Wear This, Antonio

The mayor and some constituents

Let’s cut a deal with Mayor Villaraigosa. We’ll grant his outlandish request to stop prying into the real reasons for his marriage breakup, and consider his broken relationship with Corina a private matter, if he’ll start wearing an ankle bracelet around the clock.
Or, better yet, consent to having a video cam pointed at himself 24/7 to provide a lasting record of his work improving Los Angeles. The indefatigable mayor claims to sleep only three hours a night, which leaves much of the day to deal with city business outside the ordinary news cycles of the region’s media. We want to witness history in the making via our laptops.
Trust us, Mr. Mayor, we’ll be discrete. It’s not that we have any interest in the affairs of your heart. We don’t. Nor are we out to impose any pre-Schwarzenegger moral code on how you spend your free time. But we do want to make sure that you stay focused on the affairs of the city and address the crises of the day in a productive way. We don’t want your administration to be sidetracked and destroyed by a meaningless Monica Lewinsky-style scandal. Too many people are dying from respiratory illnesses, too many students are failing to be inspired by their public school teachers and too many young men are shooting each other on our streets. Too much is at stake to let up the pressure on achieving our goals in the next two years.
Let’s face it: A politician’s extra-curricular affairs can be distracting for us and politicians alike. Do you really think the mayor is thinking about how to improve public education right now? Is he doing anything to halt gang violence? Unlikely. It’s hard to imagine the mayor and his advisers spending less than half of their time figuring out how to keep a lid on the marital breakup story.
It’s easy to imagine, however, that a good number of people at City Hall already know who’s to blame for the breakup. If we’re talking about an affair, or more than one, chances are the mayor’s LAPD driver and security detail and top aides know the names of the women. And if one cop knows, so does Chief Bratton and the hierarchy of the police union. Don’t be looking for the mayor to cross the police anytime soon or make any waves as the vote nears on the chief’s second term.
Intimate information in the hands of a few can be powerful. On the other hand, if the mayor tells the full story now, it’s unlikely any of the salacious details could ever be used against him. The re-election of a repeat sexual predator as governor neutered the morality police.
It’s nice that the mayor called a news conference this week to take responsibility for his marriage’s end. But that’s not the sort of press conference that will lead to solving the huge problems facing the city. We want the mayor to explain how he’s going to reduce pollution at the port and, at the same time, allow it to expand.

We want the mayor to present a transportation plan that shows his vision for improving L.A.’s light rail and subway system. We want details on cost, and where the money will come from, and how he’s going to rally support at the county, state and federal levels. We want to hear the mayor explain how he’s going to make accident-waiting-to-happen LAX safer and, at the same time, not destroy surrounding neighborhoods and break longstanding promises with residents.

When it comes to his troubled relationships, his estrangement from Corina is not the most important one. We want the mayor to tell us how he’s reaching out to Zev, the county supervisor and his nemesis on the MTA board, whose help he’ll need if he’s ever going to build the Subway to the Sea.
It might just be that the mayor has taken his eyes off the ball for too long. Would a more focused mayor have fallen for the legally flawed school takeover plan that circumvented the state constitution?

Come on, Antonio, start wearing the video cam and prove to us that you are indeed a full-time mayor committed to solving the monumental ills facing Angelenos. We promise to delete any personal shots.