challenging sitting mayors in major cities, including LA's 2026 race against incumbent Mayor Bass.
2. Budget and Jurisdictional Differences
NYC mayors wield a $125 billion budget and govern as a city-state with 8.5 million residents across five boroughs. LA's mayor controls under $13 billion and only governs 4 million of the 10 million people in LA County, which contains 88 separate incorporated cities.
3. Fragmentation and Governance Challenges
LA's decentralized structure means the mayor must coordinate across city, county, state, and federal agencies. Issues like homelessness require cooperation between multiple jurisdictions with overlapping but separate authority, slowing policy implementation.
4. Historical Origins of Decentralization
LA was intentionally designed as the anti-New York in the early 1900s, adopting progressive reforms to prevent corruption and machine politics. This included weak centralized power, strong city councils, and independent commissions—a system that persists today.
5. Suburbanization and Neighborhood Incorporation
LA's rapid growth during the car era led wealthy neighborhoods to incorporate as separate cities to control zoning, schools, and tax revenue. This fragmentation allowed affluent areas to benefit from the LA economy without sharing resources with poorer communities.
6. Proposition 13 and Revenue Constraints
California's 1978 property tax cap limits local funding for housing and schools. Cities compensated by prioritizing commercial development (shopping centers, auto malls) over residential housing, worsening the affordability crisis.
7. Modern Challenges and Future Complications
Even a transformative mayor like Mamdani would struggle with LA's constraints. A new county executive position launching in 2028 may further complicate the power structure and create tension between city and county leadership.
Key People & Entities
- Zohran Mamdani
- Democratic Socialist elected as New York mayor; expanded universal childcare, filled 100,000 potholes, and proposed taxes on ultra-wealthy second home owners
- Nithya Raman
- Democratic Socialist candidate in LA's 2026 mayoral race; edged out Spencer Pratt as the challenger to incumbent Mayor Bass
- Mayor Bass
- Sitting mayor of Los Angeles facing reelection challenge in 2026
- Boss William Tweed
- Corrupt 19th-century New York politician associated with Tammany Hall; exemplified the machine politics that progressive reformers sought to prevent
- Spencer Pratt
- Reality TV star who ran in LA's 2026 mayoral race, defeated by Nithya Raman in the primary
Glossary
- Tammany Hall
- A Democratic political machine in New York City known for corruption and bribery; associated with Boss William Tweed in the 19th century
- Progressive Movement
- A period of social activism and political reform in the early 20th century triggered by rapid industrialization, urbanization, and corrupt political machines
- Proposition 13
- A 1978 California law that capped property taxes at 1% of assessed value, limiting local government revenues and shifting funding dependency to the state
- County Executive
- A newly created position in LA County (launching 2028) with powers comparable to a 'county mayor,' responsible for county-wide governance