Platform:  Quality Of Life

Here’s how your next mayor can improve your quality of life in Los Angeles.

1. 1.    Your Mayor Should Work Full-Time
   

The City Charter requires the Mayor and City Council Members to “devote their entire time to duties related to their offices.”  If elected, that’s exactly what I will do.  Unlike the current Mayor, I will not squander $200,000 of your money each year on travel -- ten times more than the previous mayor -- nor will I pose for an endless series of photo-ops. 

For a great article on how Villaraigosa spends his time, click here.  The L.A. Weekly reviewed his calendar and estimates he spends only 11% of his time actually doing his job here in our city.

2. 2.    Your Mayor Should Be Qualified To Protect Your Rights And Interests

   

   
   

I’ve been a business trial lawyer for over 20 years, and I’m a licensed real estate broker.  I graduated with honors from Princeton and Georgetown Law, was an Editor of the Georgetown Law Journal and have a degree in Public and International Affairs.  I’ve spent years catching men in suits lying about spending other people’s money.  Can you think of a better skill set to clean up City Hall?  Villaraigosa, by contrast, attended an unaccredited law school; never passed the bar, despite four attempts; and has apparently never even worked for a business.  

3. 3.Your Mayor Should Make Every Neighborhood A Safe Neighborhood
   

The Number One budget priority must be to hire 3000 additional police immediately -- the number Chief Bratton says he needs to make L.A. “the safest city in America.”  Crime has dropped throughout Southern California since the 1990’s due to various factors (e.g., the three-strikes laws

and changing demographics).  But it has not dropped nearly enough in our city.  Right now, gangs control our streets.  We must take back control of ours streets, so every neighborhood is a safe place to live, work, walk, play, shop and raise a family.  That is non-negotiable. 

We must, moreover, let our police enforce our laws.  U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein issued a report estimating that 80% of L.A.’s notorious “18th Street gang” members “are illegal aliens from Mexico and Central America.”  City Hall, however, actually prohibits our police from investigating violations of immigration laws.  We must end that prohibition.  We must stop requiring our police to “look the other way.”  That’s why I drafted Jamiel’s Law, which would require the Mayor and Police Chief to investigate and arrest gang members for immigration law violations before they commit violent crimes, not after. The City should team up with the federal law enforcement, pursuant to Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, to enforce our nation’s immigration laws. This approach is already working in such places as North Carolina.  It can work here, too.

4. 4.Your Mayor Should Raise Your Standard Of Living, Not Lower It To Accommodate People Who Want To Move Here
   

You have no legal or moral duty to lower your standard of living to accommodate the millions of people around the world who want to move into our city.  We need a Mayor who will make our City more beautiful, not more crowded.  We need a Mayor who will preserve the L.A. we love, not tear it down and replace it with giant “beehive” apartments that blot out the sunshine.  Density is not destiny.  It is a choice -- the wrong choice. 

We also need a Mayor who will fight illegal immigration, not aid and abet it.  This is America.  When you call City Hall, you should never have to “press 1 for English.”  Our city should be a sanctuary for Americans and legal aliens, not for illegal aliens who flout our laws.  Special Order 40 and other policies that promote illegal immigration must end. 

Our next Mayor, moreover, needs to make Los Angeles an attractive place to do business.  We need to attract good employers.  We cannot afford to keep losing jobs to Nevada, Arizona, Texas, China and the many other locations to which our employers have fled.

5. 5.    Your Mayor Should Never Spend Your Money On “Welfare For The Rich”

   

   
   

Villaraigosa and the City Council give hundreds of millions of dollars of your tax money, every single year, to downtown developers and other special interests who contribute to their campaigns.  Besides cash, the career politicians give their well-to-do benefactors below-market “loans,” below-market “sales” of public land, and special tax breaks.  I would never do that.  If developers or other companies want your money, they should ask you to invest, and promise you some kind of return.  Right now, they simply take your money by “buying” career politicians at City Hall, and give you nothing in return.  That’s just wrong.

6. 6.    Your Mayor Should Never Squander Your Money

   

   
   

Villaraigosa and the City Council squander your money on ridiculous boondoggles, as detailed on my “Spreadsheet of Shame” page (e.g., classes for employees on sphincter-control and lactation).  I won’t waste your money.  I know how hard you work for every dollar.  I know you want a Mayor who spends your tax money as if you were there, looking over his shoulder.

7. 7.    Your Mayor Should Strive To Lower, Not Raise, Your Tax Burden

   

   
   

In his historic acceptance speech on August 28, 2008, Senator Barack Obama explained why he wants to cut taxes for 95% of America’s households:  “Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class.”  Obama’s observation is especially apt here, because the City of Los Angeles has higher taxes than any other city in our county, some of the highest in the nation.  This has driven away, and continues to drive away, good jobs.  The median income in our city is lower than in the county.  And our city’s after-tax median income has been dropping since 2001.  The City takes in more than enough money to pay for all legitimate programs, more money than ever in its history -- over $7 billion per year -- and has more employees than ever.  Villaraigosa and the City Council, however, are always trying to raise your taxes even higher.  I will fight to reduce your tax burden.  I will never ask you to pay more than you do already.  On the contrary, I intend to reduce your burden through tax cuts and rebates.  We need affordable taxes.

8. 8.Your Mayor Should Treat People Fairly And Equally, Not “Rob Peter To Pay Paul”
   

City Hall should treat all citizens alike, and all companies alike.  City Hall should not “take sides” by,

for example, requiring some businesses to pay higher salaries or taxes than others, or requiring you to pay more for your house or condo so that someone else can pay less.  You should always have the freedom to negotiate the best deal you can for yourself, without City Hall giving the other guy some unfair advantage.  Prices should be determined by the law of supply and demand, not laws passed by career politicians to “stack the deck” in favor of their contributors.

9. 9.Your Mayor Should Have Practical, Specific Proposals To Deal With Traffic
   

We need gridlock solved yesterday, not 10 years from now.  Villaraigosa’s “plan” to spend billions of dollars building a 12-mile subway extension under Wilshire will cost too much, take too long, and

deliver too little.  Here are three steps we should take to end gridlock throughout the city:   First, we need to move parking places off main streets and into off-street parking structures -- ideally underground with parks on top.  Second, we need to make it easier for people to live closer to work (e.g., by allowing conversion of the upper floors of office buildings to residential for people who work nearby, and providing Prop 13-like property tax rebates for people who move closer to work).  Finally, we need to replicate the “red cars” mass transit system, but using bus rapid transit (BRT) rather than light rail.  We can’t afford to spend more time stuck in traffic. 

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People who’ve lived here a long time know that Los Angeles used to be a great place to live and do business.  It can be again.  It can be better than ever.  But we must stop letting career politicians run City Hall.  It’s time to shake things up.  Send me to City Hall, and I’ll “clean house” and get our city back on track.  We can fix this city, but only if you take action to make it happen.  Contribute today.