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When he was married and raising his children, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa lived on leafy Mt. Washington — near LA Times editors and writers and his roots down below on the Eastside. While mayor, he has lived off 6th Street in exclusive Windsor Square, as a guest of the nonprofit that operates Getty House as an official mayoral residence. (Only one previous mayor, Tom Bradley, ever moved in.) When his term ends July 1, making Villaraigosa a bachelor free agent, he apparently wants to move even further to the west. A source tells LA Observed that Villaraigosa has his eye on a pad in Venice — home of artists, celebrities, journalists, foodies, surfers, body builders, web geeks and an intense Whole Foods parking lot, and lots of other singles who can afford the steeply rising home prices and rents by the beach. I don't know details of the purported new Chez Villaraigosa, and chief spokeswoman Vicki Curry suggests that the mayor's future place of coastal residence may not be all signed and sealed just yet. "What I can confirm right now is he wants to live there or somewhere close to the airport," Curry told me.
The next question is: can he afford to live at the beach? I guess the Village Green idea didn't fly.
Villaraigosa dancing to salsa music at the fourth annual Mayor's LA Pride Garden Party Sunday afternoon at the Getty House. Photo by Karen Ocamb, who says "he was good."
