Los Angeles is a city in crisis.

Corruption, rampant homelessness, high housing costs, pothole-filled streets with bounded by poorly-maintained sidewalks, rising utility prices, an unwelcoming business environment and unaccountable government have come to define what should be the greatest city on the West Coast.

The Palisades fire and all that followed exposed how broken Los Angeles city government is. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass did essentially everything wrong from the moment she decided to head off to Ghana amid high fire risk. If recent reporting by the Los Angeles Times is correct, if she also directed the watering down of the city’s after-action report to mitigate blame, that should seal her political fate on top of all her other failures as mayor.

Just a couple of months ago, it seemed plausible that better governance was on the way. Former Los Angeles Unified superintendent Austin Beutner offered a reasonable and realistic alternative, emphasizing a practical back-to-basics approach. Beutner’s presence in the race made it seem less likely, but there was also the looming possibility that businessman Rick Caruso could also make another run for the office.

Then, Caruso, after essentially campaigning for something in the last couple of years, decided he wouldn’t run. Then tragedy struck for the Beutner family, with Beutner’s daughter dying and him understandably unable to continue his campaign. Then Caruso momentarily reconsidered running before deciding against it, again.

The absence of Beutner and Caruso leaves a massive void for people hoping for serious leadership with serious ideas.

Los Angeles Republicans insist the answer is a reality show star named Spencer Pratt. Pratt lost his house in the fires and is rightly upset at the city, but that sounds more like a basis for a city council run than being mayor of a major city with lots of problems. Alas, he’s the one the city’s right has rallied behind.

There are other candidates, sure, but none with the name, money or experience of Beutner or Caruso. So that’s a loss.

Then, in the hours leading up to the candidate filing deadline, democratic socialist Councilmember Nithya Raman announced she would be running, making her the highest profile challenger to Bass.

Raman has recently been in the news for working to water down a harmful and counterproductive tax she supported in the first place. Measure ULA, passed in 2022, was pitched to voters as a “mansion tax,” but has effectively been an apartment tax that has contributed to the city’s housing problems. Crediting Raman for trying to scale it back is like giving credit to someone offering to wash the dishes after they trashed your house.

So, for anyone hoping for a better LA, their highest profile choices are an unpopular progressive mayor, a democratic socialist and a reality show guy.

Instead of an election offering a genuine opportunity for Los Angeles to course-correct, rational voters are probably going to have to take a harm reduction approach to the mayoral race.

Which candidate will do the least harm if elected to a four year term as mayor of Los Angeles? That is the question.

Sal Rodriguez is the opinion editor for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at salrodriguez@scng.com