I have it on good word that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is a sleezeball.
It's quite a shocking thing to hear, I realize, and it's difficult to prove, but let's face it: He's a sleezeball.
I first heard this when a family friend met Villaraigosa at an event at Cathedral High School, where my friend teaches and which Villaraigosa attended before being expelled for starting a fight (sleezeball clue #1). My friend said Villaraigosa worked the room, approaching each person with his winning smile and offering them a drink. Well, not each person exactly, but each woman with long hair and a tight dress (sleezeball clue #2). This came before his scandalous affair with Spanish news anchor Mirthala Salinas (sleezeball clue #3) and the subsequent separation from his wife in 2007 (sleezeball clue #4).
While these events certainly changed my opinion of the proud Latino Mayor who fought for immigrant rights, they are personal events upon which he should not be solely judged, after all, he is not the first politician to be involved in scandal. ("I did not have sexual relations with that woman!") Then I read an article criticizing just how much he's actually done for the city of Los Angeles, which turns out, hasn't been very much.
I was shocked, having read transcripts of his amazing speeches, his calls for action, and his commitment to the betterment of this city. He was raised in East L.A., and vowed to fight for the little person, the person who was here illegally, the union worker being stripped of his rights.
The first Latino mayor of Los Angeles since 1872, Villaraigosa appealed to Latinos across the state, and had extensive experience as a union man, appealing to California laborers. Early on his career, he worked for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and continued to work as a union organizer for the next fifteen years. He was also a part of UTLA, the United Teachers of Los Angeles, and was an active board member on the A.C.L.U. Hope for his work with union organizers was high.
He won mayoral office in 2005 on a campaign centered on radical changes for Los Angeles. His ardent speeches seem to give the entire city hope, and these radical ideas seemed a viable reality. Since then, none of his hopes for the city have panned out. A proposed "subway to the sea" which would link Wilshire to Santa Monica? Nothing. The initiative to plant one million trees in Los Angeles? Not even a fraction have been planted. Reducing pollution? Los Angeles still has one of the worst air qualities of any major city in the U.S. Alleviating traffic? Improving schools? Fighting crime? Hiring 1,000 more police officers? Nothing has been accomplished.
On the other hand, Villaraigosa did spend an entire day getting ready and posing for a wax statue of himself for Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum. The cost of this statue? At least $200,000. His long 16-18 hour work days are filled mostly with speeches and media interviews. Only 11% of his time is spent on direct L.A. city business, signing legislation, shaping governmental policies, etc., and the majority of that time is spent catering to special interest groups and ensuring his reelection.
Days after a highly publicized case of police brutality during a March rally for immigrant rights, (during which Villaraigosa was out of town), he strolled a city park shouting "We are one L.A.!" patting children's heads, and signing soccer jerseys.
At a 2007 press conference, Villaraigosa bitterly stated "We had sixteen cameras at the last event!" after noticing only five cameras in the room.
Any good politician knows how to work the media to their advantage, and creates an on-air or public persona for themselves. Villaraigosa has been working on this too much, focusing on the PR aspect of his job, and not nearly enough on his duties as mayor to create any real change for Los Angeles.
A large part of his appeal has indeed come from his being Latino, especially when it comes to his stance on immigration. After a major drop in his approval ratings stemming from pro-immigrant statements he made at a rally for immigrant rights, however, he said he has become fearful of being "too Latino."
What does this all mean? Mayor Sleezeball is on quest for self-aggrandizement and that has left little time for correcting the problems affecting his city.
Now it's clear the problems of the city are huge, and it is nearly impossible for one man to solve them all, but Villaraigosa is vocal and even theatrical about the hopes for the city, and if he made promises to fix certain problems, he must be held accountable. And it's not the fact that he hasn't accomplished all of his goals to perfection, but seemingly nothing has been done. Villaraigosa has told reporters that he conducts most of his business privately, and so holds no policy meetings, and his private calendar (published online) shows few activities associated with mayoral duties.
On the eve of Villaraigosa's likely reelection, I am concerned by his inaction to follow through on the promises he made.
I remember city workers came to my house not so long ago and took measurements of the patch of grass in front of my house. We were told a tree would be planted there under Villaraigosa's One Million Tree Initiative. Gang violence is still prevelant. L.A. city streets remain filthy. There is little cooperation between the Mayor's office and teachers' unions. Traffic is horrible. There has been no improvement in schools since Villaraigosa took office. There is still no tree in front of my house.
Mayor Sleezeball, it's time to get something done.
Antonio Villaraigosa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Villaraigosa
Los Angeles Times Op-Ed piece
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rutten14-2009feb14,0,4127774.column
Mayor Villaraigosa's Schedule
http://blogs.laweekly.com/media/Mayors_Schedule.pdf
The All-About-Me Mayor: Antonio Villaraigosa's Frenetic Self-Promotion
http://www.laweekly.com/2008-09-11/news/the-all-about-me-mayor/7
Villaraigosa: The All About Me Mayor Is Still 11 Percent There
http://www.laweekly.com/2009-01-01/news/villaraigosa-the-all-about-me-mayor-is-still-11-percent-there
The New Yorker: Fault Lines (Profile)
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/05/21/070521fa_fact_bruck?currentPage=1
No comments:
Post a Comment