Eric Garcetti Age, Wife, Children, Family, Biography & More

Some Lesser Known Facts About Eric Garcetti

• Eric Garcetti is an American politician. He is a member of the Democratic Party. He was appointed as the 42nd mayor of Los Angeles in 2013 and is also the first Jewish mayor of LA. In 2006, he became the president of the Los Angeles City Council. In 2005, he began serving as a lieutenant in the US Navy’s Information Dominance Corps and US Navy Reserves. In 2021, he was nominated by US President Joe Biden for the post of United States Ambassador to India.

• While growing up in a neighbourhood in the San Fernando Valley region in Los Angeles County, California, he completed his schooling in Los Angeles.
  

  A childhood image of Eric Garcetti with his father

• While studying in high school, he became a member of a national civic engagement organization named the Junior State of America, where he participated in debates on topics related to political issues.
  

  Eric Garcetti posing for his yearbook photo while studying at the Harvard-Westlake School in 1988

• When he was studying at Columbia University in New York, he was selected as the president of an American fraternity and literary society named St. Anthony Hall. Later, he was selected as a member of the student council in college.

• He used to participate in performing arts in college. While studying political science and urban planning at Colombia University, he also co-wrote and performed musicals for three years at the Varsity Show, a performing arts presentation of Columbia University.

• While studying at the University of Oxford, he was selected as one of the members of the Oxford University L’Chaim Society. Later, he became a fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation Next Generation Leadership.

• He met Amy Elaine Wakeland, his wife, when he was studying at Queen’s College in England. Both of them were studying there on Rhodes scholarships.

• Before entering politics, he worked as a visiting instructor of international affairs and an assistant professor of public policy, diplomacy, and world affairs at Occidental College, the University of Southern California. While working as a professor, he wrote books and articles about post-conflict societies, Eritrean nationalism, and non-violent action.
  

  Eric Garcetti giving a speech at Occidental College about sustainable development

• He was a member of an NGO named the California Board of Human Rights Watch.

• He is a member of the advisory board of Young Storytellers, a Los Angeles-based arts education NGO.

• He is one of the members of the Inter-American Dialogue, which is a US-based think tank.

• On 1 July 2001, Eric Garcetti defeated Michael Woo by 52 to 48 per cent votes and became a member of the Los Angeles City Council from the 13th district.

• In 2003, he was selected as L.A.’s Favorite Elected Official chosen by alternative press readers of Los Angeles.

• In 2004, he was mentioned among the 25 Angelenos, who displayed their outstanding potential to shape lives in Los Angeles, by the Los Angeles Business Journal.

• In 2004, he introduced Proposition O, a city stormwater bond, to keep the waterways of Los Angeles city clean. 76% of the voters were in support of the bond, which made it one of the most strongly supported clean water bonds in the USA.

• In 2005, he supported the founders of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust. He introduced two municipal green building laws. According to the first law, all the city buildings were supposed to be constructed as per the LEED-certified standards, and according to the second law, all commercial buildings of more than 50,000 sq ft were also expected to be constructed by following the LEED-certified standards.

• In 2006, he was mentioned as ‘the rising star’ in the Los Angeles magazine.

• He supported the conversion of Historic Filipinotown into a Preserve America Community.

• From 2010 to 2012, he played the role of Roman Quintero on TNT’s show ‘The Closer’ and its spin-off ‘Major Crimes while he was appointed as the city councilman of Los Angeles.
  

  Eric Garcetti as mayor Ramon Quintero in the TV show ‘The Closer’

• While being a member of the Los Angeles City Council, he favoured the demolition of cultural and historic landmarks for development, which was criticised by many. In 2011, he was in support of demolishing the three small buildings at historic Sunset Junction to construct a large condominium. Reportedly, the land of the Sunset Junction was left vacant for more than 10 years after the demolition.

• He helped in the creation of the Neighborhood Leadership Institute to make the constituents active citizens.

• He supported the creation of the Uniting Neighborhoods to Abolish Graffiti (UNTAG) program; the aim of the program was to end graffiti art in LA city. In the first four years of the implementation of the program, graffiti art was reduced by 78%.
  

