Know Your Enemy

UNLOCKED: Are Progressives to Blame for Urban Disorder? (w/ Hayes Davenport)

Jan 10, 2025

Hayes Davenport, an organizer and writer with a focus on Los Angeles politics, sheds light on pressing urban issues. He discusses how perceptions of disorder in cities affect political dynamics and the strategies used by conservatives to blame progressives for rising crime and homelessness. Davenport shares insights on transforming hotels into temporary shelters during COVID-19, the complexities of homelessness policy, and the importance of effective service provision to shift public perception. His experiences highlight the challenges faced by the American left in navigating these issues.

56:24

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Hayes Davenport

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Quick takeaways

The podcast discusses how the perception of urban disorder in cities drives right-wing narratives and blames progressives for rising crime and homelessness.

Hayes Davenport shares strategies from his political activism that emphasize community engagement to counteract the backlash against progressive policies in Los Angeles.

The discussion highlights the importance of addressing the root causes of public concern regarding safety, stressing that punitive crackdowns are ineffective solutions.

Deep dives

Resisting Backlash Politics in Los Angeles

The episode delves into the significant backlash against progressive policies in Los Angeles, especially in response to rising homelessness and crime. Acknowledging the influence of disorderly conditions on political outcomes, it highlights how perceptions of urban disarray have bolstered right-wing narratives, leading to fears that progressive policies are ineffective. The hosts argue that both punitive approaches favored by the right and laissez-faire responses from the left fail to address the underlying issues, leaving residents and politicians alike in a bind about how to respond effectively. This dynamic creates an urgent necessity for the left to formulate coherent policy solutions that can address fears without resorting to punitive measures that do not work.

Intro

2min

Urban Disorder and Political Dynamics in LA

19min

Confronting Homelessness in Urban Policy

11min

Transforming Homelessness Solutions Through Hotel Conversions

3min

Navigating Backlash Through Service Provision: A Progressive Approach

2min

Understanding Crime Perception and Policing Dynamics

13min

Urban Infrastructure and Workforce Challenges

2min

Evolving Pursuits: From Activism to Podcasting

3min

A bunch of you requested that we un-paywall this recent bonus episode, which features some highly practical insights for organizers, volunteers, and public servants. So we have! (All the other bonus episodes are good too; please subscribe.)

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Right wing movements thrive by cultivating fears of disorder. Conservatives depict blue cities as sites of rampant crime, chaos, and iniquity. And often enough, it is progressives — with their overdeveloped empathy and concern for the poor and criminalized — who take the blame. Recently, a rising chorus of voices on the center-left, including figures like Ezra Klein, have embraced the thesis that perceptions of disorder in cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco have contributed to America’s rightward turn. But is that accurate? And can anything be done about it?

In this episode, Sam is joined by organizer, writer, and podcaster Hayes Davenport to discuss his experiences fighting against this sort of backlash in Los Angeles. As soon as Hayes had helped his friend Nithya Raman get elected to the LA City Council in 2020 and joined her staff, conservative forces in city government mobilized to thwart her pro-tenant agenda and blame the tiny faction of progressives on the council for rising crime and homelessness. How did they respond? What can the past few years in LA politics teach the American left? And can we imagine a leftist politics that short-circuits the right’s effort to use disorder to undermine our efforts to address its underlying causes: government neglect, poverty, and exploitation. We discuss!

Further Reading:

Hayes Davenport, "Ezra Klein is wrong about this," Big City Heat, Dec 9, 2024.

— "Violent crime is down. Why are so many people mad about it?" Big City Heat, Dec 16, 2024.

— "Sects on the Beach: The 2024 Santa Monica City Council Race," Big City Heat, Nov 1, 2024.

— "The Last LA Election When Crime Was Going Up For Real," Big City Heat, Nov 11, 2024.

Emily Badger & Alicia Parlapiano, "Is the Urban Shift Toward Trump Really About Democratic Cities in Disarray?" NY Times, Dec 6, 2024.

Jill Cowan, Serge F. Kovaleski, & Leanne Abraham, "How a New City Council Map of L.A. Turned Into a Political Brawl," NY Times, Sept 3, 2023.

Koko Nakakjima & Phi Do, "California and Los Angeles County are getting tougher on crime. Here are the maps that show it," LA Times, Dec 30, 2024.

Jay Caspian Kang, "Who Really Controls Local Politics?" NY Times, Oct 11, 2021.

— "How Homeowners’ Associations Get Their Way in California," NY Times, Oct 14, 2021.

— "A Leader They Didn’t Choose," NY Times, Oct 18, 2021.

Subscribe to Hayes's podcast: Hollywood Handbook and Friends.