Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa: Los Angeles's Mayoral Sleezeball

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

Obama's Speech to Congress

Watch the Presidential Address live!

President Obama and the Almighty Stimulus Plan

This Tuesday, President Barack Obama signed the $787 billion economic stimulus bill into effect. The bill, entitled the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, promises to cut taxes and save millions of jobs. But how realistic are President Obama's plans of setting "our economy on a firmer foundation, paving the way to long-term growth and prosperity"?

While I don't pretend to be an expert on the economic troubles of our country, it is clear that these troubles aren't going away on their own. "Oh, but it's all cyclical! Laissez faire, man! Laissez faire!"

Well, not exactly...

As a struggling college student who already had a major chunk of her financial aid snatched away from her, I am not willing to sit and wait for things to get worse. In less than four years I will be a member of the job market, and struggles are imminent, but I refuse to flip burgers with a degree from USC. Action has to be taken, and although it is clear that this will not be solved overnight, it is important to get the fiscal ball rolling so there is some hope for a safer economic future.

So what exactly does President Obama's bill call for? The majority of the $787 billion (that's right) will go to tax relief for the middle class. Obama stated that it will not only create or save 3 1/2 million jobs, but put "nearly 400,000 men and women to work rebuilding out crumbling roads and bridges, repairing faulty dams," and connecting businesses and homes with an upgrade in mass transit. And this is only part of the large focus President Obama has taken on rebuilding the infrastructure. Following in Eisenhower's footsteps, he believes securing the infrastructure is crucial for economic stability. Through the bill, he also secured the jobs of 14,000 teachers in New York City alone, and has given 7 million people their health coverage back. He's calling the bill an "investment," because though costly now, the stimulus bill may lead to greater payoffs in the future.

It sounds amazing right? It seems like every government official would be on board, and according to Obama, they are. He said he's gotten broad support from "business leaders, unions and public interest groups, the Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, Democrats and Republicans-"

Wait! What!

Republicans too?!?!

Not quite...

Although Obama claims broad support, the stimulus bill received only 3 Republican votes in the Senate and none in the House. Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee said Republicans remain in disagreement about the bill, many viewing it as a waste of money.

Despite partisan squabble, Obama has stayed true to his word about keeping up accountability and transparency in his administration. His team created www.Recovery.org, a website that keeps stimulus information posted so that every American can go online and see just where their tax dollars are being spent, as well as the full transcript of the bill.

Will all this work for certain? No one knows. This country has already been through various economic trials and tribulations. Sometimes it lasts for a few months, and sometimes for entire years. Our trillion dollar deficit certainly isn't going anywhere soon. This is why this bill matters now more than ever. Long-term economic stability should be the aim and the legislation put forth sounds like a giant step in the right direction. Expansionary fiscal policy (thanks, John!) is definitely the way to go, and I hope Obama sticks with it and is able to get us out of this mess!

Obama remarks on signing the stimulus plan

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/17/obama.stimulus.remarks/

Stimulus plan set in motion

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/feb/18/1n18stimulus235422-obama-signs-stimulus-bill/?zIndex=54590

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h1enr.pdf

www.recovery.gov

So this is That's News To Me!

Hello everyone!

So I decided to start a blog. I know. Me? A blog? I'm usually against anything that is computer or computer-oriented. I'm just not that technologically savvy. But I've come to a realization: I'm going to be a friggin' journalist! And this means two things, a.) I have to work on my people skills (or, in other words, be nicer to... people.) and b.) I have to become technologically savvy. I've also come to realize all future journalists have blogs. So, here I am. Typing away and putting myself out there for all to read. Wish me luck!

The first major struggle in creating this blog was deciding what it would be about. Stories about my family or cutesy pictures of my dog just wouldn't do. Anyone who knows me knows that that just isn't me (but a quick shout-out to my awesome dog Kiko! You rock!) Since I'm aiming to become a journalist I wanted to write about news, without boring my potential readers to death. I decided on "That's News To Me!", a blog about international, national, and local news, as well as USC on-campus news, and anything in my own life that I find important enough to post.

Wow! All this power's going to my head!

But to prevent that from happening, I encourage comments and suggestions! Want to hear my take on something? Let me know! I am quite opinionated after all... Have a comment on something I've written? Let me know! The internet used to be a scary place to me, with all the interactivity and real-time communication (scary, right?), but I totally welcome it now! So take a minute, have a read, and send me some feedback. It will be much appreciated.

Finally, I want my blog to be an open forum for social issues. If there is one thing I want to accomplish as a journalist, it's to make people think about the problems of the world and what they can do to help fix them, even if that means just realizing that they're there.

So this is what That's News To Me! will be. I love writing, and may even throw some creative posts in here once in a while. News can also be uptight or depressing, so I want to share lighter pieces as well. Enjoy and check back soon!

(p.s. I also want a cool catchphrase as a sign-off. Any ideas? I'm all ears!)