Antonio Villaraigosa Invites President Obama To See Another Side Of Los Angeles

Story comes courtesy of The City Maven.

By Alice M. Walton

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was in Washington, D.C. today with an invitation for federal lawmakers — come to Los Angeles and see the real impact of unemployment.

As president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Villaraigosa was in town with 50 other mayors to speak with Congressional leaders and White House staff about the urgent need for job creation.

The mayor’s schedule included meetings with Sens. Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, and Gene Sperling and David Plouffe with the Obama Administration.

“We had a very good meeting with Sen. McConnell,” Villaraigosa told reporters in an afternoon conference call. “It was a meeting where the mayors were very frank that we think number one is job creation and we’re tired of partisanship and bickering and the finger-pointing.”

The mayors invited President Obama and members of Congress to visit each of their cities to see the toll that unemployment has taken on communities.

“We want the president and our Congressional leaders to come to our cities, to see the state of our roads, our highways, our bridges, our airports and our ports,” Villaraigosa said.”And to hear from our constituents that their number one concern is jobs, and their number two concern is jobs. In fact, they’re overwhelming focused on jobs.”