Toward the end of 2024, Jeff Strauss, the chef and owner of Oy Bar in Studio City, Calif., wanted to take over a second space in the building. He spent months navigating red tape with the city of Los Angeles, then one day, to his shock, he learned that the entire block had been sold to a developer under a program that fast-tracks the construction of affordable housing.

“Their plan to destroy this entire block of businesses moved much faster than my attempt to turn an existing retail space into a sandwich shop,” he said. “The system can’t be set up to work like that and expect small businesses to survive.”

Mr. Strauss emphasized that he supports building more affordable housing in Los Angeles, but the disjuncture disturbed him. He dropped the new restaurant project, opting to open a grocery instead, and is unsure about the future of his popular restaurant, which serves pub food inspired by Jewish American classics.

His anxieties are shared by countless local restaurateurs.

In the past several years, Los Angeles restaurants have been hit in fairly quick succession by a string of hardships — the pandemic, the Hollywood strikes, wildfires and ICE raids — that have significantly hurt the business. With large tourism events coming up, including the World Cup next month and the Summer Olympics in 2028, it is perhaps not surprising that the struggles of the city’s renowned restaurant industry have become a talking point in advance of Tuesday’s mayoral primary.

In the fragmented governance of Los Angeles County, change is complicated and often slow, but candidates across the political spectrum have been courting voters by presenting themselves as the choice to transform the city government’s role from obstacle to partner for mom-and-pop restaurants, so even the smallest businesses can take advantage of the coming tourism influx.