Is the Governor Crossing the Macho Line on Prison?

When Latinos refer to someone as being macho , the connotations are not always positive. A macho can be courageous or extremely masculine, but the word can also refer to someone who is bullying and arrogant. So when Latinos say that Gov. George Deukmejian is sticking with his plan to build a prison in Los Angeles a lo macho , they don’t mean it as a compliment.

Deukmejian undoubtedly expects Latino criticism. Opposition to the prison is almost unanimous in the barrios east of the Los Angeles River, across from the proposed prison site. Always a strong advocate of law and order, Deukmejian made prison construction one of the priorities of his Administration, and probably figures that he can balance Latino hostility with the general public’s support for building prisons elsewhere in the state. There are even communities in Kern and Riverside counties that actually want a state prison in their backyard to help the local economy.

Even in Los Angeles there are few community leaders who dispute Deukmejian’s argument that a county that provides 38% of the state’s male prison inmates should have a state lockup within its borders. The issue is where.

Originally the state considered putting its Los Angeles County prison in the desert areas north of the San Fernando Valley. Only when fellow Republicans who represent the area objected did Deukmejian begin to focus on smaller, more expensive parcels of property in the industrial areas southeast of downtown Los Angeles.

State prison officials finally selected a site owned by a bus company called Crown Coach, two miles south of downtown. But in the process they underestimated, or did not understand, the almost visceral objection that many Eastside Latinos have to public-works projects. Dozens have been sited there since the 1950s, displacing thousands of families. And if Latinos still have not developed enough political clout to completely stop such projects, they have proved that they can delay them for years.

Now that is happening to the prison plan. Assemblywomen Gloria Molina (D-Los Angeles) has organized the various community groups that dislike the project into a cohesive organization, and now every politician in the area is doing what he or she can to block the prison. Last week, for example, City Councilman Richard Alatorre proposed an ordinance that would make it harder to build under new city zoning regulations.

The initial delay finally wore down the owners of the Crown Coach property, and they decided last month to sell the parcel to a private developer for the construction of an industrial park. Many of the prison’s opponents thought that this was the end of Deukmejian’s project, at least in the downtown area. The governor surprised them Monday by saying that he still wanted the site, either through negotiation with the new owner or through outright state condemnation of the property.

Deukmejian’s announcement sounded tough and resolute. Macho, if you will. But it also means that the prison’s opponents are not the only parties that look stubborn and uncompromising now. The governor must share the blame for this impasse, for no matter how he tries to proceed, the project is going to take a very long time to complete.

A condemnation process, asserting the right of eminent domain, could take at least two years.

The Department of Corrections might redesign the prison as a high-rise building to fit it onto a smaller parcel of property in the same area. But, apart from the redesigning delay, there would be a further delay in deciding whether the state could override city zoning laws that limit high-rise construction.

Even if the governor sweet-talks, or strong-arms, the owners into selling their land to the state, the original plan for a prison faces still another delay in the courts because the state did not prepare an environmental-impact report on the property, according to the state’s auditor general.

All this would be just so much bureaucratic maneuvering but for the fact that in 1982 the Legislature wrote into law a stipulation that no new state prisons can be occupied until a prison site has been selected in Los Angeles. Don’t look now, but the state is just days away from completing new prisons in San Diego and Stockton. Common sense dictates that the law be changed to allow new facilities to be occupied while the Los Angeles controversy is settled. Even opponents of the Los Angeles prison support that idea. But guess who refuses to go along with it.

No one can figure out why Deukmejian is so determined to continue his political mano-a-mano with the Eastside. Pride alone doesn’t seem to be the answer, because the longer this standoff drags on, the harder it will be for Deukmejian to shift and save face if he does not get a Los Angeles prison exactly when and where he wants it. Even community leaders on the Eastside would like to know what the governor wants from them, and have sent telegrams and letters asking for a meeting to discuss it. Deukmejian has not responded to any of them.

That looks macho, too. But it’s going to look like the wrong kind of macho, and not only to people on the Eastside.