Karen Bass says LA’s bombed-out roads aren’t her fault as she’s brutally trolled

Got a flat tire from a Los Angeles pothole? LA Mayor Karen Bass says it isn’t her fault.

The politician declared that the blame for the city’s abysmal street infrastructure doesn’t belong on her shoulders as she stares down a reelection fight against socialist councilwoman Nithya Raman.

“We have a crumbling infrastructure in this city that has been crumbling for about three decades and so, believe it or not, those potholes did not come, and those sidewalks did not break because I’m mayor,” she said in an interview with REAL 92.3 published Wednesday.

When asked if it was her fault, she said, “No. I promise I didn’t break those sidewalks.”

But Bass added, “The potholes are my responsibility to fill them up.”

She said the city filled “over 20,000” potholes the last time it rained.

Bass’ declaration that the potholes weren’t her fault earned her some of the internet’s ire.

“She literally won’t take responsibility for anything so if she’s not responsible for anything, why is she running? I just don’t get any of the logic from any of them,” political activist April Silverman wrote on social media. “They are both so embarrassing. They’re running that you’re the best person for the job, but you’re also pretending that you have nothing to do with any of the problems in LA. They both do that it’s beyond.”

Filmmaker and actress Justine Bateman piled on, saying she didn’t understand why Bass would not take responsibility.

“I have nothing but distain and disgust for politicians joking about detrimental conditions in their town,” Bateman said. “These conditions have existed for the entirety of @MayorOfLA’s time in office. Instead of fixing them, Karen Bass has saddled us citizens with obstacle course-type driving to avoid them, and the absorption of the cost of popped tires. It’s disgusting that she doesn’t instead say, ‘This is my responsibility and I will attend to it.’”

Pro-transportation and progressive group Streets for All released a statement blasting Bass for her budget decisions.

“It’s not @MayorOfLA @KarenBassLA fault that old infrastructure breaks,” they wrote. “It is her fault for cutting Street Services and LADOT so much that everything’s breaking faster than we’re fixing it. She seems disconnected between her budget decision making and the real world impacts.”

Former mayoral candidate and community advocate Spencer Pratt recently released a video blaming Bass for the city’s problems.

“Our neglected infrastructure is absolutely crumbling all around us,” he said in the video.

The mayor was recently mocked for her Zohran Mamdani-esque efforts to fix a pothole after Emmy-nominated journalist and comedy creator Simone Boyce pointed one out.

But the mayor said she could not fix the pothole after a car parked on it.

“So we couldn’t repair the pothole,” Bass said in a video posted to social media. “So you know what we did? We put up no parking signs so that hopefully there won’t be anybody parked here tomorrow morning.”

The pesky car sitting on top of the pothole was eventually moved, and the pothole was fixed the next day.

Bass is running for reelection against Raman, who has campaigned extensively on enhancing the city’s transportation system and infrastructure, this November.

The mayor is favored to win against Raman and keep her seat, according to a Polymarket betting market.

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