Antonio Villaraigosa
Grade: B-
The mayor does the vision thing, but lacks new material
For a full report on the transit conference see:
Scream if you hate traffic
What he said: During the campaign of 2005, the mayor talked up the subway to the sea while he heard others focus on small things like traffic light synchronization. “They always got a bigger applause than I did. After a while, I started talking about those things.”
Now, he boasts of placing traffic officers at the worst intersections and installing 212 left-turn signals. “Yet as I knew back then, all of this is a drop in the bucket. I bet you haven’t even noticed we’ve done all of these things. We’re going to have to invest in smart growth along transportation lines. We’re going to have to bring a better job-housing balance.”
On a sales tax measure on the November 8 ballot: “Well that’s one option of many options. We’re going to have to look at sales tax, public private partnerships … If we’re not focused on bringing housing closer to jobs, you can forget it.”
Deadlines, anybody: “But at the end of the day, we’re going to have to figure out where we’re going to get the money to do this. And that’s where the rubber hits the road …
All of the research says if there is one place to build a subway in Los Angeles, it’s Wilshire Boulevard.”
On the bus vs. rail argument: “I recognize that poor people have the right to a first-class bus system, and that the only way to have a true, multi-modal system is you have to have a first-class bus system with a first-class rail system.”
Moment of truth: “We’re not going to talk our way out of traffic.”
The Wilshire subway vs. Metro 20, 720 or 920: “If we put a bus right behind one another all the way from downtown to Santa Monica, you’d have gridlock because the truth of the matter is a subway can move a lot more people.”
Why campaign for Hillary?:
“Look at the last eight years and the eight years before that in terms of commitment to public transportation in big cities – I know that the mayor of Los Angeles has to have a relationship with someone in the White House who will actually invest in cities again and who will actually invest in public transportation so it’s not only local sales tax generators or state transportation bonds but federal partners investing in this as well.”
What’s the mayor going to do now: “I will start getting on the Metro again. You’re going to see me on the bus. You’re going to see me on light rail. You’re going to see me on the subway. If you want to do something about traffic and gridlock, then it’s incumbent on every single one of you to get out of your car once in a while. You can’t go two blocks to the market in your single passenger automobile, buy your son or daughter a car when they graduate from high school, and wonder why in September there’s more traffic.
More generalities: “We’re going to have to find new avenues and new revenues to do it. But we’re going to have to work aggressively together around the region to finally address this issue of traffic and gridlock and get L.A. moving again.”
What the mayor should have said? First of all, a B- is a pretty good grade. The mayor delivered his remarks with energy and without any notes. But his words about the past campaign are stale upon the upteenth hearing. He missed a chance to make fresh comments and add specifics to his commitment to win money. By now, he should know what financing package he favors and what he will need voters to approve. He should be engaged in ongoing conversations with Congressman Henry Waxman and other leaders in Washington, D.C. and should have provided a status report of those discussions. He should have committed staff members by name to work with the coalition.
By the way, when the mayor isn’t following a script, he’s prone to trouble with misguided attempts at humor. Failing to see Metro board chair Pam O’Connor in the audience, the mayor joked that as Assembly speaker, someone on his staff would have left a note at the podium telling him who he should introduce. “Someone might be out of job soon. Did I shake anybody up?” The audience laughed, but no one on the mayor’s staff looked amused.
It was a dumb remark that brings to mind the Bad Boss Syndrome.
Published: 01/16/2008
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