The old political machines such as New York’s Tammany Hall and Chicago’s Daley Machine were corrupt, but at least they delivered quality city services.
Historians may someday trace the decline of America’s great cities in part to the mayors who were elected to run them.
The most populous U.S. cities are New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Each has a mayor with no real private-sector job experience. Zohran Mamdani was a “community organizer” before being elected to the New York legislature at age 29. Brandon Johnson of Chicago was a paid organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union before his election in 2023. Karen Bass briefly worked as a physician’s assistant before becoming a community organizer and launching a political career that vaulted her into the job of Los Angeles mayor in 2022.
Each of those mayors has demonstrated a lack of practical management skills and knowledge of how complex organizations run, and an addiction to patronage politics. In Karen Bass’s case, her limitations were dramatically on display during the Pacific Palisades and Altadena wildfires in January 2025, when her major contribution appears to have been altering in her favor a critical after-action report on the devastating fires.
As Bass runs for reelection this year, her critics point out that she surrounded herself with a weak team that has mismanaged everything from homeless programs to fire protection. The Manhattan Institute’s City Journal refers to Bass’s “total leadership failure,” describing how she slashed fire and other basic services while she “awarded fat contracts to government workers.”
Her appointees to key positions range on a scale from unimaginative to mediocre to ethically compromised failures.
Developer Steve Soboroff was Bass’s handpicked czar to rebuild after the fires. He left in the wake of controversies that included his claims that Bass had told him he would receive $567,000 for three months’ work.
Bass appointed Staycee Dains to manage the city’s Animal Services Department after only a one-hour conversation without any other candidates being interviewed. Critics have called her an “unmitigated disaster,” citing a lack of transparency and failure to address dangerous conditions, including severe dog maulings at city shelters.
Bass has reappointed Edward Rainey Renwick to a plum job as commissioner for the Port of Los Angeles, which generates one out of 15 jobs for the city. She retained him despite his record running an investment firm that bought up hundreds of distressed homes in African-American neighborhoods in Midwest cities such as Ferguson, Mo.
Renwick’s firm, Raineth Housing, went into foreclosure in 2021 after involvement in some 250 lawsuits, allegations of code violations, property neglect, and chronic failure to pay property taxes.
Bass has championed housing equity during the term, but Renwick epitomizes the kind of slum corporate landlord that progressives claim to hate.
Longtime Bass aide Jackie Hamilton has been tagged the “master of disaster” for her role in most of Bass’s hiring misfires.
The old political machines such as New York’s Tammany Hall and Chicago’s Daley Machine were certainly corrupt, but they delivered quality city services at the same time that they feathered the nests of machine politicians.
The new city machines dominated by public employee unions and progressives offer deteriorating services while they get trapped in a web of mismanaged funds, pay-to-play schemes, and a collapse of public trust.
Economic growth and civic dynamism is occurring in cities such as Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, and Miami. All are in red states, which have become magnets for residents and businesses fleeing states where they are mistreated and seeking a home where they can rely on competent government.