Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's address Monday evening was his third State of the City report since he took office -- and the first speech of his 2009 reelection campaign.
The heart of Villaraigosa's address was the outline of a smart new approach to the gang problem, one that has the potential to bring focus and, equally important, accountability to the city's treatment of this critical public safety issue. There's a lot to admire about that section of the mayor's speech, which is all the more impressive because it builds on insights generated elsewhere in city government -- a comprehensive report to the City Council by civil rights attorney Connie Rice and her associates, and a proposal by Controller Laura Chick that all civic gang programs be centralized in the mayor's office.
Villaraigosa knows good ideas when he sees them, but he was in a position to capitalize on their recommendations because he'd had the foresight to hire a deputy mayor, Jeff Carr, to head his Office of Gang Reduction and Youth Development. Carr already has earned high marks from many of the city's most effective anti-gang workers, and it's safe to say that Carr's influence was evident in the mayor's praise for programs like Baldwin Village's extended-hours recreation center. Similarly, Villaraigosa's decision to increase the city's Gang Reduction Zones from eight to 12 expands a concept -- putting resources, cops and programs where gang activity is the heaviest -- that has shown long-term results in other cities.
Most important, the mayor demonstrated his commitment to the gang issue by increasing funding for anti-gang initiatives from $19 million to $24 million. That may not sound like a lot, but in a year of budgetary crisis and proposed fee hikes on electricity and trash collection, it's the equivalent of giving a quart of political blood.
Still, the centrality of the gang problem in Villaraigosa's State of the City address points to both the promise and paradox of his mayoral administration and to the ambiguous record he'll carry into the next campaign.
It's no accident that the mayor delivered his speech at the Police Department's Parker Center headquarters. Improved public safety is the Villaraigosa administration's big success. "When you don't have safe streets, everything falls apart," he said Monday. "Public safety is the foundation of everything we are trying to build in the city of Los Angeles."
