Los Angeles is preparing to welcome Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game for the first time since 1980 this week as it suffers from a crime wave, drought, homelessness, and economic crisis.
Though the city retains the glitz and glitter of Hollywood, the list of All-Star events includes a “beach cleanup” project in Santa Monica for those inclined to community service — a subtle acknowledgment of the fact that the city and the county are struggling to keep the streets and beaches safe and clean.
The murder last week of NASCAR star driver Bobby East at a Westminster gas station by a homeless man on parole has shocked the sporting world and underscored the fact that L.A., and California in general, have a massive crime problem driven in part by liberal “criminal justice reform” policies.
The gas station where the murder took place is next to the 405 freeway, not in some quiet or isolated location. In other words: what happened to East could have happened to anyone.
Voters are currently awaiting the result of an official review of the more than 700,000 signatures turned in by activists trying to recall the local district attorney, George Gascón, who is still pursuing his radical policies, regardless of the consequences. Gascón was backed by billionaire George Soros and the entire local Democratic Party establishment, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, having launched similar policies in San Francisco that have contributed to an exodus of residents and businesses.
Last year’s All-Star Game was moved from Atlanta to Denver, ostensibly over concerns about Georgia’s new voting laws, which are actually more liberal than laws in many blue states. California has the most liberal laws of all: “ballot harvesting” is legal, meaning that activists can turn in unlimited numbers of other people’s ballots. Republicans remain competitive in parts of the state only because they, too, have decided to get into the ballot harvesting game: cheating has become required.
Statewide, California is a one-party state, since the GOP voter base — small business owners and homeowners — has been fleeing for years. But Asian and Latino voters are shifting right, outraged by crime and public schools that shuttered during the pandemic.
Visitors to California will not yet have noticed the state’s water restrictions, in a third year of drought. But local lawns are beginning to die, thanks to rules that prevent watering more than twice a week. A wildfire in the central part of the state threatened the electricity grid last week, and another fire kept tourists out of parts of Yosemite National Park.
The city’s traffic is as bad as ever, as numerous efforts to encourage residents to use public transportation have failed. The Los Angeles Metro now connects downtown to the beach, but locals avoid it because of the high proportion of homeless riders. Every few minutes, a public service announcement plays on the train reminding commuters that sexual harassment is forbidden on the Metro — meaning that it is a big enough problem that people, especially women, have to worry about it.
Those who drive will note the soaring gas prices, which are the highest in the nation. It reflects the astronomical cost of living in Southern California — which could become even higher, if Democrats raise taxes even further.
For working-class Americans, making a living is becoming harder: last week, truckers blocked the port to protest a law, AB 5, that requires independent contractors to become employees. It’s just one of many do-gooder rules making Californians miserable.
The city that greeted the All-Star Game in 1980 was at the height of its confidence. Today, Los Angeles is struggling under the burden of a generation of “progressive” policies. But then again — baseball, too, is not the game it once was.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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