Suddenly, Something in Common

Fear of crime and drugs has created a new and unlikely coalition between neighborhoods in the suburban San Fernando Valley and South-Central Los Angeles.

These two areas, which have had little in common in the past, now confront the same problem. Both are experiencing an influx of prostitutes and heavily armed drug dealers. Parts of the Valley, in fact, have become as dangerous as some of South-Central’s inner-city neighborhoods.

The shared threat has created an alliance between two Los Angeles City Council members as different as their districts. Nate Holden, a black inner-city politician who likes to play rough, and Joel Wachs, a gentlemanly voice of prosperous, predominantly white suburbia, want the police to respond by putting more foot patrols on the streets of their districts.

The alliance is evidence of how the city is changing.

A decade or so ago, Valley council members and those from South-Central seemed to represent different cities. But pockets of poverty and crime gradually developed in many parts of the Valley. When district lines were redrawn a few years ago, Wachs found himself representing one especially dangerous high-crime area.

Wachs came under increasing pressure from residents who wanted the foot cops to make their neighborhoods safer. Across town, in the Crenshaw and mid-Wilshire areas, Holden was feeling the same pressure.

Wachs and Holden are not particularly close. But circumstances threw them together. First working separately, they proposed additional foot patrols. Then they joined forces to get City Council approval, something that was needed because their proposals required more money.

Setting up a foot patrol is more expensive than putting officers in cars. It’s not just a matter of sending out a couple of beat cops. These are dangerous streets, and officers go out in patrols of eight or 10. Patrols split up into teams of two, but everyone must keep in radio contact.

Wachs and Holden needed the support of Mayor Tom Bradley and Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky. As mayor, Bradley approves appropriations. Yaroslavsky runs the finance committee, which screens all money matters.

But Bradley and Yaroslavsky said the department had enough funds and officers on hand to increase the foot patrols. They noted the department had increased in size from 6,900 to about 7,900 in the past four years and was authorized to go to 8,400 officers by next year.

Although Holden and Wachs didn’t plan it that way, their personalities threw them into the roles of the old game of “good cop, bad cop.” It was just the right game for that moment.

Roughhouse politician Holden, the bad cop, brought angry constituents to the council chamber. Although his move was resented by colleagues, council members, under the glare of television coverage, voted more money.

Bradley vetoed the appropriation and, with Yaroslavsky helping him on the council floor, the veto was sustained.

Then Wachs, the good cop, put together a compromise: Department funds would be used for a “pilot program” of more walking patrols until the end of the year. Additional foot patrols were ordered for 18 areas around the city, including Wachs’ and Holden’s districts.

On Tuesday, the Valley half of the coalition savored its victory. Wachs and police officers held a press conference on Columbus Avenue near Nordhoff Street, a place significant in the fight for more foot patrols.

The street is lined with two- and three-story apartment buildings that were Valley luxury when they were built 15 years ago. Most of the residents are working-class Latino families. To a stranger, the buildings look peaceful.

But drug dealers also live there, selling from their front doors and on the street. Also in the building are prostitutes who work the motel strip on nearby Sepulveda Boulevard. The combination terrorizes the other residents.

Foot patrols financed by the pilot program have been on the street for a month. While crime went down, violence remained. Now, with support from Wachs, police have erected a barricade to keep drug customers away. The press conference was held to announce that officers on foot will bar everyone but residents, their guests and commercial vehicles from the area.

This is a major test. If the combination of patrols and the barricade clean up Columbus Avenue, the council and Bradley will find it difficult to resist demands for more money for the foot cops.