My Soon-To-Be New Favorite Mayor.

I know this girl who’s a total butterpoliticalviews.

Eh – at least she’s got looks. And someday I’ll catch her up to speed on Newark Mayor Corey Booker. Cory is actually about to become a New Jersey senator, so I’m promoting him from My Favorite Mayor to My Favorite Politician. (Read here about him tweeting me his thanks after I blogged about him.)

So a slot has opened for a new My Favorite Mayor, and lo and behold, the frontrunner is right in my backyard. Recently-elected LA Mayor Eric Garcetti is the hands-on, Cory Booker type of guy I never imagined could run this town after the shitbag who just left office.

Already, in the few months since he’s been in charge, Mayor Garcetti:

• Has taken it upon himself to bring Hollywood back to Hollywood, calling runaway TV and film production a civic “emergency.” Dude’s going to get us all paid.
• Is making all 37 of the city department heads reapply for their for their jobs. Most of them make over $200,000 a year, and the Mayor said it was “unlikely that 100% of folks will return.” Parties over, fellas. 
• Began setting up what he calls Parking Days (see pic above), in which he moves his desk outside to a city neighborhood and has open office hours for any Angeleno with even the slightest beef. Tree roots rupturing the drain pipes outside your place? How’s next Wednesday? 

Eric Garcetti went to Columbia and the London School of Economics and Oxford. He’s a Rhodes Scholar married to a Rhodes Scholar. He’s a Lieutenant in the US Navy Reserve. He plays piano and composes. He’s acted on both “The Closer” and its spinoff, “Major Crimes." (He’s one of us!) But now he’s not just playing a mayor on TV. He’s My New Favorite Mayor.

Remember when leaders actually led? Me neither. But they sure as hell are starting to.