  Eric Garcetti helping in removing graffiti art from the walls in Los Angeles

• While he was a member of the Los Angeles City Council, he chaired the Housing, Community, and Economic Development Committee and helped in creating a $100 million housing trust fund. He also worked towards the restoration of the Hollywood area and reformation of the taxation on city business.

• On 21 May 2013, he defeated Wendy Greuel in the mayor elections with 53.9% of the votes and became the mayor of Los Angeles on 1 July 2013.

• In 2013, he guaranteed that 5% of the firefighters in the Los Angeles Fire Department would be female by 2020.

• In August 2013, he declared that he would sign off from a four-year contract with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power workers. The deal was signed to save money by terminating the predefined pension benefits given to newly hired workers and the workers that did not get any pay raise in the past 3 years. After making some changes to the deal, he accepted the agreement as it included the latest healthcare system, a new pension tier for the new workers, a labour management council to evaluate the work rules of LADWP workers that add to their salaries and reduce the disparity in salaries when compared to that of other cities workers.

• In April 2014, he introduced a ‘hold-the-line’ budget, which suggested the idea of making modest increments in the number of some of the city services and not reducing the business tax. According to the budget policy, the workforce of LA city, including police officers and firefighters, was not supposed to receive any kind of raise in 2015. The policy also included the collaboration of the city’s police and fire dispatch centres to increase the efficiency of response time to emergency calls on 911 by forming an innovation fund of $1.4 million for making modifications in the city services.

• According to his commitment to enhancing accountability among the officials of Los Angeles, in August 2014, he revealed that he would start the annual review of the general manager of every city.

• According to sources, in 2014, he forced California governor, Jerry Brown, for making a significant increase in the film production tax credit. He also proposed the idea of increasing minimum wages in Los Angeles to reach $13.25 in the next three years. This idea of his was supported by several members of the city council. According to the ordinance, the businesses were supposed to increase the wages of workers from $9 in 2014 to at least $10.25 in 2015, $11.75 in 2016, and $13.25 in 2017. In 2015, he supported the ‘Fight for 15’ movement to raise the hourly rate of minimum wages to $15.37.
  

  Eric Garcetti speaking in a rally for increasing the minimum wage in 2014

• In January 2014, he introduced a new plan to take care of safety during earthquakes on the 20th anniversary of the destructive Northridge earthquake. Later that same year, his administration department and LADOT, together introduced a multi-national road traffic safety project named Vision Zero, to decrease the number of deaths due to road accidents by the year 2025. He motivated architect Frank Gehry’s collaboration with Los Angeles River Revitalization Corporation for the River LA project, which was created to revitalise the Los Angeles River.

• In June 2014, he promised to provide 10,000 jobs to veterans by 2017. He also accepted the challenge to terminate veteran homelessness in Los Angeles in the upcoming 17 months. In 2016, he won approval for Proposition HHH, which was signed to drastically increase the number of apartments constructed in the city. In an interview, Eric Garcetti talked about the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority (LAHSA) study in 2019, according to which about 60,000 people were homeless, which is a 16 per cent increase from the last year. He said,
  

  Skyrocketing rents statewide and federal disinvestment in affordable housing, combined with an epidemic of untreated trauma and mental illness, is pushing people into homelessness faster than they can be lifted out.”

• In July 2014, Eric Garcetti declared that the Los Angeles Police Department would put an end to entertaining most of the federal requests for holding detained arrestees to be investigated for deportation. Later, after talking with a federal agency, he announced that Los Angeles would assist in providing shelter to immigrant children, who were detained after crossing the border. He joined hands with the supervisor of Los Angeles County, Hilda Solis, to form a $10 million L.A. Justice Fund to provide legal aid to illegal immigrants, who were facing deportation.

• In 2014, he became the co-founder of the Mayors National Climate Action Agenda, an association of US mayors, along with Annise Parker, mayor of Houston, and Michael Nutter, mayor of Philadelphia. The main aim of the agenda was to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.

