Friendly Focus on the Mayor : Cameras Click as Bradley Meets the Folks on ‘Area Day’

Even in the City of the Stars, the most photographed man in town could be the retired policeman who nows lives in Getty House, the mayor’s mansion.

And on Tuesday it was once again the face of Tom Bradley that was the focus of dozens of pocket cameras as senior citizens at the Highland Park adult center lined up to have their picture taken with and their hand shaken by the mayor of Los Angeles.

It was vintage Bradley as the mayor took his show on the road to East Los Angeles on Tuesday, kicking off the latest of his so-called “area days,” on which he visits community groups and businesses for a firsthand look at the successes and failures of city government.

For the scores of seniors, students and workers that Bradley met in the course of the day, it was a lesson that “City Hall is not some isolated place downtown,” as Bradley said in an interview near the conclusion of his four-hour, seven-stop swing. And as Bradley--now in his fifth term as mayor--learned once again, of all the issues, it is potholes, street sweeping and alley closures that raise the most concern of the citizenry and the most appreciation when they are taken care of.

“Area day”--a throwback to an earlier time when politicians won votes on their word and the firmness of their handshake--is also an opportunity for Bradley to bask in the admiration of those who turn out, and to leave his problems of myriad ethics investigations back at the office, even if just for a few hours.

And so it was at the Highland Park center. The mayor made a few remarks to the 80 assembled senior citizens, received a big round of applause and then fielded a handful of complaints on issues ranging from crosswalks and parking to the need for a pay phone outside the center.

Snapping Shutters

The mayor took their names and addresses, promised to do what he could and then ran the gantlet of tiny cameras popping and snapping in the hands of one gray-haired citizen after another.

“We’ll get that moving for you,” Bradley told one woman asking to have an alley fenced off. “We’ll ask the Department of Transportation to look into that,” he told another who wanted a traffic signal installed at a nearby intersection.

Mark Bain, one of the many photographers to emerge, took the mayor and the staff at his word. “There’ll be an improvement,” said Bain. “That’s why he came here.”

“We’ll do it, and then we’ll come back and say, ‘You asked for it, and we’ve got it done,’ ” said Bradley aide Art Gastelum. “If I call a general manager (of a city department) and say ‘The mayor wants to know about this,’ it gets done,” said Gastelum, who has worked “area days” with Bradley for 16 years.

Indeed, it was one such call--to City Treasurer Leonard Rittenberg--that contributed to the mayor’s current troubles. Bradley’s March 22 call to inquire about city deposits with Far East National Bank, which had employed him as an adviser, is part of the conflict-of-interest probe of the mayor by City Atty. James K. Hahn. After the call, Rittenberg deposited $2 million in city funds with Far East, and someone in the treasurer’s office tried to cover up the circumstances, a city report found. Both Bradley and Rittenberg denied the mayor exerted pressure for the deposits.

Visit to Clinic

After leaving the senior citizens, Bradley and his entourage raced off to the Northeast Community Clinic, a nonprofit medical group partly funded by the city.

Clinic Director Olivia Villalba told Bradley that the medical group has lost tens of thousands of dollars in funding from state sources in the past year. Executive Director George de la Mora said that as he grows more dependent on the city’s funding, “we’ve been begging him (Bradley) to come out and see what we do.”

Despite these problems, the staff and patients, who waited in long lines, were hardly long-faced on area day.

Still More Cameras

“Can I take my picture with you?” shouted one nurse, and quickly the staff was assembled and click, click, click, the cameras emerged in office after office.

In 15 minutes the mayor was in and out, still on schedule and on his way to meeting with the editorial staff of the Northeast Newspapers group, when the entourage detoured to a Highland park landmark--Ralph’s Burritos--for a bite.

“Oh, man,” said owner Joe Yamauchi when he found Bradley seated at one of his tables. “Never before had I seen the mayor,” he gushed, dishing out plates of tamales, burritos and tacos.

And then out popped the cameras. Bradley and Yamauchi posed at the front door and area day got back on schedule.