Should Los Angeles Remain a Sanctuary City?

I was coming out of a lovely restaurant in Downtown L.A.—Le Petit Paris. My Uber was waiting across the street, annoyingly parked on the wrong side of a one-way road. As I approached, a homeless man was shouting at the car. The driver didn’t move. Did he not realize I would have to walk right past a screaming, clearly distressed man just to get in?

View of Los Angeles

As soon as I closed the door, the driver apologized. He wasn’t sure he should even be driving. After his last ride in Old Town Pasadena, a homeless man had thrown something at his car, damaging it. He was still shaken. A few weeks earlier, someone had hurled a brick—or something like it—through his parked car window. For someone who drives full-time for rideshare, every dent or crack isn’t just an inconvenience; it’s a financial crisis.

As an Angeleno, I’m often told I’m a rarity—I don’t drive. I gave up my car and license over a decade ago. I walk, take the Metro, and use rideshare. In many ways, I see more of this city than most. And what I see both fills me with love and breaks my heart. Because Los Angeles, for all its beauty, has lost its civility.

To me, civility is more than politeness. It is mindfulness. It is a deliberate regard for others.

Los Angeles stretches forty-four miles north to south and twenty-nine miles east to west. It is home to more than 46,000 unhoused people—many without access to clean water, toilets, or even shoes. The “fortunate” ones live in tents. Others sleep behind dumpsters, on bus benches, in subway stations, or on soiled mattresses in the street. They dig through trash cans for food and drink, some barely clothed, some barefoot. Calling this a “public health hazard” feels like a cruel understatement. It is inhumane.

The situation is so dire that the city has been under a state of emergency on housing and homelessness.

And yet, government agencies and NGOs continue to welcome and provide resources to immigrants who have unlawfully entered the country, many bused here from Texas—while tens of thousands already here remain without basic care. It’s not easy to criticize compassion—but I felt betrayed and confused watching city officials and volunteers greet the new arrivals with open arms and services. Shouldn’t those same services—funded by taxpayers—have been offered the day before to people sleeping behind trash bins, under bridges, or on sidewalks? Shouldn’t we first tend to the people already suffering in our streets before extending help to others arriving from elsewhere?

If there are funds to help newcomers, shouldn’t those funds first go to the tens of thousands living in inhumane conditions right here?

It is easy to say, “We are a sanctuary city.” It sounds noble. It feels righteous. But when I see people digging through trash, sleeping on soiled mattresses surrounded by filth, I can’t help but feel that our so-called sanctuary is, at best, obtuse—and, at worst, cruel.

We are not Jesus. We cannot feed five thousand with five loaves and two fish. The truth is, we can’t help everyone. Our social services have been failing for decades. Our NGOs are overwhelmed. The demand for housing, medical care, and financial aid already far exceeds available resources. And yet, Los Angeles keeps declaring itself a haven for more people in need.

Being a sanctuary city is not just about refusing to cooperate with federal deportation efforts. True sanctuary means being able to provide the resources necessary for people to survive and rebuild. We already know we can’t.

In a city where the elderly are being pushed onto the streets by rising housing costs, how can it be “the right thing” to invite more people who will also need affordable housing? Isn’t that a modern echo of Marie Antoinette’s “Let them eat cake”? It is easier—politically and socially—to say “everyone is welcome” than to make the uncomfortable admission that we simply cannot help everyone.

There are over 300 cities in the U.S. with populations over 100,000—and more than a thousand cities altogether. Sometimes, true leadership means standing up and saying no. It means leaving the table so someone else has a place to sit.

Los Angeles must face the stench of its own inhumanity. Taking in more people in need while 40,000 of our own languish on sidewalks is not compassion—it’s negligence.

It’s time to stop saying what sounds socially correct and start doing what is morally right. Only when we restore dignity to the people already suffering in our streets can we truly call ourselves a sanctuary city.

More essays:

Barbie, Margot & Greta… Thank You, but No Thank You

Trump et Gay

Can There Be Such a Thing as Humanity in War?