• He supported environmental sustainability and encouraged the construction of several boulevards for pedestrians, cyclists, and small businesses. In April 2014, he cleared a new waste franchise agreement, which helped in expanding recycling to apartments and businesses. In an interview, he said that his ultimate goal is to recycle 90% of all the trash in Los Angeles by 2025. In April 2015, he introduced an economically and environmentally sustainable long-term plan for Los Angeles city.

• In 2016, he made his first appearance on TNT’s show ‘Major Crimes’ after being appointed as the mayor of Los Angeles.
  

  Eric Garcetti as Mayor Ramon Quintero in a still from TNT’s show ‘Major Crimes’

• In 2016, he appeared in the pilot episode of the TBS’ sitcom ‘Angie Tribeca’ by Steve Carell as a desk security guard working in the mayor’s office.

• In 2016, he made a cameo appearance in the episode ‘Take a Break’ of the American talk show ‘The Late Late Show with James Corden.’ James Corden, the host of the show held the position of mayor of Los Angeles for a few hours in the show. In the episode, James Corden was escorted away by Eric Garcetti’s security officers at the end of the episode and Eric Garcetti regains his position as the mayor of LA.
  

  Eric Garcetti and James Corden in a still from ‘Take a Break’ episode from the show ‘The Late Late Show with James Corden’

• In 2016, he promoted Measure M, which is a half-cent sales tax measure for funding the spreading of the metro rail network of LA; however, he was not in favour of Measure S, a NIMBY referendum to restrict large-scale development in Los Angeles.

• In July 2016, he was selected as one of the members of the 25-person contingent, which was made to support Los Angeles’ bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The contingent travelled to Rio de Janeiro for the bidding. In November 2016, the general session of the Association of National Olympic Committees was conducted in Doha, Qatar, where he presented alongside Allyson Felix, a six-time gold medal sprinter. later, International Olympic Committee decided that Paris would host the 2024 Olympics and Los Angeles would host the 2028 Summer Olympics. To prepare for hosting the games in 2028, he launched an initiative titled ‘Twenty-eight by ’28 strategy’ to give top priority to the most important transit infrastructure projects of Los Angeles city.
  

  From left – Eric Garcetti, IOC President Thomas Bach, and Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo during a press conference after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Extraordinary Session in Switzerland in 2017

• In 2017, he became a member of Hollywood Post 43 to honour the military history of his family and help his fellow veterans.
  

  Eric Garcetti giving a speech after joining Hollywood Post 43

• In 2019, he was appointed as the chairperson of C40 at the C40 World Mayors Summit held in Copenhagen.

• In 2020, he was cast to play the role of Mr G in the American romantic comedy film ‘Valley Girl.’

• In 2020, he appeared in a cameo role on ABC’s TV show ‘Black-ish.’
  

  Eric Garcetti in a still from the TV show ‘Black-ish’

• In 2022, he appeared on the cover of Los Angeles magazine.
  

  Eric Garcetti on the cover of Los Angeles magazine

• In 2022, he opposed California state legislation removing parking areas for building houses close to public transit stations.

• Reportedly, he is a fluent speaker of Spanish.

• According to sources, he is the youngest politician to be selected as the mayor of Los Angeles in over 100 years.

• He is an avid photographer and regularly posts pictures clicked by him on social media.

• He is well-versed in playing the piano and also knows how to compose music.
  

  Eric Garcetti playing the piano in public

• When he was studying in high school, he visited Ethiopia to provide medical supplies to the people living there and likes to share his experience of visiting Ethiopia with everyone.

• According to sources, he spends 18 hours a day working in his office. In an interview, he revealed that he does not want his daughter to grow up in the USA as he does not consider the environment suitable for her.

• On 12 January 2022, Eric Garcetti’s nomination for US Ambassador to India was accepted by the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee; however, on 10 March 2022, the senator, Chuck Grassley, suspended his nomination. He alleged that Eric Garcetti knew about the sexual harassment and assaults done by his top advisor, Rick Jacobs and did not take any strict action against him. On 3 January 2023, the Senate returned his name to the White House after the expiration of Eric Garcetti’s nomination; however, Joe Biden renominated him for the position of US Ambassador to India.
  

  Eric Garcetti, Ambassador to India nominee, testifying in the Senate in December 2021