This past week “Ambassador nominee” and outgoing Los Angeles City Mayor Eric Garcetti gave his final State of the City speech. In his comments he vowed to ensure that Los Angeles would be a clean and safe city. He announced plans to hire hundreds of sanitation workers and spend an additional $1 billion on homelessness. In the days following his speech, details also came out that the Mayor is proposing an 8.5% increase to the police budget – a line item bound to raise the eyebrows of activists.
Perhaps most interesting to those of us around the water cooler was the setting for the speech, which was atop the 6th Street bridge that is currently under construction. While the backdrop may have been meant to show progress for the city or a vision for the future, it was hard not to see it as a bridge to nowhere for the Mayor’s desire to leave L.A. for the sights of New Delhi, and maybe more of a bridge to a sandwich from a new deli.
Which new deli will Garcetti be at this weekend?