I just heard an interview with him on Freakonomics Radio and I liked the way he talked and a lot of the things he said.
What about his performance in the real world so far (he’s been mayor now for over four years, I believe)? Does he get things done? Does he get the right things done? Has he made things better or worse or had no effect?
I might have missed it but I didn’t hear him talk about any other political ambitions, but the intro mentioned talk of him running for governor or senator in 2018. What would you think about that?
I’m not an Angeleno, but I heard him on a live episode of Pod Save America, and while I generally think hosting the Olympics is not a great idea, he sounded pretty reasonable, and the crowd seemed to like him. But then I read this article about why Los Angeles shouldn’t want the Olympics, and especially some of the comments were down on the Olympics and the mayor in particular. So I’d also be curious to hear if any L.A. people had opinions on him.
He just got reelected with something like 80% of the vote. Admittedly the turnout was very low.
I’m not an Angeleno but my parents are, so I pay close attention to L.A. politics. I like him because he is a strong proponent of building public transit, and it has expanded remarkably under his term.
His justification for going after the Olympics, as I understood it from the interview, was that 80% or more of the infrastructure improvements were going to be done anyway, as they were badly needed (e.g. airport expansion). He said that all but one of the sports venues already exist. So the usual overhead investment that a place like Rio experienced wouldn’t be necessary.
Heck, even in 1984 almost all the sports facilities already existed for the Olympics. They only new things that had to be built were a swim stadium and a velodrome. And they were built as cheap as possible. (Living there, and attending some cycle races, I remember.)