Bradley on Mayoral Tour of Friendly Turf

“Who wants to hug Mayor Bradley?” Hands shot up in the Watts auditorium. So the 70-year-old mayor of Los Angeles got down on one knee, threw open his arms and stayed put while about 75 children, kindergartners to teen-agers, went up one by one for their hug.

After that, Bradley got to his feet--smiling as wide as the children--and exchanged hugs with their teachers and other students. Some older boys tried to just shake hands, but Bradley smothered each in a full embrace.

The city’s best-known politician was in Watts Tuesday morning acting mayoral. A stranger to town watching Bradley please the children, or take an inspection stroll through the Jordan Downs housing project, and announce a new anti-drug program to senior citizens on Central Avenue, would have no trouble believing that the tall man is mayor of Los Angeles.

It showed the advantage of office that Bradley’s aides expect to use freely before next spring’s election--making sure the mayor gets out of City Hall and looks like a strong, popular leader before different crowds around the city.

His expected foe in the election, City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, was also advised to act more like a leader in the now-infamous Berman-D’Agostino campaign memos leaked to reporters this month. But it’s a lot easier to do for an incumbent mayor.

For Bradley, it is also more pleasurable on friendly turf in Watts than going before environmental activists in West Los Angeles, who blame the mayor for smog and ocean pollution, or San Fernando Valley commuters who think Bradley could do more to reduce traffic.

Bradley began the morning Tuesday at a breakfast given by the Parents of Watts for adult school students.

His entourage then rolled into Jordan Downs, a decaying Watts housing project with rampant crime. The mayor toured a couple of apartment units and praised plans to install new anti-burglar windows and a security fence of iron bars around the complex.

Bradley waved and shook hands as he strolled through the project, flanked always by at least four armed Housing Authority officers in uniform. Bradley walked several blocks to a recreation center where he announced to the children that money is now available to build a backstop on their baseball field.

At the Westminster Neighborhood Assn., an area of nice homes only a few blocks away, Bradley inspected the new child care center and looked over plans for a new gymnasium.

Bradley was assured of a warm welcome. The association, which began 29 years ago in a cramped Jordan Downs apartment, is now one of the most successful community programs in Watts, thanks in part to city funds. The executive director, E. Grace Payne, is also one of Bradley’s appointees to the city Harbor Commission.

To the children, who attend summer programs at the group’s community center, Bradley exhorted greatness before the hugs.

“I can see in this crowd people who will someday be great leaders in the city of Los Angeles,” Bradley said. “All you have to do is work hard to get it. Let your teachers help you, let your parents help you.”

For lunch, the mayor and his carload of aides met with senior citizens at the Watts Labor Community Action Council, another organization that has flourished during Bradley’s tenure in City Hall.

While there, Bradley announced that he will ask the City Council to set up a toll-free 800 phone number where residents can call in anonymous information about drug pushers. “Two-thirds of the crime in this community, and across the nation, is related to drugs,” but people don’t know how to report suspicious activity, Bradley said.

Deputy Police Chief Glen Levant backed up the mayor, though he said that a crackdown since January has led to 6,668 arrests of people selling drugs to undercover LAPD officers. Of those, he said, 2,441 were gang members--1,041 of those from the Watts and South-Central Los Angeles areas.