Kotkin's mayoral advice

Author, urban expert and New America Foundation fellow Joel Kotkin is emerging in the media as the most determined early critic of Antonio Villaraigosa's election as mayor. In this week's Jewish Journal he pens a personal "Dear Antonio" letter suggesting the mayor-elect strive to emulate Fiorello LaGuardia, the mayor of New York from 1933-45.

I imagine you are enjoying the hoopla surrounding your election. As the first Latino chief executive in more than 130 years, it may be tempting to bask in the warmth of a great ethnic triumph.

But don’t enjoy it too much. Los Angeles does not need a symbol or an icon; it needs a mayor, one who can be both decisive and effective...I point to the former mayor of New York, in part, because you have said he is a particular hero of yours. He was also an icon of my own family. After all, he was one person who could unite the politics of my grandmother, a socialist, with those of my grandfather, a Republican businessman.

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La Guardia made people forget their ethnic and political divisions, because he approached his job not as an ideologue, but as someone who wanted to get something done. La Guardia was seen by some as an old-fashioned Teddy Roosevelt progressive, by others as a left-leaning New Dealer and even as a closet socialist — but first and foremost he was a builder. "There is no Republican or Democratic way to clean streets" was one of his favorite truisms.

Kotkin also was on Talk of the City with Kitty Felde today on KPCC, panning the Eli Broad-ization of Grand Avenue. Kotkin's recent book is The City: A Global History, from Modern Library.

Also: Did Villaraigosa slip up on KFWB and divulge statewide ambitions?

And also in the Jewish Journal: Shabbat dinner at the Cannes festival.