Why should you love L.A.? Villaraigosa video wants to tell you

If you love L.A., you’ll probably enjoy the very sunny look at the nation’s second-largest city captured in the video above. It will be played this evening before Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s eighth and final State of the City speech.

“L.A. Voices,” produced by a city team led by videographer Jenessa Joffe, opens with a series of feel-good shots of a navigable Los Angeles River, a group of bicycle riders and a shot of the slow-moving Space Shuttle Endeavour on its way to the California Science Center.

Then residents begin to explain why they like living here. (The “beach” is mentioned first, the “weather” shows well, but “diversity” wins hands down.)

Understandably, politics also makes an appearance. Superimposed are notations about how many more trees have been planted (380,000), that violent crime continues to be down (49%) and traffic lights have been synchronized to make commuting easier—well, at least a little easier.

Of course, Villaraigosa once promised to plant 1 million trees, and the candidates to succeed him say not enough has been done to boost jobs, improve schools and cut City Hall red tape.

Those sorts of inconvenient facts aside, the five-minute show makes the city look pretty good.

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Twitter: @LATimesCityGov

bill.nottingham@latimes.com