{"id":339694,"date":"2026-05-31T01:32:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T01:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/339694\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T01:32:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T01:32:18","slug":"in-the-los-angeles-mayoral-race-restaurants-are-one-of-the-hottest-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/339694\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Los Angeles Mayoral Race, Restaurants Are One of the Hottest Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toward the end of 2024, Jeff Strauss, the chef and owner of Oy Bar<\/a> in Studio City, Calif., wanted to take over a second space in the building. He spent months navigating red tape with the city of Los Angeles, then one day, to his shock, he learned that the entire block had been sold to a developer under a program that fast-tracks the construction of affordable housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir plan to destroy this entire block of businesses moved much faster than my attempt to turn an existing retail space into a sandwich shop,\u201d he said. \u201cThe system can\u2019t be set up to work like that and expect small businesses to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Strauss emphasized that he supports building more affordable housing in Los Angeles, but the disjuncture disturbed him. He dropped the new restaurant project, opting to open a grocery instead, and is unsure about the future of his popular restaurant, which serves pub food inspired by Jewish American classics.<\/p>\n

His anxieties are shared by countless local restaurateurs.<\/p>\n

In the past several years, Los Angeles restaurants have been hit in fairly quick succession by a string of hardships<\/a> \u2014 the pandemic, the Hollywood strikes, wildfires and ICE raids \u2014 that have significantly hurt the business. With large tourism events coming up, including the World Cup next month and the Summer Olympics in 2028, it is perhaps not surprising that the struggles of the city\u2019s renowned restaurant industry<\/a> have become a talking point in advance of Tuesday\u2019s mayoral primary.<\/p>\n

In the fragmented governance of Los Angeles County, change is complicated and often slow, but candidates across the political spectrum have been courting voters by presenting themselves as the choice to transform the city government\u2019s role from obstacle to partner for mom-and-pop restaurants, so even the smallest businesses can take advantage of the coming tourism influx.<\/p>\n

Restaurants have also played important symbolic roles in candidates\u2019 storytelling about the bigger issues ailing the city \u2014 whether they\u2019re arguing for a tough line on homeless encampments or pushing for city-subsidized housing.<\/p>\n

The City Council\u2019s recent decision to delay the so-called \u201cOlympic wage\u201d for tourism workers<\/a>, which was slated to rise to $30 an hour by July 2028, also pulled the needs of hospitality workers back into the spotlight. The increase was pushed back to 2030, a deal brokered in part<\/a> by the incumbent mayor, Karen Bass.<\/p>\n

For her part, Mayor Bass has overseen a number of restaurant-friendly initiatives since taking office, including offering webinars to support businesses affected by ICE raids and convening a Small Business Cabinet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles, said Mayor Bass, \u201chas the best restaurants in the world, and when I took office the entire industry was struggling to survive after the pandemic. We made the Al Fresco outdoor dining program permanent, cut red tape and fees, and stood up against ICE raids that targeted our workers.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a series of round tables organized by the local restaurateur Chas McCarty, the progressive Democratic candidate Nithya Raman released a litany of policy proposals<\/a> aimed at helping small businesses across Los Angeles. She especially focused on the city\u2019s struggling restaurant industry, including creating preapproved construction plans and appointing a nightlife czar.<\/p>\n

Ms. Raman said that she dedicated time during a hectic campaign to focus on the issue because \u201cthe decline of restaurants and our commercial corridors is playing such an important role overall in the sense of challenge that the city is facing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spencer Pratt, the former reality TV star who has mounted an insurgent mayoral campaign as a Republican, has also made cutting city red tape a featured issue. As his campaign website puts it, \u201cSpencer believes small businesses are the backbone of Los Angeles, yet City Hall treats them like an A.T.M., slowing growth with excessive fees, unpredictable regulations, and bureaucratic harassment.\u201d (The Pratt campaign did not respond to requests for comment.)<\/p>\n

Norm Langer, the owner of the historic Langer\u2019s Deli, who has said he\u2019d consider closing his restaurant<\/a> if the city fails to address public safety in nearby MacArthur Park, recently appeared with Pratt in a social media video<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rae Huang, a progressive housing advocate running to Ms. Raman\u2019s left, has also put forward a number of hospitality-oriented proposals. She, too, calls for an Office of Nightlife to help revitalize the city\u2019s ailing late-night economy. \u201cFor a city that has some of the best entertainers in the world, some of the best bars and night venues, we shut down,\u201d Ms. Huang said.<\/p>\n

But the issues facing Los Angeles restaurants, in Ms. Huang\u2019s view, are representative of bigger challenges. \u201cA lot of times, why people don\u2019t go out is because they don\u2019t have extra money, because they\u2019re spending so much money on rent and transit,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Adam Miller, a tech entrepreneur, is running a campaign that, like Ms. Huang\u2019s, is polling in the single digits but could pull meaningful support from other candidates in a tight race<\/a>. He agrees with the other major challengers about the urgency of slashing wait times for city approvals.<\/p>\n

He also said that high-profile restaurant closings are canaries in the coal mine, especially for downtown Los Angeles, where landmark restaurants like Cole\u2019s<\/a>, Clifton\u2019s<\/a> and the Original Pantry Cafe<\/a> have all shuttered (though the Pantry is slated to reopen<\/a>). \u201cThey\u2019ve been through the highs and the lows,\u201d Mr. Miller said. \u201cBut it\u2019s just a different level now. And that, I think, really clearly demonstrates the challenge today.\u201d<\/p>\n

While politicians have always used food to communicate with voters, campaigning on restaurants\u2019 struggles is more unusual. Grant Reeher<\/a>, a professor of political science at Syracuse University\u2019s Maxwell School of Citizenship, said the way Covid devastated the restaurant industry got many more Americans interested in hospitality as a political issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat that did was, it primed the public to be thinking of them and to react to them when they are brought up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mike Bonin<\/a>, a former member of the Los Angeles City Council who is now the executive director of the Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs at Cal State Los Angeles, said restaurants make all sorts of abstract issues vivid to voters, in Los Angeles, where food culture is a point of local pride. \u201cIt makes sense that it would be a shorthand way of discussing small business, because the way most people in Los Angeles interact with small business is through restaurants,\u201d Mr. Bonin said.<\/p>\n

In his experience, restaurants also bring labor issues alive as well. While campaigning for a $15 minimum wage in Los Angeles, he said, he discovered that voters related to restaurant servers, especially ones they had known for years. \u201cIt\u2019s a rapport of real fondness, and they want to support them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. McCarty, who put together the Raman campaign\u2019s restaurant round tables, reached out to the campaign as a \u201cconcerned citizen,\u201d after returning permanently to Los Angeles in the wake of losing his family home in the Palisades Fire.<\/p>\n

From 2014 to 2023, Mr. McCarty ran Michael\u2019s, a famed Santa Monica restaurant opened by his father, Michael McCarty<\/a>. He had he spent years exploring opening a restaurant in Los Angeles proper (Santa Monica is a separate municipality) before deciding that under current conditions, it wasn\u2019t feasible.<\/p>\n

Inspired by Zohran Mamdani\u2019s successful mayoral campaign in New York City, Mr. McCarty has pivoted to trying to build bridges between progressive politics and small businesses. \u201cIf we\u2019re running a grass roots campaign, it has to be pro-small business,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Follow New York Times Cooking on Instagram<\/a>, Facebook<\/a>, YouTube<\/a>, TikTok<\/a> and Pinterest<\/a>. Get regular updates from New York Times Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice<\/a>.<\/p>\n