SHOCKER: Villaraigosa LOSES LAdailyblog.com Readers Poll:
Q: Re-elect Antonio (yes or no)
Yes, re-elect: 20%
No, change the batter: 79%
(I know readers of this blog are more likely to vote "no", but it doesn't appear as though I'm on the wrong side of the issue, either. The issue being, "anyone but Tony, as a matter of public safety and national security.)
From LA Times:
Can the mayor find his way out of a jam and lead Los Angeles to global glory?
Have you been to London recently? How about Dubai? For that matter, how about Bogotá, Colombia? Each of these cities is thriving, and their collective success makes clear the battle Los Angeles faces during the next several decades to stay successful on a global scale.
It also raises a question: Is Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who came into office nearly three years ago with brio and youthful promise, doing enough to keep L.A. from slipping from the top tier of world cities? In many ways, his political legacy may depend on it. And in an age of hyper-competition among world cities, so will the health of the metropolitan region—and maybe of California as a whole.
When Villaraigosa took office in July 2005, he looked for all the world like the newest member of the Dynamic Mayors Club: a young, ambitious Latino leader for a young, ambitious Latino city. He appeared poised to build on the advantages L.A. has always had—a global brand name, an idyllic climate, a diverse economy with a workforce to match.
Promising to assume a higher profile than the managerial caretaker mayors who preceded him, Villaraigosa pledged to take bold steps to keep Los Angeles competitive with its global peers, including putting a comprehensive transit system in place. The mayor and his appointees also promised to make the city more walkable and its streetscape more humanely designed, changing a planning process that has always favored cars over pedestrians and traffic flow over the creation of successful urban spaces.
Nearly three years into his tenure, though, the mayor’s grandest plans have barely inched forward. Instead, he has fallen into the politically expedient trap of pushing for wider freeways and streamlined traffic on the city’s major boulevards.
Other bold-sounding efforts, such as his plan to plant a million trees, have been as much salesmanship as substance. (The Times’ David Zahniser has reported that there’s reason to believe that many of the trees the city has given away as seedlings and claims to have planted never made it into L.A. soil.) Among planners and architects, a sharp sense of disappointment in the Villaraigosa administration has become both widespread and impossible to ignore. The skidding economy and the city’s budget shortfall have made the outlook only gloomier.
ZUMA DOGG SAID...I still say as the city takes "belt-tightening" measures in the face of a $500-$700 million budget deficit -- City Hall needs to remember to cut back on the fraud, waste, abuse and flat-out coffer-draining corruption. Y'ALL KNOW WHAT THE F*CK I AM TALKING ABOUT! (See ZD threads on this blog on non-profit abuse and non-profit affordable housing scams and more.) THE CITY IS IN CRISIS...THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO STEP IN AN INVESTIGATE LOS ANGELES CITY HALL. YOU MIGHT FIND RAMPANT CORRUPTION AND MASSIVE RICO VIOLATIONS!!! IT SEEMS LIKE CORRUPTION IS IN CHARGE! THE CITY, COUNTY AND STATE CAN NO LONGER AFFORD IT! Don't let a few corrupt politicians tank the State and tip the nation's already weak economy. (Plus, the mayor just lost the LAdailyblog readers poll!)
Click here for full LA Times article
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