Posted on 11/14/2006 9:16:24 AM PST by DogByte6RER
Mayor rides the SUV, not the MTA
Villaraigosa promotes the use of public transit, but he doesn't spend much time on the city's bus and subway system.
By Duke Helfand
Times Staff Writer
November 14, 2006
From the moment he took office nearly 18 months ago, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa made traffic gridlock a cause celebre — exhorting Angelenos to help solve the problem by forsaking their cars whenever possible.
"You've got to use public transit," Villaraigosa said just last week while unveiling an automated signal system to help unclog busy intersections. "You can't keep on pointing to someone else and saying it's their responsibility."
But Villaraigosa's own travel habits don't match his public pronouncements.
The mayor rarely, if ever, takes the bus or the train to work. Instead, he rides around town in a GMC Yukon chauffeured by a Los Angeles police officer who doubles as a bodyguard.
Unlike many others in Los Angeles, Villaraigosa has easy access to public transportation.
He lives just one block from Wilshire Boulevard, one of the city's most accessible and heavily traveled public transit corridors and one where, he often says, he would like to extend the subway.
No one, of course, expects the ultra-busy mayor to step on a bus or train every time he visits a school or holds a news conference, as he travels from one end of the sprawling city to the other. But that's not to say some regular use isn't feasible, transit riders say.
Just about any morning, the mayor could catch a bus on Metro Rapid route 720 at Wilshire and Crenshaw boulevards, transfer to the nearby Red Line subway and arrive at City Hall in about the time it takes to shower, shave and eat a bowl of cereal.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Motto of the 21st Century Liberal Democrat - "Do as I say, not as I do."
Here he pontificates that L.A.'s unwashed masses should get out of their cars and use public transit, yet he is chauffeured around daily by his LAPD bodyguard. Can anybody say hypocrite?
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Yes, another limosine liberal adventure from Northern Mexico.
The SUV probably belongs to his familia.
I only ride in this because I dont have my own helo...
I saw Pelosi get out of an evil SUV on the news yesterday. Maybe hers isn't one of the evil ones.
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