Reality TV star and Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt has launched a scathing attack on Mayor Karen Bass, whom he has nicknamed "Mayor Basura" (trash), following the total lighting failure of the iconic 6th Street Viaduct.
The bridge, a $588 million architectural marvel completed in 2022, is currently shrouded in darkness after organized criminals stripped the structure of its copper wiring.
In response, Mayor Bass announced a massive initiative to install 60,000 solar-powered streetlights across the city to clear a decade-long backlog of 32,000 repair requests.
The move is intended to "theft-proof" the city's infrastructure, as solar units do not require the high-value copper wiring that has seen a 1,200% increase in theft over the last decade.
Pratt, however, isn't buying the "green" solution.
In a viral video posted to social media, he mocked the administration’s plan to spend an estimated $200 million in taxpayer funds on the upgrades.
"Mayor Basura is planning to take two hundred more million dollars of our tax money to get solar power lights," Pratt sneered. "Oh, because the criminals won't steal those."
While Bass's office argues that solar lights are more reliable and "resistant to theft" because they lack a centralized grid connection, critics like Pratt argue the city is simply throwing good money after bad.
With 1 in 10 streetlights currently out across Los Angeles, council members like Katy Yaroslavsky have declared a "streetlight emergency," but the optics of spending millions more on a bridge that isn't even four years old has provided Pratt with a powerful campaign weapon.