When the owner of one of Los Angeles’ most famous delis told a reporter he was considering shutting down the place due to rampant crime and other quality-of-life issues, the city’s mayor hardly ignored the comments as mere nuisances. Her response is a good lesson, for crisis communicators of all stripes, in crisis “listening.”

Norm Langer (pictured), owner of 77-year-old institution Langer’s Delicatessen-Restaurant in Westlake, sat down for an interview with Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez. The article ran on the front page of the Sunday, Aug. 25 print edition. In it, Langer, 79, reminisced about the glory of the neighborhood when he was young, particularly about playing carefree in nearby MacArthur Park.

But over the decades, according to Langer and Lopez, the neighborhood has been turned over to crime, drugs, extortion of local businesses and other social ills. “I’m considering closing,” Langer said, adding that he was tired of City Hall not seeing to the needs of local residents and merchants. He specifically called for more lighting, police patrols, clean-up efforts and social services.

“That park is very important for the people who live in this area,” he said. “We have to give it back to them.”

Crisis Listening

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass could have read this while enjoying her Sunday bagel and lox (from Langer’s?) and said, “Meh.” But she didn’t. She did the opposite. She did what a good crisis communicator should do. She realized she was receiving a signal that not all was right in her world, and she needed to address, not ignore, that warning sign. These days, we mostly think about this in terms of social-media “listening,” but it pertains to tapping into a broad range of sources to intercept a brewing crisis.

The fact is, by Monday reporters were questioning Bass about the issues Langer raised in the interview. And the story was starting to go national, with reports especially latching onto his threat to shut down his venerable establishment. Langer’s declaration got hundreds of mentions on radio and TV and thousands on X.

On Tuesday, Aug. 27, just after 8 a.m. local time, Mayor Bass called Langer. They discussed the issues he raised in the interview, but the mayor decided that wasn’t enough. She went to the restaurant that same day to have lunch with him.

Do Something

It was an especially smart move on her part because, as Lopez noted in an Aug. 29 follow-up column, since the original interview appeared, business soared at Langer’s. And many people waiting on line outside said they wanted to support the restaurant’s bid to get the city to do something.

Bass reportedly took Langer’s complaints seriously and seems to want to address them. The deli owner expressed frustration at the failure of earlier efforts. “But Langer was encouraged by the mayor’s visit and felt as though she genuinely wanted to hear him out,” Lopez wrote. She even returned to the deli with local City Council Member Eunisses Hernandez Aug. 29 for breakfast. Langer joined them. Sure, this is a political story, but the lesson should be clear for even corporate communicators: Be sensitive to a swelling crisis.

An important technical point on the lunch summit: Bass had the pastrami on rye. According to Eater, Langer’s offers what is “perennially considered the best pastrami sandwich in the country.”

Photo Credit: Langer’s

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