The Architect

Should Villaraigosa be elected mayor next week, he may have more occasion to miss Contreras, professionally, than anyone else in town. A Villaraigosa-Contreras combo would have brought together a progressive mayor with an organized progressive base, something no other American city can really claim. That base is still there, of course, but the man who shaped it into a coherent force is abruptly gone.

Whatever the course of a Villaraigosa administration, the very election in Los Angeles of a liberal Latino labor activist as mayor would signal a civic transformation that is almost mind-boggling. For that, the ebullient, funny, and absolutely brilliant leader of L.A. labor for the past decade deserves the lion’s share of credit. But the hard part is just beginning. For a city in the midst of so profound a reinvention to succeed, it needs above all a Miguel Contreras. Dammit, amigo, what a great and historic life you led, and what terrible time for you to die.