Apprehensive Homeowners of South Side Cool to Mayor

It should have been Tom Bradley’s audience. They were homeowners from the south side of Los Angeles, most of them black and into middle age, probably many Democrats who had punched holes in ballots for Bradley often over 25 years.

But this is now, and on Wednesday--a year before he runs for reelection--the mayor was greeted with cool respect. Minutes before he arrived, organizers of the meeting told the crowd of about 200 that City Hall is trying to seize their homes and churches. When Bradley entered and took the stage, people stood as asked, but few applauded.

If the very early political signs are right, Bradley needs an enthusiastic response from these people in South Los Angeles, his home base, to keep the job he has held for almost four terms.

It’s not that huge numbers of blacks are likely to vote for somebody else. But the turnout is often light for mayoral elections and the winner could be the candidate who excites his people enough to persuade them to vote.

No Apparent Improvement

By the end of Wednesday’s meeting, it didn’t appear that the mayor had done much to improve his standing.

Bradley tried to soothe the fears of residents who demanded to know whether they would lose their homes, or their churches, because of a massive, citywide rezoning of property ordered by the courts. Sometimes Bradley would answer, and other times he would defer to deputies brought from City Hall. But after 45 minutes he left briskly, out a side door, with the more vocal activists giving chase to get in a few last words.

“I hope you don’t let somebody terrify you that you’re going to be moved out of your homes and churches,” Bradley said before leaving. “It just isn’t going to happen.”

City officials tried to make it clear that Bradley was right, that no homes or churches are imperiled by the rezoning. “I assure you that everything the mayor said is true,” the area’s city councilman, Gilbert W. Lindsay, told the crowd gathered, not coincidentally, in an auditorium at the Gilbert Lindsay Community Center.

List of Churches

But the crowd wasn’t buying. In recent months, the South-East Central Homeowners Assn., which organized the meeting, and other groups have claimed that the rezoning will be used, in effect, to force some residents out of South-Central Los Angeles. They also have compiled a list of more than 100 churches they say could be forced to move.

In truth, Bradley and city planning officials said, the rezoning is being carried out all over the city to conform with master plans that limit growth in the population to 4.1 million. It cannot be used to displace residents and at worst, they said, churches in areas not zoned for them may need city permits to expand or do major renovations.

“I think all of you need to be aware that somebody is trying to frighten you,” Bradley cautioned, without mentioning any names.

When the mayor left, the crowd began to drift away, unsatisfied and in many cases displeased.

Rezoning Vote Delayed

“He’s lying,” said Sheila Cannon, an organizer of Concerned Citizens of South-Central, a group that formed to block the city’s plans for a trash incinerator and now is fighting plans by the Los Angeles Unified School District to build new schools, possibly on the sites of existing homes.

Bradley announced at the meeting that, at his request, the city Planning Commission will delay a vote scheduled today on rezoning of churches. But Juanita Tate, who wrote Bradley the letter that triggered the delay, was not assuaged.

“I’m not totally sure that what he said is going to be (right),” said the Rev. Sol Williams, a more moderate voice.