A very interesting look at the mayor of Los Angeles, from humble beginnings and still caring deeply about those roots while making serious inroads on many of LA’s intractable problems; a great example of focused public service.
An excerpt.
Stuck on Fast Forward
The L.A. mayor's mad rush to fix the city's problems.
BY JILL STEWART Saturday, July 15, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT
LOS ANGELES--On Saturdays, City Hall is so deserted that it's difficult to gain entry to chat with the suddenly controversial Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, even if you're expected. As I peer through a security checkpoint, awaiting some kind of sign from two stern Latina guards, I can see the motionless doors of the Art Deco elevators that rise to the mayor's third-floor chambers.
The silence is oppressive. Is anybody out fighting crime and fixing potholes?
The answer, it turns out, is yes. The mayor, trim and handsome, with dimples and soft black lashes that make some women swoon, breezes in with his ever-present "body man," and we settle into his luxurious, art-filled office. Mr. Villaraigosa puts in more overtime than the city employees whose pensions are L.A.'s next lurking fiscal crisis. He's driven by an unspoken--and officially denied--sense that if he doesn't buzz, yak, visit, inveigh, order, arrive, depart, condemn and celebrate at the speed of light, Los Angeles will crack under the many pressures upon it.
He alone, his pace suggests, can stop the creeping decline in litter-strewn neighborhoods jammed with illegal immigrants, or end the tragedy of extreme high school dropout rates, or patch up dirty business districts that make beach-seeking tourists wonder if they took a wrong turn in Jersey.
"Today," Mr. Villaraigosa says, "I attended a Police Protective League event in Palm Springs, came back to this interview, then to Dodger Stadium to play in a celebrity baseball tournament, where I will meet the president of the Dominican Republic. Then I'm going to receive a Vision Award at the Beverly Wilshire, then back to the L.A. Press Club awards, then I am going to introduce Al Gore at the California Plaza to premier his 'Inconvenient Truth' movie. Then I'm going to an event sponsored by Culture Clash, an artistic group giving an award to my family."
He grins, displaying perfect teeth. "I started at 5 am. This is a Saturday."
Mr. Villaraigosa, former union organizer, state assemblyman, speaker of the assembly and city councilman, sleeps 3.5 hours nightly and is an over-exerciser. "I do an hour of cardio daily, and one hour on an elliptical machine. I do about 600 crunches every day, but yesterday I did 800. Alternate days, I do 300 pushups, but yesterday I worked out twice and did 500."
He grabs for his ceramic mug of green tea as if it were a life preserver. He believes that drinking lots of green tea--"antioxidants"--is a folk remedy for staying healthy.
Until he got hit hard by the worst press of his first year in office--pilloried by parents, teachers, reformers and newspapers for his compromise plan to take control of Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), which educates one in every 12 children in California--Mr. Villaraigosa was riding his endorphins-and-antioxidants high to seemingly good places. He hammered out an early deal with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which had brought crippling strikes to the city three times in 12 years. He reduced the deficit $47 million while funding more cops, albeit with a really nasty, 154%, $204 annual hike in homeowner trash fees to be phased in over four years. He's making dual plays for L.A.'s consideration as the Olympic site for 2016 and as the next NFL franchise.
Mr. Villaraigosa has traveled to New York to see how Mayor Michael Bloomberg runs his schools, and to Chicago to see how Mayor Richard Daley does it there. And he's getting sick of partisanship, even in himself: "It's just not practical enough. When you are the mayor of a big city you don't have the luxury. It's like running a country. This is the 16th or 17th largest economy in the world." And so he has urged leading Democrats to talk about faith and get fiscally prudent "because I don't know who is a conservative anymore." He focuses on "good government," like his ban on road construction at rush hour and his pledge to promptly fill potholes, to the tune of 286,000 jobs per year.
Oh? I mention a bad four-inch pavement drop-off in my area, in front of a boxy peach rambler (sale price: $1 million). Should I call it in? The mayor enthusiastically bobs his noggin. "No, tell me now! I'm serious. Tell me right now! Where is it? Where's it at?" I tell him. He turns to spokeswoman Janelle Erickson: "I am giving this to Areen (the "body man" who handles his minutiae) to have it done Monday by close of business."
But no; it's filled by Sunday afternoon. Was it for show? The following weekend, I call the 311 public services line anonymously, reporting two potholes in a beat-up working class area. By Monday night, they're filled, as are several cracks and dips.
