Mayor Eric Garcetti this week signed the City of Los Angeles budget for the fiscal year 2021 – 22 , which could be the last of his term, if the news is confirmed that President Biden will nominate him as US ambassador to India.
Real America News consulted experts on the subject and activists on the legacy of the mayor of Los Angeles if he leaves office, prematurely, to assume diplomatic functions.
Garcetti was elected mayor in 2013. In 2017 he was reelected. Due to changes in the electoral calendar, his second term will last a year and a half more, and not four as normally happens. According to these settings, his term of office ends on 12 from December to 2022.
Let’s remember that he won the municipal presidency, promising to end chronic homelessness and building accessible housing.
But almost 8 years after taking office, the levels of homelessness have skyrocketed to alarming levels, gentrification – the displacement of working families from their buildings to build condominiums for the upper class – has accelerated by leaps and bounds, and insecurity has increased in the last year.
A budget for justice?
Chamba Sánchez, a political science professor at Los Angeles Community Colleges, says Mayor Eric Garcetti’s spending plan for $ 11, 200 million is considered by the mayor himself and the councilors as a budget for justice.
“It is an unprecedented budget. The mayor is allocating almost $ 1, 000 millions to solve the problem of homelessness. And after all the scandal that it was stopping funding the police, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) budget was increased compared to last year. ”
Of course, says the professor, the mayor was thinking about his legacy when he signed what he describes as a brave budget. “He is leaving office to join the Biden administration and wants to appear as a concerned and progressive leader who leaves all the resources necessary to address the overwhelming challenges of the city.”
However, he maintains that that will not do. “ People will always remember Mayor Garcetti as an unstable leader who lacked the courage and convictions to make the tough decisions ”.
He states that he was great in his vision, but small in detailing his plans for action.
“You have been good at rationalizing problems, but you have lacked the sharpness and ability to hire people who could have helped you identify suitable viable solutions. ”
Mayor Garcetti – he says – likes to be the smartest man in the room, and never had a person on his team that could challenge his vision for him to come up with better solutions.
“ When Angelenos think of Eric Garcetti as their mayor, the crisis of homelessness will come to their minds immediately. ”
Tried but failed
Activist Ron Gochez says that unfortunately the mayor will not leave the city at a good time. “Homelessness and poverty worsened during his rule. So his legacy will be the gentrification he supported since he was a Hollywood councilor. ”
Currently, it is impossible for the class hardworking woman buying a house in Los Angeles. “It is not within their reach and the rents are excessive.”
Góchez says that he understands that it is very limited, which a single individual, in this case, a mayor. “ I think he tried, but couldn’t. The only thing left for us as a community is to organize, defend ourselves and pressure so that gentrification does not continue ”.
Lupita González, tenant organizer for the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, says gentrification started 20 years, but intensified from 2013.
In spite of everything, he acknowledges that Garcetti has supported the tenants by postponing lawsuits against those who are behind in the payment of the rent of the houses, up to 12 months after the health crisis is declared over.
“He also gave some financial help last year to pay the rent. It wasn’t enough, but it did. Nobody was ready for the pandemic. ”
And he considers that the gentrification process is not the responsibility of the mayor but of the commission that approves the construction and real estate developers who remove tenants under intimidation tactics.
“ I would give Mayor Garcetti an 8 rating because the only way for the rulers to listen to us and stop the unscrupulous practices against tenants is for the community to go out and vote, organize and put pressure ”.
Summarize by saying that we have to work with the mayor turn in the issues that affect us and not wait for problems to pass us to leave apathy. “The problem is that we are not participating.”
Lack of leadership
Luis Alvarado, a Republican consultant, maintains that Mayor Garcetti demonstrated his ability to do nothing great and escape unscathed due to his ineptitude. “Everything he has done is just mirror tricks to deceive us and make us believe that he does great things.”
He affirms that his administration has Noted for his lack of leadership and not going up against Sacramento Democratic leaders to propose mental health reforms as is the case for the homeless. “He only proposed band-aids and homelessness, the main problem that he said he was going to solve, is becoming more serious every day. The rents are very high and buying a home is impossible for working people. ”
In short, during his government, the gap between rich and poor widened because he was not able to be an advocate for the people who needed to help . “Not to mention that he had problems both as Black Lives Matter and with the Police Union.”
Juan José Gutiérrez, leader of the pro-immigrant organization One Stop Immigration, says Mayor Garcetti gave mixed results to the Los Angeles migrant community.
“It’s admirable that he always showed his support for immigrants and was on their side in their struggles, but in practice he created an Office for Immigrant Affairs that only had a letterhead role. ”
At first, he put in charge an academic who, although she was an Ecuadorian immigrant, was totally disconnected from the reality of immigrants and was very bureaucratic. “What is worse, it ignored organizations such as One Stop Immigration that leads 50 years working with immigrants in Los Angeles, as well as many others such as Hermandad Mexicana and some more that look after the interests of Central Americans. ”
In conclusion, Gutiérrez says that Garcetti supported immigrants in his speech. But “in practice it was never clear that they were a priority.”