Mayor-Elect Greets New Job With Gift for School Program

Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa announced Wednesday that billionaire Eli Broad’s foundation has donated $3.6 million to the LA’s BEST after-school program.

With the $2 million that Villaraigosa expects to raise for the program at tonight’s inaugural gala and $1.3 million from the city, LA’s BEST will be able to add 10 schools to the 130 elementary schools it now serves.

“I’ve exceeded even my own expectations,” Villaraigosa said at 68th Street Elementary School. “And you know how high my expectations are for the city.”

Villaraigosa, who will be sworn in Friday morning as the city’s 41st mayor, made an afternoon trip to the South Los Angeles school to announce the gift. Once there, he stripped off his suit jacket, sat on the floor and read a story called “Chrysanthemum.”

Out on the playground, he said he hoped Broad’s gift would be the first of many to civic causes during his tenure.

“As I’ve said many times, government can’t do it alone,” he said. “Over the next four years, I intend to engage the private, nonprofit and philanthropic sectors to do more to support and sustain our communities.”

Preparations for inaugural events, meanwhile, continued at a frenetic pace.

Tonight, 1,500 guests, including elected officials, celebrities and civic leaders, are expected at the gala fundraiser for LA’s BEST. The emcee will be actor Jimmy Smits and there will also be a “surprise guest performer.”

On Friday, thousands of Angelenos are expected to attend Villaraigosa’s inauguration at City Hall, along with such political celebrities as former Vice President Al Gore and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

So many people are expected that some who work in the Civic Center area say their own lives will be thrown into chaos.

“It’s going to be so difficult to get down here,” said Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Lance Ito, who is presiding over a gang murder trial. “I don’t know if I can ask the jurors to go through all that, so I’m just going to take the day off.”

Ito suggested that future events take place somewhere other than downtown or later in the day so they don’t disrupt other parts of government and area businesses.

Villaraigosa said he has been practicing his speech. “I am going to say to the people that we can’t be afraid to dream,” he said, as reporters from as far as Europe swarmed around him at a groundbreaking of a constituent services center in El Sereno.

Developers, lobbyists and friends of Villaraigosa have contributed $69,000 toward the $100,000 he plans to raise for his inauguration festivities.

The inauguration events start at 8 a.m. with an interfaith service at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Villaraigosa and his wife, Corina, will then lead a procession to the south lawn of City Hall for the 10 a.m. swearing-in ceremony.

Hundreds of Los Angeles police officers will work security Friday, although many of them will be undercover, said John Miller, chief of the department’s counterterrorism bureau. “We’ve designed the security so it should be invisible, and we aren’t leaving anything to chance,” he said.

Times staff writers Patrick McGreevy, Andrew Blankstein and Jean Guccione contributed to this report.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Inaugural events

Antonio Villaraigosa will be inaugurated as mayor of Los Angeles on Friday. The ceremony will be preceded by an interfaith service and a procession, and will be followed by a reception.

Events schedule

8 to 9 a.m.

Interfaith service, Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 555 W. Temple St.

9 to 9:30 a.m.

Procession on Temple Street from cathedral to City Hall

10 to 11 a.m.

Inauguration ceremony, South Lawn of City Hall, 1st Street between Main and Spring streets

11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Inauguration reception, Main Street between 1st and Temple streets

Street closures

- Main Street between 1st and Temple streets, from 5 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

- 1st Street between Spring and Main streets, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

- Temple Street between Grand Avenue and Spring Street, from 8:40 to 10 a.m.

- Spring Street between 1st and Temple streets, from 8:40 to 11 a.m.

Parking

Shuttle bus service to inaugural events will be available from parking lots at Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 Grand Ave., and at the Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 S. Figueroa St.

Further information

https://trafficinfo.lacity.org/html/inauguration2005.html

Sources: City of Los Angeles; office of Mayor-elect Antonio