Mexico City’s mayor may be setting sights on presidency

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In his brief tenure as the head of North America’s largest metropolis, Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard has been praised by some for clearing the city’s streets of ambulant vendors and promoting more bike riding to ease traffic congestion and condemned by others for offering bread-and-circus-style perks to the masses.

But however you look at him, Ebrard is a skillful and ambitious politician who could well use the mayor’s office as a springboard to the Mexican presidency, writes the L.A. Times’ Ken Ellingwood in a Sunday profile.

‘In nearly two years as mayor of Mexico’s capital, Ebrard has shown a bent for splashy initiatives to ease the strains of daily life in a huge and unruly city. But the question is whether the leftist mayor can succeed against the city’s deep problems: legendary traffic, kidnappings, poverty, eye-stinging smog, water shortages, an aging subway system and crooked police. It is a tall order.

‘If he does, the 49-year-old Ebrard could be a contender for the country’s top office. A wonkish technocrat with years of working the halls of Mexico City’s government, he has signaled his presidential aspirations, though the election is four years away.’

-- Reed Johnson in Los Angeles