In Tuesday's election, the city of Los Angeles decisively voted in favor of former city councilman Eric Garcetti to take over the reigns as mayor this summer. Garcetti now faces a litany of issues that pose legitimate threats to the city's future.

Garcetti won a long battle against candidate Wendy Greuel to guide Los Angeles into the future. He will take over for current Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, but will have to work immediately to fix many of the issues he has inherited.

Chief among the concerns during the campaign trail was Los Angeles' financial situation. Though it is still uncertain what the deficit is likely to be in the near future, current estimates have put it upwards of $100 million. During his campaign Garcetti largely kept mum on specifics for how he would fix the budget.

"Unless things turn around, we're not going to be looking at any new contracts and any raises," Garcetti said. "It's not a surplus. I want to be clear. What it will do is it will restore our city services that we've cut. Right now, we're barely trimming any trees. We're fixing too few sidewalks. Our response times need to go down in the fire department. We need to restore those. That should be our first priority before raises."

Another issue for Garcetti is the polarization of many of the city's departments and unions against him. Overwhelmingly, those entities supported Wendy Greuel, and are none too happy that Garcetti has won the mayor's seat. Now, the threat of a strike by those organizations that support the city is a legitimate concern.

"The potential for them going on strike, or having walkouts or slowdowns, is real," said longtime City Hall lobbyist Steve Afriat. "The potential for that happening when it's 110 degrees in the San Fernando Valley is also real."

Despite his unwelcome reception, Garcetti is adamant that he intends on working with the various unions as well as the police and fire departments to make sure that the city keeps on running. He has indicated that keeping good relations with these groups is a chief concern of his.

"I know the best way to do that is not by firing salvos, but by relational work behind the scenes," he said. "I'm going to be spending my time doing that with all of our unions, saying we have problems to solve and invite them to solve those problems together."

Only time will tell how Garcetti deals with these issues, but one thing is clear: the citizens of Los Angeles want him as their man. He won the election by 8 percentage points, and at times even had a double-digit lead over Greuel. Starting Jul. 1, he will have the opportunity to prove if their trust was well-founded.