Antonio Villaraigosa

Beverly Hills Versus the Westside Subway

Gaye Williams: L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa Names New Chief of Staff

​L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa ... yawn ... announced his ... yawn ... new chief of staff ... yawn ... today. (Sort of). And if we were said jefe, one Gaye Williams, onetime deputy to Mayor Richard Riordan and an adviser to mayoral hopeful Austin Beutner, we'd be bummed that Villaraigosa's ... More >>

Toll Lanes For Urban L.A. Freeways (10, 110) See Groundbreaking Today: Will You Pay?

Mayor Villaraigosa, Mark Ridley-Thomas and Richard Katz at the groundbreaking.​Are you ready to pay to use carpool lanes, L.A? They've been a failure in terms of getting people to ride together. And the just-ended program that allowed 85,000 hybrid-car owners to purchase permits for them on ... More >>

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Gets His Wall

The Getty House: For the mayor's eyes only.​In February, we reported that L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, spooked off the Gabrielle Giffords shooting, had applied for a six-foot security wall to be erected around his "Getty House" mansion in Windsor Square. The neighborhood's homeowners ass ... More >>

Antonio Villaraigosa Does His Best Michael Bloomberg Impression on "Meet The Press"

Antonio Villaraigosa on "Meet the Press"​Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa made his debut on "Meet the Press" on Sunday, appearing in his newest incarnation as a transpartisan truth-teller.Doing his best impersonation of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Villaraigosa bashed Republicans and Democrats alik ... More >>

U.S. Conference of Mayors Picks Antonio '11 Percent' Villaraigosa to Lead Them, ah, Somewhere

​Well, the folks at the U.S. Conference of Mayors have decided to make Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa their new president -- guess they don't read the L.A. papers! It wasn't too long ago Los Angeles magazine blared the word "Failure" across his mid-section for a now famous cover, and ... More >>

Charlie Beck, L.A. Police Chief, Required to Cut $40 Million to Balance Budget, But Given No Guidance

Kyle T. Websteroops ​Today L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will receive amendments made by the City Council to his 2011-12 proposed City budget. The big issue is more than $40 million that Villaraigosa had wanted to borrow on commercial paper. That debt plan has now been trashed, and the bur ... More >>

Enemies Mark Ridley-Thomas, Bernard Parks Unite Over Metro Light-Rail Funding Along Crenshaw/LAX Route

Mark Ridley-Thomas wants Crenshaw/LAX elements worth $400 million.​Metro has the cash to build two crucial elements of its Crenshaw/LAX light-rail line, even though there's been some foot-dragging about going forward on the MTA board. The cash can be found, according a Metro analysis released ... More >>

Los Angeles: Broke and Broken

City Council clueless about vast, hidden costs in Villaraigosa's $6.9 billion budget

Does Million Trees L.A. Honcho Lisa Sarno Think Her Job Is To Help People Make Friends?

Villaraigosa aide Lisa Sarno, middle, receives an award.​It seems we struck a nerve at the Los Angeles Mayor's Office the other day when we wrote about Antonio Villaraigosa's long-suffering Million Trees LA project. The much-publicized program kicked off in 2006, and few people, if any, know ... More >>

Antonio Villaraigosa Still Hasn't Planted One Million Trees, But Is That a Good Thing?

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa​So we were just reminded about Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's "Million Trees L.A." program -- the much-heralded, but long-suffering initiative the mayor kicked off in 2006 to prove his green cred to environmentalists. It's been long-suffering in th ... More >>

Antonio Villaraigosa's 2011-2012 Budget Debate Starts Today: Can the Mayor Stop City Hall's Overspending of $52,168 an Hour?

