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OP/ED - Los Angeles has always been a city of promise. People come here from around the world because this is a place where dreams are built, industries are born, and opportunity is supposed to be within reach for anyone willing to work for it.
But today, too many Angelenos feel like the City has lost its way.
The truth is uncomfortable but simple: Los Angeles is not suffering from a lack of money. We are suffering from a lack of vision, discipline, and basic investment thinking. City Hall too often treats long-term investments as optional expenses and then spends billions reacting to the predictable consequences of that failure.
If we want tomorrow to be better than today, we must start governing with intention, accountability, and common sense.
Consider how we treat youth development. Recently, the City folded its Youth Development Department into a sprawling “Community Investment for Families Department,” alongside domestic violence support, child and pedestrian safety, immigrant and student services, economic development, and post-wildfire response. These are all essential services, but youth development deserves dedicated leadership, focus, and accountability.
Even before the merger, the City allocated just $2.3 million to youth development. Meanwhile, we fund the Los Angeles Zoo at more than ten times that amount. I enjoy the zoo as much as anyone, but if we are honest about priorities, investing in young people delivers a far greater return for our city’s future.
Decades of research show that investing early in youth through education, mentorship, job training, and community programs yields the highest return on public dollars. It lowers crime, strengthens families, builds a skilled workforce, and reduces the need for costly emergency interventions later.
Yet Los Angeles repeatedly fails to plan for the future and then expresses shock when we are forced to manage crises that were entirely preventable. The same shortsighted approach is evident in how we handle economic development. At a moment when businesses are leaving, jobs are disappearing, and the City’s tax base is under strain, Los Angeles chose to consolidate its Economic and Workforce Development Department into that same mega-bureaucracy. Instead of elevating economic growth as a core priority, we diluted it.
Economic development is not a luxury. It is the engine that funds public safety, social services, infrastructure, and opportunity. It is how cities grow their way out of financial distress. Without a strong, focused strategy to attract employers, support small businesses, and grow local industries, everything else becomes harder and more expensive. Cities that thrive understand this. Cities that struggle ignore it.
Tourism offers another clear example of how Los Angeles undervalues smart investment.
This year, tourism is expected to generate roughly $320 million or more in revenue for our city. Yet the City invests only about $1.8 million in tourism promotion. Anyone who has ever run a business understands how backwards that math is. Tourism brings immediate dollars into our local economy, supporting hotels, restaurants, retail, transportation, and thousands of jobs. A modest increase in promotion that boosts tourism even slightly would pay for itself many times over. This is exactly the kind of investment responsible leaders should be making.
And yet, time and again, we choose to underinvest in what works, while overspending on what doesn’t. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the City’s handling of homelessness funding. Los Angeles has spent billions of dollars with little clarity around goals, outcomes, or accountability. No responsible business, nonprofit, or household would operate this way. Compassion without accountability is not leadership; it is negligence. Real compassion demands results.
The pattern is always the same: poor planning, weak oversight, and a refusal to measure success. Then, when outcomes fall short, taxpayers are asked to spend even more, without answers.
This is not a funding problem. It is a leadership problem. Los Angeles deserves leaders who understand that every dollar we spend should move us closer to a safer, stronger, more prosperous city. Leaders who know the difference between an expense and an investment. Leaders who plan for the future instead of reacting to failure.
We can choose a better path. We can invest in our youth, so the next generation is prepared to lead. We can invest in economic development, so families have jobs and businesses can thrive. We can invest in tourism, innovation, and growth while demanding accountability for every public dollar.
Los Angeles was built by people who believed in the future. It’s time City Hall started acting like it again.
(Tim Gaspar is a Businessman and Candidate for L.A. City Council - West Valley)
