Steve Lopez to readers: The mayor? Is that the worst you've got?

OK, so here we are in Greater L.A., with its long, dark history of land and water grabs, legendary air pollution, assassins, serial killers and gang kingpins, and according to last week's Talk Back to Lopez poll, the worst Angeleno of all time is:

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa?

Does anyone out there know any history?

Sure, we got a lot of thoughtful nominations, but Villaraigosa had twice as many votes as the second-place finisher, who was another bizarre choice:

Congressman Henry Waxman.

Yes, I'm aware of his connection to our traffic nightmare. But give me a break.

As for Villaraigosa, I've pounded him pretty good over the years. But he wouldn't have made my top 50, and neither would Waxman.

Cardinal Roger Mahony third? I have no problem there, and I like O.J. Simpson at No. 4.

As for the six-way tie at No. 10 -- Ronald Reagan, Tom Bradley, former LAPD chief William Parker, Richard "Night Stalker" Ramirez, Clippers owner Donald Sterling and Steve Lopez -- wait a minute, moi? I'd like to say that I would have made a much better owner of the Clippers.

-- Steve Lopez

Image: Word cloud of blog reader votes for L.A.'s worst. Credit: Wordle.net

Comments

[James]

That just goes to show the value of online polls...lots of reasons to be frustrated with the Mayor but worst Angelino ever? And Henry Waxman arguably should be somewhere in the 50 greatest Angelinos...as for you Steve, like the column not sure you should make either list...then again if we gave online polls any weight Ron Paul would be President of the United States...

[Joe Black]

You're ALL wrong! What about that greedy, slimy, self-myopic, sleazy, "love L.A., then leave it" Raiders owner Al Davis??? Anything for a buck, huh Al??? L.A.'s loyalty
wasn't enough. Surely he at least deserves to be considered . . .

[Susannah2k]

Hey, Waxman didn't singlehandedly stop the subway-to-the-sea! He had loads of help from Zev Yaroslavsky; I'd put 'em both on the list. And since one of the two greatest Angelenos is still with us (and I hope will be for many seasons yet to come), it's only fair that the worst ones are, too . . .

[Scott]

Wrong person to have at helm during crisis. Walks around with sheet eating grin like he just piped another telemundo newsreader. Los Angeles magazine had it right by labeling him a failure. Also managed to get lacera pension plan to invest in half baked public housing scheme. Bring back hanh!

[Findlay Bunting]

What about Darryl Gates who hid out while our city burned? Nobody else can hold a candle to this level of treason.

[D Head]

OJ killed 2, The Pious Cardinal coved 10s if not 100s of molestations, Villar (and the city counsel) is screwing all of us tax payers -again!

[Jacques]

I would have to say Howard Jarvis, a city hall gadfly who actually got traction and screwed all of us over. Without him screwing up the entire voter initiative process with Prop 13, we probably would not have been in as big a mess as we are now.

Sure taxes suck, but look at the state California is in now, dependent upon Sales Taxes, driving manufacturing industry away from the state, lousy schools and we are well on the way to ruining our much vaunted Cal State and University of California system.