Firing the budget proposal debate: fire safety cuts​Last week, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced his proposed 2011-12 budget, designed to stop City Hall from overspending by $1.25 million per day, or $52,168 per hour. Next, the L.A. City Council must tell Villaraigosa thumbs up or ... More >>

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Soliciting Donations to Pay For Ethics Violations Fines Related to Ticketgate

Villaraigosa and his children at the Oscars.​We likened the $42,000 in fines Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will have to pay for accepting valuable sports and entertainment tickets from folks who do business with City Hall to a light slap on the wrist. Well, it looks like the mayor will don kid g ... More >>

Mayor Villaraigosa Ribbed by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, 'Glee' Producer

FoxMayor V. vs. 'Glee.'​Wow. You know you're in low-approval-rating territory when the mayor of New York gets more love than you even when it comes to art-and-culture in your own city. That was the rap for L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa this week. After a 60 Minutes profile of local billiona ... More >>

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's 2011 'State of the City' Message: Rip Up the Teacher Union Contract if You Want School Reform

zap2itMayor Antonio Villaraigosa is a father with several grandchildren.​Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa gets major credit for two seldom-seen qualities tonight in his 2011 State of the City address: 1) He's got an attention span, focused on LAUSD's awful schools -- which constitute the ... More >>

Mayor Villaraigosa in Deal to Pay $42,000 For Accepting Free Lakers, Oscar Awards Tickets Without Reporting Them as Gifts as Required

Fox 11 NewsVillaraigosa taking in a Lakers game.​The other shoe dropped in the ticket scandal that dogged L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa last year. And it was a soft, fluffy ballet slipper. According to the Los Angeles Times, the mayor has agreed to pay $42,000 in fines to settle probes by t ... More >>

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's Failed Green Revolution: City Cuts Losses, Sells Clean Tech 'Cornerstone'

sci-arcThe mayor in October 2010, with Clean Tech architect hopefuls​Throughout his campaign, his rocky term and his innumerable trips to Washington, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has sold himself as Mother Nature's closest ally. His devotion to expanding freeway-mangled Southern Cal ... More >>

L.A. City Workers Spell Mayor Villaraigosa's Name Wrong -- For All The World to See

Villaraigosa. We think.​Rough couple years for the mayor who was at one time Latino politics' Great Brown Hope. L.A. city bankruptcy was actually a common concern among local leaders last year, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa got caught taking valuable sports and entertainment tickets from people ... More >>

Mayor Villaraigosa's Very Own Border Fence: Whatever Happened to 'Bridges Not Walls'?

This land: na'cho land​News of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's application for a six-foot security fence around his Windsor Square mansion took off quicker than a border coyote on the desert hustle last Friday, riling outrage from most and a "Who cares?" from few. In the LA Weekly's ... More >>

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Wants a Six-Foot Security Wall Erected Around His Mansion

Can we get a moat up in here, while we're at it?​The mayor is afraid. Very afraid. Much like the L.A. City Councilmembers, who quiver at the thought of potential Los Angeles Loughners with an eye on City Hall, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa believes he is in danger, and therefore needs a six-foot ... More >>

California Redevelopment Goes to Wall Street: L.A. Mayor Begs Governor Brown for Mercy, County Supervisor Calls It 'Loan Sharking'

Pretty please, Governor?​Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is intent on saving the L.A. Community Redevelopment Agency -- no matter what it takes. The mayor's latest plea to Governor Jerry Brown (who plans to ax the state's redevelopment agencies unless he's presented with a satisfactory ... More >>

L.A.'s Library Measure L

There's lots of hidden City Hall fat to fuel the 73 shuttered libraries

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Blames City's Crap Street Conditions on Ailing Bus System

When in doubt, blame it on the bus​We knew City Hall and the Metropolitan Transit System favored rail over wheel when it came to public transportation, but Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's unabashed bus diss on KNX news radio this morning almost made us choke on our flamin' hot Cheetos ... More >>

Mayor Villaraigosa's Friends, Including City-NFL-Stadium Deal Hopeful Anschutz Corp., Aim $1 Mil at his School Board Picks

Mayor V's candidates get $1 million in support.​L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wants to keep his grip on the L.A. school board, and he's got some friends in high places helping him out. One of those friends, the Anshutz Corp., has given $100,000 to the Coalition for School Reform, a committe ... More >>

Governor Jerry Brown Gives California Mayors (Including Villaraigosa) Stern Talking-to Over Sneaky Redevelopment Agencies

daylife.comThe L.A. Mayor and Governor Brown​California's redevelopment agencies (RDAs) are becoming the total superstars of the budget crisis. Sure, higher education is getting totally screwed and Medi-Cal is all but lost to the wind in Governor Jerry Brown's stingy fiscal proposal, but his ... More >>

