Tony V Defense: LA Prof Counters LA Mag
Calbuzz gave a pretty good ride to the article in LA Magazine, now available online, that complained that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has failed to come through with the progressive agenda he campaigned on in 2005.
So it’s only fair to mention the counter-argument from Occidental college professor Peter Dreier up today on LAObserved, Kevin Roderick’s all-things-LA web site.
“The appropriate way to evaluate Mayor Villaraigosa’s first term is whether he used the tools at his disposal to make significant progress in these and other areas, and how LA compares to other comparable big cities on these measures,” Dreier writes.
“On that score, Villaraigosa deserves praise for raising expectations, squeezing the city’s limited funding to address long-standing problems, and using the city’s leverage to make LA more livable.”
You can find Dreier’s whole argument at LAObserved.
Back when my old paper the LA Weekly, where I was chief polital writer for much of the decade (when it had money) was plumping full time for Antonio in the Harold Meyerson era (ending as my time began), Peter was a chief cheerleader for the AV man. Who was the great cause celebre of the LA left, only to get smoked first time around by the nice but (let us say) underwhelming Jimmy Hahn.
I think Antonio is terrific, incidentally, as some may have adroitly divined.
However, it is not really happening for him …
Have a great Memorial Day weekend!
Antonio has failed, like Gavin, like Arnold.
Antonio is preferable to Gavin.
FORMAL NOTICE to Bill Bradley – I’m out of the ‘anonmymous’ closet! Therefore I’m one of the guys you’ve been looking for! GAME ON! 😉