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Lowell Cauffiel’s new column is a wake-up call for anyone who still thinks Los Angeles can tidy itself with good intentions and feel-good slogans. He paints a picture of everyday decay — trash on lawns, encampments spreading into once-clean neighborhoods, and the slow unraveling of quality of life. Cauffiel blames Mayor Karen Bass and a city hall that treats the “small stuff” as unworthy of enforcement. That argument deserves attention, not dismissal.
Cauffiel’s firsthand alarm: litter, tents, and the Palisades scars
Cauffiel opens with a small but telling scene — a city garbage truck dumping dog poop on his lawn — and uses that image to argue a larger point: when you stop enforcing the ordinary rules of city life, the place shifts fast. He ties routine mess and brazen street behavior to the trauma of the Palisades wildfire and the sense that leadership has been more reactive than responsible. He calls out the spread of tents, public drug use, and trash as symptoms of a policy approach that lets petty disorder slide until it becomes a big, ugly problem.
What city leaders actually did — and why the criticism still stings
This column is aimed at Mayor Karen Bass, and it’s fair to say the City Council and the mayor haven’t been completely passive. The council recently voted to urge limits on so‑called “pretextual” traffic stops — a recommendation to the Police Commission, not an operational ban — and the city budget moves ahead with plans to hire roughly 510 LAPD officers while keeping homelessness programs funded. As Councilmember Imelda Padilla told the Police Commission, “Get this done; we’re watching, no excuses.” Still, signaling matters. Telling officers to avoid certain low‑level stops while promising more officers and spending on services sends mixed messages to the public and to criminals alike.
Why the “small stuff” isn’t petty — it’s public safety
The debate over enforcement of minor offenses is old and messy: critics warn about racial disparities and community trust; proponents say visible order prevents worse crime. Fine — there are studies on both sides. But the lived reality in neighborhoods matters to families, seniors, and small businesses. Litter, camping on sidewalks, syringes, and open bottles don’t just offend sensibilities; they invite rats, disease, and the steady erosion of commerce and quiet evenings. Washington policy papers are fine, but Angelenos want sidewalks where kids can ride bikes without dodging trash and needles.
Fixes that aren’t complicated — but they require will
If Mayor Karen Bass wants to rebut Cauffiel, she should do the obvious: give the Police Commission a clear charge, fund and deploy sanitation crews where encampments and illegal dumping damage neighborhoods, and make enforcement of basic public‑order laws routine again. That doesn’t mean a return to blunt, discriminatory policing — it means common-sense enforcement for littering, illegal camping in commercial zones, and public drug use, backed by social services that actually move people off the streets into treatment or shelter. Voters weary of squalor won’t be mollified by rhetoric. They want results. If city leaders keep treating the small stuff as unworthy of attention, Los Angeles will keep losing the big things: people, businesses, and pride.
