I was in Los Angeles last week to cover the wave of protests against President Trump and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Most of the main protests were in the heart of downtown, so I naturally stayed at a hotel a few blocks from there as getting a rental car did not make sense for the task.

Between 2017-2022, I spent a lot of time in Los Angeles County as my Mom lived in Burbank. While most of that time was spent in the San Fernando Valley, we did go to Hollywood, Santa Monica, and even downtown Los Angeles. But this was the first time I spent days near city hall.

What I saw there, outside the protests, disgusted me.

The expectation for any major city in the United States is the downtown area is the cleanest and safest, even in a post-2020 world. While Democratic cities have certainly taken a hit from their idiotic policies, you can still find good areas downtown. Not great, but good.