Antonio villaraigosa biography early life

Villaraigosa also created the Homeland Security Advisors, a group of approximately 40 leaders. The panel planned for such issues as counter-terrorism measures, evacuation planning and emergency preparedness. Villaraigosa vowed to hire 1, new police officers. Gang homicides were down more than 24 percent in In fact, crime fell by 43 percent across California between and Karmen stated that, adjusting for population, the Los Angeles murder rate would need to be or less to be equivalent to the crime rate of , with its rate of homicides per 2.

McDonald further noted that, "In , 89 percent of homicides were cleared. Today, if you kill another human being in Los Angeles, chances are very good you will get away with it: 43 out of every killers are not caught. Today, that number is 26 percent. In his first State of the City address, he announced his intention to assume full control of the LAUSD, through a bill passed by the state legislature.

The biggest issue during the Mayoral election of was public education. Because he campaigned and won on the issue of education, [ 44 ] Villaraigosa sought the legal authority to do so through AB AB was passed by the state legislature and signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. On December 21, , AB was ruled unconstitutional. In response, Villaraigosa founded a non-profit entity called the Mayor's Partnership for Los Angeles Schools to take control of the district's lowest-performing schools and transform them into high-performing schools.

Though schools in the Partnership were among the lowest performing in the district, they eventually made the largest gains in the state based on California's Annual Performance Index measure, and are now considered among the best performing urban schools in the state. In June , teachers at eight of the ten campuses cast a vote of "no confidence" in the Partnership.

The Partnership includes a program for parents called the "Partnership's Parent College. In his final state of the City speech as Mayor of Los Angeles, Villaraigosa reiterated his commitment to education reform and expressed concern that the other Mayoral candidates did not share the same commitment to education in Los Angeles. In January , Villaraigosa appeared before a coalition of animal rights activists and pledged that, if elected, he would implement a no-kill policy for Animal Services and fire General Manager Guerdon Stuckey, an appointee of former Mayor Hahn.

Animal activists had expressed doubts regarding Stuckey's ability to lead the Department of Animal Service since his appointment, primarily citing his lack of experience. Villaraigosa also campaigned last fall for two education bond measures that will increase the size of property tax bills over the next decade. In April , Villaraigosa set aside a large parcel of industrial land around the Los Angeles River to create a " clean technology corridor.

Villaraigosa played a critical role in establishing the LA Cleantech Incubator and voiced his support for the organization during the night of their opening. Also in attendance were Mrs. Ethel Bradley, daughter Lorraine and many of Mayor Bradley's former staff members. Villaraigosa was one of ten mayors from North America to be short-listed as a finalist for the World Mayor Award.

In October , Villaraigosa traveled to England and Asia for a sixteen-day trade mission. In England, he visited London and Manchester , at the invitation of then-Prime Minister Tony Blair , and spoke about Los Angeles' efforts regarding global warming, homeland security and emergency preparedness, and its bid for the Olympic Games.

Villaraigosa traveled to Israel in June to meet with experts in homeland security, counter-terrorism, and green technology. In June , Villaraigosa made the cover of Los Angeles Magazine , titled "Failure," with an accompanying article written by Ed Leibowitz, which claimed that Villaraigosa often confused campaigning with governance, wasted 22 weeks in his first term trying to take over the school board, and did little to help education in the City of Los Angeles.

In June , a formal ethics investigation of Villaraigosa was launched due to his unreported acceptance of 81 tickets to concerts, awards ceremonies and sporting events. At the Democratic National Convention , where Villaraigosa was chairman, the original party platform caused controversy after it was written, because of the lack of typical invocations and references to God and God-given rights, as well as lack of language affirming the role of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Both of these matters had been included in some previous platforms. On the second day, September 5, former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland introduced an amendment on the floor of the convention to re-insert language invoking God and recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Convention Chairman Villaraigosa put the amendment to a voice vote requiring a two-thirds majority for passage.

After the first vote had greater volume of "nays", Villaraigosa called for a second vote, which was again met with greater volume of "nays" than "yays". A woman standing to his left said, "You've got to rule, and then you've got to let them do what they're gonna do. Despite not receiving a two-thirds majority, Villaraigosa still declared the amendment passed, causing an eruption of boos on the floor.

In February , while Villaraigosa was considering a run for the United States Senate , [ 82 ] the Los Angeles Times reported on Villaraigosa's work as an advisor to controversial multi-level marketing dietary supplement company Herbalife Nutrition. Federal Trade Commission investigations. Herbalife has been strongly criticized as being a pyramid scheme that specifically targets Hispanics.

