The Resurrection of Antonio Villaraigosa

My profile of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, in TIME.

When he was a young man Antonio Villaraigosa, dropped out of school, was in numerous street fights, and had a tattoo inked on his right arm that read: Born to Raise Hell. In 2005 he became the first Latino mayor of Los Angeles since 1872. It was practically scripted: the inspirational tale of a troubled boy from the gang-infested Boyle Heights neighborhood of East LA who makes good, goes to City Hall, and turns Los Angeles into a “city of purpose.”

But, until last week, the mayoral tale of Antonio Villaraigosa was starting to look like a box office bomb. In 2007 came revelations of an extramarital affair with a Telemundo newscaster, which seriously hurt his popularity, particularly in the Latino community. His ambitious but ultimately misguided plan for a school district takeover was defeated in court. A weakening economy and his unsystematic management style led to even more political stasis…

Click here to read the rest of the article.

This entry was written by Poole, posted on February 27, 2012 at 9:51 am, filed under Los Angeles. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.

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