Garcetti's diary, day 5 (the end)

Eric Garcetti closes his week on Slate with a tribute to his city council district staff, which includes speakers of Spanish, Tagalog, Armenian, and Russian. He does an interview with Claudia Peschiutta of KFWB, handles some constituent business, meets friends in Koreatown for a dinner of bulgogi, kim-chi, eun dae ku jo rim and Korean sake, then goes home to Amy.

As a council member, you often deal with people's anger—people losing their housing, frustrated by traffic, unhappy with a city department, or with you. But each week, amid these challenges, there are also amazing moments of gratitude, moments that make the unremitting pace worthwhile.

One of the most difficult parts of this job is learning to live with failure, learning to live with imperfection, doing as much as you can with what you have. But if one's short time in office can be about creating a city full of leaders, not a district full of followers, then the incredible people who I work with in my office, the broad sweep of constituents who I work for in the 13th District, and the residents of Los Angeles who still ask for the most basic but most meaningful control over their lives and their neighborhoods, make each day a tremendous experience.

It is 1:30 a.m. Outside, Los Angeles is sleeping.

I noticed he began the day with some fund-raising calls for next year's reelection campaign, and made it clear the calls were placed from home, not on taxpayer-time at the office. Good thing, since his dad, the former District Attorney Gil Garcetti, is chairman of the city Ethics Commission that polices stuff like that.