One month from tomorrow, Mayor Jim Hahn will pass the barely-guttering torch of leadership to Antonio Villaraigosa - an occasion that triggered dueling, but equally puffy features on the mayor-elect in major papers on either side of the continent.
The LAT piece by Tina Daunt focuses on Villaraigosa's "pizzazz" - he of the tailored Armani jackets, Patina dinners and Hahn-eclipsing nuevo-Latino cachet.
But it also points out that he's coming into an extremely prominent position with huge responsibilities on his shoulders - and while he admits to being flattered by praise from the likes of Sen. Hillary Clinton and NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, he's also aware - or at least puts on a good show of being aware - of what's at stake ...
Since winning the race against Hahn on May 17, Villaraigosa's staff has received more than a thousand calls from people requesting time with the new mayor. More than 500 reporters from around the world have called for interviews. ..."Obviously, you have a national stature when you are the mayor of New York or Chicago or Los Angeles," said Villaraigosa, who officially takes office July 1. "But my priorities have to be Los Angeles."
We can certainly hope that this focus and enthusiasm will last well into the first term or, more importantly, well past the next Congressional election.
On the other coast, a verylight profile in the New York Times portrays Villaraigosa as an inveterate talker, noting that he sounds like a politician - but a better politician than the man he's to replace:
"We cannot allow this kind of violence to fester in our schools or in our neighborhoods," Mr. Villaraigosa said in an interview in his City Council office last week. "Our strength is our incredible diversity: all these Angelenos who come from every corner of the earth. Their vitality and energy and hope for the future is what makes Los Angeles such a dynamic place. We have to make it an absolute priority to foster better understanding across all those lines."
There is a certain rote, stump-speech cast to Mr. Villaraigosa's ode-to-the-melting-pot language. But his evident earnestness, contrasted with Mr. Hahn's detachment and seeming lack of passion, apparently was just what residents of this city were eager to hear.
What's more interesting - and perhaps telling - is the fact that he has amassed a veritable platoon of advisors from across the socio-cultural spectrum who will somehow guide his choices on hiring some 300 city commissioners and 150 staff members.
I'd be interested to learn how that will work out - whether it's broken down into two- to three-member consulting squads for each type of position or some sort of massive knights-at-a-virtual-round-table listserv where everybody chimes in via email.
Meanwhile, a Copley News story pointing out that nearly one-third of this huge 82-member "transition team" doesn't even live in Los Angeles.
This just doesn't matter to me. If they were smart and understand L.A.'s shifting political sands, complex racial issues and crying need for stronger department-level leadership, I'd be happy to have the McMurdo polar exploration research team in Antarctica advising Villaraigosa on whom to fire and hire to improve the city government.
If UFW co-founder Dolores Huerta can help Villaraigosa navigate the tricky business of establishing relations with the very city unions who sought (and spent hard) to defeat him, then who cares if she lives in Bakersfield.
The fact that Villaraigosa is seeking advice from such diverse and far-flung sources gives me hope that this gig won't become just another political stepping stone on the route to higher office. At least not right away.
Posted by: Mack_Reed on Tuesday, May 31, 2005 - 08:47 AM
