(Garcetti/Neon Tommy)

Garcetti opens his term with a positive, if undefined, public image: 53% of voters viewed him favorably, 17% unfavorably. The rest offered no opinion.

The poll surveyed 500 registered voters across Los Angeles and also found that voters had very mixed opinions about outgoing Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's eight-year term.

“Angelenos are clearly feeling more optimistic about their city's future, and Antonio Villaraigosa deserves credit for their improved attitude,” said Dan Schnur, director of the USC Price/LA Times Poll and director of the USC Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics. “Given the length and severity of the state’s and region’s recession, these are very good poll numbers for an outgoing mayor.”

SEE ALSO: Eric Garcetti Elected As Los Angeles Mayor

Residents also expressed confidence in Garcetti's leadership, with 62 percent of all respondents saying that the city will be better off four years from now with Garcetti at the helm. Only 11 percent felt that LA would be worse off.

Those polled said school improvement, job creation and the city's budget were the top three issues Garcetti needed to fix.

“The level of support for Garcetti is fairly high, but fairly general. People like him and have high hopes for him, but they don’t quite know why,” Schnur said. “What their campaign didn’t provide for voters was a very strong sense of Eric Garcetti, and that’s both an opportunity and a challenge for him as he takes office.”

Perhaps it's Garcetti's "man of the people" persona he works so hard to get across, promising to fix potholes, pave the city's worsening streets, pick up trash, smooth sidewalks and trim the trees from the bottom of the City Hall steps, not on a platform.

"My family's story in Los Angeles begins humbly, one side of my family crossing an ocean and a continent to flee persecution in Poland and Russia, the other side crossing a river escaping war in Mexico, looking for a better life," the new mayor told the crowd on Sunday.

Overall, the poll results suggested a significant mood shift from the deep pessimism that took hold statewide and nationally after the 2008 economic crisis.

“The optimism in Los Angeles has some to do with a new administration, but is more attributable to a general, national cautious optimism,” said Amy Levin, vice president of Benenson Strategy Group.

The new, "back-to-basics" mayor will start his first day in office by holding office hours where he will meet with Angelenos who have emailed requests for help from City Hall. He will then meet with different neighborhood business leaders across L.A. to discuss small-business success and job creation.

Garcetti cautioned those listening that he would not be a perfect mayor, very far from it, but, "at every step of the way, you, the people of Los Angeles, can hold our feet to the fire and see that we are meeting our goals."

"I will make my share of mistakes in this job," he continued. "But we are a great city."

Reach editor-in-chief Brianna Sacks here