LA City Beat, CA
Aug 18 2005
Eric Garcetti
The L.A. City Councilmember on fighting graffiti, listening to
bloggers, and his upcoming road trip with Howard Dean
Illustration by Scott Gandell
A. City Councilmember Eric Garcetti is a fourth-generation Angeleno..
He grew up in the San Fernando Valley, is a professor at USC, and
recently ran unopposed for reelection for the City Council’s 13th
District (which includes Silver Lake, Echo Park, Hollywood, and
Atwater Village). But that didn’t stop Garcetti from pounding the
pavement on the campaign trail, inspired by the words of the French
writer Renan: “Democracy is a daily plebiscite.”
He was recently fined $5,000 by the city’s Ethics Commission for
failing to file some 2001 campaign mailers – a fine he says was
caused by a bureaucratic snafu that will soon ensnare other local
politicians in much bigger ways. Garcetti was merely one of the first
to settle. Meanwhile, he continues pushing an agenda of neighborhood
revitalization, traffic reduction, citizen equality, and
environmental protection. A central focus for him seems to be
bridging the gap between government and its constituents so that the
two work together. He holds neighborhood coffees and walks, blogs
regularly, and offers residents a chance to schedule sit-down
meetings through his website. And, most progressive of all, he’s
getting stuff done.
-Perry Crowe
*****
CityBeat: Your district’s Uniting Neighborhoods to Abolish Graffiti
(UNTAG) program, which appoints “block captains” to spot graffiti in
their neighborhoods, set a goal of 50 percent graffiti reduction
within two years. After just one year, there has already been a 62
percent reduction. Does that come from the program’s community
involvement angle rather than simply being a government operation?
Eric Garcetti: The success of [UNTAG] is that it’s a community
program. We’re the facilitator, but the heart and soul of this
program are the people who actually see their block long before we
could, call [the graffiti] in, and take care of it. I’ve got 20
people in my own office. We’ve got 260,000 people we represent. So,
our goal is ultimately to have one person on every single block in
this district, and there are literally hundreds of blocks.
When UNTAG becomes a citywide program, will you be involved?
I’d like to be the UNTAG cheerleader and help really champion it in
the City Council and continue to get the funding. If we have this in
all 15 districts, it’ll cost us half-a-million dollars more.
Outside of the gang tagging, do you see graffiti as an expression of
social, political, and economic frustration?
A lot of young people in Los Angeles often feel that they’re not
noticed, feel that they’re lost. But just as we would take
shoplifting as a crime that’s less serious than murder, it still
should be addressed. I don’t want to throw kids who aren’t affiliated
with gangs in jail over this, but I do want them to do community
service. For instance, painting out graffiti and realizing how much
time and money is spent on that. And then we’ll get them hooked up
with other programs where they can express themselves, but in a
better place.
What are some of those programs?
LACER [Literacy, Arts, Culture, Education, & Recreation] is a great
program. It’s in all the middle schools of Council District 13, where
we bring in some of the best jazz musicians, muralists, and most
creative professionals in Los Angeles for after-school programs that
these kids can get involved with. Similarly, we just last year
finally got an after-school program in every school in the district,
which was a goal of mine.
You recently updated your district’s blog to feed directly to
subscribers. How important a tool is your website in communicating
with constituents?
It’s amazing. We have conversations back and forth with some other
blogs. Blogging.la, for instance, had a constituent concern, and I
was able to answer it online and it got national attention because
people said, “Wow. A councilmember is reading blogs.” It’s the same
work we do on the phone. It’s the same work we do with letters every
day. But a lot of people know [blogging] is a quicker and a louder
way to communicate. We’ve just tried to do [our website] in a way
that will keep things fresh every couple of days. New news. Lots of
times, government sites change themselves once every month. We want
to be squarely in the cyber age and have as dynamic a website and
government as you can find.
Blogging.la even defended you after your recent $5,000 fine for the
city’s Ethics Commission regarding some unapproved campaign mailers
from 2001.
Yeah, that’s funny. That fake little thing they made [blogging.la
posted a mailer marked “EVIDENCE” that read: Vote for Eric Garcetti
for City Council because his opponent so sucks! And he doesn’t know
how to dance … and other shit like that”].
Oh, that was fake?
It was totally fake. It was a joke. A couple of people have asked me
about that. They didn’t realize that it was just a joke. Our
literature was better than that.
So what was the deal with the Ethics Commission fine?
The fine was for 10 mailers out of about 40 that we did that [the
Ethics Commission] says we never turned in to them. I am certain that
we did. We actually took down a record of it. Then [the Commission]
moved from City Hall East to City Hall and their file says we’re
missing 10. There’s 18 different candidates who are having the same
thing. I’m one of the first to settle it. But some campaigns didn’t
turn any of [their mailers] in, and they know they didn’t turn in
any, but they’re getting fined $500 per mailer. So if you did 40
mailers, it’s a $20,000 fine instead of you screwed up once. But for
me it was a very small [fine]. We cooperated from the beginning. [But
the] rule bears some reinvestigation. For some of my colleagues who
might face a $10,000 or $20,000 fine, or the candidates who didn’t
get elected who face the same fine, that really discourages people
from running.
Are you excited for the upcoming Sunset Junction festival, right
there in your district?
Absolutely. We want to make sure that it’s well-managed, that the
impact on the community isn’t too great, but it’s one of the most
eclectic and energizing collections of Angelenos I think you can find
in a given year. And we want to make sure, too, that people know that
we really enforce it as a voluntary donation. The donations help
support the organization, and that’s great. But families who might
come there with four or five kids, working class from the community,
don’t have to be paying 30 bucks to get in. They can go in for free.
What’s the trip you’ve got coming up?
I represent Little Armenia. So, for four years, the Armenian
community has been saying, “We’d really like you to take a trip to
Armenia and perhaps develop a sister-city relationship with Yerevan,
the capital.” And so we’re going to Armenia. We’re going to sign a
sister-city agreement between the two cities because we’re the
second-biggest Armenian city in the world. And Governor [Howard]
Dean, coincidentally, who is a friend, is going to come along for a
few days as the chair of the DNC [Democratic National Committee], so
he’ll be there for a little bit. We’re going to check out their
struggle to establish a democracy in Armenia.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress