It’s been a busy six months for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and not all of it has been photo ops.
Since taking office last summer, the mayor has brokered a deal for a Convention Center hotel next to Staples Center, helped settle litigation involving homeowners near Los Angeles International Airport, and assembled an experienced team of advisors, commissioners and department heads.
Now comes the really tough part: determining which campaign promises take priority, given a structural deficit approaching $250 million, and making headway on longstanding issues like traffic, schools and housing.
“He’s been great on style and getting people energized about L.A., which is just what we needed after the last few years,” said Martin Cooper, immediate past chairman of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association. “But now, he’s got to move from the style to the substance. He’s begun to do this, but these next few months will be absolutely crucial.”
In an interview, Villaraigosa outlined shorter term goals for the coming year to promote economic development, including three international trade missions and trips to other parts of the country to drum up new investment in the city. The three trade missions, as currently planned, include one to Asia in the early spring and trips to Mexico/Central America and Europe later in the year.
“Look, I get it,” Villaraigosa said. “I understand the need to create wealth, promote investment and strategically look to create industries in the city. One of my top goals has been to bring more investment to this great city and our business teams have been, and will continue, to be very aggressive in that regard.”
Honest broker
A key milestone will come in June, when Villaraigosa wraps up his first year in office. By that time, he will have crafted his first budget and his commission and management teams will have had enough time to begin implementing some of his policies.
The mayor has no shortage of big ideas, including extending the Red Line subway down Wilshire Boulevard to the ocean, pitching a $1 billion housing bond, and looking to assert more control over the L.A. Unified School District. But even Villaraigosa acknowledges that some of those goals are several years from getting off the ground.
His most notable work has been as an honest broker for labor and economic development, something that former Mayor James Hahn had steered clear of.
He renegotiated the development agreement for Marlton Square in South L.A. He brokered an agreement with Westin Bonaventure owner Peter Zen, allowing Zen to convert some hotel rooms to condominiums in exchange for dropping his opposition to a Convention Center hotel. And he moved to eliminate fees for filming on city property and supported a state tax incentive package for Hollywood production companies wanting to shoot in California. That legislation fell apart last summer but is expected to be reintroduced next month.
On traffic, the mayor deployed officers to 50 of the city’s busiest intersections and announced the formation of a panel to look at the feasibility of tunneling under Wilshire Boulevard for a subway extension.
Villaraigosa said he has secured an agreement from state Senate President Don Perata, D-Oakland, to include $130 million for carpool lane construction on the San Diego (405) Freeway in any transportation bond that emerges from Sacramento next year. He said he also intends to allocate $250 million in funding more traffic signal synchronization and to make sure that construction begins on the Exposition light rail line to L.A.’s Westside.
“We’ve been working very hard on traffic issues,” he said.
On the thorny issue of modernizing Los Angeles International Airport, Villaraigosa stressed that the recent settlement agreement does not mean a permanent tabling of previously approved projects like the consolidated car rental facility and connecting the Green Line light rail line to the airport.
“There will be a proposal about LAX beyond the settlement agreement,” he said. That plan is likely to be introduced later next year, although he stuck to his theme that other airports will have to absorb most of the region’s future growth in air traffic.
Early in term
“We’re waiting to see what he will propose to make Los Angeles a more business-friendly place,” said Rusty Hammer, retiring president and chief executive of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. “Business tax reform and the streamlining of government haven’t been addressed yet.”
Yet Hammer and others stress that it’s still early in the term. Much of his time thus far has centered on assembling his administration and on that point, he has drawn generally positive notices.
That includes his recent naming of Long Beach port executive Geraldine Knatz as L.A. Port director and Lydia Kennard as executive director of Los Angeles World Airports. His commission appointments include Mary Nichols, president of the Board of Water & Power commissioners, and David Freeman, president of the Harbor Department commission.
“We’re very impressed with his appointments,” said Carol Schatz, president and chief executive of the Central City Association. “They appear to demonstrate balance and that’s very important.”
Schatz noted that one of her earlier concerns a pro-labor tilt has been allayed. “His union background did cause some reticence and concern initially among our members, but since he’s taken office, he’s more than dispelled those concerns,” she said.
Villaraigosa is addressing the acute shortage of housing by boosting the city’s affordable housing trust fund to $100 million and calling for a $1 billion housing bond to be put before voters, probably next year. “It’s not just the money. He’s also communicating to the private sector that the time is right to invest in housing in underserved areas of the city,” said Fernando Guerra, director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University and a lobbyist.
But convincing voters to approve such a large bond will be tough, especially after L.A. voters turned down a sales tax to fund public safety last year.
Even more daunting is Villaraigosa’s desire to have the L.A. mayor play a direct role in running the Los Angeles Unified School District by choosing LAUSD board members. Getting such control is essential, he said, because the LAUSD is incapable of reforming itself enough to improve student performance and to turn out well-trained workers that local companies can hire.
Mayors Michael Bloomberg in New York and Richard Daley in Chicago have similar power, but the track record in those school districts is mixed, with test scores not showing dramatic, across-the-board improvements.
In L.A., Villaraigosa must overcome opposition from school district staff, teacher unions and the two dozen other cities in the district that fear being marginalized. He must also get enabling legislation from Sacramento, where opposition from teachers is expected to be the most intense. Villaraigosa, along with the City Council and school board members, have agreed to form a joint committee to examine school governance issues. But an agreement is regarded as a long way off.
“No question, it’s going to take a lot of hard work,” Villaraigosa said. “We have to come up with a plan that doesn’t violate the Voting Rights Act and that gives other cities appropriate input in governance. But ultimately, any plan must give the mayor the responsibility to make these schools more accountable to parents and children.”
It’s the mayor’s ability to make inroads on these basic issues traffic, housing and education that will determine his standing among voters.
“He’s done a good job so far of extending his honeymoon,” said Raphael Sonenshein, professor of political science at California State University Fullerton and a longtime chronicler of L.A. politics. “People really want him to succeed on these big things. To do that, he’s going to need milestones along the way. That’s what people will be looking for.”
