The Mayor Looks Back on A Rough Year, Thinks It's Great

Villaraigosa's optimism flies in the face of the problems many see on the horizon, but he remains convinced only better days are ahead.As he looks back over the past year, Villaraigosa sees successes dating back to November 2008 with Measure R, the half-cent sales tax for public transit, and his efforts to prevent the state from taking more gas tax and sales tax funds from cities. Also, the city's youth jobs program has more than quadrupled to 16,000 young people, while crime - particularly gang crime - remains at historic low levels and reforms he has long sought at the Los Angeles Unified School District are beginning. His much-vaunted plans for a Subway to the Sea are finally being developed as he pushes to accelerate federal funding. "I think we made 14 or 15 trips back to Washington and it paid off," Villaraigosa said. "We got more than $430 million in stimulus dollars and were able to make the case for cities and make the case for Los Angeles. No one else was speaking out for the cities." And his lobbying in Sacramento prevented the state Legislature from raiding the gas tax fund, which would have meant a loss of $168 million more from the city.