MISSING FROM THE MAYOR’S STATE OF THE CITY SONG AND DANCE - Mayor Villaraigosa's final state of the city address, which he delivered Tuesday at Royce Hall at UCLA, misses very much indeed.
It misses the fact that the lotuses died in Echo Park Lake and we have never learned why.
It misses the fact that Silver Lake Reservoir was contaminated for six months before it was shut down and we never learned the public health impact of that.
It misses the fact that there were six different heads of the Department of Water and Power during his eight year tenure.
It misses the fact that most of his out-of-town appointees to Departments were failures who shrank their Departments just to keep their jobs.
It mentions bike lane stats but not bike injury stats--even though the Mayor himself was injured riding a bike in this city.
It doesn't mention homelessness at all, because the Mayor and Budget chief Paul Krekorian and the County are still determined to support failed homeless policies that prioritize housing the few for as costly an amount as possible.
It misses the fact that the Mayor had to engage in an embarrassing get-out-the-count US Census effort just to make sure that there were more people living here in 2010 than in 2000. LA, of course, grew even more slowly than California did.
It misses the fact that he felt obliged to trounce on democracy itself, debating no candidate at no time, to ensure his re-election in 2009.
It fails to mention the fact that rents have skyrocketed in his eight years as Mayor even though real estate prices have ended up modestly increased.
It fails to mention how many young people have simply given up on owning a home.
It fails to acknowledge, as media have still failed to acknowledge, that in his first term he showed up too many morning meetings drunk or hungover.
It certainly doesn't mention the fact that he entered his mayoralty a married man and after three affairs ended up a kind of absentee gigolo at the service of various news girls.
I wish I, as a lifelong resident, could have talked to the Mayor once during his tenure of office … even one time, about the way the City of Los Angeles really is. I requested such a discussion many many times. But his handlers wouldn't let me.
(Joseph Mailander is a writer, an LA observer and a contributor to CityWatch. He is also the author of Days Change at Night: LA's Decade of Decline, 2003-2013. Mailander blogs at www.josephmailander.com.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 11 Issue 30
Pub: Apr 12, 2013