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Villaraigosa blames LA traffic on George Bush

by Jill Stewart

June 27, 2008 11:48 AM

You can tell it's going to be The Silly Season in Los Angeles, from now to November, when Antonio Villaraigosa, whose growth-at-any-cost development beliefs have added tens of thousands of crowded new apartments to this overbuilt city, blames L.A.'s attention-getting traffic on the War in Iraq.

Yep. He actually told Steve Hymon, that highly readable guy over at the L.A. Times, that voters need to approve a big, fat sales tax increase in November to build more mass transit, particularly since the White House isn't investing in infrastructure because "we're a nation at war."

The mayor's dissembling and buck-passing was bizarre for two reasons.

First, federal transit funds have been tight historically. It has not mattered very much if the president is a Clinton or a Bush. Traffic has exploded in direct proportion to Villaraigosa's anything-goes approval of dense apartments that are turning L.A. into a city of highly transient renters, who understandably refuse to use Metro buses that crawl at 11 miles per hour and rail lines to nowhere.

But second, his awkward buck-passing made it clear that Villaraigosa's top aides, like his Hummer-driving transportation chief Jaime de la Vega, failed to prep the heavily scripted mayor about the headlines this week in newspapers nationwide:

The House, yesterday, as expected, approved a record, bipartisan boost in transit funding by a lopsided vote of 322-98. It marks the first time in history that the feds plan to help out on operating costs for local transit agencies. Villaraigosa doesn't know this?

A record increase -- gee, even while we are at war. The funds will pile $1.7 billion more onto an already record $10 billion approved by Congress for local transit last year -- gee, even while we are at war.

California is slated to get $266 million of the funds the House voted to add this week, but here's the catch:

L.A.'s wanderlust Mayor Villaraigosa, who has barely been on the job in 2008 as he first campaigned for Hillary, then took a pointless trip to Israel, and now is letting neighborhoods go to hell and trash pile up while he fund-raises for his distant reelection race, has proved to be awful at fighting for money due back to Los Angeles and its taxpayers.

If things go as usual under Villaraigosa, who is also a top leader on the MTA Board, L.A. will do very poorly in grabbing at that $266 million. As is often the case, the Bay Area and smaller counties and cities -- places with smart leaders who stay in town, do their jobs, and aren't out constantly fund-raising for themselves -- will get a much bigger share per capita.

The big question is, who will Villaraigosa blame for gridlock on Wilshire Boulevard after Prez Obama pulls us out of Iraq?

Tags: broken window syndrome, congress, density, george w. bush, Iraq, MTA, nunez, sales tax, smart growth, taxes, traffic, trash, villaraigosa

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There are 4 comments posted for this article.

IF, Barry becomes the next president, guaranteed he doesn't pull us out of Iraq. He'll pull some troops, but we still will be there for quite some time.

Posted on June 27, 2008 2:16 PM by Reggie Foo

Talk about the Mayor and his Hummer-driving Transpo Chief Jaime de la Vega not being good at fighting Sacto for LA's share of Transportation funds: last year when the state couldn't balance its budget and admitted they're as screwed up as our city, Arnold as a last resort swiped L A's $1.2 billion surplus gas tax. Turns out the no one in the Mayor's office knew about it (to be fair, there was no peep from the local media or transit-promoting orgs like Transit Coalition, either). Zev in a public discussion later caught de la Vega being totally ignorant about that major theft, and chewed him out for it. Seeing as no one made any noise, Arnold just announced he's taking another $800 million in L A's surplus gas taxes which we paid towards Transportation. Again, no peep from anywhere. So now they're supposed to fight for our share of $277 million? Like you say elsewhere, Henry Waxman (and Zev himself) whose provincial myopia got us into this mess of being decades behind every other major city when it comes to mass transit, is utterly useless, too. We need someone who's making noise, screaming about the westside having among the top five worst traffic intersections in the country and having gotten no real funding in 25 years. To give credit where it's due, at least the Mayor is making noise now -- where were Hahn and Bradley when it mattered and our economy was stronger, and costs were a fraction? We've had Transpo nitwits for decades, frankly.

Posted on June 30, 2008 8:29 PM by jeff

"The big question is, who will Villaraigosa blame for gridlock on Wilshire Boulevard after Prez Obama pulls us out of Iraq?"

I bet it'll be either the Minutemen or Lou Dobbs.

Posted on July 2, 2008 8:04 PM by Pete

Yes, "rail lines to nowhere". Such are cheap words by a cheap journo who has shown her (reactionary) cheapness in spades ever since her days with the L.A. Times.

Posted on July 5, 2008 10:43 PM by John Crandell