Quotes from Eric Garcetti

I've always said we need to build resilience locally.

On my mom's side, the Jewish side of the family, I come from a family of musicians who are pianists, so I've always loved cultural expression.

If a sanctuary city means that our police department does not enforce federal immigration laws, then we are one. But declaring yourself a 'sanctuary city' also signals to a lot of people that you are protecting hard-core criminals, which I don't, and I don't believe in.

Environment, homelessness, infrastructure and immigration - I'm very focused on all four, which are critical to the success of Los Angeles.

I think it's really important to talk education, to talk infrastructure, to talk good jobs and the future of work.

Los Angeles has all the ingredients of success... but we need to start with our education system.

I want to turn momentum on traffic. I want to make in a dent in homelessness on the way to eradicating it on our streets. But there's always something else to do tomorrow. And you have to be at peace knowing you're not going to finish it all.

I'm in what feels like a pretty transparent fishbowl as mayor. People see you at the market, people see you at the diner, people see you wherever you are, talk to you. You don't shave, they're taking selfies of you. You come back from your jog, they're talking to you.

I have a piano in my office, and sometimes during meetings, I'll sit down and goof on the keyboard a little bit.

I'm pretty skinny, and I can sleep at the drop of a hat. So, take that middle seat in economy and save the money for other things you can do.

The reason I like Steve Aoki is because I can trace my love of electronic music all the way back to when I was listening to not just new wave but to YMO [Yellow Magic Orchestra] which, to me, was the ultimate Japanese band and launched synth electronic music.

I think connected to poverty is the trauma of poverty. It's not just a material thing; it's a psychological thing that we have no mental health system in this country.

I think it is time for a radical federalism in this country, where people trust innovation coming from the local level and ramp that up.

In Washington, you have imaginary problems, and they can't even solve the imaginary problems.

I'm an average American. As I joke, I'm the average Mexican American Jewish Italian mayor of the most diverse city in the world.

If I hear that Quito, Ecuador, is doing something to have a whole area of town that's zero emissions, and we're thinking about that in Los Angeles' downtown, I'm like, 'I better catch up.'

I recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. And I have always recognized Jerusalem as the capital of the independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state that we all want to emerge from negotiations toward a true two-state solution.

The idea of red-washing or blue-washing an entire county because a few more people vote one way or the other does a disservice to the people who live there.

I'm a typical mutt American. I have an Italian last name. Half-Mexican, half-Jewish.

Think about Kennedy. Think about Carter. Think about Clinton. Think about Obama. They've all been in their forties and from outside Washington, or underdogs in one way or another. I just think that Americans are looking everywhere, saying, 'Hey, show me some authenticity. Show me somebody who's practical. Show me people who run things.'

My grandfather was an undocumented immigrant. My great-grandmother, my bisabuela, carried him over the border in her arms.

What I think the average person wants is not a fight; they want to see something move forward in their own neighborhood.

Cory Booker I've known since 1993. We used to be part of the L'Chaim Society at Oxford University together.

When it comes to public safety, I listen to police chiefs and cops, not to a cable-news station.