Eric Garcetti, Mayor of Los Angeles, recently gave his annual “State of the City” address and somehow, with a straight face, said that L.A. was way more “just” and “forward-looking” after a whole year of pandemic shutdowns, economic devastation, and riots.
“Through our pain and our trauma, we showed who we are, and defined what we believe,” the mayor said.
https://twitter.com/MayorOfLA/status/1384299443097276425
According to Breitbart, Garcetti had a much more positive tone to his speech than he did last year when he told the city, “This is the worst it’s ever been.”
The mayor had tweeted out earlier in the day that the current status of the city was “strong, & bruised — bursting w/ joyous possibility, while cracking with sorrow.”
https://twitter.com/MayorOfLA/status/1384311414475526144
“A year after Garcetti put city workers on furlough due to anticipated budget shortfalls, and cut several city departments — including a $150 million cut to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) — Garcetti boasted that he would unveil the ‘biggest city budget I’ve ever presented,’ and the ‘most progressive,'” Breitbart’s report said.
“The new spending has been made possible by President Joe Biden’s recent $1.9 trillion ‘COVID relief’ bill, which included ample spending for other programs and for bailouts of Democrat-run cities and states,” the report continued.
Garcetti himself referred to the new budget as the “Justice Budget,” stating that the top priority for the city government, after battle with the coronavirus, is to make a more just city and to “make up for the wrongs of the past.”
“The mayor promised to allow local businesses to return to work ‘so that you can reopen, hire up, and spread the wealth.’ He also proposed to spend $25 million to write $5,000 checks to 5,000 businesses in the city,” the report added.
“Garcetti also promised to spend nearly $1 billion on ending the homeless crisis in the city, which — despite the city’s purchases of buildings during the pandemic — has seen tent cities spring up across the city. He called on the federal government to ‘declare a national right to housing,'” Breitbart said.
The mayor also announced a new terminal at LAX known as “Terminal 9” and plans to build a “people-mover” between the terminals. He also stated that “justice” means not only investing in physical infrastructure, but in “our community infrastructure.”
He then announced cleaning jobs for those who are young or homeless, saying, “This city may be a mess right now, but we’re going to clean it up.”
The city is also going to be footing the bill for “DACA fees” for illegal aliens who came here as minors and were given reprieve under Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
“We must end America’s addiction to poverty,” the mayor said, announcing a brand new pilota program for a basic universal income grant, which will cost $24 million and provide 2,000 households in the city with $1,000 per month.
Garcetti did say that he would oppose efforts to defund police, but did not say anything about “re-funding” them either. In fact, he mentioned “investing in alternatives to policing” that he stated would prevent crime.
“As an example, Garcetti announced a new program to send unarmed crisis response teams to answer some emergency calls, called the Therapeutic Unarmed Response to Neighborhoods (TURN). He also announced $33 million for specially-trained teams to encourage reconciliation as a means to stop gang violence. But he said nothing about any plans to use the city’s new infusion of cash to restore funding for the LAPD,” Breitbart reported.
And, of course, he also promises that there would be a “public acknowledgement of institutional racism” and then proposed installing a memorial for the victims of the 1871 lynching of 18 Chinese residents as part of an effort to combat anti-Asian hate crimes.
Along with that came a commission to study the potential for creating a “slavery reparations program for black Angelenos.”
This is what “Angelenos” voted for.
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