Antonio Villaraigosa
Antonio Villaraigosa
Antonio Ramón Villaraigosais an American politician who served as the 41st Mayor of Los Angeles, California. Prior to being elected Mayor, he was a member of the California State Assembly, the Democratic leader of the Assembly, and the Speaker of the California State Assembly. After being termed out of the State Assembly, he was elected to the Los Angeles City Counciland served until he was elected Mayor...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth23 January 1953
CityCity Terrace, CA
CountryUnited States of America
I'm unabashedly a progressive, but I'm not a knee-jerk, either,
Great cities grow and prosper together, ... But for far too long, neighborhoods in need all across Los Angeles have been left behind. My appointees to the CRA commission bring the breadth and depth of experience needed to aggressively move important projects forward to revitalize our neighborhoods, bringing back economic development, jobs and housing.
It's a deal they can't refuse. Los Angeles makes the absolute best sense.
It's going to be a very close election. You won't hear me talk about how we have it in the bag. I think turnout is going to be the key, and I expect turnout is going to be great.
These kids right here, they're going to be mayors and governors and lawyers and artists and social workers and actors. And you're going to reach for the stars, right? You're going to follow your dreams, right?
The events around Hurricane Katrina, the images, showed America a very dark underbelly of race and class, and all of us should be concerned by what we saw there, ... But in many ways, what we saw there, you could easily see here in the city of Los Angeles, and in Chicago and New York.
I think the people I met in the course of this campaign realize that those commercials frankly are not reflective of who I am, who I've been and how I'll serve the city of Los Angeles.
For Los Angeles, it's an opportunity for us to showcase that you can come from every corner of the earth and live together in harmony and peace and make it in America,
Because we believe that you got to build the economy from middle out and not from the top down.
Look, I'm a grown-up, I know people do things out of self-interest and opportunism. I'm going to have to work with people who weren't with me.
I'm here not just for the unions, I'm here for the working families, for the children in this state who understand workers need a voice,
We come to work, we come for a better life, we come to participate in the American dream.