Mayor Garcetti Says LA ‘East Coast of China’

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti referred to the City of Angels as “the east coast of China” on Thursday while speaking to CNBC about his city’s bid to land Amazon’s second headquarters.

“Los Angeles is the east coast of China, for instance. Displaced New York to London as the most traveled air corridor in the world. It’s the intersection of the United States, Latin America, and the Pacific Rim,” Garcetti said while arguing that his city should get an A+ for location. “I think if we didn’t have a city here, we’d have to build one. And when Amazon, which is about moving goods, looks at Los Angeles where our twin ports of L.A. and Long Beach move 43% of the goods that come in by sea.”

Garcetti said Los Angeles is “densely populated but we’re spread out so we have the chance to test new ways to deliver things on the street, in the air.”

He mentioned that Amazon Prime has made investments in Los Angeles and predicted Amazon would grow their investment in the city. Garcetti made the case that businesses like Amazon need to be in L.A. because the city is “a connector to the world and connector to the nation.”

Garcetti recently returned from a 10-day trip to Asia, and he has been slammed for not disclosing how much taxpayers are paying for his security detail during his trips across the country and abroad.

The potential 2020 presidential candidate has also made trips to Iowa and South Carolina, and the Los Angeles Times last year reported that Garcetti “had spent one-third of the previous 12 months out of town.”

After the LAPD refused to disclose how much taxpayers were paying for Garcetti’s security costs and Garcetti deferred requests to the LAPD, the Times recently filed a lawsuit demanding the overall costs of Garcetti’s trips in addition to “the number of guards or officers accompanying the mayor, his family or staffers on each trip; the number of hours that each officer or security guard worked during trips; and costs including food, lodging and travel incurred by the security team during their travels outside California.”