Villaraigosa's role as a consultant to the embattled company was condemned by the League of United Latin American Citizens , [ 83 ] an advocacy organization focused on Hispanic advancement. After his election as Los Angeles Mayor, Villaraigosa was featured on the cover of Newsweek , and in Time ' s story on the country's 25 most influential Latinos, but repeated questions concerning his marital infidelity issues appear to have damaged his reputation locally and nationally.

An LA Weekly article by Patrick Range McDonald published on September 11, , presented an analysis of a week period from May 21 to August 1, and determined that "On direct city business—such as signing legislation and meeting with city-department heads—his schedule shows the mayor spent 11 percent of his time Yet the 11 percent of Villaraigosa's time that the Weekly has identified as being spent in L.

Villaraigosa was featured in the editorial cover story of the June Los Angeles Magazine, which took him to task for a lack of effectiveness regarding many of his stated policy priorities, and a focus on election to higher office, to the detriment of the needs of the city. After he left the mayor's office, Villaraigosa was involved in Campaign to Fix the Debt, a movement for entitlement reform to cut Social Security and Medicare, which Democratic strategist Nathan Ballard said is "not just touching the third rail — it's an act of public self-immolation.

Villaraigosa's first of four children, Marisela Villar, was born when he was His second child, Prisila Villar, was born four years later. He married Corina Raigosa on November 28, , [ 97 ] and adopted a combination of their last names as his family name. The couple had two children, Natalia and Antonio Jr. In the wake of his affair with Spanish-language television reporter Mirthala Salinas, Villaraigosa announced that he was separating from his wife, and on June 12, , Corina Villaraigosa filed for dissolution of marriage in the Los Angeles Superior Court due to adultery.

Villaraigosa acknowledged on July 3, , that he was in a relationship with Salinas. The same article in The New Yorker also reported that, in , while his wife had been battling thyroid cancer , Villaraigosa left town for several days with the wife of a close friend following his election to the California State Assembly. Contents move to sidebar hide.

Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikinews Wikidata item. Mayor of Los Angeles from to Corina Raigosa. Patricia Govea. Early life and education [ edit ]. Early political career [ edit ]. Mayor of Los Angeles [ edit ].

Antonio villaraigosa biography early life

Elections [ edit ]. Main articles: Los Angeles mayoral election , Los Angeles mayoral election , and Los Angeles mayoral election. Tenure [ edit ]. Transportation [ edit ]. Public safety [ edit ]. Education [ edit ]. Animal services [ edit ]. Taxes [ edit ]. Energy and the environment [ edit ]. Honorary degrees and awards [ edit ]. International publicity [ edit ].

Criticisms and controversies [ edit ]. Ethics violations [ edit ]. Herbalife advisor [ edit ]. Public opinion [ edit ]. Personal life [ edit ]. See also [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. The Washington Post. Villaraigosa got the second chance for the mayor election. This time, he won against Hahn in During his service as a mayor, he was very famous for his biggest contribution.

Get facts about Antonin Scalia here. If you check out the Los Angeles magazine in June , you can see the cover of Villaraigosa. It was entitled Failure. Ed Leibowitz made an accompanying article which claimed that this mayor wasted 22 weeks to take over the school board in his first term. Villaraigosa was the third Mexican American who became the mayor of Los Angeles.

However, he could not run for re-election due to the limited term. Greg Barber. Thomas Suozzi. Dan Gattis. Benjamin Davis Wilson. Franke Wilmer. Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar. William Shirley. Charles Edward Wiggins. Anita Vandenbeld. Sui Fengfu. Harald Neubauer. Related Posts Dominic. It was believed that Hahn's biting television commercials pointing out that Villaraigosa had written a letter to President Clinton along with Cardinal Mahony and Sheriff Baca , asking for clemency for a convicted drug dealer, contributed to the defeat.

In , Villaraigosa was again elected to public office to represent the 14th District seat on the Los Angeles City Council. He also served as national co-chairman of Democrat John Kerry's presidential campaign. In , Villaraigosa again campaigned for mayor against Hahn and this time defeated the struggling incumbent. There was much excitement in for the new Mayor Villaraigosa.

He was the first Latino Mayor of Los Angeles in years. It was hoped that this new Latino mayor would also do something significant to move the city forward. The promise, however, quickly became blemished.