Villaraigosa's feel-good L.A. :-))

Ah yes, the place where traffic never snarls, new businesses always flourish, schools keep improving, and the people are .... well, gosh, darn, they're just as happy and friendly as can be. This 5+-minute love-fest from the mayor's office, to be shown right before tonight's State of the City address, would be harmless enough if it weren't laced with so many life-is-beautiful "factoids" about the city - some of them debatable at best - that we're supposed to connect with all that Villaraigosa has accomplished over the past eight years. If only it were so, Mr. Mayor...

*More love-fest: The mayor's address was just released - all I can say is high-concept fantasy at its best. Here's a snippet:

Eight years ago, we dared to dream.

Dream of a safer city...

A greener city...

A more mobile city...

A city of opportunity where every kid had a desk in a good school with great teachers.

But we didn't just dare to dream...

We promised to deliver. And we did.

Now, there have been some bumps in the road...

Some detours...

Some missteps...

And yes, some failures.

But we kept our cool, and we kept our promises.

We knew success didn't come easy, or over night.

We knew it was going to be like that Billie Holiday song:

"The difficult we'll do now - the impossible will take a while."

Because we dared to dream, because we didn't fear failure but learned from it, because we persisted...

I am proud to say the state of our city is strong and growing stronger by the day.