A fire on an abandoned Los Angeles property sparked another clash between Mayor Karen Bass and Councilmember Nithya Raman, with the mayoral rivals blaming each other for not stepping up and tackling a problem lot neighbors say has languished for years.<\/p>\n
Homeless encampments, piles of trash, vermin, and car break-ins have bedeviled the 4000 block of Babcock Avenue in Studio City since the property was abandoned, said neighbor Clint Ledsworth. Dozens of calls and complaints were made to L.A. city departments and police, he said, but went unaddressed \u2014 with officials telling him they couldn\u2019t go inside the private property. <\/p>\n
That had changed by Friday morning, after Bass and Raman clashed over a fire that broke out at the property earlier this week. Ledsworth said he woke up to a flurry of activity. Sanitation workers were cleaning the area, cutting down trees, and erecting a new fence and lock to keep out trespassers. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m glad it\u2019s taken care of, but it\u2019s too bad that it took a fire to finally get them out here,\u201d Ledworth said. <\/p>\n
A day after the fire broke out Wednesday, Raman put out a statement saying her office had flagged the property to the mayor\u2019s office 10 moths ago, but nothing was done. Bass\u2019 campaign responded with edited news clips of Raman, who represents the area, taking angry questions from residents in the Studio City neighborhood Friday. <\/p>\n
\u201cNithya Raman wants to lead the whole city, 6 years in office she can\u2019t even get a single lot cleaned up in her own district,\u201d the campaign wrote in a caption along with the video on Instagram.<\/a> <\/p>\n After KTLA broadcast a segment on the lot and the fire, Bass called into the station Thursday and said Raman could have called her personally to address problems with the property. But Raman, during her press conference Friday, shot back \u2014 saying she shouldn\u2019t have to call the mayor to address every issue in the city. <\/p>\n \u201cI cannot call her about the 200-plus issues that we\u2019re dealing with that are at this level of risk,\u201d Raman said. \u201cDoes she want me to call her about every encampment? Does she want me to call her about every single fire risk? Or do we actually deal with a functional city where departments can actually solve issues and where I use the policies that her office has sent me to identify the priority locations for nuisance abatement?\u201d <\/p>\n The political flareup came after firefighters were called to the property Wednesday, where Ledsworth said he saw flames as high as 20 feet. <\/p>\n