FARAI CHIDEYA, host:
From NPR News, this is NEWS & NOTES. I'm Farai Chideya. Ed Gordon is away.
On Tuesday, Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa was elected to be Los Angeles' first Latino mayor in 133 years. He defeated incumbent Democrat James Hahn by more than 15 points. Yesterday, producer Christopher Johnson sampled Angelinos' reactions.
Mr. RAY CRANENAY(ph) (Voter): My name is Ray Cranenay. I voted for Jim Hahn specifically because Villaraigosa hasn't really said anything, you know, that pertains to me as an African-American about what he's going to do about education. Well, he's got Magic Johnson on his side, you know, so he's got some heavy hitters that represent the African-American community. He also showed up at First AME Church, so he does have support from a lot of African-Americans. But I would hope that he spreads his focus equally between African-Americans, Latinos and, you know, Asian cultures.
DORIS (Voter): My name is Doris. I usually vote every election, but this election I just--I wasn't quite sure. I know Hahn didn't get his job done, and hopefully Villaraigosa will do something different. I would like him to pretty much bring that--the community together, that racial tension between blacks and Hispanics, do something about the police force, do whatever he can do for schools.
Mr. NORRIS TURNER (Voter): My name is Norris Turner. What we have to basically do is keep him honest to what he said he's going to do, such as, he's going to take care of the schools. He's going to look at the potholes in the streets. He's going to take care of the problems that's surrounding the police department, those kinds of problems that we're having in the city. I have to recall when Mayor Bradley came aboard and they had never had a black mayor. And that was 500 years, right? So at least his people have been around in this city a long time. So I don't see it any different. All of the streets are named after Hispanics. They owned this place at one point in time. And so what causes the uproar right now is because they happen to be a minority and they've been accustomed to a majority of persons being the mayor of this city, meaning white folks. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
