Steve Barr says he's in for run against Garcetti

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Green Dot charter schools founder Steve Barr made it official today: he's in the 2017 race for mayor as a challenger to Eric Garcetti's reelection. "I'm running for mayor of Los Angeles to disrupt the political establishment and turn our city around," Barr says on his campaign website. "Together, we're building a grassroots movement to transform L.A.'s schools, end the homelessness and affordability crisis, and fight for a city where every family can thrive." Barr, who lives in Silver Lake, said back in January that he was thinking about making the run, expressing disappointment in Garcetti's leadership on education.

Here's what the Barr website says about the candidate.

Steve founded Green Dot Public Schools with a vision to transform public schools and give young people in some of LA's toughest schools more and better opportunities.

Today, thousands of students have graduated from the Green Dot schools -- and thousands of students have achieved their dream of college and a better future.

In the early 1990s, Steve co-founded Rock the Vote, a groundbreaking effort to use pop culture to encourage young people to vote and to get involved in our democracy.

And he led the fight to pass the Motor Voter law, signed by President Clinton in 1994. Today, over 100 million people have registered to vote through Motor Voter.

Today, Steve Barr is running for Mayor of Los Angeles because we need a mayor that will fight for every neighborhood and every school. We need a mayor that will lead a grassroots, progressive movement to return power to the rest of us -- not the rich and the powerful. We need a mayor who will fight for a city where every family can thrive.

He also gave an interview to LA Times City Hall reporter Peter Jamison. Among those also saying they are in the race against Garcetti is Mitchell Schwartz, the Democratic campaign strategist and environmentalist.