New LA mayor to 'focus like a laser' on economy

A Rhodes scholar and urban planning expert in a city that generally prefers its politicians to be less eclectic, Los Angeles mayor-elect Eric Garcetti will take the reins as the nation's second-largest city teeters between recovery and financial ruin.

Despite a strong renewal in the city's housing market in recent months, unemployment remains higher than the state average, and the city's budget deficit could top US$1 billion within four years. Trees are going untrimmed, streets unpaved and the fire department has had its budget slashed.

Garcetti, who takes over on July 1, promised to "focus like a laser" on the local economy, and renegotiate pay raises and other deals with the city's unions. But to do that, he may have to push beyond the skills he has honed as a consensus builder and wrench changes from a city whose bureaucracy and citizenry are not used to being told what to do.

"In LA, you are constantly dealing with powerful folks that you can't order around," said political scientist Raphael Sonenshein, who directs the Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles. "On the other hand, he's going to have to understand when the consensus approach isn't working."

At 42, Garcetti embodies a legacy that in many ways reflects the city's political, intellectual and ethnic subcultures. His father, Gil Garcetti, was elected district attorney of Los Angeles county when Eric was in his early 20s.

His education at the exclusive Harvard School for Boys was among the most prestigious in the region, landing him a spot at Columbia University and later, at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar.

Garcetti's cultural background also reflects the city's polyglot: his father is of mixed Italian and Mexican descent, and his mother is Jewish.