Eli Broad says LA needs better leadership (and a locally owned paper)

In a sit-down interview with Gabriel Kahn in Los Angeles Magazine, Eli Broad says that the city of Los Angeles needs "better political leadership and better citizen and corporate leadership than it’s had." That's perhaps a quick trigger on a new mayor, but he means leadership in a bigger sense. Anything else, Broad was asked. "Local ownership of the Los Angeles Times." He confirmed that his effort to buy the Times with Austin Beutner continues, though stymied by the Tribune Company's reorganization to strip the paper of much of its assets. "They are creating a new structure that will make it more difficult for the newspapers to break even financially," Broad said. "That’s a concern for us and for a lot of people."

On leadership:

I love this city—it’s a great meritocracy. I’ve been able to do a lot of things here I wouldn’t be able to do in other cities. Whether it’s Boston or maybe even San Francisco, you have to come from the right family, have the right religion, and so on....We had Dorothy Chandler, who had the power of the Los Angeles Times to help create the Music Center. But I don’t see anyone who’s—I don’t mean to brag, but in Los Angeles I don’t see anyone who has stepped forward to do the number of things that I’ve done....

What did you think of the previous mayor?

I liked Antonio Villaraigosa. He was a great cheerleader. But my idea of great mayors are Mike Bloomberg in New York, Richard Daley and Rahm Emanuel in Chicago, and Tom Menino in Boston.

What have you seen from the new administration so far?

I like Eric Garcetti, but let’s see how tough he’s going to be on some of these issues.

Did you vote for him?

Yes.

There's a lot more, on his Grand Avenue museum, on MOCA and more.