warning Hi, we've moved to USCANNENBERGMEDIA.COM. Visit us there!

Neon Tommy - Annenberg digital news

Mayor Villaraigosa's State Of The City: More Must Be Done

Jacqueline Jackson |
April 11, 2013 | 10:10 a.m. PDT

Staff Writer

Mayorn Antonio Villaraigosa | Neon Tommy Creative Commons
Mayorn Antonio Villaraigosa | Neon Tommy Creative Commons
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa gave his final “State of the City” speech at UCLA Tuesday to a crowd of over 150 people including LAPD Chief Charlie Beck. Villaraigosa finishes his second term as Mayor of Los Angeles on July 1st and the race to take his spot was a subtle but crucial piece of his 30-minute speech.

SEE: State of the City

Villaraigosa shared some of the greatest highlights of his mayoral career with the audience. His top three successes: transportation, safety and education.

1. Transportation: Since Villaraigosa begin the campaign to bring a larger Metro system to Los Angeles the project both began and completed major construction through LA’s most populated cities/neighborhoods. The rail line, which now runs Union Station to Atlantic, Flower/Washington to La Brea/Jefferson and La Cienega/Jefferson to Culver City, has become both a profitable and time saving addition to the community. The mayor stressed that since its opening on average 9 million people step on and off Metro trains on a monthly basis.

2. Safety: One key point in Villaraigosa's speech was safety. Since Villaraigosa entered his candidacy violent crimes are down 49% and property crime is down 30%.  These decreases were heavily attributed to the new slew of LAPD officers.

Since Villaraigosa took office in 2005 over 700 officers have been added to the force increasing the police presence and playing a huge role in the shift of crime. The now 10,000 member LAPD force is a crucial piece of LA's safety strategy and Villaraigosa hopes to see this maintained by his successor.

According to the Huffington Post mayoral candidate Wendy Gruel has agreed to support the size of the LAPD and also expand it by 2,000 officers if she's elected. However, even with commitments to support Villaraigosa's safety and transportation efforts the current mayor says that isn't enough.

3. Education: At the forefront of Villaraigosa's mind was education. Although the mayor of LA doesn't have jurisdiction over LAUSD Villaraigosa made it his responsibility to create a partnership with LAUSD that has since resulted in the transformation of 160 schools. 

The mayor said, Since 2008, our twenty-two Partnership Schools – schools people had written off had said couldn’t change – have made astounding progress.” He went on to state, “One year after our Partnership took over Jordan High in Watts, the students achieved the biggest gains in API scores for any high school in the entire state.” This for him, however, isn’t enough.

As the LA Times reported Tuesday morning the mayor challenged the mayoral candidates to increase their stance on education. He emphasized that although the candidates have proposed a plan for education they are far behind where they should be. The mayor criticized both candidates objectives and said they have to take another look at education in LA and increase involvement in public schools.
He said Tuesday:

“It has been so disheartening to see our mayoral candidates devote so little time to a serious discussion of how to deliver a quality education for all our children. Education reform can’t be a footnote on a campaign mailer or fodder for an attack ad. Improving our schools must be front and center of a real debate and discussion. It is time for our candidates to demonstrate the ‘fierce urgency of now ’when it comes to ensuring that all – not some, not many – but all of our children have access to great schools.
"

"It is time that they presented us with their comprehensive visions to make – our schools shine. We don’t want to hear about one or two planks in a plan. About an audit of this or a piecemeal change in that, we want the whole plan. Because on May 21st, we don’t want to just elect a mayor, we want to elect a leader.”

WATCH: The Full Speech Here.

As Los Angeles struggles with dropout rates and diminishing academic resources Villaraigosa's concerns are shared by millions and his success is celebrated.

Over the next few months as Villaraigosa plans to leave office he's committed to not only leaving his mark on the city but most importantly an even greater set of proposals to move LA forward once he's gone.

WATCH: Antonio Villaraigosa's new LA Voices Campaign below

Reach Staff Contributor Jacqueline Jackson here.

Follow her here @JayCaliLA



 

Buzz

Craig Gillespie directed this true story about "the most daring rescue mission in the history of the U.S. Coast Guard.”

Watch USC Annenberg Media's live State of the Union recap and analysis here.

 
ntrandomness