Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa speaks at the Institute of Politics yesterday about his administration’s “progressive” efforts to reform the city, which has the largest homeless population and highest poverty rate in the country.

Nearly 20 mayors from twelve states joined a packed audience at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum last night for a speech by Antonio R. Villaraigosa, mayor of Los Angeles and the first Latino to lead the nation’s second-largest city in over a century.

Calling himself a “proud progressive,” Villaraigosa said America’s cities form the base of the current progressive political movement.

“Survey the political landscapes, and you see that the one place where progressive leaders hold power is in our cities,” he said. “It’s in the cities where you see progressive innovation flourishing today.”

Villaraigosa’s wide-ranging talk focused on the progressive efforts by city lawmakers to confront civic issues, such as education reform, homelessness, and underfunded public transportation.

Since a landslide victory last May catapulted Villaraigosa into Los Angeles’ City Hall—and onto the cover of Newsweek—he has levied strong criticism against the city’s teachers unions and school board members.

Last night, he emphasized the importance of improving local education in solving civic problems faced by Los Angeles and other major urban areas. Villaraigosa, whose wife is a teacher, said that “reforming our public schools is the central public policy issue of our time.”

“On the issue of mayoral control, I do disagree with teachers,” he said, adding that “there is something fundamentally wrong with a system where just half of our students reach graduation.”

Villaraigosa also said the federal government has “failed miserably” in supporting the nation’s civic infrastructure.

“We have failed, especially in our cities,” he said. “We even see Congress—in the name of preserving tax breaks for the investor class—voting on a $50 billion package of cuts in child care, in food stamps, in medical coverage for the poor and the elderly, in student aid, cuts that will hit the very people whose eloquent pleas for help gripped the nation and moved us all.”

He later called on progressives to reinvigorate local governance.

“The onus is on those of us who believe in government—who believe government has an affirmative role to play in investing in our future and sustaining our prosperity—to demonstrate that government can work better than it does today,” he said.

Several times during his remarks, Villaraigosa reminded the audience that Los Angeles has the largest homeless population and the highest poverty rate in the country, declaring that “we need to face this shame down and own up to our responsibilities.”

“We still live in a society where opportunity remains a grim function of race and class for too many of our people,” he said.

During the question-and-answer session, Villaraigosa touched on the importance of youth involvement in public service.

“Young people have a very important role in society to be that catalyst for change,” he said. “The young people that work for me, they inspire me everyday.”

David Ellwood, dean of the Kennedy School of Government (KSG), introduced the mayor, but had trouble pronouncing his name.

“It’s my great honor to mispronounce his name here,” Ellwood joked afterwards as Villaraigosa laughed.

All three of the night’s introductory speakers—including Institute of Politics (IOP) Director Jeanne Shaheen and Beverly O’Neill, president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors—had high praise for the featured guest.

“He is unafraid to ruffle feathers,” Ellwood said. “He fundamentally believes in doing the right thing.”

The event was held in conjunction with a three-day seminar for newly elected mayors held at the KSG. The seminar is sponsored biannually by the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the IOP.