And Just Like That, It Isn’t Easy Being Us

Donald Trump and His 74 Million American Voters

ESSAYS | RECIPES | STYLES | IG

Comments

The Art of the Cold Shoulder

The shoulder has repeatedly been treated as one of fashion’s safest ways to be sensual. Most of us give Brigitte Bardot the credit for making the off-the-shoulder silhouette iconic—and certainly, few wore it with more persuasive nonchalance—but fashion history tells a far longer story. Recognizable versions of the neckline appear as far back as the 17th century, when European bodices widened and dipped low enough to reveal both the décolletage and shoulders. By the 19th century, the silhouette had become a fixture of evening dress. Queen Victoria herself wore a broad, shoulder-baring neckline for her 1840 wedding, and through the 1850s and 1860s, off-the-shoulder ball gowns paired tightly corseted bodices with sweeping skirts and bertha collars that framed exposed shoulders in lace, silk, and ruffles. Victorian modesty, it turns out, was considerably more situational than its reputation suggests. Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, Portugal The silhouette continued to surface as fash...

Impossibility of Jason Arday

When I first read about Jason Arday, he had just resigned from the University of Cambridge. Accusations of plagiarism reminded me of Claudine Gay , the former president of Harvard University, who resigned after accusations of plagiarism surfaced. There certainly was more to her resignation than accusations of plagiarism. She was also accused of antisemitism following her congressional testimony. Her story ended with her becoming the shortest-serving president in the history of Harvard. When a second article about Arday caught my eye, he had been found dead at his home in South London. To this day, suicide has not been named as the cause of death, but I find myself speculating that it was suicide, given the circumstances surrounding his death and the absence of any reported foul play. I imagine many of us are wondering the same thing. I think about his last days. On August 5, the university announced that it had accepted his resignation and would open an investigation into allegations c...

Inspired by Bar Santos: Piri Piri Sauce

It is one of those rare places in Los Angeles where I can feel authenticity and genuine warmth. When I first stepped into Bar Santos in Cypress Park, I was still recovering from my Portugal trip. If you recall from my IG Stories , a canceled flight, another delayed flight, lost luggage, falsely confiscated jamón ibérico, and the mystery of how airlines cannot distinguish between hotels and motels were traumatic enough to leave a mental scar. However, Bar Santos healed whatever wound remained. Piri Piri Chicken at Bar Santos The second time was to sip their Porto Tonico. I rarely talk about prices when it comes to bars and restaurants, but $9 for a drink, and a refreshingly delicious drink at that, is unheard of, especially in Los Angeles. While Porto Tonico got me back to Bar Santos, it was their Piri Piri Chicken that made me fall hard for them. It is very rare for me to try to duplicate a dish. Partly because I don't like to intelligently dissect what I am eating because it takes...

Newsom's Affair: Somewhere Between His & Her Stories

Did Ruby Rippey lose her voice twenty years ago, as she suggests in her Vanity Fair essay, when her affair with then San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom exploded into public scandal, or did she simply have no defense to offer at the time? Perhaps Kamala Harris’s advice that she remain silent was not merely counsel to let time provide clearer perspective, but the advice of an attorney who understood that no arrangement of words could defend what Rippey had done to Alex Tourk, her husband at the time. By Pablo Picasso at LACMA For the record, I have said before that I will never vote for Gavin Newsom. My opinion of him is exceptionally low. So none of what follows should be mistaken for a dispatch from Team Newsom. It was not until I read Rippey’s essay that I learned of Newsom’s affair with her. From it, I learned that she worked for him. What elevated the story from garden-variety political infidelity to something approaching daytime-soap-opera tawdriness was that Rippey was married to Ne...

Sweaters for Him for You to Borrow

One of the great signs of love is gifting. Another is sharing, which is why a very good men’s sweater should never be considered the sole property of the man who technically owns it. You bought it for him because you adore him, because he deserves something soft and handsome, and perhaps because you had the foresight to recognize that an oversized sweater looks particularly good with leggings, bare legs, or the vague promise of returning it someday. My favorite restaurant in Santa Barbara, California, Loquita There is generosity in this arrangement. He gets a beautifully chosen sweater, and you get visitation rights. Everyone wins, especially when the sweater in question has the right weight, the right drape, and enough room to suggest effortless intimacy rather than petty theft. Consider these eight options gifts for him, selected with love and impeccable taste. You will need to gently whisper to him that sharing is caring. 66 NORTH Varmahlid Shearling Sweater JavaScript is currently ...