The Wave's Betty Pleasant Says Villaraigosa Administration 'Rife With Anti-Black Racism'

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa​The Los Angeles Wave's Betty Pleasant, a longtime columnist who knows how to shake things up, dropped one of her signature bombs last night, charging that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's administration is "rife with anti-Black racism." Pleasant wrote ... More >>

Maria Elena Durazo and Richard Riordan Lead Mixed Coalition on Measure L, To Save Los Angeles' Shuttered Libraries

Villaraigosa and the L.A. City Council still sit on millions of dollars in personal fat.​Finally, a big coalition is urging approval of Measure L on the March 8 ballot, which would save the decimated Los Angeles public library system from anti-library Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who, as mentio ... More >>

L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa Was Made Aware Of Downtown NFL Stadium Plans In March, 2009

One vision for a downtown NFL stadium.​Why are we not surprised? Turns out a memo to L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa proves that he was made aware of a downtown stadium proposal as early as March 2009. Journalist Ron Kaye, who unearthed the document, is calling it "Antonio's Dirty Little Secre ... More >>

Reform At Corrupt L.A. Department Of Water And Power Takes Another Step Backward, With Help Of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa

PHOTO BY TED SOQUIThe mayor is in Chicago today -- a fitting host for his Chicago politics​Updated after the jump: Will there be enough council strength to override the mayor's veto next Wednesday? Originally posted on Dec. 8 at 12:30 p.m. Given the amount of time and talk devoted to the Los ... More >>

'Parent Trigger' Supporters Face Intimidation Tactics in School Reform Battle in Compton, Antonio Villaraigosa Jumps into Fray

Ted SoquiMcKinley Elementary School in Compton​UPDATE: L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says school reform in Compton "isn't about pointing fingers or dragging our feet." More comments from Villaraigosa after break. First reported at 7 a.m. As expected, the battle over control of McKinley Ele ... More >>

L.A. Has a Jammed 2011 Ballot

Residents will be asked to rein in DWP, save libraries from Villaraigosa's pen

Antonio Villaraigosa shames L.A., slamming the California Citizens Redistricting Commission

Villaraigosa's top L.A. redistricting consultants ​Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa embarrassingly complained that no L.A. resident has a shot at today's lottery in which eight Californians will be picked for the commission that draws up the state's voting districts. The lottery live-streams at We D ... More >>

Rushed and Confused L.A. City Council

Library, weed, DWP measures aimed for ballot all get short shrift

Ever the Slick Salesman, Antonio Villaraigosa Turned to Twitter to Combat Opponents of Subway to Sea

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa​At the Metropolitan Transportation Authority meeting yesterday, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wasn't taking any chances that his legacy project -- Subway to the Sea, or maybe we should start calling it "Subway to Westwood" -- might somehow be, uh, dera ... More >>

Subway to Sea: Antonio Villaraigosa Still Boasts Rail Line Will Fix Gridlock

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa​Hyped by Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe as a "historic" vote, Metropolitan Transportation Authority board members only approved a draft environmental impact report for the Subway to the Sea that still needs a lot of ironing out over the next several mo ... More >>

Mayor Villaraigosa Aims For School-Bus Crash Headlines In Boyle Heights

Mayor V. with President Obama.​That fatal collision involving a school bus in Boyle Heights provided too many television news cameras for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to pass up. Late Monday afternoon he seemed to be there just behind the ambulances. And on Tuesday morning he will c ... More >>

Was Public Comment Period for Subway to Sea a Sham? MTA Staff Suggests Route Before Citizens Fully Weigh In

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa​Metropolitan Transportation Authority staffers have recommended a route for the Westside subway extension, also known as Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's legacy project called Subway to the Sea, LAist reports. Some communities will be less than please ... More >>

Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa All A-Twitter About Meeting With President Obama

CNNVillaraigsa, at right, eyeing that podium. ​Guess what our publicity shy mayor was doing Monday. Go ahead, take a guess. That's right, he was meeting with President Obama, jocking Barack for federal cash so he can get his "Subway to the Sea" down Wilshire Boulevard in 10 years instead of th ... More >>

