Say Adios to Villaraigosa?

People of Los Angeles, please raise your hand if you are even remotely impressed with the city’s management and public services. Anyone?

The public services provided by Los Angeles are severely lacking. Traffic is horrific with no end in sight. Hospitals are being closed down in areas where they are needed the most. The people of the city have little confidence in any of the city’s leadership or the city’s infrastructure. The mayor is mired in scandal, and has proven to be woefully inadequate. Los Angeles is in desperate need of new political blood and ideas, and it all starts at the top with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

The Mayor has had a very rough past few months. In early June, it was announced that Villaraigosa’s wife of 20 years was filing for divorce, due to the Mayor’s extramarital affair with local Telemundo TV anchor Mirthala Salinas.

Usually, I could care less about anyone’s personal life. Everyone makes mistakes in life. However, public officials (especially high ranking ones) are held to a different standard, whether it is fair or not. Many politicians have had failed marriages, and their political careers survived just fine. However, when these mistakes are repeated often they fail to be merely lapses of judgment and instead form a more truthful image of one’s character. And unfortunately for Villaraigosa, this is not the first time he has been cast in the spotlight due to his infidelity.

In 1994, Villaraigosa commited an even more shameful act of adultery. The day after he was elected to the state assembly, his wife Corina filed for divorce (they later reconciled). Corina had been battling thyroid cancer during the campaign, and Villaraigosa had built himself up as a “dedicated family man”. However, Corina learned that her supposedly dedicated family man of a husband had in fact snuck off for a few days with another woman. Not just any woman, but the wife of one of his closest friends, which led to his friend’s divorce. This act of betrayal should have revealed to voters the man’s true character. Many of Villaraigosa’s closest friends and political allies were outraged and distanced themselves both privately and publicly, especially since they had helped build his image in the campaign.

It seems the only thing that Villargoisa struggled more with than fidelty was passing the BAR exam, which he failed four times before giving up.

But this is America, and American’s have very short memories. Despite some setbacks, Villaraigosa prospered. Behind a new campaign in which he played up his Latino heritage, Villaraigosa won convincingly in the 2005 campaign for Mayor. Regarded as a hot new Democratic figure in the country, it has been assumed that the Mayor has had his eye on the Governor’s position in 2010. Villaraigosa had done what many other politicians had already done and battled through questions about his character and appeared set to ride his wave of popularity all the way to Sacramento.

Unfortunately for him, his true character revealed itself again with this latest act of infidelity that has led to his divorce.

Now comes the real issue: If the Mayor was actually accomplishing anything here in the city, it would be easier for voters to look past his shortcomings as a husband and father. However, this is not the case. In the past two years since he has taken over, very little has been done in the city that was a result of his actions.

Villaraigosa made numerous promises during his campaign. He promised to plant 1 million trees, build a subway that stretches to the ocean, and to fix the city’s disappointing public school system among other things. In his two years in office, little to any of these programs have been put in place.

Traffic is still horrible. The recently announced $150 million to synchronize the city’s traffic lights is a step in the right direction, but comes from the state and not by any creative measures taken by the Mayor or his staff. Thank Arnold and the California voters instead Los Angelinos. Despite the Mayor claiming “I want to say to the people of Los Angeles: Promises made, promises kept… When I campaigned for mayor, I said we would synchronize the traffic signals and it would be expensive”. However, this money came from Prop-1B, which paved the way for $40 billion to help fix the state’s infrastructure and traffic problems. How Villaraigosa is claiming any credit at all for it is vexing.

The city’s medical system is inept. The controversy surrounding King-Harbor that became national news when Edith Rodriguez was allowed to keel over and die in the waiting room while a janitor swept around her resulted in nothing other than the closing of the hospital in a poor community that desperately needed one. The Mayor had ample opportunity here to turn a tragedy into a positive, but instead of pushing for sweeping reform in the hospital’s infrastructure he did nothing but allow the county to shut it down as an easy and cheap solution.

To top it off, the school system is still highly bureaucratic and underperforming compared to other major cities in the nation.

With Villaraigosa firmly in power till 2009, there is little we can do short of a recall. Concerned citizens must voice their displeasure about the Mayor and his practices until real changes are made. If Villaraigosa has any hope of winning the gubernatorial elections in 2010, he has a lot of work to do. Start to fix Los Angeles, and all will likely be forgiven. Continue on the current course of little action-little results, and Villaraigosa will be just another spectator.

Oh, and I’ll be on the look-out for those million additional trees. I haven’t noticed anymore yet.