Oh Snap! BTS Just Made the Grammys Irrelevant

I am not ARMY. The first BTS member to intrigue me was J-Hope, who appeared last year on one of my favorite Korean shows, Chef & My Fridge, with his refrigerator in tow. There, I learned that he had performed at Le Gala des Pièces Jaunes at Paris La Défense Arena at the personal invitation of Brigitte Macron, France’s first lady. Naturally, I found the performance on YouTube. Thirty-five thousand people filled the arena as thousands of voices in France roared the Korean lyric, “adeuri neom jal nagaseo mianhae, eomma.” One need not own a purple light stick to recognize that kind of cultural power. Afterward, I became mildly obsessed with J-Hope and, by association, BTS. Original photo by Sudhith Xavier. Photoshop by ChatGPT. A song currently in heavy rotation on my playlist is SWIM, from their latest album, ARIRANG. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and remained there for three consecutive weeks. During its debut week, its songs occupied the top nine positions on the...

Gwyneth Paltrow is Aloof, So What Are You?

There are days when I feel utterly disconnected from the world. It took an IG feed from Diet Prada for me to learn that Gwyneth Paltrow had starred in an ad for 51 Park, a luxury residential development in Herzliya, Israel. Herzliya is an affluent coastal city north of Tel Aviv, and the project is being marketed as a luxury residential development there. To be clear, 51 Park is not in Gaza. It is in Israel. But precision does not make the geography innocent: parts of present-day Herzliya overlap with or sit near the land of al-Haram, also known as Sidna Ali, a Palestinian Arab village depopulated in 1948. Lisbon, Portugal There is misinformation about where the 51 Park residential development is located, and the distinction matters. If our beating of Gwyneth Paltrow is going to be effective, it should at least be accurate. I have never liked her. I have never hated her. Even before the 51 Park ad controversy broke, I felt she was irrelevant. Her acting skills are not impressive. Would ...

Curated: Ballet Flats for Fashionistas

The ballet flat began, quite literally, with a foot in the theater. Claire McCardell and Capezio helped coax the slipper from studio floor to city pavement in the 1940s, while Audrey Hepburn and Brigitte Bardot later supplied the sort of cinematic endorsement no advertising budget could manufacture. What had been designed for pliés became a shorthand for modern femininity: graceful without fragility, polished without the architectural inconvenience of a heel. at Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France Its staying power lies in that contradiction. The ballet flat is delicate but practical, prim but faintly rebellious—the shoe of a woman who has somewhere to be and no intention of arriving with sore feet. And so, with a small curtsy and considerably better arch support, here are 12 curated ballet flats ready to take their turn in the spotlight. ANCIENT GREEK SANDALS Iro PVC Ballet Flats JavaScript is currently disabled in this browser. Reactivate it to view this content. ANCIENT GREEK SANDALS I...

Shrimp & Kimchi Inari

Inarizushi emerged in Japan during the Edo period, when seasoned fried tofu pockets filled with vinegared rice became popular as inexpensive street food. Its name is tied to Inari, the deity associated with rice, agriculture and prosperity, and to the foxes regarded as Inari’s messengers and linked in folklore to fried tofu. Inari, however, has never been Japanese to me. Growing up in South Korea, I knew it as yubu chobap, a meal my mom packed for school lunches and picnics—and one that always felt like a treat. Rather than sushi rice, she filled the tofu pockets with different kinds of fried rice. Perhaps that is why I have never regarded the pouch as something requiring too much fidelity. Shrimp & Kimchi Inari is my homage to kimchi fried rice, only quieter: shrimp and kimchi folded into rice with less seasoning than I would ordinarily use for the fried rice version. The restraint is intentional. The lighter seasoning leaves room for the fried tofu skin, with its distinctive swee...

Pasta al Tonno: A Korean Gal’s Ramyeon in Pasta

Growing up Korean, ramyeon was the reliable quick meal: intensely satisfying, reliably filling, and unlikely to leave much of a dent in the bank account. It was a cheap thrill, the sort of thing we were regularly warned was not particularly healthy while continuing to keep it stocked in nearly every Korean home. That contradiction was built into its history. Korean ramyeon was introduced in 1963, with government financing, as one possible response to South Korea’s severe postwar food shortage. Ceramic bowl was wheel-thrown and glazed by me. Once regarded largely as budget food, ramyeon now commands a global following that could almost compete with BTS. ARMY, please hold the hate mail. Pasta al tonno may not share ramyeon’s austere, mission-driven origin, but it occupies a similarly dependable place in many Italian kitchens, particularly among younger cooks and college students. It is quick, inexpensive, and deeply satisfying without putting an unnecessary dent in the wallet. Humble ...

Exhaling Life

Search This Blog