Will President Barack Obama Be Duped Into Backing Subway To Sea? Antonio Villaraigosa's in D.C., Again, Seeking Money

President Barack Obama with L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa​Will President Barack Obama ask Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa about a recent Metropolitan Transportation Authority environmental impact report at a face-to-face meeting at the White House today? The one that showed Villaraig ... More >>

CicLAvia Los Angeles Is A Facebook Environmental Bicycling Dessert-Chomping Mashup, So Just Go

Doesn't have to be a bike​At first Ciclavia looked like a lame "million trees" idea from Antonio Villaraigosa, but the bicycling community breathed big-time life into it. The city is closing 7.5 miles of Los Angeles streets, Sunday 10-3, for bicycling and walking. Get off your butts and go! Here ... More >>

'Mayor Suave' Villaraigosa Is Finally Divorced From Corina Raigosa

Fox 11 NewsMayor Villaraigosa and Lu Parker attend a game.​Did you know that for the past three years we've had a mayor who has been -- as our grandmother used to say -- "living in sin!" Well no longer: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's divorce from Corina Raigosa was finalized this week. Actually ... More >>

Should Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Get All Up In The Los Angeles Fire Department's Day-To-Day Business?

LAFD​Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wants 51 assistants of Los Angeles fire commanders to get on the front lines and fight fires as a result of the city's tight budget situation. After LA Weekly's own Patrick Range McDonald suggested that the mayor should maybe offer 51 of his own 200-plus staffe ... More >>

Will L.A. Fire Chief Millage Peaks Have the Cojones to Demand Antonio Villaraigosa's Staffers Fill Potholes?

Kyle T. WebsterL.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa​Yet another budgetary dust up is developing at Los Angeles City Hall this week, this time involving Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Los Angeles Fire Department brass, whose 51 assistants may have to hit the streets to help fight fires due to a may ... More >>

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Gets Just 4 Votes As 'Super' Mayor, 1,799 As 'Dismal' or 'Poor' in L.A. Daily News Poll

Stewart James via Flickr​It's hard to find a bigger contrast in L.A. than the smile on Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's face and the frown Angelenos have been giving him. He's said he's "at a great place" thanks to yoga, his girlfriend and his diet. As things have gotten worse -- a budget crises ... More >>

Mayor Villaraigosa's Bike-Ride Pipe Dream Will Close Down 7 Miles Of City Streets For A Day

Mayor V. on his bike.​If you were mad about the traffic trauma created by President Obama's Westside visit last month, if the annual Los Angeles Marathon's street closures raise your blood pressure, or if you're simply tired of being passed by bicyclists as you crawl down Wilshire Boulevard, b ... More >>

Antonio Villaraigosa and L.A. City Council, Badly Slimed for Airhead Library Cuts, Get a Solution -- They'll Probably Ignore

Ted SoquiDemonstrators at a recent rally where budget cuts to the L.A. Public Library system were denounced​Almost certainly prompted by queries from L.A. Weekly as it gathered info for its blockbuster story "City of Airheads," council members Tom LaBonge and Janice Hahn are asking for a dela ... More >>

Antonio Villaraigosa ticket scandal: Fair Political Practices Commission orders thousands of California politicians to post freebies on Internet to fight corruption

Now I see the light.​Thanks to Antonio Villaraigosa's practice of ignoring anti-corruption laws, angling for $50,000 to $100,000 in freebies, then failing to tell the City Ethics Commission, the Fair Political Practices Commission has just enacted a strict rule forcing California politicians ... More >>

Deputy Mayor Austin Beutner Being Floated As Possible L.A. Mayoral Candidate

​With little political or policy background businessman Austin Beutner has gotten some plum leadership assignments within the administration of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, including interim chief of the powerful Department of Water and Power. His name is now being floated as a poss ... More >>

Villaraigosa Praises New Ethics Commission Limits On Ticket Taking (So Long As They Don't Apply To The Past, Right?)

​That Antonio Villaraigosa, he's a wily one. After the city Ethics Commission voted to prohibit elected officials from accepting valuable tickets to sports and entertainment events so they could undertake so-called official duties (and we emphasize the sound of "duty"), the mayor said late Tue ... More >>