Don't Let L.A. Be the GM of Cities
Antonio Villaraigosa's mayoral victory drew a lot of national attention as a symbol of rising Latino political power. But the analysis stopped there. Few people across the country -- or here at home for that matter -- took the opportunity to talk about the global significance of governing a city as huge as Los Angeles.
According to United Nations experts, the next few months will mark a momentous shift: For the first time in history, a majority of the planet's population will be living in cities.
This isn't just a demographic milestone, it's a revolution. A century ago, just one in seven of the world's people lived in cities. Within 20 years, that number will rise to four of every seven humans.
During that time, according to the U.N., the population will increase by 2.2 billion, a startling 95% of whom will live in cities.
Most of the biggest headline issues in the U.S. (AIDS, terrorism, poverty, failing schools) are now urban issues.
Los Angeles is only the 37th largest city in the world, behind many "mega-cities" you would never guess, such as Bogor, Indonesia, and Pusan, South Korea. Yet L.A. is unquestionably one of the most visible and significant of global cities. It's the second-largest city in America; it's not just the movie capital of the planet but, more important, the mother of all sprawl.
L.A. scarcely escaped being divided into smaller pieces in recent years. First, when the San Fernando Valley threatened to secede. Then the issue resurfaced in the push to break up the Los Angeles Unified School District by mayoral candidate Bob Hertzberg, who barely missed making it to the run-off election.
Voters have given Villaraigosa an opportunity to prove Los Angeles can work. He brings charisma, political savvy and a broad-based mandate. These certainly help. Mexico City's Manuel Lopez Obrador, London's Ken Livingstone and Paris' Bertrand Delanoe have all shown the positive effect that energetic and visionary mayors can make in mega-cities. But as we've seen time and again, the scale of mega-city challenges can dwarf even the most outsized personality.
Consider these statistics: The city of Los Angeles has a $6-billion budget and 22,000 employees -- not including the port, airport and Department of Water and Power. When it comes to enhancing both the quality of life and standard of living of the nearly 4 million people who live here, Los Angeles is a textbook case for forging a more effective way to manage public resources in the 21st century.
