LOS ANGELES — The famous smile is intact. But there's a glint of gray in the hair, a hint of melancholy in the voice and a collection of wrinkles he didn't bring with him when he became mayor of Los Angeles eight years ago.
Antonio Villaraigosa makes his exit July 1 after a seesaw run that saw him celebrated as the city's first Hispanic mayor since 1872, praised for bulking up the police department and transit services, but often mocked, fairly or not, as a party boy who cared more about nightlife than his day job at City Hall.
Through most of it, he struggled with a sour economy not of his making. Now 60 and talking again about running for governor, the Democrat looks back and ponders how a former labor organizer ended up chopping thousands of government jobs to keep the books in balance, pushed municipal workers for the first time to pay toward their pensions and health care and clashed with the teachers union that once employed him.
What has he learned?
"You have to be able to say no to your friends," Villaraigosa said during an interview at his soon-to-be former office. "You are making decisions that will have an impact far into the future. Don't worry about what people say right now."