AUTHOR’S NOTE: I don’t work for Traci Park. I voted for her in 2021. I’ll vote for her again. I wrote this because I live in Venice.

STORY CONTENTS:

• 41.18

• Fifteen Council Fiefdoms, 15 Different Sets Of Rules

• Is DSA Derangement Syndrome A Moderate Thing?

• City Council Headwinds

• Park Blasts The Council Majority

• What’s The Point?

I lived through Galanter, Miscikowski, Rosendahl (we miss you, Bill), Bonin 1, Bonin 2. Is anyone better suited for 2026 CD11 than Park?

No.

Venice was pretty fucking dark by the end of Bonin 2. Smart, ambitious Traci Park was festering in it too. So when she announced as an angry moderate outsider, Bonin’s Venitian hostages flocked to the first voice not named Ryavec ranting on Fox News.

Turns out she’s the shit. Fox News worthy even: https://www.foxla.com/news/cleanup-begins-at-massive-homeless-rv-encampment-in-playa-del-rey

How do you oppose that?

“How dare you criminalize your unhoused neighbors inhabiting the last ecological gem in Los Angeles as their drug-infested toxic shithole? HOUSING FIRST!”

Yeah. That was CD11 before the last election.

41.18

Here’s Traci Park October, 2, 2025 on the roof of the Erwin (2:58 - Getty Images News):

41.18. 41 fucking 18 (Link). There’s a reason she said, “I have been very liberal in my use of our city’s Safe Schools and Parks Ordinance, section 41.18.” She keeps saying it through the end of the clip.

That’s the thing about LA’s political power structure: Agree with her on 41.18. or not, it’s FULLY at her discretion to enforce it in CD11.

Fifteen Council Fiefdoms, 15 Different Sets Of Rules

In LA, when you’re one of the 15 council overlords ruling your politically-carved fiefdom (cool interactive map link here: Map), you have the power to do what you want — even if getting it is a bureaucratic cluster fuck.

Park embraces 41.18. Bonin never would. (Link)

I’ve been a resident of both their districts.

When I need a CD11 memory jolt, I go to districts ruled by Bonin’s Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) colleagues who choose not to enforce 41.18.

Tim Campbell’s brilliant CityWatch Audit! column breaks down the Council’s 41.18 divide:(https://www.citywatchla.com/voices/31541-losq-angeles-fractured-city-fractured-city-council).

Some Campbell highlights for those skipping the link:

• “The city’s anti-camping ordinance is generally enforced in Park’s district, but it is actively opposed by (District 4 City Councilwoman Nithya) Raman.”

• [That] also explains why shelters in DSA-aligned member districts are usually surrounded by large tent encampments.”

• The DSA members’ close relationship with homelessness advocacy groups also explains why shelters like the one in Griffith Park are so poorly managed.”

• “Millions of dollars have been spent on making physical improvements to MacArthur Park (Eunisses Hernandez’s CD1) while almost nothing has been done to address long-term problems like drug dealing and sex trafficking, which Hernandez views as abstract consequences of economic inequality instead of crimes that affect real people”

Park’s living the fracture (1:02 - Getty Images News):

Is DSA Derangement Syndrome A Moderate Thing?

To the self-proclaimed progressives (as I once self-proclaimed) and DSA acolytes, Park is THE problem — a representative of the inhumane NIMBY “haves” criminalizing those who have been victimized by an inequitable capitalist system that forces people into a life of drug-dependent homelessness and criminal activity.

The DSA progressives walking Lincoln in the shot below (July 2024) are expressing their compassion for humanity.

“Housing first, and then we can protect your family from the criminals, drug addicts and the mentally-deranged forced onto your street by your inhumane NIMBY greed.”

That’s the message I was getting from my last Venice council representative.

As CityWatch’s Campbell’s wrote, and became abundantly clear under Bonin’s eight-year rule, DSA council members seem more focused on their world views than addressing local reality.

That does not marginalize their numbers and masterful ground game that consistently mobilizes an enthusiastic base. With DSA candidates, it ain’t over until the last vote’s counted.

Park’s thoughs on being enemy of the people in ten seconds (00:10 - Getty Images News):

City Council Headwinds

On the Council floor, Park is outflanked on her left. Four Council members are DSA-embraced: Eunisses Hernandez/CD1, Hugo Soto-Martinez/CD13, Ysabel Jurado/CD14 and Nithya Ramen/CD4. Seven others get the “tween” tag, with Blumenfield, Rodriguez and McOsker, closer to Park “moderates.”

Ramen is the brilliant DSA powerhouse who survived Nury Martinez’s recorded evisceration of her district (LA Times/possible paywall - sorry!). Despite losing 40% of her first-term voters, she was reelected to a second term by her redrawn new constituents (LAist).

Ramen’s earned her power. She chairs the council’s Housing and Homelessness committee with her DSA colleague Jurado serving as Vice-Chair (Link). Together, they steer city-wide homelessness issues far to the left of Park.

Here’s our current City Council: (Directory Link)

Council District 1 - Eunisses Hernandez

Council District 2 - Adrin Nazarian

Council District 3 - Bob Blumenfield

Council District 4 - Nithya Raman

Council District 5 - Katy Yaroslavsky

Council District 6 - Imelda Padilla

Council District 7 - Monica Rodriguez

Council District 8 - Marqueece Harris-Dawson

Council District 9 - Curren D. Price, Jr

Council District 10 - Heather Hutt

Council District 11 - Traci Park

Council District 12 - John Lee

Council District 13 - Hugo Soto-Martínez

Council District 14 - Ysabel J. Jurado

Council District 15 - Tim McOsker

In The Minority, Park BLASTS The Council Majority

Speaking of city-wide homeless policy, please (please) watch Park cast her NO vote against the latest city budget in a remarkable four+ minutes on the City Council floor. The budget passed 12-3. (Embed: Jamie Paige/Westside Current).

This says it all:

So What’s The Point?

1. Park has the power to enforce — or not enforce — ordinances that prohibit encampments in her district. She chooses to enforce them. Her predecessor didn’t. 41.18

2. That predecessor and the Democratic Socialists of America consider Park the enemy. Her current opponent in the June election (Link) is handpicked by that predecessor and endorsed by the DSA.

3. The DSA is organized, well-funded and exceptional at getting its enthusiastic base to mobilize. It has evolved into a mainstream Los Angeles political power. DSA LA

4. Watch the videos back to back. Then return to Venice at the end of Bonin 2. She makes a compelling case: It’s better now.

Digital venom: 9029wonder@gmail.com