Going to great lengths to talk to the mayor
DALLAS — I was having trouble getting the mayor's attention in Los Angeles, so on Sunday I headed to where I figured he'd be a little more accessible.
Over the last two months, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has been on Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign trail more than a quarter of the time, as my colleague Duke Helfand reported. Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and, over the weekend, Texas.
When I landed in Dallas, I called Clinton's local headquarters and was told I'd find our mayor at an event in Fort Worth. Driving west in my rental car, I had time to think about all the things I wanted to catch up on with Villaraigosa.
If we allow ever-denser development when there's no money for transit, isn't the gridlocked city doomed?
What's the point of controlling the school board if you don't order it to get rid of a superintendent who rates a C-minus on his better days?
And then there's the matter of Clinton, who hasn't exactly been on a winning streak lately. Does he think Latinos will support an African American nominee if she goes down in flames?
All good stuff to talk about. But I get the sense the mayor has held a grudge since my columns last summer about his unspectacular record as mayor. Maybe I shouldn't have suggested that his secret romance with a TV personality was distracting him from his duties. But out here on the campaign trail, 1,200 miles from home, I thought we might get a chance to bury the hatchet and have a good chat.
Unfortunately, the mayor had already come and gone when I got to Fort Worth. A Clinton volunteer said if I hurried I might be able to catch him at Clinton's Dallas office, where he was scheduled to meet with precinct captains. I hit the gas and headed east to a little bungalow off the highway near downtown Dallas.
To be honest, I was a little surprised Villaraigosa didn't call off this latest trip. I know Clinton has relied on him to help turn out the critical Latino vote, but that horrific shooting at a South-Central bus stop near a school last week -- of the eight victims, five were children -- happened just two days before the mayor left town Friday.
The bus shootings followed a recent string of mayhem, including the Feb. 7 killing of SWAT Officer Randal Simmons and the Avenues gang shootout in Glassell Park.
Don't I recall the mayor saying that fixing the city's disjointed and ineffective handling of gangs would be a priority for him?
