Former Los Angeles mayor’s listening tour comes to Los Banos

Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa stopped in town Thursday as part of a “listening tour” some have viewed as his precursor to launching a campaign for governor.

Villaraigosa spent six hours in Los Banos speaking at a breakfast, visiting Merced College, Los Banos Campus and touring Morning Star Packing Co., one of the larger employers in the city.

Los Banos was among stops in the Central Valley that included Bakersfield, Visalia and Fresno. His visit was hosted by the Community Advocacy Coalition, the NAACP and the League of United Latin American Citizens.

Villaraigosa stressed the importance of investing in California’s future through supporting the education system.

“As I’ve been here in the Central Valley I’ve met so many people, many of them were Latinos working in the fields,” he said. “They worked in the fields, their parents worked in the fields and now they’re doctors and lawyers and architects and engineers. It’s such a powerful thing to see, the power of education and what it can do.”

Villaraigosa, 62, is a Democrat who served as mayor of L.A. from 2005 until 2013. He was also in the state Legislature in the 1990s, serving as speaker of the Assembly from 1998 until 2000.

Villaraigosa said he expanded the Los Angeles Police Department as mayor. However, he said, programs like midnight basketball and increasing money going to school’s could have a major impact on lowering crime rates.

“Great societies don’t spend more on prisons than they do schools,” he said.

Villaraigosa was asked multiple times about what he thought the state should be doing to combat the drought. He said water rights need to be reviewed, above ground storage should be utilized and the state needs to take advantage of technological advances.

“There’s technology today to recycle more than we’re doing,” Villaraigosa said. “This is the home of Silicon Valley and high-tech. We’ve got to leverage our universities to drive down the cost of watering, reclaiming water and recycling.”

When asked if he would choose to spend more resources on high-speed rail than water storage, Villaraigosa replied that California needs to do both.

Villaraigosa was well-received in Los Banos. Students gathered before and after class to ask questions and hear him speak. Business people blocked out chunks of their day to greet him and learn about his ideas. Mayor Mike Villalta said the community could benefit from more gatherings in the future. Julian Mancias, one of the event’s organizers, said he hoped Villaraigosa was truly in Los Banos to listen to the community.

“I haven’t made any decisions about the future yet,” Villaraigosa said. “but I know I’ve got to get a better idea of what it’s like here in this community and communities throughout the state.”

This story was originally published August 20, 2015 at 3:39 PM with the headline "Former Los Angeles mayor’s listening tour comes to Los Banos."