Spencer Pratt, the former reality-TV star and aspiring mayor of Los Angeles, recently spoke with me for a podcast. We met in front of the Airstream trailer that sits where his house did before it burned down in the Palisades Fire in January of last year. He was excited to share his ideas, if not always able to complete his thoughts, about what he'll do when he's in charge. For starters, he'll clear the drug-ravaged homeless encampments of downtown, bring in developers from all over the world, and use 3-D-printing technology to build 'an entire art deco, vibed-out affordable housing.' On the issue of bike lanes, a pet cause of the YIMBY voters who are backing one of his main opponents, Pratt says he'll do them one better. Zombies is Pratt's term for the tens of thousands of people who live in depraved conditions on L.A.'s streets, many of them addicted to drugs that leave them profoundly incapacitated and sometimes violent. It's not a nice word to call someone who's fallen into a...
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