LA City Elections 2013: Mayoral Candidate Eric Garcetti Gives First Major “Policy” Speech on his Vision for Los Angeles

This past Thursday Councilmember Eric Garcetti gave what LA Observed called “his first major speech as a candidate for mayor” at Los Angeles City College in East Hollywood.

The LA Times’s take (emphasis mine):

In one of the first major policy speeches in a mayoral campaign that so far has been dominated by fundraising pitches, Los Angeles City Councilman Eric Garcetti laid out a plan to create jobs and reform a City Hall system he called "broken."

[snip]

Speaking to a crowd of about 200 at Los Angeles City College on Thursday, Garcetti pledged to bring computer programming classes to schools and to create an office that would partner with universities to encourage entrepreneurial graduates to stay in the city.

And here’s the report from the LA Weekly (emphasis mine):

Garcetti spoke in broad themes, and offered relatively little in the way of concrete proposals. He did, however, signal that he will distance himself from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, saying that he will force all of the mayor's department heads to reapply for their jobs.

[snip]

Garcetti vowed to evaluate City Hall staffers based on a concrete metric: "the number of jobs you create." He did not, however, give a jobs figure by which his own performance could be judged.

He also did not say how he would address the city's persistent deficits, saying only that the debate about cuts and tax increases is "wrong."

So Garcetti has a vision. His vision is nice and all - full of the requisite platitudes and promises – but essentially no different than what has been said by the other candidates for Mayor. So where is Garcetti’s actual plan? You know: The set of policies and initiatives that he would fund and implement as Mayor in order to create jobs, reform City Hall, and do all those other things he says he wants to do. Yes it is early in the race, but it is never too early for candidates to lay out where they stand, where they want to go, and how they intend to get there. Having a vision is great, but having a plan is better.

The Primary Nominating Election for Mayor will be held on Tuesday, March 5, 2013.

Postscript: Don’t bother checking Garcetti’s campaign website for any insight on what he plans to do as the website does not have “policy”, “platform”, or “issues” pages, so there is nothing there to give you any real indication on how he plans to address the challenges facing Los Angeles.