The former reality star’s dark visions of Los Angeles are resonating in a heated mayoral race, even if they’re far from the truth.

© Alex Welsh for The New York Times

The judge who sentenced Randy Rodriguez Santos said his case exemplified the “coming together of three horrible symptoms of this city: homelessness, mental illness and narcotics abuse.”

© Pool photo by Rashid Umar Abbasi

How will the next governor make housing more affordable? The top five Democratic candidates in California discuss this issue at a forum moderated by Ezra Klein.

San Jose’s mayor, Matt Mahan, tells the Opinion columnist Ezra Klein why California’s reliance on expensive, slow-moving affordable-housing projects has eroded public trust, and argues for a “radically pragmatic” shift toward interim housing and stricter encampment enforcement.