He's sworn he will stay as our mayor rather than run for governor in 2010, and now Antonio Villaraigosa's second term--and his second chance to help leave a better L.A.--begins.
The Los Angeles Times reports on the ceremony, and the remaining problems. The renewed mayor
promised to give the public measurable results in his final term and said he had been enlightened and chastened by the successes and failures of his first four years....Thousands of supporters and curious onlookers gathered for the late morning event, and Villaraigosa was interrupted many times by polite applause. Across the street, scores of demonstrators from the Bus Riders Union chanted for Villaraigosa to buy more buses instead of spending money to hire additional police.....
With L.A. confronting a 12% unemployment rate, Villaraigosa said he would create a "jobs team" dedicated to attracting and retaining companies and promised to give discounts on the electric bills of businesses that move to Los Angeles.
The mayor also vowed to end the Department of Water and Power's reliance on coal-fired power plants and instead secure 40% of its power from renewable resources by 2020 -- up from his previous goal of 35%. In his speech, Villaraigosa warned that the push for more renewable energy would require an "investment" from DWP ratepayers -- a veiled reference to the likelihood of higher electricity rates......
Villaraigosa also voiced frustration with the pace of improvement at the Los Angeles Unified School District, where six of seven school board members have received his political support. He said he would work with the board to shut down failing schools and reconstitute them as charter schools -- or place them under the control of his Partnership for Los Angeles Schools.
The rest of the Times article takes a look back at such Villaraigosa first term highlights as his failed attempt to take mayoral control of L.A. Unified School District, and his achievements in trash pickup and police hiring, and the half-cent sales price increase of Measure R.
Ed Leibowitz beneath Los Angeles magazine's famous Villaraigosa "failure" cover explains why he thinks the mayor let him, and the city, down.
Past City of Angles blogging on the mayor's troubled first term here.
The image associated with this post was taken by Flickr user Stewart James. It was used under user Creative Commons license.
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Subsidies in order to attract businesses? I can't help but think that subsidies won't help decrease unemployment in the short-term (won't it take years for businesses to get here?) and will only invite businesses that aren't sustainable in the long run. One look at what Boeing has done to the Northwest will show that a city should not depend on subsidized business.