Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is facing a wave of online mockery after an attempt to showcase a pothole repair in California ended with city crews putting up no-parking signs instead of immediately fixing the road. To make matters worse, the initial failure to fix the pothole the same way Mayor Zohran Mamdani did has seemingly added more to the embarrassment.
The episode began after Emmy-nominated journalist and comedy creator Simone Boyce spotted a pothole at Melrose and Gardner Street in Los Angeles, California, and asked Bass to “Mamdani” it. It’s a reference to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose response to a resident’s pothole complaint recently went viral after crews completed a same-day repair.
Bass responded on her socials, saying, “Simone Boyce we got you!” City crews subsequently arrived at the location, apparently ready to tackle the pothole. There was just one problem: A parked car was sitting directly over it on the day of the intended repair.
Hence, in a video shared online, Bass explained that crews could not complete the repair because the vehicle was blocking the damaged section of roadway. Instead, the city installed no-parking signs and planned to return the following morning. “So we couldn’t repair the pothole,” Bass said. “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 initial video quickly became the subject of ridicule on Reddit, where one post asking, “Are we being trolled?” received more than 5,000 upvotes. “Why didn’t she just film this when the pothole was fixed?” one commenter asked. Another joked that the city was “fixing nothing but somehow causing more problems,” while another quipped, “Are you saying posting no parking signs is NOT AN ACCOMPLISHMENT?”
The pothole was fixed, but the optics were ruined
The pothole was eventually repaired the next day after the vehicle was moved. Boyce later posted a follow-up thanking Bass and emphasizing the importance of residents reporting problems. Even so, criticism also focused on the mayor’s communications team, with commenters questioning why officials would publish footage of an incomplete repair rather than wait until the pothole was actually fixed.
“I didn’t know someone could lack charisma that hard,” mocks a Reddit user, with another joking, “I could’ve sworn this was a parody of Mamdani from Bass.” The backlash comes as Los Angeles continues to struggle with deteriorating roads. The city receives tens of thousands of pothole complaints annually, while officials have acknowledged the challenge posed by years of deferred infrastructure maintenance and limited resources.
Bass has thankfully urged residents to report potholes through 311 or the MyLA311 app. For critics, however, the viral moment offered an unfortunate comparison with Mamdani: Instead of showcasing a completed fix, Los Angeles, California, initially showcased a parking sign and turned a routine pothole repair into another social-media headache for City Hall.
