If you really want to talk about the state of our City, you need to come to South LA. -----Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa

Activists are so accustomed to meaningless political rhetoric and politicians’ false promises that few leaders can cut through the chatter and talk about what is real. That’s one of many reason why Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s “State of the City” speech this week was so moving, and deserves to be heard beyond his home city. When America is spending $10 billion a month in Iraq while cutting health care, education and affordable housing for budget reasons, Villaraigosa is helping to lead the way for a progressive revival both in urban centers and across America.

Mayor Villaraigosa began his April 18 “State of the City” speech by noting that while he was sworn in at City Hall nine months ago, “if you really want to know the state of our city, you need to come to South LA.” The Mayor then explained why he chose this location::

Here in South LA we have many of the residents of our city who work the hardest
and earn the least… People who clean hotel rooms…who sweep the floors…who watch our children…and for whom time is a thief when it comes to caring for their own families…

It’s here in South LA that you see the most pervasive problems Angelenos face.
Here, you see them magnified, you hear them amplified.

Here you can sense the frustration every commuter feels, in the eyes of a single mom who rides the bus to work every single day.

It’s here where our public schools are struggling just to survive…it’s here where the dropout crisis is most menacing, it’s here where the threats of gangs and gun
violence are simmering…steaming…at the verge of a boil

In the midst of all this, it’s here in South LA

The Mayor had two other metaphorically powerful graphs, in which he contrasted the Watts towers to the diminished hopes of South Los Angeles residents, and in which he noted that mountains were visible in the distance but the feeling among the poor that they can climb mountains has been lost.

Anyone can hire good speechwriters. But in the response to Villaraigosa’s speech, nobody publicly doubted that these sentiments were his.

Los Angeles has a Mayor who is not only prioritizing the city’s poorest neighborhoods, but is essentially asking voters to judge him and his city by his success in this difficult task. Villaraigosa’s willingness to take on the city’s toughest challenge is what used to be called “leadership,” but today when politicians talk seriously about reducing poverty they are criticized as “throwbacks” to a more idealistic time.

Villaraigosa provided the specifics and details supporting his bold plan, which includes the city’s long-overdue $100 million affordable housing trust fund. He also committed to greatly increasing the number of police on city streets, to be paid for not by the usual method of cutting social programs, but rather by steeply increasing the city’s ridiculously low garbage rates (a longtime massive public subsidy to homeowners).

Previous mayors of Los Angeles have talked about the problems in the city schools, where 70% of the students are Latino and most are first or second- generation immigrants. But Villaraigosa is taking action. Showing great political courage, Villaraigosa for the second time this year risked alienating the city’s powerful teachers union by pursuing a comprehensive power-shifting over the schools that the union has long opposed (the mayor previously picked a candidate against the union’s chosen candidate for school board, with the Villaraigosa-backed activist winning in a landslide).

Unlike the top-down power takeover of the schools that Mayor Blumberg engineered in New York City, Villaraigosa’s restructuring keeps elected officials in control. But he will have the most control, and has asked the voters to hold him accountable if his plan fails.

As immigrant’s rights has becomes the dominant and most broad-based progressive movement in America, Villaraigosa is taking the issue to the next level by fighting to educate, house and improve life conditions for a city of immigrants. His success will be felt far outside Los Angeles, and could inspire progressive solutions to urban challenges throughout America.

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